tryingtogrok.new.mu.nu

March 05, 2006

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

The problem here, Mr Silly, is that you put yourself on a pedestal that I simply don't put myself on. I have never claimed to be intelligent or all-knowing. I don't think I'm very smart at all, which is the whole reason I named my blog what I did. If I already had all the answers, I wouldn't be trying to grok. I really meant my post to be a question: why aren't these Saddam tapes important? If someone has a real answer to that question, I'm willing to listen to it and learn from it. But your condescension is completely unwarranted. All is does is turn me off and make me skip over your comments. If you really have something to add to the conversation, or something you think I can learn from Your Almighty And Infinite Wisdom, then stop writing like a complete douche. I don't care about your List Of People Who Are Smarter Than Sarah. What does memorizing Homer have to do with understanding foreign relations and WMDs? I can play that game too: I can speak Swedish, which obviously makes me much more intelligent in all realms than Mr Silly, who can't speak Swedish. And you say I have faulty reasoning? I'm sorry, but all the degrees in classics in the world don't make you an expert on Iraq, any more than I am an expert! So if you have an argument to lay out *pertaining to the blog post at hand* please present it in a respectful way. Otherwise, you've done nothing to build up my intelligence or illuminate other points of view. All your present attitude does is make me roll my eyes and ignore your comments.

Jesus Tapdancing Christ, I still can't believe you gave me a lecture on how "we educated people" use something called the scientific method blah blah blah. Get over yourself.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:34 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 Jesus Tapdancing Christ...I'm SO using that! And Mr. Silly, I'd like to add something... Please excuse me, because I'm not all that educated...but just because you know one person that went to Iraq and said the country is no better off than before the war started doesn't mean you have the inside scoop on what all soldiers believe to be true (whew, that was a big sentence...I'm glad I got through it). I know many, many, many people that have been to Iraq (including my uneducated husband). Most of the soldiers I've talked to, not all, believe in the war we are fighting. And the cause they are fighting for is much more important (and sexier, might I add) than your hoity-toity, know-it-all education (and trust me, I think education is extremely important). And EVERYONE knows someone with a step-brother or half-cousin that is pen pals with someone in Iraq. But dude, you can't go using that as an argument against the war. Educated people like you should already know that.

Posted by: Erin at March 05, 2006 07:02 AM (0rFqT)

2 Hey, I was playing the gadfly here long before Mr. Silly showed up---how come *I* never a post like this? My degree is in philosophy, not classics, but I can be JUST as big of a douche bag. LOL

Posted by: Pericles at March 05, 2006 09:11 AM (eKf5G)

3 Thank you as usual for humorously representing the nutbrain prowar crowd. Someone posts a relatively nice message full of lists of points that pretty much shows you to be silly (maybe the secret reason for his moniker) and you say you want to kick him in the balls. Then you go on about his attitude -- never address a single point. It's great! I can't wait til you get back to posting about your doggie though. The ways the prowar wingnuts are crumbling is pure entertainment.

Posted by: question at March 05, 2006 11:31 AM (n17hK)

4 Odd, the gist I get from Sarah's irritation at Mr. Silly is that he's an arrogant blowhard smugly certain he's so much smarter than the mere peons he addresses here.

Posted by: Patrick Chester at March 05, 2006 09:16 PM (MKaa5)

5 Mr. Silly, Your lame commentary has been weighing on my mind all day. Have you ever hear of "United We Stand?" Our president, who, by the way, was elected through a democratic vote, made a decision. If you don't like it -- either do something positive about it or quit complaining. You obviously don't know how to channel your energy in positive ways. Instead, you insist on looking back to decisions made over 3 years ago and dwelling on every negative aspect of this war. I am quite enraged about how you've talked to this military wife. Until you've spent a month in the shoes of her husband or herself, how dare you tell a woman whose husband serves in our military that our soldiers are not making a difference. I don't know who your "sources" are, but I can tell you that my husband is on his second tour to Iraq and the majority of Iraqis he comes into contact with are happy we're there. Have a little respect next time -- for our president, our country, and the families that serve it.

Posted by: Rachel at March 05, 2006 10:21 PM (O20Gr)

6 Yes, Mr. Silly, be like the Republicans, who never complain about what Democratic presidents do .

Posted by: Pericles at March 05, 2006 10:40 PM (eKf5G)

7 Oh my...each time I've read the comments on this post, I've wanted to react but couldn't quite find the words...all I can say is that 1) kudos to Sarah for saying enough is enough and 2) I'm sorry that I didn't know any sooner than this in my 26 years that being able to recite Homer from memory is enough to call oneself "smart." And here I thought you had to have a useful skill.

Posted by: Nicole at March 06, 2006 12:03 AM (1ECnr)

8 I have to assume that you have some personal background with the whole question of being educated, sorry if I hit a nerve. FWIW, I have met enough PhDs who are idiots that I don't take degrees too seriously, and consider education something that must be taken quite separately from one's formal schooling. FWIW, I left my job as a teacher at a university in part because I was so tired of the blowhards (though the politics, endless battles with relativism, and crap pay were also significant contributors). My comments that set things off were in response to Sarah saying that she could not acknowledge that there could be an argument for the invasion of Iraq being unjustified. Whether one agreed with an argument, certainly one could be made, so I took it as a position that is anti-learning. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding or terms, or her statemnt was just rhetorical. As an aside, looking at the the view that there are reasons for not invading besides the WMD question is not attacking our troops or my country, nor is it saying the troops do not make a difference, it is just part of what you should do if you are trying to grok. I did not bring up my education until it was essentially called into question. I certainly do not wear my learning on my sleeve. If I wanted to brag, I would have done so long ago, and I have a lot of accomplishments I could have thrown out (I can play almost a good quarter of Django Reinhardt's guitar solos, I have translated many of the Upanishads for Sanskrit, as well as reading most of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Homer in the original Greek, I have played through Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier on my piano - some of those Fugues are really tough, I have raised three really good kids - and more). Up to now I have refrained, since I don't think those accomplishments have much bearing on discussions about politics, and I haven't claimed that I am a better person for any of it. It looks like some people take things that way, which say more about their insecurities than anything else. For those who think I am trying to be an arrogant meanie, you should realize that if I simply wanted to attack someone I could go savaging with a full scorched earth attack full of vicious rhetoric and some seriously harsh personal attacks. I haven't, since I am a compassionate person, so that's not what I do. (While I am not arrogant, I am always happy to mention that I am kind and compassionate, since there is never any shame in promoting those values, and the world needs more of both.) Since I do have an academic background, some people think I am an evil bastard just by virtue of my choice of language and argumentation style, there is nothing I can or will do about that. I recall one of your posters criticized me for using the term 'non sequitur,' there is really nothing I can say to that. For those who have were wondering, I chose the name Mr. Silly for four reasons: 1) so that others do not take me too seriously including myself. 2) so that I can quickly draw out those who are inclined to ad hominems and ignore them. 3) my daughter calls me Mr. Silly. 4) I use a different nickname on most sites, so I was scraping the bottom of the barrel. Finally being able to recite the whole of Homer or Plato's Republic in the original Greek does make one really smart. If you don't believe me try it. I got through book one of the Oddysey after a few months, and never got past it. Lots of really smart people have abilities that are not useful in the mundane practical sense, and the world is a better place because of it. Again, sorry that I got you so upset.

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 07, 2006 12:31 AM (BC1Sw)

9 Mr Silly -- What you said was I think that you might want to face the fact that even if we had found WMD in Iraq, with the debacle that it has turned into now, one could justifiably say that it still was neither justified nor worth it for the Americans or the Iraqis. I focused on the "face the fact" part of the sentence and had an immediate and emotional reaction to the condescention I heard. That's why I said I will "face no such fact": that was my response, and my argument was whether it's a FACT that the war was not worth it. You clearly focused on the "one could justifiably say" aspect of the sentence, and once you explained yourself further, your sentence made more sense. I still don't agree with the idea behind the sentence, but yes, with the more wishy-washy "one could justifiably say" in there, you do have a point. But one can "say" anything...I think only time will tell in this situation. Anyway, the only education I admire is hard sciences and math. I don't even admire my own degrees, so I'm sorry if I'm not impressed with your list of geniuses. I guess because I don't comment on other websites, I'm not used to having to make my comments come out the way I mean them to. I must say that your tone is very harsh, whether you mean it to be or not. You sound like you think you're better than everyone else commenting here. If that's not the case, you might want to rethink your commenting style.

