holiday break

Off to the Philadelphia suburbs. Have a happy holiday everyone!

it's nice being right.


I've been saying this for almost a year now.

A lengthy investigation of the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, by American and European intelligence agencies and international nuclear inspectors has forced Pakistani officials to question his aides and openly confront evidence that the country was the source of crucial technology to enrich uranium for Iran, North Korea and possibly other nations.

'Bout time they admitted it to themselves.

saddam

yay

now find Osama.

saddam's capture kinda reminds me of manuel noriega. once a friend and now in our custody. Heh. Funny.

No internet in the apartment, yet. Sorry no updates.

canadians

nice to see their press asking their new Prime Minister policy questions. Also, nice to see a world leader who can communicate excellently, in two languages no less.

agonist book club

As suggested, I am reading The Rape of Nanjing by Iris Chang. I think Sean-Paul is still taking readers for the Agonist Book Club so head on over to The Agonist to find out more.


angry post

sorry for it but I think it was time to say what I was really thinking.

Un-fucking-believable.


There really isn't much to say about this. All I'm going to say is I'm starting to think it's time I armed myself. I'm starting to think I should advise others to do the same. There's something seriously fucking wrong when lives are threatened for their expression of their views. If this is what America is in 2003, then I fear for our democracy. I'd like to think that this isn't Nazi Germany in 1938---this is the fucking United States of America in 2003, that beacon of freedom for the world. And for people to threaten others lives in "mysterious accidents" for fun when they know someone could possibly do it is disgusting to the least. Fucking disgusting. And as I've said before, I'm not gonna stand for it. This shit really pisses me off. Really. I'm not kidding.

via Atrios.

As cogent as always, David Neiwert weighs in. he also has an update on the domestic terrorism case from Dallas, which noone else seems to care about.

lord of the rings

less than a week till the biggest movie opening....ever.

Given that Italy has a negative growth rate (unless it really starts letting in the North African immigrants), methinks this latest bit of legislation is a bad thing. They need to make as many babies as possible, any way possible, if they want to survive.

semester over


Once I print out this paper tomorrow, my semester is finally over. It was an annoying semester. . . I had a mono-like illness that was probably the flu for the entire month of November. I think I may have overextended myself too. Now I get a month off to do whatever...like move into my new apartment, which I'm excited about.

Pennsylvania


The Brookings Institution has a sobering report on Pennsylvania.

not sayin' anything

not saying anything about Dean and Gore. Nope, not gonna do it. General Clark is the man with the plan.

north korea


Not sure what the Bush administration is up to on this one . . .

The article indicates that the Chinese are helping out still, and that is good.

By the way, there's an article on Foreign Affairs this month about China's New Diplomacy. I recommend it, if you are able to get foreign affairs. If not, I can get the article for you, let me know.

and while we're on the subject of kicking ass

What the fuck is up with Christopher Hitchens?! He got excited over something that caused me serious psychological damage? What a fucking loon.

challenge

David Neiwert has a post up that's interesting, and I've decided to comment on it.

A few days ago, I read a post on another site that made my blood boil. It was by Adam Yoshida, an insanely annoying piece of shit Canadian kid with a major complex and no sense of history. The short version (and I won't link to it again) is that all leftists/liberals should have their jobs taken away, their thoughts squelched, and their persons threatened. Emperor Misha I from the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler (who is just two sandwiches short of a picnic, if ya know what I mean...) is well known for this type of rhetoric.

And it still boils my blood. And you know what? I'm not going to stand for it anymore.

If you people are reading (you know, the ones who want to silence anyone who disagrees with their worldview) hear this. Bring it on and try it. Just try it. I dare you to try it on me, or my friends, or anyone. I fucking dare you. And if you bring it, I'll be sure to make sure you will regret it.

NowI've talked about my pacifism before, but it doesn't extend to defending myself.

I issue this warning now, knowing that sometime in the not-so-distant future, someone will probably take the rhetoric of these two and actually act on it. And I'll be ready. Man, shit like this makes me mad.

earthquake

Middle Virginia had a rattler yesterday.

Here's the seismic trace from Virginia Tech. I couldn't find Millersville's trace online.

It was felt as far north as my area, but I felt nothing, probably because I was passed out from exhaustion from studying when it occured.

