God bless Sarah, Joe, and Jason for helping last night. Alan's and Jerry's rooms are now primed and ready to paint. Not only did Sarah pick up a necessary extra paint roller, but she included it as an early Christmas and birthday gift along with paint roller covers, shop towels and a Lowes gift card! I suddenly love Christmas!

I told Joe, Matt, and the guys subletting from them that if they buy their paint, they can choose the color of their room. Now, however, one of them wants to paint his room Tiggerific Orange. This is the color made famous (at least in Detroit) by Object Orange, a group of anonymous artists who paint dangerous, dilapidated buildings this color in order to draw attention to the need to tear them down.



So, uh... should I let him? He's calling me out the offer I made. The idea of a room being painted this color in this house repulses me, but on the other hand I don't have to see it, and it can be painted over whenever he leaves. This is what the paint manufacturer's website says Tiggerific Orange should look like:



* * * * *

Last weekend I finally showed Anny and Joe Planet of Dinosaurs, one of the many recorded-off-TV movies I would watch repeatedly throughout my childhood. Joe and I are planning on recording a cover of one of the pieces of music used in the film on our next album, whenever that will be. See a post I made about the movie three years ago for stills and samples of the music from the film. Despite the great special effects and synth soundtrack, it is a B movie after all. I wouldn't be the first to point out the "porn actor" look of the movie's stars, and the spandex costumes are more frightening than the prehistoric beasts who are hunting them. And most of the film consists of these people just...walking around.

The writers really tried to create interesting interactions between the characters, and they might have been successful with a different editor and different actors. Now that Hollywood is completely out of ideas, I can always hope this movie will be up for a remake in my lifetime. If that happens, they will have to at *least* keep the musical motifs of the original soundtrack. I love the way the melody of the traveling cues begins. The first chords are F, A-flat, F, and B. The unpredictable wobbling between distant keys is almost certainly meant to represent a giant, lumbering dinosaur. (Or maybe A-flat isn't so "distant", being the relative major of F minor--which is also the key of the main titles and Tyrannosaurus theme.) But we are grounded in F for sure after the next progression, which is a perfect cadence ending on F (d minor, C, F). But F turns into F minor, and we're swung *back* into A-flat after *another* perfect cadence!

I think I'm rambling and I should focus on eating my lunch.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/21972556/detail.html

I hope we can still buy cabinets next week....

As if it isn't creepy enough that he's a snowman who becomes animated by some unknown spirit and marauds around the town, he also decorates himself with pieces of his victims? Yikes!

...I am suddenly glad that we haven't yet had enough snow for the neighbor children to have made a snowman yet.

SCENE: Chez Bluey, in the midst of holiday decorating

BLUEY: ~hauls boxes upstairs~ ~sets up Christmas tree~ ~puts up lights~

OTTO: Huh. Cool. ~nonchalantly bats off low-hanging ornament~ So... were you gonna feed me now, or what? Cause I could eat. Just saying.

OTHELLO: ~stares at tree, wide-eyed~ OMG, IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!11!1!! I MUST SIT IN IT RIGHT NOW!!!!

OTTO: Dude, chill out.

BLUEY: There will be NO tree sitting this year. If you even so much as try, so help me, I'm bringing out the Nutcracker Band.

OTHELLO: SO PRETTY MUST SIT MUST SIT

OTTO: Srly, what is wrong with you?

OTHELLO: ~climbs inside Christmas Tree~ I'M IN THE PRETTY TREE! WHEEEE! LOOK LOOK LOOK!

BLUEY: ...So the Nutcracker Band, it is. ~sigh~


(For the record? The tree has been up for less than one day, and the cat has been bodily removed five times.)

