OK, So I was Wrong

Well, at least I haven't been proven right yet. Boy, how things change in a mere seven months. Oh well.

Another Cool Blog

I'm back, at least for today, I'll post some things. Go look at ArmedLiberal. I've added him to the permanent links on the side, there.

Still Out to Lunch

Yeah, I haven't been posting recently. I'm really sorry, but this behavior will likely continue for a while. I will return, however!

New Blogs I found that I like

Well, today I stumbled across some actually liberal bloggers! And not ones that piss me off by being "Loony Left" pacifists, either (though I don't think they're as Hawkish as I am). Here are the links: Eschaton and his pal Silt. Go read them!

Carter Goes to Cuba and Dubya Toughens Stance

So, Pres. Carter heads to Cuba in the interest of warming relations between the island and the United States. At nearly the same time, Shrubya announces that he's toughening his stance on Cuba. Partisan politics? Here? As usual. Carter visited a biotech institute, apparently. A biotech institute, for Heaven's sake! If they can afford to research that kind of technology, then I don't think we're gaining anything through isolating them. Now, I'm too young to know exactly why everybody hates Castro... is it "just" because he's a Communist ex-puppet of the Soviet Union? Or did he do some particularly horrifying things entirely on his own? If it's the latter (and I suspect it's actually both), then he deserves to be treated like a horrifying dictator... but it's too late now. Having decided to pursue the strategy of "wait until he dies" for so long, it's probably better now just to see it through to its end. Every indication I've seen says that as soon as he drops dead, Cuba will undergo a radical change to a first-world capitalist nation. But that probably won't happen if we make things worse there first...

Strange, though, that I'm advocating a "doveish" position on this. Libertarian nut-jobs would claim it's because, as a liberal, I like Communists. This isn't true. It's just that I feel this situation does not call for military might, it calls for different measures. Each situation must be judged on its own merits.

Temporary Hiatus

Posting is probably going to be really sparse and sporadic in the next couple days to weeks, while I look for a job... I will attempt to keep posting, but I haven't really been in a ranting mood lately

Some People are Just Ignorant

Why does everyone with half a brain think they understand computer science? Or is it just Mac graphic arts people? I get so angry reading the AppleInsider forums, I don't know why I do it. These people have no understanding whatsoever of the work that goes into writing programs... worse, they have no understanding at all of how hardware interacts with it. They expect Apple to be able to magically write software that uses their hardware in ways that it cannot be used and get upset and rude when Apple can't deliver. Specifically, I'm talking about the new Quartz Extreme coming with the next major upgrade of Mac OS X (codenamed "Jaguar"). It encapsulates Mac OS X's Quartz drawing system in OpenGL and uses the 3D processor of the video card (these days much, much, much more advanced than the 2D processor, which hasn't really changed in 10 years) to render everything on screen. It also requires certain hardware features that older 3D cards lack; therefore, it only works on nVidia GeForce2MX or better and ATI Radeons. Hmm, I got interrupted by something and have lost the trail of my rant... well, whatever.

Far Be It for Me to Discriminate

So, people might come here looking for "Lisa Lopes autopsy photos" and, despite being sick f*cks, decide to stay and read my wonderful opinions! Welcome!

Suicide Bomb Hits Israel Immediately After Freeing Yasser Arafat

CNN.com - Suicide bombing kills at least 10 near Tel Aviv - May 7, 2002

A suicide bomber blew up a bunch of people in a billiard hall. A frickin' pool hall! These are people out for a night of fun! The unspeakable evil inherent in this act... well, it's unspeakably evil, at any rate. Downright Cthulu-esque. And this happens while Ariel Sharon is in talks with Shrubya. There are two sets of theories that can come from this: 1.) the ranting anti-Semite conspiracy theory, and 2.) Yasser Arafat really is responsible for the bombings, and either he's stupid, or he wants to send the message that there can be no peace. Which one is more likely? Well, I suggest we take the simplest one, the one which requires the least convoluted logic. That is, Yasser Arafat goes free, then terror attacks resume. So, I blame Yasser Arafat.

Thunderstorm

I just asked, and apparently they don't have thunderstorms in South Korea, just lots and lots of rain. Weird.

