Cheney needs to shut up!

I'm sure that Mr. Cheney would call me naive, but torture is torture and not appropriate for America. You can call it "enhanced interrogation methods" all you want, that doesn't stop making it torture. I grabbed the following bit from his speech to show some of the hypocracy in his words. He starts by praise what makes us a force for good and includes human rights, but then uses this to justify torturing of prisoners. Not only that Bush did more to destroy our liberty than just about any President in history, so was he helping the terrorists by taking away what they hated about us? Thank god these people no longer speaks for us!

The United States of America was a good country before 9/11, just as we are today. List all the things that make us a force for good in the world - for liberty, for human rights, for the rational, peaceful resolution of differences - and what you end up with is a list of the reasons why the terrorists hate America. If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field. And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don't stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for - our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.

Bush/Cheney have ordered the deaths of over 30,000 Americans by fighting the war in Iraq, so how many lifes have they saved with this sacrifice? Does sacrificing our soldiers in some godforsaken land that we have no right being in really make us safer? How many more soldiers need to die to keep us safe? This is just in Iraq, where we have killed over 1,000,000 people! How many of them were terrorists? Why does anyone let him continue to speak without answering these serious questions? Dick Cheney lives in a dream world.

Prepare to be pissed

Meanwhile, check out this blog post in Reason and watch the attached video to see just how insane our police have gotten. Its truly amazing how far things have gone, with SWAT teams conducting alcohol permit inspections. What saddens me the most here is less that police are doing this and more that judges seem so comfortable with allowing them to. Are judicial system has really degenerated over the last few decades and the weakness in this branch of government is a disaster for us all.

lack of posts

Its been a while since I posted, after a good run, and unfortunately this will become more the norm. I like the idea of a blog and I think I'd get better as I kept going, but as stated in the beginning, life is just too busy and I can't do everything I want. But I'll do what I can and who knows how things will run.

Everyone poops

Fascinating blog about relieving yourself in space, from the ever interesting Gizmondo.

Go Land Sharks!

Very cool name for the Dolphin's stadium!

California sinks

Another excellent column from George Will, one of the few voices of reason and intelligence out there. The point is clear, which is that my poor state has finally succombed to the years of abuse that are only possible under a staunch liberal government. Combine that with the past 8 years of conservative (if we can really call the insanity that was George Bush conservative) abuse at the federal level and its a wonder the country and state are not in worse shape. The most interesting part of this column was this bit:

Flinching from serious budget cutting and from confronting public employees unions, some Californians focus on process questions. They devise candidate-selection rules designed to diminish the role of parties, thereby supposedly making more likely the election of "moderates" amenable to even more tax increases.
But what actually ails California is centrist evasions. The state's crisis has been caused by "moderation," understood as splitting the difference between extreme liberalism and hyperliberalism, a "reasonableness" that merely moderates the speed at which the ever-expanding public sector suffocates the private sector.

The state needs a revolution, but who is there to lead?

Funny video bit

Check out this advert from the "Better off Ted" crew when their season finale was bumped by an Obama press conference. Its very funny, I will have to check out the show: