I'm not a Patriot, or a Truther...

Of course 9/11 was an inside job. Of course there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Of course George Bush stole both elections. Of course greedy, power-hungry, soulless individuals conspire to rob and enslave us. Of course everyone from your mom to your teachers to the news has lied to you your whole life. Of course information gathering and data-mining are running rampant, and Rupert Murdock is spying on us via myspace.

George Bush was right about one thing: The Constitution is just a piece of paper. It neither gives us rights, nor protects them, any more than your grocery list gives you groceries. We protect our rights, and have only the rights we are willing to fight for. But you knew that.

America is just a word. Texas, too. I'm a Texan for no other reason than because I was born here, and live here. If I'd been born in Ireland, or Bangladesh, I'd be Irish, or Bangladeshi. I haven't recited the pledge of allegiance since I found out it wasn't compulsory, in the 4th grade. I don't pledge allegiance to inanimate objects. We can burn flags all day long, and I wouldn't complain about anything but the pollution from burning cheap Chinese polyester. I would gladly overthrow our corrupt and irresponsible government if I thought I could pull it off. We could change the name to whatever, or the United States of Whatever, or my personal favorite, Mattopia, and it would still be the same chunk of land between the same bodies of water, with the same people that mainly want to be free and prosperous.

Those freedom- and prosperity-loving people are my friends, and my family, and douche-bags I don't care to know, and internet trolls that think they know something, even though they can't spell it, and other people like me that don't know shit, but can at least spell it, and people I'll just never meet. All of us ass-holes are on the same little mud-ball, spinning around the same hot little star, arguing over bullshit and killing each other.

Theory of Conspiracy

Some of you guys are out there. Way out there. I give Conspiracy Theory the same consideration as Relativity Theory or Evolution Theory. Even more - I've never seen an animal evolve, and I've never been able to get even close to light-speed in my beat up old truck, but I've seen greedy, power-hungry fuckers conspire to gather more money and power to themselves with absolutely no consideration for human life, the continuation of the species, or the existence of life on earth. Conspiracy happens every day, all around us, everywhere, constantly.

There are so many theories, though. Some are credible, some are a stretch, but still plausible, and some are just fucking retarded. They range from corporate corruption to Freemasons and Jesuits and Zionists to Kabalist black magic to CIA mind-control to human-alien reptilian hybrids from Alpha Draconis. The ubiquitous Illuminati.

I look at everything. I personally have believed that we (humans) were some kind of alien science experiment since I was eleven, arguing with little fifth-grade christians that hadn't read a word of the Bible about why I, who at that point had read the Bible, didn't believe a word of it. I consider nothing too incredible to be discarded out of hand. Not even the Bible.

Here's the thing, though: Some of you guys really are crazy. Even worse, some of the crazy ones are also assholes, and they're giving me a bad name. Crazy I can deal with. Assholes are assholes.

The assholes are typically the guys that pick one horse to back. They say its all the Zionists, or its all the Jesuits, or its the reptilians from Alpha Draconis, and then they say "and anyone that doesn't see/agree is an idiot/agent/conspirator/mind-controlled slave." This one guy, Eric Jon Phelps, on the last episode of the Freeman Perspective, said with a straight face that the sun orbits the earth, which does not rotate, and the heliocentric view that the earth orbits the sun is Jesuit disinformation. Do you see where I'm going with this? Mr. Phelps also said Ron Paul was a traitor because he doesn't denounce the Jesuits and resign in disgust. Ron Paul is, therefore, a servant of the Jesuits.

As a supporter of Ron Paul, I looked into the Jesuit connection. All I could find was a couple of speaking engagements at Wheeling Jesuit University. I suppose that Dr. Paul, having served in Congress as long as he has, is aware of much of the inner workings of government. I suspect that he doesn't talk about it because he would sound like a crazy-ass conspiracy nut. His voting record and his consistency of character over his 30 year political career assuage my fears that he might be an agent of the Jesuit Order.

No doubt, the Jesuit Order is real, enormously powerful, sneaky, and downright murderous. All roads lead to Rome, they say. I actually had a friend whose uncle was a Jesuit, and they treated him like he was in the Mafia. The Pope, himself, is among the most powerful men on the planet, in any sense of the word. Presidents will kiss the Pope's ring. They'll also kneel before the queen. The current pope, one of the most powerful people on the planet, is a Nazi child-molester. George W. Bush has personally kissed his ring.

There is such a thing as a Zionist, and the Zionists really are some of the most evil, murderous, genocidal fucks out there. If you want to see what evil really looks like, go to YouTube or Google Video and look at some of what really goes on in Israel. What pisses me off is that the Zionists hide behind anti-semitism and the Holocaust while they perpetrate Nazi-style genocide against the Palestinians. What pisses me off even more is that its all funded by US tax dollars.

I'm pretty sure there are aliens, too, but I have no solid evidence. I personally am of the opinion that Queen Elizabeth, the Pope, and the George Bushes can be inhumanly evil even if they have no reptilian DNA whatsoever. Hell, maybe they are reptilian-human hybrids, and that's why they interbreed like Appalachian hillbillies, but I've seen no real evidence of that. Not the alien DNA, I mean. There's plenty of evidence of inbreeding among the elite. Hell, take a look at Prince Charles and tell me its okay for cousins to marry.

The bottom line is that there are already plenty of assholes in the world. It doesn't matter if those assholes are Kabalist Jesuit Zionists, Reptilian aliens from Alpha Draconis, or just some rich assholes. Whom do I think it is? I'm so glad you asked. I think its like trying to untie a cobweb. I think they're all real, and they all work together. I think it's like a poker game - every once in a while someone may cheat, or shoot someone, but they're all in the game. Whoever it is, its somebody. That might not make perfect sense... How about this: If you cover your ass, it doesn't matter who's trying to screw you.

Put that on a bumper sticker.

Stings a bit...

It's like he's talking to me. I've said the same thing before, but the realization that everything I do is useless doesn't spur me to action. What am I going to do? Quit my job? I can hear my mom and my ex-wife calling me names already. What do I tell them? Sorry, but the boys are going to have to go without their daddy... for a change... but also without $240 bucks every two weeks. They'll be dumbed down corporate slaves and might get tortured (what do you think tasering is?), imprisoned without cause, and be subject to a totalitarian dictatorship, but they'll have their daddy... at the same 300-mile distance, and $240 every two weeks!

So, after I walk away from my job and abandon my family, I drive my shitty truck as close to DC as it will get me, then walk the rest of the way? I've hitchhiked before. No big deal. If I hang a cardboard sign that says "Washington, DC" on it, I'll have no trouble getting rides. Then what? No, really, what then? I don't fucking know. It's not like I would be surrounded by an army of angry protesters, determined to take decisive action. I would be one unemployed man, shouting at people that don't care while I get tasered and cuffed by the Brown Shirts.

Friends and family reading this might be starting to worry. They know that dropping everything to take on a hopeless cause sounds like just the kind of thing I might have done, a decade ago, in my impetuous youth.

Maybe you should worry. I ain't that damn old. I just don't want to be this guy (Not pictured: Those tanks rolling right over his ass five seconds later):

Remembering 9/11

I hope you'll forgive me if I don't make the obligatory sympathetic noises. You'll hear them a thousand times, today. A lot of people died, and a few people profited. The world was shocked and awed. I personally have no trouble believing 9/11 was an inside job, but it's not my main focus.

My main focus are those that are still alive. My concern is the attack on American freedom that followed 9/11, regardless of who brought those buildings down. My concern is the blood on my hands from the vengeful killing of over a million innocent people that had nothing to do with 9/11. I smell it when I breathe. I taste it when I eat. I leave it on everything I touch.

That's it. Sorry.

Republican vs. Democrat

You probably know who George Bush is. You probably know who Hillary Clinton is. You may or may not know who I am, or be familiar with my previous rants.

I'm pretty new on the political scene, and once said "I can't tell the difference between Republicans and Democrats, except maybe which pocket they're going to pick."

That was a while back, and I've spent more than a little time looking into it. I offer my opinion now, not as an expert, but as the observations of an outsider looking in.

George W. Bush is not a Republican. Hillary Clinton is not a Democrat. You've heard the word "Neo-Con" before. Neo-Con is typically applied to Republicans, because it's the Republicans' turn to look like the bad guys. Neo-Cons have infiltrated the Republican Party.

Likewise, socialists have infiltrated the Democratic Party.

I want you to absorb this, because it may save your life and keep you free: The media is now driving the herd towards the Democrats, using Republican scandals and George W. Bush as cattle prods. Don't be cattle. You're not smart for thinking in a particular way. You're smart for thinking. Think! Don't be blinded by party.

Michael Moore was interviewed by We Are Change about 9/11 Truth, and Ron Paul was mentioned. Michael Moore said "He's got the wrong letter after his name." I'm not going to bash Michael Moore (google Michael Moore, and you'll find plenty of bashing), but I find his attitude to be common. Reprehensibly so.

