Wow, I'm making a post from another state. Woo hoo.

Way to make yourself look stable, Mike.

This seems to be a side issue that pops up from time to time. You know, this is fucking food we're talking about here. Don't European countries have the right to test this shit out before they accept it? We have no idea if there are long-term deleterious effects caused by the consumption of genetically modified foods. Of course, we may have an idea some day, since a good deal of food consumed here is genetically modified, as arrogantly pointed out by the Standard. I'll bet a lot of people aren't even aware of this fact.

The jury is still out on the issue, and there's nothing wrong with being cautious. There are lots of questions - some of which are outlined here in a somewhat old but no doubt still relevant Chicago Tribune article. Like usual, though, we try and cram shit down the rest of the world's throats, and expect for them to just take it. Then when they don't, whiny American pussies throw a tantrum.

Yeah, reconstruction is hard. Maybe that's why it's not a good idea to get involved in another reconstruction project before you've done a halfway decent job on the one you're already working on. I've only read the sub-article on Afghanistan so far, but yeah, our track record in this field still sucks.

Dude, if it goes off the air, what the hell is Geordi gonna do?

Seriously, this is fucked up. This is actually one show that actually aims to do something good for kids, but it's going to go down in flames because of marketing and demographics. Oh, and I totally think they could make some action figures, too.

Oh yeah, and one more thing. The fucking tax cuts. This is great, because I should have a real job and more money any day now.

Also, this fucking package is like $400 less than what Bush wanted, but he's still passing it off as a victory. Fucking lying prick assholes.

Jesus, it's been two fucking weeks since I've written anything in this blog. Well, I've been fucking busy. The unemployment blog was short-lived; in fact, it was more active when I was at my last job and didn't have shit to do for the last two weeks than it was when I actually didn't have a job for the following two weeks. Of course, when I was genuinely unemployed, there was like next to nothing happening in the world. About all I did for the first week was watch anime and spend my last precious few days masturbating with broadband. Then, of course, the tail end of my second week was spent packing stuff. And holy hell, do I have a lot of stuff.

Now that I'm back living at home like a fucking loser, I'm not very inclined to get online with dialup. I can tolerate getting online, checking my mail, and maybe reading a news story or two. But hell if I have the patience to try and do anything with the blog. Then, at my new job, which is actually my really old job from my undergrad days, I'm actually pretty fucking busy. Since I'm in charge of getting a small but non-trivial network into a respectable state, I actually have a nice list of things to keep me busy. Take today, for instance, where I set up 13 linux machines to be fully controllable through the serial port. I even made my own fucking null modem cable. How hard core is that? Shit. Technically, I think I'm hard as steel.

Okay, I'm not really that hard core. The stuff I'm doing isn't terribly complex, and it definitely isn't "engineering". But it's work, and it actually is fun. You probably wouldn't think so, but hey, that's why you're not doing this, and I am. Of course, the people who are really supposed to be doing this stuff aren't, but that's because they're fucking morons. They aren't incompetent from the technical stance, they just don't do anything. Fine by me. At least now I know shit'll actually get done.

So what is going on in the world? Most likely a bunch of bullshit. I've been keeping up with the headlines, but that's about it. Stuff going on in the Middle East, like usual. Talks are scheduled, blah blah blah. With the Bush Administration involved, I really don't see things going very far. Bush brokering for peace in the middle east is about as disingenuous as, well, Bush sending us into Iraq for "liberation" purposes.

Then there's the whole Laci Peterson murder nonsense. Does anyone really care about this? I've given less than a shit about this whole ordeal. Yeah, it sucks and all, but I don't see how this case is any more or less valid than any other murder. The only thing that's bothered me about the whole trial is that it's given the right-to-lifers an excuse to come out of the woodwork and make some sort of pseudo anti-abortion statement. This is dangerous because I've realized something. The Administration clearly would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned, but they're pretty sure it's not going to happen. As such, they're going to do every little fucking thing possible to undermine a woman's right to choose.

Back in politics, we're doing lots of fucking around with Iran. Infuriating, and unsurprising. I don't think we will be going into any country to "liberate" them anytime soon, but I think we're more than willing to push countries to the point where they either play ball or do something stupid so that we have an excuse to go after them. Our foreign policy is pretty much just "Who wants a piece?"