Unlike our western friends, we don't get rattlers like these often, so this is kind of cool.

battlestar galactica

I reviewed it yesterday. Here's some other thoughts. And some more here.

Still enjoyed it.

north korea, again.

Now they may not have the bomb.(sorry, it's the LA Times and their registration process is annoying)

The Bush administration has asserted in recent months that North Korea possesses one or two nuclear bombs and is rapidly developing the means to make more. The statements have raised anxiety about a nuclear arms race in Asia and the possibility that terrorists could obtain atomic weapons from the North Korean regime.

But the administration's assessment rests on meager fresh evidence and limited, sometimes dated, intelligence, according to current and former U.S. and foreign officials.


Outside the administration, and in some quiet corners within it, there is nothing close to a consensus that North Korean scientists have succeeded in fabricating atomic bombs from plutonium, as the CIA concluded in a document made public last month.

Independent experts and some U.S. officials also are skeptical of administration claims that North Korea is within months of manufacturing material for more weapons at a secret uranium-enrichment plant.

Look folks, I think the Bush Administration may be functionally correct on this one (yes, I already said Hell froze over, so bear with me!). They have at least one device, which they've had since 1992 or 1993 at least when the plutonium from the Yongbon plant was first discovered missing. This was stated over and over again among various intelligence services including the CIA leading up to the 1994 Framework. In addition, we have a fundamental lack of intelligence on the ground because nearly everything the North Koreans are doing is hidden and their society is so incredibly controlled and secretive. Noone really knows what's going on in there, not even the North Koreans patrons, the Chinese and the article in todays LA Times states this. There is more than ample evidence that the North Koreans helped the Pakistanis (and perhaps even the Iranians according to the research I did a few weeks ago---sorry no link) despite the denial of the Pakistani government. And that help may have been given to Pakistani nuclear scientists who may or may not have links to Al Qaeda.

I understand the rhetoric sounds like the pre-Iraq rhetoric but North Korea is, and has been for decades, a more deadly, and unpredictable threat. I'm not buying that they don't have it.


It also wouldn't surprise me at all of if one of the Pakistani nuclear tests was a test of a North Korean device, given the amount of contact between the two programs in the year leading up to the 1998 tests. Just my tinfoil hat goin' though. I have no proof, of course.

Captain, our sensors indicate that Hell has indeed frozen over

Read this P6 post and just taste the irony.

Stan, my lone conservative commentator, predicted on one of his sites out there way back when (probably in May) that the Dow would crack 10,000 by Christmas time. Well Stan, your prediction came true. Mad props, man, if you're still reading.

hey look!

Hey look! The Right is freaking out over what I flipped out over this months ago. So did Atrios for that matter. They, of course, think we libs support it but frankly, we really don't. We flipped out over this months ago. The rest of the world is JUST NOW paying attention. Dumbasses.

open source stuff

I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of open source. . . everything.

From Team Agonist's tireless global media coverage to the very awesome (and stable) Open Source Office Suite to even open source intelligence (important to geopolitics nerds like me), open source is the wave of the future.

I'll be adding them to the links later today.

fascism (sorta thesis update, or not)

Billmon said it, but I know everyone was thinking it. Russia is on the watchlist along with India now.

good TV

I was very impressed with Sci-Fi's remake of Battlestar Galactica. It's very non-cliched science fiction, which is rare on television.

1. Costuming: They dressed like we do now, which I thought was cool. Here was a futuristic society (that does get annihilated, but that's the premise) that didn't wear those annoying jumpsuits that you always see in science fiction. Very nice.
2.Emotion: The end of their worlds in Battlestar Galactica bought back memories of 9/11, which I believe was what the producers were trying to do. Your heartstrings will be tugged. If you're a cryer, keep tissues nearby.
3. CGI: The CGI shots of the spaceships was well done, and spaceships didn't do those annoying "WOOSH" noises when they went by.

I recommend highly if you like science fiction. Purists hate this show, but frankly, the old show wasn't that great. Reminds me of when Star Trek:The Next Generation started. Purists hated that show too. It's very dark sci-fi but if you like dark sci-fi (I love it. . . don't know why I like apocolyptic science fiction but I do) then go for it.

annoyance

Generally, I ignored the pro-war crowd's "Let's Shoot All the Liberals" rhetoric back in the spring. Freedom of speech, you know?

