Erica's Book Report - A Thousand Splendid Suns

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns- the second book by Khaled Hosseini. It was really good but in a totally different way than The Kite Runner. I had heard from MANY people that the second book was just not as good and that they didn't even finish it. I finally had some free time to read it this past week and I have to say - it made me question why it was so criticized. It started a whole line of thought for me. Without further ado....

To start off objectively in my little book report I will compare why I thought the two books were so different. The Kite Runner is written following a boy's life until he becomes a man. The tragedies in his life have much to do with personal decisions and some smaller part to do with political things going on with him growing up in Afghanistan. It paints a vivid picture of life there and breaks your heart with the choices he makes and his personal journey for some resolution in his life and to be able to live with himself. A Thousand Splendid Suns covers the lives of more than one woman living in different circumstances in Afghanistan until they intersect and then continues from there. The tragedies of this book are mostly caused by the position of women in Muslim society during the constantly changing political and religious climate of Afghanistan over the past 30 years. The problems also have to do with abusive men, but I am not even going to go into the whys and hows of what makes men beat their wives. Especially in a culture with such widely varying views of women's place in the world. I am just going to blame it mostly on religious extremism and the culture of subservience.

I sat down and thought about the two books after I had finished and wondered why the second book was not as widely appreciated. It was written just as well. I think alot of it has to do with the subject matter. For SO many reasons. First of all, the main lessons I learned by reading A Thousand Splendid Suns are about the difficulties of uniting such a divided nation as Afghanistan. I think everything about the Middle East is SUCH a mess. There is no easy solution. While some Muslims think that jihad is justified and others do not there is always going to be lots of violence. Economies cannot thrive or even rebuild when the population is getting picked off bomb by bomb. The book was very vivid in recounting the women's terror filled lives. Terror from the control of their husband and from the violence around them. If you compare those lessons to The Kite Runner, the lessons are very different. The lessons in The Kite Runner are very universal and not as politically motivated. It is not so much a history book as the story of one man and him trying to correct mistakes he made.

I wonder to myself if the reason people like The Kite Runner is that they connect more to a story about a person they relate to better. Is the universal lesson easier to deal with or more interesting than the lessons about one society or country or culture?

Then I watched part of a show on the History Channel about the history of comedy. It interviewed tons of comedians about how they were inspired and what they thought was funny. Then they changed to a subject I had never even considered. The segment was about the fact that men don't consider women to be funny. And let me tell you, every one of the female comedians had some stories to tell on the subject about offensive men in their audiences. All the male comedians tried to be nice, but a few came out and said that they didn't think women were as funny except for a small rare few. One said the subjects women comics want to talk about- ie. cleaning, kids, dating, complaining about men, bore him and he has no interest. I thought it was the evil taking the truth to be hard but whatever.

So to go back to the book report.....I thought to myself -I wonder if this applies to these books? Do men want to read a book about women being abused? Do men only like to read books about men? I am not a man so I couldn't say, but I think it is a very true thing that men are very ...man-centric... in their likes. Guys I know like(or maybe I should say respect) male singers, male writers, male actors, male comedians, they only watch informational shows if hosted by men(sorry Katie Couric). The women that entertain them do so only as objects in the periphery.

Another thought that this inspired is that knowing that you are an internationally famous author, and everyone is waiting on your next book, how do you decide on the subject matter. Did he decide to write this book knowing less people would like it but it would touch an ugly subject that needed to be unveiled? Or did he really think it would be as big a hit as the first book?

And to end your curiosity and satisfy inquiring minds, I did like The Kite Runner better, but not in a way that I feel diminishes the greatness of A Thousand Splendid Suns. I think, for myself, that the universal themes of redemption in The Kite Runner probably couldn't be duplicated endlessly over a career. I don't think anyone could write and endless amount of books with that much punch over their career.

These are the things that make me go Hmmmmmmm.

The Texas Polygamist Roundup Ye-haw!!!

