Sorry for my silence yesterday! I had a sim (which was interminably slow from a LSO perspective). The most interesting part was watching Matt (conspiracy theorist, anti-Bush) and Chris (conservative, far right) debating the war in Iraq and Michael Moore. It was funny, because they started debating, Marty left and practiced retiring Frank, had lunch, came back, and they were STILL debating. Very amusing. I restrained myself (is everyone surprised or what?) because I can't remain quiet while debating, and it wasn't the right venue for me to wage an all out attack.

For reference, my opinion: I think at the time (of our invasion) there was a consensus that Iraq was attempting to develop WMD (this was an opinion shared by the international community, the Clinton administration, the intelligence community, etc.) We know that all those sources were not as good as we thought now, but at the time, that was our best info. I don't think the threat from Iraq using these were imminent, and we should've let the weapons inspectors finish their job like they asked and exhausted all peaceful alternatives first -- I think the President jumped the gun and had other motivations for invading then. Therefore I think it was wrong to invade based on that argument alone. Now there's other arguments that make Saadam an oppressive ruler, but he's not the only world leader supporting atrocities, and if we don't invade other countries, why Iraq? But, we're there now, so I think we have an obligation to stick it out, even with a growing casualty count, until we've restored the stability we ripped out from underneath the feet of the Iraqi people and that we make sure what we leave in the place of Saadam Hussein isn't another power hungry, oppressive regime.

Ok, enough politics... I must be feeling ultra argumentative, because on Monday night, Nick, my roommate, basically announced that he thought Israel should be disbanded. He proceeded to tell me that I had no right to an opinion on the subject, because I had never lived there. For reference, his mother is Palestian-Christian, he had a very privledged upbringing, and would go there on extended vacations as a child. But that's another argument for another time, but we've been exchanging a lot of e-mails on the subject. As you might imagine, I have a very different opinion on the situation in Israel. Personally I think the Palestians would get a lot more accomplished in fighting oppression if they took an example from the civil rights movements instead of blowing up buses of civilians.

Ok, really enough about politics. I have been obsessed with the Olympics. I even caught the beginning of sailing last night (its TiVO-ed, so I'll watch the rest today). I was quite unimpressed by the announcer - the guy who announces our Wednesday night races on the lake would be better. Oh well. I also made chicken curry caserole, a dish Karen introduced me to. Basically, chicken, brocolli and cheese, how could you go wrong? Unfortunately, I got the portions wrong, and it was more like chicken curry soup. Still good though.

That's it.