Al-Qaeda responsible for Bhutto

This is a story that is not yet getting much press here in the States and in fact this is the first I've heard of it. Perhaps BBC or some one else is covering it, but I haven't seen it yet. Asia Times Online is reporting that an Al-Qaeda spokesman has made statements claiming responsibility.

From the Times--
“This is our first major victory against those [eg, Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf] who have been siding with infidels [the West] in a fight against al-Qaeda and declared a war against mujahideen,” Mustafa told Asia Times Online by telephone.

If this is indeed the case our efforts in that region may have just taken a major blow. Pakistan was already on the edge of spinning out of control with Musharraf, but without a viable successor Pakistan is even closer to tipping over the precipice. No one is happy with Musharraf it seems, and what may have been a popular alternative has now vanished. The only real hope is that some one from her political party can gather enough support to become a viable alternative, otherwise the Pakistani people will move closer and closer to a revolution that may very turn out to become the next Islamist Sharia theocracy. Islamists with nukes is not a good proposition, so lets all hope they can turn this thing around.

Expand the death penalty

In an editorial article today in the New York Times, the author espoused the recent national trend against the death penalty. In a country full of crime, this is a horrible idea. The article also railed against Texas, which is currently bucking that trend. I say Texas is right, not only should the death penalty continue, it should be expanded. Animalistic people should be put down like animals. That's my black and white perspective. Animals who are vicious and dangerous are euthanized. Do the right thing and protect the innocent, law-abiding citizens by executing dangerous animal-like humans. Don't slap us in the face by forcing us to pay for these denigrates to live. These are the same denigrates who have victimized us before and if let free would do it again. Expand the death penalty!

For your further perusal, I've gathered a couple examples of Texas's finest--

Segundo, Juan


This guy raped a woman and tried to strangle her 11-year-old daughter to death. DNA established his guilt 20 years after the crime.

Whitaker, Thomas


This guy murdered two people and attempted to murder another for a million dollars.

Ramey, Ker'sean


This guy executed three people.


I purposely picked three people of different races to profile, but there is an unfortunate racial disparity. Whites made up almost 30%, blacks almost 41%, and Hispanic 28%. This isn't unusual simply because the judicial system is already full of racial inequality. By expanding the death penalty, by offense, these issues should work themselves out simply because the action that a person commits has no racial discrimination. The criminal either did it or didn't do it, plain and simple. I doubt the legal system would ever be equal, so the racial argument would still remain, but at least it would be levelled out by being applied more fairly.

Also, for those who haven't come here from the Times, my response to that article is below.

I can say I agree with this article to a certain extent, only that innocent people should not be condemned to death. I am for capital punishment, if and only if the person is a danger to society. If innocent people can be hurt by another person acting like an animal, then the guilty person should be put down like an animal. With such a liberal audience, I doubt I would find many in agreement with me, but that is my stance.

People who are dangerous should not be warehoused, they should be disposed of so that they are no longer a danger to others. Capital punishment should not be used as a punishment or a deterrent, only to put down animals in the same way that a vicious dog is euthanized, so should vicious people be.

As long as no innocent people die, Texas is doing a great job! With increased forensic science, it is even easier to prove someone's guilt, as well as innocence. In that vein, more states should be working towards efficiency such as Texas. It's not about an eye for an eye as some on the religious right might think. It's not about a deterrent. It's simply the most cost-effective way to protect the public, by killing instead of supporting dangerous animals. Murderers, domestic abusers, molesters, and maybe even the worst of the worst drug dealers should be executed! Then maybe crime might drop overall, but at least violent crime would drop.

All info above, including pics, are courtesy of the Texas Department of Corrections,
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/deathrow.htm

TherealistTruest Meaning

If you have never been here before or have been here but wondered 'wtf is wrong with this idiot? What is up with that title?' This post is for you. This name goes back over 10 years.

There are two important parts to my moniker. Realist and Truest

Firstly, 'Realist'
Well it is pretty much self explanatory. I am a realist. I am a cautious optimist, but I look at things realistically. I'm serious for the most part, probably because I see reality as it is, not the facade that people try to create. I hate fakeness, and respect genuine, honest people.

Secondly, 'Truest'
This is related directly to the 'Realist' because you can't have truth without realism. I try my best everyday to be the 'truest' I can be. I didn't always value honesty, but have come to the point in my life where I am honest, sometimes to my own hurt. Honesty is a noble calling that I wish more people would value. Unfortunately, it is much more popular to be fake and dishonest today than the 'old school'. I guess I'll continue to be my way and be TherealistTruest!

