COMMENTARY - Okay, so everybody hates us. Let's just bomb them already.

Alright, fine, I'll succumb to peer pressure and follow the popular trend of jabbering about war. In fact, I will dedicate the remainder of this week to it. This will be the Official Warped Core War Whining Week. Hopefully by the end of this week you'll see how silly this all is, and find something better to do with your time than fret away your life over all this nonsense you hear from other people babbling on this subject. You probably think I'm crazy, uncaring, or even unpatriotic, but this is hardly so. Quite the opposite, in fact. Well, perhaps with exception to the crazy bit. But anyways, stick with me the rest of the week and see why I believe that the vast majority of Americans really have absolutely nothing to worry about. Today's topic is, well, just read the title. I found this great article on MSNBC.com titled "The Arrogant Empire". I know, it's a really long read (comparatively speaking, to your average web news article), but definitely worth the time. For those of you too lazy to read it, I'll be discussing the highlights and including my own interpretation with the remainder of this post. The article really discusses not Iraq, but America. The whole business with Iraq has really been merely a catalyst for the inevitable. History has shown that every time a major power has emerged, suspicion and mistrust of that power would soon arise and there would be a banding together of the lesser powers to topple the greater, in order to even the playing field. Much like a bunch of lobsters in a tank, they keep pulling each other down so nobody makes it too near the top. The only reason America has stood unopposed for so long is that every president since the Cold War era has taken great care to maintain strong foreign relations. By showing concern and offering aid to other countries, we showed the world that our strength was to their own benefit, and not a cause for fear and mistrust. This all changed the moment Bush stepped into office. Since then, America has given off nothing but an air of arrogance, demonstrating to the rest of the world that we don't need them, while they still need us. Other countries have met this egotism with feelings ranging from resentment to outrage, yet none dare take action against America for it's conceit. For after the September 11th terrorist attack, the rest of the world watched in awe and horror as a sleeping dragon awoke and lashed back, effortlessly crushing an entire country on the opposite end of the globe in a mere matter of months. The world had let America go unchallenged for so long that our lead, in terms of both economy and military, is so far ahead of any other nation as to seem insurmountable. While America may be able to rule the world like this now, bullying other countries, making demands, and taking what we want, history has shown that this approach will inevitably fail us in the end. The rest of the world will eventually band together and take the war home to America, and once again even the playing field. Yet hope is not lost for us, even now as the world opposes our imminent war with Iraq. In the coming weeks, we will forcefully uncover the dark secrets hidden within Iraq and expose Saddam for the threat he really is, and the rest of the world will have no choice but to admit we were right. Many will undoubtedly still disagree with out methods, but there will also be a growing voice against the inaction of the U.N. and it's inability to come to a resolution or even accurately identify this threat. This will hopefully result in a reshaping of the U.N. to take a more proactive stance in global affairs moving forward. But America will need to regain the trust of the world, now that they have seen the true power our country possesses. Aiding in building a new Iraq in the wake of our extermination effort would be a good start. Kicking Bush out of office and electing a new president who will once more pick up a stance of interest and concern in foreign affairs is also definitely a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen, as again history has shown that presidents that have led our country in times of war typically get reelected. It is true that a president lacking the assertiveness of Bush would likely still be waiting on the U.N., and may not have taken any action against Iraq until it was too late. For this scenario, Bush was the right man for the job. His pit bull tenacity will get the job done, with or without the support of the rest of the world. But once this crisis is over, will he be able to step back down graciously, make his apologies to the nations he has offended, and rebuild relations with the rest of the world? I fear the consequences if he proves incapable of doing as much. The fear, anger, and resentment towards the U.S. will only escalate to a catastrophic end. ***Readers that are too lazy to even read this whole article, start here*** To summarize, the war on Iraq will prove America right. Weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq. A glaring flaw in the procedures of the United Nations will be exposed for it's inability to manage the incident itself, invoking fundamental changes in its organization. We will remove Saddam from power and eliminate any threat from Iraq. America will then once more work with the U.N. instead of against it, we will begin rebuilding foreign relations and peace will be restored, until King George decides to do something else stupid. So as you can see, despite outward appearances, matters are pretty well in hand, and the conflict will smooth over with relative rapidity. But you are left with the power to ensure an incident of this nature isn't repeated. While I forecast clear skies past the storms in Iraq, the world will not put up with Bush's bashing for too much longer, if he cannot change his ways. While his tactics have been well suited for a conflict with the likes of Saddam, the rest of the world does not appreciate being treated with the same contempt and lack of respect. So when the next presidential election comes along, give old George the boot and vote for a new president with at least some interest in foreign affairs. And if you live in Florida, make sure to mark your vote clearly, and be certain any pets you have registered to vote are instructed to mark their ballots accordingly as well.

