October 21, 2006
HEH
I just want to be a jerk for a minute and point something out.
Go Cardinals!
UPDATE:
Tigers in three? Not so much.
Posted by: Sarah at
04:19 PM
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OK I am a Tiger's Fan! But that fat, lard butt, moron is a disgrace to the people of this state! His Tigers hat is as insincere as everything else about this bloated egotistical lump of crap.
Posted by: Jim at October 23, 2006 03:37 PM (IHxDy)
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Oh ya...Tigers in 6!
Go Tigers!
Posted by: Jim at October 23, 2006 03:40 PM (IHxDy)
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Sarah, I'm in Cleveland, been having a hard time deciding....this does it..GO CARDS...sorry Detroit.
Posted by: Mary*Ann at October 25, 2006 03:24 AM (bdvqO)
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RED, WHITE & AWESOME
Today rivals our 4th of July for Americanness. We voted (absentee), went to the State Fair and ate our weight in okra and deep fried Snickers, and now we're drinking beer and watching the World Series. Take that, Mellencamp: this is our country.
Posted by: Sarah at
03:40 PM
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Sarah, could you possibly enumerate your grievances, with this advertisement. I have seen it and all I get from it, is at least it isn't as odious as that piece of shit Lee Greenwood tune.
Posted by: BubbaBoBobBrain at October 22, 2006 04:39 PM (8ruhu)
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Well, I wrote about it a couple of days ago (on the 16th). I agree with most of what's in the Slate article. I have no beef with the song, but I don't really understand what devastating wildfires and flooding have to do with this being "our country". The only image that really pumps me up is Shepard hitting golf balls on the moon. I think the rest of it highlights shameful moments in US history.
Posted by: Sarah at October 22, 2006 05:41 PM (7Wklx)
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Saw it again last night, and I think your missing the larger picture. The Katrina/flooding sequence is followed by american people helping their fellow americans(the raising of a frame of a new house), Rosa Parks should be an inspitation to everyone to do the right thing, same for the late Reverand King. The images of the Vietnam protests should serve as a reminder that this democraticc republic requires PARTICIPATION, and hopefully, an informed electorate. At least that is my take on it, as for the yutz writing in Slate, well now you know why I stopped reading both Slate, and Salon, though Salon is usually better written. Seems to me being waaaayyy younger than me you don't have the same frame of reference towards the images as I do.
Posted by: BubbaBoBobBrain at October 23, 2006 07:55 PM (8ruhu)
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Maybe it is an age thing, I don't know. It was said that the commercial shows the US, blemishes and all. But I don't know what that has to do with trying to sell a car. There's a time to reflect on the deep meaning of certain images in history, but I don't think a car commercial is that time. A car commercial should be rah-rah, and the target Chevy audience probably doesn't think hippies and Nixon is a good mental association for a new truck.
Posted by: Sarah at October 24, 2006 09:34 AM (7Wklx)
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October 20, 2006
LINK
John Hawkins has a
great interview with Larry Elder on race, health care, free trade, and blogging.
Posted by: Sarah at
10:50 AM
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Man, I love Larry Elders.
Posted by: Erin at October 20, 2006 05:07 PM (023Of)
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There's a lot of constructive and destructive things to say about Larry Elders. Instead I'll just write out dictionary definitions.
Liberal - 1. abundant, ample, 2. giving freely, generous, 3. open minded, 4. not strict or rigorous, 5. for the general broadening of the mind, 6. favouring moderate politcal and social reform.
Conservative - 1. adverse to rapid change, 2. moderate, avoiding extremes, 3. (of an estimate, etc.) purposely low, 4. tending to conserve
Oxford dictionary puts the most important meaning of each word (in modern English) first.
All of this confirms my suspicion that dictionaries are useless.
Posted by: Will at October 20, 2006 06:03 PM (QRBGL)
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October 19, 2006
BREATHE OUT
Whew, my heart can't handle being a baseball fan. I thought for a while that it might be my duty-Judy to be a Tigers fan next week, but now the Tigers can eat it.
All hail Yadier Molina.
And my sleep cycle can't handle Eastern time zone. Look at me, up until midnight. I'm so off schedule from all these late night games that Charlie and I slept until 0945 this morning. I haven't slept that late since college.
And I sure can't sleep right now; I have to wait for all those butterflies to calm down.
Posted by: Sarah at
06:49 PM
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WHOOO HOOO! The Cards go to the World Series!!! I couldn't be more excited too!
