Sunday, February 18, 2007

War Crimes

"8 soldiers die in Afghanistan helicopter crash"
"2 marines killed by roadside bomb in Baghdad"

these lines, and many many more like it, have been splashed across headlines for the past 4 years now. as the body count of dead soldiers continues to rise past 3,000...i, like many Americans have been wondering why as Bush said the mission was accomplished nearly 4 years ago. but i'm not here on a tirade of the war...that kind of talk is already plastered on every news channel and form of media possible...instead, i'm going to go on a harangue on this article on our wounded soldiers.

for those of you who actually read this blog, if you're too lazy to actually read the article, i'll give you a quick rundown before i start my rant. basically, the article speaks of the atrocities that await our wounded soldiers as they return home. most of us know walter reed medical center as the military's top-of-the-line medical facility...and for the part of saving the lives and the treatment, it is. but for its acting as a military barracks for the wounded, they fall way short of what our soldiers deserve.

its just disappointing to see that republicans and pro-war radicals are condemning the democrats and anti-war advocates for being anti-soldier. not to take all blame away from the left, as this is a governmental oversight, not just a partisan one. but the hypocrisy is found in how the cultist right has so powerfully labeled the left as soldier-hating baby-killers, yet it is their war that has left hundreds of wounded soldiers on the battlefield of recovery...as if the pain and the agony they saw, experienced, and felt in the deserts weren't enough.

investigators have found that it's the massive bureaucracy that these men and women must navigate in order to receive treatment and further instruction. now i'm no right-wing, gun-toting, anti-government bush-lover...but for some things, minimalism might just be better than the maze of government oversight.

so about the billions of billions being poured into this civil war that we're policing...the GOP defends it as needed to protect and support the soldiers on the battlefields. and though getting them the armor and medical supplies and whatnots that those appropriations are supposedly for is important and vital for their survive, lets not forget about those who have come back to live lives of phantom pain from amputations, memory loss from massive brain trauma, years of rehabilitation from broken bodies, and unending nightmares from post traumatic stress disorder. they're still on the battlegrounds, lets spend some money saving lives instead of ending them.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

I'm An AMERICAN

well...not that i wasn't an American before, but now...it seems, there is a new meaning to it. though nothing has been decided and no letters of intent have been forwarded, i'm excited and proud to bring this news to my fellow netizens and loyal xanga-blogger followers.

through some major oversight in the admissions department, i have been granted the prestigious opportunity to earn my graduate's degree in American University!!!
(imagine Hail to the Chief playing in the background, cuz that's what i think about everytime i think about AU)

now i'm not getting ahead of myself...there are still any number of things that can happen between now and the day i revert myself back to student-hood. but a fellow blogger and friend, ting-a-ling, has advised me on blogging about this feeling for the sake of memory and possible nostalgia five years down the road. so here is my rank of my emotions from strongest to weakest:

1. shock
2. relief
3. joy
4. pride
5. anxiety

i find that simple feelings are easier to manage than complicated ones. but alas, having found myself in a room full of closed doors, i'm glad that one has opened in front of me. now time will only tell whether others will open or will i be walking this path toward DC.

to ting...may ur package be arriving shortly :)

Thursday, February 8, 2007

10,000 Steps Later

so this adventure recently took me on an impulsive journey with a few new friends to HuangShan (Yellow Mountain), which is known for it YunHai (Sea of Clouds) and its natural scenic beauty. the evolution of this trip mainly consisted of a drunken agreement made two days before the departure...a mad dash to catch our train...a 10-hour train ride...a last-minute hop onto a tour group...and nearly 7 hours and a dozen kilometers (sorry folks, my residence in china has turned me to the metric system. here, i'll help u: 1 mi = 1.6 km) of the most grueling treks (okay, okay...a majority of the climb may have been spent on a cable car)...an evening of bad buffet and a bottle of "BaiJio"...and a 5 hour layover for another 10-hour return train home. all in all, the trip was a success and fairly enjoyable.

BUT...this will be where i unintelligibly connect my trip to one of the political hot topics of the moment, global warming. how, you ask, will i achieve such a task? to tell u the truth, this might not come off as eloquently as it played in my head. but hell, no one reads this thing anyways so who really cares?

for those who have been following the news at all, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released a report last week stating with 90% certainty that man (meaning mankind...didn't want to confuse you with the idea th
at men worldwide are producing flatulence at epic rates) is causing global warming. now the IPCC consists of hundreds of scientists and skeptics from numerous countries, thereby giving the best chance of a non-partisan report.

now i'm not one to overly criticize, as i drive the v8 engine suv that i love and power the heater when my nipples start to poke through my shirt. but i'm still socially aware enough (though maybe not personally dedicated enough) to know that major change needs to be done to slow down (not halt, as the process has already passed its critical mass) the effects of global warming. but what i don't understand is how long it has taken this administration to come around to address this issue and how major corporations can still rail against the scientific evidence of its existence. its has been reported that
such big-oil interests groups (AEI) has started to bribe IPCC scientists to put out their own reports downsizing or entirely eliminating the claim that we, the energy hungry and environmentally unconscious, are ruining the planet.

so as the entire world heats up, i bring us back to the inspiration of this post: my trip to HuangShan. our uber friendly tour guide has mentioned that the seasons have been increasingly warm lately, resulting in less rain and snow and clouds that HuangShan is famous for in the winter. so after enduring the endless amount of stairs and the virtual carrying of Theresa up the mountain, we reached a peak without the gratification i was promised. HuangShan is supposed to look like the magnificence you see to the below.












instead, we caught the significantly duller image to the right. don't get me wrong, the sites we saw and the magnificence of the mountain are still amazing an
d worth the trip, but my fellow travelers and i were slightly disappointed by the lack of 'normal' weather.

but fret not fellow readers, i have changed my ways. to play my part in the curbing of global warming, i have cut down on my public flatulents in hopes of sparing the atmosphere any more poisonous gases. now...what will you do?