Author Archives: bshirley

I question the destruction.

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Destruction in war to be expected

The military incursion in Iraq, for brevity lets term it a war (though the Congress hasn’t declared it such, they did give President Bush the blank check to act as such) can be expected to cause much destruction. Much of the munitions being used are very good at minimizing collateral damage to both human life and property. But when a 1000 pound bomb explodes in your neighborhood, you have to expect a bit of damage. It’s war, that happens, lets get some oil money in there to fix it.

What I don’t understand is the mindless need for destruction. Not by looting hoards, which, as distressing as it may be, is typical human behavior. The mindless destruction that is bothering me is that being performed by our troops.

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Cheney v Clark

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Today Vice President Dick Cheney, addressed American Society of Newspaper Editors. (full text) He said some things I agree with and several I don’t, and definitely implied some things that are questionable, which seems de rigueur for the administration. However, right now I’ll only address one part of his comments. Going off topic he threw a personal jab, “In the early days of the war the plan was criticized by some retired military officers embedded in TV studios.”
I feel certain he was referring to retired general and former NATO commander Wesley Clark who is working currently for CNN. Clark has expressed reservations about the current military incursion, expressing the opinion that the diplomacy prior to the action should have been more resolute. He has also expressed questions about certain operational military details in Iraq. The Slate and others have opined that Clark may have an interest in running for president (as a Democrat) in 2004.

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TASP test

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Some people know that I’m applying to HISD‘s ACP program. I haven’t told many people, not wanting to jinx my application, having been unemployed for over two years and applying to many, many, many jobs. Everyone I’ve talked to has said I should get accepted automatically, but you never know.

Two monday’s ago I went in to give them the application, but I had not done my TASP tests (I read that portion of the application procedure and promptly filed it under “forget”), and I had failed to get my transcript from HCC for 3 hours of English I took in 1985. If I had not used it on my University of Texas degree, and thus it was on my UT transcript, they wouldn’t have known about it.

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Take me out to the ballgame

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Astros vs. Rockies

Ok, I can take myself to the ball game. And did yesterday. On my bike. It was a great day and an afternoon game between the Astros and the Rockies with the roof open. My secondary reason for going was it was magnetic schedule day, and I had to have a magnet (or many).
The ride there is a straight shot down Washington (has a passable bike lane) veers onto Preston (only mildly trafficked, easy to manage) downtown. It’s a little longer but smoother to take Heights Blvd to Washington, but I took Sawyer. It goes through an industrial area and is in very had shape. Not very bike friendly, but with fresh legs i don’t mind it. I tied up to a small city bike rack across Texas Ave from the ball park, and bought my ticket to the cheap seats in sec 432. Someone offered me a ticket in the “dugout” seats (1st – 3rd, lower section), but I sit there all the time, and could sneak a seat there if I wanted to. I wanted to sit up high.

ticket $5

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Book Club

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It’s like Fight Club, but we don’t hit each other with our fists… and a few of the participants are pregnant,… and…

For those that don’t know, I’m in a book club. It’s a very interesting and always changing hodge-podge of people, both home grown and imported. I’ve been involved off-and-on for two, three years; I don’t know, I’m not keeping score.

We meet about every 5 weeks. We all propose and then vote on what book will be next. Last month it was The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. This coming month we’ve voted on The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

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REM Song – Bandwagon

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This song was wafting in and out of my head several weeks ago. I really need to dial it up on the CD player and get it out of my system. I think it’s particularly apropos (oh no, did I use a French word? The horror.), but I’ll leave my personal feeling of its interpretation to myself. That’s the beauty of music, it can mean different things to different people, all correct.

-b


 >REM – Dead Letter Office – Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Come on aboard, I promise you you won’t hurt the horse
We treat him well, we feed him well.
There’s lots of room for you on the bandwagon,
The road may be rough, the weather may forget us
But won’t we all parade around and sing our songs,
a magic kingdom, open-armed

Greet us hello, bravo, name in lights
Passing on the word to fellow passengers and players, passing in,
Until you’re tired looking at all the flags
And all the banners waving
This is some parade, yesiree Bob.
Could we have known?
Yesiree Bob, could we have known?

Look at all the flags and all the banners waving.
Open up our arms, a magic kingdom, open-armed and greet us all

Come on aboard I promise you you won’t hurt the horse
We treat him well, we feed him well
There’s lots of room for you on the bandwagon
The road may be rough, the weather may forget us
But won’t we all parade around and sing our songs and wave our flags.
A magic kingdom, greet us all hello, greet us hello, greet us hello.