Happy birthday, dork.
15
Sep 02
Oil (Ad nauseum)
Oil. oil. oil. oil. oil. oil. oil. The criminal enterprise masquerading as our government is not even pretending anymore. They have been emboldened by American apathy and ignorance. They are now discussing what they will do with the oil fields they plan on stealing from Iraq. No doubt the investment made to buy the election for Bush has paid dividends. It’s disgusting. How many crimes will go committed in your name? How many people must die before these leeches are burned off?
Washington Post: War Could Unshackle Oil in Iraq: U.S. Drillers Eye Huge Petroleum Pool
The importance of Iraq’s oil has made it potentially one of the administration’s biggest bargaining chips in negotiations to win backing from the U.N. Security Council and Western allies for President Bush’s call for tough international action against Hussein. All five permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — have international oil companies with major stakes in a change of leadership in Baghdad.
“It’s pretty straightforward,” said former CIA director R. James Woolsey, who has been one of the leading advocates of forcing Hussein from power. “France and Russia have oil companies and interests in Iraq. They should be told that if they are of assistance in moving Iraq toward decent government, we’ll do the best we can to ensure that the new government and American companies work closely with them.”
But he added: “If they throw in their lot with Saddam, it will be difficult to the point of impossible to persuade the new Iraqi government to work with them.”
So, not only is the seizure of Iraq an important boon for American business, but it will be a lever against other players like Russia, France, and China to promote greater American power worldwide. While I would very much hate to see anyone die fighting in Iraq I hope that any military action committed is a disaster. This is not the way things should be done. There should not be double standards or two different sets of rules. With all this stupid crap Bush intones about a regime change in Iraq, we could stand to gain from the same idea. We need a regime change in the United States.
14
Sep 02
The kids are alright
Look at this new bullshit disorder I just heard of, Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Something new to give kids medication for. I’m really concerned about the amount of medicating that goes on with kids. You take kids who may indeed have real reasons why they’re acting out and you dope them up and flatten their emotions. Symptoms your child may have Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD):
1. Often loses temper
2. often argues with adults
3. often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults’ requests or rules
4. often deliberately annoys people
5. often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior
6. is often touchy or easily annoyed by others
7. is often angry and resentful
8. is often spiteful and vindictive
That sounds like about 3 out of 4 kids I know. Quit putting money in the hands of drug companies and psychiatrists. Stop doping your kids. One thing you have to remember, doctors don’t know everything. It’s just their job to look like they do.
14
Sep 02
Bin Laden’s symbolic power
The US government has been attempting to push the idea that Osama bin Laden is dead. There is no significant evidence that this is the case, and if the government does have evidence they haven’t been forthcoming with it. Why do they want people to believe he is dead? Why is it so important to annihilate the idea of bin Laden? Strategically, if the US lies about bin Laden being dead or if they make everyone think he’s dead it does two things. First, it diminishes his example and his power as a symbol of opposition to American global hegemony. If he is thought dead, presumably as a result of American military action, it serves as an example against any who would oppose the United States. It sends the message that if you oppose the US and you will be obliterated. Secondly, spreading the idea of his death also forces Al Quaeda (if there even is such an organization) to prove that he still lives. This keeps Al Quaeda from being able to stay sufficiently underground as they will need to smuggle tapes and other evidence to the media.
How do we even know bin Laden is behind the WTC attacks? The government has demonstrated a disturbing lack of common sense and has proven itself incapable of finding any real information out. Consider the following: the tape in which Osama bin Laden allegedly confesses to blowing up the WTC has been shown to be a fake. At the very least it has been pieced together from tapes that are several years old. Also, despite government assertions to the contrary the real identities of the 9-11 hijackers are still unknown to the public. The government may know who they were, but they are most likely not the people they say they were. No bodies were recovered, and the hijackers have been shown to have been using stolen identities. The truth is, we really don’t know who they were. Many of the people the FBI said were the 9-11 hijackers have been show to still be alive and well in the mideast.
FBI Chief Robert Mueller admitted on September 20 and on September 27 that at this time the FBI has no legal proof to prove the true identities of the suicidal hijackers. Yet in the haste to move forward on the already planned war in Afghanistan, our government and the FBI (which does not have the best record for honesty in investigations to begin with, having been caught rigging lab tests, manufacturing testimony in the Vincent Foster affair, and illegally withholding/destroying evidence in the Oklahoma Bombing case) are not taking too close a look at evidence that points away from the designated suspect, ex(?) CIA asset Osama Bin Laden.
I don’t know what’s going on, but I know we’re being lied to and manipulated. This so-called war in Iraq is just another slap in our face.
Related:
11
Sep 02
Hacking the Matrix
I went to Office Max today and had a good laugh. I immediately went and grabbed my camera from my car. Notice anything interesting in this photo. Click to zoom in.
