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Tolerance: Mohammed Style

2008-04-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

I love Islamic tolerance.............

Fitna the Movie Geert Wilders' film (English)
by groepwilders

Naturally this video has been pulled from the original website due to death threats. So much for an open and honest examination.

What this guy said.......

Free Speech: Hawaii Style!

2008-02-01T15:56:00.001-08:00

Free Speech vs. Political Correctness

A government department of the State of Hawaii is demanding the retraction of a political cartoon published Jan. 18 on the satirical web site http://www.zeroshibai.com/ and reprinted Jan. 21 on http://www.hawaiireporter.com/ The demands come in response to images and text ridiculing the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Kau Inoa campaign as "Cow Inoa." Kau Inoa, Hawaiian for "place your name" is building a roll of Hawaiians to participate in a Hawaiian tribal government. Haunani Apoliona, writing in her capacity as "Chairperson, Board of Trustees, Office of Hawaiian Affairs" (OHA) in a Jan. 24 statement demands: "The cartoon should be pulled and the secret author publicly identified."

Read it all over at The American Thinker.

A quote from Animal Farm comes to mind.....

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Apparently it’s now ok to base a national government exclusively on race as long as that race is not white. I love political correctness.

Why cant American TV be this crazy...........

2007-11-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Way funnier than MXC.........bare through the first minute to get to the funny stuff.

http://view.break.com/208291 - Watch more free videos

The fruits of political correctness

2007-11-16T18:34:00.001-08:00

If you haven't heard yet the University of Delaware has been subjecting students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university’s own materials as a “treatment” for students’ incorrect attitudes and beliefs. The Orwellian program requires the approximately 7,000 students in Delaware’s residence halls to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism.

In one-on-one sessions with RAs (Resident Assistants), University of Delaware students were questioned: “When did you discover your sexual identity?” In dorm meetings, they were pressured to pledge their allegiance to university-approved views on race, sexuality and environmentalism. When FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) spotlighted the indoctrination, a university official defended the “free exchange of ideas.” A few days later, the program was canceled.

A chilling description was provided by freshman Brooke Aldrich in a Wilmington News-Journal story: “Students were asked if they approved of such things as affirmative action or gay marriage. If they did, they would join students on one side of the room. If they didn’t, they would join students on the other side of the room. They were not permitted to explain their reasons or to answer ‘I don’t know,’ she said.”

I guess I never understood why diversity indoctrination comes only in the form of race differences, cultural differences, or sexual differences? Instead of urging students to think about what they have in common — perhaps a shared interest in poetry, science fiction, football, ecology, entrepreneurship, the Gospels, Harry Potter, video games, etc. — ResLife pushed them to focus on their oppressor or victim status.

I have to borrow a quote from Pat Buchanan on this issue:

In the politically correct book of “progress,” man is no longer judged by the content of his character - but by the color of his skin, class, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other secondary attribute. The trick is that when a secondary attribute becomes the primary one, man loses his unique individuality and becomes a mere social function, a drone in a collective, a peg in the machine, a sacrificial animal on the altar of “progress.”

The roots of political correctness

2007-11-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

I have discussed somewhat my feelings that many topics I feel are important for our society have become taboo to even discuss or have any opinion that might even slightly disagree with the PC line. Diana West, who wrote “The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization" tries to discover the root of how our society got to the point where it is today concerning political correctness. She borrows a theory from author Peter Brimelow's book Alien Nation: Common Sense about America’s Immigration Disaster.......

There is a sense in which the current immigration policy is Adolph Hitler’s posthumous revenge on America. The U.S. political elite emerged from the war passionately concerned to cleanse itself from all taints of racism and xenophobia. Eventually, it enacted the epochal Immigration Act (technically, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments) of 1965. And this, quite accidentally, triggered a renewed mass immigration, so huge and systemically different from anything that had gone before as to transform – and ultimately, perhaps, even to destroy – the one unquestioned victor of World War II: the American nation, as it had evolved by the middle of the twentieth century.

Read a much more in depth review here. An excerpt from the article......

Openness and acceptance on every and any level – from personal to national, from sexual to religious – are the highest possible virtues of the postmodern Westerner. This makes boundaries and taboos, limits and definition – anything that closes the door on anything else – the lowest possible sins. Judgment, no matter how judicious, is tarred as “prejudice” and, therefore, a neobarbarous act to be repressed and ultimately suspended. Patriotism has been caricatured out of polite society as boorish warmongering. Western civilization itself, which may be taken as the product of both judgment and patriotism, has been roundly condemned for being both prejudiced and warmongering. The overall effect has been to sap the culture’s confidence in its own traditions, even – especially – in the classical liberal tradition that stiffed our spines against Hitler in the first place. The cultural anemia that began to take hold long ago has passively accepted the transformation of America the Western into America the Multicultural (and Western Europe into Multicultural Europe) as a good, or necessary, or even just inevitable thing. And thus – with the practical disappearance of the nation, or perhaps better, the culture, that defeated him – Hitler’s revenge.

I've long felt that the West needs to get over its "white guilt" problem and call a spade a spade. People are too afraid to blame any problems on a particular culture, race, or religion (unless of course it’s Christian) for fear of being called a racist or xenophobe. The fact is we need an open and intelligent debate on immigration, religion, and other topics. Of course any politician who publicly brought into question any of the pillars of political correctness would be a crucified by CAIR, Jesse Jackson, the EU, or the UN.

Based on evidence and observation.......

I do not believe Islam (in its current form) is compatible with Western societies.
Islam is NOT a religion of peace.
Illegal immigration of unskilled workers into the US has A LOT of drawbacks that probably outweigh the advantages of cheap labor.
An immigrant culture that refuses to assimilate in a host society could have enormous implications in the not so distant future.
America's black culture has a problem. They need to shed off the imaginary chains of "oppression from the man" and make their own place in America instead of seeing a KKK member around every corner.
Some cultures are superior to others (yes as humans we are created equal, but that’s where it stops).

I will leave you with a few thoughts for all of you would be "social justice" fighters out there who will pick up a “righteous” cause for any person, people group, or society they feel is getting unfairly repressed. I'm with C.S. Lewis on this subject:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Pimp my camel

2007-11-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

From cdr.salamander

How can you want a culture to expand and religious sect to thrive that both strive to destroy what little above-ground fun that can be had, in one of the least fun places in the world?

Members of Saudi Arabia's Senior Clerics Association have issued a fatwa banning camel beauty contests.

The fatwa stated that the contests are prohibited because they include perversion, waste money on futility and ostentation, and are similar to games banned by the Koran.

Camel beauty contests have been held annually at this time for the past decade, and are part of Saudi tribal folklore.

They do have some nice looking camels.

You know, the gift of life is too precious to allow people who make Cotton Mather seem like a member of the Rat Pack take over any more square footage.

Define hypocrite.

2007-10-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

A quote from EUobserver, 29 October 2007
Russian president Vladimir Putin has suggested setting up a Russian-funded institute in Brussels or another European capital to keep an eye on human rights issues in Europe. “With the aid of grants, the EU helps develop such institutes in Russia,” Mr Putin was cited as saying by Reuters, after an EU-Russia summit on Friday (26 October). “I think the time has come for Russia, given the growth in our financial capabilities, to make its contribution in this sphere as well”, he added.
President Putin’s personal envoy for relations with the 27-nation EU, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, explained Moscow’s intentions further. “This is not going to be a joint venture,” Mr Yastrzhembsky said, underlining “the institute will be monitoring the situation in Europe concerning rights of ethnic minorities, immigrants, media and such”.

So Putin......the current president (and I use this term very very loosely since this man has no apparent plans to ever relinquish power) will be watching over human rights in the EU? The man who assassinates dissidents (see Alexander Litvinenko poisoning) and outspoken reporters critical of his government (see Anna Politkovskaya) , jails "evil oligarchs" read: capitalist (see former boss of Yukos Oil), bullies neighboring countries who try to break from the Soviet influence (see Estonia), uses his countries massive energy reserves as a political weapon (see him turning off gas to neighboring Ukraine and Belarus), the man who thinks Stalin had many admirable qualities, the man who said America's history is no worse than the Soviet Union's (The Soviet Union killed 54.7 million between 1917 and 1987) is going to monitor human rights in the EU?

A cold civil war?

2007-10-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

The common space required for civil debate has shriveled to a very thin sliver of ground

William Gibson, famous for inventing the word “cyberspace” has coined a new phase with his new novel Spook Country that seems to have a lot of application in America today.

Read the whole thing here.

What would that entail, exactly? A cold war is a war without conflict, defined in one of several online dictionaries as "[a] state of rivalry and tension between two factions, groups, or individuals that stops short of open, violent confrontation." In that respect, is the current political climate one of "cold civil war"? I think arguments could be made to that effect. My mother, not much of a political enthusiast, has made similar assessments since the 2000 election ...

Indeed. A year before this next election in the U.S., the common space required for civil debate and civilized disagreement has shriveled to a very thin sliver of ground. Politics requires a minimum of shared assumptions. To compete you have to be playing the same game: you can't thwack the ball back and forth if one of you thinks he's playing baseball and the other fellow thinks he's playing badminton. Likewise, if you want to discuss the best way forward in the war on terror, you can't do that if the guy you're talking to doesn't believe there is a war on terror, only a racket cooked up by the Bushitler and the rest of the Halliburton stooges as a pretext to tear up the constitution.
Americans do not agree on the basic meaning of the last seven years. If you drive around an Ivy League college town -- home to the nation's best and brightest, allegedly -- you notice a wide range of bumper stickers, from the anticipatory ("01/20/09" -- the day of liberation from the Bush tyranny) to the profane ("Buck Fush") to the myopically self-indulgent ("Regime Change Begins At Home") to the exhibitionist paranoid ("9/11 Was An Inside Job"). Let's assume, as polls suggest, that next year's presidential election is pretty open: might be a Democrat, might be a Republican. Suppose it's another 50/50 election with a narrow GOP victory dependent on the electoral college votes of one closely divided state. It's not hard to foresee those stickered Dems concluding that the system has now been entirely delegitimized.

In addition I feel our society has minimized or completely shut off healthy debate in several “politically correct no go” areas such as:

· Religion
· Culture
· Absolute truth

By in large it seems the debating most important issues facing us today has been reduced to people flinging “catchy phrases” (i.e. no blood for oil!) or overly simplified views of the world at each other.

After witnessing many of the agruments from left wingers I draw the illustration of a young child covering her ears and screaming at the top of her lungs until she gets what she wants.

The fact is, debate is healthy and necessary for a democratic society. However, there must be some hint of shared values and assumptions between both parties. Again from the article…..

The grade schools no longer teach American history as any kind of coherent narrative. "Paint me warts and all," Oliver Cromwell instructed his portraitist. But in public education, American children paint only the warts -- slavery, the ill-treatment of Native Americans, the pollution of the environment, more slavery ... There are attempts to put a positive spin on things -- the Iroquois stewardship of the environment, Rosa Parks' courage on the bus -- but, cumulatively, heroism comes to be defined as opposition to that towering Mount Wartmore of dead white males.

Creating a minimum sense of shared values begins in the American classroom. This is why (long-term) I believe education is the single biggest issue facing America today. While I believe in truth, I think restoring the soul of America involves telling the entire story in context. Focusing only on the warts is the best way to destroy every American value previous generations have bled and died for.

When I have to time I would like to go into more detail about where I feel our educational system has gone wrong and ways to remedy it.

Explaining to Kids Why America Was Attacked on September 11

2007-09-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

From the BBC Kids website. If only that meddling US would mind its own business the world would have no problems............................since we are the source of all the worlds evil.

Why did they do it?

The way America has got involved in conflicts in regions like the Middle East has made some people very angry, including a group called al-Qaeda - who are widely thought to have been behind the attacks.

In the past, al-Qaeda leaders have declared a holy war - called a jihad - against the US. As part of this jihad, al-Qaeda members believe attacking US targets is something they should do.

When the attacks happened in 2001, there were a number of US troops in a country called Saudi Arabia, and the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, said he wanted them to leave.

Right....................................

2007-06-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

I've somehow been compelled to blog today. The first time in a VERY VERY long time. I keep seeing these Baby on Board signs on cars. Am I the only one that wonders what the hell these are for? Is some guy going to be driving out of control about to rear end this vehicle and suddenly avoid hitting it at the last second because he sees the Baby on Board sign? "Oh I was planning on accidentally hitting your car, but suddenly seeing that "Baby on Board" sign I came to my senses and averted a serious accident."

Imagine for a moment, two cars are sitting at a light and a driver coming to the intersection tries to slow down and suddenly his breaks lock up! Hes speeding out of control to his doom. He is going to rear end of the vehicles! I'm sure as milliseconds pass he has time to evaluate both vehicles carefully and make a rational informed decision on which vehicle he will crash into, hopefully the one that will help the greatest societal good. But does a "baby on board" sign a fair criteria for picking the lesser of two bad choices? Knowing that you completely immune from car accidents why not go buy the sign for insurance reasons. I might start driving around with a car seat and a doll in the front seat to help me pick up chicks.

Imagine a group of college coeds driving. "Holy crap Stacy we nearly hit that car! Lucky for us I saw the baby on board sign at the last second. Wow and look at that responsible father in there, that guy must really value his family and have his priorities in order. " A naked pillowfight soon followed..................

Some more random thoughts.....

Why does it seem that no matter how few of people are at the grocery store, there will always be people exactly in front of the item you are trying to buy? I guarantee you put me in a grocery store with 5 random people and assign me to buy 12 specific items and there will be a person debating on going with name brand or generic for 5 minutes in front of 10 of the 12 items. It just seems like a fact of my life.

Why do I always seem to get a flat whenever I am running late?

Whats the deal with bluetooth headsets? Do any of you find it weird to be looking through fruit at the grocery store and the woman next to you suddenly start talking to what appears to be nothing? I need to hear a ring dammit! Give some kinds of heads up to the people around you.

The more I work in the "adult" world the more I realize how many of these "adults" are just a bunch of children in grown-up bodies. (i.e. the kid who if he doesn't get his way, takes the ball away and goes home; the kid who won't do something because his friend or sibling isn't being asked to do it; the kid who makes everything so damn dramatic, and wants to make sure everyone knows his side of the story; I could go on......)

Closing thoughts.

Anyone else as excited as me that Fred Thompson FINALLY decided to form his presidential exploratory committee?

Oh and a big '05 WHOOP for the Aggies making it to the NCAA Super Regionals.

Could Colt McCoy look anymore like a boy among men?

Tribute to John Bolton

2006-12-20T17:26:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while for those two of you who read my blog. A lot of things have happened since the beginning on the year. I'm now living in a post-A&M victory over tu world. I have to say the win still hasn't lost its luster.

After reading this guys blog I had to post his commentary because I agreed with 100% of it. I really did like John Bolton, despite how he might have been portrayed, I think he was a no nonsense guy that might have been the only way that could have actually saved the UN and actually given it some credibility. Right now with Libya at the head of the UN Human Rights Commission, I would say it credibility left the building a while ago.

____________________________________________________________________________

This news is already two weeks old, but its implications will last longer than two weeks. I am talking, of course, of the resignation of John Bolton, US Ambassador to the UN since August 2005, when the President used a recess appointment to get Mr. Bolton on the job. I guess I won't have to tell Americans that Mr. Bolton could have stayed in function, even despite the changed power balance in Congress, had it not been for Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island), who refused to lend his vote to the Republicans in the Senate's Foreign Relations committee. Outgoing Secdef Donald Rumsfeld once remarked that if you are not criticized, you're not doing your job well, and by that standard Mr. Bolton must have been doing a hell of a job. Read, for instance, how a certain Spencer Boyer of the Center for American Progress, whatever that may be, comments on the Ambassador's departure:

WASHINGTON, D.C. - John Bolton's resignation today as the US Ambassador to the United Nations is a positive development for the United States. Mr. Bolton was a diplomat who lacked diplomacy. His antagonistic ways tarnished the United States' relationships at the UN and denied him the political support in Washington he would have needed to keep the job. President Bush now has an opportunity to nominate an ambassador committed to reform of the institution in a positive way and who understands why the UN matters and how it can advance the national security goals of the United States

... committed to reform of the institution in a positive way... but, IIRC, it was Bolton who, upon assuming the function of UN Ambassador, threw on the table 750 amendments to a 29-page blueprint aimed at restating the ideals of the UN and proposing necessary reforms. 750 is a huge number and may indeed suggest contempt for the UN rather than a serious will to come up with valuable suggestions for reshaping "the world's government". At the time the media preferred to highlight the sexier amendments - like, e.g., the US's proposal to delete all references in the new UN chapter to the Holy 0.7 Per Cent of GNP To Be Set Aside By The Rich Countries For Third World Development. Picking out this amendment is, of course, a not so thinly veiled stab at America - because, after all, if the man in the street reads that the US does not even want to put a cipher that low on a development goal, it surely is the birthplace of heartless capitalism. In my opinion, and I do not say that to flatter DowneastBlog's US readership, the 0.7% Holy Cow is a hoax and the States have long since discovered that. Donations to developing countries do not help. The act of giving a drunk a buck he'll very likely spend on a Bud, will not lift him out of poverty, though it may give the donator a warm and fluffy feeling. It is no different with the 0.7% of GDP to be donated by the richer fellas at the UN Table. I can tell, because I could tell you a (nasty) thing or two about Belgian development aid. On the other hand, introducing free market reforms, privatizations, implementation of capitalist principles: these are the tools that will lift developing countries out of economic misery. And indeed, Bolton's amendments referred to the so-called Monterrey Consensus, a 2002 summit in Mexico that focused on free-market reforms and which required governments to improve accountability in exchange for aid and debt relief (can't see what's wrong with that, btw). Free market reforms are a proven means to make countries wealthier - as a matter of fact, a little known free market feat which happened only recently, namely new free trade legislation between most arab countries, immediately led to surging trade volumes and investments. It's things like that which will lift countries out of poverty, not some ludicrous vow to spend some stupid percentage meant to help, so to say, but in reality to cheaply buy one ounce of good conscience and two and a half ounces of frikking moral superiority.

