Afghaniconsternation

I wonder: Did Obama make his troop-increase announcement out of a firm belief that it was the best way to deal with Afghanistan and "terrorism"; or did he do so because he believed it was politically beneficial? Which causes me to ask this: Which is more frightening?

Talk about recycling!

Here's a solution to America's obesity problem.

Sometimes, other folks say it better than I

This is one of those times.

Isn't war wonderful?

The latest from our "victory" in Falluja. (Video)

Higher mathematics

Numbers like these for the costs of war make me sick, when I think of the uses to which such sums could be put back here in America. When I say, "sick," I mean actually nauseous, because not only are such monies diverted from our own benefit, they're burned up, literally, with no payoff to anyone and with evil consequences for the environment as well as the concept of peace. Awful, ugly, sickening.

Where's the outrage?

Have we grown so tired of stories like this that we're now immune to disgust? (The kicker, at the end of the article, is that we've lately extended the bastards' contract.)

McGovern and me

I guess I'm not crazy, saying that we should get our troops out of Afghanistan immediately. If I am, I'm in good company.

Accidental history

I wonder if this would work for our troops' withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. A jumbled remark at a general's news conference, and all our troops would climb aboard their HumVees and drive out of the countries. It works for me.

About running

Besides fretting over the militarist and fiscally perverse state of our nation (and the equally troubling emotional state of this author), I also spend quite a bit of time running. I've been running regularly since I was 37 (in 1977), averaging, probably, 1000 miles a year. I run mostly for the good feeling I get when I do it (and to avoid that bad feeling I get when I don't), and rarely run in "races," such as the many local 10-kilometer events here in SB. I've run in about ten such races over my "career," mostly 10-k's, but a few longer events, too.

I've had my share of running injuries over the years, and so this NYT article, describing a new book about running, caught my eye. It appears to criticize the effect on injuries of these many new-fangled running shoes, with their various cushionings and supports and seems to foster the idea of minimalizing footwear to avoid running injuries.

Well, here's the deal. About five years ago, after undergoing a series of foot injuries that sidelined me for weeks at a time, I decided to try something different. Instead of lacing up my running shoes--New Balance brand, not too intricate in features--as tightly as I had all my life, I decided to lace them so loosely that they almost came off my feet as I ran. I'd always tightly laced my shoes--all types of shoes--because, I suppose, that's what my mother did when she tied my shoes back in my pre-shoe-tying days.

The result of loose-tying of my shoes: No foot injuries in the years that have followed. Not a one. True, I occasionally get other pains--a tight hamstring, a sore lower back--but not a twinge of foot pain. And so--I think I'll buy this fellow's book.

If there is a "god"

this woman writer has "nailed it" for me.