2006.04.17
"Bush seems to be wrapped in bubbles, surrounded by sycophants. Bush was in Tampa today in front of one of those invited audiences he speaks to. The first question, this is not a joke, said the nation was blessed to have Bush as president. That was a question. The second one called Jeb 'your great brother.' You know, at least when Clinton got blown it was in private."
News Article Not Getting It of the Moment
He said one of his main interests was the online role-playing game "Kingdom of Loathing," in which stick figures battle one another.Apparently that terribly misleading description combined with the site's title is evidence enough to make "Kingdom of Loathing" the sub-headline for what a depressed and loser-ish guy he is. KoL is a very goofy, friendly parody of traditional RPGs. "Ooh look the game encourages people to become 'Seal Clubbers'... oh the humanity!... And the currency is meat, and this guy was trying to become a cannibal! Eegads!"
More Politics of the Moment
It unfortunately appears that two of the retired generals do not understand the true nature of this radical ideology, Islamic extremism, and why we fight in Iraq. We suggest they listen to the tapes of United 93.OK, I have to admit that the number of generals who have spoken up is pretty small. But some of these arguments! "We suggest they listen to the tapes of United 93"...right, as if that's the issue. Those tapes possibly indicate the urgency of the situation, that we're facing some really awful people, and is not a validation that our current path is correct, especially in regards to Iraq.
If these generals are correct in pinning some of the anti-Rumsfeld sentiment as stodgey, anti-"joint expeditionary force" thinking, well.... so what. It's clear Rumsfeld hoped stuff like Iraq could be done on the cheap, and he was largely wrong, and they fired guys who tried to speak up and say that it was going to be more expensive than the Administration wanted to hear.
Finally, the whole "shut up because this is a time of War!" thing is Orwellian to a scary degree. Even if we weren't actively engaged in Iraq, we're still in a "War Against Terror" that HAS NO FORESEEABLE CONCLUSION. Assuming a retired general is a civillian, I don't see how there comments go against our nation's sacred tradition of civilian-bossed military forces.
News of the Moment
I know it's foolish to think it would be otherwise but I actively enjoy how the wheelchair Marathoners are much faster than the people doing it on foot.