Ok.......I may have been born in Cali but I have been in Texas for all of my school since 1st grade. My formative years are Texan. I love my state. I love barbeque. I love bluebonnets. I love the Alamo. I love Braums. I went to Texas A&M.....arguably the biggest cowboy school in existance. I don't really speak with an accent unless I try, but when I let it out I can sound truly Texan baby with a southern draaaaawl.

Why is this important to know? Because I am honestly embarrased that the Polygamists came to Texas. When I go to the CNN webpage and see that they are reporting from the San Angelo area it makes me a little nauseous. Why did the wierdos have to come to my beau-tee-ful state and pollute it? And give all the Baptists more ammo for the next Mormons are goin to HELL sermon. As if they didn't preach enough false doctrine about us already!!! ARGG!!!!!

This is the state of the independent soul. The free spirit! We used to be another country dang it!! We still as a state have wayyy more authority over what happens here due to the terms of the treaty when we became a part of the US.
In short.....TEXAS ROCKS!!

Polygamy ...Doesn't rock. Warren Jeffs is scary gross. Yuck. Shudder. As an actual Latter Day Saint I don't have any sympathy for the fundamentalists' gross male leaders forcing 13 yr olds to marry middle aged men. That's child abuse straight up. In fact I am confused that they didn't just completely change their church's name when they broke off!! HONESTLY PEOPLE!!! And yet as a Latter Day Saint, they feel like I should be shamed into feeling sympathy or something since we had polygamy in our shared past so long ago. I admit I feel a kinship with those girls in long skirts-since I wear sleeves and knee shorts. That's about all. I feel sympathy for any religion with extreme tenets for the followers' daily life or a history of persecution due to my own family history and beliefs. Down at Texas A&M we learned alot about Judaism at our Institute of Religion because our director was close friends with the Rabbi. We had a great friendship with the Jewish Students. I had a Hindu friend growing up. And some hard-core catholic girls. People who really live their religion tend to be my friends regardless of what religion it is.

I have to say though......polygamy is a controversial topic for LDS people. They're hitting us right where it hurts. We can't deny that our ancestors practiced it. We haven't been polygamists now for over a century. And we believe in obeying our national laws. And it's against the law here. Who even cares about the law- I don't think we would arrange underage marriages or wear pioneer clothes and live in connecting trailers in any case. At least I shall never do such a thing. That's the fundamentalists own invention.

The truly appalling part is the forced marriages of underage girls -that is the most heinous part and the part that is most totally NOT from any shared mormon past. How on EARTH could any one say that is OK??!! Marriage is by choice. Anyone who is forcing people to do anything- especially underage girls- is NOT practicing any type of belief system that is based on the same things I believe. Individual right to choose in your life is the most basic part of my religion and always has been. It makes me sick that those dirty old men twisted doctrine around and made new stuff up until it became part of getting into heaven to let a old lecher knock you up. There couldn't be anything more wrong to me.

Thinking about it makes all kinds of words I'm not supposed to say because I'm LDS come into my head. I become filled with the urge to beat someone. I want to be a lawyer just so I can prosecute them and lock them up. I used to work for a domestic violence shelter and I am very very sensitive to the topic of abuse. No fundamentalist better try to get ANY sympathy from me and play off our shared origins of religion. Our religions couldn't BE more different. They might have come from alien pods for all the common ground we share if they don't acknowledge the prophet and they abuse kids. Nuff said.

So anyways it's getting late and I have tests coming up. I probably shouldn't rage endlessly on this topic, but I had to say- LOCK THOSE BASTARDS UP!!!!!!!

If I know Texas as well as I think I do.......we so will.

Politicians and the women who pretend to love them on CNN

I really like meeting new people sometimes. Especially the opinionated and funny kind.

I have been in the ER this week for my rotations and it was a RIOT the morning Eliot Spitzer announced he would resign. And all because of two spunky ladies who were at the ER watching CNN in their room while waiting for the doctor.

