Unfortunate Branding

Or better yet: "Why would you shop at a store called 'Target' -- especially when Target uses a big red bullseye as its logo?"

Since 9/11/2001, fear of another attack has been used as fuel for cynical political agendas, greedy corporate profits and Orwellian domestic policies -- all things we'll regret long after the fear has subsided or more likley moved on to a new and better enemy.

Fear of terrorism, or the threat of terrorism, has been driven through our social lives on a nearly non-stop basis. I felt myseIf immune to this barrage, but now know I've been changed as well.

This realization hit home as I walked toward the entrance of my local Target store. Looking up at the big red logo, and the name of the store I thought "How crazy to name a store 'Target' -- especially now and most especially with that logo.

Perhaps Target isn't a target. But you know they wish they had a different name.

God Bless President Bush and Our Troops!

God Bless our President:

• Bless our President with the ability to tell right from wrong.
• Bless our President with another 100 I.Q. points.
• Bless our President with curiosity and the diligence to be fully informed with facts before making decisions.
• Bless our President with the courage to admit his mistakes.

God Bless our Troops:

• Bless our troops with a president who will only send them into harm's way fully equipped and with a realistic plan of action.
• Bless our troops with a President more concerned with their lives than with "mission accomplished" posters and photo ops on air craft carriers.
• Bless our troops with a Secretary of Defense who has actually seen a man die in combat, and not some neo-con chicken-hawk like Rumsfeld.
• Bless our troops with an administration that understands the complexities of the world and that doesn't make decisions based upon greed.
• Bless our troops with honest suppliers, unlike Haliburton who has been convicted three times of ripping off the government.

God Bless Us All:

• Bless the world with a better US leader in 2008.

Firefox Browser Speed / Feature Hacks

I've recently switched to Firefox and really like it as an alternative to IE.

There is a great tip on speeding up Firefox within Informit's security blog, and a full article of simple hacks from the same site. The tips on speeding up Firefox work especially well.