Rachel Corrie was recently killed when she stood in front of a bulldozer that was demolishing / about to demolish a house in the Gaza strip.  It was not an accident.  She was opposed to the demolition, and apparently in her mind, that made it a good idea to stand in front of an advancing bulldozer.  The news media is reporting her death as a murder by Israel, and even a murder by America.

This is one of the things about the news media that makes me extremely angry.  No one is willing to state the truth of the matter here.  The truth is that Rachel Corrie was killed for acting like an IDIOT.  She did something IDIOTIC, and got herself killed.  That is the only way that an honest person can explain this situation.

Was it wrong for the driver of that bulldozer to intentionally drive over her?  I believe that it was.  Does that make Rachel Corrie’s actions any less idiotic?  Absolutely not.  She made an exceedingly bad decision when she chose to stand in front of that bulldozer.

I understand that the idea was to make the driver stop the demolition.  However Rachel chose an asinine strategy for achieving that goal.  She forfeited her life, and there will be little if any benefit from it.

Some people incorrectly believe that man is "basically good" and tends to "do the right thing" most of the time.  Perhaps Rachel Corrie subscribed to that false concept.  Unless she had a death wish, it’s safe to say that at least in this situation, she expected the driver to do the right thing.

But that is not the real world.  In the real world, you can’t expect anyone to do the right thing.  You can hope for that, and you can believe that people should strive for that, but to expect it is either naive or, more likely, idiotic.

Don’t get me wrong; a person has been killed here, and that is a sad thing.  I’m not trying to minimize that fact.  But my point here is that it’s lamentable that the media will not say that what Rachel did was foolish.

A similarly ridiculous scenario that is all too common is when a girl gets raped while she is drunk, because she was unable to say / enforce "no" to the guy.  Is it wrong for her assailant to rape her?  Of course.  But she made the idiotic decision to get drunk, and that is what prevented her from saying no.  (I’m not talking about a situation where the guy overpowers the girl, but the situation where he takes advantage of her because she’s drunk.)  She deliberately put herself out of control of her own body.  That is a supremely stupid decision that she chose for herself.  She has every right to be upset and hurt and mad about being raped, but she has absolutely no right to be surprised about it.  Because to be surprised about it, she must believe that all people are basically good and therefore no one ever rapes anyone -- indeed, she must believe that we live in a perfect world.  Only in a perfect world would it be anything other than IDIOTIC to put yourself out of control of your own body by getting drunk.

Kofi Annan: "Perhaps if we had persevered a little longer, Iraq could yet have been disarmed peacefully..."  Yes.  And perhaps Iraq could have attempted genocide again, or launched a massive attack (with all those missles they don’t have, that they’re currently firing on allied troops) on another nation before troops were in place to protect them.  Thank God we’ll never have to face those "perhaps" scenarios because some nations have the brains to see that something needs to be done, and the balls to do it.

In other news from the mentally-challenged department, "peace protesters" around the country are protesting for peace by disrupting the peace in US cities.  Nuke Berkeley is all I have to say.

Allied forces have captured Umm Qasr, Iraq’s only major seaport.

Iraq has fired a few missles at allied forces; some were destroyed by our Patriot defense missles, and some simply landed / crashed without causing any damage.  The missles may have been of the shorter-range Al Samoud 2 (formerly known as Ababil 100) type, or longer-range scud missles.  Scuds are illegal for Iraq to possess because they greatly exceed range limits imposed on them after the first Gulf war -- scuds can range about 300 or 400 miles depending on the variant.  And UN inspectors recently determined that Iraq’s Al Samoud 2 missles also exceed the 150km (~92 mile) limit; Iraq subsequently destroyed some of these missles.

"Three or four" oil fields in southern Iraq have been set ablaze.

There are more than 40 nations supporting the US in this "unilateral" war, more than those who supported us in the first Gulf war.  Because France has no practical strengths, it has been not only lying, but yelling its lies loudly, hoping that the world will buy into it if they just repeat the lie loud enough and long enough.  Sadly some people have bought into their propaganda.  The truth is that just because France, Russia, Germany, China, Iraq, and North Korea are against this war, that doesn’t change the fact that the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Czech Republic, Kuwait, Italy, Portugal, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Japan, New Zealand, and bunches of other countries are supporting the war.  The bottom line: don’t believe the hype.

