Tuesday 15 April, 2003 at 8:43AM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (19)

I've seen so much literature on the internet from anti-war activists (despite that the bulk of the Iraqi citizens appear to be very happy Saddam is gone), but then I came across something written by a person who is pretty much fed up with it. This article is pretty extreme and doesn't necessarily reflect my own views, but it does make a few valid points amongst the ranting.

You're not Patriotic, You're a Traitor.
by Erik Barath

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, especially when practiced by me. So allow me to flex my Constitutionally protected muscle.

You! Yes you! The ones at the New York "die ins" and San Franciscan "vomit ins" and all other protesters in between. I have a news flash for you. You're not patriotic, brave or remotely respectable. You're vile, hypocritical and accessories to murder. You stand against everything this country was built on, which by the way, allows you to be so vile without incarceration or execution, unlike you would by those regimes you stand in solidarity with.

You're un-American and I'm not afraid to say it. If you have the right to erroneously equate George Bush to Adolf Hitler or call America a terrorist nation, I certainly have the right to call you what is already proven.

We see who you are now. Your cohorts in the liberal media can't vouch for you anymore. Your vile protest signs and offensive chants made sure of that. The jig is up. Even your greatest sponsors, CNN, couldn't hide the fact that Marxist, anti-Semitic groups organize your little shindigs. They can't hide your support of North Korea's butcher, Kim Jong-Il or your denial of Tiennamen Square. They can't hide your hatred for the state of Israel or your hatred for the US military. The same military that gave and sustains your right to be so hateful.

And your view of this war is illustrative of who you really are. You echo the Iraqi propaganda minister's every words. You would rather believe the words of proven liars rather than those from the free world. You're a bunch of walking, second rate slogans without merit or shred of reality.

Peace is not a bumper sticker, tie dyed T-shirt or hand gesture. It is something which comes from the great sacrifice of the few so that many more can live better lives in the future. But what would you know about sacrifice? I see who you are. Most of you are young, un-showered, un-disciplined, unemployed and overrated. It seems that the vast majority of you come from well off households and attend elite Universities. You hold anti corporate hostilities but wear the latest gear from Ambercrombie & Finch. Everything you have came from the system you rage against.

And speaking of peace, the song "Give Peace a Chance" never liberated an oppressed peoples nor was John Lennon a great diplomat that ever softened the hearts of Pol Pot, Saddam or KIm Jong-Il. But since you people get your marching orders from Lennon songs, here's one I believe in. "Happiness is a Warm Gun" (bang bang, shoot shoot). Freedom has always come at the end of a warm, smoking gun. America's freedom and subsequent Constitution resulted from war, as did the freedom of slaves. Most of Europe would speak German and reside as German satellite states if not for American guns. Bosnian Muslims, collectively, would have been relegated to fertilizer if not for the guns of the US. Your silly banners, T-shirts, bumper stickers and hand gestures never aided anyone's liberation.

And what's your obsession with Communism? Are you so out of touch with historic reality? Or do you have a sadistic romanticism with murderous rule? Marching behind the banners of the Socialist Workers Party while holding signs that equate Bush to Hitler is obscene. Standing together with an organization that supports Kim Jong-Il lends no credence to your argument that a war In Iraq will take innocent lives. You obviously support the taking of innocent lives as long as it's not taken by American soldiers.

And what about innocent lives? Saddam kills a truckload of Iraqis by the time you awaken each afternoon to your breakfast of granola and hemp juice. Get a clue.

But most of you are adamant about Bush being the king of evil in this world. Of course, that is, until one of you are forced to deal with actual reality. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor, went to Iraq as a human shield. Once there, Joseph was quick to learn that Iraqis were praying for the war. They said that they were willing to get their homes demolished if it meant the end of Hussein. Joseph said, "Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head." Kenneth Joseph now supports the war. What a surprise.

And where were you fleebag laureates during Kosevo and the bombing of Iraq by Clinton? Where were all the "die-ins" and "vomit-ins" and Clinton=Hitler signs? You hypocrites. I guess as the great foreign diplomat from the Improve, Janeane Garofalo, said "it just wasn't hip" to criticize Clinton. Janeane is so illustrative of leftist hypocrisy. She verbally assaults Bush for this war but was the host of an event which Bill Clinton was the guest of honor, at a fund-raiser for Seeds of Peace. This, after the former Clinton administration mercilessly bombed Kosevo and Iraq, all without UN authority.

I think it was best put by Collin Powell when asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our Iraqi Plans were an example of empire-building by George Bush, while at a large conference in England:

He answered by saying that, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

So wipe the puke from your chins and clean the ketchup from your faux bandages. And for God sakes, put your clothes back on. Then, drive daddy's Cabriolet or Range Rover back to your safe university campuses or perfectly manicured suburbs. And sleep well knowing that there are millions of potential acid bathers and human shredder fodder that will get their chances to feel the wonders of pain and suffering if you get your wishes.

You're vile, dangerous, un-American and unpatriotic. And that's me practicing my freedom of speech.

hussein statue tumbles

      Wednesday 9 April, 2003 at 12:56PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (8)

Just been watching the huge statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square, Baghdad, being pulled down while Iraqi citizens cheer and jump on it.

I was pretty shocked when that soldier put a US flag over the head of the statue momentarily - not a good move, but I guess he just gt caught up in the heat of the moment. Fortunately they removed it quickly and put a pre-Gulf War Iraqi flag on it instead just before pulling the statue down completely.

