Here's Markos Zuniga, proprietor of www.DailyKos.com, saying what I was trying to say in my post below, but doing a much better job:

This is upsetting on so many levels. One, it smears every American in Iraq, where the vast majority of our men and women in uniform are noble, brave, kind-hearted people. They are not there because they choose to be there, they are there because Bush ordered them there. Yet their reputation is being besmirched by these lunatic asshole at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Two, it fuels Iraqi and worldwide perception that the US is no better than Saddam. That is NOT true. In theory. In practice, the Iraqi people have seen none of the "freedoms" promised by Bush's rhetoric. There is no Democracy. Their press gets shut down for criticizing the CPA. Their electricity is even less reliable now than under Saddam. Crime is up. Safety is down. The US is killing thousands of Shiites and Sunnis.

And now, we find out that work in Saddam's torture chambers continue unabated. It's revolting. There's one clear way we can show the world we are not like Saddam -- the perpetrators of these injustices need to be brought to trial quickly, and meted the sort of punishment that Saddam's torturers would never have gotten.

And finally, it's just yet another example that merceneraries are the scum of the planet. Indications are that mercs ran the prison and had a role in the abuses at the prison. Yet they cannot be punished under military law. Again, lawless mercenaries are complicating our occupation and attempts to rebuild Iraq.

Anyone who defends mercenaries hates our troops. Plain and simple. The actions of those mercenaries have been getting our soldiers killed. And now, they have guaranteed the loss of our battle for the hearts and minds of Iraq's people.

Check out the whole post at www.dailykos.com ("The Iraqi prison outrage" is the title of the post), because it contains some links regarding the mercenary issue. Also, as a former Army specialist, Kos speaks with an authority that I cannot pretend to.

I feel bad about dropping this on your website today, Ali. I just can't know about this and not do anything about it, no matter how insignificant. And I don't mean to be Raining on anybody's Friday Parade. I had been trying to step back from world issues and politics, and how F***ed Up things seem right now, but this was the last straw. I feel heartbroken. I thought we were better than this. And, not incidentally, we've been teetering on the cliff for so long that we seem to have forgotten how precarious our position is; in my heart, I'm worried that this torture revelation will be the final nudge that sends us over the edge, arms pinwheeling as we try in vain to forestall the plummet.

Well, it looks like I'm the last on the birthday bandwagon (but I sent a present!), and even though if I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, Happy Freakin' Birthday, Paul! And, Bon Voyage, Paul and Ali; Rock that Grand Canyon state to its very foundations!

On a more serious tip, Iraq. It's bad over there, and getting worse. Have you noticed how the media has ceased reporting the total numbers of dead and wounded with the daily KIA count? This is a bad sign. A worse one is that Sinclair Broadcasting, a national media syndicate that donates heavily and exclusively to Republican candidates and the Republican party, has ordered its ABC affiliates pull tonight's edition of Nightline, the ABC newsmagazine program. Tonight's show will be a special edition, whose entire forty-odd minute runtime will be devoted to the seven hundred-plus American soldiers killed in Iraq to date: names, pictures, stories, family members. Sinclair says this is a politically motivated programming decision. I wonder why Sinclair hates our troops so much. But that's not what I wanted to write about.

Last month, four American military contractors (in days of yore they would have been called mercenaries) were dragged from their vehicle in Falluja, tortured, mutilated, and killed by a mob of Iraqi men. This was the flashpoint for the violence in that city over the past month, which helped make the month of April deadlier (for American troops) than the actual "war" part of this war.
Yesterday, a story broke that American soldiers at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison (infamous because of the torture, rape and murder so common there under Saddam Hussein) have been torturing Iraqi prisoners there, using sexual abuse and psychological harrassment to break the spirits of detainees. A number of American soldiers have been taking from active duty to face courts martial. The problem? According to some of the soldiers' lawyers, they were acting under orders from private civilian contractors, who are apparently in charge of interrogations there and elsewhere, and are not bound by the Geneva Conventions, or any other law of any sort. WTF?!? What this means is that there is no punsihment for these torturers, no recourse for their victims, and another permanent black eye on the American occupation. How are your average Iraqis going to react to this picture

which shows two Americans grinning atop a dogpile of naked iraqi prisoners?

Or this one:

showing a hooded Iraqi prisoner with wires taped to his hands; he was told they were electrodes, and that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted.

There are more photos at this website:

http://thememoryhole.org/war/iraqis_tortured/

and a full story from The Guardian here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html

We are America, goddammit. We believe in human rights and due process, and now because of this cancer of war profitteers, we are conducting torture and sexual humiliation IN THE SAME PLACE AND IN THE SAME WAYS SADDAM DID!!! I don't know whether to cry or throw up. One last outrage: a civilian contractor who raped a prisoner at Abu Ghraib will likely not see punishment of any sort, simply because there are no rules to govern or regulate his behavior. The presence of these civillian defence contractors has become one of the biggest problems in our occupation of Iraq, and it will only get worse. This is a dark day for America.

happy b-day paul!!!

cant wait to show you guys around AZ or at least Prescott...well not much to show but at least you guys better have some drinks with me tomorrow night!!! see ya then :)

Paul, how on earth did you beat me to 25? I thought I was the eldest one in the lot! Just when I have my back turned, Paul turns 25. Geez. From now on I'll stay on my toes.

