Why Liberals Hate War (via RWN)

The Democrats can see the writing on the wall. They know that if we stick around and maintain our will there is no way we can lose this conflict. We shall prevail! And that idea is terrifying to the Democrats and the rest of the American left. Why? Because it shows that war CAN solve problems. That with our overwhelming technical skill we can invade and secure just about any other country in the world, and not only that, but we can get a democratically elected government in place within just a few years.

War never solved anything? My fat ass it didnÂ’t. In the last four years two wars have liberated two countries, and we are in the process of getting those countries on their way to prosperity and self-sufficience. In terms of the cost of life, especially when you look at the numbers for previous wars, we have suffered quite a low number. While the death of any man or woman is tragic, they should be honored to the fullest for their sacrifice to this nation, and to the people of Iraq.

The Democrats and the left cannot have this. The US has been in the “lose” column for so long now, That’s been one of their main sources of political strength. They must prevent, at all costs, the US from getting to a point where this was can be chalked up as a win. If we get a win then we negate the rallying cry of Vietnam.

The Roots of Anti-Americanism

The Constitution of the United States of America is a greater achievement than the ancient pyramids of Egypt.

Our brilliant forefathers got it right the first time, and it was the very first time, because they were inventing the wheel. The Constitution of the United States serves as the foundation for the world's oldest democracy today. Consider that: This country that Europeans regard as so young and immature is by far the oldest and most stable democracy in the world. Consider France: it followed suit and threw away its kings shortly after we did. Then came the emperor Napoleon. France is on its fifth republic (fifth constitution) today. We got it right the first time.

Now let's put ourselves in Europeans' shoes. How do you think they're going to react? Are they going to acknowledge this brilliance that puts their own stupid and immoral feudal system to shame? I don't think so.

You've Got Male: How about a little fair play in the battle of the sexes?

The clout of female voters has been transmuted into a strangely pervasive inattention to the legitimate needs of boys and men. While there remain grating sources of unfairness to women, the community is in the process of steadily creating a new legal and educational structure that generates new gender unfairness: 90% of the victims of Ritalin and similar drugs prescribed for schoolkids are boys; but even drugged they perform less well than girls. A 2005 study at Yale found nationally that even in prekindergarten boys are nearly five times as likely to be expelled as girls.

What is going on in this country?

Of course those who can do the work should receive the rewards. However, the broader question is: Who defines the work and evaluates it? The drastic occupational and familial situation of especially minority males suggests the urgency of a hard review of this issue. Were females the victims of such apparent sex-based unfairness, the legal paper attacking the matter would cloud the air like flakes of New Hampshire snow. But since it's only males . . .

Posted by: Sarah at 05:37 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Sarah, I believe you are correct that we are making it much harder on boys than ever before. But it has been the lot of boys throughout the ages to have to shoulder that burden. What doesn't kill us, does indeed make us stronger. Boys today are very strong willed individuals. That makes us strive for success at whatever we find ourselves good at. However, it also means we need women much less than we used to, especially for long term relationships. The thing I fear most for my son is that he will be used and abused by women for most of his life. That he will strive so hard to satisfy her every need and desire, only to inevitably fall short because women today demand more of a man than he can humanly provide. So he will realize he doesn't need her trouble and will go through life alone. Most of my peers are in this situation. They either live in unhappy marriages with their wives demanding attention constantly to the exclusion of their owns needs, or they have learned they need time for themselves and hobbies they can do alone, and they leave the women who crush them under the burden of constant demands. Be careful what you wish for ladies. When you no longer need or care for us as we care for and need you, we will have nothing to live for, and we will not be around long. Subsunk

Posted by: Subsunk at December 23, 2005 03:57 PM (6RsXX)

2 Please avoid running together Democrats, most of whom (like me) opposed the Iraq War but support the use of force in other instances, with the Michael Moore/Green Party/Cindy Sheehan crowd that very likely does have a "war is always wrong" mentality. If there is one historical figure who has influenced my thinking about politics it is John Stuart Mill, and I think that at one time you had up his quote about about an unwillingness to fight for anything being worse than war itself. (That came from an essay on the American Civil War, buyt he way. He was trying to buck up the North.) If there is one more contemporary person whose judgment I most highly regard in military matters it is Colin Powell, who is a reluctant warrior but can hardly be called a pacifist. (How many of the current problems we face in Iraq are due to Rumsfeld's need to prove that he was smarter than Powell and did not need to follow the Powell doctrine of using overwhelming force?) Most Democrats wholeheartedly suppored the invasion of Afghanistan. HOWARD DEAN supported it. I know it makes it much easier for you to defend the war if you can depict everyone who opposed it as coming from the looney left, but here is your chance to atone for your decision to study French and eschew the intellectually lazy option.

