Gozz Was A Friend of Mine
Ryan says: What does SAP stand for?
Mark G. says: i think i know this one
Mark G. says: what context is it used in
Mark G. says: i have heard this one
Ryan says: I just know it's a widely-used enterprise resource planning (SAP) package.
Ryan says: Whoops (ERP)*
Mark G. says: ERP??
Ryan says: enterprise resource planning = ERP I'm trying to figure out what SAP stands for.
Mark G. says: Enterprise Resource Planning
Ryan says: *slapping Gozz upside the head* I KNOW what ERP stands for. What does SAP stand for?
Mark G. says: not sure
Ryan says: *takes 4 gold friendship stars down from Gozz's name and puts over Haugen's name*
Mark G. says: FU
Mark G. says: what is it
Ryan says: It's a company, not an acronym.
Ryan says: http://www.sap.com/
Mark G. says: i have heard SAP talked about around here
Ryan says: Yeah, but they're saying, "That Gozz is such a sap." That's not the same thing.
Mark G. says: im done with you ... leave me now
Ryan says: You'll never get your gold friendship stars back with that attitude.
Despair Before Dallas
James Lileks writes: Thanks to LGF and MEMRI, I've become somewhat familiar with the torrents of venom that pour from some mosques in the Middle East. The excerpts I've read always end with a plea to God to rev up the slaughter ASAP, with the Jews and the Crusaders being first in line for righteous smiting. There's a lot of talk about shaking the ground under their feet, terrifying the sons of monkeys, etc etc. On the cool medium of a laptop screen the words look, well, silly. Hateful, yes. Poisonous, yes. But pathetic: they think they're shouting from the mountaintop at the dawn of a glorious day, but they're just ranting in a dank bunker at midnight. In a grim sort of way, the transcripts of their sermons have seemed like comic relief.
No more. I just saw a video of one of the sermons, carried on prime-time TV in Iraq. Same old same old, with a twist: Usually the text says that the very trees will cry out there is a Jew behind me, kill him. This video had a new version: even the stone will say "a Jew is hiding behind me. Come and cut off his head."
And then the mullah pulled out a sword. That's the detail you don't get in the transcripts: these men of God are packing heat - granted, it's medieval-style slicy heat, but heat nonetheless.
"And we shall cut off his head!" he shouted, waving the sword. "By Allah, we shall cut it off! Oh Jews! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Jihad for the sake of Allah! Jihad for the sake of Allah!"
Playwright Harold Pinter, speaking at last weekend's rally, said "The US is a nation out of control," and "unless we stop it, it will bring barbarism to the entire world." He said America was "a country run by a bunch of criminal lunatics with Tony Blair as a hired Christian thug."
When Blair shows up in the pulpit cleaving the air with a scimitar, let me know. When US television broadcasts a speech with Billy Graham hosting an Excalibur replica from the Franklin Mint Collection, demanding the decapitation of Muslims, let me know. When George Bush grips the podium and beseeches American rock formations to give up the location of non-Christians so we can slit their throats, and it's carried live on national TV by presidential order, drop me a line.
It takes a particularly rarified variety of idiot to look at a Jew-hating fascist with a small mustache - and decide that his opponent is the Nazi.
The amazing thing is, his point is lost on so many of the people who, just last weekend, were marching for peace. They held up posters of George W.'s head pasted over Osama bin Laden's, and equated him with Hitler. Granted, this isn't necessarily the view shared by all peace activists, but I think it says something about the cause when truly informed peace activists are willing to march alongside such idiots to make their point. That's like sitting in on a KKK rally because, although you despise them, you like how they get their message across.
It's astounding to me that so many in the world can't grasp how dangerous our own ambivalence has become. Cries for the decapitation of Jews and prayers for the eradication of the Jewish faith are disturbing to their deepest core, and yet there are those among us who can find a way to blame the West and America for Islamic hatred of Judaism. People will say, with absolute conviction, that if the Israelis abandoned all land and gave it up to the Palestinians, and if the West quit messing in Middle East affairs, our problems would be over.
