Well, my hatred of talk like a pirate day (yesterday) is no secret — I find it incredibly irritating and annoying. However, my love of gags and strange software behavior is also no secret, and of the two, that's the one that won out in the battle of September 19th. Below are some of the gags that the server had built in for those that didn't see them.
I was really inspired by something the Lizardman said when he was interviewing Steve-O, and I've tried to do the same in my own life. I'll repeat it here:
The Lizardman: I really like that just by walking down on the street I turn everybody's day surreal. They may be driving to work and all of a sudden, “What the fuck was that?” It breaks them out of that mindset where they go to work, eat, sleep, die.
Steve-O: Yeah, some people just hate in their day or they're having a shitty ass day, and they watch half an hour of me doing dumb shit and after that first half hour they didn't have their shitty day, and life's not a problem any more… But as much as I like doing the live tour, it's historical significance I'm after. You know?
I really like the idea of introducing code and writing that knocks people just very slightly outside of normal reality. I think it's one of the healthiest and most positive punches you can give someone, and I hope that the change brightened a few days and I also hope that it left a few people wondering if it had always been like that, and why…
Not that I want to distract you from reality.
Getting back to reality in Iraq (it sucks), as you know well over a thousand Americans have now died in combat to say nothing of the 17,000 casualties that have been medically evacuated from Iraq due to “non-combat” injuries (more). That doesn't include people who were injured but are still in Iraq of course — when you add those numbers in, you're looking at a demoralizing 25% injury rate which is wrecking havoc with young people in the war (more).
"My whole opinion of the people here has changed. There aren't any good people... We're out here giving our lives for these people. You'd think they'd show some gratitude. Instead, they don't seem to care. We're not taking any chances: Shoot first and ask questions later. We're a lot more dangerous now. I'm not going home in a body bag, and neither is the person next to me."
Marines — who've taken the heaviest casualty counts — are describing playing with Iraqi children (more), giving them candy, and talking on a friendly level to their parents… feeling like they really might be winning the hearts and minds, but then only to be attacked by those same people the very next day in an ambush. This generation of Iraqis doesn't love Americans (for good reason), and I don't think ever will.
Fact: Arab culture does not recognize the same civil liberties and ideals that we do in the West, and likely won't for a generation. I do not believe we can force democracy on them because on the whole they simply don't get it and won't until they break the bonds of religion. Religion and democracy are fundamentally incompatible. Yeah, America is a “Christian” country (ignore the Satanic Founding Fathers), but don't think it gives a fuck about God. America is no more a Christian country than Greece worships Zeus. It's symbolic at best, and a marketting tool at worst. In any case, what I'm saying is that Iraqis have got to figure out human rights on their own. This isn't a victory we can give them or win for them. They have to do it on their own.
Oh yeah, and by “on their own”, I really mean “on their own” totally. That means we stop propping up the dictator of the week and stop fucking with their economy.
Here's another fact: America doesn't have the troops to attack Iran, as is being debated as Iran goes nuclear (more), in ironic part due to the threat of a US attack. There is only one way to strike Iran if it comes to that, and it's a border to border airstrike that levels the country. And when that starts, we'll have to level Syria, Egypt, and who knows what other countries, and it'll be enough to spark up the Chechnyan region to genocidal levels as well as regions of Africa. This is all on the verge of escalating to the level of this planet aint big enough for the two of us (or “two cultures enter, one culture leaves”).
And, as I've said before, it's all bullshit. Murdering every Arab on the planet (or every American if you think that's the way the war would end) is an inconsequential crime in comparison to what we're doing to the ocean. Read: The Starving Ocean.
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