First of all, I'd like to wish each and every one of you a Happy Al-Zarqawi Day!

Since I'm not staunchly anti-war by any means (there are some problems that can only be solved with a man and a gun) I've previously been falsely accused of making a "cry for death." Up until today that has been completely untrue.

As of right now, guilty as charged. I'm ecstatic, completely thrilled that this animal has been sent to Allah. This sub-human creature has gotten what we have been warning him about all along. This occured yesterday during a joint Iraqi-US raid in Barquba. Laughably, many Democrats are calling this a "stunt" and sprinkling their statements with caveats. My message to them is this - your careers will soon be over if you keep talking like that.

Of course, I've already heard today from various feeble-minded sources suggesting that killing him means nothing and that it won't stop the violence. While the violence may not stop at the moment, anyone that steps into his place now knows for absolute sure what the outcome is going to be - total and complete victory for the good guys. This, of course, is bad news for liberals, who desperately want America to fail simply to put egg on President Bush's face. Classy, baby. I want to believe otherwise but I'm waiting on the evidence that the left loves their country more than they hate the current elected leader.

On to the good stuff -

Before - an amazing view from an F-16



After - rigor mortis baby





Iraqi police celebrate in Barquba



On a lighter note, I realized while going through some old pictures that I had some gems laying around. Check it out -

Coincidence?





Some Jason-themed mancandy -



See you in Allentown this weekend - time to find something relatively cheap with a high kitsch factor for Ye Olde Crib.

I've not been talking much politics, mainly because I'm distracted with other things and the news cycle has been a yawner for a bit. Things are now heating up, and this summer its going to be very interesting since its an election year.

Its interesting to me that Mr. Bernanke, our new Fed chair, stated recently that he doesn't see the raising of interest rates to stop anytime soon, and as a result the market drops 200 points in one day. I think that secretly the Gov is listening to Greenspan still while nodding and smiling to Bernanke.

The terrorist thing in Toronto has got me thinking. We've needed to take more precautions at the border for a while - crossing the border is an absolute joke and on SEVERAL occasions anybody could sneak anything they wanted over, given that its not so large as to alarm anybody. Canadians are absolutely startled that "this" could happen to them - Canada has never supported the Iraq war so how could this happen to them? I'll tell you how.

Welcome to reality. Bin Laden stated very early on that Canada was on the list too, so I'm perplexed over Canada's seeming confusion.

Crossing the border is going to be a bitch now, but generally I'm glad that it will be that way. We've always had good intentions and have wanted the best, but just like 9/11 showed, Islamofascists are eager to take advantage of our good nature to cause extreme harm.

Anyhow - some news.

1. I know the anti-war crowd has been dying for this one - a commissioned officer in Washington has proclaimed that he refuses to go to Iraq. I'm sure that Lt. Ehren Watada is a fine person and I have no quarrel with his stance on the war, but unfortunately for Lt. Watada he will not be able to skirt his commitment without severe repercussions, regardless of what the ACLU and several anti-war and liberal activist groups that will try to defend him desire. Its beyond question that he will never win a legal battle over this - any takers on this guy NOT deserting? I feel sorry for him - this will end badly for him one way or another. Theres a link within this link that will lead you to a supporters web site - check it out.

2. Ann Coulter, the scourge of lefties everywhere, came out recently with some extremely scathing remarks about some wifes whose husbands were killed during 9/11. She accuses these women of dancing on their husbands graves for the sake of celebrity and political motivations - neither of which have anything to do with 9/11. Tragically, if what Ms. Coulter is saying is true (and I haven't even heard of these women until today) this is likely going to give them more publicity and exposure than they ever had. I don't completely buy what Ann Coulter is saying, but take a look at the evidence - whether or not it is true doesn't matter because a vast majority of America had no idea who these people were until recently. So they used their "victim" status in order to videostump for Kerry in '04. I'm not sure that there is anything wrong with that - Republicans have used 9/11 to their political benefit so how is this any different? I think most Americans reject what Coulter has to say. Oh, and Hilary lashed out at Coulter recently too, but who cares? Apparently there is a little catfight going on.

In the end, when people use victim status in order to advance political views they expect to be beyond reproach. Unfortunately for the victims they are not beyond criticism IF in fact they are truthfully using their victim status disgracefully. I'm talking to you, Cindy Sheehan.

