"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."

-- Ronald Reagan

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."

"Senator Strom Thurmond led an extraordinary life."

-- George W. Bush

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that's doing it."

-- Dan Quayle

"I would have made a good pope."

-- Richard Nixon

"I will never apologize for the United States of America . . . I don't care what the facts are."

-- George Bush

"I am a Ford, not a Lincoln."

-- Gerald Ford

According to this list, several U.S. corporations as well as several corporations in foreign nations sold chemical, biological, and conventional weapons as well as rocket and nuclear weapons programs to Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s. Check it out!

I think I'll run for President in 2024.

Thai food = good stuff.

Hello, all. If you wanna know when the U.S. is going to war with North Korea and Iran, check this out.

Although I must admit that this blog is in no way shape or form as good or better than any other blog you see, I can say with some confidence that this blog is one shitty blog. Like, for instance, this one, which is way better. I mean, I have owned (well, not really owned, per se) this blog since February something, and I have hardly gotten any hits at all from people other than myself. Except, of course, for my immediate family; and, for some reason that I cannot explain, I have gotten a hit from Ireland, a hit from the Netherlands, and a hit from Japan. Perhaps, in order to increase my traffic or noticeability in this great expanse of billions upon billions of sites on the Internet, I should probably opt for owning a site on this server (instead of using it for free), get a domain name of some sort (like, e.g., www.itsfunnywhenithappenstothem.com, www.hahahahaha.net, or www.gimmesomemoney.org), or actually learn . . . watchucallit . . . HTML. As Strong Bad once said, "The Internet is a place where absolutely nothing happens." Whatever. Well, until then, later.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 42% of the U.S. public (that is, 18 years and older) think that Saddam Hussein was somewhat responsible for the September 11 attacks. This is what I have to say to the (approx.) 117,600,000 that have been either misled, misinformed, or outrighted brainwashed by the Bush Administration: According to my knowledge as well as that of the (approx.) 61,600,000 that have avoided the deceit disseminated from the propaganda machine, the United States was attacked on that date by terrorists under the direction of al-Qaeda (established and directed by Osama bin Laden, who has referred to Saddam Hussein as a "secular infidel"); the majority of them (15 out of the 19) were Saudi Arabian, and the funding for the attacks came from Saudi Arabia. But I may be wrong; I mean, what do I know?

Got Radiohead's new album, Hail to the Thief. It's quite good, I must say.

"Maybe you'll be President,
But know right from wrong"

Hey, all, I haven't posted for a really long time. In the meantime, I've written this song here. Hope that you like it (my email is tamujin39@hotmail.com or gnomeslayer@comcast.net). Here it is:

(V1)
I’m so sick of this world
Slow down, you’re gonna kill someone
Nobody cares, nobody gives a fuck, the hate’s unfurled
I don’t wanna know/what you think
I don’t care, no one does/For
it’s all gone, it’s all dead/There’s no more hope
Left, I see it all clear now/The world’s gone to hell

(Chorus)
I don’t know anything, don’t ask me
Anything/I’m so sick of these questions
Because I don’t have the answers
Don’t tell me what I don’t know/What
I don’t know, don’t know

(V2)
Please tell me why we got to go, and
Fight a war for nothing
Please explain to me why we gotta act so goddamn arrogant/So
damn oblivious to the hatred
Just shut the fuck up and drop the leaflets and the bombs/’Cuz
we gonna liberate the oppressed and install our ideology
After all, oil’s more important than civilians

(Chorus)
I don’t know anything, don’t ask me
Anything/I’m so sick of these questions
Because I don’t have the answers
Don’t tell me what I don’t know/What
I don’t know, don’t know

(V3)
All I see is what appears to be
The end of world nationality/And yet I see
the projections of irrationality in the powers that be
I can’t see the wrong, for the right has blinded me
What good is freedom when it’s being taken away
I’m tired of this ambiguity
No answers

I WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH, DAMMIT!

If anyone gives a flying fuck, Daylight Savings Time will commence at 2:00 AM tonight.

