Enraged By Spin

Vice President Dick Cheney was interviewed on Fox news today saying, basically, that the brutal insurgent attacks in Iraq lately are happening because the insurgents want to sway the elections in favor of the Democrats. Not because they want an end to western lifestyle, not because they are fundamentalist Muslim extremists that want to end the freedom to worship under any religion other than Islam, not because of their hatred of US dominance over most of the world and its meddling with other governments, but because the insurgents want the democrats to win in the elections on the 7th of November! Of course! Now it all makes sense. I am constantly being overwhelmed by a mixed feeling of fear, anger, and amazement that Americans elected power hungry idiots to run our country.

CAVUTO: Do you suspect that these insurgent attacks are timed to influence our midterm elections?
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: That's my belief. I think they are, very, very cognizant of our schedule, if you will. They also -- you've got to remember what the strategy is of the terrorists. They specifically can't beat us in a stand-up fight. They never have. But whether it's al Qaeda or the other elements that are active in Iraq, they are betting on the proposition they can break the will of the American people. They think we won't have the stomach for the fight long-term.
...
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: [The insurgents] know that the way they win is if they can, in fact, force America to withdraw on the basis that we aren't going to stay and finish the job, their basic proposition that they can break the will of the American people. Story

Well I might be inclined to believe him if the will of the American people was in favor of staying in Iraq indefinitely but unfortunately for him the will of the American people is a plurality of 37% for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq (poll data). Now there are, of course, Americans that want us to "stay the course" in Iraq so I guess what Cheney meant was the insurgents are trying to break the will of the people that have been brainwashed by Fox News and the Republican party into believing that the Iraq war is somehow doing good for the people of Iraq, that staying there is helping them form a stable democracy, that by being in Iraq we are somehow making the US safer from terrorist attacks. Well, I just hope the American people are smarter than that and go to vote on Nov. 7th for a democrat or even an independent (as long the independent candidate is against the war and for pulling our troops out as soon as humanly possible) but not for a Republican.

The Strange Rantings of An Angry Mad Man

I opened Word this morning and the program asked me if I wanted to recover some automatically saved data. I clicked Yes and I'm I glad I did because I found this little amount of text that I had written while drunk a few nights ago. It is the beginning to a novel that I wanted to call The Strange Rantings of An Angry Mad Man. This is all that was recovered but I like how it sounds:

Circling beyond the esoteric bounds of the event horizon I collapsed into my own hole. I was bored. The hole was my mind.

Hilarious Street Paper

I found a page of torn out spiral bound notebook paper lying on the ground on the way home from work today and when I looked down I thought it looked like a strange encrypted message but it turned out to be far more awesome than that: It is partly a rhyme, I think, and partly a little kids story for class. It is in the style of handwriting from a 2nd grader or 4th, or 5th I have no idea how young the kid's handwriting looks but it looks and sounds very juvenile. I will scan a copy of it tomorrow so you know I am not making this up but for your immediate viewing pleasure I have copied the writing down as best as I could understand it:

I Want to Be Older

"I want to Be Older, O ya how old Do you want to Be
Some Balls my self shoting 21 I see
can see it in my eyes Rad when I was
a little kid my mom said I had
to get some"

-----

Said Stink, knock-ing on her door.
"Cant" said Judy. "Too much rain."
"What?"
"Never mind. Just go to school without me."
"Mom, Judy's sipping school!" Stink yelled.
Mom came into Judy's room. "Judy honey what's wrong?"
"I'm sick of rain," she whispered to mouse.
"Sick whats wrong what hurts," asked mom.
"My head, for one thing. From all that noisy rain."
"You have a headache yes. And a sore throat. And a fever. And a stiff neck. That's from sleeping with the diction-ary under your pillow," said test Stink.
To ace your spelling
Yes hi
Stuck out her cherry Ames-cough-drop tongue at Stink. Mom felt Judy's head.
"You don't seem to have a fever. Faker," said Stink.
"Come back in five minutes said Judy. "I'll have a fever by then."
"Faker, faker, faker," said Stink. If only she had...

That is the end of the story unfortunately so we will never get to know what happens but I'll postulate that Judy was actually faking being sick.

Update 3: Bridge Over Charles River Painting

Below is the latest work I have accomplished on my Bridge Over Charles River painting. The photo is a little blurry but you can still see the most obvious changes. Or can you? I don't know if what I have changed is obvious at all, but it did take me a long time to do.

Previous edits:

I'll try and get a better picture of the most recent update tonight.