Ancient

I started this blog some time ago, very angry with the world, as an anonymous rantingspace where I could vent my more rabid opinions without them turning around and biting me in my -professional- ass. It had a seperate username and was not related to my other website(s) and email account(s) or online identity(ies).
Now, the service has changed. It is suddenly linked to a gmail account (and profile) I also use for more serious endeavours. I could delete the blog, but I don't like that. I could create yet another front but I don't like that either. So, consider yourself warned. Below is lacking all nuance. It's here for historic reasons.
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The !Opposition

Ages back New Model Army, some punkband, allready noted in a song called Master Race:

"The opposition, yeah we ain't doing so well
Our understanding is weak and our knowledge is small
And though kids scrawl frustration on the back street wall
Most of them can't even spell basterd"[1]

Unfortunately, this hasn't much improved, as I have experienced in recent days, telling enough to serve as an example. The opposition nowadays can't even seem to find the back street wall anymore, lost the can of spraypaint and is staring bewildered in the headlights of the onrushing era they suddenly find themselves in.
This appears to be very true for an institute that proclaims it is "dedicated to strengthening our democracy by providing intellectual support to the progressive community" and "articulate the system of American values and ideas and reframe public debate". This particular examplary organisation is The Rockridge Institute.
How they would like to go about doing this is primarily something of the past; they are working on a book. A Handbook, even. They are very much focussing their attention on that book. But they also have a website. The current message on the frontpage, "A Note From the Executive Director" (who cares!) dates back to 07-17-2006. It says they need a webmaster[2]. Hell, they need a lot more. They need a new Executive Director:
"The staleness of the website is attributable to many factors, all of which we are addressing."
Oh, really? When?
After the book? After the elections? After you're done with that of The Longview Institute[3]? Or after there's a new Executive Director, who could say something like "yeah, the website sucks, we know, we've been slow, but we are working on it"? Allright, [s/sucks/is stale] maybe. You know, to "reframe public debate" you must reach a public somehow, and sentences like "The validity of the criticism and its tone are two separate issues" will have Joe Random grabbing for his beer in disgust in about 1,347 seconds while hitting the 'back' button on his browser with his other hand. But, evidently, The Rockridge Institute isn't going for Joe Random: "We partner with advocates, activists, and policy professionals."
Right. That explains why there is going to be a book, and the website is, well, stale, but being adressed. The advocates, activists, and policy professionals don't generally use websites yet. They don't surf. They read books.
This is such a pain in the ass.
Basically because there is a pretty decent article on that same website, also published on Common Dreams News Centre, which received some 25.000 hits but should receive like 2,5 million, to say the least, or to start with. Clear, logical, not that complicated, pretty easy to digest. It's called "Bush Is Not Incompetent"
There are several reasons why this article hasn't received more prominent or massive attention, one of which being the title[4], and I'm very much in doubt if these are being addressed. The Rockridge Institute appears to be a dinosaur looking for a tarpit to drown in, cheered into oblivion by roaming lawers.

There are however a lot of grass root (web/log) support campaigns threatning the establishment. I am not sure how effective these will proove to be, considering the (lack of ) structure adamant in the World Wild Web and lots of other disadvantages inherent to the medium. This blog[5] is completely harmless, since nobody reads it anyway and it serves no other purpose than to rabidly vent my opinions and frustrations in a namespace which isn't my own (responsibility).
One of these frustrations is how potentially powerfull assets for the progressive community in the United States are being muffled, silenced, rendered useless or even destroyed by the utter incompetence of the current 'Democratic' establishment.

[1] New Model Army, Master Race
[2] I applied. Bruce Budner, formal trial lawyer from Dallas, doesn't have a fucking clue about netiquette. I think he's 80. He looks a lot younger, but he still is 80.
[3] Longview looks like exactely the same thing, webwise, even the bloody background color of their most recent post. Equally *boring* and incapable of attaining or maintaining *interest*. So thats what the new webmaster is working on. I wish him/her well and, ah, why not, here's a little something to help: COLORS
[4] Bush' Masterplan. The (Hidden, Secret) Conservative Agenda. Masterplan of the Bush Administration. !Incompetent Bush
[5] Technically and structurally, this blog sucks big time and I'm glad I don't have to depend on it for serious ventures.

Final note for you ignorant bitches: an ! preceeding an expression means NOT.
!YES means NO
!intelligent behaviour means NOT intelligent behaviour, aka stupid behaviour.

