We are definately living in interesting times. Russia says it will veto US/British/Spanish UN war resolution in the interest of 'international stability'. Stability is great and all, except when the status quo sucks.

Someone - be it Bush or the UN Security Council - is going to go down in flames within the next year. If Bush can't get UN approval, and goes into Iraq anyway - who that someone is will depend entirely on exactly how advanced Iraq's WMD program is found out to be.

Full Circle?: The world, not America, has gone off the deep end � just as it did some 70 years ago when faced with similar choices between cheap rhetoric and real sacrifice. And so just as the tragedy of Pearl Harbor for Americans put an end to all the nonsense of the 1930s, let us hope that the memory of September 11 and the looming showdown with Iraq will do the same for the present farce as well.

It just keeps getting more weird. Now the KKK is going to protest at the Masters - in favor of Augusta's right to exclusivity. Even though I think they are on the correct side of this issue, they aren't exactly the type of group that you want in your corner.

And the guy that tried to make a quick buck on all this controversy with his The Burk Stops Here website & merchandise is going broke because nobody is buying the merchandise. Poor fellow.

I just can't resist this one. Is Martha Burk losing her mind?
Feb 25th headline: Burk won't rule out illegal protest at Augusta
Feb 26th headline: Burk thinks someone might try to disrupt Masters - but not her.
Feb 26th quote: "It won't kill me to get arrested."

I'm back safely from New Orleans. Way too much work to mess with the site today though.

I said a few days ago that the UN will never be able to disarm Iraq while Saddam is in power, and now its looking more true than ever: Saddam rejects Blix's call to destroy missiles.

So what now? Let the UN keep plugging away because we think they 'should' disarm Iraq? I don't think anybody would disagree that the UN 'should' disarm Iraq, but at what point does the world come to the realization that the UN is not disarming Iraq. Its a question that the anti-war left need to answer. So far, not even the New York Times has provided an answer to that one.

And I think the longer the lead up to this war becomes, the more glaring the absence of that answer is. Clever slogans and general opposition to the idea of war will go over for a while, but eventually the left needs to provide an alternative. Continued support for inspections that either don't locate all WMDs, or can't effectively destroy the WMDs they do find isn't going to cut it with anyone but the knee-jerk anti-Bush crowd (which is large, but nowhere near a majority).

Oh, and check out Axis of Truth. Brand new blog. I've got no idea of the quality of the content yet - nice domain name though.

Its snowing like mad outside right now. We're supposed to end up with about 8 inches by the end of the day, but at current pace we may double that. Normally I could care less, but I'm supposed to drive to Kansas City on Monday and fly to New Orleans on Tuesday. As of now, Kansas City is in serious peril, and New Orleans has been reduced to a maybe.

What the hell is Hans Blix doing? He orders the destruction of Iraq's Al Samoud 2 missiles (which apparently go too far), but fails to set a deadline. Given past history here, whats the chances that 12 years from now (assuming France ultimately gets its way) we're still arguing w/ Iraq about destroying them?

I did the Political Compass test today for this first time ever. Turns out I'm a liberal! Not really, but I am more centrist than former Mr. Centrist himself - Oliver Willis.

Economic Left/Right: 2.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.41

Which basically puts me in the upper left portion of the bottom right quarter of their grid - slightly to the right of center and slightly libertarian.

One other thing that struck me funny about OWillis' post was this comment regarding his own compass reading. He chose an interesting point of reference for himself: Certainly not a pinko, as I see it.

This one happened right here in Wichita - a school bus driver was arrested for possession of a concealed firearm while on the way to take kids to school after some parents heard gunfire coming from the bus. There have been a bunch of logistical problems with busing in Wichita this year - kids not getting home until 2-3 hours after school lets out mostly. I think the company the district contracts with ought to get their contract terminated.

If you haven't noticed yet, I've got a new little link-only blog section of this site called Without Comment off to the left under Uncle Sam. Because I have less and less time to devote to this site, this new section lets me just put up interesting links without the need to actually write out any coherent thoughts about them.

This seems to be a recurring event with teachers recently. Substitute teacher tapes 20 students mouths shut. Her excuse? She claims the 2nd graders all asked to have the tape put on their mouths. Thankfully, she's been fired.

The battle for the male golfing world has been joined. Not only did the City of Augusta, Georgia (home of the Masters) enact some tougher laws regarding demonstrations - aimed directly at Martha Burk and her gang; but Brian Kontak is going to try and qualify for the US Women's Open.

