Oh Adam, in reading Machievelli I can only come up with one answer to your argument: "war is never avoided, it is only differed to one's own disadvantage." That is exactly the thinking which all leaders of nations-states hold, including that human slime Hussien. He had weapons of mass destruction before and he used them before. The only reason he didn't use them after the 11th is because it would work to his disadvantage. Why draw destruction from a world super power when you can filter a germ or a chemical rocket to a n extremist who hates both you and your worst enemy? Then that extremist can take all the credit for launching an assault on your greatest enemy while you get to claim "plausible deniability" Even this so called report of facts from the 9/11 commission maintains Iraqi agents met with al-Qaeda a month before the eleventh. The report degnerates from that admission by claiming the Iraqi's refused all aide to the terrorists. That is obsfucation if I ever heard it. The rationality of nation-states and world power politics dictates that it was in Saddam's best interests to assist the terrorists in some way, otherwise he never would have risked a meeting with them. They might have never gotten anything real out of the deal, but the promise alone is good enough for me to say go in and blow them all away or else the problem will grow until you have an ebola strain hit Chicago. Then the monsters of the Middle East can sit back watch their oil revenues increase and say they done Allah's will. I for one would like to see them all dead before that happens rather then bury ten thousand more of our own so we feel fully justified. Good night folks, and remember America is right in this conflict because we don'tfly planes into buildings of innocent civilians or murder scores of our own citizens to support despotism

I find it interesting that your excuses for the Iraq war are dwindling just like the Bush regimes, Drew. I remember the days when you were using the same rhetoric, and now it seems, finally, that you've clinged to the one solid truth that ever meant anything in this whole affair. Of course you're right Drew. Saddam was a tyrant, but that was not the reason we went in there, at least according to our leaders. We went in there with long, emotional waves of rhetoric about how we must defend ourselves against the aggressors who attacked our homeland, and hmmm, I guess there just never happened to be any evidence. And believe or not Drew, America is a part of the world just like anybody else, and our relationship with other countries DOES matter, especially economically. Now we look like utter idiots since our leaders couldn't even get their facts straight when entering this debacle. If other countries don't trust and respect us, do you think that won't hurt us economically? and do you think providing wall after wall of "homeland security" will ever do anything? Will more wars stop the horrific images coming out of Saudi Arabia? I think the answer is obviously a resounding no. Terrorism can happen with the most meagre of supplies. and our tactics are much like our enemies tactics. Terrorists use drastic measures to frighten their opponents into submission, and we're basically doing the same thing, trying to frighten them with our military might. But it won't work. they know our game just like we know theirs. Terrorism is not just the United States' fight, and it can't be fought by only us. And as we totally ignore the objections of other countries as we blindly follow this "War on Terror", we're only making more enemies which is the last thing we need.
Peace out,
Adam

I have sympathy for Reagan in his death because I personally believe he was a great man in life. That is why I mourn his passing with his poor wife. The country mourns him because, for better or for worse my friends, he is remember as the man who made Americans feel better about themselves after Vietnam and Watergate. No one, not even the three media corporations can change that. Again I point to the parallel between Sadaam Hussien and Slobodon Milosevic; both were guilty of genocide and both were removed by the power of the United States. Why should we be condemned for one removal and praised for another

Objectivity in journalism is a joke. There's no such thing. (In fact, i believe more and more that there is no objectivity in anything, thank you very much, Emily.) The newspaper is a business and must cater to its customers. This is not the problem. The problem is that the auidence is so damn stupid that they want fluff instead of news. The other problem is that the same three goddamn companies own practically all the newspapers in the country, so they control the news based on thier broad economic interests, instead of... anything relevant to the community.

On another note, i listened to the entirety of the 9-11 commission's hearings today on (publicly subsidized) WNYC while painting my house, and guess what? Iraq had no connection with al-Quaeda. Bin Laden asked for thier help in 1994, and Iraq refused. That's the extent of it. This isn't the hippies speaking, this is the CIA, FBI, and Dept. of Homeland Security. Care to comment Drew? President Bush?

I hate Derrick. He stole $540 from me today. Pig.

Liz and John did not get to see president Reagan. Lines were too long. Reagan's insane death tour was of his own design, so you can't blame its absurdity on anyone else. (John suggested a heavy-metal concert tour t-shirt to commemorate the event, complete with cities and dates on the back REAGANDEATH 2004!)

Also this, Ray Charles died and he is cool. And a fat man from New Jersey is going to die if Saudi Arabia doesn't release terrorists/freedom fighters from prison. This is particularly scary because if all the Americans run away from Saudi Arabia in fear for thier lives... the Saudi tyrants will lose power, and our economy will collapse from high oil prices.

I think that's all the rambling i have in me for now. Sexy man.

you can change your settings with the edit function in the first screen you get to when you log in if it is creeping you out. the end. or not the end. the tree outside the lab window seems all greenny yellowish so it is super-bright. today i actually did something for most of the day. it made me happy, and I didn't avoid asking all the questions that i had. perhaps things are getting better. the (real) end.

Whoa, why is blogger calling me sexy man? That's kinda creepin me out...

