Yes, it was a joke!

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

APRIL FOOLS! Is it Joshua or is it Rob?

Click here for a blast from the past! …and if you feel silly about getting fooled (lots of people did, although plenty caught it too — and so many people wrote nice stuff to “Joshua” — thank you, and remember, the story may have been fabricated, but the message was true), click here and you'll see that it's not so uncommon.

Having fun with numbers
FORWARD THIS FREELY

The following information is from the Whitehouse 2003 Budget pages (link), the CIA World Factbook (link), the Center for Defense Information (link), and the US Census Bureau (link).

  • The amount that the US military budget has been increased this year (just the increase, not the total amount), dramatically outweighs the total military spending of Russia and China put together.
  • Total US military spending is over eight times that of China and Russia put together.
  • The US spends over thirty-seven times more money on the military than all of the “axis of evil” countries added up — and that doesn't include any of the spending on the war on Iraq.
  • The US spends well over five times as much money on military expenditures than it does on education, meaning that the amount the military budget was increased this year nearly outweighs the entire educational budget.
  • The US has a per-captita HIV/AIDS rate over sixty times as high as that in Iraq.
  • Saudia Arabia, the country most of the September 11th hijackers came from, spends almost twenty times more on its military than Iraq.
  • The average American (babies included) pays almost twenty five times as much (per capita) as the average North Korean to support their military.
  • Private citizens in the US pay over five times as much in income taxes as corporations do.

Now, the other thing that really struck me is the “what could you buy” question. Let's see what one could purchase if one spent the US military budget on other things. For example:

  • It could provide food for between 1.2 and 2 billion people yearly.
  • It could send approximately 60 million students to university, including housing, yearly.
  • It could give a new car to 31 million Americans every year.
  • It could purchase a week long trip to Jamaica including airfare for every American.
  • It could purchase three million $120,000 new homes yearly.
  • It could purchase nearly every single item produced for export by Canada and Mexico put together and give it away for free.
  • It could purchase a body piercing for every single person (including babies and old people) on the planet, and still have enough money left over to tattoo every person in America.

As a point of trivia, if the “war on Iraq” wasn't happening, the money that is projected to be spent there could purchase every every African American male (of all ages, baby to senior) in America a brand new Porsche Boxster. Failing that, it could give $1.8 million to every Native American family in America. Alternately, it could give every person in America over the age of eighty a free second home in Florida. Seriously.

Is it money well spent?

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Beep

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

I don't know if these quotes help anyone here. I keep getting forwarded truly moronic war emails full of hatred and blind trumpet calls to murder, and I know that many of you, having described what you face at work and at home, are going through the same… But these might be useful in your responses I hope:

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"
      - Mahatma Gandhi

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction."
      - Albert Einstein

"After each war there is a little less democracy to save."
      - Brooks Atkinson

"The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure."
      - Lyndon B Johnson

"Today the real test of power is not the capacity to make war but the capacity to prevent it."
      - Anne O'Hare McCormick

"When the rich make war it's the poor that die."
      - Jean-Paul Sartre

"Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent."
      - Issac Asimov

"I have marched in many a battle host, but I have also planted seeds and reaped the harvest with my own hands. And I have learned there is greater honor in a field well plowed than a field steeped in blood."
      - Lloyd Alexander (Adaon, "The Black Cauldron")

"Wars not make one great."
      - Yoda

"You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it."
      - Malcolm X

"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime."
      - Ernest Hemingway

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
      - Plato

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
      - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."
      - George Bernard Shaw

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
      - Sun Tzu

"We are really appalled by any country, whether a superpower or a small country, that goes outside the United Nations and attacks independent countries."
      - Nelson Mandela

"The notion of justified pre-emption runs counter to modern international law, which sanctions the use of force in self-defense only against actual — not potential — threats."
      - Henry Kissinger

"The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one."
      - Adolf Hitler

A lot of people have told me that they believe Americans are mostly against Bush and this war. Others have told me the opposite. Which means that for the truth to come out, you must make your voice heard.

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I believe the term is "sucky"

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

Well, we had summer weather two days ago, and now it seems to be winter again. Just took these photos outside a few minutes ago. Well, I guess it could be worse. I'd rather have the earth dropping snow on me than some rogue military dropping bombs on me.

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Human shields…

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

So the latest civilian casualties of the indiscriminate Bush regime* killing machine are… American civilians. Yesterday as two busses travelled from Ahman to Baghad, US warplanes opened fire, killing the peace activists on board (more). Remember, you're either with us, or… you're dead.

