I Thought We Already Overthrew a King George...

Utter. Fucking. Insanity.

I will be watching this with great interest...

I've Got a Crush on Obama

More on GenCon later. For now, I'm going to profess my undying love for the junior senator from Illinois. For chrissakes, let's get someone in the White House that has an ounce of common sense. Though he's constantly pounded for a lack of experience, as he noted in his Daily Show interview, Cheney and Rumsfeld were the only ones in the current administration with White House experience and look what they've accomplished. It terrifies me that experience has only hardened them to the issues facing the nation, put them in the pockets of special interests, and trained them to literally rape our nation's laws (Yes, I do believe that Cheney forcefully thrusts his penis through the Bill of Rights each night when Lynn is asleep. You can quote me on that - ESCHELON and CARNIVORE, here I come).

From here on out, I'm taking my act on the road. I'm endorsing an Obama/Bill Richardson ticket, purely in the model of the Bush/Cheney candicacy. Barack is the charismatic frontman, a straight shooter who, like Bush in his first term pre-9/11 (AKA The Great Excuse), comes at problems head on. Richardson is the experienced straight man - unelectable on his own, but with a deep government experience that adds depth to the presidency and its ability to accomplish its goals. It also happens to have the most revolutionary candidacy in the history of American politics - a black man and a Hispanic man, both of whom are the best, brightest hope for a nation that up until 40 years ago was wracked by horrible segregation, racial discrimination and prejudice. I think that's an incredible statement about the desegregation policies the current Supreme Court saw fit to strike down recently, and a blow to the neo-con bullshit that has ravaged our economy, our global status, and our standing as a nation. You heard it here first - Obama/Richardson in '08.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone

Spotted by the wife - a young Britney Spears turned suicide bomber, and Mickey Mouse tortured to death by Jews? Only on Hamas kids' TV. I hope you're paying attention, world, cause THIS is what our handling of the Middle East has created. This is the face of the failure of American diplomacy and U.N. ineptitude.

Something must be done. Day after day, I'm beginning to think looking to my nation's government is exactly the wrong solution.

Picket-Line Counterinsurgency at Its Finest

Life is an MMO?

Interesting little article on futurism, though I think this guy's cracked.

Symantics

Reading this article this morning, I was reflecting on the fact that Mike Huckabee was doing pretty well out there, running almost entirely on the fact that he's Christian and "pro-life." Now, I don't think Huckabee has a snowball's chance in hell of turning into his party's candidate, but the fact that he can prop an entire campaign up on this one point gives me pause because of its semantic power.

If Republicans and other social conservatives can label themselves as "pro-life," then the binary thinking that infects the American consciousness would logically point that those who oppose this viewpoint are anti-life, rather than the 'pro-choice' stance used by supporters of women's right to abortion. Very clever, that. But these are the same people who are anti-gun control, anti-government assistance for the poor, and pro-capital punishment - all very big tools of death and distruction of life. Someone who is pro-life would logically support life in all its forms - that means feeding the starving, restricting easy access to deadly weapons, and rehabilitating rather than killing those who commit capital crimes.

I think it would be much more accurate to paint "pro-lifers" as "anti-abortionists," because that's what they actually are. Such a simple symantic shift greatly undermines the power of the sentiment - suddenly, guys like Huckabee are just dudes who are making a stand on a single law, not championing the sanctity of life itself. By the same token, changing "pro-choice" to "pro-abortion" would be inaccurate, because most pro-choicers believe women have a right to choose, not that fetuses should be disposed of pell-mell.

I think the dynamics of American politics would change greatly if we were more accurage and honest in our language. Guys who run on the platform of anti-abortion, pro-execution, pro-evangelical Christian values would be much more forthcoming about their agendas and have a much harder time winning than if they said they were pro-life, and supported capital punishment and family values. If you want to win this next election, you have to start calling people on their abuse of symantics and take back the war of words for your side.

Crime Knows No Borders

A fascinating story of an $40m black market Italian-Iraqi arms deal with deals spanning the globe. Sounds like prime Spycraft fodder to me...

Our Country's Out of Its Mind. The Solution?

Blow it up.

That this is from one of those fucktard "Patriots" (note capital "P" here...it's very important to distinguish those terrorists who fought against the British from the rednecks that fight against common sense) kills me with its irony. That it is acceptable is stunning in its apathy.

Sight of the Day

A mated pair of peregrine falcons hunting squirrels crossing a clearing in a local park. I've never been so close to these rare birds as I was today - and they have some stones. Squirrels wandered out scavenging for some food and they'd swoop out of the trees. Almost got them a few times, but the squirrels must have weight at least as much as them, and perhaps twice as much, so it was an awkward dance. Still, it's always nice to be reminded of nature in the heart of the city - and to see something you've always wanted to see in the flesh.