Issue the tenth, wherein our noble Libs:
1.  Read my cogitations
2.  Attend this week's highly anticipated events:
       Lib dinner:  Monday at 5:30, Commons
       YPU debate with Evan Wolfson on gay marriage:  Tuesday at 7:30, LC 102
       JBB Forum:  David Graeber, anarchist/anthropologist:  Wed at 6, TD South Common Room (subject to change)
3.  Go to New York and harass non-democratic governments:
        Lib New York trip: Fri, Nov. 7,  in New York
4.  Reflect upon gay marriage, anarchy, and other countries (y'know all those places that aren't America?)
and
5.  Amuse themselves with fun and games!

Dear Libs,
As I listen to raindrops slowly erode the flagstones outside and cough occassionally (I cough, not the rain), the eerie children's chant "It's Raining, It's Pouring" washes through my mind, causing me to fear dying from going to bed with a cold in my head, since a friend recently informed me that the song euphemistically expresses a man's death, until I realize that if "the old man is" indeed "snoring," then he must be alive, and I rejoice.  (As I am too busy for National Novel Writing Month (http://nanowrimo.org/) this year, the above entry to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/) will have to satisfy my quest for literary fame.)

Bad writing aside, I exhort all of you to come to our events this week and RSVP on the New York trip.  We have a great liberal speaker on Tuesday, so come hear what he has to say, and counteract the hissing!  The JBB Forum should be similarly awesome, though the scheduling is tentative.  Of course, the New York trip (almost) speaks for itself (but it deserved a blub below anyway)

Candy corn and lollipops,
Betsy

~Upcoming Events!~
Lib dinner:  Monday at 5:30 in Commons
Meet with us below the portrait of the former President Bush, who's not looking so bad anymore when compared to the current President Bush, and enjoy the vivacious Liberal party.

YPU debate with Evan Wolfson:  "The exclusion of same sex couples from marriage should end." 
Tuesday, 7:30 in LC 102
Cheer on the head of Freedom to Marry.  (Find out more in the links below.)  Join us in the front left corner of the room!

Jonathan Brewster Bingham Forum:  David Graeber, anarchist/anthropology professor.
Wednesday, 6:00 in the TD South Common Room (subject to change)
Professor Graeber will speak to us over dinner, drawing on his anthropology expertise and and liberal/anarchist views.

New York trip: Fri, Nov. 7  
As a paranoid former Soviet state, Kazakhstan needs the names of everyone who's coming, quite soon, so please email Alexander.Lee@yale.edu if you're interested.  We'll visit diplomats from non-democratic governments and enjoy a day in the Big Apple.  ("I want to be a part of B.A., Buenos Aires, Big Apple!") 

~Links apropos of the debate, JBB Forum, and the New York trip~
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/ftm_bio.htm  Evan Wolfson bio
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/  Evan Wolfson's organization
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0330/levine.php   "Stop the Wedding!"
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0336/goldstein.php  "The Radical Case for Gay Marriage"
http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/  "I moved here from Canada, and they think I'm slow, eh?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14193-2003Oct24.html  GOP <3 marriage amendment
http://www.nogaymarriage.com/information.asp  lots of links from nogaymarriage.com
http://24.104.35.12/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/938xpsxy.asp  The slippery slope:  from gays to Mormons to sheep!
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/opinion/25KRIS.html  Don't blink!

http://www.yale.edu/anthropology/people/faculty/dgraeber.html  Biography of David Graeber
http://www.insurgentdesire.org.uk/anthroplogy.htm  anarchy and anthropology

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ag.html  People's Democratic Republic of Algeria!
("election results: Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA elected president; percent of vote - Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA over 70%; note - his six opposing candidates withdrew on the eve of the election citing electoral fraud")

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/jo.html  Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan!

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kz.html  Republic of Kazakhstan!
("note: President NAZARBAYEV expanded his presidential powers by decree: only he can initiate constitutional amendments, appoint and dismiss the government, dissolve Parliament, call referenda at his discretion, and appoint administrative heads of regions and cities")

~Fun and Games~
http://www.philosophersmag.com/games/taboo.htm  As promised so tantalyzingly at the last discussion:  Taboo!
http://www.care2.com/ecards/build/1/4638  The Ramadan Game!

"Hello? Is this... [reads his paper] GBM? Uh, yeah. I read in the personals that you were seeking a soulmate. Well, I also like rainy days and movies. Uh-huh... [apprehensively] Uh, no, I don't like that... Or that... No, it's not that I'm afraid. [very quickly] I'm going to hang up now, bye-bye."
-- Homer, unfamiliar with personals, in "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer" (http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F24.html)

"We were good as married in my mind / but married in my mind is no good." 
    --"Pink Triangle" by Weezer, slightly out of context
http://ourlyrics.host.sk/lyrics/weezer/1-weezer-pink_triangle.php  (ironically, the site has an ad for Russian brides at the top...)