Thursday, October 23, 2003
I had a very nice lunch with a good friend of mine (also a conservative I should mention), who on occassion also reads my blogs. He wondered why I would waste time defending the French. Not even their renowned food or wine are enough to compel him to defend this stagnating socialist country. He has never liked Brie, thinks the California and Spanish wines are equal if not better to French, and gives high marks to Armenian (I think he said Armenian) cognac. So who needs France? No wonder he so admires the Tour-de-Force-Ms.-Joan D'Arc 2003 . Personally, I think the conservatives are just mad that the French came out on the moral high ground this time with respect to the war in Iraq...But more on the French in a moment.
I can say with absolute certainty that had I been born in the 17th century, the conservatives of the day would never have had the opportunity to burn me at the stake for my liberal rantings since I never would have braved the Atlantic ocean on a tiny boat stuffed with a hundred-or-so-Pilgrims -- none of whom had ACCESS TO A BATH.
These were my thoughts early this morning as for the first time in weeks, I stood under my new shower head in my nearly completed -- at least to the extent that I was able to take a shower -- bathroom (not that I have anything against being surrounded by a gaggle of let-it-all-hang-out-seventy-something-Russian-émigrés trimming their toenails and loofa-sponging each other's flabby backs first thing in the morning at my health club up the street...). However, our sink is still not hooked up and I am waiting for a special shower rod because wouldn't-you-know-it, our bathroom is an unusual size that requires a 66"-long pole, one which I hope dearly will arrive any day now given the automated response sent to me after I completed the online transaction: 'Thank you for your recent order #501813 at XXX-Store. It will be handled quickly by our crack team and shipped out as soon as humanly possible.' For now my shower rod is an old curtain rod nailed into the ceiling. Heh, that's why they invented plaster, right? Did you also know that you can bid for a custom-built radiator cover on eBay and pay with PayPal?
And if anyone doubts that being a persuasive and articulate bitch doesn't come in handy sometimes, read further: I just got off the phone with the corporate office of a certain plumbing company to follow up on my complaint that no one had showed up to my house as promised to install a tub last week and mistakenly thought that a 'gee-sorry' after the fact would do it. Nope.
ANNA BLOVIATION'S STICK: Yes, I understand BUT..., (in the transactional analysis bestseller I'm Ok You're OK, everything you say before the word 'but' doesn't count; what you really want to say and mean comes after...) -- This was promissory epistle I believe they call it in legal terms Mr. Corporate-Plumbing-Guy (I have no idea if this term actually exists but I thought it sounded good); I incurred an expense based on a promise you reneged......................(stick, stick, baseball bat) ............If this cannot be resolved satisfactorily (to my satisfaction buddy, not yours), I feel compelled to contact the Consumer Affairs Department and speak with my state government colleagues over there.... (I don't know a soul over there actually).
ANNA BLOVIATION'S CARROT: I can see, Mr. Corporate-Plumbing-Guy, that you are a very savvy marketing person and understand the concepts of Relationship Marketing-TM. After all you took the time to call me back from your Cincinnati headquarters and are really making an effort to listen to my concerns. I can see that you understand that $150 (the time my contractor stood waiting around for your no-show plumber), is a relatively insignificant amount to pay to keep a potential customer over the course of a lifetime (the alternative being that I will bad mouth you up and down this customer-lucrative-wealthy town for all its worth). I should be receiving a check by the end of the week.
So my conservative electronic acquaintance mentioned in my last blog doesn't agree that there is anything redeemable to say for the French and furthermore maintains, despite my points, that the French are the most insincere and morally bankrupt government in Western Europe replete with all of the false posturing of a European Jimmy Swaggert. His biggest gripe seems to be his contention that the French reaped billions from the UN Oil-for-Food Program, and that they 'stood by while Saddam rebuilt his army and redirected vast sums to his personal accounts.' Which isn't to say he doesn't think France isn't a beautiful country with a wonderful cultural center -- if only they weren't so morally degenerate. How so? IS THERE ONE FRENCH CHILD who does not have access to free health care when it is sick?
It would REALLY be helpful if this guy would broaden his Fox News horizons (this applies to liberal media exclusivities too). People like this drive me to extra glasses of Chardonnay in the evening. How did I end up with all of these narrow-band-Conservatives in my life anyway? Oh yes of course: I am a sassy forty-something liberal determined to change the world whether it likes it or not...