Among those 750 amendments were also US suggestions on the Milennium Goals, the International Criminal Court, Climate Change and Nuclear Disarmament, but like I said, all of these sexy topics offered MSM at the time plenty of shooting opportunities to depict the US's UN envoy as a bully. The ICC? Golly, what sane person could possibly be against something noble as an ICC? But the folly of the ludicrous universal jurisdiction law in Belgium and Germany led thus far to Powell, Bush I and now Rumsfeld being threatened with lawsuits. Can someone possibly imagine what an ICC with jurisdiction over US citizens or US military personnel would be capable of? But what MSM wisely chose to ignore was that the UN Draft for Reform was at times written in such poor English that Bolton himself had to correct typos (changing "accordin" to "according" on one occasion), or that from the start he profiled himself as a champion for more ethics in the UN alleys (indeed succeeding shortly thereafter to revise the upper limit for gifts to UN employees from 10,000 US$ to just 250 US$.)

Now, all that was late summer 2005. We are sixteen months down the road now, and Bolton has to go. But in the sixteen months of his tenure, he was able to leave more than an imprint, indeed, proved himself to be an essential thriving force, in three domains:

A.) HUMAN RIGHTS.

Bolton has worked tirelessly to push for greater action by the U.N. Security Council and the international community over the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region, which has claimed over 250,000 lives. He played a key role in UNSC negotiations, pressing for more protection for the refugees against the Janjaweed and for targeted sanctions against Sudanese officials implicated in the murders. He also steered the US away from joining the UN's new Human Rights Council (the successor to the UN Human Rights Commission), on the grounds that it makes no sense to talk human rights violations with human rights violators: the council's members included experts in the field like Algeria, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

This summer and fall, the UN's Human Rights Council proved itself to be a worthy successor to its predecessor (the UNHR Commission, which included murderous regimes such as Burma, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Zimbabwe), since in three consecutive "Special Sessions", Israel was lambasted while the real agressors and provocators got a blanco check. And then we do not even talk about the Council totally ignoring the continuous state-sanctioned human rights abuses in Belarus, Burma, Cuba, China, Iran, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe.

Some may argue that Bolton was wrong in not securing a seat for the US in the UN Human Rights Council. I disagree. By participating, the US would at the same time have been blocked and vetoed time and again. By contrast, painful though it may be for the sufferers from human rights abuses in the countries mentioned, a policy of non-participating has (hopefully) shown the world what a freak cabinet a Human Rights Council is when it is run by butchers.

B.) UN REFORM.

Bolton helped establish a General Assembly consensus on reforming the U.N. resource management and budget process, improving oversight, reviewing United Nations mandates, and reforming human resources management. He led an effort to cap the U.N. budget at $950 million, pending progress on U.N. reform. Partly due to Bolton’s efforts, the U.N. created an Ethics Office, mandated financial disclosure for U.N. officials, and increased resources for the Office of Internal Oversight Services.

A little known fact is also that Bolton was able to build coalitions in the UN. He forged one of 50 nations in the face of strong opposition by the so-called G-77, the Group of 77 Nations, some kind of a developing world counterweight against the G-8. Keep in mind that Ambassador Bolton's coalition was responsible for a staggering 87 percent of the U.N. regular budget, which made their demand for management reform all the more reasonable. Unfortunately, G-77 opposition ultimately succeeded in delaying and blocking the reform effort, with the General Assembly eventually approving a U.N. budget beyond the $950 million limit. Be that as it may, that does not diminish Bolton's qualities. I can't imagine someone else from the western world standing up like he did and demanding rightful transparence for usage of its funds.

C.) NUCLEAR ARMS PROLIFERATION.

Since becoming US Ambassador at the UN, John Bolton has been at the forefront of the battle against proliferation of nuclear arms technology. He was instrumental in the adoption of three key UNSC Resolutions, 1695, 1696 and 1718. The first one, 1695, condemned North Korea’s test-firing of long-range ballistic missiles and urged an immediate return to the six-party talks. With regards to Iran, he played a key role in warning the international community of Tehran’s continuing enrichment of uranium and has tirelessly pressured the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to toughen its position on Iran’s nuclear activities. This led to UN Security Council Resolution 1696, which called on Iran to "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development" by the end of August or face possible sanctions. Then, when North Korea tested its first nuclear device on October 9, 2006, John Bolton successfully led U.S. efforts to rally international support for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, which imposed military and economic sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear test in October.

Of course, these days getting resolutions passed seems an excercise in futility. On the one hand, we have a Middle Eastern dictatorship of which the leadership, and not just Ahamdinejad, have vowed to destroy Israel. On the other hand, we have an Asian dictatorship which has actually tested a nuclear bomb and which also has launcher systems available. It is as good as certain that there are profound links between both regimes - Iranian military personnel is said to have been present at the missile launching over the Sea of Japan. And then one sees how difficult it was to even get the UN impose restrictions on NK buying luxury goods.

That said, one cannot but admire the tenacity with which John Bolton tried to stomp to life the dead hippopotamus which the UN had become under Kofi Annan's reign, especially so during his last months in office. Sadly, it is not his countless working hours and frantic coalition building trying to contain two dangerous maniacs, which we remember from last summer. Rather, it is the speech of yet another madman, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who, before the UN General Assembly in September, referred to President Bush with: "Yesterday, the devil came here. Right here." And yet again, after crossing himself: "Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today."

And to top it all off, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain, the usually somber president of the General Assembly, adding: "He's quite a character..." And laughing.

EPILOGUE.

The killing in Darfur began in 2003. By summer 2004, there were an estimated 70,000 dead and 1,000,000 refugees (the numbers would rise to 250,000 and 2,000,000 respectively by fall of this year). Countless eyewitnesses confirmed the same scenario over and over and over again: villages bombed by the Sudanese Air Force, the survivors machinegunned by Sudanese gunships, then ethnic cleansing by janjaweed, including murder, rape and the burning alive of their victims... all of this with the support of the Sudanese Army. In Turtle Bay, in that same fateful summer of 2004, now more than two years ago, the UN Security Council voted in favor of a resolution threatening to impose sanctions if the Sudanese government did not stop atrocities in Darfur by the end of August. Elfatih Mohammed Ahmed Erwa, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations, criticized the resolution for failing to recognize "improvements on the ground" and for pre-judging efforts by Sudan and the African Union to resolve the conflict peacefully, adding "The intention is there, the will is there, it's the pre-judging I'm worried about.". Earlier that year, in May, after Sudan had been elected to the UN Human Rights Commission, that same Erwa, before his appointment a.o. a Major General in the Sudanese Army and a Sudanse mukhabarat bigshot, had commented on the American Abu Ghraib PR snafu "that he was very concerned about human rights abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib."

In a perfect world, it would be Elfatih Mohammed Ahmed Erwa leaving the scene, preferably covered with tar and feathers, and with the Mother of All Spiked Boots planted squarely in his fat ass, and not John Bolton.

But, obviously, this is not a perfect world.

MFBB.

____________________________________________________________________________________

I always find myself agreeing with this guy.

Fran needs a clue..........

2006-11-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

I need to first start off by saying that the gameday atmosphere was amazing. Definitely one of the top 5 game experiences I have ever been a part of. It seemed bizarre to be going to a game so late, especially when you start tailgating at 10 AM. By the mid afternoon it seemed like the game should have already been over. It was amazing to see GameDay on campus, to see how fired up the 12th man was, and the atmosphere at Kyle was surreal.

Now for the not so great part. Our defense continues to boggle my mind. Without fail, we are a completely different team each half. Seeing the 1st 2 drives of OU, you would think our defense had never played a team that runs the ball. Fortunately we were able to only allow their offense 2 drives the entire night. They only scored only 3 points the rest of the game and it came off of an interception at our own 22 yard line. The last few minutes of the game I began mentally preparing myself for a loss. I tried to not get very emotionally involved after we elected to kick a fieldgoal on OU's 2 yard line when we were down by a touchdown. I pretended I was a neutral obsever and pretended to not care who won the game. After the 2nd 4th down situation when we kicked another field goal, when we were down by 4 pts with only 3 minutes left, I pretended to think Fran was making the best decision. I mean it makes complete sense to give the ball back to OU while you are behind by a point and all they need to do is get ONE 1st down to run the clock down to zero. He obviously had more trust in the defense being able to make OU go 3 and out then let our offense try to convert a 4th and 6. The icing on the cake was when after 2 timeouts when OU was going for it on 4th and 1, 12 men on the field (not the 12th man student section, but Fran's own version of the 12th man) were not able to stop their QB sneak.

The picture to my left (from the fran needs a stache thread) did make me smile atleast. It's called "Dealing with anger"

So I've learned to accept that Fran has a history of making very questionable calls, and thats a fact of life.

Exibit A

Clemson 05
Oklahoma 06
Iowa State 05
Baylor 04
Oklahoma 03
Oklahoma 06

Other things about Fran's offense that came to light this game that I tend to agree with (from Texags)

On a 3rd and 2 play earlier in the game, Coach Fran inexplicably decides to exhume Courtney Lewis’ body to trot him out there for a short yardage attempt rather than use the unstoppable force that is Jorvorskie Lane. Lewis gets stopped, and we had to punt.

Obviously on the 3rd and goal from the 2, you want to give the ball to Lane. Instead, Fran chooses to let McGee pass the ball, despite the fact that we'd only completed about 5 passes the entire game. Fran seems to have decided that Lane should primarily be used as a short yardage back, yet ignores him in this role in the most important situations.

Don’t blame McGee for the passing game. This is what our 2nd grade passing attack is designed to do. The passing offense is a one-read option: if the primary receiver is not open, then tuck it and run…if the tuck-and-run isn’t available, throw it away. Most people blamed Reggie for making the same mistakes last year. It’s no coincidence that McGee is doing the same thing(no pocket presence, happy feet, ignoring wide open receivers). Coach Fran’s goal in running this is to eliminate the chances for turnovers. Two years ago, McNeal had the longest streak without an interception. This year, McGee had it. It’s all a side effect of what Fran tries to accomplish with his passing game. He wants to control the clock, not turnover the ball, and prevent the big play on defense. The only time you see this “strategy” abandoned is when our backs are against the wall late in the game and risking a turnover is absolutely necessary to tie the game. Examples of this are the Colorado game at Kyle in 2004 and the Oklahoma State game this year. Did you notice how much better McNeal and McGee were in those situations where the offense was forced to open up?

Where are the screen passes? OU blitzed in nearly every passing situation, yet we only ran one WR screen. Goodson would be deadly if we used him on a RB screen on a blitz.

I’ve said this several times, but Lane is most effective when he is running out of the I-formation. Nearly every big run that he’s made this season has been out of the I-formation, and nearly every time he’s been stopped for no gain has been when he’s given the ball as the FB in the option or when he’s the RB in a single-back set. Lane needs to be given the ball out of the I-formation at least 15 times a game and we should mix in the play action pass out of that set to keep the defense honest. Fran chooses to run Lane this way on about 5 plays per game, and saves the rest of his carries for short yardage situations…unless it’s a short yardage situation is a pivotal part of the game, in which case Fran will undoubtedly outsmart himself and find a “cute” play that fails.

What history tells us……….

2006-11-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

I’ve always had a huge interest in history. I think history can show us so much about where we have been. Repeatedly I think that mankind is in a unique situation that has never occurred in the past. Repeatedly I find that most of the “unique situations” that I believe we are in have been encountered time and time again.

When casting my opinions on political issues I’ve tried to avoid the sticky situation that the war in Iraq has become. With the upcoming elections, this is one of the hottest topics on the political chopping block. At this point, I believe that it’s very important that we “stay the course” and see things through in Iraq. No matter how bad the media portrays things, the fact remains that we are fighting Muslim extremism in their own backyard instead of ours. Yes, I do believe that mistakes were made after the invasion of Iraq, the biggest one being the disbanding of the regular Iraqi military. This left hundreds of thousands of unemployed, trained, and disgruntled fighting men with few options. Without going into detail, I think history can teach us important lessons that still apply today. I heard an interesting story I heard on a talk show tonight.

I think knowing the resumes of who you are voting for is one of the most important things. During the height of the Cold War, in 1983, Senator Ted Kennedy was at odds with how President Regan was handling the Soviets. Kennedy was under the belief that the President’s actions would lead to nuclear war with the Soviets. Mr. Kennedy was under such conviction that he actually approached the Soviet leaders (through an intermediary) and offered to help improve the Soviet image in the American media. The hope was to influence the 1984 presidential elections and undermine Reagan’s policies with the Soviets. The same Regan policies that eventually defeated Communism and brought an end to the Cold War. Of course today Senator Kennedy denies he ever did this, but KGB documentation that was recently declassified confirms that he did indeed approach the Soviets with these propositions. I find it disgusting that someone would go so far to prove themselves right to go behind the back of the nation and the actively work to undermine the policies of the president. I can see this at work today in the media and I think you should carefully consider this when you go out to the polls Tuesday.

I can’t say that I agree with everything President Bush has done, but I do respect that he commits and refuses to back down from the policies that he believes are for the good of the country, despite the storm of criticism from the media and his opponents. As history shows us, that can be a rare attribute in politics. I am downright frightened by some of the changes I’m seeing in how governments around the world deal with “rouge state”. I find it asinine that people think through diplomacy and appeasement we can somehow solve all our differences with terrorist states. History has shown time and time again that appeasement does not work, and the suggestion that we try to negotiate with terrorist states keeps being brought up. Let’s see how long it works for the EU.

Here comes College Gameday

2006-10-29T20:29:00.000-08:00

The speculation can be put to rest.............

It's been a long damn time.....but the Game Day crew hasn't been back to College Station since A&M vs. OU in 2000. I'm as giddy as a school girl. The atmosphere next weekend is going to be phenomenal. A&M gets a prime time game as well all the publicity associated that comes with Game Day. This game is going to give our program some national attention finally, all the more reason we need this win. To say the Ags have been flying under the radar this season has been an understatement. Two weeks in a row of listening to Dave South on the radio is about all a man can take.

ON A SIDENOTE, I need to rant about a few things. First, if I hear one more thing about Colt McCoy this week I might just throw myself in front of a bus. Secondly, thanks to the suck that is the Texans I won't be able to turn on Houston sports radio this week, because all I will be hearing is what an amazing player Vince Young is, and what a horrible mistake for the Texans not to have drafted him. Shoot me in the face. I want to beat our 3 remaining oponents like a rented mule and move out of the tier 2 purgatory that we seem to have been stuck in.

The month of November will show me how far this team has really come from last year. The prospect of going winning a Big XII title and going to a BCS bowl game got a lot less thrilling since that would mean playing the people of the blue field from "Boise State". Not exactly the marque matchup that would drum up much national spotlight.

A few more funny things from Baylorfans. Again I can't make this stuff up people. On their message board some people actually believe Floyd Casey stadium as one of the "premier college football venues in the country". All they are lacking is some crazier fans. Let me tell the Baylor fans right now, when the largest crowd in history is 51,000 and you still dont sell out, you might be missing a few "key ingredients" of that premier football venue. And please stop referring to your stadium as "the case". That's worse than those thugs at Miami referring to their "O.B". All talk and nothing to back it up.

Right now if I was a betting man, I would expect to see us at the Cotton Bowl playing Arkansas on New Year's Day. BUT, this team has surprised me repeatedly. I guess we will have to wait and see. Only 140 hours till kickoff. This is going to be a long week..........

Do you know the Muffin Man?

