Will the President fire those responsible?

According to recently released court documents, Scooter Libby has fingered VP Cheney as ordering him to leak intel to the press. According to Libby Cheney told him that he had the Presidents approval. This is not to say that the VP or the big P ordered the leaking of Plame's name. However it did come out with the other intel.

So my question is simple. Will Bush do what he said he was going to do last year and fire those responsible for leaking classified info? Lets see who would end up being President? The Speaker of the House, Denis Hastert, would be incharge.

So is this all another liberal attempt to melt Bush with water like Dorothy did to the Wicked witch of the west? Well I have downloaded and read a bunch of court docs. Specifically: page 19-20 from Document 80 from Case NO05-394(RBW) United States of America vs. Lewis Libby Here is what is said. It starts near the bottom of page 19 and runs on into the middle of page 20.

"Defendants's participation in a critical conversation with Judith Miller on July 8, (discussed further below) occured only after the Vice President advised defendant that the President specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate ( added by me)) Defendant testified that the circumstances for his conversation with reporter Miller -getting approval fro mthe President through the Vice President to discuss material that would be classified but the that approval - were unique in his recollection. Defendant further testified that on July 12,2003, he was specifically directed by the Vice President to speak to the press in place of Cathie Martin (then the communications person for the Vice President) regarding the NIE and Wilson."

It goes on to say that Cheney told Libby to go "on the record" and provide "deep background" regarding Wilson's Niger. This is as close to a smoking gun as you can get without getting powder burns from the muzzle flash.

Angry Left?

I hear, in many conservative circles, the term angry left. Huh? If anything the left in America is bemused, sick of the self righteous failure of Washington, and in some states giddy with delight in the downfall of self-serving conservative hypocrites. Angry is not in the leftist lexicon. The people who are angry are as much republican as democrat. The people who are pissed off are all the people who put their faith in Bush only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them. Leftists put no faith in the little SOB so ergo we are not angry with him. We are sick of him, disgusted by him, but not angry. We feel vindicated. We told you so. The middle-of-the-roader's should have listened to us a bit more. Leftists do not have all the answers. Lefty's have always said that Bush is a hopeless case. His team is out to serve themselves and their buddies and not you. So be angry if you must. Just don't talk about the angry left. The left isn't angry its right.

Dear Tom Delay,

So long you worthless, carpet bagging, wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-we'll-know-you-by-your-deeds, crook. We're all better off without you. Don't let the door to DC hit your fat ass on the way out!

A Citizen

More common ground between us Christians and our Muslim brothers and sisters

There is a "book of Maryam" (which is perhaps closer to the proper pronounciation of her Aramaic name), in the Holy Koran, and the passage known as Sura 3, "The Amramites (Ali-'Imran)" tells a tale very like Luke 1:26-35

The angel said: "O Maryam, surely Allah gives you good news; a message from Him of one whose name is the Messiah, Isa [Jesus], son of Maryam, worthy of regard in this world and the hereafter and of those who are made near to Allah.
He shall speak to the people when in the cradle and when of old age, and he shall be one of the holy ones."

Maryam said: "My Lord! How shall a son be born to I me, since man has not touched me?" The angel replied: "Nevertheless, Allah creates what He pleases; when He has decreed a matter, He only says to it, 'Be," and it is.

And He will teach him the Book and the wisdom and all the Scriptures.

And make him an apostle to the children of Israel"

Evil?

So according to Einstein, back when he was a lusty youth, evil is the absense of God the same as darkness is the absense of light. Evil is not a thing anymore than darkness is a thing. It is the absense of a thing.

Okay Einstein, if you are correct in your suposition that evil is the absense of God, then it follows that there are locatioins in the universe where God is absent. And if there are places where God is absent then there are limits to God. And if there are limits of any kind to God then he is not omnipotent.

Lets look at the term Omnipotens Deus. All Powerful God. Okay that litterally means there are no limits to his power. He is capable of anything. There is nothing God cannot do. If this is so then evil is something God can do since to limit him to only good is to limit his power. Can you, as Einstein, solve this problem? You haven't thought far enough down the equation. If God is simply all pwoerful, with no limits placed upon him, then adoration of him becomes less wholesome. Since to adore something that is as ready to do you evil as good is a pretty sad state of affairs for you.

For now let us assume God is all powerful. So all aspects of the universe, including all the evil in it, are property of God and subject to, or more properly manifestations of, his divine will. Where does that leave a being like a devil? Well it leaves them nowhere. There is no point to having a devil since all the evil in the universe, like all the good, is a manifestation of the will of God. Why would God need another being to help him out with evil? Indeed why would God need anyhelp from anything for any reason? Why help build his kingdom on earth? Can't the omnipotent God do that for himself?

If God is wanting a creation unspoiled and perfect then why not, like nike says, just do it? Why all the cerimonial mumbo jumbo? Why priests and churches and doctrines of the faith? Why have all this messy confusion about what God wants? It seems to me that if God wished creation that is different than the one we call home then he would have made it different. He would not be waiting for us to figure it out, or have us wait for him to let us make a mess of things then come in and break up the fight.

I believe that we live in the perfect universe. A universe where nothing is either created nor destroyed. A universe that is neither good or evil, where there is no place for evil or good to exist. A place where all action causes equal and opposing reaction. A universe where certain actions are deemed evil and certain actions are deemed good by certain speices at certain times because the actions lead to the propegation of the spieces. Trust, justice, equal treatment, kindness, charity, etc. are all benificial to a cohesive society. Genicide, murder, theft, lying, etc are all damaging to a cohesive society.

Clearly there are laws that we have uncovered that govern all the actions in the universe. It is only a mater of time before all of them are laid out for us to understand. So getting back to the nature of God. By removing the aspect of good and evil there is also removed a stumbling block for the acceptance of an omnipotent God. God is all powerful. And the universe is perfect. There is no need for intervention in such a perfect universe even by a perfect God. We too are perfect. Our perfection will continue to evolve, in a million years our perfection will be different than it is now. But it will be no less perfect or more perfect than it is right now.

I know lots of people will talk about all the evil that seems pointless and done for only evil's sake. However that is meledramatic. All evil is done for reasons beyond simply acting evil. Even if it is done by those who think they are doing it to act evil, since they too are simply part of creation and reacting to actions upon them etc. This is also true for good.

How about God adjusting his creation? If it is perfect then God would not need to adjust it. Remember that we are part of the creation so if he has to come down and adjust things after seeing a problem arising then he has not created a perfect thing. Can a perfect being create an imperfect thing? Yes. To say no would place a limit on his power. There is nothing he cannot do. So he can create an imperfect universe. But this leads to probelms as mentioned above.

Does calling on God make a difference in a perfect universe? The answer, puzzeling though it is to me, is yes. The perfect creation can call on the perfect being to act upon the perfect creation to make a change. This is not creating a more perfect creation, it is not fixing something. There is nothing to fix in the perfect creation. There is only a change desired and done by God if he so chooses and he can choose to act or not as he wishes.

The perspective on perfection is Gods alone. We in it can either accept the perfection or deny it and even if we do this it is only because we have come into actions and interactions that cause us to deny it, or accept it. All our actions within the perfect creation are perfectly atuned to the it at all times. Even when we percieve ourselves to fail. This should lead us all to complete humility since there is no triumph that is ours nor any tragedy. We have complete freedom within the perameters of, by Gods definition, the perfect creation.

Augustine says, Not because they are, does God know all creatures spiritual and temporal, but because he knows them, therefore they are.

The Rumsfeld Doctrine according to Thomas Freedman

"Just enough troops to lose."

The da Vinci Code review...

An exciting book. But nothing to write home about. What bugs me about this book is that it is so filled with cliches. I guess for people who are totally ignorant of history it may seem spell-binding. For me it is the Forrest Gump of religious thrillers. The signs of the Holy Grail are litterally everywhere. I was eating a pizza and realized that the pie was round and cut into sentions with five cuts, signifying the "sacred feminine" a term used adnauseum in the book. The second thing that really bugged me about this book is the cliche' use of the Catholic Church. Is there no other sect of Christianity that an author of fiction can use? Also the rediculous, and again totally cliche, bit about how women had to be demonized by the church. Crapola! Has mr. Brown ever heard of the cult of the virgin? Of all the saints to be venerated from the early times until today there is no saint so venerated in Catholicism as Saint Mary. So much so that almost every grand gothic cathedral built in Europe is dedicated to Our Lady (Notre Dame) each adorned with the Rose Window. These grand multimedia extravaganzas were not only venerating Mary but also the seats of Church power for over a thousands years. Hardly banishing women, or the "sacred feminine" to hell.

The author writes in a way and uses "facts" or "informatioin" in much the same way conspiracy freaks use information in the Kennedy Assasination. I am surprised that the author did not try to implicate Oswald in the Grail myth. Like the movie JFK it feeds the white-noise machine of psudo-history, mythmaking, while telling an admittedly great story. I have no problem with the story itself. I love a good mystery told well. However I feel that the melding of fact, fiction, and suposition based on dubius facts or plain whole-cloth begs for a forward by the author explaining that the work is one of fiction.

So long Cap!

Good by to Casper Weinburger. We got to ride on a plane with him for a while back in the late 80's. He was a really tiny guy. The conservatives are saying of him, like all the other dead Reganites, how he won the cold war. Again I never saw him in the Streets of Moscow the day the Parliment surendered to the people. But then again he was really tiny and he might have been there.

October 1942

"In October 1942, ten months after entering World War II, America was preparing its first assault against Nazi military forces. Prescott Bush was managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman. His 18-year-old son George, the future U.S. President, had just begun training to become a naval pilot. On Oct. 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City which were being conducted by Prescott Bush."

