Defiantone.com

We had another sand storm - joy of joys! I decided to take a quick video so that you could see exactly what I’m living in. I was wondering how bad it was during the American “Dust Bowl” - shame we didn’t have video then. Oh well

I woke yesterday and found not blue skies as I was used to but something much more sinister and disgusting. It was like the whole world was in a sepia filter and it had a strange color wash - we were in a brown world. The sky was being choked out by the dust in the air and I could stare directly at the sun at 4PM without it hurting my eyes - well, I could have stared at it if I could have found it. I took a few photos of the day and put them all together - notice how everything blends?

(you can click on the image for the high quality version)

The sky blends into the dirt, into the concrete, into my boots, into the buildings. The item that was the least brown was my shirt which is supposedly “sand” colored. Sand isn’t a color, brown is - you’re authorized to call things light brown and dark brown but there is no sand. If the color isn’t one of the 16 in the crayon box it doesn’t exist - its only a variation of a real color. Somebody had fun making up stupid names.

Its now the next day and I am still coughing and wheezing because lungs don’t react well to dust in that concentration. Why the hell would anyone want to live in Iraq when its such a brown place? The ground has got to be green where I live and the sky needs to be blue.

I meant to spent my evening doing something for the greater good but the water shortage deterred me doing it. I had intended to spend a few hours at the hospital doing whatever they needed to do - I didn’t want to go over there smelling like I do. Its been a few days since I’ve last showered and I’m starting to smell myself. I’m sure everyone else can smell me too.

If was in the comic strip Peanuts I would probably walking around with a dusty stink cloud around me. Then again, I think there are quite a few of us in the same situation.

This post hasn’t been made without some extreme effort. Yesterday, a schmuck accidentally cut a few fiber optic cables north of Egypt. I can’t say for sure that our internet is routed through those cables but the timing of our EXTREME connectivity problems is a bit dubious. Yesterday it took me over 20 minutes to get into my email. It was dreadfully slow - things have picked up a bit as the signals get rerouted but its a tedious experience. It reminds me of the days when I was rocking the 56k modem. Its a shame that most websites (including mine) are designed for people with some sort of broadband connection.

I don’t have much else planned for my day off - I think I’ll go watch a movie that I’ve already seen and read some more of my book. If I get really froggy I might go back to the gym for another hour or so - it gives me something productive to do and I feel better about myself after I’m done. Its my primary method of relaxing - yes - working out calms me down.

When you get to a place like this one is forced to wonder how it could possibly get any worse. I know at least two ways to make the experience less than enjoyable - add mud and rain.

The military has had a hard time dealing with the extremely fine dirt that gets into all sorts of machinery. Its found a way to clog things that shouldn’t be clogged. Unfortunately, this dirt also makes the worst brand of mud imaginable. Its not like there is a little mud, this stuff really likes to cake onto itself. We have gravel spread almost everywhere but there is little you can do to avoid some patches of the crap. If you’re not careful your boots will weigh an extra pound with each additional step in the mud.

The conditions aren’t terrible but we’re bored more than anything else - something like this can ruin your day. Sure, its a small annoyance but its the one thats on the top of your mind so its bound to drive you crazy.

I have not posted anything of relative substance for quite some time as I’ve been busy doing this and that… it also doesn’t help that I only have a scant few readers so I’m less inclined to actually write something. Imagine if I was recieving 1,000 visits per day instead of the 10-15 unique visitors that I get. I’m still unsure as to why I feel that I should share almost everything in this forum as opposed to not letting anyone know whats going on. I guess I feel that this forum is relatively anonymous and potentially vouyeristic. I only tell stories about things that have happened to me and about how I react to those events.

My writing style isn’t particularly refined and my stories are only so-so. Once in a while I’ll have a worthy story of note but odds are you’re bound to get the same drudge that you might here from anyone else that you might know.

