I think this video does a lot to explain the landslide victory for Clinton on West Virginia. I’m sure this mentality is not limited to West Virginia, however, especially with the racism I’ve encountered here in Texas.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=c-q4MDQ0cDI

CAUTION: Do not watch this if you are near anyone with sensitive ears. Bill ‘O has a foul mouth.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5j2YDq6FkVE

No wonder we’ve done so well in Iraq!! Bush QUIT PLAYING GOLF IN 2003 TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080513/pl_afp/usiraqpoliticsbushgolf_080513212030

where the picture in my title banner was taken. It looks like a pleasant place to be. Several aspects of it remind me of Switzerland… anyone have some other guesses?

I’ve read/heard various rumblings that gas will be up to 7 or 8 dollars a gallon by this time next year, and up to 5 bucks a gallon this summer. Whattya think?

I just found out there’s a new Death Cab for Cutie album out… and I’m listening to it now… damn this is good. I bet Marla will be excited when she wakes up.

I’m starting to get really excited about Radiohead this Saturday. They played in Bristow, VA at the Nissan Pavillion on Sunday and my friend Colin said he was going–I hope he made it though, because I heard that roads got flooded out and they had to turn a lot of people away. Luckily, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion, where they’re playing here, is very close to where we live. Even so, I should probably get there tomorrow if I want to get a good spot on the lawn for Saturday. Hope it doesn’t rain!

Nine Inch Nails released their latest album on the internet–for FREE!

How cool is that?

I am happy to see the trend of releasing albums sans record company continue–send the corporate hacks packing!

Someone at school said something that really pissed me off on Friday. They said they didn’t want to vote for Obama because “his family is Muslim”. This is the same guy that says he “really doesn’t care” about the environment. Kinda makes me want to force him to live in a Mosque full of idling cars. Or just leave Texas. Or both.

Seriously though. Freedom of religion isn’t really freedom of religion in this country. Also, that whole idea of “separation of church and state” hasn’t really caught on yet either. We are obsessively judgmental about everyone’s religion. I don’t care what your religion is as long as you don’t try to get me to join it and don’t try to force me to talk about my beliefs.

I especially don’t care what your religion is if you’re running for president. Just do your job and don’t be George Bush. Although if you actually are Muslim (unlike Obama), you will most likely be assassinated if you even announce you’re running for president, the way things are in this country. I’d recommend running in a more free and more tolerant country.

Ever since we invaded Iraq, there has been a debate about whether or not we should have invaded. However, as the years have passed, the debate has gravitated more towards our military strategy, letting the moral issue of whether or not we should have invaded fade away. I was watching an excerpt of an interview where Coyote Blitzer was talking to Saddam Hussein errr Osama bin Laden–no, I mean Barack Obama about the war. Obama briefly mentioned that he didn’t think we should have invaded, and went on to talk about how the war was mishandled. It is surreal to me how accepting so many of us are of The War. I realize cable television news programs don’t allow any guests to explain themselves, but I still find myself feeling sad whenever the moral issue of the war is glossed over. The good news is that I think Obama speaks honestly and sincerely, and I can actually listen to what he has to say and not get bored and for the most part agree with him. The bad news is, even if he gets elected, we still invaded Iraq 5 years ago. I think this sort of reasoning is lost on many people. It’s as though some believe that if we can do something now to magically improve Iraq, it will undo all that we have done wrong.

Over the past year, pundits have been shitting back and forth about The Surge–will it work? is it working? did it work? One side says “yes, yes, yes,” the other side says “no, no, no”. “Okay,” one might say, “what else is new?” This is just another part of the continued focus on the military strategy above all else. The amount of focus the news media puts on military strategy versus all of the other aspects of war makes one think that destroying an entire nation of individuals is pretty much like playing a game of Risk, with no real ramifications. Yes, from time to time there are human interest pieces, but really just enough to meet the minimum requirements of their news organization. I know that news media is not a moral authority, and that it is a for-profit business. It writes stories on what it wants to write stories about in order to make as much money as possible. It has no real interest in humans unless these humans can give them money. The problem is, I think it is easy to forget this simple fact–also, I think many people don’t think about the news in these terms in the first place.

