It's Happening Again....

Gee, why is it that the latest "report" from the House says that Iran is enriching uranium to weapons grade, but the UN denies it? Sounds a lot like "Iraq had WMD's" argument in 2002/2003. Hopefully we won't be fooled again. Iran was a good option for invasion BEFORE Iraq, now it can't happen. We are too spent, too exhausted to properly handle any crisis in Iran. We took the easy root, invading Iraq when NK or Iran was a more dangerous foe. We have a toehold (NOT a foothold) in the Middle East because of our invasion of Iraq, but it is tenuous at best. Now, with polls showing that Americans are tiring of the folly of Iraq, we are slowly building a case to invade Iran. Sorry, fool me once, shame on you (Tonkin Gulf), fool me twice, shame on me (current Iraq war), and there is no third time. Sorry, Georgie, you lost me.

The Obligatory 9/11 Post

Here it is!

Sorry, there was not much to learn from 9/11/2001. Here is what I think are the lessons:

1) The passengers on the planes should have watched "The Green Mile" where a sadistic killer "used their love for each other to kill them". Nobody on the planes (except for United 93, who had warning, a lot of warning) wanted to be the ones to challenge the threat of the "bombs" they had on the plane, for fear of being the one to set it off. Too bad, if they had, yes, we would have lost 300 people on the planes, but the towers and the Pentagon whould have been untouched.

2) Anybody can do anything if they are brazen enough. So either live in fear, or live.

3) NEVER, EVER, EVER, let the government use a crisis as a time to expand powers, create new organizations, etc.

OK, I've said it, enough of 9/11.

Breaking Up Has to be Done

I don't know why the US insists that Iraq has to be a unified country. There are groups within that country that not only hate each other, they believe their opponents NEED to die! We need to look at India/Pakistan, and more particularly Yugoslavia, where the country needed to be broken up along ethnic and religious lines. It's not ideal, it's leaving the potential for lots of future conflicts, yet it is also the fastest road to peace. The borders of Iraq were drawn practically at random anyways, why not create a few more nations and get some borders that make sense? Remember, the only way we had a Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was by the northern states, not just legalizing, but ACCEPTING the horror of slavery! And 70 odd years later, we needed a civil war to settle the issue once and for all. That was an issue that didn't have a "kill you enemy" religious principle behind it. The issues in Iraq DO have "kill you enemy" belief structures, and are intractable. And, before you say they are not intractable, consider your own religious beliefs. Are Catholics going to hell? Are Methodists? Shouldn't "unbelievers" be shunned, except when you are trying to convert them? There are lots of reasons we are becoming a nation of hypenated Americans, and religion is in the top three. Why should we, a nation breaking up, force a united government on a people already fractured by hundreds if not thousands of years of strife?

Dollars per Pupil

You know, if the teachers unions don't shut up about dollars/pupil, they are going to squashed! I just heard an otherwise intelligent person say "obviously, the richer communities spend more for pupil than the poor communities." That is completely, unequivocally WRONG!! Most urban schools spend 2 times the amount per pupil than most suburban and rural districts. For all this extra money, they perform WORSE than any other region. It's not the money, stupid, it's the bureaucacy! Of course, they can always play the "dollars per capita" card, but even there, they lose 9 times out of 10. Inner city youth do worse in school because money is being squndered on assistant to the assistant vice principals, and oh by the way, have you noticed where the poor people live?? I lived in a town that spent at the bottom 10th per pupil, yet scored in the top 10th. How? Maybe because the kids came home to "relatively" stable homes, with parents who cared, and, more important, had time to assist with homework. If we shrink back the overhead, and use money to help poorer families, maybe this differential between poor and rich communities will melt.

I Plead Guilty of Schadenfreude

The video of a reporter getting beat up by the subject of his investigate report almost made me grin. The number of times that these twit reporters hound people at their homes, work, in stores, always makes me wish one of their victims would turn around and clean their clocks. I know if I was driving home and saw my wife fighting with a group of three men, I would do as Mr. Suleimen did, and start pounding away on at least one of them. Why people think that a reporter chasing a woman while screaming "have you stopped beating your child" type questions makes for good news is beyond me. Mattes, the Fox reporter who appears to be another good looking airhead type that teh various Fox channels are famous for (we got a bunch of them in Boston too), should know better than to stake out a persons home, accompanied by one of his "victims" and a cameraman. Part of me hopes his face remains damaged enough that he loses the pretty boy look, and having no other skills, has to find real work. You can't hound a person, try to destroy their business, their personal reputation, just for ratings and get away with it. I hope the Mr. Mattes is just the first of these TV reporting leaches that gets what's coming.

The Mosquito Party

I should know better, but I have been engaged in a discussion on www.rightwingnews.com about Bill Maher. Failing to assault the logic of the arguments, they have resorted to calling me a mosquito. Here is my response:

CavalierX, that's a better analogy than you may think. Google "malaria" someday, and if you are patient enough to read the history of malaria, EEE, West Nile Virus, etc., you will see the mosquito changed the world. The sparkplug was an adaptation of a device to detect malaria (don't worry, I won't bore you with details that require critical thinking). Refrigeration was developed to aid in the healing of people with malaria. The need for pumps to drain the swamps....oh well, hopefully you get the point. Beware of mosquitos, and beware of ignoring them, for in the long run, we will win back our party.

You know, maybe the Mosquito party is a good name for next great political party. A million bites, 10 million bites, can defeat the Wingnuts and the Moonbats. Our choices do not have to be between religious fanatics and socialists. Care to join?

S Squared, D Squared

Well, it's been awhile, got myself into the world of Zigbee, which looks for all the world like the NEXT BIG THING, and I almost believe it. For now, I see enough niche applications to keep me busy for a long time to come. Checkout www.ember.com to see what all the hubbub is about.

I have been keeping tabs on current events, just not a lot to write about. NASA is late again, again. I had a girl friend like that, she was late every month, got tired of the drama. A lot of people are getting tired of NASA's drama. What do you expect from bureaucrats?

The Wingnuts and Moonbats are at full steam, and there is no holding them back. I'm tired of their drama too. Immigration, stem cells, secret prisons, Iraq, the war on terror, the death tax....ah yes, let the drama continue. The only campaign battle that interests me these days is the one being waged by Porkbusters. They are the one group with some common sense approaches to the exploding Federal budget.

I hope to be back blogging soon, the Zigbee stuff is settling down and my free time is slowly coming back. Catch you all next time!