Posted 12/29/2002 12:16:46 AM
current mp3:
madonna::die.another.day

Posted 12/29/2002 12:16:16 AM

Given that Computer Associates now has its own private corporate army it seems a micro-trend in war might be toward publicly traded, sanitized, corporate mercenary armies. That would be interesting, no? The mob has done it on a local crime syndicate level so why not CA in support of a global Western hegemony?

My question is this, "What happens when CA decides that it will become an 'outsource partner' to the Sudanese government or to the despotic regime in Guinea, West Africa?" There are no international norms for the decision making process that a corporate entity should use in screening potential war "clients." Any country without UN or US sanctions against it could be a client of these secret, corporate mercenary armies if they had enough money.

This leads me to say something in the extreme that is both laughable and ominous. It may be that this recent move toward monetizing the practice of war, in line with our somewhat longer practice of doing the same with the commodities of war, is the end of the civilized society we have grown accustomed to.

That is a little extreme, eh Dan? Perhaps, but there is some sparkle of truth in this broad brush analysis is there not? Yes, there have been mercenary armies from the dawn of time, and these armies did loot and pillage and generally act as roving bands of hired thugs. And, yes, there were exceptions among some of the honorable companies of national mercenaries such as the French Foreign Legion. The difference in the cases such as CA/DynCorp is the legitimation of the thuggery. The revenue from this warmongering goes directly into large, well established public companies, and these war-profits contribute to the value of the underlying public security. To me this seems nearly the equivalent of wartime pillaging and money laundering. If you own CA, or if any of the mutual funds you are invest in does, you are now party to the wars CA involves itself with. Think about that. These profits come at the expense of the lives of the world's children, the human rights of the most vulnerable and, potentially, the national sovereignty of the states in whose borders these free market militias "work."

But these consultants are just for peace keeping and protection, Dan! Really? Tell that to the American missionaries whose plane was shot down in South America thanks to Computer Associates' fully owned subsidiary DynCorp. Tell that to the countless child sex slaves that were kept and trafficked by American free market "consultants" in the Balkans. War is bad business and should never be mixed with big business. That is my silly utopian phase of the day.

I say we start the long march toward de-monetizing war. The practice and tools of war need not be the basis upon which any company grows revenue. The free market CANNOT regulate itself. We know this. This is why we have trade law and government commissions. It is time to take a serious look at the war profiteering that is taking place--especially by those nations who so self-righteously presume to pass political and military judgment on regimes they have sold weapons to and supported in the not so distance past.

Posted 12/28/2002 03:51:59 PM

current mp3:
apocalyptica::nothing.else.matters.(live.cover)

Posted 12/28/2002 02:39:56 PM

For millennia, the distinction between human beings and God was that we're imperfect. In the age of digital machines, increasingly that's the line between being human and being technology. -Joho

Posted 12/28/2002 12:23:02 PM
current mp3:
a.garfunkel::i.believe.(when.i.fall.in.love)

Posted 12/27/2002 06:40:09 PM

www.gapingvoid.com via sotto

Hugh MacLeod is hilarious and freely syndicated.

from the FAQ:

Why is your stuff always so dark and twisted?
It's because I like to write about people, and people are dark and twisted. If they weren't we wouldn't need art in the first place.

Posted 12/27/2002 06:33:47 PM
Foreign Policy | A Modest Proposal by Noam Chomsky via FBM

The modest proposal of an Iranian liberation is indeed insane, but not without merit. It is far more reasonable than the plans actually being implemented...

Posted 12/27/2002 04:39:53 PM

the responses to this post have been very interesting.

most have been positive. honestly, i was surprised anyone read the damn thing. i must be the king of run on sentences. give me a dash, semi-colon and the occasional comma splice and i am a happy man. most reaction has centered around these bits regurgitated here in Cliffs Notes fashion for you wise souls who will not subject yourselves to the grammatical perversion of the long-winded original:

...i am all for the eclectic, but not the carnival eclecticism of domesticated ancient spiritual practice packaged for easy dissemination amidst a population averse to anything requiring more than a 15 minute commitment.

...our communities have a dire need to simply live in faith, hope and love as the normal people that we are. the extraordinary is always seeded in the ordinary. the impossible germinates in the banality of the sacred mundane. the hard work of spiritual community is not walking a labyrinth, fasting from animal products for a month or confessing an ancient creed periodically. the actualization of community is in the boring, soiled exchange of large quantities of normal living.

...there was no originary unity of the Christian experience save in love for the one God and love of one's neighbor. beyond this the Christian tradition--even before it was Christian--was inherently diverse.

