Thomas Friedman on Iraq. (Let's see how it goes in 6 months...)

Here are some quotes from Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist and Iraq war promoter:
"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time."
(New York Times, 11/30/03)


"What I absolutely don't understand is just at the moment when we finally have a UN-approved Iraqi-caretaker government made up of—I know a lot of these guys—reasonably decent people and more than reasonably decent people, everyone wants to declare it's over. I don't get it. It might be over in a week, it might be over in a month, it might be over in six months, but what's the rush? Can we let this play out, please?"
(NPR's Fresh Air, 6/3/04)


"What we're gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war."
(CBS's Face the Nation, 10/3/04)


"Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won't be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile."
(New York Times, 11/28/04)


"I think we're in the end game now…. I think we're in a six-month window here where it's going to become very clear and this is all going to pre-empt I think the next congressional election—that's my own feeling— let alone the presidential one."
(NBC's Meet the Press, 9/25/05)

This is just some of it. I got these from the FAIR website. This was a real popular link in the blogosphere. Doubt if the MSM ever takes anyone to task for fucking up like this.

Memorial Day.

President Bush was at Arlington and had this to say: "Our nation mourns the loss of our men and women in uniform. We will honour them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives, by defeating the terrorists, by advancing the cause of liberty and by laying the foundation of peace for a generation of young Americans".

Typically dubious talk. Define 'completing the mission'? At what point will we have success in Iraq? Do you think it's getting better there or worse? Does the United States plan on building permanent bases in Iraq?

X Men 3

Saw it last night. Bleh. Give it a C.

Insurance Hassle - Part ??

After going a few rounds with Anthem and the Dr's office I finally gave up and just paid for my checkup out of pocket.
The reason Anthem wouldn't pay is because they said the exam was coded wrong. I told the Dr's office this. Twice. They said they would recode it and send it back. Whatever.
Fucking assholes.
In any case, to my mind, the only thing I was really interested in was the blood test results which gave me some info on my cholesteral level and my heart attack likelihood score (whatever they call it.) I wonder if I can just get that next time...

Indian Peaks Wilderness 5-13-06

Went up to the Brainard lake area in the Indian Peaks wilderness area a couple of weeks ago. There was still so much snow that you had to park way down the road and walk up the rest of the way (See picture on bottom).
My original plan was to hike up to Lake Isabella and see what it was like. Lake Isabella is at about 10,600 ft. I didn't get that far. There was too much snow and I wasn't crazy about postholing.
I did make it to Long Lake (see picture on top.) Another mile or so and I would have been at Lake Isabella.
I'd say it was about a 6-7 mile adventure and it took about 3 hours or so....
I would point out that the drive up to Ward from Nederland sucks. Unless you like hairpin turns.