Posted by: Angie at October 20, 2006 05:27 AM (ec43W)
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Great game last night! Definitely ran late on the East Coast. It's rough when you have to get up only a few hours later. Should be a great World Series.
Posted by: NewEngland SportsGuy at October 20, 2006 02:27 PM (9Shuz)
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Tigers in five, the basrball realist in me says Detroit just has too much pitching.
Posted by: BubbaBoBobBrain at October 20, 2006 07:18 PM (8ruhu)
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Tigers in five, four if Carpenter doesn't win. Cardinals didn't win, the Mets choked. A decent girls softball team could hit the Cardinals pitching. The Tigers will tear them up. And yes, I am a bitter Cubs fan. Go Tigers!!!
Posted by: monty at October 21, 2006 06:49 AM (AsKbT)
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I became a Detroit fan after the 9th inning, bases jammed, 1 out, down by 2 Mets choking.
Posted by: Sgt Hook at October 21, 2006 03:34 PM (ZkBlA)
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October 18, 2006
HEH
Iowahawk makes an
appeal to Conservative America. I got such a kick out of this paragraph that I can't stop giggling. Republican stereotypes crack me up.
Despite what you may have heard on Fox News, we Democrats know what issues are on the minds of heartland conservatives like you. We know that your number one concern of is the safety of your children -- whether they are plucking their banjos on the back porch, speaking tongues to snakes at Jesus Camp, or torching crosses at your local Nascar racing contest. We also know that the number one threat to your children's safety is the scourge of international homo-ism. That's why we at the DNC have created "The Contract With American Hillbillies," a new multipoint investigation program to identify and root out conservative stealth homoism before it threatens you or your precious little inbreeds.
Posted by: Sarah at
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I sent the link in an IM to my husband and that's the quote I sent (the last sentence anyhow)... my favorite paragraph. Too, too funny.
Posted by: Synova at October 19, 2006 07:43 AM (8HO37)
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October 17, 2006
FAILING CIVICS
Saw this on MSNBC today:
A new study finds that even top undergraduates are woefully ignorant of history and civic government
I can't say I'm surprised at all. My college GPA was a 3.92 and I missed a couple on the sample test. Embarrassing. And my college did a pretty good job of forcing us to take a variety of courses. Still, even with all those requirements I never had to take economics, statistics, or anything like geography. I think we do a disservice to students by filling their schedules with stuff like "Environmental Global Warming" or "Gender and the Law". I took a class on serial killers, so now I know more than the average person about Ted Bundy but cringed when I got asked a question about the Revolutionary War. That's sad, but I have no one to blame but myself. I just wasn't mature enough from age 18 to 22 to take anything that wasn't fun. Fat lot of good my Russian literature and Japanese classes have done me since.
By the way, I've been looking for a good US history book because I think I could really use a refresher. Anyone out there have any suggestions?
Posted by: Sarah at
04:18 PM
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I just took the sample test, got all eight correct. I will admit that until the last presidential election cycle I would have gotten a couple wrong too Sarah.
Posted by: BubbaBoBobBrain at October 17, 2006 05:52 PM (8ruhu)
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I've been reading on and off for 2 years (because I've reading more than one book at a time) "A Patriot's History of the United States" By Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen. Stay away from Howard Zinn's alternative, A People's History of the US.
Posted by: Chuck at October 17, 2006 06:09 PM (EWQt0)
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Howard Zin _The People's History_. Just thumb through it Sarah. Just thumb through it.
Posted by: Bob at October 17, 2006 06:16 PM (6PBwP)
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Just find a book with dates and names. The rest is bias.
Posted by: Will at October 17, 2006 07:22 PM (QRBGL)
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I also missed 2 of them, but thats because i miss read the answer on one of them, but it would still be wrong on a real test. seeing that only 50% got most of them right, was rather scary.
Posted by: dagamore at October 17, 2006 11:41 PM (7IZfE)
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I think that Ken Davis (author of books that start with "Don't Know Much About..") Has a book on US history. I know I read one a few years back on geography and if I recall correctly, it was a good overview...
Posted by: jck at October 18, 2006 03:00 AM (fRt6P)
Posted by: Dave at October 18, 2006 04:33 AM (6GFTi)
Posted by: Deskmerc at October 18, 2006 06:03 AM (Qlh7l)
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How's this for failure? I've turned off all the blockers and I still can't figure out how to get to the fricking test. I just get the photo and a link that takes me back to the photo.