So now you know more about the man behind the moniker.

Brrrrr

Well a couple days ago I was talking about waiting till next month for -40 temps. Well I spoke too soon. In the last hour it hit -40 here. It's -39 right now and expected to drop another 5 degrees or so. Sob, sob, I wanna go hoooome! This is just ridiculous! Oh well, I'll just have to get used to it. It'll only be this way off and on for the next couple months, then it'll start to warm up. Well, this is a sleepy post, meaning I'm too tired to continue so I won't. Check out the revised layout(still in progress of course) and the YouTube stuff towards the bottom. I'm still working on adding more content that I can fit into the layout. Till next time!

Changing Blogger Templates

This one's for John who recently asked about this. Take a look everyone!

There is an easy way to change templates, but it depends on what you want to do on how complex it gets.

The easiest way to change templates is to use Bloggers templates. On your Dashboard just go to Template--> Pick a New Template.

If you want to change templates using one you've found somewhere else online then go to Template --> Edit HTML --> Backup / Restore Template section and click upload. You'll want to backup your current template first though. Also, finding a template is not that hard, just Google something like 'Blogger Template' and you'll find an endless amount.

As far as editing a template, well that's not that difficult, but you need to know HTML and at least understand CSS and XHTML. This is also on the Edit HTML tab of your dashboard.

*One last important note-
make absolutely sure you've backed up your old template. If you change templates, your widgets will disappear. You'll need some way to restore those afterwards if you have a lot of them.

Interesting article

Well this article is funny to me anyways, and might be to you too. This is a story from the local paper here, the News Miner . Note this, and I quote, “It’s not really that cold.” , in reference to the fact that it's only -20F. For any of those that live below the 60 latitude, thats still pretty freakin cold. Okay, you have to look at it this way though, especially if you are in the SubArctic, it still gets much colder. Woohoo, can't wait till next month. 40 below here we come!

Working on it....

Any of you that might have been here recently may notice that the layout is changing. In reality it is only starting to change. I originally downloaded a template from somewhere and had slowly begun to change the layout. Well I finally began to get really tired of that layout and am working on customizing it a lot more. Obviously the color scheme has changed, look for that to continue, but also there will be additions to the content as well. My posts might be a bit less frequent for a few days as I spend more time customizing everything, so keep checking back or perhaps leave comments as I will be keeping an eye on them and commenting back and forth with you all.

RIP Lance Titus

It's been about 10 years since I left and never turned back, but sometimes in this internet age I like to sort of take a peek from afar. Death sucks, there's really no way else to say it. Unfortunately a couple days ago I found out that a guy I knew in high school died tragically about a year ago.

Neither one of us was what anyone would call popular back then. We used to hang out in the same circles sometimes and I remember going to his Father's store a few times as a teenager. He was indeed a unique person and that would be a good thing. I remember him being a funny person, laughing a lot, having a good time.

I didn't know him that well, really was just acquainted with him more than anything. I couldn't say anything bad about Lance though. It was a long time ago, but I do remember him being sort of anti-society, meaning he went against the grain and did his thing instead of what the rest of the world did. That's an admirable quality, especially in these days when you are expected to follow the flock, so to speak. Lance never really seemed to blend in, nor did he seem to want to. Again I think that's admirable. Even though I didn't know him well, I do know that the world needs more people like him and that we all suffer from his loss.

RIP Lance

Oil or not?

I was just reading the comments over at Anchorage Daily News to a story they just ran and this fueled my rant for the day. Alaska's lifeblood is oil, plain and simple. For some, there is an absolute hatred of the oil companies. I can understand hating greedy corporations who exploit people, but these people have the gall to tell these companies to leave. To me this is just preposterous! Without these oil companies, Alaska is nothing more than a tourist state. I don't know about anyone else, but tourism isn't known to be the best paying business, unless you own the business. I guess it's the same with oil, unless you own the business you really aren't living the high life. I will tell you that it pays pretty good anyways. So for all those people who want the oil companies to go away, please do all of us who want to have a decent standard of living in this state a great service and get out! Bitter people are just angry because they have failed to live up to their own expectations, living in a trailer, driving a crappy pickup truck.... Seriously.

