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Mmmmm, house rattling thunder. Yay Seattle. =)

So, Dan Savage wrote about something that was on my mind in the Haggard case (the pastor who’d been hitting it with a male prostitute, and snorting meth to boot). Prostitutes generally do not kiss and tell. It’s bad for business.

I have very mixed feelings about this particular case. The prostitute violated an expectation of confidence. The john sooooo had it coming.

What are your thoughts?

PS. Yay on the election.

Seattle-ites. Please leave your phone number and/or email. I’m the only one who’ll see them. I wish to play board games, and hang out. But I need contact info for that plan. =)

And it doesn’t really matter. That’s a prediction. But I’m in fucking chicago, ferkrissakes. If a democrat (or green) that I could have voted for loses by 1 vote, you may feel free to stab me in the thigh with a fork.

I was late about the early voting, got my shit together a day late, and now I’m a time zone away from my polling place for training. So, sadness, but not a big deal.

I dreamed I enlisted. Yet, oddly, it wasn’t a nightmare.

Okay, I don’t have time to post a comprehensive entry on the subject I posted. But, reading several NYT articles has revealed to me that I’m even more ignorant than I thought I was.

It started when I was surprised to discover that Al Qaeda was a Sunni group. My reaction was something along the lines of “But Sadaam/the Baathists are Sunni, and they hate Al Qaeda, right? How does that make sense?” Then there was the “what is the _real_ difference between Sunnis and Shias? Yes, yes, different areas of Iraq, some more oil rich than others. Prevalence in population and dominance in politics, blah, blah, blah. But those are characteristics of the groups’ circumstances in Iraq. They aren’t the features that distinguish one from the other. Sunnis live in Shi’a areas and vice versa. I really don’t know the difference between the two groups in a more fundamental sense.

Then another article made the observation that neither the Iraqi identity nor the Sunni/Shi’a identity is (generally speaking) the most important grouping in Iraqis’ lives. Their families/clans are more important. And it fits what I know better than the Sunni/Shi’a distinctions as the primary allegiance. It also makes unity a much more complicated (impossible?) goal. It also puts so many things into context. Without knowing jack or shit about the most important factor in so many of their lives, the folks at home are shooting blind in their understanding of the situation. And every blind shot will undoubtedly hit some target, the question is, how big. There were people who welcomed our troops as liberators and I bet several of them still feel the same way. But that’s not to say the represent the majority, or even a significant minority of the people there. So the “greeted as liberators” thing did have a tiny kernel of truth, along with a giant, steaming heap of exaggerating bullshit.

Not that I think the soldier killers represent a majority of the population. If they did, I bet the situation would be quite different, and there’d be alot more dead bodies.

I’ve completely lost track of my point here. Oh yeah, I don’t know shit about the important parts of the situation. But neither do most of the people vehemently opining on the topic. That was my point. How constructive. Chaos is usually a very ugly beast.

So, years ago, I was diagnosed with Adjustment Disorder with Anxious and Depressive Features. Right around the time I oh-so-conveniently left town, my shrink was starting to think that it might be more serious than that. Hearing that phrase, I paniced a little inside (see “Anxious” above). I haven’t seen a shrink since. I don’t have the least belief that I’d end up medicated or committed, but I should probably be talking with some trained person about my neuroses anyway, for my own optimum happiness or whatever. I just haven’t. In CA without insurance, I got out of the talking-with-a-shrink habit. And, though it might have helped me in my grad school stresses, I just chose not to. And now I’ve chosen the less benefit-ful insurance option. I _can_ cope with my own problems. I _might_ cope better with assistance. But it’s gotta be a quality shrink. I can talk for hours to someone who doesn’t call me on my shit and get nowhere.

But, back to my point. Adjustment disorder with Anxious and Depressive Features. Some thoughts on all that

New Jersey is the most ass backwards state I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Their public transportation system is the worst I’ve ever encountered in such an urban area. They don’t seem to have people manning the phones capable of finding their ass with two hands and a map. Plus, they’re not merely terrified that I’ll use my water to blow up a plane (I’ll fuse it with the power of my mind, I guess), they are terrified that an empty plastic bottle is a danger.

Okay, now that I have that out of my system.

Over the course of the past week, I’ve read the first 3 harry potter books. They’re good. Lighter and quicker reads than I expected. I’m also somewhat disappointed with the unidimensional characters (though in the 3rd book, they start showing signs of growth and change). But she does suspense well. Unfortunately, on the flight back, I left the book in the seatback pocket on the airplane. I’m going to have to buy a replacement for (sorry!) I also accidentally swiped Dan’s umbrella. I reminded myself to take it out a couple times, but never actually did.

*sigh*. And I have to get up tres early for work tomorrow. So perhaps it’s a good thing that I’m extremely tired.

g’night!