Sad, sad day

It is a sad day whether you are in Virginia or not - whether you belong to the University or not…

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 16 - The gunshots were so slow and steady that some students thought they came from a nearby construction site, until they saw the police officers with rifles pointed at Norris Hall, the engineering building at Virginia Tech. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Ultimately, it is all a bunch of cliches…
expressed by people who are sad, but are awkward at expressing their sorrow.
There are few explanations and even fewer consolations….
Just a lot of people hanging their heads down in sorrow!

More nanny state

I guess today is my day to find everything Ann Althouse posts interesting (well, almost everything anyways) and comments on it.

BREITBART.COM - Bangor Makes It Illegal to Smoke in Cars

This link really made me go, “Oh, come on!” - again, I am not a smoker. I hate smoke. My husband smokes, but always in a safe distance from Neel and never in his car with Neel. That aside, I find it really intrusive. Who gives a damn what someone does in his car?

If smoking in the car is hurting someone other than who is in the car, I admit there is a point - see the laws about DUI, etc. - but why should the state care if someone smokes in their own damn car?

It is for the children ™, y’all!

The House of the Flying Imams

The case seems to be getting better and better…..

Pajamas Media: THE FAKING IMAMS — Pajamas Media Exclusive: Police Report, Passenger Reveals That Flying Imams Were Up to No Good

update: Here is a little more information on the investigation….All findings still point strongly in favor of the airlines and against the Imams’ claims of discrimination.

First Muslim in US Congress

While a pretty interesting happening on its own right, this sure raises a few questions in my mind. The excerpt below states that Ellison held several strongly liberal positions -

First Muslim elected to Congress - Politics - MSNBC.com

He advocates an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq along with strongly liberal views. While Ellison did not often speak of his faith during the campaign, awareness of his candidacy drew interest from Muslims well beyond the district centered in Minneapolis.

Ummm…..except for his anti-war position, what are his other strongly liberal positions? Is he pro-gay marriage? pro-choice? His wikipedia entry doesn’t say much and the article is strangely silent too. Unless being anti-war is the only requirement to be strongly liberal, what other positions does Ellison hold? Did he speak out against his “brothers” during the cab-driver problem? Is he really a liberal?

Meryl for the Senate

Not Streep, Yourish - Yourish.com � Attention, Virginia voters.

We will throw the full support of our 5 readers behind her! Go, Meryl!

Would you do this?

If you heard an emergency siren blare out that there was a pandemic and you need to go to a drive-thru flu clinic to get a shot, would you go by? What if you knew it was a simulation? Would you do it just for the free shot or to make the simulation work?

Fredericksburg.com - Flu shots on the fly About 400 people take part in event

Local hospitals were full and medical supplies were running low, according to the simulation. State officials declared a mock emergency and ordered the vaccination of as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. In the Fredericksburg area, health officials participated in the exercise by scheduling a real-life, drive-through flu clinic. Those interested were told to roll down their car windows and roll up their sleeves for a free shot. The state Health Department supplied 400 doses of flu vaccine.

Double Standards, anyone?

I had talked in an earlier post about a Muslim woman who refused to be photographed for a drivers’ license picture, so I had to point out this post by Ali - Christian Women Refuses License Pic Versus Muslim Woman Doing Same � Eteraz.

Here we have two women of two different religions, both hiding behind their religious beliefs to get around law. The only difference? One got away with it, while the other didn’t. Read the link above to see who got away and who didn’t - you might be surprised.

Personally, I think both of them are wrong and law needs to be applied to all people equally - it just makes it really awful that some religions are considered better than others in skirting rules. I hope the ruling is overturned and both of them either get photographed or be made to sit at home with no drivers’ license instead of getting away with this stupidity.

update: I guess as is usual in such cases, there is a little more to the story than was posted - Check out the comments on this post at Dean’s World. The Christian lady’s case was from 1983, which kinda puts a different spin on things - I mean, is a 20+ year-old case really relevant to the current society?

Disgusting Politics

I am appalled by this - Althouse: “Lefty Blogger Outs Senator As Gay.”. Seriously, how dare someone open up another person’s private life to public scrutiny just because that person might be gay? I have worked with and been friends with enough gay people to understand why everyone might not want their lifestyle publicized. Not everyone is comfortable talking about their sexlife with total strangers - something that is unfortunately a byproduct of anyone coming out of the closet these days.

This was an extremely disgusting thing to do - I wonder if someone will stop and think, what now? Is it OK to publicize someone’s abortion? a rape? childhood-abuse history? I shudder to consider that!

Sad Courage

This was just heartwrenching to read about such a show of courage in 13-year-old almost-child. To give herself up in the hope of saving her friends and sister…

ABC News: ‘Shoot Me First,’ Amish Girl Said to Ask

Oct. 5, 2006 — The oldest of the five Amish girls shot dead in a Pennsylvania schoolhouse is said to have stepped forward and asked her killer to “Shoot me first,” in an apparent effort to buy time for her schoolmates. Rita Rhoads, a midwife who delivered two of the victims, told ABC News’ Law and Justice Unit that she learned of 13-year-old Marian Fisher’s plea from Fisher’s family.

Idle Talk

I actually agree with Glenn on this post about us being nowhere near recession - Instapundit.com -. Anecdotal evidence I know, but the job market is extremely hot in the areas of technology I work in. I have recently changed jobs - I was able to negotiate for a very decent salary and benefits. I have seens tons of people I know switch companies for better offers and other companies that cannot attract anything but mediocre talent for reasonable prices.

What has been your experience? Raises? bonuses? new jobs with better salaries? What do you think the economy is like personally?

update: Now this is what I am talking about - I guess I wasn’t hallucinating after all!

Voting to Kill - Review (Partial)

“Voting to Kill” by Jim Geraghty is a book that seeks to explain the transformation of the Democratic Party from the party of FDR, Truman and Kennedy to that of the perpetually anti-war party.

This book has been so engrossing so far (I am half-way through), I gotta say there have been very few non-fiction books that kept me turning the pages so fast. So far, Jim has covered Americans’ reaction to 9/11, Democrats and their actions on national security issues since 1968, Democrat and Republican reactions to 9/11, war in Afghanistan, elections in 2002, 2004 and the buildup to the war in Iraq. A pretty big list you say? It is and it is very well laid out with tons of cites that make me wish the book were in HTML format and I could simply click on the citations as links and read them.

I was really surprised as to how little I knew of American politics before the Clinton era. I am even more surprised as to how vividly I remember how disgusted I had felt at events like Cynthia McKinney’s shameless pandering to the Saudi Prince whose money Giuliani rightly rejected. There are numerous such instances mentioned in the book and each of them reminded me of my ill feelings towards the people who acted so obtusely those days. It almost makes me believe in Jim’s theory….that Democrats are digging their own graves as long as national security trumps all other issues for the general voting population.

No woman no cry

So, by now the entire world is abuzz with word of how Mr. Alito’s wife cried yesterday towards the end of the hearings. The pro-Alito people lose no time to call “shame” on the Democrats for making the woman cry. The antis get all defensive and redirect their anger towards the poor woman, calling her crying staged and contrived. A pox on both the houses as far as I am concerned.

First of all, the Democrats were really doing their job questioning Mr. Alito on his qualifications and abilities to function as a good justice on the Supreme Court. It is a lifetime appointment and I have absolutely no problems with the senators making the quationing as hard as they can. If Alito wants it that bad, he will keep his cool.

As for the other guys poking fun at the poor woman, shame on you all too! Why is it so easy for people to laugh at a woman when she cries? Who says a woman who is bound by tradition to just sit there behind her man and watch as he gets brutally criticized cannot react emotionally to the event? Why do the sexists have to jump on her and call her tears theatrics? Have some empathy for her whether you are on her side or not. I promise, it will not kill you. It will just not show you up as the sexist jackasses that you are, that’s all!

update: Here is a good example of reasoned criticism of Alito without resorting to cheap shots at his wife. (link via Instapundit)

update: One of the reasons why the making fun of Mrs. Alito got to me viscerally is that as a woman working in what is largely a man’s world (the IT industry), I am expected to not be womanly. I am expected to be one of the boys and any sign of femininity is subject for ridicule and taken as a sign of weakness. It is as if the minute you show a crack in your armor, your opponents can go, “Ha! I knew she couldn’t hold it together! She is a woman afterall!”. It is almost a double-standard where “be a man!” is a compliment, while being a woman is somehow seen as a drawback. It completely and totally sucks!

A must read...

…especially for those that question the patriotism of Muslims in America just on the basis of their religion - the story of an EMT in Manhattan on 9/11.

(via Dean’s World)

A few quick observations

American justice
- too liberal to let Terri schiavo live
- too puritanical to let her die a quick death!

Honorary Texan

I consider myself honorary Texan since I have pretty much spent most of my US life here and my son will be a born Texan. Happy Independece Day, Texas!

Dean’s World - Texas Independence Day

Life or death? (updated)

You know from my previous posts that I am on the fence about abortions. It is pretty similar to the way I feel about euthanasia. I personally would prefer dying to living like a vegetable, I always thought. Now, I am not so sure - I might want to live just so I can see how my son is growing up every day. This kind of thing makes me re-examine my thoughts towards things like quality of life and right to life or death.

I have written about Terry Schiavo before (1, 2). I am not going to sit here and judge her husband, though I find it very hard to treat him as completely objective given he has been with another women for so many years now and kids by her, not to mention the huge sum of money he would inherit if Terry died.

I find it extremely sad that parents are being denied all rights in this case to argue to keep their daughter alive. I really don’t understand why the husband who obviously has conflicted interests can be given any importance over parents who only want the best for their daughter. If it were a question of someone simply turning a switch off so death would occur in a minute or so, I don’t think I would have a problem. That is not the case here - Terry’s feeding tube is going to removed and she is going to starve and die of thirst in a few days. Would you do that to a dog? Why would you do that a human being who has loving family who want nothing but to take care of her?

Court: Feeding Can End for Brain-Damaged Fla. Woman

CLEARWATER, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida man can remove the feeding tube that has kept his brain-damaged wife alive since 1990, an appeals court ruled on Tuesday in what could be the final chapter in a bitterly fought right-to-die case.


Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal dissolved a stay that had kept the feeding tube in place during a legal battle over the fate of Theresa “Terri” Schiavo, 41. Some doctors said she has been in a persistent vegetative state since suffering a heart attack that severely damaged her brain.

There are plenty more blogs who are talking about Terry - read them. Take all the information in - then think about it - assuming you were going to be wrong anyways, would you rather be wrong in saving a life or taking one?

update: Terri has been granted a stay of execution for one more day.

Read here for her family’s version of Terri’s condition. See here for a video her parents made of her. After all that, tell me that no one should life a finger while somebody decides she should be starved to death.

Crime and Punishment

Two Indian roommates are studying for Masters’ in the Computer Science department of a university on the US. One guy has completed his assignment and the other wants to copy it. The first one doesn’t like the idea, but the second guy still persuades him to show it to him, just so he can get an idea of the solution, so he can wriet his own version of it. What ends up happening unbeknownst to the first guy is that the second one copies the entire assignment - changes variable names and submits it.