The "Democrats" will not save you. In '06 a majority of Democratic congressmen were elected, not because of their merit, but because everyone hates George W. Bush, and thinks he's a Republican. But the Dems have been infiltrated by the same cabal. Regardless of which party you vote for, you're still voting CFR, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg, corporate lobbyists, and criminals.

The only exceptions are Ron Paul on the Republican side, and Dennis Kucinich (maybe) on the Democrat side. Honestly, I haven't looked too deeply into Kucinich, but people whose opinions I value have expressed their support for him. Hillary has scared me away from the Democrats, perhaps, as George Bush has scared many good people away from the Republicans.

Just so you know, I think Ronald Reagan was one of least consequential presidents ever to hold the office. George H.W. Bush, Skull and Bones member and former director of the CIA (right before Bill Clinton apologized to America for the government's secret experiments on unsuspecting civilians and soldiers - oh, how soon we forget!) was the power behind the throne, there. Reagan was an actor, and not worthy even of derision.

My point is, don't shy away from Ron Paul because he's a member of the Republican Party. Hillary may be in a different party from the Bushes, but she's just as evil, and just as criminal.

Obama... Obama came out of nowhere, and decided to run for president for no good reason. His job is to make bull-dyke Hillary look more electable. It was almost obscene, though, the way Jon Stewart fellated Obama on the Daily Show last Thursday. I thought Jon was straight. I guess you never can tell...

Here it comes...

In October of last year, after reading an article in the Dallas Morning News about pending legislation to "strengthen" 401K plans, I hopped immediately on my old blog and pronounced "The stock market will crash within a year." To be honest, I couldn't tell you what, specifically, about that article gave me the impression. It just seemed like someone higher up the economic food-chain was desperate to get more money invested in the stock market. Why so desperate? When I encounter that kind of desperation, I'm usually dealing with either a salesman or a criminal (as if there were a difference). A year seemed like about the right time frame.

So, it's been almost eleven months. I'll give credit to Alex Jones (I think he's read my blog) for pointing out the story on PrisonPlanet.com. The original story came from Dow Jones Financial News.

As I said nearly a year ago, I'm not worried, because I have nothing to lose, nothing that can be taken away. You might want to worry, though. There is a "They," and "They" are going to crash the stock market, soon. Did you buy food? Maybe plant a garden? Put some money away in precious metals? Of course not. You didn't even buy a gun, did you? I don't like to gloat, but that may be because I rarely get the chance. If it turns out I'm not crazy, my dying words will be "I told you so," and I'll laugh like hell.

So, to recap: Lord Bush recently signs a series of Executive Orders and Presidential Directives granting himself "emergency" dictatorial powers that Hitler or Stalin wouldn't have had the balls to put on paper, and the stock market is about to crash.

I'm buying a shotgun with my next check. When the food line winds past the mass graves, wave at me.

Being mean to the troops...

I'm about to piss someone off. I don't care, I'm just aware of the likelihood.

You can probably guess how I feel about the war. I argue with people about it. It boggles my mind how so many obviously intelligent people can regurgitate such inane garbage. I've had the distinct pleasure of discussing the matter with a couple of "ex-military," recently.

I'll cut the second one short. I was told I just don't understand what we're fighting for over there. I asked "What are we fighting for over there?" I'm still waiting for an answer.

This is the one that's been stuck in my craw for a couple of weeks. I'll cut it short and get to the point, because we argued for hours (while we smoked bowl after bowl). The troops don't want to come home, I'm told. They would feel bad if they "left without finishing the job." We'll leave aside the fact that he couldn't explain what the "job" was, either, and I will make my statement:

Dear Troops,
You work for me. When I tell you to come home, I will not be asking how you feel about it. And quit being such a dick. There is no doubt in my mind that, when you do come home, you'll be bug-fucked crazy, and you'll get a job as a cop somewhere. I already hate cops. Ex-military cops are the worst. Stay out of my police force. Quit telling me how many ways you know to kill a man, too. That's just creepy.

Love,
Matt

...slave owners slept lightly, with weapons close at hand...

I've been thinking about slavery.

Slavery didn't start in America. Slavery is as old as civilization, and I doubt there’s been a day of human civilization without it. Slavery still goes on today. Social opposition to slavery (not counting opposition from the slaves themselves) is a recent development, only a few hundred years old.

The Jews, according to the Old Testament, were everyones' slaves at one point or other. They were slaves of the Egyptians, but they weren't the Egyptians' first slaves. We're talking about thousands of years ago, now, and on into pre-history. Being slaves of the Egyptians didn't prevent the Jews from enslaving others, either. That was the way things were, back then. You conquered someone and enslaved them for a couple of generations, then you got conquered, and it was your turn.

In the age of exploration leading into the colonial era slavery became big business, and dark-skinned people were exported to the colonies. This nation was built on the backs of slaves, abused immigrants, and children. It wasn't until the industrial revolution and the invention of free time that Joe Nineteenth-Century-American, little more than a slave himself, was able to look at slavery and say "That's messed up." Not everyone in the South was happy with the practice, either. Of the white population at the time, only five percent held slaves - the wealthy land-owners. In defense of crackers everywhere(always down for my crackers): The term "cracker" does not mean "One who cracks, as in a whip.” Crackers typically didn't own slaves. They were dirt-farmers, and had to work their own land with their own hands. Slavery's biggest fans have always been the large commercial interests, maximizing profits with conscript labor.

By the time of the American Civil War, slavery was internationally frowned upon, and America was under pressure to do away with it. And so the brave and selfless Yankees took up arms and fought to free the slaves from the evil clutches of the South, but they wouldn't stand next to a black man on the battlefield, and made them fight in segregated units. The evil South was vanquished, and slavery was ended everywhere, forever, and Matt Hanson went and bought a Yankees cap. The End. Houghton Mifflin, New York.

Slavery didn’t end, though. It's everywhere, in varying degrees. It still happens all the time.

Why I Hate Socialism and the IRS, by Matt Hanson...

Federal Income Tax -167.10
Social Security Tax -101.52
Medicare Tax -23.74
Total deductions =292.36

That's a car payment. That's more than half my rent. That's gas and groceries for a month, out of a two-week check.

I won't get into the IRS. For more info I recommend Aaron Russo's America: Freedom to Fascism, or The Money Masters, or if you're interested in no longer paying the "voluntary" income tax, Irwin Schiff's Secrets of Living an Income Tax-Free Life. Be careful though. Schiff got thirteen years, after his judge declared several Supreme Court decisions "irrelevant," and saying "I will not allow the law in my courtroom."

Social Security is a ponzi scheme. It is an established fact that by the time I reach retirement age there will be no such thing as social security. If you know anyone receiving social security payments, you know they aren't actually enough to "retire" on. Why am I paying? I could buy a couple hundred bucks worth of gold a month and retire quite nicely, thank you.

Medicare... I don't even know much about it. I don't think I have it, and I know I've never used it, but I pay nearly fifty bucks a month for it. The money that was taken out of my check just for these two weeks would pay my cable and electric for the month. That money is the difference between struggling to make ends meet, and living at a marginally comfortable level. I wouldn't be well off by any means, but I wouldn't have to live on ramen and frozen pizzas.

This is a problem for me. I'm taking this personally.

Hookers and Hollow-points...

If you're like me you've wondered why, in old cowboy movies, guys could take a dozen rounds from a .44 and live. The answer is simple: Those weren't hollow-points.

This is the problem. This is a semi-jacketed hollow-point, typically found in pistols on the hips of cops. That center projection is to improve penetration. As you can see, on impact, that copper jacket peels back to become a razor-sharp, jagged bundle of metal. The lead core flattens and spreads out, maximizing damage.

This is called Hydra-Shock ammo. This is a reference to hydrostatic shock - the transference of energy through the water that makes up most of a human body. Cell walls are shredded, ruptured, and the damage spreads out much farther than the actual impact area of the projectile. It's also called stopping power, because people stop when one of these hits them. They stop for a long time. A wound from one of these will never heal properly. Depending on the range, a hollow-point will either lodge in the body, leaving scattered and irretrievable fragments, or blow all the way through, leaving a fist-sized hole coming out. Either way, no one hit by one of these will ever be the same again.

Someone sat down and designed this. They said "Bullets just don't kill effectively enough," and thought of ways to make bullets meaner. Then they sold these to Officer Friendly. Officer Friendly has been trained since day one on the force to think everyone that's not a cop is a potential cop-killer. "Protect and Serve" is just PR. They see it as Us and Them. Officer Friendly loves hollow-points.

Hookers...

I envy those of you that have that filter, that "I don't want to think about that" filter, that allows you to hear the screams of all the cattle ahead of you, and the splashes as their guts hit the kill-floor, and tell yourselves it's the wind. I wish I had that. Those of you that don't have that filter, welcome aboard. Don't be tempted by madness or depression. There's work to be done.

If you're wondering why I mention hookers, I get more hits that way. Sad but true.

It doesn't work that way...

I just heard about this. I haven't been paying attention in the past couple of days. Sorry I'm late.