2006-10-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well as promised I've found a Baylorfans.com forum thread that is pure gold! Apparently they now refer to Jorvorski Lane (Texas A&M's bruising Running Back) as the "Lufkin Muffin".

I atleast have some respect for Texas Tech fans as they know some things about college football but after reading this thread on Baylorfans.com its painfully clear the Baylor "football enthusiast" frankly doesn't know sh*t about college football. Here's a few quotes:

"He averages almost a full yard less than every other decent back in the conference. He sucks."

"my high school team stopped japorky his senior year the guy is so overrated; if you hit him low then he falls like a sack of potatoes"

Wow, just wow. This thread is about as smart as throwing a beehive at Chuck Norris...

On a lighter note............

2006-10-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

I want to apolgize to the 2-3 people that actually read my blog. I know the title is super daves super bitch site, but I guess I need to shift my bitching to more light hearted topics from time to time. I need to lighten up the mood before the masses begin throwing themselves off cliffs after reading my depressing posts.

My first rant. The SUCK that is the Big XII TV contract. TWO, thats right TWO Big XII games were on TV this weekend. Somehow the Big 10 and SEC get almost every single conference game on TV every week. Missouri and A&M were the only 2 games played by top 25 teams that weren't broadcast. For the 2 Big XII TV spots we got beat out by the OU/Colorado matchup. Somehow OU has gotten every game put on some form of TV since 2002 sans 1! Despite the bad TV contract their AD finds a way to get them on TV. This weekend I got to LISTEN to the Aggie Football announcers "Dave and Dave". If you havent gotten a chance to listen to Dave on the radio, then you are really missing out. I like Dave; but he is by far the most confusing play by play announcer in the history of collegiate sports. From time to time Dave takes a while to convey to the listeners what is going on in the field. I feel like he's watching the play develop with his mouth wide open and he forgets he's on the radio. You have to wait about 3-4 seconds from when he announces, "the kick is off".......to................................."and its good!" Someone on Texags.com commented:

"Drinking while listening to Dave keeps the game exciting. I don't know what the hell is going on!"

The halftime show consisted of an interview with Texas A&M's women's golf coach. Why would they want to talk about the game at hand? I would much rather get excited about women's golf. I felt like I was listening to the "Delcious Dish" SNL skit, except it wasn't funny and there was no mention of "schwetty balls". Even Dave sounded bored. Well I'll be honest, I couldn't listen to the game anymore after OSU went up by 7 late in the 4th. I started watching the Clemson/ GT game and the A&M game ticker kept flashing down with the time. Eventually when it said 27 seconds left I went into the other room and found out we were on the 2 yard line! I could't believe we put together another last minute drive again! After reading about the final drive, it seemed even crazier than I ever dreamed. One thing I have discovered, when McGee needs to be brings it to a whole newe level when running the 2 minute drill. The important thing was no matter how bad we played it seems this team wants to win and finds a way to. I'm just glad I dont have heart problems. Later this week I'll compile some baylorfans.com authentic quotes and post them. You will have to read some of the baylor fans posts if you want real comedy with a little bit of tragedy (because they are so dillusional).

Moving on........Halloween is coming up. With all these kids in our neighborhood it's frightening to think we might have kids coming to our door to ask for candy. The question is do I contribue to American children's obesity epidemic with candy contributions or turn off the lights and pretend like no ones home.

I am always curious what most of the neighbors think of us. My roomate and I live in a neighborhood full of families with kids. I honestly bet some of them think we could be a gay couple. To add to their curiosity I think when handing out candy on haloween my roomate or I should answer the door in our underwear. Since we leave the garage door open most evenings and we have a glass french door that also means all our neighbors can also see me cooking dinner in my underwear. I would say when I'm home 90% of the time I'm in my underwear. If it was socially acceptable to do so I would go to work in my underwear. I feel like Ray's father off Everybody Loves Raymond. It's a wonder how I'm still single.

In other news around the world.......

2006-10-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this is going on right now without hearing a word in the news. I'm generally fairly complacent but I feel compelled to do the following:

Write your Congressman.

Write the Indonesian embassy or call (202) 775 - 5200

Write the consular section of the U.S. embassy, Jakarta.

I encourage everyone who feels strongly about this to do the same.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford has had enough.

Civil war is in the air in Indonesia. Christians are daily being slaughtered and the government does little to protect them.

Two of our longtime blog-friends, Stan the Infidel and Big White Infidel, are furious over the treatment of Christians in Indonesia. What the media paints as 'sectarian violence' is really Muslim persecution of Christian minorities.

Stan and Big White are headed to Rev. Irianto Kongkoli's funeral in Palu. Rev. Kongkoli was a Christian minister gunned down in public early this morning. This comes on the heels of a bombing on Saturday and after three Christians were executed for their alleged participation in sectarian violence. Violence that has largely targetted Christians and over which no Muslim has been prosecuted.

If their reaction is any gauge of Christian sentiment in Indonesia, then expect an escalation of the violence. Especially pay attention to Stan's extended comments here.
I would urge the Christians of Indonesia, and especially our friends Stan and Big White, towards self-restraint and non-violence. Not that I am a pacifist, I am not, but I am a realist. One should only fight battles if they can win. This is not a battle that can be won through violence.

There is something that you can do to show your solidarity with Indonesia's persecuted Christians. Boycott Indonesia.
Original story found here.

Weekend update

2006-10-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

Couldn't have asked for a better weekend. My 2nd attempt at tailgating worked out beautifully. The weather was PERFECT for a fall collegiate football game, and if things couldn't get better we actually pulled off the most complete game of the year against a very good team and won. On top of that Texas Tech almost got shut out by a winless (up until Saturday morning) Colorado Buffalos team. It still kills me that we lost to those sand fleas. I can only imagine the complete collapse of the Tech faithful after Saturday.

What to look forward to this week....

Well OSU is currently the favorite to win by +1 pt. So basically it's anyones game according to Vegas. OSU has put up impressive numbers against opponents this season. They have a dual threat QB, two capable RB's and talented receivers.

HOWEVER, assuming we play Aggie football, there offense will sit idle on the sidelines for most of the game as we run the ball down their throats. By the 2nd half we hopefully will have broken their backs (see opponents d-line in 2nd half in past 7 games). I know this is a crazy observation, but it seems our defense plays better if they are on the field for 18-25 minutes a game, as opposed to 35-40 minutes like last year.

Right now I'm more worried about OSU and Baylor on the road than I am about Nebraska and OU. I might even venture to say if we can get past OSU and Baylor we have a shot at Texas this year. Yes you heard me, tu in Austin. Anotherwords if we take care of business, we play New Years Day in the Cotton Bowl to face some ridiculously hard SEC team or to the BCS to face God only knows. Either way I really want a bowl game win this year.

Here's OSU fans after Saturday's game.

European commandments to live by

2006-10-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Thou Shalt Eat Healthy

A quote from The Daily Telegraph, 14 October 2006

A boy aged 10 has been banned from his school dining hall because his packed lunch broke the government’s healthy eating guidelines. [...] Ryan’s lunch consisted of a sandwich, fruit, fromage frais, cake, mini cheese biscuits and a bottle of water. The cake and the biscuits broke the snack limit. They were discovered when a teacher checked his lunch box.

[...] Malcolm Goddard, the headmaster, said: “We take healthy eating very seriously and everyone is aware of our new policies.”

Thou Shalt Pee Sitting

In Norway, all school boys are now pee sitting down.

You think I'm joking?

The pussification of men continues.

Thou Shalt Sacrifice Easter Monday

A quote from NIS News Bulletin, 14 October 2006

The CNV trade union federation [Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond, one of the largest unions in the Netherlands] feels that a Muslim feast should be introduced as a bank holiday in the Netherlands. The Christian trade union federation is willing to sacrifice a Christian holiday.

CNV vice chairman Rienk van Splunder wishes “to offer Muslims the freedom to practice their faith.” The federation is prepared to sacrifice Whit Monday or Easter Monday for a free day during the Sugar Festival. This is the feast day held to celebrate the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. […] By introducing official holidays on such feast days, he hopes to create “freedom and respect for one another.”

The Fruits of Europe's Multiculturism Crusade

2006-10-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Warning!!

I want to apologize beforehand as my formatting and ranting are not in a very organized or clean manner. I still think the content below is worth your time. The links that I've included are all great articles that deserve your time to read them.

I'm just going to go ahead and dive right into the political spectrum here….consider this a collection of "snippets" of what is going on over in Europe. The past several months I have been engrossed in learning more about current events in Europe. As much talk as you hear about immigration problems in the U.S, it seems that Europe has it 100x worse. Since I also have a full time job I do not have the time or energy to dive into each one of these issues individually. The purpose of this is just to give you a “gateway” into what’s happening. I encourage you to explore all of the information further and make your own conclusions. I highly recommend anything off of:

http://www.brusselsjournal.com

http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/

http://downeastblog.blogspot.com/

Why I think the European model of "diversity at all cost" and Muslim immigration won't work. Europeans probably won't wake up from their socialism wet dream until it’s far too late.I can't really add much more to this than what the author already wrote.

From Brussels Journal.

This week Robert Putnam, Harvard professor and author of Bowling Alone, a book on the disintegrating social fabric in the US, told The Financial Times (“Harvard study paints bleak picture of ethnic diversity”) that “the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone – from their next-door neighbour to the mayor.” The FT adds that “when the data were adjusted for class, income and other factors, they showed that the more people of different races lived in the same community, the greater the loss of trust.”

With the way things are going I honestly believe Europe’s dominant religion will become Islam within my lifetime. Here’s an excerpt from another excellent article off of The Brussels journal. The article can be read in full here. You probably want to catch up and read parts 1 and 2 as well.

It is frightening to hear people who have grown up in former Communist countries say that they see this same totalitarian impulse at work in Western Europe now. According to them, we in the West are at least as brainwashed by Multiculturalism and Political Correctness as they ever were with Communism. It is frightening because I believe they are right. Have we witnessed the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe only to see an Iron Veil descend on Western Europe? An Iron Veil of EU bureaucracy and Eurabian treachery, of Political Correctness, Multicultural media censorship and the ever-present threat of Muslim violence and terrorism that is gradually extinguishing free speech. The momentum of bureaucratic treachery is accelerating.

Native Europeans and indeed some non-Muslim immigrants are quietly leaving in growing numbers, gradually turning the continent into a net exporter of refugees rather than an importer of them. When large parts of Europe are being overrun by barbarians — actively aided and abetted by our own trusted leaders — and when people are banned from opposing this onslaught, is Western Europe still a meaningful part of the Free World? Have the countries of Eastern Europe gone from one “Evil Empire” to another? Are they — and we — back in the EUSSR?

Vaclav Klaus, the conservative President of the Czech Republic, has complained that: “Every time I try to remove some piece of Soviet-era regulation, I am told that whatever it is I am trying to scrap is a requirement of the European Commission.”

In an interview with Paul Belien in February 2006, Vladimir Bukovksy warned that the European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union. Mr Bukovsky called the EU a “monster” that must be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a fully-fledged totalitarian state.

“The ultimate purpose of the Soviet Union was to create a new historic entity, the Soviet people, all around the globe. The same is true in the EU today. They are trying to create a new people. They call this people ‘Europeans’, whatever that means. According to Communist doctrine as well as to many forms of Socialist thinking, the state, the national state, is supposed to wither away. In Russia, however, the opposite happened. Instead of withering away the Soviet state became a very powerful state, but the nationalities were obliterated. But when the time of the Soviet collapse came these suppressed feelings of national identity came bouncing back and they nearly destroyed the country. It was so frightening.”

Read the entire essay. I won’t even begin to get into my problems with the EU. I’ll have to save that for another time. Suffice to say , it's a monster that needs to be put down as soon as possible before it destroys Europe.

You can look at the recent election results in Belgium as evidence of their immigration problems. One of the recently elected leaders Emir Kir, the Socialist secretary of state for public monuments in the Brussels regional government. Mr Kir, who is Turkish, wants to demolish the Brussels monument for the genocide of the Armenians. According to him the genocide is a hoax.

The campaign flyers he was handing out were ONLY in turkish. Also notice the Turkish flag overlayed on the Belgium flag. He’s running for a political position in Belgium right?

While the European countries continue to try and pacify the Muslim immigrants; Muslims in turn continue to use European tolerence as a means of gaining power and influence. Check out this 40,000 worshipper mosque they plan to build in London 500 yards from the site of the 2012 Olympic games. Think the US doesn’t have an Islamization problem? Check out this story.

Some people call this immigration problem “Islamaphobia” as if all these are irrational fears with no basis. Well if you read any of those stories and your still not convinced there is a problem then you probable won’t notice until your living under Sharia Law.

Also this guy's opinion pretty much mirrors exactly what I'm thinking and provides perspective into where we are today and what got us here. From cdrsalamander.

The interesting thing politically is that we have seen in the last half decade the strange bed-fellows union of the International Left and the emerging Muslim advocacy movement. All you have to do is spend some time at Zombietime to see that. This convergence just reinforces one of my pet theories; the balance of Leftists are motivated by an externalized self-hate where they take their self-hate and project it on their culture and nation. The same group that supported, excused and explained away Communism and the evil that was the Soviet Union now finds common cause with the latest anti-Western group bent on destroying Western Civilization.

There is a very telling quote that speaks volumes about the cold, hard, political reasons for this shift as well. One for the Left that is suicide for women’s rights, gay rights, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom to have a nice pork BBQ sandwich. We saw the same thing in the U.S. right prior to elections in the Clinton Era where hundreds of thousands of new citizens were minted right prior to the elections – taking shortcuts and bypassing timelines to increase the Left’s vote totals.

A curious thing to see. In a Representative Republic, how do you represent your nation when to get in power you have to import voters? Do you want to represent the nation, or do you want a different nation? Then again, as is often the case, in politics for many it is all about power. Some will do anything to get power for the simple case of having it. I wonder, what will the Left do when the cities such as Antwerp via the ballot box change laws and regulations to be more in line with Sharia? By then it will be too late. Do you turn to the gun? If you can’t control the inflow or outbreed those who want to destroy your culture you reach the point where you submit to the new culture, or you decide you need to cull the opposition. Is that where the Left wants to go? You are running out of time.

As for Europe....I need to visit it while it's still inhabited mostly by Europeans.

I’m back……………

2006-10-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

Ok so it looks like my last blog has been about 8 months ago. Anyone who might have been actually reading my blog has surely packed up and left by now. As far as they knew, I was abducted by Muslim insurgents, forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, and I only stayed alive by saying “TIKEH NUNEH BA OB KHRELEH BEZORG VA KHRUBE GOYAST INO BERGERAM” …translation “The water-soaked bread crumbs are delicious, thank you. I must have the recipe.” That bought me enough time to escape.

Well you could say I escaped being beheaded on live TV, converted back to Christianity, graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in mechanical engineering, found my way back to Houston, and found gainful employment as a mechanical facilities engineer at a top EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Design) firm working on the design of the topsides for offshore oil platforms. Phew………not a bad amount of results for the last 8 months.

I’m going to jump into a quick bit of engineenerding. Here is what I’m working on now. The platform is called Vallhall. Its run by BP Norway, it consists of 5 bridged platforms, sits in 200 ft of water about 150 miles off the Norwegian coastline. My company is currently designing a platform that will replace the existing Hotel and Production platforms and combine them into a slick, new state of the art semi-automated platform. I say semi-automated because after BP looked at how much automation would cost them, they backed off initial ideas. Right now it’s probably going to run in the neighborhood of $1-2 billion for this baby. That makes my annual salary about 0.00003% of the total cost of the platform. Wow if you put it that way, they are really getting a bargain. Well right now your asking, “Hey Super Dave, what does a mechanical facilities engineer do?” Well I’m glad you asked. When you build an offshore platform, the topsides are divided up into “packages”. Each “package” can consists of a wide variety of production equipment. One engineer might be in-charge of buying the fuel gas package, or the chemical injection package, or the water-maker package, or the electrochlorination package to name a few….. the list could go on forever. Basically I’m in charge of that equipment from conception to commissioning. I have to interface with the client, with vendors, with other disciplines to make sure all their input and concerns are addressed, and then make sure the vendors deliver on what we agreed on. I’ve been learning an amazing amount in a short time, and I always seem to get a chance to work on something new.