Results day, both guys got an “F” (for Failed) on their assignments and the course - that too, when the first guy was expecting an “A” for the work he did the entire year. Investigations are done, the second guy admits to plagiarism and changes his major just so he can graduate from the Masters’ program. The professors would have never allowed to pass easily after the one plagiarism incident. This is not a hypothetical situation - the first guy in the story was my husband. Should the professors have let the two guys go on with a slap on the wrist? It was only one assignment - nobody was physically or monetarily harmed because of this. What do you guys think? Guys studying in the US, what do you think?

p.s. This is for the ultra-touchy people - this post has absolutely nothing to do with Rohan. I was thinking of this after reading through a discussion on Gaurav’s blog and someone brought up similar points. As you can see from the last few lines, this is a true story and one of the people involved was my husband. So, please don’t discuss Rohan’s situation here.

Warrior Blogger

Yeah, I know lots of military men and women blog now. What is different about 1st. Lt. Neil Prakash (apart from the fact that his name is very close to my son’s) is that he is an Indian American in the US military serving in Iraq and blogging while doing so.

Apparently he has been doing a great job of both blogging and fighting. Read below for details.

Platoon Leader awarded Silver Star for conduct under fire

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SCUNION, BA’QUBAH, Iraq — After leading his platoon through a fierce onslaught, enemy fire pounding them from every direction, 1st Lt. Neil Prakash went back in for more.

First Infantry Division Commander Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste joined Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment at FOB Scunion Jan. 14 to award this 24-year-old tank platoon leader one of the military’s highest honors - the Silver Star Medal.

Invasion of the Evangelicals

So, return of the Bushitler coincided with the invasion of the evangelicals….right? Not so fast, says this analysis -

andrewcoyne.com: Invasion of the theo-cons

This, after Kerry campaigned from the pulpit in black churches on five straight Sundays.

All well in keeping with the prevailing Democratic/media view that only morons and blinkered zealots would vote for Bush. But not at all in keeping with the actual data on who voted and why, as revealed in the massive (13,660 respondents), comprehensive CNN exit poll.

True, it found the largest single block of voters identified “moral values” as the “most important election issue” — a much cited factoid — and that 80% of these respondents voted for Bush. But that hardly makes this election a triumph of theocracy. In the first place, “largest single block” turns out to mean 22%, meaning 78% of voters — including two-thirds of Bush voters — named some other issue. Second, the pollsters only managed to elevated “moral values” to number one by dividing up the other issues into subcategories. Thus “Iraq” and “Terrorism” are treated as separate issues, though grouped together as, say, “national security” they would have claimed the top spot, with 34% of the total. Likewise “taxes” and “economy” were named by a combined 25% of voters. Had “moral values” been split into “abortion” and “gay marriage,” the spin would have been rather different.

Those were a few interesting snippets - I say, read the whole thing.

Similar analysis and more number-crunching here.

The End!

The election is over for now, I guess - AP: Kerry Calls Bush to Concede Election. It was a nasty campaign and downright dirty in a lot of ways. Hopefully, now that it is over the healing process will begin. Remember, just because someone voted the other way than you doesn’t make them racist or idiotic - just different. Sane people can look at the same situation and arrive at different conclusions.

Congratulations, President Bush! Good job in conceding the election and not dragging it out to a bitter end, John Kerry!

It is all about meeee

Seriously, could some of you be any more self-absorbed? I was listening to radio on my way to work this morning and this undecided voter called in. For one, I cannot understand how someone can be undecided today when it is time to vote after being harangued to death by both parties and more. Anyways, the host asks this guy why he is still undecided - he says it is because he called both campaigns and left a message and no one bothered to personally call him back! Come again? His next issue was the makeup of the candidates’ cabinets - he either wanted to be on it or have someone on there who agrees with him on all issues. Gimme a frgging break! There are bigger issues in the election than your personal happiness and you are a moron if you don’t realize that!

Vote today, people! Don’t sit on your pampered asses and then bitch and moan about someone screwing up your country if you cannot be bothered to get up and do what it takes.

No to Badnarik!

Yep, the Libertarians lost me. This morning. When an SUV with a Badnarik bumper sticker had the nerve to cut me off in the rush hour traffic.

I saw my first Vietnam Veterans against John Kerry bumper sticker this morning too. I noticed from the back that the driver’s head kept bobbing from side to side as he was driving. I pulled beside him so I could see what was going on - turned out he was shaving while driving…That was a first for me too. The freakiest I saw was a man reading a book while driving.

What's your issue?

All said and done, when you finally erach the voting booth and are about to vote for one person or the other as the President of the USA what is going to be driving you? What is your single biggest issue or your list of issues in the order of importance?

APAs don't play victims?

Check out the debate on this post - Sepia Mutiny: NRO Analyzes APA’s 80-20 plan. Here is my take on it - whatever is preached by pseudo-groups like 80-20 and other “APA” organizations, I am 100% against it. For the record, I get email alerts from 80-20 and here is my take on one fo the most famous APA victimologists of all time, Emil Guillermo. This guy writes a column in the SF-based weekly magazine called Asian Week. 90% of his columns are about how APAs are oh-so-victimized in the country all the time and how the “redneck Americans” are too dumb to see how nice we are and how they ill-treat us. Of course, the man is a tad too blind to see that he is sneering really hard at the same peolpe he says are acting unfriedly towards him…I wonder why!

I am not saying that probably some APAs are mistreated and are discriminated against, but it is really hard to complain when a majority of us are doing extremely well here by any standard. It is also really interesting to see the APA orgs backing the Democrats and Affirmative Action considering that AA hurts Asian- Americans as much as it hurts the white Americans and we are considered “over-represented” on the campus. Whose side are these orgs really on anyways?

I also think it is very disingenuous to try to bring under a single umbrella a group of people as varied as the Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Pakistanis, Middle-Easterners, Bangladeshis, etc. What do we really have in common? Our countries don’t have any common interests and neither do we. How are we supposed to work together?

Obligatory inflammatory comment - the only thing really all APAs have in common is that they are all mostly brown. Arguing for our coming together on such a basis…isn’t that racist?

Unhappy in America

I found the perfect companion piece to my rant about desi Indians the other day - Unhappy in America. My first instinct was to call the people quoted “morons”, but I decided to give them a chance and think it over a little more. I will post later on that…who knows, I might still end up calling them morons ;)

read on for more thoughts…

Here is the sob story of “Aparna” - she used to work and drive in Delhi, but here in the US, she cannot - she didn’t want to be here but fell in love with and married a man who brought her here.

Most wounding to her was the loss of her independence: Her H4 visa robbed her of her identity - she was not allowed to work, and did not have a bank balance or credit card - and to even take a trip back home, she was dependent on her husband. She had been driving for years in India, but here she failed the crucial road test because she was used to driving on the left. She recalls the utter hopelessness she felt then: “When I come out of the car, I sit and cry and cry. I don’t believe this. I’ve been driving for years and now they tell me I can’t drive? I’m crying like a baby. I don’t want to live in this country. I mean, every day you’re struggling.”

There you have it - she made a choice and married a man who was going to the US - she knew before she came in that she is not allowed to work - she failed a road test, so was refused a license - now the poor thing can just not stop whining. What do you call people like her? MORONS! Wait, there is more. There is “Vaishali Bhatia of Cleveland, Ohio” who moved here from Dubai due to marriage - hear her laments…

“Initially it was very depressing, because you miss your family and the whole culture is different. Like me, I have friends who had no choice - marriage brought them to the U.S. The cultural difference is the biggest thing. It’s tough to blend in with the people here. You may think you have a green card, you have citizenship, but you’re just not amongst them. They still look at you as different.” …
“My daughter is growing up here and I worry about her - that she will pick up the culture here and that constantly depresses me…”

Who exactly are teh “they” who look at you different, Vaishali? The same people that you try to avoid so they don’t “contaminate” you and your poor daughter? How can you bring your daughter up here as an American citizen between American people and not expect her be an American? Take her back to India [or Dubai] if that is how you want to bring your daughter up, MORON! And then she says…

She acknowledges that Indian communities are growing in America, but she still does not find it the real thing: “Everything seems to be artificial and formal and people seem to be pretending. You feel as if everyone has a mask on their face. They are not the same any more.”

I will not dignify that crap with a response - people like this are so smug in their self-righteousness, I feel like smacking them upside their heads to bring them back down to earth once in a while.

As she points out, even the weather in Cleveland makes you sad. It’s bitterly cold for six to seven months and you’re confined to your house with nothing to do. What one wouldn’t give for the warm blaze and sea breezes of Bombay!

“warm blaze and sea breezes of Bombay”, or the stink of the streets when it rains, whatever.

“We are giving our future generations away to America. They are not going to be Indian anymore. So we are just giving away our heritage, our culture, and that scares me the most. Once our generation is gone, we’re done. Nobody will be following anything Indian.”

Let us go over it once again…
Q. How do I make sure my children grow up Indian?
A. Bring them up in India…MORON!

I am so done with these idiots!

White people, black people, brown people

Translated from the movie “Padamati Sandhyaragam” -

Father: Don’t trust these white people - they look down upon us because we are dark.

…later in the movie…

Father: Don’t trust these black people - they are jealous about us because we are whiter [than them].

I quote the above since it perfectly illustrates the way most first-generation Indian immigrants in the US think. They don’t like the white people since they think they are arrogant, immoral and racist (yes, all of them are racist - or so they think). They don’t like the black/Latino people since they are supposed to be dumb and not exactly upto “our class”.

Why am I ranting about this? Because I have had enough of this kind of mentality and irritating attitude from these people I know - I am in very close proximity with them daily and am sick of trying to tell them people are people no matter what color their skin is. These people have this idealised vision of India in their minds and as far as they are concerned, Americans don’t care about their families, have no morals and will not associate with us brown people except to make us do their work. While ranting away about how most programmers are Indian and most Project Managers are white, I wonder why these people don’t once admit that it might be because most Indians are NOT interested in management…

Any Indian being friendly with the white people is considered to possess “slave mentality” - of course, we cannot just click with their personality, can we! They don’t care about their children, these people say with their voices dripping with self-righteousness. How many families do these people know intimately enough to pass judgement on them? Oh, none - why do you ask…

These people think they have left behind a paradise in India and are suffering endlessly here because the poor things have no friends, family and are having to slog their butts off trying to make mortgage payments. Cry me a fricking river, but if those things were that important to their lives, they shouldn’t have come here in the first place. Why come here, bitch about everything in sight and then cry over something you couldn’t wait to get away from the minute you graduated from your Engineering college? Why?

Fine! You left your friends behind - make new friends here. Nope, we prefer to live our lives safely tucked away within the Indian community without ever venturing outside. There is no curiosity for other cultures, while we nod sagely at the wisdom of the Westerners who are “finally realizing how much superior our ancient culture is compared to theirs”. Culture is a give and take, morons! Someone is paying you a compliment trying to find out about you - it doesn’t behoove you to sit smugly and act superior. Show some appreciation to others once in a while - that will not “diminish” your culture in any way.

