Defiantone.com

From the NY Times I found something that made me smile… you guessed it, I’m hanging out in left field. Lets see if they can make good on their goals

In the Capitol, Ms. Pelosi vowed to use the first 100 hours of the new Congress to push through what Democrats dubbed their “Six for ’06” agenda.

That program includes calls to raise the minimum wage, repeal subsidies for oil companies and incentives for companies to send jobs overseas, cut interest rates on student loans, give the government the authority to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription drug prices, and expand opportunities for embryonic stem cell research. On one of those issues, the minimum wage, Mr. Bush signaled there was room for a deal, as he also did on immigration.”

Free thought and liberty

All Americans are afforded the same protections under the constitution and the bill of rights regardless of what background they might come from. Our nation is great because we are a melting pot of people from many different nations with different backgrounds, opinions, and religions. Many Americans believe that no matter what, we should all be treated the same. Some people think that if I converted to Islam that I should have my security clearance revoked and that I should be put under a terror watch list. Americans are watching other Americans solely based upon the color of their skin and their religion.

In the mid-1800’s the United States was a divided nation as we fought in a brutal struggle for the rights of everyone despite their background or skin color. Hundreds of thousands died in this struggle in an effort to treat everyone equally. Despite the great loss of life America still did not treat everyone equally. America went through a large civil rights struggle for the equality of African Americans during the early to mid 20th century in an effort to even everything out. They wanted the right to be treated as an equal irregardless of how they might look. Today I think that we are still fighting the same battle but the participants are different. In the past month the president signed a law that allowed him and the secretary of defense to indefinitely hold anyone if they are suspected of terrorism. In a nutshell, they suspended the right of habeas corpus. The American civil liberties union immediately began to fight this new legislation as it was in violation of the rights spelled out in one of our nations greatest documents, the bill of rights.

Today I received an email from… someone that advocated the idea of spamming the ACLU with mail to adversely affect their mission: to protect the freedom of all Americans. First off, this is an illegal act. Second, this is one of the most foolish ideas I have heard of in a long time. Why in the world would we want to fight an organization that is fighting for all of our rights. Sure, the status quo in America is that we don’t care who we jail or whose rights we violate to stop terrorism but I know that I wouldn’t want to be one of those individuals who was illegally detained.

I mentioned this to someone yesterday and they mentioned that the ACLU is notorious for fighting only certain things and not all rights violations. In particular, they often fight not for the right to have religion but to remove it from a particular venue. In some cases, I can agree with this rational because we need to separate church from state. Why? Islam is nearly inseparable from most of the nations where the majority of people are of the Islamic faith. When this happens, only the faith of the majority is promoted and the others.. well, a Christian in Indonesia could get murdered and nobody would care. If the shoe was on the other foot and it was an individual of the Islamic faith the matter would be rigorously investigated.

Now that I’ve beat this to death… lets move on to the next topic today

Voting along party lines is foolish

Most politicians in America campaign on the party policy alone rather than their individual beliefs and ideas. We, as Americans, who live in greatest nation on earth, should elect people who think for themselves. When was the last time we voted on abortion in America? Do you think that the legislative body would subject themselves to a vote that would splinter the voting population in half. Lets face it, if there was a political climate change, as there is now, these people wouldn’t be elected the next time around. To make a campaign on polarizing material would be dangerous… the republican party joined together and supported GW’s decision to send Americans into Iraq. It will take years to figure out if the loss of life was worth setting them free. The crazy part is that they don’t care about what we’ve done over there… they just want us dead and gone.

Ok… whats the deal with this? well, I got an email yesterday telling people to vote on party lines citing the following reasons… time to tear them all apart

1. The economy. More than 6.6 million jobs have been created since 8/03. 4.1 annual growth is superior to all major industrialized nations. Dow hits new records. Productivity is up. Real after tax income has grown by 15% since 2001. Like VP Chaney would say…”What more do you want?” The tax cuts proposed by Bush and the R-Congress can take a bow.

More than anything else, the federal interest rates affect how our economy grows or shrinks. One man, who was put into that office by GW (and reagan before that), is responsible for that. Were you aware that 720,000 of the jobs created were government jobs? Creating a bigger government is not an effective way to reduce taxes and lower costs. Smaller governments are more efficient and cost less money.

Oh yeah, my data from Sept 06 says only 3 million jobs were created…. hmmm… fudging numbers somewhere?

Clinton took the jobless rate from 7.5% to 4% during his two terms in office. The GW took the jobless rate from 4% to 6.6% to 4.4%…. we’re almost back to where we started. He didn’t do anything legendary… he just got us back to where we started out in the first place.

