The short answer is yes, it’s been going that way for some time now. But here’s an interesting article entitled “Developers uneasy about new game consoles” that speculates on the changes in progress in the gaming industry.

Worth reading if you’re an avid PC and/or console gamer as I am.

I have no desire to blog anonymously, but safety is Job 1 baby!

Read the guide. It’s worth your time if you’re a blogger.

It’s worth it just for the information about free anonymous surfing via Tor.

Here’s a Wired commentary on Real ID.

REAL ID doesn’t go into effect until three years after it becomes law, but I expect things to be much worse by then. One of my fears is that this new uniform driver’s license will bring a new level of “show me your papers” checks by the government. Already you can’t fly without an ID, even though no one has ever explained how that ID check makes airplane terrorism any harder.

Please, even if you don’t normally care about politics, read this essay by Bruce Schneier on the uselessness of the Real ID, and the many reasons why it’s a bad idea.

Despite appearances to the contrary, Americans still have the power to smack their government into complying with the wishes of Americans. Please remember that government is supposed to answer to you, and not the other way around.

Real ID is a step in the wrong direction. It’s one plodding, apathetic, shambling, shuffling stumble towards a totalitarian police state. If you’re reading this, I implore you to write your representatives and senators and let them know you are against the Real ID.

There’s a small plane that violated Washington’s no-fly zone! Oh my God! Everyone, quick, run around like idiots! Threat level Red! I repeat, threat level Red!

It’s probably time to ban private ownership of small planes. Any sane person would agree that small planes are just too dangerous to let our citizens own them.Especially now that they are being used to attack our fine and upright leaders in Washington, D.C.

I hope they string that bastard pilot up high to make an example out of him.

I guess I could be wrong. Maybe it really is a terrorist. Maybe I’m the idiot. Let’s wait and see.

Sit down and shut up!
Zero Logic
kierantie.com
Uneasy Silence
One Stop View Shop
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The Senate decided unanimously yesterday that it would continue to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. I’m not sure if they did it to get the military portions of the legislation passed or because they’re ignorant, or possibly because most of them think that more bureaucracy is a good way to fix our internal security problems as opposed to actually monitoring who crosses our southern and northern borders.

If the act’s mandates take effect in May 2008, as expected, Americans will be required to obtain federally approved ID cards with “machine readable technology” that abides by Department of Homeland Security specifications. Anyone without such an ID card will be effectively prohibited from traveling by air or Amtrak, opening a bank account, or entering federal buildings.

I can’t wait to see how many lives are marginalized by this new ID. What a great idea! (sarcasm)

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and Real ID Act sponsor is a dirty bastard and he purposely stuck this garbage into the military spending legislation to get it passed without a fuss. He’s a scummy, rotten human being. Then again, most of Congress fits that description.

I don’t understand why we Americans allow our elected leaders to continue playing their underhanded games with our lives. Attaching a federal ID requirement to a bill funding continued military activity in Iraq is disgusting and wrong. It shouldn’t be permitted.

Congress is a cancer, and the Real ID act is one more incremental erosion of American freedom. It will do nothing to stop or reverse illegal immigration and will only make it that much hard for the average American to lead a private life free from harm and interference at the hands of the massive beast that the federal government has become.

Some days I wonder who represents a bigger threat to my pursuit of life, liberty and happiness – religiously motivated terrorists or a power hungry and arrogant Congress.

Hundreds of civil liberties groups, immigrant support groups and government associations oppose the Real ID Act, a piece of legislation that critics say would produce a de facto national ID card, cost states millions of dollars and punish undocumented immigrants.

Yet despite widespread opposition to the bill, it passed through the House last week and is expected to easily pass through the Senate on Tuesday.

Most politicians disgust me most of the time. How can a government that refuses to secure its Southern and Northern borders to prevent illegal immigration expect more paperwork to solve security issues.

Read all 3 versions of the bill here.

Another disgusting aspect of the RealID act is the way it was snuck into other legislation. Congress, being an inherently dishonest body of theives with no honor, has created this legislation to make it easier to control you, the basic unit of our society – the individual. If the RealID act was really about securing Americans from outside threats, it wouldn’t have to be enacted in such a dishonest fashion.

Rather, the bill is about controlling individuals – their ability to move about freely inside our borders, their ability to conduct private transactions with other citizens and their ability to defy authority and still live out their lives are all further encroached upon. This legislation is about being able to reach out and smash troublesome citizens and noncitizens like a bug. It is about building a society where individuals are carefully monitored from birth to death – a society where bureaucrats can destroy your life with a mouse click whether you deserve it or not.

Do you really trust the same type of mentality that believes banning lighters while allowing matches on planes improves the flying safety of the general public to decide when and where you can travel? The RealID punishes states that refuse to comply by making their residents into virtual social pariahs in the rest of the nation.

If this new ID becomes a reality, and you don’t have one, count on being less than human in the eyes of every bureaucrat you encounter. This is an incremental process that moves each of us inexorably away from being individuals into the realm of the mindless collective.

I’m tired of the Congressional bullshit. I’d like the roles reversed for once – let’s call them out of their castles in Washington and make them answer to us in our cities and towns. Let’s hear them explain why they continue to make more rules and regulations that do nothing except inconvenience average Americans and move the country further away from “the land of the free.” Let’s ask them why they pass this stuff in closed session meetings and why they hide bills within bills to confuse us.

I can’t believe James Sensebrenner, the dirty control freak that he is, forgot to include a section in the bill that requires anyone who wants a RealID to provide urine and blood to prove they aren’t using any illegal substances. He forgot to legislate in a mandatory DNA sample to force each of us to prove we haven’t murdered anyone and never will. Think of how much safer we would all be if there was a national database controlled by Congress that included the DNA of everyone and an updated yearly drug screening. Why, that would make crime and poverty a thing of the past!

Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to pursue life, liberty and happiness here in the United States, as long as you don’t leave your RealID at home. Having your children tattooed with a copy of their RealID at birth is a good way to ensure they won’t have problems with the authorities at a young age.

I’ve been a University of Phoenix student for more than two years now and I’m finally getting to the meat of the degree I’m working on – Bachelor of Science in Information Technology.

It’s taken me this long to get past most of the classes I really didn’t need to benefit professionaly from the degree.

Among the topics and objectives I’m looking forward to covering:

INTRODUCTION TO HTML
• Explain the HTML needed to create a basic Web page.
• Explain HTML formatting.
• Explain the viewing and testing of Web page script.

WEB PAGE DESIGN
• Explain color and backgrounds in Web pages.
• Explain HTML tables.
• Explain HTML frames.
• Use Microsoft Word to create Web pages.
• Design Web pages.

WEB PAGE FORMS
• Create Web page forms.
• Analyze Web page design.

INTRODUCTION TO JAVASCRIPT
• Explain the basics of JavaScript.

JAVASCRIPT CODE
• Explain JavaScript arrays, loops, and conditional statements.

I already have some experience in these areas, but I think reinforcing and expanding on what I know will make me very fulfilled. Hopefully I’ll also get a good team this time around. That has been the flakiest part of the on-line college experience for me. It’s much harder to coordinate and make sure everyone is pulling a fair share of work when you can’t look them in the eye.

Experts in abductions say there is good reason for the silence.

‘The secrecy, or the silence, is beneficial only because every element of information that goes out should be very measured,’ said former FBI agent Bob Scigalski.

I can only find one story on Jeffrey Ake, and it is conspicuous only in the absence of information about the man’s status.

I’m not sure why the experts say not talking about Jeffrey Ake “is beneficial.” Apparently they understand things about psychology that are beyond me. Perhaps it has something to do with the incredibly short attention span of the American public. The fact that 90% of us seem prone to bursts of incredible energy followed by long periods of intense apathy could work to the advantage of Jeffrey, I suppose, if you believe in the power of retarded logic.

Maybe we should put Al-Libbi on TV and threaten to saw off his head if Jeffrey Ake is not returned safely. Oh, never mind, I forgot that we’re not animals.

Do the terrorists just sit on the guy until we start talking about him again and then dramatically saw off his head on TV to further their cause? Haven’t they figured out by now that a percentage of us over here are simply going to become more and more enraged by such acts of senseless barbarity? Every kidnapping, every act of purely evil murder, every American killed only makes the situation worse for the sons of Satan who think that holding a man down and removing his head while he begs for life is the way to win concessions and a ticket to eternal glory.

A quick death is the only mercy you should expect, a mercy you’re so subhuman you cannot grant it yourselves because you live and think like animals. You have no civility, no redeeming values and I wish only for each of you to have your existence snuffed out so that you cannot continue your evil.

Jeffrey Ake, I hope that you make it out alive, wherever you are. I also hope that others learn to take better precautions so that the disgusting apes who have captured you are extinguished before they can repeat themselves.

All you experts in abductions, I would love to know what the “good reasons for the silence are.” Please share your wisdom, Bob Scigalski, and the rest of the FBI is welcome to weigh in too. Why should we avoid discussing Jeffrey Ake? How will it help him out of the situation he is in?

barb-swings

Originally uploaded by trevor.snyder.

My wife and I like to drive around following new roads on weekends. There are lots of interesting sights to be seen.

We found this magnificent oak tree and rope swing on one such adventure this weekend.

It was located between Ranger and Oakman, Georgia, on a property for sale. The tree adds a lot of aesthetic value to the land it sits on.

After a careful review of the effectiveness of cigarette taxes (in raising revenue, not changing negative behavior), Detroit’s mayor Kwame Kilpatrick wants to add to his city’s already ridiculous tax burden by sucking a few cents out of you every time you eat at a fast food joint.

Faced with a $300 million budget hole, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is hoping people in this already heavily taxed city won’t mind forking over a few extra cents for their Big Macs and Whoppers.

The overt hubris and greed displayed by petty bureaucrats in this nation has never been more overt than it is in the year of our Lord 2005. While I find Mr. Kilpatrick’s name to be an interesting conglomeration of Irish and African, I’m not impressed by his bio.

When you run one of the biggest cities in the nation and the best motto you can come up with is Kids, Cops, Clean – color this author unimpressed. I would be more impressed if Kwame Kilpatrick could find a way to streamline city services while reducing the tax burden and providing incentives for people to move into the city, instead of doing his best to help people flee.

This is not rocket science Mr. Kilpatrick. Raise taxes and people leave unless you’ve got something damn good to offer that outweighs the burden of economic slavery. Detroit is not such a place. Actually, America as a whole is increasingly becoming not such a place.

Yes, it is possible to kill the American dream. All it takes is a few villages full of people with the same mentality as Kwame Kilpatrick.

Good luck with your proposed cash cow Mr. Kilpatrick. Now that smokers across America are a pariah class, you might as well focus on fatasses. Eventually, we’ll have a special category of economic slavery for everyone.

A Dog Named Liberty has written on this topic in the past.

