What Joe Stack Did

As you've all heard, a couple weeks back a man named Joe Stack crashed his plan into an IRS building in hopes of starting a revolution. He left a suicide note explaining his actions. It seems his feeling are not due to Tea Party insanity that has started, but are based off what is really wrong with America. That is that the corporations have taken over our government. Our government has not been a government of the people since the end of WWII, and this man has been trying to deal with that for the last three decades. Obviously he failed.

While I agree with what he's saying, I don't agree with his actions. I do not believe that a bloody revolution will fix anything. I take the Buddhist stance that world is the way the world is. You cannot spend to much time dwelling on what a horrible place the world is, or it will consume you and make you horrible. Like it did to this man. This doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything. What people don't realize is that Capitalism, the ability to buy what you choose to buy, gives us power. What keeps this system working is money, and where you choose to spend it. The main hypocrisy I see today are individuals who bitch about how big businesses run the government and then go shop at Wal-mart, keep their money at Bank of America, and buy Nike. These are not the only three corporations that are problems, just examples. These corporations have become global entities, and are no longer controlled by national governments, i.e. they control the national governments of the world. But what they can't control is what you buy. They've made the easiest purchase theirs, of course, but you can buy something else.

Now you might say, where I live we have no options, Wal-Mart already killed the competition. The truth is, you always have options. Most communities have a Farmer's Market, you can start your own garden, look for local programs where you can get a share from a farmer, and research other ideas. And don't make stupid decisions like not eating McDonald's, but you will eat Sonic. That's just dumb and it doesn't make any sense. As for your money put it in, preferably, a credit union. If not that, a local bank. Buy only sweat shop free clothing, or reused clothes when you don't have the money. I'm sure these are only a few ways to help. And I'm not saying I do all of this all the time, but I can say I try to do all of this all of the time (I have a weakness for Steak n Shake, but I'm getting better). This is system is built upon the idea that we will buy from these corporations. If you don't like the system, don't buy into it.

Of course its not all you can do. Vote, it still kinda counts. Monkey wrenching, if your are hanging out with your friends one night and your bored, don't head to the bar to buy corporate booze. Take some moonshine and rewrite some billboards to make them tell the truth. Or visit the newest corporate construction site. Write your Senators and Representatives on a National level, and more importantly a State level. They kinda still listen as well. Also become involved with your local government. If you are blessed with living in a small town, try and keep the corporate invasion at bay, if possible. The battle is only over, if you decide its over. We can win this, but it will take some sacrifice.

Climate Change Rant

Due to this recent snow-fucking, deniers of climate change have developed a hard on. Despite the hard evidence gathered by non-partisan scientist, these individuals take a snow storm, in a isolated area, as evidence that global climate change is not happening. I cannot blame them for wanting this to be a reality. And maybe they are right. But the consequences of them being wrong are much more severe than if climate change believers are wrong.

We have two actions to take: to act, and try to curb emissions and the destruction of our water, food, and air; or not to act, to continue down the same road. They both have their negatives and their positives. If we act, we will spend resources and energy on something that could turn out to be useless, but if not will help our race survive. In doing nothing we'll save those resources for another day, but there might not be another day.

So we are left with four results: Act, and help curb the effects of the climate change; Act, and nothing happens because this is "silly"; Don't Act, and nothing happens; or Don't Act, and the survival of the human race is threatened.

For me this is a no brainer, as for most of you reading this blog I imagine, ACT. I have grown found of us humans, and would like to see us populate the universe in time. As I believe this is our purpose, if we have one at all.

Its a shame we are mostly to late, I see tough times ahead for the human race. Not the planet itself, she will be fine. She's stronger than we can imagine. Life and this planet will survive much longer than us, if we are not careful.

The future I see, is life becoming difficult, but in the end we survive, not fall. We learn from out mistakes as a race, not falling back into the world of superstition. Our progress in space is further halted, but in time we settle the habitable parts of our solar system. Learning more and more, we eventually leave out solar system to explore the milky way, and eventually other galaxies.

This can be our future if we want it to be.

