Insanity

It's almost cliche to say the definition of insanity is continuing the same approach while expecting different results. I think this pretty much applies to Democrats and Republicans alike at this point with regard to the war in Iraq. The Republicans preach "stay the course," while Democrats are all "bring our troops home." Where are the freaking defenders of the Powell doctrine? That's me. I think we need to beg, borrow, and steal enough troops, resources, and security to get the job done as soon as possible. I agree that defeat is not an option. Malaise is not an option, either. The only option is victory. We need to use whatever means necessary to finish this thing. The fact that Osama can still send an audiotape disturbs me.

This president wants to be a king? I say reign or get off the throne.

Anselm of intelligent design

Let me take a second to welcome myself back. I wanted to take a few minutes to blog on something whose absurdity is apparent to me, but is always overlooked among most people giving the benefit of a lot of doubts to ID. ID is criticized as not being science because it's claims cannot be verified in a lab. While true, it overlooks the internal conflict of logic within the theory. The theory, to use a common example, posits that, if one looks at a clock, that person would be forced to assume that the clock is so complex that it must have had a creator. The example is then taken back a step. Essentially, if one looks at the creator of the clock, one must assume that creator is so complex she must have had a creator. This argument could go on forever, taking one step back and assuming that the creator, is too complex too have come about independently of any guidance. This my friends is teleology, the study of how we came to be, closely related to epistomology, the study of knowledge, whose root is the same root as for the epistles. Very clearly this is a theological argument. Inasmuch as philosphy is taught in high schools, it's place is going to be in those classes rather than in biology. However, no philosophy professor worth his or her salt would ever entertain a "that than which none greater can be thought."

Is this a find?

While having been plotting to write about the many subtle satires of Bush a la Iranian film, I happened across Mr. Bush's own assessment of when fingers should be pointed:

"Some one of my visits—one of the reasons I'm visiting here is to ask the question, you know, to people, because if there's moving too slow or people are saying one thing and the other thing is not happening, now's the time to find out."
—Bush, talking about hurricane relief
Source: Federal Document Clearing House, "George W. Bush Delivers Remarks on Tornado Damage," May 13, 2003

This is widely available, though I found it here. I'm too lazy to find an actual link to just that comment, but I trust my avid readers to not be lazy enough to use the search function.

A couple of things

To all my adoring fan, I haven't written for weeks. But a couple thoughts on Kiss me Katrina. Horseman Mike Brown (not to be confused with that other incompetent Mikey Brown of Cincinnati Bungles fame) has so proved me right that, even if it didn't get tested out, Governor Fletcher appointing someone with no NO law enforcement experience as Chairman of the DHS was an unforgivable act of hubris and cronyism that I'm just glad didn't come back to haunt him.

Second, based on Bush's idea that he didn't know why the poor didn't evacuate, and his further assertion that no one could have predicted how bad it would get, if Nero had been getting his freak on in the Big Easy last weekend, he would have ended up in the Superdome. With his daughters, who I'm sure would have gotten Stockholm syndrome, if'n it's not already too late to go back.

Third, and most important, I believe the best days of the Bush administration are ahead. Look at the emasculation of Clint ton after his brazen displays of manhood: The market went crazy during his second term. The internet bubble, budget surpluses. Hell, America likes it when the POTUS and Congress are so embroiled in trying to out one another's improprieties that the country is left to it's business. I foresee the offer from RUsh: "$1M offered for information on any Democratic member of Congress who neglected a natural catastrophe" Chris Dodd, what about that mudslide at the Hartford Courant festival that claimed the lives of 12 pigs while you stood there and did nothing? NOTHING?!?!?? "Youthful cowardice," you say? We're on to you, buddy. Yeah.

Himicane

Something strikes me about Bush's defense of his reaction to hurricane Katrina: Based on his arguments, had he been vacationing in New Orleans, he would have been among the stranded there. He doesn't know why the people didn't evacuate, but claims that there was no way for them to have known how big a problem their not evacuating would cause, so, why, then, would they evacuate? It's a circular argument of the most frustrating sort.

Political Appointments

All my friends said I was beating a dead horse. It was a political appointment, it didn't matter if the person was qualified. I feel a little bit of vindication next to my sadness at the destruction in the South land after feeling Katrina's wrath. Unfortunately, the incompetence of cronyism and unqualified political appointees may end up wreaking more havoc than Katrina.

Do you get it now, libruls? Do you?

A Real American Nero

By now, everyone is familiar with the pictures of GWB pimping with his Presidential Sealed guitar. Perhaps the comparisons to Nero are just too obvious, though people have been making them for years. Perhaps, rather than scrawl "This Machine Kills Fascists," on his guitar, Bush can color, in crayon, "I love my pet goat." His people will argue that he was in contact with mission control in the Big Easy. I argue that a true leader also speaks out to calm and reassure his people. I'm hearing reports of stabbings and chaos within the Superdome. Not to excuse that behavior, but, in a tragic parody of the BioSphere, these refugees have been thrown back into a state of nature.

Bush guitars while Rome burns. He is a true guitard.