I don't think I was hinting that I want people to help me paint--at least not consciously--although maybe I should have. If people keep offering to help, I'll have to stop making Live Journal posts about mankind's inherent evil nature. And for all who will help out--don't be shy about calling in the favor. I'll help you out with any future home improvement project except for drywalling ceilings, which is absolutely the most detestable activity known to man. After sanding the kitchen ceiling for an hour yesterday, I finally understand why people apply that horrible popcorn ceiling garbage--it beats the hell out of hours of sanding with your arms above your head covering yourself in super-fine gypsum dust while your stupid dust mask has an unclosable gap by the nose that fogs up your glasses so that you can't see what you're doing, and then ultimately failing to perfectly conceal all of the joints by the time is painted, leading to an existential despair about the pointlessness of all human activity. So, yeah, popcorn ceilings.

When I was cashing in my savings bonds on my day off on Friday, the clerk had me move aside for a minute while an armored truck guy delivered some deposit bags. It was the same guy who always comes to my place of employment, to whom I give our deposits. But he didn't see my face and I didn't say anything. For some reason I don't like to say hi to people I recognize in public. But I do love seeing the same car more than once while driving. The last car I saw two times was a white Honda with a bumper sticker that read in large, block letters: BRÜNHILDE. Both times I saw this car I was driving to work on the Lodge Freeway, and I had Ride of the Valkyries in my head for the rest of the day.

My dad bought me cable TV for Christmas, which was installed yesterday. I'm not going to lie--it is wonderful. The cable box records TV shows for you. I will now enjoy an unending stream of Animal Planet, home improvement shows, and the Hitler History Channel! I should also cancel Netflix now.

I have to clean up my blog. A Buddhist couple who used to live in Michigan found me on Facebook and mentioned having seen my blog. I warned them that some entries can be crass and misanthropic. They are the founders of Buddhist Relief Mission, and they now live in Sri Lanka where they teach English to monks from many different countries. They are also in the process of publishing translations of the Jataka tales. If good people see my blog, I get nervous. I don't care about the rest of you slobs!

I have a scarf with dragons on it. This makes me illogically joyful. I have taken to wearing it around the house. It's wonderful. So I'm happy about that.
It was insanely busy at work yesterday. It was insanely busy at work today. It has been occasionally frustrating. A coworker I enjoyed working with was let go, for undeniable reasons-- everyone regretted it, but he had done wrong and thus had, really had to go. It wasn't OK. But there was something of the Thomas Hardy novel in it. Freaking Mayor of Casterbridge. I had to read that shit twice at two different schools and there's no excuse for that. Man undone by circumstance etc. Hated it. Don't need it playing out in my life. At least I wasn't directly involved. I am no Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Ugh.

So it's a little sad and a lot stressful at work, though everyone else has come together wonderfully and we're all working as hard as we can. Brutal efficiency, and I've been selling cameras like a crazy person. (I mean, not really, but the guy who left was a big sales type, and I'm trying to fill in for him. I used to defer to him because I knew he'd close the sale, and now I don't have that. I don't like selling, but I don't really dislike it either... Eh.)

Only real, real bummer is that I've done something to my knee. It was fine all through practice last night, was fine this morning, was fine for the first hour or two at work, and then suddenly, I walked across the floor and oh! Oh my, it feels like there's a pin sticking in it or something. Ow! Ow! Weird little internal pain. Ow! It's not debilitating, but it's more persistent as the day goes on and I keep standing on it. I want to bake tonight, but that involves standing. Maybe I'll sew instead, so I can sit down instead. I guess I'll stay off it? It's not any of my normal aches or pains! I don't know what happened and I'm sorry that it's doing this. I'll wear different shoes tomorrow. :/

I suppose I ought to be sewing anyway. Eh. I'll go do that. Maybe I'll start an embroidery of a unicorn... or a dragon... No, I really need to get my Christmas things done...

Happiest of Happy Birthdays to qui_quae_quod, the most adorable Luna and cutest little Death Eater ever! I hope it's been a great day for you from start to finish and that the year brings you happiness and success. I look forward to meeting you again at Infinitus.

