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<itemid>9993</itemid>
<eventtime>2005-12-06 14:55:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2005-12-06 19:56:03</logtime>
<subject>
Why Even Winning In Iraq Doesn't Matter To Criticizing It
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I have been in favor of taking Saddam Hussein for 10 years. We had all the justification we needed when he invaded Kuwait. He has and had been in blatant violation of multiple treaties and commonly held international law. He agreed not to do certain things after the gulf war, and routinely proceeded to ignore them. When you use weapons of mass destruction on your own people; you have no legitimate complaint to having inspectors come in to make sure that you don't have any more as long as you remain in power. Anyone with half a brain can see this. Saddam Hussein only let the inspectors back in at the point of a gun. We did not need to issue ultimatums and we certainly did not need a second security council resolution to do so. So, you'll pardon me, but all this business about 'he lied about the weapons of mass destruction' is kind of silly to me. Except it isn't. See, we didn't need justification to go in, because we already had it. But the REASON we went in is another matter entirely. Despite the perpetual chaos that goes on there, I believe that there is a slight chance that things might stabilize. This is the worst thing that could happen; not because I wish doom upon the Iraqi people, far from it. They deserve a break. No, the reason this would be a bad thing is because it would let one of the most blatant and murderous attempts at raw profiteering in history go down and no one would do anything about it. <lj-cut> Popular opinion has finally turned against the war, but for the wrong reasons. People are angry at President Bush because we are losing and because quite frankly, he can't lead his way out of a paper bag. But I have great faith in the American military, and it is entirely possible that somehow they might, just might, come out of this despite every attempt by the powers that be in the white house to screw things up. No, I don't mean they're deliberately sabotaging things, I mean that they're too busy robbing, looting and pillaging every dime of the US tax payers money indirectly bounced through their illegitimate contracts to actually pay for the thing that they were supposed to be doing in the first place. Absolutely every contract has been overbid and under funded. They spend billions and yet only get bargain basement results. The Iraqi military still has crappy equipment despite all of the money that we're paying. Why is this? Because a lot of the equipment that they have is being paid for by the interim Iraqi government (I cite the recent story that involved the Iraqi government illegally moving huge amounts of money around in the shadows so they could actually afford to pay for things as proof positive of this). Ultimately, I am not a reporter. I can only see echoes of what is actually going on, and I'm certainly not in a position to question these things on a level that should be, but there ARE people who should both in the press and in the chambers of government that are STILL asleep at the switch. Imagine if you will that you are at home and the FBI comes in and raids your house. You have a homeless person staying in your basement without your knowledge, and he had drugs on him. Well they arrest him and confiscate a lot of your property as an accessory to the fact. Later, you find out that they did the whole thing without a warrant. It doesn't matter what your opinion is about the drugs or the homeless person (though most would agree that they are glad that he was arrested.) The FBI should have had a warrant. That is WHY evidence without a warrant is tossed right out the window because law enforcement KNOWS their evidence will do them no good if they don't follow the proper procedures for it. So to is the case for war. It does not MATTER what outcome comes out of Iraq if our reasons for doing so were wrong. If the sole purpose of our going into Iraq for Bush was to salvage the family honor, then the blood spilt by the soldiers there is not that liberation but of murder. Let us clarify this: If an individual quietly arrange for someone to die so they can earn $1,000,000, even if they didn’t pull the trigger, would you call that person a murderer? Most juries would. At the least they would call it accessory to the fact, and beyond the legal definition, in the eyes of anyone sensible, that person is a murderer. Thus, for the President of the United States to send our soldiers to war to die for the sake of his family honor is not only murder, but it is a stain upon our nation. Those that willingly let him do it for a chance to earn a quick buck are no better. In the end I hope our troops succeed at their mission, despite the incredible odds of them doing so. the Iraqi people are not fools. They know a sham when they see one. After all, they lived for years under the dictator that was so disconnected from reality that one of his henchmen was still spouting, "We will defeat the infidels!" over the radio even as our tanks were rolling into Baghdad. Thus, when our own cabinet members shout, "We will defeat the enemies of freedom!" while they can't even turn the power back on (after almost 2 years of promising to do so), you'll pardon them for being a little cynical. </lj-cut>
