The finale to the WWIII series is coming before the Pakistan episode, but I haven't finished writing the Pakistan one and I wanted to get something up tonight, so, here you go. Besides, this post is sure to be edited later anyways.
The influence behind just about everything that happens in this world is money. And the influence behind the possible WWIII is just a proxy for money. It's, of course, oil. Oil is the reason that the first gulf war happened, and it's the reason for the second as well. So how did we go and start a war centered on oil? Let's take a closer look at the events that led up to it.
Well remember Dick "The Blind Sheik" Cheney's Energy Taskforce meetings? No? Then go and look it up, I can't link everything for you. Well in these meetings it's been supposed that he was gathering information on remaining world-wide oil reserves and how much longer they would be producing. See Mr. Cheney had recently been quite convinced of the threat of the "peak oil" theory*, and was quite concerned with what it meant for the future of America. He knew that the future of America depended on securing energy sources, and his friends at Halliburton had told him that if we turn towards alternate or renewable energy sources, we would suffer the fate of all the rest of the granola-eating hippies. Less-than-extravagant lifestyles! God forbid any American should ever have to endure the indignity, so Dick knew he had to get to work. He had to secure the future of oil production for the United States. The world community won't let a country invade and seize another country's resources without a backlash that even the US couldn't survive, but if a strawman were set up then he could safely be taken out. And if the result of this action were that the country liberated were beholden to the US, AND was an oil-rich nation, then the stars would be too damned aligned not to start that war. Of course, Dick already knew exactly who this strawman was, he had had intimate dealings with him before as Secretary of Defense under H.W. Bush. And his close friend Rumsfeld had an even closer relationship with the man (http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/rumsfeld-hussein.jpg) So, as the Dick who said in 1992, "And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/192908_cheney29.html) turned into the Dick who will advocate the veracity of the Iraq war until his dying breath, the US was plunged into a war that in the end will benefit only those soulless enough to yearn to profit from it. And now that the eventual cost of the war will settle in at almost 2 trillion dollars, enough money to replace almost every car in the US with a hybrid car, we as a citizenry are left to wonder what else that money could have paid for. That money could maybe have made us energy independent. It may have been able to build enough solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, etc. plants that we would never again have to give a fucking dime to another country for energy. It may have built for us the technology that would once again make us the world leader, so that other countries would once again be dependent on us for their salvation, and that our continued success as a nation would once again be in the interest in the world as a whole. Of course, all it did pay for was a few thousand dead American men and women, and countless dead Iraqis (some estimates are over a million, with more than 3 million displaced from their homes.)
I feel sometimes like an isolationist. History judged the isolationists wrong in the late 1930's. If America hadn't stepped in to aid the rest of the world against the insanities of Hitler, then the world would certainly have been such a dark place that few of us would like to contemplate. Still today, I feel right in being an isolationist. America is drowning in it's own problems and can hardly afford to try to be liberator to the world right now. The Euro is worth almost 2 dollars. The Canadian dollar is trading damned near even with the American dollar. Markets across the world are gearing up to no longer use the American dollar as their standard. Money is the bellwether that shows true influence, and ours is drying up. It won't be long until Columbian drug lords bury stashes of Euros instead of American dollars in order to safeguard their investments. Fuck, actually they probably were the first to switch. As much as GW likes to crow about how he's spreading freedom and democracy, the pendulum is swinging towards dictatorship across the globe. Oppressive China is quickly becoming one of the strongest world powers. Russia is racing backwards towards the days of Stalin with Putin at the helm, arresting or assassinating anyone who so much as glances at him on the subway. And the US, the shining beacon of freedom, is seeing it's citizens lose civil liberties at the pace of about one a week. Don't get me wrong, it's still better than Britain, which has the highest ration of "security cameras" per capita in the world. But it's a shadow of it's former self, and a disgrace to the men and women who gave their lives to ensure that it would remain the freest nation on the planet.
The question is, "what is there for us to do about it?" Well there are a million different things that you can do, and it's up to each one of us to decide what it is that we will do. Each of us needs to think about what it is that we want our country to be, and decide how best we are able to bring that about. If you've got the drive and the means to make a big difference, then god bless, go forward. If you only have the time or the desire to make a small change, then every little bit still helps. And I don't mean towards any certain ends, but towards any ends that you would like. The important bit is to stay attentive, to stay informed, and to fucking care! Everybody has heard the saying "Of course we must fear evil men, but there is another evil that we must fear more… and that is the indifference of good men.". But the nuance to that is that you aren't supposed to be outraged at the blatantly outrageous. Once it gets to the point that EVERYBODY realizes what is happening is unjust, it is too damned late. You have to get outraged at the steps that lead up to that point. Stand up and make your voice heard, in any way you can.