Posted by: Pericles at December 24, 2005 09:50 AM (eKf5G)

3 Pericles, "(How many of the current problems we face in Iraq are due to Rumsfeld's need to prove that he was smarter than Powell and did not need to follow the Powell doctrine of using overwhelming force?)" Let's ask this another way. How many of the current problems in Iraq are due to the fact that we don't have a military sized to handle a long occupation and fight a war of attrition without Reservists and Guardsmen? Since we began the downsizing in 1991 and accelerated it in 1993 (with 51 percent of the combat arms MOSs in the Reserve and Guard by 1995), I guess the answer would be all of our problems in Iraq are due to not having 2.5 million men in the Army and Marine Corps on active duty. And who's fault is that? The American people's fault. They have consistently chosen to do things as cheaply as possible. Imagine that. And our military leaders have consistently refused to ask for more than they need to do the bare minimum of our estimated job (they aren't clairvoyant either). So the problems in Iraq are not due to George Bush, Bill Clinton, Donald Rumsfeld, or Jesus Christ. The blame lies with a philosophy that cheaper is better until someone dies. And then, since it takes 3 years to increase the size of the military significantly, it is too late to do anything about it. You can't predict the future any better than I can. In WWII we made do with what we had. It wasn't perfect. This isn't either. But it's a damn sight better than doing nothing. So unless you, the American public, are willing to take responsibility for not throwing a lot more money at defense, and giving up Social Security and Medicare for Defense, quit blaming people who are only human and are doing their best with what they are given. That includes Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld. If 2160 men dead is too much for America to handle, then quadruple the Defense budget. Quit arguing over whether we have enough F-22 Raptors, submarines, destroyers, carriers, tanks, and UAVs. Buy them all and use them and train in them. Give us enough Men to keep them running 100% and always hit the right target. Since the country can't survive that kind of expenditure, we are doing a great job with what you've given us. A little history of the sacrifices of the home front in WWII should be reviewed before casting aspersions on how this war is prosecuted. Until you are willing to give up your coffee, gasoline, rubber, tin, scrap metal, and live with significant shortages in most consumer goods, then shutup about how smart someone who is guarding your money, your economy, your security, and your life is doing. You ain't got it all that bad. You still got your life. Our soldiers are offering theirs so you won't have to be inconvenienced at all. That makes them, not Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Bill Clinton, or even George W Bush, more important than anyone else in this country. Unless you think their lives are less important than your own job, savings account, favorite charity, or next meal. Subsunk

Posted by: Subsunk at December 24, 2005 06:36 PM (6RsXX)

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-- Here's what multiculturalism gets us: Iran saying that we need to be "more tolerant" of their view that the Holocaust didn't happen. Give me a freaking break. It's not possible to be more tolerant of blatant falsehoods. But that's what our trend towards "accepting all views" has gotten us.

-- I enjoy thinking about generational differences. The other day I was flipping through Redbook and found a shockingly graphic article about how to get it on in the shower. Like detailed descriptions of who should place which body part where. Whenever I come across articles like that in regular old "mainstream" magazines, I always have the same thought: What would my grandmothers have thought if they had come across the same article back when they were my age? It brings me a good laugh to think about naughty shower articles being published in 1939.

-- (via Cold Fury) Thomas Lifson takes Howell Raines to task for saying "He [George W. Bush] adopted the full agenda of redneck America." It's amazing what Respected Journalists can get away with as long as they aim their hatred at white men.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:35 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I think most people on the left think that we right-wingers love Fox News. Fox is always trotted out as the one example of ultra-conservative views, and several times when I have repeated something I read online, people have said, "What, did you hear that on Fox?" when they don't believe me. For the record, I know many right-wingers who don't like Fox. My husband and I enjoy watching Forbes on Fox and Cavuto on Business, but that's about it.