CNN.com - Airliner crashes in China - May 7, 2002

CNN.com - Airliner crashes in China - May 7, 2002

Wooo, two plane crashes in one day! That's pretty unlikely, but I'm certain it really is just coincidence. For some reason, I'm just not in a ranting mood today...

Resolution in Support of Israel

Last week, Congress passed resolutions supporting Israel. Not once was it mentioned on any mainstream news source I look at. Not once. What is up with the media? I think they're simply anti-everybody. They appeared to have a strong Republican lean during the 2000 election, but now... well, actually, the vast majority of Jews are Democratic liberals, so their behavior really just doesn't make sense. I think it comes down to the oil money somehow, but I'm not really sure how in this case. The important thing to remember about the media is they are out to make money. All political ideologies are secondary to this, because they are businesses who must bring the shareholder value by any means necessary. Convervatives point out that all of the people you actually see doing the reporting are liberals. Perhaps so... but it doesn't matter, because the editors and producers who must approve and assign the content are all conservatives. The people with the power in the media are the conservative owners, producers, and editors. An individual reporter can attempt to put a liberal spin on things, but if the conservative editor doesn't like it, then it doesn't get published (or broadcast, or whatever). Even CNN is no longer owned by Ted Turner. Now the giant beurocracy of AOL/TimeWarner controls everything. And they contributed to George W. Bush's campaign.

Which brings me to the startling conclusion that the advertisers must feel that nigh-blatant anti-semitism will bring in ratings! Is the general American public actually pro-terror, pro-Saudi, anti-Israel? Because that must be the conclusion of the advertisers, otherwise they'd demand that programming change to match reality. Remember, they are out to make money, and that is the primary concern. If the media wanted to push a "liberal" (but not really) viewpoint against the wishes of the public, then the public would change the channel (or read a different paper, or whatever), and the media company loses money. And then gets sued by its shareholders, etc. So, either the demographics people are out of whack and need to do some new studies, or there is a dangerous undercurrent of anti-semitism even in mainstream America. I know which one I hope is true...

New Blog started by Friend

Frank Wyatt, a friend of mine, has started a new blog called Denmad eb Cigol. He's an insane and intelligent person, who hopefully will have a lot of interesting things to say.

Statistics of War

Statistics of Deadly Quarrels

Wow. The two World Wars of the 20th Century were responsible for 60% of all violent death (including petty murders, but not accidents, starvation, diseases, etc) from 1820 to 1950. Not only that, but it doesn't matter what I (or anyone else) says here, because war is completely random! Obviously, that's not actually true (well, the part about war being random is true), as the article points out just because crime rate is a known quantity, "I'm sorry your honor, but somebody has to keep the murder rate up" won't fly with a jury. Indiviual wars happen for a reason. It's just that those reasons arise at random periods. Anyway, go read the article. Now.

I Am Disgusted with the Vatican

And not because of pedophilia. I won't post the photo here, but you can see it at USS Clueless, Instapundit, etc. It shows a French (naturally) Cardinal holding hands and smiling with Yasser Arafat. This is digusting! It makes me ashamed to be Catholic. Followers of that man are holding the Church of the Nativity hostage, along with priests, monks, and nuns, and the Vatican is sucking up to him! I deeply, sincerely hope that the Holy Father has nothing personally to do with this. I can't believe that he would, he is from Poland and should know real Nazis when he sees them! I strongly suspect there are power games going on in the Vatican right now, because of the Pontiff's ailing health and advanced age. This Cardinal Roger Etchegaray is probably playinig politics and hoping to curry favor with certain power blocs inside the Council. Grr...

The Second World War

I'm reading The Second World War by John Keegan. It's an excellent book (I picked it up after reading The First World War, also by John Keegan), and contains tons of interesting information. Like this:

at the end of the war, the Soviet forces held 665,000 motor vehicles, of which 427,000 were Western, most of them American, and a high proportion the magnificent 2.5-ton Dodge trucks... American industry also supplied 13 million Soviet soldiers with their winter boots, American agriculture 5 million tons of food, sufficient to proved each Soviet soldier with half a pound of concentrated rations every day of the war. The American railroad industry supplied 2000 locomotives, 11,000 freight carriages and 540,000 tons of rails... American supplies of high-grade petroleum were essential to Russian production of aviation fuel, while three-quarters of Soviet consumption of copper in 1941-4 came from American sources.

