Go to Free Rice and build your vocabulary while earning free rice to feed the hungry.
Yay!
does happy chair dance
I need the break. Don't we all? You all have a safe holiday weekend.
Google has a new add-on feature for google earth - the sky! I've only been able to get the demo to run. Google seems to be having several problems today, including keeping blogger up and running.
Interesting story in the in International Herald Tribune yesterday - seems Moscow runs out of hot water in the summer time.
Also in Moscow, another painful penis story. What is with all the penis stories this week?
Bushie is backing away from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq.
However, Gordon Johndroe says otherwise:
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the president's words were not intended to signal a withdrawal of support for al-Maliki. As a result of the heavy media coverage of his remarks at the North American summit in Canada, Bush will insert a direct line of support for al-Maliki in his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference, Johndroe said.
"Prime Minister Maliki knows where the president stands," Johndroe told reporters ahead of Bush's speech. The spokesman said that after Bush's comments in Canada, the White House had tried to make clear Bush was not distancing himself from Maliki.
"It appears that did not come through for whatever reason," Johndroe said.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France's RTL Radio from Baghdad that Europe must play a bigger role in Iraq because "the Americans will not be able to get this country out of difficulty alone." Kouchner is wrapping a three-day visit to Iraq.
The US is losing the war on terror. That's the assessment of the nation's top foreign-policy, intelligence, and national-security leaders from across the ideological spectrum. In this year's Terrorism Index, a survey released Monday by Foreign Policy magazine, 84 percent of these experts believe the nation is losing the war on terror, while more than 90 percent say the world is growing more dangerous for Americans.
That's prompted a variety of leaders to call for a complete rethinking of the nation's strategy. And some are looking back to the cold war's battle against communism to find models for the ideological struggle against terrorism.
Another is a call for a Middle East Marshall Plan to help develop the region's economies and confront the alienation of the young.
It's a rainy, dreary day here in Connecticut. It's a helluva lot worse in Mexico. Drop a shekel or three in a collection plate for Hurricane Dean relief.
Since it's a rainy day here, I'll leave you with some reading material.
Starving Gaza, by Chris Hedges, at Truthdig:
Gaza has become the Sarajevo of the Middle East. Israel, in an action similar to that of the Serbs in Bosnia, has surrounded and cut off nearly a million and a half Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the Islamic militant group Hamas took control in June. Electric fences and watch towers manned by Israeli soldiers keep the Palestinians trapped inside the strip. The land and sea blockade, the halting of all but minimal humanitarian aid and the refusal to allow Gaza to receive financial support are crushing Gaza’s industry, farming and infrastructure.
And what do we do if just the opposite happens - a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime? An Administration official told me it's not even a consideration. "IRGC IED's are a casus belli for this administration. There will be an attack on Iran."
Stephen Biddle, who sits on the Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of a group that advised the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, told the The Sunday Times in London that coalition forces were no longer in control of the city.
"I regret to say that the Basra experience is set to become a major blunder in terms of military history," Mr Biddle was quoted as saying. "The insurgents are calling the shots … and in a worst-case scenario will chase us out of town."
Another senior US officer told The Sunday Telegraph: "The short version is that the Brits have lost Basra, if indeed they ever had it … They did not have enough troops there even before they started cutting back. The situation is beyond their control."
The officer warned of "a stink about this that will hang around the British military".
Originally posted at NYT and Truthout.org:
The War As We Saw It
By Buddhika Jayamaha, Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier, Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy
The New York Times
Sunday 19 August 2007
Viewed from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.)
The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere. What soldiers call the "battle space" remains the same, with changes only at the margins. It is crowded with actors who do not fit neatly into boxes: Sunni extremists, Al Qaeda terrorists, Shiite militiamen, criminals and armed tribes. This situation is made more complex by the questionable loyalties and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army, which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers' expense.
A few nights ago, for example, we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families.
As many grunts will tell you, this is a near-routine event. Reports that a majority of Iraqi Army commanders are now reliable partners can be considered only misleading rhetoric. The truth is that battalion commanders, even if well meaning, have little to no influence over the thousands of obstinate men under them, in an incoherent chain of command, who are really loyal only to their militias.
