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Goal is to reduce, not eliminate, terrorism
Monday, September 24, 2001
"War on Terrorism" backpedaling has already begun.
The U.S. goal is to reduce the global reach of terrorism, not to eliminate it entirely, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday.
In case you don't understand the scale and scope of the problem you might want to consult the page below:
Guide to International Terrorist Operations
Why Liberty Suffers in Wartime
Monday, September 24, 2001
Consider this: During all of America's major wars -- the Civil War, World War I and World War II -- the government restricted Americans' civil liberties in the name of quelling dissent, silencing criticism of political decisions and preserving national security.
You may find this acceptable. I don't.
Pentagon said to eye nuclear attack against terrorists
Sunday, September 23, 2001
If the Pentagon is looking to avoid colatteral damage, this is not the way to go.
Arab-Americans kicked off flight after passengers complain
Sunday, September 23, 2001
This shit has got to stop.
The following comments are not addressed to those of you who are directly affected by the events of the past two weeks, either friends or relatives of victims or of military personnel.
The greatest weapon that a terrorist can wield is not bombs, nor grenades or bullets. Their greatest weapon is fear.
It's time for the rest of us to suck it up, act like adults and get on with our lives such as they are.
If you'd rather live in fear, do the rest of us a favor and go home, lock your doors, get into your bed, pull your covers up over your head and never come out ever again.
All of you folks making racist comments and spreading fearful rumors might as well be walking around with a placard saying "Terrorists Win".
I've had it with you people and I'm not going to put up with your crap anymore. My advice to you is to stop watching the news (which is feeding you mostly fear, loathing and paranoia), start counting your blessings and appreciating life.
Who knows what today, tonight and tommorow may bring?
None of us do.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
No Silver Bullets
Sunday, September 23, 2001
Why biometrics won't make us safer:
Iris- and facial-recognition systems are the two leading biometric, or body-measurement, technologies. Vendors of such devices -- and some gullible law-enforcement agencies -- often portray them as virtually foolproof. Their widespread adoption, however, could damage much more than just our civil liberties if it lulls America into a false sense of security that leaves us vulnerable to even more catastrophic attacks.
Cooksey: Expect racial profiling
Friday, September 21, 2001
We all knew that redneck stupidity would rear it's ugly head sooner or later. The sad part is that this moron is a member of Congress and more frighteningly, is going to run for a U.S. Senate seat.
You can e-mail this idiot here.
Whether or Not to Rebuild the Twin Towers
Friday, September 21, 2001
I find the concept of rebuiling the World Trade Center complex appalling and a disgusting insult to the memory of the thousands that died there (and personally, I could give a shit what Ed Koch or anyone else has to say who would prefer to pave over the ruins rather than remember what happened there a mere ten days ago). I hope whoever ends up deciding this will have some decorum and respect and not give in to their mindless greed.
I like Roger Ebert's idea:
If there is to be a memorial, let it not be of stone and steel. Fly no flag above it, for it is not the possession of a nation but a sorrow shared with the world.
Let it be a green field, with trees and flowers. Let there be paths that wind through the shade. Put out park benches where old people can sun in the summertime, and a pond where children can skate in the winter.
Maybe it's too simple and idealistic, but that is what the world needs right now.
Let none forget the events of September 11, 2001.
Not the current generation.
Not the generation that may live one thousand years hence.
Bush Submits His Laws for War
Friday, September 21, 2001
Senate OKs FBI Net Spying
People are afraid, which is understandable.
I am afraid too, but right now I'm far more afraid of the federal government than I am of terrorism.
There are plenty of people, both private citizens and government officials, who are more that willing to tear the Constitution to bits and burn the scraps in the illusion that it will provide more security.
I hope that every reader of this weblog will think very carefully what is going on in this country today. I hope that you will consider the ideals that this nation stands for; democracy, equality, freedom, justice and liberty.
The replacement of terror with tyranny is no answer to our nation's problems, neither is it the answer to our world's problems.
Please consider the words of one of the wisest men in U.S. history, Benjamin Franklin:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Life During Wartime
Sunday, September 16, 2001
The dead only know one thing. It is better to be alive.
