Olbermann: 1, Rumsfeld: Idiot

Actually, I'd like to go into negative points, but that's just being petty. : )

While I'll admit that Keith Olbermann is often over the top on how he adresses certain issues, I generally agree with his sentiments. Here is a clip from his 8/30/06 show in response to Rumsfeld's abhorrent speech to the American Legion that everyone should watch, again and again, if necessary.

Mexico!

I can hardly contain my excitement. In less than a week, April and I are leaving for her parent's place outside Guadalajara! Not counting the tourist destination of Cozumel, I've never been to Mexico before. It's going to be a nice, relaxing trip, from what I can gather, which is absolutely perfect. It will be especially nice to just veg with April since grad school usually keeps us pretty busy. While I do like activity-centered trips, I'm really in need of a good block of unstructured, unrestricted, unhurried time. And it's a fantastic bonus that it's going to be in Mexico. As an added super-bonus, April's dad has some dual-sports that we're planning to ride in the mountains around Lake Chapala. While I'm really looking forward to it, it will be my first time going off road on two wheels so I'm a little wary of doing something stupid and dumping the bike. Not really worried - but it has crossed my mind. Gotta go down to lab now. More later.

Mandatory and Useless Update #27

Nothing much to post about, but once again, it's been so long that I feel compelled to write something, no matter how banal and pointless. I'm looking forward to a fun weekend of parties, movies, and maybe some relaxing in there somewhere. Oh yeah, and sleep. Lots of sleep. Maybe I'll hit the pool for a while, in an attempt to get rid of this grad-student pallor that smacks of cave-dweller. Oh yeah, and I recently had to update my personal profile for this blog - noting that I'm no longer a fourth year grad student. Scary. All the first years have been arriving this week - classes start Monday, not that it matters to me anymore - which really drives home that I've already been here a full four years. Even scarrier is that I have to plan on graduating in less than a year, and I have no clue what do do with myself afterwards. I'm open to suggestion! Here I am, in my 5th year of graduate school, without the slightest clue what I want to do after graduation. I mean, I've been in school continuously for 22 years, if you count nursery school. (Hey, it's got "school" in the name. It's got to count!) So really, I'd love to hear some suggestions. Based on the number of readers I have, I'll probably end up with 2 more ideas of what to do with my life than I have at the moment. Hey. Better than nothing. And if anyone suggests "tree" I'll still take it into consideration. Well, maybe. This isn't a halloween costume, after all.

Nothing, really

Nothing much to report, though it's been so long since I've updated I'm feeling the urge. Research is going along slowly, as usual. Actually, there hasn't been any real progress in a while, so I guess "slowly" is just a euphamism for "nowhere." Yeah, that's more to the point. Research is going nowhere, just as usual.

It seems to have gotten really really hot here the past few days. Now, I know it's kinda hot in Houston to begin with, but it seems that this summer had lost a lot of its bite save for a few days here and there. And then this week came in and kicked me in the gut with size 13 combat boots. I nearly hurled. Just walking 100 yards to Valhalla to get lunch gets me all nasty and sweaty in a ways I don't really want to describe to the public. Of course, the fact that I ride a black big-twin sportbike in jeans, a black (but well-ventilated) synthetic and leather jacket, big fat helmet, and gloves to boot (but no boots) kinda makes it worse. But I'd rather sweat than leave a lot of my skin on the road in case of a wreck. I've definitely got the sweating part down these last few days. I'd started to wonder if I've just gotten used to Houston summers at last, but then I realized that this isn't the kind of heat and humidity (it really is the humidity) that you can "get used to," anymore than you can get used to breathing sea water.

Zion National Park

So I've finally posted some pictures on my silly little googlepage under the recent events part. Honestly, my brother's pictures are much better, so if you want to see good pics, go to his blog.

k... so it won't let me upload any pics to this post at the moment. grr.

