Sunday, December 31, 2006
Happy new year to all!
Just wanted to pop my head in here and wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous new year. Or, as the old toast goes, “May the best of your past be the worst of your future.”
Not that it’ll be smooth sailing for some of us here; there are dark clouds on the horizon. But let’s hope that once we get past them, it’ll be blue(r) skies.
on Pat Tillman
Another one from my queue…
I’m not interested in sports, but apparently the late Pat Tillman was a sports celebrity who turned down lucrative contracts in favor of joining the military. He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan and ESPN has a rather long write-up: An Un-American Tragedy.
It’s all but a foregone conclusion that in any substantial military engagement, there will be casualties due to friendly fire. In this case, it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that the U.S. military (or some faction thereof) is trying hard to cover up and decorated the late Tillman as some sort of bribe. I don’t know if the U.S. military is usually thorough to investigate friendly fire incidents or if this event is an exception to a rule.
What really got my goat is quoted below, though:
Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans’ religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, “I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know.”
Asked what might finally placate the family, Kauzlarich said, “You know what? I don’t think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don’t know. Maybe they want to see somebody’s head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can’t bring their son back.”
Kauzlarich, now 40, was the Ranger regiment executive officer in Afghanistan, who played a role in writing the recommendation for Tillman’s posthumous Silver Star. And finally, with his fingerprints already all over many of the hot-button issues, including the question of who ordered the platoon to be split as it dragged a disabled Humvee through the mountains, Kauzlarich conducted the first official Army investigation into Tillman’s death.
That investigation is among the inquiries that didn’t satisfy the Tillman family.
“Well, this guy makes disparaging remarks about the fact that we’re not Christians, and the reason that we can’t put Pat to rest is because we’re not Christians,” Mary Tillman, Pat’s mother, said in an interview with ESPN.com. Mary Tillman casts the family as spiritual, though she said it does not believe in many of the fundamental aspects of organized religion.
“Oh, it has nothing to do with the fact that this whole thing is shady,” she said sarcastically, “But it is because we are not Christians.”
What a piece of work and a shining specimen of a True Christian™.
Why should the Tillmans have any trust in “the system”? With Kauzlarich being implicated in the decision-making that led to the incident, being implicated in a suspected cover-up, being implicated in recommending the late Tillman for a decoration, it’s a despicable and cheap shot to make an issue about the Tillmans not being Christians. If he can’t figure out what the Tillman family wants, then I wonder his qualification to be a commissioned officer. The family wants to know what happened, plain and simple. It’s also obvious that for whatever reasons, Kauzlarich and others will not or cannot let truth, such as it is, be known. From what I read, atheist bashing enjoys a certain popularity in the armed forces, but as the saying goes, there’s no smoke without a fire. So what is it that he and others are hiding?
ding dong…
I suppose I should write a few lines about Saddam getting executed. The long and short of it is that I oppose capital punishment. If the world is a better place for the lack of one Saddam Hussein remains to be seen, but I doubt his execution does anything to improve the lot of his (surviving) victims, their families, and the people of Iraq in general.
There’s one thing I wonder about, though. By all appearances, the Bush conspired the U.S. into this war. By all appearances, the war, occupation, and subsequent civil war is taking a heavy toll on the Iraqi population. With abominations like Abu Ghraib, it’s open to debate if the Iraqis have been dropped from the frying pan into the fire. After the dust settles, will there be a future Iraqi government to try Bush for war crimes (in absentia, one would guess) and sentence him to death, too?
Thursday, December 28, 2006
not much going on…
With tons of kids around, some of which are strong contestants for the Snotnose 500 race, time to blog doesn’t happen.
On the up side, I now have a Swiss Army knife with a built-in USB stick. Very very neat.
I merged my small “have no clue what to do with them” sites formerly running on EE Core into this install of the full EE. I’m not sure why, but there you are. Well, it does allow for a few tricks, but I’m not sure I’ll ever go there. I suppose I should have another look at the forum theme, but it’s not like I have a real use for it.
Only our family site is left on Drupal and even that would be long gone if I could figure out if I want a photo gallery, a photo blog, or both. Currently it’s both, so I guess I might as well stick with it and crank out a few templates.