Naturally, I've heard next to nothing about North Korea.

Well, it's been nearly three weeks since my last mention of WMD, and of course, still nothing. You know what I'm thinking now? There never was anything, and the Administration knew it. And you know what? They didn't care. They just needed a good excuse to get others on board, namely Tony Blair. The real goal was, of course, regime change. As long as they have that, which they do, everything else is secondary. They're so confident in their skills of spin and damage control that they have no problem simply cleaning up and explaining away the absence of WMD.

Okay, that's it for now. That's my take on a handful of things going on, and what the fuck I've been up to. Of course, you don't care, because you're no one. I don't mean that in a deprecating manner; I just literally mean you're no one, because no one is fucking reading this.

Fat kid flailing around with a pole.

Okay, I know "the search isn't over" yet, but this is still pretty stunning.

Okay, let's start off this rant by pointing out how several times I've said that I expect weapons to be found. I've said this well in advance of any find (as, indeed, there has been and may be no find, so I'm ahead of the game by definition). Also, I'm keeping in mind the phrase I used above, that searching for weapons isn't over.

The question is, when will the search be over? We've got ops winding down in terms of searching for WMD as Bush says we're just getting warmed up. We've got most of the high priority sites checked out as Blair tells his MPs that he's absolutely positive we'll find something. How long will they be able to use the stall tactic of "we're not done yet"? I understand it's a big country and shit like this takes time, which is why I haven't declared shenanigans on the WMD issue yet. But you think they would have found something by now.

Well, you say, lots of the top priority sites have been looted or alltogether destroyed. That's a definite setback for the WMD search. But it would be pretty hard to pilfer chemical and biological stocks, or to completely destroy any trace of them where they stand just by setting shit on fire. The only thing those locations could have yielded was info as to where shit really was.

That brings me to my next point, one which realtors will appreciate. Location. Maybe the weapons we're searching for just aren't in the places we expect them to be. Okay, that's fine. But then that begs the question as to how the hell our intelligence forces fucked things up so badly. Again, they're not done searching all of the sites that are highest on the list, but they're close. And they haven't found shit? This really is starting to look like the desert combing scene of Spaceballs. I mean, they're even in the fucking desert, for chrissakes.

Continuing the the theme of location, Saddam had time to move stuff around. Maybe he moved some of his weapons into Syria or some other neighboring country. Again, how did our intelligence people miss this, if this is what happened? I know this isn't as simple as I'm making it out to be, but Iraq has to be one of the most heavily, if not the most heavily, watched countries on the planet. Watched, and restricted like a motherfucker. I mean, did you see where the no-fly zone boundaries were? The no-fly zones took up most of the goddamn country. Like Bill Maher said, Saddam was "litetally the mayor of Baghdad," and it's thanks to things like this. So, with all this surveilance and control we had over Iraq, how the fuck would Saddam be able to move that much shit (because, remeber, our leaders told us he had oodles and oodles of nasty stuff, and I'm not talking about Saddam & family's porn collection) without us catching him or getting even the slightest wind of it?

If Saddam had weapons, and he just managed to move them or hide them effectively, then we may never know the real story. No matter what, the Bush administration can never, ever make an airtight case without evidence. Everything beyond that is just supposition and spin, which of course, is what the Administration is best at. That's how we got into this war in the first place.

While writing this, I realized when this search for WMD will be over, for me at least. When Tony Blair makes a declaration, one way or another. If it ends in failure, i.e. no WMD, I'm gonna feel kinda bad for Tony. Tony Blair is a smart fucking guy, and in a lot of ways, I think he was fighting this war for the right reasons. But I still think the main motivator was the fact that he was drunk on American power and influence, and deluded as to the glory it could bring him and the U.K. He's gambled his entire political career on this, a fact which he's admitted.

If Tony does go down in flames by saying the WMD hunt was a failure, I will be shocked, and I will be awed. Because at that moment, I will have seen MOAB - the mother of all bullshit.

So I've spent the past hour or two having some fun trolling around the website of the Mainichi Shimbun a Japanese daily paper that was linked off The Guardian.

The Tokyo City Guide was a lot of fun. How many tourist pamphlets are you ever gonna pick up that give you directions to the red light districts? The unabashed honesty in describing some of the attractions in Tokyo was definitely a treat.

