ryanmoreorlesshead's Xanga

Current events!

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 04:34:54 GMT

If you believe one of the following please stop voting and reproducing (I will cover the cost of getting you fixed if you are not sure how to keep from polluting the gene pool). Also you are not allowed to read the rest of the post!

"They hate us because of our freedoms" "We found WMD in Iraq" "HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart." "Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism." "If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex." "The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest priority is enforcing UN regulations in Iraq" "A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money" "Jesus hates homosexuals" That Bin Laden met with Saddam more times that Donald Rumsfeld did"

Anyway I wanted to weed our any of the people that believe one of the above so the mouth breathers won't post some stupid comments on the subject of immigration. After reading some extremely ignorant blogs on immigration I will put in my $0.02. Some people's comments must sound like some of the Germans of the late 30's when they were duped into thinking the Jews were the cause of their problems. I am amazed that 6 months ago nobody gave a crap about this issue now we have people ready to arm themselves and guard the border all 2200 miles. I agree we need a sensible immigration reform but the lets round them up bit is so unrealistic. First of all if you put them all on buses there would be a solid line of buses from the Mexico border all the way to Alaska. I have seen people say "They don't pay taxes" So when major American Corporations set up a mail box in the Cayman Islands so they don't have to pay taxes would this be considered "Un American"? The new shopping area in LS is a good example of screwing the people out of tax revenue. The developers pushed to build the shopping mall and just wanted the approval and what they got out of the deal was a 28 year property tax abatement while charging you an extra $.01 sales tax on everything purchased at that location. Too bad the govt doesn't reward people the same way, make improvements to a house and you are now taxed more. I know that this is a little off topic but for the "they don't pay taxes" crowd you can see that major corporations get the most help skirting taxes. PS. MOST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS PAY TAXES just under a false social security number. So they pay into a system they won't be able to use. If we are worried about the immigrants doing day labor (small jobs for a day or two and paid in cash) does that mean we should try to shake down every kid that mows a few lawns and doesn't pay taxes on it. I know many legal Americans that haven't paid taxes on income, mostly strippers that I know. I have seen others say that illegal are not welcome in America. HELLO have you not been to wall-mart, mcdonalds, any other place paying a non-live able wage. It is big business that is supplying the jobs for many of the people to come here. If we really want to fix the problem we have to fine and punish the business that exploited these peoples status. Listening to NPR I heard many immigrants that were told they would be paid a certain amount to only be stiffed buy their employers because they knew there was nothing the worker could do. Trying to deal with illegal's and not the reason they come here is like trying to stop drugs but putting all the users in jail. If you stop the suppliers of jobs/drugs you might make a dent in the problem. Think about it for a second and ponder this. If you were accustom to hiring illegal's for $4.00 an hr and making big profits would you risk your business if there were stiff fines for using illegal's? Lets make the people that employee the them responsible. Lets make knowingly using illegal labor a felony. I know one congressmen wanted to make assisting an illegal a felony, that is just great so lets lock up Jesus because he helped people and usually the poor.

I know that something must be done in this country about immigration but the stupid ideas I have seen expressed worry me. As Easter approaches please think about WWJD and try to come up with some real thoughtful and realistic ideas that will work. Remember that most everyone in the world has the same goals. Live at a decent standard of living and take care of their families. Mexico needs to fix their own country but there Govt. is much worse than ours when it come to corruption. Remember you can be a Mexican American and never have had an ancestor come over the US border; vast portions of the United States of today USED TO BE MEXICO or SPAIN. If you failed to learn this in high school, your teachers should be fired. Also this is not just a Mexican problem as there are tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Please be careful when you discuss these issues not to stereotype or overgeneralize. The anti-Latino frenzy you're creating is leading to a racist backlash against tens of millions of native-born Americans who happen to have Spanish names.

