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Monday, March 31, 2003
Well, that was a pleasant change.
The director started out his speech with an observation that some 25% of the band have been members for less than a year. Thus, the band isn't sounding as sharp as maybe it did in the past. That means going into the performance season, some adjustments will have to be made.
I was already rolling my eyes--I've heard this before, I'm about to get benched again! However, the director went on to say that he really considers this a community band, and if the quality of our performance or the difficulty of our music needs to change to meet the challenge of having new members/beginning musicians, so be it. He wants everyone to participate, so the veterans will just have to be patient.
Good for him, he's my new favorite guy.
8:47 PM
Ah...so cute.
9:19 AM
Sunday, March 30, 2003
C: I like your friend.
S: Good. So do I.
4:46 PM
Saturday, March 29, 2003
In case I'm in the transgender mood.
http://www.catatwaldenpond.com/
8:19 PM
Just in case I want to keep track of this kid.
http://www.wibbmedia.com/wibb/wibblog.html
8:11 PM
The woman who cut my hair today told me I was cute.
I shoulda given her a bigger tip.
3:47 PM
Friday, March 28, 2003
Today I:
Overslept.
Met w/Steve about the next Project Manual I need to write.
Was late to the meeting w/Steve because I stopped for coffee.
Printed out two copies of some house plans.
Gave one copy of said plans to Kirk so he could--for some reason or another--send it to Ivy Tech - South East.
Threw the second copy of the plans in my backseat just in case I get called for a job interview someday.
Ate lunch
Drank a grape soda w/lunch even though I know it always gives me a stomach ache.
Fed the cats.
Twice.
Went to my drum lesson.
Arrived early, sat in the car for twenty minutes wondering what the hell I was doing taking drum lessons.
Practiced my stick control exercises.
Read some e-mail.
Wrote an e-mail.
Met Catherine for dinner.
Remembered--after I ordered it--that falafel isn't really all that interesting.
Powwowed.
Picked up vacation photos from the drugstore.
Looked at said photos.
Made a new resolution to buy some clothes that fit.
Decided not to make a resolution to lose weight.
Practiced my stick control exercises for about 15 seconds.
Read my e-mail.
Wrote in my journal.
Thought about making popcorn.
7:53 PM
IU First Nations Pow Wow. Just returned.
7:46 PM
Trembling Before G-d. Saw it last night.
7:44 PM
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Well, to respond to Mark's statement (not that I think he's even paying attention to this) that although he despises Bush, "any time we have a chance to knock out a stalinistic dictator, [he is] all for it," I have to say that I think (if nothing else) it's poor rhetorical form to rely on comparisons to Stalin and Hitler to describe Sadaam Hussein. Every time I hear someone say Sadaam is another Hitler, I think, "What, he was elected by popular vote on an economic reform platform?" Every time I hear someone compare him to Stalin, I discover that no one was required to take Soviet history in college, only the poor stupidos who majored in Russian had to suffer through it.
I'd have to write an M.A. thesis at the very least to explain why there is so little to compare between the two--so maybe they're both mean old crackpots who cherish absolute power. But I mean, really, I'd have to go back to the Russian Revolution, Trotsky, Lenin, Show Trials, the Gulag System, Kulaky, blah blah blah blah, to demonstrate the major differences, and quite honestly, I am SO not interested in Soviet history I'd probably have to shoot myself half way through. But the point is, Iraq is not the Soviet Union. Even our responses to the two regimes are not the same. One criticism I hear over and over about Sadaam Hussein is "He gassed his own people!" And yet, dig through the historical documents, and you'll find Stalin eliminating people right and left. The Soviet Union was our ally for a good chunk of years in the mid-century, do we think Stalin became less....um...I guess the English word is "sly"...during these years?
Okay, that's not the real point. The real point is, I've been trying and trying to find some good examples of wars that have actually solved some problems instead of caused some problems. And this is the challenge: pick a war, say World War I, and go read ten books on it. Any ten books, I don't care what ten books as long as they aren't comic books. After your done, come see me and explain in three sentences: 1) why the war happened; 2) what happened during the war (I'll give an additional sentence to cover that one); and 3) what was solved by the war.
