HE BRINGS TEH TOPICAL HUMOR
One last thing: my husband cracks me up. At lunch he said, "I'm going back for seconds. If the waitress comes by, tell her I could use a drink refill. Actually, she'll probably figure it out herself; she's a wise Latina." Snorfle.
Waitressing? What a sexist waste of humyn resources. If only she could flee to Cuba ...
Posted by: kevin at June 18, 2009 06:09 PM (HLxzL)
3
Sotomayor's "wise Latina" remark has been bugging me, and I just realized why. If she had said "a wise woman with the richness of her experiences", she would come off as just another egomaniac. But she's worse. What does wisdom have to do with being a Latina? Yes, being a minority does give you experiences the majority lacks. But the reverse is also true. We all experience things others can't. That doesn't make us special, much less qualified.
Whenever someone says something like Sotomayor, change the racial or ethnic term to 'white' and think about how it sounds. What if someone touted herself as "a white woman with the richness of her experiences"?
Posted by: Amritas at June 18, 2009 06:19 PM (HLxzL)
VEGAS FOOD UPDATE
We had the Bellagio buffet for lunch, which was quite good and which I preferred to the Paris one, I think. (I vote Bellagio for food and Paris for dessert.) They had some good curry duck and rack of lamb and stuff. The highlights for me were the asparagus -- perfectly crisp; mine at home is always too mushy or too raw -- and the tiny cheesecakes for dessert. Oh gosh were they good, and I am the type person who would normally choose seconds of the main course over desserts.
And afterwards in the bathroom, there was a girl puking. Either she gorged herself, in which case I feel sorry for her, or she's a bulemic. I had to think about that for a while: is Las Vegas a bulemic's dream or nightmare? On the one hand, you get all these yummy foods before you barf, but on the other hand...you just paid twenty bucks to gag all that food up? Weak.
We went to the gym this morning, so that totally counteracts the buffet, right?
Chuck Z suggests the Rio buffet. Gourmet magazine recommends their seafood buffet as the best in Vegas, so it was on my list of potential things I want to spend $40 on. I'm trying not to be a cheapskate and do one nice meal per day, and then cook something here or do something light for the opposite meal. Tonight we will have a small dinner before heading to a saucy show.
It's hard for me to part with $75 each for show tickets, but I had a talk with myself this morning: In six months when my husband is gone, would we pay $150 to sit together in a dark room watching a sexy show? Absolutely. So why not do it now while we have the chance.
We're having fun. Really, I don't need to spend money to have fun; I just like doing anything with my husband. Sitting in the hot tub, being on the internet, riding on a movable sidewalk, all of these are even satisfying as long as he's here with me. (And the movable sidewalk, that's one of the good parts of life!)
I'm loving it that you are practically live-blogging your getaway...it reminds me: the other night I found an article online saying that families were spending less time together and internet use was increasing...so I sent an email with a link to the artcile to my husband who was surfing online in the livingroom (while I was on my computer in the home office). We chuckled...but he argued that the internet actually allows more sharing...he said, that before perhaps it was considered together time when a husband and wife sat on the sofa together and each read different books...while surfing the internet allows you to send links to people to share whatever you are just reading...so maybe it actually increases communication?
And the Rio buffet is pretty good. I've been there 2x.
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at June 17, 2009 04:25 PM (irIko)
the food court at Caesar's is pretty great and "reasonable" for Vegas Prices. Â Also the Burger joint in the hallway between Paris and Bally's with the slutty French waitresses has stupid good burgers and fries.
Posted by: Sarah's Pinko Commie Friend at June 17, 2009 05:24 PM (P0BHB)
3
Me & She really enjoyed the Circqe's Love show--very cool if you like the beatles. (Of course, we went courtesy of Wayne Newton.)
Another fun thing to do--get dressed up--businesslike--and go to the casinos. People will ask you for directions. always fun to give directions, especially when you've no idea where you are going.
Posted by: Chuck at June 17, 2009 07:09 PM (meX2d)
4
I vote for hot tubbing while live blogging about riding on the moving sidewalk.
Multi-tasking!!
I'm glad you're having a good time. It's your boyfriend's birthday today. I told him you were with your husband in Vegas. He whined (again) that he has never been. I told him if he behaves, maybe you'll let him tag along next time.
Posted by: Guard Wife at June 17, 2009 10:35 PM (UIGsI)
You know what I really hope is happening? I really hope over breakfast, George Bush points out stories in the paper to Laura and smugly snickers, "Dude, I told you this would happen. I told you once he got in office, he'd start to grok the enormity of the job."
The Obama administration is declining to release documents that would identify visitors to the White House, embracing a legal position taken by the Bush administration, according to a watchdog group that filed a federal lawsuit over access to the records.
The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed its lawsuit after being denied access to Secret Service records, including White House entry and exit logs, that would identify coal and energy industry visitors.
The government's refusal to release the records contrasts with President Barack Obama's pledge of transparency.
I also got a chuckle out of Roseanne Barr's rant that everyone has gotten snowed by Obama because he's not really doing anything different. And the Bill Maher rant was excellent. Choice bit:
I mean, selling the personal part to stay popular, I'm all for it, but you got us already. We like you, we really like you! You're skinny and in a hurry and in love with a nice lady. But so's Lindsay Lohan. And like Lohan, we see your name in the paper a lot, but we're kind of wondering when you're actually going to do something.
And this:
Obama needs to start putting it on the line in fights against the banks, the energy companies and the healthcare industry. I never thought I'd say this, but he needs to be more like George W. Bush. Bush was all about, "You're with us or against us."
Obama's more like, "You're either with us, or you obviously need to see another picture of this adorable puppy!"
I hope George Bush is enjoying his toldyaso. And listening to the song "Won't Get Fooled Again" often.
1
Wow, I never imagined you'd be siding with Roseanne Barr and Bill Maher - at least for a moment! (But I should have figured Barr is a Chomskyan.)
Of course, when Maher says he's wondering when Obama is "actually going to do something", he means he's wondering when Obama is finally going to go all-out Leftist.
I'd rather have Obama Lite than Hardcore Obama.
Posted by: Amritas at June 17, 2009 01:52 PM (x4B1D)
2
For the record, I don't mean to say I think you agree 100% with Barr and Maher's rants - just that you agree with their main point that Obama isn't the capital-C Change they were waiting for. And I'm glad he's not!
Posted by: Amritas at June 17, 2009 01:56 PM (/IwHi)
Our bags still aren't here, so we went out and ate anyway. We went to the buffet at the Paris hotel, and my goal was to eat things I don't make at home: duck, crab legs, salmon, etc. But the true joy came at dessert time: mousse, creme brulee, crepes, and...flan.
Ah, flan. Flan is apparently my version of Proust's madeleine. It took me back twelve years to the halls of my school in France. There was a vending machine that dispensed this delightful treat.
Yep, flan from a vending machine. The French are so la-di-da.
1
I had the same philosophy when I ate breakfast at the hotel buffet this morning in Hong Kong, though I made an exception for bacon.
