infinite improbability

Well now, aren't the French a bunch of hypocrits? A.K.A. Invade Haiti? Yeah, how's that for imperialism?

The BBC News website is reporting that the French are considering military intervention in Haiti. Seeing as Haiti is a former French colony, the idea of the French sending troups to Haiti sure sounds like colonialism to me--there is no sign that anybody asked for their help (as opposed to the US in Liberia last year), but the French have taken it upon themselves to step in, without any mention of taking it to the UN before they decide whether or not to act. This is the same country that had a fit that the US of A decided to act in Iraq without UN approval, but I guess it's only the US that has to follow those rules, the French are above them. And, if the French do show up as "peacekeepers," how long are they planning to stay? I can't imagine that it's going to help the situation very much if France decides to start acting like Haiti is a pseudo-colony and starts flexing it's imperialist muscle again. They haven't been happy about their declining influence in international affairs, so I doubt that this is really about peacekeeping and isn't really about getting a power foothold on this side of the Atlantic.

Oh yeah, there's a word for intervention in a country without invitation. That word is invasion.

Ricin letter sent from Chattanooga

The FBI has released photos of the ricin letter and envelope, and it turns out that it was mailed from Chattanooga, apparently by someone who was disgruntled by the new trucking regulations that mandate additonal rest for truckers.

Here is the FBI's press release, and the photographs of the letter and envelope can be found here. If the culprit is in fact a trucker, they probably were just passing through Chattanooga, but you never know, someone who's dumb enough to mail poision to Congress might just be dumb enough to mail it from their home city. If that's the case, then there is a chance that someone from Chattanooga might recognize the handwriting. If you have any information as to the identity of the letter writer, the FBI can be contacted toll free at: 1-866-839-6241.

For those too lazy to click the link to view the pictures, here they are.

---The Envelope---

---The Letter---

testing...

this is a test. my last entry didn't post, so I'm doing a test

Colorado football

Man, the more I read about all that went on with the CU football team, the more I think that heads need to roll, from the coaching staff on up. Sounds like there was a culture there that saw women as nothing more than chattel to be used for whatever the players wanted. Something seriously needs to change. That's all I have to say for now. It's just sickening.

Stupid lamer script kiddies

Some little punk kid from this youth Bible study that my brother has been going to decided that he was going to hack my brother's e-mail and instant messenger accounts. My brother logged onto his yahoo mail this afternoon and found a message in his inbox asking him to confirm a change in e-mail address for his AIM account, so he went to log onto AIM and found that the kid had changed all the buddy list folders into a message about how "you didn't believe me when you sat in my chair and I said I'd own you, now you see what a great hacker I am," or something like that. The kid clearly think's he's an excellent hacker, and goes around bragging to everyone he knows, but it's pretty obvious that he's a luser 5cr1p7 k1dd13.

When my brother found out what the kid had done, he called up the kid's parents, who told my brother that they would deal with the kid when he got home, but whatever they did to him didn't sink in real well because when he was made to call and apologize, all he did was defend himself and insist that it wasn't illegal or morally wrong.

I can't believe how stupid the kid is--he tells my brother he's going to hack him and then he goes and does it and brags about, even going so far as replying to a message my brother had gotten from someone they both know, identifying himself, and going on about how he's such a great hacker. He's the kind of kid who, if he's not stopped, is going to get a bigger and bigger ego, and next thing he knows, he's going to find the FBI at his doorstep because he tried to hack a government computer or something. Luser script kiddie.

I think the following quote from Gone in 60 Seconds is appropo (replace "gun" with "script" and "stealing a car" with "hacking"): "Why, you lazy-a** bully! Any a***h*** can pull a gun on somebody! You do not know the first thing about stealing a car! Boy, you need a role model!"

The Drudge Report's claim about John Kerry

The infidelity scandal in John Kerry's future. According to the story, several media outlets are investigating the story.

Time will likely tell whether Drudge's story is correct, and if it is, things could get rather interesting. The question though, is whether the public will react like they did with Gary Hart or Bill Clinton.

Carlie

As I mentioned over on Scott's blog, I had thought about blogging about Carlie Brucia's kidnapping and murder but I didn't know what else there was to say. I still don't know what there is to say, but I thought that it might be cathartic to get some thoughts down. If what I write is stream of consciousness, then bear with me.

For the last week, the only thing on the news or in the papers has been the search for Carlie Brucia. I don't live in Sarasota but I live close enough that all of the Amber Alert warnings weren't just some abstract thing in another place that you happen to hear about on the national news from time to time. My neighbor's son-in-law works with Carlie's step-father, the youth leader at the youth group my brother has been going to for the last few weeks lives down the street from Carlie's family. You hear about kidnappings in other places and think how horrible it must be, but it's different when it's not just some other place, when you look at the maps they put on TV and know exactly where it is, when you watch Hannity and Colmes and you know who the private investigator they are talking to is and know the backstory to his reference to knowing what it's like to lose a close relative to violent crime, and when you hear about how Joseph P. Smith was aquitted of a previous kidnapping charge and you remember reading about the case in the paper and remember thinking how terrible and outrageous it was that the jury bought his lame half baked defense and let him off.

The thing I don't understand is how, after hearing all that's happened, so many parents are still letting their kids run around unattended. I've never understood how the parents in my neighborhood didn't realize how dangerous it was to be letting their kids run all over the place, cut through neighbor's yards, and in general go wandering off without adult supervision. You'd think that those parents would think twice about letting their kids go off unsupervised after what's happened, but apparently it's hasn't, because they're still running around unwatched. I was driving around running errands on Thursday and there was a good half dozen kids that could have grabbed without any effort or weapons, and a few dozen more that could have been grabbed by anyone with a weapon who was so inclined. It's almost like the question that we should be asking isn't just "how could this happen to Carlie?" we should also ask "why are we so fortunate that it hasn't happend to more kids?" The only reason there aren't more kidnappings is because there aren't many people perverted enough to do it--it certainly isn't because of lack of opportunity.

Superbowl rant

Superbowl XXVIII was one of the better games in recent history, what with starting out as a not so exciting, but still interesting, defensive slugfest and turning into a close exciting game that went down to the final seconds. It looks like it might even be the start of a Patriots dynasty. That's not what everybody is talking about today though, all anybody seems to care about is the stupid stunt that Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake pulled at halftime. It's pretty pathetic when a really great game gets overshadowed by some shock value stunt that MTV came up with. I'm not even going to go into the whole thing about how inappropriate it was to pull something like that when kids were watching, because besides all that, it's totally classless to do some cheap stunt and overshadow the accomplishments of both teams on the field.