Matt Journals Moved

[I AM ME]

Got a dog today. Named him Pete. His traditional role is that of a badger hunter. He is very tiny at the moment but will grow.

CBC – “Bush expressed gratitude to Australia for sending soldiers to take part in the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Howard supported the attack, despite large antiwar protests in Australia. "Things get tough when you make tough decisions," Bush said, adding, "He (Howard) was steady under fire. He stood his ground when he needed to stand his ground because he understands the difference between right and wrong."

The contradictions are getting to the point of being almost too bizarre to spot. In a democracy one would hope the people would elect a leader that listened to the will of those same people. If the majority of Australians disagreed with their inclusion, how can that be portrayed as standing ones ground? And if that indeed is a good thing for a leader to do in a democratic society, will that apply to the future government of Iraq if it happens to disagree with the United States?

There are two sets of rules at work here, two tiers of democracy. The sort that is packaged and sold as something just and worth fighting for and the reality of a system that uses such guises to further its own ends.

[I AM ME]

i'd like to remid people this is not Matt's oppion he just found it funny......

I received this in an e-mail today from Donya and thought I’d pass it along.


Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God went missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the archangel found him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired of God, "Where have you been?" God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look Michael, look what I've made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put LIFE on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place of great balance."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.

God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth, "For example, Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while Africa is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a hot spot. Over there I've placed a continent of light skinned people and over there is a continent of darker skinned people," God continued, pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot and arid while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."

The Archangel, impressed by Gods work, then pointed to a large landmass in the top corner and asked, "What's that one?"

"Ah," said God. "That's Canada, the most glorious place on Earth. There are beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and an exquisite coastline. The people from Canada are going to be modest, intelligent and humorous and they're going to be found traveling the world. They'll be extremely sociable, hard working and high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace. I'm also going to give them super-human, undefeatable ice hockey players who will be admired and feared by all who come across them."

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed; "What about balance, God? You said there will be BALANCE!"

God replied wisely. "Wait until you see the loud-mouth bastards I'm putting next to them...."

[I AM ME]

Modern crisis. Television use v no use. Tricky that. Keeps you up at night sometimes.

The US army is on a WMD hunt. The thinking is that the Iraqi’s didn’t have enough time to dig up the weapons that they’d buried to use them on the invading American and British forces. Who will ever know the truth if they do happen to uncover such weapons? It’s been weeks, not counting the time the UN inspectors spent looking, and nothing has been discovered. The world was made to believe that anthrax was to be found in corner stores in downtown Baghdad and that Saddam’s finger was on the button. That, friends, is how you fight a media war. As to whether or not there will be an invention of evidence matters very little considering there will be no way to determine the authenticity of such findings. Being embarrassed in a situation like this isn’t something I believe will be allowed to happen.

It’s not like both haven’t had some experience with this sort of thing. The British did a bang up job in Derry when Paratroopers opened fire on Ivan Cooper’s civil rights gathering, killing unarmed protesters. U2 wrote a little number about that Sunday, check it out if you’ve the time. No one was ever charged in that matter and the Queen actually decorated the military commander in charge that day. Neil Young also wrote a little tune about National Guardsmen opening fire at Kent State where they were concerned that students might bludgeon them to death by throwing rocks and pieces of bricks from across a field. Always a good reason to start shooting. Of course no one was ever charged criminally for that occurrence either, because let’s face it, to be perceived as wrong in such a situation is not advantageous. And to think that after Kent State they were interviewing idiots in the street who actually said the army should have shot more or those kids.

Will evidence of biological and chemical weapons be found? Will a couple of unearthed rusty barrels appease the world? Will the United Nations experts be allowed access to such findings to evaluate their authenticity and, dare I say, origins? It’s all rather a mystery, isn’t it.

[I AM ME]

MSNBC (reliability at it’s best!)-“ The Bush administration alleged that Iraq had chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs and said the main reason for the war was to destroy them. Despite weeks of searches at more than 100 sites, officials have reported finding nothing conclusive so far. Although Pentagon officials suggested some Iraqi units were armed with chemical weapons just days before the war, none were found when those units were overrun. Officials said again Wednesday at a Pentagon news conference that finding the “smoking gun” will take time.”