Peeked into a religious forum (oops) and got a good laugh out of somebody complaining vociferously about the FSM attacking Catholicism. Wankers are so cute when something gets their goat.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
alt+
Just something that has me a bit puzzled .... something of no importance ...
How come I can get characters like þ=alt+0254 to work WITHOUT having NumLock on in some applications (including the ‘shout box’ window and notepad), while NumLock has to be on for it to work in other applications (like in making a ‘regular’ forum posts here and elsewhere)?
Saturday, December 23, 2006
What season is it again?
I feel like I should post something along the lines of “Merry (take your pick)”. With each passing year, I have less and less energy to muster to do even that much.
The season has long been commercialized, although I do not remember growing up with the merchants being quite that much in your face. I used to enjoy things decades ago; it was nice and cold outside and with a bit of luck it snowed. I loved to take myself for a walk when the snow is falling. It muted all kinds of noises and it was a convenient way to slow down and get some distance and breathing space. I don’t know if I changed, everything else around me did, or both. Whatever it may be, I miss the time of quiet contemplation. These days, I just feel harassed and can’t wait until everything goes back to normal. And peace and quiet is restored or at least what passes as such.
Anyway, y’all take care 
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Tis The Season
As the local paper trumpteted, “A Child is Born, Our Savior.” Tis the season for Love and Sharing and Family and Warmth. Without fail, the Good Lord hath delivered all, and in one spectacular thread; the thread of lifetime. It has kept me occupied for three days and it is with great sorrow that I see it beginning to wrap. So, what the hell am I talking about?
Some background is necessary. Poker is a sport for degenerates. As a degenerate, I play a lot of poker and love it. It is an exercise in Greed. The popularity of poker has increased markedly and so has its profitability. This has brought about an influx of new people, including the hanger-ons. As with any popular activity there are those that have personal blogs; such is the same for poker. There are also poker forums that invite geeky overanalysis of poker play. One such forum is called TwoPlusTwo.com. It was at this forum that I received an early Christmas present that touched my part.
Click to read more...
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Well, duh!
Analyst: Microsoft anti-piracy efforts to backfire
The scope of piracy and cost/benefit analysis of pirated software is contested. Certainly not every pirated copy of software is a lost sale, if for no other reason that one of the contributing factors to piracy is the high price tag of certain products, compared to the value delivered.
This heavy-handed (anti-piracy) approach is sure to drive users of illegitimate versions of Windows to the competing open-source operating system, IDC said in its top 10 infrastructure software predictions for 2007.
Indeed. If a software vendor makes it difficult to run pirated copies, three things are likely to happen. First, those determined to run pirated copies will step up their efforts to work around impediments and they are likely to succeed no matter what. Second, some percentage of users running pirated software will bite the bullet and pay. It’s arguable how large that percentage is. Third, others will look for alternatives and ditch the pirated software.
With regards to pirated copies of Windows, Linux will probably be the net beneficiary. I doubt Linux on the desktop will gain market share hands over fist, but it will gain momentum. Many home users are covered by a combination of Linux, Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice. With all the looming retraining of new version of Microsoft Windows and Office, many businesses are likely to come out ahead if they switch to open-source applications.
Time will tell. By and large, Microsoft is its own worst enemy these days and sooner or later, quite a few chicken will come home to roost.
You can lead a horticulture ...
... but you can’t make her think. Especially at the end of this week, as I’ve been in a six-day, boot camp-style class to cram for a certification exam. The exam itself is six hours long, and I’m not planning to take it unless someone else pays the $500 exam fee, because darn it, I don’t feel like paying $100 a letter for something new to put on my business card. But at least I know that I’m ready now, should I ever want to take it.
I’m not sure when the holidays turned into just a long list of things to get done for other people. Probably it started in the Kids Era. But between that and the other True Meaning of the Holidays, which is when everyone gets all prickly and easily offended, I’ll be glad when it’s all over.
If I had my druthers, I’d just pack Elwed off to a romantic week in Scotland for Hogmanay. But that’s not going to happen any decade soon.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
silly seasonal humour
CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR THE DISTURBED
_______________________________________________
1. Schizophrenia—- Do You Hear What I Hear?
2, Multiple Personality Disorder We Three. Kings
Disoriented Are
Click to read more...
Atom
RSS 2.0