But, here's the deal: Israel is just an excuse, albeit an easy excuse, for mullas and Middle Eastern leaders to trot out when they need to point fingers. "You're poor and you're sick? Well, that's the fault of the Jews! The Jews are to blame for everything!" Sound familiar? It should, because it wasn't that long ago that the Nazis used the exact same message to justify war and the extermination of 3 million or more innocents. Even if the Israelis were to pack up everything and set up a new nation in Nevada, and the U.S. military were to draw all forces out of the cesspool that is the Middle East, the mullas would cry even louder for the blood of Jews and of the Western infidels, because they have no other answers for their people.
And what's worse is that those religious leaders calling for the decapitation of Jews and jihad against the West have a willing audience. Mind you, I don't think the majority of the Islamic faithful necessarily believe the bunk being spewed forth by their so-called religious guides, but enough of them are swayed to keep the hate seething. And that simply has to change.
I hope America sees that. I hope we pour billions of dollars into Afghanistan so they can build an Islamic nation that can see beyond the hate and blind obeisance of the word of their religious leaders. I hope we invade Iraq, eject Saddam Hussein and his state-run machine of oppression and terror, and pour billions of dollars into the reconstruction of that country, building their oil industry and their infrastructure and leaving behind a nation that understands America, and the West, isn't necessarily the great satan we've been made out to be. That would be an astoundingly positive message coming from the center of the Islamic world, and it would hopefully be one that spills over its borders. And don't tell me that pouring billions into Iraq under Saddam would accomplish anything, because it won't. What little aid that makes it through sanctions now already go to line that man's pockets, and there's no reason to think additional aid would do anything but hasten his weapons programs.
Many peace activists believe that war with Iraq, or anywhere in the Middle East for that matter, will destabilize the region. Well, I certainly hope so, because Middle East "stability" as it stands now is the same stability that allowed two airplanes to strike the World Trade Center, another to hit the Pentagon, and another to fall from the skies in Pennsylvania. Is it a risk that war will possibly increase al Queda membership? Sure, but really, al Queda and other terrorist organizations aren't exactly hurting for members as it is.
Yes, peace sounds wonderful and great and all that, but in this case I think peace actually entails more risk than war. Do nothing and everything stays the same: we continue to buy duct tape and worry about terror daily. Go to war, and there's a very real chance that something positive may rise from the ashes.
Provided we do it right.
In other news Luciana Salazar is hot. I like to see Luciana Salazar nude. A naked Luciana Salazar would be pretty awesome. Mmm, Luciana Salazar nude.
Lizzie Borden Took An Axe, When She Could Have Used the Guillotine
After indulging in a dual craving for popcorn followed by cookie dough ice cream last night at 11:30, sleep did not come easy. So, as is usually the case when slumber escapes me, I turned to the History Channel.
A funny thing about the History Channel is that I think they tend to believe that the only real era of historical significance was World War II. Now, I'm 28, but even I'm aware that there is more to history than WWII. Granted, it was a major big deal, and it warrants study, but come on! When you start reporting on the historical significance of toenail hygiene in the context of WWII, you've probably exhausted your topic. Also, I wish they would make up their mind as to what turned the tide of WWII. I mean, really, according to the History Channel, the infantry turned the tide of the war, no, it was the tank, no, it was the battleship, no, it was Spitfire, no, it was the tide.
Well, anyway, last night was kinda, sorta the exception, even though the content wasn't exactly what you should be watching before going to bed. At midnight, I was treated to an extensive history of the sniper, and I'm a sucker for all things sniper-related, because the modern day sniper is just a super cool infantry unit. So, I had to watch that. By the way, apparently, the sniper played a pivotal roll in WWII, and may have helped turn the tide.
