BACKLASH
She's passed on, as we knew to be inevitable in the past few days. I still don't have the time, finger strength, or mental fortitude to write all my thoughts on the matter. Suffice to say I think its a big deal, and it will influence things in the future. I am not bitter against Jeb and Dubya as some people suggest her supporters would be...I know Jeb was constrained by law. The difference is that Democrat governors have a long history of intervening and contradicting the courts. I'd have loved to hear the words of Andrew Jackson, slightly modified: "Greer made his decision, now let him enforce it!"
I don't know who will pay the price for this. Certainly not the Republicans for "intervening"...that lame libmedia mantra is laughable. Did they damn Eisenhower for intervening with the 101st Airborne to see that black kids were not denied entry into schools? Where were the fevered shrieks of "states' rights" then? Well, my first guess would be from Robert "Sheets" Byrd, but that's beside the point.
How tragically ironic that the liberals resorted to lauding the concept of federalism, something they've never been much enamoured of, as well as the general concept that government intervention is undesirable. Liberals are made of government intervention; it is, as Eric Idle would say, "the very stuff and pith of all [they] hold most dear". Don't preach to me about states' rights! A most disingenuous argument.
More sad, horrifying irony. What was it that prompted such an extreme about-face from the libs? Why were they going to such extremes? To defend the right of an adulterous man with a shady past and suspect credibility to starve his mentally retarded wife to death.
Did I hear a peep out of NOW?
[crickets]
The only evidence offered that Terri Schiavo wanted to have the feeding tube removed is intrinsically untrustworthy. The husband waited for years, until after he had recieved a million dollar malpractice award and fathered children with another woman. Then...only then...did he "remember" that Terri told him she would want to die in such a scenario. What sort of idiot buys that line?
To be honest, I don't think anyone does, not even the libs and Judge Greer. Here is the difference. The libs considerate it unfortunate circumstance that the unfaithful bastard Schiavo is most likely just trying to pull the plug on an inconvenience. The reason they want her to die has nothing to do with her wishes. It has to do with the fact that they view such a life as not worth living. They see it as a mercy killing. Even had Terri never specified what she would want, many of the libs, deep in their hearts, still would think she should die. If any of you have read your history books, specifically concerning a certain Reich between the second and fourth if you follow, the hair should be standing up on the back of your neck at this point. The justification to kill because "such a life is not worth living" is abhorrent to me. Down's syndrome? Starve 'em. Birth defect? Drown them in the river. Inferior genes? Put them down. Inferior race? Gas them.
Jesse Jackson, though. Never thought there was room in my heart for affection or respect for the guy, but he bought a tiny little patch of real estate there the other day. Sure, its free camera time and I'm sure he lusts after that, but, well, call me a sucker, but I bought his sincerity. Maybe its because I've been listening to Stevie lately, getting blackified a bit. Ebony....and ahhhhvory...
Speaking of...the song apparently is featured in the movie "Guess Who" (Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher). Here's my beef. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney were cool. Paul was white but he wasn't white-bread, if you follow. He could groove, he could jam, he was smooth, you know? Ashton Kutcher? [Sideshow Bob-style shudder] He is a monument to antifunk. I mean, even the name, "Ashton". What a stupid suburban whiteboy name. I'm an equal opportunity name-mocker, bear in mind...I'll make fun of the Moquandas, LaBertrams, and Shawandas as readily as I'll mock the Ashingtons, Cougars, and Crawfords of suburbia. I know this is offtopic, but here goes...black people tend to name their children semi-random names, often beginning with "La" or some other prefix...they all have a similar sound typically, using similar syllables and consonants often. White people tend to name their boys with LAST NAMES FOR FIRST NAMES. Now, while I briefly considered "Rumsfeld" for our future son instead of our future Bull Terrier, it strikes me as dumb. I think the Latins have it right...Pedro, Maria, Juan, Carlos, etc. Simple names, traditional names.
Winston, though. That is a name.
"Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar."
31 March 2005
29 March 2005
Hats Off to the Reverend Jackson
While I am normally quite keen on ridiculing, lambasting, and criticizing the liberal and generally odious Reverend Je$$e Jack$on (hehehehe), today he made me step back and give him some credit.
The irony that the desperate, death-hungry Leftists try to spin this issue as entirely political...while no Democrat senator voted against a measure to save her life, and dozens of Democrats in the House voted for the bill, and Jesse Jackson himself is on the scene, for whatever motivation. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, that he is simply a man of his convictions, who will stand up for what he believes is right despite pressure contrariwise. No matter if I normally agree with his convictions! I respect him a bit more today. I'm still dubious as to his motivation (he has always struck me as a gluttonous addict of media attention), but given the benefit of the doubt, he has shown himself to be rather courageous today.
