3.12.2005 ||> Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition
I have been paying attention to that story of the kid who supposedly plotted to kill the president. It really seems like the US is putting itself out there to be criticised. If the kid was tortured, then his entire confession should be thrown out. Not only is torture a despicable way of getting a confession, but it's a really crappy way of getting the truth out of anyone. Who wouldn't say anything to stop a beating? I know I'd confess to pretty much anything.
Not to mention, now no one will ever find out the real truth. Any confession under torture must be invalidated. If Ahmed Omar Abu Ali did in fact plan to assasinate Bush, then he will be back out on the streets. His conspirators will never be captured and justice won't be served. If he didn't, then he will have this following him around for the rest of his life. Thanks to the overzealous Saudis and the Justice Department for screwing up yet again.
Labels: politics
There's an interesing article in the March 7 edition of Newsweek. Fareed Zakaria writes about how it could be possible very soon to get cars that run 500 miles to a gallon of gas. That's right, 500 miles.
The current crop of hybrid cars get around 50 miles per gallon. Make it a plug-in and you can get 75 miles. Replace the conventional fuel tank with a flexible fuel tank that can run on a combination of 15% petroleum and 85% ethanol or methanol and you get between 400 to 500 miles per gallon of gasoline. (You don't get 500 miles per gallon of fuel, but... ethanol and methanol are much cheaper than gasoline so fuel prices would drop dramatically.)He also says that the cost of changing over our transportation system would cost $12 billion. But considering that we've spent hundreds of billions in Iraq... it doesn't come to very much.
Potentially this would also do lots for us, like make us less dependent on the Saudi royals, reduce our emissions far lower than even the Kyoto accords asked for and protect our national resources like the Alaskan wildlife refuge. Now if only the oil lobby could be forced out of the pockets of legislators so it could be reality...
I watched Queer Eye for the Straight Guy the other night and it changed my life. All these years, I have been pronouncing the word "bruschetta" wrong. I feel as if a veil has been lifted. Thank you, Fab Five.
Something else I just saw was Hotel Rwanda. Absolutely brilliant movie. I remember watching the events in 1994 and I have to say that those thirty second clips do not do the scope justice. This movie does, and if you haven't already seen it, do so soon as it will be gone from the theatres any day now.
Last month I made it a goal to blog every day or as close to every day as I could. It was an experiment of my own to see what it would be like to have a blog people could visit every day and have fresh content. I felt like I was really busting ass and while it felt good to write so much, I have to say there was a lot of pressure. I found that while I wrote more, I really had less to say and I started to run out of topics. Truth be told, I'm just not that interesting.
Also, contrary to popular belief, frequency of posting is not directly proportional to number of people visiting your site per day. If it had been, I would have had more motivation to be interesting!
On the other hand, I did not like that I was only posting once a week before. I always felt like I should be writing more. And this part is true. Going through the archives, I found that my early writing sucked, and while I'm still not up there with the better blogs out there, I am much better at blogging. This upholds that adage that writers write and that's why they're writers. I find it very hard to believe that someone who starts out with little talent but a strong work ethic would remain a poor writer forever. That, and I truly love to write and I hated that I could only write once a week.
But enough about me. The point is, that I'm going to be writing more, but without the pressure. There has to be an in-between.
Today is International Women's Day. This was my favorite holiday when I was in the Peace Corps. The mere presence of two x chromosomes were enough to get me flowers, candy, presents and dinner out with someone. Women don't cook on Women's Day, so typically everyone goes out to eat. Usually, we women partied pretty hard.
I think that we should eliminate Valentine's Day and Mother's Day and make March 8th a celebration of all women: mothers, lovers, daughters and sisters. Spring is in the air and it's the perfect time for a celebration.
I have been trying to stay as quietly sick as possible because my uncle's mother is a bit of a hypochondriac. If she sees anyone get sick, she will become sick. Unfortunately, the other night, I was coughing uncontrollably and she did notice. Later, she asked me if I was sick and I answered that I was as healthy as could be. Then she said she heard me coughing. Feeling impending doom, I told her that I have asthma and I was just clearing my throat. Then she says, "Yes, well, I was wheezing last night too."
And here I thought the entire time that my asthma was a result of my parents' constant smoking inside the house with all the windows shut throughout my formative years. I now know that it isn't true... you can catch asthma. Who would have thought?
So I posted almost every day last month and now I'm dropping the ball again! Well, there's a couple of reasons I suppose:
1. It's snowing and I'm about 50% less likely to communicate when it's snowing because I'm depressed.
2. I'm feeling really oogy with a head cold and cough and I can barely get out of bed.
3. Despite the above two I'm really trying to do some job stuff.
Besides, as it turns out, my posting every day did nothing to help my stats. I actually had a dip. Interesting, that.
Hopefully my attitude will improve in a day or so.
