i hate these parasitic advertisers on our site. yinz better start listening to our music, or i'll... or i'll pick my nose and say YOU DID IT!

Big thanks to SA Pato Verde for cleaning off the damned drug and porn ads...we're looking into ways of filtering this stuff out. Rock on.

Army buddha: In some ways you are correct in your statement about the apparent lack of connection between the well-known expositers of Jesus' teachings and Jesus' actual teachings and background. God had a plan, and he has been telling mankind about his plan from the beginning. Unfortunately, lack of understanding, lack of belief, and personal pride have gotten in the way of most people's faith. >>The Old Testament tells the Jews that as a nation, they would not understand who Christ was when he came. We now know Jesus was "the stone that the builders rejected." This does not mean that some Jews have not believed on the name of Jesus Christ. For instance, David, the second King of the Jews knew full well about salvation, and how it would come about. He knew that Jesus would die for his sins. He describes in vivid detail during passages in Psalms the torture of the crucifixion that Jesus would face. He knew that he himself would have to face corruption in his time of death, but that Jesus would not face the same corruption because He would be resurrected before his body could rot. Job knew about the resurrection and the time of judgement to come. This was knowledge given by God. God reveals what He will to whom he will. Most Jews that I have spoken to realize that they are not holy. They understand that the 713 (I believe) mikvah (or rules they are to follow) have not been followed by any man living or dead (except Jesus Christ whom they deemed a blasphemer). >>So, after that good bit of digression, we find that some Jews knew who Jesus Christ was, and some don't. Those who don't know Jesus as their saviour, Jew or otherwise, face the world with bleary eyes and no promise in the things to come. It doesn't matter how they treat others. So, it doesn't matter if you are Christian or Jew, or buddhist or zoroastrionist, you can call yourself whatever you want; if you know God, you'll know Christ. If you don't know God, you'll do anything you please to anyone you like. Sometimes you luck out and that means treat others like you'd like to be treated. Other times it means hack others to death and pillage their country. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. You can't change what has been done. You see, there is someone around that knows what is going to happen and when. Knowing the end, He has done his best to let us know that we should watch for that end, and has provided a way to ensure that we see our way through safely. Now it is just a matter of belief.

Re: Bumshaker's comment "there's nothing wrong with being a christian or a jew." Read again. There IS something wrong with us ALL being Christians or Jews. Especially when the scariest bible thumpers in our country aren't the least bit familiar with the philosophy of the founder of their own religion. What if they found out Jesus was a Jew? What if they found out he was Buddhist?

Hello, Just wanted to say that your music is very cool. I was wandering how I can order an CD from you people. And mabey I can arange some gigs in holland then. Anyways a big thumb up for the music you make. Mattijs from Amsterdam

