Wally World

walmart distribution center, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

I like this picture a lot. That is all.

Dallas photos up

cemetery markers
Originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

A few shots from Dallas are now on Flickr.

"There's nothing wrong with ballroom dancing!" — Richard Gere

I saw Shall We Dance? tonight.

Whew. Okay. Had to get that off my chest.

I wanted to see Kinsey. Instead the Lillies begged me to go see a Jennifer Lopez vehicle that awkwardly manages to not star Jennifer Lopez. But Lilly offered to give me her copy of The Things They Carried if I took her to see it, so gentleman/sucker that I am, I caved.

I guess the movie was supposed to be all about Richard Gere's fancy feet and goofy, bashful smile. I'm not sure, though, because the plot was non-sensical, and this movie had odd sexuality shooting out of it every which way. The hero of the film is a caring husband who stalks a dancer, possibly to cheat on his wife, but not really ... I think. Then there's a straight guy who ends up begin gay; a guy everybody thinks is gay who ends up being straight; Lopez's character going from icy princess to sweaty cocktease in half an hour; Susan Sarandon's cleavage; and a Bette Midler knock-off whose boobs and ass are the punch line for close to a dozen jokes.

Strange thing is, although I would never wish this movie upon anyone, I'm pretty sure I want to take dancing classes. I think I just saw a propaganda film.

Well played, ladies. Well played.

Anyways, the whole point of this post was to update the blog roll.

Hancock Ballerz, roll out:

Justin "Rockhard" Cox has a new blog focusing on web and graphic design. If you've got a question aobut CSS, HTML, some script stuff, Yay Hooray!, interior decorating, or eggplant parmesan, he's your man.

I also added the Live Journals of Long, Mac, and Chopper Dave, all of whom are beating me at fantasy basketball. We need to get back on the real court.

Also, I just added over 80 random, unorganized pics to Flickr. Still in the process of moving everything over from my webspace.

Fuck, why am I still up?

Conclusion

Tuesday was the Marine's funeral. I found out about it from his father Monday when he and his family came in to thank me for my first article. That meant a lot.

For what it's worth, here's my follow up, posted because, well, I don't know — because I'm too tired to talk about anything else; because I thought it appropriate to wrap up his story in this space; because it's an interesting example of how emotionally moving events can sometimes fail to coalesce nicely into a worthy story.

Since there wasn't a whole lot new to report about the situation, it meant I had to get creative in a hurry to fill the gaps. That's tough, especially when you have to write about half of it in the car while riding back to Temple from Dallas.

The end is the biggest disappointment for me. I didn't really capture the scene at the cemetery. Well, that's life on a daily deadline. Pictures from the cemetery (after the ceremony) coming in the next day or two. An impressive place.

>(Preface: Across Texas it's been raining pretty solid all week long, causing flooding in a lot of areas. Earlier Tuesday, before we got there, storms blew in with winds so strong that they literally tumped over three semis on the highway we were on.)

By MATT WRIGHT
Under a misty gray sky, rain fell steadily Tuesday morning, the drops pooling on the surface of an already saturated earth.

The rain fell on the uncovered heads of those who had come to pay their respects. It fell on the flat white hats of Marines standing at attention in full dress uniform.

And it fell on the casket, draped in an American flag, of Lance Cpl. Louis W. Qualls as six of his fellow Marines lifted it into the back of a white hearse.

Funeral services for Qualls, 20, a Temple native who was killed during operations in Iraq last week, were Tuesday in Temple. He was buried in Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery on Tuesday afternoon.

Qualls, a lifelong Temple resident and 2002 graduate of Temple High School, died Nov. 16 as a result of enemy action in Iraq, the Department of Defense reported Friday. His father Gary said last week that Louis was shot and killed while conducting door-to-door sweeps in search of insurgents in Fallujah.

A Marine reservist, Qualls was in the process of transferring to the Army’s Special Forces division when he was called up to active duty last summer. He trained as a radio communications specialist and was working in Iraq as a truck driver, in addition to his participation in the offensive to control the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Qualls was buried with full military honors and awarded a Purple Heart Medal, which was presented to his father at the morning service.

Services began at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in West Temple on Tuesday morning.

The church service was marked by the variety of people Louis had touched during his short but accomplished life.

“As I look out on the gallery, I am convinced that this young man we are honoring was truly loved, admired and respected,” said Lascelles McCarthy, a family friend who delivered the eulogy.

McCarthy was Qualls’ Tae Kwon Do instructor for the last decade, and guided him as he got his black belt and became a Junior Olympic champion.

The gallery in front of McCarthy was dotted with a variety of uniforms.

There were the Marines he served with - from the 2nd Battalion, 14th Marine Division, based in Grand Prairie - as well as those of older veterans from other branches who had come to pay their respects. His martial arts classmates were dressed in traditional uniforms in honor of their former sparring partner. And his younger brother David, a sophomore at Temple High School, wore his Air Force ROTC uniform - just as his brother did when he was a leader in the program.

Even until the end of his life, Qualls was reaching out to others, said Capt. Javier Hinojosa, his commander in the communications unit.

“Some people may think of Louis as a patriot, but to me Lance Cpl. Qualls was so much more,” he said.

“He gave his life not only ensuring our freedom but fighting to give people of another land the same freedoms we so often take for granted.”

After the ceremony, Qualls was remembered by family, friends and colleagues for two things especially: his dedication and his smile.

“No matter what anybody said to him, he was always motivated,” said Shirley Gomez, a close friend who graduated with Qualls in 2002. “That’s what I loved about Louis - no matter what anybody said to him, he was never down, never discouraged.”

