Seeing as the snow isn't killing the dish, I've had a chance to read the news. But after this commentary I have to take a quick break and draw a bunny logo for the kids line of clothing. We've also been tossing around the idea of getting an embroidery machine (they're about $2500) so we can do everything from patches to custom work on shirts and jackets in-house.
One of the (goofy) ideas we'd tossed around was that when you submit pictures to different sections on BME, you become eligible for patches signifying that activities — kind of like in Cub Scouts for fire starting, rope tying, etc., except ours would be for “tongue piercing”, “suicide suspension”, “prince albert”, and so on… And you'd have to have sent in a picture of that to order, so they'll have legitimacy.
Anyway, the bigger news is the US spying on UN security council members. Because the UNSC delegations are in New York, it's easy for the US government to get wiretaps and full surveillance on all the other security council members. The documentation of this has just been leaked to the media.
What the fuck is the US thinking with stunts like this?
First economic and military threats, and now the revelation that they're not even willing to play fair and honourable (not that anyone internationally has listed “honour” as an American trait for a long time)… Why even bother working with the international community? Seriously, what is the US trying to achieve?
If this process continues, the US will find itself at odds with the entire world, and as big and powerful as it is, it will collapse under that kind of weight… Leaving nothing but a 300-million very poor people, stripped of their civil rights and slaving under the will of a corporate military dictatorship ruled by a handful of very rich men.
The US has announced that it plans on gassing Saddam's people (again — remember when the US helped Saddam gas the Kurds?). Why is it OK for the US to develop gas weapons that have been banned for combat use? Why are people OK with this? Hell, there are how many US government employees? 20 million at least? All it takes is for them to say “fuck this, this is wrong, I will not support this”.
Raise the fist!
Wave the black flag!
The UN expects that about 10 million Iraqis will die from this war. A humble suggestion: killing people isn't liberating them. Along the same lines, the US has told reporters to get out of Bagdad on account of it being levelled soon. Yeah, “we'll keep civilian casualties to a minimum.”
Truth: If the US kills millions of civilians in order to depose Saddam, and the American people don't stop their government, thereby giving it their support (it is a democracy), then any and all terrorist attacks on the US civilian population are justified. I think it's wrong, but if one side can murder the other side's children as a military tactic, then it must go both ways.
Is this the bed you want to sleep in?
The Kurds have vowed to murder, well, everybody, now adding any Turkish troops that help America in this war to their dead pool. Shouldn't that be a hint that we should just back off? We (the Western nations) don't need the headache of making these killers and terrorists our allies just because it serves the American Imperialism of the moment… It's not going to turn out well.
Canadians I think will enjoy this quote from Cretien more so than others since it's especially funny when you imagine Mr. Shawinigan Handshake saying it.
If it is a changing of regime, it's not what is 1441… And if you start changing regimes, where do you stop? This is the problem, who is next? Give me the list, the priority list! I'm OK, I only have 11 months to go [Cretien is stepping down] but how about somebody else? So this is a very dangerous concept.
But he is right — that's the core of it. We (as in other nations) have no right to call for “regime change” or to attempt to depose foreign rulers. We can certainly call for them to be tried in international war crimes courts (which the US opposes anyway, since they have so many war criminals internally), or we can attack their policies (ie. human rights violations, attacks on other nations, etc.), but we have no right to call for regime change or even for disarmament.
As soon as we support such a policy, we can toss the concepts of sovereignty, independence, self-determination, and freedom out the door. Now, I do realize that most governments are vehemently opposed to freedom and such… But as individuals, we do have at least a little say in who rules us, and I hope that most of us have the sense to make decisions that support freedom rather than eliminate it.
Too bad that hope's getting shattered.
In Crazy North Korea news, they continue to up their nuke program in the face of US aggression. Even though they've said that their sole reason for these weapons is defending against attacks from the fascist US dictatorship, the US continues to threaten them. But, given the world we live in, the true prophets may be big business… Let's spin the corporate eight-ball and see what it says:
With the United States on the brink of war in Iraq and North Korea test-firing missiles, State Farm Insurance Cos. is issuing a timely, if chilling, notice to customers: It won't cover auto damage caused by nuclear blasts or radioactive fallout.
Well, it's hammer bunny time.
