Welcome to One and Done Sunday. One picture, and five links that are worth your time.
Yeah, I know I’m late. I promised myself I would clean my bathroom before I got online today. There were a lot of things that interrupted me though, including Chicks With Guns and a Foo Fighters documentary. But I think I’ve got like seventeen minutes left.
CC took this picture during the Halloween blizzard. I think it’s cool. The Halloween blizzard is the only snow we’ve had so far this season. I am convinced it’s because one of my co-workers bought a new snow blower after the hurricane (thanks, Jan!).
Heavy hitters this week on the links. Bloggers that really don’t need help spreading the word, but if you missed them, check them the hell out.
Amazing pictures, followed by amazing writing, from one who served. Iraq: What I Remember by Michael Xavier Oritz
This fed my soul, in an unbelievable way. It’s super long, but what would you expect from The Wedding Blog by amanda f*ing palmer? It’s worth it.
Lori Dyan tells what to do when your kid gets religion. Google is My Co-Pilot by Lori Dyan
The most unexpected and hopeful post about debilitating depression and self-harm that I read this week: The Fight Goes On. The Bloggess.
Betty Londergan has a new gig and a new blog. She’s one of my favorite writers, now working with one of my favorite organizations, Heifer International. Check out her page on the new blog Why Heifer
Happy Sunday.
JM Randolph, accidentalstepmom 
I visited Ortiz’s post. We are so insulated from it. Almost 7,000 dead now(Iraq and Afg) 60,000 returning amputees and another 400,00 wounded or left with chronic mental and physical illness. Why? To protect Afg’s opium and Iraq’s oil productions? Are we any safer? It infuriates me.
Another set of fantastic-sounding links! And I love the picture; I can’t believe we had that snow storm in October, and now it’s January and 50 degrees! (Not that I was complaining on Saturday!!)
Wow. Thank you for including me in such stellar company…
Thanks SO much for the shout-out , JM … I ‘m really touched! And I’m so jazzed to be included in such august company … loved the blogess’s piece about depression, too … and I can’t wait to see Ortiz’s writings on Iraq, Lori’s posts, and the big long wedding rant. Yay!!
(oh, my blog is actually named http://heifer12x12.wordpress.com … and it’s officially up & running!)
Thanks for locating Otiiz’s great photos and engaging, heart wrenching prose. I have often wondered about the thought processes of otherwise intelligent and articulate individuals such as Ortz when confronted with an obviously hopeless, pointless mission. Is it an extension of “cognitive dissonance reduction” that makes them desperately grasp any possible reason to commit or justify war? War has, until recently, been the absolute solution of last resort reserved for self preservation. Every possible reason for the conflict in Iraq has been either a pack of damn lies (WMD, invasion of America, etc) or manufactured after the fact e.g. regime change. The cold hard facts are that we as the aggressor sacrificed thousands of our countrymen and women among them Ortz’s friends , killed an estimated one million Iraqis,and reduced the country’s infrastructure to rubble. For once I wish a voice of reason had prevailed.