Brandon Starr's blog. Updated daily since March 2003. Welcome. Make yourself comfortable. Have a hot chocolate.

Brandon Starr's blog is not to be taken internally. All humor is intentional, unless indicated otherwise.
Do not read while operating heavy machinery. May cause intracranial short circuiting.
Not for children under four days of age.

If for some reason you wish to contact Brandon Starr, take a moment and reconsider.
No? Ah, well. His email is brandonstarr@yahoo.com.
It's your fault now, and don't blame me when it all goes terribly, terribly wrong.


New fiction story! Click here for "The Voice of Cassandra."

Click here for my ongoing novel: "The History of Magic in the 21st Century."

Click here for the lowdown on "The History of Magic"

Click here for my new investing blog, "Adroit Investor"

Click here for my anti-Bush shirts.

Click here for my favorite design: the 'tourist safety shirt.'

Brandon Starr is available in small, medium, and large. Contents may settle during shipping. Allow four to six weeks for delivery. Open carefully; contents under pressure. Do not incinerate. May be habit-forming--do not take if you are gassy or under the influence of mimosas. Improved; now non-staining. Ships in all colors, except puce. Prompt refund if not satisfied--simply return unused portion. All queries promptly ignored. Complaints resolved with deep, gut-blasting laughter, followed by posting complaints on nearest public wall. Not responsible for sunburns. All your base are belong to us. Act now. Beware cheap imitations. Insist on the original--Brandon Starr.

Update notification by email available below.

Some fun/useful/useless links:

The Internet Movie Database

My cousin back from Iraq, and how it changed me (my current favorite entry on this blog)

Zazzle.com

My Zazzle.com product page

Fun blogs:

infinitus opinio

Siren's Song

the mechanical jive

The Strange World

Thunderstorms in the Imajica

Librarianguish

Elven Sarah

Random Musings (Catcher)

Certifiable Princess (Sarah 2)
   

<< September 2004 >>
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08 09 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30

Email notification to Brandon Starr's blog has been shown to reduce bad cholesterol in two-toed sloths, and has been used as an effective exfoliant.

If you want to be updated on this weblog Enter your email here:



rss feed



Sunday, October 03, 2004
Interesting goings-on...

...at JfZ's Thunderstorms in the Imajica.

He links to this article about eschatology (the study of the end of the world--usually religious in nature, as opposed to scientists looking for asteroids).  I've already commented:

If the end of human history comes, it certainly won't be based on some god-figure coming down to Earth. It'll be either 1) humans losing control of their technology (quick nuclear disaster or slow ecological disintegration) or 2) natural disaster on a global scale (asteroid/comet is the only thing big enough near-term, since the sun isn't set to engulf the Earth for billions of years yet).

While always entertaining, this sort of religious claptrap has only one rational point to make--the one that says, "at all points in history, someone looks around and says 'the end is near.'" This fact alone speaks volumes about the amount of bull in religious thinking.

For those who are still religious, remember: nothing 'magical' has ever been proven scientifically. Psychics, ghosts, souls, faith healing...all crapola, despite lots of efforts to find even the tiniest true example. The James Randi Educational Foundation http://www.randi.org has offered one million dollars for any scientifically provable example of any "paranormal" activity. They've offered it for years, and gee, no takers. If I had real psychic powers, you'd bet I'd zoom right over there to become an instant millionaire.

Give up your superstitions. You'll be a lot happier as an atheist without a ghost-monkey on your back. Take some control over your own life.

That is, unless the only thing preventing you from going on a murderous rampage is your religion. Then, by all means, please go to church.

(end quote)

What do you think about Armageddon, etc.?  I urge you to go over to JfZ's Thunderstorms and chime on in.  Or if you are more interested in commenting on my comment, here'd be fine.
 

Posted at 07:55 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Saturday, October 02, 2004
Calls to vote for Kerry...

...from beyond the grave:  husband uses obituary to describe his wife's love of politics, urges folks to do what they can to help get Kerry elected. (The Omaha Channel, found via fark.com.)

Obituaries often go into details of the departed's hobbies and interests, often with information on nonprofits they believed in and supported, with or without directly asking for support for their causes.  Doesn't seem all that unusual to me, really.