A no win situation or a New World of hope

The BIG problem with Iraq is thqt it presents a no win situation for us. The attack on the 25th that left loads dead in Sadre city is anothe example of the no-victory scenario. It makes no difference whether the site attacked was an insurgent stronghold or not. The perception is that of the US attacking a mosque and killing men praying. This is only the latest example of how our very presense in Iraq is the problem. There is no solution grand enough for us to look like anything other than the problem. We have enmeshed oursleves in such a complicated problem that we may be unable to simply walk away. This situation is actually worse than Vietnam in that in Vietnam there was, since 1945, an ongoing civil war not of our making. We went in to try and save the nationalist south but we were not the instigators of the mess. So we could, with some justification, claim that we tried our best but the Vietnamese simply had to fight "Their War" themselves.

Iraq is totally different. There was no war in Iraq before we went in there. We started this madness. We instigated it. And so there is far more pressure on us to solve it. I fear we are stuck there no matter what. Bush and his subordinates need to be imprisoned for this huge mistake.

Or...

Not to take away from the demonstratable failure that is US~Iraq policy but there is another way of looking at this situation. As an American it might not be a happy way of looking at the situation but it may be, in the long run, a breakthrough in world affairs.

Since the fall of the Nazi's the world has been really a one-power world. Despite the belicose rumblings of the now-defunct USSR, for the past 60 years the world has pretty much been run by the USA. Its economy has been the engine that powered the entire world vehicle. Its agenda was, for good or bad, the worlds agenda, either in walking in lock step with America like NATO, or in constantly having to react to it like the USSR. Either way America was the mover and shaker of the world.

Iraq is proving to be a defining moment for the USA. It has taken the spotlight but unlike the first gulf-war what the world has been shown is a super-power that is not really so super. The last 6 years have shown America to be just another nation. Capable of doing good and bad. Capable of suffering like the rest of the world. Now before all the red-blooded America lovers get all PO'd I want to say that this is not a bad position to be in.

In the 1980's America got the hell kicked out of it by Japan in the form of manufacturing, technology, and business organization. This did not lead to the destruction of the USA. It led to the the boom of the 1990's in America and the bust of the 1990's in Japan. The Vietnam war, being totally lost by the mighty Americans, did not lead to the overthrough of the USA either. It lead to a series of breakthroughs with China and the USSR that made for a more stable and secure world. So having a super-power lowered back to the status of ordinary nation, something America will never really be, is not so bad. The checks on American power have been a benefit to America more than a hinderance.

Iraq shows that the world is a very complicated place where the desires of one nation, even a strong one like America, are never assured. We are in the process of being put back in our place. We do not like it but in the long run it will be better for the world and better for America.

We always get what we ask for

Why did Hamas do so well in the recent elections? They capitalised on rampent anti-Americanism along with the standard anit-Zionism. Our own actions in the region have so destroyed our image that even terrorist organization now have legitimate ability to actually win democratic elections. I was listening to NPR talk about how surprised everyone was at the Hamas victory. I do not think most people who studied the middle east were surprised. The Bush Administration was surprised. Their standard response to all their f'ups is to say how "nobody ever thought X could happen." X could be any one of a number of blunders. I couldn't really care less what they think, they are so lame.

I would say that we get what we ask for. How could anyone believe that a huge military adventure in Iraq create anything else? All the military adventures, while they are going on, are disasters for the regions inwhich they are taking place. There is no such thing as a good war. That is why all the millions of people at the end of WWII were cheering. They were cheering the fact that the war was over. In the war zone people were depressed, starved, and shell shocked. There were millions of soldiers encamped and the balance of power quickly shifted, over ten years, toward a east vs west nuclear stalemate. The forces at play enforced peace on both sides of the iron curtain.

Currently we have further destablized a region that was already unstable. Regional powers, other than Isreal, are week and ineffective. So the level of anarchy in disputed regions such as Gaza, the West Bank, or Iraq is high. In some ways it would be better to have a nuclear Iran. That would force Isreals hand to declare itself as an active nuclear state. It would create a dynamic that would remove US unilateralism in the region. It would not make Iran any more powerful than it is. But it would create a balance of power in a region that is like the wild west now. besides we have gone out of our way to ask for a nuclear Iran. I am amazed that we don't have it yet.

Wolves in sheeps clothing

Okay all you hyper-Christians. How is your boy doing in the White House? lets look at Afgahnistan. There is a guy who may get the death penalty for converting from islam to Christianity. Does your boy jump to the guys defense? Only after lots of bitching from the Christian establishment. If no one bitched at Bush he'd have let the man get killed.

Understand that Bush and his administration DO NOT CARE ABOUT CHRIST. They only care enough to get you to vote for them. They have sold their souls to altogether darker powers. I am not talking about Satan either. They'd be Satan worshipers if they thought that would get them votes. Basically they only believe in the god MONEY. If you think they wouldn't sell Christ out for 30 pieces of silver, or a stock option, you are fooling yourself, or letting yourself be fooled by them.

So where does a Christian turn to? Well for starters Christians should not expect political parties to be anything more than political parties. They are of the City of the Earth, while followers of Christ are dwellers in the City of God. Asking political parties to act in accordance with Christ is like asking the mayor and city council of one city to be the mayor and city council of yours. They will spend all their time with their own city while ignoring you.

So where does a Christian turn? To CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!! There is no power on this earth worthy of helping God. Does God need help? If God needs help why worship Him? Why worship a god that needs the help of a man? We need His help but he does not need ours. So stop turning to Washington to forward Gods kingdom. Do you need to ask Satan to help God? Well when we seek answers for expansion of our faith in the halls of the city of the Earth we are doing just that.

Happy Anniversary Iraqi Freedom

Happy birthday Iraqi Freedom.
Happy birthday to the 2317 families of those killed fighting on "our side"
Happy birthday to the 30,000+ families of those who were fighting on "the other side"
Happy birthday to the millions of refugees, the brutalised, the shell shocked, the depressed
Happy birthday to all the congressmen who never went to Iraq after sending others to fight and die
Happy birthday to Bush for spending 20 minutes in an Iraqi airport with a turkeyleg in his hand a couple years ago and not going to Iraq once since then (Texas Cowheard)
Happy birthday to all the pundits who lied to us and those that still lie to us.
Happy birthday to all the terrorists that flooded into Iraq after we flooded in.
Happy birthday to all the Americans still dumb enough to think that this war was justified.
And happy birthday to all the American taxpayers who willing spent 260 billion of their own dollars to topple one man and create anarchy. But don't ask them to spend money on national health.
Happy birthday to all the kids overthere that get to be blown up while going with them mom to the market or their father to prayer.
Happy brithday to all the saps and finks and fat-headed idiots who got us into this big stinking mess

Wayne Clark

Wayne Clark, business owner, entrepreneur, renaisance man, father of 5, grand father of 3, friend to many, and enemy to himself, died on Saturday. He fell to his death at the Grotto. I had the had the good fortune for working for him and the misfortune for working for him. Wayne was a madman and a very good person. He treated his employees as equals and never once raised his voice in anger to any of them. He was the most charismatic man I have ever known. I know this sound like I am simply trying to remember the good and forget the bad. There is probably some truth to that. However what made Wayne Clark a great leader, and superb thinker, and man of action, also set him on a course for potential ruin. The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long. He was addicted to meth and that addiction, destroyed his business, and took his life. Wayne had just turned 45 this month.

Wayne will be missed.

The 9 Trillion Dollar Man

In an effort to continue informing the United States citizenry as the true nature of Republican fiscal incompitence, the Senate, along party lines, raised the debt cieling by 781 billion to almost 9 trillion dollars. Distributed equally among all 300 million residents we all get a $30,000 bill to pay.

The Bush Administration is applauding this bold move. Without this move our country would begin to default on its current debt obligatioins. Basically it is taking Pay-Day loans to pay its bills. And since sooooo much of the world economy is tied into the worlds largest economy, everyone buys in to keep it afloat and keep their other investments afloat. What is good for the old USA is good for the world. But as markets in other regions mature and nations like India and China come on line as super powers, the leverage the US has had to strong arm its trading partners as the only game in town will decrease. And that might prove catastrophic for us.

To put this into context, and it is pretty hard to do with numbers like this, the US economy generates about 16 trillion dollars of economic activity each year. Yet thanks to Bush's tax cuts and giveaways our government is spedning 2 thousand million dollars a day more than it takes in. 2 billion a day in extra debt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Japan is the biggest creditor, at $668 billion. China, the second-biggest, recently increased its stake by $40 billion to $263 billion. " - source London Times

How do you plan to win the war?

I listen to CentCom's head of strategic planning for the war on Terrorism give an interview to NPR's The World. First he said that Bin Laden et all were only one part of the war. To capture or illimanate them would not bring victory. Then he said there were 4 strategic objectives.

1: Get the terrorists

2: Get rid of their safe havens

3: Keep them on the run

4: Harts and Minds

He said that the enemy is extrimism. Then he clarified by saying Islamic Extremism. Then he further clarified saying that they all want to bring the world back to the 7th century, blah, blah, blah... He said we need to partner with our allies in the region (who Saudi Arabia and Pakistan?) and give them "resources" (guns and bombs) to help them fight the terrorists. Holy shit isn't that what we ended up doing in centeral America and South East Asia? Enough of this "fight our war ourselves" BS, lets get some programed dictators to do it for us. Oh boy that'll end the whole terrorim concept. Centeral America and Southeast Asia are bastions of law and liberty thanks to that concept. As a citizen of America I can at long last go to sleep, resting assured that the men in uniform will save the day.

