Deeply-Religious Pirate Crew

Incongruences make me laugh.

Check this out. A group of Somali Pirates hijacked a ship loaded to the hilt with weapons while they were fasting for Ramadan and have now entered negotiations for the return of the ship for a ransom of $5 million, but the talks were recessed for the celebration of the Holy feast of Eid il'Fitur, the official end of the fasting season.

What?

Somali Pirates
Thievary during the Fast
Thievary of Weapons during the Fast
Pirate Negotiations
Ransom for a hijacked ship
Oh, and this is the best part, the pirates really want a large sum of money, but they have to wait until they are done loading the deck of the ship with fresh fruits, vegetables and livestock to be sacraficed for the Feast before they can collect it.

Amazing!

Welcome to the Real World America.

Writer and Blogger for Skirt! magazine , Rhi B. posted a warning to great America about the consequences of not persuing a bailout. Great thoughts and I appreciate her industry insights thoroughly.

The reality is, however, that Democrat or Repubican, rich or even poor, everyone has reeped the ill-deserved rewards that you described so eloquently in her post. Even myself - a recent graduate in debt to my ears with no assets and a job that doesn't pay me enough to live without the support of my parents. I benefited through the my parents and the overspending I was entitled by the preditory lending of credit card companies (financial pimps who really started this thing even though no one is looking at that).

We have all ridden high on the bubble of unpaid debts, credit cards and loans. And now that the bills are in collections, everyone is looking at who should shoulder the burden. We all share responsibility for this debt.

BUT, the bailout does nothing to solve the problem, it merely delays the inevitable... like finding a debt consilidation service for the obnoxiously rich.

And whether we take our medicine now like good little kids by, as Rhi said, "tightening our belts" and not living lavish lifestyles that are grossly beyond our means, or we proceed with the bailout and pass on the debt to future generations, the fallout will surely come sometime.

By going forward with the bailout, the government will, in essence, be rewarding corporate greed - paying off the corporations who, according to Rhi, the politicians are in bed with for running their businesses into the ground. There will be resignations and rediculously large severence packages, and once again, the rich get richer. Count on it... Any deal that is overseen by the same people who caused the problem in the first place is sure to benefit the overseers even more.

This package stands as the first step in the socialization of the American economy. It will further shrink the middle class (without the tax exemptions that the wealthy in this country enjoy, they will be the ones to shoulder the burden once again)... so they got screwed in the consumer market, and now they look to be screwed in the investment market as well as banks continue to claim they cannot lend and interest rates plummet even further.

As it stands today, the investment market is actually functioning rather normally. Yes, it tanked today. But not at an irrepairable level. This is certainly not the Crash of 1929.

Personally, I say give the American middle-class the right to do what they do best: Stay resilient, be creative and entreprenuerial in their spending, work hard and preserve the market themselves through continual investment made with legitimate funds rather than lies and stated-incomes. This is the only way to preserve the American middle-class and our way of life.

Welcome to the real world America: We must suffer the consequences for the people to prevail.

(Read more)

Bailout: Why not buy my bad debt too?

Last I heard, the American dollar is only worth 97 cents.

Now, Congress wants the Department of Treasury to spend $700 billion to buy a bunch of mortgages that never should have been lent in the first place as a bailout.

This is like a bad marriage on the horizon. A wealthy woman with a spending problem wants to marry a man with a gambling problem. Sounds like a formula for disaster to me.

The result of this deal: more inflation, lower interest rates, and more financial suffering for the middle class. The richer get richer, and the poorer get poorer. Oh, and by the way, they have built into the legislation that the $700 billion will be repaid to the Treasury. Who do you think is going to get that bill?

Inquiring minds want to know

How do you keep from getting bitter in the face of an injustice that you aren't supposed to know anything about?

How do you start a publication without any moral, financial, or professional support?

How do you chase your dreams when the bills continue to pile up on your desk?

How do you let go of an ex- who texts you "good morning" and "good night" everyday?

How do you say you don't care when they end up in the hospital sick?

How do you walk away when you are the only person who cares that Lupus is not a form cancer?

How do you not say "I told you so," when you told her so?

How do you tell your best friend that she is being completely selfish without being completely selfish?

How do you balance your checkbook these days? Seriously.

How do you find happiness in the midst of the mass exodus of joys in life?

How do you strengthen your abs with a broken back?