Lots of good stuff in the photo specials section. If nothing else, take a look at the cosplay fiesta special and the game show geeks special. There's someone in the latter who has on this fucking amazing Gundam getup. I could give a shit about mecha anime, but I totally thought it was Kim Jong Il at first.

Finally, I just came across some headlines that you just wouldn't see in any sort of mainstream media here. I don't know how "mainstream" this paper is, but it seems like it is, since I've seen it quoted when I'm reading news about Japan. As a warning, the last paragraph in this next article is pretty fucked up. It's an account of a second-year university student. Like I said, you've been warned.

So this is sorta interesting. Much more interesting than my shitty 'blog, at least. I originally found this link at the 'blog of our pal, TV's Wil Wheaton.

One area where the Democrats seem to be trying their damndest, to their credit, is attempting to block Bush's nominees from influential judiciary positions. This is the most recent, and I hope they can pull it off - this woman sounds like pure evil.

Okay, so this new initiative to start reading more of the conservative media may look like a weak ploy just to attack conservatives. Well, that's partly what it is, and since I'm willing to cop to it, so no sense bringing that up in the future.

Honestly, though, I want to read more from the other side, just so I can keep balanced. I don't always disagree with conservative thought, but lots of times I disagree with their methods. Take for instance the fact that I've never said Saddam is a nice guy, and that even I'm expecting for them to find weapons. Weighing all factors, these things were not enough (in my meaningless opinion) to go to war over. But you see, I can at least give them credit on some things.

Also, let me apologize now for those awful caricatures of the Standard's writers. I know I didn't make them, but still.

Kinda scary how they don't even bother hiding some things, like the fact that Bush is, as I said, a figurehead. Take for instance this, which amongst jokes that these people probably think are really funny, is the line "Yes, Mr. President, normally you do outrank the Secretary of Defense."

Here we go, operating behind enemy lines.

To start, we have a reflection of PNAC's principle of "global leadership" for America, which is just a polite way for them to say "America's better than everyone else." Stelzer asserts that the U.S. is going to have to lead the world out of this economic slump. Well, we had better try and lead the charge, since we're responsible for it. At least, that's what he's implying by saying we're the "locomotive tugging the major economies of the world behind it," isn't he?

Stelzer claims that we have "urged" other nations to do X, Y, and Z to get their economies rolling. He goes on to say that our advice has been met with the responses of "the "non" and "nein" to which Americans have grown accustomed of late." First off, that is just bullshit rhetoric that has no place in this discussion, as it's just trying to stirr up the anti-French and anti-German sentiments over the Iraq war. More importantly, why the hell should they give us any reposnse besides "non" and "nein"? Clearly, European nations have some work to do, but why should they listen to us? We can't get our shit together with our own economy, so how exactly does that put us in the position to be giving advice to others on how to fix their economic woes?

Hey, why don't we suggest that Germany, France, and other nations institue a huge tax cut for the rich?

What I said in that last post about not knowing what's going on until it's too late is really troublesome to me. Troublesome because it's, if I may be so bold, dead on. Continuing in that vein, it may be time to start reading The Weekly Standard. This publication is one of the mouthpieces, if not the mouthpiece, for the neoconservative movement. I've even heard claims that this publication is essentially dictating government policy.

So, why am I advocating reading this? A simple concept that our neocon friends can appreciate: pre-emptive strike. Try and figure out what these fucks are up to before it can be put into action. In fact, I think this is my new goal, to start reading more from "the other side." Sure, all these links from The Guardian and The New York Times have been good and all, but most of what I link to has a definite liberal slant, so it's all just reinforcing what I already think. Not that I'm going to abandon that, but it's time to integrate some fresh tactics. Time to go on the offensive.

Before that, however, I think a break is in order, and time to go download pr0n.

I'm always throwing around the term "neoconservative," and I'm pretty sure I've given some tidbits as to what I think neoconservativism is about. Here's one view of what neoconservative thought entails.

While we're at it, a view on the Project for the New American Century, which I've mentioned several times before.