Even in positions of authority, Qualls remained good-natured, said Lauren Tittsworth, who was two years behind Qualls in the high school ROTC program.

“He was always smiling. He was always encouraging,” she said.

None of that changed in the Marines.

“One of the great things about Marines is that we will accept anyone who is willing to give 110 percent, and Louis did just that,” Hinojosa said.

“I never did hear him complain about anything - except maybe the MREs. But that was just the type of person he was.”

Qualls joined the military in large part to follow in the footsteps of his father, who served 10 years in the Army and National Guard. Confident in what he wanted, friends said, he enlisted in the Marines with his father’s blessing and officially joined on his 18th birthday, June 25, 2002.

His father, who read a poem at the service honoring his son called “Window Wars,” said last week he could not be more proud of his son’s decision to enlist or the sacrifice he made.

Temple High School made a special effort to honor that sacrifice after the service. Before heading toward Dallas, Qualls’s funeral procession made a special pass by Temple High School, outside of which more than 200 members of the Air Force ROTC stood in ranks and saluted the fallen soldier.

The procession continued on to DFW National Memorial Cemetery, where sunlight was just beginning to streak through a dissipating overcast sky. The burial service took place under a small pavilion that overlooks the cemetery.

As his casket passed, Marines from Qualls’s battalion raised a slow, precise salute in unison. From an overlook just above the pavilion, Marines honored Qualls with a 21-gun salute and the performance of “Taps.”

After the blessing by the chaplain, Gary Qualls was presented with the flag adorning his son’s casket. His mother, Alisa Kelley, of Jacksonville, Ark., also received a folded American flag, both of which the parents cradled to their chests as they wept quietly.

When the service ended, the mourners quietly comforted the family before heading back to their cars.

And in a storybook-like twist, the sun broke through the clouds, marking the beginning of a few hours of calm, before storms again swept across North Texas on Tuesday night.

One of my favorite speeches

Detective Jimmy McNulte: I mean, who is there out there that can do what we do with a case? I mean, really, how many are there? ... We're good at this, Lester. In this town, we're as good as it gets.

Detective Lester Freamon: Natural po-lice.

McNulte: Fuck yes. Natural police.

Lester: Tell me something, Jimmy. How exactly do you think it all ends?

McNulte: What do you mean?

Lester: A parade? A gold watch? A shining Jimmy-McNulte-day moment, when you bring in a case sooooo sweet everybody gets together and says, "Aw, shit, he was right all along. Should've listened to the man."

The job will not save you, Jimmy. It won't make you whole, it won't fill your ass up.

McNulte: I dunno, a good case—

Lester: Ends. They all end. The handcuffs go click and it's over. The next morning, it's just you in your room with yourself.

McNulte: Until the next case.

Lester: Boooooy, you need something else outside of this here.

McNulte: Like what, dollhouse miniatures?

Lester: Hey, hey, hey, a life. A life, Jimmy. You know what that is?

It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come.

Apropos of Susan.

A public service?

Here's the article I wrote about the Marine from Temple. When I left last night, I was an emotional wreck — it was just up and down all day — and I was really worried about this piece. I knew the beginning was fine, but the end is devoted only to quotes singing the kid's praises, which was all I could find on such short notice.

This morning, after talking it over with Clay, one of our veteran reporters, I felt better about the ending. Even if I took my sources at their word at the expense of my journalistic skepticism, I gave the family something nice for the scrap book. Let the kid have his day, Clay and I agreed.

By MATT WRIGHT
Lance Cpl. Louis W. Qualls, 20, of Temple, was one of two Marines killed Tuesday in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, the Department of Defense reported Thursday.

Qualls was the first Temple resident to die in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. A Belton man, Sgt. Daniel K. Methvin, 22, of the 4th Infantry Division, died July 26 from a grenade blast while guarding a children's hospital in Iraq.

Qualls was shot and killed while making door-to-door sweeps searching for insurgents in Fallujah, his father, Gary, said Thursday. Qualls was assigned to the Marine Corps Reserve’s 2nd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, stationed in Grand Prairie, Tx.

Sgt. Christopher T. Heflin, 26, of Paducah, Ky., also died as a result of enemy action in the province on Nov. 16. Heflin was part of the I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Al Anbar, located to the west of Baghdad, contains the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi and is the site of a U.S. military offensive to take control of both cities. Sixty Americans have died since the beginning of the offensive, and hundreds have been wounded, mostly Marines. The military told Qualls’s father that his son’s body will be returned in the next five to seven days.

Qualls was born and raised in Temple, his father said. He graduated from Temple High School in 2002, where he was a leader in the Air Force ROTC program, a linebacker on the football squad, a member of the track team and a top 10 percent graduate.

He was a Boy Scout and grew up attending the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, his father said. Qualls was also black belt in Tae Kwon Do, winning championships at the regional, state, national and junior Olympic levels. In addition, he and his father shared a passion for Harley Davidson motorcycles and went riding together often, Gary Qualls said.

Friends of the family say the strong bond between Louis and Gary, who served in three wars while with the Army and National Guard, played a major roll in Louis enlisting in the Marines.

“He had a strong family con-nection with his dad,” said Lt. Colonel Sid Thurston, the commander of the Air Force ROTC program at Temple High School for the past 10 years. “(Louis) felt a desire to honor his dad and serve his country. The young man had a true sense of duty, honor and country.”

Gary Qualls raised Louis and his younger brother David — now 15 and also a member of the Temple High School Air Force ROTC and football team — by himself, but he had no problem with his eldest son’s decision to follow in his foot-steps.

“The day my son turned 18, he had already signed up in the Marines, and that’s the day he left,” Qualls said. “I was so proud of him taking that step. It was his choice.”