How do you apply for grants to make a documentary about Iraqi refugees without losing your steady gig?

How do you tell your mother that you won't write press releases for her organization?

How do you look her into her teary eyes and tell her that you won't do it on principle?

How do you make baklava?

How do you hide your tears when the one you thought you were building your life with betrays you?

How do you make someone who has watched you stumble through life's trials and tribulations, failing at every turn only to rise up and try once more, see your success? How do you garner their respect?

How do you stop seeking it?

How do you say, "Bite me" in Arabic?

How do you tell your first love that you are still in love with them?

How do you get medical treatment when the insurance company won't send your medical card?

How do you explain to your attorney that you really have been living in pain and sucking it up while you waited for that card?

How do you pelt police officers with balloons filled with bleach and call yourself a "non-violent, anti-war protestor"?

And, for crying out loud, how do you solve a Rubix cube?

Hide My Mini Feed Google!

Bothered by your Mini Feed being all open and exposed today on Facebook? Blame Google.

By ANICK JESDANUN
AP Internet Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Google Inc's online communities have little traction in the United States, but the search leader continues to seek a spot in the social-networking hierarchy.
First, it must contend with Facebook, the No. 2 online hangout behind MySpace.
Days after Google unveiled Friend Connect, which lets the sites of musicians, political campaigns and others incorporate profile data from several social networks, Facebook began to block the program.
Although Google was taking advantage of the same tools that Facebook made available free to other outside developers, Facebook said Google was violating Facebooks restrictions on data sharing. The two sides remain in a stalemate.
Google, whose Orkut social network has tens of millions of users in Brazil, tried to reach further into social networking with the November unveiling of a consortium called OpenSocial, which lets developers write applications for use on multiple social networks. News Corp.'s MySpace has joined, but Facebook hasn't.
This month, Google unveiled Friend Connect, which promises to pool profile data from Facebook, Google Talk, Orkut, LinkedIn, Plaxo and hi5, though not MySpace. The profile information gets incorporated into other sites [--] a political campaign, for instance, can build communities of supporters by tapping existing networks [--] with Google serving as the intermediary.
Facebook quickly objected, citing privacy concerns. Normally dealing with other companies one on one, Facebook can block a service it feels violates its rules. With Google as the intermediary, Facebook lost that leverage, so it decided to block Friend Connect entirely.
In a blog posting, Facebook developer Charlie Cheever said Google's Friend Connect "redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users' knowledge, which doesn't respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect."
Google responded, acknowledging it passes along data. But it said sharing is limited to links for profile photos of users and friends who have expressly consented to sharing with that particular site. The user's name and numeric ID on Facebook are replaced with Google's own identifiers, Google said in a company blog post.
Google also said it purges Facebook data from its systems every 30 minutes, more frequently than the 24 hours required by Facebook.
Facebook has run into privacy challenges before, most recently when it unveiled a marketing tool called "Beacon" that tracked purchases Facebook members made on other Web sites and sent alerts to their Facebook friends about the transactions.
But Rachel Happe, research manager at IDC, said the dispute is ultimately about control rather than privacy. She said Google's Friend Connect starts to eat into other peoples value proposition, which is why you saw Facebook object to it."

Facebook is reworking its security systems to protect its users from Google's web crawler, so be patient. The invasion of your privacy will soon cease, and your status updates, relationship status updates, personal pictures and wall postings will no longer be posted in all over the Web.

Bear eats trainer on film? Only in Hollywood

Rocky the bear, a 700-pound grizzly, was called the best trained in the business. So much so that he responded to cues during a "wrestling match" with Will Farrel in "Semi Pro."
But something must of aggrevated him on Tuesday when he reportedly killed his handler during a video shoot at a training facility near Los Angeles.

Steve Miller, 39, was one of three handlers working with Rocky when the five-year-old bear bit him in the neck and killed him. The other two handlers sedated the bear with pepper spray and were unharmed.

Some are calling for euthanisation, while others are arguing that there is not enough evidence to show that the bear poses a significant threat. There has never been an incident with Rocky prior to Tuesday's attack, and investigators would not say what caused him to attack Miller.

But as every good Hollywood saga goes, cameras were in place when the attack occured for the taping of a training video. The Sheriff's Department would not comment on whether or not they were actually rolling, but according to Reuters, investigators will review the footage if they were.

