Senator McCain is throwing blame at Clinton for the current problems in international affairs, namely with Iraq and North Korea. This seems to be the strategy of the Republican Party at large as they prepare to lose the White House to Hillary in 2008.
Fact is, McCain plans more of the same. He believes our foreign policies are currently the correct ones. What? Have you seen the state of the world right now? Bill Clinton agrees that he was unable to come up with solutions to the problems on several fronts internationally, however, he was actively attempting to work on these. Talks were happening with North Korea. Madeline Albright actually visited Pyongyang. Further, negotiations were on the table throughout.
If we want to play the game of who dropped the ball we could probably keep going back generations and generations of presidents. Did Bush's father solve the middle east problems or the issues in North Korea? What about Reagan, Carter, and so on? Obviously not. These are problems that are decades and in some cases centuries old. It cannot be denied that these problems have gotten worse and in some cases been mishandled disproportionately to past administrations over the past 6 years.
It is clear that our current policies are alienating us from the rest of the world and further endangering our freedoms rather than doing what they claim...protecting them. We certainly are less safe today than before Bush came to office 6 years ago, before we attacked Iraq, and before we developed blanket policies of "do it our way or suffer the consequences". Are we trying to make the regions of the world that already despise our wealth and power hate us even more by contributing to the killing over 1/2 a million people with no tangential purpose to a just cause. Who the hell do we think we are?
Protecting human rights is certainly a just cause but attacking sovereign nations because of made up links to terrorist attacks and sighting weapons that don't exist is not conducive to quelling tensions or even stopping a cycle of hatred and violence.
Where are the people that think we are in a good position today as a nation from a safety standpoint? Who thinks that what we are doing is a "good idea" or helping? Who actually believes that these policies are working? Republican candidates apparently!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
New Anti Smoking Slogan--Lookout Nancy Reagan
"Smoke Cigarettes, Stink Like Poop"
Written by a 3rd grader to remain anonymous in case this catches on and I can reap the royalties from t-shirts, hats, commercials, etc...
Kids don't care if your lungs turn black. As soon as the picture of black lungs is taken away they forget. They don't see black lungs on those who smoke in front of them. Kids don't care about cancer...they think they're going to live forever.
Kids DO care about being called stinky, gross, or smelly. Kids DO care if everyone views smoking as a disgusting, dirty habit.
Therefore, if you want kids to not smoke, make it incredibly, socially undesirable. One of my 3rd graders compared smoking to marinating your body in poop for however long you smoke. You can't get it out of your clothes, furniture, car, hair, skin, etc...this based on living with parents who smoke, a lot...not sure how he knows what happens if you marinate in poop?
Kids don't want to be socially undesirable so sorry smokers but the only way to teach my munchkins not to smoke is to make you out to be gross, disgusting and slovenly. I guess you better quit before they see you and say, "ewww".
One kid shared her grandmother quit at 67 and has been smoke free for two years. Way to go grandma. Hope for my in-laws.
Written by a 3rd grader to remain anonymous in case this catches on and I can reap the royalties from t-shirts, hats, commercials, etc...
Kids don't care if your lungs turn black. As soon as the picture of black lungs is taken away they forget. They don't see black lungs on those who smoke in front of them. Kids don't care about cancer...they think they're going to live forever.
Kids DO care about being called stinky, gross, or smelly. Kids DO care if everyone views smoking as a disgusting, dirty habit.
Therefore, if you want kids to not smoke, make it incredibly, socially undesirable. One of my 3rd graders compared smoking to marinating your body in poop for however long you smoke. You can't get it out of your clothes, furniture, car, hair, skin, etc...this based on living with parents who smoke, a lot...not sure how he knows what happens if you marinate in poop?
Kids don't want to be socially undesirable so sorry smokers but the only way to teach my munchkins not to smoke is to make you out to be gross, disgusting and slovenly. I guess you better quit before they see you and say, "ewww".
One kid shared her grandmother quit at 67 and has been smoke free for two years. Way to go grandma. Hope for my in-laws.
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Things That Jack Likes Now !!!
1. Playing monster where we chase him while making monster noises and he pretends to try and get away but purposely comes close enough to be caught
2. Sitting in front of the open screen door and watching planes go by over head while waving bye-bye to them
3. Watching Susie or I talk on the phone...he likes to hear us in our regular voices it seems rather than our baby voices...I don't blame him...my baby voice annoys the crap out of me on video tapes to the point I have tried to stop talking on them
4. Taking long walks while saying ducka-ducka-ducka just like Dr. Evil
5. Anything outside
6. Watching The Peewee Herman Show, Teletubbies, and Sesame Street, especially Elmo
7. Playing catch with a tennis ball in the garage while sitting in his stroller listening to old tapes of Nine Inch Nails, Seal, Sting, Lenny Kravitz, Pink Floyd, and Zeppelin, ending with The Cure and maybe The Smiths, if he's not too tired.
