Water on the Moon!

Scientists. Have found. Significant. Amounts of WATER. On the moon!!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091113/ap_on_sc/us_sci_shoot_the_moon

This is like, the coolest news in the last decade! Oh, the possibilities! -B

For further information on this awesomeness:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html

Why Switzerland Is Still Free and America Is Not

((Wow, I think I love the Swiss! - Brett))

Why Switzerland Is Still Free and America Is Not
by Ron Holland


The American Time magazine article headline asks, "Will Switzerland Vote to Ban Minarets on Mosques?"

Swiss citizens are becoming concerned about the threat that Islam presents to their traditional culture, economy and religious institutions. As an American, I know how I would vote were I Swiss but the decision will be made by the Swiss electorate as they have this referendum right on all issues.

In Switzerland, the people still rule and have the ultimate right to decide decisions above the government or parliament. Through the right of referendum they can cancel legislation and with the initiative they can pass or create legislative action on issues parliament refuses to act upon.
The bias and closed statist views shown in the article is business as usual for the US media elites out to protect the American political establishment and are so evident in this headline and article. It isn’t the question they asked but rather the question they didn’t dare ask is the "700-lb gorilla in the room."

Quoting from the article, "Critics say the SVP, the largest party in Switzerland's coalition government, has taken advantage of the country's unique brand of direct democracy to push its populist, anti-immigrant agenda on the Swiss electorate. Citizens have the right to propose new laws in Switzerland – the only thing they need to force a nationwide vote on an initiative is a petition of 100,000 signatures."

The question not asked is why doesn’t the American electorate have oversight over legislation and unpopular government regulations in the United States like in Switzerland? Imagine if 4% of the American voters signed a petition requiring a nationwide vote "yea or nay" on the banking bailouts, going to war in Iraq, auditing the Federal Reserve, nationalized health care or on the trillions in new Washington debt added because of the financial meltdown. The United States would still be a decentralized republic with limited government had we had the political option to hold back Washington and the special interests.

How America would be different if we had Swiss-style political rights to restrain government where the people rule instead of the special interests. Imagine an America where the billions in graft and political influence that control Congress could still buy legislation but not ultimate control if we as a people could overrule their actions.

What if the will of the people still ultimately controlled the political system and direction with true limited government at the federal, state and local level? Imagine the American electorate overriding Congress and demanding a strong dollar backed by real gold reserves, an audit of the Federal Reserve, a rollback of the bailouts, a declaration of war for foreign military intervention, the abolishment of the Patriot Act and a return to banking privacy.

Yes, a Swiss political party (The Swiss Peoples Party) promotes a nationalist agenda to the Swiss voters and they will ultimately decide in referendum yes or no on the issue. This is currently impossible in the United States but Swiss direct democracy and limited confederation government have worked in Switzerland for hundreds of years.

This is far superior to the two-party monopoly in America where the elites controlling both parties can push their self-serving agendas without restraint. Currently, short of the Tenth Amendment movement, state nullification or outright state secession, there is no real effective way to push back against Washington.

Until the American people can find a way to restrain the Federal government, the bureaucracy and the judiciary, the best place for Americans to secure and safeguard their wealth is outside their own country. Switzerland is one of the best jurisdictions to consider because their political system has preserved the rights and freedoms we once had as Americans. Still the ultimate problem for Americans is the necessity to restore our liberties at home because history has shown that wealth without liberty is only a temporary condition at best.

I say, it is time to take a real look at direct democracy in the United States or else Americans who value their property and liberties will have little choice but to first transfer their wealth to safety outside the US as it will be lost in the coming crash of treasury debt and the dollar. Next we must stand and fight the Washington leviathan through the political tools of the 10th amendment and John C. Calhoun’s political ideal of nullification both of which the Feds will probably just ignore. Our final democratic political tool is to exercise the political right of state-by-state secession with all the political and historical baggage this entails.

Trust me, Swiss style direct democracy in the United States would be an easier way to control Washington and the special interests but we only have a few years before the Washington debt and dollar collapse is upon us. Therefore I’ll close with a question. Is anybody here for secession?

