one step forward and two steps back!

I'm sick and tired of president Bush's need to screw two things up for every one that he does properly.  Earlier this week, I regaled you with the good and bad #1.  Bush had put a suspension on deposits into the reserves, which would provide more fuel to be refined, hopefully causing a downturn in the oil futures market.  Then an hour later, he lowered environmental regulations on refineries, which may also speed up the refining process, but would serve to also further his plans of KILLING OUR PLANET!

Today, Bush gave a speech rejecting Congress' plan to review and tax the profits of the big oil conglomerates, as a stop-gap measure to try to lower fuel prices further, and also get some much-needed tax revenue.  Now there are 2 sides to this...there is (1) why he actually did it, and (2) his plans for the money that would otherwise go to the federal government..

(1) His interests and the interests of his friends in high places in the oil industry prevent him from doing anything adverse to the exorbitant profits that companies like Chevron and Exxon are taking.  Exxon just reported an 8 BILLION DOLLAR profit just in the first quarter of 2006...that's 89 million dollars that they made A DAY!!!  Just imagine getting 3.7 million dollars an hour in wages, and then you can comprehend that.

and

(2) His idea is that, instead of taking the money in tax revenue, he suggests that the large conglomerates use the profits to develop some type of alternate fuel source.  UHH...yeah right!  They're going to use their profits to create something to compete with themselves?  I don't care how much it will be worth at the time that it's perfected, they're not going to burn money on alternate fuels when they can just continue to make more money on the fuel that they're selling now.

The man has no brain in his head whatsoever.

Currently listening: Phantoms By Acceptance Release date: 26 April, 2005

Student’s Novel Faces Plagiarism Controversy

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512948

THIS PISSES ME OFF!!!

I have some HUGE issues with this story.  I saw this young girl on the Today Show this morning, apologizing for the gaffe of having similar passages in her book as established writer Megan McCafferty.  I've read the passages that were compared, and, yes, they are indeed similar.  The girl, 19 year old Kaavya Viswanathan, admits to having read the McCafferty books in high school, but that they had no conscious influence on her word choices.  Now, as much as I understand miss McCafferty's unhappiness at this seeming lack of originality, but Viswanathan has insisted that she didn't intentionally copy anything, but, unless you're James Joyce or Anthony Burgess, there are only a finite number of words in the English language, and they can only be combined in certain ways.  It is only natural that certain styles of writing that one is most familiar with will stick in the subconscious.

It has been said that if you put infinite monkeys in a room with infinite typewriters for long enough that they will eventually, through finite extraction, type Hamlet.  Now, this is much more specific than that, but Viswanathan states that she didn't even use the McCafferty novels as a reference when writing, instead, they sat on her shelf at home while she sat at Harvard, typing away.

This unfortunate incident also harbors the distinct possibility of hurting this girl's college career.  While the Harvard honor code applies in its penalties only to academic work, a certain degree of moral conduct is expected of all Harvard students.  Now, it's not my decision what happens to Kaavya Viswanathan, but it seems to me that she did nothing wrong, she's already apologized, and stated that she will make changes to the novel to remedy the similarities.

Here come the thought police, because I thought something that someone else thought during the Crusades!

Currently watching: Crash (Widescreen Edition) Release date: 06 September, 2005

See...I told you it wouldn't last long...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060425/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_15

Just when I was finished sending that last entry, I see this note come over the AP wire.  C'mon, this is pure politics.  I'm going to do something REALLY good over here, so you're going to watch this, and then over here where you're not looking I'm going to do something else that masks itself as something to complement what I just did, but in reality, it's self serving and morally wrong. 

Bush has just lowered environmental restrictions on gasoline producers, which albeit makes them able to faster produce fuel for our rabid consumerism, but also takes a big shovel and smacks the environment over the head.

Make no mistake, if Bush had his way, the beautiful arctic landscape of alaska would be plowed under to make way for Oil fields and the LARGEST Walmart the world has ever seen...seriously...it would have condos.

You take the good, you take the bad
More bad than good, and then you have
The facts of Bush!

Currently listening: Opaline By Dishwalla Release date: 23 April, 2002

Bush suspends oil reserve deposits

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060425/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_12

For the past month, gas prices have been rising at a more than steady pace, and Bush has decided that enough is enough, so, for the time being, he is suspending our deposits into the national oil reserve.  This will make more petroleum available for refinement, and should help to ease the burden that these prices have been creating on the collective American wallet.

For the record, those who know me, or who read my ramblings, will tell you that I am not a huge fan of the Bush administration, having found little that they have done properly in the past 6 years, but every once in a while, he does something that shows that he's not totally oblivious to the plight of the average american.  This is one of those moments, and I want to give him credit for it...it doesn't happen often, so I figure I have a small window of opportunity before he goes and does something else that will infuriate me.

So, before I can't say it anymore, good job, Dubya!

Currently listening: The Everglow By Mae Release date: 29 March, 2005

OH F$%.!!!!! Bush competes on penis size with Irani President

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060418/ts_nm/nuclear_iran_dc_15

We are SO SCREWED!!! 

That being said, I don't know that there is a GOOD way to respond to Iran's president's boasting regarding his military prowess.  I guess we can assume that he just has a tiny penis.  That is, of course, unless he's reading this, in which case, I would have to say...All our infidels are hiding in Mexico...

Before I incense anymore entire countries, let me just point out that Bush is being hypocritical here...not ruling out the possibility of a nuclear strike against iran flies right in the face of his claims last week that this crisis will only solved if done diplomatically....now, Bush has the diplomacy of a steak knife, so I took that report with a grain of salt, but this newly reaffirmed belief in Nuke-You-Ler weapons as a possible course of action scares the shit out of me.  What would stop him from having one "go off course" into Iraq if he was actually given the launch codes.  We all know that Cheney gave him madlibs instead.

Ok, I'm gonna go back to my vintage cold war bunker and pray that I don't have to kiss my ass goodbye.