A couple of days later now...
...and it doesn't feel like a rut so much anymore. Kind of a groove with bumps.
Thanks for the good advice - I should know it's Winter and time to feel a little down. Even though the sun is shining it's not getting above 49 here. And we're in the teens at night.
I found this picture...
...and it kind of reminded me of how I felt sort of.
After that last post, I spent a bit over two hours on a nice long blog post about Bush's speech the other night. I was proud of it. And that's rare. I was going to cross post on my Daily KOS blog even. I mainly focussed on his non-accountability acceptance of responsibility. You know, when he said, "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibilty rests with me." I saw a few newspapers saying he accepted responsibility for the mistakes he made in Iraq.
He did no such thing and I went about parsing it. How it barely acknowledges mistakes by saying "Where mistakes have been made..." What does he mean by where? Fallujah? Baghdad? Abu Ghraib? It is almost beautiful how that was constructed - it leaves it up to the audinece to determine how much he is to blame for.
For me, it's along list of mistakes. But I'm sure my llist is shorter and more simplistic than, say, Juan Cole's. But I'm also sure my list is longer than most people's, and certainly longer than most Republicans'.
He then went on to say, "the responsibility rests with me." I majoree in English, and I'm familiar with passive voice. It's useful for turning a weak thesis in to a 3,000 word essay. That and bringing bagels to office hours will get you a B-. But this is something else - like "slumbering voice." When the responsibility is done resting, then what's it going to do? Will his conjoined twin separated at inauguration 'accountability' drop by?
I then pointed to the two things that I think were important in the speech. Like most of his speeches, there's nuggets of truth that can be extrapolated to reveal his true intentions. He mentions the Iraqis passing legislation to "share oil revenues among all Iraqis." That and his threats towards Iran and Syria and the deployment of Patriot missile batteries were the nuggets upon which I focussed.
OK, on the legislation - they are currently trying to pass this legislation that is not so much intended to share oil revenues with all Iraqis as it is to ensure that the profits from Iraqi oil go to a few Western companies. Here's a link. I read about it last week and when I heard that line in the speech, I thought, "Oh, of course, that makes sense." The point of the surge is to get Iraq just stable enough so that the legislature can get back to work and get that passed.
As for Iran and Syria - I think that's the next step. But mostly Iran. A second carrier group, Patriot missles, a Navy man in charge of Centcom now. It all makes sense. Who else has missiles that would use them? Will Patriot anti-missile batteries stop IEDs? No. Do the insurgents have missiles? No. To quote Walter Sobchak, "Am I wrong?"
Also, the Vietnam comparisons just don't end. Instead of Laos and Cambodia, we are now going in to Iran and Syria. And to quote The Dude, "What the f%*k does anything have to do with Vietnam, man?"
Anyway, I was almost done with my post. It was really long with lots of links. I even went ahead and wrote the last line:
"Some might say that this post is too negative, that it doesn't highlight the bright spots. And to those people I say, at least he only mentioned 9/11 once."
See, I was being self referential to earlier in the post where I mentioned he used his old invent hypothetical opposition and address it trick. I was then going back and fixing a thing or two when my computer froze. Froze hard. No mouse, nothing. I never thought I'd have to learn that lesson again, but I guess I did. Save early, save often. That's my mantra. I just forgot it. But I've saved this post a half dozen times. Hold on a minute...
...sorry, I had to save one more time.
Anyway, I will never recapture the last post. And I realize that if I had been writing (in Word) instead of blogging, I would have had an auto-save to go back to.
Oh, in that lost post, I linked quite a few times to the text of the speech at www.whitehouse.gov. It's easy to forget, and we should all be thankful that even though things are pretty messed up these days, even after the election, you can still deconstruct the President's speech and link to it on the Presidential website. Democracy really is the worst form of government, except for all the other ones.
I made some really yummy cookies today. If you're in the nieghborhood, stop by for some. Call first, though so I can get you throught he gate. Except the sisters, Laurie and Lauren, and Paul. You guys are on the perma-list.
Oh, one more thing. We had one of those kid firsts today. It seems like only yesterday we had the first loose tooth. Today marked the first time that a girl knocked on our door asking for Jake. Well, not counting Emily and Dre, but they're like little sisters. I'd tell you more about it, but it would embarrass Jake. In fact, don't mention it to him, OK?
