The mice and the Rats are anti-semitic and anit-american

According to Sandcastle's posts the mice in Iraq have formed an extensive network built to frustrate the American forces.

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/12/30/1072546533143.html

This article proves that they are working with huge rats in Israel.

It is obvious from the reports that once they subdue the American and Israelite forces they will take over the rest of the Arab world.

Once they find a land bridge to Africa, and even North America, the only safe place will be Australia.

cube

The real hussein

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/realhussein.php

Flu

I have just wasted close to three days of my life not moving, not thinking, and not eating too much, thanks to the bend-you-over-and-squel-like-a-pig-flu.

A detailed outline of how i was striken.
Hopefully this will give you insight on how to avoid the same fate as me.

Friday
8 AM
I feel fine for a friday

11 Am
I feel noticably worse than i did when i woke, and i realized that i was getting sick.

I should have sought emergencay treatment at this point in time.
They have a durg called amantadine (a-MAN-ta-deen), which it is commonly used to prevent or treat the flu. It may also be used to treat symptoms of parkinson's disease. Had i known that his drug existed, i would have become very good friends with a pharamist and would always have these little babies lying around. But oh well.


4:30 pm
We got off of work a little early, and i went home to play video games as usual. I quite playing at 10 and i was running chills by this time.

10:00 pm
stop playing video games because i felt like crap. Although normally i would have3 to 4 more good hours in me.

...
Some point in the night i decide to take my temperature or it could have been early the next morning.
It was hanging around 102.9.
This was the highest that my temp got that i remember, because i started taking durgs to bring it down.

I really don't remember much detail, but i learned that if you take two medacations and stagger them you have better results with you fever. Also, just going to sleep might seem like a good idea, but someone has to take your temp so that you want die. I have not come up with a good solutiion for that yet.

Sunday

1:pm
i decide that i am hungry enough and that food in my apartment will not sastify me anymore so i go buy a large sandwich from a sandwich place near me.
I shower and move very slowing until i an dressed

3:00
I come back and start to eat, the guys at the place must have thought that i was a jerk. I just kinda stared and gave half mumbled answers.

Monday

10:00
I decide that i must go see a doctor or that i will die.

1:00
go to doctor's office get powerful mind numbing drugs. Feel good a bout life again, although i get winded walking up the stairs to my apartment.

2:00
move to floor because the couch and the bed are conspiring against me. It is obvious they are the only ones who gain by me being sick.

cube
and remember Amantadine is the drug you want. Ask for it by name.
Note: if you are pregant it make you kids look like alf from the show alf

First Protests then Suicide bombs

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4028169

Next thing you know they will be bombing churches.

cube

Short thought

More about Libya

read this article

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-12-21-analysts-libya-tactics_x.htm

They are saying that Bush's methods are not working. And that the truning of Libya to the good side started before the Iraq war.

check out this timeline of the Iraq war.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0908792.html


This article tells you when they contacted Britain

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/12/21/MNG8H3RVSF1.DTL

Note the last article is from the San Francisco Chronicle

This is interesting

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031219-071205-9611r

Libya is giving up it's WMD's says bush.

What is wrong with this statement. I did not know they have equipment to enrich nuclear mateial. I know they had the third worlds largest chemical plant. But Chemical and biological is far different from trying to make a nuke.

Right now all the information is coming form the US and the UN has not even got news of it yet at all.
Of course, I think this is great.
I mean not one shot was fried. They are finally seeing we could come in there and take them out if we find out what they are doing. And they also realized they were in the much the same position as Iraq, no one would really care if we took them over.

I bet that if we had not taken over Iraq they would not have been so "open".

Speak softly and carry a big stick. It seemed to work well with Libya.

cube

about freaking time

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/12/19/japan.missiles/index.html

Assume for the purpose of this argument that missile defense is viable and within the current reach of technology.

What the heck took so long for them to decide on this, I mean what are the bad points of have a massive missile defense capability and a massive second-strike capability.

The two combined make it where you just don't want to screw with us, and if you do screw with us, we will screw you up more.

In the ole cold war days of yore a massive second-strike capability assured destruction for both. This operated on the principle that the major players involved did not want to be destroyed in the first place. Given countries with leader like Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei who is the apparent mouthpiece of God, and the crazy North Korean leader. The premise that countries want attack because they don't want their people to be destroyed comes into serious question.

Once you have an outstanding missile defense system (An ideal one would be capable of sensing and responding quickly to threats all over the world. That is why we need Japan's help to position radar stations in a lot of random places.), you would have an excellent offense and a great, but widely untested defense system.

The enemy would have a few options if they were to attack America.

They could build up a truly massive missiles system that once used would allow a few missiles to sneak by.

This has a few problems.
We would know what the enemy was trying to do (the amount of missiles it would take would be tremendous, if we did the system correctly). This method would be very expensive, because you would have to assume that any of the missiles fired have the ability to get though. All of the fired missiles would need to be equal to promise maximum destructive power, unless you were able to find a hole in the defensive net through intelligence or strategic forethought.

Also something to consider with the above point would be the quality of missiles. One thing that would hurt there chances of getting missiles though is that we are several years ahead of most countries, as far as missiles technology is concerned. This would hurt their chances of getting any though.

Choosing such a path would seriously hurt the nation in question in the realm of international relations. Well, it would hurt that nation with other nations who did not have a defensive net of protection. We would not care. We would only point it out to the world as an example of what we are protecting our selves from.

The country could attack with a few missiles that have defensive measures (this just will make us develop defensive measures against defensive measures, which very few countries could keep pace with the US in the area of technological innovation).

Or the county could attack with one bomb smuggled in onto American soil. Our fabulous defensive net of protection will not help us out there.

Now there is the issue of terrorist organizations, they would most likely attack using the last method mentioned. So we still need to investigate further measures for protecting American soil. But the missile defense is a good broad start, and would limit the methods of attacking American soil to actually being on American soil. Which I think America should use their agents in the fields (the little old ladies and gun toting militants are a good start, then we can work on recruiting the every day American to just call 911 if they see a big bomb) for surveillance activates that would be necessary to catch such attacks.

Also, a defensive net would allow us to keep our status as top dog of the world. The missile defense could be used in first strike situations where we just don't want to be attacked when we get done killing a country.

Which the world has been fairly stable for the last ten to 13 years, America has not taken over to many countries (at least any of the ones anyone cares about). So I think we will be safe for the next 10 to 15 years also, from any major world wars. (Note the Defense shield would shut china up, and I know we would all like that. But also not that China is stubborn as a mule and would most likely just build up their weapons or try to build a defense shield of there own. Which they might be able to do it, if we sold them the technology for it.)

Cube

France

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=424981§ion=news

Seeing France's continual commitment to banning religious symbols in schools is interesting.

I am curious to see what would happen if they pass the ban.

Could it piss off the right Muslims just enough so that they would get a nice little suicide bomb as a present?

I would say that situation is a possibility.

Especially given this story.

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1567753

It appears that although al-Qaida cell organization appears to offer many benefits, it also has some drawbacks.

One being, cells have the ability to harm the overall organization by not seeing the big picture, and the daddy cell cannot do anything about it. I think this could happen in France (although it is not very likely).

For something like that to happen in France you would need a cell to be fairly radical, not very bright, and bad at following orders.

If they attacked Turkey, they would attack other countries. Raise you hands if you think France is more likely to be attacked by radical Muslims after they pass the ban.

cube

For Sandcastle who is away

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105974,00.html

The article is about Hunter S. Thompson

Short thought

If France and Russia were morally opposed to the war why don't they keep their contractors from bidding on contracts that have to do with the rebuilding (which the need to rebuild,cause to rebuild, and freedom to rebuild is because of the Iraq war).

