Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Just a couple quick news stories to mention:

• Is the real purpose of the domestic war on terror (ie. Homeland Security, etc.) actually ethnic cleansing?
• Do you have your buzz word decoder ring? Remember the new rule of justice is “do unto others so they can't do unto you”.
• Another story on the brilliant new Bush plan (“an Internet strategy to secure cyberspace”) to force ISPs to give the government live feeds of all their network traffic (in a useful form) for their “early-warning center”. Another stupid idea that won't stop terrorism, but will erode civil rights even more (and chase tech companies out of the US).
• Enemies galore! If the US keeps pushing its unilateral stance, it will find itself with no friends, and only enemies. World population: 6 billion. US population: 275 million. That is, there are 22 times as many people in the world as there are Americans. So the US must learn to get along and play nice or it will be destroyed*. The numbers are irrefutable.
• Latest State Dept meeting: “Future of Iraq, Oil and Energy Working Group“. Here's a hint: stop buying oil from Saddam Hussein (50% of the oil Iraq produces goes to America [info], 8% of America's total consumption), and stop trying to take it by force. America can only play this pyramid game for so long. America must learn to stand on its own two feet again, proud and independent without having to steal from other nations to survive.
• 100,000 troops on their way to the Gulf with forces amassing by January's end. If this thing goes urban, they'll need a lot of body bags as well. The people of Iraq are now armed to the teeth, and attacking a well defended population in hostile, unfamiliar, and punishing terrain and in their homes generally results in an unacceptable high casualty rate for the invading force.

* Or if you're to believe folks like Pat Buchanan, America will be destroyed pretty much no matter what, again, “by the numbers” it's inevitable, short of massive cultural change. Military aggression hastens the problem, but massive cultural change (ie. focus on family, increased birthrate, energy and food independence, etc.) is needed for America — and most Western countries — to survive as the nations they are now.

I think I'm going to go make myself a sandwich and then finish putting together this workspace. My must-do task for the day is mastering another DVD for the video site that launches on January 1st. Mostly it's heavy-duty adult stuff a la bme/HARD, but there are also things like the ModCon DVD, BBQ footage, and there are both suspension and tongue splitting DVDs in the works that are more “general interest”.