I was feeling sort of drowsy by 1 a.m., but their Modern Marvels program looked at the history of executions. Now this show was pretty gruesome, so of course I was tranfixed. By the way, did you know the firing squad was the most utilized method of execution during WWII? The most disturbing footage was a covert bit of video camera work taken of the guillotine in action sometime in the 1930s. I had no idea how stunningly efficient that death tool was. They put this guy on the bench, the blade came down, his head came off, and his body violently spasmed off the bench, minus his head of course. I literally felt a disgusted shiver go down my spine. It looked so. . .so. . .so. . . *Sideshow Bob shudder*
Well, by 2 a.m., having brushed up on my history of executions, from stonings to lethal injections, I was ready for a little murder mystery. You know, something to give me pleasant dreams. Again, the History Channel came through, detailing the great murder trial of Lizzie Borden, who may or may not have axed her father and step-mother to death in 1892, which, according to historians, occurred well before WWII. Most thoroughly disgusting aspect of the show? The black and white picture they repeatedly showed of Lizzie's father, sprawled out on a couch, his head bashed in and totally unrecognizable. Whoever gave his head that axe thumping, whether Lizzie or someone else, could have been one hell of a lumberjack. Blech.
So, come 3 a.m., with my head dancing with visions of snipers, and guillotines, and axe murders, I went to bed. And you can just about imagine how fucked up my dreams were. I couldn't wait to wake up.
Now, in a bid to boost my site traffic, I'm going to repeat the name Hanna Montana a few times. Hanna Montana. Hanna Montana. Hanna Montana. Hanna Montana. Hanna Montana. Hanna Montana.
Ryan In The Sky, Without Diamonds
And so this week begins the flurry of flights I've been dreading for over a month. On Sunday, I board a plane bound for Dallas for a convention where I'll have to shmooze with technology company representatives and sit in on mind-numbing technology seminars for three days.
Here's the deal: I've been at this magazine writing job for over a year, and not a day goes by that I don't feel like a total and complete fraud. Sure, I write extensive articles about IBM computers, and software solutions like RPG and COBOL and a whole bunch of other acronyms, but I have never, ever, ever totally understood what it is I'm writing about. I just string together impressive sounding sentences and hope my bullshit isn't questioned too intently.
And, so far, I've gotten away with it. I've been able to bullshit my way through article after article, and not only do I do it successfully, I occasionally get praised. I look back on my archives and I think "I can't believe I did that." Back in elementary school, I remember thinking how cool it would be if all my homework would be completed flawlessly as soon as it was handed out. That's sort of how I feel here. I complete my homework without at all understanding how I do it. It's like magic. And I get paid! I guess it's best not to question it.
So, yeah, anyway. Dallas. I've never been to Texas, and I probably won't be able to walk around too much during my stay, but it's always cool to add another state to the list of states I've visited. I'll be staying at a hotel called Le Meridian, which sounds super swanky and makes me want to speak French and surrender to someone. If you know of anything exciting to do in Dallas, please let me know (Kim and Kim and Mandy, this means you!).
Come the weekend of March 1 (my 28th birthday *groan*) I'll be firmly grounded in Minnesota, a brief respite before taking off for Indianapolis March 7 for yet another techology conference and more shmoozing. I can't say I'm too excited about Indianapolis (Motto: We're Located in Indiana!), because there's really nothing to look forward to. It's not like Indianapolis is the entertainment capital of the world. Hell, I've been informed that we're going to take a tour of the speedway, and personally I'd rather vomit thumb tacks. I'm not a racing fan. I'm not even remotely close to being a racing fan. First and foremost, I don't drink enough beer to qualify as a racing fan. So, Indianapolis time will likely consist of large doses of hotel room.
