The Bush Credibility Gap

All I can say is, it's about damn time we saw something like this from the Democrats. "The Bush Credibility Gap: Real Life Examples" gives a chronology of Bush saying one thing and doing another. Y'know, if they'd gotten their act together like this before the '02 elections, maybe a few Dems would have been elected. Perhaps they heard the wakeup bell?

Localhost

Am I the last person to learn that http://www.mouse-potato.com resolves to your local machine? This could be useful.

War thoughts

I suppose that I should weigh in on the Iraq situation as well. Like Dori, and like many other Americans, I see good arguments on both sides. It's clear that Hussein is a dangerous madman, and I won't shed any tears at his death. I don't even have an objection to that death being at the hands of American soldiers; Hussein easily qualifies for my "better dead" list. But I have yet to be convinced the United States needs to conquer Iraq at this time, or that Iraq is an imminent threat to America's security or interests. Thanks to more than a year of propaganda from the Bush Administration, an appalling number of Americans believe that Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 attacks. Yet most of the attackers were Saudi Arabians, and they were doing the bidding of not Saddam Hussein, but of Osama bin Laden. Remember him? Public Enemy No. 1? The big fish that got away? Osama and his network of terrorists are the real threat to America, but they're too hard to find and wipe out, so Bush turned instead to the enemy that he can reach. There is no compelling evidence that Iraq had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks, and those attacks are the provocation for the United States to go to war, not the continued existence of a pipsqueak dictator in the Middle East.

I guess I'm in agreement with Howard Dean on this point: Bush is fighting the wrong war at the wrong time. War with Iraq may, in some future, theoretical fashion, make America safer from external threats. But it will do nothing to deter terrorist attacks. Indeed, it may exacerbate the likelihood of future attacks. And that's my problem with all of those pundits and bloggers who have such a hard-on to go to war with Iraq: I find their arguments that the United States will be demonstrably safer after Hussein is gone to be thin at best, and nonexistent at worst. In principle, I don't have a problem with the idea that America has an interest in removing Hussein from the world stage. But I believe that we are squandering time and treasure overthrowing the government of Iraq that would be better spent actually making America safer from its more immediate enemies.

War and anti-war thoughts

Everywhere I turn nowadays, there's someone talking about the war, fervently either for or against. And while we've pretty much kept our mouths shut on this blog, it's not from lack of opinions. Here's a few pieces that have shaped my thinking:

• Adam Engst wrote A Personal Statement on War in Iraq
• John Perry Barlow on Sympathy for the Devil
• From Salon: Big Oil fears war, too
• A NY Post opinion piece on the funding and backround of Not In Our Name
• David Brooks on the return of anti-semitism in the left
• Two UK pro-war articles: one from the Observer and one from the Guardian
• Howard Dean's position on Iraq
• And last, but very definitely not least: Senator Byrd's speech We Stand Passively Mute

As you can probably tell by the above, I'm still on the fence, and have strong objections to at least something in what darn near everyone is saying. But the impression here was that I was just ignoring current events, and that's not the case at all. Note that I'm not speaking for Tom here; he may well agree with at least some of what I've said, but I won't stick him with my words.

Thursday, March 13

In the Bay Area, and wondering what to do on Thursday, March 13? Here's a couple of choices:

Tom Negrino, Author, will be at the Apple Palo Alto store to discusss "How to take control of your finances" (aka plugging the Quicken book).

Alternatively, for those in the East Bay, you can see Jean Sirius's art and attend her reception. Go see it (I have)—highly recommended.

Me? I'll be flying back from St. Louis that day, landing about 5:30 pm, and then zooming to Palo Alto. So I can't make Jean's show, so if you do, give her a hug for me.

Control your Mac from your cell phone?

As I mentioned a few days ago, the Sony Ericsson Clicker is now in beta testing. Got a Bluetooth-enabled Mac, a Sony Ericsson phone, and some curiousity? Check it out.

Number one most requested feature so far: make the phone be able to turn iTunes down when the phone rings.