This blog is now being updated on my-tarot

 

THIS BLOG MOVED TO ...

http://blog.sfsw.net/disturbing

 

Back in the Genetically Modified debate - in Europe they are worried about labelling!

This is NOT the problem. There are more Nicholas 1:10 AM

 

Polarisation

Most (film) scripts that puddle about going no place get rejected. Many manuscripts in their way back from a publisher are rejected due to an absense of conflict, or they used to be, back before post-modernism was used as an excuse for us watching grown men bleed to death after shooting each other and calling it entertainment.

Having a Left and a Right makes us see politics as a fight between the Doves and the Hawks, as if there were just two views to discuss!

While GW makes references to the Evil Axis there are those that opppose him, so make equally ludicrous claims for example - the people of Iraq have suffered enough already so they do not need bombs raining down on them like confetti to feel any better.

Both arguments are unreal. There is no Axis here, but three very separate countries with their own problems.

The leader of Iraq has invited Tony Blair to Baghdad to do a quick round of weapon inspection and then convince his good friend George not to do anything drastic as good little Saddam has not been making weapons, now has he?

For Mr Blair to go to Baghdad is inconceivable, but it may not be to the Government of Iraq. After all, they just did what America has just done and (from their point of view) what Israel has been doing for years. They moved their army in to another's territory and started murdering people. So what is so different?

America said no, that is what. Their dominance and pride smell foul to the rest of the world, but a large part of being an American may, unfortunately, it seems, to be a flatulent member of the international community. Not all Americans, but those that stuff several Big Macs down the gullet without really noticing, and will not give one cent to poor people in Africa or anywhere.

Why do those left of left think that Israel is somehow strategically vital to America? I do not think that it is. If Israel did not exist (yet) then America could send troups into the oily part of the world to establish it without having to take on the role of an agressor who owes billions to the UN.

New Zealand will be the first county in the world offering to send peace keeping forces into the country as it goes to war with itself. America is so powerful that it's hand of war streches clearly around the globe and it will not be long before it curves round and pats itself on the rear.

Perhaps the most frightening thing is that 9/11 and the invasion of Kuwait were both events brought about indirectly by CIA interference. This is not a very comforting relationship as we all know what George Bush Snr did before he spent about eight years in the vice presidency.

What is even more disturbing is the lack of regard for the law that his son has demonstrated time and again. His future deeds seem extreme enough to threaten the United Nations. Is that CIA interference, too?

Digging deeper into the Bush legacy, and one finds disturbing historic links. Digging deeper into Saddam's legacy, and we find his first assasination was in 1958.

As we grew up we were told that Hitler was insane. He pulled his country's socks up in one of the strangest economic miracles of the 20th century. He then went on to pillage and ransack all his neighbours in an attempt to build an empire, The Third Reich had its stated aim.

But what is the aim of Saddam Hussein? It seems to be one focused within the isolation of his own making, of power and a hatred of the British. Just like GW he has a backdrop of history to account for the state of his world.

And what of Blair.

Will his "Third Way" drive Saddam crazy? What if Blair valiantly took up Saddams latest offer and went to Baghdad? I think if he went, and survived it, he could become a better prime minister, but, Tony, hesitate wisely.

 

Netscape NewsLink

Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Saddam is not likely to launch an attack with biological or chemical weapons unless he is provoked by a U.S. move against him.

``Does he love himself more than he hates us?'' he asked on CBS' ``Face the Nation.'' ``And I think the answer is probably yes.

``And if that's true, then it would be unlikely that he would initiate an attack with a weapon of mass destruction because it would be certain that he would be destroyed...

This is my comment
If it is certain that Saddam would be destroyed if he used a WOMD then we are back into the MAD era except that only one side has to worry about complete devastation and somehow has GW negotiated that any American dead are somehow more important than civilians of the invaded country.

Iran shudders at Iraq's military. 10 Year of war is more than the US public could stand, perhaps. A USA Miltary and its potential after GW singled out Iran as part of his deduction into the liguistic propaganda Axis of Evil. What is an Axis but a connection between the states which are professed to be evil. What is the secret trade between Iran and North Korea, then?

