messiestobjects

Cookies, Robert Redford, The Antichrist, And The Real Reasons Why These Things Ought To Scare You

While my brother is away at school, I've been temporarily occupying his room in my Dad's house until I figure out where to go next. After I get back from Thailand I'll have to seriously start thinking about that.
Anyway my point is that on my brother's bookshelf is 'The Purpose Driven Life' by Rick Warren and the entire 12 book series of 'Left Behind' by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. This constitutes some of the scariest pop right-wing christian fundamentalist lieterature (misspelling intended) out there. I worry about my brother. I'd recently read a very good article about the series, and Revelation end-of-times thinking in general, by Joe Bageant, who I was turned on to by Heather and Miss Luongo... those ladies are always finding good stuff out there. But I was thinking about it, and I realized that I've never actually read any of those books, and we Godless perverts are always making fun of doltish fundie preachers who declaim against Evolution without ever really having actually read Charles Darwin's book, or tried to understand the theory in any useful way. One should always know what one is up against. While I have read the Bible, I've been out of the loop on the latest developments in advanced Christian thought, SO, I decided to start with what I consider the easier of the two, the 12 book fictitious series about Tim LaHaye's vision of a post-rapture world. Tim LaHaye is by the way, let me just say, a total freak, dude. Click on this super-scary picture of him shooting laser beams of evil out of his eyes to be led to his website where you will find a most entertaining intro before going to his main page, where you will find his very own voodoo version of that Myers-Briggs personality theory that Miss Luongo is so fond of, as well as vague descriptions of himself and all the books, ministries, and projects he's involved in, with links taking you to where you can buy his stuff, but nothing too personal, I'm afraid. He's got some nice jewelry, though, huh?
Anyway, I'm almost halfway through the third book, but let me tell you that before the end of the first chapter of the first book I decided that I could easily devote a whole new blog to the reading of the series on which I post something every time I came across a statement that was either grossly mis-informed, ignorant, fallacious, or just plain made me laugh at it's own tunnel-vision certitude that it knew the truth based on no facts whatsoever. I realized by the third chapter that I would need a month for each book if I actually tried doing that, and I really want to get through them and be done with it. But, having made the claim, I will attempt to at least illustrate my point just a bit, here. Here's a quote right off of book 1 page 1, which may seem rather minor, but it illustrates something about the fundie mind which I feel is important to understand:

"God was OK with Rayford Steele. Rayford even enjoyed church occasionally. But since Irene [Rayford Steele's wife] had hooked up with a smaller congregation and was into weekly Bible studies and church every Sunday, Rayford had become uncomfortable. Hers was not a church where people gave you the benefit of the doubt, assumed the best about you, and let you be. People there had actually asked him, to his face, what God was doing in his life."

This is minor, but it is the first of many rather disingenuous statements made by non-Christians about Christians throughout the series so far. Rayford is surprised that fundamentalist Christians, after a sermon on sunday at a fundamentalist church, actually want to talk to him about God? Heaven forfend! That is so crazy that fundies, like, take their beliefs so seriously! In the Left Behind books, Non-Christians are constantly surprised by the honesty, forthrightness and vigor of a Christian's beliefs, excepting only those who are merrily skipping down the path to the Antichrist's side. Reading these books has made me remember my own thought processes when I was a younger church-going Christian myself. Christians, despite being the largest most powerful religious group in America, tend to feel persecuted and not listened to. For no apparent reason. It's as though they think that the only non-Christian, if you're not a direct servant of Satan, is one who has simply not thought it all through, or doesn't understand the horrors that will befall unbelievers when a vengeful bloody Jesus (long gone is the messiah of love) returns after the rapture. They can't conceive of someone who has read about and understood their religion, and despite being a good person, has decided it was all a load of crap. They think we don't understand what they have found to be the truth in their lives, that we are simply misguided. I would like to bet a LOT of money on the fact that at least %90 of fundamental religious types call themselves believers only because the idea of an MC 900 foot Jesus coming to rip their guts out if they don't become Born Again has scared the living shit out of them. (Or eternity in Hell, yadda yadda. It's all the same idea.) That and/or for the other self-evident reason that these books have reminded me of: Rapture and Tribulation are the ultimate infantile vengeance fantasy. Anybody ever get this taunt on the playground? "My daddy/big brother/whomever can beat up your daddy/big brother/whomever/you!" We all so desperately want to be right, on the winning side, the side that gets cookies for good behaviour. (Not that it means anything, but the authors of the Left Behind books have this weird fascination with cookies. Cookies seem to be around at some of the more touching moments a little too often. Cookies, and Robert Redford. The Antichrist is described in some seriously homoerotic terms more than once by different characters as a more dashing, sexier Robert Redford.) No one wants to be on the losing side of an argument. And these guys have found the biggest daddy and the most horrible retribution ever with which to side with, and are looking forward to the day when everyone who disagrees with them will get what's coming to 'em.
This, make no mistake 'O ye who seek only spiritual comfort, is a religion of fear. It is not based on truth, or righteousness, or most importantly, love. They want to scare the hell out of you, literally, so that you will join their cause, give them money, and spread the fright to others. I'm not saying they don't believe their own crap; I'm sure they do. But they do not believe in Good. Another quote:

"Would it fade, her preoccupation with the end of the world, with the love of Jesus, with the salvation of souls? Lately she had been reading everything she could get her hands on about the rapture of the church. "Can you imagine, Rafe," she exulted, "Jesus coming back to get us before we die?"
"Yeah boy," he said peeking over the top of his newspaper, "that would kill me."
She was not amused. "If I didn't know what would happen to me," she said, "I wouldn't be glib about it."
"I do know what would happen to me," he insisted, "I'd be dead, gone, finis. But you of course would fly right up to heaven."
He hadn't meant to offend her, he was just having fun. When she turned away he rose and pursued her. He spun her around and tried to kiss her, but she was cold. "Come on, Irene," he said. "Tell me thousands would just keel over if they saw Jesus coming back for all the good people."
She had pulled away in tears. "I've told you and told you. Saved people aren't good people, they're--"
"Just forgiven, yeah I know," he said, feeling rejected and vulnerable in his own living room. He returned to his chair and his paper. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm happy for you that you can feel so cocksure."
"I only believe what the Bible says," Irene said.