Does all this mean these people will actually leave here and go to India if given a chance? Who are you kidding! It is absolutely disgusting listening to this drivel day-in and day-out. Here is a clue, people! Be happy with what you have. Simple, isn’t it! You are not only making your lives a living hell with this crap, but you have kids whose minds you are poisoning with this kind of an attitude. Ever wonder why so many second-generation Indian kids have issues adjusting? This is why!

For Heaven’s sake, just shut up and deal with it, alright…for the children™!

Spotted!

A huge, big Ford Expedition sporting the bumper sticker - “W ‘04”.

Playing to the stereotypes much?!

Flight 93

The New York Times > Washington > Details Emerge on Flight 93

The report does not clarify whether the hijackers’ goal for Flight 93 was the White House or the Capitol, but indicates that the hijackers tuned a cockpit radio to the frequency of a navigation beacon at National Airport, just across the Potomac River from the capital, erasing any doubt about the region of their intended destination.

At three seconds after 10 a.m., Mr. Jarrah is heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: “Is that it? Shall we finish it off?”

But another hijacker responds: “No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off.”

The voice recorder captured sounds of continued fighting, and Mr. Jarrah pitched the plane up and then down. A passenger is heard to say, “In the cockpit. If we don’t we’ll die!”

Then a passenger yelled “Roll it!” Some aviation experts have speculated that this was a reference to a food cart, being used as a battering ram.

Mr. Jarrah “stopped the violent maneuvers” at 10:01:00, according to the report, and said, “Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!”

“He then asked another hijacker in the cockpit, `Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?’ to which the other replied, `Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.’ “

Eighty seconds later, a hijacker is heard to say, “Pull it down! Pull it down!”

“The hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them,” according to the report, which seems to indicate that the hijackers themselves crashed the plane. “With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes’ flying time from Washington, D.C,” according to the report.

3 years later, this story still gave me goosebumps while I was reading it. I hope I will be brave enough if I were ever in a similar situation. Read the whole article - it is worth even registering at the NYT for.

Censorship?

Ok, here it goes - Linda Ronstadt, Michael Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, et al? Your First Amendment rights only guarantee that the Government cannot persecute or prosecute you for your views. The amendment does not guarantee continued employment or freedom from criticism for the views expressed. You have the freedom to shoot your mouths off and your employers have the freedom to fire you. It is not censorship!

Get it?

I met a soldier today...

…actually, I should say I met an army “kid” today, he seemed so young. I was out for lunch with my co-workers when I stopped to admire a cute little baby (turned out he was 2 weeks old) in a baby carrier and the army man was his dad, on his way to Iraq (Sadr City). He got some off-time to see his son’s birth and now he is going away again. This was the first time I met in person someone personally going to be involved with war and I left the scene with a feeling of deep sadness in my heart.

I had a baby 8 weeks ago as you all know and I am very sensitive to family issues right now. This is probably why the tableau of the young man in his full uniform wistfully and lovingly looking at his sleeping baby for one last time made such a big impact on me. This young man knows he is going to be in one of the toughest places in Iraq - he still tried to reassure me that things are getting much better now, while all I could mange was to stammer “Good Luck!” and “Cute Kid!” to him.

I did mention to him I was volunteering for “Operation Give” and that I think Chief Wiggles is a cool guy and this man seemed happy, because he seemed pretty unsure of three Indian girls accosting him in the restaurant. He didn’t know what to make of us or our affiliations. I am not a religious person but if there is a God out there, I hope this father and son duo will get reunited - it would break my heart to imagine anything going wrong this man who is leaving behind his tiny, little son.

This post is probably going to be the most incoherent sounding one that I have ever made, but I am very emotional right now. I feel pain as if someone I love is going off to war and facing an uncertain future. The soldier was also with his mom (I think) and it was she who told us he was on his way to Iraq - she sounded proud of him, while at the same time choked up. She sounded like she wanted the whole world to know her son is willing to lay his life down to make someone else’s better. I am not sure I would be that unselfish in the face of a war if I were in her position. I am sad it had to come to this that her son is out fighting a war believing that it is going to keep me and my son safe, but I am glad there are people like him who are willing to do so - without them, where would be this freedom and this prosperity that I so dearly cherish?

p.s. Of us three girls who met him, I was pro-war and the other two anti-war - this young man still made an impression on each of us and we all felt sad at the prospect of his leaving his son behind to go to war in a far-off place. We all empathized with his plight and wished him the best. These are anti-war people I can talk to and discuss things with - they see things different from me, but ultimately we all value human life and we wouldn’t wish death on anyone. (I am referring here to some “peace” activists who gloat at every war casualty).

Operation Give robbed!

Check out this post on Dean’s blog to see how Operation Give, the organization started by Chief Wiggles to supply toys, school supplies and other gifts to Iraqis was robbed of $30,000 by an Atlanta company - Dean’s World - Okay, Maybe I Wasn’t Emphatic Enough. Any suggestions on how we can deal with the situation and any help you guys might give us is very welcome. This is outrageous that someone would try to cheat a charity out of it’s money!

Here is the chief’s version of what happened! Any of our readers live in or know someone from Atlanta?

Update: Looks like the issue has now been resolved :) Good job, all who helped!

Independence Day

Happy birthday, America!

Why apologize?

I really don’t get the title of this piece in Forbes magazine - Forbes.com: Rice plans no apology in 9/11 testimony. Why should Condoleezza Rice apologize for 9/11? As far as I remember, she was not the one who drove the planes into the buildings or incited the people who did. I think this is ridiculous to expect either the Clinton admin or the Bush admin to apologize for 9/11, since I don’t believe either of them caused this or are responsible for it.

Beating murder rap!

So, that’s how you beat a murder rap! Kill anyone you want and then call the police and say “God made you do it!” Pretty simple really, isn’t it! Of course, otherwise you could go the Andrea Yates way and say it was depression, God and Satan together that made you kill your kids - whatever it takes to avoid the death sentence you have brought upon others…

Tax season...

People are actually getting refunds? - My husband and I ended up owing the IRS about $1500! Boo Hoo!

Gay marriages

Michele has a great post about the issue and about Bush’s announcement yesterday about the ban on gay marriages - A Small Victory: one word, a million denials (Updated) - which describes exactly how I feel about the whole thing. That doesn’t mean of course, I condone Newsom’s forcing of the issue or the courts making decisions about social structures on behalf of the people in a democracy. Regardless of how Bush feels about this issue, I think it is a good idea he has atleast put control of the issue back in the hands of voters where it belongs.

Personally, I am completely and unequivocally in favor of gay marriages. I have been close friends with both gays and lesbians since I have been here in the US - most of the times I didn’t even think someone might be gay till they told me about it - it really didn’t matter to me. I have spent a whole flight back from San Fran to Dallas sitting beside a gay man discussing his insecurities about meeting his partner’s parents for the first time and dissing on husbands and their quirks. Strangely, it didn’t feel any different from bitching with my girlfriends. I have seen committed gay couples living together for longer than I knew my husband, but unable to call themselves a married couple and fall back on the bond of marriage just because they happened to have sex in a different way.

Isn’t that what it comes down to when you think about it? That homosexuals are attracted to someone their own sex instead of someone of the opposite sex? So what? I think it is pathetic when someone makes the argument that it somehow reduces the sanctity of heterosexuals to let gays marry. I don’t think so - I think when Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman can have a drunken 10-day marriage - when Fox can marry two idiots in a show called “Who wants to marry a multimillionaire” and when Britney Spears can marry a friend for “fun”, now that reduces the sanctity of my marriage since these people are making a mockery of the institution of marriage. How are two committed people of the same sex who value each other as much as any other heterosexual couple harmful to marriage? If anything, we are making it even more sacred a bond by making marriage the ultimate commmitment. I wish people who oppose this would look beyond their instinctual hatred of anything gay and realize this truth.

More on illegal immigration

Dean Esmay has another angle to add on the illegal immigration discussion we have been having for a few days now - he agrees with me on a few and disagrees on a lot. Check it out…

There is one comment in the post’s discussion that provides this useful URL for calculating costs of illegal immigration - very interesting!

Kerry wins Iowa caucus

Looks like John Kerry won the Iowa caucus tonight with Howard Dean coming in a surprising third! Blog-mommy being who she is, seems to have called it way before the event… Seems like the voters made a sound choice here, by choosing a reasonably centrist Democrat instead of angry extremist like Dean. If anyone can give the Republicans a run for their money in the elections, it would be a calmly reasoning opponent - not a foaming-at-the-mouth rabble-rouser like Dean.

Update - love the way Scrappleface puts it - Dean Flop Threatens Internet, Bloggers Hardest Hit

Illegal immigration

Andrew Sullivan is very approving of Bush’s policy of granting legal status to illegal undocumented workers in the USA. I am sorry, but I really cannot see anything good in this, as an immigrant to the country myself. If anything, it is absolutely galling and seems like a slap in the face to me, since I have jumped through every single hoop and paid through my nose to be where I am right now - legally. By granting amnesty to the fence-jumpers, you are telling me and people like me who are willing to play by the rules that I am somehow equivalent to someone who gate-crashed instead of patiently waiting in the line for their turn.

This kind of turning a blind eye to illegality not only succeeds in encouraging it more, but also depresses the law-abiding citizens who have it tougher to maintain legal status than the ones who are already without a status.

India vs Pakistan...in America

Pakistani Americans back Bobby Jindal’s rival

Just as Indian Americans are backing Republican Bobby Jindal in the Louisiana governor’s race, Pakistani Americans have launched a campaign to support his Democratic rival.

M. Ashraf Abbasi, president of the Pakistani American Congress (PAC), said Jindal is “a highly prejudiced person, who could be a future threat for Pakistani interests in the U.S.”

He appealed to the Muslim community to vote for rival candidate Kathleen Blanco. The election will be held on November 15.

It is pretty interesting to see the Pakistani-American community in Louisiana back Kathleen Blanco just because they want to be against the Indian-American Bobby Jindal. It shows us how the regional politics of the home countries still influence to a great degree, what people do in their adopted homelands.

This is also going to be a funny dilemma for IAs (Indian-Americans) in Louisiana, since traditionally they have tended to vote for the Democratic Party most of the time - this might leave them with some hard choices to make. On the other hand of course, IAs rooting for Jindal can take comfort by looking back the Georgia Democratic primaries when they banded together to defeat that anti-Indian loon, Cynthia McKinney. I think they have enough influence and money to make Jindal win this, if they really put their minds to it.

I guess this is good news!

CNN.com - Florida House authorizes Bush to intervene in feeding tube case - Oct. 21, 2003

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) — The Florida House late Monday intervened to save the life of a severely brain damaged woman whose feeding tube was removed last week under court order at her husband’s request. The lawmakers authorized Gov. Jeb Bush to order that the tube be reinserted. By a vote of 68-23, the GOP-controlled House approved a bill giving Bush authority to issue a one-time order to reinsert the feeding tube that has nourished Terry Schiavo, 39, since she fell into what doctors call a persistent vegetative state after suffering heart failure in 1990.

