] It's no surprise that Iraq should have come up at Mr. Bush's
] first national security meetings -- after all, the United States
] was patrolling the skies above Iraq to enforce "no-fly" zones.
] Nor is it surprising that the Bush team should have contemplated
] regime change: That was the declared policy of the United States,
] supported by the Clinton administration and Congress.
 . . .
] The wisdom of waging war in Iraq is a legitimate and important
] topic of political debate. But the Democratic candidates do no
] favors to their positions when they accept, uncritically, a
] half-unsurprising and half-dubious account, for no better reason
] than that it fits their prejudices.

Amen. It infuriates me to hear political candidates accuse the President of "misleading" people, when those candidates are doing their level best to do misleading of their own! Hypocrites. To accuse someone of "deliberately lying" is a serious charge, and I have no intention of voting for anyone who tosses that kind of language around for no other reason than political posturing.

If a candidate wants to disagree with the Administration, fine. If they say they have an idea for a better and wiser plan, I'm all for hearing it. But this mudslinging crap does nothing for them except to lose my vote.

Mr. O'Neill and Iraq

(re-memed at a new URL)

This is the transcript of a wide-ranging interview between NBC's Tom Brokaw and President Bush. Subjects covered range from Iraq to the Palestinian-Israeli situation to the economy to al-Sahaf and the Dixie Chicks.

I found the interview very interesting, not just for the policy stuff, but also to hear in Bush's own words what it was like to give the order at the beginning of the war, and what the decision-making process was like as last-minute changes were made in the war plan. I recommend this link highly for a better understanding of how decisions are made at his level.

President Bush Interview: April 24, 2003

] [Britain]'s worst mass murderer Harold Shipman has
] hanged himself with a noose of bed sheets in his prison
] cell, never having said what drove him to kill at least
] 215 of his patients.

British 'Dr. Death' commits suicide in prison

] On 7 January 2004, it was discovered that fraudulent rice
] is being sold in the markets of the African country of
] Burkina Faso. The rice mimicked that being sold by an
] American nongovernmental organization (NGO) to fund its
] work in that country. The fraudulent rice is being sold
] in nearly identical packaging and quantities, and is
] easily mistaken for the true product; locals have even
] taken to calling it "American Rice Type 2."

Fraudulent starches. What'll they think of next?

Fraudulent American Rice?

] NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Long a source of fun and fury on
] Wall Street and in Washington, former Treasury Secretary
] Paul O'Neill is back in the news for shooting his mouth
] off again.

Here's some information, pro and con, about O'Neill's history.

I'm still coming up to speed on the whole story, so I haven't made up my mind yet on whether or not O'Neill is credible. I do find it amusing though that many people who almost certainly had never heard of O'Neill before his book came out, and probably couldn't name any other cabinet members if their life depended on it, are jumping on O'Neill's bandwagon simply because they like *anything* that criticizes Bush. Or in other words, while O'Neill was *in* the administration, they would have perceived him as "one of them," a clueless idiot, but now that he's got some critical things to say about Bush, they praise him as a saintly whistle-blower.

This CNN article seems to do a pretty good job (IMHO) of trying to look at both sides of the issue. I look forward to more analysis in the future.

CNN: Just how bad were O'Neill's gaffes?

On this site is a picture of the DVD on Mars (literally, a self-portrait taken from its current location on Mars). On the DVD is a code challenge.

The Mars DVD Code

] The day before yesterday, my wife came home with a new license
] plate frame for my car: "My other cars are on Mars."
  . . .
] I just finished working the Martian night (which today happened
] to be daytime at JPL), planning Spirit's activities for Sol 5,
] the rover's fifth day on the surface. The uplink team is doing a
] great job of getting a lot done in a short amount of time. The
] rover seems to be getting more sleep than we do...
 . . .
] I'll make additions to this site as often as living on
] Mars time and exploring an alien planet permit...

This is a new blog page that was created by my childhood friend Andy Mishkin. In it he's documenting some of the day-to-day activities at JPL. Fun reading!

Mars Roving: Andy Mishkin's Blog

Another site that CrankyMessiah used, pays its respects.

When I learned that Brad "CrankyMessiah" Blines was also a member of the Fazed community, I dropped a line to the staff there. One of the sysops, Spunn, is also a longtime member of my GemStone community, so I wanted to make sure he knew about Brad's death, and then he passed the word on to the rest.

Seeing the picture of Brad ( http://www.astoned.net/Images/TNT_CrankyMessiah.jpg ) filled me with strange emotions. His name is so familiar, but his picture is not. I find myself craving more information about what happened. How long had he been using heroin? Did anyone know? Was there some sign that I should have noticed? Could I have made a difference if I had?

If nothing else, the news of his passing has sent shock waves throughout the Memestreams and Fazed communities. So, perhaps, if even one other life is saved from this kind of death by the cautionary tale of Brad's mistake, there may be some small solace.

Still though, I find myself gazing sadly at his photo today, and grieving for someone half-known...

Our lives are so short.

Carpe diem.

FAZED - CrankyMessiah Condolences Thread

Yes, it's that time again . . .

As a member of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association), I have the privilege to nominate games for the annual awards. If there's any game in particular that you'd like to recommend to me this year, please let me know.

One thing about nominations: I'm not interested in suggestions such as "This game was really cool," or "Everyone I know plays this game." I'm more interested in things such as production values, best original game character, excellence in audio, level design, and so forth.

If you'd like to throw in your $0.02, please have comments to me, either by posting a reply here or sending an Email to elonka@aol.com, by January 20th, 2004.

Thanks!

Elonka :)

Nominations Open for 2003 Game Developers Choice Awards

] Stunned by Friday's rocket attack on a Pakistan Army camp
] in South Waziristan tribal agency that killed four
] soldiers and wounded several others, the political
] administration yesterday gave a 48-hour ultimatum to the
] Ahmadzai Wazir tribe to surrender three wanted tribesmen
] charged with harbouring "foreign terrorists."
]
] The ultimatum was given to a jirga of Ahmadzai Wazir
] tribe in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan. More
] than 50 tribal elders belonging to the nine sub-tribes of
] Ahmadzai Wazir attended the jirga. Among them were heads
] of the Yargulkhel section of the tribe to which the
] wanted men belong.
  . . . 
] The tribe would be collectively held responsible for the attack
] under tribal customs prevalent in South Waziristan and other
] Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and could face
] punitive action in the coming days.
  . . . 
] Failure to surrender the three would invite a series of punitive
] measures including arrest of the tribal elders, seizure of their
] vehicles and closure of their shops and businesses.

I'm not entirely sure I understand everything in this article, but it's interesting to try and follow the political complexities in this area of the world. I'm also very curious to learn whether "foreign terrorists" might mean any Al Qaeda bigwigs...

Gulf News Online: Tribal group told to turn in wanted men