November 22nd, 2003
Posted by fad at 2:32pm
Here we are less than a year from the election, and I really don't want to vote for George Bush.
I opposed the war with Iraq. No. That's not right. I wasn't for it, but I really can't say I was against it. Total fence sitter, though I was leaning. I fully understood the moral implications of my stance: having things my way would have required the Iraqi people to suffer longer under the torturous regime of Saddam and his sons. Being rid of Saddam isn't a bad thing in my mind. However I just didn't think the time was right. No, this isn't one of those lame "rush to war" arguments. I did not think the economy and the nation was ready to handle the costs at this time (and I'm still worried about that). I thought war was inevitable against Iraq, but felt that a longer wait was strategicly beneficial. The timing I think was due to the election cycle, though not in a cynical way. Doing it earlier this year was timed to avoid accusations of cynical timing. War in 2004 would have been even more political than it is now. Electioneering would have ruined any real debate as well as hurt the actual fighting effort. Waiting until 2005 was too big a risk that someone would then be in power who would not see fit to go after Saddam. The administration clearly thought it very important to be sure Saddam was gone.
Since I still did not like the timing and had other reservations, I tried to find common cause arguments to better express what I thought since being on the fence about something as important as war didn't seem the right place to be. Looking to the "anti-war" groups was useless. They had no arguments, just fictions of oil and empire. Their non-moral non-arguments were and are disgusting. The claims then and now that the people of Iraq were better off under the old regime than even now are sickening and not remotely based in fact. Though people like that have truth, so they don't need facts. Everyone knows that the US is an imperial culture raper merely seeking to steal oil and enrich its corporations. Since that's the obvious truth, they have no need to waste time actually look at the situation as it really is.
Another idiotic argument was that the US and supporters of the war could not have had any humanitarian motives. If they did then they'd simultaneously be in the Sudan, the Congo, North Korea, etc. What a foolish and useless argument. Not being able to do everything at once is no excuse to do nothing. Do the people who make this argument live their lives like that? "Oh, I can't get the whole house and yard cleaned in a day, so I will do nothing. It'd be wrong to do even just laundry while the grass stays so long." Look, inaction in the other situations does not in any way affect the rightness, or the wrongness for that matter, of action in Iraq. It's rightness or wrongness is its own. Where these two issues do tie together is in the opposite direction. If action in Iraq was motivated purely by humanitarian impulses, then arguments for inaction elsewhere weaken. But the war in Iraq was for more than just humanitarian reasons (and, no, not oil and empire) but for the strategic reason of slapping someone around, showing there are consequences, hopefully building a stable, free and honestly friendly nation in the midst of so many that are not, etc.
[More - It goes on quite a bit]
Posted by fad at 12:55pm
[This is a continuation of the series of posts starting with the one above]
Just once I'd like to vote for a president that doesn't promote a program by saying that it will create so-and-so many jobs. Isn't it so wonderful of the government to have decided which industries need jobs more than others? Isn't it great of it to take money from others and hand it over elsewhere? Bleah.
I don't want to vote for someone who feels the need to say, “We believe in private markets, humanized by compassionate government.” God bless compassionate government. No, I'm not totally opposed to a safety net, but I do hate that phrasing that government involvement in the economy is always a compassionate thing.
When it comes to trade, I don't want someone whose idea of free trade is to require other nations to enact competition stifling regulations so that established American companies can stay fat and lazy. It's also very hard to accept Bush's claims of loving free trade when he's busy slapping tariffs all over the place (steel, wheat, textiles).
Another huge problem I have is that he is spending like crazy. I'm not all ninnied about it quite like Andrew Sullivan is, but it is still a problem. Even excluding defense related spending, he is increasing spending faster than Clinton ever did. For those who want to cry about the tax cuts, they've barely kicked in (though they are now helping growth a bit based off last quarter's numbers). The spending is now. Congress can send him any pork laden piece of shit spending bill as long as it is close enough to what he wanted, and he'll sign the thing.
What's worse about all of those is that these last two policies are incredibly cynical. The steel tariffs are clear attempts to buy votes. A steelworker knows that there is a good chance he still has his job due to the tariffs. The person a few perturbations away who lost his job because of the higher costs to the economy doesn't make that clear connection. Bush's support of the Farm Bill, wasteful subsidies which starve developing nations is another cynical attempt at vote buying with our tax money with happy support from members of Congress hoping to buy their seats too. Please spare me any talk about some cynical move/spending by Clinton. He's not in office, so I don't care right now. Also actions by him don't affect the rightness or wrongness of Bush's actions in this arena.
I guess since I'm talking about domestic issues, I should spend some time on the PATRIOT Act. Now I've actually read through the damn thing. Something that, from reading a lot of confused commentary on it, not too many gabbing about it have done. I'd written a very long bit taking on a lot of the points here, but decided to cut it and maybe do it at a later date. The short of it is: I'm not a huge fan of it and find it largely a waste, but it isn't the dropping of night as many want to claim.
