Month: May 2008

May 8 celebrated as the World Red Cross Red Crescent Day

armradio.am
08.05.2008 11:07

The Presidents of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross
issued a joint statement on the occasion of World Red Cross Red
Crescent Day 2008

"Each year, World Red Cross Red Crescent Day, celebrated on 8 May,
offers us an opportunity to call attention to the plight of people
affected by disasters, armed conflict and other situations of violence,
to take stock of the multiple challenges we face and to reaffirm our
commitment to working together for humanity.

It is this aspect of togetherness ` of people working towards a common
goal of helping others ` that enables us to make a true difference in
the lives of the victims of catastrophes, hostilities, poverty and
health crises.

Every day, we see the importance and impact of solidarity reflected in
the work of our dedicated volunteers and staff around the globe ` from
disaster preparedness to restoring family links.

Whether they are evacuating residents ahead of a cyclone or reuniting
children and parents torn apart by war, it is by working together that
National Societies, the International Federation and the ICRC are able
to offer protection, assistance, comfort and hope to those in need.

Working in partnership also means coordinating and collaborating with
others, including governments, international organizations, the private
sector and communities.

This enables us to respond more effectively to change and to adapt to
complex humanitarian challenges, such as internal displacement, armed
violence, international migration, emerging diseases, and humanitarian
consequences of environmental degradation.

Next year, we will mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of
Solferino ` a decisive moment in the Red Cross and Red Crescent’s
history. It was on the battlefield of Solferino that Henry Dunant, who
was born on 8 May 1828, first reached out to help wounded soldiers and
began to formulate a vision that would lead to the creation of the
Movement.

As we look forward to commemorating this landmark event in 2009, we
should remember that people ` their safety, health, dignity and
wellbeing ` must be at the centre of everything we do and stand for.

Experience has shown us that cooperation and teamwork are essential to
our ability to help others, so as we observe World Red Cross Red
Crescent Day, let’s also celebrate the strength that comes from working
together for humanity."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Putin confirmed as Russia’s Prime Minister

armradio.am
08.05.2008 17:38

Russia’s lower house of parliament approved Vladimir Putin as prime
minister on Thursday, a day after he stepped down as president
following eight years as head of state, RIA Novosti reported.

All 448 lawmakers were in parliament for the vote. Putin was
overwhelmingly approved as premier by 392 votes to 56.

The outcome of the vote was widely expected as the ruling pro-Kremlin
United Russia party holds a two thirds majority in the State Duma. The
Communists voted against Putin.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, sworn in on Wednesday, first offered
the post of premier to Putin after being nominated as a presidential
candidate by United Russia and three other pro-Kremlin parties in
December.

He officially nominated Putin as premier after the inauguration
ceremony at the Kremlin.

Speaking after the Duma vote, Medvedev said: "I am positive we will
continue to enjoy fruitful cooperation between the executive and
legislative branches of power, the like of which we witnessed today in
the State Duma."

L’Express, France
8 Mai 2008

Communauté arménienne;
Success story

par Huret Marie

Sur le passeport de ses grands-parents figurait : « Retour interdit
». Quand les Panossian, rescapés du génocide arménien perpétré par le
gouvernement turc, ont débarqué à Valence, dans les années 1920, ils
n’avaient pas un sou en poche. Leur petit-fils, le notaire Philippe
Panossian, dirige aujourd’hui l’une des plus grosses études de la
ville et préside l’Union générale arménienne de bienfaisance
(Ugab). D’autres descendants arméniens sont devenus sculpteur,
médecin, commerçant… « Ce qui a dicté notre réussite, c’est le
sentiment fort d’avoir une dette envers la République, explique
Philippe Panossian. Nos parents n’avaient qu’une idée en tête :
travailler. »