November 12, 2009

Article originally posted at www.lewrockwell.com

Iran and Propaganda

Top Things you Think You Know about Iran that are not True
-by Juan Cole

Thursday is a fateful day for the world, as the US, other members of the United Nations Security Council, and Germany meet in Geneva with Iran in a bid to resolve outstanding issues. Although Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had earlier attempted to put the nuclear issue off the bargaining table, this rhetorical flourish was a mere opening gambit and nuclear issues will certainly dominate the talks. As Henry Kissinger pointed out, these talks are just beginning and there are highly unlikely to be any breakthroughs for a very long time. Diplomacy is a marathon, not a sprint.But on this occasion, I thought I'd take the opportunity to list some things that people tend to think they know about Iran, but for which the evidence is shaky.


Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US

Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war in modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of "no first strike." This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.


Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.

Reality: Iran's military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.


Belief: Iran has threatened to attack Israel militarily and to "wipe it off the map."

Reality: No Iranian leader in the executive has threatened an aggressive act of war on Israel, since this would contradict the doctrine of 'no first strike' to which the country has adhered. The Iranian president has explicitly said that Iran is not a threat to any country, including Israel.


Belief: But didn't President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threaten to 'wipe Israel off the map?'

Reality: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did quote Ayatollah Khomeini to the effect that "this Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" (in rezhim-e eshghalgar-i Qods bayad as safheh-e ruzgar mahv shavad). This was not a pledge to roll tanks and invade or to launch missiles, however. It is the expression of a hope that the regime will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did. It is not a threat to kill anyone at all.


Belief: But aren't Iranians Holocaust deniers?

Actuality: Some are, some aren't. Former president Mohammad Khatami has castigated Ahmadinejad for questioning the full extent of the Holocaust, which he called "the crime of Nazism." Many educated Iranians in the regime are perfectly aware of the horrors of the Holocaust. In any case, despite what propagandists imply, neither Holocaust denial (as wicked as that is) nor calling Israel names is the same thing as pledging to attack it militarily.


Belief: Iran is like North Korea in having an active nuclear weapons program, and is the same sort of threat to the world.

Actuality: Iran has a nuclear enrichment site at Natanz near Isfahan where it says it is trying to produce fuel for future civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity. All Iranian leaders deny that this site is for weapons production, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly inspected it and found no weapons program. Iran is not being completely transparent, generating some doubts, but all the evidence the IAEA and the CIA can gather points to there not being a weapons program. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by 16 US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, assessed with fair confidence that Iran has no nuclear weapons research program. This assessment was based on debriefings of defecting nuclear scientists, as well as on the documents they brought out, in addition to US signals intelligence from Iran. While Germany, Israel and recently the UK intelligence is more suspicious of Iranian intentions, all of them were badly wrong about Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction and Germany in particular was taken in by Curveball, a drunk Iraqi braggart.


Belief: The West recently discovered a secret Iranian nuclear weapons plant in a mountain near Qom.

Actuality: Iran announced Monday a week ago to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had begun work on a second, civilian nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. There are no nuclear materials at the site and it has not gone hot, so technically Iran is not in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, though it did break its word to the IAEA that it would immediately inform the UN of any work on a new facility. Iran has pledged to allow the site to be inspected regularly by the IAEA, and if it honors the pledge, as it largely has at the Natanz plant, then Iran cannot produce nuclear weapons at the site, since that would be detected by the inspectors. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted on Sunday that Iran could not produce nuclear weapons at Natanz precisely because it is being inspected. Yet American hawks have repeatedly demanded a strike on Natanz.


Belief: The world should sanction Iran not only because of its nuclear enrichment research program but also because the current regime stole June's presidential election and brutally repressed the subsequent demonstrations.

Actuality: Iran's reform movement is dead set against increased sanctions on Iran, which likely would not affect the regime, and would harm ordinary Iranians.


Belief: Isn't the Iranian regime irrational and crazed, so that a doctrine of mutally assured destruction just would not work with them?

Actuality: Iranian politicians are rational actors. If they were madmen, why haven't they invaded any of their neighbors? Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded both Iran and Kuwait. Israel invaded its neighbors more than once. In contrast, Iran has not started any wars. Demonizing people by calling them unbalanced is an old propaganda trick. The US elite was once unalterably opposed to China having nuclear science because they believed the Chinese are intrinsically irrational. This kind of talk is a form of racism.