New World Oligarchy

Soviet Communism has fallen, and has been replaced by something that remotely resembles a democracy, but isn't so Eurasia is in place and gearing up to claim the future. Chinese Communism hasn't fallen, but has mutated into blatant kapitalism with a happy few on top, shamelessly feeding on suppressed and largely ignorant masses who apparantly need Nike, Cola, McDonalds, Wallmart and so forth more then they need literacy, freedom of speech, healthcare and the likes. They got to be most favoured trading partner because of all these eager peasants. They get to host the Olympics too. Enter Eastasia.
The Unted States of America, the land of the free, is slowly crumbling as well and turning into Oceania. Freedom of speech applies only to those who agree, ghost prisoners arrive daily in third country prisons, robbed from even the basic human rights, mass surveillance is everywhere, not just in court. The "holy trinity of the American political establishment [are] big business, the major political parties and the commercial media."[2] Add the forth mayor player in these affairs, the militairy/industrial complex, and all four ministeries are in place. Not all that far away from just one political party formed by those who want to stay the course, Democrats and Repulicans united in their support of an occupation which is being sold as war. Not far away from a single media voice, revenues from commercials split evenly between some 4 multinational entities, a percentage of which being shipped back to the two parties who behave like siamese twins.

So, the dreaded New World Order seems to have arrived in the form of three global Oligarchies, cooperating while competing much like rival telecom companies together chip in for transatlantic cables. The last stronghold of something we could consider democracy might be Fortress Europe, future battleground for commerce and possibly not able to hold it's ground under this trifold pressure, but home of the Last Man in the World no doubt.
Roll the bones.
Somewhere early 2008 Israel and the USA will attack Iran while Russia and China will attack North Korea after a nuclear device has exploded in an American harbor. National emergency declared in the USofA, martial law, FEMA takes over, suspends the constitution. And Bush is going to be president for life.
Orwell doesn't roll in his grave. He's laughing.

[1] Oligarchy
[2] The Democrats walk themselves to the gallows

Call Mickey

Oh no! I'm gonna be dead soon! I'm gonna end up dead and poor! I won't be famous! No more adventurous travels and encounters with mesmerizing strangers!! Pluto's position was just right, and I acted accordingly. I started this blog! All which has been promised to me, by daily newspapers, colorfull magazines and trusted astrologers in their horoscopes can't be true anymore. Oh no, I'm doomed. Just 8 planets left in the solar system!
Somebody better call Mickey.
Pluto got lost.

String Theory

Oh, look at little JonBenet! How cute, dancing in her pink cowboy boots.
It reminds me of the old days, when the Netherlands were depicted as the biggest provider of childporn on the entire planet. The law in the Netherlands had its age limit for erotic imagery at 16 years. In the United states this was 18, so the Dutch were producing and exporting childporn like there was no tomorrow as far as the USA was concerned. Obviously the Dutch laws got changed in a hurry, and now the Netherlands is in line with their Big Brother, where productions like "Real College Girls", "Sorority Initiation", and simular see the light, which is not a problem because the actresses only pretend they are underage. Not quite the age of JonBenet, but as far from 18 as they can get away with.
Another element in this discussion is the discrepancy between what people can touch, and what other people want to sell. Is a piercing or a tattoo as good as a drivers license when spotted all but naked on a sunny beach? Oh, wait, my mistake. In the USA you can drive half a ton of killing machine all over the public space long before you are considered mature enought to decide what to do or don't in your own bedroom.
But what is the age limit for a mobile phone, for lipstick, for a tiny and rather sexy g-string, which are being marketed to 13 year olds? The more commerce discovers the market of adolescents and wraps these children like tasty candy, the more testosterone plagued humanoids are tempted to take a bite. The fact that these young girls are physically capable of reproduction, and not beyond experimenting on the impact they have on the opposite sexe just adds to this explosive mixture. So there should be some limit to what you can try to sell to children, for if you market them stiletto heels to go with their stockings, garterbelt and fancy string, you are asking for a lot of trouble.
I'm not questioning the need to protect youngsters against predatory behaviour of dirty old men, with or without digital camera. I even think an age of 18 is a better one than 16 and for my part it could be raised to 21. But we must realise such an age is pretty arbitrairy because children differ as much from each other in the maturity of their thoughts and reason as aults do. It's pretty local as well. "Adolescent pregnancy is alarmingly common in many countries" [source] not to mention adolescent sex which does not lead to pregnancy. In the age of Aids 'young' (and unblemished) frequently stands for 'safe' and real men don't wear rubbers in significant parts of the world.
Where does the abuse of children begin, what exactely qualifies? Is a nude girl, age 17, on beach somewhere in Poland abused more then some girl like JonBenet, forced into adult behaviour and preteen beauty contest competitions? Will a girl without string be as much a social outcast as a boy without expensive brand on his feet and isn't commerce abusing our children in a general and largely neglected way?
In a later fase I might expand this to the realm of (online) gaming, also know as Heroinware

