Dear Mr. President,
I watched most of your State of the Union address last night (I caught the gist after the fifteenth smirk), and I'd like to offer the following reflections:
Nuclear. Noo. Klee. Ur. Nuclear. You were born and educated in Connecticut, man.
Please stop embarassing people from Texas.
Also, if you want to make the case that the U.S. intervened in Iraq for humanitarian reasons, and not to chase phantom WMDs or fail to capture the man behind 9/11, you probably should have started that ball rolling a while ago. As it is, I think we're all pretty confused.
Sincerely,
Daniel Carlson
10 Comments:
But every time we hung out you talked about how much you liked G.W.?! You were saying that Iraq is the best thing that happened for us since Vietnam, and we know that we trounced those guys! Oh wait, I get it now...
Just because I don't have a Texas flag shower curtain or something like that doesn't mean I can't take some small pride in the few things Texas does well (food and music come readily to mind). I also grew up in Texas, and am capable of pronouncing many polysyllabic words (like 'polysyllabic') without sounding like a struggling third-grader. There's nothing wrong with letting people know you went to school, especially if you're applying for a job that lets you put your finger on the button marked "Invade For Vague Reasons To Be Invented Later."
Hi Daniel, it's Liz!! I happen to love George and think he is so cute (for an older guy) which is probably why no one should really take my opinion seriously....but i am really proud that he is from Texas!!!
Just curious....have you talked to any soldiers that have been to Iraq? The ones i've talked to seem to think their time is being well worth spent...
MISS YOU!!!!
Actually, one of the more enlightening quotes from a soldier fighting in Iraq came from Lt. Gen. James Mattis, a Marine commander who led expeditions in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a press conference, he said:
"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot....It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling."
He continued:
"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."
More info here.
Nice to know our troops are making a difference.
Stop reminding us people in C.T. about that, let Texas take all the blame!
On another interesting perspective, I was in Lufkin with Cameron this weekend and at her church the message was all about how hard it is to earn freedom, and how amazing it must be for the people in Iraq to have it, or at least to be on the road to having it.
I understand that many people think that W is trying to bring freedom to the country for the wrong reasons, but I open doors so that my girlfriend won't slap me. She thinks I do it becuase it is the right thing to do. Either way, I imagine that the more important thing is that her door gets opened.
I wonder if it is a noble thing to try and stop oppression and give freedom to people? I wonder if it is a noble thing to do that even if it is for the wrong reasons?
Tucker's penetrating insights notwithstanding, people need to remember that St. George's War of Iraqi Liberation was originally supposed to find and eliminate large-scale weapons and terrorist connections, which were subsequently never discovered. The man responsible for the atttacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is still at large, though that doesn't seem to stop the White House from exploiting the memories of the legitimately innocent to score cheap points and unilaterally invade whoever's pissing them off this week.
Is freedom better than tyranny? Of course. But the success of the Iraqi elections does not excuse the last two years of inept bungling on the part of this administration. Bush never made the case that we were invading Iraq for humanitarian reasons; by claiming so he is rewriting history.[N.b.: Thanks for pointing out, if not correcting, my misspelling of "embarrassing." I could've stuck to my guns and insisted I was right despite all evidence to the contrary, but I think there's already enough of that going around in Washington.]
Why do people get so hung up on pronouncing the word "Nuclear"? I don't get it.
I heard on an ad for a greedy lawfirm the word "asbestos"
Is it asbestos like /'AZ-bes-tus'/?
Is it asbestos like /AZ-bes-toz'/?
Is it /'MEEZ-o-thee-lee-o-ma'/?
Is it /'MESZ-o-thee-lee-o-ma'/?
I get "hung up" on the mispronunciation of "nuclear" because it's not like someone is stressing the wrong syllable or using the wrong vowel. It's the transposition of syllables that gets me. He's not saying "nuCLEar," which I would find simply weird; he's saying "nucular," a word that doesn't exist.
Good Point daniel. I am one who egregiously mispronounces the word. Not on purpose. Just one of those things you learn and don't think to much about.
But the pronunciation (noo-cue-lar), which is generally considered incorrect, is an example of how a familiar phonological pattern can influence an unfamiliar one. The usual pronunciation of the final two syllables of this word is (-klee-er), but this sequence of sounds is rare in English. Much more common is the similar sequence (-cue-lar), which occurs in words like particular, circular, spectacular, and in many scientific words like molecular, ocular, and vascular.
Sorry, I'll shut up now and let someone else in the class talk.
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