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Journal the_mad_poster's Journal: Killer Angels 23

Journal by the_mad_poster

After nine eleven niggaz got patriotic
On nine twelve I'm like fuck it nigga blaze the chronic

Call nine eleven, then call your reverand
Then call heaven, here I come lord
Live by the gun, die by the gun
A eye for an eye when you live and die by this war

"Call 9-1-1" -- Westside Connection

Mirrors make an effective horror prop because they're frightening. They reflect back whatever they see. There's no editing, there's no censoring. The glass shows you what it sees in, on, and around you. It can reflect back ghosts over your shoulder you didn't see or blemishes on you that were never noticed before.

They make people uncomfortable as a result. People have certain views of themselves that they like to cultivate. They don't want to see what other people see in them because that breaks their concentration and that ghost appears in the background that they never noticed before.

America needs a mirror. Bad.

----

In June of 1999 several dozen Colombian citizens in Rioblanco de Sotara began claiming symptoms ranging from dizziness and nausea to vomiting and skin rashes. Included in this number were several children who were at recess when U.S. funded spray planes began spreading a cloud of gray chemicals over an area in the name of the United States war on drugs.

Numerous legitimate crops, planted as part of a promise to help wean coca growers from coca plant to legal crops, were destroyed by the spraying. In the process of fighting the war on drugs - the consumption of illicit chemicals by American citizens - the U.S. government chose to destroy the livelihoods of people who were promised a chance to start over by the very same men who were now gassing them. The United States has a drug problem, so Colombian farmers must suffer.

All claims were dismissed by Department of State representatives as "scientifically impossible" and not followed up on. [1]

----

Blood diamonds aren't red. They're clear and they shimmer just like legitimate rocks mined by fairly paid employees of mining companies.

Blood diamonds are stained by unseen wars that powerful governments ignore while they collect taxes on engagement rings and rocks - currency pushed in carats by huge multi-national conglomerates that deal in stones as common as the dirt they're mined from.

In Sierra Leone in 2001 a location called Parrot's Beak was scene to a horrendous slaughter. Child soldiers forced to fight by gun runners, terrorists, and diamond smugglers clashed with military forces and local militias. When we worry about our thirteen year olds, we worry about what they know about sex. In Sierra Leone, they worry about how many people their child has killed, how much they're suffering, and if they're still alive.

The United States happily ignored the barbarous acts in Sierra Leone, much like they're ignoring the Darfur crisis now. Terrorists have long used the indifference of Western Nations - nations who consume the illicit goods produced by these wars for their own narcissistic pleasure - as a method of recruitment for disenfranchised youth in war-ravaged nations.

Terrorist groups such as Al-Quaida and Hezbollah have also capitalized on the violence, using gross Western indulgence to bankroll their training programs and missions. [2]

We only notice the suffering we drive in other countries when someone brings it to our front step in retribution for our sins.

----

The West made the Middle East hate it.

Can you imagine the outcry, the rage, the violence we'd see if a huge Arab fleet camped off the East coast? What would happen if Arab culture was pushed into the United States? If commerce, education, everything stopped five times a day for prayer? If Muslim propaganda filled the airwaves and the streets? What would happen if Muslim forces regularly patrolled the streets, or if huge Saudi and Iranian bases were placed in high-population areas?

We don't think anything of imposing upon other people even while we talk the high and mighty talk of "freedom". We're always the good guys. We can't do wrong, we only want to spread democracy and see the world be a better place, after all.

But "better" is relative. What's better for you is not better for me. What's better for you might by muslim prayers in the school's, but that's not better for me. You might prefer a facist government that defines your daily regimine for you, or a communist one that insures your needs are taken care of one a regular basis. Not me.

Likewise, democracy is something some people want, others might not. Cultures are different. We like the freedom to choose leaders, and to pick laws. However, Muslim culture is entirely different. Our laws are loosely based on the standard ethics of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Don't kill, steal, cheat, lie, etc.

Muslim cultures are different. They're laws are based HEAVILY on their religion. They have chosen a strict lifestyle. It may involve women in burkas. It may involve prayer five times a day. It may involve certain ideas of what is and is not justice.

And this is why they hate us.

We are telling them they are wrong. We are saying we know better. That these millenia of culture are now subservisive and wrong and must change because our idea has worked for a little over two centuries.

They don't want democracy. You cannot force it on them. They don't want outsiders meddling in their affairs anymore than you want a sheik in your living room telling you how to conduct your life. You wouldn't stand for it, and they're not standing for our meddling. You can quibble about the methods they choose to fight with, but the fact is that we're imposing on other people without invitation, and we're doing it for our own personal benefit. Because we're egotistical and we want to believe we know better than someone else.