The US has TWO international borders, not ONE. To date, not a single terrorist has gotten to the US through Mexico; to date, at least two suspected terrorists have arrived here through Canada. In fact, I would not be surprised if, while the media and xenophobes are focused on the Mexican border, terrorists figure out that it might be a good idea to walk over from Vancouver to Seattle for a latte. Oh, and all international anti-American terrorists who have come to the U.S. so far have been *smart* enough to come with passports and other documents supplied to them by the deep pockets of their organizations. Do you really think a terrorist from Saudi Arabia is going to think it's a good idea to swim over the border to Texas or Arizona with a bunch of Mexicans? How stupid is that?!? Finally, please remember that the anti-American terrorist Timothy McVeigh was not a foreigner or an illegal immigrant. I still think we should bomb the shit out of Kansas for that attack and to prevent another attack from a Kansas resident. Wow when you think about it one third of all terrorist attacks in the US have been committed by Kansas residents I don't feel safe in Missouri anymore living so close to a state that supports terrorist. I will be building a bomb shelter in the back yard. Enough with irrational fears now.

I have my Easter egg basked and I have been gleefully training so I can get more eggs then the rest of the kids this year.

Dear Humans

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 02:19:23 GMT

I always knew you were pretty stupid, even from an early age. But lately I have come across a statistic that just puts the whole thing into perspective. Try this one on for size. Less than half of American adults understand that the Earth orbits the sun yearly, according to a basic science survey by the national science foundation. http://www.mdcbowen.org/p2/rm/stupidit.htm I didn't believe the results then I started asking people a very simple question and was shocked to find out how many people didn't know! If you really want to confuse them ask them (after you tell the dumb ones that the earth goes around the sun) if the moon goes around the earth or the Earth goes around the moon?

I can see how you would be confused with the whole rising and the setting thing. When I was four it was a little hard to visualize. These are adults mind you. But here’s a newsflash for you America, we've been to space, and we've seen satellite pictures of the earth from afar. It’s pretty evident that the earth rotates around the sun. That is why we have these things called SEASONS. But I guess we are getting pretty advanced here.

This is what politics, watered down media, and intolerant religious wackos that have yet to read the Bible have done to this country. The Bible doesn't say anything about the Devil using science to make us stray. No amount of science will prove or disprove the existence of God. We are so worried about teaching kids about evolution or creationism, don't worry they are not learning science any way so just don't even bring it up. If only half of the people can understand the earth and sun deal how can we expect them to grasp 2 theories. I am tired of bad Christians speaking for the whole group. God does not hate _______ fill in the blank with what ever someone on TV is screaming at the moment. Remember what Jesus said and lets not make stuff up like people that use Christianity as a club to put people down. I think the beatitudes http://www.biblepath.com/beatitudes.html should be put up in public places instead of the 10 commandments.

One more thing about the watered down media from above. Why do we know who Natalee Holloway is and we can't even point to the Darfur region on a map where hundreds of thousands of people have been slaughtered in the past few years. This is where a real war on Christianity is being waged not Walmart or Target. Put Terri Shivo, Scott Peterson, Brad, Jen, & Vince in that same category distractions of what is really happing around our flat world. Maybe if we say the the Sudanese Government and the Janjaweed militia were the ones that kidnapped the Holloway girl and were also the ones 15 years ago that starved Terry Shivo into the coma we can finally fix a real problem in the world.

On another note I have been researching the single payer health care plan lately. It's easy to find all sorts of websites using facts and statistics along with Doctor's testimony to support its adoption.

What I couldn't find was any reasons for why it is bad other than people saying stuff like "Do you want socialized medicine?" Basically, the only arguments I saw against the single payer universal health care plan were based solely on using the words socialism and communism as opposed to any real facts defining why it would hurt the nation. As I see it now we have a socialized system. NOBODY is denied health care in this country so those of us who have it pay for those who don't.

My question is this: Why is a single payer universal health care plan a bad idea?

Sorry for the long rant as you all know once I get on a roll I can't help myself.

