Interesting Stuff

It seems as though Halliburton has been supplying US troops in Iraq with contaminated water, and have known about the problem and just kept quiet for months. Although I originally found this on Fark, the article I have linked to is, in my opinion, a more detailed account. Still, I liked Fark’s caption:

Stealing billions from US Taxpayers and doing business with Iran in direct violation of US Sanctions was obviously not enough. Halliburton is now giving polluted water to US Troops. Cheney seen mumbling “excellent.”

I wish it were possible to just put this company out of business once and for all. Bastards.

On a totally unrelated and happier note, I’ve begun watching Firefly, which really is an amazing show. It has some very subtle points in it, which obviously took a lot of thought from the creators: the ships only make noise when they’re in a planet’s atmosphere (they’re silent in space), everyone is bilingual in English and Chinese, and they slip Chinese expressions into their dialogue, etc. Not to mention that the characters are fascinating and the plot is quite fun. If you haven’t seen this, you might find a copy and watch at least the first couple episodes.

Hey, here’s a way to speed up the war in Iraq: actually give the terrorists a trial before either holding them indefinitely or releasing them. Yes, it’s a long read, but it’s well worth it. ‘Tis a first-hand account of some of the goings-on in Iraq, and mentions that it is fairly typical to capture a terrorist armed to the teeth and shooting at the Police/Army, and then to have the case dismissed and see the very same terrorist back in the streets, shooting at more people within a couple months.

If we’re going to let them go, let them go completely and pull out of the country. If we’re going to stay and “win” this war, capture the terrorists and give them a trial. If they’re convicted, don’t release them. Argh! Who is in charge of this? Why are they stupid?!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/08/18/BL2005081800744_5.html – this is long, but touches on a bunch of topics, several of which I hadn’t heard of before.

http://www.slate.com/id/2124603/?nav=tap3 – John Roberts appears to have improperly ruled in a case concerning whether the Geneva Convention applies to people at Guantanamo Bay (he should have excused himself from the case). Does this happen often? How would we even know? I think it’s pretty scary that you might have to question the impartiality of the judicial system.

Right. More later!

Tonight, Hansford, Rachel, this guy named Kyle and I were playing Scrabble (well, Hansford was playing guitar, but the 3 of us were playing Scrabble), and I actually did it – I got a 7-letter word! I built off of Kyle’s WEAR to make
SWEAR
P
O
N
G
E
D
Counting the various letter bonuses, and the 50-point bonus for using all of my letters, I scored 77 points that turn. I finished the game with 247 points. This is the first time I can remember having ever broken 200! Whee!
Ordinarily, I don’t even look for words that long, but my tiles were randomly arranged as SPONDEG, so it was easy to find this one. Once I found it, I didn’t have any place to put it (this was the 2nd turn of the game, and there were surprisingly no words that could have an S on the end). So, knowing that an extra 50 points awaited me, I passed, and got a 0 that turn. Rachel gave me a rather funny look at this point, which I probably deserved. But by the next turn, Kyle had played WEAR, and I had my chance. So, yeah. I’m pretty happy right now.

Last night, Mac, Hansford and I went to see Farenheit 9/11. In his usual style, Michael Moore discussed some things I already knew, and many I did not. It was a very intense, emotional movie, and at several points I was brought close to tears. However, this being Michael Moore, it should still be taken with a grain of salt (or as Travis said, a whole salt lick). I know that the part about the Bin Laden family still having contacts with Osama at the beginning was really edited – in early 2002 or thereabouts, I saw an episode of Larry King Live (is episode the right word? Can you have an “episode” of a talk show?) in which he interviewed Osama Bin Laden’s cousin. She said that yes, they really had kicked Osama out of the family. Nonetheless, there’s really nothing wrong with seeing estranged family members at weddings, funerals, and the like. Also, the Bin Laden family is so huge that it doesn’t surprise me at all that one or two members of it would have written to him once in a while.
I’ll have to go online sometime and read criticisms of F9/11, to learn what other things Moore has unrealistically portrayed.
One other thing I should mention about the movie – it is very emotional. So much so that I’m slightly reminded of the environmentalist movement, which uses emotion as a substitute for logic and fact. Yes, Moore puts many facts into his movie, but the emotion sort of obscures them. I wonder if the movie would be as controversial if he had scaled that back a little. But as Mac (playing devil’s advocate in the car ride home) argued, the movie is about people dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is a very emotional topic.
I’m rather amazed at some some of the footage in the film. There are scenes of raids in Iraq, there are scenes of President George W Bush having his makeup put on “before” he goes on camera. How does Michael Moore get these clips? If I were a large corporation/government and I owned footage like this, I would probably not share it.
All in all, it was a good movie, and I reccomend seeing it, but keep in mind that Michael Moore twists things to better illustrate his points. The arguments he makes seem to be mostly correct, just exaggerated a fair amount.

So, when Kai left, he gave me some of his leftover food, including a package of “haw flakes” (made with real haw!). Tonight, Hansford finally figured out what they are, by finding this website: http://www.cardhouse.com/a/pixbarn/p19.htm
Haw flakes are like fruit leather made from hawthorne fruit. However, it’s much dryer than fruit leather – haw flakes can chip easily, and I bet I could make one crumble. However, they’re pretty good! And unlike the website, I didn’t get any bad aftertaste or grating feeling. If nothing less, it’s an unusual thing to try.