One part was unusual to me:

Her passion for politics evoked a scathing response from an anonymous caller: "It's too bad she won't be able to vote for Kerry, and hopefully on the day that Bush gets elected she'll burn in hell!"

Is it too much to ask folks to show a little class when it comes to supporting Bush?  I hate Bush's policies, I hate his corruption, I hate his lies, I hate the cronies who surround him, I hate his closeminded stance towards religion, I hate his lifelong shirking and nepotism.  But I don't wish him dead.  I don't wish harm on Bush voters, either:  I just hope that they'll change their minds.

Come on, folks, let's get it together.

Oh, and vote for Kerry.  For the sake of the living, if not the dead.


Posted at 06:33 pm by brandonstarr
Comments (3)  

Kerry debate win spells...

...evaporation of recent Bush lead in polls, according to NEWSWEEK poll (MSNBC)

In fact, Kerry was slightly ahead in that poll, though well within the poll's margin of error.

It ain't over yet, though, folks.  Remember, Jeb Bush is still governing Florida, and there have been multiple instances of trying to get yet more "felons"* off the rolls there.  Voting machines, some made by companies headed by big Republican supporters, have been put in in quite a few states.

But, hopefully, help is on the way.

* a.k.a. "non-Bush voters."

Posted at 06:17 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

NBC News: Iraq rebuilding is going slowly

Iraq reconstruction proceeds slowly
It's in one sense a chicken-and-egg problem:  insurgents attack, slowing rebuilding; slow rebuilding  causes anger at U.S. and sympathy for the insurgents...leading to more attacks.

It's in one sense a chickenhawk-and-egghead problem:  Bush has no idea how to run a war, yet doesn't take advice from the State Department, whose depth of knowledge on foreign affairs has made them a major asset to every previous President for as long as they've been in existence.

It's in another sense a chickenhawk-and-egg problem:  Bush makes mistakes, which leads to Iraqis and others being angry at the U.S., which makes the insurgents stronger, which leads to more attacks, which leads to Bush getting upset like the emotionally stunted baby he is, which leads to Bush making more mistakes.

Cue "Lion King" music...

The circle of death....and it sucks in us all...

Posted at 12:14 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

The most interesting thing...

...about the debate, I thought:

Kerry looked poised, knowledgeable, and focused.  Presidential.

Bush looked out of touch, nervous, and prone to snippy, repetitive attacks on his opponent.  Not Presidential.

Bush has had a job for four years, yet doesn't look like he's even qualified.

Would you re-up an employee who has held a position for four years already, yet doesn't seem to have gotten the hang of it during that time?

Posted at 12:01 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Friday, October 01, 2004
There's no debate...

...oil has closed above $50 for the first time. (Reuters, via Money/CNN)
But I've written enough about oil for now.

Here are my favorite moments during the debate:

3)  Kerry calls Bush out on the carpet.

Bush says "we were attacked," and Kerry reminds him that Osama bin Laden, NOT Saddam Hussein, attacked us.  Bush, flustered, replies, "(O)f course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that."
(link is to the Commission on Presidential Debates transcript)

2)  Bush decides that our military isn't so spread out after all:

"The military will be an all-volunteer army. We will continue to stay on the offense. We will fight the terrorists around the world so we do not have to face them here at home."

Okay.  So, we're in Afghanistan, we're in Iraq, and because we're split up, neither is going well at all.  So now we're NOT going to have a draft?  And yet we're STILL going to be able to go after terrorists around the globe?  Where might he be getting this manpower from--besides the already-in-effect backdoor draft, AKA "Operation The Joke's On You, National Guard Member."  This from a President who makes it hard to recruit, both because he attacks foreign countries without proper justification and because he CUTS THEIR BENEFITS while they're still in harm's way!

1)  Bush shows his lack of understanding of what it's like to be in war:

"The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That's why they're fighting so vociferously."

Vociferously means "loudly."  Not "violently," "horrifically," or anything else.  As far as Bush is concerned, the only war in the world is a war of words.  He doesn't understand the situation of a young person in the blood and bullets of war.  He's out of touch, and dangerous.

