Dan Rather: Hired Gun

Dan Rather: Hired Gun

Some people wondered that when CBS news anchor Dan Rather went to Iraq to interview then President of Iraq Saddam Hussein, why he just didn't pull out a gun, shoot Hussein and save the U.S. from having to start a war.

There are so many answers to this, I'm not even sure where to begin. I'll start with the most important.

1. Dan Rather would forfeit his life in .8 seconds after the assassination.

2. Rather is a civilian, not a member of the U.S. Military. It is military policy not to employ civilians for assassination work.

3. Journalists do not take orders from the government. It would be a disgrace to all journalists and to Rather's career by executing U.S. policy. It defeats the purpose of having a press. Some of you think journalism has no standards already so there would be no real loss but you're the same people who came up with this bonehead question I'm having to answer. So what do you know?

4. Rather would've been thoroughly searched for weapons before entering a room with Hussein. If you think he could've gone CIA and used a hidden garrote wire in his watch, realize that Rather was 72 years old. It wasn't gonna happen.

5. Such an act would have put other journalists into danger or at the very least, many paranoid leaders would close their doors to the press. If you don't consider this a problem, read the last statement in point #3 again. Many times, press and public scrutiny are the only means of freedom for a nation.

6. It was the Bush administration's idea to voluntarily (read: preemptively) go to war with Iraq. If you wanted war avoided, instead of having a respected news broadcaster resort to an act of violence which may or may not have worked, you should not have elected a trigger happy leader.

Dreaming Of Friends

Dreaming Of Friends

I had a dream last night in which I was one of the Friends... you know that recently defunct NBC hit television show called Friends. Now before you laugh that I was some sort of Friends geek (the show was quite funny), there is a reason for this dream. Since I was one of the characters, it's important to realize which one I was to figure out what my subconscious is trying to tell me about my personality.

We were sitting around doing our thing, not in Central Perk for some reason, the setting was outdoors if I remember. I looked around and there were the three women Monica, Phoebe, Rachel. So immediately I was relieved I wasn't one of them. Then I saw Chandler and Joey. No Ross. I was Ross. So I'm Ross? I'll have to think about what that really means. In this same dream I slept with Monica, and I don't mean shared a bed with like a brother and sister might. I'll have to REALLY think about what that means!

Views About War

Two soldiers stationed together, sitting in a bunker in the middle of
war zone. One's a pessimist, the other an optimist.

The pessimist says, "This is terrible, things couldn't possibly get any
worse."

The optimist says, "Oh yes it can."

-- old addage

Testing a new blogger tool

Testing a new Blogger tool

This is a test of a new capability Blogger added where you can add posts to your blog through an email message. I have created this post simply by emailing it to my blogger address and now I shall go log in to the site to see if it is there.

Cool beans.

Step Right Up. Guess Your Age? Win A Prize.

Step Right Up. Guess Your Age? Win A Prize.

Here is an interesting experiment called The Age Project where you view random pics of someone and try and guess they're age. You also have the option of adding your own visage to the experiment and have the masses tell you how old you look.

I put up a picture last week. After nearly 400 guesses, they guessed a year too high, which isn't bad I suppose. Early into it I checked the results and I was six years too high at one point. Thank goodness for the law of average. Were those people who thought I was that old blind? Recently, I took down that picture, satisfied with the results and put up another one. It'll be interesting to see if they can hit the same average age again. A lot of it depends on the picture; the lighting, your expression, clothes, people around you, number any teeth showing...

Thanks Mike for the link.

Political Compass

Political Compass

Here is a site, Political Compass which explains its view on a person's political makeup that I'm coming around to adopting. I have complained before that the two main political parties in the United States have some doctrines that contradict their own party's idea or what people expect of their party - which always confused me about what they stood for. But in my old view, I saw a person's political affiliation as both social and political and now I know that's all wrong. It's all political What it actually breaks down to is social and economic, both under the political umbrella and that makes more sense to me.

I have referred to myself as politically conservative yet socially liberal when I should've been saying economically conservative and socially liberal. Even those two terms, conservative and liberal are misnomers. I don't like how they're used. You can thank the political P.R. machine for using inaccurate labels for that. It's like the People's Republic of China. What's so Republic about it?

I took the test at this website and my result: Economic = +.5; Social = -3.90

What does this mean? I see by the website's graph it approaches a belief in an Anarchism system which I've long believed is the way to go. My economic number which is near-centrist/barely right-wing, is that way because I answered questions in which the arts should be supported. Otherwise, I would've had a more "right-wing" score. It deducted right-wing points all because I like a good show and I think a nation's people should support creativity.

For me the relationship of the two axis is a natural one. The further right you go, the further down you should go. Less restrictions on everything, more freedom. The fourth quadrant is the place to be.

Fighting the Dark Alliance, Again

Fighting the Dark Alliance, Again



Mrs. Lock and I have been spending most of our free time playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II. It was a deciding factor for me getting the Xbox since the title is not available on Gamecube yet.

It's hard to tell how far we are in the game but we both have 20th level characters. She's the dark elf monk and I'm an elven necromancer. You'd think I would be the dark elf being the necro and who's ever heard of a dark elf monk? But our characters are pretty powerful. She's the braun and I'm the spell caster. I do have a skeleton minion that helps her out in the fighting. It's pretty tough for something that doesn't have any flesh or muscle.

Ah, The Clinton Years

Ah, The Clinton Years

I'm missing the Clinton years where we had peace and prosperity.

DJI 10020, NASDAQ 1925, SP5 1093
#1 Movie at the box office: Van Helsing
Last movie I saw at the theater: Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Last movie I saw not at the theater: Dr. Strangelove
Books I'm currently reading: Plan Of Attack by Bob Woodward
CDs I'm listening to: Greatest Hits by Guns N' Roses
Fallen by Evanessence

New Blogger

New Blogger

I like the new Blogger look. My favorite feature is the preview function to see what your new addition will look like before you publish it. I think the old Blogger interface allowed for this (one of the views did) but it wasn't real handy if I remember.

Nice work guys.

I'm Back Bee-yatches

I'm Back Bee-yatches
	I've returned from my short vacation in Colorado Springs, Colorado where I spent five days with my brother who just returned from a year in Iraq. Let me tell you, Colorado is a very rugged place and I loved it. Jeep dealerships do very well out there.

Here is a picture of me (and nature) taken at a mountainous park called Garden of the Gods just outside of Colorado Springs where you can hike, hike and do more hiking.

	As you can tell, Colorado has some serious elevation issues. Living in a relatively flat land where I come from, to me this is impressive.

	This one is a shot of the tallest suspension bridge in the world at a location called Royal Gorge in Pikes Peak, Colorado.

	Donkey cart shot from the other side of the bridge.

	A shot from on the bridge looking down into the valley it spans. Can you see the river raft?

	You could take a train, actually it was more like a cramped set of cages welded together, to the bottom of the gorge where I got this shot. You can't get a sense of the depth in this photo so just look at the last one with the river raft to realize how far down I had to go to get this shot.

The river is just to the right of the sign.

	They had quite a bit of wildlife in the area. I'm fond of this picture I took of a mother elk and her calf.