Valence est aujourd’hui la première ville arménienne de France – 10 %
de la population y puise ses origines. L’élite de la communauté a
poussé à Little Arménie, un triangle du centre-ville délimité par les
rues André-Franco-Bouffier, Madier-de-Montjau et de la
Belle-Image. Leur ascension sociale s’est appuyée sur trois
générations : les grands-parents ont travaillé dans les
filatures. Puis leurs enfants ont acheté des commerces, permettant aux
petits-enfants d’accéder aux études supérieures. Le
chirurgien-dentiste Edouard Torossian compte six frères et soeurs : un
ingénieur, deux dentistes, un prof de langue, un médecin… « Nos
parents voulaient que leurs enfants réussissent à l’école, dit-il. Il
n’était pas question de nous envoyer à l’usine ! »

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Tandem, Canada
May 8 2008

Atom Egoyan’s Alternate World

Canadian director returns to Cannes with film exploring identity and
technology

By Paola Bernardini

`Films confront things, the most extreme of things, they look them in
the face, they analyze them. The role of art is to imagine that which
one is afraid to confront in life. Perhaps it provides us with new
ways to overcome fear in real life.’

In his new film Adoration, Atom Egoyan confronts the fear of a virtual
separation between mind and body and, therefore, the paranoia that
technology will replace humankind. The film explores a type of
artificial intelligence, with the possibile risk of coming face to
face with a computer that has the capacity of human thought, but in
the end, reason overcomes fantasy and encounters the reinterpretation
of an individual identity.

Adoration, written and directed by Egoyan and a candidate for the
Palme d’Or at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 14 –
25), centres on a high-school student who is fascinated by technology
and above all by the idea of recreating two historical figures.

Virtual reality is skewed with everyday life and the protagonist’s
obsession comes to life when he creates a new identity for himself on
the Internet, a place where he also encounters threats because of his
contact with issues such as international terrorism. Through the
Internet, the boy also drags his circle of friends into his unique
journey, where they face suffering caused by a tragedy that never took
place. This struggle takes place all through the medium of their
computer monitors, a space where video is the sole means of
communication.

In this film, Egoyan uses a traditional maze-like structure to entrap
the audience, including parallel scenarios, and of course there is
always a secret hidden in his plots.

`When I began to explore technology in the 1980s, I thought that
certain multimedia instruments serve only to distance us from each
other,’ the director said. `But then I convinced myself that techology
actually connects us more than we could have ever imagined.’

The idea for Egoyan’s latest film was born some 20 years ago with a
news story: a Jordan teenager convinced his pregnant Irish friend to
board a plan, unaware of the fact that she was carrying a bomb in her
purse. This story is transposed in the film as the protagonist
fantasizes about a similar scenario.

.php?storyid=8288

PRESS RELEASE
Fuller Center for Housing Armenia
Baghramyan 3rd lane, House 10 A
Yerevan, Armenia

Contact: Meri Poghosyan
Tel: 374-94-480313
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

Fuller Center Opens Program in Armenia with 1-to-1 Match

YEREVAN, ARMENIA, MAY 8, 2008 The rapidly-growing Fuller Center for Housing
ministry is pleased to welcome The Fuller Center-Armenia to our world-wide
family. A Partnership Covenant was signed with the organizing group there on
May 2nd, and Millard Fuller has announced that the first $100,000 raised for
the Armenian program will be matched 1-to-1, so that $200,000 can be sent to
begin building immediately.

The Fuller Center for Housing Armenia will build and renovate homes in
partnership with God’s people in need so that all Armenians may have a safe,
comfortable, simple home which is affordable to own and to maintain. Fuller
Center Armenia is a nonprofit ministry which charges no interest, thereby
witnessing God’s love in action and advocating for the right to decent
shelter.

The leaders of The Fuller Center-Armenia have solid experience in building
and renovating houses for God’s people in need. They propose innovative
approaches that will serve the needs of many Armenians in an economic and
regulatory environment that makes building there more expensive than it is
in many other parts of the world. Part of their work will be with families
who own their own land and have started building a house but lack the funds
to complete it. There are many such families throughout the country,
families who need capital, not charity. The Fuller Center will provide these
families with the materials and construction expertise they need to finish
their homes.