Family and friends of Louis emphasized that although he wanted to emulate his father, he was also a young man who followed his convictions when he volunteered to serve his country.

Thurston said Qualls joined the Marines out of “love of coun-try.”

“I think early on this young man had a sense of who he was and what he wanted to be when he grew up,” Thurston said.

It was the quiet confidence of his convictions that made him stand out in the classroom, said Buris Dale, who taught Louis at Temple High School

“He made good decisions and he did not hesitate to stand by them,” Dale said. “High school kids, peer pressure, (they) didn’t bother Louis at all. If he thought it was right he was going to stand up and do it.”

And what was impressive, said Thurston, is that Louis always pulled it off with a smile on his face.

“He was an outstanding young man,” Thurston said, as did so many others who knew Louis.

Louis had enlisted in the Marines but transferred to the reserves as part of an arrange-ment with the government that would eventually move him to the Army, where he wanted to become a career special forces officer, his father said.

But before that happened, the opportunity to go to Iraq presented itself and Louis jumped at the chance. Once in Iraq, he served as a truck driver and as part of the offensive operations in the region, said Maj. Anthony Sermarini, a spokesman for the 14th regiment.

“He was with the first ones to step up and say, ‘I’ll go. I’m willing to do the job,’” his father said.

Lascelles McCarthy, a close family friend and the Tae Kwon Do instructor for all three Qualls men, said it was no surprise that Louis joined the Marines, who often take on the toughest assignments, and then volunteered for its most difficult engagement.

“That’s the way he was. When-ever he did something, he did it all the way,” McCarthy said. “He never went halfway on anything, he just did it all the way. He cared enough that he was willing to put his life on the line for what he believes in.”

And even though Louis never made it home from Iraq, his father takes solace knowing his son had taken so much from his experience.

He had written his father to tell him of the extreme poverty he had scene in Iraq as the Marines went from house to house.

“He said that he had witnessed what I had only told him from whenever I was in war,” Gary Qualls said. “And he said that he’s never felt so humble, and how much he realized that he truly had and how fortunate he was being an American. He gained more respect for life by going over there to fight for life.”

Qualls’s death was already being recognized around the city on Thursday. High school Principal J.J. Villarreal said the flag had been lowered to half-staff, and Mayor Bill Jones III took time at Thursday’s city council meeting to honor Qualls.

Gary Qualls said the ROTC at Temple High School is interested in starting a scholarship in honor of Louis, which he feels would be a fitting way to remember his son.

“I would like to have all the support I could get to help others, he said. “Because that’s all I’ve ever done is try to help other people, and my sons have done the same thing. And I would like for (Louis) to continue on, even though he’s not here. And that’s one way we can always continue serving is to help someone else.”

Although the news had not spread throughout Temple High School on the Thursday, Dale said, Louis’s sacrifice is certain to leave a lasting impression.

“It’s devastating. It brings everything close to home,” he said. “You think about the freedoms that you have. And I’m sure when I think about these freedoms, I’ll think about Louis Qualls.”

---

Also included in my coverage:

Louis Qualls’s last postcard home arrived just days before the news of his death. His father Gary, returning from a hunting trip, found and read the card only an hour before Marine officials arrived at his door to tell him that Louis had been killed during operations in Fallujah.

The card read, “Dad, now that I’m so far away, I fondly recall the times we shared together. These special moments, those special days. Now from this distance, I look back and see how very much I appreciate all you have done for me. Now across these miles, I want to say I wish I were there with you now. And above all, you’re a great dad.”

Louis’s final letter home, contained inside the card, is reprinted below.

“Dear Dad,

“Well, I saw this postcard at the PX. When I read it, it summed up all my feelings and my thoughts at the moment, so I only thought it appropriate to get it for you.

“Well there’s a lot going on here. They say the next month will probably some of the most serious combat that the war has yet to see. And, well, I’m right in the middle of it.

“I think I’m truly scared, because not just knowing I’m going to be in a fight, but I fear it’s a fight for my life. So, Dad, I need your prayers and your advice more than ever. I know you’ve always been there for me, and I know you always will be. I just can’t wait to come home.

“I just want you to know that no matter what happens in the next weeks, that I’ve always looked up to you and I always will. You know kids (idolize) some football players or some-thing around those lines, but me, I’ve always (idolized) and looked up to you. And I’ve always thought, ‘Damn, I can only dream of doing the things you’ve done.’

“Well, I love you, and I’ll be home soon. We’ll look forward to hearing from y’all soon. And tell Cathy thanks for the e-mails.

“Your son, Louis.”

Number 1,216 and counting...

Oh, see, I can't seem to pun off The O.C.

Random thoughts, sans links:

"When I have a problem, Marissa, I like to talk about it incessantly."
— Seth Cohen

A good episode of The O.C. (and a good ol' fashioned therapy session on the phone with Mom) saved all of you from a post bitching about my job, life, the state of the country, the absolute dearth of good chorizo in Temple, and on and on. (Here's a hint, my day started at 7 a.m. and ended at 11 p.m. In between I thought I was going to start the day by vomiting, I got bitched out by one lawyer because another lawyer's assistant lied to me, and I interviewed the bereaved father of a Marine who was killed in Iraq on Tuesday. It would have been a long post.)

The first episode and a half of The Orange County — what was that shit?

Did Marissa put on a little weight in all the right places?

Is it safe to assume that every guy who watches that show thinks of himself as Seth? That's pretty sad.

Then again, Summer is probably the hottest girl on TV since they cancelled Dark Angel.

So the new chicks: nemeses or love interests?

If more of you slobs had any culture, we could have these discussions about The Wire instead.

