It was called Operation Overlord and it was meticulously planned and ultimately victorious. But it was a cluster fuck in terms of execution. It was sheer will that won the day, not superior military tactics.

For the past five days, I have stormed the cliff at Omaha beach seized fields and farmhouses. Been sniped out, machine gunned, and gaffled up by pudgy Nazi troops yelling, "AMERICANA!" Finally, I had to massacre about 100 Nazis from a 150-foot cilo as they set up mortar bases in teams of two a mile around me in a total sphere.

But I finally did it.

And my son finally went number two in the potty...and he flushed and washed his hands.

It's the little victories that turn the berries of life blacker and make their taste that much sweeter.

And I didn't post a damn thing this weekend because I've made a new pact with you, dear reader. I'm not going to post something on this blog unless it means something, unless it has weight.

I'm not going to tell you what I think about the mundanities of life. Frankly, I don't give a shit about Dick Cheney shooting a 78-year old lawyer in the face because the truth is that I wish the accidental shooting of lawyers took place more often in this country. But you can't say that and have it come off as funny as when you speak it.

And I'm still holding onto a podcast that could change the world. In less than 25 minutes, Jason and I connected quantum physics, cultural cosmology, artistic aesthetics, and personal psychology into a spiritual silver sabre that will pierce the dragon's heart and rescue the princess from the tower. But I'm savoring the sheen of the blade in the moonlight before sneaking up and plunging the blade into the atrium of the great beast. I want to see its eyes when the blade hits its mark and the bell tolls again in America and around the world.

We storm these beaches every day.

And with little victories come tick mark celebrations that we ingest among solitary cave walls with blood scratched bisons and thoughts of sympathetic magic through spear and rebirth.

David Gilmour, the master guitarist of Pink Floyd legend is coming out with a new album and it makes me want to point my rifle to the sky and shoot bullets at Apollo.

It makes me want to fight through the foliage and wash my dragon weapon in the sea once again.

LINKS:
David Gilmour

TAGS:
D-Day, Operation Overlord, Call of Duty 2, XBOX 360, David Gilmour, Blogcast, Joshua Minton, Jason Patterson, Cosmology, Physics, Psychology, Art, Aesthetics, Dick Cheney

Evey time I grow my beard out, women stop swooning and start curling their lips up in disgust.

But I don't care because I've already got a wife...and a kid...and a relatively clean home. Okay, my home's not clean but the rest is great on a plate.

The truth about the beard goes so far beyond fashion or trying to impress someone that it's hard to explain. Growing up in South Central Illinois, most of the male adults in my life had beards at some point during the year. When it snows on the plains of the Midwest, the males just seemed to grow beards. That's how it is.

And when the bitter winds start biting, some kind of primal animal wakes up inside me and screams for facial hair. I used to have a fire red beard, peppered with dark hairs which have now started to go gray (see above picture).

If you're wondering if I have some kind of hang-up about going grey at the age of 30, I don't. I hope that I go completely white by the time I'm 50.

So, no; I'm not the wolfman but that doesn't mean I can't grow facial hair. Don't worry ladies--the goatee will be back soon enough. But for now, I'm going for the Mervin Olson look...

If anyone is interested, I have issued 1,000 additional shares of Boys Wear Pants at Blogshares. Feel free to pick some up (it's only fake money, after all).

I'm pleased to say that Antimedia and JD have made me a whole lot of fake money as their blogs have grown tremendously in value these past eight months since I bought out majority shares.

And, BWP has also grown significantly in value. Get used to it--it's an upward trend that won't stop until this site is in everyone's aggregator or favorites list.

Tradish!

I spent the past three days dying repreatedly on a street corner of Tunisia (where George Lucas filmed Star Wars). I was pinned down by two MG42s, one behind a barricade of sand bags 2 0'clock to my position and another on the second story of a building 9 o'clock to my position.