I personally see very little difference in the way Fox reports the news. For example, on Iraqi election day last week, the Fox reporter said, "This is the day Bush has been waiting for...", which really burned me up. Why not the day the Iraqi people have been waiting for, or the day the world has been waiting to see, or the day the American public, or anything but always placing the emphasis on Bush? Fox is just as crappy, and it drives me nuts. In fact, the day after Iraqi election day, my husband sat down and checked all websites of the major networks. MSNBC, ABC, CNN, they all had that stupid freezing rain as their top story. My husband said, "I bet Fox got it right," as he typed in the URL. Nope, they also went with freezing rain, though at least the Iraqi election was the second story; the other news sources didn't even have it on their main pages.

Therefore, I wasn't that surprised to find that Brit Hume on Fox only ranks as slightly right of center on that new media study from UCLA. Fox isn't nearly as far right as people like to pretend.

Take a few minutes to read the results of that study. They seem to have done a good job trying to filter out bias in their study. Interesting stuff.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:17 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 As you might have guessed, invoking Fox News is simply a way some people handwave away views they don't agree with. I hardly watch network or cable news and I keep getting told that all I watch is Fox News, or if they're really trying to get cute: "Faux" News. Ooo... isn't that so clever to spell it that way?

Posted by: Patrick Chester at December 19, 2005 09:35 AM (MKaa5)

2 Sarah, Agree with you wholeheartedly. Although Fox tries harder to be fair and balanced, they frequently allow total idiots to put out what any engineer, philosopher. or military historian could debunk as untruths of the Left and touchy feely liberals. For instance, how many times can a Dhimmicrat claim there is no plan, when there obviously is one. Maybe it isn't going perfectly, but what war ever has? Or how about the discussion about how oil companies are gouging folks deliberately. I lived in Texas during the oil bust of the 80s. My high school friends' fathers were losing their businesses, homes, jobs, and the shirts off their backs because they couldn't make enough drilling because the oil was too cheap. My old girlfriend's new husband was in the oil business, and got laid off with 2 kids to feed. He had to take a loan officer job at the bank -- foreclosing on the rigs and equipment of the folks he used to work with. He hated what he had to do so much he spent all his spare time training to be a sheriff and eventually join the FBI. He never wanted to go back to hurting his friends again. The oil companies laid off thousands of folks in Houston just because oil was so cheap they couldn't afford to pay their employees and still keep from bankruptcy. So because oil is now a commodity, we pay whatever Hugo Chavez wants to charge us, and that is somehow Exxon's fault when he jacks up the price to cheat his own people out of their revenue and line his cronies' pockets? Fox isn't perfect. It is still too far left for most common sense military folks who know what war is about and how to fight one. They try to distill an entire epic down to a 10 second sound bite. But they're better than most, so we watch them instead of SeeBS. Keep on keepin' on, gal. You are doin' fine. Subsunk

Posted by: Subsunk at December 19, 2005 11:30 PM (6RsXX)

3 We also lived in Houston during the 80's. It was a horrible time. People would pack up and leave their homes in the middle of the night. We went from a very comfortable way of life to barely making ends meet. We left in 1990, and I still miss the good people of Texas. Sarah's Mama

Posted by: Nancy at December 20, 2005 02:04 PM (Z+RCN)

4 Yeah, they're not right-wing, they're simply not virulently left wing. Then again, for many leftists that's the same thing as being a right-wing extremist. Probably the same for right-wing extremists, but they're marginalized, whereas the other side is aggrandized. Kalroy

Posted by: Kalroy at December 20, 2005 08:25 PM (AwOS7)

5 Kalroy stole what I was planning to say. Because FOX is not in total lockstep with the main alphabet soup folks, they get branded as ultra-conservative. Also because Brit dares to have people like Fred Barnes or Bill Kristol on panels (balanced by Mara Liasson and Juan Williams) - surely they must be neocons, right?

Posted by: Barb at December 21, 2005 01:55 AM (g9qHI)

6 To say Fox "is still far too left" of anything shows how far the scale has moved in this country. The people you decry as "far left fringe" are actually moderates in any other democracy. Some people need to pick up a book or two and realize that buzzwords and propaganda don't change the actual definition of political positions. They can be fluid but weren't meant to be splashed onto the wall and called whatever your talking points says they should be called.

Posted by: mmm...lemonheads at December 21, 2005 03:55 PM (uZuRD)

7 mmm...huh?