Notice that LaHaye's idea of a perfect Christian (Irene and others like her throughout the world are raptured right off the bat) is one who became a heartfelt born again believer over her obsession with rapture lieterature? (Again, misspelling intentional.) And of course the other important point, saved people aren't good people, they're just forgiven. i.e., they picked the winning side. Of course there's more to that dogma than just that, they believe in living good lives as well; Jesus demands more than just lip service. But their idea of good lives and, well, good-people-not-saved-people's ideas of what is right and wrong are very different. The unfortunate side-effect of believing in a world gone to hell and a Saviour who is going to come and trash the place anyway, is that the world is no longer worth saving; the only worthy cause is trying to convert people they like and condemning to a very scary end those they disagree with, even trying to keep an eye out for the Antichrist. (Henry Kissinger? Ted Kennedy? Barack Obama? Any liberal gay Jew that happens by?) Forget trying to save the environment, ending the war in Iraq, or approving of stem-cell research (which hurts no one, least of all the dead-end biological goo it comes from!) to help people, or a hundred other issues which, if the fundamental right had any concern for them, they could help to do a world of good. They look forward to the end of the world, and indeed, applaud anything that looks like it might bring the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse closer. Sign up for 'ol Tim "laser-eye" LaHaye's newsletter for timely messages on current events related to Biblical prophecy. He might as well gleefully rub his hands and echo one of our President's most foolish comments; "Bring them on!"
I will end this by saying that there are certain things in the Bible that I believe to be true; even certain things in Revelations. Not simply because they are in the Bible, but because they are truths which are self evident to anybody who looks for such truths. Jesus' message of love and compassion, for example. But we are talking about end-time stuff here, and so something out of Revelations which I believe is that there will be many false prophets... can you guess who's at the top of my false prophet list?

In Which I Am By Turns Arrogantly Condescending And Self-Pityingly Auto-Flagellant; Perhaps I'm Just Having Trouble Adjusting

So I got lost on the way to the Lehigh Valley Mall... Gahh! My life is officially boring. It may be time for someone to mercy 12 gauge me.
Alright then, I'll tell you what I've noticed about this insipidly dull country since I've been back. Toilets; they have too much water in them. Seriously, midgets can have a pool party in there. Why all the volume? It's not necessary, splashback is a real danger, and it's gross. I guess I got used to the European design, if not the middle eastern one. Just enough water not to cause a scandal, and not be wasteful. It has it's drawbacks, I suppose, but it wouldn't be polite to go into too much detail, and anyway after a while you get used to them and it's hardly noticable.
Another thing is cell phones; there is so much wrong with that set-up I get a nose bleed every time I dwell on it for too long. Your minutes get used up whether you are making the call or receiving it! Are you freaking kidding me?! That's double billing! That is the single hugest most obnoxious scam that phone companies have pulled yet, and America is eating it up! No other cell companies in the world do that, to my knowledge. Certainly not in the places I've been to, anyway. Another thing that Cingular did to me: When I signed up for my plan, I asked for International calling and was told that normally they don't allow you to do that for 90 days. Don't allow me? What is this, Kiddie Toy Phones R Us? Give me my f%$^&@# International calling, buttmunch! Sir, call this number and explain your situation and they can maybe turn it on. So okay I called the number and was told (after a suicide-inducing automated directory system, but I'll leave that aspect of American life (and it is an aspect of American life as I bet the average person spends on average a half a day per week navigating those bleepity bleep things, a substantial portion of life, if you ask me) alone as I believe that you are all very aware of that outrage) that if I faxed a copy of my driver's licence and a utility bill in my name, that I'd be good to go. I explained that I just returned to the US a few days ago after ten years of living abroad, and that I hadn't had a utility bill in my name since '96. I offered to send them a copy of my bank statement to prove that I could pay my bill, and they refused! They kept saying no, we need a utility bill, and I kept saying that that was not possible, but I have plenty of money and I can prove it to you, jerkoff, so help me out here. Nope.
There are so many things wrong with that that I barely know where to start. It's just stupid. I'm practically begging to give them my money, and they won't take it because of a bureaucratic nitpicky policy and they are so narrowly focused that they can't make an exception in a case that categorically merits it. No matter how much reason, proof, yelling, or begging I offered, or speaking to managers that I did, they would not allow me to get International calling, no way around it. Again, what the hell is Cingular, my babysitter? "We're concerned you won't be able to pay your bill, so rather than letting you try to prove that you can, we're just not going to let you have a basic service that most adults in today's world are qualified to have. No cookie! Bad consumer!" Ow see! My nose is bleeding all over... my... computer ink...  Ok that's stupid. Sorry.
And now I'm getting a little bit more philosophical, but having brought up the oft-maligned "C" word, I want to add my half-penny to the subject of Consumerism. I am a consumer, for sure. That had always struck me as a stupid label for people to get all riled up about because I'm sorry, but everybody in the world, from the Dalai Lama down to Joe Bacteria is a consumer. Of course when it's complained about, it usually refers to much more voracious consumerism than eating and drinking and clothing yourself and whatnot. Which, after not really having been here for so long, is really visible to me right now. Voracious consumerism, I mean. Yesterday when I finally found the Lehigh Valley Mall, which I hate but my brother got a gift card for some store there for Christmas so I took him, (and the gift card thing? Good God it's out of control!) I saw a little kiosk named "Bears in Chairs" and they were selling, holy crap, little stuffed bears sitting on little wood chairs. Lots of different shapes and sizes and whatnot. Everytime I see something like that, I'm that much closer to checking myself out. And shopping centers, my God! They're everywhere! I hate shopping centers, malls, all that, but you have to go to them all the time every time you go out because that's all there is! I guess what I'm saying is that I really don't blame Americans on a personal level for being voracious consumers, because America itself is set up so that most people don't have any other choice. America isn't so much a nation, or a place of Freedom and Democracy, as it is a huge consumer machine. This probably would sound extreme to most people, if they even understood what that meant, but believe me, after everything I've seen, I've never seen a system as strange and warped as my own home country. I mean, I've been here about ten days now, and I've already realized that if I want to do anything in this country, I have to establish credit, get a utility bill, and eat greasy food, regardless of all the other fine qualities I have going for me. There's almost no way around it. And then, once you ante up and get the stuff you need so that you can get done the things that you need to get done, you wind up having very little choice in where you go or what you do. Do I go to Friendly's or Applebee's? Do I shop at Sears, Big Lot, or Wal-Mart? What DVD are we watching tonight? By very little choice, I don't mean that you don't have a zillion sub-categories to choose from. I was in a Barnes & Noble the other day, and my head nearly exploded. I saw so many books that I wanted to read that I couldn't buy a single one of them and I had to run outside in abject terror. There is so much choice that you could spend all day deciding what book to buy, what breakfast cereal you like, which car defines you as a person, (not to get too Fight Club, but.) where to eat, what to watch, what porn website you like the best, etc etc and suddenly you are absorbed in these things so completely that that is what your life is about. What I was trying to get at was that the only decisions you wind up making are what to buy and where to keep your stuff, which is not a life. But it's seductive... I'm not above it. I bought a car, and I really want my own apartment so I can put my stuff in it and get an awesome home theatre set up. But you know what that means for me? It means that if I ever want to really travel again, I am trapped by that. Sure, I can go to Jamaica for a week or wherever, but it can never be the way it was, unless I check out completely. Sell everything, or throw or give it all away, and run like the wind, Forrest! Most people don't know what else life has to offer, and/or they have families and can't sell them, (ah! For the days of white slavery!) and so are stuck where they are, living the only life America has to offer.
I am a hypocrite. I am aware of this. I'm currently going through the process of buying in. I only hope that one day I will be able to check out, but if I can't, at least I've had the last ten years of actual freedom in my life. That's better than most.

