Tuesday, October 08, 2002

I need to have my credit cards taken away - I had a shitty day at work, and came home with a GameCube.  Yeah, it's used, and I only bought two games, but still...I didn't NEED this, by any stretch of the imagination. I'm so obviously addicted to buying things...not shopping, but the actual act of buying things. Opening the boxes, peeling the plastic off the cases - it's honestly the only way I get through some days. I need to work on this. On the other hand, Super Mario Sunshine rules.

10:39:48 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

C.I.A. Director Suggests Iraq May Not Strike Unless Provoked. It appears that some in the CIA have reservations about an Iraq attack; the CIA director implies that US attack would PROVOKE Iraq while various CIA spokespeople have suggested that Bush administration claims about Iraqi WMD and links to Al Qaeda are exaggerated and cannot be confirmed C.I.A. Director Suggests Iraq May Not Strike Unless Provoked [Blog Left: Critical Interventions] The really worthwhile bit here I heard on the radio this afternoon: George Tenet, director of CIA, says that intelligence suggests that Iraq won't use its chemical weapons (the only WMDs we really have to worry about) unless it's under attack. Logic? Saddam Hussein's not suicidal - he wants to get Bush off his back and get back to his business of merrily oppressing his people. Tra-la-la. If he starts carelessly lobbing chemical warheads around the Middle East...well, he's dead. Period. And if we start to invade Iraq, he's almost certainly dead...unless he can somehow slaughter enough Americans to make us back off. Guess what he'll do...

10:34:12 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Interesting pushback. A reader says Google News creams news aggregators. That hadn't occurred to me. I tried Google News. 4000 pubs all reporting the same story is 4000 times more boring than one. Didn't interest me one bit. I'm spoiled, I've got my own virtual newspaper. [Scripting News] For once, I agree with Dave. Google News is cool and all - it's a great way to see what, if any, alternate perspectives there are on any given story - but, by and large, getting the NY Times, DC Post, and the BBC gives me the news coverage I need. And I get it through my aggregator, meaning I also get Slashdot, Scripting News, Radio Free Blogistan, Driver 8, The Raven, She's Actual Size..., Maxine's Radio Weblog...and yes, I'm pimping my fellow Salon blogs. Go read them. What are you doing, still sitting here looking at this pap of mine - go read the good stuff!

10:28:27 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

'Terrorists' blamed for US marine attack [BBC World] ...and in other news, 'terrorist' union members are blamed for the shutdown of West Coast ports. I know, I know, these most likely WERE terrorists in the Kuwait thing, but I can't help but make snide comments whenever I get the opportunity.
10:24:14 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

You can tell that Vin Baker is really happy to be playing basketball in Boston, and is working really hard to look good when he addresses Tommy Heinsion, color guy/interviewer, as Mr. Heinsion. That's what I'm talkin' about. =)
10:11:39 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

A Nation Wary of War [New York Times: Opinion] "Given the cautionary mood of the country, it is puzzling that most members of Congress seem fearful of challenging the hawkish approach to Iraq. Many Democrats have somehow convinced themselves that their party will falter in next month's elections if they fail to show sufficient enthusiasm for going to war. Many Americans — a majority, according to the Times/CBS poll — say members of the Bush administration are trying to use the Iraq conflict to political advantage." Damn straight, it's puzzling. Why is Congress rolling over and playing dead?

8:01:46 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Sharon hails 'successful' Gaza raid. Israel's prime minister defends an army operation which killed 14 Palestinians¸ shrugging off international condemnation. [BBC News | WORLD] Yup, killing 14 and injuring 100+ - that's successful. Assuming you're a 'homicidal' 'regime' with 'weapons of mass destruction'. Y'know, like Baathist Iraq and Likudist Israel. I just want to make it perfectly clear that I am a fervent supporter of the state of Israel. I am a Zionist, in the sense that I believe in the right of the Jewish homeland to exist and be strong. I have no doubt about this whatsoever. This in no way conflicts with my loathing for the Sharon regime currently in power in Israel - in fact, it's my firm belief that Sharon poses the greatest threat to the continued existence and stability of Israel since the Camp David Accords rendered Arab invasion a fear of the past. Rabin, if you remember, was a highly decorated soldier, who served in the Six Days and Yom Kippur wars with distinction. He saw that Israel was no longer under a real threat to its existence, not at the hands of the Palestinian intifadah, and realized that the only way to peace and stability was to acknowledge that the Palestinians had the same rights to a homeland that the Israelis do. He was killed for acting on this, with the 'land-for-peace' Oslo Accords. Arafat dropped the ball at Camp David with Barak and Clinton, but Sharon... Don't forget that Sharon should be taken to trial for war crimes in his massacres of refugee camps in Lebanon. This isn't a man of peace we're talking about here - he's a common thug with some charisma, an answer to Syria's late dictator Assad, or Egypt's Nassar...he just happened to end up in a democracy. Because of that, he had to provoke a new uprising to get himself in office, and has to perpetuate the conflict to keep his power. The fact that the strongest reaction to Sharon's atrocities on the part of the US is that we're "troubled" shows just how far he can go.

7:58:14 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []