Happy Valentine's Day

As commercial as this love celebration is, I still like the idea of it. One blog friend has written at length about what a lame idea Valentine's day is. My favorite part about the article - it's from a woman's perspective. Although I agree that the holiday really has become more of a marketing campaign to fill the gap for Hallmark cards to make it from Christmas until Easters, it's nice to have a day that celebrates just the idea of love. Is that so gay that I just wrote that line? While I've celebrated Valentine's often, a lot of times I've just planned on it being a day other than the actual day of the 14th, which has helped diffuse the cost of overpriced flowers and overbooked restaurants. Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that.

Last night I went to dinner with Dave and Caitlin and blog friend, now real life friend, Karen. They so kindly reminded me of the fact that my political posts just are too tiresome, or too serious (e.g. anti-porn post), but this is my blog and these are my diatribes, so I'm sticking with them. Eat that!

Remember when I mentioned the glory of sports twists of fate and was referring to Tony Gwynn Jr. taking his beloved fathers team out of playoff contention in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two strikes? The story is much better and much deeper than I had given it credit for. This is the full article, and here is an excerpt:

The most intriguing at-bat of 2007 is leaking into 2008. You can sense it by the way a 25-year-old wannabe struts through his February workouts. You can sense it by the way a 40-year-old shoulder shrugs at the line of questioning. You can sense it by the way a Hall of Famer is uncomfortably stuck in the middle. And you can sense it by the way a filthy rich man stares into space.

On Sept. 29, 2007, Tony Gwynn Jr., for all practical purposes, knocked Tony Gwynn Sr.'s team out of the playoffs. But it's much crueler than that. He did it with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth -- against his Uncle Trevor. He did it with
the champagne on ice and the Colorado Rockies on life support. He did it against the franchise that clothed and fed him and against a fan base that, 81 days a year, walks down Tony Gwynn Drive to the turnstiles. He did it as the only son of San Diego's favorite son. And this is how he pays everyone back?

But to understand Sept. 29, 2007, you need to scoot back one day to Sept. 28...

And then I get emails occassionally from pro-troop/pro-war groups and there is one particular group - Move America Forward - that staged a protest against the city council of Berkeley because of their anti-Marine resolution. I'll be posting soon on the war at length, but for now here is excerpt from what happened at the protest yesterday:

The anti-military activists who had worked with the City of Berkley to first pass the anti-Marine resolution burned multiple U.S. flags that day. What was most offensive is that they were flags that they had stolen from Move America Forward's booths. Apparently there's a shortage of U.S. flags left to burn in Berkeley, CA. In one instance their pyrotechnics got so carried away that they burned down a sign for "Peace Wall" while trying to burn a U.S. flag.

One of the most disheartening things about the anti-military movement is that, at its core, it feels essentially anti-American as much as anything else it pretends to be. It is almost as if their energy is fueled by their hostility and find their expression through crass and hateful speech. I've mentioned this before, but beware of the kinds of people who are only opposed to policies or principles, but never promoters of any. There is a very distinct kind of personna that they exude and this is just one example of that.