gravmty pode
Apr. 4th, 2003 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockI really hate spam, and I'm really, really hating the stuff with non-sensical subject lines like the one above. I do, however, like Cloudmark for Outlook which conveniently makes about 90% of the nonsense disappear without the slightest effort on my part. Yay!
So I had two unpleasant insect-related experiences yesterday. First I was finishing packing up a box for my sisters, filled with all the stuff they couldn't fit into their suitcases. I plunk the box on the floor and start taping it up. As I tip it up on its side a large cockroach falls off. I leapt back about 3 feet (mind you I was coming from a complete sitting position) and must've resembled a cartoon cat in a Warner Brother's short, if I possessed fur I can assure you it would've been standing on end. Fortunately the thing was quite dead, but still. I went the long way around it repeating, "Eww, eww, eww." and grabbed the broom and dustpan to do away with it.
Now it's not so much that I'm afraid of the critters. Insects as such don't bother me. Indeed I've handled everything from grasshoppers to tarantulas without any problems. But these things are filthy and disgusting and absolutely fearless. At least other bugs know enough to avoid you. These things'll actually stare you right in the eye and say, "You don't want to fuck with me."
Anyway, finished packing the box and set it aside, then I grabbed a flat one from the garage and as I swung it around a little baby cockroach fell off, also deceased. I did a smaller version of the "Eww!" dance, and still shuddering, opted for another box to put my other stuff for the sisters in.
I think I need more traps and poison for the garage. I also need to seal up under the doors and any other little cracks they might be getting in by. I just can't abide the thought of those things in my home. If I run into one outside, ok, that's their environment. But not in my home. I actually even dreamed about them last night, which may explain why I slept so poorly.
So again I entry into a war on two fronts, snails and cockroaches. May the gods be with me.
On the bright side Kage seems to have forgiven me for my transgressions this week and is sleeping on my bed again. I'm almost ridiculously pleased by this. Yeah, I know, stage one of becoming a "Cat Lady" complete.
Yet another bill that makes me want to kick a legislator:
Redefining terrorism:
Senate Bill 742 in the state senate would enact new guidelines and strict punishments for acts of terrorism in Oregon
From the pleasant surprises for today list, I thought this article was going to be a "Why can't you all just shut up already?" Op Ed and was thoroughly stunned when I read it:
What purpose does protest serve now?
As a foreign correspondent based in Europe, I used to joke that I'd never met a German who was a Nazi or a Frenchman who wasn't in the Resistance. In retrospect, we all choose the right side.
What's harder is to be on the right side from the beginning.
Not sure I'd rely quite so heavily on the Vietnam analogy, but then again I'm not buying into Bush's WWII one either. I do understand why these comparisons are so attractive, it's just that I don't necessarily think that this particular war is going to be exactly like anything this country has experienced before. I also think it's a bit of a distraction from the real issues that inspire people to put a flag bumper sticker on their car or march at a peace rally.
I guess, though, what also bugs me here is that the author uses the Vietnam comparison, then at the end switches to WWII to make the right/wrong and good guys/bad guys point. I don't like that either, nor his implication that those of us who oppose the war are necessarily "right". I guess I just don't see this whole debate in these terms, it's not black and white, there is no "right" answer here, just differing opinions on what our country does and should stand for, and whether our actions are just.
When two sides come at an issue from a "we're right, they're wrong" perspective dialogue ceases, and rhetoric takes over. Nobody from either side even bothers to listen to the other. But why should they, the other side is clearly "wrong". It's dismissive, and I don't like seeing either side of the issue do it.
So I had two unpleasant insect-related experiences yesterday. First I was finishing packing up a box for my sisters, filled with all the stuff they couldn't fit into their suitcases. I plunk the box on the floor and start taping it up. As I tip it up on its side a large cockroach falls off. I leapt back about 3 feet (mind you I was coming from a complete sitting position) and must've resembled a cartoon cat in a Warner Brother's short, if I possessed fur I can assure you it would've been standing on end. Fortunately the thing was quite dead, but still. I went the long way around it repeating, "Eww, eww, eww." and grabbed the broom and dustpan to do away with it.
