Even after 9/11, some will never learn...

I was literally shaking after watching this video, which I found via the Anchoress. Like she said, you only need to watch it once.

I use Bloglines to do my blog reading, and I will often look at the references to a particular post. I checked the references to the Anchoress' post and found some piece-of-filth blog post on a conspiracy blog that simply said, "The cluelessness of these neocon duped, 9/11 OBL myth swallowing, bloggers is just stupefying". I'm not linking this nutjob, not even indirectly. But there were the usual links to the usual conspiracy crap. But try and wrap your mind around this -- a conspiracy nutter finds normal, human reactions to that video "stupefying". I really, truly despise Alex Jones and the rest of these 9/11 conspiracy morons. I despise them even more after watching that video. These people are sickos.

But we shouldn't dwell on these loons; instead we should remember the victims. One way to do that is to sign up for the 2,996 9/11 tribute project. I signed up myself a couple of weeks ago, as you can see on the sidebar. They are up to 37% now, but there are a lot more victims who need a blog to post a tribute to them come 9/11/06. I feel like this is a way to do something positive in the face of the evil done by the Alex Joneses, the Ward Churchills and the Noam Chomskys of the world.

On Various Items in the News

• In case you are wondering what I think of the war between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and those who would condemn Israel for defending itself, Darleen Click has it covered in this post.
• On the horrible terrorist shootings in Seattle, this post by Steve H. is a must-read. He may remove the post, so catch it while you can.
• Finally, on the sad and very disappointing incident involving a drunken Mel Gibson making vile anti-Semitic remarks, I concur with Jonah Goldberg (via Kathy Shaidle).

  In addition, I would like to add that I have had the misfortune of having to deal with very mean, very angry drunks. Sometimes what the say reveals what they really think, but other times they are just trying to find the most hurtful thing they can think of to say. I've never been drunk, but I myself have been so angry that I've said completely horrible things to someone I'm angry with just to hurt them as much as possible. I'm not proud of this and I'm not saying that's necessarily what's going on with Gibson. I'm just saying that sometimes people don't mean what they say when they are very angry.

  I would say that two demons have come back to haunt Gibson -- alcoholism and anti-Semitism, which probably comes from his father's influence. I think the best thing to do for Gibson is to pray for him so that he can overcome both demons.

Book Meme

Barb has tagged me with this book meme. I'm going to include audiobooks in this, since that's the main way I "read" lately:

1. One book that changed your life:

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. It was so instrumental in helping me to resolve a lot of confusion and doubts I had about my faith.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I've also listened to the audiobook of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis numerous times. John Cleese does a perfect job reading the book.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:

Besides the Bible, probably The Screwtape Letters.

4. One book that made you laugh:

Give War a Chance by P.J. O'Rourke.

5. One book that made you cry:

That's a tough one. I think a good answer would be Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie. I was so fascinated by this book I read it twice. Such a tragic story. The description of the Russian royal family's final moments made me cry.

6. One book that you wish had been written:

Like Barb, I can't really think of anything specific. Perhaps more books by C.S. Lewis. It would be interesting to hear his opinions on what's going on in the world today.

7. One book that you wish had never been written:

I agree with Barb's answer. I would add The Communist Manifesto.

8. The book you are currently reading:

I'm not currently reading anything, but I recently finished the audiobook of The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. That is a fantastic book and I'd love to read or listen to it again.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I just bought the audiobook of this one and I plan to listen to it soon. I have a couple of friends who love this book, and I've always wanted to read it.

10. Now tag five people:

Well, anyone who reads this and has a blog and hasn't done this meme yet, consider yourself tagged. ;-)

This & That

Here's what's been going on with me:

• I had my one week post-LASIK follow-up appointment on Friday. My doctor says I'm healing beautifully -- she says that if she didn't know I had surgery on my corneas, she'd never be able to tell. I'm still seeing 20/20. I'm no longer wearing the shields at night. They gave me a discount coupon for sunglasses from the optical store downstairs and I bought a really cool pair of sunglasses -- mirrored lenses and metal frames.
• My iBook crashed again this weekend. The whole hard drive just got wiped out. I'm glad I'm obsessive about backing up -- especially when it comes to my iTunes library. I think I know what the problem is now. I think I need to get more memory added to my iBook. Right now, it has 256 MB, which is the minimum Tiger requires. But usually, to run properly, you need more than the minimum required.
• My dieting has been kind of half-hearted lately. I haven't gained anything, but I haven't lost anything either. When I get back on track, I'll start posting regularly to my diet blog again. (Yeah, I know the latest post there says I'm back on the wagon -- actually I'm trying to hop up on the wagon again.)
• My Mom has had problems with her blood pressure and heart palpitations lately. Any stress at all is really bad for her. Prayers for her would be welcome...thanks! :-)
• I'm going to upgrade this blog to MT 3.3 in the near future. I'm also going to revise the playlist on my long neglected Live 365 station.

