I have some stuff to ponder with the resignation of George Tenet being announced today. More amusing is Al Jazeera's coverage of the story and the pictures they have of Tenet compared to others.
There's also a lot to ponder regarding this whole Chalabi debacle and it's odd coincidence with the resignation of Richard Perle who was gunning for Saddam and is defending Chalabi, who he introduced to Dick Cheney in the first place.
Not to mention Bush consulting lawyers. Hope my taxes aren't paying for that...
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Here's a good link to a bunch of different websites where you can find etexts.
And this is just a link for me to use later for nerd activity.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
I get the feeling that if a man threw a condom filled with flour at Bush, the fine would be a bit more than $1,000.
As it should be. That flour could have gone in his eyes! Or it could have been Ricin! Or Sarin! Or.. Why do I know the names of these things?
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
My God! In an overworked stupor I completely forgot to watch the GWB speech last night and chose to rent the last of the Matrix movies instead. The acting in both was probably about the same...
Oh well, the transcript might help, but it's never the same if I can't see that fantastic smile on his face. He's so folksy!
I'll have to find the video later.
I've decided that the video would make me too nauseous. Here's the audio, though.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
New blog Post - 04/24/2004 updated 05/21/2004
My PDA and other stuff.
I started thinking that I could work on writing something magnficent. Something that wouldn't take up too much time; allow me to be lazy, but be a story nonetheless. I've never been asked to write a story with no topic. Actually, that's not true. I haven't been asked to do something like it since highschool. I feel like if I actually have a topic, I can really come up with some quality writing, but that if there's nothing there to begin with, I can make it more trouble than it should be. There's definitely plenty for me to talk about, but it always sounds like needless complainig if no one ever asked you to speak in the first place. Maybe that's the trouble with writing like this: there's no audience. There's a lesson in there somewhere about not taking the advice of idiots spouting about "knowing your audience" for granted. I think I got a really weird sunburn today at the track meet. Some splotches under my right eye and a spot on my neck too. Sometimes I think I should be sued for overuse of commas and not having known what the word "trite" meant, despite having used it in sentences for years. Everyone does it, but catching yourself feels pulcritudinous. (Exactly.) So, either way, there's some neat stuff for me to expore here with this portable palm thing and the keyboard. Romantically, I think that it will lead to me writing in public. I picture myself on a bench in the center of Dupont Circle watching couples and bike messengers share seats with hobos. I know that this will never happen, but it's nice to imagine it. I wonder what business people imagine when they get their first PDAs. Do they ponder all of the useless jargon that they have and try to make up new ones by stringing different phrases from different memos together? What else can they leverage independantly of ongoing market variance? Do they know what half of those ten words really mean?
I learned what proactive meant today and was sorely dissappointed. I thought that it just meant being in favor of doing things. I turns out that it means the same thing as "predicting problems or scenarios and acting to prevent or prepare for them." I liked it better before and now recognize how poorly used it is that I could never figure out what it really meant from the context that it was in.
Back to the PDA. I really am fooling the hell out of myself that I'll ever use this in public and the reasons for it rattle off in my brain like pictures out of Abu Grahib:
(1) It's loud and annoying when I type. I hit the keys too hard, especiallythe space bar. I slam it, and only with my right thumb. I think I might even annoy myself with my typing. That's a lie. I revel in it because it makes me sound faster when I'm slamming on the spacebar somwhere along the line I was taught that typing fast is cool.
(2) I don't want people to think I'm some yuppie ass rich kid with a PDA that his mom gave him. Self-loathing must be the most pathetic and epidemic quality of middle class offspring. Kids who moved up from the working class to become our parents were allowed to say that they had made something of themselves. Whereas their offspring will forever doubt if they made themselves what they are or had success based on their parents' ability to support them. Would I be sitting here typng on a collapsable keyboard into a PDA if it weren't for them? What a stupid, trite question. Shoulder, Chip, blah, blah, blah.
(3) I know I'm just going to use this stupid thing to write hai-kus while I'm in the bathroom at work.
So yeah, that's the new PDA. It's a hand-me-down, it's not color, but I'm done fulfilling my subconscious need to defend anything good that happens to me as someting earned or pure luck. It's a great little device that my shoulder-chip will shame me into detesting. Perhaps I'll throw caution to the wind and there'll be more to come.
*UPDATE
And there was more to come. I wrote that stuff up there back in April... --
New blog - 05/21/2004
What an effort it could take to actually think of something intelligent to write. Something that's not trite or boring... why bother?
So I got a PDA. I still have trouble remembering what it stands for... personal digital assistant? portable? eh, doesn't matter. My mom got a new one from her work and I scored her old one with no whining or anything. Good stuff. It's a Handsprig "Visor, ," which, from what I've read online, is a good pda to start out with. I've actually surprised myself by using it every day. I thought I'd be using it to blog stuff that I think of on the spur of the moment when I'm not close to a computer... but that hasn't really worked out. I've been so swamped with stuff to do that I use it for, you guessed it, the To Do list function. This function is amazing... when you check things off, they disappear. It's so satisfying to watch a little line scratch through them that I've started writing in little things that I forgot just so that I can tap the check box to watch them go away. My nerdiness knows no bounds.
Just like a nerd, after I got the thing I started searching around for different little applicatios to download onto it. I've gotta say that there really aren't enough free games out there. Either that, or I haven't spent enough time looking.
Another excellent thing on the PDA is that you can convert large textfiles into a .doc format and then read them all over the place. It's a bit ridiculous to think that I'll actually find time to read some book that's so old that no one owns the copyrght material while I'm waiting for a bus, but it's nice to think it could happen.
Another good feature is this whole Avantgo.com business, which lets you download news, weather, and other info every time you connect the PDA to the internet. I've been happily reading my news on a smaller screen for several weeks and I can't say it's all bad. We'll see if THIS THING ever gets posted.
g
Monday, May 17, 2004
Saturday, May 15, 2004
This latest polling is almost encouraging for November's election debauchery.
Big day around the homestead. Went to ikea and bought a couch. We were going to go to home depo but didn't have time.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Thursday, May 06, 2004
I wonder if there's some way have something dead made into jewelry... Hmmm...
