Sunday, November 09, 2003

-------------------- That pesky global warming causes everything. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I can hold my own. I pride myself on having some common sense about things, though much of that comes from the experiences of life. But, no matter how unintelligent one... [Attaboy] 10:08:44 PM    comment []

-------------------- 15 years!?  Wow!  Homer and Marge must really be hauling down the big bucks per episode by now.  It hasn't gone to their heads apparently.  They still live in the same modest middle class tract home and drive the same cars.  So refreshing to see mega stars that don't have mega ego's.  They haven't even sued anyone have they? 10:03:41 PM    comment []

-------------------- Don't Quit as We Did in Vietnam Today we are haunted, in thinking about Iraq, by the fact that a noisy, self-important, narcissistic minority talked the United States into betraying its allies. (Loyalty didn't mean a lot to antiwar demonstrators; honor didn't mean a lot.) We betrayed our allies and hurried home, to introspect. They stayed on, to suffer. We were eager to make love, not war, but the South Vietnamese weren't offered that option. Their alternatives were to knuckle under or die. It was my fault, mine personally; I was part of the antiwar crowd and I'm sorry. But my apology is too late for the South Vietnamese dead. All I can do is join the chorus in shouting, "No more Vietnams!" No more shrugging off tyranny; no more deserting our friends; no more going back on our duties as the strongest nation on Earth. 9:32:26 PM    comment []

--------------------  Nation-building on the double    MAKHMUR, Iraq -- Seven months ago, Capt. Michael Burns, age 25, was a U.S. Apache attack-helicopter pilot. Now his assignment is nation-building. He's fixing schools, piping water, and helping settle land disputes. "I love it," he says. "I wouldn't trade this job for any job in the world right now." They love him back. At the girls' Kurdish primary school in the Kurdish-Arab town of Makhmur, the tall black soldier is mobbed by a gang of giggly eight-year-olds. The school had nothing before the army came -- not a single desk -- that wasn't broken. Now it boasts new furniture, a computer, a copying machine, a TV and a fridge, as well as brand-new traditional instruments for music lessons. 7:15:11 PM    comment []

-------------------- Picture of the Day  I'll drink to that! 6:27:53 PM    comment []

------------------- I watched the news last evening and never heard a positive word about Iraq. just the killings and bombings.  Some balance in the news media would be nice, but unlikely   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.   Since  President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...nearly all of Iraqa's 400 courts are functioning.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts, exceeding the pre-war average.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...Coalition forces had rehabbed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than their target.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...doctor salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraqa's children.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked canals.  They now irrigate tens of thousands of farms.  This project has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...we have restored over three-quarters of pre-war telephone services and over two-thirds of the potable water production.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... there are 4,900 full-service connections.  We expect 50,000 by January first.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the wheels of commerce are turning.  From bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and towns.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...95 percent of all pre-war bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily.   Since  President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the central bank is fully independent.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Iraq has one of the worlds most growth-oriented investment and banking laws.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Iraq (has) a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.   Since  President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...satellite dishes are legal.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...foreign journalists aren't  on 10-day visas paying mandatory and extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... there is no Ministry of Information.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...there are more than 170 newspapers.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... foreign journalists and everyone else are free to come and go.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...a nation that  had not one single legislative, judicial or executive-- of a representative government, does.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils.  Baghdad"s first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city council elected its new chairman.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in Iraqa's history, run the day-to-day business of government.    Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and small, as part of (a) strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to his zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force cooperation, torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing games...murdering critics.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...children aren't  imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree with the government.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...Saudis will hold municipal elections.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.   Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian -- a Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for democracy and for peace.   Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Iraq is free. Thanks Sid. 4:46:09 PM    comment []

-------------------- Range Report -- .22 LR Shotshells, Part I.  Howard Veit asked me in an email whether, given the experience of the guy who shot the bear with the .410ga shotshell, whether a similar effect would not be achieved with a .22 shotshell into the face of a goblin, at close range. Well, in a spirit of scientific enquiry, of course, I set off to the range to test the hypothesis. Here's a pic of a .22 shotshell compared to a normal .22 LR... [Kim du Toit] 4:07:56 PM    comment []

-------------------- Victor Hugo. "I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses." [Quotes of the Day] 4:03:11 PM    comment []

--------------------- NewsMax -- Sheesh, and Fie. Clark 'Jokes' Southerners Are 'Stupid' - NewsMax headline.     You can read the NewsMax story here.  First, though, here... [Curmudgeonly & Skeptical] What's next? Will the Arkansas Rhodes scholar follow his joke about stupid Southerners with more "humorous" stereotyping about Irish drunkards, cheap Jews and lazy blacks? That would surely spice up the campaign trail. [NewsMax.com] 3:55:46 PM    comment []

-------------------- okay, i'll tell you.[Gut Rumbles] I've listened to Jesse Jackson and other race-baiting assholes call the Confederate flag a symbol of racism. I've also seen hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan waving that flag as they behave as race-baiting assholes. I see very little difference between the two, and they BOTH defile that flag. 8:56:12 AM    comment []

-------------------- Morning Comics. [American RealPolitik] 8:45:54 AM    comment []

-------------------- I had a bad childhood so its ok for me to act like a gigantic AH!  Boo - Hoo.   This happens to me every time I think about or see this BITCH! 8:21:40 AM    comment []