What a long, strange trip it's been

Say what you will about drugs, but Albert Hoffman, who discovered LSD quite by accident and took as much as Leary or Kesey or Garcia, and did it decades before they did, lived to be 102. He only died yesterday. A strong advocate for the use of LSD, he did not condone recreational experimentation, but considered the drug a sacrament, an entheogen: a substance to bring humans closer to the experience of god and the universe. Read about Dr. Hoffman's life in his New York Times Obituary. Happy trails, Albert!

Linda Rabben Interview Part 1

Dr. Linda Rabben, author and editor of several books, is currently researching a new book on the history of asylum, refuge, and sanctuary. An anthropologist by training, she spent last year as a fellow at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, which is affiliated with the London School of Economics. Currently, she is a development editor at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.

• LISTEN to Part 1 here: 3 minutes 07 seconds.

• DOWNLOAD here: (1.5MB) in m4a format.

In Part 1, the author recounts how her research experience with Amnesty International led her to investigate contextual questions concerning the history of human rights movements. At the request of an academic, she wrote her first book: Unnatural Selection: the Yanomami, the Kayapo, and the onslaught of civilization (1998). Published by Pluto Press, Unnatural Selection covered the history of indigenous Brazilians who organized themselves in order to defend their rights and protect their environment in the 1990s.

In addition to her career as an author and editor, Dr. Rabben has experience in lobbying, teaching, campaigning, activism, and translation. She also produces a small radio program out of Washington, DC called Interfaith Voices (www.interfaithradio.org/).

Other recent titles she has authored or edited:

Walking the Forest with Chico Mendes (2007). University of Texas.

Fierce Legion of Friends (2003). University of Wisconsin.

FoxNews "reporter" gets pwnd by Catholic priest

A FoxNews "reporter" (and a sad ass excuse for one at that) gets taken to the cleaners over and over again by a Catholic priest... completely worth a few minutes of your ever so precious time. So click the button already!

Two-faced?

To tell the truth folks, there is just so much weird news lately that it's impossible to keep up with it. Every day, I'm seeing blog-worthy stories of human anomalies, political shenanigans, and basically strange behavior, and there just isn't time to share it all.

In lieu of all the things I've missed, please enjoy this video of a very special type of conjoined twin, born in India, where they know how to treat this sort of kid.

Big Ambition

This fabulous little person is fourteen years old and scarcely two feet tall. Jyoti Amge lives in India and dreams of becoming a Bollywood star. She leads a normal life, attending school, thinking about fashion, and chatting on the phone with friends, even though she's a celebrity in her community and is releasing a music CD with an Indian pop star.

Read more about Jyoti.

I'll get my crowbar

Charleton Heston dead at 83.

Hey! Now we can have his gun!

Happy Passover!

Lately, I have been repeatedly amused by SomeEcards.com, whose motto is, "when you care enough to hit send." With the joyful Jewish holiday coming up, I'm thinking about all those funky traditions that we have, solely for the purpose of freaking out the goyim (that's Yiddish for gentiles, if you didn't know. And in case you're wondering, "gentile" is Jewish for "not a Jew"). My family has always observed a pretty traditional Seder, but we've also experimented and changed things here or there, too. For instance, for a while now, my mother has put an orange on the Seder plate, which, obviously, drives my father bonkers, but there's nothing he can do about it, because my mother's the one who does all the preparations. Sometimes, if there are children of a certain age in attendance, my father does chemical magic tricks (turning "water" to "blood"). Another new custom we've been incorporating into our Seder in recent years is to have my nephews scream through the entire thing. It will be a few years before they're old enough to appreciate water turning into blood.

If you're totally new to the concept of a Seder, it falls under the category of myth reenactment, similar to Greek theater. In this case, the story is that of the exodus from Egypt, and both the food and the actions are symbolic of different part of the story. We eat unleavened bread, matzah, reminiscent of the unleavened bread the Jews ate in the desert because they didn't have time to let their dough rise. We sit on super-comfy chairs and eat while leaning to symbolize the decadent possibilities inherent in freedom. We eat a lot, actually. That's probably the main tradition that ties all my family gathering together. We eat a lot on the Sabbath, and at weddings, and bat mitzvahs, and funerals. We take total advantage of being free. Slaves can't eat whatever good food they want.

That's what Passover's really about, by the way. It's a spring festival, a rebirth festival, but above all, it's a festival about freedom. It's a week to recollect, each year, that freedom is the sweetest thing in life, that we must never deprive others of what we cherish so much ourselves, that oppressors, by virtue of human nature, must be overcome.

This year, Seder starts at sunset on April 19. The holiday is eight days long and ends at sunset on the eighth day. Chag sameach!