And this guy is the head of what? CentCom's stragic planning for the war on terrorism?

I am sorry but we are so Fucked!

Democrats...we want to lose and we want to lose bad!

With the presidency of W in the toilet and a majority of Americans thinking that the Dems are better at war fighting and the economy where are the F'ing turd sandwiches (the Democrats) ? Dispite leaders like Feingold who seem to be willing to actually fight the lame-duck bushleague, many other non-leaders are simply limping along tryingnot to look liberal. They are fighting last years war. Screw that shit. My advice to the Democrats is: Get up you stupid bastards and fight! Or get out of the way.

Former Justice O"Connor speaks out agains t Republicans

Expert from an NPR report this morning:

In an unusually forceful and forthright speech, O’Connor said that attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms. O’Connor began by conceding that courts do have the power to make presidents or the Congress or governors, as she put it “really, really angry.” But, she continued, if we don’t make them mad some of the time we probably aren’t doing our jobs as judges, and our effectiveness, she said, is premised on the notion that we won’t be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts. The nation’s founders wrote repeatedly, she said, that without an independent judiciary to protect individual rights from the other branches of government those rights and privileges would amount to nothing. But, said O’Connor, as the founding fathers knew statutes and constitutions don’t protect judicial independence, people do.

And then she took aim at former House GOP leader Tom DeLay. She didn’t name him, but she quoted his attacks on the courts at a meeting of the conservative Christian group Justice Sunday last year when DeLay took out after the courts for rulings on abortions, prayer and the Terri Schiavo case. This, said O’Connor, was after the federal courts had applied Congress’ onetime only statute about Schiavo as it was written. Not, said O’Connor, as the congressman might have wished it were written. This response to this flagrant display of judicial restraint, said O’Connor, her voice dripping with sarcasm, was that the congressman blasted the courts.

It gets worse, she said, noting that death threats against judges are increasing. It doesn’t help, she said, when a high-profile senator suggests there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the senator disagrees with. She didn’t name him, but it was Texas senator John Cornyn who made that statement, after a Georgia judge was murdered in the courtroom and the family of a federal judge in Illinois murdered in the judge’s home. O’Connor observed that there have been a lot of suggestions lately for so-called judicial reforms, recommendations for the massive impeachment of judges, stripping the courts of jurisdiction and cutting judicial budgets to punish offending judges. Any of these might be debatable, she said, as long as they are not retaliation for decisions that political leaders disagree with.

I, said O’Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

Battle at the Sink

 

King Henry V and his loyal knights banded together at the kitchen sink to fend off another assualt by the French. This time the french King Charles VI led his army against the English. But again Henry won the day. 

Review of Flightplan and 40year old Virgin

Flight Plan

Before I review this movie I have to review the DVD case. For a living I do retouching and color correction of images. So I am an EXPERT in what is good and bad retouching. On the bad side are the Oprah covers where they have literally painted every pixel of the big O so that she looks illustrated rather than photographed. Most magazine covers blow chunks with crappy non-real images. But I digress. The DVD cover image for Flight plan has Jody Foster looking like she did on the Courtship of Eddy's Father. She does not even appear to be human. And I have never seen an iris of any eye that is 98% cyan, 30% Magenta and no yellow. In the movie she looks haggard, stressed out, and old. The DVD cover looks silly.

Anyway the movie is mildly interesting and Jody Foster is always good even in lame movies. I am not sure what it is about Foster, and other actors of her like, that can punch through the utter crap that they are staring in to give good performances. I guess it is because they know what they are doing. Anyhow this movie gets a big fat 5.


40 year old virgin:

A one trick pony that I litterally gave up on. Though it could be because his appartment and mine looked a little too similar (action figure wise) It had funny bits here and there but the yuck factor overshadowed everything else and so I give it a solid 3.

Who came to the west coast of the US by the thousands in the mid 70's?

Refugees fleeing the collapsing nationalist government of Vietnam. So get ready for all the Iraqi's wanting asylum from the self-destructing nation of Iraq. Since the Samara boming, only 13days ago, 400 people have died and many more wounded. Refugees are just one more thing, in a long list of things, that we failed to expect. They are not here yet but they will be. Already 4,500 have fled the hottest areas in Bhagdad to Sadre City where they are being looked after by that pillar of sanity Moqtada Sadr (sarcasm). Sunni's are fleeing as well to safer climbs in Iraq. But if the situation deteriorates into a bloodier civil war then we should not expect Iraqis to simply sit at home and wait to die. They will leave. Some will go to Iran, some to Syria (The ones that want to kill Americans) The rest, who merely hate us, will come here and expect, with much justifiction, to be supported by the country that did such a lousy job defending them. Iraq is the big stink that just keeps on stining. So as the wallet of the taxpayer starts to close when the last troops leave Iraq it will be pried back open again to help support all the poor Iraqi's fleeing their dead homeland. Greaat Job Bush! You rock dude! To look for a unified message from Washington here is what you get:

US Ambassador to Iraq:

The US ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, said that "the potential is there" for sectarian violence to become full-blown civil war in Iraq.
While he believed the country had pulled back from the brink, "if another incident [occurs], Iraq is really vulnerable to it at this time, in my judgment."
"We have opened the Pandora's box and the question is, what is the way forward?" Mr Khalilzad said.

General Pace:

said on Sunday that things in Iraq were going "very, very well, from everything you look at".

Lent 1

We are all on the road to Calvery. There is not a single human being that will not, in time, be taken and handed over to death. On this short little jaunt to our physical ruin we must act to better our world. There will be no end credits or large orchestral musical score to the end of our lives. It only matter what we do while we yet live. So today, in the spirit of Jesus who poored out his blood for our salvation, I did my part and poured out a pint to the American Red Cross. They were in dire need of it and I was only too happy to oblige. This does not mean that I hold myself up as an example. I am also a selfish pig, who has not fasted one bit. The truth is that the Red Cross asked me if I would donate and I said yes. It was only while reclinging on the bed, my blood flowing into a bag, that God woke me up to what I was doing and why. We only get a trifling few years to make the world a better, more peaceful, more just, and more spiritually awake place. God will take us to our work even if we don't realise what it is we are doing.

Rev. Phelps another great American...(not)

Here is a self described "old-time" gospel preacher who says, "You can't preach the Bible without preaching the hatred of God." He shows up at the funerals of GI's who got killed in Iraq with signs saying "God Hates Your Tears" or "Thank God for IEDs" The reason for this stupid behavior is that Phelps hates gay people and wants to show his hatred of gays by bashing soldiers who fight for a nation that accepts gay people. I really hope Rolling Thunder does a large storm all over Phelps shanty religion so that the rain come and the winds blow and his lousy house of nothing is completely destroyed along with his brood of vipers. However in the spirit of Christ I forgive him for he knows not what he does.

Henry at the table lamp

 

And so did the Warlike Henry meet the overlusty French at the table lamp and faught them there. Brining ruin upon their entire host, King Henry lost no time in securing the entire desk from the table lamp to the computer monitor. Yet worse fighting was yet to come.  

Poll Crunch Time! Insulated and damn proud of it!

Does the nation approve of W's job?

Approve: 40%
Disapprove: 55%
Duh..I..duno: 5%

There is a big price to be paid by politicians like W that allow their handlers to strictly control the kind of people they see. bush never sees a crowd that isn't 100% pro-Bush. He never gets to listen to people who think he is wrong. It looks like the only info he gets about people that do not like him or his policies is vetted and processed through his handlers in such a way as water it down. He seems so disconnected from the pulse of America as to be on a different planet. The hardcore cadre of Bushleaguers is shrinking by the day. Yet he still meanders on in the fog of "mandate" as if he had one to begin with. I think at some point in the future it is going to come out that he is off the wagon and really off the seat of power. He does not even seem to be President anymore. This would be fine with me but for the fact of all the misanthrops that surround him who wield enormous power like 3 year olds who found their dads 357.

Why conservatism is a mental disease

American conservatism is not so much a political philosophy as a neo-fascist religion, similar to Nazism. It is not based in any kind of empirical reality but in a set of apriori dogmas designed to scapegoat the all of the nations ills on a single set of people. Like the Nazis before them the modern American conservative blames, the liberal intelligency for all the nations ills. Unlike the liberal community that is always reevaluating itself and wrestling with moral and ethical dilemas, the conservative see no need to question him/her self. To question someone elses morals is the only requirment, never their own.
I am, of course, not really serious about the whole "mental disease" bit. That is hyperboli and a homage to MS. American neo-conservatism does not rise tø the level of a disease. It is an induced set of behaviors concocked by the elites that run the country to get a certain segment to vote their way at all times. The behavoir is continously reinforced by dozens of magazines, hundreds of radio stations, thousands of books, and most television networks.
Their dogma is perfect and the best a conservative can hope to accomplish is perfect adherence to the dogma. That is why, to those who do not live in la-la-land, conservatives never reallly are able to solve problems. They spew rage and self-righteous indignation aplenty but when push comes to shove they can't actually consumate. That is why all that is great about America is traced back to progressive politics, not conservative politics. The sad fact is that if the people of America, in 1776 had listened to the conservatives of their day, we would be sining God Save the Queen at football games and the damn ball would be black and white and round.
The modern American conservative expends most of his energy in adherence to dogma. He feels he has accomplished something since he sees adherence as a worthy goal. Where progressives see strengthening of nationhood through cooperative acction (government). The conservative is at a loss to understand why a nation should even exist. All he needs is a flag to wave and a drum to beat and the liberals to hate and he is fine. This is, the the enlightened human, perfectly obvious and desired by the power-elite. The powerful want a populace to give their rights away and freedom away, while "privatising" government; taking the power from the hands of the people and giving it to a very small oligarchy to control.
The modern conservative has a mental blockage that prevents them from appreciating the truth. They will watch FOX news and rail against the liberal media all the while watching a media empire that, in London, publishes full frontal nudity in its papers as a way to sell them. They will go bankrupt with healthcare bills, dutifully giving thousands of dollars a year to insurance companies, yet with bloody eyes rail against any attempt to put the control of our nations health into the hands of the people. What is worse is that they see themselves as perfect so that their actions, though anything but in the eyes of the reality based community, are perfect too. They are a sick lot and need a cure. They have been programmed and brainwashed to monkishly spout the latest radio induced diatribe and dogma at every problem, while beinig blind to the fact that their dogma is useless, unworkable, and based on lies.
While the liberal or progressive sees people as their country, the conservative has been brainwashed to see only himself. They cannot see beyond their own self or family. It is ironic that conservatives rail against liberals for being pleasure seaking hedonists. The truth is that the selfish people, who put their own desires and needs over anyone else are the conservatives. By being brainwashed into fearing cooperative action for the common good. They will cooperate to help remove freedom from the hands of the people, because they have been trained to do so.
Progressives have always faught to make this country better, while conservatives have always faught to keep things the same or move them back to some utopia that never existed. That is their mental disease. Unlike most organisms that strive to be the fittest to servive, they seek to retrograde, to devolve to a lower lifeform. The modern conservative movement is a movement to oblivion. I only wish they would hurry up and get back to the ooz and then maybe even back to carbon.

