Today I was reading the New York Review of Books (NYR), a publication which demands that the reader actually read something well and then causes that reader to think about it, so unlike the “mass media.” Anyway, I digress; the NYR article I was reading is called “What About the Iraqis?” and starts with the following:
“Sometimes there is nothing more gripping than the mundane. Consider “Baghdad Burning,” the on-line diary of a young Baghdad woman who goes by the pseudonym of Riverbend.”
I was recently forwarded an article, written by Mr. Freddie McGoldrick (see far below), which was forwarded and forwarded and on and on and on… However, I did not see where anyone did anything but forward on the message. Since Social Security is becoming of some interest to me now, (I am almost 62 years old) I thought I might take the time to just Google some of these hot topics and see if there is some information there which I could reply to or comment upon. It seems I was right. Continue reading
Stars and Stripes – Mideast edition, Saturday, November 25, 2006
On Sunday, war in Iraq will match length of U.S. involvement in World War II:
The war in Iraq will reach another milestone this weekend, when it equals the number of days the U.S. was involved in World War II. Sunday (November 26, 2006) will mark the Iraq war’s 1,347th day the same amount of time American troops fought in World War II. But from there, the similarities are largely over.
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A letter I sent to a distant relative in reply to a forwarded email which has been making the rounds of “read this” documents. The document in question is regarding a speech made by Naval Captain Ouimette and his comments on the war on terrorism. I believe there are a lot of people who forward the article who do not read it well nor do they stop to think if it has any meaningful solutions to terrorism.
The original article follows my response to my relative…
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I am reading a book called “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara (pp. 29 – 31). It is a book about the personal thoughts of men from both the North and the South who fought at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July of 1863, in the American Civil War. I want to share some quotes from that book… Continue reading
I recently finished a book by Louis de Bernieres called Birds Without Wings. I will occasionally quote from the book and let the author make his own comments about the stupidity and futility of war and the role of religion in this stupidity. Continue reading
Well the Bush guys are at it again. While they are busy killing Iraqis by the thousands and US soldiers by the hundreds in the name of “freedom and democracy” they are killing free speech and dissent back in the good ol’ USA.
On this 4th of July, Independence Day, the day the US declared its freedom from England, the day when the brew, the bible, the gun, and a gross expenditure of fireworks prevails, all of us should take a moment to reflect just how revolutionary the thoughts of the founders of the country really were. And we should all agonize over Bush and his regime using the Declaration of Independence to wipe their asses. Continue reading
This morning I read this article from Reuters online titled “US memo faults Karzai over Afghan heroin.”. The article states in part that “U.S. officials said in a memo to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this month that a poppy eradication program aimed at Afghanistan’s heroin trade was ineffective partly because of President Hamid Karzai’s leadership.” Continue reading
It is raining and cold. 8 C (46.4 F). on the usually sunny Teke Peninsula of the southernmost coast of Turkey. We live among the ghosts of the ancient Lycians who inhabited this region over 2500 years ago. The sun came out for a couple of hours and now the sky is starting to cloud over again. We live beside the Mediterranean and the people who have long lived here have an attitude to match. Theirs is a rather laid back, casual and “take things as they come” perspective which can fool the casual observer into believing they are just plain lazy. Continue reading