g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets
  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.


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Sunday, January 27, 2002
17:55 - Boy, a man on a Squishy bender can sure do some crazy things...

(top) link
While I was driving down 101 on the way back from FC today, NPR had a show on high-school and college kids and their relationships with the military, especially post-9/11. A lot of good angles, but the last one on the show was especially interesting. A 21-year-old from Indiana by the name of Kinsey said that he had called up his local army recruiter at noon on September 11th and enlisted. But about two weeks later-- which is evidently how long it takes for inflated provoked patriotism to be flushed out of one's bloodstream-- he started having second thoughts, and backed out.

The recruiters kept after him. They tried everything in the book, including lying, in order to get him to change his mind. But, as he said, "I realized that there are better ways to serve my country." Serving in the army would mean coming back in four years at age 26 to the same pay-for-tuition job he had, the same college classes he was taking, and a drastically reduced potential for his future. "For me, the best way to serve my country is to go to college, get a job, and support the economy-- make sure the terrorists don't change my life, and by that to make sure the terrorists don't change the country."

Sure, it's easy to look at the guy and shout "Wuss!" But hey, we'd better not do that from our nice secure pulpits in Blogland.

I don't consider myself a "warblogger"-- certainly not like all the guys listed over at InstaPundit, with their insightful commentary (ranging in tone from self-important to self-effacing) that puts Stratfor to shame. I don't pretend to have that kind of confidence in my facts and opinions. My world, while it's certainly a lot bigger than it otherwise could be, is mostly centered on movies and computer stuff and citric acid, and events beyond the borders of those interests don't tend to affect my life very directly. So I just flounder along as best I can.

But I don't for a moment regret choosing the path in life that I did rather than going into the military. I'd make a lousy soldier. But I do think I make a much less lousy... uh... whatever it is I'm doing now.

It's not life-threatening, though. Damn, I'm a wuss.

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© Brian Tiemann