They caught him! In Atlanta. Now let's hope the justice system does it's job. I have no deisre to see an innocent man get punished, but if this IS the guy that did it, then.... Well, I wish only the worst for him.

Good news. Police have found a suspect in the murder of my friend Carrie Yoder. His name is Derek Todd Lee, he's in his 30's, he's a black man about 6'1", and is considered armed and dangerous. More importantly, he supposedly has fled to the Atlanta area. So keep your eyes peeled, but be careful, I don't want another friend hurt, or worse, by this guy. As it turns out, I had not read before that Carrie was raped, but now it seems that the evidence shows she was. I was just telling my co-worker, Matthew, about this, and he told me how he and his brother-in-law were mugged and shot in 2000. Matthew had a bullet go through his leg and was ok, but the brother-in-law was killed. The muggers, of course, got off on a technicality. I've never been very bloodthirsty, but I'd much rather this guy gets shot up in a gunfight with the cops, than get off on a technicality.

Now all those liberals out there decrying our military for the "illegal war and occupation of Iraq" can shut up. The UN Security Council voted, 14-0, to end sanctions against Iraq and allow the US and UK to control the country until an elected government is in place. Not that I really give a damn. In my opinion the UN lost all rights to anything they say being considered "legal" a long time ago.

I hate to make mass generalizations, but it seems to me that liberal journalists have the wrong idea about the opinions of "the people" on Iraq. Reporters seem to think that the vast majority of Americans are Democrats who hate Bush, and are surprised again and again when they are booed by citizens that actually support our president and have some patriotism. I'm not saying that every American is a die-hard Bush supporter. In fact I'm willing to bet that it's a very small majority, if that. But our liberal press seems to have the idea that it's a small MINORITY. New York Times reporter Chris Hedges spoke at a commencement ceremony in Maryland and was soundly routed by the people booing his anti-American speech. He went in thinking, "Oh, it's a college, so of course they'll like my speech." He went out saying that his free speech was violated, blah blah blah, the same crap we get every time someone disagrees with a liberal. Booing someone has nothing to do with free speech. If the students had thrown him in jail, that would be obstructing free speech. Boing, yelling, whatever, the Constitution supports the right to disagree. The press needs to take a step back, take a big breath, and realize that their job is to report the news, not insult the country, our president, or the average citizen.

Last night the finale episode ever of one the best TV shows of all time came on, and now there is no more Buffy. As a fan since the very first episode was first shown on TV (hell, I was fan from when I first saw the Kristy Swanson feature film), I have suffered many scathing comments from people, running the gamut from "I'd never watch a show just because the actresses are hot," to "Vampires and demons? It just looks so stupid." Now that's it over, I respond to all those people with, "No, you're the stupid one, because you missed out on a phenomenon." Buffy was undeniably hot. Shows about vampires and demons are undeniably not mainstream. Joss Whedon, however, managed to meld these dark side creatures with hip, witty dialogue, great characters, and some of the most exciting plot lines in storytelling history. And it's not just me who thinks so. Find me a relatively well-known TV critic that did not respect this show, and I'll find you a winning lottery ticket. Whedon and crew were never afraid to be different, to stretch the bounds of television, and to make each episode an adventure the likes of which you will never get on higher rated offerings. They had lesbians kissing, they killed off characters, they made Buffy kill her boyfriend, then get dumped by the same (still undead) boyfriend, then get with another guy despite the fact that he has the same problems as the original boyfriend. The entirety of season six was just downright despressing, yet now that it's all over, the season makes sense. It helped to ground the run of the series into reality, into a world where the good girl doesn't always win, where people die and aren't brought back to life.

