Swimming Upstream, in a Stream of Consciousness

Been a busy week, on international, national, local, and in my own little sphere of existence. While watching CNN’s Headline News I was treated to a number of headlines that caught my eye – some of which sparked a response in my mind – so I thought I’d ramble a bit here. First and foremost: a salute to the troops all over the world – you’ve decided to use your lives to defend our country and I thank you for it. No bullshit here; my support is yours. God knows the Army would have no use for me specifically – I’ve got an abnormally short wingspan (due to T-Rex type arms,) I’m literally blind without glasses (3500 over 20), and if laid horizontally I’m shaped like a speed bump. Unless the Intelligence wing of the armed forced pulled a Karl-from-Starship-Troopers type recruitment – and put an Atari 2600 joystick in my hands – I’m useless. So. What else is going on out there?

I was sad to learn that the US lost 4 troops and the UK 8 troops in a helicopter accident. There’s also a report of a US Marine that was killed during the continuing push into Iraq. My condolences to their families; I was hoping that this mission would have gone without a loss, but that’s a bit of a pipedream.

I heard that Iraq has shot off a number of SCUD missiles at Kuwait. I believe those have a range of 185 miles. If I’m not mistaken, these are well over the strike range limit that the UN imposed on Iraq after the first Gulf War, which would classify these as weapons of mass destruction. So, if I’m not mistaken, he has access to and is using the very weapons that he was supposed to destroy over the last 12 years… has anyone told the people that are still protesting this? Does Blix know? Has the UN been informed? This is from a layman’s point of view, but it does look quite simple to me.

Saddam is rumored to be alive and well, according to an Iraqi press conference, yet hasn’t been seen on TV. Now I ask you this: for a nation that has been extremely adept at working the political media, what does it mean to you that Saddam is not on TV with a life broadcast or a specifically recorded release? Does that mean we nailed the little mustache sporting bastard? Hard to say, but until he pokes his head out of a hole and gets it on TV, I’m thinking the little beastie is gone.

Iraqi TV continues to claim that we’re purposing targeting civilian targets. Tell it to the French because we don’t give a crap. The only reason why the French, Germans, and Russians are calling for a halt to military action is because Iraq owes them money, so don’t expect much sympathy from them either. Even they know what we’re going after – hell, CNN tells the world were we are, and what were targeting at least once a week.

Apple finally released a new version of iPod software yesterday (1.2.6) with new battery management, fixing a number of issues caused by the 1.2.1 version – time will tell on that one.

Former Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim was found guilting on 16 out of 21 counts of federal corruption. He’ll be appealing I’m sure, and this next time he’ll pony up better cash for the jury to get the 16 outstanding counts rejected. In the meantime, he’ll be spending some quality time in Danbury, I’m sure.

The French have come around saying that if Saddam uses chemical weapons on the united force, they will come to our aid. OK. So after months of “don’t attack! He’s complying! He doesn’t have chemical weapons!” you’re now telling us that if he uses the weapons he doesn’t have, you’ll come to our aid? Oi. Your nation is almost completely useless. Go make cheese or something.

President Bush opted to nick all of the money frozen from the first Gulf War. Congress has been instructed to hold this for the people of Iraq; translation here is that the three nations above won’t get to wet their beaks in this pool of cash. If you do business with such an idiot of a leader, I would think they’d expect to lose the loan. Duh.

Protesters are all over the news still. Someone needs to get the media to stop covering it or to start giving equal airtime to the pro-Bush and pro-Armed Forces supports. The time for these people to leave is long over due. You protested. Your voice was heard. Your position was considered. Your position was not the way the decisions went, so now put all this energy behind our troops or shut the fuck up already! Why does this need to be explained to them anyway? Go hug a tree for fuck’s sake already!

Actors and Actresses are protesting the war. Others are promoting support for the war. Both sides are complaining that they feel they might miss out on future jobs if a movie company didn’t approve of their position. Does anyone else think that the government should start funding Pixar so we can retired the whole acting profession?

Australia troops are now active in the war as well, pushing into Iraq as the US and UK troops do. Attaboy, Ozfolk!

RandyRants added a new small feature yesterday. Rather than trying to keep up with reviews, I’ll tell you want I’m currently reading and listening to – it’s just easier.

North Korea is pouting. They are! They’ve shot off another missile or two into the Sea of Japan because they feel the UN and the US isn’t paying enough attention to them. The US message to them is “Be with you in a minute!” but they don’t like that. Yet they were just saying yesterday that since the US is in South Korea and performing exercises there that it’s the first stage of a pre-emptive attack against North Korea. They also say that our attack on Iraq – nevermind that multiple nations are involved – is a perfect example of how we want to own the world. These guys need to decided what they want. Do they want our attention or do they want to be left alone? Either way, if they keep shooting weapons at or over Japan, we will be forced shut them down. A huge thanks to Mr Clinton for letting this whole situation fester over his eight years in office – well done!

Here’s a thought for the North Korean claim of us “owning the world”. We just want to secure our place in it; we haven’t even added a new territory or state in over 50 years. Iraq is a threat to our place in the world. They will be dealt with. So is North Korean. We’ll get to you guys in a little while and then you’ll be dealt with. And if so many nations are anti-US and feel that we are exerting our influence on the world, maybe we should become isolationists. Close up the borders. No more aid. No more world support. No more UN, either. We’ll just screen in our sandbox and live. Everyone can fend for themselves. See how long that would last, if it happened…

Some protester in San Franscisco tell off the Golden Gate bridge yesterday, during a protest rally. Having seen the bridge in SanFran first hand, um. It’s pretty freakin big. Not sure what happened here, and while it’s terrible that someone died, I gotta know: How does one fall off a multi-mile bridge? And does this mean that now we need disclaimers on protest cards or something?

UK troops have secured the short Iraqi coastline, cutting off Iraq’s sole route to the Gulf. Attaboy, Pommes!

Apple Customer Relations and I have been talking up a storm – they are having me send back my defect PowerBook and are prepared to replace it if they can’t fix it. It seems that they are finally agreeing that there’s some models that get hotter than others, but they can’t seem to retrofit the older models – the newer produced models don’t have this problem.

Larry King needs to retire. I’m tired of looking at his owl-esque head and he’s not really qualified to report on the war, like he was trying to last night. Be gone ye scary owl looking man!

I figured out why most new American cars automatically have driving lights on, and we’re unable to turn them off. It’s not for safety – it’s for the dickheads that drive in the fog, with 1/2 mile visibility without their lights on! I saw one car out of every 10 that didn’t have their lights on this morning. Most of the cars that were light-less were white, grey, or silver. So because of these chumpstains, all new cars have driving lights that are stuck on. Bah!

Have a good weekend y’all!


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