There are few things I find more disgusting than war porn. In this case Sean Hannity, who has never served, drools over the various types of munitions we could pour on Iran to implement "regime change". It's porn for the gun nut crowd. The type of people who, for some insane reason, even after the complete failure that is Iraq, believe that bombs can change the world. If we drop enough bombs on Iran, surely they will come to their senses!
Have these people learned nothing from Iraq? Nothing at all? In this entire Hannity piece he never once mentions Iraq. Never talks about lessons learned that they might apply to this third war. Never talks about how to stem the Iranian army who maybe, just maybe, might pour over the Iraq border and attack our troops on the ground in Iraq after their country was bombed?
Iraq is right next door to Iran. Surely Hannity and the rest of the wingnuts have learned something from Iraq. Or are they really just that stupid?
Hannity always reminds me of the kids I knew in High School who would spend endless hours in their Mom's basement watching "The World At War" and playing "Axis and Allies". Not that it's a bad game, but the real world is not a board game. Surely if Iraq has shown anything it's that the "just invade" mentality has no credibility. In the real world, when you invade a country you have to put it back together again, and the cleanup job can take a lot longer than you planned (if you planned it at all). Wingnuts need to grow up. The real world is not "Risk" or "Axis and Allies". Hannity needs to grow up.
Update: Speaking of Iraq, the 57 people killed in two car bomb explosions today would not be counted towards Patreus' measure of violence. Car bombs casualties are not counted in the same category as sliver thin category where he generated the 75% drop.
The fake outrage about the MoveOn ad would be comical if it weren't so cynical. Watch how this Tennessee Republican gets crushed when she rambles on with fake contempt for MoveOn while she doesn't even know the name of the last soldier who died from her district just one month ago. The idea that conservatives could be outraged at people using our soldiers as pawns is disingenuous. To conservatives, the military is one giant pawn.
Bush uses the troops as literal pawns every time he speaks. He even used them on the campaign trail in 2004. And remember his "Mission Accomplished" speech? Need I say more.
The rhetoric from the right throughout the war has been that we are shedding blood their to avoid attacks here at home. What do we call the pieces that perform that way in chess? Pawns.
The troops were even cited before the invasion as a reason to go to war. Rumsfeld said plainly that we couldn't just leave them there in the heat. We needed to use them. The existence of troops in the field as casus belli. As ridiculous then as now.
Conservative pundits support the war and the troops only when it's the policy of their president. Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, they were all vociferously anti-war when it was Clintons Bosnia campaign (though nobody on the left called them traitors.) Many on the left were pro-war when it came to Afghanistan, including myself. I'm not against conservative war policy, I'm against bad war policy.
What will be interesting to me is how quickly the conservatives will flip when there is a Democrat in the White House. A few days after the inauguration? Probably so. Just as fast as they will be able to come up with some excuse to blame the failure in Iraq on the incoming President.
I agree 100% with what MoveOn said about Patreus. He was lying at his testimony. He was cooking the books and still is today. He was presenting politically motivated numbers. And his recent appearances on right wing news outlets, radio shows, and in support of right wing candidates in Australia and England clearly show that he is acting as a political operative and not in a strictly military capacity.
Which has me fuming about Bush's supposed shock over the MoveOn ad. That was just a convenient target. He has set up this general to present a political argument. But we can't criticize what he said because 'he is a general', which means, according to Bush, that calling him on the carpet when he lies is somehow attacking the troops.
This Bush scheme of fronting his crackpot policy with an untouchable general, it's the most cynical thing I have seen him do. And from this man I have seen a great deal of sleazy cynicism.
I bought a new computer yesterday to replace my aging Mac laptop. This one has a video camera built into the top of the screen. I figured I'd have some fun with it so I turned on Photo Booth which is a Mac application that allows you to take pictures of yourself through funky filters. Megan and I had a blast with that.