With spring gleefully approaching I hope to see lots of butterflies on my butterfly bush.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 15:02:10 GMT

Sorry for not posting in a long time. My torrid love affair with Naomi has taken up most of my time I found out she as hot after all. One thing lately has really got me fired up and it is Asian bird flu. I mean really. Can we stop with the media fear already. Oprah ran a series and nearly sold the country out of the current vaccine used to treat it. That is just great. You just caused it to mutate years sooner than it would have naturally. Pat yourself on the back Oprah.
Our countries obsession with the disease of the week is to the point of Ad nauseam like everything else in this country. Remeber SARS, of course you don't. Well let me refresh. Severe acute respiratory syndrome, better known by its acronym SARS, is an atypical form of pneumonia. There were a total of 8437 cases of disease, with 813 deaths. Wow, that was something to get worried about wasn't it. South Park even made fun of how ridiculous it was to be worried about SARS. How about there are around 600,000 deaths due to heart disease every year (in the US).
Remember Monkey Pox. Yes, it was called Monkey Pox and you were all scared shitless for a couple of months. As of June 11, a total of 54 persons with suspected monkeypox had been reported in Wisconsin (20), Illinois (10), Indiana (23), and New Jersey (1). Monkeypox had been confirmed by laboratory tests in nine persons. At least 14 of the people with suspected monkeypox had been hospitalized for their illness; there have been no deaths related to the outbreak. NO DEATHS.
West Nile, still ongoing every year. Some old lady dies from west nile in the midwest and its a epidemic. MAD COW is another favoret of the media and it must be killing tens of thousands of people world wide by the way they talk about it. I reality only 148 people have died from MAD COW in the 10 years between 1994-2004. KILLER BEES (Africanized Honey Bee) where also supposed to take over North America in the last few years and remember they attacked in swarms of thousands of bees at once and could kill people on a whim. Not to worry you alarmists killer bees have been living quietly in the US for over 30 years.(sorry for the .......ists words i have come to love these words Saddamists, obstructionists, extremists, islamofascists, fascists, fundamentalists)
Oh and my favorite, the anthrax scare. The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001 (after the September 11, 2001 attacks). Letters containing anthrax bacteria were mailed to several news media offices and two US Senators, killing five people. FIVE PEOPLE!!! I killed five people just now, while writing this blog.
For a comparative analysis, In 2001, there were 30,242 suicides, hell if you look at that number for 2001 you are 10X more likely to kill you self that year than having a terrorist kill you much less than any other panic inducing pandemic. If you shot your kid in an accident it wouldn't get near the press coverage than if he got anthrax. All I am asking is that you worthless baby factory fat body mothers who have nothing else in your life to do but watch TV and eat bon bons, look at the statistics every once in a while. You are not going to get Asian bird flu. You don't even know where Asia is. So stop worrying about it and put down the cheesecake which is responsible for the way you are actually going to die. Heart disease, morbid obesity, and TYPE II diabetes.... just like your idol Oprah. You are not going to die in a terrorist attack either. No one is going to bomb Carpet World, The Yarn Store, or Boarders. And if they did, It would be a lot less painless than severe coronary failure. You should be so lucky to go out in such a memorable way. Also the media needs to stop referring to a 7 person TB outbreak as an epidemic. The Black Plague was an epidemic. A TB outbreak is an after dinner mint. Just for fun I would love to see what you all can come up with as far as pseudo epidemics.

I did see a rainbow the other day and that made me gleeful.

Later Ryan

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 23:22:08 GMT

Well my good friend Naomi(still not sure who you are) said I should update and I have been busy lately and just not had the chance. I am still recovering from last Saturday night when I drank too much and lost my pants. If you have my pants please return them to me ASAP and for all of you that saw me in my tighty whiteys I am sorry for that. Also if you have a damage claim from my actions please contact me.

You know one thing that has bothered my a lot lately is this Constitution, free speech hating politician Matt Bartle a state senator from Lee's Summit. He wants to close legal business down because he is pandering to some nut jobs. This is the same type of guy that would be excited about burning books he deemed bad for the public. Well I don't believe we need the morality police (espessialy lawyers) telling us how to live, it just seems un-American to me to tell people what they can and can't do if doesn't effect anyone. By Bartle's logic we should shut down the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts because it produces molesters. We can also shut down the Lutheran Church because the BTK killer was a member. If we keep electing politicians that want to take away our right we will be hoping that the newly "democratic" Iraq can come free us from the over burdening government we will have in place. How great is that while we are attempting to give freedom to others we are having it taken away right here in the heartland of America. Not only does Bartle want to erode your freedoms he also has supported bills to cut foster families aid to care for kids that they have taken into their homes. These are families that sacrifice a great deal to help others and the money the state provides helps pay for these kids needs, often phsycal and mental disorders. I guess he is just pro-life up to the day they are born and then they are on their own. No nobody likes to pay for some lazy bum to sit around on welfare while others work but to cut benefits from kids(often disabled)takes a real callous human. The only positive thing about this guy is we get to vote him out of office in 2006! I for one, am not going to stand here and let him bad-mouth the United States of America!!!! I know most of my rants end in glee but after talking about Bartle I just can't bring my self to be gleeful! Sorry maybe next time.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 23:39:42 GMT

