BY bavalova

Not many things really touch me; in fact, I often hear people become very, very emotional over certain things and I don’t understand it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a sociopath or something; I do feel things. I just don’t get moved so easily. Nevertheless, I am moved by this story that recently came out from the AP.

BEIT AWWA, West Bank - A Palestinian couple locked their disabled son and daughter away for decades out of fear they would ruin the marriage prospects of a healthy child if discovered, police said Wednesday.

The case highlights the shame felt by families who have children with disabilities in Palestinian society — made worse because of poor services and the practice of marriages between first cousins.

It hurts me to think that people could do something like this. I’m not outraged by Gitmo or secret CIA interrogation camps or the prospect of torture or the death penalty because sympathy is something I reserve for the innocent. This man kept here for decades. DECADES! He’s not a murderer! He’s not a rapist! He’s not a criminal! He’s an innocent, disabled person. Guilty is the society he lives in that encourages intra family marriage; guilty are the Palestinian people who look down upon him. Finally, guilty is the AP writer who would indirectly criticize Israel by saying the problem is made worse because of “poor services.”

If you, Nasser the AP reporter, were on Jeopardy and chose Palestinian Issues for 200 and Alex said “This is what made this poor, Palestinian man disabled at birth” and you answered “poor [health] services” you would lose. If you’d lose in Jeopardy, why don’t you lose at the AP?

Moreover, the Josef Fritzl story made national headlines for a couple days when it was found out that he kept his daughter locked in the basement for 24 years as a sex slave. He’s now facing 3,000 rape charges:

Senior legal sources have revealed that he has admitted to sleeping with his daughter Elisabeth “two or three times a week” during the 24 years he kept her locked in a basement prison.

Let’s see how quietly this will go down. What? With the mainstream media’s love for the Palestinians and all.

Palestinian Basam Musalmeh, 38, stands behind a locked metal door leading to the room where he was locked up since he was a child, during a police raid in the West Bank village of Beit Awwa, near Hebron, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008. Police discovered a mentally disabled brother and sister in the rooms they were stashed away in for some forty years, during a raid in their southern West Bank town overnight Tuesday. The case has dramatically highlighted the shame thrown upon families who have children with disabilities in Palestinian society, made worse because of poor services and the practice of first-cousin marriages in Palestinian communities.
(AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

BY bavalova

Hillary Clinton: I bid you adieu. By my estimation, the one good thing that could come out of Barack Obama winning the White House is that we’ll never have to see Hillary Clinton again. However, if he loses, she’ll have a strong platform to run on in 2012.

On a final note, I always thought she looked like a hyena from the Lion King. Here, have a look:

BY bavalova

Nice. Most of you know I’m no hippy or overprotective idiot that thinks if you let a child play with a toy gun he’s going to grow up and shoot up the local elementary school or something. However, in the wake of this war between South Ossetia (via Russia) and Georgia, I think children wielding lifelike toy replicas of AK-47s is a bit frightening.

Oh and check out the AP’s lovely caption:

Children play in Tskhinvali, capital of Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008. On Tuesday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recognized two Georgian rebel territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, prompting harsh criticism from Western nations.
(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

I guess they’re just playing; Thanks AP, you really know what calms me down.

BY bavalova

You might be interested in knowing that what the media has reported as a “military ship” is one of the retiring cutters of the US Coast Guard according to this report on Military.com back in 2003 as part of this National Fleet Concept.

The National Fleet concept, signed in 1998 and revalidated in 2001, speaks directly to Coast Guard-Navy integration. It is a cornerstone document that reaffirms the service’s expeditionary capability and the immediate need for a modernized fleet to replace ships such as the Dallas, commissioned in 1967.

Moreover, according to numerous reports on the Navy’s News site, the cutter Dallas has been running training operations in Africa! Russia sent a missile cruiser and two other ships in response to aid arriving on an outdated ship whose biggest action was capturing Saddam’s fugitives in the early days of the Iraq war.

All I gotta say is really Russia? A missile cruiser? Come on Putin & Co, what’s all this saber rattling really about? I mean, if this was the USS Dallas rather than the CG Cutter Dallas, maybe I’d understand.

BY bavalova

I’m listening to Bill’s speech right now. I think he just said Obama has a queer grasp on foreign policy. Freudian slip?

