Memorial Day

{moment of silence}

Link

Maybe I mentioned this site before, but I'll link to it again. Right or wrong, it's great for expanding one's Reality Tunnel.
Conspiracy Planet
THE ALTERNATIVE NEWS & HISTORY NETWORK
"Your Antidote to Media Cartel Propaganda"


Read and decide.

"Punk Rock Warlord"

"The Future is Unwritten" are the words written in blood in the "Know Your Rights" logo and is the title of a documentary released on May 18th about Joe Strummer. If you've been a reader of Complex 39 for any length of time, you'll know that Joe's not just a cool guy to me, but a mentor. This film I'm looking forward to. Looks like they even grabbed Martin Scorsese for an interview.

• The Future is Unwritten website

Tom Waits

SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

Copyright

It just hit me. Who owns the information about us? Information about us that's handled and traded all the time?
With that...
I'm copyrighting myself, anything about me, all subsequent data and information, all aliases, names, and lives before someone else claims that information as their own.

Me.

Hence forth:
Copyright © 2007 Blank Snag, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Peace

Theater of the absurd

Continuing from Nothing Oils the Gears Like "Sex Offender"

Actually, what it is is an erosion of the Fourth Amendment.

MySpace Reportedly Labels Innocent Woman as Sex Offender (Threat Level)

I don't have a particular desire to protect sex offenders. It's a creepy and usually cowardly crime on the surface. It's a crime of power. However, technically speaking, in some states if you get caught in something other than missionary position, it's a sex crime. No, it's that some states want databases available to them without a crime necessarily being committed. This is what they call a lack of probable cause.
Sex crimes are also some of our own doing, as a society, with the tolerance for the sexualization of children, the infantilization of women, and the promotion of sex as power throughout the commercial world.
I've also heard the argument from parents to the effect that in this case it's ok to be irrational because it has to do with kids. Particularly their kids. No it's not ok! We are a society that teaches our kids to do the right thing, not the knee jerk emotional thing. We teach children that we are a nation of laws, not a nation of reactionary behavior. People who tolerate reactionary behavior implicitly condone others who use terror as a weapon and people who use sex as a weapon.
Part two of this absurdity is that because some AG's want to grandstand and make a name for themselves at the expense of hard won Liberty and centuries of tradition, names of folks are being purged from a database based on some other database which may or may not be accurate. A large enough database and the accuracy drops. A little inconvenience for some, but just one more accepted violation of the Bill of Rights.
Technically not a violation because the government only leaned on a private entity.
The third bit of theater, from two folks swept up the purge:

• "Davis told ABC News that she supports MySpace's efforts, but is worried that the database it built with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. will start circulating with her information in it."
• "In a sense I can understand why they do that ... But why not (also) do it for identity theft convictions, drug dealing conviction, murder convictions? Because criminals use MySpace for these things as well." (article)
  

Because we are a nation of "innocent until proven guilty" and that the state does the punishing. Does nobody stand up for anything higher than their instant sense of gratification? Scarlet letter anyone?
Lastly, most of these services only require a valid email address, which one can get from Yahoo or Goggle without actually being verified as to who you are. So what happens. Criminals hide their identity, even the stupid ones. At least if you let them operate above ground, the idiot criminals will surface.
Every time some do-gooder wants to prove to the world how great s/he is by chest thumping and sloganeering, investigations get a little harder by driving the bad guys a little deeper into the shadows.
Any half decent investigator knows this, so why does it keep happening when only the regular citizen is impacted in the long run? Aside from the grandstanding, why is their such a promotion of bad detective practices, when only innocent people will end up being investigated...

Oh!

At the end of the day the colors of the flag are a little more faded

.

Soundtrack for Ballard

As many of you know, my "ambient" soundtrack is usually nothing more than a good Rock n' Roll tune from the Clash, Ramones, Jerry Lee Lewis, and such.

