He looks so suave... 

If someone could explain this to me please....

"The World Bank's board on Thursday unanimously approved the nomination of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war, to be the next president of the 184-nation development bank. " (from Yahoo News)


How? Just how?


I figured he would be approved, but unanimouly? Really? Forgive me, but I want to know the exact temperature of the red hot poker that people were being threatened with. How big was the gun pointing at their family? Was it bigger than the gun that this man will use to cut down nations who don't fall in line?

A second jump for Suzanne

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/2035850

Yay! I hope that jerrysguitar (te person who found it in Waikiki) gets really excited about this, too. I'm so happy right now!

Arabian Nights

I remember releasing this book over the summer. Two teenaged boys were playing with it as I walked past it a second time. I'm happy it found a home.

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/1918135

The boys at the beach 

Thoughts on being a parent

Children do not owe their parents. It is the parents who owe their children.

~

This thought has been with me all week. I read an interview last week with a woman who had made the decision to not have children. She had many reasons, but it came down to this thought, along with the knowledge that she would not be able to provide for her child in a way that would meet these very high standards.

~

I know that for myself, waiting to have Wendall when we did was what I needed in order to have any chance at being even a mediocre parent. I was far too selfish, and needed too much for my own care to be burdened with caring for anyone else. Even though I married at 22, my husband and I lived very independent lives, and I never needed to put myself on hold for his care. It was not until Wendall came along that I knew I was ready to put someone else first.

~

I was 29 when I became a parent. Until the moment I met my child, I had no idea what true fear could be. I did not understand pain, and I had no concept of poverty. I had experienced all three to varying degrees at one point or another in my lifetime, but had no way to truly compare my life to any other experience. When Wendall was born, I suddenly understood that the world was truly vast, and that it was not my playground. I was able to see the dangers that existed alongside my simple, safe life. The atrocities that have occurred around the world since then have only confirmed my feelings

~

So now here I am, a mother first. My only desire, my only purpose, is to bring my young man through the world in a safe and loving environment. I see children around me who are not as fortunate in this way as my child, and I weep, not just for them, but for their parents, who somehow do not see what I see. I can not imagine putting my wants before Wendall's needs. The idea of acting in a manner that could be harmful to him is beyond contemplation. I simply can not imagine ever giving myself permission to leave him alone in a car, or to not buckle him in securely, or to allow him to play outside without adult supervision. Nothing that is happening in my life is so important that I could forget that he IS my life. Children of parents who don't understand this are, in my opinion, missing a huge part of what allows them to remain children. I am wise so that my child can remain innocent. I give myself so that my child can have all.

~

It all comes down to choice, does it not?

Brunch on the Beach

James and the Giant Peach

Last week, Wendall and I went out to breakfast at his favorite restaurant, the Big City Diner. I have no idea why he likes it so much (the grilled cheese is excellent, as is everything I've tried), but we go whenever we get a chance. We dropped the book off in front of the restaurant, and it was still there when we left, but obviously the right person came along eventually.

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/2254442

Two Years

Very well written, from the Washington Post


Two Years Later, Iraq War Drains Military
Sat Mar 19,12:00 AM ET

Top Stories - washingtonpost.com
By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer
Two years after the United States launched a war in Iraq (news - web sites) with a crushing display of power, a guerrilla conflict is grinding away at the resources of the U.S. military and casting uncertainty over the fitness of the all-volunteer force, according to senior military leaders, lawmakers and defense experts.

