8/30/2004

George Bush Shouldn't Be Reelected

George Bush should not be reelected because he's either a liar or incompetent.

Let me say that I supported Bush based on what I read and heard about Iraq's weapons prior to the war.  And there's no doubt that Iraq is much better off now. The rest of the intolerant, repressive Middle Eastern governments are thinking hard about what we did to Iraq and that's good.

From what I've been reading Bush is not really a liar. I don't believe he purposely told lies about Iraq's weapons programs. I'm not sure he's smart enough or bold enough to think he could get away with lying. What may have happened was intelligence analysts fed Bush the information they though he wanted to see about Iraq's weapons.

Most people know that to keep your job you have to please the boss. But if Bush is not a liar, that makes him incompetent. Even if the President isn't smart he should be able to surround himself with smart people. If he employs yes men who only give him what he wants to see and hear, that makes him not smart but incompetent.

Incompetence is not a qualification to be reelected.

8/17/2004

Discovery Channel Hits!

My four favorite new shows are all on the Discovery channel. Monster House, Monster Garage, American Chopper and American Hot Rod.

On last night's Monster House they built a Mobster House. The dining room was done up like an Italian restaurant. And the living room was styled like a Prohibition-era speakeasy. They used brick on the walls, put in a beautiful pine floor, and made the fireplace look like a boiler.

Some of the houses they remodel look difficult to live in because of all the gadgets, but this one was tastefully done. The build team gets a set of Mikita cordless tools and a welder and for this episode, a set of Stanley mechanics tools.

On Monster Garage they stripped down a Peterbuilt Semi and made a trike out of it. They bolted the rear axle right to the transmission. That was smart. It looked good and seemed to work right but I would have done it a little different. They used the existing steering knuckle from the truck and put the drivers seat off to the left side of the engine. It seat was too low for the driver to see over the engine or anything on the right side of the vehicle. One of the cool things about a big truck is you sit up high and can see everything on the road.

I would have created a seat up high, on top of the engine with a chopper-style front fork and wheel. This build team gets a set of Mac toolboxes and Mac tools.

On American Chopper Mikey was building a bike. This was a rerun but I hadn't seen the first half of this episode. Mikey conceived a blues bike, styled like a 1950's Cadillac. First of all, Paul and Paul Jr. should have had Mikey help out on a few other bikes beforehand. He really seemed lost and didn't know what to do so he had to rely on his brother for almost all the work. Is wasn't really fair to Mikey to throw him in the deep end like that. And Paul Jr. should just shut up about being too busy or not patient enough to help his brother learn. Brothers help each other out. Like all American Chopper shows, this was just the first of two parts.

The new American Hot Rod episode was last Friday. They are building an all aluminum rod that looks like a highly styled 1934 Ford roadster. They put the frame on a bathroom scale and it weighed 85 pounds! They shipped it off to another company to build the body. The body guys had only one rough two-dimensional sketch to go on and they were doing a fantastic job.

Charlotte asked me what set of tools I would want. I said I would like to work on the Monster House show but win the Mac tools from Monster Garage.