No Witty Title This Time. If I Am Still In Baghdad Tomorrow Night, I'm Killing Something, And Singing 'Happy Birthday To Me.'

So, this time, it really could possibly be my last post from Baghdad. No, really, it seriously could be. In fact I'm almost %90 sure that it is. My last post, I mean, from here. If it's not, more sensitive readers may wish to avoid this site for a few days, as the only reason it is not my last post from Iraq is that I missed the plane again, and any further posts from Baghdad are likely to be laced with extremely angry, profane, shocking, and inexcusable language, which I suspect could burn the eyes right out of your sockets. You have been duly forewarned.
So this is a hell of a way to spend my 34th... yes yes please comment on how much you wish me a happy birthday. Please? Seriously, everybody who reads this has to pay the price of admission by saying happy birthday in the comments of this one, and be creative. Don't just say 'Happy Birthday'. Say instead, 'Have a Happy Birthday while you're stuck in Baghdad, sucka!' And so forth. Since my birthday will consist of just sitting by myself on a couch and reading junk on the internet, as I have all week, with a pit of nervousness about getting the hell away from here tomorrow, I could really use the encouragement. If you're reading this one for the first time a week or a month or a year from now, and you've totally missed my birthday, it's not too late. You may still say happy birthday to me, and I will credit you retro-actively. You're welcome.
I wish that I had something to write about Baghdad, here in my last post while I'm here. Something insightful, or stupid, or whatever. But I've been holed up in an Army happy camp all week, and have had little contact with any of the things which keep me in touch with what's going on in the Interzone, or with my Iraqi friends. I do know that Karrada street is still on lockdown, almost one week after that soldier went missing. Which makes me wonder if he was really what the lockdown was all about in the first place. I've heard rumours that they are going to keep that part of the city under wraps for a full month... weird. Anyway, I already tried to do a final post from Baghdad last Monday night, about the emotions I was feeling on the verge of leaving forever, and look where that got me. So that will have to serve, and this past week will have to be classified as filler. Just killing time, and amusing myself. See you in Turkey! Or else...!!!!

Sermon On The Mount Of Space Tourism And Exploration

Something that really bothers me is when I hear otherwise-intelligent people making denigrating jokes about the idea of Space Exploration, or in the particular instance that has set me off on writing today’s rant, Space Tourism. Now I don’t actually know if Lewis Black can be safely bedded in the intelligence camp or not; he seems a little too coked out or something to retain much hold on his objectivity, but he is a regular on John Stewart’s show, and you have to respect that. I was watching the Daily Show yesterday, here on one of the two big plasma TVs which they have in the lobby of Freedom Rest. Incidentally, the mini-palace compound that is Freedom Rest is just a few blocks down from Saddam’s Presidential Palace (now the US Embassy), and served at one time as an Officer’s clubhouse for the former Iraqi President’s more favoured staff. Now my friends Darren and Steve, who were awesome enough to let me stay here until I can get out of country, run the place and oversee a team of people dedicated to making sure that soldiers here on R&R have fun. There’s a guy here whose job it is to fill up water balloons. I think I’ve mentioned that one before. The first time I came over here to visit a while back, Darren was refereeing a Sumo Suit match… that’s pretty much what it sounds like, where the contestants wear these really large padded suits which resemble sumo wrestler blubber and attempt to roll each other around the mat. Now as cool as all that is, let’s change the subject and talk about what a waste of money space adventuring is. (Yes, in case you missed it, there was definitely some snark in that last sentence. The Government spends a lot on Morale, Welfare, and Recreation programs for soldiers… which in and of itself is not a bad thing, but come on, it produces a resume which claims ‘water balloon filling’ as job experience?! Anyway, I won’t even get into the overall waste of money that is the war in Iraq; I think we’re all on the same page as far as that goes at this point.)
Anyway, Mr. Black was making fun of Anousheh Ansari, who returned recently from her 8 day sojourn aboard the International Space Station, saying that the reason she spent the $20 million for the experience was so that she could basically yell nyah nyah at the world’s poor from really high up. It was funnier the way he said it, I suppose, but as I’ve already said that sort of narrow minded joke telling irks me. I understand the fact that a lot of people consider Space Exploration, and more importantly the money that Space Exploration costs, a huge waste. I understand the fact, but not the why. Miss Ansari is an Iranian-American, and was the main sponsor of the Ansari X-prize. A real hero, as far as I’m concerned. The Ansari X-prize was an award of $10 million to the first non-government organization that could build a reusable space craft; it had to be launched and reach an altitude of 100 kilometers, the true boundary of space, twice within two weeks. The X-Prize has done more to spur competition in the private sector for reaching space than anything before or since, and has directly led to the possibility of affordable space flight for those of us who were too dumb in high school to understand that you had to get really really good grades to become an astronaut. With cheap spaceflight, a whole new frontier will open for the world, and the possibilities are awe-inspiring. I honestly believe that, for my (hypothetical) grandchildren to survive, we as a species have to keep moving forward. In a world where large sums of money are spent on infinitely more questionable purposes, it seems like the relatively small amount of money spent on furthering our understanding of the Universe should be beyond ridicule. It is, after all, merely a continuation of the greatest endeavour of the human race. Without exploration, we are nothing, and further, when man is brave enough to push at his boundaries and go where few have gone, invariably he comes back with knowledge that can change the face of what we thought we knew about the world.
Something I hear or read about a lot as an argument against spending money in Space is that the world has too many problems, more attention should be focused on poverty and yadda yadda. All this is true, but why start with bashing Space? There are so many other wastes of money and resources going on, that Space Exploration is a very small fraction of where the world’s money is going, and it has such tremendous possibilities. Compared to other wasteful government spending, for instance, space funding, which usually takes up less than 0.5% of the US Government budget, doesn’t even make the Heritage Foundation's top ten list of wasteful spending! And as far as someone like Miss Ansari spending a cool $20 mil on her lifetime dream goes, well, to hell with Lewis Black. I wonder if he, or even John Stewart, spends the same percentage of their worth on charities that she does? I mean, she was on the board of directors for the Make-A-Wish foundation, for god’s sake! It doesn’t make sense to make a joke at her expense in that manner. Even if you believe that she, or people like her, are morally bankrupt for spending that kind of money on something that you consider frivolous, you have to understand that for those who dream of a better future, Space is the catalyst that can make it all happen, the dream of man come true. It’s the highest ideal worth spending on, certainly more worthy than much of the other 99.5%! Well, that's an opinion, not a fact, but go take a look at that list and tell me that funding for space programs should be cut before any other single thing on it.
By the way, I’ve been trying really hard not to use Star Trek phrases here, (Final Frontier, etc.)  because I hate that anybody with an enthusiasm for space exploration is often lumped in with the Trekkies… I actually rather despise Star Trek. It’s just another easy joke for those wishing to minimize the awesomeness of the whole endeavour. Irony, sarcasm and wit are fine tools, but not when they are misdirected at the dreams of mankind. Save them for simian Presidents and pig-headed Secretaries of Defense and State. Speaking of which, don’t you think it’s rather amazing that Bush is getting impatient with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki? That takes a lot of chutzpah, even for him. Bush illegally invades Iraq, his boy Bremer disintegrates the Iraqi army, they have absolutely no discernable plan for running the country, and everything goes to hell over a period of three years, so they throw up this poor guy al-Maliki and a few months later are trying to shift the responsibility for all of the chaos to him. They are getting impatient with him for not cleaning up their mess quickly enough, a mess which to all appearances is beyond fixing. I think that someone just needs to punch the man in the face, seriously. It’s way overdue.

