*sigh* As if things weren't bad enough.

As I'm sure a great many of you are aware, the September 11th aftermath supposedly 'united us as a nation in our grief'. I say this with a fairly bitter and sarcastic tone only because I was downright disgusted when I was finally able to get to a television two hours after the attack, and saw the 'timely' marketing concept for the 'Attack on America'. It was all so expertly done, and yet so false and poorly constructed at the same time. Really...

The only positive thing about watching at that point was that videos that were catching footage as it happened weren't being edited for expletives. Watching Dan Rather react to a group of NYC city workers repeatedly shouting FUCK! was amusing.

The smarmy, shitty way everything turned out in the media isn't what actually got me all cranked up in the first place. A great deal of it has to do with the fact that because of this rather handy situation for the Republican Party, a great many horrifying laws are being passed and an enormous amount of taxpayer money is being yet again shoveled into another useless war. Not to mention the billions of imaginary dollars that our 'fearless leader' seems to be pulling out of the ionosphere just in time to pull the airlines out of finanacial trouble, as well as funding a war on a CONCEPT. America has been 'at war' with some country or idea for as long as I can remember (the 'war on drugs has lasted at least twenty years or more, now, even after it's been PROVEN that prohibition didn't work), and it usually all ends up the same way. People die and leadership changes, but human nature remains the same unchanged foul, shitty diaper.

You want examples? Within moments of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, the first few WTC domain names were snapped up by 'entrepenourial individuals' so that they could say they'd done it. TONS of WTC 'memoriabilia' was slammed into the Ebay auction system, yet more assholes taking advantage of misery and human suffering. There were also reports of people dressing up as firemen and rescue workers that roamed around, asking for social security numbers so that they could 'help'. Yeah right. The sheer volume of man taking advantage of his fellow man when there was some really serious shit going down was astronomical.

And that's only the half of it.

Now I'm subjected to car commercials asking me to by a crappy, overpriced American SUV to 'keep america rolling'. Other car companies have fallen in step, taking advantage of offering '0% financing for individuals who qualify' in the name of false patriotism. Countless pandering marketing concepts followed, selling memorial coins, flag pins, banners and t-shirts, not to mention a company peddling their 'invention' that would allow you to hold an american flag in your car's closed window so that you could declare your 'patriotism' to all the other individuals that followed the same trend. It's sickening.

Don't get me wrong. I grok what the flag stands for, and I honestly happen to respect the HONEST American ideal. You know...the one that our forefathers fought for, as opposed to being a society that takes advantage of the elderly through telemarketing and mass mailing schemes or victimizes anybody that looks or says anything different or 'politically incorrect'. I'd be flyin' it myself if everybody else wasn't being a sheep and following the herd of consumerism. People were spitting at it and setting it on fire, not to mention bleeding all of the marvelous symbolism out of it and making it into a bland sheet of red, white and blue cloth - before September 11th. NOW everybody is called on to remember how cool it is to be AMERICAN, and how PROUD we are that we aren't like anybody else
in the world. Yay us.

Hmm...not to say that this kind of bullshit got us into this mess in the first place. Empty flagwaving and jingoistic slogans aren't going to get us out of this mess. If I honestly thought that this would change anything, I'd be waving the flag and drooling like an idiot like all the emptyheaded registered voters that actually think that George W. Bush himself is leading us.

My first thought at hearing what had happened, as it was happening was, "Oh, say...that's handy. This gives Dubbya a wonderful reason to push all that really nasty legislation that the democratic majority of congress have been giving him so much grief about. Nothing like a little senseless, well directed hatred to get people to vote exactly the way you want them to. It should be relatively easy for them to throw together even more of a corporate dictatorship than already exists." I'm still not entirely certain that unnamed, unseen members of the Republican Party didn't arrange this. It's just too clean.

But then I always was a conspiracy theorist.

People laugh and wince when the phrase "Why can't we all just get along" is uttered, yet it's a valid question. Unfortunately, the majority of people choose the easy, weak road out and don't bother to think about who they're supposed to be hating, or why. Simple communication has passed us by once again. As to the events of September 11th? It's a drop in the bucket, friends. Compared to what has passed before us in the scope of human history? It's NOTHING.

The Rape of Nanking. The Trail of Tears. The Russian persecution of Jews. The Holocost. Nagasaki. Hiroshima. The Crusades. I could go on for HOURS. It doesn't change anything. The same little whiny boys in power don't have the balls to toe the line and whip their dicks out for what amounts to a simple pissing contest, and everybody suffers. Granted, it's not always that cut and dried, but in this instance, it is. Our government put Saddam Hussein in power. We trained members of the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden, then treat their home countries like those of a mongrel race, or those
beneath us, then wonder why these highly trained operatives organize their home forces against us.

How stupid can you get?

And it only makes us look like idiots when we rise to the bait that the Media and our Government presents to us on that well constructed platter, calling for the blood of all the arab races. Contrary to popular belief, I'd really like to believe that America isn't a nation populated by uneducated hicks. Sadly, when the masses roar, that's exactly what it seems like. If only people could take a step back from the emotional brink, and look at things in the long term, maybe life would stop getting this bad.

Until then, the cycle will keep repeating.

And now...to the meat of this rant. Abortion clinics across the country are now being peppered with missives stating that they're going to be attacked with 'the real thing' any day now, if they haven't already. As if external religious fundamentalist terrorists weren't enough, our country's own little dirty factions of born-again extremists are taking advantage of the situation and adding to the feeding frenzy by targeting interest groups that further their agenda. It's enough to make me want to create a device that will destroy every person on the planet that is convinced that their tin god is the only 'true way' that gives them the right to exterminate, torture and persecute the hell out of anybody that believes differently from them.

Modern technology doesn't have a fix for this yet...but I'll make sure to 'pray' for one in the future. I'm sure God-JVJH1-Yaweh-Buddha-Mohammed-Jah is tired of them as well, although I'm sure at first they presented an entertaining diversion.

FICTION:

Jhada and Argent || The Model and the Mad Scientist || Gabriel || An Unlikely Pairing || The Worst Porno Story Ever

POETRY:

No Longer Angry || Depression || Run with the Moon || Love is a Virus || BloodDance || Diamanda || Murderer || The Watcher || Confusion || Dream || Romeo is Bleeding || Cribdeath || HoPeLeSs || Soulmate || Darling || Illuminate || Madness || Insecurity || Fear || Angel || The Job || Pathetic || Shard of Hate || Thin || Departure of Friends || Empty Life || Kindred Spirit || Why Bother? || Loss of Control || Lonely Girl || Loss of a Dream || Damaged || Done|| Excision  || Missing You || Jhada|| Hope ||  Reflection ||  History Repeating

TIRADES:

Sucky Movies || Relationships || Marriage || Shortcomings || Parents || Monstrous Brats || Barbie's Newest Trauma || Babies in Trashcans || Religion || Listening || Public Facilities || Choices...|| Grieving || Legalize Prostitution ||  Sports VS Public Service || Y2K || Abortion || To Buffy, or not to Buffy? || Enough with the HATE Already! || Christmas|| Valentine's Day || Love in the 90's || The Big Trenchcoat Freakout || Keeping Up Appearances || Presidential Scourge || Legislating Safety || Anti-drug commercials || Dating || Annoying Anonymity || America West || The Great Bug Debacle || Smoking || Anthrax, anthrax, anthrax || The USA Patriot Act