I think I want to see this Kinsey movie. It's amazing how curious I am about something that has no real bearing on my life.

How is it Snoop is such a product whore but I don't care? Drop it like it's hot.

I should probably read Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas. He apparently wrote the book talking about all that stuff we've been talking about, re: red state narratives and how the Democrats somehow fucked up populism.

Holy shit, Bill Clinton looks weird.

Spurs: 7-1. San Antonio Breakfast Tacos: Dead last. So why am I betting beer on my hard-luck fantasy team?

Fuck U2.

If I quit my job today, I think I'd want go work in a bowling alley. Preferrably in Europe. I don't know why.

SportsCenter needs to end those retarded segments where two random guys argue back and forth at each other. Just show me more highlights. Or put Lebron's 12-foot-high dunk tonight on loop for five minutes.

"All I wanna do is race, Daddy."
— fictional Dale Earnhardt

Heard on ESPN: "...and Lou Lombardo, a senior who's a great personal story. He's overcome dyslexia to become a very good college lineman."

This message brought to you by Killeen's Afrikan American Bookstore:
"You already knew about the books,
But what about the hard-to-find CDs and DVDs?
We got everything from dance hall to movie,
From school days
To your favorite black plays,
And it's sad but it's got to be said,
Up here in no bootlegs,
Much respect to you street hustler
But you best bet it here, Blackbuster,
Right here, 1102 West Jackson Drive,
Where we keep the Kosher live,
And remember, to whom you give your money
Is to whom you give your power."

True, we should have the first Mr. Wright pledge drive next week.

Okay, I've gone from mildly delirious to simply exhausted. I know this was pointless.

Walshy Ball

Robert's got a new blog, Shot Clock. It's all about sports — namely looking for statistical models one could use to predict outcomes, similar to Michael Lewis's Money Ball. So you know I'm in.

In particular, Walsh and I were talking a couple weeks ago about a possible model for basketball (what with all of our extensive knowledge of methodology). Does anyone know of one? For my final project in my high school statistics class I actually did a simple regression analysis that tried to correlate an NBA player's performance with his salary. I couldn't find one. I'm sure you're all devestated.

A reminder

The Times:

Al-Jazeera television said Tuesday it received a videotape showing the slaying of a woman believed to be hostage aid worker Margaret Hassan. Hassan's family in London said they believed the longtime director of CARE in Iraq was dead.

...

Born in Ireland, Hassan also held British and Iraqi citizenship. She lived in Iraq for 30 years and married an Iraqi.

In its statement, her family said: "Nobody can justify this. Margaret was against sanctions and the war. To commit such a crime against anyone is unforgivable. But we cannot believe how anybody could do this to our kind, compassionate sister."

I'm not sure how else to say it, but reading this story I sadly remembered that war is, above all else, stupid.

Play the legend

Notecards for an essay I never got around to writing.....

"It's not about what he knows. It's about how he feels."
— Sandy Cohen, The O.C.

---

Baltimore City Councilman Tommy Carcetti: "And what it shows people is that I know my business, that I will hold people accountable based on the facts. This is about what's right."

Political operative Theresa D'Agostino: "There you go again. Do you think politics is only about winning the argument? That whoever has the right fact at the right moment wins? Clinton had facts. Kennedy had facts, yeah. But Reagan? He couldn't have summoned a fact if his life depended on it. It's not just facts, it's how you use them. And, Tommy, when you get hold of a fact or two, you go smart-ass and start beating on people.

"Clinton and Reagan, when they got up to speak, they gave everyone in the room comfort and confidence. You liked those guys, you were happy to think that they even liked you."

...

"You're smart, you're ambitious. And you've got a sharper tongue than most. You can hold court. And you can tell a good story. And you can win the argument if you want. All of that shows, Tommy, and at a Baltimore City Council meeting it shows well. But if you want to be mayor, or senator, or governor one day..."

Carcetti's wife: "...show 'em something more."
— The Wire*

---

"And by and large, our message has been we can manage problems, while the Republicans, although they will say we can solve problems, they produce a narrative. We produce a litany. They say, 'I'm going to protect you from the terrorists in Tehran and the homos in Hollywood.' We say, 'We're for clean air, better schools, more health care.' And so there's a Republican narrative, a story, and there's a Democratic litany."
— James Carville.

---

"The Democrats, after doing a lot of soul searching and introspection, have decided to become the party of soul searching and introspection. It's what they do best, John. Their hope is to reach out to like-minded Americans — or their therapists — and see if anybody wants to ... you know ... sit around, talk about what went wrong. Kind of a Coalition of Regret."
— Ed Helms, The Daily Show

---

Passed along by my Uncle Mike:

The 2 most important events in all of history were the invention of beer & the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization & together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into 2 distinct subgroups: Liberals & Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered it required grain & that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early human ancestors were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking & killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as "the Conservative movement."

Other men who were weaker & less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's & doing the sewing, fetching & hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as 'girleymen.'

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy & group hugs & the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat & beer that conservatives provided.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, & French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting revolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men.

Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood & group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't "fair" to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat & still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, soldiers, athletes & generally anyone who works productively outside government.