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<entry>
<itemid>10277</itemid>
<eventtime>2005-12-07 10:39:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2005-12-07 15:39:52</logtime>
<subject>Behold the Lady</subject>
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by Emmit Other The sky was black As the lightning fell; A curse upon the land. The grief of ages Made mountains rise Upon the shifting sand. The knight had reaped the whirlwind; had sewn it through his tears. The search was long and painful, rusted gold in stolen years. His armor bent and cracking Beneath the Onyx Sky His heart had long Stopped beating But he simply would not die. The life of all the ages Could not undo his pain. It was now sheer folly Yet he rose and rose again. For there, beyond the sunrise lay the awful hope the same. He could not hope to see her Or even know her name. Yet the will was strong And the need was stronger; To find a love so true To life eternal onward The curse to then undo. Like a phoenix from the ashes The dust of a thousand deaths Rained down in silent laughter. Then lo, the dawn did break The white marble cliff anew A citadel of light Upon the hilltop Shimmering in the dew Elven Eldritch Energy Charged through its day Forged spire It swam out upon the vale To flood with light and fire. Seed and Seed and Sapling Sprang Forth in Emerald Grace White Lightning streaked Upon the Ash Banished From this Place. Behold the lady Her eyes of blue Her lips of purest red To match the ruby coating On golden hair of head. Her gown was emerald Her boots of white Her grace and movement Blinded Mortal Sight The last thing any man Would see, Before their eyes had dimmed, Content with bliss to know Perfect beauty, Awe inspired Angel touched and glory rimmed. Behold the lady, She takes her token fair Bestows it upon the broken knight It floats down through the air. He catches it with mailed fist Howling triumph to the stars His quest is now completed His name is now recalled Undone are all the protests The wounding and the scars. Healed is the spirit Whole is now the mind To know true love To see it And happiness to find.
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<entry>
<itemid>10617</itemid>
<eventtime>2005-12-08 14:11:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2005-12-08 19:24:36</logtime>
<subject>I just don't get this....</subject>
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So many times it is the same people advocating one thing but not advocating another... Case in point...recently in Canada, the flailing Liberal party has <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051208/wl_nm/politics_dc_1">moved to ban handguns</a> in a desperate bid to gain popularity again, despite being almost as corrupt as the Cabal in office in our country. <lj-cut>Why is it ok to legalize marijuana because the government wastes BILLIONS of dollars on a drug war that they are clearly losing and then make the ownership of guns illegal when you'll have to put the same machinery in place to stop guns instead? I can understand the desire to make them illegal. I really can. Both the abuse of drugs and the death caused by guns are vile, dangerous things to behold. On the other hand, I simply find it rank hypocracy to criticize the attempt to outlaw one and not the other. I have no plans to own a handgun. If I buy a gun, it will be a rifle. I certainly have no plans to use, try, buy or encourage the use of Marijuana. I am not Pro-Handgun. I am not Pro-Marijuana. I am anti-hypocracy. I would almost think that my views on this issue would make me a libertarian except that Libertarians usually live in their own little world where they think that government intervention is not a good thing. Society is as we define it to be. So much of our money is abstract that it must be. What value do stocks, bonds, certificates of ownership and the like save what one person is willing to pay for them? Yet history and human nature has shown time and again that pure, rampant and unregulated capitalism ISN'T capitilism. Too much salt can kill you and too little salt can kill you too. Moderation, the balance between extremes, is modeled in nature time and time again. Is it really so radical a concept to base an economy around the idea that the wealth of a nation is determined by the wealth of its citizens rather than the economy as a whole? Why don't news programs talk about Real GNP gain per capita instead of the GNP? America is the richest, most prosperous country in the world because of its middle class. Both parties talk about appeasing the middle class, but neither really represents it. The libertarians have some of the right ideas, but since a party is defined by its fringe, they often take rediculous postures that the vast majority of the country rejects. What this world needs are radical moderates. The terms are not exclusive really. Radicals are those who believe in the extreme. Moderates are those who seek the consensus or wisest choice possible. Thus a radical moderate is someone who rejects extremism of any kind with extreme prejudice. A radical moderate can still persue excellence, but not persue it at the expense of everyone else. Its called common sense people. Patrick Henry got it. Why can't we? </lj-cut>
