Once again confronted by a difficult choice
I want to go play trivia tonight. It isn't for money, it's to be with friends at one of our favorite places to play. I have a full tank of gas, I have the cash to buy myself a post-birthday dinner, all of that is fine. But I'm exhausted. I spent hours traipsing around the VA Medical Center this morning to get prescription refills, get my leg examined and treated, and dealing with the issues involving my upcoming procedure on September 17th.
I could muster the energy to drive over there. It's just like when work is scheduled. You muster up the willpower and you ignore the fatigue and you just go. As one of my favorite writers of "military fiction", Richard Marcinko likes to say, "you don't have to like it, you just have to do it."
But I also have other things to consider. I have articles and reviews to write. More importantly, I have lesson plans to finish preparing. If I wear myself out today, I won't have the energy to finish those tasks over the next two days. I work on Monday and Thursday next week and I teach on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The week after that I go in for my procedure on Tuesday and if all goes well I'm back working and teaching on Thursday.
The "smart" choice is to stay home. If my team really needed me for this, or it was part of some competition, I'd be there no matter what. I am a team player. I want to be there. Especially since my weekly Tuesday night trivia outing is going to be unavailable to me until mid November.
The "fun" choice is to go. Play trivia. Man up, do it and then man up and do the rest. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I did it easily. No sweat. In 1987 I was working all day for the Air Force, going home and grabbing a nap and then being an FM DJ all night long. I'd go home, shower and do it all over again.
However, I was half my present age back then. I'm older and physically challenged now. What will I do? I honestly don't know. I'll let you know what happened in tomorrow's blog.
* * *
I'm going to argue the other side of a question from my personal position. I'm going to make a case why we shouldn't strike against Syria at this moment. There's an old Japanese proverb that says "when it is not necessary to do something, it is necessary to not do it."
In reality, will the American people be any safer after a "surgical strike" against a military target in Syria? No. Why? Because the one action that would have made sense would have been to strike against Assad's ability to use chemical weapons. By attacking his stockpile or facilities to make these weapons of mass destruction, we might well have made the U.S. a safer place. The world would have been safer.
The window of opportunity for doing that has closed. The weapons stockpiles have been dispersed. While the Syrian leadership hasn't completely followed the example of Saddam Hussein in using "human shields", some of those weapons are undoubtedly stored in places where their destruction would involve large numbers of civilian casualties.
By waiting and seeking the approval of Congress, the President blew his opportunity to take a decision action. I'm not faulting him for that choice. It's a smart choice politically, although a bad choice strategically.
Now the best chance is to impose harsh economic sanctions. Before we decide to give larger levels of support to the rebels fighting the Assad government, we need to ensure we aren't trading a bad situation in Syria now for a worse situation in the days to come.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Did that judge in Montana really think he'd get a "do-over" for that too lenient sentence he handed to a convicted rapist? Too bad for the judge.
What a surprise, Time-Warner Cable subscribers are the only losers in the "peace treaty" that settled their war with CBS over the cost of airing the network's programming.
Would you believe that the book most people lie about having read is George Orwell's "1984"? I was.
I had no idea that Herbalife is "anti-Latino" but apparently one Latino civil rights group says it is. I just thought Herbalife was an idiotic pyramid scheme that preys on anyone foolish enough to get involved. Then again I thought the same thing about Amway. How rich would I be now if I'd spent the last 35 years signing people up for Amway? About as poor as I am now.
Why in the world would the now estranged wife of George Zimmerman be getting money from his legal defense fund? People didn't donate to pay out his support obligations.
I guess Tim Tebow would rather be a quarterback without an NFL team than play in the Canadian Football League, or play any other position in the NFL. Seems more than a bit short-sighted.
There's a Pokémon card listed for sale on EBay and the owner wants $100,000 for it. Seriously?
If the guy who paid his township taxes with $7,143.54 with nothing but one dollar bills wanted to really protest, he should have used pennies. But then he'd have had to lift the bags of pennies.
Maybe showing the number of your cell phone on your brand new smartwatch, on the Today Show isn't a good idea after all.
Should I be pleased or bothered that I'm no longer getting those Nigerian 419 scam emails? Pleased seems right.
