Andy (or Craig to some of you) update
Posted by Gypsy on Mar 26, 2008
Andy called today. He’s in Iraq and starting to settle in. At the moment, he says he doesn’t need anything. He also said not to worry about sending calling cards as there is a less expensive option for calling where he buys time online to use at their phone center. Otherwise nothing to really report. I’ll keep everyone updated on what’s going on and if he needs anything. Also, if anyone needs a mailing address, let me know and I”ll email it to you.
Pale Rose: Weeks Twelve through Fifteen
Posted by Gypsy on Mar 24, 2008
So it’s been awhile since I updated this, what with the wedding and all. So here’s the last month’s worth of stitching:
Week twelve:
Week thirteen:
Week fourteen:
Week fifteen:
Cold comfort
Posted by Gypsy on Mar 19, 2008
So today is the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq. Bush will be giving a speech later today at the Pentagon, the content of which has already been distributed to media. To be honest, I rarely pay attention to what our current president says. The majority of the time, it just makes me angry and frustrated, which leads to me calling Andy to bitch which leads to a argument because we have different political views. Unfortunately, a headline caught my eye and led to me reading this article which has led to me being pissed off.
There is one quote in this article that has pissed me off more than anything. It really demonstrates how much Bush cares about his “legacy” and how little he gives a shit about the citizens of this country, and especially those who are making sacrifices for it. I’m taking about the service members who are risking, and giving up their lives, and their families. According to the leaked excerpts, Bush will say: “No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq.”
I’d like to see Bush tell this to one of the women who have been made widows or the children who are now fatherless because of his warmongering. I’d like to see him tell a mother or father who has lost their child that their death was a “necessary cost.”
Beyond that is the fact that he includes “lives and treasure” as if they weigh the same against each other. Money is money, but I bet every single person who has lost someone to this war would give up every penny they had for one more day with their loved one. To trivialize the lives lost in this war for oil is beyond disgusting. I bet his speech would be totally different if he had lost someone to this war. Or had to spend even one day wondering if that strange car on his street or pulling in the driveway is someone coming to tell him he’s lost a child or spouse. Or spent a night lying awake wondering why he hasn’t heard from his loved one in days and praying their ok.
Or hell, maybe I’m just overreacting because this hits way too close to home. Just yesterday I said goodbye to Andy so he can go to Iraq and join Bush’s crusade for oil. And because no matter how many times Andy tells me he’s going to come back, there’s still that fear in me that when I said goodbye to him and he kissed me and held me it might be for the last time ever and not just the last time until the next time when he gets back.
Pissed at TSA?
Posted by Gypsy on Mar 11, 2008
Well now there is a place to go to complain to someone other than your friends or random people on the Internet. Ok, well you are still complaining to random people on the Internet, but now some of those people include the Transportation Security Administration itself. Today I discovered that back in January, the TSA started it’s own site for people to comment on all the bullshit they’ve been put through while engaging in air travel. We all have horror stories about airport security, but now someone who might be able to do something it is listening. The TSA blog discusses a multitude of topics in relation to airport security, including why some things are done and further explanation on various rules and policies among other things. Even better, they publish nearly every comment made regardless of the complaint. The only comments that get deleted are those that contain personal attacks, profanity, are off topic, threatening, involve long links (that mess up page formatting), are duplicate posts or contain sensitive information. Even better, there is a counter that tells you how many comments have been deleted to day (right now 125 since the site’s inception in January).
Anyone who knows me knows that I travel a lot (which is why this thing never gets updated like it should), so I have more than my fair share of horror stories. Maybe thanks to this blog and the people who comment on it, TSA can finally do something about the part they play in the nightmare of air travel.
Edit: So after reading further (just the posts from January so far, and most of the comments), it appears this blog is merely more government propaganda. The “writers” of the blog (all TSA employees) write in an extremely unprofessional manner, which appears to be in an effort to seem more “hip” but actually makes the TSA look ridiculous and unprofessional. Beyond that, a majority of the time questions in the comments go unanswered and when an attempt to answer them is made, it’s still not a real answer, just more propaganda. It’s really sad that in an effort to change public opinion to the positive, the TSA has managed to do quite the opposite. Granted, the site has only been up for a few months, but unless they actually take the complaints and suggestions mentioned in the comments and actually do something with them, then it would seem the government has succeeded in wasted even more of our tax dollars.
