Ron Paul: Who Owns You (Narrated By George Carlin)

George Carlin was one of the good ones, one of the last of an almost extinct breed.

Sonnet for the Situation

So much hope and pain these days
billions of humans struggling with it all
in billions of different and identical ways
desperately hoping that we won't see the fall

the descent from decadence to complete desolation
seems to me that we wont have long to wait
untill this warrior nation is forced into contemplation
how did we become such a twisted sad state

We who once reached for the stars
are now demented killers and conquerers
our pathetic youth, materialists filling bars
still something in our sad souls still stirs

Idealism runs stong in our veins
even if it's left our conscious brains

the leaders lead, the fools follow, the thinkers recoil in horror
worry not about the future, because their can always be more
after all this age is strange, but the only constant is change

Petrol Prices

"Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so."

My goodness how people love to bitch about changes in the Market. I suppose if you were fundamentally ignorant of almost every single aspect of the economic activity of the world complaining is a lot easier than becoming informed. Being the helpful current affairs junky that I am, I have decided to break it down nice and simple like for you all. So there are these companies that retrieve, distribute and sell petroleum right? And they do this for profit. The largest companies are state-owned operations like Saudi Aramco and Petrobras, but the ones we Americans deal with the most are multinational companies. You see if state run companies ever tried the shady shit that the multinationals did it would be very obvious who could hold accountable. So what we see in the unprecedented rise in the per-barrel price of oil is almost entirely the work of the big five- Exxon Mobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Texaco and Conoco Phillips. Now these corporations would also be able to be held accountable if they did anything too blatant to raise prices, but they are hardcore capitalists, and thus very wily. They know for a fact that the end of easily available oil is going to, in time, completely eliminate the market for their good and service. Consequently they are seeing that they get top dollar while the demand lasts. The occupation of Iraq, the political tensions with Iran and Venezuela, and MEND's continued actions in the Niger Delta have all played completely into their desire to get higher profits than any corporations in the history of Capitalism. So it really isn't that complicated, and as a result could be fixed relatively easily if the American consumer was keener on flexing its economic muscle than the traditional brainless bitching. As much as they destory the world and harm its inhabitants, I can't even really blame the oil companies for doing what corporations are designed to do- make money. Is it their fault that poor countries governments don't stop them and Western consumers are subserviant idiots being led by corrupt opportunistic leaders? I personally would argue that as much as they profit from these situations, it wasn't they that created them (although they played a large part).

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." -Marcus Aurelius

The Mighty Market

"When a man moves away from nature his heart becomes hard."

Allow me to say, in the parlance of our times, that shit is getting wild and looks to be getting even more so in the very near future. The thing we got going here called civilization looks as though it will collapse under its own weight and crush us all. This is largely the result of unbridled use of resources over the past 200 years. In that time the worlds population has more than tripled and our race has become integrated into one mammoth entity commonly called the Market. People and products flow all over the place in a network so complex and fluid that no one really knows how it all works. It has in a few generations fundamentally altered just about every single facet of our existence. In many ways it has helped us all learn more about the different cultures and even done a great deal to increase our knowledge of everything from Astrophysics to Zoology. There is one minor problem to all this however, and that is that we only have one planet to populate, and that being done, we seem incapable of stopping, even when it becomes glaringly obvious that we don't have enough to go around anymore. Our traditional checks of war, famine and plague have all been somewhat neutralized by America's complete military dominance, improved agricultural technology and amazing medicines. We love to exhibit these advances as proof of our spectacular progress. Unfortunately the operating of this Market is based almost entirely upon the affordable availability of one resource- petroleum. This fueled the madness that was the 20th Century and is responsible for the world in which we live. It is an undeniable fact that almost all the easy oil has been gotten, and that the costs associated with extracting what is left will be a huge economic burden. Now oil prices don't only affect transportation, but also food production which is largely dependent upon petroleum based fertilizers. Long story short, the 60 years of economic growth and relative peace since WWII is going to come to an abrupt end. Starvation will rip through the third world like a hurricane and will sweep away whatever semblance of authority there was. The wealthy nations of the world will find that all their capital doesn't amount to anything when their is no fuel to propel their economies. The standard of living will plumet and social unrest will be bound to follow. In such an environment it isn't hard to believe that warfare will return with a vengence as the 6.5 billion people on earth fight tooth and nail. This time not for religion, race or state, but purely for survival. Morality has always been the providence of peace, and naturally leaves the stage as soon as Aries arrives. So here we will be with all these weapons and not enough stuff for everyone... The gears of history have always been lubricated by blood, and I fear that the Market may very well soon require unprecedented amounts to keep functioning. I guess it just wasn't in the cards for us to be able to cooperate enough to make this whole society thing work in the long run; what a bummer for us. The leaders of the G8 recently convened to work towards lowering the price of oil to ensure their economic viability- what a bunch of myopic demented dipshitsOf course nobody wants to be the person to say that the party has to stop, especially when nobody knows how to stop. The G8 is really just a gang of heartless addicts that are so profoundly materialistic that they care about nothing except their GDP. It is going to be one hell of a show, of that much at least we can be certain. All the tamed and trained people in wealthy countries are going to find going cold turkey rough going. At the very most we have a decade or two before all this goes down. So my advice is to get used to living off what your local area can produce, get used to no electricity, and certainly don't have any children.

