Current Score: Axis of Evil: 3 US: 1

This weekend the Axis of Evil scored another point as North Korea appears to have successfully conducted its first nuclear bomb test. While this is bad news for the Bush administration, it is worse news for all us here regular folk. One of the "freezing" factors of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union was the fact that neither the US nor the Soviet Union really wanted to destroy the other one. We were locked into a stalemate that neither country had any real reason to break through the delivery of a nuclear weapon to the other one. It was far better to use the perceived threat of an enemy to maintain local power than it was to actually get involved in a nuclear show-down that would result in the total annihilation of both parties (resulting in no power).

This is the same kind of stalemate we see currently with Pakistan and India. Neither country trusts the other one to have the technology they don't have. But since both countries have the same technology, the countries' needs for self-preservation will prevent either one from using the technology on each other.

North Korea, though, is a different animal all together. This backward country has little use of logic. Kim Jong Il, like most egotistical, maniacal dictators, fancies himself as indestructible. He cares not about protecting his people and his adolescent view of his own immortality (i.e., "I can do whatever I want and not get hurt) has short-circuited the self-preservation, internal governor that prevents most leaders with nuclear weapons from using them. In other words, we are talking about a crazy dude who doesn't care that if he uses a nuclear weapon that he will be retaliated against with like force.

Of course, maybe he is far smarter than I am giving him credit for and he understands that he could indeed use a nuclear weapon with impunity knowing that if the US did retaliate with "like force," we would be painted as the bad guy in the world community. After all, under the new rules of 21st century warfare, the killing of innocents (especially women and children) by the US is completely verboten. In other words, if even one child would be accidently harmed in a military maneuver, then we must be forbidden from using that tactic. By holding ourselves to this exceptionally high standard of preventing all civilian casualties, we would be unable to use our own nuclear weapons against North Korea even if she uses them against us first. Obviously, that is a foolish position, but it is the realistic one.

We already know that North Korea has tried to get a long-range cruise missile to Hawaii and failed. If they do happen to succeed, we now know they can attach a nuclear warhead to that missile. Instead of the WTC attacks of 9/11 being our Pearl Harbor, we could actually see another Pearl Harbor.

The pundits are out in full force today talking "shoulda, woulda, coulda." However, an intelligent overview shows that we have only wasted our time and money in the past "bribing" North Korea not to build a weapon, only to have them defy their part of the agreement and continue working unabated on the product. The only thing we could have done that would have truly prevented this moment would have been to pre-emptively removed Kim Jong Il from power or to have used force to destroy his laboratories...neither of which we had the internal fortitude to do, especially after our "problems" in Iraq.

Which brings me to my title, the score. In his January 2002 State of the Union Address when President Bush named Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as the Axis of Evil, America applauded. We were willing to deal boldly and decisively with these countries in the aftermath of a humilitating attack on our own lands against our own civilians. Bush was able to use the legal authority of the UN resolutions from Desert Storm to invade Iraq and remove it from Axis of Evil and America scored the first point. Sure you can debate the finer points of the war such as did weapons of mass destruction exist or was faulty intelligence used. I've discussed it before and have seen no evidence to change my mind that indeed the best intelligence from the best sources was accurate. We have found weapons of mass destruction (just not nuclear...but those bio-weapons are still WoMD and just not "stockpiles"...whatever that word means...I guess being able to only kill 20,000 people instead of 200,000 people means its not a stockpile).

Now, Iran scored the first point for the Axis of Evil by using her influence to fight us in Iraq instead of in Iran. That is something most people do not understand. Our current "quagmire" in Iraq is more influenced by Iran than any other source. Iran wants us to cut and run so that they can move into Iraq and re-establish a Persian empire financed by the oil-fields of Iraq. Iran used Hezbollah to attack Israel and they are using Iraq to attack us.

Meanwhile, Iran has scored their second point by blantantly continuing its own research toward the development of a nuclear device. By using our own media and "world opinion" against us, Iran has effectively distracted us from acting against them. Basically because Iran is using their influence to produced a mess in Iraq they can boldly move forward acquiring the technology necessary to keep us from doing to Iran what we have done in Iraq.

Finally, North Korea scores a point for the Axis of Evil by acquiring nuclear weapons. What a miserable state of affairs for this great nation.

This puts us in a precarious situation. Because we care more about image than security, we have failed to take the hardline stances necessary to prevent this mess. Because we appease the appeasers we appease our enemies allowing them to grow stronger. Because we dare not polarize our already divided nation, we have now paralyzed ourselves from being able to deal with these situations.

Are you dead, Mon?

No. I have not passed over the horizon on my never-ending journey...I've just been walking through the desert on a horse with no name (that sounds vaguely familiar...)

Anyway, let me give you a few highlights so that you can catch you up with my life since I last posted over a month ago:

Sept. 1 - New Job
I started a new job on Sept. 1, working for ARELLO. Basically, this is one of the major reasons you haven't seen or heard from me the past month. I've been so busy getting the new project off the ground there that I have not had time to breathe. But, it went live from here on Sept. 29, so...I can relax a little bit.

Sept. 9 - Parenting Seminar at Church
Our church hosted John Rosemond for a parenting seminar. Being the "sound guy" at church it was my job to be there early on Saturday morning to do a sound check with the speaker. The seminar was scheduled to start at 9:00 AM so I arrived at 7:30 AM. Our preacher, Don, and I pulled into the parking lot at the same time and we walked into the lobby together to hear a "beep-beep-beep" sound that indicates a failure in the fire alert system. Don mentions he will have to go reset it and we walk to the auditorium. When I unlock the door and flip the light switch, nothing happens. There is no power. Since there is power in the lobby, we figure a fuse has blown and go to the back room where the fuseboxes are to reset them. Now, back in the back room, behind two locked doors, one of which is keyed with a special key that only Don and the maintenance man have, lies the fuse boxes. Also in that room is five-foot or so deep hole in the concrete that will serve as an elevator shaft. Well since there is not power, I am using my cell-phone as a flashlight...(I'm sure you see where this going...or better, where I am going). We mess with the fuse boxes and nothing happen. However, we are pretty sure that the fuseboxes for the auditorium are somewhere else...across the dark room I see a green light and think..."Oh, there be the fusebox" and march over and step right off the edge of the elevator shaft and land smack on my bum at the bottom of the hole. My first thought is, "DRAT, Don is right behind...I smell sermon illustration material."

