AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 8:15 PM ----- BODY:

"Lifes Lottery"



OK...so I heard this phrase again...it's always set me off a bit whenever I hear it, and it's been on the tip of my mind for a week now....and when I finally heard it it finally dawned on me what's wrong it.

By saying that the station you were born into in completely luck takes away all the work that other people put into life to provide a foundation for your arrival. People build countries and companiesto not only beter their lives but also benefit generations that come after them. Unless, of course, they are only interested in the now and short term benefits. Saying that the end result of that is winning a lottery gives no acknowledgment to everything that made it possible...

People win lotteries by luck and putting very little into it and no one else benefits...people win in life by putting everything they have into it, and the generations that come after benefit from it. -------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 7:43 PM ----- BODY:

How to mend a wounded soul....



Start with a fire in the fireplace...add a bottle of Merlot to compliment spegetti w/meat sause and some garlic bread....

Final ingredient: A thunder storm with lightning strikes on the bay and high altitude lightning illuminating the clouds behind the cityscape...

I love lightning...always have...I'm not fixed...but I feel better

-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 9:25 PM ----- BODY:

Nicely Done, Sir



I was actually impressed with Bush's speech. I was actually impressed with his oratory! I was mostly impressed with his speech writter, for the following line:

We have seen their kind before. They're the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.


I'm sorry, but that is a great line! And he actually delivered it well...

Gone were the endless ramblings about our farms, malls, mainstreet america...ad nauseum listing of whatever variations upon whatever group he was speaking to/about. Present was a sense and grasp of the issue, and a somewhat outlined plan about what the next few years are going to entail.

The only thing I don't like the sound of is the "Office of Homeland Security" (how Newspeak is that?) This could be a) a very dangerous thing during wartime, and b) and even more dangerous thing during peacetime. I'm not very comfortable with a *new* governement office from and administration that was going to try to slim down governement. Shouldn't he remove one cabinet position to make room for this one?

*sigh*

-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 9:05 PM ----- BODY:

Nonzero



Strangly enough, I'm recommending a good read of Nonzero by Robert Wright, especially Chapter Five ("War: What is it good for?"), to quote a line toward the end of the chapter:

All of this brings us back to Kant's emphasis on "unsocial sociability." The realm of "sociability" -- the geographic scope within which peace reigns -- has grown massive quantities since out hunter-gatherer days. And commensuratly massive quantities of unsociability have been overcome. Yet they are often overcome under the ironic stimulus of higher-order unsociability. To put this dynamic of cultural in the Darwinian language of natual selection: what is "selected for" is larger and larger expanses of non-zero-sumness, but one of the main selectors is the zero-sum dimention of war. In this sense, waging war, in the end, is waging peace.

-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 1:00 PM ----- BODY:

Propaganda



so, all this about how these attacks are against our way of life, against libery, freedom, etc...you know, it's just not true...they didn't attack the statue of liberty (massive national sysmbol) and they didn't fly into a crowded stadium during a sporting event (massive body count, total terror)...

no...that makes a good rallying cry to motivate the people, but the issues really is that the attacks are against our military and economic policies abroad...specifically the middle east...and for a few moments, I though that maybe we should take a look and evaluate our position in the world...but you know what? Fuck that! if our policies are pissing off Bin Laden and poeple like him, then we must be doing something right...

if the influx of western culture and ideas is diminishing the capabilites of these regimes to exploit women, ethnic minorites, and dissent...awesome!
if the presence of our military forces keeps them from exterminating Israel and the true followers of Islam that threaten their skewed, misinterpreations...excelent!

let's pump up the volume a few notches...we're on to something, here...
-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 2:38 AM ----- BODY:

Rosh Hashanah



One thing that is passed over a lot...maybe too much...a main factor in the reasons that we were attacked is based upon our involvment/defense of Israel...that pisses some fools off (both here, and abroad)

as we enter this New Year, let's think about the strides we've made in the last 60 years and consider what it's really going to take to continue those strides.... -------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 12:53 AM ----- BODY:

We kick ass!



this little blip seems to pass under the radar of everything else going on, the second self-contained artificial heart has been implanted, while the recipient of the first, over two months ago, is doing fine...

-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 5:43 PM ----- BODY:

Non-Intrusive, Non-Violent Solutions



so, maybe instead of intrusive searches, background checks, and plastic steak knives, what if every airplane had a canister of general anesthetic tapped into the ventilation system that the pilot could activate at the first sign of trouble?

No one gets hurt, no one has their liberties taken away.
-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 11:13 PM ----- BODY:

Checks and Balances



also, guess I was wrong about the current set of hijackers...guess this one will take a little while to work out and pigeonhole

but it did get me thinking about some of the brilliance of our forefathers. not only did they engineer the checks and balances of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the government, they also successfully separated the state, church, and culture. We don't have a unilateral government, religion, and culture that's one in the same, which makes for a great release valve.