On other issue related to that is the status of those at Guantanamo Bay. I do not share the fantasies of torture and deprivation of most critics who, because everyone knows that the US is a racist, brutal nation, have no need to actually discover that the prisoners are well fed and have spare, but decent conditions. Anyone who still uses the “cage” claim, or the shackled and hooded claim, are more than a year out of date. Again evidence that they don't bother to keep up on the evidence since that interferes with their truth. But that “year out of date” is my issue. I find it appalling that those men have been there for nearly two years, and they still have not been processed and tried. I have no problem with their status, I don't have great problem that they will be tried via military tribunal, but I have great trouble at how slow things have moved. Try them or process them. I do not like this indefinite stuff.
Posted by fad at 12:54pm
November 21st, 2003
The 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded to a New York Times reporter accused of deliberately ignoring the forced famine in Ukraine will not be revoked, an administrator for the journalism awards said Friday.So he was just stupid which makes his misreporting about the starvation of millions A-Ok and Pulitzer worthy. I guess that's that.
"The board determined that there was not clear and convincing evidence of deliberate deception, the relevant standard in this case," Pulitzer administrator Sig Gissler said in a statement.
Posted by fad at 4:48pm
For the record, I have never been to Ohio, nor have I been in Chicago in the last decade.
UPDATE: See the comments for the fascinating follow-up to this story.
Posted by fad at 11:03am
I didn't read that "Salem Pax" guy at all, but realize he was quite the blog darling preceeding the war. It definitely seems that a few people were waiting for someone, anyone, to be the first to break bad on him so that it could all flow. Though from what I've gathered, he certainly does appear to deserve it in this case.
Posted by fad at 9:26am
Barbie was right.
The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it was considering whether to require food companies to list nutrition information in its entirety, rather than by serving size, on packaged-food labels.Math is hard.
Currently, if a package contains more than one serving, consumers must multiply nutrition data by the number of servings to determine total calories, fat and carbohydrates. Some consumer groups and nutritionists have argued that such food labels are misleading and could cause consumers to take in more calories, sodium and fat than they realize. Now, it seems, the F.D.A. may agree.
"Even though people do have math skills, it's unfair to ask them to do mathematical calculations while they're shopping," Peter J. Pitts, the F.D.A.'s associate commissioner for external relations, said yesterday. "Our goal is to help people improve their health. It shouldn't be a math test."
Posted by fad at 7:45am
Well, this seems fair.
A Scottish court convicted Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi of the bombing in 2001 and sentenced him to life imprisonment. A second Libyan was acquitted.Our forceful and wise State Department has expressed concern. Oh, and the State Department once again noticed that maybe Libya doesn't like us much.
Pictures of Megrahi's surroundings at the Glasgow prison have appeared in the British media.
[...]
"They include his own kitchen and shower room, a sitting room and bedroom with en-suite toilet," the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, the State Department renewed a warning to Americans not to travel or live in Libya, saying the security situation in the North African country remains unstable.I wonder where they got those ideas. Oh well, that's why they're the career bureaucrats doing everything in their power to prevent change and live in a September 10th world no matter how dangerous and deadly business as usual is, and I'm just some schlub.
There is no U.S. Embassy in Libya and "there has been evidence of hostility to the United States in some segments of the population and some elements of the Libyan government," the department said in a statement.
Posted by fad at 7:06am
More celebrities getting away with things.
Police on Friday dropped a malicious damage charge that was filed against Chris Martin, lead singer of British band Coldplay, after he allegedly smashed the windshield of a photographer in Australia.I'm guessing they dropped 'em because no one would believe Mr. Martin has the strength to shatter a windshield even with the clever use of tools (in this case a rock).
Posted by fad at 7:01am
I wonder how many lawsuits this news will spark.
In a finding that could affect thousands of criminal cases, the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that some techniques the FBI has used for decades to match bullets to crimes are flawed or imprecise.My uneducated guess would be "many".
Posted by fad at 6:53am
November 20th, 2003
Posted by fad at 8:38pm
Ah, thank God Tim Blair is back at it. I was starting to turn to the drink to entertain myself! But now everything is better. This calls for a drink.
Posted by fad at 7:36pm
Yeah, that bit below is a completely ridiculous thing to bitch about, but it's my site, dammit!
Now to just start drumming up some readership. I guess I could email the world and announce the coming of my granduer, but that just seems tacky.
I could start whoring out links to the big bloggers playing on their egos by praising them endlessly. Hmmm...that's tempting. Maybe I should offer to interview one of them!
Or maybe I should just try to fill up this place with quality content so that it gains popularity on its own merit.
Nah.
Posted by fad at 3:11pm
vacation
*sniff* - The company just announced they are generously giving us the day after Thanksgiving off. I'm overcome with devotion.
