I'm not a Nazi appeaser!

Tara sent me this article about a speech given by Keith Olbermann, an anchor from MSNBC, where he refutes Rumsfeld's claims that those who disagree with the President are "Nazi appeasers". This quote might be hard to understand since it is out of context and there is actually a lot more so please follow the link below to read more. I thought this was a really good and fair article.

"The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a “new type of fascism.”

As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that -- though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.

This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute, I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow.

But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could I come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed: “confused” or “immoral.”

Thus, forgive me, for reading Murrow, in full:

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” he said, in 1954. “We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”

And so good night, and good luck."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060912/cm_thenation/15120539

Today is great!

I walked this morning for TWO MILES which has been my daily morning routine for a while. Wow! We walk along a river and in the morning it is dark and scary. We were walking along when all of a sudden a man yelled from behind the shrubbery. JC and I jumped and then thought about what he yelled. I came up with "flower" and JC thought "forward". Here are my ideas on what the man might have said and what it could mean.

1. Flower- He found a rare species of fauna native only to this northern county and was quite excited about it, since he is an exotic botanist

2. Forward- He discovered, very suddenly, that his golf cart also drives forward due to a glitch in the transmission fluid that affected the power steering.

3. Farmer- He was reflecting on the woes of the world and trying to find a solution to the world's hunger, when it came to him, also quite suddenly that we should all be farmers and eat what we sow.

4. Futile- He has reached the end of his rope and decided that playing golf everyday is useless because he will never be good. Too bad.

Look at our friends' blogs!

http://familiabigcastle.blogspot.com

http://viajandoconlosbetton.blogspot.com

Do you ever feel like this? I don't feel like this today but I'm sure that tomorrow I will! I hope you feel like this tomorrow too!

Todd had something to prove. I don't know what he was proving, but I still believe that he thinks that he proved it...whatever it was. "Go ahead Carrie, make my semester" yelled Todd as he hurled himself from the top of the de-railed train car which was parked next to the baseball field adjacent to Vista Elementary school. The funny thing, I thought, was that Carrie had nothing to do with Todd's prior woes-- she was just walking by, and looked up as Todd called her name (I seriously doubt that she had ever seen that particular Clint Eastwood movie that Todd so aptly adjusted for his situation). Not only had Carrie NOT dared him, but no one had dared him to jump off the car. If I ever see Todd again, I will be sure and ask him what he was thinking.
Ten minutes earlier, Billy and I had watched Todd pass through the school-grounds gate, and climb the back of the red train car, which put him 15 ft above ground. The bell had already sounded, calling all of the sixth graders back to class, but Todd would not come down, and he started attracting a crowd. After a while, the crowed got bored and left, leaving Todd, me, Billy, and the unknowing passerby Carrie who was unwillingly thrust into this story.

I couldn't help but think about the day before. Todd had brought a brand-new Nerf football to school and the "cool" kids had made friends with him just long enough to take his treasured orange football. The end result was not pretty: Todd running around as the cool kids played keepaway. Even sadder was the fact that the cute, popular girls started getting in on the fun, laughing and participating as Todd flailed his arms searching for that soft, calming possession that he longed to have. When he finally got the ball, he hugged it, closed his eyes, and went right into the fetal position. I was reading Lord of the Rings at the time, and I couldn't help but equate Todd's plight to that of Gollum. Billy and I tried to help, and we actually talked the cool kids into "losing interest," but the cute girls formed a circle yelling at him to give them the ball back. Billy and I weren't interested in mixing it up with the cute "scooter girls." (They all had scooters that they peddled to school, and everyone thought that they were movie stars--it would have been death to the little bit of popularity that we had). It ended with the head scooter girl Melanie kicking Todd in the stomach, and when Todd would not give up, she left, along with the other school girls talking about how "strange" that boy was. I thought it was sad that in such a small class the girls didn't even know his name. Todd was not the same after that--at least not until he proved himself the next day.
Things seemed to pass in slow motion as Todd fell from that car. He seemed very relaxed, and I thought I saw a smile on his face. That all ended as he landed, and his body contorted violently in a cloud of dust. I though he was dead. As Billy and I started running toward him, and Carrie started running away, he stood up. He was dirty and hurt, but he had a smile which hinted to a sense of accomplishment. Billy and I grabbed a hold of him, dusted him off, and helped him as he limped back to class.
Todd proved himself. I will ask him what he was proving next time I see him.

--Justin

Lunch time

I am having lunch at home today and watching Star Trek Next Generation episodes too! I love the Next Generation. Someday when I am rich I will own all the seasons. Today is Wednesday which means church day. I have to go to church to practice the dances that we are performing in less than 10 days in front of hundreds of people. We are performing three dances which are not ready and not very good either! Ha! We just love to make fools of ourselves! Only JC and I know the dances well and we are in charge of maintaining the integrity of the original dances which would go to ruins if we were not there to patrol them. We are the dance police and enforcers. If we don't arrange practices, dances, music, calls, etc. it would never get done and the world would be a little less safe. The other ladies in our group seem to have a 10 second memory because 10 seconds go by and one of them is lost in the dance, facing backwards and twisting her hips in the wrong direction. If I don't whisper the next step to them they get mad at me. It is quite funny. The last practice was so bad that I started getting hysterical and laughing uncontrollably. Oh the things we do for the Sociedad de Socorro!

Today is the first day of the beginning!

I am trying out my new blog. Hopefully this will not be a total fracaso and I will have fun and not shame J. Also, I hope to record my experiences in a more constant way than up until this moment and preserve for posterity what should be an excellently well-lived life. Woo hoo!

I can already tell how ridiculous I am going to be. . . Yay!

Today J and I watched the rest of Syriana. Very sad. But very good. In another film genre, Superman Returns, was viewed by Tex, Justin and me yesterday afternoon. I loved it! It had every element for complete Ana satisfaction: 1) cute Superman, 2) Superman love child that he didn't know existed, 3) romantic flying in the air with Lois.

I worked today. Classes were good. I have nothing interesting to say. Now I am sad because I don't deserve a blog. Feliz noche. :(