Back to politics

It's been a while since I've taken on politics here, to it's time to take it back to politics. I really haven't been keeping up on the news lately and that's probably a good thing. What I have seen is a bit concerning though. As recent articles have pointed out, Mike Huckabee is now a front runner in the Republican race. Now I'm not sure if he could actually beat Hillary Clinton, which is what worries me. I really, truly believe that having Hillary Clinton in the White House is bad for this country.

It seems that she is almost a 'gimme' for the Democratic nomination. If that's the case, then we absolutely must have a strong candidate to run against her. Can Mike Huckabee do that? I'm not convinced. My preference, in order, would be Fred Thompson, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, or anyone that isn't Hillary Clinton. Fred Thompson's campaign sucks. Honestly I have barely heard much from him since he came into the race. So that leaves Barack and Rudy.... Good luck fellas!

Bears and wolves, Oh my

In a land known to be wild and full of wild life, the battle between wild animals and humans invading their habitat is no more evident than this year. During the summer of 2007, Alaskan wildlife made news headlines for venturing into human habitation. Of course humans are the ones who have continued to venture further into animal habitats. In sparsely populated Alaska though, the lines of wild habitat and human habitat are consistently blurred.

Even though humans and wild animals live in somewhat close proximity throughout much of the state, it is still somewhat uncommon to see bears and wolves in so many encounters with humans in the major population centers of the state. In the cities of Fairbanks and Anchorage, bears were the big story makers this summer. Grizzlies roamed near the edges of Fairbanks and black bears were encountered numerous times in the city of Anchorage. In one incident in Anchorage, a black bear was shot and killed in the Mountain View area after roaming through the West side and downtown, both urban human habitats, not bear habitats. In the Midtown section of the city we had an encounter just outside of my house with a young black bear. Bears in the outskirts of the cities are not abnormal, but having bears inside the city and so often is somewhat unusual.

Now comes several stories of recent encounters with wolves just outside Fairbanks and Anchorage. Wolves have killed several pets in the Two Rivers area of Fairbanks and areas around Anchorage. As it was this summer, residents are on heightened alert for these dangerous animals. I guess this is what life on the Last Frontier is like. All I know is that if another deadly woodland creature comes on my porch, I'm either runnin' or gunnin'. Dorothy, who's from Kansas, said "There's no place like home", and I have to agree. In the Midwest, you'd never see a story like this. Maybe it's time to head back down south... well someday anyways.

More mayor's stealing

I am stunned that this is legal - ' ML&P gave $230,000 to charity in '06, over half of city's gifts'

For those that don't know, ML&P is the city of Anchorage Alaska's power company. In Anchorage there are two, ML&P and Chugach(CEA for short). When I was there we had Chugach. If they had given tax payer money to charity I would have been less outraged because as a private company they have that right. As a tax-payer group that is present to provide power they have no right to run charity programs that do not have anything to do with electricity. If they give breaks to poor folks on their utility bills or help them improve heating in their home that is energy efficient, I can see the merit in that. Giving money away, or buying fund raising dinners is ridiculous. That's the type of BS you get in a Dem run city though. There is absolutely no problem with them stealing money and redistributing it without permission. I am offended by this, but thankfully I don't have to put up with Anchorage stealing my money that way, since I've moved more into the wilderness of the Interior. But still this is almost unbelievable!

More Alaska

I had mentioned Finland in my previous post and I have begun to get a bit fascinated by that country. One reason is that in some ways it is similar to Alaska. The capital Helsinki is in a similar latitude as that of my home, until recently, of Anchorage. The weather is similarly affected by the ocean, but Anchorage is colder due to exposure to the colder North Pacific, unlike Helsinki which is influenced more by the warm Atlantic. The Laplands also have similarities to where I currently reside. From what I have heard, dog mushing is a pastime there, as it is here. It's cold and snowy as well and sparsely populated. It's also near the Arctic Circle, like where I currently am, about 90 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

Another reason is that I am so enamored with Europe in general. I have never been there, but will someday. I have been to Canada and seen pictures of Europe. Canada seems to be sort of a cross between Europe and the States. With that in mind, the thing I notice about both Canada and Europe is the cleanliness compared to America. America seems somewhat like a crumbling empire at times, just past its prime. Alaska is a bit less like the rest of the country, mainly because of its isolation, but nonetheless I long to see other cultures and other places.