Posted by: Sarah at March 07, 2006 02:39 AM (5RoYO)

10 Sarah, I used to be much more impressed with hard sciences, but now that I work in industry, I think that the humanities are more impressive. It's nbbeen my experisnce that a well rounded education in the humanities makesa person more fully human (though I admit there are a lot of not-well-rounded folks out there). A solid education in the hard sciencss is impressive, but often those sorts still haven't thought a lot about the more important questions in life. I expect it has a lot to do with one's exposure and one's ideals. Certainly neither is easy. As for my tone, I don't know what to say, other than that I don't think I sound harsh, so there's not much I can do about it. Maybe I am too used to arguing with people who go for the jugular. Pericles, I did Philosophy for my undergrad, and focused on Plato/Aristotle/Plotinus later in Grad. School. I was really torn between doing Phil, and doing Classics. I went with Classics, since I was more interested in the Ancients than the Moderns.

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 07, 2006 09:24 AM (BC1Sw)

11 Ack, I kant type.

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 07, 2006 09:25 AM (BC1Sw)

12 Drop me an e-mail, Silly. I had a friend do a Ph.D. in your program; I curious if you would have been there at the same time.

Posted by: Pericles at March 07, 2006 11:32 AM (eKf5G)

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March 03, 2006

Mark Steyn is preaching to the choir for me; his assessment of the UN's ineptitude is spot on:

Transnational institutions should reflect points of agreement: Americans donÂ’t mind the Toronto Blue Jays playing in the same baseball leagueÂ—and even winning it occasionallyÂ—because theyÂ’re all agreed on the rules of baseball. A joint North American Public Health Commission, on the other hand, would be a bureaucratic boondoggle seeking to reconcile two incompatible health systems. Imagine then what happens when you put America, Denmark, Libya and Syria on a human rights committee, and then try and explain why the verdict of such a committee should be given any weight when the U.S. is weighing its vital national interest.

It's long but it's worth it.

Posted by: Sarah at 11:01 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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MOVING

My husband's report date for the next big adventure is in exactly three months. That means that our aval date should be in two months. We're leaving Germany in two months. We don't have orders yet, so the only thing I'm working on regarding the move is panic. If I sit and think about it for too long, I start to feel like I'm going to throw up.

But I could never have written a better blog post about moving than Erin did.

(And I don't know how she and Kelly get away with making fun of me all the time: they're both just as neurotic as I am!)

Posted by: Sarah at 02:25 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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March 02, 2006

TAPES

Why isn't this as big of news as Cheney's hunting accident?

Inconveniently for critics of the war, Saddam made tapes in his version of the Oval Office. These tapes landed in the hands of American intelligence and were recently aired publicly.
The first 12 hours of the tapes Â— there are hundreds more waiting to be translated Â— are damning, to say the least. They show conclusively that Bush didn't lie when he cited Saddam's WMD plans as one of the big reasons for taking the dictator out.
...
War foes have long asserted that Saddam halted his WMD programs in the wake of his defeat in the first Gulf War in 1991. Saddam's abandonment of WMD programs was confirmed by subsequent U.N. inspections.
Again, not true. In a tape dating to April 1995, Saddam and several aides discuss the fact that U.N. inspectors had found traces of Iraq's biological weapons program. On the tape, Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law, is heard gloating about fooling the inspectors.
"We did not reveal all that we have," he says. "Not the type of weapons, not the volume of the materials we imported, not the volume of the production we told them about, not the volume of use. None of this was correct."
There's more. Indeed, as late as 2000, Saddam can be heard in his office talking with Iraqi scientists about his ongoing plans to build a nuclear device. At one point, he discusses Iraq's plasma uranium program Â— something that was missed entirely by U.N. weapons inspectors combing Iraq for WMD.

Why in the heck is it reported like this on Investor's Business Daily but reported completely differently on CNN? On CNN, the lead paragraph in bold is all about how "Hussein told his Cabinet in the mid-1990s that the U.S. would fall victim to terrorists possessing weapons of mass destruction but that Iraq would not be involved." And then in smaller font in paragraph two, it reads "Hussein also can be heard speaking with high-ranking Iraqi officials about deceiving United Nations inspectors looking into Iraq's weapons program." Why is CNN focusing on nothing and ignoring that Saddam tricked the UN, as the US suspected when we went to war? Everyone knew that Hans Blix was a impotent doofus, and this proves it. So why isn't it bigger news?

Apparently it's much bigger news that there's some tape of what Bush knew about Katrina, because that's what's on all the headlines right now.

I know these tapes came out two weeks ago, but why isn't anyone talking about them?

Posted by: Sarah at 05:08 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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1 First, let me say that I've never accused of lying about the WMDs. I'm willing to accept that he believed that they were there, and that this was one of his reasons for the war. I fault him for not making more of an effort to check his assumption, especially since the intel. community was trying to signal its doubts about whether the WMDs were still around. But he would only have been lying if he did not himself believe that the WMDs were there, and he probably did believe it. With that said, though, how significant are tapes from 1995?!? No one is surprised to hear that Saddam would try to fool the inspectors if we could. It looks like some combination of factors forced Saddam to get rid of the remaining WMDs before 2002, though: inspectors, sanctions, whatever. And as long as that happened, how do these tapes make Bush look better? The whole question is whether he did enough to verify that the weapons were still around before he invaded, not whether the weapons were around seven years before that. Of course, some say that the weapons were there right before the war, but that he gave them to Syria. Which would mean that a Baathist state with closer ties to terrorist than Saddam ever had possesses them. So wouldn't this mean that the war was a complete bust as far as the WMDs are concerned?

Posted by: Pericles at March 02, 2006 07:59 AM (eKf5G)

2 Pericles... Here we go again. When it comes to intelligence collection, signals intelligence (listening to what our enemies and friends are saying) or imagery intelligence (looking at what they're doing) leaves a lot to be desired. For some reason, I seem to recall that in the previous administration there was a huge move to gut the HUMAN intelligence part of the intel triumverate. The reason? Because agents we'd recruit in far off lands didn't have "clean" human rights records. In an effort to have a "kinder, gentler" set of spies, we turned our backs on those that would have been able to delivered good intelligence rather than "squeaky clean" intelligence. Sorry, sometimes you just have to lay down with dogs...this is especially true when you're trying to infiltrate a regime like Saddam's. Having said that, unless you had PEOPLE and not high tech systems on the ground...finding out anything about the Iraqi WMD programs was a crap shoot at best! Based on recent stories about the transfer of WMDs and equipment to Syria in the months prior to the invasion, coupled with the leak of these tapes, if I were Bashar Al-Asad, I'd be looking under my bed for the coalition boogey men. See you on the high ground! MajorDad1984

Posted by: MajorDad1984 at March 02, 2006 08:45 AM (j7S/Q)

3 Sarah, Sorry this isn't about your post...I wanted to say thanks for the treats...Winston loves them! See you Saturday.

Posted by: Stephanie at March 02, 2006 08:46 AM (Y1m/K)

4 >Apparently it's much bigger news that there's some tape of what Bush knew about Katrina Yeah, a tape of the sitting president caught in a clear lie is bigger news than ten year old tapes of a deposed foreign dictator. I think that you might want to face the fact that even if we had found WMD in Iraq, with the debacle that it has turned into now, one could justifiably say that it still was neither justified nor worth it for the Americans or the Iraqis.

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 02, 2006 12:00 PM (wNAZk)

5 Major Dad- That would be a poweful response, if we didn't know for a fact now that the intelligence community HAD lots of information that called the WMD concerns into question, but that this information was downplayed. An error for which the Vice President's office, which has absolutely no constitutional role in the intelligence area, is in no small part responsible.

