Category: News & Politics

I think anyone with half a brain stem and a functioning logic lobe knows that our Chimperor is a big, fat liar. However, it somehow manages to boggle my mind that he would actually come right out and admit it. At the recent presidential press conference, though, he did just that.

When asked why, only last week, he’d claimed that Rumsfeld would not be resigning, Bush answered:

Right. No, you and Hunt and Keil came in the Oval Office, and Hunt asked me the question one week before the campaign, and basically it was, are you going to do something about Rumsfeld and the Vice President? And my answer was, they’re going to stay on. And the reason why is I didn’t want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign. And so the only way to answer that question and to get you on to another question was to give you that answer.

That’s right, folks. He just makes up shit when he wants people to get off his back or if he thinks it will negatively affect people’s opinions of his political party. Ironically, he later stated that he thought voters had elected Democrats because “People want their Congress — congressmen to be honest and ethical.” Gee, d’ya think?  Also, he repeated an earlier assertion that “stay the course” does not, in fact, mean “stay the course.” Apparently, those three words mean something entirely different in Bush’s Bizarro World.

Students are back, and with them, all manner of disease and pestilence. I’ve managed to pick up something horrid, and it has taken up residence in my lungs. We are not amused. I suspect I caught it from someone at work, actually. On Friday, one of my coworkers was coughing and sneezing and generally sounding like she might expire at any moment. I assumed it was just allergies (tis the season!), but I have a feeling it was something more sinister. Normally, I wouldn’t be so cranky about it. It’s not her fault she’s sick. However, someone on our floor is going through cancer treatment, and we are under strict orders not to come to work sick, so that we don’t pass anything on to her. With her immune system compromised, it wouldn’t take much to make her very, very sick.

So, now my head feels like it’s about to implode and I’ve got some sort of crud in my lungs. I’m taking guaifenesin and drinking lots of water, like ya’ do, but sheesh! I want it gone NOW, please.

Speaking of the plague, I read that our president, in addition to presidentin’ and vacationatin’, has started reading books. Apparently, he was caught red-handed with a copy of Camus’ The Stranger. Now, I don’t know what someone who has systematically made fun of “educated folks” is doing reading books, but, if it’s true, I’m a little impressed. I mean, this is the guy who can’t even be bothered to read a newspaper!

There is a story floating around certain parts of the blogosphere about a Hummer that implodiated in a fast food parking lot, felled by a wee bump against a stanchion. It is amusing and ironic and, dare I say, schadenfreude-inducing? I think everyone with a functioning brain stem can agree that Hummers are ridiculous. They serve no purpose I can ascertain, other than as a conspicuous symbol of consumerism. They get terrible mileage, they are too overgrown for their frames, and they hog too much road and parking lot real estate. Worst, they are not actually built for the one thing that they appear to have been designed for: off-roading.

So go ahead, hate on Hummers and their owners. If nothing else, it gives me one more reason to dislike Teh Ahr-nahld.

However, it seems a little short-sighted to me to hate on all SUV owners, as they–and their SUVs–are not all created equal. It is probably not surprising that it makes the Baby Shelly cranky when folks lump all SUVs together as gas-guzzling earth-destroyers driven by over-protective mommies. Not only is it untrue, but it is spectacularly ignorant to cast asparagus upon a lowly tool instead of addressing the underlying issue: crass consumerism. SUVs of the urban assault variety are merely a symptom, not the disease itself. If it wasn’t SUVs, it would be Cadillacs or some other flashy, eco-unfriendly ride.

Look, we all make choices. Some of those choices have a larger environmental impact than others. Some of those choices are sacrosanct and above reproach, while others are fair game for criticism. So when I hear a woman rationalizing her decision to cart her three kids around in a car that gets worse gas mileage than my SUV, while criticizing those who drive SUVs, I have to think, “WTF?” While I don’t normally feel any need to second guess anyone’s decision to have as many kids as she wants, or to drive whatever she wants, when my choices are questioned, I have to put it into perspective. My little SUV and I could not possibly have the sort of environmental impact that three children and a Beemer will have. So, when you start waving around the “SUVs are bad for the environment flag,” you might want to take a good look at your own choices and how they affect the environment.

Title o’ the day: Friendly Fascism.

So, I meander over to Boing Boing for my daily dose of this-n-that, to find that AT&T/SBC are wasting no time getting down to business. I knew no good would come of them merging. It’s bad enough that AT&T were one of the companies accused of secretly handing over subscriber data to the US government, but now that they’re bigger and better, they’ve got the brass balls to come right out and declare that they own your private information, not you. This will apparently be retroactive, and AT&T/SBC will require subscribers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition of service. This policy, which will supersede their current policy (the main policy was updated June 16, 2006, but their video and satellite policies have not been updated since 2004), apparently goes into affect on June 23.

Hrmph. No good can come of ginormous mergers like the SBC/Yahoo/AT&T mess. I remember when the Bells were broken up, and the subsequent technological advancements and improvements in customer service. Yeah, I know, it’s hard to believe, but as bad is it is now, it was even worse then. Remember back when you had to lease a phone from Ma Bell? Your options were rotary or push-button, desk or wall-mounted. That’s it. Returning to that sort of business model is not something I look forward to, especially when the scope is so large that it encompasses everything from television to telephone to internet service, and eventually who knows what else?

I guess it’s as good a time as any to switch to Sage, eh? Their privacy policy is short and sweet and non-intrusive, and it actually involves keeping your personal information private. Their prices are much better than AT&T’s, too. I should have switched ages ago, but just didn’t feel motivated, as it wouldn’t have solved my other, hardware-related service problems. (Note for friends and family, Sage services the B-ton and Muncie areas.) I’m feeling all sorts of motivated now, though.