First of all, jet fuel is not gasoline. It doesn't detonate, it just burns. It's fuel-oil. It would no more blow an underground pipeline than the burning oilfields in Kuwait would have blown huge craters in the earth, or your kerosene lantern would explode when you light the wick. Even gasoline has to be aerosolized to explode. That's what a carburetor is for. This is blatant fear-mongering. The damage done would be minimal by terroristic standards, in a localized area, and probably more to property than to people. Those tanks are double-hulled, spaced a ways from each other, and really far from the rest of the airport. Those tanks are designed with fire-prevention and damage control in mind. Using conventional explosives as an igniter there would be a huge fireball, and big fire that would be immediately put out by the the fire-crew on standby, trained to handle that exact situation. There would be no blast wave other than from the igniter, and only the area directly exposed to oxygen would burn. This is sixth-grade science. The underground fuel pipeline would not explode under a residential neighborhood. They think of things like that before they put fuel pipelines under neighborhoods.

And never mind the virtual impossibility of delivering or planting explosives anywhere near those tanks. They wouldn't reach the tanks in a truck, on a suicide run. They wouldn't be able to wear vests of dynamite and stand next to the tanks, or ninja in and plant big bombs on the bare metal. All the firemen on standby right there would see them, even if there were no bomb-sniffing dogs or men with machine-guns all over that airport.

According to a Fox News report, these guys made multiple trips to Guyana to obtain funds and support. These guys were at it for eighteen months, and couldn't find anyone to help them. Aside from the fact that their plan just wouldn't work, everyone is so scared of America that they wouldn't dare assist. We level entire countries when anyone messes with us. Not necessarily the right country, but Guyana doesn't have the oil that Saudi Arabia does. We would swat them, and it would hardly make the American news.

I haven't found anything saying what these guys are charged with. No doubt they're charged with something, but I hope it's not terrorism. They had no explosives, and after the FBI followed them for eighteen months, twelve of them using an "informant," they still had nothing concrete in the works. Conspiracy, maybe, but even a conspiracy charge requires an actual crime to have been committed. "Intentions" aren't a crime. There's a misdemeanor charge of "Terroristic Threats," or maybe a bomb-scare law might apply, but only if they made a declaration of their intentions to their intended victims. A "threat." From what I understand, in a typical bust situation, when law enforcement has an informant, or are legitimately monitoring the actions of a suspected criminal after having demonstrated probably cause before a judge, they wait until a law is broken before they make an arrest. They perform something referred to in the movies as a "sting operation." They catch them in the act, taking delivery of explosives, for example.

I have no doubt these guys hate Israel. The government of Israel makes this administration look like the Care Bears. Most of the prominent figures in Israeli government have been war criminals in an undeclared war, who dropped British-supplied artillery shells on residential neighborhoods in Palestine before rolling in with their British-supplied tanks and arms and running off or killing the survivors. For a long time, the UN didn't recognize Israel as a country, and referred to it as "Occupied Palestine." There was a UN resolution to that effect, but I can't remember the number off-hand. I don't want to look it up, and get the FBI's attention. The Israeli regime is brutal. The Israeli military uses Palestinians as human-shields, and drops cluster-bombs on civilian neighborhoods. A lot of people in that area are very unhappy with Israel. Our tax dollars pay for Israel's military. A lot of people around there resent that, too.

This informant was a twice-convicted drug-dealer. Has anyone ever heard of the three-strikes rule? What I would be interested to know is how, exactly, the gentleman came to contact the FBI, and at what point did these guys stop talking about how they could "totally blow up those tanks" to flying to Guyana looking for foreign support?

These guys are obviously not very smart, though. Aside from a plan a sixth-grader knows wouldn't work, these guys chose their target for ill-conceived reasons. One of the guys used to work there, so it was a target of convenience. For some reason, they were expecting a blast, a detonation wave, that would damage the control tower, and hurt our economy. Let me say this to any potential terrorist out there: You can't hurt our economy by blowing things up. Our economy is based almost entirely on weapons. When you blow shit up, the people you hate get richer. This Defreitas guy apparently misjudges American sentiment towards airports named after presidents, too. I don't think, in twenty years, anyone will say "I remember where I was when I heard about the fire at JFK Airport." What I'm saying is that he fits the same description of all the other "home-grown terror cells" that have been manufactured over the past several years. They're borderline retarded, in close contact with someone that will do whatever the FBI says in order to avoid life in prison for strike three, and not one inch of det-cord past the "early planning stages."

There has not been a death on American soil from "terrorism" since 9/11. Federal law enforcement is batting a thousand against terrorism. It's unprecedented. It's too good to be true. It's bullshit. This is a sham. This is perpetrated. This is manipulation of the masses. Please don't fall for it.

Corporate Psychopaths...

I have no head for business. I care too much for things like honor and integrity to be successful in a corporate atmosphere. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, either. Maybe that's why I don't understand this.

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Dell, the No. 2 PC maker, reported sales and profits Thursday that handily beat Wall Street forecasts and announced it would cut its staff by 10 percent over the next 12 months."

I'm not a big fan of corporations. A while back, when my dad was alive, he worked for the same company for over twenty years. ConAgra bought that company, and wanted to clean house. Dad was pushing fifty, making six figures a year, and running the show. ConAgra gave him the option of leaving the company, or moving to Georgia to do twice the work for the same pay. They were trying to run him off, because a twenty-something kid just out of college would do the same job for a fraction of the pay. Dad wasn't much of a quitter, so he made the move, and died in Georgia. I've always blamed ConAgra, and I always will. (Fuck you, ConAgra.)

Now, I don't exactly have my MBA (though I've had two MBAs working for me, at NRS and Papa John's - "I'm so smart, I went to school for seven extra years, got my MBA, and now I work for a high-school drop-out!"), but I've worked for a handful of corporations. Telling my employees that the pay-cut they just took would be good for them in the long run used to be part of my job. I used to say things like:

"'While reductions in headcount are always difficult for a company, we know these actions are critical to our ability to deliver unprecedented value to our customers now and in the future,' Michael Dell said in a statement."

If you were wondering, that's what bullshit smells like. I prefer the acrid smell of truth:

"The Board of Directors, as representatives of the stockholders, is committed to the achievement of business success and the enhancement of long-term stockholder value with the highest standards of integrity and ethics. In that regard, the Board has adopted these principles to provide an effective corporate governance framework for Dell, intending to reflect a set of core values that provide the foundation for Dell's governance and management systems and its interactions with others."

A little further digging, and I found this, which equates a corporation, which is a juristic person and has all the legal rights and protections of an individual, but none of the responsibility, actually qualifies as a psychopathic personality, and is bound by law to do whatever evil, underhanded, backstabbing shit possible to squeeze out a few extra pennies for the stockholders.

Wait... bound by law? How did that happen? Ah, corporate lobbyists. Special interests throwing money and catamites (look it up) at Congressmen and Senators. So that means Schoolhouse Rock lied to me. Now I'm really mad.

The Terrorist Threat...

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency, evidence has been uncovered indicating a vast terror network may be operating on American soil. These potential terrorists may be of any religion, race, or walk of life - possibly even someone you know. In fact, as you read this, you may be surrounded by potential terrorists.

Homeland Security reports that the infrastructure exists to clandestinely arrest and execute any of these terror suspects without warning, or even cause. After years of investigation and information gathering enough is known about this vast terror network, known as "Americans," that any suspect or group of suspects can be pinpointed to within a meter of their actual location.

Homeland Security requires you to be vigilant. If you see any of these "Americans," report them immediately, or they may eat your children.

Why are you so political..?

I was asked that, yesterday. I didn't think I was political. I just thought I was ethical. Murder is wrong. Stealing is wrong. Lying is wrong. We're not talking "No, those pants don't make your ass look fat" lying, we're talking "This is why you should send your kids off to die" lying. There is no excuse. There is no justification. There is no point at which these things become right, or even less wrong. Don't give me that speech about omelettes and broken eggs, either. People aren't eggs, and if you're eating people omelettes, you are one sick puppy, and have no business in a leadership position.

I've been told I have a black and white view of the world. That's not entirely true. There are all those shades of grey, sure, but there's still white at one end, and black at the other. Murder, theft, and deception are all pretty damn black.

And one other thing - Nearly twenty years ago we started shouting "No blood for oil." The blood was spent, anyway, so where the hell is the oil? Did Bush and Bush II think we meant "Blood for no oil?" Exxon/Mobil, Shell, and British Petroleum report record profits every quarter, and we pay record-breaking prices for gas every year, but we're sitting on three of the largest untapped oilfields in the world in Iraq. Which part of that equation adds up? Here's an idea: Let's pull out of Iraq, and buy oil from them at a reasonable rate. They'll have an economy that isn't based on chlorine gas, and we won't have to kill civilians, torture people, or put black bags on old ladies' heads before throwing them down the oubliette. This is a good plan.

Farmers Branch, New Orleans, and the Federal Government...

From the Houston Chronicle: "It says especially to Congress that we're tired of the out-of-control illegal immigration problem. That if Congress doesn't do something about it, cities will,'' said Tim O'Hare, a City Council member who was the ordinance's lead proponent.

