Saturday, 1 February 2003: It's never a good sign when you wake up to the news that Katie and I, as well as the rest of the world, woke up to this morning. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry today. When I first turned on the TV, I was watching images of the vapor trails that the shuttle was leaving in its wake as it traveled across the Texas sky. Then I saw it breaking up. I thought I was watching the Challenger footage until I remembered that the Challenger was moving upward in all video accounts and blew in two different directions. The sight this morning was of several streaks moving parallel to each other. That's when I knew something was horribly wrong and I wasn't watching archival footage. The fallout from this is going to be nasty to say the least.

May God bless the souls of those who died.

Thursday, 30 January 2003: Today, you can just call these the "Political Picture Pages." I've got a few shots here that are really pretty funny so, by all means, enjoy... [pictures disappeared into the ether]

This explains soooo much...

Also, there has been debate raging lately on the Web about whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin served as the basis for the appearance of the character Dobby in the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. From what I hear, Russian lawyers are taking aim at Warner Bros., hitting them with a lawsuit regarding likeness rights or some such crap. You tell me... separated at birth or not?

Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for Vladimir Putin and I am really intrigued by the guy. He has such a shady past as a former KGB honcho and is now the president of an un-Communist version of his country. He's got a tough job, but he seems to be doing pretty well thus far. Plus, he doesn't support attacking Iraq without exhausting diplomatic options first. Seriously though, the likeness is pretty uncanny. I'd like to learn more about him. Can anybody recommend any good books on him?

Wednesday, 29 January 2003: Just finished up a big old argument in the office this morning. One of my coworkers believes that Dubya was "right on" in his State of the Union address last night. She thinks that going to war with Iraq is the right thing to do and it needs to be done immediately. I do not agree, nor did three other people in my office. As far as I'm concerned, he has yet to give any proof that Iraq is doing anything wrong. Which is apparently what Colin Powell is presenting to the U.N. on February 5. That should make for good sound bites.

One thing Bush was big on was instilling the fear of death in us by conveying the idea that Iraq could arm terrorists with chemical and biological weapons that could be used to kill people here on our home turf. Yes, that's possible. But it's always been a possibility. Hell, in effect, the U.S. has done the same thing in the past. Who do you think armed Iraq in the first place? We prepped them for their war against Iran and then they start to use our supplies and intelligence against us. We did the same with Afghanistan. We armed them in their 10-year war with the Soviet Union. When the government was overturned in the 90s, the weapons, training, and intelligence wound up in the hands of the Taliban and, ultimately, Al-Qaeda. Now that's what I call planning.

I'm bitter, I admit. I know we're going to go to war regardless. That scares the hell out of me. I've got two brothers-in-law that are eligible should a draft be reinstated. My own brother could potentially be eligible based on age but may be excepted seeing as how he's 50% deaf. But, who can say for sure until it actually happens. I'm also bitter because one of my high school buddies who I still see from time to time is deploying on Friday. I just found this out about a half hour ago. He doesn't know where yet, just that he's going overseas. He's an M.P. with the National Guard and I know he's doing this willingly, but I still think it's wrong. We're getting in over our heads here. We've got troops in Afghanistan with more going over. Troops in Iraq and surrounding countries. If things blow up in North Korea, we may send more troops there as well. What happens if we are attacked here at home? Pretty soon, we won't have any military to defend us. We're spreading ourselves too thin and not thinking through things logically.

Tuesday, 28 January 2003: Is anybody else out there as terrified as I am about what Dubya's gonna say tonight in his State of the Union address? No matter what, the rhetoric is going to be overwhelmingly in favor of going to war with Iraq. That, obviously, goes without saying. I'm just worried about what lines of shit will be forcefed to the American public tonight and how many suckers out there are gonna buy into it. I'm hoping that not too many people will fall victim to what he claims is the truth. I've said it before and I'll say it again, going to war is wrong. Countries all over the world are branding Bush a terrorist. What happens when his own constituents start to feel the same way? All I really know for sure right now is that with how things are going, we will have a Democrat back in office in about two years. Bush seems to feel that this country, as well as the rest of the world, will fall in step with his views once the war starts. I'm sure that's what Johnson thought back in the Vietnam era. Didn't happen, though, did it?

Monday, 27 January 2003: I was listening to The Score AM 670 this morning for Murph and Fred's recap of the Super Bowl and they had on their phone-in guest host Gale Sayers formerly of the Chicago Bears. Sayers is on the show with them every Monday morning during the football season and is usually just around to discuss the Bears and how they're (not) doing. But, since the Bears didn't even come close to the playoffs this season, they've been discussing other teams as well. This morning, however, one caller asked about the aging QB situation with the Bears seeing as how both the Bucs and Raiders made it the big game with very aged QBs. Sayers felt that the Bears should ditch both Jim Miller and Chris Chandler and pick up a free agent and a 4th or 5th round draft pick. Murph said they should ditch Chandler and third stringer Henry Burris but hold on to Miller since he has the respect of the team. Fred said nothing. Dunno why, he just didn't.

Here's my $.02... Ditch Chandler. Keep Burris as a backup as I think he has some potential (ironic considering how I've ragged on him in the past). Keep Miller but not as a QB. The guy is injured far too often and has proven his immobility on the field and is, therefore, not deserving of a spot on the depth charts. The Bears have not had a QB coach in a while and I think Miller would make a good one. No, he's not the best QB in the league. Far from it, in fact. But, like Murph said, he has the team's respect. Skill and knowledge only go so far. To be an effective coach, you need to have skill, knowledge, and respect. So bring in Miller as a QB coach to work in tandem with (hopefully) a new offensive coordinator. Ditch a couple of the overpriced receivers on the team to free up some cash and pick up a first round draft choice and a free agent QB. But hey, I'm not in the front office, so what the hell do I know, right?

Sunday, 26 January 2003: I am totally stoked about how the Super Bowl turned out. Both Katie and I were rooting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and they pulled through in fine fashion. However, there were two points during the game when I did start to worry. The first Raiders possession made it look like the Bucs defense was going to get pummelled, but they kicked it in gear the rest of the game until the fourth quarter when Raiders QB Rich Gannon finally started to catch fire with a couple of beautiful bomb passes for touchdowns to the Jerrys - Porter and Rice. But, you just gotta love those last two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns by the Bucs. Katie even called the last one. She said it would be great if the Bucs just intercepted one more pass and returned it for a TD and, two plays later, it happened. She was pretty excited to have made that call. Jumping up and down on the bed and everything. A good time, indeed.