Posted by fad at 3:07pm
AARP
When Congress is busy rushing to piss away tax money, you have to relax and try to find the fun. Like here.Meanwhile, Democrats stung by AARP's endorsement of a GOP-backed Medicare prescription drug bill are lashing out at their longtime ally, claiming the seniors' group is too closely tied to the insurance industry, and more to the point, Republicans.For me, that's comedy watching how fast they turned on those poor old people. Don't worry, they'll donate and make up soon enough, kids.
Posted by fad at 2:17pm
fox
This screen-cap crap at FoxNews is clearly designed to annoy me.
Posted by fad at 2:12pm
body parts
I can't come up with a quip that does justice to this story.
Posted by fad at 1:54pm
sick
While it baffled, but did not surprise me, during my college dorm days when someone shat in a toilet and then intentionally clogged it with paper towel, that this practice still shows up once in a while in the workplace is a bit surprising.
Posted by fad at 1:40pm
brickroad
Almost exactly three years ago, the CEO of the company I was working for in Seattle called a mass meeting. At that meeting he announced the company was shutting its doors and would also not be able to pay us for the last 4 weeks we'd been working. But they provided pizza and beer to make it up to us.Of course because of this I now get hinky about the status of my job whenever Thanksgiving approaches. As a hint to everyone, try not to lose your job just before the major holiday season. Everyone with the power to hire seems to be out of the office quite a bit during these months. So while I absolutely hate just about every aspect of my job, not to mention it is a complete career blackhole, I am still grateful for the damn thing.
Posted by fad at 10:55am
alg
Love is such a beautiful thing.Green sustained a puncture wound under his left shoulder blade during a fight at his suburban Westlake home, police said. Authorities believe Green was stabbed in the back by Asia Gray.Love did cause him to try to cover up.
"He said it (the wound) was received when he fell going up a flight of stairs, carrying some items, including a knife," a police release said.The "fell down the stairs" excuse. A classic amongst abuse victims and drunks. While it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility, I do think a stab wound in the back is rather unlikely when you fall going up a flight of stairs. Having done so a number of times, I have discovered that you most often fall on your face, not your back.
Posted by fad at 10:38am
trade
Just saw, walking by the tvs by the elevators here, coverage of the protests against the "free trade" talks in Miami. Looks like the turnout there is beating the Britishers Bagainst Bush (aliteration trumps reality once again!).Now I am all for free trade. Lowered barriers make for cheaper goods which means more capital is free to be invested elsewhere. Also true free trade has proven to be the best way to fight poverty in the third world. Barriers and subsidies retard growth. Yes, to some back-breaking work in the fields, or home looming a kick-ass poncho is far more authentic and all that crap, but it doesn't do a damn thing for the living conditions. My support of cultural preservation stops at starvation. Too many of those opposed to freer trade view third world populations as cute pets to dress up as they please.
But back to my point. These are "free trade" talks. Out of habit, I distrust the label given to any act or treaty. If they say it's for The Children™, it ain't for the children. If they say it's for families, it ain't really gonna help families. In the case of these trade talks, they are indeed going to lower barriers. But there is a price. Reports are that the US is insisting that other countries who join in these agreements bring their regulations in line with the US. Not necessarily in terms of labor conditions. The primary example is that in order to get this trade agreement, the other countries have to pass laws in line with the DMCA.
So here we are. Lower barriers. Good. But in the back are regulations which stifle the ability to compete. Trade like this, with extra regulatory cost and suffocation, doesn't seem very free to me. In fact, I'm not quite sure how this "free trade" really will help the consumer that much.
Posted by fad at 10:11am
Chavez
I believe at least two petition efforts to have a referendum on Hugo Chavez have been tossed out by the courts in Venezuela. Now Chavez has launched a campaign to recall opposition legislators.The drive against 38 lawmakers especially targets former Chavez allies whose defection to the opposition has eroded the ruling party's majority in the 165-member assembly to a handful of seats. The Chavez backers will collect signatures from Friday through Monday.If these petitions are immediately validated, that will be a sign that Chavez's control is nearly complete.
Posted by fad at 9:18am
A rule of wife-beating-stick about crowd size at a protest: If the media coverage uses only tightly framed shots of the crowd, then turnout is low. Wide angles are only necessary when the crowd is, in fact, actually a crowd.
Posted by fad at 9:13am
November 18th, 2003
Posted by fad at 7:29am
November 17th, 2003
Posted by fad at 10:34pm
A tornado warning? On November 17th?? WTF???
I hate tornados. Give me a good earthquake.
Posted by fad at 10:02pm
Arggghh!!!! Hurry up! I can't wait to hear this. "Leave Me Alone" is already one of my favorite songs.
Posted by fad at 9:44pm
Over the last couple weeks there was a brief storm about what it means to be a real man. I was going to contribute my own long essay on the subject, but was far too busy being an individual to be bothered to think about it.
Posted by fad at 7:51am
Hey, I got me one of them blog things!
Though I really can't stand the word "blog" or all the words that descend from it ("blogger", "blogging", "moist"). But since it is the accepted term, I guess I have to live with it. Hopefully I'll stick with this and be able to actually enjoy it.
Posted by fad at 6:55am