I wholeheartedly recommend the following weblogs who are doing a far better job covering this disaster (and the subsequent ones that are likely to follow) than I ever could:
AlterNet
Bellona Times
Booknotes
Common Dreams
Newcity.com
randomWalks
Working For Change
World New York
Wood s Lot
Unknown News
GAO May Sue for Energy Info
Saturday, September 8, 2001
Cheney's screwing of environmentalists is headed for litigation.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration "believes very strongly" that it "is not a matter of public purview for each and every meeting, for each and every minute of the president and vice president each and every day to be reported publicly."
Uh, hey asshole, we're not talking about vital national security interests which might need to be kept secret. What we are talking about is secret abuse of power, plain and simple. The press doesn't care because this abuse of power doesn't involve sex with interns.
Nevadans Trash Nuclear Mountain Storage Plan
Saturday, September 8, 2001
You want to live next to nuclear waste?
Neither do Nevadans.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has vowed to personally arrest any driver hauling nuclear waste through the city to a proposed underground storage site intended to house the nation's radioactive spent fuel for the next 10,000 years.
Coral reefs 'face total destruction within 50 years'
Saturday, September 8, 2001
All coral reefs will likely die, thanks to global warming, in fifty years at the latest.
Obstacles Grow for EPA Pick
Saturday, September 8, 2001
Another environmental screw job, courtesy of the Bush/Cheney Corporation.
The EPA report issued earlier this week buttressed claims by environmentalists that Schregardus was lax during his tenure in Ohio. The report said that from 1995 to 2000, the Ohio environmental agency lacked enough employees to protect air quality, had an inadequate training program, failed to scrutinize polluters' claims about their activities and had allowed a precipitous decline in investigations of violators. If uncorrected, EPA's complaint could lead to its revoking the state's authority to enforce federal pollution laws.
Using statistics supplied by the state, the activist Environmental Working Group said that under Schregardus, Ohio inspected large factories at a rate much lower than applied nationally -- half of all major plants in Ohio went uninspected from 1997 to 1999, compared with less than a third nationwide.
When he took over in Ohio in 1991, Schregardus said he wanted to approach industry with "a handshake and not a threat." Activists say the number of Ohio enforcement actions against polluters dropped from 20 in that year to two in 1999.
The U.S. and the Genocide in Rwanda - 1994
Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Clinton fiddled while a million Rwandans got hacked to pieces.
If there was any case for military intervention, this was it.
The West did nothing. Why, when they did so in Kosovo?
The seemingly obvious conclusion is because they weren't white.
Thanks, killyourtv.com
Cannabis 'dramatically improves pain relief'
Wednesday, September 5, 2001
I could have told them that!
Iceland seeks waste-disposal crocs
Wednesday, September 5, 2001
This striles me as an extrordinarily stupid idea considering the havoc that introduced species often wreak.
Ahem, Zebra Mussels? Kudzu? European Starlings?
Armchair hooligans get their chance
Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Simulated thuggery is fun!
The game is played out over a football season in which a hooligan gang travels Europe trying to prove it is the most violent and anti-social group.
It lets players gather funds by looting shops, recruiting troops with drugs or alcohol and features pitched battles with police forces and rival gangs.
Next up, Sim Police Brutality and Sim Columbine!
Brazilians protest over Amazon bill
Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Kiss the Amazon rainforest goodbye.
Under existing laws, farmers in the Amazon are only allowed to clear 20% of the forest for farming.
The bill now under debate would greatly increase the amount to 50% or even 80%.
Zim loggers to ravage rainforest
Little of the logging money is expected to reach the Zimbabwean people, though their army’s involvement in Congo is bankrupting the country. Inflation is running at 170%, unemployment is at 60% and millions live in poverty.
Instead, the logging revenues are likely to be shared by a small clique of senior generals and politicians.
The funds will also swell the war chest of the Zanu-PF party, Mugabe’s primary political vehicle, which has led the recent violent crackdown on the growing democratic opposition.
Why are they chopping down these rainforests?
Because you, the consumer, will go out and buy their products.
I am convinced that the human race is so dominated by a clique of greedy, ignorant and shortsighted morons that our chances of long term survival as an intact species are rapidly dropping from nil to zero.
Two marijuana activists killed by police
Wednesday, September 5, 2001
In another story that the mainstream media won't touch with a ten foot pole, two marijuana activists were exterminated by the FBI, State Police and local Sherrifs.