This will tie in nicely to what I hope will be my next post, a quick look at some of the presidential candidates. The election coming up is an excellent chance to make your voice heard :)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Life Update
It's been way too long since my last post, and alot of that has to do with the job that I'm working right now. But now it's time for an update, since as of this thursday I'll no longer be working at that job. I don't have enough space here to list all of the reasons that I hated working at that job, but the main reason that I knew I had to quit was that it was making me very, very unhappy. I've worked some crappy jobs before, but I've never felt so depressed by any other job. The stress of driving in rush hour traffic, having to park in places I'm not supposed to be and worrying about getting towed (which did happen once), the dirty looks I got from servers working at restaurants as if I was helping take away their customers, the FUCKING idiot pedestrians all over the city who don't know what the little flashing orange hand means, the people who tip two dollars on a hundred dollar order. It was all too much in itself without the fact that I was making steadily less money as the company hired more and more drivers for the "busy season". But soon that will all be behind me. It's true, I don't have another job lined up yet, but that didn't stop me last job I left, and I liked that job.
Plus, now that I won't be working 10-10 five days a week I'll have time to start writing some more! I've got a hundred things on my mind to write about. I think it's about time to start a dialog about the presidential candidates, especially from what I've been hearing from the few people I've talked to at all about it. It's time to set everybody straight about these people. I'll try to get two posts up in the next two days, and if I can manage I'll finish out the WWIII series while it's still relevant!
Plus, now that I won't be working 10-10 five days a week I'll have time to start writing some more! I've got a hundred things on my mind to write about. I think it's about time to start a dialog about the presidential candidates, especially from what I've been hearing from the few people I've talked to at all about it. It's time to set everybody straight about these people. I'll try to get two posts up in the next two days, and if I can manage I'll finish out the WWIII series while it's still relevant!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Another dalliance with less forethought
Man, when you're working 50 hours a week and constantly worried about thirteen different things it's harder to find time to do the things you love, like rant and rave about politics and current events. So until I finish my Pakistan post (which keeps changing as new news comes in), here is some random stuff that I think you'll find interesting:
Symbiont: noun An organism in a symbiotic relationship. In cases in which a distinction is made between two interacting organisms, the symbiont is the smaller of the two and is always a beneficiary in the relationship, while the larger organism is the host and may or may not derive a benefit. (dictionary.com)
In the human body, there are many other organisms that live in a symbiotic relationship with ourselves. Some are beneficial (microbes in our digestive tract that help break down food), and some are detrimental (germs and disease causing microbes).
In your body, in everyone's body, right now you are composed of around a hundred trillion cells. Of these cells, only 1 in 10 is human cells. (Breaking the Spell, Daniel Dennet) Sleep tight hypochondriacs!
Veteran's Day: There's a hundred different things I could say about veteran's day, which was yesterday. I'd like to relate to you though a story that some of you may have heard. Known in France as Armistice day, the day also marks the signing of the cease-fire between France and Germany that marked the end of the first world war. The treaty took effect on 11:00 am on Nov. 11. It's nice when things work out that way that the 11th hour would fall on the 11th at 11:00 am, and that's certainly what the drawers of the treaty were thinking. The unfortunate truth though is that the treaty was finalized at 5:00 am Paris time that morning. In the time between the finalization of the agreement and the enacting of said agreement, many soldiers were killed fighting a war that was already over.
My point in this is: Everyone who gives their life in service deserves to be honored. No one gets to choose the way they go out, but they all make the same sacrifice and take the same risks. Veterans day is supposed to be the day when we do that as a country, but each year it passes with less and less recognition than the year before. Veterans account for twice the amount of the homeless population than the rest of the populace. Clearly we are derelict in our duty to them. I ask of you, and of myself, what did you do to commemorate Veteran's day? Did you donate to your local VFW, to the USO, maybe even to a homeless shelter?
OK, I couldn't get through a post without a bit of an accusatory rant, but I'll end on a lighter note:
www.imagepoop.com/image/1377/Ribbon-Based-Economy.html?img
I don't know where this is from, but it's pretty damned apt, and pretty funny. And here I thought buying a yellow ribbon made in China would somehow help the US.
