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North Africans, hear this now!

2011-08-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

You, all of you, stand on the cusp of something that can only be described as utterly momentous. Despite the murderers and the saboteurs and the grafters and the radicals and the propaganda machines that beset you on all sides, your relentless resistance to rampant tyranny has become the most-underestimated unstoppable force in history. This is some deep shit, to say only the least about the depth of shit this really is - if I may be so informal. Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, and even Israel...if only people truly knew the gargantuan scope of what was going on here! It is a real world paradigm shift, happening right in front of our eyes. The people have decided that there must be a reckoning for the ages. North Africans, you are coming together as seekers of justice!

However, it's not at all as simple as that, is it? All the loss of life, the blood, the hate, the radicalism, the despair...it must hurt now. It must make you want more blood. You want a little bit of that crimson elixir they call vengeance. Why? Because it'll feel good and right, that's why! might be what one would think. But shedding blood isn't justice. It is just an invitation for more blood and more hate and more chaos. Will you, you everyday heroes of North Africa, ye who would march for justice, let new vendettas replace the old ones you hated and reviled and rallied against? Will you let chaos ruin what could be a springing of a great new font of justice and equality in the civilized world?

Don't let yourselves be so petty. Stand tall against the rage and the provocation and the corrupt corporatists and let the world know that you're just not gonna fucking take it anymore; that you're not gonna take the starvation, the greed, the ideological bullshit, or the posturing politicians playing for power. Any. Fucking. More. You will take freedom the only way it was meant to be taken: by actually fucking getting up and taking it. Show the war pigs and the fat cats and the big fish that it's time for a few favors for the little guys who have been nice enough to take all their verbal diarrhea and self-serving bullshit while patiently waiting for them to change. Well not a second more, I say! and I know you say it with me! You say it with millions across North Africa, you brethren in a battle for virtue, and tens of millions of supporters on that grand nexus of ideas we know as the Internet.

Yours is not a movement to be taken lightly, and you must not take yourselves lightly. You must fight hard in the face of obstruction. Even now, I know your new governments seek to usher in new rulers and new tyrannies and new profiteers. You have shown you will stand against the phonies who would abuse the coups to their own gain at the expense of each and every one of you. Fight on, North Africa, for the freedom that all humans seek, the true freedom that comes when human beings are equal. Fight on through the media blackouts, through the religious tribalism, and through the slugs of the armored thugs who fight only to put food on their tables since they got kids who depend on them and they feel pretty fucking cornered.

North Africans and Arabians, all people the cradle of civilization, hear this. With your movement you can crush all the corrupt leaders and all the power hungry warlords and all the corporate profiteers in power. Yours may be a movement of many flags, but it is of a single mind. We're human beings. Let's get our bloody act together already. Blog THAT.

Terrorism: a Really, REALLY Bad Itch.

2011-07-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

Think about terrorism. What does it mean to you? Do you consider religious extremists that strap plastic explosives to their chest terrorists? Do you consider militant anarchists who are highly critical of government to be terrorists? Do you consider governors of nation states which enforce unjust laws to be terrorists? Do you consider criminals or thieves who rob and mug people using the threat of immediate violence to be terrorists? Then let me ask you a question: What do all these terrorists consider themselves? Perhaps the religious extremists think themselves paragons of faith, or even protectors of their families. Perhaps the militant anarchists think themselves educated liberators, attempting to shake people loose from their hamster-wheel lifestyles. Perhaps the the governers consider themselves a true voice of the people, and that their actions are right and justified. Perhaps the criminals think themselves people who must survive no matter what the cost. Many times, those considered "terrorists" are merely reactionaries; individuals who are reacting to or retaliating against something they have experienced.

Of course I have my own opinion. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered calling myself "I Have An Opinion". I would have called myself something else ridiculous, like "I Like Ham Sandwiches". You know what I think of terrorism? I think of it as a bad, bad, REALLY EFFING BAD itch, but it's an itch that has been scratched too much. The initial itch wasn't bad, so you scratched it and felt better. Then the itch came back, slightly more irritating than the time before. You scratched again. The problem with this is, curiously, the more you scratched the worse the itch got. But you felt like you just couldn't stop. You would think "Arrgh! This fucking itch! Maybe if I just keep scratching it'll go away eventually."

