Something different

Are you tired with the presidential campaign? Do you wish you could slap your guy or the opponent silly for the things they said or didn't say?

Well, now you can. Go to http://www.slapthecandidate.com/ and you can slap either Kerry or Bush and Nadar will grade your slap. Warning, he's in a gold bikini (don't ask).

There is sound so if your at work turn it off.

Have fun. At this time, Kerry is getting slapped more then Bush, but I'm sure it goes back and forth.

Enjoy and have a good weekend.

Lileks for US Senate

If you have not read the Bleat by James Lileks, you are missing some wonderful writing, which is often about such controversial items like his daughter, her play dates (she's 3 or 4) and getting the TV to work properly.

Now there is a movement to draft Lileks to run for the US Senate in 2006. Lileks has taken the Sherman view of running (if nominated I will not run and if elected I will not serve), but everyone can be called upon to make sacrifices in this time of war and this may be one of the sacrifices Lileks needs to make.

Already a number of bloggers are supporting his run (even if he is not currently running) and this is another one to join the call. Run James run.

NFL Loses Sight of Reality

Apparently, in American sports, image is more important than honor. The league has reached and agreement with Jake Plummer, QB for the Denver Broncos, for the player to remove a sticker honoring Pat Tillman--an ex-teammate and casualty in Afghanistan. Sen. John McCain wrote a letter to the NFL that has it right:

[the NFL is sending a message that policy is] more important than memorials to those who have sacrificed their lives for us.

[Tillman] died so that we as Americans can enjoy our way of life and express ourselves in the way that Jake Plummer now seeks to express himself. ... " he added. "America is at war, a war that has cost our nation many of our finest citizens. We must celebrate, not ignore, the commitment to duty and sacrifice of our fallen, particularly those who served when they were not called.

Rudy Giuliani explains...

Go to Power Line and read Giuliani's comments and their comments on his speech. Nothing else I can add. (In full disclosure the title is from Power Line as well).

The GOP has announced that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered the following remarks in a Bush-Cheney '04 conference call today. (Deacon refers to the remarks and provides the link below -- click here for the full text of the press release.) Giuliani's remarks are worth quoting at length:

Mark Steyn on Britain

Mark Steyn's regular column in the Daily Telegraph will not appear. The editors didn't think it was appropriate and chose to not run it. So in the age of the internet, Mark posted it on his blog site.

I can see why the editors would not want to publish it with out changes. I can also see why Steyn would not want to make those changes as the emphases of the article would be lost or diminished.

Bottom line, we are at war. If we cave to the barbarians (yes that word is NOT a typo), there will be more kidnappings and beheadings. If a civilian is to go to Iraq and work, they must make a decision on if or how they will resist if anyone attempts to abduct them. They also have to accept that if they are abducted, they are not likely to live so better to resist at the start. If one is not willing to think these things out, they (civilians) do not belong in Iraq. After all they are there by choice and can leave at any time. This may sound cold, but it is reality on the ground at this time.

Draft verses AVF

Well the draft won't be happening anytime soon, despite the best efforts by some in Congress to bring it back. Surprisingly, most if not all of the people in Congress who have called for the draft to return are Democrats not Republicans. However, on the campaign trail, Kerry is saying Bush has a "secret" plan to bring back the draft after the election.

But is the draft a good idea militarily? Well the military doesn't want a draft. The quality of the soldiers it gets from volunteers verses draftees is much higher and with fewer discipline problems.

Some have said well if not a draft, some sort of "national service" to turn wayward youth into responsible young men and women.

Personally, I think that would be a terrible idea for the US. The problem would be who would control the program? The department of Education? What moral standards would be maintained? The military has a code of conduct that many of us civilians would find different (saluting, etc.). And finally, what would the kids in national service do? Patrol the border? Fight forest fires? Construction? Would it not be better to have professionals do these jobs instead of kids who may or may not want to be there?

I would rather have parents have their kids into organizations like the Scouts or sports or church groups etc. instead of expecting the government to take rebellious youths and turn them into mature adults. After all, does the child belong to the State or the parents? I hope the parents.

Friday Roundup - short version

Its good for thee but not for me????

Everyone wants to reduce our dependency on oil for our energy needs. Back in the 1970s large wind farms went up in both Northern and Southern California and they provide some energy.
Their main benefit was tax credits but since those are now gone, the machines are still producing electricity. No they are not especially pretty but they do provide energy and do not pollute the air, water or land (the view could be considered to be polluted).

