Have you had a chance to read “In Which Our Hero Is A Curmudgeon”? It’s the travelogue of Anthony Jastrzembski, one of my friends from Minot, who travelled to Ireland for a semester of university and is presently working in Tanzania.

Take a second and consider a donation to help the relief efforts following the devastating earthquake in Haiti. As always, the American Red Cross and Doctors without Borders have shown leadership in responding to the crisis. The World Food Program has also stepped up its constant efforts in Haiti to help with the aftermath.

It’s been a day of positive environmental news.  China has pledged to restrain its growth in emissions, while the United States and Japan are  planning to hold the line.  But this is the start, rather than the end, of the solution to economic dependence on unsustainable processes.  Groups in North Dakota are holding a kickoff for public outreach campaign in Fargo Wednesday night –  Details at the 1sky blog.

The Leader of the DPJ, Yukio Hatomaya, is set to become Prime Minister of Japan in an election that has toppled an LDP government that ruled for almost all of the past 50 years.

The change in leadership is welcome news for a country that has been in or near complete demographic and economic stagnation for over a decade.  Among other things, Hatomaya made campaign promises to reduce the powerful role of government bureaucrats over society, and to  assert Japan’s nuclear disarmament policy over US forces in the country.

I don’t pretend to know Iranian politics inside and out, but anyone who was denied a vote, or didn’t get their vote counted correctly has a natural and moral right to protest.

It is silence that is the end of democracy, and the unrest in Tehran certainly has proven that it’s not as autocratic as the West had thought. I’ll tip my hat to any country that lets 15-year-olds vote — my own country denied me that right.

The opposition candidate Mousavi called for people to wear Green and Black; bloggers have followed suit. Green fits my website anyway.  It’s the least I could do.

CBP exit controls (click for details)

Yesterday, I took my passport-less friend on a trip to Winnipeg to see Big Dave McLean jam on stage.

Getting back at about 11:46 pm, it must have been one of the last trips with just a birth certificate anyone completed in the Central Time Zone. My friend will be applying for a passport soon, but for every such person, there’s a dozen others who won’t bother. In a very real way, the border is now closed.

But it turns out, the new reality is worse than I feared. We have Exit controls now.  I’ll say that again:  Exit controls.

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Roxana Saberi’s first full interview since her imprisonment has been all over NPR today.  She clears up several misconceptions about her predicament — and calls attention to the many women still sitting in Evin prison for their beliefs.

Roxana Saberi is just about home, after a week of recovery time in Austria.  Word is she flew into DC early this morning. Something tells me it’s going to be a little bit longer before she makes it back to Fargo…

Human Rights Watch is calling North Dakota out on its ass-backward laws, where hospitals actually bill rape victims for collecting the evidence the courts use to convict their rapists.

Colloquially called a “rape kit,” between collection and processing, it costs thousands of dollars — which under North Dakota’s present regime, are billable to the victim, who must then petition the court for restitution.

Nobody who suffers a rape should have to pay for this critical care.  The community ought to be there to help when it is needed the most.  Of course, what should we expect from a state where lawmakers can still beat their spouses and get away with it?

Roxana Saberi has been freed from prison, though merely through sentence reduction — her conviction for espionage has not been overturned.

Roxana’s parents plan to bring her home to Fargo in the next few days.  She deserves a hero’s welcome when she gets back!