1997 was not a good year for me. That’s the year my mother died. It’s also the year Mother Theresa and Princess Diana died. But who of these three gets remembered every year? Yep. Diana. I remember 1997 very well. I clearly recall the one or two days of news coverage over Mother Theresa, contrasted against the one or two months of Diana. Like who gives a f-ing shit about Diana. I’m sorry, but she didn’t do squat to alleviate world suffering nearly as much as Mother Theresa did. But if you ask a room full of first graders who Mother Theresa was, you’ll get a bunch of confused faces. Ask them who Princess Diana was and they’ll all raise their hands to answer eagerly. That is an example of just how f-d up we are as a culture.

So, now we’re once again reading about a remembrance service for Princess Diana. It reminds me of two bad things: my mother’s passing and how we all so easily forget someone like Mother Theresa.

So, a US Government study chastizes the Iraqi government for moving too slow and making too little progress. Hmm, let’s see. How can I refactor this scenario into an analogy that folk in America could relate to?

Let’s say China invaded your home town and destroyed the water treatment plant, most of the schools, most of the grocery stores, and a significant percentage of roads, bridges, hospitals, telecommunication lines, sewage systems and houses. Ok, then they swarm in with tanks, trucks and troops and stand on every corner all day, every day. Now, they ask YOU to stand up a government and get the infrastructure back in place and instill not only ORDER but a sense of continuity of community, and oh yeah, have it all done and back to “normal” by 90 days? Oh yeah, the word “normal” is from THEIR dictionary, not yours.

Yep. Pretty much it.

Ok, so I over simplify. Granted most of the rebuilding is being done by US or western personnel. That’s mostly because (a) Iraqi skilled labor has either been killed or fled to another country, (b) the Iraqi’s don’t have any capital to support rebuilding, nor the equipment and raw materials, and (c) Iraqi’s are afraid that by going to construction sites, they’ll be targeted by terrorists as American allies and either killed or tortured and killed or just killed and killed again.

Any way you cut it, we invaded and messed up a lot of things and created a bees nest of problems. Now we’re angry at THEM for not having it all cleaned up and back in order on OUR terms. Yeah, that’s logical. Before this is “over” (if it will ever be), we’ll be pissing off the few that like us to the point where EVERYONE over there is against us. Pointing fingers at them in anger is not the way to smooth things out and make it all better. It ain’t going to help at all.

My 2 cents.

This video is so stupid I had to post it…

That’s right. You heard it here first! If you don’t believe me: Check out this article, and then this article.

Forget space shuttle problems. Ignore bridge collapses. Nevermind lead-tainted toy paint recalls. We have a serious issue here: Sueing Michael Vick for trading Pit Bulls for Bombs to help Iran.