Symbiont: noun An organism in a symbiotic relationship. In cases in which a distinction is made between two interacting organisms, the symbiont is the smaller of the two and is always a beneficiary in the relationship, while the larger organism is the host and may or may not derive a benefit. (dictionary.com)
In the human body, there are many other organisms that live in a symbiotic relationship with ourselves. Some are beneficial (microbes in our digestive tract that help break down food), and some are detrimental (germs and disease causing microbes).
In your body, in everyone's body, right now you are composed of around a hundred trillion cells. Of these cells, only 1 in 10 is human cells. (Breaking the Spell, Daniel Dennet) Sleep tight hypochondriacs!
Veteran's Day: There's a hundred different things I could say about veteran's day, which was yesterday. I'd like to relate to you though a story that some of you may have heard. Known in France as Armistice day, the day also marks the signing of the cease-fire between France and Germany that marked the end of the first world war. The treaty took effect on 11:00 am on Nov. 11. It's nice when things work out that way that the 11th hour would fall on the 11th at 11:00 am, and that's certainly what the drawers of the treaty were thinking. The unfortunate truth though is that the treaty was finalized at 5:00 am Paris time that morning. In the time between the finalization of the agreement and the enacting of said agreement, many soldiers were killed fighting a war that was already over.
My point in this is: Everyone who gives their life in service deserves to be honored. No one gets to choose the way they go out, but they all make the same sacrifice and take the same risks. Veterans day is supposed to be the day when we do that as a country, but each year it passes with less and less recognition than the year before. Veterans account for twice the amount of the homeless population than the rest of the populace. Clearly we are derelict in our duty to them. I ask of you, and of myself, what did you do to commemorate Veteran's day? Did you donate to your local VFW, to the USO, maybe even to a homeless shelter?
OK, I couldn't get through a post without a bit of an accusatory rant, but I'll end on a lighter note:
www.imagepoop.com/image/1377/Ribbon-Based-Economy.html?img
I don't know where this is from, but it's pretty damned apt, and pretty funny. And here I thought buying a yellow ribbon made in China would somehow help the US.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Remember, remember the fifth of November
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/05/open-thread-623/
If you've seen "V for Vendetta", then you know what the movie is about but for those of you who haven't seen it I'll avoid going too much into the plot because it's an awesome movie that I don't want to ruin for you. Basically though it's about a masked superhero-like figure that wages war against a tyrannical, corrupt government. It makes sense that the movie would be a hit with anyone of a libertarian mindset, or anyone who happens to realize exactly how many rights they've lost under the current administration. The movie makes importance of the fifth of November as the date of "the gunpowder plot" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_plot) It was about as libertarian an ideal as you can get, the plan was to destroy the houses of parliament and kill all the government leaders in one fell swoop. Of course, it would also have been an insanely savage act of what we now call terrorism, and I don't mean to equate libertarianism with violence. Still, some people in the UK still celebrate the anniversary of the failed attempt, even though I can't imagine it still has the same significance.
Ok, so the point of the post isn't a history lesson, nor is it a movie review. (Seriously though, see that movie if you haven't) The 5th of November had current relevance here in America because it catapulted a republican candidate* from sideshow status into major contention (as far as the main-stream media is concerned). On Nov. 5th Ron Paul raised over 4.2 million dollars towards his presidential campaign. That's 4.2 million IN ONE DAY! Apparently "V for Vendetta" has been an insanely effective rallying cry for the libertarians here in the US. Personally though, I think that it's more indicative of the fact that Ron Paul is the only one in the Republican debates who is even talking any sense. He's the only one to advocate withdrawal from Iraq, to argue completely against the use of torture, and the only one who seems to understand what the republicans used to stand for: smaller government.
It's ironic that a republican administration has beset upon Americans the largest intrusions of government into our lives in the course of American history. It's also proven to be catastrophic to their party. The rise of Ron Paul is proof that the old republicans in this country are starting to wake up and attempt to take their party back. I don't know if they'll be able to, the party is already splintering among dozens of different fault lines. Still, I'm glad to see this happening, because these are the republicans I feel much more comfortable with. I'd much rather argue with a republican that we should increase the minimum wage or have universal health care than argue with them that it doesn't matter whether or not they've done anything wrong, the government shouldn't be allowed to investigate them without a warrant.