Along for the ride

Is it just me or is the US looking more like it is just along for the wild ride in Iraq? Our Ambassador, when lecturing the Iraqi's about the dangers of sectarian violence, sounds a bit odd since it was our intervention that has caused this mess to begin with. If he wants to lecture somebody about the dangers of stirring up sectarian violence he should start with the gang in the White House.
When I was a kid we took a trip to the beach and my brother and I were playing around in the sand when we noticed a bit of seaweed sticking up out of the sand. There was a tiny trickle of water aroundt the little weed. I pulled on the seaweed. Within a few minutes there was a gorge 5 feet deep with a torrent of rushing water. I had unwittingly openned the floodgate to a stuffed drain. There are so many life lessons that one can learn from childhood and then apply to your adult life. Such as when you see an iregularity in the sand, you might do well to leave it alone. When hiking in the the high desert of Oregon you would be stupid to stick your arm under every rock since you would probably get bitten by a rattle snake. Or if you are climbing Mount Everest you would be seen a fool to go up in only your long underwear and bunny slippers.
We went into Iraq with, depending on your point of view, with good intentions. However the road to hell is paved with many of those. It is a mark of how obtuse we rich fat people are that we thought we could make a happy land out of a dictatorship. General George Marshal would have really cautioned against getting our hopes up with Iraq. History is filled with failed attempts at nation building, the vast majority of such attempts colapse. Assemblies of millions of people are just too complex to make such affairs work out. The only reason it worked out with Germany and Japan was that both naitons had the gun of Soviet Russia pointed at their heads. They simply had no good alternative to us. Iraq has no such gun. On the contrary the population is given pause to trust us, and given reasons to believe in those who fight against us. Suni and Shiite have lots of reason to kill each other. Regligion is always a good reason to butcher your fellow humans. The land of Europe is filled with the bones of Catholics, Cathars, Franciscans, Calvinists, Lutherans, Baptists, and a whole host of other sects that cut each other to peices over religious differences. Us going into Iraq and trying to make a democracy is like us going into a time machine and trying to hammer out a democracy out of the insane Holy Roman Empire of the 15th century.

What does he think he is doing?

I am trying to be less partisan toward the current occupent of the White House but he is really making it hard for me not to think of him as a lame-assed dumbshit who cares more for his foreign terrorist-funding buddies than he does for his nation or the poor slobs he has bravely sent dies or get maimed in Iraq. As an American I am pretty sick of this SOB. Giving control to 6 of the nations largest ports to a company that is owned by the royal house of the United Arab Emirates is NUTS! But in Bushland this all makes sense. Since his family has been buddy buddy with the terrorist funders for years he really doesn't see much of a contradictioin. Bush makes it soooooooooooooo easy to be a Democrat. I was so pissed at Clinton for his lack of morals but at least he stuck up for his country most of the time. This little texas cow pie isn't worth the pennys his body would be worth if it were turned into fertalizer or, dare I say, Bio-diesel.

My Castle circa 1984

  

A great Mass

I just finished to listening to the Messe De'Notre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut 1300-1377. I do not like all medieval polyphony, it gets on my nerves, but there is something about the Messe De'Notre Dame that grabs me by my...well it grabs me... and doesn't let go until the end. It is a complex and difficult piece of music to listen to and unless you are willing to be patient and listen to it five or six times you will fail to appreciate all the levels of polyphonic, isorythmic detail. Machaut was not known as a religious composer so much as a composer of poetry and secular songs to punctuate the high art of courtly love. The music is large, complete, and done by one man. It gives you a window into the grand religious life of the 14th century. Probably performed at the new cathedral of Notre Dame of Rheims, this must have been shocker. There had never been anything like this before in the presentation of liturgical music. Machaut seems to have wanted to use the Mass itself as a kind of musical stage. Anyhow he rocks and the Messe D'Notre Dame is a great work that is like a very complex dish of food that takes time to enjoy.

Review of Crash and VP marksmanship

I want to really unload on a crappy movie and rip it to shreds but I cannot do this for this film. Crash is awsome and I highly recomend it. Superb all the way around. It paints a pretty complex picture of race relations and nobody comes out looking good, well almost nobody. It gets a 9.

Cheney's little incident:

Snickering, followed by giggling, followed by laughing, followed by a sense of pitty for such a bunch of pathetic turds occupying positions of power, followed by sense of impending doom because the turds on in power in my country.

"Why is Iraq war only getting bad press?" and other stupid questions

The answer is that IT IS A WAR! Wars are usually 100% bad news until the very end when the good news of peace comes about. So people that like to beat war drums and are all cranky about bad press should not be so clueless about the reality of a real war.

Here is a little ditty from Herman Goering doing an interview before he killed himself at Nuremberg:

"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Brownie is giving wedgy to Bushy

Today the former director of FEMA, the infamous Mr. Brown, told a congressional subcommittee that he had actually told the White House to prepare for the worst two days prior to the disasterous hurricane Katrina. We also learn that the levy breaches were known the very day that they happened practically while they were happening. Ouch! I cannot blame Bush for the weatherm however if this is true then it really makes this lackluster and incompitent administration look even more lackluster and incompitent.

A long time ago I said that this administrations worst enemies are its former employees since it garners absolutely no loyalty. So Michael Brown is squealing on them and also we have Scooter Libby now saying that his "superiors" told him to leach classifeid info to the press. This of course leads into the POLL CRUNCH!!!!!! These numbers are before you add in the current revelations.

Approve: 41%
Disapprove: 53%
Duh I Duno: 6%

Still W is plugging along like he has a mandate for something other than resignation. Whats more is that the administration is going out of its way to appear pushy and tightlipped. Instead of Clintonian humility, even false humility, we have eitehr bravado, or stupifying silence. The administration seems paralyzed by the world situation and the domestic situation. Their warfare is only making matters worse at home and abroad and they have no idea how to either win the war, or even know what the war is really about. The mighty ship of SS Bush, its hull scrapping along the bottom, is slowly coming to an unglamorous stop to be buffeted by the waves of fate until it is beaten to pieces.

How to tolerate the intolerable

I cannot speak for people who are upset about the insulting cartoons of the prophet Mohammed peace be upon him. As a Christian I have seen all manner of views of Jesus from The Passion of the Christ to Monty Python's Life of Brian. And of course there is no good protrait. How can there be a good protrait of the Divine? God, exaulted his He, is not some bearded old foggy sitting on a cloud. But we are visual creatures so we like to give that which is without form a form for us to recognize. As there is no good form there is no bad form. All the good and righteousness that the prophet represents cannot be defamed by any silly cartoon. Just as all the good and righteousness that Jesus represents cannot be defamed by movies or books. If I let my absolute faith, and love, for God, exaulted his He, be hurt by books or angry words, then it is weak and needs to be strengthened for that which we believe in, both Muslim and Christian, is the rock eternal, the maker of all the is seen and unseen, and He cannot be assailed by anyone.

My new little Scion xA

 
 

Chemical Jihad

I am using the word Jihad in hopes of the Bush Administration reading my Blog.

The chemical Jihad I am referring to is the holy war against depression. Depression is the great satan, moo-hoo-ha-ha, and I will use any and all means, including underhanded chemical attacks, to fight it. Enter Fluoxetine, aka Prozac. This little guy goes into your synaptic connections and blocks the re-uptake of serotonin so that more of it can be transfered from one nero-transmitter to another. So how does it feel? Well it feels okay. It does not make you feel happy go-lucky, or stoned, or anything like that. All it seems to do, at least for me, is even out the ups and downs, particularly the downs. The problem with depressive illnesses is that they cut your abiliy to function. It is harder to concentrate, to remember stuff, and it becomes a self reinforcing problem that spirals downward. The chemical Jihadist is able to get back to normality while still dealing with the issues that bring about the depression. Prozac, for me, is not a substitute for counseling and other mental healthcare but is just another part of it.

Interesting Historical Mumbo Jumbo

In AD 874 king Burhred of Mercia abdicated in the face of overwhelming Danish raids into his kingdom. So he split to Rome where he lived out his life and finally was burried in the church of Sancta Maria Antiqua. I decided to find out more about this church, if it still existed etc.