Posted by: Sarah at December 21, 2005 04:26 PM (EhEOa)

8 lemmonhead, Gee, I guess the GOP email address book forgot me. I haven't had my talking points today. Can't survive without them. Of course, I survived without them for 47 yrs, so maybe I can struggle on through without them. "The people you decry as "far left fringe" are actually moderates in any other democracy. Some people need to pick up a book or two and realize that buzzwords and propaganda don't change the actual definition of political positions. They can be fluid but weren't meant to be splashed onto the wall and called whatever your talking points says they should be called." A "moderate" in any other democracy would not insist on impeachment without crime, defeat without honor, retreat without failure, and whining and crying about their own defense by better people than said "moderates". Military folks don't get to pick and choose who in the country they will defend. If they did, you can bet there would not be much effort expended to save folks who think the country can't win wars, shouldn't protect its citizens because it violates the terrorists' civil rights, and who insists other Men and Women sacrifice their lives and efforts for the "moderates" safety and well being while denigrating their work. If other democracies believe Howard the Coward, Nancy the Nut Case, and John I'll Retreat Before Battle Is Joined because we just can't win anything, then I guess I don't think they are truly serious moderate democracies who will stand up against tyranny. Can't wait to see how they handle the coming Islamic Caliphate, when the Real "Moderate Islamists" begin stabbing them, beheading them, and beating the women who don't wear hijab. I won't be counting on their support to defend my family from harm. They've never come through before. You are free to hold to your opinion. It merely shows how uneducated and blissfully ignorant of true sacrifice and honor you are. Walk on, bud. Right off the cliff your heading for. Subsunk

Posted by: Subsunk at December 24, 2005 09:53 AM (6RsXX)

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Get. The. F. Out.

This season, America celebrates a holiday whose premise is that God himself came to Earth -- and was given the death penalty. Tookie Williams died at Midnight on the Feast Day for Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of God and patron saint of the Americas. How fitting that the GOP and the Religious Right lobbied for the execution -- and that Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Catholic whose church opposes the death penalty, made the final decision.

Celebrity executions, from Jesus to Tookie Williams, have whatever meaning human actions give them. And the meaning of Tookie's? That the Religious Right, that bastion of politicized pseudo-religion and hypocritical power-grabbing, pronounced its own spiritual death by shouting hosannahs for his execution -- as it has done for the anonymous dead before him.

No disrespect is intended by calling the Crucifixion a "celebrity execution." Quite the contrary -- the power and meaning of the Christ story as it was taught to me is just that: that God Himself would come to Earth anonymously and died despised and forgotten by all but a few, only to be redeemed on behalf of all. His celebrity came later, as a result of His sacrifice. The significance of the death lies in its affirmation of life, in the understanding of believers that it was an act of love -- love for life and the living.

This post, found at RWN, is just jawdropping. You have to be absolutely kidding that 1) this was written, and 2) the comments section is full of people who agree. And the last line...

Another Christmas is coming to the Americas, and another American is gone. If you pray, don't pray for him: pray for us.

Must...fight...urge to start swearing uncontrollably.

Tookie Williams was a murderer. He killed four people before my husband was even freaking born, and he's been wasting air ever since. He was a gangster and a thug, and I don't care how many dadburned children's books he wrote. He shot four people that we know of and laughed about it later. He never expressed regret for what he'd done, yet somehow he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. (Maybe Arafat will show Tookie his while they're both rotting in hell together.)

I clapped the day Timothy McVeigh was executed, and I clapped again Tuesday when Tookie was finally dead. Tookie may have "died despised and forgotten by all but a few", but he most certainly will not be redeemed, and should never be compared to Jesus.

The more I try to grok, the more I feel disgusted at mankind.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:50 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Posted by: Sarah at 03:37 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Tonight at the dinner table, the husband and I raced to finish each other's sentences as we both realized we'd read the same article and come to the same conclusion. The results of this ABC poll in Iraq are interesting all around, but the most striking thing was how they parallel the American experience. 70% of Iraqis say their own life is going well, but only 44% say that their country is doing well. That sounds almost exactly like something I heard Rush Limbaugh say on the radio a few weeks ago. He said he gets callers who, well, I'll let him say it in his own words:

"[Jack] Welch told Fox News Channel that President Bush has much to be proud of with regard to the economy, but he has to get out there and sell himself - and his accomplishments - to the American people to let them know about it. 'President Bush put a tax bill through that supported capital formation and risk taking,' Welch said. 'We’ve created 2 million jobs a year after the 9/11 attacks. That’s a remarkable accomplishment. Bush has to get out there and talk about it.' Despite the recent natural disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the U.S. economy continues to grow, and the stock market seems to weather every storm.'" In fact, last week the stock market was -- well, not at a record high but, I mean, it was at ten seven, the Dow Jones industrial average at 10,700 something. "Welch certainly noticed" all this. "Most business people have noticed. Investors noticed. But, according to the recent polls – which show the president’s approval rating at its lowest level of his presidency – the majority of Americans have not been persuaded of the 'good news economy.'" Now, you know why this is. This is very simple. This is one of the most remarkable phenomena that I recall experiencing as host of this wildly successful program and it is this: We could be in the middle of an economic boom; I get phone calls from people, "Yeah, I'm doing okay, Rush. I am just doing fabulous. But I'm worried about my neighbors."