Well, now there is the opportunity to allow Cape Cod and the area Islands to get 75% of their electricity needs from a renewable source. This should be an environmentalists dream. The first community to be powered almost entirely by renewable energy. It won't pollute the land, air or sea. It may spoil the view of some so the Democrats in Congress have been trying to ban the building of the wind farm off the Cape. Some of the claims are that birds will be killed by flying into the blades of the wind machines. But shouldn't the loss of birds be offset by the other animals that will be saved due to the reduction of carbon dioxide released to the air (along with other pollutants) as well as lessoning the needs for drilling and the damage that could cause? To me it does sound more like the folks there are suffering from NIMBY rather then having valid reasons to not have the project in the Cape. No, I do not think NIMBY is a valid reason.

Paul Bremer has been in the news a lot. It seems the press decided to take a sentence or two of his speech and show that he and President Bush had major differences about Iraq. But reading his account in the NY Times, and putting his remarks into context one comes out with a very different view of what he said.

The UN Food for Oil scandal is getting worse. Read about it here.

Jonah Goldberg has a great article about those who oppose the war. He is talented and even if one doesn't agree with his views, he still writes well.

Double Standard

Football player, Jamal Lewis, pleads to a lessor charge for being involved in a drug deal and is sentenced to a four month prison term. What is flabbergasting is that Mr. Lewis will serve his sentence AFTER the football season ends. This is sad. If I had been convicted of the same charges, I seriously doubt that the courts would have let me schedule my prison term at my own convenience. American justice: celebrities need not worry.

Thursday Roundup

Its been a quite week. We didn't comment on the debate last week or the Vice Presidential debate this week. With all the comments by the media and the blogs, it was kind of "why bother" since others did a better job then we (or at least I) could have.

If you haven't already checked out the last entry, please do so, SpaceShipOne has won the X Prize. They took a privately funded space ship into space (not orbit but above 60 miles) twice with in a two week period. Incredible.

And finally, before we get to the news, had an interesting lesson in local government last night. I went to the Planning Commission meeting in Torrance (the folks who need to approve before one can add an addition or put up a new house) because of a proposed new development on my street.

I think I surprised some of the members of the commission. The development was proposed and the City staff recommended the plan be approved. They then opened the floor up to any comments by the public. I was the only person who stood up and I'm sure the developer and the commission thought I had come to oppose the project. After all people rarely show up at these meetings unless they either oppose or are presenting a project. I only spoke for 30 seconds, if that, saying I supported the plan and urged the commission to accept it as presented.

The chair of the commission had a look of total surprise (as I'm sure the developer did) by my comments. Afterwards a short recess was called and as my wife and I left, the developer stopped us and thank up for showing up to support the project. So hopefully since Torrance approved the project, the City of Lomita will as well (the project straddles both cities) and the apartment complex will be replaced by a townhouse complex which will help ease the parking situation on the street.

Now on to the news.

George Will has a column on why the Democrats hate Bush so much. If 9-11 had not occurred, they would still hate him because of the Republican try to change the society from Democratic views to Republican ones economically.

The latest report about WMD in Iraq says Saddam did not have a nuclear program at the time of the war nor did he have large stockpiles of chemical or biological shells. The US and UK (and the French and German and Israeli and the Russian) were wrong. All of the above thought Iraq had these weapons.

HOWEVER, the report goes on to say (and it will be interesting to see if this part is even mentioned in the MSM) is that Saddam was trying to get these programs restarted and if 9-11 had not happened he would have been able to circumvent the sanctions to restart projection soon. So Iraq didn't have the weapons YET. They still had the desire and the knowledge to produce them. President Bush said we cannot wait for someone to become an imminent threat but remove them before they can become one. So this report still justifies the war as far as I can tell.

US and Iraqi operations catch a large amount of weapons. Each weapon captured is one less IED and one less RPG the security forces have to worry about.

Thursday Roundup

Its been a quite week. We didn't comment on the debate last week or the Vice Presidential debate this week. With all the comments by the media and the blogs, it was kind of "why bother" since others did a better job then we (or at least I) could have.

If you haven't already checked out the last entry, please do so, SpaceShipOne has won the X Prize. They took a privately funded space ship into space (not orbit but above 60 miles) twice with in a two week period. Incredible.

And finally, before we get to the news, had an interesting lesson in local government last night. I went to the Planning Commission meeting in Torrance (the folks who need to approve before one can add an addition or put up a new house) because of a proposed new development on my street.

