:: it's a scary world: rants from a chemically imbalanced mind ::

:: Sunday, March 30, 2003 ::

just a quick note for the record - a vasectomy was the SINGLE worst decision of my life. also the most useless one. constant pain for three weeks solid and after four weeks, i seem to have been left with a nice dull throb to boot. and for what? still not sure yet. i guess it was just one more way to get some money back from all the insurance premiums i pay every month. my advice to you if you are even CONSIDERING the big V - skip it. not worth it in any way, shape and/or form. save yourself the time and energy. if you want to approximate the pain, just throw on 6 hours worth of john edward repeats. that'll come pretty close.

and i'm not even getting into the whole "don't feel like a complete human" aspect. maybe i'm the oddity in regards to my feelings on this but it seems to be my one magical button nowadays - wanna push me into a black pit of depression? make me start thinking about my vasectomy.
 

:: Shaman 3/30/2003 09:53:31 AM [+] ::
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just double checking here but wanted to make sure everyone was catching what an incredible job the bush/cheney p.r. team is doing - you may have heard that "halliburton", a government contractor with mega-ties to dick "one more pretzel and i'm there" cheney, is NOT getting any of the government contracts for the iraqi cleanup after the war... they "PULLED THEMSELVES OUT OF THE RUNNING" due to the intense controversy. what you are NOT hearing above the din and chatter is that "brown & root" WILL be getting a large amount of contracts in the iraq rebuild. "brown & root" is a wholly owned subsidiary of "halliburton".

kudos, boys, kudos. yet once again, corporate america shows that it can make the american public swallow anything. just takes the right angle.
 

:: Shaman 3/29/2003 06:34:15 PM [+] ::
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well, well, well... it's about damned TIME somebody noticed that the major networks are all playing patsy for the propaganda machine:

Facing increasing criticism for reporting as fact claims by coalition spokesmen about "precision bombing" and "surgical strikes," "popular uprisings" against the Saddam regime, the discovery of chemical weapons factories, and the "taking" of several Iraqi cities, the BBC said Thursday that it had "reinforced" its policy that its correspondents must attribute uncorroborated statements by the military. A BBC spokeswoman said: "We have to be very careful in the midst of a conflict like this one to be very sure when we're reporting something we've not seen with our own eyes that we attribute it." In New York, the liberal media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) singled out NBC reporters for reporting "without independent verification" the claims about precision bombing. Those claims have frequently been called into question by on-the-scene coverage by reporters for the Qatar-based al-Jazeera network, who have frequently found themselves perilously close to the coalition bombardment themselves. Even while British military spokesmen were proclaiming on Wednesday that Basra had been "secured," al-Jazeera was featuring an interview with an Iraqi general, surrounded by hundreds of his troops proclaiming that Basra will "never" surrender. London's Independent newspaper commented: "Mohamed Al-Abdulla, al-Jazeera's correspondent in Basra, must be the bravest journalist in Iraq right now. ... He can be seen conducting interviews with families under fire and calmly reporting the incoming British artillery bombardment."

NOW, since people like me seem to be forced into explaining ourselves everytime we speak (the pro-peace crowd... notice i DON'T say anti-war... why be an anti-war protestor?? as chawee points out, it's a double negative, kiddies.... sounds like yer protesting against NOT having a war!), let me specify - the war is happening and there's nothing we, as humans, can do about it. it will play out to its final conclusion. whatever that final conclusion might be. and no, i DON'T think the war outcome is a foregone conclusion like so many blind individuals. c'mon! even top officers on the frontline are starting to make comments alluding to the fact that the iraqis are tossing the coalition some serious surprises! but the war is going on. period. and that's the way it is. but i CAN hope that this either ends quickly (won't happen) or ends not TOO bloodibly (again, won't happen - want to see the iraqi civilian deathcount so far? or do you just not give a shit? but if this IS going to be a fact in the world, i'd like to see the media (print AND visual) report the facts FACTUALLY and not as some demented propaganda arm of the coalition and the us gov't. if we blow up innocents, how about we admit the fuckup and quit trying to COVER it up. that's all. just a little honesty in my information. not TOO much to ask for, i hope.
 