8. Any and all playgrounds even though he's still too young to actually do anything there...he flips out with excitement whenever he spots a conglomerate of slide/ladder/primary colors/swings.
9. Chasing the cat, Zip, and saying her name...until she wacks him with her clawless paw
2. Sitting in front of the open screen door and watching planes go by over head while waving bye-bye to them
3. Watching Susie or I talk on the phone...he likes to hear us in our regular voices it seems rather than our baby voices...I don't blame him...my baby voice annoys the crap out of me on video tapes to the point I have tried to stop talking on them
4. Taking long walks while saying ducka-ducka-ducka just like Dr. Evil
5. Anything outside
6. Watching The Peewee Herman Show, Teletubbies, and Sesame Street, especially Elmo
7. Playing catch with a tennis ball in the garage while sitting in his stroller listening to old tapes of Nine Inch Nails, Seal, Sting, Lenny Kravitz, Pink Floyd, and Zeppelin, ending with The Cure and maybe The Smiths, if he's not too tired.
8. Any and all playgrounds even though he's still too young to actually do anything there...he flips out with excitement whenever he spots a conglomerate of slide/ladder/primary colors/swings.
9. Chasing the cat, Zip, and saying her name...until she wacks him with her clawless paw
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
George W. Bush
To those that voted for George W. Bush,
The majority of those that voted for this man as our president are now saying that they disapprove of him, his handling of the war in Iraq, his handling of the issues in New Orleans, his handling of basically everything on the international front, and his handling of the immigration issue.
What I don't understand is how anyone is surprised by this. He has acted very predictably in my opinion. His history smells profusely of ignorance and short sightedness. I won't go into it now but there are plenty of books and research to illustrate this.
Fact is, Bush manifested a rationale for a war on FALSE pretenses. There is no disputing this. He lied to everyone & continues to do so. Read Bob Woodwards's new book if you don't believe me...he's one of the most respected journalists of our time and he says so. Or, listen to one of several generals who have come out against Bush's policy on the war.
Bush told us, despite knowing that there was no evidence of WMD's, that we must invade Iraq to make the world a safer place. He proceeded to invade even though the rest of the world disagreed aside from his buddy, Blair. How are we safer after destroying a country that, by the way already hated us for many complex systemic reasons, killing their women and children and men, all in the name of WMD's only to admit that they had none to begin with? Oh, and by the way, we knew that from the start. Is it me or is there a bit of basic logic missing here? You can't get out of your car at a stop light and beat the hell out of the person tailgating you in your car, along with his wife and children and then say, "Sorry officer but he had a gun, oh, and he tailgates me every day". Only to result in the officer searching in the car to find no gun and no reason for you to attack the man and the innocent others in the car. Results of such actions would undoubtedly result in the family and friends of the family attacked being outraged and for good reason. Even if everyone agreed the tailgaiter was a bad man. If we did this in dealing with tailgating as a rule, well you can imagine the chaos that would ensue having very little to do with ideals and values and everything to do with don't kill my family or I'll kill yours. Where would it stop? Yes, Saddam was dangerous but who decided Bush could eliminate all the dangerous people in the world? How do we as a country allow him to get away with this? How do you and I sit and simply look the other way while he lies to us? How do we not hold him and others in government accountable for not looking at the bigger picture? The Islamic world already had many problems with us; some based in history and some based in radical beliefs, we know that. Didn't this just make the matters millions of times worse?
I agree that lying is all too common in politics these days but in most cases thousands of people are not killed. Further, most lies don't lead to the rest of the world being given thousands more reasons to hate us. As if being the most powerful country in the world, exploiting other countries for cheap labor, supporting corrupt governments, and colluding with those that support OUR agenda was not enough fodder for others to hate us already.
Bush is incredibly devisive. He has done more to pull Americans apart along party lines than anyone in my lifetime, probably since Vietnam or even McCarthyism. He is incredibly arrogant and often ignorant on how he impacts the way the world perceives our country. Example, stuffing rolls in your mouth at the U.N. while talking to a head of state and talking about foreign affairs the way you would about your neighbors poor parenting skills is simply not becoming of the leader of the world. Ignorant to the effect this has on the world's perception of us. Like it or not, others perceive America directly by the way our leaders behave. This is true all the way down to the minute details of how they greet them. Most people generalize about larger groups from their experiences of individuals members of those groups. This may be a generalization error in logic but it is also human nature. Therefore, the world thinks we all act, think, and behave the way our world leaders think. This is especially true of countries being treated poorly by us either by corporate exploitation, sanctions resulting in death of their children, and, more directly, when we attack them with troops.
