As I got up this morning, I heard an interview on abc “Good Morning America” with Richard A. Clarke, former Whitehouse advisor on counter-terrorism. Clarke alleges that immediately after 9/11, the Bush Whitehouse was looking for a way to go into Iraq, using Iraq as a scapegoat.
I don’t know why, but above the din of pundits and allegations, I found this man compelling. In interests of balance, GMA had Condolezza Rice on immediately afterwards to allow equal time for rebuttal. Rice’s statements were diffuse, ad hominem, and I got the distinct impression she was lying.
I’m withholding judgment at the moment, but if this does come out to be true, if Iraq was just the execution of the Bush agenda, then I’m not voting for Bush. No way, no how.
Article about it (from fox news, of all people…)
* * *
Things I learned this weekend:
-
Racing slicks don’t like it when it’s only 35 degrees outside
-
400Mhz Pentium 2’s with 64 MB of ram can run Windows XP quite effectively.
-
You can function quite effectively on 9 hours of sleep in 3 days
-
UAB can beat Kentucky
Friday, I took a blessed day of vacation to clean-up my apartment and wash + wax my MINI. I used the Zaino wax system, which is expensive, but very high quality. Instead of a wax applicator, they recommend you melt the wax in the palm of your hand and apply it to the car with your bare hands. So, basically, it felt like I was giving my MINI a massage :) Very nice, pastoral experience that was relaxing in an odd way. Only bad thing: Including a polish step, a reconditioning of my plastic underpanels, and the wax itself, it took me 4 hours and quite a few contortions.
Saturday was working at the Breathitt County Library, rebuilding machines and doing random hacking + sysadmin work. Got ’em squared away, but it took from 9am ’til 10 pm and I was totally exhausted. I had planned on driving back to G’town that night, but the rain and my exhaustion conspired to keep me in Lee County for the night. Thankfully, the Pup was inside an empty spot in Dad’s equipment building, safe from the rain that would’ve ruined my uncured wax job. I drove his red truck all that day.
Sunday: Rising at 5 am, I dashed back to G’town to get my race-tires, jack, pressure guage, and various other things to head for the autocross @ Legends stadium; I wanted to get there by 8am. I had a message on my cell-phone that my friend Robin had tied-one-on the previous night and had left her car in Lexington, so I had to load all that crap up, pick her up, get to Christ the King (where she had her Accord) and get to Legends stadium by 8. Made it by 8:30.
Now, understand: Autocross is an amazing sport, but when there are snow flurries and it’s 35 degrees F with a northerly wind @ 10 mph, it gets pretty un-fun. We had 60 total entrants; my class had 4 guys: Terry Ashley in a Focus, me, a guy from Louisville in a Triumph Spitfire, and a guy in a 1988 Fiero. We got six runs per heat, and I was in the first heat, grid number 5.
I totally sucked. I’d never driven on my Victoracers before and at 36 degrees, they had all the adhesion of a polyurethane roller-skate wheel. I slid through the first turn, then did a 540 coming out of the slalom into the final 90-degree bend. Not good. I was having real trouble keeping the back-end in line, and hit a cone on every run. During my third run, for one heart-stopping moment, I was heading broadside into a lightpole before I caught the slide with a counter-steer.
I’ve had courses kick my ass before (EKU, especially), but I never felt mentally ‘into’ this course. I tried desperately to juggle tire pressures and lines through the corners, but never had a run where I ‘got it’. »sigh« Essentially, I beat myself.
Results Sheet (look @ H-Stock)
Then Kentucky lost, as I looked-on in a stupor. Euthanasia for a sub-par year, IMHO. I like March Madness, and I’ve participated in my office pool, but I just didn’t feel it this year for Kentucky. I liked last year’s team (what’s not to like? Underfeated in the SEC!) alot better.