I still can't type about the issue. I'm too frustrated by it and too overcome with things to say. And my hands hurt like heck. That's what I get for being a writer, a computer hobbyist, an IT worker, a guitarist, AND a keyboardist. My destiny is carpal tunnel, without a doubt.
While I am normally quite keen on ridiculing, lambasting, and criticizing the liberal and generally odious Reverend Je$$e Jack$on (hehehehe), today he made me step back and give him some credit.
The irony that the desperate, death-hungry Leftists try to spin this issue as entirely political...while no Democrat senator voted against a measure to save her life, and dozens of Democrats in the House voted for the bill, and Jesse Jackson himself is on the scene, for whatever motivation. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, that he is simply a man of his convictions, who will stand up for what he believes is right despite pressure contrariwise. No matter if I normally agree with his convictions! I respect him a bit more today. I'm still dubious as to his motivation (he has always struck me as a gluttonous addict of media attention), but given the benefit of the doubt, he has shown himself to be rather courageous today.
I still can't type about the issue. I'm too frustrated by it and too overcome with things to say. And my hands hurt like heck. That's what I get for being a writer, a computer hobbyist, an IT worker, a guitarist, AND a keyboardist. My destiny is carpal tunnel, without a doubt.
25 March 2005
For someone who likes to write passionately about the issues of the day, the past week or two has been difficult, in a strange way. I am exercising restraint. The Terri Schiavo case is basically too big to even start to write about. It is one of those cases where there are so many points to make and so many holes in the opposition's arguments that there is nowhere to start. Not to mention the fact that I've read some of the most brilliant columns in a good while concerning this...from Thomas Sowell to Krauthammer to Peggy Noonan to Ann Coulter to David Limbaugh, etc. It is one of those things where I could make a thousand points, write tens of thousands of words on this...but not just one. So I refrain. I don't have the time, and my right hand aches with hints of carpal tunnel, so I must refrain.
Honestly, right now, every 5 seconds or so a brilliant point (either mine, or remembered from a column) comes up in my head that would wither and crush the libs' pro-euthanasia argument, but I have to say, no, I can't write about this. It's hard and I'd love to expound on this for hours, and I'll answer anyone who wants to have a civil debate on this with as much detail as possible...but writing on here to an absent audience? I want to, but I can't. I just can't get started. So I've got to end this post.
Honestly, right now, every 5 seconds or so a brilliant point (either mine, or remembered from a column) comes up in my head that would wither and crush the libs' pro-euthanasia argument, but I have to say, no, I can't write about this. It's hard and I'd love to expound on this for hours, and I'll answer anyone who wants to have a civil debate on this with as much detail as possible...but writing on here to an absent audience? I want to, but I can't. I just can't get started. So I've got to end this post.
10 March 2005
The Poetry of Funkytown
Romani Ite Domum
by Eustace Lufgren
Cantankerous wantons will clog the back door
No question they're after what you've got in store
Not a drop of remorse as they ravage the scene
And greedily labour to extract your spleen
Salvaged jalopies don't go for much bread
Better off in the frypan, least, that's what he said
Would you look me in the eyes and tell me that I'm real?
Tell me, how could you smile so warmly as I pillage and steal?
(And Don't You Care?)
Ooh baby, they gotta take it all away...
(Why Not Another Day?)
No honey, it's just got to be this way...
Don't shudder when they do their job, they're doing as they should
Please listen when I tell you that this all works out for good
Romani...Ite...Domum.