Belief: The international community would not have put sanctions on Iran, and would not be so worried, if it were not a gathering nuclear threat.

Actuality: The centrifuge technology that Iran is using to enrich uranium is open-ended. In the old days, you could tell which countries might want a nuclear bomb by whether they were building light water reactors (unsuitable for bomb-making) or heavy-water reactors (could be used to make a bomb). But with centrifuges, once you can enrich to 5% to fuel a civilian reactor, you could theoretically feed the material back through many times and enrich to 90% for a bomb. However, as long as centrifuge plants are being actively inspected, they cannot be used to make a bomb. The two danger signals would be if Iran threw out the inspectors or if it found a way to create a secret facility. The latter task would be extremely difficult, however, as demonstrated by the CIA's discovery of the Qom facility construction in 2006 from satellite photos. Nuclear installations, especially centrifuge ones, consume a great deal of water, construction materiel, and so forth, so that constructing one in secret is a tall order. In any case, you can't attack and destroy a country because you have an intuition that they might be doing something illegal. You need some kind of proof. Moreover, Israel, Pakistan and India are all much worse citizens of the globe than Iran, since they refused to sign the NPT and then went for broke to get a bomb; and nothing at all has been done to any of them by the UNSC.

George W. Obama Supports Extending PATRIOT Act Provisions

Posted by David Kramer on September 16, 2009 09:16 AM www.lewrockell.com

"The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday.

Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law’s authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called “lone wolf” terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he would take a close look at the law, based on his past expertise in constitutional law. Back in May, President Obama said legal institutions must be updated to deal with the threat of terrorism, but in a way that preserves the rule of law and accountability.

Expanding the Bush war in Afghanistan. Expanding on the Bush corporate welfare bailouts. Keeping in place Bush’s Fascist “PATRIOT” law. I just don’t know how much more of this Obama “change” I can handle.

[Thanks to Travis Holte]"

.... is there an Anarchy Party? It's starting to sound more sane. -B

Ridge Says Was Pressured to Raise Terror Alert - Political News - FOXNews.com

Straight from the horse's mouth! -B

Ridge Says Was Pressured to Raise Terror Alert - Political News - FOXNews.com

RIP Geocities

This evening, I received an email from AT&T informing me that Geocities was closing. Here's the opening excerpt:

"Dear AT&T Yahoo! GeoCities customer,

We're writing to let you know that AT&T Yahoo! GeoCities, our free web site building service and community, is closing on October 26, 2009.

On October 26, 2009, your GeoCities site will no longer appear on the Web, and you will no longer be able to access your GeoCities account and files."

Now, I had, once, long ago, a geocities website. It was the mid-90's and the internet was still an untamed frontier, taking shape and forming its manifold identities. It felt cutting-edge and incredible to be able to have one's own website back then.

I remember mine had some very basic animated pictures I found by browsing around, and I used a neon green text over a black background. At the time, it seemed cool, though the sight of websites like that now strains my eyes. Internet technology and graphics have come a long way since then, and the new cutting-edge frontier is cloud computing and mega-bandwidths. I no longer hear the screech of the dial-up modem as it raped the phone line for only a few ounces of speed, and while I'll never miss that sound, the memories of those early days are still fond ones.

So it really is like the end of the era. The internet's birthing pains are largely past us, and it has grown into full adulthood as more and more people around the world gain easier access to it. Websites like Angelfire and Geocities, though, will always have a soft place in my heart. Their names will conjure up memories of a time when the digital west remained untamed, and the horizon held so much mystery.

RIP Geocities.

The Police State Takes Another PASS At Freedom

REAL ID by Any Other Name Stinks As Bad

by Becky Akers

During its decline from a republic to a democracy, lying Leviathan prattled about being a "government of, by, and for the people." But the beast increasingly forsakes that pretence as it continues sliding into tyranny.

One instance of the State’s new and brutal honesty came last fall when Congress bailed out billionaires despite our overwhelming opposition. Another around that same time saw the criminals running New York City overturn a law on term-limits that voters had twice upheld. More than ever, government is of, by and for Our Rulers.

