"The War is Lost"

I'd have to note that it was a somewhat slow news week here in Kansas City . . . I know there was an attempt to relate the Virginia Tech Shootings to this town but it didn't really take, as far as I know UMKC is such a drab and lifeless institution that no student could possibly feel any more ignored or isolated than everybody else on campus and more than a few alumni I've spoken with acknowledge that the term "social life" at Kansas City's college applies only to bumping into someone unexpectedly in the parking lot on the way out of the commuter campus.

And I'm not noting that the horrible tragedy wasn't really horrible, just that I couldn't really relate to it coupled with the fact that in the same week of the massacre and subsequent media saturation more than 140 people were killed in a bomb blast in Iraq.

And that leads me to a recent statement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who says that the "War is lost" which doesn't mean that it's going to stop any time soon but I guess it's a pretty clear indication of what path the whole endeavor is taking . . . And again, I don't want to venture a guess as to how all of these things could impact Kansas City but I suppose that mass shootings, the U.S. moving toward a cut and run strategy in Iraq and the prospect that we're moving closer to a society in which the only way we can all feel safe is to treat everyone with suspicion and as if they're capable of murder has to impact this town one way or another . . . At the very least I'm more intrigued about Korean culture (beyond lame jokes about their food and the stray dog/cat content), how to properly write the names of Korean folk and the somewhat unrelated fact that I don't think anyone but me has a right to have a gun.