Monday, May 03, 2004
Take some time to read this article in the New Yorker relating to the naked prisoner pyramids that you get when you hire an army of mercenaries to go to war for no particular reason.
Monday, April 26, 2004
Travel-Tastic
I've been quite the jet-setting moron lately. I was in New Orleans last weekend for a "training conference" for my job. It turned out to just be an excuse to get drunk and lose money at Casinos.
Last weekend was my first visit to New Orleans. I'd say that it was my first visit to "the Big Easy", but I just don't think I've been there enough to refer to it in so much of a colloquial manner. I also refuse to call it "Nah'Lins", because that's like having been to Paris and always calling it "Parie". Just because you've visited, doesn't mean you need to start imitating the way people talk. Frankly, they'll just find it insulting. However, this little rule does not work for our friend of the Northwest and home to my dear brother, Oregon. Knowing how to pronounce states is not dialectally-biased, it's just plain sensible. So let's all say "Oregon" like "Or-uh-Gin" and pronounce "gin" as in "he dun deed it aGIN!"
Where was I? Nah'Lins, that's right. Good time. The whole training conference was inside the Marriott, where I and 240 of my fellow consultants from all over the US happened to be sleeping as well. This meant that we didn't leave the hotel from when we went to bed until after dinner at 9, except for the 30 seconds spent crossing from one tower to the other where the pool was. 30 glorious seconds amid seminars on "the Effect of State Budget Crisis on Medicaid" and a 2 hour panel discussion on the new Medicare bill. As an old friend of mine used to say "Fun was evicted and boredom paid the rent." While there, I learned lots of fun new buzzwords and that anything can be "leveraged," especially people.
I'd love to say that I learned other things about the healthcare consulting industry, but I'm drawing a complete blank. What I did learn was that Bourbon Street smells like bar funk. Having previously worked in the bar industry and knowing the scent of bar funk quite well (some would call me a "bar-funk expert") I will hereby attest that Bourbon Street, in its most commonly crowded location, exhibits a definite bar funk odor. If you've ever fallen asleep in front of a bar and woken up in the hot afternoon sun while lying in the spillage trail of a bar garbage can on its way to a dumpster, you know what I'm talking about.
After a terrible Sunday morning hotel room experience somewhat akin to the melting carpets and smoking lizards of Fear and Loathing, I met up with R's cousin, who took me around to see some sights. I was in bad shape when I woke up, but lots of water and walking around in the sun got me right back on normal hangover footing. I was able to appreciate the filthiness of New Orleans in all it's glory. Luckily the weather wasn't it's usual hot-shower humidity and we were able to wander all over the dirty burg. I also attempted to take in the D-Day museum in a record 45 minutes, but having skipped the landings at Utah and Omaha beach I feel I may have missed something vital.
On Monday morning I caught a direct flight back to BWI and managed to get into work by 1pm. And that, I suppose, is the end of the story. I mean really. It was a weekend trip, so it would have to end on Monday when I got back to work. I kind of wish that there was a surprise ending, but no. I'll tell you this though: R explained to me this evening that she has now seen four different varieties of seafood on the streets of two different cities. She saw a whole lobster on a street in Barcelona, and an Eel, several crab legs and some minnows here in DC. That's crazy!
Check out the new email service that's being offered by google. It's oddly reminiscent of other online email offers except for a few key differences. like :
Friday, April 23, 2004
This is something important to look at. And Condoleeza Rice accidentally calling Bush her husband is more amusing than Bush accidentally calling Powell the Secretary of Defense.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Cheney and Bush have released their tax returns for this year. Apparently Cheney received some money from Haliburton on his, but I didn't come across it in a quick glance. I seem to remember him having said he severed all ties with them... hummm...
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Need to go to bed... Have work in morning... Here are the quickest quotes (all from George W. Bush) that I was able to jot down during his rhetoric-laden "press conference." And HUGE props to Don Gonyea for actually asking a real question (and being called on in the first place):
Gonyea: with public support for the war in Iraq falling off... What ways do you think you've failed as a communicator... [your speeches] often include similar phrases and may vary very little from one to the next... I wonder if you feel you have failed in any way.... To really make the case to the public.
Bush: If you put it into a political context that's the kind of thing the voters will decide next November. That's what elections are about. They'll take a look at me and my opponent and say 'let's see. Which one of them can better win the war on terror? Who best can see to it that Iraq emerges as a free society?' ...If I tried to fine-tune my messages based upon polls, I think I'd be pretty ineffective, I know I would be disappointed in myself...
Besides the fact that Bush entirely avoided the part of the question as to whether or not he failed to make his case to the public, I think this answer is a hint of what's to come in the election. It seems the W will be pushing the idea that Kerry won't be strong on defense and that he doesn't say what he means and flip-flops around. Huge surprise. Don't listen to me, though. You can listen to both the opening statement (pure propaganda) and the q&a period (diluted propaganda) on npr or read it all here. On to the stupid quotes:
"A free Iraq is vital to the safety of the American people."
"America is behind our troops" I find this one particularly deceptive as "behind" could mean that we support the troops themselves or that we support the reason that the troops are there. Aren't semantics fun?
"It's been tough on this administration." in reference to the last week of fighting and increased violence in Iraq.
"It's in our country's interest." in reference to the achievement of a "free Iraq."
"[Saddam] refused to disarm." in reference to Saddam's violation of the UNSC resolution
"We are an open country; we value our openness." Who knows where this one popped out of.
"And I heard a summary of that from Director Mueller, who feels strongly that we – and he'll testify to that effect, I guess tomorrow. I shouldn't be prejudging his testimony. " in reference to the testimony of Robert S. Mueller III scheduled for tomorrow. I've gotta wonder if someone in the back started waving his hands at Bush to shut him up about prior knowledge of testimony that has already been run by him before it was made, as he switched gears pretty quickly.
"Prior to 9-11, the country really wasn't on a war footing. And the, frankly, mood of the world would have been astounded had the United States acted unilaterally in trying to deal with al-Qaeda in that part of the world." In reference to why "threats" like Saddam weren't taken care of before 9-11.
"the war on terror had changed the calculations. We needed to work with people. People needed to come together. y'see empty words would have emboldened people."
"I also have this belief, strong belief, that freedom is not this country's gift to the world. Freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world." in reference to God. Great. Everyone loves when you're doing stuff for God. Don't mind US, we're just helping God with His plan.