And then there’s the Feds’ dogged quest for a national ID card. Four years ago, these bozos tried to turn your driver’s license into just such a monstrosity with their infamous REAL ID Act. This dictate required licenses to include "defined minimum data elements," most likely biometric identifiers such as fingerprints or retinal scans and RFID tracking chips. It would also make even more of our business contingent on the State’s whims: before we entered a courthouse or opened a bank account, among other activities, we’d have to produce our REAL ID for a bureaucrat’s approval – or rejection.

Congress passed this monumentally anti-constitutional legislation without even debating it, then deputized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement it. Reincarnated Nazi Michael Chertoff was Secretary of DHS; he spent much of his time – and millions of our taxes – trying to ram REAL ID down the nation’s throat.

All our money bought him was the biggest revolt against DC’s diktats since 1861. Departments of Motor Vehicles in many states vehemently objected to overhauling their systems just to please DHS; the governors of those states just as vehemently protested the enormous expense of said overhaul and waxed indignant about REAL ID’s invasions of privacy. If anyone’s gonna tyrannize Montanans or Mainers, by gum, it’ll be their local masters, not Washington’s overlords. Legislatures put teeth in the dissent as states passed resolutions and even laws against complying with REAL ID.

At this point, we might expect Feds who constantly bray about democracy, who eagerly slaughter their own serfs as well as foreign ones for its glory, to throw in the towel on a national ID. Have not the people spoken, indeed, shrieked, that they’ll have nothing to do with this abomination? But Our Rulers never weary in their evil-doing. Nor do they hesitate to show us exactly how stupid they think we are. And so a litter of senators introduced the "Providing for Additional Security in States' Identification Act of 2009" (PASS ID) last week. Essentially, they stripped the name "REAL ID" off the old bill, slapped a new title on it, and tweaked a few of the details.

Just as they did with REAL ID, the Feds insist that PASS ID is not a national ID – oh, my, no. So what if every American has a uniform card that he must constantly show to government’s goons? That’s not a national ID, you silly citizen, you! If you were as wise as our legislators, you’d realize that both REAL and PASS ID are simply driver’s licenses with "strong security standards." Or so say politicians who also assure us that they’re bossing this democracy according to the will of the people. True, REAL ID had some "troubling aspects": it would have forced states to link their databases, which "could provide one-stop shopping for identity thieves and the backbone for a national identification database." But "PASS ID addresses those privacy … concerns..." Thus do its sponsors hallucinate about the differences between two identical bills while figuring they’ve snowed us yet again.

PASS ID does depart from REAL ID in one important aspect: it bribes the states to cooperate with a whole lot more of our taxes. Remember the indignant governors, grousing about REAL ID’s violation of our rights? Surprise: that no longer troubles them a-tall. Indeed, members of the National Governors Association so pant to push their hot little hands more deeply into our pockets that they now support REAL–er, PASS ID.

PASS ID also thoughtfully eases the burden on DMVs. Bureaucrats there need not curtail their three-hour lunches nor keep their feet on their desks past 3:30 each afternoon as they bring their little fiefdoms into compliance. But you and I will still be jumping through REAL ID’s hoops as we seek to satisfy the DMV numbskull that our birth certificates are authentic and we live where the State’s records say we do. Of course, the approximately 423 documents that substantiate such claims already reside on various government computers, but unless you bring a copy with you for the numbskull, you’ll be walking rather than driving to work. Actually, you may still be walking even if you produce every single paper the numbskull demands: after paying PASS ID’s higher taxes, who’ll have money left for licenses that cost many multiples of their former price?

Naturally, Our Rulers have our best interests at heart as they impose this totalitarianism. They repeatedly cite "the 9/11 Commission's recommendation to enhance the security of driver's licenses" as though anyone other than the stooges on Leviathan’s payroll gives said Commission an iota of credibility. Heck, even some of the stooges damn the Commission, especially those it set up as fall guys for the Fed’s role that tragic day.

Our Rulers also aver that PASS ID "helps fight terrorism" despite experts’ frequent refutations. "Going back to 9-11," says Bruce Schneier, author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World, "every one of those terrorists had an ID. Some of them had forged IDs, some used their real name, and some of them got real IDs with a fake names [sic] by bribing a motor-vehicles clerk." Nor is this just one man’s opinion. International consensus notes the missing link between ID and security: "Harvey Mattinson, a consultant at the information technology arm of GCHQ [Government Communication Headquarters – ‘one of the three UK Intelligence Agencies’], said that the only real value of identity cards would be to help state bodies share information about people."