I have not heard them putting their pocketbooks where morals are, and they probably want.

Sigh...It looks like America is going to have to do their job for them once more.

cube

The Death penalty and Some good thoughts

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8184379%255E2703,00.html

The UN, Britain, and a long list of other countries don't support the death penalty.

It is cases like this that make me support the death penalty.

When you have a person this evil, manipulative, and hateful (note: I could be talking about Timothy McVeigh, John Allen Muhammad, or Saddam), there is no good recourse but to remove them from the earth.

I wonder it Europe had Hitler after WW2 today, would the kill him?
They probably would not. They would probably exile him to some island somewhere, allowing him to consolidate his power base for the next attack.

Morons they have done that already.
But this time there are not conventional armies involved; all it takes is one missile to hurt you bad.



I can see not allowing wholesale use of the death penalty (although I am not against it), but special cases arise that need to be handled...well.... like..... special cases.


Here are the good thoughts

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2003/12/16/288383.html

cube

I have looked everywhere...

To find an article worth posting and talking about. I have read a lot about the capture of Saddam. I started to read about the capture, but it got old in thrity mins.

But i found this beauty later on today.

http://www.ramallahonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1719

In the article he seems to support Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong's, which together managed to kill about half as many people that died in WW2. And these two guys were not even fighting each other, they were just trying to rule their countries.

check these links
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/stalin/

http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/mao.html

A qoute from the above article

Whether one liked Saddam Hussein or not, he was the legitimate President of a great Arab nation, and his humiliation was the humiliation of all Arabs.

I bet the ones who died are real humiliated.

and Just to finish it off

But Chivalry and Honour, so dear to an Arab heart, are not American virtues: the US dared to attack Iraq only after ten years of UN sanctions disarmed it.

It will take a little while longer to refute this remark, but just to give you an idea of why we took so long take over iraq.

Read this article.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/bushsr-iraq.htm

The poster of the article wants you to relate the present bush adminstration to the past one which did not take over Saddam. And make it seem like GWB is the evil dude.

The comments that Bush himself made, do sound a lot like today's situation, until you get to this part

As the conflict wound down, we felt a sense of urgency on the part of the coalition Arabs to get it over with and return to normal. This meant quickly withdrawing U.S. forces to an absolute minimum. Earlier there had been some concern in Arab ranks that once they allowed U.S. forces into the Middle East, we would be there to stay. Saddam's propaganda machine fanned these worries. Our prompt withdrawal helped cement our position with our Arab allies, who now trusted us far more than they ever had. We had come to their assistance in their time of need, asked nothing for ourselves, and left again when the job was done. Despite some criticism of our conduct of the war, the Israelis too had their faith in us solidified. We had shown our ability--and willingness--to intervene in the Middle East in a decisive way when our interests were challenged. We had also crippled the military capability of one of their most bitter enemies in the region. Our new credibility (coupled with Yasser Arafat's need to redeem his image after backing the wrong side in the war) had a quick and substantial payoff in the form of a Middle East peace conference in Madrid.

...and ...

The Gulf War had far greater significance to the emerging post-cold war world than simply reversing Iraqi aggression and restoring Kuwait. Its magnitude and significance impelled us from the outset to extend our strategic vision beyond the crisis to the kind of precedent we should lay down for the future. From an American foreign-policymaking perspective, we sought to respond in a manner which would win broad domestic support and which could be applied universally to other crises. In international terms, we tried to establish a model for the use of force. First and foremost was the principle that aggression cannot pay. If we dealt properly with Iraq, that should go a long way toward dissuading future would-be aggressors. We also believed that the U.S. should not go it alone, that a multilateral approach was better. This was, in part, a practical matter. Mounting an effective military counter to Iraq's invasion required the backing and bases of Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.



In short, the main reasons why we did not finish the job were unsuccessful, we did not win broad international support or make the world any safer. So 12 years later after the Gulf war we are trying somthing different. I am very intrested to see what happens.

cube

sites to vist

http://iraqataglance.blogspot.com/archives/2003_12_01_iraqataglance_archive.html#107141073769746960


lots of comments on this page

and

http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/


now back to everquest

Wow

Well buy now you have heard about Saddam being captured.

A few comments.

I think that this puts Bush in a very strong position going into the 2004 election. Now he can take the criticism he has gotten and show certain results.

For example.

The economy was bad, but you gave me and my administration time and we fixed it.
You let me attack Iraq and the armed forces and I eventually got the leader of that country.

Other future possibilities are
You gave me time and I captured Bin Ladin.
You gave me time and I have lessened troops and handed over Iraq back to the Iraq people.
If you give me time, I will do so much more.

I mean the only ways you can really critique Bush is buy saying that he could have done it better if he had done it this way.

But unfortunately, most people don't care how you do something as long as when you say that you are going to do something you actually get results.

To argue about the very high level methods, when most don't know the details or the issues involved is fairly useless.

This is America where results matter, so Bush has got quite a score card and more experience than any other opponent. If he can get few more points knocked out he will have 2004 won easily.

cube




Give me time, I am working on it. Is really all he has to say

It is finally here

I have been getting hundreds of calls about this, and even into the thousands of emails from my readers in the blogsphere.

But it is finally here....all of the Democrats judiciary memo's that were leaked to the press.

Don't worry it is not that bad, the Democrats just look like tools.

http://fairjudiciary.campsol.com/cfj_contents/press/collusionmemos.shtml

Now for the fair and balanced part. I would love to see the memos from the other side during the Clinton years.

cube

The UN is at it again

http://www.forbes.com/2003/12/08/cx_da_1208topnews.html

Well this is a quote from the above article.

The WSIS does not ignore details particular to the Internet. Paragraph 34 deals with spam and cyber-security indicating they should be dealt with at "at appropriate national and international levels." As for pedophilia and child pornography, those abuses should be prevented by "all actors in the Information Society," who also must tackle "acts motivated by racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, [defamation of religions] and related intolerance, hatred, violence--and trafficking in, and exploitation of, human beings."


I agree that many of the things that the WSIS wishes to prevent should be eradicated from the earth. I am really concerned with a few statements such as "must tackle "acts... , xenophobia, [defamation of religions] and related intolerance"".

Hmm...it sounds like the UN is telling me what to think.

I feel that if I want to be intolerant of a religion, of any few religions, or all religions, I should be able to do that. I can write or say whatever I want about religion (via newspapers, internet). I can even preach my particular brand of soul saving rhetoric and decry any that would be a threat to my religion. But I cannot make people believe what I want them to believe by force, blow others up (although you should have the right to blow yourself up as long as it does not infringe in the rights of others to not get blown up), or harass them continually mentally or physically.

Racism is bad, but if a person wishes to spread that particular mind filth around what can you do about it. As soon as the racist becomes a racist with a gun and political agenda, they should be shot by the race they hate (just to add a bit of irony to life).

I was wondering if the UN would also shut down sites that say the UN sucks.

For more information on how to protect you freedom of the Internet please vist.

http://freenet.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=whatis

cube

Do the dew and Join the revolution

http://www.kazaa.com/revolution/index_revolution.htm

This is one of the better pieces of propaganda that i have seen recently. I like how when you scan down the page it implies that record companies are evil, and then shows you links to help fight the man. It follows the Starship Troopers model of propaganda really well.