I really don’t understand how doctors can still call her vegetative when she can respond to her parents and breathe on her own without aid of a respirator. We have to also keep in mind that she has been pulled out of therapy years ago - therapy that could have certainly help rehabilitate her. I am of two minds about this repreive, because this charade has gone on too long. Her feeding tube was once removed for 60 hours before being reinserted due to the insistence of Terri’s parents. It has been removed again 6 days ago and maybe reinserted soon. I don’t think it is fair to be doing this every so often. What might be a better idea is to grant her custody back to her parents and kick that louse of her husband away from the hospital so he cannot claim a single right to murder her legally again. Nothing but that is going to solve this problem.

Perspective

It was pretty interesting to me to come across Susanna’s and Razib’s views on the Indian immigrant running for governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal - Susanna on one hand is very enthusiastic in her support for Jindal, as she makes clear in her post here - Tell me again about racist Republicans… Razib on the other hand isn’t that that upbeat about Jindal in his blog, Gene Expression: All American Brown Boy. The reason why the reception is so different is that Susanna sees it as a great sign that an Asian immigrant is moving up in ranks in her party - Razib on the other hand, sees the things Bobby Jindal had to give up and forego to reach that high. What a difference one’s cultural background makes :)

Toys of Iraqi tots

Dean has a very nice post - Dean’s World: The New Uncle Wiggle Wings - describing the effort of an American GI during the WWII to share with the local kids, what little he had. He is telling this, of course, in an effort to publicize the soldier-blogger-in-Iraq Chief Wiggles’ effort to collect and donate toys for Iraqi kids. Go check it out - it is a really interesting read and it is a very worthy cause.

Good News

Some good news on the US job frontier. I am sure this will make some of us sleep better in the night - now if only this translated into a raise or a bonus for those of us still employed in good standing. Do you think that would be asking for too much?

MSN Money - Extra!: 7 reasons the job market is about to take off

Unemployed? Worried about your job security? Scared by the negative stuff you read in the papers and hear on television? Most of these concerns reflect the recent past. But I’m here to tell you there’s strong reason to believe the Great American Jobs Machine is about to crank up yet again. In fact, there are seven strong reasons

stupid things about Patriot Act

Now this is taking things a little too far, me thinks - MSN Money - Your bank can blacklist you - I understand it is terribly important to be able to track financial records and statements and to curtail those that are intended to help support terrorists, but that doesn’t mean you can flag any random person and just make their life a living hell, till they are cleared of the suspicion - whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? I recently got a card from my local public library - strangely, I felt a little apprehensive checking the books out, since I now know that the government can track my library records and deem my checkouts suspicious. A little chilling, I must say.

Update: Of course, then there are the so-called imaginary misdeeds by the current government that circulated around as Bush’s resume a while ago - here is a good refutation of the allegations. (Found via Worldwide Rant)

In memory

I wish I could post something profound and moving - something clever and inspiring. Words fail me in expressing my thoughts fully, so here is a little something I wrote a few months ago, to explain to a few of my Indian friends why I feel the way I feel about America right now.

Dancing with Dogs: What America means to me……

Listen to this to imagine how we in the US felt that day - lgf: What We Heard or read this - Voices, an effort by Michele Catalano of A Small Victory to collate the stories and memories of various people about 9/11.

A list of all the people who died in the attacks - http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-name/index.html.

A friend’s memories of 9/11 and how she spends the anniversaries, in her own words -

Last year I was sitting around on the 9/11 anniversary crying and just getting depressed. I thought to myself that I couldn’t allow that to be my whole day and felt that if maybe I did something for someone else, it might help. So last year I bought goodies for one fire unit that is near my home that I had taken my son over to get a “talking” to about playing around the BBQ pit.

With the 2nd anniversary of 9/11 coming up, I knew I wanted to do the same thing again. But I wanted to expand it. Not only did I want to do it for the fire department unit from last year, but I decided I wanted to do it for my “official” fire department unit that actually serves my neighborhood. I also thought that this is 9/11 and there are men and women serving overseas because of what happened on this date. In Mesquite there is actually all four armed services located in the same shopping center and I thought they were just as worthy of a thank you as our fire department. So this morning I went to Campisi’s Pizza (and the owner knew what I was doing for and gave me all the pizza’s at half price), Einstein Brother’s Bagels (an assortment of their goodies), Tom Thumb for cookies, cheesecakes, pies and cakes, and Starbuck’s for their Breakfast Blend and Kenyan coffee. I spent my morning dropping all of these off at the various locations. My last stop was the Marine’s. As I was unloading my car one of the guys asked me what all of this was for. I told him that it was 9/11 I just wanted to say thank you and how much I appreciated what the guys were doing to keep us safe. He got a tear in his eye and looked at me and said. “I was at the Pentagon that day”. He also told me that they don’t hear that very often. I cried all the way home.

Last year I decided that I was never going to forget 9/11 and what happened to our country that day. As long as we can afford to do this, I am going to remember that date and try to do the same thing every year.

An excerpt of an Indian’s POV on 9/11 -
v2 : psychobabble - read the whole thing!

Amidst all this, there is a growing reluctance by liberal thinkers the world over to use the one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter line to justify acts of terrorism. Whether it is Northern Ireland, Palestine or Kashmir, the people weilding the AK-47s must be separated from the often legitimate political struggles. Anyone willing to bomb a shopping mall or blow up a civilian airliner is not a freedom-fighter; he (or she) is a ruthless killer and should be dealt with as such. And finally, senile old men like Yasser Arafat (lest we forget, he was the man who developed international terrorism as a political tool) must be stopped from sending impressionable teenagers to their deaths to fulfill their own bloodlust.

Religion or Atheism?

Thou Shalt Not Pray - Does the Constitution hate God? By Dahlia Lithwick

This was a pretty interesting and thought-provoking article by Dahlia Lithwick on Slate today - I agree with most of the article, but this passage seemed to leap out at me -

… Because we live in a zero-sum constitutional world. In order to be “neutral” toward all religions, including atheism, the courts have had to erect equal barriers to all. In order to privilege no religion (or even non-religion) the courts have elected to privilege none. This includes the vague “Judeo-Christian” theism that most Americans would probably like to see more of in the public square.

But then isn’t atheism vs. religion of any kind a zero-sum game too? How do you put barriers against some thing like atheism, that stands on non-belief as opposed to religion? If you put too many barriers against religion, you are inherently in favor of atheism and making it an atheist’s world - on the other hand, if you allow too much religion to encroach in public venues, you are endorsing anti-atheism implicitly and thus making them feel uncomfortable and run over - what is a fair balance?

Conservatives hit back!

Study Reveals Berkeley Researchers are Prejudiced Jackasses

Following a study released by researchers at UC Berkeley that examined The Makeup of a Political Conservative, researchers from the Institute for the Study of Total Wankers released a study that revealed that the Berkeley Researchers are “A bunch of prejudiced jackasses”. Said lead researcher Dr. Leon Wiseacre, “[Our Team] performed a fair, unbiased look at the pseudo-scientific hacks at Berkeley, which was completely unaffected by own own political views or personal opinions. We studied their views and some of our braver members actually tried to make some sense out of the drivel they’ve written over the years. We fed this data into our supercomputer and it used the information to build a profile of how a UC Berkeley researcher behaves. You see, our study - just like the Berkeley study - is the result of painstaking research and not just a bunch of opinions we threw together with some jargon and a nice cover page.”

Music, RIAA and Piracy

A really good editorial from the LA Times (registration required) about the “tone-deaf” attempts by the music industry to sue to death, people who might have uploaded any songs to the P2P networks - be it one song or one too many.

Tone-Deaf Music Industry

With the RIAA threatening to sue consumers under a law that can impose fines of $750 to $150,000 per file shared, the trade group’s heavy-handed tactics threaten to put fans - many of whom continue to buy CDs - into not just the doghouse but the poorhouse. Worse, the recording industry’s friends in Congress - Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Howard L. Berman (D-North Hollywood) - are drumming up more draconian laws that would help federal prosecutors file felony charges against those uploading even a single file. Penalty? Prison for up to five years. While the music business is on this track, why not execute a few shoplifters? Or, instead, why can’t the industry, artists and others recognize technology’s march, take advantage of it and stop alienating their potential customers?

Should I say it?

The New Republic Online: No Answer

Oh well, this article explains better than I can when it is oppression only when the US can be blamed for it somehow or if the “occupied country” has oil or is fighting the “Joos” or is ruled with an ironfist as a theocracy and is truly oppressing its own citizens and students protesting for democracy.

But, as McClure found out, “everywhere” does not include Congo. In fact, it doesn’t include Africa at all. answer has organized no protests and issued no statements on Africa’s four most ravaged countries—Congo, Liberia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe—although they contain exponentially more oppression and suffering than the four targeted by the group’s “International Days of Protest.” Answer is symptomatic of the left in general. A LexisNexis search going back to 2000 finds not a single reference to the crises in Congo, Liberia, Sudan, or Zimbabwe from Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Michael Moore, Michael Lerner, Gore Vidal, Cornel West, or Howard Zinn. In Congo alone, according to the International Rescue Committee, five years of civil war have taken the lives of a mind-boggling 3.3 million people. How can the leaders of the global left—men and women ostensibly dedicated to solidarity with the world’s oppressed, impoverished masses—not care?

Not that I am against gays...

Wal-Mart extends job rights to gays

I don’t really have anything against gays and I know they feel discriminated against, most often rightly so, but if sexual orientation is accepted as a basis for anti-discrimination laws, can pedophiles, prostitutes, polygamists and polyandrists apply? After all, they will claim theirs is a case of discriminated-against sexual orientation too…Slippery slope, anyone?

NEW YORK, July 2 - Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer and nation’s largest private employer, updated its antidiscrimination policy Wednesday to include gays and lesbians. Sexual orientation will be added to Wal-Mart’s diversity-awareness program, a company spokesperson said.

note: I know sometimes people without basic reading comprehension skills end up on my blog, so let me explain again, that I am not saying being gay is a sin or on par with pedophilia or any such other things listed by me. I am making a point that when it comes to sexual orientation, all those other categories of people are looked down upon by the society too (for good reason)

Hmmm....

Maybe these people haven’t heard of all the “thousands of civilian casualties” in Iraq, or they wouldn’t ask for the US help in achieving their dream of democracy now, would they?

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iranian protesters remain resolute

The Iranian people have shown their urgent tendency for freedom. Now the US must start to support the demonstration by warning the Iran government not to act against the people. This enforcement from the outside and people’s demonstration inside, will finally down the Iran regime. We are waiting for immediate support of the US. Farshad, Iran

(link via Instapundit)

Whoa!

Terrorism? Stay tuned.

Blast reported at Yale law school

NEW HAVEN, Conn., May 21 - A bomb exploded Wednesday in a mail room at the Yale University law school, officials said. There was no immediate report of injuries, but damage was described as heavy, and witnesses said they saw a blast of debris.

Update: No signs of terrorism!

The explosion occurred almost exactly 10 years after the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, mailed a bomb to Yale that severely injured a professor in June 1993.

It came as the nation was on elevated alert for possible terrorist attacks and several hours after President Bush, a Yale alumnus, visited the state to speak at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremony in New London.

