Multifarious Musings
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Bush and fraudulent elections??!?
I winced when I heard of President Bush's condemnations and call for possible financial sanctions against Belarus - because of their apparent fraudulent election results, and subsequent protests and arrests in their country.
"The United States condemns the actions by Belarussian security services on the m
orning of March 24, and we urge all members of the international community to join us in condemning any and all abuses and demanding that Belarussian authorities respect the rights of their own citizens to express themselves peacefully," sez Bush.
Hey, I personally hate to hear about any election that ends in question, in any country - 'cause nobody wants to have a leader in office whom shouldn't really be there, after all... (oooohhhhh, but I can be sooo predictable sometimes!)
...You probably see where I'm going with this one, eh???
Oh, hey - who am I kidding here, after all - we always hold honest, accurately-counted elections in the good 'ol U-S of A, and... peaceful protesters never get arrested in the good ol' U-S of A, when they question the results of an election.
Right??
R-I-I-I-I-G-H-T!!!!
"The United States condemns the actions by Belarussian security services on the m
orning of March 24, and we urge all members of the international community to join us in condemning any and all abuses and demanding that Belarussian authorities respect the rights of their own citizens to express themselves peacefully," sez Bush.Hey, I personally hate to hear about any election that ends in question, in any country - 'cause nobody wants to have a leader in office whom shouldn't really be there, after all... (oooohhhhh, but I can be sooo predictable sometimes!)
...You probably see where I'm going with this one, eh???
Oh, hey - who am I kidding here, after all - we always hold honest, accurately-counted elections in the good 'ol U-S of A, and... peaceful protesters never get arrested in the good ol' U-S of A, when they question the results of an election.
Right??
R-I-I-I-I-G-H-T!!!!
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Thursday, March 16, 2006
Music Safe Haven???
I admit it - I don't do the MP3 thing very well... I've lost more songs thru careless archiving, CDs that magically turned into coasters, and bad labeling... I believe the technical term for my losses would go under the label "carelessness".
I was amused to hear on the radio today, about a company that will allow you to store all of your MP3s on their server, so that if you drop or drown your iPod, or mistakenly reformat your hard drive, you won't lose all of those 99-cent songs you actually pirated thru Morpheus or LimeWire for free.
The service costs 40-bucks a year!!! Now, I was amused because, just this weekend I was putting the finishing-touches on our basement (my playroom/theatre), which got flooded in early February.
Shit Happens... Enaways...
In a fit of nostalgia, I decided to listen to my old Renaissance - Turn of the Cards album... Purchased in 1975 for $12.99 - It made it thru the latest flood (and all previous moves and tragedies) just fine, thank you, and it sounded just GREAT... we're talking pristine vinyl here - accept no imitations!!!
OK, so I got to figuring... 1975 to 2006 is 31 years (wow, am I an old fart!), Times 40 bucks (a year) ... to use the music locker safe storage method (if there were such a thing in 1975), that album would have cost me $1,240.00 in safe storage alone!!
Hey, now that's what I call progress!!! (I know, I know... I'm being ridiculus, I have hundreds of LP's... but can't a guy have fun?)
I was amused to hear on the radio today, about a company that will allow you to store all of your MP3s on their server, so that if you drop or drown your iPod, or mistakenly reformat your hard drive, you won't lose all of those 99-cent songs you actually pirated thru Morpheus or LimeWire for free.
The service costs 40-bucks a year!!! Now, I was amused because, just this weekend I was putting the finishing-touches on our basement (my playroom/theatre), which got flooded in early February.
Shit Happens... Enaways...
In a fit of nostalgia, I decided to listen to my old Renaissance - Turn of the Cards album... Purchased in 1975 for $12.99 - It made it thru the latest flood (and all previous moves and tragedies) just fine, thank you, and it sounded just GREAT... we're talking pristine vinyl here - accept no imitations!!!
OK, so I got to figuring... 1975 to 2006 is 31 years (wow, am I an old fart!), Times 40 bucks (a year) ... to use the music locker safe storage method (if there were such a thing in 1975), that album would have cost me $1,240.00 in safe storage alone!!
Hey, now that's what I call progress!!! (I know, I know... I'm being ridiculus, I have hundreds of LP's... but can't a guy have fun?)
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Martin, Moussaoui, Mistakes & Morality Musings
Hi - I'm back!!
So, for some macabre reason, I've become really interested in the drama unfolding at the Moussaoui trial... seems that here's a whole lot of gnashing-of-teeth of late,
because a lawyer for the prosecutor, one Carla Martin, decided to coach some witnesses for the prosecution, I guess in order to create greater impact to the jury, and thereby, hopefully(?) sending Moussaoui to his demise. Problem is... that's against the rules.... ya can't coach the witnesses, I guess.