Show you information that makes you feel a certain way, then offer the chance to learn more by very opportune links. This then gives you the chance to turn the way you fell into action right then and there.

I don’t know about you but I always wanted to learn more when they asked if I wanted to learn more in Starship Troopers.


cube

Relationships

Just some strange connections that i have thought of in the shower.


America is the richest country in the world.
On average americans work more hours per week than any other industirled country, maybe there is a conecttion here.


Also, anthor area where there may be a connection is between poor people and TV.

If you are more likley to be overweight when watching large amounts of tv, and you are more likley to be overweight if you are poor. Could it be the TV which makes you poor and obese?
Or do you watch TV because you are poor and obese?

cube

Small furry masters of the universe

Maybe the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was right. Maybe humans are the third most evolved lifeform on Earth. While I haven't had much problem with dolphins of late, the mice seem to be conspiring. They attack en masse, expertly using stealth and camouflage to their advantage. Their cover story is food gathering, but they carefully pilfer through all unsecured items. They are taking notes and biding their time for the Big Attack. Their intelligence system surpasses anything Lenin ever dreamed of. And they are becoming freakishly strong. I submit for evidence the previously mentioned story of the mouse that defeated a scorpion and hornet. Also, a friend of mine has found proof of their super strength. He sets mouse traps with peanut butter and cheez whiz. He woke up one morning to find a trap sprung, mouse entangled. He went to the latrine and then came back to dispose of the diseased vermin. He was shocked to find that the mouse had left with the trap in tow! If we don't quit dismissing the rodent problem and face the situation, this entire war could be lost. The heathen rodents are obviously loyal to Saddam and infiltrate our camps with impunity. I implore anyone reading this to take action. You may be the next victim!

Help the great society is dying

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104763,00.html

I can't believe this, the republicans want to allow me to put money I would normally give to the government into the stock market for long term growth. They want me to actually own the money and take personal responsibility for the cash that I make, instead of just giving the money to the government and watching them waste it and/or use it to help others.

There is one catch: I will have to work to produce the cash...

Additionally, one thing the republicans have failed to point out is that by the stock market has been the best investment over the last 100 years. They also failed to point out that if I were to invest the cash instead of putting it into social security, I would have had a better return on investment.....Wait a minute

Hey, maybe the slow removal of the great society is a good thing.

cube

Exposing lies

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/12/02/MNGLP3E5LF1.DTL


I quote:
In a house on the outskirts of Samarra, Abir Mohammed Al-Khayat, 28, said a rocket hit the minibus in which she and several others had commuted from their jobs at a local pharmaceuticals factory. "There were about 20 of us, men and women," she said, cradling her arm, injured by shrapnel, in a sling.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/01/cnna.jones/

I quote:

JONES: [M]y understanding is it was only supposed to take us about 30 minutes in the actual Iraqi currency exchange, to drop off the money. And I estimated that about an hour and a half, two hours, is what I would just estimate. The firepower that the U.S. had, as far as we had some tanks out there. We had some Bradleys. I had an MP squad with me and I had another one at the other bank. We were using 40-millimeter machine guns. We were also using our regular M-4 rifles and 249 SAWs plus some 50-caliber machine guns.

If you need to know what Saws are check out the post below that sandcastle was kinda enough to make.

I read up on the Bradley fighting vehcies. These vechiles do have high explosive rounds, but a high explosive round is a lot different from a rocket. The high expliovise rounds would have the same effect as a rpg it seems, but you would not see them coming, only hear them. The high explosive rounds might have been used by the americans in this tatactial situtaion. Then again, given the close quaters they may not have been used. The bradlies are also outfitted with the stinger missle system, which is used to engage "low-altitude jet, propeller-driven and helicopter aircraft", and would have seemed out of place in this tactial situation.

In short, I would love to see an inventory of the bradlies before and after the battle to decide exactly what the woman saw.

Although, i admit that a lot could have been lost in the translation (rocket = mortor etc.). If you take the woman literaly, the americans did not use rockets, and she was hit by her own contrymen's RPGs.


Also a friend pointed this out to me

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104437,00.html


"Luckily we evacuated the children five minutes before we came under attack," said Ibrahim Jassim, a 40-year-old guard at the kindergarten. "Why did they attack randomly? Why did they shoot a kindergarten with tank shells?"


My friend asked, "Why did you evacuate the School?"

Possible answers: The insurgents told them to evacuate, or the insurgents took over part of the school and they decided to evacute the rest of the school.

Note: The guard used the words "tank shells" instead of rockets or motors, both of which would have been used by the insurgents.

cube

Military gear

The "249 SAWS" are M-249 Squad Automatic Weapons. It is a fully automatic, belt fed, gas powered rifle that fires a 7.62mm round. It can be fired from the hip or shoulder and also includes a bipod for stationary firing. Generally every squad sized element (generally around ten troops or so) contains at least one SAW. The Bradley is a tank that is lighter than the Abrams. I am not really familiar with tanks, but you can check them out at globalsecurity.org (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/m2.htm ). The civilian damage is regrettable, but in an ambush situation there will always be some stray fire. The fact that the ambush took place in a city only compounds that.

In other Iraqi news, the Bug Wars took place on the first of December. Which would win; a field mouse, a large hornet, or a small scorpion if all three were placed in an empty 1.5 liter water bottle? Suprisingly, it was the mouse. After enduring multiple stings, the mouse chewed and clawed the scorpion and hornet to death. I don't know the exact species of scorpion, but it was about 3 inches long without the tail and green. The hornet was the same size and red. The mouse was approximately 4 inches long without tail. It was brown on top and white on bottom. The mouse received a second chance at freedom and a substantial cash prize which it ungraciously abandoned.

Ungrateful American Day

Thanksgiving rolled around again, but this year I was standing in the rain in Iraq. Yes, it is strange to be standing in the cold desert rain. I woke up at 4:45 and argued with my company for about half an hour about getting the truck that they wanted me to drive to guard duty. (They Army is like that. They will require you to drive a truck but then make you beg for the truck at the same time.) After several more insignificant complications, I ended up guarding two local national (Iraqi) workers for the day. Sometime around noon, I realized that I wasn't really thankful this year. I know that I have many things to be grateful for like everyone else, but I don't really care. I am not thankful to have ten toes and ten fingers or a tent to live in or combat boots to wear or some family that is 3000 miles away. I am an ungrateful American. I am one more person raised in the mythic "land'o'plenty" that takes the basic means of survival for granted. So I decided to fast rather than gorge myself on a poorly prepared meal. I did not eat anything and drank only water for the twenty fours that made up Thanksgiving. If you feel disgruntled next November, I urge you to join the anti-celebration.

Lesser evils

Main Entry: im·po·tent
Pronunciation: 'im-p&-t&nt
Function: adjective
1 a : not potent : lacking in power, strength, or vigor : HELPLESS b : unable to have sexual intercourse because of erectile dysfunction; broadly : STERILE -- usually used of males

Just a note, I was using impotence in the broad term. Such as, "I have no sperm, therefore I am impotent."

The two options that i would consider to become sterile would be male birth control and a vasectomy. I would not consider castration, because over the years my testicles have grown on me and I am kinda fond of them.

I would choose that more painful option is because that method is inherently mechanical, and I understand mechanical means of intervention. For example, I don't understand how they induce birth, but I understand C-sections. C-sections are a mechanical means of getting the kid out. The vasectomy does not stop you from making sperm, it just re routes them to a place where they want try and produce off spring you are legally bound to care for. Also with vasectomies you can get them undone, although there are risks.

