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Showing posts from April 20, 2003
Good Lord. It's the same every time I'm going away whether it's on holiday or a business trip. Suddenly, everyone has items which require my urgent attention and that couldn't have happened yesterday, nor can they wait a week. Not only in the office, but out of the office, at home, everywhere. If I was vain, I'd think I was popular. At least in the office it shows I'm a worthwhile contributor to the company. Or it makes me think I am :-)
I'm not sure if I understand the politics of this, but let me lay it out. Bush wants to combat terrorism and keep certain countries in check. North Korea just admitted to having nukes, which we all suspected but didn't know for sure. They invited the US to direct talks about their nuke program, and the Bush administration has just flat refused, causing the current negotiations to collapse. Why? Why not go and talk to them if they're asking for talks? Why cut them off? Isn't that more likely to piss them off ? N.Korea is asking the US to sign a non-agression treaty indicating they will not invade. In return, N.Korea will dismantle it's weapons program. But the US has refused, and N.Korea has said that Iraq has taught them the only way to prevent an act of aggression from the US is to have a nuclear deterrant. Seems like we might be going to war with N.Korea too then.
We seem to be doing okay for utility bills in our new house. Compared to the bills the previous occupants showed us, it looks like we're using about 10% of the water and power that they did. It remains to be seen what the gas bill is.
Jeez this SARS thing is getting really nasty. It's mutated and the new virus now affects the intestines as well as the respiratory system. This is going to turn out to be a derivative of that damn Hong Kong chicken flu from last year. In other news, everyone-knows-he-did-it-but-got-away-with-it-because-he's-a-rich-celeb OJ Simpson is getting his own TV show. It seems crime really does pay :)
American Airlines is about to kick the bucket. They're going for Chapter 11 tonight. The unions revoked their vote after they discovered the "hidden perks" that the CEO and VPs were going to get. It's unbelievable. Do the people at the top of these companies have no shame or conscience? With United, it was the unions that dragged the company into Chapter 11. With American, it's the management. How can these people sleep at night? Because of their perks, their salaries and benefits, their expense accounts, they've killed off another airline. I mean how can they sleep at night? .
Now this is interesting. The UN have said they want to get back into Iraq to continue looking for evidence of Saddam's WMD program. But the White House has rejected the offer telling the UN that America has taken over now. Does this mean they're prepping to place "evidence" that will later be "found" I wonder?
Panic everyone - panic!!!!! A white powdery substance confirmed by a preliminary field test to be the toxin that causes botulism and plague has been found in a washington area post office. Erm. Well. Maybe. Sort of. Turns out the "preliminary field test" should have read "wild media speculation". Turns out the powder wasn't white, it was brown. Turns out to be a totally inert substance of no danger to anyone. So the media hysteria, biochem suits and toxic cleaning showers set up at the site all look a bit stupid right now. Apparently though, 93 people are being treated for exposure. Exposure to what? Coffee? Holy shit people - get a fucking grip!
..... - ... ---- speechless...! For the first time in months - CNN's front page isn't leading with the war in Iraq ! Something to do with Laci Peterson instead.... (who's she?) *faint* This is entertaining. Apparently, GWB says there is a good chance for a diplomatic solution to the N. Korea crisis. Given George's recent success in the "diplomatic" arena, I suspect that means we're about to go to war with North Korea. Let's see - (puts on future goggles). I predict, given the usual to'ing and fro'ing and Bush & Blair's couple of months to spin up some lies and fabricate "evidence", that we'll be at war with North Korea on August 17th. That is of course if that pesky Syria problem doesn't solve itself, in which case, we'll probably be at war with them instead.
Today's jobsworth award goes to the Dallas police officers and photomat employees who decided that pictures of a mother breast feeding her baby constituted child porn, and had her arrested pending a 20 year jail sentence. Fortunately, common sense prevailed and she's been let go. Sadly, it seems you can't even take pictures of your own children now without being branded as a child-raping pervert. The story is here. In better news, we went riding again this weekend. Took off for four hours over to the back side of the Oquirrh mountains and back up through Tooele. My newly Dremel'd windscreen with its NACA style ducts seems to work brilliantly. The wind noise is still there (duh - it's a motorbike) but all the turbulence has gone.