Friday, February 28, 2003
Brilliant. This guy makes incredibly good points I hadn't even considered. Plus, his writing is so much better than my clumsy prose.
Posted by Me at 13:23 link
We lived through the ice storm with no major damage. Thanks for any prayers on our behalf.
Here's another example of our government putting profit ahead of human life. Here's scientific evidence that they are doing just that.
Posted by Me at 09:08 link
Thursday, February 27, 2003
I got to call Bullshit on thatI'm not calling David Gergen a moron. And I do agree that cooler heads are needed in international debate, now perhaps more than ever. But to equate the proposed Iraq war with WWII, as many have lately (including Gergen), is moronic.The argument goes like this: Those ingrate Europeans. We saved their bacon in WWII, so if they don't come to our aid now, the hell with them.The problem with that argument is two-fold. One, the situations are a little different. I don' t know about your experience, but in my little town, the Iraqi bombs have done very little damage. The Iraqi occupation forces are so discreet, you'd hardly know we'd been occupied. Oh, wait a minute! We haven't been occupied or bombed or even threatened with harsh rhetoric. On the other hand, we've been blasting the hell out of Iraq for some time now, and every day our President unleases another torrent of vitriol, the kind of talk one fellow uses when he's trying to provoke the other fellow to throw the first punch. The only reason Bush hasn't called Hussein a homosexual, or instucted him to peform fellatio is that the whole thing is televised. Two, in case your memory needs refreshing, check out a WWII timeline. We let Hitler take over a host of Eurpopean countries (including Poland, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, France...), and let him bomb the hell out of Britain, and let him start murdering Jews long before we entered the war. When we did enter the war, it was to save our own bacon, never mind anyone else's. In my opinion, the cooler heads are all on the other side of the pond. Wait, that would be failing to acknowledge Canada. America's whining, cajoling and threatening Europe to back us in this war makes about as much sense as starting a fist-fight with your neighbor over the last slice of cake at a block party. You might get the cake, but don't expect to be invited back anytime soon.
In other news, I think I'd probably rather be found guilty than do this or endure this. RIP Fred Rogers. It's a sad day in the neighborhood...
Posted by Me at 13:01 link
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
The Virtual March story was the top of Yahoo's most popular tonight. This was the most popular photo.
The BBC chose the VM for one of its two featured America stories. Bush grabbed the top headline, though, with his "vision" for postwar Iraq. Of course, he hasn't made up his mind about war yet, right? This was the most interesting story on the page, typical of BBC's excellent background.
According to my trusty indoor/outdoor thermometer, it's 31.6°. Looks like we'll get a break for awhile, with the storm passing us to the east. Unfortunately, that may allow the temperature to fall a good bit before the next wave of precipitation gets here, which could make for a really nasty Thursday. In the immortal words of Sean Gaffney of AMS & CSI (one of the coolest people on the planet), it looks pretty "stinky twinkie."
Posted by Me at 23:23 link
Reuters news bitesAnyone who's seen Monty Python's The Meaning of Life won't find this too surprising. Anyone feeling bad about human nature might be relieved to find it goes even deeper than that. Finally, anyone who values life and health will be at least a bit pissed off about this. [Note that Thompson admits the Bush administration is pro-Big Business. Not that we had any doubts, but it's good to know they aren't living in self-delusion]
Finally, this isn't from Reuters, but it's hilarious. Ian - thanks... for the pass. Mea culpa. Still I hope we all keep blabbing away and boring everyone silly until "they" get so tired of hearing it that they just give us what we want to shut us up. Could happen.
Posted by Me at 19:31 link
That's better - here's some coverage.
Posted by Me at 14:27 link
No ice yet, although I just saw that we're now under a Winter Storm Warning for the next 24 hours or so. 10 days ago, a similar storm caused minimal damage here, but in early December, we lost power for several days when 36 hours of non-stop freezing rain brought down a bunch of trees and limbs. We're probably about to get hammered again. Still, worrrying about it will do less than no good. Pray for us, if you pray.
Pray also for peace. The Virtual March appears to be going splendidly. I made my calls - to Senators Edwards (202 224-3154) and Dole (202 224-6342), and also to the White House (202 456-1111). I didn't get through to Senator Edwards, but I did keep redialing for 5 minutes, until it was time to call Senator Dole. To my amazement and delight, I got through to her after about 20 redials. The woman answering the phone was cordial and patient. I relayed the following message:Good Morning. Thank you for taking my call. I'm calling to voice my strong opposition to the Iraq war. The push for war, against virtually the entire rest of the civilized world, greatly jeopardizes our standing in the world community, weakens our hard-built alliances, and turns longtime friends into our enemies. It's wrong to risk our status in the world for the minimal gains this war might bring us. I urge Senator Dole to do everything in her power to speak as a voice of reason against the mad rush to war. I also left my name and address. Then I called the White House, and again failed to get through. I called the alternate number (202 456-1414) for the White House and was very pleased to ring straight through to a human - who switched me over to hold for the comment line. I hung up after 2 minutes on hold and called Senate Majority Leader Frist (202 224-3344) instead. Didn't get through to him, either. Oh, well. Dole was the one that mattered. Edwards is already firmly for peace (he's awesome in pretty much every way), [EDIT - EDWARDS SUPPORTED THE WAR; I MISUNDERSTOOD A STATEMENT OF HIS CRITICAL OF BUSH'S HANDLING OF THE WAR] Bush isn't going to change his mind and I doubt Bill Frist is going to change his mind, either. Elizabeth Dole might come around if she sees how many of us oppose this (and almost every other) war. We shall see.I found it highly encouraging that while trying to call, mostly what I got was "all circuits are busy", suggesting that a lot of people are calling. Perhaps not surprising, but still disappointing, is the absense of media coverage so far.
