Saturday, February 25, 2006

Dick Cheney's a dick too

"Armstrong's father invested in Rove's political consulting firm that managed George W. Bush's election as governor of Texas and as president. Her mother, Anne Armstrong, is a longtime Republican activist and donor. Ronald Reagan appointed her to the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board after her tenure as Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Ford, whose chief of staff was a young Dick Cheney," explains Moyers. "Anne Armstrong served on the board of directors of Halliburton that hired Cheney to run the company. Her daughter, Katherine Armstrong, host of the hunting party, was once a lobbyist for the powerful Houston law firm founded by the family of James A. Baker III, who was chief of staff to Reagan, Secretary of State under the first George Bush, and the man designated by the Bush family to make sure the younger Bush was named President in 2000 despite having lost the popular vote. According to Blumenthal, one of her more recent lobbying jobs was with a large construction firm with contracts in Iraq."

Friday, February 24, 2006

Mullahs in Iran hold tight to power...

...using the tactics of the government of the "People's" Republic of China. How sweet. How do people accept the existence of governments that do these things? People don't hate America because we're successful and wealthy, they are reacting to their own repressed structures, enforced by religion and collectivist fervor.

"We have a huge responsibility to crush the mullahs' propaganda. It is a fact that they have a well-lubricated publicity machine in the United States working under benign goals of getting the Iranian-Americans involved in the political processes and providing a level-playing field for the their businesses. On the surface, these are all admirable and noble goals but not when Tehran lobbyists use these types of "mission statements" to network among professional Iranian-Americans to use them as foot-soldiers to give the mullahs a soft image in the political circles."

Marching for community improvement in Bhopal

hell yeah for citizens demanding protection. I pray for an even more rapid invasion of the business world with corporate volunteering, a movement which must be the most effective way that Americans can help developing countries. I will be shocked if my contemporaries and those slightly younger and older than me do not end up enacting serious positive change for people in places where citizens never have a chance to receive basic nutrition. Of course the answer is not in government aid to struggling countries, from the US or anywhere else...but is largely the job of people here to use their wealth to help the situation of others.

Many of my peers and myself tend towards anti-consumerism. I definitely think that...
-Americans use too much energy...cooling a giant office building so that a few hundred people can wear 3 piece business suits in the summer? driving individual cars everywhere? no practical biking roads in many cities...driving the SUV 10 minutes to run in place at the gym? however, this is not the fault of the large automobile manufacturers or the oil companies. The choice at the register is the consumers. So spread the words not to consume.



America is vast and relatively free. Say what you will about government restrictions on what occurs in our lives, but I am a firm believer that anyone in

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

"Reference Tool On Web Finds Fans, Censors" i.e. members of the Chinese government ought to be shot for their inadequacy to serve their people

p. 2: "To many educated in China, these governing principles of Wikipedia -- objectivity in content, equality among users, the importance of consensus -- were relatively new concepts. Yuan said he consulted the work of philosopher John Rawls and economist Friedrich Hayek to better understand how a free community could organize itself and 'produce order from chaos.'

'We had heard of these ideas, but they really didn't have much to do with our lives,' said Yuan, now a computer programmer. 'In school, we were taught an official point of view, not a neutral point of view. And we didn't learn much about how to cooperate with people who had different opinions.'"

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Why I voted the way I did

I disagree with our President on so many issues, in general because he spends like a Democrat and doesn't speak candidly. And about "nucyular," the best fodder ever for those who think he is incompetent and want to spread that idea (hasn't anyone told him?). But I will always be proud and happy to know that I voted for him in the first election for which I was eligible, and that is because he takes the closest stance to mine on the "war on terror." Of course, when he constantly refers to terminology like that, people have support for the stance that said war is, and I paraphrase, "waged by greedy politicians wanting oil->money against the people of a country in which we have no business and that we fucked up in the first place anyway by meddling, bringing modernization too quickly, supporting corrupt leaders, etc. Those accusations hold weight, surely, and American governments have made some very bad decisions and continue to do so. But the bottom line is:

There are a lot of people who want to destroy American society. Not conservative Christians only, not SUV-driving upper-middle class automatons, but all non-Islamic states and peoples, eventually.

We say - "you hate Americans? Okay, here are our young men. Fight them here instead of coming to kill our women and children." Then we kill as many of them as we can. As horrible as that sounds, I want very badly for people who raise their children with machine guns and condone hatred for other culture to be exterminated, before their children kill my children, or flatten a city in the United States.

