Whew!

Double-Think

Ever had a decision to make and waffled back and forth so long that you started feeling silly? That happens to me a lot... But I've been trying to make a certain decision for nigh on two weeks now, and I'm just now coming to the end stages of my internal struggle. I have completely and utterly made my mind up (for the third time). Now all I have to do is ask my vunderful Viennese vife what her opinion is... I shall be certain to post my decision here once it's finalized. Again.


Things to Think About...

It's been five years. Why hasn't our government found Osama bin Laden yet?

The Bush administration has spent billions of dollars on national security. Why, then, aren't we secure? The 9/11 Commission has recently (in the past few weeks) given our government a failing grade on this sort of thing. (As if we needed to be told, after watching our government's ineffectiveness during Katrina.)

Why is Haliburton still making money off the Iraq war?

Why is our vice-president still advocating torture? The United States of America is NOT supposed to be the first to abandon the Geneva Conventions. We are NOT that sort of nation.

Why are our children still being left behind? (I read in Readers' Digest this month that the United States is ranked 24th out of 28 nations in math. In science our 15-year-olds are tied with Latvia at number 24. Wonderful - Latvia has an education system as good as ours. We used to be able to be proud of our educational system.

Why do we have secret prisons in Europe? What are we hiding from ourselves?

Why are there still "detainees" at Guantanamo Bay? Why haven't they been processed yet? Why are we holding them in Cuba? Boy, I'd hate it if a bunch of, say, brainy Latvian soldiers invaded Iowa and took me off to a prison camp in Cuba and left me there for five years. Thank God we have the Geneva Conventions, and common decency. Oh, wait... (I know, I know. The people being held at Guantanamo Bay are accused of nasty crimes and terrorism. I have no problem picking them up and detaining them. But for FIVE YEARS? In Cuba? That's not good, folks. We're supposed to be Christians.)

Does anyone remember back in 2004 when United States President George Walker Bush was running for re-election? Remember all those rallies he had, with cheering people waving flags? Did you know that if the Bush people thought you may disagree with Mr. Bush, they banned you from attending the public meeting. Why haven't we heard more about that? There are lawsuits pending...

Remember Mr. Rumsfeld? Whatever happened to him. He's being awfully quiet. Someone had better go see what he's doing...

What happened to Tom DeLay, former republican bigwig? Last I heard he was in Texas... He was going to go to trial for conspiracy and money laundering, then he got the judge removed because the judge had contributed a couple hundred dollars to liberal causes and got a hand-picked conservative judge on the trial. Mr. DeLay is still going to trial. United States Vice President Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney heard about this and promptly went to Texas and raised a bunch of money for Mr. DeLay's defense. (I don't know why Mr. Cheney had to get involved. Mr. DeLay probably could have tapped into his own funds. Or possibly had his friends help out. After all, Enron donated $28,000 to Mr. DeLay earlier in his career, and has given "DeLay-friendly" causes $133,000. What could be more DeLay-friendly than keeping him out of jail? source)

When did the government throw free speech out the window? Did you know that both the Bush administration and the armed forces have paid journalists and publications to write stories that are good for their cause? That's fine and dandy, IF you make sure everyone knows it's advertising. If you write advertising and let people think it's news, you're a fink in my opinion.