You’ve also got to take into account that our nation now has over 300 million people… more people means more jobs.

want to know more check it out at senate.gov

2. The Patriot act. The much discussed civil liberty abuses have just not materialized. It has permitted the CIA and FBI to cooperate.

There has been no mention of civil rights abuses because all of the cases are handled in a seperate court that is out of the publics view. I am not aware of any… nor could I find any but the potential is just too great. Rewrite the legislation and give us something better. There IS a way to do it without infringing on citizens rights. The CIA and FBI have continually proven that although they can communicate they often do not communicate.

3. The ABM Treaty has been cancelled permitting us to work on missile defense. Is anyone but Nancy Pelosi sorry?

The fear mongers want us to spend billions on a missile defense system that does not work. They’ve already spent billions on the system and it doesn’t work… hey, I’ve got an idea. Give me your money and I’ll flush it down the toilet for you.

4. Immigration. The Republican Congress has gotten the first serious immigration restriction law passed in years.

If I was to look at the voting record I found that democrats and republicans worked on the reform together… you can’t take the credit for everything. Whats next? taking the credit for the sun rising every morning?

5. There has not been another terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11. Who would have predicted that on 9/12?

You got me here… there also haven’t been any more flying spaghetti monsters attacking our cities…. this is the most asinine statement out of all of them… yes, voting republican stopped the terrorists… oh wait 2819 americans died on 9/11 and 2828 american soldiers have died so far in Iraq… yep, we really showed them (I just want out troops back… soon)

6. Libya has surrendered its nuclear program.

Hmm… years of economic pressure or they saw republicans and gave up…. duh!

7. A. Q. Khan’s nuclear smuggling network has been rolled up.

Can you really attribute this to one party alone? No

8. John Roberts and Sam Alito sit on the Supreme Court.

I’ll give you this one…

9. The Demos that do not want to close Gitmo altogether want to give all its inmates the full panoply of rights Americans enjoy in criminal procedures.

Thats right, we don’t want to lock people up and throw away the key without trial because other nations watch what we do. If we abuse human rights why shouldn’t everyone else do it. We should at least give these guys and chance and if they are innocent… let em go, they didn’t do anything. It also doesn’t help that negativity is associated with the prison in the international community. One of the only reasons we have it is because its not located in America and we can pretty much do whatever we want to the prisoners.

10. Demos believe in immediate withdrawal from Iraq. If this happens the US will face a stinging defeat on the war against terror. According to Osama bin Laden, and those who share his views, we are militarily strong but psychologically and spiritually weak. Like it or not - and no one likes it - we cannot leave Iraq now without utterly and decisively validating this analysis.

Or maybe he says things like this to keep is embroiled in a war that we might not be able to win. He’s taunting us, this is what he does. I don’t want to loose either but if they outlook predicts no chance of winning… why stay? Lets get some guys together and find out what we need to win it… and win it. If we don’t change anything we don’t have a chance.

11. Demos would like to eliminate the terrorist surveillance program.

I can’t verify this one

12. If Demos achieve the majority in the House, Barney Frank will chair the Financial Services Committee, Henry Waxman the Government Reform Committee and Alcee Hastings the Intelligence Committee.

The three individuals are tools… but, we should get rid of them instead of voting for a republican… there have quite a few people in the past year that are involved in scandals, this time around most of them are republican…. lets keep the good people and get rid of the bad ones regardless of political party affiliation…

13. Demos believe the proper response to Kim Jong Il’s nuclear test isface-to-face talks. That’s what the Clinton Administration did for years.

For six years the bush administration has done no better… neither made any progress

What I’m trying to say is this, give me a list of facts and I can counter almost all of them as I’ve done here. Vote for the right person, don’t vote for someone based on party affiliation alone… its a bad idea.

Comments? please let me know your opinion

Originally Posted by AFP
WASHINGTON - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in an interview, asked for a long-term US military presence in Iraq, saying his country will need two permanent US air bases to deter “foreign interference.”

“I think we will be in need of American forces for a long time — even two military bases to prevent foreign interference,” Talabani told The Washington Post.

“I don’t ask to have 100,000 American soldiers — 10,000 soldiers and two air bases would be enough.”

The president indicated the bases would most welcome in Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northern Iraq that has practiced de facto self-government since the 1991 Gulf War.

But he suggested that the Sunni Arab segment of the Iraqi population would also welcome a long-term US military presence in Iraq.

“In some places Sunnis want the Americans to stay,” he argued. “Sunnis think the main danger is coming from Iran now.”

