Playing hookey isn't something I do very often, and I don't take it lightly. It's very painful for me to do, because I am a bit of a workaholic. However, it is for precisely that reason that I must do it from time to time. It keeps me from burning out completely.

Today was one of those times. I woke up dreading the day, as I so often do since taking this job. My husband (that darling!) convinced me to take the day off. Didn't matter that I wouldn't be paid for it, or that the 500 million things I had to do would be left undone - I was not to feel guilty for saving my sanity.

So we walked in the park. We went for coffee. I cried at strange moments, sometimes from guilt at not going to the office, other times at the sheer impotent rage I feel daily when thinking about my job. I am tired. My very soul is tired. Our office has more form-filling, red-tape and bureaucracy than the French government - and with less results. I am actively looking for a position elsewhere, but must remain where I am for the time being. As long as I am forced to work with childish, horrible people who want more to be drama queens than to do decent work, I will continue to play hookey whenever the need arises. If they want me to continue to show up and bust my ass to make up for those who are too busy having temper tantrums, they will live with my days off, and thank me once in a while for the work I'm doing.

Today's quote goes to Crox at If You'd Rather Be Playing Golf, and regards the issue of banning fox hunting in Britain, which has caused rioting over the last few weeks:

However what pisses me off is the time, effort and determination that this government is puting into this just to win a few votes.
If they exuded the same determination over tackling crime, illegal immigration, drugs, funding in the NHS, reducing taxes and putting more police on the streets as they have done over this bill then all our problems would be solved and this would be a better country for it.

Two American hostages have been killed in Baghdad. There is a chance that the third hostage, a Briton, will also be murdered.

Al-Zarqawi's group, Tawhid and Jihad, kidnapped two Americans - Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong - and Briton Kenneth Bigley on Thursday from a home that the three civil engineers shared in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood. Al-Zarqawi beheaded Armstrong, and the terrorists on Monday posted a gruesome video of the 52-year-old man's death.

When is all this going to end? I do not blame Bush for the actions of those in the Middle East. I am not a capital-L Liberal, who feels that no matter the situation, the fault lies firmly in the laps of the Republicans. The eeeevil Republicans.

I do however feel that Bush needs to shit or get off the pot with Iraq. For over a year he has been espousing his dream of an Iraqi democracy and justice for all, blah, blah. Enough. Either blast them to death, or get out. Enough people have died. If the United States still believes that military action is what's needed in Iraq, then show some real might. Stop playing by the UN rules of international warfare. Stop worrying about what the press thinks about activities in prisons. Forget about Dan fucking Rather.

The group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, are killing these people "taking revenge for female Iraqi prisoners". Simple solution: start executing these female prisoners, one by one. Start eliminating the prisoners at Abu Grahib. Blast the shit out of that mosque that al-Zarqawi was hiding out in. These people are dirty fighters - fight them dirty, then get out.

This is especially relevant to Canadians this week, as Paul Martin and the other idiots try to come to some agreement on how to get our horrid health system back on track. This is from the Adam Smith Institute blog in the UK:

Thanks to the market economy, we are used to companies that appreciate our business. If a company doesn't seem to care about us as consumers, we can go elsewhere. Consumerism empowers us. Yet in the state sector, we are expected to be grateful for what we're given. We rely on the 'benevolence' of the National Health Service, and should be grateful for the treatment we get, accepting waiting lists and dirty hospitals. If a supermarket that was being inefficient told us to be grateful for what they give us, we'd be outraged. In the NHS, however, we're supposed to think that attitude is OK. It is not.

This is too funny - I have no choice but to print it in full:

A pedestrian in a Whitehorse suburb was taken aback Tuesday night when a black dog drove by in a red pickup truck.

Police said a resident was out for a walk when a truck with a Labrador retriever at the wheel passed by.

When RCMP arrived, the truck was in the middle of Thompson Road in Granger, blocking traffic. The dog was still behind the wheel.

"Our subsequent investigation indicates that the dog was possibly celebrating the Canadian victory in the hockey game, knocked the truck into gear, and it rolled down the hill," said RCMP Sgt. John Sutherland.

The RCMP went door-to-door in the neighbourhood and eventually found the owner. He was at a friend's house, watching Canada beat Finland in the World Cup hockey final.

There were no injuries or damages in the incident. Police did not say whether they plan to charge the owner.

I found this link through Right Side of the Rainbow.

Remember the Blood of Heroes

It says it all better than I ever could.

There aren't too many people on the site this morning. Maybe a few hundred. Lots of NYFD. CNBC has no coverage at all, and CNN's is very half-hearted. Google News has no coverage.

People seem to want to forget. I wore a New York City t-shirt at work yesterday, and got a dirty look for being dressed so casually, even on a Friday. I said "It's because of tomorrow." My boss responded, "Saturday?" He didn't even realize.

At this exact time three years ago, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I were responding to my best friend's frantic phonecall, "I hope that when you were in New York two weeks ago, you went to the World Trade Centre, because it just fucking blew up! Come over!" She was hysterical. We went to her house, and for the next 12 hours, stared bug-eyed at the television, watching the same scenes over and over, refusing to believe. There were no tears. Why would we cry? It couldn't have been real. At the end of the day, heading home on the Metro, we were tired. We couldn't think. We didn't talk.

