Some governments in the world need a swift kick in the ass. That kick administered by the United States Armed Forces.

1) Burma aka 'Myanmar' - This incident was the number one news story while I was on my trip to Europe. And what happened with the UN envoy that was sent there? Nothing. Just like I expected. The monks in Burma died for absolutely nothing. No gains, no negotiations with the military junta, nothing. I really feel sorry for the protestors out in various capitals, begging for the United Nations to do something, because they got nothing like I expected. Burma just emphasizes why the United Nations is a joke.

2) Venezuela - Chavez wants to create his own personal fiefdom in South America, and his has all the communist Hollywood crowd just cooing over him. This man is the next Pol Pot, and once again, the liberals are just going to kiss his behind and not let us do anything to him before he kills half of his country off.

3) Zimbabwe - Mugabe's already down that path, and he's getting more psychopathic by the day. If you thought Ethiopia was bad in the 1980s, Zimbabwe will blow that famine out of the way as the most devastating...and they don't even have a drought like the Ethiopians had at the time.

4) North Korea - Mr Kim is also psychopathic, but I still think his life will eventually end from someone on the inside.

5) Iran - What is Iran's death wish? Seriously, all the posturing is bad enough but Ahmadinejad's lovely devotion to causing a global jihad to try and usher in the return of the Mahadi is probably the greatest threat of these five to the United States. And the moment he tries it, Iran will be turned to glass by the Israelis. I have no doubt in my mind that unless this fruitcake is removed from power and real democracy restored in Iran, I'm going to see the first nuclear attack since Nagasaki in my lifetime. All in the name of a religion who represses freedoms and ignored by the left due to their hatred of George Bush.

6) Sudan - One thing the Democratic leadership won't tell folks is the moment we get pulled out of Iraq when we're in charge, we'll be in Sudan in an even less stable situation. However, this is one time where I say we do need to intervene. What the Sudanese government is pulling is nothing short of genocide and as the defender of freedom in the world, we do need to act with the amount of force no liberal will tolerate against Sudan.

We've got a few others that are starting down the path on this list: Pakistan and Nicaragua have returned to flaky. Russia and China still have their issues and both seem to be regressing than progressing like they were in the 1990s. Old hotspots like Bosnia, Somalia, and the like still are smoldering.

Meanwhile, both sides completely ignore this in their presidential debates. The only person that seems aware of these threats is sitting as President.

My prediction:

After Iowa and New Hampshire, we'll be down to four Republicans:

Rudy Guliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and Ron Paul

I honestly think Huckabee and McCain will show so bad in both, they'll drop out. Who they endorse might make things interesting, but I expect McCain to be the only one giving a push and that push going to Guliani. Paul will remain in for a while, due to his internet following, but eventually he'll bow out or go for an indie run.

We'll be down to five Democrats:

Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Dennis Kucinich

Richardson will only be around to try to make a good showing, in order to try and get the VP slot from Hillary winning. If Obama wins, or Edwards wins, the other will be the VP slot. Kucinich will ride it to the end, even though his only chance is to get all the pod people and Elvis to recruit on Mars for votes.

More whining today about Hillary being 'beat up' by those mean, vicious bullies running against her for the Democratic nomination.

Tell me, Hillary...how do you expect for people like Ahmadinejad, who believe in sharia law and that women are second class citizens, to listen to you?

How do you even expect to step into an area controlled by sharia law, and walk out alive?

A woman who has a clue can do such a thing. Former Prime Minister Bhutto in Pakistan, for example, has the guts to tell people like Musharraf where to stick it. Margaret Thatcher was no-nonsense. The current leader of Germany can be forceful without looking like she's reading off a script, or with James Carville's hand stuck up her back.

But Hillary won't quit this race, and will keep whining. Though I don't want any of the Democrats as president, only Dennis 'I carry a constitution in my pocket, but can't read it' Kucinich rates worse on my scale.

Ron Paul is getting a little publicity today for his supporters getting a fundraising record of $4 million in a 24 hour period.

I would support Ron, except for two major issues. First, he does not understand the meaning behind the war in Iraq. He's an isolationist, which honestly can't be done in a global economy. We have to protect freedom for everyone, not just those in the United States. The Muslim states, and especially those that subscribe to sharia law, are probably the most totalitarian of all. His ignorance of that fact would eventually end us up in worse situation than we were on September 11, 2001.

Secondly, Ron is pro-abortion. For someone who claims the truth and morality angle, I cannot fathom how killing babies is an issue other than freedom for the young to live. The mother gave up her rights the moment she got pregnant. If she didn't want to get pregnant, then she and her mate should have used protection. Unlike a number of conservatives, I don't have problems with those over the age of 13 getting protection from being pregnant.

Note that age: 13. Yes, the age of 'majority' is 16 (to drive), 18 (for most everything), and/or 21 (drinking). However, traditionally the age of majority is 13 in both the Western and Eastern world. Again, this is an area where I cannot be labeled a conservative. On the other hand, it does mean I also advocate throwing 14 year olds that murder into real prison and not these locked dorm rooms and then get let out at 18.

For those who know me, you know I used to belong to the RPGA (mentioned below), as well as played in the Living Rokugan campaign.

I'm rejoining the Heroes of Rokugan (new name, and not tied to the RPGA) campaign and have been pretty cryptic about what I'm playing.

So, here's the answer:

Even though my throat tells me that a cold is in my future, this has still turned into a good day. I finally got the server I've been working weeks on to work, so now the next test becomes Friday when I try to put it into our DMZ.

I do have a question, though. Why do hackers from other countries attack little city and county servers like I administer? We have zero information that a hacker could ever want, unless they just wanted to disrupt things. I would think a hacker would be more likely to go after a .mil site, or a .gov site that was state-related.

My second question is why behind the Koreans (who are bored), Chinese (who are either bored or working for their government), are people in Holland the third highest source of hackers going after our sites? I could think of a lot of things to do in the Netherlands instead of attempting to break into some American city's website.

Time for a little sports...

I know he wants to be nice and all, but Tom Osborne has got to give the entire Nebraska coaching staff the heave-ho.

Getting beat by 76 is bad enough, but Kansas? You've just got to be kidding.

As I wrote in an email to the local sports talk station, Xerces personally killed the general who caused the Battle of Thermopole. The Romans fired generals continuously until they found Scipio to fight Hannibal of Carthage. Lincoln fired generals constantly until he found Ulysses Grant.

Who else kept getting sacked in history until the replacement produced results? Just about every major conflict in the world had someone either fired or executed after battles that were 'blow outs'.

As another said on a message board, when it was said Nebraska wouldn't settle for mediocrity, the fans and supporters weren't thinking that meant we'd zoom right past mediocrity for total incompetence.

Fire Callahan and company, and fire them now. Stop digging a deeper hole to get out of come the end of the season. Stop the bleeding now.