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This has been an interesting week. The most notable parts seem to have been bookended by a dead squirrel.
Yes…a dead squirrel. I was going through the Declaration of Independence and the abridged Constitution to see how it is perceived that the Obama administration is violating them (or doing so in any way that could be construed as more than the Bush white house); I went outside for a smoke, and lo…
It looks like he had fallen from the largest tree in our backyard onto the driveway, and probably didn’t feel much after hitting the ground. Technically, roadkill. It was then that I realized that squirrels are conservative by their nature–quite content to scamper by and around the dead one, eating nuts, chasing each other–basically ignoring the dead one and its misfortune. For my part, I didn’t know what to do with it; dead, gross, a rodent, and covered with ants already. I figured the squirrel community wasn’t going to get together and throw “a Celebration of Life,” so I watched it over the next few days, and hoped that the cold snap that was keeping the odor down would hold.
I realized on Monday that there is a new job scam…you apply for a legit looking job posted somewhere, you get back a legit looking email response. Then they ask you to pull your credit. From a link theyprovided in the e-mail. So, alas, no real job there, as I haven’t heard back from two of them since I sent a reply that I had gotten my free yearlies from www.annualcreditreport.com, the one that is the official partnership of the three agencies. The job charlatans are smart, though. There are so many rackets out there, waiting to ensnare the desperate jobseeker. A word of advice: NEVER pay to work. Not ever.
I have to say I was disappointed at Iran’s launch of long-range missiles. This is probably not the best move to make while all the time insisting that the country’s nuclear program aims are peaceful. I went to check out the IAEA’s minutes and other info on Iran from the past couple of years to see if they did report the building of the under-mountain site…apparently, almost everything that goes on between a sovereign nation (like us) and the IAEA is supposed to be confidential. Iran was pretty upset about a few details that leaked in the Bush years, which ultimately led to more U.N. sanctions against the country.
In other news, it’s pretty crappy that while being pounded by a typhoon, about 3 huge earthquakes occur causing giant tidal waves. That is nuts for a region of the world to endure at the approximate same time. As I write this, for the Philipines, there’s another typhoon looming; for Indonesia, another earthquake just rocked the area.
But Derrion Albert will never read this blog post. No, he was beaten to death with boards and vicious kicks, while being filmed on cell phone, while trying to walk home from school (or help a friend…details are foggy). My mistake was watching the video, which his family wants to remain on the web, to raise awareness. My heart broke when he tried to get up, and the boys just jumpedon him and ended it all. From where I was in front of the computer, I wanted to stop it somehow, but by the time I saw the video, this Chicago honor student was gone forever. If you’ve ever been a teacher (or ever been in school, for that matter), you know that kids will run to wherever the fight is, and just watch transfixed–that is your worst fear for the school day. But this was outside of school, and apparently no-holds-barred. I am saddened and sickened. Again, I’m reminded that this could have been my baby brother, just a year older than Derrion was. I can’t even grab all these kids–gang members and spectators–by the shirtcollar and explain to them how utterly dumb this kind of behavior is. I hope the judge can.
On the subject of Chicago, I think it’s a bad idea for the windy city to host anything. Let South America have the games for a change–Illinois doesn’t need the debt anyway (they have plenty). And, not saying that the Olympics are full of terrorists, but I’d rather not take the chance 100 miles from where my grandma lives. There are enough Chicago people (see characterization in paragraph above) in my small hometown to make me nervous for her safety already.
I also decided to try and learn Arabic. I’m working my way through a couple of resources and methods on the web, but I wish I could take a class. Oh well, we’ll see how this goes first. If anyone knows of any outstanding websites for learning how to speak and read/write, let me know.
Then…on the third day…he was…gone? I went outside to have my wake-up cigarette on Thursday morning and the squirrel was just gone. I only got a half-chuckle when I informed my fiance that I’d given our buddy (who we’d been watching succumb to nature and ants) a new, Biblically-inspired name. Well, I thought it was funny, even though I was pretty sure that one of the neighborhood cats finally came by.
