Today the funeral for President Ronald Reagan has occured, and as I type this, the airplane bearing his coffin is passing over his birthplace in Illinois. In a few hours, he will be laid in the ground at his resting place in California.

Truly, he was the greatest president of the 20th century. He certainly was one of the top presidents of all time.

His legacy will remain.

Even his enemies, at least the decent ones, repsected the man.

Unfortunately, shamefully, there are those who cannot wait until his body is laid to rest before they start with their attacks, their whining.

I am watching the funeral coverage on TV, and during a lull when they go through some of the other news, the anchorman says that there are protests in San Francisco over Ronald Reagan's poclicies. Protests. Against a dead man. Is that shameful or what?

Indeed, I have seen people of the liberal persuasion post all sorts of vitrol on the internet, in the newspapers, on TV, in any media, all in the name of "balance." Balance? Ronald Reagan has been out of the White Houce since 1988! Liberals have had sixteen years to complain about Ronald Reagan's presidency. This week, the nation mourns for him. And people of the liberal persuasion feel this very week is the time to vent their ugliness? That is balance? I hope they don't mind a huge load of "balance" when president Clinton passes on. There will be a lot of "balance", to be sure.

Even if you look at Reagan's most controversial scandal, the Iran/Contra affair, even that was done ultimately for what he believed to be the best interests of America. Ronald Reagan, correctly I believe, took the view that preventing a Communist takeover of Central America was a goal worth pursing, even if that goal required obtaining funding from, well "alternate sources".

In short, even Reagan's scandals were for the good of the USA. Can you say that about the scandals of other 20th century presidents?

I believe Ronald Reagan entered the presence of the LORD to the words "Well done, good and faithful servant."

[p]I'm waiting for local news to come on, and catch a few minutes of the NBC Nightly News. And on comes "Fleecing of America".[/p][p]Of course, they start it out with the implication that it's all George W. Bush's fault. Something like "At a time whe George Bush is asking Congress for 25 million dollars, comes this revelation about the Pentagon wasging up to a hundred million dollars on plane tickets..."[/p][p]Now as the story goes on, they state that this comes from a GAO (was it the GAO?) study of 1997-2003.[/p][p]So, all of a sudden, something that was just as much on Bill Clinton's watch is now George W. Bush's fault.[/p][p]Here, let me recast the story for you:[/p][p][i]"During the Clinton era, when military morale was at an all-time-low, a scandal started to brew at the Pentagon. It continued on undetected until 2003."[/i][/p][p]There, how about that? I think it sounds much more accurate.[/p][p]And now, Tom Brokaw is saying some blab about how Reagan disenfranchised minorities, et cetera. What garbage! [/p]

[p]Today, June 5th, 2004, the greatest American president that ever was, Ronald Reagan, passed away. I was in high school and college during his presidency, and I can recall he brought real honor to the presidency.[/p][p] Unlike that walking embarrassment Clinton, President Ronald Reagan brought respect to the Office of the President of the United States of America. President Reagan brings to mind all that makes America great, and more specifically, what [i]once[/i] made America great. He truly brought greatness to the office of the President, to America.[/p][p]God bless the Reagan family, and I look forward to meeting him in Heaven one day.[/p]

[p]Back in the Clinton years, congress did something that was forgotten about. Congress passed a bill that included a provision to allow drilling in ANWR.[/p][p]Clinton vetoed it.[/p][p]So, for all of you who are whining about why Bush isn't doing anything about these ruinous gas prices, well, you might want to ask the previous president instead![/p][p]If the current Congress was really interested in lowering gas prices, you would see them pass President Bush's energy legislation.[/p][p]But, hey, don't hold your breath. Just bring your $ when you go to the gas pump, okay?[/p]

[p]I'm watching some of the 48-hour "Green Acres" marathon on TV Land.[/p][p]And on comes the Mormon ad.[/p][p]The ad shows a telemarketer woman saying stuff like "...oh yes, we will get that out to you right away", and "...it's free of charge", and so forth.[/p][p]Tell you what, that caller on the other end ain't gonna receive their free Book of Mormon! Why?[/p][p]Cuz' if you watch that commercial, the video monitor the telemarketer woman is looking at is UNPLUGGED! Yeah, there on the back of the monitor is the cable coming out [i]but that's the video cable![/i] Right next to the video cable is the power socket where you plug in one of those computer power cables. There ain't no power cable in there.[/p][p]Probably just as good, instead of calling the Mormons, the caller should check out [a href="http://www.saintsalive.org" target="new"]this site[/a] instead.[/p]

Indeed.

The whole world rises up to condemn the USA. Liberals in the USA rise up to condemn the USA. Well, primarily they rise up to condemn George W. Bush, but then what is new?