Our innocents, that is.

It’s been mighty difficult to concentrate on this prelab for EE tomorrow... I’ve been watching the TV networks and checking some blogs since the first strike at ~9:30pm EST.  Thank goodness there’s Fox News so I don’t have to watch CNN.  On the net I’ll be checking Little Green Footballs, USS Clueless, and Debka most often.  Here’s a handy map of the middle east.

Some of the more interesting bits so far: US forces have taken over Iraqi radio and are broadcasting on it... in addition to these initial strikes in Iraq, our forces are attacking targets in Afghanistan... in a video aired on Iraqi TV, a spokesman invited any countries who wanted to help Iraq to do so... our cruise missles travel at 700mph and take ~45 minutes to reach Baghdad from the Persian Gulf, ~60 minutes from the Red Sea.

Wednesday on All Things Considered, there was an interview with Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations, in which he spoke on the history of casualties of war.  Boot is the author of The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power.  Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

"In 1945 when we were attacking Japan with B-29 bombers, we did not flinch when inflicting hundreds of thousands of casualties on Japanese civilians, and that’s even before the atomic bombs were dropped.  Whereas now, it creates a national scandal if a smart-bomb goes astray and hits a wedding in Afghanistan... In part, this is simply due to the fact that targeting technology is so much more presise and that in 1945 you couldn’t be sure that a bomb would hit within a mile of its target.  Whereas today, you have a very high degree of certainty that precision-guided munitions will hit within a few meters of their target.  So we are much less accepting of civilian casualties, but I think in some sense, we may have set the standard too high.  We have come to think of war as being a surgical business where we only hit the bad guys and leave all the innocent people alone, but it’s never going to be that way.  It’s always going to be a messy, ugly business with innocent people on both sides getting killed, and I think we have to accept that as being the inherent nature of war.  That’s not going to change, no matter how much technology may change."

Also during the show, they mentioned the numbers of US soldiers killed in some of our most recent wars/conflicts:

Korean conflict: 33,000
Viet Nam: 58,000
1991 Gulf War: 147
Panama: 23
Somalia: 43
Balkans: 30
Afghanistan: 47

And finally, since I don’t think I posted about it before... or even if I did... you should watch the video Protesting the Protesters.  It’s about 10 minutes and it’s quite enlightening.  There are a few versions for your viewing pleasure: high-bandwidth Real video or Windows media, or low-bandwidth Real video or Windows media.  And after you watch it, be sure to read the Q & A about the video too, because it has a lot of good information.  Here’s a quote:

1. What inspired you to produce this video?

While watching TV coverage of the peace protests this past January, I noticed a large contingent of signs bearing extreme language that attacked President Bush--insulting him personally, calling him a terrorist, and comparing him to Hitler. At the same time, I didn’t notice any signs criticizing Saddam Hussein. There were no signs asking him to abide by the Gulf War cease-fire agreement or the various U.N. resolutions he’s been violating for over a decade.

Despite the extremist language used by many of the protesters, despite the fact that they seemed to blame President Bush for a crisis caused by twelve years of Iraqi noncompliance, the media portrayed the protesters as mainstream. This must mean the media perceives as mainstream the notion that Bush and Hitler are similar. The media also apparently perceives as mainstream the notion that, to resolve this conflict, nothing should be asked of Saddam Hussein.

...

Frankly, I was angered that the media glossed over the obvious extremism within the protests. I was angered that the media would not challenge--or at least examine--the mentality of the people comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler. And I was angered that the supposedly mainstream marchers seemed unwilling to acknowledge the extremism of their comrades.

So, I decided that, at the next protest, I would show a truth of the protesters that was going unreported by the traditional media.

2. What is your background in producing videos of this nature?

None. This was the first time I’d ever attempted it.

It’s good to see a balanced view of the protesters, as opposed to the one-sided presentation
that the media has been showing.

Tom Brokaw, speaking on the US’ support for Saddam Hussein against Iran before he invaded Kuwait: "And then it all turned around, 120°."  Right... maybe 180° is what you were looking for?  : )

My new messageboard / weblog / guestbook script is now available for download and use on your very own website.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming (homework, that is).