Mini-Vacation

Last week I took off Friday for LA, where my mom was visiting my brother and sister. After getting to the bitchin house in the Hollywood Hills around 11, we headed to Zuma beach for the rest of the afternoon. Awesome. Matt and I (and even mom a little) hit the near-perfect waves for hours of body-surfing and a good deal of sun.

Saturday morning we left for Las Vegas with mom, Matt, and Casey. Though we hadn't reserved rooms in advance, it worked out for the best in the end, and we got to see a lot of cool hotels while we looked. I didn't gamble much, and we spent most of our time in New York, New York that night. Earlier in the day the three of us (sans mom) went up to the top of the Stratosphere, where Casey and I rode the Big Shot, the worlds highest thrill ride. I've forgotten how much I love that adrenaline rush. Fantastic!

Sunday started with still more traveling, this time out of Nevada, through a corner of Arizona, and all the way to South-Western Utah and Zion National Park. I can't say enough about the grandiosity of Zion, and the pictures, while pretty good, don't nearly do it justice. Let me just say that if you've never been there, you need to go. Hell, I need to go again, and it wasn't even a week ago that I left.

We three kiddies got there around noon and got a good hotel - the Bumbleberry just outside the park entrance. After we shuttled in, we went on a 5+ hour walk / wade through the somewhat swollen Virgin river and the Narrows at the end of the canyon. With 500-800 foot cliffs on both sides, often only a few yards apart, every corner brought about another breathtaking view. The thunder shortly after we'd turned around, just shy of 3 hours into the narrows, had me worrying about flash floods nearly the whole trip back, but luckily the rain wasn't heavy enough to worry about. At least till after we were out of the narrows. The next day, after a few wonderful nighttime thunderstorms, the already muddy river looked like chocolate milk, and the narrows were closed. We chose a good order, it seems.

Monday morning after a nice breakfast at the Bumbleberry restaurant, we did a two-mile, 1500+ foot climb (and descent, duh) to Angel's landing. Again, words won't suffice, and pictures can't quite do it justice, but at least the pictures are quick. The last climb was the best, with chains attached to the rock face so we wouldn't go tumbling down the 1000 foot cliffs on either side of the "trail." At one point there was only about 4 feet between vertical cliffs on both sides - basically a path between certain and unavoidable death.

After a quick bite to eat, and with already tired legs, we hiked up to the emerald pools in the short time we had before we had to leave for LA - 6.5 hours away. We didn't get to see the lower pool, and the upper was definately cooler than the middle. We got rained on again on the way back, but it really wasn't too bad after a long, hot day hiking in the sun. After meeting up with mom again in Vegas, we got back to LA after midnight and had a good sleep. Tuesday was all about Emily's birthday - my little sister's 23! holy crap! We saw Miami Vice (better than I thought it'd be) and generally just hung out. Unfortunately I had to come back to Houston on Wednesday, but a short trip was much better than none at all. And many thanks to mom who made it all possible. It was great seeing my family - something I've been lucky enough to do twice so far this year. Of course, it made me realize how much I love, and how much I really want more vacation time soon. If only money grew on trees!

Irksome

Two news-items I just couldn't pass up this morning:

BBC news says that Kazaa will become a legal music downloading service, and has also agreed to pay an over $100m compensation to the record industry. First of all, I always thought that kazaa and other p2p services were legal downloading services. The entire claim that they're responsible for piracy is ridiculous. Sure, they help it, but why not go after the companies that make recordable media, too? Or even hard drives? It's all just a big, frantic money-grab by an archaic industry run by a bunch of lazy, rich, innovation-allergic men frightened into paralysis of potential change.

Secondly, this article is so incredibly shallow that the extent of the details about the >$100m payoff is that it's going to the "record industry." Come on, BBC. Where are the important questions? Instead of following the money trail, the article just illustrates just how far up the establishment's ass the authors nose really is. I can practically smell the stench of digested musicians through my computer.

A bit of googling shows that the payoff goes to Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group Plc and Warner Music Group in Los Angeles and Australia.