I guess she’s much more redeemable than I am since she’s going to be seven levels higher in hell.

The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Take the Dante’s Inferno Hell Test

So yes, I saw my “opportunity to say something lewd and offensive.” And I took it. She had just said something about gay marriage, the typical rightwing bullshit spiel that is still convincing people that the Bible is really the Constitution. Knowing that taking the time to say something insightful, specific, or even slightly critical would get me a lame comeback and a ticket back to my seat, I realized that the only way to win this battle was to fight fire with fire.

After reading this article at the Daily Kos, I’m not such a big fan of Ann Coulter. To be fair, I never was in the first place.

However, I have a real problem with people being arrested for asking a question that might be offensive to some.

Look, people, I’m neither conservative or liberal. Both groups have a lot of screwed up people representing them, or at least making the claim that they are. Arresting someone for being distasteful is not kosher. Get it?

I’m talking to both sides of the idiotic ball of psychobabble that is modern American politics. Chill out and be glad this kid was expressing himself in a non-violent way.

As stated in the Texan article, I am charged with Disorderly Conduct, which is a Class C Misdemeanor. Other Class C Misdemeanors include DWIs, possession of drug paraphernalia, and speeding tickets. Without getting into the justification for all of those, were my naughty words and crude hand motions as imposing a danger?

It would have been perfectly appropriate to escort Ajai Raj out of the building if his question was a faux pas. Nothing more is warranted. Ann Coulter, if you’re a decent human being, you should request that the charges be dropped.

You dish out a lot of harsh statements – allow this college student his one provocative question. After all, he had a point.

Thanks, Stan, for leading the way on this one.

The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Eigth Level of Hell – the Malebolge!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Take the Dante’s Inferno Test

I wrote some time ago about how eFax sucks. I’m not the only one complaining about eFax.

Well, I mentioned MaxEmail as an alternative. I’ve been using them for a few months now, and I would like to report that I’ve had no problems. While MaxEmail doesn’t offer an installable application like eFax, I find that receiving my incoming faxes via Outlook 2003 works just fine, and that sending outgoing faxes (which I hardly ever do) functions as well.

The MaxEMail web site is well designed, and finding answers to questions is simple. I have not had to call them for support. The $8.95 monthly fee I pay is much better than $12.95 monthly fee Efax suddenly began demanding from me late last year.

MaxEmail also offers more palatable and varied service plans the eFax.

Additionally, eFax charges .10 per page for outgoing faxes versus MaxEmail’s .05 per 30 seconds. Most of my outgoing pages have taken about 15 seconds to transmit, so from my perspective, I’m saving significant money.

Even if the costs were equal, I would switch again. eFax customer service representatives I spoke to in 2004 were outsourced script reading Indians who had the worst phone approach to customer service I’ve ever encountered. I have nothing against Indians – I have to deal with them all the time in my line of work. However, I do have a problem with broken English, bad scripts and an obvious “I could care less attitude.”

eFax managed to lump all those things together. If you’re considering using an on-line fax service, I highly recommend MaxEmail over eFax.

Here is someone else’s opinon of MaxEmail.

An investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service determined that the Marine acted in self-defense, within military law and the law of armed conflict.

Finally, our military leadership gets one right.

When your life is in danger, and the tactics of your enemy include acting dead and waiting to blow you up when you check on him to render medical assistance, then this sort of incident is going to happen. The Marine had a split second choice to make, and I’m glad that his investigators had the common sense to take the context into account.

When you have been in an environment surrounded by enemies that hide amongst people you are supposed to be helping and they all look the same, it’s not hard to make a choice like the one this Marine made.

If he thought his life was in danger, then he was completely justified. Thank the terrorists, insurgents or animals we are fighting for ensuring by their tactics that we sometimes shoot their wounded because sometimes, their wounded are just waiting to blow us up.

Bad things happen in war. People do things they regret. Human beings die. This is the nature of the struggle. Punishing our servicepeople for being human and wanting to survive would serve no good purpose.

Last week my Toshiba Portege M200 motherboard fried itself. This is not surprising, considering I bought it as a factory refurb. The great thing about factory refurbs is that they come with a factory warranty which is extendable. I bought the four-year extended warranty.

Toshiba, like most modern tech megacorporations, has shitty tech support. The Canadian “tech” I talked to diagnosed hard drive failure. Having worked on PCs for 15 years now, I knew he was wrong, and found a local Toshiba authorized dealer who could look at the system in Atlanta. I removed my perfectly working hard drive prior to dropping it off, just in case.

I back up all my files on all my computers nightly, but since I am likely to be getting deployed to Iraq in October or so, the fried motherboard got me thinking. What are my backup plans for Iraq? Well, I didn’t have any.

So I got one together. I purchased a second 2.5 EIDE hard drive (the kind that go in laptops) and got my hands on a legitimate copy of Norton Ghost 9.0, which advertises a feature called “Hot Imaging.” Hot Imaging supposedly allows you to make exact copies of your hard drive on the fly. Hot Imaging also doesn’t work. At least it didn’t for me. That’s why I think Norton Ghost 9.0 sucks. Older versions of the product would allow you to boot into DOS mode to do your drive copy operations, but this version DOES NOT. So basically, if you can’t get your drive imaging/copying done withint the Windows environment, you’re screwed. Stay away from this product.

A better and cheaper option is http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/. It will let you make a boot CDR or a boot floppy, or any other bootable media, so you can do your copying in a DOS environment.

A man shot himself five times before driving from his Godfrey, Ill., home to a bridge — a distance that took 10 minutes — and jumped from a bridge.

OK, I’m starting a new category called World of the Wacky just for this story about a man who shot himself five times before jumping off a bridge.

A little advice, if you’re going to kill yourself, a .22 caliber pistol is not the optimal weapon.

I realize that the world is a far from perfect place and I believe in facing down the horrors that can be found in the dark corners of my reality.

That is why I am so saddened by reports today that the United States Army attempted to cover up the fact of Pat Tillman’s death by fratricide. I hope that all those involved in mitigating and stonewalling the truth are punished, and that they never have another opportunity to bear arms on behalf of my adopted nation. It is possible that some of them should be locked up, but I don’t know enough yet to comment a sense of authority.

Pat Tillman joined the military believing he was doing something worthwhile. I wonder what his last thoughts were as his was killed by gross incompetence at the hands of his own brethern. While his situation is a sad one, it pales in comparision to the true monstrosities to be found in the Middle East.

Visit Memri.org and if you can stomach it, watch a few interviews with monsters in human form. Then remember that most of your fellow humans beings have the potential to be monsters. All it takes for some is a weak mind and a few promises of a glorious afterlife. Others will betray their humanity for baubles. Some will do it because it brings them power.

This is cancer, and it needs to be battled, whether you live in Tikrit or Tacoma.

Caught a few minutes of the local news for Atlanta last night, and I’d like to offer a big glass of STFU to all the Hispanic people offended by Jennifer Wilbanks statement that she was kidnapped by a Hispanic male in a blue van.

As my hero Neal Boortz pointed out, if all the people who own blue vans aren’t entitled to whine, bitch and moan about being discriminated against by Jennifer Wilbanks, then neither are latino males.

Wilbanks also claimed there was a white woman abductor involved and I didn’t see any angry white females demanding an apology to the entire Caucasian female population.

There are a lot of people carrying around a lot of totally unecessary emotional baggage in this society. Jennifer Wilbanks is one of them. Don’t add to her problems by whining on local television please. You’re just embarassing yourself, and her 15 minutes is almost over anyhow.

The Mesopotamian writes about Iraq from an Iraqis’ perspective. Read his latest blog entry if you have five minutes.

Please read the source article first. If you’re still interested, wash it down with my acerbic commentary.

Registry officials freely admit that their system is highly automated. If it finds enough similarities between an applicant and an existing dirtbag who isn’t entitled to have a license, it presumes they’re one and the same and sends out the rejection/suspension letter. It’s then up to the person to prove their innocence.

The State of Massachusetts, also known as Taxachusetts, is a shining beacon for socialists, underachievers and people with various dependencies who do not wish to do for themselves.

This fine blog article from Wizbang chronicles the saga of one David E. Greene, who has repeatedly been denied his driver’s license by the fine automated system employed by the great state of Massachusetts. The reason – David E. Green, productive citizen of Massachusetts, shares his name with David E. Greene, shitbird child molester of Florida.

There goes the presumption that in America, you are innocent until proven guilty. In Massachusetts, at least, you do not enjoy this sacrosanct presumption – your driving privileges are decided by the Machine God. The Machine God is served by witless bureaucratic lackeys who are untouchable and therefore uninterested in fixing the problems of David E. Greene.

Ah, the bliss of modern life. . .

I just came across Ching’s Random Thoughts. . . in relation to Jennifer Wilbanks and well, Ching inspired me to make a comment.

Here’s a sample of Ching’s thinking:

This runaway bride who skipped town, Jennifer Wilbanks, deserves to be held accountable and spend jail time and/or community service for wasting manpower and resources.

And of course, my response: She deserves several hundred hours of community service, nothing more. She just needs to grow up.

Why not find a half-African, half-Korean woman who ran away from her wedding and lied about being kidnapped to write about? You could start a new trend.

All you people around the nation who are calling for jail time should think twice. We have enough serious problems in this country without throwing every immature 32-year-old narcisscist with poor decision making skills into jail.

Please remember that this nation already has the highest rate of incarceration per capita of all the so-called civilized nations. I think we need to slow down a little bit.

Yes, Jennifer Wilbanks is an idiot. But she didn’t do anything violent and her fraud didn’t cause anyone irreparable harm. Community service and counseling are in order. Nothing more.

Welcome to the will to exist info page. This is where you’ll find the answers to any questions you may have about me or the site. Of course, if you don’t find what you’re looking for, feel free to contact me via trevor@willtoexist.com.

About The Site

The will to exist is a blog that chronicles ideas, events, people, politics and technology. It has been primarily written by Trevor Snyder, although guest authors sometimes appear.

About The Author(s) – Trevor

I’m male, 40, married, libertarian and a naturalized citizen. I spent my childhood as a missionary kid in places like Bangladesh and Haiti. I am a transhumanist, animal lover, technology professional/enthusiast and minarchist. None of the above defines me as a human being, but each point is a clue to my character.

I spent 2005-2006 in Baghdad, Iraq, serving in a public affairs capacity with MNF-I. I have a master’s degree in management of information technology. Nothing in this blog should be considered to be an official opinion of any sort. My ideas do not necessarily reflect the ideas of any governing body, board of important people, politician or leader. They belong to me.

Administrative Minutia

Here are the usual legal disclaimers and some general information relating to the site:

E-MAIL: Anything you e-mail me becomes the property of willtoexist.com. We will use it as we see fit.

