November 21, 2003

I Want An Apology From America http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/20/national/20POWE.html "The largest blackout in North American history was set off by a series of human and computer failures at an Ohio power company, where workers could not act to halt an escalating crisis because they did not even know it existed, a panel of government and industry officials reported on Wednesday." I want an apology from America. When the great blackout of 2003 hit last August, the governor of New York and the President immediately blamed Canada. Well, wouldn't you know it, the source of the problem was a privatized utility in Ohio. I don't hear any apologies. I guess I shouldn't expect that much from America, which blames everyone else for everything. I also don't hear any American news people or market specialists saying, "The real problem here is the privatization of essential services, like hydro." The reason the American energy system sucks so much ass is because there has been no incentive for these private companies to invest in improving the infrastructure. They were making too much money in the stock market for the past decade. The same goes for health care, while we're at it. There was a study published in the US (!) last summer (sorry I don't have the exact details anymore) that showed how the American HMO system was several times more costly in bureaucratic excess than the Canadian public health system. Market fundamentalists are always preaching how cost effective privatization is; but anyone who has seen the numbers (and not only that, the product -- Canadian universal health care has contributed to a better society than the American model of Fuck You If You Make Under $300,000 Per Year) knows that most of the time privatizating essential services is just a cash grab for friends of the government.  I'm still waiting for that apology. Maybe apologize to Afghanistan and Iraq for dessimating their countries over fraudulent intelligence, too. Fuckers.   10:47:19 AM    comment []

RIAA may have to resort to abortions to reduce file sharing   RIAA Threatens 15-Year-Old [Slashdot] Fuckers.   12:50:52 AM    comment []

Salon writer thinks marriage is bullshit   Who wants to get married?. I'd hoped that the gay-marriage fight might lead to a reassessment of an institution that's plainly failing masses of people. But that doesn't seem to be on anyone's agenda. [Salon Headlines] "Remember, when they say "one man, one woman," they mean one at a time. You can have as many as you want as long as you do it in order, i.e., my first wife, my second wife, "Cyndi" and little Ego Jr. -- then long years of drooling idiocy and Viagra-popping to keep the old man's plug in gear. There's nothing sacred about that, I'm afraid. And until the defense-of-marriage people come down on divorce as hard as they do on gays, lesbians, women and abortions, their words will be as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." "The nuclear unit has been a disaster for many children -- isolating them, alienating them, imprisoning them, as often as not, with a pair of warring maniacs, caught in a struggle for love, power, money and "security" whose fuel is fear and whose goal is consumption." Y'know, the General thinks The Shining is a great film. Really great.   12:47:54 AM    comment []

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