Let's face it, you can't do it. It's too complex an issue to boil down to 3 or 4 sentences. The causes of war, the events of war, and the outcome of war can't possibly be encapsulated w/so few words. And yet, that's what the U.S. is doing w/its publicity campaign for the current war. It has boiled it down to Cause: Sadaam bad; Events: Kill a few bad Sadaam supporters; Outcome: Liberated Iraqis happy.
And that's bullshit.
I still haven't found a war I'd be willing to fight. I've got totally mixed feelings about the U.S. Civil War--fight against the institution of slavery (yes), fight to destroy the south's economy (no), fight to preserve the union (no), fight to preserve state's rights (no). Pretty sure I wouldn't have been behind the American Revolution--fight for some of the freedom and liberty principles (probably), fight to eliminate taxation w/out representation (probably not). I was thinking for awhile that the use of military force in the Balkans by the U.N. had good results, but really--Serbia has arrested over 1000 people in relation to the assassination its Prime Minister. Is that really something that should be happening in a democratic nation? I guess we could invade and liberate all those people....
I just think we're entangled in something very, very complicated, and it seems like a bad idea to involve heavy artillery in the thought process of sorting it out.
1:51 PM
Although the photo of the smoke from the oil fire is also pretty....hm...neat, if I can use that word.
I just realized that, because I was on vacation and didn't have my eye on the calendar, I have no idea what the actual date was when the war started. Somehow I don't think "the third day of spring break" is going to make the history books.
12:18 PM
á la guerre comme á la guerre.
Mostly a news-harvesting weblog, and mostly in Italian. I love the photo of the Spanish parliament and the war protest art work in the Canary Islands.
12:16 PM
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
News Report, September 1991
U.S. BURIED IRAQI SOLDIERS ALIVE IN GULF WAR*
"What you saw was a
bunch of trenches with
arms sticking out."
"Plows mounted on
tanks. Combat
earthmovers."
"Defiant."
"Buried."
"Carefully planned and
rehearsed."
"When we
went through there wasn't
anybody left."
"Awarded
Silver Star."
"Reporters
banned."
"Not a single
American killed."
"Bodycount
impossible."
"For all I know,
thousands, said
Colonel Moreno."
"What you
saw was a bunch of
buried trenches
with people's
arms and things
sticking out."
"Secretary Cheney
made no mention."
"Every single American
was inside
the juggernaut
impervious
to small-arms
fire." "I know
burying people
liked that sounds
pretty nasty, said
Colonel Maggart,
But...
"His force buried
about six hundred
and fifty
in a thinner line of trenches."
"People's arms
sticking out."
"Every American
inside."
"The juggernaut."
"I'm not
going to sacrifice
the lives
of my soldiers,
Moreno said, it's not
cost-effective."
"The tactice was designed
to terrorize,
Lieutenant Colonel Hawkins
said, who helped
devise it."
"Schwartzkopf's staff
privately
estimated fifty to seventy
thousand killed
in the trenches."
"Private Joe Queen was
awarded
a Bronze Star for burying
trenches with his
earthmover."
"Inside
the juggernaut."
"Impervious."
"A lot of the guys
were scared, he said,
but I
enjoyed it."
"A bunch of
trenches. People's
arms and things
sticking out."
"Cost-effective."
--Denise Levertov
* 'News Report,' a found poem, is collaged from The Seattle Times of September 12, 1991.
7:01 PM
But truthfully, this tells me everything I need to know.
6:42 PM
I bet where is raed is getting a ton of traffice these days.
6:26 PM
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
My god.
I noticed that pothole the last time we went to the grocery store, but that was two weeks ago and I'd forgotten all about it. Right up to the point where I drove over/into it on the way home from the grocery store tonight.