~hugs~

P.S. Thanks to you and Dixie for the fantastic card! I cracked up laughing, but it's just perfect. :D

In order to get the absolute bare minimum number of rooms finished by the deadline (Joe's and Alan's rooms, bathroom, & kitchen), Anny will basically not see me at all this week. This is the schedule I will have to follow after work and on the weekend:

Today: Sand & prime kitchen (we'll see how far I get with THAT)
Tuesday: Sand & clean Alan's & Jerry's rooms
Wednesday: Go to used appliance store, plan to have appliances delivered Dec. 26th.
Thursday: Prime Alan's room, Jerry's if there is time.
Friday: Paint ceiling, trim in Alan's room.
Saturday: Paint bedroom walls, prime floors
Sunday: Paint bedroom floors

My mom might be able to help again, depending on how much catching up she has to do at work after being gone for two weeks. Chris Holt also offered to help paint, so maybe I can get him to do the kitchen that weekend. The following week is also busy:

Monday: I don't have to do anything, but this is when the downstairs floors will be refinished.
Tuesday: Buy kitchen cabinets
Wednesday: Buy laminate flooring for kitchen (its floor is far too damaged to refinish)
Thursday: This is Christmas Eve, which I have off from work. I will spend the day installing the laminate flooring in the kitchen.
Friday: Christmas Day -- my first real day off since Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll sneak off to the house to grout the kitchen sink backsplash in the morning before going to my mom's house.
Saturday: Install kitchen cabinets, have appliances delivered.
Sunday: I turn 30 years old. I was going to take the day off, but there is just no way. Maybe I'll treat myself to only working 8 hours instead of the usual 10 or 11. I'm not sure what I'll have to focus on. I guess I'll install the shower attachment to the bath tub and catch up on all the other little details on which I've fallen behind.

I know these "house posts" are tedious, but typing this out helps organize my thoughts.

P.S. What is the deal with shop vacs? Are they supposed to just blow dust everywhere, utterly eliminating the reason they exist? What am I doing wrong?

Work at noon. Had entertained thoughts of getting up early and getting going-- mixing up batch of cookies to bake later, or frosting the ones I already baked, or somesuch, or perhaps just cleaning my disaster of a kitchen from yesterday's cookiestravaganza. Something. But Chita woke at 4 and mrowed and peeped forlornly around the house until I was too awake to overlook it further, and let her out and sat for an hour waiting to let her back in (didn't want to risk falling asleep and forgetting her out on the sunporch, which is uninsulated). I got some reading done, but finally fell asleep after letting her back in, with her purring on my face. Woke again at 9, groggy and tired. Well, instead, I'll do some writing.
Z had to get up to the rink at 10 am for Production duties. Fine. He had arranged to get a ride. Good, or I'd've had to waste almost an hour driving him. However, the pickup time, 9:40, came and went. I'm sitting not doing any writing because I don't like ignoring Z that profoundly when he's in the room. At 10:15 I said, "He's forgotten you."
"He just texted me at 8, though," Z said.
"I bet he forgot anyway," I said.
Z texts him. "What's up?"
"I'm upstairs," the ride texts back. Meaning, at the rink. Oops.
Can I give Z a ride?
Oy. Let me get dressed. It's freezing rain out there, and the roads are bad. Swell. So I drive to the rink and back home. I now have 10 minutes to eat breakfast, pack lunch, feed the cat, do my hair... Ehhhhh. Eating breakfast now, and trying to decompress from my annoyance. If he can't get a ride home, well, he'll be stuck there until I get out of work at 5.

I wouldn't mind so much except that I'm pretty much working every day henceforth until Christmas, and I was kinda counting on having a Zen kinda morning to pump myself up for it. Oh well, not so much.

At least we don't have kids.

I was going to do a really long blog post about dinner but mostly I'm in a food coma so I'll do a brief recap and try to do a longer post later.

Our semi-local (It's like a 30 minute drive) chocolate place does a prix fixe menu dinner every other month or so, and Twiller and I go to some of them (we missed October, so sad), especially when the menu items are 90% Things Twillers Can Eat.