Don't get me wrong, I think Ron Paul is insane. He's in favor of eliminating taxes, the FBI, the EPA, you know, the government. Also I've always been suspicious of libertarians, and I have an inherent distrust of anyone who joins the local militia and stockpiles supplies in their bunker. I think that organized governments are the greatest tools we have as a species for managing what has become an unreasonable amount of individuals living on this planet. I think that a government that works for the people instead of it's own self interest is the only answer to a myriad of problems that face a country. Still even a raging liberal like me knows that there are limits.
Incidentally, there's one other thing I want to bring up quick. It's not really related to the rest of the post, but it reminded me of it. Fascism does not actually mean "like the nazis", which is the colloquial definition it seems to have attained. It actually means the marrying of corporations with government towards the ends of having a corporate state. Kind of like oil companies determining energy policy, or insurance firms lobbying for the privatization of social security, or pharmaceutical companies writing health care policy and determining prescription drug coverage. Yeah, just the sort of thing that has been happening in Washington lately, that's the stuff.
* - every time I write the word "candidate" I mis-spell it "cantidate" at first. It just seems weird to me that the etymological root of that word would be "candid". I'm such a hippy sometimes, it frustrates me.
If you've seen "V for Vendetta", then you know what the movie is about but for those of you who haven't seen it I'll avoid going too much into the plot because it's an awesome movie that I don't want to ruin for you. Basically though it's about a masked superhero-like figure that wages war against a tyrannical, corrupt government. It makes sense that the movie would be a hit with anyone of a libertarian mindset, or anyone who happens to realize exactly how many rights they've lost under the current administration. The movie makes importance of the fifth of November as the date of "the gunpowder plot" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_plot) It was about as libertarian an ideal as you can get, the plan was to destroy the houses of parliament and kill all the government leaders in one fell swoop. Of course, it would also have been an insanely savage act of what we now call terrorism, and I don't mean to equate libertarianism with violence. Still, some people in the UK still celebrate the anniversary of the failed attempt, even though I can't imagine it still has the same significance.
Ok, so the point of the post isn't a history lesson, nor is it a movie review. (Seriously though, see that movie if you haven't) The 5th of November had current relevance here in America because it catapulted a republican candidate* from sideshow status into major contention (as far as the main-stream media is concerned). On Nov. 5th Ron Paul raised over 4.2 million dollars towards his presidential campaign. That's 4.2 million IN ONE DAY! Apparently "V for Vendetta" has been an insanely effective rallying cry for the libertarians here in the US. Personally though, I think that it's more indicative of the fact that Ron Paul is the only one in the Republican debates who is even talking any sense. He's the only one to advocate withdrawal from Iraq, to argue completely against the use of torture, and the only one who seems to understand what the republicans used to stand for: smaller government.
It's ironic that a republican administration has beset upon Americans the largest intrusions of government into our lives in the course of American history. It's also proven to be catastrophic to their party. The rise of Ron Paul is proof that the old republicans in this country are starting to wake up and attempt to take their party back. I don't know if they'll be able to, the party is already splintering among dozens of different fault lines. Still, I'm glad to see this happening, because these are the republicans I feel much more comfortable with. I'd much rather argue with a republican that we should increase the minimum wage or have universal health care than argue with them that it doesn't matter whether or not they've done anything wrong, the government shouldn't be allowed to investigate them without a warrant.
Don't get me wrong, I think Ron Paul is insane. He's in favor of eliminating taxes, the FBI, the EPA, you know, the government. Also I've always been suspicious of libertarians, and I have an inherent distrust of anyone who joins the local militia and stockpiles supplies in their bunker. I think that organized governments are the greatest tools we have as a species for managing what has become an unreasonable amount of individuals living on this planet. I think that a government that works for the people instead of it's own self interest is the only answer to a myriad of problems that face a country. Still even a raging liberal like me knows that there are limits.
Incidentally, there's one other thing I want to bring up quick. It's not really related to the rest of the post, but it reminded me of it. Fascism does not actually mean "like the nazis", which is the colloquial definition it seems to have attained. It actually means the marrying of corporations with government towards the ends of having a corporate state. Kind of like oil companies determining energy policy, or insurance firms lobbying for the privatization of social security, or pharmaceutical companies writing health care policy and determining prescription drug coverage. Yeah, just the sort of thing that has been happening in Washington lately, that's the stuff.