No food can take me back to Japan, Holland, etc. My sense of taste is nearly nonexistent.
I had to look up flan. I first heard of it in Duckman, where it was described in "The Gripes of Wrath" as "a flavor-filled Mexican dessert".
I love how exotica here can be in machines Over There.
Posted by: Amritas at June 16, 2009 11:29 PM (VtO7U)
2
Oh lordy, French flan is such a guilty pleasure of mine. Whenever I am in France I go to Carrefour and get a pack of about 4 slices...I keep on thinking, it can't be that hard to make: some pastry cream baked in a pastry shell, but I just never got around to attempting to make that stuff, because part of me knows I will never hit it on the head...man, you have given me some serious cravings right now...
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at June 17, 2009 07:43 AM (irIko)
3
Go to the Carnival buffet at the Rio. It is hands down the Bestest buffet in sin city, and you can even have one of their four-star chefs make you something silly--like a cheeseburger.
I asked one if he could make me some hamburger helper, of if they had any spam--he said if I gave him a few minutes, he could whip something up! I declined and went for the kobe beef instead.
Posted by: Chuck at June 17, 2009 02:07 PM (sLfwn)
We live 80 miles from the airport. We allotted three hours for travel. We missed our flight.
I have been in far harder rain storms, but apparently (we now know) flooding backed up traffic all over town. It took us over an hour to go a few measly miles. Thank heavens for Garmin; we eventually exited and took back roads to the airport. I honestly thought there had been some sort of terrorist attack or evacuation, because the highways were a nightmare of traffic but there was not a car to be found on the roads in town. It was eerie.
So we missed our flight, but luckily for us, the 6 AM flight had been delayed five hours. Sucks to be its original passengers, but we lucked out and ran to the gate just in time. We still managed to barely catch our original connecting flight, so we did some serious Mr T style recouping of our day.
And, without a dictionary, I wondered if the final turn of events had been fortuitous or serendipitous. I think it's more the former, though I detect an element of the latter.
Unfortunately, we're out a good chunk of change in extra parking fees, since in our hurry to make the flight, we chose short-term over long-term. And our bags didn't make the flight, so now we're sitting in the hotel waiting for them to be delivered. For a $25 fee, of course.
But our hotel room is teh awesome, so score. Full kitchen and everything. (We're talkin' four burners and a full-size fridge, plus dining room table!) And we overlook the Bellagio fountain and the Eiffel Tower. So, sweet.
1
C'mon! Admit it! Your husband was flat ironing your hair and THAT is why you missed the plane. Rain indeed!
Ouch on the short term v. long term, but I hear you. This from the girl who has had her A/C running for weeks and has had two upstairs windows wide open for at least as long. NICE!
You are going to have an AWESOME time!!!
Take lots of photos of the sites!!
Tell my peeps at the Denny's I said, 'Hey!' They probably don't show up until around 2 a.m., though, so you may need to plan accordingly.
Posted by: Guard Wife at June 16, 2009 08:40 PM (UIGsI)
2
Yikes, I had no idea things were this bad! At least you didn't have to go through this nightmare alone. I'm imagining what would have happened if the flooding had occurred when you two took me to the airport.
Hope your luggage is in by now. When I took the right flight and the airport put my suitcase (with all my clothes!) on the wrong one, they delivered it to me at 11 PM - for free, but still - ouch!
Will you be using the full kitchen? That'd be really useful if you could buy ingredients in Vegas that you couldn't get at home, but I doubt that's the case.
Flat-ironing your hair? So what other beauty secrets of yours does Guard Wife know?
Posted by: Amritas at June 16, 2009 09:42 PM (VtO7U)
I'm sad that we missed your layover time, but we will manage to hook up again soon. Somewhere. With dh's broken hand and all, I spent the bulk of the day on the phone seeking specialists anyway. ugh. Have a Wonderful time!
xoxo
Posted by: Lane at June 16, 2009 09:51 PM (OXC3Q)
4
wear your garter outfit to the buffet, it is permeitted in Vegas you know...
1
You don't have to turn on the laptops in Vegas, but I would appreciate it if you did post occasionally while your Pashto lessons are fresh in your heads.
(Can you tell I think Pashto is more interesting than Vegas? You could have spent block leave sitting at home focusing on Pashto, but NO.
)
Posted by: Amritas at June 16, 2009 12:40 PM (x4B1D)
Four years ago today, we brought little six-pound Charlie home to be our dog.
You can even see the green ink on his ear where he got tattooed. (Oh, and don't think we didn't make lots of jokes about Germans and their fondness for tattooing barcodes on people...)
We dropped Charlie off tonight for his week at the boarder's. He barely looked back at us as he ran off into the room filled with 32 other dogs for the week. He is going to have the time of his life.
But five minutes after driving away, I said, "OK, I miss him already." I was mostly kidding. Mostly.
My husband says we'd better hurry up and have a kid, lest we turn into the Swans.
According to the U.N. figures, life expectancy in the United States is 78 years; in the United Kingdom, it’s 79 — yay, go socialized health care! On the other hand, in Albania, where the entire population chain-smokes and the health-care system involves swimming to Italy, life expectancy is still 71 years — or about where America was a generation or so back. Once you get childhood mortality under control, and observe basic hygiene and lifestyle precautions, the health “system†is relatively marginal. One notes that, even in Somalia, which still has high childhood mortality, not to mention a state of permanent civil war, functioning government has entirely collapsed and yet life expectancy has increased from 49 to 55. Maybe if government were to collapse entirely in Washington, our life expectancy would show equally remarkable gains. Just thinking outside the box here.
1
I can't remember the study - but I saw one that purported that "preventative health care" isn't the public savior it is purported to be. Not that hygiene should not be followed (and even this is one of degrees - many scientists and medical professionals are of the opinion that the recent rise in things like asthma and peanut allergies are due to us being TOO clean!), but that the constant visits to the doctor for this procedure and that procedure don't really make the difference in our quality or quantity of life that the current conventional wisdom purports.
There are always outliers, and those are the ones we remember: Jade Goody and cervical cancer, Farah Fawcett, or personal stories we know. But much like we only remember those times we washed our car and it rained right after, the majority of the statistics don't bear this out. Lifestyle choices and genetics play a much bigger role than the amount of times we visit the doctor for "preventative care." And even "lifestyle choices" don't necessarily follow the conventional wisdom of what is good and what is not.
My grandparents on my father's side all live to their 90s (and beyond in one case) - eating red meat every single day. And those people are/were HEALTHY. Oh, and they drank a lot of alcohol, too. Not that they were alcoholics, but my grandmother's family were German.
Perhaps we need to look at health care more like what we look at for car care. We don't expect insurance to cover tune ups or oil changes. We expect it for catastrophes.
Perhaps we need more of that for health care? Just a thought...
