Who exactly are you trying to save here? Do you think stopping the war will SAVE the Iraqi people?
Anti-war protesters ignore the horrors
Jesse Jackson Quote of the Day:
"“Today is not about Saddam Hussain,” he snapped. “Today is about Bush and Blair and the massacre they plan in Iraq.” Salima had to beat a retreat, with all of us following, as the reverend’s gorillas closed in to protect his holiness."
Dan and I have been bantering back and forth on the war on Derek's site. It's an interesting read..
Dan, after reading Demon Haunted World once again last night, I found the references you were pointing to. Show me where Sagan's rules of proof aren't valid.
1. Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts.
Both the US and Britain have intelligence resources that Saddam has developed Chemical and Biological weapons. Saddam has also been hell bent on developing a nuclear weapon. This has been proven by numerous defectors from the Iraqi regieme as well.
2. Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
Which has been done for the past three months. Maybe you didn't hear of it, it's called the United Nations.
3. Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").
This is actually quite funny, so a two year old who has never looked at a telescope knew just as much about the universe as the (now dead) Mr. Sagan?
4. Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
Tried and done. I think that's when we started the inspections back eleven years ago.
5. Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.
Quantify, wherever possible.
Eleven Years of Inspections
Eighteen Resolutions Calling for Disarmament
Three Presidents who have called for regieme change
Five Years of No Inspectors on the Ground after they were kicked out
6. If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work. "Occam's razor" - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
Which is the simpler argument?
7. Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?
Hmm, well we'd have to get another dictator in some backwash country. You might have me on that one.
Mr. Rogers died this morning. That sucks...
It’s been kind of funny over the past few weeks how the "wait-and-see" crowd has coalesced together. On one side, we have the "Make Love Not War" crowd sharing airtime with the "Pat Buchanan Isolationist Club Inc.". Both sides have their points in avoiding war with Iraq from possible environmental destruction, to interference with a sovereign nation, to the "unneeded deaths" of our soldiers.
Don't get me wrong here, I would be 100% happy if Saddam just came out and said, "Yup, I've got them, here they are, Merry Christmas! I'm going to Disneyland". But this isn't going to happen. Not while we he can keep the looney left and the scared right double-guessing themselves.
You remember that kid in school that kept borrowing a quarter from you every now and then, but never paid you back? Eventually, you stopped loaning him money because you knew he wouldn't pay you back. While this seems like a trivial comparison to the crisis in Iraq, we have to ask the same question here. How long are we going to go on and let Saddam tell us he doesn't have WMDs when we know he does. Resolution 1441 said Saddam had to prove he has destroyed his WMDs to the UN inspectors. Not just say they are in compliance, not just show pictures of broken bombs. Prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. This isn't that tough of a deal to do. According to Hans Blix, the Iraqis have admitted to having WMDs, but they buried them in the desert and destroyed all of the paperwork with it. Here's the link I was able to find.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2285266
Destroyed the documentation? Buried hundreds of tons of VX and Anthrax and other agents that can kill someone on contact? In the middle of the desert? Umm, my BS detector is now redlining. Did Saddam also offer us "Ocean-Front" property in downtown Baghdad as well?
If Iraq wants to prove that they don't have any WMDs, just take a trip out to the desert and show the UN inspectors where the bombs are buried. Real simple, we'll do the tests and if they are there, we'll move on. Hmm, that hasn't happened yet. And I don't think it will either.
Of course, the question is now asked, "So what if he has them. Who cares, they aren't a threat to us!” This was the same question asked in 1911, 1939, etc, etc, etc. Evil Bad Dictators® don't really care about sanity, they want power and control. Remember Hirohito? Hitler? Mussolini? They took relatively backwater countries and quickly turned them into war machines. It was only when they came into our backyard, was when we acted. And we lost hundreds of thousands of people pushing them back.
While I'm 100% in agreement that WMDs will eventually proliferate to the point of where my neighbor down the street will have a Minuteman III sitting in his living room, using this argument as a reason to abandon stopping their progress is absurd. It's time to grow up America. We're now the parents of the world. We have to set an example that the neighborhood bully can't get away with his crap. Are you really ready to let this guy go? Do you really think he is innocent?
But before you think about it, do you think you can get me one of those "No War For Oil" buttons? I bet I can make a killing from those on Ebay in a few years.
This has to be one of the best produced albums I've heard in years. Well written, lyrically deep, and the depth of the music is incredible. I highly suggest buying it or at least grabbing it off Kazaa THEN buying it if you keep it.
And some people thought Bush was too harsh in calling these countries out on the carpet.
How fast do you think the the manager of Great White is going to be arrested along with Jack (GW's Lead Singer)? My guess is two days (Monday). Charges will be negligent homicide, fire code violations, etc, etc, etc...
