Random Thoughts 2/20/06

• Sony's in trouble. The highly touted and long-awaited Playstation 3 might cost as much as $800, and that's including an industry standard $100 per unit loss. That's right, when you buy a game console the company actually loses money, but of course they make it back and then some on the individual games. But the processor and high definition DVD player in the Playstation 3 are both so new and so expensive to manufacture that the total cost may near $900, twice as much as the rival Xbox 360 and more than many home computers. And even worse, the whole shooting match may be delayed by as much as a year, putting the debut in early 2007. This article explains more.
• Osama bin Laden says on a recent tape he'd rather die than be caught alive. Maybe I'm wrong but I was thinking the American military was perfectly willing to accommodate that? Hey Osama, be careful what you wish for.
  
• Speaking of tapes, a number of recordings (think Oval Office - Watergate era tapes of Nixon and company incriminating themselves) have Saddam Hussein and his officials talking about having and hiding WMDs during the years between the Iraq wars. My question is this: will all the haters who've claimed Bush lied about WMDs kindly approach hat-in-hand and apologize to him? I'm thinking not.

• Support Free Speech, Buy More LEGOs! Here's a link to Michelle Malkin's page encouraging just that! The Islamic cartoon controversy has the Danes on the forefront of the battle for Free Speech. Malkin's site also has a list of Danish companies and products (like LEGOs) and other useful links and information. By the way, the LEGO website is really pretty neat; LEGOS were probably my favorite toy growing up.
• Brennan is by far our most accident-prone child. If someone can find a way to fall down and get hurt, it'll be Brennan. Just moments ago I caught a glimpse of him running with, you guessed it, scissors! He's survived this long only by the Providence of God.
• Is homosexuality an innate and fixed trait, i.e. something you're born with? If your politics require a "yes" answer, you're going to hate this article. It may turn out that homosexuality is a complex state that depends heavily upon an individual's choices, environment, and conditioning.
• Finally, here's my "goosebump moment" of the day. I just watched the two commercials available at this location from MidwestHeroes.com. Wow. I think everyone should see these, but the Democratic Party in Minnesota disagrees. They are trying to get these adds removed because they are "un-American, untruthful, and a lie." Watch the ads yourself and see if you agree or not.