I remember watchign the first season witha few friends in my fraternity. Other guys mae fun of us, but once they noticed how hot Buffy was, they started to watch and get hooked. My friends Kevin and Christine used to make fun of me and their roommate for watching. They sat down to watch an episode so they could amke fun of it MST3K style, and ended up becoming hooked. My mother and I used to chat about each episode the next day, and when I lived with her, we bonded watching together each week. Most recently I got a roommate hooked. Five episodes were left, and he turned down an old friend's plans for the evening in order to watch the finale. The show touched a lot of people, and I'm proud to have been, and to always be, a Buffy-holic.

The series ended with a question and an answer. The question was what will we do now? The answer was a smile from Buffy. She no longer has to be in charge, she no longer has to bear the responsibility for saving everyone, she no longer has to care what people do next. And I no longer have to keep my Tuesday nights open.

DId you hear about the suicide bombings in Morocco? One of the blasts damaged a Belgian consulate. The Belgians, having continuously sided against the US on Iraq and a number of other middle east issues, can not, even in this case, admit to the evil of the suicide bombers. Their excuse for why it's not evil? According to a Belgian consualte spokesman, they think that the intended target was a Jewish owned restaraunt across the street. I guess it's not evil to suicide bomb people, as long as the intended victims are Jewish. Thanks Belgium.... I may be mistaken, but weren't the people of Belgium highly respected for helping Jews escape the Nazis? Or was that Holland? Any one know? I wish this thing had a comments section.

I'm getting a new TV!!!! Probably a very big LCD projection. I'm very pumped about this. It's a lot of money, but I've never bought a really cool piece of technology before, and it's my reward to myself for having two jobs for about 9 months, finally having a good job, moving out of my parents house, and getting out of debt (ok, not there quite yet, but almost, even with the purchase I'm looking at August as my back in the black month). Also, I gave my two weeks notice at Dominos yesterday. I'm very excited about that.

World opinion be damned, Israel should not have to make peace with a neighbor that offers peace with one hand and homicide bombs in the other. These people are not suicide bombers, that smacks too much of martyrs. They are not martyrs, they are murderers, and should be called such. Anyway, everyone was ready to try for peace again, and then bunch of innocent Israeli citizens were murdered, and Sharon called off his peace trip in order to help his countrymen deal with the latest terrorist attacks. The "world," otherwise defined as people who have never had relatives blown up in their own neighborhoods, will probably condemn Sharon for gumming up the peace process. This fits in with the normal attitude I see in the press. Until Israel gives up the "illegally occupied territories," they should continue to get murdered and do not have the right to complain. Help spread the truth. Start by asking someone how they would feel if their teenage was walking through Buckhead from one club to another, and some guy ran bya nd blew up, killing everyone around. It doesn't matter what the government might have done to agitate people, it's an EVIL act, and there is no other way to describe and not call yourself a hypocrite.

Today is my 26th birthday. I'm not sure what that really means to me, deep down, except that I'm getting older. I guess I could be depressed. I'm 26, I don't make a lot of money, I've never had a girlfriend that lasted longer than a month, my car is making wierd noises, and it seems like all my friends are slowly moving away (most to DC for some reason). But then I think of where I was on my 25th birthday. I'd just lost a job (a crappy one, granted), my car was broken down in a movie parking lot while I went to see Star Wars Episode II (not only was the car not working, but while I was staring under the hood, because that's what you're supposed to do when a car stops, even if you have no idea what to do besides look, I managed to lock my keys in the car), I had no income, I was desperately avoiding having to talk about any of this with my parents, and I had no girlfriend. So a lot has changed. Now I have a job that, while my income is not fantastic, has a lot of future potential. I live on my own. My debt is nearly paid off. I'm getting a really cool TV soon. So I'm going to look at 26 as a step UP on the ladder to where I would like to be. I don't even know where I would like to be, but I know it includes a wife, more money, and hopefully a Jeep Wrangler. Or a Porsche.

Many thanks go out to Randy Weinstein and Marisa Blank for planning a birthday celebration for me tonight at the Northside Tavern, a run-down, absolutely WONDERFUL blues bar near Georgia Tech. I'll be there around 9, beer in hand!

