Bill's Notes

When men act out aggressively, they usually do with physical force, or with intimidating words and gestures. When women act out aggressively, they usually do so sexually, even if it's just sexually charged words and gestures.

'm not saying the converse is true — that all force or sex is aggression ... only that when men and women act aggressively, they do so in a channel that leverages, unfairly, the powers and strengths of their respective genders. At the most fundamental level, it's about misusing the power you have. Usually, for men that's physical force and for women that's sexuality.

BTW, this is one reason for the sexual double standard for women, and the physical double standard for men. Another reason is that the failure to enforce a sexual double standard in women eventually causes society to revert to matriarchy, a/k/a, the stone age. But that's another story. A failure to enforce a physical double standard in men leads to barbarism. Again, that's another argument.

Some women bloggers, in the tone they use in talking about their own sexuality and past sex lives, are the moral equivalent of a man talking about all the times he's kicked someone smaller's ass — or physically intimidated a weaker person.

Mike Huckabee is a nice guy and a savvy politician. Might make a decent VP candidate. I'm glad he's taking out Romney -- I don't like Mitt.

But we have John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in the race, not to mention Fred Thompson -- all of whom are better qualified than Mr. Huckabee. (We've got a few other fine potential presidents, too.) Whether any can win is another story.

In any case, I think our best tickets are:

McCain/Giuliani. (Will Rudy take the second slot?)
McCain/Huckabee. (Mike will?)
Giuliani/Huckabee.
Giuliani/Thompson.

The GOP has its work cut out for it. I may be crazy, but I still think we've got a chance ...

I don't mean to pick on the Democrats. But they had two highly qualified candidates — Joe Biden and Chris Dodd. And they got no traction whatsoever.

Instead, Iowans chose as their first three candidates:

1. A one-term senator from Illinois who has no executive experience.

2. A trial lawyer and one-term senator from North Carolina who failed to take his home state as a VP candidate.

3. A former first lady who is into her second term as a senator from New York.

Dodd alone had about a billion times as much experience as all three of them together. Ditto Biden. Of the two, Dodd was the more capable communicator.

I mean this seriously: WTF?

I understand the power of television changes everything into entertainment. And there are all sorts of implications, including the nature of our presidential campaigning.

But shit. If you were an HR manager reviewing records and resumes, would you seriously pick Obama, Edwards and Clinton as the three most qualified candidates? Clearly, the most qualified candidates were Dodd, Biden and Richardson. So apparently, that's why they lost.

I went to my first AA meeting in a while, and the best one I've been to in ages. Back in early recovery, the meetings were amazing to me. I'd go in craving alcohol, desperate to get through the evening without getting a drink, and by the end, I'd not only have the hope that I'd make another 24 hours — I usually felt pretty good.

Since then, the past 17 years or so, meetings have been very hit or miss. I go occasionally, but forget about them for years at a time. Sometimes I'd get some relief from my moodiness or whatever was bothering me, but other times, not much would happen. This was particularly true in the Malvern Clubhouse, which was very near where I worked for six years. I know a lot of people love the Malvern clubhouse meetings, but they rarely did any good for me.

Anyway, down in Florida, I stumbled across one of those great meetings. Perhaps it was because there were a lot of people about my age, and there was a nice mix of men and women, and because they were mostly educated professionals like me. For once, I didn't feel alone. I made a couple of friends right away — and walked away thinking, shit, I've been looking like this for a meeting for years, and here it is, and I have to go back home the next day.

It was also a meeting where there was real recovery and real honesty ... and I felt a couple of days of real peace. It's hard to describe what an AA meeting can do to a recovering alcoholic. I go in, often filled with hardened resentments and walk out grateful, hopeful and ready to move on.

I also uncovered something. A desire that I didn't know was there — I realized, after a few days, that I've been denying how much I want to drink. I recognized that I've been relying on myself and my own strength to keep myself sober ... I ... I ... I ... I. But that's not how I got sober. "We" got me sober, and "we" will have to keep me sober. I can't do it on my own and not be filled with resentment and anger and an enormous amount of stress.

So I guess if I have one resolution for 2007 — work the program again. But will I? There's always the self-knowledge trap. Self-knowledge is great, but it's not enough. It doesn't get you better, but it makes you feel a little better. But real change and real growth takes action.

So it's 2008. (Nothing gets by me.) Among the things that's happened:

1. This blog changed for the worse. I didn't update a lot, and when reviewing some of my past posts, it seems that I wrote more sloppily, and without much care to the prose. Lots of sentences that needed a re-write, but I couldn't be bothered.

2. This blog got boring. I've read some of my entries a few years ago, and they are filled with a lot more energy and excitement than lately. Probably because I was excited about saying a lot of things then ... not so much now

3. As far as my life, 2007 was pretty good. It was certainly the wealthiest year of my life. But when I look back, it seems that I really didn't learn much this year. Each year, I like to learn something new or add something to my life. Not so much this year.

4. Except for seeing Amsterdam, which was nice. So that's that.

5. Not much drama this year, which was a good thing.

6. Oh yeah, I lost like 50 pounds. But I cheated -- I smoked all year. Now I have a healthy smoker's cough.

7. Was sorta tired after 2005 and 2006, which were much more challenging years.

For 2008:

Resolved:

1. Get the shoulder fixed.

2. Find a way to quit smoking and not put the weight back on.

3. Maybe do something about the commute.

Bill Whittle has a remarkable article on the surge strategy here.

I haven't commented on Iraq in a while. When the surge was announced, I was excited about the possibility. Now that it is apparently working, that's even more exciting.

I have to admit I wavered on Iraq over the years. There was a lot of naysaying in my comments and others, and I grew tired of it, but I was impacted by it. I'm proud of those bloggers who kept the faith the whole time.

This isn't triumphalism. A lot more needs to be done, and fortunes can turn. But at least we've seen real progress.

All along, we've all wanted the Iraqis to win the Iraq War. And now it looks like they're doing it. Al Qaeda is getting chewed to pieces. That doesn't mean they won't try a Tet-like move. But that will likely chew them up more. But the big news is the Awakening.

One aside: The Democratic Congress' funding of the Surge seems to have freaked out our enemies and encouraged our friends. Hee hee. Couldn't have played good cop/bad cop better if we'd actually planned it.

Anyway, read Bill Whittle's piece if you have time.

UPDATE: Link fixed.

Y'all.