Great rant on the OSU Beavers message board:

"If you can't separate political beliefs and anger from the sports board, then don't read further. I'm bound to piss off a few of my Beaver "friends" with what I'm about to say.

A&E just broadcast a docudrama about Flight 93, the United flight that crashed into the ground on 9/11 when the passengers tried to take the plane back from the hijackers. Needless to say, it was an emotional movie that brought back some of the feelings of that dreadful day.

The only good thing that could have come out of 9/11 was that a threat was recognized, a people were united, and the World could have rallied behind this horrible disaster to fight these murderous terrorist and terrorism effectively.

Instead, we had Dubya and his advisors screw up the "war on terrorism" more than it would have seemed possible. Either from stupidity, blind revenge, or a horribly misguided foreign policy, they took the war in the wrong direction, burned bridges, boosted terrorist support in the places where it most needed reducing, and used up decades of good will. Because of this group, nothing good has come from the thousands of innocent lives lost on 9/11. That makes me so angry that I can't even really express it. More innocents have died, soldiers have died, and a country is in turmoil. Anything good that has happened (like the removal of Saddam Hussein) could have been accomplished in other ways.

Please, George W. Bush, just go away and give my Country back. Give it back to those who are smart enough, honest enough, compassionate enough, and far-thinking enough to do things right. I don't particularly care if they're democrats or republicans. I just want them to be American -- in all the good senses of the word. I've had enough of your small-mindedness, false-patriotism, and jingoistic politics. You don't represent what America means to me. Until you, your advisors, and your dangerous foreign policy are purged from our system, the future is bleak. Quit screwing up our Country and the World. And, while you're at it, stop pretending to be doing God's will.

Mike '84"

This was on "The Porch," which is off-topic stuff and normally politcal spatter back and forth. Nothing is ever accomplished. One side will post a topic, and then ALWAYS the other side will try and tear it down.

This post received 0 negative responses. The hard-core righties didn't even touch this thread. I know they read it, new nothing they could say would change the fact that this guy is dead on. Sure, they ripped into topics above and below this thread... amazing how that works.

I feel really, really bad for people who believe the current leadership of this country is moral and compassionate. Take for example the "We Love Bush" group on Facebook, whose description is:

"Dedicated to the 43rd President of the greatest country on Earth. Leader of the free world and most benevolent leader (I nearly crapped my pants laughing) of our time. Helping to spread freedom across the globe to create a better world for future generations. Though not faultless (wow PROPS guys!), a decisive leader (who just so happens to make really shitty and idiotic decesions) who has strived to protect our country's morality and preserve the foundations of our Union (They have been SO moral themselves. No scandals or anything. Oh yes, and the United States was infact founded on the priciples of "restricting freedoms" which is all that they have done).

While a great aspect of our country is the efforts to dissent and make improvements, the left-wing communists (I'm a communist!!! Nothing like a little name calling to get that red American blood flowing!) in our country have taken it too far... Everyone is not guaranteed to be a millionare or to live a happy Life, but only in America can everyone enjoy the opportunities to be all that they want to be and know that only the sky is the limit...."

Wow. Anywho, that ends my Bush rant for now. Feels good every once in a while. Ahhhhhhh.

Don't you just LOVE watching the local news?

I honestly hate is so much I don't even watch it. The national news I'll watch though.

Let's see, what's new this week? Hmmm, nothing really. I'm going home Friday... everyone is just kinda going back and I want to see my family and everything. So that should be fun.

What else? Oh, I shall gush about the weather. It's been AWESOME lately. In the sixties/low seventies with little clouds... ahhh. Walking to class is no longer a chore, it's actually enjoyable. Gotta love the April-September in the Northwest. Like... six months of good weather!

Tonight I went to the NCAA Women's Gymnastics National Championship. It was held in Corvallis this year (who'da thunk it?). The main reason I went was to cheer on the Lady Beavs, who make the field for the first time in like... four years? Maybe. Something like that. The top twelve teams in the country compete (where was Boise State?). So anyway, they spilt the 12 into two groups and then have the top three of each group advance to the "final night".

Beavers only were average on this night however, and against the best competition in the nation, it wasn't enough. So they didn't advance. Oh well, it was still fun. Almost 5,000 people were there, about 4500 of which were decked out in orange. There were a lot of teams from the South who brought good rooting sections though and they were pretty comical.

Anyways, it was a lot better than watching the OC (which people other than me and Phil did. Tisk Tisk.)

Turns out I got an A- in Math 245 instead of the B+ I thought I got. So yeah, I guess Winter term went a little better then. Don't know how that happened.

The Blazers played last night (or was it the night before?) against the Los Angeles Clippers and actually played pretty well. Want to know why? Zach Randolph and Darius Miles weren't the the lineup. The Clippers swept the Blazers this season but I think this was the closest game out of all of them.

I was actually excited to watch them and they competed really well. The young guys played well and it was a really solid effort. Jarrett Jack stood out... along with Travis Outlaw to a degree. They hustled and played good team ball... something you don't see a lot of in the NBA.

Now that I check they played the Lakers tonight and stayed close until late in the fourth quarter. So good for them. They may not be winning but at least they are competing. That is all that I can ask. And why are they competing? I think ZBo and DMiles drag them down. We could trade for some decent talent with them and should during the offeason. Telfair, Jack, Outlaw, Khryapa, Webster, Dixon... they all look good (you too Steve Blake... unfortunately we have three really good PGs). We need to get some veteran leadership via the trade (hopefully the #1 pick too!) and will be better next year!

Don't sell the team Paul... and go Blazers!

This weekend I am going to go home on Saturday and have Sunday with my family for Easter.

Friday night we have a birthday party for the girlfriend of one of my friends, Adam, so I had to stay for that. On Saturday Laurel is going to take me back to Tualatin for the weekend. I was originally going to go with Phil, but they are leaving at like 10am and I don't think I can handle that. Me and Laurel are going to leave at 1pm probably, so I should be awake and alert.

Classes are going fine so far. Next week I'll give you an update on all of them, since I don't think I've even said what I'm taking this term. Oops. Oh well.

Awesome website:

http://gethuman.com/us/

Last Saturday I went to the Blazers game against the Jazz with my aunt Lena. She got free tickets in the 200 Level "VIP" section. So I drove over to her house and she took me out to this delicious restaurant near her house that had a really, really good Caesar salad. I forget the name of the place, but maybe she'll reply with it.

After that we drove to the Rose Garden and found a parking spot (free, about 8 blocks away). We walked to the arena, and after having quite the ordeal trying to find our seats, we settled in for some quality NBA action *cough*.

The Blazers ended up losing pretty handily. It was their 11th straight loss. They actually won their next game though so they avoided the longest losing streak in team history. We still had fun, catching up and ripping on the current state of the NBA. We still love our Blazers though, even if they do suck!

On the way back we witnessed a pretty bad car accident so Lena called the police. Their was a women in an SUV and a teenage girl in a Volvo that somehow hit, and the SUV plowed into a new car lot. The front end of it was completely destroyed. It was pretty shocking. I think the woman inside will be okay, she was pretty shocked but she wasn't bleeding or anything. Will probably have a bad back though.

I felt bad for the teenage girl because she was so upset. We comforted her a little and then left, because the police had come and we didn't actually see the accident (it took place right behind us).

So that's that. Woot.