Dulce bellum inexpertis

Obit

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:36:23 GMT

Ex-Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara Dies at 93

Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war’s moral consequences, died early Monday at his home in Washington, the Associated Press reported, citing his wife, Diana. He was 93, and according to the news agency, had been in failing health for some time.

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Toy Soldiers

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:00:57 GMT

So, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that President Obama is "meddling" by saying, hey, you shouldn't allow protestors to get fucking shot and beaten.

Go fuck youself. This whole situation is fucking sick, and the Basij militia and the government crackdown is absolutely disgusting. How can a human being do that to others?

New York Times Round-Up

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:23:44 GMT

Drugs Won the War

This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won.

(Source)

Iran Detains Scores Amid Unrest

Violence and acrimony over Iran’s disputed election intensified on Sunday, with word spreading that more than 100 prominent opposition members had been detained, riots erupting in Tehran and other cities, and the triumphant incumbent hinting that his top challenger risks punishment for questioning the result.

(Source)

N. Korean Heir Apparent Remains Mystery to West

There is only one photograph available outside North Korea thought to be that of the man South Korean officials believe will inherit the world’s most unpredictable regime, one that is armed with nuclear weapons. In that picture, the man, Kim Jong-un, a son of the ailing North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, is an 11-year-old.

(Source)

Pakistan to Strike at Leader of Taliban

A Pakistani government official said late Sunday that the country’s military had been ordered to start an operation against the Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, the first official confirmation of plans to pursue him.

(Source)

Southern Sudanese, Delivering Aid, Are Killed in Ambush

About 40 southern Sudanese soldiers and civilians were killed when tribal fighters ambushed boats carrying food aid, the latest in a string of ethnic attacks threatening a fragile peace deal, officials said Sunday.

(Source)

Where Life’s Start Is a Deadly Risk

Pregnancy and childbirth kill more than 536,000 women a year, more than half of them in Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

(Source)

Somalia's Sufis Fight the Shabab

Video - Somalia has been plagued by civil war between rival clans for almost 20 years. Now, religious groups are killing each other over competing visions of Islam.

(Source)

Chocolate

Sat, 30 May 2009 05:05:33 GMT

This is it. This is now, offically, my search for God. Specifically the afterlife.

Or not. This could also end in the conclusion that there is no God, there is no afterlife, and in the end the neuro synapses stop firing and that's it.

Whatever. I fucking sick and tired of losing sleep over this.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:14:00 GMT

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Watch it.

Oh Darling...

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:34:45 GMT

So, here's the deal:

ø I've not been around, but last week and this week (maybe) have been the busiest of my life. I swear to God I'll flist when I'm done with finals. Then I'm moving back home to find a job for the summer.

ø Which in this market is impossible. Yay!

ø This keyboard fucking sucks.

ø My computer has been broken for like, three weeks. Today, it magically fixed itself. Things are looking up.

ø Liverpool beat Hull, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay...

ø I got my housing. Did I mention that? Next year I'll have a kitchen and my own bathroom! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

ø I'm so Goddammned bored with it all.

ø Wrote a fifteen page paper on the diamond trade in Sierra Leone and South Africa. Compare and contrast and all that.

ø I knit. I am knitting girl. I am amazing.

From The Guardian's The Fiver...

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:17:54 GMT

YES, IT'S ANOTHER STORY ABOUT TONIGHT'S MATCH BETWEEN LIVERPOOL AND ARSENAL, BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE IN WORLD FOOTBALL SEEMS TO HAVE TAKEN THE DAY OFF

When this bit of the Fiver read the opening section of the Fiver and learned that Rafa Benitez hadn't said a word ahead of tonight's big game between Liverpool and Arsenal, rushing off instead to silently cavort atop the moral high ground, we immediately shifted around in the gutter and peered in the direction of that moral high ground to see if really was standing there with one hand behind his head, the other grabbing his crotch as he thrusted it manfully forward.

He wasn't, sadly, having taken time out to walk around ringing a bell in order to draw attention to the large sandwich board he'd donned. "It's always disappointing when $tevie isn't in the team but we have won games without him and played well without him at times this season," he'd scrawled on it, by way of silent response to questions about the adductor-twang that looks set to keep $tevie Mbe out of action for another two weeks. "But we have quality in the squad and I am sure we can still play nice football, score goals and win games, whoever is in the team."

