Here's a long discussion on Donald Rumsfeld. Yesterday Tim asked my husband whether he thought Rumsfeld should be replaced. My husband replied that what Rumsfeld does is way above his pay grade and he doesn't have any access to information that would make him able to make that call. My husband is a smart man.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:26 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Suck it, Saddam.
How quickly can we get the noose around his neck?

Posted by: Sarah at 02:48 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The Girl has been knitting for nine months in preparation for her new niece. But in all the joys of waiting, she never anticipated the baby to be so sick when she was born. No baby should ever have to look like this.

It hurts my heart so much to look at this picture. Please go over and send your strongest thoughts to The Girl's brother and his wife.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:22 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I had another thought about the internet bubble. One of the good things about it is that, coterie that we are, we're privvy to some great insider jokes. While I was liveblogging at SpouseBUZZ, AWTM came and looked over my shoulder. She pointed out in horror that I called Ward Carroll (our Military.com sponsor) Ward Churchill! That slip might not have meant much to most of the population, but it was enough to make us die laughing. I love stuff like that, and the more esoteric the better. Work a Lileks quote or a Micah Wright or Jayson Blair insult or a fake-but-accurate pronouncement into conversation, and I'm yours forever.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:35 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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MaryIndiana -- FYI, there's a pupdate up at SpouseBUZZ!

Posted by: Sarah at 10:30 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I'm setting my DVR for a special Fox News showing of the movie Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West on Saturday night at 8 PM ET. For more info, see here.

I have to tape it, because I won't be home. My husband and I will be hanging out with Tim and Patti! Tim organized a book signing for The Blog of War. If you're anywhere near the Aiken Office Supply in Aiken, SC, this weekend, drop in and see us!

Posted by: Sarah at 10:22 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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We're only living here temporarily, which means that I haven't got much of a social life. I don't have a single, actual, real-life human being friend here, unless you count the apartment complex staff. The only "conversation" I've had in the past five months has been the internet kind, which is bad because I've been living in a bubble. When you spend that much time in the internet community, you forget that we're such a small slice of the population.

I just caught the tail-end of a radio trivia gimmick, where a caller had to answer some questions. She had no idea who Dennis Hastert is, she couldn't provide a line from the "Star-Spangled Banner", and she didn't have the first guess what the Dow was at...in fact, she thought "the Dow" was a new type of WMD. I am not kidding. It might've been funny if it weren't so stinking depressing.

So beware the internet bubble. And be glad half the country doesn't vote.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:38 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Who woulda thought we'd read this this morning?

Let's go back and clarify: IRAQ HAD NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANS SO ADVANCED AND DETAILED THAT ANY COUNTRY COULD HAVE USED THEM.

Just when I think things couldn't get any weirder...

Posted by: Sarah at 04:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Some people have got waaay better jokes than John Kerry. Like Right Thoughts' interview with "John Kerry's Intentions":

KerryÂ’s intentions: Jim...Jimbo. Jimmykins. Jimka. Listen. ItÂ’s simple. John is smarter than you. He knows that you little people canÂ’t afford food, and youÂ’re too stupid to become lawyers and marry rich widows. Therefore, most of you end up at one point or another either becoming volunteers for his campaign or you become horrible, murdering rapists reminiscent of Jen-jiss Khan...i.e. you join the military.

JimK: But wait a minute. ThatÂ’s just reinforcing the notion that the statement was slanderous against the military in the first place! I donÂ’t get it. What are you trying to say here?

KerryÂ’s intentions: Jim-bo-lah. Jim-o-rama. Jimmy crack corn...I know this is upper-level material here, but try to stay with me. Senator Kerry despises the little people, so he made a joke about Bush that wasnÂ’t about Bush, wasnÂ’t true, contained factual truths and wasnÂ’t a joke, because he care about you, the common man. You see?

JimK: No. No I do not see. In fact, everything you said contradicts everything else you said.

