Thanks a lot, violent videogames. This is all your fault, isn't it?

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

First, the good news. As a point of pure trivia, I've put together a page with all the cover images that didn't make it onto BME. The way covers get chosen is that while I'm doing an update, any time I come across something interesting, I copy it into my “potential covers” folder. Then at the end, I pick one — it's always hard because there are lots more cover pictures than there are updates.

If you click on any of those pictures it'll take you to the page of “almost famous” covers. Please note that the BME/extreme and BME/HARD covers are included in this set; if you don't want to see those or are not allowed to see those please do not click the link!

I have written earlier this year (3/29 and 4/12 for example) about the continued escalation in nuclear arms between the US and Russia. To make a long story short, both countries continue to spend enormous amounts of money developing and deploying weaponry with one goal alone: the total thermonuclear destruction of life in the other nation. It's not as if these are multi-purpose weapons. These are quite literally weapons that can only be used for one apocalyptic strike. They're no good in the “war on terror” or even on smaller nations. They serve one purpose: destruction of superpower nations.

Anyway, on Sunday Russia deployed six more Topol-M's, their top-of-the-line “American killer” (more). It has a range of 6,000 miles and is designed to evade current and future anti-missile systems through its speed and maneuverability. It has nuke-proof launch silos, and next year will be available in an off-road version that can be launched from anywhere. The new versions of the missiles are designed to deploy up to six separately targeted nuclear warheads into the heart of US cities, leaving nothing but corpses in their wake.

In addition, Russia is dusting off it's old R-36 series (known in the US usually as the SS-19 or “Satan” designation; more) with a rance of up to 25,000 miles in its orbital version which can deliver a five megaton nuke to anywhere in the world. Other versions of the R-36 can deliver multiple nukes as well. To be clear on what these are, they are space rockets — they fly up into space, orbit around the planet until they're hundreds of miles over their target, and then they strike… red dust. Variations on both of these missiles can also be submarine launched.

Russia, just like America, also has a new set of scorched earth toys in the works. Their new system, scheduled for release in 2009, can carry ten separate nuclear warheads — up to four and a half tons of weaponry (per missile) can be dropped anywhere in the US at the touch of a button and there wouldn't be a damn thing anyone could do to stop it. I suppose we should be “happy” that the Soviets stopped development on projects like R-56 which could deliver 46 TONS of payload to American soil (ie. enough to pepper dozens of multi-megaton nukes across the US).

Anyway, Phil started this project when him and Johnny visited, but I've got to go out now and continue digging our back yard bomb shelter. Or something like that.

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America: Naqoyqatsi

Monday, December 22, 2003

TERROR ALERT: HIGH
Welcome to security level orange again (more).

As Christmas and the other holidays roll up, the world really looks like a pretty messed up place. You know all about the hellhole that's in Iraq thanks to US aggression and profiteering, but there's giant messes all over the world. Russians are losing as many as ten soldiers a day to Islamic rebels in Chechnya (more), and Islamic forces continue to kill and be killed in Kashmir as also (more).

Pakistan (an “ally” in the war on terror, and currently at war with another nuclear nation) turns out to have been supplying nuclear weapons technology to Iran and North Korea (more, more, more), making it ever more likely that more nukes fall into the hands of those who'd gladly level NYC — although fellow nuke-nation Israel says they can destroy Iran's nuke program with air strikes that “won't have casualties” (more). Libya as well turns out to have an advanced nuclear program (more). North Korea, in direct response to US promises to do the same, promises to continue expanding its nuclear arsenal (more) — and thanks to Cheney, peace talks with North Korea have fallen apart again (more) and high-end US weaponry is being moved to the border (more).

So what does Donald Rumsfeld, have to say about that?
“We may need a bigger army.” (more)

Ah, the 21st century. The century of the drafted corpse.

Fuck it. Let's attack Syria too (more)!

One of the things I don't understand about US neo-con strategy is the abuse of military families. My feeling is that if you're going to run a corporate-military state, you have to be “good” to two groups — consumers, and soldiers. Both are being abused. For example, say a soldier gets his legs blown off — you'd think the army would have a moral (or at least legal) obligation to take care of him, right? Nope… $8,000 disability and notice of dismissal is what you get (more).

As far as Saddam goes, US intel is accepting that he had little to nothing to do with the insurgency (more) — if anything, him not being around increases it. They're also saying that it's going to take at least five years, if at all, to get a verdict (more), and because the trial may contain provisions regarding international human rights and so on — which the US strongly opposes treaties on — it's quite possible that Saddam will be dead long before a mutually agreed-upon court even appears (more). After all, Saddam has already been beaten up while in custody (more) and currently appears to be extremely ill and heavily drugged (more)… and who knows, maybe Lil' Kim is having her way with him in most unpleasant ways (more)? Of course, maybe the Kurds will play finders-keepers and demand him back — after all, they found him (more). What, you thought it was a US operation? That's what they told you on FOX?

Maybe you're asking yourselves, why is none of this on the US mainstream news? The answer of course revolves around media greed, but fear has a lot to do with it to. Foreign media are being arrested, detained, and exiled when they enter the US (more) — not just “anti-war” reporters, but even just entertainment journalists (more). I've written here in the past about how the US military simply outright kills journalists in sensitive areas. Why does the US desperately want to be known as a country with no free speech rights and no free press (more)?