COMMENTARY - 2 for 1 special! Vanity plates AND Floridiots!

Speaking of Floridiots... I know this news article is a little old, one year exactly as a matter of fact, but a good story is timeless. Here we have Floridiots protesting a vanity plate. The DMV has cancelled the plate after a whole ten people signed a petition stating they were offended by it's message, which simply read "ATHEIST". Okay, let's look at this from both sides. Steve Miles, the owner of the plate, is the vice president of the Atheists club of Florida. It makes perfect sense to have a plate stating his convictions, or lack thereof. The dictionary definition of "atheist" is as follows: "One who disbelieves or denies the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being." In what way can this possibly be construed as an offensive term? The problem lies in that Florida is too far south to be considered part of the Bible Belt, and instead falls more in the Bible Buttcrack region. Combine the religious fervor of the Bible Belt with the blind conviction and stupidity of a state that thinks the civil war hasn't ended, where Union flags still fly off the back of their pickups, and you'll start to get the picture. Since this poor fellow does not share their belief in God, then he obviously shouldn't be allowed to express his opinion. It's people like this who give organized religion a bad name. Is a car driving around with a message conveying the lack of a religious affiliation by the driver really going to turn others away from church on Sundays? I think not. But a bunch of religious fanatics trampling someone's first amendment rights might make some people think twice about organized religion. That said, Steve Miles needs to get over his stupid vanity plate. You live in Florida, you should have expected this. Consider the money he's shelled out to keep that plate for the 16 years he's had it. He could easily have made bumper stickers for every member of the atheists club in the state with that much. Then there would be 300+ cars driving around Florida proclaiming "ATHEIST". Plus there would be no annual fee involved. Slap the sticker on, and you're done. Then the fanatic Floridiots could whine about it until they were blue in the face and there's nothing they could do about it, short of taking a razor blade to the back of your car and scraping it off themselves, at which point you could have them arrested. So where is the downside to this for the atheists? Apparently, in a follow-up story, the DMV reversed it's decision and informed Miles that he could keep his plate after all. Atheists: 1, Floridiots: 0.

NEWS - Sites for sore brains

Got a couple of new sites worth a quick mention. First is GameStudies.org. Here's a quick snippet about them that I took off their website: "Game Studies is a crossdisciplinary journal dedicated to games research, web-published several times a year at www.gamestudies.org. Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games... Our mission - To explore the rich cultural genre of games; to give scholars a peer-reviewed forum for their ideas and theories; to provide an academic channel for the ongoing discussions on games and gaming." The next time someone tells you that you're rotting your brain playing computer games, tell them you're doing research and refer them to this site. Next, I have a new source for news, Morons.org. What better way to keep tabs on Floridiots?

OBITUARIES - THE RIAA

The RIAA is dead. They just haven't realized it yet. I've been giving some serious thought as to why the RIAA has to be such a pain in everyone's collective hind ends. Every day, I hear of some new harebrained scheme they've come up with, from attempts to squash piracy, shut down P2P networks, force ISPs to turn over information on subscribers "engaged in significant copyright infringement", choke off internet radio with hefty royalties, spread propaganda on the "evils" of file sharing and CD-R media, the list goes on and on. While pondering why the RIAA feels they need to be so malicious towards the digital revolution, I recalled something from that Psychology 101 class I took a forever ago. Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote this book, "On Death and Dying", in which she defined the five stages of grief one faces when confronted with the knowledge of their own imminent death: denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance. Upon putting this principle into the context of the RIAA, it is quite apparent that they are in fact far into the throes of death. There was a time when musicians had to go through a major record company to make it big. Small time bands were doomed to failure without the label's promotional support and recording equipment. While this is still largely how the music industry operates today, there is a growing shadow looming on the horizon known as the digital revolution, which threatens the RIAA's traditional way of life. Thanks to the continually dropping prices of technology, for a relatively small investment a band can acquire their own equipment, record their own albums, burn their own CD's, and get some free publicity sharing their work on the internet. The RIAA for a long time was in denial. They scoffed at the idea that people would want their music in some digital format and not solely on a CD. The so-called digital revolution would surely die out, and the major record labels would remain dictators of the music industry. But the digital revolution didn't just go away. Instead it grew like wildfire to where it could no longer be ignored. The RIAA then took to bargaining. They made efforts to "coexist" with this revolution while maintaining complete dictatorial control, which really isn't coexisting at all, when you think about it. They began working with manufacturers to come up with ways to protect their media, but nothing seemed able to stop the determined pirates. The RIAA grew angry, and started lashing out. They started to fear this form of music distribution they did not have absolute control over. They dealt a crushing blow to Napster, who they long viewed as a thorn in their side, and now seek a similar fate for the slew of new P2P networks that arose in the wake of Napster's downfall. Visit the RIAA homepage to see what other detestable deeds they have committed, and view their plans for crushing the digital revolution moving forward. They proudly document all of it on their site, as to reassure themselves that they are in fact still alive and kicking. The demand for digital media is only intensifying though, and the RIAA needs to come to grips with this and find a way to truly coexist with it. Eventually some band or other will come up with a clever way to take advantage of this demand for digital media and make it big time without ever signing with a major label, resulting in a trend away from the RIAA with upcoming musicians nationwide, spelling the end of the RIAA, if they don't change their methods quickly. Take a look at the RIAA's own current mission statement:

