Ramblings From Justin Penney

There are now some serious talks about closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. This is where we've been housing "enemy combatants" without any due process of law.

I don't see what abandoning a building does in this situation. It's not like the Bush administration is dramatically changing it's policy and ceasing the detainment of people without any recourse. It will just be moved somewhere else so it's low key for a while. Until this war on terror debacle I hadn't even heard of this naval base. Gitmo is the oldest overseas Navy base, a pretty unique existence. What does closing it now really do? Well, it makes us look the other way for a while. It's like closing Abu Ghraib. There are still prisons. The same people that were working there are still working in that field. The prisoners are still in prison. Just a different location. A change of scenery.

We're so hung up on symbolism and emotional attachment above all else. That makes us weak. We take things: flags, colors, sayings . . . and we attach so much meaning and importance to a fabricated idea that we'll fight over them. We'll spend hours enraged over a piece of fabric or a phrase tacked on to a stanza of words. We create these gaping holes of insecurity and they are exploited by both enemy and ally.

Everything has a symbol now. All manners of illnesses awareness and virtuous movements have a rainbow of pins, ribbons, magnets, bracelets. You take a trinket and feel good . . . like you're really doing something. But it's just a token on an intent. It's not an action and it's not changing anything.

Ceasing to use a building doesn't fix it. Changing the action does.

# posted by Justin @ 8:50 PM Links to this post

• Watching the news will make you think that the world is ending
• "Celebrities" freak me out
• People obsessed with celebrities freak me out even more
• According to the "Everyone Votes Channel" on the Wii more people would rather receive advice from Oprah than Warren Buffett
• Thanks to Grammar Girl I now know how to correctly use elipses
• Viral infections suck
• Cough drops make your teeth feel gummy
• It's getting hot but I'm not yet caving in to the desire for air conditioning in the house
• I blast the air in the car
• Vicodin is not as effective on annoying pains and fever as ibuprofen, though it is more fun

# posted by Justin @ 5:11 PM Links to this post

Historically I've been a pretty speedy driver. I have a nice history of tickets at 19 MPH over the speed limit. At 20 MPH it's mandatory to appear in court and no one likes that.

I recently had to drive the the northeast corner of the state. Spurred on by $3.00 per gallon gas prices I decided to just take it easy. I made sure to keep my speed between the speed limit and five under. I got passed a lot, I got a little itchy on my foot, but overall stayed really close to that number. When I filled up to make the trip back home I calculated my gas mileage. The final tally for the outbound trip, 37 miles per gallon. I was blown away! The van I had been driving was getting somewhere around 14 miles per gallon.

On the way home I kicked up the speed just a little and drifted between the speed limit and 5 over. When we got to Blue Springs I filled up again to check the mileage and we only got 34 miles per gallon. That's a 9 percent change in mileage with a relatively small increase in travel time.

There was a nice side effect. I wasn't stressed out. I didn't care about passing other cars. I passed when I didn't have to get around them in a hurry. I avoided all heavy acceleration and just laid back. It was the least stressful long drive I think I have ever been on.

# posted by Justin @ 11:33 PM Links to this post