I took at the 2:00 with a well-placed grenade (that was lobbed right back at me 75% of the time), then switched up weapons to the German MP40 and took out two rooftop snipers, then placed two well-aimed bullets 50 meters into the skull of the 9:00 machine gunner. My fellow British mates threw a couple of smoke grenades which filled the streets and gave great cover to gain ground but made it very difficult to engage in the up-close combat that followed (if you kill any of your own people, you have to start it all over again).

Oh, and did I mention that playing on the Veteran level, it's pretty much get shot once and you're dead?

But I finally did it. I can't imagine what it must have been like for these veterans to actually fight this war. But I can tell you this--I'm gaining more and more respect for them every time I die at the hands of these pixellated Nazi bastards.

I've said it before, but this is the best video game ever!

TAGS:
Call of Duty 2, XBox 360, Tunisia

I finally got around to watching the fourth season of The Shield on DVD. I can't believe this show isn't more popular than it is. The first three seasons were gold but this fourth season knocked it out of the park for me.

Fantastic Bastard introduced this show to me when it was deep into the second season and I have been hooked on it ever since. Michael Chiklis (remember The Commish?) has amended my credo of "You don't fu*& with the Riders of Rohan!" to include "You also don't fu*& with Detective Mackey!"

But the actor who really knocked my socks off this season was Glenn Close. I've never really cared much for her acting, but my goodness--what a fantastic job. She played fantastic opposite Mackey. The mark of a great series is how far it pushes its characters and The Shield not only erases the lines by pushing the characters so far beyond them--it makes you forget there are lines at all. Good versus evil means nothing in the world of the Shield.

And even though it's drama--this show is about as close to Los Angeles as I ever want to get.

Watch this show. No excuses.

TO: Contstant Reader
From: Constant Thinker and Writer Who Will Never Produce Enough Words to Thank You

I apologize for not being able to post on a daily basis recently. Blogging is tied for fourth or fifth most important items to take care of on a daily basis. I still work a full-time job, have a family to take care of, and still produce my actual writing which is meant to one day be published as novels, screenplays, short stories, and magazine articles. Oh yeah, did I mention that I started my own publishing company last year, also?

I'm a busy dude but I want you to know that this blog is a priority and I am dedicated to making it a premier spot on the Internet for ideas, thoughts, concerns, and artistic expression. That goal means nothing without constant readers to write for.

And I want to thank you each for your generous mental and emotional patronage.

It is my hope that I can get some other good writers on here to produce content this year. I am hoping that I can finally get Fantastic Bastard to open his big mouth and big heart and give you all a double barrel dose of the witicissms rooted in loyalty and respect that I have been privy to for almost ten years now.

I can trace the beginning of the explosion of my intellect back to one Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode titled "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and was written by Diane Duane & Michael Reaves.

In this episode, Picard and crew welcome a loud-mouth, self-important asshole know-it-all onto the ship to "reconfigure" the warp engines to supposedly exceed all know warp speeds to that point.

Well, this guy brings a "traveler" assistant with him who Counselor Troi refers to as "not even there" emotionally.

The experiment works, but only because the traveler manipulated space and time to the point where the Enterprise winds up in some "dimension" where their thoughts actually become reality--and this is the "spiritual plane" where the traveler exists.

They eventually get back but the traveler must sacrifice his existence in this realm in order to warp space and time in a way that will get them back to their "reality/existence." Before going, the traveler has a conversation with Wesley Crusher (played by Wil Wheaton of Blogospheric Legendary Fame) whereby Wesley guesses at the traveler's secret by suggesting that space, time, and thought weren't the separate things we think they are--that they are all intricately connencted. The traveler confirms this and speaks privately with Captain Picard, telling him that Wesley is a genius on the scale of Mozart and should be encouraged but restrained at the same time.

Thus, Wesley gets his pin as acting Ensign and the series really began taking off from there in terms of the level of storytelling.

In one of the latter episodes of the final season (Season 7 for those of you who aren't Trekkies out there), the Traveler returns to "claim" Wesley and take him to the other dimension where he will begin existing on that plane.

