Random Thoughts 11/30/06

• Microsoft's Zune music player was listed as the 75th best-selling electronic product on Amazon, which was still nine spots behind the iPod's USB charger. That's right, the supposed iPod-killer was getting outsold by a power cord. That's just funny.
• Here's your annual reminder that X-mas is not a sacrilegious way to abbreviate Christmas. The Greek letter chi (pronounced by saying "key" while clearing your throat) looks like our letter X, but is actually a ch – the same ch that starts the word "Christ."
  
• Napoleon said that an army travels on its stomach. Little did he know that the Army actually travels on overly-flashy Power Point slide show presentations. Power Point is often ribbed as being the bane of a staff officer's existence, where hours are spent making sharp looking slides that contain precious little useful information. It's become the plastic banana of communication skills – it looks good but provides no nutritional value or sustenance. Nevertheless, Power Point remains an essential element of military culture, as it is in parts of the business world. So for our friends who have nothing to say and an hour in which to say it, here's a patch to identify you as one of the elite warrior class armed only with a government issued laptop, a Power Point Ranger:


• We're putting up the Christmas tree today. The way I grew up we decorated the tree and everything for Christmas on the 23rd or 24th of December. When did we take it all down? Well, that's what Valentine's Day is for! But since I have a family of my own now, we've been decorating around the first of the month and we take it down the day after Christmas if possible.
• Shannon and I spent the better part of an hour trying to unfreeze a pipe our sump pump uses. It's cold out there! I ended up just pulling the miserable thing off entirely. Poor Shannon crashed and burned when she fell down the frozen steps of our back porch. About an hour later Shannon was pulling the Christmas decorations out of the upstairs storage and she fell down the stairs! She's normally pretty graceful but now she's just black and blue.
• I'm interested to see if the boys try to unwrap and rewrap any presents this year. They know where the scotch tape is and the presents will be sitting out under their noses for a few weeks. It'll take a lot of will power not to cheat.
  

Thanks Global Warming

We had to cancel tonight's Wednesday Family Night at the church because of ice and snow. It's supposed to be a high of only 28º tomorrow and my kids are chomping at the bit to build snowmen and throw snowballs.

This is typical weather… for January. But you never know in Kansas.

iPod Knockoff

Part of my allegiance to Apple and their products, the Mac, the iPod and iTunes, is due to excellence. I really believe they make higher quality machines that are designed better, inside and out. Check out all of the reasons here. Folks who use both machines often agree on this point. People who only know Windows usually disagree. The point of conversion is getting people to compare the two products side by side.

Now Microsoft has made their own version of the iPod music device called "Zune." As an iPod owner, I was curious if Microsoft had created a market-dominating, iPod-killer.

Not exactly.

Here is an article from Paul Thurrott, a Windows advocate who recently tried the new Zune. Thurrott seems to think that the Zune is a cheap iPod knockoff; he says:

I'm sorry if I'm beating this to death, but seriously, there seems to be nothing about the iPod that Microsoft is unwilling to copy. It's pathological…

Overall, the Zune is absolutely decent. It's got a nice, large screen, a simple menu system, and intuitive controls. It gets good battery life, and does provide the most basic functionality that most people expect. It is, in other words, completely average. But since you can buy a lighter, nicer-looking, and more capable iPod for exactly the same amount of money, and can find other iPod models that meet different needs at different price points, you should almost certainly avoid the first generation Zune. It just comes with too many compromises.

Nearly Invisible

You may have noticed that the Army has changed it's camouflage in the last couple of years. Instead of green, brown and black splotches, it's now a greenish-grey digital pixel pattern, which is not universally loved or accepted. Under bright light and up close, the new uniform doesn't always blend in real well, especially in lush green environments like Ft Leavenworth (the area in which I see it most often). And after a few washes, some uniforms faded badly and they did stand out compared to other camouflage.

