However you slice it, I have returned. Back from the wild that is the hometown of Encinitas, CA. It’s a great place and a great place to have grown up (as much as I did grow up). It has all the small town charm combined with great weather and pristine beaches. All in all, one of the best.
Although I have not officially lived in Encinitas since 1989, I still have a soft spot for the little beach town where I first learned to swim in the ocean, kiss a girl, drink a beer, smoke a joint, drive a car and get in a fight. Not necessarily in that order or all at the same time, however. I’m sure we all think back fondly on the places where we learned the important early lessons of life like don’t try to mix rum, beer and tequila or that those street vendors selling hot dogs on Aveneda De La Revolution in downtown Tijuana are to be avoided at all costs.
The proximity of Encinitas to Mexico (only about on hour drive) was another reason it was such as great place to grow up. When you are only eighteen or nineteen and want to go to a bar, you need to head south of the border. I still remember a little place called The Long Bar where you could get a 24 oz giant Corona for only a buck. Such a deal.
That’s not to say that all we did was drink. Although, it did occupy much of our weekends. Every weekend it seemed that we would pile into the car looking for that elusive party with three kegs and two bands on streets with named like Alga or Mozart. Once in awhile, we actually found it too. And a few times, we threw one ourselves. We even made a few bucks in the process.
As we could not actually sell beer, we gave the beer away for free and charged five bucks for a plastic cup to put it in. Capitalism at its best. How come none of us have ever gone into politics I wonder? Those juvenile records are sealed after all.
I could go on as I am feeling particularly nostalgic of late. I like to remember the times when everything seemed possible and we had all the time in the world. When it seemed summer lasted forever, even if it was only three months. A good time was had by all.
In other news, we reached a milestone in the War. Our 1000th U.S. casualty. I find it a little odd that we refer to the people who did this as “insurgents”. After all, they live there, we don’t. If you think about it, are we really the “insurgents”? Dictionary.com defines “Insurgent” as:
in·sur·gent P Pronunciation Key (n-sûrjnt)
adj.
1. Rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government.
2. Rebelling against the leadership of a political party.
Mmm. I guess we are the established authority now (Sorry, I mean the Government of Iraq is) so the people that do the attacking are the insurgents. Although, when we first went to war, we were in revolt against the established authority, or at least helping the process along by destroying the established authority, so I am still confused. Oh well, I don’t really have to understand it do I? After all, I voted for the other guy.
Please don’t send email or post comments about how I don’t support our troops or that I hate America or that I love Saddam Hussein. That’s bullshit. He was an evil man who tortured and killed thousands. He deserves the same in return. And, I fully support our troops who go out and do their jobs under extreme conditions. Willing to fight and die as ordered. They are to be commended. I don’t think I would want to be there. I’m sure our President and VP sure would not want to be there. They did everything to avoid it, didn’t they?
To be honest, when I first saw evidence presented that Saddam had WMD’s and that he had a clear link to Al Queda I didn’t have a problem with us going over there and taking care of business. Now that we know that their were no WMD’s or any link to Al Queda and that it was all a “mistake”, I feel like we were duped. I’m just disappointed that they had to drag Colin Powell out to paint the picture. I’m sure he feels bad about it. At least I hope he does.
Maybe its because I don’t like President Bush or the VP or Rumsfeld or any of those other people. I just don’t feel like they are honest people and I don’t feel like we went to war for the right reason. I do think we need to finish the job and move on. As soon as possible. I don’t want to see us with a permanent base in Iraq. I don’t think that will go very far towards President Bush’s plan of “peace in the greater Middle East”. Or any peace for that matter.
At some point Iraq will have to be able to govern itself and we will need to get the hell out. No other countries in the “Greater Middle East”, at least the Arab ones, are going to give us the time of day until that happens. Luckily, their aren’t too many of those. Or, could I be mistaken? I wonder?
Lastly, I would like to suggest something radical. Or a couple things. What the hell? Here goes. What if we gave the Palestinians their own country? We did it for Israel, why not Palestine? Give it a minute.
Also, I think its time for Russia to let Chechnya go. Give it up already. I know that may seem like giving in to terrorism or whatever but someone, somewhere has finally got to say “enough of this bullshit” and make the first step. Life is full of compromises, get used to it.
Try doing something for the greater good for a change. You might like it and it might just work. Ok, sermon and lecture over. I am officially off the soapbox. We now return you to our program of dance music.
I promise, more upbeat posts about butterflies and puppies soon. I’m not dark, dammit. It just turns out that way.
Later.