I’m listening to All Things Considered on NPR, and journalist Michele Norris was listing some of the 45 nations supporting the US-led war on Iraq.  She introduced them as the "coalition of the willing" except she accidentally said "coalition of the winning."  Heh.

Michael Moore is such a joke.  He’s not worth 3 seconds of anyone’s time because he’s a blabbering liar.  However Rachel’s response to (or, I should say, her honest re-wording of) his "letter to the president" is something everyone ought to read.  It just feels so good.

Did you read the news this morning?  Just in case you didn’t...  President Bush has advised UN weapons inspectors to leave Iraq.  In his presidential new conference last week he told the nation he would give the weapons inspectors and others inside of Iraq notice that an attack was coming.  He will address the nation tonight at 8pm to tell Saddam to leave for exile or face military action.  A vote will not be pushed for at the UN today.  Saddam has vowed to attack wherever possible. 

To us this certainly means more terror attacks here on our own turf.  If I told you I wasn’t scared I would be lying, but I personally am not willing to change my lifestyle over some jerk.  That is what he wants, from me he will not get that.  I am going on vaction to Washington DC the first week of April and no matter what I am going, my plans are not changing.

So that is the news.  God bless and keep our soldiers as they fight for us in a far away desert land.  God bless and guide President Bush in this most crucial hour.  God bless America.

...repeating the same process over and over again and expecting a different result.  I know the struggles and pain and cost of freedom and know that the free world has repeatedly given that Iraqi madman deadlines to comply which he has chosen to ignore.  We have finally stopped expecting a different result and the process of removing him from power seems to be military intervention.  I pray for ALL the people involved in this upcoming war, both sides have much to lose and much to gain as well.  Through this process perhaps the message will get through to the other madman in N. Korea.

Scum: Antiwar protesters trash 9/11 memorial

Photos: Allied forces train and prepare

The new messageboard is online... in fact, you’re using it right now.  The only visible differences are that the links are much cooler:

this:
nodivisions.com/?175
instead of this:
nodivisions.com/cgi-bin/board/comments/00175.htm

...and that the "reply to this message" form, at the bottom of each individual message, is now the same form as the main posting form.

So... that’s that.

Well, I’ve had some luck with finding some videos, but I might not get the chance to use them. With the way things are going and from over hearing a few things my sergeant was saying, it sounds like I might be rushed through A.I.T and my unit be called up.  Nothing definet, just rumors. (I can’t spell, I swear, I am the world’s worst)  Heck, I signed up though.  I knew all the possiblities, so I must go with them.  I’m not anti-war or anything, (besides the fact that I don’t like war, but I believe what needs to be done needs to be done)  but you can’t really blame me for getting some cold feet.  But I am happy about one thing.  Spring break is next week.  I am so ready for it, almost too ready considering I skipped Rugby practice today.  (I’m not really the sports guy, but for some reason I joined the Rugby team)  Also, the fact that the new Relient K CD is out.  It Rocks!  I also bought the new and last Ghoti Hook CD.  Why, oh why, do I have to discover such a great band on their final album.  Oh, well.  It won’t be that hard to order their other ones from my friends store.  Oh, one more thing, I have some friends from my church on a missions trip to Ecuador, (Yeah, I know.  The B.O.B song, "Mission trip to Mexico") and there going to need some prayer coverage.  It’s pretty cool, though.  My friend, Aaron’s, Uncle Ogar is helping them out because he lives down there.  It’s kind of an annual thing with my church.  He actually used to be an assassin.  Just pray that they will be safe and can reach a lot of people.

I can’t believe you people-- no one is saying that Saddam is a good person, but you don’t think HE’S the one that is going to be dying do you? He’s not going to be on the front lines. Those people in that anti-anti-war ad are just going to multiply immensely if we add bombs and tanks and guns to the starvation and torture and everything else that is already happening to them.  People like them are going to be fighting for Saddam...for his dictatorship. These opinions really make me sick.  Just because we aren’t smart enough to get Saddam doesn’t mean we should take it out on his people.

I’m such a sporadic blogger.

