Dada - aka "Bettie Page"

Well, it's been kind of a slow day. President Bush is "clarifying" what he said a year or two ago about firing whoever outed Valerie Plame. (Something about having the fingers of his left hand behind his back crossed at the time.)

Wall Street's corporate earnings reporting season is upon us again and I wonder how much the big oil companies must shrivel from embarrassment when having to reveal to the rest of us how they are hemorrhaging money out their ears from obscene profits.

Meanwhile, while out driving in the car, the atmospherics must have been just right because I stumbled across radio from another planet. It was one Bill O'Reilly and a call-in guest on the radio feasting off one another's hate for 'liberals'.

Then I remembered the last thing I blogged yesterday evening; about how we should all feel better, take more pride in what we're accomplishing in Iraq and Afghanistan. I tried to show how much we, as communities across the country, have contributed towards the new freedom Iraq now enjoys.

But when I reflected on that in an effort to feel better, I really didn't. I then began to suspect anyone else who may have read that probably didn't really feel any better either.

So here's a free Iraq and I still had a kind of hollow feeling. There was just no sense of the sacrifices I'm making for such noble Middle East pursuits like installing democracies there (but NOT in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, etc., of course). So, with the day wearing on, and in desperate need of some positive, uplifting news, I did some more research over on www.nationalpriorities.org.

Well, in short, I found that I--like everyone else--was indeed making sacrifices to free Iraq! I'm not just talking about the increasing number of Coulteresque spy cameras everywhere in public. But all the other intrusions into our private lives we so willingly seem to embrace because we're all so goddamned nervous, so scared. (Reminder: Don't check out Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" from your local library!)

No, I discovered aside from those obvious, embraced measures of privacy intrusions and freedom shearings, the National Priorities Project estimates that of the $204.6 billion we've spent so far on the war, each household has contributed $1,938 to Iraq and Halliburton! Now I was getting somewhere. I was actually beginning to feel a little better. Like I was participating in something really important!

But when I learned, for example, in my state--Texas--what each of us has traded away, I really began to feel good. Just look what we've forgone for this war and tell me we're not sacrificing. Here's a few of the trade offs we Texans gave up:

2,343,817 Head Start Places for Children, or
224,863 Affordable Housing Units, or
2,373 New Elementary Schools, or
3,959,149 Scholarships for University Students!

And so the list goes. On and on. And that's just here in Texas! And then it hit me: Realizing how much we are sacrificing for Iraq diminished rather than enhanced my appreciation for our sacrifices. I was right back where I'd started the day. Feeling pretty damn gloomy.

That's when I came across a site offering to identify my inner female just dying to get out. Feeling in the midst of an identify crisis, I took the challenge. A new personality, if not a sex change, sounded somewhat alluring. What follows is the inner me based on a few simple questions. Even I was stunned and, truthfully, it's the best I've felt all day!

DADA:

You are Bettie Page Girl next door with a wild streak You're a famous beauty - with unique look. And the people like you are cultish about it. What Famous Pinup Are You? Take This Quiz :-)