Like the guy who did the PNAC writeup, I ask, why the fuck does PNAC get so little attention? Oh yeah, because people in this country are ignorant, and the media doesn't do shit to help change that fact. What's scary is that even educated, well-informed people don't know a lot of what's going on. Take Paul Wolfowitz, arguably the chief architect of our foreign policy. Lots of people, including myself, didn't know who the fuck this guy was up until a couple of months ago. I'm sure I'd heard of him, but had no clue as to how far-reaching his influence was. The same can be said for a lot of other things that are shaping our future, or lack thereof, but we don't know anything about it until its too late.

After reading this article, I think it's time to do the list. Who's really in charge of this fucking counttry?

Wolfowitz
Rumsfeld
Cheney
Rove

I know this list is bigger, but these are the names I can think of immediately at the top of my head. Naturally, Bush is not in there, because he has brought new meaning to the term "figurehead."

Also, can anyone say "single-party state"? Not that it's surprising that one party would want to be pre-eminent, but Rove talking about making the GOP the "dominant governing party in the country for a generation" is beyond frightening. No, not because it's the Republicans and their neo-conservative agenda (although that's a big part of it), it's the fact that it's a fucking single-party state. Yes, like with the PATRIOT act, we're a long ways away from Nazi Germany, but I can't help but think that this is bad.

Yeah, this place sucks.

Like I said, Safire's a moron.

Why is he being all sanctimonious about Saddam taking all this money from the Iraqi people? Safire only lives in a fucking country where corporations and CEOs pilfer ungodly amounts from their employess and the taxpayers all the time.

Also, if you were planning on leaving for a big trip, wouldn't you take a bunch of cash if you could? I'm not saying it's the nice thing to do and all, but what the fuck do you expect Saddam to do? Say, "Oh, we may have to flee the country, but let's not take any money because that would be mean." Gotta be realistic about this shit.

At this point, if Tony Blair fled the UK with billions, I'll bet we'd harbor him, just like Syria is accused of doing with Saddam.

Finally, and I could definitely be wrong on this one, but I don't think Saddam is running around now looking for someone to buy a couple of nuclear warheads off of. He's too busy fucking running around trying not to get caught by us. At some point I could see him using his money to exact revenge, but, well, it's not like he doesn't have a reason to be pissed. No, I'm not saying I support Saddam, but I understand.

Looks like we're gettin' prepped to get that oil flowing from Iraq.

Also in that article, there's mention of another discovery of a possible mobile bio-weapons lab. Let's wait here on the edge of our seats as they investigate what's probably another harmless double-wide.

Great, more fucking with Iran.

Okay, Iran's nuclear program is somewhat scary, since they do refer to us as "The Great Satan" and all. This kinda pissed me off, until I found out that we do have somewhat of a case here. As part of the Nonproliferation Treaty, non-nuclear states are barred from developing nuclear weapons. There's a brief overview of the Nonproliferation treaty here.

Why do I see more and more people being charged with jerking off in public thanks to this?

I rail on conservatives and Republicans all the time, but the Democrats can be just as dirty.

Look, guys, you can't enact legislation that's desiged to fight the evils of soft money, and then come up with clever schemes to raise soft money. I dunno, kinda seems like a credibility issue.

It's pretty clear that we need some balance back in this country. Republican president, Republican House, Republican Senate. Some have said that the campaign finance reforms that are now being shat upon will just hurt the Democrats and their chances of bringing that balance. You know what I say? Fuck 'em. You can't have an un-level playing field. Furthermore, if the Democrats would just get their shit together, orgranize, and put forth a united front against the Republicans, maybe they wouldn't have to be looking for ways to circumvent laws that they wanted in place.

Also, I know that talking about bringing "balance" just by strengthening the Democrats is a shaky notion at best, with how similar these two parties behave. The thing is, if the 'crats got it together and actually started acting like an opposition party, we would have some balance. Christ, anything at this point that removes or effectively counters Bush.

Yup, we need more foreigners to come over here and fuck with people like that.

You know, I thought $7 billion was quite a bit of money for putting out fires. Don't worry, though, I have no doubts in my mind that Halliburton (or more specifically, I believe, a Halliburton subsidiary) getting big contracts like this has nothing to do with the fact that Cheney is their ex-CEO.

This contract isn't new news, but I've had it with this bullshit. Time to send Rogue Squad after these Halliburton Cheney Bush Fuckers.