(There was originally a link here to a CNN story — sorry, the page no longer exists. But you all know this story anyway, by now. –[i]Sara, writing from 2009[/i])

So… Last Monday in London, Natalie Maines (lead singer for the Dixie Chicks and a Texas native) says to the audience, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” Now the Chicks are being boycotted by fans, radio stations, and so on and so forth all over the USA. Jim Jacobs, president of a broadcasting group participating in the boycott, is quoted on CNN.com as follows: “The emotion of the callers telling us about their fathers and sons and brothers who are overseas now and who fought in previous wars was very specific.”

Questions, questions…

1) Why does Maines’ comment about the President automatically reflect upon the troops overseas in the ever-more-likely war with Iraq, much less any previous conflict that the USA has been involved in? So she doesn’t like the President. That says nothing about whether she does or does not support war with Iraq, nor whether she supports the men and women who are actually fighting the war. It says she doesn’t like the President.

2) Are celebrities no longer allowed to have opinions about our nation’s leadership? Granted that it might not have been the most appropriate thing to say to an audience, but why are people shocked to see a celebrity expressing a viewpoint which certainly is not unpopular, much less unheard of, in the general population? Just because Maines and the other Chicks live in the USA and are big-name celebrities does not mean that they automatically must support the current President, or his actions, or his people.

3) Assuming that the comment does reflect on the current state of affairs with Iraq, why would expressing disapproval of this conflict translate into not supporting the troops themselves? Equally, why would it reflect on any past or future–or even concurrent!–military action by the United States? It is possible to disapprove of this war without disapproving of the troops for their dedication, and also without disapproving of any other war, police action, peacekeeping mission, or other similar activity in which the USA has participated.

People have every right to disapprove of Maines’ comment and boycott the Chicks’ music, of course, just as Maines has every right to express her disapproval of the President. The situation just seems so unreasonable to me–it’s not like she was saying anything that many people hadn’t already said, and I just do not see how the comment insults anyone except the President. I do not understand the link to the “fathers and sons and brothers who are overseas now and who fought in previous wars.” Read the comment again: “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” I don’t see anything about the fathers and sons and brothers there, except in that Bush is each of those things.

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Three days. Two missing girls found. One returns safely to her parents, bearing a slight sunburn but generally looking healthy. One will never return home again. The nation celebrates Elizabeth Smart’s homecoming; Bloomington mourns Jill Behrman’s loss.Two days ago, human remains were found in Morgan County, just north of here. Today it was announced that they had been identified, through jewelry and dental records, as the remains of Jill Behrman. Jill had been missing for almost three years; she disappeared on May 31, 2000. At this point I doubt anyone really expected that she would be found alive, but it’s still a little bit of a shock to actually hear that they have found her.

In particular, it’s a bit shocking because the police have been saying that they believed Jill’s body had been dumped in Salt Creek, which is about a county south of where she was found. When these remains were found two days ago, I very much doubt that anyone expected they would belong to Jill–after all, the police were so certain that she was in Salt Creek that they actually drained part of the creek to search, only giving up when torrential rains filled up the drained section faster than they could pump it out. At that point they were so sure that she was there–the word was, since they hadn’t found her in that effort, they probably wouldn’t be able to find her.

There’s virtually no news on this yet, as the story has just broken. I’ll be keeping an eye on the news, of course. I just almost can’t believe this is even happening. And I don’t know whether to be sad that she was found dead, or simply relieved that she was found at all. It’s all a very strange situation.

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I’ve been ashamed of my earlier taste in music for some time now. I will only just barely admit that I did indeed listen to Vanilla Ice and New Kids on the Block. But as I watch two episodes of VH1′s Behind the Music–1992 and 1994–I’m finding a new reason to regret my younger self’s choices.I caught the second half of the 1992 episode, just in time to wish that I’d been older in 1992. There was a nice segment about the politics of the Bush vs. Clinton race, and every time I see this part, I wonder–was Bush I really that stodgy and icky, and was Clinton really that hip and neat? I don’t know; I was only twelve at the time, so I wasn’t paying any attention at all to the Presidential election. The music they talked about was the music I like now–alternative groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I’m going, “Yeah, this is good music.”

Then the 1994 episode comes on. One of the first things they said was how alternative got pushed out by sugar pop. One of the first sugar pop artists they listed was Mariah Carey, whose breakout album Music Box was released in 1994.