Another focus area will be with families who own apartments that are in need
of repair. Like most former Soviet countries, Armenia is dotted with huge
apartment complexes. Since independence, many of those apartments have been
privatized, but many are in disrepair. The Fuller Center will help families
in these apartments refurbish their homes and make them safe, sound and
hygienic.

The UN estimates that 40,000 Armenian families lack permanent shelter.
Following the devastating earthquake in 1989, thousands of families were
moved into shipping containers brought in from across the Soviet Union. The
containers were intended to be temporary houses until new ones could be
built, but now, 19 years later, thousands still live in these temporary
structures, called domiks. The Fuller Center-Armenia will work to give these
families simple, decent and affordable homes as well.

There is tremendous interest in sending volunteer teams to Armenia, and a
number are planned for this building season, which runs from April through
October. Please email [email protected] for the available dates and
details.

Millard Fuller, a founder of The Fuller Center for Housing commented: "We
are delighted to welcome Armenia to the Fuller Center family and look
forward to working together to provide decent shelter for all Armenians."

For more information on The Fuller Center Armenia, please visit
.

About The Fuller Center for Housing: The Fuller Center for Housing was
founded in the spring of 2005 at Koinonia Farm in rural southwest Georgia.
After 29 years of tireless service to the poor with Habitat for Humanity,
Millard Fuller, the founder and president of Habitat, was motivated to
expand his vision of eliminating substandard housing worldwide. The Fuller
Center for Housing, faith driven and Christ centered, promotes collaborative
and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an
unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need
worldwide. TFCH has programs in 35 U.S. communities and in 12 countries
around the world. For more information, please visit

Armenian National Committee
47 Nichols Avenue
Watertown MA 02472
617-926-1918
[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE
May 7, 2008

High School Students Lead Efforts to Pass Genocide Resolution
Urge Massachusetts Congressional Delegation to Champion H.Res.106

Lexington, MA– Two high school seniors are leading efforts to
activate their classmates and high school students across eastern
Massachusetts in support of H.Res.106, the Armenian Genocide
Resolution, reported the Armenian National Committee.

Nairi Khachatourian and Sosse Beugekian, both seniors at Lexington
High School, began circulating a petition calling on the Massachusetts
Congressional Delegation to lead efforts to ensure passage of the
Armenian Genocide Resolution.

`What an amazing way for students to become involved,’ stated
Sharistan Melkonian of the Armenian National Committee. `Nairi and
Sosse are role models to a generation of activists and are proving
that one person (or two) can make a difference. We hope their action
will encourage other individuals to also be creative and to make a
difference.’

Nairi and Sosse began circulating the petition in their own high
school but then reached out to friends in other communities. The
petition now has signers from Lexington, Watertown, Natick,
Lincoln-Sudbury, Waltham, Belmont, Newton, and Arlington.

H.Res. 106, the Armenian Genocide Resolution, calls on the President
to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects
appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to
human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United
States record relating to the Armenian Genocide. 213 Members of
Congress, including every one of the Congressmen from Massachusetts
has cosponsored H.Res.106.

Asked why they were targeting the Massachusetts delegation, all of
whom have already cosponsored the resolution, Khachatourian said, `We
appreciate that the Congressmen from Massachusetts have all
cosponsored H.Res.106, but cosponsoring the Resolution is not
enough. We need their leadership now more than ever to get the
resolution passed.’

"High school students are more interested than ever in making a
difference," said Beugekian. "We are a powerful and energetic voice
and we know what we want. And, we want to do everything possible to
ensure that this resolution passes this year."

Khachatourian and Beugekian, both 18 years old, will graduate on May
23. Khachatourian will attend Boston University in the fall and
Beugekian will attend Suffolk University.

The petition calls on Members of the Massachusetts Congressional
Delegation to urge their Colleagues to vote yes on the Resolution.

