Fair Warning

Monster post arriving soon. I guess if I wanted you to read one political post on this blog, this would be the one.

Destined to be on Spike

I hadn't gone to Finding Rhythm in a very long time. I found this there.

But everybody's doing it

Linking to the Torture Memos by John Yoo. Part 1. Part 2.

Watch Frontline

I am enjoying this show more and more. I have to plug their new series titled Bad Voodoo's War. The director, Deborah Scranton, gave camera equipment to a platoon of National Guard soldiers in Iraq. They record footage of their missions and of them talking to the camera and send the videos stateside. Scranton collects and edits and narrates the program which highlights a few individuals, one of them, a 22-year-old on his 5th tour in Iraq.

As always, it is available online.

Filed Under Miscellaneous Income

I was browsing eBay last week, not looking for anything in particular, but wondering how one goes about selling something on the site. I was eating potato chips. When I looked down to grab the next potato chip from the bowl, I was fully aware of the fact that potato chips and cornflakes had actually sold on eBay. I picked a chip up and closely examined it. I decided if it looked like anything it looked like a bird. More specifically, it reminded me of the rooster that is on boxes of cornflakes. The more I looked for the bird, the more I saw it.

There was no better time to test the old adage (which is at least as old as eBay) that people will buy anything. I created an eBay username, took a picture of the potato chip, and was selling the chip on eBay within minutes. It was quite effortless. I described the chip I was selling with these words:

At first I thought this looked like a rooster, but it is slightly different. It sure looks like a bird. However, I don’t know what kind of bird it looks like. It is one of a kind though. It was discovered about three days ago in a very large bag of potato chips.

I put a minimal effort into the advertisement and left the computer knowing that if anyone bids on the chip, or if it is sold, eBay would send me an email.

Over the next week I thought about my potato chip bird on eBay several times, but I didn’t get any messages about it until the week long bidding period was over. Then, I received a message that told me that my “item has sold.” I followed the link in the email and discovered that someone bought my potato chip for one dollar plus five dollars shipping and handling. I was a little doubtful of the sale even though everything on the screen was telling me otherwise. I looked around some more to confirm the unexpected. Sure enough, my potato chip sold for six bucks to someone in California.

Shortly thereafter I received the transferred funds and yesterday I took the chip, boxed up in an old check box with lots of tissues, to the post office and mailed it away, completing my first sale on eBay.

I am satisfied with the whole process and a bit surprised that my potato chip sold. I only wish I started the bidding higher because it is true…people will buy anything.

Inconvenient date for such a story, but it is true.

A New Low

Here is a play by play of the video that I can no longer find on the internet.

Begin video...

It is opening day for the Washington Nationals. There to throw the first pitch, is the 43rd President of the United States of America, George Bush. He is introduced and walks out of the dugout. It turns out, the fans of the Nationals are not fans of George Bush. He is booed the entire time he is on the field. Nothing but boos.

...end video.

I know his approval rating is something like 30%. I know he has screwed up again and again, but it is still somewhat shocking to see Bush booed by a stadium full of people in the capital. Honestly, I feel sad for the country. I feel sad for this man.

Roll the tape...Obama doesn't want you to vote

What a nutter.

In it to win it, but she won't

Hillary said in the Washington Post that she will stay in the race until the convention in Denver in August. She will try to use committees there to try to seat delegates from Florida (where all Democratic candidates had agreed to not contest) and Michigan (where Obama wasn’t even on the ballot). Nothing could be more damaging to the Democrats’ chances of winning The White House. I have tried not to join the throngs of bloggers out there constantly railing on the Clintons. I have failed. With this kind of material it is almost impossible.

The Clintons really are self-obsessed. Certainly, all candidates have to be a little self-obsessed to decide they are the best person to lead the only superpower left in the world, but Clintonian self-obsession, not to mention ignorance, is taking it to a whole new level. Hillary doesn’t seem to bat an eye at the numbers, proof that the youth are revolting (thank you, FIF) against the dynasties and proof that she can’t overcome Obama’s delegate lead. Surely, she has to notice the growing unrest in the ranks of Democrats. Politicians and leaders that have tried to stay out of this mess by not endorsing or showing preference are breaking down.

This sounds like an old adage now.

You can always leave it to a Clinton.

Commander-in-Chief

I don’t remember that title being thrown about so loosely like someone is ready to be the leader of the only superpower left in the world. Although someone must take the mantle, I don’t think there is one trait or a perfect combination of traits that makes someone the most qualified to be Commander-in-Chief. There is something so absurd about asking that question. Even though I support Obama, I wouldn’t say Obama is for sure the most ready to be Commander-In-Chief. Who is? What are the qualifications? Age? How long one was a POW? A minimum 35 years of “experience”? A Harvard Law degree? How many trips you have taken to Iraq?

The truth is that most candidates have built themselves up into this perfect candidate that will fulfill all the responsibilities they will take on as the leader of the free world. I don’t buy into that and neither does Obama who has already said this about a possible Obama presidency, “there will be mistakes.” That’s refreshing. Even though there have been many chances, we haven’t heard an admission like that from the President in eight years.