And that's not all:

Wartime Russia survived and fought on American aid. So too did wartime Britain... The percentage of military equipment supplied to the British armed forces from American sources in 1941 was 11.5, in 1942 16.9, in 1943 26.9 and in 1944 28.7; and the percentage of American-supplied food consumed in Britain in 1941 was 29.1, a proportion which continued at that level throughout the war.

This outpouring of aid, combined with the equipment and maintenance of armed forces which increased in size thirtyfold between 1939 and 1945, was achieved at no damage to the United States economy at all. On the contrary: though annual Federal expenditure rose from 13 billion dollars in 1939 to 71 billion in 1944, inflation was easily contained by tax increases and successful war-loan campaigns. The gross national product more than doubled during the same period, and industrial production also nearly doubled.

It goes on like that for another paragraph, explaining how all this spelled doom for Germany and Japan. The next interesting part is this: "In 1945 the United States was to find itself not only the richest state in the world, as in 1939, but the richest there has ever been, with an economy almost equal in productivity to that of the rest of the world put together." This is still essentially true. The United States is at this moment one of (or perhaps the only) the only countries in the world that is not only self-sufficient in terms of staple foods but also an exporter. The United States is still the richest nation the world has ever known, and every time our economy grows (aka, whenever we're not in a recession), it sets a new record. This is my response to those who claim we do not have to resources to fight a war by ourselves. We most definately do. We could conquer the world. But as of right now, we lack the political will. I believe that is changing, and it would behoove both major parties to realize it. Being that I prefer left-liberal domestic policies, I'd like to see a return to the Democratic Party of FDR. Others out there still (foolishly) hold out hope that the Shrub in Chief will awaken to the new political reality. Whatever happens, though, the next ten years should be interesting times, indeed...

Blog*Spot Down, PayPal Not Working

I am annoyed. I know this is LiveJournal-like behavior (especially since nobody can read this right now), but I don't care. There's something wrong with the two services I really wanted to be working right now. Grrrr...

No Link Between Atta and Iraq?

No Link Between Hijacker, Iraq Found, U.S. Says

Apparently, all that stuff about Mohammad Atta meeting with an Iraqi official was a misidentifcation. Fine; other liberals of course will use this to say, "See, now we simply can't attack Iraq!" But I'm sure you will be able to predict my response: So f'ing what? Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator, and we are justified in taking him down for that reason and that reason alone! As long as we make sure that he is replaced by a democratic republic with guaranteed freedoms for all citizens (but not necessarily the ones in the Bill of Rights, Mr. Libertarian), even if that means we won't be able to control them in the end. We are not justified in taking out Hussein and letting another dictator replace him. I say again, it is our responsibility to not just be the "shining city on the hill." It is our responsibility to ensure the freedom of everyone, everywhere. This is obviously an ideal goal not a viable plan. We are not yet in a position, militarily speaking, to do this in the real world. But we can do it in Afghanistan, and we can do it in Iraq. And we should do it in Saudi Arabia, too, but since the Administration is owned by Saudis... well, now I'm just starting to ramble again.

Afghan War Not Over Yet

CNN.com - U.S. forces move on al Qaeda targets along Pakistan border - May 1, 2002

See, this is what I meant when I said that we've only had just enough success in the War. Things haven't been going perfectly, and they aren't over yet! I strongly suspect that there will be battles fought inside Pakistan before things are really "finished" in that part of the world. I can only hope these won't be battles against the Pakistani military...

The reason "finished" is in quotes up there is simple... when the military fight against Al Qaeda is finished, there will still be many, many things to do in Afghanistan. That country is ripe for a demonstration of what I'm talking about with this blog. We should outlay the cash and the people to rebuild that country... not just "help" rebuild it, we should stay and make sure it gets done. I mean completely rebuilt, too, not just started on the road to recovery. Obviously, we can't really do that, yet. But we can stay until certain things are accomplished. We should make sure the countryside has enough infrastructure that even farmboys (and girls) can go to school. We should make sure all the "major cities" have electricity and running water. The ultimate goal is having not just a McDonald's in Kabul (because that would be silly and stupid at this point), but making it so the people can afford a McDonald's! So, there will need to be industry... but we have to do it right, unlike standard globalization. They should not be treated as cheap labor, we should build up the infrastructure to the point where they are a viable trading partner, instead of a client-state. This will probably take 20 years, looking at the examples of Germany and Japan. But in the long run, it will enrich the lives of everyone involved, including us. After all, that's a nice Sony TV, ne?