No wonder Leviathan obsesses over ID. "State bodies" not only "share information" about us, they also pin our names to our addresses so that we are easy to find and fine. The State’s usual motive for its crimes – money – explains its lust to identify us, too. Linda Lewis-Pickett, president and CEO of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, "think[s] each state agency has looked at DMVs as revenue generators – 'Come in and pay taxes and give us money.'" After we pay those taxes, the drivers' licenses and plates those DMVs dispense generate further revenue when officials track us to a billing address.

There’s a further benefit in matching names with citizens: it controls us and quashes dissent. Few patriots are brave enough to speak out against Leviathan’s evil when its lackeys can respond, "Papers, please." Perhaps that’s why the Constitution empowers government merely to count citizens but never to identify them – unless they vote in Congress (Art. I, Sec. 7) or run for the presidency (Art. II, Sec. 1). It is rulers, not us, who must identify themselves lest they wreak wickedness against us (Art. I, Sec. 7).

Which brings us to the author of the REAL ID Act, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI). None too happy that we’ve scrapped his legacy, this heavy-handed dunderhead thundered, "Maybe governors [who objected to REAL ID] should have been in the Capitol when we knew a plane was on its way to Washington wanting to kill a few thousand more people." Sensenbrenner also snarls that PASS ID, REAL ID’s twin even if it lacks his name on its legislation, sends us "right back to where we were on Sept. 10, 2001."

Would that it did.

June 26, 2009

Becky Akers [send her mail] writes primarily about the American Revolution.

Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

June 4, 1989

Twenty years ago today, in Tianenmen Square, thousands of student protesters were killed and injured. Soldiers fired upon unarmed citizens and ran over their bodies with tanks. Their attempt to bring reform and democracy to China should not be forgotten, even though the Chinese gov't continues to censor and silence any discussion of the incident. It also serves as a reminder to stand vigilant against the dull tyranny of establishment, and of what could happen if gov't power goes unchecked.

Free-speech zones. Suspension of habeas corpus. Domestic wire-tapping and spying. Presidents declaring wars. The detention of US citizens in military jails without criminal charges (2 that are known). The detention of foreign nationals in Guantanamo and other locations, with no due process and purportedly outside of any US or international legal system. Rendition. Sneak and Peek searches. The nebulous definition of 'domestic terrorism'.

All still in place under Obama, whose promises for change ring hollow. We are still in Iraq, with no sign of ever leaving. We still have the Patriot Act. The erosion of liberties is a gradual beast, but we still have an option to peacably restore our freedoms granted by the Constution and Bill of Rights, unlike China. Today, our biggest enemy is apathy. Tomorrow, it's the tanks in the public square.

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 2nd paragraph.

Everyone cares about liberty, but sentiment means nothing without action. To the Stepford Republicans and Zombie Democrats who would sooner silence such a sentiment when directed at their Bush or their Obama, are you prepared to call Thomas Jefferson anti-American?

Pandemic Alert!

This just in. There has been a recent outbreak of excessive, panicky newbreaks regarding the dreaded Swine Flu! If you are concerned you may be afflicted by this, watch for the following symptoms:

1) An increase in sales of newspapers, and in ratings for Cable Television News channels.

2) A sudden drop in coverage of Lindsay Lohan.

3) Everywhere you look, news updates on the dreaded new sickness! 1976 new!

Suggested treatment:

First, turn off your television and stop checking back at your favorite internet news feed for at least a few days. Second, remember the avian flu and every other chic 'threat' of the past couple decades. Third, arm yourself with the facts. For example: More people die from tuberculosis annually. Why isn't it making the news cycles? Also, the last time the government took action to combat the dread Swine Flu, more people died from the innoculations than from the illness itself!

Remember, the fear of swine flu is a symptom. The real disease is the news media and their bottom line.

This has been a public service announcement.

