Over the years, Americans have died all over the world fighting for causes that, at the time, seems pointless. It is only in the long view that many of these actions can be judged. The war on terror, which includes the "battle" in Iraq is no exception. Bringing democracy to Iraq will, in the long term, bring peace and prosperity to those people and make us a lot safer. We are a lot safer having Saddam removed than leaving him there for the inevitable day when sanctions were lifted and either he or his psychopathic sons were in charge to do who knows what.

As wars go, this one was unusually justified.

Here's a list of the wars the US has been in:

War of 1812: Declared because a handful of US merchants were impressed into the British Navy. Thousands of Americans died and the most of Washington DC was burned to the ground by the British. Our President, James Madison, wrote most of the constitution.

Mexican/American War: We wanted Mexican territory so we seized it.

War of 1898: A US ship in Havana Harbor blows up likely due to a failure on the ship. The US declares war on Spain and seizes Cuba and the Philippines.

World War I: Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare around the British Isles. So we declared war on them.

World War II: Japan attacks Pear Harbor, Germany and Japan both declare war on us.

Korean War: North Korea invades South Korea. US troops sent to defend South Korea.

Vietnam War: North Vietnam aims to unite all of Vietnam into a Communist country. US defends South Vietnam. Ultimately ends in a stalemate with the US leaving. North Vietnam ultimately violates the agreement and conquers South Vietnam anyway. US doesn't respond.

Gulf War I: Iraq invades Kuwait. US and UN give Saddam an ultimatum to leave Kuwait or be forced to leave. US and Coalition forces liberate Kuwait but stop short of removing Saddam (since that wasn't part of the UN mandate). A cease fire is called in which Iraq agrees to UN inspections, a no-fly zone over the northern and southern part of the country to protect the Kurd and Shiites respectively, and reparations to Kuwait.

Afghanistan: After 3 hijacked airliners crash into the WTC and Pentagon (a 4th was retaken by the passengers and crashed into the ground), the US determines that a worldwide terrorist network, Al Qaeda, was responsible and is mainly based in Afghanistan. After demanding that the Afghan Taliban government hand them over being refused, US forces work with "the northern alliance" to eliminate the Taliban government and eject most of Al Qaeda from that country.

Gulf War II: Iraq, having thrown out the inspectors, not paid reparations, and regularly firing on US/UK planes patrolling the no-fly zone is given an ultimatum in the unanimously passed resolution 1441: Abide by the previous agreements or suffer "serious consequences". He is given 90 days to do so. By February, it's clear Saddam is playing the same old games. Coalition forces remove Saddam from power.

Now, if you look at this together, it's pretty clear that as wars go, this one had more thought and justification to it than most efforts the US has been involved in (the war of 1898, the war of 1812, and the Mexican-American war are all 3 wars that are pretty hard to justify IMO).

I tend to think that most people just don't know much on these wars. IN the Mexican-American war, the US army actually conquered Mexico. Not just some piece of it. US forces conquered Mexico City. If they had had mass communications back then, there's a pretty good chance that most of Mexico would have been incorporated into the United States.  Similarly, the war of 1812 was incredibly foolish and had virtually no justification that I can find. And as for the Spanish-American war, imagine the reaction today of US troops fighting and dying in the Philippines because some old US ship blew up for unknown reasons 90 miles south of Florida.

50,000 Americans died defending Korea. What was the justification for that? It was a rural nation on the other side of the world with no national interest to us. I certainly grieve for every one of the hundreds of Americans who have died in Iraq, their sacrifice will ultimately help a great many people in the long run.

Most defeated enemies of the United States have benefited in some way. If Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and California had remained part of Mexico, does anyone think the citizens there today would be better off? Does anyone think that Japan and Germany aren't better off today than they would have been otherwise? France, which regularly whines about US "unilateralism" only exists today because the same gang liberated them from the Germans (and was it not French unilateralism that aided the US revolution? The French justification for helping us was basically to piss off the British). 

The point is, what we're doing in Iraq is almost certainly going to benefit everyone on all sides (well, not the terrorists probably.  We won't have to worry that some dictator is using his billions in oil wealth to plot some horrible revenge on the United States or its friends.  Iraqi's won't have to worry about having their children taken from them and tortured, killed and imprisoned simply as a way to "teach the parents a lesson". Iraq's neighbors don't have to worry about becoming a "province" of "Greater Iraq".

In other words, the benefit being gained from the war in Iraq is great and our sacrifice has been relatively low. But not absolute zero. When people worry about the details of justifying the war they ignore the bigger picture. Most wars in history have had little or no justification. The US is no exception to this. But what is exceptional is the long term results - US actions do tend to benefit other peoples. There is no denying this.  People who carp about the UN not agreeing with this or that ignore the obvious - the UN was created by the United States. It wasn't a team effort. It was wholly a US idea with British backing that the US then talked others into being involved with. And the UN was an action that resulted from World War II.

