National Pride

The people of Iraq have none.

Maybe the shock and awe tactic has lingering effects. Maybe religious homogeneousness (new word) is the only thing they want. Maybe they just don't care if they become a puppet of Iran.

I don't know what the deal is, but if the people of Iraq actually vote for Iranian-influenced candidates, then Iraq is going to be a prime example of how some populations may actually be stupid enough to vote themselves into virtual slavery.

Don't fool yourself, look at Lebanon. In the Lebanese example of an Iranian-backed government, there's considerable corruption, considerable terrorist networking, and considerable inefficiency. Want to get out of it? See the Lebanese example again. There were deaths. Assassinations to be precise. Bombs. Unaware people died along with the targeted individuals.

Fear... Intimidation... that's what rules after you let Iran in your house. There is no government for the people, by the people. The government becomes for the government, and by the government. That's what finally became apparent in Iran's last election.

So, what will happen to Iraq?

Good question. Like Pakistan, Iraq has no choice but to change. It's a little more complicated though. One choice is to simply let Iran rule over them. This would be bad, obviously. But so blinded are Iraqi people that it is a definite possibility.

The other choice is to evolve as its own country. That's said easily enough, but it tremendously complicated and never really ends. But basically, the Iraqi people must simply act in the best interest of their country, instead of just voting for the guy who's the same religion as yourself.

So, a paradigm shift will have to happen in order for Iraq to become a 'real' country. Eyes need to be opened, and the truth will need to be heard. Can this happen... well yeah, but soon enough? Probably not.

Of course I was kinda wrong about Pakistan. I sort of figured they would let the Taliban gradually take over instead of fighting them off. So, I could be wrong about Iraq. But right now I don't think those people over there can see past the partisanship of religion. I don't think they really care about living in an independent country. Sadam beat them up pretty good, and now insurgents beat them. Maybe they feel that if Iran takes over, then Iran won't beat them so much.

It's funny, in a sad tsk tsk way, because when Iran takes over Iraq and starts beating them, only then will the Iraq people realize what they've done, and it will be too late.

But who knows, maybe Iraqi people actually like being slaves. Sure, some are normal and all that, but most have grown up in poverty and only know what their clerics tell them. I doubt any newspaper gets widely published...

You know, that's an idea. Newspapers relying on printed words should shift their target market to developing countries that lack internet access.

Of course, most people in Iraq probably can't afford to buy a newspaper, and those that can are probably illiterate.

Anyway, it's not that I hate Iraq, but I'm just really disappointed in the direction they seem to be headed. I hope they surprise me like Pakistan. If so, it'll be an even bigger surprise since Pak's choice was pretty definite and easy to see. Iraq's choice is vague, not really apparent to most people.

Once a campaign takes off, maybe the campaign trail will spread the word on what exactly is at stake. If it doesn't, then doom is certain. Iraq will become Iran's tool, and Iraq will only be some obscure country pumping in oil dollars for Iran.

Yeah, oil. You think Iran wants influence in Iraq for religious reasons? Funny.

Guantanamo Detainee Released to Afghanistan - Political News - FOXNews.com

"The Obama administration reportedly has released a prisoner from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp accused of attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

According to Reuters, the administration released Mohammed Jawad to his home in Afghanistan.

Jawad had been accused of throwing a grenade in 2002 that injured two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter in Kabul. He has returned to his family, according to his lawyer.

Kirk Lippold, former USS Cole commander and fellow at Military Families United, criticized the decision in a statement Monday, calling it part of a 'sadly familiar pattern.'

'No coherent policy in the war on terror. No comprehensive plan in place to deal with the future of Guantanamo Bay detainees. No accountability for terrorists who harm our brave fighting forces,' he said."

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Here's the de facto policy... take no prisoners.

A bullet or two is a lot cheaper than having terrorists take a vacation on our dime. And yes, an American prison is a vacation when you consider where they live, and the fact that they gain weight while in Gitmo.

Pack your trunk and leave the beach! - Yahoo! News

Pack your trunk and leave the beach!: "'Imagine having to explain to thousands of holidaymakers that the beach has been closed due to animal droppings,' he said."
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This just in... fish shit too.

Anyway, I think elephant shit in the ocean isn't a bad thing, it may even have more good effects than bad.

It actually works!

Yes, it works! And boy what a great time for it finally work.

I'm speaking of the little window that shows up after your computer may mysteriously lock up, or shut down, get a bsod, etc. In the past, it has popped up on me for some trivial things, and I would see if or what anything happened when I clicked to send off the info to MS for possible solutions. Nothing ever came back.

Well, the past couple of days on my home computer, a pretty awesome machine up until then, has been agonizing with bsod after bsod. It all started when I downloaded ventrilo... which is a current suspect.