Similarly, Sunnis, who have been underrepresented in the new Iraqi armed forces, now find themselves forming militias, sometimes with our tacit support. Sunnis recognize that the best guarantee they may have against Shiite militias and the Shiite-dominated government is to form their own armed bands. We arm them to aid in our fight against Al Qaeda.
However, while creating proxies is essential in winning a counterinsurgency, it requires that the proxies are loyal to the center that we claim to support. Armed Sunni tribes have indeed become effective surrogates, but the enduring question is where their loyalties would lie in our absence. The Iraqi government finds itself working at cross purposes with us on this issue because it is justifiably fearful that Sunni militias will turn on it should the Americans leave.
In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear. (In the course of writing this article, this fact became all too clear: one of us, Staff Sergeant Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head during a "time-sensitive target acquisition mission" on Aug. 12; he is expected to survive and is being flown to a military hospital in the United States.) While we have the will and the resources to fight in this context, we are effectively hamstrung because realities on the ground require measures we will always refuse - namely, the widespread use of lethal and brutal force.
Given the situation, it is important not to assess security from an American-centered perspective. The ability of, say, American observers to safely walk down the streets of formerly violent towns is not a resounding indicator of security. What matters is the experience of the local citizenry and the future of our counterinsurgency. When we take this view, we see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.
Coupling our military strategy to an insistence that the Iraqis meet political benchmarks for reconciliation is also unhelpful. The morass in the government has fueled impatience and confusion while providing no semblance of security to average Iraqis. Leaders are far from arriving at a lasting political settlement. This should not be surprising, since a lasting political solution will not be possible while the military situation remains in constant flux.
The Iraqi government is run by the main coalition partners of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, with Kurds as minority members. The Shiite clerical establishment formed the alliance to make sure its people did not succumb to the same mistake as in 1920: rebelling against the occupying Western force (then the British) and losing what they believed was their inherent right to rule Iraq as the majority. The qualified and reluctant welcome we received from the Shiites since the invasion has to be seen in that historical context. They saw in us something useful for the moment.
Now that moment is passing, as the Shiites have achieved what they believe is rightfully theirs. Their next task is to figure out how best to consolidate the gains, because reconciliation without consolidation risks losing it all. Washington's insistence that the Iraqis correct the three gravest mistakes we made - de-Baathification, the dismantling of the Iraqi Army and the creation of a loose federalist system of government - places us at cross purposes with the government we have committed to support.
Political reconciliation in Iraq will occur, but not at our insistence or in ways that meet our benchmarks. It will happen on Iraqi terms when the reality on the battlefield is congruent with that in the political sphere. There will be no magnanimous solutions that please every party the way we expect, and there will be winners and losers. The choice we have left is to decide which side we will take. Trying to please every party in the conflict - as we do now - will only ensure we are hated by all in the long run.
At the same time, the most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. "Lucky" Iraqis live in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal.
In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, "We need security, not free food."
In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are - an army of occupation - and force our withdrawal.
Until that happens, it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies to absurd ends without recognizing the incongruities.
We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.
Buddhika Jayamaha is an Army specialist. Wesley D. Smith is a sergeant. Jeremy Roebuck is a sergeant. Omar Mora is a sergeant. Edward Sandmeier is a sergeant. Yance T. Gray is a staff sergeant. Jeremy A. Murphy is a staff sergeant.
Seems the Universe has disappeared. Well, 96% anyway.
Greatest Mysteries: Where is the Rest of the Universe?
In fact, only 4 percent of the matter and energy in the universe has been found. The other 96 percent remains elusive, but scientists are looking in the farthest reaches of space and deepest depths of Earth to solve the two dark riddles.
Turner described dark energy as "really weird stuff," best thought of as an elastic, repulsive gravity that can't be broken down into particles. "We know what it does, but we don't know what it is," Turner said.
A small tempest is brewing in the blogospheric teapot between climate scientists and global warming skeptics over a recently revealed discrepancy in NASA's U.S. temperature records.
A former mining executive who manages a Web site dedicated to skepticism over global warming was combing the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies data for U.S. temperature anomalies—or the amount that one year's average temperature departs from the climatological average—when he noticed that the temperatures made an odd jump between 1999 and 2000.
She married a lawyer, Leo Panzirer, whom she divorced in 1959. Their only child, Jay Panzirer, later ran a Florida-based building supplies company that did extensive business with Helmsley properties. She later was briefly married to a garment industry executive, Joe Lubin.