I’ve been looking on and off for a part time job and I think I’m going to slam one out for the rest of the year. In other words, I’m going to work myself to sheer and utter exhausting for a few months and get ahead on things. Its going to take insane time management and will drain me every day. I know that I can do this and I know that I must do this. I still haven’t had anyone hire me yet but it may not be the job of my dreams… then again, there are few jobs most of us dream of getting save for being professional athletes or high ranking politicians. Is it odd that the only jobs we dream of getting are those that are most likely to have unwanted fans and stalkers?

After getting caught up on some things I plan to move out of my current residence into another that is slightly more spacious and that provides a few extra ammenities (a place to put a grill and a in appt washer and dryer). While those things may seem trivial, I have found that I am more than tired of going up and down the elevator in my building and fighting with the coin operated jobbies. Having a grill would be equally splendid because its one of the few cooking surfaces that I would no longer have to clean up. I’ve become fairly skilled in its operation and I would only become more skilled as opportunity increases.

Jessica (the girlfriend) is doing well save for the stress she puts herself under. She’s got quite a few things on her plate at the moment and I’m sure that I would feel quite overwhelmed. Luckily for her, as of the 23rd of this month most of those things will be done and over with (Bridezilla… err I mean her sisters wedding).

She’s on the ropes as to whether she should end her internship and finish her AA or stay there and only get a technical certificate. I think that the AA degree would only help in the end if she should get out of her career field at some point in time. The degree is in biotechnology and from what she has told me there are quite a few people with that degree and no job in the industry. I’m unsure if the degree program isn’t worth her time or if the other candidates were less than sterling. Needless to say, she’s got about as much on her plate as I have on mine. It creates a significant amount of stress on the both of us and as you can imagine we can take it out on eachother. Luckily, we know that neither partner deserves the extra (and misplaced) animosity so we’re quick to cut it off.

Ok… thats the update of sorts. Hopefully I can provide something that is actually interesting to read at a later time.

If I had kept track of all of my military travel and could count it for frequent flyer miles I would have more than enough to take a trip to the other side of the planet. In a few months it appears that I will make yet another trip while collecting no miles. Its bound to be a hot and dusty place and I don’t know the location or date nor can I tell you. Odds are that it will be somewhere in ISRAFGHYIANONANAQ. (thank you daily show) I’ll do as I did before and keep on posting what I can. This trip should allow me to pay off another large chunk of credit debt and it allows me to get out of my tiny apartment. These are good things.

Unfortunately, I’m leaving behind a girl that I’m crazy about - I will miss her.

More information as it comes - as long as I can pass it on.

Free thought and liberty

All Americans are afforded the same protections under the constitution and the bill of rights regardless of what background they might come from. Our nation is great because we are a melting pot of people from many different nations with different backgrounds, opinions, and religions. Many Americans believe that no matter what, we should all be treated the same. Some people think that if I converted to Islam that I should have my security clearance revoked and that I should be put under a terror watch list. Americans are watching other Americans solely based upon the color of their skin and their religion.

In the mid-1800’s the United States was a divided nation as we fought in a brutal struggle for the rights of everyone despite their background or skin color. Hundreds of thousands died in this struggle in an effort to treat everyone equally. Despite the great loss of life America still did not treat everyone equally. America went through a large civil rights struggle for the equality of African Americans during the early to mid 20th century in an effort to even everything out. They wanted the right to be treated as an equal irregardless of how they might look. Today I think that we are still fighting the same battle but the participants are different. In the past month the president signed a law that allowed him and the secretary of defense to indefinitely hold anyone if they are suspected of terrorism. In a nutshell, they suspended the right of habeas corpus. The American civil liberties union immediately began to fight this new legislation as it was in violation of the rights spelled out in one of our nations greatest documents, the bill of rights.

Today I received an email from… someone that advocated the idea of spamming the ACLU with mail to adversely affect their mission: to protect the freedom of all Americans. First off, this is an illegal act. Second, this is one of the most foolish ideas I have heard of in a long time. Why in the world would we want to fight an organization that is fighting for all of our rights. Sure, the status quo in America is that we don’t care who we jail or whose rights we violate to stop terrorism but I know that I wouldn’t want to be one of those individuals who was illegally detained.