UPDATE: Ah. It seems he was trying to say clear grasp. I was only half listening and heard “queer” and “firm” in the same sentence and thought that Slick Willy was bringing new talking points to light. Here’s the video (My PVR is working now.. Yay!):

BY bavalova

There I was minding my own business, doing homework and watching CNN in the background, and I noticed Hillary pop up in my peripheral. Fortunately, I missed her speech earlier in the day but as fate would have it, I am seeing it now. I must say, she’s holding it together quite well.

“Whether you voted for me or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose,” said Clinton in a speech Democrats hope will end a lingering party rift left over from their bitter nominating fight.

It goes to prove that she’s nothing but a shrewed politician. I wonder how Obama got her to agree to give such a compelling speech. I guess Bill isn’t too happy about it though: he’s not showing up to Obama’s speech.

By the way, watch about 0:27 into the video below. Is it just me or did she really have to force out that whole bit about Michelle Obama? Anyone else sense a bit of that intra-woman superficiality? Could just be me. I’m just saying.

BY bavalova

Alright ladies and gentlemen. It’s 3AM and I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s about time I went to bed. I’ve done just about all I can do for VC’s new facelift. As some of you know, when Wordpress updated to 2.5, my old theme was left in the dark so for a while I’ve been dealing with the default theme.

This new theme is mostly courtesy of Derek Punsalan from 5ThrityOne with a few of my own tweaks. I think that this new theme really forecasts my direction for the site. I want to focus more on reading between the lines and dispelling some of the idiocy that is out there.

I’ve neglected my midterms for long enough; I’ll have to finish the job at another time but I think this is a logical stopping point.

Cheers!
Bava

BY bavalova

So, I’ve been waiting to announce this. I knew it was a possibility but I didn’t want to fool myself into believing it would happen. But, to my surprise, the University of California came through. UC Davis is officially using Gmail this coming fall. Awesome.

Status update (August 2008):

UC Davis to provide Gmail service for students starting this fall

UC Davis will begin to move forward with a plan to transition all UC Davis students to Gmail this fall. The transition is scheduled to begin the second week in October with the intent to be completed by the end of fall quarter.

A system-wide UC contract with Google Inc. was developed to ensure protection of student privacy and the campus’ ability to retain exclusive control of UC Davis email accounts. The campus retains the right to back out of the relationship at any time. This plan will not affect School of Medicine students using UCDHS mail systems. While faculty and staff are not included in the current implementation plan, UC Office of the President (UCOP) has structured the basic agreement with Google to allow for them to be included on an “opt-in” basis once appropriate consultation takes place.

Endorsements and/or support came from ASUCD, Alumni Relations, development officers in academic departments, the 300+ students who participated in the pilot, and the broader community through the vetting process pursuant to PPM 200-45. IET will continue to work closely with University Communications and with Student Affairs to ensure the partnership with Google continues to be beneficial to the campus.

The Pilot Advisory Group—which included representatives from Student Affairs, University Communications, graduate and undergraduate students, among others—helped guide the pilot to a successful completion in March 2008. Questions and issues identified during the pilot period were reviewed with campus constituencies, including the Campus Council for Information Technology (CCFIT), the Deans’ Technology Council, the Technology Infrastructure Forum, campus counsel, and an ad hoc committee of campus privacy specialists.

Information and Educational Technology (IET) would like to thank the students who participated in the pilot and the members of the campus community who ensured we have the best possible plan going forward. We also recognize the work of the UCOP in contract negotiations on behalf of Davis and other campuses.

Questions? Contact us at ucdgmail-pilot@ucdavis.edu.

BY bavalova

It has become almost a fashion trend in the Western World to be of the opinion that Global Warming is a man made phenomenon and needs to be stopped. Those who snicker and sneer at the idea are in turn snickered and sneered at by these nose up environmental whack jobs. Just today, NASA scientist James Hansen told us:

“We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path,” Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. “This is the last chance.“

This is such a spineless position. It’s easy to see why the opposing position is harder to stand up and proliferate. If you’re a scientist on the Global Warming side, you can keep spewing your “research” and scarring people on to your side. When governments around the world join to spend billions, if not trillions, on research and development in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, you can sit there and baste in your glory. If everything goes well, as it likely would have even without any intervention, everyone will sing your praises. If not, you can sit there and tell everyone they didn’t act fast enough. Either way, when it comes to government contracts you win.