....sooooo - ya gotta throw those witness testimonies out the window...
Oopsie!
I've gathered that there's a whole lot of people who are very pissed at the fact that Ms. Martins' follies may have tainted enough of the prosecutions case, so
that they more than likely won't be able to kill Moussaoui, but instead just put him in prison for the rest of his (un)natural life... she pulled the plug on old sparky... retracted the needle of death... untied the noose, so to speak. I guess a lot of people want to see this guy dead, eh?
Now, I'm not one whose totally against the death penalty, and I'm certainly no fan of Moussaoui - I personally think he's a lower life form then pond scum - but that's besides the point. What I don't understand is - he didn't kill anyone, right? How can a just society like ours... a society that wants the world to look up to it (as far as human rights are concerned) as a shining example - kill someone who only thought about killing innocents? Am I missing something here???
Hey, there's no doubt in my puny mind that this is one bad dude, who could have very-well created a whole lot of hurt on America and Americans... but he didn't. Geese, can we murder this guy for a crime he may have committed at some time in the future? This to me reads like a really bad out-take from the movie Minority Report!
I digress.
Bottom line - I think in the end, Ms. Martins' follies may have accidentally forced our great nation into doing the right thing in the first place... lets not start killing people for their intentions (Oopsie - too late... but that's another story for another time!), lets save that for the bad guys that actually commit murder for real... lets just put Moussaoui's sorry ass in jail forever, and save the taxpayers a whole lot of money by dropping this death penalty thing!
So, for some macabre reason, I've become really interested in the drama unfolding at the Moussaoui trial... seems that here's a whole lot of gnashing-of-teeth of late,
because a lawyer for the prosecutor, one Carla Martin, decided to coach some witnesses for the prosecution, I guess in order to create greater impact to the jury, and thereby, hopefully(?) sending Moussaoui to his demise. Problem is... that's against the rules.... ya can't coach the witnesses, I guess.....sooooo - ya gotta throw those witness testimonies out the window...
Oopsie!
I've gathered that there's a whole lot of people who are very pissed at the fact that Ms. Martins' follies may have tainted enough of the prosecutions case, so
that they more than likely won't be able to kill Moussaoui, but instead just put him in prison for the rest of his (un)natural life... she pulled the plug on old sparky... retracted the needle of death... untied the noose, so to speak. I guess a lot of people want to see this guy dead, eh?Now, I'm not one whose totally against the death penalty, and I'm certainly no fan of Moussaoui - I personally think he's a lower life form then pond scum - but that's besides the point. What I don't understand is - he didn't kill anyone, right? How can a just society like ours... a society that wants the world to look up to it (as far as human rights are concerned) as a shining example - kill someone who only thought about killing innocents? Am I missing something here???
Hey, there's no doubt in my puny mind that this is one bad dude, who could have very-well created a whole lot of hurt on America and Americans... but he didn't. Geese, can we murder this guy for a crime he may have committed at some time in the future? This to me reads like a really bad out-take from the movie Minority Report!
I digress.
Bottom line - I think in the end, Ms. Martins' follies may have accidentally forced our great nation into doing the right thing in the first place... lets not start killing people for their intentions (Oopsie - too late... but that's another story for another time!), lets save that for the bad guys that actually commit murder for real... lets just put Moussaoui's sorry ass in jail forever, and save the taxpayers a whole lot of money by dropping this death penalty thing!
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Friday, March 10, 2006
Six-Hundred-and-Twenty
"Six-Hundred-and-Twenty"... "What does this mean", you ask...
...The ultimate answer to life? (nope, that's 42)
... A classic yet really cheap twin-lens reflex camera?? (well, yeah, but that's not MY answer)
... you give up - right??
Well, I'll tell you, right now!
It's been 620 days since I last posted to this blog. What can I say - I've been busy - living the life. While alot has happened between those days, I'm going to start posting fresh, the logic being old news is boring news.
OK, so, this is all that I have to say, for right now... but I will be back!
...The ultimate answer to life? (nope, that's 42)
... A classic yet really cheap twin-lens reflex camera?? (well, yeah, but that's not MY answer)
... you give up - right??
Well, I'll tell you, right now!
It's been 620 days since I last posted to this blog. What can I say - I've been busy - living the life. While alot has happened between those days, I'm going to start posting fresh, the logic being old news is boring news.
OK, so, this is all that I have to say, for right now... but I will be back!
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