But one a boarder note, is it a good idea to encourage sexually irresponsibility with the rates of HIV and syphilis one the rise.

cube

lesser of someodd evils

Several counterpoints...impotence as in not causing pregnancy is not the same as impotency as in a non-functioning phallic member. You can still get your rocks off, you just aren't making babies. And losing all sperm is bad, but making sure thatyou're sperm doesn't show up again nine months later is good. It's an option. And a less painful and less permanent option than a vasectomy. It's just an option to keep you out of early family life.

Men Unite!!

Men, I just want to give you a heads up on what is coming down the road so that you will have to prepare yourself and your arguments against the femme-Nazi in your life.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/954083.asp

Just a quote from this article.

They all worked really well and I was able to look at my lab results and see my sperm count drop to zero, says Setlow.

Just so you know that this article is not about the effects of drugs and alcohol, but about a new male birth control method in testing right now. The hormonal contraceptives are used to turn off sperm production.

It seemed like I was getting headaches and then there were times when I woke up sweating at night and I had to change my shirt. Other than that, I did not have any side effects, says 45-year-old Quentin Brown, who lives in Los Angeles and has been a volunteer in a study of MHCs at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.

I guess the guy forgot to mention the fact that he has no sperm.

Just a few things that I want you to remember.

1. Impotence is impotence even it if it is self imposed and temporary.
2. Women are the only ones working on these studies. The article says that
organizations testing the male birth control don't have any problems finding
male volunteers. They are lying.

Men (this includes any one who produces sperm and does not want to be legally accountable for where it goes and what it produces), we must unite to stop this horrible idea, before our wives are forcing us to use birth control. We must change the current laws of the United States of America to remove the male from all responsibility and have the responsibility totally placed on the women.

cube

Sad state of America

Normally I am not one of those people who point out what is wrong with America, and bemoan how the country is going down the drain. My experience today makes me ask where this country is going, and do I approve of the direction.

I was going to Little Rock to meet my mom and my sister for a day of hanging out, shopping, and good general merry making. Just a few minutes out of Memphis I saw a hitchhiker, normally I pull over very quickly and pick them up, but this guy was in a weird location and there were cars in my way. So I decided after a guilt ridden couple of seconds to catch the next exit and swing back around on the interstate and pick the guy up. It took 3 to 5 minutes to get to an exit, and it took 5 to 7 minutes to get back because the guy was right before an exit and I had to go 2 exits back to pick him up. I pull over to the side of the road. I open my door and he comes over with his bag in hand, and says "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" I say, "No." He says, "How far are you going?" I say, "To Little Rock." The hitchhiker says that he is going slightly past little rock, and that he hates to turn down a ride, but he has been in Little Rock before and it is hard to get out of. I say that is ok, and then the guy asks me if I have some food, which I give him an unopened candy bar, that I had bought for my breakfast.

What the hell is wrong with a society when the beggars become choosers?

cube

the continuing saga...

Bush looks weak but may still be tough to beat out for the Whitehouse. His brother is the governor of Florida, his most famous supporter just became the governor of California, and his dad used to run this country in front of the cameras and behind them, serving as both president and director of the CIA. All of those things hold sway in the electoral college. And we all know that when it gets down to it, that counts. Bush's chances would be greatly improved if he could capture either Saddam or Bin Laden, or even if he cut down the weekly soldier sacrifice to just two or three.
His oppenents still aren't looking significant. Dean is pulling off a better campaign than anyone would have expected, but it is only impressive until you compare it to the incumbent republican. His competitors are tearing into him instead of venting their rage toward the president, and they are hurting for it. Aiming for the little guy is a tactic of an admitted loser and everyone knows it. General Clark has nice credentials but comes off as a slimy opportunist by joining late and switching political parties. But we will see...

Another view of the situation

This article says Germany and America disagree,
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/18/international/europe/18EURO.html?ex=1069736400&en=5e8feb38a1f12998&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE


but I happen to have another view what was said.

Quote one:
FOREIGN MINISTER FISCHER: Well, first of all, I think it's very important that
we are moving forward, based on realism, and realism must be based on
transparency and these are the basic principles of the agreement, the three of
us, the Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom, France and myself reached with
the Iranian side in Tehran.

I think we are moving in the right direction, but we must go now into the
details. It means full compliance, and this must be measured by the IAEO. So,
if we are moving in the right direction, I think it's a good message, but it
must be based, once again, on realism.



Quote Two:
SECRETARY POWELL:
"realism means making sure that the Iranians tell us every single thing
there is to know about what they have been doing with respect to nuclear
developments of all kinds so that the international community can make an
informed, comprehensive and full judgment as to what they have been doing and
whether they have stopped doing the things that we have been suggesting for
some time they were doing, that were inconsistent with their obligations and
should cause all of us to have serious concerns about judging too quickly
whether or not we have now received the full and complete story from the
Iranians."


interesting isn't it,. It just depends on what you want to write which quotes you actually use.

cube
note the actual transcript of the entire news conference was sent to my inbox curtsey of the DOS list sever, which the link can be found below.

Western mindset

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20031113_1559.html

This link is to a recent story about the bombing in Saudi Arabia, and here is a quote from the article. .

"I have the feeling that those who did it can't be Muslims. Why not Americans?" lawyer Fatma Lasheen said in Cairo. "The American Embassy closed the day of the operation. And if not, why didn't they foil this operation if they knew about it? Don't you think it is strange?"

This article proves that the media has a talent for finding idiots anywhere in the world, not just rural areas of America. I will grant Mister Fatma (if that is his real name) these facts. 1) America stands to gain by terrorist organizations losing support in the middle east, especially Saudi Arabia. 2) The American embassy closed on the day of the attack.

I will address number two first. Just because the embassy closed, does not mean America had full knowledge of the attack. Secondly, if we did have full knowledge, you (you equals Muslim) would complain of military action in the holy land, even if we did stop them (Rightly so I believe). I guess we could have sent the American trained Saudi forces after them, but that would require Saudi Arabia taking responsibility for what goes on inside of it's own borders, which seems to be rare these days. It seems to be the style for countries to either blame other countries or get other countries to solve their problems. That was what the first gulf war was about, if I remember correctly. What makes me mad is this: If Americans stopped the attacks the Muslims are mad, if we don't they are mad. That does not make sense.

Now lets take the first statement of the attackers not being Muslims. That may or may not be true. But I can prove it was not Americans.

1) If you have lived in American for any length of time, you realize that Americans are a fairly selfish bunch of people. They work hard (on average more than any industrial country in the world), and reap the rewards of their labor (the average American has a bunch of toys). No "true" American would waste his time to go commit a suicide bombing in another country. Fiscally, it does not make sense.

American suicide bomber:
You will pay me this much...then I will die in a big ball of fire. Cool, I like balls of fire. And my family will be well taken care of. So what are the benefits like?

2) If Americans did not directly participate in the attacks, then our only other options would be to pay Muslims to commit a suicide bombing against their Muslim brothers. I think this options has even less of a chance than Americans doing the work.

In short, the sooner the Muslim world wakes up and realizes the problems it has....the better.


cube

DOS list serv

I sure as hell don't know what these are, but I signed up for all of them.

http://www.state.gov/www/listservs_cms.html

Remember that they are watching you , so you had better watch them.

cube

Gore and TV

The link below is from a speech that gore gave in TN about how TV was killing America.

http://www.thetowerlight.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/11/13/3fb2cf934903b

"Our democracy is suffering in an age where the dominant medium is not accessible to the average person, and does not lend itself most readily to the conveyance of complex ideas about self-governance, and instead pushes toward a lowest common denominator"

The statement about TV not being accessible can easily be misunderstood, but what he means is that the average person cannot get their voice heard on television. Now I think that is great, because I only want to hear the best. But the best may or may not show up on TV.