Right after I downloaded ventrilo, I got some ad that popped up saying to download some stupid program because my computer had been infected. Now, I just built the system not very long ago, it's very robust, and I have Vista 64-bit on it. It's pretty much chewed through anything I can throw at it. I call it, DABEAST. Sort of like, the beast, because it is one powerful mofo.

Very soon after that, the problems started. Crash. Freeze. Memory dump. BSOD. I was like, "Damn ventrilo." Still am. So, I figure it's just some some malware/adware messing with me. I download Adaware and Superantispyware or whatever it's called, and run them. I defrag, all sorts of the usual things one does to clean out whatever crap you may have picked up. Well, things get worse.

The next day I notice that I'm mainly crashing while playing a game (WoW, just started playing a few weeks ago). So, from prior experience I know that's usually driver related. So I go and update, uninstall, reinstall, the driver more than once, because I kept crashing. While I'm crashing, and rebooting, that Windows message comes up afterwards and notifies me that Windows didn't shut down properly and that it will look for solutions. Yeah right, I've seen that thing for years and never seen anything come to fruition.

I then do a system restore, yeah, getting desperate. I go back to a point days before I downloaded ventrilo and all this crashing started. And... yep, after going through all that I still get the BSOD. If I didn't already shave my head, I'd be pulling my hair out at this point. I figure it must be something with the recent patch that WoW did. So I uninstall it and then reinstall it. Nope, still BSOD.

Then yesterday I get home, and am thinking more and more about reformatting the HD. Yep, erase it ALL and start anew. I turn on the computer, it starts up, and... what's that? A window appears saying that solutions have been found for my problem. Hmm... so I click on the window, or bubble or whatever it was, and a window pops up saying that it was determined that I am missing two (2!) microchip drivers, and a bad video driver. It provides me with options to fix it along with links to download the current driver for the ones that are missing. WOW!!!

And to top it off, it worked! AMAZING! The drivers weren't the latest, but the thing showed me what the problem was. I installed the linked drivers in a hurry (anticipating bsod at any moment) and then checked to see if there was anything newer afterward. There was, but that's no biggie. And then... nothing! Sweet sweet nothing, no BSOD whatsoever. I was on the computer for the rest of the night with not one BSOD.

THANK YOU MS! I had thought that program to be useless, but it really works!

One thing I learned as I was trying to figure out the culprit, is that Firefox does not have a 64-bit version. Well, it sorta does if you build it, but it won't run Flash or something like that. So, there's sort of a version, but not really. However, IE does have a 64 bit version, which I "discovered" already in my computer. So, I'm going back to IE on my home computer. I'll stick with FF on 32 bit systems though.

So... what uninstalled my two drivers? I don't know for sure, but this all started right after installing ventrilo. Ventrilo is used by many gamers, so it's a prime target for hackers. However, when I looked into the warning/ad that popped up right after downloading ventrilo, that appears to be a Firefox phenomenon. I'll definitely need to reinstall ventrilo at some point, but I'll probably try to have some kind a real-time protection that can detect something deleting drivers beforehand.

One thing I don't have, but will soon, is an antivirus... ugh, I know. I'm told that Avast or Antivir are a couple of good free choices to choose from. And besides superantispyware, one should also get Malwarebytes Anti Malware. Of course, I'll need to see if those work ok on a 64-bit system. Superantispyware seems ok, but I didn't really look into it when I DLed it since I was already crashing so much.

Yay for a working supercomputer again! Yes, I have a supercomputer, ASRock supercomputer mobo... check it out. Well, that mobo, an i7 920 that I'll be OCing again, 6 gigs of Corsair GT RAM (awesome, 1866), an ati HD 4870 x2, V8 air cooling, cooler master case (forget the name but it has 4 fan slots on one side and one on top), a velociraptor 10k rpm HDD, an Asus 24" monitor, 1000w Corsair PSU, and Vista 64 bit ultimate, soon to be upraded to Win7 64 bit ultimate. Much more powerful than what was called a supercomputer back in the day, at least when all its drivers are installed.

WIIFM

Excite News - Obama pitching health care plan to the insured

What's in it for me?

I have health insurance thanks to my time in the Navy and my current job. I can always go to the VA, and if I work where I'm at now, I'll have health insurance for the rest of my life.

Here's the deal. Obama states that there's something like 47 million people without insurance. Well, half of those chose not to have health insurance with their job. Typically these are young people who need every bit of party money they can muster, and since they never need to see a doctor then having money taken out for insurance is a waste.

Thank goodness I didn't have that option or I would have been up shit creek without a paddle when I broke the crap out of my elbow. I had to have surgery to screw a chunk of bone back in place, three screws total I think. If I had to pay for all that out of pocket... man, I'd still be paying those bills. And then just a couple of years ago, my dad was trying to change an outdoor light bulb on a 4-foot ladder.

