2005: One Important Lesson

It's that time of year again.  This is when we try to assess the past year to determine if we have met our goals or just wasted valuable oxygen for someone who would have used it better.  Many of us like to define our yearly goals with resolutions as a demarcation in our lives to say, "From this point on things will be different!  I will be faster, better, stronger!"  In all likelihood we end up fatter, mediocre and looking for the remote!  I personally do NOT make New Years resolutions for the simple fact that I don't need another reason to disappoint myself. 

 

I like to think of myself as a forward looking person who (hopefully) has learned a thing or two from the past.  One of the biggest lessons I learned this year is that I don't have to love the job I'm doing but I can't hate it.  Huge lesson!  So I beg anyone out there who is working at a job they loathe, you have to get out of there!  It will poison your soul!  Then you will die and come back as a bitter civil service worker.  I was just at the DMV yesterday renewing my license plate sticker.  That place has got to be purgatory.  There was one woman working the counter and hating life and there were over 30 people waiting.  You tell me that isn't hell...for EVERYONE!!  If I had to make a resolution it would be to avoid government workers at all cost!  Pay your renewals at the currency exchange, through the mail or online.  It may cost a little more but you won't have to wait over an hour for the privilege of getting attitude.

...With Visions of Sugar Plums in My Head

This year's Christmas can be summed up in two words. Over consumption. I'm not talking about the general American public and the result of living in a capitalist society. No, I'm talking about my fat ass eating too much! It all started with my grand idea to buy 20 pounds of sweet potatoes to make pies, cakes and breads as gifts and for parties. I did pretty good but some of the deserts didn't quite make it out of the house. I currently have 2 sweet potato pies, 1 sweet potato casserole (a bit nibbled), 1 loaf of sweet potato bread (I made 10!) and a custard type desert. There were two custards but of course I ate one. And that was the first 10 pounds!

Eating at work: We had no less than 4 holiday luncheons. Three of which served food from the same restaurant. Suburbanites, what ya' gonna' do? There was also the constant reconnoitering of food from around the office. Last Thursday I forgot to bring my lunch and didn't have any money. I was mad because that meant I would have to go get money and that can be a pain. One of my co-workers informed me that there was pizza in the computer room. He said it was for everyone but I was wondering why we had to cover it up and slip around the receptionist desk???

Holiday parties: I've been eating non-stop at parties since last Friday! The resulting food coma is quite debilitation. Not to mention the bloat! I obviously don't have an off switch in my brain. If there was food in front of me I was eating it. Maybe I need one of those shock devices so every time I think about food I can give myself a little shock?! Since I think about food so much I would probably end up electrocuting myself!

Today's Hero

I have a new hero today. My hero has been oppressed for several decades by a dictator regime. Then my hero's country has been occupied for the past three years by the country that deposed the dictator. After the occupiers the terrorists set up shop. My hero has had to put up with torture, genocide, bombings, and I don't know what else! After all this and my hero STILL made it to the poling place to vote for a government to represent it. Yes, my hero is the Iraqi people. Under threat of poling places being bombed and violence, they still made it out in record numbers to place their vote. AND they couldn't drive due to a ban on car travel today. They had to walk, bicycle, crawl or whatever to the poling place. After all the difficulties and hardships they have endured they still placed their vote.

As an American I feel humbled by these people who have been through so much and are still not out of hard times. We have had it so good for so long in America that it makes me wonder how we would react under similar circumstances? What would it take to get us to the polls to vote? Free capuccino and a scone might help! Think about it...

Iraq: Winning Smart

Juan Cole is a noted author, columnist and Professor of history at the University of Michigan.  This man along with several others such as professor Rashid Khalidi who chairs Middle Eastern studies at Columbia University in NYC actually KNOW what they are talking about when it comes to Iraq and the war we are currently "not" in.  Professor Cole gave me permission to reprint an excerpt of an article about what Bush wanted in winning the war in Iraq.  Check it out.

 

As for Bush's "winning" in Iraq, what did he want?

*He wanted to weaken al-Qaeda, which he said he believed received Iraqi state support. He was completely wrong about that, if he really did believe it and wasn't just lying. In fact, Bush has enormously strengthened al-Qaeda, and he has not captured its top leadership. The London July 7 bombers explicitly were taking revenge for what they saw as US and British atrocities in Iraq. Zawahiri was able to recruit them because Bush's actions in Iraq created such rage.

*He wanted to destroy Arab socialism and make Iraq a free market economy. In fact, Iraq's economy is a basket case and the likelihood is that the petroleum industry, the major source of wealthy, will remain in federal or provincial government hands. A good 50 percent of Iraq's economy will be in the public sector for a long time to come. Sounds like Socialism to me.

*He wanted to open Iraq up to unrestricted US corporate investment (Paul Bremer's 100 laws, which Naomi Klein has written about). US corporations, however, are not interested in failed states, and are giving Iraq a pass. In the meantime, Canadian and Norwegian companies are getting a look-over by the Iraqi provincial authorities.

*He wanted a place to put bases in Iraq at the head of the Oil Gulf so as to be able to withdraw from Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan airbase. In fact, no elected Iraqi government is going to lease long-term military bases to the United States. 80 percent of Iraqis want the US troops out completely, yesterday. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani will at some point give a fatwa to that effect, and then it will be all over (as it was in the Philippines when its parliament asked the US to leave).

*He wanted to use Iraq as a springboard to undermine the regime of the mullahs in Iran, the other member of the "axis of evil." In fact, the emergence of a politically mobilized Shiite majority in Iraq has given Iran new geopolitical advantages.