The second news item would be that a court has upheld the long-time practice of invasive searches without suspicion at US borders, applying in this case to your hard drive. The 9th circuit court of appeals has ruled that border control agents can search through your computer at any time and for any reason. Actually, border control agents can search anyone or anything without any evidence or suspicion of wrongdoing. This, surprisingly enough to me, upholds a supreme court ruling that effectively ignores the heart of the fourth amendment at US borders. Apparently our country doesn't really start until you're some arbitrary distance inside it that isn't deemed a part of the border.

In other, more personal news, I'm off to LA tomorrow morning for a few days with the fam. I'm really excited about the whole thing. Not only are we all going to be in one place at one time, for a few days, at least, but we're going to Las Vegas and probably Zion National Park, too! It looks to be a lot of fun, as long as I get my paycheck when I'm supposed to. I have to say that I've got enough bills at the moment that I really shouldn't be going on this trip, (no, really) but I'm also in desperate need for a break from Houston and my research crap. When things don't work for day after day, and week after week proceeding into months on end, the stress level really starts to get to me. Anyway, LA, here I come!

Epitome of Awesomeness

I just have to say how awesome it is that my mom - former nursery-school teacher mom who has sung "Wake up Little Pilgrims" every Thanksgiving I can remember and still insists that "jackass" isn't foul language - has a motorcycle. I mean, effin A, man. My mom rocks hard like that. Way to go Mom!! I think next she's getting some tattoo of like a killer bald eagle with sharp talons fighting a wolverine or something. Or maybe a Liger. That would be totally sweet. Now, just to make sure that my mom isn't more hardcore than me (it might be a futile attempt, seeing as I am a physics geek - I'm wearing a Penny Arcade shirt today, for god's sake) I'm going to have to pick up a nasty drug habit and, like, kill somebody or something. Don't make me kill someone, mom! Please!

Good Dog

I'll miss Tera. She was a great companion and friend - more than just a pet. I'm sorry I wasn't there when she had to go. I'm not very good at these things, and my brother says it better.

Talk about Ridiculous

An advertising executive has been jailed because his company produced an ad for an online gambling site - a site that is perfectly legal in its own country, but is apparently of the type that the US government is trying very hard to crack down on. Wow. Good thing we're being protected from all those scary advertising executives. Thanks, uncle Sam - now I can sleep better at night.

Manic Mechanic

My car's in bad shape. A year ago I replaced the entire air conditioning system. Before that the brake lines (all of them) and master cylinder were replaced. A few months ago I had to recharge the coolant because most of it had leaked out. Two weeks ago I had to replace the alternator. This weekend a friend was borrowing the car to carry heavy wood flooring and had a massive blowout on 610. The tire, rim, and hubcap are completely trashed. The wrecker driver who had to get him out of the left emergency lane was apparently incompetent and smashed up the rear quarterpanel.

I finally got my bike back. After seven (7!) weeks. It looks like it should. I'm still waiting for about $300 from the insurance company. I've got to pay for the remaining $500 after that, some of which is for stuff that needed to be done anyway, e.g. brake pads. Total cost for all the cosmetic damage and repairs? Keep in mind that the bike never even fell completely over.

$2300.

I feel like I'm in a horrible mastercard commercial:

Gas for the trip to Austin: $35
Helmet, Gloves, and Riding Jacket: $700
Dairy Queen sundae on the way: $4
Watching your motorcycle being mangled in the parking lot: Priceless (but really $2300 and seven weeks - not exactly free.)

Or... it could go something like this for the past nine weeks:

Medical bills that your insurance doesn't feel like paying anymore: $530
Semester fees and premium for said crappy insurance: $850
Bike repairs that the other insurance doesn't feel like paying: $200
Motorcycle insurance: $200
Car repairs while your bike is in the shop: $600
Car insurance: $500
Previous medical bills over the past seven months: $3000+


Getting your Ph.D. and getting the hell out of Grad School to make real money: ...