Benitez may be the kind of crotch-thrusting, sandwich board-wearing, bell-ringing loon most right-thinking folk would cross the street toavoid, but he's 100% correct in his assertion. Joking apart, despite Mbe's talismanic status and countless big-game performances for his team, the fact of the matter is that Liverpool invariably fare better in the League when their captain is not in the team, as a cursory look at some interesting statistics uncovered by the Fiver reveals:

English league titles won by Liverpool with $tevie Mbe in the side: 0.

English league titles won by Liverpool without $tevie Mbe in the side: 18.

We've long suspected he was holding them back. The evidence doesn't lie.

(Source)

Soooooo...

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:37:03 GMT

Trying to write my fucking Godammed report from the computer lab, because for some FUCKING reason my computer hasn't worked in a week and a half because Cisco is fucking bullshit.

I'm so pissed I can't see straight.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:52:13 GMT

So I'm writing my report on why the diamond trade hasn't brought wealth to Africa, even though the Godammed things cost an arm and a leg. There is absolutely no information out there on it.

I haven't heard about my intership FUCK.

And I really am stressed out and I don't know why.

My life fucking sucks.

Bah.

Liverpool (4-4) Chelsea (5-7 agg)

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:01:54 GMT

Fuck my life.

Great, now we get to focus on the league!

*bang*

It's a Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:58:30 GMT

My new header.

Destroys my soul.

(Source)

The Killers-Why Do I Keep Counting?

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:17:27 GMT

The Killers-Why Do I Keep Counting? (m4a)

There's a plane and I am flying. There's a mountain waiting for me.
Oh these years have been so trying, I don't know if I can use them.
Am I strong enough to be the one? Will I live to have some children?

Help me get down, I can make it. Help me get down.
Help me get down, I can make it. Help me get down.
If I only knew the answer, I wouldn't be bothering you.
Father, help me get down, I can make it. Help me get down.
Help me get down, I can make it. Help me get down.
If I only knew the answer,
And if all our days are numbered,
Then why do I keep counting?

My sugar's sweet, and so obtainable. This behavior's so unexplainable.
The days just slip and slide like they always did.
The trouble is my head won't let me forget.
I took one last good look around. (So many unusual sounds.)
I gotta get my feet on the ground.

Help me get down, I can make it. (Ahhh . . .)
Help me get down, I can make it. Help me get down.
Help me get down, I can make it. Help me get down.
If I only knew the answer, I wouldn't be bothering you.
Father, help me get down, I can make it. Help me get down.
Help me get down, I can make it. Help me get down.
If I only knew the answer,
And if all our days are numbered . . .
Would you help me get down?

If I only knew the answer,
If I change my way of living,
And if I pave my streets with good times,
Will the mountain keep on giving?
And if all of our days are numbered...

Then why do I keep counting?

Why Yes,

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:52:29 GMT

I really am that shallow, apparently.

I Left By the Back Door

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:24:14 GMT

And I threw away the key.

I feel the infection creeping its way up my throat.

My eye is swollen shut.

I am sick.

And I don't know what I'm doing, anymore, only that I don't want to do it. I suppose, though, that's life, and that's how we always end up. I don't know.

I am sick. and tired.

This Love Is Taking It's Toll On Me

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:29:41 GMT

She got on a plane, never to return again.
But always in my heart.

I'm definately fucking around on LJ instead of writing my French composition. It's only 3/4 of a page, and I fucking know this shit by heart, but I can't be arsed.

So what have I been doing this week?

♠ Fuck you, French.
♠ May have lost my internship completely, because one of my letters of reccomendation wasn't in before the deadline. So upset, I almost cried, but I was too dissapointed to have such a strong emotion.
♠ KINGS!
♠ Started running again. Combine altitude with out of shape-ness and you've got one painful pursuit. My roommate and our friend ran with me yesterday, but ditched me today, losers. Can't stand the BURN.
♠ Probably because of that, my digestive system has decided to punish me thoroughly by twisting into a little knot and staying there. Bastard.
♠ Sucessfully made a pot roast in my dorm room with a crock pot. Said roast was eaten in an hour. Makes me feel good about myself, not gonna lie.
♠ Why did I use spades for this? Because I CAN.

