Iraq progress report

Courtesy of Blackfive.net


They mentioned this article from the New York Times*:
Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics

*The Snake Advocate doesn't take anything the New York Times seriously, but has to admit that this article had some interesting statements. Take this one for example:

Violent struggle against the United States was easy to romanticize at a distance.

“I used to love Osama bin Laden,” proclaimed a 24-year-old Iraqi college student. She was referring to how she felt before the war took hold in her native Baghdad. The Sept. 11, 2001, strike at American supremacy was satisfying, and the deaths abstract.

Now, the student recites the familiar complaints: Her college has segregated the security checks; guards told her to stop wearing a revealing skirt; she covers her head for safety.

“Now I hate Islam,” she said, sitting in her family’s unadorned living room in central Baghdad. “Al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing.”

So I guess the whole rhetoric of that the war on terror is creating more terrorists, isn't really conclusive at all.

MSN blows

Well, I've always had issues with the opinions posted on MSN.com and the selected news coverage on MSNBC. However, this article "Gasoline's New Math: Miles Per Dollar" is just ridiculously stupid.

Check this out:

It's time for new rules, and new math: Miles Per Dollar, or mpd.

The formula is simple. Take the old mpg, but divide it by the price of fuel. Unlike the vague mpg, mpd is a remorseless measuring stick, its pointy end aimed directly at your wallet. When gas was cheaper than the dirt it sprang from, 20 miles per gallon seemed pretty solid. Even when gas reached a dollar a gallon, you were still getting 20 mpd, traveling 20 miles on a buck.

Here is the problem:

This chart represents the average price of gasoline in Texas from 1979 to 2008.

Can you see the problem now?

1 gallon now = 1 gallon in a month
1 mile now = 1 mile in a month
Price of fuel now != price of fuel in a month (! is 'not' for those unfamiliar with coding)

So can someone please tell me how is the MPG standard vague and the MPD is a "remorseless measuring stick"?

Stupid asshats...

What a crazy world we live in...

At least 22 dead in Va. Tech shooting rampage

Wow, I was going through my RSS feeds before going to bed as usual when I saw this news headline. It is a sad day for all, and my heart goes to the families and loved ones of those students.

What pisses me off is that as many universities, VA Tech probably doesn't allow students to have firearms on campus including their dormitories. Which implies students are defenseless. People have firearms to defend themselves against ass-hats with firearms. The number of causalities could have been a lot less if students had means of self defense.

Curing the Itch!

It has been five days since my last blog and I've had the greatest desire to blog something positive. Unfortunately, with the weak collection of news, blogs, and articles on my RSS feeds, I had to get my fix of blogging by posting this. So bear with me...
Lets go over some of the things that have bugged me over the last couple of days. First, the Washington Riots. Do these people realize that we are not in the sixties anymore? Somebody needs to lock Jane Fonda up, thats all I have to say...
Secondly, the Palestinians are going at again, and again and I am really not sure how they want any one to take them seriously with their stupid shit.
Finally, I am glad the state of Lebanon is back to normal - what exactly is normal?!! - and I am sorry for what has happened in Pakistan, and I am glad another page is being turned over the Abu Graib case...

After getting that off my chest, I feel comfortable enough to talk about some of the less important things in life like upcoming movies. I've some promising trailers of movies that I don't think that they will get enough attention once they come out. Rescue Dawn will probably be another piece of evidence on how Christian Bale is the best actor of our generation -the best Batman EVER-, and Shooter will probably have you hoping that the Predator comes from space rips Danny Glover's face into a Philly Stake. Oh yeah, Eddie Murphy is broke again, so I guess we all need to go check out Norbit...

-CZ