If you’re on the other side, what incentives do you have to speak out? You’re vastly criticized despite your research and specialization; despite your dedication and hard work. Your opinion is not profitable. This is why your arguments will never gain any traction.

BY bavalova

Sorry folks, regular maintenance, I suppose.

UPDATE:
It seems there is a problem with my existing Wordpress Theme that is preventing the new version of Wordpress (2.5) from showing more than just the latest entry. I’ll try to get the problem fixed but may end up creating a whole new look. I guess it’s long overdue, anyway.

BY bavalova

As everyone knows, the Clinton campaign has been harping on Obama because of his lack of foreign policy experience but this week CBS released a report showing that Mrs. Clinton isn’t quite Mrs. Foreign Policy either. Of course, the Obama campaign jumped all over the story:

The Obama campaign seized on the story when it was splashed across the CBS website Monday, with spokesman Tommy Vietor saying it is “part of a troubling pattern of Sen. Clinton inflating her foreign policy experience.”

I think it says a lot about the Democratic Party if the point of contention between the two Democratic candidates is who has less foreign policy experience. They’re like a couple of five year olds pointing fingers at one another. “She has less experience!” “No he has less experience, na na na na na na!” It’s just sad… all around.

Moreover, the Media’s love affair with Obama is just sad. Now, I’m not standing up for Hillary or in any way suggesting she has any meaningful foreign policy experience. But on a serious analysis, does the media really think Americans are stupid enough to think that a trip to Bosnia to meet and greet the troops is resume building foreign policy experience? If so, then heck, Sinbad and Cher should have made an ‘08 ticket, too! Are we as Americans really that petty? I mean, if anything, the Clinton story just reinforced something we already know to be true: Politicians lie. It goes hand in hand with their job titles.

It’s all superficial, they’re both saying the same thing and neither of them really have any experience to back up their trash talking.

BY bavalova

So, like most UCD students, I got the fun little email from which read:

There was an incident at Tercero Residence Hall last night. Our Fire and Police Departments have the situation under control and there is no threat to the campus. Classes and business will continue as usual. Additional information will be posted at http://www.ucdavis.edu/.

Thank you,
U C Davis WARN Alert

So I did some research. After reading a few news stories, the Sac Bee story is the most detailed (I bold faced the interesting points below). Of course, as usual, I try to give you a little something the news leaves out so I’ve included a picture of the guy and the building (Tercero, Thille D 316) where it happened on a map for reference.

Normal class schedules are under way at UC Davis on Thursday following the arrest of an 18-year-old student after two pipe bombs were found in his dormitory room Wednesday night, authorities said.

The discovery about 9 p.m. Wednesday resulted in the evacuation of 455 freshmen from eight dormitory buildings in the Tercero complex. The students spent the night in the common dining area at the complex and are expected to be allowed to return soon. No one was injured, and classes were not disrupted by the incident.

UC Davis police said they arrested Mark Christopher Woods, 18, a freshman economics major from Torrance, on charges of possession of materials with the intent to make an explosive or destructive device, and also possession with intent to make such a device on school grounds.

Police said bomb-making materials were found on a table in the dorm room, along with two empty pipe bomb shells, and police Capt. Joyce Souza said she could not reveal what materials were found but that it was “bad stuff.”

An examination of it earlier Thursday morning showed that “the way it sits right now, it’s not as unstable as we originally thought.”

“At first glance, it looked like pretty serious and volatile material,” Souza said. “Once they did an evaluation, they were able to determine the way all the materials were sitting, it wasn’t as serious because it wasn’t mixed.”

Souza said that “there’s no reason to believe he intended at this point to blow up anything or hurt anyone on campus.”

But, she added, “anytime you get a call like this, we’re going to err on the side of caution.”

The material is expected to be packed up and moved to a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lab in Walnut Creek on Thursday morning. Woods is in custody on campus and is expected to be taken to the Yolo County Jail in Woodland later Thursday.

Paul Pfotenhauer, a spokesman for the UC Davis Fire Department, said the incident began shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday when a woman reported students with possible explosive devices in a dormitory room.

That led to the questioning of four students in the bedroom, including Woods. The other three students were released.

