i’ve stopped counting

The recent tsunami has killed one hundred thousand people in Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and other countries. [image source]

The people killed are from many more countries since many tourist areas were affected. By ‘affected’, I mean specifically ‘run over by a 500 MPH wall of water’. It makes it all easier to swallow, easier to live with. Kind of like saying ‘detained’ when talking about the hundreds of people we have indefinitely imprisoned in Guantanamo.

We’re doing this to Iraq on a similar scale, just packed into one little country. But instead of earthquakes and flooding, we’re using smart bombs and napalm. Fitting with our tradition of excellence, we did it sooner and with better technology.

The point I’m badly trying to make is that the anguish obvious in the above picture is the same pain we’re inflicting on the civilians of Iraq, in very similar numbers. But somehow, this picture hits harder. Maybe it’s the blue jeans and western haircuts.

I feel like a quote out of context, withholding the rest
so I can be for you what you want to see.
I got the gesture and sound, got the timing down,
it’s uncanny, yeah you’d think it was me.
Do you think I should take a class to lose my southern accent?
…
Right after those lines of the live version of Ben Folds’ Best Imitation of Myself, some girl in the audience yells out “No!” without any hesitation. This is my favorite moment of the whole live recording. The girl yells it out in a “I know that was a rhetorical question, but I believe so completely in my answer that I have to just scream the answer out so everyone hears” sort of way. This simple evidence of love/acceptance is enough to make a my day brighter, wamer, happier. But I wish my thought wasn’t so uncontrollably visual — whenever I listen to this song, I have a hard time focusing on the (literal) road ahead.

Move over dentists, there’s a new suicide-heavy profession ahead of you. The new profession that causes people to kill themselves is (da da-da daaa!) Bush biographers! Four people who wrote/were writing books investigating things like Dubya being arrested for cocaine charges, the CIA pushing drugs under the Bush family, etc., have committed suicide. Or have had suicide committed for them. [link]

Gary Webb [link] [link]
He managed to shoot himself in the head more than once.

Mark Lombardi [link] [link]
Found dead from suicide. I couldn’t find any specific info. Either way, he made one chart too many.

James Howard (J.H.) Hatfield (Not Hetfield) [link]
Prescription drug overdose.

Danny Casalaro (Casolaro?) [link]
This guy was a real trooper, really balls-to-the-wall about killing himself. He slit his left wrist eight times and his right wrist four times. Then he tied a shoelace around his neck and finished off a beer. Then he cleaned up the mess and tossed some bloody towels behind the sink. Then he hopped back in the tub. He probably had something planned for the plastic garbage bags, but couldn’t figure out what to do with them. (Events not necessarily in that order.)

If you do write a book about what a giant asshole the Bush family is, it’s probably best to publish anonymously. And leave it off your resume.

Something I read recently that merits repeating:
“If you’re not furious, you’re not paying attention.”

The second patriot act is quietly going into law. It’s a secret set of ridiculous violations of constitutional rights, and it’s racing through D.C. without many congressmen even reading it. Please just read about it: Patriot act summary, and more info.

But at least our military and intelligence agencies are proudly making the world safer for democracy, right? Nope.

This story talks about a CIA agent who was canned for not faking WMD info.

Falluja is changing info a concentration camp. Link 1, Link 2. Feel free to do any amount of research on what is happening there. We’re using chemical weapons on civilians, shooting innocent women and children, bombing hospitals, and killing anybody who dares to start counting the bodies.

I’d rant for pages on how screwed everything is, but I think it’s better for people to read it for themselves. Pretty please, with sugar on top, take a gander at the above sites.

From ‘Diary of a Political Tourist’, a documentary about the 2004 election campaign: Rep. Peter King (R-NY) stated “It’s all over but the counting. And we’ll take care of the counting.”

Note that this video was shot before the election. Maybe Republicans should stop drinking around video cameras.

Someone put together a nice video for people who keep saying “Bush won. Get over it.”