Webmaster's Links

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." - Theodore Roosevelt, writing in the Kansas City Star, 149, 7 May 1918 (source: http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/quotes.htm)

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” - James Madison, as quoted by Bob Herbert in the New York Times, 17 July 2006

"The remorseless gangsters currently in charge of the executive branch aren’t the first American leaders to falsely define patriotism to include torturing, racketeering, warmongering, privatizing, fraud, fecklessness, betrayal, incompetence, injustice, absolutism, corporatism, cronyism and horses’ assism. They aren’t the first to wave the red-white-and-blue while committing sedition against the nation’s citizens by lying them into a war. Nor the first to spy on dissidents of that war. Nor to treat the veterans of that war with public accolades simultaneous to budgetary disdain.

"Nor, it must never be forgotten, the first to commit war crimes under a patriotic banner.

"But these particular scoundrels have managed one new audacity: cramming the full roster of such behavior into two presidential terms. For this Herculean effort, the cabal of grifters who took over seven-and-a-half years ago surely deserve medals." - Meteor Blades, Daily Kos, 4 July 2008 (See the entire article from which this was taken at: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/4/15049/53741/784/546356 )

The need never, ever stops... go to Network for Good to find listings of organizations working to help those who are victims of the natural and man-made disasters plaguing this world... please help them out as much as you can (thanks to Zhena at Gypsy Tea - which sells really excellent fair trade organic tea - for the link to Network for Good).

The website of the Gold Star Families for Peace is at http://gsfp.org/.

This is Sgt. Ryan Campbell, killed in Iraq on 29 April 2004. This is the photo he wanted put on his coffin if he was killed. According to his sister, Brooke Campbell, Ryan was disillusioned by the lies he realized he'd been told by the Bush administration to get him to Iraq, and told her in an e-mail message on 11 April: "Just do me one big favor, ok? Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it. I would not be happy with you." Read Brooke Campbell's important and moving letter at truthout.org at http://www.truthout.org/article/sgt-campbells-sister-a-soldiers-last-request

I've got something to say
And I thought it might be worth a mention
If you're not pissed off at the world
Then you're just not paying attention
- Kasey Chambers, "Ignorance"

IMPORTANT WEBSITES!!!

http://mediamatters.org/

Some of the organizations and causes the Webmaster and Her Sweetie support and recommend:

Equality Now http://equalitynow.org/english/index.html
MoveOn.org http://www.moveon.org/front/
International Campaign for Tibet http://www.savetibet.org/
Lambda Legal http://www.lambdalegal.org/
Amnesty International http://www.amnestyusa.org/
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State http://www.au.org/site/PageServer
People for the American Way http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/
American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org/
Planned Parenthood Federation of America http://www.plannedparenthood.org/
34 Million Friends of UNFPA http://www.34millionfriends.org/
amfAR http://www.amfar.org/cgi-bin/iowa/index.html
Co-op America http://www.coopamerica.org/
Human Rights Watch http://humanrightswatch.org/
City Harvest http://www.cityharvest.org/
Oxfam America http://www.oxfamamerica.org/art1716.html
Northern Illinois Food Bank http://www.northernilfoodbank.org/
International Rescue Committee http://www.theirc.org/
Doctors Without Borders http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
World Wildlife Fund http://www.worldwildlife.org/
Peace Action http://www.peace-action.org/
Code Pink Women for Peace http://codepinkalert.org/
The Point Foundation http://www.thepointfoundation.org/
PFLAG http://www.pflag.org/
ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) http://acorn.org/

Blogs, News, Media, Etc.
There are, of course, zillions of blogs and news sites out there. These are just a few the Webmaster visits:

Daily Kos http://www.dailykos.com/
Common Dreams http://www.commondreams.org/
truthout http://www.truthout.org/
Grist Magazine http://www.gristmagazine.com/
Harper's Magazine http://www.harpers.org/
Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Popular Culture http://www.bitchmagazine.com/
Tom Tomorrow http://www.thismodernworld.com/
AlterNet http://www.alternet.org/
The Center for American Progress http://www.americanprogress.org
Talking Points Memo http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

The Webmaster
The Webmaster is a Russian translator... if you need anything translated from Russian into English, e-mail her in care of squirrelhill-AT-pipeline.com

Places where the Webmaster has gotten nostril jewelry:
Crazy Chameleon http://www.bodyartstores.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi
Body Art Forms http://www.bodyartforms.com/

The Webmaster got her first tattoo Tattoo at Rock City Tattoo & Body Piercing in Rockford, IL in February 2007. She heartily recommends Rose, the artist who designed and did the tattoo! (No website, but search them out on MySpace.)

A sample of websites for musicians the Webmaster loves and sources for music (not exhaustive by any means)

cdbaby.com http://cdbaby.com - they carry huge amounts of cool independently-produced music, including the Webmaster and her Sweetie's own two Sacred Harp CDs (see Sacred Harp Singings page for information... or search for Lookout Mountain Convention 1968 or New Year's Eve at the Iveys' 1972 at cdbaby.com. But it's cheaper on our own webpage).