* - every time I write the word "candidate" I mis-spell it "cantidate" at first. It just seems weird to me that the etymological root of that word would be "candid". I'm such a hippy sometimes, it frustrates me.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Russia - The second cold war
www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2202715,00.html - Russian democracy in action
nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2007/11/01/news0846.htm - Russia cozies with Iran
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article692157.ece - Russia arms Venezuela
www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070306201334.qse2sfab&show_article=1 - And they're keeping it quiet
www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=11796 - But the people still "love" Putin!
Not a middle eastern country, but probably the most important coming conflict is with Russia. Russia has been slipping further and further from a sane democratic super power under the authoritarian direction of Vladimir Putin. (Is anyone with the first name Vladimir not evil?) At the same time it's been allying itself with countries that have been on this administration's shit list since the beginning. Iran and Argentina have been it's biggest targets. Now what is it that Russia could possibly want from those two countries that it's willing to sign arms deals with them? Maybe the same reason that the US has been kissing the Saudi royal family's asses for years.
The lines are beginning to be drawn, between groups of countries, over oil rights. Russia is "claiming" Venezuela and Iran, as well as attempting to claim the arctic oil reserves as their own. The US maintains tenuous relationships with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and has just about made Iraq into a US principality. Why else would we be building permanent bases there as well as the largest embassy complex ever constructed? The lines aren't necessarily being drawn because a war is imminent, or even that likely. We're too far away from oil running out to be worried about wars starting because of it. However, we are at the point where oil production can't keep up with the expansion of industrialism. China and India being added to the world's oil demand is straining this planet's capacity to keep our cars running.
The threat with Russia in the present though, is that they're turning back into the Russia that we were in the cold war with, and isolating them for dealing with the countries we've designated as evil will only strain relations even further. It's unlikely that the US and Russia will ever be very good allies, but it used to be that world opinion regarded Russia as the crazy ones, and the US was the good guys. After the last few years though, the world is starting to regard the US as crazy, and Russia as slightly less crazy. The terrible part about this is that if the US were still in good standing we could have some sort of influence on the state of affairs in Russia, but since we can't get any countries to follow our lead lately, what can be done? Someone needs to step in and keep Russia from becoming a de facto dictatorship again, for the sake of it's citizens and for the sake of the world. It's too bad we're STILL bogged down in Iraq.
nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2007/11/01/news0846.htm - Russia cozies with Iran
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article692157.ece - Russia arms Venezuela
www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070306201334.qse2sfab&show_article=1 - And they're keeping it quiet
www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=11796 - But the people still "love" Putin!
Not a middle eastern country, but probably the most important coming conflict is with Russia. Russia has been slipping further and further from a sane democratic super power under the authoritarian direction of Vladimir Putin. (Is anyone with the first name Vladimir not evil?) At the same time it's been allying itself with countries that have been on this administration's shit list since the beginning. Iran and Argentina have been it's biggest targets. Now what is it that Russia could possibly want from those two countries that it's willing to sign arms deals with them? Maybe the same reason that the US has been kissing the Saudi royal family's asses for years.
The lines are beginning to be drawn, between groups of countries, over oil rights. Russia is "claiming" Venezuela and Iran, as well as attempting to claim the arctic oil reserves as their own. The US maintains tenuous relationships with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and has just about made Iraq into a US principality. Why else would we be building permanent bases there as well as the largest embassy complex ever constructed? The lines aren't necessarily being drawn because a war is imminent, or even that likely. We're too far away from oil running out to be worried about wars starting because of it. However, we are at the point where oil production can't keep up with the expansion of industrialism. China and India being added to the world's oil demand is straining this planet's capacity to keep our cars running.
The threat with Russia in the present though, is that they're turning back into the Russia that we were in the cold war with, and isolating them for dealing with the countries we've designated as evil will only strain relations even further. It's unlikely that the US and Russia will ever be very good allies, but it used to be that world opinion regarded Russia as the crazy ones, and the US was the good guys. After the last few years though, the world is starting to regard the US as crazy, and Russia as slightly less crazy. The terrible part about this is that if the US were still in good standing we could have some sort of influence on the state of affairs in Russia, but since we can't get any countries to follow our lead lately, what can be done? Someone needs to step in and keep Russia from becoming a de facto dictatorship again, for the sake of it's citizens and for the sake of the world. It's too bad we're STILL bogged down in Iraq.
Coming Tonight!
Part III of the world war series is gonna be posted tonight. It's been a while since I've had something to procrastinate from doing but now I have zoo internship applications to write, so the desire to do anything but has struck again!
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