Posted by: Pericles at March 02, 2006 03:07 PM (eKf5G)

6 Mr. Silly -- I will absolutely face no such "fact". That's probably the silliest thing I've ever heard you say.

Posted by: Sarah at March 03, 2006 02:28 AM (pNtkl)

7 Mr. Silly is right. The original theory for the war was that Iraq had WMDs and that they were likely to give them to terrorists. We were never given good reason to believe the second half of this. The danger of terrorists with WMDs is real, but the theory that Iraq was the most likely place for them to get these weapons never held up. The connection between Iraq and terrorists was never as close as that between Syria and terrorists, and Syria has WMDs. Nor as close as that between Iran and terrorists, and we know now that Iran is getting close to nukes. Nor, perhaps, as close as that between Pakistan and terrorists, and they have nukes already. Then there is cash-strapped North Korea and the thoroughly-corrupt fUSSR, both places where terrorists with some cash could pick up WMDs. Even if Iraq had some WMDs left, we would be safer today if we had never invaded than we are now. *Maybe* a better planned war would have made us safer, but not this one.

Posted by: Pericles at March 03, 2006 08:34 AM (eKf5G)

8 Sarah, I get the sense that this would be akin to your previous assertion that G. W. Bush is a wonderful moral man who has never lied. To hold such a position take a very careful and difficult approach of selectively ignoring many facts, only letting trickle in those few facts that substantiate one's extreme position. Note that what I said above was that it was a fact that someone could justifiably say something, i.e. make an argument, not that it was necessarily true. I'm going to ramble for a minute. For educated people, what we do is we take facts and analysis, and make arguments for positions and then test them, by seeing how consistent the views are. If they pass the testing, then we hold them as likely truths, and keep testing with more arguments. We keep doing this with everything to try to make sense of the world. I realize that this is not the typical Conservative blogger approach, so it is might be foreign to you, so I wanted to try to help you understand. The uneducated path of make sense of the world is to figure out what you want to believe and assert it repeatedly, ignoring any inconvenient facts or arguments, and personally attacking those who point out flaws with the cherished Conservatively-correct view. The uneducated approach might feel better, since it is a lot easier, but it will not lead to anything approaching truth or understanding. So here is an argument (which you claimed could not exist). In the case of the war, for the Iraqis, due to the invasion they have: * A broken education system. This is more serious than it sounds, since Iraq used to have the largest middle class and highest education level of any middle eastern country. * Lower levels of electrical power than before the war. * A death rate far higher than before the war. * Military occupation by a foreign power, * No independent government, since the foreign occupiers still dictated the terms of how the government was to be formed, and even who could participate * A majority in the polls who believe that they are worse off for being invaded. * Destruction and loss of many significant historical and cultural artifacts and documents. * A society that is divided between sparring factions that can get away with murdering one another. Needless to say some members of Iraq are much better off - the Marsh Arabs, the Kurds, etc. But that is counterbalanced by the fact that many members of Iraqi society who were once protected - there is no religious tolerance in Iraq any longer, the Christians are being attacked and forced to convert, the Nasoreans are almost gone now. Even among the Muslims there is widespread conflict between sects. For the US we have been screwed by the needless war in these ways: *Even if there were WMDs intelligence analysts concluded that they would not be used against the US except in self defense. *The US has now shown that its military is a hell of a lot weaker than it seemed. We invaded a country that had the weakest military in the region, and had arms sanctions imposed for ten years, and still we were not able to go in and keep order. *We have created a terrorist training ground. The tactics that the insurgents have learned in Iraq are percolating to Iraq and elsewhere. By exposing ourselves unnecessarily, we have made our enemy stronger. *An Iraqi leaked to Iran that we have their encryption codes that we used for gathering intelligence on Iran. So we now have less intelligence on one of the members of the Axis of Evil at the same time that they appear to be ramping up a nuclear program. *Economically war has cost billions but not helped to improve our economy which hasn't grown significantly in the last six years. As a holder of index funds, I am especially pissed about this one. *The war was unrelated to terrorism, and has distracted us from the global war on terror. *At a time when we most need global solidarity to deal with Muslim extremist terrorism, the war has even alienated our close allies, while in the Middle East where we have the most need of diplomacy, we are largely hated. *The war has been a top recruiting tool for Al Qaida, whose numbers have grown significantly since the invasion. *As Pericles mentioned, the war has strengthened our other enemies. *The war has been a wedge dividing our country *The war has been a source of disillusionment among the young, who will be less patriotic after seeing the dishonesty, the ignorance, and the arrogance of our leadership. Now, granted, each of those points ideally should be taken and filled out. Each has to be argued for and those points analyzed, the facts cited, etc. But we still have a statement and a justification - an argument, and that's a fact As a side note, a friend of mine in the TANG recently got back from Iraq. I sent him an AIM just now asking him if Iraq was better off now than before the war. His immortal words were, "No... F**k No! Are you an idiot???"

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 03, 2006 11:56 AM (n2eIO)

9 Mote that my lists were really just extemporized, and I am sure that if there were a good reason I could offer a much more complete list. There are certanly many more reasons to offer for why the Iraqis have been hosed by our invasion, just as there are many more ways that the American people are worse off for it.

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 03, 2006 12:00 PM (n2eIO)

10 Anyone who starts off a comment with "For educated people, what we do..." deserves a kick in the nuts.

Posted by: Sarah at March 04, 2006 06:00 AM (ChWU3)

11 Sarah, you couldn't have said it better! Mr. Silly, what you don't know is that you're probably writing to one of the most intelligent people you'll ever meet. You seem to think Sarah is some moron who just spouts off at the mouth without thinking or researching. FYI, she was valedictorian of her class (4.0 in honors), graduated suma cum laude and has a master's degree, had a full academic ride to college along with a year-long study abroad and has an IQ off the chart. I'm sure she will be embarrassed that I'm writing this, but I'm sick of some of you people writing such malicious comments and personal insults against her. Didn't your mother ever teach you to be diplomatic or know how to disagree intellectually without getting out your hatchet and using it. I'd like to be as bold as Sarah and tell you what she did, but it's not in my nature to do so--even though her comments to you are well-deserved. You pick her blogs to death and totally misinterpret what she writes. I wish you'd move on to some other website. Nancy

Posted by: Nancy at March 04, 2006 03:59 PM (6s7Zq)

12 Magna cum laude undergrad (Sarah topped me there), representative of my dept., Phi Beta Kappa, PhD in Classics from U. Texas. I wil admit I was being condescending, but Sarah's comment showed a serious lack of reading comprehension, and that merits a smack. While she is often bright, and generaly intellectually honest, at times, Sarah has shown a serious lack of critical reasoning skills, and at times uses fallacies that a properly educated person should not use. When she does, I call her out. Sorry if that bothers you Nancy, but it must be done. Needless to say if you think I am wrong I would be pleased to see you correct me. I care about the truth more than anything else, so if I am in error, I appreciate corrections. Yours Kindly, Mr. Silly

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 04, 2006 10:18 PM (BC1Sw)

13 "Mr. Silly, what you don't know is that you're probably writing to one of the most intelligent people you'll ever meet." An incomplete list of very brilliant people I have met/worked with who I believe are more intelligent than Sarah: * Huston Smith - professor of religious studies at MIT, author of the most widely read textbook on comparative religion. * Alex Mourelatos - prominent professor of classical philosophy * A. H. Armstrong - Prominent professor of classics at Dalhousie. Prominent scholar of early neoplatonism. Translator of Loeb edition of Plotinus. * John Dillon - very prominent scholar of ancient philosophy. Translator of many texts of Proclus. * Hugh Lloyd-Jones - very prominent professor of of Classics, esp. Attic Tragedians. * Martha Nussbaum - Professor of Classics at Harvard later Brown. * Jacques Derrida - I'm no fan of his work, but the man is still quite brilliant. I have a good friend who can recite the whole of Homer's Odyssey in Greek from memory (and much of the Iliad), and another colleague who can recite Plato's Republic from memory, in the original.

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 05, 2006 12:06 AM (BC1Sw)

14 Hmm, don't see your name on the list. It's too bad you even come to Sarah's website. I'm curious why you don't hang around blogs that think like you do. You must just have a need to be demeaning, argumentative, and condescending, and your using this blog as a means to do it is too bad. I love to discuss, but I don't like the level to which you take things. Most readers wish you'd go somewhere else, but then I'm sure your personality is such that you will stay out of meanness and spite. I'm through reading any of your comments and don't plan to respond to you again.

