Opinion Page

Today's rant:

Can you hear me N.O.W.? I find it amusing that NOW has many links on their website against primarily Republican-based initiatives, but they are strangely missing something. NOW is getting ready to protest at Augusta, since they don't believe that a private club should be allowed to select their own membership without interference. Of course, this "movement" (if you think about it, it's an aptly descriptive term) is all for intruding into organizations that they have no legal right to join in, but they are the first to violate their own rules within their organization. When was the last time NOW had a male leader? Why is it that NOW can be exclusively female, but Augusta can't be exclusively male? The truth is that those knuckleheads only want to ruin other people's fun, and get as much free publicity as they can in the process. Even if the owners of Augusta National let them join, no one would talk to them. They are sue-happy, and the first time you let an off-color remark fly, they'd be out to sue you for hurting their precious little feelings. The members there are a close-knit group who keep to themselves, and don't politicize their every move. If you get one NOW member in there, they'd then ask for a quota of 50% women members, and their high-end members (who pay for everything) would all leave to find another club, and it would be ruined. NOW doesn't want to get included, they want to destroy someone else's fun. That's all it's about. They are against Miguel Estrada getting confirmed, but they're for minority issues. That is, as long as that minority supports them. They are a farce, and the country is getting tired of their trite and tired attacks. NOW is opposed to discrimination, but they're all in favor of Affirmative Action, which is government-mandated discrimination. Again, as long as it's in THEIR interest, they're for it. They have no principle except "what's in it for me?", and that doesn't wash with many of today's enlightened people. I bet that if Augusta wasn't pressured, they would've found some of the new breed of female CEOs who have new-found wealth and eventually allowed a few to quietly enter as they saw that they weren't being threatened. Now, thanks to NOW, that is likely to be set back about 20 years. Nice going, assholes! Anyway, the thing that I noticed is that Jessica Lynch wasn't in any way mentioned on their homepage. Why the fuck not? If there was EVER a success story for women, it was her. She survived a gunfight with enemy troops, torture by enemy hands, and not being fed for 8 or 9 days. You'd think she's be a model for them to advertise the power of a real woman! But since she did it all on her own, without a government program to assist her, or without a court decision to allow her to join, she doesn't fit their agenda. God forbid a woman did anything on her own.

A dangerous precedent? That's how the "Christian Science Monitor" calls the Israeli move to temporarily move about 1,000 Palestinian men into a refugee camp for 3 days while they searched for fugitives. I notice that they refer to the Israeli actions as a "mass explusion", and they even admit that the Israelis nabbed Anwar Alian, a leader of Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group. So, they had a mission, they stuck to it, and they're bad for that? The Monitor claims that this is just another "a new episode in a drama of expulsions, flight, and fear that has dominated the Palestinian collective memory since 1948, when many Palestinians were expelled by Jewish forces during the first Arab-Israeli war." Now, that's the biggest load of shit I've heard since Clinton said "I didn't have sex with that woman". Yes, Alan, a b/j is still sex. I noticed that the CSM didn't decry the violence and terrorism by the Palestinians as they have executed dozens of terrorist attacks levelled at civillians in Israel. Once again, no one seems to hold the Palestinians to any sort of behavioral standards, while the world holds the Israelis to a standard that even the U.S. doesn't meet. Let us remember that the "Palestinians" are a made up name for a group of people of descent from many other countries (Arafat is Egyptian, for example). They were not "expelled" from Israel. They were offered their OWN STATE when Israel was formed, and instead of accepting their own "home" in peace, they went and waged war to try to push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea. Now, the Israelis should be mindful of basic human rights for peaceful neighbors, but as long as the Palestinians embrace hatred, war, and terrorism, I don't believe they are deserving of even the basic treatment that we give to pets. If they want to be treated fairly, all they have to do is stop the terrorism, and be peaceful neighbors. Then the Israelis should back off and give them space. Until that time, they should be treated EXACTLY the same way that we are treating Iraqis. Shoot first, and ask questions later. When the Palestinians teach hate and anti-Semitism as a way of life, they don't deserve better treatment. They are responsible for the bed that they have to lay in.

Get over it. A bunch of stupid-ass rednecks are STILL griping and whining about the Civil War. I don't care if your great-great-grand-daddy took a bullet from a Union rifle. That's 138 years ago. Get over it. Just damn. History is written by the victors. And the the southerners case of "states' rights" is all just a front for a bunch of sore losers who are upset that they have to let dark-skinned people sit near the front of the busses. Abraham Lincoln wasn't a "conquerer" - he was a liberator. When you're the loser (and the oppressor), it's doublely bad taste to cry. Go back to your work at the auto garage - no one cares about your out-dated thinking. If you're so concerned with "states' rights", fight the Federal Government telling your states what to serve for lunch and how all of these over-bloated agencies do nothing but help "those less fortunate" while making the hated-rich "pay their share".

One small step for me.... Today Adrienne took her first step. TO ME. AND YES, I LOVED IT. She also took her first drink through a straw. I can't believe in 2 weeks she's going to be 1 year old!

Thanks to Sleepy Hollow - these folks fixed a problem that the auto parts store didn't have a clue about. I needed a thing-a-ma-jig to wire into the starter to fix a low voltage problem. For $20, they stopped me from returning the starter for a sixth time. They had an elegant solution that bypassed the problem and now the car starts every time. These are good people who own a family business. They gave me a diagram of how to wire it all together, wire, connectors, and the confidence to do it. They could've sold me another starter, but they took the high road. We need more people like this. I feel sorry that the "father" (old man) had a stroke recently. He has no use from his left arm or leg. I hope that my Dad was able to inspire him to continue his therapy, and hopefully he will fully recover. I know that it made both of us appreciate what we have, and realize how fragile "it" all is.

Random thoughts:
French people suck
I had a chance today to buy Belgium chocolate.... then I caught myself before I made a mistake.
It's going to be a good year... Dream Theater and Queensryche are on tour together.
Good friends are better than good wines... wines you keep or only have once, friends you keep and savor regularly.
People all over the world right now are going "damn, what time is it?" Except in Indiana and Arizona.
I'm amazed to see the reaction on a baby's face that a simple stuffed animal can bring.
It's so easy to complain about what we don't have... until we meet someone who has less than we do.
I wish at 3:30 we could all lay down and tap a nice nap with our blankets. Maybe people would be nicer.
Watching a baby discover new things reminds you to stop once in a while and smell the roses.
Roses have a sweet smell. They also have thorns. They're a lot like life.

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