Good review of the NPT and Iran’s specific responsibilities under it. Discusses the hypocrisy of Israels nuclear criticisms and Obama’s overreaching statements with regard to Iran’s domestic nuclear program.

Intro

With the Iranian election results disputed (a dispute that the incumbent will likely win), I think it’s important to revisit the American conventional wisdom about the Iran and its president. Suspicious sources and a lazy media echo-chamber have instilled many misconceptions into the American public’s mind about Iran. This is worrisome because such misconceptions leave the American public vulnerable for the type of hawkish manipulations that led us into the Iraq war, and so for that reason US attitudes towards Iran need reexamining.

Nuclear Weapons Program

Top among the controversies surrounding Iran is the issue of their nuclear development. One goal of Iran’s energy policy is to use nuclear energy for domestic energy needs so that more of Iran’s oil supplies can be diverted for foreign sale.

Google trends is an awesome tool. You can find out how much certain keywords are searched for over time.

The part of me that loves poop jokes decided to search naughty terms and analyze what regions are interested in various fetishes.

Czech Republic is far and away the worlds leader in deviant search results. They’re number one for bbw, anal fisting, fisting, bdsm, bondage, interracial porn, dildo, orgy.

What the fuck is goin on in the Czech Republic right?

I decided to look at trends for shock value sex sites memes like Meat Spin, hai2u, cakefarts, tubgirl, lemon party.

You know what scares me most? Eugenics.

It is human nature to be comforted by our allegiances. There’s a certain exhilaration one gets from being on a team. The bond of comradery and love is something we as people value deeply, and such unity is often found in things like tribalism, nationalism, and, most troublingly, ethnic supremacy.

The dagger is when pride’s isolating effect divides people against each other. One can look to many instances where this type of behavior has occurred, but history’s most glaring and egregious example, where the dream of unity provoked terrible violations against humanity, is, needless to say, Hitler’s push for an Arian master race.

Sarah Palin’s husband, Todd Palin, after his wife’s successful mayoral bid in 1996

When I was a child and I first considered the that problems people faced, I concluded as if it were obvious, “Why can’t we just help each other out?” My life since has been spent trying to reconcile my youthful idealism with the shortcomings of our world.

2004 arrived after a long four years of our current administration and my will to help solve problems was frustrated. I was eager to find someone on the national stage who I could put my trust in–someone who the political system had not compromised–someone who could relieve my cynicism and revive my faith in the good tomorrow might bring.

John Kerry wasn’t that person. But a young keynote speaker at Kerry’s nominating convention showed promise. My mother got me his book: “Dreams From My Father” by Barack Obama. I read it cover to cover. This was the guy.

If the question is how many red grapes can I fit in my mouth at once, the answer is twelve-give or take. If the question is do I think I look pretty in a thong, the answer is an emphatic yes. If the question is which presidential candidate is the most solid, the answer is Obama.

Obama won’t try to be our king. He will try to be our peer. That’s why he’s got my endorsement.

Rick James once said “Pussy’s pussy.” I include this maxim, not because it has any relevance this essay, but rather because it illustrates the fatalistically induced nihilism that so often befalls my concluding sentiments when I consider the way of the world.

Gandhi and Martin Luther King demonstrated the power of non-violence in combating imperialistic exploitation. They showed how empathy from the ruling political class of people could lead to change in an unjust policy. The tactic is still powerful, and, in fact, it may be the most powerful means of radical change left in the world.

However, as loudly as Gandhi and King’s success has rung for those who support equality, it has been heard even more keenly by those dastardly purveyors of exploitation. To the particularly craven observer (and I admit that I fall reluctantly into this category), it becomes evident that non-violent resistance was successful only because the goodly people that unknowingly supported the far away tyranny of their government, woke up from their ignorance and took pity on the wrongfully treated. It seems a fairly simple intellectual leap for any sharp Machiavellian to consider that their machinations would be better protected if more time was given to branding the exploited as less morally righteous.

The Women’s Rights Essay I Spent Nine Mostly Painful Hours Forcing Out

Women: Some just say “Sure, they’re those things with vaginas in ‘em.” others understand the feminine identity as an endless majesty of intellect, strength, and fashion sense. All throughout history, differences between males and females have shaped the way society looks at the shapelier sex, and the unfortunately common patriarchal societies have pushed the female potential-sometimes all too literally-to the back burner. However, with the 19th and 20th centuries came the blossoming of social, technological, and medical advances. These changes became the mother’s milk of progress, and birthed the modern Women’s Rights Movement. In this essay we will expose ourselves to the legal background of one of the most titillating issues surrounding women’s movement in America: Reproductive Rights.