---

"(Kerry) views the world as if we’d never been attacked on September 11.”
— Vice-President Dick Cheney

---

In True Grit, some say Wayne played himself, but then he always did, in whatever movie he appeared. ... But the character of portly, one-eyed, hard-drinking Rooster Cogburn, as he charged single-handed, like a knight-errant of old, into a band of outlaws, made the association between man and character unforgettable. It was the epitome of tough, independent-minded honor and chivalry that the movie character John Wayne invariably portrayed, and with whom generations of Americans invariably identified. If he always played himself, by the same toke he also played what millions deemed to be the quintessential American. Not only on the fragile celluloid of the of the movies does Rooster Cgoburn as Joh Wayne ride, but he rides forever in the extraordinary painted bronze statue created by the sculptor, Harry Jackson. In fact, like some equestrian hero out of real life, who might adorn Central Park or the Washington, D.C. Mall, equestrian bronzes of John Wayne dominate the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, as well as previously mentioned Wilshire Boulevard, the latter courtesy of the Great Western Financial Corporation. You will find no similar statue of Texan movie star Audie Murphy, World War II's most decorated hero. Instead we cast the legend which has become the reality."
— William H. Goetzmann and William N. Goetzmann, The West of the Imagination

---

"Let me close with a word to the people of the state of Texas. (Applause.) We have known each other the longest, and you started me on this journey. On the open plains of Texas, I first learned the character of our country: sturdy and honest, and as hopeful as the break of day."
— President George W. Bush



And that's about all I have to say about politics for a while. If that didn't make sense, see here, here, and here.

(*I just want to state for the record that, some many years from now, The Wire will be considered a turning point in television if not entertainment as a whole ... I hope. I plan to write a post on this topic, but given my recent blogging record, don't hold your breath.)

I hate the word "maven"

Talk about an early birthday present. Just two days before I creep ever closer to my mid-twenties, William Safire will make his final appearance as Times columnist on January 24th.

I don't meticulously follow the opinion pages anymore, but that man was a consistent irritant back in my Texan editorial days. I'll sleep better knowing the world is free of his name-dropping snark. Now if only he'd drag Dowd out with him.

Hmm, weren't there some other resignations today, too? Ah, who has time — I need to check on my fantasy basketball team.

In other news, I know this blog sucks lately. I'll try to remedy that this week. Unless the Spurs are on.

Uh....

Well, today sucked. I assure you that I have many interesting, uproarious, elitst anecdotes about life deep in the Bush's country, but I worked overtime today only to have the story I was working so hard on come out as a steaming pile.

So.

I got nothing. Maybe I'll scan a picture before I go to bed and share. I'll be out of town all weekend. Going to see Ornette Coleman on Sunday. Adam tells me he's a free jazz pioneer. Considering I don't listen to free jazz, and I've still heard of him, I was willing to believe him.

Yep.

In other news, Earl Boykins became the shortest player in NBA history to score 30 points. He's 5'5". God Bless the NBA.

UPDATE: Trying something a little different with this one —

Fallujah ... again

As major combat begins in Fallujah, it's worth remembering that this is a fight we've already fought:

[The Atlantic, in June:]After the assault on Fallujah the Marines ultimately ended up handing the city over to the "Fallujah Brigade," an Iraqi force charged with keeping order and rooting out the insurgents. How effective do you think the Iraqi unit is likely to be? Do you think turning Fallujah over to the Iraqis was the right decision?

[Robert Kaplan:]No. Masked gunmen are now in control of the place, according to The Washington Post. Marines had a victory stolen from them because of policy incoherence at the highest levels of our government. Still, the Marines have been accomplishing a lot since they left Fallujah. They've gone some way toward pacifying Al-Karmah, which is a major town strategically located between Baghdad and Fallujah, and one of the most hostile in the Sunni triangle. They've also been engaged in mortar mitigation. If mortars continue to rain on American bases in Iraq to the degree that they have, it may only be a matter of time before a 1983 Beirut style incident occurs, in which 241 servicemen were killed. So it's not as if they haven't spent the time usefully. In any case, even Fallujah is somewhat of a sideshow compared to the Shiite holy cities of the south. We can afford to make compromises of convenience in the Sunni triangle that we can't in the south. If we lose the south, we lose the war. And it's impossible for the U.S. to be any more aggressive in the south than it already has.

Kaplan's piece "Five Days in Fallujah" is a good take on the strange balance between American politics, fighting the Iraqi insurgency, and coexisting with Iraqi culture. But it's also frustrating to read because it reinforces that this isn't a fight we should be fighting again:

I went out into the city to see Captain Smith several times. As Bravo advanced westward, the forward headquarters moved from the garage to a small warehouse with hardened cement walls. Smith directed a Bravo platoon to the "905-degree grid," a few blocks to the west. Fallujah had been transformed into an American urban space. Points on the map were identified not by local landmarks but by their GPS grids. Streets had been given American names. Contact points with the enemy were color-coded. I followed Smith and Byrne to "Violet," an intersection where Alpha would link up with Bravo, and where the commercial part of southern Fallujah edged into the residential part. Here Bravo intended to go "firm" for a while—to dig in and establish yet another forward headquarters.

We were now about a hundred yards from the point of contact with the enemy. Two Marine M1A1 Abrams tanks stood fifty feet away. We all crouched against a wall as bullets whizzed by. But as the Marines consolidated the position, the whistles turned to cracks, so we stood up and relaxed a bit. One Marine took a leak. Through binoculars could be seen men armed with RPG launchers and wearing black pajamas, surrounded by women and children, taunting us. Only the snipers tried to get shots off at them.

Byrne's Humvee pulled up, with Corporal Magdalin at the wheel. Byrne and Smith began conferring with the FOB over the battalion tac. Smith wanted to move the two tanks southward to draw enemy fire away from Bravo, allowing his men to further advance. But he did not have direct command over the tank unit, so the request had to "go up through staff" before the tanks right next to him could move. Eventually they did. Even here, in the midst of the battlefield, there was an issue with cumbersome management.

