that other guy’s thoughts

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 elseware, 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.

Life, not Death

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.