However, this twatty little Canadian swine (who's an offense to all citizens living in North America) thinks all American liberals should probably be destroyed. His rhetoric is so...crypto-fascist I'm nausous. And I thought Canadians were tolerable!

If you read this Adam, come down to Pennsylvania and I'll show you what I really think. Plus, why the fuck don't you enlist in our army? They'd love to have you, asshole. You might learn a bloody thing or two.

Bring it on, Adam. This is a challenge. You've got the mouth, now put yer money in it. Or, are you an utter coward?

Grrr...sheesh.

marriage

ten bucks says they'll be divorced in a year, furthering the demise of the "sanctity of marriage" in this country.

how the fuck did I miss this?!

I think it's time for one of those righteous "civilization will end" speeches. That, and a nice big plot of land high up in the Adirondacks or Rockies or Montana or something.

Congress, with only a limited debate, has given the Bush administration a green light for the biggest revitalization of the country's nuclear weapons program since the end of the Cold War, leaving many Democrats and even some hawkish Republicans seething.

read the rest. I'm physically ill. Of course, proliferation is fun. Which, of course, is the exact opposite of the message we're trying to bash into the Iranians and the North Koreans and everyone else who wants these toys from Hell. That's what they are: Toys From Hell.

via a new blog named Just a Bump in the Beltway, found via Team Agonist led by Sean-Paul, fellow genius.


'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds
---the Bhagavad-Gita

google must hate America

LoL! Miserable Failure makes News!

cool website


Okay, back to studying.

Since it's finals week, and I'm also moving, sparse posting this week.

early morning observations or I should be studying, but I'm not

# I've been hearing about this World O'Crap. It's really clever. Go looksee.


# Ann Coulter, apparently, is blogging now. Civilzation will soon end. The fact that she has a talking doll has led me to conclude this very sad fact. And...she keeps writing about how much she hates this gay marriage thing yet she MOVED TO SOUTH BEACH...THE GAYEST PLACE ON EARTH! Ann doth protest too much, methinks.

# I should have paid more attention in Calc class, of which I took an entire year and don't remember a thing. That's bad.

# Drinking makes you stupid. Who knew?

# Hmm. . . moon? Prediction: A new cold war with China is coming, since they also want the moon. Newsflash, folks. It isn't cheese. This should also be filed under "deficit spending is really fun."

# This is not news I want to read in the morning, but the cynic in me says it's probably true. At least the analysts were comparing it to 1983...

# Whoops.

# Spend and Spend Republicans.

# One would think that the Northeast, having been continually settled since 1620, would know how to deal with snow storms by now. By the way, this is the first time in history that snowstorms hit on the same day in back-to-back years. Weather is getting more extreme due to the gradual warming of the Earth. Expect to see more of this. Also, the snow I took a picture of Sunday will be gone by this Friday. Weather swings are gonna be more common. I don't know about the sea level raises and the innundation of New York City, but more wackier weather (meaning more Isabels, Floyds, and Andrews) are going to happen more and more often, which is part of the theory of global warming anyway. Also prediction: the Northeast will swing back into drought in the next 10 months. And then a West Nile outbreak will come with it. Just a prediction I'm pulling out of my butt. We'll see how it turns out.

it's a cult people, a sick sick cult!

Don't give into Atkins. I blame MTV for this.

it's too damn early for this

this is the single most bizarre thing on fascism I've read in ages. And you know what? It MAKES SENSE. My finding that it makes sense doesn't mean I tacitly agree with it. It just makes sense, that's all.

It's also early in the morning, and I'm already burnt out from studying for finals. No more blogsurfing breaks for me.

And according to the logic of that post, I think I'm a fascist. Whatever , considering I think fascism is pure concerted satanic evil, which it IS. The overclassification of soceity continues, which of course, makes sense. There's always an us...and a them, which is human nature.

and lastly, and i'll shut up and move on, it stinks of the "objectively pro-saddam" shit Glenn Reynolds put out there awhile ago which objectively made no sense, but subjectively made sense because, well, society is overclassified into neat compartmentalized little niches. Makes sense but doesn't. Life in the 21st century sure is fun. And I need coffee.

north korea

My feelings on the North Korea issue are public knowledge. I haven't changed them much in the 15 months since they revealed they had been lying their asses off since the 1994 Framework was signed. It remains decidely hawkish.