Posted by: Oda Mae at October 18, 2006 08:46 PM (8kqyx)
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Not a book but a site http://home.wi.rr.com/rickgardiner/primarysources.htm
I love spending time there you will too!
Posted by: gopop at October 21, 2006 06:05 PM (54sg9)
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SHEESH
Good thing we didn't
bet on black.
Posted by: Sarah at
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Scene from Passenger 57:
Snipes: "Do you ever play roulette?"
Bad Guy: "Nope."
Snipes: "Oh, well, do you ever play chess?"
Bad Guy: "Not really."
Snipes: "Parcheesi?"
Bad Guy: "Oh, yes, I quite enjoy that."
Snipes: "Well, let me give you a little advice: ALWAYS BET ON BLACK!"
Bad Guy: "What?"
Snipes: "I'm black."
Bad Guy: "Oh.. alright."
Posted by: Will at October 17, 2006 11:00 AM (QRBGL)
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Thanks, Will. I was REALLY scratching my head on that post. Passenger 57 clearly did not make the same impression on me as on Sarah.
Or else early dementia is kicking in.
Posted by: Oda Mae at October 17, 2006 08:51 PM (945XX)
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Sorry, that's like my husband's favorite ridiculous movie line. He says it all the time. My favorite is "That's none of your damn business, and I'll thank you to stay out of my personal affairs" from Ace Ventura.
Posted by: Sarah at October 18, 2006 03:11 AM (7Wklx)
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Very nice site http://megamozg.com/master-degree/map.html
Posted by: Dale at November 04, 2006 01:55 PM (yu/yc)
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October 16, 2006
THAT AIN'T MY COUNTRY
They've been beating us over the head with that new Chevy commercial during the postseason, and my husband
hates it too. He flies off the handle every time it's on. He's mad that someone would proudly boil the US down to Hurricane Katrina and Vietnam protesters. I'll have to point out this quote from Slate: "I wonder if they could squeeze in the Rodney King beating and the Abu Ghraib photos, too."
There was a much better commercial on AFN that tried for the same concept. I have been looking online for 15 minutes but can't find any trace of it. Those of you in USAREUR will remember the Navy Reserves commercial that laid out things worth fighting for: hot dogs, Route 66, baseball, etc. This Chevy commercial really misses that mark.
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Yeah, that was no where near the Route 66 commercial (and actually, the Route 66 commercial was probably the only AFN commerical I liked).
Bummer for Chevy.
Posted by: Erin at October 16, 2006 12:37 PM (023Of)
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Didn't the Democrats complain about Bush using 9/11 in is political ads? Bush had relevance since he was directly responsible for how 9/11 was handled. How do the tragedies in the Chevy commercial have relevance to their trucks?
Posted by: Amy at October 16, 2006 01:18 PM (DWNNI)
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Check out www.youtube.com
I can't remember the commercial you are looking for, but when I did a search for AFN and it brought back quite a few options.
Posted by: Vonn at October 16, 2006 05:37 PM (/VoEr)
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Thank you. You are the first person to mention how just wrong this commercial is. It really rubs me the wrong way. Right at the outset, the first time I saw it, I questioned using Mellencamp (not sure what name variation he goes by these days), but thought I'd give it a shot. It is awful. It is so far off the mark of what I thought Chevy stood for, or should stand for.
Posted by: Jim at October 17, 2006 05:21 PM (IHxDy)
5
I bitched about this commercial to my girlfriend, she just took it in stride.
Glad I'm not the only one who wondered what happened between 1969 and 2006.
Posted by: John at October 18, 2006 06:59 AM (5/yJm)
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FIELD
All alone for a week; husband's out in the field. Heh, the field, for Finance. They sit around and pretend to pay people.
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I must admit, I've always wondered about that. What's in a finance officer's "go to war" bag?
Posted by: Deskmerc at October 16, 2006 06:34 AM (Qlh7l)
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October 15, 2006
ONLY IN AN ARMY FAMILY
I've got a story that might freak you out -- it's certainly a bit more intense than what you'll find in "Humor in Uniform" -- but someone somewhere out there will understand this story and think it's funny.
I ordered some photos online from our digital camera before I realized I forgot to order one that I wanted. I decided to take the one photo to Walmart with me and just print it off of that Kodak machine. So I grabbed my husband's thumb drive and saved the photo. Piece of cake, right? Well, those photo machines work by searching the thumb drive for all photo files. So there I am at the store and the Kodak machine is asking me which photo I want. It's afternoon on a Sunday, so the Walmart is swarming with people, and I'm about to have a heart attack.
