In which I side with Obama (gasp!) and comment on Iran

I caught this wondeful bit of malarkey from PETA this morning.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside. .

During an interview for CNBC at the White House on Tuesday, a fly intruded on Obama's conversation with correspondent John Harwood.

"Get out of here," the president told the pesky insect. When it didn't, he waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked it dead.

"swatting a fly on TV indicates he's not perfect," [A PETA rep] said, "and we're happy to say that we wish he hadn't."

Why bother mincing words? What nut jobs. How can you ever take that group seriously when they spout crap like that? This society, for all its genuine problems, has FAR TOO MUCH free time on our hands. That time could be spent trying find a solution for world hunger, curing cancer, or simply helping a child learn to read. Instead, a precious few obsess about a disease carrying insect that craps wherever it lands. My word.

Good for you Mr. President. And in honor of PETA, enjoy your hamburger at lunch today - I know I will.

* * * *

I'm not a big believer in the tired axiom that history repeats itself. It doesn't - every situation is unique, with different people, circumstances, and beliefs guiding the situation. But I do find it curious that the Iranian Revolution was fueled, in part, by the Shah's failure to cut long-distance lines. That enabled Khomeini to phone in instructions and propaganda to his followers and fueled his support. Now, those in power are besieged by Twitter and Internet protests. What goes around comes around.

I don't foresee a happy ending to the situation in Iran. The hard-line Islamic government isn't going to roll over and make nice. But I do want to go on record and say I think it's imperative for the White House to publicly lend support for *peaceful* and *legal* change in Tehran. Whatever claims are made to the contrary, we are currently at war with the fundamentalist fringe of Islam, of which Tehran is a damn fine example. The only long-term solution to the problem (unless you believe perpetual violence is hunky-dory) is to promote moderate governments that place a value on freedom, not extremism.

It's a narrow line to walk, I know. Express too much support and you trigger a reflexive backlash, or more likely are made the scapegoat for the [inevitable] violent crackdown. Say too little and you are rightly criticized for not doing what you can to save lives and promote the ideals we hold dear.

But it's something that has to be done. This isn't Hungary in '56 or China in '89 - what happens in Iran is of relevant and immediate value to a conflict we are actively involved in, one which has breached our shores, one which could reverberate across the Mideast.

The world is watching. Now is not the time to play it safe.

A Joke

Warning: Naughty Bit

Read on, dear reader, and don't confuse the Obama reference ahead with a political post. It's a joke people, a funny.

A ten minute segment of Smiley's spring concert was a spoken word piece starring kids from the older grades. In the performance children were lined up across the stage and, one at a time, recited a fact or anecdote from the life of Barrack Obama, all presented in front of a rousing PowerPoint picture medley of the President.

What the hell. He's the President, and the new car smell hasn't worn off yet. I can deal, even if it is dancing on the edge of creepy.

Anyway, the amusing part. Every part of Obama's life, large and small, EVERY anecdote, ended with some variation of " . . . because Barrack Obama wanted to help people.". No part of his life was governed by motives outside the common good. The kids could talk about a job Obama had in high school and it would come out: "after careful thought he decided to work at Pizza Hut[dramatic pause] because Barrack Obama wanted to help feed people".

This went on with each kid across the stage and it was so over the top some parents in the audience began to snicker - and it was a very pro-Obama crowd.

There are advantages to sitting in the back row. Midway through I grinned and whispered to Lisa: "and after his prom Barrack Obama asked his date if he could take her virginity, because in his heart Barrack Obama only wanted to help people [climax]"

I believe Lisa hit me at that point, but if she did I was too busy laughing to notice.

How I spent Inauguration Day 2009

When I was in kindergarten my teacher, Sister Pat, led us into the music room across the hall to watch the Reagan Inauguration. A short time later she announced that the hostages in Iran were free, and made a point of saying it occurred on Reagan's watch.

I don't remember if I knew what any of it meant at the time, but I must have. I look at my girls, who are roughly the same age I was then, and they have depths of understanding that would seem unbelievable to someone who's never had kids. I imagine it was much the same for me back in 1981.

So I'm a little disappointed that neither of my girls were given the opportunity to watch Obama's inauguration (no word yet on whether Smiley's school showed the event). Not that I like the guy or buy his rhetoric - I think that's obvious - but it is history, and a shining example to the world that even after 200 years we still believe in a peaceful transition of power to the opposition.

28 years from now it would've been grand for one or both of them to blog about their memories of today.

[By the way, I received an email asking why I closed comments on the Bush post. It was meant as a . . .heartfelt message more than anything, and if I'd had a way to do it I would have made that entry 'private'. It wasn't intended to spark a debate and so I made sure it didn't. We'll all argue about him another time :)]

As for me, I listened to about five minutes of the speech while on the way to change a flat on my Escort. My wife had loaned the car to her friend Chris, aka She of Negative Car Karma, and in ten minutes time she'd managed to all but shred the right front tire. What's worse the car was parked on a wide swatch of snow and ice, and I foolishly failed to dig out a base for the jack. Result? The jack slipped and the car dropped, ruining the jack.

While I waited by the Escort she took my van to go pick up another jack. She called a few minutes later to say that she couldn't start the van. I told you, cars hate the woman. It turns out she had just locked the wheel and it was a one second fix.

At two I took Lump into the doc for her checkup. She is 33 inches tall and weighs 24 pounds. Those numbers place her in the 90th percentile for height (meaning 90% of girls her age are shorter) and in the 25th percentile in weight (meaning 75% of girls her age are heavier).

In other words, she's tall and skinny.

The doc thinks she has allergies, since her runny nose is perpetual, and gave us a prescription. Other than that, she's perfectly healthy. She didn't cry or even flinch during the *four* shots she got, but bawled and fought over the blood test.

Here's the part I don't like. When I tried to report in the results to Lisa I was told the doctor had already called and told her everything. This is the second time a doc from that office has done this; the first time a Doctor flat out said she didn't trust me to properly relay her findings because she 'knows how men are'.

WTF???

Mind you, this is one of the most respected and learned pediatrician offices in the city. But the reverse-sexism explicit in their calls just galls the hell out of me.

Speaking of doctors I fear I'm going to need one. My sinuses have been clogged for weeks now and now I'm staring to get very minor nosebleeds. It kind of snuck up on me. It took Lisa pointing out the amount of time I've had the problem to realize there was a problem at all.


By the way, Lump's nickname is staying for the time being. The only other option would be the discarded Smiley nickname of 'Maker of Trouble and Mayhem'. She is 100% hell when on the loose in the house, just destroying everything in her path. I took her out of her crib the other day and on the way to the floor as I put her down she grabbed two items off a shelf and threw them across the room. Anything and EVERYTHING she touches is meant to be eaten, thrown, dumped down the stairs, broken, or tipped over. There is not a Cheerio's box in Milwaukee that she hasn't scattered across the floor and I weep for my home when I see her on the prowl.

Tonight it was dance class for the kids and Lisa and wonder of wonders, when we got home the kids made it from the van to the house without tears, screaming, or violence.

It was like winning the lottery.