I have a the Jolly Roger up in my office, and the sign next to my door says, “Kevin P.* Lawver *the ‘p’ is for ‘pirate’”. I’ve had the flag for a while now (got it from Archie McPhee), and decided one day to put it up so everyone who walked past my door could see it. I wasn’t initially sure why I did it. I had it, and I put it up… simple as that. My manager asked about it yesterday, and here’s pretty much what I told him (flowered up for the it-ner-net).
I realized I was never going to influence the way the company does things by doing it the same old way. I’ve tried convincing people one at a time, and it was taking too long. I needed to do something subversive, something brash and stupid and “out there”. I decided to become a pirate. I realized that picking off one at a time wasn’t going to get me anywhere, and I needed an army of pirates. I am the fast ship in a world of gold-laden galleons. So, I collected a couple other like-minded people (who don’t realize it, but they’re pirates too), and we formed a pirate club. We put out a pirate manifesto, and now we’re collecting pirates. We’re recruiting them from the ranks of the very galleons we’re going to come back and take over. We’re going to take them off of the Same Old Thing and the That’s Just The Way It Is (which are crappy names for ships if you ask me). We’re going to train them in our pirate ways and then send them back to their ships to incite mutiny.
Why does it have to happen this way? Why am I forced into piracy? The ships are too big to be influenced by a single voice. They need to be taken from the inside, changed from within. The sailors know their one way of doing things, and because it gets them to port, and keeps the captain off their backs; that’s how they do it, and nothing else really seems to matter. I can’t infiltrate every ship and take it over. That would take too long. I need other folks to go in and do it for me.
Here I am, with my musket, eye patch and preachy parrot, to say there’s another way. All those galleons they’re so fiercely protecting are about to sink. The rocks ahead are sharp and the water is getting shallow. It’s time to throw some of that old stuff overboard and learn some new tricks.
I’m a pirate. I’ve got tricks a-plenty. I’m forming a pirate army. We’re taking over.
(this is all about web standards… pretty anti-climactic, huh?)
That’s a big number. It’s not a million, and it’s not a billion, but it’s big. It was almost the population of Pittsylvania County, VA in the last census (61,745). What is it? That’s the conservative end of the estimate for the number of people, civilian and military, that have been wounded and killed in Iraq.
That number’s going to stick with me for a while. The next time I see those cool pictures of explosions on TV and think of all the damage we’re doing to those terrorists and rooting out the “evildoers”, I’ll remember that 60,497 have been wounded and killed in this adventure, most of them civilians who will never get a moment of silence during the nightly news, who we’ll never mourn because they aren’t “like us” and don’t come from here.
The next time a President says, “We gotta go get the bad guys.”, I’ll think of that number, of that little boy who lost all but one of his limbs, of all the pictures of corpses, of the list of soldiers I see on the news, all of those sonless mothers and brotherless brothers left to mourn, those pictures of amputees learning to walk all over again with a leg that’s not their own.
Is it worth it? Are we bringing “freedom” to anyone with this war? Are we winning the war on terrorism? Does it matter?
note: I used the lower of all estimates given, and got the numbers here.
Yeah, so, how are you?
Me? I’ve decided to institute a “don’t blog angry” policy here, which means you may not hear from me a whole lot.
You’re Google is my command. So, I’m on the first page of yet another weird query at Google. This time, it’s “how to buy sushi“. Since I aim to please, I’m going answer this one. Not because I’m an expert with sushi. I’m not. I’m a pale chubby American, like I assume the person who ran the query that brought them to this page on my site (which really had nothing to do with buying, but with NOT buying sushi). Since that post didn’t help anyone, maybe this one will.
You will find fairly early on that sushi is surprisingly filling. It’s all the rice. Trust me, you won’t need a lot to make your belly happy. OK, I hope that helps the next person that comes looking for tips on buying sushi. My work here is done.
UPDATE: To address Tim’s comment, you can get sushi that contains fully cooked fish!! A lost of the rolls, and other pieces use cooked fish. If you’re concerned about it, ask at the restaurant. They usually have a whole section of the menu for you chickens.
Why not vacation in France? I couldn’t agree more! I suggest the south of France, especially Mandelieu-La Napoule. It’s small, not as touristy as Cannes (although it’s a five minute train ride away), and the restaurants are to die for. You won’t see a McDonalds or Burger King around, and you’ll be surrounded by the sea, the mountains and lots of really friendly French people. I highly recommend the hotel I stayed in on my trip, L’Ermitage du Riou. The hotel’s restaurant is world class, and extremely reasonable considering the quality of the food and service.
While you’re there, you should definitely take the tour at the Chateau La Napoule, and walk around the town. It’s gorgeous.
Now do you believe me?
I’ve been haunted by an image this week. I read somewhere (unfortunately, I can’t remember where exactly) a comparison between our invasion of Iraq and the Spanish-American War. The author said that both were launched on fauly evidence (some say outright lies), and quoted some famous Americans who were against the Spanish-American War. There was one passage from an article written by Mark Twain that’s stuck with me, that I’m unable to forget or leave behind.
And our flag — another pride of ours, our chiefest! We have worshipped it so; and when we have seen it in far lands — glimpsing it unexpectedly in that strange sky, waving its welcome and benediction to us — we have caught our breath, and uncovered our heads, and couldn’t speak, for a moment, for the thought of what it was to us and the great ideals it stood for…
And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special one — our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.
The image of that flag, red and black stripes, with the skull & cross-bones in place of the stars. It’s chilling, and I can’t help thinking how unfortunately appropriate it is. Iraq is a mess, because we didn’t go in with a plan for getting out. Our soldiers have committed atrocities in our names, under our flag (and apparently under orders from the commanding officer in the region and possibly civilian leaders in the Pentagon, all of it vetted by the Justice Department). We’ve killed thousands of non-combatants, lost several hundred good young soldiers to combat and terrorism, allowed the few treasures of the country to be plundered and looted, and changed course more times than a ship lost in a gale. All of this done in the name of bringing “freedom” to the Middle East.
I don’t know what the Administration’s true reason was for going into Iraq. I don’t know why the insisted on lying (or continue to keep lying, only to have a member of your own Administration contradict you) about Saddam’s connection to Al Qaeda. I don’t know why they relied on intelligence they knew was faulty… And now, with the abuse, we’ve given an excuse to every madman we go up against in the future to torture our soldiers the way we’ve tortured the Iraqis (most of who were either covered by the Geneva Conventions or later proven innocent). Our government even lied to us about the war on terror, and now has to “concede it made an error“. How does this happen? How did we get here?
It’s time to drop partisanship and look deep down into our hearts. What has happened is wrong. There should be a Congressional investigation into the torture memos, see where they lead, and punish those responsible for ordering it – no matter how high it goes. Today, it looks like our government is guilty of war crimes. Are we going to do anything about it? Are we going to stand by and let this be carried out in our name, under our flag? I’m disgusted by my government. This has gone on long enough, and it’s time for the few honest people left in the Administration and in Congress to put a stop to it.
I love Horchata. That recipe will be attempted toute suite!!!
Redesign in progress… not done, still going. Colors may change (especially the green… looks good in the palette, not so sure on the site). Beware falling fonts.
There, let’s try that for a little while and see what happens. I’m not sure about the fonts, but I think I can live with the colors for now. Sorry to all you folks who use newsreaders. Hopefully there will be no more rebuilds to muck with the feeds.