What's That You Say, Mrs. Robinson?

Good lord, the end is near!

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney will serve as acting president briefly Saturday while President Bush is anesthetized for a routine colonoscopy"

Duck and cover, my dear friends, duck and cover!

It just doesn't get any easier

Every time I see footage of the planes hitting the buildings I STILL loose my breath. Over 4 years later and it still haunts me and I know I'm not alone. NPR's blog has an entry with a link to one of the 911 calls from one of the towers that day. I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to it yet. I want to, for some reason, but I need to make sure that I'm not chewing gum or drinking a beverage because I'll get the wind knocked out of me for sure.

I didn't even have to tell you what I was talking about because it is still as fresh in your mind as it was 4 years ago. It is so much a part of our consciousness now. And like the NPR blog posting notes, it's like what happens when someone dies and their soul doesn't quite have a place to go, or know how to get there. We don't know what to do with our memories of that day yet.

I still remember hearing that morning that my co-worker, Ryan Brown, lost his girlfriend of 6 years, Nicole Miller, on flight 93. And that another co-worker lost her brother in one of the towers. It was so close and so real. And yet it didn't have to be that close to be so real. It just was.

When will it be ready to be a part of history and not a part of the present? Perhaps when we have been able to do something about it. Because so far, we haven't really done sh*t.

A Rock and a Hard Place

"We either die by the Americans, the insurgents in the name of jihad, the security companies, which kill you and leave you laying in the street, the Iraqi police or...the death squads. Three years after the American invasion of Iraq, I have only one wish. I do not want democracy, food, electricity and water. I just do not want to die."

- Laith Muhammad, an Iraqi student.

"The toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime was worth everything. I have never felt as free to speak any day in my life as today. If George Bush did anything good, it was toppling Saddam Hussein. I am not pessimistic. But I'm upset, because the war and the occupation, which could have led to a new situation in Iraq, were squandered by the stupid mistakes committed by the American administration and military and the U.S. representatives in Iraq."

- Fakhri Fikry Kareem, owner and publisher of the daily Iraqi newspaper Meda.

Source: The Washington Post

When I hear Iraqis talk about how glad they are that Saddam is gone I am really torn. On one hand I understand that the end result of that crazy nut case no longer having controll over the people of Iraq is a good thing, a wonderful thing even, I still can't help but feel like the end does not justify the means. Not only that, but there isn't even an end to speak of. Saddam being removed from power turns out to be just a stepping stone, but I'm afraid that the next stone on this path is at the bottome of a cliff. We are in such a no-win situation right now. If we stay, we continue to screw things up and loose lives. If we go, we leave the country in such a shambles that it would be inhumane. WTF are we going to do? It's like we have a finger in the dyke and nobody around who knows how to fix the hole.

Enough with the metaphores. It's just so frustrating to not even have a clue as to what this situation should look like or how to get there. I'm not hearing it from any of the world's leaders. Nobody knows what the hell to do.

TAGS: Iraq, BUSH, Saddam

Here it comes...

You know when you first feel sickness creeping up on you? That moment when you know that you should drink a glass of OJ, take some vitamins and crawl into bed until the whole thing passes...except you have a job, and kids and dogs, and kids, did I mention kids. The kind who have essays to write, science projects to work on, practices to get to.

So...you...must...push...on. Of course it happens just as your husband, the one who is supposed to pick up the slack when you aren't feeling well, is still trying to get over the same sickness that he has breathed all over you so not only is he not able to pick up your slack, but still has some slack of his own to be picked up.

So, NyQuil and in bed before 10:00pm, here I come. God help me.

Update: Looks like this sickness has been traveling through the blogosphere. The Mighty NakedJen has fallen also. Grace alerted me to this blog virus of sorts. She is suffering as well.  Misery loves company.

Observation from Dan

Check out this post by Dan about the amount of money we are sending in aid to the tsunami victims vs. the amount of money the Bush administration is spending on the inauguration festivities. It makes me weep. Are they serious? Where is their sense of perspective? God, they just prove over and over again that they just don't get it. They could take a lesson from Sarah McLachlan. Watch her video here. It's a simple lesson really. I'm still weeping.

Losing Landon

It's true...it has finally happened. The boy toy of US soccer is going to Germany. No longer will the women (and girls) of the SF Bay Area get to see this specimine of a soccer player live and up close.

"U.S., MLS star doing 'right thing' Associated Press Landon Donovan is leaving Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes after four seasons and will return to Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.

The 22-year-old forward, voted the top player on the U.S. national team for three straight years, will rejoin the Bundesliga team in January after the end of a sharing arrangement between MLS and Bayer Leverkusen."

I know that there aren't many soccer fans out there, but take it from this convert, this is a HUGE loss to American Major League Soccer (the US will still get to have Landon for the men's US team, Olympics, World Cup etc.). Landon has played the last 4 years for the San Jose Earthquakes (for which we are season ticket holders) and it just won't be the same without him.

We look for comfort in times like these, I guess I'm seeking comfort in the blog world. A sad, sad day indeed.