It does not really exist as a functioning church anymore. It was built in the 5th Century near the Roman Forum and was the seat of the Bishop of Rome. It's ruins are part of the Forum tour today. It was buried under tons of rubble when the Forum was burned in 1084 when the Normans set fire to the city. In 1902 it was excavated and there are many 7th and 8th century frescos still on it's walls. There is still one sarcophagus present in the church. Maybe its king Burhred?

I find your lack of faith disturbing..Part MXCVLM

I am an American and a Christian. Every once in a while South Park has Jesus (peace be upon him) appear in a totally religiously incorrect episode. But I have never thought about launching a Crusade against Comedy Central. So I ask muslims to "give it a rest" as far as their overreaction to the whole mohammed cartoon deal. I think Mohammed (peace be upon him) is probably too cool to bother with such stuff. Both gentlemen are way beyond wasting their imortality on getting pissed at being profaned. As a Christian I would not insult a fellow believer even though he or she may not recognize Jesus (peace be upon him) as the Christ. However our faith should be strong enough to insight us to be conduits of mercy to our brothers and sisters dispite the insults.

Enemies and Evil Do'ers

There was once an EVIL EMPIRE known as the Soviet Union. They had ten thousand nuclear warheads pointed at us. They paraded them around Moscow. Their leaders talked about how they were going to bury us etc. And yet we talked to them, had a phone line between our President and their leader. In the 45 years of cold war between the US and the USSR we never really stopped talking. And we saved each others lives. There were plenty of people on both sides that would have liked us to slug it out in a big horrible, earth-ending, war. But calmer, more adult, minds won out and though we bitched at each other and spied on each other, and faught violent proxy wars in little counties like Vietnam and Afgahnistan (USSR War not our new one) we did not go to war directly with each other. And so you and I are still alive and the earth is not a dead rock.

So when Bin Laden goes out and asks for a truce or to negotiate we should not simply say that he is the bad guy and we don't talk to bad guys. That is a childish response, not the response of a Super Power. The US is too big to muck around in the simplminded world of good vs evil. There are usually a multitude of ways to skin a cat. Some ways require talking. Even if that talking is to the very cat needing to be skinned. This takes skill, leadership, commitment to life, commitment to American greatness, and the ability to actually believe that we are worth fighting for.

I remember the God given opportunity that Bush and Iran passed up when both leaders were in Rome for the funeral for Pope John Paul II. Sometimes the initiative must be siezed when the opportunity presents itself. By asking for a meeting with Bin Laden we would put him on the defensive. IF he shows up he knows he could be killed. If he says no then he appears foolish or cowardly. By continuously allowing Bin Laden or his lueitenent to speak about truces, and meetings, we give them too much power. I would wish to force them to put up or shut up. I would say that in our world people talk to each other not shoot at each other. And If Bin Laden wishes to talk we can talk.

Oh crap...Hamas won an election

Well what did everyone think was going to happen? Look what happened in 1776 when a pissed off population of British subjects voted their conscience. Why is it people think that elections lead only to happy times for all? If a country is filled with people who are poor, under employed, crowded, assaulted, and preached to be hate-mongers, they probably will not for for a peace-nick. The French revolution should be the standard warning to anyone trying to get a democracy out of a tyranny or anarchy. America worked becasue the actaul government after 1776 was little different than the previous one. Accept there was no king or parliment on the other side of the atlantic. With France, the king got his head chopped off along with thousands of other royals and anyone else who got in the way of "liberty". It didn't end until the dictatorship of Napolean.

In the longrun there will be peace and Isrearl and Palestine will exist side by side. But it isn't going to be in my lifetime.

Poll Crunch For January!!!!

Does the Nation like the job ol' W is doing?

Approve 41%
Disapprove 53%
Duh I dunno 6%

So is he doing a good job? I mean just because the naiton thinks he stinks that doesn't acutally mean he is doing a bad job. However whether we look at foreign or domestic policy he looks pretty pathetic. In the time it took FDR to destroy Japan and Germany, W has yet to stabilize Afgahnistan to say nothing of the FUBAR that is Iraq. The number of jihadists in the world is on the rise, Osama Bin Laden is still at large, our civil liberties are under attack, our nations image is in the toilet, and while out economy is "expanding" it is little comfort to the 30,000 people the lost their high-wage jobs at GM or the 30,000 that are losing their jobs at Ford. The healthcare crisis is only getting worse. Chinese investment bankers are taking turns driving the world economy as well as funing the US government. Bush, to me, looks weak and disconnected to the reality of the world and his nation. I think he is not going to be remembered as a good President.

Forgiveness and punishment

There is nothing that test your faith as a Christian more than being faced with a great wrong and then wrestling with forgivenss. The Christian soul wishes to forgive almost at once while the intellect says "What are you nuts? Eye for an Eye!" The Christian approach is the only approach that leads to lasting peace. However the desire for punishment of the offender is strong too. I harken back to Calvery when Christ was hanging on that cross and the two men were haning with him. The one man tells Jesus that if He is the son of God then why doesn't he get down off the cross. The other man says that Jesus is an inocent man while both of the men are being crucified as they deserve. Then he asks Jesus to remember him. Jesus of course tells him that he will be with Jesus in Paradise. However at no time does Jesus get the dude off his cross. He lets the man hang there and die along with him. So I guess the moral is just because you get forgiven your sin, and will be with Jesus in Paradise, doesn't mean you get out of your earthly punishment, whatever that happens to be.

The other great thing about forgivness of sin is that as a Christian I can help redeem a mans soul by that act. God alone redeems souls but forgiving my neighbor I redeem myself. That is a pretty powerful position to be in. Conversely to withold forgivness for those who wrong me is a blight on my soul and I would not wish to meet God and answer for why I could not forgive another's transgressions. We set ourselves up for getting punished in the hearafter if we try to hold onto the sins of those who wrong us. We become the sin eater taking on the punishment we wish to levy on them. I would certainly rather leave eternal punishment to God and not tell the divine whom He should punish and whom He should not.

For the aetheist I would argue that Christain forgivness is the only true path of healing since to not forgive is to keep the wound alive thus propetuating and transfering the wrongs of others from generation to generation. Punishment is another matter. Punishment for a wrong comitted is appropriate in this life. Proper punishment preserves the order of systems. Without it the order breaks down and people feel as though they can get away with anything.

Confusing idiocy from Michael "Weiner" Savage

MS loves to extoll the virtues of the insipid fear monger Joeseph McCarthy and the knucklewalking bafoons that followed him. Currently MS is trying, in his typically mentally retarded way, to link the current furor over wire tapping with red bating in the 50's. What a load of shite. MS should just admit that he is a f'ing NAZI and be done with it.

Review of Dead Like Me

I highly recomend this two year Show Time series, now available on DVD. if you want lots of gore, and excitment you can forget it. This is a comedy drama with good writing, good characters, and high style. In a nut shell this is the story of the mundane, and not so mundane, life of a dead girl who has to spend some time being a grim reaper. The main character is not out of central casting, does not do the typical teenage crap that makes you want to puke everytime you see a teen on TV. Ellen Muth is superb as are the rest of the cast members. Check it out.

Review of King Kong

Remaking King Kong is the hight of Hollywood vainglory. The original is
a great film that despite its age stands up on its own. This film,
while technically brilliant, has a script that is no better than the
1976 version, and in some ways is worse. It is a very beautiful, long,
disappointment. Not only is the script poor the acting is also
lackluster with the notable exceptions of Naomi Watts and the ape. The
island natives are valueless imps with no back story at all to tell us
why they do what they do. They come accross as nothing but a plot contrivance to get us into
the jungle and face to face with Kong. Interestingly the wall scenes in
this film look puny and confusing compared to either the original or
the 76 remake. If Jackson wanted to remake a film from that era that
desperately needs to be remade he should have picked Metropolis.

Gets a 6 out of 10

The Unholy Communion

The parishoners stood in line faithfully. The line snaked back from the altar. Many ministers awaited them. As each approached the altar they placed their items on the counter and the ministers recited methodically with joy and reverence. "Did you find everything you needed?"

The responsorial "grumbling and mumbling" is heard from the congregation as they approach the altar

The minister then solemnly speaks the incantation "Credit or Debit"

The parishoner bows while looking into his wallet or her purse. Then hands the minister the method of redemption.

The minister then weighs the sole of the parishoner.

After the communioin the minister hands the items back in a sack and says "Merry Christmas" As if that last bit matters in this unholy communion.

And still the lines snake our from the unholy altars of excess from malls, and main streets, small towns and megolopoli, from New York, to London, to Moscow. And the hyms of consumption and production rise up off the simmering surface of the dirty little world. And little old ladies stand in the rain with little kettles and ringing bells asking that more metalic mana be dropped into their own little altars for all are slaves and obidient servants to the money god of the little dirt ball and that god does not dwell in heaven or hell or anywhere else but in the stock exhanges, pocketbooks, and debit cards of the faithful. As the people need the god to eat so they need the god to build houses of worship to other gods, peopled by committees of trying to help the poor by relying of the money god to save them. But no one will be saved by worshiping the money god. All goway emptier than they came dispite the heavy loads of packages under their arms. They will open those packages with joy and smiles but all too soon the smiles fade and the vast empty vacume of their sole bekons them like a cliff pulls at a man standing at its edge.

Christmas Poll Crunch

Ho Ho Ho do you approve of Bush or not?