"It just seemed an impractical strategy at the time. And, frankly, I didn't contemplate it." In reference to the United states acting Unilaterally "in that part of the world" (Meaning Afghanistan... I think... Possibly Iraq... He said 'it' a lot). No matter which strike he was referring to, he's busted either way as he was clearly contemplating unilateral movement against Iraq which is "in that part of the world." Unless he just meant the area right around Afghanistan and Pakistan, in which case he had to wait for 9-11 to do something, whereas now he can act preemptively on even less intelligence.
I don't have the patience to comment on all of these quotes. At least one is a lie. The part about not thinking of invading Iraq before 9-11. If that is true, it's pretty sick to use the deaths of thousands to launch a war against someone who wasn't involved in their deaths. Despite the "coddling of terrorists", which was really just one Al Qaeda member who was serviced in an Iraqi hospital. We just teach them how to fly...
I also really liked his skirting around the question of whether he felt responsible and slipping in how we weren't "on a war footing", which I guess we'll be on until there are no more "evil-doers." And how about "And it didn't take me long to put us on a war footing." Ooh, thank you! Thank you for sending us to war quickly. Shit, if I was "the ultimate decision maker for this country," I'd feel pretty bad about and yes, a little responsible for Sept. 11th.
And what the hell is the "Greater Middle East Reform Initiative"?
And he just couldn't figure out what the term "loved one" means:
"It seems like a long time to the loved ones whose troops have been overseas. "
"And my message to the loved ones who are worried about their sons, daughters, husbands, wives is, your loved one is performing a noble service for the cause of freedom and peace."
"I've met with a lot of family members, and I do the best to console them about the loss of their loved one. "
And remind me to read this article mentioned on The O'Franken Factor, which outlines all of the stuff that's being "discovered" now by the 9-11 commission.
Check out Omar Masry's blog, which looks oddly similar to mine.... hmmm... same template?.. hmm... time for a change?
Check out my brother's band's website. It's NOT SAFE FOR WORK.
And don't forget to watch Bush's first press conference in a year, TONIGHT at 8:30ET. And there's a fun drinking game to play along with the conference:
A shot of beer (or whiskey if you don't have work tomorrow) for each time W says one of these words:
I thought that this picture was done with photoshop at first. Just not nice.
Thursday, April 08, 2004
I can't stop commenting on this Rice testimony thing. It's an addiction to the news and I'll be the first to admit it. I still can't get over that CNN called her testimony "tough." It wasn't tough. It was boisterous, disrespectful, deceitful, blameful of others and all done with a shit-eating grin on her face. Headlines said that she defended the administration well, but what I don't get is why they're so defensive. The commission is just asking them to say what they knew and didn't know before 9-11 and what they can do now to make it less likely that this will happen again. Instead of getting the information they want, they get rhetoric and excuses; canned words spoon-fed by the Bush administration to "defend" themselves. This shouldn't be a partisan matter. It should be an inquiry. No one should be in opposition of or defending anything. Call me a pacifist.
What they hell are they defending, anyway? What did they do that needs defending? If they screwed up, they could always just say that they screwed up and that they weren't prepared and that neither they nor any other administration could have been prepared. I'd accept that. It's probably true. But instead, they try to come off as though they were perfectly right in what they did and that nothing could have stopped 9-11. What total bullshit. I know that the communication between agencies was bad and that people lower down who knew a bit more weren't listened to, but why can't they just admit this stuff? Baffling.
In Addition to what I said earlier, I was watching Condi's testimony again this evening and listened as she said that they "did not drop" any of the anti-terrorist measures that President Clinton had instituted. But wait! Didn't the Bush admin remove all of the FBI investigators from Yemen when they were investigating a terrorist attack on the USS Cole? They say that they removed them because of a terrorist threat. No kidding! A terrorist threat near the site of a terrorist attack?
And how annoying that CNN (which, for some reason unknown to me, conservatives are calling the"Clinton news network") is always giving the Bush Administration the courtesy of a reach-around? CNN called it a tough defense of [the] administration, whereas a quick glance through the Rice Testimony link on google news comes up with titles like Rice testimony draws mixed reaction, Rice testimony begs more questions and After Rice testimony, questions remain.
And to top it all off, a gigantic right wing media giant has dropped Howard Stern. There will be millions of high school seniors driving to school with nothing to listen to!
I couldn't believe the Condi Rice 9-11 testimony. What balls she has!
Q. If another US ship were to be attacked by terrorists after the USS Cole, what would you have done?
A. I don't know.
She's the goddamn national security advisor. Her whole job is to advise people on what to do. How can she not know?!? It's so aggravating!
And when they asked why they didn't do anything against Al Qaeda after the USS Cole was bombed she said that the didn't wand to embolden the terrorists. No one is this dumb! I Swear they were up to something.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Check out Executive Order 13303, which might just make sure that all oil companies will be above the law. Hooray!
Just using this to remind myself to check out QD3's website.
And hey, as long as we're visiting in Iraq, why not bomb a mosque?
Sunday, April 04, 2004
I went to my local computer superstore today and purchased two items:
1) a doo-dad that lets me hook my old mouse and keyboard up to my laptop through the USB port.
2) one of those fun pads that you put underneath your wrists.
What will these two items mean for my nerdy future? Why, more posts to the stupid blog, of course! Now that I have the capacity to write in comfort, I'll be spilling oozing masses of crap onto the pages of this site for longer and longer periods of time.*
*this is not a promise, but rather a lie
Friday, April 02, 2004
Here it is. A better blog. I know what you're thinking. "But how is this possible? Greg's blog is the best blog and he's so cool and I should send him a letter that says how cool he is." Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Give this guy's blog a look though, it's worth it.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
I thought that the new radio station Air America was going to be a lot more tame than it is. It turns out that listening to people who share my views rant all day is really nice. Now I understand why Rush has all of those people listening to him. In fact, I'm going to put a permanent link to it on the left.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Download the book by Lawrence Lessig where he "consider[s] the diminishment of the larger public domain of ideas. In this powerful wake-up call he shows how short-sighted interests blind to the long-term damage they’re inflicting are poisoning the ecosystem that fosters innovation." Basically saying why it's ok to download some mp3s without paying for them, just like it's ok to fly over someone's farm without paying them.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Here it is, a retardedly long entry about my life. It's been a long time since I've written anything about what the hell is going on with me, but this is it (who's listening anyway?)
