To the none of you who are reading this little ditty, it's been awhile. Somehow, I was invited to the NDSU faculty Christmas party which I found to be really fun. Although I was bombarded (not for lack of a better word) from the get go about my intense interest in joining the military, I found it to be a very enjoyable experience, even if I realized how boring English professors tend to be...maybe that's a bit harsh. I guess as a reader of fine arts and appreciator (don't know if that's an actual word or if it is, if I spelled in correctly) of literature, I'm an enigma. I don't like reading the romantic literature or trying to understand exactly what Henry James was trying to convey in anything he wrote, but I appreciate the English language. I don't know how to say it, but I think English people are boring. It's one thing to gather around and discuss literature, but it's another thing to let it dictate how you live your life. There have been very few books that have made a valid impact on my life (for that matter, I don't even know if there's been a book that made me sit back and say, "Hey, what the fuck? That's the way to do it..."), but I think that the value of being entertained is beyond argument. How do you think those soldier's in Iraq and Afghanistan deal with shit? I don't think it's from receiving news from home telling them about how we're committing atrocities on POW's (which, in hind sight is pretty fucking shitty, as they're not cutting off the POW's fucking heads), but it's in music, amusing stories, in telling them that we're proud of them, or in the simple gesture of sending them a fucking candy bar and telling them we support them. I don't think that a bunch of professor's at a college can dictate foreign policy from the comfort of their tenure-ship at a school of advanced learning where their largest goal is to get their lesson plan done for the day. Again, I don't mean any disrespect towards any college professors, teachers, or TA's. But I think there's a large part of this society that doesn't really appreciate the shiznit that those mofo's in the military go through, which is why I want to do it. I know of a few soldiers who have the talent to make a large sum of money in the civilian life, but choose to join the military because alot of people don't feel it's necessary. I read in USA Today awhile back about a Lt. Colonel in the Air Force who told his children that he was fighting because he had to do it; alot of people couldn't handle the pressure. How can people not understand that the people in the military are doing it for the people that aren't equipped to handle the pressure and that the leader's of our country, as stupid as some of them sound, aren't doing it for shits and giggles? Appreciate the fact that you have the ability to just hang out, discuss Dostoyevsky over a glass of the latest Californian vineyard select white wine, and let the people who are experts, who've spent a lifetime studying for the post they hold (much like tenured college professors, for instance) to make decisions for people who, for the most part, don't give a rat's ass (anybody vote last presidential election?). Aside from voicing various opinions, I don't see anybody acting on their thoughts. Yeah, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are out there, letting everybody know that the US is a piece of shit and we're all fucked, but they have that luxury of hitting the opposition trail because they don't have to worry about paying for the phone bill or making sure that Susie isn't throwing up in a shoe box that she keeps in the closet because she can't deal with the fact that she weighs an incredible 94 pounds at 17 years old. I'd like to see those two run the country for two days because all this tree hugging, peace loving shit's just not gonna fly. My buddy, who happens to be in the guard, has mentioned a few times that people seem to care more about the death count in Iraq, which is around 1300, is more important than the 3000 or so that were killed on 9/11. US policy is dictated on military power, not by letting countries like Iran sell us sand at a premium in exchange for us to turn a blind eye and let them produce ICBM's that are capable of dropping nuclear warheads on California (which, God forbid, might kill the entire Hollywood population-which might not be so bad because Robbins, Sarandon, and Matthew Liliard are included in that little sexy group) that can kill...now I don't know, but a conservative estimate might be around 3000 or so (!) Americans. I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome from typing so much (amazingly, not from beating off), but this wasn't an attack on English faculty. I appreciate them and I appreciate the power of art, but it's only gonna get us so far. I don't think it's cool to denounce violence as a way to solve things because from the beginning of time, violence has solved everything. Maybe it's because I'm naive and I haven't read a lot of Shakespeare, but I know that Hammurabi's code is the basis for a few influential governments, Jesus’ martyrdom, and Hitler's rise to power (which is arguably one of history's most influential leader's and in control of some of the greatest scientist's of the 20th century (ME-262 anyone?)) were all achieved through violence. I'd like to end this on a better note because I'm not a terrible writer, but I think that being a liberal is cool, but not when it comes to running a country. It's one thing to be able to speak your mind in a variety of mediums, but it's another to run a country. To be a truly efficient country, you need to be conservative. But, whatever, I'm just an idiot with a computer...