(this is a follow up to this post)

Unfortunately, Ball ran the last test of the laser last night (the test on Sunday and Tuesday were so successful that they didn't need to do any more tests). Apparently, there wasn't enough dust in the atmosphere for it to be very visible last night, explaining why I never saw it. Instead, I just took some shots of Boulder and the moon. They told me they were going to release a photo of the experiment to the media soon and probably post it on their website.

I had an unpleasant experience earlier this week. When I got back to my car after work on Monday (12/1), I found a $50 ticket on my windshield for having expired tags (they expired on 11/1). I never received a notice in the mail and completely forgot about it until seeing the ticket. After fuming about it for a day, I decided to contest it (the fine seemed rather disproportinate compared to my annual registration fee of $27). Turns out, if you update your registration immediately and contest soon after the ticket, they'll drop the ticket on the spot! Certainly worth a short bike ride to the municipal courthouse.

FYI -- always contest, even when you're guilty!

I must admit that I am glad that those two men are no more. While it would have been preferable to capture them alive, based on the detailed report by the military it seems that that outcome was almost impossible to achieve. They risked the lives of at least four men to retrieve them from the home twice without success when they could have easily blown them away from the outset using rocket and/or other munitions. With any luck, there will be a reduction in the number of seiges of Iraqi homes now that they clearly have better intelligence than before and will help speed up the transition of power back to the Iraqis themselves.

Well, I spent way too much time writing posts today, but it helped me clarify my thoughts on some issues. (Namely this, this, this, this and this). I especially enjoyed writing the last post as it really does fully describe how I feel about the US government and also was a good edification for the person I was writing to. Okay, that was conceited, but I'd love to provoke someone to give a reasoned response to my little essay.

Well, now that most of the fighting is over (for now), it looks like the military has mostly done it's job superbly, with the notable exception of failing to protect Iraq's hospitals and museums soon enough.

I bet that within a month Iraq's infrastructure will be close to where it was before the war started. That is, assuming that protesters don't kick the US forces out first. I'm concerned that some religous leaders there may encourage their congregations to fight the US before they have a chance to put a proper government in place, rebuild their infrastructure and police/military forces leading to an era similar to Afgahnistan in the early to mid 90s.

To my surprise, a kid (I presume in junior high or high school) in the Philipines I was chatting with last night is for the war in Iraq! He thought Hussein was "stubborn." Given the protests going on over there, I thought nearly everyone was against it.

Well, I have been giving this alot of thought lately so I thought it'd be nice to take some notes. First of all, I think the diplomacy by the Bush administration is some of the worst by an American government in recent memory. I also have serious doubts about his advisors as several of them, including Dick Cheney, wrote a paper some years ago encouraging the Bush I administration to pre-emptively attack Iraq.

I also feel that the economic sanctions that were applied to Iraq over the past decade were a HUGE mistake, just as it was in Yugoslavia. Sanctions just crush the people while boosting the position of the dictator and encourages organized crime. I really hope the US reconsiders sanctioning N. Korea as it will almost certainly directly lead to a very deadly war.

On the other hand, now that our forces are in Iraq, I don't see how they can possibly just retreat. If they do, I'm sure Hussein will order the executions/torture of many of the troops who so quickly surrendered (not to mention that citizen who helped tear down one of the paintings of Hussein) and probably persecute their families as well (again). I also strongly doubt that the Iraqi people will ever overthrough Hussein. They may overthrow his successor, but I'm sure it would be a very bloody endeavor. Also, the US and UK can't possibly indefinitely enforce the no-fly zones in Iraq, so something needs to be done at some point.

So, for now, I'm hopeful that this war will come to a quick conclusion with minimal resistance and the deaths/captures of Hussein and his 2 sons.