But a senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News that none of the current intelligence about possible terror attacks mentioned an attack on a university, a college or a law school.

Darlie Routier

HoustonChronicle.com - Darlie Routier loses appeal in her sons' murder

That piece of news rekindled my interest in the story that I had read a long time ago at the crimelibrary.com. I have just gone through fordarlieroutier.org and read a few other pieces about her supposed innocence, but am still unconvinced as to the motive of such murders, if they were committed by a burglar as Darlie's attorneys are trying to convince us. Well fellow Texans and others who have heard about the story and watched it unfold in front of your eyes, what do you think? I wasn't even here in the US when the murders happened, and don't recall hearing much about them after that. I am curious to know what you think.

Peecee Time

Just got this week's Time, and was flipping through the letters pages, when this thing caught my eye -

Although our May 5 cover depicted a Western face to avoid stigmatizing Asians, some saw the choice as an unwelcome intervention in Mother Nature's affairs.

I could be nit-picking here, but why is it not OK to "stigmatize" Asians, but OK to do the same with "Westerners"? (I liked one of the responses they printed - "Political correctness has morphed into comedy!")

This is the cover in question -

Blacks for segregation?

A very interesting an in-depth article about some Black leaders in Dallas are fighting to keep the schools segregated, because they feel the white kids are taking up all the Advance Placement seats and displacing Black kids, or some such. It is really surprising that after all those fights and trials that the Black people have gone through to achieve equality and integration with the non-Black society, Black leaders are now trying to play identity politics trying to introvert the Black community into itself.

Segregation Forever,How Dallas got what it wanted,By Jim Schutze

In the next two months a federal judge will declare the Dallas Public Schools officially desegregated. That designation--desegregated at last!--will close a battle over racism that has consumed the city and the school system for a third of a century. And at that point people on both sides agree the universe of Dallas children will be almost totally segregated--black and Hispanic kids on one side of the equator, whites on the other. Victory!

A few years from now the school district will be populated almost entirely by children of color who may go through their student careers and never share a classroom with a white child. The white kids will be somewhere else, in private school or the 'burbs.

Despicable!

I thought this must surely be a joke when I heard about this on the talk radio this morning - how stupid is it for the elected representatives of a state to run away and hide like this instead of trying to stand up and fight for whatever it is that they believe in. Such ridiculous things will only increase the public's disgust at the smarmy politicians - This has got to be a big blow to the Democrats in Texas. Shame on you!

Update: Just hear Rep. Burnam of Waco (?) on a radio talkshow - he sounded petulant, whiny and childish - what can I say? ;)

Majority of AWOL lawmakers in Oklahoma

There a group of at least 50 of the 53 missing House Democrats were holed up, just over the state line and out of reach of a Texas trooper manhunt.

"This is not a cowardly act. This takes a great deal of courage and conviction to take steps to make sure democracy prevails," said Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston, speaking for the exiles.

Members met inside a large conference room at the Ardmore Holiday Inn. Inside, an easel was set up for presentations. Long tables were covered with paperwork, soft drinks and computer equipment. Across the hall, at a Denny's restaurant and Gusher's bar, a live band played late Monday.

Grits

Suman Palit is doing something no self-respecting Southern gentleman should ever do - dissing grits! It reminds me of one of my favorite comedy movie of all times - "My Cousin Vinnie", when the city-slickers try to eat a nice and greasy grits-filled breakfast! 10 points if you remember the menu at the local diner that Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei visit :)

Grits in my pants:

More funny stuff

Full Frontal

A funny take on the Dixie Chicks' nude EW cover by another country star Kinky Friedman :)

Fareed Zakaria

This article was fascinating to me not just because I liked Zakaria's columns, but also because I was totally unaware of his Indian heritage. That caught me by surprise. Dean, I so relate to him, because I would be labeled a leftie-liberal in India because of my thoughts and view-points, but I was surprised to find that in the US, I was considered conservative. Thanks for the interesting post.

Dean's World: Next Secretary of State?

Sorry to burst your bubbles

I know many anti-Bush people were just bursting at seams at news that Bush warned Syria, because they just couldn't wait to bring out their books of "I told you so". Unfortunately Mr. Blood-thirsty, warmonger Bush is refusing to accomodate them. Looks like he will not invade Syria just because he invaded Iraq after all. I say good for him. This is the time for America to stand firm in Afghanistan and Iraq and help the countries stand on their own feet once again. That should be the first priority.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Bush vetoes Syria war plan

The White House has privately ruled out suggestions that the US should go to war against Syria following its military success in Iraq, and has blocked preliminary planning for such a campaign in the Pentagon, the Guardian learned yesterday.

Happy ending!

A heartwarming story of the bleak days before the rescue and the rescue of the seven American POWs recently rescued from the Iraqis. I am glad they were alive.

Dark days, with death outside door

Deliverance came loudly and without warning. Suddenly today at the house in Samarra the prisoners heard someone kicking in the doors and shouting: "Get down! Get down!".

"I was sitting there," Miller recalled a few hours later. "Next thing I know the Marines are kicking in the door, saying get down on the floor. They said, "If you're an American, stand up." We stood up and they hustled us out of there."

By this time, the male prisoners had grown light beards and their shoulders had sagged; in their Iraqi prison pajamas, they could be mistaken for the other side. The Marines had trouble distinguishing Johnson as an American. "At first," she said, "they didn't realize I was American. They said, "Get down, get down," and one of them said, "No, she's American."

Johnson, mother of a girl named Janelle who turns 3 next month, was overwhelmed to realize she was saved and would see her daughter again. “I broke down. I was like, "Oh my God, I'm going home!"

What is wrong?

What is wrong with this huge big column in the SF Chronicle, arguing that poor Asan Akbar, who killed fellow American military personnel by lobbing grenades into their tent was comparable to Black soldiers in Vietnam who went berserk on their fellow combatants?

I know! Asan Akbar joined the army voluntarily - he wasn't drafted and was free to leave any time he felt that the Army life was clashing with his personal beliefs - how hard is that to understand?

Echoes of 'fragging'

The targets of the attacks were mostly junior field officers. The men who tossed grenades at or shot their officers in many cases were African Americans.

They were pushed over the top by what they considered the brutal, racist and dehumanizing treatment by white officers. Their hatred was fed by resentment of being drafted and forced to fight in what they considered a racist, senseless war, against oppressed colored people.

Oh My God!

I wouldn't want to be in that mother's position ever. This was what I was talking about when I was defending America's position vis-a-vis the parading of American POWs and their dead bodies on TV. I cannot even begin to imagine the horror that mother must have gone through when she saw her son lying dead in a pool of blood in a foreign land - all that without any advance warning.

Slain Marine's Mother Saw Body on TV

RIALTO, Calif. (AP) -- The mother of a Marine killed in Iraq said she learned of his death only when she saw his face as an Iraqi soldier showed off bodies of American casualties on TV.

"I said poor, poor boys. They fell there. But when I saw the face, it was that of my son," Rosa Gonzalez told Los Angeles television station KMEX on Tuesday.

"Peace"

If this protest cannot be called "peaceful", I don't know what will. I mean, isn't "whirled peas" all that matters? Thanks, protesters! You are doing a great job discrediting yourself, without any of us warmongers having to lift a finger. You rock! BTW, if there is a terrorist attack now and the police and other services are not able to handle that in time, guess on whose hands the blood is.

"Peace"

(PS - It is incredible that the title of the post I linked to was the same as my title - I swear I didn't see it - I was looking at the picture).

Command Post

The Command Post is a war blog set up by Michele and Alan as place for bloggers to post links to breaking war news. I have been invited to join in, so I will be posting there too - check it out for the latest information about the war.

"Fasten your seatbelts. It is going to be a bumpy ride".

A little comic relief

Some comic relief in a week otherwise filled with dread and anxiety and anticipation. An extremely funny satire of a conversation between Michael Moore and Barbara Streisand.

Grouchy Old Cripple: Mikey and Babs
(link via Inscrutable American)

I guess this is it!

U.S. says diplomacy over for Iraq

March 17 — The United States declared that the “diplomatic window has closed” for a peaceful resolution to the Iraq showdown and that President Bush would warn Saddam Hussein later Monday that the only way to avoid war was to leave the country. At the United Nations, the United States and its allies withdrew a resolution that would have paved the way for U.N. authorization for war, having failed to persuade key members to support the measure.

Damian Penny says the same things that are making me nervous and my blood run cold - Ready to roll - I second everything he said. Let us all just hope and pray for the best of the American soldiers and the Iraqi civilians, Israelis and the Kurds and all those innocents who are going to be caught up in a war not of their own making.

Update: Here is Diane's take on the whole issue - A NECESSARY BUT POINTLESS WAR - agree with her too.

Righto!

My feelings exactly, dean. Just because some people are pissed and started the "freedom fries" business doesn't mean that we are suddenly in a police state right now that will kill us or jail us if we don't boycott or rename all things French. Unfortunately, there are people who get a rush of adrenaline if an American looks at a non-American cross-eyed, because it gives them ammunition to indulge in some America-bashing.

Dean's World: Freedom Fries

Informative

A very informative and intelligent FAQ about the current war on terrorism being waged by the USA - Answering 50 Frequently Asked Questions About The War On Terrorism - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)

(link via On the Third Hand)

For the troops

My co-blog-mommy Susanna and Mike at Coldfury have a very nice website going, where they put up the names of the companies that are helping hte reservists and servicemen employed by them by either making up the difference between their stipend and their usual salary or by paying them their usual salaries in full, even though they are getting sipend for active duty. It is the purpose of the website to publicize the names of these companies that are helping their employees, who are in turn helping keep the nation safe.

Here is the link - The Home Front - Go visit the site and also help Susanna and Mike by letting them know if you know of any such companies whose names haven't been featured on the site yet.

Dream on!

I was just watching an extremely forgettable movie called "Love at Times Square". So why am I blogging about it? Because of 9/11. Those bastards in the movie made blatant use of the 9/11 footage that they used in the movie to sell it. I admit that they didn't expect it when they started the movie and filmed most of it in New York. They just happened to be there - but then they used it.

That was not the point. The point was, there was a scene in the movie, where they showed the celebration of August 15th, India's Independence Day. There were all these people lining up the streets, there was Rudy Giuliani, all garlanded and smiling and everyone was having so much fun. I burst out crying - this was because I knew what happened less than a month after.

Then they showed it. The first tower burning, then the airplane hitting the second one and both of them burnt shells. I cried so hard during the whole thing, it was just awful. It was an experience that every one "tsk, tsk"s about, but no one really understands and gets. It is the feeling of being violated. It is that awful sinking feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you are watching a horror movie and one of the characters just went out all alone - you know they are going to die, but you cannot stop it.

That was how it was for me, when I watched those scenes from the movie. If I could, I would go give up my life, if that spared all the horror of that dreadful tuesday. I am not kidding. And you know what? To the people who say, so what if 3000 people died? I say "Fuck You!". Yes, I tell them to shut the fuck up and imagine the 100,000 people in the twin towers getting up in the morning, getting ready, kissing their spouses good-bye, perhaps forever and leaving to work. You do that every single day without worrying about if you will come back.