Wars are hell. But they do bring change both good and ill. But based on history and based on a broader look at the situation, the war in Iraq is likely to benefit everyone in the long run.

I've been re-reading Ender's Game from Orson Scott Card. It's probably one of the best all time sci-fi books out there. The other books in the series degrade substantially. The first book, however, is totally self-contained.

The book exhibits the types of things I always enjoy in a good story: The good guys are very intelligent. The bad guys are very intelligent. It's a book just full of smart people in every sense and you can see each character trying to accomplish their goals while fully aware that those who oppose them are monstrously clever. The one thing that is unusual about the book is that the main characters are children. These gifted children have been chosen from across all the world to save the world from an impending alien invasion.

I've read this book time and time again and each time I read it I learn something new of it. It's not just entertaining, it's truly inspiring. It taught me a great deal about what leadership is about. I'm a very imperfect leader. I know how I should behave when performing leadership functions but it does not come naturally to my persona. My instinct is to be more of the comic relief. I prefer to tell jokes and make people feel good than to tell them what to do.  Those people who only know me from what I write would probably find that surprising. But that's the thing -- when I write publicly, I'm having to alter my behavior to accomplish my goals. It is something that has taken years to even begin to master and every year I realize there is still so much more to do.

In the book, however, Ender, as a child, has to figure all these things out very quickly. The stakes are very high. The fate of the world is on his shoulders. But throughout it all, he recognizes that there is the person he is and the person he must be to accomplish the goals set in front of him.  But this is just one of the many insights that the book shares about human nature and the world that are pretty fascinating.

If you haven't read this book and are into sci-fi at all, I highly recommend it.

So what is all this skinning stuff about? Ever wanted to try changing the way your computer looks and feels but weren't sure what programs were out there to do it? Check out this skin primer (updated today) to get a handle on some of the most popular programs for changing the Windows look and feel.

Whether you’re talking to a right-wing nut or a left-wing zealot, they will insist that their opinions are in the mainstream. No one ever thinks that they are somehow out of touch with everyone. They’re not extreme. Everyone else is – particularly those who disagree with them.

 

Who, exactly, is the arbiter of far left or far right? The answer is: Everyone else. By definition, you’re a right-wing or left-wing extremist if your positions on various issues are in conflict with the views of the majority nearly all the time.

 

Occasionally I’ll get some email from someone insisting I’m a right wing extremist (and sometimes I get accused of being a liberal nut).  But statistically, I’m pretty much in the middle. A little right of center overall. What makes people react to what I write is because I tend to intentionally make use of terms and words to incite a reaction out of readers – if everything I wrote was mild and politically sensitive my articles would get pretty dull.

 

But how do you judge whether you’re out of the mainstream? Depends on where you are.  In the United States there are a few stats I can think of the top of my head (stats from various national polls). Score yourself:

 

1)      Are you religious?

a.       Yes (90% of people are)

b.      No, I’m an atheist or agnostic (10%) (L:5)

 

2)      Are you in favor of capital punishment?

a.       Yes in certain cases (70%)* (C:2)

b.      No, it’s always wrong (30%) (L:4)

*Watch for statistic manipulation on this issue, you can find stats where it’s nearly 50/50 but it depends on where the poll was taken and how it is phrased. Most Americans support capital punishment in at least certain circumstances.

 

3)      Do you support the right for women to choose to have an abortion?

a.       Yes in all cases (20%)* (L:5)

b.      In some cases (60%)

c.       No, it’s always wrong (20%) (C:5)

*Watch for statistic manipulation on this issue, you can find stats where it goes the other way but it depends on where the poll was taken and how it is phrased. Most Americans support capital punishment in at least certain circumstances.

 

4)      Do you think the US should have gone to war in Iraq even now?

a.       Yes (65%) (C:1)

b.      No (35%) (L:2)

 

5)      Do you support the US “War on Terror”?

a.       Yes (80%) (C:1)

b.      No (20%) (L:3)

 

6)      Do you think Bill Clinton should have been impeached?

a.       Yes (40%) (C:2)

b.      No (60%)(L:1)

 

7)      Do you think the US should drop out of the UN?

a.       Yes (10%) (C:5)

b.      No (90%)

 

8)      Do you feel about US social policies?

a.       We should cut all federal social programs (5%) (C:6)

b.      We should cut most federal social programs (10%) (C:4)

c.       We should keep it about the same

d.      We should provide universal healthcare (20%)  (L:3)

e.       Agree with D. and We should put cap on how much income one can make with additional income taxed at greater than 70%) (L:6)

 

9)      Do you think there should be prayer in school?

a.       Yes (25%) (C:5)

b.      No (75%)

 

10)  Do you support tax cuts that are equal for all income brackets as a percentage?

a.       Yes (55%) (C:1)

b.      No (45%) (L:2)

 

 

This isn’t scientific and the polls are not exact percentages (as you can find polls to back up whatever finding you want to have). Take it for what it is.