REPRODUCTION: You can copy any blog content you find here as long as you link back to this blog. Copy an entire article without asking permission is in bad taste, and highly discouraged. Reposting entire RSS feeds without attribution and trackback links is rude, and I ask that you not do it.

LINKS and BLOG ROLLS: Yes, you may. Would you, please?

VACANT TRACKBACKS: In bad taste. We fill them in – you should too.

EDITING: Feel free to tell us when you think something is wrong.

COMMENTS: Don’t be abusive, or you will find your IP banned. Other than that, feel free to say what you think.

DISCLAIMER: This site may contain images and ideas that are offensive and is not suitable for children or those with poorly developed mental faculties. The opinions expressed here are those of the post author and in no way reflect the opinions of any official group. Got something to say? Leave a comment. Offended? You’re welcome to go somewhere else. The Internet is a big place.

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If you administer your own WordPress blog, this post by Matt Read should be required reading. Is discusses the WordPress template system and it’s, well, helpful to WordPress bloggers. Go read it now!

Well, let me tell you something about myself. I am Miram, 19 years old, live in Germany in a town called Cologne. Maybe some of you know it. Anyway, I like to dance, go out with friends and music. I am into alot of Genres. Techo, Gothic, Pop, Rock, Alternative, Classic and more. I will finish school this year and after that I will study. I love to read poems, and sometimes I also write poems.
At the moment I am single and still searching for somone :). If you like you can get in touch with me. I am always interested to meet new people.

I’ve been analyzing my blog’s logs again, and this site is bringing me hits. I have no idea why. I’m not sure who this woman with massive fake breasts is either, or what exactly the relationship between my blog and this sex site is supposed to be.

I’m not a fan of the above surgical “enhancements”. In fact, I find this pair rather disgusting.

Mariam or Miriam, you fine fake sex seeking Holy Grail for sex starved lonely men on the Internet who have a fetish for giant mammaries, thanks for directing people to my rather non-sexy blog.

The intraweb sure is filled with weirdness. Ladies, please don’t do this to yourself. It’s unnatural to take your boobies and turn them into watermelons.

After being questioned by the FBI, Wilbanks confessed that she had not been abducted. They say she instead had cold feet about her wedding and left Georgia on a bus to Las Vegas.

Yes, Jennifer Wilbanks is a spoiled piece of crap. If you reach the age of 32, and your best solution to pre-wedding jitters is to run away, then claim your were abducted, you are a mental basket case.

Jennifer Wilbanks needs to grow up. I don’t necessarily think she needs criminal charges, but a spanking probably wouldn’t hurt. Her family hasn’t impressed me much either. They are being way to supportive of Jennifer – flying your daughter back first class from one of her dumbest acts is not sending her a message that I would want to send. People have had a variety of reactions to this little prissy chick’s brain spasm. My general thought is that she needs to make a few appearances on the talk circuit and apologize. It would also be nice if she took some phone calls from some of the people who wasted their time looking for her and let them give share exactly how they feel.

On the other hand, we Americans have a tendency to whine and demand restitution when nothing is owed us. This morning I was listening to XM radio on the way in to work, and they were quoting some bumblefuck who had nothing at all to do with Jennifer Wilbanks, the search, the family, the wedding party or anything. This voyeur was all pissed off because Jennifer put her through mental anguish by faking her own abduction. Hey lady, quit watching the news if you can’t handle people being people. Why does the media always play back sound bites from the dumbest people in our society? For once, I’d like to hear the reasonable, intelligent side of the story. Make Jennifer Wilbanks do a couple hundred hours of community service and let her get on with her life so maybe, one day, she’ll have an epiphany and grow the fuck up.

BlogPulse references to Jennifer Wilbanks.

Technorati references to Jennifer Wilbanks.

If you do a search of my blog, you’ll find this article, where I speculate on whether or not the capture of Saddam Hussein was staged. It’s a sad commentary on your society when you have doubts about whether your government would lie to you, but you have too when you are American, and your government has the type of track record that ours does. Not the worst, but certainly not squeeky clean.

Anyhow, here’s a lovely quote from an article that has the ring of truth about it.

“I was so angry,” says Samir, who immigrated to St. Louis eleven years ago after fleeing Iraq. “I began cussing at him, calling him a motherfucker, a son-of-a-bitch — you name it. I told him I was Shiite from the south and was part of the revolution against him in 1991. I said he murdered my uncles and cousins. He imprisoned my father.

“All these years of anger, I couldn’t stop. I tried to say the worst things I could. I told him if he were a real man he would have killed himself. I asked him: ‘Why are you living in that dirty little hole, you bastard? You are a rat. Your father is a rat.'”

In Arabic, Saddam told Samir to shut up. And when Saddam called him a traitor, an enraged Samir silenced his prisoner with a flurry of quick jabs to the face.

“I punched Saddam in the mouth.”

If Saddam had murdered my uncles and cousins, I might have done more than punch him in the mouth. Self-restraint is not always appropriate.

The article reference above is well worth a few moments of your time. While I have mixed feelings about the whole occupation of Iraq, there are moments and events that cause me to believe we’ve done a very good thing. Saddam’s capture as told in the above article helps me see the positive side of our current Middle Eastern incursion. I do not claim to fully comprehend the big picture and history is going to sort all that out. However it turns out, I hope Saddam will be rotting in the ground again soon, permanently.

The Waking Tree

Originally uploaded by golush.

Among all the talented people I’ve discovered at flickr.com, Golush is my favorite.

His photos are amazing, mostly because he has the eye for what should be placed in the lens.

He also sells his prints, if you see something you like, e-mail him and ask about getting a print to frame.

There are many other excellent photographers at flickr and I highly recommend spending a few moments at the site or joining if you are a shutterbug.

A question for you. . .of what use is technology when it does not function?

My blog, which I run from my home, crashed along with it’s master, Fred the Ornery Server. I have repaired him as of this writing, but it was a godawful thing of a task.

Also, to make my happiness know no bounds, my laptop crashed. My lovely and oh so helpful wife Barb is dropping that piece of broken technology off at the local repair shop in Atlanta. My laptop’s name, by the way, is Surly Shirley. I love her.

Surly Shirley is a Toshiba M200 tablet PC, and I will count the days till I get her back. I kept her brain, because I do not trust anyone else to perform surgery on it when it is working just fine.

A hint for all you WordPress users out there – do not choose Windows IIS6, MySQL 4.1 and PHP 5 as your default configuration for publishing a blog unless you enjoy feeling like the world’s biggest idiot. If arcane software configurations are your hobby, then by all means, pursue this particular cojoining of obtuse diversity.

This company and it’s personal flying vehicle have the potential to change the way we live.

I haven’t worked out the finer points yet (like financing) but I’ll be trying one of these out, assuming they are actually allowed to sell them and that the FAA doesn’t get involved and ruin the entire idea by overregulating it.

Pretty exciting times to live in. I can’t wait to fly to work.

This story absolutely disgusts me. If you have any sense of morality, it should disgust you too. If you have children in public schools, it should scare the shit out of you. I understand that there are many good public schools left in this country, but the balance is inexorably tipping in the wrong direction.

So do something about it, you apathetic Americans.

flickr18-my_hand

Originally uploaded by trevor.snyder.

This post is actually unrelated to the photo that accompanies it. I have just been notified that I am being “activated.” What this means is that my unit of the National Guard is going to be put on active duty – most likely to spend a year in Iraq.

Good times.

The blue hand is a PhotoShop of my hand after I injured it on a fairly gigantic splinter. Nice.

“He was on-site Monday and two cars pull up, eight hooded men carrying heavy rifles emerged from the car, quickly overwhelmed his security — which was less than robust — found him, grabbed him . . . threw him in the car and sped off,” said the source.

According to this article, his security was “less than robust”, which is just what I speculated. I hope the man survives, but he should have demanded security that matched his attractiveness as a hostage.

Either our State Department is doing a crappy job of educating and preparing people for the reality on the ground over there, or too many people have the “it won’t happen to me” fallacy bogging down their decision making process. Any trip I might make to Iraq as a civilian would definitely involve my carrying one or several firearms of my own choosing. Otherwise, no go.

If I’m called to go as a soldier, then I’ll be raising hell to make sure I have at least an M-4 with plenty of ammo.

WTF. These people have demonstrated a complete willingness to hold you – yes, you American infidel – down while one of them videos your head being sawed off. Take appropriate security measures. And for God’s sake, don’t allow yourself to be captured. Being blown up and being shot are merciful deaths compared to being held down and cut into two pieces with a rusty piece of crap knife wielded by someone who has surrendered his humanity and reverted back to animal existence.

We’re all flawed, but there are degrees of barbarity I would not want to subject myself too. Always remember, the person most concerned about your health and welfare is you. Take measures while you are healthy enough and free enough to do so.

The Free State Project, which I am a participant in, has received some ink from the Concord Monitor.

Remember, the Drug War is a war against individuals, not a war against drugs. The act of possessing drugs is not a crime against anyone. The act of using drugs may be a crime, but only against the user’s body. Who owns your body? You should. But in our modern state, the government apparently believes it does.

Congressman James Sensebrenner thinks he owns you. I wrote him this letter, which, like all my missives to government, will be answered with a generic, computer generated response.

I wanted you to know that I have written my elected representatives and asked them to vote against HR 1528. I will also speak against such disgusting legislation at every opportunity. Such legislation is appalling in its draconian attempts to regulate freedom of choice, which includes the freedom to make bad choices.

Perhaps you should consider that a whipped dog is more likely to bite. After 40-years of whipping the dog, Mr. Sensebrenner, what you and your pro drug war cronies have created is a large segment of society that is conditioned to distrust the master, and bite when cornered. Your tactics are only making the situation worse.

Respectfully,

A Concerned Citizen

As much as it pains me to say it, this article by CNet’s Executive Editor Charles Cooper, is pretty much proof positive that we are a nation in decline. We are headed for mediocrity at a scary rate of speed. If I live too long, I may need to consider moving to India.

Thank a Democrat. Thank a Republican. Thank the fat slob you see in the mall and his half dressed daughter setting up her next orgy on a cell phone purchased with a credit card that won’t ever carry a zero balance and will be in default shortly. Thank all the well intentioned but somewhat whiny enablers who can’t accept the fact that pain builds character and the stupid should not be protected from themselves. Thank everyone who believes in consumption as their religion and most of all, thank an immigrant, because that foreigner was educated outside the shit for brains public education system we have, and he will probably be your boss soon.

My response from the TSA to the feedback I sent them yesterday was a generic, computer generated piece of spam, which I am posting in its entirety:

Thank you for your email message. Please accept our appreciation for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us. Your help and support are important contributions to ensuring the safety and security of the Nation’s aviation system.

TSA Contact Center

—–Original Message—–
From: trevor@trevorsnyder.com
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 10:14 AM
To: TSA-Contact Center
Subject: Customer Service Feedback

You have received this email from the TSA website Customer Service.