Finally, come March 15, Mel and I will be jetting to Colorado to stay with my brother and sister-in-law and do a little skiing at Winter Park. My sister-in-law, Jody, works there and gets discounts on everything from lift tickets, to ski rentals, to ski lessons. So, a Colorado ski trip is unusually cheap for me, what with room and board and skiing being pretty much free, and the airplane ticket being a birthday gift from the parents. Mel still had to cough up $233 to go (hey, I've only been dating her for less than a year, so she has to pay for SOME things), and she's really looking forward to the trip. I can't wait either.
So, I'll be doing a lot of airplane time over the next month, and I'll be sure to flush the toilet over your respective state in the hopes that a frozen blue cube of airplane sewage will go crashing through your roof.
And I'll probably be thinking a lot about http://www.timboucher.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/scarlett_johansson_allure.jpg. I'll be trying to imagine Scarlett Johansson nude. Because a nude Scarlett Johansson would be pretty awesome all around.
Jeez. Poke Holes In This, If You Can
Don't know where this guy came from, but he summed up many of my war views quite nicely. Disassemble it if you can.
How To Bore A Man in Two Hours
Mel dragged me, kicking and screaming and bitching and moaning, to the cimematic catastrophe that is "How To Lose A Man In 10 Days." Okay, it wasn't THAT bad, but there were certainly other things I would have rather have done, like just about anything. How do you lose a man in ten days? Well, you can start by taking him to this movie. Even Mel admitted afterwards that it wasn't quite what she anticipated.
Make no mistake, this is a chick flick. This flick is for chicks. At no point was this more perfectly illustrated then when Mathew McConaughey takes his shirt off in his office and is ogled by three female co-workers who are apparently seaping vaginal fluid at the mere sight of his shaved chest. Try taking your shirt off in most offices and you'll be served a sexual harrasment suit, but whatever.
The premise is pretty simple: an aspiring journalist (Kate Hudson) is assigned an article for Composure Magazine meant to detail the common "don'ts" that women commit early on in relationships. In other words, she has to scare a guy away in 10 days. Unfortunately for her, her target is working to secure a multimillion dollar diamond marketing deal, and the only hitch is he has to make a certain woman fall in love with him, conveniently, in 10 days. Let the hi-jinx ensue!! *groan*
Right away, the movie falls flat for me, because it's based on the tired story of two people playing with the hearts and minds of another person for the promise of materialistic career advancement. How romantic. Kate Hudson is defintely cute, in an Avon sort of way, and if I were homosexual or female I'd probably find McConaughey to be dreamy. I can't believe I just used the term "dreamy." But, overall, this was your standard far-fetched romantic chick flick, complete with a nasty looking dog that pees on a pool table. No offense, but I saw that coming a mile away. She put the dog on the pool table, and I was thinking "well, there's either a poop or pee scene coming up here."
And why is it, in movies, that when a couple starts falling in love, the background music of choice is a piano slowly being played, apparently with one hand? What is it about a few clunky piano notes that reflects a growing emotional attachment? Why not an oboe? Perhaps a tuba? A tuba love scene would so rock.
Of course, eventually, the two scheming characters fall in love with each other, pretty much at the same time they find out that they've been playing each other. What follows is a disturbing duet that underscores just how much McConaughey is okay as eye candy, but he can't sing to save his life. Why they had to throw in the duet scene is beyond me, because it flat out didn't work. Hudson should have simply kicked McConaughey in the nuts and saved the audience a precious seven minutes.
But, being that it's Hollywood, the couple gets together in the end, following a humdrum chase scene where McConaughey pretends to ride a motorcycle through traffic. As we exited the theater, I said to Mel: "Well, that's two hours of my life I could have spent drinking," to which an unknown man behind me blurted, "That's God-damned right!"
Rating: 4 out of 10.
Ripping Apart Jill Nelson, and Something Else to Ponder
I don't like Jill Nelson, but I read her because she provides a good exercise on how to disassemble baseless arguments. So, let's start ripping apart her latest.
NEW YORK, Feb. 15 — On a bitterly cold day, as the temperature began falling a few hours after sunrise, thousands people came to New York City.