Posted by: airforcewife at June 15, 2009 08:10 AM (NqbuI)
I think that the problem with the current idea of health care is that it is more illness management than actually making someone healthy. If you have diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc, there is a pill to help you manage that, even though steps could be taken to get rid of that (usually weightloss). And the healthcare industry pushes managing the symptoms more than treating the problem. And patients seem to be okay with that.
And yes, we do live longer now, but I wonder if we are actually healthier. I mean, I think all the pills just keep us alive, but I think overall health might have decreased.
I agree with you AFW: we need to look at health insurance as catastrophic health insurance for those unfortunate incidents/ailments (car accident, broken arm, cancer)...not the ones we actually see coming (heart disease from obesity, prenatal care and delivering a baby, etc.) But this is another one of those issues that is argued on the margins (i.e. what about the poor person who can't afford his cancer treatments? uh huh...but what about the millions of others who are sucking down a gallon of soda a day and then get heart disease?)
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at June 15, 2009 08:43 AM (irIko)
3
Well, just like tobacco, we can tax soda, and people won't drink it as much! (Except, they'd have to REALLY tax soda, as the $1.50 coke at McDonalds really only costs them $0.03, the rest is pure profit). And of course, we still smoke. The gov't has never shown any correlation between taxing an item and limiting its use, and where would they get the money to pay for the programs their "sin taxes" currently fund, if it really was a deterrent?
Taxing things we like to pay for things we don't is ridiculous. We'll tax soda because it makes you fat and drives up the cost of health care! How about this instead:
We didn't feed you butter and sugar for fifty years, don't come crying to us when your ticker goes ker-thunk if you climb more than three stairs!
Of course, I completely threw out you argument on its face when you (or Steyn) opened with "According to UN figures..." Sorry. All the UN is is good for is child rape and supporting anyone who is against Israel. And being honets brokers in the oil-for-food program. I'll give them that one.
Posted by: Chuck at June 15, 2009 01:52 PM (bQVIy)
4
Hey, you are hitting pretty close to home here! I'm 72. I plan on another 20 years, too. I can't say I haven't had some major illnesses because I have, but between the extremely good health care here in America, my genes (they caused some of those illnesses, but helped me through some also) a lot of prayers and help, I can say I am really in good shape. Or as my dad would have said, for the shape I'm in. I am one of seven siblings, we are all alive and four are in our 70's. Only one of us has even lost children and he has lost two. One at birth and one of ovarian cancer.
I really don't think what you eat has as much to do with it as some like to think. I think that is a little bit of blaming the victim. We have a lot of diabetes in our family, both type 1 and type 2. Bad genes. But due to medical miracles like insulin my little brother, he's now 68, who was diagnosed with type one at age 21 is planning on getting into the 70's also. My granddaughter who was diagnosed at age 12 is now 16 and at age 14 was the youngest diabetic to complete a marathon, a full marathon and has since run two more. She also does cross country. Illness and disease happens but what you do with you life in spite of these things count. Oh yes, I have a nephew who was diagnosed at age 4, he is mid 40's now a great person and an extremely healthy person, just needs his insulin. He ate only Oscar Meyer weiners and peanut butter while growing up. We feared the worse for him because of it. His body shows no signs of a lifelong diabetes. Yet that is what he has had as long as he can remember. Nothing to do with his weight or life habits, just genes. Some of my siblings have smoked, most have not. The ones that did have had no ill effects from it. Some people smoke and never have any ill effects some have many. I think genetics has a lot to do with that.
I agree that the sodas and chips young children eat can make them way too fat and can cause diabetes. But I wonder if we took away the Mexican immigrants from our databases if we would see that skewed the diabetes statistics because of the strong genetic predisposition. I don't know this, I just wonder. I know that here in S Texas that is a large component of the diabetes population. And they have a very high percentage of leg amputations also. Grim, grim stats.
Posted by: Ruth H at June 15, 2009 02:41 PM (4eLhB)
5
Holy cow Sarah - the quotable things you discover. So true in so many ways.
Posted by: Darla at June 15, 2009 06:44 PM (LP4DK)
Genetics is a bad word for some. It's like the modern equivalent of fate in the old days. No one wants to be resigned to their fate. Modern people want to think they can be anything they want to be. But they can't. They can, however, be the best they can be - within limits. Genetic limits. The G-word again. Oops.
I too "really don't think what you eat has as much to do with it as some like to think." I eat anything I want at any time with no ill effects. I realize I'm very lucky. My diet might seriously harm someone else with different genes. (Granted, it's a low-meat, no-sweets, no-soda diet, but still ...)
Posted by: Amritas at June 16, 2009 12:49 PM (x4B1D)
INSOMNIAC
My husband hasn't been sleeping well lately. He is overwhelmed by how much there still is to learn about Afghanistan. He is keeping himself up at night worrying that he hasn't learned enough geography, culture, and history. He invested five years of his life into learning Iraq, and now he's changing horses midstream. He wants to make sure he's prepared for this new mission, and it's been on his mind constantly.
Today is our seventh wedding anniversary. I joked, "You're becoming an insomniac like me! See, it's true what they say about people turning into each other when they've been married for so long. It only took you seven years." He snorted and said, "But I don't want to be like you in this area!" When asked what area he would like to be more like me in, he replied, "You know, how you're organized and remember birthdays and stuff." Heh.
We're leaving tomorrow for block leave: a week in Las Vegas. In addition to festivities and fun, we will be working on learning Pashto together. Just another thing to shove in our suitcase...
Don't worry, we're such nerds that we chose our hotel based on who had free wifi.
1He invested five years of his life into learning Iraq
and a lot of time learning Iran, too! I admire a man who gets into his field and takes it seriously.
I can't wait to hear about your Pashto studies together. Now that's my kind of romance!
Posted by: Amritas at June 15, 2009 10:03 AM (b3Ptv)
2
My husband's been doing the same thing. He's been to Iraq, speaks Arabic, spent the majority of the last year with this unit training to go back to Iraq, and now (as of just a few months ago) they will be heading to Afghanistan instead. It's a whole different ballgame, and he's been studying up on the region they're going to since he found out.
Enjoy your block leave. We just got back from ours - a road trip to visit friends & family in SoCal with a quick detour to the Grand Canyon.
Posted by: Leofwende at June 15, 2009 01:10 PM (28CBm)
3
I like to speak Arabic (Klingon) with a high pitched, Major Hockschtedder voice. "Vee Haf vays of getting informacion, you know." Unfortunately, the humor is lost on the Iraqis. Even the whole cigarette routine.
FWIW, I really liked "The Arab Mind" for Iraq, not sure if Pataki has written anything on The Muj Mind, but lessons learned in one may apply to another. Also, dealing with tribes--watch The Godfather, over and over and over. There are SO many lessons learned in that movie that really did apply. Leave the gun, take the cannoli, indeed.
Posted by: Chuck at June 15, 2009 01:43 PM (bQVIy)
4
Do enjoy your week and yours PASHTO! What's his deployment rotation? I thought the new 50/50 was bad (out 6 months/back 6 months and repeat) yours seems to be 75/25. Ew! You are such a good Army wife.