That mirror sure does cast back an ugly reflection. The difference between the smart people and the morons, however, is whether or not they look at what they don't want to see and try to do something about it.

I am not optimistic.


Sources
[1] Colombians Say US Drug Spraying Is Creating A Health Crisis as originally reported in the San Francisco Chronicle.

[2]Blood Diamonds, Amnesty Magazine.

This discussion was created by the_mad_poster (640772) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

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  • The United States happily ignored the barbarous acts in Sierra Leone, much like they're ignoring the Darfur crisis now. Terrorists have long used the indifference of Western Nations - nations who consume the illicit goods produced by these wars for their own narcissistic pleasure - as a method of recruitment for disenfranchised youth in war-ravaged nations...

    They don't want democracy. You cannot force it on them. They don't want outsiders meddling in their affairs anymore than you want a sheik in your li
    • You can help a nation without occupying it. In addition, most of the problem in places like Sierra Leone is that it's the west's unhealthy ego that funds the behaviors that feed terrorist's amibitions. If we just outright ignored them it might not be so bad, but when you're buying diamonds from a company that got them through smugglers who picked them up at the border from gun runners and terrorists who are chopping off limbs, burning villages, and raping people, you tend not to come off as a terrible nice
      • You can help a nation without occupying it.

        That "help" is still meddling. As you yourself said, "They don't want outsiders meddling in their affairs anymore than you want a sheik in your living room telling you how to conduct your life. You wouldn't stand for it, and they're not standing for our meddling."

        You still want it both ways. Pick one option. Do you want the US to get involved and meddle in the affairs of other nations? Or do you want the US to not meddle in their affairs?
        • I'm not concerned about governments getting pissy about us "meddling". For the purposes of this discussion, the individuals who are subject to being recruited are the ones that I'm concerned about because they're the ones that will pick up a bomb belt if they get ticked off. People don't, generally, consider it meddling when you save them from being bayonetted by some nasty militia member on a rampage. They do consider it meddling when you come in and start telling them how to run their country and live the
          • The United States happily ignored the barbarous acts in Sierra Leone, much like they're ignoring the Darfur crisis now. Terrorists have long used the indifference of Western Nations - nations who consume the illicit goods produced by these wars for their own narcissistic pleasure - as a method of recruitment for disenfranchised youth in war-ravaged nations...

            "Meddling" is in reference to the U.S. government's insistence on strongarming governments. For example, see Pakistan. A reluctant ally at best, an
  • The US can't be isolationist we have too much stuff we have to share, help, whatever.

    All women have rights. Clits should be sawn off with shells, women should get educated etc.

    Religion is for idiots - if this is true then we ARE smarter than they are and they SHOULD listen to us.

    Human rights yadda yadda.

    So which is it? Should the US help people (ie meddle) or not? Should women be tortured and killed for dishonoring their families by walking with a man or be equal(ish - only because I want to stay on
    • You're never going to get it. I give up on you. You can only see things in black and white, you can never see them as subtle shades of grey, and that's the way they are.

      "America" is a large, heterogenous blob. It is neither good nor evil. It just is.

      Individual actions or statemetns or policies are another story. It is not a good thing to go strongarming weaker countries into letting you occupy them just because you want to keep a military presence in the region. It is not a good thing to buy diamonds that
      • You're never going to get it. I give up on you. You can only see things in black and white, you can never see them as subtle shades of grey, and that's the way they are.

        Shades of grey... that was a joke in a really bad movie about college or something...

        Things can be simply but for your world view to work they need to be sublt shades of grey. You can't hear me but I am laughing right now.

        I hate say this but I think you WANT the USA to get nuked so people will listen to your world view. Of course you r
        • Nothing is ever George Bush's fault. If something bad happens he is not to blame, and neither is anyone associated with him - because he chose them and that would mean he is to blame. Nor can any policy associated with his administration be to blame.

          The second thing that needs to be pointed out is that America's actions cannot be to blame. America does not do anything significant wrong. Therefore America cannot be at fault.

          The caveat to number two is that certain people who live in America aren't American
          • Yeah yeah yeah Tin Foil Hatter we read this already
            • How is it a tine foil hat there is no conspiracy it's just describing reality.

              REPUBLICAN: WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA YOU BABY EATING LIB'RAL FAGGOT

              PROGRESSIVE: I say, my good man, shant we at least try to have a mature exchange of ideas?