I was going WAY under the speed limit, and it still gave me a flat tire *and* bent the rim. Our brand new tire!
So, we roll forward lopsidely and pull into the Rose and Walker parking lot, only to find NINE OTHER CARS w/flat tires already there. And apparently a couple other drivers had fixed their flat tires and departed.
No big deal, I've changed a flat tire, right? But since we just had the tire put on, the lug nuts were way too tight, not even my butch self could get them loose. Well, we could have called for a towing service, but those oh-so-handy emergency cell phones weren't in the car. Usually I carry mine in the glove box, but I took it out to take it on vacation with me and now its....somewhere. I don't know where.
Anyway, I had no idea what we were going to do. We're trying to work things through when someone gives us back our hub cab: The guy who pulled in after us ran back down to the pot hole and came back w/a whole bunch of them. Turns out he was with a guy who knew all about impacted lug nuts, so he changed our tire in about 3 minutes.
Somewhere in there, a cop showed up, noting that he had just driven over the pot hole and "it didn't seem that bad." How, exactly, is a pot hole that has flattened ten tires already (one car in the lot had two flats) not "that bad"? Anyway, he told us to call risk management at the City tomorrow and file a claim. And he was going to call a tow truck for us if we needed it, so I guess he was okay.
Altogether, it only took about 1/2 hour of our time (but I'm sure getting a new tire/rim is going to take up a lot of my time tomorrow morning), but if it hadn't been for that guy offering to help put on our donut, I'd still be out there.
Freaking potholes.
8:37 PM
Hm...suddenly the filters at work are refusing to let me see any of the pages on my domain, indicating that they belong to the forbidden web category "sex."
11:13 AM
Monday, March 24, 2003
The thing that angers me about the "support our troops" "counter-protests" is that they assume something about peace protestors for which there is no evidence. There is no direct link between "I don't want war" and "I don't support our troops," and to set the two groups against one another is an example of fallacious reasoning at best. Many peace demonstrators, in fact, view their cause as the ultimate in troop support: bring them home where they're safe.
This is not to say that I myself support our troops. I change my mind on the subject every two minutes, but mostly I can't really rally behind "the troops." I absolutely abhor the military and wouldn't support it if my life depended on it (and I suppose it may). I think one of the many "benefits" of capitalism is that it generates an entire class of individuals w/no future, so they're easy targets for the military recruiting system. Combine some social disadvantage--poverty or ethnicity--with our stubborn worship of that stupid nineteenth-century concept of nationalism & patriotism, and you create an ideal feeder pond for the military. Why would I support an institution that functions primarily on the unequal distribution of power, anyway?
This doesn't mean I particularly want to send my brother-in-law out to get killed on the battlefield, but on the other hand, he made his choice when he joined the military. No one forced him, he actually could have chosen a different line of work at any time in the last ten years, but didn't. Smart enough, wealthy enough, could have chosen to do something else w/his life. I'm guessing something about duty and love of nation keeps him where he's at, and that's fine, but I don't have too much respect for either of those notions.
(If I was on the street right now, someone would yell, "Our troops are dying to give you the right to spout off this crap!" to which I would answer, yeah, well, last time I checked, I could spout off crap in any number of nations, none of which are the United States. The U.S. doesn't have a monopoly on freedom and human rights.)
A couple of weeks ago we watched some show on the Discovery channel, the Making of a Marine or something like that. It was supposed to make me feel all good about the Marines: look how these youngs kids come in, how they find themselves, improve themselves, discover courage, conquer hardship, succeed. Aren't we proud of them? But in the end, all I could do is look at these recruits, and think, "My god, these poor babies." They were just children! Children dressed up and playing w/guns, and we're going to send them off to get killed.
So...feel bad for the recruits? Yes. Support the troops? I don't think so. However, I'm only speaking for myself, and I wish the "support our troops" people would stop and consider how diverse a group it is protesting the war and recognize that not every protestor has the same background, opinion or motivation.