**Kaligo and Meshuggah Next fri. May 16th @ peabodys in cleveland. Tix: $10 We play after Meshuggah

>>No War With Pyongyang >>Ellen Bork >>Asian Wall Street Journal >>April 14, 2003 >>http://www.newamericancentury.org/northkorea-041403.htm >>With the war to remove Saddam Hussein from power going well, the rhetorical cries of "what's next?" by opponents of the Iraq policy take on greater consequence. Critics have warned darkly that the administration's decision to use force in Iraq portends attacks on North Korean nuclear facilities. >>It would indeed be surprising if the U.S. were not studying every option for dealing with North Korea's nuclear threat. However, if their past statements are an indication, senior Bush officials are skeptical about whether there are any viable military options. Instead they are focused on a different objective -- dispelling the illusions that have driven recent U.S. policy and improving America's conventional deterrent on the peninsula. >>Before they entered the Bush administration, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz were members of a bipartisan working group on North Korea chaired by Mr. Armitage. In March 1999, the group's recommendations were issued as "A Comprehensive Approach to North Korea," also known as the Armitage report. Also that month, Mr. Wolfowitz, then an advisor to the Bush presidential campaign, testified before the International Relations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. >>The situation they were addressing was not so different from the situation today. Public confirmation from U.S. intelligence that North Korea possessed nuclear weapons only came in 2001. However, by 1999, there was already evidence that North Korea had enough plutonium for nuclear bombs and that it had not stopped trying to develop nuclear weapons despite its commitments to do so under the 1994 Agreed Framework. >>Messrs. Wolfowitz and Armitage concluded that the Agreed Framework had drawn the U.S. into a cycle of threats and extortion. The Armitage report questioned the belief then prevalent in the Clinton administration that the agreement had ended Pyongyang's nuclear program, would contribute to North-South reconciliation, and reform and a soft landing in North Korea. On the contrary, the Armitage panel concluded, "For Pyongyang, the lesson of the past four years is that brinksmanship works." >>Mr. Wolfowitz was equally damning. He considered it "totally implausible" that North Korea, "a regime that cares about very little except its military capabilities, would voluntarily give up the ultimate weapon, in exchange for a promise of nuclear power reactors sometime in the next century." >>He warned committee members the 1994 agreement had only created a cycle that would lead Pyongyang to believe it could extract ever more concessions. 'The last time we caught them,'" Mr. Wolfowitz said he told a senior negotiator of the Agreed Framework, "'we sent you over there to negotiate a $4 billion reactor deal. The next time we catch them, what price are we going to pay to get them back on the reservation?' I don't think the record suggests to the North Koreans that they pay a price for cheating or being caught at cheating." >>Nonetheless, when the Agreed Framework was initially concluded in 1994, Mr. Wolfowitz, despite his skepticism, regarded it as a fait accompli and counseled the U.S. Congress to accept it. >>Despite the danger it posed, Messrs. Armitage and Wolfowitz believed focusing exclusively on the nuclear problem was a mistake. "What really makes the North Korean nuclear capability so dangerous," Mr. Wolfowitz told the House panel, "is the fact of their conventional military capability. . . . [T]o the extent that we're not able to solve the nuclear problem, it becomes extremely important to improve the conventional one." >>The Armitage report recommended consultations with South Korea and Japan about "force enhancement options", including the expansion of counter-battery radar around Seoul, deployment of Patriot batteries to Japan from Europe and the continental United States, missile defense cooperation and military exercises tailored to respond to actions taken by Pyongyang. The report called for a review of Seoul's defenses including surveillance and radar to improve protection against bombardment or surprise attack. The Armitage report also called for "red lines" which the U.S., along with South Korea and Japan, should identify and respond to if crossed. >>Of particular significance today, Mr. Wolfowitz poured cold water on the idea of an attack on North Korea's nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, an idea often ascribed to the administration's hawks. In March 1999, he dismissed the idea of a "neat and safe military operation, that in some antiseptic way could eliminate the North Korean nuclear problem. . . . First of all, we wouldn't know what to attack. . . . [W]e are . . . reasonably certain that there's a lot there that we don't know about and couldn't get at." Moreover, North Korean retaliation, and the resulting war on the Korean peninsula, he said, would be "absolutely devastating." >>This is not the first time the U.S. has been in a nuclear standoff in which conventional forces may play a decisive role. During the Cold War, the U.S. maintained a serious conventional capability in Europe precisely to deter a Soviet threat that, with the use of theater nuclear weapons, could have devastated Europe. The same approach is necessary on the Korean peninsula. >>The U.S. has recently moved to bolster and protect forces. Bombers and fighter aircraft have been deployed and plans are underway to reposition American forces in South Korea. These are signs of a new U.S. policy, as is administration diplomacy seeking cooperation from allies on multilateral talks that would deny Pyongyang the leverage to demand concessions from the U.S. Just this past weekend, North Korea has hinted it may accept the U.S. position on talks. >>It will not be easy to extricate U.S. policy and its critics from the cycle of demand and capitulation that become so commonplace during the Clinton administration and which North Korea has come to expect. Nevertheless, as Messrs. Armitage and Wolfowitz have argued, the U.S. needs to wean itself and North Korea away from old bad habits. >>Ms. Bork is deputy director at the Project for the New American Century in Washington, D.C.