Posted by: Nancy at March 05, 2006 05:47 PM (6s7Zq)

15 Nancy, I am a humble person, and would not presume so much as to include myself in such a list as I offered. The people I listed are a frighteningly brilliant, incredibly rare sort, and I have no illusions of being one of them. I am very fortunate to have had the chance to meet some of them, and to have worked with others. You misconstrue my motives. I am a kind person, my motives are inherently compassionate. The highest human good we can reach to is a thorough understanding of the many parts of out lives. I do what I can to help others understand many and various things, as all are better off with understanding. If someone shows that they do not understand, I help them along. If this bothers you it really says more about you than me. Also I post elsewhere far more than here, and I post here rather infrequently, so you really shouldn't get so worked up.

Posted by: Mr. Silly at March 05, 2006 06:21 PM (BC1Sw)

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March 01, 2006

JUST WOW

Back when I was in college, I was naive. I thought that people in the US liked the US. I learned the error of my thinking after 9/11, when I forwarded Gordon Sinclair's 1973 broadcast to my fellow students and professors. The email backlash shocked my naive self, as students rushed to label me jingoistic and insensitive. One professor pulled me into his office the next day and offered me some wisdom I've never forgotten: "The last place it's OK to be American is in an American university."

I was reminded of that today when I read that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, is currently a student at Yale. I have many of the same questions as Varifrank, such as "Are there any students at Yale whose mother or father died on 9/11? Any children of NYC fireman at Yale? Any non-Taliban Afghani refugees in Yale? Any of them women?" Mostly I just want to know who had the brilliant idea to invite this jackass to the United States and let "an ex-Taliban envoy with a fourth-grade education and a high-school equivalency" into one of our most lauded universities for the sake of diversity and oneupsmanship.

Why are our universities so durned un-American?

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February 28, 2006

HOORAY

CaliValleyGirl's boyfriend is back from Afghanistan. Go over there and give them your congrats!

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February 27, 2006

SO DANG WITTY

Lileks watched Air Force One over the weekend:

It was shot in 1997. It opens with a joint American / Russian spec-ops kidnapping of a head of state, who is one of those super-nationalist Russians we were all twitchy about in the late 90s; he is sent to a very bad and smelly prison. Cut to President Solo, giving a speech that puts forth a new American policy towards terrorists and terror-enabling states:

Peace isn't merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice. Never again will I allow our political self-interest to deter us from doing what we know to be morally right. Atrocity and terror are not political weapons. And to those who would use them, your day is over. We will never negotiate. We will no longer tolerate and we will no longer be afraid. It's your turn to be afraid.

He is also quite physically fit AND he can fly a plane. This was the sort of person Hollywood wanted for President in 1997. Then they get one, and they completely wigged out. Ah well.

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February 26, 2006

I LOVE MADE-UP WORDS

This magnet is just a gem. I can't wait to put it on my fridge...

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GEEZ

Charlie still has to take antibiotics for his stitches, and we've been dipping the pills in peanut butter for him. Today he licked all the peanut butter off and walked away from the pill. So I wrapped it in some cheese, and I'll be darned if he didn't suck on it until the cheese came off and then spit the pill on the kitchen rug. That dog is too smart for his own good!

Posted by: Sarah at 04:17 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 What a smart dog! The way my mother does it looks violent, but it gets the job done. She will literally take the pill and stick it down the dog's (Maggie) throat. To make herself feel better after(and whoever else is watching) she will rub Maggie's throat and give her a treat. Maggie seems to forget shortly after. Perhaps wrapping the pill in one of his favorite dog treats will work?

Posted by: Lizzie at February 26, 2006 10:27 AM (wxF45)

2 I don't think you're the type who will be able to shove a pill down his throat as advised. My trick is to stuff the pill into a hunk of sausage. Give a tiny bit without the pill, then the one with the pill. Works like a charm and they love you for it

Posted by: Patti at February 26, 2006 03:29 PM (zm7ru)

3 We do what Patti said. We use hotdogs, make a little cut in the middle to hide the pill. Winston hasn't figured it out yet!

Posted by: Stephanie at February 27, 2006 03:07 AM (Y1m/K)

4 I wouldn't advise what my Mom does; she only had to do that when Maggie was really sick and wouldn't eat a thing. The sausage wrap sounds like a good idea

Posted by: Lizzie at February 27, 2006 09:03 AM (wxF45)

5 This must be your first dog. I've owned a number over the years...and I think that the first man must have tried wrapping "medicinal roots" inside wooly mammoth fat in hopes of getting the good stuff into his faithful companion. And for years, cavewomen had to clean up messy, slippery messes of roots from the cave floor. It's "historical memory" you're dealing with. Once Og decided he was going to get the roots down that "damned dog's throat" the practice of jamming things into dogs began...and works to this very day. I'm not sure how to get medicine into a cat, but I would imagine that the process is similar...if you're so inclined to medicate cats that is. See you on the high ground. Hope you're shoving things down Charlie's throat...and hope he's doing better. MajorDad1984

Posted by: MajorDad1984 at February 27, 2006 02:31 PM (j7S/Q)

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ROLE MODEL

My friend Angie is a little bummed that maybe her life hasn't turned out exactly as she wanted, and she thinks maybe she's past the point where she can fix it. I've actually had a blog post rolling around in my head for a while, and now seems like a good time to let it out.

When I was in middle school, every kid used to say that Michael Jordan was his role model. It was always Michael Jordan. For some reason I was thinking about that a few weeks back and how silly it seems now to me to have a celebrity as a role model when we've got plenty of real people in our life to emulate. One of our biggest role models as a couple was the Major at my husband's ROTC. He was extremely hooah and completely unassuming. He and his wife had been married for nearly ten years; they had just built their own house (literally, the Major built it with some Amish help) and were all set to welcome their first baby into the home. My husband and I thought that was a great way to be ready for a child, and we want to be as emotionally and financially ready as they were. We still talk about what a good influence they were on our life.

We moved here, and as I slowly got to know Angie, she became a new role model for me. (And my mom will vouch that this is true, because I rave about Angie all the time!) Angie has always felt somewhat inadequate that she didn't finish college, but the reason she didn't finish is because she and her husband decided when they got married that Angie's job was to raise their children. My parents made the same decision when they got married, but it's a decision that doesn't happen much in 2006. Angie and her husband knew that the most important thing Angie could do with her life is to raise these three little boys to be gentlemen, and she's doing a wonderful job.

I know during the deployment that Angie sometimes wanted to tear her hair out. I witnessed firsthand some of the trials of being with her boys, like when a temper tantrum broke out because the older brother ate the little one's imaginary strawberries! It's not easy to be a stay-at-home mom; how much quieter and nicer it would've been for Angie to drop the boys off at daycare and go to a job. But she stays home with them because it's her job to mold their character, teach them manners, and be their mommy. Angie deserves all the praise in the world for the no-so-obvious task of bringing up her own children.

I'm glad that I had a role model like Angie. If/when my husband and I have children, we too will make the same decision Angie and her husband did. And I will be the one to stay at home and break up fights over imaginary fruit. I'm happy that I met someone like Angie who also believes that raising a child is the most important job a woman has.

Angie, you may sometimes feel sheepish that you never finished that degree, but you display qualities far more important than a diploma, and people notice. I noticed, and I hope someday to be half as talented at motherhood as you are.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:13 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 I believe you have hit the nail on the head (so to speak). All of the women, children or no, who have endored time away from there loved ones due to the war, should be role models for all. The sacrifices our families have made and then also having the courage to maintain some sort of sanity, is worth commending.

Posted by: Jennifer at February 26, 2006 09:27 AM (GSSS6)

2 I must comment again! What a NICE post and tribute! I completely agree...I wrote not long ago about the women I saw raising their children during the deployment (including a great college friend of mine) and I was constantly in awe of them. The only person I had to be worried about was ME...I could focus 100% of my attention on worrying about my spouse but when you have kids, it must be so much different and so much more difficult. It's always HATS OFF to the women who do so much everyday! I admire all of them!