Posted by: Darla at June 15, 2009 06:46 PM (LP4DK)
5
Darla -- It's supposed to be 8 on, 8 off. But it didn't exactly turn out that way... It's more like 7 on, 7 off, 9 on, then a PCS. I blogged about it at SpouseBUZZ: "More Fair"
Posted by: Sarah at June 15, 2009 08:11 PM (TWet1)
STAND BY FOR YOUR RIGHTS
Neal Boortz on mirandizing terrorists (of all the ridiculous...):
If the world is so sure that these Islamic goons have Geneva rights, let's give them those rights.Under the Geneva Convention enemy combatants dressed in civilian clothes can be summarily executed.No Miranda rights necessary."You have the right to stand up against this wall.We have the right to put a slug in you.Stand by for your rights."
1
Neal has a way of cutting right to the chase and I love him for that. Charles is my date when I want to sip wine & be a nice girl. Neal is my dream date for when I want to slug back a whiskey and be not so good. LOL
Posted by: Guard Wife at June 13, 2009 03:23 PM (uDVFe)
2
OMG, I totally want to forward your comment to Boortz...
Posted by: Sarah at June 13, 2009 03:59 PM (TWet1)
“The people here have been so friendly, they come and hug us ... it’s a small place but it has a
big heart. This is where we want to stay.â€
They're sure getting their, I mean, our money's worth! What a deal!
Posted by: Amritas at June 15, 2009 01:03 AM (b3Ptv)
4
So, all we have to do is convince our fellow citizens to spend their tourism dollars elsewhere, as Bermuda is a known safe-haven for terrorists. Simple.
Sure wish someone would pay a few million to relocate me.
Posted by: Chuck at June 15, 2009 01:53 PM (bQVIy)
I MUST BE HIGH BECAUSE I DO NOT GET THIS
My brother just told me about some legalization of marijuana stuff that he was commending Pres Obama for. I decided to look it up, and I am more confused than ever.
I used to get so annoyed when people would blame anything bad that happened on Pres Bush. Didn't find the WMDs after giving Saddam months of advance notice that we were invading? Bush's fault. Economic troubles that started under the Clinton administration? Bush's fault. Hurricane hits New Orleans? Bush's fault.
Similarly, I will be quite annoyed if a trend starts where everything good that happens is attributed to Pres Obama, even if he opposes it and has nothing to do with it.
After four decades of mindless prohibition and draconian prison sentences for addicts and casual users, the first four months of the Obama era have seen a rapid turn toward rationality.
So far so good in paragraph one. Let's see what Obama has been doing in the realm of weed, because I simply haven't been following it. So then I get to paragraph three:
But while states like California and New York are challenging the fundamentals of prohibition and punishment that have governed America's drug policy since the Nixon era, the Obama administration is largely staying the course. The president, who has blasted the drug war as an "utter failure," has nonetheless delegated oversight of drug policy to one of the chief architects of that failure: Vice President Joe Biden, who coined the term "drug czar" and steered the passage of the nation's harsh drug sentences as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Far from scaling back funding for drug interdiction and law enforcement, the administration's 2010 budget increases the levels established under George W. Bush. And despite the growing bipartisan discussion among state leaders about decriminalizing marijuana, Kerlikowske tells Rolling Stone that legalization is not up for debate "under any circumstances." [emphasis mine]
So, pray tell, why does "the Obama era" get the credit for any of this? Obama doesn't seem to have done squat; the rest of the article gives most of the credit to Schwarzenegger and Webb.
Political pressure to end the War on Drugs is building in surprising quarters. In recent months, three distinct rationales have converged to convince a growing number of politicians — including many on the center-right — to seriously consider the benefits of legalizing marijuana.
Huh? Center-right Republicans are becoming more open to the idea of legalization, and somehow Obama gets all the credit in the opening paragraph?
I have followed that story, and that man should not be in jail, period. Get your federal laws off him; this should be a states issue. But let's see what credit Obama gets here:
A federal judge sentenced the owner of a Central California medical marijuana dispensary to a year and a day in prison Thursday, spurning the Obama administration's push to give the defendant five years imprisonment in a test case of new federal policies toward state pot laws. [emphasis again mine]
Oh wait, the Obama administration pushed for a longer sentence. All hail the Obama era!
Obama hasn't done anything to help legalize marijuana or let people off who were clearly in the right under state laws. Rolling Stone needs to stop attributing anything to "the Obama era." And to think that McCain was called McSame during the campaign...
Wouldn't it be awesome if the intrastate commerce clause folks who are working on gun rights in Montana teamed up with the intrastate medicinal marijuana folks in California and turned the 10th Amendment inside out? Guns and weed, teaming up together for Change We Can Believe In!
****
For the record, I don't smoke pot, have never smoked pot, and am about the biggest anti-pot person you can meet, for the reasons South Park lays out:
Well, Stan, the truth is marijuana probably isn't gonna make you kill people, and it most likely isn't gonna fund terrorism, but...well son, pot makes you feel fine with being bored and it's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or being creative. If you smoke pot you may grow up to find out that you aren't good at anything.
But just because I think it's lame doesn't mean I think it should be illegal.
1
That last line is classic! Perhaps all that is lame should be legal, but anything that endangers the rights of others should be illegal.
The blame-Bush bless-Barack pattern may be a throwback to our caveman days, when government was simpler, when it was just the tribal chief. One guy. Easy to understand. Our institutions have grown faster than our ability to comprehend them. So if we hate the man who personifies the government, everything is his fault. And if we love him, he gets the credit.
This isn't just a problem with perceiving government. Look at how Bill Gates is equated with Microsoft. Or Steve Jobs with Apple.
Why do ads feature celebrities? Why do informercials have hosts, even ones you never heard of? Because we are a social species. We want faces associated with our products, our organizations, everything.
But behind the One Face representing a government or business is a complex network of faceless people behind the scenes. We can't see what's going on, we may not even be able to understand it, so we credit it all to the One Face.
The power-hungry want that face to be theirs. They want to be the focus of a cult of personality. For them, "it's all about meeee!" But it never is.
Posted by: Amritas at June 15, 2009 01:45 AM (b3Ptv)
2
Example of lame and legal: Phil Collins (at least in your opinion, Sarah!).
We're not just a social species. We're a storytelling species. We want life to make sense (and it does - just not in a way we can understand or accept). We attempt to shove it into simplistic narratives with heroes and villains who can save or destroy the world with their actions. Bush and Obama fit the bill for these nonexistent superbeings.
Real life doesn't work like those stories. The spotlight is not perpetually on the protagonist. Key events occur off-camera. They seem to be Black Swans to us only because we focus too much on our favorite central plotlines. We try to fit those twists and turns into our predetermined storylines, but we're only fooling ourselves.
Posted by: Amritas at June 15, 2009 04:59 AM (usSRx)
TBIM!
I got to talk on the phone with AWTM today, on the heels of a long phone call with her yesterday too. I for one am super happy that she's not working anymore, because it's much easier for us to reach each other.