There's a lot of speculation going on right now about Mary Cheney, the daughter of brutal warlord and international criminal “Dick” Cheney, currently posing as the Vice President of the United States. A London paper reported that Mary Cheney will be travelling to Baghdad to join these human shields (more). The Bush twins have been there for some time already, but it's just because they got incredibly drunk and got on the wrong airplane. They thought they were going to Tijuana…

Ah, bitter awakenings.

* I want to be clear on why I say “Bush regime”. I say it because it's becoming clear that, to many Americans, Bush is not American — he's a representative of a foreign (megacorp) power that has seized control of America, and that the actions of his regime are not the will of the American people.

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Morning time

Tuesday, April 1, 2003


“If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us.”
- George Bush Jr. (more)

So what do you think? Bush promised the US would be a humble nation in his election campaign… While the US engages in another pseudo-war, this one titled “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, the rest of the world refers to it as the “War of Lies” and “[Operation] Freedom to Kill Iraqis” while world leaders promise “horrible consequences” and guarantee “100 new bin Ladens” (more).

To those of you screaming “support our troops”, you need to ask yourself where the trillion or so dollars this whole thing is going to cost is coming from. What exactly has the Bush regime been slashing to make it possible? Veterans benefits, that's what. Not only that, but the Bush “No Child Left Behind” regime has just slashed the education program by over ten percent. And so on (more).

To those of you screaming “this will save the people of Iraq from Saddam's brutalism”, you need to ask yourself who is being put in charge of the US-lead (no UN allowed) post-war relief effort. Who is the Bush regime putting in charge? Jay “Patriot Missile” Garner, that's who. To clarify, Bush is putting in charge one of the world's leading arms dealers in a country he's helped convert to rubble (more).

To those of you screaming “Saddam has illegal WMDs and will use them on us, and he's violated the UN”, you need to ask yourself exactly what weapons the US is using and what international law it's breaking. What illegal weapons are the US using? Depleted Uranium weapons, that's what. The US continues to fire DU weapons into Iraq, “deliberately flounting a UN resolution” which classifies them as illegal WMDs (more, more).

"This war is evil. It's an unjust war. They have no right to make war against us. Until now, we were sitting in our homes, comfortable and safe. ... What's the sin of the children? What have they done?"
- Haidar Kathim and Imad Hussein (more)

"What fault did my pour son have? ... He was 30 years old. He only got married four months ago. We were all so happy. ... British soldiers fired on us. First against the car and then, after we all got out with our hands up, they continued attacking us with machine guns."

- After British attack on civilians (more)

"Five children were turned into human torches in this house because of the gas cylinders inside... Their bodies protected me because I was in a corner. ... That is Bush's democracy. They want us to welcome them with flowers. Look what they've done to our families."

- After US school bombing (more)

Quotes like the above — horrific stories of civilians being slaughtered — are just going to continue to rise. There's new ones coming in every day thanks in part to trigger happy “shoot first, ask questions later” troops executing families on the street (more), and in part to new US orders to “shoot [civilians] on sight” because of the threat of suicide bombers (more).

Oh, and I should have taken Mrs. P's bet yesterday… She wanted to wager that Peter “This War Is Not Working” Arnett (more) who was fired a couple days ago for telling the truth would be blackballed from the media. Hired by the Mirror! (more).

I'd like to finish with a few other quotes. Interpret them as you see fit.

"[There were nights in WWII] when we'd lose 1,000 people. There will come a time maybe when things are going to be more shocking. We're prepared to pay a very high price... If that means there will be a lot of casualties, then there will be a lot of casualties."
- US Central Command (more)

"The problem is that there has to be enough for this war and another one. We would have to be able to respond if the North Koreans move on Seoul"

- Lexington Institute (more)

"Whenever the non-Muslims attack a Muslim land it is the duty of everyone to rise up against the aggressor."

- Mullah Mohammed Omar (more)

I have to clarify where that last two quotes came from — the middle quote is from an analyst looking at the current US supply numbers. The US is running out of missiles and bombs. It may have enough for levelling Iraq, but after that it will be very disarmed. Great news for the defence contractors who kick-started this war, horrible news for the American tax payer.

The last quote is from a current anti-US postering campaign being run in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Oh, you thought Afghanistan was free now, right? You thought that was was over? Not even close. The clerics are still very much fighting for control (more, more, more). Nothing much has changed, except that the new government signed oil deals with the US (more, more), and encourages the drug trade (more). Reports of “freedom granted” are dubious and isolated at best (more).

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