Perhaps Predators in Action, the facility where Rocky was housed and where the attack occured, wants to protect the bear from vicious paparazzi and spare him the embarrassment of publicaly revealing his mental breakdown. I understand they are hoping to move him to a facility with Lindsey Lohan to make sure he doesn't turn to the bottle to mask his frustration with his life.

Lest we forget

Summer is approaching. And with the rise in temperatures, there is always a surge in crime across the country, a surge in gas prices and the inevitable lack of concern. Our collective interest in news through the summer months tends to decline in America as we are progressively more distracted by beaches, sun tans, vacation and day care for the kids. Stories that were once topped the news hour are tossed to the back of the broadcast behind catchy pieces like shark attacks or kidnappings. And at a time when the media has been giving less attention to the war in Iraq, there is a fear that it will disappear.

But we cannot forget the war that our country is fighting.

According to a Pew Research study, Americans are starved for more news on Iraq. Quality news, that is, with context and validity. The media is meeting only a fraction of demand. Through June 2007, the study showed that Iraq was at the top of the list of interest, with 28 percent of Americans following the story closely. But the media only gave 9 percent of its coverage to it. We have failed.

Today, with gas prices soaring, a presidential campaign making history before our eyes and an economic recession settling in, it is easy to see how a war being fought 6 thousand miles away can take a back seat. But the fact that the story did not receive its due over the past year brings reason to the lack of understanding across the nation about the effect the war has on all three of these leading stories.

$2 billion per week is being spent in Iraq.
OPEC nations will not supply the US.
Our army is sitting on top of one of the largest oil wells in the world, but nothing is coming out of it - not legally anyway.
While we attempt to stabilize another country and rebuild the infrastructure we destroyed, a war is raging in the streets of our own country stroked by a failing economy and harsh realities ohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giff poverty. We are losing that war.
All of the hope and change that presidential hopefuls are spewing links back directly to the Middle East. And its more than rhetorical. As a country we have come to view Iraq as a philosophical problem.

Don't forget, people are dying.

Just today, a bomb was set off in Baghdad killing 60 people. Sixty people.
Virginia Tech was on the top of our news broadcasts for a month after the "massacre" occured on April 16, 2007. Memorial services continued through the football season into October. Plenty of time was given to grieve. Not to discount the tragedy of it all, but only 32 lives were lost on that day. Twice that many were lost in Baghdad in one incident. There will be others. There will be no time to mourn.

So as we proceed through the mundane drudgery of making ends meet and throwing together a couple bucks to fill up our gas tanks and head to the next party, remember the gift we have in stability. Remember the sacrafice that our soldiers are making with more than just their lives, but their mental stability when the return home. And remember, although the media may not be reminding us everyday of the tragedy in the Middle East, it rages on. Be grateful. Be mindful. Be educated.

The face America's War, courtesy of the Associated Press and the brave men and women who serve us and continually inform us:

Education desparation on gay marriage

Just to share a personal experience, my brother called me last Sunday to share about what he described as a "disgusting and devistating" church service. He attends Shepherd of the Hills in Porter Ranch, Calif. with his fiance, and apparently, the pastor invited a guest to speak on an ongoing lawsuit in Orange County. The guest was an attorney working a property rights case defending a client who wants to keep a cross on his property. The neighbors have obviously complained. According to my brother, the attorney spoke on this issue for no more than five minutes before launching into a political speech in support of Proposition 22.

California Prop. 22 was placed on the ballot in 2000 as an anti-gay marriage ammendment. It was not passed, but has lingered in Courts since that time. This attorney and people of his mind-set have seen to it that the Christian right continually expresses its condemnation of same-sex marriage through the touting of this already-defeated proposition.

"He went off about how homosexuality is a sin and how gay marriage is an abomination undermining the fundamentals of the institution of marriage," my brother said. "I couldn't believe what I was hearing."

Thouroughly bemused, my brother and his fiance made a poignant exit down the center isle of the church and proceeded to call as many people as they could reach denouncing what took place in the service.

Personally, I was more amazed that people like my brother and his fiance were so undereducated on the issue. How is it that this issue has been circulating the political arena for eight-plus years, and strong supporters of equality are still unaware of the threat that exists in gay marriage bans? How is it that so many are left scratching their heads when they are confronted with the reality of rights and privileges denied gays because of their sexual orientation?

In related news, today, the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee passed a proposed amendment to the state constitutiohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifn Tuesday that would ban both same-sex marriage and civil unions.