Liberal?

It has been brought to my attention that I don't "sound very liberal." Well, that's because I haven't been talking about environmentalism, public education, abortion, globalization, corporate control of government, or how much I hate libertarianism (Oh, how I hate libertarianism). I want the government in your wallet and out of your bedroom. If that's not "liberal," I don't know what is! I've only been talking about The War, and how important it is for us to win it. I do not favor corporate or cultural imperialism, see, I favor real imperialism. Globalization is stupid, it's just an excuse for big corporations to move out of the US where they have fair labor laws, and into little countries with no taxes and a government smaller and weaker than the corporation in question. No, we should actually go make the rest of the world like the United States, then it makes sense for corporations to move there. Not before. Of course, now this is getting kind of rambling and incoherent, but I think I've proved my point. Don't worry, I'm a dirty, stinking liberal. I'm just not a pacifist.

Arafat to Go Free?

CNN.com - Siege at Arafat's compound appears near end - April 29, 2002

I can't believe they're going to let this rat go. The "man" is a terrorist, plain and simple. He gives the orders for suicide bombings, he signs the checks, he procures the weapons, how else are you going to define "terrorist leader"? Yasser Arafat is more closely and personally involved with the suicide bombings than Osama bin Laden is/was with Al Qaeda attacks. How much longer will the world continue to pretend that Arafat can be dealt with? Why, oh why, does the US government continue to act as if he is the key to peace? There will be no peace until there is a winner and a loser. We cannot allow the "Palestinians" to be the winner.

On a related note, why is the world still pretending that the monks and nuns and so forth being held hostage by Palestinian gunmen in the Church of the Nativity are anything but hostages? Despite all the pleas for help, despite the statements from escaped priests, the world and the media continue to act as though they are helplessly trapped there by the Israeli military. The truth is they are being held as hostages by the terrorists inside. Even the Vatican refuses to acknowledge their status. As a Catholic, that angers me greatly. I can only assume that it is some aid to the Pope and not the Holy Father himself who is perpetrating this nonsense.

The Weekend and Other Concerns

Well, first of all I don't spend a lot of time sitting in front of the computer on weekends, so don't ever expect much posting then. For a second thing, I've just been forced to resign by my boss, and thus a lot of things are up in the air right now. I do intend to continue posting every day, it's just that things may be even more sporadic than they have been. And I definately hope to get a job that allows me to continue posting during the day. On that note, does anybody out there have an opening in IT/TechSupport/Programming/all-of-the-above in the Richmond, VA area? I can email a resume...

UPDATE: I have put a link to my resume over on the side...

War Liberal has Moved

Well, I'm 99% sure that the vast majority of people who read this (all 10 per day) already read War Liberal (that's how you found out about this blog, I bet), but just in case... Mac Thomason's War Liberal has moved to his own domain at warliberal.com.

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The final evidence he has caved can be found here. He even asked Congress to postpone a resolution supporting Israel. This has gone on far too long to be considered some form of "Rope-a-Dope." It should be abundantly clear by now that the Administration has chosen to side with evil. I'm sure the Bushophiles will point to the fact that Israel swept through some more West Bank towns today as saying "See, rope-a-dope." But I don't see that. I see the fact that Israel is a sovereign nation, free to ignore the Shrub, who is earnestly attempting to carry out his Saudi Master's demands. I suggest we, as a nation, do something about this. Write your Congressman, they still seem to care.

Did Bush Cave?

Well, it looks like he did. See here:

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Bush emphasized the common ground between the United States and Saudi Arabia, saying the two nations share a vision for peace in the Mideast.

The president said topics of discussion included the war on terror and the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians. He also praised Abdullah for his leadership and vision in proposing a peace plan in which Israel would exchange land for peace with Arab nations.