2:52 PM
11:17 AM
Matt's editorial in the last Thursday's Register-Guard:
Teach Your Children Well
In the face of an impending war with Iraq--a crisis with dangerous and
unforeseeable national and global consequences--and as a parent of a
Roosevelt Middle School student, I am concerned about what we are teaching
our children.
On the afternoon of Thursday March 13, during their seventh period, some
students at Roosevelt Middle School walked out of class and staged a
demonstration opposing the impending U.S. war with Iraq. This bold act
showed the concern of young citizens, who called attention to the fact that
war disrupts normal life and who affirmed lessons we, parents and teachers,
have aspired to teach them--that words are better than violence, that peace
is preferable to war, that we should tell the truth, that we must be
responsible for our actions.
The students engaged in an act of civil disobedience, an honorable
tradition in American history, at least since the mid-19th century, when
Henry David Thoreau preferred a jail cell to paying a tax that would
support the Mexican War (1846-48) and slavery, through the heroic actions
of Martin Luther King, Jr. and others during the Civil Rights
Movement. Roosevelt students knew that leaving class without official
permission violated school rules, but they concluded that doing so served a
higher moral purpose. They knew that their disobedience would be punished,
yet they were willing to face the consequences.
Whatever our position on the coming Iraq war, we should be proud of these
students. They are strong, thoughtful, and caring, engaged in the world
and trying to find their place in it. They are passionate in their
commitment to peace and justice. They take the Constitution and its
guarantee of free speech seriously, and they are courageous, acting on
their beliefs even in the face of school sanctions. Their demonstration
was nothing less than a patriotic act.
But consider what else these and other students at Roosevelt learned. In
two broadcast announcements, the principal threatened participants with
"majors" and suspensions and told students that the rally had been
postponed. Do such actions--willful intimidation and deception--teach
students to respect and trust authority?
Roosevelt Middle School distributes planners, which spell out "Behavior
Guidelines," specifying "minor" and "major offenses." "Minors" are
violations such as running in the halls, horseplay, disruptive conduct, and
littering; "majors" are very serious, including fighting and assault,
theft, possession of alcohol, and gang activity. Where would we expect the
students' walk-out to stand on this scale? It may be "disruptive conduct,"
or a minor form of insubordination, but it's not a major; a single walk-out
hardly meets the published criterion of "frequent unexcused absences or
skipping."
Think about the old Sesame Street song:
Three of these things belong together.
Three of these things are kind of the same.
But one of these things just doesn't belong here.
Now it's time to play the game.
Let's play the game with this list: vandalism; use of tobacco; possession
and/or use of a dangerous weapon; a seventh-period walk-out for
peace. Which of the four seems not to belong here, which seems not to be a
major?
Nonetheless, Roosevelt's principal used the threat of a major to intimidate
students. Those so charged can be suspended and are banned from school
sports, concerts, trips, and activity night. Of course, the principal
needs to weigh potential disruptions and safety concerns against the civic
virtues of free speech, and her job is difficult, but she handled that job
poorly last week. In response to a moderate disruption--an orderly and
peaceful demonstration--she employed coercion by threatening excessive,
punitive action; she attempted to subvert the event with disinformation;
she discouraged free speech; she called the police to monitor the
situation. This week, the principal has back-pedalled, moderating her
stance on punishment and even commending students for their passion and
commitment. But that does not undo last week's bullying, designed to
frighten and deceive students and undermine their rally.
In this teaching moment, Roosevelt Middle School provided some valuable
lessons to our children--that authorities will seek to repress dissent,
even in the U.S., even in Eugene; that officials sometimes mechanically
favor institutional order and stability over the possibility of awakening
citizens to the real and potential disorder of the world, even when
threatened by war; that American civil liberties are endangered but worth
protecting; that schools which celebrate and quote Martin Luther King will
not necessarily condone application of his values and methods; that even
school administrators and teachers sometimes need education in the
essential principles of American democracy. Some middle schoolers should
be thanked for taking on the challenge.