So I've been working for a week at the paper, and it has been kinda boring so far. I'm so FUCKING SICK of hearing about friggin president Reagan. I bet a very large of the mostly ignorant American population had no friggin clue when he served as President let alone those who could identify him as a former president at all, and now everybody's falling all over themselves with sympathy for the family blah blah blah. Here in the media world, it's seems to me that its one of those times when we just blow up an issue, make it huge and say hey America this is important. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I feel that the death of a president IS an important event, but how much do people really give a shit about it? I interviewed this local lady who met him several times around 76 and 80 an she had really fond mmemories, and she just called me and said she had a bunch of compliments about the article I wrote, but I wonder if they're just impressed that she met a celebrity that we're making huge at the moment. So what is my role as a journalist? Am I to report the things that are most important, the most influential to people's daily lives? Clearly NOT. I'm meant to entertain people using realistic details, that seems about it to me. At least that's how it is in my branch of journalism. It's probably different in others. But if you had access to the AP wire and saw all the really cool fascinating and important current events that don't make it into the paper because it won't appeal to our readership it's disgusting. Sometimes they get the back page of the A section but that's it. That may be because we're a smaller paper, but we're still the news source that over 50,000 people regularly look at everyday. So are we reporting the things that people NEED to know, or what they WANT to know? hmmm After all we are a business. This is even more evident in another news worthy situation here in Kankakee. There are plans to build a 3rd Chicago airport, an enormous one, just outside a small town called Manteno which is 5 minutes away from kankakee. There are alot of people who want to stop this because it will chew an UNGODLY amount of farm land, but you won't see one negative word about the project in our paper, because we as a business support it because it will bring more business to the area and thus more money to us as a company. That doesn't seem very unbiased to me. so that's my two cents. I write mostly harmless articles, and the median age of the people I've interviewed so far is probably 70, so i guess I shouldn't complain, but I guess I'm just seeing how any news source is a tool for a certain agenda.
New songs have yet to be written, but band practice starts tomorrow!
Later,
Adam

Sounds like you are having a ball Emily. I am happy for you. I only have endless amounts of dust and janitor discussions to look forward to. Don't get me wrong, the men I work with are okay guys, they just are completely opposite of what I am used to dealing with: brilliant liberals. Tomorrow is my day of battle against the LSAT. I plan to leap into the room screaming my blood cry, "BLOOD, BONES, AND DEATH!" At least in my heart and mind anyway ;) I just saw Van Helsing today in furtherance of my terrible addiction to corny horror movies. Why is it that vampires get all the hot women? Can anyone answer me that? Dracula had not one but three gorgeous knockouts. Maybe it's that he's a really good kisser. I know you'll probably kill me for that pun when we get back to Galesburg, Pete, but it was worth it. Have a good day everybody

Since everyone else is being long-winded....
as a relative of Reagan, i must protest at his body being hauled all over the place for people to gawk at. let a man rest!

i went with Jacqui, Dick, and two of their friends to see Supersize Me. really interesting, though i think it's ludicrous to say that McD's should pay up if people eat too much of its food, which seemed to be the position the creator was taking.

work on the farm goes ALL DAY long- starts at 7:00 am for milking and ends at 8:30 or so, after a leisurely supper. that's not to day that i'm doing hard work the whole time, but it does mean that during the week i have maybe a half hour in the morning (after the roosters wake me at 5 or 6) and a couple hours in the evening to myself. having a whole weekend off is wonderful. i've done some exploring around fields and woods, read like i haven't done since high school for hours on end, written letters, picked up the violin, and played with the kitties. also, Antioch is sending me assignments already. currently, i'm working on learning the Hindi alphabet. i've ordered books, and they're already arriving in the mail.

despite it being my day off today, i did some hay baling. i've learned how to milk and make butter, though i certainly can't keep up with Jacqui on milking yet. we've planted, watered, transplanted, harvested, washed, sold, and eaten lots of lettuce; we've mulched, weeded, de-bugged, and trellised other veggies & fruit... and we're now working on our first strawberries of the season. i've been sunburned, eaten alive by mayflies, and had Cinnamon (cow) step on my right foot. my 5 S's: sweaty, sore, stinky, sunburned, and scratchy. life is good. that is to say, i love it :)

Well Drew, I will agree that Reagan will "go down as one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century," however as it should be painfully clear reality has only a slight bearing on history, which is basically just the way we like to interpret events in the past. I am passing no judgement on "OLD Dutch" seeing as there are always two sides to every coin, nor am I implying that age is any reason on which to discriminate an individual. However, I find your statements about Reagans medical condition to be without any real grounding. When you consider that over 90% of alzheimer patients experience the first symptoms of the disease at least 15 years prior to death odds are that Reagan to was among them. This does not mean that he was out of his mind, after all it is a degenerative disease that slowly culminates in the utter disolution of an interactive selfhood. I'm sure he was able to function within fairly competent parameters most of the time but even his own aids have described and increase reliance on their capacities through the second term. It just bothers me that his condition is always refered to as appearing somehow out of the blue 10 years ago. That just doesn't happen. For me this illustrates the Replublican parties abuse of his legacy. By ignoring the fact that he was a human being takes away his humanity. I would rather remember him as the man he was rather than falling prey to the demi-godlike rhetoric spread for the the superfiscial purpose of bulstering a party image.

On another note, we must indeed visit a saloon or two.

Sincerely,
Dr. Kooky