The measure was approved on a 10-4 vote. It still needs approval in the full Senate and in the House. It would then need to be approved again by both houses in the next session of the legislature before being put to voters.

Pennsylvania already has a law limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. Supporters of the amendment say they fear it could be overturned by a judge. (Read more!)

Educate and legislate. For more information on this issue, check out Human Right Campaign at

Why I can believe we may see an invasion on Iran

Chuck O'Connell, a sociology professor of mine during my days at Pierce College and a frequent contributor to CounterPunch, once warned in a class that we needed to be aware of heightened "war rhetoric" as it pertains to specific nations. Heeding his advice, I have had a keen eye on the build-up against Iran.

It began with the pervasive accusations that Iran was the home of the terrorists who were behind the 9/11 attacks. Then there was President Bush's inclusion of Iran in the new "Axis of Evil" during his State of the Union address. Since that time, we have seen a ramp up in negative reporting about Iran in the American media and an increase in the reported animosity coming out of Iran from the Iranian people. President Mahmoud Amhedinejad, a powerless figurehead, has become the characture of the Iranian people and propagandized throughout the Western world as an evil dictator, when in reality he is a mouth-piece for a very small section of the Iranian populace. Nuclear power plants and nuclear technology funded and provided to Iran in the 1970's under the Shah has become suspect and a "threat" under the rhetoric of the Bush administration. In sum, the war rhetoric has been increasing over the past five years.

A lack of manpower has held us out of Iraq. But, with the reported decrease in violence following January's military surge, many of the troops pulled out of reserves are now in active duty and will be recalled back stateside in the early summer according to the administrations plan, still having six to twelve months left on their active status. Suddenly a surplus of manpower has been created. Even though upwards of 200 people are still dying each week as a result of the untamed violence in Iraq, we are beginning to exit. How does this make sense?

Well, manpower is needed for an invasion of Iran. Here is an article in the Washington Post by dan Froomkin outlining the same concerns. Are we looking at a third front to add to this war? Froomkin seems to think so, and I can't see why not.

Beating the Bitch with John McCain

For comedic value.

Expert tactical youth appeal

This is by far the most creative advertisement I have seen in years. The appeal to young voters is apparent, almost transparent in all honesty, but it is working. Barack Obama and his team have tapped the pulse of a younger generation and I am incredibally impressed with their creativity in mobilizing the forces of change.

Have a Happy VD

In honor of Valentine's Day, allow me to be the first to wish everyone a happy, happy VD. Spread the love.

(Other meanings)

Ten Favorite Drinking Holes

I had a disconcerting exchange with a dear friend from back east today, and in all honesty, I was so proud of the breakdown that I thought I'd go public. The following is an email polling a large group of twentysomethings:

Hello friends,
You're getting this email for one of two reasons. Either you are one of my favorite drinking buddies or I want you to be one of my favorite drinking buddies. What this means is that I trust your judgement. Philly Weekly is doing a cover story on the top 50 bars in the city and I've got to compile the list.

So, tell me, where do you like to get f!@#ed up in Philly?

xoxo,
E.

I responded with charm, charisma and very little humility:

You know I have a bias towards the bars between Broad and 11th, Walnut and South, but I will exercise a touch of diversity in my selections. Still, there are a few haunts in that beloved section of the city that deserve some love for their amazing drink specials.

1. 12th Air Command Thursdays. $5 pitchers and 9-midnight, $1 shelf, $.50 well drinks or $1 pints, $.50 12 oz. beers. They have pool tables too. Not bad for a quest to numb the senses without emptying the wallet - so long as you can tolerate the bad, gay thumpa-thumpa music.

2. Raven Lounge. My number one hide away. They even have games on the tables like "Jenga", "Connect 4", and "You Think You're Smarter Than A 5th Grader". Good times. Great people. Tell 'em Cheryl sent you and Jonathan will take care of you.

3 - 7. Eulogy, Nodding Head, Ten Stone, Good Dog and Jose Pistolas for the beer selection. Bear in mind that I am a self-proclaimed beer snob, so my stamp of approval comes wih great scrutiny.

8. Black Sheep for the food.
9. Knock for the ambiance.
10. Tavern on Camac for the people.

And honorable mention must be given to $2 Miller High Life Thursdays at Irish Pub 22nd St. considering the amount of time the Metro staff spends in that joint. But I must say that their restrooms are deterrent. They are literaly a pain in the neck. At 5-foot 3-inches, there is no excuse for my head hitting the ceiling in your converted, basement janitor's-closet of a bathroom.