Posted by: Nicole at February 26, 2006 09:40 AM (1ECnr)

3 You're right again Sarah. The most important job a Mom has is to raise her children. As a divorced Mom, I have to work everyday outside the home, but my best friend has three children and has only now begun to start working. I understand Angie's frustration for some "ME" time and feeling like she hasn't used her potential. But she has. Rather than punching a clock like the rest of us - she is molding three boys into three beautiful men. How wonderful the world will be once she releases them into the rest of their lives. My friend learned in the past year that she doesn't have to BE everything ALL the time to her family. SHE CAN have "ME" time. And have a life too (outside of pb&j sandwich making). In fact, it's healthier for a Mom to have a hobby, friends or even school at night - for sanity's sake. She's more relaxed now and a much happier Mom.

Posted by: Kathleen A at February 26, 2006 10:57 AM (7qm8p)

4 Thank you so much for your kind words. I am humbled

Miss you! Love, Ang

Posted by: Angie at February 26, 2006 03:04 PM (SA3c9)

5 One of the reasons I am most looking forward to seperating from the army and Jason either getting doing with a PhD or taking a job is so that one of us can stay home. I wish I didn't have to work but when you are getting out of the army, with no foreseeable paycheck in site, you have to save as much as you can! If we were staying in for the long haul, I wouldn't have gone back to work either, although I wonder if I would still have my sanity. I don't know how they do it! I was in awe of Angie, Angie, Jen, and Patti all the time. My mom stayed home with all of us 3 girls and only went back to work at the Elementary school I went to when I was in 4th grade. I didn't appreciate what she did until I became a mom myself. Now, I wonder, how did she do it...3 girls, a fireman for a dad so he was gone for 24 hours at a time 2-3 days a week and worked other jobs when he was off from the station...amazing! For now, I have to be thankful that I work at a school and have pretty decent hours and summers off. ANGIE: Don't feel that you haven't made "enough" of your life. You are a wonderful mother and wife and that is something to be VERY proud of.

Posted by: StephanieBerndt at February 27, 2006 03:16 AM (Y1m/K)

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PROUD

Every time I walk by the computer, I check to see if CaliValleyGirl has any update on when her boyfriend returns from Arghanistan. I'm a bundle of nerves just watching her wait! Watching OIF III and OEF Who Knows come to an end has made me nostalgic for this time last year. I keep reading my blog entries from the end of February and the beginning of March, remembering the feeling of knowing that everyone -- including the company commander, battalion commander, and brigade commander -- was home while my husband sat in Iraq waiting to go to Kuwait so he could start the process of coming home. It was excruciating. But as I told CaliValleyGirl, as painful as the waiting game is, you completely forget about it the minute they walk into that gym.

I'm really proud of her, which is not meant to sound condescending. Dealing with deployment was made easier by 1) the community around me and 2) that gold ring on my left hand. Cali has neither of those. She dealt with her boyfriend's absence on her own at a German university, which I can't believe was easy. And she handled it with grace: the other day she told me how much she's grown and how much she learned this year, about herself and her boyfriend. I'm glad that she was able to see deployment as a learning experience and not a burden.

And I can't wait to meet up with her at the Taco Bell in a few weeks!

Posted by: Sarah at 02:41 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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February 25, 2006

REASON #14 WHY I'M NUTS

I really want to get Lasik surgery, but I'm unreasonable paranoid that I'll be the unlucky fella who goes blind from the procedure. So sometimes I practice knitting with my eyes shut so I could continue my hobby sans eyesight...

Posted by: Sarah at 04:37 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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1 Oh.my.god. I am seriously laughing my BUTT off right now.

Posted by: Erin at February 25, 2006 05:49 AM (t8ak8)

2 You're a trip...;-)

Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at February 25, 2006 06:06 AM (MQrwl)

3 Is still thinking that this horrible immoral war even after everyone from Francis Fukuyama to your husband has come out otherwise on that list of 14 reasons? Many illnesses are symbolic -- Rush Limbaugh goes stone deaf except a little hearing in his right ear because he never listens to anyone but a little on the extreme right. Could you be going blind because you refuse to see?

Posted by: question at February 25, 2006 07:00 AM (n17hK)

4 Question -- My husband is most certainly not against the war. And your comment is the most ridiculous thing I've read all day; thanks for the laugh.

Posted by: Sarah at February 25, 2006 08:21 AM (nlGMo)

5 Yeah, question...You should do stand-up. Hilarious.

Posted by: Erin at February 25, 2006 08:23 AM (t8ak8)

6 Please summarize in 20 words or less your husbands change of opinion that you have you don't want him to be right about. "We can't leave Iraq because civil war will break out" >>>> THAT'S the laugh on the day as civil war breaks out anyway. (Laugh so you don't cry.)

Posted by: question at February 25, 2006 09:19 AM (n17hK)

7 Everyone who reads this blog knows what I think about the war, but Francis Fukuyama ought to go hide in a cave somewhere. Back in the 1990s he wrote this Hegelian book about how the fall of Communism was the end of history... liberal democracy was going to sweep the world, and the historical struggle between competing ideologies was over. What must it be like to be so wrong so publicly? How can he dare to speak again?

Posted by: Pericles at February 25, 2006 09:21 AM (eKf5G)

8 My husband never had any sort of change of opinion. He was *always* more pessimistic than I was about the success of democracy in the Middle East, and he only became more pessimistic after living there for 13 months. I was the one whose opinion has started to change: I'm going from thinking that all people want to be free to thinking that maybe Muslims really don't understand the point of democracy.

Posted by: Sarah at February 25, 2006 10:07 AM (nlGMo)

9 How f*ing conscending -- the US supports the dictatorships in the Arab world and reigns unprovoked invasion, murder and occupation onto Iraq -- and now it's Muslims who don't understand democracy? Maybe Muslims just need glasses like yours, so they can see so 20-20.

Posted by: question at February 25, 2006 10:34 AM (n17hK)

10 Sarah, Interesting how folks cannot just comment on what you write. Very deep indeed. Hmmm. But to comment on your post. I had Lasik a few years back. Just before the surgery, they tell you you might get a wiff of something that smells a bit like hair in a curling iron (your eye is made similar material to your hair). So the first eye was fine. The second, I caught a small wiff. When the procedure was over and the doc asked how I was doing, my comment was "This is the dumbest thing I have ever done!" He may have been offended. But I am glad I did it, and have no regrets. (Of course, I also had no complications!)

Posted by: jck at February 25, 2006 11:38 AM (DXAp+)

11 Sarah, Last year, we had the "Lasik" craze among Cole's friends...so many trips to Landstuhl and each and every one of them is more-than-satisifed with the results. I say go for it...but keep practicing your blind knitting just in case...too funny.

Posted by: Nicole at February 25, 2006 12:59 PM (1ECnr)

12 Sarah, To make you feel better I want Lasik too but asked if I could do one eye at a time. I figure if they screw up one eye and I am blind, at least I have the other one! HH6

Posted by: Household6 at February 26, 2006 05:03 PM (ucTog)

13 Jason had it in 2001 and his eyes are still PERFECT! He thinks it was one of the the best decisions of his life. We were just talking about it this weekend.

Posted by: Stephanie at February 27, 2006 03:11 AM (Y1m/K)

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February 23, 2006

SICK

I read something this morning that I can't really get out of my head. I don't really want to write about it, but I can't stop thinking about it. It's the last paragraph of this article in Slate:

And that is why as a Muslim American I am enraged by the publication of these cartoons. Not because they offend my prophet or my religion, but because they fly in the face of the tireless efforts of so many civic and religious leadersÂ—both Muslim and non-MuslimÂ—to promote unity and assimilation rather than hatred and discord; because they play into the hands of those who preach extremism; because they are fodder for the clash-of-civilizations mentality that pits East against West. For all of that I blame Jyllands-Posten. We in the West want Muslim leaders to condemn the racial and religious prejudices that are so widespread in the Muslim world. Let us lead by example.

I for one am getting a little tired of having to lead by example. Terrorists saw off any heads they can get their hands on, but Abu Ghraib is the worst thing that's happened in Iraq. Insurgents regularly hide behind civilians, but an American soldier shoots an insurgent under somewhat dubious conditions and he's raked over the coals. I'm sick and tired of being held to a higher standard.