Now the statement that TV does not lend it self to complex ideas about self-governance, I believe also to be false. Pictures are much simpler than words. You can draw a complex graphical shape (such as a fractal) or you could describe it with math. The visual is going to be much easier to understand intuitively. If you don't know what a fractal is here are some pictures.

http://www.mbfractals.com/images1.html


and here is a mathematical equation to describe one
(z^7 - 1)^7 - 1 = z^49 - 7*z^42 + 21*z^35 - 35*z^28 + 35*z^21 - 21*z^14 + 7*z^7 - 2

See what I mean.


Gore did point out that Americans watch 4 hours of TV a day. His concerns were about how it would affect democracy.

But what he did not realize was that TV is the one thing that can save democracy. It will require some retooling of the sports seasons to make room for a campaign season, and it will require some internet technology which will involve the average watcher (or a low tech phone system where people can vote and ask questions - much like American Idol).

Note: My only conversation about American idol was when a random person at work asked if I had watched it last night,
I said that I don't watch much TV, and the conversation ended with a awkward feeling.


Then the politicians will have to be willing to work at night and will also debate with others about what they believe. This will go on until election day where the people will vote (and since they have been watching from the beginning they feel obligated to vote). Of course, tax payer money will have to be used for the TV time at first, but once people realize that it is a good thing and lots of fun they will watch. Then TV stations will be able to make money from advertisers the good ole fashion American way.

Additionally, you will have to make election day a paid federal holiday where everyone gets off work, to give the entire nation time to vote on issues.

In short a combination of good old fashion TV and a paid day off could really bring up the voting ratings...Eh... I meant voter participation up to record levels.

As a side note: No one heard about the Gores speech because it was not on TV.

cube

Prison system

Damn ... Another good idea shot down.

"would be preferable to let each individual improve (through books, education, and workouts) "
I still feel it is a bad idea for the rapist to get stronger so next time he won't have any problem shutting the girl up.

I don't think the government should pay for their education past high school. Go to school on your own time, not the time society is taking away from you.

Books are good, only if they are read. I don't see how you can get them to read unless they are so bored there is nothing else to do (of course they would have to know how to read before that worked).

I would prefer instead of improving their selves in prison, that prison gave them a inhuman desire to improve their selves and their lot after they get out of prison (if this is done through scare tactics, brain washing, or torture --- I don't care).

Although it seems providing them with a quiet environment does not work .... so I am all out of good ideas on to accomplish the goal of rehabilitation

How do the Japanese do it?

cube

Bush

This is my first political prediction ever.

I am predicting that if the economy goes up and Iraq turns even slightly in Bush's favor that he will win the 2004 election.

the prison system

Early Puritans in our country already built your system in the late 1800s or early 1900s. (I watch a lot of History Channel when I am in places that get reception.) The prison was blank. Prisoners were confined. The entire place was silent. The goal was to let prisoners meditate on their behavior and ways to make it better. Instead, everyone went insane. Self mutilation was commonplace. Not a single soul was fit for reintroduction into society. If you are going to go the path of the twisted and weird, at least do something sensible like Manchurian-style brain washing. Slight torture, friendship, indoctrination, confusion, integration, etc. It would be preferable to let each individual improve (through books, education, and workouts) but if control is your preference then go all out.

Prison system comment

"All I know is if you make prison hell, you will produce demons."
I agree, but what I meant by making the prison hell - was make it a special kind of hell.

In this hell there will be no physical punishment dished out. Actually there won't be much of anything of interest done at all.
The food will be really boring. There will be no books. There will be no physical activity. There will be no work.
There will be very little social activity. There also will be very little noise from machinery and outside interferences. I don't know if a prisoner should be able to visit with others from the outside world. I don't know if letters should be accepted. There will be pastel colored walls. There will just be a lot of sitting by yourself thinking. The goal of this hell will be to make life as simple and boring as possible. The reasoning behind these actions is to not give the prisoners anything to be angry about, and to ease there anger at society (if it exists).

Of course there will be aids to push your thinking in certain directions. Suggestions on the walls, such as society is made up individuals and individuals make up societies. And that individuals need to be responsible to make society work. The suggestions on the wall will list the duties of responsible citizens, and at the end state that you are a individual.

Every prisoner will get a item (plant, cat, dog, or some other kind of animal), to keep alive. The animal will be chosen based on the person personality, likes and dislikes. This is to teach them personal responsibility. If they kill or loss there frist item, they will get another one. If they kill or lose they second, they will be all alone.

Also, if they don't work out and are allowed to eat less that will save the taxpayer a little money. But this prison will be fairly cheap already, which means that we can build more of them, which may or may not be a good thing.

cubicle

hmmm

Sunburn is terrible. The pain is nearly constant. Showering and sleeping hurts. Broken bones ache for weeks. Sharp cuts sting and more jagged one are awful. But killing brain cells is euphoric. Ever wonder about that? It's like not only society but biology is hinting that we are a little bit too smart for ourselves. Maybe progress was the wrong answer. Perhaps we long surpassed the upper limit of practical knowledge. I often feel like my surroundings are too dumb for me. I think sometime ago man built a rocketship and used his technology to climb out of paradise. And we were proud.

The Iraqi problem?

I hate all of these armchair diplomats spewing out policy for a war they aren't involved in. Maybe financially, but their asses aren't over here with me. Everything is a little more complicated when you are in the middle. We can't strong arm the Iraqi people and risk enraging 25 million people who already kind of tired of us. At the same time we can't allow a handful of terrorists to blow up another helicopter every week. We didn't have an exit policy when we started this war, and now it is biting us in the ass. A good defensive posture is our best bet. We need to leave as soon as we can, but we need to make sure the job is finished before we pack it up. And that crap about Iraqis not shooting at UN troops is drivel. They have already attacked the UN several times. America is only the most visible target because we are the largest force here. Our allies are attacked indiscriminately. We need to make the transition to Iraqi government as smoothly and quickly as possible and leave quietly. We the war against Saddam. We don't need to start another one against the rest of Iraq.

prison system and an apology

I am sorry I havent posted in so long, but duty calls. Whatever. In response to the prison system critique, I think that half of those people shouldnt be there and you should help the other half to improve themselves. If they arent educated they wont know how to do anything except commit crimes (sell drugs, steal cars, etc). And since most of them will end up taking low wage manual labor jobs when they get out you may as well get built while they are serving their time. I guess it boils down to whether you think criminals are born that way or if they are made (and consequently could be un-made) by society. All I know is if you make prison hell, you will produce demons.

Music in the new age

The main problem that I have with this article http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/147245_downloads07.html

is the statement:

Typically about two-thirds of those songs were downloaded over the Internet, while the rest were legally copied into the computer from CDs, Crupnick said

Trading music is illegal, that I feel is obvious.
Stopping me from making backups of the data I purchased is wrong. Once I buy data (music), it is mine and no one else's. I cannot legally give that data (music) to some one else, but I can make as many back-ups of that data, as I want. If I happened to want to store that data onto hard dive (it is common, cheap, and relativity fault tolerant), I should be able to. They say that it is illegal to do that, which according to the digital millennium copyright act it is.

The only way around that is setting up a licensing agreement with the user, much like the software industry has done. When I purchase the CD, I have a unique id for that number. I can make as many copies as I want but I have to have original id number for the cd that I have to use to listen to the music.
That will never work. So they are stuck letting me make back-ups of my data (with no intent to share).

