i can tell it's a slow news day when i've already exhausted my extensive list of news sources before 9:00 and still have little to post on. anyway, in the "it's news despite the fact that it's not news" department, the israelis are attempting to remodel palestine while they simultaneously expand quickly in an action described as "relatively legal". say what you want to about the 1967 border...but there's no justification for further annexation of land in the occupied territories, something the geneva convention prohibits. read this and try to keep an open mind about everything. my life's problems are very insignificant by comparison.

okay, to begin with, i'd like to critique the new usda method of food distribution with respect to french fry consumption. in the past, the usda cafeteria simply sold boardwalk fries in the traditional tub containers. this presented problems for those of us too hungry for the "small" size, as few large containers were ever put on display; in an effort to remedy this, tptb decided to simply provide the empty containers along with some tongs to put the fries in the container; this enabled utility minded individuals, like yt, to physically cram in as many fries as possible into the container, in clear compensation for the horrible fry space packing that has been visited upon us for years in the form of mcdonald's super-size, burger king's king size, or wendy's biggie size bait and switch techniques. yet today, upon my return to the caf, i discovered that they had moved to the old system again (albeit with new containers). argh! speaking of not getting what you voted...er...paid for, there's a great piece on ari fleischer here in tnr today. As i watched the west wing last night i thought to myself, does ari ever engage in panic-driven moments of conscience? or is he so clueless that he believes his own lies? the answer is, of course, that ari intellectual gimics have twisted his mind into in-spin-anity;

sorry for the tardiness in posting today...work on my personal website has taken a bit of time (of course there's not a link, idiots! i'm not about to shed the veil of secrecy just yet!); in other news, check out this piece on intelligent design, and then shake your head at this piece on intelligent design. When will people realize that school should help kids learn to think critically, and that rigorous examination of "faitH" reveals, in the end, that "faith" cannot be dissected in a rational manner? if it were possible (as descartes tried) to prove the existence of god, then everyone would be a believer...in the end, if you believe truly, you don't need miracles or a microscope; faith is not built upon equations or code: spam-bots are.

upon further investigation, i managed to dig up this list of politicians and pundits who avoided service. it was used to create this comparison of democrats versus republicans in the veteran category. conventional wisdom, as it turns out, is dead wrong!

after a fairly relaxing memorial day of eating, watching war movies and, in general, enjoying the freedom purchased with american lives, i watched Swordfish, a movie with a deliciously morally ambiguous conundrum...just how far are we willing to go to protect our freedom? the movie puts the question in a new context: rather than espouse the gun-toting civil libertarian side of things, it instead proposes that a government by the people, and for the people, be able to kill those same people for the greater good...go utilitarianism! while empathizing with the general sentiment, such a view can be knocked around when the person in charge doesn't get enough sleep. Thank god bush knows how to delegate...or the country would be in worse shape than it already is. it seems ironic that bush couldn't remember his own dad celebrating memorial day in italy...until one remembers bush forgot to serve himself for the national guard, no less. and to think this guy lost to mccain...