But more than that, there's something so galling about the phrase "they fly in the face of the tireless efforts of so many civic and religious leadersÂ—both Muslim and non-MuslimÂ—to promote unity and assimilation rather than hatred and discord." Come again? Who's promoting unity? Who's trying to assimilate? The whole freaking Western world has bent over backwards apologizing for non-existant flushed Korans and splashed urine and stupid cartoons. Everyone's apologizing and getting fired and being suspended from school papers; can we point some freaking fingers at those who are burning down embassies, for pete's sake? Promoting unity, my foot. The Free Muslims Coalition held an anti-terrorism rally last May, and guess how many people showed up. Maybe fifty. Fifty. My god, it makes me want to cry. How can this writer actually think that Jyllands-Posten is the Muslim community's biggest problem?

Apparently the cartoons prevented Muslims from assimilating. Give me a break. There's a clash of civilizations going on allright, and I think Islam is winning. Schools are changing their art curriculum because drawing people is against Islam. A Muslim girls' basketball team wants to play other teams, which of course means that all men have to be barred from the arena. In Michigan they're blaring the call to prayer over loudspeakers. If this is a fight between East and West, I often feel like the West is losing. The internet has become a disheartening place for me, where I simply dread reading that half of Palestinians support suicide bombers. Or that Israel should be wiped off the map and the Holocaust never happened. And no one in the West stands up to this nonsense. No one says "We're drawing humans in art class because that's what happens in a flippin' art class and you just have to deal with it." No one holds Muslims to the standard that every other religious group is held to:

Some Christians believe they are required to wear particular sorts of clothing. Some Jews and Muslims don't eat pork. They don't claim that their religion requires other people to wear special clothing or avoid eating pork. Tolerance and ecumenism can only do so much. They have nothing to offer a Muslim in Afghanistan who is personally insulted and enraged about an image that appears in a newspaper in Denmark.

I'm sick and tired of the world tiptoeing around Islam. Hitchens is right: we should stand with Denmark and stand up for our values, instead of apologizing because some drawings made people go completely insane. What is wrong with the world?

I just can't take it anymore.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:14 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 Sarah, check out Glen Reinsford's "Age of Tolerance". A current events "Atlas Shrugged". And I hope you're feeling better about Charlie, dogs like kids get over it and love you no matter.

Posted by: Mary*Ann at February 23, 2006 08:59 AM (ssGwL)

2 'Grok, Wish I could offer words of encouragement but I'm afraid your totally correct. I hold on to the idea that the day will come when the "tipping point" is reached (think along the lines of the cartoon bulls*!t) and more and more people realize that the Muslim majority is our enemy not the minority. (I've come full circle on this myself). Thank you and your husband for his service to our great country.

Posted by: tim at February 23, 2006 10:25 AM (QsSL6)

3 (sigh) you're wrong. The quote that angers you refers to the tireless efforts of countless Islamic groups that are mainstream and moderate and try to tell the world this, over and over. But that doesn't make the news, and suckers just take the most extreme behaviour that is on the news and spoonfed to them daily and say "that represents all of Islam". The suckers say "spoonfeed me more!" and they are not disappointed. Try to grok all the Islamic organizations decry terrorism every chance they get. Posted by question at February

Posted by: question at February 23, 2006 12:53 PM (n17hK)

4 Oh I couldn't agree more! We're dammed if we do, and dammed if we don't (as Americans)...we're expected to help everyone all the time and then turn the other cheek...I'm sick of it, as well. What really makes me nautious are fellow Americans who criticize the actions of our military in some of the aforementioned situations...are they crazy?? Seriously...it's like we're on a school-house point system...+1 for every humanitarian thing you do and -25 for everything that is slightly questionable...the result: always in the negative. Argh.

Posted by: Nicole at February 23, 2006 01:16 PM (1ECnr)

5 If Muslims want to live in "the West" they have to get used to the fact that "freedom of speech" means freedom to criticise. They have to get used to the fact that people outside of their group are going to criticize their group, it's members, it's leaders, and yes, even it's prophets and icons. Newsday, a newspaper in Long Island, New York, many years ago printed a cartoon mocking the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, calling him, essentially, an idiot. I, and many other Catholics, were outraged, wrote letters to the editor, and cancelled our subscriptions to "that liberal rag". We didn't riot, we didn't murder, we didn't destroy. That is how dissent and outrage works in a free country, and any new arrivals must get used to it unconditionally. Or else get out.

Posted by: Sean at February 23, 2006 02:36 PM (BN/Fu)

6 Hey Nicole how many points should you get per dead civilian in Iraq?

Posted by: question at February 23, 2006 06:16 PM (n17hK)

7 Sarah -- Amen Sister! Well written.

Posted by: MaryIndiana at February 24, 2006 12:16 AM (YwdKL)

8 Isn't being held to a higher standard the inevitable result of our constantly telling everyone that this is the greatest country on the Earth? I for one hope that we always hold ourselves to a higher standard, that we are never satisfied with ourselves just because we're no worse than a Bin Laden or a Saddam Hussein. I'm a liberal, though; I believe in free speech. I have no tolerance for anyone who responds to a cartoon with violence. There may be a valid complaint about inconsistent application of hate speech laws in Europe, but the real problem are the laws themselves. This is one reason that Sarah was wrong to suggest that liberals might be equally comfortable in other countries recently. We liberals love the First Amendment, and as far as I know only the U.S. has that strong of free speech protection. Both people to the left of me and people to the right of me may want to limit free speech, but I say the more of it the better. The solution to problems caused by speech is more speech.

Posted by: Pericles at February 24, 2006 03:37 PM (eKf5G)

9 As a liberal, I too condemn anyone who would respond to speech with violence. I don't (personally) know of anyone who is holding the West responsible for the behavior of Muslim groups in Europe who are rioting in response to those cartoons. As far as I'm concerned, if you live in Europe or America, you play by the rules. And the rules say religious figures are open targets - that's why I'm allowed to say that Jesus and his diciples seem really gay. But how can you take the actions of America in Iraq and measure them up do those handful of examples of Muslim non-assimilation in the West and say that America is the victim? Civil war is breaking out. Iraq is falling apart and thousands and thousands are dead. And a school in St. Paul is offering the OPTION of Islamic-sensitive art classes to muslim kindergartners. I'm sorry, but how does that add up to America leading by example? How are you sick of something that doesn't even exist?

Posted by: Will Somerset at February 25, 2006 05:19 PM (eIQfa)

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LINKS

Mark Steyn:

It's easy to be tough about nothing. The press corps that noisily champions "the public's right to know" about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they've no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world.

James Lileks:

The average AmericanÂ’s reaction to handing port control over to the UAE is instinctively negative, and for good reason. There are two basic reactions: We canÂ’t do this ourselves? and We should trust them, why?
As for the first, the assertion that American firms were the lower bidder is unpersuasive, rather like saying that we should have outsourced the flight crew for the Enola Gay to Japanese nationals because they knew the terrain better. As for the trust issue, well, wanting port control to remain in American hands is not a matter of Arabiaphobia, any more than selling Boeing to China means you harbor deep hatred of Asians. Some things ought to be left in local hands. It seems absurd to have to make that argument in the first place.

Christopher Hitchens:

The incredible thing about the ongoing Kristallnacht against Denmark (and in some places, against the embassies and citizens of any Scandinavian or even European Union nation) is that it has resulted in, not opprobrium for the religion that perpetrates and excuses it, but increased respectability! A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessaryÂ—that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let's be sure we haven't hurt the vandals' feelings.

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February 21, 2006

BISCUITS

As you know, I've been feeling guilty about Charlie's accident. I've never even had stitches, but I made my dog have to get them! So I've been spoiling him rotten for the last few days. Today I decided to make him some homemade dog biscuits. The recipe said it would make three dozen, so I decided to double it. Would someone mind telling me when three dozen turned into 100? I've got 200+ dog biscuits here now! So everyone's getting some: Winston, Lewis, Elway, and any other dog I can think of. They seem to be a hit; the whole time I was baking, Charlie was doing this:

Don't be fooled by the silence of your computer; he's howling his fool head off in this photo. That's all he did for two hours. Except of course when he was trying to think of a better way to get at the biscuits:

That dog is just too dang much.

