Achoo!  I'm sneezing and coughing and mildly feverish and very miserable.

Even my pharmacist is sick. I hear the Oly Crud is going around, who else has it or just got over it? Misery loves company.

At the moment, a google search on "adopt a nazi" brings up our own Adopt a Nazi #6 and then Adopt a Nazi #5.

OlyBlog. On the frontlines of compassionate adoption of Nazis.

In the last three years since the start of the Iraq War, it has become common to see anti-war protesters standing on opposing street corners from pro-war activists. Sometimes there are visible differences of clothing and hairstyles. Generally the differing worldviews, above and beyond opinions on the war, are strong enough that you can taste them.

Both sides, however, have latched onto one common slogan: “Support Our Troops!”

This slogan is bandied about on either side of the street as though the other side somehow doesn’t get it. In spite of their fervor many of the rally attendees have, no doubt, stepped over the bodies of disabled veterans while walking to the rallies.

I got a call the other day from the Ranger newspaper asking if Bread & Roses had seen any veterans from the Iraq War yet. We haven't. I had to be honest with the reporter. I told her that it takes time for troops' families to give up on them.

People come home from war totally mangled in mind, body, and spirit. In spite of all the sloganeering out there, the responsibility for the welfare of veterans ultimately falls on their families. Many, many families are unable to shoulder the responsibility. This doesn't make them bad or irresponsible, nor does it mean that they don't love their veteran. It DOES mean that taking care of a person who doesn't sleep at night, who suffers from flashbacks, who turns to alcohol for solace, and who becomes sorely irritable, even prone to fits of rage, is EXTREMELY difficult and should not fall on family alone. But it does fall on family alone, because everyone else is too busy sloganeering.

With time, the families give up. I know this because we at Bread & Roses have fed, sheltered, comforted, and advocated for veterans of every war from World War II to the Persian Gulf War. And we are criticized for it.

Veterans who suffer from PTSD often turn to alcohol or drugs to ward off bad memories, as well as to blunt their emotional response to being alienated from society. Imagine enduring the horrors of war for your nation, and then being left to rot in the gutter as a reward. You’d start drinking too.

Why is it that I can only paste into the text field of a new topic, but not into that of a response to someone else's topic?

I just noticed the above and another pic over on the flikr feed. Two really nice photos that I've never seen before featuring the building of Capitol Lake. Really nice. I can imagine those two guys in the background, one saying to the other "Dam... that's some nice sand and gravel you got there."

Maybe a caption contest?

Please check out www.votemark.org.  He's in the primary against Cantwell.  He has the type of goodle boy history and presentation that will appeal to those less inclined to vote on pure pragmatism (like GW with an IQ above double digits.), but he knows EXACTLY what this country needs to do, and the degree of urgency with which we must do it.  If you like what you see, RSVP for the house pary at my folks' place.  The party is July 22 at 3pm.  We'll have some BBQ and a keg and all that good shit.  Might wanna bring some V-burgers if that's your thing.  Also, he just confirmed, so if anybody wants to help me plan or bring a band and rock out or whatever.  RSVP 888-2335

The End of Faith
Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
by Sam Harris

 

With over 60 pages of notes to go with an amazing bibliography and, in the second edition a new afterword, this book has everything I need. I'm not finished with it so I'm not prepared to really go into it in detail quite yet. From what I've read so far, it's one of those books that you read and think to yourself, "Is this guy reading my mind?". I definetly feel like he's reaffirming a lot of my thoughts on the dangers of religion, especially "moderate" christians or muslims or what have you.

 

I'm not going to go on and on about what he talks about because you should read it for yourself. I will say that he has a flowing style that keeps you ingaged and, as a minor consequence, up later than you wanted to be up. Read the first ten pages here for free.

[via email from olyblogger Rob Whitlock who just sailed from Hawaii to Seattle]

Hello from Olympia!

I recently returned from a sailing voyage. I posted some pictures on line and thought you might be interested in seeing them. Here are links:

Gallery 1
Gallery 2
Gallery 3
Gallery 4
Gallery 5

Hoping all is well,

Rob