Posted at 03:00 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Where the debaters went wrong

Factcheck.org:  Bush, Kerry both made factual errors during debate
Read the article, and it becomes clear:  most of Bush's errors were lies, where most of Kerry's errors were misstatements.  That's my reading of the article, not Factcheck.org's, which is nonpartisan.

Examples:  Bush:  "we're spending the reconstruction money" and "100,000 Iraqis troops trained."  Actually, only 6% of the reconstruction money has been spent (because of all the violence, as I've written here before); and only 5,000 Iraqi troops have been fully trained.  The other 95,000 "trained" troops have only had a three-week crash course.

Bush also lied about Kerry's position on how fast we might get troops out of Iraq.

Bush also lied about having 75% of al-Qaeda in jail.  The figure only refers to those running al-Qaeda at the time of 9/11--he fails to take into consideration the facts that 1) they've all been replaced, and 2) his military failures by splitting his forces into the second, useless Iraqi war means al-Qaeda has actually gotten stronger.

Bush lied about the 10 million Iraqis being registered to vote.  No one knows the number, though there are a lot--but frankly, what does it matter how many have been registered?  They "voted" in one-man elections for Saddam, too--the registration didn't matter then, either.

Bush lied, saying he increased money on curbing nuclear proliferation by about 35 percent.  This is a lie, not a mere exaggeration--the money was cut by 13 percent, not raised, and that it WAS cut was Kerry's point.  Bush simply tried to lie his way out.

Kerry:

"Exaggerated" the way Bush lost Osama bin Laden.  Oh, Bush didn't catch Osama, and he let the Afghani warlords handle a lot of it.  But factcheck.org says that we don't know for sure if Osama was capturable at that time, and he wasn't really "surrounded" at any time.  Either way, we know Bush dropped the ball, and he did it because he was already moving forces over to Iraq even as he was supposedly going after Osama "dead or alive."

"Exaggerated" about the cost of the Iraqi war.  SO FAR, it's cost $120 billion.  Kerry said it cost $200 billion.  The only difference comes from the money set up to be spent starting today, October 1st.  In other words, it has cost us $200 billion--because that money is already set up to be sucked out of our federal spending this year.  But only $120 billion has technically been "spent."

Kerry said that hundreds of millions were spent by Bush to create bunker-busting nuclear weapons.  The figure is $35 million.  But if you watched the debate, Kerry's point was that Bush was testing a new form of nuclear weapon AT ALL right now, not really how much was being spent on it.  He was concerned that we are trying to stop other countries from having nuclear weapons while researching a new kind of nuke--one which, by all appearances, we would be all-too-eager to actually use.

The other two Kerry factual problems were slips of the tongue, and hardly worth mentioning.

Anyway, check it out.  Am I exaggerating?  Or was Bush actually lying to us baldly, where Kerry, when he was incorrect at all, was much more in the category of exaggeration?
 

Posted at 09:16 am by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Thursday, September 30, 2004
Here comes the debate

The first Presidential debate is in less than half an hour, now.

I find myself wanting to watch, but not so much to cheer as to hold my breath.

Of course, the real problem is:  with so much of the debate under rules, can any real issues be debated?  Because if not, it ceases to be about issues and becomes about image.  This is where Kerry cannot help but lose, because the pundits can spin "image" any which way they want.  And most of them are conservative or afraid of Bush.

This is going to be interesting.  Someone good at formal debates, trying to overcome a bit of an image of stuffiness, versus a man who sometimes mangles the English language but is often seen as a good-old-boy.

Posted at 05:46 pm by brandonstarr
Comments (2)  

Wednesday, September 29, 2004
SpaceShipOne successful

Congratulations to SpaceShipOne and its crew
If it makes another successful flight within two weeks, it will win the X prize of $10 million.

Another instance of bold, rational minds doing what was once unthinkable.

Posted at 12:34 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

SpaceShipOne on another flight

SpaceShipOne on another flight, trying for X prize for private space flight
As of this writing, this is a developing story; all it really says now is that the carrier jet has taken off, and in a few minutes SpaceShipOne will fire its jets and try to punch out of the atmosphere.

Here's hoping!

Posted at 07:42 am by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Next Page