Anyway - this is how Coulter responded to Clinton - 'Before criticizing others for being 'mean' to women, perhaps Hilary should talk to her husband who was accused of rape by Juanita Broaddrick and was groping Kathleen Willey at they very moment Willey's hasband was committing suicide.' Um, ouch. No link - you can't avoid this story if you go to any news site.

3. The problem with Kofi Annan is that he believes he should be accorded "head of state" status as an international civil servant, and its a grave and unfortunate mistake that many nations (except ours!) accords him this status. Apparently this delusion has bled to his personal bitch, Mr. Mark Malloch Brown. The problem, according to Mr. Brown, is that the US government is deliberately lowlighting the "good works" that the UN is doing and also blames Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic. There is nothing wrong with other countries criticizing our government, but to single out one segment of our society and suggesting some kind of government conspiracy in a scathing manner will be nothing other than detrimental to the UN, just as our ambassador is suggesting. I've always thought that we should revoke our portion of funding and kick them the fuck out of NYC - maybe this latest dispute will make my small dream come true. The UN has always been useless and is as much of a failure as the League of Nations was.

This has angered the US majorly and takes Mr. Brown's "Middle America" comment as a condescending and patronizing remark. I'm not so sure about Mr. Brown's intentions, but one thing is certain - this bureaucrat's international career is over. Mr. Annan and Mr. Brown's terms end Dec. 31 anyway - its a mystery as to why this guy just couldn't keep his fucking mouth shut for six more months. I'm sure some folks back in Britain are patting him on the back for sticking it to those toothless hicks in "Middle America" who don't know whats good for them, but this guy will be an absolute nobody from this point on.

My question to Mr. Brown is this - Where was the UN when Rwandans were being slaughtered en masse? Where was the UN when Saddam Hussein flipped the bird at their resolutions for nearly 15 years? Whose pockets were being lined with billions in blood money and oil to keep hush hush about Saddam? - The UN. Lets stop being silly about what good the UN has done.

Yeah, I actually did see a street today called "No Name St." Also another one called "Mad Anthony St." WTF?

During my travels I've been to a ton of Presidential birthplaces - this is something I've never talked about because I've never really pondered it before. Reagan, Nixon, Hayes, Jefferson, Harrison, Madison, Tyler, Grant, Polk, Garfield, McKinley, both Johnsons, T. Roosevelt, Fillmore (naturally), Eisenhower, Truman, Harding, Jackson, Buchanan, Washington, ... Nixon is the only native Left Coaster to have become President. I've yet to visit Hope, AR and to be honest I hope to avoid Arkansas in general.

Tonight I had an interesting and fairly atypical meal - German food! I've never really tried it, and since I am in Pittsburgh with my co-worker we decided to go to the place where he worked while he was in culinary school - Penn Brewery. The food was completely authentic. I had something called the "Butcher's Plate," or if you want to be fancy about it (and the people at Penn love their German language on the menu) its "schlachtplatte." Grilled bratwurst, a smoked 6 oz. porkchop and true weiner schnitzel, with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. It was delicious but way too heavy. I ordered it because I didn't want to try to pronounce "malzmeistersteak mit schwarzbiersosse" or "HÜHNERBRUST mit johannisbiersosse." In any case, it was good but I don't see how anybody could eat that daily without feeling their arteries harden.

The beers there are very high grade and excellent - the Weizen is a former Great American Beer Festival Gold Medalist, as well as a 4-time consecutive Grand Champion at the United States Beer Tasting Championship, so you knows your boy Joshy picked up a 12er to go!

And finally - tech guys, I thought of something kind of cool that I wish I could implement and I want you to tell me level of impossibility with both ideas.

First idea - I thought it would be cool to be able to set up a webcam remotely and set the cam on the dash of my rental car as I drive during my travels. I'd also like to track remotely via GPS tech or something similar my movements real-time on a map on the site. This seems difficult and expensive. The remote live cam has been done before but I have yet to hear of something similar being done remotely all over the USA.