Now it's not so much that I'm afraid of the critters. Insects as such don't bother me. Indeed I've handled everything from grasshoppers to tarantulas without any problems. But these things are filthy and disgusting and absolutely fearless. At least other bugs know enough to avoid you. These things'll actually stare you right in the eye and say, "You don't want to fuck with me."
Anyway, finished packing the box and set it aside, then I grabbed a flat one from the garage and as I swung it around a little baby cockroach fell off, also deceased. I did a smaller version of the "Eww!" dance, and still shuddering, opted for another box to put my other stuff for the sisters in.
I think I need more traps and poison for the garage. I also need to seal up under the doors and any other little cracks they might be getting in by. I just can't abide the thought of those things in my home. If I run into one outside, ok, that's their environment. But not in my home. I actually even dreamed about them last night, which may explain why I slept so poorly.
So again I entry into a war on two fronts, snails and cockroaches. May the gods be with me.
On the bright side Kage seems to have forgiven me for my transgressions this week and is sleeping on my bed again. I'm almost ridiculously pleased by this. Yeah, I know, stage one of becoming a "Cat Lady" complete.
Yet another bill that makes me want to kick a legislator:
Redefining terrorism:
Senate Bill 742 in the state senate would enact new guidelines and strict punishments for acts of terrorism in Oregon
From the pleasant surprises for today list, I thought this article was going to be a "Why can't you all just shut up already?" Op Ed and was thoroughly stunned when I read it:
What purpose does protest serve now?
As a foreign correspondent based in Europe, I used to joke that I'd never met a German who was a Nazi or a Frenchman who wasn't in the Resistance. In retrospect, we all choose the right side.
What's harder is to be on the right side from the beginning.
Not sure I'd rely quite so heavily on the Vietnam analogy, but then again I'm not buying into Bush's WWII one either. I do understand why these comparisons are so attractive, it's just that I don't necessarily think that this particular war is going to be exactly like anything this country has experienced before. I also think it's a bit of a distraction from the real issues that inspire people to put a flag bumper sticker on their car or march at a peace rally.
I guess, though, what also bugs me here is that the author uses the Vietnam comparison, then at the end switches to WWII to make the right/wrong and good guys/bad guys point. I don't like that either, nor his implication that those of us who oppose the war are necessarily "right". I guess I just don't see this whole debate in these terms, it's not black and white, there is no "right" answer here, just differing opinions on what our country does and should stand for, and whether our actions are just.
When two sides come at an issue from a "we're right, they're wrong" perspective dialogue ceases, and rhetoric takes over. Nobody from either side even bothers to listen to the other. But why should they, the other side is clearly "wrong". It's dismissive, and I don't like seeing either side of the issue do it.
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-04 03:08 pm (UTC)Could you elaborate on this a little more? What are we distracted from? Truth, justice and the American way? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
Re:
Date: 2003-04-04 03:37 pm (UTC)I guess what we're distracted from, in my view, is exactly what the "American way" is, or what some of us feel it should be. Who are we now? What part do we play in the world at large? How does the world view us? How do we want to be viewed? Is it enough to be feared or do we want to be respected?
I thought the article was interesting, but it seemed somewhat lacking in depth to me. Kind of like some of the chants they came up with at the march. They're all well and good, and get people fired up, but what do they mean? And are the people chanting really thinking about what it is they're saying? I guess to me it seemed like an emotionally stirring article but I don't feel like I came away with much from it.
Now on the other hand, I just read DISSENTING DIPLOMATS (http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15548), and what former diplomat John Brady Kiesling had to say really made me pause and think.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-04 06:18 pm (UTC)I can say my opinion of this guy improved from reading the transcript. I presume this is the part you're talking about. Why is this so unsettling to people? Is it simply the naked exercise of American military power, or the fact that France, Germany and Russia voiciferously prevent the United States from coming to any sort of cohesion about Iraq?