The comments come as top US military commanders admitted the United States will not be able to reduce its 147,000-strong contingent in Iraq in the coming months because of spreading sectarian violence and the possibility of the country slipping into civil war.

US Central Command head General John Abizaid told defense reporters last week any previous plans to draw down US troops in Iraq had been put off until at least next spring, and the force level might even go up.

“I think these are prudent force levels,” Abizaid said of the current contingent. “We’ll bring in more forces if we have to.”

At one point I thought we might have Korea II…. and now it might happen.

This is crap… defend your own country… its a shame that after 50 years the Koreans can’t/won’t do it on their own

I’ve talked about this ad nauseum with others… in fact I’ve talked about it to such a degree that nobody around me wants to hear it anymore. I think that we are perfectly safe (statistically) and that any security measures we have only present the illusion of security. Look at all of the things that we must go through in order to be safe at an airport.

They’ve got

1. Cameras
2. Baggage Scanners
3. Security Checkpoints
4. More security checkpoints
5. Passport control/immigration
6. Restrictions on the items allowed
7. Security people… with GUNS!

Thats only physical security, think about all of the background checks on all of the employees. The FAA is constantly making sure that the airlines are in compliance with all of the safety aspects of air travel (the board of directors ensures this too as nobody wants to fly on an airline that has a habit of landing prematurely).

The list and the measures used in an effort to keep us safe from disaster is huge and I could continue ad nauseum… dang, I seem to love using that term today.

The only thing that they are unable to keep us safe from is fear of disaster. This fear is perpetuated by the media, government, and security firms. They want us to be afraid so that we will willingly comply with any security measure that they might throw our way. They want us to submit to any and all security searches. They want to sell us newer, better smelling, nicer looking, more invasive, and costly security equipment. Recently, they banned all liquids on aircraft in the US and UK… the question some people (chemical engineers and anyone with a knowledge of chemicals) had to ask is why….

It turns out, in order to make the magical explosives that can be combined to bring down an aircraft is a difficult task… in fact, you would need to bring along a chemistry set… I have a feeling this WON’T make it through security. Read more over at the The Register (yes, its reputable)

If I was going anywhere I was ruun-ning!

I took my PT test today and like all other tests regardless of content I always tend to be nervous. I dislike the fact that situps are evaluated on the same day as the run because the movement makes you use your hip flexor muscles… muscles that you will need to run with. Of all the parts of my body, those are the ones that are the most sore. I didn’t do as well as I wished on the run portion of the test but I did better than last year so anything is an improvement. I can only hope that I can keep my scores where they were because I move to an easier bracket next year.

I almost vomited when I returned to work as I was

1. dehydrated
2. hot (its quite warm and the rent-a-wreck has poor air circulation)

Joy in Muddville

If you couldn’t tell by the tone of my quick note, I was a little annoyed with my whole car situation. That wasn’t all there was to it, there was much more to the story. I took a late lunch yesterday and called VW to be told that she wasn’t really sure what I could do. She thought I should talk to the importer and I told her it was a military contract and it wasn’t like a regular car importer. To humor the lady, I went down there and found out that they knew nothing (a fact I was already aware of). I went over to the repair place and they gave me the rest of the story. In addition to the water pump they thought the head gasket was blown and that I might have warped heads (very very bad news). The engine failed a high pressure test and there was oil in the coolant… also very bad. The timing belt would also need replace… again very bad. I told them to fix it and they said they would need parts. I didn’t want to go with this option because it was all coming out of pocket and it was supposed to be covered by warranty. I called VW back and got “THE” guy for overseas military. He said to take it to a dealership and fax all of the bills to him. I would be forced to pay out up front but if it was considered an “in-warranty” repair they would reimburse me. If they don’t cover it… I’m suing. I found out that my insurance company would pay me for the cost of a tow so I had it moved from the shop it was at to the dealership.

I asked the dealership and they have a loaner car that I can borrow (sweet!) but I can’t have it until next Thursday (bummer). I need to pick up ole girl so I called her… a few times, and asked if I could borrow her car to pick her up. She made fun of my poor manual transmission skills and relented. She wasn’t sure why I didn’t ask her in the first place. At the time, I didn’t have a real answer. Now that I’ve thought about it, I think it has something to do with the fact that when I’m stressed, I fail to think every possibility through. I’ll have to work on that one. I think VW might even pay for the rental I have now… what a piece of crap that thing is.

Oh yeah, I still feel like crap but its getting better.