'Taint Dangerous

A blog for our taint
is where our taint talent sweats
the need to be seen

'Taint Dangerous

7 Taliban Insurgents Attack the Capital of Afghanistan

The L.A. Times reported today that 7 Taliban Insurgents attacked Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. From the sounds of the article, the Taliban were quite successful, despite their small numbers versus our large numbers. Which begs the question, if we can't defeat 7 lowly suicide bombers in our Afghanistan established government's capital, can we ever stop the insurgency? Or has the collective conscious of America accepted the fact we are sustaining perpetual war? When we get reports like this from Afghanistan, it feels like we are beating a dead horse when asking if we can win. Or if that is our true goal? It seems it would take something the scale of D-day to search every cranny of Afghanistan to wipe out the Taliban. More likely the entire Middle East. The non-combatant casualties would be astounding. It looks like we are building towards this. The longer we continue to bomb innocent people, the more terrorist we form; the more terrorist we have, the more terrorist attacks we have; the more terrorist attacks we have, the larger force of troops in the Middle East we'll have; making a viscous cycle that cannot be broken. Since there is no evidence of us changing our foreign policy towards the Middle East, a full out D-day style invasion is a possibility we are working towards.

Let's hope I'm wrong.

The New Stephen Colbert

There seems to be a new right-satirist news pundit on the air, named Glenn Beck. It appears that Fox News, after seeing the success of shows such as the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, as switched to the realm of news parody. Glenn Beck is leading the way for the "news" channel's new direction. Critics are already flooding the show with praise. Glenn Beck has been awarded the "Misinformer of the Year" for 2009. Making him the funniest man on Television. They've made a list of his greatest hits here.

Keep up the funny work Glenn Beck!

Is the end coming?

It seems since the beginning of this millennium, it has been full of apocalyptic talk. We've had Y2K, the religious right screaming the end is coming, increased terrorism, economics failures, global warming, and 2012 rhetoric. The history channel no longer shows history, it focus its lineup on Armageddon oriented shows, e.g. the Nostradamus Effect, Life After People, and several (feels like hundreds) 2012 specials. Are we really on the brink of civilization? This is inevitable; as we all know, all civilizations fall. Are we about to entire a new dark age? Or is this just a bunch of people screaming for attention?

It seems that things do not look good, this we know for sure. Our built to fail monetary system is on the brink of collapse. At this point we can only prolong its existence. I doubt we can get out of the debt we've put ourselves. We have less money in circulation, than what we owe. The oceans are rising. The Maldive Islands will most likely not see the next century. It doesn't matter whether humans are the main cause to global warming, or if we had little to no influence, it is real. The planet is warming up, the Arctic is thawing, and the oceans are rising. 2008 was the first year, on record, that humans did not grow enough food to feed everyone on the planet. In past years we had enough food, it just didn't make it those who need it. Now there is not enough food. We are beginning to run out of fresh water. Corporations are trying to privatize it, so they have control of the resource when it comes scarce. Israel's settlements in Palestine are based on areas that known to have deep water wells. Terrorist groups are growing, and attacks are continuing to increase. America is now involved in 3 wars Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. We have started to covert operations in Yemen, and are planning a surgical strike in Iran. China is starting to flex her foreign policy muscle, executing a British citizen, and testing defensive missiles in response to American arms sales to Taiwan. A country China wants back.

This isn't everything that's going badly, just what I have off the top of my head. We've also had the horrible Tsunami, Katrina, and other horrible natural disasters. And there's more still. Should we be preparing for the worst? I'm not saying this is going to happen over night, like the Y2K predictions. What I want to know is if the natural disasters are to continue, and the terror attacks with increased war responses get worse, will we still have infrastructure in 2050?

I think about his stuff a lot. I'm at a turning point in my life. I don't know if I should continue down the road of academia and see if I can help fix things through education. Or if we should ban together, start a self-sustaining community and just be ready.

What do you think? I'm not sure how many people read this. So this might be asking a blank wall, but leave me a comment about what you think. Am I just letting the "what ifs" eat me alive? Or is civilization heading downward?

(Click the title above for a short video supplied from disinformation.)

Where's Your Money

A money movement has started, inspiration being drawn from the movie It's A Wonderful Life. It revolves around the concept of taking money out of the big banks that play in the derivatives market, and putting it into community banks. This does two things, keeps your money in the community, making a more stable community. It also keeps the big guys from gambling with your money. When they reap the benefits and you reap the loses, it should be an easy choice to put your money else where.

If you think you are with a community bank, you might find out else wise. I bank at Commerce and I knew they were large in this region, but I didn't think they were owned by one of the conglomerates. Turns out they are. Move Your Money has a simple tool that rates all the banks in your area. So you can see where your banks is.

So check out the site, and move your money today.