Not only that, but he also says he formed a "strong, personal bond" during the meeting. Great, the President has a strong, personal bond with our greatest enemy. People, you need to realize that George W. Bush is litterally owned by the Saudis. Without Saudi money, his whole family would lose its fortune. He has no ground to argue with Prince Abdullah, Prince Abdullah is clearly in a superior position from the Shrub's point of view. As long as oil families run this country, we're not going to oppose the people who control the oil. Bush isn't brave enough (or he's too sensitive to Colin Powell's needs) to seize the oil from Iraq or even Saudi Arabia, he's just going to keep giving in to the Saudis. He has to go.

I Hate it When Other People Post These

which children's storybook character are you?
this quiz was made by colleen

But I'm nothing if not a hypocrite.

More on Manhattan Explosion

Well, the authorities are now saying the blast had something to do with volatile chemicals used by one of the companies in the building. Apparently, the boiler has been released as no longer under suspicion. They still insist that it was a tragic accident, and it probably was, but I hope they at least seriously investigate the possibility that it wasn't. The lack of fire and smoke in the area really lends credence to the "tragic accident" point of view, in my mind, but then I'm not Israeli so I'm not exactly familiar with the standard effects of explosions.

Explosion in Manhattan

CNN.com - At least 50 injured in Manhattan blast - April 25, 2002

The explosion happened in a building housing the offices of Kaltech Industries, a manufacturer of fabricated interior and exterior signs, authorities said, and no foul play was suspected. Authorities said plumbers were working on a boiler in the basement and that "may have had something to do with it."

OK, I don't understand this. Why is no foul play suspected? If they don't even know whether the boiler had anything to do with it, why would they not at least suspect terrorism? I understand boilers can explode, but really... all the reports I saw on this emphasized, from before the authorities said anything about plumbers in the basement, that they didn't think it was terrorism. And there are some contradictory things... one eyewitness stated

"I just ducked because all the glass and flames and fire was coming toward me," said Steve Jaisingh, who works in the basement of the Kaltech building. "If I didn't duck, I would have died."

But people on the scene now say there is no smoke and no flames (which, I suppose, would be consistent with a boiler explosion). It certainly could be a boiler explosion (actually, though, that still doesn't rule out foul play, even if it makes terrorism less likely), and I don't know enough about such things to say for sure (but shouldn't there be water everywhere? If not, then I really don't understand the concept).

Which brings me to my point: the authorities are awfully quick to dismiss terrorism as a cause for anything these days (or at most, they claim it is domestic, vis a vis anthrax attacks). Are they afraid of riots in the streets? I should think not, there weren't riots on 9/11/2001, why would there be riots now for a much lesser event? No, if that's the reason then they are truly being very silly. I do have a theory, and it has something to do with this. The Administration does not want the "American Street" to rise up and demand a true accounting from the Saudis. Today in particular would be a bad day for terrorism, as the Shrub is meeting with his Master, the Crown Prince Abdullah. I'm positive I will have a lot to say about that particular issue if things develop the way I expect them to. However, now I've really strayed from the topic at hand, so I'll save that for later.

SDI is a Giant Boondoggle

I could rant on that for a while (and I probably will at a later date), but right now I'm just going to point to Mac Thomason's post on the subject.

Palestinian Lies Piss Me Off

There was no massacre at Jenin, that much is clear now. There was, apparently, a bloody battle, but that's to be expected in this kind of thing. But that is only the most recent lie... gah. I've run out of steam. I'll try again later.

Testing Mail-To-Blog

OK, I've tried using this beta feature a couple times, but it has never worked. I have now tried changing some settings around, so I'm trying it again!

UPDATE: Wow, I sent this message two days ago, and it only now went through. Talk about beta! Oh well, maybe it's working better now...

UPDATE 2: Yes, it's working better now, the Palestinian Lies message was mailed in and appeared immediately.

Happy Birthday XFree86

Slashdot | XFree86 10 Years Old

Well, I never promised this would cover only politics. I use XFree86 every day for things like GAIM and so forth. It runs on nearly every platform known to man, including Windows (with Cygwin) and Mac OS X (natively). Sure, it's bloated, but with Xft at least it isn't necessarily ugly anymore. And yet, it's binary and backwards compatible with the original version. So, congrats to the XFree86 team for putting out a great product!