Because, you see, I had saved it to my husband's thumb drive from Iraq.
So there I was in Walmart, on the very big, very public Kodak machine, frantically scrolling through photos of dead insurgents trying to find the stinkin' picture of our dog.
Could've died of embarrassment.
[Disclaimer: Before anyone gets too freaked out by this story, I must point out that these weren't "trophy photos." One of my husband's tasks in Iraq was to document anything that happened to his platoon while they were out on patrol. He had to take these photos back to battalion so they could cross-reference them against high-value targets and known troublemakers.]
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Too funny! I've been warned several times by my husband not to ever use his thumb drive for that very reason!
Posted by: Rachel at October 15, 2006 06:41 PM (ta8UF)
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Both of my grandfathers fought in world war 2. My grandfather Joe was in Patton's third army and fought through the battle of the bulge. I remember him as an unassuming man, talking about all the "skinny guys" they kept finding on trains as they marched to Berlin.
When my father with a child, my grandmother gave him my grandfather's medals to play with, and he and his brothers ended up losing them around the farm - he always felt bad about that.
Anyway, my grandfather was a good guy - a regular guy who fought and saved the world. I didn't know my other grandfather who fought in the Pacific so well, but I know he had brought back a few Japanese dishes and cups and stuff, and that kind of freaked me out - it always made me think of him stalking through some Japanese family's hut and taking their stuff - but I accept that these indescretions happen.
However, neither of them had secret picture collections of the enemy dead that they brought home with them. That shit didn't happen in my grandfather's army.
Posted by: Will at October 16, 2006 09:12 AM (QRBGL)
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Jesus, Will, did you totally ignore the last paragraph of my post?
Posted by: Sarah at October 16, 2006 09:52 AM (7Wklx)
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Wow, that is kind of funny. In a really twisted way. I can only imagine what you looked like as you tried to scroll through all those nasty pictures.
And Scout's "Iraq" thumb drive got stolen (while it was in someone else's posession). So much for OPSEC.
Posted by: Erin at October 16, 2006 12:42 PM (023Of)
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Yeah, but your disclaimer doesn't explain everything. I mean, is your husband part of the DIA? Is this the kind of task they farm out to anybody in the army? Has the DIA not checked the photos yet - why does your husband still have them at all? Isn't that stuff turned over to people who need it?
It just rings my 'this-seems-shady' bell. I would honestly be disappointed if I came across a box in the attic with my grandfather's pictures of dead germans in it.
IF, everything here is on the up and up, then I agree that it's a funny story. My parents love the Walmart photo center too.
Posted by: Will at October 16, 2006 01:19 PM (QRBGL)
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"Farm out to anybody in the Army"? If "giving responsibility to trained Army officers" is what you mean by farmed out, then I guess so. Do you really think that my husband, out on patrol in the middle of nowhere Iraq, is supposed to call someone from the DIA out there to check out a body? How do you really think that intelligence is gathered? Perhaps you never really thought about it that deeply, but each individual platoon/company/battalion in Iraq is responsible for gathering local intelligence. And it's not "turned over", as in confiscated. My husband has all important after-action reports saved for documentation. Because he's a professional soldier entrusted with handling this sort of responsibility.
Or maybe you just relish the thought of me and my husband gleefully scrolling through our collection of photos of dead people. Does that make you feel better about yourself?
And neither your grandfather nor mine has photos of dead Germans. They didn't have to bother with the overwhelming task of making sure that a dead body was not an innocent, because they killed soldier and innocent alike in WWII. When your grandfather fought at the Bulge, he wasn't ordered into the forest when the firing stopped to document the dead bodies, not knowing if there were more live bodies waiting to jump out. So don't get all sanctimonious about your grandfather's service while saying that my husband's is "shady".
Posted by: Sarah at October 16, 2006 01:37 PM (7Wklx)
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Sarah,
I guess it's a good thing my husband has the photos he had to take on CDs and I think he has them hidden pretty well. Because we also swap thumb drives to share files fairly often. I read your story to him, because he and I can appreciate how you must have felt, and are able to see the humor in it.
Posted by: Robin at October 16, 2006 05:14 PM (6G8cC)
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No, it wouldn't make me feel better about myself if I thought that. And I'm glad it seems to be otherwise because I want to love my country and its military.
Posted by: Will at October 16, 2006 09:59 PM (QRBGL)
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That's hilarious! People are so used to seeing murdered bodies everywhere it's no big whoop!