:: Shaman 3/29/2003 08:38:46 AM [+] ::
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oh my GOD! did you realize that robert plant (yes, THAT robert plant!) is only two degrees from kevin bacon?!?! and jimmy page is THREE?!?!?! wow. wait. what about john bonham and ja paul....OH! john paul jones is three degrees! and likewise john bonham! wow. kinda boggles the mind, don't it.

okay, wanna read a REALLY goddamn funny blog??? GO HERE!!! NOW DAMMIT!!!

okay, i'm off to watch one hour photo. which EVERYONE i know who's seen it says SUCKS the ass of the llama. oh boy. another bad robin williams movie. well, i have to watch it anyway.... if for anything, to at LAST see williams play SOMETHING besides the typical nice guy, "giving up everything for those around him" yutz.......
 

:: Shaman 3/28/2003 08:42:31 PM [+] ::
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sigh. god i hate this shit. you may notice i've not posted a lot on the whole "war with iraq" thing..... 's not that i don't care... i do... it's not that i support the war... i don't.... i do on the other hand, support the troops over there fighting 110%. and it seems most people just don't get that concept. how you can be against one but for the other. how in the name of all that is unholy could i possibly support a war that never should've happened?? and here again, we travel back to the whole "you CAN'T tell me 100 delta force bastards placed into the country at night couldn't find him and kill him!!!" discussion. and you can't. C'MON!!! this is the country who (i believe, but i'm a crazy paranoiac too) SHOT it's own president in broad daylight, in front of the world and got AWAY with it!!! (for those of you who have no idea what i'm talking about, go to http://www.encarta.com and look up JFK.... it's not the whole true story, but it'll get you started) where was i. damn. oh. but back to the war.... i'm just really kind of melancholy over the whole thing because i just don't see it getting any better for awhile. i don't think the public TRULY realized what this was going to be like.... everybody was under some sick, twisted 'rambo' vision that we'd walk in, kick ass, take names, shoot a few leaders and be on our way in record time. well, unfortunately, mother earth isn't the most cooperative bitch on the planet and the armed forces are stuck in the middle of it. giving the iraqis (who've fought in this sand-crap for centuries) a chance to come at our guys when they're stalled. lovely. and we're not even at baghdad yet. oh joy. baghdad, where they've already started the lighting of the oil-filled trenches. OH goody. sigh. did you happen to catch the quote from the military press conference? the one about "we're closer to the beginning at this point than the end"? yea... that one. i hope and wish i'm proven wrong on this one, but i'm seeing things getting a lot worse before they get any better.
 

:: Shaman 3/25/2003 09:42:34 PM [+] ::
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well, my goodness. i think somebody just summed it all up in 2 sentences.

Asked whether Bush had gone to the White House command center after his short speech Wednesday evening to alert the country that war was underway, a network correspondent noted that the lights were out in the White House residence. He assumed Bush was asleep.

to read the whole piece, just click the quote above, kiddies. damn. i hope i'm not the only one who's got a twisty gut nowadays. bombs going off. people dying. friendly fire. and though i'm all for the safety of the troops, etc, i'm still against this war. why? because it's not a us war. from day one i've said it was a bush war. "you tried to pop my daddy and now it's time to pay the piper, boy!". dood scares me, people. he should scare you too.
 

:: Shaman 3/21/2003 09:58:09 PM [+] ::
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for SOME odd reason, i don't see "defying god's will" as being a big concern to ole' dubya...... i think it's more a case of "how big a splash can i make in the history books". but that's just me.
 

:: Shaman 3/18/2003 05:36:06 PM [+] ::
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okay, i realize everyone is a little busy with the whole "iraq divided by the axis of evil equals y" thing" but THIS ONE seems to be slipping in under everyone's radar..... or maybe i'm just paranoid.

sidenote: the award for most in-depth, interesting and informative article on the current administration goes to: THIS ONE!!! CLICK ME OR THE REPUBLICAN GETS IT!!

oh. and my balls still hurt. shit.
 

:: Shaman 3/16/2003 12:21:22 PM [+] ::
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if weekend mornings had an identifiable sound, THIS would be it.

except it would go on for about 6 hours.
 

