Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I've got the update in place and I'll try and upload more images today as well. There's 2,394 sitting in my inbox at last count so I should be careful to not get too far behind.

Anyway, there's very little in the BME news today, so let's see what's in the “normal” news. I'll start with two personal stories, and then the war stuff:

• I told you, I told you, I told you – One of my three predictions for world revolution was a home manufacturing device. Looks like it's rolling along well.
• Jesus was a pot-head? I don't think that's a big surprise, but I also can't take seriously a researcher at High Times that uses this as “proof” that people who prosecute pot-heads are anti-Christian (a ludicrous statement, even if Jesus and his followers used a marijuana tincture for healing).

Now some less pleasant stories:

• Flaws in the war machine – Did you know that America has 1/20th of the world population, and a quarter of the world economy, yet has literally half the entire planet's military spending? The scary thing is that's not changing — the US has quite publicly stated that their policy now is to not allow other militaries, including friendly ones, to grow… The end result is one of the following:
  1. The US seizes military control of the entire world.
  2. The US collapses financially.
  3. The US becomes a nation with very poor people, a low standard of living, very rich companies, and a very well armed government.

  The third options sounds a little too familiar.

• Nato directionless on nuclear policy. NATO fears that if the UN doesn't back up the US (which it really shouldn't, given the total lack of evidence), it will be asked to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes on Iraq.
• US weapons dossier may remain a secret. Rumsfield says that the US has evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but that for “security reasons” it will not reveal that to the UN or even to the security council, even if they go to war based on that premise. (Seriously!)
• Families of Sept. 11 Victims Hold Vigil in Iraq. Surviving relatives of 9/11 victims are going to Iraq, making themselves human shields against US agression. Not that it'll stop the killing… The suggestion that the US government cares about its people is patently ridiculous and we all know it.
• U.S. Can Hold Citizens As Combatants. A Federal Appeals court ruled that during the “war on terror” (expected to last at least a hundred years), US citizens have effectively ZERO civil rights and can be held without trial and without lawyer, and can be executed, tortured, and so on. Ashcroft calls it an “important victory”. We all know what he stands for.