I said it before, and I meant it. I mean it even more after reading this:
Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006.
At the same time, the number of attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army has jumped sixfold since the Iraq war began. Last year, about 2,100 soldiers injured themselves or attempted suicide, compared with about 350 in 2002, according to the U.S. Army Medical Command Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
Okay, a little while ago I got a little defensive on behalf of Hillary - you know which Hillary - because I think she's a decent, resilient, accomplished woman who seeks to serve her country despite really nasty personal attacks. Sure, she's not perfect, but no one is. And if she somehow happens to become the next President of the United States, is there really any question that things are likely to get better? I mean, it's not like the country could be run any worse than it is today ...
For a couple of years after 9/11, I used to be addicted to U.S. politics. I read voraciously and followed all the cool blogs, like DailyKos, Mahablog, TalkingPointsMemo, and the great Whiskey Bar, which is no longer updated, though apparently online archives exist. I loved the way these writers could make me think and consider perspectives that sadly had never occurred to me. As well, being a total square my entire life, it was pretty cool (in a totally uncool, geeky way) to know ALL about Valerie Plame and the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, etc. months before it finally - finally!!! - registered in the mainstream media. (My Uncle Ted did get a little prickly with me about the U.N. and weapons inspections there for a while, but these days he strangely doesn't mention it, perhaps because it's now clear to everyone that Iraq was a clusterfuck, and I use that word deliberately.) Eventually, though, after Bush was "elected" a second time (which still boggles the imagination, frankly), I just gave up. It was WAY too depressing to follow.
But things are turning around for the Democrats in the U.S. lately and it seems a little less optimism-depleting to return to those former blogging stomping-grounds of mine to read about the strong turnouts of voters to Democratic primaries and the strong polling numbers for their good candidates and just how good Republican candidates just don't want to be part of the Republican system long enough to get elected. [This doesn't mean that I think that all Republicans or conservatives are terrible people ... just their policies - especially those of the "neocons".]
But you know, probably the most interest- and optimism-generating feature about American politics today is Barack Obama. Say what you will about his inexperience and whether he's providing sufficient detail about what he'll do to enact his vision while in office, the man knows how to inspire and how to bring people together. Check out this video:
My favourite line is "I don't see black South Carolina, I don't see white South Carolina, I see South Carolina!") For some reason this is really powerful. I don't know if this man is overrated or not, to be honest, but I got goosebumps throughout this speech.
And tonight I read this anecdote from Bill Richardson, who at one time was also running for the Democratic nomination for president,
about how Obama saved him during one of last year's Democratic debates:
"I had just been asked a question -- I don't remember which one -- and Obama was sitting right next to me. Then the moderator went across the room, I think to Chris Dodd, so I thought I was home free for a while. I wasn't going to listen to the next question. I was about to say something to Obama when the moderator turned to me and said, 'So, Gov. Richardson, what do you think of that?' But I wasn't paying any attention! I was about to say, 'Could you repeat the question? I wasn't listening.' But I wasn't about to say I wasn't listening. I looked at Obama. I was just horrified. And Obama whispered, 'Katrina. Katrina.' The question was on Katrina! So I said, 'On Katrina, my policy . . .' Obama could have just thrown me under the bus. So I said, 'Obama, that was good of you to do that.'"
Barack Obama is a good man, perhaps even a great one. And now I can't help but watch and cheer him on.
Kalisa just made me laugh out loud in her review of some film award fashion:
Diane Lane, easily one of the most beautiful women in the world, did herself no favors with this [dress]. When the space between your chin and your breasts is greater than two feet, you may want to rethink your undergarments.
Check here to see what she means. She's bang on!!! :)
The radical Baptist church known for picketing the funerals of American soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq has announced that they intend to protest Heath Ledger’s stateside memorial service because he played a gay character in “Brokeback Mountain.”
“You cannot live in defiance of God. He (Ledger) got on that big screen with a big, fat message: God is a liar and it's OK to be gay,” said Shirley Phelps in a statement sent out by the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church.
Whatever happened to "Let he who was without sin cast the first stone"???
These people are hyenas in the guise of religious zealots. (And yes, I realize the hypocrisy of that statement. That still doesn't mean that it isn't true.)
Today was the first day of a cool experiment.A few friends of mine and I had a soup/casserole exchange.
Living by yourself can have some definite advantages, but one of them is generally not cooking.Most recipes make at least four (or more) servings, which can become a bit tedious when you have to eat the same thing day after day, just so that it won’t go bad.Sure, you can buy frozen dinners from god knows where made with ingredients of dubious quality, but there’s the disposable packaging, not to mention that they really don’t taste all that great.So …five of us agreed we would each made a pot of soup or a casserole (vegetarian and dairy-free), divide it into single-serving portions, meet at my place, and divide the spoils.
I made a big pot of potato-leek soup, which we shared for lunch and then split the leftovers.Melanie brought a Quebecois tortiere, which I had for dinner tonight – it was sooooooo good!!!Alana brought a curried squash soup (it looks so yummy!), Lori brought black bean soup in Mason jars (which started an exciting conversation about canning, more on that in a bit), and the indefatigable Linda dropped off her sunflower seed loaf and lentil salad on her way to a cross-country skiing excursion!
As we were hanging out this afternoon, our canning discussion led to talk about shopping locally and organically (for our own health and that of the planet, of course), so I think in the summer we’re going to do some cooperative canning!I absolutely love this kind of collaboration.“Many hands make light work,” they say, and it is SO true.This is the kind of community I want to foster, and it’s the kind of community I passionately believe we need.