UPDATE:An Augusta, Georgia women's group is trying to convince other groups to drop their affiliation with Martha Burk's organization.

And Solosier points out: However, the USGA -- which runs the U.S. Women's Open -- requires any entrant be a female professional or female amateur with a USGA handicap index not exceeding 4.4. Thats not a limitation on what Kontak is trying to do - its the impetus.

Its always the little things that make bad weather seem so ... well, bad. Snow storm causes doughnut shortage in northern New York.

My address book is the first casualty of war

This was written by a Brit, but change a few words around, and it pretty accurately depicts my mindset as well: In all my 38 years, I have never before felt such a sense of personal shock. I am shocked that so many of my friends would rather a brutal dictator remained in power � for that would be the direct consequence if their views won out � than support military action by the United States. I am ashamed that they would rather believe the words of President Saddam Hussein than those of their own Prime Minister. I am nauseated that they would rather give succour to evil than think through the implications of their gut feelings. It is a shocking experience to realise that your friends are either mindless, deluded or malevolent.

And if you haven't seen Evan Maloney's interview of peace protesters - you should. Its sadly hilarious.

UPDATE Hope you already saw the video, because Rush Limbaugh mentioned it while I was out getting lunch. I imagine its going to be tough to get to for a few days now.

A 6th grader in Florida got arrested for trying to change his grade on his teachers computer. The St. Lucie school district in southeast Florida lists "the changing, erasing, removing or otherwise manipulating computer data through unauthorized entry" as one of the most serious infractions in its code of conduct. [link via Daryl]

That seems about right. Mess with your grade in a computer, get arrested, suspended for 10 days and recommended for expulsion. Bring a gun to school and you don't get arrested, and you might face disciplinary action. Nice priorities.

UPDATE: The felony charge against the 6th grader has been dropped and the school decided against expulsion.

When are teachers going to realize that its not OK to have sex with their students. And when are the students going to stop supporting teachers like this.

Maybe it'll happen about the time that school principals stop getting arrested for DUI - during school hours. Not only that, but getting caught like an idiot: Cops said they spotted Peralta-Tessitore squatting and urinating beside the open door of her 2003 Mercedes-Benz about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday. Her car was stopped at a red light at 254th St. and Broadway.

But hey, everybody is entitled to one mistake, right? She was arrested in 1982 for using marijuana, a violation, and again in 1990 on a shoplifting charge, the sources said. Since neither arrest resulted in a felony conviction, they may not have raised a red flag when she was hired by the school system in 1994, the sources said.

Last year, only 26% of her students could read well enough to pass city and state exams. She should never be allowed to work in a school environment again - administrative or otherwise. At least the parents are pissed off.

This could be interesting - a zero tolerance type case being pursued (or not) against a teacher. Physics teacher placed on leave after bringing a bb gun to school (as he had for 20 years prior) to do a demonstration.

Ryan said that if a teacher or anyone decides to bring a weapon to school, they should first let the administration know. For example, if a historian or teacher wanted to re-enact part of the U.S. Civil War, he or she could bring a weapon -- provided it wasn't loaded or fired, Ryan said.

Considering this teacher brought the gun to school without telling the administration, and it was loaded, and it was going to be fired as part of a demonstration - it ought to be pretty clear what punishment the teacher should face - but its not.

A ninth grader gets suspended for 10 days and sent to an alternate school because he brought some throat spray and cold medication to school. The policy states: "Before any prescribed medication or treatment may be administered to any student during school hours, the Board shall require the written prescription from the child's physician accompanied by the written authorization of the parent." Medication is defined as any prescribed or over-the-counter (non-prescribed) drugs, preparations and or remedies.

"This is a safety issue for the students," said Graves. Of course it is. Because students just aren't safe with medicine in their hands - thats why they aren't even allowed to purchase over-the-counter medications at the store. Oh wait, that isn't right.

I guess the idea of having a different over-the-counter medicine policy for elementary students and high school students just never occurred to these folks.

Mr. Superior Equipment - Phil Mickelson - showed off his inferior game today in San Diego. 2 shots behind Tiger Woods to start the day, Phil gets roasted by 4 and loses by 6. The announcers talked about Tiger & Phil's equipment pretty much all day long and basically concluded that Phil would do well to use Tiger's sticks instead of his own to get more control.

They made a point of mentioning that early last year, Tiger went to a Titleist testing facility to look for a driver that went further. His current driver is 43.5 inches long, with a steel shaft - his initial ball speed is roughly 177mph. His first swing with a 45 inch driver with a graphite shaft yeilded an initial ball speed of over 190mph. Clearly, Tiger is not 'stuck' with his current equipment - he's using what he can control; while Phil is out there taking big swipes and peppering the galleries with his errant shots.

