Look! We're alive!

Wee fish, ewe, a mare, egrets, miss!
And a hippo, gnu ear.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you receive an email asking for your bank information and you assume it's from a legitimate and charitable source.

This mac & cheese (and carmelized onions and bacon) trumps mine by a mile. I can hardly wait to make it.

The evidence is in. Black people don't have faces.

This documentary highlights the tragedy that this mother and son should not be in jail for killing the man who ritually abused them for their entire lives together. Because of the ineffectiveness of the police the one time they risked their lives as they reached out for help, they felt their only way out was to kill him.

The abuse started when their oldest child was 1.5 years old and the father, Aaron, expressed his fantasy to be a serial killer, to lock up families and rape them all while torturing them slowly to death by skinning them and cutting their fingers off. He kicked the heads of deer he'd killed on video camera. He beat her every day. She is missing most of her teeth. He regularly dragged her off into the woods with a machete and said he was going to kill her. He regularly beat her unconscious in front of the kids. The kids were supposed to take a punch without flinching or moving.

She will go to prison for "chewing her leg off to escape the bear trap." And she doesn't care because she knows she doesn't have to worry about her 4 boys getting killed 24/7 anymore and that was all she cared about. They took a plea deal because she couldn't gamble that the jury would do the right thing and she'd have to serve 25 years instead of 10 - away from her kids in either case while they need to heal from everything they've been through.

Listening to the other kids testifying at the sentencing, describing the horrific abuse that the judge admits is the worst domestic violence he's ever heard and that he believes happened...I don't understand why they're in prison. It's devastating.

Then, right after the youngest child described horrific abuse, this psychotic man's brother gets up there and says god will judge her and the wrath of god will be upon her and that his brother was all about love. How can anyone be so blind? And of course, he's invoking god every other word.

This is injustice. This is wrong.

Wendy Maldonado is not eligible for release until March 2016, Randy is not eligible until August 2011.

[Another review]

I'm just wondering why it took 3 years to air this.

Okay, so maybe I'm in love with this show.

The tribesmen on Meet the Natives, describing their reactions to the homeless man wearing a "Veteran" sign they met in New York.

Narrator/Translator: On Tanna, no one can tell who is rich or poor because everyone is the same. And no one is homeless.

Cut to their island where they are collectively building a home for a fellow tribesman and reveling about the kava they'll drink when they're done.

Chief: That person is an old man
I can see that there are many buildings in New York
How is it possible for a man to sleep in the street?

Medicine man: But it is clear that nobody loves him
That's why he is sleeping out in the cold

Chief (riding in taxi): Riding a taxi is helpful but it needs money
People who are poor have to walk

Hostess: Our culture is based on money to pay for something. If you go and work you get paid in money.

Chief: It's good for all those who are working
they can afford to pay for taxis
to pay for travelling
and food
but if someone has no job they will die

Speaking of the twin towers at ground zero:
Chief: Now I am sure. It was jealousy of power which caused this destruction.

Before going to Wall Street, their host dresses them in a coat and tie. He has the happy man look in the mirror and says "very chic." The translator mistranslates it as "He says you look very sick." To which the "happy" tribesman said "Tell him that I am very healthy."

Tribesman narrator: "The money house is on Wall Street. Inside it is very strange. Lots of people are staring at lists of things. And no one is smiling."

Medicine man: That thing they're touching, is it some sort of gambling machine?

Chief: They are fighting the button and it came out up there.
He was throwing the number on top
(this nonsensical description is about as much sense as it has always made to me)

Cut to life on their island:
Narrator: "Americans need money because they have to buy things. But our island has almost everything we need.

Happy man: We love working in our gardens

Old man in the village: Dividing up the vines this way will help bring an abundant harvest

Cut back to Wall Street:
Narrator: We are happy to meet a money expert.

Chief: I want to ask you about the money. Does everyone benefit from it or not?

Wall Street broker: We try to save a lot of money here. We try to save people from going broke, basically. We do the best we can.

Narrator: We can see the way money brings many fantastic things. Our system makes us happy.

Medicine man: A lot of things we know, they don't know. This is because they are all running after money.

On Meet the Natives (visiting Orange County, CA episode), the chief was asked while getting a facial if he'd like to look 10 years younger. He said he'd rather live longer.

Then, of course, the family they were staying with had to get botox injections like all us OCers do, right? Crimeny. Gag. Etc.

After the guy giving the injections explains that it's a bacterial toxin, the chief and other natives make faces and have a conversation about the whole thing.

Did you see what he did?
So that makes him look young.
He is trying to smooth her face.
But what about life inside her?
Does it reverse the life inside her too?
He can fix the outside
If you're trying to look younger
remember the sun is setting and you can't stop the sun from setting
Your blood knows what time it is,
so even if you change your skin, you cannot change your whole body
If it's 3pm, you can't make it 9am