Now my thoughts turn to other things. The most prevalent this time of year is of course is Aggie football. Yes we are 5-1, yes we are showing improvement, but why can we never beat the “sand fleas” of Texas Tech University. I can describe my thoughts on the game on a quarter by quarter basis: 1^st, oh ok not bad, offense looks poor, but defense is getting some pressure on the quarterback, 2^nd,OH SH*T they just scored 2 touchdowns, where the hell is our defense, why the hell cant we put pressure on Harrell! He could cook breakfast back there! We can’t get to halftime fast enough! Halftime, wow Tech’s band isn’t bad, but boy do they look like the Hamburgler with those capes on. Oh good here comes the Aggie band, damn they do not look very good today. 3^rd Wow I really like our running game, we can really control the clock now! It looks like Tech’s defense is gassed! We’re almost tied! 4^th Wow, McGee looks really confused out there. Jeez McGee is not having a good game at all. Alright another score,(thanks to the run game) all tied up. Ok all we need is our defense to step up! Sweet we got the ball back, ok just one more first down and we can win this game! Shit, Fran is running the option to the short side of the field again………shit were bringing out the field goal team………..shit we are just up by 3 and they have a lot of time left to score….. shit they are marching down the field………shit we aren’t putting any pressure on Harrell……..OH MY GOD WE GOT AN INTERCEPTION……..OH MY GOD WE JUST BEAT TECH……………..OH MY GOD OUR TEAM IS GOING UNDEFEATED THIS YEAR……………..shit the play is under review………….shit the guy next to me says his friend on the phone with TIVO says the ball hit the ground……………F*CK they just overturned the call………..shit Tech gets another chance……………(Tech fans cheering)……… HOLY SHIT we just lost to Tech again.

I died a little inside after that touchdown. And to add insult to injury as my uncle and I sat in near empty stadium watching the post game interviews on 12^th man TV, an asshole cops tells us we have to leave. This is all while 30-40 people are still scattered around in our deck watching the post game interviews. Well if they want to kick us out, then instead of putting the interviews on TV put a big screen that says get the hell out! Go take your crying and pouting elsewhere. I would rather not relive that day.

Some good did come out of that Saturday. My friend and I had our first ever Aggie football tailgate. We started off small, a small grill, a tent, a table, some chairs, and some coolers. But it’s something to build on. We already have aspirations for a generator and satellite TV next season. We have even played around with the idea of building a customized trailer consisting of all essential tailgating items conveniently built right in to the trailer, such as compartments for the food, chairs, smoker, generator, couch, tent, etc. To use a project engineering term, we’re still in the FEED (Front End Engineering Design) stage. This is still in the conceptual phase and you could say it has not been sanctioned yet.

Soon I will hopefully be writing some of my thoughts on Europe and their Muslim immigration issues. For now I thought this was a hillarious picture to best describe how ludicrous the "muslim outrage" has been lately.

a

Its enough to drive a man to drinking

2006-02-24T16:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating this blog enough, but I’ve had a lot on my plate this semester. It’s hard to believe that in 9 weeks I will be finished with school FOREVER. The choice of jobs is narrowing quickly; I got my 1^st offer of the semester which means people are actually willing to hire me.

I have been reading a lot of news and opinions concerning the infamous Mohammed cartoons. I think this is one of the biggest news stories in recent years, Western civilization is at a crossroads with the Muslim world and I think how we respond will determine the future of America and the western world. I have been thinking about A LOT of things, and I’ll try to organize my thoughts at neatly as possible. First off I began thinking about the definition of liberal after reading this article. The author, Mr. Marmorstein, is arguing that more liberalism is needed in our universities. Your jaw probably just dropped. Before you look out the window for a sign of the end times read the rest of the article.

Art Marmorstein, a history professor at Northern State University writes in the Aberdeen News that various historical figures insisted that, "if all views were given a fair opportunity in the marketplace of ideas, the truth would eventually win out: The only thing that could stop the truth was its forcible suppression."

"Unfortunately, much of the academic left in this country has ceased to be liberal, embracing (often unwittingly) a kind of bastard Marxism as its core philosophy. Dogmatic, intolerant and mean-spirited, doctrinaire leftists often make academic life miserable for conservative students -- and for traditional liberals, for that matter. They and their like-minded students shout down campus speakers whose ideas they don't like. They publicly ridicule students who dare question their ideas, and they refuse to even consider hiring faculty members who don't toe the proper political line."

If you think about it, he’s absolutely right. I think traditional liberalism has been taken over by a form of “bastard Marxism” that is far from tolerant of other peoples beliefs. As a conservative minded man, I know first hand how impossible it is to reason or win an argument against a liberal. Logic and common sense bounce off of them like bullets off of Superman. A liberal reminds me of a spoiled girl who cries and screams all the while covering her ears and not listening to the reasoning of her parents, just yelling and pouting louder and louder if she doesn’t get her way.

Now you can even make an argument for the conservative side, the liberals refer to them as “neo-conservatives”. Certain things that this administration has done have raised concerns in my mind. I am weary of the attitude of “blind patriotism” that seems to vilify anyone who isn’t on the Presidents side. Their seems to be a policy of doing anything to protect this country from terrorism at the cost of our freedoms such as unrestricted wiretapping, torture, and cover-ups scare me. I can see a shift to the right in a majority of the US population. Of course it could be argued that this is a response to the liberals moving more toward the side of dogmatic liberal Marxism ideals. So there you have it, the liberals are now Marxist and the conservatives are now Fascist. So what does the future hold? The new Wachowski Brothers movie V for Vendetta portrays a 1984’esk post 9/11 future where the Koran is outlawed and homosexuals are sent to internment camps. While I’m sure I’ll see this movie, it is going to be challenging to incorporate gays into the “Axis of Evil”. So there you have a future where Fascism and the police state strike fear into the population.

So what would the future look like if liberals had their way? I find distinguishing between a Communist and Fascist state to be difficult. Both systems emphasize fanatical nationalism, a police state, and large government that’s involved in every facet of a citizens life. Well the liberalism I see in Europe and America is one that puts tolerance and toeing the PC line above all else. So what’s the way I see the West going if the liberals had their way? Well the Mohammed cartoons debacle has made it very clear what would happen. Since these liberals now hold tolerance and multi-culturism above all else, I believe they would give up any freedoms to appease the Muslims. The phrase “at any cost” is very dangerous and people don’t realize what that means whether there referring to tolerance or saving the environment. The enemy and I do believe that Islamic fundamentalist are an enemy to the Western way of life, is very smart. They’re using our tolerance and willingness to accommodate all cultures against us. Muslim policemen in London have quit, because a symbol on the badge contained a Victorian cross, an integral part of our civilization’s history. The all accommodating government wants to change the badge to appease the outraged Muslims. Amazing, they have figured out a way to advance their culture all the while destroying ours in the name of tolerance. This article gives a sneak peak of what a liberal run Europe and eventually us has for in the future .

“Western intellectuals have long spoken of the clash of civilizations with an air of obtuseness, as if that clash would never implicate and threaten their own version of civilization. They reduced the clash to two fundamentalisms, Islamic and Christian, without realizing that their own secularist creed could just as easily clash with Islam and be consumed by it.

Now even as this clash comes more graphically into view they show no interest in fighting it. Europeans are ready to become what the Muslims of old called the "people of the pact," unbelievers who could live under Islam with a few circumscribed rights, provided that they recognized the supremacy of Islam and submitted to taxes and regulations from the dominant Muslim state.

While a few European liberals are not yet ready to negotiate for this restricted freedom -- if only out of a spirited hedonism that makes them keenly aware of Islam's power to imperil their fun -- others, weighted down by liberalism's persistent self-doubt, are all too willing to capitulate. The price of curbing free speech, restricting western religious freedom (which, if it means anything at all, presupposes the right to reject the false ideas of other religions and oppose them loudly), and carving out even more space for radical Islam is one Europeans will eagerly pay to secure their own short-term safety.”

If you look at how eager Jacque Chirac denounced the Mohammed cartoon publisher you can see how easy liberals roll over. He quickly denounced the racist Danish newspaper and called for the French newspapers to stop running the cartoon. Look at what the New York Times had to say.

“Deconstructionist academic Stanley Fish, writing in The New York Times earlier this month, actually called the rioting Muslims the moral superiors of the European editors responsible for the cartoons, whose notion of free speech, argues Fish, is too frivolous to be worth defending. Liberalism, wrote Fish, "is itself a morality -- the morality of a withdrawal from morality in any strong, insistent form. It is certainly different from the morality of those for whom the Danish cartoons are blasphemy and monstrously evil. And the difference, I think, is to the credit of the Muslim protesters and to the discredit of the liberal editors."

Do self-doubting European liberals agree with Fish? Many act as if they do. Their attitude has been marked by moral inferiority and the self-devouring tendency of liberalism to suspend judgment of its most dangerous enemies while subjecting its own culture to withering scorn. Perversely, Fish identifies the moral inferiority of liberalism in the publication of the cartoons, whereas its real proof is seen in the abject apologies for them. Fish is correct to say that liberalism suffers from vacuity. But he apparently can’t see that that is exactly what is accelerating its acceptance of the demands of radical Islam. If anything, the free speech of the Danish cartoonists represents one of the last gasps of a species of European liberalism that at least recognizes the power of Islam to cow westerners into silence.

But the more dominant strand of liberalism in Europe, because it is so philosophically threadbare and self-doubting, supplies no motive for its own defense. It's very fatuous worldliness means that nobody will bother to fight and die for it; temporal compromises with radical Islam make more sense. European liberals have been more or less saying in the wake of the controversy: Since we don't believe in anything, let's defer to those Muslims who do and work out a pact with them that will keep us safe and protect as much of our lifestyle as possible.”

So there you have it. The liberals unknowingly are leading us toward certain destruction. I for one won’t recognize Islam as the master religion and live under Islamic law, so I inevitably would be executed. It’s hard for me to understand how liberals can continue to live behind their dogmatic ideals without realizing that’s not how real world works.

Why are there people born and raised in this country, a country that has given them so much, so hell bent on its destruction? An article here shed some good light on the source of the liberals’ ill will toward America:

"They hate America not because of what America has done to them but because of what they’ve been taught about America in very liberal textbooks and universities here, and because many had parents and siblings who viewed unfavorably Mr. and Mrs. America and our heartland. Many are found in the consistently anti-American “humanitarian” watch groups, camouflaging their goal of demonizing America under high-sounding labels.

There is nothing new about a fragment of citizens within a country hoping for its country’s defeat. What is new is how it is coming so often from the wealthy classes, and how broad it is. Worse, those harboring these poisonous sentiments are, more than ever before, the shapers of societal opinions, cultural arbiters, and prominent in the media from which Americans make political decisions. Their access and money have allowed these unelected and unaccountable activists the power to shape policy as if elected officials.

How did this happen? Fifty years of unprecedented wealth and comfort -- a soft and safe life so different from world history-- has allowed two generations of middle/upper middle class Americans to luxuriate in incessant piercing of its own country, criticizing and ostracizing each of its facets. What started out as avant garde self-righteousness has degenerated into a loathing of America itself: a self-hate of our nationhood, historic culture, and power.

This has given birth to an outlook which sees America as the source of all misery and evil in the world. American power is dangerous, they assert, and Samson must be weakened and humiliated. This outlook has given meaning to the soft lives of those not haunted by hunger or cold or the unavailability of sporting events tickets. This better-than-thou, arrogant outlook has given purpose to self-centered lives bereft of the transcendence found in serious religious practice or patriotism.

Besides, their anti-Americanism has come with no cost or material sacrifice. They have haloed themselves simply by criticizing their country. In fact, its practitioners have found adulation from cultural elitists, as well as from the trendy internationalist set. Many of our “upscale” citizens have joined the internationalist set, criticism of America being its calling card and initiation ritual.

Many are internationalists who were taught by their parents and circle that they are superior to the average American who is racist, unsophisticated, uneducated, simply common, a red neck. Among themselves, they identify as internationalists. They do identify as Americans, however, when hoping to influence American policy, leftward.

Do they feel guilty weakening America? No, for in their heart many believe that America’s white, Christian conservatives now in power are closet Nazis. Yes, there are those in America who do believe this, having heard it from esteemed loved ones. It is a predisposition that interprets as guilty actions and events that to the normal eye are routine and innocuous. This accounts for the out of bounds hysteria that comes with each charge declaring we are on the verge of right-wing dictatorship.”

Wow, just wow. There you have it, the decline of Western civilization. It’s enough to make a man cry. I have a tendency to overwhelm myself at times; I have to take a step back. Ultimately I have little control over this; I have to focus on things inside my realm of influence. As a Christian, I know God has a plan for this world, and despite how crazy the world seems at times, things are well under his control. Ultimately things will work out.

People undeserving of their paycheck

2006-01-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

As of late a few things have really been bothering me. Because I am looking for a job, I began to contemplate my net worth to society, another words how much will I contribute. This thought continued after having a class discussion about CARB, the California Air Resource Board. I began to wonder about a lot of people’s actual contribution to society.

As a means of regulating emissions in automobiles California created the Air Resource Board. The purpose of CARB is to cut down on vehicle emissions in the state. CARB was established as a temporary agency to be dissolved once the goals were attained. Since CARB employees keep getting a paycheck cut by the taxpayers bi-weekly, do you think it would be in their best interest to accomplish their goal quickly? Why they would be laying themselves off if they were to actually meet the goals of the agency. This agency created separate emission standards than the EPA, which already left little room for improvement. These new requirements just increased costs to manufacturers, which were passed on to the consumer, and really accomplishing virtually nothing in reducing emissions. The best play CARB has done so far to guarantee their existance has been their goal of having all vehicles in California become zero emission, this of course is impossible to have a zero emission vehicle with an internal combustion engine. The initial requirement set back in the 90’s started the whole electric car debacle that ended in millions wasted in R&D and auto manufacturers eventually admitting it was impossible. Now I can go on and on about fuel cells, and other technology that we won’t see in vehicles in our lifetime, but the main point is that there are many government agencies that are undeserving of their existence, CARB is just one of the worst offenders.

The other day I was reading about a history professor at a college in the US who did a social experiment where he pretended to be a neo-nazi. He also mailed the newspaper an anonymous letter where he accused himself of being in the Irish Republican Army. Well the university fired him based on this accusation and he was criticized and ridiculed by fellow professors. Fellow professors that support Hezbollah, other “Islamic freedom fighters”, convicted inmates on death row, or people that I generally can’t find any compassion for. Even after he explained the experiment he still doesn’t have his job back. Why is the world of academia such a refuge for liberals? One philosophy that I heard that I can almost buy into was that people need a feeling that their work contributes something. If they feel that they are overpaid exorbitantly, their contribution is very abstract, or they really don’t contribute anything then they feel guilty. They want to justify their existence by championing a cause of some kind, which tends to be for the societal outcasts. This is why you see such liberalism in the arts, philosophy, history, and other more abstract things. Without getting too much into depth about university professors, the point was that seeing people are out there collecting money that only detract from society really anger me.

My next complaint is with these so called “diversity experts”. The short of it is that they charge companies exuberant fees to educate employee to be “more diverse” at these seminars. In my humble opinion these people have created a problem and provided a solution. This sensitivity training is frankly worthless. The only thing it seems to do is give anyone with a viewpoint not in the majority a voice and a reason to go against norms. I had to attend one at a Fish Camp DP by a so called diversity expert. It seems all they like to stress is the same tired PC crap that they shovel day in and day out. It just seems it’s supposed to make people feel guilty and feel like they owe certain persons something. I think companies feel internal or outside pressure to put their employees through this training, and they honestly have no choice but to pay these diversity experts or else face harsh rebukes and criticism from the public and certain employees. If engineering doesn’t work out, I think I could be a self-appointed diversity expert, which is if I was a minority. I think I now am in Texas.

Right on, Andy Rooney!

2005-12-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Finally someone in the mainstream media with a view that I agree with 100%. I'm going to post what Andy Rooney said on 60 minutes a few weeks ago.

I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.

I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the Law of Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!

My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.

I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.

I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say "NO!"

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!

I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else

Amen

Thanksgiving Update

2005-11-27T23:17:00.000-08:00

Well for those of you who don’t know, I decided to take off 4 days of school, say F*ck it, and go up to Colorado Springs to go skiing and visit my sister and brother-in-law. I dont have a very inciteful update, but there were a few funny stories.

It was quite hilarious seeing the different reactions from people when I told them I was skipping classes and going on vacation. With non-engineering majors it was more excitement for me, such as “Wow! That great” or “Wow that should be a lot of fun”. When I told engineering majors this, the reaction was more along the lines of, “WHAT, you’re leaving now!” or “I HATE YOU”. See this is the worst possible time of a year for most engineering students; personally I left with 3 projects and 1 presentation still left on my table. While every engineering student was slowly dying under the workload, I gave it the middle finger and left, thus the reason for the different responses.

We left Thursday night and stayed the night at our place near Llano. We left at the butt crack of dawn and drove 13 straight hours. The things worth mentioning on the drive up there are:

I’m glad I didn’t go to Tech; Lubbock looks more desolate than the moon.
I have never seen REAL tumbleweeds before until this trip.
West Texas is very windy.
West Texas is the best place on earth for cruise control.
Big Springs is a very nice town for being in west Texas.
Cotton, oil derricks, and tumbleweeds sum up west Texas.