One might be inclined to say that is a waste of time to split hairs about the way our country discusses the war–we’re into it now, we just gotta figure out how to get out of it. However, since we are “in it” now, I think it is a good time to have a real dialog about the moral implications of war. The other day I was watching a comedian named Eddie Izzard talk about how we as humans don’t know how to handle someone who’s killed 100,000 people. We know what to do with people who have killed 1,5,10,20, but once we get up to 100,000, we don’t know what to do. I think our nation doesn’t know what to do with the knowledge that there are most likely 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians as a result of our invasion, so in general it chooses to ignore the statistic. How can we as Americans reconcile the sins of our empire? It helps me to at least recognize that we have done something wrong–I think this is an important first step in truly making progress towards a nation that is more humane towards the rest of the world. Our nation is so bitterly divided, as it has been since it was founded, that I’m not sure if enough of us will ever be able to admit that we have done something wrong. As children we are indoctrinated with a bombastic pride in our nation. American exceptionalism. This idea contradicts many of the other values we learn as children. We’re taught that we’re special because we are unique, not that we are special because we are better than everyone else. We’re taught to share, and to respect others. We’re taught not to resort to violence as a means of conflict resolution. I remember going through specific training for this as a child. S.T.P. Solve That Problem–a methodology for calmly resolving any conflict. You may disagree, but I think that so many of the basic values we learn as children are forgotten by our leadership. It is disheartening to see diplomacy wholly disregarded day in, day out, year after year. In the past 7 years, what we’ve basically said to the world is GO FUCK YOURSELF!

It is an over-simplification to compare the moral lessons of childhood to the conflicts present in international politics. Or is it? Our nation is so convinced that we do everything exactly the way it should be done that practically any time a nation wants to deviate even slightly, we shove our way into their country and tell them they’re wrong. If we were willing to compromise on even the slightest level, dozens of nations throughout the world would be far better off than they are today, ours included. Hell, we would probably even have peace in the Middle East. Imagine that! It’s not as hopeless as it seems, when you consider how idiotic our foreign policy has been for so long.

John McCain recently said that Hamas wanted Barack Obama to be the next president. McCain’s implication was that because Obama didn’t want to rape, pillage and plunder the Middle East, Hamas favored him. McCain says that he’s Hamas’ “worst nightmare”–yet both Obama and McCain say a lot of the same things about Hamas. They’re a terrorist organization. They’re a threat to Israel, etc. etc. The main difference from what I can see is that Obama recognizes that even though we don’t like Hamas, sooner or later we will actually have to TALK T-A-L-K to them so we will be able to ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE EAST. The way we conduct ourselves in the world now, and the way McCain seems inclined to continue is to basically shit in anyone’s cereal we don’t like before they even have a chance to shake our hands or say “hello.” It’s as though we forgot there is a middle ground between dropping nukes on people and surrendering to them. Words like “negotiation” and “diplomacy” don’t really exist in our vocabulary anymore.

If there’s one thing that frustrates me the most about the never-ending, excruciatingly ridiculous back-and-forth between the pundits and leadership of our nation, its that people can’t find a middle ground worth a damn, and that every single little thing is black and white. Democrats WILL RAISE TAXES UNTIL THEY HAVE ALL OF YOUR MONEY AND THEN THEY WILL FORCE YOU TO HAVE AN ABORTION AND TO READ BOOKS AND GET AN EDUCATION. Republicans, however WILL LET CORPORATIONS PLUNDER OUR NATION AND START WARS OF AGGRESSION AND PRIVATIZE EVERYTHING AND DESTROY OUR ENVIRONMENT, which is basically true. Just kidding. But not really… Anyway, the point is, we can’t “win” in Iraq–there’s no satisfying end to this war. Regardless of how we leave, we’ve lost, because we already killed needless thousands. It sounds fickle at times to hear people talk about withdrawal strategies or complain about Iraqis not taking enough responsibility. Personally, I think they’re a little preoccupied with everything they know being blown to complete shit. Maybe they’ll be more interested in democracy when they can fell comfortable walking outside without having a rocket launched at them.

I think the recent crisis in Burma has accentuated the need for diplomacy. Obviously the leadership of the country is fairly insane, but do you think that because they don’t want to let humanitarian aid into their country, we should bomb them into submission? Seems a tad hypocritical considering our goal is to give their citizens aid. Just because we talk to nations we don’t like doesn’t mean that we’re “weak”. It means we aren’t fucking retarded and we know that you can’t just bomb people into agreeing with you.

As we draw closer to the presidential election, I’m sure we will only see more and more bullshit about The War. Perhaps someone will say something meaningful or worthwhile, but it will probably be just another petty exercise in semantics. McCain’s ridiculous comment about Hamas is a hell of a start. “Clean Campaign” my ass.

I meant to mention this blog a long time ago but I was just now reminded of it so I will post the link. Marla and I enjoy perusing the site and laughing.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/