Last updated 6-28-2022
Soulless politicians, they sell
Future of mankind, they'll burn in hell!
Dubya, Condit, Helms, Milosevic, Jiang, Putin, Georgievski, Sharon, Arafat... take note. And those of you not listed here by name shouldn't assume you're necessarily off the hook. ;) Well, Condit probably doesn't belong in quite the same category as the rest; while he's exhibited stupidity, and possibly negligence or worse with regards to the investigation of Chandra Levy's disappearance, this isn't impacting the lives of thousands, millions, maybe billions.
As much as I support the right of the Chechens/ethnic Albanians/Irish/Palestinians/et al. to control their own destinies, I'm getting weary of all this war. (And I'm not even involved...) We seem to be heading into a dark future (not so different from our dark past) in which disputes can only be settled by violence and terrorism. It should be obvious to everyone by now that violence only begets more violence. The Chechen mujahideen hurt the Russian troops weekly, but the Russians take it out on the Chechen populace. The NLA has killed several Macedonian policemen and soldiers, and outraged Macedonians have destroyed ethnic Albanians' homes and storefronts. Israel and the Palestinians keep egging each other on. Sanity is not resident in any of these actions. The issues these groups have with each other could have been solved by warfare 500 years ago. A truly enlightened, civilized people can find a better way. I found an interesting piece on the conflict between Islam and terrorism (unfortunately, the link is dead now) that will no doubt be refuted by many of the Middle East's religious leaders, but a few of them have been arguing the same message.
With every passing month, I find myself more and more disgusted with and outraged by the Taliban. Their intolerant and fanatical interpretation of Islam is detrimental to the religion and unfortunately reinforces the stereotype of Muslims as crazed zealots ready to kill faithless infidels, and willing to die in the realization of this goal. Some of the terrorist organizations working in the Palestinian territories are perpetuating this myth as well, and it's a shame...
Israel's policy of assassinating some of these Palestinians is perhaps even more shameful. And it is a policy of assassination, regardless of whether or not the Israeli government refers to it thusly. Sharon wants to be judge, jury, and executioner with regard to the terrorists operating from the Palestinian territories, but there's a price he has to pay in order to do so; does he want to be thought of a century from now alongside such other 'nationalists' as Fujimori, Milosevic (who is now going to face genocide charges as well, for the war in Bosnia, and deservedly so), and Pinochet? They, too, insisted that their actions were in the best interests of their peoples and their states. They, too, were knowingly responsible for the unnecessary deaths of innocents. Which is not to absolve Arafat of guilt; each party consistently blames the other entirely for the lamentable chain of events, but just as neither can end the situation alone, neither is solely responsible for it, either.
Are there problems with the UN's World Racism Conference? Yes. Should the U.S. boycott it? No. Just one more example of America acting like the spoiled brat who takes his toys away and sulks when everyone else won't play by his rules. Bush and everyone else must realize that the U.S. is a member of the world community and not its chairman, or bailiff.
I think that's going to be my last rant against the stupidities of governments and armies for a while. They're obviously not changing anyone's policies, and they're not really making me feel any better, either. ;) All I am saying is give peace a chance...
Plenty of other stuff to rant about, anyway. Like misspelled signs. Jon and I ran into several more down at Seaside Heights, including a shop that does tattoos and sells 'airburshed' shirts. Are they stupid?!? Maybe I'm pickier than the average slob, but I wouldn't get a tattoo from a place that can't make sure its own sign gets printed up properly! "Nice tat, Anty..."
The Web site's been getting a lot of hits lately, which is rather surprising, since none of you schmucks are signing the guestbook or E-mailing me with comments. OK, that's not literally true, but I probably get one guestbook entry per every 100 visits, and even less E-mails. You can't all be illiterate... Or can you? ;) Or maybe you're just afraid of misspelling something. Heh-heh. - A
Last updated 6-28-2022
