Nuclear Iran

And people wonder why I say the U.N. is useless.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council reached a deal Friday on a resolution that would give Iran until the end of August to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
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Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the text is weaker than earlier drafts, which would have made the threat of sanctions immediate. The draft now essentially requires the council to hold further discussions before it considers sanctions.

So the United Nations hands Iran yet another completely useless deadline. You know what they'll do if Iran doesn't stop by August? Absolutely nothing of course. Maybe they'll send another sternly worded letter. The sheer useless and impotence of this organization continues to amaze me.

Interesting Footsteps

Human footprints dating back 20,000 years have been found in Austalia.

About 20,000 years ago, humans trekked along the margins of a shallow lake in Australia, leaving behind records of their passage in the soft, wet sand.
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The discovery, detailed in a recent issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, represents the largest collection of Pleistocene human footprints in the world, and the only footprints from that era ever found in Australia.

It's amazing what science continues to uncover. Of course, some people will tell you that humanity is only 6,000 years old. You know what difference this discovery will make to those people? None at all. Faced with incontrovertible evidence that they are wrong, they will look the other way and continue proclaiming their correctness. That is the difference between science and religion.

It All Depends on the Voice

Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in a bathtub bathtub, was found not guilty today by reason of insanity. The full story on this can be found here. The interesting part of this case (aside from the whole drowning in a bathtub thing) is the reason she is supposedly insane. Yates claimed Satan spoke to her and that she killed her children so that they would go to heaven. This is in contrast to another case, also in Texas, where a woman killed her children because she said God told her to. While Yates was found insane, this woman was convicted. Presumably, the logic of this is that God wouldn't tell you to do anything bad, but Satan might. It would seem the difference between freedom and life in prison depends entirely on which imaginary voice you claim to have in your head. Remember that next time you need to commit murder in Texas.

Lebanon Gets a Little Smaller

As reported here , Israel is plans to occupy part of Lebanon:

Almost two weeks into its military assault on Hezbollah, Israel said Tuesday that it would occupy a strip inside southern Lebanon with ground troops until an international force could take its place. The announcement raised the prospect of a more protracted Israeli involvement in Lebanon than the political and military leadership previously signaled or publicly sought.

Officials have talked about limited raids into Lebanon but now they seem ready to commit ground forces for at least weeks, if not months. They said the zone would be much smaller than the swath of southern Lebanon roughly 15 miles deep that Israel occupied for nearly two decades before withdrawing in 2000.

This is sure to cause various European leaders, some Democrats, and various leftist groups around the world to go completely nuts. It will not belong before we hear more cries of "End the Occupation!" and long-winded diatribes about how this whole war was orchestrated as a land-grab by "the zionists." Obviously this could not be further from the truth. It has become necessary to to treat Lebanon like an unruly child. Israel gave Lebanon back their southern portion in 2000, and here we are six years later with Hezbollah using it as a launching pad to attack Israel. It is like giving a child toy baseball bat and being forced to take it away when they start hitting people with it. Lebanon has proven it can not be trusted to contain Hezbollah and Israel can not afford to let Hezbollah camp out on its border. Therefore, it is necessary for Israel (or a UN security force) to occupy the area until Hezbollah is forcibly dismantled.

Are the Democrats Even Trying Anymore?

The Democrats are considering making Nancy Pelosi the Speaker...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is a favorite lightning rod for Republican congressional contestants who are warning voters that if Democrats win back the House of Representatives in November, Pelosi is likely to become speaker of the House.

For those of you who have never heard of her, Nancy Pelosi is the personification of the crazy Democrat. At any given time there are a few people in both parties in the House that are absolutely insane. It is a side effect of having the House of Representatives change so often, be elected by so few, and be ignored by the majority of Americans. The bottomline is that it's not really that hard for a few quacks to sneak in. Nancy Pelosi is one of those quacks. Think back to various strange things you've heard Democrats say over the past few years. Chances are, many of them were said by Nancy Pelosi.

It speaks volumes when Republicans are winning local elections simply by dropping her name. This is the person the Democrats think is going to lead them to victory in the House? This is their answer to Newt Gingrich in '94? Baffling. Going into November, Bush's historically low approval ratings and Iraq in general should, in theory, combine to give the Democrats at least a few more House and Senate seats. However, if anyone can screw that up it is the Democrats. Judging by their tentative plan to elavate Pelosi to Speaker of the House (3rd in line for the Presidency) they are well on their way.

Hezbollah! Wooooo!

Taken From Cox & Forkum Editorial Cartoons

Recently there have been a wealth of pro-Hezbollah demonstrations around to the country. To be fair, most of them have been in California. One such event has been chronicled by zombie here. While I, of course, fully support the right of people and organizations to hold events like this, I sometimes can't help but wonder what the fuck is wrong with these people. Is their memory that short and selective that they can not remember that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization? Do they know and just not care? Are that many people really terrorist sympathsizers? Mostly to keep my faith in humanity up, I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt. I am going to assume that most of the people who attend pro-Hezbollah rallies are simply joiners. They are people who will join a cause because it's trendy in their area (or not trendy if they want to feel like rebels). I refuse to believe that all of them understand the whole situation and still choose to side with terrorists. These rallies are a haven for weak-minded followers of all stripes. However, as much as pro-terrorist demonstrations irk me, I am comforted by the fact that I live in a country where things like that are allowed.