Disinformation

The Anchoress links to this very interesting post at Classical Values that picks apart what looks like a deliberate attempt to spread malicious lies and disinformation. Classical Values has more here, here, here and here.

An interesting aside...I used to post at various conservative forums a long time ago (long before this blog) along with some other conservative Internet friends. One of them I was registered at was Capitol Hill Blue Reader Rant. I remember a few years ago, there was a massive exodus of members from the CHB forum because of the increasing anti-Bush sentiments and general kookery that became prominent at the site. Those members founded the Annoyed Army forum, of which I'm a member. (Although I don't stop by as often as I should.)

Cheering Myself Up

Well, late this afternoon, my day took a turn for the crappy. Finding out you have a flat tire in the parking lot an hour before you get off work will do that. Thank God for Fix-a-Flat.

Anyway, I'm going to try and relax and get unstressed the rest of the evening. So, here's a funny picture to cheer myself up. Maybe it will make you smile too. I present to you...

The Cavernous Maw of Betty!

(Click for larger view...if you dare!)

Great Quote on Tolerance

Found in this article, "The Tragedy of the Religious Left" by Chuck Colson, via Kathy Shaidle and Andrea Harris:

Dorothy Sayers, the great English writer, said it best: “In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.”

It's been said that apathy, not hate, is the true opposite of love. Tolerance, as it is defined today, is the ultimate in apathy.

Technical Note

If you noticed that my site was down late last night and early this morning, it was a problem my host was having. The problem caused me to lose a little sleep, which I vented about in their support forum. I'm very glad that my host was able to fix the issue by the morning, so I have to give them credit for that.

LASIK Surgery Done!

I just wanted to let you all know the surgery went just fine. I am already noticing dramatic improvements in my vision. I can now see the TV across the room without glasses. I was in my garage and I looked down my street. I could see the leaves on the palm trees in front of the last house I could see before the road curves. I could see more trees and the chimney on another house way behind that house. Previously, without my glasses, it would have all been a blur. It really is like a miracle! I think I am actually seeing better than I did with my glasses.

The surgery went very fast. I think it was no more than twenty minutes from the time they called me and took me back to the surgery area to the time they released me. The only discomfort during the surgery was when they had to press down on the area right under my eye to position the instruments. They said my high cheekbones were in the way. (Yes, I've got chipmunk cheeks!) Also, they said I had small eyes, so that also made the positioning a little more difficult. (My eyes are almond-shaped -- they are wide but are not very high.) But once they got it into place, they made the cut, which made things go gray, then I watched the red light which varied in size and blurriness. They did my right eye first, then my left eye. After they finished, I had what they call "vaseline vision". They taped the shields over my eyes, gave me a fanny pack containing the drops I need to use, some sunglasses (which I had to put on before going outside) and some additional tape for the shields. I have to wear the shields until tomorrow. After that, I will only wear them when I sleep. I have to be very careful with my eyes for a while. I have to avoid rubbing them, getting dust in them or getting soap and water in them.

As the anesthetic drops wore off, my eyes felt a bit irritated (like they did when I used to wear contacts), but there is no pain. I slept all afternoon, which made my eyes feel a lot better. My doctor called me to see how I was doing this evening and I told her about my already improving vision. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow.

Pre-LASIK Nerves

I'm getting my LASIK surgery done tomorrow morning. I'm starting to get kind of nervous. They gave me Valium to take before surgery to sedate me a bit. They said I could also take some tonight so that I can sleep. I think I will take my Xanax instead -- a whole one instead of the usual half one I take when I have trouble sleeping.

The only thing that freaks me out about this is the "flap" they cut in your eye. The flap is tiny -- only three hair-widths thick -- and is supposed to seal and heal up pretty quickly. They will give me eye shields to wear the first 24 hours and then for a week or two when I sleep at night to keep me from inadvertently rubbing my eye. I'm supposed to sleep a lot in the first 24 hours and I will also be given antibiotic drops and steroidal drops. I can't use one of the drops they were going to give me because it's an NSAID, and I'm allergic to NSAIDs. They said I should not have any pain, just a little discomfort.

