[Previous entry: "Don't mention the War!"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Marxist Propaganda"]

02/23/2003 Archived Entry: "Tom Tomorrow"

On the Political Front:

I find it necessary to open with a bit of humor, albeit macabre, because the news is so uniformly depressing. Ready.gov is a spoof site dedicating to "helping America prepare for a fiery death." The site link comes compliments of cartoonist Tom Tomorrow -- check out his still strangely relevant cartoon on '91 Gulf War.

The upcoming invasion of Iraq, plans for "total war" with North Korea, the deployment of American troops in the Philippines...and now Bush has ordered additional US soldiers into Colombia to confront terrorists/rebels there.

Bush will not stop. As his reckless, insane spending helps plunge America into a depression, he bribes Turkey with $6 billion, of which $1 billion would secure an immediate $10 billion loan. That is up-front money. How does Bush expect to control the Turks once Saddam falls and the region is plunged into ethnic conflict? Those countries he doesn't bribe, he tries to bully. For example, Mexico. Despite pressure from the United States and Spain, as a U.N. Security Council member Mexico is maintaining its opposition to an attack on Iraq. In response, the US Ambassador to Mexico "warned that an immigration deal with the United States 'could become impossible' in Congress if Mexico did not back Washington over Iraq." Bush does not care what he does to world politics, how high the dead are piled, or if he bankrupts his own nation. Even housing, the brightest spot in the economy, is likely to falter in the face of his lust for war.

The only hope to stem the rise of American imperialism lies in the antiwar movement which is growing...but is it growing fast enough? On Friday, Los Angeles became the largest city to pass an antiwar resolution, joining more than 100 other cities
and counties including Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit.

Meanwhile, on an unrelated note...people should be aware that eBay has a policy of turning over customer information to any law enforcement agency that sends a FAX requesting the information. An appropriate way to register your complaint about this policy is by FAXing eBay and keeping their machine busy.

On the Personal Front:

All continues to go well. My personal life is in stark contrast to the world I see around me, and I thank God for it. Oddly enough, one of my main responses to the madness, is to want to take more risks: to write fiction, to explore radically different areas of non-fiction... I am not a doomsday sort but I don't want to delay for one minute longer anything that is important to me. I want to trim down my life to the bare essentials, leaving no room for things I do not value, that do not enrich my life. Perhaps war puts things into perspective...which is not to speak well of it. The same could be said of receiving a death sentence.

Tomorrow I shall be more upbeat.

mac