Of course, many accusations toward America regarding our extravagant, truly evil consumption habits are also valid. It is no wonder that much of the world sees us as brutes and bullies, when we have successfully implemented free market capitalism in a flourishing intellectual and cultural environment. And what do we do with it? I certainly don't behave as if I fully appreciate living here.

archive.org


is the best site...

freedom of choice

work in progress, to be expanded upon...

My father is my number one mentor. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have been born to both he and my mother. I was educated with a strange mix of the Grateful Dead and and receive seasoned, objectively reasonable assessments of life. The members of our household are all libertarians because we see how our choices are directly responsible for the status of our lives.

Obviously, since I was fed and loved, I am incredibly lucky. So many humans are not given the right tools to analyze their choices, try out different lifestyle choices, and pick the "right" ones that lead them to success, or even survival. As I live my life now, I constantly refer back to the influences that guide my choices. Often, these lessons came from a simple remark or quick situation that forever changed me. I feel absolutely confident that the number one reform in American society is the way we view the education of children under the age of five. In these formative years, it is crucial that a developing being receives mental and emotional stimulation that allows them to live their future life productively and with satisfaction.

The United States has so much potential to help the world right now. Free market capitalism has allowed many smart, conniving, or well-bred business men, enterainers, and middle class soccer parents to amass wealth that supports the smoothest lifestyle a society has ever enjoyed on this planet.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Teen in boot camp beaten

This video made me feel a little sick. I'm definitely not of the opinion that corporal punishment is evil or overly degrading, but this is out there.

Friday, February 10, 2006

EU suggests that press use discretion in deciding what to print

Boortz: "...the mere suggestion by this EU weasel is a major victory for the Mad Mullahs and Imams who have been whipping their semi-literate herds into a frenzy over these cartoons....these cartoons first appeared about five months ago...And you do realize that they were also printed in an Egyptian newspaper. Why the demonstrations now? Why no demonstrations in Cairo? Simple ... because this whole scene of 'outrage' over these cartoons is being orchestrated by radical Islamic clerics to keep the West off guard and to further advance the Islamic jihad; and it's working better than they had ever hoped."

Monday, February 06, 2006

"US serial number gives clue to mystery of the alien in the attic "


"Gonzales Defends Surveillance"

"Gonzales offered clarifications or new explanations for some aspects of the monitoring program. He told the panel that the NSA is relying on 'probable cause' when picking targets but said a different term -- 'reasonable basis' -- was used because the NSA employees are not lawyers."

Okay so obviously, if they want to listen in enough, there doesn't need to be any reason whatsoever. I think it's interesting that Professor Milani said in class the other day that there was never any time he had called Iran without expecting the line to be tapped and recorded.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Even though many of this guy's words are moronic and bigoted...

"The latest issue of Rolling Stone depicts rapper Kanye West as a Christ-like figure in a crown of thorns with the title: 'The Passion of Kanye West.' The cover shot is a disgusting affront to Christians, and certainly as blasphemous as the cartoons were to Muslims.

As a result, no one was surprised when Christians firebombed Rolling Stone headquarters in New York.

Oh wait, didn’t happen."

Saturday, February 04, 2006

"1,000 Feared Dead In Ferry Tragedy"


"Old spacesuit sent into orbit"


Friday, February 03, 2006

"As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked..."

"... by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?" - Salman Rushdie

Neal Boortz's take:

"I know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. When, though, do they become outraged? When do they take to the streets to express their outrage at the radicals who are making their religion the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule?"

"Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review. Just some lowlights:

* Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.
* A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.
* Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage
* Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.
* Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged.

Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.

Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. You don't really need a reason. You just need an excuse. Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the air and feigning outrage over the slightest perceived insult is to a jihadist what tailgating is to a Steeler's fan.

I know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. When, though, do they become outraged? When do they take to the streets to express their outrage at the radicals who are making their religion the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule? Islamic writer Salman Rushdie wrote of these silent Muslims in a New York Times article three years ago. "As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?"

Indeed. Why not?"

"China ban for Memoirs of a Geisha"


Thursday, February 02, 2006

Axis Mundi Trance Dance





Feb.3rd 2006– *Grand Opening* Healus Center
*Join us for a special Trance Dance experience as we celebrate the Opening of this state-of-the-art facility for Quantum Somatic & Healing modalities*
*Ignite The Flame Within & trigger awakened states of Mind-Body Field Awareness*
FREE! Friday night at 9:00 to 11:00pm
Healus Center, 150 Nellen Ave., Corte Madera – Marin

