Score One for Justice

Cindy Sheehan was arrested ysterday. She wore a huge idiot smirk on her face as police officers physically removed her from the scene. “Hee, hee, hee ... civil disobedience is so much fun ... [Toss of the hair] ... Gee, am I having a blast!” ...As if it was a senior prank.

Hats off to the U.S. Park Police, though. As officers in the spotlight, they know their actions will be scrutinized by their superiors, the general public, and the media brigade. They performed their duties flawlessly.

When the media first introduced me to Sheehan, my heart went out to her. I empathized over what it must be like to lose a loved one to war. I recognized her right to mourn in whatever manner soothed her. As soon as she realized she had the nations’ attention, though, she certainly shed the grieving mother persona and stepped into the role of political activist without batting an eye.

I am ashamed of her on behalf of her son. I would hope, that if I felt called to sacrifice my life for something I believed in, that my survivors wouldn’t turn around and mar my memory by taking a very public stand against it. She dishonors her son as well as his comrades who fought and fell by his side. Nobody hates war more than a soldier. But they are motivated to face that which they hate because they feel called to the duty of defense of their country, a duty which is wholly encompassing… theirs not to reason why. To debate the valiancy of that commitment, to stain the bigger picture their spirits carry, is the worst kind of demoralization, the most belittling insult.


"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt

Decaffeinated

As I begin my third day of caffeine abstinence, I have two thoughts...
1) its nice that my headache has downgraded from moderate to mild
2) a cup o' java sure would hit the spot right about now

No, YOU'RE below average!!

So I took this "quick and dirty" IQ test. Easy-peesy. Sixteen questions to determine my self-worth and gauge my value as a human being. The verdict? My logical reasoning skills are (gasp!) "below average"!

{{Long silence as she gives her readers time to recover from the shock of what they just read}}

The nerve! Just who do they think they're calling below average?!?

Wanna know a little secret, though? Just between us pals here and the rest of the internet community? I think it rather intrigues me that I can't get the test to tell me I'm perfect (tho I would settle for "pretty darn good"!) Why? I have three theories:

I feel the pull to win over entities that are not immediately attracted to me. I guess this is the same way a pet dog or cat will ignore all the people in the room who are calling for it, and instead make a bee-line for the person who is afraid of, allergic to, or just plain doesn't like pets. There is one caveat to this, though. I am not generally one to sacrifice blood sweat and tears without observing some kind of gain from my investment.

Rather Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance-y, I make as much or as little effort as it takes to earn a result that I deem desirable. When given an assignment, I may perform what I believe to be my best. But if the ramifications of that assignment are below the bar I have set for myself, I'm going to find it within myself to try again harder -- better than my best -- until I am able to achieve an acceptable outcome. Sometimes I end up surpassing the original bar; sometimes I have to lower the bar. It depends on who I have allowed to play Judge.

Perhaps the test is right on cue. After all is said and done, it hasn't exactly been logical for me to sit here and analyze this. But I do it because, after having justified the test result, I feel better. Ahh, yes, feelings - the arch nemesis of logic. "Meh!" on you, IQ test! I'm not Spock, man! Maybe I don't particularly feel like being logical today ... so there!! Phhhbbt! :P

Your IQ Is 135

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Genius

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

N.S.M.I.E.

Today I coined the term NSMIE (EHN-smee): Non-Specific Malaise of Indeterminate Etiology. Coincidentally enough, I also diagnosed myself today with NSMIE.

In other news, I haven't got all the software reinstalled on the home computer yet. For some reason, my firewall isn't allowing Napster to access the internet. In the McAfee settings, the Napster program is allowed full access, and yet, Napster will not work when the firewall is enabled. Any suggestions from those of you smarter than me in matters such as this?

At least I got my "books" sidebar updated. *sigh* Simple victories.

Back... (and now, virus free!)

Just got my computer back. Apparently, I caught a pretty nasty cyber-bug and had to get the entire hard drive wiped. Grrrrr... Now I begin the onerous task of reinstalling all of my software; goody, goody! I will post a real message a little later. Right now I am going to make the rounds and check up on everyone else. Oh yeah - and I have to update my books I'm reading sidebar. It's embarrassingly outdated.