Happy birthday Paul!

It's hard to tell over the internet, but I'm blushing. Thanks Ali and Jen!

There once was a hip kid named Paul,
He was big, he was buff, he was tall,
He worshipped the Hulk,
He never did sulk,
I met him in '99's fall.

In Paul I have found a great friend,
In fun times and round a rough bend,
He smokes cigars like a champ,
Lights up rooms like a lamp,
And your rights he will always defend.

The one thing about Paul that is bad,
And the thing that always makes me sad,
Is that he lives so far,
I can't get there by car,
Sometimes the distance makes me mad.

But Paul will be my friend forever,
Our friendship ties will never sever,
So here's to our Paulie,
He's so fun and jolly,
He'll succeed in his every endeavor!

Happy birthday Paul! I miss you!!!

Love, Jen

CELEBRATING A QUARTER CENTURY OF PAUL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAULIE!!

(btw you also share a birthday with Jerry Seinfeld. You're funnier tho, totally)

Ever wonder what the hell Jayz is talking about when he calls himself HOVA?

One homeboy had this to say: "God's personal name not the hebrew word for god (see Psalms 83:18). Finally it means "He who causes to become," meaning that God can make himself whatever is needed to fit the situation and solve any problem. Why JZ had the nerve to call himself that I'll never know?"

To which others respond: "I chose to derive my God-name (Hova + the founding year of my fraternity (FBS) 1914 = Hova1914) from a rap/hip-hop artist named Jay-Z whose God-name is Jay-Hovah who derived his from the God of both of us, Jehovah. "

Suprisingly, the rap dictionary had little to say about HOVA.

You the shit Andy! Thanks for the EP, Vato Loco. I can't wait to hear it.

Andrew, way to finish off that whole college thing. On to bigger and better things now. Life is so much cooler without homework.

Gmail is okay. I can't figure out how to create a distribution list, and have e-mail them about it, and have still gotten no response. Also, some of the optional setting should clearly be standard, but otherwise a pretty good beta so far.

My brother got me these speakers for my birthday

And I got him this digital camera for his birthday!

As you can see, it's key-chain size.

In other news, I'm psyched for Arizona. It's going to be extra cool. I bought some new shorts for the trip and everything. We're also renting a daewoo, which should be an interesting experience. But hey, the price was right!!!

Okay, time to some work at the office, yall.

Holla.

three things:

1) congratulations, andrew!
2) have a rad trip, al and paul!
3) andy, are you and sarah coming to seattle on your bike trip? because that would ROCK!
4) i'm super excited about my new gmail account: jenkatz@gmail.com

okay, so it was four things.

well i'm done with college!

That's weird...the url didn't post. Anyways, if you want to see it, just copy and paste

mightykarlsons.blogspot.com

and witness my folly.

That is awesome news, Paul. Congrats. It's suddenly a beautiful day in Madison, just in time for Sarah to get home from student teaching, and for us to go on a bike ride, with picnic as destination. Ah, spring! In other news, the new EP from They Might Be Giants, Indestructible Object, is truly that: a collection of five, diamond-sharp, solid-as-granite, knock-your-block-off perfect songs. I can't stop listening to it. If it's any indication, their new album might be their best yet. Oh, and you, Madavi: don't get any bright ideas, coz I already bought you a copy of said EP. It's yer birthday, dammit! Have a great weekend, everybody, and don't let the bastards grind you down: there's still more than six months til the election (if, that is, you still believe they're going to let us have one...tinfoil hats, go!), and all is not yet lost.
PS--I've started to post on my blog: . It's not very interesting yet, and there's no pictures, but all that will soon change...

FINALLY got my IL drivers license.

Here's a pretty picture from our lovely weekend in Madison!

Look what crafts you could be doing instead of work! (I guess I'm talking to myself here, but I know at least one Alison to whom that applies to also...). It's just people sharing their ideas, tips, and ways to do crafts with photos.

