The Iraq war took a notoriously low toll on the vast majority of Americans. All of the sacrifice on this side was borne by enlisted members of the military and their families. This is not to say, however, that Americans with a wisp of consciousness did not have to cope with the news that emanated from the war zone. How should those opposed to a war of choice feel when – day after day, year after year – proof of the folly is reported in the lists of dead soldiers and civilians?

I recall the eve of the invasion, as the countdown to Bush’s ultimatum ticked down on the corner of the screen, Bill Press and Tucker Carlson signed off from their crappy program, Spin Room.

“Well, I hope I’m wrong,” the anti-war Press volunteered gamely after articulating his fears of a prolonged occupation. At 21, I was nowhere near the level of maturity it took for Bill Press to admit that the best outcome would be a quick and decisive exchange of power and return to peace. In the run up to the war, I was tossing and turning in bed, talking to myself, consumed with righteousness. I wanted nothing more in life than to be proven right, war sucks, yet what could be grimmer and more psychologically unsanitary than feeling satisfaction at the protraction or intensification of a war?

Maria loves Vivian. She has always loved her, and now, they are married.

Both Maria and Vivian are New York-born Puerto Ricans who live in Staten Island. Maria is a retired corrections officer who worked in Rikers Island for 20 years. Her longtime partner Vivian is a Manhattan bus operator. During their almost three decades together, they raised a grown daughter and built a life together that is filled with love and commitment.

A month after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the bill into law legalizing same-sex marriages, just three days ago, gay couples started getting hitched. We spoke with Maria about her marriage on Sunday, one of the first in the state. She is a friend of a friend who kindly offered us a description of what it was like at the courthouse this weekend and offered us insight into her hopes and fears.

How long have you guys been together for?

Twenty-seven years.

Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, I know way too much about what my friends are thinking all the time. And thanks to THL, they know more than they’d like to about what I think about things. This is all usually fine with me, but right now, it’s just turning me off.

I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the the social media responses to the death of Osama bin Laden. I noticed how half of my friends are hungry with bloodlust over the killing of Osama, while others seem to be horrified by the bloodlust. I find both of these attitudes incredibly obnoxious. No offense, guys.

Let me start like this. It’s a huge deal that Obama’s guys got Osama, and to not politicize it seems ignorant. Republicans, you can’t have this one. You just can’t. It’s important to talk about this significant event. It’s a big freaking deal. We should talk about it, its implications and repercussions, but that’s not what’s being posted up around the web.

Now, for everyone frothing at the mouth, excited about this guy’s death. I get it. He was a bad guy. He’s not just an innocent sacrificial lamb, he was a horrible mass murderer whose money and shitty ideas funded the killings of thousands and thousands of people. I definitely am not sad about this guy’s death. I’d even have a beer in honor of this targeted murder. Fuck it, and fuck him. The thing is, I really don’t want to see photoshopped pictures of a dead Osama. It’s really gross and unnecessary. I mean, I’m not like glad when someone dies just because they’re dead. I’m not a sick bitch like that. You are. I’m simply glad to have my Obama back.

To my other friends who are horrified by those lost in joyful celebration over a death: seriously? You don’t get it? I mean, if you want to give a shit about someone, how about caring about all those little kids and innocent people maimed and shrapnel-filled by this fucking monster. I get it, it’s not nice when people die, like I said, but really? Are you that much of a pretentious, self-rightous prick that you can’t understand why people might not rejoice in the removal of a horrible person from the earth. It’s just stupid to assume that killing someone as a form of justice for bad deeds is always poor form. I’m rolling my eyes at you. My eyes are rolling for real. I can barely type they’re so far up in my head.

I’m sure that you all will un-friend me now. I think most of you are a little creepy at this point, though I love you all the same. I do love you, you creepy judgmental, perverted, murderous assholes. Just remember to vote for Obama next year.

I’m lazy and I like to relax. I don’t want to rush when I eat. I prefer breakfast foods to all others. I also enjoy sleeping in well past traditional breakfast dining time. Therefore, I really like brunch. I can think of little better than zoning out for hours into the afternoon, chatting, eating, drinking. I have had some good times at a brunch, very pleasant, memorable, perfect times. God, that sounds pathetic. But there it is. There is nothing better than a day free of obligations and distractions.

by Farrah Farley

The Onion published How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be? 30 Million People Wonder over a year ago. Yeah, it’s funny, but the message is one people should have been listening to. It sort of seems no one really cares about the pollution they create except for a handful of hippies and nonprofits (in Austin) and a few “green celebrities” out there concerned in between filming moneymakers.

If you fancy yourself an environmentalist, or, at the very least, want to do something to help others reduce their carbon footprint, consider submitting a short 30 second to 3 minute film for the Second Annual Films for the Forest Fest. FREE to enter, it’s run by the nonprofit Rainforest Partnership and it will be screened in Austin on June 16 in front of a huge audience and 3 well-respected judges: Elizabeth Avellán, Ed Begley Jr., Richard Linklater, and Paul Stekler.

Mohamed Bouazizi. Anyone who believes that technology saturation, mutually-assured nuclear destruction and globalization has deprived our era of romanticism need merely Google his name. What chasms lay between you, gentle reader, and an indigent 27-year-old Tunisian who immolated himself on an otherwise mundane Friday morning in December? And how could he have known that his violent end would mark the beginning of peaceful movements across the Maghreb?

His act, like many suicides in from Sharm el-Sheikh to Islamabad, was inherently pathological but also explicitly political. Nothing about his short biography leads me to believe that his grievances went beyond garden-variety Middle Eastern (or, if you like, North African) corruption. His suicide was basically over a little nose-bloodying by some municipal thugs in lieu of an unpaid bribe. I, for one, would have put a cold lamb T-bone on his face and said, “Suck it up, Mo. Shit happens.” But the young street vendor took his complaint downtown, was rebuffed by a local governor, and set himself on fire before lunchtime. Therein lies the point of the sword. The majority of South Tunisians, Tunisians, North Africans, and citizens across the region and the entire world think more about day-to-day pains in the ass and humiliations than eternity in paradise or a fiery grave. But corruption, unlike terrorism, rarely kills, so it seldom inspires revolutions and strengthens stable dictatorships. But when it does…

My cousin Farrah is a studier of the Arab world and though doesn’t have much time to write now, she has given us some links and background on the peaceful revolutions that took place in Tunisia and are currently in progress in Egypt and Jordan.

Here are her notes and stuff:
Mubarak is the last pharaoh of Egypt and protesters are practicing civil disobedience until he follows bin Ali’s lead and LEAVES. For 30 years, the US-backed Mubarak regime has been more like a dictatorship than a ‘representative body.’ People have been frustrated and finally are RISING UP calling for major economic, political, social reforms.

From the Week of Jan. 25:
From The Daily Beast, Inside Egypt’s Facebook Revolt
From The Atlantic, After Tunisia: Obama’s Impossible Dilemma in Egypt
From Democracy Now, The Cairo Conundrum
From Al Jazeera, How Tunisia’s revolution began

From Jan. 30:
From the HuffPo Anonymous Internet Users Help Egypt Communicate
From NPR, Professor Samer Shehata, who will be on The Colbert Report last night. Professor: Regime Change Can’t Happen Overnight
From International Crisis Group, Egypt’s Muslim Brothers: Confrontation or Integration?
From Slate, Obama’s Shah Problem
Let’s not forget about Tunisia
A letter to Obama

And now, there’s more good news of change in Jordan.