Two quick questions and a gripe about the Olympics.

1) Why do communist countries have to have "People's Republic" in their name? Who are they trying to fool?

2) It was great to see over 200 countries gathered together, having fun, acting peacefully, but then you had to think about everything else going on in the world today. Fundamentalists will try and disrupt the games. They will try and disrupt peace everywhere since it isn't the peace they want. Such a shame that there are people who are so diametrically opposed to peace and happiness that they feel the only way to advance their cause is through harm and destruction.

And a gripe...today on the NBC Olympic site, they had the opening ceremonies from 8p-12a on NBC. Fine - that's when they were. But they also showed them from 6p-10p on NBC HD. But upon closer inspection of my on-screen guide, the opening ceremonies were from 8p-12a on NBC HD. But then, when I turned it on at 8, they had highlights from 2002. The actual ceremonies didn't start until 9p and go until 1a. Also, while trying to watch the opening ceremonies in HD when they finally came on at 9, the picture kept flickering out, the audio would switch from the HD feed to the NBC feed of Costas and Couric and their banal drivel and to add insult to injury, they are only showing one commercial on the HD feed. Kudos to Sony for supporting the HD feed - but could you at least come up with more than one commercial that I have to watch 6 times an hour? Though...in one hour, having to only watch 6 commercials (3 minutes) is just fine by me - just annoying for it to be the same one every time.

Hopefully NBC can get their act together HD-wise for the rest of the games - though I'm not sure exactly what they're going to do. Basically, they're just repackaging the Olympic HD feed that goes out to all countries and just adding their own commentators since they were unable to get HD coverage of all major events this year - gee, NBC, guess the Olympics were just sprung on you and you had no time to prepare - right? At least for Turino in 2006, NBC has pledged to have their own HD coverage. But I'll believe that when I see it.

URL: INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE - ATHENS 2004

So, did you hear the story about on multiple occasions, Senator John Kerry stated that on Christmas (or Christmas Eve depending on the story) during the Vietnam war, he was in Cambodia despite our then President denying troops were there? Did you hear how those on his boat were disheartened to be ignored by the President and not acknowledged? I'm sure you did.

Did you hear how Kerry is now waffling and saying his memory was fuzzy and he wasn't in Cambodia? Did you hear that Kerry has once again deceived the public, again this time in front of a congressional committee? You'd think it would at least be worth a mention somewhere - right?

Search: Cambodia
LA Times: 0 results
NY Times: 0 results
Washington Post: 1 result - Letter to the Editor
USA Today: 0 results
Chicago Tribune: 0 results

Front Page Articles on Abu Grahib in New York Times: 26 and counting. Front page article when testimony in trials of Abu Grahib soldiers said that their orders did not come from higher ups: missing.

How odd...anyone still want to argue the mainstream media isn't biased?

I don't have the time, but who wants to figure out how many articles there were on Bush's national guard service?

Hat tip: LGF

URL: Los Angeles Times - Search

Despite all that I know about computers, despite the fact that I can put one together and despite the fact that I have taken many apart, every time I really think about them, it just doesn't make sense.

Here I am, typing on my keyboard and little electrical pulses are being sent into the computer which are then in turn translated into text on the screen as Windows runs a program which allows me to surf the web and do a multitude of other things at the same time. But that's not really the amazing part. What's amazing is that every program, every MP3, every resume, everything is stored as 1's and 0's on a hard drive. Just tons of little ones and zeroes strung together in a sequence that somehow makes sense on a magnetic platter with a little arm that can change all the ones to zeroes and the zeroes to ones to make this program run, to store my photos, to play my games. It's just amazing how much these little magnetic devices can do, and when you think about it, no matter how much you know about them, it's amazing.

Just like when you try and think about what the meaning of life is. It's something you don't really think about every day, but when you do, you just have to sit and ponder it for a while.

URL: Hard Drives

I'm not quite sure what to think of this - I used to respect Will Smith as an actor, as a person, but then when you go around making outlandish claims and stupid comments, even though you have the right to, it just makes you look like an ass. How can you even begin to make the correlation between racist cops and terrorists? Sure, they're both evils in society today, but saying that 9/11 changed nothing for you as you've grown up with a "completely different view of the world" since you're black? Get a clue. You're a multi-millionaire who has been rich/pampered since your early days of acting and/or rapping. I highly doubt you've EVER been attacked by a "racist cop" who you make out to be so prevalent in society, every single cop must be racist. Get a clue Big Willie.

URL: Davids Medienkritik: Star Actor Will Smith to German Press: 9/11 Changed Nothing for Me (Full Transcript)