Unexpectedly heavy demands of sustained ground combat are depleting military manpower and gear faster than they can be fully replenished. Shortfalls in recruiting and backlogs in needed equipment are taking a toll, and growing numbers of units have been broken apart or taxed by repeated deployments, particularly in the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.
"What keeps me awake at night is, what will this all-volunteer force look like in 2007?" Gen. Richard A. Cody, Army vice chief of staff, said at a Senate hearing this week.
The Iraq war has also led to a drop in the overall readiness of U.S. ground forces to handle threats at home and abroad, forcing the Pentagon (news - web sites) to accept new risks -- even as military planners prepare for a global anti-terrorism campaign that administration officials say could last for a generation.
Stretched by Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites), the United States lacks a sufficiently robust ability to put large numbers of "boots on the ground" in the case of a major emergency elsewhere, such as the Korean Peninsula, in the view of some Republican and Democratic lawmakers and some military leaders.
They are skeptical of the Pentagon's ability to substitute air and naval power, and they believe strongly that what the country needs is a bigger Army. "The U.S. military will respond if there are vital threats, but will it respond with as many forces as it needs, with equipment that is in excellent condition? The answer is no," said Sen. Jack Reed (news, bio, voting record) (D-R.I.).
To be sure, the military has also benefited from two years of war-zone rotations, and from a historical perspective it is holding up better than many analysts expected. U.S. forces are the most combat-hardened the nation has had for decades, and reenlistment levels have generally remained high. The war has also spurred technological innovation while providing momentum for a reorganization of a military that in many ways is still designed for the Cold War.
Moreover, military leaders are taking steps to ease stress on the troops by temporarily boosting ranks; rebalancing forces to add badly needed infantry, military police and civil affairs troops; and employing civilians where possible. Yesterday, defense officials worried about recruiting announced that they will raise the age limit, from 34 to 40, for enlistment in the Army Guard and Reserve. The Pentagon is spending billions to repair and replace battle-worn equipment and buy extra armor, radios, weapons and other gear.
Yet such remedies take time, and no one, including senior U.S. and defense officials, can predict how long the all-volunteer force can sustain this accelerated wartime pace. Recruiting troubles, especially, threaten the force at its core. But with a return to the draft widely viewed as economically and politically untenable, senior military leaders say the nation's security depends on drumming up broader public support for service.
"If we don't get this thing right, the risk is off the scale," said Lt. Gen. Roger C. Schultz, director of the Army National Guard, the military's most stressed branch.A Tough Sell
At dusk the night the Iraq war started in March 2003, Staff Sgt. Spurgeon M. Shelley was near the Kuwaiti border, watching the orange glow of missiles streak overhead as he guided one Marine ammunition convoy after another north across the line of departure.
Manning a dirt berm while wearing his gas mask and full chemical suit, Shelley was determined to make it home alive to see his daughter, Lena, 2. "I'm going to do whatever I have to, to survive," he told himself.
Today, Shelley is on duty in what he calls a "one-man fighting hole" on another battlefield -- a Marine recruiting station in Lexington Park, Md., in St. Mary's County -- with a mission to persuade young men and women to enlist, and probably go to war.
One recent night, after making dozens of fruitless phone calls to high school students, Shelley said his recruiting job is more taxing than combat. "I hear 'no' more times in one day than a child would hear in their entire childhood," he said. "If I had hair, I'd pull it out."
The active-duty Army and Marine Corps, and five of six reserve components of the military, all failed to meet at least some recruiting goals in the first quarter of fiscal 2005, according to Defense Department statistics. The active-duty shortfalls came amid rising concern among Army and Marine officials that their services risk missing annual recruiting quotas for the first time this decade.
Shelley, for example, has signed up four people in nearly six months, despite working 16-hour days. Asked why recruiting is so difficult, he has a quick reply: "The war."
Increasingly, surveys show that the main reason young American adults avoid military service is that they -- and to a greater degree their parents -- fear that enlisting could mean a war-zone deployment and death or injury. One survey showed such fears nearly doubling among respondents from 2000 to 2004.