This month: (copied from the menu)

Sausage Gravy Biscuit Bites - peppercorn-chive biscuits toasted until golden topped with sawmill sausage gravy and aged cheddar:

Verdict: HOLY CRAP GOOD. I could've eaten those all night. Twiller did his level best to devour them entirely and made nom-nom-nom noises.
--

Wilted Greens with Candied Nibs - wilted rainbow chard, puntarella and shallot, with lavendar sea salt and candied cocoa nibs

Verdict: Weird but good. I'd heard of puntarella but never had it and I'm not a huge fan of greens but the addition of the sea salt and cocoa nibs took the worst of the bitter out of the greens and so I ate the entire thing.
--

Fried Coconut Prawns -or- Fried Green Tomatoes - sweetened coconut and cyprus sea salt-crusted prawns// smoked paprika, serano sea salt and panko-crusted fried green tomatos served with cheesy cocoa butter grits and poached egg and chile-burnt caramel peanut sauce

Verdict: Okay, this is the first time I've ever had grits in my entire life. They were actually kinda good. Very creamy and pretty flavorful. I still maintain that prawns are impossible to eat politely and so I ended up using my hands. They were huge. I nom'd. I'm a long-time fan of fried green tomatos and the ones they served were perfect - and the chile caramel sauce added a nice bite to them.
--

White Chocolate Cranberry Cobbler: pinot noir-drunken cranberry & ginger cobbler + white chocolate biscuit topping and whipped vanilla bean & peppercorn creme fraiche

Verdict: Oh good LORD this was good. The cranberries were very tart, but the creme fraiche muted it down to a nicely biting level and I described one of my bites of the cobbler+biscuit topping as perfect - it was the absolute perfect balance of tart and sweet and carried by a totally perfect fluffy biscuit. The peppercorn was a nice addition, not very noticable at first and then it caught up with me as I ate more.

On the way home today, for an instant I actually considered faking my death in order to get away from the Bagley house. Jason Johnson saw the house for the first time in I think months to help on his room, and he was surprised by how much was still left to be done. (So am I.) Joe also came by and they put in several hours of work.

Anny's family is having their Christmas Eve dinner very early at 1pm. I basically told them I just can't go. I was planning on taking my birthday off (which falls on a weekend), but I don't think that's possible anymore. All the bedrooms were supposed to be primed by today, and only Joe's is.

Here is something funny: The inside of the storm windows in Joe's room had a ton of condensation on them. I hope it magically goes away when I weatherstrip the windows. Otherwise I think I will have to drill "weep holes" in the metal frame of the storm windows. Or something. I'll Google it later.

After I fake my death I'll start over in a small town grow a mustache and drink alcohol and no one will ever know it's me.

