Short of an act of a deity I don't believe in, there isn't a much that the United States citizens or congress can do to the president anymore. I'm not one to advocate wiping clean the face of the Earth, but I do not believe I can describe my current opinion on the state of my country any other way than complete and total disillusionment. I used to think that when there was great evil the good would band together and stave it off; this sentiment no longer seems true, and perhaps it was only true in the pulp stories of my youth.
Where is this great evil?
That is my current problem, I can't truly find it. I have begun to rationalize everything and with this new found logic virus I no longer feel anything towards our current state of being. I find moments or flashes of white hot emotion, but soon it simmers down to a slow boil and the feeling of helplessness settles back in. The only question I have left that lights fires in my blood is this: What happened to compassion? I no longer see it in the eyes of a country whose founding legal documents seemed so wonderfully promising. And, unlike some others I don't see dollar signs or the number of the beast; all I see are glassy eyes reflecting my own vacuous stare tinged slightly with red from an eternal hangover.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Wikipedia for Zombies
I have no problem with wikipedia as a concept. Reality is already subjectively created and interpreted, may as well make the process a little more transparent, draw people that much more into a storytelling reality.
But I have to admit, sometimes I worry that an online negotiation of truth will ruin the collective sanity, that it threatens cultural boundaries that are better left alone...but rather than censor the internet, can’t we just blind the stupid?
Wikipedia has already overwhelmed Google to such an extent that it’s nearly impossible to find any information on how to kill it, so we should just accept its presence and choose some other way to mediate between conflicting truths, a way that will leave the information out there without presenting people already too absorbed in abstraction another abstract evil which contrarian individuals can be associated with.
Because, truth be told, I have no problem leaving a bunch of people ignorant, so long as I don’t have to deal with them. I see nothing righteous about forcing alternate perspectives down another person’s throat. It’s tiring.
I’ll stay in my circle of hell, you stay in yours, and we’ll talk about tangentials.
But I have to admit, sometimes I worry that an online negotiation of truth will ruin the collective sanity, that it threatens cultural boundaries that are better left alone...but rather than censor the internet, can’t we just blind the stupid?
Wikipedia has already overwhelmed Google to such an extent that it’s nearly impossible to find any information on how to kill it, so we should just accept its presence and choose some other way to mediate between conflicting truths, a way that will leave the information out there without presenting people already too absorbed in abstraction another abstract evil which contrarian individuals can be associated with.
Because, truth be told, I have no problem leaving a bunch of people ignorant, so long as I don’t have to deal with them. I see nothing righteous about forcing alternate perspectives down another person’s throat. It’s tiring.
I’ll stay in my circle of hell, you stay in yours, and we’ll talk about tangentials.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Meet People Who Want Sex / Japanese Sexy Women in Action!
Do those headlines grab your attention (among other things)? Those are just two of the subject lines I grabbed out of my e-mail today, and I must say I noticed those more so than the headline, "Court Dismisses Suit Challenging Domestic Spying." The dismissal was due to the fact that not one of the plaintiffs could prove that they had been spied upon by the US government. The rebuttal from the ACLU was that the plaintiffs were not allowed access to the documents stating just who was being spied upon.
At this point I noticed that no where in these arguments has anyone brought up the sheer legality of the wiretapping. No, of course not, the court needs specifics. But, that does make sense, to a degree. The only way that this could be taken to court is over the specifics. The warrant-less wiretapping issue is too large and has been around for too long to just be thrown in the back of a paddy-wagon and hauled off to the hoosegow. For instance, CNN stated that:
"Electronic surveillance programs run by the NSA have been under fire since December 2005, when The New York Times disclosed that the government was listening in on international phone calls involving people suspected of having ties to terrorists.
Some legal scholars said the program is an illegal and unwarranted intrusion on Americans' privacy, but the Bush administration has defended it as necessary in the battle against the al Qaeda terrorist network."
Notice a few tricky words: terrorists, suspected, ties. Terrorists in this case, I'm assuming(which pisses me off for having to assume), is synonymous with al Qaeda. I'm not sure quite what suspected means or how you get on the list of suspects. Lastly, ties doesn't seem quite concrete enough. Couldn't you have ties to someone because they are your local grocer, or have ties to another because they are your mail-person? Shit, what if you have ties to someone else that has ties? Well, Little Timmy, you're probably fucked.
Remember, terrorist has a very fluid definition, and eventually it will just mean people who disagree.