Then I remembered that Jenny and Tom had bought laptops recently as well. So they should be able to video chat. I was skeptical, because I had never seen it work before. But I reckoned I'd give it a go. And it worked. It worked really well in fact. We will probably do it again this weekend when Jenny is around. It's a whole lot more interactive than talking on the phone.
Ok, one last thing about Malibu. You may have read the last post and read about the dude who couldn't work the gears on his bike and wonder, "Why did Jack have to catch up to that guy? He shouldn't have blown past him way before!" Ah, my friend, you are the astute reader. Well, as it turns out, honesty is not always the best policy. Specifically when it comes to registering for this particular triathlon.
There was a question on the form, "Are you over 200 pounds?" Yes, I am. I weight 205 thank you very much. I worked damn hard to get here. Most of that is muscle. 6'2" well muscled guys weigh over 200. But what they really wanted to ask is, "Are you fat? Because we think fat people should go at the end of the pack." But they couldn't ask that. So they asked this seemingly innocuous question instead, which I answered honestly, and they put me at the back of the mens pack, 15 minutes behind where I should have gone. And that's why I ended up having to catch guys who didn't know how to work the gears on their bikes.
Honestly, it was kinda fun being at the back of the pack. The guys back there were cool and light hearted. There was a seven foot tall British dude next to me that I joked around with. He was a twig, but a seven foot twig is going to be over 200 pounds.
What they should do is say something like this. "Do you want to be placed at the end of the pack? There are lots of people in this race. If this is your first triathlon. Or if you have health issues that will keep you from running the race in less than 2 hours, we recommend that you select this option."
I won't be doing this one again, so it's not a big deal to me. But really it's the women who I really feel for the way they have this race set up. They go after the men altogether. Except for the elites or celebrities who go first. They have to crawl through all of the men to get to the front. They should go men, women, men, women, men, women, or vice versa. Either way, young women should go early, just like young men do.
Update: Thinking on this some more, the registration form should read like this:
You aren't going to win. Nobody using this form will win the Nautical Malibu Triathlon 2007. One of the elite athletes will win this race. You are not among them. We invite them. We give them the first spot. We give them the best location in transition. They don't pay to do this race. Because of the way we structure the race you will give them at least a ten minute head start, which is completely insurmountable. The race will be won as early as half way through your bike. You will not win the Nautical Malibu Triathlon 2007. That being said, you may do well. And with that in mind, fill in this form.
Malibu was more of a pain in the ass than it was an interesting race. It's really tough to get into and out of, which I suppose is why people want to live there. But it meant that I needed to wake up early, and drive a lot into and out of it to get registered and finally to race.
I woke up and 2:40 and was packed and on the road by 2:55. I got to the gate right around 4AM and was fifth in line. They opened up the gate about 5 minutes after I arrived and I got a cherry parking spot. After that I talked to a few folks. One lady told me that she was there to rack her bike. "Why else would I get here so early?" I sheepishly nodded. I figure it was just what I had to do.
So I got on my bike, put on my helmet and headed off to the transition... Wait... Wait... I have to explain what it's like on Zuma beach in Malibu at 4AM. It's black. Pitch black. Without a hand light or headlights you can't see a damn thing. You can see all of the stars, it's beautiful. The milky way, the whole deal. Anyway, it's really, really, dark.
Back to the story. Boom! I crash. Laid out. In a bush. Thank goodness I hadn't clicked in. Because stupid me, biking in the pitch black I ran into a parking divider and was thrown into a bush. Nice. Good way to start the race. I got up. Dusted myself off. Re-chained the bike and...
Well, any sensible person would have WALKED the bike to transition at this point. But that's not what bikes are for my 4AM bleary brained self was thinking. And I knew the area well enough to know that it was just road from this point out to the transition. Clear road. So I get back on the bike, go about a half mile and...
Bam! I run straight into a sign. Once again, laid out. No damage this time though. Just pride. Lots and lots of pride. Laid out. But dammit, I can see the transition area at this point and it's lit up like a Christmas tree. So I get back on my bike and... make it. I rack the bike, put down my helmet on my towel. Then I start lazily walking back to the car, proud to be the first person to rack their bike at the Malibu Nautica Triathlon 2007.