I have been attempting new things in my life lately and I have alwayse wanted to try my hand at web based skits. I have created a short little film and I found a place to host if for me. http://www.tekzoned.com/instest/

Please take a look and let me know what you think.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 12:44:20 GMT

Valentines Day Sucks

2-14-2004 There is no greater insult then Valentines day. Of course business warps nearly every holiday to increase sales but no other holiday except maybe Christmas can compete with valentines day for sheer insanity. One a torturous visit to the mall this week I saw a big sign out front of Friedman's jewelers that said, "There's Love In Here" (This is where the older, wealthier men should go.) Show your love with the diamond solitaire only 999.99. blarg blarg blarg. It really bothers me that there is a price on love. How much more do I love my wife if I buy her a 1000 dollar piece of jewlery over a 100 dollar piece, 900 dollars more? Is going into debt worth more love then buying what you can afford? If I steal something is that worth as much as going into debt? More because there is more risk?

On a trip to Wal-Mart tonight, (This is where the younger poorer men such as myself should go.) the night before Valentines day, men were running around like idiots, packing huge bouquets , stupid balloons, big stupid heart shaped boxes of candy and even bigger stupider stuffed animals. Come on women surely you can't be excited about getting this giant fuzzy red cross between a teddy bear and Jim Henson's Animal. We all know that you toss the stuff shortly after you get it anyway, or pack it away in a closet.

My proposal is that we do away with the stupid holiday completely! That is probably a little to radical so how about we just give cash as presents. This would almost be as good as getting rid of the holiday. Eventually this would facilitate the end of the holiday when everyone realized they were giving 10 bucks and getting 10 bucks back (For me it's actually 2 bucks, but I am just averaging it out to 10) People could just exchange a hand shake or maybe just wave from across the room.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:03:21 GMT

When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History

by Thom Hartmann

The 70th anniversary wasn't noticed in the United States, and was barely reported in the corporate media. But the Germans remembered well that fateful day seventy years ago - February 27, 1933. They commemorated the anniversary by joining in demonstrations for peace that mobilized citizens all across the world.

It started when the government, in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely ignored his relatively small efforts. The intelligence services knew, however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed. (Historians are still arguing whether or not rogue elements in the intelligence service helped the terrorist; the most recent research implies they did not.)

But the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority of citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world. His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.

Nonetheless, he knew the terrorist was going to strike (although he didn't know where or when), and he had already considered his response. When an aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck and then rushed to the scene and called a press conference.

"You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history," he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. "This fire," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "is the beginning." He used the occasion - "a sign from God," he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion.

Two weeks later, the first detention center for terrorists was built in Oranianberg to hold the first suspected allies of the infamous terrorist. In a national outburst of patriotism, the leader's flag was everywhere, even printed large in newspapers suitable for window display.

Within four weeks of the terrorist attack, the nation's now-popular leader had pushed through legislation - in the name of combating terrorism and fighting the philosophy he said spawned it - that suspended constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, and habeas corpus. Police could now intercept mail and wiretap phones; suspected terrorists could be imprisoned without specific charges and without access to their lawyers; police could sneak into people's homes without warrants if the cases involved terrorism.

To get his patriotic "Decree on the Protection of People and State" passed over the objections of concerned legislators and civil libertarians, he agreed to put a 4-year sunset provision on it: if the national emergency provoked by the terrorist attack was over by then, the freedoms and rights would be returned to the people, and the police agencies would be re-restrained. Legislators would later say they hadn't had time to read the bill before voting on it.