I just though i would let you in on the way the music industry is trying to strong arm the consumer.

cube

What a great idea

The Guardian recently had a round table discussion about the painfully obvious facts in Iraq.

Suggestions to come out of the expert panel:

Arrest more people and keep them arrested.
Close Iraq's borders.
America needs to pull out of Iraq.
Our good friend Toby has this to say about replacing the troops.

American troops in Iraq provided a potent target, said Toby Dodge of Warwick University. "There has to be the introduction of troops who will not be shot - and that means the United Nations."

Re-establish Iraqi sovereignty.
Restore infrastructure.
Tackle unemployment.

Wow that was breath taking. If they can solve the increasing financial woes of their own countries and handle the extremist governments of their own regions .... the world will be perfect.

cube

Martix

It was really disappointing.

I am posting this at 3:15 central time. And I saw it before you.


cube

Presidential elections

I was doing some reading based on this comment by Michael Moore

"I think it's time we all stood up and started asking some questions of these individuals. The bottom line: Anyone who would brazenly steal an election and insert themselves into OUR White House with zero mandate from The People is, frankly .... Sadly ... Capable of anything... "

website I found
http://www.campvishus.org/PresPartyShare.htm#Share

Which it states that bush got more electoral votes than gore (at the very end in the foot notes). It also states Gore's total of popular vote (which is more than bush's for the 2001 elections).
"Zero mandate" is what bothers me about the quote. It appears to me that bush got about 47.9 percent of the vote. Now that is not a majority but a good percentage. So it was not zero mandate.

Also, it would seem that it would be logical to attack the electoral college in addition to the man who used the electoral system to his advantage.

It is sort of like the stock market, when some one gets rich using the system in a way that everyone knew it could be used in, but when it actually happens it seems unfair. Do you take away the guy's money?
No, you just reform the system.

But oh well.

also check out this one. It is a good one.

http://www.opensecrets.org/index.asp

cubicle

A friend's poem

The sun is up,
the sky is clear,
my sister is coming,
I am happy.

The fog is back,
the moon is full,
the weekend is near,
I am content.

author: Stewardess

cube

Criminals and the prison system Part 2 (rehabilitation)

This is a continuation of my thoughts on the prisons of America. The criminal system is doing a good job of getting criminals off the streets (crime rates have fallen), but studies have shown that they don't do a good job of deterring crime, or making habitual criminals not want to commit crimes.

I don't know how to prevent individuals from committing the first crime that lands them in jail, but once they are in the prison system I have some ideas.

You cannot teach someone to be a model citizen. You can show them the light but it will always be their choice on whether or not the choose to become an asset to society instead of an liability.

But you can instill fear and hate of the prison system into them.
Prison needs to be hell. You need to have horrible but nutritious food every day except for the last day of the month (show them the light at the end of the tunnel). Also, little or no entertainment. Prisoners should be bored out of there minds, so they have time to think about what they have done. They should not be allowed to work out (a person should not be stronger when they come our of prison). They should be offered the same basic education as everyone else (high school diploma), but after that they should have to pay for any additional education their selves, after they are our of prison.

Everything in prison should concentrate on what they are going to do when they get out. There should be pamphlets (very easy to read pamphlets), that explain how do do simple stuff, such as open a checking account, apply for college, interview for a job.

That is the first time a person is in prison.

If they get in there a second time, more extreme action should be taken. It is a well known fact prisoners have a lower average IQ than the rest of the population.

http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/vda/vda-sec08.html

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/publications/executive/stat_report_fy02/stat_report_fy02_intro.htm



When should use this to our advantage and brain wash them. You will use drugs to make them more suggestible. We will have to instill in them, the ideas that they will not steal, kill, or do anything wrong. You will have to change their entire outlook on life. We will give them a monk like state of contentment about their poverty and give them a priest like motivation to help others. We could put them in pastel cells with plants that they have to care for. When they leave there cell they will be bombarded with slogans of peace and goodwill toward man. Of course a small percentage of prisonors will fail, and their reaction against the brainwashing might be worse than what they would have done (but the overall average of the crime would be less than before). But once they are back in prison, they will receive special treatment, where their minds will be rebuilt (or we could just ship them to counties that we don't like).

cube

Fishing trip

I have just got back from the work fishing trip. It is interesting ...... I don't particularly like the entire process, although the fishing is real nice. You have to leave from work early to get to the cabin on the river where we stay for the entire weekend. Leaving work early is not a problem (it is quite nice actually), but the fact that you have to drive 4 and half hours to get to the cabin sucks. It is really only 20 miles from Memphis, but because of the number of curves, kinks and strategically-placed- grandmothers driving it takes much longer to get there than normal. So Friday night you stay up late drinking and gambling (which I don't drink, but I enjoy the betting), then you wake up very early Sat morning to go fishing. I could go fish in a boat, but I choose to fly fish (it is much tougher, and you have to think like a fish). This involves standing in a current not quite strong enough to carry you away, while constantly trying to catch fish and watching for rising water, because at any moment the generators (on the dam which makes the river) could on. If that happens you are swimming until you can reach shore, if you don't drown first. Then once you get done fishing, you come back to the cabin. On Saturday night, we watch football, drink and gamble. This time the food was particularly good. The Sunday morning you wake up early again to leave (and the reason why you wake up early to leave is because you rode with an old man who can't sleep past 6:00 am).

overall score:
6 out of ten. I only caught two fish, and lost the money I took to the table to gamble with. Had I caught more fish and won a big take, I would have given it a seven point five.

I am at a loss for words

The onion has now started publishing true stories, and they are just as funny as the real thing.
I am now confident that the world will end soon.

http://www.theonion.com/3941/top_story.html

Loan for Iraq?

Link against loan to Iraq

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27064-2003Oct14.html

The loan idea sounds great when you first hear it ... but it has some problems.
This above link has some good points. My point is much simpler, though. The government cannot give another government money, and say it is a loan. It takes two parties to give a loan, the one giving it and the one receiving it. Normally a loan requires some type of capital in which the lender can reclaim if the loan is not paid or at least a mutual agreement that it is a loan. We have neither in this case

So what we are really doing is just playing some childish game where we make the rules. "I will give you this and you will give me it back." Which this lovely game can be ruined by the younger player's stubbornness and refusal to give back the item that we gave them. Most likely we will get upset when Iraq does not pay us back, just like children.


This is an update on the status of the loan.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1017iraq17.html

Criminals and the prison system Part 1

This blog is about the prison system and what should be done to streamline it. In the name of time and space I have made some generalizations, which I will try to point these out wherever applicable and support with links.

The prison system in America has some major issues.

As pointed out in this link, America has a disproportionate amount of criminals in fact, more than any other nation. The article did not qualify this statement, although I think that it should have. For example, does America have more prisoners than Australia? Australia's population is about 20 million people, and all of them are known criminals. The article is flawed, but has some have some good points.

http://www.mpp.org/TX/news_4101.html

The good news is that even though we have a large percentage of criminals, our crime rates have gone down as evidenced by this link, but has had unintended consequences. Such as cuts made in rehabilitation programs, as prison systems try to handle the new influx of prisoners.
http://threehegemons.tripod.com/threehegemonsblog/id30.html

According to the link, a significant percentage of criminals will repeat offend after they get out of prison. The more time that a person has been to jail, the more likely that person is to repeat offend. A major point of prison system is to keep people from coming back. Apparently, we are not doing a good job of that right now.