Socrates Didn't Know Jack, Yo! Or wait, Maybe That Was His Point?

So I finally got around to reading a 14 page article on Time.com which Jeff had sent me a link to a week ago... it's titled Life in Hell: A Baghdad Diary. It's pretty interesting. Although I have to say that his description of the flight descent into the Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) seems a tad exaggerated. I mean, it's true that planes can't begin their descent until they are pretty much right on top of the BIAP, and that they do the whole more-exciting-than-usual corkscrew drop thing, but every time I've done it, it's pretty smooth and I've never noticed anyone screaming or panicking. Of course, I usually sleep through the whole thing, so I guess it could be true. (Hey, it's my blog, I'll make myself look cool if I freaking want to, okay? So you see Ken, don't go basing your opinions of me based on my own self-congratulatory drivel; I don't often tell the stories that make me look like a snivelling coward!) And I've already talked about the road-formerly-known-as the most dangerous in the world, so I won't get into that again. But I believe that the intention of the author of the article was to set the mood for the rest of his piece on the utterly depressing, frightening, violent and chaotic aura of Baghdad, and which I don't believe is an exaggeration at all.
Beyond all of the depression and anger which the truth of his journalism stirs up in me, it's also interesting because I can see alot of paralells in the worsening situation and likely eventual disintegration of Iraq, and the shorter, less important story of GBG. I won't outline GBG's demise here again; all 5 longtime readers of this site already know it, and quite likely wish they didn't. Anyway, my subject here isn't really GBG, I just think a lot about how both the larger issue of the bushoglio in Iraq and the absolute mess that Phil made of his own company have affected my outlook on life, being so caught up in both events simultaneously. Since I've been given this extra week in Baghdad, and all of my former ties here are effectively severed, I find that I am able to approach the whole sordid mess a bit more philosophically, and here is what I've come up with: George Bush is an evil, stupid man. Phil Bloom is an evil, stupid man. I am a stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid bloody idiot, for ever getting involved with either of them. And that all we are, is dust in the wind, dude.
Well, I'll keep working on it.

GAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

It's always the thing you don't see coming. So, I'm still in Baghdad. I didn't even make it out of my room this morning. S called me and said that all the roads in Karrada district, where he and H live, are closed and the Green Zone was locked down, also. A soldier has gone missing and so the US Military started a door-to-door search at 7:30 last night in the Karrada district, and at some point a major gunfight broke out so the Iraqi police closed all the streets and issued a curfew, and no one can get in or out and it's still going on as I write this; it is 9am.
So aside from stranding me here for perhaps another week, I'm sure that US soldiers, already pretty well hated by most Iraqis at this point, are out there winning the hell out of hearts and minds by kicking down doors and scaring the crap out of people. By the way I really have come to hate that phrase, "Winning hearts and minds." It sounds nice, but so far it seems that it's mostly been used as an insidious form of Bush double-speak around here. Karradah district is one of the few areas of Baghdad that is still relatively safe... several of my employees were from that area. I'm sure that after today it's all downhill for Karrada. I mean, stuff still happens there, but not nearly as much as in many other areas. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that when a soldier goes missing, the army will go to any lengths to find him, but I think that what's going on out there right now is not a good idea. They've been searching for 14 hours now; I can't imagine how many families they've scared the total hell out of and are right now trying to talk their sons out of angrily going out and joining the insurgency.
Sooo... I don't know how to even begin to approach the next week. That house I wanted to stay at in the Red Zone, if I couldn't have made it through immigration, was in Karrada. Not that I can't stay in my caravan in the Interzone for another night or two, but after that my caravan will likely have to be removed. On the bright side, I can get that Visa stamp now because the office should open in a day or two, so the next time, as long as there are no police actions going on, I should have no trouble.
I will keep you posted.

An Open Letter To The Guys That Helped Steal My Country

Dear Religious Right,
The separation of Church and State is not a satanic anti-religious idea. It is a brilliant idea which protects the integrity of both institutions. Don't you see? Allow the recent Foley scandel to grant you the temporary stillness needed for reflective thought on the matter. It is a very good illustration. So is that whole deal where our "Christian values" government is actually trying to justify torture, while downplaying the actual severity of pain involved in their definition of what torture we should be allowed to practice. You see, the biggest flaw in current right-wing religious philosophy is the idea that you have the calling from above to take your moral values and make (your) God's law into man's law. I will ignore the obvious flaw for the moment, that you don't have the right to impose your belief system on others. Everybody knows that that is what is actually un-American, and is the reason why you never get invited to the cool kid's parties. The real problem is this: those people in the government who you've allied yourselves with are there because of power. If they truly valued God and a spiritual life, they would not be where they are. All you've done, by getting buddy buddy with the politicians, is given them a powerful tool with which to advance their own interests. They are not your friends! You thought that by using them to advance your interests in the government, that you could get what you wanted. But you are horribly wrong. They are using you, also, and what they want is power, and when they get that power, they do not truly advance a more spiritual country. They use religion to scare people and advance policies that will make them richer and more powerful. There are people pretending to be religious leaders to get you to follow them down this road. The separation of Church and State not only protects the people from having other's religious values shoved down their throats, but it also protects your religion from being warped and abused by power mad politicians. That separation protects the integrity of both institutions equally. Protect yourselves and get out of politics! Do not allow these twisted individuals to be false prophets! Do not allow them to claim that they are serving your agenda with one side of their face, and perverting it with the other! Give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar, and give to God what belongs to God; and in case Jesus didn't state that clearly enough, allow me to clarify further: DO NOT give to Bush what belongs to God, and DO NOT give to God what belongs to Bush!!!
God has spoken to me and said that it is so! Boo kids.
Sincerely,
The Guy That Had His Country Stolen While He Was Out Fishin'

I Hereby Dub Yah; President "Comical Criminal Half-Wit Jr."