But I don't think it's so bad. The pattern and color scheme were meant to be a good compromise for all kinds of environments, a kind of "jack of all trades, master of none" approach. And it seems okay in the desert and urban environments of Iraq and Afghanistan, which is what counts right now. The pattern also seems to change hues based on the lighting and I've always wondered how it compares when observed through night vision equipment.

The best example, however, I've ever seen of the new uniform blending in is this one. A young soldier can rest assured that he or she is completely invisible… as long as he stays on Grandma's couch:

Sorry Al, Wrong Again

The environmental wackos, like the scary Al Gore, were just sure that 1) this year was going to be the worst hurricane season ever and 2) it was our fault somehow.

Well, this has been the weakest hurricane season in a decade with only five hurricanes, four of which stayed in the mid-Atlantic. The experts predicted 17 or more named storms and we had only nine, none of which were category 4 or 5, the most severe. The highest winds that Florida saw this year were only 45 mph from tropical storm Alberto.

So how did the worst season ever become the mildest? Lots of unforeseen factors, including El Nino, African dust particles, and out of place winds and high pressure systems. It turns out that predicting the weather is a complicated thing. Who knew?

The truth is that we're in a long cycle of increased hurricanes and will probably see more bad years than good for awhile but that's just a cycle we're in. These same long-term weather cycles were probably going on before SUV's and smog… or Columbus for that matter. Will that stop the fear-mongers from trying to control everything? Probably not.

Global warming is the same way. Are things warming up about a degree right now? Yes. But it's been this warm before and cycles of extreme heat and cold have been with us for all of recorded history. What kind of narcissism says that we caused this one?

My Stack of Books

I always have a stack of books at home next to my chair. Some books are new and some I'm re-reading or just keep around for reference. Right now the stack consists of the following:

• Phil Gordon's Little Green Book. It's a book on Texas Hold'em strategy which has really helped a beginner like me learn the game. Short and well written, I've gone through it several times.
• The Gospel & Epistles of John by F.F. Bruce. Here's a good commentary but I'm not sure why this is here and not at the office. Sometimes my books migrate.
  
• Christianity for Modern Pagans by Peter Kreeft. Kreeft is one of my favorite authors and this is his commentary on Pascal's Pensées. If you're into philosophy, this is great stuff.
• The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel. Yet another great book by Strobel. Jay-rod and his wife gave this to me as a gift and it's been a ready resource ever since.
• Liberation Road by David Robbins. I feel bad for this novel. It's at the bottom of the stack and has been there for months. I like the author and I like historical novels but this World War 2 story keeps getting bumped by books more urgent or important. I'll get around to it eventually I suppose.
  

What a Loser (4 weeks)

Okay, here's the deal. The best way to stick with this is to keep people updated and involved. I went to the doctor on October 27 and was told to lose weight, among other things. He wanted a slow steady weight loss of a few pounds a month, maybe forty pounds in a year. I've lost 15 pounds in four weeks (and that includes Thanksgiving). Shannon feels that's a little fast, but we're pleased with how things are going.

I'm mostly just playing basketball, lifting weights, and living on Diet Mt. Dew and baked chicken breasts with brown rice. It's not perfect and probably isn't the basis of a best-selling book but it's working. It also really helps to be married to a Weight Watchers leader!

Because we're making so many changes (family budget, almost no eating out, etc.) I feel this is likely to stick. Shannon's not going back, why should I? It would help my ministry to not be sick all of the time and I'd be here longer for my family (Shannon will live to be 100 easy). So my goal is to lose 75 pounds before my anniversary, June 1. That's six months to lose another 60 pounds.

Capt. Toz: No Regrets

U.S. Army Special Forces Captain Jeffrey "Toz" Toczylowski was killed in action in Iraq a year ago. In his will, he left $100,000 to defray the expenses for a party to be held, in memory of him, in Las Vegas. The 30 year old captain was buried at Arlington on November 14, 2005. The party was held November 11, 2006, and was attended by 125 family and friends. Toczylowski believed in what he was doing, and left this message behind to emphasize the point.

