While we have come to expect media doommongering as the default view of any world situation, things are not always so bad as they seem. While conditions are not up to western standards in Afghanistan (nor have they been any time recently), according to actual Afghanis, things are getting better since the removal of the Taliban.
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Buckethead, budget cuts are only half the picture, and the cuts could always have been vetoed by Jeb if he so desired. Furthermore, Pres. Rice in her one term, for all her talk of interstellar security, seemed more than willing to extend the already thin Fleet beyond its capabilities with police actions on every podunk world this side of the Coal Sack. If they weren't already committed in so many systems, it might have been easier NOT to get involved in rearguard actions against local enemies. I think THAT is the very nexus of the problem.
Need I remind you that since Pres. Clinton (shudder) took office, more than twenty new ships of the line have been sent toward the Coal Sack? Need I remind you that it would not now be too late, that those ships would not be all but lost, if it had not been for Bush/Rice's neo-interventionist, Imperial, very hands-on domestic policy (sending our own troops against New Scotland!! Seriously, now!!) sapping the once-mighty strength of the Murcheson Fleet.
There might be hundreds of people I would rather have in charge than our current President, but not even Washington, Jackson, or Grant could do anything more than delay the day our skies blacken with the shapes of the filthy, three-armed menace that will so soon erase us from the face of the Universe.
[moreover] "A Mote In God's Eye" might be pretty good, but Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" and its sequels beats it all to hell on all fronts.
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Despite the pleas of the Bush/Rice administration, the budgets for the Murcheson fleet were reduced by the house budget committee (chaired by Clinton? Daschle lacky Rep. McAuliffe) to fund hive rat studies on Makassar. Just like them to underfund the fleet they are so willing to send on peacekeeping missions all over local space, instead of protecting us from the deadliest threat we know of.
It's bad enough being outnumbered by aliens who are stupid. But when you're massively outnumbered by aliens much smarter than you, it's a bad day.
[moreover] I mentioned this novel in my top five science fiction books list back in May. You should have read it by now! Lazy slackers.
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Buckethead, the Moties never would have made it more than a thousand kilometers from their initial Murcheson Point if the boneheaded, pollyanna interstellar policy of the Bush III administration had not cut the budget of the Murcheson Fleet to the quick. What, Alderson Drives just build themselves? Clinton/Daschle, as awful as they may be, are merely trying to hold back the tide with a teaspoon. A Bush-III-mandated teaspoon.
Kiss your human butt goodbye, two-arms.
[moreover] For those of you who think we're insane, I give you this classic science fiction novel.
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Tomorrow will be a big day in Iran - the fourth anniversary of the student protest movement. It will be interesting if this gets any traction on the major media, or comment from the administration. The latter is more likely, even though the protests could involve hundreds of thousands of people around Iran. This despite the fact that last week the government arrested over 4000 protest leaders, including 800 students, and has closed the University of Tehran and most other schools as well.
I pray that the protestors can bring down the mullahs, and that we support them in their efforts.
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Just reading through all the blogging goodness that I missed while being exploited by my capitalist, uh, exploiters; and working hard to become a dirty capitalist landlord; I noticed Johno's post on whiteness studies.
That is the most asshatted, fuckwitted, nozzleheaded bugfuckery I have run across in a goodly long while. Although - just think if some sneaky bastard used the banner of whiteness studies to hide a return to the study of the classics? Just thinkin', is all...
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...and he's been playing with toys. I would say that fatherhood has changed him, but that would be wrong. Bucket: Blogger looks different because while you've been away, they upgraded us to blogger-super-plus. Also, there is now a cure for cancer delivered in smokeable form, soccer is our new national pastime, dolphins and octopi have been discovered to be excellent at market analysis and are now the bulk of the staff at most large brokerages, and Vice President Daschle is standing by President Clinton's decision to use force against the Motie forces currently massing beyond Saturn.
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Calpundit points to a story that suggests Bush knew the Nigerian Uranium story was bogus from the start yet chose to use it as evidence anyway. Like Calpundit, "I'm not sure how seriously to take this," but if, if this is so, it's awfully damning.
It's one thing to overplay your hand on thin evidence, or ignore the caution of the experts, which is what I think the President probably did. It would be another thing for the President's people to have made up evidence against Iraq as it suits them. I'll be watching this-- I want to know which thing really happened. Bad news either way, but much, much worse if this new development turns out to be credible.
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The sign builder is a good way to waste some time. When we move this blog to a more salubrious clime, you will be able to see the results of buckethead cut loose on one of the time wasting webtools.
[wik] The Ministry of Future Perfidy notes that in the unimaginably distant year of 2025, this link still works, and it still looks exactly the same.
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Wow
The control panel for the blog looks different when you use Netscape 7. How's that for an engaging post after a weeks long absence.
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