Soon there will be snow

Darkness is falling earlier and earlier and winter sets its shroud upon us.

I must admit I am a little leary walking past the methadone clinic next to my work building. It is not unusual to see some unsavory figures out and about. Granted it is essentially right on the edge of the MIT campus, not to mention a hop skip and a jump from Central square. I made the trek all last winter, although somehow I feel a little more threatened by it this year. I have had some interesting run ins with slightly unstable folks on the Subway, however not recently.

Soon my office and lab will be moving to a newly renovated space which will be less out of the way. This can't come soon enough. The only downside is there will now be a cafeteria in my new building. This won't help me keep the reigns on my diet.

Anyway.. Once again I find myself typing this too late. I have to write my entries fresh when I get in the apartment, but I never manage.

Before I check out, I wanted to give "A Shout out" just like all the kiddies do now days. To Jason Potts, the man who by all rights I probably should have died with. Perhaps with some higher intervention we were spared :D. I like to think it was for a greater purpose, because of the profound impact we have on humanity and the souls that cross paths with ours along the way.

I wanted to thank everyone for the feedback they've been giving me!
I admit my last few posts have been a bit lack luster, however I will work at turning that around.

News was for the most part not ground breaking and uncontroversial today. Here are a few gems I found amongst the mix.

Glued to toilet, man sues Home Depot

and, keeping with the theme...

Man sues ex-girlfriend over glue attack


Lastly, riots are always completely idiotic. But in France, wow. So In the U.S., now more than a decade ago we had Rodney King who was treated poorly by police officers, even if he was dangerous. A video clearly showed an excessive beating after he was down for the count. So unruly people used this as an occasion to raise hell, which led to destruction and mayhem. Now in France, a couple of kids, one of them a known felon, ran from the Police when approached. An a streak of sheer brilliance, these kids hid in a high voltage power station, and were killed. Some people in France have decided that this was somehow the Police's fault and so they have begun destroying random property of uninvolved people to protest. Wow.

French Riots

Long day at work and a Phat dinner.

Today was one of those days filled with little problems that end up making you wonder how you managed to run around and end up accomplishing little to nothing. If that isn't enough I have this sense of foreboding that I forgot to do something before I left the lab even though I'm sure I compulsively double checked everything as usual.

I'm extremely tired, and I even have been having a slight tick in my left eyelid, it isn't quite of Thom Yorke proportions yet, however its getting there.

Tonight Kate treated me to dinner at the Phat bar and grill which I previously mentioned. It was quite dead, I hope for their sake business picks up.
Then she directed me to a neat used book (Lorem Ipsum Books) store just outside of Inman square on Hampshire street. I picked up The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving (

I'm really very anxious. I wanted to accomplish more at work today and I hope I can make up for it tomorrow morning. (sigh)...

The ciderhouse rules, A prayer for Owen Meany) and The Europeans by Henry James. Both books together cost me a massive $4.04.

I think I'll leave this post with a link to an interesting CNN feature:

Advice for W

ARRRGGHHH!!

I think the title of this post sums up just about how I feel about current events.

It was actually quite late when I wrote this so I apologize if it rambles or is difficult to make sense of.

Approximately 3 years ago when Powell was talking to the UN I did not want to go to Iraq. At that point I actually believed, like most Americans, that Saddam was an actual threat. However I thought our policies had stabilized the region. In addition, proponents of the war talked of the possibility of Saddam attacking Israel or other neighbors, when anyone who has any sort of reading skills could research and discover how Saddam's delivery system (Scud arsenal) had been destroyed.

Really at the time, while I thought it was probably a bad idea, the real reason I did not want the war to occur was that I knew America did not have the stomach for it.

As a nation, the cynicism that came with Nixon, Iran-Contra, and a multitude of scandals under Clinton, has permanently altered the psyche of our people. Pre-Vietnam we were willing and ready to fight for causes even if they weren't clearly, directly related to our lifestyle here in America (The Korean, and early on, the Vietnam war). I'm not saying those were necessarily just causes, however a majority believed we were doing the right thing. We went to war, expecting casualties, knowing that things probably wouldn't always go our way. Most historians would unanimously agree, that the politicizing that took place during the Vietnam war ultimately led to increased casualties, lower troop morale, and ultimately creating the stalemate that dissolved any potential for success. Of course in Vietnam it was less cut and dry then Iraq. Saddam was a corrupt dictator and a war criminal. In Vietnam we wanted to prevent communism from getting another foothold, although it seems that a majority of Vietnamese embraced that ideology. Quite the contrary in Iraq, an overwhelming majority wanted Saddam removed.

Anyway I'm beating around the bush... What I want to say is. I knew we would tire of the duties we have. I knew we would at some point, tire of the burden we created. We should not have started a war that we didn't have the guts to see through, especially in this volatile portion of the world.

If we pull out of Iraq, it isn't going to just simmer down like Vietnam. We have created a void of authority. We have created a hot bed for terrorist training camps. If we pull out now, the chaos in Iraq, will pale in comparison to what it could become. The only possible positive aspect for pulling out is those who will die will be exclusively Iraqi citizens and non military visitors, not U.S. soldiers. And since U.S. casualties only make up a fraction of the deaths anyway, it probably won't change too much accept give those causing these problems more power, or hasten the development of a civil war. This could further destabilize the entire middle east, and consequently, the world. Maintaining order here is necessity, there is no alternative.

I'm anti-war, but realistically, we have to finish what we started. Now the democrats are already salivating to use an anti-war bent to try and achieve more power. Combined with the Plame affair, which I still believe will end with Scooter perhaps getting convicted for his perjury (When will these guys learn! Just tell the truth!) the ball is in the democrats court.

The following article discusses the closed session that the Democrats called. It seems to me that they are wasting time doing the "Special Counsel's" job. But of course this is all about public perception. Can that approval rating of W dip below 30%? The democrats made, I believe a savy move in their effort to regain power.

Closed Session

W was clever to appoint an ultra conservative wacko to replace the poorly thought out Miers nomination, because this should be a bit of a distraction. Still it won't be enough. (I see this playing out two different ways... Either Alito slips through the cracks and gets approved because of other distractions, or he gets shot down very quickly, I think it will be one or the other. I don't see it dragging on)

What is really frustrating is that Washington could be cutting spending, working on social security, expanding energy resources, figuring out how to pay for Katrina and other disaster relief. Instead they are busy name calling hoping that they can get America angry enough to disregard their ideologies. Because of this all of us end up suffering from their inaction.

The religious south will not ignore their beliefs, If W was found to have personally paid off the intelligence people to construct fake information, and all of the republicans were in on it too, the senate and house breakdown will still look very similar because that isn't important to Mary Jo-Ellen and Billy bob. All W needs to do is remind people in so many indirect ways how "unchristian" Iraq was and how he wants to change that.

An additional interesting link. This is actually written by Bono of U2 on our duty to combat poverty. It is nice to see an informed celebrity rather than someone spewing hot air. You'll find it very well versed, I think the work he's doing is very admirable and has already made a difference.

U2 lead- Bono commentary