wonderfully wild world

How wonderfully wild the world is becoming. Almost seems like we are heading into a different part of the universe and it is affecting all of us. Tis one hell of a ride deep down inside this thing in which we all must abide. All on this planet with no were to go except crazy or space. We wrestle with ourselves and each other as our little blue planet gracefully dances through our celestial stage with the casual perfection that is natures trademark. The utter indifference of the universe to our self obsession is a constant reminder of where we come from and what we are a part of. I have this sneaking suspicion that we are about to become much more aware of our own insignificance cosmically and that this may very well provide the perfect opportunity for us to exchange our desire to dominate for survival and discovery. All that we can be relatively certain of is the impermanence of our entire species. We are here, have been for a little while, and some day we will be gone; so what are we going to do with the time and place we were given? If we were to take the earth as a blank canvas, I must confess we have made a pretty horrendous mess of it so far. Still, many layers of paint can be applied in an attempt to rescue this piece of art from aimless barbarity. I can't even pretend to have a preference about what happens, the paint stokes fall where they will. Its so brutally beautiful and yet serenely stupid that you can't help but love it. Its a riddle that will drive you crazy with consciousness, but can also be really funny if you only let it. Anyway, it wouldn't be as majestic and mysterious if it all actually had an explanation. Que sera sera. Whatever will be will be, the futures not ours to see. Que sera sera.

May Day

"The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession."
-Mark Twain
The freedom of all is essential to my freedom.
-Mikhail Bakunin
The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. -Emma Goldman
"It is we the workers who built these palaces and cities here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers, can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute." -Buenaventura Durruti

As long as I breathe I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future, that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of his history and will direct it towards the boundless horizons of beauty, joy and happiness!
-Leon Trotsky
Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.
Rosa Luxemburg

Oh how we have tried and failed to free ourselves from the modern world of use and abuse. How many barricades have been sanctified by the passionate blood of workers who preferred to die in the streets rather than let their life be taken by the endless exploitation. And how many times have we thought that we were finally being led out of Egypt only to validate Camus' cynical but thus far true statement- "Every revolutionary ends up as an oppressor or a heretic". Is it destined to be like this forever? People willingly donning their chains and licking the whip for all their days in the desperate hope that it will get better, someday? Makes me wonder if maybe humanity has been tripping on power too long to give up the habit cold turkey and form a society that works for everyone. I remain somewhat optimistic that sooner or later enough people are going to get desperate enough to try some truly radical ideas. Have no clue what that will consist of, but in the unfolding of time, their are only those who tried and those who didn't; and May Day is all about honoring the countless dead who tried.

Urban Warfare 2008

The satellite pictures above show the densely populated Sadr City district of Baghdad, home to some 2.5 million Shi'a men, women and children. It is rapidly becoming a second version of Gaza as battles rage in its narrow and crowded streets. Currently it is largely controlled by the Mahdi Army, a militia that is at least 60,000 strong and apparently prepared to go up against the mighty American military. In the sectarian bloodbath that has become Baghdad under US rule, the Mahdi Army patrols and protects this sprawling slum in a time when no one else dares. As brutal and unsavory as they may seem to Americans, if you were living in this cauldron of chaos you'd probably be glad to have any security you can get, regardless of its source. Given it's close proximity to the locus of American power in the region, the Green Zone, it is a huge security risk that has consistently been able to undermine or facilitate the various initiatives the US tries to stabilize the city and country. The real problem that the US is having is that they can't use the sort of firepower in Sadr City that they traditionally like to use when engaging hostile forces. The US Army's usual strategy of overwhelming firepower is simply not viable in an area with a population density of 67,000 people per square mile. Unless of course the purpose is genocide, which is something that Central Command would rather not get involved in, just yet at least. In the past month all hell has broken loose in Sadr City as Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers to resist Nuri al-Maliki's push to take control of the Shi'a districts loyal to the Mahdi Army. Sometimes I really get the feeling that the US military just goes tear assing around the world looking for the shit, and Lord Almighty do they seem to find it.
a dispatch from that front- NYT May 4th 2008

The missiles that hit close to the Sadr General Hospital were American. After a night of clashes in the neighborhood, the Americans fired at least three “precision-guided munitions” at the small building next door to the hospital. Neighbors said the building was used as a place of prayer for pilgrims, hospital employees and neighborhood residents, but the military identified it as a command center for the Shiite militias that it is battling.
Responsibility for the other strike is in dispute. The Americans said claims that they had attacked the children were “preposterous.” The area where the hit occurred is near heavily contested ground. Shiite militias trying to hit nearby Iraqi Army and American forces have sometimes misfired, hitting areas near there in recent fighting.
Both instances underline sad truths about urban warfare. The daily horror for families and children living near the front line area of Sadr City is that who is a friend and who a foe is no longer a meaningful question. Heavy weapons do not discriminate. The militias use rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles and mounted machine guns as well as AK-47 rifles while the Americans shoot Hellfire missiles, tank rounds, satellite-guided missiles and rounds from machine guns.

honest Bush

See, the truth is in there somewhere, you just have to edit it-