There'll come a day when you know you've paid your dues
And the snakes won't have a single word to say
You'll have cleared the balance on those ruby-studded shoes
And noone can take them away
No, not a soul could ever take those away
Eustace's most recent composition. Interesting to note the obscure Pythonisms, that I was hardly aware of. Romani Ite Domum will obviously strike a note of recollection with Life of Brian fans, and the first verse and the chorus have an almost horrific reference to (from The Meaning of Life) Live Organ Transplants. And oh, those ruby studded shoes. The mere words bring to mind a thousand Donald Fagen-isms. Next song:
Dance of the Glitterati
by Eustace Lufgren
That Harvey Daniels never had a past to face
He slunk away in sullen disgrace
Ripe with tonic musings of the tertiary world
A cognoscenti's mind unfurled
Break out the Chesters and tell it once more
Give them no quarter, this time as before
They'd love to see you squirm and writhe in karmic agony
But you'll spoonfeed them their words one by one
Loot the masses with an aptly seedy scheme
We'll choke back the urge to scream
Keep up that smile lest you fall from off your throne
They'll not cast you any bones
The jackals set upon him in the blink of an eye
Left him for dead and scurried on by
He never got the chance to say all that he meant to say
But we've not lost yet the writing on the wall
A frightful specter of a distant tet-a-tet
A charming smirk at fate
A dismal mantra chanted up into the sky
We're much too old to die
Break out the Chesters and tell it once more
Give them no quarter, this time as before
They'd love to see you squirm and writhe in karmic agony
But you'll spoonfeed them their words one by one
Break out the Chesters, eh? Dig deep into the Donald Fagen library, and you find the Chesterfield Kings and of course, Your Gold Teeth. The shocking thing I noted was just how accidentally poignant the last verse was, despite the fact that I errr Eustace has become the only songwriter other than Eric Idle (again, whats with the Pythons?) to rhyme "tet-a-tet" with "fate", or probably to even use "tet-a-tet" in a song. But anyway, the "dismal mantra" is what interests me..."we're much too old to die". An aging populace, increasing power of medicine, increasing cost of medicine, and a growing socialist fervor to demand a "right" to be taken care of by taxpayers. It's much like the Numenoreans (stay with me Tolkien geeks) who, as they lived longer lives, became more obsessed with death and would do anything to extend their miserable, unhappy lives on Earth (or Arda, if you will) just a few seconds more. I don't mean to start an age-war, but there is something about the AARP and its ilk, the frantic, easily manipulated bloc of fear-driven voters who seek only to ensure that the government (read: people who work and pay taxes) will spare no expense in artificially extending their lives with whatever drugs may be available. I thought we were supposed to Just Say No? Ahh, these mixed messages... Anyway. Oh my LORD!!!!! AARP....AR-P...Ar-Pharazon!!! The last king of Numenor who drove his ships to the undying lands to wrest immortality from the Valar!!! It makes all the sense in the world!!!
I'll bypass Gorgonzola for now. It is the pinnacle of Eustace crappery, though I do love it so.
16 hours or so until 70-291 reckoning time. MCSA exam number two. 70-290 already defeated me soundly, but we are regrouping and shall swarm back and retake the battlements before dawn.
As some of you may know, beverage tasting/reviewing is quite a hobby of mine...although sometimes its gotten to the point (recently, thats why I'm posting) that I would rather just not worry about reviews and enjoy (a beer, a brandy, a whisky, whatever the case may be) the drink without giving thought to nose, palate, body, finish, etc. The other side of me though, which is practically preparing to write a book on the subject, sees it as lost opportunity. But while on the subject, let me sing the virtues of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2005...while I've got a bottle in my basement cellaring to tame its intense hoppiness, I've enjoyed several bottles of this Californian barleywine so far, and I have to say it is easily one of the best beer aromas I've ever run into. The taste is a bit on the overly bitter side (especially for a barley wine, which should have a thick malt element to offset the bitterness), but not too bad, and its entirely justified by that rapturous nose. Even a week-old bottlecap smelled magnificent!
Romani Ite Domum
by Eustace Lufgren
Cantankerous wantons will clog the back door
No question they're after what you've got in store
Not a drop of remorse as they ravage the scene
And greedily labour to extract your spleen
Salvaged jalopies don't go for much bread
Better off in the frypan, least, that's what he said
Would you look me in the eyes and tell me that I'm real?
Tell me, how could you smile so warmly as I pillage and steal?
(And Don't You Care?)
Ooh baby, they gotta take it all away...
(Why Not Another Day?)
No honey, it's just got to be this way...
Don't shudder when they do their job, they're doing as they should
Please listen when I tell you that this all works out for good
Romani...Ite...Domum.