"THE MUSIC OF AXIS MUNDI

Recreates the acoustics and Transformational Energy Field of Vedic Cave Rituals in ancient India. Based on the Yoga of ANAHATA-NAD -- Spontaneously Arising Sound -- this energetically-animated Yoga can be traced back to the shamanic Yogi Lakulisha, the 28th incarnation of the immortal embodiment Shiva, known variously as Lord of Fire, Lord of the Dance and Lord of Yoga. From 100 to 700 AD, Lakulisha's "Pashupata" forest sect (meaning “Wild or Natural Ones”), spread throughout India, crossing all class distinctions. The Pashupatis practiced an Ecstatic Trance Ritual that included "wild laughter, sacred singing, shaking motion & dancing consisting of all possible motions of the hands & feet, & chanting a sacred sound produced by the contact of the tongue-tip with the upper palate” ... and once the dancing was over, the participants would sit quietly and internalize the energy that had been raised, “meditating with inner worship and prayer”. Here we encounter the mystery of the stilled mind in the organically moving body. Participants joyously experience consciousness shifts, awakenings of cellular and emotional intelligence, states of yearning & ecstasy, and a shared contact with the Great Mystery. The vibration of AXIS MUNDI’s intentionality builds a trans-temporal bridge linking this ancient shamanic practice to the present in the Holographic Oneness of Time. More than just music, the Sonic Field creates Developmental Sounds that give birth to the upwelling and movement of Kundalini Energy throughout the body, igniting the Blue Flame of the body’s Esoteric Centers and alchemically transmuting it into Ecstatic Experience and Quantum Field Transformation. Here hope and human development converge as the scent, sound, feel, & taste of pure potentiality fructifying in the radiant juices and quivering tissues of the body and in the dazzling effulgence of consciousness."

Wow.

"Angry Parents Toss Kids Over Sold-Out Disney Park Fences"


"NAACP chairman compares GOP to Nazis"


what? Jack Straw is GB's Foreign Secretary?



We can share the women, we can share the wine, baby...
obviously, I'm uninformed and happy

"Allies signal big pullout from Iraq"


Tanker wreck is no good!


Though I suppose that with such high traffic, it's a blessing that more accidents of this nature don't occur.

--"About 500 vessels every day pass through the Channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

French fishing trawler Kleine Familie sank early this month, with the loss of five crew members, after colliding with a cargo ship in the same sector of the English Channel."--

XOX PARTY!!!


"Now reality TV appeals to the sick – with hope of miracle cure"


Offensive tshirts removed from SOTU

"2245 Dead. How many more?"

"Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom"

were the Capitol Cops trying to be fair and balanced?

"Cartoons of Muhammad Fueling Dispute With Muslims"

my favorite--"The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has rejected demands by Arab governments for an official apology, saying: 'I can't call a newspaper and tell them what to put in it. That's not how our society works.'"--

Happy Valentine's Day

Subject: Former Black Panther Speaks 2/14 in SJ
Date: January 26, 2006 8:01:29 AM PST

Ashanti Alston
To speak on: Anarchism, Zapatismo & the Black Panthers.

Tuesday February 14th @ 7pm
El Primer Pueblo Libreria
410 E. Santa Clara St.
San Jose, CA
(Corner of 9th St. and Santa Clara St.)

Ashanti Alston is both a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, and was a political prisoner for over 12 years. Currently, he is a member of Estacion Libre, a people of color Zapatista support group, as well as a board member for the Institute for Anarchist Studies.

Sponsored By Peninsula Anarchist Collective & MEChA

Solidarity,
Rob.

“As a Panther, and as someone who went underground as an urban guerilla, I have put my life on the line. I have watched my comrades die and have spent most of my adult life in prison. But I still believe we can win. Struggle is very tough and when you cross that line, you risk going to jail, getting seriously hurt, killed, and watching your comrades getting serious hurt and killed. That is not a pretty picture, but that is what happens when you fight an entrenched oppressor. We are struggling and will
make it rough for them, but struggle is also going to be rough for us, too.” –Ashanti Alston

Sponsored By Peninsula Anarchist Collective & MEChA
peninsulaanarchist.org penanarchist@riseup.net
*website has no current event listings*

"Too much water for grass"

from today's Stanford Daily Letters to the Editor

--"I laughed to myself when I read your editorial encouraging students to use less water and electricity (“University should do more to conserve energy,” Jan. 31). Don’t get me wrong, I fully support energy conservation, but take a look around campus. Those lovely green patches of grass require a lot of water to stay in their current oh-so-lovely crabgrass-ridden state. How about planting native plants or using rock gardens, as they do in many drier parts of the country? Yes, it is rainy in the winter, but for the other nine months, it’s sunny and extremely dry here. Perhaps if the University itself decides to be more frugal with its water usage, then administrators can urge students to do so as well."


Yi Shi

Junior, Art History and Mathematics--

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?