Before her son's death of a heart attack in 1982, she told interviewers she would not talk about him "because terrible things can happen to people these days."
She evidently was referring to being knifed by robbers at her Palm Beach home in 1973. She was stabbed in the chest and suffered a collapsed lung, and Harry was wounded in the arm.
After her son died, she sued the estate for money and property she said her son had borrowed, and an eviction notice was served on her son's widow, Mimi.
Mimi Panzirer said afterward that the legal costs wiped her out and "to this day I don't know why they did it."
No, I'm not turning this into Cute Overload, but I just couldn't resist posting this picture. It's a phoque! Seal to the rest of us. He's adorable! I want one! Sadly my building has a no phoque policy. Beasts!
Phil Rizzuto, Yankees' Hall of Fame shortstop and longtime broadcaster, dies at 89
IMO - all time greatest sports announcer. Period. End of story. The clowns around today are just a waste of time and space. I end up watching baseball with the sound off because I find these people so annoying and inane.
While many announcers spouted statistics, Rizzuto told stories. He delighted television and radio listeners by spinning yarns about his fear of lightning, his favorite place to get a cannoli and the prospect of outfielder Dave Winfield as a candidate for president.
Rovie wants to spend more time with his family.
He has a family?
"He's a great colleague, a good friend, and a brilliant mind. He will be greatly missed, but we know he wouldn't be going if he wasn't sure this was the right time to be giving more to his family, his wife Darby and their son. He will continue to be one of the president's greatest friends."White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
Sorta. Kinda.
Well, I'm here now anyway! Thank you to everyone who posted/emailed to say you missed me. I've missed you all too!
I can't believe it's August already. It's been a really strange year.
A bookmark for me and you: History of Pie.
Yup, I'm making pies this weekend.
If I had any place to wear ^ that, I'd buy it in a heart beat. Unfortunately I have no place to wear it to. Even if I did, I'd stand out like a sore thumb.
It's sad that people don't dress up anymore. If I had it my way men would be in tuxedos 24x7x365 - evening dress (formal attire) would be de rigueur for all occasions. Men would wear hats again. Nice hats, not baseball caps.
I'm tired of the dress-down look. I go to the office each day in jeans and tee's, true, but I want a little more glamour in my life. More color, more sparkle. More like this or this .
That cracked me up! Apparently France is the home of the World's Biggest Whiners and Ireland is home to the most content:
Britons come second to their Gallic cousins in the moaning stakes, followed by Sweden, the United States and Australia. Japanese workers have the lowest morale, but don't complain so much.
Will be exhibiting 62 (holy cow!) works of Claude Monet from April 27 through June 15.
Everyone in my family better stay healthy and whole so I get a chance to head down to the exhibit.
Life is still hectic and tiring. It's getting better though. I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. It's been a long, long ten weeks.
Peeps are evil.
Dad had yet another proceedure to deal with the clogged arteries on April 5th. It went well, but not as well as the last time. After all he's been through that's not surprising. He has another appointment with the urologist to determine how, and when, they'll be dealing with the bladder issues that came up as a result of his stay in Norwalk hopital. The only good news the urologist has imparted, to date, is that he doesn't have cancer.
I'll take good news where ever I can find it these days.
Gretchen's hard cast came off Friday and she's now in a soft cast, which looks like something the Storm Troopers wore in the original Star Wars, for... a while. No end date so far. She starts physical therapy next Monday.
So, I'm still shuttling between my home, her home, our parents home, every day. It's either getting easier or I'm just getting used to this.
1461 Days.
Roughly
35064 hours
2103840 minutes
126230400 seconds
since the war began.
When will it end?
Days of Protests
Dad finally made it home on Wednesday, March 7. The IV pump should be finished today and he goes back for more testing to make sure the staph is gone.
Fingers crossed.
The catheter remains in place and there is still an alarming amount of blood in his urine - mostly due to the blood thinners he's on. He's back to the urologist tomorrow.
Gretchen's ankle is finally coming back together but she's got another month in the hard cast and then a couple of weeks in a soft cast or brace before physical therapy starts.
