Mining through the crap October 3, 2009

Do you own a bed? Do you have food in your cupboards or food that is easily accessible? Are you able to watch TV? Do you have to swear allegiance to President Obama or anyone else? Can you reasonably go where you want to go? Are you able to believe what you want? These are blessings that not everyone enjoys.

I watched Crossing last night. It’s a Korean film (we watched it with English subtitles). It was brutal; I recommend it to everyone. I think if we all watched it–meaning, everyone in this country–the whole mood of politics would change. We would become so much less greedy and be concerned about so much less. There are people in the world who really are deprived and suffer so much. I am proposing a national day of humility and service: we all watch Crossing and then go out and serve people who really live with very little. Then we can get back to the normal moaning and griping of politics–maybe we’ll be able to tone it down a little. I think we’d be able to really mine through the crap and focus on what we really need and what is really important.

I Feel Annoyed When… April 12, 2007

Today at work we discussed conflict resolution; one part of resolution is to avoid saying You You You, but rather say, “I get frustrated when…” There are a few things that are annoying me right now:

One, that Sanjaya on American Idol is so popular. Why does that annoy me? Because he has long hair, and I think that is disgusting. Otherwise, I think he is a good looking guy.

Two, that Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, think it is a victory to deny funds to American troops.

Three, that Nancy Pelosi thinks it is OKAY to travel around the world supposedly representing the United States. What on earth is she thinking? Even if she does think she has the right to independently alter America’s foreign policy just because she is the Speaker of the House, why does she think she has the mandate to do so? The executive and the legislative branches were (purposely) designed differently. The presidency is a one person office. The legislature has 435 members of which Ms. Pelosi is ONE. Surely not everyone in the legislature thinks the way she does about foreign policy, so even if, as some argue, Congress has the power to take over foreign policy when the president is “messing it up” doesn’t mean that it actually makes any sense for it to do so!

Four, that it is not a big deal that the Duke lacrosse players HAD STRIPPERS IN THEIR HOUSE!! Why is this is not an issue? I know we live in a free country, and I know sex is no longer a big deal to a lot of people, but I cannot believe that no one thinks it is inappropriate that a university endorsed team is being entertained by strippers. A stripper has what other purpose than to turn guys on? And why is that okay?

Ahhh, There is Indeed Hope September 29, 2006

This is exciting! PIPA has just released a study about political attitudes in Iraq. Here is a link to the study http://www.pipa.org/  and here is NRO’s commentary by Richard Nadler:  http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2YyYzJhMWM2NTRmZjY5Y2IyNzQ1MTY2MGUxYWEzNTg=. I think Nadler makes the right conclusions: Americans may not be popular in Iraq, but that is a good thing because they trust their new government, they don’t like foreign occupiers, and they actually are unified on some fronts.