The Good News:
I got a job!
I started at Navigant Consulting as a temp back in August (or was it September?). Either way, my job was to sit around looking at images of different forms from doctors' offices and entering in names and dates of birth and insurance companies. Sometime after November or so, THREE OF MY OTHER TEMPmates and myself were moved up to being a "project employees". This meant a pay raise to double what we were getting before and a host of new, stupid responsibilities. Responsibilities like: Doing whatever 10 different bosses tell us to do, punching holes in paper and drinking coffee.
Sometime during December, an email circulated amongst the people in the health consulting department about the upcoming Health Training Conference in New Orleans. The four of us (those of us that were temps and were moved up to being project employees) all assumed that we weren't meant to go to the conference. Honestly, how much could they teach us about clicking the left mouse button twice and pressing Control+C? But that's not my responsibility.
None of us figured we were supposed to be involed and didn't respond to the email about the conference.
Two Months Later
So last Monday I get to work and one of the other project employees, whom we shall call... umm.. "Eunice"... asks me "Hey did Claudius* talk to you about going to the conference?"
"No," I said.
"Oh," said Eunice, "nevermind, then."
"What the hell are you talking about," responded Greg
"It's just that Claude told me to book my tickets and that I should go."
"Oh."
After realizing that one of the other four people that I had been promoted with would be attending the conference, I can't say that I didn't feel slighted. Other things had also been happening around the office to make me think that I was probably not "the best" out of those of us that had been moved up. Por Ejemplo: I was told back in October that I would be moved up to the "programming end" of the team. After hearing this news, I had been told a few things about database programming using SQL and then was left on my own to buy book on Amazon and learn what I could. Two months later Eunice was being instructed by one of the programmers on how to use SQL. She was given memos and told how to bill the time that she spent learning the program. I had felt slighted then as well, but thought that maybe I just kicked so much as at programming that everyone thought I didn't need any instruction. Eunice and another one of my bosses... um... Tula*... would go out for coffee all the time and gossip. That's ok, too. I don't want to go out and spend money on coffee when there's free shite at the office... but I still felt a bit slighted.
I feel like I've gone off on a tangent. Where did we leave off? Oh yeah:
So, Eunice told me that she had been told to schedule this conference. I spend the next three days figuring that I must have done something wrong that she didn't and that I'm going to get fired (or have my contract run out on June 30th and be left out to dry). Every time Claude walks by and says hello I imagine him thinking "He did something stupid and I'm going to fire that stupid-thing-doing guy."
Wednesday happens along and another one of my 10 bosses (um... Gemma*) calls a meeting for all four of us project employees. The four of us trade some instant messages about how we're going to get fired (though I know that Eunice is sure she's not going to get fired, but she plays along). The meeting comes and Gemma (after some other stuff) explains that Claude et. al. will be trying to get all of us to be able to go to the conference and will be talking to us on Friday.
"The thing is that we might not have enough money in the budget for you guys to go."
This is a huge weight off my shoulders. I realize that Eunice was just the first one of us to be talked to and that the rest of us will hear eventually. I also realize that they've told her already and that this means that she's more important to the company. Either way, I'm happy that they "want all of us to go."
Ten minutes after the meeting, Eunice tells me that she talked to Gemma and that the order of people who get to go (as explained to her) is Eunice, Me, Billy-Bob*, and Janice*.
I'm happy with this idea.... Especially when Claude calls me into his office on Friday at 5:30pm. I come in and he tells me that he wants me to go to the conference. Fuckin' right! He follows this up by telling me that "the team" has been impressed with my performance and that they'll be offering me to come on full-time as an "associate consultant." The reasoning for telling me about the conference and crap was that they wouldn't want me to get hired and have me miss the conference by two weeks (which means that I should get hired two weeks after April 16th... ridiculous how I have to figure out when I'm getting hired for myself).
For some reason, as Claude was telling me that I had a job, I didn't have an excited reaction. Actually, the reason is totally apparent to me and was quite tangible during our meeting. I don't want to work at this company. It's a job with ten bosses, stupid pressure, late nights and no knowledge gain. I just sat there twisting the top on my mechanical pencil and watching the lead grow like a time-lapse-photography bud.
I realize halfway through that I was being an ungrateful wretch and started in on saying how excited I was and how much I'd learned and what tasks appealed to me and blah, blah, blah. The meeting ended with a thank you (which I followed up with a thank you letter on Monday... Lord, how corporate).
On my way back to my desk I realized three things, which I shall now attempt to illustrate in list form:
Now that's good stuff. Nobody gets a job anymore. Bush promised to have 250,000 more jobs in Feb and managed to create 14,000 (12,000 of which were govt. jobs)
When I started as a temp in August, Billy-Bob had been there since April and Janice had been there since June. I started two months later and was getting promoted before them. Maybe I have some kind of warped sense about seniority, but I feel like they should have been promoted before me.
Eunice and I haven't told either of them that we've been invited to the conference, let alone that both of us have been offered and given positions at the company. I know that, like me, neither of them really want to work at Navigant, but it still feels like shit to get passed over.
fingers tired... more tomorrow
*All names changed for the sake of my silly job
Saturday, March 27, 2004
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Monday, March 22, 2004
That's funny, Iraq was planned all along. Well, at least we're safe now... or safer... or bogged down... or something. I think the only way to think of the Iraq problem is the way that we were supposed to think of it all along: We're in Iraq to make it into a democracy so that we can then use it as a base of operations to slowly turn the rest of the Middle East into a group of US friendly countries. Making friends is tough. Why do it through diplomacy? Why not do it through regime change? It's just that simple.
Friday, March 19, 2004
Hungry for home buying? Try buying a house in Loup County, Nebraska. Loup County had the lowest per capita income in the United States in 2002, but hey. There's a lot you can do with $6,235.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Why is the House of Representatives sitting around declaring that the world is safer after the iraq war? Need they kiss ass and make statements that blatantly reflect their own denial on the real reaons and outcomes of the iraq war? The world isn't safer. The last time Saddam attacked another country it was Kuwait and we already went to war for that. Has anyone ever even heard of an Iraqi terrorist? Where do terrorists come from? Saudi Arabia! What are we doing about them? Flying them out of the country when trouble comes around, of course! Retarded.