So spring break is going really well, which is to say, I’m getting tons of sleep and a lot of relaxation. John Paul visited me on Sunday-Monday and we hung out, went caving, listened to some fatty DJs, and watched Unbreakable.  He showed me this video that was really awesome... it’s 10MB, so basically if you’ve got broadband it’s no problem, and if you don’t then it’s out of the question.  Anyway it’s called "Timber" by coldcut... it’s sort of a music video, but not really... so download it.

I rewrote this whole messageboard script from scratch, and wrote it "nicely" with functions and few globals.  It’s just about done, and will be online soon, though you might not even notice.  But on the backend it’s much nicer and handles messages in a much more logical way, allowing complete style-reformatting without having to modify the content itself.  Anyway now that this script is all nice, I’m thinking of offering it for download.

I finally got around to checking out some Norah Jones like I’d been meaning to, and I’m glad I did.  Her music is just so pretty.  It’s "jazz" which means modern jazz, which is nothing like Louis Armstrong / Duke Ellington jazz of yesteryear that I like so much.  Norah Jones isn’t that at all, but that’s a good thing.  And her music is beautiful.  Butterflies, Come Away With Me, and What Would I Do are my favorites so far.

I think there was more that I wanted to say, and it escapes me now.  Oh yes, the 22-foot-wingspan unmanned "drone" aircraft discovered by weapons inspectors in Iraq last weekend, and that Hans "the jellyfish" Blix tried to hide.  The one that could potentially deliver chemical and biological payloads.  Now it’s one thing for France and the rest of the Weasels to be anti-American.  But for the weapons inspectors themselves to be less-than-upfront about their findings is just blatantly biased and unacceptable.  If Saddam isn’t a threat, when why do we continue to "find" these weapons, and if "finding" these weapons really is progress then why is Blix trying to cover it up?

Going into J4 cave. Please send help if I don’t reply to this within 12 hours.

These editorial cartoons are pure genius. Go see them all right now.

Bill’s got a photo online, a photo of him flying a jet. FLYING A FREAKING JET.  That is so cool.

So I was chatting it up with a friend of mine, and he mentioned something about someone being arrested for wearing a peace shirt. So after a little digging, I came upon this little tidbit.

Lieberman (executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union) said another sign of the times was the arrest earlier this week of a lawyer at a public mall near Albany, New York. The lawyer was charged with trespassing after refusing to take off a "Give Peace A Chance" T-shirt he had just bought at the mall.

Personally, I am all for attacking our enemies, when they present a clear and present danger.  However, I don’t feel Iraq does that, unless you count them not exporting any oil to us as attacking us.  Aren’t we still after whats his name?  You know, that guy... that one responsible for 9/11?  What was his name again?  I haven’t heard it mentioned in forever....................

Ok, so 9:49 AM isn’t exactly the middle of the day, but when you’ve been up since 3 AM it sure feels that way.

So I did a little redesign of the oao site and I really like it. Compare the new theme to the old one and see what you think.  While you’re there, hit up the sounds/words section and listen to 2 tracks from their second EP, due out soon... they are really rocking.

So my man Sean just pointed me to a band called Evanescence.  They’re a techno-rockish band with a semi-retro feel, but then they have some pretty piano songs... and I like them.  The vocalist is female, and sounds like Tori Amos mixed with Sarah McLaughlan on some of the tracks.  My Immortal especially -- this song is amazing. [Update: peep the lyrics.]

And my friend Ben, who not only takes cool photos and cool photos but also listens to awesome music, recently introduced me to the movie Donnie Darko.  This movie was apparently in theaters for a couple weeks a while back, but I had never heard of it.  So Ben was like you gotta check this movie out, and I was like ok... and then I heard a review of it on NPR and they were saying how awesome it was, so I was like man, I really gotta see this!  So I did, and well, it was really really good.  It’s a deep and semi-confusing movie about such things as space-time, schizophrenia, and giant bunny rabbits, with choice quotes like "how did you feel being denied these hungry hungry hippos?"  Although it’s hilarious, it’s not a comedy, nor is it a silly/stupid type movie.  What I really love about it is that Donnie is real.  He’s not some sissy hollywood actor playing some cheesey role, he’s just a normal (albeit psychopathic) person.  And he’s so stinking cool.  Anyway it’s one of those movies you need to watch a few times to catch all the details and put it together, and I can’t wait to watch it again.  From a Christian perspective, it was a little heavy on the cursing, but not any worse than real life, and there’s no sex scenes or nudity or anything like that.  Rock!