Moreover, Bravo and the other infantry companies were dangerously scattered throughout the southern half of the city—so much so that the enemy could easily infiltrate a large warren of streets to the rear, between Bravo's newly advanced position and the FOB about a mile to the southeast. The company commanders would deal with this problem by standing up nonstop nighttime satellite patrols, despite the sleep deprivation afflicting many Marines.

Another Marine battalion, the 3rd of the 4th, would arrive in a few days from western Iraq to assist 1/5 and 2/1. But that redeployment might conceivably make the Marines vulnerable in another part of their area of responsibility. A hundred and thirty thousand U.S. soldiers in Iraq were simply not enough to deal with a small fraction of that number of insurgents. It wasn't only because insurgencies, pace C. E. Callwell, arise from the soil itself, and thus have whole categories of advantages that a military force from the outside, alien to the culture, lacks. It was also because—as the large number of American troops near the Baghdad airport attested—the U.S. defense establishment was still organized for World War II and the Korean War, with too many chiefs at enormous rear bases, and too few Indians at the edges. In the weeks ahead the Marines at Fallujah would attempt to avoid large-scale bloodshed by seeking Iraqi surrogates to patrol the city. Such an expedient may provide a hint as to how the U.S. military will deal with Iraq as a whole.

Sorry for the long quotes, but I think they're telling. See comments if reading the whole article requires you to login.

Says it all

For the Democrat whose closet is already full of high-class metrosexual apparel (and dudes kissing), get him just what he needs to shirk his elitism and bring him down a peg — the hoody that says it all:



They're only like 20 bucks. I'm this close to getting one.

Letters from an old conservative

A forward from my uncle, this doesn't make me feel any better about things:

"So Much to Savor"

A big win for America, and a loss for the mainstream media.

By Peggy Noonan

God bless our country.

Hello, old friends. Let us savor.

Let us get our heads around the size and scope of what happened Tuesday. George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States, became the first incumbent president to increase his majority in both the Senate and the House and to increase his own vote (by over 3.5 million) since Franklin D. Roosevelt, political genius of the 20th century, in 1936. This is huge.

George W. Bush is the first president to win more than 50% of the popular vote since 1988. (Bill Clinton failed to twice; Mr. Bush failed to last time and fell short of a plurality by half a million.) The president received more than 59 million votes, breaking Ronald Reagan's old record of 54.5 million. Mr. Bush increased his personal percentages in almost every state in the union. He carried the Catholic vote and won 42% of the Hispanic vote and 24% of the Jewish vote (up from 19% in 2000.)

It will be hard for the mainstream media to continue, in the face of these facts, the mantra that we are a deeply and completely divided country. But they'll try!

The Democrats have lost their leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle. I do not know what the Democratic Party spent, in toto, on the 2004 election, but what they seem to have gotten for it is Barack Obama. Let us savor.

The elites of Old Europe are depressed. Savor. The nonelites of Old Europe, and the normal folk of New Europe, especially our beloved friend Poland, will not be depressed, and many will be happy. Let's savor that too.

George Soros cannot buy a presidential election. Savor. "Volunteers" who are bought and paid for cannot beat volunteers who come from the neighborhood, church, workplace and reading group. Savor.

The leaders of the Bush effort see it this way: A ragtag band of more than a million Republican volunteers who fought like Washington's troops at Valley Forge beat the paid Hessians of King George III's army. Savor.

---

As I write, John Kerry is giving his speech. He looks hurt. Who wouldn't? He fought to the end, for every vote, untiring and ceaseless. I told some young people recently who were walking into a battle, "Here's how to fight: You fight until they kill you, until they kill you and stop your heart, and then you let them carry you out of the room. But you fight until they carry." I think that's how the Democrats fought. Good for them.

To admit defeat with attempted grace is a moving sight. Kerry did well. His talking about his "good conversation" with the president was gracious and helpful. He was honest about the facts of the vote in Ohio. When he thanked his people from the bottom of his heart it was a real thanks. "Thanks to Democrats and Republicans and Independents. . . . Thanks to everyone who voted." "Don't lose faith, what you did made a difference . . . and building on itself . . . the time will come when your votes, your ballots, will change the world. And it's worth fighting for." A lot of pundits and editorialists are going to say, "His best speech of the campaign was his last." But that's not the point.

Mr. Kerry graced democracy today. He showed his love for it. Savor.

And now the president is speaking. He looks tired and happy. He looks as if the lines on his forehead are deeper. Maybe it's the lighting. "We had a really good phone call," he said of Mr. Kerry. "He was very gracious . . . and he and his supporters can be proud of their efforts." Good for them both. He announced his agenda: reform the tax code, privatize Social Security, help the emerging democracies of Iraq and Afghanistan. "And then our servicemen and -women will come home with the honor they have earned."

"Today I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. . . . I need your support. . . . I will do all that I can do to earn your trust. . . . We have one country, one Constitution, and one future that binds us." All good. Savor.

---

Who was the biggest loser of the 2004 election? It is easy to say Mr. Kerry: he was a poor candidate with a poor campaign. But I do think the biggest loser was the mainstream media, the famous MSM, the initials that became popular in this election cycle. Every time the big networks and big broadsheet national newspapers tried to pull off a bit of pro-liberal mischief--CBS and the fabricated Bush National Guard documents, the New York Times and bombgate, CBS's "60 Minutes" attempting to coordinate the breaking of bombgate on the Sunday before the election--the yeomen of the blogosphere and AM radio and the Internet took them down. It was to me a great historical development in the history of politics in America. It was Agincourt. It was the yeomen of King Harry taking down the French aristocracy with new technology and rough guts. God bless the pajama-clad yeomen of America. Some day, when America is hit again, and lines go down, and media are hard to get, these bloggers and site runners and independent Internetters of all sorts will find a way to file, and get their word out, and it will be part of the saving of our country.