For anyone who doesn't know the situation Eliot Spitzer is the Governor of New York and was caught hiring hookers with government funded credit cards (of course) spending over $80,000 and he resigned with his wife Silda at his side-who apparently suggested to him that he didn't need to resign. SOOOOO many things to say on this topic.

Anyways the ladies were watching CNN's breaking news. The first comment made was about how they would NEVER appear at a news conference to support a man who cheated on them. Then one says "WAIT ... I would attend the news conference....so I could turn and beat him down in public on TV as cameras rolled." Greatness.

Can you believe these political wives who stand by their men to be publicly humiliated? I think Hilary set the initial bad example for modern women. But oh my goodness what about poor Dina McGreevey who stood by her flamboyantly gay husband who was obviously going to be leaving her anyways if he was coming out. And now Spitzer's poor wife. The wives all look so miserable and wretched. Much more sick about what is happening than their husbands. It's so wrong.

And the Spitzers have 3 teenage daughters. The funny ladies said they should just drop out and get GED's because there's no recovering at your high school from that kind of embarrassment. Too true. I feel so awful for them.

But aside from the actual story, here was what was most horrifying about watching the news that morning - the awful commentary. CNN has GOT to hire more women to comment on political scandal. The men sounded like idiots. Complete idiots. Here's a list of the comments that I remember that I liked the most.

1) Eliot Spitzer is very intellectually smart, but not very street smart. Anyone who holds a public office in New York knows that you don't pay for hookers on a credit card.

2) All men have needs and the governor of New York just like every man.

3) The people of New York will love the new governor. He is a special man who really reaches out and touches people.......with his personality. (at least they realized that one was going bad)

My dad had a lovely politically based comment on the situation. Democrats keep getting caught using high priced hookers ...at least the Republicans look in bathrooms for free sex to save the public money. UG. Dad humor.

CNN does have a point however badly expressed. Anyone should know not to pay for things they shouldn't buy with a company credit card. I enjoyed how CNN's wording seemed to make it like Spitzer missed his HR orientation on how to pay for hookers. Priceless.

We commented in the ER how his wife must have only been out for power and money if she tried to get him to not resign and just go on like nothing had happened. You KNOW he needs to resign and he's cheating on you.....and in such a spectacular manner that she had to know he was getting it somewhere else. She must REALLY like saying "I'm the governor's wife" is all we could think.

YUCK. All of this just adds to the many reasons I hate politics and I hate cheaters.

I feel awful for people who get cheated on. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to try to patch things up. If there's no trust in a relationship what IS there? Forgiveness of that particular sin is a grace I hope I never have to develop because I'm not sure I could. I am guessing I would not be good with getting over"just looking at you every day makes me want to throw up /question my own value as a person" type of emotions. Not cool.

Moving on. I wonder what the divorce rate is for politicians' marriages while in office? And I wonder what the rate of adultery is? It seems to be all adultery and turning a blind eye to me. But of course it's only the squeaky wheel that gets on CNN to apologize.

Brit-Brit meets with UN Secretary General and arranges for Angelina to adopt 2 more kids

Ok- I admit I am a recovering celeb gossip addict and I have cut myself off from all of the cutting edge/only possibly true sources I used to check all the time when I was a financial analyst/professional web time waster. I only check IMDB now with the occasional foray into yahoo entertainment. This is an amazing improvement.

With this preface, and also adding that I hate popstar gossip- I mean HATE- I was never reading Page 6 to find out about Mandy Moore or JT - I need to comment about Britney Spears.

HOLY SMOKES!!! Here I thought that with her dad being allowed to have her sent to the psych ward(Puhleeeeeeze help her) and fire her crazy manager that maybe her life would take a turn for the better. But with Cali's protection of rights she was back making her own decisions in mere hours. All that good work for nothing. And loser paparrazi boyfriend and manager were back on the scene and fighting her dad's actions.

