Page 27 of 85

Bush’s Coming Third War

May 4, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Several decades back, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia worked out a deal that said that all oil transactions would be conducted exclusively in US$. This effectively tied the world’s petroleum purchases to the value of the dollar, meaning that it’s in all countries’ best interest for the value of our dollar to be as high as possible. The higher the US$, the less everyone’s oil costs.

If you hadn’t heard, Iran recently declared that they would no longer conduct OPEC business in US dollars. So what, right? Fuck ’em, we don’t need ’em.

Wrong.

The last country to stop conducting business in dollars was Iraq, just prior to the 1991 U.S.-led invasion. The invasion of Kuwait would have been a mere historical footnote, utterly ignored by the United States, if not for this. The reasons for the original invasion were merely a pretext for a much more important (U.S.) economic reason–we couldn’t afford to have our currency devalued. How many countries were invaded before and after, and we didn’t lift a finger? The war was sold for two reasons–oil and the primacy of the dollar.

I’m not the only one who thinks so. So does John McCain.

By removing themselves from the dollar, Iran has deliberately and disastrously provoked the Bush administration. According to this article–which unfortunately sites no reliable sources–a covert offensive against Iran “unprecented in its scope” has already been approved. We’re going to war with Iran.

I hope I’m wrong on this, I really do–but we know our government doesn’t listen to us. The Bush administration invaded Iraq despite the world’s largest protest. What hope do we have? People like John Conyers, threatened to impeach Bush if he invades Iran. Whoopty fuck–once the damage is done, then you’re willing to do something? How about now? How about now, when it might actually fucking matter?!

Update: I just found this article, though it was written a few days before this post. The last two paragraphs nicely sum up my point, albeit with less profanity:

It is some economic analyst’s belief that Saddam Hussein’s decision to switch from accepting the dollar to accepting the euro in 2000 was one of the significant developments that transformed opinions in Washington such as Vice President Dick Cheney’s into believing that regime change in Iraq was necessary to protect American interests.

Some American economists fear that by Iran dumping the dollar it could lessen the need for other countries around the world to hold onto their large reserves of United States Federal Reserve notes. This would likely result in the further plunging of the dollar as well as the continuing climb of fuel prices.

Hwa Rang Do Tournament 2008

May 1, 2008 / / 2 Comments

The Hwa Rang Do Midwest Tournament was this weekend. I did my open handed and jang bong (staff) forms for the first time in competition, mostly because waiting on bleachers for several hours is boring and hurts my ass. I didn’t place for either of them, but I wasn’t expecting that I would. (Link goes to someone doing my form much better than I can.)

A few explanations may be necessary, since I doubt most of you have done any martial arts. Forms are sort of one-person choreographed fight. They’re a series of prescribed movements that allow a practitioner to demonstrate their techniques at full force and speed without hurting anyone. They’re typically taught one per belt level.

The words “martial arts tournament” probably conjures images of men with a psychotic gleam in their eye, beating each other with their bare fists until one collapses in an unconscious bleeding heap. Not so much. Tournaments are usually held in school gymnasiums, not a boxing ring. To spar, you need a minimum of foam-padded hands, shins, feet, and helmet. Most tournaments also require mouthguards and cups, and a few lawsuit-wary tourneys are now requiring padded chest protectors and some really stupid looking helmets with plastic guards that cover the entire face.

This isn’t to say that people don’t get hurt. A kick to the jaw knocked me out in one of my first tourney sparring matches, and was kicked in the junk three times in another. I spent the next several days wearing the loosest-fitting pants I owned and walking funny. If you’re wondering–no, the crotch isn’t a legal scoring area. The guy got disqualified.

Typical rules for point sparring say that there are specific areas of the body that are legal for scoring points. Without going into much detail, they basically boil down to the torso and the head, not including the face. The idea is to land blows on your opponent with light or medium contact–basically showing that you could have knocked him into next week, but that you have the mental and physical control to stop yourself. “Rings” are marked out on the floor using tape. I’m not sure how big they are–I’d guess about 15′ x 15′.

Scoring varies from tournament to tournament, but this weekend kicks were two points, punches were one. Rounds go for two minutes or to five points. If two minutes doesn’t sound like much, try doing it. The only thing I’ve found that takes more energy is a flat-out sprint.

Back to this weekend–individual sparring went slightly better than forms. I won my first round five or six to nothing, then had to spar another guy from my dojang (school) who easily kicked my ass 6-0. I knew before I got there he was taking first in our division, so I didn’t really mind. I’d really only come for team sparring.

Team sparring pits five students of increasing ability from each school against each other, beginner vs. beginner, intermediate vs. intermediate, etc. Scoring is cumulative, so the beginners fight, and the score is 10 to 0, then intermediates fight 6 to 5, so the score is 16 to 5, etc. You get the idea. Rounds go for the full two minutes.

We won our first match 31 to (I think) 18.