Posted by Me at 13:04 link
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
My Little Town
My little town is a nice place to live. Even when a water main breaks and they can't find the break and we have to boil our drinking water for two days straight. The only time I don't like my little town is when we have Ice Storms. Want to see something ironic? I'm the neighborhood tree-hugger, and one of the only people in town who actually likes winter. Another ice storm is forecast over the next couple of days. Wish us luck, anyone who happens to read this...
Posted by Me at 20:37 link
Hey - what are you doing? Go sign up for the Virtual March. Help Stop the War. Go Now!
Posted by Me at 14:59 link
Monday, February 24, 2003
Chapter Twoin which Bud reveals his true identity as a corny Southerner
I'm no fan of fundamentalist anything, least of all fundamentalist Christianity. I do, however, think the notion "What would Jesus do?" (WWJD) is a pretty good way to approach living. This approach is similar to that of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, who asked "What is the best way to live?" and found the answer in the virtues. Hemingway summed it up: "What's right is what you feel good after" (of course, Hemingway didn't like Christianity much; he also said "Our nada who art in nada / nada be thy name"). The point is, we all need a moral compass, and you could do a lot worse than Jesus of Nazareth. In my opinion, you couldn't do much better.
Which brings me to my main point: how could a true Christian (or anyone with a functioning moral compass) support war in Iraq? Lately, our Mr. Bush has increasingly worn his faith like a halo, in what many feel is a transparent effort to win support for his Iraq war. But I don't think it's working. Churches around the country are speaking out against the war. One preacher in Kansas, in lieu of a sermon, presented The "Just War Theory". This theory of when Christians should go to war was developed in the fourth century by St. Augustine and clarified by St. Thomas Aquinas and other church theologians in the Middle Ages. Aquinas stated that war must meet five conditions to be morally permissible:
* There must be a competent, legitimate authority to make the decision to use force.
* A nation must have a just cause to confront "a real and certain danger" that threatens aggression against its citizens.
* War should be driven by the right intentions and not by sinful motives of revenge, hatred and lust for domination.
* There must be proportion -- do the values and goals to be achieved outweigh the loss of life, devastation of land and natural resources, and disruption of relationships between people and nations?
* War must be the last resort, after all nonviolent methods have failed.
Sounds right to me. Sounds like what Jesus would have done. I certainly don't think Jesus would have done this, which will cause lots and lots of this.
Even if the UN votes for it, the Iraq war still fails on at least three of the five conditions:
- there is no "real and certain danger"
- the goals do not outweigh the costs
- certainly, all non-violent alternatives (eg inspections) have not failed
Of course, if you're sick of the whole business, you could do what I did for a large part of this weekend and watch Pink Panther movies...
Posted by Me at 16:01 link
Sunday, February 23, 2003
O.K., here's the deal.
[This is the part where I "define" the journal so that later, when it has totally become something else, we can all have a good laugh - except that 1) no one's going to read this blog anyway; and 2) even if some do, no one's going to bother to paw this far back through the archives, unless they're stalking me. Wait a minute - are you stalking me? Help! help! I'm being stalked!]
What not to expect
What you won't see here is a blow-by-blow account of my daily life, which I assure you, wouldn't be worth posting on the web. I won't tell you what I had for breakfast, or that I brushed the dogs' teeth, or that I finally did the dishes (wait, that would be news).
All right, what can we expect?(and just who the hell are "we" anyway?)
What I will tell you are the things I've seen that I'd want to know about if I didn't know about them already. [huh?] What it looks like at the top of Mt. Mitchell in late February, for instance. [oh.] Or some new study that finds conclusively that eating chocolate in large quantities adds years to your life. [sadly, no such study exists yet] Or the latest covert anti-environmental ploy of the Bush administration. ["Star Wars Imperial March" begins playing] Or things you and I can do that actually could make a difference. [death star explodes]
Why you should read this
You shouldn't read this. You should get back to work.
I'm done for today anyway. I have to go eat breakfast, brush the dogs' teeth and maybe even do the dishes.
Posted by Me at 10:27 link
Hello World!
The "Hello World" convention used universally today for teaching programming languages was developed by Bell Labs programmer Bill Rodogna.
Posted by Me at 01:18 link
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