Oh, and I said that Ben listens to awesome music... he got me into two bands in particular that are just amazing.  A Static Lullaby are like a mix between Thursday and Taking Back Sunday.  They are just so good.  The do the semi-punkish hardcore with emo singing and screaming in the back thing, and they do it beautifully, better than most stuff I’ve heard.  The second band is In Pieces.  This band is like a more raw, more emocore version of Thrice, and they are really really good.

Garrett over at LinuxArt just posted some photos from last fall that are very nice... they make me wish all this snow would go away... and I love snow!  This one is my favorite.

Finally, I made a new theme for my site too.  It’s a very plain, old-school-internet type theme and I rather like it.  It’s called retro, and you can select it by clicking the link in the very top left-hand corner of this page.

So the other night I was up pretty much all night. I was working on a VHDL project, and in order to draw the x-window display of the signals in this component, the server had to "enumerate" all its fonts into a cache file.  There are 2241 fonts on the server.  It took THREE HOURS for this ridiculous process.  It just sat there going

  1 . . . . . . . .
61 . . . . . . . . . .
121 . . . . . . .

all the way up to stinking 2241.

This started at 1 am.  The project itself took less than an hour.  But I had to wait 3 hours to even do it.

Argh.... so I watched a movie while it enumerated that nonsense.  I have to say that "Being John Malkovich" is easily, I mean, far and away, the weirdest movie there ever could be.  It was interesting though, I liked it.  It wasn’t action-packed or anything, but towards the middle/end when the real John Malkovich sneaks in to "JM, Inc." and starts freaking out... that part was awesome.  John Malkovich is such an awesome actor, he’s so powerful and angry, and I was scared.  But anyway, I mean the movie had Cameron Diaz and John Cusack in it, but they were both nearly unrecognizable... Cusack had long, ratty hair and a beard, and Diaz had long permed dark hair and just a dirty look to her skin.  Neither of them looked like themselves at all.  But the movie was incredibly original, the script is unlike any other I’ve ever seen, just the whole idea was strange and neat.  And there was a monkey in the movie, and I mean he played a semi-significant role, so you know it’s a good movie.

Just wanted to the the first to wish you a HAPPY 03-03-03 !!! LVU&MSU, Always

First off, I would like to say that I am very happy thanks to the fact that the default color is now orange, or as you have it here, the color me (Joe). Second, I need some help searching.  I am currently working on getting a show on the local access channel, half Christain music videos, half whatever we want, for the fact that there is simply on place to hear good christain music in my town unless you love to listen to Michael W. Smith all day.  I, personally, abhor the sound of M.W.S. Not my style in the lest bit.  I am currently looking for a site to sell me V.H.S or DVDs of bands.  My style is bands like No Innocent Victim, Chellve, MXPX, P.O.D, Kutless, TwoThirtyEight, Relient K, 38th Parallel, etc.  Basiclly, things you would find in HM magazine.  My partners style is more Hip-hop.  He likes groups like KJ-52, T-Bone, Gospel Gangstas, and Master P (I forget what his new name is), who I praise God for bringing him to Christ and now delivering a very powerful message on his new C.D.  If you can give me some info on getting my hands on some videos, or can sell me some yourself, please do.  God Bless

One of the best, most poetic, most beautiful lyricists just keeps getting better...

A white horse picks my dreams up,
to take my hopes to God.
My prayers have nestled brightly
to dim my sense of awe.
I want you to be someone I can’t deny,
a house of fire...
I want you to be something I realize.

As the world goes ’round
it’s got me thinking...
that the things I want
just keep me sinking down.

I want you to be my message,
I want you to be my friend.
I want you to be that answer,
an answer I must defend.
I want us to solve our distrust of everyone,
and trust in God.
I want us to solve our distrust of who we are.
- Billy Corgan, "Ride A Black Swan"