But where are my car keys? I swear I had them here... Oh, shit. They must have come out in my wrecks. Run... Without my car keys. Oh man. I'd have to sleep on the beach... Run... Or call Hertz and what a pain... Run... (In biking cleats) Back to the sign. On my hands and knees feeling around in the pitch black. No keys. Heart pumping. They could be in the bush! Oh no. I'll never find them in the bush.
Run, run, run... Back the bush. Are they in the bush? Could be. Does anyone have a flashlight? No. Great. Rummage, rummage. Turn around. What's that white speck? Oh, thank god, my keys.
With my keys in hand I make it back to my fire red convertible Ford Mustang and try to cram myself into some sleepable position for the next two hours. Which I amazingly did. I came out of the car a 6:10 feeling surprisingly rested.
Confident in the fact that I had three bad somethings happened I strode to transition with my triathlon bag knowing nothing bad would happen for the rest of the event. And then there was the missing chip and that whole saga... But that's another story. I'll just finish this long post with my blaise event summary.
As courses go it really wasn't very challenging. The swim portion was the toughest. It looked fairly calm from the shore but there were big swells and it was very tough keeping a consistent course. Plus the hundreds of people in the water made the action near the turn bouys a real nightmare. I got kicked more times than I can count. For a half mile I finished in 18 minutes, which was pretty good for a first time out ocean swim.
The bike was a straight back and forth course. The hills were not very challenging but most of the people in my group didn't manage their gears properly so the hills took a lot out of them. One guy I came up on was really grinding his gears so I asked him what was wrong, he said his gears didn't work. So I slowed down to pace him and try and figure out what was wrong. He was pulling the shifters to the outside and they wouldn't change, I asked him what would happen if he pushed them in and... viola! Gear change. And off he went. Lovely, the guy didn't even know how to shift gears on his bike before he got into a triathlon. I finished the bike in an hour.
The run was uneventful, just two miles out along the parking lot then into the hill for just a little, then back. At this point I was being passed by some of the elite women and that was cool watching and hearing them strategize about how to beat the woman in front of them. One woman had a coach pacing her for a little bit and he was giving her some mental pointers about how to catch her opponent. I finished the run in about 35 minutes. Clearly not my best time, but by this time I was really hungry and they were only offering water, no Gu or anything that I could burn.
Marsha and Mel missed seeing me finish by just a few minutes. We met up at the individual registrants desk where Marsha was fully engaged in a conversation with one of the race officials. Apparently hundreds of people had entered but had not even bothered to show...
I'll definitely do Palm Springs again, but if I do a sea Triathlon near L.A. again it will be the L.A. Triathlon or the Hermosa Beach Triathlon, each of which are closer to my Aunt and far easier to get into and out of.
Oh, yeah, as for stars, I saw very few. David Duchovny, and the guy who played the cop in Heroes, I think, but nobody really cool. And Debbie Gibson sang the national anthem. Ho hum. Anyway, the stars were clearly not enough to come back for. The literal stars, up in the sky, that I could see clear as day, were far more impressive.
It's after 8PM and that's my pre-race bed-time. I need to be in the car by 3AM to get to the race site. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep in the car again once I get everything setup. Who the hell knows though. This race is unlike anything I have seen before. It's huge. It will be a hell of a thing. I'll give it my all. Mel can scrape me up and put me in the car so that I can get back home to Lori and Megan.
Wish me luck!
The media is filled with the '75% reduction in violence' estimate given by Bush to justify his continuing the war. But if you dig deeper you find that US casualties last month were at an all-time high. And Iraqi civilian casualties last month were at an all time high as well. So how do you get a 75% reduction when the killings on both sides are at their peak?