One thing I've never been able to understand is why it's so important to point out that protesters battle the weather. So, it's bitterly cold, so what? Is the weather conspiring to keep them from demonstrating? What's you damned point? Also, please note her reference to "thousands" of people, as I'll be referring back to it.
They were people of every age, religion, ethnicity and color; people in wheelchairs, carrying signs and flags, holding hands or pushing strollers; people in Islamic veils and labor caps and fur coats. There were people carrying puppets and people carrying signs that were angry and signs that were funny. Many were bearing American flags. They came to declare their patriotism and their right to protest a pending war in Iraq at a time in which our president has intimated that to question his goals and methods in pursuit of Saddam Hussein is to flirt with treason.
How does one flirt with treason? Do you coyly bat an eye, maybe give a come-hither glance? Come on, Jill, if demonstrating against a war in Iraq is truly flirting with treason, then the whole lot of protesters would have been herded into paddy wagons and would be awaiting a court date. If you honestly believe that you're being labeled for treason, I suggest you go to some other country, oh, I don't know, Iraq, and see how treasoness voices are actually dealt with.
THERE ARE FEW transcendent moments in public life, those rare occasions when a diverse array of people share a commonality of values, vision and commitment. Today in New York and in cities around the world, such a moment was shared, as millions of people raised their voices against the war and in favor of a more peaceful alternative to strip Saddam Hussein of his weapons of mass destruction.
Notice that she says "in favor of a more peaceful alternative" without actually giving any examples. "Give peace a chance!" Any ideas how that might be accomplished? "No, but give peace a chance!"
Yet in the end those who would protest rose above the bullies, and the authorized rally for 10,000 became something far greater: crowd estimates at day's end varied from 100,000 to 400,000.
Here's what President W would call "fuzzy numbers." First, she says "thousands," now she's giving the outrageous range of 100,000 to 400,000. Who the hell made those estimates? A drunken hobo in a box? You can't just conjure 300,000 people.
Tens of thousands of people attempting to walk east to the United Nations rally were instead herded by New York City police, often with embarrassment and chagrin and sometimes with barricades and rearing horses, to march north.
Now we're back down to tens of thousands of people. Make up your damned mind. And rearing horses? I'd rear too if I saw a crowd of 400,000 people suddenly disappear into tens of thousands. I like how she makes it sound as if the government was trying to quell the protestors by issuing terror alerts and hindering their march to the U.N. Newsflash, Jill, but when a marching crowd consists of people of every ethnicity, and some of them are wearing veils, yeah, they're going to get a little fidgety when you try marching on the U.N. It's nothing personal, and certainly it's not anti-protest. They're just trying to keep a cap on potential terrorism. Hope you don't mind.
And so we walked north, sometimes chanting, sometimes silent, occasionally singing. The nature of the march, and the moment, was proud, peaceful and inclusive. This was a peace march: there was no violence. Instead, in unison, half a million people, without losing face or the peace, adapted. Would that the Bush administration could do the same.
Good idea. Let's send our troops to Iraq and have them chant and sing. Oh, and by the way, did you notice how Jill just plopped on another 100,000 people? Now it's half a million. Curious. Watch those horses rear now.
Such a moment was profoundly needed as the Bush administration continues to bully its allies into a war that few people want. Just when I thought the administration had reached rock-bottom last week, with Secretary of State Colin Powell's initial presentation to the United Nations, things got worse. Several days later the terrorist alert level was raised to orange; no doubt the administration was hoping that fear of terror would make their poll numbers might go up, too. Yet by the end of the week their war drums seemed to lack their desired effect: administration officials acknowledged that information about an impending terrorist threat was an informant's "fabrication" — that's a plain old lie to the rest of us.
