Category: Uncategorized

89629483

technology’s role in the recent anti-war protests

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/23/weekinreview/23JLEE.html

WASHINGTON Before the global protests against war in Iraq last weekend,
organizers were already making conference calls and passing out fliers for
their next set of demonstrations, including one scheduled for next Saturday,
outside the White House.

But then, the worldwide protests drew millions of people onto the streets,
from San Francisco to London, and the Bush administration hit some diplomatic
roadblocks. Sensing delay in White House momentum, the organizers themselves
paused and decided to make a strategic move, delaying the demonstrations from
March 1 until March 15. They spread the news the old-fashioned way, through
alternative radio stations and word of mouth, and the instantaneous way,
through Web sites and e-mail messages.

…

89543855

worst night ever

tonight started out as a kind of mundane, boring, slightly ill night and spiralled downward into a really awful night, and ended up as a kind of ridiculous night.

so the original plan is that i was going to spend the evening in bed, fighting with my computer graphics lab until midnight when i would go to the greyhound station to pick up ryan on the bus back from bloomington.

all was going acording to plan until around 7:30 when i got a call from the highway patrol dispatcher asking about a friend named mike. i asked for a last name. i had a sneaking suspicion that the dispatcher was referring to my friend mikeal, but i was unsure since i rarely heard references to him using the abreviated form of his name. i was sort of out of it, but what i gathered from the dispatcher was that mikeal was stranded at a rest stop between springfield and columbus and that i had to pick him up. shortly after we parted ways in bloomington and he had expressed his intention of hitchhiking home, i mentioned that if he ran into trouble to call me. he’s pretty independent and doesn’t like imposing on people, so it was pretty surprising to get a call. i guess it made sense that it was him who called, but the cops on his behalf. i later learned that he got picked up walking along the highway and was forced by the cops to get a ride.

so i recruited tim to ride shotgun and we headed out towards springfield. we got to the rest stop, and saw mikeal waiting inside looking a bit guilty and sheepish. he appologized for making us come out, and after a bathroom break, we got in the mutant to drive back to columbus. i was horrified when i turned the key and nothing happened. the engine didn’t even turn over! fuck, i thought this old piece of crap has finally died. i tried again, feebly hoping that the van would magically start. no such luck. we tried waiting a few minutes. no luck. mikeal tried. he insisted that the proximity to columbus was alread having a bad effect.

defeated, we tried to think of who to call. i suggested jen, the girl that tim is kinda-sort of-seeing. tim wasn’t too hot on the idea, but she had a car and i was pretty desperate. after a short phone call from tim, he said that she was on her way. we spent the wait pacing, pouting and cursing our poor luck. jen eventually arrived, and she and tim left to get gas (since i realized that the mutant’s gas guage was non-operational and hoped that the problem was just an empty tank). jen and tim came back with some gas and we spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to pour the gas with the “non spill” spout whose overdesign left me cursing technology. eventually we poured the gas into the tank, but to no avail. defeated, we asked jen to drive us back to columbus. i wondered what ryan would say when he got off the bus and found out that i killed his van. i contemplated calling him, but feared some kind of insane response.

it’s not that ryan’s irrational, or that i’ve ever seen him really flip out over something, it’s just that he really loves the van. he’s been through a lot with it, what with a few cobra kai tours, some memento mori tours and now a handful of fun defiance, ohio shows. hell, the van has a great history even before ryan aquired it. it was once a traveling math classroom and later the tour vehicle for none other than the creed of new rock, the julianna theory! so fearing ryan’s response was one factor in not calling ryan. the other is the fact that years of dealing with my father has engrained a very simple response mechanism when it comes to dealing with fiasco: deal with it yourself and don’t tell anybody if at all possible. i’ll say this. my father does not deal with adversity gracefully. when something would go wrong, he didn’t exactly kill the messenger, but the messenger was certainly the target of blame. as an example of my dad’s less than graceful handling of this kind of thing i offer up the story of bangor, maine.

bangor, maine. i was a preteen and my brother was even younger. it was summer family vacation and we were cutting through new england on the way to nova scotia. since my dad’s a bike geek, the back of the car was laden with bikes to go exploring at various points on our itinerary. my brother’s bike was mounted atop the car. that final detail is really important, but was overlooked by my dad. as we pulled into a hotel in bangor maine, we went below the rain vestibule outside of the main office. of course, it happened to be pretty low, and my brother’s bike colided with the overhang with a resounding thud. if i recall correctly, the bike an d roofrack were ripped from the roof. my dad gets out of the car, inspects the damage and throws his keys to the ground and proceeds to literally hop up and down in anger. he lets loose a minute long string of obscenities that left even the hardened proprieters of the travel lodge cowering in fear. we were cowering too, hoping that no one would notice us and associate us with the maniac carrying on in the parking lot. from that day forward, for my brother and i, and a few of our friends, the words bangor, maine became associated with complete and utter fury and hatred for the world. later in the night, when mikeal was telling ryan how angry i was when the van wouldn’t start, ryan asked “was it like bangor, maine?”

i was happy that ryan was back in town when i saw him disembark from the bus at the bus station, but i was worried about how he’d react to the bad news. i sort of blurted it out to him incoherently. i was surprised when he sort of smiled and asked, “did you put it in neutral to start it.” needless to say, after driving back to the rest stop and applying the “first law of driving the mutant”, ryan was able to drive the van back to columbus without any problems.

when we finally parked the mutant back at my house, i was exhausted, but at least i found an e-mail from abbey in my inbox which made things a little better. it’s always nice to hear from new friends.

i swear the next month of my life will either be the best i’ve had, or it will completely destroy me.

