I Think, Therefore I Rant!

I have spoken about Iranian justice in the past and ranted that a population that wants to be treated seriously cannot be so barbaric.  Now I read about a blogger that specialized in cultural discussions was imprisoned and died in prison. On this blog, I rant and discuss a lot of politics and some cultural things.  In Iran, I would be thrown in jail and I too would probably be dead by now.  For as much as I complain about broken things in the US, at least it is better than most of the world.

I first saw this information on Blog Herald so go over and read about what they have to say on the subject.  You can also read more in the New York Times, the LA Times, and they all seem to point to Radio Free Europe.  

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A lot of noise was made about how George Walker Bush ruined our relations in the international community.  I have discounted this since international relations are always opportunistic and this is a perfect case in point. 

Mexico has been a close friend to the United States for decades.  The President of Mexico was always warmly greeted by GWB and I am sure that Barack Hussein Obama will greet him warmly as well.  But the confusing signals that BHO has sent on NAFTA combined with the foolish blocking of Mexican trucks (surely a concession to the politically powerful Teamsters) have triggered a needless and foolish international crisis and show the lack of multi-dimensional thinking that is required to run this country.

Now this foolish move is going to cost us billions in tariffs on goods that we ship to Mexico.  Hurting our economy by violating NAFTA in a down economy is not something we should be doing.  Offending our international friends is also something we shouldn’t be doing.  

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The coach of Duke University has reacted to President Barack Hussein Obama’s choice of UNC to win the NCAA Men’s Division 1 basketball tournament.  Coach K:

“Somebody said that we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four, and as much as I respect what he’s doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said from the Blue Devils’ first-round site in Greensboro, N.C.

I agree.  I hope BHO didn’t do this during work hours (which is 23.5 hours a day in his job).

Barack Hussein Obama, BHO, NCAA, March Madness, Duke, Mike Krzyzewski

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The White House has released the March Madness NCAA tournament picks of President Barack Hussein Obama.  While I don’t begrudge the man the opportunity to spend a few minutes of pleasure doing the same thing that many Americans are doing today, I question the wisdom of releasing those picks to the public.  I think it may play to the superstar status that he tried to get away from in the election (and caused Paris Hilton to release this video).  It also may be a little frustrating to the thousands that received a foreclosure notice today.

Regardless, here are BHO’s picks.  You can click on the image to go to the original larger image.

I question that BHO crossed out Louisville and then selected UNC.  While that may be a prudent choice, I wonder about his flip-flop on this issue.  I sure hope that he didn’t have a political analyst help him with this!  

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There are a lot of brackets out there that you can print off as a PDF file but this one is based in MS Excel and it has drop downs for each game that progress with the the winners that you pick.  If you aren’t using one of the web based pool management systems but are using a paper based system, this is a much easier way to run your pool or manage your personal picks.

Click this link to download the Excel file:ncaa-pool-master-2009

Please do not post this file on any other site but rather just refer them back to this page.

NCAA basketball pool, March Madness, men’s basketball bracket, bracket

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I wrote a comment on the blog “Replace Congress” that I wanted to repeat here.  Yes, I am the famous (infamous?) Irishman.  The subject of the blog post was the disgust of the signing of the latest spending bill even though it contains billions of dollars of pork and earmarks and is contrary to the campaign promises of Barack Hussein Obama.  Here are my comments but please click through and read the original posting and the comments of that blogger.

It is unlikely that BHO could have not signed this bill and keep 50+% of support that he currently enjoys. The really bad news is that he will almost definitely not be that strong in a year, will be looking at mid-term elections and therefore have to make the same compromise of his principles.

He needs to save this 50+% political capital for the other great socialization of the country that is to come – health care.  

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Another story in the continuing discussion regarding former prisoners at Guantanamo that returned to cause harm to Americans and our allies.  This further questions that very political decision to close Gitmo as a secure prison for terrorists.  We obviously cannot release them back to their home countries since it seems that so many were true criminals and should be put in jail for decades.

Here is a part of the story from AP but there are some other interesting thoughts at the blog Clinging to G & G  

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Click the image to go to the fill size image of this Dilbert cartoon on Dilbert’s site.

Dilbert, iPhone

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I read a lot of RSS feeds for work, blogging, and general interest.  I used to use Google Reader for most of this before I had my iPhone.  When the iPhone came out though I found that the iPhone reader was very difficult for me to read without my reading glasses (I have reached that point in life when I need to keep reading glasses close when I am going to do serious reading).  When I read feeds on my laptop, I don’t mind using my glasses but if I am away from the computer and just trying to catch a quick update, reading glasses are a pain to deal with.

Since the Reader on the iPhone wouldn’t let me change fonts, I went with another service, Newsgator, for my needs.  This required me to use their desktop app (or web app) as well.  I still prefered Google’s Reader but the entire package put me ahead.  

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For the past decade or two, Ronald Wilson Reagan set the standard as “The Great Communicator” while he was President of the United States.  There is no question that he excelled over the many bumblings of George Walker Bush as David Letterman has so aptly recorded for us!

However, it is already clear that President Barack Hussein Obama is going to take the mantle of the Great Communicator if he hasn’t already done so.

Here are some of his accomplishments so far:

• a YouTube channel of his weekly radio addresses
• a blog on the official White House site
• and has already delivered some excellent speeches

Congratulations to BHO and his staff on all of this.  I am sure that it has been quite difficult! Our government has never been the center of excellence for the use of technology. Clinton’s team was extremely frustrated at the lack of technology when they moved into the building.