The world isn't safer. Spain was victim to its worst terrorist attack ever. Bali? Bagdad Hotel bombing? Anyone? Iraq might be more fair, but from the news it doesn't seem much safer (of course, there was no reason to ever be reporting about Iraq before, so we wouldn't know). So, who's really safer? Hmmm... Dick Cheney is safer, he gets to hide in a bunker. And he has more money, thanks to Bush tax cuts. Either way, I'm disgusted.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Passing off government distributed information on medicare as a news story? That's crazy!?! Or just propaganda.
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Monday, March 15, 2004
Thursday, March 11, 2004
This message from CA from CA now in TX:
Speaking of poop, whilst I was reading your website archive about moving to your own cubicle and being that much closer to the bathroom, I heard my anal glands singing that familiar tune. So I decided to obey them and walk the (ohhh) 40 feet to our local shit deposit. On the walk there I thought about how many thousands of pounds of poop are delivered there a day, month, year, infiniti and beyond. It's comparable to trying to imagine the size of outer space. Anyhoo, I walked into the bathroom and went through my normal routine of bending over to look underneath the stalls to make sure the coast was clear. Does anyone like to poop next to another person pooping? Call me a paranoid pooer but I like to shit in silence with no distractions. As I was bending over looking underneath the stalls, it just so happened that the president of our company walked in witnessing my daily routine. To my utter surprise and embarrassment I pretended like I was tying my shoe, except I'm wearing slip-on shoes. So I quickly moved on to pretending like I dropped something. I straightened up looked in my hand and put whatever it was I had "dropped" into my pocket and said to the president, "Found it." Do you think he knew what I was doing? Maybe he does it, too. Maybe the whole corporate world does it.
Now, I was like a cornered cat with nowhere to go, the president between me and the exit and the stalls in front of me. I slowly walked towards the stalls while subtly peaking over my shoulder to see if he was following me. I entered the stall and nervously awaited the sounds of him entering the stall next to me. He did! All I could do now was to go through the motions of pulling my pants down and sitting. As he did the same, I pinched and clenched but once the safety is off and I'm in the sitting position there's no holding back. Just like two birds singing next to each other, two cars revving there engines alongside another, or two bulldozers bulldozing in the summer sun, we pooped together. There was only one thing that could make this experience worse for me... yes, he started a conversation.
"How's work going for you, Chris?"
"Pretty good, still learning the ropes."
"Let's do, hmmmph, lunch some time." (plop)
"Okay."
"How's today for ya?" (toilet paper unraveling)
"Sure."
"I'll shoot you an email." (wipe, wipe)
(flush)
That was it. A lunch appointment made over a group poop.
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Remind me to read this article tomorrow while I'm at work. Feel free to read it too. And also, try to figure out what all this hubble stuff is about. Did they see the end of the universe yet or what?
Friday, March 05, 2004
I should really start buying my own health insurance before I get hit by a car whilst striking a piece of wood lightly with my fist.
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Tired of having your computer send information to marketing firms everytime you visit a website? This Spy Bot Search and Destroy is the shiz-nit. It's free, it takes worthless stuff off of your computer and it slices and dices small fruits.
And if you're sick of viruses and don't own a virus scanner, there's a free online virus scanner too.
Why am I just typing in nerdy links? I'm bored and nerdy.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Saturday, February 28, 2004
This penguin flinging game is actually fun and educational. I found it on this channel 4 site. Es muy bueno...
Ironically, I had to come back to this entry about educational games to correct spellings and links... twice.
Friday, February 27, 2004
Oh boy! It's been a while, but hey StereoLab is coming to DC in April.. so that's good.
You know you've been sucked into the business world when Friday feels this good and your eye ticks all the time from lack of sleep.
Lame.
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Go to an sta office to get a discount card so that you can fly to Europe all cheaply and stuff. R and I just found out the date for out friends' wedding in Krakow this summer. Flights are cheap... cheap like lobster! I really feel like putting an exclamation after "Krakow" every time I write it. Krakow!
Monday, February 16, 2004
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Read, watch or listen to the white house press corps grilling this guy on Bush's "service"
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
My computer had 103 different viruses!!! Luckily, there's a free online virus scanner out there.
Economist.com | Cosmology Read that article tomorrow... me. Oh reader of things that contain words.
Monday, February 09, 2004
Friday, February 06, 2004
Has the majority of america finally comes to its senses?!? Bush's approval rating has dropped. Let us do a dance of joy.
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
It's very important that everyone read something about PNAC at some point. I put this link up half so that others could go to it and half for me to be able to find it later so that I could read it more fully.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Bush is going to appoint a commission to examine where intelligence agencies went wrong. Funny that Bush will appoint everyone on the commission, which he claims will be bipartisan. Also, the commission will apparently also look at the intelligence community's work on Libya, North Korea, Syria and others. Personally, I just think this is a commission that will come out with a report that leads to knowledge about more weapons of mass destruction in other countries that Bush's cronies want to take over next.
Not to mention the fact that the report will come out after the elections and probably won't even look at whether or not the intelligence community was pressured to say certain things. And certainly not to mention the idea that Bush, Cheney, and cronies were the ones who used what the intelligence agencies said to do what they did. Responsibility should lie with those who gave the orders and started getting so many more people killed.
Monday, February 02, 2004
Millions of viewers got to see Janet's boob and later CBS apologized for the incident. I have two problems with all of this:
Sunday, February 01, 2004
Last night, R and I went to a Groundhog's day party thrown by one of her coworkers. I've decided to start celebrating groundhog's day as no one pays too much attention to it, and it seems like a holiday that wasn't made up to sell cards. The party was at R's coworker's house just southeast of capitol hill. They have a small, but amazing place with a good back plot that actually has three whole trees in it. This was the fourth year that they had had a party for G-Hog's day (I'm also going to start calling it G-hog's day, just haven't figured out the capitalization quite yet), but this was the first time that they had had the party catered. The food was fantastic and it gave them a chance to actually mingle with their guests, which was nice.