I am so tired of hearing people talk about the "illegal" occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. All these people need to read their history. If Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, then the United States is a nearly completely illegal country that ought to be dissolved. We won, by conquest, most of our territory, including much of the original thirteen colonies. In fact, about the only places that are legitimately ours, by this new definition of what is legal, are the island of Manhatten, the areas included in the Louisiana Purchase, and Seward's Folly, known to most as Alaska. We paid for those with money, not blood. The fact is, many countries have territory they won in war, most of them in which the victorious country was the agressor. The war in which Israel won the Gaza Strip was, in fact, begun by Israel, but preemptively, as Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were mobilizing with the stated intention of attacking. In the hope of peace, I believe that Israel will have to give up these territories eventually, but let's remember what is legala nd what is not. Let's also remember that these were not "Palestinian" territories, as there is, legally, no such thing as a Palestinian.

There's a new kind of racism out there. There's a racism that's excused as politically correct, but, in fact, goes further to stereotype a group than msot other racist agendas. It's the racism of offended overreaction. An example cropped up at the University of Arizona, where for many years the students threw frisbees in the air upon graduating so as not to lose their mortar boards. A few years ago the tradition changed, due to pain from being hit by a frisbee. Tortillas were thrown in celebration of the admirable acheivement of graduating. The President of the school, however, has taken it upon himself to decide that the Hispanic race is offended by this and has outlawed the practice. This school president is not hispanic. He sought very little input from Hispanic students or other members of the community. He simply decided that they were offended whether they like it or not. He's a racist, and, surprise, he's a liberal.

I'm going to try to get the airspace over my home declared a no-fly zone. Disney got Disneyworld's airspace declared a no-fly zone because they said it was a terrorism threat. That's a very valid point, which makes my point equally valid- that letting planes fly over my house gives any terrorist the ability to fly a plane at me. I'm scared, and the only difference between me and Disney is that Disney has a lot more money to spend on getting their airspace cleared. In other words, they were able to bribe officials. Anyone with any sense knows that if a terrorist was intent on flying a plane into Disneyworld attractions, no no-fly zone restrictions are going to stop them. That leads me to wonder what is the real reason Disney wanted their airspace clear. Ahhh, enlightenment comes. It seems that a rival theme park operator flew a plane with a banner advertising his park right over Disneyworld. Disney did not like that, so they used fear of terrorism and lots of money to get the government to pander to their agenda. Basically they misled and they bribed. What great role models.

Another letter to the editor, this one responding to Cynthia's editorial on 5/11/2003. I'm not sure it got sent, as the AJC's web site is retarded. We'll see in a few days, I guess.

Cynthia Tucker is amazing journalist. In just one column, she definitely, beyond all doubt, proved what a hypocrite she is. She wrote of Bill Clinton's LAX haircut and how int he end it was not a big deal, but newspapers relegated the truth of the story to back pages weeks later. Then she compares this to the coverage of Bush landing on an aircraft carrier for a speech. In the name of consistency, accuracy, and the full disclosure Ms. Tucker seems so anxious to demand, shouldn't she have compared Bush's aircraft carrier landing to Clinton's aircraft carrier landing a few years ago? I see more in common between two landings than a landing and a haircut. Oh, but that would mean she would either have to chastise Clinton for something, or agree that Bush didn't do anything wrong, and that would destroy her entire reason for the editorial in the first place. Maybe she should use her brain to come up with stories that ahve meaning, not just try to attack the legally elected President for every action. And by the way, Bush may have just been in the Air National Guard, but that gives him more in common with the men and women on the USS Abraham Lincoln than draft-dodger Clinton had with the men and women on the aircraft carrier he descended upon.