This isn't about immigration, or illegal aliens.

This isn't about race, or nationality, or even quality of character.

While I'm watching a guy get his face slammed into concrete by the cops while illegals trash his car unmolested, I see a sign asking "Were the pilgrims legal immigrants?"

America is not a nation founded by immigrants. America is a nation of conquerers. America is what happens when people with guns meet people with stone-age technology. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it's the way it is. Veni, vidi, vici, and here we are. Then someone decided that some poor European peasants would be perfect cheap labor to work in their new "industrial revolution" factories, and put up a sign that said "Send us your poor," and so on.

As shitty and underhanded as America is, it's still the best country there is. That's why everyone else is trying to get here. I can't blame them. In most countries, the people live under the same thumb I keep trying to dodge. If I could find a better country, I would be on anything that floats, trying to swim there, and they would be blogging about me. Keep in mind, however, that even though I understand their motivation doesn't mean I want America to become a third-world country.

And that's exactly what's happening. Immigrant labor raises our taxes and drives down our wages. You might not care, with your college degree and salary, but I'm unskilled labor. Those are my wages being driven down. You'd better believe I care.

So Farmers Branch passes a law to prevent property managers from renting to illegal aliens, and I cheer. I cheer, and I'm an asshole not being sympathetic to the plight of the illegals. I must be a racist. Added to that, I'm told, it places the responsibility of the Federal Government on landlords.

Fuck landlords. Fuck the Feds. The Feds aren't doing the job. The Feds aren't doing a lot of jobs. If the Feds aren't doing the Feds' job, should the job go undone? Maybe we should quit expecting so much from our government. As far as I'm concerned, the government's job is to fix my roads and my sewers, and stay the hell out of my way.

Think back on New Orleans, when my ex-girlfriend Katrina trashed the Gulf Coast. (I'm about to defend George Bush - someone call the papers.) Katrina wipes out New Orleans, and everyone got mad at Bush for not responding more quickly, when all the Federal Government had to do was stay out of the way. The City of New Orleans failed her people, the State of Louisiana failed her people, but everyone was mad at George Bush, who was hundreds of miles away, right where he belongs, and kinda useless, anyway. I don't understand why anyone expected anything from him in the first place. But everyone wants the Feds involved, so FEMA goes in there and fucks up the job some motivated citizens could've done for themselves. The cops, National Guard, and Blackwell Security (the military arm of Halliburton) went door to door, confiscating everyones' guns, locking everyone out of their homes, and then leaving them to twist in the wind. Crime skyrockets, and National Guard troops, fresh from combat in Afghanistan and unaccustomed to civil law enforcement (There's a reason for that), get a little jumpy and start shooting black people. "Temporary shelters," aka "trailer-homes," sit empty for over a year, and are eventually ruined without ever actually sheltering anyone, even temporarily. Millions of dollars are wasted on bureaucracy and red tape, while next to nothing is accomplished, and people remain, to this day, locked out of their own homes under penalty of arrest. The Feds could've sent some money, some food and water, some medicine, but otherwise stayed out of it, and fewer people would've died.

Then we have the Minutemen. In Arizona, they shoot Mexicans illegally crossing the border. It's too bad people have to die over it, but I'm not that sorry. The National Guard and Border Patrol hand out job applications to border-jumpers, so it falls to citizens to carry out the responsibilities that were once entrusted to the government. There is a reason they're called "illegal" aliens. There are laws governing admittance to this country. Ridiculously lax laws, that are apparently only enforced if you're an American trying to leave or come back. Next time, just jump the border and cut through some red tape. I read somewhere that a Mexican citizen had to demonstrate economic viability in order to immigrate, and that economic viability is not something you find littering the streets of Mexico. Think that's mean? Try emigrating to Canada. You, with your college education and marketable skills, would probably have to jump the border.

Think of America as your yard, and your house. You're pretty gracious, and all anyone has to do is ring your doorbell to gain entrance to your home. If someone sneaked in through the window, moved in, ate your food, ran up your cost of living, and took half of your paycheck, you wouldn't like it. You might go so far as to ask them to leave, regardless of where they were from or what color they were. You might even shoot them, if you caught them in the act, and had the means.

In reality, you would probably call the cops, who would get there just in time to tag you and photograph the crime-scene, and make sure there aren't any suspicious donuts in the area. You would do it because you've been trained all your life to be dependent on the government, rather than to be responsible for yourself.

Mushroom Clouds are Kinda Pretty...

I spent all day trying to think of something to say that might not induce suicide in the reader. I used to be a fun guy. I used to sing karaoke. Now, I see poison, and walking corpses everywhere.

One of my old in-stores from Papa John's in Allen, Eric, killed himself last week. Hung himself in his mom's garage. I don't feel bad about it, really. Everybody dies. Pretty mean thing to do to his mom, though.

On the lighter side of things, I rode my bike through a waist-high field of indian paintbrushes yesterday, completely free from fear of bee-stings. I haven't seen a bee yet, this year. There. That's pretty fucking cheerful.

"There was no dissent..." Truth is dead.

From AOL News:

"There was no dissent about the importance of the U.S. military mission in Iraq. "

I hope you'll take one minute, twenty-one seconds of your busy Sunday to hear Ron Paul's comments from the Republican Debate regarding the war in Iraq:



Do we have a mission in Iraq? Are we there to give democracy to the Iraqi people whether they want it or not? We were tricked into going. This is common knowledge. Seriously, if you don't have a full understanding of why we went to Iraq, and what we're doing there, send me an email, and I will explain it to you so thouroughly that you will die a little, inside, from gazing into the depths of human depravity and greed. Ron Paul is the only candidate who has said we must get out of Iraq without hesitation. The time-table is "Everybody on the plane! You're going home, right now."

As far as the blatant dishonesty of the media, I'm not sure why I'm bothering to complain. The media elected Hillary months ago. I can't turn on the TV for five minutes without seeing that.

From the same AOL article:

"The Iraq comments contrasted sharply with last week's debate among Democratic presidential hopefuls.

"Then, eight presidential hopefuls called for an end to the military involvement that so far has claimed the lives of more than 3,300 U.S. troops."

The herd is being driven toward the Democrats, toward Hillary. Obama is there to make white Americans think about whether they would prefer a black man or a white woman for president. If you're shocked that I would say so, too bad. It's the game. It's not just the game, it's the sucker-play. It's the Rope-a-Dope. It's setting 'em up and knocking 'em down. I've lost too many chess games to not see it.

Please, wake up.

Who's paranoid?

There are two people I know that read this. There is one other Anonymous commenter who has read this at least once. I hope you came back. I want to save as many as I can.

I almost got in a fight with a co-worker at a pool-hall the other day. I was talking about the failing dollar, the Federal Reserve, and the "housing bubble." My friend just bought a motorcycle. He doesn't want to hear it. He wants everything to be okay.

I want everything to be okay, too, but EVERYTHING IS NOT OKAY.

Forget, for a moment, that the dollar is failing. Set aside the fact that the Federal Reserve is inflating our money-supply by $20-billion a week. Ignore the countless illegal immigrants flooding our labor-pool. Right now I want to talk about some downright apocalyptic shit. I'm going to spell it out for you, and I want you to pay attention, because I want you to survive.

I've mentioned the dying bees before, and I've been looking into it. Several people knowledgeable on the subject of beekeeping have expressed opinions, and studies have been done in France and Germany. Everything I've read about it (that didn't come from American media), regardless of the proposed cause, agrees on two points: This is happening just about everywhere, and if the bees go, mankind follows. That sounds sensational even to me. Some people will survive, I'm sure, just not many, and not you or me.

One of the proposed causes for the disappearance of trillions of bees is (drum-roll) cellphones. That one's so retarded I'm not even going to cover it further. It's not cellphones. Cellphones are radios, and many more powerful radios have been around far longer than cellphones. Even HAARP has been around too long to be the culprit.

The most commonly proposed cause is genetically modified food, as reported by Spiegel. GM foods, as they're known, have DNA from a toxic bacteria inserted into their own DNA to make them naturally resistant to insects. These foods produce a natural insecticide that makes them poisonous. The bees eat the pollen, and the toxin in the pollen destroys their immune systems, and they die.

From the article in Spiegel: "In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known bee viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most have disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time and were infested with fungi -- a sign, experts say, that the insects' immune system may have collapsed.

"The scientists are also surprised that bees and other insects usually leave the abandoned hives untouched. Nearby bee populations or parasites would normally raid the honey and pollen stores of colonies that have died for other reasons, such as excessive winter cold. "This suggests that there is something toxic in the colony itself which is repelling them," says Cox-Foster."

Going almost hand-in-hand with the GM foods is a study done by the French government specifically naming Gaucho, a pesticide made by Bayer. A perfect example of poison killing things.