 

So here’s the table:

The range is 28 on the liberal side to 28 on the conservative side.

 

My score came out to be Conservative 6 points. That's because I'm conservative on fiscal issues and somewhat liberal on social issues. As we work on The Political Machine, we'll have a much better handle on people's views on these issues and I'll try to put something together that's a bit more useful.

 

This is just something I whipped up for fun in a few minutes. It’s not conclusive and it’s possible to be a radical and have a low score since some people are radical in just certain issues.

The February issue of WinCustomize Magazine is now available. Check out the link below to see what's new in the world of Windows customization!

The February issue of WinCustomize Magazine is now available for the general public.  You can check out all the cool skinning news by clicking the link below.

Some people have complained that Bush doesn't have the right to make use of any 9/11 related images in his campaign commercials.  I disagree. But I also strongly believe that he needs to tread carefully as to not seem to be exploiting a national tragedy. 

The reason I think he can and should bring up 9/11 is because it was the defining moment of is presidency. I remember thinking as the months passed after 9/11 how thankful I was that Bush had won and not Gore. I could imagine the over-engineered response Gore would have put together. Would Gore have taken out the Taliban? Would some other President have managed to topple the Taliban and disrupt Al Qaeda with so few losses? Who can forget Bush standing at ground zero with his arm around the weary fireman? It was a defining moment in our country's history and Bush was the right man at the right place. He not only should remind us of those times, he has an obligation to remind us of what we've been through and how he handled a dire situation.

Those who cry foul are being hypocritical, to say the least. We don't know a lot about Kerry but we damn well know that he served in Vietnam. That he got a silver star, a bronze star, and two purple hearts. I know this off the top of my head. Why? Because he is constantly making a big fuss about the defining moment of his life. I don't have a problem with that though. Those events demonstrated that in a crunch, Carry is a brave and heroic figure.  Would someone argue that Vietnam was a "national" event that should therefore be hands off? Of course not.  9/11 was a national tragedy as well. And it is important for people to realize how effectively Bush handled that crisis.

Obviously Bush critics won't like that. Their strategy has been to try to make it so that Bush can't talk about anything.  If you try to point out Kerry's deplorable voting record on national security issues, his supporters claim that's off limits because he's a war hero.  Now they're trying to create a scenario where Bush can't speak about what he accomplished.  Honestly now, if I told you on 9/12/2001 that as we enter 2004 the United States would not suffer a single follow-up terrorist attack would you have believed it? Be honest now.  Nearly 3 years later and we've not suffered any additional attacks. Before 9/11 we had been routinely attacked by Al Qaeda -- the embassy bombings, the USS Cole, the first WTC attack. And yet after 9/11, nothing. No matter how you slice it, you have to give some credit to Bush for this. Because, make no mistake, if we suffered a terrorist attack he would almost certainly get blamed for that. We can't have it both ways.

His ads needs to remind us what we've been through. Not just for political purposes but because too many people have already forgotten what happened on September 11. Four airliners were hijacked at the same time. Two of them were rammed into the world's largest building, the WTC and destroyed. The WTC, if you hadn't ever been in it, was the size of a small city. The twin towers could comfortably fit over 100,000 people in them (that's how many people could potentially have died incidentally if the planes had struck about an hour later and at the same time and a bit lower on the buildings). A third hijacked airliner rammed into the Pentagon. The fourth was retaken by the passengers and crashed into the ground while it was on its way to Washington DC. Its target believed to have been the White House (think about that for a moment - if the passengers hadn't done what they did, the White House might have been destroyed). Or maybe the capital building!  Think about that. 

We need to be reminded that we are at war. And that like Kerry in Vietnam, when Bush had his crunch time, he showed that he was a man of integrity and effective leadership.