Don't ever think that you are defending me by slamming the Global War on Terrorism or the U.S. goals in that war. As far as I am concerned, we can send guys like me to go after them or we can wait for them to come back to us again. I died doing something I believed in and have no regrets except that I couldn't do more.

Thanks to StrategyPage.com for the heads up.

Happy? Feet

We tortured ourselves by taking the kids to see a movie today. We thought the penguin cartoon, Happy Feet, would be a good, innocent choice. We were wrong.

Happy Feet might be the most heavy-handed, political indoctrination movie I've ever seen. It's depressing! Do you remember the anti-hunting sentiment behind Bambi? People are evil and the world would be better off without them? Imagine that times a hundred. It wore me out. Okay, okay, people are bad, every human is a mindless killer and a polluter. I get it already.

But this movie was manipulative with it's message. My kids watched while one penguin nearly suffocated to death with a plastic six-pack ring around his neck and the star penguin slowly went insane while imprisoned in a zoo. The wrongs this movie campaigns against aren't limited to just pollution and over-fishing, but also religion, faith, and religious leaders, traditional values, oil, zoos, corporations and capitalism, etc. One reviewer said, "Even the wee ones may start to notice something's amiss when the movie's theme goes from "be yourself" to "we must regulate the overfishing of the Antarctic oceans." No, for real."

After two solid hours of beating the audience over the head with this, finally the United Nations saved the penguins by banning commercial fishing. Come back next week, kids, when the U.N. bans religion and private property to save cute fuzzy squirrels!

Gag me with with a spoon.

25,000 Hits

We passed 25,000 hits last night. Thank you for reading; this is a huge milestone. It's about 1200 hits a month, though it's actually been higher in the second year than it was in the first year (about 1000 hits every three weeks).

I hope you find a little of what you're looking for here. I try to write everyday and write what I know. Eventually I'll start writing books but I need to get this blogging thing down first. It's good discipline and instructive too. Your feedback means a lot.

Thanks again and God bless.

Church Reminder

Don't forget: we have NO Wednesday Family Night tonight. No meal, No classes. We'll resume next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Birth of a Home

Statistics are revealing. In recent years the teen birth rate in the United States has dropped until this last year when it was the lowest on record. This is mostly good news, if only the declining abortion rate was not a factor at all (the rate of abortions has steadily declined over the last twenty years).

But the problem has evolved in a new direction: births to unwed mothers have reached an all-time high. 37% of all births in the United States are to unwed mothers, mostly women in their twenties, many of whom are involved with the father but not married to him. In the last fifty years, the average age of first marriages is has risen by four and five years for men and women respectively.

What does this mean? Teenage pregnancy and abortion, as issues, are heading in the right direction. The real fight today is the decline of the institution of marriage. People are substituting live-together-first relationships for real marriage, sabotaging their future in the process. Cohabitants separate at a rate of over 40% before marriage but afterwards they are 50% more likely to get divorced than those who did not live together before marriage. If a home is established on a trial basis, without full commitment and trust, it's difficult to get that jump-started midstream.

Sleepless in KCK

We decided at the last moment not to do the sleep study right now. It was a difficult decision, because I definitely have sleep apnea, but we just can't afford to spend $600 to be told what we already know. It would eat up our emergency fund and I'd still have to go back a second time to test the breathing machine. I'm continuing to exercise and lose weight and I'm open to wearing a mask at night, but we just couldn't pull the trigger on this thing yet.

So we're going to make another appointment with my doctor and continue to do everything else and we'll revisit the sleep study thing later. Thanks for asking, though, I've had several phone calls today and I appreciate it.

Selflessness

"It must often be so… when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them."

J.R.R. Tolkien

Dodgy Draft Idea

Some folks, like Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), want to reinstate the draft.

But why?

Does Mr. Rangel know that militaries around the world have moved from conscription to an all-professional force in the last forty years? Does he realize that volunteers are generally more effective, more motivated, and have fewer problems than conscripts? Does he understand that if he wants the most proficient military, you need to go all-volunteer?

But that's not what Mr. Rangel is looking for. He and others like him see the military as either a social instrument and a internecine political tool.

