and i just want to add that i am sick to death of these goddamn VH1 "100 best" lists.
Tonight its yet another fuckin' repeat of "100 greatest albums".
It took me years of study, interest, research and buying to figure out what is good in the western rock canon. I'm not even close to done, but i know what is right.
but now, thanks to the pioneering crap listmaking of VH1 (and by extension Rolling Stone maganzine) you don't have to care. You need merely tote the list to your favorite internet purveyor and Voila! Instant collection, sure to impress one and all of your conneiseurship and care.
It pisses me off.
Running a close second is all these lunkhead ex-jocks who run around and are now "punK". I mean, like I give a fuck, I was never a true punk. I just believe in the spirit and some of the clothes were nice (Hee! "nice") .
Oh well, I guess I'm remembering why LaLinda calls me "the CD Nazi"...
posted by a clark at 8:46 PM

anyway.
i've had what i believe to be sinusitis for the past week. LaLinda gave me an Augmentin (500mg!) and that seems to have done the trick. Thank God!
I've gotten no work done.
The project Aurore and I have been working on will debut in about a week and we are not finished (or completely prepared for that matter).
I have a couple of irons in the fire regarding research projects and an assistantship, but I feel like that's going to go nowhere (even though I really know it's going to work out fine...).
Woe is fuckin' me.
On the upside, my friends love me and I love them. It seems that life has boundless opportunities and my horizon is completely open. I care about everybody and most importantly, myself. And finally, I know that everything will turn out exactly as it should.
Some existentialist I turned out to be, huh?
posted by a clark at 8:17 PM

okay.
we know that American foreign policy regarding Iraq has been hypocritical to say the least. We know that our interests in commercial ventures certainly plays a role in our decisions to back this or that regime, dictator or group. We know that Israel is a problem and a solution. We know that European foreign policy is just as flawed and hypocritical. We know that the Arabs have backed the Palestinians specifically to help destroy Israel. We know that even though the Islamic terrorists and their many apologists in the West go on and on about Middle Eastern autonomy while seemingly denying the fact that the Middle East is a complete construct of the West and would have no existence as a wealthy power without its oil contracts to the West (I include Japan in this group). We know that American intervention is highly subjective;e.g. invade Somalia, do nothing about Rwanda;Try to use armed intervention against Iraq while leaving a nuclear powered Korea alone, etc. We know that the Europeans are just as likely to use armed interventions without world support when they feel it necessary, e.g. France sending in its own troops and French Legionnaires to the Ivory Coast during the recent civil wars--never mind that the Ivory Coast is an independent sovereign nation--France has made it clear for years that it considers all of its former colonies to be still under their protection and influence, both militarily and commericially. And let's not even bring up the Falklands and the Brits in the 80s (or is that too long ago?)
Okay.
Since we know all this (and so much more I have'nt mentioned or don't even know yet)
What can we do?
Talking can't go on forever.
But what will an assault solve in the long term?
One can declare oneself against the corporate-military construct of America and the rest of the West. But we all benefit as consumers and citizens. Its all very well and good to talk about being anti-SUV or tell everyone you're a socialist or even an anarchist. But what does that mean when even the poorest of America, Japan and Europe tend to live better than the best of a country like Yemen or Sierra Leone (or possibly even Argentina at the moment)?
There has to be more than the self-satisfied bleatings of the left and the right. There has to be more thought put into things by the American people. Especially young people. I mean, rebelling is the way to independence but it seems like a lot them either totally believe in the consumer-led rebellion of left-over 60s soured idealism or the twisted backward looking philosophies of that group of Ayn Rand cult leaders who call themselves conservative.
But what, besides making the other side pissed off, do any of them really BELIEVE? What methods would they use to secure the safety of our world--and by that I mean THE world and not just our corner of it?


Because I don't mind going to war. I just want to believe it is TRULY the right thing. And I just don't believe it right now.

posted by a clark at 8:12 PM