God's Love

I strap on explosives,
Go to a crowded marketplace
And martyr myself.
All in the name of God.

I demonize all who oppose me
And claim to fight against Evil.
Thousands of deaths
All in the name of God.

I separate them from us
And make their life miserable
For they must be punished.
All in the name of God.

I seek war in the Promised Land.
Christ will return to save us
And Evil will be defeated.
All in the name of God.

I fire rockets at unbelievers
Sending them to a fiery Hell
That is rightfully theirs.
All in the name of God.

Come, let us all share in God's love.

An admittedly dark poem on extreme faith.

Bush's Use of Crippled GIs

The presidential panel on military and veterans health care released its report yesterday. The report recommends a lot of changes to improve health care. Bush got his picture taken jogging with a couple of GIs wearing prosthetic legs. I saw them running together for about 100 feet on the news. It looks like (sorry the link is gone now) they ran a short distance right outside the White House and then walked back. I wonder how the two GIs were selected. And I wonder how they feel about being used as PR fodder.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A story full of sadness and tragedy well inter weaved with historical facts. There's still a happy ending but you wish for so much more.

Impeach 'Em All

After Alberto Gonzales's dismal performance today can you imagine an administration more corrupt, more incompetent, more inept, and more damaging to America? Hey, they have 18 more months to wreak their havoc. It's going to take a long time to restore our country--if it happens at all.

RTFM

We have HP ProCurve network switches at work. I tried using the ProCurve Manager software and it was a real pain to use. So I uninstalled it. Recently, I posted a question on a listserv asking what people were using to manage their ProCurves. The answer that came back informed me that ProCurve Manager gave them fits, too, but all was well once they read the manual.

Yesterday I reinstalled the management software and this morning I noticed that the switches needed a software upgrade. Not only that, but I had the capability to schedule the upgrade after hours so nobody's work would be affected. Whoo-hoo! I scheduled five of the switches to upgrade at ten minute intervals beginning at 7:15 pm tonight. One of the switches then went "red" in the display and was offline. It had updated its software and rebooted. Ten minutes later another switch did the same thing. Ten minutes later a third switch followed suit. Each one knocked anywhere from 20-40 people off the network. So I scrambled around and hurriedly explained to everyone what I had done.

Hmmm, I wonder if it would have gone better if I had read the manual first.

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb. Bomb, Bomb Iran.

It seems to me the purpose of latest diplomatic talks with Iran is to further raise America's ire with another member of what Bush declared the "Axis of Evil" back in 2002. How ironic that we, who invaded Iraq under false pretenses, accuse Iraq's neighbor of meddling in Iraq. When will the world learn that no one is allowed to meddle except us? We now have a third carrier group in the Persian Gulf. We don't have the military forces to invade Iran, but we have plenty of air attack forces. It won't be long now and we'll send cruise missiles or bombs to selected targets in Iran. Iran has a larger and more powerful military than Iraq did. One can only guess what their response would be. The bombing will certainly unite the people behind the mullahs who actually lead the country. For all his bluster, Ahmadinejad is a figurehead with no real political power. I fear our military forces in Iraq may be at greater risk. What if Iran's army invaded Iraq to attack us? How many Shiites in Iraq would join in? Regardless of the possibilities I fear an escalation that will prompt Bush to authorized the use of a nuclear weapon. After all, anything you do to fight Evil is Good and that fight against Evil will be his legacy.

It's True If It's On The Internet

http://www.xkcd.org/250/   Don't forgot to view the mouseover.

Would You Like to Bureaucratize That?

I work in a federal building in downtown Spokane.  Recently I went to the General Services Administration office to get the key to a phone closet that houses a backup server that had crashed.  There are two customer service counters in the office.  Nobody was behind either one.  The far counter had a sign next to a bell that said to ring the bell for customer service.  A woman sitting at a computer in a cubicle behind the counter looked at me when I walked in and then went back to her computer screen.  I could hear voices in the back so I assumed the person at the front desk had stepped into the back for something and would return shortly.  After a minute passed I didn't think anyone was returning shortly.  I looked at the woman who saw me come in and then I looked at the bell.  I thought, "No, this is not going to happen.  Someone is going to help me any second now." Another minute passed.  Defeated, I walked over to the other counter and rang the bell.  The woman behind the computer immediately jumped up, "Can I help you?"  Pavlov must be in charge of their training.