So that's it. Seriously, c'est tout. My life is staggeringly boring. I wouldn't blame you for defriending me for my utter lack of anything interesting to say. Which I will continue to post, fair warning.

GOD, I am SO HUNGRY. This is RIDICULOUS. I ate ALL DAY today.

Balls.

That Voice!

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:56:24 GMT

I am officially a fan of Kings, and if it gets cancelled, I'm going to shoot something.

Yea, Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:34:35 GMT

I will fear no evil.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Everyone is dying.

A couple of weeks ago one of my mom's clients dropped dead. Yesterday I found out that this kid I'd met once, Aaron, got crushed by an ATV. He laid carpet for my mom, and remember he was such a nice guy, and cute as hell to boot. Today, we were told that Keith McMahon was found dead in his house at about noon by a friend. He died on St. Patrick's Day, which is stictly ironic, as it was probably his favorite holiday.

Dana is probably going to die soon. Very soon. Porbably in April, after his son's wedding.

God.

Come With Me My Love

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:04:59 GMT

To the sea, the sea of love

So I got in a fight with my mom tonight about the Catholic Church.

My stepdad isn't a fan. At all. He blames the Catholic Church for doing more harm to more people that any other institution in history. He cited the Third Reich as an example. Of other institutions.

My mother believes that the Church is God's representative on earth.

I started the whole thing, really. My mother has these clients who are from the midwest, and who have been pestering us to go to church with them. I mean, these people "prayed for our heathen souls (we're all Catholics, kthx)." So we went to church with them, my mother, my stepfather, and I.

This church, bloody hell. It wasn't a church. It was a bloody fucking auditorium. Had this trumped up shit for hymns. As soon as I walked in I was appaled by the avarice. I thought to myself, this wasn't built for God. This was built so everyone could look at it and say, gee, what a pretty church I go to. Look at how grand our church is. Look at how jazzy our music is. I can wear whatever I'd like, and be a Catholic on Sundays and for the rest of the week do whatever the hell I'd like.

I tried to look at it all in a more positive light. I tried to view it all as something more understanding and less judgemental, but as soon as we got to the communion rite I burst into tears and had to leave. I received the host and drank the blood and teetered out of there. I sat in the courtyard and cried for a bit, and I was just so bloody upset. The whole thing seemed to superficial and put on for show, like no one really gave a shit about God or anything. They just wanted to go to their pretty little auditorium and feel good about themselves.

I know I'm being really judgemental. Really judgemental. I know it. But I couldn't shake this feeling that it was all really wrong and horrible. But I mean, why can't I just look at it like, you know. We used to build these huge cathedrals as monuments to God, as these grandouse testaments to the glory of the Lord. Why couldn't this place be that? Why did it have to be someone's ego? And why couldn't the songs just be a pure espression of faith? Why did it have to be trumped up, cheesy shit? Why did I look at it the way I did? Why did I have to freak out about everything, and make it all so negative? Am I too much of a traditionalist? If it's not all stuffy and overbearing, do I freak out?

I guess I always thought God was above contemporary, trendy bullshit. I guess none of it felt really reverent or holy. But I mean, the second I walked in: They were selling coffee in the church. I remember feeling really negative about it. And oh the irony! The sermon was about Jesus throwing the vendors out of the temple, and telling them not to turn his father's house into a marketplace. Apparently the father made a jab about it in the closing words, but I'd already left.

My parents think I'm being judgemental, that I can't tell what other people are feeling or the sincerity of their faith. That's very, very true. But I can't shake the feeling that everything was very very wrong.

I want to tell you,
How much I love you

You Will Burn In Hell For Your Sins

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:14:34 GMT

Take a Bow

I am so stressed out right now I can't even function.

I've caved to my escape mechanism and have taken to listeing to loud music on very high volume in my headphones.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, FUCK EVERYONE. LIKE I DON'T FUCKING HAVE ENOUGH TO DO, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE.

FUCK YOURSELF.

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.

Kee Kee Kee!

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:59:08 GMT

God, I'm enamoured by him. He's great. I hope he really is great, and I'm not just crazy because he's all the hype right now, but I'm so happy he's in office, and I'm so happy that he's doing what he said he was going to. I know that he's an adept politician, but I really really want to believe him when he speaks. Geh.