Don't think this can't happen to you. It can.
Think you live in a free society? Wake up.
You're living in a police state and you don't even know it.
Brainwashed locals are happy about it.
Thanks to Unknown News for the original link.
For more information, see Cannabis News.
Daypop
Tuesday, September 4, 2001
Could it be a metaweblogsearchthingy that seems to work and is up to date? It can't be! Linkwatcher (which seems to have stopped crawling my page; bummer.), the bloated and slow as molasses Weblogs.com (think you can connect in less than five minutes? good luck! BTW, thanks for all the spam, Dave!) and Blogdex (no search capability) don't fit my obsessive weblog searching needs.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will keep working for a while, before linkage bloat sets in.
Thanks, wood s lot :)
CEOs Reward Themselves Despite Economic Downturn
Monday, September 3, 2001
Here's one way to put the increase in CEO pay in perspective: If the minimum wage, which stood at $3.80 an hour in 1990, had grown at the same rate as CEO pay, it would now be $25.50 an hour, rather than the current $5.15 an hour. If the average annual pay for production workers had grown at the same rate since 1990 as it has for CEOs, these workers would have earned $120,491 instead of $24,668 in 2000.
Happy Labor Day!
Dishing up new TV shows, Soup2Nuts is getting animated
Sunday, September 2, 2001
Home Movies is back from the dead! Woohoo!
(10 PM EST tonight on Cartoon Network)
Thanks, tvtattle :)
Scientists call for online library
Sunday, September 2, 2001
Thousands of scientists around the world will soon be boycotting academic journals that refuse to make their contents freely available on the web soon after publication.
Bravo!
Energy crisis raises ante on Arctic drilling
Sunday, September 2, 2001
First of all, let me point out that I object severely to the title of this article since there is no energy crisis. Gas is thirty cents cheaper per gallon than it was three months ago. Remember when the press was telling us that gas would cost three dollars a gallon this summer?
Guess what? It didn't happen.
There is not much room for optimism at this point because the Democrats will no doubt waffle severely, just like they always do.
Still, it's not to late to raise your voice.
You better hurry.
Different Rules for Bush
Sunday, September 2, 2001
The rules for us dopes involve a lot of mixed signals, like being told, "It's your money, not the Washington bureaucrats'," yet being nudged toward Wal-Mart or Home Depot to separate ourselves as fast as possible from our $300 nuggets of "tax relief."
After all, consumer spending (we are reminded hourly) accounts for two-thirds of the U.S. economy. It is our responsibility, especially in a downturn, to keep buying more stuff. Whether we need it or not. Whether we can afford it or not.
The rules for us dopes say we should pay no attention to the $20 trillion many of us -- especially those who earn below the median income -- have wracked up in consumer debt. Nor should we bother about the 24.99 annual percentage rate that banks have begun to slap onto our Visas or MasterCards because we were late with a payment, not to them, but to some other lender.
I know people don't want to hear it. I don't care.
The Cult of Runaway Materialism [TM] and The Commodification of Everything [TM] is eventually going to be the death of this country and possibly the death of the rest of the planet as well.
No one is putting a gun to your head to buy stuff that you don't need.
If you remember only one thing, remember this.
You don't have to be like everyone else.
Kazakhstan highlights nuclear test aftermath
Sunday, September 2, 2001
In a bizzare twist, Kazakhstan may import nuclear waste to pay for the cleanup of decades of Soviet nuclear testing.
Rain-making link to killer floods
Sunday, September 2, 2001
Did secret MoD/RAF rain making experiments lead to a British flood disaster in 1952?
The Pentagon And the Professor
Saturday, September 1, 2001
Military censorship is alive and well.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise
of misplaced power exists and will persist.
They who seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of rulers
. . . call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.
Thanks again, Unknown News :)
Scripts first casualty in Hollywood's theatre of war
Saturday, September 1, 2001
Hollywood film-makers have frequently changed plot lines, altered history and amended scripts at the request of the Pentagon, according to recently released military documents. Producers and directors have often agreed to changes in order to gain access to expensive military hardware or to be able to film on military property.
Duh!
War movies have been reduced to nothing but miltary recruitment films. This is a shame because the sheer horror and waste of war is what people should be learning about.
