the debate: part vi

tom was kind enough to ruin my day a couple days ago with his lame plans to move to castle rock in six months. thanks tom. we finally, finally have a chance to move back, and what does he do? luckily though, reruns of lost season 2 started up last night so life hasn't been all that bad. kim and i are totally stoked because for once we won't have to wait for the dvd release to actually watch a season of our shows.

Damien - Omen II (1978): this wasn’t as scary as the first. it felt a lot like today’s scary movie sequels, where the whole point is to try and think up new gruesome ways a person can die. it lacked the great acting and cinematography that the first had. except for the kid who played damien. He played his part to perfection. i can see how this might never end unless there is some intervention by god or jesus. it seems that mortal man is really not of a match for damien, so i’m going to be disappointed if in the third or fourth movie he randomly gets killed by some random guy. in this movie alone he had a dozen people killed that were getting in his way, and he’s only like 13 years old! the ending of this movie really was a surprise so i’ll give them props there. i liked the whole crow/raven motif that would appear every time someone was about to die. all in all, not bad for a sequel. worth seeing (possibly buying if the quadrilogy turns out really good as a whole) and looking forward to the next one.

been having wicked and vivid dreams of late. a few nights ago kim was dead (do i mention that i was the killer?), the next night i died in space because i couldn't get my space helmet on in time (see tim robbins in mission to mars), and last night ryan was riding jeramie like a bull in a swimming pool. good times.

it's hot here. i was bored out of my mind today.

Brak: well let me start on the last point you made which is my favorite, bushes approval ratings. It simple, his approval ratings are so low because so many in this country simply don't get it!!!! Popular ideas spread like wildfire and few people stop to take a second thought of them. I'm not suggesting Bush is perfect. To me he has done a lot of huge things that I agree with him are exactly what the country needs. I know others disagree and that is fine. However, that only covers so much. Lets look at gas prices right now, I think it illustrates the point better than anything else. The last poll I saw showed most Americans blaming Bush for the high gas prices. Are you SERIOUS!!! How in the world?? First they say Iraq is all about oil and now the opposite. I don't blame Clinton for the high prices of gas but if you were to blame a president he would have to be the one, not because of his policies (although I could argue vetoing ANWR didn't help) but becuase the effects of gas prices come from things that happen decades ago. If Clinton had forseen the huge problem (which I don't blame him for not), then he could have pushed alternative fuels, reduced emissions or whatever else the Democrats think would help. I personally think that the Democrats ideas for energy are solutions, whether they are the best solutions are a different story but had he done this then we would have the benefits today. Bush has the same responsibility to save the gas prices of the future how he feels best and whether he is doing that is another debate, but to blame him for high gas prices today is absolutely ridiculous. OPEC is to blame. They are the ones limiting supply. Gas-hungry Americans are to blame (myself included). They are the ones buying SUVs and using way more oil than the rest of the world. And maybe, although I doubt, the Oil companies are to blame. They just might be withholding supply of oil that in turn raises price, but I doubt it becuase the price is already high due to low supply from OPEC. As to price gouging, take a lesson in Economics and people would know that when there are gas shortages then the price is not high enough, that is why they ran out, not too high. I agree an investigation should be done just in case however the real problem is the first two mentioned. My proposal is a compromise. First, I agree that we need alternative fuel. The economy itself is already moving toward that with everyone trying to make the cheapest hybrid. The government can help, as it has, by increasing funding for research. Bush has done this and I wouldn't object if he did it more. The democrats are also right to want an increase in emission restrictions. Not for the enviroment but becuase that puts more pressure on the markets to come up with an alternative. The people don't understand, they want a cleaner enviroment and alt. fuels but they hate that gas prices are high. The high gas prices will deliver that hope faster than anything else. It would hurt initially to raise the restrictions. In the seventies cars could have whatever emissions they wanted, when govt restricted, it didn't come to a halt, technology got better because it had to and the same would happen again. Bush is not doing this and I doubt he will but I think it would help. I think democrats say they want this but would hate to do it if they could becuase the effect would be a huge amount of people pissed off that prices are higher. Thirdly, we need to increase drilling by cutting the red tape of washington. we will always need oil regardless of how much. I would much rather supply our own. The only reason ANWR is an issue is becuase it is a icon for the enviromentalists. It has nothing to do with carabou. Drill oil. I have thought about government control on oil companies and anything other than a base on supply would help, price caps, windfall tax, or anything else would only hurt things worse. So I've just gone off on gas prices but it proves my point that people react and hate Bush for things they just don't understand. I would not assasinate all the bad leaders in the world becuase evil is not that easy to erase. I do fear that we will wait too long to act with Iran but I agree the time is not right to invade. However if we wait too long, the alliances built by Iran could only get worse. I understand the cost of war, I still believe this war is worth the cost and we are definately not telling the Iraqis how to run their country. We are allowing them to run it as Saddam never did. Look at Hamas for an example of us not running things even though we don't like the results of democracy. Anyway I've gotta run a turn something in. Let's just agree that our opinions of the Iraq war a opposites, (Mine of course being right). Respond to the gas price issue or something else and we'll discuss. talk to ya later.

i obviously don't agree with some of the stuff he is saying (i.e. his take on polling, comparing hamas to the iraqi gov.), but at the moment, i just don't care enough to respond. we've met up since he wrote this and talked more about oil stuff, so i'll spare you. i'll let him have the last word and leave it at that. too much bracken for one blog to handle.