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Saturday, April 27, 2002
What the hell? Aren't we supposed to keep this sort of thing secret? Hey, Saddam, we're going to invade you, but just so that no one accuses us of fighting dirty, we're giving you a year to prepare.
If this is disinformation, I can't even imagine what it's designed to cover up.
.: posted by andy 4/27/2002
Friday, April 26, 2002
Alright, Devin, since your panties are all in a twist over what I like to post about, here's something I think you might be interested in.
.: posted by andy 4/26/2002
Devin can be such a terrorist, sometimes.
I've been reading the White House Press Briefings, lately. So far, this is my favorite quote:
"At his core, the President's actions are driven by a concern for the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, but not the terrorists."
Also, did any of you know that the People's Spokesperson, Ari Fleischer, is getting married? Well, he is, and the fact that I know that just proves that I care about other things than Israel.
.: posted by andy 4/26/2002
Nothing here about publishing newsworthy facts.
It's interesting that they called our attempted rescue of embassy personel an "attack" on Iran. Maybe they forgot that embassy grounds are sovereign territory, and the "aggressors" in this instance were the "student revolutionaries". I believe that a liberation has been in order for quite a while now. So in order to liberate our soveriegn US territory in Tehran, we should ressurect General Sherman, plant him on the western frontier of afghanistan, and point him in the right direction.
Andy asked us what we thought about him starting a new blog. We all agreed that that wasn't necessary. Besides, I don't use flooz to entertain any of you, just myself. If andy gets off on the middle east, so be it.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/26/2002
Blah blah blah Israel blah blah Palestinians blah blah blah. That's all andy's posts look like these days. Get a new hobby. Okay. Israel is guilty as sin and has lost all moral authority, and is killing women and children in their homes. Okay. That's nice. Warms the cuckolds of my heart and all. Wish I were there. Find a new topic please. Here are a few things I'd expect you to have already written about, Andy:
Woman locked in semi for 6 months, escapes, then fades into the woodwork.
What one determined youth with an illegal pistol and shotgun can do.
Happy anniversary.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/26/2002
This article has a helpful little tool at the bottom of the page that gives a good overview of Israeli history. There are some good tie-ins with the list of UN SecCo Resolutions.
This would be a good book to read, I think.
.: posted by andy 4/26/2002
An account of the battle for Jenin by some Israeli Reserve NCOs. Does a good job of humanizing the Israeli soldiers. It's not as if they wanted to be there, and it's not as if they really wanted to kill a bunch of people, either. There's a hint of the old "just following orders" excuse in some of it, though.
.: posted by andy 4/26/2002
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Sure, it's hip to stick up for the powerless palestinians, but who's on the powerful israeli's side? I mean, how could they possibly be the aggressors? Can you really invade something that is already in your possesion? If a few terrorists blowing up some buses aren't justification enough for genocide, then nothing is. oh wait, there is no justification for genocide. hmm, I should think about this some more.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/25/2002
A series of five pictures showing Israelis executing a Palestinian in the street. (Beware the porn ads on this site)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
.: posted by andy 4/25/2002
Palestinians evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem, so that Jewish families can move in. The idea is that if there are enough Jews in Jerusalem, none of it will be ceded to the hypothetical Palestinian state.
Here's some interesting reading for you. All the UN resolutions regarding the Israel/Palestine problem. Lots of allegations that Israel is violating the Geneva Convention. Dad, you should especially pay close attention to this list. The Israelis are almost perpetually the aggressors.
.: posted by andy 4/25/2002
In case you ever wondered how much money Pud, from fuckedcompany.com makes, you ought to read this article, which suggests that he makes 90,000/month on his subscription service. That apparently doesn't include the merchandise or the advertising.
Amazing. Do what you love and the money will follow, right?
.: posted by andy 4/25/2002
Ironically, that attempted coup is what gained Chavez the popularity to win two different popular elections. According to everything I can find on the web, Carlos Perez's government was completely corrupt. In 1989, Perez tried to launch economic reforms that brought an enormous demonstration, which was violently put down. "Unofficial sources" claim that at least 1000 people were killed in that demonstration, so I think it's safe to say that at least 100 died. Anyway, this all made Perez hugely unpopular, except with the leadership of the Venezuelan military. When Chavez attempted his coup, Perez's supporters in the army put it down, and Chavez was put in prison. Chavez was pardoned by Perez's successor, whose name I forget. In 1999 Chavez reworked the Constitution. There was a national vote which approved the new Constitution and called for new elections to be held. Chavez won those elections with 60% of the national vote.
Here's an article written three years ago that discusses the conditions that led to Chavez' rise to power.
There's a lot of talk about the 50,000 strong demonstration that took place the day before the coup. Those 50,000 were protesting Chavez's economic reforms which have cut the spending power of the middle class, and replaced the leadership of the unions. In a country of 24 million, 50,000 is a drop in the bucket, and doesn't represent popular anything. But if you're interested in protests, it might interest you to know that at the time of middle class protests, there were thousands of Chavez supporters protesting in favor of the president, and some of the casualties come from their side (including the Vice President's driver, who was shot in the face), and that following the coup, there were major protests in every city in Venezuela, denouncing the coup.
I don't think it's any secret that the coup was an attempt by Venezuela's middle and upper classes to regain control of the country from Chavez, who acts the role of a populist. The proof is that the president installed by the coup plotters was the former president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce. If Carmona had popular support in deposing Chavez, why didn't he do it through a referendum? There are democratic means in the new Venezuelan Constitution for a president to be removed from office.