I know that this is her own opinion column, but jeez, that entire paragraph was one slushy puddle of innuendo and half-truths after another. If the Bush administration was truly bullying the people into war, we'd be at war by now instead of playing additional U.N. games. We have all the justification and appropriate resolutions we need, but we haven't acted yet. Bullying my ass. And, although I'm no fan of the terror alert system, it's a pretty big leap to think it's simply a tool used to bolster poll numbers. If anything, pushing the alert to orange hurts polling numbers. I don't know about you, but if we keep toggling to higher alerts, I'd want to elect someone who could do a better job at keeping it down. And, finally, why all the buzz about "fabrication" versus "lie." In either case, the informant didn't tell the truth, and a higher level of alert was the result. What's Jill's point?
France, Germany, Russia and China, all members of the United Nations Security Council, and the majority of the member nations, do not support a war with Iraq. According to a recent New York Times poll, 59 percent of Americans feel the weapons inspectors should be given more time to do their work. Yet the President Bush and his advisors, not to mention the pundit class, engage in an orgy of Europe-bashing. It is as if they regard the nations of the world as merely client states, beholden to obey; and the media respond as if beating the drums for an impending war against Iraq is a smart career move.
I've already given my lengthy dissertation about the U.N. Synopsis: it doesn't work, particulary now that France has its finger on the veto button. Hitler himself could rise from the grave and revive the Third Reich, and France would still insist on a peaceful alternative. And China? Jill emphasizes China? China disapproves of everything the U.S. does. China. Jeez, she had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for that one. And enough with the drums already. I get it. They're beating drums. They sit in the situation room beating little bongo drums, and Rumsfeld does a neat solo on a kick ass drum set that used to belong to Motley Crue. Time for a new analogy, Jill. The drums are getting old. And the media is beholden to obey? Then how the hell did you get into print on MSNBC.com, Jill?
Today, surrounded by tens of thousands of people I have never seen before and may not again, the drums of war were muffled. I felt protected and affirmed. It was as if people all over finally realized not how differently, but how similarly we see the world. They understand the in spite of the specificity of all the differences, our belief in the power of negotiation and peace - and our right to both — unites us.
Back down to tens of thousands of people, and more fucking drums. Muffled drums, no less. Negotiation and peace, two things Saddam totally understands and adheres to.
And now, stepping away from Jill, let's visit the opposing side, borrowed from Tony Blair, so my apologies to him for an outright copy and paste.
Iraq and "War"*
Dear All,
I am writing this email after a lot of deliberation about whether I have the right to use my strange and unique position (within our group) to argue the case FOR an invasion in Iraq. But in the end I have decided that I have more to lose if I keep quiet.
Firstly, my parents, my family, are from Iraq. My parents fled from Iraq some 23 years ago leaving everything and everyone behind when at that point 17 of our relatives had been "disappeared" or imprisoned for no reason whatsoever. They sought refuge in Kuwait for 4 years, but once again were forced to flee with us (my brother and I) in tow when Saddam had the Kuwaitis deport the Iraqi men back to Iraq. On the border he had these returnees shot dead.
We were lucky; we made it safely to Britain. My father was lucky - his brother was caught trying to escape and tortured. So here I am, 19 years later, never having set foot in the country of my parents.
The anti-"war" feeling prevalent amongst people I speak to seems to me totally misjudged and misplaced. I have to be honest here and say that I feel it is based partly on a lot on misunderstanding of the situation in Iraq and partly on people's desire to seem "politically rebellious" against the big, bad Americans. And let me say, that I also agree the American government is indeed big and bad; I have no illusions about their true intentions behind an attack on Iraq.
More than you or I, the Iraqis know the ignorant and truly atrocious attitude of the American government towards most of the world's population. Iraqis felt the effect of this when America (and the rest of the West in fact) eagerly supported and supplied Saddam when he waged his war-of-attrition against Iran causing the death of 1 million Iraqis and Iranians and the disappearance of many more - there was no anti-war movement to help them.