The petition reads:

We the undersigned, students in the Greater Boston area, strongly
believe that H.Res.106, the Armenian Genocide Resolution, should pass
when it is sent to the House floor. It is very important to show the
world that `genocide’, `ethnic cleansing’, and `racial discrimination’
will not be overlooked and that we are committed to ending and
preventing genocide. As students who are becoming adults and going
into `the real world’ we are beginning to realize the important role
that the United States’ can play on important issues. And, as
soon-to-be voters we are more and more interested in these matters. We
thank you for your cosponsorship of H.Res.106 and ask you to urge your
Colleagues to take a stand and support this Resolution. How can we
expect to end and prevent genocide in the future if we refuse to
properly acknowledge a genocide of the past?

Nairi and Sosse launched their petition on April 24 at the Greater
Boston Community Armenian Genocide Commemoration and intend to
circulate the petition through May 22.

####

2008 Ellis Island Medals of Honor

From: NECO – National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations
Contact: Miller Ryan Media Relations
Lonni Miller,
973/686-3660/[email protected] <mailto:973/686-3660/[email protected]>
PR ESS RELEASE

Harut Sassounian to Receive
2008 Ellis Island Medal of Honor
Glendale, California (May 4, 2008) – Harut Sassounian, the President of the
United Armenian Fund, Senior Vice President of the Lincy Foundation, and
publisher of The California Courier, will be among this year’s recipients of
the Ellis Island Medal of Honor given by the National Ethnic Coalition of
Organizations (NECO) on May 10th in New York City. The Ellis Island Medal
of Honor is awarded to outstanding Americans who have distinguished
themselves as citizens of the United States and have helped enable their
ancestry groups to maintain their identities while becoming integral parts
of American life.
This year’s recipients include Harut Sassounian, former U.S. Senator Ben
Nighthorse Campbell; Gen. Duncan J. McNabb – U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of
Staff; Human Rights Activist and Genocide Survivor Advocate Jacqueline
Murekatete; Country Entertainer Randy Owen; NYT-best-selling author and
health expert Dr. Mehmet Oz; Pittsburg Steelers Owner Dan Rooney; Actor and
Founder of `Operation Iraqi Children’ Gary Sinse; and WWII Veteran,
Olympian, and Motivational Speaker Louis Zamperini. They will receive their
awards at the annual ceremony filled with patriotic pageantry at Ellis
Island. A gala reception will follow in Ellis Island’s Great Hall. The
evening’s events will be capped by a spectacular fireworks display in New
York Harbor.
`To be included among such remarkable Americans who have devoted their lives
to the preservation of America’s freedoms as well as their ethnic heritage
is a very deeply touching and moving honor,’ Sassounian says. `I am proud
to be a citizen of the United States, a country where people from all over
the world come and blend together in a larger society while keeping their
unique backgrounds.’
As President of the United Armenian Fund (U.A.F.), a coalition of the seven
largest Armenian-American charitable and religious organizations, Sassounian
has coordinated the procurement, delivery, and distribution of over $500
million of humanitarian assistance to Armenia since 1988’s devastating
earthquake.
Sassounian also serves as the Senior Vice President of Kirk Kerkorian’s
Lincy Foundation, where he has overseen the implementation of over $200
million of infrastructure-related projects in Armenia, as well as a $20
million loan program to small- and medium-size businesses.
In addition to his positions at U.A.F. and the Lincy Foundation, he
volunteers his time and expertise serving on the Leadership Council of the
University of Southern California’s Institute of Armenian Studies and the
Board of Directors of Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena.
A former non-governmental delegate on human rights at the United Nations in
Geneva, Switzerland, he played a leading role in the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide and has also served on the Community Advisory Board of Los
Angeles PBS station KCET-TV.
Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper
based in Glendale, California. An author and documentary producer, his
commentary has a world-wide audience.
The 2008 Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients participated in a
first-of-its-kind project that partnered NECO with Zentangle, Inc. founders
Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas to create an actual mosaic that links each
medalist to one another and serves as a visual metaphor that illustrates how
each medalist’s qualities contribute to the collective American mosaic. To
view `Our American Mosaic,’ created by the Medalists and their families, go
to <; .
Established in 1986 by NECO, the Ellis Island Medals of Honor pay tribute to
the ancestry groups that comprise America’s unique cultural mosaic. To
date, more than 1,000 American citizens, including former Presidents Bill
Clinton, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard
Nixon; Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William Rehnquist; Muhammad
Ali; Rosa Parks; Elie Wiesel; Frank Sinatra; Bob Hope; Her Excellency
Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, President of the 61st Session of the UN
General Assembly; and Quincy Jones, have received medals.
Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients are selected each year through a
national nomination process. Screening committees from NECO’s member
organizations select the final nominees, who are then considered by the
Board of Directors. Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have
officially passed resolutions recognizing the Ellis Island Medals of Honor,
which ranks among this country’s most prestigious awards. Each year, Ellis
Island Medal of Honor recipients are listed in the Congressional Record,
honoring those who have made enduring contributions to our nation and to the
world.
NECO’s mission is to create the world of the future today, by honoring our
diverse past, advocating for positive change in the present, and building
strong leaders for the future. The foundation partners with a wide variety
of organizations, both national and international. NECO continues its
long-standing commitment to Ellis Island, supporting the ongoing restoration
of its educational facilities.
For a full list of the 2008 Ellis Island Medal of Honor Awardees, go to
<; .
# # #