The world does not just need evidence of a supposed threat Saddam is to the ROTW but IMHO he could face free elections (and so could GW before a paranoid RW took over the USAG) just a little more often. And those that vote against him do not need to be publically executed.

Of course after 20 years of sanctions, his population will be sick and tired of him, or they won't.

But if GW rolls into Bagdhad without a UN approval, then he is invading Iraq without just cause, and is no better than Saddam for committing the same crime upon Kuwait.

If GW plays his cards correctly he will force Iraq into free elections. It may do no good, as Saddam would probably win them, one way or another.

This one is going to take some careful thinking. I hope someone tells GW that it may not play out like a Rangers game.

 

Iraq for dummies...

So, we have two ex-CEOs running the largest military enterprise in the history of the world, which we could easily consider as experimental as any political institution. Only these ex-CEOs are implicated in alleged criminal actions which enriched their person at the expense of others, but hey, who wouldn't, given half a chance.

"White collar" crime is "different" - you are innocent until in jail. And then you generally can sell publishing rights or lecture tours.

It is every bit as scary as the death cult it opposes. Does the plan of the Bush clan determine the course of future history rather than the democratic voice of America?

Not sure about this, as the logic of wart removal may apply to Iraq, but who will ever know?

First Pro GM Government

NZ Prime Minister Re-elect, Rt Hon Helen Clark, met with GWBush last year sometime and since then has been shoving GM policy down this country's throat.

The major newspaper here, the NZ Herald takes a very pro "Of course pursuing new technology in Genetic Engineering is good for the country" stance. Anyone who thinks otherwise is branded the looney left, or worse a greenie.

A fine example of what is wrong with a monopoly newspaper in a country that still does not believe the internet is any good for much - it is all rather sad.

NZ had an image of being both economically and socially isolated. But the advantage of this isolation is the genetic safe haven it provides for wonderous survivors like the oldest remaining dinosaur, the Tuatara, and the flightless Kiwi - both endangered and protected species. Humanity already ate all the Moa, a giant flightless bird, before the English colonised this wonderful land now well renouned for its natural-ness.

 

US Generals saying quite openly that it is possible that GWBush wants to go to war with Saddam because of an assination attempt on his father when he was in Kuwait.

If we examine this logically, it makes far too much sense.

Of course he wants revenge for his pappy. How could he be seen thinking otherwise?

This is the most Armageddonish thing to happen, this week.

 

GM Food Election

A UK paper writes about New Zealand. A rare event, but the world is galvanized after her lurching clean through the political spectrum, Helen Clark seems to want GM technology progress.

That one of the architects of the world antinuclear stance should go to war on the Green Party's anti GM lobby and by confusing issues trivialise what is truly vital is a shame.

Introducing GM foods into the animal food chain is one thing, but the invasion of hitherto protected and unique fauna in our delicate eco-space by foriegn DNA strands, designed to be more successful may result in breakages in the food chain since its pollen could be, for example more tasty to a bee.

Extinctions happen anyway in nature. In the same way that a child evolves a conscience there is no rapid way to collect nature together to produce an instant planned mutuation and the effects may be to accelerate non-diversity.

Humanity and its harsh entropic reversals for biodiversity is a long term problem making the green house effect seem almost minor. By wiping out other species, we claim a right to a more megre existence.

It also breaks the law in New Zealand to allow the natural world to be tampered with in this way. The value of organic food and its purity from the pollen of genetically created strains may indeed have unforseen effects; but to patent life forms and commercially own them by making seed infertile beyond one generation of food is economic enslavement.

What if, for a mundane example bees selected the infertile plant as it had a chemical pattern that was more interesting... and the viable plant becomes suddenly rare, then extinct as nobody notices it is not being regenerated.

This idea that we are going to fall behind in the world of GM foods is nonsensical. We can't afford to produce the vastly superior clean and naturally grown foods, and we prosecute people for importing foriegn pests in undeclared foods. But we want to preempt the world with GM? Maybe we truly are sheep.