They felt the effect of this attitude when America and the West ignored, supplied even, Saddam's use of biological weapons on the people of Halabja, killing 5000 people in one day, and causing the deformed births of babies in the area to this day.
Iraqis know well the untrustworthy nature of the Western governments when the coalition gave Saddam permission, a few days after the end of the Gulf War, to massacre the uprising peoples of Iraq when they had wrested control from him in most cities of Iraq.
The people of Iraq echo our discontentment with America and the West's policy in Iraq, for they know the realities of such a policy far better than any of us shall ever know.
I want to ask those who support the anti - "war" movement (apart from pacifists - that is a totally different situation) their motives and reasoning behind such support. You may feel that America is trying to blind you from seeing the truth about their real reasons for an invasion. I must argue that in fact, you are still blind to the bigger truths in Iraq. I must ask you to consider the following questions:
Saddam has murdered more than a million Iraqis over the past 30 years, are you willing to allow him to kill another million Iraqis?
Out of a population of 20 million, 4 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their country during Saddam's reign. Are you willing to ignore the real and present danger that caused so many people to leave their homes and families?
Saddam rules Iraq using fear - he regularly imprisons, executes and tortures the mass population for no reason whatsoever - this may be hard to believe and you may not even appreciate the extent of such barbaric acts, but believe me you will be hard pressed to find a family in Iraq who have not had a son/father/brother killed, imprisoned, tortured and/or "disappeared" due to Saddam's regime. What has been stopping you from taking to the streets to protest against such blatant crimes against humanity in the past?
Saddam gassed thousands of political prisoners in one of his campaigns to "cleanse" prisons - why are you not protesting against this barbaric act?
An example of the dictator's policy you are trying to save - Saddam has made a law to give excuse to any man to rape a female relative and then murder her in the name of adultery. Do you still want to march to keep him in power?
I remember when I was around 8 I went along with my father to a demonstration against the French embassy when the French were selling Saddam weapons. I know of the numerous occasions my father and many, many others haves attended various meetings, protests and exhibitions that call for the end of Saddam's reign. I have attended the permanent rally against Saddam that has been held every Saturday in Trafalgar Square for the past 5 years. The Iraqi people have been protesting for YEARS against the war - the war that Saddam has waged against them. Where have you been?
Why is it now that you deem it appropriate to voice your disillusions with America's policy in Iraq, when it is actually right now that the Iraqi people are being given real hope, however slight and precarious, that they can live in an Iraq that is free of the horrors partly described in this email?
Whatever America's real intentions behind an attack, the reality on the ground is that many Iraqis, inside and outside Iraq support invasive action, because they are the ones who have to live with the realities of continuing as things are while people in the West wring their hands over the rights and wrongs of dropping bombs on Iraq, when in fact the US & the UK have been continuously dropping bombs on Iraq for the past 12 years.
Of course it would be ideal if an invasion could be undertaken, not by the Americans, but by, say, the Nelson Mandela International Peace Force. That's not on offer. The Iraqi people cannot wait until such a force materialises; they have been forced to take what they're given. That such a force does not exist - cannot exist - in today's world is a failing of the very people who do not want America to invade Iraq, yet are willing to let thousands of Iraqis to die in order to gain the higher moral ground. Do not continue to punish the Iraqi people because you are "unhappy" with the amount of power the world is at fault for allowing America to wield. Do not use the Iraqi people as a pawn in your game for moral superiority - one loses that right when one allows a monster like Saddam to rule for 30 years without so much as protesting against his rule.
Some will accuse me of being a pessimist for accepting that the only way to get rid of Saddam is through force. I beg to differ; I believe I have boundless optimism for the FUTURE of Iraq, where Iraqis are able to rebuild their shattered country, where Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists, communists - all peoples of any and all backgrounds are able to live in peace and safety and without fear of persecution. I beg you to imagine such an Iraq, such a democracy in the Middle East, and ask where in that do you see pessimism? Such an Iraq is what is being envisaged and sought by many millions of Iraqis; such an Iraq is where I hope I will be able to take my children.
