Monthly Archives: October 2003

Are you really that surprised?


I just got this in my email. Why does it come as no surprise at all that the folks at FOX “NEWS” are ALL CAPS TYPERS? Now the important thing to notice is that the subject line is typed correctly which means that TYPING THE BODY IN ALL CAPS WAS A CONSCIOUS DECISION (to the extent that anyone working for Fox is actually conscious in the traditional sense of the word).

From: k***@***broadcastgroup.com
Subject: Tongue Splitting

HI THERE,

I'M LOOKING TO DO A STORY ABOUT TONGUE SPLITTING AND IT'S NEW POPULARITY. DO YOU KNOW OF ANY PLACES IN DETROIT OR GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN THAT DO THIS?

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP,
K***
FOX 47 NEWS
LANSING, MICHIGAN

Fox really ought to stick to T&A shows, when <insert-monster-here> attacks, COPS, and the occasional adult cartoon. That was a whole lot easier to swallow than war propaganda…

Will you come for the revolution, or will the revolution come for you?

The recently proposed bi-partisan (by far left Democrat Dennis Kucinich, and libertarian Republican Ron Paul) “Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act” — also supported by the ACLU, the NAACP, the American Muslim Voice, the Religious Action Center of Reformed Judaism, and others — which would serve to repeal parts of the Bush Cabal's repressive Patriot Act as well as some of the questionable DoJ action (more) got me thinking about the real nature of the Bush government and the forces currently in control of America.

I realized that America currently has a unique form of government that I think is best described as privatized communism (aka McCommie). Think about it — a huge and steadily increasing government and government contractor workforce (eventually everyone will either work for the government or for a megacorporation directly in control over the government), increasing conglomeration of power, repealing of rights, commercialized patriotism, and a power imbalance that puts the control into the hands of extra-national and often monopolistic megacorporations. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the Bush Cabal are not Republicans, and they're certainly not Americans.

So for Republicans reading this, perhaps consider that if you want to be a good Republican maybe you should be opposing Bush and his corporate power grab, rather than standing “proudly” behind him… But maybe you work for one of the hundred or so oil and finance companies that met in London on Monday to discuss their Iraqi “investment opportunities” (more)? What, you thought the war on terror didn't have spoils? All war has spoils, and they go to the victor! Now, some advice to those thinking about profiting from this war. The best investment you could make? DICK CHENEY (more)… that dude's a goldmine for his masters.

SIDENOTE: You know how when you're watching a movie, it's always the black guy that gets killed first? I wonder… will they take out Powell? Noise is starting to be made suggesting he's going to have to take the fall (more).

Moving on, some people say it's wrong to be mad at France. Now, personally I think that the reasons people are mad at France tend to be way off base, and the ways they express them are downright ludicrous, but it is important to understand that France really is America's enemy, and France and America really are at war (along with America versus most of Europe)… I've talked about this financial war regularly here, and as you watch international commerce shifting from the USD to the Euro (ie. the US losing critical control of strategically essential financial territory), you start wondering what must be going on behind the scenes — in the past two decades we've seen a dozen industrialized countries have their economies collapse and their currency devalue (the US dollar has plunged over the last two years). Please don't be so blind as to believe it can't happen to you.

Anyway, France, Russia, and Germany — three of the US's most powerful financial enemies — just backed off on demands that the UN take a central role in Iraq (more). Ask yourself why. None of these nations (nor rarely any other nation) has ever acted in anything but their own interest — and they have consistently and publicly taken actions over the past two years to damage the US economy. So why are they backing off of Iraq? Could it be that they have decided that the risk outweighs the benefits? That they know it could become a quagmire that could be the straw that finally drags the US out of its dominant position, and they'll gladly watch, cheering on in the sidelines as New York burns?

Take that seriously as you read the reports of soldier after soldier coming back dead or crippled (more). As the bloated corpses of US troops float down the Euphrates, think about what their flesh lost its life for (more), take it seriously. Take it seriously as US troops commit suicide rather than fight in this war (more). As prisoners disappear (more), take it seriously. As you watch America risk its future, realize that its your inheritance that's being stolen — remember, the megacorporations don't care who they're selling to… if it turns out to be profitable (and war is very profitable) to have America collapse, America will collapse.