And then there were the passengers of the hijacked planes. I travelled to San Franscisco from Dallas every week for 1-1/2 years. I would leave every monday and come back friday. Sometimes I left on a tuesday if I had some thing else to do. It might as well have been me in one of those planes. It wasn't, but I can imagine the passengers, waking up early to be on the flight, and then getting through their routines in the airport and listening to the attendants' instructions and settling down to a skimpy breakfast or a nap.

Remember how you felt when you heard about the newly-wed guy knifed to death in the plane hijacked to Khandahar? This was 100s of times worse. And after all this, if people go saying "Ohhh, it is all about oill!", "Ah! but America deserved this!", "Well, it was all because Bush is evil!", then you have no idea what evil is. You wonder why I get so short-tempered when you try to argue with me about how this is all about the Afghan pipeline. Well, this is why. Because this is an event that could have featured me as one of the thousands. Talk to me when your place is hit like that. Tell me how you feel when on a bright, sunny, beautiful day, thousands of your fellow people are struck down in a single moment.

You know what the hated and despised and arrogant cowboy Americans did after that? No, they did not kill every Muslim they saw in the streets. Imagine the aftermath if something similar happened in any other coountry. Remember what happened in India after a Sikh bodyguard shot Indira Gandhi dead. Remember what the Muslims in India did when Babri Masjid was felled. In America, people closed ranks with friend and enemy. Even though I wasn't, I sure had the face of the enemy - you know what I found? I found people clinging to me for support. I found people who were willing to protect me and help me.

And you know what the President who is always so "rushed" for war - that war-mongering, blood-thirsty, oil-drinking, moron, selcted-not-elected, Hitlerish guy that we have in the White House did? If he wanted to, he could have launched nukes into Afghanistan at a moment's notice and no one would have said a thing. Even if they did, it wouldn't have made a difference. He waited... He waited and made a case with the UN. He made a case to the allies, where there was no need to do so. He sought approval from all when he didn't need to.

The American public, they had debates, they still do. They supported their country, and their fellow citizens, regardless of their religion, caste, creed and color. They were scared to death of opening their mailboxes and flying, but they did not "hunker down" waiting for death. They played their baseball, they gave Hollywood awards and continued with their life, albeit a little cautiously. They hugged their family a little more and spent a little more time together. They appreciated each other a little more.

When the terror alerts were issued, they bought their supplies - not just for themselves, but for the pets that depended on them too - for in America, animals are often treated with as much love and care as humans. That is not wrong - that shows you how tender-hearted Americans can be. It might seem funny to people that Americans want to carry their "poodles" with them to the shelters and actually feed them when they are in a shelter recovering from an attack. It doesn't surprise me. I am one of them - my 4 dogs will go into whatever shelter I go into. They will live with me and eat my food if they have to - they are like my children.

Of course, this is a tender-hearted America. But as I said in the comments of past blog, "beware the anger of a silent man!". The country may seem silly, happy and arrogant and very self-content. That doesn't mean that is all there is to it. There are people here that know more about the world than most others. There are more religions and cultures in this country than you can find anywhere else in the world. There is more here than casual observers can even gauge thoroughly. There is deep, silent, strong undercurrent here that mobilizes, inspires and propels every human being to not just reach their potential, but to go even higher. The same energy when challenged, can flood the world and wash it away in one fell stroke.

There might be people who are happy and celebrating at the miseries that have befallen this great country. Trust me, it isn't going to last. These people were not even in America when ancient civilizations were flourishing - but they have been to every place on earth and to the moon and back, while the ancient civilizations are still floundering in search of a national identity. It is very easy to predict, pray and hope for the fall of or at least the humbling of America. To them, all I say is...."Dream On!".

True, Niraj!

EDWARD SAID'S ABSURDITIES

Supporting Troops

In the same vein as Michele's Troop Trax, KLIF, a local DFW-based talk-radio station is organizing the putting together of care packages for American forces stationed abroad, called KLIF Care Packages. For more information, see here - KLIF Care Packages.

BTW, the KLIF care packages also include CDs for the troops.

Why?

Why are these incidents not being more widely reported? Would there be so much silence if it were a mosque that was attacked twice in two weeks? It is also very interesting that the police are still wondering if it could be a hate crime. What else could it be? Why else would someone keep trying to burn a temple down?

Second attack on temple in Missouri

A second firebomb attack on the temple at St Louis in Missouri has made the Indian community jittery.

On February 28, someone first threw a brick through a window followed by a container filled with flammable liquid, police said.

The liquid started a fire at 3:45 am and set off the alarm system in the temple, which alerted the priests living nearby.

"A major fire was averted with only a part of a carpet inside the temple catching fire," Jiwan Singla, past president and building committee chairman of the 13-year-old temple, said.

The difference!

Read the first letter and the second one - see the difference. Personally, I see a stoic but spirited grandmother in the first - an idolator who cannot see beyond his blind passion in the second. Just see the difference in the words used and the sentiments expressed. Tell me which one you find more compelling.

Stars, Common People Are Free to Speak Out

The picture of Sheen and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony jumped out at me -- Sheen with a holier-than-thou look and a laughing, joyful, clapping Cardinal Mahony next to him. I am just an ordinary grandmother with a granddaughter living in a tent in Kuwait with cold wind blowing through it. She is there along with other young men and women to defend Sheen's "right" to speak out. They are there to try to give that right to other men and women to speak out.

There are several other articles in the Sunday Times with pictures. "Call of Duty" shows a reservist with his 2-year-old daughter on his shoulders. "U.S. Seeks to Fortify Troops With Tastier Field Cuisine" includes a photo of two Marines from Camp Pendleton sitting on the ground eating in Kuwait.

With "Reservists Answer Call to Duty" there is a photo of a Marine from Camp Pendleton with his wife, holding his daughter, and a picture of a lieutenant colonel leaving her small law firm. These are U.S. citizens willing to sacrifice for the United States.

Mr. Sheen, you have that right to speak out. I'm sure the world that doesn't have that right will love to use what you say. You see, Mr. Sheen, I have a right to say that also.

Sheila Erlanson

---

Thank God for Martin Sheen. Without famous voices like his, I doubt the opposition to the war would receive any coverage from our cheerleading media. As for the hate mail and accusations of being a traitor, I am reminded of the Scriptures: "No prophet is accepted in his own native place."

Mr. Sheen, please continue your prophetic and courageous efforts for peace.

George Bentley

Wow!

This sure is pretty strange!

HILLARY HAWKS UP WAR TALK By DEBORAH ORIN

March 3, 2003 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "fully supports" President Bush's Iraq policy, her office said last night - on the eve of her visit today to an upstate arsenal that makes military hardware like mortars and howitzers for U.S. troops.

"Sen. Clinton fully supports the steps the president has taken to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction," said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.

(link via Tim Blair)

Makes me feel so good!

This is a very welcome break and a sight for sore eyes, when tens of thousands of people march in support of US and carry US flags proudly instead of banners full of hate and venom towards this country - all this outside of the US mind you, and that makes it all the more special. Check out the photo that Solomon links to.

"Pro-US Rally in South Korea"

One order of the cluebat, please!

If Christians pray to a Christian God, that is a war against Islam? In whose world, Don? Fact is a majority of the American force is Christian - so they are not qualified to fight against any one of another religion? Moron!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor -- Evidently, there is a widespread belief in the Muslim world that America is about to mount a war against Islam. Naturally, our leaders deny this accusation. But what is a Muslim to think when The Chronicle splashes a witless article and photos, front page and above the fold, showing American soldiers praying in the desert to a Christian God?
What were you thinking? Did you leave your editorial judgment in a revival tent?
DON MOY
San Francisco

Conspiracy?

It is a little too unsettling, even if I am sounding way paranoid. First, the chicago nightclub disaster, then this one, and then the explosion on Staten Island. Too many things going wrong at the same time to be completely coincidental.

R.I. Nightclub Fire Kills at Least 75

WEST WARWICK, R.I. (AP) - A nightclub erupted in a raging fire during a pyrotechnics display at a rock concert, killing at least 75 people and injuring more than 160 others as frantic mobs rushed to escape. Club officials said Friday the special effects were used without permission.

Oh My God!

Girl took pill to abort fetus in school restroom

A Houston teenager aborted her second-trimester fetus in a school restroom Wednesday after taking a pill last weekend in an effort to end her pregnancy, a school spokeswoman said.

A Houston Police Department crime scene unit was called to the Rice School, an alternative kindergarten through eighth-grade campus for academically challenged students operated by the Houston Independent School District, about 1:30 p.m. after the student went into the restroom and aborted the fetus.

For the record, I am not anti-abortion. I support any adult woman's decision to get an abortion, if she thinks it is not good for her, for whatever reason. As the unborn child grows older and more viable, I get more uncomfortable with the whole process, and would really prefer that the mother carry the baby to term and give it up for adoption if she doesn't want it. This case is awful especially, since it involves a teenager, who at 13 years of age is practically a child herself.

I am going to sound extremely puritanical here, but I am really against kids having sex. I don't think people should be allowed to do stuff with utter disregard for responsibility towards the consequences. Fact is, you have sex, you are likely to get pregnant. It doesn't matter if you teach kids about condoms or pills, since nothing is 100% fool-proof. So what happens when a kid like this suddenly finds out that she is going to be a mommy? She freaks out and will do anything she can to get rid of the pregnancy before her parents find out. It is a sad situation really, but I think it is the duty of parents to be the adults in the family and make their children aware of the life-long problems that accompany the few-minute pleasure of sex. If the child has still crossed the boundaries, it is again the parets' duty to interfere and be involved and do what is best for their child without alienating her and forcing her to do crazy stuff like this.

Another thing that seems to stand out to me in this incident is how come the parents were unaware of this situation? Did she have morning-sickness? Did her physical appearance change? Did her behavior change? That no one noticed all this going on in their child's life is very alarming. I think ultimately the best way to protect one's child is to probe, ask, do anything, but learn what she/he is up to, instead of trying to be their buddies andletting everything go without realizing that you are scarring your child for life by not being more interested and involved.

This is ridiculous!

Slave Wages

The lawsuit reads more like a lesson in black history than it does a class action in federal court. Its pleadings tell the sad tale of Andrew Jackson Hurdle, a 10-year-old slave who was torn from his family in 1855 and sold to a Texas cotton farmer who purchased him as a playmate for his master's lonely son. But the plaintiff in the lawsuit, which was filed in Galveston in January, is not Hurdle, who died a free man and father to 25 children; it's his great-granddaughter Ina Hurdle McGee, a retired Dallas teacher who is seeking reparations on behalf of all black descendants of Africans enslaved in America.

When will people stop blaming someone for all their troubles and start taking personal responsibility for stuff? This lady is suing on behalf of her great-grandfather who used to be a slave, but died a free man ultimately, and that somehow affected this woman? What kind of bullcrap is that? And now, she wants to sue all kinds of companies and the Government and wants "money" for her "legacy of suffering"...Awww, poor thing! Were you a slave? Were your parents slaves? were your children? any of your immediate relatives? Nope - but that one guy was, so shut up and give me my money now!