Posted by: Sarah at 12:38 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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February 19, 2006

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LESSON

We gave Charlie a bath this morning, and I decided to cut some of the knots out of his fur while he was drying. One clip of the scissors made him yelp and run away; once I nabbed him and brought him back to the living room, I realized I had cut more than I bargained for.

After his initial yelp, Charlie didn't seem to notice his wound so much. He was up and romping around with his toys; I was the inconsolable one weeping on the floor. And this, my friends, is Reason Umpteen why I can never have kids: I hurt Charlie. My carelessness caused him pain. Every time I look at him, I burst into tears again, even though he seems to have accepted the 8 shiny new staples hiding under his right ear.

I learned and emotionally (ugh -- and financially) costly lesson today, one that I won't soon forget. I have the power to hurt Charlie. Or my husband, or my child someday. I really don't like the thought of that.

Posted by: Sarah at 10:12 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Don't be so hard on yourself. The mark of being a good person/wife/mother isn't whether or not you ever do anything that hurts someone else, it's how you deal with things when they happen. I also have a dog who sometimes needs knots/mats cut out of his fur (especially behind the ears) and I used to always worry I was going to cut off half his ear. What I do now is use a flea comb (long handled with straight metal spikes). I get it inbetween the knot/mat and his skin and cut on the side of the comb that is away from him after pulling it out as far as the knot will allow. That way I know I'll never get his skin. Whatever hair is left usually combs out nicely once the knot/mat is gone.

Posted by: Peggy at February 19, 2006 03:11 PM (a4vU5)

2 exactly what I was going to suggest. Those knots get matted down to the skin, but you don't realize that until you make that first mistake. Now you know. I panic about clipping my babies (my cats) claws because of stories that you could hit the vein and they'll bleed all over the place. As a result, their claws start to turn under and cause them pain. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet! (Or pay to take them to the vet, where he always looks at me like I'm crazy - "You want to pay me to clip their claws? You know you can buy scissors - " "Yes, yes, I know and I'll STILL pay you." I'm sure Charlie has forgiven you.

Posted by: Oda Mae at February 19, 2006 04:35 PM (Ag/cV)

3 You obviously don't remember when we bought a clipper set, and your dad decided he'd start cutting your brothers' hair to save money. That's when "buzzes" were popular. Never mind that he's a mechanical engineer! What he didn't realize was that you were supposed to put that little plastic thing on the end of the clippers to decide the length of the hair. Poor Michael looked like he'd been run over by a lawnmower! Not only was the haircut awful, he had cuts all over his head that had to heal! I wouldn't let Dad near Brian after seeing how Michael's turned out! And of course, Michael didn't want to sit still long enough to have Dad cut his hair anyway! After that, I decided it was worth every penny to take them to a barber!!! Same with Toby now! He goes regularly to PetsMart to get groomed. I tried a few times to get rid of the knots myself, but I decided I'll let someone else do it. Same with the toes, Oda Mae. I don't do teeth either! Love, Your mama

Posted by: Nancy at February 19, 2006 06:30 PM (6s7Zq)

4 Part of the 'learning' every parent or pet parent does is by trial and error. I've cut my son's ear...not my DOG son's ear...my HUMAN son's ear when trimming his hair. And he survived (and doesn't even remember). It's perfectly natural to fear hurting the ones you love. And it's perfectly normal to slip up every once in a while. They (the kids, husbands and pets) know you love them. They just might get a little jittery around you and something sharp.

Posted by: Kathleen A at February 20, 2006 10:28 AM (7qm8p)

5 I agree with Kathleen and everyone else. I have also slipped with the scissors and cut my son's ear a bit once when I was cutting his hair. He knows it was accidental, and believe me, he sits VERY still now when I cut his hair! =) Believe me, you make plenty of mistakes as a parent, mistakes that hurt your children physically and emotionally, but they are like a dog. They forgive and forget and move on and you are still crying over it, but they don't care. They know you love them. Unfortunately, parenting doesn't come with a manual, so it's a constant learning game, and sometimes you have to apologize to your kids. But they will respect you more when you can admit to a mistake and move on.

Posted by: Adrienne at February 20, 2006 04:25 PM (yAWf0)

6 All of us have the power to hurt each other. Understanding that, and dealing with it appropriately is part of being an adult. Emotionally, physically, accidentally (as in this case), intentionally, for good reason, for no reason. Thinking how bad you felt about accidentally causing a small injury to your pet should allow you to reflect about what sort of monsters can cut someone's throat while they chant praises to their god. Semper Fideis, ASM826

Posted by: asm826 at March 05, 2006 12:56 AM (nHUDe)

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February 16, 2006

BUPKIS

I've been scouring the internet for something to say, anything that would give me inspiration to blog. Nothing's coming. Anything I want to say someone else has said better.

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February 15, 2006

BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK

My college roommate senior year was black. She was a nice enough girl, but we had Culture Clash on more than one occasion. One of the most disheartening things I ever witnessed was her relationship with an African student. Not an African-American, an actual African. This guy was one of the most genuine and friendly people I've ever met, and smart too. He and my husband had many business and economics classes together, and he was active in speech/debate. He also belonged to a fraternity. Real nice guy. But apparently he wasn't Black Enough. I had to watch my roommate try to turn him into a thug so he wouldn't be an outcast in the campus black community anymore. She said flat-out that black people didn't really like him and he needed to change his behavior. She "corrected" his speech, advised him to quit his white fraternity and join the black one, and generally nagged the guy about not being truly black. It was a depressing thing to watch. Luckily they eventually broke up, and I hope this guy has done better for himself. He had the potential to be successful, as long as all the "advice" he got didn't sink in.

(This memory prompted by LaShawn Barber.)

Posted by: Sarah at 11:56 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Typical stuff, actually. I'm labeled a sell-out in my school because I happen to believe that the "tyranny of the minority" definitely applies on campus, racially and otherwise. Oh and yeah, I'm Asian (Filipino-American to be exact). I think the correct term is a "twinkie": yellow on the outside and white on the inside. Or some also use banana, depending if the accusing party is also a vegan anarchist.

Posted by: John at February 15, 2006 03:05 PM (enIP4)

2 A co-worker and I were just discussing this very topic. Since both of us are of mixed heritage, we have been accused of not being "Black enough" or "Acting white". It's just pathetic. I personally have "issues" with being called African-American. I can trace my Fathers side back to my Great Grandparents and they were in Georgia. On my Mothers side I can trace back to my Grandparents, they immigrated from Poland to Germany before the war. Can someone please tell me how that makes me "African-American"?

Posted by: Vonn at February 15, 2006 05:52 PM (dEgRi)

3 I don't mind the term African-American. I've been called far worse. Why is there such a push for some verbal, superficial acceptance when history and society tells us discrimination is still rampant? --Cobra

Posted by: Cobra at February 15, 2006 07:23 PM (Ffvoi)

4 Growing up I knew two black kids who were twins. I grew up in an Asain and Hispanic community. When I hit college, I had more interactions but was still very unknowledgable about black culture. All this time though I was told, time and time again to call blacks African-Americans. (I grew up in northern CA). It wasn't until I got married moved around and got to spend real time making friends with all sorts of people that I learned that there are many that do or don't like a particular term to describe ethnecitity. A couple of coworkers giggled the first time I called a woman African-American. So I pretty much refrain from using any term until I get to know the person better. Both of my officemates use Black, so do I when I am with them. An older coworker down the hall prefers African-American. I just try to accomodate to what they are used to if I can. It is too bad that she felt she had to change the person istead of him being allowed to be who he was. I know two Sgts that are from different African Nations, they are great people. They are quiet but when they do speak they have some very interesting and well thought things to say. I hope he found out who he was and stuck with it. HH6

Posted by: Household6 at February 16, 2006 03:13 AM (Gj0PV)

5 Sigh. I unfortunately can relate to the African. I actually HEARD a girl in my high school say, just loud enough so I could hear, that I used to be cool last year when I was black. WTF? Then, I was so confused. Now, I realize that it was just an avenue to piss me off. She wouldn't have liked me whether I was "black" or not. As I heard Henry Louis Gates (head of African American Studies at Harvard) say on the Today Show, Martin Luther King Jr. would roll over in his grave to see that black kids are pressured to be thugs, speak poorly and drop out of school to play sports - by their own people. It's an insult to the civil rights movement to define being black as being ghetto. If being highly educated and dressing appropriately means I'm white what is that saying about what it means to be black? And anyway I'm half black. NO one picked up on the fact that I'm half Latino too... Ok, off my soapbox

Posted by: monique at February 16, 2006 03:51 PM (AK5UJ)

6 Well said Monique!

Posted by: Vonn at February 16, 2006 06:03 PM (dEgRi)

7 Did I mention the comment from that girl was probably twelve years ago? It take's time to heal those feelings unfortunately...

