EIEI-O?

INDEED

Safari? 

If those mountain climbers knew that THEY would be getting billed for the search and rescue, they might reconsider making those hazardous treks.

"Here's your bill for $50,000 for the two days we looked for you. You'll be getting a separate bill from the ambulance company."

And frankly, I want to know why these people keep getting called "heroes." I think the Kim story is tragic, but I'm not sure why someone who endangers his children by making a hugely poor judgment call, only to die of exposure, is heroic. My guess is that it makes the loss more bearable for the family to think of the person as a hero, rather than an idiot. That would be hard to live with.

The person who was really heroic in that instance was the wife, for breastfeeding not just the infant, but the older child, to keep them alive.

Garter snakes aren't venomous.

I think Kerry's an asshat too (along with most of our politicians), but I can't get away from how so many people say "there's a grain of truth to it." Remember when Bill Maher made the similar comment about "low-lying fruit"? Everyone was outraged, he lost his job, and yet because 9/11 was still fresh on our minds, we couldn't have a dialogue about what he said. Same thing here.

The real war within our borders is the issue of class. Race continues to be used as the red herring to keep the middle and working classes distracted from the real fact of the matter: that the haves have more than ever, and the have-nots have even less. That fact runs across all racial and cultural spectrums. Oh, sure, the working class can now buy cell phones and Starbucks coffee, but it's a false sense of prosperity, in part because most of it is being paid for with credit cards that will never get paid back.

No one forces you to join the armed forces, it's a choice that you make. There are plenty of nonmilitary routes to follow for those not bound for college.

That's an extremely myopic view to take. I live in a small town where generations of families have farmed, logged, fished and mined. They don't leave unless there's a war to go to. The only "respectable" way to get out is to join the military. It's not at all easy to find the routes you speak of when you have no encouragement from your family or friends; even your school doesn't offer the tools you need, i.e. providing an education that can prepare you for college. The pressure to conform to tradition here is enormous.

Certainly there are intelligent, college educated people who join the military. But by far the majority of people who enlist do so because they have no real economic alternatives, or at least the perception of such. Like the 20-year-old kid from our town who died in Iraq a couple of years ago. Talking to his sister, his story is the perfect example of this: his parents spend the majority of their free time at the tavern; he had no encouragement from them to take his studies seriously or pursue college. The military recruiters are so convincing when they came to visit the school; they had grand stories of seeing the world and getting money for college that he didn't have to pay back -- all he had to do was spend a little time "serving" his country, and what a noble thing that is.

:nanaparty

Happy birthday, young lady!

 

Thanks! 

It's uncharacteristically clever of me.

w00t! 

Your pumpkin-fu is impressive, Biz. 

I'd like to handle your DNS, bay-buh. 

The Sound of Music is a guilty pleasure of mine.

Rolf really needed the shit kicked out of him, though.