Continuing in Iraq, the rebels keep blowing up the oil pipelines (more) because they know that's what the US is there for. Halliburton is withholding its records from the Pentagon to hide its crimes (more)… but why bother? The US is continuing to restructure its legal system allowing corporations to legally murder its employees if the cost-benefit ratio falls on the side of benefit (more). Look at the legal definition of a public corporation and the duty of its board of directors (“maximize profit”) to understand why.

But why should a corporation behave better than the government? How screwed up is it that in a democracy that the government is the enemy of the people? Bush is moving more and more of government into “secret” designations, making it impossible for the public to know what they're paying to have done to them (more), and the Republicans push bill after bill through without voting or debate, including dirty tricks like threatening Democrats' children if they vote against Republican bills (more). The Justice Departments “fakes” court records to lie to the public about terrorist prosecutions (more), the military “loses” all of its records of atrocities they committed in Vietnam (more), and the police are committing regular felonies against the public (more).

I don't see how it could get more messed up without bringing back slavery. Oh wait… (more).

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Stories give the universe meaning

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Not that I'm that surprised, but within hours of me leaving here yesterday my internet connection crashed, leaving me with over 9,000 emails to download. About 4,000 of those appear to be reports on a particularly massive dictionary attack that was launched after I left (coincidentally I believe; those attacks are pretty much non-stop).

Anyway, I've been reading a lot of books about aboriginal story telling to help me with the scripting of SAVED (which thanks to Mandy Moore I'm going to have to rename). There's an abstract sense to a lot of northern story telling that revolves in part about describing states of being or ideas more so that a “plot” — this is where my interest lies. But to get back to my point, I wanted to recount a story that really touched me.

This takes place in northern British Columbia (ie. the west coast of Canada). When the Canadian government showed up, like it always does, they told the Gitksan natives who had lived there for thousands of years, “this is our land, we'll need to move you to a reservation.” The native elders replied,

“If this is your land, where are your stories?”

The Gitksan went on to take the Canadian government to court to save their homeland. Because they didn't build cities, or have a written language, even though “everyone knew” they'd been the inhabitants of that land for millenia, it was difficult for them to legally prove it. All they could do is bring all the elders of the trial to stand trial — where they sang. They sang the hundreds of songs and legends they had about the land that was their home.

The courts declared their stories legally worthless and continue to strip them of their home.

(more)

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Filthy

Friday, December 19, 2003



To illustrate the sense of humor that runs through this book, the picture above has the following caption: “Edward VII, one of the great polygynists of the Victorian era, advertised his prowess with a manly pose.”

If you've got friends (that are interested in social commentary, class consciousness, or even just finance in general) that you still need gifts for, let me recommend The Natural History of the Rich… I picked it up as light reading and it's turned out to be really fun. Basically it's a long series of anecdotes about rich people (both historical and modern, and both “self-made” rich and dynasties) which illustrate how they achieve success. It's very funny, and, in the words of the New York Sun*, “droll and delightful”.


"Wealth is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some sort of god, the creator of everything... but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out."
- George Soros

There are six hundred thousand petamillionaires (people with $5 million or more in assets) in the US. At this point “real” wealth is generally considered to start at a worth at an utter minimum of $5 million, and many would argue that $50 million would be a better number. If I am to believe the megasurvey data, then there are probably between 20 and 50 millionaires on IAM. Statistically there should be about 300 to illustrate just how common millionaires are (there are less on IAM of course because it's youth oriented)… Of course, there are an equal number of people with massive debt!

Anyway, I know that a lot of you reading this are either successfully self-employed in a field that you've helped define, or you're on your way to doing so, whether you've hit the jackpot or not. I thought those of you would enjoy the following quote:


"Almost all successful alpha personalities display a single-minded determination to impose their vision on the world, an irrational belief in unreasonable goals, bordering at times on lunacy. A blindness to consequences characterizes many dominant personalities. They don't see obstacles. They may not bother or even be capable of seeing other peoples' point of view. This blindness is what makes them, with equal sense, outlaws and heroes."
- Richard Conniff

I see that in a lot of the people I've gotten to meet over the past decade!

Anyway, I do recommend this book. It's very funny, and, if getting richer is your thing, it probably is even quite full of good advice. The book's been out for some time now (published last year), so if you don't want to believe me, there are plenty of glowing reviews at the Amazon link above.

* Yeah, I know it's not the New York Times.

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Torture

Friday, December 19, 2003

Someone had mentioned recently to me that the US has been implying that they will be using torture on Saddam… Along those lines I wanted to link this story about torture of prisoners held in New York by America… You know, it's easy to say “oh, but that was just the guards; it wasn't sanctioned” but when the prison tries to cover it up, the general public isn't particularly outraged, I don't see how one can see that “we” (the collective West) are somehow “better” than the nations we regularly decry for their almost identical violations of human rights.

What, you think it's somehow worse to torture someone because you think they were involved with blasphemy than it is to torture someone and then gleefully mop up their blood with an American flag t-shirt emblazoned with “these colors don't run” because you think someone with the same color of skin as they have attacked you?

…and that's just the prison inside US borders. What happens outside?

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