I mentioned this to someone yesterday and they mentioned that the ACLU is notorious for fighting only certain things and not all rights violations. In particular, they often fight not for the right to have religion but to remove it from a particular venue. In some cases, I can agree with this rational because we need to separate church from state. Why? Islam is nearly inseparable from most of the nations where the majority of people are of the Islamic faith. When this happens, only the faith of the majority is promoted and the others.. well, a Christian in Indonesia could get murdered and nobody would care. If the shoe was on the other foot and it was an individual of the Islamic faith the matter would be rigorously investigated.

Now that I’ve beat this to death… lets move on to the next topic today

Voting along party lines is foolish

Most politicians in America campaign on the party policy alone rather than their individual beliefs and ideas. We, as Americans, who live in greatest nation on earth, should elect people who think for themselves. When was the last time we voted on abortion in America? Do you think that the legislative body would subject themselves to a vote that would splinter the voting population in half. Lets face it, if there was a political climate change, as there is now, these people wouldn’t be elected the next time around. To make a campaign on polarizing material would be dangerous… the republican party joined together and supported GW’s decision to send Americans into Iraq. It will take years to figure out if the loss of life was worth setting them free. The crazy part is that they don’t care about what we’ve done over there… they just want us dead and gone.

Ok… whats the deal with this? well, I got an email yesterday telling people to vote on party lines citing the following reasons… time to tear them all apart

1. The economy. More than 6.6 million jobs have been created since 8/03. 4.1 annual growth is superior to all major industrialized nations. Dow hits new records. Productivity is up. Real after tax income has grown by 15% since 2001. Like VP Chaney would say…”What more do you want?” The tax cuts proposed by Bush and the R-Congress can take a bow.

More than anything else, the federal interest rates affect how our economy grows or shrinks. One man, who was put into that office by GW (and reagan before that), is responsible for that. Were you aware that 720,000 of the jobs created were government jobs? Creating a bigger government is not an effective way to reduce taxes and lower costs. Smaller governments are more efficient and cost less money.

Oh yeah, my data from Sept 06 says only 3 million jobs were created…. hmmm… fudging numbers somewhere?

Clinton took the jobless rate from 7.5% to 4% during his two terms in office. The GW took the jobless rate from 4% to 6.6% to 4.4%…. we’re almost back to where we started. He didn’t do anything legendary… he just got us back to where we started out in the first place.

You’ve also got to take into account that our nation now has over 300 million people… more people means more jobs.

want to know more check it out at senate.gov

2. The Patriot act. The much discussed civil liberty abuses have just not materialized. It has permitted the CIA and FBI to cooperate.

There has been no mention of civil rights abuses because all of the cases are handled in a seperate court that is out of the publics view. I am not aware of any… nor could I find any but the potential is just too great. Rewrite the legislation and give us something better. There IS a way to do it without infringing on citizens rights. The CIA and FBI have continually proven that although they can communicate they often do not communicate.

3. The ABM Treaty has been cancelled permitting us to work on missile defense. Is anyone but Nancy Pelosi sorry?

The fear mongers want us to spend billions on a missile defense system that does not work. They’ve already spent billions on the system and it doesn’t work… hey, I’ve got an idea. Give me your money and I’ll flush it down the toilet for you.

4. Immigration. The Republican Congress has gotten the first serious immigration restriction law passed in years.

If I was to look at the voting record I found that democrats and republicans worked on the reform together… you can’t take the credit for everything. Whats next? taking the credit for the sun rising every morning?

5. There has not been another terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11. Who would have predicted that on 9/12?

You got me here… there also haven’t been any more flying spaghetti monsters attacking our cities…. this is the most asinine statement out of all of them… yes, voting republican stopped the terrorists… oh wait 2819 americans died on 9/11 and 2828 american soldiers have died so far in Iraq… yep, we really showed them (I just want out troops back… soon)

6. Libya has surrendered its nuclear program.

Hmm… years of economic pressure or they saw republicans and gave up…. duh!

7. A. Q. Khan’s nuclear smuggling network has been rolled up.

Can you really attribute this to one party alone? No

8. John Roberts and Sam Alito sit on the Supreme Court.

I’ll give you this one…

9. The Demos that do not want to close Gitmo altogether want to give all its inmates the full panoply of rights Americans enjoy in criminal procedures.