There'll come a day when you know you've paid your dues
And the snakes won't have a single word to say
You'll have cleared the balance on those ruby-studded shoes
And noone can take them away
No, not a soul could ever take those away
Eustace's most recent composition. Interesting to note the obscure Pythonisms, that I was hardly aware of. Romani Ite Domum will obviously strike a note of recollection with Life of Brian fans, and the first verse and the chorus have an almost horrific reference to (from The Meaning of Life) Live Organ Transplants. And oh, those ruby studded shoes. The mere words bring to mind a thousand Donald Fagen-isms. Next song:
Dance of the Glitterati
by Eustace Lufgren
That Harvey Daniels never had a past to face
He slunk away in sullen disgrace
Ripe with tonic musings of the tertiary world
A cognoscenti's mind unfurled
Break out the Chesters and tell it once more
Give them no quarter, this time as before
They'd love to see you squirm and writhe in karmic agony
But you'll spoonfeed them their words one by one
Loot the masses with an aptly seedy scheme
We'll choke back the urge to scream
Keep up that smile lest you fall from off your throne
They'll not cast you any bones
The jackals set upon him in the blink of an eye
Left him for dead and scurried on by
He never got the chance to say all that he meant to say
But we've not lost yet the writing on the wall
A frightful specter of a distant tet-a-tet
A charming smirk at fate
A dismal mantra chanted up into the sky
We're much too old to die
Break out the Chesters and tell it once more
Give them no quarter, this time as before
They'd love to see you squirm and writhe in karmic agony
But you'll spoonfeed them their words one by one
Break out the Chesters, eh? Dig deep into the Donald Fagen library, and you find the Chesterfield Kings and of course, Your Gold Teeth. The shocking thing I noted was just how accidentally poignant the last verse was, despite the fact that I errr Eustace has become the only songwriter other than Eric Idle (again, whats with the Pythons?) to rhyme "tet-a-tet" with "fate", or probably to even use "tet-a-tet" in a song. But anyway, the "dismal mantra" is what interests me..."we're much too old to die". An aging populace, increasing power of medicine, increasing cost of medicine, and a growing socialist fervor to demand a "right" to be taken care of by taxpayers. It's much like the Numenoreans (stay with me Tolkien geeks) who, as they lived longer lives, became more obsessed with death and would do anything to extend their miserable, unhappy lives on Earth (or Arda, if you will) just a few seconds more. I don't mean to start an age-war, but there is something about the AARP and its ilk, the frantic, easily manipulated bloc of fear-driven voters who seek only to ensure that the government (read: people who work and pay taxes) will spare no expense in artificially extending their lives with whatever drugs may be available. I thought we were supposed to Just Say No? Ahh, these mixed messages... Anyway. Oh my LORD!!!!! AARP....AR-P...Ar-Pharazon!!! The last king of Numenor who drove his ships to the undying lands to wrest immortality from the Valar!!! It makes all the sense in the world!!!
I'll bypass Gorgonzola for now. It is the pinnacle of Eustace crappery, though I do love it so.
16 hours or so until 70-291 reckoning time. MCSA exam number two. 70-290 already defeated me soundly, but we are regrouping and shall swarm back and retake the battlements before dawn.
As some of you may know, beverage tasting/reviewing is quite a hobby of mine...although sometimes its gotten to the point (recently, thats why I'm posting) that I would rather just not worry about reviews and enjoy (a beer, a brandy, a whisky, whatever the case may be) the drink without giving thought to nose, palate, body, finish, etc. The other side of me though, which is practically preparing to write a book on the subject, sees it as lost opportunity. But while on the subject, let me sing the virtues of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2005...while I've got a bottle in my basement cellaring to tame its intense hoppiness, I've enjoyed several bottles of this Californian barleywine so far, and I have to say it is easily one of the best beer aromas I've ever run into. The taste is a bit on the overly bitter side (especially for a barley wine, which should have a thick malt element to offset the bitterness), but not too bad, and its entirely justified by that rapturous nose. Even a week-old bottlecap smelled magnificent!
03 March 2005
Non-Lethal Pain Weapons Under Research
OK, this article has its laughable moments. You've got people shrinking back in horror at the thought that we would develop a weapon that...[gasp]...causes pain.
As opposed to all the tried-and-true painfree conventional weapons used the world over, like napalm, high explosives, frag grenades, automatic weapons, bayonets, pointy sticks, etc.
Even funnier is the thought that the weapon was being developed to be used for torture. OK, why do we need new technology for torture? We can inflict all the pain we want. Any nation can. You can go out and buy a can of pepper spray if you want to be able to inflict pain. Your grandpa's trusty 12-gauge will cause severe pain when discharged into the pain-recipient's crotch area. We don't need high-tech pain for torture, you are missing the point!
The point of the weapon system is to save lives! Save the lives of angry rioters and the lives of soldiers. What makes this system distinct is not that it inflicts pain. What makes it different is that it is both remote and nonlethal. You can keep murderous mobs at a distance without unloading a 30 caliber Browning at them.
People are just scared of anything new. Teargas was once new, and I'm sure the Nervous Nellies of that day were probably screaming, that's unethical! Take us back to the days of bayonetted rifles and billy clubs!