Immediately after passage of the anti-terrorism act, his federal police agencies stepped up their program of arresting suspicious persons and holding them without access to lawyers or courts. In the first year only a few hundred were interred, and those who objected were largely ignored by the mainstream press, which was afraid to offend and thus lose access to a leader with such high popularity ratings. Citizens who protested the leader in public - and there were many - quickly found themselves confronting the newly empowered police's batons, gas, and jail cells, or fenced off in protest zones safely out of earshot of the leader's public speeches. (In the meantime, he was taking almost daily lessons in public speaking, learning to control his tonality, gestures, and facial expressions. He became a very competent orator.)

Within the first months after that terrorist attack, at the suggestion of a political advisor, he brought a formerly obscure word into common usage. He wanted to stir a "racial pride" among his countrymen, so, instead of referring to the nation by its name, he began to refer to it as "The Homeland," a phrase publicly promoted in the introduction to a 1934 speech recorded in Leni Riefenstahl's famous propaganda movie "Triumph Of The Will." As hoped, people's hearts swelled with pride, and the beginning of an us-versus-them mentality was sewn. Our land was "the" homeland, citizens thought: all others were simply foreign lands. We are the "true people," he suggested, the only ones worthy of our nation's concern; if bombs fall on others, or human rights are violated in other nations and it makes our lives better, it's of little concern to us.

Playing on this new nationalism, and exploiting a disagreement with the French over his increasing militarism, he argued that any international body that didn't act first and foremost in the best interest of his own nation was neither relevant nor useful. He thus withdrew his country from the League Of Nations in October, 1933, and then negotiated a separate naval armaments agreement with Anthony Eden of The United Kingdom to create a worldwide military ruling elite.

His propaganda minister orchestrated a campaign to ensure the people that he was a deeply religious man and that his motivations were rooted in Christianity. He even proclaimed the need for a revival of the Christian faith across his nation, what he called a "New Christianity." Every man in his rapidly growing army wore a belt buckle that declared "Gott Mit Uns" - God Is With Us - and most of them fervently believed it was true.

Within a year of the terrorist attack, the nation's leader determined that the various local police and federal agencies around the nation were lacking the clear communication and overall coordinated administration necessary to deal with the terrorist threat facing the nation, particularly those citizens who were of Middle Eastern ancestry and thus probably terrorist and communist sympathizers, and various troublesome "intellectuals" and "liberals." He proposed a single new national agency to protect the security of the homeland, consolidating the actions of dozens of previously independent police, border, and investigative agencies under a single leader.

He appointed one of his most trusted associates to be leader of this new agency, the Central Security Office for the homeland, and gave it a role in the government equal to the other major departments.

His assistant who dealt with the press noted that, since the terrorist attack, "Radio and press are at out disposal." Those voices questioning the legitimacy of their nation's leader, or raising questions about his checkered past, had by now faded from the public's recollection as his central security office began advertising a program encouraging people to phone in tips about suspicious neighbors. This program was so successful that the names of some of the people "denounced" were soon being broadcast on radio stations. Those denounced often included opposition politicians and celebrities who dared speak out - a favorite target of his regime and the media he now controlled through intimidation and ownership by corporate allies.

To consolidate his power, he concluded that government alone wasn't enough. He reached out to industry and forged an alliance, bringing former executives of the nation's largest corporations into high government positions. A flood of government money poured into corporate coffers to fight the war against the Middle Eastern ancestry terrorists lurking within the homeland, and to prepare for wars overseas. He encouraged large corporations friendly to him to acquire media outlets and other industrial concerns across the nation, particularly those previously owned by suspicious people of Middle Eastern ancestry. He built powerful alliances with industry; one corporate ally got the lucrative contract worth millions to build the first large-scale detention center for enemies of the state. Soon more would follow. Industry flourished.

But after an interval of peace following the terrorist attack, voices of dissent again arose within and without the government. Students had started an active program opposing him (later known as the White Rose Society), and leaders of nearby nations were speaking out against his bellicose rhetoric. He needed a diversion, something to direct people away from the corporate cronyism being exposed in his own government, questions of his possibly illegitimate rise to power, and the oft-voiced concerns of civil libertarians about the people being held in detention without due process or access to attorneys or family.