My personal opinion on genetically modified food: Dying bees aside, genetically modified food is a bad idea. Pesticides are bad enough when one has the ability to wash them off. When these pesticides are an integral part of the food, it is no longer "food," but "pesticide." If I have a bug problem, I will buy some Bt corn, because a few ears of corn are cheaper than a can of Raid. If I'm hungry... Well, damn. Even organics are suspect, now, thanks to cross-pollination. An organic farmer has no way of ensuring that their crop has not been contaminated. One independent canola farmer in Canada, Percy Schmeiser, lost fifteen years of seed cultivation when his crops were contaminated with genetically modified canola from neighboring farms. The large commercial farms love it, though, because they get to sell more of their poisonous product unmolested by insects that die when they eat it.

One other proposed cause for mass disappearances of bees is the same increased sun activity that is causing global warming, or global warming itself, by either confusing the bees' navigation systems through increased electromagnetic activity, or by having their reproductive cycle interrupted by unseasonably warm winters.

Regardless of the cause, dying bees means unpollinated crops, which means scarcity, which means food prices rise. Coupled with the reduced buying power of the dollar and the ready-to-burst housing bubble, and the climate shift, this spells famine and pestilence, right here in America. Like you, assuming you're an American, I was raised to believe that nothing bad can happen to Americans. Americans don't starve, or die of diseases that might be considered "plagues." Americans don't get cholera, or typhoid, or polio. Those things happen to poor, misguided foreigners that didn't have the good sense to be born here.

I'm really not trying to depress anyone. My mom always gets depressed when I mention this shit. If I were trying to depress anyone, I would mention the eventual heat-death of the universe, and the absolute futility of existence in any form. That's depressing. I just want you to take precautions. Will it hurt you to set aside some canned goods? Canned goods are pretty cheap, and you can eat them whether you're starving, or just peckish. Will it hurt to buy some silver, just in case? Precious metals are a great long-term investment even if the world doesn't end. You should get a water filter, anyway, because pure water is a great idea, even if the seas don't rise, and crop failures don't cause worldwide hunger. Get a gun, too, because it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

You won't need a foil hat, though. That's a myth. The aliens can read your mind right through it, so you might as well maintain some degree of dignity.

Kerosene, Chemotherapy, and Enemy Combatants...

There's nowhere to go. I would much rather run than fight, but running is no longer an option.

The entire history of western civilization has been a slow westward migration. Men and their families, unwilling to live under the thumb of the King, or the Church, or the money-changers, escaped ever westward to the wilderness, and freedom. From Mesopotamia to Europe, from Europe to the Americas, from the east coast to the west coast, we ran. But the King followed us. The Church followed us. The money-changers followed us. Like ticks and fleas they rode our backs, draining us, growing fat on our blood, spreading their malaise.

Money-changers. Carpetbaggers. Profiteers with names like Rothschild, Rockefeller, Mellon, Bush, Carnegie, Warburg, Windsor (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha), and Orange-Nassau. They bring us world wars, central banking, defense contracting, the pharmaceuticals industry, television, communism, colonialism, peak oil, Nazis, and the USA PATRIOT Act.

When there's nowhere left to run, it's time to fight, but I don't know how. I'm not smart enough. It's not like David Rockefeller is going to stand within reach, so I could punch him in the throat. Beatrix Orange-Nassau is a girl, and you don't hit girls, no matter what. Corporations can't be fought - they're abstract concepts. I try to think of ways to combat parasites, or cancer...

Escape from the USA part 4: Ground Control to Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is generally acknowledged to be a pretty smart guy. Stephen Hawking really wants off this planet.

Professor Hawking fears for the survival of the human species. I have to disagree with the good Professor: Humanity will survive, but the how and the who remain in question. I've been looking for another country to live in, or barring that, my own island, but Stephen Hawking has me wondering if I'm thinking big enough.

I need a frontier. There aren't any more frontiers. We're all over this damn planet. A couple of hundred years ago, all one had to do was move west a little, kill all the indians that were already there, and it was free land for the taming. Now all the land is either full or uninhabitable. Antarctica will have some available landmass before too long, but the U.N. will probably claim dominion over it and restrict settlement.

Space... That's a tough one. It's pretty hard to get into space, and pretty hard to stay alive once there. NASA and the other space agencies have all the rockets, and even then, they're limited to the neighborhood of earth orbit. I've heard reports that a permanent manned colony is scheduled to be put on Mars by 2020, but it's going to be a corporate mining colony. I would hate to go all that way to be a corporate slave. I can do that here.

Mars might be too much of a project-planet, anyway. If I went to Mars today and started terraforming, it wouldn't have a breathable atmosphere in my lifetime, and I don't want to live in a can, breathing recycled air. An Earth-like planet has been discovered, a mere twenty light-years away, that might be promising. It reportedly has a similar climate, though I couldn't say as to the atmospheric composition. Twenty light-years is quite a jaunt, too. Conventional rocket technology isn't going to get me there, even if I could hitch a ride.

Einstein said faster-than-light travel is impossible. Who am I to argue with Einstein? Looking at this stuff gives me a headache. Quantum, as far as I'm concerned, means more math than I can contend with. I'm not real thrilled with math as the ultimate expression of reality, anyway. Theoretical physicists are great if one wants to know the circumference of the universe at .1259-to-the-negative-zillionth seconds into the big bang, but they tend to be discouraging when it comes to practical applications. Time travel, for instance, is supposed to be theoretically possible but would require infinite energy. Let me just open up this can of infinite energy, then. I would rather hear what some engineers have to say about it. Maybe I'll ask after this headache clears up.

Damn theoretical physicists. You just can't argue with them! They start talking about paradoxes (paradoci?) and throw up some equations... I can't check their math. They could just be making stuff up, for all I know.

Maybe aliens could give me a lift. I believe in aliens. I believe in UFOs. I do not believe that aliens or UFOs have any direct bearing on my life. I wouldn't trust them, though, if I met them. Would you travel light-years to shake hands with someone? During the golden years of British Colonialism, did the Brits cross the Atlantic to shake hands and make friends with people? No, they went for profit, and had no more regard for indigenous populations than they did for the dodos on Galapagos. H.G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds after witnessing the treatment of indigenous peoples by British Colonial forces. Wells' Martians wouldn't be likely to offer a ride.

Even Stephen Hawking, perhaps one of the smartest people ever, can't get a ride off this rock. I may have to settle for Antarctica, after all. If I see a UFO with the keys in it, though...

It has to be okay not to like each other...

We're not going to agree, I promise you. Not everyone will ever agree on anything. Hell, three people can't agree what to order on a pizza. Throw politics, religion, or race into the mix, and the world can turn into a shit-storm. (I just got spell-checked on shitstorm.) It has to be okay to disagree.

This guy called for the extermination of white people on C_SPAN. I didn't hear, see , or read anything about it on the news. It's not even that big a deal to me. It's not even worth getting mad about. This was before Imus, too. Of course, whites neither have nor need an Al Sharpton to drum up publicity over verbal slights against caucasians. Such comments are generally perceived as ignorant - like Imus. No one is crying out for this guy's blood, nor should they. Most of the comments about it are "Wow. That's dumb." This guy, though, he has to think about it for a second.

That's all it takes. You don't have to pass a law that makes it illegal to say stupid shit. People are going to be stupid. Stupid people will say stupid things. You can't make it illegal, or everyone would go to jail.

I know, this bill focuses on speech related to violence. That can't be a bad thing, right? Except that violence is already illegal. There was a case in the Dallas Morning News a year or so ago, involving high-school kids. Two guys did such horrifying things to another boy that I won't get into specifics, but the big story was not how two human beings could do that to another, it was about how they called the kid a 'spic' while they did it. The papers all said that that made it racially motivated crime, though it was also reported that the victim had somehow disrespected the sister of one of the assailants. I have a sister. Disrespecting my sister might earn someone a solid beating, and possibly some name-calling, but what these kids did... They were sick, and everyone was concerned about what they said to the guy? That's sick. Violence is already illegal. Speech is just words.

The people most concerned about the passage of H.R. 1592 seem to be christians, due to the fact that they teach that homosexuality is wrong. Homosexuality is actually pretty gross. What someone does in the privacy of their own bedroom is their business, but that doesn't mean anyone has to like it. It has to be okay not to like gay people. I've heard of gay-bashing, and it's wrong to go around beating people up, regardless of the reason. Besides, a lot of them are in pretty good shape. They're not gay because they're scared.

People need to toughen up, I think. What happened to sticks and stones? When I hear someone say something dumb like that I tell them how dumb it is, and why. I don't call the cops.

While still on the topic of race, I would like to point out, on behalf of white people everywhere, that George Bush is not white. George Bush is some kind of reptilian alien bent on the destruction of the earth, and does not in any way represent whites as a whole. We're actually pretty cool, once you get to know us.

If you don't hate me yet, you will in a second...

Switzerland is well known for it's neutrality, it's cheese, Ricola, and little dwarves guarding hoards of gold under the Alps. They speak German, French, Italian, and Romansh, which I've never heard of. I took two years of German in high-school, and while I remember maybe a dozen words of German, it would come right back if I immersed myself in it.