Approve: 41%
Disapprove: 53%
Duh I dunno: 6%

Dufus and his war on America

Okay let me be frank. President Bush is a disreputable destroyer of America. The Administrations argument to ignore laws (break them) is that they are saving America. What is the America they are saving? Land of the Free and home of the Brave? Sorry not anymore thanks to Bush. The land of the spied on is more accurate. Maybe the king dork is spying on me now. Hey dork...yes you...Happy Holidays.

President Bush needs to go. All his people need to go. We have law, the stuff they like to ignore, that can get rid of them. However what happens if we tell them to go and they decide to stay anyway? That is when you have to go to the Declaration of Independance.

" That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it"

Down with king George!

Is anybody listening?

Is it okay to tell you child, while angry, that you cannot weight for the child to turn 18 so she can get out of your house? Is it okay to tell your child that if she talks to her Dad about your adulterous affair with with a stranger, you will make her life a living hell while the divorce proceedings are happening? Is it okay to tell you children if they are fighting that if they don't shut up you will leave them. Is it okay to get drunk and then yell at the kids that they are making your life hell? Is it okay to expose your children to your affair and then force them to lie about it to keep it quiet?

Am I being irrational in thinking that none of this is okay?

Let me know?

Life is Good

The duplicitous nature of man may spell his final doom on this little dirt ball but life is still good. I feel sorry for those afloat in the inky sea of life without a compass. A good compass in this particular ocean allows you not only to find your way but to stand in shallow water and walk in the right direction. The compass is TRUTH

Stopping the A Bomb

B-29 flying fortress takes off from tiny island with one big bomb, an atom bomb.
It flys across the ocean, stayig the course that it has set by the leaders.
Over the target it's bombardier opens the bombay doors.
The pilot stays the course as the bombardier drops the bomb.
Then they realize that the course they have stayed is the wrong one
They circle around and the bombardier jumps out of the bomber.
He plumets earthward, arm outstretched like Superman.
He catches up the the bomb
He places himself between the bomb and the ground.
He leans against the falling bomb putting all his weight into it.
At 1100 feet the presure trigger goes off
The bombardier is vaporzed along with a hundred thousand of the wrong people

Unless we do something different in Iraq we are the bombardier pushing against the bomb.

Migration

All the talk of more border gards, more vouchers, employer scrutiny, won't accomplish anything. Not until the reasons behind the flight to the US is addressed. Men and Women come here because there is NOTHING for them in their own countries. Low wages brought on by endemic corruption, non-responsive governements, dangerous and unsanitary living conditions, all push people to flee to the US. South of the boarder is a hell hole and you'd have to be nuts not to want to get out of it. We need to do a better job of building internally sustainable economies with living wage jobs in Mexico and Centeral America. Free trade is only making matters worse since it is forcing upon these nations the idea that the path to weath is an export economy. This may be a part of national wealth creation but if practiced to the exclusion of internal economies it leads to self reinforced low wages.
The country has its economic star tied to low wage jobs. A rise in wages causes transnationals to leave for cheaper nations and so the incentive is to keep your labor force poor and under control. It would be better for the IMF and World Bank to emphasize internal economic growth and self sustaining growth policies. That have to be based on a nation existing for itself without export economics. Only after a nation has a vibrant self sustaing economy can it bother with export as a serious industry.
Free trade is in the process of becoming a manifest evil since the way it is practiced it enslaves poor naitons. That is why Hugo Chavez is doing what he is doing. He is attempting to curb it in his own nation. It makes him dangerous since if all Centeral American nations took control of their countires and focused on what was best for their own work force the goods you and I eat and wear would be more expensive. He is dangerous since the power of transnational companies is being thwarted and put in jepoardy.
If we really wanted to curb illegal imigration we would be talking to people like Chavez and partenering with them to assist other nations in building internally sustainable economies, not trying to oust him via a coup. The myth that people would simply come to the US if their own nation was in order is just that a myth. It is in America's interest to see to it that the poorer nations to the south have higher wages, less coruption, and better living standards. It would not only reduce illegal imigration but enhance stability in the countries involved and that would better for national security, drug policy, and business.

The Elephant in all his glory

I listened to President Bush outling his definition for victory. He laid out his multi-level approach to when our troops come home. He said the same stuff as before though I do not think he used the term "evil-doers". Punidts on both sides either applauded or denounced it. However the big Elephant was there for all to see.

If the goal is for our troops to leave when Iraqi forces can "stand up" then we are admitting there will be a reason to have those Iraqi troops standing up. We are admitting that there will be war when we leave. Even the President is admitting this. We will leave Iraq at best a land where factions are fighting each other. At worst we will leave and let the Iraqi government fight a civil war for its survival.

That is the Elephant that nobody really wants to talk about. We are getting ready to leave Iraq in a state of destruction. Destruction wrought upon it by Sadam, Bush senior, Clinton, and George Bush. Even the President is not talking about leaving Iraq in peace. Only leaving with the government troops able to fight the war themselves. We are now being prepped by Bush and Congress to accepet Iraq as a war zone and at the same time cheer ourselves as victorious warriors.

I heard a Bush league pundit say that we "cannot walk into the future while looking into the past" regarding our desire to know how we got into this war. Well we better pay attention or we will be duped again. We all are to blame for this mess. Congress did have 90% of the info the White House had. And they are not dumb people. They saw the flimsy evidence but went along. Nobody wanted to act week after 911. So we all gave Bush the benefit of the doubt and trusted our troops to sqwash Iraq. Well this should instruct us not to trust one President when all sorts of other people are saying something different. It should instruct us to the value of real debate. Iraq is an example of letting your hart rule your actions.

Still the Elephant remains. We are getting ready to leave Iraq in a state of war. Not good. Not at all. But probably unavoidable and the best that can be achieved now. But hey we should everyone how tough we are. Right?

Of boots and feet

I calculated that if I replaced my Raichle Montanga's with the La Sportiva Trango S EVO, on a two mile hike I would save my body from having to lift 5,922.56 lbs of boot. The calculation is rough but goes like this....

Old Boots weigh 6 lbs
New Boots weight 3.2 lbs

Two Miles of Trail run 10,576 ft

Average stride 2.5ft

Strides in Two Miles: 10,576 / 2.5 = 4,230.4

Weight per stride (old boot) = 3lbs
Weight per stride (new boot) = 1.6lbs

Total boot wieght for two miles (old boot) = 12,691.2 lbs
Total boot weight for two miles (new boot) = 6,768.64 lbs

That is an amazing amount of lifting your legs do aside from the act of lifting the rest of your body and backpack. Just my old boots make my body lift 6.35 tons on a short little two mile jaunt.

Ae we ready for a pandemic if it comes? What the hell! We already have one!!!!!!!!!

Currently the worst pandemic in human history is upon us. It is not bird flu. It is a virus that is 100% fatal if untreated and even with treatment life is shortened and life quality effected. The pandemic is the HIV/AIDS pandemic. To date this pandemic has killed 25 million people. 5 million people have come down with it this year alone. 3.1 million people die of the disease each year. 40 million more are infected. 40,000 US citizens come down with the illness each year. In africa, where the pandemic is currently hitting hardest only 1 in 10 infected people are being treated. In Asia the pandemic is out pacing all actions to stop it.

Yet here we are worried about Bird Flu. Currently if you become infected with it the odds of you dying are as yet unkown. The mortality rate in Asian cases is 72%. If you put the deaths in context that percentage should not look as frightening. The cases documented are of very poor people living in terrible conditions and treated with substandard care at the outset of their illness. If an American contracted the illness in the US, I would imagine the mortality would be less. Aids is as 100% fatal for the American as it is for the Botswanan, though it takes 10 to fifteen years to manifest itself. At best a patient will live the rest of their lives ingesting loads of anti-retroviral drugs.

Are we ready for bird flu? Bird flu is a cake walk to the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has been raging out of control for 20 years.

Info Sources - The Aids Pandemic in the 21st Century - United States Agency for International Development issued in 2004
- Center for Disease Control

Murtha and how to misquote him

I keep hearing how Jack Murtha from Pennsylvania wants the troops out imeadiately. NPR says it, CNN says it, CBS says it. Of course Jack Murtha never said it. But that doesn't matter. It matters more that the story is enhanced if he had said it so lets just pretened that he did. What he actually said, in his House Resolution, was this....

Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That: The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date. A quick-reaction U.S. force and an over-the-horizon presence of U.S. Marines shall be deployed in the region. The United States of America shall pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy.

What he is saying is that since the President is unwilling to look facts in the face the Congress, who has the power to wage war and conclude peace, has to act. All the resolution would do would be to redirect things so that they are descalating toward no troops in Iraq. "The earliest practicable date" could mean 6 months or longer. And even then the force would not be gone, only out of the site of most Iraqi's. This pretty much gels with what Iraqi leaders want too.

But let us not look at the actual words of the honorable Mr. Murtha. Let us listen to Cheney or Bush or anyone of a hundred pundits all commenting on Murtha without actually discussing the resolution. Let us not discuss what took Murtha to his current way of thinking. Does anyone know why he did what he did? Is anyone discussing the facts? No.

Fact: In recent surrvey's 70% of Iraqi do not approve of being occupied.
Fact: 45% of surrvied Iraqi's consider attacks against US soldiers totally legitamate self defense.
Fact: Insurgent attacks have increased from 150 a week in 2003-4 to over 700 a week in 2005
Fact: Infrastructure in Iraq remains below where it was prior to the invasion.
Fact: 60% of the nation is unemployed

All Jack Murtha is trying to do, like a true patriot who loves his country, is direct our vision to reality and get us to discuss the big elephant in the living room before it stomps on us.