*He says he wanted to make Iraq a model of liberal democracy and human rights for the Greater Middle East. In fact, the Iraqi constitution says that Islam is the religion of state, that the civil parliament cannot pass legislation that contradicts the laws of Islam; and it allows ayatollahs to be put on court benches, etc., etc. So is Iraq going to have freedom of speech, or will blasphemy be a hanging offense? I bet on the latter. Bush implied to his evangelical supporters that they would have a free mission field in Iraq (which they wanted to use then to evangelize the rest of the Muslim world). Any evangelical missionary who shows up in Iraq today may as well just go straight to the studio to record his hostage tape.

So, Bush hasn't won and won't win the things he and his officials said they wanted.

We have to win smart. That means giving the Iraqis their independence ASAP while acting responsibly to avert potential crises if necessary.

There are people* attacking me now because I say I think the US does have the responsibility to forestall massive hot civil war in Iraq if it can, of the sort that could leave 2.5 million people dead and 5 million displaced abroad. That is what happened in Afghanistan from 1979. The US helped destabilize it(the Soviets contributed more to the actual destabilization)in the 1980s and then, under Bush senior, just walked away completely. [Many on t]he American far left never complained about what was going on in Afghanistan in the 1990s, because for them the only source of evil in the world is US imperialism, and since the US had largely left Afghanistan, all was well. No matter if hundreds of thousands of Afghans were maimed as the US turned its back. Somehow they don't complain so loudly about US-led NATO intervention in the former Yugoslavia, which certainly saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives. They don't actually care about Bosnians or Afghans or Iraqis, just about hating the US. The US has done horrible things. It has also done noble things. I am hoping that it finally does the noble thing in Iraq, and wins smart, for the Iraqis and for the Americans. Dean gets that. Bush doesn't.

To read the entire article or any other Juan Cole posts check out Informed Comment.  I also have a link on the left of the page.  

CIA: Central Incompetent Agency

You all know how much I hate winter.  Also, I'm on a collision course with my 40th birthday which is coming up in February.  I was thinking how nice it would be if my dear, dear friends all pooled together and bought me a surprise vacation to Hawaii.  Trust me, I would be surprised!  Hell, I would settle for the airline tickets and handle lodging myself.  A little newspaper and a large cardboard box on the beach would be like the Taj Mahal compared to staying in this ice box!  I adore Maui but am willing to explore any island in the chain you would like me to visit.  I'm not picky.  Oh, who am I kidding.  The only way I will get to a warm island is if the CIA thought I was a terrorist, kidnapped me and sent me to Guantanamo Bay!

 

On that note, what the hell is going on with the CIA?!  I am shocked and disappointed with our intelligence agency.  How could they let a thing like this happen?  Extraordinary rendition?  Torture??  Black opps???  What the hell are they thinking?  I mean honestly, what kind of careless incompetent intelligence agency are my tax dollars paying for?!  If you are going to kidnap people off the streets of another country make sure you cover your tracks so no one knows it was you.  People disappear all the time.  Didn't we establish an explanation for that in the X-files?  Just tell everyone it was aliens.  I think the CIA has become way too soft and careless.  I think it all went down hill with George Tenant.  If he hadn't been such a wuss by fabricating all that evidence for the war just because GW wanted it we wouldn't be in this mess.  What happened to the days of men like J. Edgar Hoover!  Now that was when intelligence agencies actually ran some shit and damn the president!!

Like the White Rabbit...

One of the things I'm pretty anal about is punctuality.  If I need to be at the theatre, a concert or any event which starts at a given time I try my darnedest to be there on time.  This was instilled in me as a youngster by my parents who were notoriously punctual.  My mother would often get mad when she had to wait on people.  One of my cousins was always late and my mother's line was, "That woman is going to be late for her own funeral!" or "She must be on CPT!"  That's Colored People's Time for the rest of you.  Even as an adult the pain of punctuality still reverberates.  I distinctly remember a few years ago when I was going to ride to Arkansas with my family.  My dad said that they would be leaving at 7:30 AM.  I was about 5 minutes late and can you believe they were pulling out of the driveway?!  I was upset at the time but when you put things in perspective, we were going to Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  The fun capital of the South.  I should have let them drive off!

 

Now you know all about me but there's another side to the equation.  That person who is perpetually late.  You know who I'm talking about!  Recently a good friend (who I shall name Bertha) and I needed to be at the theater for a 7:30 PM curtain which we were originally told was 8:00 PM.  We were at dinner when we received this news.  With that info I began shoveling the food down my throat and ran the time calculations in my head like an old pro, "If we leave by 7PM we can be downtown by 7:20PM, etc., etc."  However my friend was not phased one bit.  She kept saying that we had plenty of time and if we left now we would just be standing around.  I was finished eating and had put on my coat, hat and scarf but my dear friend Bertha is calm as a cucumber while she finishes her Daiquiri.  I tried to remain calm but inside I was about to hyperventilate!  I always knew Bertha was late for everything but now I know why.  The woman doesn't have the same sense of urgency that I do.  She was not traumatized as a child the way I was.  She didn't have six years of military indoctrination they way I had.  So she had NO PROBLEM sitting there sipping that damn daiquiri while I was about to lose it.  But we finally left per my suggested time and arrived ON TIME with a couple of minutes to spare.  To the Berthas of the world; It's time to get rid of that damn CPT watch you've been using and buy a Timex!