If you want to make your disillusions heard then do speak out, put pressure on Blair, Bush & Co to keep to their promises of restoring democracy to Iraq. Make sure they do put back in financial aid what they have taken over the years, and make sure that they don't betray the Iraqis again. March for democracy in Iraq. If you say that we can't trust the Americans then make sure that you are a part of ensuring they do fulfil their promises to the Iraqis.
So I conclude by asking you to consider your REASONS for supporting the anti-"war" movement, and if you are going, the anti-"war" demo. If you still feel that what I have said does not sway you from this stance, then I can do no more.
In some ways I do admire the movement because it proves what people can achieve when they come together and speak out. Unfortunately for Iraq nobody spoke out earlier.
Please feel free to email me with your counter-arguments, comments, thoughts etc.
Rania Kashi
(* I use apostrophes with "war" because in truth it will be no war, but an invasion. A war presumes relatively equal forces battling against each, with resistance on both sides. A US-led force will encounter NO resistance from the Iraqi people or the army.)
Valentine's Day Success, Courtesy of the Minnesota State Lottery
I don't like Valentine's Day. I find it to be an intrusion on an otherwise routine February. I'm going along just fine, minding my own damned business, when suddenly Hallmark dictates that I HAVE to be romantic.
I bought a nice bottle of Chianti earlier in the week, so that was taken care of, but I procrastinated on the slew of other things I intended to get her until, of course, Friday. As it turned out, this was a good thing, because on Thursday night, following my hapkido class, I bought a $5 lottery ticket on a whim when I stopped to buy milk. A few scratches later, and I was a $200 winner. "Wahl, holeeee sheeeyat!" Bring on Valentine's Day, baby, Ryan has the coin!
I jumped out of work for lunch early on Friday, swung over Hallmark, where I bought a neat candle and a sickeningly sweet Garfield card. I got back in my car, scrawled out some quick thoughts about what Mel means to me, not taking a whole lot of time to think about it and just trusting that my ability to write something great would take over.
Chianti? Check. Card? Check. Candle? Check. Japanese curry I was going to cook for her? Check. Flowers? Well, I'd have to get those after work. It was a rather funny scene after work, when I dropped by a local flower shop. There were about 15 very concerned men milling about the store in a numbed confusion. I totally understood their angst, and they didn't even have a lottery gift of $200 to work with.
I found a nice flower arrangement consisting of daisies (Mel's favorite) and red carnations, all stuck into a flower pot with a heart on it. Ugh. But, whatever. It was snowing, and the roads were shitty, and I didn't want to waste a whole bunch of time looking for a less sickening flower pot.
The road from Rochester to St. Paul was white-knuckle shitty, with slippery slush ruts and a disconcerting wind pushing me to the left. And yet, there were oblivious drivers just cruising along without a care in the world. I adhere to a strict three second following distance from the car in front of me, particularly in shitty weather. Why do other drivers think this is an invitation to slide in between me and the car in front? WHY?
Anyway, I arrived at Mel's at a little past 6 p.m. She's still getting over the effects of her pneumonia (at least that was what the doctors decreed her to have), so she was pretty groggy, having just emerged from her nap. We exchanged gifts and cards. Mel baked me a heart shaped brownie, which I'm picking at right now. *droooooollllll*
And what do you think Mel liked the best out of my battery of gifts? Well, besides the curry I cooked for her. The card, but not so much the card as what I hurriedly scrawled in it while sitting in my car outside the Hallmark store. She kept going back to read it again, and again, and again. And, I couldn't for the life of me remember what the hell I had written. I waited until she went to the bathroom to peruse my own prose.
"Mel, you make me so happy, but also so much more than that. I'm a better me because of you, and I didn't think that was possible. (smiley face). Love, Ryan."
Sounds about right.
