Raging Kraut

Peaceful Sunday

Posted by Ray on 04/20/03 at 05:45 PM • Sauerkraut • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

As I write this, my wife and dog are sleeping and my 17-month old daughter is quietly playing in her playpen.

Sometimes the happiest moments are the quietest.

Happy Easter to those of you that celebrate it.

So much for my rage...

Raging Kraut

Nobody EVER suspects the Bunny Rabbit!

Posted by Ray on 04/17/03 at 10:29 AM • Sauerkraut • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Mean lil fellow, arn't you?

What Monty Python Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

"...for death awaits ye, with nasty, BIG POINTY TEETH!"

Well, it's not so much which "Monty Python" character quiz as much as it's which "Holy Grail" character are you...

Raging Kraut

Ch-ch-ch-changes?

Posted by Ray on 04/16/03 at 12:04 PM • Sauerkraut • (1) Trackbacks • Permalink

I've lived in the GTA since 1995.
It's been very good to me.
It's also been the scene of ~~setbacks~~ challenges to my career.

The field I work in is almost perfectly aligned with staying in Toronto if I search for other jobs.

The company I work for has a TEMPTING position available in Northern Ontario that was posted yesterday that would make me a PERMANENT employee of the company rather than a CONTRACT employee.

More money, better position in line with ultimate career goal, cheaper cost of living, and the "small-town" quality of life for my kids...

My supportive wife has chided me for even hesitating about making this decision...

My application was e-mailed 5 minutes ago...

More to follow as it happens...

Raging Kraut

When I'm Bad I'm Better!

Posted by Ray on 04/15/03 at 03:35 PM • Sauerkraut • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

So which LOTR Villain are you? Hmm??
made by Michelle at EmptySpace.

Raging Kraut

Maybe it won't suck...

Posted by Ray on 04/14/03 at 11:35 AM • News Commentary • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Loyal Kraut Commentor-extraordinaire Greg said in one of his psychic moments that:

The one point that all of you have forgotten is that because Pvt Lynch happens to be attractive, and because the US Media has made such a big deal about her rescue. Pvt Lynch is going to make a huge whack o' dough selling her story to Hollywood. Just think a year from now "Saving Private Lynch" will win Mary-Kate or Ashley Olsen their first of many Oscars in the heroic story of how Pvt Lynch took on Saddam Hussein mano-a-mano, and only was injured when he used chemical warfare to temporarily disable her. Luckily the US Special Forces team led by Leo DiCaprio, who also was her high-school sweetheart, rescue her just as Osama Bin Laden is about to take her virginity.

Posted by Greg at April 6, 2003 03:10 PM

Well today, CNN reports that they will make a TV movie "with or without her family selling her story". Nice way to screw a hero. TV is already crappy enough as it is: how many crappy movies of the week will we have coming out of this war. Well at least it will give all of those unemployed Saddam-decoys something to do...And they won't even have the decency to PAY HER for her own story!

Greg: Considering you've already got a story outline (and you can use Raging Kraut's archive as proof!) I think you should get a manuscript to NBC as quickly as possible before the other weasels get their payday.

I would've thought that Hollywood would've been ALL OVER THIS! They might even produce something watchable...They would at least be able to afford DiCaprio...

Do I smell a left-wing conspiracy to bury the war stories because they don't want to be on-side with the current government?

Could they actually be putting their principles AHEAD of profit?

Has hell truly frozen over?

Has my insanity finally taken over?

Raging Kraut

Barenaked on the Web

Posted by Ray on 04/13/03 at 10:26 AM • Entertainment • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

The Barenaked Ladies are blogging at http://www.bnlblog.com.

It's not like they need my promotion - however me having the words "barenaked" and "ladies" should at least drive some more net traffic my way...

Raging Kraut

Capitalism at its finest

Posted by Ray on 04/11/03 at 12:54 PM • Business • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Absolutely hilarious. They're now selling T-shirts of head-in-sand Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf...

How long will his career last as 2003's I didn't do it boy?

UPDATE: Check out www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/ for some more choice quotes from Goebbels-lite.

Raging Kraut

The Sky In My World is Whatever the Hell Colour it Actually is That Day

Posted by Ray on 04/10/03 at 01:28 PM • News Commentary • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

My belief has always been that people will ~~change~~ interpret the facts to suit their beliefs, rather than have the facts challenge their belief structure.