However, if you dig disturbing (albeit a bit cliché) ambiance to contemplate the J.G. Ballard you just read, here's a pretty nifty link:

• cousin silas - ballard landscapes 2

Here's a list of the track titles which in of itself I find disturbing. I find relief in the fact that I can still be troubled - but that's the point of Ballard, isn't it?:

The Sands Of Shepperton
Crumbling Infrastructures
Cloud Sculptor
Dawn - Utah Beach
Rusting Gantry
Love And Bullets For Bobby & Jack
Motel Architecture
Concrete Islands
The Sign Of The Radar
Abandonned Motorway
Vermillion Drift
Drained Swimming Pools
Burning Wreckage
Schematics For Terminal Seventeen
The Death Of Reagan
Capsule Retrieval
Island Gardens
After The Hurricane

While searching for a disturbing, Ballardian illustration to add some eye candy to this little post, I ran across the above disturbing picture associated with this article:

Designer terror-porn now in vogue
The horrific images of abuse at Abu Ghraib have been recycled in the name of fashion. (Article)

"CIVPOL"

I've long argued for an American equivalent of GSG9 rather than disastrous, irrelevant war expeditions in our quest for dealing with political actors that use the illegal tactic of terror in an effort to forward their cause.
Philip Carter mentions that a colleague who is "a leading theorist in the field where crime and warfare converge", Lt. John Sullivan agrees...

Constabulary operations, such as these, are the "missing mission" in the United States security structure. The U.S. has no national police service (the FBI is a non-uniformed investigative agency) and state and local police address these functions internally. Few if any local U.S. Forces could field or contribute to an on-going expeditionary capability without straining their ability to perform their home mission. The U.S. also has no standing constabulary or EXPOL force and relies upon scarce or ill-fitted military units (and ad hoc civilian police units) to fill expeditionary needs. The same is true for NATO and the U.N.

(More at Intel Dump)
I've actually met one of Lt. Sullivan's people at an law enforcement intel seminar. Probably one of the most informative speakers at the conference.

I don't get paid enough...

Intel Analysis

Here's a level of sophistication that I haven't seen reported up to this point.

Tankers for U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan attacked in Pakistan (Article)

A fairly organized effort is usually represented when you see a coordinated attack on logistics. The article mentions missiles were fired remotely. TOW possibly?
Talk about a tight rope act. Musharraf is single handedly keeping the lid on the conflagration that's in that pot. Unfortunately, I think it's only a matter of time before Islamic extremists get to him.

Brain Tip

Echo from Lifehacker

Solve Tough Problems with a Brain Reboot
I'm not big into the fancy mantra’s and religious overtones often associated with meditation. Instead I like to focus on practical meditation to focus your thoughts and cut out distractions. (Article)

Counter Program

The psychology of banner ads
The research concludes that repeated exposure to a product via banner ads generates a positive feeling towards that product. (Article)

It's not just that one has to DEProgram, but with the ubiquity of one needs to actually continuously counter program. Knowing that THEIR ads make a positive subliminal impression, one has to actively develop a program to undo the input.
"What's the harm of a little positive feeling toaward THEIR product?"
It's not you making the decision is what.
Advertisements do a few things that we take for granted today, but are absolute bullshit if you think about them:

• Ads lie to you about THEIR product - Regardless of the quality of product, they will tell you theirs is the best. Even when their product is sub par and THEY know it, they will dress it with colors and catch phrases to convince you otherwise.
  
Decide based on your own experience.

• Ads lie to you about reality - Imagine your perception of the world outside of your home. Imagine success and happiness. Imagine a happy family. Does it resemble an ad? Now think of your life. Does it compare? The reality is that no one lives like they do. The reality is that we all are a little less clean, a little less smiley, a little less pure. Embrace it.
  We're all in this together.
• Ads demoralize you - THEY do not want you happy. THEY convince you that you're unhappy. But they have the solution. Buy their fabric softener and your kids will have white teeth, your body odor will smell like flowers, your spouse will be nondescriptly attractive, and every weekend you will get away with guys hunting and fishing or gals in the spa after a fantastically fun day of shopping.
  Who lives like that?!?
  
• Ads invade your mind constantly, without your consent - On the side of a bus. The top of a web page. In the background TV. Subliminal programming works best when the subject is unaware of the message. When you think you're not subject to the message, that is when you are most vulnerable. No one is immune.
  
Admit and be aware of THEIR ability to crawl into your headspace; this is the foundation of your psychic self-defense.