KerryÂ’s intentions: Well, I was against this interview before I was for it, so there you have it.

Heh. Read the whole thing. JimK's got mad jokes.

Posted by: Sarah at 09:08 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Again with the Lileks:

I understand how some are using the gaffe to draw attention to a greater point re: the hard leftÂ’s attitudes towards the military, but if that wasnÂ’t actually the point Kerry was making then I canÂ’t jump on board and affirm the greater point. That smacks of fake-but-accurate.

He has a point, and we'll leave it at that. And just wait and see what happens next week.

Last night I asked my husband if part of being a grown-up means getting an ulcer every two years. I can see why less than half the country cares about voting: it's entirely too stressful to pay attention. Even when your personal choice is a no-brainer (dude, I vote in Missouri), watching the rest of it unfold is torture.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:46 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Gnat woke up with an earache on Halloween, which led Lileks to write this intensely insightful tidbit:

The school party was off, though, and that was a crushing disappointment. At least she didn’t say “it’s not fair.” You never know quite how to respond to that. You want them to believe that things are fair and good and happy and full of sparkly unicorn-dust, and your inner Drill Instructor wants to bark “Suck it up, half-pint! There’s a whole lot more unfairness rolling down the road and you’d best learn how to get out of its way! Now drop and give me 20!” It’s not fair has an impotent and powerless ring to it, and I’m glad she doesn’t say it much. I think I drummed “just my luck” out of her early on, too; that one’s poison. Luck is like Communism – believe in it if you like, just don’t base your actions on it.

My husband and I have begun to talk more and more frequently about how we want to raise our imaginary kids. And this gem of parenting advice -- thrown willy-nilly into The Bleat as only James Lileks can do -- really spoke to me.

My husband loathes people with an external locus of control, people who whine that it's always circumstances or bad luck or fate or someone else's fault that things didn't go their way. We talk constantly about how we can instill personal responsibility in our imaginary kids, and I think this nugget from Lileks is one idea we can keep tucked in our brains for future reference.

Posted by: Sarah at 09:17 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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OK, let's give Kerry the benefit of the doubt here and assume he was trying to make fun of President Bush instead of the troops. So what's the joke then? Study hard, kids, so one day you will grow up to be...not as dumb as the President of the United States? What kind of joke is that? Don't parents usually urge kids to study so they don't have to flip burgers, not so they won't become flipping President of the United States and make a decision that über-liberal senators disagree with? Good lord, one would hope that a presidential candidate would show more respect for the office of the presidency than that. I think it's foolhardy to send the message to young people that the president is someone to mock and jeer. As if young people these days could get more disrespectful of adults; Kerry doesn't need to fuel that fire.

Not to mention that the joke doesn't work very well, considering Bush and Kerry got roughly the same grades in college. And Kerry's wife doesn't even know what chili is. Let's not call any kettles black here.

MORE TO GROK:

WhoÂ’s the real flunky? Someone tell Kerry itÂ’s not military via RofaSix

MORE:

Hahahahha. You HAVE to click on this photo from Iraq...

Posted by: Sarah at 05:48 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I just finished reading Taking Science to the Moon. It was an interesting book on the minutiae of the Apollo program: who got the contract to design the little rake they used to pick up moon rocks; the intense design specifications of the boxes used to transport samples; the million-dollar science experiments that failed because of a gravity calculation error. Usually when we think of Apollo, we think of the giant leap for mankind, but this book delineated all of the small steps for man. Good book if you're an Apollo junkie like I am.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Since my husband is the smartest man I know (go on, Erin, tell 'em what a genius he is), I have been seething today about what John Kerry said. I kept trying to think of something ba-zing to pimpslap him with, but other than a list of all the soldiers I know and how smart they are, I wasn't coming up with anything. Turns out I don't need to, because others have done the job for me. Head over to Michelle Malkin's to watch Kerry look like an elitist douche and then read all the hatemail that's pouring in.