The post World War 2 era was a turbulent time for America. Increasingly tenacious currents of a liberalizing society began to stand up to the status quo’s sentimentalized notions of the way things used to be and challenged their legal manifestations.

So, did you hear they found a cure for cancer? This isn’t the start of a bad joke. This is actually real. But if it were the start of a bad joke, I’d say: “Yeah, you can cure it by having sex with a virgin who has cancer.” ZING!

Anyhow, Americorps is going pretty well. There are certainly bumps in the road, but the ride is smooth enough to manage. My team, but for a few exceptionally awesome people, is very definitely the Melvin team with the Melvin team leader for whom I harbor some underlying static.

You see, because she sleeps in the same room with the other girls and therefore spends almost all her time with them, she gets a disproportionate amount of feedback from them about various things one of which is my juvenile sense of humor. I guess I made an abortion joke too many and now I have to write a five page essay on Women’s Rights. Luckily I’ve found a way to subtly carry out retribution by deliberately working it in the shower before her turn. Heh heh

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1952393,00.html

http://atheistgoat.ytmnd.com/

As the well known conundrum goes “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” It’s a question of the root causes of things—it’s the difference between the causes and the conclusion. And it’s the same conundrum that too often people ignore when examining racial improprieties in America. So the question is “Which came first:  high crime rates among minorities, or the suspicion of higher crime rates amongst minorities?” Let’s look at an example:

Say, in a hypothetical community there are a certain percentage of white people who are criminals. In the same community, there’s the same percentage of black people who are criminals. This community is policed by the same prejudiced cop.

If that police officer suspects that a higher rate of black people are criminals, he’ll looks harder to find criminals in people of that racial group, and therefore he’ll catches more criminals that are black than white.

Today is the 6010th anniversary of the day God created the universe. You see on the 23rd of October 4004 BC god created the world where dinosaurs and people coexisted.  To celebrate this day I invite you all to kick a jew in the shins  and harass your local science teacher.

Written Assignment # 2

In January 2003, President Bush met with a group of people including three Iraqi Americans to discuss the likely political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein (Avard). In the course of this meeting it became apparent that Bush had no understanding of the differences between the three major demographic divisions within Iraq: the Sunni, the Shiite, and the Kurds (Galbraith). Two months later America was in a war with Iraq. The shoddy conduct in which Bush led the country into, and waged the war with Iraq (post-invasion Iraqi unemployment of 60% (Wright, Knickmeyer), disbanding of the Iraqi National Army (Slocombe), etc.) is just one illustration of why it is preferable to have a president who is analytical and deliberative but less politically accomplished than one like Bush, who acts, however effectively, on gut reactions.

Ron Suskind, in his October 17, 2004 article Without a Doubt, presents a very compelling image of Bush’s leadership style. Suskind lays out numerous instances where Bush has demonstrated a pronounced lack of intellectual curiosity, and ignorance of issues pertinent to the office of the presidency. But Suskind argues that, despite Bush’s intellectual shortcomings, he is a leader the American people find very easy to follow and that it is because he does not present himself as equivocal on issues that the American people have found him to be so palatable.

It’s always nice when politicians have military experience. And John McCain should be applauded for his–though there is some controversy over whether or not he was a little too cooperative with the guards in the Vietnamese prison camp. But, more to the point, politicians should not be judged solely on whether or not they’ve had military experience. What their positions are on issues and who influences them matter a great deal more and despite media portrayal, John McCain totally blows on the issues.

John McCain wants to outlaw abortions, he doesn’t want the minimum wage increase, he’s a staunch supporter of the death penalty, John McCain wants the Ten Commandments on display at public schools, He’ll only fund the abstinence only sex education that study after study has shown doesn’t work, He wants to privatize social security, He’s supports redirecting public education funds to voucher programs, His support for sound fiscal policy has taken a back seat to securing tax cuts for the rich, He supports the Patriot Act provisions that abridge constitutional civil liberties, he voted no on reducing oil usage by 40% by 2025, and he supports allowing religious facilities run state welfare programs.

“Stare at a point in the picture for about 30 seconds, then move your mouse over the picture. You will see the colors until your eye moves.”

Now really, How can Mel Gibson be upset with Jon Mann?

First, go here: http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php

Click on “imagining the ten dimensions” and watch the video. See—you gotta’ do a little homework to get this post.

Now you can mind dance with me. We dance the tango. I’ll lead.

I’m a big fan of theoretical science. But—and I think the evolution skeptics will agree with me here—the string theory, or M theory (the basis for the flash movie) is just theory. And in fact, I have no qualms with the characteristics of most of the dimensions outlined in the flash presentation or really the notion that there are more than four dimentions. It may be a little tought to conceptualize, but I don’t take much objection.