The former view says that if some serve, all should; that the military should always reflect the demographics of the nation; and that the life-choices of young Americans are best left in the hands of the government.

This view usually implies that military service is a type of punishment or imposed burden as opposed to an honor. If some people are forced to bear this terrible burden then everyone (or a carefully selected cross section) should have to be thus enslaved. Though military service can certainly be costly beyond description, many are willing to serve, at least in part, out of a sense of duty, honor, and patriotism. And you'd be surprised where you get many of these people: religious, rural and suburban, middle income, and newly immigrated. This describes an average American volunteer for over 200 years, but was never mandated by law.

And why should Charlie Rangel decide whether a young American needs to enter public service? Perhaps some have other plans to contribute to our country? I didn't serve in the military, yet I feel I make a significant contribution to the strength of the fabric of our country… and I started working in this field when I was 17.

But at the end of the day, Mr. Rangel has political motivations. He said, "There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way." It appears that Charlie Rangel is more interested in tying the hands of the President, then defending our country.

I believe that he thinks America is either not really vulnerable or can stand to be knocked down a peg or two. Thus proactively "getting them before they get us" is not real high on his priority list.

Back In the Saddle

Okay, I'm back to my normal routine after a hectic week… almost. I still have to do a sleep study tonight to verify that I have sleep apnea. So that means spending the night in a lab and I can't imagine a person sleeping with electrodes and monitors and whatever, but who knows.

I sure hope this makes a difference.

I've noticed that while I was gone this week that the hits continued to roll in. Thanks for checking back so often, I'll try to ratchet up the blogging asap.

Random Thoughts 11/16/06

• Here's a little good news on a gloomy topic. I was reading a report that said American soldiers in Iraq, when compared to those in Vietnam, are half as likely to become injured and twice as likely to survive their injuries. This is due in part to the effective training of combat medics. We have a young man from our church who joined the Navy after high school to become a corpsman (medic) in the Marines. He'll go to the Anbar Province (Fallujah & Ramadi) in January.
• I heard a radio commercial today that said, "Any place can tan your body. Cancun tans your soul." Huh? I'm not sure if I get it and I'm not sure if I'd want to.
  
• When we have friends over to play cards, they often bring Double-Stuff Oreo cookies and I always set three of them aside for the boys to have the next morning. Sometimes I save six cookies (two each for Brennan, Tanner, and Eli). Since I no longer eat stacks of these things, there were several leftovers Wednesday night. So Brennan came to our bedside first thing this morning and asked if he could have an Oreo. Shannon asked him how many there were, assuming one or two per child. Brennan left for a moment and then reappeared at Mom's bedside moments later with his answer, "Fourteen." Yes, son, you can have an Oreo… now that you've handled them all.
  
• We have a work retreat at the church camp Friday evening and Saturday all day. Hopefully, we get a lot of projects finished in the time allotted.
  
• Here's a shot of Graham being cute. He found a new toy and was giggling with glee. Who knew that funny thing was connected to Dad?
  
  

Long Time, No Blog

I probably should have warned you that I'd be a little scarce this week. There's a lot going on and I'm pretty much swamped this week, right on through Sunday night. I'm actually home right now (Thursday afternoon), but I'm working and have a board meeting tonight at 7pm. Busy, busy, busy!

Random Thoughts 11/13/06

• When you cook an animal you've gunned down yourself, do you worry about chipping your teeth on hidden shotgun pellets? Me too! Well, worry no more; now you can use Season Shot! Avoid those nasty shotgun pellets and flavor your game bird from the inside all in one shot. This new ammo is made of tightly packed seasonings that flavor your game bird on impact. So the next time you kill dinner, first pick from one our six tasty flavors. Season Shot – ammo with flavor!
• Fitness update: I've lost eleven pounds in two weeks. I'm lifting weights at the YMCA and I'm playing a lot of basketball, which is pretty funny to watch when done in that order (it's not really shooting baskets, just threatening to). Shannon and I are enjoying working out together and it's close to home. I'm eating a lot of brown rice and skinless chicken and I've almost completely cut out regular soda (formerly 3-5 cans per day).
• That didn't take long. The Dems haven't even taken power yet and they're already talking about giving up the fight in Iraq. Way to go. Victory? Finishing the job? Honoring a commitment? Nah.
  
