A senior Iraqi government official tells me Tuesday night that the execution of Saddam Hussein will be carried out this way:
On the day of the execution, Saddam will be taken to the gallows now used to execute “terrorists and criminals.” He will not be given special treatment.
He will be dressed in either a green or an orange jumpsuit. He will be handcuffed. His feet will be chained, with only enough slack so he can shuffle up the stairs to the gallows. He will be hooded. He will wear prison sandals.
The hangman will also be hooded, but with a hood with eyeholes so he can see to pull a lever, releasing a trap door, dropping Saddam.
The gallows are made of steel, 15 feet off the ground. The gallows have been built with American supervision to meet "human rights standards." The old gallows had an old rope that had become elastic. There is now a new rope designed to snap Saddam's neck, not strangle him.
Before the execution, not expected before the new year, Saddam will be given a final meal, and time to smoke, pray and write a will. This could take several hours.
A doctor will check Saddam's health before the execution and remain on hand to verify his death.
The execution will be filmed for the Iraqi government archives. Limited footage of the execution will be broadcast on Iraqi state television.
--Richard Engel, NBC Middle East correspondent and Beirut bureau chief
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
another christmas is in the books
Candace is on my mind constantly. She's in Europe spending some Q.T. with the parentals. You know, time apart sounds like a good idea on paper, but it sucks big time. I am so lonely right now, I can't even see straight. She's been gone about four days, but it seems like a damn eternity. She usually calls twice a day, but my phone has been dead all day. I haven't had a chance to charge it because I've just been busy with my mom and dad and stuff. Not being able to talk to her induces a pain similar to taking an olympic javelin to the nutsack. It sucks. At this point, sleeping is an indulgence that a person in my current situation doesn't get to relish in, so I'll just recount my christmas experience. I guess christmas technically starts on Christmas Eve, so I'll begin there.
First thing in the morning, Katie calls me up and we have lunch at Qdoba's, which I'm always down for. Katie's truck is pretty sweet and the fact that she named it Carl makes it even better. I was shocked to hear about her sister's boyfriend. He's in a rough spot. He'll be okay though. He's a good kid (god I feel old). Her brother also found himself a decent lady. He's going to propose to her soon. Skatie was telling me that he got her a ring. Umm... I guess... if Angela's little sister is reading this, pretend to be surprised. Then, Matt comes over at about 3:00. We hang out and watch Aqua Teen until 5:00 when they had to leave.
Then, it was quality time with my new toy until about 7:00 when I headed over to Mom's house. Xbox rode shotgun in my fag bag. I took Sarah out for milk and cookies and we rented a movie. Never watched it. I hope it gets returned. We came back and baked the cookies. I proceeded to lose myself to Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas until I got a random phonecall from my dad's number, but the voice coming from the other end of the line wasn't my dad... IT WAS PAPPY!!! I guess he had driven up from Tennessee so that Mary and little Xaeden could spend some time with Mary's family. Pappy made the extra effort to come up and hang out. I called Matt and we made a little mini-event out of it. We played video games until Jerry did what he does best and made a complete jackass of himself. Nothing major, aside from making my friends and I feel like a complete and total unwelcome burden (he has a thing for that, doesn't he?) Anywho, we headed over to Matt's and attempted to pull an all-nighter. Didn't happen. We crashed out at about 5:30.
10:00 A.M. rolled around pretty damn early on Christmas this year. I pretty much just woke up and headed over to Mom's house. Pappy headed down to Gosport so he could be with his family and Matt did his thing. Came to Mom's just in time to miss Sarah's gala-unveiling of her usual Christmas smorgasbord of gifts. I'm kind of relieved. I can sense that she's growing up a little bit. She has a better sense of appreciation. I'll never forget Christmas 2005. She tears ass through a vast cornucopia of gifts only to look up at her parents from amidst the ocean of torn wrapping paper and belt out, "awww... no portable dvd player. Oh well." It was more than a little disturbing. Anywho, she got some clothes and a pink razor phone. That's all she really wanted. I honestly feel kind of bad for her. Mom and Jerry are having a rough time, too.