On Torture and the Constitution

****** made a comment about your note "Why, Obama, Why?":

What you may be too young to know, is that "torture" has been a round for a very long time. Bush didnt invent it. Its just that the media and far left sympathizers have brought it to your attention recently. You know the old adage.......kill one to spare millions? The people who may be "tortured" are the very ones willing to kill you and your family and friends. If they carried out their plan of death and destruction, would you still care if they had been tortured first? Regarding the V........I think it has to do with ones interpretation, of what can happen in times of war. I took that as, is times of war all these "rights" can be eliminated.I cant believe you care about the very people who blew away innocent people on 9-11. You cant possibly be that naive

---

I care about innocent people who have been detained and potentially tortured. I am not 'suddenly concerned' with this because of recent claims of 'far left sympathizers'. To call me naive from your narrow bubble is insulting. No professional or legal interpretation in the courts in 200 years has said that the government has the right to suspend citizens' rights. Many a president and congress has tried. Wilson tried it. Adams tried it. In fact, the Bush administration was very reluctant to put any of the alleged terrorists in custody through the court system because of the likelihood of the courts holding up these rights.

I am concerned with the rights and safety of those innocents rounded up with the terrorists, and of the precedent this sets for future circumstances. That is very different from 'caring about the 9/11 terrorists'. But since you bring that subject up: I think the sane and reasonable and especially Christian thing to do is to examine openly and honestly what caused the terrorists to carry out their despicable acts and why they hate the United States so much. Not so we can apologize or make excuses for them, but so we can prevent further attacks by attacking the problem at its roots.

Suicide attacks, contrary to being the sole domain of religious extremists, have more to do with the nationalist fervor of those carrying them out. A great number of suicide bombings were carried out by adherents to secular, communist and nationalist causes. Most of the 9/11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia, our supposed ally. None of the 9/11 terrorists came from Iraq, by the way. Most of these attacks are shown to be motivated not by the fact that we are predominantly a white or Christian nation, as some have argued. They are because these people resent US influence in other countries, what they see as war profiteering and a new wave of imperialism, which they had enough of when the Brits were doing it. And let's be honest, oil is a big reason why we've got our hands so deep into the honey pot of the middle east.

In fact, our involvement since the War on Terror began has actually had the opposite effect, bolstering the number of recruits for terror cells. Possibly because of all of the collatoral damage such a messy and difficult war has caused. I still think we should go after the terror cells, but to pretend that there aren't side effects is delusional. In many ways, it mirrors the complete failure that is our War on Drugs, which has allowed vast criminal empires to amass fortunes.

Let's also examine how the Patriot Act was made into law. Congress was given one draft the weekend before, and at the time of the vote the one being voted on was drastically different. They were given a document over 1000 pages long and absolutely no time to read it. That is not democracy. That is strong-arming legislation through that very likely would not have passed were they to take the time to read it. By the way, I don't blame Bush for that. I blame the Legislature for not doing their freaking job. An act, by the way, that could have still allowed various intelligence agencies to work together without allowing for the invasion of peoples' rights were it to be amended or replaced by something far less sinister.

And by claiming that you think the Constitution allows for suspension of rights in a time of war, you are saying that putting Japanese Americans in internment camps was the right thing to do. You are saying that arresting anti-war protesters during WW1 was the right thing to do. In fact, if our current far-left government decided that arch-conservatives and anyone who listens to Rush Limbaugh were seditionists in a time of war, that he should be able to arrest you and keep you locked up until this War on Terror is won. Damn, don't you wish you had the legal system to avail yourself of? Oh well, you willingly gave up that right. Congratulations. I hope you enjoy simulated drowning.

Why, Obama, Why?

What the hell is going on?

Obama promised transparency and accountability. He seemed to hold the Bush Administration's wiretapping and elements of the Patriot Act in the same regard that I did: they were abhorrent and evil.

So why did he renew the Patriot Act? Why is he not only defending, but extending, the wiretapping programs? Sovereign Immunity? What the fuck happened to checks and balances against power?

Now, there are a lot of other issues and concerns to be had right now, but I want to focus on this one. I've railed against the shrinking of our freedoms that happened under Bush. Originally, I thought I was fighting against a wrong-minded Republican initiative, but over the years... well, it appears the Democrats are just as inclined to permit this evil as the Republicans were... which begs the question, what is either party worth other than a swift flush and a lighting of a match?