Compiling this list has made me homesick. Does that qualify as an alcoholic tendency?

Keeping the light on: Jolie visits Baghdad to address refugee crisis

So the risk of Angelina's visit to the well-guarded Green Zone of Baghdad may have been a little over-hyped, but put it into perspective: Angelina is on the ground, where many a journalist, myself included, are dying to be. UNHCR cannot reach Baghdad for security reason, so their notorious celeb ambassador is doing some leg work.

While in Baghdad, Jolie gave an exclusinve to CNN in which she discussed her mission with CNN's Arwa damon. Although the interview was lacking in substance a bit, Jolie managed to hit all of the talking points: The potential instability created by the refugee crisis, the need of the global community to respond on a human-to-human basis, the need for internal security to provide an envirnoment in which reconstruction can begin without continues conflict, the devestation facing refugees, 4.2 million globally displaced and the undue burden being placed on neighboring contires such as Jordan and Syria, and the immigration debate in the United States (the US State Department has agreed to admitt 1,200 Iraqis refugee status in the United States this year. Last year, a similar promise only saw the admission of a handful of Iraqis).

It is essential that attention continues to be paid to this issue for, as Jolie said, the return of the Iraqi people is what will instill stability in the entire Middle East and the world at-large.

Props to the sexy star for getting her hands dirty and getting in the faces of the many officials who are trying desperately to depersonalize the war in Iraq.

One problem with the timing of her her mission was the lack of insight into internal politics. Just this week, there have been cries heard 'round the world that the Iraqi ministries are ill-fit to serve their purposes. Positions previously held by Baathists have been filled with incompetitent leaders who are unable to handle the level of beauracracy associated with their positions. This should make it interesting to see how well her message is recieved.

Name one accomplishment by Obama

This is from a segment on FNC in which Frank Lutz, a renowned pollster, conducted focus groups with undecided Republicans and Democrats. In the Democratic focus group, the majority of the discussion surorunded the positive and negative attributes of each candidate, but did not include any discussion of credibility, experience or substance. So, Sean Hannity posed this question to the group, and the response was funny, but not shocking.

It's wonderful to make promises of change, but tell me how you intend to accomplish it. Otherwise, you're blowing smoke in places where the sun don't shine.

Back to Back Supers - That's, well, Super

First it was the Super Bowl. A game which somehow managed to rise from the ashes at the end of the third quarter and redeem itself going from one of the poorest played Super Bowls in history, to the most exciting in recent memory. Allow me to say that I was the opposite of impressed by the lack of passion or desire to win on both sides of the ball, until suddenly, with 15 minutes left on the clock, both teams showed up and decided they were ready to play football. And the Giants final drive... there are no words for the miracle that emerged there: Eli Manning suddenly became a walking advertisment for "I Can't Believe It's Not [Covered In] Butter" and as I said at the moment that Plaxico Burress caught that pass with his head, he now has footage to post on a 42" plasma playing in loop in the entry way of his home.

With such a surprise finish in the first Super of the Week, I assumed that Super Tuesday would be anti-climactic at best. Refreshingly, it was not. I was not only ecstatic to see that the media covered it with thorough analysis and discussion rather than the typical horse-race style coverage that has become synonamous with Election Night, but the results were intriguing.

Hillary proved her abality to lock in middle-aged, white and Latino women, both groups which vote heavily. This victory in this market succeeded in making her a significant threat - more so than anyone had really thought previously.

Obama picked up the Southern, white male vote, particularly in Georgia. Wow. I won't elaborate for fear of being labled a racist (thank you Enterprise).

McCain was able to secure significant victories in extremely conservative states. Most important to mention was a solid victory in Oklahoma. Reports were that OK is the most conservative state not holding a large Mormon population - Bush won every single county in this state in 2004. Also interesting though was his narrow victory in Arizona. It should be interesting to see if this is more a result of an alienated conservative base, as many Republicans are saying, or if it was his flip-flop in the last week on immigration: Suddenly there are no more promises of amnesty coming from his camp... hmmm.