We wait for the signs of mind control that we've learned from the movies, but the reality is that programming is more pedestrian in nature. Image impression isn't like Alex strapped in a chair with his eyes pried open. Nor is the chemical reinforcement some super-compound concoction dreamed up at Edgewood.
No, THEY don't need to focus so intently on you. THEY can be patient. THEY can hit you when you're first looking around as an infant, seeing colors, making associations. THEY can use the chemistry of desire...fats, sugars, caffeine, phenylethylamine (PEA)...to reinforce THEIR message.
THEY tell you that "You deserve a break today" because nobody "understands" you but THEM. THEY know what you've been through and do THEY have the pick me up for you. And it's only 99 cents on the value menu. THEIR signs are all bedecked in the Reds, Yellows, and Oranges designed to stimulate the impulse reaction in the optical regions of the neural cortex. THAT familiar clown that was your friend as a child and beckons you back to that safe time and promises comfort because you're having a tough time.
And when you do the right thing...

Ron English

When you make that decision to reward your toil and troubles...
When you act as THEY knew you would...
You consume. You give over the little tickets known as money that represent life energy spent acquiring the little tickets.
Yes.
Very good.
Very good indeed.
And to make sure the cycle is completed, the chemicals are ingested. Those chemicals that stimulate the endorphins. Those chemicals that satiate the fundamental cravings for high energy food. Sure, THEIR stuff will kill you in the long run, but that doesn't matter as long as you have the brief illusion of happiness through THEIR product now. THEIR stuff doesn't actually provide long lasting energy and why should it. THEY want you back as soon as possible to consume again.
And again.
And again.
More.
Faster.
And when all is said and done...you get to consume Big Pharma's meds. Nothing that will cure, just keep you going until the next refill.

No, THEY don't have to inject you. THEY don't have to kidnap you and hook you up to machines. THEY don't have to look like aliens or men-in-black.

All THEY have to do is quietly get into your head and make you feel just a little...
bit...
unhappy...
:(

Links

• Propaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English
• Virtual Hypnotist - Write your own scripts to rewrite your internal software
• Download your own subliminal software to take the edge off

Nothing oils the gears like "Sex Offender"

So you want unfettered access to those databases, but you don't want to be bothered with a pesky warrant. The owners of the Db don't buy the "terrorist threat" line because it's been beat to death and they're getting wise. What to do?
Trot out the "sexual predators online" angle. Nothing gets people moving like the idea of some sicko hassling their little Jean Bonet Ramseys.

MySpace Says Come Back With a Warrant
Doormat The Electronic Communications Privacy Act forbids MySpace from handing over the names of sex offenders on its site to the attorneys general, unless someone comes up with a subpoena, the company says. (Threat Level)

Why wouldn't THEY get a warrant in the first place?!?

In reality, when THEY're not threatening us, THEY're threatening the kids.

Echo

Biong Boing echo

Spying on the Home Front: PBS domestic surveillance doc

Anonymous Digital Rights Crusader says,

Last night, PBS Frontline aired Spying on the Home Front (Link), devoted to all the ways our government is spying on us outside of normal lawful processes. With extras not included in the televised version, the episode is available in either Quicktime or Windows Media (Video Link).

President Bush described his anti-terrorist measures as narrow and targeted, but a FRONTLINE investigation has found that the National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in wiretapping and sifting Internet communications of millions of Americans; the FBI conducted a data sweep on 250,000 Las Vegas vacationers, and along with more than 50 other agencies, they are mining commercial-sector data banks to an unprecedented degree.

Semantics of terror

Still no fucking definition.

Abortion clinics have been bombed with people in them...not terrorism.
Labs conducting animal research burned...terrorism.
Lite-brites garner 140 hours and apologies.
Real fake bombs get...two weeks suspension.

Feds push terrorist label on arsonists
A federal judge was to hear arguments Tuesday on a motion by the government to add a so-called terrorism enhancement to their sentences. (Article)

Create a bogeyman and you can lock up anyone.

Terrorism is designed through the use of violence to intimidate non-combatants into complying with ideological and/or political goals. It's not that I advocate the destruction of labs necessarily. It is that by confusing the two types of attackers is to not be prepared to defend against different types of attacks.