Posted by: Karl at October 17, 2006 10:51 AM (/HpIA)
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My only objection is the word insurgents.
Let's call these MFs what they are. Terrorists.
I don't care what the DoD says.
The rest of you need to remember the purpose
of a military is to kill people and break
things.
HOOAH
Posted by: MaryIndiana at October 17, 2006 04:51 PM (YwdKL)
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"However, neither of them had secret picture
collections of the enemy dead that they
brought home with them. That shit didn't happen
in my grandfather's army."
Will,you are seriously delusional if you think
this hasn't been happening since 1861. You don't
attend many auctions,do you? With a 1000 WWII
vets a day passing away,you can find these types
of photos very commonly. Grim and inappropriate
if they are 'trophy' photos? Yes. But you cannot
honestly think they are rare.
Posted by: Matthew Brady at October 17, 2006 05:06 PM (YwdKL)
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"The rest of you need to remember the purpose
of a military is to kill people and break
things."
Incidently, this is also the purpose of terrorists.
Posted by: Karl at October 18, 2006 09:27 AM (/HpIA)
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..yes,this is true. Which makes me all the more proud of Sarah's husband. Thank you for serving our country,S.H.
Posted by: Uncle Sam at October 18, 2006 10:24 AM (YwdKL)
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October 14, 2006
GOOD LINK
I started feeling antsy and came in to check blogs. I found a great post on the supposed
654,965 dead Iraqis over at Annika's. And I was so engrossed in reading it that I missed Suppan's homerun. Dangit.
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Numbers like these are bound to happen when the military starts running foreign policy. The CIA should be in charge of this mission, not Rumsfield, Cheney and the PNACs.
Posted by: Will at October 15, 2006 03:11 PM (QRBGL)
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October 13, 2006
BLAH
Lileks has a
good bleat today and a link to an article called
"Imagine Earth Without People". Take a deep breath and dive in. Now, I'm no biologist, but you know what else earth probably wouldn't have if it didn't have people? Pandas.
Posted by: Sarah at
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Pandas? What are you talking about?
Posted by: Will at October 13, 2006 01:55 PM (QRBGL)
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Panda females reject their young. Humans have to force pandas to mate and then keep the infant panda alive with great effort. Pandas don't breed well on their own, but we want to keep them alive because they're cute and fuzzy.
Posted by: Sarah at October 13, 2006 03:23 PM (7Wklx)
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Wow, that's pretty dumb Sarah. How do you think Pandas have existed for hundreds of thousands of years?
The worst part about this post is now I have to think about humans forcing pandas to mate.
Posted by: Will at October 13, 2006 10:54 PM (QRBGL)
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And like the article hypothetically daydreamed, if all humans disappeared right this second, there'd be about 1000 pandas who fight when they mate and reject their infant young and spend 14 hours a day eating bamboo instead of mating. Maybe their numbers could bounce back eventually, but zoos are the ones fighting to keep panda numbers up right now.
http://www.fws.gov/species/species_accounts/bio_pand.html
http://www.usaweekend.com/01_issues/010624/010624panda.html
So maybe my offhanded snide comment wasn't 100% perfect, but it's not entirely without merit.
Posted by: Sarah at October 14, 2006 03:05 AM (7Wklx)
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Yeah, it's too bad we've nearly driven them to extinction. If I were a right-winger trying to back up my position, I'd just say that all the animals would be dead anyway if it wasn't for Noah and his ark. Now there's some hypothetical daydreaming you can sink your teeth into.
Posted by: Will at October 14, 2006 12:01 PM (QRBGL)
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Will, that last comment makes absolutely no sense. Wanna try again?
Posted by: piercello at October 14, 2006 12:30 PM (Rg1Yo)
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Sorry I don't fit into your stereotype, Will, but I don't believe in the Ark.
Posted by: Sarah at October 14, 2006 01:00 PM (7Wklx)
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It's hard to pigeon-hole you Sarah... I hate that... it makes your blog way too addictive.
Posted by: Will at October 14, 2006 02:43 PM (QRBGL)
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October 12, 2006
October 11, 2006
GOOD MEMORY
Wow, Victor remembered something that I completely forgot: I posted my birthday in a comments section three months ago. It was in reference to a
poem he posted that I really liked and that's appropriate for me today...
Eighteen years old, October eleventh
Drunk for the first time in her life,
she tossed her head in a horsey laugh
and that new opal gift sailed off her sore earlobe,
in a graceful parabola,
pinged twice on the stone porch floor,
and rolled off to hide behind the rose bushes.
click to keep reading
Thanks, Victor, for having such a good memory and remembering to swing by here today. Some of my best friends didn't even remember it's my birthday!
