'1984': Sound Familiar part 2

I've found the most outstanding quotes from George Orwell's "1984" are in the book that the main character, Winston, reads in the story. Its by a character named Emmanuel Goldstein who is seen by "The Party" as their ultimate enemy. This is from the third chapter of the book, specifically the part that addresses why even as society becomes more and more technologically advanced, poverty still "has to" remain.

"But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction--indeed, in some sense was the destruction--of a hierarchical society...It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small priviledged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty...would sooner or later realize that the priviledged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."

"Goods must be produced, but they need not be distrubuted. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare."

My emphasis, of course.

Orwell wrote this in 1949!

I think everyone in the Bush administration has read this book, but is using the knowledge from it in the opposite manner in which was intended by Orwell. Crazy stuff. More of it later.

Re-reading '1984'

Yeah, the power outage gave me enough time (and lack of other options) to begin re-reading the long, disturbing George Orwell tale: "1984". Actually, the outage gave me enough time to just about re-finish the book. I only have a few pages left and since I'm re-reading it, I know that nothing really interesting is left to read anyway.

In re-reading this amazing work of art, (real art, I might add) I found some quotes that I'm going to post at various times in the very near future. One of those is right now:

(this is being said by the main character's interrogator near the end of the book)
"...In the Middle Ages, there was the Inquisition. It was a failure. It set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it. For every heretic it burned at the stake, thousands of others rose up. Why was that? Because the Inquisition killed its enemies in the open, and killed them while they were unrepentant. Men were dying because they would not abandon their true beliefs. Naturally, all the glory belonged to the victim and all the shame to the Inquisitor who burned him..."

Take that quote and substitute "Inquisition" with "War on Terrorism" and "heresy" with "terrorism" and "heretic" with "terrorist", and you have "my opinion". Orwell wrote this in 1949. Why has this logic not been passed down since then? Okay thats a silly question to which I already know the answer, but all the same, the quote puts the whole "war" in an amazingly realistic perspective, while giving an historical example of how our current foreign policy has already failed in the past. Gotta love Orwell.

Happy Birthday Ray Charles and John Coltrane

Two greatly missed jazz musicians, born on the same day, four years apart.

Came back

We left at 6:30 am for Big Spring, Texas.

By about 2:20 pm we were in Liberty, and the storm had turned a lot more east, so we just came back. Took us like 20 minutes.

I really don't agree with being back here, mostly because we're planning on leaving again if we find out that the storm turns back this direction. I think we should just be better safe than sorry, but here we are. I mean, now there is no way we're going to get away before the storm hits. There's no point in leaving again, even if it turns directly at us and all of a sudden grows to an even stronger cat-5, because traffic is fucked up.

...but what do I know, I'm just a kid.

Evacuation

My dad says we're going to head for a place called Big Springs, TX. He said we accidentally drove through there on the way to New Mexico one time.

This is crap, I had to wake up at like 5:30 this morning, but I don't think we're leaving until a lot later.

I personally think my home of Highlands, TX is going to be pretty safe. I've got a feeling we're going to come back with no damage to the house, and little damage to the yard. We already know that Highlands doesn't flood, because its high groud.

Who knows, this benefit concert that we're putting on at our school in late October could end up raising money for us!

Category 5

Crap.

In the meantime, Cindy Sheehan made it to D.C. today. Good for her.

Rita is now Category 4

Oh my God. Its still got more than twenty-four hours to itself in the open gulf.

Friggin' SWEET

No school, kick ASSSSSS!!!!!

The Thing called Rita

GAY.

This is really turning out to be one Hell of a hurricane season. As if Katrina wasn't enough for everyone, this new hurricane has enough time to become a category 4, according to forecasters, and there's still a possibility that it could hit Louisiana.

Of course, most forecasters believe that Rita will hit Texas. I saw a predicted path online last night that showed the middle of Rita running up Texas just east of Houston, which is where I am.

On the bright side, maybe we'll evacuate to Austin. Austin rules.

Anyway, I'm starting to think that maybe its about time to stop arguing about global warming and start doing something about pollusion. Even if we don't prevent hurricanes, its a good idea either way, and there's no time like the present.

I smell a Democrat in '08. As if that will change much.

Stupid fans

Having been to two rock concerts in the past two months, I realize how dumb rock fans have become.

Does anyone care about guitar solos anymore?

When I saw Green Day back in August, Billy Joe did an extended guitar solo in one of the songs. He was over to the side of the stage, doing an assisted power stance on the monitor, and practically playing his guitar AT the crowd. He was obviously trying to get a big roar fromt he crowd during the solo. It didn't happen. It was like no one even noticed what he was doing.

Granted, he's not that great of a guitar player, but thats not the point. The fact is, most of the people there only wanted to hear exactly what was on the cd, they don't care about any added guitar solo stuff, its just not cool to them. They call themselves fans? When a guitar player who you came to see is doing a solo, looking right at you and not the guitar, just waiting for you to give him deserved props, and then you don't, you're an asshole. Period.

And then a few nights ago at Weezer, in any given song, there would be no upsurge in noise from the crowd during or after a guitar solo. I'll admit, most of Weezer's guitar solos are pretty cut and dry, but isn't that supposed to be a standard time for a crowd-goes-wild type thing?

Maybe I'm just picky about props because I know what its like to perform, but maybe people are just STUPID.

Weezer

I saw my second Weezer concert last night. They opened for Foo Fighters. With all due respect to Foo Fighters, Weezer should never open for anyone. Maybe they switch out from city to city, who knows.

Anyway, I tried to sneak up to the front just before they started playing "El Scorcho", but I got caught and almost got kicked out. But it couldn't have been a more perfect time to be up out of my seat because just when they went into the punk rock double-time part I was in the open walkway between the center section and the box seats and skanked my ASS off just before they told me I couldn't stand there and that if I jumped over the rails again I would have to leave.

All in all, it was a geektastic show, and though it obviously wasn't as special as the first time, it was probably the most fun I've had since then. Its just fun to go to a show where you know every word to every song...

this is hilarious

I know this is kind of irrelevant right now, but still

And the winner is

...it has been for decades now the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers to manage flood control along the Mississippi River. Louisiana most assuredly was given federal money for whatever purposes, but the money for the levees, several hundred million dollars to be used by the Corps, was actually CUT by the Bush administration, and reappropriated for the Iraq war.

This was Ron's comment on my blog about the Blame Game where I stated that I didn't know "who's side" I was on. Not that there's two distinct teams in this Blame Game, but I wasn't really sure what my opinion was.

I got it now. What really went wrong was that the different levels of government, such as local, state, and federal, were just not communicating well at ALL. If there was any good that came out of this storm, it was the knowledge that our "Homeland" isn't all that "secure". Basically, the American government has no idea how to help its people.