Well, eventually I did get Meteora. Awesome album. Just fuckin' great. My personal favorite track would be "Nobody's Listening." That or "Faint." The debut solo, "Somewhere I Belong," is pretty good. It comes with a nice DVD, at least the one I got, showing the making of the album. The CD itself is an enhanced CD, so it has all of these cool features, including this 30-minute video "Art of Meteora". Just, all around, a great sophomore album by one of my favorite bands.

Well, as long as these people are here, I guess I won't be able to get Linkin Park's new album, Meteora.

I gotta buncha shit to tell ya: (1) the Washington Gas Co. has dug a huge hole in my street, looking for a leaking gas line, (2) my iPod hasn't been working for some reason (it's not the battery) and that's pissing me off, and (3) I'm in the middle of reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (in fact, I'm on page 320, I think).

Hey, if you wanna convert your own text into binary, check this out. It's pretty cool!

Hello, all. What can I say? The world's goin' to hell.

U.S. troops are about 100 miles away from Baghdad.

Are we killing innocent civilians in this war?

I hate people who think that protesting the war is "anti-American." What kind of bullshit is that?! This country was FOUNDED on people who PROTESTED Britain, our Bill of Rights gives Americans the FREEDOM TO PROTEST THE GOVERNMENT. My God, who are these people that think that protesting is "un-American"? I think that the people that think that protesting this war is "anti-American" are the ones who truly ARE anti-American! After all, the real patriots are the ones who question the system.

"Real patriots ask questions."

--- Carl Sagan

I'm sure that this is some kind of violation of some law, but I copied a post I found from Slate. Extremely funny, and so, so true. Props to whoever "Progress" is. Well, here it is:


Subject: WHY THIS INVASION MAKES SENSE
From: Progress
Date: Mar 20 2003 5:37PM

Peacenik: Why did you say we are invading Iraq?

Warmonger: We are invading Iraq because it is in violation of security council resolution 1441. A country cannot be allowed to violate security council resolutions.

PN: But I thought many of our allies, including Israel, were in violation of more security council resolutions than Iraq.

WM: It's not just about UN resolutions. The main point is that Iraq could have weapons of mass destruction, and the first sign of a smoking gun could well be a mushroom cloud over NY.

PN: Mushroom cloud? But I thought the weapons inspectors said Iraq had no nuclear weapons.

WM: Yes, but biological and chemical weapons are the issue.

PN: But I thought Iraq did not have any long range missiles for attacking us or our allies with such weapons.

WM: The risk is not Iraq directly attacking us, but rather terrorists networks that Iraq could sell the weapons to.

PN: But couldn't virtually any country sell chemical or biological materials? We sold quite a bit to Iraq in the eighties ourselves, didn't we?

WM: That's ancient history. Look, Saddam Hussein is an evil man that has an undeniable track record of repressing his own people since the early eighties. He gasses his enemies. Everyone agrees that he is a power-hungry lunatic murderer.

PN: We sold chemical and biological materials to a power-hungry lunatic murderer?

WM: The issue is not what we sold, but rather what Saddam did. He is the one that launched a pre-emptive first strike on Kuwait.

PN: A pre-emptive first strike does sound bad. But didn't our ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, know about and green-light the invasion of Kuwait?

WM: Let's deal with the present, shall we? As of today, Iraq could sell its biological and chemical weapons to Al Qaida. Osama BinLaden himself released an audio tape calling on Iraqis to suicide attack us, proving a partnership between the two.

PN: Osama Bin Laden? Wasn't the point of invading Afghanistan to kill him?

WM: Actually, it's not 100% certain that it's really Osama Bin Laden on the tapes. But the lesson from the tape is the same: there could easily be a partnership between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein unless we act.

PN: Is this the same audio tape where Osama Bin Laden labels Saddam a secular infidel?

WM: You're missing the point by just focusing on the tape. Powell presented a strong case against Iraq.

PN: He did?

WM: Yes, he showed satellite pictures of an Al Qaeda poison factory in Iraq.

PN: But didn't that turn out to be a harmless shack in the part of Iraq controlled by the Kurdish opposition?

WM: And a British intelligence report...

PN: Didn't that turn out to be copied from an out-of-date graduate student paper?

WM: And reports of mobile weapons labs...

PN: Weren't those just artistic renderings?

WM: And reports of Iraqis scuttling and hiding evidence from inspectors...

PN: Wasn't that evidence contradicted by the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix?

WM: Yes, but there is plenty of other hard evidence that cannot be revealed because it would compromise our security.

PN: So there is no publicly available evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

WM: The inspectors are not detectives, it's not their JOB to find evidence. You're missing the point.

PN: So what is the point?

WM: The main point is that we are invading Iraq because resolution 1441 threatened "severe consequences." If we do not act, the security council will become an irrelevant debating society.

PN: So the main point is to uphold the rulings of the security council?

WM: Absolutely. ... unless it rules against us.

PN: And what if it does rule against us?

WM: In that case, we must lead a coalition of the willing to invade Iraq.

PN: Coalition of the willing? Who's that?

WM: Britain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Spain, and Italy, for starters.

PN: I thought Turkey refused to help us unless we gave them tens of billions of dollars.

WM: Nevertheless, they may now be willing.

PN: I thought public opinion in all those countries was against war.

WM: Current public opinion is irrelevant. The majority expresses its will by electing leaders to make decisions.

PN: So it's the decisions of leaders elected by the majority that is important?

WM: Yes.

PN: But George B-

WM: I mean, we must support the decisions of our leaders, however they were elected, because they are acting in our best interest. This is about being a patriot. That's the bottom line.

PN: So if we do not support the decisions of the president, we are not patriotic?

WM: I never said that.

PN: So what are you saying? Why are we invading Iraq?

WM: As I said, because there is a chance that they have weapons of mass destruction that threaten us and our allies.

PN: But the inspectors have not been able to find any such weapons.

WM: Iraq is obviously hiding them.

PN: You know this? How?

WM: Because we know they had the weapons ten years ago, and they are still unaccounted for.

PN: The weapons we sold them, you mean?

WM: Precisely.

PN: But I thought those biological and chemical weapons would degrade to an unusable state over ten years.

WM: But there is a chance that some have not degraded.

PN: So as long as there is even a small chance that such weapons exist, we must invade?

WM: Exactly.

PN: But North Korea actually has large amounts of usable chemical, biological, AND nuclear weapons, AND long range missiles that can reach the west coast AND it has expelled nuclear weapons inspectors, AND threatened to turn America into a sea of fire.

WM: That's a diplomatic issue.

PN: So why are we invading Iraq instead of using diplomacy?

WM: Aren't you listening? We are invading Iraq because we cannot allow the inspections to drag on indefinitely. Iraq has been delaying, deceiving, and denying for over ten years, and inspections cost us tens of millions.

PN: But I thought war would cost us tens of billions.

WM: Yes, but this is not about money. This is about security.

PN: But wouldn't a pre-emptive war against Iraq ignite radical Muslim sentiments against us, and decrease our security?

WM: Possibly, but we must not allow the terrorists to change the way we live. Once we do that, the terrorists have already won.

PN: So what is the purpose of the Department of Homeland Security, color-coded terror alerts, and the Patriot Act? Don't these change the way we live?

WM: I thought you had questions about Iraq.

PN: I do. Why are we invading Iraq?

WM: For the last time, we are invading Iraq because the world has called on Saddam Hussein to disarm, and he has failed to do so. He must now face the consequences.

PN: So, likewise, if the world called on us to do something, such as find a peaceful solution, we would have an obligation to listen?

WM: By "world", I meant the United Nations.

PN: So, we have an obligation to listen to the United Nations?

WM: By "United Nations" I meant the Security Council.

PN: So, we have an obligation to listen to the Security Council?

WM: I meant the majority of the Security Council.

PN: So, we have an obligation to listen to the majority of the Security Council?

WM: Well... there could be an unreasonable veto.

PN: In which case?

WM: In which case, we have an obligation to ignore the veto.

PN: And if the majority of the Security Council does not support us at all?

WM: Then we have an obligation to ignore the Security Council.

PN: That makes no sense:

WM: If you love Iraq so much, you should move there. Or maybe France, with the all the other cheese-eating surrender monkeys. It's time to boycott their wine and cheese, no doubt about that.

PN: I give up.

*****