After looking at a whole slew of 3 and 4 megapixel cameras, I ended up picking the Fuji FinePix s602 Zoom from NewEgg. I simply never found a camera that was decidedly better. Anyhow, I suppose I'll have to start posting some photos now - though I can promise you that this site won't turn into a photoblog. Nor will you ever see me post a picture of a closeup view of a flower.

LeBron James got his eligibility hearing postponed until after the regular season (whats the point then), and then went out and scored 46 points. From the opposing coach: "I think he could score 70 or 80 if he went down low with the ball,'' Zanesville coach Scott Aronhalt said. "What do you do?'' You might try a double-team. Maybe play a triangle & two, with the two both guarding LeBron.

Also, Capx2000 emailed me a link to the LeBron Lottery Game (link will not work in Mozilla - use IE).

Pretty much anything with Jack Black in it is gonna make me laugh, but the idea of a Tenacious D movie was something I didn't expect. [via Heritical Ideas]

The front cover of the NY Post is an absolute classic today.

Now others are starting to make the case that an invasion of Iraq is not pre-emptive. I certainly wasn't the first to make that argument, but it hasn't been prevelant in the blog community (maybe because its obvious to alot of people). I guess that vast right wing conspiracy thing is finally starting to pay off.

I don't think I mentioned it here before, but my youngest brother has his own blog now - though I need to scold him about not updating it enough.

And, we've got a new hosted site, Hooray For Humans as well. Careful for the red background, it'll burn your eyes out. I'm finally recovered from the retina damage that Forgo's original layout caused a couple of years ago. :)

The date of the women's golf fiasco has been set - Annika accepted an invation to play in the Colonial in mid-May 2003. The course is a par 70 and just over 7000 yards in length.

And we wonder why they hate us: Tom Delay (R) had this conversation with a Frenchman in India: "I was at a celebration of India's Independence Day," he told reporters, "and a Frenchman came walking up to me and started talking to me about Iraq, and it was obvious we were not going to agree. And I said, 'Wait a minute. Do you speak German?' And he looked at me kind of funny and said, 'No, I don't speak German.' And I said, 'You're welcome,' turned around and walked off."

Ouch. True, the French aren't very grateful for what we did for them in WW2, but I don't think throwing that in the face of an individual to avoid a heated discussion of Iraq is particularly helpful. [via The Corner]

OK, so we've got Bernie Goldber's 'Bias' vs. Eric Alterman's 'What Liberal Bias'. One telling us the media is liberal, the other refuting it. Somebody's lying.

With as difficult as it has been to translate Arabic statements to English over the past year or so, I have no real idea whether Bin Laden is supporting or deriding Saddam Hussein. But, given that we as non-Arabic speakers have to rely on somebody else to tell us what the 'Bin Laden' tape says, immediately jumping on the Bush & Powell are lying wagon doesn't seem like such a grand idea. And relying on the Al-Jazeera translation seems especially dubious considering that they lied about even being in possession of the tape only hours before releasing it.

Why'd they lie? Maybe because they like Bin Laden. Maybe to see how many people like Oliver Willis would say 'how high' as soon as their 'jump' command was issued. Maybe the guy who claimed he didn't know anything about the tape really didn't know anything about the tape. I don't know. But I do know that the kind of reflexive response from many on the left to immediately claim Bush/Powell are lying is just ridiculous. It can't be argued with because it isn't based on logical thought - its simply an 'I dislike Bush, therefore I'm going to assume the worst at every turn'.

I played a little basketball last night for the first time in about 5 years. I now completely understand the term 'lost a step'. Yikes! Everything was off the front of the rim, I was slow, and I'm missing about 10 inches off of my vertical. Last time I laid off playing (it was only about a year off), it took me about a month to get all my normal skills back. We'll see how long it takes this time.

If only American politics were this fun: A Chilean porn star has promised to flash her breasts every time rival politicians begin to argue over legislation. Finally! A campaign promise we can all agree is a good thing. As long as her breasts aren't stinky.

Well this is certainly an interesting twist. France & Germany want more inspectors in Iraq, triple I think was their number. But, Mr. Chief Inspector - Hans Blix says he doesn't think more inspectors would help. Asked whether more inspectors could do a better, faster job, he said: "The principal problem is not the number of inspectors but rather the active cooperation of the Iraqi side, as we have said many times." What a freaking mess.