We finally got up to Colorado Springs in time for dinner. It’s a very nice town; my sister’s place overlooks Pikes Peak, which is such a beautiful view. The only downside was they were house-sitting for the neighbors who happened to have 2 cats. I HATE CATS.

Sunday morning we left for Breckenridge to partake in some skiing for 3 days. I was a little hesitant since I hadn’t skied since 7^th grade. Lucky for me I picked it right back up, and was blazing down the slopes in no time. They had some good snow, although there were some areas where rocks were exposed, which I found out, you don’t ski very well on. The best part of the 1^st day was enjoying some pale ale at 10,000 ft. It definitely made it harder to get down the slopes. Here’s me and my brother-in-law Jonathon after a cold one.

Yea it seems when it gets so dark so early, you get so tired. I’m sure skiing all day probably contributed some, but we were asleep my 9 PM almost every night. The 2^ndday we hit up Vail, which was awesome. They had much more snow coverage, but overall the mountain is more “advanced” than Breckenridge. It took me and my brother in law quite a bit of time to convince my sister to go down a blue run. When she finally did, the results weren’t what we hoped. Lauren enjoyed doing her “pies”, and eventually “pied” right into a pole off the side of the course. Lauren now is officially on the "I hate Vail" bandwagon. Heres a pic of my sister and I at Vail. You can tell thats shes pissed at Vail.

By lunch I was sore and tired. I did manage to do my first black diamond slop which was quite an achievement for me. I did find out I am really out of shape. I’m sure a full pitcher of beer between 2 people didn’t help me out either. I couldn’t make it back on the slopes after lunch and was content to sit on my ass and finish the beer. That night when we got back to our place in Breckenridge we decided to enjoy the heated outdoor pool and hot tubs. As we were relaxing in the outdoor hot tub we were joined by what must have been 7 little rug rats around the age of 10. We started getting out of the tub and throwing snow balls. My sister, brother-in-law and I got out to get in the heated pool and got a bunch of snow balls thrown at us. One big kid had quite an arm on him and kicked my ass with one snowball. I wish I could have defended myself but his dad was right there. I should have found his room and beat him with a bar of soap in a sock. JK! Here’s what the 11 year old kid did to me. The snowball hit my wrist, deflected and hit my arm, and then settled on the back of my head.

The 3^rd day was a blast even though we couldn’t convince my sister to go on any blues. Jonathon and I decided to tear it up the rest of the morning. By this time I had settled in with the whole skiing thing so we were both cutting it up on the slopes pretty good. While we were going up one ski lift 2 snowboarders asked if it was cool if they light up some dewbies they had with them. Unfortunately for them the wind was too much that day to light up. The afternoon my dad finally came out with Jonathon and me on some faster runs. He lost it quite a few times, probably because he had been doing greens the whole time prior. One instance Jon and I were at the bottom of a hill waiting for my dad. All of a sudden we see one ski come flying down the hill with the owner no where in sight. We assumed it was my dads and were correct. Jonathon went chasing after the ski and I stayed behind to help my dad. He walked some ways and a guy that worked at Breckenridge finally came by to help. They offered him a lift, and he declined. The guy finally convinced him to get a ride down the hill since it was a mile and a half to the base. Before the snowmobile came back however, Jonathon returned with the ski. He ended up chasing it half a mile, riding back up the ski lift, and giving it to my dad.

Thanksgiving was some good times too. We came back from skiing on Tuesday night. The women spent Saturday cooking and preparing food. I spent it watching TV, playing games, and relaxing. Thanksgiving was great, plenty of food, and plenty of beer. I really liked the beer up there; they have so many more microbreweries in Colorado compared to Texas.

I was kinda dreading the game on Friday. I was also getting my fair share of shit talking from TU fans. The Aggies actually played their best game all season. I did get pissed that they cut to the start of the Colorado vs. Nebraska game with 3 minutes left in the A&M game that was just because we happened to be watching it in Colorado, but honestly that game was so exciting I think anybody would have rather watched that. I just wish they could have played like that for the other 9 ¼ games this season. We did win in every category except for points scored. The special teams were the ultimate factor that decided the game. I saw our players leave everything on the field, and they game everyone a great game. I loved the fact that Texas had to do thing teams hadn’t made them do all season, i.e. run a fake punt, and run the option. For once the coaches came in with a game plan that worked. I am glad to see McGee in there. He’s going to be a huge team leader, I can already tell. The main people that I’m worried about loosing next year are Jason Carter and Johnny Jolly. The experience we loose in linebackers might hurt, but hopefully we can fill that with some Junior College Transfers. I’m going to miss Jaxson Appel, that guy plays with some intensity, but I think we can fill his position with more talented.

Ok back to the trip. We left Colorado Springs Saturday morning and I finally got back to College Station around 1 PM today. I did a lot of daydreaming and thinking about owning a microbrew. My friend and I got to talking about homebrewing and a brewpub. We decided this is what we ultimately want to do in life. Make and drink beer. I did get my 1^st job offer over Thanksgiving so that’s a good feeling.

Fran-tastic results!

2005-11-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

Well I’ve heard a lot and discussed a lot about Aggie football all season. The discussion has turned from concern to disgust and from disgust to just plain comedic. I just had an epiphany today. The 2005 team is worse than the 2003 team. I had to look back to remember who we played in 2003. Let’s look at 2003.

Lost to:

Virginia Tech (#8)

Pittsburgh (#17)

Nebraska (#14)

Oklahoma State (#18)

O.U. (#1)

tu (#6)

This was the 1^st year of the new system and new coaches so Aggie fans were willing to accept a loosing season however bad it tasted. Our cupboard was bear as people like to put it as we had walk on’s starting in the defense.

Let’s look at this year’s losses.

UNRANKED: Clemson, Colorado, and Iowa state two of which were huge blowouts.

Lost to Texas Tech by more than the '03 beating.

Will lose to an unranked O.U. team by blowout and the number #2 tu team by blowout.

Comparably our defense is now 105^th nationally allowing 449 yards/ game compared to 03’ in which we allowed 431.5 yards/ game to ranked opponents!!

Oh yea and lets not forget that little statistic that we are 116^th out of 117 Division 1A teams in pass defense. WE ARE ONLY ALLOWING 0.39 yards/game LESS THAN PURDUE!! Now as hard as it is to be an Aggie fan I really feel for the players, while I can forget about this and move on to things that I can actually control, they have to live with the emotion and pressure that goes with playing in these disasters.

Now as disappointing as this is, I am not going to start yelling and calling for the firing of Fran. I would like us to face the facts. Clearly some major changes need to be made and I’m willing to give Fran another year. Aggie fans are some of the most loyal and patient fans out there. For those of you who think the 12^th man has been a disappointment this year, shame on you. We have been nothing but supportive for 3 years and I think we deserve some results. It’s one thing to loose a game, but its another to not only loose but to get blown out by programs that have millions of dollars less in their athletic budgets, with a much smaller fan base, with inferior facilities, with much less talent, and with much worse recruiting classes. Being the 2^nd worst team in the Big 12 is one thing, but being the laughing stock of the entire nation in another. When tu, Alabama, Baylor, even Tech fans feel sorry for Aggie fans, you know you’ve fallen along way.

I understand how big of deal it is to get a new head coach and a new system. I know how detrimental it is to recruiting, how hard it is on the players, and how expensive it is. So we can not consider a new coach on a whim. I feel its time to scrap the O and D coordinators honestly, lest see if we cant get some fresh blood in there to turn things around. With next years schedule looking so ridiculously easy if Fran doesn’t get us to 9-2 than I think Fran’s days of eating Little Debbie snacks on the A&M sidelines will be numbered. So far this team managed to do so little with so much and regardless of whose to blame the head coach is ultimately the one accountable although I think the coordinators will take the fall this season. Right now I see us as the 5^th best team in the state and we honestly can’t have rivals when we aren’t remotely competitive with any teams.

My hope, or lack there of in the Arab world

2005-11-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

Most of everyone in America’s attention has been focused on this part of the world ever since the first gulf war, although this region of the world has been the hotbed for conflict throughout the 20^th century. You have various rebellions during the colonial period, then Israeli independence in 1948, then war after war after war followed by the new fad, the suicide bomber and terrorist. While I have never been to the Middle East, from what I have read and seen it is the most backwards part of the world. The tragic part was this was once the Fertile Crescent, not only the start of life but also once the center for great learning and science during the 7^th century. You would never guess that based on what you see or read today.

I think part of the problem is that they are taught that the Arab world is the most perfect society in the world. They have fallen a long way from being the world leader and am not willing to make compromises in their religion to advance. They reject everything western, and therefore reject the riches and standard of living of the western world. They see the open societies that produce success in the Western world and refuse to give up their intolerance to attain success. They refuse to change their archaic thinking when it comes to women, other religions, and western society holds them back. They choose to lash out at everything western instead of embracing it. I think another part of the problem is that many Arab countries leaders are responsible for the countries shortcomings. Instead of getting blamed they choose to blame an outside source, i.e. America, for all the problems the country faces. This gives the people a common enemy to unite and blame for their problems, most importantly it takes the accountability off of the Muslim leaders. All the problems with the Arab countries have become painfully apparent to its citizens in the last few years. This is mainly due to the globalization of the world. Now they can see how their lifestyles compare to everyone else in the world, and this only helps to enrage them. Thomas Freedman says it best in his book The World is Flat.

“Again, the flattening of the world only sharpens that dissonance by making the backwardness of the Arab-Muslim region, comparing to others, impossible to ignore. IT has become so impossible to ignore that some Arab-Muslim intellectuals have started to point out this backwardness with brutal honesty and to demand solutions. They do this in defiance of their authoritarian governments, who prefer to use their media not to encourage honest debate, but rather to blame all their problems on others – on America, on Israel, or on a legacy of Western colonialism – on anyone but the dead hand of these authoritarian regimes. “

It is easy to see how the globalization, i.e. the flattening of the playing field worldwide, is making many countries do a lot of self examination. Before, an isolated village did not see how those in the world lived, so it was easy for them to be content with what they had. With globalization, not only are peoples and businesses becoming networked everywhere, terrorism is as well. As young Arab men see how far behind they are, they become frustrated and want to lash out at that which they think got them there. They want a return of the 7^th century glory that Islam once had in a modern world. The problem is they see that they cannot keep their ideology and be successful in the modern world. Now it is easier for terrorism to spread across borders, as they can spread their ideologies to a generation of uneducated and underprivileged peoples. Through the Internet, the vast amounts of different terrorist groups can maintain contact with each other. Groups from Chechnya and Malaysia can exchange ideas about bomb making, establishing terror cells, and carrying out attacks.

I started writing this a few months ago but never got around to finishing it so forgive me if the previous thoughts don’t tie in exactly with what’s written below. A recent event inspired me to finish this article. Right now I’m reading about the recent riots in France in the Muslim ghettos and listening to Sublime’s April 26, 1992. As I’m writing this there are outbreaks of violence in over 300 towns. Businesses and orphanages alike are being burned to the ground, children and elderly have been attacked, and the 1^st death recently occurred. Are the riots a result of angry fundamental Arabs or the failure of France to practice what they preach when it comes to socialism? I think the violence in France shows me the results of taking a passive and peaceful approach to dealing with Arab fundamentalism as well as the failure of European socialism. The government so far has been unable to stop the violence. Now I really do hope the violence can be controlled but I do find it amazing how such a “tolerant and enlightened” country is having trouble controlling a minority they supposedly welcome, embrace, and whom the government provides for. Every time their government leaders get a chance, it seems they are criticizing our country for being intolerant racists who are only in the Middle East for the oil. Well the two things that stick out in my mind: (1) France’s passive approach to Muslim fundamentalism isn’t working very well and (2) they aren’t as tolerant of Muslims as they claim.

Another relevant story has to do with Holland. This is another supposedly tolerant country. Well a while ago, one of Vincent Van Gogh’s relatives, Theo Van Gogh made a documentary criticizing the Arab’s world treatment of women. A Muslim extremist murdered Theo on the streets. How did the public respond? Muslims were attacked by these tolerant citizens and Mosque’s were burned. Yet another example of a tolerant European country. I will have to continue my tirade about the moral high horse liberals in another essay. I just thought this was a good way to tie in the results of fundamentalism meeting lofty liberal ideals.

A fun little Saturday

2005-10-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

Well I was up bright eyed at 6:15 on Saturday morning. I got some great sleep, well not really because I kept getting drunk dials from people having more fun that I did. I got to Harrington to take the test around 7:30 and had to go through 3 ID checks as well as my lunch being confiscated since it wasn’t in a sealed bag. I couldn’t even bring in my own pencil; they had to provide those for me. Luckily I had an approved calculator and wasn’t in any more violations of the rules and policies set forth by the FE/EIT committee. I had been fairly worried about the test the previous week but the more I studied the more I realized that studying was futile and I should just see what happens. So Friday afternoon instead of studying till my head hurt, I just relaxed a bit and watched a movie. Well I had an angry midget lady as my proctor and after reading the rules to us and threatening anyone that hadn’t surrendered their cell phone up with banishment; we finally started around 8:15 AM. To get an idea about how strict they were, you weren’t allowed to go the restroom without a hall pass and only one person per room could go at a time.

The test initially was going surprisingly well. I was getting answers that matched with the choices so I wasn’t thinking it was too bad. Well this differed from any other endurance test that anyone has ever taken in a few significant ways. Primarily in that the vast majority of the questions are numerical work out. So while not overly tough when compared to a typical exam the morning portion had 120 of them and they ranged from Precal to Thermodynamics, to Materials Science, to Circuits, to Engineering Ethics. With so many calculation workouts they began to wear on you really fast and after barely finishing in time I was aching for lunch. The last 2 hours all I could think about was food and about how there are a lot better things to be doing on a home game weekend. After kicking back and enjoying the beautiful weather for an hour it was time to go back in and take the dreaded afternoon portion which was half the questions but of harder difficulty. At that point I didn’t know how I could possibly bring myself to go back in there, but I did, regrettably. As we were going back in one of the ladies checking our IDs for re-admittance, she told us all to “Have fun”. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing from that comment. As the afternoon progressed I found myself browsing through the test looking for non-workout questions since I wanted a free moment to think. I found myself done with every question that I could answer within 2 hours and proceeded to browse the formula book looking for insight for the other questions. It was a scary thought that I only was able to get answers for 1/3 of the questions. For those of them that I had no idea how to do I started multiplying and dividing numbers that were given in the problem statement to see if one of the answer choices would match up. To my amazement some of them did! Well I realized that there was no point to staying any longer since I left every bit of engineering insight on the morning exam so I skedaddled with an hour to go, by this point it was around 4:45 PM and I was eager to go see how the Aggies were doing against the powerhouse of Iowa State. Well I was greeted with an old fashion ass beating c/o Iowa State. My friend and I wanted to go watch out the remainder of the game at a place that serves adult beverages. We settled on Cheddars and there so called (Third) World class Margaritas. That tasty beverage coupled with a mental capacity exhausted beyond any previous measure made me able to watch the romping. We actually found it comedic, we were on a mission to drink our test sorrows away and nothing was going to stop us. The rest of the night did not disappoint, it lived up to all expectations. Now I just need someone to take me back to my car.

I do have one question though. What happened to the offense that was working the previous two weeks? You know the one where we used a big boy running back to wear down their defenses and keep the time of posession in our favor? Cause from everything that I saw it was as if our offense was a mental patient, banging their heads against a wall repeately and accomplishing nothing.

Things currently on my mind

2005-10-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

For any people that actually read this I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. You could say I’ve been a bit busy with school. While this semester isn’t out of control it does take a lot of time to stay on top of things. I would say this semester I actually have a feeling that I’m on top of most of my stuff, which is completely different than any semester prior.

This week I’ve been gearing up and attempting to study for the dreaded F.E. Exam, and 8 hour ordeal that test every bit of information I supposedly learned in college. I really can’t fathom an 8 hour exam to begin with and on top of that one that covers so much information. Well after this I guess Ill half-heartedly try to tackle another section of the test, even though it’s really hard to get motivated when no one else seems to be studying for it. For those non-engineering majors this test is the 1^st step to getting my P.E. license. I have to pass this test, work for 5 years under a licensed professional engineer and then pass another 8 hour exam. Once all that fun is over I get the license; whoopdifreakindoo I know. All I know is this Saturday after the test I plan on blowing it out like it has never been blown out before. I will walk directly to the Dixie Chicken after the test and ultimately will pass out by 8 PM I predict.

The job search is also going on right now for me. So far I’ve had 4 interviews and 2 2^nd interviews are coming up in a few weeks. I am excited about getting interviews but I’m also hoping they don’t start giving me offers with deadlines since I have all of next semester to look as well, but getting a few offers would make me feel better about myself.