Last note. As much as anyone, the POW wives of Vietnam, who stood against the Democratic nominee for president and for the Republican, can claim credit for the Bush victory. Everyone with a computer in America, and a lot of people with TVs, saw their testimony about the 1970s, and their husbands, and John Kerry. You could not come away from their white-haired, soft-faced, big-eyeglasses visages without thinking: He should not be commander in chief.

Oh, another last note. Tuesday I heard three radio talkers who refused to believe it was over when the ludicrous, and who knows but possibly quite mischievous, exit polls virtually declared a Kerry landslide yesterday afternoon. They are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. The last sent me an e-mail that dismissed the numbers as elitist nonsense and propaganda. She is one tough girl and they are two tough men. Savor them too.

It is the new two-pronged mantra: If you don't like the news, blame the source; claim one thing while promoting another — i.e., say that you hope the media will finally stop talking about how divided a country we are and then turn around and demonize your opponents through gross misrepresentation. It's not even about ideas, anymore, just smearing the people behind them.

My fart in the wind

Quick and soon to be irrelevant:

What happened: "America is a religious country. The end." — Danny

The sole positive: George Bush gets to clean up his own mess.

The downside: Bush supporters didn't actually look much at the issues he has to clean up in this election when they backed him this time. Those who weren't guided by his alleged moral values believed he "got" the war on terror, even if he had bungled a huge number of steps along the way, namely after Afghanistan.

What should we do: See Kevin Drum...

...sort of: People like Josh Marshall who are calling on Democrats to mobilize as a party to build party institutions and create our own media apparatus and stuff like that, well, I think people like that underestimate my devotion to the cause. Truth be told, I want to be politically aware and, perhaps, active on behalf of some causes that I really care about — but I don't want my life to be politics. I don't want to devote all my free time to being a flack for some rich dude. I'd feel that way even if Kerry had won. Sorry.

But: If gay marriage was what decided this election, that upsets me more than I can say or even really argue coherently. See this thread for evidence. But this is working on the assumption than "moral issues" or whatever means gay marriage and/or abortion.

Finally: I found it ... strange in a terrifying way that after Bush's supporters listed terrorism and "moral issues" as their top reasons for supporting him — in other words, justifcations based on fear — Cheney applauded Bush for running a "campaign of hope and optimism." And as Bush talked about learning about rugged American values while on the plains of Texas, which is a prep school I was not familiar with, he did so under a giant signs reading simply "W," as if were a brand of cologne and this were all a marketing campaign.

UPDATE: I should add, in accordance with Kriston's comment, that I agree we should not let the energy die out from the left. My problem is upping the ante. As far as I'm concerned, I already devote too much time to politics as it is. Maybe that's shallow or selfish, but there's more to life, isn't there?

How does everyone else feel?

What it feels like

Confusion.

After everything, I'm just confused. (See the post below.) I think this feeling is common. People my age and of the same political stripe, after all the time and energy we invested in this election, are not filled with liberal rage at how it turned out. We're confused that we are apparently so out of touch.

From a feeling of empowerment and confidence that only comes with so much study and investment, we were soundly defeated. The youth vote, I'm reading, did not turn out. All the polls, including the exit polls, were wrong. Every initiative to ban gay marriage passed. (I can't stress enough just how deeply that upsets me.)

I'm not crying bitter tears; I'm not rending my garments. I just wonder what else we can do.

And this is a serious question: Why stay and fight in a country that no longer comes close to embodying what you believe in?

Melodramatic, I know, but I don't want to live in a place that is governed by fear. (Again, see below.)

Some of us have joked about moving abroad, but I don't see why not anymore. And if I do so, I will do it shaking my head.

I just don't get it.

(Note: I'm a little drunk right now.)

Smoked crack and got his job back

I'm disappointed in my country.

If tonight's results hold up — and it appears they will — it will not be a fluke. The Republicans have also picked up seats in both houses of Congress. Bush handily won the popular vote. This is, as close as the vote was, a Republican country. And that disappoints me more than I can say — more than I expected.

There are so many things about the current Republican party that disgust me. It is hard for me to understand exactly what these people were voting for. The wonderful situation in Iraq? Tax cuts without fiscal responsibility? The removal of basic human rights for homosexuals? What? What is it? I don't get it. I just don't get it. How can you fuck so much up and still get to keep your job?

Accountability my ass.

POST-SCRIPT: Some dude on CBS is pointing to the fact that white women, who favored Bush more now than in 2000, listed "moral values" as their main concern in this election, above terrorism, above Iraq, above the economy, above everything else. Wow. White women are stupid.

UPDATE: I was thinking about Iraq, because it seems to me it should be the main issue in this election. I was talking to the young Republican reporter from my office, for whom tonight was his last night at the Telegram. He's off to enlist in the army. He told me that Kerry had a problem because he didn't distinguish himself on what to do in Iraq. Kerry's "plan" was too similar to Bush's, he said. But, when I asked, he said there really wasn't anything else Kerry could do in Iraq. It was a Catch-22, he said. Yeah, it really does feel like a cruel joke.

UPDATE II: Hengst and I apparently posted about the same thing at very near the same time:

now... i honestly don't like to make such assertions, because lately i've been trying to see why sensible people would differ from me, but all the networks keep emphasizing how bush's appeal to evangelicals sealed the deal for him. this translates for me to: fear of gay marriages. and fear of terrorism, while i completely empathize, seems too singular to seal the deal. ultimtely, bush wins by appealing to people's fear, and isn't that depressing. am i wrong about this? am i reading the wrong news? was kerry that big of windbag? how can bush continue to be so lucky and imcompetent?