Name:
Trevor Snyder

Category:
Complaints

Message:
The lack of logic displayed by your new ban on lighters is overwhelming. Isn’t the ban on incendiary devices quite enough? Your entire approach to security is as disgusting as it is inept.

Email:
trevor@trevorsnyder.com
__________________________________________
Date and Time of message: 04/14/2005 09:10:46 AM

So, there’s your standard. Ban dangerous items that are easy to find, allow items that are difficult to find.

–Neal Boortz on the TSA banning lighters on airplanes

In what is perhaps the clearest example of why big government is big trouble, the TSA has banned lighters on airplanes. I am, of course, going to attempt to bring a lighter on now just to see if I can get away with it. Matches are NOT banned, of course, because the retards in Congress, including Democratic morons Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon, think this is a “commonsense step to protect passengers. . .” Right, and sewing my anus shut is a commonsense way to avoid the hassle of having to unload my body’s solid waste matter through my backside once or twice a day. Same kind of “logic” that got the Titanic sunk.

How long are we going to put up with these incredibly stupid leaders of ours? If you want real security on the damn plane, let anyone with formal weapons training carry a personal weapon onboard when they get on the plane.

Stop wasting taxpayers time and money with these bullshit rules that serve only your own self-interest, you goddamn self-serving pieces of shit who call yourselves public servants. If you can name one terrorist who has ever planned to take over the plane with a Bic lighter, I’ll drink a big glass of STFU and go away.

The real insult though, is how inept your federal screeners are. I know, because I test them every time I fly, and they fail EVERY TIME! The stuff you tell them is bad is not being detected 100% of the time, and it’s not being detected 50% of the time, in fact, I would bet money it gets caught less than 25% of the time.

So now I can’t carry my lighter on the plane, according to rules made by someone who couldn’t pass a college logic course. I can however, through the largesse of my retarded Congresspeople, still have up to four books of “non strike anywhere” matches. So, if I manage to sneak my incendiary device aboard, I’ll make sure I only bring up to four books of standard matches with me to accomplish my fiendish plot to blow up the airliner I’m on.

Fucking retards. When did we all lose our collective balls and decide to put up with this sort of inanity?

Reinstalled the WP Admin Bar, now on version 2 – love this tool. If you want an easier way to flip back and forth between admin and viewing modes in WordPress 1.5 – this is the best way.

Thanks, Matt Read. You’re OK in my book.

flickr5-leaving_for_iraq

Originally uploaded by trevor.snyder.

In case you didn’t know, I’m a member of the National Guard. This year during annual training, we covered thousands of troops preparing to deploy for a year or more in Iraq as part of our annual training this year at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

Some of them were pretty happy go lucky about it, and some of them were plain mean. For the first time in my military career, I had a troop get in my face about being photographed. Apparentely he wanted no part of what was happening and damn sure didn’t want a record made of the events that were rapidly propelling him toward the sandbox across the pond.

flickr.com is a photo sharing service. I’m playing with it because I like taking photos, and appreciating the photos other people may have taken that are better (or worse) than mine.

I would bet my paycheck that a) he was relying on someone else for his personal security and b) that someone else was nowhere to be found when Mr. Ake was kidnapped.

Yes, it’s another kidnapped American on video pleading for his life. What I don’t get is why these people aren’t heavily armed to begin with. How is it that they are allowing themselves to be kidnapped in the first place?

If it were I, and I know I’m just being an armchair quarterback here, I do believe I would die in a firefight rather than allow myself to be taken hostage by savages known for holding down folks and sawing their heads off on video. I realize that I may not have control over how and when I die, but if the choice is between getting riddled with bullets or having my head sawed off slowly while fully conscious, I believe I’ll take the bullets.

Knowing how retarded we are here at home about allowing our citizens to carry personal weapons for self defense, I wonder – was Jeffrey Ake carrying a firearm of any type? I would bet my paycheck that a) he was relying on someone else for his personal security and b) that someone else was nowhere to be found when Mr. Ake was kidnapped.

I hope Mr. Ake survives his ordeal, but he should have been better prepared, and willing to defend himself. Iraq is no place for unarmed American civilians, period.

Update:

The Hungry Blogger comments on Jeffrey Akes’ predicament
One Hand Clapping comments on Jeffrey Akes’ situation

My Living Will – Stolen from Stan, who stole it from elsewhere

I am not the author of this, but it describes my feelings pretty well.

I, Stan the New American Revolutionist Trevor L. Snyder, being of (somewhat) sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means – unless of course, my quality of life is within the realm of acceptable to me. If you can’t ask me, then it’s not, jackasses.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood ethically challenged politicians who couldn’t pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a cold beer, it should be presumed that I won’t ever get better. A reasonable amount of time should be decided by my wife, Barb and not anyone else, including fat judges, dishonest lawyers, empty headed media pundits and other parasites.

When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day so that I can be placed in cold storage, according to my wishes.

Under no circumstances shall the hypocritical members of the Legislature (State or Federal) enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Americans who aren’t in a permanent coma.

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case. I don’t care how many fundamentalist ignorant turds’ votes they’re trying to scrounge for their run for the presidency, it is my wish that they play politics with someone else’s life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn’t care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don’t know these people, and I certainly haven’t authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own business, too, because it’s likely God will punish them for their arrogance in trying to interpret His Divine Will when it comes to the lives of strangers.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his or her existence a living hell.

Well, the Bowflex is here, and has been for a while. It’s sitting in boxes, waiting for the workout room it will go in to be refurbished. We’re painting and tiling so I guess I’ll have to wait a while before I become better looking than Bowflex grandma and her friends from the commercials.

Speaking of the Bowflex commercials, I wonder how much of the cost of my Bowflex goes to pay for those people to workout on TV for me…

We had to kill our oldest dog Phinny Phoo today.

He had a stroke last night, and this morning he could not stand. Phoo Bear, as he was nicknamed, was 17 years old. We killed him humanely, and it hurt me deeply to do it, but didn’t change the fact that it was the right thing to do. I hope that if I am ever in Phoo’s situation, where my body has betrayed me, that I won’t be a pawn in political games, like Terry Schiavo was. I would never allow a living being I care about to be starved alive.

Phoo died peacefully, being touched and comforted by the humans he loved. We fed him treats just before he went to sleep forever, and he was able to look up at us as he slipped away. I do not cry often, but I cried hard today, despite my best efforts not to. The photo below was taken two days ago.

Our loving and loyal bear was thrown away five years ago by someone else. He came to us from a shelter, because someone knew he wasn’t ready to die yet.
They were right, and he enjoyed the life extension he was given back then. Life is precious and should be nurtured. I’m glad Phoo got the extra time, because he brought us joy, and we benefited from his presence in our lives.

I’m glad we had five years with him. You couldn’t have asked for a more loyal dog. He doted on my wife, and his every breath was drawn for her. When she moved, he followed, always hopeful for a pat on the head, or a treat. Even when he could barely walk, Phoo would hobble up if Barb moved, and give it his every effort to be by her side.

When we found him this morning, it was obvious he had a major neurological event. You could help him up and he would fall over to one side – always the same side. I want to think that Phoo has a soul, and that he has moved on to somewhere where he is a puppy again. I hope that in that place, he is surrounded by things that make him happy and that he will spend his days running and playing with someone like my wife – someone who loves him as unconditionally as he loved her.

I’ll miss you Phoo. We planted your body under a pear tree in a place where the sunset will touch you every day the same way you touched me on this, your last day on earth. May your tree bloom and bear fruit, and remind me of the joy you brought into my life. I hope to play with you again in another world.

Read this article by Richard Perle. It’s refreshing to get some honest feedback in Washington every so often.

Too bad they probably won’t listen.

Well, I’ve been away doing my annual training for the National Guard.

As usual, the military is inefficient (like all government agencies). The National Guard, being the lowest on the military totem pole, is probably the least efficient of the various armed services. We get the leftover equipment. For instance, I had to drive a Humvee across Georgia on a rainy day. The roof leaked and so I got to experience the feeling of being peed on even though that isn’t the sort of thing I enjoy. Military humvees are also extremely loud, so one has to wear earplugs during the entire trip to avoid hearing loss.

My two week sojourn into military life was punctuated by other fun events such as the required three pointless daily meetings, the requirement that we get up before 6 AM every day even if there is absolutely nothing going on at that time, and the pleasure of being a middle aged business professional yet being treated like a 12-year-old middle school student.

On the high side, I was in charge of the activities for the final week, and took full advantage. We played racquetball for physical training and tried to keep the bureaucracy to a minimal level. Military life can be very enjoyable if you manipulate who is in your unit carefully. It’s an art form.

One thing that irritates me greatly about military life is the lack of common sense displayed from the top down. For instance – I am trained to be a professional killer but I am not allowed to have any personal weapons on base and in my possession. Despite the fact that I can carry concealed weapons wherever I go in daily life and have been doing so in a responsible manner for years now and regardless of the fact that I am trusted to manage other soldiers, I am not allowed to carry my pistol around with me while on base. Why? It doesn’t make any sense and is merely another pointless control mechanism.

If terrorists ever do attack a U.S. military installation stateside, they will have plenty of time to attack our troops while the bureaucrats scramble around filling out paperwork so bullets and weapons can be issued out to troops who need to respond to the attack. It’s disheartening that we have such foolish restrictions placed on us. There should be a process in place for soldiers to be allowed to carry loaded weapons at all times.

A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated.

Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh, of Lebanese descent, was quoted in the Saudi daily al-Medina Wednesday as saying Saddam was actually captured Friday, Dec. 12, 2003, and not the day after, as announced by the U.S. Army.

At this time, I cannot find any information about Nadim Abou Rabeh. There is certainly great speculation about whether Saddam’s capture was staged and it has been going on for a long time. However, this recent “revelation” needs to be corroborated. If the Bush administration is actively lying about such important events, then I will have to reconsider a lot of decisions I’ve made recently.

Can anyone point me to real evidence that backs up the report of the staged capture?

While I’m waiting for evidence, this story seems pretty plausible to me and completely contradicts the “fake capture” tale. It is getting harder and harder to find the truth in this world of spin and outright lies. I hope Samir is the one telling the truth, and that Nadim is the liar. It would fit my worldview better. On the other hand, some things can change a person’s worldview. I have to accept whichever version is the truth, if I can ever get information that allows me to ferret it out.

VIENNA (Reuters) – U.S. and Austrian lawyers have filed a lawsuit demanding Thailand, U.S. forecasters and the French Accor group answer accusations they failed in a duty to warn populations hit by December’s Tsunami disaster, a lawyer said Monday.

The lawsuit was filed Friday at a New York district court on behalf of tsunami victims by lawyers including U.S. attorney Edward Fagan, internationally renowned for 1990s lawsuits against Swiss banks over Holocaust-era accounts. It demanded an account of their actions on Dec. 26.

