A Blog About Nothing

Live and alive from Iraq, here is Tony F. Rezac!

Many have asked me the past couple weeks to make a blog post. So I decided that today I would finally do it. I have many topics I wanted to "blog" about, but found it hard to both decide on one and to form it into a coherent thought. So instead of try to form a coherent thought, I am going to spend the next few paragraphs spitting out ideas and thoughts and I will let you, the reader sort them out. There are no doubt some topics that will start debate and some that at some point down the road I may wish to further elaborate on, but for now I'm just going to spew them out to you like a bird feeding its young.

Iraq is a shit hole

A word of advice to any one who ever comes to Iraq, don't eat, drink or touch ANYTHING. I've seen these people slaughter goats in the middle of the streets everyday since I got here. These are the same streets that their raw sewage flows through. And forget about refrigerating the meat once they kill the goat. They just let it hang from a pole until someone buys it. How long to you think meat lasts in the sun on a 112 degree day?

I miss watching baseball

I subscribed to MLB radio and have caught a few of the Twins games now and then, but with a 9 hour time difference and a slow internet connection, it's not easy to listen to a game before I see the box score on ESPN.com.
Also - ESPN insider, whatever the cost was, was the best money I've spent, dare I say, in my whole life. I have spent countless hours reading the archived articles of my favorite columnists.

The lack of quality cartoons for younger kids

While our generation has grown up on some of the greatest cartoons ever, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Biker Mice From Mars just to name a few. Children today are forced to watch "Meet the Press" on Saturday mornings when they wake up. Cable offers little in the way of programming that isn't aimed at either the very small/toddler or the adult. What are the 8-12 year olds supposed to watching? Cartoons have grown with people our age and I can not remember a time when there were less than 2 cartoons in my top 5 list of favorite shows. With the exception of Sponge Bob I don't foresee a future like that for today’s young people.

* If anyone reading this considers them selves a Star Wars fan and hasn't read any of the "New Jedi Order" series, you are truly missing out.

* I am planning on going to Germany for second week in September, who wants to come with?

* If you are bored with you standard solitaire on your computer, try Vegas style. It is much more difficult and at times seems impossible, but when you win, you feel like your on top of the world.

* Best movie I've seen since I've been gone: "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" If you haven't seen it, you should.

Lastly:

This whole Iraq thing, we can't win plain and simple. It is a complete utter waste of time, money and thousands and thousands of lives - both Iraqi and Coalition. My first thought when I heard I'd be training the police forces was, "sweet, I might really make some difference!" In the 7 months I’ve been here I have done nothing for the good of these people. I keep reading about all these people saying whats best for the Iraqi people, all written by people who have never been here, or have only been to the rich neighborhoods in Baghdad. The poor people where I am are just that. Dirt poor and it doesn't matter how ruthless Saddam was or who is in charge now, all they know is when Saddam was in power; they had electricity and running water - both of which are in very short supply now. They also didn't have to deal with being intimidated or shot just because they live here....
Before I get too deep into this one I'm going to stop. This is a blog for fun, not for politics. If you want to know more about what I think, I'll be home in a few months, buy me a beer and I'll tell you exactly what I think.