I have had a wonderful, wonderful two-day weekend. I started Thursday, beginning the laundry and starting an overnight-fermented bread rising and making the dough for both piparkukas, which must rest 24 hours in the fridge, and roll-out sugar cookies, which must chill at least an hour, preferably longer.
Friday I did a bit more cookie-prep work, mostly cleaning, and then spent the rest of the day cleaning the house, and putting laundry away. I hate putting laundry away and consequently the guest bedroom / office winds up getting piled full of it in great heaps and mounds. But I hoed all that out and rediscovered all my clothing, including re-pairing some socks that have been single for months. Oh goody. Chita helped, to my amusement.
And then we went briefly grocery shopping, then onward to meet friends for dinner in Williamsville. It was my two local high school friends, Liesl and Sarah, and Sarah's husband and children. Her girls are 1ish and almost 4, both very bright and precocious; the younger is getting over her utter fear of strangers and is quite entertaining now. And dangerously ambulatory.
After dinner we adjourned to my house, where there was some baking of bread, some playing of Go Fish, much conversation, and then once the damned bread was finally done, some cutting out and baking of cookies. The almost-four-year-old was very keen on the cookie making, though she didn't understand our initial explanations of putting the cookie cutter not into the exact center of the dough, but trying to fit as many cookies as possible in each sheet of dough. She caught on by the end, once I explained a different way, though. She also was able to roughly alphabetize a set of letter cookie cutters I had, and played Go Fish competently. It seems to me that at her age I could do neither of those things, and I remain nervous that she might take over the world within a couple of years.
Chita was angelically well-behaved with the children, though deeply confused. At one amusing point the 1-sh-year-old was screeching excitedly, as very small children do, and Chita was meowing shrilly back, as though she thought she was trying to communicate. It was quite funny, and Chita neither scratched nor bit either child, nor did she flee the room much beyond a few alarmed sprints out then back.
Anyway, we sent the children home to bed lateish, with some cookies for their troubles. Then we proceeded to drink rather a lot, which was fun, as I seldom do that.
The next morning I was impressed with how early I was able to rise, and Liesl and I set to work. First I made eggnog French toast with the bread I'd baked, of course, but once we were fortified with that, we got out the piparkukas dough and set to work.
I wielded the rolling pin most of the time, and discovered that the dough worked best rolled out on the wooden breadboard I recently inherited, then transferred to a sheet of waxed paper to be cut out. Liesl and Z did the cutting, and then Z did the glazing and minded the cookie sheets in the oven and removed the cookies from them, while I kept rolling and rolling and rolling. I may have bruised the palms of my hands a little bit, and I don't know how people do this often. But I got it to work, and after only a batch or so, had managed to get the dough thin to the point of translucence, which winds up puffing slightly when baked into just about the right thickness. i couldn't get it thinner without wearing holes in it, but there's a goal for next year.
We did a lot of unicorns. And some letters. We spelled out the words "House of Daves" and "Ladies Auxiliary", which was entertaining.
We're hoping that one of Z's cousins, at Christmas, will say something to the effect of, "Good cookies, but what's with all the unicorns?" So we spent the whole time intermittently saying, "What's with all the unicorns?"
"THat's what you get when you put me in charge of cutting things out," Liesl said, a little sheepishly. "Lots of unicorns."
She gave me a Christmas present already, which puts me to shame as I haven't even begun to make hers. She made me a scarf, alternating bands of black or cream knitting with bands of felted rainbow knitting. And the felted bands have a felt silhouette of a dragon appliqued to them, on both sides; every other one is glittery.

Anyway. All the sugar cookies are done, and I have one more sheet of piparkukas dough, which after having been rolled twice was just too warm and sticky to endure another rolling-out. It's resting again in the fridge, and I hope will recover enough that I can make one more mini-batch at some future point.

Meanwhile I've got a lot of cookies to frost, but don't know when on earth I'll do it. Tonight I'm going ot make a big nice hearty dinner, and go to bed early.
Then I start working and never stop until after Christmas. I don't know when I'll get my sewing done. We'll see.

I'll respond to comments and put together a longer recap later this weekend, but the relevant news is this: Younger Brother made it!

His audition was a big success (the Head of Percussion was very complimentary), he rocked the interview and he scored well on the music theory exam. He is utterly thrilled, very relieved... and kind of pooped, but in a good way. (Next week's juried pieces will be a piece of cake in comparison.) We are both of us chilled to the bone (is there anything more punishing than a Northern college campus in the depths of winter?), but we are also filled to the brim from the celebratory noshing at Zingerman's Deli, so that's okay, then. *g* I am also exhausted, even though most of my time this morning was spent freezing, driving, unloading, drinking coffee and worrying... if I were better at time management, I would have squeezed in a nap before tonight's big do.

Oh well. Guess I'll just have to resort to more coffee before I go, then...

In any case, it is a very, very good day, and I am BURSTING with pride in Younger Brother. He was that nervous because he really cares about this, really wants to do this with his life, and you know what? I think he's going to be great. Not exactly unbiased here, but still. Taking your subject seriously, loving to learn and wanting to teach others how to share your love for the learning and your discipline? That's a win.

~pops champagne~ Cheers! :D

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the happy thoughts and good vibes. In gratitude, I offer some good vibes for all of you. ;-)

Okay, now I'm getting ready for tonight's DSO concert. Have to tame my Hermione!hair, from tracking through this morning's windstorm...

I am off to help Younger Brother for the day, as today is his audition for the Music program at his college. This has been an extremely tense and nervous-making date on the calendar for him, for obvious reasons. As a percussionist, he has to perform pieces for marimba, concert snare and timpani, and he has his piano evaluation sandwiched in there, too. Logically, he knows that he knows this all cold, and that his skill and technique are there.