[Begin Star Wars and Stephen King Digression]

This actually reminds me of the Jedi in the Star Wars Universe hand picking their Padawan learners at very young ages. Also, keep in mind that Anakin and Luke were chosen very late in life for Padawan learnes, during a time when the barriers between space, time, and thought had been well established and they were at the peak of their emotional vulnerability, able to be manipulated by strong forces.

Anakin built the foundation of his spiritual projection onto the world with the force of power pulling him in every direction to make things right so that he could enjoy his time with Padme and his new child.

Luke, on the other hand, fought against this will to power and embraced the path of individual enlightenment supporting a strong and clear headed Democracy of leaders who were concerned with building and maintaining peace instead of a constant series of war in order to better secure the space and resources of the single planet (or galaxy) they existed on and in.

Luke supported a social outward turning mental projection with a very strong and independent spiritual turning inward.

Darth Vader supported the turning inward of everything--into himself and for himself alone. This is also the choice we must each make for ourselves. George Lucas is a quiet genius of the magnitude that artistic criticism has never been able to embrace in the times which the artist actually lives.

I also consider Stephen King to be an artist on this level. These men have allowed themselves to become golden tools of creative spiritual channeling so that each of us as individuals can better turn inward while focusing outward at the same time.

But I digress.

[End Star Wars and Stephen King Digression]

But getting back to the point of my Awakening of Intelligence which was inspired by this episode of Star Trek; it changed the way I thought about everything.

The entire story arc of Wesley Crusher going to one day come back to save all of humanity by showing them how they will elevate their thinking to the next level of existence completely changed the way I thought about the nature of the inner and outer universes.

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" was a perfect piece of television art because, at an early age; I was able to digest a very high-brow concept of Theoretical Physics, Cosmology, and Philosophy without knowing that I was being exposed to it and that my brain was processing it in the background. I saw right through the metaphors and something remained without my knowledge, a small litle tear in the complacency of my inquiry towards the deeper mysteries of life and the universes both inside and outside of us (which I believe are ultimately the same universe viewed from two different angles).

And that small tear grew into a very big hole, full of the thrust of quantum questioning. There was a fire in the mind and not the pompous explosion of a Supernova star, too fat with its own weight to contain the energy being channeled into it and through it. But it was a cool blue pulsing neutron star that pulled all things into it but yet still exerted such gravitational force and luminosity that if completely unveiled in the light of day, it would drown out all other sensation and destroy the flimsy separation that exists in the mental and spiritual spaces between people and objects in the rational natural world.

The question eventually turned back on itself to reveal a dual-sided coin. One one side are planets, asteroids, black holes. On the other side are the churches and the books, the lofted notions, and don't forget the bombs and bullets. The images of god that we kill for just wouldn't be the same without bombs and bullets, right?

So I still don't have any answers yet; but if you hit me up in about eighty years, I should at least be able to tell you which one's my ass and which one's the mud-hole walked dry by big mouth bloggers who are arrogant enough to think they actually know it all.

LINKS:
The Enterprise-Inspired Nissan Terranaut
Wil Wheaton's Blog
Star Trek.com
Star Wars.com
Stephen King.com

TAGS:
Star Trek, The Next Generation, Star Wars, George Lucas, Stephen King, Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Captain Picard, Wesley Crusher, Wil Wheaton, Art, Cosmology, Philosophy, Physics, Traveler, Where No Man Has Gone Before, Diane Duane, Michael Reaves

My iPod has died and I think it's because I left it plugged into my XBOX 360. It was working perfectly fine when we sat down for a COD2 session. The iPod worked when we turned the 360 on; it worked while we played it; and it was working when I turned the 360 off.

When I came down the next day, however, after leaving the iPod plugged into the 360 all night, the iPod was dead as dogshit. It wouldn't turn on. It wouldn't charge. It's a $200 paper weight now. And it's not even six months old!

If this is some Bill Gates hates Steve Jobs bullshit that Microsoft has dreamed up to further inflame the platform war, then I am going to be thoroughly pissed off.

It would be even stupider for Microsoft to do something like this than it was for Sony to put the bullshit root kits on their audio discs.

