An Iraq Vet Against the War

BETRAYED!!! I really don't know any other way to say it. I feel like a knife has been plunged deep into my back. If I feel like this I can not even begin to imagine how the members of the Writers Guild of America feel right now. Both "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" have announced that they are returning to air with new episodes on Jan. 2nd with or without the striking writers.

Honestly these are two shows that I thought would have been the last to break the strike but here they both are. It boggles my mind. I would have never have imagined John Stewart would cross a picket line.

So here now is the call I am starting... boycott both shows. I'm posting it here first and I am going to send it out to my other contacts which are many on the left. I never in a million years would have thought I would call for a boycott of the "Daily Show" but this is what we have come to. This strike is very important as the first of the digital age and it is necessary that we support the writers as they engage in this struggle.

I made meatloaf last night. I know this is nothing groundbreaking. I must say that I really enjoy meatloaf though. I think how a person makes meatloaf says a great deal about them though. Almost no two peoples recipes are the same. Most cooks I have talked to have based their meatloaf off of what they grew up with and just went from there. They didn't copy down mom's recipe word for word they just remember how the last generation did it and go from there. This is probably as close to a oral tradition as we will get in our current digital age in the United States. Like I said nothing earth shattering but still I find it interesting.

My mom made her meatloaf with A-1 as the main flavor enhancer. I still use a bit of A-1 though when I don't have any handy I have used soy sauce instead with good results (if you do this remember to cut back on the salt or it will be worse then drinking the Great Salt Lake). I varied this by adding a good dose of smoked paprika, ground cayannee and chipolte pepper for some spice and smoke.

And not in the conventional sense of me not being normal. Any of you that really know me realize that I am far from normal. I mean in my school I am not normal.

Muhlenberg is a small private liberal arts school. It has had a non-traditional student program for a while but it has just recently opened up all areas of study and day classes to adult students. As far as I can tell I am one of the first to actually take advantage of this and possibly the only one currently enrolled as such. The end result of this is that its my 28 year old self surrounded by 18 and 19 year olds. This in and of itself defiantly separates me from most of the students but my experiences and back ground distance me even farther. To most of them the war in Iraq, the failure of the media, as well as political dissent and protest are very abstract concepts, but to me they are all very real.

Now don't think I'm complaining. I have the confidence and knowledge to disagree with my Professors that most of the other students in my class don't. I'm just saying its very strange some days, and very frustrating as well. Such as when 20 students stare blankly when they are asked about the current situation in Pakistan right after Martial law had been declared. Even more depressing is that so many of them are actually Poli Sci or international relations majors.

It seems many days that I get along much better with my professors then my fellow students. I just got back from a great lunch with 3 of them and I'm treated more like a colleague then a student. Once again my age and experience is a big part of this especially since I had been a guest speaker in all of their classes already.

I'm not really sure what my point is to all this, except many some of you can relate to this. Also just to as usual poor some of the trash bouncing around in my head out so that maybe important thoughts can take root.

Got my grades for semester today. Not quiet what I expeceted but not to bad either.

B+ in International Relations/Comparative Gov't and Communications and Media
B in my First year seminar, I'm not complaining since I barely showed up
A- in my American National Gov't, kinda got my Comm class grade and this one flipped but it all worked out in the end.

All in all I can't complain this was my first real semester in school after 10 years and as my wife can tell you I was pretty damn stressed at the end. Learned some valuable lessons for next semester at least (start research papers more then a week before the due date).

Those of you that have read my older entries know that one of my interests is food and cooking it. I was watching Top Chef when I had an interesting thought. This was even though colonialism is generally a horrible thing that destroyed many cultures and people its created some great food. The examples of fusions brought about the mixing of the ruling nations and its oppressed people have really created some incredible food. Some examples I could think of where mostly French and Spanish. The Brits with there horrible food mostly just imported what ever cuisine they could find. You could almost argue that British imperialism was based solely on finding good take out. Anyone that has been to Britain will probably agree with me.

Southeast Asian is a great example of this. Vietnamese food is basically a fusion of French and Vietnamese to the point I where its almost impossible to find wholly Vietnamese food outside of Vietnam. The Philippines had a long Spanish colonial period that effected all parts of their culture the least of which was their food.

Food and cultural migration is something I always find myself fascinated with. I just feel like food is one of the things that can really bring different people together. When you look at how food has moved and adapted to different climes and people you see how much we all have in common. Maybe some day after I write the history of IVAW this will be my next project.