I have no idea, actually. Sure would be nice.

Christ, I need to start dealing crack or something. I mean, find a legal source of additional income.

San Francisco de Asis

Apparently I didn't feel like doing much work today, so here's another photoshop project. This is an authentic adobe church, San Francisco de Asis, a little way outside Taos, NM. For the few people who may have read this blog from its inception, you may remember the original picture from my posts about my summer vaction around Santa Fe.

Again check out my googlepage for the before and after comparison.

Name that Place

While this may be incredibly easy for some people I know, I doubt anyone else will be able to figure it out. It's getting to be about that time of year, so I thought it would be appropriate to post a pic. The first person to get it right wins absolutely nothing!!!

Route 66 Junker

No rants today, I promise. Instead, here's my latest photoshop project. As always, click on the pic for the full version.

To see a before and after, go to my googlepage.

Money Grubbing

F*(|{ the FCC.

If you've read this blog before, then you know how much I love the FCC, especially with Washington's renewed puritanical obsession over broadcast indecency standards. Keep in mind that there's no actual list of forbidden words or phrases, acts or images. Nothing is specifically forbidden, but it doesn't need to be when we'll willingly over-censor ourselves to avoid the increasingly obscene fines that the FCC now has the power to levy. Part of free speech is the freedom to push the limits of decency so that new ideas can find their way into the public discourse more readily.

Granted, requesting previously aired tapes of sporting events isn't exactly restricting the flow of new ideas, but who can tell the effect it will have when there is no more live television? What really gets me, though, is the fact that they're combing tapes long after they've aired. After the tenfold increase in indecency fines our friends in Washington just pushed through, it's going to be extremely hard to convince me that this isn't just a money-grabbing scheme. I'd be interested to learn where these fines go, as well; I mean where the money actually goes, too. I won't accept the official word any more.

On the opposite side of the censorship argument, I'm actually in support of the plug being pulled on high school valedictorian Brittany McComb's graduation speech on account of excessive religious content. The graduation and therefore the speech was sponsored by a public school, as such the school is obliged to adhere to the separation of church and state and cannot endorse religious proselytizing. I mean, really - the girl's speech was already edited and approved by the school before graduation, like any graduation speech, and she chose to deviate from her approved script. I happen to think that excessive religious references are obscene. Let's broadcast the speech and get the FCC involved!!

The reason that I bring this up now, and not earlier, is that I read comics every day as a part of my lunch break, and came across Mallard Fillmore this week, which I often enjoy. I say often because I think that Bruce Tinsley really missed this one.

It's really a clear-cut case of a public school knowing that it can't legally sponsor religious speech, and enforcing the rule that McComb tried to dodge. I guess if you call yourself a conservative, though, you're obliged to hate the ACLU and everything it does. Ah, I love independent thinkers.

New York, New York

In another sad day for equality and basic human rights, New York's highest court yesterday ruled that gay marriage is illegal in that state. Also yesterday, Georgia reinstated a gay-marriage ban. Now among the more than forty states that have specific laws restricting marriage to only a man and a woman, New York and Georgia are only further evidence of the backsliding of equality and basic rights in this country that has been accelerating since 2001. While New York's ruling didn't instate any new laws, it was only an official interpretation of the language of that state's constitution, the effect is similar. Now the debate will be carried to the state's lawmakers, where little hope resides for a new bill that actually equalizes marriage rights for all people.

