First a bit about the weather...
Today is December 1st!! Can you believe it?! I can't. And to top it off... I'm walking around with short sleeves and all the windows are open. Global Warming at it's best. (speaking of which, Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" is out on DVD and I have a copy of it here from Netflix that I hope to watch this weekend. So prepare for a rant on that later ;)
ok, onto todays rant(s)...
I woke up this morning early. It was one of those weird "lucent dreams" that stirred me awake around 7am. Try as I might to force myself back to sleep, I could not. So I got up made a cup of Tea (used the last of my "Dragonwell" Green Tea (expensive Green Tea, that to me was not worth the extra expense - but it still tasted good)). I sat down and turned on C-Span to see what the topic of the day was for "The Washington Journal". Friday's are usually hosted by Brian Lamb himself and are usually a good show. (Really... Someone should give Mr. Lamb a medal for all he does.) So the first guest (where I missed the first part of her interview) was Mona Charen. Ms. Charen is a columnist and occasional blogger over on Townhall.com (I never heard of her before). She was a real cheerleader for the Bush policies! She raised the ire of several democrat/liberal listeners who really laid into her with some tirades. She handled them pretty well, but with an air of condescension. One of the things she said that really kinda shocked me was her emphasis that there were "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq, but that Sadam had somehow gotten them out of the country before we could find them. What? You mean people still believe that? I thought the WMD theory has been put to rest due to a three year lack of evidence. Yet Miss Charen's argument was that since Sadam had used WMD's in the past, then clearly he still had them. Ok, her segment came to an end, and they brought on the next guest... Thomas Ricks. Mr. Ricks wrote (and was promoting) his book called "Fiasco". A complete opposite point of view than Ms. Charen's. Mr. Ricks interview was much calmer. He really seemed to know his facts, figures, and was able to drop names of military people that he spoke with. He (of course) said that there is no evidence of WMD's and seriously doubts the claim. It struck me... Here we have two well educated people, both writers, who believe completely different things! How is that possible? Why does this happen?? How is the "average joe schmoe" like me supposed to make up his mind which story is true? (I believe Mr. Ricks only because he seemed much more credible). But what is it that Ms. Charen is able to dismiss what most of the rest of the people in the intelligence community are saying as being false? Is she stupid? (I don't think so). Is she niave? Is it wishful thinking? Is it because she has such support for the Republican party that she is able to put blinders on and not even look at the other side? I just don't get it. It's as if a newspaper reporter wrote a column that the world is flat. Wouldn't that reporter eventually loose his/her job?
I don't know if I will get Mr. Rick's book or not. I'm sure it is interesting, well written, but I don't know if I have the stomach to learn even more facts and figures about the mess we are in. I do have an Amazon.com gift certificate that's burning a hole in my pocket, so maybe I'll put it towards Fiasco.
Moving on...
One other side note that was brought up by a caller while Mr. Ricks was on...
AH SHOOT! I just forgot the guy's name! One of the military leaders (a general) who is credited with really getting the Iraq war off the ground (then retired) was giving a medal by our President. The caller pointed out (and Mr. Ricks agreed it was odd) that the Pres. gave him a civilian award/medal. Why was a military general given a civilian award? Odd.
I would encourage you to watch/listen to the webcast over on Cspan's website for Dec. 1st. (You can skip Charen's interview ;)
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