About to get on a plane but...
Posted 3:03 PM

I had to post this. Soldiers asked to pray for Bush. Soldiers asked to pray for George W. Bush before the Almighty Christian God

If this isn't evidence that his religion is getting in the way of his politics... I don't know what is.

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Is Bush trying to bring about Armageddon?
Posted 7:14 PM

Following up on the previous article...

Bush's Messianic complex follows classic patterns of psychotic grandiosity. In his case, it may have been eggagerated by his being given unexpected stressful jobs and responsiblities. Often these schitzophrenics secretly feel that they don't "deserve love". Typically they have complex, emotionally distent relationships with parents and spouses. All of these, and more are evidenced in our leader.

The complex manifests often itself as a deeply held belief that one is going to "save the world". Schitzophrenics with this complex may attempt to create circumstances which would place them as needing to "save the day". Other signs include the constant offering of unsolicited advice, hallucinations and/or hearing voices, belief in one's own supernatural powers, paranioa, and belief in conspiracies.

By bringing about a war with Iraq, he may be fulfilling a desire to bring about the second coming of Christ. Iraq's significance in end-time scenarios in key passages of the apocalyptic book of Revelation. Chapter 16, which includes the only mention of Armageddon in the Bible, carries a direct reference to the Euphrates River, which runs through modern-day Iraq.

Amen.

Labels: politics

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Bush is pissing me off again
Posted 2:59 PM

What are the odds that the American people will see this messianic lunatic for what he is? Slim to none. I only hope that there will remain a safe place left on this earth after he is finished.

Labels: politics

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If you're not religious, get out of the U.S.
Posted 10:29 AM

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God" - George Bush

Labels: politics

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Why is Bush Blocking A Public 9-11 Investigation?
Posted 11:44 AM

After damning reports that point to a FBI negligence and subsequent coverup [oregonstate.edu], a group of Congressmen formed an independant commision into why the Sept 11th attacks were seemingly "allowed to occur". This commission has been denied access to funding [washingtonpost.com], critical documents and is possibly being suppressed by the Whitehouse. An 11-million dollar investigation into 9/11 is, apparently not going to be a part of the 70+ billion-dollar war appropriation. I would contend that the victims, and the American people deserve very well-funded investigation [accessatlanta.com], and not fiscal restraint [prospect.org] on this issue.

Former President George H.W. Bush, was called on by Judicial Watch, a government investigations firm, to resign his position with the Carlyle Group, which has significant business interests with the Saudis. 14 of the 19 known hijackers were Saudi nationals. Perhaps this is why [washingtonpost.com] the investigation has been hampered?

Surely, they didn't know how bad the threat was. Could members of our government have ignored terror threats in order to gain public support for a war with Iraq? Strong stuff.

Labels: politics

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CNN Homepage... LOL
Posted 5:56 PM

The United States has apparently learned how effective 'human shields' can really be.

Labels: politics

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In a galaxy far, far away...
Posted 5:55 PM

Once upon a time, a group of unwashed rebels with unconventional religious ideals used guerilla tactics to fend off an imperialist army. Raids, robberies, false surrenders and ambushes were used to give them an edge over a superior force. The imperialists accused them of being barbaric, and failing to follow the rules of engagement.

The French clandestinely, and later openly, intervened in the war, providing the rebels with much needed cash and weaponry.

Over time, after thousands of skirmishes, the British lost the revolutionary war.

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Why we will lose this war
Posted 3:43 PM

"We find ourselves... facing a nation of 23 million, with armed elements numbering around 7 million --who are concentrated at urban areas. We will not win this fight. America will loose this war," said Mr. Ritter in an interview with Irish radio.

Yep, trying to take millions of urban snipers out with an army of 280,000 is a joke. If the people of Iraq wanted democracy, they'd have it by now. They are a violent theocracy. And, although you may disagree, they have a right to be a violent theocracy.

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Cheney and Bush
Posted 9:42 AM

Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, was granted the contract to put out oil well fires in Iraq without a bidding process, this is being viewed with a skeptical eye in the media.

Even though the U.S. is proposing to act in the interest of the world, Bush has managed to terrify the entire world and to turn the world against him and us and to make our situation infinitely more dangerous than it otherwise would have been. It's a display of diplomatic and political incompetence on a colossal scale. We're going to pay for this.

Labels: politics

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Anti-War is not Anti-Homeland Defense
Posted 10:23 PM

Increasingly, I've been accused of being a leftist and a pacifist. This is rediculous. I advocated assasinating Saddam and his regime, as an alternative to war. I advocated increased surveillance and increased military presence in airports in resonse to terrorism. I advocated increased CIA and antiterrorist budgets. As a New Yorker, I just think the war's gonna make things worse for me, personally.

Idea for circumventing privacy laws. If the cops have nothing to hide and they publish everything about their daily, personal activites (cameras, etc), then they can obtain the right to spy on people. Anyone viewing the data or acting on the data would also have to submit to personal publishing. This way any agency could circumvent privacy laws if needed, but only if they, themselves, live clean and honest lives.