Recently, I read an article that discussed a statement made by the widow of the recently deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who said that her husbands death was a result of Osama Bin Laden trading Zarqawis whereabouts to the US for prolonged amnesty. I thought: “Well that’s interesting, but I feel that Zarqawi’s widow’s credibility is dubious.”
This evening; however, I read an article in the New York Times. It reported that the CIA has closed down its decade-old division dedicated to finding Osama Bin Laden, which seems to support the claims of Zarqawi’s widow.
The CIA has admittedly worked with Bin Laden while he was leading the Mujahadeen to defeat the Soviets when there was communist occupation of Afghanistan and there have been some

A while back, my high school hosted Law Day. Law Day is a day where seniors spend 3 hours rotating between various guest speakers whose occupations deal with the law in some way.

My favorite speaker was a professor at George Mason University by the name of Hawke. He specialized in the foundations of America especially the constitution and its underpinnings.

It was all very enthralling. He talked about the relationship between political culture and our rights—how when rights are eroded it is difficult to maintain them because it changes the political culture on which rights are protected.

All that is very interesting to me, but what struck me as most interesting about his presentation was a comment he made about the change communication has had on economics dispersion. He said that the huge difference between now and a century ago is not the fact that there are haves and have-nots—they have always been. It was rather the fact that now, because of media prevalence, the have-nots see exactly what the haves have. It is shoved in front of their face—marketed to them in such a way that what becomes important are not characteristics integral to the person, but instead the products presented for consumption.

I’d like to emphasize before I get into this how much I hate white people.

That being said, I think it’s important to understand that people aren’t inherently bad. Criminals aren’t born criminals etc..

The way I, and a large portion of the psychological community, see it, people are products of two things commonly referred to as nature and nurture. There’s a certain degree to which genetics (nature) plays a role in determining personality and mannerisms, but I think there is a larger degree to which a person’s environment (nurture), affects development.

Nurture is kind of a misnomer, because our environment has, for the most part, been far from nurturing. However, the environment, as it is, has been most callous, in my opinion, to the minorities of the world. It’s a statistical fact that minorities, at least in America, succeed at a lesser rate. This cannot be, and is not, an inherent affliction of people with certain skin colors. It’s a social complex that is a big part of our (ahem) nurturing.

I don’t like executive orders in principal because it sets an easily abused exercise of power—one man being able to order an executive branch agency to do whatever he wants. What’s worse is it subverts legislative action in a way that consolidates power into the hands of one man, which is very disconcerting. We don’t live in a monarchy. We aren’t electing dictators. We’re electing presidents who are governed by laws. They’re subject to checks and balances.

On the other hand Lincoln was jolly righteous in freeing the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation and so was Truman when he desegregated the military. It certainly provides a way to take actions quickly which is what needed to be done in Lincoln’s and Truman’s positions.

Think of a billion oranges, or of a trillion dollar bills. It is tough even to conceive or to fully appreciate of quantities so large. Humans find it difficult to understand such enormous sums simply because most of us lack the terms to comprehend them. But try. Try to perhaps imagine something besides oranges or currency. Try to imagine humans….

In the past year alone, three million humans died of a disease worldwide (Holbrooke). This disease is known as AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (“Automatic, systematic.”). Every day, 12,000 new people get infected, and, perhaps worse, 90% of them will not even know that they have been infected until 2013 (Holbrooke). Just in America, an estimated 1,039,000 to 1,185,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 24-27% of them undiagnosed and unaware of their HIV infection (“Basic Statistics”). This can safely be called a pandemic of the worst variety, and there is no cure.

As I’ve grown up in America, I’ve noticed that there is a minimal, but present, religious undertone in public institutions. I, as one who considers his religion to be atheism, resent these undertones in principle, but feel that these are trivial aberrations from secularism. I don’t think religion has infiltrated public institutions to such a degree that it requires legal or revolutionary action. However, I am not the slightest bit averse to undercutting the defenses of publicly established religion with my pen.

Ms. Morgan Linski in her December 9th article in the Oakton Outlook argues that secular activists—or, as Linski calls them, “radical leftists”—are somehow deviating from the constitution by “twisting the meaning of the first amendment.” My goal in this article is to debunk her assessment in what I hope is a gentlemanly manner.

Jake Gyllanhaal and Heath Ledgers new movie Brokeback Mountain is a tale of forbidden love with a new spin. But I think this is just a Hollywood remake of a movie shown at a film festival in a quite little mountain town. All thats missing is the pudding.