              REPUB: NO I YOUR IDEAS ARE STUPID I THINK YOU SHOULD STAND WITH OUR PRESIDENT BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T YOUR NOT STANDING WITH 'MERICA AND YOU HATE OUR TROOPS.

              PROGRESSIVE: Surely, you must agree that a civil discourse is vital to the health of a Democracy? Now, let us dispen
        • "Things can be simply but for your world view to work they need to be sublt shades of grey. "

          No, they can't. Nothing, anywhere, at any time, is ever simple. And anybody who tells you it is is trying to sell you something. Look around you - clouds aren't big, pixelated, uniform slabs of vapor - they vary, they have nearly infinite variation. Rivers aren't all the exact same depth. Some are streams, some are creeks, by virtue of their variation. Rainbows aren't broken up into evenly divided bands of col
      • America is shades of gray: So are it's people. But I've never known a purely gray object: It's always been one black tile, one white, another black, another white, ad infinitum. The problem comes in finding those black tiles, and removing them without causing damage to the mosaic as a whole.
        You, however, keep pointing out the mosaic and saying how terrible it is that it should be this way. Ellem has a point: You've gotta take a stance, find a black tile and cut it out. You've gotta find it's connections, an
        • DECREASE the resolution. Increasing it would run the pixels together even more and make it harder to see indviduals points in the mix. Decreasing it make each "pixel" bigger and blockier, making it easier to pick out individual colors that make up a blend.
        • "It's always been one black tile, one white, another black, another white, ad infinitum. The problem comes in finding those black tiles, and removing them without causing damage to the mosaic as a whole."

          If I understand your metaphor correctly, you are referring to individuals as tiles, correct?

          Because it seems to me that in that analogy, each individual tile would have some black and some white in it. Some tiles are almost coal black with a streak of pure white where you least expect it. Others appear t
          • Not individuals. Maybe traits, Maybe actions. Certain things, however, are wrong. It depends on the context: Killing your ex boyfriend who's coming at you wiht a gun, for example, is multiple factors: The death, the attack, and the removal of a threat. Those need to be weighed. However, killing a child because they are nearby is just wrong, and must be punished.
            • I agree with you that right and wrong do exist. But IMHO they exist as concepts, not as anything concrete you can point to in the real world 100% of the time. Killing a child would indeed be wrong 99.9999% of the time. But I'll let you know right now, you invent a time machine and send me back to when Hitler was a baby, and I'll fucking kill him. I know, I know, time travel is impossible. My point is that pure absolutes do not exist in nature. Nature can only approach them infinitely. Right and wrong
              • But, look closer:
                Killing a child: Very big black tile.
                Removing the murderer of millions of jews: Bigger white tile. It's still absolutes, but weighed.
                • "Killing a child: Very big black tile.
                  Removing the murderer of millions of jews: Bigger white tile."

                  Result: Grey. My point wasn't that absolutes don't exist as concepts, but that they don't exist in the real world. You can't point to any one concrete thing and say "that's absolutely good/bad for everybody all the time". The most depraved serial killer rapist ever, at one point in his/her life, probably gave some homeless guy a nickel, or gave a passing stranger the time of day. And the most moral phila
                  • I think, in essence, we agree on the same thing: That "Fuzzy logic" inspection is required in many cases. I'm doing a bad job at arguing my position. What I was trying to say was that people, or even actions, are not necessarialy good or bad, but effects are and they are what need to be weighed.

                    I do question, however, your last statement. We may not be here for it to be easy, but we should be here to make it easier for the future, which is something many ignore. That's the basic principal of my philosophy:
                    • "people, or even actions, are not necessarialy good or bad, but effects are and they are what need to be weighed."

                      Indeed. This is something I call "dealing with reality", and the extreme right calls "situational ethics".

                      "We may not be here for it to be easy, but we should be here to make it easier for the future,"

                      I see where you're coming from, and I agree to a point, but also keep in mind the easier we make it for people of the future the stupider they will become. People expecting things to be easy g
  • That's what you snort cocaine off of, isn't it?

    * * *

    REPUBLICAN: WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA YOU BABY EATING LIB'RAL FAGGOT

    PROGRESSIVE: I say, my good man, shant we at least try to have a mature exchange of ideas?

    REPUB: NO I YOUR IDEAS ARE STUPID I THINK YOU SHOULD STAND WITH OUR PRESIDENT BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T YOUR NOT STANDING WITH 'MERICA AND YOU HATE OUR TROOPS.

    PROGRESSIVE: Surely, you must agree that a civil discourse is vital to the health of a Democracy? Now, let us dispense with this ad homiem

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