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<entry>
<itemid>10925</itemid>
<eventtime>2005-12-16 13:33:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2005-12-16 19:00:36</logtime>
<subject>Democracy or Capitalism?</subject>
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Let us instead examine the nature of the political systems involved. Short and Extreme Oversimplification: 'Capitalism' beat 'Communism' because people really had no incentive to work, because everything and anything that they had could be taken away by the state. Corruption and paranoia were rampant, which is why their technology also sucked (which was also helped by the massive embargo from the free world. Science flourishes in a state of free information.) Enter China. <lj-cut> China had been toying around with the idea of capitalism for quite some time but when Tianamin square hit they began initiating reforms a lot quicker. They saw what happened in Russia and rather quickly realized that if they didn't do something that they would be next....especially when they looked at what happened in Romania (which was an extremely violent revolution). China now seems to think that what what cause the Russian system to collapse was the fact that Americans have lots of STUFF. Looking around these days, you'd almost think that too, but as messed up as things are here, they're not irreemibly lost. But I'm getting off my point. This isn't about America (directly) its about China. China seems to think that it can have things both ways. They believe that by creating the most sophisticated secret police and oppression network in the history of mankind, they can stop any ideas of freedom from circulating, while at the same time gaining the economic, political and military strength that the United States currently enjoys by building up their economy. We won't address the issue for the moment about US corporations helping them do this, aside from the fact that they may be in for a rude shock later on (See below). Yet the leadership of China is as stupid as the leadership of our nation. Here, our leaders measure economic prosperity by the percentage of growth of the whole economy (GNP). As long as that grows, or unemployment stays at a certain level, why, then, the economy must be going gangbusters. Most of our leaders live in a bubble...to them, the world is doing good as long as the rich and powerful are doing well. England was the first nation to show the power of a middle class. It was in the 19th century that Napolean called the english, "A Nation of Shopkeepers" in contemptiously quoting Adam Smith. And yet that was ultimately their strength and what allowed them such power in that century. A nation with widely distrubuted wealth generates more long term wealth than having it all bunched up. That is because, among other things, wealth is generated by capital liquidity. That doesn't happen when it is all locked up or being exported. To China for example. Now, China IS building a middle class. They are actually studying western thought and philosphy and truly believe that they can overcome all our problems by taking the long term view of things. Many of China's policies are visionary in nature; they are working for advanced technology including recyclable power etc etc. They also understand the importance of psychological victories, and are thus spending huge amounts of resources to build up their reputation as a nation. And yet, for all their recent successes, China (like us) is suffering from tunnel vision. They are looking at only the parts of western history that they WANT to pay attention to, and ignoring the rest. There are certain scholars, usually at the height of the ivory tower, who believe that there is a fundamental difference between Asian and Western culture; that the Western Culture is about the individual and that Asian culture is more centered around the group. They have substantial academic and observable evidence for this, and the current media plays this idea up a great deal. It is subtle, but frankly I ascribe it to a subtle racism akin to the "yellow peril" of the early twentieth century in which hoards of faceless identical Chinese were threatening to overwhelm the world unless something was done about it. Now, culturally speaking, Asian nations might actually put more emphasis on long term planning and the benefit of the whole....but they are also human beings. I believe the average person polled in China who has issues with a lot of the things that the United States has done of late, but there is something else that I am completely conviced of. The vast majority of people on this planet, no matter who they are, yearn for freedom. They might have many conflicting desires, and freedom might be sublimated for the desire for safety. We are on the verge of subverting our own system by surrending that very precious liberty we gained so long ago, but again, this is about China, not us. The vast majority of the populace are not the new middle class. They are peasants. There are 900 million of them. Let me restate that number. 