Bush squandered his popular support after 9/11. Obama appears to be doing the same thing. I think it's time to start mobilizing, but instead of bouncing back and forth between these two evil management teams, maybe we can start to shift the power back to the people. My suggestion? Vote for your favorite third party choice and pass it on. It's time to destroy this bi-partisan (read: uni-partisan, as they both support the same bullshit bureaucracy) monopoly.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush

That is, of course, assuming you actually think your liberty is something worth holding on to. This is not the left vs. the right, that's a wrong-headed illusion. This is the people vs. the entrenched power structure.

Use your vote while it's still more effective than a bullet.

The Year of the Ox

To my family and friends: an update.

On the Chinese calendar, this is the Year of the Ox. Traditionally thought of as a sign of prosperity through endurance and hard work, it sums up well what this year is for me. Edging up to January 20th of this year, I was excited, enthusiastic, and felt invulnerable and incorruptible. Despite your politics, I think most people had to have been moved by President Obama’s call to service (though with enough poison in the veins, even that can be looked upon with a spin toward character attack), and it happened to coincide with the new road map I’ve been on since this past fall, a map I started to sketch out once my work life had improved.

Of course, there were ugly reminders of the real life, and what would have been a lofty and potentially naïve blog was put on the backburner. This economic crisis with the ridiculously high numbers being spent by the government (I’m not an economist; I sincerely hope that this plan works because the alternative is an ugly one.), and closer to home the economic situation of friends. No sooner had I started down my path than my roommate got laid off… and these past few months, with an additional roommate coming on board, my life feels like a microcosm of the larger situation.

I have almost completely redirected my life in the past year. While some old and bad habits persist, I have continued to shift into a new train of thought, or state of being. I am remaking myself, a both exciting and terrifying process.

The increased income has enabled me to continue my schooling (which I intend to attend year-round until completion). I’ve cut a lot of extraneous expenses so that I could afford to go to school and still be able to put money away. Finally knowing what degree I want has made everything fall into place, however, given me a clear path to take. Year-round schooling is a small sacrifice to make when I felt adrift and in a dream since, well… 2001?

I’ve made a concerted effort to lose weight (25 pounds so far at peak, though there has been a little backpedaling). The nice thing about that is when I do fall off the horse, it’s not expensive to get back on. I just came back from an hour+ walk, which I used to organize my thoughts and reflect further on those stumbling blocks I continue to erect. If you want real change, you need to look inward.

I’m also writing again, something I thought I would be putting off, but simply couldn’t. When something is your passion, your life-blood, you simply can’t shut that off. I’m still looking to balance that with schoolwork, however.

Finally, I’m getting my own place this summer. After a lot of waffling and mind-changing, from looking at cheap homes to apartments to debating back and forth the pros and cons of having a roommate, I decided I finally want the serenity of my own place. Especially while I’ll be working full time, schooling close to full time, and losing a lot of my social free time in the interim.

I find myself looking back at the road I’ve taken, trying to really analyze it and see what I might take away from the path of my adult life so far.

Before working in the Emergency Room, I can safely say that my life was a nebulous thing. I came out of high school hating school, and that disrupted my first year on campus. I decided to put my school off. I certainly didn’t know what I wanted to do, other than write. Living at home also became unbearable, and I found myself paying some rent to live in the basement of a duplex at my friend Scott’s place. At that time, life was about hanging out with friends, movies and games and little else. I worked at a number of places during this time, saw an acquaintance arrested right in front of my eyes (that was a surreal experience), and eventually found myself back at home. That lasted no more than half a year as living with my mother was just as, if not more, unbearable.

This time, the other half of Scott’s parents’ duplex was empty, and I rented out that basement instead. I started attending classes at GRCC. The semester I went back, I ended up withdrawing from classes. It was the same semester the WTC was attacked, and my perspective, along with everyone else’s, had changed. I started working at Goldmine not long after, and found myself living from paycheck to paycheck. I moved to one apartment for three years, and I'll have been at this one two years when it's time to move. Those were good times, and I was in a work environment I loved, and for the longest time didn’t feel compelled to move on. But I was, in essence, ‘stuck’.

