stop worrying and learn to love the bomb

Pushing through the market square, so many mothers sighing
News had just come over
We had five years left to cry in
News guy wept and told us
Earth was really dying
Cried so much his face was wet, then I knew
He was not lying

I heard telephones, opera house, favourite melodies
I saw boys, toys electric irons and t.v.s
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there

And all the fat-skinny people, and all the tall-short people
And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people
I never thought I’d need so many people

A girl my age went off her head, hit some tiny children
If the black hadnt a-pulled her off, I think she
Would have killed them
A soldier with a broken arm, fixed his stare to the wheels of a cadillac
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest
And a queer threw up at the sight of that

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour
Drinking milk shakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine
Don’t think you knew you were in this song
And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor
And I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, the way that you talk
I kiss you, you’re beautiful, I want you to walk

We’ve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, thats all we’ve got
Five years
Five years
Five years
Five years

David Bowie

Company trying to get under soldiers’ skin

I remember before the U.S. invaded Iraq, there was some military official quoted: “Everybody wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.”

It’s hard to believe we’d go that far, and it’s still wait and see, but maybe those manly men will get their wish:

Bush ‘helped Israeli attack on Lebanon’

The US government was closely involved in planning the Israeli campaign in Lebanon, even before Hizbullah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross border raids in July. American and Israeli officials met in the spring, discussing plans on how to tackle Hizbullah, according to a report published yesterday…

“A successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign … could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American pre-emptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations,” sources told Hersh…

Yesterday Mr Hersh told CNN: “July was a pretext for a major offensive that had been in the works for a long time. Israel’s attack was going to be a model for the attack they really want to do. They really want to go after Iran.”

Israel Asks U.S. to Ship Rockets With Wide Blast

In the case of cluster munitions, including the Multiple Launch Rocket System, which fires the M-26, the Israeli military only fires into open terrain where rocket launchers or other military targets are found, to avoid killing civilians, an Israeli official said.

...

Last month, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said its researchers had uncovered evidence that Israel had fired cluster munitions on July 19 at the Lebanese village of Bilda, which the group said had killed one civilian and wounded at least 12 others, including 7 children. The group said it had interviewed survivors of the attack, who described incoming artillery shells dispensing hundreds of cluster submunitions on the village.

Human Rights Watch also released photographs, taken recently by its researchers in northern Israel, of what it said were American-supplied artillery shells that had markings showing they carried cluster munitions.

Mr. Siegel, the Israeli Embassy spokesman, denied that cluster munitions had been used on the village.

Lies, so many lies. The U.S. should be involved in this?

And even if they limit targeting to open terrain, there’s still have the problem of unexploded bomblets:

Submunition function reliability requirement is no less than 95 percent. With a 95 percent submunition function reliability, one CBU-58 (with 650 submunitions) could produce up to 38 unexploded submunitions. A typical B-52 dropping a full load of 45 CBU-58/CBU-71, each containing 650 submunitions, could produce an average of some 1700 unexploded sub-munitions. The numbers of submunitions that fail to properly function and the submunitions’ dispersion determine the actual density of the hazard area.

Studies that show 40 percent of the duds on the ground are hazardous and for each encounter with an unexploded submunition there is a 13 percent probability of detonation. Thus, even though an unexploded submunition is run over, kicked, stepped on, or otherwise disturbed, and did not detonate, it is not safe. Handling the unexploded submunition may eventually result in arming and subsequent detonation.

Source: FAS on Cluster Bombs

stand by me
as the mountains crumble to the sea

Israel is apparently deliberatelytargetingcivilians, including UN personnel and clearly marked ambulances. Not only that, but they told village residents to evacuate … then bombed the shit out of them as they left.

Are these not the actions of terrorists?

The latest use of microchips in people.

The creepy coup

Funny video. Go Bruce.

Present company included

I didn’t fret about one single world event today, or gnash my teeth at the Administration goons.