For those of you who do not know who Murtha is:

"This is Jack Murtha, who left college during the Korean War to enlist as a private in the United States Marine Corps, and who later, as a 33-year-old husband and father of three, volunteered to fight in combat in Vietnam, where he was twice wounded and received the Bronze Star with combat "V," two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

Nobody -- not even the most conservative commando with the biggest flag lapel pin in the House Republican leadership -- dares to suggest that Jack Murtha is "soft" personally or politically on communists, terrorists or any enemy of America. He is recognized as the knowledgeable and informed Democratic hawk on defense in the House, whose counsel and support have been highly valued by presidents, national security advisors and defense secretaries in both parties.

Twice Murtha, in the House, voted to back invasions of Iraq by a president named Bush. Today, recently back from a return inspection visit there, Murtha is upset and angry about Iraq, its future and the well-being of this nation's military men and women their civilian leadership have stationed there"

-source May 8th 2004 CNN

The Bush league better catch a clue!

The White House is like a guy who goes into a movie theater and yells "fire" then gets caught and trys to argues that it isn't really his fault since everyone else ran out of the theater too.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire vs Jar Head

HP

For starters this series almost always puts me to sleep. It just keeps going on and on and on. It is like going to prep-school while partaking often of LSD. The weird characters and magical jiggery-pokery just keeps comming at you. There always seems to be some kind of sporting event with lots of flying around and hooliganism. And for all the magical stuff things are pretty squalid. Can't they clean that Hogwart dump up? Does it have to look so shitty? Shouldn't it be at least as advanced as the non-magical world the gandalf-wana-bes come frome? Still the place and stories seem to have enormous appeal to young people and old people. The story in this film, like most of them, while attempting to be vast and expansive, is real two dimensional. I always, about half way through the films, tend to wonder "okay so who is the bad guy? Wormwood...no....thats not it..." and so on. So how does this rate with Star Wars. Very similar. Loud and shallow. It has better acting and much better dialogue but it is pretty much the same. This movie gets a 7

Jar Head

This movie is the least bloody war film I have seen in quite some time. What it lacks in blood it more than makes up for with characters. The main character is solid and is crafted so well that you like, loath, love, and hate him almost all at once. This would be an excellent film to accompany Three Kings and Blackhawk Down as a desert war trilogy. Films like this eat Harry Potter and Star Wars like a couple MRE's. It gets a 9.

Why wanting our troops out of Iraq is patriotic

If you love your country and value its power and reputation you would be against this war. You would demand the President laydown the strategy to achieve victory and the terms when our soldiers could come home. The patriot should utterly reject the notion that soldiers should determine when our nation fights and for how long. That power resides in the hands of the people, not generals. The President may wish to fight but the final decision is not his to make. This is a democratic republic not a dictatorship.

ARTICLE 1, SECTION 8
The Congress shall have Power to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.

Of course our leaders continually find observing the law problematic hence the War Powers Act of 1973. Yet our nations fate is still in the hands of the people. The generals, and those in favor of war, can present arguments to sway the people, but the people are always the final arbiters of their nations fate. Should those arguments be shown to be false or error filled, it is the patriotic thing to point that out. If the war has been started under such pretenses then the patriotic thing to do is end it quickly. And the patriotic thing to do is force its leaders to obsserve the nations laws not circumvent them for political expediency.

Finally as a patriot you would demand the removal and prosecution of those who a: did not observe the law, and b: led us to war based on errors and misinformation.

Awe the sounds of democracy

I heard a bunch of yelling in Congress today and it brought tears of joy to my eyes. That is the sound of democracy, the sound of passionate debate, the sounds of a nation grappling with wieghty decisions about a war. Better that than a quiet office in the White House.

NPR letter put into perspective

My recent letter read on NPR's All Things Considered is, by an large, how I feel. But it was hacked up and meant to add a counter point to the letter they read before it. I was the bad-cop. I sounded like a Richard Dawkins wana-be and I need to set the record straight for my friends and myself.

Inteligent Design is not a scientific theory. It is creationism, wrapped up in a fancy new term. Since I am a Christian this seems to be a dilema for me. How can I assert that creationism is nonsense and evolution etc is corrent and still claim to be a believer?

For one thing I put faith in God that he gaves us big brains for a reason. I put faith in God that we can come to terms with the universe in all its complexity and not worry about where God is. We probably had more "faith", as biblical literalists would describe it, back in the days of Moses. However that definition of faith is inaccurate, if by that they mean a literal reading of the Bible since no prophet or desciple could be faithful since no such book existed in their day. How could they know God if they had no Bible to read? St. Paul could did not read the Bible nor did any of the 12 apostles or any of their imeadiate desciples. The Vulgate, or Common Bible, composed by St. Jerome, was not complied until the 5th century. I will not go into the plethora of biblical translations from the Septuagint, and Vulgate to Luther's german bible to KJV.

Clearly if you hold to biblical literlism, in my humble opinion, you build your faith on sand not rock. Faith based on one book is like a bad scientific theory. Bad theories get clunkier and clunkier until they collapse on their own. So too faith ascribed to one book. Either you choose to remain blind to the modern world and view things like TV as magic, or you try an mesh the modern marvels and mankind quest for knowledge with the book. Either way you fall down. So faith cannot be predicated on attempting to measure the imeasureable. True faith is a hard link between the diety and you. There is no physiological mumbo-jumbo to mess with.

ID or the attempt to measure the imeasurable or quantify God is nuts. It cannot be done. If God wished us to figure him out in that way why no just say "uhummm...over here!" I believe you could sift through each subatomic nuclei in the universe and not find a trace of God. And this has nothing to do with my faith. In a hyper materialist culture full of hyper-materialist church goers, whos faith is based on a book instead of their own connection to God, is it any wonder that people want to be directed to God like we are directed to Walmart?

Faith is not religion. God does not "belong" to a church. Nor is God an old bearded man with a crown on his head. But images die hard and the faith of our forefathers, full of superstition, meldrama, and materialism, is dying hard too. I don't think faith can be built on this world. Not that there is anything wrong with the universe. It is just the wrong perspective. So I guess I would admonish myself to not waste time finding some kind of physical proof of God in science by doing equations, I should save my effort and meditate on how best I can serve my fellow man. Concentrate on what purpose my life has beyond simple reproduction. The Bible has lots to say on that count. And so do lots of other books. And all, in my opinion, are manifestations of Gods word, that always works for good for those who love the Lord.

Poll Crunch time...again

Does America approve of the way W is doing his job?

Approve: 37%
Disapprove: 57%
Duh-Iduno: 6%

Okay for those of you not keeping up with the Poll Crunch, this is an average of 6 national polls. My advice to the President is stop trying to campaign and please start to lead. You cannot photo-op your way out of this big mess. The only way to do this, and do this right, would be to can Rove and the other men and women who have dis-served you. Unfortunately, unlike Clinton, none of your "freinds" will back you if they leave. They will stab you in the back so I guess you are screwed. You can keep them around but things are not looking good. You have 3 years left to serve, not three months.

Problem 1: Iraq
Problem 2: Scandle
Problem 3: Lack of initiatives that satisfy the majority
Problem 4: Growing credibility gap due to problems 1 thru 3
Problem 5: Base abondoning you because you look weak and disconnected.
Problem 6: Adhering to policies that have not been shown to work
Problem 7: Adhering to policies that have been shown to cause problems
Problem 8: Blind "damn the polls full speed ahead" approach

Solution 1: Use any pretext you like and draw down US forces in Iraq by 25%. Start talking about the end game in each speach.
Solution 2: Fire Karl Rove and Donald Rumsfeld with extreme prejudice. Force Cheney to resign and then pick governor Romney of Mass. to succeeed him.
Solution 3: Authorize 3 billion dollar increase in home-heating assistance for the poor. Launch initiatives aimed at alternative fuels technologies.
Solution 4: This will be partially solved by solutions 1 thru 3
Solution 5: Go to Iraq and spend 2 months there in the green zone running the war in-country.
Solution 6: Forget SSI reform and forget about your oil buddies. They haven't helped you have they?
Solution 7: Author new guidlines that prohibit inhumane treatment of any detainee and then admit the the mistakes of the past.
Problem 8: This will have been solved if the other solutions were followed.

But this will not be done. It seems the more unpopular Bush becomes the more he digs in his heels. Who does he think he is running against? America itself? His problems have all been self inflicted by his own pigheaded nature and the misadventures of his confidents. The democrats could sit and say nothing and his popularity and his presidency would still collapse.

And now for something completely different...Hedonism

Lets just say that I have 10 million in the bank and make 500k a year off the interest. So I am trying to decide what auto I should waste gas in. There is no reason, other than environmental concern, to pay attention to gas prices just as there is no reason to pay attention to sticker price.

So off I go to the exoticar lot. Hmmm?

The first car that I come to is the Bugatti Veyron
This would set me back 1.5 million bucks. At 1000 HP and a top speed of 253 it really has some man-appeal however it becomes radically unstable at those speeds. It sort of looks like a jelly-bean. It has this piddly wing on the back. It goes from 0-60 in 3 seconds

I then decide that I should really keep things under 1 million. So I go to the Corvette Z06
This is way cheaper only $65k and it has almost the same snappy acceleration as the million+ bugatti.
0-60 in 3.8 seconds. It has a top speed of 190mph and uses a 500HP V8. However the interior is kinda 80's looking with lots of faux leather dash board and crummy looking guages.

Moving on up a bit to the Ford GT. This little 140k car is looking mighty nice. It has this retro sex appeal. Its specs are pretty much the same as the Corvette but for an extra $75,000 you get a racing stripe and you can go 15 mph faster than the vette. Interior is very nice.

