Taboo 2048

Ancient

2009-06-05T00:05:00.002+02:00

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

2006-08-27T14:44:00.000+02:00

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

2006-08-27T12:37:00.000+02:00

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

2006-08-25T00:07:00.000+02:00

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

2006-08-24T18:15:00.000+02:00

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

2006-08-23T20:58:00.000+02:00

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

2006-08-22T11:44:00.000+02:00

* 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

2006-08-21T18:05:00.000+02:00

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.

Cheerleader News Network

2006-08-20T09:27:00.000+02:00

The more I watch CNN while comparing it's coverage with for instance the BBC and available online resources the more disturbed I get. Reporing on the recent ruling of the unwarranted and therefor illegal surveillance by the Bush administration CNN summarises this with "a serious setback in the war on terror" instead of something along the lines of "a small victory in the fight against Big Brother" or something more neutral, balanced, conform the facts instead of their cheerleader interpretation. The ammount of programs for spying on the population of the Unites States is staggering [learn more] and turn something ominous als George Orwell's "1984" into some pale shadow of reality. The movie "Enemy of the State" (1998) [IMDB] depicted technologies from the cold war with laughable coin sized tracking devices, instead of something a little smaller, the size of an appleseed perhaps. The folks from the NSA had to actually sit in a huge and rather conspicious van, as if they even need to be close to their target these days and still it was a frightening eye opener for many viewers.
Just days before the landfall of Katrina a year ago CNN is going to air "In the Footsteps of Bin Laden", spamming viewers with images and cut-outs weeks before the broadcast takes place. They apparently don't feel the need to look back on the cause, preface or aftermath of this hurricane, a natural disaster fuelled more by the lack of adequate disaster preparation and management then by the temperature of the Gulf of Mexico. It seems as if they need to distract the American public from the failures of it's leadership and have them all look the other way. How effective the organisation of yet another Hateweek starring the notoriously elusive Osama Bin Goldstein is I cannot even begin to imagine, but I fear the worst.
Suddenly I remember the coverage of the first elections Bush jr won, if that is the proper way of putting it and the role played by CNN. Chilling. But lets stick to current affairs.
Lets get back to the Shampoo Plot, which is slowly falling apart and loosing it's credibility. Blair called Bush about the upcoming wave of arrests so he could work some PR around it but went on vacation during "the biggest threat to Britain since World War II". Many alleged plotters didn't have airline tickets, passports even. But instead of questioning these events the trusted cheerleaders of the BushCo administration jumped on some confession from a guy arrested in Bangkok, and went 10 years back in time to rehash the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, a clear cut case of child abuse, by her parents, who robbed the girl of her childhood to begin with. This John Mark Karr, who reminded me of a zombie as he stood there in the flashlights, had probably experienced some hefty interrogation, got some first hand experiences with the local Thai prison system, figured a hasty retreat to the USA was in his best interest and got what he had bargained for. The Cheerleaders will probably find something new in the development of this and simular high profile, low content cases whenever friend Bush is in a predicament (again) or the Neo Conservative flock is in need for public distribution of their point of view. Coming elections, both of them, matters will most likely only get worse.

Traditional Targets

2006-08-19T13:48:00.000+02:00

All this time the Dutch have been spared even the threat of a terrorist attack. As a nation the Netherlands has managed to stay out of trouble while Spain and the UK have been bombed and Germany recently managed to escape such a thing by a narrow margin, or so we've been told.
It can't be a lack of reasons; the Dutch government has immediately sided with the USA on the preemptive wars and it's army has a noteworthy presence in Afghanistan. The Netherlands has, as recent (after WWI) history teaches, been willing or even eager to cooperate with occupying forces and to side with the biggest bully on the block.
It can't be a lack of targets either. Schiphol is a mayor airport, hub for many european and intercontinental flights. We've got one of Europe's main ports with Shell's huge oil refineries and the likes just across the river and a capital that speaks to the imagination whether you fancy sex, drugs, Rock 'n Roll or van Gogh, which can be either a deceased painter or a hatemonger against the Islam in general who, true, has been butchered allmost 2 years ago. For this there was plenty reason, never enough to form an excuse.
Maybe this lack of attention is because "Holland and Germany are reputed to have the highest levels of covert governmental mobile phone tapping,"[Source] which doesn't bode well for other surveillances. Perhaps there is no real need to strike fear in the hearts of the Dutch population, no need to push farfetching anti terrorist laws through the throat of independent and free civilians. Maybe those laws are allready in place and the population is in ignorant bliss about it.
The Dutch intelligence community uses (closed, proprietary) software kindy provided by the MOSSAD, who gets away with the mere promise they won't abuse the obvious potential therein. The harbors in Rotterdam are equipped with container scanning equipment delivered and manned by the United States, off limits to the Dutch, in effect moving the United States border into this little domian and possible reason BushCo has no real incentive to protect their own harbors with simular devices.
This makes you think about the targeted nations and convenient timing of the terrorists, who allways seem to (try to) hit those who are engaged in hefty public debate or even in court about new or expanded anti terrorist laws or practises and the threat these pose to personal privacy and freedom. Especially since the most recent shampoo plot appears to have been blown out of proportions by hysterically eager mainstream media, pushing the Israeli massacre, escalating sectarian violence in Iraq and incredibly increased production of papaver in Afghanistan to the side. By the time these allegations have to be held up in court, where they rarely even end up, Joe Random has forgotten all about it, and the traditional media most likely won't refresh his memory.
It also makes you think about the targets and implied lack of imagination and capability for strategic thinking of these enemies of ours, as if extended boarding time, increased airport security or frustrating Michael O'Leary is high on their agenda. If disrupting 'our way of life' is their aim or in their interest, I could whip up some less elaborate and more effective alternatives before I've finished my beer. Considering the fact that voting for a senator who wishes to pull out from Iraq is widely presented as to be aiding the enemy I'll refrain from posting them here.

