To be fair

More info on the Boy Scouts. Yea, there were 300 heat injuries but there were 31,788 scouts there, so 300 is only 0.94%. And there were loudspeakers going telling people to drink lots of water. So that's a decent percentage of people doing the smart thing or following instructions. Certainly more than many other groups of people in our society.

That still doesn't address the four guys who decided to set up the dining tent under the powerlines but then that issue has been resolved to. They won't do (or teach others to do) that again. That sounds pretty harsh doesn't it? But then Mother Nature has been killing stupid people for thousands of years.

Not so swift?

Okay, it's a tragedy (the death of a few as opposed to hundreds, thousands or millions). The four scout leaders that were electrocuted in Virginia recently.

However I now read that they violated one of their own rules and pitched the dining tent under power lines. We're approaching Darwin territory here ...

And the President was going to speak at a special memorial yesterday afternoon but it was 100 degrees so it was postponed. However 300 scouts had to be taken to the hospital for heat injuries. Now I don't know about any of you but I was a boy scout for awhile. And I seem to recall that one of the major mottos was to "be prepared" and the whole "do things safe" schtick.

Both of these incidents seem to lead me to thing that the whole movement is rapidly approaching Darwin territory ...

Um ... ahem ... man can fly.

I was listening to a commentator on NPR this morning ...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4772844

Who was saying that he climbed mountains because at the peak, when he got there, he felt like he was defying gravity, that he was nearly flying.

I wanted to point out that man can fly these days. That even if you want to eschew the whole using-a-machine-to-help-you-fly you could still use a hang glider or ultralight and fly. Or parasail. Or base jump. Or any of a number of other means to defy gravity and fly.

I think he was just stretching to find some other reason that "because its there" to climb.

New Trek show?

The other day someone was teasing me with news that Paramount is going to do another Star Trek series and they've ditched Rick Berman and Brandon Bragga (the men who killed it IMHO) and are going with J. Micheal Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame.

Personally I find it very difficult to believe that the execs at Paramount (killing Star Trek and charging $120 a season for the DVDs) suddenly got some brains after so many years of being nearly as moronic as the execs at Fox (killing more than one excellent show - Firefly? - prematurely).

Payola?

Figures.

The FCC fines Janet Jackson $550k for the Superbowl incident but have only levied one fine of $8k in the past 10 years. I wonder if they're getting paid off too?

And this says that payola is Big Business in the record industry according to the Attorney General of New York. Sony paid $10 million to charity in response to their involvement but they only fired one executive. They've promised to mend their ways and in response the AG promised not to name executives. That smacks of something funny too. Why weren't charges brought since payola is illegal? Why weren't lots of executives fined or imprisoned? Why should I really care since I don't work in the music industry and only buy a few CDs a year (and don't illegally download music)?

Now we know what they feel like

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Great. Talk about bombing their Religious holy sites is sure thing gonna stop Islamic extremists from conducting any more terror attacks on the US.

Moron!

And he won't even apologize once it becomes clear how much of a boneheaded stunt that was. I pray he doesn't get reelected, that someone more intelligent (at least more circumspect) takes office. Even if they're a republican.

I went to his website and sent this to him:

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Can you BE any more inflammatory and irresponsible than to suggest we should or would attack Muslim holy sites? Is there any possible thing you could have said which might prompt MORE Muslims to take up arms against us?

It seems to me to be a toss up between whether lying about the causes for going to war or this is a more boneheaded act.

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It will likely end up in the trash bin since I'm not one of his constituents but still, isn't it our obligation to point out stupidity?

Only criminals need apply

I heard on NPR this morning a piece on the Rove thing. From what I could tell not mentioning Plame's name doesn't matter in regard to the illegality of the outing but knowing she's covert does. Damn. She'd been working within the US for more than 5 years so according to the law she wasn't technically covert any longer. However if she wasn't, then why did the CIA demand an investigation? The loophole ("I didn't know she was covert") is still there though and no doubt he'll take it.