I headed over to Dad's at about 2:00. He was still in bed all sore from his Peanut-Butter fiasco from the night before. Apparently, he decided that it would be a brilliant idea to get slobbering-drunk with Toby, Christen, and Squeel and actually attempt to walk the dog. Well, one thing led to the next and my poor retarded father ended up in the middle of the street with what appears to be a twisted knee and a "somewhat" broken arm. idiot. Looking back, I really wish that I would have stayed at my dad's house and actually managed a good time on Christmas Eve and maybe aided in my dad avoiding the whole broken-arm situation. Him and Squeel got each other ipods. I hope they enjoy their movie theater gift certificates... lame. I digress. We did the gift-exchange thing. I made out pretty well, I must say (it's tough to be humble when you own a custom-crafted marshmallow gun). Dad and I managed a little bonding time. He pretty much layed in the bedroom and watched me play Gears of War. He seemed impressed, but he has a really good way of faking that particular trait.
I headed over to Matt's at about 9:00 to hang out with him and abbey at about 9:00. I got to watch them do their gift-exchange. They are really awesome together. Matt's a great dude (although a little female-retarded), and Abbey is pretty much his version of what I have with Candace. It feels pretty great when I know that my close friend can get as much happiness out of life as I get out of mine. Seeing her just made me think about Candace that much more. We hung out until about 3:00. I packed up and came home. Attempted to sleep until I started writing this and now here I am, still missing the hell out of my god-damn Candace. This sucks.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
TSD Daily Blog #1
I have this great idea. I'm starting a daily blog for my overtime at TSD. I'm just going to leave it open all day and jot down whatever comes to mind. First, watching the movie Resident Evil has prompted the question, "what would win in a fight, a zombie-doberman or a vampiric rotweiller?" Well, I aim to find out.
My first natural decision was to say that the vampire dog would kick the shit out of a zombie dog. First of all, rotweillers are totally badass. A rotweiller could kick the hell out of a doberman any damn day of the week. But, we aren't just talking about dogs. Specifically, we are discussing zombie-dobermans and vampire rotweillers. When the specifics get thrown into the mix, things get a little more complicated. In order to guage the outcome of this battle, one must consider the enhanced powers and instincts of each respective entity.
As previously stated, I personally favor the vamp-weiller. Rottweilers are obviously more badass and their natural tendency is to go for the neck. Plus, a vampire dog would have enhanced strength, whereas a zombie dog would be lucky to keep all of its' limbs attached.
Let's say, for the sake of not making this article too overly-ridiculous, that the vamp-weiller does not posess the ability to morph into a bat. However, the dead blood does pose an interesting twist.
Let's think about what would happen in the event of an exchange of bites. Both species posess the power to "turn" their victims, meaning that a zombie bite would render the victim a zombie. A vampire bite would result in the victim turning into a vampire. It has been portrayed, though, that if a naturally-born vampire is killed, all of its' undead "victims" would ultimately expire as well. This point, although doesn't exactly pertain to the proposed scenario, does play into the bigger picture. A zombie lacks any function of their internal organs (aside from very basic main brain function fueling the zombie's rage and will to ingest flesh). So, one could only assume that, in the event of a vampire bite, the effect of the bite would not produce any results. It is assumed that vampires, although technically are described as "undead," do have working organs and a circulatory system. This point could be illustrated in two ways:
1) One widely-known way to kill a vampire is to stab it in the heart with a wooden stake. If the heart were dead/disconnected from the entity, a stab to the heart would yield no results.
2) In the film, "Underworld," during the CGI scene where Marcus is awakened, his heart is shown beating within his chest.
Essentially, a vampiric-rotweiller bite would be uneffective and a zombie-doberman bite would result in the transformation of the animal into a zombie.
Another trait that cannot be overlooked is super-strength. Vampires are known to posess enhanced physical strength. Considering that human vampires have the intelligence to distinguish between a blood-sucking bite and an all-out mauling. Dogs do not harbor such intelligence. It is a safe assumption that if a vampire-rotweiller were to lunge for the neck, it would unleash all of its' raw strength thus resulting in one of two possible outcomes:
1) The zombie-doberman's head will be bitten clean-off.
2) The spinal connections between the dog's head and body will be severed.
