Archive for April, 2007

2007.04.09

Jeans Do Not Go Under Dresses

My peripheral vision sees long hair and I turn to look. She’s cute. Nice eyes. Slight smile like the day’s turning out better than expected. Light green dress over… jeans. Loser.

What the hell is up with chicks wearing jeans under their dresses? It has to be one of the lamest fashion elements. Ever. I don’t care how hot you are, you will always be lame. Not adorable. Lame.

I hope the girl learns this because the only reason I’m remembering her now is because her choice of clothing irritated me for most of the day.

2007.04.08

Happy Easter…?

Do you remember the first time you learned who Jesus was?

I don’t remember the first time I ever heard about Jesus, but I do remember when it started bothering me that people were talking about this dude and I had no idea what they were talking about. It was probably 8th grade and we were living in Korea.

“Mom, who is this Jesus that everyone is talking about?”

I think she was a little surprised. We grew up rather isolated from religion which was a bit unusual in the military. I knew my Grandfather was a minister, but I didn’t really know what that meant. The few times we visited Vermont and attended one of his services I just remember it being something of a community gathering.

“Talk to you Grampa,” was my Mom’s advice on learning who this Jesus fellow was.

So we did, and I learned, I tried reading the Bible (old testament; horribly written by a bunch of guys about a very vindictive and childish God) and and I wasn’t really convinced by the whole debate. To this day I’m not a Christian though I’ve learned to appreciate some aspects of the faith (unlike most evangelicals who seems to be dominating the face of Christianity in America today).

So for those of you who care, Happy Easter! I hope you get a load of hard boiled eggs. :)

2007.04.07

Terrorism versus The West

Stay tuned! It’s the arrayed forces of The West defending themselves against the Forces of Terror in a knock down slug-fest sure to keep the news wires buzzing for the next 100 years!

But I have a few questions. Who is “The West”? The west can’t just mean a geographic line in the sand because then we could draw that line somewhere in the Pacific and China is suddenly The West. I assume America is in that list but does Japan fall into that category since their society more closely resembles America than, say, Saudi Arabia? Does it include cultures that draw their current form from “European” roots? Because despite Cuba’s dislike of America they would be western as well.

And just who are these Forces of Terror? It’s pretty obvious that Al Qaeda is a pack of criminal bastards but to some few out there they are heroes. Even America supported them when they were fighting the Russians. Are they people who kill others to bring attention to their “causes” and feel the killing is justified (and justice) because the dead are evil? Because Ameica has a few of those in the case of groups that promote (and individuals who have carried out) the killing of doctors who have performed abortions. Let alone countries who, on the whim of individuals, invade other countries.

“Terror” and “The West” have devolved into baseless talking points. It feeds absolutist rhetoric when the terms have no absolute definitions. It serves those who can only see the world in terms of “us versus them” but hide that limitation behind broad terms that have no real meaning.