(as if the Iraq War wasn't proof of that already)

The Blame GameCurrent status: neutral

By now we've all heard the arguments in the nation wide debate on whether Katrina was handled properly.

I've heard arguments from both sides, and I still have to claim neutrality.

One of the best questions is why wasn't the National Guard pre-posted near the area so that they could get to the city as soon as the storm passed? This hurricane did not just sneak up on us. That sucker was coming. So why was New Orleans left to fend for itself for the first two days? I haven't heard an answer to this question yet.

On the other side of the argument, I've heard that the government of Louisiana has received vast amounts of money from the Federal government, but used none of it for things that were needed, such as levee repairs. I've heard that every computer model of a cat 3 or higher storm hitting New Orleans showed that the levee would breach. So if the state of Louisiana really had recieved as much federal funding as some right-wingers have said they did, shouldn't the state and local government be the one's to blame?

There are many more arguments and accusations that have been made, but I see these two as the main ones.

I'm sure I'll develope an opinion about this whole thing soon.

In The Public InterestBush, Katrina, and Big Oil

From Ralph Nader's weekly column on nader.org.

...Gasoline was averaging $1.36 per gallon on January 3, 2000, and is now racing towards $4 a gallon, having soared over $3 per gallon in many localities this week. Oil analysts are not reporting any shortages of supply worldwide, until the rigs and refineries were hurricaned last week in the Gulf of Mexico region raised such specters. OPEC has been pumping oil at record levels. There has been no sudden spike in demand.

......

If the price of wheat suddenly doubled, why would the loaves of bread in your supermarkets suddenly be marked up or the loaves on their way in transit? The price hike for wheat would not have reached them. Then why does the price of oil and gasoline spike up when these supplies were already purchased at previously lower prices?

......

Such questions are not on the minds of Bush and Cheney, who hail from the oil world. Imagine - experts in the industry that is gouging America that they are, and they keep leaving America and Americans defenseless.

click here for all of it

There was a lot more but it was just a little bit over my head, but the wheat:bread/oil:gasoline analogy was my favorite point that he made.

Is the price of gas really supposed to increase so quickly, even if production in the Gulf is slowed down so much?

I heard Bush said that price gougers were going to be arrested, I wonder what his idea of gouging is. I think we've been getting gouged for years.

YOUTH BRIGADE IS COMING TO HOUSTON

Oh my freaking GOD!!! Youth Brigade is playing at Fat Cat's on Thursday! Holy shit!!!!! This is a CLASSIC band from the '80s!! Oh man I HAVE TO SEE THIS!!!!!!!!

The Drafted

Our first LP is coming out this month.

Here's some streaming audio for anyone who hasn't heard it on myspace or purevolume.
(these streams are supported by geocities, be happy if they work)
"Don't Get Me Wrong"


"1,000 Dead"

Happy late birthday to Charlie Parker

I've been listening to Charlie Parker lately and I was just now reading a biography about him and it says he was born on August 29th, 1920, wish I could have caught that sooner, but better late than never.

Charlie Parker (aka "Bird") was one of the first sax players who dared to play fast. He's a textbook example of bebop, an amazing improvisor, and its a shame only jazz fans know who he was.



Happy Birthday, Bird

Alligator Haze

Hope its not too soon to start blogging about non-hurricane related subjects, but I thought I'd just write about something kinda funny.

I've been sick this week, my medicine of choice: Nyquil. I came to school yesterday and told Mr. Moore, "I'm all Nyquil'd out right now," and he said "Ahh, alligator haze all day,".

I just said, "yeah", and went about my school day. "Alligator haze" stayed with me. "What the hell is an 'alligator haze'", I thought.

So, for a laugh, I came up to Mr. Moore in 6th period and asked him, "Whats an alligator haze?".

He looked at me like he saw a ghost, his mind was completely.....(I'm on Dayquil right now, can't think of anything).

ooooooookay this stuff is starting to kick in hard, can't really concentrate, uh, okay, he said "alligator haze" is from a Stroke 9 song, about being drunk in New Orleans.

Okay, this was somewhat hurricane-related.

Katrina fools us all

So New Orleans didn't get hit as hard as everyone thought. Alabama sure got the shaft. Hurricane's suck big time.

Now, with a shorter supply of crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico, gas prices may reach 3.00 this week in places where they're not that high yet, like here.

Glad I filled up yesterday...

Shit

(picture stolen from Yahoo! News)

New Orleans is fucked.

We're probably gonna get a big piece of it too.

That is a BIG ASS hurricane...

The end of the Big Easy?

New Orleans and other Louisiana cities are being evacuated today due to the approaching hurricane (Katrina, I believe).

One of the evacuees, my brother, is coming here tonight. I remember him telling me, back when he first moved there, that there was no reconstruction plan for New Orleans, if it were to be destroyed in a hurricane. See, New Orleans was built in this big bowl of land, six feet BELOW sea level, a hurricane will fill that bowl up--likely wiping the city out, so, supposedly, the state government of Louisiana simply has no plan of rebuilding the city if it is destroyed.

I think that says a lot about cajuns: they're dumb. At least their food kicks ass.

Making fun of "emo kids" is trendy too

It seems like, for every "emo kid" out there, there's another kid whose going to make fun of them (usually behind their back, as is custom in our modern society). People usually think these kids are just trendy, or materialistic, and they're right, but when someone makes fun of these "emo kids", they're judging them by their clothing, and isn't that just as materialistic? (this is the part where you say, "Yeah, it is.")

I hate Hot Topic and Journey's just as much as the next sane person, but making fun of people's clothes is materialistic too, so when you do so, you're not any less trendy than they are.

Smoke on that for a few minutes.

Lunatics with Guns to Hunt Mexicans in Houston

Courtesy of Real Art, from the Houston Chronicle:

Leaders of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas had earlier said volunteers observing Houston's day laborers in October would carry nothing but video cameras.But leaders now say those involved in the operations targeting local illegal immigrants will be allowed to carry arms as long as they comply with all federal and state laws.

In fact, those who have a concealed-weapons permit are being offered a discount on joining the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. An Arizona-based organization, the Minutemen started out by patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border in April to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing, but the group has announced it will conduct a variety of operations here this fall.

Just what we need, more racists. Do these Minutemen have anything better to do? Don't they realize that the term "steal our jobs" doesn't make any sense? There's only one person who can take your job away, and thats your boss. They should be pissed at people who employ illegal immigrants, not the immigrants. They wouldn't be here if they couldn't get jobs in the first place, and they wouldn't get jobs in the first place if the government would punish employers for doing so.

This Maddox article would be good for those bastard Minutemen to read.

