Cluster-bomb might as well be Cluster-F#@%

Finally, a cluster-bomb treaty has been fully developed and is being signed this week by nearly all of the countries in the United Nations.

NEARLY all.

let me quickly cite for you the description of a cluster-bomb, from the AP writer/Yahoo! News article above:

"Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles that scatter them over vast areas. Some fail to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years until they are disturbed, often by children attracted by their small size and bright colors."

these are not happy little toys that are harmless to play with. these are bombs that scatter foreign objects throughout the human body for the explicit purpose of stopping someone dead in their tracks. they normally do just that, but to the wrong people...

"[A]ccording to the group Handicap International, 98 percent of cluster-bomb victims are civilians, and 27 percent are children."

and here's the thing about this treaty before the UN. among those nations refusing to sign it we find ruthless nations that have committed countless war crimes, censored and imprisoned their own citizens with little reason, and participated in terrorist actions around the globe.

three of these countries are as follows:

Russia
China
United State of America


...guess what? countries like Lebanon are signing this treaty. the Lebanese government knows what cluster-bombs are like and know that it doesn't want to let them float around the world freely anymore.


"Washington, Moscow and other non-signers say cluster bombs have legitimate military uses such as repelling advancing troop columns."

if you want to repel advancing troop columns, use bullets. they work, too, and don't have a possibility of delayed explosive injury.

maintaining the use of bullets as opposed to weapons such as cluster-f#@%s will not stop the U.S. from being a nation that utilizes terrorism to get what it wants. but hopefully without these shiny play-things governments like those of Russia, China, and the United States of America might actually have to grow a pair and face combat in a more courageous way, as opposed to all-out slaughter of the weak and vulnerable.

If the United States of America would like to look like a nation that honors freedom and democracy, then I simply demand that its government sign the treaty to ban cluster-bombs.

...

and i ask those of you reading, if you live in this country, try to help us look like a little less of the huge asshole we already are and demand an end to cluster-bombs, as well!

thank you.

LAISSEZ FAIRE: Dedicated to the uninsured 47 million Americans.

Laissez Faire


generally adored
this system fortunato
rarely abhored
maker of the ghetto

in a country hailed
by three hundred million hearts
covered if failed
with doctored charts

we hide the effects
defy the attacks
coming from rejects
lost with no chance


highest bidder, step up!
fight for your cash
and trample the Gallop
see? ain't no backlash!

we keep 'em down n' broke
what they got to take?
might be the stroke
or backyard snake

build my empire on your back
you slave, slave away for me
i cut your paycheck
damnit, don't cry when you bleed!

you're gonna stain my Persian
walk out of here and stay
i give you compensation
to keep the Wobblies at bay

don't try to organize
put those chains back on!
when you gonna realize
life ain't fair to a peon!


we switch it up now, boss
we take back the mic
you gonna hafta cut your loss
or we goin' on strike!

don't tell us what to do
we know what's ours to claim
and we gonna take it, too!
you didn't listen--damn shame

we want healthcare--swear it!
you've killed too many
we're gonna live--declare it!
no more big money


i'm gonna tell my kids to come
what corporations got wrong
tell 'em what is good n' done
apologize it took so long

you can have your competition
just don't shoot craps with strife
wheel n' deal to bold fruition
but give us liberty n' life!


--

pax.

How to NOT vote pro-life:::

i read this on my friend Kristy's sister-in-law's blog...

http://theheidaway.blogspot.com/2008/05/now-this-just-makes-me-angrydoes-it-not.html

i work at Target, pushing carts. i see a lot of bumper stickers in a given day.

i see this one a lot, surprisingly:

"i vote pro-life". an american flag waves in the background.

this sticker reeks of two things i hate.
1. nationalism (as a Christian recognizing a global family, christian and non-christian, this is elementarily disgusting and elitist as a concept--especially when it provokes war)
2. the term pro-life (which in-and-of-itself should be concerned with ALL HUMAN LIFE. not so, with the republican party, whom i would imagine they are meaning to show support for, by donning this sticker)

"pro-life" should mean what it says, but since there's not one political party (i can find) that dodges nationalism and a pro-death stance... i think it's BS to vote for any single party ALL the TIME!

don't tell me you vote pro-life. we can't vote pro-life. i can't vote pro-life, but i can try to influence senators and representatives and candidates for all positions of power to lean away from killing american babies too, since at least the democrats are less happy about killing Iraqi babies, so far.

i hate double standards.

get angry. tell somebody else. try to change things and REALLY work for a pro-life stance. right now, obviously not enough people are.

and yes, i have every intention of tagging every single person in my friends list. hopefully i'll get a reaction, sisters and brothers.

instead of "voting pro-life", elect to live pro-life!