I think I surprised some of the members of the commission. The development was proposed and the City staff recommended the plan be approved. They then opened the floor up to any comments by the public. I was the only person who stood up and I'm sure the developer and the commission thought I had come to oppose the project. After all people rarely show up at these meetings unless they either oppose or are presenting a project. I only spoke for 30 seconds, if that, saying I supported the plan and urged the commission to accept it as presented.

The chair of the commission had a look of total surprise (as I'm sure the developer did) by my comments. Afterwards a short recess was called and as my wife and I left, the developer stopped us and thank up for showing up to support the project. So hopefully since Torrance approved the project, the City of Lomita will as well (the project straddles both cities) and the apartment complex will be replaced by a townhouse complex which will help ease the parking situation on the street.

Now on to the news.

George Will has a column on why the Democrats hate Bush so much. If 9-11 had not occurred, they would still hate him because of the Republican try to change the society from Democratic views to Republican ones economically.

The latest report about WMD in Iraq says Saddam did not have a nuclear program at the time of the war nor did he have large stockpiles of chemical or biological shells. The US and UK (and the French and German and Israeli and the Russian) were wrong. All of the above thought Iraq had these weapons.

HOWEVER, the report goes on to say (and it will be interesting to see if this part is even mentioned in the MSM) is that Saddam was trying to get these programs restarted and if 9-11 had not happened he would have been able to circumvent the sanctions to restart projection soon. So Iraq didn't have the weapons YET. They still had the desire and the knowledge to produce them. President Bush said we cannot wait for someone to become an imminent threat but remove them before they can become one. So this report still justifies the war as far as I can tell.

US and Iraqi operations catch a large amount of weapons. Each weapon captured is one less IED and one less RPG the security forces have to worry about.

THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!

SpaceShipOne made its second flight this morning (Monday) and again made it into space and thus claiming the X Prize for being the first privately funded space ship to make it into space twice with in a two week period.

Actually, I don't know of ANY government program that has done that, even NASA back in the early 1960s.

Check out Space.com and Yahoo News.

Great job. Next we need an X Prize for a privately (or heck, let governments try) funded ship to make orbit, land and do it again with in two weeks.

That is what the Space Shuttle was originally sold to us as being able to do. Lets see a real shuttle do it.

THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!

SpaceShipOne made its second flight this morning (Monday) and again made it into space and thus claiming the X Prize for being the first privately funded space ship to make it into space twice with in a two week period.

Actually, I don't know of ANY government program that has done that, even NASA back in the early 1960s.

Check out Space.com and Yahoo News.

Great job. Next we need an X Prize for a privately (or heck, let governments try) funded ship to make orbit, land and do it again with in two weeks.

That is what the Space Shuttle was originally sold to us as being able to do. Lets see a real shuttle do it.

THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!

SpaceShipOne made its second flight this morning (Monday) and again made it into space and thus claiming the X Prize for being the first privately funded space ship to make it into space twice with in a two week period.

Actually, I don't know of ANY government program that has done that, even NASA back in the early 1960s.

Check out Space.com and Yahoo News.

Great job. Next we need an X Prize for a privately (or heck, let governments try) funded ship to make orbit, land and do it again with in two weeks.

That is what the Space Shuttle was originally sold to us as being able to do. Lets see a real shuttle do it.

THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!

SpaceShipOne made its second flight this morning (Monday) and again made it into space and thus claiming the X Prize for being the first privately funded space ship to make it into space twice with in a two week period.

Actually, I don't know of ANY government program that has done that, even NASA back in the early 1960s.

Check out Space.com and Yahoo News.

Great job. Next we need an X Prize for a privately (or heck, let governments try) funded ship to make orbit, land and do it again with in two weeks.

That is what the Space Shuttle was originally sold to us as being able to do. Lets see a real shuttle do it.

THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!

SpaceShipOne made its second flight this morning (Monday) and again made it into space and thus claiming the X Prize for being the first privately funded space ship to make it into space twice with in a two week period.

Actually, I don't know of ANY government program that has done that, even NASA back in the early 1960s.

Check out Space.com and Yahoo News.

Great job. Next we need an X Prize for a privately (or heck, let governments try) funded ship to make orbit, land and do it again with in two weeks.

That is what the Space Shuttle was originally sold to us as being able to do. Lets see a real shuttle do it.