I mean, duh. Seriously. Not to assist our culture in dumbing the language down or anything, but freaking duh. Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat. Do they really? Wow. Ok see, a McDonald's manager or Walt Disney's CEO can be removed from their positions based on crappy performance, miscalculations, ineptitude, etc etc. Forget actual criminal behaviour for the moment. A McDonald's manager doesn't have to lie to his staff or steal from the till to make a poor decision about something which can result in his termination. I don't think that Michael Eisner was ever accused of illegal activity, but man he fell hard in the end. The funny thing is, at least when Mr. Eisner realized the tide was overwhelmingly against him, he had enough sense of dignity to step down himself, one year before his contract was up! Maybe he made that decision on his own, maybe it was forced on him; I don't really know. But what I do know is that not only is President "El Diablo" Bush and his administration a bunch of liars and crooks, warmongering half-wits and advocates of torture, but now they have been proven to be inept by this report assembled from research conducted by National Intelligence, and represents the consensus view of 16 different spy agencies in the US government! His war in Iraq has made Terrorism a bigger problem, a worse threat, than ever before! And this is the consensus view of all of the REAL experts in the field! I mean, any dope could see this as truth as clear as day, if they were paying attention for the last three years. But now it's backed up by hard fact, more irrefutable than the "intelligence" which brought us here in the first place, and it is time to act on it. It doesn't matter any more whether he lied, or covered stuff up... he started a war which has not only failed miserably in it's stated objective, but his major platform, his self-proclaimed raison d'être known as the so-called 'War on Terror', rather than being fought and won by him and Rummy and Cheney, is categorically being fueled by his retardation! And so we must fire him for making such a costly misjudgement. The morality of his actions can be pursued separately, but for the moment it's enough that we know enough to remove him from office based soley on Job Performance. Incidentally, does the administration's behaviour over the last several weeks remind anyone of Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, who was given the silly nicknames of "Baghdad Bob" and "Comical Ali" when Saddam's regime was being bombed into the Sand Ages during the last invasion of Iraq? Bush is less composed and likeable, but the denial of everything going up in flames around him is quite similar. "Baghdad George". Dan Savage should start a campaign to have all Americans not only ITMFA, but to hereafter only refer to him as "Baghdad George". Or maybe George "al-Saha-ha-ha-Ha HAHAHAHA!-haf-wit" Bush.
Well, ok then. Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. Anyway, I'm sure Keith Olbermann will come out with a special comment quite soon which will really knock the issue out of the park.

Um. I Get A Little Unbalanced In This One. Sorry. I Think I've Revealed Too Much, Maybe.

That's it, we're dead. Bush won't be happy until he breaks every law and rule against ethics, morality, and reason. Run for your lives, the sky is falling! I don't know anymore what is propaganda, what is real, what is paranoid, or what is purposefully intended to scare us. All I know is, whatever they're trying to do to me, it's probably working. Iwlwpmbhjsd... excuse me, that was me wiping the blood off of my keyboard. The blood that's been dripping from my mouth ever since I started looking for little Men In Black installing satellite receivers in my teeth last night. Which is weird because teeth don't bleed, they're like bone or something. Maybe I got a few of the little buggers without noticing, and they're bleeding.
Ok, enough crazy talk, Mike. You're upsetting the children. Sure boss no problem.
Anyway, I've been reading 'The Devil's Knot' by Mara Leveritt. Which is another reason I'm in this weird mood, probably. If righteous rage were a valid legal defence for killing people, this guy Gitchell would also go down, man. I'd seen the documentaries 'Paradise Lost' 1 & 2 before, which are horrific enough, but one of the things you always hear the police say is that the movies show a one-sided opinion of the case, and that if you look at the facts, there's more to it. Well, that's what Mara did, and it actually makes the law enforcement look worse than even the film makers could have. She's a journalist, and went into the case cold, with no emotional attachments either way. She then reports more exhaustively on the actual police reports and court transcripts than the movies had time for. It doesn't look good, man. It actually looks exactly like a book on the Salem Witch Trials I read a long time ago.
On a side note, yet not entirely unrelated, something about the Superman franchise really bothers me. I mean, this guy is about the closest thing to a God that pop culture has. Why is he always flying around saving cats from trees and people from the same arch villian over and over again? I mean, he's a reasonably intelligent guy. And he has an exquisite moral belief system. I think that, if he were a real thing (which I know that he is not) he would be in Iraq, defending the helpless. Or in Darfur. Or Lebanon. Fat white rich America would probably get about a nanosecond of his time... I say this because if I was him, that's about what I'd be thinking. Not that there aren't people in America that need saving, but people in poorer, more dangerous parts of the world need it vastly more. Actually, in the deepest recesses of my wrathful little black heart, I rather believe he'd be spending alot of his time conquering armies involved in immoral actions. Al Qaeda, Those African Junta thingies you always hear about, the Bush administration. Had I his power, the rich, soulless powerful would be trembling in their boots. I'd be Castle Stomping their secret germ-warfare laboratories. I'd tear up secret CIA prisons. I'd show 'em what wire tapping really meant. And I'd have a sweet ass jacuzzi with Lois Lane waiting in it for me every day after work. I mean, I wouldn't really be made of steel, just righteous wrath and skin tights that I would take off every once in a while. Isn't that enough?
Well, it certainly is enough of my infantile fantasy. I just think that that would make a better Superman story than the usual fare. I mean, are our Gods not there to dispense justice to the evil? It's not hard to find where the real evil is, these days.

P.S. I don't actually advocate the killing of anyone, even Gitchell. It's a purile vengeance fantasy, is all. Just wanted to clear that up, in case I had my family worried.