I have a lot of stuff I see in this world that I could write about but I really haven’t slowed down enough to stop and think about anything much and gather my thoughts. Hopefully the month of November will be a little less crazy. If that doesn’t happen then my Christmas break will hopefully bring some better blogging.

I read a few articles from this guy, Thomas Sowell. He’s a prominent black conservative that apparently has written a lot of books. I was browsing through Amazon and I think I am going to order one of his latest books since it looks interesting. Here’s the summary from Amazon.

“One of America's foremost black conservative intellectuals returns with this provocative collection of contrarian essays. Hoover Institution Fellow Sowell, author of Ethnic America, argues that "internal" cultural habits of industriousness, thriftiness, family solidarity and reverence for education often play a greater role in the success of ethnic minorities than do civil-rights laws or majority prejudices. The title essay posits a "black redneck" culture inherited from the white redneck culture of the South and characterized by violent machismo, shiftlessness and disdain for schooling. White liberals, gangsta-rap aficionados and others who lionize its ghetto remnants as an authentic black identity, Sowell contends, have their history wrong and help perpetuate cultural pathologies that hold blacks back. Sowell also examines the cultural achievements of such "middleman minorities" as Jews and expatriate Chinese whose frequent persecution, he feels, represents an animus against capitalism. And he defends Western culture itself against charges that it was uniquely culpable for slavery; in fact, he contends, it was uniquely responsible for eradicating slavery. Many of Sowell's arguments-that the 20th-century resegregation of Northern cities was a response to the uncouthness of black rednecks migrating from the South, or that segregated black schools often succeeded by suppressing redneckism with civilized New England puritanism-will arouse controversy, but these vigorously argued essays present a stimulating challenge to the conventional wisdom.”

College Station S.S.

2005-10-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well I recently read an article in the Bryan Eagle that helped remind me about why I look forward to getting out of College Station. Apparently there are 5 TABC officers for this 8 county region. Seeing how this College Station is the most populous, and except for the Kolache Festival and the County Fair there isn’t a whole lot that goes outside of College Station, most of them probably spend their time here. On top of that, you have a large amount of college kids that won’t bother fighting the tickets; I would say they have found their golden goose of state and local income.

http://www.theeagle.com/stories/093005/local_20050930015.php

To give you the gist of it, the Eagle wrote an article that gave the one sided view of a TABC officer, Randy Field, who apparently doesn’t have a lot of friends and got beat up a lot in high school. He had such a bad experience, that he wants to get vengeance on every person who drinks or likes to cut loose once in a while. It isn’t just the TABC officers; I think there are WAY too many cops who became a cop to be a dick to people. The article written by the Eagle does not try in any way to defend the college students; never once did it ask the college students opinion, it is just a biased piece that promotes TABC. Not once in the article do they suggest that the TABC officer’s actions might border on excessive. I like this excerpt from the article where Agent Fields tells why he doesn’t or hasn’t ever drank alcohol.

Agent Field, whose brother Terry is an investigator with the Department of Public Safety, said he grew up in a home with parents who didn't drink alcohol, a habit that was passed along to the younger generation.

"I don't like to not be in control," Field said, explaining why he doesn't drink.

Seeing wild nights of drunken college parties and bar fights through sober eyes almost every weekend should be enough to make anyone consider the benefits of staying sober, he says.

Well Mr. Field’s idea of fun is going home to his cats when he gets off work and eating a TV dinners while watching Golden Girl reruns. Now I have no problem with people who don’t drink or don’t go out, but I don’t see a problem with “wild nights of drunken college parties” and I have probably only seen one fight ever in 5 years of being in college. What’s even worse is how bad they are getting in the last year. I have friends who got jaywalking tickets on NorthGate, or who got arrested for a PI while waiting for CARPOOL to pick them. I had a friend, who was a minor at the time, was having a beer on his front porch at his apartment. We had to go bail him out of jail because he didn’t have his ID with him at the time, so he received a failure to identify, resulting in an arrest. The justifications for the crackdowns are that they are trying to cut down on the number of drunk drivers on the roads. Well the people waiting for CARPOOL probably aren’t looking to be driving, and most of the drunk drivers out there are repeat or threepeat offenders.

Not to get off on a tangent about M.AD.D. , but it started off as an organization with a good purpose. Now they have gotten completely out of control. They have a powerful lobby group and lowering the BAC more and more does nothing to save lives. The people out there that are killing on the road probably have a BAC substantially over the legal limit. Do you know that liquor companies pay M.A.D.D. to get off their backs, and M.A.D.D. goes after beer companies so aggressively because they refuse to pay off M.A.D.D.

Now if that isn’t bad enough C.S.P.D. and UPD loves to get money any way it can. I read an article in the Batt yesterday about a guy who was on west campus late at night and he ran a stop sign. Now he should have gotten a ticket, but the police officer who saw him allowed him to run 2 more stop signs. He ended up having one ticket for 3x the cost of a stop sign violation, somewhere around $800 bucks in fines. The officer’s excuse was something to the effect of, “Oftentimes we can’t get to them before they commit multiple violations” which is such a believable answer. Besides College Station where do you get pulled over for going 3 miles over the speed limit.

Now I have no problem with police officers in general. I respect what they do, and the majority of them are wonderful individuals. But you go to any other city/town in this country and you will find police who are more concerned about better things than a person not signaling during a lane change or speeding in excesses of 3 mph over the limit. I think more police in this town need to work in other cities for a while to put things in perspective.

Every article I read, or story I hear about the police in this town makes me cringe. Their exploitation of the college student is pathetic, and I will make it a personal mission of mine if I am ever rich enough to run an alcohol defense firm that will fight every ticket this city or university gives out, just to deprive them of every penny possible from alcohol violation income.

Weekend thoughts about Texas A&M University

2005-10-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

I had a wide ranging set of emotions going through me while watching the disaster on the football field this last Saturday. At first I was irate, then I went through an apathetic phase concerning Aggie football, then after we won, I actually felt fairly happy. My uncle reminded me of Ohio State in 2002. They won the national championship. They didn’t do it pretty, in fact they had a just plain ugly season but they found a way to win. Well winning ugly did more for that team than winning by 70. The defense played a fairly good game when compared to the last 2 and the offense had the worst showing that I’ve seen since 2001. But they somehow found a way to win it. My theory could be seriously flawed, but I predict a turn around at Colorado that will be the springboard for a successful season. Now I know all you pessimist out there want to write off this season and move on, but there’s still a lot of football to be played, and I think things turn around this week.

Now while I was getting angry and the football team Saturday I was also getting angry at the administration. How does Bill Byrne think he can raise ticket prices and keep giving the coaches raises when we aren’t seeing results? Well I decided at that point to never give a dime to the athletic department until they start managing the money more effectively. I don’t think the only think keeping our team from winning the national championship is a lack of an indoor practice field. Well that thought let me to get angry about a lot of other departments at this university.

Specifically the rec center. Students recently voted on a rec center fee increase of around $20 bucks a year. Well this probably doesn’t seem like much to most of you, but that’s not the point. The way they went about it was so wrong in my opinion. They threatened the students with the rec center closing at 9 PM, they said they would cut all intramurals, they said they would cut 25% of their employees. Well instead of cutting services they might look into running a more efficient budget. Does anyone else think they might have too many employees there? They apparently have enough to have a person getting paid to make sure people coming through the door have towels. I think most university departments are being run like a government, where they spend their entire budget so they can get increases. They have no reason to be frugal, to cut costs, no they just bitch about it and ask for more money. Another thing that bothered me was how the rec center was paying to have ads run in the Batt. Here they are bitching about not having enough money and they are spending it on pointless advertising. Of course, their threats worked, and students passed the resolution. Even though the cost increase doesn’t affect me I still voted against it.

Another thing that I recently got to thinking about is where A&M traditions are headed. Before I address that, I want to address those who yell obscenities at the top of their lungs to get people to uncover during yells. You might think you are being redass, but in actuality you are part of the problem with this school. It turns out people who might b e coming on to the A&M traditions don’t like to get cursed at. You can ask them to uncover, but PLEASE don’t turn into a jackass. Lord knows, there’s enough jackass’s at this school already. Now back to my point. Seeing how quiet it was at Kyle field on Saturday, and hearing how people actually read magazines in the Zone me thinking about how “Aggie” oriented the student body is. I genuinely think back in “Ol Army” days you had people that genuinely wanted to come here to be Aggies. More so now day’s people are coming to A&M because it’s a good school and has a lot in the way of academics. As A&M moves toward being a top 20 university you will have fewer people who care to be Aggies and more who come here for academics. I don’t think A&M can have it both ways; eventually most of what makes this university special is going to fade away.

Wrecking Crew???

2005-09-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

......... hardly.. I think that name needs to be retired.

The game last night was definitely surreal. Just the fact that the game was being played on a Thursday was enough to weird me out. One of the best things about the game was how easy to was to park and get out of there after the game.

The game performance of the Aggies was however pathetic in my opinion. I’m glad we have these “give me” games to get our team ready for Big 12 play. We have some time to prepare for Tech and Texas at least, because God knows WE NEED IT! Now I do know that Texas State had 2 weeks to prepare for us, compared to half a week for us, but overall every game we have played in this year has been sloppy. The more I see our team, the less excited I get about Aggie football. Well we shall see if we can increase our 2-7 away game record against Colorado in two weeks. I think this picture best describes how you should motivate a defense.

Head butt the hell outta their helmets with your bare head till your head bleeds and then chew out their ass.

Freakin Nordstroms

2005-09-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

So I ordered some new shoes a week and a half ago. I got them today.Heres the new kicks I ordered

Here are the HOOKER BOOTS they sent me

They must really check these orders with some serious scrutiny. Just another way to get me angry..............

Blame it on the welfare state

2005-09-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well we are all too familiar with the blame game going on nationwide about the slow response to the hurricane disaster. I personally believe that blaming FEMA or the Federal Government is inaccurate. While they probably share some of the blame the fact is that the city and state did not have evacuation plans for this type of situation. They had school busses that are now sitting underwater that could have been used to evacuate some of the people. The city government made the decision to use the Superdome (now called Sewerdome). The federal government cannot intercede after a natural disaster without permission from the state government. The silver lining of this whole disaster is that other cities and states will be taking a much closer look at their evacuation procedures, and hopefully be making some adjustments to avoid this disaster in the future.

I was reading an opinion article from one gentlemen here:
http://www.rense.com/general67/notabout.htm
He is making a claim that most of what we saw in the way of looting was the result of the welfare state that this country has become. I completely agree with what he had to say. Heres an exerpt.

There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.

Thank you Kanye West

2005-09-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well the finger pointing has begun. The federal government is getting the brunt of the blame, why did the response take so long? Well that MUST mean that the government doesn’t care about the black people! I’m sorry but seeing Trent Lott getting attacked on a phone interview by Anderson Cooper for the slow response of the government disgusted me. Part of this problem has been the media turning the slow response into a way to flare up race relations. Seeing the evacuation, you would think they didn’t have a clear plan on dealing with a hurricane disaster. Well I’m sure the plan they had also didn’t include the possibility of the levies failing. If the plan in place was a poor one, I think it was the fault of the state and local governments. Also, the fact that Bush reduced federal funding to improve the levies isn’t a fair accusation. Hindsight is 20/20. With such a massive federal budget they have lots of options for cutting expenses. Now, its apparent that was a poor decision, but if some natural disaster has occurred where they had improved federal funding than they would all be considered heroes.

The lowest point of this whole blame game came last night at the NBC Benefit concert. Kanye West had an outburst in which he said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people.” Well there you have it; we’ve gotten to the core of the issue. Once again this incredible insight was brought to you by another bone headed celebrity who likes to run their mouth off. Here is a link to the video http://www.pixelmd.com/kanye.html. Keep in mind Kanye was also the guy that said HIV was made by the white man to keep the black man down. Well this opens up a whole new mess. I had put off writing my thoughts on some aspects of the black community, but this made me angry enough to chime in with some of my thoughts.

I have been reading some of the blogs from people who are still in New Orleans and they said at this point the streets around him have, “some insane and drunk homeless people on the street.” You saw pictures of the looting. Yes some people stole just food, water, and medical supplies, but for every shot of those you saw 2x as many looting for TVs, electronics, liquor, cigarettes and other items that wont help you much with surviving. The fact is the majority of the people left in New Orleans are black, and the fact is most of them came from the poorest parts of New Orleans. Another issue is that before the hurricane this city had many alcoholics and drug abusers. Their supply of course broke down after the hurricane. I think many of the looters were desperate drug addicts. Unfortunately many at the Superdome, and now the Astrodome also have many of these desperate drug addicts. I fear for the volunteers in the Astrodome. I hope that they can maintain control of this many people. I have already heard reports of rape at the Astrodome, as well as some unrest. A lot of these people are the bottom feeders of society. Now there are MANY that are hard working people who get by from paycheck to paycheck, but as you can see on TV you also have many that contributed nothing to society and only detract. They were fully dependant on the government to survive before the hurricane, and when there was a short interruption in that, they couldn’t cope.

Of course Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or Kanye West will tell you that their behavior is the fault of the oppressive white man, and they are only doing what they can to survive. WELL I AM F*CKING SICK OF PEOPLE PLAYING THE RACE CARD!!!! The civil war ended 140 damn years ago. I know for a long time there were laws in place to hold them back but this is the 21^st century, not the 18^th or 19^th! The oppressive white man holding his thumb down on the black man can only be played for a century or so before people get sick of it. Before I got further, I will acknowledge that for those blacks who have done something about improving their life deserve a huge applause. They overcame a community that discourages them to excel beyond the other people in their society. The fact is there is an attitude problem in much of the black community. There is something wrong when the mentality in schools is to discourage people from excelling. If a black kid excels than he is called a sellout by other black kids at school. Bill Cosby has gotten a lot of heat for bringing this up among the black community. I think he is right on target; there is a general attitude that since the white man is holding them down they can use this as an excuse to stay where there at. Whenever these asshats (Jackson, Sharpton, West) gets a chance to blame black behavior on the government they take it. The media has not helped this at all either; they turn anything they can into a race issue to get people interested. Blacks in college have enormous opportunity. Colleges are always eager to increase their black attendance, since this will be viewed as “progressive”. They have many more scholarships available for those of them going to college. Also if they are coming from an urban inner city school it usually makes it much easier to stand out, i.e. be in the top 10%, giving them automatic admittance in any Texas public college. This of course is always brought up as an issue why blacks aren’t excelling, because the man is keeping them out of higher education. As long as responsibility and pride remains absent from the black community, they will stay exactly where they are at.

One more thought about the refugees. It is such a monumental undertaking to have to feed, clothe, provide medical care, clothing, sleeping, sanitation, and communication with the outside for this many people. How Houston will handle the 75,000 refugees expected to come to the city is beyond me. This goes for everywhere else in the country housing refugees. We have a predicted million people that will be unemployed. This disaster is going to be a huge hit on our GDP and our unemployment rate. Another question is will it even be worth building New Orleans. With the Louisiana marshlands coastline disappearing at such a quick rate, New Orleans was going to be an island to its own eventually if the hurricane had never hit. The thought of rebuilding it reminds me of a Monty Python quote. This is where the king of the swamp castle is telling his son about the castle he built.

“When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England.”

Worse than we thought

2005-09-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

Well I started reading personal accounts of people who are actually in New Orleans instead of the spoon feeding from the media and it looks far worse than they are saying on the news. The media seems to be filtering out what is really going on probably to minimize panic. The looting and lawlessness especially seems to be a much bigger problem than the flooding, fire fighters can’t get near fires without protection from National Guard, the NOPD has become an ineffective force, and they have zero communication or organization, and are looting themselves. I can understand people steeling food and water, but the majority of what I am seeing is TVs, liquor, and cigarettes.

I would like to post a personal account from one guy in New Orleans.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1174992&forum_id=26

Well last night I was watching the 6pm news when they announced the 17th street canal pumps failed as well as another break in the levee. My house is right off St. Charles Ave. and up to 6pm yesterday is was the only part of the city that was dry. Since the pumps failed and the new break St. Charles Ave. would be under 9ft of water in the next 12-15hrs. My brother and I felt if we wanted to save anything we had to leave NOW. We loaded up flashlights, rope, our medical ID's, both our .45 Glocks, 2 shotguns and rode out. En-route we listened to the radio which broadcasted all the news about the looters and what not, in hindsight it was a mistake. My mother didn't want us to go by dad who is a Vietnam vet told to be safe and "shoot to kill" if it ever comes to that.

One the way we had to pass 5-6 checkpoints to allow entry into the city. We stated we were medical personnel who were activated, showed our ID and off we went. On the radio reports were coming in about the officer who was shot in the head, the 2 gunman who opened fired on the NOPD station, and how looters were carjacking cars to get out of the city. This started making my brother nervous and giving seconds thoughts.

