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.

Sally Field said, "If the mothers ruled the world there wouldn't be any Goddamned war!"
Post it on your blog where ever it is and let the world know. I don't need a celebrity to tell me this obviously but to show what cowards the establishment are.

Dave Cline one of the few people I can say it was an honor to call a friend past away last night. He was a veteran of the war in Vietnam as well as the peace and justice movement. He served as president of VFP and key member of VVAW. This is a eulogy I wrote for the Iraq Veterans Against the War website. If you knew Dave or just knew of him feel free to say a few words. I know an entire book couldn't do justice to Dave's life.

Even though Dave Cline has passed on I think all of us that have meet him know that he hasn’t really left us. He carries on in a kind of legacy most of us only wish we will leave behind.
I first meet Dave back in December of 2004. I had only been home from Iraq a few months but was chomping at the bit to fight against my war just as he and other vets had in decades past. He gave me direction. Dave told me that the truths that I and other Iraq vets witnessed where our weapons in a new fight and we had to use them to the best of our abilities. Dave helped get me in contact with other recent vets like Jimmy Massey that shared my feelings. Then when we were ready to step forward and create Iraq Veterans Against the War Dave was the man who vouched for us to Veterans for Peace to give us the support we needed in those early days.
Dave had an incredible sense of history and humility though. He taught the Iraq vets about Vietnam Veterans against the War. Even as he told us about the great deeds VVAW accomplished he also told us of their and his own mistakes. He had the gift of being able to admit and tell of his own mistakes so that future generations could learn from them. This alone allowed IVAW to grow and avoid many pitfalls early in its life.
Beyond any of this Dave was a great friend. He was the person to talk to no matter what. We had discussions rambling late into the night at many events rambling from relationships, philosophy, politics, and the general craziness that all vets deal with. It didn’t matter who you where or what the topic was you could simply grab a seat and within seconds Dave had you in the conversation.
As to what Dave’s legacy you can look at IVAW, VFP, and many other organizations and people and see it instantly. He has touched many lives and all of us agree that we are better and wiser for it. I think I can say that the world is a better place because of Dave Cline. I think the world will be a better place because of Dave Cline. It will become the kind of world that will finally appreciate a man like Dave. A world without hate, without injustice, without war. A world at peace.

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Okay so it's been a while since I posted here so I guess I owe you all an update.

First off on school.

Well the VA said they wouldn't back me for Culinary school because of my back so I had to go with plan B. Plan B is going to school for PoliSci and Communications. This happened at a very good time since Karen and I where both getting tired of Bucks County. So I started applying to Lehigh Valley colleges and Karen started looking for a new teaching job.

The end result is that I am now going to Muhlenberg College and Karen got a job teaching at Allen HS and we are now moving back up to the the Lehigh Valley.

I'm taking summer courses right now. I'm finishing up my first summer session right now in which I took Radicalism in American History and Globalization and Social Justice. The Globalization has defiantly got me interested in economics so I see myself taking quite a few classes on that before I graduate.

Some news on the job and education front.

First off is some news on culinary school:

Good news- I have been excepted to culinary school.
Bad news- The semester doesn't start till March.

Now this wouldn't be a big deal except I have grown to hate my current job. I just got promoted to supervisor which was supposed to mean my hours where going to change (no more over night shifts), and a raise to $11.50 an hour (I was making $10.50).

Well I got screwed out of my new shifts so I am still working nights and my pay only went up to $11. That coupled with the personal I have to work with and I am seriously out of here.

Good news is that after spending a good part of Monday on Monster I already have an interview this afternoon. It is with a investigation company and even though its not great work it has to be better then my current job. As long as the pay is decent (aka better then my current job) and I get a good travel allowance I am gone. They will be lucky if I even give a weeks notice.

I had two really wierd dreams yesterday.

The first happened when I went to sleep when I got home from work. All I can really say about it is that that it included zombies and my family. It highlighted the fact that I need to sit down with Karen and create a zombie escape plan.

The second one is from my pre work nap. The premise for this one was Karen and I where on vacation some where at a zoo/safari park that became a strange combination of Jurrasic park and Westworld (how many other people under 30 know that reference). I know we had to jump over a bunch of snakes in front of a door. There was also a chimp manning a .50 caliber machine gun that we had to pass to get to the parking lot. Now that I think about it played out kind of like a old school 2d platformer game. Hmmm...shades of Pitfall maybe.

Pdx42 asked me what would be my 10 track soundtrack to my life after I commented on his own soundtrack list on Peace Vets. Here is the list I put together.

1. Anti-Flag "Gotta die for the goverment"
2. Rancid "Olymipa, WA"
3. Beatles "In my life"
4. Everclear "Santa Monica"
5. Dropkick Murphys "Which side are you on?"
6. Operation Ivy "Unity"
7. U2 "Who's gonna ride your wild horses"
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival "Fortunate son"
9. Massive Attack "Inertia Creeps"
10. Strike Anywhere "Sunset on 32nd St"

Questions about my list? Whats your personal list? Lets get viral with it.