If, however, it was just a fluke and the iPod happened to break while being plugged into the gaming system of its competitor--then I'll fully admit that when I find out what happend.

UPDATE: I fixed it! I took it into the Apple store and the dude did some fancy reset trick (which he taught me and is apparently buried somewhere on their website) and the apple icon popped back up. They were adament that the XBOX 360 had nothing whatsoever to do with the loss of functionality and said that every now and then, the iPod just needs a little reset job. So, I apologize to Microsoft--I'll keep playing your video crack if you promise not to shut me down like a Chinese blogger looking for freedom of expression.

PS: I'm sure there are a lot of cool Digg users, but why do the ones who do leave comments have to be such cynical assholes to people who are producing original content and just trying to share it with other people? My theory is that it's the same phenomena you get with the 300 lb beer gutted sloppy prick downing pints of Miller Lite and berating the Quarterback for his poor performance--schlubs who couldn't carry the stage on their own so they berate the performance of others. Oh well, I lose no sleep over it because the Pants always plays on.

TAGS:
XBOX 360, iPod

There was a dude at the last place I worked. He would always be holding a paper towel by his junk when he peed at the urinal. I thought maybe he bled from this junk or had some horrible disfiguring condition that caused urine to spout in multiple directions like a water wiggle sprinkler.

Finally I asked him one day, "Dude, what's with the paper towel by your johnson?"

He said that he was a horrible dribbler and would stain his pants all the time. Finally, one day he got fed up and started with the paper towel. When he was done at the pisser, he'd wrap his johnson in the paper towel and stuff it in his underpants. The towel soaked up the urine, preventing it from soaking his pants and causing him any embarassment.

This is one of those things that women just wouldn't understand...

It's almost jaw-dropping, how far Western medicine has advanced in the realm of pharmacology. We have a plethora of pills designed to make specific organs act in specific ways to as to relieve the symptoms and side effects of almost any disease.

But one has to wonder what it would be like if we were to push our enormous resources into the grand effort of actually curing disease, which really means promoting the body's utmost health so that it does not begin suffering from "dis-ease." Oh, I know the media is always talking about dieting and how to eat and exercise properly but is the government truly concerned about the health of the sheep?

Let me put it to you this way: anyone who has even the remotest experience with the Atkins Diet knows that excess carbohydrates of the wrong type are bad for your health and could even be deadly if abused.

Yet, for several decades, the United States Department of Agriculture put forth a suggested mandate that US citizens live under a food pyramid which over-emphasized that exact type of dietary behavior. Follow the money here--the Department of Agriculture is concerned, not with the health of the citizenry, but with supporting the agriculture industry in America.

In this same sense, we have a healthcare industry which isn't concerned with creating healthy citizenry, but rather with desigining and producing a surplus of pills and treatments aimed at the biggest market in human history--disease.

I wonder how it would affect the economic windfall profits of pharmacy companies if Americans truly were to get healthy. If each of us took the initiative to exercise and eat a balanced diet, we wouldn't need elaborate and ridiculous public health spending programs.

TAGS:
Pharmaceutical Companies, USDA, Food Pyramid, Atkins Diet, Health

...comes from JD over at the Mouth of the Brazos blog:

Looks to me like, if you have a single lick of common sense, and even an Austin lawyer should have one lick or so remaining, you’d know to keep the fuck back out of range when another dumbass, especially a politician, is waving around a loaded shotgun.

I don't care what side of the aisle you hang your hat on--that is some funny shit!

Links:
JD's Post

...is the issue of publicly-funded art. So Rush and Hannity can humbly kiss my ass as I disagree with them on this point.

I have been without cable since the last night of the Republican Convention of 2004. I did this for the main reason of purchasing a new computer while not having it affect my monthly budget. So, for almost two years, I was living without the influence of any mainstream media source upon my intellect and judgment. I chose every avenue from which I received my information on a daily basis.


