December 31, 2004 – 3:23 pm
Bush Raises Tsunami Aid Tenfold to $350 Million
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush, under pressure over the pace and scale of American aid to Asian tsunami victims, abruptly raised the U.S. contribution tenfold to $350 million on Friday.
Credit where credit is due: I congratulate and applaud the administration for deciding to raise the figure, even if it was under the pressure of a very negative public reaction to the initial offer. Credit is also due to everyone who participated in applying the pressure. I guess a lot of other people felt the same way I did, and made their opinions known!
And on a personal note, from Real Live Preacher:
In the face of such unthinkable tragedy, we fall silent. But silence will not help. Those of us who choose to believe in a deity are stunned and troubled. Those who believe that life has meaning are stunned and troubled. Stunned and troubled is what we feel, but the essential question is, “What will we do?”
December 30, 2004 – 11:43 pm
Now that they’re all worked out (I think / hope), I just wanted to take the time to mention why this blog was periodically either unavailable or kind of wacky (I’m referring to the display, of course, not the content… I know what some of you are thinking).
It all started earlier this week when I remembered that a while back I mentioned starting to develop my own blog software. I still may do that sometime, but I also realized that I probably won’t take/make the time to get that done anytime soon, so I did some small stuff in the meantime, in the form of writing and implementing 6 WordPress plugins to be offered to the open source community. Read More »
December 30, 2004 – 9:01 pm
I know that this site that labels itself as “Steve Job’s weblog” is a parody (the author says it at the bottom of the page), but I’m wondering if he’s mocking the real Jobs, or if he is trying to flatter him. I certainly wouldn’t doubt that Jobs himself would do so much Apple product pushing if he had a blog of his own, but I don’t think that even he would have that much of an MS-obsessed chip on his shoulder.
December 30, 2004 – 12:29 pm
I think I’ve got the CSS stuff worked out now, so if you see any problems on your browser, PLEASE comment to this post and let me know.
Thanks.
December 30, 2004 – 10:49 am
Here are some interesting/amusing SSIDs (wireless access point names) from a list of about 280 that I’ve seen around the Ventura county area over the last couple days: Read More »
December 30, 2004 – 10:34 am
As Mastercard would say:
Cost of an unjust invasion: $145 billion and climbing
Cost of giving compassionate aid: ~ $1 or 2 billion
Regaining some faith and trust from the rest of the world: priceless
NY Times calls U.S. aid for tsunami “miserly” (Reuters)
“But the $35 million remains a miserly drop in the bucket, and is in keeping with the pitiful amount of the United States budget that we allocate for nonmilitary foreign aid.
The Times chided Bush for waiting until Wednesday to express his sympathy to leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia for Sunday’s disaster that has left an estimated 120,000 people dead and millions homeless. The president announced the increase in U.S. aid to $35 million on Wednesday, saying it was “only the beginning.”
The Times added that it hoped Secretary of State Colin Powell was embarrassed to announce “the initial measly aid offer” of $15 million. “That’s less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities,” in January.
December 29, 2004 – 12:50 pm
Everything should still be functional, just not complete yet… sometime I will have time to explain what I’m doing.
December 29, 2004 – 12:20 am
I saw this movie tonight, and would recommend it to everyone.
It’s so interesting to me that we were born with this tremendous capacity for imagination, but somewhere along the way we “learn” that dreaming isn’t compatible or shouldn’t be a part of “real life”.
December 28, 2004 – 10:18 am