I’ve read articles about the psychology of our ‘generation’, who is more lost and unfocused than the ones before us. Directionless, purposeless, perhaps lacking a fire or ambition. I saw it in myself; I saw it in those around me. It was an ugly thing. But as much as I despised those years under the Bush presidency, one thing he did do for me was make me interested in politics and the shape of the country. It was an interest born of fear and loathing, of seeing the ugly beast we were becoming and of wanting to change course. Eventually, a love of country and freedom became the driving force, a bit healthier.

It seemed, at first, that all we needed was to clean house… get the other side in office and perhaps see some of the mistakes corrected. But as time went on, I found that salvation wasn’t going to be coming from the Democrats, who I now lump with the Republicans as two halves of the same problem. I’m now watching Obama tentatively, hoping to see changes for the better. My gut’s against all the spending, but I’m not an economist. Hell, professional economists didn’t see this mess coming.

I digress. What the Bush years did do was succeed in making me a de-facto Libertarian. Along with a certain political identity, I felt more and more compelled to try and shape things for the better. I don’t intend to run for any sort of office, but that, along with what Spectrum offers, did help me settle on a Bachelor’s Degree: Public and Non-Profit Administration. Getting involved in processes, trying to find solutions through puzzle-solving, and improving things, is the kind of creative effort I can get behind. Add to that a recommitment to learning Spanish (minor #1) and more professional training in Writing (minor #2, possible Masters down the road), and I was able to map out precisely what I needed to get there.

The harder work is changing patterns of behavior, developing new habits. I’m making my writing something I try to do at least a few hours a week. I want to slim down to my ideal body weight by the end of the year (or at least close to it!), and that requires regular exercise, focusing on cardio, endurance and weight training, as well as sacrificing soda pop and taming the sweet tooth.

It’s a little ironic that I seem to have found my course at the same time the country seems to have lost its way. It will take a lot of work and a lot of people to turn things around, and that feels like an exciting challenge. This is the year of hard work, and the first of many to come. All I needed was a little hope and a plan to give me the fuel I needed.

I hope I can extend that same hope to those of you in my life. We are being called to greatness. God bless!

"STFU"

A Reply to a Republican Family Member and Others:

I know you know how strongly I disliked Bush during the majority of his term, and the many reasons cited, not the least of which being the Patriot Act. I know you're Republican, and I know I'm not. My grievances grew over the course of years, not days, and emails like this, pictures like this, are simply grotesque. Do I disagree with stuff happening? Sure I do. Do I think this hyperbole you keep forwarding is a thoughtful rebuttal of Obama policies? Hell no. It's the same partisan tripe.

The slander machine was fast at work blaming him for all sorts of things before he even won the freaking election. It's sick, but it's apparently how things will continue to operate between the two ridiculous factions we call our democracy. The 'statistics' in this forward could be just as easily skewed against the two Bush elections. That's what most statistics are: malleable tools used to fit someone's version of the 'facts'.

And honestly, I'm offended that even with my serious grievances over serious issues building on the course of years, you seem to be determined to out-produce me before Obama can even finish out a fraction of that time in office. It makes me sick. This country was in trouble long before he took office, Republicans just didn't seem to care until a Democrat got back in the White House. It rings very false to my ears. Hollow breast-beating, useless gesturing, ravening about rights lost and liberty dying.

Maybe you could have cared more when documents were being produced that were doing just that, because you slavishly believed that Bush could do no wrong the same way so many slavish democrats think Obama can do no wrong. Seemingly disastrous fiscal policies aside (which it seems both Bush and Obama are in accord on, so please, don't sic the lynch mob on him just yet), I'm anxious to see what might be done to secure our liberty or further rob it. Have no doubt, if Obama starts passing his own Patriot Acts, Military Commision Acts, and so on, then I will be at the front of the line shouting for his impeachment the way I did for Bush's. It just hasn't happened. God willing, it won't.

Finally...

I didn't hide my opinions, and I don't think you should be denied your own either, but I wasn't visiting them on your inbox on a daily basis, so please just stop. Create a blog or use your Facebook, where I can feel free to read or not read them, as I already know before even opening the mails precisely where you stand.

If Shakespeare were alive today, he might have immortalized the popular internet acronym as "Stow Thy Faux Umbrage."