Duhh... why didn't Bush tour Iraq? Hyuk!

I don't even need to dignify it with my own thoughts.

Trent Lott makes a statement purely to allow a 100 year old man in his final days feel good.

Ted Kennedy calls Bush's judicial nominees (some minority) Neanderthals.

Which one is a huge story?

The first story I found on it

More will probably follow.

Now remember, "Out of the mainstream" is 76% of the vote in California.

Regarding PDAs, I still have not seen one designed with a 2 1/2 inch hard drive. Why not? I'd buy one. Standard PDA memory could be replaced with RAM, and in essence, you would have a true palm PC.

What are the restrictions here?

One I can see most definitely is heat. But what of processor speeds, bus and memory bandwidth, and RAM capacity in general?

Iraq repeatedly made false declarations about the weapons that it had left in its possession after the Gulf War. When UNSCOM would then uncover evidence that gave the lie to those declarations, Iraq would simply amend the reports. For example, Iraq revised its nuclear declarations four times within just 14 months, and it has submitted six different biological warfare declarations, each of which has been rejected by UNSCOM.

In 1995 Hussein Kamal, Saddam's son-in-law and the chief organizer of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, defected to Jordan. He revealed that Iraq was continuing to conceal weapons and missiles and the capacity to build many more. Then and only then did Iraq admit to developing numbers of weapons in significant quantities--and weapons stocks. Previously it had vehemently denied the very thing it just simply admitted once Saddam's son-in-law defected to Jordan and told the truth.

Now listen to this: What did it admit? It admitted, among other things, an offensive biological warfare capability, notably, 5,000 gallons of botulinum, which causes botulism; 2,000 gallons of anthrax; 25 biological-filled Scud warheads; and 157 aerial bombs. And I might say UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq has actually greatly understated its production. . . .

Next, throughout this entire process, Iraqi agents have undermined and undercut UNSCOM. They've harassed the inspectors, lied to them, disabled monitoring cameras, literally spirited evidence out of the back doors of suspect facilities as inspectors walked through the front door, and our people were there observing it and had the pictures to prove it. . . .

Over the past few months, as [the weapons inspectors] have come closer and closer to rooting out Iraq's remaining nuclear capacity, Saddam has undertaken yet another gambit to thwart their ambitions by imposing debilitating conditions on the inspectors and declaring key sites which have still not been inspected off limits, including, I might add, one palace in Baghdad more than 2,600 acres large. . . .

One of these presidential sites is about the size of Washington, D.C. . . .

It is obvious that there is an attempt here, based on the whole history of this operation since 1991, to protect whatever remains of his capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, the missiles to deliver them, and the feed stocks necessary to produce them. The UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq still has stockpiles of chemical and biological munitions, a small force of Scud-type missiles, and the capacity to restart quickly its production program and build many, many more weapons. . . .

Now, let's imagine the future. What if he fails to comply and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route, which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction.

And some day, some way, I guarantee you he'll use the arsenal. . . . In the next century, the community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now--a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers, or organized criminals who travel the world among us unnoticed.

If we fail to respond today, Saddam, and all those who would follow in his footsteps, will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council, and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program

The president sure makes a compelling case, doesn't he?

And my grandfather's funeral. *sighs* It was nice though. Military funeral. He was a WWII veteran.

Don't feel like writing much right now though. Maybe in a few days.

Name: Quake 3 Fortress

Base game: Quake 3

Platform: PC

Time frame: Roughly mid-2000 to mid-2002

Here was a game I simply stumbled across and took an instant liking to. I absolutely loved the original QuakeWorld Team Fortress, and moved on to play Half Life's TFC. Counterstrike was always a fun inbetween, but it was still in relative infancy.

Q3F was built on the already fast-paced Q3 engine. The mod sported improved physics and effects design. It was fast paced and fun, with great character, weapons, and map design. I would play for hours on end with this game, preferably on the only 64 player server in existance. At its peak, there were some 200-250 servers, usually about 40-20 players in number per server, a few locked ones here and there, but that was about it.

I liked the game because of the pace, and I like games with large numbers. The 64 player server appealed to me because I watched how people would strategize, even under cramped quarters. Sure, grenade spam would get frustrating from time to time, but captures were still run. It still took skill to even infiltrate some bases. Spies had great times poking around for a loner. Usually some engineer (like me) looking for a way to get to some higher ledge.