Interesting that on the various forums that I was posting on about the war in Iraq, all the people who were fanatically against the war and were claiming the citizens of Iraq did not want the Saddam removed have now completely stopped commenting.

How could anyone think they wouldn't want that oppressive murdering regime taken out? Unreal. It's not over yet, but it certainly seems the 'shock and awe' war is in the last stages, fortunately.

earth from space

      Monday 7 April, 2003 at 8:52PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (2)

Just dropping in. It's now April. It's now spring. It's usually around 60-70°F this time of year in NYC apparently. It's now snowing. Yup, you heard me, snowing. Plenty of it too, like 6+ inches on the ground accumulated so far. Freakville.

Since todays post has not been terribly exciting, I'll give you an image to look at that's pretty groovy. The image is a panoramic view of the earth taken from the Boeing built Space Station last November on a perfect night with no obscuring atmospheric conditions.

This is a scaled down image. You can check out the full 2400x1200 image here. The lights clearly indicate the populated areas, and you can scroll east-west and north-south. Funny how Canada's population is almost exclusively along the U.S. border (wonder why? heh). Moving east to Europe, it's easy to spot London, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna, and check out the development of Israel compared to the rest Of the Arab countries. You can spot the Nile River and the rest of the the African Continent; after the Nile, the lights don't come on again until Johannesburg. Check out the difference between North and South Korea, and the density of Japan. Thanks to Pete VV for sending me this link a while back.

slow dance

      Saturday 5 April, 2003 at 5:35PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (13)

Wow. I just received this poem via email from my sister in New Zealand. The poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital who has 6 months left to live (6 months from when, I do not know). Apparently she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to live their life to the fullest, since she never will. :(

It was originated by a doctor there (Dr. Dennis Shields, Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, New York 10461 if you're interested) and for every name that the email is forwarded to the American Cancer Society will donate 3 cents per name to her treatment and recovery plan. Not quite sure how they plan on tracking it, but I've sent it on to a few people. Thought the poem was worth publishing here regardless of the validity, it makes you think.

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"hi"
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

wow. Been a bit busy, I'll update more later.

...later...

OMG. The email host I use has a spam filter on it with settings of low, medium and high to control spam. Mine is set to low and there is no 'off' option. A few days ago I took a look for the first time in the bulk-mail folder where it redirects these emails (and auto-deletes them after a few days) and found one that should not have been there. Hmm. I just took another look now, and there's personal emails there from friends that are not bulk mail ones at all! Mich, one was yours, even though there was another from you that didn't get redirected there and was sent the same day. How farked is that?

If you've sent me email and haven't heard back, this may well be the reason why. What is really pissing me off is that I now wonder how many times over the last year I've had replies from job applications and I never knew about them. I'm going to write an email to my current mail host lycos.com and let them know I am not farking happy. AT. ALL. Bastards.

[a little later] Oh nice one. Check this out:

Disable Spam Detection : To gain access to this feature you must upgrade to Lycos Mail Plus.

Of course it costs money to do that. Looks like they've farked it up on purpose to get some income (didn't used to be a spam filter a year ago). Time to look around for a new email host- wish hotmail didn't have so many limits on capacity and individual email size. *sigh* ..and my name@hotmail.com is taken too. bah.

Our web host has pop3 so I can have whatever[at]ourdomain.com and use outlook express, but I like web-based email, which they don't currently offer. Another option is to upload a web-based email application to our server, but the only decent ones I've found are a good 10megs and install instructions are basically gibberish.. :/

saddam makes an appearance

      Friday 4 April, 2003 at 12:33PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (0)

Wondering what's going on in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein just made an appearance on tv, and for the first time since the war started he made a comment that indicates he may have survived that bombing right at the start of the war, although as they said on the news, he apparently has a whole bunch of doubles, so who knows.

Yesterday there was a report that Iraqi citizens in southern parts of Baghdad were being woken from their beds by Iraqi military and forced to walk south towards the front lines. Not long ago a high ranking Iraqi military official came on tv making some cryptic comments that the US is in for a big surprise and they are going to do something that is unusual and at night.. I'm wondering if they're forcing thousands of citizens to march right up to the front lines so coalition troops wont shoot, and then Iraqi soldiers hidden behind them will open fire. Would not surprise me going on Saddam's history. These citizens probably will have family members back in the city who will be executed if the ones being forced to march south don't do as they've been instructed. Could potentially be looking at an extremely ugly situation here, I don't like how it sounds. Ok gotta go do my thing.

bark like a dog

      Thursday 3 April, 2003 at 10:35PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (3)

Hey. Found this pic from one of my old websites, always cracks me up.

I think Jackie sent it to me originally. Classic.

bigotry

      Wednesday 2 April, 2003 at 7:13PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (2)

Looks like the coalition forces are on the verge of moving into Baghdad, so hopefully there's an end in sight. I've got kind of sick of arguing the pros and cons of this war (or at least reading others argue online and restraining myself from joining in when someone makes a stupid comment). I've been surprised by the amount of anti-Americanism out there, much of it unrelated to Iraq and without any basis other than straight out bigotry. *ack* I despise that sort of crap, regardless of who it's directed at. When there is no valid basis for it (is there ever?), it's just plain old ignorance.

I was getting a bit worried about Syria getting involved there, it could have really made the situation many times worse and led to a much 'wider' war, but it seems to have become a non-issue fortunately. Either that or the media just isn't talking about it because they know nothing. *blink*

That nasty SARS sickness is a worry. That would be huge news if not for the war. It's in NYC now too. bah. Ok gotta bail, so ..cya.

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