Mostly about my amusement

Year: 2007 (page 3 of 18)

Now what to do about Iran?

Stephen Hadley looks concerned in this NY Times photo doesn’t he?

Stephen Hadley

People might think that an article titled “U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003” might slow down the rush to go to war with Iran. But I don’t think that will be the case. I think that the administration will make the case for stopping Iran as this critical point before they can realize their ambition to become a nuclear weapon state.

For some reason the administration is bent on going to war with Iran. I personally don’t get it. Afghanistan made sense to me since there were people there that killed almost 3,000 of our citizens.

The war in Iraq never made sense to me. The country was in horrible shape after 12 years of sanctions. The sanctions definitely did not have the desired effect since the big shots in Saddam’s circle got wealthy and the country suffered. But they did not attack us and there were other places in the world that were selling nuclear and ballistic missile technology. Saddam was an evil tyrant alright but there are a lot of those around the world.

I think the case for a war in Iran will be based on similar reasoning as it was for Iraq. I don’t think it matters what the reality is, just that Cheney and President Bush are out to do this. I think they’ll attack and just spend time debating congress about what “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States” means.

Just now I read that President Bush is still claiming that “Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” and I don’t think this National Intelligence Estimate will do anything but embolden the President.

I wonder how it will start? I can picture the Iranians pulling another stunt in the Persian Gulf just to provoke an escalation. This would be really interesting to watch the politics if it were not this country.

Gundam 00 and Dragonaut

Since Darker Than Black and Claymore wrapped up, I’ve been following the new Gundam 00 series as well as Dragonaut the Resonance.

Gundam 00

Gundam 00 is not bad so far. The series is like a combination of Wing Gundam but with elements of the Universal Century Gundam series. This show seems to have Minovsky particles (for at least the Gundams) and Newtypes, but no space colonies. The main character has a disturbing past and serious angst.

I have not seen a Char type yet but I am pretty sure the Ramba Ral character has shown up.

I like how the show draws on current events and it looks like the show is developing nicely. The writers have started with a lot of good threads and the framework is solid. If the show does not suddenly run out of gas then the secret of the Solar Furnace as well as the technology and origin of the Celestial Being group should make for good viewing.

Dragonaut the Resonance (Gio escaping)

The other show I’m following is Dragonaut the Resonance. Dragons exist but they came from outer space. The story revolves around the only survivor of a shuttle accident that was caused by a dragon.

Naturally that dragon Toa is in love with the survivor Jin Kamishina. All the other dragons so far were born on Earth and are bound to their masters. Toa came to Earth on a mission from her mother who is either the rogue planet Thanatos or lives there in the orbit of Pluto (which was destroyed by an impact with Thanatos).

The story is a little over complicated. There are two factions on earth but both sides want to use the dragons to defend against the threat from outer space. The love story is goofy, and the er, proportions of some of the characters is pretty funny. The “bad lady” Major Garnet MacLaine defies gravity but so do a couple of other characters. It’s over the top (ha, I kill me) but the animation is okay so far.

Were they good questions?

I frequent some political blogs just to see what people are reacting to. I don’t think it really matters what the current administration does or what the Democrats do simply because both sides are incapable of a genuine compromise. The partisan bickering makes both sides pretty impotent.

One of the sites I check out is Michelle Malkin’s blog (as a counter to Crooks and Liars). Honestly, I occasionally I find that she has a good point. Today I took a look and she has an entry about how the CNN YouTube questioners were plants from the Democratic party.

No where in the blog entry does it address if the “plants” asked good questions. It did mention CNN’s incompetence and Democratic slant. This is why I think that political blogs are not really going to impact the next election. They’re just slightly better organized rants with a nicer presentation. Both the Republican and Democrat PR organs are better vehicles for slant and spin.

I don’t watch the debates because it’s just political pandering; pointless noise. It would never occur to me that the questions and the people participating were NOT planted and screened for effect.

I’ll continue to check out the blogs in my Red State folder as well as the ones in the Blue State folder but only for the entertainment value, as well as the Jack Cafferty clips.

Back to Max Payne 2

Max Payne 2I saw a commercial for Kane and Lynch: Dead Men and I had to get out my copy of “Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne” and install it.

This game came out in 2003 and I still like playing it. It’s like Humphrey Bogart directed by John Woo. Very cool. I’ve only just started the game but so far I get to the cut scene right before I receive enough damage to kill me.

It’s the easiest level. How did I ever complete this game? The last scene I have to dodge a nut job tossing dynamite at me while trying to shoot out some wooden pegs. Oh and not fall through the floor in the just blown up holes.

I can’t wait till I get to the fun house scene…

What is very strange to me is installing a game that does not require an activation code. It does check the CD drive to make sure I have the game (that’s easy to defeat but why bother?). Also this game actually works unlike some games *cough* Halo 2 *cough*.

Nice to see how the game industry has improved in the last few years.

Funny Adsense placement

I sometimes check the blog against Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer to make sure that something I did to the theme works in browsers other than Firefox.

Here’s what I saw when I loaded my home page in Safari.

Funny ad placement

Google Adsense sure has a good sense of humor.