Highlighted by the language of the majority's ruling, however, is the only marginally defensible facade for those opposed to real equality in marriage. While the idea of gay marriage seems to make most people uncomfortable, those who actively oppose it tend to enshroud their true motivations in the insubstantial fabric of nobility and morality in the face of an overwhelming onslaught against their way of life. Face it, stemming from the same roots as xenophobia, racism, misoneism, and miscegenation laws, the deep-seated reasons most people oppose gay marriage are fear and ignorance - a powerful combination that helped our anscestors stay alive and propogate the species through so many dangerous milennia. But we don't have those types of dangers anymore, and until a completely unknown alien species lands on our planet, that type of animalistic instinct to immediately mistrust that with which we're unfamiliar only serves to stagnate the progress of the human race. For the lazy religious argument - god says it's a sin, so I don't have to make up my own mind - it's also a sin to let your god-given intelligence and rationality to be overwhelmed by the animalistic side of human nature. Our ability to control animalistic impulses or instincts like lust, violence, hatred and fear, is what keeps us from sinning - or in my definition, what actually separates us from animals. And while there are plenty of people who are convinced that gay marriage is actually a threat, and have used their faculties to come to and defend this position, I'm convinced that it's all still born of the instinctual fear of change. I know how easy it is to convince myself of something I want to believe, and how hard it is to accept that I'm wrong. It's even harder still to re-evaluate long-held beliefs that we want to uphold, but it's also extremely important to be able to do so. If it's not difficult, it's probably not worth doing.

While I understand and sympathize with those who've convinced themselves that forbidding gay marriage is truly in the best interest of our society - they're completely wrong, but I know how hard it is to re-evaluate arguments that prevent an uncomfortable self-realization - I find it absolutely hilarious when people call the movement for gay marriage rights an attack or onslaught against their way of life. Dear god, arm yourselves! Here come the gays to kill your children and redecorate your livingroom! Protecting family values sounds so noble, so irrefutably right, that basically all you need to do is spout that line in a debate, and all your problems are solved. You don't hate families, do you? (You probably hate America, too!) But really, how much of an effect will legalizing gay marriage have on the average Joe Republican with his W bumper sticker still adorning the back of his Ford? Does Joe even know a gay couple? Has he ever had the nerve to have a real conversation with someone with a different sexual orientation? Like the magic eight-ball, my sources say no. So how the hell is a minority element of the population (2-10% in most estimates) going to wage war on the values and beliefs of the other 90+% of the American public? Not good odds, if you really want to start something. On top of that, all this assumes that the values of the average modern American family are something worth protecting. Let's take a brief look at some numbers.

Nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce. While that's arguable based on statistical nuance, a conservative number is 41%. The latest US provisional estimate from the National Center for Health Statistics has the per capita divorce rate at 0.38%. Since divorces have to involve 2 people, the reality is that 76 of every 1000 people in 2003 got divorced. That's everyone - not just those who were married. That's not including California, Colorado, Indiana, or Louisana.

According to the US Census Bureau, 23.2% of women who gave birth in 2000-2003 were below the poverty level. The rates of married women versus single women was 12.2% versus 50%. That means that nearly one in four children in America starts life at or below the poverty level. Additionally, 29% of the women who gave birth in 2000-2003 were unmarried.

In 2004, 11.9 of every 1000 children were reported and documented victims of abuse or neglect according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. Also that year, 1,490 children died from abuse or neglect.

These types of family values seem to be the types of things we should be waging war against - not protecting. While an estimated 1 in 10 people are gay, nearly 1 in 4 children are born into poverty. For anyone who can count, that's obviously a much higher percent (especially if you take into account that children - 0-18 years - make up a much smaller percentage of the population than those who are aware of their sexual orientation, lets say 18-76 years.) If anyone actually believes that gay marriage is more threatening to America's children and strong family values, I wonder if they can count.

So in reality, are people really that worried about gay marriage eroding family values and changing their way of life? Maybe, but they wouldn't be if they stopped to think about it. More likely, gay marriage opponents simply haven't taken the time to really evaluate the reasons they don't support true equality, and instead hide behind the arguments set up for them by a small and vocal minority of self-deceiving thinkers. It's so much easier to spout unoriginal rhetoric than to come up with your own ideas. It's much more comfortable. After all, change isn't always comfortable, and it almost always leads to the unknown. We've evolved to fear and fight the unknown, but now it's keeping us from evolving further. Equlality is only a theory until it's truly put into practice.