• Have you ever read Ronald Reagan's speech to CPAC in 1975? It's been getting a lot of traction this last week, largely because it's so relevant to today's situation. Reagan said in part, "A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers." It's a good read.
• A Judge in Massachusetts has officially ruled that burritos are, in fact, NOT sandwiches. I just thought you should know.
• Voters in Tennessee elected a man to the city commission this year unaware that he was on the most wanted list in the next county. As Waylon Jennings said, "Makin' their way, any way they know how, that's just a little bit more than the law will allow…" Voters in North Carolina voted a dead guy onto the county board. The Democratic Party ran ads for him almost a month after he died and he won by a landslide. Election workers knew he was dead but didn't say anything to voters because "that's not our job." Finally, a man running for mayor of a small Arkansas town got the election results back and it said he received exactly zero votes. He thought he voted for himself, and several others said they did too, but the electronic voting machine says he got zero. Now he needs a court order to review an election where the winner won with a total of just 18 votes – like I said, small town.
  

Beauty Evolves

This video (the Dove film: Evolution) is a must see. It's the time-lapse transformation of a model's face from make-up chair to photoshop computer enhancement to billboard. It's shocking.

The image of beauty that we're sold in the media is so exaggerated it borders on the unrealistic. Did you notice that the computer makes her neck longer and her eyes bigger? She wasn't just airbrushed, she was morphed into a different creature, a caricature of a real person. And every girl who sees her is going to feel inferior, even though the actual model herself looks nothing like the billboard!

No Greater Love

November the 11th is Veteran's Day, which will be observed today.

Since our culture calls common service heroic and considers heroic sacrifice to be a tragic victimization, I've decided to highlight some heroes that have been largely ignored.

Jason Dunham, a corporal in the Marine Corps, was serving in Iraq in April 2004. He was struggling with an insurgent who dropped a grenade. Dunham placed his helmet over the grenade and his body over the helmet. He later died of his injuries.
Rafael Peralta, a sergeant in the Marine Corps, was fighting in Fallujah, Iraq in November 2004. While clearing a house, Peralta was shot by three terrorists in the face and upper body. When a grenade was thrown into the room occupied the Marines, Peralta grabbed it and covered it with his body, saving the lives of his comrades. He died instantly.
Michael Monsoor, a Navy Seal serving in Iraq in September 2006, had already pulled a wounded comrade to safety under intense enemy fire, when an enemy grenade struck him and bounced to the ground. Monsoor immediately covered the grenade with his body saving the lives of three fellow Seals at the cost of his own.

As of this writing, these three men, who have been nominated for the Medal of Honor, have not yet received it. The process can take as long as two years, but both Dunham and Peralta's petitions have reached that mark. These men, and perhaps others, should be honored alongside Paul Ray Smith, the only soldier so far to receive the nation's highest honor for the War on Terror.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

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UPDATE: As I was writing this post, the news broke that President Bush has announced that Jason Dunham will be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

Random Thoughts 11/9/06

Sorry I didn't post this yesterday, but I had a funeral to attend to.

• Tanner is learning to read. Though just in Pre-school, he listens in on the phonics that Brennan is learning and is picking up quite a bit. I administered a test this morning (at the kindergarten level – reading single words and matching pictures to first letters) and Tanner passed it with flying colors! We weren't even hoping for him to do so well so soon.
• Jericho, the CBS drama about a Kansas town after a nuclear attack, is driving me crazy. Why do I even watch it? I don't think the acting is any good and I feel the plots are unrealistic and sappy. And the details, oh the details! Arggggh! (check my previous post, "You Can't See Mountains From Kansas") These writers have not only never been to Kansas, they have no common sense. How does fallout from Lawrence affect an area 300 miles to the west? Wouldn't the radiation go east with the weather? Next week the townsfolk are going to blow up a bridge to keep people out of their town. That's right, one bridge connects Jericho to the rest of Western Kansas. You've got to be kidding. Twenty culverts, maybe, but one bridge? Over what river? I have to stop watching this dreck.
  