Anyway we get to the city and it looks like a freaking war zone. The best visual I can give is the movie "Blackhawk Down" when all the Somalians are rushing the city. They are people EVERYWHERE, they are pissed off, and all have weapons, 2X4's, Axes, and guns. If this wasn't bad enough we are 2 white boys in a truck in a sea several hundred armed pissed off blacks. There wasn't a white person to be found. I couldn't get over the little 8-10yr old kids with weapons, I ever saw one carry a claw hammer!

These people were absolutely nuts rammed trucks(stolen I'm sure) in to jewelry stores stealing items, they were tearing apart Wal-Mart carrying out TV's, Playstations, DVD players, etc. One lady was wheeling out an entire rack of merchandise, not sure what it was but sure wasn't clothes for food. They were all laughing and carrying on like it's freaking Christmas.

We got stuck in traffic when we see the group of guys walking down the street w/ AK-47's, at that point the "pucker factor" kicked in, a couple Glocks and shotguns were no match for that. We haul azz trying to get to Uptown when we see these people chopping down the front door w/ an axe of this $4-5 million dollar mansion on ST. Charles Ave. I was just in total awe because it was so surreal. Making matters worse it's 11pm at night there is no electricity and you really can see anything or anyone until they are right up on you.

Our plan was to be in and out in 30min, this included putting his Harley on the trailer. It would have taken me 5-10min tops to get my stuff, all I wanted was my pictures from college, my clothes/shoes, and my computer tower. Well he got scared saying we are going to get jumped while putting the bike on the trailer. Keep in mind this is the only area in the city that is dry. So just like rats who move to higher ground these people were doing the same. Word must have gotten out that Uptown was dry so there started to be a large influx of people.

Needless to say he wanted to go home rather than take our chances. While it was the smart thing to do I was beyond infuriated w/ him because we made it this far. He just kept saying our lives aren't worth it. So we turned around, our next challenge was getting out of the city while not getting jacked. Reports came out that people were jumping in the back of truck holding the drivers at gunpoint. Traffic started to slow so I just nailed it got out as fast as I could.

Even though he was the voice of reason I'm still pissed. All I have is my life and the clothes on my back. I lost my house(which is now 9ft underwater) ALL my clothes, TV, computer, furniture, and photo albums and videos from childhood and college. What makes this worse is my brother owned the house and I was a tenant and I didn't have renters insurance, hindsight is 20/20.

I also hope everyone of the F*(king looters get Tetanus, E-Coli and F*(KING drown. I'm serious I really hope the all die for what they were doing to the city, killing people, and destroying homes. Never in my life have I ever seen people act live savages, it was truly sickening.

One more quote from a tourist in New Orleans.

Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "'Go to hell — it's every man for himself.'"

A few more links that have some personal accounts.

This guy: http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/ has been posting on his blog from one of the only computers with internet access

This personal account talks about the looting. http://www.crabwalk.com/archive/2005_08.php#001947

This BBC Article talks about how the levy system might have actually made things worse.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4201060.stm

Time to wake up Dave

2005-08-31T17:51:00.000-07:00

Well this week I have been watching a lot of the hurricane coverage. At first it did look like we had dodge a bullet, but now seeing the extent of the devastation I am a little taken back. I can’t imagine how long it will be before that city ever has any return to normalcy. What will all those people with no homes do for weeks or months? Seeing the extent of refugees, the looting, the shootings, the car-jackings, and the destruction, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. You realize how easily a fully functioning city can plunge into mass chaos after a major event. All the normal city infrastructure that one takes for granted; the power, the water, communication, transportation, medical assistance, all incapacitated. I have also seen how quickly something like this can make a person desperate. I even saw police officers participating in the looting at Wal-Mart. People are dying all over, not getting the even the most basic necessities. The authorities are still focused on rescue operations, and are not even trying to enforce laws at this point.

With all that going on, think about how this could be possible on a national level if some major natural disaster or terrorist event occurred. You can see how quickly everything can call apart. I couldn’t possibly be one of those people relying on a handout if something major happened. I won’t put my safety and well being on the responsibility of the government. Too many people in New Orleans did that, and look where they are at. Their patience is growing thin, the government can only do so much so fast, and there are just too many people that were affected. Right now just a small portion of the country is in the disaster area, and the rest of the country can’t do much to help those affected. I think this was a wakeup call for me, you can see easily a society can be affected to the point of bringing an entire infrastructure down. The fabric of humanity is only so strong.

It's GRREAAAAAT to be back

2005-08-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well two days of classes have come and gone. For the 1st time since I can remember, I think I am going to enjoy my classes. Instead of the typical lecture, followed by lots of book problems to work out, we are actually going to do real world design problems for companies and get to see the final product. Sales engineering is going to be a great class, I hope to learn some practical knowledge in there, and the other classes shouldn’t be too difficult. Even though its 16 hours, it's a light 16 hours. It's great to be back in town, getting to see some friends, getting to have free time during the middle of the day, and best of all, going out.

Speaking of going out, ever since Friday; it’s been standard practice for me. I hope to continue this trend throughout most of the semester. After doing a bit of both staying inside and studying or going out and having fun, I think there’s a clear predilection for me.

To continue my trend for this semester to be one of my last HURRAHS, I ended up getting tickets to the OU game; I also hope to go to Colorado and Kansas State. With work looming closer and closer, why not blow it out while I can. Next stop, Wednesday night at Ozona’s.

Is it football season yet??????

2005-08-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

This week has been the slowest in recorded history. I want nothing more than to be in College Station right now. One more day of work, which at this point seems like an eternity.

My take on football this season. Offensively we are packed full of talent, my main concern, the O-line giving Reggie time to make a play. Defensively, we are stacked with linebacker talent, but dont have depth, so hopefully no injuries. Our secondary is green and unproven, lets hope we don't give up the big play. Special teams, we were 116th out of 117 teams in Division 1 for yards returned after a kickoff last season, and I think we have improved. I think the Clemson game will come down to turnovers, we lived or died by the turover last season.

I want football season to start, I want to walk around campus and see the scared look on freshmans faces, I want to go fountain hopping on campus, I want to have 3 hours lunches at the 12th man, I want to go out drinking on Mondays, I want to give people handing out flyers a dirty look, I want to go watch sunsets at Lake Sommerville, I want to show up to class hungover or still drunk, I want to do extreme walking while stumbling back to someones house after a night of drinking at NorthGate, I want to eat breakfast at MiCocina, I want to eat dinner at Texas Roadhouse, I want to make people with meal plans buy my food, I want to get back to f*in College Station.

Weekend mumbojumbo

2005-08-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

Ok so Saturday on ESPNU they had Pac-10 Cram Session, and played almost every Pac-10 game from last season. I feel like a heroin addict needing a fix, except my fix is college football. I dont care where I get it, even if its Pac-10 football, I just need something. The reality is, that besides one week after the Cotton Bowl, I have been wishing for the 2005 season to get started very badly, and its less than 2 weeks away. One more week of work and I'm back in sweet home College Station.

Another story. So I was at the mall yesterday looking at some shoes. I get a salesman to get some shoes I want to try on from the back, and then realize a few minutes later I want to try on a different pair. I tell some girl and she asks me who helped me. I spit out, "some black dude" and feel like i said something wrong as she goes to the back. Damn you Political Correctness.

Vision 9/30......a flawed idea

2005-08-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

Any experienced counselor was probably somewhat surprised when you read the new counselor applications. All fish camp policies prior to Lakeview would continue until September 30^th. Now some counselors and co-chairs love this policy, others think it’s just another sign of the end times. First of all, this name is stupid, I don’t know what kind of vision or hope the directors had for how camp would be post-Lakeview to justify such a cheesy name. The hope I believe is that the focus will stay intensely on the freshman at least until September 30^th. While this is wishful thinking, I think the way they are going about it is flawed. I think with Vision 9/30 director staff is trying to fix something that was never broken. Any DG leader who cares one iota about the freshman will want to hang out with them after camp. They want to be involved in the freshman’s daily lives during their fall semester. They care enough about them to want to be a part of their lives. Well so D-staff wants to encourage this even more. They go ahead and add mandatory events which the counselors must attend. I don’t see how this will make the DG leaders more involved, if you create all fish camp events, and the freshman want to attend then the DG leaders will. I don’t think that making mandatory events for the DG leaders will encourage the freshman to attend. On top of that I really don’t see past Lakeview what the point of the alcohol policy is. Sure its good to stay focused on the freshman, well that was already being done prior. Throwing the ability to consume alcohol with anyone you please won’t change the focus. I think it will actually have a more galvanizing effect. Follow me here, prior to Vision 9/30 when you had the traditional after camp party, everyone traditionally came. If you chose to drink or if you didn’t, most people came. This was true for any fish camp event afterwards. If the camp is watching a movie, now I am not even allowed to drink a beer while I sit there. I feel like its 5^th grade all over again. This last weekend after we got back from Lakeview I made decisions not to hang out with camp because I felt like drinking a beer and couldn’t do that in the presence of others in my camp. I think the way 9/30 will galvanize the camp is it forces people to choose between those who plan to follow this policy and those who don’t. The ones who don’t will probably be the older counselors who don’t plan on doing camp again, and the ones who won’t break policy are those who value a good evaluation from their co-chairs. They say they want to make drinking a non-issue for camp bonding, but I think by forcing them to not do it, they have made it an issue.

I think having such policies such as the road trip or drinking policy still enforced into the fall semester a very poor decision. I think that while Vision 9/30 is a good idea, it is flawed. I would be in favor of having all fish camp events and would encourage everyone to attend, but now that means no tailgating with the camp before a game if its not September 30^th, or going to the Clemson game on a road trip. Vision 9/30 I believe will fail where it matters most and only succeed in increasing policy breaking.

The joys of traffic

2005-08-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

Just a short post today. I just wanted to ask how two stalled cars can completely stop freeway traffic for 30 minutes. My usual 25 minute commute took 90 minutes. I actually was stopped on the highway with my car off, and people were walking around. I cleaned out my car and that glove box that I have been hesitant to open for the last 2 years. I even threw blueberries at oncoming traffic just out of sheer boredom. But I do have to admit, besides today I have not had that much delay ever in Houston with traffic. I guess its just part of living in a city with a workforce of 2.6 million people.

On another note I am about to explode with excitement about this fall semester. Besides some Aggie football, I have friends and the all the fun that comes with having a large concentration of young adults who have lots of free time. FIVE MORE DAYS OF WORK!!!

Fish Camp and Texas A&M………..times are a changin’

2005-08-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

Before I get into the bad things, I will continue to say that Fish Camp is still doing its job of introducing freshman to A&M. The majority of freshmen still loved their experience and it got them excited about becoming Aggies. I love being able to sequester some of the fish’s fears about college and whether A&M was the right choice. I can still say with absolute conviction that I do not ever regret coming here. I however do find myself with a growing concern about where A&M and Fish Camp are heading. I heard several times from freshmen that they had heard all about Food Services at New Student Conference, and the daily programs were by far the least favorable events for the freshmen. I don’t like to see such structured programs at camp, I think you can plan so much but a certain amount of it has to be played by ear. The last two year I got a preview of the new improved fish camp. New policies such as the new bed times, Gestapo food police at the dining hall, and summary executions. Well it hasn’t quite come to the later, but that wouldn’t be UAE I suppose. Before I start on D-staff again I will be the 1^st to admit that I am only basing these opinions on what I see. I’ve never been a co-chair or on director staff so I can’t pretend to know all the behind the scenes details. I do however interact more directly with the freshman than the co-chairs or directors so I know how the freshmen feel about camp in general. Anyone in a position to correct me, feel free to do so.

Now to the events that I witnessed personally at Fish Camp this year which I didn’t care for: a counselor in our camp was eating with some freshman during dinner and a freshman next to him turned toward him to ask if it would be ok to throw a tator tot. First of all it shouldn’t have been something that he had to ask, by then he should have been so drunk off of red ass spirit that he would have thrown it without a second thought. The counselor in question said nothing, and by his silence the freshman got his approval and threw it another counselor. Immediately a director was on his ass for having committed such heinous of a crime. That someone would have the audacity to throw a potato product across a room and strike someone else. And in the same room as the president of the university!! Well the counselor next to the freshman was reprimanded for not controlling his “area” better. I forgot that at Fish Camp, we deal with 5 year olds, and not grown adults like I used to believe. On the second night over 50 people were sitting in a small room adjacent to our camp room listening to a freshman play the guitar. We were all having a great time, and of course at the right moment the camp room was shut down. After the directors dispersed the violent mob a few of us retreated to an empty cabin to listen to him play some more. Mind you this was the 2^nd night, so no freshman was driving back the next day, and by no means were we even suggesting that the freshman stay up past their bedtime. But seeing how they were legal adults I tolerated this audacious defiance of authority and even went with them to listen to this guy play his guitar some more. Well eventually our illegal activities were sniffed out by the directors and our get together was dispersed faster than a high school party in College Station. Of course it was fortunate that they broke it up when they did because who knows what would have happened if it was allowed to go on. Probably the group of 14 people would have grown restless and began thinking of ways to destroy property at Lakeview, or wait maybe we might have gotten some more freshman bonding time. We aren’t even allowed to gather in private anymore, as it was an empty cabin so we weren’t keeping anyone from sleeping nor were we running amuck outside.

I don’t know if all the changes are something that the university is pressuring student organizations to do as a result of certain events, i.e. the sensationalism, hype, and over-reaction caused from the “group masturbation” Gold-bond incident two years ago. By no means am I condoning the actions of the persons responsible for the incident last year; I am just merely saying that a few bad apples can ruin good things. This isn’t true for just Fish Camp, but any organization or program that gets ruined by one very highly publicized event. Now getting back to Fish Camp, the repercussions from the incident two years ago and other broad sweeping policies by the university have put this organization under a great deal of scrutiny.

I don’t have hard evidence, but honestly think a lot of the internal organizational decisions have been taken away from the students, or are at least are heavily influenced by the administration of this university. If that is the case then it is indeed unfortunate to see the decision making process taken away from the students who love and cherish this organization and turned over to administration who cannot begin to relate to the freshmen or students. They see things from a PR and liability standpoint, and their decisions might in the best interest of our university’s public perception, but not in the best interest of A&M internally. This wave of change that’s affecting everything around the school might not all be in the best interest of A&M. While showing the world that this “backwards, redneck, and conservative hotbed” is able to change takes external pressure off of the administration, I pray that they don’t sacrifice what makes A&M unique. First of all, A&M has never been controlled by outside influences, we knew that we were unique, you couldn’t explain what was special about us to outside people, and we didn’t care one way or another about public opinion. Aggies knew that A&M was a unique place, and people on the outside just thought we were weird. While some changes aren’t bad, and this university need to progress in, I just don’t want to see us loose our heart. I was getting excited hearing Dr. Gates talk about all the new money being put into science and engineering research buildings as well as hiring more faculty. Dr. Gates got an opportunity to sit in on our freshman campfire, as well as a few DG times so hopefully he can have more insight into what makes A&M unique. He has assured us that the steps we are taking as a university will not compromise this schools value, and I pray to God he is right.

I see evidence of “progress” in student organizations and university policies, and so far I am not convinced. Fish Camp traditionally was a student run organization, the outside pressure from the public and this administration of this university who aren’t qualified to make such decisions about an organization they cannot fully understand. I don’t have a problem with regulation and oversight, i.e. the faculty advisors, but they cannot and should not force their agendas on an organization if it jeopardizes the founding purpose of the organization. By adding policies, regulations, and templates they are systematically taking the fun out of Fish Camp. Preparing for a DG was WAY more work that it should be. Did I mention that our templates were rejected on the grounds that the risk management pages didn’t contain enough detailed risks? Do you think it’s a coincidence that there were several hundred fewer counselor applications this year as compared to last? I believe in being prepared, but don't make counselors just through more hoops than are necessary. As far as another big change, Vision 9/30, I will address that separately at a later date. I have had time to think about this and Ill share my opinion on it later.

The most important question on my mind is what will be the ultimate cost of becoming a world class university?

Just a quote I thought was relevent.

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” -Matthew 16:26

Session B..............the aftermath

2005-08-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

Well I have to hand it out to Camp Gates; I had an awesome experience this year in camp. My DG put up with all the crap I threw at them and my partner had all the games, supplies, and details worked out. On top of that, it stayed cool every day except for the last thanks to the rain. While the rain definitely threw off the schedule A LOT, I don’t even think the freshman noticed. There was one point where 5 freshmen, our 2 co-chairs, me and another counselor were separated from the rest of our camp for over an hour due to a lightning storm. Since our counselors were resourceful, they came up with game such as chair wrestling to pass an extra hour of impromptu camp time. I don’t even think the freshman could tell it wasn’t planned.