One thing I was looking forward to this week was The Screen Savers interviewing Rush. So after tonight's Komets game (a win over the Rockford Ice Hogs), I jump on my Tivo and setout to watch the interview.
This interview should be shown as an examples of "what not to do". Best quote from the interview (WARNING - LINK LEADS TO WINDOWS MEDIA FILE).
Interviewer: So guys, what should we expect on your new album "Spirit of Radio, Greatest Hits 1974-1987"?
Geddy: Umm, songs from 1974-1987...
Got the title for my Honda in the mail today. It's all mine now. :-)
We got our tax money back about a week ago. A very nice, large check. And next year will even be better with the adoption of Tyler which will add another deductible. Guess where the money went.
Paid off car.
Paid off other stuff.
Bought a few things.
It's all gone now. I spent it. And that money went to companies who now pay their bills, and can pay their employees. Hell, maybe they can hire someone else to help now that people are buying things.
We live in a consumer society. We like toys, we like stuff. Ask some guy in rural Uzbekistan if he wants a Playstation for his kids, I bet he'd say "Hell yes!".
Taxes in general don't suck, it's the oppresive, over-burdened taxes that suck.
So as I'm cleaning out the last few pieces of stuff that I have in my soon-to-be-closed office, I get a phone call from one of my customers.
"We've got two sites down, we need you on the phone to work them. Now."
I already knew about the two outages, and when I had checked over an hour ago, both problems were being handled by the groups that need to fix them. Both were close to being fixed, and actually one had been proven to be a possible bad router. But no, it's time to drop everything and set course at Mach 47 to get back home to get on a computer (since we now have NONE at the soon-to-be-closed office). I grab a box of stuff and run out to the car and make the 45 minute drive in under 23 minutes. Just as I get past the halfway point between work/home, my cell phone rings again...
"Oh, sorry to call but one of the sites came up an hour ago and we're replacing the router on the second one. Cancel Panic."
Ugh. Now I have to drive back to get the rest of the stuff tomorrow/next week since I have calls all the rest of the day and can't spend two hours again driving back and forth.
Didn't we just spend 10 years in North Korea making sure they didn't build a nuclear weapon? And guess what, they did it anyway. Now there are rumours about pulling out of the Armistice that ended the 1950's Korean War.
Guys, this is what happens when you let madmen and lunatics stay in power. They don't care what the UN thinks, they will do what they want with impunity. Just imagine five years from now when Saddam has a IRBM that can vaporize anypoint in Europe. Watch how fast the French and Germany get in line...
I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, my entire (and I do mean entire) family is liberal. Not just liberal, we're talking about voting straight ticket since Roosevelt was in office. So when I broke with family tradition and announced that I was voting for W. in 2000, I received some very strange phone calls from my immediate family wondering if I'd gone off my rocker by living in rural Indiana.
Now, as we get closer to a war that seriously nobody wants (nobody wants war, we just know that giving another warning to Saddam is useless); it's clear what the democratic party really wants out of this war. Airtime. I'm watching the likes of Dick Gephardt spouting off on how the recession is Bush's fault. Nevermind that we entered this recession when Clinton was leaving and after the "Irrational Exhuberence" of the 1990's.
Yes, both parties sucks, but the democrats are really doing a good job of alienating everyone from what I see. Come up with solutions guys, maybe someone might listen.
1. Toaster Instructions
2. Neighborhood Association Bylaws
3. My blog
I'm sorry, but I just find it funny how thousands of people are protesting around the world trying to KEEP the existing regime in power. Wil along with the myriad of clueless celebrites are rallying around the "anti-war" bandwagon for the "sake of the Iraqi people"
Umm, maybe you guys missed it, but Saddam has GASSED his own people with the same weapons he claims he's never possessed. I still haven't seen someone from the wacko left come up with a defense for this? C'mon people, give me a good excuse for this one!
Who are you really trying to protect? The subjugated people of Iraq or your happy, sing-songy, "everyone-holds-hand-and-sings-kum-bay-yah" ideal world?
Seen it posted in a few places, thought it was appropriate.
Gallic Wars – Lost. In a war whose ending foreshadows the next 2,000 years of French history, France is conquered by, of all things, an Italian.
Hundred Years War – Mostly lost, saved at last by a female schizophrenic who inadvertently creates The First Rule of French Warfare: "France's armies are victorious only when not led by a Frenchman."
Italian Wars – Lost. France becomes the first and only country to ever lose two wars when fighting Italians. Wars of Religion – France goes 0-5-4 against the Huguenots
Thirty Years War – France is technically not a participant, but manages to get invaded anyway. Claims a tie on the basis that eventually the other participants started ignoring her.
War of Devolution – Tied. Frenchmen take to wearing red flowerpots as chapeaux.
The Dutch War – Tied.
