...and now for something completely different...

If y'all will let me rant about something a bit outside the charter of my blog...

What, pray tell, could possibly possess someone to think that reading a newspaper and driving is a good idea?

I'm not talking about at a traffic light or with no one in front of him...this was a guy in a mid-90's Ford Explorer (it just had to be an SUV, didn't it?), at least 50mph and maybe 3 car lengths off the bumper of the car in front of him.

I guess I should be happy he was holding the paper slightly to the side so I could depend on his highly honed peripheral vision for the task of piloting his 4500 pound vehicle.

Okay, repeat after me, "driving is a skill, driving is a privilege, I will pay proper attention to what I am doing behind the wheel, I will respect others around me enough to not put them at undue risk of being smashed into by my vehicle" - repeat until it sinks in.

Until next time.

-Scott

War (What is it Good For?)

Okay, let's delve into a topic that has been beaten into the ground - yet, when taken to its simplest form - still bears discussion...

Iraq.

Basically, there are two schools of thought on the war in Iraq.

1) The war is a logical next step in the US war on terrorism.
2) Iraq was a war that the Bush White House had decided was going to happen before 9/11 and terrorism (and the fear thereof) gave easy justification.

This comes down to simply - do you believe that rational, intelligent people would conclude that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was a hot-bed of terrorism, a haven that protected them from forces that would bring them to justice, and that Iraq was actively in the market to sell its war-making technology to the highest bidder?

Personally, I believe that the rhetoric before the war and now tells volumes about this. Before, it was all about the supposed drive of Iraq to acquire, develop, and/or use weapons of mass destruction. All the hot-buttons were pushed to convince the American people that they were in imminent danger of attack, if not from Iraq directly - then from the terrorists they did business with.

Now, the rhetoric has turned to one of bringing freedom to the Iraqis people. Of the removal of a bad man from power...and the foreign nationals (insurgents/terrorists) that have come to Iraq to expel the occupiers (that would be us). Weapons of mass destruction? Oh, that was just bad intelligence - did you notice how much better off the Iraqis people are now that Saddam is gone?

That said, I have no problem with expelling bad dictators that oppress their people. Respect for universal human freedoms and rights is a powerful reason to go to war. However, the American people do seem a bit reluctant to go to war on that reason alone. We'd be one busy nation if we were to take this as our new international policy...there are plenty of bad/oppressive governments just waiting for the US military to take out.

If this was the reason for war - we were lied to ahead of time. If it wasn't the reason for this war - we are being lied to now.

I think it's high time that we as Americans get pissed about the lying being done and start holding the administration to a higher standard.

Until next time.

-Scott

Crazy like a FOX...

Not a whole lot of time to post today, but I thought I'd mention a documentary I watched last night and would recommend to anyone wanting to see some of the possible pitfalls of having too much power in the hands of a few media companies.

Produced by MoveOn.org, OUTFOXED talks about the Right-wing biased news organization that is the Fox News channel.

I guess some people, who've been duped by the talk of a liberal bias (which doesn't make much sense to me since liberal = open minded, so how could that be a bias...) would say that it is only fair to have a right-leaning news channel. However, since they do claim to be "Fair and Balanced" you might have some expectation that they present objective coverage.

What I'd love to see is a comparison of Fox News vs. some the other cable news networks such as CNN and MSNBC (and even the broadcast channel's international news divisions), just to make sure that this is just a Fox News affliction.

All-in-all, I think it is a worthwhile use of your time to pick up this DVD if you care about objectivity in your news coverage.

Until next time...

-Scott