Letter Never Sent

In his speech before the graduating class of Westpoint, George Bush eerily echoed the dynamism of his Fascist and Nazi predecessors: “We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge,” Bush told the cadets, who listened pensively on West Point’s football field as their parents applauded robustly from the stands. “In the world we have entered, the only path to safety is the path of action. And this nation will act.”

I live for the day when Bush is gone, like Clinton before him, relegated to the dustbin of history. Where are the real leaders? That is one of the things I most object to about Bush, his spinelessness and lack of character. Everyone pretends he is not completely worthless. How much can you really believe in someone who doesn’t write any of their own speeches and who reads off of a teleprompter? He is nothing but a fraud.

I love this one the most:

• Rene Descartes, the French philosopher, speculated that monkeys and apes have the ability to speak but stay quiet to avoid being put to work.

But these others are good too.

• Hero, a greek engineer, invented a primitive steam engine about the time of the birth of Christ. It is used today as a rotating lawn sprinkler. (Who knows how history would’ve turned out differently if it had been developed further?)
• The female anglerfish is six times larger than her mate. The male anchors himself to the top of the females head, which is where he will stay for the rest of his life. The fish quite literally become one. Their digestive and circulatory systems are merged. Except to two very large generative organs and fins, nothing remains of the male.

  At first, male deep sea anglers are free swimming, with large eyes, no rod or lure, and no digestive tube. Their skin is smooth. When a female and male meet, the male grips her skin with his teeth as usual. From this moment he begins to degenerate. His eyes grow smaller and are eventually lost. His skin becomes spiny and around his jaws it fuses with the female’s skin leaving a small hole on each side of the mouth which water is drawn for breathing. His blood vessels join with those of the female and he is fed from her blood circulating through his body. Meanwhile, the male grows in size and he grows a large testes. The rest of his internal organs disappear. He is now a part of the female deep sea angler!

• Charles Magne, early King of France, was the greatest warrior knight of his time, stood 6 feet, 4 inches tall, and weighed almost 275 pounds. He had extremely muscular arms and legs, was the finest hunter and rider at his court, and could kill a man with a single blow of his fist. Yet he spoke in a voice so high and squeaky that his contemporaries compared it to the voice of a twelve year old.

Check with the US Census bureau to see how common your last name is. Well, shoot. My name didn’t even come up. Maybe my family isn’t having enough sex or something. It’s not very common, but come on!

According to this article some mullah in Egypt has declared a fatwa against piracy. In other words, this one idiot has declared ‘piracy’ or copying things as a crime against Islam. Piracy is the real expression of free-market principles. We need more piracy not less. Strong copyright is detrimental to civilization. Thousands of years ago when ships would land at the port of Alexandria city officials would confiscate all books on the ships and would have them sent to scribes to be copied and added to the Great Library. Once copied they would be returned. Freedom of information is a cornerstone of democracy and a pillar of society. Supporting strong copyrights has resulted in a stupid population and libraries that are chronically underfunded.

From the Washington Post:

Court Strikes Down Capitol Demonstration Ban

A federal appeals court today struck down a 30-year-old ban that keeps protesters from gathering on the east steps of the Capitol, ruling that concerns for security do not outweigh First Amendment constitutional rights that are “a centerpiece of our democracy.”

New FBI to Monitor Websites, Libraries, Churches:

“The FBI is now telling the American people, ‘You no longer have to do anything unlawful in order to get that knock on the door,’ ” said Laura Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington office. “You can be doing a prefectly legal activity like worshiping or talking in a chat room, they can spy on you anyway.” …

The new rules will allow agents to surf the Internet for Web sites that might give hints to terrorist activity, according to the description. The new guidelines will allow investigators to seek out and “identify sites and forums in which bomb-making instructions, preparations for cyberterrorism, child pornography, and stolen credit card information are openly traded and disseminated.”
 

Bomb-making instructions:

1. Get some explosive material.
2. Put it in something.
3. Detonate it. Presto.

Well, duh. Decriminalizing marijuana in London leads to 50% less violent crime in just six months from the BBC