I'm tired. I've been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen in the car over the past couple of weeks. Serendipiously, Elsa has been talking about him recently. Gretchen thinks he's depressing, but then she likes listening to Country and Western, so what does she know? :) Anyway, I've found his stuff oddly soothing for the past couple of weeks.
Dad may, or may not, be released from prison on Monday. The idiots at Norwalk hospital haven't decided yet. He's responding well to the meds but he's still going to need two to four weeks of IV antibiotics to combat the staph infection. He's opted to go home and not a rehab or nursing facility. I'm not thrilled but it's his (and Mom's) decision to make. There's still no decision on when he'll be able to have the other artery "scraped". The longer they wait the worse the plaque build up, but he's in no condition to have operation for at least a month. Thank you Norwalk Hospital.
The plate my sister had surgically implanted in her ankle, to draw the fibula (tibia? whatever bone opposite the ankle) to the ankle and to secure the tendon was less than successful. The ankle is still disconnected. The doctor is "hoping" that over the next week the plate and screws will do their work and bring the ankle back into place. If not, they have to re-operate.
I've come to the conclusion that the entire medical profession in the United States is comprised of fuckwits. Brainless, heartless, fuckwits.
Mom and I are moving my sister down to Westport today. Centralizing the walking, and non-walking, wounded is essential. We just can't keep up with both of them being in two places 20 miles apart.
Staphylococcus
That's what Dad has picked up during his stay at Norwalk Hospital. I found out last night when I went to see him.
I hate these people. I want to carpet bomb the whole goddamn facility. I want to ship these bastards off to Gitmo. After I torture them.
The array of tests he was in the hospital for show that there is a 70 percent blockage of his left carotid artery and he was supposed to go back to Yale for a consultation today and surgery next week. Only now he can't because he's stuck in Norwalk for another week and then two to four weeks of recovery either in a nursing home (he's 68 on March 12) or at home because he'll need antibiotics delivered via IV for that long. This staph infection is in his left arm and has entered his blood stream. They're relatively certain it hasn't entered his heart.
Eight years ago on the 27th of this month I lost my Mother. It was a blessing for her, when she died. She suffered so long. I'm not ready for this, the reality of he might not survive all that's going on in his body.
I'm just not ready for this but I don't have any choice. I just have to suck it up and deal.
Did these stone chests contain the body of Christ and his wife?
Archaeologists have reportedly deciphered the names on the tombs, including Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) son of Joseph, Mary, Mary and Judah, son of Yeshua. In New York yesterday, Cameron unveiled two of the coffins he claims belonged to Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "I think this is the biggest archaeological story of the century," he said.
It's been an interesting week.
Wedneday I went to the funeral of my niece's Aunt Denise. She was 37. Coming home from work last Thursday she slipped on the ice, knocked herself unconscious and died, in her driveway, of hypothermia. Her Mother found her at 6:45 am Friday.
Last Friday, February 16, 2007, my sister calls to say she's broken her ankle by falling on the ice. I spend the rest of the day in the ER with her. The hospital declares she needs surgery, but take her home until Monday 'cause they're not doing surgery at 5:30 pm on a Friday night. This was just the beginning of several WTF coversations I've had all week.
I get the crippled one back to her house, up two flights of stairs, and one of my brother calls. Seems my Dad, who had the plaque scraped out of his arteries in January, had gone numb down the right side of his body. After a six hour car ride to Maine I suggested he not take. Should we take him to the ER? my brother wants to know.
No, no... just let him lie there on the floor until dead, mkay?
Several bizarre and mind-blowing conversations with doctors in Maine, doctors in Connecticut, it's decided that another brother would drive our parents back to Connecticut on Sunday. Both Dad and my sister had doctor's appointments on Monday. Which ended up happening on Thursday instead, because gawdfuckingforbid a doctor bother his/her uselessfuckingarse to tend to a patient. I spent Thursday with Dad at Yale while Mom spent the day with my sister who was having pins and plates put into her ankle.
According to the medical geniuses at Yale, after doing several different scans of both the brain and body, Dad's fine. No problem. He can go home. Most likely a pinched nerve from the driving, that's the ticket. Really, they assure me, he's fine.
So, today, he's in Norwalk Hospital. Numbness down the right side, feels like his head is unattached from his body. Not that he's a having a stroke, they tell me. But they're keeping him for the weekend for observation. Just in case.