It's Quite Possible That I'm Your Third Man, Girl

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:36:26 GMT

But it's a fact that I'm the seventh son

I'm listening to The White Stripes. And I am out of my fucking mind.

SHABANA! WHERE ARE YOU?! I NEED YOU TO GET ON MSN SO WE CAN HAVE OUR CRACK!TASTIC CONVERSATIONS.

Hillary is just not cutting it.

Edit:

I'm hungry.

Edit:

My computer is going to die.

Edit:

Amber, you only got the tip of the iceberg. Of crazy.

Edit:

I'm hungry.

It's a Jungle Down There!

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 06:04:55 GMT

Went and saw the Vienna Boy's Choir tonight, as they were at my University. They sang beautifully, of course, and I was sooooooooooo excited about seeing them, I had this ridiculous smile on my face the whole time.

Have been knitting and eating all day otherwise.

Am now sitting in my dorm room having crack conversations with my friends. Bri is singing Lord of the Rings, Hillary is talling raunchy jokes. Debra is back. Kinda. It's a long story.

I lost a pant size. I just found out today. Very nice. I have acomplished this by severly restricting the amount of food I eat, which has the adverse effect of causing me to think about food whenever I'm not eating it. Which is, as I understand it, a symptom of eating disorders.

Hmmm...

This is Gonna Bring Me Clarity

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:59:36 GMT

This'll take the heart right out of me

Uhm, what's happening that's interesting? I got my roommate into fanfiction. She swore she would never do it, and I beat her inot ssubmission. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Watchmen soon.

OH. Changed my layout, that's what I wanted to tell you people. Layout change.

That's it.

I suppose I could recount to you all the homework I've been doing and the random conversations I've been having, but I doubt y'all want to hear about everytime I've taken a shit.

Life is a constant repetition of singular events which together become the monotony of my existance.

Pay You Will Pay

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:35:41 GMT

You will pay for your crimes against the earth

So my computer crapped out on me. Just went all gay and was like, LOL! Cisco isn't going to let you connect to the internet because it doesn't feel like it! YAY!

Seriously, the dorm connection is balls, and it's because of this stupid Cisco Clean Access software that we must download to connect to the internet, and seriously, I'm probably the person I know who has the least amount in the way of issues with it. It sucks so hardcore.

Anyway. That and there was this French film festival this weekend, that would be why I was so gone. And I was sick with the flu. The computer just seriously never went on.

There's been a couple of domestic issues as well. We're all mad at Debra. We all just finally cracked and got really pissed at her for being self-absorbed, embelleshing her problems, and just generally being immature and complaining instead of dealing with her problems. She juat wants so Goddammed much attantion and I'm not her mother. You pull your own weight in this life, no one is going to pull it for you. And it just kind of blew the lid off last Wednesday when she asked to be take to the hospital for a fever, and then didn't say thank you. We skipped class, sat there with her for five hours, bought her food and medicine, and then she didn't say thank you once. And she had the balls to tell me, "Well, I didn't ask you guys to do it, you just did it, so I didn't think I needed to say thank you." I was flabbergasted. And I informed her with no equivication exactly how I felt about that.

And my mom called me up bawling her eyes out. I don't remember the last time I had that kind of anxiety. I thought someone had died, Phillip had left her, Phillip was cheating on her, who the fuck knows. And what did I finally get out of her? "He forgot me!!!" Apparently there was some shindig that mom wanted to go to, and Phillip went and forgot to take her. And three cocktails later she was like, 'I think I'll call my daughter and spend eight minutes crying so hard she can't understand what I'm saying'. Win.

Nothing too exciting happening.

Yay Shabana!

gasp

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:11:00 GMT

It lives!

I know.

Forgiveness. *begs*

I'm still in college, taking Russian, French, Sociology, Pre-Calc, and English.

I have a new roommate, who is bomb. I was afraid I hated her when we first got back from break, but I realize I appreciate her way too much to ever.

Everything is technically going well, but I've got this undertone of being really upset about something. Like there's some sort off film between me and everything else. It's kind of weird.

I'll think of something to write about later, but talk to you, for now.