Let us recap events a bit. A few weeks ago, you would have had to pay attention to find it in the (liberal) media, but four American civilians working in Iraq were dragged through the streets behind a truck, hung from a bridge, and set on fire.

World outcry? Nope. World murmur? No. Outrage? No. Angst? No. Tsk tsk? no. Nothing. It came and went along with the daily weather forecast.

"But wait, there's more!"

The story of prison abuse breaks. Iraqui prisoners were humiliated by a handful of disturbed soldiers serving prison detail. Murdered? No. Amputation? No. Crippled? Nope. Mainly a cat-and-mouse game of psychological torture.

Am I condoning the behavior? Certianly not. Is it worth a court martial? Yes. Is it a representation of American military doctrine? No.

You sure wouldn't know that by watching the TV or reading the papers, though. I think the networks quit buying news from AP and picked up Al Jazerra instead. I doubt the coverage is any different. Certainly the anti-Bush spin is identical. Probably all that is needed is a Farsi-to-English translation service.

The word is that there are worse photos, worse stories of abuse to come. I somehow doubt they will equal the torment of being dragged behind a truck and set on fire.

Word is that the Iraqi abuse victims might receive compensation. Will the families of the four American civilians receive any? Nope.

"But wait, there's more!"

Now it turns out an American civilian has been beheaded.

The media lashes out in horror! NOT. No complaint. No angst. Not against the Iraqis, at least.

No compensation for the beheaded civilian.

No outrage.

No complaint from the liberal media.

No "We're going to hold you accountable". Not from the world, not from liberals.

I think it is time America declares an ultimatum: If Iraq does not get it's act together, when we return Saddam, it won't be to put him on trial, it will be to put him back in charge! At this stage, as far as I can see, they deserve him back. You want him so bad, you can have him.

[p]For the last few weeks, I have been working on a pet project of mine, something that is about as far away from the current world of Object Oriented programming as one could get. [/p][p] Well, it is a classic story. I had my application dialed in about 90%, and here is how I do my devlopment: I use a Linux server at home running the freebie 'single user' version of CFMX 6.1, and MySQL. When things are working properly, I FTP the application up to this website, which runs CFMX on a Windows box, with Microsoft SQL Server 2000. I have to change the SQL stuff a bit, but it isn't a big deal. [/p][p] Well, heh, I [i]usually[/i] have pretty good discipline about having backup copies of my files. [/p][p] Anyhow, I had my app developed to the point where I wanted to run it on the Windows box. After a couple false starts due to the MySQL vs. MSSQL syntax, it was good to go. The app was running somewhat. [/p][p] Tweak time. [/p][p] I do my development using an old Fujitsu lapotp. I was watching TV and coding. And FTPing. TV. code. FTP. Well, at some point I was watching too much TV and not enough FTP. I got the "source" and "destination" directory display mixed up, and accidentially deleted a slab of code. I wasn't paying enough attention, and couldn't even tell you if it was the source or destination. Somehow, I don't know how, I thought I was replacing the missing files with the good set, but instead I ended up making the good side match the bad side. Now both my local copy and the FTP copy were whacked![/p][p] Ugh. [/p][p] Now for those of you who care, the app I'm working on is done in the Fusebox 3 format, and fortnuately, what I deleted was a small set of act_ files. Unfortunately, although the files were few in number, they were pretty complex technically. At least for me.[/p][p] Being a Fusebox 3 application, I still had the fbx_ files, and from that I can tell what act_ files are missing. So, all is not lost, and by studying the fbx_switch.cfm file, I'll be able to tell exactly what files are missing. The naming will give me a clue on the functionality, too. [/p][p] SoOoOo, I could be working on replacing the missing files, but instead I'm typing this. I'm not too worried about the lost work, but I am a bit wiser. Maybe not wiser, but certainly without excuse. [/p][p] Oh yeah, I'm watching TV at the same I type this, too.[/p]

[p]Two trains loaded with "fuel" crash in North Korea, and set off an explosion that killed an estimated 3,000 people. [/p][p] Today's paper puts the estimate into the hundreds instead of the thousands. [/p][p] Truly is tragic. [/p][p] But, what, uh, "fuel" was that train carrying? I must wonder. Rocket fuel? Parhaps for one of their [a href="http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/dprk/missile/td-2.htm" target="_blank"]Taepo Dong II[/a] missiles, which incidentally, are capable of striking Alaska? [/p][p] It must have been a pretty potent fuel, indeed. [/p]

[p]I use Google all the time. There is a game folks play called "googlewhacking", where the idea is to find a two-word search phrase where only one result is returned.[/p] [p]I found one such phrase accidentally, "hamurabi coldfusion". I do not know if it qualifies, as that first word is a name, but whatever.[/p]