stuff

[jazzfish]

Ow my head. I feel much better about my writing now.

Why does George W. Bush still have an approval rating around 40%? Because about 40% of the American people are ignorant dumbasses:

"Do you think Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was DIRECTLY involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, or not?" Taken Sept. 2-4 [2004 -ed].

"Yes"=42%

"No"=44%

"Unsure"=14%

(This is without even getting into Gallup's unrelated polling wackiness.)

And, beating out the Hon. Alex Kozinski's "The parties are advised to chill" (Aqua vs. Mattel Corp, aka "the 'Barbie Girl' case") in the category of Coolest Judicial Statement Ever, we have the following, sadly anonymous, trademark opinion:

When the undersigned accepted the appointment from the President of the United States of the position now held, he was ready to face the daily practice of law in federal courts with presumably competent lawyers. No one warned the undersigned that in many instances his responsibility would be the same as a person who supervised kindergarten. Frankly, the undersigned would guess the lawyers in this case did not attend kindergarten as they never learned how to get along well with others. . . .

The Court simply wants to scream to these lawyers, 'Get a life' or 'Do you have any other cases?' or 'When is the last time you registered for anger management classes?' . . . In the event it is not clear from the above discussion, the Motion for Reconsideration is DENIED."

---

Semester eating me alive, as expected. I have (most of) a cast for my directing scene, and I think I'm actually no more than a week behind in all my classes now. Saw the rain and decided not to bother leaving the house yesterday, which I think was a good call.

Lord, I can use this weekend. At least I'll have Donkey Konga to chill with. And maybe I can finally finish Strange & Norrell. And get the booklog caught up. And do some work on my second playwriting play. And and and.

Comments

[jonny-law.livejournal.com]

Certainly a single chemical or biological weapon could be a national tragedy, if it were delivered on U.S. soil. Certainly the vast quantities of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons that Hussein was actively acquiring, and the weapon delivery systems that Colin Powell presented before the U.N. would pose a national security threat to the U.S.

But the fact is that the vast quantities of weapons and the weapon delivery systems that were claimed either haven't been found or the claims were found to be as fake as balsawood. What may exist are the weapons that were unaccounted for after the 1991 Gulf War, which may have been, as you say, "buried in the desert somewhere" decomposing until they are no longer dangerous, or unlabeled and stored with other conventional weapons.

You say that the terrorists have "stumbled across some of them," with the implied meaning that eventually they will come across any others out there. This is where I agree with you completely. The danger is that in a destabilized Iraq, where Islamic terrorists can flood across the border without fear of a paranoid Saddam afraid they will overthrow his secular dictatorship, these weapons will fall into the hands of terrorists and eventually be carried to the U.S.

While you may think that I said that the two chemical weapons used were not "real," what I actually said was that this was not the amount officials cited as justification for war. So yeah, two chemical weapon artillery shells are no more of a national security threat than two explosives-filled artillery shells. Two chemical weapon artillery shells in the hands of terrorists are as much of a national security threat as, well, knives, boxcutters, and bomb threats.