Beth's Contradictory Brain

More Driving...

although this time it's for a good cause. Tonight we're driving to an even smaller town in Kansas - woohoo! We're going to pick my grandma up in the morning to begin her move from the nursing home she calls jail to her own little apartment near my family in Texas. The drive tonight is just so we don't have to get up at 4 a.m. and drive in the morning. It's about four and a half hours to where grandma is, then tomorrow it's eight hours from there to my parents'. Sunday we'll eat and relax, then Monday it's another lunch at SaltGrass - mmmmmmmmmm SaltGrass - then back home. Very exciting stuff. But, we get to help out grandma and we get to see Zach. There are certainly worse weekends to be had!

Picking Anniversaries

In light of Weese's anniversary post, Suburban Lesbian was prompted to write about how gay couples choose an anniversary date - you know, since we don't really have wedding dates to go by.

Because it really was our first date, that ended up lasting the whole weekend, that kicked things off, we ended up going with that date for our anniversary. If gay marriage is ever fully legal in this country, I figure we'd do the official ceremony on the same date, to keep things simple. Fortunately, it's in late April, a nice time of year.

In the comments someone stated that straight couples who live together for several years before getting married have a hard time answering how long they've been together - from the dating date, moving in date, wedding day date. Most couples I know say something along the lines of we've been together X years and married X years.

Note to Self

Just because that nice breeze from the north makes it feel cold outside while motorcycle riding - it doesn't mean you won't get sunburned.

Interesting

One of the best things about the world of blogs is finding something truly different and interesting to read or see.

On one of my regular reads, Smitten, I saw this link today - Needled who wrote about Shelly Jackson's SKIN project and had a link to a participant.

I think if someone like Neil Gaiman was doing the project I'd be very tempted to sign up. I'd trust that the story was interesting enough and well written enough to be a part of for life.

Any author out there you admire and trust enough you'd get one word of their short story project tattooed on you?

Long Lasting

Weese wrote a wonderful post today about being with her wife for 20 years (Congrats again!!) and how it seems that gay relationships are only "valid" after X amount of time.

I know for me there was one point, early on, I just wanted my relationship with Nerdstar to outlast the relationships some old crushes of mine were in!

But I am aware of feeling that being in a relationship that has lasted over six years now does bring validity to it. Especially since neither of our siblings' straight marriages lasted a year! So I don't think I just hold gay couples to a longevity test.

I think I wonder more about what point in a relationship marks that it will make it long term - when does it become a "done deal" that it's for the long haul. I hate hearing about relationships - of any kind - that fall part after five, ten, or twenty years. I know, in reality there is no such point. It takes being committed every day.

Weather

I've heard that the Weather Chanel is the most watched tv chanel. I believe that. I watch it all the time. Austin Time Warner cable had a station that was just the national weather service radar of our area and those creepy automated voices of current conditions. With rain coming and going all the time, it was easier just to look at the radar and see where it was headed for myself instead of having to wait for some local news report. Kansas City Time Warner cable doesn't have the same thing - which is a shame in tornado season.

One of the biggest reasons I didn't totally mind moving out of Austin, or even Texas for that matter, is that I hate hot weather. I'd spend five months of the year indoors because it was usually over 95 with 908% humidity. Yuck!!

So the only thing we're enjoying here in the midwest is the weather. There was a real spring here. In Austin we'd go from a mild winter in February, temps from 50 to 70, to a summer by the middle of May that doesn't end until the end of October. The poor kids in Halloween costumes are usually all hot and sweaty by the time they're done trick or treating.

Today was just about my ideal weather day. The winds shifted to being out of the north and brought a nice rainy day before driving out the heat. It's much, much nicer to have it be 90 outside with 35% humidity and 5-10 mph winds from the north than for it to be 85 with 98% humidty and 5-10 mph winds straight up from the gulf!

And while I know Summer isn't over yet, today made me all ready for Fall!

Say What You Will

But you just can't make me care about the space shuttle launch. Our space program should be so far beyond this by now.

Speechless

No, really, what can possibly be said??

Go for the picture.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - On his first visit to the Middle East, Ricky Martin declared he will try to change negative perceptions of Arab youth in the West.

"I promise I will become a spokesperson, if you allow me to, a spokesperson on your behalf. I will defend you and try to get rid of any stereotypes," the 33-year-old singer told youngsters from 16 mainly Arab countries at a youth conference on Monday.

Oliver

Oh how cute and fun - this site is a daily picture of a dog named Oliver. I can't tell you how much we wish Ramen wasn't afraid of cameras and wouldn't walk away every time he sees one. He truly has some of the best dog expression faces!

