UNO

So today, or, just a little while ago, my brother's girlfriend, Jenn, sent me a link to the University of New Orleans website.

She said they're starved for students so its easy to get in and get financial aid and that she applied in March and got accepted. Since I'm barely good enough to go to UNT, and its probably more expensive to go to U of H, I think UNO may be the place for me. For one thing, MY BROTHER LIVES IN NEW ORLEANS. I could live with my freaking brother, how cool is that? Also, I could find some gigs there to start cutting my teeth right away in America's premier Jazz City.

If their music program isn't that great, all that would mean is that I could get accepted even more easily. Thats kind of a pathetic way of approaching it, but at this point I just want to start going to some university.

To sum it all up, Cajun food OWNS!

Happy Birthday George Harrison

George Harrison would be 63 years old today if he were still with us.

George was by far the coolest Beatle, and though each of the Beatles had the most unique and distinctive singing voices in all of rock music, George's is probably my favorite.

Here comes the sun...

Macbeth Socratic Seminar

My girlfriend was appalled when I said that Soctratic seminars were difficult. Well, THEY KINDA ARE!

Socratic seminars would be pretty rad if my teacher didn't give us a test grade for our input, a minimum of two comments supported by evidence from the story and/or thought-provoking questions or remarks just to get a 70. Luckily for me, we took two days to finish the seminar due to large class size. I was pretty stressed out the first day, I could not think of ANYTHING to say, not to mention that I'm in a class of a bunch of AP know-it-alls who take five minutes to get through their pseudo-intellectual b.s. comments (no offense to the really cool and nice people in my class, if any happen to read this).

First off, let me just say that Macbeth is a pretty pointless work that doesn't really contain enough direct social commentary for my taste and may be thought by some to not be real art at all because of that (maybe you like Macbeth, Ron, and I'm sorry if I've missed some big point about the play). In Shakespeare's defense, back then you couldn't really say much about society if it didn't please the King (and Macbeth does contain some appeasement to the crown), but I stand by my disinterest in it.

By the next day, all the upright citizen teacher's pets of the class had gotten in their five necessary comments and I had some space to throw some ideas out there. Maybe I'm just paranoid about pretty much the whole class being smarter than me, but I always sense a feeling of contempt and disagreement from my classmates when I've given a comment in these "graded discussions". Maybe my wording is too simple and brief, or maybe my comments do suck, but I just can't stand how smart these people seem to think they are.

What really gets me is that I know that none of us really give a damn about Macbeth or even Shakespeare, for that matter. However, most of them make it seem as if they've done a lot of thinking about the play and have the most detailed ideas and analysis of it, appearing to be very interested in the story. We seem to be practicing the art of Bullshitting. I know, realistically, bullshitting is an important skill in modern society, especially in the office/formal workplace world, but should we be graded on it? I would rather be graded on some kind of summary or report about the play, instead of how well I pretend to care about Macbeth.

New Photos of Abu Ghraib Abuse Surface

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

New images showing Iraqis abused by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison three years ago threatened Wednesday to enflame public anger already running high over footage of British soldiers beating youths in southern Iraq.

Images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and lying on the floor, were taken about the same time as earlier photos that triggered a worldwide scandal and led to military trials and prison sentences for several lower-ranking American soldiers.

Many of the pictures broadcast Wednesday by Australia's Special Broadcasting Service, including some that appear to show corpses, were more graphic than those previously published. One of the video clips depicted a group of naked men with bags over their heads standing together and masturbating. The network said they were forced to participate.

clickhereforallofit

Right wingers like to use the phrase "isolated incident" when they argue about our troops torturing people. You know what, they're right, they are just isolated incidents, but they still prove that we are "fighting terrorism" with terrorism. Perhaps those nice patriotic "support our troops" ribbon stickers should be more specific: "Support the troops who don't torture people"

Some bastards may say, "Well them Iraqis had it comin'!", well thats exactly what a shitload of people in the Middle East said about us on September 11th, so what makes either side right?

A "people's history" of Lincoln

Since tommorrow is Abe Lincoln's birthday, I thought I'd dig up some stuff about him from the most awesome historian ever, Howard Zinn:

Lincoln's first Innaugural Address, in March 1861, was conciliatory toward the South and the seceded states: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." [...] It was only as the war grew more bitter, the casualties mounted, desperation to win heightened, and the criticism of the abolitionists threatened to unravel the tattered coalition behind Lincoln that he began to act against slavery.




Leave it to Zinn to put and ice cold wet blanket over anything that you read in your grade school history book.

Two Koreas march together at Winter Olympics

From AFP via Yahoo! News:

Athletes from Cold War foes South and North Korea marched together in a show of unity at the opening ceremony of the 20th Winter Olympics here.

South Korea speed skater Bora Lee joined with Democratic People's Republic of Korea's figure skater Han Jong-In as they entered the Stadio Olimpico for the ceremony.

The joint march was the first of its kind at a Winter Olympics.