Bones

There is no war in Iraq, something like this is commonly refered to as an occupation. After a war is won, territories get occupied. The Netherlands were occupied during World War II. The (rather limited) opposition to that occupation was called The Resistance, often The Undergound allthough the Germans might have called it an insurgency. Look where it got them.
Germany got occupied after World War II. A chunk of it got a fairly democratic government, albeit no army right away, another chunk got a totalitarian boot in it's neck and became Democratic in nothing but name. This took a while to topple over but after Poland it did and the domino effect so dreaded in Asia finally came to pass in Europe, and so much for the better.
Allright, lets light the candles, shake up the bones, cast them on a sheet covered with astrological symbols and do some future prediction for dummies.
So, this occupation will come to an end. Even the USA doesn't have the stamina to persist in this insanity.
Some day the government will be deemed democratic, appropriate and satisfactory, allthough it will not be, not even by a long shot[1]. Apart from the three northern provinces, aka Kurdistan, where they seem to have a better grip.
Some day the Iraqi army will be deemed qualified enough, allthough it will not be, not even by a long shot. They don't even have an army. They have subdivisions in US Armed Forces infrastructure, backed by US artillery, armor, airsupport and guided by them spooky 'advisors' much like crawled all over indochina[2].
The USA will pull out, Cheerleader News Networks will dub this 'cut and run', BushCo will blame the Democrats, who will have won back the house and/or senate in 2006, and made it impossible for him to stay the course, thereby aiding the enemy.
The full blown civil war shortly thereafter will be a humanitarian disaster, ethnic cleansing all over the place, but not for the entire area formerly known as Iraq. Shia's and Sunni's will battle over Bagdad and southern provinces, climaxing over Basra but up in the north the Kurds will close their border and declare an independant state of Kurdistan. The Turks won't like it none but the people in control of this particular slab of real estate, soaking with oil, will have a lot of leverage. The problems between Kurdistan and Turkey will be problems for the European Union.
Problem solved.
Next stop: Teheran.

[1] The Iraqi Government Is Little More Than a Group of "Talking Heads"
[2] There Is No Iraqi Army
from "7 Facts You Might Not Know about the Iraq War"

Iranian Thinking

* If you don't have weapons of mass destruction, like Iraq, you will be attacked by the United States and your population will suffer incredibly.
* If you do have weapons of mass destruction, like North Korea, yo can do whatever the fuck you want and the United States will largely ignore you. If you test long range missiles they will beef up their attempts to create some defense. Being friends with China helps, so Iran is trying to be friends with Russia.
* If you use traditional fossil fuels you will add your demands to those of China in a global market which is under pressure and when the prices skyrocket you cant compete and ruin your own economy.
* If you have nuclear powerplants you can export a lot more oil, sell it to China and boost your economy.
* In the light of climate change and global warning Nuclear energy is more and more being promoted as an alternative (which I happen to think is full blown idiocy, but that's not the point here) so obtaining nuclear energy is for the sake of the planet, while fossil fuels are not.

Some say nuclear energy is for the biggest part a marketing and public relations strategy to sell the bomb. It's not that effective, after all. The position of the United States regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions is either prooving that point or beyond all logic. Let them have their nuclear energy, make sure they don't make weapons or better, don't even want to make them for lack of need, which means the USA must abort it's aggressive stance. As far as I understand it the Iranians are quite willing to enter deals with for instance Russia about the fuel, they say to support the non proliferiation treaty, and they even seem to allow for inspections. As long as their basic rights as a nation to develop these technologies is not questioned but the West still is trying to dictate what autonomous countries can and connot strive for.
Best way would be to start talking, instead of throwing veiled threats to and fro, but that seems to be impossible for the likes of Bush &Co

Eggbeaters

Saddam Hussein is in the news again today.
"Ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein goes on trial again in Baghdad on Monday - this time in connection with an anti-Kurdish offensive in 1987 and 1988." [BBC].
The next couple of days we will be spammed with imagery of dead Kurds, killed by chemical weapons used on these innocent Iraqi cilvilians by the Evil Dictator. These weapons were partially released on them from choppers, provided in a way by the United States' Donald Rumsfeld. This information will not be spammed on us though. I predict it will not surface at all.
The imagery that goes with the trial will proove to us that Saddam Hussein was Evil Incarnated instead of the "usefull relation(ship)" he was in 1983, only 4 to 5 years before he started to drop bombs with chemicals on Kurds, which, I can't emphasise enough, were partially delivered by choppers sold to him by the United States, which in turn was made possible by Donald Rumsfeld.
Thats right. Kurds were killed by American eggbeaters and Rumsfeld is to blame. See "The Saddam in Rumsfeld’s Closet"

This trial and it's imagery is probably also aimed at making friends with the Kurds, telling them that the United States, amongst others, really care about them, and the suffering they endured during the regime of Saddam Hussein. So when the Kurds form their own state as a result of the increasingly 'civil' war (oh, the irony) they won't stop selling the oil that they are sitting on, allow it's supply to be disrupted or even be used as a weapon. But this new Weapon of Mass Destruction, the Oil Weapon, is for another day.