Fear the Machines, Or at least Their Naming Conventions,

I am tired.
What an intro! I know some of you are saying: "Well, Dave, maybe you should go to sleep earlier." And I agree, but how can I? There's this guy, see, and he has made a lot of money in real estate, specifically the foreclosure market...and he wants to tell me how to do it myself! In fact, he wants to tell me how to do it myself so badly, that he's filming this commercial from a car!

This is actually his pitch. This is all unscripted, I'm doing it from a moving vehicle. What crazy thing "will I have to do next?" I'm not going to get into the specifics of how a bazillion people talk every day in cars, but I will say that the only "crazy" thing about him doing this commercial in a vehicle (aside from the fact that people like this are allowed to make commercials...) is the ridiculous lack of safety this is encouraging. The American people have been fighting drunk driving, and now "texting and driving" for years. I don't think we need to throw in "Stop commercial filming driving!" How could you expect me to sleep? I had to write my congressman right away. I felt it was irresponsible not to tell him/her (Whose our Congressman?) that there was a possible serial commercialist driving around our streets, greedily looking into the camera on his windshield rather than looking through his windshield, you know, at the road.

After I finally felt comfortable enough with my letter to hit "send" and had felt the wave of personal satisfaction that told me I had done a good deed, I decided to check MSN news. Where they are now reporting two stories that worry me. And not for what the stories actually are. But rather how they're interpreted.

First is the story of the Mosque (Muslim center) being built near Ground Zero in New York. The fact that this has actual rallies and demonstrations going on against it is a testament to how far we haven't come as a culture since the 60's. But, as Americans, we do have the right to share our views. I believe that we should be able to march and protest and voice opinions, whether that's against Obama, Police Brutality, the BP spill, this ridiculous Mosque episode or Burger King getting rid of those little mini-burgers they used to have (Talk about ruining my childhood. I was devastated.) makes no real difference. We have the right to do it, so we can. My question in this case is just why? There was already a mosque there. They're just expanding it. It's not like a brand spanking new Mosque is being built just to laugh at what the country went through on 9/11. It was there on 9/11 too. It was there before it. At the very least protest the correct thing.

Onto my newest nightmare. Iran has just released a video of their unmanned attack plane, dubbed the "Ambassador of Death." Don't worry guys, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that "The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship." (A viable question to ask at this point is "How did this guy get into the presidency?) I'm all about Peace and Prosperity. And I understand protecting that peace and our freedoms. I feel blessed to live in a country where so many great men and women serve the country for us, to allow us to live the lives we want to. But it is rather annoying when the armed forces, of any nation, try to hide the fact they are, in fact, an army. Creating weapons of war and calling them things like "the Peacebringer" or "Peacemaker" is a lot like calling a police trained attack-dog a cute little puppy. It is not a Peacebringer, it is a very large tank or air plane or boat, (Large piece of metal that moves, presumably quite quickly, and makes very big explosions.)possibly a gun, which we can assume is intended, at some point, to be used. In a war.

Finally, I said as I read the article, a plane with a name that says what it is! The Ambassador of Death. Imagine my surprise as I continued reading and found out that this, this angel of doom and dismay, is in fact an angel of love and healing. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went onto say how Iran needed to have preemptive strike capabilities, but that it would never strike first. (Which strikes me not only as an exercise in frivolity but also really bad tactics. It's the "hey pal, let's take this outside," of National conflict.)

I think that politicians get so caught up in public opinion that they forget that sometimes, it's okay to call a duck a duck. Just this one doesn't quack, or float, or eat bread passed out by your grandmother. It shoots missiles and kills people, and in all likelihood, (Along with it's American cousin the 'Predator') is the front runner for the inevitable arrival of Skynet. Fear the Machines.

You can find the articles at http://www.msn.com/