I think I picked the perfect time to get away from politics and activism. In the last few months I have had to pull way to many knives out of my back, many of them throw by the same person. Now my local chapter of Veterans For Peace is in a major upheval brought on by one egomaniac and his small crew. Now I have a very dear friend who has formally resigned from Veterans for Peace National. There is a mediaton meeting scheduled for December but at this point I am not sure how much good it will do.

Looking at what I see going on here and in other places with in the anti-war/social justice movement I am really begining to wonder if we learned any lessons from what happened at the end of the 60's. I see groups like VFP and also IVAW (this really hits me hard) starting to fracture, mostly over almost meaningless things. I am also seeing our strongest figures and ideas being co-opted and weakned by the democrats.

As happy as I am that the Republicans have lost both houses. This is far from a complete victory. We need to realize that the vast majority of the Democrats that won are not our democrats but instead the kind of centerist right leaning democrats many of us have feared. The reason many of these centerist democrats have slipped in is that they hid behind a psedo-anti-war cloak. Never really calling for a immediate withdrawal just a "change".

Those of you that know me are aware of the fact that I have no "formal" computer training. I feel I make up for that with a bit of common sense, some mechanical know-how, and a complete lack of fear when opening up the case of something that costs more then I make in a full month.

My first computer upgrade was putting a new video card into the machine I got when I first joined the military back in '01. That went pretty well (had to return the first card cause it was a agp card and all I had was pci slots).

My next major feat was installing a new hard drive in the previously mentioned box after the orginally crapped out on me. That was a little more interesting. I performed the surgery after field day finished late on a Thursday night. While I was doing it about half of my platoon drinking beer and using this as their entertainment for the night. When one asked me if I knew what I was doing I casually answered "sort of".

So with this back ground I attempted my biggest challenge yet, installing a new CPU. No I haven't burnt out my old one yet its just that my little Athlon XP 1600+ isn't cutting it anymore.

After hunting on Ebay for a few days I finally managed to get a Athlon XP 2500+ (used, my first sign of problems) for $40. Not a bad deal. After waiting for 2 weeks (it came from Quebec) it finally showed up Monday afternoon.

Of course I ran home and ripped open my computer. First thing I found out is that heatsinks are a bitch to get off. I didn't time myself but I think I clocked in right around 45 minutes trying to pry off the damned latch. Once I got the trick down I was able to extract the heatsink in under 2 minutes.

With that big block of Aluminum removed I was now left with a clear view of my CPU. I fumbled with that damn tiny little lever for a few seconds before I was able to get ahold of it and release the chip. Once that was off I was ready to drop in my new chip.

One thing my dad taught me from working on cars with him is examine how something looks before you tear it apart. To my horror I lifted out my old CPU and realized I had skipped this crucial step. I paniced for a few seconds and then did my best 2001 monkey impression before I was finally able to figure out the trick to droping in the new chip.

Then as I was about to flip the lever to lock my (kinda) spanking new chip in place I realized it wasn't laying flat in the socket. I poked it a few times with no results. Staring at didn't seem to help either so I picked it up and took a look at the pins. Low and behold one the corner pins was bent. Now it wasn't horribly disfigured but this was my second clue that chip hadn't been in the best of hands before. So after doing some light straightening I closed the lever and resembled all the bits and pieces.

Then my moment of glory. I plugged in all my wires, hit the power button and nothing happened. All the lights where on but no one was home. I mean that literally. The orange power light on my front panel was lit, as was my neon light in the case, and all the ready lights on cd/dvd roms, but nothing was happening. I turned it off and tried again. Same result. Then a third and fourth time. After the fifth I figured I should try some trouble shooting.

Trouble shooting consisted of, ripping everything apart to make sure I had put it together properly (and of course putting back together), reseting my cmos, putting in my 1600+ cpu to check out my bios, and doing a little voodoo dance while offering an old computer as a sacrifice to the computer gods. Nothing worked though (even though Karen found the last one amusing).

So now I am back to using my orginal 1600+ but I am experimenting with overclocking it (yes I will try not to burn down the house). I think what I really need is new computer but I don't think I will ever talk Karen into that.

Well after 3 years of reading PDX42 's journal I've finally been guilted into writing some thoughts about Veterans Day.

I have to say that especially during a time of war I think vets are cheated by just one day. I don't mean that we should be celebrated year round but that it really helps to create the lip service that vets are given. On Veterans Day all the local papers run front page stories about the local KIA's but any other time of year its buried in the local section between the religoun page and the classifieds. Today a Medal of Honor is presented to a family for their fallen son for all the news media to see where as normally its just a simple cerimony that only the local media would cover. Where is the fairness in this? Is one troops life more important just because it has some corilation with Veterans Day?

And why has Veterans Day now become a celibration of war? As many of you that know me are aware of Veterans Day was origianlly Armistace Day. A day remember the horrors of WWI and celebrate the peace that would follow the "war to end all wars". However after WWII the powers that be realized that would can't have a holiday to remember peace so they instead changed it to a day in honor of war and those who have made it.