Correction: The Drafted gets Track of the Day, August 24th

Yesterday I posted that The Drafted's song "Don't Get Me Wrong" would be track of the day today on garageband.com's punk page. Well I re-read my email and realized that its not going to be Track of the Day until next week, on Wednesday.

Well its still freakin' cool, I'll post a reminder on Tuesday on all of my sites.

THE DRAFTED OWNS YOU STUPID PUNX!!!

Gaza pullout

I heard about this for the very first time today from Channel 1.

Sad that so many Israelies are getting kicked out of their homes, but at least Palestine is getting what it wants for a change. And each family that moves out on time gets like two hundred to three hundred-thousand dollars, so its not like super evil or anything.

The conflict between Isreal and Palestine is a prime example that government and religion should definately be separate. Its something that would be good for the Religious Right, and all Americans, to realize. If we could realize that, we'd realize that its a bad idea to pick sides in the conflict (i.e. Isreal), and that it plays a huge part in Middle Eastern hatred of the West.

new developments on The Choice

Today, my band director, Mr. Moore, followed up on what he was telling me yesterday. He said that getting a performance degree in music can be worthwhile if you get a Masters or Doctorate. He said if you get a Masters in music with a performance degree, universities will higher you to teach private lessons and direct their ensambles. In other words, work would consist of playing your instrument while you teach--something I could deal with.

Hey, it'd only be four additional semesters of college, and since its easier to get hired with a Masters it'd pay for itself eventually (right?). Not only did he tell me that this was possible, but he gave me examples of people who are living like this. Brian Kalke is sort of a well-known trombone player in Houston, he does well, AND (Mr. Moore says) he has a ton of free time! "Free time" would translate to: work on becoming a professional performer.

Everything seems to be falling in place very quickly.

Hopeful Beginnings

Today was the first day of school. My last first day of public school. I knew I was only going to have five classes but I had no idea how awesome that was actually going to be. I'm off 6th and 7th period. 6th period is Music Theory, so I can sit in for a lesson and get refreshed on stuff I already learned last year. Once homework starts, I'm mostly going to use my off time to get it out of the way so I have time to practice my various region music at home.

Today during 6th period I mostly hung out with Mr. Moore, and of course I wanted to talk about college. I talked about this yesterday, and said that I didn't want a music degree in education because I wanted "to PLAY dammit!". After getting the Performance Degree Speech* again from Mr. Moore, I realized some new facts. With an education degree, you don't necessarily have to be a band director, you could just be an elementary school music teacher. Of course I would probably end up teaching the kids music theory anyway, but this really made me rethink my view on which degree I want.

If I got a small teaching job, I could still have time to play my horn (or guitar) and "get that big gig", as Mr. Moore put it.

Mr. Moore explained to me that you can work towards a music education degree and still get the education that you get when you work towards a performance degree. He said all you have to do is sign up for more ensambles than are required of you and you basically do the same stuff that the performance degree people do. So you get as good as someone with a performance degree, but you have a better chance of getting a job. The only downside is, that job is teaching kids.

BUT like I said, and what Mr. Moore said, you can just get a little rinky-dink teaching job and still have time to play. Elementary school music teachers have a lot more spare time than other teachers--they don't have to grade papers! Mr. Moore also said something about how some junior highs are so small that they only have band like once or twice a week. Thats a crapload of spare time to do all kinds of stuff with your music.

Planning my musical future just got a lot less vague.

*The Performance Degree Speech:
"I could take a simple piece of toilet paper and write '(so and so) has a Performance Degree' on it, and you could get just as many jobs with that as you could with a real performance degree."
-Zeb Moore

Choosing my instrument

Well, tommorrow's the first day of Senior Year. Its time to start looking at colleges.

There's is no other choice but for me to be a music student. Music is all that I know, its all that I am. But when you get to college you've got to choose your main instrument, and I have two of those right now. I am an acceptional euphonium and guitar player. Two very different instruments that play very different styles of music. Basically, the choice is between concert band music and Jazz.

BUT before I get into that, there's a few more choices to consider. There's more than one type of music degree. There's Performance, there's Education, there's Compsition, there's Music Theory, stuff like that. With a music degree in Education, I'd obviously get a job as a band director, but I wanna PLAY dammit! I really want a Performance degree in music. One of my band directors (Mr. Moore), naturally, has already told me that a degree in performance is useless and that a degree in music education is the way to go. But I'm a better player right now than he was when he was in high school, I think I have a better chance at becoming some kind of professional musician. I know, "professional musician" is pretty much an oxymoron, but its what I want.

So, the question is, do I want to be a professional euphonium player or a professional guitarist? You could also say, do I want to play Susa marches for a living or improvise for a living. If I could play jazz guitar for a living, I'd be in heaven. But thats not an easy thing to do at ALL. In some cities, there are professional concert bands (not to be confused with the much more well-known symphonies, which don't have euphoniums). You join, you rehearse every day, you play concerts, you get a paycheck. If I had a performance degree as a euphonium player, I could find a job in a professional concert band, getting paid to play.

I've looked at the audition information for the Moores School of Music at U of H. I could probably try out in two months and be accepted. I really really don't feel like going to Lee College for two years. My trumpeter friend Joe has already told me to skip Lee College, that I'd be wasting my time. I agree with him. I may be a good enough musician for UT also, but my academics may not be up to par for them. I'm about 90% sure that I could get into U of H, and I know my parents would be okay with me going there because thats where my sister went (she also had jobs, but still). U of H has a great music program. I'd ideally try to go to Citrus College or Cal Arts or something like that but we're just not that rich.

I've basically got until at least February to decide, the U of H audition for Fall 2007 is on March 3rd. My future! Is in my hands!!!

A Tale of Today

After a bright, cloudless marching practice in the Sterling parking lot, everyone was ready to get home. I had already stalled my passengers (Savannah, Jessica, and Dylan), about ten minutes while I was at our field officer meeting, but the next stall would take the cake.

As I turned onto North Main Street from tiny Craig Street, my Ford Explorer became much more quiet and much harder to steer. Surely there was more gas in the tank than that! Obviously not. I managed to coast onto the ramp of a driveway almost directly accross from Craig Street. A little more than a quarter of the back of the car was hanging out into traffic, the rest was up on the mouth of this driveway. The residents of this house were absent and remained absent throughout the ordeal.

My friend Courtney pulled up beside us to see if she could lend some help. I told her it ran out of gas, she asked if I had a cell phone, and I did, so she drove off. I used the phone in question to contact the nearest parental figure of mine, my mom. She said to just walk down to a gas station and see if I could buy a container of gas to bring back to the car, so Dylan and I set off.