If nothing else, its good for a chuckle or two: Alternet's Top 10 Conspiracy Theories of 2002. Not suprisingly, most of them revolve around GW Bush. And for more 'near conspiracy' talk, check out FPIF.

This is a good sign for race relations in the US: Boston ends preferences to minority and women-owned businesses in awarding city contracts. I've seen situations where it would have been impossible for the most qualified, and cheapest, firm to win a contract because the weighting for WBEs and MBEs was so high. As a result, the highly qualified firms seek out W&MBEs to do joint proposals with - at a higher price than if either firm had bid alone. What this has led to in my experience is that some W&MBEs that have been set up only to do these joint proposals - they don't have the technical ability to do much of the work themselves because it was never their intent.

That (and not necessarily discrimination) is the reason that you see statistics like this: The study showed that blacks were prime contractors on 1.3 percent of $332.2 million in city contracts awarded in 1999, 2000 and 2001, while they represent 10 percent of available firms, the study said.

You've gotta love the logic. Nothing like pointing to the failings of the past as reasons to keep on failing. German Foriegn Minister Joschka Fischer: "That’s the first critical question that I ask is why is this being prioritized now? To this day I can't see why. Saddam Hussein is a terrible dictator. But we have known that for a long time," he said.

My first question for Fischer would be "Why wasn't it prioitized the day you 1st learned of how terrible Saddam was?"

Neale makes the point that though he leans pro-war with Iraq, he thinks we'd be better off letting inspections continue and moving our focus to North Korea.

The US, at the moment, is far better positioned to let the weapons inspectors force Saddam to continue to play the game of cat-and-mouse for a least a year or so, as it almost certainly prevents any real progression of the Iraqi arms race to continue, and meanwhile concentrate on killing of the terrorist organisations that present a clear and present danger to US soil. ... The US would be wise to let the political games in Iraq play out for a while so it can also head off the disaster in North Korea."

If I had any confidence whatsoever that the UN would be more helpful in dealing with the North Korean's than they have been with Iraq, I'd go along with his suggestion here with no 2nd thoughts. I tend to agree that continued inspections would at least hamper Saddam's ability to push his WMD programs much further in the short term - giving us time to deal w/ North Korea if the UN shows some serious resolve.

But my fear is that leaving Iraq alone right now would only mean that 4 years from now we'd have a nuclear Iraq to deal with alongside a still crazed North Korean situation. The UN hasn't exactly shown an active interest in disarming Saddam - I don't see that after another year of inspections they'll be any more game than they are today. And considering the the UN has no problems with 11 years of inspections in Iraq, I think it highly unlikely they'll be more agressive against a foe that already posesses the weapons needed to strike back if they piss him off. I prefer to instead press ahead and topple Saddam now, while it will be relatively easy, then leaving only the terrorists and North Korea to deal with.

One beef I have with Neale (and its not just him, but much of the media actually) is categorizing what we are about to do as a pre-emptive strike against Iraq (maybe the Bush admin has used this term also, but I still think its wrong). Disarmament was a term of Iraq's surrender after invading Kuwait. What we are about to do is only a continuation and enforcement of those terms. The 'pre-emptive' term implies that Saddam hasn't actually used his might against anyone.

True, he hasn't used them against the US (at least on US soil), but our foreign policy isn't to bury our head in the sand until a conflict directly affects us - we made that mistake in WW2 and lots of English soldiers and civilians died as a result of us considering Hiter as 'Europe's problem'.

What I used to amuse myself while I burned the new 50 Cent CD: Icons At War.

Even though Phil Mickelson is backing away from his recent statements about Tiger Woods and his equipment - he's still taking a beating in the media. Even those that appear to be cutting him some slack - And so maybe, in a roundabout way, Mickelson is right. Sometimes, overcoming your equipment is the hardest thing a golfer has to do. - turn out to be referring to Mickelson's brain and physique as his 'equipment'. Ouch.

The 1st episode of Animatrix has been turned loose on the web. There will be 3 more web episode releases, and then apparently a DVD with additional eposides in June 2003.

ESPN has some pictures of a bunch of retro jersey's from the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB. My absolute favorites are the old Nordiques sweater, with the Expos jersey close behind. This old Oscar Robertson tank is nice too.

I'm not sure if I like the unilateralism that the US is displaying regarding Iraq - its a bit too crowded with other nations for my liking. Ten more countries across eastern Europe threw their support behind United States policy in Iraq last night, further demolishing Franco-German claims to speak for the continent on the crisis. Altogether, 19 European states now back war.

