GI Mikey

Thanks to Bracken for pointing this out.

Well, I'd been avoiding politics as much as possible on this blog, but you can only do that for so long. Here's a post from the War Room blog on Salon.com

A different kind of draft

Discussion of reinstating the draft tends to bring to mind Vietnam-era images of infantry units beefing up with young men fresh out of high school. According to a Wall Street Journal article published Wednesday, however, the young men and women who may have the most reason to be worried right now about being conscripted for military service are the ones just out of med school.

"The Selective Service System said it is reviewing a little-known contingency plan for drafting physicians, nurses and other health professionals, causing concern at the American Medical Association, which voted yesterday to communicate with the agency on the issue."

"People are concerned that it might be a doctors' draft," said Sandra F. Olson, chairwoman of the council of medical education for the AMA.

"If authorized, about 36,000 health-care workers could be selected from 60 specialties, including anesthesiology, mental health, emergency medicine and neurology. Akin to a general conscription, selection would start with the youngest registrants."

The recent talk about drafting medical professionals may not be a coincidence. By any standard, November was the most bloody month of the Iraq occupation to date. The Pentagon reported that 136 American military personnel died as a result of the conflict, and nearly 1,200 were wounded in action.

-- Jeff Horwitz

I honestly don't know what to make of it, yet, although my first instincts aren't to run to Canada. Heck, being drafted into the military would probably get me in the best shape of my life. I guess we'll just have to wait for more details.

Haiku, youku, everybodyku

This is a brief haiku about a former technician in Barb's lab. Nice girl, but didn't really work out in lab so much. She usually arrived after noon and used the first hour at work to gab with anyone that would listen. She would spend more time talking about working than actually working - which didn't affect my project in any way, but what really got me was her laugh. She has one of those amazingly loud, piercing, ear-splitting laughs - a laugh that isn't there to necessarily say that something was funny, but also to remind us all that she's still here.

I wrote this poem in the summer of 2003 just before this technician left our lab. I resurrect the passage to remember her. So, knowing that my poetry is still very very amateurish, I present:

Haikus of a Prominent Technician

Two P.M. Almost.
When she most often appears.
IT is almost here.

The long hand nearly
points to the heavens - My eyes
are swollen with tears.

My ears scream in pain
a shrill laugh stabs at my spine!
Oh. She has arrived.

One more inane tale
from her wretched boring life.
Please stop. Please stop. Please.

blah blah blah Blah Blah.
Blah blah blahbitty BLAH BLAH!!!
Invest in earplugs.