900 MILLION. Human beings are most wonderful, the most dangerous, the most creative and the most troublesome creatures that this planet has ever produced. A human being can find a flaw in a system so perfect that its designers assured the world that it was perfect and seemless. People are chaos. We have laws in this country that are essentially ignored by the vast majority of the populace. There are degrees to that, but law enforcement has enough problems here dealing with the 1% of the population that is seriously deviant in terms of their desire to inflict harm in one form or another upon their fellow beings. We have a method of redressing political greivances here. It might be flawed. It might be in peril, but we still have it, and it is still worth fighting for. We are also the richest country in the history of the world, and yet we have problems fighting drugs or other laws that we give major priority and funding to without any observable success. If .01 to 1% of the population is causing our nation that much problems....(and we'll put that number at what.....say 30 million which is overly large....but still) Then how is a country that ISN'T as wealthy as we are going to deal with 900 million people? I had a conversation with an extremly patriotic chinese individual a while ago, that gave me insight into the mind of the populace that runs the government and that lives in the cities. It went roughly something like this. "100 million people currently live in relative prosperity." "And what about the other 900 million people?" "They don't count." They don't count. That is what is reflected in the corrupt local officials taking land from the peasants and not paying them. That is what is reflected in the way the government is denying them health care, jobs and any meaningful say in the way their government works. You can oppress people. Governments have been doing it for a very long time. You can stomp the flame of liberty as it begins to spark and thread in hopes of keeping it from spreading. But there comes a point at which the tinderbox is lit no matter what they do. ANY government in the history of mankind would have a problem with this, so how can a government that is as disconnected from reality as the Chinese are (and I assure you, they are if they think that 900 million people 'Don't count') possibly hope to do it? Chaos happens. This last year has had enough major natural disasters to prove it. They had a small scale one in which a city of 300,000 people had to turn off their faucets because of Benzene...so what happens when there is a major and large scale breakdown of the system? Sooner or later there will be an accounting. The result will probably be bloody and horrible, but even if the best of all possible worlds happens and they end up with a peaceful transition, just WHO ELSE do you think that they're going to be angry at besides the people who said that they 'don't count'? Maybe the people that gave them the tools and the economic capital to oppress them in the first place... Are you a company/corporation? If you REALLY want to invest in the long term market in China....I'd spend more time supporting pro democracy groups than selling my soul to the Reapers that run things now. But that's just me. I'm not always right, am I? Then again, I have the entire weight of human history on my side this time.... </lj-cut>
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<entry>
<itemid>11048</itemid>
<eventtime>2005-12-20 16:31:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2005-12-20 21:49:23</logtime>
<subject>Murphy's Law</subject>
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Really does bear out in my opinion. I'd be very interested in a mathematical model to back that up...(indeed I've been very interested in the mathematical models of a lot of things lately, since mathematics is the fundamental building block of all science, and therefore all modern truth.) It is true that statistics is largely in the eye of the beholder, but there are degrees and then there are degrees. But I digress <as usual> Allow me to postulate a hypothetical really freakin bad scenario. <lj-cut> Our system is strong. It has survived presidents who were completely unqualified because of a number of reasons, including checks and balance (the things in the constitution) and a federaul beuracratic system of professional government employees (which isn't). We've progressed to a point where we can have a C- draft dodging religiously disconnected President and still manage not reach infinite breaking point. We still have elections, and though things are straining, they haven't entirely won...simply because they're responding to public pressure. They are, of course, severely dented. This is a tough time for us; the President may take a major blow soon, and this eaves dropping thing isn't likely to go over well with folks here.... But history shows that when things are troubled at home, best look over one's shoulder.... <a href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_pesek&sid=aZJtS2PX8ew8">China</a> announced today that they 'forgot' a major portion of their GNP, which suddenly catapulted them into one of the most prosperous economies overnight. Now, in my last article I accused them of being disconnected from reality by ignoring the 900 million people within their borders... Here is a worse case scenario...what if they aren't? What if they took from the playbook of recent administrations and realized that if things are at a