1) Our friends at Peacemeal Gardens sent this tidbit from yesterday's Oregonian "Letters To The Editor" column. It was written by their good neighbor, Pete. Well spake Pete, thank you, and thanks to Barbara and Kraig for sending it out...
Iraq: No good reason for this war
Monday, April 24, 2006
As of April 20, at least 2,381 Americans had been killed in Iraq. This is greater than the number of Americans killed in Vietnam after the same period of involvement.
Another 17,648 Americans have been wounded. Hundreds of thousands of American service men and women have returned home potentially with the time bomb of post-traumatic stress disorder ticking in their heads.
Meanwhile, the number of Iraqi civilians reported killed is a minimum of 34,511. Most likely the toll is far greater, as people frequently bury their dead without the involvement of morgues or hospitals, which means they are not reported in the media.The fallout from depleted uranium (DU) munitions will continue to maim and kill for decades and possibly centuries. DU is an insidiously indiscriminate killer. It doesn't care about age, nationality, military status or what uniform a soldier wears. Do we, the American people, really want this blood on our collective hands?
The war in Iraq is a problem created by the current occupant of the White House and his associates. There is no good reason for this war. The best way to support the troops is to end this madness. Bring them home now!
PETER J. HAMER U.S. Navy (retired), 1980-2002, Estacada
2) "Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from god."
-Kurt Vonnegut ( from Cat's Cradle, one of my all time faves )
3) The Game Of Questions
( from "Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead" by Tom Stoppard, another of my all time favorites )
Questions is a game which requires it's players to respond to an opposing player's question with another question. It takes 3 points to win a game. Points are earned by catching the other player committing a foul.
Fouls are as follows:
☁ No grunts ( or ums, or the like. ) No person can make false starts, or pause for more than a few seconds, or otherwise delay the game.
☁ No non-sequitors. Each question must be a direct response to the last question.
☁ No repetitions. No player may ask a question which has already been asked.
☁ No rhetoric ( language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous. )
☁ No statements. No player may make a statement, except when claiming a point.
☁ No synonyms. One cannot repeat back a question identical in meaning to the one being answered.
May the road rise with you.
Peace
Love
Hope
p.s. ten points to the person who can tell me who the heck sang the song that said "may the road rise with you," sometime in the early eighties, new wave-ish. was it Gang of Four? it's driving me crazy...