But until I started watching my local PBS HD channel (which is the best looking channel on my $50 antennae); I had no concept of what fantastic programming they hosted on there. This is worth funding; but I believe it is paramount that partisan political thinking (the worst kind of thinking there is for everyone) must be kept to a minimum or always brought back to the center.


That is being fair and level and letting your audience decide; Right?

I support PBS for the same reason I passionately support the private funding of local libraries who participate in a large-scale sharing program. It's far better than the alternative...

...Imagine a world where the poor and disinterested had no avenue to gain the information and skill sets to encourage their passions to become their livelihoods while giving back a significant portion of that wealth to the social structures around them.

That is what living in a community is all about and it seems that we should be making more of an effort to sanctify the ground around us and see it reflected in the other inhabitants of this planet who immediately surround us in life.

A significant part of any "compassionate conservatism" should be compassion and neither sides in the political rift in America have any abundance of compassion. That's where we as individuals must step in, step up, cock our weapons once again and aim at the tyrant who seeks to take away that which Providence allowed a great nation to be built for the sole purpose of--bringing to light the freedom of the individual acting in the best interests of themselves and everyone around them.

And this tyrant is not any one man or group of people--the tyrant is fear. The tyrant is ignorance. The tyrant is compulsive disregard.

This is the enemy to be defeated in the War on Terror. This is the whole point of fighting a war, right?

Or is the goal still taking away the toys and essentials of others, call them us, and move on to the next unlucky culture? If this still is the goal, then someone at the committee forgot to copy me on the memo because I was under the impression we were trying to get to the whole "I Have a Dream" world, just over the mountaintop, where everyone eats at the table regardless of their skin color, where they come from, or who they are?"

If this isn't the goal then what the fuck are we celebrating on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday? Are we rewarding ourselves for slipper further into the nightmare? Or are we celebrating the ideal as a substitute for the action?

I believe in a world where every human being whose lungs are filling and emptying with the correct oxygen to atmosphere ratio, on regular basis, has complete and total access to the creative thoughts and artistic productions of fellow human beings.

Art should be both publicly and privately funded. It will be the true mark of historical social progress for us when artistic funding has been unleashed from the corporate and political fence post it has been tethered to for three thousand years. But when art is totally funded by private citizens, you will know that we have reached a milestone in our social evolution.


TAGS:
Art, Funding, PBS, HD, High Definition, Sociology, History

The first clip is one of the idiot, Michael Crooks, on Hannity and Colmes. This is the stupid ass behind the atrocious websites which call US service men and women "stupid" and far worse than that. Watch the clip and watch this idiot get his ass handed to him.

The second clip, you just have to watch. Let's just say that the kid who stole this professor's laptop is about to get his butthole stretched out a few centimeters...


LINKS:

Michael Crooks on Hannity and Colmes

Stolen laptop smack down

...is the one who tells the truth in a public forum.

A truth, as spoken from the heart of one who believes it, is a magical spell that weaves illusion (and sometimes delusion) around those who stand in its presence. In The Two Towers (the second book of Tolkien's masterpiece), Gandalf does not allow Saruman to speak from the white tower because his very voice is a weapon, regardless of the words he speaks.

I have rarely, if ever, heard President Bush '43 speak magic spells. I remember Clinton doing it every now and then (his problem was that he didn't stop when he'd hit the high point--he always had to stick around for the crescendo). And I most certainly remember Ronald Reagan weaving lyrical spells (who was bettter that we know of?).

But with Bush, somehow he always comes across as a CEO giving a quarterly report to the highly compensated employees with an audience of frontline grunts collecting insurance credits in lieu of a salary.

Plainly put, Bush is not a man of the people and therefore has no concept of what it takes to reach the people’s heart and mind. This is both a blessing and a curse--let's not forget the terrible things that have been done under the political regimes of men who were much more skilled at diction and fiction than most others.

Where many liberals are fond of pointing out the similarities between Bush and Hitler; there is an important distinction that must be made: Hitler touched the hearts of the German volk where Bush has sourced his affection in the wallets of the most affluent because that is where the fulcrum of power in our society is currently balanced.

