…waking up at 1:00 A.M. to retrieve a cotton ball that your child has inexplicably inserted in her nose.
Apparently she did this many hours ago and it took this long to become painful. Pulling it out was also painful in that she was screaming.
Actually this served to remind me how fortunate I am not to have to deal with her bodily fluids, waste products, etc. on a daily basis anymore. That was not so long ago!
This heartwarming story of TSA officials confiscating airplane meal utensils from a pilot is a pretty hilarious example of what I’ve long been thinking of as the Soviet-ization of America.
A less hilarious example is the recent craven capitulation of Congress to President Bush’s every whim on the whole warrantless wiretapping thing. Way to not stand up against an overwhelmingly unpopular president on behalf of the American people and the Constitution, guys! Did you remember to deliver the bill to the White House on your knees and avert your eyes in the presence of His Bushness?
The summative problem of the Soviet Union is that it had a powerful government that served a select few while remaining insulated from most of its citizenry. Much of our cold war rhetoric was predicated on the idea that central economic planning was the main problem… but it seems clear in retrospect that central economic planning was merely an implementation detail. Don’t you think America’s stumbling economy, celebration of mediocrity, military worship, and descent into Panopticon-like surveillance state give the place a sort of retro-Russky feel? Maybe it’s time to replace the eagle and pyramid on the back of our dollar bills with snapshots of a tank and a decaying concrete housing block.
Here is a nice brief pictorial overview of the 2008 floods in Iowa City.
The parts you saw on CNN were probably Cedar Rapids, which is located nearby but is on the Cedar River, not the Iowa River like we are. The flooding involved several different waterways.
Remember when the army covered up Pat Tillman’s death by friendly fire?
Well now they are covering up this young woman’s death by friendly fire:
The additional wrinkle is that along with friendly fire, LaVena Johnson also suffered friendly rape and friendly getting-burned-with-acid and friendly being-set-fire-to.
Oh, and since we wouldn’t want to hurt morale back home, the Army classified her death as a suicide.
She is not the only person to receive such treatment.
Yay this war! USA! USA!