Kindof like a GNU license for honesty.

Labels: politics

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Arguments for and against war
Posted 3:23 PM

This Point-Counterpoint: The War On Iraq shows some arguments for and against the war.

Labels: politics

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Shiite uprising in Basra spun by U.S. as Anti-Saddam
Posted 1:49 PM

A local uprising against Saddam Hussein's forces was under way Tuesday night in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, according to British Army intelligence officers attached to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, who said they had begun firing artillery to support the uprising.

Religious and racial discrimination runs rampant in the Middle East. Shiite Muslims have fought bloody battles with Sunni muslims throughout history. The U.S. will undoubtedly spin this minority racist Shiite uprising as "support for the U.S. by the Iraqi people", wheras, of course, the majority of Iraqi's are Sunni muslims. The Iraqi Shiites have no love for the U.S. They do know, however, that backing the U.S. is the best chance they will have of taking some of Iraq for themselves.

Basra Shiites brutally attacked Sunnis during the Gulf war, they were just as brutally suppressed by Saddam. Most of the atrocities you read about in Iraq are committed in the name of endemic bigotry, not in the name of Saddam Hussein.

The Baath Party, whose members are predominately Sunni Muslim, the other main sect within the Islam faith, is the Iraqi nationalist and socialist political organization through which Saddam rose to power, and it remains the political backbone of his regime. Baathist officials have played a leading role in organizing the guerrilla-style resistance that U.S. and British troops have encountered in recent days.

Labels: politics

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Protesters are not pro-Saddam
Posted 10:52 AM

I can speak from experience: most protesters are both anti-Saddam and anti-war.

Saddam wanted war, and so do fundamentalist muslims that belive jihad means war. If it doesn't kill him, it will make him stronger.

Bush was just too much of a wimp to assasinate him and the leaders of his regime and risk a fatwa and assasination war. Far safer (for him) to send soldiers.

Labels: politics

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Site shut down for showing POW pictures
Posted 8:22 AM

These pictures caused this website to get shut down by their hosting provider.

Labels: politics

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Captured U.S. Soldiers?
Posted 11:28 AM

Looks like some U.S. soldiers were captured. Not being shown by the mainstream media. Wondering if it can be verified or disputed by anyone? Rumsfeld said that it was against the Geneva convention to show American POWs. It was pointed out that we show wounded and humiliated Iraqi POW's on TV every day.

Labels: politics

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Today's March
Posted 5:55 PM

This march was much more well-coordinated and united in it's vision. Althought, I saw more directly anti-Bush signs than before. There weren't the large numbers of loud, pro-Palestine people, which detracted from the unity of the previous rally. The day was beautiful, and the crowd was generally upbeat and very diverse.

The police didn't confiscate Pepsi bottles and wooden signs, like they did at the last one. I guess someone must have pointed out how fucked up that was.

When I asked about 10 cops if they were for the war, most of them didn't answer. One of them said something like, "I think we take Saddam out, but I guess some people don't agree", and one of them said that he "didn't know" what was right. Overall it seemed there were a completely different group of police safeguarding the march than the last time.

But then, at the end and just when the crowd was dispersing, we found out where the rest of the ones were hiding. At Washington Square, police in riot gear forced everyone to "clear the streets immediately". Of course, there was no "serve and protect" reason to do this. This simply created an immediate conflict, and, in the end, caused some people to get hurt. It takes a lot of time for a hundred thousand people to clear out of a very small park area.

As soon as they danced their gay-synchronized-crowd-control lockstep, everyone naturally stopped to watch it. This resulted in a massive traffic jam. The old couple I was with was getting jostled, I had to strongarm people out of their way. Then few kids got pissed off and a few more got arrested.

This is completely different than what they do at the Halloween parade or the St. Patricks parade, which attracts 10 times them number of people! If you want to have people in riot gear, put them on standby, in *case* the crowd gets rowdy - which it wasn't. If there are a few people acting rowdy, send in an someone to stop them. Throughout the march, the crowd was overwhelmingly accommodating of police, stepping out of their way when they needed to get places, etc. There was no reason for them to antagonize people.

It almost seems like some pro-war commanders created a confrontational situation in order to encourage arrests and therefore discourage future protests through televized fear. If so, it was a good move. It works. Many people I know who didn't go to this one said it was mostly because they were afraid of being arrested.

"Fear is the mind-killer." - Frank Herbert, Dune
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Political Guilt Trip
Posted 8:02 AM

when 40% of the country opposes a war
we should at least hear our leaders
rationally considering
what we are saying

instead
we hear nothing
but arrests, police beatings
and "god bless our missiles" rhetoric

they pretend
as if
the people they use to fight their wars
and pay their taxes
and enable their idle, golf-playing lifestyles
don't exist

Labels: politics

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Posted 6:45 AM

Ripped from Salam Pax... Iraqi weblog.

