Nilknarf News

I didn't really finish my thoughts on the mid-east yesterday, I was going to mention that the Israelis didn't criticize the US when we went into Afghanistan after "OUR" terrorists... they didn't tell us to back off, that innocents may get killed along with the guilty, did they? And their citizens, the ones that die of minor (compared to the WTC) terroristic activities, are just as dead and just as innocent as those in the WTC. The difference? They've lived with the knowledge that there were terrorists living next door... and we thought that the terrorists were safely across the ocean.

Israel...they are surrounded by countries/people that want them dead. Why are they staying there? Or why do they let these people in? And I don't understand why there are "refugee camps" when it's been ages since the Palestinians were driven anywhere? Have they really been in these camps for generations? And if the Israelis gave back land to them, how would they divide it up? Did the Israelis keep records? Did the English? Did we? Who knows?

Nevertheless, we have supported the Israelis with helicopters, tanks, guns, money and political influence. There is no doubt that without our support they would be massacred forthwith by their Arab neighbors.

Not that we would ever do that, that would truly be political suicide for any politico to even suggest it.

We have not supported the Palestinians with material goods, but we have supported the idea that they can stay where they are and be who they are... in other words, we chide the Israelis for killing them off. They get their support and weapons from the anti-Israeli Muslim world, including stipends from Saddam for families of suicide bombers. Uh-O! Saddam Hussien supporting terrorism! What a surprise!

OK, enough of that.

I didn't get to sleep until after 03:00 last night, don't know why, just couldn't get to sleep. I got up about 10:00 though, so if I stay up all day, I should get to sleep tonight in time to get adjusted to standard time, I hope.

There is a medication that I take to control cholesterol, Lipitor, that has a big warning label:"Do NOT take with grapefruit juice!" I never think about grapefruit juice except when I see that label, and then it sounds really, really good.

Then I forget all about it until I see the label the next night.

18:15...
Karen got home a little bit ago, kinda surprised me that she came home so early. I was in the basement playing my guitar when I heard noise upstairs... I wasn't playing it very loud, I guess.

I *finally* got RH Linux working on the machine that I cobbled together yesterday... I'd been wanting to use the GUI (graphical User Interface) but none of the machines that I was running it on before were powerful enough to do that, but this one is, just barely. More interesting and more fun than the console, but not as efficient... if you know what you're doing.... I'm trying to get there!

Hopefully, setting it up with the graphic interface and examining the files will help me get down to the nuts and bolts of the system.

Karen said that they had a nice time, and Betty recognized Matt and Andy and joked with them about their boyhood... Karen said that she told them that it was nice to see them now that they've grown up.

Regarding some earlier entry, in which I said that Betty had stopped eating... I made some assumptions that were wrong. What was happening was that she had lost her appetite, not that she had made a conscious decision to stop eating. I got the wrong idea, and I'm sorry if I gave anyone else the wrong idea.

Speaking of eating... I got a coupla big packages of sunflower seeds a few days ago, and I just started eating them today. My mouth is getting raw, yet I still keep at it.

And speaking of masochism, my fingers are now very tender from the small amount of guitar-playing that I did today. The ones that I burned ten days ago are the sorest, naturally, even though the burns were down on the pads and the calluses that I'm trying to build are on the tips.

I'm amazingly rusty on the guitar... plus I think that my neck (on the guitar, silly!) needs adjusting, I'm getting a buzz (the *guitar*, dammit!) from the little "E" string. Or maybe my fingers are just weak.

70% of our citizens get no exercise. I may not be in good company, but I'm not alone! Actually, leave me alone, I don't want to be lumped in with all of the other fatties....