Its like constipation and no matter how hard I squeeze and struggle it doesn’t want to come out. I’m sure that you too have sat on the toilet until sweat formed beads upon your brow while tyring to excrete the evil that is residing in your bowels. No matter how hard you try there is little you can do than struggle with it until the devastation is over.

Other times you must run to a bathroom because its touching cloth and there is nothing you can do to stop what is coming. The second your ass hovers over the seat the evil is unleashed with such momentum that it nearly launches you into the air. You ass still has not made contact with the seat does the feces come with such force. Every 30 minutes all day long you’ll find yourself running to shove it all out only to find that there is more. How full of crap can a person be?

So, this is how I am with writing. I’ve been in a rather dry spell of late and I have not been able to come out of my rut. I hope it changes soon.

I’ve felt like writing tomes over the past few days but I haven’t had any material for the onslaught. So, instead of waiting until something good comes to me I’ve decided to sit here adn write whatever comes to the top of my head. Again, this is all uncensored and its delivered exactly how I think it. You may not get all of the details or the logic of it all but this is the way that it is.

I think I love the girl that I’m dating but I know that I hardly know her. She defines the type of person that I always thought I would find in the first place. I know that she has a plan for her life and she is fully aware of who she is. She doesn’t need definition, she doesn’t need someone to take care of her, I think she is stronger than I am. I wonder if I am desperately searching for someone to love at times, its like I have all of this in me and I need to get it out but I haven’t been able to find a conduit for all of it. I know that I feel more strongly about her on a clear basis than I did with my ex. I think it was more emotion than logic with my ex and I think that was most of the downfall, there wasn’t a whole lot of substance behind the emotion and it led to its eventual demise. Then again, this whole thing could be me getting out there for a the first time and being afraid that I might loose it so now I’m going to hold onto it as tight as I can. I hate being alone but I love the feeling. Its such a righteous thing to be alone… its you and your thoughts and nobody can fuck with it if you shut them off. I know that I do better when I’m around people but I often think that I am designed to live alone, its the punishment for who I am. I feel that I am destined to sit alone and be a writer, not a Dean Koontz or a Steven King or churn out books faster than I rant and rave. I want to put my entire soul into the characters that I write about and make them real. I want them to be like Raskolnikov or Rourke… I want characters and stories that will endure the ages. I want people to be forced to put down whatever I write because they are unable to digest whats in front of them. The writing should be so epic that it can change the life of another… I wish I could make a memorable meaningful difference while I am here. If I don’t do this I’ll think that I will have wasted my time in some way. I should help to inspire and motivate others in ways that I cannot measure. Sure, it may sound like am full of myself at times but I’m sure as shit not full of anyone else. I am who I am and I don’t think that I’m ever going to turn away from that. I’m not going to sacrifice who I am for another person again… I can’t do it, I can’t give into them so I can give up who I am.

I’m listening to a band called Atreyu right now and I am amazed by the musical talent. This band writes all of their stuff and plays it and its damn good. I rarely buy CD’s because they are so full of filler that I feel like I am getting duped. This album only has 9 tracks but each one of them are stellar tracks. I’ve got to save my money and get back into playing music, I love it so much but I seem to shy away from it because I fear that I won’t be able to make anything of myself. I also know that if I get back into it I’ll leave almost everything else on the wayside as I pursue it. I can give everything I have to it and not worry that I can barely function at the end of the day. I guess music and writing allow me to most effectively express myself and throw everything out there in the open. Others do it in another way.

I don’t get along with the others, I don’t get along with them. I feel like I am not a part of the whole collective of this planet like I’m a stranger in a strange land. At every turn when I attempt to fit in I find out just how different I am from all of the others. I know that I look the same and sound much the same but I feel as if I don’t belong with them. They are different than me, we are different on a fundamental level and its almost as if we’ll never mix. Oil and water don’t go well together.

Its been a while since I’ve had enough material to rant about but seeing that it is the one thing I do best, its time for another edition (this one is going to be profane)

Gasoline:

I remember when I could fill the ‘85 Plymouth Voyager for $16 and put almost 28 gallons of gas in the dang beast. I remember when I could fill my Galant for $20 and put 22 gallons in the dang thing. I remember coming to England and putting $25 in my Passat to fill the gas tank. Today, to put the same amount of gas in my auto I spent $35

Exxon made a record amount of profit last year… Gas prices are as high as I’ve ever seen them and the oil companies are making record profits. Hmm… something seems to be amiss here. You would think that they would be spending more to get crude oil but it appears that we’re just being fucked at the pump. I’m not sure if the additional cost that has been passed on to us has to do with anything other than the fact that they know they can gouge us as much as they want and we can do little or nothing about it. If we stage a one day strike on the pumps all we’ll need to do is to put that much more into our auto’s the next day. If we all decide to ride public transit… when you can get public transit, we’re still giving them money in the long run. I think its high fucking time we came up with an alternative fuel source. We should tax the living fuck out of oil company profits until we can come up with something better. Lets rewrite the tax code so that we can tax end profits and not just revenue… it would make their accountants work like maniacs in a vain attempt to hide all of their earnings. Fuck them and their oil.