We could learn a lot from the Swiss, but I won't go there. There are too many bankers in Switzerland, and the international banking families are why the world is so screwed up right now. I love everything I've heard about the Swiss and Switzerland, but they shelter the assets of the most evil people in the world. How neutral is that? All the Swiss are armed, so we'll need to hit them with air-strikes and pound those mountains flat, and to hell with the gold.

Yes, I said that. I said we need to bomb Switzerland flat for their contributions to global oligarchy, and I don't even kill spiders. Think about it.

Escape from the USA, Interlude: California uber Alles

You've probably seen the commercial: Ahnold walking along the beach, saying "Velcome to California." "Every day in California is your lucky day."

Every day in California you're lucky to be alive. That commercial didn't show the slums, or the homeless sleeping in doorways about a hundred yards from that very beach. It didn't show Torrance, or Compton, or Oakland, or the parts of Hollywood that don't have stars on the sidewalk. Ahnold wasn't walking down La Cienega, wondering if that guy by the dumpster was sleeping or dead.

I guess the California tourism industry isn't what it used to be. I expect that kind of commercial from Oklahoma, Missouri, West Virginia, Utah, Wisconsin, maybe even New Mexico or Arizona. Not that there's anything wrong with those states, but they're not exactly as high-profile as California, or New York. I've seen Texas tourism ads, too, while visiting other states.

I've been to nineteen of the states, and California was my least favorite. There are some beautiful places in California. California has sun-swept beaches, snow-capped mountains, Big Sur, the Redwoods, the Petrified Forest, and the mighty Los Angeles River. San Luis Obispo is by far the most beautiful place I've ever been, but I won't go back if I can help it. The Californians fuck it all up.

Escape from the USA part 3: Snails are not Food

I like to give France a hard time, but that's mainly because I know they won't fight back. The food isn't really all that bad, but snails are disgusting under any circumstances. It seems that, like the Chinese, the French are willing to cook and eat any part of anything that can't out-run them. Unlike the Chinese, however, the French want to smother it all in mushroom sauce.

Government in France is a convoluted affair, with both a President and a Prime Minister, as well as a legislative body. The French Constitution is a monolithic document with a preamble and eighty-nine articles. I must confess I did not read the whole thing, nor did I fully understand the articles I did read. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens is an inspiring document, though. Unlike the US Constitution, it recognizes the rights of everyone, everywhere, and not just French citizens on French soil. It's no surprise that the French take their government so seriously. Probably most people that will actually bother to read this have heard of the Bastille, the guillotine, centuries of ruthless monarchy, and revolution after bloody revolution.

A word on the French roll-over during WWII: The German War Machine was virtually unstoppable. When those German tanks rolled into Paris it was all but deserted. If the French had stood their ground, they would've been slaughtered. There have been plenty of jokes (my favorite was from Maxim Magazine, a picture of a frog on it's back), but an orderly retreat to regroup, with a covert resistance operating within occupied France, was the only thing they could've done. That being said, I am not going to stop making fun of the French.

Of course, if I intended to move to France I wouldn't be writing about it, I would be trying to work my way across the Atlantic by any means possible. France, while a republic, has embraced socialism, and pays for it with a high rate of unemployment and ridiculous taxes.

So, thanks for democracy, Voltaire, The Count of Monte Cristo, and crepes, France. To repay the favor, I'll send y'all some Lever 2000, and I'll be the first to volunteer if you ever need help with those pesky Germans again.

Escape from the USA part 2: Welcome to the Jungle

I don't know much about Venezuela, except that there seem to be more than two sides to every story. Hugo Chavez tells an entirely different story than does the CIA Factbook. There seems to be a lot of finger-pointing going on, but from what I can gather, everyone who has ever said anything about Venezuela has been lying to some degree.

Anonymous Canadaphiles may be disappointed, but I am not going to attempt to navigate the maze of fact, fiction, and bloody murder that composes the government of Venezuela. Hugo Chavez looks like a snake-oil salesman to me. He was elected in a landslide victory after leading a military coup. American "Nation Building" has steadily worked to overthrow him, but that doesn't make him a hero. He's trying to gather more power to himself, just like Chancellor Bush, and I don't trust anyone with that much power. I don't trust Venezuelan citizens not to kill me arbitrarily for the crime of being born in the States, either. Most of the history of South America in general appears to be bloody power-struggles, in which votes were cast with rifles and machetes.

One of the many things I love about the States is that we typically don't kill each other over political disagreements. I've had some hard-core political arguments, some that almost came to blows, but that's because many people are as passionate in their beliefs as I. The idea of swinging machetes at each other won't even occur to most Americans, except maybe Peach.

Next, I think I'll look into France. I would get a huge kick out of speaking French with my East-Texas accent. Par-lay Fron-say? Wee, paysan filty.

This is going to piss some people off...

Virginia Tech. If you're an emotional person, stop reading now, so we can still be friends tomorrow.

In the Great State of Virginia, the only gun control law is the Second Amendment. There was a gun ban at the Virginia Tech campus. Thirty-two people died because only one person had a gun, and he was doing all the killing. Cops are useless until someone has already died. Cops do not save lives, they catch killers after the fact. You know what would have saved about twenty-nine of those thirty-two people? One other person with a gun handy. I hate to quote a bumper sticker, but I'm going to anyway: When guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns.

I do feel bad for the loved ones of the dead and wounded. It was a tragedy, to be certain. I also feel bad for all the other people who died of gunshot wounds yesterday in the rest of the world for no good reason. And those who were stabbed, and beaten to death, and poisoned, and strangled, and blown up, and pushed out of windows, cut open, drowned, burned, run over, tortured, beheaded, hanged, irradiated...

Escape from the USA part 1: Oh, Canada!

I'm getting out of here. It's not so much that I hate America, I just hate what America has become, and I want no part of it. I would renounce my US citizenship, but I found out that a US citizen is actually an employee of the United States, a British-owned corporation founded in 1878. Sovereign citizens are of the respective states. I'm a Texan, you're an Illinoisan, Virginian, New Mexican, whatever. Most people don't realize that, though.

Most people don't realize a lot of things, like how our entire government is out of our control. A lot of people do realize, but don't care as long as they can watch TV, drink beer, hook up over the internet, and buy a new car every couple of years. I can't fix it, so fuck it. I'm out. Where to go, though? My first thought, of course, was Canada. Canadians speak English like natives, and I wouldn't have much trouble blending in. There's the socialism and censorship, though.

I'm big on free speech. I say what I want, when I want, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. that doesn't mean I'm going to walk around talking smack all the time, but that's because I don't want to, not because anyone prevents me. You're just going to have to trust me. If anyone happens to be offended by anything I say... Well, that's tough. Say something back, or walk away, or hit me in the mouth, but you can't shut me up.

Canada is out of the question because they have laws restricting freedom of speech, press, and religion. The Bible and the Koran are both on the list of books banned in Canada. (I have been corrected by a reader [I have a reader!], the Bible and Koran are not banned - that was the wrong list -M) I'm neither Christian nor Muslim, but I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, without notice. I could give my life to Allah tomorrow. In Canada, it is illegal to publicly display an image of Mohammed. It is illegal to say "fag," or "nigger," or "nappy-headed ho's." Spare me your outrage. I'm not saying it's correct to say such things, I'm just saying it's not illegal. That's where it starts. Pass laws restricting "hate speech," and the Ministry of Information follows soon after.

If you don't want someone walking around saying "nappy-headed nigger fag ho" all the time, exercise your right to free speech, and lay down some derision. Peer pressure isn't just for getting your kids to smoke, you know. The influence of societal pressures will outweigh any statute, you just have to do it yourself, instead of asking the same government that has screwed up everything else to do it for you. Pussies.

Voltaire said "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." That was a long time ago, though. Most people nowadays are so desperate to stay alive they'll give whatever wealth they managed to accrue in their lifetimes to pharmaceutical companies before they die anyway. Few people, nowadays, would be willing to die for their right to do anything. That's why our rights are being violated on a daily basis. Die free or live as a slave? Let me think about it... I get to continue living, right? Can I have cable? Still thinking...

That's crap. Life as a slave is not a life worth living. Sorry, Canadians, but... Wait, I'm not sorry. Y'all are polite, though. Very well mannered. It strikes me as odd, though, that you can smoke pot on the steps of the Ministry of Health, but you can't read Huckleberry Finn.

I had to laugh like hell...

Thanks for everything, Kurt.

Dying bees...

An article on Prison Planet today says that bees are dying off in alarming numbers, and if bees go extinct, humans will be next.

I've been a fan of Alex Jones for a long time. I think of him as the guy watching for snakes when you're out camping. Sometimes he sees snakes, sometimes he sees a clump of bark that looks like a snake. Usually, though, he sees a knot of snakes so big nobody can believe it exists. I won't say I believe every word he says, but when he says "Snake!" I go check it out.

So, dying bees in alarming percentages. That's honestly something I never thought of. I like bees. They don't sting unless someone gives them a reason. Even if they get on you, just brush them off. Stay calm, and you'll be fine. My theory in childhood was that the sensitive chemical receptors were capable of picking up some kind of fear pheromone that agitates them. I think the same thing about dogs. It's not enough to pretend you're not afraid, you have to actually be unafraid - a neat trick if you can pull it off. And then there's honey. Honey is the best food ever. I just try not to think about the fact that it's delicious bee-vomit. Peanut-butter and honey is vastly superior to peanut-butter and jelly, and honey is a great sweetener for tea. I think I'm more moved by the threat to my honey supply than anything else.

