Irony, Life, And All

I just cleaned Tanner's and My room and I found 6.85 in Change lying around the room!  Wow!  I get to keep it all too!  So take that jerks!  I cleaned, and I get rewarded! HAHAHA

Anyway, tonight I had to find a parking space, and the ones directly in front of the house where taken, so I parked a little ways down on the other side of the street, right in front of the "GASP" Bush/Cheney Headquarters!

For those of you who don't know, my truck prominently sports a John Kerry bumper sticker.

I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they walk into their office in the morning and find a Kerry supporter (Actually, I'm a Libertarian, but I need Bush out of office.) parked in the space directly in front of their office!  I'm probably going to make a point of parking there from now on.

I may even go down the street to the Kerry/Edwards Headquarters and get some more stuff. Woopee!

Speaking of the fact that both candidates kinda suck, go to Atom Films: This Land.  This cartoon is SOOOOO funny.  It takes a stab at everyone in a humorous parody to Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land".  You'll love it, I guarantee.

Moving on with the events of the day, I'm still pissed off about my financial aid reduction.  I did not receive an e-mail from the Financial Aid Office in response yet, so I'm wondering if they are just going to ignore me.

The greatest part is that I sent in my OLD financial aid statement to them!  So I want to see what they are going to do.

I read an interesting article online today about how our nation has become A Nation of Bystanders in the War on Terrorism (Click to read the article.) The article notes how less than one percent of the population of the United States serves in the military, whereas in world war two, that number was 11.7 percent served.  Well, that fact is misleading, right of the bat.  Number one, the US population has increased by 156 million people, so the difference between 11.7 percent of 133 million (approx US population in 1941) and 4.7 of 290 million is less than what is sounds like.

In addition, I don't understand why conservatives get so friggin' worked up about the dwindling intrest in KILLING PEOPLE.  There are three major reasons why the military is smaller.

Number One: we aren't fighting for a good cause.  We are being world police, when we should be practicing national DEFENSE not national OFFENSE.  I don't care WHO you are, but you can't tell me going into Iraq because of the THREAT of the use of weapons was not an offensive manuever.  So bring our troops back home, fight terrorism the only way you can: through intelligence.  In case anyone was wondering, terrorism is not a physical enemy.  It exists because people have bias, hate, misunderstanding and miscommunication.  If we butted out of everyone's business, you'd see a lot less terrorism, because they'd have less of a reason to hate us. 

Number Two: people aren't willing to fight anymore: People are better informed, and less ignorant of the world around them.  In WWII, there was very little media, no television for the mass public, some radio, and DEFINATELY no internet.  War was glamorous to children and teenagers at that time.  Every time I watch some documentary about WWII, I hear at least one veteran say something about how they were all so excited to go and fight the Germans, for honor and excitement, and a chance to travel the world.  Well, today we all know what war is really about.  War is KILLING PEOPLE.  That's that.  When we went into the Vietnam Conflict (it wasn't a war, you know) Television brought that right into our living rooms.   With the advent of the internet, the world is only getting smaller.  We don't see things through our goverments' eyes anymore.  We have buddies on AIM from all around to world who tell us how things really are, and the government cannot stop us from seeing our enemy as they really are: human beings, just like us.  When you realize that you are the same, you find it harder to hate.  What else were you going to expect?  We've been teaching kids understanding and tolerance for years now--you expect them to hate like their parents?

Number Three:  we don't fight ground wars anymore.  The need for massive infantry is less than in the past, because our top strategy consists of bombing the crap out of the enemy first, (remember shock and awe?) and then going in to "mop up".

People just don't want to fight anymore--doesn't anyone realize how much of a wonderful thing this is?  Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came?  That would be great, wouldn't it.  When everyone in the world decides that war should only be a last resort, and only after attack, no one would ever start a war.

We live in a capitalistic society, and as a news flash for the rest of you, the bottom line for almost everthing done in the USA is greed--money.  Maybe it is unfair and horrible that Saddam was killing his own people.  But if we were really interested in "helping people" and saving lives, we wouldn't have left Rwanda when the Hutu's and the Tootsi's were killing each other in the THOUSANDS.  Or we could have fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 5 years. Or we could have ensured that every child in the world was given basic immunizations for 41 years.  Or we could have fully funded world-wide AIDS programs for 12 years.  So don't give me this crap about helping people. (Information taken from CostofWar.com)

Almost everyone I know would be willing to defend ourselves from an enemy when attacked.  In WWII, kids were lying about their age to get into the military.  September 11th wasn't an attack by a tangible enemy.  No, no, no.  That day represented a fruitation of the seeds of resentment which the United States has been sowing in the world for the past decade.  We need to pull out from the world, and let them solve their own problems--send them the message that we don't help anyone, so don't come crying to us about it.  The only ways to fight terrorism are with intelligence and peace-keeping.  We need people to stop hating us--invading their countries does not prevent terrorism--it causes it.

Please, start thinking with the brain God gave you, and realize that the answers are a lot simpler than anyone in the government wants you to beleive.

On a closing note, I love the the United States.  The government and country which was established by those visionary documents called The Constitution and The Bill Of Rights is the best country in the world.  What upsets me is that our country is no longer guided by the principles of those wonderful documents--instead, it is run by corperations, greedy politicians, lawyers, and the tyrannical vocal minority.

Do something about it--vote.