This is why I'm going back out to find people who want sex, and maybe, just maybe, I'll find some Japanese sexy women in action!
At this point I noticed that no where in these arguments has anyone brought up the sheer legality of the wiretapping. No, of course not, the court needs specifics. But, that does make sense, to a degree. The only way that this could be taken to court is over the specifics. The warrant-less wiretapping issue is too large and has been around for too long to just be thrown in the back of a paddy-wagon and hauled off to the hoosegow. For instance, CNN stated that:
"Electronic surveillance programs run by the NSA have been under fire since December 2005, when The New York Times disclosed that the government was listening in on international phone calls involving people suspected of having ties to terrorists.
Some legal scholars said the program is an illegal and unwarranted intrusion on Americans' privacy, but the Bush administration has defended it as necessary in the battle against the al Qaeda terrorist network."
Notice a few tricky words: terrorists, suspected, ties. Terrorists in this case, I'm assuming(which pisses me off for having to assume), is synonymous with al Qaeda. I'm not sure quite what suspected means or how you get on the list of suspects. Lastly, ties doesn't seem quite concrete enough. Couldn't you have ties to someone because they are your local grocer, or have ties to another because they are your mail-person? Shit, what if you have ties to someone else that has ties? Well, Little Timmy, you're probably fucked.
Remember, terrorist has a very fluid definition, and eventually it will just mean people who disagree.
This is why I'm going back out to find people who want sex, and maybe, just maybe, I'll find some Japanese sexy women in action!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Truths to make you fearful: Bisphenol A
Toxic enough to get doctors fired for dismissing it’s effects. Not toxic enough to be banned from use in baby bottles.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Hot Nights and Cold Wars
Lately, I've been a bit of a shut in, drinking alone till the early hours of the morning and scrolling through news sites. I've shied away from my old haunts and even stopped calling people during the day to save on cellphone charges. All of this in the name of saving some money. And, while my pocket book maybe stable, my consciousness is far from it. The last few weeks I've been trying to convince myself that we are not heading into another cold war. Putin's suggestions of modernizing the Azerbaijan early warning station have all but been shot down, while Bush wants to place an American presence on the Russian border. All seemed lost until I read this wonderful paragraph:
"Both leaders, who dined on pancakes and omelets for breakfast and curried zucchini soup and chicken salad for lunch, smiled and seemed eager to portray a strong, stable relationship between the two nations. Putin is the first head of state to be hosted at the Maine summer home by President Bush, an attempt to warm relations in a place of sparkling views and summertime weather."
Oh, thank fuck there's sparkling views and summertime weather to melt away Putin's icy Russian exterior. Word on the street is that they've got a few fishing trips planned. If only Roosevelt and Stalin would have put on jean shorts and gone bass fishin' this whole fucking thing would have never been started.
After this post I plan on heading straight out and grabbing a drink. Then as I amble home, my drunken screams for peace will find ears among the stars, and if I'm lucky maybe I'll see a Russian missile flying overhead. You know when you see a Russian missile fly over head and you make a wish, it doesn't come true then either.
"Both leaders, who dined on pancakes and omelets for breakfast and curried zucchini soup and chicken salad for lunch, smiled and seemed eager to portray a strong, stable relationship between the two nations. Putin is the first head of state to be hosted at the Maine summer home by President Bush, an attempt to warm relations in a place of sparkling views and summertime weather."
Oh, thank fuck there's sparkling views and summertime weather to melt away Putin's icy Russian exterior. Word on the street is that they've got a few fishing trips planned. If only Roosevelt and Stalin would have put on jean shorts and gone bass fishin' this whole fucking thing would have never been started.
After this post I plan on heading straight out and grabbing a drink. Then as I amble home, my drunken screams for peace will find ears among the stars, and if I'm lucky maybe I'll see a Russian missile flying overhead. You know when you see a Russian missile fly over head and you make a wish, it doesn't come true then either.
asbestos suit, away!
and what is this heroic fabric flying towards? why, a past unpopulated by the clones of former monkeys, newly transformed into machines, feeding on dreams made into a broken metaphor for awakening.
(if humans can soon transfer data through bones, change species at will, and feed a vast supply of clones, we're almost ready for an age where you can plug your enemies into a wall and fax them into frogdom).
(if humans can soon transfer data through bones, change species at will, and feed a vast supply of clones, we're almost ready for an age where you can plug your enemies into a wall and fax them into frogdom).
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