ApoxyButt's New Writeupshttp://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=ApoxyButt2003-04-30T03:13:44ZApril 30, 2003 (idea)http://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt/writeups/April+30%252C+2003ApoxyButthttp://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt2003-04-30T03:13:44Z2003-04-30T03:13:44ZThis evening my oldest cat, <a href="/title/Zap+Rowsdower">Zap</a>, was struck and killed by a car on the road in front of my house. I don't know who it was, or what the circumstances were, but I found Zap, still warm, in the middle of the road as I went to the car to go play <a href="/title/raquetball">raquetball</a>. I don't believe he suffered much if any, and thankfully he wasn't too messy. Mom and I wrapped him in an old baby blanket and buried him in the garden under the pine tree that my sister planted as a child.
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He was a wonderful pet; he was the most friendly and outgoing kitten when we went to the <a href="/title/animal+shelter">animal shelter</a> back on <a href="/title/May+30%252C+2001">May 30, 2001</a>. He never lost the friendliness or the propensity for cuddling, and he was always very talkative. He kept me company for the first long year I lived on my own, being my only companion on the cold nights when my girlfriend was away at school. He like a good wrestle, and he was almost always sleeping at my feet when I woke up in the morning. I will miss him terribly.
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Thanks for being there for me, little guy. I'll never forget you.
<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>racism (idea)http://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt/writeups/racismApoxyButthttp://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt2003-04-15T04:58:27Z2003-04-15T04:58:27ZThe drive down to <a href="/title/Georgia">Georgia</a> was thankfully uneventful. The lady, a co-worker of my Mom's whom I was helping move, was good company, the rental truck was well-behaved (even though it lacked cruise control or a tape player for the CD adapter I borrowed from my girlfriend,) and we never got lost. I had to drive the whole way, but it wasn't bad; I was able to put myself into that special Driving Trance where the hours just seem to fly by, and we made it to <a href="/title/Atlanta">Atlanta</a> in about 11 hours.
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The really bad part about the whole thing was the lady's daughter and her family. They were really nice to me, and the most entreprenurial people I've ever met. It's a whole family of people all bent on the accumulation of <a href="/title/wealth">wealth</a> through <a href="/title/wheeling+and+dealing">wheeling and dealing</a>. And the most racist people I've ever met.
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I guess I shouldn't be suprised, this being <a href="/title/The+South">The South</a>, and this lady's entire family being well on the <a href="/title/redneck">redneck</a> side, but these people weren't your standard mulleted, <a href="/title/trailer-park">trailer-park</a>, 1981 <a href="/title/Trans-Am">Trans-Am</a> driving,<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Iraq War (idea)http://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt/writeups/Iraq+WarApoxyButthttp://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt2003-04-02T18:50:21Z2003-04-02T18:50:21Z<small><i>For those following along at home, the following portion of this w/u was originally under the title "The United States might actually LOSE the war in Iraq" but it has since been moved to this more appropriate location. Enjoy!</i></small>
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In this media-soaked conflict, it's sometimes difficult to get a big picture of things. You have American and British reporters, most of whom have never seen combat, embedded within American and British units. You have daily televised briefings and press conferences at <a href="/title/CENTCOM">CENTCOM</a> and the <a href="/title/Pentagon">Pentagon</a>. You hear about every attack the enemy mounts, whether it's a major ambush or an explosive-laden taxi. Every time a bomb goes off in Baghdad, it's posted on all the major news websites and appears on the news crawl on the TV.
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The problem with all of this is that when you're inundated by breathless reports of how things are "more difficult than expected" or our forces are moving "slower than anticipated" or resistance is "heavier than normal", you start to<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…War and the United States of America (idea)http://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt/writeups/War+and+the+United+States+of+AmericaApoxyButthttp://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt2003-02-11T21:16:26Z2003-02-11T21:16:26ZThe problem that I have seen with the anti-war arguments coming from Europe (and some folks here in the US) over why the US should not go to war suffer from two major problems: 1) They are <a href="/title/hypocritical">hypocritical</a> and 2) they lack understanding of <a href="/title/modern+warfare">modern warfare</a>.
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The first point is an easy one to make. Just when, exactly, did the <a href="/title/Holocaust">Germans</a>, the <a href="/title/Napoleon">French</a>, the <a href="/title/Africa">Dutch</a>, the <a href="/title/India">British</a>, the <a href="/title/Stalin">Russians</a>, or just about any other major player in Europe gain the right to criticize the United States about its past foreign policies? The argument that "Oh, all that bad stuff <i>we</i> did was a long time ago" is completely irrelevant, because the people who perpetrated all those horrible injustices and all that suffering against innocent and unwilling foreign citizens are just as <i>not</i> in control of our country as Hilter and Stalin are in control of Germany and Russia. And, if you actually <i>research</i>, you'll find that the United States has left as many of its conquered<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Operation Mincemeat (thing)http://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt/writeups/Operation+MincemeatApoxyButthttp://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt2003-01-28T20:20:14Z2003-01-28T20:20:14ZIt appears that Glyndwr (pronounced Glin-door; silly Welsh) Michael was not actually the name of the person used in Operation Mincemeat. A British <a href="/title/documentary">documentary</a> based on 14 years of research by British <a href="/title/policeman">policeman</a> Colin Gibbon now states that the corpse actually belonged to a sailor, Tom Martin, who died when the aircraft carrier Dasher exploded off the Scottish coast.
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The original story was that Glyndwr Michael was a vagrant who tried to commit suicide using <a href="/title/rat+poison">rat poison</a> before dying of <a href="/title/pneumonia">pneumonia</a>. However, the poison would have been detected by the Germans upon examination of the body, so that explanation was implausible.
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The conclusion came after Gibbon discovered that one of only 12 Dasher sailors' with names on their graves was Tom Martin, who shared a surname with the false identity concocted by British intelligence for the corpse. In the book <i><a href="/title/The+Man+Who+Never+Was">The Man Who Never Was</a></i>, the author and originator of the hoax, Lieutenant-Commander <a href="/title/Ewen+Montagu">Ewen Montagu</a>, refers to "a good friend" named<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…HOWTO: Build a lasting peace in the Middle East (idea)http://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt/writeups/HOWTO%253A+Build+a+lasting+peace+in+the+Middle+EastApoxyButthttp://everything2.com/user/ApoxyButt2002-11-22T05:39:53Z2002-11-22T05:39:53ZThere is a terrible disease spreading in the <a href="/title/middle+east">middle east</a>. There is a certain movement within <a href="/title/Arab">Arab</a> and <a href="/title/Muslim">Muslim</a> countries that centers around a deep hatred of the <a href="/title/West">West</a>, particularly the <a href="/title/United+States">United States</a>. People in the middle east are very proud of their culture. They believe that they are God's people, that their religion is the True Way. Their holy texts tell them that their religion will one day rule the world.
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And they, as a people, as a culture, and as a religion, are failing.
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The people of the middle east generally want what everyone else wants: a job, a happy, healthy, well-fed family, and a home. They also enjoy having sex, listening and performing music, and living their lives in a generally unregulated way. They want to be successful. An alarming number of people in the middle east have few or none of these things, and they blame it on the West. Why? Because they are told to. Who tells them to? Their governments, who are uniformly <a href="/title/autocratic">autocratic</a>, <a href="/title/tyrannical">tyrannical</a>, corrupt, and<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…