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: May 8, 2008
Armenians and Progressive Politics
PO Box 419, New York, New York 10108
Contact: Laura Boghosian
Tel: 917-428-1918
Website:

"Armenians and Progressive Politics" Announces Program for May 30-31
May 30 plenary to discuss "The New Imperialism"

NEW YORK’British journalist and activist Tariq Ali will lead a
panel discussion on "The New Imperialism: Old Problems, New
Challenges" in New York on Friday, May 30. Joining Ali will be
David Barsamian, founder and Director of the Colorado-based
Alternative Radio, and Neil Smith, Distinguished Professor of
Anthropology and Geography at the City University of New York.

This event will serve as the opening plenary of the third annual
"Armenians and Progressive Politics" conference. The three
panelists will examine the contemporary politics of empire,
superpower rivalries, globalization, trade and monetary policies,
the exploitative nature of capitalism, and the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. In addition, the destructive effects of imperialism on
small nations will be discussed, as well as alternatives to the
current structure.

Conference Panels on May 31

Friday’s plenary will be followed by six panels on Saturday, May
31. These panels will consider topics such as changing Armenian
gender roles; the anti-Defamation League and the Armenian G
enocide; foreign assistance to Armenia; an Armenian global
progressive agenda; unrest in Armenia; and a youth panel on
political activism.

Saturday’s schedule will conclude with a plenary entitled
"Coalition-Building Among Dispossessed Groups" featuring Ali,
Barsamian, and additional panelists.

Friday’s session takes place at 7:30 pm at Mason Hall, Baruch
College Performing Arts Center, 17 Lexington Avenue (at East 23rd
Street), New York City. Admission is free.

Saturday’s panels and the 5:30 pm closing plenary will all be held
at CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), New York
City. Panels run from 10 am to 5 pm, with registration beginning at
9:30 am and a one-hour lunch break at noon. Registration costs $15,
$10 for students (lunch is not included).

Distinguished Speakers on Imperialism

Tariq Ali is the author of numerous books, including Pirates of the
Caribbean: Axis of Hope; Conversations with Edward Said; Bush in
Babylon; and Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and
Modernity. He is a contibutor to BBC Radio, the Guardian, and the
London Review of Books. He is also editor and a board member of New
Left Review.

David Barsamian is also an author, journalist, and lecturer, whose
books include Speaking of Empire and Resistance: Conversations with
Tariq Ali; Propaganda and Iran; and The Decline and Fall of Public
Broadcasting. Barsamian’s articles and interviews appear regularly
in the Progessive and Z Magazine.