War of the Augsburg League / King William's War / French and Indian War – Lost, but claimed as a tie. Three ties in a row induces deluded Francophiles the world over to label the period as the height of French military power.
War of the Spanish Succession – Lost. The war also gave the French their first taste of a Marlborough, which they have loved every since.
American Revolution – In a move that will become quite familiar to future Americans, France claims a win even though the English colonists saw far more action. This is later known as "de Gaulle Syndrome," and leads to the Second Rule of French Warfare: "France only wins when America does most of the fighting."
French Revolution – Won, primarily due the fact that the opponent was also French.
The Napoleonic Wars – Lost. Temporary victories (remember the First Rule!) due to leadership of a Corsican, who ended up being no match for a British footwear designer.
The Franco-Prussian War – Lost. Germany first plays the role of drunk frat boy to France's ugly girl home alone on a Saturday night.
World War I – Tied and on the way to losing, France is saved by the United States. Thousands of French women find out what it's like to not only sleep with a winner, but one who doesn't call her "Fraulein." Sadly, widespread use of condoms by American forces forestalls any improvement in the French bloodline.
World War II – Lost. Conquered French liberated by the United States and Britain just as they finish learning the Horst Wessel song.
War in Indochina – Lost. French forces plead sickness, take to bed with the Dien Bien Flu.
Algerian Rebellion – Lost. Loss marks the first defeat of a Western army by a Non-Turkic Muslim force since the Crusades, and produces the First Rule of Muslim Warfare: "We can always beat the French." This rule is identical to the First Rules of the Italians, Russians, Germans, English, Dutch, Spanish, Vietnamese and Esquimaux.
War on Terrorism – France, keeping in mind its recent history, surrenders to Germans and Muslims just to be safe. Attempts to surrender to Vietnamese ambassador fail after he takes refuge in a McDonald's.
The question for any country silly enough to count on the French should not be "Can we count on the French?" but, rather, "How long until France collapses?"
For those that wonder just what the heck my office looks like at home:
Tyler's got a girlfriend :-)
Tyler's got a girlfriend :-)
Tyler's got a girlfriend :-)
Someone has created a FAQ about the investigation into the breakup of Columbia.
Future Purdue Engineering Student (Warning: Link leads to BIG .jpg file)
The only way France and Germany will do ANYTHING about Saddam is when he develops a missle or delivery system that will reach their countries. I really do believe that it will take a large glowing cloud over Tel Aviv to wake up the world to Saddam.
"Yes world, we are really lying about what we have. We hired a couple of photoshop guys from fark.com and made up these lovely Powerpoint slides. We also hired a couple of guys from Bob and Tom to do their best "Evil Iraqi Underling"."
Tonight, Hannah decided she was hungry at 21:30 (a usual occurance at bedtime). DeAnn looks over at my daughter and says "You're so cute." I decide to retort with "Please don't feed the ego..."
Hannah perks up at this point and says "Piggies don't want to eat the igloos. Their tongues would freeze!"
#1. Photographic Analysis Technique for Assessing External Tank Foam Loss Events
Essentially, the tank foam covering process was changed back in 1997 due to a change in environmental policy. (Warning! Link leads to a 35MB .pdf file).
"Postflight inspection of orbiter tiles on mission STS-86 revealed greater damage than observed on previous flights. STS-87/ET-89, launched on November 19, 1997, had even more tile damage and prompted the initiation of in-flight anomaly STS-87-T-01 (IFA87) to identify the cause of the orbiter's above average, lower surface tile damage and suggest corrective action."
#2. Radical British Cleric Removed as Head of Mosque
"Masri was already at the center of a row this week after tabloids reported he had "gloated" over Saturday's crash of the space shuttle Columbia and the death of its crew."
Thought this was a good one of Hallie and Tyler:
Everyone knows I'm a space geek. This Saturday just really sucked.
I remember watching the drop tests of Enterprise from my Dad's flying service in the 1970's. I remember waking up at 05:00 when I was 9 to watch the first shuttle launch. And I've watched almost every launch since 1999 (thanks to the Internet).
For the past ten years, I've seen this agency drop billions of dollars into a flying condo for shuttle crews. This is all thanks to Mr. Goldin's idea of trying to "split" the costs of the original space station.
This is why NASA should farm out work to private enterprise (not just the United Space Alliance). Follow the basic format the DoD has followed for the past 10 years. Give general requirements, let the contractors build and deliver the prototype. Best one in testing wins. It's worked for the F-22, why not for a low-cost "deliver crew to here" ship.
Dilbert is back on TV on Comedy Central
Gotta love my Wish Lists
Welcome to the blog world everyone.
Pic #1. Kids at the circus.
Thanks to Derek, I am now blogging. :-) Give me a few days to figure this out.