You know how on top of a ladder it says something like, "this is not a step?" Well, my dad was using it as a step, and he had one helluva fall. He couldn't walk, so he had to drag himself to his truck to call for help. He sorta shattered his knee. He was taken to a local hospital and they weren't even going to mess with it, so they sent him to Herman Trauma Center where they did the first surgery to basically brace his leg and get him ready for the second surgery a couple weeks later. The doctors said it was sort of like trying to repair egg shell that had been thrown to the floor. That, and they had to fill a crater that formed from the impact. In total, I think it was something like a $250,000 light bulb.

You know, I used to ride motorcycles. And one thing about riding a bike, is that it's not a matter of if you're going to get into a wreck, it's when. And the same thing probably applies for general health, it's not a matter of if you'll need insurance, it's when. And if you don't have insurance when you need it, that can be one helluva costly situation. If you pay.

And that's the problem. If you pay. People without insurance, rarely pay. I say rarely because at one point while going to school I didn't have insurance and hurt my eye. I went to the emergency room, all that stuff, and eventually got a bill. It took a little while, but I paid that sucker. How could I skip out on a bill for being treated diligently. I got to visit with one of the best ophthalmologists in Austin. I think his name was Wong, the whole Wong family if full of ophthalmologists. All turned out fine, if my eye had been struck (hit by a resilient branch) one more millimeter in, then it would have been a much worse situation.

Anyway, it's the people who don't pay, either on their own or through insurance, that cause the price of healthcare to increase. So... 47 million without insurance. Half chose not to take it with their employment, preferring to risk having to pay out of their pocket. The other half... I don't know, maybe those are the illegal aliens, homeless people, and those in between jobs.

THAT'S the problem. People who have to pay out of pocket are not paying. Does this mean, as Obama propounded, that healthcare is broken? Hell no.

Oh, and then there's the whole HMO requiring all this paperwork and letters and so on and so forth before they'll pay a claim. It's a burden on doctors' time and staff. Does this mean healthcare is broken? Hell no.

Well, all these people from all over the world come here to get treatment for the most serious of injuries and illnesses. Does this mean healthcare is broken? No, you idiot (if you thought yes, hehe).

No, healthcare in the USA is NOT broken. Socializing medicine isn't a cure, it's an affront. It's an affront not only to the USA, but the world.

Can our system be better? Yes, of course. And that's what needs to happen. If we want to force everyone to have health insurance, there has got to be a better way of doing it than by ruining the quality of care people currently enjoy.

Sorry Obama, I don't believe you know what you're talking about when you say your ever-evolving plan will or won't do anything. Things change, and I can't take your promises to a hospital or to my HMO or to anyone or anything and expect results.

Can I expect better healthcare than what's already the best? No.

Can I expect the same quality at a reduced rate? No

Should I get behind a plan that increases my costs, reduces the quality I receive, but helps those who currently/stupidly choose to be without healthcare insurance? Hell No.

Why should I get behind socialized medicine in the USA?

Hello?

Bush Revisited?

"'While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground we will have no comment ' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement."
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One of the things about Bush, aside from "strategery" and "ironical," was that administration's separation from reality. The willful choosing to think something that goes counter to reality. And now here's Obama, and the administration is saying "this is private." Umm... ok... Bill Clinton meeting with Kim Jong Ill'n regarding the release of the journalists who were recently sentenced to years of hard labor for no good reason.

Bill Clinton is a former President. His wife is the current Secretary of State. Pictures of Kim Jong Ill'n and President Clinton are all over the place right now, and he's there to try and gain the release of the journalists.

So... what the hell is so private? Is Bill trying to do Mrs. Ill'n? Is that the private part? Is Bill there on a sight-seeing trip? No, this is so obviously not a private matter that it's pretty an insult to the public intelligence to have the mouth of Obama declare that it's not what we see, that this is just some private deal between Bill and Ill.

But then, most Americans are pretty stupid... so yeah, why not. Good job Obama, way to highlight for the rest of the world just how stupid most Americans are.

But, then again, I predicted as much. No matter who the President is, things just don't change that much. Granted, I was mainly thinking of institutional changes, and I may be naive in thinking that this isn't an institutional way of dealing with the public, but perhaps the whole culture of D.C. politics won't change quickly.

Jimmy Carter tried to change things... and he got slapped pretty hard with reality. I believe his choosing to walk instead of riding in a car pissed off a lot of those that make up the culture over there too. I remember always seeing that pissed off guy... Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill. I was too young to really know what all he was pissed about, but I knew that he didn't really care for Jimmy Carter and seemed to block a lot of what Carter was trying to change.

So, no. This is not Bush revisited... it's simply the continuation of things as before. Change happens, just not in leeps and bounds. And that may be a good thing.