I try not to be alarmist (I know, my last post was called "The end is nigh." I said I try), and I have that natural tendency to be a skeptic when something seems unbelievable. So I seek out a second source to confirm or deny. A google search for "dying bees" turned up 1,370,000 hits, with articles from environmentalists, horticulturists, apiarists (those are beekeepers), and blog posts from hikers and campers commenting on all the dead bees. Some of these posts go back a couple of years, but one from COSMOS Magazine was published yesterday. MSNBC and ABCNews have both reprinted AP articles about it, but there has been extremely little mention of it from the mainstream media that I've been able to find.

So it appears this is real. Bees are dying by the millions. I'm not an environmental expert, but I paid attention in ninth-grade biology class, when we talked about both pollination and extinction. Mrs. Wolfe was worth paying attention to. Anyway, I don't know enough to make dire predictions about how we're all going to die. We are all going to die, but not necessarily at the same time, and not necessarily from this. My main concern is that this is a big deal, it's verifiable, it has potential for global impact, and I haven't heard a word about it from the mainstream media.

I've become something of an annoying letter-writer. I try to express my opinion in a way that will have an effect. I write emails to these media fuckers. Here's a list, if you'd like to do the same. Ask someone what's up with the dying bees. Ask someone why you've hardly heard the name Ron Paul on TV, while the pitifully childish antics of Hillary and Barack get all the attention. Ask them whatever you want. You don't have to dress it up. Type two sentences and hit "send." That's all it takes. You should pick up the pen, now, though, so you don't have to pick up the sword later. And by later I mean really soon.

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The end is nigh...

Not really, but times are going to get very tough, very soon. I've been looking into this for close to a year now, and I will share my findings with those of you who bother to read these paranoid rantings.

The seas are going to rise. We will suffer another dustbowl along with the coming depression. Whether you believe it's CO2 or just the sun getting hotter (It's the sun), the results are the same. Crops will fail, livestock will die. Africa will suffer a lot. This is all over the news, so I'm not going to bother quoting sources. Things are going to be tough all over for a while.

Unless you want to end up as a ward of the state, with some New Deal type of socialist system supporting you, take heed.

First: If you have a lawn, start growing something. You're probably aware that most peoples' survival skills consist of going to the grocery store. If there is not as much at the grocery store, the price will rise. Not that it will matter, because our failing Federal Reserve Note will be all but worthless. Grow a variety of vegetables, and use as much land as you can. If you don't own your land, or perhaps live in a condo or apartment, get with your neighbors. There is arable land around, and you and your neighbors can share.

Second: Buy silver. Right now. Drop what you're doing, cash in any investments you may have, and buy silver. The stock market is still going to crash, and when it does, the Fed will constrict the money supply again, just like they did in the '30s. That's where depression comes from. Forget gold, because enough of it is concentrated in one place for the market to be manipulated. There is too much silver around for anyone to corner the market. It's been tried. It's not as valuable as gold, but that's okay. It'll still be infinitely more valuable than Federal Reserve trash.

Third: A water filter. You will need potable water, and boiling only kills the microorganisms. You want to remove contaminants as well.

Finally: If you don't own a gun, go get one. Get several. The main difference between this dustbowl and the last will be the newly Federalized National Guard "keeping the peace." Doors will be kicked in, and people will start to disappear. People you know.

Feel free to disbelieve anything I say about conspiracy. I'm not going to argue that point. I want to be wrong as much as you want me to be wrong. Global warming is happening now, though, regardless of what you may think is causing it. The seas will rise. Weather patterns will be altered. We're talking plague, famine, and war on a biblical scale. As Americans, we've been conditioned to think it can't happen to us. Just be glad you weren't born in Africa.

Fourteen year old domestic terrorists...

I needed a break. By nature I'm a pretty cheerful guy, and when I focus this long on such things as politics and corporate corruption it takes a toll on me. I get tired of this shit, but the shit keeps coming. I keep saying “This is shit!” and I keep hearing “Nah, that's just what rain looks like now.” It gets tiring.

I'm not even going to talk about Iran. I'm going to do what I think Congress should do and focus on something closer to home. You all know about the Patriot Act, and the attacks on our Constitutionally protected rights. You've also heard what can happen to people accused of “terrorism.”

According to ABCNews, this is the first time a domestic crime has brought a charge of terrorism. It's a fourteen year old boy. From the article, I would say this is an episode of a dork gone wild. He was a smart kid, who had never been in trouble before, who allegedly had an elaborate plan to take his classroom hostage and kill at least one randomly selected girl. He didn't even get close to pulling off his plan, because he stupidly gave himself away early. Such a smart kid, but he didn't really think that through, did he? This kid isn't a terrorist, this kid just needs some help, or maybe a swift kick in the ass.

After Columbine, though, they'll probably have security guards and metal detectors at that school tomorrow (just in case any other students were planning to take their classes hostage), and it will be hard to argue against a charge of terrorism. By his own admission, according to the article, he was going to take his class hostage and kill someone. That just seems like terrorism. What is terrorism, if not murder and the taking of hostages? My argument is this: Murder is already a criminal charge. Hostage-taking is already a criminal charge. Either one of those charges is already enough to put someone away for life, and for murder, might even limit the duration of said life. There's no need for another charge to throw on top of those. It's redundant. A charge of terrorism also eliminates the rules regarding due process. I doubt the full scope of the terrorism legislation will be applied to this child, but it paves the way for domestic charges of terrorism. This story will be followed for a moment, but never really hyped by the media. The next time it happens, though, it will seem normal to a lot of people. No one will raise an eyebrow when they start seeing charges of terrorism in police reports in the Metro section. The process will take years, but terrorism will be a common charge before too long.

In a sea if information, little things can slip by. The cage door is closing.

I don't have the energy to protest another war...

War with Iran seems inevitable at this point. Blair will attack Iran, and the States (ever notice that in the Declaration of Independence it's a little "u" in united States?) will back him up, because that's what we do. Our pockets will be picked for more bombs, and more of America's bravest, more of your sons and daughters, will die over A BULLSHIT LIE SO THE RICH CAN GET RICHER.

And the fifteen sailors and marines... It doesn't make sense. The leadership of Iran knows that Isreal, the UK, and America can turn their whole country to glass. Why would they invite an attack like that? Who in Iran profits from war with us? Do they think Blair won't attack? Fifteen prisoners will pull a lot of heartstrings in the UK. It's an iron-clad excuse for some cruise-missiles and an SAS raid. Then Iran retaliates by cutting off someone's body parts, and it's all out war.

The beauty of it is that no one can prove it's a setup. Whose waters were those sailors in? I don't know. There is no evidence either way. I would have to see their GPS positioning (and I would have reservations regarding it's authenticity), and even then there might be some dispute over where the line is drawn. It's fishy, though. Two dinghies with fifteen personnel in or near Iranian waters without support. Wasn't it a destroyer they deployed from? Where was that destroyer while those sailors were being captured by patrol boats? The cargo vessel they boarded would have been within gun range of that destroyer, yet some Iranian patrol boats can take them prisoner without a fight, or even a display of superior force. That destroyer was one radio signal away from air support that could devastate the entire Iranian navy. They wouldn't have had to fire a shot. They would have just had to say "Hey! Hands off!" and the Iranians would have backed off. Why didn't they?

I'm done with this shit. I'm getting mad, and I hate to lose my temper. Judgment suffers when emotion rises. It's a set-up, though. Not one bit of it makes sense. We're being had.

Woodward and Bernstien are hacks...

In today's Daily Texan, the UT paper, Woodward, Bernstein discuss government corruption, faults."

This is ironic. Just the other day someone mentioned Woodward and Bernstein, and their journalistic integrity, and I thought to myself "Yeah, where are those guys?" Woodward and Bernstein took down the Nixon administration through tenacious investigative journalism, I'm told. Surely Woodward and Bernstein wouldn't break a sweat tearing down the Bush regime. The fifth-grader who reads the lunch menu over the school loudspeaker every morning wouldn't have any trouble digging up enough dirt on Bush to have him executed for treason. "What would Woodward and Bernstein say," I wondered?

I didn't know much about Watergate. It was before my time. Even my older friends would have been in grade school at the time. For a refresher this evening, I perused the Washington Post's Watergate Time-line, which has handy links to all the relevant Post stories. So now I know roughly what happened with Nixon, and that Woodward and Bernstein wrote down what "Deep Throat" (a porn classic) told them.

Good job, guys, but what have you done for me lately?

So what do these heroic living testaments to journalistic integrity have to say about the Bush administration?

"It's better to have a criminal president than an incompetent president," Woodward said. "Nixon was impeached because his actions were criminal, while the actions of many incompetent presidents do far worse damage, but aren't grounds for legal action," he said.