The immense irony is that we are probably alone in the fact that we spend a great deal of money researching how to avoid killing if it is not entirely necessary. Most countries in the world would handle a riot with armed soldiers. But still, people who claim to advocate "ethics" are upset that we are researching riot control devices that are both more effective and safer?
Remember when those subhuman scum bombed that car with 4 construction workers in Fallujah? And a mob gathered, and the desecrated their charred remains and strung them up with glee? That is when a UH-60 Blackhawk equipped with a microwave or laser non-lethal weapon would have been wonderful. If one of those men was your husband, or son, or brother, or father, and you were watching hate-crazed men stamp with a evil pleasure on the smoldering body of your loved one via CNN (what was wrong with that journalist? I have to wonder, since most of them carry a sidearm, wouldn't you feel a little tiny bit obliged to defend the murdered bodies of your countrymen? but I digress), I don't think you'd be too concerned about the ethics of a pain-inducing weapon.
I'm trying to remember, didn't I call for a nuclear strike on Fallujah? Yes, even we conservatives can be emotional!
In other news...oh wait, there is no other news.
My "jury" is still out on Wacko Jacko. I am in the unusual circumstance of not having a firm belief on an issue. Which at least is refreshing to observe because it implies I am not a knee-jerk kind of person all the time (hehe) but I'm genuinely not leaning one way or another with his case. I was leaning towards the prosecution, when the Smoking Gun busted the allegations out, but after recent revelations, especially about the family history, I think MJ may be a freak, and who knows, maybe a child molester, but he could still just be set up.
Or worse...there could have been genuine molestation, but the family tried to milk it and lied about/exaggerated it. That would piss me off...one little lie would spoil the whole testimony.
We'll probably never know, just like with OJ. Yeah, right.
OK, this article has its laughable moments. You've got people shrinking back in horror at the thought that we would develop a weapon that...[gasp]...causes pain.
As opposed to all the tried-and-true painfree conventional weapons used the world over, like napalm, high explosives, frag grenades, automatic weapons, bayonets, pointy sticks, etc.
Even funnier is the thought that the weapon was being developed to be used for torture. OK, why do we need new technology for torture? We can inflict all the pain we want. Any nation can. You can go out and buy a can of pepper spray if you want to be able to inflict pain. Your grandpa's trusty 12-gauge will cause severe pain when discharged into the pain-recipient's crotch area. We don't need high-tech pain for torture, you are missing the point!
The point of the weapon system is to save lives! Save the lives of angry rioters and the lives of soldiers. What makes this system distinct is not that it inflicts pain. What makes it different is that it is both remote and nonlethal. You can keep murderous mobs at a distance without unloading a 30 caliber Browning at them.
People are just scared of anything new. Teargas was once new, and I'm sure the Nervous Nellies of that day were probably screaming, that's unethical! Take us back to the days of bayonetted rifles and billy clubs!
The immense irony is that we are probably alone in the fact that we spend a great deal of money researching how to avoid killing if it is not entirely necessary. Most countries in the world would handle a riot with armed soldiers. But still, people who claim to advocate "ethics" are upset that we are researching riot control devices that are both more effective and safer?
Remember when those subhuman scum bombed that car with 4 construction workers in Fallujah? And a mob gathered, and the desecrated their charred remains and strung them up with glee? That is when a UH-60 Blackhawk equipped with a microwave or laser non-lethal weapon would have been wonderful. If one of those men was your husband, or son, or brother, or father, and you were watching hate-crazed men stamp with a evil pleasure on the smoldering body of your loved one via CNN (what was wrong with that journalist? I have to wonder, since most of them carry a sidearm, wouldn't you feel a little tiny bit obliged to defend the murdered bodies of your countrymen? but I digress), I don't think you'd be too concerned about the ethics of a pain-inducing weapon.
I'm trying to remember, didn't I call for a nuclear strike on Fallujah? Yes, even we conservatives can be emotional!
In other news...oh wait, there is no other news.
My "jury" is still out on Wacko Jacko. I am in the unusual circumstance of not having a firm belief on an issue. Which at least is refreshing to observe because it implies I am not a knee-jerk kind of person all the time (hehe) but I'm genuinely not leaning one way or another with his case. I was leaning towards the prosecution, when the Smoking Gun busted the allegations out, but after recent revelations, especially about the family history, I think MJ may be a freak, and who knows, maybe a child molester, but he could still just be set up.
Or worse...there could have been genuine molestation, but the family tried to milk it and lied about/exaggerated it. That would piss me off...one little lie would spoil the whole testimony.
We'll probably never know, just like with OJ. Yeah, right.
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