McCain's 100-Year Timetable

It's been real refreshing for Senator John McCain to tell us the Iraq war will be over in 100 years. Finally, we can all breathe a sign of relief, now that we know the end is in sight.

But I have one big concern, and I think it could be fatal. As we all know from the past few years, we've resisted setting a timetable for withdrawal. President Bush has repeatedly said that the terrorists then would simply wait us out, then take over. So, if we said we'll be out by Jan. 20, 2009, they clearly could just sit tight till then, then come out of hiding on the 21st.

Now that McCain -- perhaps foolishly -- has told us 100 years, we are torn. Of course we're relieved to know the end is in sight. He surely wants us to have that assurance, and the more credit to him for that attitude. I say "perhaps foolishly" because now the terrorists have a date to work with. The saving grace, slight as it is, is that the current breed of terrorists will be dead by then. But there's nothing to say that they won't pass on this news to future generations. If they, let's just say, write it on a slip of paper -- something as small as that -- and put it in a time capsule, to be opened, say, in 98 years... I'm starting to think the risk is too great.

So, anyway, we have time to deal with the situation, I'm not saying we don't. After all, Mr. McCain probably won't live another 100 years, and it's equally likely that he won't be in office as president at the end of that span. In those years -- and I hate to take away the benefits of his no doubt heartfelt assurances to us -- we will just have to hope (and pray) that we have a president (or a few) who will make the end of the war less definite. We generally like wars to end, that's typical. But we cannot end this one because of the danger that the enemy might want to keep it going!

Words Easy to Misspell

I have to think about the word 'misspell' itself, because it seems like a tricky one. It's never good to see someone complain about spelling, then misspell a word in their complaint. How often I've seen that. Or use some other phrase or bit of grammar in the wrong way. (But of course who really makes the rules?)

Probably everyone has seen that little snippet of text that has everything misspelled in it. It's come around on email a couple times. Even with so many mistakes you're still able to read it, and pretty fast at that. Because, as the old scientific theory goes, and it appears to have experience and testing validation on its side, your eye isn't really looking at the words to examine them in detail as to their component parts. But there's just a quick connection going on with your brain, and it doesn't make any difference whether they're spelled right or not. There has to be limits, obviously. The first letter should be right, I would guess. Otherwise it's the Jumble.

I've been looking at a lot of articles from the 1920s and before. And words were spelled differently back then. Like postoffice as one word. One newspaper, maybe trying to be zippier, spelled words like tho, thru, altho. And kidnapper, which to us usually has two p's, only had one (I checked the dictionary the other day and either way is judged OK by the dictionary folks.)

I appreciate the spellchecker. Is that one word or should be it hyphenated? Firefox is flagging it. But it looks OK to me.

John McCain -- Man of Endless Wars

John McCain says he wouldn't mind it if we stayed in Iraq and kept the Iraq war going for another 100 years! In fact, he added to that that if it were 1,000 or 10,000 years, or even a million years (1), it'd all be the same to him. Now there's a man who has a long-term plan!

You can't say John McCain doesn't have vision. I mean, you're president for eight years tops, and he's already looking a million years ahead. I've heard of big ambitions, but don't Americans like things to actually end? Think of the dread and loathing we used to have when they put, "To Be Continued" at the end of a TV episode. We didn't want to wait one stinking week for the thing to end. But we have a guy (serious candidate, one would think) who doesn't think in terms of beginning and ending. He just thinks in terms of beginning and persisting, beginning and continuing, going and staying.

It'd be funny to sketch out what if all our presidents were as ambitious as John McCain, ambitious at keeping wars going. We'd still have around 30 years to go with World War II. We'd be close to the end of World War I. If it started in 1914, we'd have only about 6 years to go till it ended. Let's see, the Revolutionary War would be long since completed. But the Civil War, just around 1965 we finally got that settled. What about Vietnam? John McCain was a POW in Vietnam. So if we were still there, he'd still be there. He won't get out of that Vietnam jail for another 70 or 75 years. Settle in, John!

This long-term view of what a good war should be is insane, of course. But kind of funny. We have a serious (?) candidate for the White House whose main platform is endless war? Is there anyone in his or her right mind who will vote for that?