I commonly took the engineer position. I loved building and maintining that sentry gun and watching it mow through people. Keeping it repaired and stocked was always a full time job in a base under attack, and amazingly an important defense tool. But what made Q3F's engineer truly fun was the fact the engine was set up to allow construction almost anywhere. If you blew yourself up onto a light, or a tiny ledge, and there was a pixel of room to build on, by God you could. I tried to figure out a way to get to a hard to reach but defensive place, usually a light fixture. Blow myself up there with grenades, build the gun, and constantly maintain it. To watch people run in and get gunned down from the ceiling was great. Many times they could not find it for two or three kills, and afterward, they would have a hard time killing it before it killed them. The rocket armed soldiers had the best chance, most attempted to kill them with grenades, but they never did enough damage. I would just repair them.

Once in a while I would snipe, I had the ping for it, usually was great with the sniper, but many times the position is limited and already packed. Of course, people whine that this is 'noob' (sniper took most 'noob' hits) or that is 'noob' but everything always takes skill. Over the course of play, I had heard every playable position declared 'noob' somehow.

The death of Q3F began a few months before version 2 was released. As people played, many developed this self-appointed elitist type of mentality. Everyone was worse than they were. They caused them to lose. Grenade spamming was bad. Large servers were bad (except that large servers were always packed). 'Noob' became the popular accusation. One by one, the elitists complained enough to get servers locked. The 64 player was shut down and split to locked servers. About 150 were locked down. You needed to be 'special' to get into these. The only remaining open ones had rediculous 16-20 player limits. Without the action, people began to leave. The public server numbers diminished. Soon followed by the locked servers as people got bored and left due to the low player limits. Since nobody else was invited in, the numbers continued to wane. Now there are about 20-25 servers, 3/4 of which continue to be locked. The open ones have low player limits, and Railbait is the only one with people in it. Five or less. It was kind of depressing to watch it decline. I loved the game. I loved the action. But the self-appointed elitist "hardcore" decided to start making up their own 'rules' and the game promptly died.

Sort of how the liberal minority keeps making all the rules, huh?

Being bored silly and sick of the politics of personal destruction (looking at you, Dems) I decided to start writing nostalgic entries on games. Memories of play, friends, and fun of individual games that have largely impacted me. From River Raid to Planetside(beta experience). A lot of these will include some obscure games that I enjoyed (Sacrifice, Shattered Galaxy, Quake 3 Fortress)

But right now, I'm going to go back to bed, as having just gotten off work. Oy. =)

With the coming of Halo PC and rave reviews about it being much better than the XBox, (Or as some have already put it - PC, the way it was meant to be played), I decided to run out and upgrade my PC's RAM. I had originally intended to have 768MB PC2700, but one of the 256 sticks were bad. (My going rate on RAM is 1 in 4 craps on me)

So I bought a 512MB PC2700 Centon. I'd never heard of them, so why not give them a try?(Kingstons were sold out all over the city, and nobody carries Crucial). PNY seem to be the ones that die on me all the time. I intend on replacing the system with an A64 FX when they get the unbuffered memory controller (I believe 939 pin version), and reasonable $500 or lower (US) prices.

The fun part of having 1024MB of RAM on a 98 Second Edition system was watching it go berserk trying to boot up. Out of memory was a pretty good error message. I had to adjust the vcache settings, but now she works beautifully =)

I had finally gotten around to replacing my Camaro's air filter. Damn that thing was dirty. I bought a K&N, and had a hell of a time getting it into the airbox. I don't think I need to use the gasket seal. I wasn't expecting the performance jump to be really all that noticeable, but I was sure proven wrong. Pulling out of the AutoZone lot and onto Broadway, the only way I can put it, is I told the car to jump with the pedal, and it sure as hell did. Roared to life and sped down the street. Hehe. Almost have to learn how to drive it again.

My efforts to apply to Blizzard Entertainment appear to have failed. I have not received any phone call, and I sort of doubt they'd send a letter concerning a resume. Ah well, there are still a few positions I can nab, I just need to apply myself to quickly learn CSS, brush up on SSI and Javascript and whip up a nice site with it. I won't be able to really do that until I cancel the service with the current service provider and shift the domain to another one that has infinitely better service. The current one doesn't even offer SSI! I couldn't believe it, I wrote out a bunch of crap and uploaded it, and was treated to a pile of SSI code.

Please answer as many of the following questions as you can, and as many with a straight face as possible. Please answer quickly as you already have all of the answers.

1. Since George W. Bush is evil, and thought by some to be far more dangerous than Saddam Hussein, could you please list the instances you are aware of where George W. Bush has ordered the murder, torture and rape of American citizens, like yourself, who oppose his presidency.

2. Could you list any sites of mass graves of American citizens ordered to be killed by the Bush administration?

3. Further, could you please list the instances you are aware of when George W. Bush has ordered the murder of members of his own family.

