SPQR

Regarding Hurricane Frances

For those of you in Florida, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

FOUR DAY WEEKEND!

Iraqi insurgents- freedom fighters or terrorists?

I'm really enjoying the discussion in response to my previous post.

I might be slightly playing the devil's advocate, and haven't totally made up my mind on the issue, but these are things that we should consider.

French policy lesson

This morning I had my friend, the illustrious Cyrille Doux of Marseilles, speak to my US and World History Classes about Franco-American relations as of late.

It was very interesting, but I'm sure that some of it was over the heads of 10th and 11th graders.

His point was that France was so traumatized and scarred by the Nazi occupation, that they couldn't support such aggressive action against Iraq.

A decision that more and more people seem to be supporting as this war goes on.

When you think about it, is there much difference between Minute Men and Iraqi insurgents? The ones that don't attack civilians, that is. Fighting off an occupying force. I discussed this with others once or twice, and at the very least, it's worth discussing.

More depressing abortion stuff

This is pretty heavy.

Nasa launch was a bust

Late Sunday night my friend Cyrille and I drove two hours to Cape Canaveral to see a rocket launch.

I've lived in South Florida for seven years and haven't seen one yet, and Cyrille is an intern in the space industry, so we thought it'd be fun.

Thought it would be fun.

After leaving at 11PM, we arrived at an imposing gate when two machine gun-bearing guards that jumped out of the kiosk as we drove up and suspiciously asked us what we were doing.

Apparently we had missed a turn and these guys thought we were going to pull an Osama. After demanding that we 'evacuate this vector immediately, citizen', we found the parking lot of the visitor's center, from where (he assured us) we could view the launch.

We had about twenty minutes to kill before the 2:16 AM launch, so we wandered to the visitor's center, which is designed to look like a huge space station or something, complete with fiberglass astronauts positioned in weightless-type positions. The woman in the ticket booth assured us that, even though we didn't have tickets to take the bus closer to the launch pad, that was cool, because the view is the same from the parking lot.

Sounds good.

So Cyrille poses for a shot in front of some retired monstrous rockets of some sort, now awkwardly supported by circus wires, when a middle-aged security guard came briskly walking up to us, chest thrust outwards and informed us that we could not take a picture in front of the rocket, and certaintly could not watch the launch from the parking lot. Plus, Cyrille's French accent seemed to make him pretty nervous.

He insisted that the only place we were allowed to view the launch was thirty minutes away on a public beach.

The launch was in seven minutes.

Despite our half-hearted protests, we walked back to the car, past dozens of people camped out in the parking lot, singing the songs of the bored and drunk, all waiting for the launch.

We resolved to stand our ground, watch our launch, and enjoy it. We'll sit our ground was more like it. Actually, awkwardly crouch behind some bushes and cower as each security golf cart whizzed by is more accurate.

And there we hid, for about thirty minutes. And then it occured to us that it was well past the launch time.

So we called the "launch update hotline" or something and they had cancelled the launch moments before the scheduled time due to clouds.

We saw one or two clouds. A faint hint of a mist, really.

So home we drove. It had been rescheduled for the next night, but neither one of us really wanted to go through the ordeal again, plus it was a tank of gas.

Bush poster

On the Bush re-election website there is an interesting option to customize a Bush for President sign.

Take a look.

I'm trying to come up with something clever to put across the top

I'm picturing the expletive phrase stated by Vice Pres. Cheney on the senate floor the other day.

I suppose that would be pretty disrespectful.

"Bush- Four More Wars!"

I wish Kerry had this.

Any other ideas?