As if there had not already been enough silliness on the subject (as blogged on Tuesday and Thursday), a bunch of people (led by four City Council members and some radio station DJs) went up and repainted A-mountain red, white and blue. Maybe we can leave the dang thing alone for a while... sheesh!

The USAF Thunderbirds are in town this weekend for an air show at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. They've been practicing, and here at work we have a wonderful view since we are north of the air base and on the third floor, with windows facing south. They are very impressive! Earlier they were using smoke to draw hearts in the sky. It's amazing the skill and talent of these pilots, and the capabilities of their airplanes.

Here's a good article on the current state of figure skating these days -- Figure skating losing its luster. While I agree with much of it, I can't agree with those suggesting that Michelle Kwan should retire for the sake of the sport. To me she is the brightest part of the sport -- she is positive, she is talented, she is competitive, she is a positive role model, and she pushes others to do their best as well. MK can retire when she wants to (hopefully, after winning Olympic gold in 2006!).

Woo hoo! I had another letter to the editor published, this time in the Arizona Daily Wildcat. Check it out.

Not so surprisingly, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are No sweat for Wildcats. Arizona now faces Kansas on Saturday.

Bear Down Arizona!

A nice article from National Catholic Register on Catholics in the military -- US Troops Returning to Church in Droves. Check it out, it's very encouraging. Thanks to the lovely Jeanetta for the link.

The silliness goes on... now the Tucson City Council debates "A" Mountain paint. The "A" is traditionally white, but sometimes gets painted green for St. Patrick's day (like this year) and was painted red, white and blue after 9/11. I blogged about this Tuesday.

From Slashdot, a cool story on new lens techniques -- Metaphysical Lens May Refocus Electronics. For the physicists among you, these are made from materials that don't follow the right-hand-rule! Pretty freaky stuff.

Another one of those dumb and destructive things done by protesters -- Sentinel Peak's 'A' is painted black by anti-war protesters. It cost the city $3750 to repaint it. Grrr.

Happy Feast of the Annunciation. The Knights of Columbus are observing the 2nd Annual Day of the Unborn Child.

Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson remarked that "The feast of the Annunciation reminds us once again that what we have learned through science can never contradict what has been revealed to us through revelation: That the life of each human being, unique and unrepeatable, begins at the moment of his or her conception. Thus 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us' at the Annunciation."

A really nice article on Antonio Nagore -- The native tenor. Brian (Antonio is his middle name/stage name) went to school at UA and was getting his master's when I was an undergrad. His sister sings in our Schola at SSPP and he's cousin to another friend of mine. Small world! He really does have a terrific voice.

Here's a nice article and pictures of our new Bishop visiting Catholic schools that participated in a science fair -- A BOW TO SCIENCE.

There's a horrible strangeness in seeing a day like today, an absolutely beautiful day here in Tucson with blue skies and comfortable temperatures and soft breezes, and knowing that half a world away men are fighting and perhaps dying in a war to, in part, keep those days serene and peaceful. Pray for the troops! Pray for the innocents! Pray for victory!

Our friends at The Onion are still at it -- Military Promises 'Huge Numbers' For Gulf War II: The Vengeance. Yes, it's not fresh, but it's still funny.

I've been reading some more from Tony Blair's speech that I blogged about yesterday. It really is terrific. Some choice excerpts:

On the UN Security Council:
... had we meant what we said in resolution 1441, the security council should have convened and condemned Iraq as in material breach.


On France's role:
The way ahead was so clear. It was for the UN to pass a second resolution setting out benchmarks for compliance; with an ultimatum that if they were ignored, action would follow.

The tragedy is that had such a resolution issued, he might just have complied. Because the only route to peace with someone like Saddam Hussein is diplomacy backed by force.

Yet the moment we proposed the benchmarks, canvassed support for an ultimatum, there was an immediate recourse to the language of the veto.

In many respects this is an argument that some blame for the war is France's by undermining the only way that might have produced disarmament. He goes on:

The truth is our patience should have been exhausted weeks and months and years ago. Even now, when if the world united and gave him an ultimatum: comply or face forcible disarmament, he might just do it, the world hesitates and in that hesitation he senses the weakness and therefore continues to defy.

He also shows that he understands the significance of September 11th better than many:

And let us recall: what was shocking about September 11 was not just the slaughter of the innocent; but the knowledge that had the terrorists been able to, there would have been not 3,000 innocent dead, but 30,000 or 300,000 and the more the suffering, the greater the terrorists' rejoicing.

On the role of the US:

There is fear of US unilateralism. People ask: do the US listen to us and our preoccupations? And there is perhaps a lack of full understanding of US preoccupations after 11th September. I know all of this. But the way to deal with it is not rivalry but partnership. Partners are not servants but neither are they rivals. I tell you what Europe should have said last September to the US. With one voice it should have said: we understand your strategic anxiety over terrorism and WMD and we will help you meet it.

And on US unilateralism:

And if our plea is for America to work with others, to be good as well as powerful allies, will our retreat make them multilateralist? Or will it not rather be the biggest impulse to unilateralism there could ever be. And what of the UN and the future of Iraq and the Middle East peace plan, devoid of our influence, stripped of our insistence?

And finally:

This is not the time to falter. This is the time for this house, not just this government or indeed this prime minister, but for this house to give a lead, to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right, to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk, to show at the moment of decision that we have the courage to do the right thing.

So, it's started. Not quite as I blogged about yesterday, but close. God bless our troops, and all innocent life.

Here's the text of President Bush Addresses the Nation.

Thanks to ElfGirl for this great link -- Tony Blair's speech to the House of Commons today. Check it out, it's good stuff.

So, much chatter about impending war... when will it start? What will it be like? The administration is making like they might wait a while. I really don't think so. In my estimation they're either going in at dawn Iraq time (i.e. right after the ultimatum deadline) or late Thursday night Iraq time. The nighttime is usually the right time for such things, but with a full moon there might not be much point in it. They are not, I think, going to wait around and bomb the crap out of them like in '91, for two reasons -- 1) there's too much risk of the Iraqis sabotaging oil wells and dams on the Tigris and Euphrates if we wait, and 2) we don't need to -- many of the relevant targets have already been bombed recently, and the technology advances of the last 10 years means we can hit a lot more targets in a short time.

This new "flu" is scary -- Mystery bug hits five more nations. I keep thinking of Stephen King's The Stand whenever I read about this stuff. What with the impending war and other tensions it's just enough to get your nerves wired.

More from the "Doesn't anyone proofread anymore?" column. Check out this text from this CNN story as of 11:13 a.m. EST 3/18/03:

"'We have taken these actions because intelligence reporting indicates that while al Qaeda and those sympathetic to their cause are still a principle[sic] threat -- the principle[sic] threat -- Iraqi state agents, Iraqi surrogate groups, other regional extremist organizations and ad-hock[sic] groups or disgruntled individuals may use this time period to conduct terrorist attacks against the United States and our interests either here or abroad,' Ridge told reporters at a briefing"

Sheesh!