Also, I'm glad she's not living the office life anymore...
I also had to call Guard Wife and break up her love getaway to ask a question. Her husband answered, so he and I chatted for a bit, which was fun. Which reminds me: At the last SpouseBUZZ Live, somebody turned to Chuck Z's wife and said, "I got the funniest email from your husband the other day." Only among bloggers would that be normal.
As I told Wife Unit the other day, while she was dropping her dog off at my parents' house where he will now live as my brother's new dog, "I love teh internets."
While British officials publicly slammed Bermuda, they were privately annoyed with the U.S. [...] President Obama's aides told Britain the Gitmo group was headed to Bermuda less than 24 hours before the ex-inmates' chartered jet landed there, the Daily News has learned.
Bermuda Premier Ewart Brown said, "We are confident this decision is the right one from a humanitarian perspective." [...] Bermuda will also receive an unspecified "small sum" to cover their costs, said a U.S. official.
The "small sum"? $200 million. Kimberly Morin says it best:
Humanitarian? How about monetarian? I’d be willing to bet $200 million that the Palau government would not have taken these detainees without Obama bribing them with a cash payout. Of course the White House says that the money has nothing to do with the detainees. It is for development for the country of Palau. What is to develop? They are a gorgeous tropical island whose economy is based on tourism. Why would we be giving this tropical island money for development in the first place? Earth to Obama - horrible recession, highest unemployment in 25 years, non-stimulus doing nothing and you are going to give $200 million to a country that does not warrant development and has absolutely nothing to do with our economy.
It costs somewhere in the ballpark of $100 million per year to run the entire facility at Guantanamo Bay. So there's two years of operating costs to unload four guys. Furthermore, Palau's GDP is apparently $164 million. Hooray, Obama just doubled their yearly intake!
Seriously, when did the whole world become the Mad Hatter's Tea Party?
1
For $200MM, we could have sent 20,000 kids to excellent charter or private schools.
Oh, wait..the Democrats don't favor allowing the escape of poor kids
from dysfunctional schools...If only they were as concerned about the
kids as they are about the Guantanamo prisoners
Posted by: david foster at June 12, 2009 09:06 AM (uWlpq)
Let me see if this works: (BTW, why can’t I cut & paste on this blog?)
Posted by: Sarah at June 12, 2009 01:05 PM (TWet1)
4
OK, it worked for me. I copied it and then used Shift+Insert to paste.
Anyway, I moved to this new site because everyone was complaining about not being able to comment on the old one. Now I am tearing out my hair trying to learn the new system and being annoyed with it, and I think I get fewer comments now than ever before. So...sigh.
Posted by: Sarah at June 12, 2009 01:07 PM (TWet1)
5
It was well before Jan 14th, and even before the November election. It was when the press and the populace started falling in love with socialism, Obama just happened along to do their dirty deeds.
Posted by: Ruth H at June 13, 2009 03:31 AM (4u82p)
6
Sarah...very hard to comment here with my old/slow laptop; also
impossible to cut & paste. Seems to be running some kind of script
which does a lot of processing for each & every character. Wonder
if there's a display mode you could change to speed things up.
Posted by: david foster at June 13, 2009 08:36 AM (uWlpq)
7
Awhile back I accidentally hit Mark All as Read instead of Refresh on my milspouse category of google reader. This was totally marked as read. Oops. It is quite unbelievable to me that things like this get shuffled to the back after mere mentions. Why do I care about Michael Jackson again? People should be turning their attention to the many things like this that are just CRAZY.
Posted by: wifeunit at July 03, 2009 09:52 PM (t5K2U)
When President Bush used to promote the notion of democracy in the
Muslim world, there was a line he liked to fall back on: “Freedom is
the desire of every human heart.†Are you quite sure? It’s doubtful
whether that’s actually the case in Gaza and Waziristan, but we know
for absolute certain that it’s not in Paris and Stockholm, London and
Toronto, Buffalo and New Orleans. The story of the Western world since
1945 is that, invited to choose between freedom and government
“security,†large numbers of people vote to dump freedom every time—the
freedom to make their own decisions about health care, education,
property rights, and eventually (as we already see in Europe, Canada,
American campuses, and the disgusting U.N. Human Rights Council) what you’re permitted to say and think.
I too used to naively think that all men desired freedom. But that's must-y speak.
1
Interesting post! I think that - even more than people are afraid of freedom for themselves, (which is utterly get-what-they-deserve-ing), many desire to take it away from others b/c they disapprove of what those others are doing with it. "You can't smoke!" "You can't teach your children!" "You can't have that [firearm/literature/etc.]!" "You can't drive that!" "You can't keep your money if someone else doesn't have as much!"
I am absolutely certain that in this world, *some* government is necessary and desirable to protect our rights.
But when people stop focusing on defending their natural rights and instead work on asserting non-existent ones - always at others' expense - the lazy, the power-hungry, and the thoughtless fall right in line and back the ultimate deception: the idea that the force of government power can, should, and will create their own little version of Utopia. In reality, creating our own happiness is why we have freedom.
Posted by: kannie at June 13, 2009 09:44 AM (5XpA4)
2
Sarah, you've seen me slowly realize that all men (and women) do not desire freedom. Compare my 2003 entries with my 2005 ones. I used to be so naive.
kannie, I was once naive enough to believe anarchism was the answer. I was a teenager then. I took everything for granted. My parents paid for everything. And the government provided so much - arguably too much. No, I wasn't on welfare. But I was benefiting from government roads, government sidewalks, etc. ... and, in a less visible way, from the laws of the government and its enforcers, the police.
Many advocates of bigger government want more concrete benefits (i.e., material handouts) than abstract benefits (i.e., the defense of rights). People can see 'free' goodies but they can't see rights. So what's the big deal about losing what they can't see? Or about living at the expense of others one can't see? To claim that government benefits are 'free' is to be blind to the reality of cost, to be ignorant of freedom, a state in which people are not forced to provide for others. Unfortunately, such blindness is widespread, and some may have no eyes to open.
You wrote,
the lazy, the power-hungry, and the thoughtless fall right in line
What an alliance!
As I see it, the power-hungry lead the line and the others follow. "Be my dependent! Make me dominant!" is the slogan of Great Leaders. But what if we don't want to be dependents? What if we don't want to be dominated? Where can we go? Where's our gulch?
Posted by: Amritas at June 15, 2009 01:27 AM (b3Ptv)
But what if we don't want to be dependents? What if we don't want to be dominated? Where can we go? Where's our gulch?
Heh... there are a couple similar theories in circulation. Here's a link to a Russian analyst's idea from a few months ago... wish I had links to similar Cold War-era type stuff!
Should the government continue to deliberately disintegrate (disinte-great?) the founding fabric of our country via socialization and currency destruction, we might get to have a Gulch after all: one little pocket where honest people have banded together and are working (& defending their work) and living in a decent, productive society instead of eating each other.