Oh, The Glory Days

Josh and I played softball last night for a rec league team that was short a couple of players. It brought back memories of things I used to do well thirty years ago. It was fun, but I still have to work at not competing so hard. I'm too Type A for just having fun. Fortunately no injuries. Josh played well for only playing in his second game ever. He has a lot of natural talent. It's fun to watch him play anything.

Religious Harry Potter Fan

Today during Mass at the Fairchild Chapel a young woman in one of the back pews read the latest Harry Potter book. I forgot to see if she took the book with her when she went up for communion.

Homemade Gelato

Last night Stephanie and I took a stab at making our own chocolate gelato. This morning we pulled it out of the freezer and taste tested. The texture was very good but the chocolate was overpowering. It was easy to see that my guesstimate of six ounces was way too high. Dry ounces? Fluid ounces? Avoirdupois? Troy? It's as confusing as metric vise grips. Now had the recipe called for scruples of chocolate...

Morning Hike

Bought a new pair of hiking boots yesterday and went for a hike to start breaking them in. I parked at the Indian Painted Rocks at the Little Spokane River. I brought the Nikon along just in case a photo opportunity presented itself.

Wouldn't it be funny if this was some early form of tagging?


Wildlife abounds and I take pictures of trees.


A dragon? A warthog? Every time I stopped to take a photo the mosquitoes reminded me that I forgot the Deet. Two of the bloodsuckers got me so I guess I got off lucky.


But I love the texture and contrast.


Okay, here's some wildlife. I walked for about an hour and a half. The boots felt good but my right heel started feeling tender. No blisters. Next time I'll try the Body Glide. Next time I'll wear the Deet. Next time I'll wear a hat. Oh what an outdoorsman I am!

Creationism and Evolution

A guest contributor for the Spokesman Review wrote about the "religion" of evolution in today's issue. I would post a link to the article but the Review didn't deem it fit enough to include it on their web site. Go figure.

The contributor was the Reverend Stan Hudson of the Moscow/Pullman Seventh-Day Adventist churches. In the article he claims evolution states there is no god. But since he's framing evolution as a religion that's an understandable claim to make. He even described Charles Darwin as a founding prophet. And better yet:

If you were to go to the Field Museum in Chicago, you would see a bust of Darwin, with a first-edition "Origin of Species" reverently displayed beneath him (as "The Word").

I didn't know. Well, I guess it's time for a pilgrimage.

A Senator's Sexual Hypocrisy

Cal Thomas's recent opinion article (I would post a link to the Spokesman Review but you have to register and pay--bummer!) about Senator Vitter's hypocrisy was somehow off target. Understandably our first reaction should be sadness. But should our second reaction really be, "How could he be so stupid?" What about, how could he be so immoral? Or perhaps, how could he be so hypocritical? Nope, the problem was stupidity because the senator from Mississippi did not think that in the future the madame would publish her phone records including the ones that would implicate him. Stupid is as stupid does, eh?

Christian Supply Store

I've driven by this store hundreds of times. So today I wondered what an Atheist Supply Store would sell.

Early Morning Ride on Rutter Parkway to Nine Mile Dam

I got up early (for a Saturday), put my camera in the pannier and took a leisurely ride on Rutter Parkway traveling alongside the Little Spokane River.

What a treat to have a natural resource like this so close to home.

It was a cool, quiet ride. Saw some wild turkeys with their young.

And while I was checking out the turkeys a chipmunk came out to have a look at me.

I rode on to Nine Mile Dam where several ospreys have nests. Even though I was a good distance away, this one didn't care for my presence.

One the way home I saw a peacock in front of a residence on the parkway. He worked the camera for me a little and then I headed on home.

Seattle to Portland Bike Ride - 2007

Kathy and I did our first STP. We rode the Burley and pretty much hauled ass the entire ride. We spent 5-1/2 hours in the saddle on day one and about 5-3/4 hours on day two. Our average speed was just a touch over 18mph. It was the first time Kathy did a century and she did two of them. She's an awesome stoker.

Here we are approaching the Lewis and Clark Bridge to cross the Columbia River into Oregon.