BilikFamily.com

President's conference - I was driving back from Manchester Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. and caught the President's press conference. His opening remarks went well, as the President usually does OK when he has time to prepare his words. He really stumbled when he had to answer questions on the spot. But then there was the following question:

"Richard Clarke offered an unequivocal apology to the American people for failing them prior to 9-11. Do you believe the American people deserve a similar apology from you, and would you prepared to give them one?"

There have been a number of followups in the op-eds since the conference, but I'll mention two of my favorite this week. The first came from Cal Thomas:

"Can anyone imagine reporters during World War II asking President Franklin Roosevelt if he'd like to apologize for the number of American dead and wounded, or Harry Truman if he'd like to repent for dropping bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which forced Japan to surrender?"

Emmett Tyrrell had similar thoughts regarding Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor. The second came from David Limbaugh (yes, Rush's brother):

"Why is it that the very same people who refused to demand an authentic apology from former President Clinton for actual felonies he committed demand a bogus apology from President Bush for something that was not his fault? Nothing has come to light in the 9-11 investigative hearings implicating President Bush in the 9-11 attacks. Nothing has surfaced to indicate that his administration fumbled information, which, if used properly, could have empowered us to avert the attacks. I repeat: Richard Clarke didn't even allege otherwise."

I don't mean to hold the torch for President Bush, but I believe the media asked him four separate times if he'd like to apologize? What the heck is going on here? Is this the same media that routinely bashes Catholics about the sacrament of confession, repeatedly asking if the President would like to apologize? Clinton looks us in the eye and tells us "nothing happened" and never apologizes even as things are moving towards impeachment. ~3000 people die due to bin Laden's buddies and it's the President's fault? On a few occasions a captured Osama was offered to former President Clinton. Now we are expending huge resources trying to find Osama. Why is 9/11 George's fault? Because it happened on his watch? Did we blame Bill for the Oklahoma City bombings?! Or the Waco fiasco?

I certainly have my doubts about maintaining our current levels of troops beyond the hand-over of power in Iraq at the end of June. I certainly don't like the bait and switch of "it's WMDs, no wait, it's about liberating Iraq". On the other hand, I don't think we can bomb Bagdad, remove Saddam, and then pullout and leave behind the huge vacuum of anarchy. George, get an Iraqi democratic form of government in place asap and then get most of our troops home.

Enough about the President and Iraq... Comment if you'd like.

Movies - I have the worst timing sometimes. When we first bought a TiVo, the rates had been flat at just under $10. Within about a month of ordering ours, the rate went up to between $12-$13 per month. A little over a month ago we started using Netflix. Now today I got an email that for the first time in their history, Netflix is raising its rates. Again, it's just a modest increase, but as with TiVo, it's their first ever and I got in just in time to get hit with it.

Brother Bear - This morning Brother Bear came in on DVD. Ironically, it also showed at Milford Elementary School tonight. Claire has her good friend over for the night (the household levels of estrogen and testosterone are temporarily in balance). After offering to let them watch it from the comfort of our home, I succumbed to their wishes and took them to see it at their school cafeteria. It has the worst audio setup imaginable. They play the video by hooking a DVD enabled iMac up to an LCD projector. So far, so good. For audio, they put a microphone between the iMac's speakers. So instead of hearing the movie in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound (as we would at home), we're hearing muffled monophonic sound from the cafeteria's loudspeakers. The speaker to microphone conversion cuts the frequency response at about 1 kilohertz or less. In other words there is no treble, just muffled bass, making it very difficult to make out the dialog. I plan on watching the movie again this weekend so I can catch the 2/3's of the dialog I couldn't make out.

School - Tomorrow Abby goes to get screened/tested for 1st grade. The school district encourages this for children who did not attend a formal kindergarten. Unlike when I was growing up in River Grove, Milford offers a grade level called "readiness" to help children who might not be ready for 1st grade. The meeting tomorrow is to get a recommendation on whether Abby should attend readiness or 1st grade.

Zoombinis - Speaking of Abby, she's been broadening her horizons a little on the edutainment software front. In addition to a couple of new Reader Rabbit titles she received, she's playing Zoombinis Logical Journey from The Learning Company. It came as part of a Zoombinis two pack. It's a cute little game and really seems to be working her thinking skills, especially planning and strategy. Perhaps Andrew would like it if he has the patience to think a moment before he clicks.

Pictures - I have a bunch of pictures sitting in the camera. Most show the kids playing with the toy trains. All the kids have had recent interest ever since Michelle bought the extra track that allows them to make more interesting setups. I took very few pictures on Easter. If I get some time this weekend, I'll work on creating a new album. Alyssa, can I use the new picture of Kyle? I can't believe how much he's grown! But then, we haven't seen him since last summer...