'Cause I don't WANT to cannibalize my neighbor - or his liberty or property. I'm just sayin'. ;-)
Posted by: kannie at June 16, 2009 12:59 PM (5XpA4)
I can imagine an anarchist regarding the reduction of government as "disinte-great-ion" - the less integrated, the better from his POV.
I don't think the government sees what they're doing as disintegration - they think they're merely reinterpreting a living document. Everyone 'knows' that if the Founding Parents were alive today, they'd be progressive. It's 'common sense'!
Thanks for the link to the WSJ article on Panarin. I was predicting a similar breakup of the US almost 20 years ago. But now I think that the real divisions of the US are less regional than urban vs. nonurban. Imagine, say, Chicago as a West Berlin in reverse - a socialist pocket in a capitalist Midwest.
Posted by: Amritas at June 16, 2009 09:54 PM (VtO7U)
SEVEN YEARS
My husband has a summer birthday, so he was always the youngest in his class. That also has made him the youngest in his year group in the Army, so he has always been the baby of the group. At OBC, a prior-enlisted guardsman flipped out when he learned my husband was born in 1980: "I was pickin' up chicks in my Trans Am in 1980!"
But he's started to realize that he's been in the Army for seven years now. And suddenly, he's older than most of the NCOs he works with. He's not the baby anymore.
I took his team a homemade lunch today, and they gushed and thanked me and called me Mrs. and Ma'am. And I realized that I'm no spring chick either: I am nine years older than the medic on his team. I must seem like such an old lady to him.
On Monday, my husband and I have our seventh wedding anniversary. We've known each other for almost ten years.
It feels good to be a grown up. But it took me by surprise today.
1
It could be worse... Most of my students (College Juniors) were between 1 and 3 when I graduated high school, some weren't even born when I enlisted.
None of them saw Top Gun, or Full Metal Jacket in theaters, many had never seen it.
They were too young to see Saving Private Ryan in theaters, or rent it without a parent when it came out--on VHS.
The oldest ones weren't in Kindergarden during gulf 1.
None are old enough to remember Ronald Reagan, most don't Remember George H. W. Bush.
Now I feel old.
Posted by: Chuck at June 11, 2009 05:15 PM (meX2d)
2
Happy Anniversary!! Best wishes for another 7 years!!
Posted by: Butterfly Wife at June 11, 2009 08:23 PM (YQ3jz)
3
I still sometimes realizing how old I am, too. I am still single, and have no children. However, friends I went to high school with are starting to have children graduate high school and send them off to college. I have a new acquaintance out at the ballpark - a police officer who enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school (9/11 his senior year helped him decide between that and an athletic scholarship to a West Texas A&M) and served in Iraq - in Fallujah, during the April & November offensives - and I have to remind myself that although he is an responsible adult now, he's about 13 years younger than me. I have been out of high school for 21 years now. I've been out of college for 17. There are many things that, when I was younger, I thought I had plenty of time to do: have a career, get married, have children, travel. I've had a career, one that allowed me some small amount of travel around the US, and I went to my cousin's wedding in Alaska 5 years ago, but I can't help but think I'm running out of time for the other things. Yeah, I still have time to meet "Mr. Right" and get married, but I can't help but think that it might not be soon enough to try to have those children I always expected to have... And I feel old sometimes...
Posted by: Miss Ladybug at June 11, 2009 11:48 PM (paOhf)
4
Welcome to the grown up world. You are well on your way to your 50th. I remember our tenth seemed only a few years ago, yet it was 41 years ago. We celebrated our 51st on May 24th.
Posted by: Ruth H at June 12, 2009 08:28 AM (4u82p)
5
We were having a conversation with family about Sweetie's (Sig's) work, and referred to his office helper – who is a PFC – as a "kid". His parents, aunt, older brother, and sister-in-law all kind of chuckled. You know, like it's funny we use the term "kid" when WE're still the kids.
But we reminded them that we're both over 30 now, and Sweetie's a little above sergeant (though a rather young sergeant), and that actually makes us pretty senior to anyone with "Private" before their name.
In fact, when Sweetie joined up six (six!) years ago, we were still pretty senior at 25.
My best friends at DLI were all younger than me by several years.
Now, my youngest brother is turning 26 and Sweetie's youngest brother, who is 25, just became a lieutenant. Kids I babysat are graduating college and getting married.
Funny how time flies.
Posted by: Deltasierra at June 12, 2009 03:23 PM (ekWzF)
6
I was ten and a half when my oldest sister was born. She's getting married this November at the age of 28. I was a freshman in high school when my youngest sister was born. She's out of college and all out on her own now. I remember changing both their diapers...
Posted by: Miss Ladybug at June 13, 2009 01:01 AM (paOhf)
7
I also realized (or perhaps re-realized) that my company commander is younger than me.
On the other hand, being a Guard unit, we've got people who've been with us for decades. One crusty SFC reminisced over the idiot butter bar in charge of his platoon (when he was a platoon sergeant); the idiot in question is now the battalion commander.
As a professor, I wondered if some of the younger students had a hard time taking me seriously because of my apparent age.
At work, I am still the kid, at least in my section. Hardly anyone's younger.
Yet I know I'm getting old. I recognize very few TV and music references after the 80s.
Sarah, you seem relatively 'with it' ... certainly more than I am.
I've known you since shortly after your first wedding anniversary. I can still remember thinking of you as newlyweds. And the neat thing is that when I met you two last month, you were still like newlyweds in paradise! I think you'll always be that way.
Posted by: Amritas at June 16, 2009 01:03 PM (/IwHi)
1
Seriously, if any candidate ran on that platform I would want to vote for them... I have to say that I have never had an experience like that at Denny's....I mean, Denny's is almost upscale...I think that is more Wafflehouse material...;-)
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at June 11, 2009 02:06 PM (irIko)
1
I have created or saved my inner Obama. If you're a Republican, there's still hope for you. You can create your own iObama. And if you're a Democrat, you have saved your iObama from extinction. (Eight years of Bushaitanic oppression almost wiped it out.) We all have One inside us. We are all One with the One. Even you, Sarah. Even yOu.
Posted by: kevin at June 15, 2009 02:00 AM (b3Ptv)
SPEAKING TRUTH TO PREMISE
I may come off forceful and set-in-my-ways here on the blog, but I assure you that I'm not like that in real life. I rarely speak my mind, especially not in polite company. I never reveal my true opinions and values to strangers. It's part of that dilemma I've been writing about for five years:
When we get emails like this, or when our co-workers praise Fahrencrap 9/11, what is the proper response? I can't help but think of a passage from The Demon-Haunted World:
Imagine that you enter a big-city taxicab and the moment you get
settled in, the driver begins a harangue about the supposed inequities
and inferiorities of another ethnic group. Is your best course to keep
quiet, bearing in mind that silence conveys assent? Or is it your moral
responsibility to argue with him, to express outrage, even to leave the
cab -- because you know that every silent assent will encourage him
next time, and every vigorous dissent will cause him next time to think
twice?