Of good ends through rotten means

It's a rainy election day here in Temple. Drizzly and overcast, but pleasant. It's one of those days where clouds cover the sky but the light is still strong, and it's one of those windless storms where the drops falling off the eaves are much bigger than those falling from the sky.

I voted today, really, for the first time. I voted once before in last year's local election. I somehow missed the 2002 mid-term elections. I remember, in 2000, walking by the UGL, UT's voting location, and thinking that I was too busy and that it wouldn't matter anyways.

My polling location today, a VFW post a few hundred yards from my apartment complex, was nearly empty when I got there at 11 a.m. They said they expected things to really pick up around noon.

The four or five voting booths to my right looked like overgrown filing cabinets with curtains, and as soon as I had pulled the heavy metal crank that shut the curtain behind me, I wished that I had paid closer attention to the candidates for local offices, like sheriff or any of the lower courts. After all, these are where my vote actually counts the most, and of course where I know the least.

I've spent the rest of the afternoon at my apartment doing laundry. At one point I found myself over at Talking Points Memo, where he was debunking a scurrilous accusation of irregularities with voting machines in Philadelphia. Actually, he was quoting an AP story that quoted voting officials there that said the charges had absolutely no factual basis. Similarly, CNN was reporting that so far it seems like the GOP vote "challengers" in Ohio are not causing huge delays at the polls, so let's hope that is true and continues through the day.

Either way, just as I was sitting here thinking of all the good reporting the mainstream press does, and which blogs can only suckle off of, CNN had some douche up on the screen talking for nearly five minutes about what John Kerry had for lunch today. Now I remember why I hate cable news.

(Hey! CNN just had a clip of our favorite post-racial congressional candidate out of Illinois! Man, that was Obama. If they'd had a sound bite, it would've Baracked.)

Well, anyways, sitting here thinking about some stuff that I read last night, I started to wonder why some bloggers (on both sides) and journalists view each other as kind of natural enemies. Competition for scarce political junkies, I suppose.

But I think one of the reasons that the media and the blogosphere are both so obsessed with politics — and here I'm talking about politics as it is nearly separate from policy: the left-right dichotomy, the rallying cries of social equity or family values, the focus on scandals and soundbites rather than facts — is that both are inherently democratic institutions.

In all of the discussions of, to put it simply, "media bias," I don't think it's often noted that newspapers and TV shows are not out there forging their own path in righteous pursuit of truth. No, they're looking for ratings, just as a blogger is looking for readers, just as a politician is looking for votes. And in that sense, what often works best in arena that appeals to the public as a whole is to appeal to the worst qualities in people: our obsession with gossip, our desire to oversimplify to comfort our assumptions, our interest in trivia over substance, our need to create or exagerate enemies so that we have something to crusade against. As one former victim of Karl Rove put it to Josh Green in The Atlantic, he was defeated by "how Rove appealed to the worst elements of human nature." But power of this tactis is also evident in how a political consultant from Texas can be seen by about half the country as the devil incarnate, running our country from his lair.

Strangest of all, in both cases, the institutions claim to work in pursuit of some higher ideals such as, say, truth, or the "goodness" of America. E. B. White once said that it is only by fiction that we are able to make it through the day, and I think that is okay. We are swayed by our baser elements, and we are prone to delusion to grant ourselves some grand purpose — which is not to say that these defects do not deserve close scrutiny. But I did vote for several Democratic candidates I knew nothing about. And seeing Barack Obama on CNN did make me happy, like I'd seen a celebrity walking down the street. If it weren't so, the spell of the story would be broken, and the fantasies we created in its place would likely be far more violent and oppressive than our current rosy tale.

*Cleaned up at 5.28 p.m.

Priorities

In these troubled times, we must concentrate on the most important matters at hand:

Ryu no kaze: the muff diver, right ?
LittleMattAttack: yep
Ryu no kaze: i think i'll spend time at work finding synonyms
Ryu no kaze: for words like that
LittleMattAttack: dude, all you need is this george carlin poster that mayfield and tom have
LittleMattAttack: start there, literally thousands of euphemisms for all functions and organs
Ryu no kaze: i thought you hated carlin
Ryu no kaze: why you a flip-flopper ?
LittleMattAttack: ha ha, i never said i hated him
Ryu no kaze: sure buddy
LittleMattAttack: i said i didn't enjoy so much his latest offering
LittleMattAttack: anyways, i could hate carlin and still think that list of words was sweet
Ryu no kaze: i don't think america is
Ryu no kaze: ah, nevermind
LittleMattAttack: america is what?
Ryu no kaze: Venice is underwater
Ryu no kaze: i was going to make a comment equating morals or something with you flipfloppery
Ryu no kaze: all in jest of course
LittleMattAttack: ha ha, but of course
LittleMattAttack: i'm sure my irresolution and tendency to "ponder" things has contributed not at all to my sexual frustration
Ryu no kaze: yeah
Ryu no kaze: you call it "nuance"
LittleMattAttack: "and i say to you now, ladies of austin, it's time for a change in sexual partners. we can do better."
Ryu no kaze: "the other guys have led to a 43% decrease in sexual titilation. under their care, the middle class americans have faced harder times. Climaxes are down 23%. We are now facing the biggest hard-on deficiency in 75 years"
LittleMattAttack: ha ha ha ha ha
LittleMattAttack: lol, man, that's the hardest i've laughed at an IM in a while
Ryu no kaze: good. i can't find my voter registration card.
LittleMattAttack: yeah, me neither

(Hat tip: DanDan)