Yahoo! News - U.S. Weapons Hunt Shifts Focus to 'Intent' in Iraq

Well, well, well. From finding weapons of mass destruction to discovering an "intent" to develop weapons of mass destruction... Of course, they're going to find intent, they're going to find it everywhere, almost no question about that!

Hey, GWB! Yeah, you, big guy! You said that there was indubitable proof that Iraq had WMD, that it had launch capability in a matter of hours... so what happened? Why is it going from a hunt for WMD to a hunt for proof of "intent" to produce WMD?

You brought a whole country to war, diverted resources from finding and halting Al Qaeda... for what??? So that you can show just how deluded and out of touch you and your entire administration is with the real dangers facing the world today? To satisfy your frat boy craving for revenge?

Mr. Chicken Hawk President, moral clarity is a great thing... but your version's so skewed, so out of touch that you really end up doing more harm than good.

Yahoo! News - Atheist in Supreme Court Objects to 'Under God' Phrase

Anyone hear about this Newdon guy and his challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance?

Never have been (and probably never will be) religious. Still, in my view, this challenge isn't really about respecting the right of atheists... it's about having the belief of one particular person, in this case Mr. Newdon, rammed down society's throat disguised as an argument that society disrespects that right by having his daughter recite "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

What a crock of shit.

In my view, Mr. Newdon's as bad as all those Bible Thumping Christian Conservatives who declare that prayer should be an integral part of the schools, that evolution's a hoax, that sex education is bad and all that. (They're also full of Shit.)

One thing about Mr. Newdon and those Christian Conservatives, they're both intolerant, close minded people. In their universe, they and only they have the right answer and they and only they have a right to be heard. Worst of all, they and only they should be followed.

Intolerance is intolerance, no matter how you disguise it and Mr. Newdon's as guilty of that sin as you can get.

So Sharon and his fellow hawks actually did it (or was it just Sharon aping George W? One wonders.)
There's no question that Yassin had blood on his hands... don't get me wrong.

However....

I'm surprised that they didn't choose a less obvious way... the Mossad could have certainly engineered something less spectacular but none the less effective. It's clear, therefore, that the Israeli Government did not only want Yassin dead, they also wanted the world to know exactly who did it. That, in turn, smells like your local bully sending a message to everyone who lives on his block that no one's safe.

Indeed, no one's safe.

That, however, cuts both ways.

In killing Yassin Israel created not just another dead Palestinian (of which there are many) but a modern Palestinian martyr (of which there's only one).

(It doesn't help that Yassin was a crippled old man in a wheelchair. A missle against a cripple... if you're Sharon's Press Spokesman, just how, exactly, do you spin that?)

The Gates of Hell have indeed been opened and I doubt the poeple of Israel are ready (or willing) to pay the price for their Government's folly.

I called an old friend from college today. [Her name's Michelle. I called to wish her an advanced "Happy Birthday!"] It was good to re-connect, swap stories and do some very necessary catching up.

It's food for ths soul.

I read somewhere (Reader's Digest, I think) that there are different types of friendships and how we shouldn't fret when some of them don't last. [Like some friends from school... friends for so long as we're together but inevitably (sadly) we lose touch. Friends for the moment. Friends for today.]

What really interests me, however, is why some friendships last and some do not? Much more interesting, what are the factors that lead us to re-connect with some lost friends but not others?

Take Michelle, for example. I hadn't seen or heard from her for over a year since we graduated college. Before we parted ways, she gave me a note with her street address, telephone number and that age old admonishment to "stay in touch." I didn't, not for a whole year. She didn't either. But one day, I decided to write. And she wrote back. And we haven't really lost touch since then.

Or take Tristan. I hadn't seen the guy in five years, not since we graduated from High School. Then, one day, I receive that proverbial call in the night. In the five years since, he'd moved to Sydney. He came home for a brief visit and was wondering how (and where) the hell I was? Like Michelle, I haven't really lost touch with him since then either.

I wonder what drove us? To cast a line into the wild blue yonder and hope you'll get an answer.

And rejoice when you do.

Yahoo! News - Bush Defends His Sept. 11 Ads, Economic Policies: "'The question is, who brings forth the best pro-growth policies?' Bush said. "

My only answer to that is - Definitely not you, Mr. President (or is Mr. Chicken Hawk better?)

I was in Vietnam for a few days on business. When business was over, we got a chance to visit the Cu Chi tunnels just North of Saigon. The Americans tried to carpet bomb the tunnels to oblivion. Didn't work. They tried tunnel rats, mostly poor Mexican guys who were unlucky enough to get drafted to fight in a country half a world away, but even that didn't work.

The tunnels themselves are a feat of engineering. They run for an area of around two hundred kilometers and were built entirely by hand. No fancy tools or anything.

I can imagine how the GIs must have felt... fighting an enemy that seemed to rise up from the ground. Not comprehending how an enemy in front of you can suddenly be behind you.

As was qouted to me by someone, "The Americans may have never lost a battle in Vietnam. But they sure as hell lost the war."

Having seen the Cu Chi Tunnels, I can understand how that could have been.