Dearest folk,
I have posted a new Project on my Projects website. The link is here. It's about the texture pack I made for Minecraft and all about how to make your own. This is what the pack looks like:
I cracked up so hard it made me cry. Also, the Flaming C is pretty sweet. Saving the world with his pompadour and all that. I promise I will get back to my political tracts and rants, but sometimes you need to take a break and laugh at some seriously funny shit.
America. Land of the free. Home of the brave(s). Over the course of its 233 years, the nation has grown, evolved, and adapted, but I fear that the experiment is now done. The time of the United States has gone. Unfortunately, it seems like the end has been coming for awhile, but two earth-shaking events have brought the US to its knees. Before I jump into the "financial crisis"--oh how quaint a euphemism--and Cablegate, though, let's jump back in time to the very beginning of things. When a substantial number of people in the colonies had decided that enough was enough, they decided that it was time to break off from the British Empire. Emboldened by the ideals of the Enlightenment, a small but very influential cadre of weathly landowners, merchants, and professionals--our Founding Fathers, no less, with capital Fs--cut the umbilical cord and declared independence. I use the over-politicized term "bourgeoisie" lightly here, albeit correctly. Take issue with that? Observe:
They created a government with the Ideal Man in mind, and that Ideal Man was one of them: generally educated, wealthy, land-owning, and white. In 1776 they all thought this was a grand idea. It was the standard-bearer of republicanism, enlightened rule by the people. Which of course means that the common folk would elect educated, wealthy, land-owning, white elites to represent them, who knew not how to govern themselves. For this upper class, things went smoothly following the defeat of the British in 1783. Most of them, after all, weren't even involved in the 7 years of Revolutionary War, the notable exception here being George Washington. That was what the lower class was for. The elites signed the documents, promising something or another to the commoner, and then the commoner fought for this promise. Then all of a sudden the war was over. After the obligatory celebration (which the slaves, poor, and loyalists couldn't afford to participate in), problems set in for those very same commoners who fought for the promises of the elites. Not being, for the most part, wealthy landowners, these veterans--to whom we owe a huge debt for actually accomplishing independence--didn't have an income to return to. They were fighting for the money (when you're starving and freezing, high ideals aren't really registering for you). Diligent and loyal as they were, after only 3 years enough was enough. An army of veterans stormed the capitol and demanded their (not insubstantial) back pay. They camped out for months until the government contracted out a private army to defeat and arrest their own army. 4 were killed, 20 were wounded, and 1000+ were arrested. They were never paid. Of course, this led to the Constitution, which was generally seen as an improvement. However, being an experiment, the draft of the Constitution that Madison wrote that eventually got ratified left a whole lot of stuff out. Granted, they couldn't plan for every instance, but there was also nothing spelled out on appropriate ways the government could solve new problems as they arose. Turns out the ambiguousness of this document would infact break not only itself, but also the nation it was created to define and preserve.
or: Why I Like What Julian Assange is Doing.
In case you didn't know, Julian Assange is the face behind/of WikiLeaks, the "notorious" website dedicated to exposing government fraud. Above is a picture of him doing what he does best: staring down wrongdoers.
Currently, the main WikiLeaks site is undergoing a Denial of Service attack which has crippled its main servers. Various ISPs are also blocking the site. The Library of Congress has disallowed access to the site from its computers. The army is intimidating soldiers into not accessing the site.
I can understand the backlash: WikiLeaks scares the shit out of the government and corporations. Why? Because of the government's and corporations' illicit, illegal, unethical, corrupt policies and behavior. They know they did wrong, and they don't want anybody to find out.
If the past 2-3 (read 20-30 [read 200-300]) years have taught us anything, it is that unregulated capitalism is a flawed sysetm and doomed to fail. And failed it has. 1929? Check. 1970's? Check. Reaganomics? Double-check. 2000? Check. 2008-present? Super-check.
The most recent meltdown was caused because America's megabanks innovated new ways to get around pesky laws that protect common people in the mid-80s, figured out in the late-90s that they could get away with it on a large scale, then in the 00s exploited the hell out of the system. The result? Massive foreclosures, massive recession, massive job loss. This lead to a crashed economy, a GOP congressional victory, and even more corporate corruption. Ever heard of a "rocket docket?" Retired judges spending 30 seconds on a case where most of the time the defendats--ie, those getting foreclosed on--don't know they can go to court to defend themselves, and when they do, the most they can get is an extension, because the only was a foreclosure rocket docket can function well is to judge in favor of the banks. Even why they have forged or missing documents, dates that don't line up, and a fake deed history. All true.
Moving to the government, yeah, it sucks to have hundreds of thousands of war documents leak out. Especially when you're still in that war. Especially when you're not really sure if you're winning that war. Especially if a lot of people aren't sure you should even be in that war. Especially if you're doing legally curious things--waterboarding, anyone?
Obama went into office wanting to fix a broken government. Then he was confronted by the broken government, and the sheer immensity of its brokenness almost broke Obama. He's been able to nevertheless get all kinds of great things through, and he should be admired for that. He should also be remembered and admired as The One Who Tried. Because of his efforts, we now know that the only way Washington can be fixed is by burning it to the ground and starting over. I will be happy to argue this point with you.
So when WikiLeaks unleashed Cablegate--251,287 leaked United States embassy cables--on Sunday last, it is not a blight for Obama. It is a large bundle of logs thrown at the base of Washington, DC. On a side note, some of the stuff in there is really interesting. A bunch of stuff regarding Ukraine has popped up which is very revealing, like former President Kuchma blasting the current and previous Ukrainian administrations, making candid personal attacks against the Big Three (Yanukovich, Yushchenko, and Tymoshchenko).
Assange has stated that at the beginning of next year he will be releasing hundreds of thousands of documents of one of the largest American corporations. I think this is wonderful. I honestly do. If Americans knew the level of unscrupularity on Wall Street (and in other big businesses), really and truly understood what it is capitalism is all about, then we would begin to see real change. Real need for regulation. Real need for guarantees on the safety of citizens from ravenous corporations. Real need for corporate reform. Reel need for laws limiting the power of business. Real need for leveling the playing field, poverty-gap wise. Real need for Americans to get off their lazy, self-indulgent asses and actually do something (it's not that hard to make a phone call or write a letter. Or set something on fire).
This is why WikiLeaks is just what America needs. It is a blow-to-the-head wakeup call. It is a sort of call to arms. Bravo, Assange. Enjoy your servers' nuclear-bomb proof underground cave shelter and keep on keepin' on.
Many of you know I just love Doctor Who. Craig Ferguson is also pretty neat. Therefore, this video is pretty great. Unfortunately, 5 minutes before the show was about to begin taping, the producers told Ferguson that they couldn't secure the rights to the Doctor Who theme song, so they couldn't do this song and dance routine. So they taped it anyway and leaked it online.