You want customer service? Go f*#& yourself. How's that?

First let me start by saying that flicman's post helped spark today's rant.

Telecoms, car insurance companies, and potentially worst of all, health insurance companies - these businesses hide behind their size in order to make it nearly impossible to speak to anyone with any sort of accountability. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "I'm sorry sir, there's nothing I can do" followed up by some sort of line about company policy. That, and it's complete bullshit. They're not sorry at all. And neither are their supervisors, or their supervisors' supervisors. They want you to think that no one short of the god-damned CEO can make any sort of real decisions, and even then not without approval of the board and majority stock holders. Bullshit. My health insurance company has decided to throw back hundreds of dollars of physical therapy bills to me that they decided not to pay - and this is after I've already paid my share - but no one, not a single useless person I've talked to, has any helpful information to give me about why this is, or how I can go about arguing these additional charges. But as useless as these customer service reps are, it's not necessarily their fault. Most times the companies are structured that way to intentionally make it nearly impossible to argue or change anything the consumer disagrees with.

I recently talked with AT&T (formerly SBC) about an incomprehensible phone and internet bill that had miraculously nearly doubled last month, and while the rep was very friendly and helpful, informed me that he has a much more complete version of my bill, and that customers aren't allowed to get a copy of that easy-to-understand summary. Is that not one of the more devious and screwed up things in customer service? I mean, I'm a phucking physicist and I couldn't make sense of a goddamn telephone and internet bill, even once the charges were explained to me. Without talking to the rep with the complete bill and account history, there was no way I could be sure about the reason certain charges were included in the bill, or even what months they were for, in some cases. Intentional obfuscation in billing and customer service pisses me off to no end.

Unfortunately, it's not just large companies that manage to make a joke out of customer service. I have had my motorcycle at a mechanic's shop - arguably the best motorcycle mechanic in Houston - for nearly four weeks for minor repairs and paint, and have yet to receive a single call from them. I've initiated every instance of contact, often days after I was promised a call or some sort of information about cost, delays, and paint colors. Obviously when someone who's working for your money promises to call back, it seems that it would be a good business practice to actually do it. But what the hell, once someone has information on you and can threaten your credit or withhold your property, basic manners and good business practices go out the window. And for years, in companies big and small, I've seen no evidence to disprove that customer service is dead.

...Eternally Wars

Like the signature on an apocalyptic love letter, the message that the Bush administration has been driving into the psyche of the American public is that the "War on Terror" is an ongoing battle that justifies any government action deemed necessary to guarantee the safety of American citizens around the globe. Don't do anything that could possibly compromise any of those "protective" measures, either - and of course don't question them - or you're personally threatening American lives. I see so many inherent problems in this line of thinking that I just don't know where to start. Fear-inciting governments? Gross abuses of power? Multiple intelligence leaks? Irresponsible blame-shifting? The devaluation of non-American lives? So I'll start with what incited today's rant, instead.

Friday's New York Times story (similarly in the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal) disclosed a secret CIA program operating since shortly after 9/11/2001 that collects confidential financial records and data maintained by a Belgian cooperative said to be a nerve center for international banking. Needless to say, Bush and other supporters of Big Brother government are righteously pissed, with Representative King (R-NY) calling for criminal investigations of the NY and LA Times as well as the WSJ. While of course the administration claims that everything that they're doing is simply for the good of the American public and entirely legal, you have to question why, exactly, officials directly involved in the exposed programs would have strong enough discomfort about the programs' legality and oversight to take such risks as talking with the media. I know that mainstream media is all about generating hype and controversy, but there's got to be a lot of truth in this story for everyone to be so upset about it.

