I posted the following in and I wanted to save it in my own journal for my reference. (It’s a response to someone who deleted a handful of comments to her post because they were “being mean”.)

Still cannot kill Texans with my mind. Tried. Failed.

Bryant might be interested in this, if he hasn’t seen it already. When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History This is a very interesting essay about a world leader who: - had not been elected by a majority vote - had his political roots in a southernmost state - whose coarse use of language… and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media - used the occasion [of a terrorist attack] - “a sign from God,” he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion - pushed through legislation - in the name of combating terrorism and fighting the philosophy he said spawned it - that suspended constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, and habeas corpus - proposed a single new national agency to protect the security of the homeland, consolidating the actions of dozens of previously independent police, border, and investigative agencies under a single leader - and surprisingly, is NOT named Bush

Let me just say that I support the the wish for peace meme by linking to my original essay from September 12 2001 A Wish For Peace. The following quotes written over a year ago still ring true for me. Despite the sheer magnitude of yesterday’s events, I will still continue to trust people as often as not; it took a long time to learn and will take much more than this to un-learn… ...

This article in The Onion was printed January 2001. This was pre-9/11, and yet strangely prophetic. And funny in that “doesn’t it suck to be right” kind of way. My opinion? Terrorism sucks, but it’s not clear this has anything to do with Saddam or Iraq. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: the misdirection and sleight-of-hand that Bush has used to associate Iraq with terrorism is impressive. Not because it shows how clever he (or his aides) actually are, but more because it shows that a large number of Americans are cattle. ...

Powell Offers Proof of Saddam-Osama Link, February 7, 2003 By Gil Christner UNITED NATIONS - Secretary of State Colin Powell today offered incontrovertible proof of the long-sought-after link between Saddam Hussein’s Regime and the al Qaeda Terrorist Network. In a speech before the General Assembly, General Powell was able to show, through a series of “degrees of separation,” how Hussein was merely 6 people away from Osama bin Laden, leader of al Qaeda. Using charts, graphs, and all AV equipment available to the U.N., Powell presented his case to the General Assembly and the entire world, which was watching via television cameras. Never rambling or tentative, a confident Sec. Powell spoke with a voice of authority, outlining the solid connection between the leader of Iraq and the group of terrorists deemed “the most dangerous people to Humanity” by Fox News Network. The series of charts and graphs were presented in 14 different languages, including Farsi, Aramaic and German. French was inexplicably left out of the languages used. ...

OK, I went and bought a book on this subject which contains dozens of possible transcriptions for common names. I feel it’s already earned its value. Here is one possible way to write Guu-Rei-Gu in Japanese: 遇礼仇 - one who treats his enemies with courtesy Would anyone else like me to look up their names? :)

Hello again loyal readers, sorry this is a little late. Not sure what I did Friday. I seem to remember leaving work more or less on time, like 5:30. I probably had dinner at some point. Oh, that’s right, L came over again and we worked on the first of the user migrations (me!) Saturday, we went up to Healdsburg to see M’s grandma and parents. A good time was had by all! It was M’s birthday and her mom gave her a huge blanket that she knitted, must have taken a long time. We got back kinda late but not too bad. ...

Last week I put in a request to have the IP address changed for one of my domain name servers. The change I requested has not been done yet. Instead, someone at register.com made a mistake and deleted ALL the NS entries for nekodojo.org. This made my domain inactive for approximately 36 hours this weekend. I need you to do the following. 1. Make the IP change to the domain name server record (host record) as follows. Host ID: H53361427-LROR Host Name: NS1.NEKODOJO.ORG Sponsoring Registrar: Register.com (R71-LROR) (old) IP Address: 209.157.144.25 (new) IP Address: 64.139.47.218 ...

Wow, this is almost becoming a regular feature. I bailed from work pretty much on time Friday, came home, and I think I stopped by the Russian deli for piroshki (though that might have been Thursday). M and I had piroshki, mine with a side order of leftover Tom Kha Gai soup. D called after we had finished eating and asked (of course) if we were considering dinner - we informed him that dinner was no longer a concern, but that we were open to any proposals for dessert. Met D and C later for dessert at Max’s. ...