Someone grabbed a legal notepad and started writing some questions. I’m not sure whose these belong to, but I wanted to capture them:
1. How is the war effort going in Iraq? Are we winning or losing?
2. Is there life on other planets?
3. Why do people live and then die?
4. How are movie special effects made?
5. Why is there racism?
6. Why did Thomas Jefferson own slaves?
7. Why was earth created?
8. Why are some people taller than others?
Here are some of the resources they jotted down:
Iraq-Dick Cheney speech
My War: Killing Time in Iraq
Google search: Iraq
Wikipedia
News
Life on other planets?
SETI
Drake’s Equation
A Brief History of Time
Hello Mrs. Love’s blog (and students) from somewhere in Iraq.
Here are my thoughts on your questions:
1. The war effort in Iraq are we winning or losing…wow, tough question. What I have seen here that is different than the last time I was here (2004) is a great deal of patriotism. Iraqis are actually manning police and army checkpoints (rather than collecting a paycheck and running off anytime someone approaches). Iraqi Flags are waving everywhere. The Iraqi army “decorates” their checkpoints/command posts in their country’s colors. The people are showing all the signs of wanting us to leave…and I don’t mean this negatively. What I mean is, they are doing all the things that show they will be able to safeguard their people themselves in the coming years.
So, are we winning or losing…we are still losing American soldiers to injury or death. Just last week 2 guys in my company were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near their truck. Both lost fingers, one broke his arm, leg, fractured his scull, and took shrapnel in the eye, and both have burns to parts of their face and hands. Its amazing how lucky they are though; a few inches left or right, and things could be drastically different.
Are we winning or losing…I’d like to think that the recent political unrest in Iran has something to do with what the US has fought for in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of people feel compelled to voice their complaints about an election that they feel was unfair…many are willing to risk their lives for this freedom. Does this have anything to do with winning or losing in Iraq…I don’t know.
2. Is there life on other planets? Yes, No…who cares, it takes 5 years to get to Mars and I don’t have 5 years of my life to waste in a spaceship to find out.
3. Why do people live and then die? If you lived and then lived, you would never die…whats the point of that?
4. How are movie special effects made? very carefully (and with lots of your money that you spend at the movie theater…does it really cost 10 bucks to go to the theater these days?).
5. Why is there racism? Ignorance.
6. Why did Thomas Jefferson own slaves? “Everyone was doing it.” ??? Ignorance.
7. Why was earth created? because we couldn’t build it.
8. Why are some people taller than others? Because the others are shorter.
References for Iraq/War stuff: The Sling and the Stone by Thomas X. Hammes
I hope you guys have a great summer. I can’t wait to get back to Mill Creek so I can talk with you yahoos about this stuff in person. Be safe and take care of eachother! Mr. M