Wool Over The Old Eyes

President Bush will make an important policy speech tomorrow. In this speech, Bush will extol the need for America to keep fighting the war in Iraq as a larger part of the war against that slippery trick of Terrorism. Now, as you have had of realized by now even if you are a new reader, I think that the war on terrorism is as pointless as the war on drugs. But, I am not posting about this. I am posting a public service announcement about this speech.

According to the AFP, Bush is going to make a dubious connection:

"Many argued that if we pulled out, there would be no consequences for the Vietnamese people," he was to say. "The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be."

"In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation, torture, or execution. In Vietnam, former American allies, government workers, intellectuals, and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of thousands perished," he was to say.

This is a factually incorrect argument for the following reason. The departure of the American troops did not lead to the rise of the Khmer Rouge. The aimless bombing of Cambodia along with putting troops in the country led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge. Who did that bombing? The American government. In particular, the Nixon administration. I'd like to note that this is the same man who took us OUT of Vietnam. Additionally, Bush will mention that South Vietnam fell because America pulled out. This is also untrue because South Vietnam was a weak puppet state, one lacking the strength and organization of the North. Many South Vietnamese were fighting with the North anyway. Does the term Viet Cong ring a bell? Yea, thought so. South Vietnam was already going to fail. The troop pullout did not exacerbate this process in any way.

I post this because I don't want you to get the wrong information from the man who should be giving you the truth. A public service announcement from a comically named blog about media, politics, and esoterica.

A Public Service Announcement

If I had some of that calming muzak to play in the background of this post, I would. As you may or may not know, there is a war going on in the Middle East. Yes, the war in Iraq against that mysterious man/woman/person/animal/skeleton of danger Terrorism. Pretty much everyone in America wants the troops to come home. This war is a fiasco, one that has destabilized the country and, more than likely, the entire region. But, the eggheads and brown-nosers in Washington have finally picked up on this fact and are trying to do something about it. There are still many (Joe Lieberman, Walnuts "Gay Sweater" McCain, Lindsay Graham amongst others) who believe that this is the right course: to send our troops into the desert of Iraq to face uncertainty, to confront the constant stench of burning flesh and death, and to experience the modern rendition of Vietnam where the enemies are buried amongst the masses. But, this group of voices are slowly dying down as the public has made their displeasure with the war become much louder.

In hopes of appeasing the loud voices, the Senate has decided to work towards pulling the troops out of the country. While I've expressed my displeasure with a precipitous withdrawal, I have to clarify the rhetoric being used by the mainstream media right now. The mainstream media continues to suggest that the Democrats are filibustering their own bill. If you are unfamiliar with parliamentary rules, filibustering is a fancy word for stalling. Think of it like its Spanish etymological base: pirate. A pirate came up on a ship and took over, making the ship do its deeds until the crew, who has its own agenda, could overtake them. The same concept works here. How much sense does it make to have the group who wants to take the troops out blocking agenda to take troops out? None at all.

To flesh this out across the Senate, the Republicans are the pirates, forcing the Democrats to get 60 votes to close discussion and make it an actual vote. The Republicans are filibustering. Apparently, the mainstream media does not understand the idea that the Republicans are filibustering by blocking the vote. So, when you hear someone say that the Democrats are filibustering, you should either slap them or change the channel. The Republicans are the bad ones here.

R.I.P. AND PSA

This is Hi-Five. If you didn't grow up listening to Black urban radio, this song might lost upon you. Anyway, this is I like the way. This song was the jam. They were like the replacement New Edition or Boyz II Men or Jodeci, but I'm getting away from my point. Today, it was reported that the lead member of the group Tony Thompson died. Thompson, age 31, died from huffing freon. This is not a joke. This dude seriously huffed freon. Kids, I hope this serves as a valuable lesson for not huffing. While 7th Heaven might have tried to tell you this, the WB was alarmist and had a clear, right-wing agenda*. This is real shit. Don't do it.

*7th Heaven always struck me as having a right wing agenda, along with a lot of the other shows. This is clearly refuted by the support given to Gilmore Girls, a show that revolves around a single mother and her daughter. But, I need an inflammatory comment to end on. I think I achieved that.