Indeed, today's recruiting problems reflect a widespread concern dating from the conception of the all-volunteer force in 1973 -- that a military composed wholly of volunteers would not supply adequate troops for a lengthy ground war.
But confidence in the force has since grown as it gained discipline and professionalism. Meanwhile, overseas missions proliferated, even as the military downsized drastically. The Army shrank from 40 active-duty and National Guard divisions during the Vietnam War to 28 when the Cold War ended, and it has 18 now.
The military is seeking to rebuild forces, adding temporarily 30,000 Army soldiers and 5,000 Marines. But the war isn't the only obstacle. Rising college attendance and an expanding job market are giving high school graduates more choices. "It's times like this when unemployment is reaching 5 percent that is a critical level" for undercutting recruitment, says Curtis L. Gilroy, director of accession policy for the Defense Department.
To meet its targets, the Army is considering expanding the use of enlistment bonuses of as much as $20,000. Both the Army and the Marines are adding hundreds of recruiters, who "will have to work very, very hard," Gilroy said.
Shelley's situation exemplifies the pressure on today's recruiters. Up at 6:30, he consults his "plan of attack," a white sheet of paper on which he pencils in his activities by the hour. At lunchtime, he hits fast-food restaurants. When school lets out at 2:45, he starts calling potential recruits at home. In early evening, he goes to gas stations or the 7-Eleven, scouting for youths with "less desirable" jobs. At night, he is out "AC-ing," or "area canvassing," until 10:30.
Palming the steering wheel of his steel-gray Dodge Stratus one night, Shelley cruises slowly past a Chick-fil-A. Scanning the cars, he estimates who's in the restaurant and whether it's worth going in. It's not.
He makes one last, failed pitch of the day -- to an overweight young man stacking tomatoes at Giant -- and heads home. As long as the war drags on, recruiting won't improve, he predicts. "I think it's going to get worse."Growing Demands
As the military struggles to find fresh recruits, there is unprecedented strain on service members and their families.
Since 2001, the U.S. military has deployed more than 1 million troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with 341,000, or nearly a third, serving two or more overseas tours.
Today, an entrenched insurgency in Iraq ties down 150,000 U.S. troops, inflicting upwards of 1,500 deaths so far -- more than 10 times the number killed in the major combat operations that President Bush (news - web sites) declared ended on May 1, 2003.
Because of spreading violence from the insurgency, coupled with a smaller foreign coalition than was hoped for, the U.S. Army and Marines in particular have scrambled to keep a force of roughly 17 brigades in Iraq until now, rather than draw down to eight brigades or even be out altogether, according to previous military projections.
Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace Jr., the Army's operations chief, is a kind of circus master responsible for juggling limited units and equipment and prioritizing who does what. Ringed by organizational charts in his Pentagon office, the West Point graduate from Richmond ticks off the far-flung corners from which the Army has had to muster forces.
"We've deployed units of the Old Guard!" he says, referring to the first-ever deployment of the ceremonial guard from Fort Myer, when a company was dispatched to Djibouti last year. "We've reached up inside of Alaska and grabbed the forces up there," he says. "Korea! Who would have ever thought that we would have deployed a combat formation?" he says, referring to a brigade sent from South Korea (news - web sites) to Iraq.
Two years ago, the Army released 2,500 recruiters so they could ship out with tactical units, officials say. The Marines also sent scores fewer people to recruiting school because they were needed for military operations.
Reenlistment rates, which have remained strong despite lengthy combat tours, took a slight downturn in the active-duty Army and Army National Guard during the first four months of fiscal 2005. The Army met 94 percent of its target for getting first-term soldiers to reenlist, and it hit 96 percent among those in mid-career. An earlier study of troops in Bosnia showed they were initially more likely to reenlist than those who had stayed home, but their renewal rates dropped as the number, length and danger of deployments increased.
"I worry about the soldiers with the second and third tour . . . since 9/11," Cody, the Army vice chief, told reporters Thursday.
As it rounds up troops for deployments, the Army has had to allocate limited equipment. It has shuffled thousands of items from radios to rifles between units, geared up new industrial production, and depleted the Army's pre-positioned stocks of tanks, Humvees and other assets to outfit units for combat.