Hey! We're not in a recession. See: "The nation needs quick action by our Congress on a pro-growth economic package," Mr. Bush said in a carefully timed Rose Garden ceremony" (quoted in NYTimes today http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/politics/15CND-BUSH.html). >>In response to army buddha: There's nothing wrong with being a Christian or a Jew. There is only error in using your beliefs to justify your action or lack of action.

antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism antidisestablishmentarianism

Ways to bring about a silent and bloodless revolution: Stop investing in the stock market, stop using credit cards, get by with less, consume less, recycle, reuse, give to charity, compost, respect each other, teach the ignorant, stop using credit cards, vote (even if it doesn't get counted), learn about the world outside your country, read from foreign news sources, demand truth, stop investing in the stock market, stop using credit cards, barter and trade when possible, want less, eat less, use less, stop using credit cards, stop investing in the stock market, drive less, invest in pollution-free alternatives, use pollution-free alternatives, drive less, walk more, watch how the government treats its military after using them in battle, wonder why nearly all your leaders are wealthy and white, stop investing in the stock market, stop using credit cards, want less, demand truth, ask who represents the common man in government, ask how we can mobilize more minority and impoverished citizens to vote, ask how we can guarantee that their votes can be counted, ask what happened to the anthrax investigation, ask what's happening in Afghanistan, ask why some people seemed to know where not to be on 9/11, stop investing in the stock market, stop using credit cards, stop using ATM machines with fees attached, stop ignoring racism, buy organic, support small farmers, and start trying to pry church away from state before we all wind up Christians or Jews.

Background / AJC head: Iraq war may not be good for the Jews (an excerpt) >>By Amiram Barkat >>http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=279017&displayTypeCd=1&sideCd=1&contrassID=2 >>Diplomatic talks are expected to be renewed - full force - when the war in Iraq is over, if not beforehand. The leaders of American Jewish organizations are increasingly concerned the United States' "debt" to its allies in Europe will be repaid at Israel's expense, sooner than Jerusalem would even like to think about. >>"People will start asking 'Whose interests does this war serve?'" says Harris [David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee]. "The fact that Kuwait, for instance, can profit from the war is irrelevant. The fact that Saddam Hussein's ouster serves American interests is irrelevant. Jews have often been scapegoats." >>And what will happen if the war ends quickly and successfully, and Saddam is defeated? How will the Jewish organizations contend with public opinion that is[sic] be satiated with wars and is now hungry for peace? >>The world without Saddam will be no less dangerous, says Harris. He will try to convince the international community that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not have to go to the head of the line. "North Korea will remain, Iran will remain with its nuclear programs, Gadhafi continue[sic] to sit in Libya and weave malevolent plans."

GO BUMSHAKER GO! TROOF TA POWER! Believe me, it'll get even more fun when we go after Iran next. Rationale: hey, we were already here, they're members of the axis of EEEEvil too, what the heck? We could put the Shah's family back in power, because that was a guy who truly understood democracy. YEEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWW!

The Wraps Come Off Bush's Colonialist Agenda Right - wing hawks have been calling the shots all along (an excerpt)
>>by Robert Scheer

>>The war is getting messy, but the peace will be much worse.

>>The Bush administration's plan to keep several hundred thousand U.S. and British troops for years in a divided, heavily armed Muslim country will make all Americans "targets of opportunity" for terrorists and become a rallying point for fundamentalist revolutionaries throughout the world.

>>The post-Hussein strategy, formed by a neoconservative clique close to the White House, is another indicator that this is in no way a war "to disarm Iraq." If disarmament were the central goal, the U.S.-British alliance would need to control Iraq for only months, not years. That would be enough time for its weapons inspectors to do what it said the United Nations could not accomplish.

>>Instead, unable to produce any real evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the invasion or since it began, the administration publicly shifted its rationale from disarmament to the "nation-building" that Bush properly derided during the 2000 election.

>>However, there is ample evidence that "regime change" and redrawing the map of the Mideast were the goals of the Bush administration's neoconservative core all along.