Both outcomes would result in the demise of the zombie.
Now, it could also be assumed that this exchange could be deadly for the vampire dog as well. The film, "Interview with the Vampire," shows us that dead or coagulated blood is deadly to a vampire. This is illustrated when the character of Claudia (portrayed by Kirsten Dunst) offers a meal of sedated humans to Le Stat (Tom Cruise). This particular "feast," concludes as a sort of vampire poison, as the sacrificed humans are already dead. This shows that a bite from a vamp-weiller to a zomberman could be deadly to the vampire as well.
Alas, I conclude by saying that a battle between a single zombie-doberman and a vampire-rotweiller would result in an even tie. The physically superior vamp-weiller would lunge for the neck of the zombie-doberman and bite the head clean off (killing the zombie). The blood of the zomberman, however, would enter the system of the vamp-weiller resulting in the death of the vampire.
My first natural decision was to say that the vampire dog would kick the shit out of a zombie dog. First of all, rotweillers are totally badass. A rotweiller could kick the hell out of a doberman any damn day of the week. But, we aren't just talking about dogs. Specifically, we are discussing zombie-dobermans and vampire rotweillers. When the specifics get thrown into the mix, things get a little more complicated. In order to guage the outcome of this battle, one must consider the enhanced powers and instincts of each respective entity.
As previously stated, I personally favor the vamp-weiller. Rottweilers are obviously more badass and their natural tendency is to go for the neck. Plus, a vampire dog would have enhanced strength, whereas a zombie dog would be lucky to keep all of its' limbs attached.
Let's say, for the sake of not making this article too overly-ridiculous, that the vamp-weiller does not posess the ability to morph into a bat. However, the dead blood does pose an interesting twist.
Let's think about what would happen in the event of an exchange of bites. Both species posess the power to "turn" their victims, meaning that a zombie bite would render the victim a zombie. A vampire bite would result in the victim turning into a vampire. It has been portrayed, though, that if a naturally-born vampire is killed, all of its' undead "victims" would ultimately expire as well. This point, although doesn't exactly pertain to the proposed scenario, does play into the bigger picture. A zombie lacks any function of their internal organs (aside from very basic main brain function fueling the zombie's rage and will to ingest flesh). So, one could only assume that, in the event of a vampire bite, the effect of the bite would not produce any results. It is assumed that vampires, although technically are described as "undead," do have working organs and a circulatory system. This point could be illustrated in two ways:
1) One widely-known way to kill a vampire is to stab it in the heart with a wooden stake. If the heart were dead/disconnected from the entity, a stab to the heart would yield no results.
2) In the film, "Underworld," during the CGI scene where Marcus is awakened, his heart is shown beating within his chest.
Essentially, a vampiric-rotweiller bite would be uneffective and a zombie-doberman bite would result in the transformation of the animal into a zombie.
Another trait that cannot be overlooked is super-strength. Vampires are known to posess enhanced physical strength. Considering that human vampires have the intelligence to distinguish between a blood-sucking bite and an all-out mauling. Dogs do not harbor such intelligence. It is a safe assumption that if a vampire-rotweiller were to lunge for the neck, it would unleash all of its' raw strength thus resulting in one of two possible outcomes:
1) The zombie-doberman's head will be bitten clean-off.
2) The spinal connections between the dog's head and body will be severed.
Both outcomes would result in the demise of the zombie.
Now, it could also be assumed that this exchange could be deadly for the vampire dog as well. The film, "Interview with the Vampire," shows us that dead or coagulated blood is deadly to a vampire. This is illustrated when the character of Claudia (portrayed by Kirsten Dunst) offers a meal of sedated humans to Le Stat (Tom Cruise). This particular "feast," concludes as a sort of vampire poison, as the sacrificed humans are already dead. This shows that a bite from a vamp-weiller to a zomberman could be deadly to the vampire as well.
Alas, I conclude by saying that a battle between a single zombie-doberman and a vampire-rotweiller would result in an even tie. The physically superior vamp-weiller would lunge for the neck of the zombie-doberman and bite the head clean off (killing the zombie). The blood of the zomberman, however, would enter the system of the vamp-weiller resulting in the death of the vampire.
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