And what Kerry said -- “You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” -- ain't exactly the most eloquent sentence I've ever heard. Good thing he spent top-dollar on that prissy degree of his.

Posted by: Sarah at 07:22 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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I started this blog as a way to talk about poltics and issues without having to talk to anyone from my Real Life. At that time in my life, I didn't have any friends who think like I do, and I wanted somewhere to vent. Because I would never dream of venting this stuff in public.

So today when I read The Elephant in the Room, I could completely relate.

Judith says that it's usually Democrats who shun Republican friendships, but I have found myself as the shunner before. I have a few friends with whom I can have rational and polite discussions about the war or politics, but I have more than enough experience with those people who Make Pronouncements:

Another thing [Democrats] do which Kornblat doesn't give an example of, but which we all have experienced: They always start political conversations. None of us do. We have learned that no one wants to argue issues on their merits, that the room gets very quiet and unfriendly, that people start screaming at you, or rant the most loopy beliefs and conspiracy theories. We just assume that is not a topic anyone can treat in a dispassionate manner.

But they always provoke political conversations. Well, not conversations, which would be enjoyable and enlightening. They make pronouncements. And look around the room to see if anyone not only doesn't agree, but doesn't agree enthusiastically. As a friend deep in the closet in the theater world put it, you can't just sit quietly and wait for the topic to change. No, you are suspect if you do not vocally endorse the official opinion of the group. You thought you were in a project meeting or a coffee klatch or a dinner party, and all of a sudden it has turned into the Communist Youth League Self-Criticism Session.

There are only so many times I can stomach pronouncements like "Whew, won't it be better when Kerry is president?" or "So can you believe this crap that Bush is pulling?" And it's not easy to be friends with someone who walks into work, slams a copy of Fahrenheit 911 on my desk and says, "You need to watch this so maybe you'll think twice about voting for Bush." And so I end up distancing myself from those people. It's fine to have a friend who's a Democrat, but it's a drag to have a friend who says you're no better than Mohammad Atta. Or a friend who can't even muster up any sympathy that your husband is at war because "well, you started it." Or someone who says your friend with the gaping hole in his torso from an RPG is has been brainwashed into fighting for lies. I don't have much use for people like that in my life.

What's funny is that now the scales have tipped in my life. I don't blog massive rants like I did three years ago because I have more people in my Real Life to talk to about this stuff. And this weekend was unlike anything I've ever experienced: being with a group of people who are even bigger rightwing nutjobs than I am! I spent most of the weekend with my jaw on the floor, and I came home squealing to my husband about all the stuff people had said. It was fun, it was fun to not have to tiptoe around to avoid offending someone. And the lone Democrat in the room got some gentle ribbing and jokes tossed his way, but we all got along marvelously. Common ground and all.

So I can't say I've never shunned, but I certainly am capable of being friends with Democrats. No seriously, I am. I just prefer people who join me in a pretend throw up when I say the name Christiane Amanpour.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:06 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The SpouseBUZZ conference was a success this weekend. I got to meet my fellow bloggers and we had a great connect with the wives at Fort Hood. If you're interested in our discussion, I liveblogged the panels here and here. But one of the most touching things of the weekend happened when I left Texas.

I sat down on my flight home next to a man on a cell phone, whom I initially assumed would be a quiet businessman. But when he hung up, he asked me what I was doing in Texas. And there's this feeling you get in the two seconds after you mention that you're a part of the military, a hold-your-breath feeling where you wait for the person's reaction. It was going to be a long flight, and I didn't want to deal with anything unpleasant. But this situation couldn't have been better.

I was sitting next to George Pearsons, the pastor at Eagle Mountain International Church. He was extremely interested in learning what military families go through. He asked me many questions about what military spouses experience and what we think about various political issues and current events. We talked nonstop for two and a half hours. He told me about a program they have at their church that supports families of military servicemembers called Troops 91, named after Psalm 91. I told him about SpouseBUZZ and encouraged him to let his parishoners know about our website if they're looking for a place to connect while their loved one is deployed.