>>The Carnegie Endowment (www.ceip.org) last week published "Origins of Regime Change in Iraq," a thorough portrait of this "textbook case of how a small, organized group can determine policy in a large nation, even when the majority of officials and experts originally scorned their views."

>>The president, who seems to pride himself on knowing more about the mores of Midland, Texas, than about the rest of the world's complex cultures, has bought this cabal's naive and dangerous plan for a Pax Americana. >>Bush already refers to warlord-controlled Afghanistan as "democratic," so perhaps an Iraq run by an American general -- for the profit of Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton and other defense contractors -- will justify for Bush the war that spinmeisters are calling "Operation Iraqi Freedom." But it won't wear well with most of the world, which has seen that even the best intentions of colonialists inevitably go awry.

>>Lest we forget, Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party were the preferred choice of U.S. governments for most of the last 40 years. Even after Hussein gassed his own people, the 1988 signature horror to which Bush constantly refers, the U.S. government attempted to shift the blame to Iran and Bush's father extended to Iraq an additional $1.2 billion in credits and loans.

>>The Commerce Department under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had long permitted U.S. companies to sell anthrax and other biological and chemical supplies to Iraq, the Senate Banking Committee documented. >>Furthermore, it was Reagan who signed National Security Decision Directive 114 on Nov. 26, 1983, committing the U.S. to do "whatever necessary and legal" for Iraq to win its war against Iran, even after documented reports of Iraq's use of what we now call weapons of mass destruction. It was at that time that Donald Rumsfeld was dispatched by Reagan as a special envoy to reassure Hussein of unwavering U.S. support.

>>It is an act of extreme hubris for this administration to repeatedly justify its invasion of Iraq by citing Iraq's attacks on Iran decades ago and its use of banned weapons in that war. Those old charges won't suffice for a world demanding hard and more recent evidence supporting the need for a preemptive attack.

>>If the U.S. fails to unearth weapons of mass destruction that U.N. inspectors might have been able to discover -- if they had been given sufficient time -- the imperial designs of this administration will stand exposed as the true cause of the war.

R. James Woolsey is an attorney and former director of the C.I.A (1993-1995) who labels U.S. policy on Iraq over the past ten years "feckless." He strongly advocates a thorough investigation into Iraq's possible linkage to terrorist attacks against the U.S. and has sought to prove the Iraq connection in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was interviewed in mid-october 2001. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/interviews/woolsey.html

>>Look at a UPC code. Its lead digit is a 6. There are two lead digits and a stop digit per code. UC-Council has decreed that by 2005 (Sunrise 2005), erroneous usage of lead digits of 1, 8, and 9 by companies assigned a 6 must be discontinued. It has been done under the guise of assigning new companies EAN and GTIN with lead numbers of 1, 8, and 9. But who's to say they'll issue anything but a lead digit of 6?

>>www.newamericancentury.org--Rumsfeld was once rumored to have mentioned this group's agenda, saying that they only need a catalyst akin to Pearl Harbor. Check out their mission statement.

>>US Presidency takes a month-long break before 9-11. 4000 people absent on that same day. Who warned them, and when will the US decry their nation's terrorist activities, using those actions as proof of an ulterior motive?

>>The UN has served its purpose.

>>Where is Babylon? How long until Bush's oil companies and the US set up a base of operations there?

>>Iraq will fall. What lies between Afghanistan and Iraq?

>>Next!

This site moved my soul. Thank you

"French at Last! French at Last! Thank God Almighty, WE ARE FRENCH AT LAST!"

Gosh and with Inspector Gadget 2 coming out, I guess French Stewart is going to have to become Freedom Stewart! I'm glad we all get this chance to revamp everything we have ever thought about France, just because they disagree with us (well, Bush) about the War. Yay revisionism! The plays of Jean-Paul Satre have just become meaningless drivel, not to mention far too depressing. And let's just give them that ugly ol' Statue of Liberty back, too!

