welcome to the atrocity exhibition

skipped out to go retrieve lunch a bit ago. it was only after my curry decided to spontaneously spring a leak on me as soon as i'd hit the library doors that i realised Red Eye's true usefulness: it handily helped to mop up the currilicious mess down the front of my coat, and on a nearby trash/recycling bin. another issue of it also helped to convey my food back through the gates and to my desk, since the curry had of course weakened the paper bag it was in to the point of unusability. amazing.

it was also during this lunch run that i wondered how feasible it would be to file a complaint against certain individuals and their policies in our current government---via the Better Business Bureau? i've been wishing there was a way we could refuse to pay taxes based on dissatisfaction with service we've received thus far without fear of reprisal. i don't see one, but the BBB thing seems a bit more likely. i mean, come on---read what they've got up about truth in advertising guidelines, for a start!

i've luckily never had to file a complaint with the BBB before. people i know who have have not had much come of it. but the complaints would be on file for others to read, at least.

...which is the problem. probably not many people thinking about coming here are going to go look at the BBB first to seek out complaints. d'oh. it's really too bad. i think the claim (especially when made by a large number of people) would be incredibly valid.

that being said, loads of other issues have been brought to the fore recently. i can't even begin to explain how floored i was in having the task of trying to convince someone fairly close to me that wholesale genocide is not okay, and that the notion that "they all look alike" is utter bullshit. not to mention the people who actually believe the tenuous (at best, and that's stretching it SEVERELY) claims made by our government of ties betwixt Mssrs. Hussein and bin Laden. besides the fact that they were never able to prove anything, and that any "evidence" furnished was later discredited not only by credible governmental agencies abroad, but also by the CIA and FBI, merely using common sense should make one realise that two such power-hungry, egotistical individuals as they would not get along very well. really. the idea, aside from being something that would be extremely convenient for those wishing justification for this war, is patently preposterous.

of course, the tension regarding "immigrants" is paramount in my mind at the moment, mostly because of this rather disturbing conversation involving genocide. (which almost caused me to lose it, not surprisingly; was very glad Spaz was there and was making really good, informed, detailed arguments [better than mine would have been, in fact---i freeze up when too frustrated and tend to lose ability to speak well. >P], or else i really would have)

i mean, there's quite obviously the argument that unless one is of Native American ancestry, either one or one's ancestors somewhere along the line were all immigrants to this country. i wouldn't think this would be something that would need to be said, really---i'd think it would be fairly self-evident. unfortunately, it seems as though the actuality is otherwise.

the mind absolutely boggles. un-fucking-real.

anyrate, here's some articles for today:

The Judicially-Selected Dictator's Pre-Emptive War, brought to you by Ralph Nader (and before you groan [if you groan], read it--it's interesting).

more on the Coalition of the Bribed, Bullied, and Blind, brought to you by the Daily Mirror.

Henry Porter on How to Save Brand America in the wake of all the wrong being wrought in our name.

We Bomb. They Suffer. Robert Fisk on the realities of war, via the Independent.

Ultimatums and War by Lillian Corti.

and finally, following up from another article along similar lines from the other day, Jimmy Breslin relates Familiar, Haunting Words.