Romney was surprising for his lack of influence. Many thought that he had protential to carry more weight in conservative states considering his highly conservative platform. The lack of support given to him at the polls maybe a tell-tale sign of a shift in the Republican powerbase. But equally important, and perhaps even more surprising was the turn-out in favor of Huckabee. He was not expected to win anything, let alone five states. All five were conservative Southern states, which was more damaging to Romney than to McCain, but it does leave us asking, where do those votes really go in the event of a two-man race?

Most surprising to me, above all of the other rhetoric, was the voter turn-out ratios. Democrats came out with more than twice the strength of Republicans in every state except Montana which only saw roughly 1,500 voters yesterday. This is a sign that, not only are the Democratic candidates more charasmatic, they are generating more interest and excitement. They were able to lock in the so-called "youth vote", which was stunning. Young people represent a demographic that has a lot of opinions which rarely translate into votes since they have a tendency to stay home, not show up at the polls. Yesterday, they showed up. This leaves for some interesting questions: Do Republicans have the strength to compete? And, can they win over any young supporters?

You want to know about me?

The following is an adaptation from a Web site which defines people by their astrological sign. Though I put very little stock in astrology on the norm, I found this to be a surprisingly apt description of me:

Leo is a semitic word, derived from the Hebrew labi. Leo is known as the "royal sign," symbolic of exuberance and leadership, and individuals who fall within its jurisdiction place courage and honesty above all else.

I have been described as having a radiant warmth and a personality that touches the hearts of others. This has been known to open many doors in my life. I welcome assignments of both authority and responsibility, but others often fail to fulfill the my expectations and thus, my life is often rife with disappointment. Though I maintain a cool, calm exterior on the norm, I am prone to a fiery temperament, so those who have suffered the wrath of my anger and disappointment are generally well aware.

People say I am a likable individual, being frank, open, honest and endearing, but above all, I believe it is my determination and dedication to idealism that makes me an entertaining acquaintance.

With all of that said, I do have a tendency to drown in egocentricity on occasion. And though I try my hardest to convince myself otherwise, I lack both the desire and the capacity for spiritual development. Still, I have a deep interest in the spirituality in the physical sense and am intrigued by the appeal it has for others.

I'm a natural extrovert which makes me impulsive, buoyant, communicative and sociable. I crave excitement... all of the time. This is a positive and a negative; while it keeps life interesting, it does get me in trouble - often. I'm a night owl as well, so that is a troublesome combination.

I am constantly challenged by two guiding principles: to create and to find joy in living.

Essentially, I deal in fun, games, gambling in ever sense of the word, writing, playing, acting and the use or misuse of creative energy. I constantly battle an innate desire to play ... all the time. Where there is fun to be had, I am there, whether the work is done or not. If I can't leave the work behind, I make it fun or I get extremely frustrated. Coupling that with my enthusiasm, creativity, motivation, frequent love affairs (both legal and illicit) and I guess you can say that I am pretty childlike. I live with a sense of excitement and a craving for pleasure.

Considering my desire for pleasure and my creative sense, you would think that I would find pleasure in my writing. But to be honest, I see very little of myself in what I personally create, whether it's a smile from a friend or an article. In fact, I am never really satisfied with what I create. But this constant criticism of my creations drives me continuously to better myself and to pursue perfection.

Positive Traits: generous, honest, warm-hearted, magnanimous, broad-minded, expansive, loving, proud, enthusiastic and creative with a flair for showmanship and drama

Negative Traits: pompous, patronising, bossy, interferring, dogmatic, intolerant, bullying, conceited, snobbish and power-thirsty

Likes: speculative ventures, lavish living, rich food, children, pageantry and grandeur

Dislikes: doing anything safely, day-to-day living, small-minded people, penny-pinching and mean spiritedness

This is the stuff armed conflict is made of

In the American Civil War, it was John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.
In World War I, it was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
In Vietnam it was the bombing of the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy.

Where there is conflict, there is alway a build up of aggressive rhetoric and then a seemingly miniscule event that triggers war. This week, when five Iranian boats rushed toward three US Navy ships in the Homuz Canal, the markets shook because this is the way wars begin.

I have to say I am proud of the United States today that they stood down, didn't fire on the boats and have talked down this conflict over the course of the past 47 hours. But seeing oil prices jump up to $97 a barrel in panic speaks volumes to me. The money holders in this country are prepared for an armed conflict with Iran. The people need to be prepared as well. And if we go to war with Iran, we are going to war with the entire Middle East. This could almost be considered the modern day Cuban Missle crisis.