The nearest gas station was probably less than a quarter mile down the street, but instead of going to that one, we went the other way to a station that was a little more than a quarter mile down the street. The reasoning behind this is unknown even to us. As we waited for the cashier to finish helping a customer, I called Savannah's cell phone to make sure everything was still okay, and it was. The customer left as I hung up the phone and I told the cashier that I had run out of gas and asked if I could buy a tank. He said they were out and suggested that I buy a gallon of water. We headed to the back and found the water, there were no visible prices so we had to guess which one was the cheapest (I picked the brand I'd never heard of). Then we started looking for a bottle that we could fashion into a funnel. We foolishly gave that up (partly because we had nothing to cut a plastic bottle with, partly because I felt like I was in some sort of hurry, which was actually the opposite of the case) and decided to just buy the jug so we could empty it and fill it with gas.

As I walked back to the counter I noticed a few familiar-looking red containers on the bottom shelf of the very isle that we had walked down to get to the water jug. Our situation had just become 100% more ideal. Obviously the cashier was mistaken about being out of gas tanks, we were very fortunate to have spotted them. We put back the water and got a gas tank, two whole gallons. The tag on the tank said "5.99". "Okay", I thought, "how much is gas?". I looked out at the sign to see that regular unleaded costed $2.32 (this turned out to be a low price by comparisson). In my pocket I had a whopping eleven dollars, just enough to make our survival operation work.

I tried to calculate how much two gallons would cost ($4.64), but my brain was in a minor state of panic and Dylan added "don't forget about tax" (which was wrong), and at the time I didn't think I had as much money as I actually did after I bought the tank (like I said, state of panic, plus I just can't do math in my head anyway) SO: I filled the tank with $4.01 of gas.

So after we went back in and paid for the gas, we set off for the uneccesarry quarter mile trip back to the car. Alas, suddenly our situation became about 200% more ideal, as our friend Katy drove by and offered to drive us back to the Explorer. The drive back was a pretty fun little snipet of jamming to some Beatie Boys.

Fun little tid-bit for everyone's future knowledge: pouring a two gallon tank of gas into your car takes a LOT longer than you might expect.

So now with the tank being about 1.8 gallons more full, we were ready to take our chances out on the road back to Highlands, 6 or 7 miles at the most. I had to drop off Jessica and Dylan on the way. Dropping Dylan off was fun, I coasted by his driveway and he jumped out the door with his stuff so I didn't have to stop and burn more precious gas fumes.

Long story short, Savannah and I got home, I got summore money, drove back into town to Gerlands (Food Town), and filled up the rest of the tank. The end...(?)

CBGB's: Saved for Now

I've just heard that a judge ruled that CBGB's (the club where Ramones started out) cannot be evicted just yet because it wasn't their fault that they didn't know that they owed their landlord money.

However, the lease expires on the 31st and the renewal is "up in the air".

My brother's been there before, I hope it stays open for many years to come, its a freaking landmark, how could they just shut the place down? It should be protected by the city or something! The Ramones really were that important.

In the Public InterestStatement by Ralph Nader on Peter Jennings

No one was able to negotiate so skillfully the shoals of the 30 minute television evening news format than the consummate newsman, Peter Jennings.

Constrained, as all network anchors are, by minutes taken for advertisements, minutes taken for formulaic segments and the pressures of immediate ratings, Mr. Jennings managed to put more meaning and context into less time than any of his peers. His abiding sense of history contributed to his self-control during times of tragedy or triumph. He was indeed the captain of his ship for many millions of daily viewers. His sense of fairness prompted him to make personal calls to complainants.

Peter Jennings had this sense of restless excellence which will be one of the many legacies he leaves for his admirers both in his native land of Canada and in his adopted land of America.

I can't say that I have an opinion or thought about Peter Jenngings or his work so there's Ralph's.

A debate with a PETA member

The following is part of a debate I had with a friend on AIM. The identity of my friend is disclosed:

me: animals aren't any more alive than plants. so why not eat both?
(peta member): plants dont feel.. plants arent tortured. people were meant to eat plants.. not animals.
me: then why don't we have all flat teeth like cows?
(peta member): adam.. lol i dont know the answer to that. we evolved that way because of what we eat.. i dont know?
me: yes, but if we weren't meant to eat meat then we wouldn't have the desire to eat meat, like a cow or a deer [doesn't]
(peta member): i learned the facts about how the cow or deer are killed and i have absolutely no desire whatsoever to eat it.. its all perseptual.. the commericals on tv are meant to provoke you into eating a hardy burger because strong men and pretty people eat it.
me: meat tastes good to some people, they've eaten it since they were children and they like it, everyone knows an animal has to die to be eaten, it just doesn't bother some people...
(peta member): ok.. well it bothers me, so thats why im vegetarian.. if it doesnt bother you.. go on and eat the meat, its not my body you're hurting.
me: hurting?
(peta member): yeah. you dont know that burgers are bad for you? unhealthy?
me: meat isn't just burgers. meat is not bad for you
(peta member): ok, any meat for that matter, any meat is bad for you, it adds pounds and leads to heart disease.
me: eating too much of anything can be bad for you, just because meat is fattening doesn't mean eating it hurts your body

Am I missing something?

Stuff that happened while I was gone

Gerlands is now Food Town.
Why? Whats the difference? Whats the point? This is gonna be one of those things where all the locals still call it by the old name for 20 years.

They bumped up the speed limit on Crosby-Lynchburg.
Mmmm, 30 to 35. Like my dad said, "Now everyone can go 70 instead of 65".

They launched the space shuttle.
Big woopty freaking doo. What is the point of space travel? Face it, getting water from Mars is a stupid idea and its quite pathetic that we think we have to consider doing it. Lets use all this NASA money to improve our own environment, not use other planets as tools for our survival. I hate NASA.

Something else happened too.
I just can't remember what it was.

I is back

I am return from a week of church camp. Its not what you might expect, they don't address any type of world issues or politics, its more of a personal thing. I really wish they'd talk about the importance of nonviolence, though. You don't have to say anything about war, just stuff about how violence is self-destructive, but to keep campers coming they have to stay away from controversial subjects. But this week we did talk about having material things as top priorities in life and how that sucks, which is a pretty anti-capitolist idea, which makes it an anti-Bush idea, and that is awesome.

Gone till Saturday

Okay everybody (thats like two people), I won't be able to post all week, I'm goin' to CHURCH CAMP! HELL FUCKIN' YEAH!

So in the meantime, go here. And why not here? And here. And here. And here.

And uh...listen to Bob Dylan.

'He looked like a cornered fox'

from CNN.com

Police confirmed to CNN that armed officers had shot a man dead at Stockwell station in south London.

One witness, Mark Whitby, told BBC news the man appeared not to be carrying anything but was wearing a thick coat that looked padded.

Whitby said a young Asian man was shot five times after being chased into a train carriage by three men.

"As the man got on the train I looked at his face. He looked from left to right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, like a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified," said Whitby.