Women:

What the FUCK? I think they spend most of their time huffing paint and doing goofballs before they come outside to talk to men. I do my damndest to understand what their deal is but I am often aloof to what is going on. Sure, they’re still worth it but why can’t they be easy to read like guys are. If you satisfy that darwinian nechian need of men to eat, protect, and procreate we’ve got all that we really need in life. The rest of it is just there so that we can kill time when we aren’t doing one of those things. I don’t know what the hell is going on most of the time and it drives me crazy.

I think they are just here in an effort to see how high they can get our blood pressure to go. Maybe that is why men have predominantly more heart attacks than women.

Weather:

Why does it have to be crummy on the weekends but great one the weekdays?
(luckily I was off all week but what the hell is going on around here?)

Ok, here is the deal. Right now I have so much energy that I am forced to type and retype everything that I want to put down because my hands are almost shaking. I really want to go to the gym to burn off some of the excess energy but I can’t because I have a tattoo that got reworked and it needs time to finish healing before I make the skin stretch like crazy. Its only got a few more days before I can return to my normal routine. Speaking of routing, next Monday I head back to work. Its been over a month since I’ve been there and I don’t think that I miss one thing about it. I miss the people that I work with but I can see them outside of work this making work…. worthless.

Dang!

Well, my workweek is dead and done with. Next week, a new one will rise and torment me for 5 days until I can stand it no longer and run in absolute terror. There is no stopping it, there is no killing it, the only thing you can do is wait for it to die. There was something about this entire week that had me on edge. I am still trying to figure out why I am so tense when there was so little going on with it. Sure, I had a lot of little things here and there but almost everything else about it was fine.

I’m getting ready to get out of this country… this half-assed country. So many things here have the appearance of a group of people that started with really good intentions who got drunk halfway through. Either that, or they found that producing a good product for a reasonable price was hard so they make crap and sell it for tons of money.

I’ve found that I’m the type of person that really needs three beatings before I’ve got it completely figured out. This time, I’m talking about maintaining my car. Sure, I’m only halfway to the point where my warranty runs out but I’ve paid almost 5x as much on servicing as I really should just so the warranty stays in check. I did the math on it, for almost any major repair if I would have done the oil changes and other such by myself I could have paid for it in cash because I would have saved that much money along the way. Then again, the second I stop letting them do the service work the engine will fall out on the ground.

Oh, here’s something I came up with today in a bit of sarcastic rage called

It could be worse

if… you were told to do pushups after they stapled your ears to the carpet
if… you had to do squat thrusts with full leg casts
if… after you lost any argument you got a kick in the nuts
if… each time the conversation with the woman went nowhere you lost a nut
if… you were a right handed pitcher that lost his right arm in a car accident
if… you never got out of England

I could go on… but I think you now might have a better understanding of how my day has been going…

Occasionally you say it better the second time around… here it is again, but my thoughts were a little more collected.

Many people don’t realize the full impact of terrorism until it arrives at their home turf. The attacks happened at nine this morning (local time) and when I went to lunch there was still alot of speculation about what was going on and what caused it. On base, there are quite a few british nationals that work in various positions. I stopped off at Popeyes to grab some lunch and saw the cashier (a british lady) talking to another person about the days events before my turn in line. She looked morbidly afraid of what might happen next, you could see the fear in her eyes. In her mind, it might as well have been next door to her. When my turn came she stared at me like it was my fault in some way… the stare turned into a look of hopelessness and despair. In some ways, it is intrusive american policies over the past 100 years that have caused some of the turmoil in the mideast… then again, britian has financed just as many wars and overturned just as many govts in the area themselves. We are all to blame for failing to figure out how to get along. I don’t know if we can help this country let alone help ourselves but terrorism is everywhere, on my doorstep and yours.

I, for one, am not going to worry about what could happen next because it takes all the fun out of life. Terrorism doesn’t work if you aren’t afraid of resuming your life after any major event. Its a shame many people had to loose their lives or get injured but iraqis and soldiers from across the world loose their lives too, daily. Its part of the price of the war on terrorism.

I wish this country all the best and its a shame to see a terrorist attack here.