Is there ever a bad time to muck fizzou? is there?
BTW, the Braves swept the series with the Cubs: 6-5, 2-1, 13-12. Marcus Giles may be killing my fantasy team, but the guy won every game of the series through shear force of will.
If any of the following things happen:
AA Flight 3914 or 4082 crashes in a flaming pile of aluminum.
Commies nuke Chicago.
The central 1/3 of the American continent plummets into a never-ending cavernous ravine.
then I probably won't post again...because I'll be dead.
Other than that, baseball is for fun, cheering against the home team is for real men, paid vacations rule, and spending an entire weekend with total strangers frightens me greatly. I'll have a better update when I get back next week.
Word to your mothers.
Tele-marketer:
Hello, I'm calling on behalf of SBC and AT&T, your current internet provider. I calling to inform you that AT&T is currently offering an upgrade to our professional high-speed internet package for only 19.95 a month. Do you know what you are currently paying for your high-speed internet package.
Me:
Well, I used to, but the trauma of discovering you guys turned over all my phone records to the NSA has destroyed any cognitive thought I might have once held in regard to my telecommunications needs.
(click)
I’ve officially been given the okay by Ye Ole’ Savings and Loan, to pursue alternate means of housing. Apparently it’s odd for 22-year-olds to go shopping around for deals on a mortgage, because the bank reception ladies sure gave me some disbelieving looks. Otherwise, the process was surprisingly simple. I’ve now got until September 14th to find and close on a house. hoo-rah.
Next Stop: the Realtor section of the yellow pages.
"You don’t get to put the bomb in Iran, there are no other issues."
At this point it is very much in our self-interest to keep our nose out of any negotiations with Iran. Our participation would do more harm than good anyway. I doubt any amount of hemming and hawing will stop Iran from trying to develop the bomb. It’s depressing because it will inevitably lead to bloodshed.
We can’t allow the existence of a nuclear Iran. And nobody else is going to stop them from getting there. So we’re going to have to fly over there and blow up the reactor, killing whoever is inside. It’s regrettable, but it will have to be done. If we didn’t do it, Israel would.
The real threat isn’t to New York or Washington, it’s to Tel Aviv. That’s the nightmare scenario, a bomb going off in the heart of Jerusalem. Israel would respond and it’d be an all out regional war in the Middle East, it would have to be.
War on Israel being the pretty tight consensus as the harbinger of Armageddon, and since I’m not quite ready for the end-of-days, with the demons, seven-headed serpents, and chariots ablaze. I’d prefer if the pleasantries of society and misguided principles of ‘fairness’ took a back seat to continued existence.
Season 6 of the West Wing arrived in the mail today. I'm offically writing off all productive activity for the next 2 weeks.
Total congratulations go out to Kristi and Andrew on their marriage. I'm glad I got to be a witness to the whole thing, it was easily worth the drive.
Kristi is my closest friend to get married thus far in my life, and I can begin to understand why people get emotional at weddings. When it's people you really know and understand, watching that level of love is very powerful, even to a cynic like myself.
The thing I was struck by the most was her level of happiness. She was without a hint of doubt or reservation and it showed brightly. For 9 hours yesterday, she was the happiest person I've ever seen in my entire live. No kidding, it was amazing. I've been to good weddings and seen the beginnings of good marriages, but this was something else, something brighter, something more cheerful, something different. You probably had to be there, but the pervasive feeling of delight was beautifully touching.
I don't know If I'm even capable of that level of joy. But I sure hope I get there one day. Witnessing such beauty on that plane of human experience personally and unexpectedly stays with you and in a small way changes your understanding of life.
In less important related events, I enjoyed myself and was actually dragged out to dance. Dancing isn't something I'm normally into, but a man has only got so much will power and when a pretty lady asks you to dance, you don't turn her down.
Best wishes and blah, blah, blah. I'll be sentimental after I've slept.
For now lets just say that you haven't really lived until you've seen a Catholic priest do the worm across a sticky dance floor.
So, Bolivia wants to nationalize their oil fields. "Nationalize" being a quaint little name for forcible steal your equipment and intellectual property and you can’t do squat under pain of death. It’s one thing if these companies came in and pilfered the land without consent, but they paid the government for the right to drill, and already gave them half of all the profits they made from those gas fields.
That sounds to me like a hell of a deal for the Bolivians, get paid billions of dollars every year to do nothing. Too bad they couldn’t live up to their lofty side of the bargain. It’s a stupid-ass move the president to be sure, because the first time something goes wrong they’re screwed; they’ve kicked out all the people who know what they’re doing.
The exact same crap happened in the Middle East in the 50’s. Western oil companies poured billions of dollars into exploration, extraction, and transportation of oil. Then one by one the countries “nationalized” the equipment and screwed the west out of their entire investment.