"Why are you worried about your neighbors? Is the Meals on Wheels showing up at their house every day? What are you worried about?"

"Well, I just see the news on TV and the economy's not doing all that well. People are this and that. I'm just worried about my neighbor."

"Well, do you know that they're doing badly or are you just worried about them?"

"No, I'm doing okay," and then there's some guilt associated with it. So most people's perception of their own economic circumstances are fine but all this negative news makes them think everybody else out there is, you know, eating dirt. They refuse to feel good about it because they think they're going to feel guilty.

I believe the same sort of phenomenon is happening in Iraq, that individual Iraqis feel they are doing well, but they keep hearing about bombs and insurgency, so they think the country is not doing well. I know it's not a perfect comparison, the US economy and the situation in Iraq, but my husband and I couldn't help but notice the parallel.

Anyway, the whole ABC poll is worth a read.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Does it get any better than Varifrank? I submit that it does not.

[The Western mainstream media] compares our actions at abu-ghirab with the saddam regime, as if being held in a compromising position by the ugliest woman from West Kentucky was anything like being killed, butchered and buried with a 1000 people from your hometown.

There's more, much more, on the virtues of propaganda.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:25 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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There's just something that irked me about this paragraph in this totally finger-pointing article Lieberman's pro-war views concern Dems. I absolutely hate when "journalists" throw stuff like this in (italics mine):

Lieberman, who seems to relish his role as a maverick, is veering far from the Democratic script. His vocal support for the war, a stark and frequent reminder of the deep divisions among Democrats on how to end the war, makes him something of a marked man.

As if Lieberman is purposely trying to tick off Democrats. Ever consider that maybe he really does disagree with his party? Ever consider that he's standing up for what he believes in? Nope, he's just relishing the beat of a different drum. That's not reporting, that's editorializing. I hate the media.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:30 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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The mystery knitting project is complete. Two years ago I made a wonderful DNA scarf for a friend of mine who got her degree in genetics. I was struggling to come up with an idea of a baby gift to make for her first child, born the day after Thanksgiving. I followed a link on Lola's blog to the most fitting gift I could ever imagine. Mine didn't turn out quite as nice as Kimberly Chapman's (I think my gauge was a little off), but I still think my friend's new daughter will like it. And that solves the mystery of the "black weiner-looking thing": it was the side strand of a DNA helix.

(P.S. The DNA scarf pattern is no longer available online, so I had to link to another knitter who made the same scarf. I poked around on his blog and found a delightful article about manly knitting during WWII. The Girl, I'm thinking of making another DNA scarf for myself -- wanna join me?)

Posted by: Sarah at 09:10 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 "Black weiner-looking thing." LMAO! I nearly spit my coffee out when I read that! Anyway, the DNA scarf is pretty cool.

Posted by: Cin at December 10, 2005 12:24 PM (2cgON)

2 ABSOLUTELY!!!!

Posted by: The Girl at December 10, 2005 01:56 PM (fnnpr)

3 My father-in-law was a WWII vet who crocheted from a childhood during the depression. He taught me to crochet in 1990 and I was privileged to to be able to crochet the baby blankets that my children came home from the hospital in. No one can ever tell me that being able to create something from scratch with just a hook and a skein of yarn is unmanly.

Posted by: Jim at December 11, 2005 11:46 AM (JCNLJ)

4 My husband's best friend from high school -- an Air Force captain -- crochets blankets and hats all the time. There's nothing unmanly about him.

Posted by: Sarah at December 11, 2005 04:18 PM (PSp3S)

5 Love the scarf!!! When I was stationed in Grand Forks, North Dakota, I learned to crochet to have something to do during those long cold winters.