Steve Earle Mr. & Mrs. Webmaster saw Steve Earle and the Dukes, with Allison Moorer, in Madison, WI in March 2005. Excellent loud country and folk-tinged rock music (it's been too long since the Webmaster felt that bass-and-drums feeling in her chest! Brought her right back to high school, except without the wafting scent of marijuana smoke on the air she remembers from the Garden in the 1970s... And the concert also reminded her of the Bruce Springsteen shows she attended in the late 1970s and early 1980s with its energy, passion and sheer enjoyment) and leftist politics - it was a glorious evening. Check him out at http://www.steveearle.com/ and http://www.steveearle.net/, among other sites.
Tom Robinson The Webmaster saw the Tom Robinson Band in concert at the Palladium in NYC some time in the late 1970s... has two Tom Robinson Band LPs and one Sector 27 LP that she got in high school and college... but lost track of Tom for the past few decades. Tom's been busy! He's so incredibly cool. The Webmaster needs to catch up. This is a place to start: http://www.tomrobinson.com/index.htm
Laura Love The Webmaster can't believe she left Laura Love off this list when she first started the Links page!!! Laura Love is an amazing musician and songwriter with one of the coolest voices there is. She can sing anything. She even makes yodelling sound good. Her concerts are very cool. Check her out: http://www.lauralove.net/frames.html
Sadie Compton Hardanger/Cajun/Old Time fiddle player, songwriter, singer, artist. Also has some very cool tattoos. And she's a Led Zeppelin fan, which definitely endears her to Mrs. Webmaster, who saw Zep at the Garden in June 1977 and had her life changed, in some ways. At any rate it was a big dividing line between kidhood and teenhood for her. Sadie's website is at : http://www.fiddola.com/home.html
Tim Eriksen http://eyelovemusic.com/ - great musician, great singer, great great great, extremely cool person, and we love him for what he's done for Sacred Harp singing. Plus we can never, ever thank him enough for the cool things Mr. & Mrs. Webmaster have gotten to do (and for those of you who keep asking us, no, that did not include going to the Oscars).
Alison Krauss & Union Station http://www.alisonkrauss.com/
Maura O'Connell http://www.mauraoconnell.com/ One of the Webmaster's favorite, favorite singers of all time.
The Nashville Bluegrass Band - incredibly talented bluegrass band. Check out mandolinist Mike Compton's website at http://www.mikecompton.net/.
Riley Baugus http://rileybaugus.com/
The Whites http://www.classactentertainment.com/artists/Whites.html
The Be Good Tanyas http://www.begoodtanyas.com/
Dougie MacLean (that's pronounced Doogie) Another of the Webmaster's favorite voices, plus there doesn't seem to be an instrument Dougie doesn't play. Beautiful songs, too http://www.dougiemaclean.com/dougie.htm Dougie is also the composer of one of the Webmaster's favorite tunes in the world, period, no contest, which is "The Gael," the fiddle tune used on the soundtrack of The Last of the Mohicans.
Robin and Linda Williams http://www.robinandlinda.com/
Waterson Carthy http://www.watersoncarthy.com/
The Dixie Chicks http://www.dixiechicks.com/
Kitka (apparently means "bouquet" in Bulgarian and Macedonian) - American vocal ensemble specializing in music from Eastern Europe. They sound like they're having a lot of fun http://www.kitka.org/ The Webmaster has sung a little Balkan stuff (mixed in with Russian stuff in her Middlebury College Russian Choir days), and is very envious of the Kitka women getting to sing this regularly.
Muzsikás Márta Sebestyén has another of those fabulous, one-of-a-kind voices. The band is great fun to see in concert, and their CDs are a staple on Mr. & Mrs. Webmaster's CD player. http://www.muzsikas.hu/
Peter Kingsbery - the (male) voice of the 1980s band Cock Robin - one of the Webmaster's favorite voices. UPDATE 7 July 2006: Cock Robin has issued a new album! Of course, just in France... the Webmaster has to look into this. http://www.peterkingsbery.net/ (link not working last time the Webmaster checked, but she'll leave it there in case it's still good...)
Shane Koss is a musician, composer, record producer, arranger... probably a lot else that the Webmaster has left out. He also kindly did noise reduction work on Mr. and Mrs. Webmaster's first CD release, Lookout Mountain Convention 1968. Because he's a nice guy. And he's Mrs. Webmaster's cousin. Check out his website at http://shanekoss.com/SHANEFLASH4.html
The Duhks - Mr. & Mrs. Webmaster got to see them perform one song at the 4th Annual Americana Awards ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in September 2005 and now have two of their fabulous CDs. Their official website is at http://www.duhks.com/
Johnny Clegg JOHNNY CLEGG!!!! It's been years since Mrs. Webmaster saw Johnny Clegg with Savuka at Town Hall in NYC (where she learned it's way better to be in the balcony there than under it). She's recently found some of the Savuka CDs on Ebay and is reminded of how much she likes them