There's no law against stupid.

I won't get into an indictment of Bush II. Everyone knows enough to have him hanged from the nearest street-lamp, and his daddy, too, and his granddaddy if anyone feels like digging up his putrid, syphilitic corpse.

Okay, you got me. I made up the syphilitic part.

It's not necessary for a president to break the law to be impeached, though. Wil S. Hylton, a writer for GQ, wrote in THE PEOPLE V. RICHARD CHENEY that "Only two conditions must be met (for an impeachment). First, a majority of the House of Representatives must agree on a set of charges; then, two-thirds of the Senate must agree to convict. After that, there is no legal wrangling, no appeal to a higher authority, no reversal on technical grounds. There is not even a limit on what the charges may be," and "as Gerald Ford once pointed out while still serving in the House of Representatives, the only real definition of an 'impeachable offense' is 'whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.'"

Mr. Hylton goes on to list historical grounds for impeachment: "The reasons for impeachment have ranged from the outrageous to the banal: from putting political enemies in jail (Judge James H. Peck, 1830) to cheating on taxes (Judge Harry E. Claiborne, 1986); from being rude to Congress (“unmindful of the harmony and courtesies which ought to exist and be maintained between the executive and legislative branches,” President Andrew Johnson, 1868) to being a drunkard (“a man of loose morals and intemperate habits,” Judge John Pickering, 1803). One president was even impeached for having the good taste to keep his sex life private (concealing “the nature and details of his relationship with a subordinate Government employee,” President William Jefferson Clinton, 1998)."

I tried to find out what Woodward and Bernstein have done since Watergate, and it appears they've spent the last forty years milking their one big story. They're the Walter Koenig (he played Chekov in Star Trek) of journalism, signing autographs for five bucks a pop at Watergate conventions.

It's a waste of time to hate Bush...

Bush isn't the problem. It's fun to Bush-bash every once in a while, but, when you get down to it, there's just no sport in it. He's a joke. Everyone knows he's a joke. That's what he's for. Everyone bashes Bush, and they think "Now I feel better." Bush gives people something to vent about.

It's the same with blogging. Blogs allow people to vent. I might be venting right now, but I doubt it. However, do you know what else I'm not doing? I'm not marching to Washington with the rest of the angry bloggers.

I have no strong feelings about Bush. Not Bush II, anyway. He's too dumb to be a threat on his own. Jim Marrs once called him a "post-turtle." He said if you're driving down the road, and you see a turtle perched up on a fence post, you know he couldn't have got there unless someone put him there. That's a post-turtle. Bush II is no threat, but...

Did you ever think what would have happened if that bullet had killed Reagan? The Bushes are an old family. Their roots go way back, and mingle with a lot of other old families. Old money, and power. Prescott Bush's financing of the Nazis is public knowledge. The Bushes' familial relation to the British royals are public knowledge. The Bushes are a powerful, greedy family with powerful, greedy friends. This is not news.

Reagan was an actor.

This is real. They're trying to cause trouble. They've already caused quite a bit. They're not ready to make their final move, though. They would need another 9/11.

A lot of people I know have kids. Kids get hurt, sometimes, and nobody likes to see their child injured or in pain. Whether it's a broken bone or just a shot at the doctor's office, your child's pain is your pain. But there's a switch you flip, in your mind. An old friend called it the Mommy Switch. It allows you to wipe your crying baby's diaper-rash even though you know it hurts. It allows you to hold your child down for a shot. It allows you to remember first aid, or the fastest route to the hospital, while trying to keep the kid calm, because you keep your head. You keep your head because there are things to be done, and you're the one to do them. And if you lose your head, and that which needs to be done is neglected, an emergency becomes a tragedy.

They need a bigger one.

I can't believe I'm taking Rosie's side...

I can't stand Rosie O'Donnell. She's annoying, and dumb, and reactive. I don't watch the View, either. I've never seen it once in my life. This was brought to my attention, though, and it makes me sick. This is why my TV stays off. Go Rosie.

My poor, poor truck...

I finally got the head off. The gasket is fine, but there's a spacer that's cracked. The valves, piston-heads, and spark-plugs are all fried, on top of the fan clutch, thermostat, probably the water pump, and the front suspension. That truck needs more than I can immediately provide in order to get it moving. I'm going to fix it, but it's going to take more money, and even more time. Till then... Well, damn.

We can't impeach him...

It's simple. Think of it as an arrangement of pieces on a chessboard. Bush is not the king. He's a rook at best. The rook is inflexible, moves only in straight lines, but properly placed can create an impassable barrier. Bush's position is protected by Cheney, the most evil man on the planet, and a slippery knight in this game. Bush's removal would leave Cheney at the front, where he would no doubt usher in the end of the world. Cheney is covered by Pelosi, a mere pawn. I saw her on TV today, and I thought she was Judge Judy. That may be funny, but it's no joke. I thought Judge Judy was overseeing Gore's report to congress. Pelosi might even be another player's pawn, but she still blocks any form of attack.

Of course, chess is really too simple for an effective analogy. To expand it any further, we would need a game for twelve or thirteen players, with hundreds of ranks of pieces that can move forward, backward, over other pieces, under the board, and also switch sides every once in a while.

We're stuck. If we can't get rid of Bush, he has seventeen more months to rape the world. Is there some way to tie his hands? Myself, I'd like to see a public Salem-style witch-hunt on every member of the federal government and clean house. I'm not saying burn them at the stake (you don't kill a snake for being a snake, just don't put yourself in a position to get bit) but remove them from power. Is there some way to tie their hands? To neutralize this cabal without leaving ourselves open to further manipulation?

Manipulation is tricky. there are such things as social engineers. People go to college for it. They study psychology and sociology and statistics and trends and then they get jobs at Pepsi, and FOX, and marketing firms, and ad agencies. Then people hire them, and say "We'd like to raise peoples' awareness of the impact of otter-scrubbing on wildlife," or "We want you rapping about big-screen TVs, blunts, forties, and bitches." They put articles in newspapers, guests on talk-shows, episodes of sitcoms involving blunt-smoking otter-scrubbers watching bitches on big screens.

There's something else going on. If Bush, Cheney, and Pelosi were pieces on my side of the board, I'd be pretty confident right now. I'd also be coiled to launch an unexpected flanking attack while my opponent was looking at the big pieces.

Sun Tzu says deception is at the heart of warfare.

This game isn't going to end in seventeen months.

Today's Austin American-Statesman...

If you look on the front page (I couldn't find the shot on their website), you'll see a guy holding a big sign that says "IRAQ WAR: WRONG WAY." About thirty yards behind him you would see me, if he wasn't in the way.

I was only there by accident. I took the bus to Guadalupe to get some books from Brave New Books (A great store, but the selection is highly specialized - you'll find books there you won't find anywhere else, but don't go there looking for Stephen King), then decided to tour my old stomping grounds downtown. There was a place I used to panhandle on 6th street, so I walked past it and gave some change to the guy sitting there (His name is Eric), then decided to walk to Luke's apartment, about a mile and a half away.

Those protesters were on the bridge, with about twenty cops (no riot gear - they probably don't like the war, either) watching over them. I'm not a big fan of cops. Cops can bind your hands and take you away forever. They can shoot you and get away with it, under the proper circumstances (for instance, if you don't like having your hands painfully bound behind you with the cuffs locked down hard between the joint in your wrists with the backs of your hands together before they throw you in a concrete cage). They would probably taze you, though. Know this: It is better to kill a man than to take away his dignity. All the non-lethal methods so favored by law enforcement are designed for exactly that purpose. They can control you, and take away your right to fight to the death for your freedom. Take a look at the "crowd control" technology available today.

There were no clashes, though. Not even the appearance of the threat of one. Like I said, the cops probably hate the war, too. Everyone was chill - they were having a good time. As I was crossing the bridge I said hey to the protesters, and they asked if I wanted to join them. So I hung out for a minute. No big deal, I was just one more body present, but I think that's what it's all about. In a majority rules society, it's all about how many like-minded people you can get in the same place at the same time.

I don't feel like it accomplished anything, though. Everybody hates the war. Even the poor misguided souls who think there's some reason for us to stay even one more day hate the war. It's not like they're out there swaying the opinions of people who already agree. I feel like something more meaningful. I feel like getting about a hundred thousand people to surround the White House and the Capitol Building and just sit down. Sit down in the streets, and nothing moves in Washington until some things get sorted out. Bring the kids, let them run and play. Bring some barbecue grills and some coolers and some music and tents and just chill in the streets of Washington, D.C, shutting it down.

I doubt the city would issue a permit for that kind of thing. "We want to assemble in the streets and shut down all traffic until government of the people, by the people, for the people means something again, and we'd like a permit." A protest permit can be easily acquired, it seems, but I just don't see that one happening. The rules would have to be bent. The Constitution (actually the Bill of Rights, but they go together like peanut-butter and chocolate), defines our right to peaceably assemble. The Constitution doesn't give us that right, or any others. We're born with our rights. The Constitution just recognizes them. It being a right means you don't have to ask.