Army stocks in Southwest Asia are exhausted, and those in Europe have also been "picked over," one U.S. official said. Roughly half of the Army and Marine equipment stored afloat on ships has been used up, the official said. Refilling the stocks must wait until the Iraq war winds down, Army officials say.
Meanwhile, a sizable portion of Marine and Army gear isin Iraq, wearing out at up to six times the normal rate. Battle losses are mounting; the Army has lost 79 aircraft and scores of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. "We are equip-stretched, let there be no doubt about it. . . . This Army started this war not fully equipped," Cody said in recent congressional testimony.
The priority on allocating scarce resources to deployed units means that forces rotating back home -- especially reserve units -- are dropping in readiness. In many cases, they are being rated at the lowest level, C4, because of a lack of functioning equipment, required training or manpower.
"The Army in the aggregate is reporting readiness levels that are less today than they have been in the past," said Paul W. Mayberry, deputy to the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
The Pentagon says that by rotating duties, it maintains enough ready forces and pre-positioned equipment to handle a crisis on the Korean Peninsula and other contingencies. But U.S. lawmakers are concerned.
Sen. John W. Warner (news, bio, voting record) (R-Va.) said he worries primarily about the U.S. ability to respond if "some problem should arise on the Korean Peninsula."
"How capable are we of handling another major conflict?" asked Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) (R-Ariz.). "It's pretty obvious that it would be incredibly difficult because of the portion of our resources devoted to Iraq and Afghanistan. What if a conflict broke out with North Korea (news - web sites) or Iran (news - web sites)?"Feeling the Strain
Of all the military branches, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve are suffering the most, as they provide between a third and half of the troops in Iraq, despite a legacy of chronic shortages in their manning and equipment.
"The real stress on the system was the fact that no one envisioned that we would have this level of commitment for the National Guard," which shipped seven combat brigades to Iraq and Afghanistan for the last rotation, Cody said.
Because the Army traditionally undersupplies Guard and reserve units, few had the troops or gear needed when mobilized. As a result, large numbers of soldiers and equipment were shifted from one unit to another, or "cross-leveled," to cobble together a force to deploy.
"We were woefully underequipped before the war started. That situation hasn't gotten any better. As a matter of fact, it gets a little bit worse every day, because we continue to cross-level," Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told Congress this month.
The widespread fracturing of units is making it increasingly difficult for the Army to assemble viable forces from the remaining hodgepodge -- most of which have low readiness ratings, Army figures show. "It's a little bit like Swiss cheese. We've taken out holes in the units," Lovelace said. "Those holes are a lot of times leaders, and they are hard to grow."
Already, the Guard and reserve have deployed the vast majority of their forces most needed for fighting counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan -- such as military intelligence, civil affairs, infantry and military police -- bringing into question whether the Pentagon's two-year limit on reserve mobilizations is sustainable.
"Can we do this forever? No. We can't do this forever at current levels," the Army National Guard's Schultz said in an interview.
In a sign of deeper problems, career citizen-soldiers frustrated by broken units and long, grueling war-zone duties are increasingly leaving the Guard. Attrition of career guardsmen is running at nearly 20 percent, said Schultz, who expects that as many as a third of the members of some units rotating back from Iraq will quit.
Recruitment is sluggish, reaching just 75 percent of the target for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 -- meaning that the Guard is unlikely to reach its desired strength of 350,000 soldiers this year.
The viability of the Army Guard and Reserve will prove decisive, senior Army leaders say, as they consider in 2006 whether to permanently increase the size of the active-duty Army, and if so by how much. It also marks a critical test of the military's ability to appeal to the civilian population, not only with bonuses and education benefits, but also with an ethos of self-sacrifice that it considers the bedrock of the all-volunteer force.
"For the all-volunteer force to work, it has to work all the time, not just in peacetime," Schultz said. "It's now time to answer the call to serve, to assemble on the village green."