Since we’d gotten a bye in the first round as returning champions, our second match was for the championship against Minneapolis. My counterpart on the opposing team had beaten me last year, and it hadn’t even been competitive. He’d killed me 6-0, and he’d done it quickly.

Since we were in the same division, I’d been observing him all day, looking for weaknesses, analyzing his style, trying to find any chink in his armor that would give me the advantage. As my team had been waiting to compete during the bye, one of my teammates leaned over and said, “Look at the way your guy drops his hands there. He’s wide open.” I’d watched his next few techniques as he sparred another team, and there was my opening–his chest may as well have had a bullseye painted on it. I knew from my ass kicking last year that he likes to charge in full-force, so all I needed to do was block his initial attack, step to the side, then nail him when he left himself open.

I glared at him across the ring while the beginners fought, trying to shake off my nerves. What if he’d gotten a lot better since last year? What if he’d changed up his style and wouldn’t be charging me like I expected him to? Am I going to fuck this up for the team?

The beginners finished, and my opponent and I jumped up and into the ring. We bowed to each other, the instructors, then set in sparring positions. No time to be nervous–now I just had to do it. Sparring always goes too fast to remember all of it, but I remember bits and pieces. He nailed me in the head with a backfist, and I answered back with a jump side kick in his ribs. It mostly happened just the way I’d hoped–he charged me and I waited for it, then I stuck him in the gut with a kick. He had a few surprises and caught me with another kick, but at the end of the match it was eight to three, my favor.

The rest of the match was tense. Their third fighter was crazy good, but he was sparring our guy who had taken first in my individual sparring competition. After the fourth round, we were down three points. All their last fighter needed to do was play it defensive, and Minneapolis would be taking home the trophy. In the final round, the points went back and forth so quickly I had no idea who’d won, but I knew it was really, really close.

I turned to Alyse, the 15-year-old girl who was our first fighter, and asked her who had won.

“I don’t know,” She replied. “I think we did.”

I wasn’t so sure–the last round had been really intense, and I’d completely lost track of points. Finally, after a few minutes of tabulation, checking, and rechecking, Master Kijak, the head instructor for the Midwest schools, picked up the microphone and walked into the center of the ring.

“Well, I’m sure you’re all wondering who won.” He laughed, and continued. “This year’s winner is…” He paused briefly for effect. It felt like an eternity, and the “GET ON WITH IT!” bit from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail flashed through my mind. I had a very brief and ill-advised urge to punch him.

“Madison West, with a score of twenty-one to nineteen!”

Master Kijek handed out the trophies–one first-place trophy for each team member, and a big four-foot-tall bastard to be taken back to the dojang and displayed prominently. I was grinning like an idiot.

I’ve received trophies for tournaments in the past, but I didn’t always feel like I’d earned them. When the divisions are too fine, (e.g., “18 to 34 year-old men’s intermediate heavyweight”) it’s not uncommon to have so few competitors in a division you can get your ass and a trophy handed to you. I’ve gotten a few medals and trophies in divisions like that, and they don’t have any value. I chuck them in a closet and forget about them. Not this one. I really earned this trophy, and I’m proud that I helped bring home another monster trophy for the dojang.

ByteMarket.com – Swindled

April 30, 2008 / / 0 Comments

One of the hard drives in my system started throwing errors last week, so I needed to replace it ASAP. While I was at it, I figured I’d do a minor upgrade and add redundancy for all the file systems on the box.

I removed both of the old crappy hard drives from my system, only to replace them with two other crappy hard drives. That hadn’t been my intention–I’d actually gone out of my way to purchase new Seagate drives because they come with five year warranties. The site I purchased them from, ByteMarket.com, listed two refurbished 40GB drives for a good price, so I bought them.

Since I only needed 40GB drives, I was fine with getting refurbs–drives reworked by the factory but are essentially new. Most importantly, they’re covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. That’s not what I got. In fact, I didn’t really get anything I’d wanted in this deal: there was virtually nothing about this purchase that ByteMarket didn’t fuck up.

  • The drives I received were system pulls–drives pulled from old computers and resold. They both had Compaq stickers plastered on them and were covered in scratches and dents. One hadn’t even had the original mounting screws removed.
  • They were shipped in a box that was twice as big as it needed to be, giving them plenty of room to bash around into each other during the shipping process. They were, however, in bubble wrap.
  • I specified shipping to my work address (where my server lives), and they were sent to my apartment.
  • I paid for 2-4 day shipping, and it took more than a week for the drives to arrive.

Since I needed to replace the bad drive in my system without delay, I had no choice but to install the drives anyway. I’ve been testing them, and they’re both working fine–but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m pissed. I’m calling tomorrow to see what they’re willing to do for me, since both drives are in use and can’t be sent back. I’m hoping for a partial refund or new drives. If I don’t get some sort of compensation, I’m going to sic The Consumerist on them.