Posted by: Ted at December 12, 2005 12:45 PM (blNMI)

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Thanks to JCK for pointing out that I am in the running for the worth-a-chuckle category Best of the Top 3501 - 5000 Blogs, found here. And a hearty thanks to the 50 people who have voted for me and whoever it was who nominated me in the first place. You made my day.

(P.S. I noticed the competition is ecosystem-based. Can anyone explain to me how to merge my two blogs there? I have tried and tried, but I can't get tryingtogrok.com and tryingtogrok.mu.nu to be reflected as the same blog. Not that I want to move higher in the ecosystem...that would probably put me up against much stiffer competition!)

Posted by: Sarah at 04:00 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Hey, John Kerry...wanna see some of the kids my husband terrorized in Iraq?

This kid he terrorized by building a school for him...

This kid he terrorized by letting him wear his Wiley Xs...

This kid he terrorized by giving him a water bottle when it was 130 degrees...

The only thing my husband terrorized these kids with was his handwriting...

John Kerry, you're out of your element here.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:05 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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I don't normally show knitting works in progress, but I'll give you ten bucks if you can guess what this is going to be...

Give up? You'll have to wait a few days to find out...

Posted by: Sarah at 06:01 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Reader Beth sent me two things...one outrageous -- Palestinians Unveil Monument Honoring Sheehan -- and one wonderful -- SewMuchComfort.org. The extent of my sewing is typically rank insignia, but if you're good at sewing, you might be a perfect candidate to make pajama pants that actually fit over prosthetics and splints for our recovering soldiers and marines at Walter Reed.

UPDATE:

Amritas points out that the Sheehan thing is a joke. Whew. Though nothing surprises me these days...

Posted by: Sarah at 05:55 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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When I lived in Sweden, I noticed that my friend had a bald eagle trinket on her desk. "Where did you get this?" I asked. "Maryellen gave it to me," she replied. "Ahhh," I said. "Who's that?" "Your fiance's mother!" my friend gasped.

Is it regional what we call adults when we're kids? When I was growing up, I never would've dreamed of calling adults by their first names. All my parents' friends, all the leaders of my clubs, every adult I knew was called Mr. or Mrs. In fact, I still think of most of my parents' friends as Mr. and Mrs. (Hi, Mr. Schultz!) I didn't even call my in-laws by their first names until my husband and I had been engaged for quite a while.

Tonight I started volunteering with the Girl Scouts, and I was mildly shocked that the girls call the leaders by their first names. I guess there's nothing wrong with that if it's the leaders' choice, but it struck me as a little odd, given that I can remember all my old Girl Scout leaders' names, but they all start with Mrs! I couldn't tell you those mothers' first names to save my life.

I've noticed that most people around her prefer to go by Miss + First Name, as in Miss Sarah. That's OK with me, being 28 and all, but don't any kids call adults Mr. or Mrs. these days? Or am I just a stuffy fuddy-duddy from Texas?

Posted by: Sarah at 04:46 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 I raised my children to address ALL adults as Mr., Mrs. or Ms. no matter what their age. Adult=living independently and paying bills Here in Oklahoma everyone is addressed as Ma'am or Sir. I love it! I used to think it made me feel old, but now I see it's a simple show of respect.

Posted by: Vonn at December 06, 2005 05:42 PM (dEgRi)

2 My daughter lives in Georgia, it is the norm there. Brad

Posted by: Brad at December 06, 2005 06:26 PM (Qz3ul)

3 Sarah, I don't know if it's regional, but I think it just has to do with how "fuddy-duddy" our parents were. My mom taught me to say "Mr." or "Mrs." until the adult told me to do otherwise. But I hate being called Mrs. Erin. It reminds me of when I was in daycare!

Posted by: Erin at December 07, 2005 02:26 AM (O0IlC)

4 That's interesting that you brought this up. When we were in Germany, I noticed that many children were addressing adults as (esp women) Mr or Miss, followed by first name. I was told that this practice was a "southern thing"...I had never heard of doing this...I'm from the north (Yankee) and I grew up addressing adults as Mr or Mrs, followed by last name, as you said. I actually prefer being called by my first name (Mrs makes me feel OLD). When I was in college, most of my professors asked to be called by their first names...liberal university

Posted by: Nicole at December 07, 2005 10:24 AM (KJBDI)

5 i agree. i still feel somewhat uncomfortable calling "adults" by their first name. Even though i fit Vonn's definition of "adult" i don't think of myself as one, and i'd e horrified if some young whippersnapper referred to me as Ms.