So apparently, we're just redoing the same Framework---21st Century style.

The Bush administration has agreed with South Korea and Japan to a broadly worded set of principles to end North Korea's nuclear program, calling for a "coordinated" set of steps in which five nations would offer the North a security guarantee as it begins a verifiable disassembly of its nuclear facilities, according to administration and Asian officials

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe this will work. But for some reason, I just don't trust this and I still see it as blackmail, which the 1994 Framework turned into, much to our embarrassment.

CalPundit weighs in with the same skepticism, I think, although he's not shrill as I continue to be on the North Korea issue. There's also an amazing post in his comments by one Joe Schmoe that blew me away----it is exactly what I've been thinking all along.

China is the key to solving this without war, I think. Japan and South Korea and Russia all have an interest, but none of those three nations have a working relationship with North Korea despite some Japanese and South Korean firms setting up shop in Pyongyang. China does. They're the chief trading partner of North Korea. Oil and food into North Korea comes through China. Hmmmmm. . .

go help

Given that modern journalism has been the suck since the eighties, here is a chance to help a freelancer who's probably loads better than those corporate tools who call themselves journalists.


Oh, and read "The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril." Excellent book that made me sad for our journalism, but glad I changed my major out of those media fields.

lawd

this story unnerved me.




via Uppity Negro, a site I need to be reading more (thus destroying my already dead productivity)

more TV

Battlestar Galactica + Finals Week + Moving into an apartment = Bad News.

TV

Anyone seen Fox's "Arrested Development"? It's unbelievably clever. I like it. Meaning. . . it will be canceled. Any TV I find clever never lasts long (Third Rock from the Sun was the one fluke in that logic.)

good

bad things are happening to a store I hate, which is good.

. . . and I'm anti-Abercrombie for a number of reasons that generally are kind of stereotypical. Everyone I know who wears their stuff exclusively is as dumb as a post and shallow as a puddle. That "oh, look at me, I'm wearing abercrombie so I'm cooler than you. Yeah these jeans cost 67 bucks so my self-worth is based off of all the clothes I wear, which come from Abercrombie." I'm surrounded by idiots like this. Maybe it's just indicative of Pennsylvania but I dunno. All that store has done is continue the shallow materialism of our society. Makes me sick.

And there is no abercrombie in my closet.

eagles!

The Eagles, who are the most awesome football team ever, put the hated and awful and evil Cowboys in their place and cinched a playoff spot.

The Eagles are the team to (try to) beat in the division.


GO EAGLES!

lord of the rings

never been excited to see a movie before...but I really really can't wait to see The Return of the King. December 17th (and I plan on seeing it twice that day) can't come soon enough.

grrr

It's pronounced "Lang-KISS-ter" . . . not "Lan-CAST-er."

Grrrrrrrrr... I tried ordering train tickets online over Thanksgiving and the voice activated thing thought I said Scranton. I almost hung up.


It's even worse when newscasters in Philadelphia pronounce it wrong.

Navy Wins!

added to the blogroll

I've added Daily War News by yankeedoodle to the blogroll. A good read all around.

His view seems to echo a lot of the talk of Vietnam-era veterans I've heard from and talked to.

zing!

Snicker. . .



oh by the way, the snow is now evil, now that I've fallen on the ice.

time for special ops


Where's Billmon?!

history of us fascism

the things you don't learn in history class. How close we came to the brink of darkness. I should add this to my thesis.

snow




mmmm. pretty.

stormwatch

6" or so has fallen, with another 6" to 9" expected in my area. If it pans out, it'll be the biggest December snowstorm on record.


P6 doesn't like the snow, and Don Fox thinks I'm manipulating the weather. Boy. . . what I would and could do with that power. . . heh. indeed.

I think Atrios is cranky too.

Snow is beautiful, y'all! Especially before Christmas. After Christmas, it's a nuisance that needs to go to France.