There were a lot of very... well... well-off people at this party, some moreso than others. I got to meet a judge who likes Nascar, so that was fun. I also got to meet a guy named Hubert from Eastern Tennessee. Hubert regularly referred to himself as a hillbilly and like to talk shit about everybody else inside the party being all stuffy, but that they were really all right deep down inside. Hubert was at his third party of the night and confessed to being drunk on several occasions. Probably the most genuine guest at the party, it turns out that Hue owns a construction company, drinks all day and buys real estate. He owned three houses on either side of where the party was and his company was putting up high-rises in three cities. "Pretty good for a Hillbilly from Eastern Tennessee, Huh?"
Upon leaving, R and I went to get a cab. Usually, the reason for taking a cab instead of your car is to avoid driving under the influence of alcohol. This proved to be completely impossible, as our cab driver appeared to be completely sauced. Besides his general good humor (which everybody knows is unnatural and unattainable without drinking... right?) and his asking questions about people that we were talking about whom he had never met, what really tipped one off was that he giggled for almost the entire ride. What can I say, he almost made me want to start driving a cab.
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Wow! Six whole days with nothing said. That can't be good. There's a primary today. Do these things even matter anymore?
But onto the real reason that I'm bothering to write: I just accidentally took of my headphones and had one of the earpieces go in my coffee. It wouldn't have been so bad, if I had noticed where it had fallen, instead of going to lunch and not finding it submerged until I got back half an hour later.
The office is closing at 4pm today so as to prepare for inclement weather. This had better be good.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
It's the State of the Union address. Another chance to listen to subversive bullshit for more than an hour!
Note to Bush: End on Troop Support and God, God, GOD!
There's not much that I can point out that won't be pointed out elsewhere. But I can give out advice as though I'm some type of political mastermind:
DON'T BE FOOLED! Think when the man talks and try to figure out what's really being said and why it's being said. If he talks about a program he developed for kids, that means that there's something wrong with the program and he's already trying to defend it. If he talks about the "sanctity of marriage", it means he doesn't approve of homosexual marriages. He prefers sanctified unions, which, for all their sanctity still carry a 50% rate of failure. If he starts listing tiny countries that were coerced into helping the US as part of "international support", that means that there's a reason for someone to attack him for not having international support.
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
It's restaurant week in DC. What does this mean? It means trying to remember how to spell "restaurant" so that you can enter it into google and find stuff. Or it means using the links hidden (poorly) in these phrases. Thank the lord there's a free place that reviews DC eateries, so that you can figure out which ones to go to that would normally be too expensive. The deal is that all of the restaurants on the list offer a $20 three course lunch and a $30 three course dinner.
Monday, January 12, 2004
The DC primary is tomorrow! While glancing through the voting booklet I received in the mail, I ran into the following candidate for the democratic nomination. I didn't scan in the page or anything, but I did take the time to type it out, as it was so retarded. Enjoy:
Democratic Party Candidate
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order)
Vermin Supreme
Vermin Supreme, a friendly fascist, a tyrant you can trust. Let him run your life. He knows what's best for you. Proper dental hygiene is essential to proper social order. "Effective use of tartar control will prevent the need for crowd control later."
-Gingivitis has been eroding the gum line of this great nation of ours long enough and must be stopped!
For too long this great nation of ours has been suffering a great moral and oral decay in spirit and incisors. A country's future depends on its ability to bit back. We can no longer be a nation indentured, our very salivation is at stake. Therefore we must brace ourselves, bit the bullet, and now more than ever, as we hurdle forward over the bridgework into the twenty-third century, may we become together a nation of gleaming smiles from sea to shining sea. THROUGH WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY FALSE TEETH PROPHETS!
This law is not about:
Dental commando squads or warrantless random no knock dental inspections.
Government issued toothpaste containing addictive yet harmless substances.
Video surveillance through two way bathroom mirrors.
Electronic tracking, moisture and motion sensor devices in all toothbrushes.
Novelty floss dispensers
Dental re-education center.
Gene splicing to create a race of winged monkeys to act as tooth fairies.
Computer chip dental implants with laser scanners at all toll booths and supermarkets.
The fluoridation of every beverage or even preventative dental maintenance detention facilities.
What this mandatory tooth brush law is really about is:
STRONG TEETH FOR A STRONG AMERICA
Gingivitis has been eroding the gum line of this great nation of ours long enough and must be stopped!
All politicians are vermin. I am Vermin Supreme. I shall lie to you, because I can. I will Promise anything and deliver nothing. I am the peoples' candidate, you are the people.
This is one of the strangest things I've ever read. So let's learn more!
Who is the Vermin Supreme? According to some newspaper, he might be labeled a performance artist. This makes me sad.
So what about the other candidates? Wait... they all dropped out and no one cares. Oh well. All those for Carol Moseley Braun say "Aye!"
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Click Here and watch now. There are more in the contest, but this one takes the cake.
Irony
I just received an email including advice about the hazards of Spam from the main Tech office in Chicago for the third time.
Work carries on much as it will. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. I won't let them get to me. Ouch!
Sunday, January 04, 2004
The holidays are over... finally! Now I can start spending money on myself! That's not what I mean. Went up to NY for Xmas and then back down here to work for two days, then back up to New York for New Year's. New Year's eve was something I might dub a "catastrophe". There are multiple reasons, but I think glass-and-booze-soaked-floor-covered-with-thousands-of-annoying-kids-and-an-hour-wait-to-get-my-coat about sums it up.
Either way, we took the bus from DC to NY and back (just like I did for Thanksgiving. If you're ever traveling between DC and NY check out Washington Deluxe. It's cheaper than driving. Enough said.
I was back the day after New Year's to work, then I had Saturday off, then I was back at work again today... so that's fun.
In the meantime, nothing much is happening around here. It's good to have the holidays over with and get back to doing normal things, like throwing out the Christmas tree. It was a funny looking tree to begin with, but it's starting to look a bit vicious. Perhaps some water would help.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Bush is taking a vacation. I don't get a vacation... at least not one with pay. He'd better be doing a lot of worrying about BIG issues while he's away on vacation. Europeans get months off of work. I get four days and none of them paid. For reasons behind this, read yesterday's entry.