If we start thinking of a group like ALF as being a terrorist organization, we put ourselves at risk by misunderstanding actual terrorists. We also dilute the nastiness that is real terrorism. It also makes for bad analysis. Knowing that ALF does not want to commit acts of violence against people necessarily and is more interested in destroying apparatus instead, we can then assume that they would attack at night or on the weekend. A terrorist on the other hand, is interested in horrific carnage (not necessarily massive) therefore would be more inclined to attack during the week and during the day.
I'm not saying elements of radical groups might not eventually commit an act of terrorism. I'm not saying they're innocent; they've committed illegal guerrilla attacks against the corporate research community. I'm saying that they haven't yet comitted a terrorist act and it is to the detriment of the intelligence community, law enforcement, the courts, and most importantly our civil liberties if we allow this sloppy, opportunist use of the word terror for corporate/political agendas.
Hold everyone accountable for the proper use of the word.

Oil and Water II

Back when I had posted about a build-up of force in the Persian Gulf to intimidate Iran, but had warned about the fact that they had Silkworms missiles that I believe they got from China (Oil and Water).
I then read this with interest

CENTCOM Commander’s Veto Sank Bush’s Threatening Gulf Buildup
by Gareth Porter
Admiral William Fallon...vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM, according to sources with access to his thinking. (Article)

If true, it would represent a pretty severe break between armed forces and the administration. I'd like to see more sources for confirmation, but I really wouldn't be surprised. There's a big gulf between talking shit and real fighting and I think the military is getting tired of them running big mouths while they do the fighting.

Archibald "Harry" Tuttle - Ghost in The Machine

Harry Tuttle: My good friends call me Harry.

OK. Here's the gig. They collect and collate data that we all volunteer without actually thinking about what they can do with that data. It's your information, but they sell it to as many processors as they can who then use that data to fine tune the advertisement (rather than fine tuning the product) to convince you that you need it. They also sometimes give it or sell it to the government, who is in turn breaking no laws in acquiring the information about you. Mix that with your communications records and standard government files and THEY've got you by the balls.
I've been trying to come up with a good common name that everyone could use to confuse the data miners. A ghost in the machine. Of course we won't win, but for your own quiet amusement when you sign up for that discount card at your favorite grocery store. Then the name came to me...Archibald "Harry" Tuttle or just Harry Tuttle.
Trow all your old cards out and start over. Every time you get a discount on that loaf of bread, just image how many boxes of feminine hygiene products and beef jerky Harry's buying at the very same instant.
Central Services won't know what hit them.

NAME: ARCHIBALD TUTTLE T47/215
OCCUPATION: HEATING ENGINEER
STATUS: BELIEVED DECEASED

EYES: Brown
HAIR: Brown
DISTINGUISHING MARKS: None
SMOKES: Yes

KNOWN ALIASES: Harry Tuttle, Harold Tuttle, A. H. Tuttle, A. Harry Tuttle, A. Harold Tuttle III, Harry S Tuttle, Terry Huttle

KNOWN ACCOMPLICES: Gillian Layton (deceased), Samuel Lowry (inoperative), "Pluto," "Father Christmas" (real names unknown)

CHARGED WITH: Freelance Subversion, Deconstructive Behavior, Reckless Creation of Suspicion Among the Greater Public, Stealing Work from Qualified Personnel, Practicing Heating Engineering without a License, Failing to Complete Necessary Work Orders, Wasting Ministry Time and Paper(From Brazil@PythoNET)

Harry Tuttle: Bloody paperwork. Huh!
Sam Lowry: I suppose one has to expect a certain amount.
Harry Tuttle: Why? I came into this game for the action, the excitement. Go anywhere, travel light, get in, get out, wherever there's trouble, a man alone. Now they got the whole country sectioned off, you can't make a move without a form.

Tuttle in action


A suggested alias (each piece of data references something in Brazil):
Harry Tuttle
27 Archibald Street Apt. B6
Yourtown, ST
47215

Fun with magnets

Gauss gun/Coilgun - A coilgun (not to be confused with a railgun) is a type of magnetic accelerator gun (MAG) or magnetic accelerator cannon (MAC). It uses one or more electromagnetic coils to accelerate a magnetic projectile to high velocity. (Wikipedia)

Here's a fun little site - Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids
And an article for making a nifty device - The Gauss Rifle: A Magnetic Linear Accelerator

Knowledge is power - Bacon

"It's that we're doing it ourselves"

Bruce Schneier on Big Brother:

The fear isn't an Orwellian government deliberately creating the ultimate totalitarian state, although with the U.S.'s programs of phone-record surveillance, illegal wiretapping, massive data mining, a national ID card no one wants and Patriot Act abuses, one can make that case. It's that we're doing it ourselves, as a natural byproduct of the information society. (Essay)

...and consumer society. I'm all for free market, but so are THEY and THEY're not our friends.

