After spending three weeks in India I find myself fascinated and repelled. I have traveled all over the world and I can honestly say that this is the first time that I was ever impatient to get home. Still, India is a fascinating country, if very hard to get to know. It has the potential for greatness and an army of incredibly bright and dedicated people to get it there. On the other hand, the problems are also legion.
I remember when I was a teenager, my stepfather would tell me things, lots of things. He would always start of by saying, "I know you aren't going to listen, but..." or "I know you are going to think I am full of shit, but..." and then he would go on to tell me wisdom he had gained through living. Not education, but wisdom, because he wasn't a highly educated man.
Wisdom is something the last generation strives to infuse the new generation with. Wisdom is also often ignored by the next generation who are busy trying to use their intellect and "do stuff".
But for those who want some wisdom, or just want kvetch on how no one is listening to your bits of hard won knowledge, you can follow me over the jump.
There has been some great discussion on where Yearly Kos might go next year, but I would like to see some in depth as to the highs and lows of the spots that keep coming up.
I have already seen two diaries about where we would like to have YearlyKos 2008, so yeah I know that we have already seen some discussion. As a disclaimer, I live on the west coast, have a very expensive teenager, so I am looking for something within my budget for next year. I attended the Las Vegas event, but had to bow out of the Chicago event due to cost.
So, I was out slumming at Redstate and ran into an interesting little article, but I don't think I took away from this tidbit what they intended me to learn.
Think of it. Even if not all lefty war partisans hold that our country will be safer if we get out of Iraq, they are at least holding that we will not be in more danger. Chaos in the Middle East is dangerous for the United States and for the entire western world; Iraq as the toehold of a caliphate sends chills. For political reasons, some angrily deny this, and not all those on whom they count for votes are buying their dangerous nonsense.
We are pumping water from underground wells in unprecedented amounts, but are there environmental or political dangers in doing so? Is water public or private? How will we distribute this resource as more people vie for water rights in the 21st Century?
I personally find it odd that people pay money for something that is usually free as long as it is provided in a nifty little plastic bottle. Wow, a 99 cent bottle, how cool! If this were gasoline, you would be paying more than $6 per gallon at the current prices.
From gasoline to groceries, Americans are being trained to charge incidental living expenses to their credit cards. In years past those of us who would have used cash, check or ATM are instead pulling out the Visa Card.
Granted, some people, including yours truly, have used plastic for living expenses due to financial hardship, but more and more Americans are using credit cards as a convenience or to earn "rewards" in the form of airline miles, cash back or other various perks being offered by the credit card industry. Following the old saw that nothing in life is free and there is no free lunch (or airline miles) we should be asking ourselves, where do these perks come from?
I really didn't intend to write a diary today, but I got very excited when I saw that our convention made the front page above the fold of my local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee. I find it amazing on post-election day, that they found our party worthy of front-page news.
I spent my Junior year of highschool living in Gilroy, the Garlic Capital. For those of you who have never been to Gilroy, it is a small California town dependent on agriculture of all sorts. Within walking distance of my house were corn fields, chicken coups, garlic fields, cherry orchards, and a guy that raised turkeys for Thanksgiving. It was also a huge attraction for immigrant labor, which is only part of what I want to talk about.
I am not a volunteer, not do I have any special expertise to share with the community, but I will be in Las Vegas for the Yearly Kos Convention. The question is, will you be there too?
The military denies that allowing more low scoring and high school drop outs into the military means is lowering recruitment standards. If this is not lowering recruitments standards I fail to understand what would be lowering recruitment standards...allowing chimps to join? Hello?! It isn't exactly raising recruitment standards or, um, keeping them the same...so what is it?
If you don't think that lowering standards is problematic, I want you to think Lyndie England. If there ever was a poster child for letting some not too bright, generally fucked up individual into the military, it is Lyndie England.
I have had better weeks, which is really self-centered because nothing really bad actually happened to me this week. Really bad things happened to people I care about and yet I am here, unscathed, but thoughtful about the nature of life and death.
In less than four days, two friends died. They never knew each other and they died in very different ways, but their deaths will always be tied together in my mind because they came so close together, so unexpectedly and both as a result of violence.
I met Little Brian twenty years ago. He was only fifteen, but was already a drug addled little head banger with long hair and a leather jacket. Everyone who hadn't been born humming AC/DC was a poser to him. I don't know if Little Brian adopted us, or if we adopted Little Brian, but he was ours. Sitting on our couch for hours, staring at Iron Maiden Album covers for secret messages, Little Brian slowly cleaned up and got off drugs.
Given that things have looked pretty grim for the good guys (yes, I am talking about us, fellow liberals) I thought that we were due for a little good news.
It seems that a gender neutral marriage bill has passed committee here in California and is on its way to a vote:
I have been reading quite a few diaries, so I wanted to fling some of my own poo against the wall and see what sticks. Then I want to do a Rorschach test with the resulting stains.
I know everyone has had their say about those yellow ribbons on the backs of SUVs, but last week it was completely fricken surreal. Not once, not twice, but three times I ended up behind an SUV with not one, not two, not even THREE, but FOUR, yes FOUR "Support our Troops" ribbons on the back of each of their oversized behemoths. One also had a God Fish, and the other two sported Flag stickers, for balance I suppose.
After the shock of losing a long time and respected Democrat, there is set to be a special election for Bob Matsui's seat. Twelve candidates have filed papers to run, none of which has ever held political office before.
The front runner is Doris Matsui, the widow of our late Congressman. Doris has been a long time lobbyist, but has never run for office. Her website really doesn't cover her stance on important positions, but she has been "blessed" by the Democratic Party Establishment (Nancy Pelosi).
Or the many butts I have created. I am not trying to justify smoking, a particularly nasty habit, BUT it is not illegal. Hiring and firing people based on behaviors not performed at the workplace and are not illegal is traveling down quite a slippery slope.
My son is sixteen and hates to read. Heck, he hates anything that smacks of scholastic improvement, but sometimes I can get him to read a book if it is interesting. Right now he fancies himself some sort of Anarchist with a profound dislike for both the current administration and the war, which means there is hope for the boy yet.
