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Saturday, January 29, 2005
We're in the middle of a 36 hour ice... well, not "storm" exactly, let's just say "event". We still have power and the reports so far of tens of thousands without power, not 100,000's or million+, so let's cross our fingers. Not sure if everyone's updated on everything, so here's where we stand:- Keagan's doing fine health-wise. We're looking for pre-schools for him for the fall. He's sleeping in a real bed, but will only go to bed with mommy (I had been putting him down, but after I was gone for two days in the hospital, he was apparently done with me). He understands a lot of speech, can count from 1-20 and can identify most letters, but does not speak very many intelligible sentences.
- Baby 2's due date is February 19. We have a name, but have only told a few close friends and family members so far (and not even all of them, I think).
- Kelly broke her wrist by falling off a step and onto the van on 1/4. The cast is expected to come off on 2/9... note that this is only 10 days before the due date, so it's not going to be good if the cast has to stay on, or if the baby is early
- Basement is done, office is mostly together. I still have to set up the last of the Gundam and Final Fantasy toys. My half of the book is really behind and I'm really trying to catch up, but it takes a lot of time that I don't have. I basically have three countervailing demands in my life, not enough time to attend to all three, and taking time from one to appease one or both of the others is met with unpleasant consequences. For example, I thought it was great that I could cheat on my health and only sleep 5.5-6 hours a night, until these goddamn migraines put me in the hospital.
posted by Chris on 8:48 PM
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
I've intended for some time to do a blog on the election results. It's too late now, but the central theme of that piece is still valid, because it's going to be with us for a while. I can't get over a picture in this week's Newsweek, of two Iraqi children crying after American GI's have killed their parents. I don't want to put it here on the front page, so here's a link to Newsweek's online version, and a copy I've backed up, assuming that Newsweek will play keep-away with theirs after a few weeks. The corresponding story, Free to be Angry doesn't speak to the picture, but the caption reads: 'Not a perfect world': An Iraqi girl screams after her parents are killed by U.S. soldiers in Tal Afar". The version in the print edition is slightly earlier or later: another child cowers near a wall while the head of a third can just barely be seen, being comforted by a US GI. Its caption reads "Scarred for Life: Iraqi children cry after GIs killed their parents, who didn't heed warning shots." And I look at the second, about four years old, in a sweatshirt, sweatpants and blood-covered sneakers and think... goddamn, in a different world, that could be Keagan. No, this isn't some rant about about out-of-control, trigger-happy US troops. There's no evidence for that, and maybe I'm jingoistic, but I just don't think Americans, even in a terrible place like Iraq are like that. The fact that the one picture shows a trooper is comforting one of the children shows we're not like that. But you know what, I actually think that possibility is preferable to the likely alternative. The best possibility is that this is some tragic accident. Horrible, but understandable. But probably wishful thinking. What if the parents were actively resisting? What if they went down shooting? It's not implausible. The resistance in Iraq clearly has a lot of help. A lot of regular people are providing safe houses, weapons caches and other material assistance. Watch and read enough Iraq coverage and you'll see this - troops turning up weapons in regular people's homes, etc. So, are people there so dedicated to the cause of fighting the Americans that they'd put that above what should be their greatest values - their lives and the care of their children? We know this is true of the suicide bombers, but the population at large? That's a serious problem. That's putting a cause before your rational self interest, which is the source of all savagery in history - rationally selfish people/cultures/countries not only can cooperate, they do cooperate and coexist because it's better for everyone. The savage deny rational selfishness and appeal to the "grand cause", because it's the only way to get people to support them. This theme is in the background of Thomas Friedman and Fareed Zakaria's writings about the Middle East - the despots there use anti-Americanism instead of allowing their societies to be open and let their people individually find their fortune and happiness, because in an open society, the corrupt tyrants currently running those countries would be toast. Unfortunately, the idea of grand-cause over self-interest has taken root here in the US. Want proof? Look who just started his second term. Why do I think voting for Bush is anti-self-interest? Wow, where do I begin? Bad law (Patriot Act, Sony Bono Copyright Act), bad diplomacy, unbelievably out-of-control spending, demagoguery, rank idiocy? Oh hell, how 'bout plain old economic numbers. It's well-known that Bush was the first president in decades to preside over net job loss during his term, but did you realize the stock market dropped over his first term? Check it out. Only a hundred points from 1-21-01 to 1-21-05, but considering stocks are generally expected to rise 10% a year in the long historical view, losing value over four years is pathetic. A bonus consideration: stocks are a leading indicator, jobs are a trailing indicator. Both are down. No wonder he stopped boasting about the "strong economy" after a few years - the boast just doesn't hold up. Moreover, people are generally figuring out that he's done a rotten job. His approval rating is at 52%, up a little after the Indian Ocean tsunami and the US response. Not exactly great - the Economist says it's the weakest second-term approval rating since 1948. As we also saw after the elections (can't find links right now and it's late), people told pollsters they don't want Bush's second term to be like his first. So then, the obvious question is "why did you re-elect him?" And there seems to be this logic that we have to "see things through" in Iraq. Or, in Bush's Inaugural Address, that we have this mission to bring democracy to the world, and take out tyrannical states. In other words, we have this great "cause" that must be supported. Even if it's clearly failing - what happened to "welcomed as liberators"? Even if it's fucking stupid - there's no philosophical basis for liberty or democracy in Iraq or any other predominantly Muslim country (Turkey, as always, is a special case). Even if most of us apply our own reasoning to the situation and can't see any way in which it gets better. We're just supposed to be blindly loyal to this cause. Loyalty to the great cause. Denial of rational self-interest. This is how people get killed. And we're a part of it. A big part of it. That's what scares me. It's un-American, it's anti-freedom, and it's fucking stupid.
posted by Chris on 10:33 PM
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