This story is total bullshit. The U.S. government has no obligation to provide the populations of other countries with any type of safety information whatsoever. Americans already do more than their share of helping out around the world, through voluntary efforts and the coercive tax system that achievers labor under.

However, being sued for not being helpful enough is a fitting irony, especially when you consider that American trial lawyers are involved in the process. If I were in charge, these folks would be tarred and feathered, but first, they would be forbidden from practicing law forever.

If you are fat but not happy and need some fat acceptance assistance go to the Big Fat Blog, where you can find out information vital to fat people who want to be both fat and happy. For instance:

Why accept yourself fat? Why not just lose weight and then accept yourself?

That type of sentiment promotes the idea that fat people can’t do things in life until they’re thin. Fat people can (and should!) get out and enjoy life – just like anyone else. Both psychological and sociological barriers sometimes affect that in a negative fashion, though. You should love your body, no matter what it looks like. It can take a very long time, but it’s a good thing.

Anyhow, there was this one time, at fat camp. . .I can’t wait to get my Bowflex.

I’m not sure what to write about Hunter S Thompson killing himself because he really didn’t have an impact on my life. I haven’t read anything he wrote and have only heard of him through others, who mostly thought he was a great man.

I don’t know why he decided to turn himself off, but it does bring up a point of note for me: suicide is a reasonable way out of a reality worse than death. I don’t believe that God will damn a soul for the act of suicide. The real sin is when people try to force someone to stay alive against his or her will.

Some lives are worthless from the beginning and some become degraded, miserable things as time erodes the good from them. Other lives are a miasma of pain and suffering and some lives turn unbearably boring. The people who live these lives own them and it is their right to choose when the candle should be snuffed. If we have free will, and it is a gift given by God as many in this society believe, then the right to die at the time and place of your own choosing is sacrosanct in my mind.

Hunter S. Thompson has moved onward to somewhere or nowhere and that was his right. Anyone who says otherwise can kiss my ass.

Update: I was watching CNN from my hotel room this morning and they were reading the letters from viewers. Some “Christian” wrote in and said that the only person who should have the power to end a life is God and I thought to myself – what about free will? The sheer arrogance of others in enforcing their own particular brand of “God’s will” leaves me enraged.

Many thanks to StripedPinkBunny and others who have added me to their blogrolls recently. I appreciate the quality of traffic you bring in.

I tried to order $750 worth of stuff from ZipZoomFly on Friday. While I’ve had good experiences ordering from them in the past, this time was different. Their order processor, bank or whatever (they blamed it on Well Fargo when I called), denied my order even though I was using a debit card with plenty o’ cash to back up the transaction.

The next day, although the order was rejected, a $750 hold was placed on my acccount. WTF? Either take my money and ship me the stuff I ordered, or don’t take my money. What is not cool is that ZipZoomFly (or its order processor) decided to just freeze almost a thousand dollars of my cash for a week. Who built a system where that was an OK thing to do? The people responsible need a bitch slap. Or am I being ignorant thinking there has to be a better way of conducting business?

ZipZoomFly gets a Worst of Show entry for screwing up my order and holding my cash hostage.

Update – My money has been released and is back in my back account where it belongs. This after a call to ZipZoomFly where I was on hold several times but finally got a person to take my information and promise to submit it to accounting so they could call my bank and tell them what had happened.

Blogpulse has been intriguing me lately. While I write here mostly for my own enjoyment, it’s nice to know that other people are reading what I have to say.

I am not sure what criteria are being used by the technology that drives the Blogpulse site, but it was very interesting to note that I somehow became the top result on January 21st of the year for writing about a dead girl named Megan Leann Holden. You may recall that Megan was murdered and dumped on the side of the road. The suspect, a former Marine (as I am), was also mentioned in my blog post.

I’m still trying to figure out why my using the full name of the victim, Megan Leann Holden made me the top result at Blogpulse and drew a great deal of extra traffic to my site, while my repeated use of Eason Jordan’s name in the blog drew almost no extra traffic.

I’m not sure how my use of the names differed, but I’d love to hear from savvy bloggers on the topic.

My wife had a dream last night that I cheated on her with a women named Julie. This is apparently a bad thing from what I gathered from my wife. Especially painful to my wife was the part of the dream where I took Julie horseback riding.

Please e-mail Barb and tell her she cannot hold an action taken by me in a fantasy world produced by her own brain against me.

I don’t even know anyone named Julie, so I hope I don’t have to hear much more about her.

I just upgraded to WordPress 1.5 and it has broken a number of things like photos. I’ll be working on fixing the photo galleries and embedded blog entry images over the next few days.

If you are a WordPress user with the 1.2 release, go grab WordPress 1.5 now and start playing with it! Nice…

I’m now spending between 3-5 minutes a day deleting unwanted spam comments from my blog. The vast majority of these are advertisements for gambling sites on the Internet. Others are for penis hardening pills. I am really going to have to break down and find an anti-spam tool that works with WordPress installed in a Windows Server environment.

I guess I better get Googling. Otherwise, I’ll end up with a blog filled with ads for stuff I don’t want or need.

What I would really like to do is find the people responsible for the scripts that ad these generic comments and mail bomb them with viruses or just hack their hard drives and fill them with unwanted and unsolicited materials.

I was researching various projects and potential projects for my employer today and came across a review at Network Magazine. The article, entitled Justify Your Existence,” discusses the specific breakdown that makes it more cost efficient to outsource than to keep someone like me on staff.

I don’t mind having to show my value or competing against others to stay employed. However, I am perturbed by the fact that if you took away the $35,000 “benefits” package employers are forced to pay for the cost of hiring a consultant outweighs the cost of keeping in-house employees around.

Most of the “benefits” package is devoted to paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, which is basically the government forcing you, the healthy IT worker to pay for whiny senior citizens to participate in overmedication for the last decade of their lives in a throwaway nursing home.

So if you get laid off this year from your job building HTML applications or providing tech support, remember that Hamid in New Delhi is getting your position because of your own federal government’s policies. And while you’re looking for a new job in the food service industry, take the time to read A 125-Year Picture of the Federal Government’s Share of the Economy, 1950 to 2075 When you get through reading, take a moment to think about how much of your personal earnings have been siphoned off into the federal coffers throughout your lifetime and ponder on how you would have used that money if it hadn’t been taken away from you.

Well, I want to look like the 50-year-old MILF on the Bowflex commercial so I’ve ordered a Bowflex Extreme. Expect regular entries here, including less than palatable before and after photos. I’m never going to have the attractive face of Bowflex Grandma (or the nice rack).

However, with the easy and convenient financing I should have the unit paid off by the time I’m 65. Always look for the silver lining.

“I have decided to resign in an effort to prevent CNN from being unfairly tarnished by the controversy over conflicting accounts of my recent remarks regarding the alarming number of journalists killed in Iraq. I have devoted my professional life to helping make CNN the most trusted and respected news outlet in the world, and I would never do anything to compromise my work or that of the thousands of talented people it is my honor to work alongside.”

– Eason Jordan LINK-ABC News

Well, the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

Eason Jordan has resigned.

He did it because he is guilty as charged. At least that is the way I read this situation. A man who hasn’t done anything wrong doesn’t resign. A man who has something to hide does. Simple logic.

I know, I know. U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are plotting to kill Eason Jordan. He is resigning to protect his family and friends, many of whom have been targeted for potential elimination. Yeah, that’s it. Eason is just another victim of the military plan to assassinate unfriendly reporters.

To all those whining that Eason is the victim of a blynchmog (blog lynch mob), shaddup. He could have had the cajones to stick around for the release of the tape and take his medicine. That’s what they teach you to do in basic training. You don’t turn tale and run when the bullets start flying, you make a stand. Unless of course, you don’t believe in what you’re fighting for.

All the lemon faces on the left are typical. As a libertarian, I hate a prurient, hypocritical and self-righteous right-wingers just as much as you lefties. But stop defending the indefensible. If Eason Jordan had any inkling of hope that he was right, or that he could at least spin things so he wasn’t wrong on this issue, he wouldn’t be resigning. He’s not protecting anyone but himself by doing so. It’s obvious to all but the retarded that Eason has a huge case of foot in mouth and just wants the spotlight to move off him and onto the next scandal.

All this talk of blog thuggery and unfair tarnishing is self-pitying bunk. Yeah, I’m talking to you, Jude Nagurny Camwell. Tell you what Mr. Camwell, if the tape of Eason’s comments is released, and he says the U.S. military is assassinating journalists, and then it is proved that they actually are assassinating journalists, I’ll renounce my U.S. citizenship, which I only just recently gained.

Further thoughts on Eason’s self-inflicted wounds from:

Rebecca MacKinnon
Hugh Hewitt
Jude Nagurney Camwell

The more I read about the Eason Jordan controversey, the less inclined I am to think that Jordan is a smart man. Why isn’t he defending himself? As I read more about the man’s history, I am increasingly convinced it is because he is guilty of virulent anti-military sentiments.

After all, if you really know 12 journalists who have been assassinated by the U.S. military, aren’t you going to be happy to name the journalists and the circumstances surrounding their murders? I can’t find that information on the web.

While it’s clear that journalists have been murdered around the world for various reasons, I can’t find a single well documented instance of the U.S. military assassinating a journalist. Can someone please tell me if such cases exist? My interest is highly personal, since I’m a) serving in the U.S. military and b) serving as a journalist.

I think Eason Jordan has destroyed his own career. We’ll know soon enough when the video tape of what he actually said surfaces. It won’t be long.

While you’re waiting for the video, stay tuned to the Easongate site.

More links to information relating to Eason Jordan’s U.S. military targets journalists statements:

Forumblog.org
Captain’s Quarters
Lance in Iraq
LaShawn Barber’s Corner
little green footballs
March for Justice
PressThink
Rebecca MacKinnon
Spartacus

Rebecca MacKinnon notes that the issue isn’t black and white. She’s right, because what Eason Jordan claims has happened actually could happen. It’s farfetched, but it’s possible, and we should always be watching our military carefully and criticizing when necessary and appropriate.

Again, if the military of the United States was actually intentionally targeting journalists for execution, it would shake this nation from top to bottom and a lot of things would change almost overnight. I can only imagine the consequences, but they would be heavy and long lasting. Think American Civil War II. We’re already a polarized nation. If our military was pursuing dishonorable policies that involved assassinating those who speak out against us – my God, I can’t even fathom it.

There is a huge moral difference between killing those who are actively trying to kill you and killing those who express disagreement with your lifestyle, national policies, religion or military activities. Killing journalists who print negative things about you is clearly wrong.

Jason Eason is likely misguided. He better be, or there will be hell to pay.

I read a lot of ridiculous tripe on the Internet and in the worldwide media, but the assertion by CNN Executive Eason Jordan that U.S. troops are systematically targeting and eliminating journalists is absolutely ridiculous.