Emotionally? Kind of a basket case.

I really, really hope he holds it all together. There's no question in his mind that he should be able to pass with flying colors. I volunteered to be a temporary roadie and motivational coach today, to help lug his equipment (a good idea, since the wind chill is well below zero) and to keep him in a good, less-stressed frame of mind.

If he does well, there will be lunch afterward, to celebrate. If he doesn't, there... will probably also be lunch afterward, to drown sorrows. And later on, I am meeting with Best Friend to hear the Detroit Symphony Orchestra tonight, for their massive Haydn/The Planets/World Premiere Klezmer Concerto event. (SO looking forward to it.) That will be my reward for keeping things together. I hope.

Anyway, I am bundling up and heading out; probably won't be back until much later. Send some good vibes this way if you can spare them, would you?

DEAR EL-JAY,

THIS IS TOTALLY NOT LIZA HACKING MERRILY ON BRITTNEY'S COMPUTER.

SHE IS SUPER AWESOME.

UNLIKE JOSH AND JIM.

THEY ARE BOTH ICKY POOPYHEADS. >:(

LIZA AND I HAVE THE PUREST HOMANCE OF ALL HOMANCES EVARZZZZZZZZ.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLLLL.

<3 - Brittney, not Liza, who totally did not write this.

PS: Disregard that, Josh and Jim suck each other's cocks. No homo! (ALL bromo!) :D

Ganked from everybody. Seems like a good enough way to pass a sub-zero night...



~raises eyebrow~ ...Okay, then.




Awww, how sweet! That's very kind of you to look out for me, Faceless Internet Meme!




Okay, now your solicitude is getting kind of creepy. What is this obsession with my state of cheer?

If I disagree with awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama, I can't exactly blame the recipient. He didn't grant the award to himself, and it's not likely that any arahants have been among those distinguished with the same honor anyway. What kind of makes me sad, though, is Obama spending much of his acceptance speech justifying war. He correctly points out that "we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes", but adds:

There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King said in this same ceremony years ago: "Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: It merely creates new and more complicated ones." As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King's life's work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak, nothing passive, nothing naive in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.

But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaidas leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history, the imperfections of man and the limits of reason. ...

So yes, the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. ... But war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such."

Mr. President, discovering a blazing contradiction in your line of reasoning is God's way of telling you to modify your argument. It would be better for Obama to decline the award and give almost this same speech in explaining why his beliefs and actions contradict those of the best previous Nobel Peace Prize recipients. Instead, he calls certain previous honorees like King "more deserving" of the award than he, but then goes on to explain why they are wrong. Obama said (I think patronizingly):

The nonviolence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached — their faith in human progress — must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey.

Mr. Obama, the "love that they preached" is exactly the reason why they couldn't advocate violence against their enemies.

Let's go back to when Obama said, "A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies." Don't you love that magical word? "Hitler." He is supposed to be an example of ultimate, superhuman evil--something very unique and very much unlike "us". We believe that nothing in the world would be more horrifying than an alternate history where Hitler defeated England and Japan captured Hawaii.

We believe Hitler "had to be stopped" because he was trying to build a worldwide empire that ruled through fear and violence, which is true. Now think about his chief enemy: England. The British Empire was the most powerful force in the world for more than 100 years up until that time, having built a worldwide empire that ruled through fear and violence. According to one often-quoted online resource:

By 1922, the British Empire held sway over a population of about 458 million people, one-quarter of the world's population, and covered more than 13,000,000 square miles (33,670,000 km2): approximately a quarter of the Earth's total land area.

The British viciously slaughtered the natives of the lands it colonized, from America to Africa and Australia. It enforced unabashedly racist laws--for example excluding the rights of citizenship based on ethnicity. And yet non-violence WAS effective against such a brutal enemy. Gandhi and his colleagues did win victories in South Africa and India, ultimately leading to Indian independence in 1947. The Nazis, of course, were more efficient than the British at killing people and they absolutely should have been resisted. But to characterize non-violence as ineffective against strong enemies--or to characterize World War II as the fight between Good and Evil--is just not accurate.