There is a McDonald's location out there that has over 170 reviews on Yelp and an average rating of 4. Amazing!
* * *
This Date In History:
On this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from the Canary Islands, his last port of call before crossing the Atlantic.
On this date in 1522, the Victoria, last ship in Ferdinand Magellan's fleet reaches Spain, becoming the first vessel to circumnavigate.
On this date in 1620, the Pilgrims set sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower.
On this date in 1628, Puritans settle in Salem, MA.
On this date in 1847, Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
On this date in 1861, forces under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant capture Paducah, KY.
On this date in 1901, Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds President William McKinley.
On this date in 1939, South Africa declares war on Germany.
On this date in 1946, the U.S. Secretary of State, James Byrnes announces the U.S. will pursue a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar Germany.
On this date in 1970, four passenger jets (3 headed for New York City, 1 to London) were all hijacked by terrorists seeking the "liberation of Palestine".
On this date in 1976, Viktor Belenko defects from the Soviet Union while flying a mission in a MIG-25, lands in Japan and requests political asylum in the U.S. After a thorough examination, his plane was returned to the Soviets.
On this date in 1983, the Soviet Union admits it shot down KAL Flight 007, claiming they didn't know it was a civilian aircraft.
On this date in 1995, Cal Ripken Jr. plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a Major League Baseball record that had stood for 56 years.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
John Dalton
St. John Richardson Liddell
William Rosecrans
Samuel Arnold
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Claire Chennault
Billy Rose
Michael Gordon
Jo Anne Worley
Roger Waters
Swoosie Kurtz
Jane Curtin
Anne Lockhart (Lt. Sheba from the original "Battlestar Galactica")
Carly Fiorina
Raymond Benson
Jeff Foxworthy
Michael Winslow
Chris Christie
Elizabeth Vargas
Mark Chestnutt
Alice Seibold
Rosie Perez
Macy Gray
Idris Elba
Movie quotes today come from Guy Ritchie's brilliant 2008 film "RocknRolla" because Idris Elba was very, very good in it:
One Two: Nice shoes by the way.
Stella: Thank you. You will be able to afford a pair of your own in a couple of days.
#2
Lenny Cole: There's no school like old school, and I'm the fucking headmaster.
#3
Uri: They say there are only two days you enjoy a boat: the day you buy it and the day you sell it.
I could muster the energy to drive over there. It's just like when work is scheduled. You muster up the willpower and you ignore the fatigue and you just go. As one of my favorite writers of "military fiction", Richard Marcinko likes to say, "you don't have to like it, you just have to do it."
But I also have other things to consider. I have articles and reviews to write. More importantly, I have lesson plans to finish preparing. If I wear myself out today, I won't have the energy to finish those tasks over the next two days. I work on Monday and Thursday next week and I teach on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The week after that I go in for my procedure on Tuesday and if all goes well I'm back working and teaching on Thursday.
The "smart" choice is to stay home. If my team really needed me for this, or it was part of some competition, I'd be there no matter what. I am a team player. I want to be there. Especially since my weekly Tuesday night trivia outing is going to be unavailable to me until mid November.
The "fun" choice is to go. Play trivia. Man up, do it and then man up and do the rest. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I did it easily. No sweat. In 1987 I was working all day for the Air Force, going home and grabbing a nap and then being an FM DJ all night long. I'd go home, shower and do it all over again.
However, I was half my present age back then. I'm older and physically challenged now. What will I do? I honestly don't know. I'll let you know what happened in tomorrow's blog.
* * *
I'm going to argue the other side of a question from my personal position. I'm going to make a case why we shouldn't strike against Syria at this moment. There's an old Japanese proverb that says "when it is not necessary to do something, it is necessary to not do it."
In reality, will the American people be any safer after a "surgical strike" against a military target in Syria? No. Why? Because the one action that would have made sense would have been to strike against Assad's ability to use chemical weapons. By attacking his stockpile or facilities to make these weapons of mass destruction, we might well have made the U.S. a safer place. The world would have been safer.
The window of opportunity for doing that has closed. The weapons stockpiles have been dispersed. While the Syrian leadership hasn't completely followed the example of Saddam Hussein in using "human shields", some of those weapons are undoubtedly stored in places where their destruction would involve large numbers of civilian casualties.