I don’t want a battle hardened Commando-in-Chief. I want a leader that is aware of their responsibilities and realizes that he or she will not be able to meet all of them, but will do their best to meet as many as they can by assigning those duties of Commander-in-Chief that they feel they are least qualified to perform to their cabinet members.

This is one reason that McCain’s stubbornness scares me. He is battle hardened, a real American hero. He knows war and torture and he has wrongly presumed that qualifies him for guiding us through the Iraq War. If he takes The White House, McCain will perhaps take on the mantle of Commander-in-Chief even more stubbornly than Bush has. What would this look like? For starters, this would mean a continuation of Bush’s foreign policy. It would also mean a stay-the-course philosophy in Iraq that will continue to boil down the meaning of this war to winning (killing every last terrorist in the Middle East) or losing (withdrawing troops).

What McCain won’t do is redefine the role of Commander-in-Chief, but I think that is precisely what we need the next leader of this country to do. We need an Ambassador-in-Chief, an ambassador to the American people, a person willing to take diplomacy to new levels by engaging in talks with nations that some consider so evil that to do so, to talk to these nations, would mean lowering the US to their level.

So where do I draw the distinction then between the remaining candidates? If you regularly read this blog you already know some of those distinctions, but I will try to do some more drawing of distinctions now.

For one, Obama is younger and less absorbed into Washington’s ways than Clinton. I think when faced with a national or international crisis a Clinton administration is more likely to take worn back roads to solve a problem. Obama seems likely to forge new paths to quell current crises and those to come. Being so young, he is the fresh candidate, but that is not bad because we need a fresh perspective, a new way to solve problems. Also, I think Obama will be more willing to change policies of the current administration and his own if they are found to be failing policies.

So, maybe it is a matter of who is most ready. But the question: who is most ready to be Commander-in-Chief, places too much importance on the role of leading this country’s army. That is an essential role, don’t get me wrong, but we need a leader who is going to be the Commander-in-Chief of not only the army, but first and foremost, the people of this country. This leader, I hope, will give the American people input more than once every four years like Dana Perino says the Bush administration does. This leader should check in on the pulse of the nation more often. And when they find that opinion is found to directly oppose the current policies the leader shouldn’t respond with “So?” like Dick Cheney did last week when reminded that most Americans unwaveringly do not believe the Iraq War was worth fighting.

Handed to them

Damn. Wisconsin just got dominated. That's okay. I didn't pick them to get to the Elite 8 anyways. I picked Davidson. Just kidding.

This cheered me up though...

From Newsweek:

Comedian Tracy Morgan, in a response on "Saturday Night Live" to his "30 Rock" costar Tina Fey's line in support of Hillary Clinton

"Bitch may be the new black, but black is the new president, bitch."

Lazy Blogging Day

I worked all day and the tournament is back tonight. This is all I have.

The whole world is on my case

Lingering with more frequency these days is some substantial doubt about my writing and my hopes to ever write for a career. I try to fend off the doubting voice in my head that says:

Who are you kidding? You are never going to make it as a writer. You should quit writing anything and focus on a different career path. There are so many writers out there. Why does your opinion count? I am not making a career of it because I have a blog. Everyone has a blog. Blogs are as common as Facebook pages. Most bloggers aren’t taken seriously. You shouldn’t start writing a book right now because you don’t know how to do it. Plus, what are you going to write about? Even if you write something people won’t pay for it to be published. Do you know anything well enough to actually write about it?

I have always seriously doubted myself and I don’t know why. So, these are the thoughts going through my mind almost every time I think of writing, look for writing jobs, or read about another young writer out there enjoying having his or her work published.

I think a lot of this doubt is circumstantial. Spring and summer are sweeping in on Milwaukee. Before I know it, Kate and I will have lived here for a year and a big part of me still hates this place. I have no roots here. I know no one. I still pray for change, but I chuckle when I do because it has been so long and spring is not bringing much hope…it is dying with the melting snow.

Public Works

Every outlet had to do something on the five-year anniversary of the War in Iraq, but the most compelling and the most informative by far, is Frontline's two-night program titled Bush's War.
The second part is on tonight. If you missed the first, or prefer watching all of it online, follow the link.

The thing I love about Frontline is that you hear from the people that were there in the room, not out in the hall, from the beginning of the ill-fated decision to the unending calamity.

Check it out.

The Church Search

Kate and I have almost been here nine months and we still haven’t struck gold in the search for a church. Should we even be looking for gold? That’s tough to argue. One could say it takes a while to establish a healthy connection to a church and not one out there is perfect. This is true, but over the last nine months I have developed much more appreciation for those moments in my life that I have met or heard of others looking for the right church.

It has not been easy to find a church we can call home. This is troubling. I don’t think it should be difficult, but it is. I don’t know if this search is difficult because of the qualities we are searching for in a church. Are we being too stringent? I don’t know if the search is difficult because of the selection available to us.