The perfection on a stick has now been supplanted by a chicken sandwich. I really can’t complain about this change, since I was never a fan of those case hardened nitrate-cicles that they used to hand out in fish camps past. I have to give props out to one freshman in our camp, a Chad Hammock. Look out for this guy, he performed some of his original songs that he wrote for us at camp and they are awesome. On top of that he is a great singer, and doesn’t play the guitar half bad either. I think he has a CD coming out this October, so be on the lookout. Oh and on top of that he is aspiring to be a Mechanical Engineering major. WHOOP!! Having Dr. Gates speak to the freshmen was an amazing experience, they asked some excellent questions and he even shared some CIA stories, which are always entertaining. One of the best experiences was that evening we all stood in a small circle outside and shot the proverbial shit over some cigars. Unfortunately I missed most of the small talk as I was dancing up a storm in the camp room, but getting to talk to a man in such an intimate environment who had witnessed so much was an experience of a lifetime. Dr. Gates is a fascinating man, and I hope Fish Camp gave him a unique perspective into A&M that he might have otherwise not seen. Next article I will discuss what I didn’t like so much about Fish Camp and the direction I think this university is headed.

Session B here we come

2005-08-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

Well I have a lot on my mind as of late. This week will be especially busy with Fish Camp starting this Friday and all the preperation associated with that. I know everyone in my camp seems to be stressing out about it, but it somehow always falls together at camp. All this preperation that D-staff is making us doing I don't think will help the freshman have any more fun. All the games, programs, activities, and events that are planned aren't what the freshman get out of camp. It gives people a chance to make friends with fellow Aggies that they can journey through college and life together with.The most satisfying thing I can witness is seeing fish in my old camps still hanging out together. That makes me feel like this organization is still doing some good. I can't see how all the new programs help freshman to make friends. It seems that having structured programs all day discourage fellowship and bonding. The worst part about last year was how D-staff forced everyone to sleep while the best bonding moments were going on. That is while everyone was either hanging out in the camp room late at night or in front of the cabins using tobacco products and listening to the guitar. Now there are some of those freshman who made up their mind that they hated fish camp, and want to get to bed early or stay inside and read, but I hate to see them ruin it for those who are trying to have a good time. Despite all this I honestly will say I'm thrilled camp is almost here. This year I'm bringing some goggles to that shaving cream fight.

Since you all care to know whats going on in my life, I have to finish a few papers for a class and complete a Co-Op paper discussing what I've been doing at work all summer. And low and behold the week I needed freedom at my job, I end up getting the biggest workload of the summer. Well I thrive on chaos, so BRING IT ON!

Work Day #2 Evaluation Thoughts

2005-07-28T18:17:00.000-07:00



So I finally got a chance to fill out the Work Day #2 Evaluation. It
amazed me how biased the questions were worded. It never asked you
what you thought of the work day, it just merely listed a simple task, such
as I can now effectively fill out a DG template (Strongly Agree Agree,
Neutral, etc). Rarely could you say anything bad about the work day
except by saying you strongly disagree. This will only communicate to
them that you didn't learn it and they should add another DP to the
required so we can get that reinforced. I did however take the loaded
question, the best part of the work day was...........and speak freely
about what I thought of some of the new items, such as the DG templates,
which wasn't a question! I did not even mention what the best part of
the work day but I did tell them how pointless I thought it was to have
this stuff that should be covered in the 2 days before, covered a month
before. I can't even find an effective way to communicate my disgust to
D-staff anymore, they seem to have closed their eyes to input from a
mere counselor.

America: The Complacent Part 2

2005-07-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

In my previous article I mentioned the poor state of our educational system and who I blame for that. You can see now how complacent America is with its current technological and economic lead. A work ethic has virtually disappeared along with any sense of taking pride in our work. People now put those aside for pursuit of material possessions. You’ve seen how parents rely too much on the school systems and luck total responsibility for their kids. Parents not only are you pussifying your children, you are lacking totally in the responsibility department. Many are too self-involved in their careers to take an active role in their family. Kids might be turning out a little better if the parents got involved in their child’s education and development. The parents are FAR too reliant on the “system” to ensure their kids turn out right. The “system” is run by a bunch of PC tree-hugging liberals who if they had it their way that put teaching their agenda and keeping up the child’s self esteem before actual real education. The “classical” education is no longer as widely accepted, and the new innovative teaching methods that are only making us fall further behind. Miraculously other countries that are taking the lead in education are doing it the traditional “outdated” way. It’s incredibly asinine that our country doesn’t see the dead end results of the new teaching systems.

I am even more concerned with boys in this country nowadays. The educational system has been changed by feminist and PC idiots so much that a boy can’t be a boy anymore in school. Why are so many boys on Riddlin in this country! I am willing to bet the vast majority of them have no problem with concentration. A boy’s natural tendency to be hyper is suppressed by schools; they mistake this for lack of concentration. So now we have drugged boys who are ridiculed and shamed for being their overactive selves.

A friend at work today told me about a boy at his son’s school. Apparently this boy is diagnosed with ADD and has an issue with picking on any kid he can at school. Since he has ADD, the state of Texas says he can’t be punished. So he gets in a fight with my friend’s son who happens to have a black belt in kung fu. My friend’s son, who’s an honor student, gets 3 weeks in alternative education while the bully on ADD gets 3 days. The counselor says the blame for increase in ADD is from the drugged up parents in the 60’s. I say BULLSHIT! I’ve never seen one study that would corroborate this. Its time for our country to stop being used as an educational experiment for new liberal teaching methods and go back to old fashioned phonics and math. They work for the rest of the world and help teach children the values of hard work, persistence, and how to be a value to society, not a burden.

As a last plead to America, the world is catching up and if everyone doesn’t start broadening their skills and expanding their knowledge you might find yourself out on the street. Take advantage of a great higher educational system that this country has and diversify your education. Kids aren’t being taught the importance of education and are being raised up in a material world where they think they will automatically get a free ride in life. This isn’t how the real world is, and I would rather have kids learn this before they get out into the real world.

America: The Complacent Part 1

2005-07-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve been reading the newest Thomas Freedman book lately, entitled The World is Flat. My thoughts about outsourcing I can honestly say are changing. It might not be as bad of thing as I once thought. For one thing at least it will make many of the Americans rethink their mindset that they deserve there high salaries. In the future now that we are competing on an even global plain, I think us Americans will have to actually earn our high salaries. This book has also brought to my attention the silent crisis that our educational system is facing.

First of all I have always had opinions about the direction our educational system is heading. We have always known we are far behind the rest of the world in math and science. The disturbing trend now is that not only is the rest of the world getting better in those areas, we are taking steps back. I blame many things for this: the feminist, the PC crowd, bad parenting, the wrong attitude, and overall a lack of responsibility and pride in our culture. I will address each of those issues throughout this piece. The situation I currently see us in, is you have Americans and Western Europeans that have a deteriorating work ethic. Now I think we still make great quality stuff, we are incredibly innovative, and have the best and brightest minds out there. This is also one of the big problems though. We have gotten lazy and complacent with our place in the world. The problem is while Americans are focused on terrorism, gas prices, Janet Jackson’s boob, and real estate, the entire world around us has changed. I didn’t realize that until I started reading this book. Until this is brought to America’s attention we will continue to loose ground to Eastern Europe and Asia. The only thing that has kept America in our role of leading the world has been our higher educational systems.

The public school systems are a disaster. Students rarely have pride or interest in learning. They are raised to think that they can go through the motions and get a high paying job because they somehow deserve one because their parents thought they were special. Well the problem is not every child in this country, despite what your parents say, is above average. I understand the parent’s mentality to shelter and protect their children, but ultimately it’s the biggest disservice you can do to them. American and Western Europe are raising a generation of pussyfoots. Now we have school districts that are getting outlawing teachers putting red marks on papers! All that negative marking might upset the fragile psyche of our precious child. Let’s use purple suggestion marks that will give the children possible ways that might improve their paper beyond the already perfect example it already is. In England they want to ban the word “failure” in school. They will now call it “deferred success”. My God man! Does no one in this country see what is going on! Most children in my generation and the one following it were raised in luxury compared to the rest of the world. Their parents raise them to believe that each one of them is above average and they shelter them from failure or negative things. Teachers used to be able to tell the child that they failed, and if he had any pride at all, the student would consider that a challenge that he can hope to rise to, not run away crying to their mommies. Students now will always expect to succeed in life, and won’t be able to deal with failure. This all ties back to the belief that they deserve their high paying jobs automatically just for being special. It will be a sad day, if they somehow make it through college, to get out in the working world. I suppose if the parents complain enough the company might fire the poor child’s boss who said all those negative things to their “special” child.

At least in Europe they have a system where before high school you have 2 paths, one where you will go to a trade school and learn crafts, and the other being college bound. As a college student I have to say a lot of people I know shouldn’t even be in college. Now days, college has become an extra shelter from the work world. Some people I know have no idea what they want to do; they would rather spend their parents’ money and be a waste of life. Now don’t get me wrong, college has been the most fun I’ve ever had, but eventually everybody has to grow up.
Stay tuned for part 2 where I blame more people.

The Fall of Fish Camp Part 2

2005-07-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

To continue on my bitch train I have to comment on the new DG activity templates. Last year it was bad enough having to justify each skit as something that taught the freshman a lesson. The DG activity justification sucked, and was absolutely a waste of time since no one followed it, but it was still easy. Now they added new risk things, such as physical risk, emotional risk, reputational risk, financial risk, and whatever else. Now we get to think of every single scenario in which someone in our DG can get damaged emotionally or physically when playing Big Booty. I guess if their number never gets called on Big Booty it can be pretty emotionally scarring. Again you would think we are here to teach 3 yr olds, but it turns out these people are actually in college now. I would hope at some point in their life they have known what its like to get their feelings hurt, or to get a boo-boo on their knee. If they are ready for it by now, I have to say college is going not going to be fun or enjoyable. The reputational risk is in-case someone from outside of fish camp happens to hear something they don’t like. Well fish camp has always been one of the organizations that you can’t understand from the outside looking in. Obviously an adult with an extreme sensitivity level will find some of the stuff we discuss offensive. I got a news flash for you guys, as a DG leader I can’t control what might happen to pop out of a freshman’s mouth. I can encourage them to refrain from comments, but that’s about my level of influence. And the financial risk I don’t understand one iota, you already know how much toothpicks cost you, so I don’t know how using the entire box during one game instead of the 10 that you planned for is a financial risk. I think it’s just another ploy of D-staff to take as much fun out of fish camp as possible (R.I.P No Touchy Kung Fooey). Their view of a fish camp utopia will be one in which everyone learns about A&M, just like in New Student Conference! There, no one will ever be offended, and everyone will feel warm and accepted (doesn’t happen in the real world). Everyone will go to bed on time, and get their 8 hours that their mommy wants them to (because you always get 8 hours of sleep a night in college). We will all celebrate our diversity and embrace each others ideals (because I don’t think anyone’s ideals are ever dumb or have no basis in reality). We will hold hands and dance in a circle singing of how united and loving we are. This single handedly will spread through the entire world; it will end hunger, exploitation of workers, wars, hate crimes, famine, and terrorism (another words PC apparently can do what I thought only the 2^nd coming of Christ will accomplish). After going through fish camp, they will understand the importance of being PC and how incredible A&M is doing as a whole to achieve an environment where no one is shunned for their beliefs (well at least in America they usually aren’t tortured and murdered). In many ways we are doing them a disservice, because how much our university likes to think it’s this way, it aint. They might think that everyone accepts them unconditionally at Fish Camp, but that’s not the way it works in the real world. And the whole Vision 9/30 thing I must comment on as well. If freshman don’t come to any of the camp stuff or the DG stuff, why would they come to a soccer game for fish camp. I don’t have a problem with continuing to hang out with fish camp, but I have a problem when they tell you what they think is best for you and for the freshman after Lakeview is over. Fish camp never really ends and putting a finite date of membership does nothing to help the freshman. You can still have all fish camp events with *gasp* counselors drinking in a social environment together. I happen to enjoy the “false bonding” of going out to North Gate with friends. I have gotten more out of Fish Camp in the form of friends and experiences than I could ever hope to repay. It is an organization that I love and it still is a fine organization, but it’s becoming harder and harder to say that what D-staff is doing actually benefits the fish. I think a few outspoken critics have gotten their way and ruined a once great organization.

So congratulations Political Correctness, you have managed to claim another thing in my life that I used to love. You have taken a fine organization that used to be incredibly fun and slightly politically incorrect, and watered it down to a feely, sensitive, boring, pointless, and bureaucratic juggernaut that won’t stop till every incoming freshman at A&M is brainwashed to beat to the liberal PC drum of tolerance and sensitivity. I think they should make Fish Camp a tolerance training seminar for freshman instead of a way to teach the proud traditions of Texas A&M University. Another part of what makes A&M unique is dying.

The Fall of Fish Camp Part 1

2005-07-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Well first of all this is written mainly for those of you that have ever been involved in Fish Camp before. For anyone outside of that organization, you probably won’t be able to sympathize nor understand where I am coming from.

This weekend I finally realized how bad Fish Camp is starting to get. It does make me somewhat glad that this will be the last year I am doing it. For some reason D-staff decided to add another mandatory DP to the summer schedule. With the 3 in the fall and the one during the 2 days before plus the new mandatory work day that now makes a whopping 5 trainings. I think they should segregate the experienced and inexperienced counselors and do separate trainings. The experienced counselors go through a majority of this previously, and it’s not like they are going to forget what each job at Lakeview is. I especially enjoyed the DP’s this year. During one brutally long session B training all the director staff brought up some point and everyone was supposed to comment on it. I watched for 2 hours as people fed the same bullshit lines and then another counselor would expand on some stupid idea and then another would be careful not to take it too far so they would bring it back some. Rinse and repeat for 2 hours. That was the 1^st case of me wanting to chew my leg off. Every one of the session trainings I went to was the most pointless thing on this planet. I think I could have summarized the entire ordeal in about a paragraph. I had no problem with the camp specific stuff; that I felt actually was an attempt to be fun and it contained necessary information.

This work day took the cake though. There was not one point during the entire weekend that I didn’t want to chew an appendage off so I could dull the pain of D-staff. Even the games we were taught to play were horrid. One fellow taught us a game he played with 3 yr olds in the Dominican Republic. Lucky for us, we are here for 18 yr olds! Oh that’s the best way to communicate with the freshman, lets humiliate it them and belittle them with childish games. That will really make them feel like they are in college now!! I especially enjoyed the game where you bounced a ball up in the air to see how many times you could keep it up. I ended that game when the ball came to me. Not being able to stand this game anymore in 152% humidity, I knocked the ball to the ground instead of back up and turned around without any explanation. Hey, everyone was thinking it; I was just the one that took action. The best part of the outdoor fun was when the entire session b was to make shapes with ropes with our eyes closed. This is hard enough with a DG, now try it with 120 people! The most unbelievable moment was when we were supposed to make a 5 pt star out of the rope. I walked away in disgust and so did the rest of my camp. Some of the tools from other camps actually tried to make it, thanks but I think I’ll go stand in the shade. After 4 and a half hours of training on Friday we got to go at it again Saturday at 8 in the *$#%*#$ morning.

And then came the diversity training. I somehow knew this would come eventually. An hour and a half of this fun brought to you by D-staff. We sat and watched a panel of 5 people at a table, each with a corresponding letter in front of them. There were 2 white males, a black female and 2 white females. The instructor made a statement that was true to only one of them, and we had to guess which one it pertained to. Naturally they will pick the most non-stereotypical of truths about each person, so that you are supposed to see that you can’t judge a book by its cover. While this may be true, I still believe in some stereotypes. I can totally accept that they aren’t true for every person, but I find it to be true based on my observation. Case in point, black people in general don’t like swimming. This isn’t a bad thing or a good thing, it’s just an observation. In general Asians seem to have trouble driving, at least in College Station. Almost every time I see someone switching 3 lanes without giving a crap what the traffic situation is, I can bet it’s an Asian. And most the time, it’s true. Call me a racist, but I develop my own stereotypes, I don’t take some idiots’ stereotype at face value. Sorry for my digression. We then are supposed to list all of our unique qualities along with its strengths and challenges. For example I was unique in being a “White, Male, Conservative, Christian, and analytical thinker.” After listing each strength and challenge I learned how great it is to be a special person. We then were told that we should figure out ever possible way that someone can push our buttons; we were supposed to develop a calm response to all the different scenarios. At this point I punched myself in the face hoping this was a nightmare. Since D-staff decided that NO ONE was to be offended this year, they thought that the counselors should take diversity training since we are in their eyes a major source of offensive material. I personally think that if someone is going to get offended it would by the hand of another freshman, not by a counselor. Who the hell does D-staff think we are! Apparently a bunch of foot-in-mouth backwoods closed minded inbred rednecks. I have been in college for 4 years and I might have been exposed to different viewpoints before sometime in my lifetime. I think the same goes for most people who are counselors. I will continue my thoughts tomorrow.