Late March Rant

2004-03-22

Well, it's been a year since the war in Iraq resumed (since technically it's a continuation of the first Iraq war) and everybody is celebrating. Unfortunately, many in this country are protesting. I'm not really sure what they're protesting, but they're protesting rather aggressively. I heard one of them say they thought the Iraqis hate the United States and the violence is the proof. Since the violence is caused by non-Iraqis streaming into the Iraq, I don't know that speaks to the attitude of the average Iraqi citizen. Perhaps more of the protesters should be moved to Iraq to get a better grip on things.

The Pakistanis still have Al-Zawahri surrounded and are pummeling his encampment. It's too bad that capturing him alive would be so useful. It's also too bad that Pakistan hasn't asked for American aid in this matter. The U.S. military has gotten pretty good at converting mud huts into dust and might be able to help quite a bit. Oh well, if he "accidentally" gets mashed into a puddle of meat, it's easier politically if the Pak Boys are to blame.

Here stateside, politicians are still complaining about our high unemployment. When I looked at the unemployment, it's right about at the typical, average unemployment rate for this country. I don't see where you can gripe about a statistic that is perfectly normal.

It does concern me that fuel prices and steel prices are going up. That'll push up the Producer Price Index and then the Consumer Price Index. Those are indicators that unemployment will be climbing soon. Yea Unemployment! Oh, wait; we don't want that. I guess we'll have to increase oil production and increase steel recycling. That, or we can stop exporting steel to China.

Like many places, Iowa is having trouble paying for all the nice things for our schools that we like. Hey, things are tough all over. Though they didn't like my plan for sending privateers into Illinois to loot them, our Governor and State Assembly are coming up with as much cash as they can.

I know that music and art are important, but we must put our real effort into literacy, math, and reasoning. By 'reasoning' I mean logic. Formal logic is a good set of skills to learn. Once a child has learned those reading, math, and logic skills, it is easier to teach the child things like art, music, and cultural diversity. Why? Because it gives the child the tools needed to learn more efficiently. It's like buying the proper tools to do the job; it makes the job that much easier.

I've decided that fish are funny creatures. I figure they communicate among themselves with simple thoughts. I hear that fish don't have much in the way of memories, so I suppose they have plenty to talk about. "I just swam past an interesting log." "What was interesting about it?" "What was interesting about what?"

When I picture their communication, I see the typical American stereotype of the eccentric, nineteenth century, English aristocracy. They say a lot of "Um, eh what," and "Oh yes, quite, quite." Fish are just funny that way.

That's enough for this generic rant. In keeping with tradition I'll finish with one last note. Chicago is a terrorist state and should be avoided! No Chicago!

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