http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-letter20sep20,1,226790.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true

The sad side of the Iraq war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060924/ap_on_re_eu/britain_afghanistan

Also the war in Afghanistan is still not over. Interesting overview of communist Afghanistan:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11717105/robert_f_kennedy_jr__will_the_next_election_be_hacked RFK Jr’s Rolling Stone article on election tampering. In it a former Diebold employee talks about how in two incredibly Democratic counties they applied a patch during the 2002 election, which supposedly fixed a clock problem. Apparently there is some circumstantial evidence that it actually was installed to throw the election to the Republican candidate. Oh well, no way to tell for sure since there is no paper trail with these electronic voting machines.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060921/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_civilian_deaths

Wow, that sucks.

Also:

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM7ZF8LURE_index_0.html

http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa01.html

I haven’t had time to verify these from another source, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I’d be interested to read an analysis of economics correlated with empires. For example, during the Age of Mercantilism England became the dominant impirial force, and I think that there exists a strong argument for calling the US the dominant impirial force during this age of Democratic Capitalism. It’d be interesting to see if you could look at all empires through history and define their reign in terms of the dominant political-economic system.

http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa01.html

I haven’t had time to verify these from another source, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I’d be interested to read an analysis of economics correlated with empires. For example, during the Age of Mercantilism England became the dominant impirial force, and I think that there exists a strong argument for calling the US the dominant impirial force during this age of Democratic Capitalism. It’d be interesting to see if you could look at all empires through history and define their reign in terms of the dominant political-economic system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/us/20park.html?ex=1316404800&en=d2841d33d7ba0c57&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Problems with nuclear power, and why it can really suck.

Of course, there are lots of things that can cause environmental damage. Famous to Bloomington, IN are PCBs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlori

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/18/gardiner-iran/

I wonder where the troops would come from.

Also:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/featherstone/featherstone62.html

I like the pope, the pope smokes dope.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060914-7751.html

Isn’t a patriot someone who is willing to die for their freedom? When did patriot start to mean so afraid that they’ll give their government any power to feel a little bit safer? I’d rather be afraid of terrorists than my own government. I’ve never met a terrorist, but I’ve broken the law before. I’ve never seen a car bomb, but I’ve been inside a police car. I hope they hear me when I drop the f-bomb all over their wiretaps.

http://englishrussia.com/?p=293

Chernobyl. Nature takes her revenge.

Marla’s Slippery and Sexy:
https://www.slashtmp.iu.edu/public/download.php?FILE=cwestnea/41583P5aJjO

Pat’s drum solo recording got messed up, so me and Ryan just fucked with it for a while. The actual drum solo will be less insane and more awesome. Appart for that and a few tweaks (Saxes are a little loud in the verses and the bass drum is a little low), this is the final mix. Exciting!

http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.htm

A huge amount of data on Iraq, found via Dick Lugar’s website.

So I was at Dick Lugar’s website because I wanted to find out what his position on the military tribunals is. It’s interesting that Lugar has been working with Obama on both energy independence and the reduction of unsecured weapons in former Soviet countries. Indiana’s an odd state in that we are strongly Republican, yet we have a tradition of moderate senators. Also a surprisingly internationally focused group of Congressmen. Lugar is chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, Bayh is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on International Trade and Finance, and Lee Hamilton, the former Rep., was chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, in addition to being the vice-chair on the 9/11 commission. Also Dan Burton is a senior member of the House International Relations Committee, in which Burton currently serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, and as Vice-Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060906/pl_nm/eu_usa_poll_dc

The part I found most interesting was that the French were slightly more likely to support an invasion of Iraq than America. They have the stereotype, I think, of being pussies, but perhaps that is not deserved. Actually after the way they intervened in the Ivorian Civil War, I thought it was pretty clear that they would attempt to kick ass if they thought the target deserved it. They were right about Iraq in the end, but maybe they were against it because of commerce? Maybe not?

I’ve been listening to this band called Dungen. They are Swedish and they remind me a lot of early Pink Floyd, which is my favorite Pink Floyd. Naturally I like Dungen.

I am so angry
    at myself I
    am in pain

I hung myself
    in my dream I

Party in the studio, got some rough mixes done. Well, I improved the mix of Sassy and did a mix of Big Mountain. I also recorded a solo for Big Mountain. I think it sounds pretty good. Here are the links to listen to:

Big Mountain

Sassy>

Whee! Sleep…