IMPEACHMENT!
Bush pardons himself
IMPEACHMENT!
Author: Michael Koppelman
Why Iraq Matters
Let’s ask 2 questions:
1. In retrospect, was it a good idea to invade Iraq?
2. Given that we are in Iraq, what is the best course of action?
My answers: 1) Of course not. It represents a complete failure of foreign policy. This is universally agreed upon with the exception of the ultra-wacko-wing of the Right wing. 2) We should transition to an international non-US-led peace-keeping and reconstruction effort and we should completely withdraw troops from Iraq except to the extent that we participate in that effort.
What would McCain say? What would Obama say? What do you say?
‘Cause the thing is — the answers to these questions basically tell you the foreign policy philosophy of the respondent. If you don’t question our actions in Iraq given what we know today, you are a hardcore imperialist hawk. Given what we know today it did not warrant unilateral US military action in Iraq, no question about it. We could have kept playing the diplomacy game just like we do with North Korea and Iran. Only people who want to control the Middle East for strategic control of the oil think Iraq was a good idea.
For #2, given #1, can we admit a mistake? Can America be humble? Can we do the right thing after a mistake?
As for the war on terror, it is separate from the war in Iraq. The sects in Iraq will have to come to some equilibrium. Everyone wants to start putting things back together. The terrorists, to the extent they are there at all, will be demotivated by peace and prosperity. The US military is impeding, not aiding, the transition to self rule. That “the surge is working”, if it is, is proof of this. Peace is proportional to the number of troops on the ground in that way of thinking. It’s untenable. Peace has to be proportional to less troops on the ground if we are to be successful.
McCain is Bush on Iraq. I know he would try his best to solve it his way. We would all hope that President McCain would be a greater leader and inspire greater leadership from his cabinet. But his policy is still basically the same as Bush’s. How can anyone be convinced that the Bush doctrine in Iraq is credible!
No matter how much you disagree with my answers, Bush’s answers are the problem and McCain basically agrees with Bush on Iraq. QED, McCain cannot be trusted with the presidency.
Buckle the fuck Up
Just 23 percent of Americans live in rural areas, and their roads carry less than half of the nation’s traffic. Yet they account for more than half of the nation’s vehicular deaths, according to a report issued this year by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. In 2006, for example, 55 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities occurred in rural crashes.
…
One reason is that more rural residents shun seat belts, according to the national report. Last year 84 percent of American in urban areas said they buckle up compared to 78 percent in rural areas. A University of Minnesota study reported in December found that pickup truck drivers were the least likely in the state to use the belts.
Insanity
Your Deep Thought for the 4th of July — the notion that Saddam Hussein was such a clear and present danger to the US that we needed to spend 3 trillion dollar and sacrifice 5000 soldiers to dispose him is insane. We should not be in Iraq. McCain, nice guy that he is, will continue this insane agenda.
Happiness is a process
Happiness is a process. I used to say that happiness only occurs in retrospect. That’s probably true for a lot of people. It doesn’t have to be, though. A lot of the whole “be here now” concept is just a matter of realizing how wonderful your life is, with all its warts and struggles. You’re a miracle — with feet that walk, eyes that see and a brain that thinks. You are a survivor. A raging success.
Happiness is the craft of enjoying yourself, forgiving yourself and bettering yourself, a little every day.
That Boing Boing thing
I have to admit, I don’t like Teresa Nielsen Hayden. She has always struck me as a condescending know-it-all, even here on my own blog.
Then there is this shit storm and this utter bullshit of a post explaining what happened:
Violet behaved in a way that made us reconsider whether we wanted to lend her any credibility or associate with her.
So they deleted unpublished all references to Violet Blue on their site.
On the one hand, they say they don’t want to lend her credibility and on the other they say, innocently, that all sites delete content for various reason, as if they were just doing some regular maintenance.
You can’t have it both ways: did you unpublish because of this credibility thing or did you unpublish because of regular maintenance? Says Hayden: I’m almost impressed by the pretentious meanings people have been reading into “unpublish.”
Speaking of pretentious, do you think unpublish is actually different than delete in any tangible way to visitors on the web? Of course not. So quit this word parsing nonsense please and get your story straight.
I do agree that Boing Boing can do whatever the hell they want. But this looks like a lover’s spat gone public and it makes Boing Boing look like idiots. Their response makes them look even worse.
Just say “she pissed us off so we deleted every mention of her out of spite”. Then we’ll say, OK, fine, you little babies. Instead they pretend they are so above the fray and so mature and get this wordsmith to spin it for them like, what’s the big deal about regular maintenance?
The big deal is it’s fucking lame to unpublish posts about someone for any reason. Yes, you are free to do it, it’s still lame. The reaction you are getting from this, Boing Boing, is because you did something lame. Just admit it.
The wisdom of Calvin's Dad
Via UTI, this is really funny: Ask Calvin’s Dad
On Violence
I blog when I’m mad a lot because being mad is a very inspiring feeling. I don’t mean that I like being mad, I don’t. I don’t like it at all. But when I am mad I am motivated to change things.
I’m not a violent person and I abhor violence. It represents so many failures. Violence is never the best thing except when it is the only thing.
This poor woman was raped by a gang of men. I don’t want to rehabilitate those men. I don’t want to make up for their unfortunate upbringing, their shitty parents, their fucked up role models. I don’t give a rat’s ass that these men, some would say, are victims. There is not a single atom of sympathy in me anywhere for these men. I want them killed. I want them beaten up with baseball bats or raped to death in prison. I want the remainder of their lives to be a living hell of regret at the horror they unleashed on this woman. I want them to whimper and cry like little babies as they suffer and suffer in humiliation and pain. I want their lives over except in those ways they can be made worse than death.
This is why wars start. In the olden days of tribal warfare, a gang of men would go over to this house and kill every male in a 6 block radius. You are either for us or against us and if you do this shit or harbor people that do this shit, we are taking you out. Then those people would get mad and come back and kill people over here, and so on.
Note I do not know the race of any of the parties involved. I’m not talking about race wars I’m talking about tribal wars. Those two have often been strongly correlated in the past. It’s not really the case any more today. In this case the tribes are peaceful law abiding people on one side and gangsters and criminals on the other. That’s why our jails are full of gangsters and criminals. Unfortunately our streets are too.
In the end, like it or not, laws are enforced, literally and philosophically, with violence.
Mugabe: criminal, liar, incompetent fraud
Isn’t it amazing? During the 1st round of the election in Zimbabwe Tsvangirai won a slim majority of votes. In the runoff he got only 10% of the vote. I guess a lot of people changed their minds?
Shouldn’t someone kill Mugabe?
Pride
Dear homophobes — fuck you. Dear GLBT folks, bless you! Be yourself and damn the consequences.
lolife 
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