As part of an article on the increase of Fort Lewis soldiers in Iraq, the Seattle Times today has an image of the Stryker Brigrade with a caption that reads

Soldiers from the 5th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team use smoke grenades for concealment as they engage anti-Iraqi forces in Baqubah last week.

It’s interesting what they choose to title the Bad Guys™. No longer rebels, insurgents, freedom fighters, or terrorists.

Anti-Iraqi. Certainly there are citizens of Iraq who disagree with the ideals of those getting smoked by the Stryker Brigade, but the term “anti-Iraqi” implies some sort of overwhelming consensus in the country that these people are wrong – implies that the Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurds feel some sort of political unity, which I really don’t see as the case. The country of Iraq is purely a figment of the West’s imagination.

(On another note, is it just me, or are those guys in the picture wearing Multi-Cam? Shouldn’t they be in ACU? Perhaps they grew tired of getting shot at due to crappy, useless – not to mention ugly – camo. Revolt!)

I just accepted a job at Kings Canyon National Park, in the southern Sierra Nevadas. I’ll be there mid-June till mid-September.

The work is through SCA, which was recommended to me by a friend at the WFR course. It only pays $60 a week – enough for groceries, I think – but the housing is free. From what I’ve been told, it’s more-or-less impossible to get a real, actually-paying job with the Forest/Park service before you’ve done some sort of volunteer or internship thing with them. So at least this way I’m getting payed something.

The idea is, if I like the work, I can get a job as a seasonal Ranger. Work the summer and bum around the rest of the year.

Dates will be posted when I know them. I’ll be driving, so some of you California people will have to offer to put me up for the night. (And then you should come visit me in the park.)

It seems Iran is complaining about their depiction in 300.

It seeks to tell people that Iran, which is in the Axis of Evil now, has for long been the source of evil and modern Iranians' ancestors are the ugly murderous dumb savages you see in 300.

I must have missed something because, when I saw the film, the Spartans were clearly depicted as savage, inhuman barbarians.

The film-makers even drew a direct correlation between the Spartans and Timur, with their wall of corpses. If Timur wasn’t a war-mongering ass-hat, I don’t know who was.

So I was sitting here, at work, doing work stuff, when a reminder popped up. “Work in 14 minutes”. “Wait a second,” I thought “I’m already at work.” I check the calendar. I’m not supposed to be at work till 3. My (atomic) watch said it was 2:47. Time.gov agreed with it.

I’m supposed to be in class 2-3 – but I went to that class. The professor was there, my friends were there.

Was the entire class an hour early?

Will I be late to my next class?

What time is it?

Tune in next week…

I was late to my next class.

I think I need to take tomorrow off.