I added a preliminary PDF of my biggest three papers to the links. Hat tip to Andrew Hagen for showing me OpenOffice. It's free. I'm all about free stuff, so double thanks.

It's just preliminary, so lemme know what you think. It's also in PDF so it's harder to steal, even though I have a common uses copyright. It's still mine, and if you're going to use information written in one of my papers, please cite it correctly.

irony

i always found it ironic driving south on I-95 that the big giant billboards for sex shops were always in socially conservative states like North Carolina and South Carolina. I've never seen this in PA, but I haven't travelled on I-80 yet.

then why aren't my pecs huge?


Hercules


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla


*SNORT* oh wait...i like this description of me better. *UN-SNORT*

odette or stormwatch

Mother nature is ignoring the fact that Hurricane Season ended several days ago.

Mother Nature is not ignoring the Eastern US. Messy weather for media to play up. Can't wait.

And in advance to our southern and western friends...shaddup.



UPDATE
there's snow on the radar. My productivity has plummeted to negative eleventy-billion.

been thinkin'

So I was watching the O'Reilly Factor (it was on in the tavern I was at earlier this evening) and Billyboy was going off on "The Cat in the Hat," that movie that has gotten harsh reviews for "being too adult." Parents are in uproars because of the adult content of the movie, which was, from the ads I saw, clearly not for kids but for the generation that grew up with Dr. Seuss. But..for some reason...kids were getting the jokes that were not aimed at them. This disturbs me.

And I got to thinking.

The movie was rated PG-13.

Why would any parent take their under age-13 kids to see this movie?

But this is a common thing. When I was growing up, we were not allowed to see movies rated PG-13 until we actually got to that age (well I got to that age, my brother and sister were not far behind me though.) and the same with rated R movies. When I went to see "The Two Towers" last winter with my family, there were families with little kids there. We were amazed and not surprised when at least three mothers led their kids out during the Battle for Helms Deep....the Lord of the Rings series is NOT a kids series. Don't take your kids to see these films. When I saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre, there were KIDS in the audience WITH their parents! This movie was gory and really unpleasant even for me.

The point I think I'm making is some parents should be more responsible in what their kids see, even if your kids act up at first. They'll thank you later on, I think. I'm not a parent, and I have no plans on becoming one for a very long time, but it is still shocking to go to see "Bad Santa" and see a row of little kids in the audience. It's RATED R people! RATED R!

It's really strange seeing Lancaster County PA on the national news. If you don't know by now, a federal prosecutor was found murdered not too far from where I'm located. It isn't the biggest thing we've had around here (There are murders in Lancaster City from time to time. . . but this area is kind of sleepy) but it is strange to have national attention here.

pdf files

does anyone know how to create PDF files? I wrote many papers this year, and I want to collect them all into one big PDF file to make available online. Or turn them all into PDF files. . . but I have no idea how. Anyone?

snow

the first snowfall of winter is due. late tonight through saturday evening. 6"-12" expected in South Central Pennsylvania. I think sleet/freezing rain will keep the totals down in my area. I was at K-Mart tonight pricing furniture and there was a rush on shovels. The winter madness begins. Bread and milk are in low supply in many Giants, Weises, and Acmes in Central PA. Us Pennsylvanians are a weird bunch.

And do shovels break or something? You'd think everyone would have one by now and the only people buying them would be people in new houses. Yet I constantly see the same people getting new shovels every time a snow storm threatens.

india

Interesting election results. The BJP (a nationalist party) has made gains. They have a big national election coming up in 2004. Now, the BJP holds absolutely no love for their neighbor Pakistan, so we'll see how this turns out.



There are plenty (Indian and Westerners) who call the BJP crypto-fascist....and even outright fascist. India is going to be a chapter or two in my thesis which is on nationalism and fascism. . . so I'll be watching this with interest. I admit I find some of their practices, including their . . . hmm. . . younger arm (called the RSS) remind me of early 1930s Germany and the rise of the Nazi Party.

I've done some preliminary research on India. The Congress Party, long India's leading quasi-Socialist party, has pretty much failed India. The Bharatiya Janata Party has come in to promise order, peace, and a strong traditional party line. The nuclear bomb is very much apart of their rhetoric, as is the Hindu religion. In terms of the Left-Right line divide (which I consider invalid, but I'm going to use it in this case) they are fairly right-wing...but they are NOT conservative in the sense we would think of it. As they are promising change to India, I'd call the Congress Party the conservatives, as they want to retain the status quo.