Bush doesn't care about what others think. Period. He's said so. Like a parent who makes a decision in their family and simply explains it to their kid as "because I said so". That usually doesn't work well in the long run in parenting and it certainly doesn't work well in world politics. He thinks that praying to a Christian God allows him to speak for the world on what is right and wrong. He seems to think that his values are Americas values and, much worse, that his ways of enforcing these values are immune to debate or criticism. He seems to think that the popular opinion is simply misguided and incapable of understanding what he understands. If you disagree with him, you are somehow un-American or simply don't understand the issues. Why aren't we all insulted by this? Why don't we care? Fact is, it will have an impact on our lives for a long time and especially our children's lives. When I'm old, we will talk about what if Bush never became president. How would the world have been a better place? I guarantee it and I sincerely hope we can say that we made some good decisions following this fiasco.
One mark of a great leader and a great human being, in my opinion, is their ability to accept when they are wrong and make changes when necessary. If you voted for Bush, please take responsibility for your choice as he certainly is not taking responsibility for his. It is our responsibility to make sure that all of the problems Bush has created are corrected. Stop acting surprised and/or apathetic. If you voted for him based on character only or simply voted against his opposition due to personality (because he resembled Frankenstein or because he was monotone), don't make this mistake again. Vote on what a person's done and what their position on issues are not simply whether or not they seem like they would tell good stories around the campfire. If you are simply complacent or actually happy with the results than, well, quite frankly, you scare the hell out of me and hopefully there aren't too many of you out there.
The only way this turns around is if we all decide not to think this is the way the world is. It isn't the way the world is, it's the way our leaders that we have voted into office have made our world and is directly related to our apathy as a nation and the collective ignorance within it. Most people that I know that vote, vote on personality of candidates first, their personal pocketbook second, and then hot button issues like abortion, gay marriage, etc. Start looking at the big picture. Our world is imploding and it is our responsibility to stop it. The majority of the problems in our world today exist systemically and are socially constructed. If we all do our part to understand these issues from a systemic perspective, it will serve us better as voters and in the long run, as human beings.
Those that vote on their pocketbook first, conservative Republicans take note here, are often voting for the same people that have led us into this debacle. You likely won't even begin to understand what I have written here and will simply dismiss it as liberal drivel...which has become a way for people to basically say, I don't care about anyone else, just give me my money, my cheeseburgers, and Coke's and well, your money too, good luck to the rest of you, it's not my problem.
Sincerely,
One person who wants a world free of ignorance and it's #1 spokesman, Dublya
The majority of those that voted for this man as our president are now saying that they disapprove of him, his handling of the war in Iraq, his handling of the issues in New Orleans, his handling of basically everything on the international front, and his handling of the immigration issue.
What I don't understand is how anyone is surprised by this. He has acted very predictably in my opinion. His history smells profusely of ignorance and short sightedness. I won't go into it now but there are plenty of books and research to illustrate this.
Fact is, Bush manifested a rationale for a war on FALSE pretenses. There is no disputing this. He lied to everyone & continues to do so. Read Bob Woodwards's new book if you don't believe me...he's one of the most respected journalists of our time and he says so. Or, listen to one of several generals who have come out against Bush's policy on the war.
Bush told us, despite knowing that there was no evidence of WMD's, that we must invade Iraq to make the world a safer place. He proceeded to invade even though the rest of the world disagreed aside from his buddy, Blair. How are we safer after destroying a country that, by the way already hated us for many complex systemic reasons, killing their women and children and men, all in the name of WMD's only to admit that they had none to begin with? Oh, and by the way, we knew that from the start. Is it me or is there a bit of basic logic missing here? You can't get out of your car at a stop light and beat the hell out of the person tailgating you in your car, along with his wife and children and then say, "Sorry officer but he had a gun, oh, and he tailgates me every day". Only to result in the officer searching in the car to find no gun and no reason for you to attack the man and the innocent others in the car. Results of such actions would undoubtedly result in the family and friends of the family attacked being outraged and for good reason. Even if everyone agreed the tailgaiter was a bad man. If we did this in dealing with tailgating as a rule, well you can imagine the chaos that would ensue having very little to do with ideals and values and everything to do with don't kill my family or I'll kill yours. Where would it stop? Yes, Saddam was dangerous but who decided Bush could eliminate all the dangerous people in the world? How do we as a country allow him to get away with this? How do you and I sit and simply look the other way while he lies to us? How do we not hold him and others in government accountable for not looking at the bigger picture? The Islamic world already had many problems with us; some based in history and some based in radical beliefs, we know that. Didn't this just make the matters millions of times worse?
