Digital Brainwaves

Archive for June, 2006

Meme of the Moment #1

Jun 26, 2006 Memes

1) Bold what is true about you.
2) Italicize what you wish was true about you.
3) Add one true thing about you to the end of the list.
4) Tag five LJ friends.

I’m tagging people on the honor system. If you haven’t done this and want to, tag yourself, do the meme, and comment here to let me know.

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Where the Hell is Matt?

Jun 24, 2006 Cool Links, Teh Funny

He’s been dancing all around the world… if you can call that dancing.

Go have a look.

Can someone explain to me…

Jun 23, 2006 Brainwaves

…why I’m told I need to call UPS or go to ups.com to place a delivery hold on a package…

…by the person standing behind the counter…

…of a damned UPS Customer Center?????????

Best way to win? Don’t quit.

Jun 16, 2006 Brainwaves, Politics, War On Terror

The naysayers have been knocking the war in Iraq almost since it began, calling it a quagmire, calling it hopeless, saying we need to get out, saying we have no exit strategy.

The problem is, setting an artificial exit strategy is a signal to your enemy that they can wait you out: “They’re leaving on this date. If we stay hidden until they leave, we’ll have the run of the country when they’re gone.” If you expect to succeed in a war, the only reasonable exit strategy is victory.

As much as the war’s critics want to hope otherwise, that is exactly what’s happening in Iraq — we’re winning.

Don’t believe me? Ask the enemy.

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Middle Ground

Jun 15, 2006 Politics

The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have each passed bills addressing immigration reform. The House bill focuses more on strengthened enforcement and security of our borders, while the Senate bill focuses in large part on a guest worker program and allowing illegal immigrants already in the country to start along a path that eventually ends in citizenship.

Polls have tended to show more support for the House bill than the Senate package, illustrating that the public tends to favor border security over citizenship for illegals, which makes sense. Opponents of the Senate’s bill call this amnesty, while its supporters state that this is simply providing for people who’ve come here looking for a living. One online pundit (I’ve lost the link to it, or I would post it — if someone finds it, let me know) put forward a comparison of illegally immigrating to this country to robbing a bank. He posited that, in fact, what the Senate proposes is not actually amnesty after all. Amnesty is defined as ignoring or forgiving a transgression. Amnesty for a bank robber would be letting him go free without punishment; amnesty for an illegal immigrant would be not prosecuting him for being in the country against our laws. The Senate’s bill, metaphorically, lets the bank robber go free and take all the money he robbed with him to keep. It’s not amnesty — it’s worse.

While I’m strongly in favor of security of our borders, I do have to agree with one of President Bush’s statements on this issue: “There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation.” He’s right, there is. And I think Mike Pence has found it.

Abu el Banat

Jun 14, 2006 Brainwaves

“You know, 15 years ago, we took a trip to Egypt. All five of us. Saw the Pyramids and Luxor and then headed up into the Sinai. We had a guide, a Bedouin man, who called me ‘Abu el Banat.’ And whenever we’d meet another Bedouin, he’d introduce me as ‘Abu el Banat.’ And the Bedouin would laugh and laugh and offer me a cup of tea. And I’d go to pay them for the tea and they wouldn’t let me. ‘Abu el Banat’ means ‘Father of daughters.’ They thought the tea was the least they could do.”

– President Bartlet, “The West Wing” episode “Abu el Banat”

Check out some shots my friend Andy took of my adorable “honorary niece” — his 5-year-old daughter Hadley. I can already tell, she’s gonna be trouble when she’s a teenager.

As coworkers of my friend Nate told him once, “You’re the father of a daughter now. Time to register for a gun permit.”