"He sort of tripped but they were hotly pursuing him and couldn't have been more than two or three feet behind him at this time.

"He half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor. The policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him.

click here for all of it

Stunning. Unarmed man gets chased by the cops, they corner him, he gets five bullets at point-blank range. He must have been guilty. Okay, he could have been armed, I'm sure thats exactly why he never shot at them.

In The Public InterestTop 10 List for the Labor Movement

By Ralph Nader

Rose Ann DeMoro is the Executive Director of the California Nurses Association (CNA) – the country’s fastest growing union. Since 1992, union membership has grown from 13,000 to the present 63,000. And it was since 1992 that the nurses became more prominent in participating in and running their own unions. No coincidence.

Here is her succinct critique labeled “Top 10 Problems with the Current Debate in the Labor Movement”.

“1. There are no real ideological disputes, in part because the current AFL-CIO leadership and programs were, mostly, put in place by those now challenging them...

2. No workers or rank and file union members are involved, and it is their labor movement...

3. No issues affecting the majority of working Americans are being debated – declining real wages, the health care crisis, the continued erosion of democracy in the workplace, outsourcing of jobs across the skill and pay spectrum, a deteriorating social safety net, declining support for public education, environmental degradation, social justice and ongoing racial and gender inequality, alienation and disaffection from the political process.

4. No real solutions to these problems are being proposed...

5. The specific proposals by the Change to Win group are structural and bureaucratic, not programmatic...

6. The notion that the salvation of the labor movement reduces to "density as manifest destiny" is historically false, and analytically shallow...

7. If the issue of organizing was simply dues rebates we could all rest easy. But that notion is painfully oversimplified...

8. Perhaps because the corporate right is so extreme, some “progressive” analysts have been portraying the dues rebates and proposed forced mergers as core issues...

9. Limiting the executive council to the biggest unions would further reduce the influence and voice of women and people of color in labor leadership.

10. No discussion of non-bureaucratic strategies are on the table..."

click here for the rest

I didn't realize there was still a labor movement going on. Of course, when you read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the Unted States", you find out that the labor movement has always been much more present than it seems.

Backmasking is Bullshit

Backmasking:
hiding messages in song lyrics that are heard when they are played backwards.

A friend of mine gave me a link today to this backmasking site. Its got a bunch of song clips from the Beatles, Brittney Spears, Eminem, Pink Floyd, etc. It shows you the forward lyrics, and you can listen to it forward, and below there's a "reverse play" button where you can hear the clip played backwards. It doesn't show you the "reverse lyrics" unless you click on the link of that title, which was a great idea, because when you listen to the song clips played backwards, you can't understand shit!

You cannot intentionally write lyrics that make sense forward, and include a different message when its played backward, its impossible. It gets even funnier when you click on the link to see the "backward lyrics", because when you listen to it again, there's always a tiny little resemblence in maybe one or two of the backward syllables, and the rest is all in your head if you actually believe it. There's even this Beatles song that has some backward-sounding lyrics when you play it normally, but even when you play it backwards, its just gibberish!

I'll admit that Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby One More Time" has a quite audible one (yes Ron, I know you've talked about this before, but now I've actually heard it). The lyrics "...with you I loose my mind, give me a si...", sound almost exactly like, "sleep with me I'm not too young" when played backwards, but whats so strange about the lyrics: "When I'm with you I loose my mind, give me a sign"? Nothing! Its a coincidence, damnit! And even if its not, whats so surprising about it? We all know she's a whore.

Here's the site, prepare to be UN-AMAZED!

Cast a vote!

Where's bin Laden?

Vote In Our Poll!

Current Poll Results!

Its says "our poll" because its from The Drafted's myspace.

Scotty gets beemed up for eternity

Okay that title is pretty evil, I'm sorry, someone had to. You want proof that "they come in threes"? Check out the triple farewell thats making RealArt RealDepressing right now. Again, another evil joke, I'm under some spell right now, gotta go...

Tancredo: No apologyHe believes bombing of Muslim holy sites has been discussed

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

WASHINGTON - The remarks were hypothetical but the outrage was real.

Facing mounting criticism, Rep. Tom Tancredo on Monday refused to apologize for suggesting the United States could target Muslim holy sites if radical Islamic terrorists set off multiple nuclear attacks in American cities.

......

In the interview, talk show host Pat Campbell asked Tancredo what the United States should do if terrorists were to strike several U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.

"Well, what if you said something like - if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites," Tancredo answered.

"You're talking about bombing Mecca," Campbell said.

"Yeah," Tancredo responded.

......

He stressed that he was not advocating an attack on Islamic holy sites, but that counterattacks had to be considered - and perhaps telegraphed ahead of time. That way, he said, both sides would know the stakes under a worst-case scenario, much as they did under the Cold War theory of "mutually assured destruction."

click here for all of it

Okay, so even though the terrorists are "fundamentalist Muslims", its a good idea to target places like Mecca in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States? Thats like saying that all Muslims are fundamentalists. I can't believe people like this are actually in office.

And (from the same article) get this:

...his words are coming under more scrutiny because he has started traveling to test the waters for a possible presidential candidacy in 2008.

Yup, just can't wait till two-thousand-and-eight.

Punk has nothing to do with Jazz, I'm sorry

Okay, this is my soapbox, this is where I let it out. My friend (who very well may be reading this) and I were arguing about whether early hardcore punk was influenced by "jazz". To be specific, my friend said our band shouldn't play Green Day's "American Idiot" because "we're not pop punk". But he said it would be okay for us to play "some jazz". I said that if we cant play Green Day because we're not "pop punk", then we can't play "jazz" because we're not "jazz" either. He said "jazz has a lot to do with the influences of early hardcore musicians". I disagree.

First of all, the word "Jazz" is virtually meaningless. There are countless musicians that have been labeled "Jazz" who sound nothing like each other, so who the hell knows what "Jazz" even is?

Second of all, just because the guys from Bad Brains used to play "jazz" and East Bay Ray of Dead Kennedys played "jazz" doesn't mean that the music they wrote was influenced by "Jazz". Of course you can traise all music back through time all the way to one source, and in the end its all just music, but the fact remains that "Jazz" sounds nothing like "Punk".

Nothing that has ever been called "Jazz" has sounded anything like what has been called "Punk". (I know, there's this little genre called "Jazzpunk", but that proves nothing. You can take any two genres and combine them, that doesn't mean one had any influence on the other.)

"Rock 'n' Roll" was a simplified version of "Jazz", and "Punk Rock" is a fast, sloppy version of "Rock 'n' Roll", but the whole point of "Punk Rock" is to be loud and offensive, and everything thats been labeled "Jazz" has represented the opposite of that. And although both "Jazz" and "Punk Rock" were also meant to be cutting-edge and different, that doesn't mean that "Punk" has a sole connection to "Jazz".