 

If the real value of the dot.com boom was nothing, and the stock market seems to reflect that, then the internet was not about to increase world sales by a mega-scale, undreamed of earlier, simply as the wealth did not exist to buy anything real as everyone was gambling on the gadget boom with its dubious benefits.

One could conjecture that the first wheels where not entirely round, and clumped along being less useful than their more evolved revolving decendants.

Now the far too wealthy with nothing better to do than to teach their metal toy robots to climb the furniture. Good clean family fun. Won't be long till they can do the ironing, work out how to program the video player, and look after the kids. We assume a measure of faith in the organism, but ten years on we still try and teach it not to fall off the arm rest of the sofa.

The trouble is not the technology, it is a poor guess at what our real needs may become, when other technology acceptances have occured.

You now need a mobile phone to be a part of a world where people have to account for where they are and be available all the time. Excuses are now demanded this very instant. With G3 you may have to explain the environment the digital screen reveals as well, evolving more creative stress. Weblogging article

Oh yes, and who said that web logging was some kind of tool for journalists? Don't they have many ideas of their own to steal?

We should question the internet trends we are fed and realise that any boom here is due to far too many people with far too much to do...

 

We live in a world exactly fashioned for people like us. There are not meant to be loose sharp edges but a cosy coexistence, blissfully gliding along from one day to the next with a belief that if we are reasonably restrained we don't get into trouble. Our social needs are developed through a series of expectations which the advertising industry serves to enrich as fantasy. That we will end up with a great bod and the result of all this richness and consuming is happiness. The stupid truth may in fact be that it doesn't matter if you experience your life though Disney coloured ambience or the cruelty of war, the process remains one which are minds adapt to, and it makes our experience manifest.

The image of the billionare alone in his art filled but otherwise empty apartment drenched in shadow, a cheap but effective scene perhaps in a Hollywood blockbuster. The man alone searching for the truth clasping at every last shred of evidence there is that life has meaning, with Bogart overcoat and snake skin boots straight out of seventies noir.

The brouvadah (if it is not a word, it is now) of seventies fiction still haunts the vapid consciousness. There is a an exact moment in which the claw comes out of the dark and claims the soul, and that time is coming soon for the sideburned persona of orange plastic jackets which simply do not fit or paisely ties the width of Wisconsin. Increasingly difficult to get though doors.

 

Lessons from the British

1. Media

American companies hiding away their red ink perhaps could take a lesson from the ancient establishment media success story. Under the unlikely helm of Greg Dyke the BEEB makes a fortune. The Guardian

2. Government

The American Government have a lot to learn to prepare themselves for the grilling of their President, if my version of future history is to be believed. The Guardian

3. Terror

It is disturbing to everyone that Al Queada use the net to increase their efficiency to unheard of levels, including perhaps escaping from the American insurgency into Afganistan and routing of the Taleban, who probably no longer had any real way of removing the Al Quaeda cancer growing inside and everywhere else.

George Bush may be tempted to lash out at the internet, perhaps that was where all the red ink really came from, and the forces currently behind [--censored--] are taking control of the purse strings of the world's energy and communications giant with the market diving the way it is, I suspect a sudden injection of 100 billion to rescue the businesses of America while the internet is taken down for a "little while" to wipe out terrorism, oh, and the freedom of speech will be reconsidered for "electronic commerce" and they will now use this to take control of the medium.

One lot of thieves and liers took control of a few billion dollars of wealth and use it to buy a few thousand people into an army. But to buy people's lives? I question which lot of thieves and liers have taken the most souls to execute evil deeds. bin Laden and his network of murderers are an unwelcome addition to the already confused world. But America can not be isolationist. Bush is learning a lesson in humility - he won the war, and the battle, yet failed to take out his target. Or at least it appears to be that way.

The longer the facade the "war on terror" can be kept up (lord knows decrypting Arabic must be so difficult...) the more funds they get their hands on, and control by spending at unheard of levels, justifying the placement of infrastructure that ensures their will is inflicted upon increasing numbers of others.