One would assume that by “smoking gun” it would be a rather open and closed case. The longer it takes to drum up findings such as the tarp covered “biological weapons 18 wheeler”, the more people on this side of the ocean will lose interest until the point is reached that a few outspoken “radicals” can be easily dismissed as being their usual “crazy” selves for bothering to still be talking about it. Because by that time the United States will have moved on from 50 Cent to someone else and no one will really care or notice. The pursuit of happiness is, after all, a national maxim. And God forbid the population’s pursuance of it be thwarted by having to deal with the slippery slope of being lied to. When you win who really cares anyway? Hu?

[I AM ME]

Some information to pass along from your mothers…

-More than 1 trillion dollars annually was spent on military budgets prior to the year 2003. Loose estimates being tossed around concerning the cost of the war in Iraq and its reconstruction by some economists: in excess of 1 trillion dollars.

-2 million children were killed in armed conflicts from 1989-1999. 11 million kids die each year from malnutrition and treatable diseases. 2.7 million children have HIV/AIDS worldwide, in Sub Saharan Africa there are 12.1 million AIDS orphans.

-The cost of arming and training one soldier is equivalent to that of educating 80 children.

-The cost of a modern bomber is equivalent to the total cost used to wipe out small pox in a ten year period.

-The cost of one nuclear submarine is equivalent to the cost of building 450,000 homes.

-Canada spent 12.318 billion dollars on the military in 2002-2003 but only .02% of the military budget on peace keeping. -Almost one in five Canadian children lives in poverty. An increase of 39% since 1989.

[Neil]

[I AM ME]

$90,000,000.

That’s what Nike is spending on a seven year endorsement deal with LeBron James, the Akron Ohio high school basketball phenomenon that has yet to even play a professional NBA game.

This is what we have become. This is what represents us, what reflects the desires of our cultural soul. We are no longer members of various target markets but victims of having our lives shaped by the dictates of mass marketing strategies. The very definition of happiness is a marketing ploy these days, bringing with it stresses that are affecting young people in ways that we can’t even imagine. They are a generation suffering from sensory overload that have no recourse but to stick their heads in the sand and hum because the definition of all that they stand to inherit is so very narrow and empty despite what the ads say.

Ninety million dollars. Do you realize how many people $90,000,000 could feed? Right now in East Africa that money could save thousands upon thousands of lives. Do you realize how many social programs could be significantly aided with that sort of money? How many humanitarian organizations or a variety of other programs? Do you realize how much such organizations could be catastrophically helped by even 1/100th of that sum?

Such a sum of money promised to a teenager for throwing a ball through a hoop is a reflection of the disgusting heights of our decadence. Such sums of money should be granted leading scientists and humanitarians, not kids that play sports. Imagine what inroads could be made in general medical, agricultural, and resource research, and AIDS research. How about vaccinating a large portion of the world’s population against diseases that doctors in North America haven’t considered real problems for fifty years?

The thought of such a sum in the hands of a child blows my mind.

Before writing this I spent a half hour staring at my Arsenal kit top collection. Many of them are made by Nike and I was contemplating whether or not to thrown them away. I have yet to purchase this year’s top and now won’t. Some of my Nike Arsenal goods were made in Taiwan where labor is cheap. Others were made in Pakistan where labor is equally as cheap. I suppose they’ll need the money they saved manufacturing in economically depressed nations to pay LeBron.



Please feel free to discuss this and other topics, or give comments about my journal entries, on the forum 1 message board. Locate the message board link at the top of this page to access it.

[Neil]

[I AM ME]

[Neil]

[I AM ME]

In Wellington South Africa a tortoise was recently born with two heads. By all accounts it seems to be functioning normally.

In Toronto the SARS epidemic continues to grow, though still blown out of proportion by just about everyone outside of the greater Toronto area I would imagine.

Too little too late may be the catch phrase of the French peacekeepers going to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The UN unanimously passed the resolution to send peacekeepers after weeks of atrocities in that country following the departure of Ugandan forces from a northeast region of the country earlier this month. The UK has said that it would also send troops to help if needed while the United States has said that it will not send men but simply throw money at the problem and provide some logistical support. It seems this instance isn’t fashionable enough for The Pentagon.