My mother always told me that two wrongs don’t make a right. I think that’s true unless of course your older brother won’t share the remote and you leave a piece of freshly harvested shit under his pillow. Most other times though, I don’t think much is accomplished by exacting vengeance. I wish the same were true for the rest of the country. According to a May 2005 gallop poll, 74% of Americans favor the death penalty, and it is legal in 38 out of 50 states.

There was a period in American History, between 1967 and 1973, where the death penalty was ruled cruel and unusual by the Supreme Court. You can imagine how irate Texas must have been, and sure enough, the decision was reversed. Since then, America has sentenced and executed 1,000 people, and since then, 122 people who were sentenced to death have been exonerated, sometimes minutes before they were scheduled to be executed. Clearly, our criminal justice system is imperfect.

I have, for nearly two years now, found employment at Chicken Out Rotisserie. It’s a high school service job like most others. It has its lovable Hispanic dishwashers, bothersome customers, and pain in the ass work. But what makes my job unique are the homosexuals.

Both of my managers are the fanciest of fancy-pants. For some reason Chicken Out attracts a lot of pufters and not just employees. I’ve noticed the homosexual community represents a considerable portion of our customers.

Needless to say, my work environment is really gay. My managers, Max and Kevin, do prance around the store, but they are not sexually attracted to one another; which I think is a good thing-not because they’re gay, but because romance and work don’t seem to mix well. In fact they both are in relationships. This provides for some “non-traditional” greetings in front of the customers. I get a kick out of seeing the eyes of past generations averted when my managers are conspicuously making out with their respective gentleman friends.

As a man, I am sometimes given to thinking purely in the interests of my genitals. It is an inherent affliction that is sometimes friend and sometimes foe. However, when such interests are impeded, I may go to great lengths to see them prevail.

I am, to say the least, not a devout Christian, nor am I any variety of Christian. But that fact does not extend prejudices upon my fancies. I am often times intrigued by the gentile vixen. However, any advances I might choose to take could conceivably be thwarted by the widely held Christian dogma that claims that premarital relations are sinful.

I have often found that when Christianity and logic are at odds, there can be some reconciliation through interpretation. Because I found abstention to be illogical, I sought out the passages of the bible that are cited when justifying the Christian position on premaritals hoping to find room for interpretation. To my, and my lesser compadre’s, delight I found much room for interpretation.

Fall has fallen
And Summer has set
Winter has come
Much to my regret.

Now in this season
I sit at my station
With cold, clammy hands comes

Mark Twain said Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it. I love America. America is a fantastically wonderful idea. America is a place where that idea is made tangible every time we speak freely and live securely. I love my country. I love America. But when my government tells me that bombing another country is how we make the world safe for democracy, I’ve cannot sit idly by.

No one disputes the fact that there are those who wish to do America harm. But is the best way to prevent America from that harm actually to humiliate an entire region and to pepper a country with bombs-bombs whose blasts destroy indiscriminately? I don’t think so.

Let us say for a moment that you’re a male Iraqi teenager living in Baghdad. You’re life has its ups and downs. Sometimes you get to play a game like soccer only you ride horses and score with a dead goat. You have some laughs-impress the ladies. You don’t really care about global politics. Then, all of a sudden, the place where you live gets bombed-your parents are killed and then written off by the aggressors as “collateral damage”. Your environment shifts pretty quickly. Now there are scores of people shouting from the rooftops that America did this to you-that they did this to you because they hate your god-because they hate everything you stand for.

They say you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. If this is true, and I believe it to be so, then the contents of this essay will likely leave me with very few flies indeed. But quite frankly flies aren’t something I particularly desire.

My policy has generally been not to publicly breach the topic of religion unless it is first breached by another. Throughout my daily life religion has been a very present undertone. Therefore my mind is clear of any guilt from discussing the subject. So now I’m writing this.

I, as some might know, am an atheist, and a proud one at that. I’ve been an atheist since fourth grade. Growing up in an America that not only didn’t share my views but actively sought to change them as if they were some disease that needed to be remedied was challenging. I do not say this to evoke sympathy, but rather to help those, who might be inclined to get upset, understand where I’m coming from.

Still being in my youth, I feel that I have a certain degree of license when it comes to dicketry and I feel most comfortable being petulant and immature at my High School. So, every now and again, I lapse into conduct that society may deem juvenile. One such occasion took place in my German class this very day.

To fully understand the ins and outs of this tale, I should learn ya’ a little background regarding that German class. My teacher, considerate of ole factory aggravation as she is, purchased a spray bottle of Fabreeze to eliminate the odor that always seems to haunt that room. Some of the students in that class, myself included, have taken to spraying each other with the Fabreeze bottle. So, there’s always been a bit of a sore spot when it comes to that bottle.