Priests and Pedophilia

I'm Catholic, so I suppose I should weigh in on this. I think the scandal is something quite different from pedophilia. Really, the vast majority of the cases have been between priests and teenagers, which is something other than pedophilia. It's still morally wrong, of course, if for no other reason (and there are other reasons) than a priest has supposedly sworn off sex. But even that isn't really a scandal, it's just a problem that needs to be addressed. The scandal comes from certain Bishops' decsions to re-assign the offending priests to areas where they can continue their "activities," instead of properly getting their problems addressed. Which sounds like they're all pedophiles, they need mental help, but that's not entirely what I'm saying. The (very) few that are real pedophiles should be treated by a mental institution. The vast majority, however, are simply gay men (or even straight men who take advantage of young femal parishoners... that may even be the actual majority) who lack the self-control required to be a priest. They should be defrocked and sent to make a living doing something else. But that's not really a viable solution, even if it's the correct one, because of the severe shortage of priests. The only thing I can think to do about that is recruit more priests from places like South America, teach them English, and ship them to other parts of the world. I'm not entirely sure why this hasn't been done, actually. Is there anyone out there who can enlighten me on that?

Blog*Spot is Irritating Me

This is the second day in a row that Blog*Spot has been down for a significant amount of time. I am finding this extremely irritating, but what can I do? $12/year for ad-free, push-button service? Pretty good. Obviously, when you read this whatever their problem is will have been fixed. The really suprising thing is that Netcraft reports that blogspot (well, at least libimperial.blogspot.com, but I imagine all the different sites are just virtual hosts) runs on Apache on Linux... so I'm shocked it appears down so often. It probably has something to do with their ISP or bandwidth limitations or something, rather than the host going down. They may also have bugs in the custom software they've written, I suppose. Well, here's hoping it's fixed soon!

UPDATE: My theory that it's their software and not their host is confirmed: the website is still down, but the host is definately still up (FTP is running, etc).

Sgt. Stryker Gets Zen

Well, really the Sarge's rant is called "To War or Not To War," but he does get very zen toward the end of it. In general, the Sarge says lots of things I agree with and lots of things I disagree with. This particular rant, though, is right on the money (especially if you're into balance). It makes the point that pacifism doesn't work, something I had just mentioned a little while ago...

Terrorist Warnings?

CNN.com - U.S embassies in Gulf warned of threats - April 23, 2002

Well, I suddenly realized that posting links and then talking about them is probably the easiest way to do this kind of thing. Anyway, I wonder what effects these repeated warnings are actually having... Are they, in themselves, scaring the terrorists into canceling their plans? This seems reasonable, as no warning has yet been followed by a terrorist attack. I'd rather believe that than believe that the agencies responsible for issuing these warnings have been repeatedly hoaxed (which also requires beliving that no one has even attempted another terrorist attack against the US). But then we're running into a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" effect, where eventually these warnings will not be taken seriously. That, of course, would be a good reason for the terrorists to make plenty of threats but not carry them out... but even if the truth is they're scared by the warnings, the result will be the same. Eventually they'll figure that the warnings don't mean anything anymore, and carry out an attack. I'm not sure what the solution could be.

I have not yet received any email from visitors to this blog... I'd love to receive some! Any suggestions?

Blogger Pro is better!

Well, it's true. Blogger Pro is better. I especially like the Mozilla interface, it looks just like the IE interface. And I despise IE, so not having to use it is a good thing. If I hadn't been able to use Mozilla, I wouldn't have upgraded to Blogger Pro. But right now BlogSpot is down, which is not making me happy. It also means that you won't read this until some time after I actually write it, and then it will no longer be accurate.

Still playing with Blogger Pro

And I really, really should be sleeping, too.

Well, I'm just posting this to say "Hi" to those people who are visiting courtesy of the comment I posted on Little Green Footballs. I assure you, as soon as I get back to my normal work schedule (that is to say, later today), I'll be posting fairly often. And, over time, my left-leaning but hawkish tendencies will probably be obvious.

About that Le Pen guy: I know I'm late on this (hey, I was on a date), but I think this is overall a bad thing. The political class of Europe certainly needs a shake-up, but this guy is straight-up a Fascist. His political platform sounds like Hitler's (who was fairly elected... the greatest failing of democracy is that it can kill itself, sadly), only without the overt anti-Semitism. Heck, it's even got that if you remember that Arabs are Semites (but that's a technical detail, the term "anti-Semitism" is generally understood to refer to Jews).