You cook the books. What they did was redefine what bodies are counted towards 'ethno-sectarian violence'. Shot in the back of the head instead of the front? Doesn't count. It was an assassination. Was it a Sunni killed by a Sunni, or Shia killed by a Shia. Doesn't count. Which would be a significant drop because both Sunni and Shia have spent the last four years "ethnically cleansing" their neighborhoods. Killed in a mass explosion like a bus or school bombing? Doesn't count. That fits into a different category. That's how you get a 75% drop real quick like. You just change how the number is counted.
Ahh, the Bush administration. When the facts don't fit what you want, change the facts to match your own view of reality.
Of course, as has so often been the case with this war, the bumper sticker of "75% reduction in violence" will win out because it's far harder to convey the fact that Bush has once again cooked the books.
Here is my Triathlon checklist so that I don't leave anything out.
And that should about do it.
I ran my first half marathon distance this morning. My times were pretty poor, but at least I made it all the way through running. That's 13.1 miles, or actually 13.18 miles this morning. I'm psyched about it. But my body is still going through some issues. My thighs hurt and I have a bit of pain on the lower right quadrant of my abs. Gotta say that, all things considered, not too shabby. Wasn't too long ago when 10K seemed like a ton. Now I'm doing twice that.
I guess I just missed the boat on the whole comic book and super hero thing when I was growing up. I watched a trailer for Iron Man and was completely unmoved by it. Downey looks good. The graphics look good. But, meh. It's just yet another super hero movie based on a comic book that I didn't read.
Comic books, or graphic novels as people like to call them nowadays, not so interesting to me either. The information density is minimal.
I'm really looking forward to the Malibu triathlon. It looks like Mel may come along for the ride up and back, which should help on Sunday when I'm dead exhausted. I'm thinking about renting a car so that I don't put all of the miles on my civic, perhaps a prius. Carlos says those are comfortable for long drives.
Lori wants me to get a picture next to some actor from General Hospital, Hunky McRockAbs, or something like that. Apparently he runs it every year.
Dana Rohrabacher is a constant embarrassment to my state. This weeks he's telling people that China's president is trying to kill Bush. Why do people listen to this man when has obvious mental problems.
On a lighter note, I suggested to Starbucks this morning that they put together a drink order form page on their web site that prints out a small card with the drink details on it. That would make it easier to order complex drinks at the counter. To make it even better they could print a barcode on it so that cashier terminals could read the barcode and enter the drink exactly. It would really help with ordering Lori's crazy concoctions. Of course, that drink entry form could be insanely complex given the amount of things a barista can do. I'm guessing not every barista can pull all of this stuff off.
I was walking up to a Starbucks today when I noticed a guy outside smoking, working on his laptop and reading two books on learning C. Ugh. Why people feel the need to torture themselves by learning to program through C is beyond me. It's like learning surgery by being given a pair of chopsticks and being told to remove one of your testicles. Learning C++ is like learning more about surgery by being given a rusty spoon with the directions to re-attach the testicle.
Eric will likely disagree with me on this. But I think it's best to learn programming through a high level language, like Ruby or Python. That will teach you the basics, structured programming, data structures, objects, how to decompose a problem, how to refactor, all that good stuff. Then if you get a job writing device drivers for graphics cards you may want to learn C. Otherwise, just stay with the high level stuff. Moores Law worked, damnit! Use a garbage collected object-oriented programming language.
Yeah, I do feel like a sucker for buying not one but two iPhones right after they were released. I'm used to the fact that tech products are boat anchors in two years. And I'm used to paying a premium to buy Apple products because they are better designed. But a $200 drop 66 days after the release? That's just ri-freaking-diculous.
On a pundit level I think Apple made a serious blunder here. The price was too high and they had to make the adjustment. But the way it was done, and the paltry little rebate they are giving, stinks to high heaven. Jobs is going to have a tough time rolling out his next new product. And the iPhone, which is a little marvel, has been stained by this.
On a personal level, I feel like an ass for moving too fast. It's like I have a $600 neon sign on my belt blinking "sucker".
Well, in CGI at least. ;-(
Not quite sure what to think of this. It has the same "dead eye" problem that the "The Polar Express" had.