Thanks to Andrew, I have an awesome website to share: ConjugalHarmony.com. If you like The Onion, you will find this highly amusing. (Mom, don't even bother ...)
I was paying at the counter of a store tonight when the clerk answered the phone and got some bad news.I couldn’t make out what it was, but she was shocked and sad, and after my purchase was completed she called a co-worker over.To my shame, my ears strained to hear as I strove to hide my burning curiosity over what might have befallen one of their colleagues or mutual acquaintances.Don’t ask me why I wanted to know this terrible news that made them so sad …I’m hoping it’s just human nature, the same way rubberneckers slow down traffic as they drive by an accident – you just can’t help connecting with those hapless strangers and their fate. Either that or I'm a real sicko. :)
Upon returning home tonight, I checked some of my usual web pages and gasped in shock at the headline that Heath Ledger was found dead today.I gasped in shock – like I knew him or something.
What is it about fame that makes you feel that you know someone?Looking back, I’m sure those clerks at the store were also talking about Heath Ledger as they talked about how sad and shocked they were.
He was a wonderful actor, as far as I can tell.I think I only saw one of his movies (BrokebackMountain, which made me weep).And he was also a devoted father of his baby daughter Mathilda (okay, except for the name he gave her, which I think is a perfect name for a bulldog, not so brilliant name for a baby).I certainly knew nothing about him that should make me feel as though I knew him, and yet I am still sad.
In a way I guess it’s good to still feel sad when bad things happen to people you don’t even know. Empathy and such. Maybe famous people are famous precisely because they have the charisma or something that makes you feel like you can relate to them without ever having met them.
Let me start off with my questions for you, my friends and Internet vagabonds, and then I’ll give you the background:
If you could choose to work 4 days a week (with a commensurate decrease in salary), would you do it?Why or why not?
If you did, what would you do with that extra day a week?And what spending would you be willing to sacrifice in order to afford that extra day off?
Inspired by Chris at TucoRides, I finally got around to reading the little book, Workers of the World Relax by Conrad Schmidt. (Isn't that a deliciously cheeky title for a book???)
Chris set the stage for an explanation of the book much better than I could:
A Vancouverite, Conrad was working away as a software engineer and driving his car to work, as so many on this continent do. Getting increasingly concerned with the environment, Conrad did some math and figured that the earnings from one day of his workweek went towards affording his car - therefore, if he gave up his car, he could give up one day a week of work. He talked to his boss, and voila, he was a man of three day weekends who was no longer sending CO2 emissions up into the air.
He did this for a while, and then his worries about consumerism's effect on the earth caused him to do some deep thinking about his job - "Even though I was earning a great deal, I wrote software and the software made junk, the junk went to landfills and the landfills polluted the planet. I quit my job."
In the book, Schmidt talks about the danger of consumerism to the planet (waste of resources, environmental effects of mining, lumbering, manufacturing excessive goods, etc.) but also makes points about how we often don't have enough time to be active, well-informed citizens and consumers, members of our local communities, etc., and how we have insufficient time to participate in the arts or music or parenting or cooking or gardening or any other form of self-actualization.
For example, Schmidt writes:
Education programs [regarding the impact of lifestyle and diet on cancer and cardiovascular disease] are not sufficient in addressing the problem because they focus on the symptoms of the problem and not ht ecause.Bad diets, high stress and lack of exercise are symptoms of high intensity lifestyles, where people do not have the time to prepare home-cooked meals, spend an hour a day exercising or getting involved in the community.It is impractical to warn people who are enveloped in stress to exercise more and prepare healthy meals on a consistent basis.There is simply not enough time …For us to realistically address the problem we need to make lifestyle changes a realistic option.
I would whole-heartedly recommend reading Workers of the World Relax.While I might not agree with every argument Schmidt makes, it’s very thought-provoking.
So talk to me: what do you think?What are your answers to the questions at the start of this post?:)
This weekend, in the interest of making my own food more often (rather than relying on frozen dinners, food courts, or take-out), I bought a new mini-freezer. Then I spent ALL DAY today cooking four different (and delicious!) kinds of soup (two of them double-batches) and then separating them into individual containers, etc. to go in the freezer.
(I must mention that it was also a great way to use up some produce I had in the fridge; apparently my grocery store only sells baby spinach by the trough now ... )
So, you know what I'm going to do for lunch tomorrow? I'm going to march right on down to that food court, baby, because I cannot stand the sight of soup again for a day or two.
The wind chills but the sky is blue Pedestrians wince against the cold You can see it even behind the scarves and turned up collars I’ve returned from shopping With vegetables, fruit, and A sweet-smelling multigrain baguette That I will devour soon with brie and chutney The light outside is clear, gently golden, slanting, and gorgeous It’s a good day to be at home.
My friend Fern posted this video on my Facebook profile (yeah, she does that a lot ... :-D ) and I truly had never heard of inflammatory breast cancer before, so I thought I'd share here. It's very informative and I think it could save lives. So please watch - for yourself or the woman/women you love. :)
... 27 Dresses looks like a rental. But I actually found some of the reviews entertaining:
It's white-lace porn for girls of every age, and the way that it revels in that get-me-to-the-altar mood, to the point of making anyone who isn't getting married feel like a loser, is the picture's key selling point.
27 Dresses is an illustration of what can result when the filmmakers possess a solid understanding of the romantic comedy formula and decide never to stray from it by one iota.
The filmic equivalent of a baby: cute, pampered, craving attention, and somewhat smelly thanks to all the formula passing through it.