Japan

My girl made it home this afternoon, with only a slight case of jetlag so far. She's got a few photos posted on her site.

The More Things Change...

the more they stay the same.

One of the most interesting things I read in Christopher Hitchens’ book on Thomas Jefferson was about the Barbary Wars. There was a tremendous problem with Morocan pirates taking British and American sailors and civilians into slavery. “The rule in most European capitals was to pay a given amount of ‘tribute’ to the ‘Barbary’ powers.” Imagine that.

The situation pissed Jefferson off. In 1784 three American ships were captured. Again, large bribes were offered up as a solution.

“President Adams invited Jefferson to London for a private meeting with the ambassador of Tripoli. On this occasion Ambassador Abdrahaman mentioned some startlingly high tariffs for ransom of hostages, for cheap terms of ‘temporary peace’ and for more costly terms of ‘perpetual peace,’ not forgetting to add his own personal commission on the negotiation. Since the United States had not offended the Muslim powers in any way – it had not taken part in the Crusades for example, or the Spanish monarchy’s reconquest of Andalusia – Adams and Jefferson asked to know by what right this levy was being exacted. As Jefferson later wrote, to Jay and to Congress, on March 28, 1786:

The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisioners.”

“Jefferson’s refused all payment of tribute, and prepared at once to outfit an American naval squadron to visit the Mediterranean.”

Thankfully, the spirit of Jefferson isn’t completely dead.

Unfortunately, our enemies have much, much longer memories and are better versed it their history than we are.

What can I say?

I've seen the story of the two teenage boys who were hanged in Iran for being gay on a couple of websites and it just breaks my heart.

Now there's the story in London - A British LGBT civil rights group says its leaders have received death threats from Muslim fundamentalists and warns that gay clubs could be targets for terrorist bombers.

"Gay venues could be bombed by Islamic terrorists," OutRage said Monday. "All gay bars and clubs should introduce bag and body searches. Muslim fundamentalists have a violent hatred of lesbians and gay men. They believe we should be killed. Our community could be their next target. This is no time for complacency."

I'll refrain from politicizing the issues.

Two Things

Two things I'd like to have...

A digital gas gage telling me exactly how much gas I have left and exactly how many miles it'll get me.

A "mute" button on the tv remote to turn off all the graphics on the screen, including all those annoying news crawls.

Nothin

Zip, Zilch, Nada.

Family

I was never one to keep up with the extended family. Heck, there were several years I would have been more than happy to not keep up with my immediate family. My friends became my family and I thought that was for the better.

But over the past few years with my friendships having mostly fallen by the wayside, and with Zachary being around, I've shifted back to my family being important to me.

So this weekend I found myself actually enjoying the reunion. My father's mom is my only living grandparent. She's the sweetest woman, very devout in her faith, as is about half of the family. Over 23 years she had six kids, five boys and then finally a girl. My father and most of his brothers have been married to the same woman for twenty or thirty years. Their kids, well, the track record starts to slip.

It was neat to see Grandma in pictures with her kids, then with all the grandkids, and then all the great-grandkids. To see all of these people running around because of this woman.

It doesn't look like I'll have kids of my own. I think that's part of why I love Zach so much - he looks and acts enough like me that any time he and I are out somewhere everyone assumes he's mine. So it makes me a little sad to think that there won't come a time in forty or fifty years that I'll be in a room with all these people who are my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren by blood.

(I have no doubt I'll love the children Nerdstar and I have together as if they were my blood, but...)

Ani has a lyric about having strangers for ancestors, strangers for great grandchildren that I think about on occasion. I try to preserve as much of my letters and writings and pictures to one day pass down to coming generations, but still, they won't know me.

Far Away

Well, Nerdstar made it out of here ok early this morning. Her flight was supposed to be at 8:17 this morning. At close to 6:30 her phone rang saying that they had to catch an earlier flight in order to not miss the connecting flight in Dallas. Great. Thankfully we were running early - which is a miracle for her!

She's about four hours into a thirteen hour flight from Dallas to Japan. I can't imagine being on a flight that long. Hopefully she'll sleep thru most of it.

Me, well, I've gotten an oil change, done laundry, bought a few snacks for the reunion this weekend and am going to try to get to bed around 9 because I have to get up at 5 am. Fun.

It's weird having my girl be so far away again. But I don't think any parting will ever be as hard as when I dropped her off at the airport for her return to Iraq after she was home on leave.

And did I mention just how unfair it is she's going to Japan and I'm going to a family reunion in southern Kanasas? Totally unfair!