Hair on the Pali

I love this picture. It was done by a friend as we stood on the side of a cliff. Honestly. This is what happens on the Pali (mountain) lookout when the winds are blowing.
This cliff is where the ultimate battle to unite the islands took place. King Kamehameha and his army drove their opponents over the cliff, and won control. The state is named "Hawaii" because it was on that island that the king was born. If the winner had been born on another island, the chain would have been united under the name of the other island.

Ah the sparkle in the eyes. Thank you, Starbucks, for making the best hot chocolate EVER! 

Fun with filters. 

This isn't the best photo of him, but I wanted to call attention to his latest scrape. The mark on his forehead reminds me of Maui. 

Maui 

Such a box of goodies!

This is a public thank you to a friend. Your box arrived today, and I am shown all over again what a wonderful, thoughtful person you are! Thank you SOOOOOOO much for every single thing in the box (which might just be ready to retire! Four trips across the ocean might be enough.) Thank you especially for the photos. I have not taken the time to put any of my pictures in an album. Ever. Thank you for doing that for me.

Wendall took this picture with his own camera. Pretty good. 

Wendall was a bit restless last night at dinner, so he rearranged the silverware. The A says ?aaa?. He also made an L and an H, but I did not get a picture of them. 

Seabiscuit story

Hello Josh!
I released Seabiscuit this afternoon, and later in the evening I had the good fortune to see the charming young man who took it home!
~
I was trying to see a movie with a friend, but we ended up not meeting. While waiting outside the theater, I saw a young man carrying the book, still in it's bag, away from the theater. He placed it carefully on top of a garbage can (not where I left it, but where it had been moved. There was a cover on the can, so it was above the actual rubbish inside.) and walk slowly away. I could not help myself and said "Excuse me, why did you put the book back?"
~
"Oh!" he replied, "I found it there, and I was not sure if the person who left it would be looking for it."
~
I immediately smiled and told him that I was the person who had left the book, and that I had left it there for someone like him to pick up. He grabbed the book, and we talked for a few minutes.
~
This young man was truly a moment of joy in my day. He told me that his conscience would not allow him to take something that was not his. His father had looked over the packaging and told him it was fine, and that the book was meant for the person who found it, but he was not sure. He thought "but what if the person who found it lost it?" I laughed when I heard him say that, and I told him that HE was the person who found it, and he had almost lost it!
~
The beautiful thing about this story is that Josh told me he had been ill recently, and had started to read. Before then, he had mainly watched TV, but he now understood how nice it was to read a book. I think Seabiscuit will be a good book for him, because he said he enjoyed the movie, and he will enjoy being able to compare the two.
~
I asked him to look over the site, and join if he feels comfortable doing so. If he does not join, at least I have a fantastic story to tell!
~
One thing, though. I forgot to ask which books he had read while in bed. I hope I hear the answer someday.
~
So Josh, even if you don't join, please let me know which books you read. You can contact me through my 'blog (listed as my website in the profile at the beginning of my page. Click on the name allysther anywhere on the screen and it will take you there.)
~
I truly enjoyed meeting you and your family. You are well on your way to becoming a wonderful man.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2483596

Reverse sunbeams

About an hour ago, I stepped outside to run a quick errand. As always, my eyes went to the sky the moment I stepped out the door. As always, my breath caught as I took in the beauty of this place. The sky is so big, so open, and so full of clouds. It truly is the most magnificent sight.

The glazed look begins.... The boy was introduced to Grand Turismo tonight. Aaaaahhhhhh. 

This is brilliant

It is also not work or child safe. It contains only one bad word, but that word is repeated often. The song and the images work so well together to state my feelings about him.

http://filmstripinternational.com/

Daddy and Wendall come down the slide. 

The Greatest Generation

Yay! I stacked the deck on this one, releasing it in the library on post--I was pretty sure someone would give it a good home.

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/1102623

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Man suffocated By Potatoes was caught a few weeks ago, and was not mentioned.
http://bookcrossing.com/journal/2500466

Welcome to Honolulu 

Sweet & Salty Nut (granola bars)

They sound great, but a name change might be good!

I'm sorry, but I purchaced these for the name alone. Wendall took them to work, and everyone who saw them agreed, the name has to go if this is going to be a product that will stick around.

http://tinyurl.com/5x2tf

I will update this entry once someone has he courage to taste them.