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." -- Samuel P. Huntington

My opinion? Western values and religion provided our leaders with convenient excuses that enabled us to commit this violence.

Labels: politics

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Posted 11:16 AM

Duct tape thread - too funny.

Labels: politics

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Relevent Quotes
Posted 3:06 PM

Ripped unabashedly from dafrhi's post:

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise,
we don't believe in it at all.
~ Noam Chomsky

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people
what they do not want to hear
~ George Orwell

What good fortune for those in power that people do not think.
~ Adolf Hitler

Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is
the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or
a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of
the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they
are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism
and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every
country.
~ Hermann Goering

The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind
~ Albert Camus

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Posted 10:49 AM

Good Reuters article on the Arab perspective that hints at how our politicians have failed us over the years.

Labels: politics

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Dream Nukes
Posted 7:04 AM

Last night I had a dream. I was standing online for bread and water. Iraq had nuked it's oilfields. This had triggered a chain of events deep underground that contaminated more than 70% of the oil in the Middel East. The U.S., with the world's largest oil reserves, combined with careful power rationing, was still managing to avoid food shortages in it's cities. Other countries weren't so lucky.

Labels: politics

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Military Recursion
Posted 11:04 PM

So, we're going to war, in violation of the U.N. security council to enforce a former U.N. resolution.

They are very weak and poor, so a war against Iraq, the greatest current threat to the free world, should be relatively easy.

Labels: politics

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Oil is Spice
Posted 3:51 PM

"He who can destroy a thing controls a thing." -- Frank Herbert. Ever read Dune ior see the movie? The entire novel is an allegory for U.S. and Russian policy in the Middle East. Think "spice" as "oil".

I hope Saddam burns all his oilfields. That way there's nothing to fight about. And we'll see if Bush was lying all along.

Labels: politics

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Mega Lawsuit against Router Vendors
Posted 11:58 AM

Victims of botnet attacks and SQL Slammer outages may soon have some recourse.

DDoS-ca.org is a new organization that is trying to bring together victims of DDoS attacks in order to set up a lawsuit against Microsft, Cisco and others who have contributed to the denial of service and botnet phenomenon.

Labels: network security

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The Communist Act
Posted 3:36 PM

America's foremost virtue is freedom. It's becoming clear that there are severe abuses of power going on in Washington.

A good example is the The Patriot Act. This is an incendiary misuse of the word "patriot".

"Communist Act" would be more accurate. It makes racial profiling legal, disallows free speech, and allows citizens to be jailed indefinitely, secretly and without a trial. Under the new act, I can be stripped of my citizenship for this very website. Then again, if that happens, my American citizenship won't be anything worth losing.

( I, personally, didn't believe in it, untill I read the articles that mainstream news organizations, like ABC, had written. )

Labels: politics

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War on Ourselves
Posted 11:31 AM

What country has ever used a weapon of mass destruction? Who develops most of them? Who got them into Iran and the Middle East?

Regardless, we need to eliminate the reasons for war, not the weapons.

War requires extreme hatred and jealousy.

How hard would it be to create an international policy that helps eliminate extreme disparities of education and opportunity, while still preserving our conveniences? Seems easier and cheaper than war. And, without those extreme hatreds, war as we know it, would cease to exist.

When will we learn that history never truly repeats itself? In the new global, networked economy, victory in the Middle East will eventually hurt the economy and safety of America.

Or maybe genocide will keep them from continuing to attack us. Maybe we should round up up Americans of Arab descent and put them in camps - just in case?

I guess we'll just have to keep finding out the hard way that war, as we know it, is a losing battle.

Labels: politics

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Boards of Canada
Posted 10:30 AM

Proof of intelligent life in the Universe. When times are tough, if it wasn't for boards, I think I'd crack. Buy all their CD's.
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Reverse Addiction
Posted 10:23 AM

For those you have nicotine allergies like me:

If you've always wanted to start smoking, you can use Quest to build up a tolerance to
nicotine and tar.

Simply start with the zero nicotine product, then work your way up.

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Smoking Seals
Posted 10:09 AM

Companies should be allowed to sell whatever they want. If you want to sit home and eat baby seals all day - it's your God-given right.

I, personally love to sit home, smoke, drink, eat potato chips (preferrably hydrogenized) and watch TV. I'm appalled at these anti-tobacco taxes and lifestyle laws.

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Dark Matter as Aether
Posted 8:30 AM

Maybe dark matter is aether, the as-yet undetected matter than light travels through. The principle objection to the "aether" models was simply that it was "very complex" and "you didn't need it" to model all known phenomena. Then again, this was also the principle scientific objection to the earth being round. We don't "need" lots of things - but it's not scientific to discard them unless disproven. Only stumbling block to real scientific inquiry is that a lot of real wackos "believe" in aether.

To transmit high-frequency waves, and yet only make up 50% or so of the matter in our sparse universe, it would have to be packed and massless. Darn near undetectable.
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