Posted by: annika at December 07, 2005 11:58 AM (6x0dA)

6 yes, we are fuddy-duddies, and we happen to be correct... i'm an asst scoutmaster for my son's Boy Scout Troop, and i can guarantee that all of our adults are "Mister" or "Mrs." we even had one of our Eagle scouts turn 18, so we brought him back as another asst Scoutmaster, and all the Scouts have to refer to him as "ASM {last name}", even though they use his first name in the hallways at school.

Posted by: MajMike at December 07, 2005 12:52 PM (zXWkt)

7 My friends children either call me Miss Tammi or if we are really close Aunt Tammi. It's always been there - with all of them. But I noticed so many children don't any more. I still struggle with that. I'm in Sales and when I'm making calls I still refer to them as Mrs/Mr/Miss until I've gotten to know them or they tell me other wise.

Posted by: Tammi at December 07, 2005 09:25 PM (fG4Jz)

8 There has to be SOME benefit to being an adult. I would have never dreamed of calling an adult by anything other than their honorific and surname. I expect the same treatment now that I'm the "grown up". Let's expect more from the kids of the world. GOOD MANNERS.

Posted by: Miss Rogers at December 12, 2005 02:15 PM (WE6BG)

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Remember those puppies who were born about two months ago? Well, Charlie got to meet little Elway this weekend. We managed to take a funny series of photos called Charlie Bullies the Newborn:

Scene 1: After several minutes of being oblivious, Charlie notices Elway has his bone

Scene 2: Charlie comes to see what he can do about it

Scene 3: Despite Elway's best efforts, Charlie gently pulls the bone away

Scene 4: Elway stands by dejectedly as Charlie reclaims his bone

Scene 5: Charlie is a victorious jerk

Despite the fact that Elway holds his own with my friend's 120 lb. dog, he was a bit timid around Charlie. We're hoping that they might do better together in a few more weeks, but from the look of things they may turn out to be friends after all...

Posted by: Sarah at 04:15 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Waaaaaaaah! I want a dog too!

Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at December 04, 2005 07:06 PM (nOZSi)

2 Sarah, So cute!! I'm sorry I missed it! And CaliValleyGirl, I have an extra puppy that I'd be more than willing to pawn off to you!

Posted by: Erin at December 05, 2005 02:47 AM (1jSU1)

3 Hey, too bad we didn't mix Winston into the picture! What a mess that would be!

Posted by: Stephanie at December 05, 2005 04:51 AM (MOoZ+)

4 How could Charlie even find the bone with all that hair??? HH6

Posted by: Household6 at December 05, 2005 09:04 AM (T+Tkq)

5 OOOOOOOOO! They are both so cute! (Big statement coming from the biggest chicken in the world). I just want to hug both of them.......as long as they stay below my knee!

Posted by: Vonn at December 05, 2005 10:29 AM (dEgRi)

6 apparently I'm not very observant. I see you've answered the Grok question many times!

Posted by: Monique at December 06, 2005 01:45 PM (AK5UJ)

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Holocaust victims to be reburied at Stuttgart ceremony

The bodies of Holocaust victims unearthed in September at Stuttgart Army Airfield will be reburied there on Dec. 15, a local Jewish leader said.

A Moral War

We took no oil — the price in fact skyrocketed after we invaded Iraq. We did not do Israel’s bidding; in fact, it left Gaza after we went into Iraq and elections followed on the West Bank. We did not want perpetual hegemony — in fact, we got out of Saudi Arabia, used the minimum amount of troops possible, and will leave Iraq anytime its consensual government so decrees. And we did not expropriate Arab resources, but, in fact, poured billions of dollars into Iraq to jumpstart its new consensual government in the greatest foreign aid infusion of the age.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Interesting article on the minimum wage: Dead-end jobs
The comments section at RWN is hosting some good fights about the article.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:38 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I didn't see this particular reporter badger Laura Bush, but I did see some other reporter (don't remember her name or which network) annoy Mrs. Bush in front of the White House Christmas tree. I must say that Mrs. Bush is the height of class. This reporter asked her if President Bush is feeling nervous this Christmas because of Rove and Libby; Mrs. Bush deflected all of her family's complaints, saying that any Christmas is hard when we're at war and when loved ones are far. She refused to let the reporter bug her about politics and kept returning to praise of our troops and their families. I thought it was touching, but maybe Jessica Yellin took it as an invitation to talk Iraq and try to make Mrs. Bush look heartless. What a low blow.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:21 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've never been a tattoo person because I have a hard time imagining that I would want something on my body for forever. When my college friend interviewed the local tattoo parlor owner for a paper she wrote, the #1 tattoo for 1996 was the Tasmanian Devil. Do you know any grandpas who would want that on their biceps? I remember vividly the man who came to do maintenance on my grandma's apartment: he had a naked lady tattooed on his forearm. I'm sure that sounded like a great idea when he was 18, but not so much when he was 60.