Is there anyone on earth who thinks Brit knows how to care for a child? Having driven with them sans car seats, dropped them on their heads, fed them junk to bribe them and make them sick all day, and then held them hostage with her in a bathroom for hours, exposed them to her drug and alcohol use, exposed them to her hoo-ha.

Obviously it is a crime that she no longer has custody or visitation rights. Her celebrity is keeping her from getting justice. What would be the best way to keep her custody trial on the down-low and make sure it's unbiased? Did I hear make it a FEDERAL CASE??????

Honestly........if she wants to win her case she needs to be tried by like......Ok I'm drawing a blank. Um.........maybe if the jury includes Matthew McConaughey, Owen Wilson, and Courtney Love. I'm not coming up with 12 though. And in all reality custody isn't a jury issue. And I can't think of any judge to let her off. Judge Reinhold? Mike Judge? Still not likely.

So since we have decided that her chances on a federal level are actually even more ridiculous, what if we take this baby GLOBAL!!! That's right ........I think the world could unite over a UN peacekeeping mission with talks deciding custody between K-Fed and Brit-Brit led by current secretary general Ban Ki-moon. Then all the previously divided nations of the world could all unite over the tragically bad parenting.

Britney is like the worst mother ever - don't you agree ??!!!
Estoy de acuerdo, Los ninos estan mas seguros con su padre.
Deve ir ao rehab
Amy Winehouse kann ihr Zimmergenosse sein
Qualcuno deve comprarlo alcune mutandine
Возможно она может одолжить underoos ее сынка
Pourquoi ne pouvez-vous pas laisser Britney seul ?
Ug- I knew the French would like Britney just to be contrary. Foux de Fa Fa .

And we all join hands and wear daisy wreaths in our hair and eat snackpacks under a magical rainbow of solidarity and different flavors of fruit leather.
Someday we'll find it....the rainbow connection...the lovers, the dreamers and MEEEEE!

Snort.

Oh Brit Brit. It is so sad.

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like a presidential debate

Ok-I think I have figured out why it is that as much as I like certain candidates when I see their speeches, or read their webpages, inevitably by the time it comes for a presidential election, I am thoroughly disgusted by all the candidates after seeing the debates. I can't stand people patting themselves on the back.

If I could just vote based on seeing a resume and getting an idea of where a candidate stands on the issues that would be great. I know we need debate just so we can find out when someone's ideas are impractical or that they don't deal well under pressure. And we're now a TV nation and to our detriment our leaders have to come over well as actors too. Unfortunately the process of rallying support and getting your party's nomination takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. And we get to see the debates with the theme of pretty much every question being "Tell us why you're better than your opponent". So you literally get years of listening to them repeat the story of the time they spearheaded a campaign that saved the world's endangered snarkles and that the Minister of Magic called them the next Albus Dumbledore. Whoopty do!!

Ok- back to real world examples. Then we get the joy of seeing Hilary Clinton backtrack and say that she changed the world during her 8 years as the wife of the president......I guess she's hoping enough baby boomers now have alzheimers and can't remember her claims at the time that she wasn't doing anything major as the president's wife or overstepping her bounds as a person that NO ONE VOTED FOR. Either we were all right and she did all kinds of stuff that no one wanted her to do at the time and lied about it........or she's lying now and she never really did much besides try to really support for Bill's universal health care reform.....oh wait I mean HER universal health care reform.....no wait??? We're back to square one. But that's OK- square one is me disliking Hilary and it doesn't really matter. All I need to know is she thinks she's empowering women by using her philandering husband to get to the top. Case closed thank you very much.

On the topic of self-aggrandization. I had the joy of reading through some resumes recently and my favorite person that I would never hire listed his accomplishments on his resume. Apparently he made "brilliant" changes to his company's internal email system. I think he used the word "amazing" in another part of the resume. WOW.