Here is one version of Jordan’s statements from the blog Power Line.

“During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.

Due to the nature of the forum, I was able to directly challenge Eason, asking if he had any objective and clear evidence to backup these claims, because if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park. David Gergen was also clearly disturbed and shocked by the allegation that the U.S. would target journalists, foreign or U.S. He had always seen the U.S. military as the providers of safety and rescue for all reporters.

Eason seemed to backpedal quickly, but his initial statements were backed by other members of the audience (one in particular who represented a worldwide journalist group). The ensuing debate was (for lack of better words) a real “sh–storm”. What intensified the problem was the fact that the session was a public forum being taped on camera, in front of an international crowd. The other looming shadow on what was going on was the presence of a U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Senator in the middle of some very serious accusations about the U.S. military.”

And here is Mr. Jordan on the defense: “To be clear, I do not believe the U.S. military is trying to kill journalists in Iraq. But the U.S. military has killed several journalists in Iraq in cases of mistaken identity. The reason the word ‘targeted’ came up at all is because I was responding to a comment by Congressman Franks, who said he believed the 63 journalists killed in Iraq were the victims of ‘collateral damage.’ Since three of my CNN colleagues and many other journalists have been killed on purpose in Iraq, I disputed the ‘collateral damage’ statement, saying, unfortunately, many journalists — not all — killed in Iraq were indeed targeted.”

Targeted by whom, Mr. Jordan? Just exactly who do you think is pulling the trigger? It would be madness to think that the benefits of systematically assassinating journalists in a combat zone would have long term benefits of some type for U.S. interests in the region. Sheer folly. Makes no sense. Could happen but about as likely as the chances that entire gay and lesbian population of the Southeastern United States will suddenly decide to pack their bags and emigrate to Iraq in the next five years due to the newly elected Iraqi government’s soon to be announced official policies encouraging more homosexuality within that country.

If Mr. Jordan’s comments regarding this matter are being taken out of context as he claims, why is there resistance to the public release of video of those comments? Here is some revealing information from Hugh Hewitt.

My thoughts on the matter are this – what Jordan claims could happen is within the realm of reality. Winning the lottery is also within the realm of reality. I’m not buying any tickets and I’m not buying stock in what Jordan has to say.

As a military journalist, I am confident that if a United States servicemember purposely targeted a journalist for assassination they did it without official sanction. I am also confident that the vast majority of that person’s fellow servicemembers would do their utmost to stop such an act from happening if it were known to them ahead of time and would report such an act if it became known to them after the fact.

The U.S. military does not teach its members to target journalists for execution. The idea that there is some sort of wide scale U.S. government or military approved assassination of any journalists going on in Iraq is asinine. If it were happening, and it could be proved to me, I would have serious questions about my own service and would have to rethink my entire worldview.

What is clear to me from my four years of service in the United States Marine Corps and my current service as an enlisted soldier in the National Guard is that the enlisted troops and officers I have known would never consider participating in such activities. I would never participate in such activities. Eason Jordan I would like to know what facts you have to back up your statements.

Sisyphus (great moniker) claims to have the video. I can’t wait to see it for myself. Once I do, Mr. Jordan, you can be sure you’ll be hearing from me one way or the other. I hope you are ready to explain yourself.

The bags under my eyes are growing, and I’m behind on the college homework. I’m going to owe a big apology to my teammates at the University of Phoenix. I’ll post a picture of what no sleep does to me in a little while.

Pretty much everyone I know in the U.S. has a strong opinion one way or the other.

I am solidly behind the activities currently taking place in Iraq because while we are far from perfect, we offer the Iraqis much more than Saddam did. Additionally, we have a moral obligation to fight anyone whose modus operandi includes the sawing off of the heads of those they disagree with.

The war in Iraq was the first phase of what will be a long-term war against fundamentalist Islamists who do not value human life. It is a just war, and a necessary war. It will be full of mistakes because it is being run by flawed human beings. However, I think that when it is over millions of lives will be improved.

I have nothing but contempt for all the nonconstructive naysayers. I would tend towards isolationism if it were a realistic methodology, but this world is smaller than it was during the times when isolationism was a viable way to stay uninvolved. The savages know where we are on the global map, and if we don’t go to them, they’ll come to us. I used to think differently, but time and reality have changed my opinion.

Read my friend Stan Pope’s comments on Iraq, they’re well worth it.

I fly much more often than I want too. When I’m lucky, I’m on a private plane. I like flying on private planes because I don’t have to worry about the moo cow security hassles and the overabundance of humanity that are both omnipresent in modern American airports.

Last night, I had the privilege of flying with a highly irritating group of corporate America’s finest sales assholes. The group, who was seated about 5 rows behind me, seemed to consist of about six males and two ladies. The ladies had voices that reminded me of metal being dragged against concrete. They spoke at a decibel level loud enough to ensure that the captain’s announcements could not be heard and laughed at their own jokes.

Apparently (and I couldn’t verify this for myself), they had really large mammaries or some other endearing quality, because the male members of their little group would laugh raucously every time they made an overly loud comment. The comments were not funny, and not even interesting. For instance, the conversation centered around boasting about how little they knew about their company infrastructure for a while.

Then they started talking about getting frisky with one another and randomly laughing together at volumes that vastly exceeded the noise of the plane’s engines.

What I wouldn’t have given for a taser and a badge last night. That was one three hour tour I don’t ever want to repeat. Friendly skies my ass.

I’m in Dallas for the weekend, and I’m reminded that I don’t enjoy traveling all that much. It’s tolerable but certainly not appealing, especially when you are traveling on behalf of your employer. Las Colinas, the suburb where I’m at is way too new, way too artificial and way too busy. This place represents the best and worst aspects of what modern America has to offer its citizens.

It feels kind of dead and artificial to me.

“What is a porn buddy?

Simply put, a porn buddy is someone you meet, late at night, for the exclusive purpose of viewing pornography. “Exclusive” is the key word here. If you have sexual contact with your porn buddy at any time, he or she immediately forfeits special status and becomes a fuck buddy.”

One of the dumbest articles I have ever read is entitled, “A Shoulder to Sigh On” by author Rachel Shukart.

A Shoulder to Sigh On is a wordy paean to the little practiced art of watching porn with a member of the opposite sex, getting turned on and then switching the channel to PBS for Antiques Roadshow. New Yorkers are weird.

According to this quiz, I should be living the high life as a White House staffer. I’m going to put in my job application via e-mail and let you all know how it turns out.

You are a SRCF–Sober Rational Constructive Follower. This makes you a White House staffer.

You are a tremendous asset to any employer, cool under pressure, productive, and a great communicator. You feel the need to right wrongs, take up slack, mediate disputes and keep the peace. This comes from a secret fear that business can’t go on without you–or worse, that it can.

If you have a weakness, it is your inability to say “no.” While your peers respect you, they find it difficult to resist taking advantage of your positive attitude and eagerness to take on work. You depend on a good manager to keep you from sinking under the weight and burning out.

Of the 80976 people who have taken this quiz since tracking began (8/17/2004), 7.8 % are this type.

The lawsuit alleges that tens of thousands of children have suffered obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and other health problems after being misled about McDonald’s products.

The mentally diseased whiners are at it again. Now that class action lawyers have become rich from smoking lawsuits, a new crop of these parasitic creatures is beginning what I’m sure will be a slew of lawsuits against fast food companies.

I have nothing but contempt for a) class action lawyers and b) the parents of obese children (who are often obese themselves). People who try to blame cause and effect on others make me sick.

Let me explain things simply here, for those of you who are in danger of succumbing to the creeping disease of itsyourfaultitis that has been spreading like cancer throughout this country. Cause and effect is simple. You are hungry, so you eat. You choose bad food and eat too much of it, so you get fat. This is your fault. Shut the f**k up and go on a diet. Eat less, and read books about nutrition. Exercise.

Do not go to court and whine. Do not raise the cost of eating for the rest of us just because you are a human ball of lard. That is your fault and you do not deserve to be paid for making bad choices.

The sneaky part of this is that the soul sucking lawyers involved are predicating the lawsuits on the idea that McDonald’s is somehow responsible for the health of America’s children. I know that parents used to hold the primary responsibility for the health of their own children but in the new, improved socialist United States of Obesity, the responsibility is apparently on your state’s child services, the Amber alert system, class action lawyers and McDonald’s will pay to raise your little fatty, buy him or her an XBox and pay for the liposuction every American child needs. It will also raise the price of my occasional Big Mac to $40.

Next time you see a rolling ball of child blubber wolfing down a giant vat of fries at your local McDonald’s remember that you’ll be paying for every extra ounce of food he or she is lustily consuming. You’ll be doing so because the nation you live in is a place that increasingly teaches a philosophy that nothing is ever your fault and that all your problems should be paid for by someone else.

A nation of whiners and welfare babies is a weak nation destined to mediocrity.

A health care company in Michigan is firing employees who smoke or are suspected of smoking. It fired employees who refused to take a drug test.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I think employers should be able to fire people who are actively pursuing unhealthy lifestyles, since they are forced by their employees choices to assume additional costs and liability. This would include big fat losers, chain smoking fools and self-important shits who do cocaine. Hell, I think you should be able to fire an employee for any reason at any time.

The whole key in not getting fired should be to make yourself important enough to the employer that you are indispensable or at least expensive to fire. Employers care about their bottom line and that’s the way it should be. I speak as someone who has been laid off in the last year from a job I held six years.

Your rights as an employee should only go as far as the contract you signed when you started with any given firm. Read the employee manual and hold your company to it. If they say everyone has to wear pink dildo suits on Fridays, then plan on wearing them every Friday. If the manual says you can be fired for any reason at any time, then count on that as a possibility and make sure you have savings.

Employers who cannot discriminate cannot run a business efficiently. Government should not have the power to artificially limit a company by telling it who it can and cannot hire. Companies that make bad decisions about which employees to hire will fail without hand holding from the government. It makes me sad to see the poll results showing that only 22% (at least when I last looked) of voters think companies should be free to fire unhealthy employees who are unhealthy by choice. Each passing year, it becomes harder and harder to survive as a company in this nation. That’s because choices that a business owner could once make that would add to the bottom line and ensure the financial health and survival of the firm are now being made by government regulators who are supported by ignorant, uninformed couch potatoes with no real world business experience.

A nation of whiners and welfare babies is a weak nation destined to mediocrity. We are destroying ourselves with political correctness and the idea that everyone should be treated equally even when they aren’t.

UPDATE: Boortz has some thoughts on being fired for smoking today as well. His are probably more cogent than mine, and his daily notes are always worth reading.

The crew was out at Nantahala again, a few miles outside of Highlands, North Carolina, and this was a cold trip. While Stan did not fall into the fire pit this go round, he did manage to attract more smoke than anyone else, with Steve coming in a close second.