I do know that I have worried more than once that we (Kate and I) will not find the kind of church we are looking for. We have visited about eight at this point. Many of them have been too charismatic and Pentecostal for us. While I was at work a few Sundays ago Kate went to a church very close to us. She came back with a negative review. The pastor had reported from the pulpit that global warming is a hoax perpetuated by the liberal agenda in this country. The pastor then proceeded to heal members of the church by slamming his hand down on their foreheads. Luckily, there were some elders behind these members to catch them after the fall. We won’t be going back.

About a week ago we received a mailing from another nearby church. It looked promising. I checked their website and read their “essential beliefs” section. It was going well for a while until I ran across some rough patches. One of the rough patches was on leadership. This church, like many others, doesn’t allow women to be in leadership positions. Women can volunteer and work for the church, but when it comes to speaking and leadership roles, women are excluded. The site offered 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35 to justify this stance. We won’t be checking that place out.

The first church we went to out here was downright frightening, not to mention it was so huge that I think we could go there for a whole year and not be recognized once. This is the same for the church we went to on Sunday. There seemed to be 5,000 people in attendance. According to Wikipedia, it is the largest church in Wisconsin and, on average, 6,000 people attend services there every weekend. The senior pastor is an English Major. Hmm.

I don’t have a solution. I just wrote this to express a little bit of my frustration and sympathy for others in the same boat.

Happy Easter!

Finally...Spring is here. Isn't it great outside!

Calling Chris Wallace

I loved this. Fox and Friends owned by one of their own. Via TPM.

Milwaukee's Forecast

10 to 15 inches of snow today. Come on, really?

Did I have Lyme disease?

As promised, I will post a longer health update blog, but first this.

I have a day-by-day calendar that is from the writers of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. The topic on Monday was “How to Recognize Lyme Disease.”

More than a few times over the last five months it sounded like a disease I could have had, or have, once I found out you could have it and never have the classic bull’s eye rash.

The listed systemic symptoms are many and I have had many of them, including, ear pain, temporary hearing loss, ringing, sensitivity to noise, headaches, facial paralysis, stiff neck, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, inflammation, and possibly a sudden onset heart murmur.

I was tested for the Lyme antibody back in January. The test was negative. The mystery unsolved, but I was told it is sometimes hard to get a certain diagnosis of Lyme disease.

It is still one of my theories that I had Lyme disease and I am very slowly fighting off its grasp. Who knows?

Shock and Awful

Five years ago, when the War in Iraq kicked off with the Shock and Awe campaign, I remember sitting on the couch with Aaron in the family room of my parents’ house. I don’t remember us talking that much. Mostly, I remember just sitting in silence and watching bomb after bomb light up the Baghdad skyline.

I remember feeling somewhat okay with the invasion because the world would be a better place without Saddam. I also remember feeling very uneasy and confused about the decision to go into Iraq. There was, in my mind, a massive disconnect. I didn’t have the argument to be a supporter of the war or an opponent of the war. For this reason, I stayed silent about it a long time until I felt I could come out with a somewhat informed opinion.

Searching the archives of this nearly three year old blog for the first mention of the War in Iraq took me back to September 27, 2005. I quote this passage:

The nation's focus for the last month has been on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, but in the time between those hurricanes, 40 more US Soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq. I don't want to be comfortably writing on this blog a year from now while American men and women my age, and people of Iraqi descent, are being killed thousands of miles away in a war that lost its welcome a long time ago.

Here we are, two and half years since I wrote that. I am still comfortably writing. And generations are still dying in the desert. I am reminded of a huge reason my political ideology started to shift. I want this war to end. If America puts a Republican in The White House, I will be here in four years writing the same blog. I believe this to be true because the Republicans currently in power, and the Republican positioned to potentially take over The White House, speak of this war using conventional terms like winning and losing.

Occasionally they will claim that the duration and toughness of this war is due to the unconventional enemy we are fighting. Do they really believe that though? With every day that we are in Iraq; with every Iraqi death; with every bomb; we are raising up younger and younger generations of suicide bombers. It was our presence in the heart of Middle Eastern affairs that brought the terrorists here on 9/11. It is our continued presence in Middle Eastern affairs that is losing this war for us. I truly believe, in a way, that it is as simple as that. But Bush and his predecessor ramble on about victory. They’re old school. Empire is not possible anymore, but peace is. That’s why we need to get out of there.

Checking in on the Idol

I really have enjoyed not watching American Idol this year. I will never watch a whole season ever again, but I checked in last night and I have a few thoughts. I thought I’d get them out on here.

When I watched Idol last year I saw each contestant develop as a singer and performer. No matter what someone starts as on Idol, if they stay on the show, it is nearly impossible not to improve. In the beginning, I heard how bad many of the contestants were. Since I knew how much they were improving throughout the show last year I was more and more impressed with each performer as the weeks went on (except Sanjaya of course).

I had heard that this year’s top 12 were one of the best groups ever and when I saw them sing last night I thought most of them were horrible. I wonder how bad last year’s contestants would have sounded if I just checked in once midway through the season? There’s no telling, but I doubt they would sound nearly as good as I thought they were last year after watching them from their humble beginnings to the final weeks of the show.

It is now more evident to me that American Idol becomes more of a popularity contest than a singing contest. It is just convenient, that at the end of the show the winner usually happens to be a decent singer.