At any rate, I have tons of stuff to do today. We’re going to our university’s homecoming weekend activities, and I have to pack and run a few other errands. I never did finish looking for the parts of our Declaration and Constitution that had been stomped on, but hopefully nothing too crazy will happen today.
Ahmadinejad not in a position to lecture, but he made some good points.
September 24, 2009 in current events, The World | Tags: Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad, commentary, democracies, democracy, dictatorships, God, Imperialism, Iran, Iraq, Israel, mccarthyism, oppression, Pakistan, Palestine, political propaganda, regimes, Terrorism, totalitarian, UN, UN Speech, United Nations, United States, Zionism | Leave a comment
I had to take a day to collect myself after hearing Ahmadinejad’s UN speech. I actually had to lie down directly after hearing it. Don’t get me wrong–I DO NOT AGREE WITH EVERYTHING he says (and really disagree with what he does, for that matter), but I tried to listen to the speech with an open mind. I also try to listen often to the EIB with an open mind…although my teeth remain clenched more often than not. The Iranian leader’s speech was actually a nice break from that.
Yesterday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a scary amount of sense in what he had to say. Now, he does not have the mandate of God to sit in the ivory tower and shout down the truth at us, not with the magnitude of human rights atrocities that have and are still occurring in Iran. But…we majority nations–the U.S. (anihilation of many Native Americans, slavery, acutal use of atomic weapons, the Jim Crow/civil rights era, McCarthyism), Great Britain (imperialism on a GRAND scale, religious intolerance, oppression of the poor); add to this list the former Soviet Union, China, Germany, Israel–can not exactly claim purity, and can only speak from the perspective of repented sinners that have not been 100% rehabilitated. Not one of us may cast the first stone.
That being said, if it helps, remove the man himself from the statements and just listen to the speech. There are parts that could appeal to anyone and every nation. I can only pull from the experience of being an American, so this is what I heard.
The above statement would ring true with about 95% of our U.S. population, although we (myself included) would pick and choose what aspects of the statement we agree with.
When he spoke to Katie Couric, there was some ambiguity on whether Ahmadinejad now believes (or whatever) that the holocaust did occur. How one cannot believe that this happened is completely unfathomable, but he does state that the genocide and the consequence or outcome (creating Israel) do not logically make sense. It was, after all, a Nazi Germany that perpetuated the crimes, and our solution (although noble in intent) was to partition off a part of Palestine? In my lifetime, there has always been an Israel, and thus, there have always been strained relations with other nations in the middle east.
There has been unbelieveable cruelty from both Palestine and Israel towards each other. In the U.S. we tend to hear the Israeli side, and it is heartbreaking what they go through in an attempt to simply live their lives. But a clear picture requires the other side of the story as well. An interesting take on the Palestinian side is from the documentary “Death in Gaza,” which is well worth the time a viewing takes. After watching the documentary, genocide may not be the best descriptor, though.
Hmm….he goes on to say:
Before “Practice what you preach, brother,” is said, take into consideration the truth in those words. I cannot understand how this is the same man who pretty much authorized the torture and murder of election protestors and supressed the media (so the rest of the world wouldn’t find out about it? Really? In the age of Twitter???) during the same time frame. And while he also has a real problem with Israel, the recommendations he made to the UN to restructure are pretty logical too.
Still, I feel that we need to discuss with Iran why they want to enrich uranium, then, lend Iran the assistance of our best scientists, and help to keep the nuclear activities focused on electricity and medicine. Maybe forge a new partnership in creating something great that would benefit many nations? Someone on Huffington Post made a good point; if Iran gets and uses a nuclear weapon to harm anyone else in the world, they will cease to exist (some nation will make sure of it)–and nobody really wants that.
Had we and the British not interfered and had Mosaddeq overthrown, Ahmadinejad, his regime, and his views might not be before us today. Iran could have been our greatest ally in all of the events of the past half-century, and especially throughout the last decade. But here we are instead. *sigh*
(Oh, and by the way, a Republican administration made the original “overthrowing” happen.)