I don’t normally delete feedback. In fact I haven’t at all up until now. I usually like to leave it there and comment on it to make fun of those who made the comments.
Well, yesterday I received a comment from “The Klu Klux Klan, LLC.” I skimmed through it and then deleted it. I don’t put up with race hatred or race “purity.” Considering I’ve got a Hawai’ian wife and a son by her, I don’t think they would let me in the local chapter.
If I had grown up in Mississippi instead of Ohio, I am pretty sure my dad would have been a Klucker instead of a Mason. He just held those views. Thankfully, I don’t.
The Klucker responded today and said, “No wonder you don’t get many comments.” I don’t get many comments because I don’t get many hits, not because I delete views that disagree with me.
I have learned in my travels to judge the person by their actions, not their skin color. I intend to keep it that way.

Well, it seems that the nuclear option has been avoided. Republicans have once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They bowed to media pressure and fell for the “minority rights” bullshit. Some of President Bush’s strict constructionist nominees will get their vote, but Democrats have retained their “right” to filibuster other “extreme” (read: Conservative) nominees.
And of course we all know that if the tables were turned, when the tables are turned, “minority rights” won’t amount to a hill of beans. If Republicans ever decide to filibuster, then the nuclear option will be the first resort to the Democrats.
This makes me sick.

Well, it seems that Senator Kerry has finally signed his form 180. It also seems that he will filter those same pages through his campaign, releasing only what is not damaging to him. It still raises questions about one of his Purple Hearts, his Silver Star and the manner of his discharge. Remember, he has inconsistencies like three different versions of his Silver Star, each version “sexed-up” and signed by higher authority from the prior. The matter of his discharge is up for debate as well. His Honorable Discharge is dated years after his departure from service and it seems that a board was involved. Sounds like an upgrade from Less Than Honorable to me.
And so it goes. We’ll see how things play out. He may have signed the form, but he still has to send it in….

Today I bought something I wanted, a 1 gig thumb drive. As I downloaded my personal files into it, I marveled at how the price of things have dropped. I remember to this day my first hard drive, a 20mb, 70ms seek time, for my Fat Mac, way back in 1985. This was at a time when you could fit the DOS and GUI, plus Word on one 800k disk, and use a 2nd drive to hold your files. 20mb was just monstrous back then. Today I have 700 mb files, and some of my folders take up more space than that “little” 20mb drive. I paid the princely sum of $2,000, plus tax, for a grand total of about $100 a megabyte. That thumb drive, 500 times the size of that initial drive, cost me about $70, just a touch under 7 cents a megabyte. Such is technology.
Soon, when my paranoid dreams have come true, you will be able to have one of these chips implanted under your skin, and accessible via wireless technology, so your files are always with you, no matter what.
What a country!

Well, well, well! Jack Bauer walks off into the sunrise, heading toward Mexico with a new identity. They’ve already said that Jack will be back in January of 2006 with an even bigger adventure. Hmm. After saving the world, I wonder how it could get any bigger? I look forward to January.

Fox News had an interesting video piece on their website this morning, about Arizona schools having a voluntary program to teach gun safety and marksmanship as a creditable part of the school curriculum.
I think this is a wonderful idea. This goes beyond the Eddie Eagle program that is taught by the NRA, this teaches how to shoot and how to do it safely.
Shooting is one of the few sports where boys and girls are in the same league, instead of having a boys team and a girls team.
Shooting instills a certain level of responsibility in the students, simply by the fact that if you aren’t safe in shooting, you don’t get to shoot. And shooting is fun. It gives you discipline by the fact that you have to be able to control yourself to hit the target consistently.
It is the myths perpetuated by TV and movies that contribute to the gun violence we see today. Too many people try to solve their problems with guns and teach that brutal force is okay. This must stop.
Teaching our children the joys and responsibility of gun ownership is a wonderful thing. I wish the schools taught it here.

Well, I got to watch a slow motion train wreck yesterday morning on Meet The Press. Howard Dean, former Presidential candidate and presently head of the Democrat National Committee, was ripped a new one by Tim Russert. Tim Russert Rips Howard Dean Apart.
In subject after subject, Tim Russert let Dean state or clarify a position, then hit him with a contradiction out of his own mouth and then sat back and watched the gears grind to a halt while Dean tried to mealy-mouth his way out of such lies and contradictions.
Dean is part of the radical left, and his calling the Republicans “Evil” doesn’t help. He doesn’t make any friends saying that Tom DeLay should start serving a prison sentience without being even accused of a crime, let alone convicted of one. Of course, Dean has already convicted DeLay, but that’s only in his own mind. Thankfully there is no correlation between reality and Dean’s mind.
This is what we face. People consumed by irrational hatred. People who claim to celebrate diversity, but reserve their tokens for the front office and subways. People who claim to respect the rights and opinions of others, but only when it agrees with them. If you have a different opinion, you are shouted down, spit on and trampled.
Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