I agree that lying is all too common in politics these days but in most cases thousands of people are not killed. Further, most lies don't lead to the rest of the world being given thousands more reasons to hate us. As if being the most powerful country in the world, exploiting other countries for cheap labor, supporting corrupt governments, and colluding with those that support OUR agenda was not enough fodder for others to hate us already.
Bush is incredibly devisive. He has done more to pull Americans apart along party lines than anyone in my lifetime, probably since Vietnam or even McCarthyism. He is incredibly arrogant and often ignorant on how he impacts the way the world perceives our country. Example, stuffing rolls in your mouth at the U.N. while talking to a head of state and talking about foreign affairs the way you would about your neighbors poor parenting skills is simply not becoming of the leader of the world. Ignorant to the effect this has on the world's perception of us. Like it or not, others perceive America directly by the way our leaders behave. This is true all the way down to the minute details of how they greet them. Most people generalize about larger groups from their experiences of individuals members of those groups. This may be a generalization error in logic but it is also human nature. Therefore, the world thinks we all act, think, and behave the way our world leaders think. This is especially true of countries being treated poorly by us either by corporate exploitation, sanctions resulting in death of their children, and, more directly, when we attack them with troops.
Bush doesn't care about what others think. Period. He's said so. Like a parent who makes a decision in their family and simply explains it to their kid as "because I said so". That usually doesn't work well in the long run in parenting and it certainly doesn't work well in world politics. He thinks that praying to a Christian God allows him to speak for the world on what is right and wrong. He seems to think that his values are Americas values and, much worse, that his ways of enforcing these values are immune to debate or criticism. He seems to think that the popular opinion is simply misguided and incapable of understanding what he understands. If you disagree with him, you are somehow un-American or simply don't understand the issues. Why aren't we all insulted by this? Why don't we care? Fact is, it will have an impact on our lives for a long time and especially our children's lives. When I'm old, we will talk about what if Bush never became president. How would the world have been a better place? I guarantee it and I sincerely hope we can say that we made some good decisions following this fiasco.
One mark of a great leader and a great human being, in my opinion, is their ability to accept when they are wrong and make changes when necessary. If you voted for Bush, please take responsibility for your choice as he certainly is not taking responsibility for his. It is our responsibility to make sure that all of the problems Bush has created are corrected. Stop acting surprised and/or apathetic. If you voted for him based on character only or simply voted against his opposition due to personality (because he resembled Frankenstein or because he was monotone), don't make this mistake again. Vote on what a person's done and what their position on issues are not simply whether or not they seem like they would tell good stories around the campfire. If you are simply complacent or actually happy with the results than, well, quite frankly, you scare the hell out of me and hopefully there aren't too many of you out there.
The only way this turns around is if we all decide not to think this is the way the world is. It isn't the way the world is, it's the way our leaders that we have voted into office have made our world and is directly related to our apathy as a nation and the collective ignorance within it. Most people that I know that vote, vote on personality of candidates first, their personal pocketbook second, and then hot button issues like abortion, gay marriage, etc. Start looking at the big picture. Our world is imploding and it is our responsibility to stop it. The majority of the problems in our world today exist systemically and are socially constructed. If we all do our part to understand these issues from a systemic perspective, it will serve us better as voters and in the long run, as human beings.
Those that vote on their pocketbook first, conservative Republicans take note here, are often voting for the same people that have led us into this debacle. You likely won't even begin to understand what I have written here and will simply dismiss it as liberal drivel...which has become a way for people to basically say, I don't care about anyone else, just give me my money, my cheeseburgers, and Coke's and well, your money too, good luck to the rest of you, it's not my problem.
Sincerely,
One person who wants a world free of ignorance and it's #1 spokesman, Dublya
Monday, October 2, 2006
Great Weekend
Jack had his first ever GREAT weekend. By this I mean he whined when appropriate, nap times, bed times, head banging times, etc. The rest of the time he played and had fun with us, his parents. This weekend Jack went to his girlfriend's birthday party and played outside on a blanket after a long walk in much cooler weather. Jack took long naps and slept through the night all weekend as well. Yipppeee! Soon we will really put him to the test with a road trip to Miami. I guess we just like to torture ourselves.
Side note: Thank God Jack had a good weekend as it was the worst football weekend ever with the Dolphins and Hurricanes both looking horrid. I'm actually beginning to hate football. What's happening to me?
Side note: Thank God Jack had a good weekend as it was the worst football weekend ever with the Dolphins and Hurricanes both looking horrid. I'm actually beginning to hate football. What's happening to me?
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