The United States entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor in the U.S. territory of Hawaii (which didn't become a state until 1959). Hawaii has an interesting history. Back when it was an independent nation, its democratically elected King Kalakaua was forced by a rebellious militia to sign the "Bayonet Constitution", which stripped the king of most of his power and restricted the right to vote to Americans, Europeans, or Hawaiian men who either owned a certain amount of land or earned over a certain income. King Kalakaua was succeeded by his sister, Queen Lili'uokalani, who wanted to abolish the new constitution. This upset the European and American businessmen who now held most of the power, so they formed a "Committee of Safety" in 1893. They conspired to overthrow the queen, and convinced the US government to intervene in order to protect American civilians and property. When US marines landed, Queen Lili'uokalani had no choice but to surrender. Five years later the US officially annexed Hawaii. The business interests in power resisted statehood for years since that would entail adopting immigration laws that would hinder the plantations' exploitation of cheap labor from disenfranchised Asian immigrants.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if someone bombs the military base you set up on land you stole, it is hard to claim moral superiority to your attackers. What further complicates that claim is when you illegally detain US citizens in concentration camps, carrying out a incendiary bombing campaign that takes the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, and being the only government in history to ever use nuclear weapons in war. And let's not even talk about our important alliance with Joseph Stalin, the most crazed mass murderer in history.

Getting back to Obama's speech--he goes on to mention how "the world rallied around America after the 9/11 attacks, and continues to support our efforts in Afghanistan, because of the horror of those senseless attacks and the recognized principle of self-defense." Something funny about Afghanistan--the Taliban offered to deliver bin Laden to a third nation in order to stand trial for his crimes, but we refused the offer. George W. Bush had already demanded that bin Laden be handed over to us, and that this condition is "not open for negotiation or discussion". Thanks to whoever put that "manly"-sounding sentence in the speech, our government was forced to reject the Taliban's offer. More than eight years later, bin Laden is still at large and this year's Noble Peace Prize recipient just ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan.

President Obama said something else that I found interesting: "America has never fought a war against a democracy." I am skeptical of this claim, but I'm not able to research it just yet.

I understand that we will never have a president who is truly committed to non-violence. They just wouldn't ever be elected. And I understand how a person in that office inevitably turns to violence out of fear. But knowing that, why award the Nobel Peace Prize to a US president? That would be like awarding a "Husband of the Year" to a man who cheats on his wife, and then listening while he spends the majority of his acceptance speech explaining how you just gotta go out and get some "strange" once in awhile.

And yet there is some wisdom in Obama's speech. I'd like to sign off with some of the better points he made.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In light of the Cultural Revolution's horrors, Nixon's meeting with Mao appeared inexcusable — and yet it surely helped set China on a path where millions of its citizens have been lifted from poverty, and connected to open societies. Pope John Paul's engagement with Poland created space not just for the Catholic Church, but for labor leaders like Lech Walesa. Ronald Reagan's efforts on arms control and embrace of perestroika not only improved relations with the Soviet Union, but empowered dissidents throughout Eastern Europe. There is no simple formula here. But we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement, pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time.

[A] just peace includes not only civil and political rights — it must encompass economic security and opportunity. For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want.

It is undoubtedly true that development rarely takes root without security; it is also true that security does not exist where human beings do not have access to enough food, or clean water, or the medicine they need to survive. It does not exist where children cannot aspire to a decent education or a job that supports a family. The absence of hope can rot a society from within.

And that is why helping farmers feed their own people — or nations educate their children and care for the sick — is not mere charity. It is also why the world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine and mass displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades. For this reason, it is not merely scientists and activists who call for swift and forceful action — it is military leaders in my country and others who understand that our common security hangs in the balance.

...

