US civil war

Civil War in four minutes. You can see the Southern states start shrinking after 1863. On July 4, Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address, which reframed the war as the notion that the United States was founded on the proposition of liberty for all men.

There's also the thrilling Sherman's March to the Sea, which burned all of Georgia until the final battle at Savannah. The Confederate States, already split in two, were then split in three. Meanwhile, the casualties increased constantly.

oil price goes to $87, maybe $90 soon?

It's about time! I've been waiting for gas price to go up to $4.00.

The local price of soda, the surest measure of the effect of oil price, rose imperceptibly. Soon, we'll be paying $2.00 for a 20-oz high-fructose corn syrup coke, rather cheap for such a sweet and subsidized drink.

Nate sent me an interesting discussion on the interview with Naomi Klein on the Shock Doctrine, used to try to impose a radical economic change. In this case, it was Milton Friedman who wanted to turn everything into a free market, such as school, health care, postal service, national park, museums, historical places, and more.

But it wasn't successful here.

So in 2003, when the US went into Iraq alone, it had the freedom to remake a country using the principles of free market system, which it wouldn't have been able to do in Afghanistan with France and Germany.

Donald Rumsfeld, a mentee of Friedman, privatized not only everything that Friedman believed should be privatized, but went one step further, privatizing the military.

Which is why Iraq trying to limit Blackwater's role is so interesting. Why should there be a company where people are paid for profits to protect US convoys and troops? Is our government so defeatist that it must contract out its war, so dependent on using money because it doesn't have enough troops? And now Maliki is saying that the US should hire a new company other than Blackwater to protect its soldiers.

What else would a private company, bent only on profit, do in a country where it is sworn to protect the US military?

Why else would Rumsfeld have entered a war where US military numbered fewer than could maintain the peace?

Why else would Rumsfeld dismiss France and Germany as part of the old Europe? And then after invading Iraq, refused them from trying to help keep the peace. It is because he doesn't the public system of France and Germany, that of a socialized health care system, to infect and ruin the implementation of a truly capitalist society, with a laissez-faire government.

What bitter anarchy, what a rebellion, how mighty proud the human heart that now resist these evil men!

great president or the greatest president?

George W. Bush ignored Cindy Sheehan, who is leaving the movement that ignobly leaves unadvanced her agenda, which had been to end the war. Lincoln would say on this occasion: "The world will very much note and long remember what we did there. It is here on this desecrated ground that we highly resolve that these dead have died in vain. It is rightly to disregard the men and women that have died there, that we dishonor their grass. Now we are left to note that this government of the plutocrats, by the plutocrats, for the plutocrats has been rendered rigor mortis."

By the way, I turned 23 today. ¡Feliz cumpleaños a mí!

Maps of War

5,000 years in 90 seconds covering everything you need to know about the empires that rose and fell in the Middle East.

A minute and half of your time.

al-Zarqawi has been killed

The leader of the terrorist movement in Iraq has been killed! Unlike Usama bin Ladin, who simply condemns Europe and America as infidels on video after disappearing in Pakistan, al-Zarqawi was considered the real leader that started all these bloody attacks in Iraq, as well as beheaded American hostages himself.

Although a happy thing, it is not a cause of jubilation yet. He may be regarded as a martyr. Others may take his place. Bombings may worsen. If, however, there were tensions that he kept under control, then the struggle for power may splinter the terrorists just enough to make things more "manageable."

And manageable sounds like a callous word in war. What is manageable when one life is lost compared to 20 in a day?

jon stewart

I loved Jon Stewart's performance on the Oscars. He was nervous at first, but settled down into being his charming self. I am probably more partial to him, so even if other people didn't like his performance, I believe that his performance was truly well done, especially in an era when no one can stop themselves from expressing their opinions on worldly affairs. Terrorism and war will always be on everyone's mind. Anybody that was expecting him to be too political or believing him to be incompatible for the role was wrong. He poked fun at everyone. At least he was a thinker.

A great moment of his was when he told the famous stars that people are saying Hollywood is out of touch with mainstream America, admitting that he had no joke. To which George Clooney replied that Hollywood has always been out of touch when it covered pressing issues of racism and wars. Still, I'm not sure how much I agree with Clooney's attempt to appropriate history for his own gains. Indeed, I am not aware of what Hollywood has accomplished.

Stewart light-heartedly said that after the movies covered those pressing issues, "none of those issues were ever a problem again." Were that it was true!

I'm surprised that "It's tough out here for a pimp" won the Best Original Song category. It doesn't reflect on black people very highly. Then again, maybe none of the other songs were considered meaningful or original.

(From what I'm reading on other blogs, there is a lot of controversy regarding that Jon Stewart, if you can believe it, was not political enough. They must have wanted him to bash Bush on national television. I for the most part agree that Hollywood takes itself too seriously if no one understands Stewart's penchant for irony.)

There's also a complaint that Brokeback Mountain did not win the Oscar for Best Picture. I don't think winning it is that important, or would have been indicative of progressiveness. Besides, the movie would have been better with gay actors, a philosophy I've just realized, because having straight actors play this movie is like having white actors playing black in a minstrel show.

President Bush: "Fifty-three percent (53%) of Americans believe it is somewhat or very likely that the US will be at war with Iran during the next year."

It had to happen. This has made me wonder whether Murtha has really gone to Vietnam at all. Murtha: "Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), the former Marine who is an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, has become the latest Democrat to have his Vietnam War decorations questioned."

politics turning around?