9:45 AM
Other than the fact that I screwed my back up yesterday, it was an easy trip home. Thank god we are finally back in our own bed. I missed exactly two things from my house: our bed and and our cats. I never thought I'd consider a queen-sized bed spacious (I hated to get rid of our California king) but after sleeping in two very uncomfortable full-sized beds for nine nights, I do.
Our kitten is full-grown! As soon as I find the digital camera, I'll prove it. Our house was strewn w/abandoned cat toys, toys they never play with when we're home but somehow managed to liberate and drag into the open air.
Left over thoughts from the week:
- It sucks to be a widow. Shawn is doing really well, but loneliness fucks w/your mind and helps you make bad decisions. The baby was sooooooooo cute. Again, as soon as I find the digital camera, I'll prove it.
- We've definitely become midwesterners. There was a point where I felt completely oppressed by the landscape--too many mountains!--and breathed easier when we got back to the rolling hills part of the state. That's really frightening.
- I think the U.S. has a lot of audacity quoting international law to Iraq. Is that the same international law Bush ignored before invading a sovereign nation?
- It absolutely troubles me that when I go on trips I miss a friend I haven't even met yet. I'm trying not to worry about it.
- Men can be annoying w/out even trying. Put a group of young guys on vacation anywhere near me, and I'm liable to end up beating them to death.
9:44 AM
Just a note to the wife:
MSD & MMD is not equal to WMD.
9:29 AM
Saturday, March 22, 2003
Every time we're alone together, Catherine gives me this "You're doing great, you're doing great," chant. I think it's supposed to soothe me, and maybe it's working, because I haven't actually snapped yet. One more day, and I can go home. I've done my chores: got the TV fixed, sorted out the TV cabling issues, fixed my dad's computer, and I think I've earned enough points for now. I wish I could go sleep in my own bed and spend time w/my cats w/out having to actually return to my own life, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.
Despite the red alert, they're still taking tours at Grand Coulee Dam, so today we visited the world's largest concrete structure. Took a loooooooooong drive that kept me out of the house all afternoon, then went over to Aunt Rosie's to watch a couple of movies. Laundry, packing, breakfast at Whistler's w/Rosella, then we're on the road again.
12:22 AM
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Okay, now I'm taking scan requests from Catherine. A few of her selections:
Signs of a future academic: Susan tries to write down her first words.
No way I'm going to admit that I still sleep with that blue blanket.
For some reason, Catherine really likes this photo of me at the conservatory in Volunteer Park, 5th grade.
My cousin Sean and me, all dressed up for Uncle Ernie's wedding, 1972:
And I just think these photos are great, classic 1960s photos: my dad, cigarette dangling from his mouth, shows a (toy) gun to my brother, Tim; and my parents find my brother Carl a new baby sitter (the television set).
10:31 PM
Proof that my brother and I didn't always hate each other.
I'm the ghost, Tim is the skeleton, Carl is the cat, Laura is the baby. I liked the ghost costume well enough, but I was way excited to graduate to the cat costume. Check out the huge Baby Ruth box Tim is holding. And my mom's fashionable cateye glasses.
1:50 PM
More white trash photos. These just crack me up. Someone tore them up, wadded them into a ball, then thought twice and tried to rescue them. Smoothed them out, cello taped them together, and there I am, in all my poor farm girl glory. The cat's name is Samantha.
11:41 AM
I started out life looking like I would end up a sorority girl:
My parents are probably wondering how I ended up like this, instead:
11:32 AM
On the other hand...maybe it was a bad idea to get my parents' TV fixed yesterday.
I hope Bush is happy.
10:05 AM
Friday, March 14, 2003
Every time we go to a concert, we have to re-rank our "top tens," running through every concert we can remember attending and placing them in order. Nothing ever knocks Harry Belafonte out of the #1 spot, and I don't think anything ever will. The man had *me* crying in public, for godsakes. Number two is still always Chuck Mangione. Alfie got us front row seats my freshman year of college, it was my first concert (okay, not a rock concert, but still). For two kids from backwater, rural towns who played the horn w/passion, the concert was nothing short of the elixir of life. And, believe it or not, the second Reba McEntire concert I went to was absolutely phenomenal, for reasons neither Catherine nor I can ever fully explain to people (but it involved a broken leg).