I think the BJP's rise is a reaction growing in India. Where that reaction takes us is anyone's guess, but Indian and Western alarmist have been raising the alarm since at least 1998.


A different view of the BJP and Hindutva.

kristof also known as i'm pissed the fuck off about this gay thing

Kristof generally annoys me. He writes like David Brooks: syrupy sweet with little substance. His column today, however, is fantabulous. It's on that issue that will probably divide the country in a not-so-nice way in the coming weeks and months.

The bottom line is that same-sex love is a mystery far more subtle than just a matter of Biblical injunction — just as interracial love has turned out to be. A 1958 poll found that 96 percent of whites disapproved of marriages between blacks and whites (Deuteronomy 7:3 condemns interracial marriages). In 1959 a judge justified Virginia's ban on interracial marriage by declaring that "Almighty God . . . did not intend for the races to mix."

Someday, we will regard opposition to gay marriage as equally obtuse and old-fashioned.

No force is more divine than love, and if some people are encoded to love others of the same sex, how can that be unholy? To me, the blasphemy is not in those who want to share their lives with others of the same sex, but rather in anyone presumptuous enough to vilify that love.

Friggin' beautiful. Emphasis is mine.

I've seen tons of slippery slope arguments. I've seen that black conservatives are in outrage because some have argued that this is just like the civil rights movement. I've seen religious conservatives outraged as they're always outraged.* Yes, I'm well aware of the Mormon in Utah who's suing under the Massachusetts decision. I'm going to make a number of fundamental arguments on marriage and other issues the "non-straight" face that delininate my position on this. Then I'll leave it to debate, but I'm going to be up front and honest: I'm as stubborn as a mule and my position is not changing, ever. I'm like this with affirmative action as well. Don't worry, there are few things that bring out my stereotypical Irish stubborness that I get from my mom's side of the family. Anyway.

1. Allowing homosexuals to legally marry their partners will not cause society to crumble. Has Canada fallen apart? The Netherlands?
2. Allowing homosexuals to legally marry does not threaten straight marriages. If a man (or woman) divorces their opposite-sex spouse to marry someone of the same sex, they probably weren't straight to begin with.
3. Noone is forcing anyone to marry anyone. Marriage is a choice between two people who love each other.
4. Allowing homosexuals to legally marry could, quite possible, do something to stem the tide of divorce. 50% of marriages fail. All this fixation on gays marrying, and noone is paying any attention it seem to this fact. Think of it this way: if marriage, with the failure rate it has, were a car or aircraft, the company creating said car or aircraft would have been long out of buisness and its engineers long put away for negligence.
5. Morality is subjective. I've seen the "moral vs. immoral" argument about extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. Note the aside below, by the way, it relates.
6. Human dignity, privacy, and the right to marry the one someone loves (within reason and age-of-consent limits) is what I believe is a fundamental human right.

That's all I can come up with for the moment.

Fire away gang.



*ASIDE: I admit to being hostile toward fundamentalism of any sort due to the extended family I have and the drama they create. It's a large reason why I often shut down when hearing the literal Biblical arguments for anything, especially homosexuality. I'm working on this, but it will be a very long time before I hold any evangelicals or Fundamentalists in a favorable view. Plus...that whole thing with the Islamic fundamentalists has pushed that favorable view off for a very, very long time. And don't get uppity: I do know my Bible. I own two.


Update: Surfing around, I keep reading stuff that, quite frankly, reminds me of that horrible Kathleen Parker piece I parodied a bit ago. You know, the "gay people are everywhere and they entertain us normal folk but don't let them get what we have" argument. I'm not going to lie. This is an issue that I feel very strongly about. I equate it to finally having EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN having THE SAME RIGHTS. . . I believe that's one of the arguments for the Iraq war.

When I read stuff that "gay marriage is cultural vandalism" I smell the faint and unmistakeable stench of bigotry. All fueled by the book of Leviticus. Let's not forget that the book of Genesis supplied the Biblical belief that slavery was okay. Let's also not forget that the book of Deuteronomy supplied the Biblical belief that condemning interracial marrage was okay. We know now that both are evils.