Did I mention that there’s a two headed turtle in South Africa?

[I AM ME]

BBC-“US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said he believes weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq and he rejected the charge that the war against Baghdad was waged under a false pretext.”

Earlier in the week he said that the Iraqis might have destroyed the weapons. Now that it’s the end of the week he is suddenly sure that they will be found. Makes you wonder what went on in the middle of the week don’t it.

[areusad831]

where are the journals posted?

[sandsleeper]

www.nationofcool.com

[I AM ME]

[I AM ME]

it's long i know but it's very good

I thought I would begin with an e-mail that I received some days ago.

Matthew, Just a quick note to tell you that your latest lp, "Avalanche", is one of the most beautiful records I've ever heard. I'm a soldier in the US Army. My particular job keeps me bouncing between Kuwait City and Baghdad, but no matter where I go, I have your CD in my bag, primed for listening at the earliest opportunity. I wanted you to know that I lament the reality of this war and all the suffering it's brought about as much as anyone. Certainly, the children are the real victims, and one look from them in your eyes makes a mark that turns the dreams you have at night to nightmares. Your album is a work of inspiration--wrought from, and intended for a place much finer than this one. I just wanted to thank you for permitting me access to this place out here in the vast desert. Heroes manifest themselves in myriad ways. That word, "hero" gets thrown around alot these days. I do not profess to be a hero. I do, however, believe the work of someone such as yourself, who is capable of creating something so inspiring, to be heroic. It's the kind of thing I tell my children about... not war. So--Stay safe (Up the Gunners!)--Daniel Regelbrugge

I also thought I’d add this exert in from a recent round of correspondence: One thing I thought might interest you, Matt--yesterday I was walking in an outdoor market outside of Baghdad. They already had the white Real shirts with Beckham's name on it!!!! In Iraq!!! Can you believe it?!--

It would seem there is an international language after all.

It’s called football.


An interesting week to say the least.

A lot is being made of new legislation in Canada allowing gay couples to legally marry. For the life of me I really can’t understand what all of the uproar is about. Love is love. How the majority of people want to celebrate that love is nothing new, nor should certain people be denied that right because their union is considered different than that of the majority. If that sort of thinking is to be applied to situations such as this, why be tolerant of anything? Better yet, why should the term “tolerant” even be applied to a situation such as this? After all, it’s not like we’re talking about mass murder. We’re talking about two people wanting to commit to one another as an expression of their love. And if love is the reason, how can it be a bad thing?

For those zealots out there that might view such marriages as being religiously incorrect let me say this. No matter what God you believe in – if you believe that God made all of us, then God doesn’t make mistakes.

Speaking of mistakes, it seems that President Bush may have used false information regarding Iraq’s acquisition of elements used in the production of WMD in his State of the Union address. Being that the US government likes to hide behind the impregnable wall of it’s own national security measures, we will probably never know and will most likely never see a congressional hearing take place to determine if the information given by the US government in its totality was accurate or inflated. Take into consideration that of the over 600 Arab Americans detained concerning the 911 attacks, only 1 has been charged with anything. Go do a little research and find out how many of those people were deported anyway.

Why is Afghanistan still a mess? Canadians are set to go and serve as peacekeepers in Kabul later this summer/fall in what many are calling a completely lawless region. Will the same be said of Iraq in a year? Will its near future resemble that of Afghanistan? Will black marketers and organized crime simply replace the regime? In the UK ex-government cabinet members are beginning to come forth and demand details concerning exactly what intelligence the British government had concerning Iraq prior to the war and if it was accurate. Many now believe that Mr. Blair’s career may be ended by such an inquiry. Will we see a similar happening in Washington? As I alluded to earlier: probably not.

And now there is talk that the UN may be used to help stabilize Palestine. Call it coincidence, but this time around the US has decided that the UN is worthwhile and has said that it would be willing to send a military force into the region to help if such measures were taken.

But of course they would.

