I stumbled on this video and find it rather nice. Reykjavík was pretty interesting even back then. “Population 21 thousand, police force of three”. A few buildings in the film are still there and the hot spring laundry is still there but only as an historical artifact. Enjoy.
I hate war. War is hell. And any other combination of words you want to make that says that I despise war. But I maintain that if are involved in war then your country’s primary goal must be to finish that war and get back to the business of running a country. Your country has already had the arguments for and against war so stop that once you’ve made the call to do it anyway. Now focus on getting your sons and daughter’s out of harms way, bring them home.
However I’m also of the mind that no matter how advanced we become or how enlightened we think we are we have to stop pretending that war is anything but a brutal and barbaric way to settle arguments. So while you’re doing it, do it right and go all in. Stop talking about nation building, stop saying it isn’t about the oil, stop all the talking. Shoot to kill and finish it quickly. And when you’re done making a mess, take the gold. Or the oil, or whatever it is that is that country’s resource. We don’t fight in places that have nothing of great value. It just happens to be how it works. Take the gold and stop pretending you are compassionate. People are dead and you’ll never convince the survivors of anything else. One man’s collateral damage is another man’s son. You can fool the people that are safely back home but not anyone else. So take the money, how much worse can that be?
There isn’t any way to have a nice war so go all the way and finish the job by stealing the resources. You’ve already destroyed everything else. Now go home with the booty. And then fix your economy or whatever it is that you keep talking about instead.
The winter solstice is upon us once again, or if you prefer to call it the shortest day of the year. Others might even call it the first day of winter although technically it is half way through winter already. We now begin to tilt back toward the sun and the sunlight gets longer each day. I prefer to mark this day as the new year. I never liked the arbitrary 1 January at exactly 00:00 as the marker. The solstice is real and and of great importance to our ancient relatives.
Sunrise today in Reykjavík is at 11:23 and sunset at 15:30 (3:30 pm). In the northern West Fjords the sunrise is at 12:09 with sunset at 14:53 (2:53 pm). You can bet that they will be happy to finally see more sunlight in the coming days.
So, at 17:47 coordinated universal time give a thought to the thousands of generations that came before and marked this moment as the rebirth of mankind; the new year. To the folks in Iceland that is at 17:47/5:47PM and to those on the east coast of N.A. that moment is at 12:47.
farsælt komandi ár
Table of contents for Icelandic Yule Lads
- The Yule Lads are coming.
- Stekkjastaur – Gimpy – 12 December
- Giljagaur – Gilly Oaf – 13 December
- Stúfur – Itty Bitty – 14 December
- Þvörusleikir – Pot Scraper Licker – 15 December
- Pottasleikir – Pot Licker – 16 December
- Askasleikir – Bowl Licker – 17 December
- Hurðaskellir – Door Slammer, 18 December
- Skyrgámur – Skyr Glutton – 19 December
- Bjúgnakrækir – 20 December
- Gluggagægir – Peeper – 21 December
- Gáttaþefur – Sniffer – 22 December
- Ketkrókur – Meat Hook – 23 December
- Kertasníkir – Candle Beggar – 24 December
- Merry Christmas – Gleðileg jól
- Happy (real) New Year
Once upon a time a U.S. president looking for re-election lost in no small part to a clever slogan, “It’s the Economy, stupid”. Here we are again in the middle of another economic “crisis”, kreppa if you will. 
When the man on the street is asked about what is important for politicians to focus on most are unanimous in their feelings about the economy. Pick any day and any self proclaimed news outlet and after they have exhausted all possible angles on the latest pointless fluff such as a balloon boy or celeb crisis they will ironically spend the next day asking if we as a people focus too much time on the trivial and less on important things. Of course the important topic should be the economy and what ‘they’ are going to do to fix it.
Not that tough economic times aren’t serious issues but for most people it is at worst a crisis of luxury. Nothing that requires a panic mode. And if your country is involved in a war then shouldn’t that be the most important issue at hand? Your children are being killed in far off lands and the most important topic is the apparent devaluation of your house? Or worse, the state of affairs going on with this week’s celebrity gossip?
We let politicians argue over whether to pull out or stay and the million other arguments over ideology and other stalling tactics. Shouldn’t the common goal be to finish and go home? We can disagree over how, where, and what for but the common good is to not have your children in uniform die no matter what your politics happen to be.
Bring the boys and girls home from the horror of war before spending more time arguing about it. Bring them home now. Unfortunately for that goal it is the very people with the power to achieve this that do not have their children in the line of fire. For the rest of us, we are not the “Fortunate Son“.
So forget about how I personally feel and in turn I won’t give a crap about your opposing view. But can’t we agree that ending it one way or the other is a common feeling? There is no nice way to run a war so why spend months arguing over the fine line between war crimes and honor? If you are going in then go all in and be done with it. Time to bring them home. And then talk to me about your economy. But I’ll still not care about your celeb gossip. (FYI, Elvis and MJ are still dead)
Comentarios