I wrote some time ago that in order to maintain power the Bush Cabal would have to either launch more attacks on American soil a la the 9/11 attacks, or it would have to make this soon-to-be World War larger. So let's look at what's in the news today — upcoming war on Syria (more), and also against Iran (more). Now, America might be able to take on Syria, assuming it didn't cause more Arab nations to get involved, but Iran is a heavyweight target. They have a nuclear program, quite possibly including weapons, hundreds if not thousands of times the firepower of Iraq, to say nothing of the popular support from Muslims around the world if such a war is continued.

Ask yourself who is profiting from this. Are you?

Now is not the time to become numb to this. How many times have American lives — and lives around the world — been lost due to fraud perpetrated to put gold in coffers that already overflow (more)? America hasn't entered a war legally or truthfully in over a hundred years now. Enough is enough.

The French Revolution will come again

If I was a more self-righteous person I'd be complaining here how my brother, sister, and I just got screwed out of a couple million dollars, but I'm trying not to be concerned about it — one can perceive things as losses, or one can perceive them as revelations. Many battles are fought to gather intelligence about one's foe, rather than to destroy them.


To talk about change is not enough. Change must happen. - Aung San Suu Kyi

Anyway, it brought me to thinking about the nature of “evil” as one commonly thinks of it: crime; theft and murder and extortion and fraud and so on. I've come to realize that common crime is actually a symptom of evil, and often not even expressed through an evil vessel. Look at US crime statistics — one could conclude that blacks commit an inordinate amount of crimes in relation to their relatively small population. I once interviewed a doctor who told me that was due to elevated testosterone levels, but I don't buy it, because in low-income communities the crime stats are not particularly racially biased.

To put it simply, crime — common evil — is a byproduct of class inequality. On the whole people don't start stealing because they are greedy or a bad apple. They start stealing because they are responding to an imbalance — they are aware that wealth is unevenly distributed. Would crime go away if the world's treasures were distributed more fairly? Of course not. But would it be drastically minimized? I believe so.

So then you have to ask the question: are common criminals evil? Or are they just (possibly weak) people being manipulated by evil? The blood of the modern world is money. When you control the money (and the credit system and so on), you control the blood. Debt might as well be a Harkonnen heart plug. I guess ultimately this line of thinking leads one to ask what right — what duty — do the poor have to eat the rich? If you want an easier question, ask yourself whether the soldier who kills innocent civilians on a bombing run to protect corporate oil interests is evil, or whether he's just been forced to act on behalf of evil — and what responsibility does that soldier have to stop killing once he becomes aware of the big picture?

PS. Before anyone chops my head off, while I am a successful entrepreneur, I reinvest almost everything I make in trying to do good, be it stuff here or be it funding development work in Africa, anti-censorship networks, or even just interesting indie projects.

There's no X in Xmas!

So I've been thinking about doing a re-write of the old “Christianity and Body Modification” article. It's a subject that still gets asked about regularly, and judging by the profiles, there are a decent number of people here who strongly sympathize with Christian notions as well as having body modification drives.

If you're Christian I'd like to hear from you on a few questions:

  • How do you feel God sees your body modifications?
  • Do you express your spirituality through these modifications in any way?
  • How do you know that “it's ok” to be involved in these things, as a Christian?
  • What do you think of people who say the Bible (and God) disapprove of body modification?
  • What are some of the passages you turn to when confronted with these questions?
  • Have you had any negative or positive encounters with other Christians because of your or their body modifications?

The forum attached to this entry allows anonymous posts so there's no need to reveal who you are if you'd like to answer privately.

And yes, I know I have the sXe article in the queue still.

(Original forum unavailable, sorry)*

It's a holiday?

I had no idea it was a holiday in the US right now… which kind of damaged my research ability for a new story I'm following up, in this case on Indiana, which requires filing of the design and placement of any tattoo done, as well as the type of jewerly used in any piercing… What I'm wanting to find out is what level of protection those records have and why the design is relevant (if it was just for outbreak tracking that wouldn't be needed).