I know this is only one story. About only one child. But it is simply heartbreaking. This war has caused so much pain for so many people. When will it end?
I am sharing this because I think it is important that people read these stories. That people can understand the heartbreak that this war is causing and then maybe there can be hope for an end.
Perhaps I’m a little jaded, maybe I’m just a bitch (for lack of a better word) or something but I just don’t understand this whole Obama mania. Especially in my favourite columnist. I happen to be a huge fan of Maureen Dowd, now this might just stem from the fact that I loathe “Dubya” and she has written some incredibly funny op-eds mocking him. But I have to say I have been sorely disappointed with her columns of late. It could be that I am a Hillary fan and am still disappointed that she didn’t get the nomination. But really what is the appeal? I just don’t see it. I also don’t understand why everyone in the media just falls all over this guy. Quite frankly I don’ t think he’s all that qualified. I don’t think he speaks *that* well (no, I’m not saying he speaks poorly, I just don’t have that fall all over him reaction that seems to be the recent trend). And I’m not a huge fan of his dog-whistle tactics that were used in the primaries. I guess the title of my post is a little misleading, I don’t really care what is with Obama mania, I just really wish we could all get over it. Especially my columnists, I just want them to go back to mocking all politicians equally. Is that really too much to ask for?
Really, who knew? I was just reading this morning about how coffee can be good for you, in numerous ways. Now I quit drinking coffee several years ago… it was a bit unintentional but I discovered chai. And while I know that there is a drastic difference between (what I call) “coffee-house chai” and real chai, I still tend to prefer either of those to any kind of coffee. Also to be honest, while I did tolerate regular american coffee for several years I have always preferred the espresso kind. I guess my favorite coffee would have to be a latte. Come to think of it I remember hearing something about how a smidgen of espresso a day is good for you, sortof like that one glass of red wine a day thing. Perhaps I should pick up drinking coffee again. Just something to think about.
So yeah, one could say this is a horrible movie but I have to say that this is a really great movie if you just want something dumb and funny to watch. Now finding this movie is a funny story for me, my best friend Evelyn and I happen to like Lindsey Lohan (or at least did at the time it came out) and we both love sappy romantic comedies. Now at this point we lived about 2 hours apart but decided on a Tuesday or Wednesday night that we would drive an hour to meet in the middle and catch the movie because we needed a mid-week pick-me-up. I’m sure you’re all thinking, really a bad Lindsey Lohan movie is a good pick-me-up and more than that you drove an hour out of your way in the middle of the week to see a movie. Crazy but true. So after the movie I saw it on sale at one of those Blockbuster 4 for $20 specials and I picked it up and for the first time since I bought it, I decided to watch it again. And I have to say it was just what I needed. A great movie to put on in the background to doing my homework (being back in school helps with needing those mindless and funny films). So I recommend that if you are looking for an entertaining movie but you and don’t have very high expectations this one just might pleasantly surprise you. (Not to mention I love the music, I was super excited about discovering McFly after that movie!)
<vent> Sometimes I just don’t understand how I make it through the work day. Now while there are lots of very intelligent hard-working people that I happen to interact with there are also many many many others that buy into the corporate bureaucracy that allows them to essentially do nothing and blame you for not following procedure. While I am a strong believer in procedures and having structure I also think there are special circumstances and there are times when procedure be damned and you just need to get something done. *sigh* As much as I love corporate life there are times when I really just want to walk out the door and never come back… that’s a lie. I would totally go back… but I frequently do want to walk out the door and have a little space from it all. </vent>
Color me conservative but I just don’t think shorts belong in the workplace. I know there seems to be this desire to show off men’s bodies and shorts in warm weather does make sense but I still think there’s a huge difference between a woman in a dress or skirt than a man in shorts or even a woman in shorts. I guess I just think of shorts as leisure-time attire which is drastically different from what is (and in my opinion should be work appropriate). Perhaps I am just balking at the next great fashion statement but no one said that the fashion trends of the present are necessarily the way to go. I mean look at the 80’s I think most sensible people would like to forget the existence of those fashion statements. I would be greatly saddened if the beautiful classic suit were to be replaced by the shorts suit.
As an American, I am often frustrated with the politics and segmentation of our country. half the time I want to run away and half the time I stubbornly refuse to leave because if everyone who had a problem with the politics left then well, hell, we’d really all be going to hell in a hand basket, I mean just look at the last 8 years. I’d like to think it can’t get much worse than that but I don’t think running away is a good way to address the problems.
Anyway, the point of this post is to discuss the affairs of the Middle East. I was just reading the times on the way to work this morning and an op-ed piece by Thomas Friedman really made me think. I mean everything that is going on in the Middle East isn’t quite so easy to categorize as we have a tendency to do in our comfortable living rooms in our first-world nation. It’s not quite the same to sit here and pontificate about how we shouldn’t have gone to war with Iraq, we should have gone after bin laden, etc etc etc. but you know, that’s not really the problem. I think Friedman put it quite nicely when he said that drilling for oil cannot be the only reason to go to war but neither can this so called war on terrorism when we haven’t spent enough time thinking about the basics of why these “terrorists” exist. (I am not getting too detailed about his idea) I appreciated the ideas that he put out there because it actually made me sit back and think outside of party-lines. Outside of what the media has been feeding us for several years now. In fact it made me think about a lot of things that I don’t get a chance to think about quite frequently. I’d like to say this is because I don’t have time (which is partially true) but it is also because everyone is so busy being behind a party-line or some such extreme stance that no one has bothered to look at the bigger picture.
Oil is not a reason to go to war. Neither is the fact that the United States believes that Iraq should be a democracy. What about the Iraqi people, I mean yes they are stepping up and perhaps this is a bad example because they do seem ready for change but let’s look at Afghanistan, they don’t seem to be up for change right now. If the people of the country are not going to fight for equality or for change then what are we doing going to war. And beyond that why is war the solution? Aren’t there other effective political measures such as embargos etc that we could use to carry just as effective a message? Sure there is the oil factor but let’s face it. We have always known that oil is in limited supply, let’s get moving’ with the times people, we need to find more efficient ways of creating energy. The time of the oil industry is over; let’s explore solar, wind, and nuclear power sources. Let’s see what other resources we can use to revolutionize this next century instead of being dolts just following upon the path of our fathers refusing to see a revolution in the makes.
Well I suppose I should introduce myself to the blog world. For a very long time I’ve kept a LiveJournal and I do love my LiveJournal but I hope to use this WordPress account for something more constructive than my random rambling/whining/bitching about school/work/life in general. Not to mention that WordPress has a client on the iPhone and LiveJournal does not. That and I’ve always wanted a place to write down constructive thoughts about things I am reading etc that I never manage to get around to on my LiveJournal. Theoretically there is a very valid reason for my two blogs. I guess I’ll just have to see how that works out.
So I guess this is my “Hello, World.”