Mike Huckabee on SNL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvSXpM5qGmg

This is hilarious. He may not be the Republican nominee, but at least he is intelligent and funny. I am very glad to see that he can laugh at himself.

Aloha.

So Many Things

Illness:

First, I have been ill since Monday night (today is Saturday). I have had a temperature over 100 the whole time. Shortly after becoming ill, I read a story indicating the flu season is pretty bad this year. Really? (sarcasm heavy here)

I may edit later when I am in my right mind, but for now, here are my thoughts on some topics:

University Shootings:

There was a shooting at a University where a former student entered onto a stage in a lecture hall kind of classroom armed with a shotgun and 3 handguns and opened fire on the instructor and the students, killing 5 and wounding over a dozen.

The following is a quote from a story on MSNBC.com:

Vulnerability exposed in today’s open campuses
'Can we stop it anywhere?' The answer, chillingly, may be no

Now, I don't want to offend or be too politically incorrect...oh wait...I do.

This comment is CRAP! Can we stop a gunman well in a "gun-free zone" like a school, hospital, sports arena, etc.? No. Does that mean we should just give up and call it a day? NO!!!

I don't know how many students were in that lecture hall. It sounds like quite a few. I would guess over 100. If even 10% were armed, and if only 50% of those felt comfortable using their weapons, that would be 5-to-1 odds. Even if those 5 were horrible shots, the shooter would still have been forced to keep his head down. Nothing makes you look for cover like being shot at.

We have chosen to make these target areas where everyone knows that they can bring a simple handgun and be the most heavily armed person. The fact that we advertise this is criminal.

The best way to stop a shooter is to shoot the shooter. In places (like a recent church shooting attempt in AZ) where someone has been armed and paying attention, large body counts have been avoided. From what I can tell, the only reason there isn't a higher body count on this one is the murder's use of a shotgun. I saw numerous pictures of people who were sprayed with shotgun pellets, but not killed by them. If he had used some of his limited military training and used something with more killing power, in a group that large, body counts would have been much higher. Good for us all that he was psycho and stupid.

We created these areas where the good guys can't shoot back...where good guys can't appropriately defend themselves. Criminal.

Now, I know I'll get feedback like "what about accidents", "what about people who turn into bad guys", "what about guns (even good guy guns) going off in a crowd like that", etc.

I could go into exhaustive arguments on these topic, but I'm not going to. I'm ill and those arguments lack merit. Here's what I will say to nay sayers: I dare you to look into the faces of the parents of the young adults who just died and tell them that their son or daughter shouldn't have had the right to defend him/herself. (Don't really do that. If you are reading this and from Berkeley, I know you are on the phone already.) Your right to feel safe does not trump anyone else's right to actually be safe. If you feel differently, you are selfish in the extreme.

We created "gun-free zones" on planes. Then 9/11 happened. Now, pilots can be armed and there are Federal Marshalls to protect us. I guess we could go that route. Let the staff/faculty of a University be armed and station armed law enforcement in classes. (Can anyone see any way the last part of that is practical?)

Starship Troopers 3:

I don't know where I've been. Starship Troopers: Marauder (3) is in post-production (according to IMDB). It will be starring General Johnny Rico (once again, played by Casper). Johnny took Starship Troopers 2 off.

Now, I've never been a huge fan of the movies (other than the general "it has soldiers and guns and killing the enemy"). But, compared to the book, the movies have been bad. Really bad. The movies deomonstrate that the directors have no idea what Heinlein was talking about in his book.

So, without much information about the movie, I don't have much hope that it will be wonderful. But, I am amazed that they are still going. Who would have thought that there would be two more after the first one? Not me.


Finally, despite the fact that I was ill, my wife and I took note of the fact that we have been married for 14 1/2 years, as of this past Valentine's Day.


Well, that's all I've got for now.

Aloha.

More Berkeley

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,329866,00.html

Short version: Mayor of Berkeley "Oh CRAP! You mean there are consequences to our actions? Well, our words don't really mean anything anyway...so we'll say we're sorry. Please don't take our money."

My response to Mayor of Berkeley: Bite me. Don't mess with the bull if you don't want the horns, son.

My recommendation: Look for even more money to take. Add an amendment to the new "rebate" bill to exclude anyone living in Berkeley or attending UC Berkeley.

Aloha.

Berkeley and server names

Many of you know I am a professional computer person. I am also a military person. Here is where the two come together.

Through a rather convaluted set of circumstances, I became aware of one of the e-mail server names that UC Berkeley has. It is zahedan.eecs.berkeley.edu.

Typically, when a computer person names a server, there is some reason behind it. I have heard of naming conventions including snack foods, Comic books and (ours at CU) Disciples. So, when I saw this name, I wondered what zahedan was. I was curious.

Now many of you have seen my post about Berkeley the town and its response to the miltary and some suggested response from the military community.

Anyway, zehedan:

Zahedan, city in southeastern Iran, located near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province at altitude of 1,352 m from sea level at a distance of 1,605 km from Tehran.

Lying east of the "Kavir-e Loot" desert, Zahedan used to be called "Dozdab", as it was the meeting place of bandits. "Dozd" means robbers and bandits. "Ab" means water or a place of water. Bandits used to frequent the place for their drinking water.



Why do they have a server named after an Iranian city??? Oh well. I guess the fighter jockeys can just have a better excuse for why they got the wrong zahedan. "Oh, I thought you meant the server at Berkeley. Oops."

Aloha.

Election Results Analysis

Well, I have been holding off posting about elections. Many of you (my friends) have known that I have predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the presidency. I called this over a decade ago (and I have witnesses), when she was still the First Lady, not a citizen of New York, not a Senator from New York, not a democratic presidential candidate hopeful. Back then, I remember being questioned on Hillary's political aspirations (or apparent lack thereof at that time). I guess at least that question has been conclusively answered.

I am not going to focus on my precognative abilities any further in this post. What I want to focus on is some of the election results and demographics.

Tonight, as I listen to election coverage, I hear things that disturb me, as it reflects negatively on the state of our nation at its core.

Women are voting for Hillary, African Americans are voting for Obama, and the Mormons are voting for Romney. As the results of the elections pour in, we discover that we are still a selfish and self-centered nation. We vote for the candidate we most identify with personally. We still believe that if someone shares our gender, race or religion, that person will represent us best. There is a certain amount of distrust for someone "other".

I would have hoped that we would have been able to move beyond things like gender and race and vote for the person who has the best ideas and abilities to lead our nation.

What these results tell me is that the presidential race is a popularity contest, with the person "most like me" winning that contest.

How petty.

We have a political responsibility to elect the best candidate. When we make it a popularity contest or simply elect the person who will guarantee the most money from the public coffers to "me personally", we abuse that responsibility and mock the blood of those over the centuries who have died to provide this unprecedented level of political power.

How tragic.

Aloha