Syndicate and Hague

The NY Times has a good, quick glance time line of Bhutto’s life - and since I’m pretty sure none of us know a terribly large amount about Pakistani history, I suggest taking a look. The BBC also has her life in pictures as well as reporters’ logs from around Pakistan today.

For our immediate global concerns, the ramifications of the assassination are stark. Pakistan is a nuclear power - unlike hopefuls like Iran or the sham of Iraq - and a descent into further turmoil could actually endanger the region.

My personal knowledge of the Mideast and its history is spotty at best, and I’m not comfortable speculating on Pakistan’s future. Chris Dodd had some interesting things to say on Olbermann last night.

Impact of Bhutto on ‘08

I really hate that I can’t just show the damned clip on my blog, but they don’t have a video embed available. Boo MSNBC.

What I’ve been thinking about in light of Bhutto’s assassination are two things. First, I wonder what it takes to know you have a real chance of being murdered - that you have to make yourself visible, put yourself in situations where you’re exposed when there are people who want to kill you - and you put yourself out there anyway.

I am in awe of those people. Bhutto’s father had been hung, her brothers murdered, and she knew it was entirely possible, if not likely, that she would suffer a similar fate if she went back to Pakistan. And yet…

There is something about people who are drawn to leadership, particularly the very public leadership of high office. I think they’re mostly egotistical and conceited, but I also think they hold a truly rare perspective - that each of them can actually, as an individual, influence the larger world. Whatever the reasons or the goals may be, they seem to actually believe this.

It’s different from rallying together as a group - they are the people around whom we rally. If nothing else, they believe in their power to bring us together to effect the change they believe in and that is something astounding.

In order for Bhutto to return to Pakistan, to risk her life, she had to believe that her presence in the country could change things. That her leadership could change things. And that’s what she risked her life for. To me, this is a pretty amazing. And I say that in a good way.

As a side note, I’d like to also play the “shame on the US game.” It’s not related to the assassination. But I’m really sick of people asking if the US is ready for a female leader. It’s as if it’s never happened before anywhere else. Sigh. Argh.

Ah, for my first real post on this new blog…how about a dash of social outrage?

I should say that I make a real effort to make sure that what I post is real–there have actually been stories I’ve passed on because I couldn’t find enough information to vent in public. So when I saw the commercial at the bottom of this post, I had to check it out.

And…yup…it’s a real thing. The Barbie Fashion Fever Shopping Boutique.

I remember from my teen years the brouhaha over the “Math is Hard” Barbie (speaking of Barbie history, there is an entire site devoted to Barbie history and I don’t know why this surprises me tonight. I think I’m a bit off my game.) Anyway, so I remember that and it’s utterly repugnant to reinforce this ditzy, useless version of femininity that Barbie has come to represent. Even though sometimes she’s a very sassily-dressed business lady. Sigh.

But, whatever, Barbie girls love shopping yadda yadda — it’s old news at this point.

Diabolical, to me, is the credit card that never runs out of money. It’s a terrible message to allow girls (or boys) to be instilled with. And shameless. Really, Mattel? What possible purpose would it serve to give children a fake cash register for their fake people to charge things to their fake credit cards which operate as free money? Okay, call me paranoid, but I do think there’s an argument to be made that they’re training the kids to be loose with money.

Anyway, after that long spiel, take a look at the video…

Despite the bugs - and they’re lurking around - I’m diving in on this.

I miss blogging. Moving over from the Myspace blog has taken more time than I’d like, but I have this 40-hour a week “job” thing that seems to take up my coding time. And I try to maintain some semblance of a life that doesn’t involve wringing my hands over minutiae in the site’s styles.

So! Moving on!

We’ll be back to technology, politics, the news, and some mundane aspects of my existence in just a bit, but let me highlight some of the cool parts of this blog because I’m so gosh-darned excited about the whole enterprise.

• You can share my posts! (On the individual entry pages, there are a bunch of different icons for various bookmarking sites. If you’re a user of any of these, and you like what I’ve written, please do send it off into the ether
• Subscribing is easier! Look on the right sidebar. Ah, icons. Helpful. If you’re on any of these, just click the corresponding image and it’ll be as easy as that. If you’re not on any of these, take them as options if you ever decide to make your life easier.
• Fun, repurposed data. This part of the site will grow, but for now you can take a look at the books I’m reading on the left. The data for that is pulled in from Goodreads, which is a fantastic place to share reviews on books.

Oh, right, you can still comment on entries. And if you blog, please use the trackback info to highlight me if you grab content from this blog.

I think…I think we’re done with all that now. More improvements to come. This is my php sandbox for the time being.