PAX.

you provoke me

crawling in the mud, sticking to your fingers, caking your face. you belly down and ease so slowly, silently toward the goal.

the enemy standing at the gate. beyond it is all you ever cared about gaining.

behind you is all you ever cared about--lost.

at this pinnacle... this dare-devil collage of thoughts and racing hearts, your chest burns with everything you've ever felt.

swirling into one surge, one un-dying urge--a tornado of truth and heart.

you have nothing to hold you back any more. between the fences.

to attempt is to kill yourself. to forego, and remain, is suicide. if not worse.

when faced with the moment when the guard looks away, walks away, exists away from your goal--your promise--what not to do other than charge forth?

get up! go! race toward it with all your might!

even as the sights of so many guns bear down upon your bloody forelock, there is little left they can take.

when you can claim it all, just on the other side.

just outside the shiny barbed wire of Guantanamo, a boat is waiting to carry you away to your reality they tried to rob from you.

just JUMP!

God is jumping with you!

--

pax.

not the norm.

i am going to break a lot of rules by writing what i will write next.

if you have a weak stomach, are patriotic, or know anyone who'd be offended by condemnation of particular US soldiers, or would be offended by an affront to the American psyche of super-importance... then stop reading this entry.

---

i first read a story of a woman named Maria Osman, a Mogadishu resident, about two weeks ago. Yahoo News journalist Kevin Sites has been touring the world's conflict zones for about a year. he stopped in Mogadishu and met a woman named Maria.

her arm is useless. rendered so by the bullet wound that she earned for trying to reach the crushed body of her dead young daughter... under US Black Hawk helicopter Super Six One. When the first Black Hawk went down on October 3, 1993, it would herald the end for 18 American soldiers.

and the same fate came to roughly 600 to 1,000 Somalis.

we glorify the black hawks.


and we ignore Maria Osman's story.


the film makes no mention of the girl crushed by Super Six One.

' "I hate the Americans," she says, her eyes maintaining their empty sadness rather than shifting to anger. "I hate them for what happened to my daughter. If I saw one I would cut them up into so many pieces." ' -Kevin Sites quoting Maria Osman

if you think this is wrong, i agree with you. i think hate is a horrible thing, but i can see where it comes from.
but apparently she's not the only one guilty of this.

"An anonymous man wearing a US Special Forces T-shirt is a war criminal, if his three-minute YouTube interview is to be believed. In it, he claims to have taken part in routine torture of Iraqis — Hajji’s in soldier slang — in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison..." -Captain Eric May, on Soldier X's Youtube interview (i won't put the link to it, but search "soldier x interview" if you absolutely don't believe me in any other way. but please, don't view it unless you're completely ready to hear what he has to say, while smiling)


last month i joined the All Somali Forum. i wrote a blog on there about the war crimes of the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia, and when someone read it, they posted a comment asking me if i am anti-TFG.

i told them that i am, for the time being, since they are committing war crimes and getting away with it. i am against any war criminal. frankly, as you can guess, that does mean tat my enemies include many americans. by far, hopefully not a majority, but definitely more than i'd normally think.

there are always people against people. but if it's going to go that way, it should only be the armed against the armed. civilians should never be targets. and there is such a thing as War Law. so if you're going to lose your head, at least do it by the rules.

Waterboarding & Torture: read and tell me you still like Bush

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080214/pl_afp/usbushcongressintelligenceveto

i hate this. absolutely HATE it.

it'd be great if we could have someone mature in office sometime soon.

i should shut up now before i say something really bad.

so much for bloody human rights is the grand ol' US of A.

i hate this.

along this track, why don't we just go back to the "good old days (ways)" of breaking the Geneva Conventions and committing war crimes...


execution of a Vietcong soldier; photo taken at exact second of cartridge explosion.

way to go Captain America... you endorsed this.

presidential elections in the USA 2008

The official year of election for America’s next president has began a few days ago.

Now every candidate tries to go out and talk to the people as often and as much as possible.

I had a closer look at the programs of some people and I found out about some stuff which I don’t really like.
I don’t really like all of their ideas. Every candidate has something he stands for, I can’t really agree with. But that’s normal when you talk about politics. You'll never find someone you can fully agree with.

For me it’s hard to stand behind one of the candidates.
So I’m some kind of happy that I won’t have and won’t be allowed to vote for the next president of the USA.
It’s difficult to decide for one person especially this year.

The last survey in December 2007 showed that 39% would vote for Hillary Clinton and 24% would give their vote to Barack Obama; both are Democrats. For the Republics, there is Rudolph Giuliani to whom 25% would give their vote and 16% would give their vote to Mike Huckabee.

There are some others on the list as well but they get 0- 15% only. So they don’t really have a huge chance to win the election except they really make a good election campaign.

Frankly I don’t like all these election campaigns. They spend too much money on it. All together they’ll spend about 1 billion $ on their election campaigns this year in the USA but this isn't only a problem of the USA, all over the world, also in Germany, they spend too much on election campaigns.

Do you have any favorite you’d vote for right now?

If I'd be allowed to vote, I would vote for Jesus... ;-)
-> have a look at Archer's blog entry "-a really controversial political/ecclesiastical blog on Hillary Clinton-"

I’ll pray for all the Americans who are allowed to vote, to make the right decision and I’ll pray for the ones who want to become the next president of the United States that they’ll follow the right aims and God's will.

God bless you
-Krissi