Yeah, I guess I'm just going to keep mixing the anti-war sutff in with the geek gadget stuff. You should just pretend that the one doesn't make the other look pretty unimportant. Or worse.
In any case, I've been finding lincoln plawg to be the best source for the important stuff. Take this one for instance:.... The technique of the War Party is not a million miles away. It's designed to focus the Average Joe's mind on inessentials; and to make him feel as if he's already agreed to go to war. Now, there's something in the psyche of most of us that we're reluctant to go back on a deal we've already made. Hey, that's welshing, isn't it? It's bad, m'kay? Hell, it's unAmerican!
The whole idea of the War Party is to get folks - the guys with votes who don't count now, but will count come New Hampshire - to assume they've already ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, and make them so embarrassed that they don't choose to send the dish back to the kitchen.
And how, exactly, is that done? By assuming that the fact that Saddam has not complied with 1441 and its predecessors is a valid reason to go to war. The War Party say, Everyone already agreed at the time UNSCR 1441 was passed that non-compliance, material breach, were as good as an invasion of Kuwait as a pretext for war. Surely everyone realised that? All except the retarded and the mental, that is. And everyone committed to serious consequences if he didn't.
So, he hasn't. And now we're going to give him serious consequences. And - now you're whining, you lousy sons-of-bitches? But you already agreed! You some kind of welsher?
The whole show - PT Barnum, eat your heart out: this is Sucker Heaven! - is designed to keep folks' minds from what they know: that violence is only justified in self-defence: against an actual attack, or the real threat of an imminent attack. They know that applies in Podunk, USA; and are pretty damned sure it applies everywhere else.... You've got to keep your ears tuned to the phrase "material breach." The administration repeatedly uses this phrase as a trigger for war, and yet it's not at all clear that this is justified. (I mean under international law, which, granted, our administration cares little about.) The fact that I have yet to hear any real questioning in the mainstream media about what "material breach" actually means is a bit disturbing.
Actually you do a pretty good job of relating the geek gadget stuff to the bigger picture. I'm having a similar problem, though. I'm trying to do an art page but I can't *not* comment about our new McCarthy era. It's just too terrible.
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In any case, I've been finding lincoln plawg to be the best source for the important stuff. Take this one for instance:You've got to keep your ears tuned to the phrase "material breach." The administration repeatedly uses this phrase as a trigger for war, and yet it's not at all clear that this is justified. (I mean under international law, which, granted, our administration cares little about.) The fact that I have yet to hear any real questioning in the mainstream media about what "material breach" actually means is a bit disturbing.
- jim 2-26-2003 8:02 pm
Actually you do a pretty good job of relating the geek gadget stuff to the bigger picture. I'm having a similar problem, though. I'm trying to do an art page but I can't *not* comment about our new McCarthy era. It's just too terrible.
- tom moody 2-26-2003 8:36 pm