It is important to keep in mind that as we move from a corporate-controlled media to a more open exchange of information electronically, the center of power concerning information control is likewise expanding outward in all directions; and a leader who cannot touch the hearts of their people will not be able to withstand the viscous whipping of the long tail of the volk (which is always stronger than the big headed beast of centralized power).

Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry understood perfectly clear that constant mental revolution in relation to the existing power structure was the only way to maintain a free and civil society. And this is why both were radically opposed to federalizing the United States government to the point where the idea of a union became stronger than the land we lived upon.

Once you understand American history and how this primary conflict between the strength of union and the will of the individual to pursue their happiness ignited, it could never be stopped.

It won't be stopped.

If we can understand the Cold War which followed World War II; why can't we fathom the long, long Cold War which followed the Civil War here in America.

Hell, it's still going on out there. Just look around. Listen to what politicians are talking about on C-SPAN. See what the social concerns are out there right now. Listen to the focus of the gossip going on around you and you will see that no war ever ends.

It's a sonic wave with peaks and troughs and the tone goes on forever when the tone deaf are listening.

Of course, once the deaf begin to heal again through some silly miracle, God forbid that someone is on the podium with malice in their soul.

The most dangerous leader is the one given over to completely. Leadership is something that can only come from within and when you truly recognize it in others, what you are seeing is a reflection of that power which lies in your own heart and mind.

TAGS:
Leadership, George Bush, Adolf Hitler, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, War, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Spirituality, Politics, Religion, Power, Tolkien

The more videologically astute of my readers have already noticed that I began playing Call of Duty 2 on the Veteran level.

Playing this game has been difficult for me to write about, because I tend to get all slack-eyed and silly when it comes to veterans fighting in wars. Once under the spell of sentimentalism and respect, my writing tends to drift into the cliche and sappy. But the sentiment and respect for the citizen in armor, defending all that's right and good with their community, tends to make me very bleary-eyed like I've had a couple shots of shine.

So, I'm not going to talk about sacrifice right now--I'll start blubbering. But what I can say about this game is that it has changed the way my brain reacts to stress. Playing this game on the Veteran level has sharpened my expectations and risk assessment skills to a point where I am actually beginning to anticipate the next moves of those around me.

I'm starting to asses, prioritize, and strategize without thinking about it, just like I imagine soldiers in real wars have to. Of course, there is a world of difference between playing a video game in your warm living room and sniping out German soldiers in white parkas in the heart of Stalingrad or defending a hilltop bunker in the mountains of France.

I haven't even unlocked the achievement for the Eastern war, but I can tell you that I've earned every kill and paid for it with many fake lives.

This is the best war video game ever made and playing online adds a whole new dimension. When you start getting teams of people speaking to each other in real-time simulations, taking tactical command and defeating an aggressive and entrenched enemy, you've got something special there.

Trust me, you want to play this at least once--go to Best Buy and spend about ten minutes playing it at the kiosk--you won't regret it.


LINKS:
A Eulogy for Honor: To the Veterans of the Second World War by Joshua Minton
The Funniest XBOX 360 Ad You'll Never See (Hat tip to Major Nelson)

TAGS:
Call of Duty 2, XBOX 360, Veterans, World War II

Alright, it looks like Playstation has started stepping up to the plate. Microsoft hit a grand slam with the XBOX 360, in my opinion--it's a magnificent piece of machinery. And the fact that it will be embracing the HD-DVD techonology while the PS3 will embrace Blue Ray is going to up the ante even more.

Take a moment to reflect on the fact that Microsoft has created a brand new industry within the video game market by offering online play in a community-based setting that has successfully become a marketplace where goods are exchanged for money.

Now, with the ability to download video games from servers, store them on the video game unit and pay a non-premium price for them, has created a brand new stream of revenue where none previously existed.

And I'm very happy to hear that Sony has decided to embrace building an online community as well. As far as which is better, I don't really care. I plan on having both, meaning I'll have both a Blue Ray and a HD-DVD player and since I love video games, "bring 'em on, punks." Fight all you want amongst each other because the fiercer the competition, the better the video games will be.