Sagan ends this section with "Figuring out a prudent balance takes
wisdom." I just don't know what to think anymore. On the one hand, I
think that some people will never see what I see, no matter how
articulately I might lay it out, and it's not worth my sanity to try to
beat them over the head with Truth. On the other hand, people are going
to be voting next month based on bullcrap like this email forward on
the draft, and unless we make a serious effort to counter the media and
the junk science, we run the risk of losing President Bush.
And I'm starting to wonder if maybe I oughtn't dip my toe into impolite waters. If maybe I should start speaking my mind in public on occasion. Because five years hence, I still feel as frustrated and impotent as I used to. I still walk away incensed and wishing I had spoken truth to premise.
Yesterday I heard two separate diatribes against The Rich. They were offhanded things, premise things, deemed uncontroversial by their speakers. Both assumed that their listeners would chime in and agree that the world is economically unfair and somehow the scales need to be righted. I never chimed in with anything, just tried to ignore both interlocutors and change the subject quickly. But looking back, I wish I'd replied.
No, as a point of fact, I do not believe that, since we are all created equal by God, it is a travesty that most of the world's wealth is held by so few. Nor do I believe that our current economic crisis was solely caused by greedy CEOs. I also don't believe that your boss should have to give up his Mercedes because you think he doesn't do as much work as you do. Nor am I horrified at the thought of someone making a "three-digit salary" (It was obvious from context that this person meant "six-digit," which leads me to conclude that, really, you might want to rethink your argument that you deserve more money than your boss.)
Absent actual evidence, I am not inclined to automatically assert that The Rich don't deserve their money. I will not side with you in thinking that life is unfair and you know how to fix it. I do not share your delusion that you are a better arbiter of how much money people should make than the free market is.
I think next time I might cautiously speak out and see how that feels, because I remain dissatisfied with my long-standing policy of avoiding controversy and thus having to suffer through others' treatises on How The World Should Work.
What I really ought to start doing is following Sean Hannity's lead and wide-eyedly asking, "So what you're basically saying is 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need' then?"
And point out that you, with your fancy cell phone and comfortable house, better watch out you don't reap what you sow, because I am sure there is someone else in town who thinks you don't deserve your five-digit salary. Those who fall middle-class should tread lightly on the class envy issue, for they have more riches than the majority of the people on this planet.
I will update the first time I speak truth to premise. Gulp.
1
Preach it sister! I've started doing the same and I have found that people are more ameanable to bringing down the level of rhetoric to something resembling reasonable discussion. Unless of course there is no actual thought process and they are just parroting a sound bite from TV or the Net. Then they change the subject.
Posted by: Mare at June 11, 2009 09:08 AM (HUa8I)
2
Cassandra at VC had an interesting discussion somewhat related to this - about politeness. I usually don't say anything in these sorts of situations because I'm trying to be polite. But in reality, I get angry because I feel that others are not extending the same courtesy of polite behavior to me.
And why am I not deserving of polite behavior, anyway?
Anyway (I do have a point here), one of the commenters pointed out how well the Brits handle this sort of thing with their ironic/sarcastic replies and I thought, "Well, yes! That IS a good way to respond and get the point across without being a total asshole!"
The problem is that one actually has to be good at it... Practice, I guess.
Posted by: airforcewife at June 11, 2009 09:26 AM (NqbuI)
3
I don't know if you heard this at work or not but if you did you might comment on the fact that a place of business that teaches arts and crafts is only possible in a society that has some people with enough time and leisure to take advantage of it. Without having a certain level of income a business such as that could not be supported. I got into an accidental facebook battle with friends of a niece yesterday. They are your age or older and think socialism is the way to go. You really cannot argue with people who make their politics their religion. I didn't mean to, but a flame war was started and I just backed out and apologized to my niece for getting involved. at all. One of them actually stated he thought socialism was the only human way to be. Okay. He is getting what he asked for and very pleased with it. But I could not stay silent, I know how fascism got started in Germany. Hitler was put in place by the National Socialist German Workers Party, socialsm by any name, and they thought it was just awful I would say so. Hitler was a fascist and a dictator; so he was, but he started out a socialist. Facts are facts.
Posted by: Ruth H at June 11, 2009 09:58 AM (hBAQy)
4
I tend to evaluate the usefulness of piping up before doing it. (Notice the "tend," LOL...)
Is this person actually going to think through what I'm considering saying, and is it worth going there with this individual? Do I know enough to lay down the right case for what I'm thinking & feeling? Am I in a good enough mood not to get all unpleasant about it and thereby obscure *what* I'm saying by *how* I'm saying it?
If not, then I tend not to pipe up. (I promise, there have actually been times! ;-) )
Also, in a FB example, I don't comment on "so-and-so became a fan of Obama" because that's a happy thing - for them. Building instead of destroying. I feel strongly that we're entitled - and should be encouraged - to express our opinions and thoughts in a "fan of" way; building the right things will overcome building the wrong things, eventually. If, OTOH, they post an article or note that unfairly *attacks* something, (e.g.: how Glenn Beck is a lying racist encouraging massacres at immigration classes), or wants to have a discussion, I tend to pipe up, especially in defense of something I feel very strongly about.
The issue also makes a difference. Injustice and issues essential to defending our God-given rights induce me to more courage and dialogue than purely political discussion. Fair criticism is okay; disagreement is okay; but when there's something dishonest or outright destructive of our liberty, I have a hard time letting it stand. And I don't think I *should* let it stand.
But I still try to be civil. At least I think I do... ;-)
Posted by: kannie at June 11, 2009 11:55 AM (5XpA4)
THIS ONE'S FOR GUARD WIFE
A friend of ours has been on a few dates with a girl. I asked what she was like, and he answered with adjectives like "sweet" and "nice." I said that was all beside the point. I needed to get to the heart of the matter: What is her stance on Charles Krauthammer? Because really, that's all I need to know to make new friends...
Show me your feelings on Krauthammer and I'll show you your future.
What Fox did is not just create a venue for alternative opinion. It created an alternate reality.
A few years ago, I was on a radio show with a well-known political
reporter who lamented the loss of a pristine past in which the whole
country could agree on what the facts were, even if they disagreed on
how to interpret and act upon them. All that was gone now. The country
had become so fractured we couldn't even agree on what reality was.
What she meant was that the day in which the front page of The New York
Times was given scriptural authority everywhere was gone, shattered by
the rise of Fox News.
What left me slack-jawed was the fact that she, like the cohort of
mainstream journalists she represented so perfectly, was so
ideologically blinkered that she could not fathom the plain fact that
the liberal media were presenting the news and the world through a
particular lens. The idea that it was particular, and that there might
be competing ones, perhaps even superior ones, was beyond her ken.
That's why Fox News is so resented. It altered the intellectual and
ideological landscape of America. It gave not only voice but also
legitimacy to a worldview that had been utterly excluded from the
mainstream media.
I'm pretty sure most people I know would ask, "Charles who?" So for me the question is: What is your stance on Obama?
It's not all I need to know to make friends, but it's a start.