It snowed, we froze and good times were had by all. I arrived late as usual and my portion of the trip after setting up camp started with a climb up the side of the mountain by our camp site to a hidden waterfall. The pics are, of course, included in the gallery link below. I almost destroyed my camera in a slip n’ slide on the mountainside. The weather at the time of our ascent was hovering around 38°F.

By the time we were cooking our steak dinner, the temperature had descended to 26°F. Snow flakes were coming down as we wolfed down our food to keep it from freezing. The wind was whipping all around us and quite a few tears were shed as the smoke attacked randomly.

I spent the night in my 0°F sleeping bag in one single position, face down with my body in a straight line to keep my face warm. The wind woke me up several times and caused strange dreams, one of which included being fired from my job for a reason I can’t remember although it was probably a stupid one.

We skipped breakfast at morning campfire because the temperature was 11°F. We speculated that it was probably several below zero with the wind chill factor included. Less educated men would have characterized the weather as “cold as hell,” which has never made sense to me since hell is supposed to be a place of fire and brimstone and several below zero isn’t part of the whole fire and brimstone environment.

Overall, the trip reminded me why I like indoor plumbing, hot water heaters, mattress beds and most of all, being reasonably warm. More importantly, and as always the reason for making the trip in the first place, it reminded me it’s good to get away from your own busy life for a little bit on a regular basis.

Here is the photo gallery.

Why? Because murderers often don’t stop with victim number one.

If a jury convicts Johnny Lee Williams of killing Megan Leann Holden, then I think he should die for the crime. Not because it will deter other people, not because revenge is sweet and not because he happens to be black. No, because it will guarantee he won’t repeat himself.

After you abduct and kill another human being at random, you shouldn’t get another chance. Period. Based on what I’ve read, this one should be open and shut. If Williams is found guilty, put him to death. It won’t save Megan, but who knows how many more people’s lives it will improve. And whoever killed Holden has forfeited his or her right to live.

Ask yourself, which is more civilized – 1) Killing murderers or 2) Letting murderers go and hoping they won’t murder again. I know which one makes the most sense to me. So would Megan Leann Holden, but she can’t speak up because she’s not breathing anymore.

If you want to read more opinions relating to the murder of Megan Leann Holden, visit this link at Fark.

I’ve added a pro-American Iraqi’s blog to my list. I have an American unfriendly one there too. It’s possible I could end up in Iraq before this is over, and I’d rather hear it first hand than through the news media.

Ali, the blog’s author, lists Irish as his favorite type of music. Weird as that is, he is a cogent writer with an excellent command of English and positive opinions about the future of Iraq.

Of course, reading about Iraqi opinion polls both bothers and reassures me. I hate opinion polls, I hate pundits and I hate the attention whoring that goes on in the press. However, they are all indicators of a fair amount of freedom in a society. As much as I bitch about the state of the nation here in the U.S. the average American is still relatively free to opine in public forums.

However, there are a lot of things we’re increasingly less free to do.

Here’s a little list of things we should be working on in both countries:

No police checkpoints/military checkpoints inside the national borders – a free society does not restrict the movements of the population from point A to point B by using force.

No restrictions on weapons ownership – a free society holds the citizen up as the most basic unit on which everything else depends. If you cannot trust your own citizens with unrestricted weapons, your society is not truly free.

Reduction of tax burden – I have no idea what sort of taxes are being paid by Iraqi workers, but I know that the average worker in the United States is an economic slave. By most estimates I read a middle class American pays a total of 40-47% of their lifetime labor into the public coffers. The way I look at it, a free society does not steal the sweat off your back by force. The very fact that the IRS needs 120,000 employees to collect a “voluntary tax” and that they routinely use intimidation and massive force to collect indicates that there is a huge problem. Let’s work on the whole modern slavery issue.

Less centralized government – The federal government is a bloated behemoth that has grown into the mammoth beast the founders of this nation feared most. It tries to govern everything and anything, and ends up making most things it touches worse for the wear. I hope that the Iraqis do not repeat this mistake. Central government should provide for a strong military and that’s about it. A behemoth central government always results in less freedom due to the very nature of the bureaucrats that run that government.

I wonder what Ali from Free Iraqi would think if he knew that many Americans are worried about the decreasing amount of freedom in America? We’re over there claiming to be freeing a country when most of us have no idea what real freedom is.

“Google will introduce new technology controls to thwart people using blogs to manipulate rankings in its search results.”

I think that in the long term, the new nofollow tag is going to be one of the driving forces in killing off that irritating new phenomenon known as comment spamming. There are a variety of other good ways to kill off comment spam, but this one is effective, because when it is implemented, it makes comments completely irrelevant to search results.

This may change the popularity of some blogs in unexpected ways, but overall, I think the nofollow tag will be a welcome addition in the arsenal of anti comment spam tools available to serious bloggers.

One of the top searches referring to this blog is “hot women with no clothes.” I have no idea why. Weird.

One of the things that bothers me most about the United States in the year 2005 is the complete willingness most people show to trade their basic freedoms for the illusion of security.

I was reading an article discussing the likelihood of a terrorist attack during the upcoming Presidential inauguration and all I could think about was the list of banned items that was published by the Washington D.C. police.

“. . .any other items at the discretion of the security screeners that may pose a potential safety hazard.”

The attitude that security screeners can and should be able to take away any object they want at their discretion is a dangerous one. We’re spending millions of dollars to have an inaguration where the average citizen is treated like a cow. That makes no sense.

If the government is here to serve us, why does it feel like we’re here to serve it sometimes? I am an immigrant citizen of this country, and I have earned its trust by serving honorably in the military and contributing a fair amount of the fruits of my labor as a private employee. Why should I not be trusted to come see my new President carrying any items I think are appropriate?

If, God forbid, a terrorist attack is launched during the inaguration, I would imagine the best security possible would be private citizens armed to the teeth. They would vastly outnumber the security forces and the terrorists.

Well, I realize my fantasy isn’t realistic in a society where a great number of people are a) ignorant about self-defense b) completely dependant on specialist professions for their very surivival and c) perfectly content to be led around as long as they can have a large screen TV and the illusion of security.

I’m guess I am a living anachronism with my stubborn insistence that the citizen is the basic unit of any republic and that they should think of themselves as the building blocks upon which everything else stands. I guess I’m a fool for thinking that I should be allowed to move about freely carrying any tools I wish to carry, having already proved to society that I am a builder, not a destroyer.

When your government cannot trust you, you cannot trust your government.

Well, my DSL has been flaky the last week (and probably will be in the future), because I live on the very edge of the service area at the end of a little hill which can only be reached by driving a narrow, winding dirt road reminiscent of Haiti or some other third world country.

So my blog will be available indiscriminately for the time being. I’m working on an X-10 macro that will reboot my DSL modem to reestablish the connection multiple time per day, but that’s a journey in and of itself.

The company that provides my DSL service is Citizens Communications, which calls itself Frontier. The local employees are wonderful but typical of any big company, the tech support blows. They don’t care about you and you end up not caring about them either. It’s really special how that works.

Citizens Communications is, ironically, really bad at communication. They do a lot of really irritating things to customers, like blocking Port 25 so you can only use their provided e-mail account. Of course, I’ve found a way around that. I’m having a harder time managing the flaky DSL. Gives me something to waste time on.

eFax sucks. There really isn’t any nice way to discuss the lack of customer service provided by eFax. I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Don’t take my word for it, read these:
Sippey’s opinion of efax.
Epinions’ opinions on efax.
Faxbeep.com opinions on efax

OK, now that I’ve clearly laid out the case for dumping Efax, and you probably surfed on in to this blog entry by googling eFax sucks or eFax blows or eFax bites, or something similar, it’s likely you wanted to know the same thing as me – what’s a good alternative to eFax? Fear not, fearless reader, I have an answer.

That answer is MaxEmail.

MaxEmail offers a number of different faxing plans. I’m considering the yearly service for $69, a savings of more than 50% over what efax was trying to get from us. Efax completely offended me by trying to raise rates from $99 to $139 a year without warning. I had been putting up with the crap service, but every camel has a proverbial straw that will break his back.

I’m testing MaxEmail for one month. If I’m happy, you’ll here about it here and I’ll be signing up for a year. I’m hoping MaxEmail will give me what eFax only ever promised.

“In a major compromise, the Marines agreed not to carry guns while on Indonesian soil and for the vast majority of troops to return to ships stationed off the coast after each day’s operations.”

This story is perhaps one of the clearest testaments to the decay of Western civilization I have ever seen. By Western civilization, I mean the United States specifically.

First of all, the quote should be, “in a major compromise, the Marine commander, who is a politically correct sycophant, agreed that his troops would not carry guns while on Indonesian soil. . .”

Another quote from the story: “Hundreds of from troops from Australia, Singapore, Germany and other nations are also helping the relief mission. The Indonesian military is providing security for all of them.” Does anyone see any irony at all in the idea of the world reknowned Indonesian military providing protection to troops from much better equipped countries’ military units?

Speaking as a former U.S. Marine, I want to know who caved in and said, sure, we’ll disarm our Marines and put them on boats at night while we help clean up your dead. Whoever you are, you are a spineless fool.

Anyone who is dictating conditions for receiving assistance that include disarmed Marines doesn’t deserve to live and should receive no help at all. A disarmed Marine is like a fish out of water. I used to hear the expression “beggars couldn’t be choosers” quite often. It was used to remind those on charity that they should take what they were given and be grateful for it. Apparently, in our politically correct environment full of digusting U.S. appeasement monkeys, beggars can be choosers.

If I were in charge, those Marines would be long gone and the Sumatrans would be cleaning up their own mess. You simply do not disarm a U.S. Marine..

Fark has some of the funniest photos of all times courtesy of an ingenious PhotoShop contest or four every day.

I’ve only seen the last few hundred contests, but it’s absolutely amazing what someone creative with the right background can do to a photo in a few minutes using the newest batch of digital image editing tools. Fark is full of other cool links, and some that are banal and trite to say the least. The random wacky factor is what keeps me coming back.

You never know what you will find at Fark. From Bush bashers to fascinating news stories showcasing the last 2 decades of scientific research into lesbian vegetables, Fark has the links. A lot of the links lead to irreverent pokes at society. Some lead to porn. The best ones lead to hidden nuggets of useless knowledge that have value only because they make me smile for a minute or two. Fark is a good place to go if you want to get lost for a while, walking down paths to places you might not have imagined before.

Banality is part of our existence but Fark makes banality fun. Sometimes, while I’m surfing Fark, I feel like a kid again for a minute or two.

I’m looking for a spam comment blocker/stopper/smasher or something that a) works effectively without trashing real comments and b) runs on a Windows server and works as a plug-in for WordPress.