Well, I just got back from a very weird vacation.
First, from Thursday to Monday, in this beach-hole called Rimini, south of Florence, a beach city like any other, hence my advise: don't ever go there, it's not worth your time. We went off-season, but during the summer, it is the one place in the world with the highest density of sunburnt German tourists frying themselves on the beach. Every year in April, this huge crazy beach tournament is held in Rimini, it is called Paganello--Paga for short. Teams fly in from all over (Houston, Russia, and this year even Israel) just to play on the tournament which is considered to be the World Championships of Beach Ultimate Frisbee.
I can hear you think already: "Sounds pretty cool", and of course that's what I thought too. However, because of the scope of this tournament, the best teams are essentially pick-ups of the best players they can convince to play, players who naturally are in the spotlight for their skills but whose heads (and ankles) have swollen to proportions that personnaly make me nauseated. They feed that trend while the masses feed off it: "Have you seen Damien So-and-so?" or "Mike What's-his-face just walked past and actually touched my arm!!". It's akin to going to Hollywood to spot movie stars.
Of course let's not forget that ultimate players of all levels play hard and party hard. And by Jah there were some really wild parties! So wild, in fact, that I thought that for four days, I was stuck in a parallel universe, and not one I wanted to be in, one of a perpetual frat party or--I assume because I've never been there myself--a replica of Spring Break at Key West. Having cut down my alcohol consumption to a minimum since January 1st, you can guess how little I got into the whole scene. My oh-so-drunk friends being really obnoxious and rude, people I held in high esteem turning into Paga-sluts, teammates losing or destroying clothes I'd lent them (those plastic orange pants are no more)--I was powerless in the midst of this madness and placed all my hopes of returning to reality in the moment I would leave that dreaded city of Rimini. This eventually happened on Tuesday afternoon, after my friends sobered up and came back to their selves, and as I hopped on the train for Rome, free at last and relieved, I thought. Never. Again. Paganello.


Rome. Rome is so beautiful, you have no idea. I mean, I live in Paris, but Rome is serious competition for the French capital in terms of the most amazing city in western Europe. The ancient joined with the modern forever making me feel tiny and young, the legacy of the Empire and its imprint on the city--San Pietro, the Colloseum, the Forum, old city lower class housing (I guess one could call them the Roman projects), the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, 17th century fountains and parts of the old city walls everywhere Romans hardly notice them anymore--I simply loved Rome, and it didn't matter that while I was there I was sad because of that guy or that I was limping like an old goat because of a badly sprained ankle, I loved every minute and every gelatto of it, and will go back anytime (just set a date).

That's pretty messed up right there. Whole damn house went and blew up. What are you gonna rely on if your house can blow up?

So I was having a dream last night that me and Joe and Derek were hanging out outside my Parents' house, and we were making too much noise and my Dad yelled at us and then we went to somebody's girlfriend's house, when I was jolted awake by the sound of all the windows in the house rattling in their frames. It woke up Sarah, too. We were thinking, earthquake? Airplane crash? Atomic bomb? We heard sirens a few minutes after, and went back to bed, thinking that if there was a problem it was in good hands, and anyways we weren't in immediate danger and even if we were, there wasn't much to do about it. It turns out that what woke us was a house exploding over a mile away:



Crazy stuff. Kind of sobering to realize that your house can up and explode on you.

If you're looking for a fun/scary time, go to jlist.com

It's got a lot of japanese products such as teaching toilet paper and hello kitty "shoulder massagers."

Page of Fun Updated!!!

Thanks for cheering me up Paul ;)

Just an observation:
Is it just me or is Bob Dylan getting to look more and more like Vincent Price?

Yeah, I just did a google image search for Alex Nord, and honestly. I'm not too impressed.

What a dork.

Some days suck, especially when it's a monday starting with a meek email from a guy saying "I don't know how else to put this, but I've hooked up with somebody else". (ah, use your brain, boy, and use the phone). You feel pretty shitty, so you tell your friend Alison. And that is the key: turning towards your friends when your judgment is fogged up with feeling rejected and inadequate; you MUST know you can count on your friends, because they will tell you exactly what's true and that will cheer you up. Without fail.
Example:

Alison: "Well, you’re too cool for him anyway. You’re Claire freakin’ Sturm!! I think you can see him and his friends and totally not let it get to you."

Claire:"me too cool for him? mmmm i don't know. have you ever tried doing a google search for Alex Nord? you get some pretty amazing photos."

Alison:"Yea well if you do a google search for Paris Hilton you get some pretty amazing photos too...but that doesn’t mean she’s cool."

(this last line definetly makes it on my list of favourite Alison quotes--)


Thank you Alison

You guys are very sweet. We'd definitely make sure to tell you well in advance of the wedding. I mean, you guys give great gifts :D

I second Claire's "kick-in-shins" assessment. You're not going to get away with it that easily. I've been saving up tears for that wedding, and damnit, I'm going to cry them!

Alright, I don't have a TV, but you probably do, and sometimes you see an add, and you might think 'Hey, that's kind of a cool song! But who on earth is that?'. Well you can find out here. I haven't actually tried it myself (having no TV and all), but if someone does find the Volvo commercial with the Monkey Foo's 'Tree House Funky Party', you get a big hug!

April Fools also exists in France. It's called "Poisson d'Avril", which translates word-to-word into: April's Fish. Don't ask me why. It's one of those French oddities.


By the way: I'd kick you in the shin so hard if you ever got married and told me after the fact, you have no idea!

umm yea. APRIL FOOLS!

hey everybody, so i've been waiting to share this for awhile. But Paul and I decided a few months ago we should just go ahead and get married. So we did last weekend. Nothing, big just at the courthouse. Address to send gifts is forthcoming.