So with all this in mind, if early hardcore musicians we're influenced by "Jazz", which "Jazz" musicians were they specifically influenced by? Who can tell me that? I listen to all kinds of "Jazz", specifically "Bebop", and I play in our school's jazz band and I'm in a hardcore punk band. I find little connection. Just because a bunch of people(including the musicians themselves) say that punk was influenced by jazz, doesn't make it true.

Made a poetry site

Yeah, I made this new geocities site where I've put some "poems" that I've written. Keep in mind I am in no way a poet, I just come up with cool shit sometimes. I've actually posted one of my few poems on this blog before called "grease monkey duo". I actually only like one of the poems thats on the new site, but anyway its www.geocities.com/somekindapoem if you want to laugh your ass off at some horribly cliche bullshit that came out of my gay brain. (no I'm not gay)

i...........................hate...........................sentences........

Tales from a Key Club Convention

For anyone who thinks the kids in Key Club are upright citizens or do-gooders, think again. Do-gooders? Maybe. Upright citizens? Not all of them.

If you're like me and you're not really sure what Key Club actually is, it doesn't matter.
Here are some quotes from an IM converstation I had from a Key Club member who was at the Texas convention in April:

the chick that was supposed to run all of our meetings got kicked out because she was caught in a boys room. ha ha ...she's the chick in charge of all of texas and oklahoma...

but yeah, it was funny, the video had these guys in tuxes running down the hall of the hotel with super soakers and busting in a room with a girl and a boy.

lol.... well... see, its more... we're not the druggie drinking types. but the key clubbers like to get down, you know what i mean?...like, the convention dance... oh man. so much humping in such a small space

So there you have it. Wow, I guess this is kinda like my first exposé. What can I say, I just love the truth.

In The Public InterestAn Open Letter to George W. Bush

By Ralph Nader

On June 28, 2005 you addressed the nation in prime time about the situation in Iraq. You called the casualties, destruction and suffering in that country "horrifying and real." Then you declared: "I know Americans ask the question: Is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it," you asserted and went on to explain your position.

My question to you is this: "Who is doing the sacrificing on the US side besides our troops and their families and other Americans whose dire necessities and protections cannot be met due to the diversion of huge spending for the Iraq war and occupation?"

.......

Companies like Halliburton, from which Vice President Dick Cheney receives handsome retirement benefits, keep getting multi-billion contracts even though the Pentagon auditors and investigations by Rep. Henry Waxman have shown vast waste, non-performances, and not a little corruption. Not much corporate sacrifice there.

You and Mr. Cheney need to be reminded that your predecessors pressed, during wartime, for surcharges on corporate profits of the largest corporations... the precedents for such an equitable policy, at a time of growing federal deficits, occurred during World War I, World II, the Korean and Vietnam wars...Past Presidents increased taxes on the large companies as a way of spreading out the economic sacrifice a little. Instead, during record...corporate profits, you reduce their contributions to the US Treasury and military expenditures.

......

Without some measure of sacrifice, programs are misdesigned to pursue stateless terrorists in ways and areas that actually produce recruitment opportunities for more such terrorists. Note your own CIA Director Porter Goss's testimony before the Senate earlier this year. But the resulting warmongering, where the "intelligence and the facts" are fixed to the policy, became unsavory re-election strategies in 2004.

You have often told us that you want to nominate federal judges who believe in a strict construction of the Constitution. How about a President who believes in the strict constitutional authority of Article One, Section Eight which gives Congress and Congress alone the power to declare war? Requiring a declaration of war, together with legislation requiring, upon such a declaration, the conscription of all eligible members of Congressional and White House families would assure that only "unavoidable and necessary wars" are declared and fought.

Sincerely yours,

Ralph Nader

click here for all of it

What more could be said? As far as I can tell, Bush's support is mainly based on his Christian "beliefs", not his policies on war, education, or economics--and how could they? The only way anyone can possibly stand behind our president is if they don't understand whats going on, or they just don't care.

'London Calling'

Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. London gets a terrorist attack

This is just what we needed.

Dammnit, do you realize what this is going to do? The same effing thing that 9/11 did, turn everyone into a bunch of "freedom-loving" pseudo-patriots. Just when dissent was on the rise and Bush's approval rate was at an all-time low, BAM he gets a new free ride on the public approval train from a big scary terrorist attack: "Oh, good thing we've got a president with a backbone, I feel safe under his leadership, he hates terrorists too, which is good because I REALLY know what I'm talking about when it comes to that sort of stuff. God bless Bush!". Thats hardly an exaggeration.

But America still has time to wake up, four more years, right?

A well-kept secret about Pearl Harbor

I was reading my Zinn book today, A People's History of the United States. I'm on the chapter about World War II called "A People's War?". According to Zinn (remember, this really is a history book, its in the history section and everything), the attack on Pearl Harbor was not as unprovoked as the media made it seem back in 1941. We actually did do something to piss off Japan that may have caused them to attack us on that horrifying December morning.

You see, before 1941, we had no problem with Japan. They were picking China apart just as much as we were, but they got a little too close to our tin, rubber, and oil interests in Southeast Asia, so the U.S. put "a total embargo on scrap iron, a total embargo on oil in the summer of 1941".

We screwed Japan out of some money, and that just may have been a reason why they struck. Its important to know this kind of information because it helps to better understand a situation and keeps one from turning to brash rationale like "the Japanese are evil", which led to detention camps for Japanese people in the western United States after Pearl Harbor. Our history books in public schools say that the attack on Pearl Harbor was totally unprovoked and thats why we absolutely had to join the war, and thats simply not true.

Its a shame that one has to go out of his way and choose a book to buy that will give the whole story, but self-education is always a good thing anyway. I encourage (and challenge) anyone who is reading these words to somehow attain Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and educate yourself about our country's history. Do it now. If I can, you can.

Youth Brigade kicks ashe (updated 7/5)

I found another 80s punk band that totally rips my face off. Their name was Youth Brigade.

I got this documentary from Netflix called "Another State of Mind". Its a film made when Youth Brigade "went on tour with Minor Threat" and Social Distortion. The reason for the quotes around Minor Threat are because Minor Threat didn't actually tour with them at all. You don't see Minor Threat until the very end when the tour ends in Washington D.C.

But back to the point, Youth Brigade is just one of those bands. Totally hardcore punk rock strait from the 80s and only from the 80s. The band was a trio of brothers, the Stern brothers. They started the Better Youth Orginization (BYO), which put on shows, promoted bands, put out records, and promoted unity among alienated youth, or punks. In fact, the BYO is still around, they're mainly a record company now. Here's their site.

Anyway, check them out somehow.