I'm not at work today, so there probably won't be much posting. But you never know.

USS Clueless - Killing and dying

Well, here's yet another link. It's the weekend, I'm in Radford for the weekend visiting a friend, so I don't have time for the thinkering I mentioned earlier... Just go read this.

CNN: Jenin "terrible human tragedy"

Well, here's a link, in fact. I'm actually posting this for two reasons: 1.) I wanted to test the "BlogThis!" shortcut on Mac IE 5.1, and 2.) I actually have something to say about the story. To wit: I don't think any war crimes were committed in Jenin. It's pretty clear there was a battle there, which is most likely the source of the bodies. I'll even go so far as to suggest that if there is evidence of a massacre, most likely this evidence was planted there by Palestinians. However, if the evidence is overwhelming and sure, I'll join my voice to those saying that whoever was commanding that Israeli force should be court-martialed.

And the BlogThis! thing seems to work fine. Too bad it probably won't work with OmniWeb or Chimera Navigator or Mozilla, which are the browsers I normally use from home...

Israel is one of (or the) only countries in the Middle East where Arab Muslims have the right to vote. I think that statement says a lot about the situation. It makes it pretty clear, straight up, whose side we must be on. And thus far, the Bush Administration has fallen flat on its face over this. Anyone claiming "rope-a-dope" at this point needs to have their conspiracy detectors adjusted. Yeah, there's been some dope-roping going on, but guess who the dope is? It's the American people, and our true friends the Israelis. The Bush Administration is still mired hopelessly in the belief that Yasser Arafat is useful for something other than target practice. This is a subject I will probably rant on more often in coming days. Heck, I may even be moved to post more links about it!

And for the record, I'm Catholic.

George W. Bush is Not Running the War

OK, I'm going to sleep in a minute, so I will expand further on these thoughts at a later date. But I just read something that made me angry, so I'm going to rant for a bit. All of the success in the world in the War on Terrorism (and we haven't had all the success in the world, we've had just enough success) does not excuse the fact that George W. Bush is an idiot. Well, perhaps not an idiot, perhaps he is merely a feeble-minded buffoon. George W. Bush has not been running the War on Terrorism. He said so himself towards the beginning. He proclaimed (correctly) that he felt he should stay out of it and let the generals run it. That's the smartest decision he's ever made in his entire life, I'd wager. I'd also wager he didn't make it� I suspect Chaney had his hands on that one.

Well, I have a lot more to say about the particular subject of the War on Terrorism and exactly how successful it has been, but right now I really need to go to sleep.

UPDATE: All right, so I'm not being fair. I'm tired.

Well, Mac Thomason has added a link to this blog on War Liberal! Thanks, man! And welcome to anyone who came from there. So, for all my friends who are reading this at my behest, be sure to check out Mac Thomason's blog.

A friend just brought up a good point about the people killed in the Italian plane crash yesterday: it would actually have been better for the families if it had been terrorism. That way, they'd be more likely to get tax breaks and so forth that they need just as badly either way. And it might have provided a shot in the arm for the Europeans, as I mentioned...

I'm going to reiterate a point I don't think I emphasized enough earlier. Pacifism will not save the world. Pacifism will not change the world, either. Brutal dictatorships are not going to change their ways just because we talk to them. There must be a credible threat of force if things are to be changed. And in many cases, the threat will have to be carried out. Bluffing will not work, either. If we're going to change the world for the better, we're going to have to do more than sacrifice ourselves: we're going to have to hurt other people, too.

Hmmm, apparently the pilot of that Italian plane was 75 years old. I'm now placing my money on it being an accident. This is neither good nor bad... the people killed by an accident are just as dead as those killed by terrorism.

Today has been a very busy day at work. I realize that nobody is reading this yet, but I want to establish good habits. I expect to post some more tonight.