"The Recording Industry Association of America is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA(r) members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States." Notice how there's no mention of the artists? How about the consumers? No mention of them either. That's because as the RIAA stands now, they're not a concern. Their only concern is their money. If their interests were anywhere else they would not be as unyielding and stubborn as they are. It's a commonly known fact that, in the entertainment industry, if you want to make the big bucks you have to give the people what they want. The people want digital media. The folks at the RIAA need to get that through their thick skulls. The RIAA need not die entirely, it only needs to die in its current form. Times are changing, and there is no place for an institution as inflexible as the RIAA stands now in our future.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Pop-up ads

Pop-up ads are like the billboards along the information superhighway. Except billboards don't usually fall from the sky, crash down in front of you, and force you to read them. That'd be bad.

COMMENTARY - IMAMRON

I hate vanity plates. Why would anyone pay extra to have a specific arrangement of no more than seven characters as the identification for their vehicle? You're not going to be able to say anything clever with so few letters, especially since the very few witty arrangements like "SLAVE I", or "NCC1701" are certainly already taken. And what's the point of a vanity plate on your car if you're the only one who knows what it means? It loses what little cleverness it had once you have to keep explaining it to every car that pulls up next to you, asking what the garbled phrase you tried to mash down to seven letters on the back of your car is supposed to mean. You may as well just have a randomly assigned plate. And even a garbled vanity plate is easier to remember than a randomly assigned one, so the next time you're driving drunk, plow over a pedestrian, and try to drive off, your plate will be on the tip of any witnesses' tongues. Got something to say and have to stick it on your car? Spell it out on a bumper sticker. It'll cost you only a fraction of a vanity plate, people will actually be able to read and understand it, and neither the DMV or the police keep your bumper stickers on file. Then you can mow down innocent bystanders while intoxicated with ease, and still share your clever message with the world.

NEWS- Stats and stuff

I signed up with Blog Hot or Not last week, and judging from the results so far, apparently people either absolutely love my site, or they wickedly despise it. Very few people seem to fall in between. Of course, this may be a bit of a premature analysis after only nine votes, but at least I can take comfort that there seem to be more people who fall into the former category than the latter. My poll seems to indicate that my new color scheme has been met with lukewarm acceptance at best, so I will likely be changing it to something more traditional and a little easier on the eyes in the next month or two. I likely won't be taking the time to mess with the site's coding from work anymore, so it'll have to wait until I have a computer at home to work on it. Which, by the way, should only be another month. If all goes according to plan, I will be ordering the parts for my new system sometime next week, and should hopefully have it built and online in the two weeks following. No thanks to any PayPal donations unfortunately... Moving on though, in my ongoing effort to get traffic, and also due to my own curiousity and lack of anything better to do (what was that? Work at work?! That's crazy...), I have probably perused several hundred blogs over the past week. I have shocking news to share with you regarding the blogging community: Most blogs suck. Okay, this isn't really shocking news, and in fact is the reason this blog was founded, in protest of them, but I have been so busy updating my own blog that I had forgotten how much everyone else's sucked. Seriously, you should just stick to mine, and not waste your time even looking at the rest of them. Still, during my surveillance of the blogging community I have stumble across several very, very rare gems of blogs that are actually worth your time to read. So I am starting a new links section on my page to share this short list with you in hopes of saving you the pain and agony of suffering through all the crappy blogs you'd have to wade through to find them on your own. Look for the start of this list to be up a little later today. Once I have my new system built and online at home, I think I'm going to start my own webring for blogs that don't suck. In addition to personally screening the applicants, I also plan on sending invitations to blogs that I think are worthy. This way there will finally be a webring where you can be assured that any site within will not be a total waste of your time. I think I may have just barred my chances of getting into any further webrings in the future by saying as much, but just check out some of the sites in any of the six rings I'm currently signed up for if you have any doubt that most rings don't exactly uphold the highest of quality standards. At any rate, that's about all the news I have for now. I should probably start working at work now, seeing as I've been here three hours and haven't done a thing yet...