The Collected Writings of Sardonicus

I gotta give President Bush credit. He's not backing down to the xenophobic mob backlash against the Dubai deal regarding key US ports. The UAE is a respected Arab nation that is one of the few countries in teh Middle East that is behaving well, and now we see both Democrats and Republicans in Congress spearheading a campaign to discredit the President by suggcounesting all Arab nations sponsor terrorism. Schumar, Clinton, Graham, you all should be ASHAMED of yourselves. It's just irresponsible, and if Bush allows for the mob to dictate American economic and foreign policy, it will substantially injure our efforts to get Arab nations to cooperate with us in the future.

Iraq seems to be headed towards civil war, although many believe that the civil war has been going on for some time now. It's difficult to know what role the US should play in the power struggles among the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds, but it goes without saying that things are not going well. It's hard to know how the conflict will effects Iraq's neighbors, and I can't find too many people optimistic about Iraq remaining unified for much longer. We'll see how this plays out in Iraq, and how this plays out here at home. Many Republicans have turned their backs on the lame duck Prez, and he's pissed about it. And I don't blame him. He's been extremely loyal to his people these past 6 years, and I guess only now he's starting to see their true natures.

It's hardly unexpected, but the Philippines is under a state of emergency, and Arroyo is fighting off coups left and right. Some analysts expect the country to be put under martial law sooner rather than later, and I guess we'll have to see what develops after that. Signs point to the possibility that she has already lost a lot of support among the military.

Looks like the Winter Olympics in Turin is coming to an end. South Korea is tied in 9th overall with a medal count of 11: 6 golds, 3 silvers, 2 bronzes. They're tied with Italy and China. A great Olympic Games for the ROK, almost tripling the number of medals that were won during the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. The overall leader was Germany, with 29 medals, followed closely by the United States with 25.

Haircut. Shorter than I expected, but whatever.

A couple of reviews:
Films
Serenity (2005):
A really fun movie from the mind of Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's a sci-fi movie based on Whedon's Firefly television show, but it doesn't feel like a hollywood film. Although it's set in space, the special effects were low-budget, and it was shot like a television episode. Nevertheless, it's was a 2 hour television episode that I liked, and now I have enough interest to go back and try to find some episodes of Firefly to watch. B+

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005):
Stunk. I wanted to like the movie, since I wanted to feel supportive of asian actors and actresses in major Hollywood films, and I especially enjoyed that they didn't try to find a way to force a white character into the story just for its commercial value in the US, but the movie was a disappointment. Then again, I wasn't a big fan of the book, so it's hard to say whether it's the filmmaker's fault or the story itself. C

The South Koreans are doing well in the Winter Olympics, I guess. So far they've won 7 medals: 3 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze. I wouldn't be surprised if all 7 were won in short-track speedskating, but I suspect the bronze was from something else. So right now the ROK has the same medal count as China and is ranked 8th overall. But Korea should have one more and China one less, but a female skater was disqualified from her bronze medal for no reason I could see. Japan has no medals so far. Zip. The United States has 13 medals overall, including 7 golds. The current medal leader is Germany.

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EDIT: Do I even mean this or do I say it out of frustration?

HAHAHAHAH. This is the most ridiculous news ever. The vice president just shot his friend? Wow... well, I'm glad the guy wasn't fatally wounded. Sigh... when will Cheney learn that he can't just go around shooting people?

Wow, this has been a loooooooong week. Finally got started on my thesis... not too optimistic about that anymore. The Winter Olympic opening ceremony last night... eh, I'm not too into it anymore. Or maybe the cool events are later. I always end up watching Women's Figure Skating, even when I don't think I will.

Hmm, a pretty big snow storm today. Although the inches haven't been accumulating. They seem to be turning to slush on contact, which is either a good or bad thing. If it gets colder tomorrow, I'm just going to have to endure icy paths here on campus.

____ can be such a mystery. I just can't seem to "get" ____. Either I'm in some elaborate game that I'm not aware of, or ____ is subconsciously being misleading. Actually, I suspect ____ is intentionally misleading. Perhaps a sign of bad character. It's hard to know why I'm still thinking about this. I think I just want to know the answer to why, more than wanting a particular answer to if. Where is the intangible beast: closure?