I was pretty sickened to read this from one of the few journalists in Baghdad actually doing his job.

Two missiles from an American jet killed them all – by my estimate, more than 20 Iraqi civilians, torn to pieces before they could be ‘liberated’ by the nation that destroyed their lives. Who dares, I ask myself, to call this ‘collateral damage’?

This isn’t a game, dammit. There are real people getting killed. Innocent people like you and me whose only crime was being in the path of an errant missile.

There is no justification for this whatsoever. None. No one will ever adequately explain to me the need for this murder.

I have discovered that I am turning away from some of my dreams of the “good life.” My outlook has changed somehow, and the distance between me and my goals increased while I wasn’t looking.

It wasn’t that long ago when I could see my family and me enjoying a second home. I was close to taking flying lessons. We would have a nice sailboat with which to cruise around on the weekends. All of that seemed doable.

Here I am today, mostly the same person I was a few years ago but a part of me is entirely different. Its not that I don’t still want those things – they’ve just been moved lower down my list. I suppose becoming a parent does that to you, in a sneaky way. I couldn’t have predicted back in May of last year how my priorities would have changed. And yet they have.

One belief I take to heart is “you hit what you’re aiming for.” Perhaps my sights have slipped when Hallie came along. Perhaps they would’ve, anyway. I have decided to adjust my aim so that my target – the “good life” I’ve always seen myself living – is again there for the taking.

I’m currently in the middle of a lightweight read, but entertaining, nonetheless, called Is Our Children Learning?. It’s a blatently partisan but factual account of George W. Bush’s political life.

How on God’s green earth did this guy get this far? It’s the strongest argument I’ve heard yet against social promotion in the school system.

The funniest part of the book is the Bushisms, one of which became the book’s title.

A fresh one from Slate’s website that I couldn’t resist posting:

“The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself.” – Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003

It doesn’t get any better than that, folks.

Kelly and Hallie are up visiting Kelly’s parents. I’ve spent the evening getting sucked into weblogs again. Seems that every day I find another wonderful source of opinion.

The gem of the evening is Monkey Media, a site which I was going to create if it didn’t already exist. My time spent on various local mailing lists made me realize that the local techie illuminati could do nearly as good a job reporting news as our local news media. Monkey Media was also one of the few places that pointed out the media manipulation that occured during the coverage of the Feb. 15th Raleigh protests. Even without Photoshop, the camera lies, my friends.

More blogging (damn, I lost track of where I got what) brought me to a Slate article on watching Iraqi TV. I have always been an AV geek, and satellite is the mecca of AV geeks. I have also always been interested in hearing from all sides, so you can imagine my interest in this topic. The article lists some Internet-bound methods of viewing, which I personally would pass on in favor of tuning in myself.

Weblogs have not only filled my mind with more viewpoints than the Official One, they have spurred me to define and share my own viewpoints. Bloggers have discovered that communication truly is a two-way street.

Our wonderful administration is whining about Iraq being in violation of the Geneva Convention for parading American POWs in front of the cameras. While I trust our POWs are safe and Saddam won’t do anything stupid, this is exactly what I worried about when we began throwing people in cages in Cuba.

As a sailor, I heard a lot about the Geneva convention. My superiors always talked about it during our abandon-ship drills. I don’t think anyone actually believed the enemy would be so kind.

Nor did I actually expect our country to actually respect it. Bush and gang are punching miles-wide holes through it to justify the illegal detention at Guantanamo Bay.

If the U.S. can’t even give lip-service to this convention, how could I ever hope it would save my butt? If there’s one thing that would do America good (and that’s all I ever want for my country), it would be to stop being so damn hypocritcal about everything. There are not “American citizens” and “everybody else,” for instance. There are only human beings. Let’s play by the rules or not hide behind them.

Political commentator Michael Moore got in a peace message at the Oscars, jarring those isolated actors out of their cushy make-believe world (memo to the Academy: those aren’t blanks they’re firing over there). To much cheering, he made a grand anti-war speech and said “we don’t support your war Mr. Bush.”

Meanwhile, people are dying overseas.

So Kelly and I went to Cirque Du Soleil Thursday night. Absolutely blown away. Definitely go if you can afford it.

Anyway, the site has a nifty “print your own tickets” thing, which I did. I was thinking that CdS was doing this through the Raleigh-based Etix company, a TicketMaster competitor. Turns out it was TicketMaster itself, under the guise of Admission Network.

Which is cool, I guess, if they were doing electronic tickets right. In typical form, however, TicketMaster added a few bucks for their “handling fee.”

Uh, what handling? These are E-tickets! The only handling done was my picking up the paper from my printer. I think if anyone deserves a “handling fee” it should be me, dammit.

TicketMaster sucks. Any company that nickels and dimes you the way they do deserves to lose business. They are one reason why I steer clear of most big-ticket events. I won’t mention the other right now because it will soon have its own, lengthy entry.

Dubya chose the NCAA basketball tournament to stage His War. Did he pick this time because Saddam would be a sitting duck, sharing a couch with his buddies in front of a big-screen TV?

We’re witnessing March Madness, my friends, but it’s not the basketball type. As if I needed another reason to oppose this war.

I thought the time was right for a little reminder of what makes this country great.

For your reading pleasure, I present to you the United States Constitution.

As a bonus, you may also review the Bill Of Rights.

America rulez!