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| CCLXVII
[NOTE: Since I'd have to pay Xanga to archive my blog for me, I'm going from the beginning and copying everything into a doc on my computer. As part of this process, I'm tagging old posts. Don't use the tags yet, they're nowhere near done.
As a result of this project, I stumbled across the following, written 3 years ago.]
"I wish I had really really peaceful dreams.... dreams of heaven... palm trees... rolling brooks.... a bottle of super chill, a comfy chair, a stack of books, classical and jazz music, pizza, wings that don't make your fingers messy..."
Did you see it? Look again: "Wings that don't make your fingers messy..."
I demand royalties from KFC! They just came out with the sauceless hot wing like it was a new invention!
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| CCLXVI
This isn't aimed anywhere, I'm just saying:
I don't like hearing, in regards to my job search, "Well, the market's tough right now." This is America. When the job market is tough, unemployment is 5.5%. When the market's doin great, unemployment is 4.5%. Is that really affecting me? Perhaps I don't understand enough about markets and am oversimplifying.
I don't like the way I sound to myself when I'm blaming someone or society for a personal "problem" I'm having right now.
You know what I mean? Sometimes, you hear yourself talking and you just don't like the language or style or content which is coming out of your mouth. For instance, when I'm asking questions, I rarely have that feeling. But when I'm making a political argument, I often have that feeling, which is why I try to reel myself in from such speeches (I don't do a good job, do I?).
Can you ever go wrong asking questions during a conversation? (Rhetorical questions excluded.)
Finally, if anyone sees Bill, tell him that AJP for Percival is a great trade.
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| CCLXV
I hate reading about the energy problem. From Ann Coulter blaming Democrats for 30 years of problems (30 years during which Republicans have had their share of power) to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi blaming President Bush's Texas oil company ties for a power outage caused by human error at a power station in the northeast, the discussion plummets toward absurdity.
Some things which I think must certainly be true:
1. Adding oil to the market cannot possibly be bad for prices. (It may or may not be bad for the environment.)
2. Not adding an American refinery for many, many years was probably bad.
3. According to Wikipedia, the Ford Model T got 13-21 miles per gallon. The average car in the United States goes 20.8 miles per gallon, using the slightly inflated EPA estimates. Basically, the average car made today in the United States gets about the same efficiency as cars did 100 YEARS AGO. This is probably bad.
Something things which I hope are true:
1. We will begin building nuclear plants again.
2. Chevy and Ford will somehow magically become financially sound enough to be able to invest in developing better efficiency.
3. The media will stop falling for Iran's games.
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| CCLXIV
-Had an interview yesterday. It went "very well" according to me and, later, to the placement person at the Legal Registry I use.
-Have an interview Thursday. I think I'd be really happy with either job, so I'm hoping hard that I get one or the other. One would be a nice step toward a career in the legal field; one would be a great job at Penn Music.
-I'm not sick. I'm not sick. I'm not sick.
-I turned on some news this morning--first time in a long time--and of course Sen. Obama on his Middle East trip is on TV. However, things took a turn for the better as the orator was forced to stumble and "uh" his way through a series of admissions that things are going well on the Iraq front of the War on Terror. And where is Sen. McCain? Is he campaigning?
-Vikas and Bill and I have been trying to get some baseball trades together for our fantasy league. Fantasy baseball has rekindled my baseball fandom, so I'm pretty excited for that.
-I jammed three fingers in one game of basketball on Monday. How does that happen???
-My ankle bones seem huge.
-Did you read the news? Viagra may be on the way to being approved for women!
-go Phils!
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| CCLXII
In the first few years of the War on Terror, the administration employed wiretaps on phones of those in the United States who were talking to suspected terrorists abroad. This program was secret, since, of course, telling someone how you plan to spy on them generally isn't effective. In on the secret were a few Congressmen of both parties, in addition to those involved with its operation.
The program was leaked to the New York Times, which ran a long front-page story detailing the program over the objections of the administration.
I wrote a lot about this at the time. I argued that this was nearly treason--that American lives were more at risk because of this deliberate action.
Recently, several hostages, including some Americans, have been rescued from FARC.
The rescue was a daring raid, but was set up beginning back in 2003:
The call came from Nancy Conde, the regional finance and supply chief for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, whose boyfriend would become the American hostages' jailer. She was calling confederates in Miami to see if they could supply the rebels with some satellite phones. What Conde didn't know was that state security agents were listening.
We aren't told whether or not these "confederates" are Americans or citizens or legal immigrants or visitors, but they were certainly here in America, and the government was listening.
Thank goodness.
Of course, when the NYT exposed the program, many of our elected leaders were "outraged!" at the blow to "civil liberties!"
Now, in an election year, a bill expanding a similar program, and granting immunity to telecom companies which aid the government, became law by a wide margin.
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