Therein lies the problem. You scratch and scratch until the itchy spot looks more swollen and red than a Republican's neck. You're peeling skin away at this point, and all the while the itch does nothing but get progressively worse and worse. The problem is that WE KEEP BLOODY SCRATCHING. Terrorist attack? React with invading a foreign country. Someone uses HH chemicals to make weak explosives? React by severely restricting liquid transport. Someone tries to sneak a bomb in their pants? React by enforcing strip searching (and if you don't think that's what those new TSA devices and methods are for, you need to do some homework). Every time we have a reaction like this, there is more fear, more hate, more animosity, more prejudice; in other words more itching.

Stop scratching. Do this, and the itch that is now a bleeding wound might begin to heal. We cannot move on unless we FORGIVE. Blog THAT.

Anthony Trial Verdict and Social Media's Potential

2011-07-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

The verdict leaves a lot of questions unanswered. If you follow the link, you can learn more. If you have followed the Anthony trial closely, you know about its effect on social media. It was truly a viral trial, very highly scrutinized by a large crowd of internet onlookers. The verdict itself is already making waves on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Alternative News websites. I myself believe that the trial verdict shows that even girls with semi-pretty faces can get away with not reporting a child's death to police. The clear winner here is Casey Anthony, as she will not be killed by the State, but I think she needs to be punished for hiding the death of her child in some way. I mean, aren't there legal issues associated with reporting the death of a child?

But this is not what I want to bring attention to, in all honesty. The trial verdict itself is certainly cause for some internet buzz, but it is that engine of buzz I am admittedly more interested in. Social Media has become the center hub of activity for many people as the Internet as we know it continues to expand into new territory. Advertising institutions are clamoring for more space on social networking sites, people are discovering new ideas and entrepreneurs are expanding their scope of business. Movements are growing and like minds and voices are connecting in new ways that we couldn't have dreamed up even fifteen years ago. The ridiculous potential of the Digital Revolution is slowly becoming more and more unbelievable.

The engine of buzz is also the ultimate engine of change. Want to protest the verdict of the Anthony if that's your persuasion? You bet there's some internet site waiting for you in a simple Google search, or perhaps one of your Facebook friends or Twitter followers invited you to one. Want to donate to a political campaign or contribute to discussions of a Facebook page? Just a few clicks is all you need. You could have already even subscribed to a page, or just decided eh, no biggie, and gone and searched for something else to distract you or some other group of like minds to connect with.

The power of the Internet is the power to bring the world to the next epoch in human history. It can happen sooner than we think, all we need is a bit of unity and smarter people in charge of our nation. Since you've blogged the Anthony trial already, why not Blog THAT?

This is the Digital Revolution. Why isn't the whole world connected to the Internet yet?

2011-06-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

Countries all over the world suffer from a lack of internet access. One tool makes internet access ridiculously easy: smart phones. The technology gets faster and cheaper every year. A Digital Revolution is taking place in affluent regions of Earth. Connectivity to the internet is bringing about new ideas, new paradigms, and new conveniences. Despite this, more than two thirds of the world remains unable to access this tool of epic proportions. They remain blind and deaf to the Digital Revolution. So therein lies my question: why isn't every man, woman, and child on the planet connected to the internet yet? Where are the brave investments and noble donations?

The internet is the ultimate tool of progress and total planetary interconnection. It is the single most important mechanism for businesses, causes, journalists, film school rejects, bored children, celebrities (read: unimportant rich folk), photoshop junkies, social cripples, and amateur pornographers everywhere. Yet monied interests continue to tighten their grips on the flow of information and rather than promote broad access to many, they want to raise prices into tiers which would preclude even more people from accessing what is arguably the most important invention in history.

The internet will eventually become so ubiquitous and so vital that it could very well be considered a human right to have access. Why not just begin the investment now? Let's research some ideas for getting internet access to all the people of the world and really unleash the floodgates of digital progress. Blog THAT.