Thanks for the good advice - I should know it's Winter and time to feel a little down. Even though the sun is shining it's not getting above 49 here. And we're in the teens at night.
I found this picture...
...and it kind of reminded me of how I felt sort of.
After that last post, I spent a bit over two hours on a nice long blog post about Bush's speech the other night. I was proud of it. And that's rare. I was going to cross post on my Daily KOS blog even. I mainly focussed on his non-accountability acceptance of responsibility. You know, when he said, "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibilty rests with me." I saw a few newspapers saying he accepted responsibility for the mistakes he made in Iraq.
He did no such thing and I went about parsing it. How it barely acknowledges mistakes by saying "Where mistakes have been made..." What does he mean by where? Fallujah? Baghdad? Abu Ghraib? It is almost beautiful how that was constructed - it leaves it up to the audinece to determine how much he is to blame for.
For me, it's along list of mistakes. But I'm sure my llist is shorter and more simplistic than, say, Juan Cole's. But I'm also sure my list is longer than most people's, and certainly longer than most Republicans'.
He then went on to say, "the responsibility rests with me." I majoree in English, and I'm familiar with passive voice. It's useful for turning a weak thesis in to a 3,000 word essay. That and bringing bagels to office hours will get you a B-. But this is something else - like "slumbering voice." When the responsibility is done resting, then what's it going to do? Will his conjoined twin separated at inauguration 'accountability' drop by?
I then pointed to the two things that I think were important in the speech. Like most of his speeches, there's nuggets of truth that can be extrapolated to reveal his true intentions. He mentions the Iraqis passing legislation to "share oil revenues among all Iraqis." That and his threats towards Iran and Syria and the deployment of Patriot missile batteries were the nuggets upon which I focussed.
OK, on the legislation - they are currently trying to pass this legislation that is not so much intended to share oil revenues with all Iraqis as it is to ensure that the profits from Iraqi oil go to a few Western companies. Here's a link. I read about it last week and when I heard that line in the speech, I thought, "Oh, of course, that makes sense." The point of the surge is to get Iraq just stable enough so that the legislature can get back to work and get that passed.
As for Iran and Syria - I think that's the next step. But mostly Iran. A second carrier group, Patriot missles, a Navy man in charge of Centcom now. It all makes sense. Who else has missiles that would use them? Will Patriot anti-missile batteries stop IEDs? No. Do the insurgents have missiles? No. To quote Walter Sobchak, "Am I wrong?"
Also, the Vietnam comparisons just don't end. Instead of Laos and Cambodia, we are now going in to Iran and Syria. And to quote The Dude, "What the f%*k does anything have to do with Vietnam, man?"
Anyway, I was almost done with my post. It was really long with lots of links. I even went ahead and wrote the last line:
"Some might say that this post is too negative, that it doesn't highlight the bright spots. And to those people I say, at least he only mentioned 9/11 once."
See, I was being self referential to earlier in the post where I mentioned he used his old invent hypothetical opposition and address it trick. I was then going back and fixing a thing or two when my computer froze. Froze hard. No mouse, nothing. I never thought I'd have to learn that lesson again, but I guess I did. Save early, save often. That's my mantra. I just forgot it. But I've saved this post a half dozen times. Hold on a minute...
...sorry, I had to save one more time.
Anyway, I will never recapture the last post. And I realize that if I had been writing (in Word) instead of blogging, I would have had an auto-save to go back to.
Oh, in that lost post, I linked quite a few times to the text of the speech at www.whitehouse.gov. It's easy to forget, and we should all be thankful that even though things are pretty messed up these days, even after the election, you can still deconstruct the President's speech and link to it on the Presidential website. Democracy really is the worst form of government, except for all the other ones.
I made some really yummy cookies today. If you're in the nieghborhood, stop by for some. Call first, though so I can get you throught he gate. Except the sisters, Laurie and Lauren, and Paul. You guys are on the perma-list.
Oh, one more thing. We had one of those kid firsts today. It seems like only yesterday we had the first loose tooth. Today marked the first time that a girl knocked on our door asking for Jake. Well, not counting Emily and Dre, but they're like little sisters. I'd tell you more about it, but it would embarrass Jake. In fact, don't mention it to him, OK?
posted by Eric Soderstrom at 12:12 AM
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