[I]t should come as no surprise that people fear the loss of what they cherish about their particular identities — their race, their tribe and, perhaps most powerfully, their religion. In some places, this fear has led to conflict. ... Most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan. These extremists are not the first to kill in the name of God; the cruelties of the Crusades are amply recorded. But they remind us that no Holy War can ever be a just war. For if you truly believe that you are carrying out divine will, then there is no need for restraint — no need to spare the pregnant mother, or the medic, or even a person of one's own faith.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

P.S. Sorry to bum you out with such a downer quote--I just thought he made a good point.

P.P.S. You were probably expecting a discussion on Buddhism and war, but that can probably be reduced to two points: 1) This world is inherently imperfect so that tragedies like war are inevitable; and 2) the Buddha never once in the Tipitaka approved of any kind of killing.

~caps red ink~

~sets grading quill aside~

~sits back, stretches and massages stress-induced kink out of neck~

~smirks~


It is a good day. :D

Tire. Mailed it. ( OK, UPS'd it. And some other errands, including sewing machine updates. )

Oh, I have a question for the collective mind of the Internet.
Xmas.
My store manager objected to my consistent use of the "Xmas" abbreviation for Christmas. (We're doing a lot of cards; sometimes we have to print from a digital file. I name them all familyname_xmas, to differentiate that they are Christmas card orders [some families are regulars and as such have folders with orders already in them] and warn whoever's printing that it's going to need the 8x10/5x7 paper.) She feels that the X is used to remove Christ from it, and as such, it is an anti-Christian way of referring to the holiday.
I was completely shocked by this. I have always thought that X stands for Christ because that's the first letter in the Greek word Christos-- X is Chi, and so Jesus was referred to by the Chi-Rho symbol for the first two letters of his title. (Jesus being his name, and Christ being his title.)
I thought about it. My first experience with Xmas as a concept is that the neighbor down the street grew pine trees to cut and sell for Christmas trees. I remember asking Mom what the "Xmas trees" on his sign were. She explained that the X stood for Christ, so it was just a short way of saying Christmas, so it'd fit on the little plywood sign.
I'm trying to remember now if she ever used it. My mother is Protestant, from a reasonably religious family, though something of a Creaster herself; she and Dad agreed before they married that she would let him raise us Catholic, and she'd keep her mouth shut for the most part. So she just came to Christmas and Easter with us, and stopped going to her own services except occasionally. (When we were really little she'd take us to the Methodist church right down the street, but the only thing I remember is the color of the carpets (teal mottled with black, very short pile-- I was sitting under the pews messing around with my toys), as once I was five, off to the Catholic church-- and Sunday school-- I went. As a teenager entering a Protestant church with my mother for some her-side-of-the-family event I was flabbergasted by the total lack of kneelers and asked, stupidly, where we were supposed to kneel. Mom was kind of horrified. I am not the quickest on the uptake, in general.)
So anyway. I know fine well that if it were an anti-Christian thing, my mother never would have used it. She's not the most devout and is very much of the modern-American-keep-it-to-yourself school of politeness, where religion and politics are things you only really discuss if you're trying to start a fight. But I can't remember if she ever did. I know I've seen it in my father's handwriting... I think on cardboard boxes to store ornaments. So I know he doesn't think it's offensive. But then, he's not the quickest on the uptake for those things either.

I derailed the manager, anyway, somewhat unintentionally, with a digression into the origin of the Jesus fish thing. I am quite pleased that Wikipedia backs me up-- it is a drawing of the phonetic rendering of an acronym of Jesus's name and title. (Jesus the Son of God in Greek is I.C.Th.S., which spells "fish" in Greek.) And that was a secret symbol when Christians were a persecuted minority. I thought the X was too, but I think it's just a simple initial.

At any rate. I know of one person who uses "Xtianity" to refer to Christianity as a decidedly hostile thing, but I didn't think that the word itself was hostile, more that the context was. Am I just an idiot to not be offended by it? And am I blowing smoke up my boss's ass in defending my ignorant use of it? I really just thought it was an abbreviation, and given such lengthy historical precedent, a not-irreverent one.
But XR knows, I can certainly be obtuse.