...those happy souls so excited to find our unity in the Celtic and the catholic, the orthodox and the apostolic need to begin to ask the more difficult questions that pop up when one does not stop the historical archeology of identity with Reformation Europe, Constantinian Rome or the Apostolic reconstruction after the Jerusalem community's cataclysmic demise.... i don't want to hear another thing about the need to return to a more adequately Apostolic, classical or Triune faith... though i realize that for many the ancient in "ancient-future" is defined by the winners, for me, the ancient is the mass of illiterate peasants who held tightly to the thin hope of a Kingdom they could enact even in the midst of total political and religious domination. in large measure it was this viral kingdom of the powerless that was sacrificed for the violent kingdom of the empowered in the centuries following the execution of Yesh'uah and the historically unfolding definition of triumphant Christianity.

...rediscover Jerusalem i say! and with her the altogether foreign (for us Hellenized orthodox types) experience of the various Yeshu'ah following, Kingdom living, Judahist communities that filled her ancient streets. the various flavors of Nicea that pass as a divided church today would have us not dip into the forgotten world of the pre-Christian Jesus community, but we must.

Posted 12/27/2002 03:03:40 PM

Sotto points us to PersianBlog.

Iran is an intellectual superpower going through the birth pains of this idiosyncratic thing called "Islamic Democracy." I am excited at the prospects of Iran taking a more central role in regional peacemaking and cultural creation. It is interesting to watch Khatami inserting himself into the Pakistan-India cold war. The caliber of Iranian cinematic story telling, despite some of the rather arcane Revolutionary restrictions on expression that remain in effect, is difficult to match.

An overwhelming number of under-40 Iranians are beginning to shape their nation in a way that the ignorant pronouncements and sanctions of Western (no, really just American) political lackeys never could. The explosive mix of this highly educated, articulate, politically engaged, and now intimately connected generation with the traditionalist, empowered elite will be fascinating to watch in the coming years. Blogs will likely play a very tangible role in the networking that fans the flame of grassroots change.

Posted 12/27/2002 03:41:18 AM

someone once asked Gandhi if he was ambitious. he answered, "i hope not."

i have surrendered most of my ambition. tonight i wonder if i've given too much. holding on to passion in the surrender of ambition is the example Gandhi left us, and is perhaps the hardest thing from his life to emulate in our time.

Posted 12/27/2002 02:23:16 AM

Human clone born: it's a Raelian

Posted 12/27/2002 01:26:26 AM

Rooting Out Evil
expanding the search for weapons of mass destruction

Rooting Out Evil is sending a weapons inspection team to the
United States to inspect the chemical, biological, and nuclear
weapons produced and concealed by the Bush regime.

We have selected the US as our first priority based on criteria provided by the Bush administration. According to those criteria, the most dangerous states are those run by leaders who:

1) have massive stockpiles of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons;
2) ignore due process at the United Nations;
3) refuse to sign and honour international treaties; and
4) have come to power through illegitimate means.

The current US administration fulfills all these criteria. And so, again following Bush’s guidelines, Rooting Out Evil is demanding that his administration allow immediate and unfettered access to international weapons inspectors to search out their caches of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.

thanks to dwavehed for the link.

Posted 12/26/2002 04:50:03 PM

Top Arab TV network to hit US market
another perspective. i hope that they can stay independent. media conglomerates are more oppressive than technology monopolies and two-party governments combined.

Posted 12/26/2002 10:37:52 AM

Posted 12/26/2002 10:16:59 AM

CLEAR CHANNEL ENTERTAINMENT PURCHASES CHRISTMAS AND HANUKKAH
A Clear Channel press release stated that "the world will now be able to enjoy consistently high-quality service during the Fifteen Days of Chrismukah"

Posted 12/25/2002 08:31:15 PM

i am typing this on my new Axim. it is pretty cool to have a PPC again--especially with wifi. this is the ultimate bathroom computer. i love Dell's Switcher app. it is a very simple addition to the PPC experience, but one that seems so natural that it should be part of the OS. thanks again, BigT.

Posted 12/25/2002 08:14:57 PM

more detail on corporate mercenary armies, government drug money, bioweapons and much more from the US Government's favorite war outsourcing partner Dyncorp.
via brutalgas

Posted 12/25/2002 05:03:13 PM

message at the bottom of an atm receipt:

SHOPPING IS NOT CREATING
YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU OWN

Posted 12/25/2002 03:26:29 PM

the life of an individual-in-community is forever torn between the security of anonymity and the oxygen of life together; the specter of isolation and the obnoxious trampling of one's well-ordered self.

the walk of a community is never the same season to season or group to group.

the hopes of a community find form in the garb of that which is locally plausible in giving voice to that which is globally primal: the protected child, the inviolable companion, the space for open potential and the community of embracing grace.