In a symbolic display of unity reflecting recent years of rapprochment, athletes from the two Koreas marched together in the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens in 2004.

clickhereforallofit

I think this is a specimen of this so-called "positive news" that I've heard about, I really don't have much to say about it, just that its cool to hear something positive about Korea.

Treasury says extending tax cuts would cost blns

From Reuters via Yahoo! News:

Key White House tax proposals would cost the U.S. government tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue, the Treasury Department said on Monday, although the administration says they will help boost revenues in the long run.

Making permanent expiring tax breaks for dividends and capital gains, which expire at the end of 2008, would cost the government $7.74 billion in 2008 and $37.02 billion in 2009, Treasury said in its "Blue Book" description of revenue proposals in President Bush's fiscal 2007 budget.

[...]

Separate White House economic forecasts issued with the budget proposal project revenues climbing to $2.42 trillion in fiscal 2007 from $2.29 trillion in the current fiscal year that ends September 30. Revenues would continue to rise, to $2.6 trillion in fiscal 2008, and $2.71 trillion in fiscal 2009.

clickhereforallofit

Oh I get it, the tax cuts will help revenues, they're getting more specific than just saying "tax cuts help the economy", now we're getting some truth out of them. Tax cuts help revenues, but what, or WHO do revenues help? I wonder what CEOs do with extra revenue, lemme just take a wild fucking guess: Ummmm, keep it for themselves? Well maybe not all of it, but still, the government is in debt, the government needs the money, and I know that the country is literally run by the corporations, which means that more revenues for corporations technically means more money for the government, BUT its also true that the corporations that actually run this country don't protect the common man the way our government is supposed to.

So you know what I say to "more revenues"? SCREW THAT! Cut back on the war, cut back on NASA and bring taxes back up on the wealthy. The result: a government out of debt with money to be spent on education, and THAT will help AMERICA in the long run.

Bush's Energy Escapades

Posted by "nimda" from nader.org:

It was, to use Yogi Berra’s phrase—déjà vu all over again. George W. Bush’s energy program in his State of the Union speech echoed the many similar promises made by his presidential predecessors going back to Ronald Reagan.

[...]

“America is addicted to oil,” exclaimed the President. No one more so than the President himself, a former oil industry executive who appointed over three dozen oil men like himself to high posts in his Administration—a regime marinated in oil.

The results have been, to say the least, oily. Talk as he has started to do about renewable forms of energy, his actions speak louder.

[...]

Before reaching his desk, Bush made sure that some of the legislation’s provisions were cut out. The renewable portfolio standard that was to require electric companies to obtain a certain percentage of their fuel from renewable sources was dropped. Bush also rejected an “oil savings amendment” to reduce oil use. And, of course, he adamantly refused to support any higher federal standards for motor vehicle fuel efficiency which has reached its lowest dismal level since 1980. Going backward into the future—GM style!

clickhereforallofit

I know everyone's made this point already but I like the way "nimda" puts it in Nader's "In the Public Interest" column.

Last week I posted a reply on some Myspace forum about how I always find myself agreeing with what Bush says, but then look at what he actually does and it really makes me sick most of the time.

Bush to Request $439.3B Defense Budget

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

By LOLITA C. BALDOR
President Bush next week will request a $439.3 billion Defense Department budget for 2007, a nearly 5 percent increase over this year, according to senior Pentagon officials and documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

The spending plan would include $84.2 billion for weapons programs, a nearly 8 percent increase, including billions of dollars for fighter jets, Navy ships, helicopters and unmanned aircraft. The total includes a substantial increase in weapons spending for the Army, which will get $16.8 billion in the 2007 budget, compared with $11 billion this year.

click here for the rest

He proposes budget cuts to help decrease the deficit, then turns right around and asks for $439 billion dollars to go to the war that we're supposedly "winning". The deficit is a result of the war, so he cuts programs that help poor people. I guess with less student loan money, more poor kids will be forced to either join the military or join a gang (some choice) just to make some sort of living.

The fact is, the deficit will not be reduced if we don't cut down on what is causing it: the freaking WAR.

Iran Leader Vows to Resist 'Bully' Nations

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president lashed out Wednesday at the United States and vowed to resist the pressure of "bully countries" as European nations circulated a draft resolution urging that Tehran be brought before the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear activities.

In a speech to thousands of supporters hours after President Bush's State of the Union address, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad derided the United States as a "hollow superpower" that is "tainted with the blood of nations" and said Tehran would continue its nuclear program.

"Nuclear energy is our right, and we will resist until this right is fully realized," Ahmadinejad told the crowd in the southern Iran city of Bushehr, the site of Iran's only nuclear power plant.

[...]

A three-year IAEA probe has not found firm evidence to back assertions by the United States and others that Iran's nuclear activities are a cover for an arms program but has not been able to dismiss such suspicions either.

(I don't have a link to the rest of this, sorry)

I feel like the only person alive who actually believes that Iran wants nuclear energy, not nuclear weapons. I believe that if we keep making all these accusations about Iran that aren't supported by any kind of evidence, maybe they will get The Bomb and nuke us. We're bringing on nuclear war when we tell people "You can't have those weapons, but we sure as hell can!"