Neil Smith’s book American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the
Prelude to Globalization won the 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
in biography. His most recent work is The Endgame of Globalization.

Armenians and Progressive Politics (formerly "Armenians and the
Left") is an initiative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-
Eastern USA. The conference is co-sponsored by the Armenian
National Committees of New York and New Jersey, The Nation
Institute, and CUNY’s Center for Place, Culture, and Politics.
Previous participants include Noam Chomsky and Robert Fisk.

For more information, visit the conference website at:
.

Zenit News Agency, Italy
May 7 2008

Armenian Patriarch to Visit Benedict XVI

Churches Seek Unity After Split in 451

VATICAN CITY, MAY 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Karekin II, Catholicos of All
Armenians, is responding to an invitation from Benedict XVI to visit
him in the Vatican.

The Pope’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, visited
Armenia last March and was received by Karekin II. The Vatican
official presented a handwritten letter from the Holy Father, inviting
the Patriarch to the Vatican.

Karekin II, elected as the 132nd Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
all Armenians in October 1999, arrived in Rome today and will
participated in events through Sunday.

According to a communiqué released by the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity, the patriarch will be accompanied by 18
bishops of the Catholicosate of all Armenians and by a group of 75
Armenian Apostolic faithful.

On Wednesday, the patriarch will pray at the tomb of St. Peter and
visit the statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator, patron saint of
Armenia, which is located in the north patio of the Vatican Basilica.

The Pontiff will welcome him at the beginning of the general audience
in St. Peter’s Square. In the afternoon, the Catholicos is to receive
an honorary doctorate in the theology of pastoral care of youth from
the Pontifical Salesian University.

On Thursday, the Patriarch will visit the Pontifical Armenian College
and, during the afternoon, participate in an academic congress being
held at the Pontifical Oriental Institute on "holy sacrifice in the
Armenian tradition."

Friday morning, Karekin II and his entourage will visit the offices of
the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, after which
Benedict XVI will receive the Catholicos in the Vatican Apostolic
Palace. Following a private meeting between the two, the Pope will
also receive the bishops accompanying the Patriarch. A celebration of
the word of God is due to take place, jointly presided by the Pope and
Karekin II, at which the Armenian Apostolic faithful of the
Patriarch’s entourage will also participate.

On Sunday evening, the Catholicos and his entourage will participate
in the celebration of Vespers at the papal basilica of St. Paul
Outside the Walls, the final event of the Patriarch’s visit to Rome.

In November 2000, scarcely a year after his election, Karekin II
visited Pope John Paul II.

During that visit, the Pope and the Patriarch presided at a Liturgy of
the Word in the Vatican Basilica during which John Paul II gave the
Catholicos a relic of St. Gregory the Illuminator, which had been
conserved for many years at the Convent of St. Gregory the Armenian in
Naples, Italy.

In September 2001, John Paul II made a visit to Armenia and to the See
of Etchmiadzin where the Catholicos resides. The Patriarch also came
to Rome for the Polish Pontiff’s funeral on April 8, 2005.

The communiqué concluded by explaining that, on the occasions of the
various meetings between Bishops of Rome and the Catholicos of the
Armenian Apostolic Church, joint declarations have been signed on
questions of great ecumenical importance in the historical,
theological and pastoral fields.

More than 90% of Armenian Christians are under the Armenian Apostolic
Patriarchate, which separated from Rome after the Council of Chalcedon
in 451. A key step toward overcoming this division was taken in 1996
when Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Karekin I signed a joint
declaration on the nature of Jesus.

sh

Blogger News Network
May 6 2008

An Interview With The Stiletto Our Blogger Of The Month

Posted on May 6th, 2008 by Simon Barrett in Blogosphere News,

I had the opportunity to chat with our Blogger Of The Month, a blogger
who uses the mysterious nickname of The Stiletto.

I have to ask this one, (I’m nosy) why do you use the mysterious pen
name? And can you tell us a little about yourself?