Why is the world asleep? Is it so hard to connect the dots these days? Is it so hard to ask that our governments be accountable to us, to those that have elected them? And if they are not, at what point do we outright demand that they be? At what point do we abandon the principles of that our great nations were founded upon and that we are supposedly spreading throughout the world for its own betterment? Do you simply sit back and tell yourself that the next time a federal election occurs that you’ll do your bit to change things but in the mean time there is nothing to be done about it? While the elected representatives of our nations prance around the world playing ridiculous games with people’s lives, we sit in front of our televisions flipping between abominable reality shows and news channels. News channels that are beginning to realize that when the dust settles after all of this they will have forfeited their integrity because most consider them nothing more than propaganda outlets at best. We squirm in our chairs and feel that familiar tingle in the backs of our heads that we have become so accomplished at ignoring. Inaction, guilt, helplessness, paralysis, all of the above have become our unconscious bedfellows. We have mastered the trickery of only seeing our own right while projecting our wrongs onto others. We have become so good at it in fact that we don’t even know that we do it anymore. And that’s precisely why the occurrences of this past year may never be investigated or questioned with the sort of veracity that we reserve for those that we deem contemptible. One has only to look at Imperial Rome to see how easy it is for the power structure of the world to change without the people of the world knowing it. That, and into what hands of lunacy they have been passed.

[thirdhour]

[I AM ME]

[I AM ME]

I was talking with a friend last night about Iran. We were commenting on how, some months ago, we had a conversation about the US influencing the moderate democratic movement in Iran if they were to oust the Iraqi government. We had a bit of a somber chuckle because it seems the Pentagon is becoming predictable in its old age. Either that or the morons on Pennsylvania Avenue do indeed suffer from wet brain as many suspect. I have this strange vision in my head of President Bush wandering the West Wing like Ozzy, searching for somewhere to barbecue chicken. He has an entire chicken on a skewer and keeps opening doors a popping his head in wondering if there’s a barbecue on the other side. And all the while the secret service patiently follows along at a slight distance, rolling their eyes and trying not to laugh.

So during our conversation we thought we would formulate some new predictions and see if any of them would end up being accurate.

Here then are our Middle East predictions.

The US military will be bogged down in Iraq for some time dealing with a growing movement disenfranchised with US post war promises. Idle poverty breeds such people. Given the abundance of weapons, the growing black market, and the possible rise of crime groups, it’s not as if it’s difficult to imagine. Not that the Defense Department will mind. It’s a great reason to keep a healthy build up in Iraq and Kuwait and to move more materials into the region for possible future ventures.

Under the flag of the United Nations the US will send troops into Palestine to try and stabilize the area after claiming that they have the men and materials so close at hand. They will do it as a UN force to deflect any suspicions that they are at all representing Israeli interests. If the road map succeeds it will help open up economic opportunities for American business and military sales. If not, they will have a force poised on Syria’s southern border.

Being that the students in Iran are vastly outnumbered, they may have to be aided after some months of using the media to drill into the heads of the American people that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon. Like Vietnam, such aid will turn into US troops entering the country as advisors. Being that there are so many of them close at hand, it’s not such a difficulty. There is also a chance that the MKO will be used, despite the fact that they were guests of Saddam Hussein for years and funded by his government. Perhaps there will be some spin doctoring done and they will be made to look like squeaky-clean freedom fighters. They would be, after all, a disposable resource that could later be discredited if need be. Either way, it’s a win – win.

If Iran goes, Syria will be the last (and left to the last because any aggression towards them would most certainly cause further problems in Palestine). If Palestine has cooled down somewhat and the US has resources in the region they would be in an excellent position to enter Syria on two fronts. The simple fact that they could may very well be enough to get what they want out of the Syrians without having to fire a single shot. By that time Arab denunciation of such an action will hold far less weight than it has in the past, leaving the Syrian government in a decent position of having it seem like they are not being weak by capitulating to US demands. If it does happen this way, the whole thing may very well be presented as peace talks and given a happy face if UN involvement was successful in Palestine.

Of course all of this will have to be peppered with the occasional raid and arrest of suspected terrorists here and there that will always end up having ties to Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, or the attacks of September 11th. Letting the American people forget about September 11th is not in the best interest of the US’s current foreign policy stance. Of course it is also to be expected that there will be terrorists apprehended prior to their attacks to bolster confidence in the government’s ability to detect and defuse such threats despite the fact that it’s probably next to impossible most of the time.

Anyway, those are some brief, point form predictions that we’ve come up with.

Place your bets.

[Bandalero]