Now there’s an idea: Protesting unfair elections. Fascinating how America is offended about fixed elections in the Ukraine, but totally accepting of the same here. Somewhat two-faced, isn’t it? Why not democratic elections in America? Or is that just one more thing we should be willing to give up in war on terror. Or is it terrorism? Hard to tell these days, since Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, et. al do not seem to know either. Oh well.
Wow — two entries in one day! I’m usually lucky to post once a quarter. Okay, this one is short: I just upgraded to a new version of MT. Too bad non-paying users cannot send in bug reports; I’ve discovered a slew of bugs after upgrading (actually, I had to uninstall my old version, then add the new version. Very messy. Now I wish I had had the foresight to save my index page). Anyway, new look (sort of), new code, and hopefully fewer spam commenters. Maybe I’ll start deleting my old spam commenters some day . . .
It’s time to write. It’s time to write, and continue writing. Usually I scribble something down on a notepad or a post-it (tm?), then ignore it. Occasionally I put a half-baked idea together and add it to my documents directory (no, not My Documents. My OS of choice doesn’t usually use whitespace in directory names), where it eventually gets deleted when I do a bit of millenial cleaning. No, it is time to write, and to train myself to write regularly. Sure, it may just be pointless drivel, but how else am I going to get better? I need to write things down and think them out a bit. Move beyond just pointing out that the Heartland of America seems to be more the Abscess of America (fitting, you Red States. You’re an infection on the soul of our country. Nothing like a bunch of idiots willing to throw away freedom in the name of hollow promises). Actually write about it. And hopefully with better sentences than those last two.
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We are a nation at war. We are a nation at war with an enemy that hates everything about us. To them, we are an abomination. Our freedom, our free speech, our religious tolerance, our clarity: All obminations. They hate the fact that we offer equal rights for women and minorities. They hate our music, our affluence, our education. They hate that we accept the Jew and the Christian, the Muslim and the atheist. We are elite and we are infidels. Every day they work to destroy us.
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I guess this means the elections are truly over: They’ve let Rumsfeld back out of the closet and onto the screen. Rummy’s back, providing the emphatic answer that he’s already answered the question, but to reiterate, we don’t know the answer to that. I love listening to him talk, especially when it starts sounding and looking like his medications are wearing off. Thorazine, isn’t it? Or is it that his mescaline is finally kicking in? Either way, his little smile, the “I’m lying to you, you know I’m lying to you, but I don’t give a crap and you’ll believe it if I repeat it fifty times or so” smile creeps back onto his face, his answers begin making less sense than ever, and it is war as usual.
What else is going on these days? Hmmm . . . martial law in Iraq. This must be what Bush meant when he said Kerry is making it [the Iraq war/war on terror/war on terrorism/conflict of the day] sound worse than it is for political gain. Martial law is only applied when things are going really well, right? I did enjoy the following: What is the difference between Vietnam and Iraq? Bush had a clear exit strategy for Vietnam (listen to the whole show, dang it!).
Four more years. Oh joy. I should be happy: America lived down to my lowest expectations. Damn. I’m too depressed to finish this now. Thank you, America.
So three hundred and eighty tons of explosives that we were supposed to be watching have gone missing? Did it fall through a crack in the floor? Did someone leave it in their pocket and run it through the wash (I hate it when I do that!)? Maybe it just got misfiled . . . This is three hundred and eighty tons! It doesn’t just fall out of the hole in your pocket. How the hell, besides through overwhelming incompetence, did we manage to not protect it?
I suppose this is another example of how GW is keeping America safe from terror. In a way, it makes sense. At least, as much sense as invading and destabilizing a country that really wasn’t a threat, and creating a haven for terrorists who actually are a threat. Recently, Bush ridiculed Kerry and his notion that Iraq wasn’t a threat. Bush’s argument is that known terrorist Abu Musab al- Zarqawi would have been able to commit acts of terror if we did not invade Iraq. Guess what, Bush, now that you’ve removed pretty much any constraint against his actions by destabilizing the country, he certainly hasn’t become less of a threat. With your 380 ton give-away of explosives, I am sure he hasn’t become less of a threat either. Thank you, Mr. President. I can tell that the security of America is in the forefront of your mind. Never again will I question the wisdom of going to war against a country that wasn’t a threat without any sort of exit strategy or idea of how to keep things stable.
The President of the United States: Protecting America by providing explosives to the enemy. Gee, I feel safer already. If you really want to fight terror, elect ANYBODY BUT BUSH.
p.s. — Now that the campaign is in full-swing, whatever happened to Rumsfeld?
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
— Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
I realize I should try to come up with something significant to say here, but I think Teddy did a good enough job himself. Just seems like something to remember as we get closer to elections, and commit more atrocities worldwide.
This is to Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, who was “more outraged at the outrage” against Iraqi prisoner abuse:
Dear Sir,
I understand your feelings. They are present in my 4-year-old when he feel he has been wronged. America is a great nation. America is a civilized nation. As such, we live be certain rules. We hold life, liberty, dignity, and other principles in high regard. We believe we have high moral standards. We believe in a presumption of innocence. We do not act like savages and treat other peoples as objects for our own amusement. We do not, in general, condone sodomizing prisoners. When we reduce ourselves to the level of savagery shown in the Iraqi prison abuse photos, we disgrace ourselves and our principles.
If a nation as great as America cannot show restraint, cannot show respect, cannot show dignity and concern, how can we expect others to do so? You are not judged by your greatest acts, but by your most base. It is hard to get more base than what we have done in Iraq. We are not treating the Iraqis as equals, but as objects. As far as I know, we have not actually constructed any death camps, but is this behavior much different than that shown by the National Socialists in pre-WWII Germany? Do you consider the Iraqis to be an inferior race, somehow not worthy of the international laws that protect others?
If, as the Red Cross states, our own military intelligence estimates are that 70 to 90 percent of the Iraqis detained were “arrested by mistake”, then you are condoning the abuse and torture of innocent civilians. What exactly is the difference between you and any of Saddam’s thugs? Between you and Hitler’s followers? The only difference I see is that you are part of the group that is currently in power, and the regimes of Saddam Hussein and Adolph Hitler have toppled. If you are outraged by the outrage, you are either not paying attention, or are of the same evil as those you claim we are protecting Iraq and the world from. Either way, you have shamed yourself, you have shamed the people of Oklahoma, and you have shamed America.
I have decided to dabble in consumer advocacy. I will start small, of course. Ralph Nader can attach the Chevy Corvairs, SUV’s, and the two-party political systems of the world. I will stick to the small stuff: yuppie instant hot cereals with poor preparation instructions.
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Yay! Christmas is over! Not too bad. The only low points were 1: the obligatory Christmas kitten that the kids let out of the house an hour later, then chased out of the neighborhood before informing us that it was gone, 2: the boy-child refusing any gifts this year that did not have his name somewhere on the wrapping paper (it wouldn’t have been so bad, if only he didn’t scream so much), 3: the girl-child being jealous of everything the boy-child got, 4: the food-poisoning for the anniversary dinner on Friday night (reminder for next year — don’t go anywhere fancy), 5: the mad spending that went on, and 6: the immediate ignoring of the over-priced presents by the chilluns, who preferred the fort I made out of a couple of large cardboard boxes. Other than that, things went fairly well. As long as I am not laid off anytime soon, I should have the spending madness paid off by May. How about Yours?