The Stiletto has a particular interest in the Armenian Genocide and
when she writes about it, she often gets vituperative ` and sometimes
threatening ` comments and e-mails from Turks. As much as The Stiletto
admires Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was assassinated by
Turkish nationalists in Istanbul in January 2007, she does not want to
share his fate. Hence, the nom de guerre.

The Stiletto is a classical or laissez-faire liberal ` which means
that according to today’s political taxonomy, she is a
conservative. Her idealism and beliefs never changed, but the labels
did. Anyone who wants to know more about The Stiletto, is welcome to
read her bio or these FAQs.

Politics seems to be your writing specialty, are you a political
animal?

The Stiletto is intensely ` perhaps insanely ` political.

What got you interested in politics?

The Stiletto cannot remember ever not being interested in
politics. While other kindergarteners were watching cartoons, she was
watching the evening news with Walter Cronkite. Perhaps one can’t be a
news junkie without also being a political junkie, and vice versa.

How, and why, did you enter the writing business?

Before starting The Stiletto Blog, The Stiletto would e-mail articles
she found interesting or provocative to her friends, but she
eventually wanted to reach ` and perhaps influence – a wider circle of
people than just the ones she knew. Plus, The Stiletto had been
contributing political humor to various Web sites, and decided it was
time to strike out on her own. She started The Stiletto Blog to share
her thoughts on what she deemed the important issues of the day ` but
without beating people over the head. For this reason, humor is an
important element of The Stiletto Blog. Even if you don’t agree with
The Stiletto on an issue ` or any of them, for that matter ` she can
still make you laugh, so there’s no hard feelings.

The writing game is a brutal game, your articles get lots of comments,
some are less than complementary. How do you deal with your critics?

The First Rule of punditry is: Don’t ever apologize, don’t ever
explain. You have to have the courage of your convictions.

The Second Rule is: Try never to be wrong, so you don’t have to
violate the First Rule. You have to do your homework, and be able to
back up your position with facts, figures and supporting documents `
which, as a blogger, you can imbed into your narrative so people can
check things out for themselves.

The Third Rule is: Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, just
like you. The only thing The Stiletto doesn’t abide is ad hominem
attacks ` she will not allow anyone to define her as a `racist,’
`nativist’ or some other pejorative a commentor will resort to when
(s)he cannot disprove your argument or is too lazy to try.

Politics is clearly your favorite arena, but do you write about other
things?

The Stiletto Blog is about `politics and other stuff.’ The Stiletto is
also a geek so she also writes about her other interests, which
include technology (AI, astrophysics, DNA computing); her attempts to
learn to drink scotch (she’s a vodka aficionado); and her love of
muscle cars (she actually coaxed a Prius to go 105 mph once). It goes
without saying that The Stiletto is mad about shoes, and has quite a
collection of them.

You got an Honorable Mention in the Webby awards. That is quite the
achievement. Can you tell us about how you got involved?

Thank you. Maybe this is chutzpah ` or the fact that each category
entry carried a $250 fee ` but The Stiletto entered in only one
category, Political Blogs. Admittedly, the odds were stacked against
The Stiletto Blog: It’s a one-woman operation; it’s done on a
shoe-string budget; its political orientation is right of center; and
it’s an independent operation, not part of a larger media or corporate
entity. The Stiletto was hopeful that the quality of her content would
enable her to hold her own against her MSM competitors ` but was still
pleasantly surprised (shocked!) when she found herself in the same
company as CNN, Time magazine, The New York Times and other huge media
firms. Being recognized as a Webby Official Honoree shows that Big
Media hasn’t completely taken over the blogosphere, and that there is
still room for independent bloggers to have their say and make an
impact.

So whats next in your career?

The Stiletto is hoping that The Stiletto Blog becomes one of those
blogs ` such as, Captain’s Quarters, Betsy’s Page, My DD and The
Volokh Conspiracy ` that MSM pundits cite in their own columns. Plus,
a link on The Drudge Report wouldn’t hurt, either.

Thanks for talking with us today, and good luck with your endevours