It's getting under my skin and I don't fucking like it. I hate it. I fucking hate it. But I'm not going to let it get to me, because it's Advent and it's the Holidays and we're supposed to respect human dignity in this period.

I can live with affirmative action getting repealed. I could probably live with the end of abortion. (I don't see either happening though.) However, the addition of a federal amendment that excludes a class of people from legally (I'm not EVEN referring to the church thing!) marrying would probably be the thing that makes me head for more tolerant pastures, like Canada.

dreamhouse

I'm building this house someday. Just watch me.

stormwatch


Messy, messy, and complex storm headed for the Eastern US. The bread rush ensues. It's a Pennsylvania thing. People in Central PA go running for bread if snow flurries are in the forecast. The places are probably mobbed now.

Stay tuned.

holy shit! terrorism!


Oh my god. This is BIG.

Federal authorities this year mounted one of the most extensive investigations of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing, CBS 11 has learned.

Three people linked to white supremacist and anti-government groups are in custody. At least one weapon of mass destruction - a sodium cyanide bomb capable of delivering a deadly gas cloud - has been seized in the Tyler area.

Investigators have seized at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and chemical agents. But the government also found some chilling personal documents indicating that unknown co-conspirators may still be free to carry out what appeared to be an advanced plot. And, authorities familiar with the case say more potentially deadly cyanide bombs may be in circulation.

I'm speechless. Terrorism, right under our noses. Domestic, homegrown terrorism at that.

my decision making is suspect sometimes

I deferred my graduation a semester partially because the job market sucked going into this year. Now it's reasonably decent, and I'm not graduating.

But I was going to graduate school anyway, so why am I complaining?

good job American workers. Keep workin' hard.


and Economy, you have no excuse now. Grow, damnit!



(and stop sending our jobs to India. I don't care if that's xenophobic-sounding.)

karma time

My friend Steve's mom needs some good karma. She just had surgery for breast cancer, so send the Raznar family of suburban Philadelphia some good karma if you can. Thanks.

stormwatch

East Coast Storm possible this weekend, bringing the first heavy snowfall to much of the I-95 corridor. Stay tuned . . .

book

I've been hearing interesting things about this book titled the 2% Solution. I'm going to look for it (unless it magically appears at my door from my wish list), read it, and give a full report.

moving and growing up

I'm doing a big thing. I'm growing up. Well, not really. I'm still in college. But finally, after a seven semester run, Terry is finally moving into an apartment. I do have four other roommates. It's still a first, and it feels like a grownup decision. I'm paying bills for a change. This is different. Kinda cool too. The best part is I won't have to move for another year. w00t!


Which leads me to the following. (It's for family members. I'm being mostly humorous though.)

Christmas List

I wasn't going to ask for anything because I have too much clothing and too many books and too much junk in general. But I'd like:

1. A futon. Gotta sleep on something.
2. A bookshelf. Or two...I already have a small library. Note to students reading this: keep your books (they'll make you smarter), but send them home to mom and dad. I've been carting around at least 200lbs of books for the last two years.
3. A desk. Kmart has this particular desk on sale this week. It's the coolest desk I've ever seen. I think it even slices bread. . . Hint hint. . .This desk is also cool, but I doubt it slices bread.
4. An Armoire. I need to put my underwear somewhere.


I also want world peace, an end to poverty, clean air and water, a new President, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, a new built body, and some cookies. No fruitcake though.

In decadence and arrogance, the Romans lived. Until their empire came crashing down around them and a Dark Age fell across the lands of the Earth.

scott adams

I've rediscovered the world of Dilbert.

Over my vacation, I read The Dilbert Future. In it, Scott Adams talks about his affirmations and how they, quite creepily, worked every time he did it.

So I'm going to try it. I'll let you know how it turns out. This is a long term thing, of course.

lord of the rings madness

I've been bitten, like these people down in New Zealand (a place I'm planning on visiting in the not-too-distant future).


Rumor has it Opening Night is sold out in the entire state of Pennsylvania, including the awesome IMAX theater in King of Prussia. Damn!

morons


I'm glad I stayed home and spent time with my family (you know, that thing Republicans are always talking about.)