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Some food for thought:

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.” — Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

My thanks to Erik Wilson for passing that along. I just wish we lived in a time when that didn’t seem so applicable.

But still, score one for the opposition at least.

So, as I understand it, somebody who might be Osama bin Laden recorded a tape in which he briefly mentions Iraq, and therein lies our administration’s best evidence for going to war. Okaaaay.

Never mind that the voice on the tape, if it even is bin Laden’s, denounces Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government. Never mind that bin Laden has repeatedly voiced his desire to see Arab states like Iraq overthrown by their people. Never mind that just about every other shred of evidence put forth by the administration has been unsubstantiated, open to interpretation, or outright lies. Never mind that common sense indicates that war isn’t our best or only option, and that, at the very least, we should wait to hear what the weapons inspectors have to say before we dismiss their findings (and, by extension, the United Nations) as irrelevant.

Never mind all of that. This here’s the man what almost killed Georgie’s Pa. We’re a’goin’ ta war.

Update: From Yahoo News —

Fleischer dismissed critics who’ve noted the bin Laden voice backs the Iraqi people, not Saddam Hussein. “The world cannot afford to be in denial,” Fleischer said.

Denial? These critics have simply been citing the text of the tape, where the speaker (purporting to be Osama bin Laden) says exactly that. But this sort of rhetoric has become commonplace for the administration. Rather than respond to criticism, Bush and those around him dismiss it out-of-hand. I think it’s possible to take the threat of terrorism very seriously and still think war is not our best option. The administration doesn’t agree, and so they’ve closed their ears to anyone who tries to tell them that they’re wrong.

snow n.: Frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent hexagonal ice crystals that fall in soft, white flakes.

Amazing that something so simple could piss me off so much. I am absolutely sick of winter.

The staff retreat went reasonably well. It certainly wasn’t as tedious as I was worried it might be — at least, not until the afternoon session. We spent that time aborsbing not-terribly-helpful advice for handling criticism and uncomfortably sharing stories of our own worst experiences in being criticized. There was plenty of free food, though, and the morning session helped make up for it, at least a little. It was all really common sense, basic motivational-speaker stuff, but common sense is usually pretty good advice and, presented well, it can make all the difference. We learned about setting specific goals and trying new things, and although we all joked about it as we went upstairs for lunch, I think we were eager to try new things. We suddenly had new goals we wanted to follow through on.

We each wrote down five. Here, then, are mine:

  1. travel
  2. write a novel
  3. earn more money
  4. clean my apartment
  5. learn to play a musical instrument

These are not necessarily my top priorities — a new and better writing/editing job would, for instance, immediately trump the prospect of more money (which is ultimately only important to me because I’m terrible at keeping track of it and often spend too much) — but they’re a good place to start. The apartment definitely needs to be cleaned, and I definitely need to write more. I wonder about learning to play a musical instrument, though. I haven’t had great luck with it in the past, and even a cheap acoustic guitar, for instance, isn’t going to be a negligible investment of time or money.

But again, these are good places to start, good ideas with which to work. They key is to set specific and realistic goals and then follow through on them.