Seventeen Magazine

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I sat down to dinner a while ago and, finding nothing of interest on TV, turned instead to the nearest form of printed entertainment within reach — an issue of Seventeen Magazine. Yugh. I don’t know about you people, but if I were bombarded with that kind of vapid, fleshly drivel on a regular basis, I’m pretty sure I would grow up with a pretty twisted worldview and self-image. One can only take so many pages of Rate-Your-Boy quizzes, lipstick and sunglasses, and lithe, nubile teenage bodies in bikinis making out in drunken passion with their [multiple] college boyfriends.

Fortunately I checked the telly again after setting the magazine aside, and King of the Hill was showing. It was certainly a relief to watch something more intelligent. Like, yeah, totally.

(Did I just use the word “telly?”)

Fox Kids Saturday Morning

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Saturday morning cartoons just aren’t what they used to be. Since when did Transformers become an anime-esque war fest?

And what’s up with this Power Rangers Wild Force? If I were making a campy Japanese-style Bioman ripoff, I would most definitely NOT tag it with the slogan “Wild Force: ANSWERING NATURE’S CALL!”

Aglionby on the Phil. situation

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US Cavalry Fails to Bring Peace to the Philippines. Aglionby does a good job of describing an “average day” of political violence and social instability in the country, but I think he is a bit far off base in assuming that Filipinos looked to the arrival of the American military as the portent of a bright new age in Philippine history.

US troops are currently in the Southern islands right now for three reasons:

1. Stated: Train members of the Philippine Armed Forces in anti-terrorist operations as part of the “Balikatan” exercises.

2. Implied: Combat the Abu Sayyaf problem, whether directly or indirectly, as part of the US War on Terror.

3. Ulterior: Establish a new permanent military presence in the country, at a strategic location in the heart of Southeast Asia, within proximity to China, Korea, and Indonesia.

Although the majority of Filipinos supported the visiting troops, I don’t think many of them are actually of the mind that the American boys are flying in like superheroes to save the day. First off, US soldiers cannot just land in Basilan and wage war on the Abu Sayyaf just like that: the Philippine Constitution has strong restrictions on the operations of foreign military forces on Philippine soil. Additionally, Filipino nationalists are up in arms over this: scarcely a decade after working to throw off the yoke of the US Bases in Northern Luzon, their effort now goes all to naught with the arrival of those same soldiers in the South.

The deplorable socio-economic conditions under which Filipinos live cannot simply be eliminated and rebooted by fleets of military personnel — even if they had the technology and resources for it. As I’ve said before, culture is a large part of the problem, as are overpopulation, rampant poverty, deficient education, and the unbalanced distribution of wealth. The Americans can come, rout the Abu Sayyaf, even build freeways and infrastructure and military bases; but whether they stay or leave, that does nothing to hurdle the cultural obstacles which keep Filipinos from progressing as people and as a country.

Um, I think I lost my point somewhere along the way and just started rambling. Oh, well. I’ve been up all night trying to install Apache with PHP in my computer. Not a very fun task when you’re using Win98. I need to get to sleep.

MARTIN Burnham!

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For several months, my “Burnhams” button has encouraged prayers for “Rick and Gracia.” It turns out that the hostage husband is not named Rick, but Martin. Please redirect your your prayers to him by his proper name: Martin Burnham. And those of you who show the prayer button (all two of you), please download the revised button graphic.

(If, however, you wish to continue praying for Firefighter Photographer Rick Burnham, you are perfectly free to do so.)

Ransom for the Burnhams Revisited

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ARGH! NO!!! Don’t pay any ransom! The Abu Sayyaf cannot be trusted or negotiated with. A ransom payment to these brigands is no guarantee that they’ll release their hostages: the only bargaining chip they have left. And even in the unlikely event that they do free the hostages, ransom payments will only enable them to kidnap even more victims, locals and foreigners alike.

Timmorgan’s brownpau javascript

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Tim Morgan has made a cool snip of javascript which links you to my random blog layouts without going through the initial redirect page. Neato! I’ll consider his suggestion of saving it here as a .JS file for easy link access. Thanks, Tim!

Update: With my PHP randomizer in place, the aforementioned code is no longer necessary.

Old Smoking Adverts

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Funny old cigarette print ads I’ve stumbled across at work: (Part of my job involves doing web stuff for a tobacco document archive)

You can dig for more in the TDO Advertising archive.

Christianity and Smoking

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Ah, is that smoke I smell? Spinning off from the debate on the Bible and alcohol, Razormouth has an article on Christians and Cigarettes. Of special interest to me, in my current position as anti-tobacco activist. And sure, Spurgeon smoked, but was he aware at the time of the addictive and carcinogenic properties of those heady vapors? More importantly, if even a moderate Christian smoker were to cause his brothers to stumble because of his habit, would it not be better for him to quit?

Somewhat ironically, I discovered yesterday that the Chairman and CEO of Philip Morris is named Bible.

TweakUI

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No installation of Win9x is complete without TweakUI. Download it for extra GUI control.