Bush, McCain, and Banning Torture: They agree. It seems like President Bush is now recognizing the needs for changes in his approach to the media. His admission of error combined with his emphasis on the justness of the Iraq War makes him more admirable.

I'll make a bet: The Republicans will maintain its majority in 2006 and 2008. I reserve the rights to adjust my prediction only in October.

Parliamentary Vote: I'm hopeful that the votes will succeed in stabilizing Iraq, as well as the Middle East.

How wonderfully gutsy

What the House Republicans did, that is. Never been seen before. Remember, the vote for immediate withdrawal was designed to fail. With a majority of Republicans in Congress, even if Democrats voted yes, the resolution would have failed.

Fortunately, all but three voted no. Thank you Barbara Lee. You were the special one who voted no against the war alone, but now even you realize that immediate withdrawal doesn't make sense, and that this is all designed to fail.

War View

We should be calling for Rumsfeld's resignation. I understand that people want the troops to return home, but we cannot leave Iraq more broken than it was before we left. We cannot leave Iraq without the infrastructure of electricity, water, education, and a government.

Of course, it's unlike that Rumsfeld will ever resign or be fired. It's also unlikely that Bush could ever find a more loyal and incompetent manager of the rebuilding effort. So if it can't be done correctly, then I'll agree with bringing the troops home as soon as possible.

As I understand it, the Sunnis are the most uncooperative group. Trying to get the Shiite to police them would result in a bloodshed and civil war. Having them police themselves would likely close them off from the rest of the government. Sending a message to the Iraqis that we are getting impatient will only embolden the insurgency. Though I cannot see another way to get out.

It's possible that the anti-war coalition's idealistic belief that "after we leave, the 5,000-year-old civilization since the time of Babylon will re-assert itself" is an idea we should seriously consider. Then again, the time between that reassertion and our departure must not be a power vacuum.

EDIT: I shouldn't say "correctly," I should say "the best that could be done to rebuild a country that is ready to turn against you, the best that could be done without aimless quagmire and denials."

O'Reilly Blasted for Coit Tower Comments

I saw this on Kron4 News last night already.

While I appreciate knowing about Bill O'Reilly's unhinged comment hollering in anger over San Francisco's vote to "encourage schools to discourage military recruiters off the campus," somehow, I don't think O'Reilly should be given more attention than is necessary. Then again, the only way to get ratings is to advocate inflammatory positions. He's certainly getting that.

My opinions on San Francisco's vote is mute. The vote doesn't specifically ban recruiters, only make it harder for them. I wish that there was a specific reason for it.

I don't think "not supporting the war" is a good reason. If it was about getting rid of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy and letting gays and lesbians serve in the war, then I would support that. The war is something you're a part of, no matter how much you want to secede from the United States. Trying to get rid of recuiters, just as not letting USS Iowa dock in San Francisco, doesn't help the situation. At all.

To me, it's dishonorable.

Then again, I know that San Francisco and Berkeley are two cities on the West Coast too famous for the anti-war movement of the 1970's. A little quirk now and then is to be expected, especially since such a move would never find traction anywhere else, when you have people screaming red-faced at you, "You Hell-Bound, Weed-smoking, Drug-popping, Hippie-living, Bible-burning, French-loving, Terrorist-aiding, Canada-moving, Flag-hating, Un-american Traitors!"

Solemn Veterans' Day

To honor those yet alive, while the other remember the dead. Some of these soldiers were those who joined the war because they had an belief that they should earn the freedom that their forefathers had given them. For that, they have earned more than we could hope to reimburse. What little we can give, however, should be a life of august comfort, not of abject poverty by slowly eroding benefits. The words that I have spoken will be joined with silence that cannot be seen through this intangible symbols on the page to honor those soldiers of the World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, and all the other military engagements in between, in Kosovo, Somalia, and Yemen.

Then again, I might be wrong, because even Fox News believes that Alito would merely support Bush's stance on terror war, side with the federal government against the state and the individual, and expansion of government's power itself.

More on Folsom Street Fair & visit to SF

Huge Anti-War Protest happened yesterday. I didn't go, because I was meeting with a friend to join the San Francisco SOMA (South of Market) Gay 1970s tour with interpreters, which was great.

How fulsome. I learned about the Powerhouse, the Hamburger Mary's, and many other sex clubs and bathhouses that existed pre-AIDS.

Apparently, people were having anal sex on Ringold Street, and engaging in "golden shower" watersports in Dore Alley, at 2 am in the morning.

Today was the Folsom Street Fair, which you might have seen in a picture I took below, where people actually volunteered to lie stomach-down being spanked on a raised plank with a circle of gawking people watching. It was only for a few minutes, but enough to get the two cheeks pink.

We just walked around and saw many people, not only gay men, bears, leathers or S&M, but also some straight couples out for a good time. Maybe with all the fantasies straight people have about gay sex, seeing it in action makes them feel less homophobic because it's consensual, laughter-provoking, and in general not-so-bad in an intimidating sort of way.

I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but I'm glad I went today. It's really interesting to see all the men, old and young, enjoying the leather-fest, bears, and sadomasochism. First time for everything.

I do wish I had the chance to go to the "Dore Alley" where some slaves actually dress like a dog and behave like a dog. They even wear a tail that sticks up the butthole. This type of buttplug is designed to stay in the ass by having an elliptical shape, which after sticking it in, the sphincter muscle will keep it from getting out.