Heros were born and lost that day. An aircraft full of people diverted terrorists from their goal, and lost their lives in a field. How many lives were saved because of them?

Firefighters entered unsecured buildings to save as many as they could. So many didn't come out.

And the mayor of New York became a saint.

I will not ever be able to forget. I don't want to. And I'm not the only one.

Never Again... from Lori at Downtown Chick Chat

Three Years Later: Moving Forward from A Small Victory

REMEMBER 9/11: STOP SANITIZING THE KILLERS Michelle Malkin is angry

Free Will has a beautiful post

Dale Amon at Samizdata won't forget, or forgive

Jihad Watch

Moorewatch

Power Line

I wasn't planning on blogging this fine, sunny Saturday morning, but this caught my eye:

In interviews across Paris and nearby suburbs, French Muslims denounced the
kidnapping of the two French journalists in Iraq. But some said they understand
the point of view of the Islamic militants.

"France stirred things up with this law. It was a mistake," said Abdel, 35,
a Frenchman of Moroccan origin who owns a grocery off the main square of
Saint-Ouen, a working class Paris suburb.

This is in regards to the new law banning headscarves and other religious dress in French schools. Say what? It's France's fault for trying to even the playing field?

Did the Muslims ever stop to thing that maybe they "stirred things up" by killing 3000 in New York City, and that's why America has decided to bomb the shit out of them in every country where they can be found?

Ugh. I'm going back to my orange juice and my Ikea catalogue. It is Saturday, after all.

The death toll is reported anywhere from 150 to 200, and in all reports, it is expected to rise.

Russia's hostage crisis erupted into explosions, gunfire and screams of
fleeing children Friday as commandos stormed the school where militants strapped
with bombs had held as many as 1,200 people hostage. More than 150 people were
dead, and officials said the toll would rise significantly.

I have been watching this story closely over the past few days - for the sole reason that the North American press has not made front page headlines out of it. A politician gets a hangnail, or a media baron runs off with all the company money, and it's all over the place. Children are taken hostage by Chechen rebels in Russia, and we probably think they deserve it. They don't.

Dozens of corpses including children's bodies were seen outside a morgue,
and the number of dead is expected to rise.

There is still confusion over what caused an explosion in the school that
prompted special forces to attack, in an operation which Russia says was
unplanned but needed to save the lives of the hostages.

There were scenes of pandemonium, as children ran terrified and
half-naked amid intense gunbattles out of the school, grabbing water bottles
from medics.

I cannot imagine what it must be like for the terrified kids, some of them no more than babies, or what their parents must be going through, waiting for word that their child is safe, or worse - that they are not.

These Russian families will be in my thoughts tonight, even if CNN can only show clips of interviews with various Bushes.

Photo courtesy of Reuters.

Although the French have not yet surrendered to the terrorists holding their journalists hostage in protest against the headscarf ban, it seems that the employers of Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company has paid Muslim militants $500,000 in ransom to free seven of its employees.

In the end, a team of employees drove to an unspecified location and paid
US$500,000 - an immense fortune here - to secure their release, KGL chief
executive officer Said Dashti said.

'The kidnappers were not trying to make a political statement, they
were purely extortionists,' he said.

But it is a statement, isn't it? What do you think that half-mil is going to fund in the future? It's going to pay for more terrorist training in the Middle East, as if they didn't already spring from the womb knowing how to rig a bomb in a cell phone.

Somehow though, the thought of paying ransom isn't nearly as disturbing as taking one of the Bali bombers out for a latte.

A man convicted of involvement in the October 2002 Bali bombings has been
spotted enjoying a night out in Jakarta in the company of senior police
officers.

Ali Imron, who was sentenced to life for his role in the nightclub
attacks, which left 202 people dead, was seen enjoying coffee and food at a
Starbucks café in Plaza Indonesia, one of the country's most luxurious shopping
centres, the Detikcom online news service said.

I wonder how the families of the Bali victims feel about this. Over 200 people were killed the night bombers targeted the tourist district, which was full of English and American holiday-makers.

This is disturbing.

The movie [Casuistry: The Art Of Killing A Cat], a
90-minute documentary, examines the videotaped skinning alive of a stray cat at
the hands of Jesse Power, Anthony Wennekers and Matt Kaczorowski in Toronto in
2001 (for which our justice system delivered some stern slaps on the
wrist).

This is the kind of "art" being shown at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

A film festival programmer, speaking of the decision to schedule Casuistry:
The Art Of Killing A Cat, said "that's what the festival is all about, setting
the terms for debate, not stifling them." The makers of the movie say they want
to give a "balanced view."

Debate? A balanced view? Of gratuitous cruelty? Of torture?

Of taking pleasure out of the suffering of a living creature?

Suffice it to say, I will not be attending either this film, or the festival at all. The only way this could be a bigger cry for attention is if it was a Michael Moore documentary with the Bush's skinning cats and babies.