"Keep a Journal: How else are you going to get a good look at who you were?"

Monday, August 29, 2005

I'm home sick...allergies plus exposure to one of the kids' friends who had bronchitis already. Plus I haven't slept really well lately.

Time to update the 'blog.

What's going on in the world lately?

Hmmm.

Gas Prices.

The Iraq war.

Camp Casey.

New Orleans may be gone...



Let's start;

Gas is getting REAL expensive. Yet one contrarian wag I heard on NPR claims that in terms adjusted for inflation, we're spending just as much as we did in 1985. Which means, of course, that we're trying to buy the same commodity at the same price with dollars that are worth only 50% of what they were worth 20 years ago. Further, the 'rise' of the Canadian dollarette against the US greenback is NOT an indicator of strong growth in the canuck economy, but rather shows simply that the US dollar is devaluing faster than ours.

I am considering building a moped. I have seen chinese-made chain drive motors on ebay. I have seen friction drive "mosquitos" on places like www.bikemotor.com. Having seen the ease with which both designs could be adapted to a large-wheeled ATB, I have resolved to BUILD a large wheeled ATB, obtain a used 4 stroke weed whacker motor, and kludge up the mounting for either a chain drive (use a RH crank with chainrings on the LH side? Or retr0fit a separate sprocket on the LH side of the rear wheel?) or a friction drive. The friction drive seems to be the easier of the two, but requires MUCH more hardware. A chain drive setup would require a CV clutch to ensure that it could be disconnected so as to not interfere with the 'normal' operation of the bike.

Lessee, where were we? Vietnam, wasn't it?

Nah, that was 1968...

Many, many brave and fearless souls have come forward to Speak the Truth about the US administration, its lies, its wars, its avoidance of the Facts...to wit:

The US military forces are spread thin.

Conscription will NOT be tolerated by the American People.

The US is losing the war in Iraq. A war, some of the blunter and braver pundits have opined, that the US should never have started in the first place.

The hypocrisy of it all leaves me cynical.

Thus far, none of the brave speakers of Truth have mentioned the fact that all this and more was said BEFORE the war started. None of those messengers of doom 'n gloom were listened to at the time, and their input is conspicuously absent now. In fact, to quote a Certain Fox News Commentator, they were told at the time to; "SHUT UP!!!!".

"We are less secure now...". No Kidding!!!

The degeneration of the Greatest Democracy on Earth into a Fascist Police State has been only a minor annoyance 'till now. I am going to need a passport, apparently, to visit the LDS temple in Seattle. The worlds Longest Continuous Open Border just got Closed. Manifest Destiny, anyone??

Ah well, I guess I can hop a bus to Cardston or Edmonton.

Speaking of getting on the bus.

Camp Casey.

Few have mentioned the irony that the US is still free enough to allow this little campout/media circus. Yes, she has rallied the antiwar elements in the media and public opinion. Yes, her continued presence and speaking out has proved a small embarrassment to the Administration.

Let's look at the flip side, shall we? If the US pulls out of Iraq now, with the job not even half done...all that blood and maiming will have been for NOTHING. US boys 'n girls will have died (once again) for the US government's lies and posturing. It's both too early and far too late to pull out now, so say the experts. Too early because things are still a mess. There's precious little drinking water, electrical service is out much of the time, and there is little medical infrastructure up and running currently. Too late because the US might have been able to Get Out of Dodge after they found Saddam; if anyone at all in the War Party were inclined to do so, or to listen to those on the ground who were recommending finding an Exit, and quickly. Perhaps Pres. Bush has a Men in White Hats complex. The US are the good guys; they have to GET the bad guys and afterward, leave town nice and peaceful like (with nothing but the number of caskets at the local undertakers parlor out of order).

Of course, it isn't going to happen.

The US WILL stay the course. Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do...Bush & co. are hoping that if they leave US forces twisting in the desert wind long enough, somehow some good will come of it. In the meantime, they can blame the lack of troop morale on the whiners in the press, the public, other nations, etc.(we all know troop morale has nothin' to do with being stuck on the ass end of the world, separated from home and family, run around by an administration that keeps changing the rules about going home - apparently with NO end in sight to it all...) There will be a final assessing of blame, of course, but I won't be putting any money on the whiners being found as the main cause for the War in Iraq being a complete disaster. There will be a reckoning.

Speaking of reckoning days:

New Orleans...is it gone yet? The sheer hubris of building a city there in the first place...and then the Extraordinary Measures taken to ensure the city's existence. Dire warnings have sounded for YEARS about What Might Happen If...yeah, if only anyone were listening.

As for me; don't really know, don't really care...

It's like the Tower at Pisa. Everyone knows it will fall one day. But we all prefer to pretend that day won't happen anytime when we will actually be around to SEE it.