breaking point (and given the demonstrations going on in China you can begin to see the dams crack, albiet tiny ones), then what can often distract the populace is a nice good old fashioned war. Which China has been gearing up to fight for quite some time. They've got the military, they've got the clout, and they've got the desire. They've managed to get the entire world to effectively ignore Taiwan for over 50 years, just so that they will do business with them. The only real thing that has been between China and Taiwan has been the US. Oh...and we're kind of busy right now. So what if.....just what if....there is a plan. A very careful and deliberate plan, holding their cards close to their chests, and they plan to attack Taiwan? Well....let us say hypothetically, what if this is true? What happens. The world shakes like a snow globe thats what happens. If WWIII happened today; it would be China and Russia allied through Central Asia. Europe is nominally on the side of the US, but our relations with them are severely strained on many issues. Plus, we're not immediately talking WWIII here but then again, WWII started out a purely european thing with Japan just taking over everything next to it. WWIII starts out with Russia and Ukraine starting a nice little war, and China and Taiwan battling it out. If we don't defend Taiwan, then our credibility is nothing....but we're so closely intertwined with China economically that if they wanted to they could utterly collapse our economy. We depend on them for manufactured goods, they hold a huge amount of our foreign bonds, AND they have a trained corps of cyberspies who could LITERALLY crush the internet in a matter of weeks. The US economy is very dependant on these things....so if Russia and China decide they want to expand their military might a little bit, we're in for a reality check people, because there is little to nothing we can do about it. South America is about to go communist, in part because of our own hypocritical policies and in part because of our selfish determination that they should look up to us, just because we are the United States. There comes a point in every nation's history where there is a test; do you or do you not truly match the ideals that you truly propose to aspire to. For the past 140+ years, that question has largely been "No" with a few wonderful exceptions such as the Berlin Airlift. WWII was fought for the right reasons, but all of the wrong concessions were made. Storms a comin, and we're not prepared. What is wrong with electing a goofball for a president? His ineptitude has already been shown with Katrina, and the gulf wars, and the COMPLETE FAILURE TO STOP AL QUEDA. Wait and watch down the road. We've been given yet another warning....will we heed it? Can we afford to wait until 2008? I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think we can even wait until 2006. </lj-cut>
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<entry>
<itemid>11529</itemid>
<eventtime>2005-12-29 10:06:00</eventtime>
<logtime>2005-12-29 15:16:37</logtime>
<subject>A little unmusical music...</subject>
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Music without sound (yet) Wanna Believe by Emmit Other Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Why don't you just believe? Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Just come with us and just believe. We're living in a bubble We hear what we want to hear Guarantee that there's no trouble No disagreement will come near. Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Why don't you just believe? Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Just come with us and just believe. I'm speaking from the ashes I'm speaking from the dead Who spills the blood of patriots To use it for their own They use an old TV set Anteneas made of bones. Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Why don't you just believe? Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Just come with us and just believe. Wrap our business in the flag So be you one of us It feels good to be so right To know that you are true Who among you has who has no sin Let him cast a stone Why be a sinner when you can romp And toss the rocks all day Stone the evil, Stone the righteous What difference does it make, anyway? Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Why don't you just believe? Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Just come with us and just believe. Did Jesus die for lower taxes? Do you plaster Him on your car? Do you vote Blue or do you vote Red? Did you bash that professor's mailbox Because he called your dad a monkey? Did you burn those books that told those lies? Do you find Ann Coulter Funky? Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Why don't you just believe? Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Just come with us and just believe. Then the sky cracked open And we had a rude surprise Turns out that the wicked Were right before our eyes The enemy was spoken And all accounted for Humility was broken We died in fire and ashes Our righteous cause no more If only we had heeded The warnings come before. Come On, Come On, You wanna believe Why don't you just believe? Come On, Come On, We're gonna die, Just come with us and just believe.
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