Saturday, May 13, 2006

Ahmadinejad letter

I've managed to avoid political posts for a while, but I just have to say that the Bush administration really dropped the ball in their response to this letter from the Iranian President. The administration seems to have interpreted the letter as if the contents were intended for them, when it seems clear the message was as much or more to the rest of the world and to the Arab world in particular. By dismissing the letter rather than responding, not to Ahmadinejad but to the rest of the audience, it seems the US has missed an opportunity and no doubt made the Iranian president's comments strike an even stronger chord with their intended audience.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Ahmadinejad letter attacks Bush: "US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed the letter as 'offering nothing new' and the White House said there would be no formal written reply."

While I'm complaining about the world, on a more personal note, I think I was stood up for the first time ever by a girl the other weekend for a semi-formal. I guess I didn't really believe stuff like this happens in real life or that people were this mean. The thing that sucks most about being stood up I learned is going through the stages of, 1) oh, she's late, I'd better call again 2) being perplexed about how someone could be THAT late or what happened 3) acceptance, ok, the event is not going to happen 4) the waiting to hear an explanation, apology, something 5) the anger that someone could be that mean to not even pick up the phone and finally 6) the acceptance that ok, this person completely sucks and I never want to interact with them again. Obviously I didn't know this girl that well, but still I guess what I've learned is that no matter how nice someone seems, how intelligent, or what medical school they're in, you can never tell in the beginning what their personality is really like or how messed up they can act . . . and that it's great to have good friends to bitch about it with after the fact.