Fish heads, fish heads...

On the way home, I saw yet another car with the magnetic ribbon-shaped signs on the back. Like practically all of the ones I've seen lately, it had a red, white and blue "pray for America" (or something close) sign and yellow "support our troops" sign.

Noble sentiments, both, but here's what gets me about them: y'know how the lettering is on one leg of the ribbon? So if the ribbon were worn, it'd have the letters at about a 45-degree angle on one leg?

Bad description. Take a look here to see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, on more and more cars I see around here, the whole ribbon has been canted at 45 degrees so the lettering runs straight across, and the round part at the top is pointing off somewhere in the upper left.

I can read in all kinds of directions. Heck, I've even learned to read upside-down (all the better for sneakily seeing what's on an interview subject's desk).

Apparently, the good folks of my fair city believe that few people can do that. But then, a lot of thinking about the war around here is pretty simple-minded.

On another subject, I don't have one of those ribbons, even though I support our troops. Here's how I do it:

I want them to come back home.

Here are some hard realizations: the stated rationale for the war, WMDs, didn't pan out. Our "liberation" is being pretty selective, seeing as one of our largest trading partners just happens to be the biggest (by population) repressive regime on earth. The elections in Iraq come because a Shiite cleric, Sistani, called for them. There's a civil war going on in Iraq, as well as a war against we Americans.

I'll say our troops need the best equipment they can get, they need the best leadership they can get, and they need a plan to get out of Iraq post-haste. That's how I support them.

Besides, it looks like I'm never going to get embedded over there. What's the use of a war if I can't do some journalism from it?

Also, I took one of the weirdest pictures today at work that I've ever taken. I'll post one of 'em after they run in the paper, so be patient.