By waiting and seeking the approval of Congress, the President blew his opportunity to take a decision action. I'm not faulting him for that choice. It's a smart choice politically, although a bad choice strategically.
Now the best chance is to impose harsh economic sanctions. Before we decide to give larger levels of support to the rebels fighting the Assad government, we need to ensure we aren't trading a bad situation in Syria now for a worse situation in the days to come.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Did that judge in Montana really think he'd get a "do-over" for that too lenient sentence he handed to a convicted rapist? Too bad for the judge.
What a surprise, Time-Warner Cable subscribers are the only losers in the "peace treaty" that settled their war with CBS over the cost of airing the network's programming.
Would you believe that the book most people lie about having read is George Orwell's "1984"? I was.
I had no idea that Herbalife is "anti-Latino" but apparently one Latino civil rights group says it is. I just thought Herbalife was an idiotic pyramid scheme that preys on anyone foolish enough to get involved. Then again I thought the same thing about Amway. How rich would I be now if I'd spent the last 35 years signing people up for Amway? About as poor as I am now.
Why in the world would the now estranged wife of George Zimmerman be getting money from his legal defense fund? People didn't donate to pay out his support obligations.
I guess Tim Tebow would rather be a quarterback without an NFL team than play in the Canadian Football League, or play any other position in the NFL. Seems more than a bit short-sighted.
There's a Pokémon card listed for sale on EBay and the owner wants $100,000 for it. Seriously?
If the guy who paid his township taxes with $7,143.54 with nothing but one dollar bills wanted to really protest, he should have used pennies. But then he'd have had to lift the bags of pennies.
Maybe showing the number of your cell phone on your brand new smartwatch, on the Today Show isn't a good idea after all.
Should I be pleased or bothered that I'm no longer getting those Nigerian 419 scam emails? Pleased seems right.
There is a McDonald's location out there that has over 170 reviews on Yelp and an average rating of 4. Amazing!
* * *
This Date In History:
On this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from the Canary Islands, his last port of call before crossing the Atlantic.
On this date in 1522, the Victoria, last ship in Ferdinand Magellan's fleet reaches Spain, becoming the first vessel to circumnavigate.
On this date in 1620, the Pilgrims set sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower.
On this date in 1628, Puritans settle in Salem, MA.
On this date in 1847, Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
On this date in 1861, forces under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant capture Paducah, KY.
On this date in 1901, Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds President William McKinley.
On this date in 1939, South Africa declares war on Germany.
On this date in 1946, the U.S. Secretary of State, James Byrnes announces the U.S. will pursue a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar Germany.
On this date in 1970, four passenger jets (3 headed for New York City, 1 to London) were all hijacked by terrorists seeking the "liberation of Palestine".
On this date in 1976, Viktor Belenko defects from the Soviet Union while flying a mission in a MIG-25, lands in Japan and requests political asylum in the U.S. After a thorough examination, his plane was returned to the Soviets.
On this date in 1983, the Soviet Union admits it shot down KAL Flight 007, claiming they didn't know it was a civilian aircraft.
On this date in 1995, Cal Ripken Jr. plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a Major League Baseball record that had stood for 56 years.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
John Dalton
St. John Richardson Liddell
William Rosecrans
Samuel Arnold
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Claire Chennault
Billy Rose
Michael Gordon
Jo Anne Worley
Roger Waters
Swoosie Kurtz
Jane Curtin
Anne Lockhart (Lt. Sheba from the original "Battlestar Galactica")
Carly Fiorina
Raymond Benson
Jeff Foxworthy
Michael Winslow
Chris Christie
Elizabeth Vargas
Mark Chestnutt
Alice Seibold
Rosie Perez
Macy Gray
Idris Elba
Movie quotes today come from Guy Ritchie's brilliant 2008 film "RocknRolla" because Idris Elba was very, very good in it:
One Two: Nice shoes by the way.
Stella: Thank you. You will be able to afford a pair of your own in a couple of days.
#2
Lenny Cole: There's no school like old school, and I'm the fucking headmaster.
#3
Uri: They say there are only two days you enjoy a boat: the day you buy it and the day you sell it.
posted by me at 3:57 PM
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