Plumbing problems

What a day.

It's gray here, everywhere.  The snow has that "we've been hanging around a few days past the big storm so we're covered in dirt, soot and exhaust" look.  Remember when you were a kid at school and one day you felt under your desk, wondered why it was all lumpy, looked and saw a billion pieces of gum stuck there so long ago that they had turned gray?  The world looks like the bottom of my third grade desk today. 

Bah!

I do have perspective though.  My day started with me sitting down to watch a tape of last night's "Amazing Race" only to see that I somehow managed to tape an hour of VH1's "100 most metal mania moments" instead.  I have no idea how I did this.  I suppose this is what I deserve for actually taping a reality show.  Oh well.  A quick jaunt to the network website tells me what happened.  And tells me that the episode was also filmed in Sri Lanka a few weeks before the tsunami hit in December.

We'll call that perspective item #1.

And they just keep rolling in as the day goes by.  I'm whining about gray snow and no sun.  In the meantime, the following happens:

-31 soldiers die in a copter crash in Western Iraq, part of the deadliest day there for American forces since the invasion.  OK, here's a rant: when is it going to be enough, I wonder, before the minions of the society here get up and scream "ENOUGH!"?  How many more people have to die in Iraq before we get a clue, declare victory and cut our losses by getting the heck out of there?  I am not interested in political objectives here, I just want service people to stop dying.  The elections in Iraq are this weekend.  How long until we hand the keys over to the least intimidated group that is declared the winner and send everyone home while we wait for the inevitable civil war?

-10 people die in a brutal train crash in LA.  As the day has progressed it has been discovered that the impetus of this disaster is a 26 year old man intent on committing suicide who pulled his vehicle onto the tracks to be sent to glory in a wreck of bone, metal and rail, only to change his mind shortly before the train came through.  Of course, for reasons known only to him, he got out of the car and walked away instead of driving the car off the tracks.  Train hits empty car, train derails, people die, all while Mr. Miserable watches safely from the sideline.  I think he's going to spend the rest of his life wishing he had stayed in the car.  Rant #2: I thought suicide was supposed to be an individual act?  I can't imagine making the choice to end my own life, and I have great empathy towards those that are so despondent that they do, but if the way you choose to die ends up killing others, you couldn't be a bigger coward.

-Condi Rice gets approved as the next Sec. of State by an 85-13 margin.  Huh?  My compliments to the 13, but if I may inquire, (here comes rant #3) why didn't one of you filibuster the vote?  If I may quote my buddy Bob Dole: where's the outrage?  Take your pick, Rice is either a liar or an idiot.  She's part of the conglomeration that has led the country into this mess.  Why is she being rewarded with a skate-thru confirmation?  What's wrong with a 24 hour siege of the Senate to convey to America that not everyone is happy about Iraq?  It boggles my mind.  There's a certain up and coming new Senator from Illinois who voted to confirm Ms. Rice, quietly.  Hmm.  Didn't take long for the bloom to come off that rose, did it? 

I'd go to the sink to wash my hands, but when I turn on the faucet all that comes out is bile.