I felt a lump forming in my stomach as I realized that the Mariah Carey album in question was one I had asked and asked and asked for. One I’d listened to over and over and over again. I was suddenly ashamed that I had supported the form of music which had helped bring about the careers of people like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys and N*Sync.

(Of course, then they showed the segment about how grunge had become so mainstream it was no longer “alternative”, and I didn’t feel so very bad.)

Now they’re talking about Kurt Cobain’s suicide. I was fourteen and had very little awareness of the event. I knew very little at all about Nirvana except that they’d done this “weird” video called “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Why is it that I’m only just now appreciating the impact of Kurt Cobain’s death?

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Well, Saturday was Tim’s birthday, and Dad’s is coming up soon (on the 11th), so yesterday we all went took a trip to Indianapolis to celebrate. The intent was to go see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at a second-run theater, then go to The Rathskeller for dinner. The movie didn’t work out so well–apparently people in Indy actually go to see movies in second-run theaters, so it was sold out before we could get tickets. So instead we went to Circle Center Mall for a while and Tim and Andrew played arcade games while Mom and Dad and I browsed such shops as White Barn and Yankee Candle Companies, The Franklin Mint, and the Children’s Museum Store. It really drove home to me what a small-town country girl I am, because our mall only has one floor (except for a couple of stores that have their own escalators), whereas Circle Center has–what, three? Four? Yikes.Comparatively huge malls (OK, OK, you can stop laughing at me, you people who live in bigger cities than Indianapolis!) aside, the highlight of the evening was definitely the Rathskeller. They serve German food. Well, actually, they’ve also got any number of other dishes which sound really good–I hate trying to decide on sides, because they’re listed right under the pastas, and all three of their pastas always sound amazing–but German fare is their specialty. Also, their beer list is longer than the wine lists at most of the restaurants around here. (It even competes with the Irish Lion’s list of Scotches. ) I’m getting hungry all over again just thinking about it.

For appetizers, we got the stuffed mushrooms (think cream cheese and bacon, smothered in some sort of white stringy cheese and broiled) and the Cajun chicken poppers (like regular jalapeno poppers, but with Cajun chicken in the stuffing). The trick here is to eat the popper(s) *before* the mushrooms, so that the cheese and the mild taste of the mushrooms counteract the heat of the poppers. All of our dinners also came with salads and bread. The bread baskets are made up of several different types of rolls and one Bavarian pretzel. The pretzel comes with mustard. We split up the pretzel, since everyone wanted a piece and there was only one, and passed around the mustard. Some of us dipped our pieces pretty heavily–and promptly regretted it when we took a bite. I think that mustard must have been 80% horseradish or something. Certainly it was enough to render both Mom and I speechless and bring tears to our eyes. Thereafter, I dipped lightly, but every once in a while I would get a heavy bite, and the tip of my nose would get all tingly.

And let’s not forget the main course. I had the rouladen, which are made from beef rolled up with onions and spices and whatnot and a pickle wedge inside them, then cooked and covered in gravy. They were a little dry, but I think that’s how they were supposed to be. On the side, a double-order of spatzle–German noodle dumpling thingies. Yummy. Tim had a mixed wurst platter with four types of sausage. It’s the same thing he got last time, and he says it was just as good. Mom and Dad both had what I’d ordered last time we were there: jagerschnitzel. Breaded, fried pork covered in a mushroom/red wine sauce. I actually kind of wish I’d ordered it, but the rouladen were good too. And Andrew had the schnitzel parmesan, which I guess looked OK, but it seemed more Italian than German.

The drinks deserve their own paragraph too. The beer selection, as I’ve mentioned, is simply amazing. It’s difficult to decide–so we didn’t! They offer two different “samplers” made up of six five-ounce glasses each. Tim and I split an original sampler, which includes a couple of darker beers, a pilsner, a lager, a weiss, and the Rathskeller’s own amber. If you ever go, I highly recommend trying this or the seasonal sampler. It’s a great way to taste a bunch of different beers without getting too much alcohol in your system at once.

There were only two downsides. One, it was expensive. Our bill, after tax and tip, was almost $100. (Keep in mind, though, that aside from the two entrees, one appetizer, and the beer sampler, this also includes one other beer, a glass of wine, a dessert, and an after-dinner coffee with Godiva liqueur in it. The entrees were about $20 each and the sampler was around $10.) Two, we did get back pretty late. But it was worth it!

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