Random Things:

HostBaby - our Web host. We love them (and CDBaby, their cousin). http://hostbaby.net/

Penguins... Mr. & Mrs. Webmaster just really like penguins (and we would like to point out that our penguin fandom predates March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, and all those other penguin-come-lately things. So there). If you want way more penguin paraphernalia than is healthy for anyone, visit http://www.penguin-place.com/ And check out this site. And if you have a fast Internet connection and want to watch penguins in motion (or standing still), go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Penguin Cam at http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/efc_fo/fo_peng_cam.asp#

Strand Books - website for the place we get sucked into practically every single time we visit the Webmaster's home town of NYC http://www.strandbooks.com/home/ (The Webmaster thinks she needs to remove the word "practically" from that sentence, on second thought...)

French Sole - Mrs. Webmaster got a pair of ballerina flats at French Sole on Lexington Avenue - expensive, but not as expensive as some of the other incredibly gorgeous shoes they sell. Their website is at http://frenchsoleshoes.com/

Internet Movie Database - whenever the Webmaster wants to know who played that person in that movie, she goes to this site. Mostly they have the answer. http://www.imdb.com/

Nehaflix - a great source for Bollywood movies on DVD, plus music CDs http://store.nehaflix.com/

A great site if you need to look up Russian abbreviations http://www.sokr.ru

Jack Stoddart If you went through Concourse B at Nashville Airport during the summer of 2004, you saw photos by Jack Stoddart on the walls. Unfortunately, not all of the ones from the airport show are on this website, but some are. Very cool. http://www.jackstoddart.com

Allison Blake Schofield is a very talented artist and singer with whom Mr. and Mrs. Webmaster have been lucky to sing many times. Check out her carvings and drawings at http://www.wordstoobigtoread.com/index.htm!

Hatch Show Print - we finally got to visit the Hatch Show Print shop in Nashville and it's so cool, as are their posters. Mr. and Mrs. Webmaster consider themselves to be featured on the poster they did for the Great High Mountain tour (well, it does say "Sacred Harp Singers"...). Visit their website at http://hatchshowprint.com/

NON-SWEATSHOP CLOTHING: No Sweat Apparel http://www.nosweatapparel.com/index.html Mr. Webmaster got a really cool pair of their sneakers at Moo Shoes in NYC http://www.mooshoes.com/ (where Mrs. Webmaster got a really neat pair of sandals). No sweatshops, union-made clothing! If only all clothes were made this way... this is a good start. Also look at Justice Clothing Company's website at http://www.justiceclothing.com/thereis/justice/ And check out too American Apparel - not unionized, but clean (er... now there are reports of possible sexual harrassment of employees by company founder Dov Charney... still being investigated, we gather) and sweatshop-free: http://americanapparel.net/

Lunapads - all kinds of alternatives to the disposable menstrual products filling our landfills. It takes a different mindset and approach, but the Webmaster, who can vouch for the Diva Cup (ten years of using first the Keeper and now the Diva Cup and still a satisfied customer) and is now making the leap into Lunapads themselves, thinks it's worth it to do something good for yourself and for the planet. http://www.lunapads.com/home.php (Unfortunately, they've stopped carrying the really comfortable Sea Pearls Sea Sponge Tampons - check them out at Jade and Pearl: http://www.jadeandpearl.com/catalog/index.php )

Mrs. Webmaster has taken up knitting. A friend's mother tried to teach her to knit about 34 years ago, but it didn't stick. Now she's trying again. Her first project was a 17-foot-long scarf... which is what you get when you knit an entire skein with #8 needles and rows of 15 or so stitches. That was in 2005. Then she stopped because her thumb was hurting (and it turns out she was knitting in some weird way due to misunderstanding what she saw in a book). Now she's started again, is forging ahead with all sorts of things (hats, scarves, tank tops, even a yarmulke!), thanks in great part to , which has great videos that help teach you how to knit. (The creator of the site, Amy Finlay, is also a Sacred Harp singer, coincidentally enough!) There are lots of lovely knitting stores out there (called "LYS" or "local yarn stores" by knitters), plus a few with really rude people running them (I'm talking to you, Sunflower Samplings in Crystal Lake, IL. Try not treating your potential customers the way you do, or they may become never-to-be-customers. Such as this one). Fishbed Knitting Emporium in East Dundee, IL has a strange name but a good selection and a friendly owner. And Webs in Northampton, MA has such a huge amount of yarn, the Webmaster was sort of overwhelmed and paralyzed... next time she goes there, it will be with a specific pattern in mind. Meanwhile, they're a great online source for yarn etc., one of the many, many out there. Update: Mrs. Webmaster completed a sweater for Mr. Webmaster in late 2006! And update early 2008: she's working on a sweater for herself now...

A site dedicated to the amazing Eddie Izzard http://www.auntiemomo.com/cakeordeath/welcome.html