Whiplash segue.

THEY are the Artificial Intelligence entities that are the institutions that feed off of our toils known as a corporation. It's the entities that when viewed as a whole are functioning single "beings." These beings exist to feed the multi-neural (shares of stock) impulse to generate profit and revenue in the shortest amount of time as possible. Everyone wants huge returns on their investments while abdicating their responsibility to understand the consequences of the actions that their companies take in the effort to satisfy the maximum profit condition. This creates an organization that behaves like a being with all sub-sets having to behave more-or-less how the whole entity wants them to behave or else be purged. With limited liability, each sub-function is able to function with less conscience than might normally be employed.
This creates a whole that can be considered a psychopath.

From Wikipedia's article on the 2003 documentary The Corporation (available in 23 parts at YouTube):

The Pathology of Commerce

Dr. Robert Hare, a consultant to the FBI on psychopaths, draws parallels between a psychopath and the modern corporation. His findings corroborate the following behavior:

• Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
• Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
• Reckless disregard for the safety of others
• Deceitfulness: Repeated lying and conning of others for profit
• Incapacity to experience guilt
• Failure to conform to the social norms with respect to lawful behaviors

And think about it. These entities spend billions of dollars every year trying to BELIEVE or researching how to get you to BELIEVE. They spend billions to influence human behavior. They spend billions to influence human laws.
No, the alien entitiy that threatens human existence won't be in the for of Arnold Schwarzenegger in a leather jacket and chasing some tween. It won't look like a green slime from space chasing a theater full of kids.

No, THEY look entirely different

Link to The Corporations website.
The movie trailer...

"Harry" Tuttle Lives!

Significant

I thought this was important enough to echo Boing Boing.

Have you seen any nuclear material?
Pakistan places advertisements regarding 'misplaced' isotopes.
"Pakistan has never lost nuclear material per se, but it has a poor track record of protecting its nuclear technology." (article)

They say it's for material that may from medical waste and the like before Pakistan was a nation.
I give a 9.9999999999% chance that that's the case. 85% chance loose nukes and show up in some bomber's hands, but they're caught. 4.9999999% chance there's an attempted detonation in Iraq.
.0000001% chance loose nukes detonate in Britain and .0000000001% chance make it in a cargo container and detonate in the U.S.
It's still shitty we even have to think in these terms.


Now that I've hit on some keywords, I bet you this'll get a glance from the TIA, ADVISE, and ECHELON.

Note to Intel: If you're looking here you're wasting taxpayers money. Hit the bricks. The most effective intel comes from old fashioned investigation techniques.

Don't forget me...

Image from http://berlin-wall.org/

..when they place the last brick in Fortress America's wall.

From the What The Fuck?!?! department (but then again, I'm not surprised).

ACLU Says Government is Excluding Foreign Scholars Because of Political Views

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that it filed a new legal complaint challenging the federal government’s continued exclusion of prominent Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan. The complaint also challenges the Patriot Act’s “ideological exclusion” (emph. mine - Snag) provision, which authorizes the government to deny visas to foreign citizens on the basis of their political views.

Ideological Exclusion?!?! I didn't agree to that! Nobody put that to a vote! My representatives surely wouldn't have allowed that bullshit!
Joliet Prison, Illinois
To think, you can't come to the U.S. because of what you think.
To my fellow American's remember this...a wall works both ways.

Funny little graphic

I've seen this kicking around the net for awhile now. It's so...well...identifiable. Disturbing, but a there's truth there.

This fits somewhere

In the whole big schema of things to come, this is foreshadowing something...

Japanese find sleep, shelter in cyber cafes

Like Yamashita, the freeter, many of the cyber homeless fade into this colorful crowd, finding anonymity as well as shelter.
"The younger ones don't look any different from other young people," said Kazumasa Adachi, a manager at one of the more elegant net cafes where staff wear suits and receive customers with the polite efficiency of hotel receptionists.
He recognizes cafe dwellers by the heavy bags they lug around.
"They are different from the real homeless because they belong to the working poor, so they do have some money, whereas the ones on the street have no money at all," he added.