Anyway, I've seen some really awesome things in my life: Marin Alsop directing Berstein's Mass, for instance, things that can't be topped because they are once in a lifetime.
The point being--we spent our evening in the presence of Greatness. To have the opportunity to see Evelyn Glennie perform and then to miss it (I also stayed home, I really did)...that is something that should never, ever happen. To miss her brilliance...you might as well shoot yourself now, because you would have ruined your life if you passed by her performance.
3:38 AM
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Absolutely un-fucking-believable. I mean, I really just don't believe it, and I'm angry and bitter, and what happens now? I just don't fucking believe it.
http://www.hoosiertimes.com/
3:48 PM
I'm not sure to whom I would compare Evelyn Glennie. Maybe people would call her the "Pavarotti of Percussion" or something like that. I never thought that I would actually get a chance to see her perform, but last night Catherine happened to see an advertisement for tonight's IU Philharmonic performance, and Evelyn Glennie will be on percussion. And it's free. I would have totally missed it, since I never look at ads.
I'm trying not to look forward to seeing her too much in case something happens between now and 8:00 that makes it so I can't go. It seems too good to be true that I can actually just go see her for free, so maybe it is too good to be true. And I should stay home this evening and pack, and then do the 101 tasks I need to do before tomorrow morning, but I guess life won't end if don't get the bathroom cleaned before going on vacation.
7:53 AM
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Sometimes I think the only thing standing between me and suicide is the barista at Starbucks.
9:57 AM
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
I can't even count the number of times in a week I find myself looking at one of my students and thinking, "No fucking way."
3:41 PM
Monday, March 10, 2003
You know, I can't decide if I should laugh at Linda or get mad at her. You'd think that if you were going to go through the effort to send someone an e-mail--after months of no communication--you'd manage to put more than one word in it, but nope, not Linda. Hell, if she'd signed the damn thing, that would have doubled its length, but I guess she's too busy.
I should send her back an e-mail with a single syllable in it. Or maybe just a single letter. A vowel. Or maybe a consonant would be more appropriate. Or maybe the letter Y, since it can do the duty of both.
8:54 PM
I'm kind of liking this band thing. It's nice to be doing something that I'm reasonably good at, instead of something I need to really work at to just make it to the "not totally lame" level. After three years of constantly beating my brains against the glass at the hockey rink, it's just good to spend a few hours a week doing something that doesn't take a lot of work. I mean, yeah, I could practice more and become the best percussionist ever, but I'm enjoying the fact that I don't really have to in order to be part of the band.
8:49 PM
Hm....I drove out over top of the "do not enter" caution tape this morning. When I got home, it was gone.
It wouldn't surprise me if someone committed a horrific crime in our backyard yesterday while we were out of town.
4:59 PM
Susana called last night to congratulate me. I must say...I really like that woman. It was a good way to end a kind of up and down weekend.
7:19 AM
Sunday, March 09, 2003
This evening, when we got home from Indy, our driveway had yellow caution tape stretched across it. The "do not enter" kind of caution tape. I have no idea what that's all about.
9:08 PM
Friday, March 07, 2003
I think it's probably true that I've been spending too much time by myself. Collegiality is not the order of the day at work, after all. I spend 8-5 keeping to myself, then go home and do it some more. By the time Catherine gets home at 9:00, I've already run through my emotions and closed myself off from world. I don't want anyone to talk to me, I don't want anyone to touch me, I just want to go to bed and be by myself. That's exactly the wrong thing to do, and it really isn't fair to Catherine, either. I know she would have liked to talk about Ariana Colinescu's son last night--among other things--but I just didn't have it in me.
I really want our life to get back to normal.