- That's why the piece of filth that comes home and beats his wife and kids thinks of himself as a "good guy" because he earns a paycheque.
- That's why people who steal things from work can sleep at night, because they can't consider their company as a victim.
- That's why if you were against this war before it started, you're probably still against it despite the scenes of happy Iraqis, drunk with the heady brew of liberation.

Iraqis deface a mural in Khaaneqin, the first major northern city to fall to coalition forces

- That's why if you were for this war before it started, you would still be for it after this:

Ali Ismaeel Abbas, 12 was left badly burned and missing both arms after a coalition missile attack

"When the facts change I change my mind. What do you do?"

--John Maynard Keynes

We will always be confronted with things that won't fit into our worldview - I started as a staunch conservative early in life, mostly in following my parents, who had seen war in Europe and had come to Canada to build a better life afterward. For them, World War II was a just war, even though my grandfather was lost fighting for the Wehrmacht as a Private in 1942. Did my grandfather think that he was an evil man because he fought for Germany and Hitler? Probably not, though I never got to talk to him about it.

University life exposed me to the other side and sparked a more critical thought process. I didn't see so much black and white, good and evil as I did shades of gray and nationalist motives. I began to question; I began to play the oh-so-easy Canadian pastime of "Bash the Americans." Let's be frank here: it's easy to do because it's always easy to bash the leaders in any field - the microscope is ALWAYS on them and any misstep is recorded for posterity to be trotted out on display later at Starbucks over expensive venti lattes.

What brought me back to the other side away from my "enlightenment?" Simple pragmatism. The fact that I started to believe in a world where there were no absolutes, that supposedly no one was inherently good or evil, that God may or may not [heresy!] exist and that maybe there was no such thing as "my destined path"...heady stuff from the alcohol-soaked mind of an unemployed 22-year old.

What became important to me were the facts and not the all-emcompassing garbage statement of "It's all the AMERICAN's fault!" Someone's actual actions became more important to me in judging that person than what someone else said about them...It's conceptually impossible for EVERYTHING in the world to be America's fault, so by taking that position and ignoring the other factors involved, the "Peace" protesters are being intellectually LAZY.

For many years it was believed as a fact that any war fought in the 20th century would spiral out of control and result in the extermination of us all because neither of the two Superpowers would back down and escalation was guaranteed. This belief still survives in many of us today in its simplistic form of "War is Bad" and should "never be fought for any reason."

The truth is that the facts have changed in the 21st century. This isn't Star Trek. There isn't some stupid Prime Directive. The Americans are running the only Superpower on the planet. There are many that will hold America responsible in this century for their INACTIONS as much as their ACTIONS. The responsibility of attempting the greatest good for the greatest number of people will produce results such as Ali Ismaeel Abbas - that's almost guaranteed.

The challenge will be to see Abbas as part of the bigger picture: How many Abbas will be prevented because Saddam will no longer be there to torture Iraqis? We may never be able to know - and part of the challenge will be not to lose our humanity when dealing with the choices presented by the numbers: no one can possibly say it was fair to Ali Ismaeel Abbas, but is he enough to condemn this war as an immoral action? Or would the victims of Saddam be enough to condemn the U.S. for immoral INACTION had they not stopped him?

With Power comes Responsibility and Accountability.

So what am I now? If pragmatism were a political belief system I would define myself as a Pragmatist.

When the facts change I change my mind. What do you do?
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Raging Kraut

Where are my Scissors?

Posted by Ray on 04/08/03 at 05:40 PM • Sauerkraut • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

You know,

My biggest pet peeve when it comes to office etiquette is people who touch my laptop screen when trying to point at something in Excel...

KEEP YOUR DAMN GREASEY FINGERS TO YOURSELF OR I'LL CUT THEM OFF!!!

I mean, why? Why do they have to actually MAKE CONTACT with my screen? Now they've gone away and I have this little grease dot on my screen...

Leave my poor screen alone.

Please.

Raging Kraut

Vanity Plates

Posted by Ray on 04/08/03 at 12:57 PM • Sauerkraut • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Here I was thinking I'd found something new, when my wife beats me to the punch

In internet time, ya snooze ya lose I guess...

Raging Kraut

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