Lawn Order Cult Attacks U.S. Women, Children

A gathering of citizens and foreign supporters who were engaged in their patriotic duty of exercising First Amendment rights were sprung upon by a south-east U.S. branch of the Lawn Orders. The Lawn Orders was originally formed in as a citizen aid society in 1829 in London, but has over the years degenerated into a cult-like group of authority worshipers. While Law Enforcement organizations still contain members who "Protect and Serve" and enforce Constitutional protections for the citizens of the U.S., the Lawn Order cult was born out of generations of recruitment among society's most afflicted with self-confidence issues and authority complexes leading to a "siege" mentality among it practitioners.
More on the terror inducing attack...

Los Angeles Police Response to Immigration Rally Probe (NewsHour - PBS)

Members of LAPD Lawn Order cult

Members of the press corps were also attacked while attempting to document the events.

TV Crew Caught In Clash Between Protesters, Police

Self sufficiency

Self sufficiency is a concept that's learned, the skills follow. Thinking more about Penn Jillette's thought that "living within your means offers an immense amount of power" and Mr. Jalopy's "if you can't open it, you don't own it" I realized that this applies to my own self. I went back to exercising (my body) this morning and it dawned on me that lifting weights and cardio is a form of hacking. It's a form of ownership. With all the crap food and the ubiquitous enticements out there destined to kill you early, one way to get back at "the man" (of whom I refer to often as THEY or THEM) is to take control of your body's health. This thinking ties in nicely with mind/body connection of the RE/DEProgramming I did on myself to quit smoking of which I'll recount my method another time.
Some thoughts I won't elaborate on. Just spitballing...

• Fast food is a form of chemical warfare. It uses carefully designed chemistry to keep you desiring the fats, sugars, and salts. Fast food is unhealthy and at the rate the average American consumes it, shortens their lifespan.
• Fast food advertisement is psyops (mil jargon for Psychological Operation). It is designed to appeal to one's conscience, sub-conscience, emotional, and psycho-chemical systems.

One drawback to quitting smoking, of which I did for 2/3's of my life is that the weight hit me pretty good. I went from about 215lbs to 245lbs. It's coming off on its own slowly, but getting back into my routine should put me back at my fighting weight of 205-210 in a couple of months.

With that, I highly recommend (and am no way affiliated with) ExRx.net - "ExRx.net (Exercise Prescription on the Net) is a free resource for the exercise professional, coach, or fitness enthusiast." ExRx.net consists of nearly 2000 pages, most of which are found in the Exercise and Muscle Directory. The content of this web site is available on CD-ROM."

On the topic of self sufficiency, I turn to termites. Now I had a guy come out and quote me $1200-$1500 to spray for the little buggers then come back every now and again to check and see how they're doing. Screw that.
Through a little research here's what I've found:
Boric Acid - I've know about this very low-tox shit for a long time as a way to kill roaches. Turns out it's effective on termites too. But how to deliver it to them???
Propylene Glycol - Low-Tox anti-freeze of which I use in the Fairlane in case it ever pukes from overheating. Animals, particularly dogs, like the sweet taste of coolant, but the regular stuff will kill them.
Heat one to two pounds of Boric Acid into one gallon of Propylene Glycol below boiling. When ready for use mix another gallon of water and spray on wood. Second treatment if needed. The wood will wick the shit right up and when the termites come for dinner, they die. Keep away from plants though.
Total cost: An afternoon and $25 for 5lbs of Boric Acid and $8 for the coolant.
Added bonus, the mix also prevents dry rot.

Chompin' at the Bit

I've got to get out to the garage and start tweaking, tuning, and modding the Fairlane soon. I'm jonesin' for the grease fix.
To hold me for a while, here's a fairly well done montage of Mad Max chase scenes set to one of my favorites Ace of Spades by Motorhead.