In fact, I will argue that video games will soon surpass movies in the 8-30 male demographic that supports a multi-billion dollar industry. This is because, as a culture, we are becoming more and more individually free adn will begin seeking to play a active part in our entertainment and our art.

So, this video game/DVD format/online community war should be interesting.

In fact, I think this is how The Crusades started.


LINKS:
PS3 Details

TAGS:
Microsoft, Sony, XBOX 360, PS3, HD, DLP, Samsung

Forget the State of the Union speech--it's all bullshit.

The Bush you need to be paying attention to is the one that spoke at Kansas State University on January 23, 2006. The man is brilliant on his feet and anyone who doesn't see that is getting duped at expense of making themselves feel smarter by thinking dumber.

America has come a long way since the Washington administration.

• John Adams passed The Alien and Sedition acts which were like The Patriot Act on nuclear steroids.


• Thomas Jefferson pissed all over the Constitution by purchasing the Louisiana territory from Napoleon, breaking every fundamental rule of the separation of powers that the government he helped build was founded upon.


• Andrew Jackson indoctrinated a campaign of genocide against the American Indians which almost obliterated their entire culture from the face of the earth.


• Abraham Lincoln became a tyrant for a just cause; he was a brilliant and good human being who got caught up in an impossible war between the freedom of man and man's freedom to pursue happiness unfettered by government control. Believe me, both sides lost in the American Civil war and yet both sides still won; and this is what makes it the most important war ever fought in human history.


• Woodrow Wilson, the racist buffoon and arguably the biggest outrage of a US President in our history, put the United States (and the world) on a course of disaster when he intervened in a European civil war which was long on its way to petering out through attrition. The insult to the Chinese by completely denying them in The Versailles Treaty; accompanied by a face-spitting insult to the Germans (who were only half complicit in the most ridiculous war ever fought in terms of social gain versus social loss); allowed the Soviets time to build infrastructure and powerful ambitions second only to Der Fuhrer and, ultimately, far worse.
  
  In fact, I'll take it one step further and say that Woodrow Wilson is responsible for starting the War on Terror by entering the US into World War I. Let's not forget that Gavrilo Princep, the man who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and started World War I, was a Muslim.


• And we all know the sad (and sometimes glorious) history of the latter half of the twentieth century, with the Cold War, the Information War, and now the War on Terror.

Yeah, we've come a long way since 1783.

And if recent world history has shown us anything, it is that the modern man standing alone is incapable of managing power.

He always makes the bargain with Mephistopheles or his agent, Jack Abramhoff.

No one person is capable of morally steering the ship of state. There must be a team.

And this is why I voted for George W. Bush twice, because I liked the people he had surrounded himself with. Like Lord Voldemort, they had done great (but sometimes terrible) things. And, to be honest, I was curious what they would do with the world. It's been interesting watching the team move to secure resources in the world that will steer this ship into the next generation; a bit like watching a child building Legos on a cluttered kitchen table while tipping his chair back on two legs.

No one can convince me that the Bush administration has not done a far better job than the alternatives would have.

Bush and his team have been steering an out of control orange truck straight downhill off a high ass cliff drop for five years now and not so many of our side has died as has theirs.' And isn't this the point of war?

To kill more of them than they do of yours'?

To make them stop, make the shut up, or make them just go away forever?


Just watch the President's speech from Kansas State and look for the sparkle in his eyes when he hits a bulls eye or a triple twenty and you will know what it is that I love about the Bush administration.

RELATED LINKS:
President Bush's Kansas State University speech

UNRELATED LINKS:
President Bush ('41) and President Clinton have become good friends

TAGS: George Bush, Kansas State University, History, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Gavrilo Princip, Franz Ferdinand, The U.S. Civil War, The War on Terror

"Nothing in this post is true...

"Mr. President, your 10:30 appointment is here."

The President looked up at his aide, his half-spectacles positioned on the tip of his nose. "Who am I meeting with?"