• How about the Golden State 49ers. San Francisco is probably going to lose the 49ers to Santa Clara, just 30 miles away. The name probably won't change at all (both the Jets and the Giants play in New Jersey) but I think it should change. Let them be the California 49ers and move to LA or Anaheim. If the city of San Francisco is more concerned about an Olympics 10 years from now then a legendary football franchise, then let's move the 49ers to Southern California.
  
• With 51 seats in the Senate going to the Democrats, you can say goodbye to constitutional originalists. And I'll bet that 9 out of 10 people who don't know what a "constitutional originalist" is voted Democrat.
• Rumsfeld has decided to leave after six years of being the main stream media's whipping boy. I thought that, all things considered, no one else could have done better. And he handled the press conferences with an intelligent wit that was easy to enjoy. After being demonized like he has, it may take several years of historical perspective for the country to appreciate him. It's also been said that you can't judge a secretary of defense until a decade later anyway. So long, Rummy.
  

Doing the Right Thing

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?'
Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?'
But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Black Tuesday

Disappointing losses:
• Michael Steele didn't make the Senate from Maryland.
• Lynn Swann didn't win the governorship of Pennsylvania.
• Jim Ryun lost his seat in the US House from Kansas.
• George Allen, who some thought would make a good presidential candidate, lost his Senate seat in Virginia.
• Jim Barnett, alas, we barely knew thee.

Points to Ponder:
• How on earth does a conservative state like Kansas re-elect a far left-wing governor from Ohio?
• Speaking of far-left, do we all realize who is in charge of the House of Representatives now? Or the House Intelligence committee? Or Ways and Means? Good grief! Thank goodness for 2008.
• McCaskill won; I'm stupefied.
• I'm afraid we'll spend the next two years looking backward, undoing progress, and repainting honest deeds as corruption – all for political gain. The Democrats ran, and won, on a blame Bush platform. No plans. Just hate mongering and name calling. And it worked.
• It's interesting that several of the Democrats who won are moderate or even conservative. This alone may be our saving grace.
• Cloning humans for research purposes is now a constitutional right in Missouri. Thank you Michael J. Fox and people who don't read the entire five pages of fine print.
• Kansas Secretary of State - perhaps the only office at any level where the candidate I voted for actually won. I'll have to double check, but I've come to expect it, being one of the six or seven token conservatives in Wyandotte County.
• Conservatives should go back to the basics in 2008: smaller government, lower taxes, traditional values, etc. This is the one of two areas in which I would criticize the President, he's been a ineffective moderate on domestic issues. The other area is Bush's absolute inability to communicate. I don't think he's wrong, I just don't think anybody understands where he's going or why.

Still Sick

I've been sick all day, not eating and vomiting (maybe I have an eating disorder? At least I'm losing weight!). So I'll have to pass on blogging much today, which is a shame because I had all sorts of good stuff to bring up right before going to the poles on Tuesday. Stem cells, abortion, corruption, taxes, etc… but here's a snippet:

VOTE! Don't skip this election!

But if you're one of the kool-aid drinkers who intend to punish the President because of your conspiracy theories, pessimism, and indifference, remember, it'll be the American soldier and the good Iraqis who'll suffer in the next two years.

The President has always said this would be hard, but it's the only long term solution that has been offered to the culture of terror in the Middle East. The Democrats, however, are content with us losing this fight. It helps them politically and they think that we can take it. They don't see the connection between Iraq Theater and the Greater War on Terror because they're not thinking long term. Ask yourself if you want to lose this war.

Don't vote ignorant of history. Don't leave our troops under-funded, our commander-in-chief impeached over unpopularity, and innocent Iraqis to the hands of butchers and extremists. Vote to do the right thing.