Nike applogizes for ripping off Minor Threat

From Nike's website, courtesy of RealArt

Nike Skateboarding sincerely apologizes for the creation of a tour poster inspired by Minor Threat's album cover. Despite rumors being circulated, Wieden & Kennedy and Odopod had nothing to do with the creation of this tour poster and should not be held accountable. To set the record straight, Nike Skateboarding's "Major Threat" Tour poster was designed, executed, and promoted by skateboarders, for skateboarders. All of the Nike employees responsible for the creation of the tour flyer are fans of both Minor Threat and Dischord records and have nothing but respect for both.

Click here for the rest.

Yeah, Nike's real sorry about it. "by skateboarders, for skateboarders", please, FOR NIKE! It was an AD for NIKE! When you work for Nike, you're not just a skateboarder or a Minor Threat "fan", you're corporate--a traitor, a hypocrite. Damn Nike.

Bush confirms "War on Terrorism" and "War on Iraq" are the same

from Bush's recent speech at Fort Bragg:

The troops here and across the world are fighting a global war on terror. The war reached our shores on September 11, 2001...Iraq is the latest battlefield in this war.

Wait a minute. I thought we went to war with Iraq because of the WMD's. Oh yeah, and in case that wasn't enough B.S, we also invaded Iraq to "free their people", right?
I'm going to say this for the last time: SADDAM HUSSEIN DID NOT ATTACK US ON SEPTEMBER 11TH. Thats why we invaded Afghanistan right after Sept. 11th, because Osama bin Laden was behind it. And about that, does anyone know how many troops we sent into Afghanistan after 9/11? 11,000. Seems like a lot, but there are more police in Manhattan than that!

It is becoming quite obvious that this "War on Terrorism" is not about protecting the American people. Fact: Iraq holds the second largest oil reserves in the world. I wonder why we really invaded....

Here's another steaming log of manure from that speech:

Some of the violence you see in Iraq is being carried out by ruthless killers who are converging on Iraq to fight the advance of peace and freedom. (my emphasis)

"Advance of peace and freedom", so thats what they're calling invasions these days. You've got to admit, you could feed a lot of people with Bush's speeches. Feed them boloney sandwiches!

sorry

Industrial Hemp

by Ralph Nader from his weekly column, "In The Public Interest"

Congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian from Texas and an obstetrician who has delivered over 6000 babies, is trying to deliver our farmers from a bureaucratic medievalism in Washington that keeps saying "No" to growing industrial hemp.

Many farmers want to grow this 5000 year old long fiber plant that has been turned into thousands of products since being domesticated by the ancient Chinese. That is their heresy. The enforcer is the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Washington, DC, which has placed industrial hemp on its proscribed list next to marijuana.

Detailed petitions signed by agricultural groups, agricultural commissioners, International Paper Co. and others were presented to both Clinton and Bush to take industrial hemp off the DEA list and let the states allow farmers to grow it. The DEA turned the petitions down cold.

The arguments for this great, sturdy and environmentally benign plant are legion. In over 30 countries where it is commercially grown, including Canada, France, China and Romania, industrial hemp has been used to produce hemp food, hemp fuel, hemp paper, hemp cloth, hemp cosmetics, hemp carpet and even hemp door frames (Ford and Mercedes).

Factories, food stores and paper manufacturers are free to import raw hemp or finished hemp materials from foreign countries. Last year, about $250 million worth of hemp products were purchased from abroad. But federal law in the US prohibits farmers or anyone else from growing it on US soil.

click here for all of it

Why, after hearing all the reasons why growing industrial hemp is practical, does Congress keep turning its back on it? There's always this:

There are those like former CIA chief, James Woolsey, who support growing hemp to reduce our reliance on imported oil. More broadly, industrial hemp advances the growth of a carbohydrate-based economy instead of a hydrocarbon-based economy.

Could it be because many people in our government are in the oil business? Or is it because of the many fools in our government who still believe in this "War on Drugs" who falsley see hemp as another name for marijuana? Whatever the reason, its costing the American people money and air quality, and its just one area of many where our government is not helping us.

Nike rips off Minor Threat album art

From Pitchfork, courtesy of RealArt

Exhibit A: Classic cover art of Minor Threat's self-titled 1984 compilation.
Exhibit B: Nike Skateboarding's poster image for its "Major Threat" 2005 East Coast Tour.

And

Just to make sure Dischord hadn't truly gone back on everything they've ever stood for, we asked a representative from the label if Nike had asked to borrow the image. They said the following: "No, they stole it and we're not happy about it. Nike is a giant corporation which is attempting to manipulate the alternative skate culture to create an even wider demand for their already ubiquitous brand. Nike represents just about the antithesis of what Dischord stands for and it makes me sick to my stomach to think they are using this explicit imagery to fool kids into thinking that the general ethos of this label, and Minor Threat in particular, can somehow be linked to Nike's mission. It's disgusting."

Click here for the rest.

Okay, if you don't understand what this is about, its simple: Nike has these ads for some skate tour that totally rips off the album art from Minor Threat's "Complete Discography". The Nike ad says "Major" where the Minor Threat cover says "Minor", and Nike's background is dark blue instead of red (there's a remastered version of this album with a light blue background). On the Minor Threat cover, it shows a guy sitting on a step with his face burried in his crossed arms that are resting on his knees. There's a good view of the guys combat boots, so Nike just cut those out, Photoshop'd in a pair of their over-priced, sweatshop-manufactured garbage, threw in some logos, and they're just "borrowing" album art, not copying it.

There were just enough changes done to the picture so that it doesn't infringe any copyright laws, so all Ian MacKaye and all his friends and fans can do is just be pissed about it. Of course, one thing to do that we all should have done a long time ago, if we hadn't already, is boycott Nike. I mean, isn't it obvious? But not just boycott them, we have to tell people why they shouldn't buy Nike products, and I don't mean yelling at people for wearing Nike shoes. That won't do any good. I think a good idea would be to picket (peacefully) outside of a Nike outlet or retailer, with signs that tell the truth about Nike's evil ways.

At the very least, we should at least get on a casual soapbox about it every now and then if Nike comes up in a conversation with our friends and peers. I know I will....

Batman Begins AND ENDS

Warning: if you haven't seen Batman Begins yet, don't read this and go see it.
Okay, so the new Batman movie was pretty good. Its longer than any other Batman movie I've seen, and some may say its "darker".

There's plenty of action scenes, but the way they did it in this one is kind of Braveheart-ish, in that, the camera shakes a whole lot to add to the effect. Some could argue that it makes it seem like you're in the fight with Batman, but if you're supposed to feel like you're IN the movie, why isn't it 3D? Batman does fight much faster in this film, though, and that adds to the fact that he's younger, so cudos for that.