Posted 12/25/2002 03:04:09 PM

here dan goes, "wrapping things up in nice neat packages that imply the world..."

what we require today is a vast multiplicity of voices--not as a well orchestrated choir, but rather in the mass chaos that frightens and angers the musical partisan who deems the open creativity of sound less pleasing than the particular movements they have grown fond of. this chaos of voice demands the ivory tower dwelling metanarrarator descend into the particular song. only song can narrarrate the meta with the difference that makes a difference.

to sing with one's own voice opens the soul. the refusal to remain a mere aficionado of the distant huddled masses or the 10,000 foot credulity critic in isolation forces one from the still mountain solitude and heady ivory tower heights down into the bustling village lane and warm hovel home. it is here that the one accustomed to thin air and quiet reflection must find her voice anew and sing a song long forgotten. this song is drawn from the spatial memory that is more rhythm than word. her heart is moved by the auto-confession that could not be smothered under the pillow of all that has been. like a phoenix rising from the ash she now knows the second naïveté, the creator, the singer of songs whose number join the billions in the divine chaos whose measure is yet impenetrable and whose mystery invites to dance.

some encounter the chaos and cannot find their voice anew. they slink back and become the most vile of creatures. trying to be what they once were and can never be again these beat the drums of war in a vain effort to drown out the noise they can never now part with. these are the ones who find not song in their own village, but a divine right to dominance. these are the ones who do not love their neighbors--far less their enemies! no, these traffic in manipulation, these preach a gospel of fear, these will not be satisfied until the chaos that now grips their soul is destroyed and the world with it! all those refusing to sing their song, or at the least to harmonize with it, are cut off and momentarily the fiction of self-righteous order is taken to be a divine blessing of the monotone.

sing on! find your voice anew. there is more than we have yet known.

Posted 12/25/2002 02:21:13 PM
Substance Over Image

When our country appears to be on the verge of war, stepping out of line is always hazardous. All kinds of specious accusations fly. Whether you travel to Baghdad or hold an anti-war sign on main street back home, some people will accuse you of serving the propaganda interests of the foreign foe. But the only way to prevent your actions from being misconstrued is to do nothing. The only way to avoid the danger of having your words distorted is to keep your mouth shut.

Posted 12/25/2002 03:59:15 AM
hangin' 'round downtown by myself
and I had too much caffeine
-mpg

Jesus did not desire to make everyone his disciple. Jesus was a friend and master to but a few women and men who themselves, like him, became friend and master to but a few. Jesus was a story teller, religious activist and social healer who shared himself in ever receding circles of influence.

Zaccheus was not his disciple though the encounter they shared was spectacularly real.

the Roman Centurion was not his disciple though the faith exemplified by this violent man of Rome was not only commended, but a pivotal teaching moment taken up by Jesus.

the promiscuous Samaritan woman was no disciple of Jesus though the honor he pays her with his attention, acceptance and instruction would never be forgotten.

the drunk partiers at the wedding party in Canaa were not numbered among Jesus followers, neither was Nicodemus, nor the vast majority of those who came into contact with this man and his disciples. the point of Jesus and his band was not conversion! the point was the kingdom's announcement, enactment and subversion.

not everyone is called to be a disciple. though everyone is called to teshuvah and emunah... more later.

neither party conversion nor inch deep discipleship were the spiritual way of the man called Yesh'uah. perhaps, we should begin to think of the way of Jesus as open community and closed discipleship... more later. maybe.

Posted 12/23/2002 11:52:43 AM
The Animatrix DVD release date is June '03--one month after Reloaded and five months before Revolution. what gives me hope with regard to the Matrix franchise (compared to the Lucas blasphemy that has been perversely foisted on Star War's fans of late) is the overwhelming focus the Wachowski brothers bring to the story. if they can honor the mythology of the Matrix with a story worthy of the thousands of FX in these films this saga will stay firmly ensconced in the pantheon of cinematic powers and will cast many of our dominate metaphors for years to come.

Posted 12/22/2002 01:30:21 PM
There seems always to remain a diversity of opinion over whether there should be a diversity of opinion.

Posted 12/22/2002 12:41:25 PM
doc and the jackson seven.