And then these people wonder why they are not highly regarded by others and why racism still occurs. You are giving fuel to set your own self on fire when you do stupid things like this in the name of race. First of all, the claim is inherently stupid, since if she is allowed to seek reparations for what happened 150 years ago, Indians can ask Britain for reparations for colonizing them until 50 years ago. We Indians can then go back in history a bit and ask reparations of all the Midle-Eastern countries that invaded India. Ultimately, everyone has wronged someone or the other.

What is really frustrating about things like this is the inability of people to move beyond extremely remote past and to attribute every personal failing to it. This is from personal experience. My country was under British rule till 1947. Now, if you go to India and ask the poorest of the poor people who they blame for their poverty, they will name any number of causes, but not the British rule. They have moved on. They have put the past where it belongs, in the past. Why cannot that happen here?

As for the Government and the companies in US paying money to get these cheap "race-beggars" off their back, that is affecting me in turn. I pay taxes to the government and I am probably employed by one of those companies. Why should I be paying for this when I am in no way responsible personally or via ancestors, for what this lady's ancestors had to go through? It isn't just me, but half of Americans probably have nothing to do with conditions in the US 150 years ago. Why should they pay? How is this going to help anyone? If someone puts a check in your hand and says, "there - you have your money" - does that somehow magically dissolve all racism against black people and make them equal to everybody? To employ a horrible stereotype, what is the guarantee that they won't spend the check in two weeks on a caddy and garish jewelry and not be back on the streets begging for more money?

Asking for special treatment breeds resentment and creates an atmosphere of hate towards a race or ethnicity - it is no way to build bridges. If you want to be treated equal with others, the best way is to work equally with others and stand proud with your achievements and accomplishments. Whining about generations-old misdeeds will not help anyone. It might give you a cause to lay the blame on - it will not eradicate the root problem.

Well said....

By a soldier nonetheless.....This is for people who claim that they are "anti-war" to support the troops -

Protest, but Don't Say It Supports Our Soldiers

Do not use us to justify or support your opinions. The vast majority in the military do not agree with you, and when you state that you are "supporting the troops" by protesting the war, it makes us cringe. I am currently deployed to Kosovo in support of the NATO peacekeeping mission, and when we see you on CNN using us as justification for your opinions, we wish you would stop. This is our job; this is what we train to do 365 days a year, often in poor conditions and separated from our families. We do this with great pride, for we love our country, and we are prepared to defend it. In what way have you ever served your country? What is your level of knowledge or expertise that has determined your opinion?

Here is a little something......

....for people who claim that the US has abandoned or is not helping enough in Afghanistan once the war is over - stuff that I like better than anything else, facts and figures!!!

USAID: Helping Afghanistan - White House Fact Sheet - 01/09/03

Notes of a peace-protest observer

This is a very interesting perspective provided by a Jewish-American, who took a 27-hr bus ride to Washington, with the peace protesters on their way to the "ANSWER"-sponsored rallies. It was a very good if long read.

Get on the Bus

I wonder why?

Could it be because they "unilaterally" went to war and saved a bunch of Muslim lives?

Reviled in Many Places Around the World, Americans Are Adored in Kosovo - from Tampa Bay Online

DJAKOVICA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - American flags flutter on peasants' homes. A couple grateful for U.S. help in ending Kosovo's war names a daughter in honor of Madeleine Albright.

A six-story-high poster of former President Clinton towers over the capital's main drag, renamed Bill Clinton Boulevard. And the president of Kosovo is building a new compound he calls the White House.

What America means to me......

This is an attempt to put all my previous posts in context. Sometimes, it is easy to make a mistake of thinking that everyone should see where you are coming from and understand you - its common sense, right? But there are different ways in which events affect different people. Some people might change their complete outlook on life after that something that doesn't register as a blip on someone else's radar. I have always shied away from posting really personal stuff on this blog, but this time I need to - not to win arguments, but just so people understand why I might seem so radically pro-American than most.

I came here in '96, after promising my parents that I will never do so, because the love-of-my-life had come here a year before. I followed him here - at that time, I had no interest in anything American - I didn't even want to stay here too long. I wanted us to finish our Masters' and leave. but since then, I have slowly over the time gotten involved with this strange journey that is the "discovery of America" - not via MTV or Hollywood blockbusters or Santa Barbara on Star TV, but as being among the people who made up the country - all those different people, with different viewpoints, cultures - a country as rich in diversity as I had failed to realize from afar. I admit I got sucked in. It is hard not to - traveling on the grayhound, I met an old man, to whom I had to explain my father drove a car to work everyday, not an elephant. I wasn't offended by the questions, since behind the question I saw a curiosity, a need to know me better. In school, I met a black guy who wanted to know if he could find a suitable Indian girl he could marry and get paid for it (dowry). Then there was this supervisor of mine, who made me organize a celebration of "Holi" in her house, in which her 8-year-old daughter and her friends eagerly participated. They loved it (Blake, sorry turmeric doesn't come off of clothes).

The best part of it was, I never felt different from the other people around me.I felt genuinely accepted by the people around me. I felt this incredible neighborly quality in the people, that being a naturally talkative person, I couldn't help striking conversations with strangers and ending up making friends. It was like one of the things my husband told me when I first came here - he said, "The strange thing is, if you catch someone's eye while you are walking on the road, they will always smile at you". It might seem a normal thing to everybody else, but to a foreigner, it goes a long way to make this country seem like home. So here I was, loved the people, but didn't care much about politics, till the Clinton thing happened. Frankly, I was sick of it - I was sick of the coverage - I was sick of the lying. As a woman who would leave her husband in a heartbeat if he cheated on her, I find Hillary Clinton despicable. The was the reason why, I was glad Gore lost - I didn't care much beyond that.

So, the economy started tanking, and I got laid off, and then I found another job, and on the day I closed on my new house, my current company lost its best and only customer, Nokia, because of the enormous losses it posted. So, 50% of the company got laid off, but I was still there and work was slow, so I thought I would go to work a little late. It was a tuesday in September. I had a leisuly bath, put my dogs in their crates and got dressed and left to work, around 10:00 in the morning. I turned on the radio to my favorite station, but they were talking about something really grim - I didn't understand. Then my husband called me on my cell phone - turns out he has been trying to reach me for an hour now - I didn't hear the cell phone, since I was in the shower. Then he tells me - "Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center!" - "what?" - "yeah, two planes crashed into the twin towers and all the people are expected to be dead".

I was numb and dazed by the time I walked into work. My bestfriend at work was sitting out in the lobby waiting for me - he was close to tears when he ran to me and hugged me asking why was I so late, since he desperately needed someone to talk to. He was not the first grown man I saw crying on the day and the days following. I cried - I cried so much that my husband made me switch the TV off. I called home and my parents were still sitting in front of the TV, crying. It was awful! I was numb, depressed, sad and I still cannot express what I felt. I felt like someone struck at MY country - I mourned with America as one of them - not an onlooker. I planted two stick-paper American flags in my front yard. The next day by the time I was back from work, someone had broken the flags off. I could have given up and said, "these darn racists!", instead, I planted another flag. All the people at work were consoling ME because of this, instead of me consoling them for the tragedy that had befallen their country. That, to me was the true American spirit. In spite of my not being an American by status, emotionally and intellectually, I had already become an American. For being an American to me is not the color of your skin or your country of origin - being American is a state of mind. It is an attitude that embodies many contradictions and debates, but also stands as one to defend the freedom that allows these differences in the first place. That is why, I love America!

For people who think it is all about oiiiilllll!

Ok, this here is for people who pretend that 9/11 either did not happen, or if it did, was nothing but a little footnote in the history of time - I mean, what is the significance of a 4 airplanes filled with people, two burning towers again filled with people and smoking Pentagon, which was again filled with people? 3000 lives lost in the matter of minutes, but big deal - they are just "arrogant" Americans, right? Who cares? Pretend away, people! Maybe int he country you are living in, if 3000 people are killed ruthlessly like that in a day, everybody holds hands and sings songs of peace. Not here, they don't. Here, they actually value the lives of their dead and avenge them and bring justice to their citizens.

WAS KARZAI A UNOCAL CONSULTANT?

UNOCAL denies Karzai worked for them

Another debunking!

And then, there is this - AFGHANISTAN EYES A PIPELINE, BUT PROSPECTS LOOK DIM - looks like Afghanistan wants the pipeline, but UNOCAL, the company that nade US fight the war for the pipeline, strangely is not interested anymore. Hmmm....

And then there is - Oh My Gosh, India? Central Asia pipeline deal signed
India is the largest potential buyer and the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, said Delhi was welcome to join the project. - So, is India the reason behind all this? Vajpayeeji, was it all for oiiilll? How awful!, really, I mean it!

Thank God for basketball and Great Danes!

I was extremely depressed by the time I had made it home last night. I never realized how emotionally invested I was in America, till last night. I am loyal to a fault, whether it be my friends, family or country of citizenship or country where I live in right now. Yesterday was almost the breaking point for me in a lot of ways especially as far as the war with Iraq is concerned. It is frustrating when you feel like you are fighting someone else's war with people who are supposed to be your allies, friends and family, and everything seems in vain. I am not going to name names, but when I see Indian bloggers writing odes to "human shields", and stuff like this - "Two planes crash into two towers. Bush declares war on terrorism and that the nation is at war.". That's it. It is all for Oil™. 9/11 was just that - two towers, two planes. I can tell them, they were not here in the US at that time. I can tell them how much it hurt. I can tell them how much I cried those two horrible days, even though I didn't know a soul in NY, DC or from Flight 93. I never even visited those places. But I still felt it. I felt the pain of it all. I saw the suffeing of innocent people and I stood with them, because doing anything else seemed so....wrong. I know what the rebuttsl would be - "paying for past sins".

If that is the situation with people who don't have much invested with America, the worst blow came to me on a "Survivor" message board, where we were debating the situation. People were comparing Bush to Saddam and said they were both threatening each other, so they are both equivalent, because the UN said so. UN is the God they live by and die by. I can point to those people that UN Human Rights Commission is chaired by a dictator responsible for shooting a civilan plane down and killing hundreds of people. I can tell them UN Disarmament Committee is chaired by Saddam, UNRWA teaches Palestinian kids how to hate Israel in their schools, how UN workers run prostitution rings, how UN has done jackshit to remedy the India-Pakistan situation, even though they wasted a ton of paper on resolutions they cannot enforce, and lots more. I didn't.

Here is why - there were other people on the message board. They were born and brought up Americans. Why were they not speaking up? I am not an American citizen, heck, I am not even a permanent resident. I am here on a temporary work visa. I have nothing to gain but everything to lose from the war and another ecession. I have already been laid off thrice, and another recession would ensure that my husband and I will both lose our jobs, which means we will have to leave the country at once. That is how transient my situation is here. If I have to I will pick up and leave and go back to India and still live happily ever after. Americans though, have nowhere else to go. This is your country. This is your motherland. If you don't defend it, why should I? You are so anti-Bush that you will suffer anti-American fools gladly, without a peep. I will tear to pieces someone who says anything bad about India. I did the same with people who said anti-American stuff, but more and more I think, why should I? May be you don't want confrontations, but I don't like them either. I hate fighting with people. I sick, tired and depressed of having to keep bringing out the same, old arguments and the other side just changing the subject when they cant answer my questions.

