Leo Laporte blogs that the entire TechTV staff has been fired. He reports that 100 jobs will be open for those willing to relocate to LA. Sad day for my fav network.

There is a new open source command line application being developed with Domino's pizza to order pizza. Pizza Party will allow you to order a pizza just by typing a command, even better when you make it a hot key. This is a really kewl idea. pizza_party -p -m 1 medium thin press enter, and hey presto! pie is on the way. Very kewl indeed! :) Open Source means that it is being distributed free of charge and can be developed and contributed to by anyone with the inclination. This will make into every Linux distro out there in short order.

Had a really nice discussion with a colleague about the Iraq situation today (which seems to be a rare thing, how many level headed discussions have you seen or partook of on political grounds recently?). To sum it up:

1. The problem with using WMD's as justification for an invasion is that you are completely dependent on finding them. Fail to find them and you look like a liar or worse, find them and you are golden. Saddam and his cronies had WMD around. They used them against the Iranians and the Kurds and even the Shiia got gassed. But the question becomes whether they actually did destroy them all or just hid some really well. Hiding a pile of chemical artillery shells in that desert would be relatively easy I think.

2. Saddam and the regime were a tremendously destabilizing influence in the region. Saddam used his military to invade other countries, Tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of (if not millions) his own citizens, supported various extremist groups in their endeavours to kill innoncent people, and used his position and power to enrich himself and his cronies at the expense of the rest of the country's people.

3. it does not make sense to use humanitarian crimes as a justification for invasion and occupation. Every government has committed humantarian crimes against its own populace. Just ask the American Indians about the Trail of Tears sometime. Trying to be moral at gunpoint is hypocritical, of course.

4. The Iraqi people will not be converted to representative democracy at gunpoint. They must change from within, on their own. Muslims tend to resent non-muslims in their respective countries. So as long as the US is there occupying it there will be violence and pressure on us to get out. Any government the US helps set up will not be trusted. It will be seen as a puppet and will not last long without support from the West and therefore will fail eventually. The Iraqis must set up their own government as free from our influence as possible.

Saw a baby bird in the yard yesterday when I cut the grass. Hopefully, it will learn to fly before one of the neighborhood cats makes a snack out of it. It must have fallen from a nest in our tree.

Tomorrow, I will comment on the Abu Ghraib situation. I thought the Army already relieved the commanding officer months ago? Why were none of the perpetrators punished until now? Could it be that the Army was already investigating it? Briefly, I agree with Tacitus about disbanding the 372 Military Police Company and scattering the remaining soldiers to the furthest posts that can be found.