And the president backpedalled and said now he'll only fire anyone if they've done something illegal. Disappointing but satisfying in a strange sort of way. I mean if he'd done the stand up thing this time and backed his word then lots of us would have been terribly confused.

And speaking about the "stand up thing", in a simplistic sort of way I can admire sticking by your troops. Standing behind them even if they've done something stupid and illegal. And the admirable thing to do if you're the stupid one is to resign so you don't cause your boss even more damage. But then if you're a stand up guy you don't sling mud (no, make that shit) for a living then, do you?

More "no comment"

And so the Rove thing continues. Lots of words being put out there (still none by the Administration but that's not at all surprising). Be careful what you read since most of it isn't fact but rather opinion.

I went to something linked off Google News that wasn't a report (I presume as much since the URL included the word "blog") so much as some "reporter's" ramblings. Interesting but certainly not fact by any stretch.

And the right is now claiming that we're missing the issue here, that Rove was only trying to point out wrong doing, nepotism, on the part of Plume in appointing her husband to be the one to go do the digging in Niger to find out if there was a link to Saddam.

No, I think everyone is missing the real point. Rove may have mishandled classified information (whether he did and what action may be necessary is the purpose of the Grand Jury investigation). And from my training and experience, if there is even the slightest doubt that someone has mishandled classified information (or even some doubt about their ability to handle it) their security clearance is to be immediately pulled (or not granted in the first place). Were I the security manager there wouldn't be any waivering and there wouldn't be any speculation about if he used her actual name (come on! saying it's so-and-so's wife is tantamount to pinning a name and if that's your defense you should be laughed at all the way to the prison cell) or if he knew she was operating covertly (if it's known then there's no possiblity of ever using her covertly, is there moron?) or if he meant to (no, stupidity isn't a crime, but are there some times and places where it should be?), the security clearance would be gone (with no possiblity of parole).

Given that we have military operations in two theaters right now, what other classified information is he going to find it politically expedient to release? And how many soldiers, airmen, sailors (and even civilians) will die because of it?

I don't trust him enough to take the chance.

"No Comment"

Seems the administration only has something to say when (or perhaps before) they haven't been caught in a lie (or a coverup). [When are people going to learn not to trust anything that doofus or any of his cronies say?]

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And we know the True Face of evil.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4678207.stm

Men who kill children in the name of their "god". I'm fairly certain that the Muslim God would frown (at the very least) upon these "men".

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Matt and I are ... well we are. Good days and not-so-good days. I've been pondering the whole situation extensively but I don't think I'm ready to post anything.

I need to see about getting him registered for school and start getting his supplies.

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The Star Trek game is going well. Everyone seems to be enjoying it. Last night we played two more scenes (the game is set up like a TV show with 3 acts and various scenes within each) and I killed off one of Jack's characters (since he's leaving). Afterwards, however, Marlin pointed out that they're equipped to try out the telepresence idea for gaming. It's going to take Jack a few weeks to get settled but after that we can give it a try. Maybe we can rope Jeff into the game if that works well, though we'll have to be careful not to saturate the bandwidth.

What's deployment like?

1. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours before drinking.
   
2. Replace your garage door with a curtain.
   
3. Sleep on a cot in the garage.
   
4. Two hours after you've fallen asleep, have someone rip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes, and mumble, "Sorry, wrong cot".
   
5. Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.
   
6. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.
   
7. When you take a shower, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.
   
8. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and fragmentation.
   
9. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.
   
10. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night.
    

From http://www.armywives.com

I haven't been deployed to a combat zone but I did spend a bit of time on exercises and based on my experiences this is dead on.

Oh Great

The big judicial fear was that Rhenquist would retire because of his cancer. Well O'Connor retired instead so the president still has a seat to fill. Great! ;/

And calls from the right claim that Alberto Gonzales, "Mister Torture", isn't conservative enought??? Apparently they won't be happy until we actually live in Orwell's "1984".

Remember, Big Brother is watching!