Over the weekend Karen and I did a marathon of the first season of "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law".

Great show but now Karen won't stop talking like Phil Ken Sebben. Not the sexiest thing she has ever done.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/12/17

This sounds like so many conversations I had in the Marines, and of course I was the one being called a commie.

Just woke up with nothing to do so figured I'd fill all of you in on one of the books I'm reading. The book I'm focusing on finishing first it "The Jokes Over" (how do I underline stuff?) by Ralph Steadman. For those few non Hunter S. Thompson fans Steadman is the crazy, but not quiet as crazy as Hunter, fellow that did the famous drawings for many of his books and articles. This book is a memoir of his time with HST and provides many insights about some of, what I humbly consider, the greatest works of the 20th century. It is obvious that Steadman still holds a great love for his departed friend but that does not stop him from telling the truth about their collaborations. Some of the more interesting moments so far are HST macing Steadman after the Kentucky Derby
"for his own good" during their first collaboration, Steadman's first drug experience with HST (he almost died), and attending the Watergate hearings while drunk. There is nothing really Earth shattering in this but it is defiantly worthwhile for anyone interested in American literature, and a must for die hard HST fans like myself.

As soon as I finish this book I'll be starting of the classic "Propaganda", by Edward Bernays. This book was pretty much the start of the modern public relations industry and should be familiar to anyone that has read Chomsky. Luckily, its much shorter then most Chomsky books and I should be able to finish it in a day or two because I have the feeling I'll be getting a great deal to read for X-mas.

Thats right I'm a bit tipsy. First time in a long while as well. Believe it or not I am actually missing the Marines a bit right now. I know it sounds odd, especially after looking over my old LJ entries that all ended with me proclaiming my hatred for the military. This is something different though. This is not me missing the actual military. This is me missing barracks life. On a night like this I could just sit out on the catwalk and within ten minutes or so someone would stroll up take a seat and talk for a while. Sometimes we would talk about nothing of any importance, other times we would get into some really conversation. I learned about what its like to grow up in south central LA, on a tobacco farm, and in south Texas. Sometimes we talked about how much of a shit head our current commanding officer was other days we talked about what it would take to create a truly equal civilization. That is what I miss. I miss not always having a human being to talk too. All I have tonight is the internet and that just isn't the same.

As usual I have neglected my livejournal for months. I just finished my first real semester and I am already bored out of my skull. At first I couldn't wait for for break but now that its here I'm getting serious cabin fever. During the semester I had classes and reading (lots and lots of reading) and two research papers to take up my time. Now I have nothing.

Well almost nothing I'm working on finishing the three books I have started but I can only read for so long. Games fill up some time but I've got nothing new and my Laptop blew up a ram stick so its pretty much useless for anything but word processing and web surfing.

School went extremely well. I was in shock when I got back my research paper for my American Gov't class and got an A on it. I think this is the first A I ever got on a paper in my life. My Mom of course pointed out the fact it only took me 28 years to manage. It replaced the midterm I aced in my Comm class on the refrigerator. I blanked on my mid term in American gov't though so I'll end up with a B in that class most likely. I had worked all night and almost fell asleep while taking the test. Don't worry I'm finally not working nights anymore.

As for my other classes after aceing my comm midterm I'm figuring on an A in that class. My International Relations/Comparative Gov't class will be a B or an A depending on my paper and final. I got a B on the final and I got a thumbs up form my professor from his quick read so its up in the air. My last class,first year seminar, will most likely be a B as well. I barely showed up for this class, had a long string of really bad Mondays, so I'll be very happy with a B.

I've been trying to raise hell in Allentown as much as I can as well. Probably the best moment I had with that was when I debated a Major from the local college ROTC program on campus. It was the two of us on stage with one of the Poli Sci professors between us (poor guy). The debate consisted of the two of us disagreeing and Dr. Mello saying that there was Poli Sci theory that supported both of our points. Even though the Major was pretty civil during the debate he said some pretty scary things before hand. At one point he made a very racist comment towards Arabs while Dr. Mello was standing behind him. The look of shock on his amazing. Its like he finally realized that this is really the kind of hate that was fueling a lot of our military leadership.

I will post again over the break. I have been wanting to get back onto LJ for a while. My classes have really got my mind working in overdrive and I've got a great deal to get out.