Iran at war with US

From FoxNews:

Iran's Parliament Signs Resolution to Label CIA, U.S. Army as 'Terrorist Organizations'

Well, I guess I don't have much to add to this. Only that this demonstrates the understanding of words vs. action that the Iranians have and their desire to wage information war against us.

To educate slightly, Total War is waged using information warfare, economic warfare, diplomatic warfare and military warfare. A truly effective government wages ware on all of those fronts.

Iran has been using diplomatic warfare by having its President speak to the UN. It is using information warfare by having its President speak to Columbia and having its Parliament try to label us the bad guys. They are using economic warfare by working with its OPEC members to force the price of oil ever higher. They are using military warfare by detaining British troops and supporting the Iraqi resistance.

Anyone who believes we are not at war with Iran already is blind.

Aloha.

Life is a lemon and I want my money back vs. Ecclesiastes

Meatloaf's Life is a lemon and I want my money back

Played with a heavy rock beat
I want my money back
I want my money back
Its all or nothing
And nothings all I ever get
Every time I turn it on
I burn it up and burn it out
Its always something
There's always something going wrong
That's the only guarantee
That's what this is all about
Its a never ending attack
Every thing's a lie, and that's a fact
Life is a lemon and I want my money back!
And all the morons
And all the stooges with their coins
They're the ones who make the rules
Its not a game - its just a rout
There's desperation
There's desperation in the air
It leaves a stain on all your clothes
And no detergent gets it out
And were always slipping through the the cracks
Then the movies over - fade to black
Life is a lemon and I want my money back!
I want my money back
I want my money back
What about love? Its defective!
Its always breaking in half
What about sex? Its defective!
Its never built to really last
What about your family? Its defective!
All the batteries are shot
What about your friends? They're defective!
All the parts are out of stock
What about hope? Its defective!
Its corroded and decayed
What about faith? Its defective!
Its tattered and its frayed
What about your gods? They're defective!
They forgot the warranty
What about your town? Its defective!
Its a dead end street to me
What about your school? Its defective!
Its a pack of useless lies
What about your work? Its defective!
Its a crock and then you die
What about your childhood? Its defective!
Its dead and buried in the past
What about your future? Its defective!
And you can shove it up your a**!!
I want my money back
I want my money back
Its all or nothing
And nothings all I ever get
Every time I turn it on
I burn it up and burn it out
Its a never ending attack
Every thing's a lie, and that's a fact
Life is a lemon and I want my money back!
And were always slipping through the the cracks
Then the movies over-fade to black
Life is a lemon and I want my money back!

Ecclesiastes

2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

2 And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive.
3 But better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

12 For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone?

20 There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.

I believe Meatloaf did his research before writing his song. Clearly, he is speaking of the Fall. All is Fallen.

Unfortunately for Meatloaf, who just turned 60, it seems like his story ends there. How depressing.

Isn't it so much better with the happy ending that God makes available to us all?

Aloha.

Is intolerance ever acceptable?

There has recently been great debate regarding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being invited to speak (and subsequently speaking) at Columbia University in New York City.

The basic arguments boil down to these two:

1. We should listen to anyone, no matter how much we may or may not agree with that person's view.

2. We should not listen to this nut.

Basically, we boil down to the question in the title of this post: "Is intolerance ever acceptable?"

My short answer is...YES!

My middle answer is that there are certain things horrible enough in this world that we should do everything we can to constantly reinforce that these things are horrible. These things should not be entertained, discussed or toyed with. They should be held up only long enough to denounce them.

My long answer is best summed up by quoting from the Washington Post, "Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a statement that "anyone who supports terror, pledges to destroy a sovereign nation (Israel), punishes by death anyone who 'insults' religion ... denies the Holocaust and thumbs his nose at the international community, has no legitimate role to play at a university.""

Aloha.

ROTC bad, Iran good?????? - Link

If you work at a university, or are interested in what hypocrisy means, you need to read this post:

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/09/columbia-univer.html

Mime Marcel Marceau Dies

I have conflicting thoughts on the topic at hand.

On one hand, it sounds like Marcel Mangel (the French Jew who worked with the French resistance during WWII) was a really great person. He worked altering IDs so that children would be "too young" for the Nazis to deport. He lost his father in a concentration camp during WWII. Marcel changed his name to hide his Jewish origins.

On the other hand, Marcel Marceau is probably single-handedly responsible for the "art form" of "Mime" becoming popular, thereby earning an unending amount of scorn from me and, most likely, the rest of the world.

So, instead of making this simple, it will be a little more complex.

I mourn the loss of Marcel Mangel, the resistance member who bravely acted against the Nazis. I rejoice that there is one less mime in the world and long for the day when there are no more mimes.

Aloha.

Iran's New Plane

Here is a link to a blog post. The best part is the mention of Voltron. Make sure you don't miss it. It is in the sentence right after the quote.

http://op-for.com/2007/09/blast_from_the_past.html

I read this blog regularly. It is good stuff.

Aloha.

FoxNews: "Earth-Shattering Study: Men Like Good-Looking Women"

This was honestly the title of a post by FoxNews.com.

Negatives: First, scientifically, they only studied 26 men and 20 women. Statistically, not enough. Second, it was in only one country, Germany. Third, it was in the controlled setting of...speed dating. To say that over the course of "short meetings of three to seven minutes" you can draw significant conclusions on the mating rituals of humans is overstatement in the extreme.

Positives: Even though this study is scientifically questionable at best, the conclusions were interesting (if true). To quote the findings:

"Men's choices did not reflect their stated preferences, the researchers concluded. Instead, men appeared to base their decisions mostly on the women's physical attractiveness.

The men also appeared to be much less choosy. Men tended to select nearly every woman above a certain minimum attractiveness threshold..."

"The scientists said women were aware of the importance of their own attractiveness to men, and adjusted their expectations to select the more desirable guys.

'Women made offers to men who had overall qualities that were on a par with the women's self-rated attractiveness. They didn't greatly overshoot their attractiveness,' Todd said, 'because part of the goal for women is to choose men who would stay with them.'

But, he added, 'they didn't go lower. They knew what they could get and aimed for that level.'

So, it turns out, the women's attractiveness influenced the choices of both the men and the women."

I would argue that women's perception of their attractiveness probably influenced their decision. If a woman perceived herself as unattractive, she would seek someone who was needy/clingy/likely to stick by her. If she perceived herself as attractive, she would aim a little higher.

Again, an interesting thought, but not terribly good science.

Aloha.