I was shaking by the time, I got home from work yesterday and changed and sat down in front of the TV. One of my Great Dane puppies then decided he found my face real tasty. I started playing with him and the tension of the day melted away. Then the basketball game on and my Mavericks beat the crap out of Houston Rockets and Yao Ming. Life is beautiful again, by the time I go to sleep with one Dane snoring into my ear and the other one at my feet, with my lab/hound-mix mutt curled into my stomach and my husband on the other side of the bed, holding in his arms, the black-and-white doggie. I am set to take on the world again.

Note: This was meant as a personal rant against certain people that I found very frustrating, even though it might seem like I am generalizing a bit. If this offends someone, I say "tough luck!".

Awful!

The INS will be putting in too much work and effort with extremely little to show for it, if they really include Indian and Chinese men in the registrants - we make up a huge chunk of immigrants, but we are not related terrorism in any way. How much sense does it make for INS to spend hours questioning my husband, who is from India and a Hindu. What sense would it make for INS to question the Chinese? How many Chinese hijackers were there? I will tell you - none! This is going to result in nothing but a PR disaster for INS and make it a little hard for people like me to defend the policies of national security.

I'm next
(link via Suman Palit)

Update: This is in response to PG's comment - It was getting too long, so I am posting it here -
"So, Hindus terrorize missionaries - If you dig deep enough, you will find that most of the clashes were results of tensions between the tribals that the missionaries were trying to convert and the missionaries.

As for the minister who is being asked to leave, he was in violation of his visa status, since he was not permitted to do any conversions while under his particular visa status. That doesn't strike as terrorism to me.

As for what happens within India, issues are a lot more complex than, he is a Hindu, he beat up a Muslim/Christian/who ever, ergo Hindus are terrorizing others. Fact is, it happens within India. How many Indian suicide-bombers are blowing up Pakistanis in ice cream parlors? It is easy to mouth platitudes about a country as huge and as diverse and as complicated as India. It is hard to back them up.

I am not saying Hindus have not committed crimes or that they are completely innocent in everything. I am saying that 80% of the terrorists in India are not Hindu, while 80% of the population is.

It is also interesting to note that the persecution.org website notes all the BJP's sub-orgs as extremist, but makes no mention of the Muslim terrorists - why? Where is the mention of Godhra where Muslims burned Hindu women and children alive? Another issue that the web site argues is for reservations for non-Hindu lower caste people - come again, how can the people be lower caste, if they have already converted into a caste-less religion? Why should they be treated any different from other people belonging to the same religion? If I wanted to throw around biased web sites as objective evidence, there are plenty of http://www.hvk.org would be a good one. Let's just discuss facts here, not one web site's agenda.

Newsflash: Irate SUV-driver DOES NOT crush Geo Metro to pulp!

So your "selfish, narcissistic", QX4 driver is coming back home from working her "feminist-sellout" butt off at an "evil, capitalist" company. She is driving her "terrorist-supporting" gas-guzzler on the I-35 at 60mph, when a little-bitty, "environment-friendly. peacenik, driven-by-Jesus (TM)" Geo Metro driving at a peaceful pace of 45mph tries to and succeeeds in cutting in between. Now, an average, "vain, insecure" SUV-driver would have cussed her out or honked or in some cases tried to show her who da boss. But this one didn't do any thing - she just slowed down to a crawl to let the little one through and then resumed speed. How surprising!

Fighting School Resegregation

Fighting School Resegregation

Rather than fight school segregation, the Bush Administration has been happy to exploit it. Its briefs in the University of Michigan affirmative action case now in the Supreme Court praise plans in use in Texas, California and Florida that guarantee admission to state universities to students who graduate in the top 4 percent to 20 percent of their class.

Such plans are only partly effective in integrating higher education. They do nothing for graduate schools, and they often shunt minority students to a system's least selective campuses. But to the extent they work at all, it is by harnessing segregation at the high school level.

Relying on segregation in K-12 education to integrate higher education is cynical and wrong. It also creates troubling incentives. By telling minority parents that their children's best chance of attending a good college is to attend a segregated high school, these programs exert pressure on minority communities not to fight for integration in court, or in their school districts.

In their public statements over the Michigan case, members of the Bush administration, including the president, have said they would like to see increased racial diversity in education. If that is indeed their goal, they should begin by coming up with a plan to reverse the current trend, and start integrating the public schools.

So, let me get this straight, this editorial says that blacks and whites tend to attend black-majority and white-majority schools and that is somehow the Bush administration's fault? The U of Michigan kinda discrimination, er, I mean "diversity system helps reintegrate blacks and whites? Do these people ever stop to think before spewing this garbage anymore?

How about the general segregation of neighborhoods being a factor in the segregation of schools? There do tend to be black, white, Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods, that have people of other races in the minority. Since there are restrictions on the public schools that their kids can attend, there is going to be some sort of segregation. How is the U of Michigan system that gives the same benefits to hispanics as it does to blacks going to hep the reintegration of blacks and whites? What grievances do hispanics have? How much slavery did they endure? I guess one of the privileges of writing for a major newspaper is that you can pretend you are beyond the laws of logic. You can build up strawmen that don't have anything to do with the matter at hand and pretend somehow that the whole "diversity" movement is about reintegration.

There cannot be exclusive integration. Any integration must happen on both sides and one side must not always be the accomodator for the others. Even if this force-fed "quota" system is put in place, has the writer ever seen how the dorms usually are? You always have your black floors, white floors and Asian floors i the building. People tend to hang out with those that they are most comfortable with, usually people of their own race. By making people be together, true diversity is not achieved. It is easy to count the number of "colors" on the campus and say, "yay, we are multiculturalist".

True diversity and true integration happen when people start interacting with each other as people not as people belonging to two different colors. Once the basic human bond is established, the cultural differences make the experience all the more richer. Such a thing is hard to foster when there are deep, simmering resentments between the groups. One group is mad that thye are blamed for everything, or might think that the other group gets undeserved help. Another group might feel like a "perpetual victim" and not want to have anything to do with its "oppressors". I personally think that people tend to relate to each other when they meet as equals rather than when they are forced to pretend they are equal.

Are we at war?

As Vodkapundit writes eloquently,
It’s Not the Economy, Stupid

If we weren’t at war:
4The government wouldn’t be piling up so much red ink.
4Our men and women in the armed forces wouldn’t be facing increased danger.
4Thousands and thousands of reservists would still be home with their families, working their civilian jobs.
4There would be far more certainty in the stock markets.
4We wouldn’t spend so much time worrying about elections in Pakistan.
4The economy would be stronger.
4We wouldn’t be spilling treasure and blood in the bleakness of Afghanistan.
4Palestinian terrorists might not be so emboldened.
4We could still be friends with Germany and France.
4Congress and the President could spend more time on the economy.
4We might not have a sniper patrolling the DC area.
4A nation, and a world, would sleep better.
4The New York City skyline would still have all its glory.
43,000 Americans would still be alive.

Evolution of Math Teaching in the US

Evolution of Math Teaching in the US via Daily Pundit.

Confessions of a "Closet Republican"

Confessions of a “Closet Republican” on Broadway (link via Damian Penny)

Games People Play

Another Excellent Bleat from Lileks about dissent in America about the impending war with Iraq. Read the whole thing.

The Senators insisting on a coalition above all else are the left’s equivalent of the nutlog right-wing UN conspiracy crowd. The only difference is that Wellstone starts to worry if he doesn’t hear the black helicopters.

Okay, I’m better now.

No. No, I’m not.

More updates on Maryland killings

Susanna from Cut on the Bias is on the case and procides an excellent profile of the killer that has been refined from the previous version as new details about the killing spree emerge - Killer may have left a message

Update: Gotham Girl has further analysis on the subject and thinks that it looks like the killer might have been infuenced by IRA - WHAT IS THE ARYAN REPUBLICAN ARMY?

Killings in DC

Susanna at Cut on the Bias has a very good analysis and a possible criminal profile and links to other sources that analyze the 5 shooting deaths in D.C. She thinks it is not terrorists as Indepundit and Blogs4God seem to think. I hope it is not terrorism too. I think this country has taken enough blows and dread the day the next terrorist attack happens on American soil.

Cynthia McKinney is mad at Indians!

Read the following item and see if you can understand why the Indians may have been mad at the now-defeated Cynthia McKinney - Rep. McKinney Comments.
(link courtesy The Volokh Conspiracy)

Update: A hilarious take on the same subject by Best Of the Web -
On the eve of Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s primary defeat, her father, state Rep. Billy McKinney, blamed his daughter’s electoral troubles on, as he put it, “J-E-W-S.” Now Cynthia says the H-I-N-D-U-S are to blame. In a speech on the House floor, which Little Green Footballs first noted, McKinney declared:

“Earlier this year, I was one of 42 Members of Congress who wrote to President Bush to urge the release of Sikh and other political prisoners in India.

Apparently, this irritated the Indians because the newspaper article I am inserting in the Record along with this statement shows that they admitted that they invested heavily in the effort to defeat me. To my colleagues of both parties who have also been involved in the effort to expose India’s brutal record, I say: Watch out; they are coming after you, too. “

We hope the McKinneys find a way to blame the Zoroastrians for their losses (Billy lost his seat in a runoff). It’s not that we have any brief for or against the Zoroastrians; we’d just like to see Billy and Cynthia try to spell it.

For those who keep accusing

US concedes India’s right to take pre-emptive strikes

APAs and Asian Week

I can’t find links to the magazine “Asia week” online, but I subscribe to it in print. If you dont subscribe to it yet, please don’t even think of it. If you do, cancel it, which is what I am going to do. This magazine is as racist as it gets and purports to represent the whole of the “APA” (Asian-Pacific American) community. Not in my name! The first article in the magazine written by a certain “Emil Amok” is a major rehash of of the tired, old argument of “Why do they hate us” about 9/11. Predictably, he thinks America deserved what she got and shoould listen to him if she wants to avoid getting hurt in the future.

I have one question to ask of all these people - Why are you here?

Let me explain - I am an Indian citizen living in America since 1996. I am neither a US citizen nor a permanent resident. But I do feel a bond, respect and love for this country that took me in and gave me an opportunity to be all I can be. I did not make this country great - neither did most of the people complaining (atleast, most of the Asian population - especially people from the sub-continent). America is and has been a great country before we all got in - heck, that was the reason why we came here in the first place. Now, we forget the hell-hole countries we left behind and try to turn this one into a replica of our home countries. That makes me mad. These people put on such “holier-than-thou” attitudes when they are lecturing the US should be doing and should not be doing. Then they slander the culture of america and finally they say racist things about the white men (I will post the cartoon they had in the magazine as soon as I can get it scanned in).

Grow up people! stop biting the hand that feeds you. Ask not what America has done for you - ask what you have done for America lately!