The culture can go in one direction while the religious aspect can go in another, and every once on a while the state steps in and says "no, you can't show tities in a public place" or "no, you can't just go and kill someone becuase they perform abortions". In the end, it creates a great escape valve for the pressures of what is the USA. the culture creates an outlet against the religious and state entities, the religious one put the culture and state in perspecive and try to provide a tenor for how things are discussed, and the state keeps em both in line.

The forefathers did a great job setting up the three branches of governement, and from their writtings, I think they were quite aware of the three branches of society they set upas well. Reminds me of the "Foundation" and "Second Foundation" plots from the Asimov novels.

of course, recently we've been seeing politicians becoming not only more religiously ouspoken, but also trying to participate more activly in the culture (Gore/Bush on SNL, Dole/Spears in Pepsi ads, Ashcroft as AG, Bush @ Bob Jobes)...while this isn't inheirantly bad, it's obvious that we need to make sure that things don't get blurred to much..especially considering current events...afterall, who want's the sitting presidient to be a a member of congress as well as a member of the supreme court at the same time?

-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 8:57 PM ----- BODY:

...and Mr. B-2 bomber here is protecting my righteous ass...



I would just like to start a public campaign that if we do go to war, that Samuel L. Jackson is appointed the War Press Secretary, and becomes the official voice of American intent, action, and position in whatever theatre(s) we are involved in

-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 8:30 PM ----- BODY:

Purge



OK...so I'm heading out for the weekend and need to do some quick thought dumps

first, I've noticed the "weak" part of "weak Americans" are starting to find their voice, and are speaking out against retaliation...talking about getting to root causes of why and all that...and that's great...I'm all over that, really...but the other side of the coin is that we can in no way allow this attrocity to go unanswered...if we are truly going to war against terrorism, then there is nothing stopping us from adopting a multi-pronged attack...culturally (ship over Salinger, Spears, and MTV like it's going outta style), diplomatically (yes...what has the US done in the past that is causing this resentment, and let's try to do a better job going forward), and last, but not least, militarily (we absolutly CANNOT let this act go unanswered, and economic sanctions aren't going to cut it....sorry for a lame ass reference, but what good do you think economic sanctions would've done against a Hitler?)

on an aside...notice how these terrorist had to go to flight school? why is that? if there was any true governement involvment, wouldn't they use already trained pilots from their military? Do they not use military trained pilots because it's too close a link to who they are, or does the education required to be a true pilot for more that a 1 hour death flight automatically preclude them from thinking suicide missions are a good idea? Or is it that true pilots have accuired a certain station and comfort in life....maybe both....

I've been noticing that as the days have gone by, my emotions are getting more complex and my rage is still building...one of the first ideas is that there is no easy venue to vent emotions from an event of this magnitude, the next thought is that even though I'm moving through the "12 steps of recovery" or whatever, I'm not leaving the previous stage behind...I'm still confused, I'm still angry, and still whatever step three and four are....but the key is that steps 1 and 2 never went away...closure needs to start coming soon, and for once I think closure can only be found with a really expensive missle.

consensus....short term: rip their fucking heads off, mid term: give em some good books to read, long term: get the world some education and green rectangles and let's move on...

I mean really, we're better than this...it's beneath us

-------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 8:54 PM ----- BODY:

People who don't "Get It"



So, I hear from some sources that at last nights candlelight vigil at UC Berkeley some of the more uncuth in the crowd used the open mike as an opportunity to speak out against the EMF, globalization, {insert cause du jour here}

this seems like the wrong place to spit out venom on whatever subject is tickling your fancy at the moment...a vigil should be about showing support for the people who lost their lifes and their families...save the rhetoric for the day after, at least...I don't see how attempting to blame the US for bringing this upon ourselves is going to bring any closure on this issue. but I guess some people are just one-trick ponies and if put in front of a microphone, only know how to regurgitate the venom they heard from someone else the day before.

The sad and ironic part is that these attacks are against the very rights that allow these people to get in front of a microphone and say whatever they want...I just wish they would use it a bit more wisely... -------- AUTHOR: TomCarr DATE: 7:59 PM ----- BODY:

...on the Fly



well...I guess I've decided to try to make it easy to make the content here a bit fresher and also provied a smaller scale soapbox than the (so-called) artciles allow...nothing much to say so far this eve in the wake of yesterdays events, except for my one statement that I've made since just after midnight:

I'm tired of the high road
I'm tired of trying to reason
I'm tired of trying to set an example
I'm tired of turning the other cheek
I'm tired of caring and having the rest of the world preach righteous indignation...to us!
I'm tired of trying to rationalize with people who can think of attrocities like this and the people who follow them
I'm tired of thinking they should be shown some higher level of justice than they can even imagine

It's time to show the world what's been said but hasn't been shown in a long time...we got the tools and we got the talent to lay your sorry asses to waste BECAUSE OF (it's not some weird accident) the ideals that this country was built on, that are being attacked.

There isn't enough time in eternity to effectivly punish whomever is responsible for the events of yesterday.

There's a time to be a lamb, and a time to be a lion.
--------