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So did you hear about those kids at RPI and UM that got sued by the RIAA for allowing people to download MP3s from their websites? The four students in question have to pay between $10k and $20k for doing something that just about everyone I know under the age of 30 does with no moral difficulties. At least one of the students has been succesfully collecting donations on his website. I checked it out and also read a couple of quotes from him that made me think even less of the results of this suit. As he says, none of the artists that were supposedly victimized by his actions are going to see a dime of the settlement money, it's going to go the RIAA so that they have the money to sue more people. There's something wrong with that.

I do not claim to know what the solution to copyright problems resulting from the digitalization of America is, but I do know that it does not include suing everyone that trades music online. The RIAA claims that thousands of people in the music industry have lost their jobs due to music piracy, but I tend to think that if they were willing to adapt, many of those jobs could have been saved. As an example, a new CD comes out. Joe Blow, a very wired college student, is a big fan of the band that released the album, but when he goes to a store to buy it, he sees the $17 price tag. He looks in his wallet and sees only $17, but the guy has to eat lunch, and he also knows that a casette of this music would retail for like $12. CDs are cheaper to manufacture, so why should he pay extra when he can download the music off Kazaa for free and still eat. He eats, he gets his music, and he does not have to send more money to the price gouging music industry. Now just imagine the industry embraced new technology. Joe gets to the store and sees that his CD retails for $17, but there's also a way to download it from the music company's web site for $10. It's easier for him because he doesn't have to spend half an hour trying to peel of those transparent sticker seal things that are always on jewel cases, and it's cheaper. The music industry is shooting itself in the foot, and someday all the lawsuits in the world are not going to be able to maintain the status quo. For now they should follow Apple's lead and put music on the net for cheap.

Food For Thought

You're driving down the street, and suddenly a cop jumps out and stops you, turns and waves people to come out of a church. This is an off-duty cop paid by the church to direct traffic. Is this bribery? The cop has been paid by a private organization (one that doesn't even have to pay taxes, mind you) to favor drivers that are members of this organization. I say this is bribery, pure and simple. What do you think? If you care enough to formulate a response, please email me at benskott@hotmail.com

This is pasted direct from Neal Boortz's website. I just thought it was funny, and ridiculous, so I wanted to share.

Ten-year-old Keith Post, a fifth-grader at Pyles Elementary School in Stanton, Calif., happened upon a two-inch knife in the school cafeteria. He turned it in to his teacher but was suspended for five days--later reduced to one--because he didn't act quickly enough. "Keith said he waited two hours before turning it in because he was scared and thought his teacher might believe the knife belonged to him," the Los Angeles Times reports.

Principal Rick Johnson justified the punishment, saying: "Kids understand what it means to do something immediately." Maybe Keith should seek redress from the U.N. Security Council. After all, Resolution 1441, which demanded that Saddam Hussein's regime comply "immediately" with all previous resolutions, passed on Nov. 8, yet four months later the French and Russians were complaining Saddam hadn't had enough time. Doubtless the Security Council would look askance on Principal Johnson's arrogant unilateralism.

You know what really irks me, in the political arena, at any rate? Whenever I hear or read something along the lines of, "a $5 million bill for a new such-and-such was attached to such-and-such other bill and it passed without debate because the legislators wanted to get outstanding business out of the way so the session could end." I don't remember voting for these guys to be my representatives for only part of the year. My ballot did not say, "District 5 Senator (Sept-May)." When I'm at work, if I have things to do, I can't just sign off on something and send it off becauyse it's five o'clock and I want to go home. I still have to do whatever work is involved before I can leave. That's the way the real world works. Our elected officials don't live in the real world, and maybe that's something that should change.

In a completely unrelated irk, some guy came in to my office right after I got here this morning and started talking to me. He was a potential customer, but as I'm not a loan officer, I couldn't answer any of his questions. That didn't stop him from talking AT me for a long time. I ahd work to do, dammit. I would like to thank my colleague Pat, who was very gracious about listening to this man after I passed him over to her. I used a little of the false charm I developed during years of fraternity rush to pass him off and get the heck out of there.