A bomb team moved in Thursday morning to assess the room where the explosives were found. Their work had been delayed because a search warrant had to be obtained before the situation could be addressed. The search warrant was not executed until about 5 a.m.

Crews had expected to decide if the explosives needed to be removed by a robot or by team members in protective suits and there were discussions of detonating the devices in a nearby field.

Before 9 a.m., however, authorities said there never was a fully assembled bomb.

“As soon as they have everything out of the room, we will be opening it all back up to the students,” said campus spokeswoman Lisa Lapin.

Acquaintances of Woods’ described him as a pleasant young man who had shown no signs of trouble, and some said they believed authorities had overreacted to the incident.

Robert Chao, an 18-year-old from San Jose who is Woods’ roommate, said he was “in the room at 6 p.m. last night and didn’t see anything like” a bomb.

Chao added that he thought the incident was “being blown way out of proportion.”

With all the recent tragedies at universities around the country, “they have reason to believe it’s one of those things, but it’s not that at all,” Chao said. “That is the opposite of what he is.”

Chao and others describe Woods as someone interested in many subjects and say he was trying to expand his knowledge with science experiments.

Woods was an academic decathlete in high school, and while he was an economics major, he also was taking classes in Russian, Japanese and statistics.

“He had no ill intent like people said he did,” Chao said.

Other students said Woods was a kind young man who escorts young female students to their dorm rooms when they go home at night.

“He’s one of the nicest guys I know,” said Lauren Bachman, 18, who lives in the dorm. “At the end of the day, I trust him.”

Other students said that while he was kind of an eccentric, he’s an intelligent young man who is not dangerous.

Despite that, authorities were taking no chances Wednesday night and ordered the evacuation.

Before students found some place to sleep, they gathered in common areas of nearby buildings and stood around, shivering in the cold. Freshman Anderson Ellis, 19, said “a lot of people have papers due tomorrow” but were unable to complete their work.

Lapin said a campus-wide notification was not issued because the substance is not an immediate threat.

She stressed that the rest of the campus is open and operating — classrooms are in use and people are going to work and school.

BY bavalova

After Jimmy Kimmel’s little Matt Damon stunt a while back, I didn’t think he could get any higher in my book. However, this just shot him right off the charts and directly into my heart.

Thanks Gabby

BY bavalova

Well, ladies and gentlemen. The results haven’t quite come in but I think it’s almost safe to assume that this is what we’re looking at in 2008.

This half ass work of Photoshop tells no lies. In 2008, we’ll be voting between socialists by two different names. I’ve never notice until today but they do bare a striking resemblence; go figure.

Anyhow, on a serious note, what’s the difference between the Republican or Democrat nominees? You’re basically hearing the same policies from both of them. Socialized health care, flip-flopping opinions about Iraq, ending of “torture,” more taxes, more government, less freedom, the list goes on ladies and gentlemen. The only difference between the two of them is that one has a penis and the other doesn’t. Which one of them has it, however, is still up for debate.

BY bavalova

Perhaps one of the most dangerous platforms the Democrats are running on is Socialized Health Care; that is, free health care for everyone, yay! People often point to Britain and Canada as leading examples of the wonders of Socialized Medicine. Well, try getting an MRI in Canada or dental care in Britain; I just hope you’re not one of the seven million waiting in line:

It has meant a shortage of dentists with shocking reports of people being forced to pull their own teeth out.

Now, there are reports that many British doctors don’t want to provide health care to old or unhealthy people; an argument I don’t wholly disagree with (especially in regard to the unhealthy lifestyles) but it’s just another sad commentary on the Socialized Health Care system. That is, Socialized medicine doesn’t work.

Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

Obesity costs the British taxpayer £7 billion a year. Overweight people are more likely to contract diabetes, cancer and heart disease, and to require replacement joints or stomach-stapling operations.

Meanwhile, £1.7 billion is spent treating diseases caused by smoking, such as lung cancer, bronchitis and emphysema, with a similar sum spent by the NHS on alcohol problems. Cases of cirrhosis have tripled over the past decade.

Now, this sounds reasonable to some degree, right? Of course it does; I mean, if you’re a heavy alcoholic, should you get that liver transplant over the other person whose liver is failing for some other, uncontrollable reason? But, when the government deals with things, they cannot discriminate in such a manner. I mean, sure, doctors in America cannot make this discrimination, either but at least the health care system is setup in such a way that if you’re a smoker or an alcoholic or whatever, certain procedures will either not be covered under your policy or you will be denied altogether.

