Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

You know, I'm trying to reduce my stress levels, but I just can't stop myself from reading the news. It's a sickness. I'm truly disturbed by the new US plan to give terror suspects permanent life sentences. To be clear, the majority of these are people who have so little evidence against them that even a military tribunal isn't an option — many have no more “evidence” against them than an accusation from a neighbor. Hello Salem, Afghanistan.

Wow. Putting people in prison for the rest of their lives because you're “not sure” if they're criminals or not. Definitely not the place I would have expected America would become if you'd asked me ten years ago… but I guess it really is true that 9-11 changed everything (aka “the terrorists have already won”).

With a million American armed forces members having served in Iraq, and millions more doing private contracting, as the combat continues to get bloodier and bloodier, we have to start wondering what's going to happen over this next year. Pakistan is openly selling nuclear weapons technology to unstable nations, and Iran is within a year of full nuclear self-sufficiency (able to produce nuclear fuel for both power and weaponry); 2005 may be the year that the concept of the superpower nation becomes irrelevant. Sure, the US and China are desperately building space weapons to keep up, but it's too late.

I hope that's a good thing.

The world would be much nicer if instead of building weapons we just build toys:

Other than that, Bush has pledged $350 million to the tsunami relief, and as I write this, Amazon.com has so far raised almost $12 million from individuals donating $50 or less. Amazon.com will get about a half million dollars as the “house cut” for letting the Red Cross use their fully automated system — you may note that in their small print they clearly state: “…the Amazon Honor System was not designed for charitable use or the solicitation of funds for charities.”. That said, with the CEO of the Red Cross collecting well over a million dollars in salary yearly (plus benefits and bonuses), the whole charity game is a goddamn scam anyway most of the time.

I've said it before and I'm saying it again — I think it's wonderful that people have such a drive to help, but it's also sad to see the money being spent in a way that isn't going to help very much in the long run and isn't going to solve any of the fundamental problems in this world.

Well, the night's email just finished downloading so I'm off to work.

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