Sometimes I think I need a “C’mon in. Door is closed because you’re too fucking loud!” sign on my office door. There’s about five conversations running over each other in the hall right now, making it all but impossible to think, much less work.
Month: March 2003
This is weird. This morning, in my referrer logs, I found a link first to this and then this craiglist post. I’ve never felt overly protective of the images I post here, but it’s still altogether strange to see them linked elsewhere without my permission. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, despite my best efforts to ferret them out. I’ve since added blank index pages to all my image directories, but I still wish I knew why someone wanted to post a picture of me in a Viking helmet to the craiglist forum.
Update: I changed this image to this image. If you want to borrow a photograph you see here, that’s okay, but please don’t steal my bandwidth.
Tom Tomorrow also writes:
…we took a lot of lessons from 9/11, but it occurs to me that there’s one we might have overlooked–when you attack a nation, people tend to rally around their leader, even if they hate him.
This is true. I’ve often thought that, had the September 11th attacks not happened, there would have been serious talk of Bush’s impeachment. It may never have come to anything, but his involvement with Enron and toadying to the demands of corporate America make something like Whitewater seem like small potatoes. I think, at the very least, his approval ratings would have taken a substantial plummet. After all, it’s not as if he’s actually done anything for the nation.
Diplomacy is not necessarily appeasement. Patriotism is not necessarily good citizenship. Protesting one war is not necessarily the protesting of all wars. It amazes me — though perhaps it shouldn’t — that people can’t seem to make these distinctions. If I argue that this is both an unnecessary and foolhardy war, and I denounce the motives, tactics, and disregard for consequences that have thrust us into it, I do not do so in order to lend support to Saddam Hussein. There is little question that his is an unjust regime. But that does not necessarily mean that military invasion is our best course of action.
What bothers me is that there was never any discussion; that the very real concerns of both protestors and allies were never addressed; that instead of debating and explaining their position, those who support the war choose instead to insult, belittle or, at best, disregard those who protest it. Despite the potentially terrible consequences of their actions.
As Tom Tomorrow writes:
This is why it’s important for those who would take us into war to treat us like grownups, to explain why this terrible last resort is unavoidable: so that the American people can make an informed decision about the costs of the war and the rationality of those who would lead us there.
I would be willing to accept that I was wrong about this war if its supporters could demonstrate that it was our best, or only, option. If they could cite some evidence other than rhetoric, misplaced patriotism, or outright lies. If they were even willing to have that argument, to lay the facts out on the table for inspection, rather than question the loyalty and intelligence of those who call those facts into question.
Okay, for the time being, I’m going to stick with YACCS. I was attempting to incorporate cgiComments (which Dreamhost seems to indicate I can do, given my current plan), but at best I’m getting internal server errors. I don’t think this will be impossible to figure out, but it isn’t going to happen right now. A solution that involves no significant added cost (I pay about $10 a month to host this website) would be nice. After all, it’s not as if there’s a massive influx of people wanting to comment out there.