With his number two man - a master at manipulating the media - he began a campaign to convince the people of the nation that a small, limited war was necessary. Another nation was harboring many of the suspicious Middle Eastern people, and even though its connection with the terrorist who had set afire the nation's most important building was tenuous at best, it held resources their nation badly needed if they were to have room to live and maintain their prosperity. He called a press conference and publicly delivered an ultimatum to the leader of the other nation, provoking an international uproar. He claimed the right to strike preemptively in self-defense, and nations across Europe - at first - denounced him for it, pointing out that it was a doctrine only claimed in the past by nations seeking worldwide empire, like Caesar's Rome or Alexander's Greece.

It took a few months, and intense international debate and lobbying with European nations, but, after he personally met with the leader of the United Kingdom, finally a deal was struck. After the military action began, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told the nervous British people that giving in to this leader's new first-strike doctrine would bring "peace for our time." Thus Hitler annexed Austria in a lightning move, riding a wave of popular support as leaders so often do in times of war. The Austrian government was unseated and replaced by a new leadership friendly to Germany, and German corporations began to take over Austrian resources.

In a speech responding to critics of the invasion, Hitler said, "Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Austria with brutal methods. I can only say; even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier [into Austria] there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators."

To deal with those who dissented from his policies, at the advice of his politically savvy advisors, he and his handmaidens in the press began a campaign to equate him and his policies with patriotism and the nation itself. National unity was essential, they said, to ensure that the terrorists or their sponsors didn't think they'd succeeded in splitting the nation or weakening its will. In times of war, they said, there could be only "one people, one nation, and one commander-in-chief" ("Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer"), and so his advocates in the media began a nationwide campaign charging that critics of his policies were attacking the nation itself. Those questioning him were labeled "anti-German" or "not good Germans," and it was suggested they were aiding the enemies of the state by failing in the patriotic necessity of supporting the nation's valiant men in uniform. It was one of his most effective ways to stifle dissent and pit wage-earning people (from whom most of the army came) against the "intellectuals and liberals" who were critical of his policies.

Nonetheless, once the "small war" annexation of Austria was successfully and quickly completed, and peace returned, voices of opposition were again raised in the Homeland. The almost-daily release of news bulletins about the dangers of terrorist communist cells wasn't enough to rouse the populace and totally suppress dissent. A full-out war was necessary to divert public attention from the growing rumbles within the country about disappearing dissidents; violence against liberals, Jews, and union leaders; and the epidemic of crony capitalism that was producing empires of wealth in the corporate sector but threatening the middle class's way of life.

A year later, to the week, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia; the nation was now fully at war, and all internal dissent was suppressed in the name of national security. It was the end of Germany's first experiment with democracy.

As we conclude this review of history, there are a few milestones worth remembering.

February 27, 2003, was the 70th anniversary of Dutch terrorist Marinus van der Lubbe's successful firebombing of the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, the terrorist act that catapulted Hitler to legitimacy and reshaped the German constitution. By the time of his successful and brief action to seize Austria, in which almost no German blood was shed, Hitler was the most beloved and popular leader in the history of his nation. Hailed around the world, he was later Time magazine's "Man Of The Year."

Most Americans remember his office for the security of the homeland, known as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and its SchutzStaffel, simply by its most famous agency's initials: the SS.

We also remember that the Germans developed a new form of highly violent warfare they named "lightning war" or blitzkrieg, which, while generating devastating civilian losses, also produced a highly desirable "shock and awe" among the nation's leadership according to the authors of the 1996 book "Shock And Awe" published by the National Defense University Press.

Reflecting on that time, The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983) left us this definition of the form of government the German democracy had become through Hitler's close alliance with the largest German corporations and his policy of using war as a tool to keep power: "fas-cism (fbsh'iz'em) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Today, as we face financial and political crises, it's useful to remember that the ravages of the Great Depression hit Germany and the United States alike. Through the 1930s, however, Hitler and Roosevelt chose very different courses to bring their nations back to power and prosperity.

Germany's response was to use government to empower corporations and reward the society's richest individuals, privatize much of the commons, stifle dissent, strip people of constitutional rights, and create an illusion of prosperity through continual and ever-expanding war. America passed minimum wage laws to raise the middle class, enforced anti-trust laws to diminish the power of corporations, increased taxes on corporations and the wealthiest individuals, created Social Security, and became the employer of last resort through programs to build national infrastructure, promote the arts, and replant forests.

