Moving

I have the best friends in the world. Seriously, you really should envy me, and I don't tend to say that too often. The turnout for the Weekend Moving Extravaganza was just phenomenal and I almost felt a little guilty that I didn't have more stuff that needed to be lugged. I now also know that a fourteen foot UHaul truck is more than sufficient to contain all of my worldly possessions, which is both welcome and kind of disturbing at the same time.

At any rate, I should like to thank everyone who turned up to lend a hand, I hope no one ended up too exhausted. And a special round of thank you's go out to those incredible folks who showed up for both days of the move, major love to aelfsciene the tireless, tersa the ill but massively helpful, jsmitty_o the uber-organizer, scoreboard cheerful lifter of heavy things, and of course moonlightnrain the loyal who helped with every single part of the move from start to finish...and then came back yesterday to set up my kitchen for me. I don't know what I've done in this life to deserve such treatment, but I'm incredibly grateful for it.

And then, as if lugging my heavy shit around for two days wasn't enough, jsmitty_o and scoreboard gifted me with a new bookcase as well. I now have an embarassment of shelf space in the new place...but I will not use this as an excuse to buy more books. No, I will not. Seriously.

Another big virtual hug goes out to rexluscus and jakejr for driving all the way down from the East Bay to lend a hand. That is friendship indeed. Also many thanks to chrisber for the wonderful help, plus the use of the padlock on the truck and allowing us to park out in front of the House of Egg Saturday night. Many apologies for waking you Sunday with all the truck revving and dying noises as well. Stupid UHaul truck needing a cold start when temps are above freezing...*sigh* Once again a thank you to jimweasel for the storage space and for helping out on Saturday. And thanks and hugs to cyranocyrano for lending a hand on Sunday and for the best moving related comment of the day. I swear when I unpacked the box labeled "bedroom costumes" yesterday I was chuckling the entire time.

I think that's everyone, if I've forgotten you it's not that I don't love you, rather that I'm a bit of an airhead right now. I won't really be back to normal until I've gotten mostly unpacked and settled. However, the consensus of opinion seems to be that the new place is a big hit, a lot roomier with actual air flow and natural light, not to mention a big patio and storage shed. I have new appliances in the kitchen, new light switches and plugs, new lights, new carpeting, new wood flooring, the works. I think I'll be happy here, which is good 'cause I'm not going to be able to afford to move again in the near future. My new goal is to have a stable address for 3+ years. Let's see if I can make it.

Lynching

You know back when I had cable a few days ago I saw clips of the Hussein execution on all the news channels (though with a particularly ghoulish glee on FOX), and flipped past them as quickly as I could. I saw no reason to participate in the bread and circuses aspect of all of this nonsense, it's not like his death will serve any real purpose. But I had to admit I was curious how this whole thing was playing out to the Iraqis themselves, thankfully Riverbend
answers that question:

It's official. Maliki and his people are psychopaths. This really is a new low. It's outrageous- an execution during Eid. Muslims all over the world (with the exception of Iran) are outraged. Eid is a time of peace, of putting aside quarrels and anger- at least for the duration of Eid.

This does not bode well for the coming year. No one imagined the madmen would actually do it during a religious holiday. It is religiously unacceptable and before, it was constitutionally illegal. We thought we'd at least get a few days of peace and some time to enjoy the Eid holiday, which coincides with the New Year this year. We've spent the first two days of a holy holiday watching bits and pieces of a sordid lynching.

America the savior… After nearly four years and Bush's biggest achievement in Iraq has been a lynching. Bravo Americans.

And Juan Cole points out:

Saddam: The death of a dictator
Through the bumbling of the U.S.-backed regime, justice becomes revenge, and a despot becomes a martyr.

By Juan Cole

Dec. 30, 2006

The tribunal also had a unique sense of timing when choosing the day for Saddam's hanging.
It was a slap in the face to Sunni Arabs.
This weekend marks Eid al-Adha, the Holy Day of Sacrifice, on which Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God.
Shiites celebrate it Sunday.
Sunnis celebrate it Saturday –- and Iraqi law forbids executing the condemned on a major holiday.
Hanging Saddam on Saturday was perceived by Sunni Arabs as the act of a Shiite government that had accepted the Shiite ritual calendar.