Rattle wrote:
] Here are some thoughts on the State of The Union Address..
] I watched it live too... My own initial thoughts: - I agreed with his views on Iraq and that the world is a better place without Saddam. I'm also glad that he talked about the proof of weapons programs in Iraq -- it seems that many people only want the smoking gun of an actual weapons cache to justify the war. In my mind though, it's enough to show that Saddam was systematically hiding things from UN inspectors, maintaining WMD programs in secret, and intimidating scientists from telling the truth. Those facts, in combination with a *wide* variety of other factors, justified the war for me. - I laughed at the unexpected applause when Bush said that the Patriot Act expires next year. :) - When he said, "We have broken the Baathist regime," one of the people I was watching the speech with was convinced that Bush had stumbled and said, "We have broken the Baptist regime." ;) I guess we hear what we want to hear! :) - I'm glad he named an actual date for Iraqi sovereignty, of June. Though I think it's a very ambitious timetable! - I was surprised that he didn't mention anything about Mars or anything to do with the space program. The Rover landing was an astonishing accomplishment for America, and for the world. It would have been an easy applause-getter, and also is something that has positive world attention on us. So I'm baffled why it got left out. Maybe the speechwriters were worried that people were upset with his recent proposal to send a manned mission to Mars, and so to avoid any negative associations there, they just didn't mention the Rovers at all. I guess it's also possible that if he brought up Mars, he'd also have to talk about the Shuttle disaster... I dunno. - The idea of promoting sexual abstinence among young people just sounds absurd to me. Stricter societies than ours have tried to enforce abstinence, with little success. - My most intense "He said *what*???" moment: I was horrified when Bush talked about marriage and used the term "activist judges." ACTIVIST judges? Like someone just came out of a 60s street protest, put down their megaphone and placard, and took a seat on the bench by accident? I was mightily offended by that comment -- he was implying that the judicial branch of government has too much power and needs to be reined in. If he wants to propose a constitutional amendment, fine. But to take a slam at the judicial branch like that, as though they were making whimsical decisions, was out of line. Anyway, those are my own thoughts, Elonka :) RE: State of the Union Address | 