Yes, the French did make billions off of the UN Food-for-Oil Program. So did a lot of countries not the least of which was, my dear electronic correspondent friend below, America . Big U.S. oil companies profited whilst American foreign policy wonks spent almost a decade throwing bureaucratic pebbles into the cogs that might have kept thousands of innocent Iraqis alive. At one particularly morally-degenerate point (if we are going to be calling a kettle black), a shipment of powdered milk was detained on the grounds that the Iraqi's might use it in a chemical weapons experiment. Denis Halliday, then head of UN humanitarian operations in Iraq, finally resigned his post in disgust:
UNITED NATIONS COORDINATOR RESIGNS OVER OIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM
Here a little more reading: THE TOLL AND DEATH FROM U.S. LED SANCTIONS and HALLIBURTON PROFITS FROM SANCTIONS
I can say with absolute certainty that had I been born in the 17th century, the conservatives of the day would never have had the opportunity to burn me at the stake for my liberal rantings since I never would have braved the Atlantic ocean on a tiny boat stuffed with a hundred-or-so-Pilgrims -- none of whom had ACCESS TO A BATH.
These were my thoughts early this morning as for the first time in weeks, I stood under my new shower head in my nearly completed -- at least to the extent that I was able to take a shower -- bathroom (not that I have anything against being surrounded by a gaggle of let-it-all-hang-out-seventy-something-Russian-émigrés trimming their toenails and loofa-sponging each other's flabby backs first thing in the morning at my health club up the street...). However, our sink is still not hooked up and I am waiting for a special shower rod because wouldn't-you-know-it, our bathroom is an unusual size that requires a 66"-long pole, one which I hope dearly will arrive any day now given the automated response sent to me after I completed the online transaction: 'Thank you for your recent order #501813 at XXX-Store. It will be handled quickly by our crack team and shipped out as soon as humanly possible.' For now my shower rod is an old curtain rod nailed into the ceiling. Heh, that's why they invented plaster, right? Did you also know that you can bid for a custom-built radiator cover on eBay and pay with PayPal?
And if anyone doubts that being a persuasive and articulate bitch doesn't come in handy sometimes, read further: I just got off the phone with the corporate office of a certain plumbing company to follow up on my complaint that no one had showed up to my house as promised to install a tub last week and mistakenly thought that a 'gee-sorry' after the fact would do it. Nope.
ANNA BLOVIATION'S STICK: Yes, I understand BUT..., (in the transactional analysis bestseller I'm Ok You're OK, everything you say before the word 'but' doesn't count; what you really want to say and mean comes after...) -- This was promissory epistle I believe they call it in legal terms Mr. Corporate-Plumbing-Guy (I have no idea if this term actually exists but I thought it sounded good); I incurred an expense based on a promise you reneged......................(stick, stick, baseball bat) ............If this cannot be resolved satisfactorily (to my satisfaction buddy, not yours), I feel compelled to contact the Consumer Affairs Department and speak with my state government colleagues over there.... (I don't know a soul over there actually).
ANNA BLOVIATION'S CARROT: I can see, Mr. Corporate-Plumbing-Guy, that you are a very savvy marketing person and understand the concepts of Relationship Marketing-TM. After all you took the time to call me back from your Cincinnati headquarters and are really making an effort to listen to my concerns. I can see that you understand that $150 (the time my contractor stood waiting around for your no-show plumber), is a relatively insignificant amount to pay to keep a potential customer over the course of a lifetime (the alternative being that I will bad mouth you up and down this customer-lucrative-wealthy town for all its worth). I should be receiving a check by the end of the week.
So my conservative electronic acquaintance mentioned in my last blog doesn't agree that there is anything redeemable to say for the French and furthermore maintains, despite my points, that the French are the most insincere and morally bankrupt government in Western Europe replete with all of the false posturing of a European Jimmy Swaggert. His biggest gripe seems to be his contention that the French reaped billions from the UN Oil-for-Food Program, and that they 'stood by while Saddam rebuilt his army and redirected vast sums to his personal accounts.' Which isn't to say he doesn't think France isn't a beautiful country with a wonderful cultural center -- if only they weren't so morally degenerate. How so? IS THERE ONE FRENCH CHILD who does not have access to free health care when it is sick?
It would REALLY be helpful if this guy would broaden his Fox News horizons (this applies to liberal media exclusivities too). People like this drive me to extra glasses of Chardonnay in the evening. How did I end up with all of these narrow-band-Conservatives in my life anyway? Oh yes of course: I am a sassy forty-something liberal determined to change the world whether it likes it or not...
Yes, the French did make billions off of the UN Food-for-Oil Program. So did a lot of countries not the least of which was, my dear electronic correspondent friend below, America . Big U.S. oil companies profited whilst American foreign policy wonks spent almost a decade throwing bureaucratic pebbles into the cogs that might have kept thousands of innocent Iraqis alive. At one particularly morally-degenerate point (if we are going to be calling a kettle black), a shipment of powdered milk was detained on the grounds that the Iraqi's might use it in a chemical weapons experiment. Denis Halliday, then head of UN humanitarian operations in Iraq, finally resigned his post in disgust:
UNITED NATIONS COORDINATOR RESIGNS OVER OIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM
Here a little more reading: THE TOLL AND DEATH FROM U.S. LED SANCTIONS and HALLIBURTON PROFITS FROM SANCTIONS
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