Leaky Gas

I've been recording the Tour every day so Nerdstar and I can watch it when she's home from work. We had wondered if Lance could win this one. I said as long as he wanted it - he'd win it. Yesterday proved just how much he wants it, and it was amazing to watch.

But the most fun we're having watching the tour comes from the team Liquigas - pronounced leaky gas - which isn't something you want the rider in front of you to have!

Then today we found Dave Zabriskie's blog and this short interview:

DZ: Charlie have you ever actually had Liquigas?

CW: You mean like when the s*#t comes out of your ass in a Liquid?

DZ: Sure.

CW: I had to quit the Giro in 2003 because of it.

DZ: Thanks for the interview.

More Travels

While Nerdstar is a lucky duck and gets to go to Japan Friday morning, I'm headed to a family reunion near Witchita, KS. The unfairness of that just can't be put into words. Not only does Nerdstar get to miss the reunion (and piss off Zach in the process) she gets to be somewhere too cool for words instead.

Her only goal for her three days in Tokyo is to see the Hello Kitty World Headquarters building. Yes, Hello Kitty has it's own building.

Then, the second week in August she's got another work conference in Monterrey, CA. She's been there one other time with the military for a language olympics. I've never been there, so I just booked me a flight for under $250 to meet up with her out there. Can you say beach time? I knew you could.

For poor people we're well traveled!

Penguins

I'm one of those people who loves to go to the movies, but hasn't been going lately because the movies coming out just suck. If I wanted to see something like The Bad News Bears, I'd rent the original and not have to see Billy Bob dealing with kids. As much as I love all the new high def tvs and surround sounds that's available for the house, there's still something about sitting in a movie theater.

So when I read the reviews of March of the Penguins I was happy to have a reason to go to the movies.

It's a heartwarming movie with a little drama, a little happiness, a little sadness, and even some humor. It's cool that it's being released in theaters and not relegated to PBS or Discovery, it's worth seeing on a big screen.

Day Dream

It's a darn shame I like living in the US so much (even if it's here in the Midwest)! One idea that hit me while listening to that AFI 100 greatest movie songs the other day was how cool it would be to go to Iraq and teach things like that.

Then tonight at Barnes and Noble I picked up Christopher Hitchens' new biography of Jefferson and a book about the transcontinential railroad by Stephen Ambrose. It led me to expand on that idea and think about how it would be fun to set up a big movie theater/cafe in Baghdad and show classic American films, have book discussions on people like Jefferson and Lincoln and really find fun ways to share this big crazy idea of democracy.

I'm in no way saying Iraq's government and democracy has to mirror ours. We can all certainly hope they never go thru a civil war like we did. But what's the point of over 200 years of trail and error and history if we can't be some sort of example - and what more fun way would there be to share that example than thru movies, books and music?

Iraq and al Qaeda

The Mother of all Connections.

Indeed, more than two years after the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein was ousted, there is much we do not know about the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. We do know, however, that there was one. We know about this relationship not from Bush administration assertions but from internal Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) documents recovered in Iraq after the war--documents that have been authenticated by a U.S. intelligence community long hostile to the very idea that any such relationship exists.

We know from these IIS documents that beginning in 1992 the former Iraqi regime regarded bin Laden as an Iraqi Intelligence asset. We know from IIS documents that the former Iraqi regime provided safe haven and financial support to an Iraqi who has admitted to mixing the chemicals for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. We know from IIS documents that Saddam Hussein agreed to Osama bin Laden's request to broadcast anti-Saudi propaganda on Iraqi state-run television. We know from IIS documents that a "trusted confidante" of bin Laden stayed for more than two weeks at a posh Baghdad hotel as the guest of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

It's a very long and detailed report, but well worth the time. Some of the information has been gathered from Iraqi intelligence documents found since the Iraq War began.

More Hitchens

On Joe Scarborough about Hillary. (via Ann Althouse)

Debating Ron Reagan and talking with Tom Oliphant. (via Instapundit)

I love the blososphere #8374

Other than the sheer speed of information, and that so much of the information is first hand and not filtered through the MSM or anyone's agenda (or if they have an agenda, it's usually pretty clear when reading the archives and such), I love that there are intelligent, well informed people writing serious posts about world events.

One of the best reads I've discovered in the past few months is Pundita.

I'm not even going to pick an excerpt from her post today about what message is being sent to London through these attacks, you just need to read the whole thing. Then ask why Iran hasn't been mentioned once in the past 36 hours on the news.