8:45 AM
Thursday, March 06, 2003
Yeah, well....there you go. You never learn from your mistakes.
8:36 PM
Catherine has been having nightmares about exploding airplanes; I've been having nightmares about getting trapped in a tornado. There can be only one explanation: we're going to visit our parents soon.
8:13 PM
quitsurfingthewebwhenyoushouldbeatyourinternship.
poetsforthewar.org vs. poetsagainstthewar.org
All your base are belong to us mixes it up with ready.gov in a new parody
trikone, because I've had a crush on Kalyani Pandya for...like...four years or something like that.
11:40 AM
I'm sorry, but "I'm sorry" doesn't cut it. McMahan claims "it was not [her] intent to slight or show ill will toward Imam Mohamad Joban or any other American member of the Islamic faith," by walking out while he was praying before the opening of the House session. Exactly what, then, was she trying to do? If she's not bright enough to see that she was being rude at best--and contributing to an atmosphere of hate and violence at worst--she shouldn't be part of the legislative process. She's supposedly "brave" because she's apologizing for remarks not "intended in malice." Screw malice, they were remarks made in cluelessness, and that's a whole heck of a lot worse, I think.
I caught about 15 seconds of the "Hardball College Tour" last night before it made me sick to my stomach and I was forced to change the channel. The 15 seconds I did watch were excellent, because they consisted of Dianne Feinstein drawing attention to how easy it is to suppress information while appearing to be presenting a well-balanced question. The crazy guy who "moderates"...what's his name? Chris Matthews...asked Feinstein what *sounded* like a very sensible question: in light of what has happened today (Colin Powell's speech, Russia/France threatening a veto), are we looking at going to war in the next few days? Isn't it inevitable with what has happened today? Feinstein's answer (paraphrased, I can't find a transcript): Well, Chris, those were two very important events, but you neglected to mention the third thing that happened today, Hans Blix's speech. Then she went on to talk about the ramifications of Blix's statement, the destruction of 29 Iraqi missiles, etc., and suggested that no, when everything is considered, we can still step back and consider what everyone is saying, war is not inevitable if you look at the big picture.
That's an important lesson. Even when someone sounds like they're presenting the whole argument, they may be leaving parts out. Not exactly *suppressing* information, just not drawing your attention to it. Let cable news run with the two points you want to make known, leave the third one to be covered by no one. That's the easiest way to get to war, it makes everything look black and white, instead of grey, like life really is.
8:51 AM
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Goddamit. My mitten fell in a mud puddle again. I'm starting to think that "functionally organic" really means "unusually prone to the effects of gravity."
1:30 PM
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
Decent op-ed piece on Toni Smith.
7:43 PM
DESIGN ASSISTANT University Architect's Office (PA12 )
Position#: 755
Assist the Architect staff, conceive designs, prepare drawings, establish specifications, prepare cost estimates, serve as contact person, and act to resolve architectural/engineering problems.
Qualifications: Knowledge of computer assisted drafting/design system to include architectural, structural, electrical, plubming, heating, air-conditioning, and other complete system features in compliance with professional standards. Five years experience with a major architecture firm doing CAD drafting and design of commercial and/or institutional projects, or Bachelor of Architecture, or equivalent degree. Proficient using computer assisted design (CAD). Good knowledge of all building codes and regulations, construction contract specifications, building materials and methods. If selected for an interview, please be prepared to provide letters of reference and/or work samples at that time.
2:42 PM
I'm not sure which is more appalling: that a House session is opened w/a prayer in the first place, or the fact that elected officials walked out so they wouldn't have to listen to Muslim cleric. And it would have been one thing if the Representatives had walked out simply on theological grounds, but no, they walked out on the grounds of stupidity. Lois McMahan (R) defended her action by saying that:
"The Islamic religion is so . . . part and parcel with the attack on America. I just didn't want to be there, be a part of that. Even though the mainstream Islamic religion doesn't profess to hate America, nonetheless it spawns the groups that hate America."