The purposes of prison are to put the very bad people away for a very long period of time (this is being done and done well I think). Secondly, to take the people who have committed small crimes off the street and rehabilitate them.

The second part of the second statement is where we are failing at, and I will suggest some methods for achieving this in the next post about prisons.

Cubicle

I have been busy a little while with responsibilites over here. First, one more page in the book of Technology Will Save Us All. Researchers at Duke University have created a robotic arm that can be controlled by a monkey's neural impulses. This could lead to replacement limbs that are controlled directly by the brain (much like your current limbs) or even a system to bypass damaged sections of the spinal cord and restore movement to paraplegics. Even more exciting, people may one day be able to implant their brains into robot bodies and shuffle off these mortal coils once and for all.

Mahathir

"On Friday, Mahathir said Westerners such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell receive little fallout for labeling the Prophet Muhammad a "terrorist," while statements about Israel's actions against Palestinians draw immediate charges of anti-Semitism."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/17/international1303EDT0586.DTL

Hasn't the prime minister of Malaysia ever heard of separation of church and state?

cubicle

Real reason for Iraq

I just wanted to relate this information to the world.


Bush's insistence before and after the war that Saddam Hussein had ties to Osama bin Laden failed to convince her -- "I didn't really think that there was a link" -- but, she said, the situation was getting to a point that Iraq was becoming a magnet for anti-US militants.

"Now there's chaos, now all the terrorists are coming to kill an American."

Even if ridding Iraq of its "terrible" leader had its merits, Albright added: "I don't understand why the war happened now. I would have liked to see us concentrate on Afghanistan."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/031016/19/m40i.html


The anti-us militants that Albright refers to are the real reason we are in Iraq.

Ask yourself this question? If I were a disgruntled male youth in a middle eastern country and suddenly realized that America was the cause of all my problems, would I A) join a terrorist group and go to America to fight or B) just go buy a gun and go to Iraq. You would most likely choose B because it would be easy to do and you would see very immediate results.

The are going to attack us anyways, so we might as well take the fight to them.
The entire strategy behind the war in Iraq is to concentrate the enemy, so that they can be dealt with. I thought this was obvious, but Ms. Albright thinks it is a bad thing that they are going to kill Americans in Iraq. She apparently missed the real strategy behind the war. I bet she sucks at checkers, also.

Ms. Albright (if you read this), up for a game of checkers??

Pete Yorn

I had one of the best musical experiences of the 21st century last night at the Pete Yorn concert. First, it was a wonderful concert in a crappy, poorly let venue. There were maybe a few hundred people there, most dedicated fans. I think it is a bit spooky that his songs sound exactly like the do on the CD, but this lends to singing along, which I enjoy.
He knows how to "rock out really well" according to a friend that was there with me. Pete has an awesome stage presence,and puts forth lots of effort.

The second coolest event of the night was when I acquired one of his guitar picks. He had been tossing picks out to the audience all night. I was standing right in front of him, but the coveted prize had not landed close to me yet. I was standing about 4 to 5 feet left of where I had been standing most of the night when he threw out a pick. It hit the girl in front of me, and then I lost sight of it. Next, she kinda just put here hands by her face and did that excited-girl-jump thing girls do. Which I was at first stunned because she did not dive for it, then I was stunned because the rest of the crowd did not dive for it, but this repeated stunning only lasted a little while before I analyzed the problem and acted to solve it.

The problem was that the pick had fallen to the ground, which in a dark crowded area the chances of finding the pick on sticky floor littered with random garbage is small. What I needed was light. What was I to do? I have no flashlight, no special powers to see in the dark, and I can't make parts of my body glow. I do have a cell phone with a screen that has a soft green glow. I quickly pulled it out of my pocket, unlocked the keypad and start looking for the holy grail of the concert floor. I located it in about 2 seconds, it was partially underneath the girls foot in front of me, so I moved\punched her leg and picked the pick up. There was no crawling, no messy clean up afterward. It was great.

The coolest event of the night was when I met Pete yorn. My posse went to eat somewhere as we were walking back to our car, we noticed that his tour bus was still outside. We walked over, I was naturally cynical, but just as I was about to say something, he popped out of this crowd of people and started shaking hands with our group as he walked to his bus. I said "That was a great show" while shaking his hand (he is not as tall as I thought he was) and he said "Thanks", and as he was walking away I said "I hoped you enjoyed Memphis". And he may have responded to that, but I think he was talking to someone else.

cubicle

What if...

You created a clone of yourself then killed the clone. Would that be murder?

When a person creates another object through almost any means (i.e. farming, chemical processes, or even stock trading), the products of that process are the persons to keep and do with what they wish. The only case in which we really change that standard are with children, it is against the law to beat up your child. But if you commissioned your clone, it should be yours to do with what you wish. I think that killing you clone, if you want, is perfectly reasonable.

Even with animals we can do what we want with. I could go by a very expensive pure bred dog, if I want, then shoot it. I am not saying that it would be smart, but it was my dog to do with as I wish. I only wasted my money and my time. I think there are some laws that prevent cruelty to animals, but you can argue that it is not overly cruel to just kill the dog quickly, plus if your dog goes missing. Are you going to bring it up to the authorities?
I mean it is not like you are sitting there burning holes in the dog's eyes with cigarette butts.

cubicle

Internet checkers

When ever you upgrade to XP you have got to try internet checkers. I totally destroyed some people, and then when up to intermediate, and now I am not that good....but I spend about 5 hours of my Sat. doing it, and I feel great.

cubicle

For Those of us with a lot of free time.

Just found this on the web.

How to Request Declassified MKULTRA and Bluebird/Artichoke Records[81]



Central Intelligence Agency

FOIA and Privacy Act Coordinator

Washington, DC 20505



Re: Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Request



This letter constitutes my formal request for information pursuant to the provisions of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts, 5 USC552. I am requesting the three-volume CD set that includes a copy of a shareware viewer of the nearly 18,000 pages of MKULTRA and Bluebird/Artichoke records. Enclosed is a check for $30 made payable to the United States Treasurer.



Sincerely,

[Name, address, telephone number, and date required]

NB 206

The Paradox of Modern War

This year's sequel to the 1991 Gulf War was a military victory but an ideological loss. In terms of swiftly conquering organized resistance and overtaking objectives, we redefined what military success means. Not since every single conquest of France has a nation ever given way so easily to a foreign power. In terms of political objectives, we removed the evil regime that ruled a country we honestly don't want to govern. We ferociously devoured every last Cracker Jack, but found that the prize in the bottom of the box was lacking. Now we are left with the burden of victory instead of the spoils of war. This isn't a defect in the thinking of any major political party or administration as much as it is an indicator of prevailing global values. Not just the effectiveness of conventional warfare is being questioned, but the very necessity to wage conventional wars. It is like taking a chainsaw to a debate. If you wield the chainsaw effectively you will lose the debate because your force was excessive. If you don't use the chainsaw you just end up looking like a jackass for bothering to bring it in the first place. If you are big, violence is always the easy answer. It just usually isn't the right one.

Even the smartest men are beaten sometimes

Note:
Any names of companies, corporations, and/or services are fictional and have no relation to actual companies, corporations, and/or services. Additionally, the ideas presented in this post are a thought experiment only, and have not been tried in reality. Attempt any of the methods in this post at your own risk.