Why do you really think don’t have new sources of oil. The only organizations capable of it are the oil companies, but they’re not looking outside the confines of friendly law-respecting nations. There is no incentive to look else ware, because the second they find a gusher, the state will “nationalize” and they’re screwed…again.
How do stop the insanity? In a world wholly irreverent of rights, I suggest drawing inspiration from the backpacker’s creed. Leave everything as you found it.
I don’t want to hear any cries for blood. Regardless how bad a guy he is, he didn’t actually kill anyone. Attempted murder isn’t murder regardless of scale. From a personal morality standpoint, I don’t think the state should kill people, but I see no room for absolute moral outrage with the death penalty. An individual cedes all rights when he violates those of another.
That being said, death is absolute and the state is imperfect, so I see no practical way to justly enforce the death penalty. Placing an absolute decision from which there is no room for error or recourse in the hands of a human institution is irresponsible.
Of course we want justice. But destroying the only person we can get our hands on isn’t going to make it all go away, or make it feel better. Ending this despicable excuse for a human isn’t righteous justice or justice of any kind, its just vengeance, and vengeance rightly belongs to no one but God.
It's been a while since I rapped politikal at y'all. So today I give you a giant two-fer:
1st of all: Oil companies aren't ripping you off. They are making roughly the same percentage profit as before. The reason they're making 'record revenues' is because their also paying record expenses.
By and large your Exxon-mobiles and BP's don't own the oil in the first place. They pay for it. When you hear about record 75-dollar-a-barrel oil, the money is not going to into ConocoPhillip's pocket. It's going to Sheik al-Mohammed al-Mohammed bin Bizere of the People's Oligarchic Theocracy of Turkiburkidirkistan.
The success or failure of a business has less to do with absolute numbers and more to do with margins. The operating margin at Cessna is good background music for a financial analyst's wet dream, but we hear no unrighteous outrage about that.
But in reality, there is no reason to get pissed at prices. Nobody is to blame, there is no blame; there are only consumers, suppliers and the infinitely efficient negotiated price.
And 2nd of all: Stop being stupid about immigration, everybody. Supporters, immigrants, and opposers, everybody is being stupid.
To the immigrants: yes I get it, you do crappy jobs. But it's not because your overwhelming sense of civic duty or because us Americans are too damn snooty to be bothered to mow our own grass, its because you have no other appreciable skills. There are crappy jobs everywhere, and always will be, and somebody will always be there to do them because somebody is always the least skilled. The country would not 'grind to a halt' were you not there, it might spit and sputter for a week or two, but eventually life would resume just as it always will.
Don't think so? The same principle that gets you a job in the first place can push you out, everyone is replaceable. Sure some companies and segments of the economy depend on you, but they could easily depend on someone else. Individuals don't consciously take change, and nobody likes to think of themselves as expendable, but the reason you think you have power is the same reason whitey can't stand your existence. Most people can't comprehend a world they don't inhabit. Just like mom and dad living in the suburbs can't stand the idea of living in a Hispanic world, you can't stand the idea that your brothers and sisters can be replaced.
Also I'm not so sure that you know what you're doing with the protesting and all. You're all wearing white, which is a nice touch, and you passed out American flags because you learned your lesson last time, even better. But you gotta keep the crazies out of the system, the first time I see somebody waving a Che Guevera poster with a Mexican flag wrapped around their shoulders, you've lost me. Peaceful protests only work when you have specific complaints, and you are in the absolute right. You want amnesty? Fine, ask for it. But chanting about a workers revolution in Spanish just makes me think you're stupid, brainwashed, or both. In addition, don't pull your kids out of public school, it's counterproductive. Everyone who bothered to show up to school that day will absolutely love it, suddenly they've gone from a class of 37 to a class of 12, thats better attention than private schools! Suddenly students, teachers, and administrators and going to look around and say “hey, this ain't half bad. We might get some educating done today.” I would think that's pretty evident, but maybe you just figured that it was your turn to protest 'the man'.
To the opposers: there is nothing wrong with wanting a giant fence on the border as long as it's out of a desire for security. If you simply don't like the idea of immigrants streaming coming into the country because they don't fit your idea of an American, then you are xenophobic and you need to learn to check you prejudices at the door of logic.
If ever there were masses yearning to be free, this would be it. There is nothing different about them except for their place of birth. Millions of able-bodied families are risking life and limb for a spot at the bottom of the totem pole. They're dying to work; don't make it harder, make it easier.
I don't want to hear about the fellow in the dark skin who didn't speak English took your job. He'll do it for 10 bucks a day, and you have a despicable sense of entitlement. You don't get to decide who gets in and who doesn't. I've never heard any complaining about American comedians out of work because of those damn Canadian funny-men, so you can't tell me this isn't just a little be about racism. It's ridiculous to think this is entirely about the legality of immigration, because for a very large portion of people it's about not wanting wetbacks sullying their precious culture.
There is a hilarious joke to be made here, but I've got no idea what it is.