BY bavalova

So, I have a Sony Vaio VGN-C240E (AKA PCG-6R3L) and I accidentally dropped it. It fell on the right rear corner where the power cord plugs in while the cord was plugged in. Of course I freaked out but it turned out the laptop was ok. A couple days later, however, I noticed that my power cord wasn’t going in. It turns out the plastic pieces holding together the jack on the inside broke and the jack wasn’t staying flush with the case any more.

With the help of various other tutorials on similar laptops, I was able to disassemble my Vaio with relative ease and fix the problem. I will go over these instructions in hopes that this maybe useful to someone else in the future. Opening up a Vaio is kind of an intricate process. With a laptop, you never want to tug and pull too hard as pieces are generally very small and hard to replace.

Last but not least, keep in mind, I’m not an “expert.” These directions are not from the manufacturer and should not be considered as such. Do this at your own risk.

1. Rule number one, be gentle, ground yourself, and don’t be a Neanderthal. This is a laptop, not a piece of meat. If you’re not careful, your attempt to fix your laptop will become a $1100 science project because explaining how three plastic pieces, which have no business being tampered with, broke to your manufacturer will not be fun; that is if, indeed, you’re still under warranty.

2. Remove your battery. You don’t want any potential problems and aside from your own body (which you should’ve grounded) the battery is the only energy source in your system.

3. Flip your Vaio over and remove all the screws. Remove your DVD ROM drive and Hard drive.

4. Once you’ve done all that, flip the laptop back over and remove the keyboard by pressing on the little clamps at the top as shown in the pictures. I used a screw driver. I also included a picture of the clamps after the keyboard was removed so you can see it more clearly. Mine had four clamps.

5. Remove the keyboard ribbon and all other ribbons that you see there. For the keyboard ribbon, I had to push the little black plastic back a little and pull on the blue tab. It should come out fairly easily. For the smaller ribbons, the black latch flipped upward and the blue ribbons came out easily. There was only one more connection and it was your typical 3 wire jack. Slowly remove it, as well. I used my flathead screwdriver to pry it out gently. Again, the key here is not to be a Neanderthal. Everything has a purpose and if you tug like a savage you will break something. Take some time and figure it out. It’s not worth breaking something. There are a couple more case screws you’ll want to remove. There should only be two or three.

The big ribbon is the keyboard ribbon. Notice the black plastic piece and how it sits against the beige connector.

Notice in this picture the black piece of plastic is moved back freeing the ribbon.

Now that the keyboard ribbon is removed, notice the two other small ribbons. Notice how the plastic piece is down over them and flush with the beige.

You have to flip up the black piece as shown here and then pull on the blue ribbon.

This one comes out easily.

6. Now, flip you Vaio onto its side so that you can see the underside of the DVD ROM drive bay. Inside the bay, there are three small screws. You’ll need to unscrew those.

7. Now you’re ready to take off the cover. Slowly lift off the cover that hides all your hardware. If you do this fast, you’ll likely break something. Also, if it does not come off relatively easily, you may have missed a screw. Check that you’ve removed all the screws if it sticks. Also be careful because you are removing your mouse pad and working around some sensitive areas. Take extreme precautions. Move away any liquids from your desk. Don’t be stupid is my main advise. You don’t want to ruin your laptop. If you do, there are easier ways.

8. The plastic pieces that held the DC plug flush with the outside of my case broke and left only the metal piece that held it down, which itself is badly bent.

Here I’ve removed the DC input module so you can see the broken plastic underneath.

I’ve removed the screws from the metal piece and lifted it up so you can see it better

9. Here is the metal piece which I’ve bent back into place as well as possible.

10. Finally, to keep the DC input module in place, I used Titebond Wood glue. Use your strong adhesive of choice. Just give it plenty of time to dry. I placed two screwdriver tips under the DC input module so that it would lift up and stay pressed against the metal piece on which I placed the glue. I used a dictionary to keep the screwdrivers tensed up and went to bed.

11. Now trace your steps backwards and put it back together and you’re done.

BY bavalova

It’s interesting to see where this is going to go. What were these guys thinking? I thought it was illegal to get drunk in Islam.

