O’Reilly’s Guide to Blogging

I have a shirt that I wear from time to time that says “I’m blogging this.” across the front of it. You have no idea how many times people stop me and ask what “blogging” is. It surprises me from time to time, because I tend to assume that everyone knows what a blog is.

So for those who have no idea what a blog is, or how to do it, O’Reilly, the quintessential publisher of guides to all things geek, has published a book on blogging for the uninitiated, and possibly even the initiated.

Just another great thing to come from O’Reilly, much like my shirt.[Read More]

Isn’t it ironic?

How life can imitate art?

I saw this headline and the first thing that happened, was I got a flashback of Lethal Weapon 2, where Riggs and Murtaugh walk into the South African embassy and Murtaugh asks for information about traveling to South Africa, then starts to shout, “Ban Apartheid Now!”

What I find even more amusing is that Danny Glover is demanding a peacekeeping force to go into Dafur… and yet he protested against the ousting of Hussein in 2002.

So genocide against the African villagers in Sudan isn’t okay, but acts of genocide against the Kurds is?

I find it very exasperating that people seem to find one cause or another that seems to fit with their political agenda, but can’t seem to say that genocide is genocide and there is no justification for genocide. Even more frustrating is the idea that peacekeeping forces can be sent in, but only in specific circumstances.… [Read More]

Watching The Hulk

So… I was sitting in the living room with my children and we’re watching The Hulk on tv.

My son looked at me and asked the quintessential question that is most important to every little boy who sees the hulk. “Mom, why is he wearing purple boxer shorts?”

I tried hard not to laugh, and instead I managed to say, “Because he’s the hulk! He’s always worn purple boxer shorts. I’ve never understood it myself.” And much like every little boy who has actually gotten an answer to that question, he shrugged his shoulders and went about watching the movie.

Sometimes, motherhood is a joy because of questions like that.

Why is this important? Well… because it was funny. *chuckle*… [Read More]

Anybody But Bush

Mr. Justus at Justus For All sent me a fascinating article shortly after 9/11 that detailed all of Hussein’s acts of genocide against the Kurdish people. I wish I still had the link to that article or had printed it out. It was a frightening testament to why some people simply shouldn’t be allowed to run countries and it was definitely what Dave told me it was when he sent it, required reading on Iraq.

In lieu of that article, I present you with this: The Lessons of Halabja. If you don’t like my article, simply google “Halabja” and you can find your own stories about what happened there in 1988.

Those who know me have probably long since realized that I am a very people centric person. Material stuff is neat and fun to look at and play with, but people come first in my life. After I read about the crimes against the Kurds… I knew that we had to help the Iraqi people, that I would never be able to live with myself as an American if we chose not to stand up and remove the regime that had literally poisoned the future of the Kurds in Halabja.… [Read More]