It is well that war is so terrible else we become too fond of it.
I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded . . . I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed . . . I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.
Thanks, randomWalks via Unknown News :)
The Dalek Builder's Club
Saturday, September 1, 2001
Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!
Thanks, Grouse! :)
Also see: The Daleks WAV Archive
Burning Man Cool to Dmitry
Saturday, September 1, 2001
They gave a protest and no one came.
But even the well-informed seemed perplexed by the point of a political protest at Burning Man. "I know it's probably important, and it's pretty sad for him," summarized one observer from the safety of Media Mecca's shade structure. "But come on: I'm at Burning Man, and I've got my absinthe. How the hell can I care now?"
People wonder why I don't have much respect for Burning Man.
This is why.
Contrary to popular opinion, there is very little difference between the hordes who flock to Burning Man every year and the legions of sex crazed fratboy meatheads who flock to Fort Lauderdale every Spring Break.
Oh yeah, BTW, Fuck Burning Man!
"Black Rock City is you" is a common slogan among Burning Man types. I don't pretend to know what happens to every person who goes to the Nevada desert, but if it's so great, bring some of it back here. Give the Bay Area some of all that creative energy and community you muster up each August. This is your home too.
This is what I've been saying for about five years now.
Unfortunately, when most people return home from vacation, they become the same buttoned-down, boring, self-obsessed people that they were before they left.
Go ahead. Prove me wrong, if you dare.
Yeah, I didn't thank so.
Another thing that has always bothered me about Burning Man is that you never hear word one about the environmental impact and who, if anyone, cleans up the desert when twenty thousand people are through trashing it. I guarantee that you could go out there with a spade and dig up cigarette butts, used condoms, plastic bags, etc. from now until Doomsday.
Give the desert a rest and just trash your own backyard next time.
Thanks, randomWalks :)
U.S. Defends Anti-Narcotics Policy
Friday, August 31, 2001
Souder listed several initiatives to reduce drug consumption in the United States: suspending federal student loans for those found to have abused drugs; encouraging private companies to submit their employees to drug tests; and guaranteeing college loans for students who maintain good grades and avoid drugs.
Remember kids, binge drinking until you puke and screwing anything that moves is OK. Smoking a joint will cost you your student loan.
Unfortunately, one of these fascist creeps just happens to be my Congressman.
Web designers complain new ad programs hijack their sites
Friday, August 31, 2001
You should be aware of the latest threat from internet marketing scum trying to hijack your browser.
Guerrilla Ad Banner Battle Looms
The parasite economy
Calif. Debate: Who Made This Dump a Landmark?
Friday, August 31, 2001
Why it's Interior Secretary Gale "I hate the environment and everthing in it" Norton! Somehow, we are neither shocked or amused.
Thanks, Quiddity :)
Interior secretary dumps landmark status for landfill
Norton backpedals furiously, thanks to the press:
. . . the landfill's waste has polluted groundwater with paint, solvents and other hazardous chemicals. Explosive methane must be burned off.
The cleanup has cost $38 million so far, according to Leo Kay of the EPA. Kay said it is the first time he has heard of a Superfund site being named a historic landmark.
"We have hundreds of former landfills across the country that are undergoing multimillion-dollar cleanups," Kay said. "You would have thought more discussion would have taken place prior to making such a designation."
Cason Joins Interior, Free of Senate Scrutiny
More of Bush's stealth plan to destroy what's left of our environment:
Critics cited Cason's actions as an Interior Department official during the Reagan administration, when he was instrumental in the sale of thousands of acres of oil shale lands in Colorado for $2.50 an acre under an 1872 mining law. He also was charged with suppressing a report that the spotted owl was likely to become an endangered species if logging continued in the Pacific Northwest.
Wasteful Spending on the ONDCP Campaign
Friday, August 31, 2001
N'SYNC gets $800,000 to star in anti-drug propaganda ad.
While the Media Campaign continues valiantly trying to brainwash and behaviorally condition American youth , buying slick advertisements, with sports and pop-culture luminaries pushing the government prohibitionist line, ONDCP Acting Director Edward Jurith on May 31 quietly suspended the controversial practice of "paying TV networks for putting antidrug messages in popular TV shows," as reported by Dan Forbes in Salon on June 30.
Thanks, Unknown News :)
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