Hardly Clerkin'

This is the moment I know all of you have been breathlessly waiting for, my thoughts on Clerks II. I have long been a fan of the original Clerks. A lot of that is probably due to the fact that I have essentially the same job as the "Clerks" and run into similar psycopaths. While Clerks II probably isn't better than the original it is still a good movie in its own right. The jokes on the whole are hilarious with few if any falling flat. I'm fairly certain I will be using excerpts from the "porch monkey" conversation in general conversation for the forseeable future. Some of the jokes were so sick, twisted, and hilarious that I can not fathom how they managed to get an R.

I didn't enjoy the dramatic moments in Clerks II as much as I did in the original. However, that may be due to the fact that I can't relate to them yet. Clerks focused on the pains of being in your 20s which I can obviously relate to. Clerks II is about the problems faced by those in the 30s, so it may take me another decade or so to fully appreciate the serious moments of the film. This is a minor complaint though as it did not really take away from my overall enjoyment of the film. If Kevin Smith made 50 movies that just consisted of Dante and Randal working, I would most likely see and enjoy them all. The characters are just great and everyone can relate to life at work. The ending of the movie was satisfying and a fitting end to the series. Bringing Soul Asylum back was an excellent touch. Overall, Clerks II is hilarious and we should all be thankful Smith decided against killing Dante at the end of the first one.

Your College is Watching You

For the past decade or so, college administrators have taken it upon themselves to enforce various speechcodes and otherwise trample on the rights of anyone who happens to be on campus. However, recently colleges have started expanding they're meddling to other areas. In a gesture of staggering smugness and self-righteousness, college administrators have appointed themselves guardians of the internet. More specifically, they're guardians of MySpace and facebook. Many college administrators now look through these sites for anything that can use against their students (examples of this here, here, here, and finally here). A great deal of the things colleges look for on these sites are various alcohol and drug violations. While I believe it's at best unethical and at worst illegal to troll for those violations, the problem I am more concerned with is trolling for speechcode violations.

In one of the examples I linked above, a student was charged with a speechcode violation for intimating that they wanted to "crucify and then burn at the stake" a particular residential advisor. This statement is a clear case of constitutionally protected hyperbole. Saying you'd like to do something does not constitute a threat, and the chances of something actually intending to both crucify some AND burn them at the stake are rather low. The fact that college administrators would take something that is clearly a joke and use to endager someone's academic career (and consequently whole life) shows how far down college administrations have fallen.

Another example involves a group of students creating a facebook club that labeled another student as a "jerk." While this appears completely harmless to many (if not most), the student in question was able to charge those in the club with harassment. The number of things wrong with this are mind boggling. One big one is simply the question of jurisdiction. Do college administrators have control over what their students say and do outside of school? Keep in mind these students are adults and thus entitled to complete protections under our Constitution. I would say that it takes an enormous amount of hubris for an administrator to think that they can (or even should) control the lives of their students.

The second big problem with this case is the complete misunderstanding of what harassment means. Calling someone a jerk is not harassment. Making a joke at somebody elses expense is not harassment. True harassment must be a pattern of behavior that is both severe and unavoidable. Whether or not something is severe is based on what a "reasonable person" would think. Certainly a reasonable person does not consider being called a "jerk" very severe. I know I've been called a lot worse, as I'm sure most of you have. The second question is whether or not it is unavoidable. I maintain that nothing that is posted on the internet is unavoidable. If you want to avoid it, simply don't go to the website in question. It's the easiest solution in the world. To argue that something that's posted on the internet where a person would have to go out of their to find it can constitute harassment is absurb. As far as college goes, harassment seems to mean whatever the administration wants it to mean.

Colleges, once bastions of free inquiry, have gotten to the point where even student speech on the internet isn't safe from the speechcode gestapo. And they're only getting worse. It's only in these past few months that colleges have really gotten onboard patrolling myspace and facebook. In the ensuing years this practice will be much more prevalent. We're lucky we have organizations like FIRE trying to push back the tide of censorship. Colleges have become the very antithesis of freedom and for that they should be ashamed.

Israel, Lebanon, and Explosions

For the past few days Israel and the Labenese based Hezbollah group have been locked in what can be considered a low level war. The history between these two groups is long and convuluted. Essentially Hezbollah is a terrorist organization made up of Islamic fundamentalists. One of their main tenets is they believe that it's a pretty good idea to drive the Israelis into the sea. Israel feels differently and hence we have conflict. The recent spark in this conflict happened when Hezbollah crossed into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. They followed this up by shooting a lot of rockets across the border at various Israeli towns. Now I'm sure a lot of you aren't particularly floored by this. Lets face it, this kind of thing happens to Israel so often that it all kind of blurs together. The best way to put it into perspective is to conceive of it happening somewhere else.

