Speedkill

I’m not a teenager anymore, w00t!

Eh, not much to say, really. Mostly, I have rather insignificant things on my mind.

Why was there no save point after this crazy spider boss lady in Ninja Gaiden? Should I watch more of my Stargate SG-1 DVDs, an early birthday present for myself? Will my CDs (other early (maybe) birthday present) come tomorrow? Working at 4 am on Friday is going to suck. I have to get up earlier tomorrow. And earlier means 10 am.

And, um, Bush sucks, or something.

As anyone with a half a brain has noticed, the sovereignty to be transferred on June 30 is kind of lacking:

Though the U.S.-led occupation will end on June 30 and an interim Iraqi government will be installed, more than 135,000 U.S. forces and 19,000 troops from Britain and other nations will remain.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday that the Bush administration envisions that, under the U.N. resolution, the multinational force would remain under the control of U.S. military commanders.

…

The resolution does not say whether the Iraqis would be able to ask U.S. and other international troops to leave the country. It states “the importance of the consent of the sovereign government of Iraq for the presence of the multinational force.”

But it only authorizes the “Transitional Government of Iraq” to review the mandate of the multinational force. That government won’t be chosen until after elections planned to take place by Jan. 31.

So, they can make sovereign decisions, except for the most important one, foreign troops on your soil. Oh, but they’ll figure it out later:

But the relationship between the multinational force and the new Iraqi government will be spelled out in an exchange of letters with the interim government, once it is created, senior British officials said.

Eh, we’ll get to it. But, I mean, you know how the mail is, it takes SO long to get stuff, it may be a while.

But really, are they actually going to ask us to leave? No. So what’s the problem?

And don’t forget, the Iraq war was crippling blow to terrorism.

Mitt Romney is crazy.

Attack of the liberal America-hating computer scientists!

More Berg conspiracy theories.

Bush and colleges.

T. Rex turned 6 a week or so ago.

Amount of support for Sadr not encouraging.

I’ve been slacking in this department, so here goes.

Limbaugh doesn’t watch mainstream media outlets. Fits right in with our president, I guess.

In a few more years, they’ll probably just hire random bloggers to run Iraq.

HLVictoria talks about the U.S. loss of international students (from a couple weeks ago).

Echidne does a number of the idea of unregulated health care markets.

Trish excerpts some of the skepticism over the Berg decapitation video.

Musing rebuts Orcinus (but we still love Orcinus).

Apparently, nurses are a great idea in crime prevention.

Gen. Zinni on the attack. Tireless the guy is.

You’re not missing anything by not knowing the rest of those bands. Other than maybe Zakk Wylde being a guitarist for Ozzy’s solo stuff. I’m still hoping for a real Black Sabbath reunion with a cd release. They keep promising and it never happens.

Pt. 2 tomorrow.

I just got slammed with spam and accidentally deleted the last 20 comments with Blacklist, except for Heliologue’s latest. Mostly spam, but plenty of real ones. Oh well.

Ten die as Israeli tanks fire on peaceful protest

Israeli forces fired tank shells into a peaceful Palestinian protest during the ongoing assault on Rafah refugee camp yesterday, killing at least 10 people – mostly children – and critically wounding many others.

The army described the incident as “very grave”, claimed it had only fired “warning shots” and said there was no intention to harm civilians. But it attempted to shift responsibility for the carnage to the several thousand demonstrators by saying some were armed.

We didn’t fire at them but if we had it would be perfectly fine because they were armed. So, if it is OK to fire on them if armed, and they were armed, why didn’t they shoot at them? It’s all so confusing.

Bible Proofreaders Sweat the Small Stuff

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – Thank the Lord � and the proofreaders at Peachtree Editorial and Proofreading � that the Bible refers to “our ancestors” instead of “sour ancestors,” and calls for an end to “factions” � not “fractions.” The proofreading service caught those typos and others before the latest edition of the Holy Book went to press.

With an ordinary book, “you can put up with more because it’s not something you’re basing your whole life on,” June Gunden said. “It’s information, but it’s not really life-changing information. It’s not something you believe to be infallible.”

Damn those fraction! It’s black and white, 3 or 4, 1 or 0 for crying out loud! None of this pussy 1 and a half shit!

If I had a sense of humor, I could make a better joke.

Saw this over at Pandagon, where Jesse says about all you can say about this, seeing as it’s hard to express your jaw dropping in text, but it’s worthy of posting just because. John Derbyshire at NRO:

Now, the trend in current research on homosexuality, if I have understood it correctly, suggests that the homosexual orientation is indeed mostly congenital � the result of events in the mother’s womb, or in early infancy, with perhaps some slight genetic predisposition. The thing is, in short, mainly biochemical � part of a person’s physical make-up.

In which case, there would be someone, somewhere, who was the last homosexual. What a situation! Think what a playwright or a novelist could do with it!

Ahem. Since it’s apparently self evident that we need to get rid of gay people, when we have the technology to do so it’s going to be so great! It’s kind of astonishing to see that kind of hate even in such a crazy right-wing publication like National Review. If you don’t want gay people to marry that’s one thing, but to actually go on an unlikely fantasy trip about getting rid of them all and gleefully thinking about there being none left is quite another. These people scare me, and I’m not even gay.

And onward we go. I realize most of these are pretty obvious, but it’s good to have some place that goes through all of them.

Flip Flopped On Trade With China

Now Kerry Criticizes The Bush Administration For Trading With China. �Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said on Monday Americans workers were paying the price for President Bush’s weak stance on trade with China and other countries. � On the bus tour, Kerry singled out the Bush administration’s handling of trade with China and said that country was manipulating its currency.� (Caren Bohan, “Kerry Pledges Aggressive Trade Stance,” Reuters, 4/26/04)

Another sleight of hand by the Bush campaign website. You’ll notice that Kerry doesn’t actual criticize trading with China, he criticizes the handling of issues stemming from the agreement. Here are the mentions of China in the trade section of Kerry’s website:

Assure Trading Partners Play by the Rules.

China, Japan and other nations have purposely kept their currency undervalued relative to the U.S. dollar to promote exports in the United States and undermine U.S. products abroad. John Kerry believes we must use the full force of the World Trade Organization to take on countries that are manipulating their currency to undermine U.S. exports.

It looks to me like he’s talking about enforcing regulations and agreements, not the actual status of NTR with China.

Flip-Flopped On Eliminating Marriage Penalty For Middle Class

But, In 1998, Kerry Voted Against Eliminating Marriage Penalty Relief For Married Taxpayers With Combined Incomes Less Than $50,000 Per Year, Saving Taxpayers $46 Billion Over 10 Years. (S. 1415, CQ Vote #154: Rejected 48-50: R 5-49; D 43-1, 6/10/98, Kerry Voted Yea)

Here’s an example of the intelligence of the fine young Republican interns who researched this smear page. First off, the bill was a pain in the ass to find, seeing as it’s actually an amendment to S. 1415, which has to to with tobacco farmers. Then there’s this little clue in the source. Kerry voted Yea. As in, he voted for eliminating the penalty. Goodbye flip flop.

EDIT: Ok, I’m an idiot. The vote was for a motion to table the amendment. It’s still not a flip-flop, though. Go here.

That’s enough for now.