I have an American Express® Delta Skymiles® card, which this card has an interesting feature of giving you a mile or two miles for every dollar that is spent on the card. At a preset number of Delta SkyMiles®, you will get upgrades to airline tickets or even free tickets to any where in the world. Since I am getting these miles for essentially for free (after some yearly charges and credit card protection charges), is there any possible way to increase the amount of rewards that I get. There are a few ways you can increase the number of miles you get through American Express®, but over all I am unimpressed at the speed I can accumulate miles. The only way of increase the amount of Delta Skymiles® is buy spending more. This solution is not a good one because I have a limited income.

So the real question that I am asking is, "Can I increase the number of Delta Skymiles® , with out actually spending money?"

I will go through the ideas, and how each was shot down.

1. Cash Withdraws/Balance transfers
Read the TOS of my American Express® Delta Skymiles® card, and found out that you don't get Delta
Skymiles® for these two transaction types. Additionally it would cost a certain percent of the total cash withdraw
to withdraw the funds. This would eat into my profits over time. Also if I were to withdraw more than my income,
and repay the money back to my credit card, I am sure that would send up a couple of flags at the IRS.

The bastards shot me down, once.

2. Special Bank overdraft protection
In this case, my bank offers a special program where I can connect my credit card to my checking account for
overdraft protection. To increase the amount of Delta Skymiles® I would need to intentionally overdraft my bank
account. Which this could have unintended consequences on my credit. I checked into this possibility, and the bank
will only let me use their proprietary card for my account, not any random American Express® Delta Skymiles® card.

The bastards shot me down, twice.

3. Sending money to a third party using the credit card through a fourth part, and have the third party send it back to me.
This idea could take several forms, one of the more complicated ones is using E-bay® as a front and then
purchasing items (or more exactly services) from that business. And then racking up the Delta Skymiles®.
Or using paypal to send money using your American Express® Delta Skymiles® card, and having your best
friend send the money back to you then paying the balance off of you American Express® Delta Skymiles®
card. This holds the same problems as the first one did with the IRS.

Tonight will be the night I try beauty number three. Wish me luck.

As I side note: I am only harming myself, by inflating the number of miles and therefore reducing the value of what I seek. Funny huh. But since the inflation is just happening to me, I will be rich.

And remember ....... I did all for the Delta Skymiles®

The Middle East and the Far Right

There is little hope for American policy in southwest Asia. It is like the meth junky girlfriend that you keep funneling emotion and money into. If this were a fairy tale, brainless optimism might pay off. But since this is a rational world, Israel will continue to stress tensions on one side of your war while Iranians boastfully enrich uranium on the other side of you. Fortunately, the visionary thinking of Our Great Leader has positioned us directly in the center of the toilet, just waiting for the impending flush before all of this shit starts flying our way.

I think that hydrogen bombs are not the worst offspring of Einstein's genius. That distinction belongs to nuclear power plants. They are the "dog ate my homework" of the modern age. "Bombs, what bombs? We just need to some lights." In the first fifty years after Hiroshima, not a single country has opted to harness that power as their primary energy source. Especially not countries setting next to the worlds largest supply of crude oil. Every secretive plan to develop world ending weaponry is defended on the hope that it might be used for something else. Nuclear power, much like fire, will not be a serious energy resource until its usefulness as a weapon has been diminished.

John Titor

For the uninitiated let me go into John a little.

John claimed to be a time traveler from the year 2036. He was supported by a government organization, essentially the army. I read a good bit of his site and I found it very interesting.

I think you have a few options when you are looking at this guy.

One: It is a hoax.
Two: He is crazy
Three: It is true.

When I initially came across this I wanted to debunk it very badly, but so far I have only found data that supports John's statements.

Here are two links about the problem with Unix that John referred to several times.

http://howstuffworks.lycoszone.com/question75.htm
http://www.deepsky.com/~merovech/2038.html

Which these links in themselves mean nothing, any one with a little computer background could have found these sites and used the information to further their hoax. They just go to show, that if it is a hoax, they at least took time to forge a good one.

Here is additional information along the same line, that I understand to be correct.


A PONDERING HAWKING = MICROSINGULARITY

Steven Hawking proposed the existence of microsingularities that were created in the big bang. They were probably about the size of a proton and disappeared over the years due to an effect of radiation evaporation. (Yes, black holes do emit energy.)

Hawking actually proved black holes on paper (using math), before we ever observed the existence of any. Which Hawking also stated that a black hole could disappear eventually if it turned the mass it was consuming into energy and radiated it. Which if I remember correctly had something to do with the event horizon of the black hole and particle interacting with it.


Does China have a manned space program between 2001 and 2036?

I believe they are pretty close to putting a man in orbit. It shouldn't surprise you if they do that soon.

Recent news items support this.


additional links
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0523/p25s02-stss.html

Which I don't think, saying a major piece discovery is going to come out of CERN, is very surprising. But it is interesting that there are articles which have appeared on the net after John posted. But also these projects were in the works as John was posting also.


I have two theories one that he was crazy, which I think is most likely (some of his post seemed as if the had just woken up in a new world, which being crazy, high , or time travel could have that effect)

The other is that it is real and his government knew that he would come back and post on the web. And they let him do it anyways because they wanted the outcome he affected.....

sand thinks that me might be kin to john

cube

ESPN PAGE 2 Quote from Dr Hunter S Thompson

Our dangerously goofy child President from Texas is a squalid example of trouble coming home to roost. He is like a half-bright football coach who goes into a big game without a Game Plan. BOOM! Shame and failure will follow you for all the days of your life. Selah.
The Bush family reeks of fraud and bad karma. But even worse than our wretched, gibbling president are the cowardly whores in Hollywood who are currently smearing film stars and music people like Johnny Depp by calling them unpatriotic Americans who righteously question the wisdom of invading a whole nation of Islam -- 1.8 billion worshipers -- which is a dangerously stupid idea. Disagreeing with Donald Rumsfeld about bombing anybody who gets in our way is not a crime in this country. It is a wise and honorable idea that George Washington and Benjamin Franklin risked their lives for. These thieves in the White House are so crazy with greed and power, and they are causing so much drastic damage to the world we live in, that they are the ones who should be put on trial for treason.
OK, I am getting a little excited here, so I think I'll wrap this up quickly, before I spiral out of control and burst into flames. I am widely known as a pure-bred, natural-born patriot and a lover of what this country used to stand for. The Statue of Liberty wasn't out there for nothing. Beware of War Mongers. They don't give a hoot in hell if you live or die. They are in this racket strictly for themselves. Mahalo.

A slow crawl toward the apocalypse

I am blogging from Baghdad, the front row seats to the inevitable destructive spiral prophesized by John Titor. We are sweeping up the mess of a short and rather pointless war. All of the promises of terrorist training camps and wmd that were supposed to justify this in the end never materialized. And with the head of Saddam Hussein slipping away in the dusty night, Bush doesn't even have a good trophy to hang by the fireplace. The truth is that we came unprovoked and uninvited. We overthrew a despot that was no more threatening than an evil mosquito and liberated a nation that cant take care of itself. Now we have the incompetency of the Bush administration writing apology notes with one hand and toilet training Iraq with the other. "Okay, this is a constitution. Just fill in the blanks as they apply to your country." Maybe this is what you should show children when you are trying to convince them that cocaine kills braincells.

Ode to a White Broad

 

Ode to a whiteboard 

A blank whiteboard is a beautiful scene.

I love to write on you with blue, red, and green.

Out of the corner of my eye I can catch your glean.

You are twenty-four square feet of clean

You are an empty canvas where I will write my quotes.

On you I will write my notes.

I will fill you with business plans, project scopes, and pseudo-code

This is my ode

To a whiteboard