Second idea - I wanted to have a digital map of the USA on a web site and mark each place I've visited, my flight paths for all of my flights, and if possible, trace all the routes I've driven. I kind of like this idea better than the other. I suppose this could be drawn but I'd rather have something more interactive - hover over a place and a little info box pops up with names and dates. Same with the airports - hover over a city and see when and where I've flown in from and to from that airport.

Man, the strangest things happened to me today after I wrote my earlier journal entry.

I have been really stressed out about a ton of things, and since Lynchburg has a ton of green space I thought I'd find a place to just be by myself, maybe meditate in my own amateur way, maybe pray a little.

On the way back to the hotel, I drove by a sign that said, "Don't give up - Moses was once a basket case!" Just now, I found a chain with a cross attached to it on my bed.

Considering the circumstances, this is incredible. The sign thing is easy to understand but that AND the cross... I'm telling you all, I've got somebody looking out for me.

At least I've been relaxed more tonight.

I'm distraught about not being able to watch the Sabres play - none of these hotels spring for OLN. I think I'll have to find a sports bar or something. The other night I was truly without an option, so I sat in the hotel room and listened to Jeanneret and Lorentz do the call through WGR550's streaming audio. We're lucky to have such an electrifying and unique play-by-play guy. I don't give a damn what ANYBODY says... Rick is the best in the biz in any sport.

Now I'm in Lynchburg, VA - home of Jerry Fallwell and Liberty University. I didn't expect so many restaurants and what not.

Cheapest gas I've seen so far - $2.55 Roanoke, VA.

Um not much else. I'm just tired.

Yo guys - my co-worker and his buddies are looking to move to the general strip area. What is the best method to search for a place, and is there a place online that commonly lists pads near or on Elmwood? They are looking for a 3-4 bedroom pad, and the only thing I can think of thus far is the Artvoice classifieds.

I wish I knew more about this apartment search thing - we were lucky and didn't have to really do a search to get the place we live in so I don't really know a lot of this info.

Any help is appreciated guys - and if anybody knows of a 3-4 bedroom, decent spot for rent gimme a heads up... I may have a tennant ready to go for someone out there.

A couple anecdotes for you all -

1) Elizabeth Smart and her father Ed sat 2 rows in front of me on my first flight from LAX. At first I saw this gorgeous blonde girl that was dressed very well, and I was thinking the usual extremely dirty thoughts that guys think when they see a pretty girl. I didn't think much of it. Once we got on the flight I heard Ed speak when someone was in his seat, and I thought "AHA! Thats the Smarts!" Then I immediately felt filthy and extremely guilty over what I was thinking about Elizabeth. For those of you who either don't remember or don't pay much attention, Elizabeth Smart was the Mormon girl who was kidnapped in Utah 3 yeras ago by a couple who had done some handiwork around her father's multimillion dollar suburban Salt Lake City home. Yo Ed - you are a millionaire, you don't need to be flying America West with your daughter. At least she is 18 so I don't feel REALLY dirty.

2) After I returned from California, my co-worker and his friends went to IHOP in Williamsville for breakfast. Ralph Wilson, the venerable Buffalo Bills owner, was sitting by himself eating breakfast there - amazing! They went up to him and chatted him up - apparently he is a really, really nice old fella and even signed some Bills stuff for my co-worker and his friends. Its just kind of strange seeing a damn-near-billionaire octogenarian who practically has deity status here in Buffalo eating at an IHOP by himself.

You know, the interesting thing about hair is what to do with it when you are in a "tweener" awkward stage. I thought about just getting my hair thinned out, trimmed slightly and letting it grow, or just doing the usual and getting it cut so that I can style it with my trademark frontal swoop. I've never really had longer hair before so I don't know what to do. (e:jason) says that I'm developing a little mullettude.

Other than that, I've generally been enjoying my time while not travelling. I've been busy at the office, watching the Sabres, enjoying illicit yet delicious contraband and getting a ton of new music. My most recent acquisitions have been too numerous to list, but the one I'm most proud of is the hard to find Analord 1-11 12" vinyl only singles that Aphex Twin released last year. I've got all 11 in MP3 format, WITH the LP label graphics so that I can continue having all of the album graphics on my iPod. I'm truly obsessive/compulsive with my music. I've also gotten the most recent Broken Social Scene (which I've liked but not owned until recently), Built to Spill, a few Flaming Lips albums, a few Talking Heads albums, Madlib's Blue Note album, Taking Back Sunday's newest and some retro new wave/80's music thats been floating out there. If you like Duran Duran, and you know you do, then check out VHS or Beta. They do some really great instrumentals on their albums, which I think is so cool for a rock band to mix in.