4. Do you feel that Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons he was specifically forbidden to have by the UN; for example, the Scud missiles he fired into Kuwait during the first two weeks of the war?

5. How do you think Saddam was able to fire weapons that he didn't have?

6. Are inspectors inspectors, or are inspectors detectives?

7. How many more months would you have given Saddam Hussein to comply with the 17 UN resolutions, passed over 12 years?

8. If you owned an apartment building, for how many months would you allow a tenant to defy you to kick him out for not paying the rent he owes?

9. If the UN, and the previous administration, were convinced Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and used that as a basis for their actions against Iraq, how do those reasons evaporate when applied by the Bush administration?

10. If the Bush administration, led by the evil GWB, lied about weapons of mass destruction in order to go to war, why haven't we found any WMD secretly planted by the Bush administration?

11. If you feel it would be too difficult to plant WMD in Iraq, because there are too many people watching, such that no one can do anything sneaky in Iraq, then why can't we find Saddam?

12. Do you disagree with the statement..."The weapons of mass destruction used in the 9/11 attacks were box-cutters"?

13. Do you think finding an airplane fuselage in a terrorist training camp in northern Iraq means terrorists were practicing hijackings? If not, for what purpose do you think they were using the airplane?

14. Knowing what little you may know about spy satellites, what do you think Iraq was hiding using the tunnel-digging equipment they bought from the French some 5 years ago?

15. Why do you think Iraq had a 'Higher Committee for Monitoring the Inspection Teams' headed by Hussein's Vice-President, and son, Qusay?

16. The fact that Iraq trained experts to foil UN weapons inspectors is documented not just by U.S. intelligence organizations, but by those of many other countries. Why do you think Iraq needed to use these tactics, if George W. Bush is lying?

17. In 1995, Iraq admitted it had biological weapons. They declared they had, for example, 8500 liters of anthrax. Where did they all go? If Iraq destroyed them, why would there be any need for more UN resolutions after that?

18. When do you think Iraq abandoned their existing Weapons of Mass Destruction program? What do you think was their motivation for abandoning it- the 17th time the UN said 'pretty please', or the fact that it was spending too much money that could used for social programs to improve the lives of Iraqi citizens?

19. Do you think the bio-weapons lab vehicles found in Iraq were being used as lunch wagons, or as mobile auto detail trucks?

20. If a terrorist organization attacked America tomorrow by spraying anthrax over a large city, would you blame George W. Bush for not doing enough?

21. Would Hillary?

22. How many minutes after the attack do you think it would take for Hillary to appear on CNN?

23. If an illegal U.S. president declares an illegal war, wouldn't the two cancel each other out?

Bonus Question: Do you think O.J. killed Ron and Nicole, or was he the victim of a massive conspiracy to plant evidence by many separate divisions of the LAPD?

I posted this in response to a parent post. Ever so slightly offtopic of the article in question, but not to the parent thread, which is common on Slashdot. Offtopic, but intelligent posts are commonly rated high after they branch off the parent article and relevant post. Someone has an axe to grind.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius promised Saturday in Wichita to work on allowing undocumented immigrants (Eds note: FRIGGIN' ILLEGAL ALIENS) to receive driver's licenses and in-state tuition to state universities.

I hold the Kansas City metro area personally responsible for this. (For getting her elected.)

Once again I get downmodded for absolutely no reason on a journal post.

A few others are listed.

Interesting phenomena. With the 2nd anniversary of 9/11 and a recent spate of somewhat US-centric newsposts, the predictable slashbots are nearly falling over one another to point out they hate America and capitalists more than the other. Black helicoptors and grassy knolls seem to be the recurring theme in these discussions. I'm not sure if I should be amazed or disgusted with the ignorance.

Stuck with insomnia while being sick, there's a bad combination. Even a hefty dose of Ny-Quil wouldn't put me down.

On top of that funness, my Aunt's (Dad's sister) husband just spontaneously filed for divorce, ending their 35 year marriage. WTF? My family doesn't know what the hell we're going to do, she's totally upset, and has no reason given.

Putting off the $1200 A/C repair for my Camaro until Friday. It was intended for today, but my mom's car has bigger issues, like burning oil faster than gasoline and making unhealthy noises. I had the shop swap appointment dates so she can get hers in.

Anyone have advice for motivating one's self to get off their duff and write a friggin' resume for something they want? I don't get it, its like I have no will to do anything. I could party blame its a feeling of "not a chance in hell" but there's something to be said for the effort made. But this isn't a onetime deal, usually have a hard time making effort to do stuff. Usually blame this on the feelgood shit Ritalin that I was exposed to between 8 and 12 years old. That stuff will damage you. Don't feed it to your kids, I swear.

I thought it made an interesting read. Article