Imagine, for a bit, that this happened in the good old United States of America. We're just going along, living our lives when one day a group of crazed Canadians crash across the border, kidnap a couple of people, and blow up some houses with rockets. Lets say that we ask the Canadian government to disarm and arrest these out of control Canucks. Prime Minister Harper then staunchly refuses to do so. This would lead to an almost unprecedented amount of outrage in America. Refusing to stop a group of Canadians from attacking us would be considered tantamount to endorsing their actions. Not only that, but the Canadian rocket attacks have continued unabated. America would have no choice but to fight back in an attempt to get its citizens back and prevent further destruction in the border towns. I doubt anyone here would be shocked if we went so far as to send ground troops right into Canadian territory. It would be viewed as a completely logical response considering the Canadians have committed an outright act of war. However, many Americans and a whole lot of Europeans hold a double standard for Israel.

Ever since Israel has been bombing Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon many have cried that it is a "disproportionate response." Apparently bombing is simply too harsh of a response to kidnapping and rocket attacks. However, if you look at it more broadly then it becomes clearer. Hezbollah's actions constitute nothing less than an act of war. Crossing the border into a neighboring country, kidnapping that country's soldiers, and causing general havoc can be construed as nothing less. The only proportionate response to an act of war is, well, war. Keep in mind that Israel has not even gone so far as to send ground troops into Lebanon while Hezbollah forces have gone into Israel on innumerable occasions. I believe this has shown remarkable restraint. Israel's response thus far may actually be less severe than Hezbollah's inital actions.

In an act that further shows their complicity, the Lebanese government has threatened to send their army to fight alongside Hezbollah should Israeli troops enter Lebanon. This would be the last mistake that government would ever make. Israel can destroy Lebanon anytime they want to. The reason they haven't is that they are free and democratic and thus prone to restraint. However, if Lebanon directly joins the fighting then Israel will have no choice but to dismantle their government. It is in the government of Lebanon's best interest to not only avoid direct conflict with Israel, but do everything they can to stop Hezbollah. That's the way to end this conflict. The ball is entirely in Lebanon and Hezbollah's court. Israel can not stand down while Hezbollah refuses to return their soldiers and stop the rocket attacks. It simply isn't going to happen. Those that think Israel should make the first move towards deescalation fail to realize that Hezbollah would not be compelled to follow their example. In fact, they would be bolstered by the fact that they can seemingly get away with murder. All in all, this war can only end when Hezbollah or Lebanon take the steps necessary to end it and I believe the United States should support Israel completely in this matter.

The Name, The Purpose, Everything

I firmly believe that the hardest part of creating a website is coming up with a name. The process of doing this has often taken me much longer than the coding itself. It's hard to come up with a name that encapsulates everything your website is going to be about. This is especially true when you're first creating it. Often the things that you originally intended to cover don't work out and the site ends up going in directions that you couldn't have envisioned when you named it. The second problem is simply making sure that you do not pick a lame name. Now, as we have all seen with companies like "Yahoo!" and "Google", picking a lame name doesn't really matter if you're going to be huge anyways. However, there is an almost a hundred percent chance that you're not going to be huge, and if you're going to fail miserably you should at least endeavor to do it with a name that doesn't suck. Thinking up such a name can take hours. It was with that in mind that I decided to blatantly steal the name of this site.

The phrase "the nut point of view" is most often heard coming out of the mouth of Penn Jillette on his radio show (Podcast). It is said right before Penn gives his ideologically pure but often completely impractical view of a particular issue. Since Penn and I are often in agreement on these issues, I have co-opted the phrase for my own use. This saves me a lot of time and effort and feeds my lazy side. Barring any unforseen diversions, it is also what the site will essentially be about. I shall examine the current issues, whether they be monumental political questions or obscure pop culture events, and provide you fine readers (or reader, I don't want to get too cocky) with my often crazy view on the subject. That is, of course, until my attention gets drawn elsewhere and I completely forget about this place. Until then, enjoy.

Ryan's Website: Take 343

When I was in 7th grade I created my first website using the old AOL homepage builder. Ever since then, I have usually had a web prescence in some form or another. Unfortunately, every one of these endeavors has been dragged down by my crippling laziness. I have torn through the internet on AOL, fortunecity, tripod, prohosting, various friends webservers, tripod again, and siteburg leaving behind a string of dead websites left unupdated and unmourned. However, to steal a line from people who are trying to quit smoking, this time it is going to be different. I have vowed to post something at least everyday this week, with witty commentary on the days events and life in general. While the "witty" part may be a complete lie, stick around to see if I can actually follow through with something or end up a bitter, broken man.