Thats right, we don’t want to lock people up and throw away the key without trial because other nations watch what we do. If we abuse human rights why shouldn’t everyone else do it. We should at least give these guys and chance and if they are innocent… let em go, they didn’t do anything. It also doesn’t help that negativity is associated with the prison in the international community. One of the only reasons we have it is because its not located in America and we can pretty much do whatever we want to the prisoners.

10. Demos believe in immediate withdrawal from Iraq. If this happens the US will face a stinging defeat on the war against terror. According to Osama bin Laden, and those who share his views, we are militarily strong but psychologically and spiritually weak. Like it or not - and no one likes it - we cannot leave Iraq now without utterly and decisively validating this analysis.

Or maybe he says things like this to keep is embroiled in a war that we might not be able to win. He’s taunting us, this is what he does. I don’t want to loose either but if they outlook predicts no chance of winning… why stay? Lets get some guys together and find out what we need to win it… and win it. If we don’t change anything we don’t have a chance.

11. Demos would like to eliminate the terrorist surveillance program.

I can’t verify this one

12. If Demos achieve the majority in the House, Barney Frank will chair the Financial Services Committee, Henry Waxman the Government Reform Committee and Alcee Hastings the Intelligence Committee.

The three individuals are tools… but, we should get rid of them instead of voting for a republican… there have quite a few people in the past year that are involved in scandals, this time around most of them are republican…. lets keep the good people and get rid of the bad ones regardless of political party affiliation…

13. Demos believe the proper response to Kim Jong Il’s nuclear test isface-to-face talks. That’s what the Clinton Administration did for years.

For six years the bush administration has done no better… neither made any progress

What I’m trying to say is this, give me a list of facts and I can counter almost all of them as I’ve done here. Vote for the right person, don’t vote for someone based on party affiliation alone… its a bad idea.

Comments? please let me know your opinion

These links are a few days old but still relevant

Pat Tillmans brother has something to say, something that everyone should hear

Stories from the fronline -The Sandbox-

After all of these years, a speech Ike made is still relevant

Her music is probably awful but at least she has her head screwed on straight

This guy hates John Madden… and I think he is justified

Its just damn interesting… a website for those that love useless trivia

This feature only works on MSN search but its still cool as hell. This utility allows you to see all of the outgoing links from a website and what links come into your website

Enjoy, I’m off to work

Just because I’m trying to keep my sarcasm in check doesn’t mean that I don’t think its funny when somebody else does it. Check it out
Oh the airline industry

As I’m sure you’re all aware, it has been reported that N. Korea detonated a nuclear weapon underground earlier this week. Many nations across the world have strongly opposed such an action and have been working to disarm the small communist nation. For many years, the international community has rewarded N. Korea for cooperation and has punished them whenever they acted in a defiant manner without regard to the opinion of the rest of the international community. Now, we see a slightly different response from N. Korea whenever we mention our dislike of their actions and possible economic reprecussions.

N. Korea released a statement saying that further sanctions would be treated as an act of war. So, lets get the facts straight.

We told them not to do it
They agreed and we gave them food under a UN program
They changed their minds and continued work on the program
We told them to knock it off
We had multi-national talks on the issue
They remained defiant and wouldn’t give it up
They finally (purportedly) tested a weapon
Now any action but giving into their demands will be met with war

What I’d like to do is let the Navy and Air Force go to town on them with all of the bombs we have in that part of the world. We’ll continue to drop bombs until pacific command runs out of weapons. After the dust clears, we’ll ask the survivors if they want to talk. Its a shame to kill civilians but leveling the place is looking like a better option every day.

On the other hand, they are just rattling their sabres because it wasn’t a successful detonation and they have no more cards to play. It would be much easier for them to let bygones go and come to the table peacefully. You’d be amazed at how much easier it is to get along with others when you come to the table with your hands open than with clenched fists.

found a good quote

“North Korea declares that pressure from the U.S. would be an act of war. Looking out the window, that’s an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that’s an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that’s an act of war”