/rant

24,000 Hits

We passed 24,000 hits this morning. Thanks for reading!

Not that I was paying attention too closely, however; our whole family has been violently ill with one of those bugs that sweep through and knock everybody out for a day or so. Poor Brennan, Tanner, Grandpa, and uncle Craig seemed to have it the worst, while Shannon and I took pretty bad hits as well. Hopefully everyone will be back on track by tomorrow.

3 of 4 Terrorists Agree, Vote Democrat

"Of course Americans should vote Democrat," said Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

Islamic terrorists are openly bragging that the predicted Democrat victory this Tuesday is a victory in the fight against America and the "Zionists." This is a must read for those who misunderstand what kind of fight we're in.

From the article:

Islamic Jihad's Saadi, laughing, stated, "There is no chance that the resistance will stop."

He said an American withdrawal from Iraq would "prove the resistance is the most important tool and that this tool works. The victory of the Iraqi revolution will mark an important step in the history of the region and in the attitude regarding the United States."

Jihad Jaara said an American withdrawal would "mark the beginning of the collapse of this tyrant empire (America). Therefore, a victory in Iraq would be a greater defeat for America than in Vietnam."

Bad Company…

"Long live the people and death to their enemies!"

Saddam yelled this when he was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging. I think he got that one right, if only he would understand that he was his country's worst enemy. For the record, Saddam has stated his preference for a firing squad.

Speaking of people who may not be working for right side, Saddam's lawyer, Ramsey Clark, is a real piece of work. In the last 50 years he has an amazing record of picking the wrong side of a court case. He's defended two Nazis, cult leader David Koresh, a pro-marijuana group, African mass murderers like Charles Taylor (Liberia) and Elizaphan Ntakirutimana (Rwanda), Palestinian and Iranian terrorists and anti-American groups, army deserters, Serbian war criminals like Slobodan Milošević, and other assorted murderers, war criminals, and anti-American radicals. And then he worked pro-bono for Saddam Hussein.

What a guy.

A Doctor a Day Keeps the Apples Away

UPDATE (4pm): I passed the stress test with flying colors. There's nothing wrong with my heart… that is if you don't count that it's dark and devious with a cruel sense of humor. While I was on the treadmill I let out a gasp and grabbed my left arm, you know, just to be funny. Both the nurse and the nurse practitioner nearly jumped out of their skin. They didn't find it nearly as amusing as I did.

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I've been to more doctor's appointments in the last ten days than in the last ten years. I have a stress test this afternoon and my sleep study is next Monday night. I've been poked and prodded, had labs drawn, and been worked over by the chiropractor several times now.

Since we've been going to the YMCA every day now, I really don't have a lot of worries about this stress test (like falling off the treadmill – I've got that down now). And if I continue to lose weight, the sleep apnea and cholesterol should get addressed.

Now if I can just remember to eat those apples. Shannon bought me a whole bag of apples – my favorites, Granny Smith apples – which I have been too busy to remember to eat. I really do like them, but I'm always running off to the next appointment.

A Breed Apart

A short quiz:



The child on the left is…

A.) the new kid in a small, backward, farming community.
B.) the only discerning college basketball fan in the room.
C.) the only son of the only radical left-wing socialists in Riley County.
D.) being punished for not being able to name ten major field crops.

Why the Long Face, Senator?

Sorry to beat a dead horse *giggle*, but I thought this parody of the "Army Strong" commercial was pretty clever.

Do Your Homework

Gym Dandy

I often say that I feel "like a truck ran over me" when I get up in the morning (I'm hoping the sleep study will help fix that). But Shannon and I took the kids to the YMCA this morning and I worked out with her for the first time in ages. We did the whole workout routine and played some basketball. By the time we were done I was absolutely spent (not that it took much).

We got into the van to go back home and Shannon asked, "So, do you still feel like a truck ran over you?" I looked at her with weary eyes and moaned, "More like I ran away from the truck first… then it ran over me."

I'm guessing that you have to go to the gym more than once to start feeling the positive effects.