It doesn't really matter which side one thinks of here. Both are led by people who believe they know better than others how the world should be. I am sure it is okay to disagree with both bleak visions.

I say let them have their website, so we can ask Google.com to decypher the Arabic with their totally brill Babelfish. Its no harder to understand than Yoda, at any rate.

The Guardian

4. GM Food

On the menu tonight, ... blah blah ... steak, eggs and chips with GM 4,95, without 6,95. Sorry that took so long, but they will be phasing the non out soon. Nobody buys it. Her large furry ears flapped about swotting a giant fly which seemed to frequent the restautant at this time of the orange afternoon. I focked my array of tails about whisking up the Vargas dust which was now rampant on the floor making the checked pattern floor indestinct. The air was thick with fibre. I ordered the GM. More Guardian

5. Level headed speech from Saddam

There are two sides to every story...but I wonder how they decyphered the Arabic. Rhetoric for a different mindset. NZ Herald

6. Good lord, of course he is innocient. But he is the vice president, so of course its only $435Million...
Salon.com

7. Imagine if the whole world had its say

Links to constant hours of fun. Speaks for itself, rather a lot...

 

A principal sacked because "regular maintenance" discovers porn on his computer. Forensics experts are brought in and find all sorts of "evidence".

There is no mention if they virus checked the network, or if they examined network logs for any security breech. The kindly 66 year old was sacked and his collegues and school are in a state of shock.

So what if a script kiddie wanted to hang his principal out to dry? What if a collegue sent the Klez or similar worm to the (almost certainly insecure) network?

We ache for better technology and remain completely blind to its potential to undermine our social order. The so called dot com bubble was foolish investment indeed. You can not build a data infrastructure on indefinite identies or poorly authenticated transactions.

 

the air remains thick and heavy as the clouds lower on the American Stock Market. Perhaps Osama is selling all his shares.

 

article by Duncan Campbell
Thursday July 11, 2002
in "The Guardian"

The Greening of California

America has refused to sign the Kyoto protocol, that commits rich countries to reducing emissions, even though the US is responsible for 24% of the world's manmade carbon emissions.

the car industry claims [...] that it could be used to impose on them a completely new type of car; the bill's supporters say it means a common sense approach to changes.

Destiny

The car industry has plenty in common with the tobacco lobby,and its arguments which seemed to assume that if smoke comes from the mouth the laws of freedom of speech apply.

It is a risk of use or association that excessive inhilation of exhaust fumes causes physical harm and damage to any inhaling animal in proximity.

We all know a middle aged woman who smokes but remains heathy and radiant. For about half of of us, the woman looks older and for half of those left, she woman is unwell, perhaps dead.

But faced with extinction any entity such as an industry will manufacturer new truths for it to inhabit.

Erudite management looks after the future. Some rats walk into the traps so that the smarter rat learns how to survive.

Their memory is inscribed upon the will in a unique contract between loyality and the motivations to excell. To outdo the tutor. To become a latent master and surprise academia. It is driven by a will which is constantly informed of its own success, but never can it reach or it will turn. Entropic factors adhere emotionally to the accused.

It may seem wrong to draw comparisons between the tabacco lobby and the car lobby. Its actually harder to see what the difference is. Both provide comforts we become dependant upon and affect how we socialise. Eventually we will look back at vehicle fume damage and blame the manufacturer; we will wonder how we could ever accept 50,000 road deaths a year things should be the way they are.

It is here at this point were we realise it is not ourself anymore, where the reflection starts to shimmer and doubt enters in. Wandering like a fool into a sad moment at dinner or a drunkard being shooed away by midwives. Dreams and thievery have a lot in common with destiny.

If, as anticipated, Governor Davis signs it into law, it may finally trigger a major national debate on global warming, greenhouse gases and the car industry. Now, after years of suffering rebuffs on the issue, the environmental movement is in the driving seat.

Yes. Do it. Radical changes in this field could stop the planet from becoming a wind torn desert within our own lifes.