5 Favorite Links

SwapaCD
How it works:

• You have original, playable CDs that you do not want to keep.
• You post those CDs to your "CD Tower" to offer to other members
• You add funds to your SwapaCD Money account (this pays the 49-cent transaction fee for each CD you request)
• After you have posted the first 10 CDs to your CD Tower, you get a "gift" credit from SwapaCD to get you started swapping. After that, you earn credits by sending out CDs to others.
• You may order any available CD for 1 credit each (even multidisc or boxed sets)
• If you want a CD that is not currently available, you can place it on your Wish List and we will notify you by email when it is available for you to order. You can even have it sent to you automatically when it becomes available, with no email necessary.
• When a CD is requested from you, we notify you by email, provide the address for you to send it out, and even provide a wrapper!
• Wrap and mail your CD.
• When the requestor receives it, you earn 1 credit. Yes, you pay the postage to send out your CDs, but when you request a CD, the sender ships it to you and you pay only the 49-cent transaction fee (plus 1 CD credit)!
• The CDs you receive from SwapaCD are yours. We hope that you will repost them to share with other members when you have read them, but you can certainly keep them, or give them away. Similarly, the CDs you send out to others belong to their new owners.

If you decide to give SwapaCD a try, I hope you will use the link above. Once you post your 10 CD's I get a free credit!

The Huffington Post
We don't have broadcast TV anymore. We get a really fuzzy channel 10 that none of us bother with, but nothing else. So we watch DVD's only. And my kids sometimes watch videos they borrow from the library.

I also don't get any newspapers or news magazines. So where do I get my news? The Huffington Post.


BBC News The Week in Pictures
I also get my news from the BBC. The page I love most is the week in pictures. And actually I try to look at each day in pictures. It makes the rest of the world more than just an idea.


The National Weather Service
Yeah, there are other places to get your weather. But they all get it from here.


TravelZoo
This is one mailing list you really do want to be on: "The Travelzoo Top 20 is the definitive list of the week’s best travel deals. Every week, our team researches, evaluates and recommends hundreds of airfare, hotel, vacation package, cruise and rental car deals. Only the most competitive make the Top 20. Our Test Booking Center confirms the accuracy and availability of every deal before the list goes out."

The making of a conscientious objector

I originally posted this on my other blog back in January, but want to re-post it for my new readers here. After reading it last time my mother chuckled, telling me that she didn't think I was really giving R (10 years old) a balanced view of both sides; that it is obvious mine is being represented more heavily.

So be it; my view is the right one.

*****************************************

January 2007

This morning R came into my room as I was watching This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and started watching with me. There were no images of war, so I allowed him to stay and listen. He watched for a few minutes, left, and returned during The Chris Matthews Show, which seemed to keep his attention more.

This led to a 10 minute conversation about sending more troops to Iraq, how Bush hoodwinked the country into the war in the first place, how the Patriot Act is turning him into a dictator, whether Iraq would be better off with us forcing our view of a good government on them vs. leaving now and letting them fall into civil war, how we can get Bush out of office, and whether or not U.S. citizens can be dragged into fighting in the war if they don't want to go. He was full of intelligent questions; I was, quite frankly, surprised.

I have been wanting to start taking him to rallies, and talking to him about the realities of war, so that I can start making a Conscientious Objector file for him. I think it's really important that I start doing that soon, but I've been concerned about exposing him to the stress of war. I know for myself that keeping up on it often makes me feel powerless, and I've been concerned about how it would effect his psyche. So I've been dragging my feet on it. But today convinced me it's time to get moving. I'm going to pick up some of the age appropriate books out there about war to read with him, and maybe I'll check out what Netflix has to offer on the subject too. I'll definitely be starting to document conversations like the one we had today.

R feels that we should definitely not be sending more troops to Iraq. Especially more men than those that live in the whole town of Cheshire. He also feels that we should totally withdraw from Iraq and let the people fall into a civil war. He believes that we should not be dictating to anyone how they should run their country, and we should let the Iraqis fight for the government they want to have, themselves. He thinks that we should get rid of the Patriot Act, and that George Bush is dangerous, and we should try to get rid of him too.

I am very proud of R for seeing things the way he does. When I was answering all of his questions, I was careful to give both points of view (McCain was being interviewed on TV at the time we were speaking) to make sure he would formulate his own opinions, and not just accept mine as his own. He is a bright boy and understands how wrong war is. If anyone would actually show the realities of the war on TV, I'd probably let him watch. He is getting old enough to understand the world beyond his up-till-now small one.

Where do I get my news?

I had a subscription to Newsweek magazinefor a few years, but cancelled it last fall. Then it took them three months to believe that I really wasn't renewing, so I got three months worth free. I stopped because I just couldn't keep up with all my subscriptions and was feeling overwhelmed. (That's a blog for another day.)

These days I get my world news from This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday mornings. He starts each week with an interview (today was with Newt Gingrich), then does a round table with George Will (who does a bi-weekly column for Newsweek and writes for the Washington Post), and two different additional media people each week. Sometimes is Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, and another of my favorite writers for Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria. The show also includes "In Memoriam", listing all of the notable people who passed away that week, and all of the soldiers whose names were released that week, as well. And finally, he includes "The Sunday Funnies" which highlights some of the better jokes of the week, from the likes of Jay Leno and Jon Stewart. Overall I'm very happy with the show. It captures all the relevant news of the week, and leaves out all the crappy sensationalism stuff, which I find so annoying. I mean, who really gives a crap about Anna Nicole Smith's baby's dad? Really?

A while ago, I was talking with another homeschooling mom about the show and she told me that she gets her news from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Well, I have to admit that I was appalled to hear that. How could someone actually get their news from a comedy show? But then I got cable and along the way I started watching the show. I have to admit that Jon also covers all the political commentary without the crap, and he does it with the roll-of-the-eyes that our news so often inspires. It makes me happy that enough people agree that our news is ridiculous enough that we need to laugh about it.

For that reason I also love Stephen Colbert. It amazes me that he manages to get the people on his show that he does. And people are so earnest in thinking they will actually have the opportunity to say anything other than what he manipulates them into saying. The man really is a genius. He does cover the crap, but he makes it worth watching. Check it out.

So that's it with me and news. I have really cut down a lot. It was just getting really depressing, knowing what a mess our country is in, and knowing there is little I can do about it. The feeling of powerlessness was too upsetting. So now I know just enough so I don't appear to be an idiot, but little enough to not be stressing about it.

Other news sources I have trusted in the past were US News And World Report, The New York Times Week In Review (back when I lived in New York and could get delivery at a reasonable cost), and BBC World on PBS, which I still watch when I can find it.

Other News Magazines