Bush's Speech

If anyone knows where I can download a video of Bush's speech tonight, let me know. C-SPAN didn't seem to have it and CNN wants you to pay for a subscription to get video.

Anyway, as usual his speech (transcript) showed little in the way of specific facts and plans. One general statement I found particularly problematic was "And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans."

First of all, American soldiers are "our own people," and they are under attack in Iraq. Second, the September 11th hijackers were living and planning in America (among other places). Until the Iraq war, no terrorist strike against Americans had been planned by anyone living in Iraq. (At least that I'm aware of.) Unfortunately, somebody neglected to inform 69 percent of Americans, aided by frequent associations (but never a claim, natch) of Saddam (pronounced like Sodom) and terrorism.

These words should come as no surprise. George W. Bush excels at making statements so general as to become vacuous and uses keywords like "freedom" so that people are afraid to question him, lest they be accused of being anti-freedom. There was a very good article in The Nation a while ago about this.

Shower Meme #++

-- Philip Glass, "Koyaanisqatsi"

Shower meme questions from adrukor. If you would like to be interviewed, leave a comment. I will give you five questions. You will post the answers in your journal with an invitation for others to ask you for questions.

1. If you could remove any slang word from existence, what would it be?

I think most slang words serve a useful purpose. I would, however, like to remove the insult form of "gay," as in "honor running is really gay." I'd like to use "gay" to signify happiness. More things rhyme with "gay" than "happy."

2. If you were to invent a programming language, what would you call it?

In high school I joked that I wanted to create Bitchin' Operatin' System, or "BOS." I'd want a programming language I invent to reflect the language, possibly through some acronym, like ENT if it were designed for easy tree navigation. But without knowing anything about this language, it's hard to know what I'd name it. However, there is only one programming language - Ada - named after a woman, possibly because there are very few women famous for a contribution to math or computing. Athena is a security system (I think), but a choice goddess might be a nice choice. Would anyone care to program in Baba Yaga?

3. What would you say is the most interesting historical fact to you?

I'm not quite sure what counts as a "fact" versus, say, a trend or an event. I also tend to find most facts fun or neat, but interest applies at the level of areas, periods, cultures, and so on. Some of my favorite historical facts are calendar-related -- like the fact that there is no year 0 between B.C. and A.D. (fortunately I celebrated the millennium on time because I use BCE and CE). Some of the events that most interest me include the Hiroshima bomb, Leif Ericsson's journey to America, and the U.S. government's elimination of Indians. Now that I think of it, the most interesting historical fact is that the U.S. has broken every treaty it's signed with an Indian tribe. (Or at least until the 1970s or something. I didn't read about any recent treaties.) Despite the wonderful John Zola in high school, I haven't done any history in at least five and a half years. I should add some good history books to my (rather extensive) reading list.

4. If you had one vision for the future, what would it be?

Environmental consciousness. If humans are to survive for much longer, we need to pay more attention to local and global environments. I'm not just talking about virgin forests and striking vistas. This includes urban environments, home environments, social environments, the Internet, etc. If the environment is properly set up, a lot of work becomes easy or unnecessary. Furthermore, consideration for the environment allows for genes and memes to have a chance of survival without severe mutation (hence decreasing their similarity).

5. Name the greatest movie of all time. You can only name one.

Koyaanisqatsi. Which is playing, BTW, for free with the director in person on Wednesday the 23rd at IFS. The next two days they're showing Powaqatis and Naqoyqatsi.