The Must-Read Op-Ed of the Month
Forget your summer reading for English class, kids. Frank Rich's piece in today's NYT should be required reading for all Americans. I give you the last two paragraphs:

WHAT lies ahead now in Iraq instead is not victory, which Mr. Bush has never clearly defined anyway, but an exit (or triage) strategy that may echo Johnson's March 1968 plan for retreat from Vietnam: some kind of negotiations (in this case, with Sunni elements of the insurgency), followed by more inflated claims about the readiness of the local troops-in-training, whom we'll then throw to the wolves. Such an outcome may lead to even greater disaster, but this administration long ago squandered the credibility needed to make the difficult case that more human and financial resources might prevent Iraq from continuing its descent into civil war and its devolution into jihad central.

Thus the president's claim on Thursday that "no decision has been made yet" about withdrawing troops from Iraq can be taken exactly as seriously as the vice president's preceding fantasy that the insurgency is in its "last throes." The country has already made the decision for Mr. Bush. We're outta there. Now comes the hard task of identifying the leaders who can pick up the pieces of the fiasco that has made us more vulnerable, not less, to the terrorists who struck us four years ago next month.

The Curse of the Moral High Ground
The worst thing about being on the morally responsible side of the culture wars is that while you operate within certain ethical constraints, your opponents will stop at nothing to win. For all the smear campaigns the Bushocons have put on over the past ten years -- with considerable success -- there was always some satisfaction in knowing that at least the Democrats, for all their failings, never stooped to such shameless lows.

Unfortunately, sometimes the temptation to resort to enemy tactics is too strong, as the gorup NARAL Pro-Choice America found out. In a TV ad, the group tried to portray John Roberts as a supporter of violent pro-life protesters, such as those that blew up an abortion clinic in 1998. However, it was later pointed out that this "support" was a Supreme Court brief that Roberts wrote in 1991, way before the attack. The brief actually limited the federal help available to abortion clinic owners seeking to stop blockades by protesters. Not nice, certainly, but not exactly advocating violence, either. The god of humor Jon Stewart put in best: if you bought the Thriller album in 1983, you're supporting child molestation.

I'd like to see as many anti-Roberts ads out there as can be genreated , providing they're true.

My Favorite Americans, Part II
From Reuters:

A U.S. Air Force colonel has been charged with painting obscenities on parked cars bearing pro-President Bush bumper stickers, police said on Wednesday.

Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau, who supervises 41 full-time and part-time reservists at the National Security Space Institute in Colorado Springs, Colo., is suspected of vandalizing 12 cars at Denver International Airport over a six-month period...

"Lieutenant Colonel Fecteau has been charged with one count of felony mischief and six misdemeanor counts related to the vandalism," Jackson said.
...

Police set up a bait car with a pro-Bush bumper sticker, parked it at the airport with a surveillance camera, and waited. On July 1, the camera recorded a man spray-painting over the bumper sticker with an expletive.

The full story can be read here.

My Favorite Americans, Part I
Cindy Sheehan is great. Along with , the co-founder of Gold Star Mothers For Peace has been camping out in Crawford, TX since Saturday and spoiling the President's 50th vacation. She won't leave until Bush comes out to explain to her why her son had to die in Iraq. A large number of supporters have joined her. If you're interested in supporting her either in Crawford or from afar, check out www.meetwithcindy.org

The sad thing is that, as noble as she might be, she wouldn't be out there right now if her son had not been killed. Sometimes that's what it takes. I wonder how many more have to die for our whole country to wake up?

The Global Struggle Against Obervationally-Based Notions (or, The War On Science)
Bush signed the Honestly-Why-Bother Energy Bill today, completely consistent wiht his nonchalance re: global warming and his recent comments on the value of teaching Intelligent Design theory alongside evolution. Please tell me what is wrong with this man...and all the people that work for him...and 40 percent of the country.

By contrast, BBC Online has a huge, multi-feature section on environment and climate change, which is much more comprehensive, glamourous and visible than anything in American papers. Included in this are interviews with eight teens from Japan, Canada, Kenya, India, Ecuador, the US and the UK, who contribute their ideas for a improving the planet. This might well be the Big Issue our generation faces, and it's heartening to see young minds at work on solutions. If only people listened to kids...