Well...to make a long story somewhat short, I was OK. We discovered that one of the two legs of power that come into the building had failed. I quickly set up (rigged) a sound system in the lobby while other men pulled chairs out and we set up the seminar in the lobby. It was fun and exciting...at 8:45 I got everything to work and we had sound.

Sure enough, I made the sermon (listen to the entire sermon | excerpt of the illustration) the next day.

Sept. 16 - Apple Picking in Saint Louis
We traveled to St. Louis for the annual family apple picking trip. Mihaela was so excited. It was all she could talk about for two weeks before the trip. Going to Mam-maw and Pap-paws house to go apple picking. Going to ride the tractor. Going to see the farm. She loved every minute of it. She even surprised us by being adventurous. Mihaela tends to not be a risk-taker, but to be very cautious. However, on the Saturday of Apple Picking, she wanted to experience everything. She was proactive looking for things to try. She even asked to ride the horses and she loved it. She was such a big girl. A good time was had by all.

October 2 - Dr. Appt for Baby
Everything looking good there. Erin still getting sick (but not as bad) but being a trooper. She is worn-out, though, by the time I get home. Which is another reason posts have been non-existent. She just crashes (understandably so) when I get home and I jump in. Then, by the time the kids are fed, bathed, in bed and the house is reset for the next day's activities, I am just exhausted.

Other Funny\Cute\Asundry Stuff
Erin was sitting on the couch watching college football while I was in the kitchen doing dishes or something like that when she said, "Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I just don't think a woman should be a football sportscaster." Yeah dear. Old-fashioned, traditional values.

Mihaela woke up a few minutes ago she found her Dora princess doll and her Elmo doll she brought Elmo out after she found him and "introduced" Elmo to Dora!

"Hey, Elmo this is princess Dora"
"ooohhhh, Elmo give kisses to Dora"
"Elmo sit in Dora's lap"
"Elmo, remember me? I am 'Haela"

DO NOT USE OfficeCalendar because they, IMHO, have a bad business ethic.
I have a client who upgraded his Office Suite to MS Office 2003. Well, this client has three people working in the office and they were able to share their calendars, task lists, and contacts under the old version of Office. Well, MS, in its wisdom removed the ability to do this unless you are running an Exchange server, which is too much power for an office of three. We looked for other alternatives and found this package. It works well, but they hid their pricing scheme in their knowledge base...so we thought we would have to buy 3 licensee for them (one for each person using the product), but NO... you have to buy a licensee for each user AND each resource. They use 4 resources, which means we had to buy 7 licensees instead of 3. Of course, we didn't find out about needing the additional 4 until after we had purchased 3 (at $100\each). So, instead of finding a $300 solution, we found a $700 solution. We could only charge our client the $300 because that is what we quoted them. When we complained to the company, we were basically told to "brush off" that the pricing structure was on the website. Yeah, but you have to search the knowledge base to find it!!!

TTYL
Ok...that is enough rambling. I've got a post up...maybe I can be more faithful again. But I won't make any promises.

Added Flash MP3 Player

As the Ministry Leader for Audio Visual at Hunter Hills, one of my responsibilities is the uploading of the sermons online. I have added a new feature to that this week and am embeding a flash MP3 player that will play the sermon as part of the post.

I downloaded the Flash MP3 Player 2.3. It was pretty easy to set up. I just downloaded the package, read the Read-Me file, and followed the directions.


Pretty cool, huh...

M E M O R A N D U M

To: Pluto, 9th Orbiting Body

From: The Sun, Center of Solar System

Re: Demotion For Unplanetary-like Behavior

Pluto,

This memorandum is to advise you of your demotion as a planetary body within this Solar System. As you are aware I have had several discussions with you about your unplanetary-like behavior. It would appear that our previous meetings and agreements have not had the desired effect of changing your behavior.

First, you have not taken the proper steps that we have agreed upon to accumulate an appropriate amount of mass for someone in your position. Secondly, your work area remains cluttered as you appear to have no ability to clear the neighborhood around your orbit. Finally, your eccentric orbit interferes with your co-worker, Neptune, and that takes you well above and below main plane of this Solar System. This has caused disruption is the work environment that can not be tolerated.

Therefore, effective today you will be demoted from your position as "Planet" and assume the position of "Dwarf Planet." We will reconvene in 10,000 years to determine if these obstacles have been overcome and reconsider your status.

Sincerely,

The Sun

cc: The Milky Way
Personnel File

Having a Baby

For those who don't know, we found out two weeks ago that we are pregnant. However, today was the first day I had an opportunity to go to the doctor with Erin. It was amazing to see the little heart beating so fast in the sonogram. We are 8 weeks along.

We are excited, yet terrified. After trying so long and hard to have a child, we have adopted two absolutely beautiful children who we cherish with all our hearts. After adopting we wondered why we ever tried to have children the "natural" way and already had plans to adopt more children in the future. We weren't quite ready for this.

So, we will have 3 children who are 3 years old or younger. SCARY!!! Mihaela will turn 3 in February, the baby is due at the beginning of April, and then Noah will turn 2 in May. Please pray for us!!!!