A Long Overdue Tea Kettle Whistle

Well, Rumsfeld is right about one thing; I am certainly morally and intellectually confused. Just not about him or the administration. About them, I am certain. They SUCK. Read Keith Olbermann's post responding to Rummy's blatant self-serving bile. Anyway, I'd like to ask him exactly what does he think people are confused about? The great job FEMA did on Katrina? How splendidly the war in Iraq is going, and how we found those WMD under Saddam's shoe in that dirty hole in the ground? (You'd think that if Saddam was such a grand, evil threat to world security, he'd have had a more blinged out secret bunker than that! You know, like Hitler's or Cheney's) Also, on a more personal note, I've read a lot about how SIGIR is hard at work fighting corruption in Iraq, proving that the US is on top of it... I'd like to know why my former employer is the biggest fish they fried?! Really, he defrauded the US Gov and the Iraqi people of $8 million?! Wow! Yeah, that's bad and all, but I think what they don't want people to realize is that over here, $8 million is like a short weekend's bribing money for companies like KBR and Bechtel. But those are large corporations and can afford to tie things up for years and even if wrongdoing is determined, no single person will be held responsible. I think that back when Phil was arrested last November, the director of SIGIR, Stuart Bowen, said something like "Boo Yah! We're gonna get 'em, this is just the first of MANY! Them crooks oughtta start shakin' in their boots now!" ... In going over their site, it looks like they've got two or three other guys even more small-time than Phil was, still leaving billions of dollars of suspect destination unaccounted for. So, the lesson seems to be, if you're not a big enough crook to hide behind a US Government crony with power, watch out!
How does it go? A whole buncha sound and fury signifying nothing? Yeah, that's what.
Alright, I'm done. There are much more well-informed sites out there about this whole imbroglio, I'm sure. I'm just a morally confused putz in the wrong place at the wrong time, anyway.

Genius Recipes For A Patriotic Day, Which Commemorates A Host Of America's Past Triumphs And Atrocities, Not Just The Independence Which In Fact No Longer Exists As It Was Meant To, Anyway

So I've discovered the best way to make coffee: Every time you make a pot, make just a little more than you actually need, and after you've poured your last cup, leave the warmer on for a couple of hours so that the bit that's left over evaporates down to about a tablespoon of rather thick coffee syrup. Then, the next time you make coffee, leave that syrup in the pot for a nice extra kick... of course there are people who like Turkish coffee, which is actually worse as they enjoy stirring tablespoons of coffee grounds in such coffee syrup and drinking, I mean chewing, that. But my way works a little better for me as I feel that I can do without the resulting Turkish heart-attack.
Anyway, I've received a couple of emails from friends and family who are worried about my spiritual well-being, due to my whole 'ashamed to be an American' thing a few posts back... they seem to think that because I said this, it means I am suffering from some sort of disillusioned stupor of the spirit... anyway it struck me as funny that anybody would think that, and it got me to thinking about it. I've never really strongly identified my sense of self with my country, so the idea that finding out about all sorts of really bad things we've done would affect me on a level where I'd feel personal shame or responsibility is ludicrous.  I don't believe in Patriotism... at least not in a way beyond waving flags about and letting off firecrackers on the 4th of July. (That's more all about firecrackers being neat-o.) I did not go to the moon, much as I'd like to, and I did not kill any American Indians in the 1800's. I am proud to be a part of the country that landed on the moon, and ashamed to be an heir to a bloody conquest, but I did not myself do those things. I am ashamed of my ignorance and naïvety, but that is true of all humans, or at least it should be. If that shame were to bruise or destroy me, I'd have needed a thicker skin before ever leaving the womb.
What I believe is that Patriotism without responsibility, without questions, without thought, is blind and stupid, and paradoxically, un-American. Or actually not so paradoxical... Patriotism without responsibility is un-American. I think it's only a paradox in the minds of Far Right Christian Conservative Republicans. Love of Country does not equal Love of Government. Love of Country, right or wrong, does not equal Loyalty, or Justice, or Honor, or even (gasp) apple pie. That would actually be closer to fascism, or Little Bo Peepism (You know, because of the sheep).  I tend to think that Jefferson, Lincoln, or Washington would be quite shocked at the state of modern American affairs. I'm not saying I'm some sort of genius political thinker, because any idiot can see that what is going on is insane, if they take the time to try. Anyway, here's one of my favorite Einstein quotes regarding patriotism to bolster my weak argument, and I think we can all agree that he was some kinda smart guy:

"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"

    -That's right, A. frikken Einstein said that.

Of course, he did write that whole letter to Teddy about using the bomb, so that's where overthinking yourself will get you.
Anyway, I'm not really trying to convince anybody that I'm right; people tend to hold on to their beliefs in such matters whatever cases are presented to them, and I am no great convincer. I just want people to stop worrying about me, and my supposed bruised and battered soul... these are my beliefs and I'm doing okay. Whatever I'm going through here is probably not as horrific as some imagine. Make that definately not. My few and recent soapboxy angst-ridden anti-occupation posts are just there so I can have something to write about... well, mostly. I do feel very strongly about this stuff, but I'm still sitting in my caravan, perusing the internet, eating and sleeping, and planning on having a grand old time in Thailand someday to shake the middle-east out of my skin.
Well, considering I've spent the last half-hour reading other Einstein quotes on the internet, I'm going to end with one which speaks very well about the current bloody mess in the middle east, from Iraq to Gaza, to many other parts of the world even, because the odious term 'Peacekeeping Force' has always simultaneously amused and enraged me:

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

-A. frikken Einstein

He who has ears, let him hear. He who has big monkey ears and is our President, let him remove his fingers from them, as well as from various other orifices in his body.

The Title Of This Post Is [That Song Bill Murray Woke Up To Every Morning In Groundhog Day]

Well, remember how I said it was going to be nice to finally know whether or not I'll be staying or going from here by the end of this month? And that one post where I said it was funny how I always seemed to be saying that I'll be leaving Iraq any time now, but somehow it never seems to happen? Well guess what? It happened again. sigh. We got an extension until July 27th on our eviction notice, due to some legal questions about GBG property... a technicality. So I'm here for at least one more month. How many times have I said that now? Anyway, it's actually a good thing because it gives us more time to try and work with the Iraqi Government to secure this property for long term use, so all this means is that we actually have a better chance of staying much more long-term now. Or I could be on a plane to Thailand on July 28th. Is it Groundhog Day? Actually I'm psyched, because it means I'm that much closer to being able to say "I lived in Baghdad for 3 years." No, don't try to understand, no one can but me.
Ok, just because I just came across it, and it's about as horrible as anything else I've come across relating to US Military behaviour in Iraq, I'm going to link you to a video about some illegal warfare tactics our fine military used while attacking Fallujah. My favorite parts are when the US soldier kills an unarmed injured civilian, and the whole thing where we bombed the city with White Phosphorous... an illegal chemical weapon which we had once upon a time signed international treaties not to ever use, and which, by the way, our government vehemently denied using. But watch the video for yourself, and then tell me that we're still the good guys.