"Tony Pierce, sir. He's a A-List blogger who has consistently questioned your character and agenda; and has used many four letter words in doing so."

The President seemed mildly interested. He sat back in his chair and slid the spectacles back up his nose. "And why am I meeting with this young man?"

"Because of your agreement to soften the tone in Washington and online."

The President was losing interest fast. "Uh-huh?"

"Mr. Rove thought it would be beneficial for you to meet, get some photos, and shake the young man's hand in a gesture of goodwill."

A light went on in the President's eyes. "Pierce...this is the guy who said, 'how can george bush not want to put the barrel in his mouth and squeeze?,' right?"

The aide shifted, becoming nervous; "That's correct, Sir."

The President smirked and gestured to the door with an open palm, face up. "By all means, show the young man in."

Tony Pierce was shown into the Oval Office. He was wearing khaki shorts, sandals, and a Tsar T-shirt. The digital camera he had brought was confiscated along with the pad and pen. Tony would have to write later from memory.

He sat down in the overstuffed, oversized, leather armchair that was intended to make a person feel smaller than the man sitting behind the big desk.

President Bush didn't get up.

"Welcome to the White House, Mr. Pierce. What do you think of our operation here?"

"I think you're a lying scumbag who has murdered 100,00 Iraqis, spied on the American people, ignored the minorities caught in Hurricane Katrina, lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction, and are guilty of stealing both elections, running up the biggest deficit in history, making gas the highest price it has ever been, and that you are behind the worst lobbying scandal in the history of our country?"

The President seemed mildly amused. "Uh-huh..." He sat forward and shuffled through some papers on his desk, pulling out a manila envelope. He opened the envelope and scanned the top page.

"It says here, Mr. Pierce, that you have recently agreed to travel to Amsterdam for a corporate online advertiser; is that correct?"

"Yeah, so what? Fuck you."

"Well, it also says here that your lil' world famous website is one of their big-time money makers. Is that correct?"

"It does all right...fuck you."

The President smirked again. "Mr. Pierce, there is one corporation in this world and it has many subsidiaries. That corporation is what speaks in and from this office regardless of the name on the door or the party written on the voter registration card in the wallet of this chair's occupant."

The President now stood up and began walking around the desk. The secret service flanked him, hovering over Tony who was still seated in the throne-like leather chair. The President and his henchmen stood looking down at Tony like he was a five-year old who just pissed all over the toilet seat.

"I want to thank you for your support of my administration, Mr. Pierce; through your hard work in poor mouthing me on a daily basis. You have done your country a great service. Now you have a good time in Amsterdam."

The President turned his back, signaling that the meeting was over. The secret service men moved in on Tony to help him to his feet.

The President turned again and said, "Oh yes, Mr. Pierce?"

The secret service stopped and Tony turned to look at the President again. "Feel free to call anytime. When the White House operator asks you for the password to my private line...tell her "Cultural Hegemony" and that should getcha right through."

The President smiled as Tony was escorted through the door and on sudden inspiration, he called out, "See ya' in the funny papers, Mr. Pierce."

LINKS:
Tony Pierce's Post that Inspired This
Cultural Hegemony

TAGS:
Tony Pierce, busblog, President Bush, White House, Cultural Hegemony

No, I'm not talking about the fighter--I'm talking about the singer/song writer from Hawaii who writes the most amazing and simple ballads I've heard since Charlie Poole.

Jack Johnson's three albums are masterpieces, but his latest far more than the others. In Between Dreams is so good that I'm reticent to try and put it into words. And I didn't know how talented Johnson was until I purchased his double-disc DVD.

I was very pleased to find out that he is doing all the music for the Curious George movie coming out next week and which will likely be the first movie that we take our son to go see at the movie theatre.

When I was twenty, Maynard James Keenan wrote the music that touched my heart. Now that I'm thirty, it's Jack Johnson. Growing old is a strange thing.





Links:
Jack Johnson
Maynard James Keenan

TAGS: Jack Johnson, Maynard James Keenan