Well, let me tell you something, she's barking up the wrong tree. You don't have to be Muslim to hate America. Look at me, I'm an atheist, and I would *literally* give up my right arm to be Canadian, no problem. If I really thought it would help get me points in Canada's immigration list, I'd have it amputated tomorrow. I am as Un-American as they come, and I don't need any particular religion to make me that way.
1:31 PM
Okay, I earned about a thousand extra "good daughter" points last night. My dad was feeling pretty good--he walked 1/2 mile yesterday--and in recognition of his achievement, I totally bit my tongue throughout our 32 minute conversation, letting say whatever he wanted. I didn't even laugh sarcastically when he said he trusted President Bush.
I should so have been a diplomat. When I put my mind to it, I can straight-face my way through any situation.
8:43 AM
Monday, March 03, 2003
Now that we've caught the mastermind behind 9/11, does this mean we get to quit hunting for Osama bin Laden? I was apparently misinformed by my gov't--I was under the impression bin Laden was the mastermind behind 9/11, but I guess that was just a "misinterpretation of the facts."
Anyway, I thought Sadaam Hussein was behind all our problems, not this Khalid Shaikh Mohammed guy.
11:41 AM
Sunday, March 02, 2003
Tony Horwitz's Baghdad Without a Map has been on my reading list for a long time, and I finally got around to buying/reading it yesterday. It's a little out of date (published in 1991), but still, sort of a "must read" for Americans trying to figure out the Middle East. It doesn't really have too much of that "my, isn't this place exotic?" crap that always happens when white men head off into the desert in search of adventure, so it's pretty readable. It's a part of the world that we pretty much just ignore in our primary/secondary education curricula, and having Tony tell me exactly where Khartoum is turns out to be kind of helpful. Most of his adventures are actually rather banal, just moments out of his every day life (and I think the stories were so trivial no one in the U.S. would pay him for them, so he collected them in a book after he left Cairo).
I really enjoyed the chapter in which Tony goes to Libya as a journalist as part of Qaddafi's program to prove that his factories were not in fact manufacturing biological weapons but instead were making aspirin. Tony spends two days being driven around in a bus, seeing nothing, and then is expelled w/out ever finding out one way or another if Libya is producing mustard gas. The reason I really liked this chapter is that NO ONE EVER USED THE WORDS "WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION."
I think one of the things that really distresses me about waging war on Iraq is that I know less than nothing about the people we're about to kill. And the scary part is, I actually know more than the average American, and I know zip. Zero. I was sitting in the coffee shop reading this book this morning, and finally said to Catherine, "You know, what I really need is a wall-sized poster outlining the political relationships of all these countries to each other--who's in charge, who's in danger, who likes whom, who doesn't." That grew into a fantasy of having a mansion, one room of which would be dedicated to outlining the Middle East situation: one wall would be a diagram of all the various nations' relationships with each other. The second would chart out all the ways European/North American countries had interacted w/each Middle Eastern region. A third wall would be dedicated just to mapping out the oil production in the region, and the fourth would be....hm....religions and languages?
Because, quite frankly, who the hell knows what has been going on in Iraq or anywhere around the Persian Gulf? None of us has ever even been there. I actually kind of envy the Human Shield people. Well, they're going to get blown to bits any minute now, but in the meantime, they get to actually see what Iraq looks like, hear what it sounds like, taste it, breathe it, be in it. If they get out in one piece, that's a priceless experience. There are so many places around the Persian Gulf I'd like to see, and so many thousand more I've never even heard of, can't pronounce, can't imagine...and yet, I belong to a nation that would just as easily destroy them if it was politically expedient.
Anyway, Baghdad without a Map provides a pretty good historical context for some of today's problems, in nice, little bite-sized anecdotes, good for those of us w/short attention spans. Two thumbs up from me.
8:10 PM
An excellent win for the IU Women's Basketball team this afternoon.
5:07 PM
Saturday, March 01, 2003
Naked baby.
8:08 PM
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