Everyone I've talked to who has had this surgery is very happy with the results and say it wasn't that bad. I hope this will be true for me, too.

When I feel that I'm up to it, I'll put up a post after the surgery to let you know how it went.

Update: I forgot something...please say a little prayer for me, won't you? Thanks! :-)

My Good Ol' Reliable iBook

Well, it looks like I'll be spending yet another evening formatting the hard drive and reinstalling the Tiger operating system. The disk repair won't fix whatever is wrong and the darn thing hangs every time it comes out of sleep mode. At least I'm able to bring it up, so I can do backups before reformatting.

If there are any Apple people reading this, tell me: did I get a lemon or something? Is this a common problem? I assure you, I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm very gentle with the iBook -- it never even leaves my house. I always sleep it or turn it off if I'm not using it. I'm wondering if the Dashboard might be the problem. It seems like every time I use the Dashboard with any frequency, the iBook starts acting up.

When It Gets Personal

An absolutely hideous situation: well-known conservative blogger Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom had to endure vile threats against his child by some lefty nutcase named Deborah Frisch. (No, I will not directly link to this monster's blog.) This particular nutcase also happens to be a professor at a university and has written articles defending Ward "Little Eichmanns" Churchill.

Mr. Goldstein's blog is still unavailable at this time because his site is being subjected to DDoS attacks. Apparently, this Frisch creature must have many sympathizers and allies among the "reality"-based community.

Situations like this is why I blog anonymously and why I have a gun.

(Via Beth, who has more about this nutcase here.)

Update: Ms. Frisch must have had a moment of sanity and realized that she was in a world of you-know-what. She has posted an apology on her blog.

Update 2: A few more things...this whole situation brings me back to the subject of this post. I have also noticed that there seem to be very few lefties who are condemning this behavior. Most seem to be ignoring it. Perhaps their strange hatred of Mr. Goldstein outweighs any outrage they would feel at threatening a child. (And yes, saying something like the following is a veiled threat: "You live in Colorado, I see. Hope no one Jon-Benets your baby.") Some are defending it or making a case that it's no big deal. (Like the fellow in the comments to this post.) And others say things like, "Yes, what she said is bad, but Ann Coulter's a meanie too!" Yeah, whatever...

Just remember the line from one of Ms. Frisch's rants that the Anchoress points out: "You aren’t 'human' to me."

Update 3: Via Beth...a bunch of lefties are yukking it up right here and are wondering what the big deal is. Unbelievable. Fortunately, there are some on the left, like Jeralyn Merritt, who still have a sense of decency (although the same can't be said of many of her commenters).

Relief!

Finally, we're getting some rain! And it's cooled down too.

More about those fake blogs...

If you'll remember, I brought up my problems with this kind of spam a while back. I didn't realize this, but there is actually a name for these "blogs": splogs. There are also websites where you can report these splogs, like the site I just linked and this site: Splog Reporter.

Thanks to Beth for pointing these sites out to me.

Fantastic Sugarplastic

A while back, Dawn Eden wrote about how a member of the band The Sugarplastic, by introducing her to the works of G.K. Chesterton, was responsible for putting her on the path that led to her finding Christ and her eventual conversion to Catholicism. I decided to check this band out, so I listened to the stuff they have available on iTunes. I was so impressed and intrigued, I bought both albums that were available on iTunes at that time. (Since then, another album is now available as well as a solo album by one of the band's members. I plan to check those out very soon.)

Now, if I can't stand a certain band or type of music, I have no problems expressing myself. However, I'm terrible when it comes to writing reviews about music I love, because it's hard for me to put into words why I love the music. The Sugarplastic is one of the most unique and wonderful bands I've discovered in a long time. The music is poppy but yet complex. Strange and beautiful at the same time. I don't think I could ever thank Dawn enough for turning me on to this band.

Rather than try to describe them, I'm going to put a few songs from them on the Radio Blog. I'm also going to put some other stuff in there too. The Radio Blog is on the sidebar, but I'm going to make it extra easy for you to listen by putting the player right in this post.

The two albums by The Sugarplastic featured here are Will and 7x7x7.

Diet Progress

I've lost five pounds since starting the NutriSystem diet last Wednesday! Some of this weight may be water weight, but it's still very encouraging. I'm blogging about my progress on my diet blog. For now, it's not anything fancy. I'm just using the default MT template and everything. It's just a place to track my progress publicly. I think doing so will help to keep me on track.