I like reading Fox News’ Tongue Tied. It shows how far of a society we have progressed, insulating people from being offended by their own prejudices.
This entire column, License to Pray, Yanked Yearbook, is about individual people seeing something they don’t like and insisting that it be removed, solely on the fact that it offends them, never mind the rights of the person displaying it, or that the majority of people want it.
I think it’s time this garbage stops. There is always something that pisses me off, from people who park in my parking spot to just general idiots whining to get their way. If you don’t like smoking, then don’t go to places where people smoke. If you don’t want religious symbols present at your childs graduation, then yank the kid out of it and leave the rest of those people who do want those symbols there alone.
I think it’s time that the majority stand up and speak out, and the whiners sit down and shut up. Within limits, we live under a majority rule government, and that majority ought to learn how to rule. Stop this bull scat about “minority rights” right now. The minority has very little to say about what goes on, simply because they are the minority.
Our First Amendment does NOT preclude all religious displays anywhere but inside a church (and sometimes even in there), but from the formation of a Church of America, and you go even if you don’t want to go. The founders of this great country said our Constitution was only for a moral and just people. You can’t get the morality they are talking about without some kind of religious anchor. I don’t care if you are Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Wiccan or whatever. Morals mean you have a clear view of what is right and wrong, and there is very little grey between that black and white.
Todays Liberals see the world not in black and white, but in a multitude of shades of grey. There is no wrong or right in there eyes, there is only what the individual sees. We are not a nation of individuals, we are a team, and when that team works together there is nothing we cannot accomplish.
I am not telling you your views are stupid. I am not telling you your views are worthless. I am telling you that if you are not the majority, get used to not having your way. If you want to see your views become mainstream, then you need to work to change the view of the people, not impose your views on the majority by judicial fiat.
‘Nuff said.

And it ain’t where you think it is. I am looking forward to watching 24 tonight, the two hour season finale. It has been promised to be a cliffhanger right up to the last moment.
Of course, the question always is, “Will Kiefer Sutherland do another season?” That’s a good question, one that I don’t know the answer to.
Watch it anyway, it promises to be good.

MoveOn.org, the group that told us to “move on” during President Clinton’s impeachment, has embarrassed themselves with their latest TV commercial: Senate Wars: Revenge of the Frist.
You can see this totally distorted commercial here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The fact that the Republicans won’t force a filibuster to get these judges to a vote shows that they are not ready to lead, and that saddens me greatly. The fact that we won’t force the “nuclear option” shows that Frist is a spineless idiot. I am ashamed he is from Tennessee. He doesn’t have the will to run the Senate, and he’s considering a run for the White House? I honestly don’t know if I could vote for him, even holding my nose.
Yes, the republicans are badgered by the Liberal press, yes the Democrats in the Senate are a bunch of whiny children who are threating to hold their breath. Yes, even after 13 years, the Republicans are not in the mindset that they are the majority and should be running things. Once the Democrats are back in power and the Republicans threaten filibuster, the Dems will hit that “nuclear option” button so fast it will break. And the press won’t mind at all.
It’s time that the Republicans stand up for what is right and press forward, politics and press be damned.

Bill Whittle, online essayist extroadinaire at Eject! Eject! Eject!, has finally divulged his latest missive, Sanctuary.
Read it. You will be the better for it. Then if you haven’t read his prior works, go through his archives.

There is a vast difference between Christians and Muslims in how they respect other ideas. This is an interesting article about this: Saudis Shred Bibles, Rights Campaigners Claim.
A report about us flushing a Koran sparks riots, but in deference towards Christianity, they routinely destroy Christian symbols. When Muslims took control of the Church of the Nativity where Christ was born, they defile it by deface it with Muslim graffiti, shitting in the church and wiping themselves with pages of the Bible.
And yet we have to pay the utmost respect to the Muslim religion. An unsubstantiated report leads to riots and deaths, but they routinely defile my religion.
Islam is neither a religion of peace or tolerance. Not when it is applied like this. The radical arm of Islam must be dealt with, and soon.

Here you go. The Bush administration wishes to directly violate the Constitution by granting the FBI power to make “administrative” warrants. GOP Aides Say New Patriot Act Obliges Bush.
This must not be allowed to pass into law. I admit we need to be aggressive in pursuing terrorists, but we can do that without opening this door. Because once doors like this open, all that happens is they open wider instead of closing.
The Patriot Act is nothing but bad news. It sounds good, but it’s not good and sound.

No, this post isn’t about rockets. I’m not sure what state I’m in, either flying around manic or crashing into depression. It could literally be both, with my fast-cycling bipolar. All I know is there is stuff out there that I want to comment on, but can’t muster up the proper motivations in order to make a coherent comment on these complex issues.
No, thankfully, I don’t have any impulses to hurt myself. For the longest time I had an mental image that I couldn’t get rid of. The image was sticking a gun to my ear and pulling the trigger. I wasn’t suicidal by any means, I did not want to carry this urge out, but I had to force it down constantly. Since my current cocktail was developed, that image has slowly gone away. I can’t remember the last time I had that urge.
Keep hanging on with me folks. I know I can make it. It just takes me a little longer and a little more effort than most people.

Wow. No news today, as I am still manic, coming down off the excitement of this weekend. If you want a hobby that boils your adrenalin, high powered rocketry is it. The excitement of seeing your creation roar off the pad and take to the heavens out of your control is a terrifying mix of elation and dread, because if everything doesn’t go right, it’s a long walk back with a broken rocket.
With the bigger rockets you can pour hundreds of hours into it, only to see it crash because you forgot something minor, or due to circumstances out of your control. While Southern Thunder had a lot of exciting launches, we had our share of “oops” launches as well. The kind that blow up on the pad, or disintegrate in the sky, or all of the recovery devices fail and you get a ballistic (think V-2) recovery. It also gets quite terrifying when rocket parts land in the midst of people. Luckily, no one got hurt, but your heart jumps into your throat when you hear the words “HEADS UP!” I had a motor casing from a broken rocket land about 30 feet away, and a rocket safely landed about 20 feet away, right in front of the Range Safety Officers tent.
It’s a rush, let me tell you.