Dave, Great Idea! And we can rename their cuisine "Freedom Food" and baguettes "Bags o' Freedom", make them all engage in "Freedom Kissing" and their funny condoms "Freedom Ticklers"! Of course, we don't want to call their literature "Freedom Literature" because then we might be compelled to read it, when we're all aware that only Lynn Cheney's "America: A Patriotic Primer" ("D is for Demagogue", "O is for Oil-Profits") is the only Freedom literature ever written.

Kewl pic on your home page. What the heck is that anyway? You requested that we "argue voluminously", so here's a start - I have a solution to the current world problems - Bush should just declare war on the French! Then everybody could criticize us and say we're only doing it to take control of the world market for champagne!

Hello from cold & snowy buffalo. I was rocking out to the latest CD and wanted to say hi. 4am closing times are slowly killing me. Take care...

funny

nice site

No war. End hunger. Be nice to each other please.

Dudes please play a show soon i want to be be rocked i want to be rolled

Was looking at your site for some ideas hope you don't mind I see your page rank is pretty good Good Site

Howdee, yipyahoo for the nuptials and the revivified guestbook. Guess I'll have to figure out again how to mess with the code so it stops saying 2002 also. Hope everyone enjoys the pending end of the world, brought to you sometime later this spring by the Bush administration.

I hope this note finds you all well. It's likely I won't write again as everything here is veeeeery slooow. You think I'm laid back? Down here I'm like Woody Allen. I was married this past Monday at noon and it was wonderful. My wife is currently watching another wedding in the garden overlooking the amazing blue ocean. A Bob Marley educational video is being played on the television here in the disco as we have been celebrating his birthday here all this week. It has been a dream come true and we'll be back in the united states Monday night. God bless and keep you and again, thank you all for your prayers of encouragement. Irie, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew C. Fitz

Confronting the Empire
By Noam Chomsky
Delivered at the World Social Forum
Porto Alegre, Brazil
January 27, 2003

We are meeting at a moment of world history that is in many ways unique ­ a moment that is ominous, but also full of hope.

The most powerful state in history has proclaimed, loud and clear, that it intends to rule the world by force, the dimension in which it reigns supreme. Apart from the conventional bow to noble intentions that is the standard (hence meaningless) accompaniment of coercion, its leaders are committed to pursuit of their “imperial ambition,” as it is frankly described in the leading journal of the foreign policy establishment ­ critically, an important matter. They have also declared that they will tolerate no competitors, now or in the future. They evidently believe that the means of violence in their hands are so extraordinary that they can dismiss with contempt anyone who stands in their way. There is good reason to believe that the war with Iraq is intended, in part, to teach the world some lessons about what lies ahead when the empire decides to strike a blow -- though “war” is hardly the proper term, given the array of forces.

The doctrine is not entirely new, nor unique to the US, but it has never before been proclaimed with such brazen arrogance ­ at least not by anyone we would care to remember.

I am not going to try to answer the question posed for this meeting: How to confront the empire. The reason is that most of you know the answers as well or better than I do, through your own lives and work. The way to “confront the empire” is to create a different world, one that is not based on violence and subjugation, hate and fear. That is why we are here, and the WSF offers hope that these are not idle dreams.

Yesterday I had the rare privilege of seeing some very inspiring work to achieve these goals, at the international gathering of the Via Campesina at a community of the MST, which I think is the most important and exciting popular movement in the world. With constructive local actions such as those of the MST, and international organization of the kind illustrated by the Via Campesina and the WSF, with sympathy and solidarity and mutual aid, there is real hope for a decent future.

I have also had some other recent experiences that give a vivid picture of what the world may be like if imperial violence is not limited and dismantled. Last month I was in southeastern Turkey, the scene of some of the worst atrocities of the grisly 1990s, still continuing: just a few hours ago we were informed of renewed atrocities by the army near Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of the Kurdish regions. Through the 1990s, millions of people were driven out of the devastated countryside, with tens of thousands killed and every imaginable form of barbaric torture. They try to survive in caves outside the walls of Diyarbakir, in condemned buildings in miserable slums in Istanbul, or wherever they can find refuge, barred from returning to their villages despite new legislation that theoretically permits return. 80% of the weapons came from the US. In the year 1997 alone, Clinton sent more arms to Turkey than in the entire Cold War period combined up to the onset of the state terror campaign ­ called “counterterror” by the perpetrators and their supporters, another convention. Turkey became the leading recipient of US arms as atrocities peaked (apart from Israel-Egypt, a separate category).