I go foreign again and look at the Maserati MC12. I could not imagine driving 200+ mph in a convertable. But the car has me one over except for the 400K price. It's 0-60 is still only equal to the vette though the interior is the winner so far. For only an extra 261,000 you can go 5 mph slowwer than the Ford GT.

Back to America and a look at the Saleen S7. The version I am looking at is 1000hp and is the quickest car in the world at 0-60 in 2.8 seconds. Unlike the Bugatti this car is designed to stick to the road. Its interior is sparten but very cool. It tops out at around 230mph. Basically it is equal or better in performance to the bugatti but at 1/3 the price.

I look at the Lambo's and Porches too, they look nice, but really can't stand up to the real bad boys above.

I sill have a few left to look at the Panoz Esperante and others that might be in the drive way....

Thanks for a great life

I'd just like to thank God for the great life he has given me.

Islamic Jesus

Here are some sayings of Jesus taken from the Muslim tradition:

Jesus (Peace be upon him!) said, "Do not take the world as masters, for it will take you as slaves. Lay up your treasure with him who will not lose it, for he who possesses treasure in this world fears lest some calamity may come upon it, but he who possesses God's treasure has no fear of calamity coming upon it."

The Messiah, son of Mary (Blessing and peace be upon him!) passed by a company of the Jews; then they spoke evil to him, but he spoke good to them. Then someone said to him, "Verily they are speaking evil, and you are speaking good." Jeus replied, "Everyone spends from what he possesses."

Jesus (Peace be upon him!) said, "Seek a great amount of what fire cannot consume." Someone said, "And what is that?" He said, "Kindness."

The disciples said to the Messiah (Peace be upon him!), "Look at this mosque, how beautiful it is!" Then he said, "My people, my people, verily I say unto you, God will not leave one stone of this mosque standing on another, but will destroy it for the sins of its people. Verily God does not pay any heed to gold, or silver, or these stones which charm you. The things dearest to God (Exalted is He!) are the pure hearts. With them God preserves the earth, and with them He destroys it if they are otherwise."

Jesus (Peace be upon him!) said, "The love of this world and of the next cannot stay in the heart of a believer, just as water and fire cannot stay in one vessel."

The Messiah (Peace be upon him!) said, "O you who seek the world to be charitable with it, your leaving of it alone is more charitable." And he said, "The least thing is such that looking after it occupies one to the exclusion of glorifying God, and glorifying God is greater and more important."

The Messiah (God bless him and grant him peace!) said, "The world is a bridge, so pass over it and do not inhabit it." And some people said to him, "O prophet of God, if you would only order us to build a house in which we might worship God!" He replied, "Go and build a house on water." They said, "How will a building stand on water?" He replied, "And how will worship stand along with love of this world?"

The Messiah (Peace be upon him!) said, "Blessed are the humble in this world; they will be set on high on the Day of Resurrection. Blessed are they who make peace between men in this world; they are those who will inherit Paradise on the Day of Resurrection. Blessed are they whose hearts are purified in this world; they are those who will see God (Exalted is He!) on the Day of Resurrection."

Concerning Jesus Birth:

It is related that when Jesus, son of Mary (Peace be upon him!) was born, the devils came to Iblîs [Satan] and said, "This morning the idols have been thrown down on their heads." Then he said, "This is a new thing which has happened. Remain where you are." Then he flew till he came to the East and the West of the earth, but found nothing. Afterwards he found Jesus (Peace be upon him!) already born with the angels doing him honour. Then he returned to them and said, "Verily a prophet has been born last night; no woman ever became pregnant or gave birth to a child without my being present, with the exception of this child."

Conerning Jesus Crucifiction:

Then when God (Exalted is He!) wished to take him and raise him to Himself, his disciples gathered withhim in Jerusalem in a room belonging to one of his companions, and he said, "Verily I am going to my Father and your Father, and I am giving you an injunction before the departure of my divine nature and am making with you a covenant and a pledge. So he who receives my injunction and fulfils my covenant will be with me to-morrow; but he who does not receive my injunction, I have nothing to do with him, and he has nothing to do with me."
Then they said to him, "What is it?"
He replied, "Go to the kings of the ends of the earth and convey to them what I have charged you with, and summon them to that to which I have summoned you, and do not deceive them, and do not fear them, for when I leave my humanity I shall be standing in heaven at the right hand of the throne of my Father and your Father, and shall be with you wherever you go and shall strengthen you with help and strength by the permission of my Father. Go to them and summon them with gentleness and cure them and command them to be kind and forbid them what is unlawful, until you are killed, or crucified, or rejected from the earth."
Then they asked, "What is the verification of what you command us?"
He replied, "I am the first who does that." And he went out the next day and appeared to the people and began to summon them and admonish them and warn them until he was taken and carried to the king of the Children of Israel. Then he ordered him to be crucified, and his humanity was crucified and his hands were nailed to the two pieces of wood of the cross, and he remained on the cross from dawn to afternoon. And he asked for water, and was given vinegar to drink, and he was pierced with a lance. Then he was buried where the cross was and forty people were put in charge of the grave; and all this happened in the presence of his companions and his disciples.
Then when they saw that happen to him, they were sure and knew that he had commanded them nothing in which he was different from them. Three days afterwards they gathered in the place where he promised them to appear to them and they saw those signs which [had been arranged] between him and them; and the news spread among the Children of Israel that the Messiah had not been killed.
Then the grave was dug up, and the humanity was not found. The parties among them disagreed, and there was a great amount of talk which is too long to be recounted. Then verily those disciples who had accepted his injunction separated in the country and each of them went his own way. One went to the west, one to Abyssinia, two to Rome, two to the king of Antioch, one to Persia, one to India, and two remained in the dwellings of the Children of Israel summoning them to the opinion of the Messiah until most of them were killed, and the Messiah's claim was spread in east and west by the deeds of the disciples.

Just a little bridging of the gap between the Muslim and the Christian.

What Republicans just dont seem to understand

Back in 2002 I listened to the debate that took place on the floor of the US senate for hours and hours. I heard liberal voices such as Hillary Clinton, and centerists like McCain, and consrvaives like Lott, speak up on the need to confront Sadam Hussain. I heard over and over again the term WMD from Rumsefeld, Wolfawitz, Bush, and a host of others. The only man to really speak up against the idea war was Robert Byrd and everyone pretty much thought he was a dottering old fool.

I listened intently to Colin Powell at the UN lay out the WMD locations and then play tapes of WMD people doing stuff with WMD.

There were lots of books about the WMD's and even Time had WMD on the cover. It was a year after 911 and with anthrax poisonings and the stench of death still in the air in NYC, I was also willing to give Bush the benifit of the doubt.

I heard no mention of questionable intelligence. People like Scott Ritter who spoke up about the idea that Iraq had no such WMD were shot down in flames as being out of touch or pushing an "agenda". The Vice President said directly that there was "no doubt" that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. And all the information about Iraqi's was that they were waiting for us to liberate them.

What if anything has been shown to be accurate about what was said by the war mongers? Sadam was a bad guy. Anything else? WMD? None found yet, not after two years. Only a few empty morter canisters. Nuclear material? Nothing. Terror links? Well there are certainly a shit pot load of them there now! Cheering crowds celebrating? Long since replaced by sobbing masses morning blown up family memebers.

So when Republicans now get all cranky about Democrats and everyone else not wanting to put up with the shit that is Iraq I am puzzled. Do they not live on Earth? Do they not understand the giant cost to the US taxpayer? Do they not morn the loss of the _______(fill in the blank) dead Americans? A representative who is more loyal to a President than a nation is, to me, a traitor. Presidents are replaceable, while the lives snuffed out in this usless, costly, and error filled war are gone forever.

The longer the Administration and its defenders follow their current path the deeper their troubles will become. The "Issue" will not go away, like the stench of decay it only gets worse. Do they really want Scooter Libby to go to trial? Do they actually want the VP to testify? They want to be the party of straight talkers and fiscal responsibility, the party of God. But by stumping for a villain in the White House they profane God, make their economic ecumin out to be of little account, and twist their words in defending evil practices that are no less evil if performed by US soliders than by Iraqi Insurgents. They can't understand how the Democrats have one-up'd them. Well the truth is that the democrats have not done that. Iraq is bigger than any Democratic plot or lefty agenda. Thousands of permanently disabled warriors, millions of families effected by loss and privation caused by deployment, stop loss, lost arms and legs, and lost lives are simmering like an ugly stew that the war mongers in Washington cannot escaple eating.

And still they labor in denial thinking that this is a problem that can be spun away with radio pundits and controled TV news bites. They seem to think that there is a way to mud-sling their way back to the lime light. Yet the dead keep on coming, the wounded keep coming, the money keeps flowing away, the credibility keeps evaporating like the sweat off a PFC's neck patroliing Anbar province, and Americans are really getting sick of so called representatives that seem to care more about apperances than the truth.

So all you republicans who would rather destroy a nations credibility and ruin thousands of lives than admit to a failure in the White House be warned. You have made a very nasty bed and you will have to lay down in it. And if it were only the warmongers who had to lay in that filthy pit they have dug for themselves all the better but they will not be alone. We all get to go down there with them, all of us little war mongers who gave Bush the benefit of the doubt.

Why Star Wars can't really change

I must confess that I would like a deeper story for Star Wars. But then it wouldn't be Star Wars
I must confess that I would like better dialogue for Star Wars. But then it wouldn't be Star Wars
I must confess that I would like fewer muppets and midgets. But then it wouldn't be Star Wars
I must confess that I would change nothing about Star Wars. So it stays Star Wars