The quality of the answer matters too. Disliking Obama is not enough. Why is he 'bad'? I don't want to befriend conspiracy theorists. I want people who can recognize his badness on the basis of publicly available evidence, not speculation. What Obama thinks, what he does behind closed doors is unknown. What I see and hear is awful enough for me.
I have mixed feelings about the idea of Fox "creat[ing] an alternate reality." The media should reflect reality, not create an alternate reality - a fantasy to reinforce the delusions of the audience. Which media reflect reality? Fox? The rest of the MSM? Neither? (I vote for TTG.)
I think Krauthammer meant to say that Fox created an alternate window on reality - another way of seeing things - another "lens".
I don't think Fox "gave ...
legitimacy to a worldview that had been utterly excluded from the
mainstream media." The worldview's legitimacy - correctness - should be independent of Fox. But I do realize that for many people, legitimacy is based on What Other People Think, and if a worldview is on a national network, that means Other People Think Like That, so it's now 'legitimate'. I heard it on Fox / CNN / wherever, so it must be true! Too many confuse the messenger with the message. Messengers like Fox are important, but the message is still more important.
Then again, it doesn't matter if people don't understand the message. It's not fun to be Not Sure.
Posted by: Amritas at June 11, 2009 11:30 AM (+nV09)
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There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living. --The Count of Monte Cristo--
While our troops go out to defend our country, it is incumbent upon us to make the country worth defending. --Deskmerc--
Contrary to what you've just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners, only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: The American Revolution, WWII, and the Star Wars Trilogy. --Bart Simpson--
If you want to be a peacemaker, you've gotta learn to kick ass. --Sheriff of East Houston, Superman II--
Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind. --Jed Babbin--
Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. --President John F. Kennedy--
War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. --General Patton--
We've gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over. --Full Metal Jacket--
Those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed. --Dick Cheney--
The Flag has to come first if freedom is to survive. --Col Steven Arrington--
The purpose of diplomacy isn't to make us feel good about Eurocentric diplomatic skills, and having countries from the axis of chocolate tie our shoelaces together does nothing to advance our infantry. --Sir George--
I just don't care about the criticism I receive every day, because I know the cause I defend is right. --Oriol--
It's days like this when we're reminded that freedom isn't free. --Chaplain Jacob--
Bumper stickers aren't going to accomplish some of the missions this country is going to face. --David Smith--
The success of multilateralism is measured not merely by following a process, but by achieving results. --President Bush--
Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.
--John Galt--
First, go buy a six pack and swig it all down. Then, watch Ace Ventura. And after that, buy a Hard Rock Cafe shirt and come talk to me. You really need to lighten up, man.
--Sminklemeyer--
You've got to kill people, and when you've killed enough they stop fighting --General Curtis Lemay--
If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained -- we must fight! --Patrick Henry--
America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. --President George W. Bush--
are usually just cheerleading sessions, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing but a soothing reduction in blood pressure brought about by the narcotic high of being agreed with. --Bill Whittle
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
--John Stuart Mill--
We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other. --General George Marshall--
We can continue to try and clean up the gutters all over the world and spend all of our resources looking at just the dirty spots and trying to make them clean. Or we can lift our eyes up and look into the skies and move forward in an evolutionary way.
--Buzz Aldrin--
America is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world.
--Dinesh D'Souza--
Recent anti-Israel protests remind us again of our era's peculiar alliance: the most violent, intolerant, militantly religious movement in modern times has the peace movement on its side. --James Lileks--
As a wise man once said: we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Unless the price is too high, the burden too great, the hardship too hard, the friend acts disproportionately, and the foe fights back. In which case, we need a timetable.
--James Lileks--
I am not willing to kill a man so that he will agree with my faith, but I am prepared to kill a man so that he cannot force my compatriots to submit to his.
--Froggy--
You can say what you want about President Bush; but the truth is that he can take a punch. The man has taken a swift kick in the crotch for breakfast every day for 6 years and he keeps getting up with a smile in his heart and a sense of swift determination to see the job through to the best of his abilties.
--Varifrank--
In a perfect world, We'd live in peace and love and harmony with each oither and the world, but then, in a perfect world, Yoko would have taken the bullet.
--SarahBellum--
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. --Ronald Reagan--
America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large. --E.M. Forster--
Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse. --Mark Twain--
The Enlightenment was followed by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, which touched every European state, sparked vicious guerrilla conflicts across the Continent and killed millions. Then, things really turned ugly after the invention of soccer. --Iowahawk--
Every time I meet an Iraqi Army Soldier or Policeman that I haven't met before, I shake his hand and thank him for his service. Many times I am thanked for being here and helping his country. I always tell them that free people help each other and that those that truly value freedom help those seeking it no matter the cost. --Jack Army--
Right, left - the terms are useless nowadays anyway. There are statists, and there are individualists. There are pessimists, and optimists. There are people who look backwards and trust in the West, and those who look forward and trust in The World. Those are the continuums that seem to matter the most right now. --Lileks--
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
--Winston Churchill--
A man or a nation is not placed upon this earth to do merely what is pleasant and what is profitable. It is often called upon to carry out what is both unpleasant and unprofitable, but if it is obviously right it is mere shirking not to undertake it. --Arthur Conan Doyle--
A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself. --John Stuart Mill--
After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." --Dave Grossman--
At heart I’m a cowboy; my attitude is if they’re not going to stand up and fight for what they believe in then they can go pound sand. --Bill Whittle--
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. --Alexander Tyler--
By that time a village half-wit could see what generations of professors had pretended not to notice. --Atlas Shrugged--
I kept asking Clarence why our world seemed to be collapsing and everything seemed so shitty. And he'd say, "That's the way it goes, but don't forget, it goes the other way too." --Alabama Worley--
So Bush is history, and we have a new president who promises to heal the planet, and yet the jihadists don’t seem to have got the Obama message that there are no enemies, just friends we haven’t yet held talks without preconditions with.
--Mark Steyn--
"I had started alone in this journey called life, people started
gathering up on the way, and the caravan got bigger everyday." --Urdu couplet
The book and the sword are the two things that control the world. We either gonna control them through knowledge and influence their minds, or we gonna bring the sword and take their heads off. --RZA--
It's a daily game of public Frogger, hopping frantically to avoid being crushed under the weight of your own narcissism, banality, and plain old stupidity. --Mary Katharine Ham--
There are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms
of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. --James Madison--
It is in the heat of emotion that good people must remember to stand on principle. --Larry Elder--
Please show this to the president and ask him to remember the wishes of the forgotten man, that is, the one who dared to vote against him. We expect to be tramped on but we do wish the stepping would be a little less hard. --from a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt--
The world economy depends every day on some engineer, farmer, architect, radiator shop owner, truck driver or plumber getting up at 5AM, going to work, toiling hard, and producing real wealth so that an array of bureaucrats, regulators, and redistributors can manage the proper allotment of much of the natural largess produced. --VDH--
Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves. --Marcelene Cox--
Multi-tasking!! 