Trailhobbit's Wish List
Dear Santa,

Since I am uncertain just how wired the North Pole is, I don't know if you are among the readership of my Rambling Blog. However, if you do read this, please take note:


Yes, I'm quite aware that it is August, but hear me out. Ordinary folks have to order these from Toyota several months in advance. It is possible that in your case they might make a special exception, but these days you never know.

Thanks lots!

-T.

PS: Is your sled a hybrid? You might want to try to maximize your reindeer milage. Reindeer are a non-renewable resource, ad they're in trouble because the Bush brigade will be drilling in their refuge pretty soon.

PPS: Could you put an extra piece of coal in Novak's stocking for me? What about explosives?

Peace.

So I finished Harry Potter 6 today...an excellent and refreshing read. Just when I thought the books were getting repetitive, this one was told in a rather different way, with numerous revelations and a ton of questions you're left to chew on. I think it's my second favorite, right behind #3, Prisoner of Azkaban. Ah, there are so many speculative theories bouncing around my head...please, J.K., bring on Book 7 asap!

The future of energy
Today's Thomas Friedman column derides Congress' newest energy bill and insightfully outlines some possible alternatives, with Brazil as a comparison case.

Says Friedman:
It seems as though only a big crisis will force our country to override all the cynical lobbies and change our energy usage. I thought 9/11 was that crisis. It sure was for me, but not, it seems, for this White House, Congress or many Americans. Do we really have to wait for something bigger in order to get smarter?

Couldn't have said it better myself. Although I personally can only muster up enough energy to sit on the couch and read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Ah, summer.

Back in the USA
Ahhh...I've been back for three days and still can't properly talk about my amazing time in Peru. So this is pretty much the gushing synopsis I emailed to my college friends. Along with the eight students from the US, there were students from Peru, Spain, and France living, working, and partying with us. We lived in a crowded house in Chepen, a small town on the north coast of Peru about 10 hours north of Lima and 20 minutes from our site of San Jose de Moro. Our site was simply amazing. It was a mortuary and ceremonial center from about 200 to 1100 AD, and although my professor has been digging it since the 80s, new stuff keeps turning up every year. By "stuff"; I do not mean stone tools like I dug in Colorado last year; this site was so much bigger and more complex. I got to excavate skeletons that were buried with gorgeous ceramics, in addition to some metal, shell, and remnants of textiles. One of the skeletons was so well preserved that there was still hair on it. This is due to the incredibly dry, desert nature of the North Coast. Even though it was winter there, it was still hot in the middle of the day. On weekends we took bus trips to other sites and museums or visited the beautiful beaches. It was eye-opening to live among so much poverty, but all the people seemed incredibly friendly. The last few days of the program fell on Peru's independence day weekend, so we celebrated for three days straight. Both my Spanish and my salsa dancing are much improved since I left home, but then again, that's not saying much. It was such a wonderful experience, and I can't wait to go back to Peru to visit the highlands. Next summer I want top study Spanish in Cusco. The only things I really missed about home while I was south of the border were salads and my dog.

I'm flying back on the 15th to prep for leading a 4-day AT backpack. I'm secretly hoping the girl from The Scholar will be in my FOOT group. And my course catalogue came today and I've been planning my entire life, as ususal. Good times!

Oh, and to keep it blogworthy, this is the first time I've gone for a month without interacting with a single person who liked George W. Bush. In fact, I didn't see that unelected fraud's face or hear his self-congratualtory drawl the entire time. Yay! Unfotunately I did hear through the Internet about the worldwide terror attacks, O'Connor, Bolton...egh. Oh well, nothing lasts forever. And it doesn't help that I came home to find my parents following Big Brother 6.

Butto speak of more intelligent entertainment, I saw March of the Penguins today...a beautiful film both visually and emotionally. What amazing creatures. I want to visit every continent before I die, including Antarctica. Three down...

Hola de Peru!
Chilling in Chepen...Having so much fun! No time to hablar. Blisters on my fingers! I love getting dirty with sharp pointed objects. ;)

Adios!