In a country where 80% of the population lives below the poverty line, and almost half have been identified as malnourished, I don't think it's so wrong that a populist should be elected president. Economic reform is certainly in order in a country like that. I can't say whether Chavez is a good president or not, or whether the impoverished of Venezuela will be helped by his policies. But I do think that the people have the right to self-determination.
.: posted by andy 4/25/2002
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
Andy, your venezuela article mentions that Chavez attempted his own little coup back in 1992. I didn't know that. I think that's the most interesting part of that article.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/24/2002
Bread, biscuits, fries, lettuce, beef, rice, U238, lead, saccarine, tea, apples, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen...
.: posted by Jeremy 4/24/2002
Well, Miami is called the capital of Latin America...
Some old guy shot a cop in North Ft. Worth this afternoon. A call of shots fired came in, two cops arrived on the scene, one went around back, the other entered the front door, where he was shot and fatally wounded. He managed to return fire though. Five and a half hours later, after hearing nothing from inside the house, Ft Worth SWAT entered the house and found the man dead. He was 67, and had a record of mental problems, whatever that means. The officer was 37, was married and had two children. The body of a teenager was found in a field in South Dallas; and a man was shot and killed in front of his house in Northeast Dallas around noon. Man, I leave town a few days and it all goes to shit.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/24/2002
More about Venezuela: two of the major coup participants are in Miami.
.: posted by andy 4/24/2002
The coolest Stick Death ever: Extreme Stick Death.
.: posted by andy 4/24/2002
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
so, all this talk about Robert Blake in the US press.. and today was the first day anything appeared in the Daily Yomiuri. a 3 sentence blurb about some american actor arrested for killing his wife. instead the yomiuri has been focusing on japanese politics and the french presidential elections. sometimes i'm really glad to be outside of the US media system.
.: posted by aida 4/23/2002
After that post, I'm inclined to believe Andy has an altar to Ted Nugent somewhere in his house.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/23/2002
Israel has changed its mind about allowing a UN commission to investigate Jenin. Here are the aerial photos of the camp. Not very conclusive proof that an investigation isn't needed.
.: posted by andy 4/23/2002
Also, in case you're wondering, blogger doesn't work so well in Netscape.
.: posted by andy 4/23/2002
My biological footprint is 23, one less than the average person taking the quiz (although Jeremy might have skewed the results). If everyone lived like me, we would need 5.3 earths to support everyone. Luckily, only about 5% of the earth's population live in circumstances that even remotely resemble mine.
That quiz is retarded. I guess everyone should be agrarian vegetarians, right? Because that's best for the earth, if not for people. Since it's so ecologically and economically inefficient to raise cattle for food, I vote that we start eating all vegetarians (and all Progressives, for that matter). That should help cut our gross consumption quite a bit. Those bastards can live all the way into their sixties if they're lucky, and they don't contribute a damn thing to the rest of society. Think of all the grain a vegetarian will consume during a 60 year lifespan, and compare that to a cow that will be slaughtered after two or three years. It shouldn't be a mystery which to eat in order to reduce overall consumption. For that matter, it shouldn't be hard to figure out that a damn soy-sucking vegetarian will generate more methane gas and carbon dioxide during 65 years than a beefer will in its short lifespan.
Yeah, you can't get much greener than me.
.: posted by andy 4/23/2002
Own a lot of Ted Nugent t-shirts, Jeremy?
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/23/2002
I don't get the Ted Nugent reference. He's a stand-up kind of guy.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/23/2002
I found this review of Scorpion King very helpful.
.: posted by andy 4/23/2002
Saw Scorpion King tonight. Let's just say the highlight of the moviegoing experience was talking to Veronica at the ticket counter. (Veronica is the Mon-Fri evening ticket girl at the Rave in Lake Dallas.) Cheesy action flick. Luckily it had a fair amount of comic relief, and didn't take itself too seriously.
Not that the movie was really bad, but Veronica is pretty cool and all.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/23/2002
According to the Biological Footprint Quiz, my social incompetency increases my biological footprint by 33%. As I live, I leave 16.7% more footprint than the average American. If I were to up the number of inhabitants in my apartment to 2, and have a passenger with me in my car 50% of the time, I'd leave 16.7% less footprint than the average american. I should write a letter to the earthday people informing them that my social life should be of direct interest to them, and therefore they should direct some of their funds allocated for advocacy to me.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/23/2002
Monday, April 22, 2002
The newest episode of Star Wars is supposed to be better than the last one.
The trailers look good enough to me.
.: posted by andy 4/22/2002
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/22/2002
Today is Earth Day. I just took the Biological Footprint Quiz. In general I think the concept is good, but it oversimplifies and exaggerates. Kinda like those comparisons that talk about how many gallons of water are consumed in the production of foods as a basic measurement of environmental cost.
It takes 30 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat, and somewhere between 1,200 and 5,000 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef. I think this is an interesting statistic, but actually meaningless, coz the water isn't destroyed. Intensive farming is different from what I'm familiar with, but every farm I've seen in this area uses only runoff, so there is no depletion of groundwater in grain or meat production.
Whenever someone goes on a rant in some magazine about the squandering of our precious natural resources and quotes the water cost as an example, I want to respond by offering them a great deal on the 300 or so acre-feet(~131 million gallons, or 52,000 lbs of processed beef) of water that goes unused annually on my family's property.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/22/2002
Sunday, April 21, 2002
The Irish Times has this account from a reporter who went into Jenin. Reading articles like this, posted on the front page of a major news outlet, makes me feel distrustful of that source, as if maybe there's just a little too much sentiment involved. For instance, they mention that the Palestinians think as many as 500 have been killed, but they don't mention the Israeli estimate of 50.
.: posted by andy 4/21/2002
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