WASHINGTON - In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels.
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U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said. “It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we’ve seen yet,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. local time Sunday as a U.S. Navy cruiser, destroyer and frigate were on their way into the Persian Gulf and passing through the strait — a major oil shipping route.

Five small boats began charging the U.S. ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the ships and forcing the U.S. ships to take evasive maneuvers, the Pentagon official said.

There were no injuries but the official said there could have been, because the Iranian boats turned away “literally at the very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire” in self defense.

The official said he didn’t have the precise transcript of communications that passed between the two forces, but said the Iranians radioed something like “we’re coming at you and you’ll explode in a couple minutes.”

BY bavalova

So, here’s a video of John Edward’s speech yesterday morning:

People always laughed when Bush butchered the English language so I thought I’d point it out now that Edward’s has done it. Now, I know he’s trying to sound like he’s the change for America and I know he’s trying to appeal to a broader audience. But who is Edward’s speech writer? How, sir, can the status quo be yesterday in any context? The status quo refers to the current state of affairs not yesterday’s state of affairs. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ve made plenty of blunders in my day but I’m not campaigning for president and I don’t pay anyone to write my speeches or even look them over.

BY bavalova

Pardon the horrible title for this post but I felt like it was appropriate considering the last. Anyhow, formalities aside. I’ve decided that unless hell freezes over I will not vote Ron Paul. After reading the Ohio Against Terror report of even CAIR uniting with Ron Paul, I’ve decided that despite his seeming paleo-Conservatism, his incredible unrealism and the alliance of odd-ball supporters (CAIR, KKK, etc) make him completely unelectable. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not finding all of this out just now but I’ve opted until recently to try to give the man the benefit of the doubt and hoping that maybe he’d change his stance on foreign policy. It’s becoming clear that he has no intentions of doing so.

BY bavalova

So, my friend has been badgering me for a while now to jump on the Ron Paul bandwagon and I must say that I’ve actually considered it. Crazy, right? Well, like many of you probably, Ron Paul appeals to my paleo-Conservative nature. He is awesome when it comes to lowering taxes and putting America and Americans first. I love his immigration policies and so many other things about him.

So why can’t I vote for him?

Here’s the rub: Paul’s foreign policy, or lack thereof. With Paul’s mentality, the United States would have grown no larger than the original 13 colonies. I see two main flaws with his foreign policy position right off the top of my head. (1) It does not allow for America to defend herself unless she has been explicitly threatened. (2) It allows for the vast mistreatment of people in other countries without any repercussions.

1. Paul claims that we went to Iraq under false pretenses. This, of course, is not true. We went to Iraq for various reasons and the WMDs may have just been the last straw. Iraq is one small part of a larger picture: the Middle East. The Mid East is a threat to us in very many ways. They threaten our freedoms, they threaten our religion, and they threaten our security. One dirty bomb could ruin your whole day. They don’t need a giant military force to hurt us; ever heard of guerrilla tactics? To Paul’s defense, I also do not like the vast arm of the Federal government sweeping over all forms of communication with the Patriot Act, but it’s the price we pay. I mean, Paul would appeal to me if instead of demanding a pullout of Iraq, he fought to limit and further regulate the use of the Patriot Act. I don’t think anyone fancies the Federal Government knowing all of their business; I know I don’t.
2. I agree with Paul that we need to make an economic foreign policy that benefits the United States better. I don’t think we should give up our sovereignty to NAFTA, CAFTA, the UN, the WTO or any other International Governmental Organization. Moreover, I’ve never been much of a humanitarian, either. However, with Paul’s foreign policy ideas, what am I supposed to do when I know people are getting murdered, lynched, stoned, and raped in the Middle East, Africa, and China simply for being Christian, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, women, minorities, or gay? Am I supposed to drink myself into a drunken stooper? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a “Free Tibet” or “Save Darfur” fanatic but I think that if we don’t do something about all of this, it will come back to haunt us. It’s a battle of Western vs. Eastern ideas; if our ideas lose, we lose. Paul doesn’t understand that.

Unless he changes something, he will not appeal to me. I love the Constitution and I do think we need to follow it but I think we need to use the tools at hand to change it when necessary. The Constitution is dynamic and it’s foundation is not its original words but rather the ideas of freedom which its drafters, our Founding Fathers, shared. We cannot be so closed minded.

That’s all for now, kids.