Looks like someone thinks they know the name of the person who wrote Imperial Hubris: The Link

I've got an invite for a Gmail account, if any one wants it, just send me an email.

Last week, one of my co-workers approached me and asked if I would teach him Java. He thought we could build a application that would make our jobs a little easier and I could teach him Java in the process.

You see, we have no administrator privileges on our machines, so we can't install anything. There is a certain application that most people in my group used in the past, but has been taken away because we aren't allowed to have any software that isn't approved by management and since you have to download and install this particular application, it's considered "dangerous". He thought we could build an application that had the same functionality that the "illegal" software had.

We started to draw up a design. We realized that it would make our lives easier if we could use the Sun Microsystems NetBeans IDE to develop the app. The IDE is free to download. When we approached IT about having in installed, they said we needed approval, but they didn't see any problem. They emailed our boss explaining the situation. I bet you can guess our boss' response. "I don't approve of this." That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a show of her power. We were going to build a *free* application, in our spare time, when most people surf the net. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable reason for the denial.

Imperial Hubris sounds interesting.

Article about the book: Link

B and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 yesterday.

If you've had your eyes and ears open for the last 4 years there isn't going to be any new information presented. It was a little overwhelming to see the last four years of G.W.'s presidency wrapped into a nice two hour package. I'm not going to give a review of the film, but I do recommend that you see it. However, there are two scenes in particular that I can't seem to shake.

I recently read Bob Woodward's book, Plan Of Attack, and he describes the mood and meetings that are going on in the White House the night of March 19th 2003 when the president gave the order to bomb a farm south of Baghdad where the CIA felt Saddam Hussein, his sons, and their families where sleeping for the night. Woodward writes that Gerson, Bush's speech writer, felt Bush looked "...subdued and a little pale" and "a little bit burdened by all of this" about 30 minutes before the giving the speech that combat operations are starting. In Moore's film, he shows the tape of the few minutes before Bush gives this speech on March 19th. Bush is making faces at the people in the room and acting rather jovial. He doesn't look "subdued" or "burdened" at all. I'm starting to question some of the information that Woodward was given.

The second scene that I can't seem to shake is when Bush is told that the WTC has been hit and that we are "under attack". Strip away all the music and the voice over that Moore added, and you just can't help but notice...Bush is confused. At least for the seven minutes that he sat there with the children in the classroom, he does look he doesn't know what to do. Maybe I'm asking too much from a president, but I'd like to believe that most people would have told the children in the classroom that they should keep reading and that the president needs to take care of some business, walk outside, and get to fucking work!

Scot sent this to B and I today. I thought it was worth sharing. Thanks Scot.

"The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest ?' and my answer must at once be, 'It is no use'. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It's no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for."

George Leigh Mallory, 1922.

Sun Myung Moon thinks he's the messiah.
Awesome

This is an article from the New York Times Magazine that I found rather interesting: Link

I agree with Atrios about having "mixed feelings" concerning Michael Moore, but I found his exchange with Katie Couric satisfying:
Link

I haven't had much to say lately, but I'm going to try to post more often.

The lead headline in the Houston Chronicle claims that Ken Lay is going to be indicted. It's amazing to me that Mr. Lay hasn't been indicted yet. Is he going to have to do some real time, or is it going to be a slap on the wrist?

On a personal note, I turned down the offer from the $30k a year law school, and accepted admission at a school that offered a big scholarship. We're still leaving for San Francisco, but it looks like I won't start school until the fall 2005. A few more months in Austin isn't a bad thing.

Thanks to Atrios for the link. Thanks to Liberal Oasis for pointing out the republicans blatant hypocrisy

Purple Rain

Last month, B called to tell me that Prince was coming to San Antonio and she wanted to get tickets. I wasn't all that excited about driving down to San Antonio on a weeknight, and I knew it was going to be expensive. She was adamant about going to the show, so I agreed to get tickets and attend with her. I like some of Prince's music, but I wasn't so sure about going to see him in concert.

Yesterday, I left work early so we could try and get a jump on the traffic on our way to San Antonio. It rained the entire way and my mood was turning sour. When we finally arrived at the SBC center, they charged us $10 for parking. Now, this really pissed me off because I knew that most of the money to build the SBC center came from a local sales tax increase and an increase in bus fair. Reluctantly, we paid and drove in.

After the trek from the parking lot to the entrance (and getting rained on the whole way), we got in line and handed a ticket taker our tickets. She scanned our tickets and informed us that we needed to report to guest services. As we walked in a young lady handed both B and I a copy of Prince's new CD. We were told that everyone gets a copy of the new CD with the price of admission. When we arrived at guest services, we overheard that certain parts of the stadium had been closed and we were to be moved to new seats. All we could afford was the mid-range section so I started to get a little irritated knowing they were going to move us up even further. We handed the guest services worker our tickets and received our new tickets.

We walked all the way around the stadium to find our section. We finally reached our section...Section 22. We walked in to the stadium and realized (you know where this is going don't you?) there was a sign for section 22 and the arrow pointed down towards the stage. We walked down until we reached the fifth row from the stage. The seats were elevated so we were eye-level with the performers. I was shocked. These were phenomenal seats.

When Prince came out on stage the crowd came to life and you could feel the surge of energy in the stadium. He played some new songs as well as a few old favorites. Then, each member of his band was introduced and they performed a solo. I hear Prince call out Maceo Parker's name. I realize that Maceo Parker is playing in front of us. He's backing up Prince tonight. After the solos, Prince returns and he plays some of his popular hits with an acoustic guitar with no backup. It was amazing. He worked the crowd like a master, exclaiming at one point that "their ain't no lip syncing going on tonight, you didn't come to the circus". His band returned and they played for another hour, returning for a real encore and closed with Purple Rain. Almost three hours. Truly amazing.

I can proudly say that I am now a Prince fan. Thanks B.

Is it safe to assume that George Tenet will write a book in the next few months that points out all the mistakes the Bush administration has made in the last four years?

I've already written the "official" response to the book:

Fox News Exclusive:

George Tenet is just a disillusioned former employee on the brink of insanity. John Ashcroft is looking forward to opening an investigation as to the use of classified documents in the book. Tenet wasn't really in the loop. President Bush may have spoken to him once at a luncheon, but that's the only encounter they ever had.
It is also believed that Tenet is now working for the John Kerry campaign.

Right.

As an aside, The Onion daily calendar headline for June 3rd reads: "Casual One-Nighter Gives Strom Thurmond Change of Heart On Homosexuality Issue".

Awesome

The New York Times is reporting that investigators are administering polygraph examinations to civilian employees at the Pentagon to see who disclosed classified intelligence to Ahmad Chalabi.

Why waste the money on an investigation and polygraphs?

I've got the list right here:

George Bush
Dick Cheney
Donald Rumsfled
Tom Delay

There has been speculation that Iran has been pulling the strings behind Chalabi and that Iran has gained access to highly sensitive documents. Is the Bush administration going to invade Iran before the election? I hope not.

Fear

It seems that the most prevalent emotion these days is fear. Tom Friedman was on the Daily Show last night and he believes that the US is hated throughout the world because we export fear. Everyone is afraid of us.

I started reading The Paper Chase this week. Some people say that it's a accurate portrayal of the first year of law school. Maybe I need to watch the movie because the book spends more time on the love affair, not the experience as a 1L.

Haven't posted in a while.

I ended up turning down USF...but I got accepted to another school in San Francisco with a big scholarship and entrance into their honors program. See you in SF!