Monday, December 22, 2003
This morning, while brushing my teeth, something hit me. My contract runs out at the end of February. That's not good. Not good at all. My plight is only part of a larger problem. At what point did it become acceptable to hire people for six months at a time, with no benefits, and then drop them? From what I can figure out, the real problem lies in the current employment situation in the US. There are so many people out there looking for any kind of work that pays over $10 an hour (here ruling out making sandwiches and/or cleaning stuff) that we'll take anything we can get. We don't care about benefits, vacation time, hours or, let alone, what we're actually doing. Somewhere, somehow, something has gone horribly wrong. I hear stories of companies actually recruiting students and asking them to join their companies with bonuses! Bonuses! I understand that people still get recruited and still get bonuses, but it used to happen a lot more often to a lot more people.
Who wants to work in a big corporation anyway? Not me... but I sure wouldn't mind a little stability. There was a power-shift somewhere. The reason that these companies would want to treat workers the way they are is to increase their profits. Obviously, if they don't need to pay benefits or retirement plans or compensate workers in any other way, they'll make more money. Workers have lost their pull and it's corporations that have purchased it, worn it out and don't even seem to be considering returning it. Production is up, but employment is remaining the same. What this means is that the workers are doing more, but aren't getting any backup to help them. In the old days, this would happen and the workers would get tired and the company would have to hire some more workers. Now, with enough perfectly qualified people out looking for jobs, tired workers can be
But enough about everybody else, what am I supposed to do? It's not like the job I have is sitting there advancing my career in any way. So, what happens when the project that I have to print and copy stuff for is over? The answer is clear: A DIFFERENT JOB!!! With NEW people to pretend I enjoy working for in hopes of having someone pay for my health insurance! Yay!
Friday, December 19, 2003
Hum dee dum. Read this. I was told that there would be something for me to do at 3pm. It's 3:12 and now I'm sitting around blogging for lack of anything better to do. The link above goes to the winners of the British blog awards. Just makes this one feel inadequate if you ask me. oh well. It seems like British people don't have te same stigma against blogging as some Americans do. Honestly, this is really "nerdy" over here and over there it seems semi-respectable. One of the op-eds in the Times is pretty good today. Click on the : after times on the right and it should go to the op-ed page. And here's some really good news for mp3 downloaders.
And this is REALLY IMPORTANT
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Wait a minute...
Here's an article in the post explaining how my taxes are being used, without authorization, to upgrade the system used to collect taxes. I'm not sure if this counts as irony, stupidity, or ridiculousosity. But I don't like it.
Sunday, December 14, 2003
A Ride on the Metro (Now with Pod People)
R and I spent the afternoon at her parents' house in Bethesda. They have a really comfortable couch. We spend many a Sunday afternoon there and always take the metro back into DC at around 6pm or so. The platform is usually empty except for the two of us and someone crazy who feels like talking (see the Ode to Guy at Grovesnor from 9/23). This week was very different. Before we even got to the platform we watched as a large group of 40 and 50 somethings got onto the train (that we would miss while getting tickets). We're talking twenty or thirty people, which is a lot compared to the usual three. By the time our train showed up, there was another crowd of forty to fifty 40 and 50 somethings waiting to get on. As soon as we entered the car, fear gripped my like a nymphomaniacal Greg-fetished gorilla. Any new passengers would be met by standing room only in a car of older suburbanites wearing scarves and a cloud of the same perfume frangrance exuding from every female on board. What the hell was going on? I had to know. Why was a car, normally empty, now full of bald men and their caked makeup wives? Where did these women buy all their big, gold clip-on earrings? Why did everyone seem to know eachother? The next stop yielded the same results. More of them piled on, greeted eachother, introduced their wives and started small talk about slush and wind chill.
I honestly began to wonder if I had entered another dimension. My mind started to race through different possibilities. A GOP fundraiser downtown? No way, republicans wouldn't take the metro. An AARP gathering? They were old... but not that old. Were they leaving something in Bethesda and all just returning to their homes? Impossible. These people definitely didn't live in the city... they leaked suburbia from their pores. Was there a terrorist threat in Bethesda and some kind of new Patriot Act amendment that let all the wealthy men and their clingy wives evacuate first? No wonder they looked so pleased with themselves.
Why did they all look so content? What wonderful slaughter were we all being transported to?
And then I heard it. Three words. "Simon" "and" "Garfunkle". Suddenly, like an easy SAT question, all the pieces fit together. Crumbs are to Bread as Dust is to Wood and these people are all on their way to the same lame concert.
"I thought they broke up?" whispers R in my ear.
"They must need money."
All at once, a few of the elders seem to realize that there are young people in their midst.
"They probably don't even know who Simon and Garfunkle are."
"They're like Simon and who?"
"I don't even know the names of the bands my daughter listens to."
"Do you think they'll do Mrs. Robinson?"
Whispers fly around the car and, with the first explanation of buying concert tickets online as a pioneering concept, my head starts to spin. I'm overwhelmed with the idea that this is probably the first time in a year these wives have been into DC and it's all to go to a concert from the nice guy and his jerk friend who can't even sing.
"Get me out of here!" I want to scream, lunging at the nearest velvet bollero-wearing Garfunkle fan. Luckily, my actions never had to go this far. I kept silent; except for some random giggling and made it out the door with only a few disgusted glances around the car.
Now I'm home; safe. What disturbs me the most, is what I might have thought if I hadn't overheard the venue. I wouldn't sleep, that's for sure.
Well, they caught Saddam. Now the question is: What are they going to do with him? I'm as happy as everyone else that a terrible dictator is now in prison, but I'm scared about what effect this will have on the public opinion of Bush et. al. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Since when were earthquakes called temblors? Either way, I didn't feel anything at all and was informed of said temblor a few hours after it occured. Stuff like this makes you think, though... it really does... about stuff... y'know... important things... like having to wake up for work tomorrow. Stuff like that.
Sometimes, even the most ambitious and good-intentioned blogs end up turning into simple lists of what people had for lunch. I fear this will become one of them.
Yesterday I had a Cliff bar that I snacked on from around noon until 2, then I went out and got a sandwich with Turkey, American and hot peppers. That was good. I shouldn't have had that bag of chips though.