Does any such exist? I have found several promising ones that are designed to run on an Apache server, but I don’t have a stinking Apache server. I love WordPress, but the support community for this product sure isn’t part of Microsoft’s fan base.

Anyhow, if you know of an anti-comment spam product that runs on an IIS/Windows Server 2003 box I’d love to hear from you.

If you like stories about retail hell this is the blog to read. This guy is a fellow Georgian, and his writing actually has the ring of authenticity to it, despite the nuttiness of the tales.

Plenty of other weird, wacky and wonderful stuff to read too.

Age of Empires III will offer gamers the next level of realism, with advanced battle physics and unparalleled visual detail. The new game picks up where Age of Empires II: Age of Kings left off, placing gamers in the position of a European power determined to explore, colonize and conquer the New World. This time period features stunning scenes, from towering European cathedrals to courageous tribes of Native Americans, and spectacular combat with Industrial Age units like rifled infantry, cavalry and tall ships bristling with cannons.

Ensemble Studios announced Age of Empires III two days ago. I’m very interested since I met my wife playing the original Age of Empires on-line. I love all RTS (real-time strategy) games, but this series holds a special place in my heart.

Typical of the gaming industry, there is no release date. When one is announced, it will be wrong.

Yes – some people SHOULD be charged for two tickets when they fly.

You cannot tell me that you would want to share a row with this woman. I’m not trying to be mean here, but I do believe I would do my best to hit the gym or save up for a liposuction if I found myself in her position.

I’m flabbergasted, awed and nearly rendered speechless by the sheer gargantuan bulk of the humanoid pictured here. Only in a developed country will you see people who have managed to bloat themselves to this degree. I don’t know this woman’s life story, but I’ll bet she has an excuse for everything wrong in her life.

Marketing people never quit thinking up funky new ways to sell you hot women with no clothes on.

Now, they’re making “blogs” and submitting them to popular blogging communities. I guess it is working, since I went searching for “popular blogs” and got about 100 fake sex blogs filled with raunchy naked people doing the nasty in every possible way.

I don’t mind if you want to have a sex blog, but spam sex blogs (nudity ahead, be warned!) are kind of irritating. I hope the trend dies soon. I waste enough time surfing the net already, without having to try and filter out spammy fake sex diaries.

"They killed a wounded man. It’s hard to believe. They killed a man who was completely helpless- like he was some sort of diseased animal. I had read the articles and heard the stories of this happening before- wounded civilians being thrown on the side of the road or shot in cold blood- but to see it happening on television is something else- it makes me crazy with anger."

Read the full text from above here – you’ll need to scroll down to November entries since there are no individual post links that I can find.

It’s a tough world, and when your enemy is in the habit of playing dead so he can blow you up when you try to determine whether he needs medical attention, well then, that is the kind of war you get. Wars can be fought with predetermined rules, or they can be fought with none at all. Most are fought somewhere in the middle with lots of rules that often go unenforced.

While war is a horrible thing, it is sometimes necessary and the actions of human beings, good and bad, are only magnified. When good things happen the rush takes you higher and when bad things happen, the pain is usually deep when it doesn’t result in your death.

But wars must be fought. Whether or not the current situation in Iraq will result in a net positive remains to be seen but no matter what happens, I will hope and work towards that result.

I’m not sure I can comment effectively on the assassination of the provincial governer in northern Bagdhad today, but let me give it a shot.

First of all, I’m not there, so take anything I have to say with a grain of salt. That’s a disclaimer many of you fellow Internet loudmouths should remember. You’re not there. You don’t really know what daily life is like for the average Iraqi.

Man would I love to hear from some of them. If we are doing this in the name of true freedom as we keep claiming then my question to any Iraqi living in Iraq is this: do you have more or less freedom than you did under Saddam Hussein? Do you expect to have more freedom next year than you do this year?

First of all, I know I don’t have the whole story here, because I’m getting all my information second and third hand. But on general principles, I don’t support America’s self-appointment as world policeman. I do support our right to self-defense. Whether invading Iraq was self-defense is debatable. Saddam being a prisoner is not debatable as a genuine GoodThing^TM.

In the meantime, we said January elections and initially most Iraqis were on board from what I understand. I don’t see any reason why we should change the date because of the increase in terrorism. If we did, wouldn’t that be giving in on some level to their murderous activity? You can’t reward murder unless you want to promote murder as a method for achieving reward.

But, while we’re over there promoting freedom, should we make sure we are teaching young Iraqis how to urinate into a small cup on demand? Because, you and I, as Americans, should know that a people cannot be truly free until their urine does not contain trace elements indicative of the use of officially banned substances.

Once we have trained Iraqis to line up and pee in the cup on command then they will have truly tasted the greatness of American style freedom.

I know we live in an angry society, but going to jail because you can’t have fries with that order seems pretty fucking retarded. Yes, “pretty fucking retarded” is the proper psychological term for the behavior as described in this news article. I could have made up a three letter fancy Internet acronym, but I chose to KIS.

“I have spoken with a little old lady who severed the aorta of a home invader with a FMJ .32 while, at the same time, talking to a police officer that could not stop a knife-wielding assailant with five rounds of .45 ACP hollow-point.”

A former police officer speculates on some of the more interesting details of pistol gunplay between various human beings. It’s written from the perspective of a police officer dealing with your standard urban human foibles.

What’s really interesting is that in his list of effective ammo and calibers, he lists the .223 55 grain FMJ and hollow point ammo. For anyone reading this who isn’t a shooter, a .223 is a small caliber, high velocity round. It’s basically the round used by the U.S. military to wound and not kill the enemy – at least that was the mantra that we got in boot camp. Why do we wound and not kill? Because it takes nine personnel to care for every wounded troop, while the dead require no immediate care whatsoever.

Most civilian shooters I’ve encountered over the years claim the .223 is better suited for hunting priarie dogs and other small rodents than anything else, but not according to this guy.

All I know is that it’s really fun to shoot my Bushmaster Varminter. I also know I would probably not choose the Varminter for urban self-defense situations. At $900, the Bushmaster Carbon 15 Type 97 Pistol is also probably not going to be my first choice. It does look like something I could enjoy shooting though.

There is also some discussion of the legal aspects of shooting another human in self-defense. I’ll get into my feelings about the legal ramifications some other time, but I encourage you to read the article.

I changed the site so that links now pop open in a new window.

I guess I’m not strictly XHTML compliant anymore, but I’m working on a solution for that down the road.

I just found an excellent WordPress tutorial on David Appleyard’s blog. I don’t know David, but his site is an excellent example of what you can do with WordPress. I’m very impressed with the product and the people who are using it thus far.

I found Mr. Appleyard’s site while looking at another blog related to design, photography and WordPress. I am still intrigued by the idea that I could devote my entire life to following a series of web pages on a journey across the Internet and never reach the end of the cascading links to new places.

This WordPress thing is going to take a while to figure out and tweak to my satisfaction.

Spent some time last night and today playing Rome: Total War.

Talk about an addictive game! I have loved computer strategy gaming since I first played since Sid Meier’s Civilization, which is still available on Ebay if you want to take a crack at it. Make sure you have a 486 with at least 8 MB of RAM though.

If you have the strategy bug like I do, the $40 retail copy is well worth it. This game is huge. My guess is that the Imperial Campaign mode would take several hundred hours to complete if you fought every one of the battles manually. I’ve been letting them auto resolve, because I prefer that to micromanaging my battles.

That’s what the little generals programmed into the game are for. Although, every now and then it is fun to pillage a city myself. It’s also interesting to note the options you get when you win a battle. You can merely occupy the city, enslave the populace, or pretty much wipe it out. It has been tempting to choose one of the latter two options, especially during my initial conquest of Brittania. Those people seem to resent my conquering their homeland quite a bit and they keep revolting.

My wife and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary last night as the world celebrated the passing of an old year into a new one. I love the fact that we got married on the one day of the year when the entire world celebrates together.

Marriages go through ups and downs but you couldn’t ask for a better way to be reminded that life is about renewal and hope.

Remember to tell your spouse how much you love being married to him or her sometime today. You may not get as many chances as you would like, because life is short.

In case any of you are wondering about my site banner, it’s a reminder to myself that we humans are capable of both great evil and great good.

The images on the banner are the combination of a World War II holocaust picture and a graphic I created of a Glock 23, a .40 caliber pistol I own and often target shoot with. To me, the pistol represents great good. It affirms my natural right to self-defense. The holocaust image reminds me that humans are capable of great evil. The tsunami that recently killed more than 100,000 people in Asia and Africa is staggering, but I am reminded that in the 20th century governments run by human beings killed more than 100 million of their own citizens. Nature’s cruelty doesn’t begin to compare to the cruelty we ourselves have inflicted on each other throughout our history.

I suppose it all depends who is wielding the pistol. We haven’t done a very good job of passing out pistols to the right people worldwide.

Today is the first day of a new year in my life and in human history. I wonder what we’ve learned from the previous year. Most of us have probably learned very little. That makes me sad.

The man in the picture to the right was the subject of a high pressure experiment in one of World War II’s concentration camp. He is long dead by now, but at the time the image was made, the man in it was being slowly crushed to death just to see how much a human being can stand. He was a lab rat.

My best guess is that the dead are at peace by now, having been processed through whatever lines exist in the afterlife by this time, even with the sudden influx. The same cannot be said for the living.

Jaded as I am, I made my donation to tsunami relief today on behalf of my wife and I. I only did so after a long and thorough review of various charities. I already have enough money stolen and wasted by Uncle Sam and various state and local tin pot dictators. It would pain me greatly to throw more away thinking I was helping disaster victims only to find out later my money was used to pad the pockets of a third world petty bureacrat.

If you haven’t yet, please consider making a donation. We decided to give to the Samaritan’s Purse due to a variety of reasons.

I am never content with just the basics. That’s why I’ve wasted any number of hours trying to figure out how to change the look and feel of my blog. I finally found a well written guide that was very helpful. Thank you so much for writing it, Podz.

I’m well on my way to ruining the beauty and elegance of Ryan Boren and Matthew Mullenweg’s original product design.

Elena is a dear friend from my high school years. I hadn’t seen her in a while, but I finally got to have dinner and catch up with her and her parents this year. Hopefully we’ll both stay in touch from now on.

It’s easy to forget about your friends because time has a way of speeding up the older you get. I am amazed by how quickly the days pass now that I’m in my 30s.

On the other hand, some memories burn themselves into the retina of your mind’s eye. Watching the Princess Bride with Elena is one such memory that has etched itself into my mind forever.

Sometimes it would be nice to recapture the relative innocence I had in high school. Other time I wouldn’t trade what I know now for the world. But most importantly, I’m glad I have good memories of good friends and that every now and then we get to play catch up with people we love that time has seperated us from.

I don’t think you get to have many good friends in a single lifetime so I’m grateful for Elena.

A decade is way too long not visit with a friend.

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