I started this blog in June and was basically playing with it. I was just repeating what read on other blogs and commenting on them. Last night I wrote an original piece of citizen journalism and it got quoted and posted all over the web. I was on a local radio station this morning. I have finally made it.
Update: I made the News!
Rep. Russ Carnahan will be speaking at a Town Hall meeting held at the Bernard Middle School 1058 Forder Rd. in Mehlville tonight at 6pm. We expect that "AstroTurf" or artificial grassroots demonstrators will try and disrupt these proceedings. That is unacceptable. Big time Washington PR firms are organizing this thuggery and we will be there to encourage civil and polite discourse on this gravely important issue.
The controversial mercenary company Blackwater may be in trouble. Their CEO Erik Prince has been accused of more nasty crimes as reported in a Nation article by the most excellent journalist Jeremy Scahill. Blackwater has tried to "rebrand" itself after all the trouble they caused by pointing weapons at American servicemen and firing their weapons at Iraqi civilians, but to no avail, a Kleenex is still a Kleenex and a company of freebooters is still anti American and a threat to anyone who stands in their way. Here is some footage of another reckless gang of hired thugs called Aegis randomly killing Iraqis. I guess they were bored. Well I bet our buddy Erik Prince isn't bored, and to quote a commentor from Huffington Post, "the Prince is about to become a Princess". I bet he goes on the lam if it looks like this will stick. Argentina likes it's war criminals. Hable espagnol?
Michel Chossudovsky speaks in this video on the War Agenda which he thinks is a part of Globalization. The wars we are involved in now have been planned for many years prior to the events of 911. We are not "truthers" and perceive no conspiracy. Conspiracy infers secrecy and covert action but it is quite obvious that there is no need for such. A hypnotized population see wars as just another blockbuster series on network TV, the ultimate reality show so to speak. I am watching this as I post this, but I have seen it before. More later.
The Defense Budget is out of Control. Of all the issues facing our country, spending money on "Defense" should not be on the top of the list. The word "Defense" is misleading in itself, because we are spending money on "Offense" not "Defense." I have heard the phrase "the best defense is a good offense". Quaint and earthy that phrase, but we are not going toe to toe with a world threatening menace with millions of troops and armed with state of the art weapons and technology. We are in fact securing resources and geo-political dominance in the region and at the same time lining the pockets of "Defense Contractors".
The first day of school is three weeks away and I have no idea what to expect from the students of UMSL. I would imagine they are like most Americans, but I hope for better. 
A shaft of sun pierces through the window firmly closed and shuttered
David Sheets asked me to be his Facebook friend. I had no idea why until I started getting his feed. He works for the Post Dispatch and writes a blog called "The Game Guy". I have never read his blog, but his feed was interesting although a bit quirky. He always wrote in third person, for example, "David Sheets feels like a hammer and everything he sees looks like nails." No kidding. At first I thought he invited me because of the blog or mutual friends. I think he invites everyone he can to promote his blog and his feed, and the Cardinals, and the Post, and his important "associations".
Time Magazine's online poll suggests Jon Stewart is the most trusted "newsman" in America. That isn't saying much. The mainstream media is getting pounded by online new sources that aren't controlled by corporations or the overclass. More and more Americans simply won't eat shovelful after shovelful of partially hydrogenated frozen concentrated bullshit like they used to.There are three fundamental constants that resonate from the founding of the Colonies to the present.
1. Working people have to fight for justice. No one gave freedom to the captives, or let women vote, or blessed workers with the right to organize. People had to die to get basic human rights.
2. Human life comes in second to business interests, especially minority and female life.
3. American politicians respond to direct pressure. If enough people make a racket they will respond. No matter how corrupt and hateful they are, their political survival comes before EVERYTHING!
I was talking to my evangelical Republican online friends this morning. They are such a nice couple. She works for the State of California DMV and he is an military airline pilot. They are throwing a big party today because their eldest son, first born and sitting at the right hand of the father so to speak leaves for Marines this week. I cautiously asked him if he was concerned about the timing of the enlistment considering the escalation of Marine operations in Afghanistan. His reply was unexpected. He said last year more Marines died on motorcycles than in combat. I said that's reassuring. But it isn't to me.3So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites and to carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them. 4Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel.” 5So twelve thousand men armed for battle, a thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the clans of Israel. 6Moses sent them into battle, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling.
7They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. 8Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. 9The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. 10They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. 11They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, 12and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.a
13Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. 14Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.
15“Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. 16“They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. 17Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
I could go on and on but let me finish with some verses attributed to Jesus himself.
I love movies! I have a top 200 list of my own. Cool Hand Luke was my favorite movie for many years but it was recently replaced by Children of Men. Some people don't like this movie and it seems to fall into the meme "you either love it or hate it". But that is bullshit. Bullshit. Children of Men is a mirror, if you don't like it you don't like what you see in the mirror. You don't want to accept the fact that you, yes you are killing our species. Many people who are Christians or Republican don't like this movie. I have an online friend who said "worst movie ever". He is both a Republican and a Christian. I wondered for some time why this movie is so repugnent to "those people" and I think I know why. The main premise of the movie is that humanity becomes infertile. That premise, in a roundabout way, denies the existance of God, a future and the supreme impotance of "me". Me. The most important and signifigant moment in history is "me". Without "me" there is nothing. "Me" has no future unless "me" reproduces so by taking that away "me" becomes unimportant, trivial, temporary, meaningless. This is why religion is so popular because it makes "me" immortal. How could something as important as "me" be finite? Children of Men tells us we can live on as a species if we are willing to sacrifice "me".
The staff of UMSL Blog agree that our two favorite words are Peace and Justice. In this most excellent comic strip you see how the violence of the past promotes the injustice of the present.
One of the main purposes of this blog is to expose the students of UMSL to information they may not be normally experience. The mainstream media and it's partner ship with the Pentagon have produced a story line in which Osama bin Laden recruited Saudi and Egyptian students to fly American airliners into the World Trade Center,the Pentagon and the White House.