Where on earth do people come off calling themselves brilliant or influential or a genius on their resumes? Isn't that a designation that should come from an outside party. I mean maybe you can list under your accomplishments "Received title of The GOD of I.T. in 1997 from Wired magazine" or something. Then you don't need to call yourself an deity- someone else did it for you. But to call yourself brilliant? Do you think you can really put stuff like that on your resume and as long as you speak in third person no one can tell? ICK.

Ok- back to the topic of politicians. I feel bad for anyone in politics. I think the reason people seem to love people from outside politics is that they are more uncomfortable spouting out how great they are at every opportunity. If I had to walk around talking about how great I was for two full years I would be a different person. And imagine if you had gone through multiple campaigns over many years. You almost wouldn't even have time to do more amaaaazing things so you can talk about how amaaaazing you are. What a tragedy.

It's hard to see how a good person could ever survive entering into that lifestyle. I can see wanting to make change and do good, but living through the campaigning sounds like the worst torture I can imagine. I hate my own birthday parties. I can't even imagine the horror of going to a "Please Please Please Like Erica the Most" party every day. Heave. Shudder.

I'm glad it's them and not me. But right now it's hard for me to like them. And then it's hard to like myself for not wanting to participate in my own country's political process. AAHHHHHH!!

Then I just remind myself of how messed up other countries are and I can force myself to try to pick the candidate who ooogs me out the least. I have it way better off with these people than in a country where I get killed for trying to go vote. Or where the votes are super obviously tampered with. Or where I get no vote at all cause the military controls the country or a dictator or something.

SO God bless America and it's candidates and preserve them from believing their own hype.

Why I Can't Stand Hugo Chavez

A politically motivated blog. WOW. Brace yourself.

So I can't stand Hugo Chavez. El Presidente in Venezuela.

Why should we even care about anything involving the president of Venezuela? By all rights there are like a bajillion foreign countries that are bigger, have more powerful economies, etc and I honestly admit I have noooo clue who their leaders are.

But I know about Hugo Chavez because he is like the moron with short-man syndrome who drives the POS car with the loud engine he's so proud of. Like people who are in debt up to their ears and try to make you feel bad for not having as many material possessions. I have a million more analogies to describe Hugo Chavez, but that's not why I'm writing.

So here are some fast facts for why he annoys me:

He comes to our country and bashes it hardcore and openly-a luxury he allows no one to reciprocate. Heck- we can't even get visas to go to venezuela.

He sent politicians to Argentina to buy votes in their presidential elections and they got caught- and he's unapologetic about it

He pretty obviously tight with all of the guerilla armies in Colombia and plays like he's some grand peace negotiator to get hostages released but let's be realistic. He keeps threatening to cut off relations with the Columbian president and then when they finally get ONE hostage released who was raped,beaten and had her son stolen etc. out of an estimated 750 live hostages that one army alone is holding.....he asks Europe to take the guerilla armies off their lists of terrorist organizations because they're not really terrorists now and the only reason they were added to the lists was pressure from the US (Cause Europeans are sheep). WHAT?? Way to make an argument that's convincing.

Heres a new little Chavez-ism -Dairy Farmers in Venezuela are now treasonous if they try to export milk products because he wants them to sell it all for cheap(more supply than demand) within the country and just starve to death.

He recently tried to make constitutional amendments in Venezuela so that he could continue as their ruler with no term limits and have complete control of the national bank. He also threatened to cut off the TV stations if they tried to show any sort of exit polling or early results in the elections. He said if CNN did any broadcasting showing opposition having greater numbers -he would cut off oil supplies to the US. (shooting himself in the foot - they supply 15% of our crude oil- but guess what would happen to their economy if they didn't sell us their only major export? HE IS SUCH AN IDIOT)

He openly loves and idolizes Fidel Castro. This alone shows his unstable mind. Who with any sense of reason looks at CUBA and thinks.....wow....I really wish my country were that successful.

AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Ok, I think I'll end now. I am losing my ability to express myself through spellable words.