A comment I made on the New York Times Online

This article is tragic-an Iraqi compares his life and the seemingly inevitable deaths of his friends to the movie Final Destination. It's awful to contemplate. But then the comments--inevitably--pissed me off. So I made this comment:

Today President Obama spoke about the need for force in this world:

"The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.”

An eloquent summary of President Bush's reason for the 2003 invasion. The mistakes of the Western World's Intelligence concerning Iraqi WMD is a tragedy-like the Iranian deaths at the hands of Saddam's WMD in the 80s. Saddam was a present threat in a post-9/11 world. Do not condemn President Bush for having the courage to act. Hindsight is for non-U.S. Presidents.

--This may even show up in the link at the bottom of the story. Requiescat all who die in war. I wish we had never gone to war--but I wish I was a millionaire too. I wish Saddam didn't feel the need to posture with WMD. I wish I wish I wish.

Bathroom size vs. house size

Thank God we've moved to our wonderful new house. Fifty-plus years old means there are plenty of things to fix. But so what! We have so much room into which we can put stuff. Joy.

But--Alannis, isn't it ironic? Not bad luck masquerading as irony, as found in many of the examples in your song of the same name, but irony irony. In our less-than-700-sq.-foot one bedroom condo we had a hugeous bathroom. Vermont building specs demand every residence have wheelchair access to at least one bathroom in housing which caters to the lower-end of income types. People who get shit for free from people who work, is what I'm talking about. I bought a "market price" condo in a building where 30% of the units were partial giveaways.

Digression yes. The I-RONY is that this circa 1958 home was built with a miniature bathroom. I'm talking submarine-size small. Just smashed my head on the hanging shampoo/soap holder trying to squish a spider. So: irony is a house nearly three times the interior size with a bathroom which you could fit three of into the bathroom of our previous, mini condo.

A black fly in white wine is just bad luck. If it were a black fly in *bourbon*, you could just swirl it around and still drink it. Cuz spirits are antiseptic.

Thank God for everything in the World, because within all of it is my wonderful family and my life with them.

Culture Wars, for real this time

The 1990s were a different time: a tubby adulterer ignored the rise of Al-Qaeda overseas from the Oval Office; Republicans in elected office actually had concrete ideas; The Simpsons were funny and cutting-edge. And I, dear readers, was an English Major/ Religion Minor at the University of Vermont. English Departments, and studies of the Humanities in general, were finishing up The Culture Wars, in which U.S. History becomes the study of Colonial aggression, English Literature a phallocentric white man's means of mental control, and all things American are derided as snakes in the Paradise of the innocent rest-of-the-world.

Much of this is important work. Tacitly assumed beliefs must be constantly reexamined. Woman's Suffrage. Civil Rights for Black Americans. Child-labor laws. Momentous, culture-shifting movements have helped our great Republic grow into an ever-greater collocation of different people united by the first clause of Humanity: all people are created equal. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are ours.

Haterish, liberal, educated-in-the-90s people will say the Declaration and the Constitution were written by white slaveholders who just wanted to entrench power for their kind. So why include Checks and Balances, the chance to Amend this alleged Instrument of Oppression? The Founders created a living document that has grown with the country. Indians? Sucks-too bad they fought back. Slaves? REALLY sucks. Too bad Black African Kings on the Slave coast made it so easy for slave traders to buy them up in bunches. The Middle Passage was made possible wholly through black-on-black crime. Women? They can vote now. First thing they did was outlaw booze. :l

Through it all our society thrives. We come to the topics of today: gay marriage and Muslim extremism. My Two Dads first: as of right now I am against the legality of gay marriage. Sucks for me: I live in Vermont, which by popular vote legalized said unions just recently. Democracy proves me wrong, and I bow to history. However, Vermont is a miniature little Republic, unconcerned with industry, growth or sustainable life for humans. Maine recently voted down gay marriage, just like the gigantic state of California, causing much gnashing of teeth and name-calling on the part of the liberalati. I am "against Civil rights" for being against gay marriage, against freedom of choice, against EVOLUTION:




















But wait! Gays can get bank loans, vote, be protected by police from violence, make movies, use roads and other infrastructure freely. Choices abound, and every road is open. Excepting marriage. Marriage is a State-building institution created early on in history to solidify, reconstitute and expand the societies concerned. A tool, like religion, cynics might rightly say, used to manipulate and pacify the populace. In his coherent early work "The Birth of Tragedy", Nietzsche writes about the masks (good cop/bad cop; Apollonian and Dionysian) humanity throws up against the chaos of our animal origins. Artificial constructions of the Second or Third Baudrillian Stage. Smart people, writes Nietzsche, see beyond these masks.

(Updated w/ twitter commentary herewith [lol]:)

Like Oliver Stone. Genius sees beyond these masks but come back to reaffirm them. Beyond is chaos. Sympathy for the downtrodden can quickly turn to getting trod upon. So marriage may be a fictive construct, but it's comprised of one man and one woman joining in matrimony. It's an etymological construct which won't allow Elton John or Rosie O'Donnel to redefine it through some Affect Disorderly need to join groups they eschew. Maine and California voters agree.

As for this Hellbound cocksucker shooting unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood: Texas can't get the plunger in his arm fast enough. A noose and a trapdoor are more appropriate for Treason, which this creature reifies. Suggesting stress or getting bullied for his Muslim origins is responsible for his cowardly murders is the sort of thinking that'll have a Muzzein echoing over every U.S. city by fiat; pre-1492 Europe all over again. The New Testament exhorts its followers to evangelize. The Koran does the same, characterizing the non-converted bits as the "world of war" or struggle. The battle is taking place. The choices you make create reality. Choose America.

Oh, is the World Series today?

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