Right before we landed, he said he wanted to do something special for my family. He gave me a donation on behalf of his church, saying that we should use this money to go to dinner or do something to cherish our precious time together. He said he wanted to give me this money "to bless my family." I couldn't believe how much money he wanted me to take! He wouldn't let me refuse, and we parted ways a little better for having met each other.

As I drove home from the airport, I thought about this money and I realized something: my family is already blessed enough. My husband said the exact same thing when I showed him the money and told him the story. So I hope Pastor Pearsons doesn't mind if I use his church's money to bless some people who probably need it more than we do.

I'm going to donate this money from Eagle Mountain International Church to two organizations that have a connection to SpouseBUZZ. I'll send half to Sew Much Comfort, an organization that makes adaptive clothing for wounded troops. And I'll send the other half to Project Valour-IT, an organization that provides voice-activated laptops to troops whose wounds prevent them from communicating via computer with their loved ones.

Pastor Pearsons blessed me with his money, but what he really blessed me with was his kindness. He was a wonderful listener, a concerned American, and a man who is genuinely interested in understanding how we spouses cope with life in the military. I was blessed to have been in Seat 19E yesterday.

(This post is cross-posted at SpouseBUZZ.)

Posted by: Sarah at 09:47 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'm sorry, but I don't see any reason it would ever be appropriate to ask a soldier in an interview "You ever worry one day your number's gonna come up?" What kind of question is that from a journalist? If you want to get to that issue, could you at least ask it in a less crass way? And then to follow up with whether or not they think their wives are screwing around on them. Sweet merciful crap. What is wrong with people?

Posted by: Sarah at 06:47 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Watch this video on the good news from Iraq. It reminds me of why we could still use Tim behind a keyboard.

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I'm leaving for Texas in a few minutes. Unfortunately, tonight is the military ball, which my husband is emceeing; I'm quite sad to miss this. As I said goodbye to my husband, I reminded him to have fun but stay out of trouble. He reminded me that those two things are mutually exclusive at a military ball...

Posted by: Sarah at 03:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I just heard about these Active Duty servicemembers who are speaking out against the war. Whatever, that's their business. But I do take issue with one thing the ringleader, SGT Liam Madden, says:

The goal is to have 2,000 names on the Appeal for Redress list when the messages are delivered to members of Congress in January.

"I think that's easily attainable," he said. "There's a seed of dissent in the military against this policy, and a core of people who are acting."

He doesn't believe many military personnel are politically opposed to the war, he said. But, he said, he believes a continuing cycle of redeployment has worn the patience of the troops.

"As far as widespread disapproval of the occupation of Iraq, I know no one likes being deployed over and over again and being away from their families for months at a time," Madden said.

Because of that, "I'm pretty sure there's a base of support" for the appeal to Congress, he said.

I'm not sure I really like the idea that he plans to get more signatures just because people don't want to deploy. If someone honestly thinks that we shouldn't be in Iraq, then he should sign this petition. But someone who just doesn't want to do his job (i.e. deploy where the military says to) shouldn't be lumped in the same category. Most soldiers and marines are growing weary from on-a-year-off-a-year, but they aren't the same as those who are anti-war.

One thing I found humorous was the quote from Madden's mother:

The clashing philosophies expressed by antiwar activists and the administration on Wednesday may ring familiar for Madden, who found himself in friendly debates with his mother, a supporter of using force against tyranny.

"We were direct opposites for a long time," said Oona Madden, a former restaurant owner in Bellows Falls. "I did support the war and still do to some extent. I don't buy into everything Liam tells me, but I support what he's doing -- as long as he covers his butt."

It's not too often you find an anti-war marine with a pro-war mama!

Posted by: Sarah at 01:03 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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