89476442

so after reading patrick’s journal for the first time in a while, i realized how bad i have been about writing here other than just notes to myself and bookmarks to things i think are interesting. it sort of sucks.

so, i’m trying to catch back up. maybe it will make me organized. maybe it will give me a chance to vent without feeling that i’m arguing with people, and maybe it will make me feel articulate again.

89145765

i got this in an e-mail forward from jibbery@bellsouth.net

> What follows is a transcription of some of the best signs in Washington

> during the peace march January 18th. Please share all or just your
> favorites with friends.

>

> ———————————————————-

>

> Drunken frat boy drives country into ditch.

>

> Bush/Cheney: Malice in Blunderland

>

> Who would Jesus bomb?

>

> War begins with ‘Dubya’.

>

> Bush is proof that empty warheads can be dangerous.

>

> Let’s bomb Texas, they have oil too.

>

> How did our oil get under their sand?

>

> If you can’t pronounce it, don’t bomb it.

>

> Daddy, can I start the war now?

>

> 1000 points of light and one dim bulb.

>

> Sacrifice our SUV’s, not our children.

>

> Preemptive impeachment.

>

> No George, I said Mac Attack.

>

> Frodo has failed, Bush has the ring.

>

> Look, I’ll pay more for gas!

>

> He is a moron and a bully.

>

> It’s the stupid economy.

>

> Draft Richard Perle.

>

> Draft dodgers shouldn’t start wars.

>

> War is sweet to those who haven’t tasted it (Erasmus).

>

> Pillow fights only.

>
> Our grief [over 9/11] is not a cry for war.

>

> Different Bush, same shit.

>

> Stop the Bushit.

>
> Just war/just oil.

>

> You don’t have to like Bush to love America.

>

> Bushes are for pissing on.

>

> Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld: the asses of evil.

>

> Stop the excess of evil [gives figures for the multibillion dollar

> defense budget].

>

> $1 billion a day to kill people — what a bargain.

>

> Consume –> Consume –> Bomb –> Bomb –> Consume –> Consume

>

> What’s the difference between me & God? He might forgive Bush, but I won’t.

>

> Smush Bush.

>

> America, get out of the Bushes.

>

> It’s time to trim the Bush.

>

> Pro-lifers: Wake from Bush’s propaganda spell — war kills innocent

> children.

>

> Don’t make me come back here [to a peace rally] again.

>

> Disarm Bush too.

>

> Big brother isn’t coming — he’s already here.

>

> Empires fall.

>

> An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind (Gandhi).

>

> Impeach the squatters.

>

> Mainstream white guys for peace. (Sign held by three mainstream-looking

> white guys)

>

> Hans Blix — look over here.

>

> Let Exxon send their own troops.

>

> Curious, George? — get a clue.

>

> Destroy Florida. [It could happen again]

>

> There’s a terrorist behind every Bush.

>

> How many bodies per mile?

>

> SUV owners roll over for terrorism.

>

> We can’t afford to rule the world.

>

> War is so 20th century!

>

> 9-11-01: 15 Saudis, 0 Iraqis.

>

> While you were watching the war, Bush was raping America.

>

> Don’t waive your rights while waving your flag.

>

> Leave Desert Storm to the desert.

>

> Drop Bush not bombs.

>

> Sacrifice our SUVs, not our children.

>

> Fighting for peace is like f___ing for virginity.

>

> Bush is to Christianity as Osama is to Islam.

>

> I asked for universal health care and all I got was this lousy stealth

> bomber.

>

> America’s problems won’t be solved in Iraq.

>

> War is not a family value.

>

> 2 sided poster, one side has a picture of a chubby feline, with the words:

> GOOD FAT CAT other side has a picture of Cheney, with the words: BAD FAT

> CAT

>

> Colorfully dressed drag queen carrying a sign that says: I am the bomb.

>

> Picture of the peace symbol: back by popular demand.

>

> A picture of Bush with a red-stained upper lip: Got blood?

>

> A picture of Bush saying “Why should I care what the American people think?

> They didn’t vote for me.”

>

> A picture of Bush saying “Ask me about my lobotomy.”

>

> Beneath a picture of Osama bin Laden dressed as Uncle Sam: I want YOU to

> bomb Iraq.

>

> Beneath a picture of a menacing soldier pointing his rifle/bayonet

toward

> the viewer: Say it! One Nation under God. Say it!

89145572

war of words 2 article – us general would run iraq

from http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20030213/ts_usatoday/4863221

Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress on Wednesday that a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq would be run by a U.S. general using many of the bureaucrats who administer the country now.

Powell spoke as the Bush administration firmed up plans for a military occupation of Iraq that would leave the country’s Sunni Arab minority in control and permit Turkish troops to be stationed inside northern Iraq, over the vehement objections of Iraqi Kurds.

…

Leaders of Iraqi opposition groups briefed in Turkey last week by Zalmay Khalilzad, the top U.S. envoy for Iraq, said many of the administration plans are deeply troubling. A reliance on the current government infrastructure would continue the dominance of Arab Sunnis, who represent 10%-15% of the country’s 22 million population. The majority, 60%-70%, are Arab Shiites. Most of the rest are Kurds, an ethnic group that has enjoyed relative independence for the past decade under the protection of U.S. and British air patrols.