I Rant and I Rant, But I Know It's Not Helping Anything

So something you don't see in the news a whole lot about Iraq is the new fundamentalist trend. There is some really scary crap going on out in the streets of Baghdad, and I think the Bush Reich is trying to keep it on the down-low. There are roving gangs of fundamentalist Muslim bullies passing out fliers to Iraqis which state that any women wearing pants or men wearing shorts will be killed. All women must wear Haijab (those headcover things, so women's shameful hair remains covered). Men have to keep their shirts buttoned all the way to the top and must either shave their face completely or wear one of those Muslim-type beards, no mustaches or goatees or whatever. In other words, they are trying to impose strict muslim law, similar to what they have in Iran, upon a populace which has many secular muslims who don't believe in that strict an interpretation of muslim law, not to mention many smaller non-muslim populations such as the Christians, Jews, or Yezidis. I think it made the news last week about a team of Iraqi tennis players who were killed for wearing shorts, but one in particular that I know of has been kept silent. I only know about it because it happened in the neighborhood of one of my Iraqi friends; a 5 year old boy was gunned down in his front yard because he had on shorts and a tank top. This is so horrendous in so many ways that I think I'd be willing to murder the people that did it if I had the chance. There are many cases of women wearing pants being kidnapped off of the streets and being raped and killed. This doesn't lessen my desire to break one of the ten commandments at all. The hypocrisy involved in killing a 5 year old boy for something he can't possibly understand, or raping and killing a woman because she is so shameless a whore as to wear pants and let the world see her hair is... astounding, apalling, unbelievable, confounding, heart-rending, insane, incomprehensible, moronic, RETARDED! And I can't come up with enough other adjectives to make it clear how awful that is.
According to my friends, the people commiting these atrocities are largely not even Iraqi: They are Iranian fundamentalist nutjobs taking advantage of the situation here. The situation being that the Iraqi government now in place has neither the resources nor, to all appearances, the drive to take back the streets. And where, ultimately, does the blame for this all lie? George effin' Bush and his warmongering cronies, that's what. Man, I really hate those people. Here is a quote from an artcle I pulled off of Yahoo news from Stephen Elliott's blog:

"I got a note from a friend today. An American who works in Baghdad and does not want his identity revealed. He says women are being kidnapped and killed for the clothes they wear. He says women are being hunted. The country is in chaos. People are mourning the loss of Saddam Hussein, convinced things were better before.

It's an awful thing to think, that things might have been better under a murderous dictator. But it seems to be accepted wisdom among the diplomats. And even if it isn't true, still, if it is close enough that a sizable percentage could think it, then we have failed miserably.

We have failed miserably in Iraq. We have tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib, murdered civilians in Haditha. We turned our backs on the Geneva Accords and American values, promising to build democracy in the Middle East, and received only a failed state in return."

I stand behind what he's said here %100, based on what I've seen happen here in the last 3 years, from the American side of things and through my Iraqi friend's eyes. I am ashamed to be an American. Not because I hate my country, which I don't. I am ashamed of my government, and what it has accomplished toward making the world a lesser place to live in.
I apologize if I seem to be soapboxing an awful lot in my last several posts, but the situation is deteriorating so fast over here it breaks my heart. There are so many things that America and Americans have done here in Iraq that, when the patriot blinders are lifted, can be called evil, it makes me crazy. PSD mercenaries and marines killing innocent Iraqi civilians who happen to be standing there is nothing new, I'm afraid. It's been going on all along, but only now, with Bush's approval rating at %29, are people daring to put it in the news. These cowboy-types over here tend to lump all Arabs together in the terrorist category, regardless of the option God gave them at birth to use their brains to make rational distinctions, and their regard for life can at times equal a Nazi's regard for life in a concentration camp. Sure, that's an extreme thing to say, and when out in a danger zone you have to make quick decisions... I can't speak to that, anyway. I've never been in that situation. But I've seen how good Iraqi people are treated by cowboys in a safe place like the IZ, and more times than not it leaves the Iraqis with an impression of Americans as cruel masters, which they understandably resent.
I wish I had a constructive solution to offer along with all of my bilious criticism, but I don't. Just saying it's time for America to leave Iraq is not enough; we'd just be leaving them to the awful fate which we put in place for them. But staying only means a continuation of what we've been doing here all along: Nothing save serving our own interests and making their home worse for it.

One Prima Donna Whingeing About Another

Something that makes me absolutely crazy about IZ culture is the whole PSD situation. Personal Security Detail teams are essentially patriotic mercenaries. They will whine and complain like little girls and possibly threaten you physically if you dare to call them by that name, but that's because none of them know how to open a dictionary.
            mercenary / adj. & n.
            adj. primarily concerned with money or other reward (mercenary motives).
             n. (pl. -ies)
            1 a hired soldier in foreign service.
            2 a person available for paid hire
Okay you can argue the 'in foreign service' bit, but not really. PSD teams guard mainly Americans, it's true, but there are also several American companies contracted as PSDs for Iraqi officials as well, and it's supposedly ALL in the service of making Iraq more secure, anyway. And most of the money is coming from Iraqi Reconstruction funds, so it's to no one's benefit to get all semantic about it... actually you could reasonably call me a mercenary based on definition 2, but I'll play the semantic card for myself in that it could mean anybody that's got a job then, is a mercenary. But that's ridiculous. And mercenary generally connotates fighting for money, which I am not. So now that that log is out of my eye, let me address the splinter that is mercenary culture in the IZ.
The camp I used to be in charge of life support for had 600 of these pampered prima donnas living in it, so I am uniquely qualified to comment on them. They are generally big pumped up rednecks. When I leave Iraq and enter normal society for vacation, I feel alot bigger than I used to because here everybody is built like a superhero. They get their own caravan room and bathroom, and are given power and water 24/7, and are usually provided with TVs and DVD players, cable and internet. Their assignments are usually not more than 3 to 4 hours long, a couple of days a week, if that. They may or may not venture out into dangerous parts of Baghdad on those assignments. They drive like maniacs, shoot to kill with little provocation, and act like the gods of Iraq. In fact, they seem to be stuck on the very silly highschool-like self appointed moniker of 'Baghdaddy', as in "Who's your Baghdaddy?!", to be seen on T-shirts worn by retarded Americans all over the country. To be fair, anybody can buy these T-shirts at the PX, but mostly the big monkey mercenaries seem to like them. Incidentally, the front of these T-shirts say this in English, but just in case they wanted to actually cross the line from stupid to offensive, they have it translated into Arabic on the back side, just to let their subjects know who's boss. Anyway, I've been told by my translator that it doesn't really make sense in Arabic anyway, so mostly it's just stupid. But it's the thought that counts.
When they're not on assignment, they're lounging about their secured and pampered compounds (which always have Gym facilities, various other recreation options, and excellent dining facilities) and complain about how their showers leak water onto their floor, the food sucks, not enough decent gym equipment, blah blah blah. Their salaries are almost never less than $20,000 per month.
Meanwhile, the American soldier gets paid substantially less (maybe a grand or 2 a month? I'm not actually up on the current salary for soldier danger pay, which they get for being assigned here) and spend a significantly more amount of time in the red zone, risking their lives. Their living situation, when they are on long term assignment here, is to bunk up with the rest of their unit and no personal space.(like in the movies!) PSDs usually get 2 weeks paid vacation every 3 months. Soldiers don't really get vacations per se, but their leave time is significantly less.
Now, a lot of PSDs are ex-military, (also ex-cops, ex-firemen, ex-security guards etc...) and feel they've paid their dues, but that's sort of beside the point for me. Why is so much of the reconstruction money being spent on security? They're paying mercenaries 10 times the money a soldier makes to do a tenth of a soldier's job! Not only is the money being spent on their salaries, but those huge plush secure compounds they insist on living in don't come cheap either, let me tell you. Just building one can cost tens of millions of dollars, and ongoing life support costs can also be in the tens of millions per year. It's so wastefull, it's almost too big to comprehend. Why not just offer a 4 or 5 times increase in soldiers pay to get people to enlist and come over here that way? If that's not feasible, there must be other options less insane than what's actually going on.
It puts me in a difficult position morally, because I've made alot of money myself by building and maintaining one of the biggest of those camps. So don't get me wrong, I am definately somewhat of a hypocrite. It doesn't make me any less outraged at the whole thing, though, even having admitted that. Plus I just really dislike these people, and have only received these impressions by having actually been in the middle of it; before I came to work for my current employers, I really wasn't completely aware of how messed up it was. It's one thing to read about it in a blurb in the New York Times, it's another thing to see it firsthand.
In my own personal news, we found a treadmill buried under lots of construction materials while cleaning out our warehouse the other day. We've plugged it in in one of the rooms in our office building and I've begun burning some calories... a much needed activity for me. If I'm this sore from walking for an hour a day on the treadmill, it would really have put a crimp in my travelling for whenever I'm freed from this prison.