11
Sep 02
9-11 Anniversary
Let the made-for-tv orgy of blubbery and tackiness begin. If this day were so important most employers would have given people the day off. It’s about whipping up patriotism and dulling people’s minds with emotionalism. I participated in the moment of silence, but only because I was asleep.
From Forbidden Thoughts on 9-11:
“What cheeses me off the most about the Sept. 11 attacks is that it gave Americans a newer, better reason to be narcissistic. Before they were just (in their own eyes) the world’s No. 1 providers of liberty, entertainment and industry. Now they’re the world’s No. 1 victims, too.” -name withheld
A friend of mine noted, as all the flag bumper stickers and crap started getting slapped up all over houses, cars and work cubbies, that some people weren’t even really sticking the stickers on their cars — they were scotch-taping them to the inside of their car windows. It was as if they knew that their surge of patriotic feeling would fade, and they wouldn’t want to be left looking like a hick with the stupid flag sticker left on their car. Totally cynical, but I think that’s true.
— Maggie, Massachusetts
The deification of firefighters was the result of guilt. Most white-collar people never think of blue-collar workers at all or dismiss them as insignificant. When yuppies realized that firefighters would brave flames to save their sorry, self-centered lives they suddenly became ridiculously reverential. There is no convert like a new convert.
— Name withheld, New York
On 9/11/01, I just kept going out to stare up at the sky. It was so quiet and empty — and yes, actually beautiful — without jets and vapor trails everywhere. What corner of Antarctica will I have to visit to to see another completely empty sky from horizon to horizon?
— Name withheld
The people on Flight 93 were not goddamn “heroes” or “warriors,” they were passengers on the wrong plane. If I have to hear about Todd Beamer and “Let’s roll” one more time I am going to puke.
— Houghton
We were living in D.C., but it didn’t really faze us that terrorists had hit our very own city. We attempted to go to the movies where a homeless man kindly told us that no movies were being shown that day; grudgingly ate at the only food establishment open –Taco Bell — and ended up renting Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson Lee’s staged X-rated extravaganza. We did the nasty all day (no thanks to Tommy and Pam), convincing ourselves that what we were doing was life affirming. And it was.
— Name withheld
09
Sep 02
Alarms
I understand why alarm clock are so loud and jarring but do they really have to be? I almost had a heart attack every time my clock went off this morning. What a horrible way to start the day off.
08
Sep 02
With all the hypocritical crowing…
…over Iraq’s weapons program. It’s important to bear in mind that most nations develop so-called ‘weapons of mass destruction’. In fact, only one nation has used them to great effect and that was the use of nukes against Japanese civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the humanitarian U.S. It is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy for the U.S. to attempt to justify an invasion of Iraq with such nonsense.
Israel’s nuclear weapons program: no angry west, no inspectors, no sanctions, just more aid:
Justifying the US’s double standards, according to Mr. al-Baz, is irrational, although Egypt has all the right in the world to protest such an injustice. If saying that the Arab-Israeli conflict is a convincing argument for Israel to have 300 warheads, then the same argument can be used by any country in military conflict with its neighbors. If Iran, Iraq and Libya are demonized for mere allegations of attempting to manufacture such weapons, shouldn’t Israel be forced to destroy its arsenal, which is suspected to have already manufactured these weapons? And because the US’s perception of Israel’s nuclear arms is evidently not based on Israel’s power of rational persuasion, there are no guarantees that the US position will change even after final ‘peace’ accords are signed between Arabs states and Israel. …
Iraq is now lacking not only weapons to defend itself from daily aggression, but is also failing to feed its children and to care for its sick. However the US, Britain and others have vowed to continue their genocide against the people of Iraq. In the Israeli case, nothing is mentioned, save an occasional cry for justice from an Arab state, an activist or a sincere politician, although Israel is suspected of having a fully operational nuclear stockpile.
08
Sep 02
The New World Order: Is Iran next?
The next target for a US-led ‘regime change’ may well be Iran. The US is intent on completely taking over the Mideast and deposing governments who don’t do as they’re told. The US government has become the muscle behind international capital. The world must be made safe for the Enrons, Exxons, and Halliburtons of the world. Freedom, humanity, and national sovereignity be damned. Instead of thoughtful stewards of the public good our ‘leaders’ are blind acolytes of Mammon.
US using Afghanistan as anti-Iran launch-pad: minister:
“We have information that the Americans, in collaboration with bandits and terrorist groups, are organizing actions contrary to the interests of Iran on our eastern borders,” Kharazi told a press conference.
The minister did not elaborate on his accusation. Officials here commonly refer to drug smugglers on its eastern borders with Iran and Pakistan as “bandits”.
“Iran is in the process of examining how to lodge a complaint against the United States before international bodies, as these actions violate the (1980) Algiers Agreement,” Kharazi said, referring to the mutual non-interference deal that ended the post-revolution embassy hostage crisis.