Thank God the American people are too preoccupied with trying to predict who the next president will be to notice. And perhaps, for once, we should be grateful for the troop surge in Iraq, because our military is equally preoccupied.

A micro-insurgency grows in Iraq prisons

More than 30,000 Iraqi's have been detained over the last year by American military personnel, and many are still awaiting release. The Christian Science Monitor recently released an article including a statement from General Doug Stone which expressed fears that the majority of detainees, who are primarily motivated by money not by a desire to incite violence, may be reeducated by more radical detainees who are actually in bed with the insurgency.

At the moment, there are three primary detention facilities in Iraq: The famed Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca near Basra and Camp Cropper in Baghdad. All of these facilities have become overpopulated in recent months since US-led forces ramped up their efforts since the troop surge in January of 2007 and implemented the Baghdad Security Plan.

General Petraeus and the Pentagon hold that the release of even the most moderate detainees needs to be a slow process to secure a tight net and guard against the accidental release of violent insurgents. But many are calling for an immediate release of suspected nonviolent prisoners to ease the overburdened prison system in Iraq and warn that unjust detention will have a severe backlash effect if the US-led forces aren't careful.

"If you roll up 150 guys in a village and you don't have probable cause you've just created 150 terrorists," Marine Commandant General James Conway said after he visited Bucca in November.

Read more.

Iowa means nothing in the grand scheme

Sick of hearing about the Iowa caucus yet? Well, don't feel bad, the Iowans are too. In fact, polls have shown that the majority of crowd fillers we are seeing on CNN's endless coverage of the developing story are actually from other states. But that's okay, because the network has succeeded in at least one thing: disenfranchising the rest of the country.

With the overwhelming media coverage of Iowa this week, many people in the nation have begun to feel as if their vote is unnecessary. I mean, if Iowa is going to decide it all, why vote in your home states primary. Right? Here's the irony though: The majority of the country doesn't even understand what a caucus is, let alone why it is so important to our nation, and let's face it, they don't have to. 

Caucuses are an antiquated process that have become a bad joke to our society. They are a meeting of party members from a given state (Iowa in this case) at the precinct level at which citizens express their candidate interests - in other words, it's like your typical primary but with a drawn out discussion and a verbal tally. Sounds rather dull and uninteresting to me. And regardless of the image portrayed via HD satellite CNN coverage, the reality is that Iowans aren't really interested either. Columnist Dana Milbank wrote the most insightful piece of political coverage I have read this season and ran it in Tuesday's Washington Post called "Iowa's show goes on - Without Iowans." He nails it. In 2004, only six percent of eligible voters actually turned out in Iowa. How sad is that?

BBC did a piece today too - got to love the outside perspective - on the significant primaries in the states.  It named 12 of 50 states as being important in the nomination process. (Pennsylvania was not one of them.) In reality, the figures in the states mentioned will reflect a majority of the nation, but the problem with relying on these numbers only and disregarding the other 38 states is the geographical differences. Come Convention, believe me, your vote will matter because the delegates will be arguing over which candidate is  THE MOST ELECTABLE, not the most popular. They will be using the numbers from the primaries to compile the most electable ticket as well. 

So even though Obama might win the blue states, he won't get the nomination. Iowa is a good pace-setter, but it is not a tell-all.

Vote people. Vote.

The American Soldier: Oli North's Person of the Year

Props to Oliver North for seeing through the "progress" made by Time magazines Person of the Year Vladmir Putin. North basically congratulated the past-Russian president of the oil and natural gas rich country on bringing financial success to the nation, especially considering how difficult it must be in the present market. Oil is so cheap right now, it's amazing anyone can be turning a profit. Really.

[Oli's] “Persons of the Year” are men and women who voluntarily took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies.” Though less than three percent of their countrymen know a single one of their names, they continue to make extraordinary sacrifices while wittingly and willingly going into harms’ way on our behalf. They are, on average, just 20 years old — yet they are brighter and better educated than their peers in the same age bracket. All of them have been entrusted with the awesome responsibility for the lives and safety of others, and all of them are held accountable for what they do or fail to do in carrying out those responsibilities.

And bear in mind that less than half of the men and women in ou armed services agree with this war on ideological grounds. They are in the sandbox fighting because it is their job and to ensure that the image of American military strength is preserved. In this way, they are also indirectly protecting the rights of people like me to spout off at the mouth. Way to go Oli. Tell it.