Colbert Electrifies the Blogosphere, and I Get All Political 'n Stuff

I don't normally blog too much about politics or politically-related things, because essentially there are millions of people out there who are much smarter and more research-oriented, and doing it better than I could anyway. The extent of my political feeling is that I dislike politicians intensly, and am probablly an anarchist at heart; Although I realize that Anarchy is hardly a feasible form of governance in reality. I think that Anarchy might be more organized than the the current political reality of crazed bush-whacking, however.
Anyway, regardless of my unpolitical proclivities, no Bush-hating blogger out there can resist making a comment about the recent Stephen Colbert bit at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and I laughed so hard and am so in awe of the man, that I have to post a transcript of his genius here. It's not that any of the things he said are any wittier than things which other people have had to say, although Colbert is certainly telling the despairingly comedic truth. It's that he is saying it without the slightest trace of embarassment or fear 10 feet away from the most powerful and evil man in America, and he doesn't back off. The man has stones, no doubt. Speaking truth to power, indeed.
I wish that people like him had been saying this kind of stuff to Bush's face since before the last election. I pray that the Dems win the upcoming Congressional elections so that there is the remote possibilty of seeing the great ape get his comeuppance... even if that might only mean that Evil Cheney is the fill-in president. There should be a provision in impeachment trials that allow for wholesale Administration impeachments, sort of like a White House Virus-Sweep, Disc-Clean & DeFrag program... the whole Bush Cronystration needs to go, not just it's mouthpiece. It's sad that it's likely too late for such a thing to make much difference in saving America's extremely damaged reputation with the rest of the world, not to mention any thought of reversal of actual death, damage and destruction which they've caused.
Anyway, on a side note and not entirely unrelated, I noticed something the other day while driving through the International Zone: America has been in Baghdad for over 3 years now, and Iraqis still have extremely unreliable electricity. My Iraqi friends tell me that they are currently getting 2 hours of electricity per day. The summer is starting up again, when temperatures typically will rise to between 110 and 130 degrees farenheit daily, and with no power for their Air Conditioners, Iraqis suffer through some long hot days and nights and it is really not fun... just because they are from here and have had these temperatures to deal with all their life does not make it easy for them. They were used to things being infinitely better when Saddam was the boss. Also, I'd like to mention that here in the IZ, we are almost never without power, so what's up with that?
So it's been 3 years and little to nothing has been done about the electricity situation, and I'm sorry, but the line that "Terrorists keep blowing stuff up" is just weak. It's simply not good enough when the brand new US Embassy, which construction began on about 2 months ago, is already extremely well underway. It is being built pretty much right on the Tigris river, with a clear view of the so-called Red Zone, which is military-speak for the part of Baghdad where the unimportant residents of the city are; Iraqis. It will be very easy for someone to shoot something over the river at them, and yet, construction continues at a brisk pace; I bet that barring any RPG attacks, it'll be finished more or less on schedule in 2007. Fixing up the Baghdad power station should not take nearly as much effort, and yet, it's been over 3 years. Every time I drive by the new embassy, there is a noticable difference in the amount of construction completed, and I get rather a sick feeling in my stomach because it makes me think about how obvious my government's priorities are, and how little they have anything to do with what they would have the world believe they are. ITMFA!!!!
It also makes me think about the company I work for, and how, as it turns out, I came to work for a corrupt individual doing shady deals to defraud a corrupt government of it's shady money... and how I really can't untangle my own choices from any of it, regardless of my relative innocence in all of this. I'm just a guy with a job, you know? And I'm really attached to good people here, Iraqi friends who just want to work with us so they can make some decent money for a change, because the alternative Iraqi jobs in the city can be comparatively grim. But I still feel dirty and conflicted about the whole thing. And my stomach just keeps getting more turbulent.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a nice parting shot of Mr. Colbert skewering Bush as he looks on, rather thundercloud-like you might say. It's the most inspiring event I've come across in a very long time.

Colbert for President, anyone?

Irritated-hate-my-government griping grrrr

AAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!! What is it about freaking New Year's in Iraq? I just got an email from the stand-in boss from Romania that I have to get rid of half of my Iraqis by January 1st. AGAIN! I of course am going to fight it tooth and nail, but dammit, I'm sick of this. Our client doesn't trust Iraqis, even ones who are Christians, not Muslim, and who have been working closely with us for over a year now. They are again pushing to get them out of the camp.
I mean, it may not matter, as the fact is that we still may get our butts booted out of here in a month or two anyway, but it's the principle. I hate being in the position of having to fire people who work really hard, and who I really like, because my stupid countrymen can't accept the fact that WE live in THEIR country, and if they're going to be that paranoid, then perhaps they have chosen the wrong line of work.
Or maybe I have. God I hate these government types.
I think I'm feeling a tad too bitter to go on at the moment, please send condolences. Also, I'm thinking of starting an Adopt-an-Iraqi program. I've already adopted a sort of surrogate family, but if anyone wants to help some people out, let me know. Also, If anyone knows anything about laws which govern State Department hiring procedures for embassy work in foreign countries, please contact me because I think that legally, any American company running a business in a foreign country MUST hire a certain percentage of local nationals, & I think we're being forced to violate that law by being made to get rid of our Iraqi workforce.
Grrr.