That Time of Year

That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake agianst the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang:

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest:

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by:

-This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Polygamy and slavery in America

Amazing, that religious freedom will even protect fundamentalist sects that force 14 year-old girls to marry men twice their age, marry cousins, and allow what is essentially slavery. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a breakaway independant sect not officially affiliated with the Mormons) apparently practices its total domination program unhindered by the U.S. government in the southern areas of Utah. The leader of the group, a Mr. Jeffs, has total control over members, including telling each young girl who she has to marry, exiling teenage boys who attempt to watch movies or talk to girls, and actually removing wives from undesirable husbands and giving them to other men! How the United States can turn a blind eye to actual sexual slavery and ownership is beyond me. While Mr. Jeffs is now in custody and charged with sexual crimes, what is being done to help the young men and women who are suffering psychological torture in the name of freedom of religion?
I bet the only reason that the government has let them get away with marrying and trading underage girls like cattle and abandoning underage boys in the street is because it's a Christian sect. Any other sort of polygamous worship of pagan or ancient greek fertility gods for instance would have had a Waco response.
NYT Article about abandoned boys

Summer of Travel and Concerts - parts 2

Back home in Rambouillet after jet-setting for a few weeks. Didn't deserve all the vacation time, but since I wouldn't have been working anyway, might as well spend the time visiting people!

Acapulco:
Had a fun week with Mom and K. at the beach. Mom won the trip at a charity auction, so we made up for the price difference by shopping and charging everything to the room! Shared lots of laughs and good food, and refined the art of tanning, reading Harry Potter and sipping Coronas :)

So glad I got to just sit and fry in the hot sun! I miss summer when it just chooses to not visit northern Europe...

Flew straight back to Paris, and planned to leave after a day of rest for a road trip to tour northern Italy with C. but when he backed up the car to load our stuff...
a rock flung from a nearby lawnmower cancelled our plans.
So after a day of grumbling and looking at prices of last minute flights and road distances, we settled on a road trip closer to home. Only 5 hours by car instead of 9, and do-able in a 4-day visit, we decided to visit the low countries instead of Italy

Although the weather wasn't quite as warm or sunny, at least it didn't rain. We stayed in a cute inn and saw really old windmills...

...toured the Rijksmuseum and Rembrandt's house, rented bikes and saw a bit of Amsterdam.

Then it was off to Belgium for Pukkelpop!
This 3-day concert festival was the biggest I'd ever seen, and the best organized as well. We camped in a field of thousands, and saw concerts by Basement Jaxx, Laurent Garnier, UNKLE, DJ Jazzy Jeff, LCD Sound System, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and Tool! The music was pretty great, but the crowd was lackluster and not dancing or getting into it enough at all. Oh well.

And last put not least, Rock en Seine, the last concert festival of the season, in Paris:
Saw Biffy Clyro from Scotland, the Hives, 2 Many DJ's, UNKLE again (which was way better this time), (could have seen Tool again too but we had to go to a wedding on Saturday), a little bit of Mark Ronson, Kings of Leon, and Faithless, and........ BJORK! Sigh.

So it's back to work now, getting ready for full time teaching again and very happy about it. I need to make a little money to pay for all these vacations!!!