Still, I gained a better appreciation of permanence after I read the book 7 Tattoos. And I did get tickled knowing that the Fellowship of the Ring all got the same elvish tattoo. I suppose if a tattoo means something or represents an event, it's better than the Tasmanian Devil. But I will say that the most touching tattoo story I've heard comes from Iraq.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:11 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Hey The Girl -- when are they gonna lower our gas prices like they did in the Pacific? We're still at $2.78, and the national average is $2.15? Yuck.

SheepDog asks where our Thomas Paines are. I agree with him that MilBlogs are handling that task quite nicely, but I'd also like to give props to Bill Whittle. His book, Silent America, is a rally cry for our time.

Tanker sent me a link: The Iraq story: how troops see it

And our friend Tim sent me words from Joe Lieberman, a sane man in a sea of crazies. Hard to believe he ran with Al Gore...

Posted by: Sarah at 04:51 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Sarah, my shoppette just put up the new pricing and 200L of regular unleaded is now $133. That's down $30~ or so (maybe less). So keep an eye out they are supposed to have dropped it. HH6

Posted by: Household6 at December 01, 2005 07:26 AM (T+Tkq)

2 I don't mean to make any deep point here, but about that Yahoo story... You've got a couple of soldiers who start giving kids candy, hoping that they are less likely to be attacked by terrorists if kids are hanging around. Is that a great plan? I don't doubt that they developed real affection for those girls, and of course when they were worried about an attack once they tried to protect them, but still, trying to use kids to shield yourself doesn't seem like the best of ideas.

Posted by: Pericles at December 01, 2005 09:37 AM (eKf5G)

3 I love being called to task over gas prices haha I came SO close to posting about this over the weekend, but decided that I didn't want to complain every SINGLE month about gas prices... This was in Sunday's paper - I read it in amusement, after reading an article from back home, where they were complaining about the prices now being in the "high $1.90's." We end up talking about gas prices just about every month now - and apparently, it "costs" AAFES $0.16 per gallon to pay for shipment of the fuel as well as the gas coupon program. The letters to the editor (I'm not sure if they show up in the online version of the paper here or not?) in the Sunday papers have focused on the prices for weeks now. Apparently, there is a lot of confusion about that "average" price we're supposed to be paying - because it includes taxes. And, of course, that doesn't make much sense for the average they base our paying price on to include sales tax, which we don't pay on any of the other goods here. Good grief. I think maybe I should have posted this weekend after all

Posted by: The Girl at December 01, 2005 11:52 AM (IQ2mP)

4 So our gas prices here are $1.90 (on post) for regular unleaded and yours are STILL $2.78? Who's getting that extra $.88 (well minus the shipping fee)?? I remember the almost three years of overseas shoppette gas prices...they've gotten worse, I must say. I'll keep you posted on our "post" prices...and will pray that yours go down!!!!

Posted by: Nicole N at December 01, 2005 12:55 PM (KJBDI)

5 Gas prices in New Jersey just went to $1.84. We are enjoying this while it lasts... Love you guys...

Posted by: Kelly's Mom at December 01, 2005 03:16 PM (f+2Ai)

6 Here is the Oklahoma heartland we're at $1.91. Gas prices are one thing I don't miss about Germany. Stay strong!

Posted by: Vonn at December 01, 2005 11:15 PM (sDFje)

7 That's a pretty big leap isn't it Pericles? That soldiers main motivation for being nice to kids is to draw them in as a quasi-human shield? As if it would help draw some sympathy from Zarqawi's gang! I spent a year in Iraq in a Sunni stronghold and kids swarmed us like we were rock stars. In fact we were discouraged from handing out candy or school supplies straight from Humvees because it encouraged kids to run up to us as we drove by and we didn't want them getting hurt if we were attacked. We try to minimize civillian casualties, get it? The enemy tries to maximize them.

Posted by: Joe D. at December 02, 2005 04:41 PM (jBkpN)

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