are you serious?

because someone actually wants to THINK about something instead of sticking to a simple speaking point, it makes him a "flip-flopper"? you're killing me, media. in general, the media kills me. they make such a point of every stupid thing that happens in the world that it makes it difficult to tell when something that is actually significant does happen. especially if you're dumb. stupid people have a much harder time deciphering the messages that the media sends to them and so they get stuck thinking that Iraq had something to do with 9-11 and that Obama is a Muslim (as if that's a bad thing...don't get me started). For those with a brain, it's just simply frustrating and annoying to hear urgent news reports about insignificant crap -Oh, Hillary and Obama are taking off the gloves...McCain accuses Obama of Flip-Flopping...Cheney almost kills some guy with a shotgun- wait, OK that last one was significant, but you get the point. i just heard the little grab-line on the news last night about Obama being accused of Flip-flopping, but i couldn't wait the 2 hours for them to get to that story because i wanted to watch the Olympic trials (which are actually significant and inspiring and positive), so i opened the paper this morning and looked for that article- thinking that it might be something significant. SURPRISE!! i was wrong. and this is one of the things i love about Obama- he seems to be as annoyed as anyone about how the media portrays things like this. he logically breaks things down and shows you how ridiculous it is instead of playing into the political game like every other politician i have ever seen (including the ones i have liked). he simply states that he has not changed the withdrawal timeline and that when he gets into the oval office, he will give the Joint Chiefs of Staff a new mission- and that will be a deliberate, decisive withdrawal from Iraq along a timeline in the best manner possible to keep our troops still save. the guy is brilliant- especially in his foresight of the talking points that the republicans will likely use against him. but he is clear that he is maintaining his position and he's clear that he is concerned with the troop safety and a stable Iraq. How can anyone be in favor of staying in Iraq for 100 years over that idea?

burn fires, burn

it's natural. it's how natural revitalizes itself. nature shoots down some lightning and burns a bunch of forest until it's all burned out, then the ashes revitalize the soil and more things grow. it's the circle of life. unfortunately for us, we have houses that get in the way and sometimes people get hurt, which really sucks. plus, we have to deal with poor air quality and it inconveniences us (which we really don't like). it takes time to deal with this stuff and we (humans, that is), by and large, are very impatient. bummer that pretty places, like big sur, are going to have burn marks from the fire and be less attractive, but i think i'll be ok knowing that that's the way things are supposed to go. OR... maybe they're not supposed to go like this- maybe this is part of the global warming phenomenon and this is mother nature fighting back at us, speeding up the process to make the human species extinct. The Earth will survive, i'm not worried about it. we may make it uninhabitable for humans, but the Earth will be fine. When we talk about destroying the Earth, we are only referring to destroying it for us. which, i think, is probably what we as a species deserve. OK, i'll try not to be cynical for a moment and foster the possibility of man learning from his mistakes and making a change and realizing that we are screwing up the Earth for ourselves. it's just that typically, we AMERICANS especially, don't fix things until they are completely broken, and usually by then it's too late. but...i'm trying not to be cynical. i'm still clinging to the hope that we will have a visionary new president to erase my cynicism entirely.