HAHAHAHA - Do a little dance, we were right:

After offering a bleak assessment of the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq, Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said today that he was urging lawmakers and President Bush to change course quickly to protect a further erosion of America’s standing in the world.

It was only a matter of time before the cripple wounded made this just like Viet Nam. Thank you modern medicine, because of you Americas mistakes are even more numerous and walking into our grocery stores, churches, and right in the faces of the people who supported this boondoggle.

Now if we can only feel the backlash in middle America. If only. Who dares to call themselves a neo-con now? Creative destruction anyone? What a freakin’ mess.

All done on Jesus’ watch too. Thank you religious zealots in Alabama. Thank you for this chance to once again prove intellegence and education will win out over you backwards ways. What was that about “them uppity northerns bettah stop comings downs here ands treatins us like some kind of anthramapology experiment?” What way my reply? “Stop acting like protohumans and there will be nothing to study!”

I guess that “I’d rather have a beer with Bush” sentiment now includes a beer with Bush and an artificial leg and PTSD.

And before you think I am not sympathetic to people who are hurt in war, this is not personal, this is politics. I feel really badly for these people, they were consumed by a machine that doesn’t give a fuck about them and to make it more onerous (entailing obligations that exceed advantages) the machine duped them into thinking this was their patriotic duty.

I walked out of my office tonight at about 7 with thoughts of the holiday on my mind. As I walked by starbucks I saw the decrepit old homeless lady I frequently see in the area. It is cold and raining so she is inside reciting names and numbers from an old phone book. I assume there is something mentally wrong with her because an obsession like this is a good indicator.

What memory pops into my mind? The exact moment I learned holidays are a sham and people suck.

I was about 6 or 7, because my parents were still married, at least they wanted it to look that way, and I was driving in the car with my father. We were stopped at the light on the corner of Union and something street, I am guessing 14th maybe. As I looked at the large tanks of the milk processing plant across from the bank, my father asked me what was wrong. I told him that I had read a story in the Bangor Daily about how many unwanted cats and dogs there were at the local shelter. Worse yet, and the main point of the article, that people give the gift of animals far too cavalierly resulting in even more animals post holiday being killed at the shelter.

My father tried to reassure me, but he could not. Instead he used it as an object lesson in responsibility.

As you can see, I never forgot that moment. Nor have I forgotten the lesson.. We have a responsibility to tend to things around us. Do not make excuses, get up and go out and do it. One less gift if one more donation. Do not fall for the trap of hopelessness or the intractable nature of the problem. We have the power to make our world at hand better.

So this Thanksgiving I am thankful for the gifts I have been given that I can give away.

UPDATE: Thanks to google maps, it is exactly Union and 14th, it doesn’t look like there is a dairy there anymore, but this was almost 30 years ago.

As you can see I have moved my blog. This is part of clearing out for a move at my friend Channing’s company, where he hosted all my ‘crap’ for many years. Thank you Channing and Silver Dog! I have changed the format of my blog. I am not 100% sold on this layout and design, but it will progress over time, I suppose.

Yoma 84a: Tips for encountering a mad dog:

1. Kill it with something thrown.
2. If it touches you, remove your clothing and run.
3. If it bites you, you will die. But you can also skin a male polecat, write something on the skin, bury your clothing for a year in a graveyard. After a year, burn the clothing and spread the ashes at a crossroad. Oh and make certain you drink through a straw for a year because you might see the reflection of the demon, who possessed the dog, in the water and this will endanger you.

Got it?