I don't really get why he was in Japan for a while, maybe I missed something, and the whole thing with the League of Justice or whatever it was with their conspiracy about bringing down all the kingdoms of the human race seemed a bit much, but it works.

Since this movie is called Batman Begins, you can guess that it shows parts of his childhood in detail, which it does. It even shows the part where his parents get killed. Once this part happens, you can assume that this film is an attempt to line up with the Michael Keeton Batman movie from back in the day, but you'd be wrong. The guy who shoots Bruce Wayne's parents in the new film is caught when Bruce is in his 20's and is assassinated on his way out of the courtroom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was supposed to become the Joker!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And just when you start to think, "Hey, this movie is separate, it has nothing to do with Joker anyway," at the very last second of the movie, a "calling card" is found from a new villain. It was none other than a JOKER card, AND they added that the guy was a CONVICTED MURDERER.

Think back to the film with Michael Keeton. Jack Nickelson BECAME Joker DURING that movie, which takes place LATER than the new film. So this new film should be called "Batman Begins AND ENDS", because it doesn't line up with any other movie that could show how Batman "ends".

Of course, one could also argue that each Batman movie that came after 'Batman' and 'Batman Returns' was a new interpretation of the Batman story, but even if thats true, none of them ever re-told how his parents died (although I believe in Batman Forever he says that Joker killed his parents), so why does this new "prequal" change the freaking story? How hard would it have been to have the guy live instead of die and to just NOT have the Joker card at the end? Survey says: Not hard at all.

N'AWLENS TRIP

I have't blogged the past couple of days because I was visiting my brother in New Orleans. It was my second trip there, I had much more fun this time.

The first day we went to the French Quarter for a little while, and I made a joke about why it hasn't been named the "Freedom Quarter" yet. I had some gumbo at this little resturant, real good stuff. Then we went to the famous Cafe Du Monde and had some French doughnuts called "men-yays", I can't remember how to spell it but thats how its pronounced.

We passed by this brass band made up of kids my age who weren't all that great at their instruments but was still cool. We saw a few other live shows going on at that very same time around town, along with some street performers--New Orleans = better than Houston.

I stayed with my brother at the Navy Base. Thats right, I stayed on a military base, it was no big deal (he's a musician). The barracks are like freaking hotel rooms, with their own kitchens! I went with my brother to "work", which was a long-ass rehearsal with the Show Band. They kick ass. We got lunch at this cajun grocery store, I got an awesome po-boy and a bottle of Big Shot Cola, a N'awlens drink.

Now that I look back on the trip, we didn't do very much but it was cool to hang out with my brother again.

Happy Flag Day

So basically, the first version of the stars and stripes was officially recognized on June 14, 1777. That was the one with thirteen stars. Now through centuries of conquest, warfare, and robbery, we've got fifty stars on that there flag. God bless America, yo.

Michael Jackson Acquited

I can't believe its finally over.

I've never blogged about the trial, probably because the whole thing was stupid. But speaking of the trial, I always speculated that a few of the people really were molested by Jackson and the rest were lying through their teeth.

I wonder if all this negativity toward Michael Jackson has anything to do with him looking creepy. I mean, if he were still black I wonder if so many people would hate him or believe that he was guilty of child molestation. Nah, couldn't be, that kind of crap never happens.

I've finally seen Fahrenheit 9/11

Of course, I already knew the facts about the Bush familys' relationship with the Saudi royal family and the bin Laden family because I have Mike's book, "Dude, Where's My Country". But in the film I got to see Michael and a Marine go around D.C. looking for congressman and asking them to enlist their child into the military, with brochures and a roster sheet in hand. In the movie you only see one congressman that will even bother to talk to Mike, and thats the point. There are 585 members of Congress and only one has a son elisted in the army. If you took 585 average Americans, I guarantee more than one has a child in the military.

There are also some interviews with soldiers in Iraq that weren't available when Mike wrote the book. I like the one that made the point that Halliburton workers make a good amount more money than the soldiers, "driving the same route" every day. F 9/11 also has the footage of those solders who harrassed that detainee who had an involuntary erection. Just before that it showed a soldier tickling one detainee's feet, then wiping his hand on another soldiers jacket, I'm sure just because he got sand on his hand.

There were also some quotes from Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney, and Colin Powell from early 2001 that addressed Saddam Hussein. I couldn't believe my ears. They were talking about how little of a threat Saddam Hussein posed to the U.S!
Go figure.

Paul Anka sings "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

I meant to talk about this right after I saw it, but whatever.

I was watching the Late Show the other night, as I do many nights, and was amused to hear that Paul Anka was the musical guest. After a hilarious interview with Robert Klein, Paul Anka went on.

I didn't catch it at first, but when they got to the chorus, it was obvious: Paul Anka was singing a lounge version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I was stunned. I didn't know what to think. Isn't this an atrocity? Is he mocking Kurt Cobain? Does he actually like Nirvana? It was mind-boggling. To this very moment I don't know whether I loved it or hated it. I'll need to discuss it with my brother to get a knowledgable musical opinion first.

Did anyone else see this? If so, what did you think? If not, what do you think anyway?

Jimmy Carter Urges Closing of Guantanamo Detention Facility

From Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former US president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter called for the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to be closed, "to demonstrate clearly our nation's historic commitment to protect human rights."

"Our government needs to close down Guantanamo and the two dozen secret detention facilities run by the United States as soon as possible," Carter said Tuesday in Atlanta at a conference organized by the Carter Center.

He also called for an end to the policy of transferring prisoners to countries where there have been reports of torture, and pressed for an independent commission to investigate the US detention facilities.

.....

The Pentagon revealed last week, after wrapping up an investigation, that US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay once kicked the Koran and that a copy of the Islamic holy book was sprayed with urine in another incident, but that overall US soldiers at the camp handled the book with respect.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Monday said that closing Guantanamo would be difficult, since the majority of detainees being held there are considered too dangerous to be set free.

click here for all of it

So the detainees are considered to be too dangerous to be set free. What about the guards who "accidentally" piss on the detainees and destroy their holy book in front of them? Not to mention last year's naked human pyramid scandal.

I've said this before, we are not fighting this War on Terror correctly. You don't stop terrorism by pissing terrorists off, and I'm not saying we have to kiss up to them and be friends and sing and dance and have gay sex in the streets, I'm just saying that these terrorists have a better reason for attacking us than "hating our freedom". Nobody hates freedom, okay? For example, some terrorists hate the fact that we support Israel, who persecutes the Palestinians, among other things that the U.S. is involved in over there.

Remember, Al Qaida and the other organizations like them are Muslim fundamentalists. The only countries that the U.S. has had military conflicts with in the past fifteen years have been Muslim nations. We have thoroughly made ourselves a target of terrorism, and we only play into the hands of the terrorists when we start wars and mistreat prisoners.