Charity Alert: One-click wonder -- The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Weather: Perfect Autumn days, too bad it's only early September. It gets cold too early here in NW Montana.

Wildlife: The Redwing Blackbirds are gathering in flocks of three dozen or more.

In the Community: I found myself at the Museum at Central School when news photographer Karen Nichols was given this tip: Honoring the more than 1,000 American military men and women who have died in the Iraq war, a group of about 20 Flathead Valley residents gathered at Depot Park on Thursday evening to reflect on and pray for the dead soldiers and their families. Candlelight vigils were held across the country Thursday evening to remember the dead. From left are Dianne Grove, Peggy Casey, Marion Gerrish, Lynn Stanley, Andy Shirtliff, Pauline Sjordal and Donna Harrison. According to the Associated Press, an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Iraqis have been killed since the United States invaded in March 2003.
The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana

Media Watch: The movie Lagaan, Once Upon A Time In India is a good melodrama, but the intermission sure was welcome. It was nominated for a Foreign Language Academy Award in 2002 -- along with "Amélie" from France, "Elling" from Norway, "No Man's Land" from Bosnia & Herzegovina (the winner), and "Son of the Bride" from Argentina. Lagaan's web site
MTV Video Music Awards rerun -- a pretty dull show this year, especially in the wake of this same company's embarassingly lousy job at the Super Bowl. I heard the name Christina Aguilera and held my thumb off the remote. I like to hear her sing. She did a full-production duet with rapper Nelly that was dazzling! Nelly was out of his class, but since he has none, I guess it didn't matter so much. Here's her official website. (There's plenty of unofficial sites out there too with tacky pictures and stuff. I guess that talent alone is not enough.) CHRISTINA AGUILERA

Wildlife: Muskrats are becoming active on the lake in the evening as Autumn develops.

Charity Alert: The Breast Cancer Site

Weather: Cool in the morning, but sunny all day.

Media Watch: This bloody blogger site wasn't working very well yesterday, and I was fearful of losing my post about Oriana Fallaci's book, but it was still in the "Edit Posts" section today, and I got it uploaded at last.
More about current shadows from Fallaci's Interviews with History -- I finished reading it last night...
Tragically-flawed Ali Bhutto raised a remarkable daughter -- Benazir Bhutto, who became Prime Minister of Pakistan twice. Benazir Bhutto
That country's history has many dark rooms -- Ali Bhutto's execution was just one of them. Their sponsorship of the Taliban is another, but their part in nuclear proliferation may be the darkest yet. As far as the REAL war on terrorism is concerned, many of our worst enemies and best friends live within the borders of Pakistan.
Mohammed Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, preceded Ayatollah Khomeni into the fires of Hell by almost a decade. His son claims to have no desire for the Peacock Throne, and I hope he's not a sociopathic liar like his old man was. Reza Pahlavi....
Today, the government of Iran is scrambling to aquire nuclear weapons to avert an invasion by U.S. forces, or to take horrible revenge if the Bush administration initiates that madness.
NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT -- VH1 Bands Reunited tried to perform that trick with ABC, one of the most successful English "New Wave" groups. Since only two of the four guys showed up for the reunion chat, VH1 had some ace studio musicians fill-in for the missing members in a not-too-bad performance of their hits. Luckily, Martin Fry -- lead singer/songwriter, and owner of the ABC name was one of the members on board.
VH1.com : Shows : Bands Reunited : Main Page
We watched the first half of Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India -- one of the most accessible Bollywood hit movies for "Westerners." It's a melodrama for sure, stocked with all sorts of stereotypes, including some real bastard British officers, but it's done very well. Aamir Khan is the male lead, and also the producer. Lagaan's web site

Wildlife: Canada Geese are bedding down on our lake at night -- they don't call them "Honkers" for nothing.

Charity Alert: The Child Health Site : Help a Child in Need Lead a Healthy, Active Life

Weather: Blue skies, sunshine -- canoe rides on the lake!

Media Watch: TV or not TV -- Dems and RepubliCONS are yelling at each other -- turn that crap OFF! Hmmm -- History Detectives on PBS -- OK for an hour's watching.
History Detectives . Home | PBS
I'm going to read some more! The shadows of the powerful people from Oriana Falacci's Interviews With History are still haunting our world.
Sonia Gandhi, Indira's Italian-born daughter-in-law, is the head of the Congress Party of India. The murders of the blood relatives of Nehru's family have put her in charge of their legacy, until her own children can grow to maturity. She's been a canny politician -- Congress unseated the ruthless BJP, and she declined the honor of Prime Minister in order to do a better job for her adopted country.
Sonia Gandhi Indian National Congress Party Chairman
King Hussein of Jordan passed away of natural causes, despite the whole damn Middle East seemingly trying to aasassinate him. His son Abdullah II, and American-born Queen Noor seem to have started off well, as far as public relations go.
King Abdullah 2
The Palestinian state which was forcibly split off from Egypt and his father's kingdom has yet to be fully born, but is mostly Israel's problem now, since they first did the splitting. Yasser Arafat is still the same dishonest double-dealing martinet he was then. (The equally-dishonest double-dealing Likud criminals who run Israel today were not in power when this book was published in 1976.)
Welcome to Palestine - Land, People, News, Business, History and Culture (don't expect objective reporting about this subject on any web site -- the situation is just plain UGLY)
Henry Kissinger is alive, well, and still employed by the powerful as a professional liar. If Pinochet is really brought to justice in Chile, maybe Kissinger's part in the junta's perfidies will officially come to light. BBC NEWS | In Depth | Newsmakers | Henry Kissinger: Haunted by his past
General Giap is still alive at 92! COSMIC BASEBALL ASSOCIATION-1997 VO NGUYEN GIAP

Wildlife: All of the Osprey nests along the north shore of Flathead Lake are empty -- the migration has officially started. Florida's gonna be rough pickin's this year.

Weather: Somebody tagged the whole sky with gray spray-paint, and we're getting a little rain.

Charity Alert: The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!

Media Watch: I admit, with some guilty feelings, to switching between CNN and the Weather Channel during Hurricane Frances' landfall for many hours on Friday night. The unfolding of the destruction was facinating.
Sunday's CSPAN started out alright with Art Spiegelman on In Depth at the Strand bookstore in New York, but after an hour or so, for some reason, it turned into some other kind of show -- they had people come up and argue with one another -- often stupidly, I must add.
Blowhard Nat Hentoff was on for a few minutes too. He was only about 30% as bad as usual. I wish he'd stick to the subject of music, although his memories of Strand bookstore and NYC's Greenwich Village over 40-plus years were cool.
BOOK TV.ORG
I'm also reading Oriana Fallaci's interviews with powerful people, and her wonderful essays about each event. (Intervista con la Storia -- Rizzoli, 1974, published as Interview with History translated by John Shepley -- Liveright, 1976)
You don't have to agree with her, but she's the most emotionally REAL author of these times. Oriana Fallaci: journalist, interviewer and author