The main purpose of this post is to share Alaska with you. Unfortunately, due to my situation and being unable to access my main computer (I'm working on an old laptop right now) I can't share some of my personal photos of Alaska just yet. I do have pictures of moose, wolves, otters, and bears as well as pictures of volcanoes, Denali(the highest peak on the continent), and much more from the last five years here. I will share them when I get a place to live and get set up. If you want to help, theres a PayPal donation button on the side. I've dropped much of the ads for now as they were annoying me as much as you all.

Well on to the sharing, the best way I can for now, by links that I visit often.

• Volcano webcams of Alaska
• General Alaska webcams(all over the state)
• Denali from Anchorage(on a clear day) and Downtown Anchorage
• View from work(almost)

The last link does not do the view from that location justice. Often the camera is blasted with glare from the sun. If you were standing at that location on a clear day you could literally see for about 200 miles to the south with a spectacular view of the Alaska Range and the peak of Denali(also over 100 miles away). It does give you an idea of the weather though in Fairbanks. That camera is located on a hill, with the temperatures being sometimes as much as +30 F higher than that of the valley locations a few hundred feet lower in elevation. Alaska is quite an interesting place. I'll definitely share more as time permits.

Here's a quick pic of Denali from Anchorage, courtesy ACS archives.

Finland Rocks!?!

Well for the last couple days I've been getting a good deal of traffic on this blog from Finland. For this blog, a good deal of traffic is simply more than a handful, not really a lot. I've got to say I have been very pleasantly surprised though! So why the hits from Finland you may ask? Well I stumbled into another blog and posted a comment there, which was followed by the 'flood' of hits here. So as a show of gratitude I wanted to post a link back for others that might stop in from other locations. So if you get a chance, go to http://www.finlandforthought.net/
There are some really well written articles and lively discussions about life there, from an American living there. I'm keeping an eye out to go ahead and read the next post and maybe comment again, if I wish to do so. Anyways, check it out!

A bit of Alaskana.... cold

Taking a bit of advice from a recent comment I received, I'm going to throw in a bit of Alaskana, with a weather report. I've done this before, but today's rant is about the cold. It's still warm, by Interior Alaska standards at -8 F. It's forecast to drop to about -25 F tonight. It gets much worse this time of the year and we can expect within the next month or less(basically any day now) to reach -40 (F or C doesn't mattter, this is the only place on the thermometer that the two scales meet) or even much colder. As I speak, it is almost -30 in Northway, Alaska, a small town near the Canadian border. I have not been in Alaska that incredibly long and the Interior even less, so I've only seen it reach that temperature a couple times the one winter I was here before. I'm told that winter was not that bad, so I expect worse. I hate cold weather! I am so living in the wrong place!

Well that is all for now, but I will post more about the Last Frontier, including weather, lifestyle, politics, and other Alaska specific topics.

Still busy, busy

Well for those of you following this blog ( well okay no one is yet.. but still), I'm very busy and almost think sometimes I might have a nervous breakdown. I'm trying to sell my house, before I can rent a place to actually live and it's not going too well yet. I've moved almost 400 miles from my home and my family and I are staying with relatives until our home does sell. Damn the mortgage crisis! The sad part is that my region is not so affected by the financial aspects or falling prices. The idiots in the rest of the country are scaring the folks in this market though. So because of hype I'm stuck in one room with 3 other people (who I love dearly by the way). Being stuck in one room with any relative, friend, or even enemy still sucks much the same. It's very stressful to say the least. Anyways, one of those wonderful folks just came back... so I'm gonna run. If you stumble across this, please take a look at the other recent posts to get more entertaining (or not) info.

Go Bucks!

Okay, normally I won't do sports posts at all, but I just have to support my team and represent! After blowing a game to Illinois a few weeks back, Ohio State football is on the edge of getting back into the national title game this year after last year's debacle against Florida. If Missouri loses to Oklahoma for the second time this year, or West Virginia loses to rival Pitt, then OSU will be back in. I'm not the kind of person who will literally pray for a sports victory, so let's just say I'm hoping really hard. I think the greatest chance is for Missouri to lose to Oklahoma, since Pitt sucks and WVU is a pretty good team. Anyways, I won't ramble long about sports... but I just had to say GO BUCKS!


EDIT
Looks like they made it! LSU is going to be pretty tough though. Oh well, hopefully OSU will win, but if they don't it's still better to be runner-up two years in a row than to not get a chance to play at all.