Long and rambling, as per usual

Thanks to Matt and Fictional Correspondant for their comments. Even if they did support me. ;)

I've been told that it's not pleasant to respond to me when I ask for opinions, although I didn't quite the catch the reason. Ah well, if people don't give me their opinions, then they'll just have to suck it up when I don't consider their (unknown to me) point of view.

I also found out I'm an asshole. I'm sure that's no shock to many of my loyal readers. :P

I went and filled out an application to rent a little place in New Westminster. I don't want to live in New West, and the place is nothing to rave about, but the price is right and I do need a place. At least the location will let me pursue my hermiting ways. :)

As for what I'm going to do about the previous post, where I was looking for opinions on how to deal with what seems to me to be an ethical dilemma at work, I'm going to hold off for a short period and gather information, so that when I finally do present this stuff to my higher-ups (I don't care for the word "superiors"), I'll hopefully sound marginally coherent. I was surprised that everybody I spoke to in real life (with the exception of my Human Resources manager) opined that I should just leave it alone. Live and learn, eh?

In the news, Member of Parliament Carolyn Parrish has been booted out of the Liberal Party because she keeps ragging on Dubya. What's wrong with being childish, anyway?

Here are some historical presidential visits to Canada if you're interested: click here.

Also, the MAD policy of the cold war period was never much of a concern for me, since it was in place when I was born and was just part of the background noise of how things were. However...

"Earlier this year, a senior Defense Ministry official was quoted as telling news agencies that Russia had developed a weapon that could make the United States' proposed missile-defense system useless. Details were not given, but military analysts said the claimed new weapon could be a hypersonic cruise missile or maneuverable ballistic missile warheads. "

Yipes. Full article (without much meat) here.

One of my friends sent a link asking if this was me. It's not, since I can't bust moves this well. Note that the video is surrounded by porn banners, so if you get offended by such, don't click here.

Ashcroft loses his job to a Mexican. What won't the US farm out to other countries? :)

Thirteen states have had challenges to the teaching of evolution in school this year alone?! What. The. Hell?!

William Gibson, an author whose books I've enjoyed without exception (I didn't get into The Difference Engine as much, but I suspect that it's merely that I'm not a big slobbering fan of England a hundred years ago), and who was born in South Carolina, said this about the evolution-in-schools protesting:

"Re: Creationism, I must point out an unfortunate subtext that's no longer quite so obvious. Having grown up in the previous iteration of the rural American south, I know that what *really* smarted about Darwin, down there, was the logical implication that blacks and whites are descended from a common ancestor. Butt-ugly, but there it is. That was the first objection to evolutionary theory that I ever heard, and it was a very common one, in fact the most common. That it was counter to Genesis seemed merely convenient, in the face of an anthropoid grand-uncle in the woodpile."

I never even considered this, and I can't imagine how I'd investigate it. Still it's provocative, eh?

He goes on to comment: "Fear of the woodpile, of who might lurk within it, is the fulcrum, in American politics, for a long and ancient and very bloody lever. "

Probably talking about the Vietnam war, but good words anyway:

"I call on every man and woman of good will all over America today...to take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close. Don't let anyone make you think that God chose America as his divine messianic force, to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgement, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America 'You are too arrogant! If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone ofyour power! And I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I am God."

- Martin Luther King, 1969-04-04

Damn, that man could talk.