Man, I love the blogosphere.
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Happy Belated Birthday,S!
Posted by: MaryIndiana at October 12, 2006 07:13 AM (YwdKL)
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Happy (Belated) Birthday! You are not really eighteen are you??? Hope you had fun!
I am never able to include my URL when I post comments.. it says that Xanga dot com is questionable. Hmmmm... questionable.
Posted by: Terri at October 12, 2006 11:51 AM (cgjLF)
Posted by: Victor at October 12, 2006 03:07 PM (l+W8Z)
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SAD
I actually watched Rolie Polie Olie a few times in the mornings in Germany, simply because I knew Lileks liked it. It wasn't a bad show, as far as kids' stuff is concerned, and that's saying a lot because I didn't even have a kid sitting next to me while I watched it. Too bad my future kids
won't get to see it.
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Put the Ollie DVDs on your Christmas list. Save for any little future grokkers.
My 9 yo and I watched them when she was young. They're great.
Posted by: Pamela at October 11, 2006 06:03 AM (aZt2+)
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ALMOST THERE
Finally the countdown to 30 can begin; today I'm officially only one year away.
Posted by: Sarah at
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Happy birthday, Sarah.
You know, you could just have anniversaries of this birthday from now on like some people I know. On the other hand, you strike me as one who will age very gracefully. And judging from your "anti-war" post yesterday, I think that is happening.
A woman of grace
and wisdom. Your husband is a very lucky man!
Posted by: Dave at October 11, 2006 03:25 AM (6GFTi)
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at October 11, 2006 04:50 AM (deur4)
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Happy Birthday to the best daughter-in-law in the U.S. Army. Wish we could be there to enjoy with you both.
Love,
ME
Posted by: ME at October 11, 2006 04:56 AM (/P+U4)
Posted by: Randy at October 11, 2006 05:42 AM (Mn1rm)
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Happy Birthday Sarah!!
And 29?? You're makin' me cry here!! As good as it's been, the best is yet to come!!!
Have a wonderful day!
Posted by: Tammi at October 11, 2006 05:50 AM (Bitcf)
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Happy Birthday Sarah. Wishing you many, many happy years to come.
Posted by: Pamela at October 11, 2006 06:00 AM (aZt2+)
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Happy Birthday!!
I'll call you when I'm done with my midterm today...
Posted by: Erin at October 11, 2006 06:50 AM (023Of)
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Happy Birthday!!!! I wish you a super day and don't worry, life only gets better after 30!
Posted by: LMT at October 11, 2006 08:36 AM (DhMbx)
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And after a couple more of these birthday things, you'll be able to tell everyone "I was four, a score and seven years ago."
Now that's something to look forward to.
Happy birthday, Sarah!
Posted by: Piercello at October 11, 2006 10:51 AM (Rg1Yo)
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happy birthday! I remembered *someone* saying today was their birthday from a previous Poetry Day at
annika's.
Happy birthday again!
Posted by: Victor at October 11, 2006 10:52 AM (WHtgF)
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Happy Birthday, from the Dentes!
Miss You!
Posted by: Angie at October 11, 2006 12:07 PM (ec43W)
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Birthday greetings! Enjoy the rest of your twenties....
Posted by: Andi at October 11, 2006 12:44 PM (OzAse)
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Happy Birthday to my sweet daughter!
Dad and I enjoyed our visit with you and Russ. Thank you for such a great time. I sure miss you guys and Charlie too! When I got home, I picked up Toby and he was so tiny and lightweight! He's about as big as Charlie's moose that he carries around!
Love & kisses,
Mama
Posted by: Nancy at October 11, 2006 07:03 PM (uaAyX)
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Happy Birthday! May you have many, many, many, many more!
Posted by: Vonn at October 11, 2006 07:37 PM (/VoEr)
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Looks like I'm a day late! Happy belated birthday, Sarah! I'll be joining you on that countdown soon!
Posted by: Jen at October 12, 2006 11:43 AM (D4EDG)
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October 10, 2006
ANTI-WAR
Bunker used to wake up at the crack of dawn, so he was almost always the first person to read my posts and comment on them. He was always very encouraging in my quest to grok, and I wish he were here today to help me grapple with this post.
For you see, I just finished reading Flyboys.
I agree with nearly every review I've read that Bradley was a bit clumsy in trying to make the US and Japan equals in barbarity. At least I know I'm not the only one who ruffled at the fact that the first chapter of the book lays out America's "government policy of ethnic cleansing." But in his attempt to be fair and balanced with the war in the Pacific, Bradley did manage to do one thing: make me feel utterly and completely anti-war.
I cried myself to sleep every night I was reading this book. Bradley managed to bring the horrors of war to life in a way I've never quite experienced. Maybe it was the cannibalism that put me over the top. Maybe it was Jimmy Dye's white scarf. Maybe it was the fact that I personally think we're currently fighting an enemy that's more ruthless than the Japanese. But something in this book hit me in the gut, and I can't stop thinking about it.
My husband warned me about writing a post wherein I call myself anti-war. But I said that, if a blog named Trying to Grok isn't a place where I can be honest about my thoughts, then what's the point of writing on it? And so I confess that I see myself as anti-war. Except that anti-war doesn't really mean what the plain-faced words would seem.
I don't mean anti-war in the Sheryl Crow's Sequined T-Shirt way that most people mean when they call themselves anti-war. Most of those people actually mean anti-Bush. And I certainly haven't lost all my brain cells and begun to think that there actually ever could be a world without war either. I know there's no such thing as NO WAR, regardless of how many bumper stickers are printed.
But when you read about POWs having their heads chopped off and then being eaten by the enemy, when you read about the napalm that fell on Tokyo, when you read about the absolutely ghastly things that went on in the Pacific, you all of a sudden can grok a sentence you've heard over and over but never really gave much thought.
War is hell.
Posted by: Sarah at
07:56 AM
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War IS hell. And in my mind any balanced well thought out human being is ANTI-WAR. We don't want it to be the first course of action, we don't want the suffering for anyone.
But we also know, if that's what it takes at the end of the line, then hell it is.....
Posted by: Tammi at October 10, 2006 08:50 AM (Bitcf)
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I agree completely with Tammi. Any decent, thinking human being is anti war.
But, as long as human kind has existed and as long as we do exist there will be evil. Sometimes we have to respond to that evil. The trick is, not to end up becoming what we are trying to stop.
Posted by: Pamela at October 10, 2006 10:14 AM (aZt2+)
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you grok perfectly well, little nestling.
Posted by: MajMike at October 10, 2006 11:17 AM (NMK3S)
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War is hell, and only the dead have seen the end of it. I think you have groked this to the nth degree. I think that all people that try to grok this, will truly wish for a world with out war. And we honestly thing that it would be better if force was not ever used. But if you truly grok the way the world is you understand that some times, the only way for freedom to live, and grow. Is by force, and if you foe is another mindset, such as it is now with Islam. War is the only answer, and Victory is the only choice.
Posted by: dagamore at October 10, 2006 10:18 PM (7IZfE)
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Sarah,
My father was in Burma in WWII. He saw many things which the Japanese did which violated all the Geneva Conventions, all the rules of war. Their ruthlessness was matched only by their disregard for other human life.
He never saw Japanese POWs mistreated. During combat he and his men ruthlessly and determinedly killed them in any way which they could to save their own lives. After the shooting and bombing stopped, no Japanese POW was mistreated. No "ethnic cleansing" ever occurred. No atrocities were committed.
I am sure some did occur on the US side in that war. LCDR Dudley "Mush" Morton machine gunned Japanese survivors in the sea after sinking a troop transport. He was not prosecuted, nor should he have been. But it was killing defenseless Jap soliders who would likely have drowned anyway. He kept them from being rescued and sent to war against us again later in the war. There are many other cases of slaughter in the middle of combat. There are none documented of killing after surrender. That is the difference.
Those cases do not excuse the wholesale rape and murder by Japanese forces in China (Nanking, over 200,000 Chinese and foreigners alone were killed in Nanking in 1937), on the Bataan Death March, in the Philippines, Singapore, Korea, and numerous Island and Pacific Ocean inhabitants were killed without provocation by the Japanese. (And also by the Russians and German armies in WWII)
Today's filmmakers want our country to be seen as the same as everyone else. We are NOT. Our civilization is better than theirs because we care more about them than they do about themselves. Our civilization is better because we give more for their welfare than others do. And our civilization is better because we defend our ideals in the face of the greatest adversity, anywhere. No other country is so vilified. No other country will rise to defend itself when its freedoms are endangered. And no other country so exemplifies the difference between right and wrong as America today.