Today I brought two clementines and a cliff bar, but started to get really, really hungry around ten minutes ago and ended up at the hotdog stand downstairs. I already ate the hotdog... but the bag of chips is only half done and sitting next to me at my desk. The cliff bar is in my drawer.... with a banana... from... a while ago... That half smoke was good though. I think "half smoke" is a DC thing. It's just a big, spicy hot dog.
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
If you remember Animal Farm, there was this constant theme throughout that no matter how poorly the farm was doing, Napoleon and his pig friends would always say that production was at an all time high and that everything was great. What I'm starting to wonder is this: Why is it that, as soon as the mainstream media starts reporting that Bush is going to need to focus on the failing economy to win the election, production takes a jump? Who's reporting that production is jumping? The US Department of Labor, of course. Now, I'm not saying that the Dept. of Labor is the only group reporting on productivity jumps and a more lively economy, there are tons of news agencies reporting on the Dept. of Labor's findings too.
What I really want to know is this:
Conservatives will say that this is totally ridiculous. That suggesting that the Department of Labor would skew statistics to make it look like tax cuts had saved the economy is completely insane. Then again, President George W. Bush nominated Elaine L. Chao, the current secretary of Labor. He also nominated Kathleen P. Utgoff the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported this productivity jump.
Now I'll make my concessions: I'm not saying that anything happened. I know that there are a lot of other people in each of these departments who actually collect this information and make it available and weren't appointed by a conservative "president". I also know that tax cuts can boost the economy. But for how long and at what cost?
But here's what I want to leave with: Three actions that seem like oddly coincidental reactions:
It's a depressing outlook, but doesn't it seem extremely coincidental that everytime it would be useful for something to happen to this administration, it happens? 9-11 is a bit of a stretch, but this other stuff? Child's play when you've got enough money and leftover Daddy-politicos.
I knew it was a placebo, but I had never called it thepurple coneflower until now.
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Monday, December 01, 2003
Monday, November 24, 2003
I'm not much for updates, now that the new job has started. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Thursday, November 20, 2003
It's just like me to complain about not having a job for two months and then complain about working too much when I finally get one. So, may I entertain the idea of being just like me for two sentences? Man, what the hell happened when I find myself having already worked forty hours on a Thursday night. Not to mention the fact that I'm working tomorrow AND saturday.
Ok, enough of that. Having been moved to the new cube, life is quite different around the office. Things are really, really quiet. I haven't figured out anything bad about this, except that now I have to be quiet too. I did get my own phone, with my own voicemail, which I immediately put a dissappointing message on, but couldn't muster the energy to replace it with something better. I also got connected to the company e-mail and instant messenger system that comes along with Lotus Notes. The instant messenger thing could really be done without. As soon as you sign on, everybody knows that you're in the office and have remembered to sign onto the instant messenger thing. After that, there's no professional way to not be found online for the rest of the day. Everyone will know that you're away from your desk (possibly slacking off) if you leave an away message, but if you sign off altogether, everyone knows that you didn't forget about the program's existence. It's awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Ok. It's not that bad.
Today was my first time using Lotus Notes. After a few hours of stupiding around I learned that Notes is just like Outlook and other e-mail programs, except the vocabulary is different. Instead of a "letter" or "message", you write a "memo". Instead of "synchronizing", one "replicates". I'm so smart it sickens me.
At the new cubicle I also have access to a different little kitchen and work on a different side of the building with different elevators and a different bathroom. It's like a different office, but with several similar (ok. the same) mindless tasks to do it also feels a lot like the same office... which it is. The best part about the new cube is that the bathroom is only 10 feet from my desk. That's way better than the 50 feet I had to walk at my old desk.
What on earth am I rambling on about?
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
When I started this blog, I thought that it would be a place for me to write down all sorts of random thoughts, and even more: random, relatively long meanderings about intersting topics. The latter has suffered. I haven't had the time to bitch about stuff enough.
So here's the deal: I'm going to try to write one really good entry every week. It probably won't happen on Wednesdays... Those are really tough. Maybe on Fridays or Saturdays. Yeah.
I think the first topic for one of these ridiculous philosophical entries is going to be the fact that I told myself that I would never be caught dead in a shirt and tie sitting in a cubicle and reading memos. Well, it has Begunith... and I am none too happieth.
-peace out more tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Tomorrow I get to move to my own cubicle! I haven't seen it yet, but I might get on a tour that'll take me there with my manger in the next few minutes. Word on the street is that the new cubicle is outside the offices of some big-wigs.... which isn't good... because now I won't be allowed to type loudly and talk all day long.
Perhaps this blog will be shortlived...
or perhaps...
just perhaps...
It will become stronger and more mighty than... oh screw it, I'm goin' home.
Monday, November 17, 2003
Another week begins! I can't wait for Friday! Until then, why not read this?
Friday, November 14, 2003
Thursday, November 13, 2003
This, however, is not a good question to ask... Questioning the reasons behind your own employment will only lead to on overwhelming feeling of underachievment, and uselessness...
So, yeah. Printing out reams upon reams of previously printed documents, collating them, attaching little binder clips (or big binder clips!), to them and then putting them on someone's desk is useful.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Here's a pretty rad US electoral college calculator. Watch out! If you're not careful you might learn something about history or even the names of the guys who lost elections.
Friday, November 07, 2003
I've started another blog... my nerdiness only gets nerdier. Take a gander at http://nobuzzwords.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Thank God (as Bush is only speaking for God) for all those tax cuts.... wait a second... who cares about tax cuts when no one has a job?
Monday, November 03, 2003
During a fundraising speech (about 2 minutes ago), Bush said: "Free nations don't develop weapons of mass terror." I'm confused: Don't we develop tons of weapons that would cause terror for anyone that we used them on? and What's he doing giving fundraising speeches?
He also bothers to say that "if you have problems with the neighborhood you live in, it's your responsibility to do something about it." Is this what my taxes are paying for? Somebody to tell me that if I don't like something I should go fix it myself? Even if it's something like the school system or crime? Are we all supposed to be vigilantes and activists? I thought that government would help to give us safer neighborhoods and better schools. But, apparently, we're in a new era of responsibility where it's my job to clean up this town, not the job of my elected officials. Hmmm... I'm all for activism, but Bush can't just forfeit responsibility for the state of the nation, which is really what this whole "new era of responsibility thing seems to be about.
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