Outrage! Scandal!

• Location: Pikalo Pizzeria, IFA Villas Bavaro Resort, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
• Date: May 11 (?), 2008
• Description: yellow crane with some words on it.  I’m not sure which ones.  It’s some quote that I wrote down a few months ago and then gave to my sister and then she didn’t leave the crane for months.  Months!  But it’s a yellow crane with orange lettering.

My sister went to the Dominican Republic last week for a destination wedding (not her own) and left a crane as well.  I gave her this crane way back in February, and I guess she got a little stressed over finding the perfect spot for it.  This looks pretty ideal to me.  It’s kind of driving me bonkers that I can’t remember the quote/lyric/poem/words.

In lieu of a quote, we’ll have to discuss this article.  Summary: At some point during his campaign, Obama said he’d be willing to meet with the leaders of hostile nations.  Today at Israel’s 60th Independence day anniversary celebration, Bush insulted Obama in an underhanded way by comparing leaders who’d be willing to talk before war to Nazi appeasers during WWII.

Essentially, Bush is saying it’s a really dumb idea to try to put off war with preemptive peace talks.  I think I’d be okay with Bush’s stance on things — not saying I agree, mind you, but just agreeing to disagree since he’ll be gone next year anyway — if a member of Bush’s own camp didn’t let this jewel of a quote slip yesterday: “We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them.”  Does Bush not talk to his own Secretary of Defense?

There is a difference in preventative negotiation vs. 5-years-into-the-war talks, but how is one any less honorable than the other?  I would think the first option deserves more commendation because when you’re trying to prevent something, that means both sides are already mad enough to go to war but very few or no lives have been lost yet.  It takes some effort to keep a cool head when you’re angry — I imagine it takes tons of effort to keep an entire nation cool enough to consider peace talks when all its citizens are angry, like after 9/11.  And we’re all angry now anyway, but we’ve suffered more casualties.  Could we have prevented the 4000+ US troop deaths if we had sat down and talked beforehand?

Okay, I’ve changed my mind; Bush’s stance is dumb.  This is not the Nazi era, and our weapons are far worse than they were when we first joined WWII, so going straight to war is a bad idea (not like it was good in WWII anyway), and comparing people willing to talk for peace to Nazi appeasers is tasteless, rude and unnecessary.  Jeez.  I don’t know if I have the heart to send Bush a peace crane — sometimes his choices irk me so bad.  But isn’t that the point of this whole exercise: to extend the olive branch to those you normally wouldn’t?  Hm.  I guess that means I’m sending the President a peace crane.

Oh, by the way, I think I remember that I wrote the definition of peace on this crane.  I think.