:: Shaman 3/08/2003 08:17:45 AM [+] ::
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here's a funny one for you - as each day passes and we get closer to "THE DATE", i am less and less ambivalent about the war and more & more MASSIVELY opposed to it. now first off, all you violently right wing, charlton heston pimps, listen up - i agree that saddam hussein should be quickly and PERMANENTLY removed from iraq AND the face of the earth. on that, we have no disagreement. i believe that yes, he DOES have weapons of mass destruction. and that he will probably, at some point, use them. maybe on a particularly bad day when he gets up on the wrong side of the bed and decides since his coffee is cold, he's gonna push a button. or make a call. or whatever. but the point is, i agree. saddam bad. smash saddam. what i don't agree with is the way dubya is going about it. saddam didn't JUST become a threat! he's been a threat for YEARS!!!! and nobody else has seemed to think the smart thing to do was bust in the front door with the guns ablazin' either. not bill, not daddy and not ronnie. and god KNOWS ronnie hated the russians! hell, he turned his own friends in during the 50s because he THOUGHT they might be commie sympathizers!! (okay, he really turned them in because he's a gutless coward who'd rather sellout his friends and industry co-workers than stand up with a spine and say KISS MY ASS to joe mccarthy, but that's another tirade entirely.) where was i. OH. but NOBODY has thought the whole "kick 'em in the teeth" routine was a good idea. because you're basically sticking your big american finger in the middle of the middle eastern pie, takin' a taste and deciding you like what you taste. oil. black gold. texas tea. no matter what you say, this whole thing boils down simply to..... oil. america can't let someone that crazy (and uncontrollable, puppet-style) be in charge of that much oil. no how, no way. i've been sitting here for the past 45 minutes doing nothing but reading factual, non-biased reference material on iraq. and i've come to this conclusion - it sounds like someplace i might've liked to visit at some point in my life. sounds damned interesting. don't believe me? go read this six page entry in the encarta:

Iraq Encarta Entry

wow. HOPEfully, you can't rationalize your (probable) previous view of iraq as this barren wasteland shithole of nothing but thousands of miles of desert. no, kind of an interesting sounding place.... in it's heyday. with people. and kids. and families. and farms. and schools. and so on and so on ad nauseum. but you get the point. a lot of people just think it's a little speck of a country where they all hate us anyway so screw 'em and let's bomb 'em all back into the stone age where they are anyway. mmmmmmm...... no. people. like us. little more melatonin, but otherwise. they may worship a different 'god' but so what. what, your neighbors are all the same denomination and go to the same services? didn't think so. it's ONE of them that's gone loop-de-loop and needs to be exterminated. and who knows, maybe someday iraq could be an interesting spot to visit again. but not if the us army goes in there with TEN TIMES the bombs we sent down on the opening day of the 91 gulf war.... doesn't seem to me there'd be much left period with that kind of an onslaught. sigh. you CAN'T tell me that a delta (or whatever) team can't make it to saddam and put a bullet in his brain. you just can't. i know better. double sigh. see, there's the bad thing about depakote. i get this great head of steam built up, i blink and it's gone. yea, but it keeps me calm. and my blood pressure reaaaaaalllly low... and we like that, don't we..... but, hopefully you read the encarta entry and maybe have just the slightest change now in your view on the whole affair.... or maybe not, in which case you're a war-mongering pig and the world needs those too, i guess.....

inner peace through lowered expectations. the new motto of my life.

and sidenote here - i'd like to point out that if more people shared my agnostic viewpoints, we wouldn't be in this shitpot. no god, no problems. even deeper than the oil thing, EVERYTHING goes back to religion. they want to kill us because a few overzealous (okay, REALLY overzealous) guys think since the christian god is different and wrong, we should all die. and i guess since i couldn't give a damn LESS about "god" or his holy conceptualness, i'm REALLY a target. (from both sides, i'm sure.) but again, a few overzealous wackos go off and that was all dubya needed to go on his search for more petroleum. and really, with a mental case like saddam, ya ALMOST can't blame him. almost, i said.
 

:: Shaman 3/05/2003 08:10:39 PM [+] ::
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