So I know it's a bad time to go on vacation, but I'm leaving on a cruise on Saturday.

I made these plans back in January, when my friend and I thought we were going to laid off our jobs. We figured it was the only time we could afford to go on vacation before we both got laid off, so we booked. I was going to go and visit my mom sometime in April, but my aunt was visiting and staying in the house and there wasn't room for me.

As it turns out, we're both still working but now a war has broken out. Back in January, I had a feeling we might be at war by the time our cruise was underway, but my friend persuaded me that we would be safe on our cruise. I hope so.

The cruise is leaving from San Francisco, and sailing down to Cabo San Lucas. We'll stop in Monterey first, then Catalina Island off of LA, and then down to Cabo. It's my first cruise, and this one is going to last seven (7) days.

I'm excited but a little apprehensive about going, since we are at war. I'm hoping I'll be able to get away from all the depressing war news, but if there's a TV on the ship I know I"ll be watching it. Plus I'm sure I'll be having conversations with people on the boat.

It feels kind of awful to be going on vacation, while our there are pictures of US soldiers with execution gun shot wounds in their foreheads, and probably being tortured by the Iraqis. I bet some people in Berkeley are loving those videos and pictures of executed and frightened American soldiers, since they had a sign on a Berkeley freeway overpass last Thursday which said "We love you Sadam".

I have a feeling that all these anti-war protests are going to force people who are on the fence politically to make a choice, and go conservative. No data to support this, but it's just a feeling I get. People are already going that way, and extreme incidents like the anti-war protests just push many people over the edge. I'm sure this isn't the anti-war protests intent, but I believe it's what happening.

I also have a feeling that Bush will be reelected in 2004, much to the anti-war protestors chagrin, but they have themselves to blame for it if he does. And that will be ultimate irony I think of all of these anti-war protests. And I don't put it past evil John Ashcroft to roll out Patriot Act Phase II, or parts of it to crack down on the anti-war protestors. I'm sure all of these anti-war protests are making him very happy.

It's not the anti-war protestors are bad, beause they're not. They're just expressing their opinions. It's just that the violent ones are pissing people off, and worse, making businesses lose money. And if there's one single way to get the law to come down on people, it's to stop businesses, large and small, to stop making money.

If the anti-war protests really wanted to make Bush wake up and pay attention, they should have demonstrations in the heartland like in Nebraska, Texas or California's Central Valley or any other city that Bush has visited since he's been in office. He's never been to San Francisco, and he only went to NYC because of 9/11. Has he even been to Chicago? I doubt it.

The battle for American opinion has never been won on the coasts, but in the heartland. Look at where the most fierce presidential campaigning has taken place. Not on the coasts, but in the middle of the country, Michigan and Florida. There are so many more republican governors than democratic governors. That fact alone should tell you something.