If Flyboys paints a picture of Americans as killers of defenseless women and children for no other reason than ethnic or racial hatred, then it is nothing beyond wrong. Dresden and Tokyo were firebombed because they made significant contributions to the war efforts of our enemies, were valid military targets, and the weapons of the day did not allow any more precise methods of bombing to be accomplished. Even the atomic bomb on Nagasaki was dropped off target in its day, leading to complaints that we didn't destroy the target we were trying to at the time. (It was Nagasaki, it was just dropped off the center of the bullseye.)
America is not anything like the Evil regimes we fought. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong or stupid.
And I'm not ashamed to say it.
Subsunk
Posted by: Subsunk at October 11, 2006 06:28 AM (PaSM8)
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October 09, 2006
JARHEAD
We haven't seen the movie
Jarhead in our household, but we do gleefully work the phrase "I hear their bombs and I'm afraid" into conversation as often as we can. I've had zero interest in seeing the movie, until I read
this review at Cold Fury. If you've already seen the movie, definitely go over and read both the review and the comments.
Oh, and how ridiculous was it when I saw a soldier on Law and Order call another soldier a "jarhead"? Sheesh, google could've helped them avoid that bonehead script gaff.
Posted by: Sarah at
03:15 AM
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Yeah, I don't really have anything good or bad to say about Jarhead. I kind of felt "Meh" about it.
But you know what I really love? The Halloween graphics over at Cold Fury. Hilarious.
Posted by: Erin at October 09, 2006 04:49 PM (023Of)
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I thought Jarhead was adequate at best. It just wasn't very good storytelling, and that's the worst thing I can say about a film.
Now, Black Hawk Down on the other hand - I just saw that the other day, and I was reminded of how well shot and edited it is. I think it really manages to show the Hell that a soldier confronts, and how fucking badass they are in response to said Hell. The film reminds me of Sarah. It's Anti-War but Pro-military.
Bill Clinton pulled out after the battle.
I hate that you can't read the previous sentence without thinking of Bill Clinton pulling out of... you know...
Kool-aid anyone?
Posted by: Will at October 12, 2006 12:20 PM (QRBGL)
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October 06, 2006
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
I don't know if my friend from Sweden still checks in on my blog anymore, but if you do, don't look! The rest of you can check out the extended entry...
more...
Posted by: Sarah at
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I need to sew faster, I am behind!!!
Posted by: Armywifetoddlermom at October 06, 2006 05:51 AM (DeTeU)
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Most impressive Ms. Sarah! You should be proud of how they turned out!!
Posted by: Tammi at October 08, 2006 05:30 AM (3UQTn)
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So stinkin' cute.
I had to tear out the scarf I was making for my mom because I messed up the seed stitch (and didn't realize it until about 20 rows later). So now I'm back on row 12. Super.
Posted by: Erin at October 08, 2006 10:00 AM (023Of)
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October 03, 2006
FOOD NETWORK RULES
Is it just me, or is TV going a bit too far with snarky social commentary? I was watching
Cold Case the other day, and one of the suspects was a former crackhead who'd turned his life around. So Scotty snidely quips, "Yeah, you overcame drugs and had a stint in the Guard; you could be president." Hardy har har. Shut up and solve the damn mystery. It's no wonder I find myself spending more and more time on the Food Network.
Speaking of which, look who I nearly had a heart attack to meet today...
Posted by: Sarah at
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Posted by: Kathleen A. at October 03, 2006 04:38 PM (7qm8p)
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Super cool . . . love his show and mom too . . . that good ol' southern draw is the best . . . where were you when you met?
Posted by: Heidi at October 03, 2006 04:41 PM (TnFz3)
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Okay Sarah,I'll bite,who is it? (I don't have
or want cable)
Plus,we need a pupdate,please.
Posted by: MaryIndiana at October 03, 2006 07:30 PM (YwdKL)
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It's Jamie Deen, Paula Deen's son from Paula's Home Cooking on the Food Network. My mom and I went to Savannah yesterday and he was in the restaurant!
Posted by: Sarah at October 04, 2006 02:09 AM (7Wklx)
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I just love this family
Posted by: Armywifetoddlermom at October 04, 2006 05:22 AM (DeTeU)
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That rocks! Love him and them!!
Posted by: LMT at October 04, 2006 01:57 PM (DhMbx)
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So cool! Did you invite yourself over for Christmas dinner? I can't even imagine the kinds of foods that family eats over the holidays.
Posted by: Erin at October 04, 2006 06:15 PM (023Of)
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