Two years ago we had the first GUI Olympics. And out of that contest over a hundred skins competed. The winning team was from deviantART with LotsOfSkins a close second. Grayhaze won the top individual score in points with his "MetalX" skin that had multiple sub-styles in it. This year, team deviantART has an impressive array of skin authors lined up. But one change from lat time has been that skinners can choose to form their own teams. The three major pro skin houses, Pixtudio, Skinplant, and The Skins Factory, are all their own teams. Here are some highlights from last time around:

LOS was a skin put together by Pixtudio. It was creative and yet quite usable. In the past year, a lot of people have pointed out an increasing desire by skin authors to move towards download counts rather than making cool new things that they themselves like. That's one of the advantages of the GUI Olympics, skin authors aren't judged by how "mass market" friendly their skin is. The skins are judged by the people who actually make the software along with leaders in the customization community.

Seti Green from DavidK did very well too. It was downloaded by 70,000 different people (WinCustomize / GUI Olympics tracks downloads by # of unique individuals -- some sites have vastly inflated download counts because they count aborted or repeat downloads). Needless to say, this was a very popular and creative skin. Look at the way the title bar was done.

MetalX by Grayhaze was one of the two skins Grayhaze submitted during the contest. But that's really not being fair. MetalX won more awards than any other skin because it had so many different sub-styles. It technically was one skin but it had modes for both power users, minimalistic users, and casual users (don't let the screenshot fool you). It won both in terms of user voting and via the judges. Grayhaze represented the smaller skin site, VelocityArt which helped put it on the map at the time. It was downloaded by nearly 110,000 different people.

Organix and other skins by MindlessPuppet allowed him to do very well in the creative events of the 2002 GUI Olympics. Most people looking at these skins would say "I wouldn't run that". But that wasn't the point. Top skinners are able to beat the challenge of creating something that is new and different even if they wouldn't be mainstream.

So there you have it. The last GUI Olympics focused only on WindowBlinds skinning. This time, Winamp 5 skinning and Icons are involved. And skinning has gone mainstream since 2002. Some of the winners of the GUI Olympics 2002 went on to become professional skin authors making skins for companies ranging from Nintendo, Microsoft, ATI, nVidia, Sony, and dozens of other companies who now see skinning as a way of branding their user interface for their users.

Got this in an email today. Thought you'd get a kick out of it:

EXCERPTS FROM A DOG'S DIARY

8:00 AM - Oh Boy! Dog food! My favorite!

9:30 AM - Oh Boy! A car ride! My favorite

9:40 AM - Oh Boy! A walk! My favorite!

10:30 AM - Oh Boy! A car ride! My favorite!

11:30 AM - Oh Boy! Dog food! My favorite!

12:00 Noon - Oh Boy! The kids! My favorite!

1:00 PM - Oh Boy! The yard! My favorite!

4:00 PM - Oh Boy! The kids! My favorite!

5:00 PM - Oh Boy! Dog food! My favorite!

5:30 PM - Oh Boy! Mom! My favorite!

6:00 PM - Oh Boy! Playing ball! My favorite!

6:30 PM - Oh Boy! Sleeping in master's bed! My favorite!



EXCERPTS FROM A CAT'S DAILY DIARY

Day 183 Of My Captivity: My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre
little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am
forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope
of escape and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture.

Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant. Today my attempt to kill my
captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost
succeeded, must try this at the top of the stairs. In an attempt to
disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself
to vomit on their favorite chair, must try this on their bed.

Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body, in attempt to
make them aware of what I am capable of and to try to strike fear into
their hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little
cat I was. Hmmm, not working according to plan.

There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in
solitary throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise and
smell the food. More importantly I overheard that my confinement was
due to MY power of "allergies." Must learn what this is and how to use
it to my advantage. I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and
maybe snitches.

The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is
obviously a half-wit.

The bird on the other hand has got to be an informant, and speaks with
them regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his
current placement in the metal room, his safety is assured. But I can
wait, it is only a matter of time

Over $15,000 in cash and prizes has been contributed by the Stardock, Nullsoft, ATI, Microsoft, and Eclipsit. This includes $1000 in cash given out during the top individuals and top teams portion. Below is a list of the various events and the current schedule for when the judging will begin. The date for the judgment is subject to change (they won't be earlier than what's listed, however).  Here's the list.
 

All contestants who win a gold, silver, or bronze also get the following:

• Object Desktop (or extension to access)
• Galactic Civilizations
• T-shirt (either a GUI Olympics one, a WinCustomize one, a Microsoft one, or a Stardock one

Additional Prize Codes:
[RXT] = ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256MB
[AW] = All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro
[TV] = TV Wonder Pro Remote Control Edition
[M] = Microangelo icon studio
[XBOX] = Xbox
[WA] = Winamp Pro
[DVD] Video/Music CDs or DVDs (to be determined)

Note: No duplicate prizes for winners (i.e. if you won every event, all 3 places, you wouldn't get 48 T-shirts). If winner wins events with multiple graphics cards, player can choose which one they want.