My mentionable plan for today:
- Complete another DVD master
- Finish updating the image adder software to handle 2003 properly, and fix a few known problems affecting time-distributed updates
- Start working on the update content itself
Even if Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction hidden under his bed, he's very quickly learned how to play the international politics game. Some recent statements from him include:
[The world is entering the new year] under unique circumstances ... which have been manufactured by forces of evil and darkness in order to create a situation of instability, chaos and tension. [The US seeks to wage war on Iraq as a first step to spread their authority] across the world and control fortunes and futures [of other countries]. We are confident that the outcome of the inspection operations will be a big shock to the United States and will expose all the American lies.
He's very cleverly echoing the statements that are being voiced by radikal voices around the world, and is repeating the fears of many other nations, including European nations. If the inspections turn out well for Iraq — and so far they are, including the interviews with the Iraqi scientists — it could flip everything against the US. I really wonder how history will record the US in the long run… Nations are remembered for their low points, not their high points, so in a millenium, will people look back and remember the US as the bad guy? Will history record the US not as the nation of freedom, but as an oppressive force that held it back?
As Al Jazeera's international power rockets up (it's only about seven years old), one has to ask oneself more pressingly — does it's North American English language debut represent the beginning of this age of the fall of the American Empire? The developing nations are coming of age. Forced in part by US pride and aggression they are becoming nuclear nations, and their citizens have long since overrun Western borders.
Pride goeth before destruction,
and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18
We need to remember that cultural change is good. As long as individual freedoms are retained and have their sanctity protected, styles of dress, eating, and behaviour will change with time anyway — why worry if skin colours change as well? The more diversity the better. The world would be a boring place otherwise.
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