And a link to part 1 of a 12 part dice of the whole Mad Max 2/Road Warrior flick. About 9 minutes a day before work to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

Links

Another link dump.
Compiled from my travels:

ARTIFICIAL SYNCHRONICITY, LANGUAGE MANIPULATION, KUNDALINI AND THE CORNERS OF REALITY: HOW THEY'VE TURNED YOU INTO A MENTAL SLAVE & SOME TOOLS TO HELP YOU DECONSTRUCTING THIS BRAINWASHING AND GETTING FREE FROM THIS CIRCUS

I forgot how I came across this and I haven't had time to read it through, but that's a kick ass title.

I'm sure I must have gotten this from Boing Boing. For the computer hobbyist -
[Photoshop Tutorial] Creating fake 'Miniature' environments



Here's a link to build your own, inexpensive 120,000 Volt Van De Graaff Generator

A blogger who filters what he sees through the works of Philip K Dick.
Which PKD Story Are We In Today?

Lastly, a blog that pulls together a lot of stuff that interests this blog and does it more consistently - futurismic

Return

I've been busy, damnit!

When life conflicts with art.
A death of a cat/friend/family member, a construction project, and a wedding in Canada.

While driving, I had some podcasts to pass the time. Boing Boing had a great interview with Mr. Jalopy of Hoopty Rides. Check it out the site for some great...um...projects. Hard to explain.
A good quote from Mr. Jalopy "If you can't open it, you don't really own it."

REpurpose
I've tried to keep political commentary to a minimum, but every week I get more and more indignant. It's all I can do not rip the heads off of twittering idiots who want to continue to debate the rightness of the current American administration. There's nothing to debate.

THEY'RE A BUNCH OF LYING, ANTI-AMERICAN, NEO-FASCIST, CORPORATE CRIMINALS WHO WILL SAY ANYTHING TO PROVOKE YOUR BASEST, MOST VILE INSTINCTS TO MAINTAIN POWER AND BLEED THE COUNTRY OF ITS CAPITAL! THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR COMMUNITY, OR YOUR COUNTRY!
THEY WANT YOUR MONEY!

Complex 39 envisions a not quite post-apocalyptic future in which the world is controlled by corporate mechanizations and the few highest placed profiters of the system. I think we've turned a corner that we're not coming back from. In the U.S., citizens are programed for consumption compliance and socio-political ambivalence. As with a frog in a pot, it's all about being slow enough so the frog doesn't know he's being boiled alive.

To paraphrase Penn Jellett, "living well beneath your means gives you an immense amount of power." Cut costs, live well, get off of the credit-go-round. Almost everything THEY offer is to keep you enslaved to the system. There's no end to it in their world. There's no real retirement from it.

With that, I also use this space to organize the myriad of sites/ideas/points-of-reference that support my own blend of living art in that aesthetic frame of reference.

Coming soon - Our attempt to augment home heating oil with Biodiesel. It's cleaner and costs about fifty cents to a buck a gallon to make.

"Knowledge is power" - Sir Francis Bacon

Last Word
First off, to make it clear, the rest of the world is at best thinking we (U.S.) as a nation are nuts. So many think we're just evil, arrogant, hateful bastards. At the wedding I attended recently, the Canadians were very gracious, but it was clear that there was a deep disappointment with our "War on Terror."

What I really want to say is that the war wasn't/isn't lost.

The war in Iraq was over in about a week or so.

The occupation, Operations Other Than War (OOTW), Low Intensity Conflict (LIC), counter insurgency operations, and/or civil war will last generations. The violence on the streets off Baghdad is nothing new nor unforeseen unless one is unschooled in basic history or if one is in the government and charged with protecting the nation, criminally incompetent. So if someone is yammering about someone saying "soldiers lives wasted" or "the war is lost", tell them to shut the hell up. They don't know shit about war if they're claiming we're at war. We're at a simmering pot of bullshit. We're at a never ending occupation of a former "country" that's sucked down $500 billion thus far. We're presiding over a region of disparate peoples who really don't want to live together.
We're there because the boomers wanted SUV's in their aging hippy-dippyness rather than wake up after the first major oil crisis. The boomers ignored their responsibility to stay alert and vigilant to the same forces that got us into the likes of Vietnam. I don't ignore the responsibility of the coming generations to do something, but they were there first and they're massive in numbers. They're a political and economic powerhouse and they could have done something in the 70's that would have helped avoid all this.
I digress...

The fact is, right or wrong, the war is over and we won.
But then we stayed there and an occupation is not war.