Posted by: Monique at February 16, 2006 06:30 PM (AK5UJ)

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13 THINGS

I saw this on MQ's site: 13 Things You Wouldn't Guess By Looking At Me. I don't know if I can come up with 13, but I'll try.

Hmm, I am anal and compulsive. I bet I could come up with 13 ways my best friends make fun of me for it.

1. I measure everything when I cook. I can't do pinches and handfuls and dabs. I measure everything out perfectly, even if it's something I've made ten times.
2. I researched and read books for months before we got a dog. I panic every time he does something out of the ordinary; both Erin and Kelly have gotten frantic calls about all sort of bodily functions.
3. I also write everything on the calendar: when Charlie had his last bath, when I cleaned his ears. I obsess about this dog so much that I know there's no way I'm ready to have a kid.
4. All of our movies and music are alphabetized. So are our books. I used to have them alphabetized within categories (e.g. fiction, travel, etc), but that became too difficult to maintain.
5. I even organized all my husband's field manuals. That was before I realized he's never once looked in one.
6. I also organize greeting cards into a file folder by event.
7. My friends tease me that I was even anal about my relationship: six years ago today my husband and I sat down and decided to be a couple. No spontaneity here.
8. But here's a few they might not know yet: I only turn the TV volume to an even number.
9. Also I color coordinate my shampoo and body lotion with what I'm wearing that day.
10. And I coordinate different detergents and fabric softeners with different loads of laundry.
11. I also coordinate my dishes with the food we're having. I guess that's why I have five place settings.
12. My old roommate and I used to share expenses in our apartment down to the last cent. If one of us bought a roll of paper towels, the other would hand over a quarter.
13. And as all of you already know, I stress out about using up spices, canned goods, and beauty products before we move. I lie in bed and fret about the bottle of Worcestershire sauce that will never be used. And it cost one dollar.

There. 13 things that might make you want to reconsider getting too close to me.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:53 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 Sarah, Those are the reasons I love you...and I started cracking up when I read #8...I do that too (and didn't even realize it)! Erin

Posted by: Erin at February 15, 2006 04:57 AM (DoZpu)

2 I think they have invented some sort of drugs for your "symptoms". You had me laughing and thinking I do some of those things...scary. Don't fret about #13, I will take them off your hands and use them wisely.

Posted by: Jennifer at February 15, 2006 11:58 AM (CfpP7)

3 That's absolutely hysterical. Now I can relate to #1 and #2...I too obide by #1, mostly because I'm not a good cook so ad-libbing is not in the cards for me. I'm sure you know by my blog that I'm guilty of #2...actually I'm #2 in progress. I do have one question: How exactly do you coordinate your shampoo and body lotion with your outfit? Are we talking matching styles and scents or literally colors of clothes to colors of bottles? Is this a ridiculously dumb question?? Funny stuff.

Posted by: Nicole at February 15, 2006 01:30 PM (1ECnr)

4 Hmmm...This is a little scarey since I'm your mom! I'm guilty of #1, #2 when I buy a car, appliance, etc., #3 when you kids were little or I couldn't have functioned with all your activities; I've gotten out of the habit and am sure I should still be writing things on the calendar, and #6 which I've done for thirty years. You still organize your closets so much better than I do. I need you to come stay with me for about a month and get this house (and your mother) in tip-top shape! I love you just the way you are! Your dad is alot like you; he organizes EVERYTHING and I know I drive him crazy! I guess there's truth to opposites attract! Mama

Posted by: Nancy at February 15, 2006 02:54 PM (6s7Zq)

5 Nicole -- For example, if I am wearing mostly earth tones, I'll go with vanilla scent, if pink then something flowery, if black then Victoria's Secret's "Very Sexy", etc. Shampoo is mostly color coordinated. It's a bizarre ritual, but it's true.

Posted by: Sarah at February 15, 2006 04:00 PM (G40OB)

6 UMMM uhhh, Sarah, that IS compulsive. But can you come stay with me a while and give me some lessons? I think its neat you were born with this ability, or maybe it could be an affliction, it sure makes life easier. I bet you ALWAYS know where you put down the scissors!

Posted by: Ruth H at February 15, 2006 04:55 PM (f39ic)

7 I think all 13 of those things (quirks) make you more interesting. We all have something special or different that we do. I'm personally guilty of organizing my closet by type, purpose and frequency of use. Especially my shoes! Also, I can't stand for items to be on the bathroom counter. I'm constantly putting away my husband shaving cream and toothpaste. I would hide his toothbrush, but it's a Sonicare and has to remain plugged in. And my big one...I like to have all pantry items organized by type, size, purchase date, etc. I'm freakish about stocking up and never wanting to run out of something. Kelly knows first hand how much stuff I had left in the pantry. SCARY!

Posted by: Vonn at February 15, 2006 06:00 PM (dEgRi)

8 I think all 13 of those things (quirks) make you more interesting. We all have something special or different that we do. I'm personally guilty of organizing my closet by type, purpose and frequency of use. Especially my shoes! Also, I can't stand for items to be on the bathroom counter. I'm constantly putting away my husband shaving cream and toothpaste. I would hide his toothbrush, but it's a Sonicare and has to remain plugged in. And my big one...I like to have all pantry items organized by type, size, purchase date, etc. I'm freakish about stocking up and never wanting to run out of something. Kelly knows first hand how much stuff I had left in the pantry. (More than 5 bottles of ketchup and mustard, EACH)SCARY!

Posted by: Vonn at February 15, 2006 06:02 PM (dEgRi)

9 Sorry for the double post. First attempt was "page 404 error" page not found. whoopsy!

Posted by: vonn at February 15, 2006 06:03 PM (dEgRi)

10 Sarah, Okay...that's what I thought. I understand the outfit-perfume coordination. I do that too...especially with the flowery colors need flowery scents ritual. You're not so weird.

Posted by: Nicole at February 16, 2006 02:26 PM (1ECnr)

11 Catching up on your posts here - 8. But here's a few they might not know yet: I only turn the TV volume to an even number I just started doing this! Well, sort of. I won't turn the volume to 13. Weird!!!

Posted by: monique at February 16, 2006 03:54 PM (AK5UJ)

12 Wow! And I thought I was anal when I use to organize my closet by colors! It was so much easier before I was married and had kids to organize it by blues, reds, blacks, etc. I don't do it anymore, because I simply don't have time, but I do have short-sleeved shirts, then long-sleeved, then skirts, slacks and dresses. When leaving my closet after a frustrating 20 minutes flipping through my clothes, I think about how much easier it was to find something to wear when I had it organized by colors! If I was in a mood for something blue, I went to the blue shirts and had a nice bit of choices. I do the scent thing a bit too. When I am going on a date with my husband and wearing something sexy, I will wear my Come-and-get-me scent. When I am going out to do an appointment, I will wear my pleasant flowery scent.

Posted by: Adrienne at February 20, 2006 04:41 PM (yAWf0)

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February 14, 2006

TRADITION

As I sing to my husband every year:

I was working in the lab late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster from his slab began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise
He did the mash
He did the monster mash
The monster mash
It was a graveyard smash
He did the mash
It caught on in a flash
He did the mash
He did the monster mash

I choo-choo-choose you.

Posted by: Sarah at 08:17 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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--The Count of Monte Cristo--

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