This is literally worse than the highway department. They get the interstate ripped up and it's a lifetime job to get it fixed. You go to work the day after high school and by the time you get done with a good stretch of road, you're ready for Social Security.

Let's put John McCain in charge of something that is endless and harmless. Like give him a mountain of beans, give him about 40 acres to work in, and have him count beans. That'll save us a lot of trouble!

SOS Coast Guard 2

As basically "good" as SOS Coast Guard is, and it isn't great, there is a real groaner moment in episode 2. Which was necessary in order to preserve Thorg's life so he can stay in the serial all the way through. Unfortunately it made the Coast Guard look a lot more incompetent than they would be in real life. But such are the movies!

They've got Thorg. He's swam out of the Carfax wreck, but the Coast Guard sees him. Terry tackles him on land, they fight, then Thorg rolls into a net and the net rolls into the sea. But instead of anyone rescuing Thorg then arresting him, they shrug their shoulders, like 'he's gone.' They say 'No one could escape from the net' and walk away, the poor guy out of mind.

Well, hey, ha ha, you aren't just going to leave a body to rot away at the shoreline. Please. But it's for the plot. He can't be taken into custody already and he can't die and you need fights. So of course Thorg survives!

Elvis Music as Comfort Food

There's no greater audio comfort than Elvis singing.

SOS Coast Guard

I'm rewatching an old serial on DVD, 12-parts, called "SOS Coast Guard," starring Bela Lugosi.

I watched it a few years ago, maybe five years ago. And so I've halfway forgotten it, except for the basic plot, which is that Bela is an evil scientist trying to melt the world, or to have the power to destroy and conquer.

So I popped it in -- and I only watch a little bit at a time, while exercising -- and I'm thinking, ho hum, I'll never make it through this. But it's actually quite good, better than I remember. The first thing I notice is the great special effects, or, I should say, lots of action. The special effects are great for what the budget had to be, which is low.

They're out on a raging sea, the boat tossed on the waves. The rear projection film shows waves like mountains, and every once in a while a hundred gallons splashed on everyone. It looks quite deadly, like you wouldn't want to be out there. But there's Bela, in the film called "Boroff." He seems like the calmest one on board.

The Coast Guard comes to the rescue of their ship, the Carfax. Boroff is the first one in a big bucket to be ferried across to land, via a rope. He's photographed, recognized, runs, and immediately kills the main hero's (Terry Kent) brother. Shoots him dead, then escapes. So that's quite an opening!

The first episode was longer than I expected, too. It went on and on. The biggest drag about episode two, which I'm just into, was the inevitable recap of episode one. But I advanced through that and got right into number two. They kill another guy at the beginning of episode two. A scientist, a lab guy, who doesn't want to play ball with Boroff and Thorg, his idiot- (yet surprisingly competent) strongman underling. Thorg is a mighty man, a great swimmer, a great fighter. Somehow Boroff was responsible for his demented, mentally hamstrung condition. Thorg shaves Boroff, who taunts him, that he knows he (Thorg) would like to cut his throat. But he's very dependent, docile, and obedient....so far.

Yah hah

Unused blogs age fast. Just another dead-end.

I hate to let this one die. Even though it's purpose is at present purposeless. I like the name, though, and it must endure for that reason, if for no other!

I was writing about the CDs I was getting. But there hasn't been too many lately. Except one day I got 15 or 16 at one time. And some I've actually listened to. The whole thing of getting them on my iPod isn't very handy, but a matter of step step step. (I don't like putting them directly into iPod's format because it isn't useful for anything else and I'd rather have them as mp3's since I can use that format in various ways.)

Anyway, one of the CDs was an oddball for me, a few actually. "The Very Best of Conway Twitty." I've had Twitty tracks before, an album here or there, but never for listening. Except for the old single, "It's Only Make Believe." This album has 10 tracks, and the only one I'd ever heard before, besides "Make Believe" was "Hello Darlin'". But I got it on the iPod and listened to the whole album a couple times.

"Don't Cry Joni" is the weirdest track. It's about a guy 21 and a girl 15, but she's too young, so he goes off somewhere else. Then five years later when he wants her, and she has vowed to wait for him, he finds she's already married. The other tracks are pretty good, good enough anyway, in a very twangy, affected country style.