“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.”
– Oscar Wilde
Now, “Bush supports gay civil unions”:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/politics/campaign/26gay.html. I guess the ban didn’t quite work as well for his re-election as he thought it would.
Crime is going down in the US, which is good, except that “murders are going up”:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&u=/ap/20041025/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fbi_violent_crime_6&printer=1. In 2003, 16,503 people were murdered in the US.
In other words, we _know_ that 16,000+ Americans will be murdered next year. But, as a nation, we fear the unlikely event of a terrorist attack that will kill far fewer people some years from now. Americans expect the unlikely and ignore the guaranteed…. I guess that explains why Americans buy lottery tickets, which is something else I’ve never understood.
Christian Science Monitor’s article “How bin Laden Got Away”:http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0304/p01s03-wosc.html: “In retrospect, it becomes clear that the battle’s underlying story is of how scant intelligence, poorly chosen allies, and dubious military tactics fumbled a golden opportunity to capture bin Laden as well as many senior Al Qaeda commanders.”
“99,000 recipes!”:http://www.recipezaar.com/
Forgot to count the photos too: 5,305 recipes with photos, 6,467 total photos. That’s over 5% of the recipes with photos! 
The University of Maryland did a “study”:http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/Report10_21_04.pdf on the differing realities of Bush and Kerry supporters. Just look at the sheer lunacy of their beliefs:
* *Iraq, WMD & Al Qaeda.* A large majority of Bush supporters believe that before the war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or a major program for building them. A substantial majority of Bush supporters assume that most experts believe Iraq had WMD and that this was the conclusion of the recently released report by Charles Duelfer. A large majority of Bush supporters believes that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda and that clear evidence of this support has been found. A large majority believes that most experts also have this view, and a substantial majority believe that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission.
* *World opinion of the US, the war and Bush.* Only three in ten Bush supporters believe that the majority of people in the world oppose the US going to war with Iraq, while an overwhelming majority of Kerry supporters have this view. A majority of Bush supporters assume that the majority of people in the world would like to see Bush reelected, while a large majority of Kerry supporters believe the opposite. Bush supporters also lean toward overestimating support in Islamic countries for US-led efforts to fight terrorism, while Kerry supporters do not
* *Foreign Policy stances.* Majorities of Bush supporters misperceive his positions on a range of foreign policy issues. In particular they assume he supports multilateral approaches and addressing global warming when he has taken strong contrary positions on issues such as the International Criminal court and the Kyoto Agreement. A majority of Kerry supporters have accurate perceptions of Kerry positions on the same issues.
On the bright side, Bush and Kerry supporters both agree on one point:
* Majorities of Bush supporters and Kerry supporters agree that if Iraq did not have WMD or was not providing support to al Qaeda, the US should not have gone to war with Iraq.
If only Bush supporters had a clue what was going on in the world. As they say, in war, truth is the first casualty.
We’re still recovering from the trip back, both health-wise and sleep-wise. We can’t get on a regular sleep cycle, which is why I’m wide awake at 1am. And we’ve both been going through sickness, due to the rapid change in climate and/or the recirculating air on 20+ hours of airplanes. But we’ve had a productive week of work this week in spite of this, which feels good.
In spite of the drastic climate change, I’m happy to be in the Northwest Fall weather. The leaves have completely turned and mostly fallen and it’s alternating cloudiness and sun. For the first time in 5 years I’m looking forward to my birthday this year. And, as always, I’m looking forward to the holidays.
San Francisco going WiFi. How long will it take for Seattle to be completely WiFi?
“CNN”:http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/19/robertson.bush.iraq/index.html: The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, “We’re not going to have any casualties.”
*Update:* The White House is “denying”:http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/19/robertson.bush.iraq/index.html Bush ever said it and Pat Robertson stood by his statement. Pat Robertson has said (and continues to say) some pretty odd things, but someone’s lying. You can usually tell by asking yourself: Who has more to gain from lying?
Made it to San Francisco. I am tired of traveling!