A Public Service Announcement

• About 6,700 mountain bicycles with Lefty Speed SL and Lefty Speed DLR forks, manufactured by Cannondale Bicycle Corporation, because the forks can break during use, causing the rider to lose control of the bicycle, fall and suffer injuries. The company has received 15 reports of the bicycle forks breaking, including five reports of injuries including a broken collarbone, a concussion, broken ribs and bruises. Details: by phone at 800-245-3872; by Web at http://www.cannondale.com or http://www.cpsc.gov.

I always thought those things were sketchy.

Source: Yahoo!

A Public Service Announcement

I am not against drugs per se. If you would like to experiment with drugs, by all means, you should. But, even with such an ethos, there is a line that has to be maintained and respected. That line should be drawn at things that you have seen people get completely fucked up on. PCP is a bit flexible, but should be used with caution and probably with a downer to make sure that you don't get too hyped and end up with a herniated disk because you thought that you could lift up a car with your bare hands or dead because you thought you could fly (true story; happened in D.C. during the PCP outbreak of the early 2000's). PCP aside, drugs that you can get completely fucked up on include: heroin, crack, and meth. All of these drugs completely ruin your life and make you a basehead who gets into knife fights and surfs through people's trash to steal credit card numbers. This is on top of making you look ridiculously hideous with legions all over your face.

If you live in Dallas or other points in the world, please do not start doing cheese or telling your friends to do it. Cheese is a blend of nighttime sleeping drugs like Tylenol PM and low-end heroin. It can kill you with one hit because of the combination of two fairly strong downers. Heroin slows your heart down. Tylenol PM puts you to sleep, meaning that your heart is going to slow down as well as it enters into its nocturnal form. If you couldn't tell, this isn't a good idea like getting drunk and taking Vicodin or robotripping.

While what you do with your own body is your decision, work with the rest of us here. I live in an area with a Fox-owned Fox subsidiary. That station is already trying to scare the crap out of me with its threatening lead-ins to stories about how cell phones can explode in my face or something pointless that will never happen in a million years during the ten o'clock news. I don't need CNN adding to this paranoia like they did with an episode of Paula Zahn Now dedicated to the issue of these knuckleheads doing cheese. Save me from these public interest stories and save yourself from the inherent addiction and/or death. Don't do cheese.

A public service announcement from a blog named after a quote from Airplane.

International Intolerance

I will be the first person to say that I don't know a lot about places in Southeast Asia. It doesn't particularly interest me. I know of its culture and some of it is interesting, but it's not really my bag. I'm more of a Latin America and Africa person, but this is not a discussion for now.

I bring up Southeast Asia as Richard Gere was in the space recently, helping to educate people about HIV and safe sex. This is all fine, but Gere went too far kissing Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in public. Now, Richard Gere is wanted in Jaipur for his actions.

According to the judge who issued the warrant for Gere's arrest:

Gere and actress Shilpa Shetty "transgressed all limits of vulgarity" during their appearance at an HIV/AIDS event

Additionally, the judge went on to say that Shetty should have resisted Gere's advances.

Now, I have two major problems with this situation. Gere, who according to the above-linked TMZ.com article, is familiar with India and should know of his customs. Regardless, to suggest that he go to jail for three months for something as trivial as kissing someone on the cheek. More importantly, I am offended that Ms. Shetty is being condemned by her community for being overtaken by Gere. She should not be held in blame for the indiscretions of Gere. This whole situation stinks for everyone, but it's to be expected in a place where a caste system still exists.

Kurt Vonnegut, Again

I sort of skimmed the obit last night when it came out. I didn't notice until listening to the ongoing tribute that NPR was doing today to him that Vonnegut died from a fall. I thought that old people falling was a joke hence me laughing constantly at the Medic Alert ads with the old Surgeon General C. Everett Koop talking about using one in his own house. I thought he just wanted people to notice that he had actually kicked the bucket. Apparently, that shit is serious. Don't let your seniors fall. You don't want to be that guy who goes out from complications from falling because you would suck. Vonnegut gets a pass because he was hilarious and an amazing writer. Honestly, he could have died however he wanted to.