This brings me to the first point that everyone's talking about, so I'll just touch on it briefly. What constitutes irresponsible reporting, and how does the public's right to know - a basic tenet of democracy and effectively freedom of speech - measure up to the government's power's and responsibility to defend the public from threats? All I'm going to say is that in my opinion, a public isn't worth defending that would gladly forefit it's rights of information to support that safety. While I'd rather be the farmer than the sheep, I'd rather still we all were famers with no sheep to sheer, and full knowledge of all the wolves and other threats that surround and infuse us. That's a bit corny, but you get the idea.

On to the appropriately-placed second point. This Swift story is the second exposure of questionable (to put it euphemistically) practices by intelligence and security agencies under the auspices of finding and tracking terrorists and their organizations. Of course these methods aren't going to work as well if everyone knows about them, but I highly doubt that they then become entirely useless. More importantly, what was viewed by many of the nearly 20 unnamed officials to speak with the NY Times as an initially necessary yet temporary measure after 9/11 has turned into a permanent practice, even though its implementation was based partly on the president's emergency economic powers. Is the U.S. still in a time of emergency? I don’t think so. You must have a strange definition of the word if you think we are. Are we still under threat? Of course. Have there been two years since the inception of our nation that there hasn’t been a threat of some sort or another? No.

The question is, then, how much of a threat is the country under, and does it warrant the kind of sugar-coated gross abuses of power that the government sells as doctrine every chance it gets? The culture of fear that has been shoved down our throats since 9/11 has now just become a part of our daily diet. Yes, yes, of course there’s a horrible omnipresent terrorist threat that will kill us all if our big brother government doesn’t use all it’s available powers (and some formerly illegal ones, but he said they’re legal now so it’s okay) to protect us – but only if we’re supportive American citizens. We’ve heard it all a million times before. Now shut up and let me get back to watching American Idol. Do whatever you need to do – just don’t interrupt me.

(The whole Ameri-centric-ness-ocity-ism-ness of the majority of public statements also really bugs me, but as I’ve already tried to cram about 5 essays worth of topics into one increasingly lengthy rant, I’ll have to get to it later.)

So, before I prematurely wrap up this unfortunately long rant, let me find my way back to the title. All this fear-based governance has been with us so long already, that it’s becoming a bore. While that usually spells the end of a movement for the increasingly ADHD American public, it seems that the practices will continue, unfortunately. All that’s going to change is the fervor and frequency of the fear-based battle cry of justification. What has me thinking about all this is the number of times you hear the President and his administration saying that we’re at war. Most of the time, the topic is terrorism, but the war they reference is in Iraq. The “War on Terror” is a war just as much as the “War on Drugs” is a war. Calling it a war is almost comically arrogant. Which one is deadlier? Illegal drugs have killed so many more people than terrorists, yet no president has ever even asked for emergency powers during that war. Based on the Bush administration, Reagan should have been exercising emergency executive privileges in order to protect American lives from the unprecedented threat of illegal drugs. Is this “war” on terror that much different? It’s just as futile, just as unending, and is being approached in a manner that is just as stupid as the “war” on drugs. It’s not going to end, especially if the current administration and the prevailing right-wing power base have anything to say about it. War is good for those in power, and as long as we continue to sit on our butts and accept everything we’re fed, It’ll be

Eternally Wars,
AJ

U.S. Decency Standards - What the F@&!!

In a blatant attempt to boost waning support from the religious and conservative right, the Bush administration has taken another big step down the increasingly steep slope to decidedly undemocratic media censorship. Welcome to Iran, ladies and gentlemen. While increasing fines for indecent material on the few completely regulated sections of the media spectrum might not seem like such a big deal - and it may not be at the moment - it portends a scary future where comedy sketches about Jesus killing Santa Clause are fined into oblivion. This is a post that I started last week, but never had the time to finish. You get the general, though incomplete, idea, and I've got many, many other things to rant about.

Another Photoshop Project

While this one doesn't look as drastically different as the first two, (see a comparison) it was certainly a lot more complicated. It seems I'm learning a thing or two, as well, though I'd still call it a hack job by some standards.