Trespassing Allowed

2006-08-18T15:40:00.000+02:00

Just over a week ago the BBC posted an article with a warning from the Department of Homeland Security. It didn't concern liquids or airplanes, nor did it concern harbors and containers or other unlikely terrorist plots. It concerned Microsoft Windows. The Department of Homeland Security issued an official warning on Windows bugs and "urged Windows users to install the latest patches from Microsoft as quickly as possible." Everybody knows or should know that Microsoft Windows Software is notoriously insecure but that this is a matter of Homeland Security must be somewhat of a surprise to even the most dedicated followers of the Redmond Robbers.

It raises some questions. About the software, obviously, but I'll refrain from ranting and raving about that for the moment because there are more interesting issues. For instance why the Department of Homeland Security does not advise the public to replace this evidently dangerous product with a better and safer one. They have done so themselves, as has the army, the navy and the intelligence community at large, who are all running some GNU/Linux distribution or another. Could it be that the Department of Homeland Security actually likes something around 90% of the western population to use and depend on this bit of technology? Could it be that the closed (proprietary) nature of this product allows for virtual surveillance devices? Some sort of Government Approved Spyware?
Now, don't run off screaming about paranoid delusions. It is not beyond living memory that there was an FBI, a CIA and No Such Agency. The unveiled National Security Agency's call database, the unwarranted, illegal eavesdropping by BushCo which surfaced about a year back was an outlandish conspiracy theory just a decade earlier.
Mind you, it's just Joe Random's desktop where Windows still has an excessive dominant marketshare, and recent events have established that Joe Random is to be suspected, needs to be monitored and tracked. A suggestion that the Department of Homeland Security, or the NSA, or one of DARPA's children would tap into each and every homecomputer was farfetched to say the least not to long ago, but given the current state of affairs, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. Windows is allowed to lie about it if it were true and the closed nature of the software doesn't allow for peer review.
Rumor has it that early next year Microsoft's new Vista will finally be released, after being made compatible with the systems used by the various intelligence gathering bodies, which took a little longer then expected. It stands for Very Insecure Software, Trespassing Allowed. And once in a while the Department of Homeland Security will remind us to update the drivers of our Personal Surveillance Devices "as quickly as possible".

Introduction

2006-08-18T10:04:00.000+02:00

Before you venture any deeper into the domain of my assorted thinking you might first want to visit Paul Graham's What You Can't Say. It will bring you to another place in the ecosphere of the web and will inform you a little about the founding principles behind the creation of this blog.
This place will be swarming with interlinking acronyms, holistically connecting everything with everything, from the outspoken to the outlandish and from the instrumental to the insane. This is a free-for-all playing ground for creative thoughts, gravitating and interacting like molecules or probability clouds thereof afloat in a mist of harmonic distortion. There's more way then one to do such a thing, and this Blogspace provided by Google's Blogger is just one of them.
As Paul Graham stated there are a lot of things a lot of people would probably hesitate to formulate aloud amidst their peers. Issues that would be considered taboo in a given conversation. The following introduction to an article on Common Dreams News Centre also touches the subject of conversational taboo:
"At one dinner party with dear friends, I find that no criticism of Israel is allowed. At another, with equally dear friends, only remarks supportive of Palestinians are countenanced. As talk -- and silence -- at dinner tables shows, no question is more polarized than this one." Source
I beg to differ. The Polarisation Effect Value (PEV) at the dinner table depends for a large part on the people present. And since this is a Blog freely accesible to everybody with Internet Acces the guests at this particular table can be legion. And I will do my utmost to touch on as many social taboos as possible, quite possibly alienating each and every soul. In other words, this might all be opinionised but not without logic or reason, and if you are sincerely commited to one taboo or another, you'd best be on your way out.

2048 refers to 1984 by George Orwell which was written in 1948.
It's original title, "The Last Man in Europe", obviously refers to me (AaA) :-)