Update:

A couple more links on the Iran/Al Qaeda connection:
winds of change 1
winds of change 2

To me it's obvious not only that we're at war, but that this is a war unlike any we've known. The differences are beyond just that the enemy is not a part of a regular army and doesn't put on uniforms and fight our army on a set battle ground, but instead try to be faceless and attack civilians. It's a war against ideas, not even necessarily the Muslum religion.

And not only are we not fighting Vietnam all over again, I don't believe we'll even fight Iraq again. The next "war" with be with Iran, or maybe North Korea, and I'd only give it a 10% chance we go to war with China. And none of those could be fought like we've fought in Iraq.

So it's time for our intelligence agencies and our media to stop viewing things through all the wrong paradigms.

Silly Olympics

Baseball and softball, two sports invented in America, were dropped Friday from the program for the 2012 Olympics in London - the first sports cut from the Summer Games in 69 years. But the IOC couldn't agree on their replacements.

It was a stunning conclusion to a long, complex voting procedure, and means that 26 sports will be contested at the London Games.

More Must Reads

The more I read and listen to Christopher Hitchens, the more I crush on him. Here's a great article on the attacks yesterday.

Here's an extensive look at Paul Wolfowitz in interviews with him over at least a year. He answers a lot of the questions about "mistakes" the administration made regarding Iraq.

Just In Case

You haven't read these sites today:

Andrew Sullivan - he has lots of wonderful quotes from Londoners.

This is a great group of over 300 photos on Flickr.

And ProjectNothing has more info and links.

July 4th Pics

London

How horribly sad. I feel terrible for Tony Blair.

For a lot of good information and updates and links: The Command Post.

Different Look

Here's a different look at the Live8 "aid" and some better ideas. Follow the links provided as well!

My one thought on the whole Live8 mess is - ok, we'll give you what you're asking for now if you swear upon torture and death that if your efforts fail we'll never hear from you again! Put up or shut up.

Rainy Sunsets

Staying Power

I often have conversations with my Mom or Nerdstar about the past versus the present in music and movies and such. Newsweek asks which movie stars from this generation will we still watch fifty years from now like we watch Grant and Gable. I agree with newsweek that the generation before this one, with Streep and Redford and Eastwood certainly made movies that will last the test of time.

Listening to the top 100 movie songs I was telling Nerdstar how amazing it is that a simple song like Singing in the Rain is still such a part of popular culture about 70 years later.

What do you think will last?

XM

Having XM satellite radio makes for better listening on these long road trips we keep taking. Although, I must say that there's really not an XM channel that plays the music I really like from the 70s to the 90s. The decade channels are just too narrow. They picked a genre or two from the decade, but unfortunately they're not the genre's I liked. Then they took the other music from those decades and made other channels, like Deep Tracks, Top Tracks, etc. But it's pretty rare I hear two songs in a row on any of the channels that I really enjoy. That's why I tend to prefer an iPod for my solo trips. Nerdstar, though, really likes the 80s channel.

Thankfully XM offers a lot more than music. We spend a lot of time listening to the news, or talk radio, or comedy. Every once in a while I'll even try the old time radio shows or something.

Yesterday they were running the AFI 100 best movie songs commercial free. It would start over when it finished. It was a lot of fun to listen to. I tuned it around song #40 and we listend to the #1 song. Now, while I love to watch old black and white movies, I've never been into musicals. And yet, I knew every song we heard on that list. Not that I knew all of the lyrics to every song, but I knew them.

Then I tortured Nerdstar by making her listen to the Ranger game. It ended up being a great game, they pulled it out with several great hits in the bottom of the 9th! I think that makes six years in a row they've won on July 4th.

Home Again, Again

I actually enjoyed the time at my parents' house this weekend. I was dreading it because of the hell my brother - and therefore my parents - is going through. But nothing, absolutely nothing, warms the heart like a four year old little boy running towards you because he's missed you!!

We're all worn out from all the heat and driving. The poor dog is convinved he's already dead and in hell.

But one of the many things Nerdstar and I mulled over during driving is how many other people put so much thought into which part of this big ole country do they want to live in. It's a pretty constant theme in our conversations and I realized today that's probably not in the norm.

So my questions are - how did you come to be living in the place you're in now, do you intend to stay there indefinitely or is there somewhere else you'd rather live?

Off Again

We're up not quite so early today. We don't need to be in Dallas until after 7 pm, so we got to sleep a little later. While Nerdstar got her fill of ethnic foods last weekend, I'm hoping to get my fill of good American food this weekend. It's sad when I can't even get a decent chicken fried steak around these parts.

Here's hoping you all have a safe and happy 4th. Back on Monday night.