Tyler's Turn Blog

Just yesterday, I was talking to someone about how intelligent Elephants are. My father hunted elephants in the seventies, when it was still legal, and his stories are truly amazing. When he tells them, I'm always horrified that he would hunt such intelligent and clearly communal creatures.

Then, today, someone sent me this link to an organization that teaches out-of-work elephants to paint. Make sure you look at the individual artist's galleries on the right hand side of the page. I particularly like Duanpen's work, because she seems to have a mind of her own, and a style that's completely unique.

A good deal of yesterday's Presidential press conference was taken up with talking about the Iranian IEDs being used against our military personnel in Iraq. Bush said he's focusing on these weapons because he's doing all he can to protect our troops. But there's something that bugs me about these all-important IEDs.

According to the military press conference earlier in the week, Iranian IEDs have been responsible for more than 170 U.S. deaths. By my calculations, that's less than six percent of the total U.S. casualties.

Less than six percent.

So, what about the other ninety-four percent? Where are those weapons coming from, and why aren't we talking about them as much as we are about the Iranian IEDs? It seems like this administration is once again focusing its attention too narrowly and missing the big picture./p>