A small plane has crashed into a government skyscraper in Italy. Well, I think it was probably terrorism, but apparently the pilot radioed that he was having problems just before the crash. I don't know what that's about, but think about this: the building houses government offices, and the Italian PM is the guy who, shortly after 9/11, claimed Western Civilization is simply superior to others. I'm not sure that's 100% true (see Japan), I think that's just another case of linking democracy with Western Civilization.

With any luck, if this does turn out to be terrorism, I hope it serves as a bit of a wakeup call to the other European governments. I'm not holding out much hope for that, though, they seem to have their heads buried very deeply in the sand. When the excrement impacts the rotating blades, I hope they'll be our allies, but I'm not too confident of that, either...

Hmmm, I said I wasn't a linker, but then I read an article by Oriana Fallaci. Go read it. She says a lot of what I wanted to say, only better. I agree 100%. Israel is not the badguy. Israel is a democracy. It is one of the only places in the Middle East where Arab Muslims have the right to vote. I think that says a lot about the situation.

Naturally, I don't really see the policy I have suggested as being strictly imperialist. The goal, after all, is to bring freedom and democracy to the world. However, most people out there will probably view this as being an imperialist policy, and I doubt I could convince them otherwise. So why not revel in it, instead? For that matter, as I mentioned, it really would require behaving in an imperial manner, at least at first. The ultimate goal is to let the people of the world decide for themselves whether they want to be part of the United States (or a reformed United Nations, with actual powers of government), and they should be free to choose not to... as long as whatever they choose involves democratic government.

Oh yes, I figured it out. The key is to write very long posts somewhere else, and then paste them into Blogger. Because if you don't do that, your session times out and you lose everything.

Manifesto

OK, I'm going to try again, but I'm not going to be as long winded this time. Which also means I'm not going to be as convincing or clear. So, blah.

I decided on the name LiberalImperialist because I do not feel that pacifism, moral relativism, or cultural equality are necessary parts of liberalism. Equality of people (not cultures), democracy, and freedom, however, are key features of my philosophy. Absolutely key to all three of those is education. I also believe in protecting the environment, and caring for those who need help.

There are cultures and regimes in the world who do not believe in these things. They do not support the equality of humans, oppressing women, for instance. They do not allow democracy, and they deny freedoms even to their "chosen" people. Heck, they don't care about the environment, either. These cultures and regimes are the enemy of everything a liberal should stand for.

So I say these regimes should fall. These places should be occupied and (re)built by American and Western troops. They should be governed by Westerners, until the educational and economic infrastructure is in place to allow them to govern themselves as a successful liberal democracy. I take Japan as an example. There are racists who claim that only Western culture even desires democracy and freedom. They are wrong. The Japanese culture could not accommodate democracy before WWII; they even tried it and failed, just like the current Arab states, just like post-colonial Africa. Only being beaten and occupied by Americans made democracy work in Japan. And they are much better for it! The plight of the average Japanese peasant before WWII was horrible. They lived in poverty and oppression, and never even considered that there was anything better. But after the American Occupation, life improved dramatically. And now Japan is a functioning post-industrial democracy.

So why can we not do the same with the Arabs? Why are they unique in being unsuited to democracy? They are not. They just do not know the way, and they are led by evil men who refuse to see it. So we must bring democracy to them, since they will not come to it.

Yes, Americans (and likely Britons, and Canadians, and Australians, and many others) will die in the process. But this does not make the cause unjust or unnecessary. The suicide bombers who kill themselves to kill innocents are not fighting for democracy, despite their evil leaders' claims of fighting for freedom. They die to further a cause which is as far from democratic or free as you can get. There is no justification for it. To die in the defense of democracy and freedom is not the same as martyrdom! It is a genuine sacrifice, made so that the future can be a better place. To say otherwise is to deny the nobility of every soldier's death since the American Revolution. I claim it goes further than that. I claim that to die in the extension of democracy and freedom is no less noble!

That's most of what I wanted to say. I think I'll rant more later.

This is not a good first experience with this stuff. The post I just wrote was very, very long. Then I got a VBScript error and it was *ALL GONE*. This aggravated me.

OK, I've finally given in and decided to start my own blog. Basically, I will probably just post long-winded rants here, I'm not much of a "linker," but I sure do a lot of thinkering! Er, or something. I intend to cover my thoughts on war, politics, and whatever else is making me angry throughout the course of the day. I also intend to explain the name in the next post...