Actually I'm kind of mixed on a lot of the retro 80's stuff coming out recently. I say to myself that I like it, but then I also say to myself that if I wanted to listen to Duran Duran or Talking Heads that I could do just that and stow away the designer imposters.

It seems like every time I visit Los Angeles my feelings about this place grow stronger. It has a lot to do with economic prosperity, attitudes, what you make of places, what you might leave behind, what you might gain. I've decided that one day soon I'm going to shed my skin and migrate west. I haven't been this certain about something in a long time.

Today it hit me that leaving Buffalo is and should be a real prospect for me. I've always said that if I can stay in Buffalo I will, but my perspective is changing. I love Buffalo, even with all of its problems - don't get me wrong. Moving onward and upward is the only thing on my mind lately, and I've grown to adore many places in the USA. California is #1 by a long shot, and it seems like choosing somewhere else to make my next step in would be nothing but a compromise.

I absolutely love this place - maybe I won't end up in LA, maybe somewhere else in this state. I travel enough to know that just getting a new perspective someone else is intoxicating, but I've already been through this before. I haven't wanted something badly enough to fight for it for a long, long time - its a strange feeling. Whatever it takes, I'm coming here for good.

I wish I could share how I feel right now.

(e:jason) - Do not fret I am sending your charger overnight from California. Check your e-mail and look for details- I didn't put that thing in my bag this time, I swear!! I didn't even realize I had it.

Anyhow, I arrived in Los Angeles late Friday night local time, and had MAJOR drama getting a rental. Finally that stuff got fixed, and it was midnight by the time I was on the freeway heading to my buddy's place.

I had the best weekend I've had in a looong time. My buddy is "sympathetic to the cause" and knows a guy with a prescription card, so we were treated to a sack of the finest medicinal grade shit out there - it was a cross between Wreck and J-27. You just can't find that kind of thing on the east coast - it was amazing. The pot had a very sweet and clean taste - it has a linen cinnamon flavor, completely clean and extremely tastey. My bud had some Sour Diesel this week before I came... which if you are a serious stoner you may recognize that strand as some of the most potent, most popular and most expensive strains of chronic out there. I also smoked out of a vaporizer for the first time, and I have to say that I can't wait until I get one of my own.

We basically drove around L.A. Saturday running errands, which was great because I got to drive around the area and get a feel for how to get around L.A. proper. Traffic here is bad but its not completely unmanageable if you have a little local knowledge and have a reasonable understanding of where you are.

We went to Venice Beach, where I scored some beautiful pics and a new hippie-esque ashtray for my room. Venice Beach is interesting - its basically a gigantic boardwalk filled with restaurants, knick knack shops and about 10 head shops. Theres a large green area where you can sit under a palm tree and just enjoy the sun and the breeze. It was completely relaxing; I could have taken a 3-hour nap out there.

From there we went to Malibu - I have to say that I've never seen such a concentration of over the top wealth in my entire life. If there was a hillside or mountainside with ocean views, you'd see it completely peppered with $15-$25 million homes. The level of wealth was obscene. The views however were amazing - there is a public yet private beach out there that you can access off of PCH by walking down a path, so we went down. I got some of the most jaw droppingly amazing pictures I've ever taken. I got some absolutely gorgeous shots of the Malibu area - beach, water, some super fancy homes - once I have the proper cable for the camera I will share with you all.

Today we went to Amoeba Music - some of the San Fran contingent may have been to the one in Berkeley or San Fran proper. Freaking amazing music store - I picked up a new DJ Shadow mix and a compliation of 60's and 70's soul and jazz from the 60's and 70's era.

Anyhow thats about it! I got to watch the Sabres game live here on the west coast too - which I have to say was amazing to be able to see the Sabres play while I was here. I'll be going to watch the game on Tuesday, enjoy some more friendly company and eventually I'll be heading home Thursday night. I'll update if anything interesting comes up.