Don't think anyone would be stupid enough to still call this potential war unilateral? Think again. That Google News search page is chock full of countries saying they won't support a unilateral war against Iraq. Are they living in the same universe as the rest of us? When are the major news networks going to report that these countries are basically arguing against a strawman.

Here's a thought. Today is 'national signing day'. A day where high school athletes all across the nation sign letters of intent to attend the college of their choice. I imagine that a fair number of those kids currently reside in Ohio, and though they may be signing to play for a university's football team, are currently playing basketball, wrestling, or will be playing baseball in the spring semester for their high schools. But should they?

The rule that LeBron James got busted for breaking says you forfeit your amateur status: "by capitalizing on athletic fame by receiving money or gifts of monetary value.''

So my question is - is not a university scholarship, free books and housing a "gift of monetary value"?

Mandela's idea of progress - using the UN as a travel agency. Mandela, who has also demanded that Iraq comply more actively with the weapons inspectors, said he had tried unsuccessfully to call Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). He dismissed the suggestion he would go to Iraq to talk to Saddam personally, saying he would only go if he received approval from the United Nations. "I won't go on my own just because I'm invited by Iraq," he said.

Pretty soon he'll start harping on GW Bush because he didn't clear his vacation time on the ranch in Crawford with the UN first.

LeBron got his temporary injunction and is eligible again. The final outcome is still up in the air though.

Russell Simmons (Def Jam) wants to lead a boycott against Pepsi because they dropped Ludacris as a spokesman for his rough lyrics, yet replaced him with Ozzie Ozbourne in the SuperBowl ads. His argument is basically that Ozzie cusses up a storm just like Ludacris, so whats the problem. The problem of course, is that there's a big difference between dropping F-Bombs every 3 minutes like Ozzie does, and having lyrics that talk about killing people. Cuss words ... violence ... cuss words ... violence. See the difference Russell?

Of all the guys on the PGA Tour, is it really a good idea for Phil Mickelson to run his mouth about Tiger Woods? ''He hates that I can fly it past him now. He has a faster swing speed than I do, but he has inferior equipment. Tiger is the only player who is good enough to overcome the equipment he's stuck with.''

Considering how badly Woods has beaten Phil every time they are in contention together, I don't think running smack about his equipment is really the best thing to do. And now that I think about it - what does it say about Phil's ability when he's admitting to having better equipment than Tiger, yet he still can't beat him.

I bought another 256MB of RAM tonight from NewEgg because Sim City 4000 is a hog, and lucked into getting free FedEx shipping, and a free t-shirt. If you're looking to upgrade, you might as well do it while the free stuff is flowin.

Jayson Stark has some great ideas about changing the intentional walk rule in baseball.

1. A limit of one intentional walk per player per game
2. On an intentional walk, every runner gets to move up a base
3. The hitter can decline the intentional walk, as if it were, oh, a holding penalty

All of them have enforcement problems, but I'd like to see a change made. Only letting the best player in the game participate in about 50% of his plate appearances during the '02 World Series was a joke. Oh, and LeBron appealed his suspension today.

Didn't Al Gore get in trouble for raising money at a religious building? Any how is it that Al Sharpton can pass around a collection plate at a church for his presidential election? The spirit of presidential politics filled The City's Third Baptist Church on Sunday, as the Rev. Al Sharpton took to the pulpit with a fiery sermon that had the congregation shouting praise and filling a special collection basket for his fledgling presidential bid."

A last thought (for today at least) on LeBron James. The problem I have is not so much with the rule (not accepting gifts), but the punishment. If he had gone on the court and been talking trash about his Hummer, and ended up starting a fight - do you think he'd have lost his eligibility, or just suspended for a game or two. If he'd have tested positive for drugs - suspended for a game or lost his eligibility?

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but it would seem to me that being on drugs and starting fights during the game are more serious infractions - yet he gets the proverbial death penalty for something much more minor in nature.

Also, ESPN is running a web-poll, and talking about it on their Sportscenter shows, that is completely wrong. There are 5 options in the poll, 4 of which for people who think he should have gotten a lesser punishment, and 1 option for those who think the punishment was fine. Currently 41.9% think the current punishment was appropriate, and 58.1% think it was wrong. But becaue that 58.1% is broken up into 4 pieces due to the nature of their poll, ESPN keeps reporting that the poll is showing ESPN viewers agree with the current punishment. Idiotic mistake.