To the extent that our Constitution is still intact, the choice is again ours.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Thu, 23 Dec 2004 23:34:35 GMT

Man, Christmastime is rough for a guy like me. Everywhere you turn people are happy, and giving things to eachother. HORSESHIT. Neverending happiness is for the weak. People who vote. Voting is also for the weak. It's hard to stay bitter with everything, and everyone when the world is filled with so much ridiculous happiness. But, no matter how hard it may be, I still succeed. Bitterness and cynicism are the only ways to make it through a day in my world. It's so hard being the only person who knows that everything in life is a conspiracy. It's all a way for the government to take over your lives. Christmas included! Christmas is a capitalist holiday that has been built only to put money into the pockets of big business. The stores are packed and millions of dollars exchange hands every hour. I'm tired of being the only one who isn't a pawn in the game of Christmas gluttony. But enough of this rant, time for some glee! The glee taht naturally follows is that I am not a pawn. I am not like all of you out there who buy what you're told to buy, and do what you're told to do. I am above all of you. And that brings me glee! GLEE! DO YOU HEAR ME!? GLEE!!!!

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Thu, 16 Dec 2004 17:21:23 GMT

People we now have a Bizzaro Ryan Morehead

Great! Now I have an imposter posting as me, you can't even spell your/my name correctly "Ryan Morhead". You must have hijacked the twix_crowbar site. The angry rant sounds a lot like one of my rants but they didn't follow it up with glee. You should have read my interest a little closer and it might have been believable. Good try with the signature Ryan Morehead Rant but you still lack the fever of my own long winded rants. Also, I would like to apologize to Naomi for the crazy person pretending to be me and their hateful tone. I don't have a clue who you are either but that is no way to talk to an xanga friend, by the way are you hot? It is also funny you talking about a 10 foot phallic object, you must be inadequate and piss on your balls and you might not even be a man. Men don't use the word "pithy". Sounds like some pre-teen girls having fun. In fact that would explain you hateful talk towards Naomi because you are a jealous girl that is striving for my attention. Way to go bizzaro Ryan Morehead you have made this xanga thing not much fun anymore and offended most of my cyber and imaginary friends. Adam, if I find out it is just you messing with me Hell will be coming with me not you! I have been taking karate at the college and will be using it soon so watch yourself. I have also joined a fight club but I am not allowed to tell anyone about it, so that is all I have to say about that. I don't know who you think you are but to put down the millions of xanga users is an insult. I mean everyone is doing it and to pretend like you have some moral or intellectual highroad in not being part of xanga is likened to the republicans claim of being the party of faith because all good Christians love wars. When Jesus said love you enemy he really meant kill them. Dam it you got me off topic in my rant about the Bizzaro Ryan. Anyway I have ranted long enough and am feeling rather gleeful right now. One thing I have gotten into lately that makes me real happy is my chia-pet herb garden. I never realized how much fun and relaxing growing things could be and I am considering changing my major to Botany. I am also going to plant a butterfly bush out side of my window so I can be merry when I wake up every morning. After my rant I really feel flattered to have someone trying to be me. I know that many are jealous of me and my enormous male unit and that just leaves me gleeful. See Bizzaro Ryan angry rants followed by glee.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:18:40 GMT

You know I was extremely bored the other day because I am not obsessed with killing beetles,(Everquest II), killing villains(City of Heros), or killing each other (Halo II). I have come up with a list of things to tide me over when I have had nothing to do. Feel free to give some of them a shot some time.

#1. Try to not think about polar bears
(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)
This is especially hard, because by trying too much, you remember what you were trying to avoid thinking of. If you try too little, you end up thinking about polar bears anyway.

#2. See what's in your neighbor's trash
(Amusement Potential: 20-30 minutes)
You can learn a lot about people by what they throw out. You might uncover some dark secret about them. Plus, they might be throwing out something with value that still works, like a VCR.

#3. Have a "Who is less competitive" competition
wonder (Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
Trying to win at this will make you lose. Trying to lose makes you win which makes you lose. Not trying at all makes you lose which makes you win which makes you lose. You do need more that one person for this.