In 1999, Turkey relinquished this position to Colombia. The reason is that in Turkey, US-backed state terror had largely succeeded, while in Colombia it had not. Colombia had the worst human rights record in the Western hemisphere in the 1990s and was by far the leading recipient of US arms and military training, and now leads the world. It also leads the world by other measures, for example, murder of labor activists: more than half of those killed worldwide in the last decade were in Colombia. Close to ½ million people were driven from their land last year, a new record. The displaced population is now estimated at 2.7 million. Political killings have risen to 20 a day; 5 years ago it was half that.

I visited Cauca in southern Colombia, which had the worst human rights record in the country in 2001, quite an achievement. There I listened to hours of testimony by peasants who were driven from their lands by chemical warfare ­ called “fumigation” under the pretext of a US-run “drug war” that few take seriously and that would be obscene if that were the intent. Their lives and lands are destroyed, children are dying, they suffer from sickness and wounds. Peasant agriculture is based on a rich tradition of knowledge and experience gained over many centuries, in much of the world passed on from mother to daughter. Though a remarkable human achievement, it is very fragile, and can be destroyed forever in a single generation. Also being destroyed is some of the richest biodiversity in the world, similar to neighboring regions of Brazil. Campesinos, indigenous people, Afro-Colombians can join the millions in rotting slums and camps. With the people gone, multinationals can come in to strip the mountains for coal and to extract oil and other resources, and to convert what is left of the land to monocrop agroexport using laboratory-produced seeds in an environment shorn of its treasures and variety.

The scenes in Cauca and Southeastern Turkey are very different from the celebrations of the Via Campesina gathering at the MST community. But Turkey and Colombia are inspiring and hopeful in different ways, because of the courage and dedication of people struggling for justice and freedom, confronting the empire where it is killing and destroying.

These are some of the signs of the future if “imperial ambition” proceeds on its normal course, now to be accelerated by the grand strategy of global rule by force. None of this is inevitable, and among the good models for ending these crimes are the ones I mentioned: the MST, the Via Campesina, and the WSF.

At the WSF, the range of issues and problems under intense discussion is very broad, remarkably so, but I think we can identify two main themes. One is global justice and Life after Capitalism ­ or to put it more simply, life, because it is not so clear that the human species can survive very long under existing state capitalist institutions. The second theme is related: war and peace, and more specifically, the war in Iraq that Washington and London are desperately seeking to carry out, virtually alone.

Let’s start with some good news about these basic themes. As you know, there is also a conference of the World Economic Forum going on right now, in Davos. Here in Porto Alegre, the mood is hopeful, vigorous, exciting. In Davos, the New York Times tells us, “the mood has darkened.” For the “movers and shakers,” it is not “global party time” any more. In fact, the founder of the Forum has conceded defeat: “The power of corporations has completely disappeared,” he said. So we have won. There is nothing left for us to do but pick up the pieces -- not only to talk about a vision of the future that is just and humane, but to move on to create it.

Of course, we should not let the praise go to our heads. There are still a few difficulties ahead.

The main theme of the WEF is “Building Trust.” There is a reason for that. The “masters of the universe,” as they liked to call themselves in more exuberant days, know that they are in serious trouble. They recently released a poll showing that trust in leaders has severely declined. Only the leaders of NGOs had the trust of a clear majority, followed by UN and spiritual/religious leaders, then leaders of Western Europe and economic managers, below them corporate executives, and well below them, at the bottom, leaders of the US, with about 25% trust. That may well mean virtually no trust: when people are asked whether they trust leaders with power, they usually say “Yes,” out of habit.

It gets worse. A few days ago a poll in Canada found that over 1/3 of the population regard the US as the greatest threat to world peace. The US ranks more than twice as high as Iraq or North Korea, and far higher than al-Qaeda as well. A poll without careful controls, by Time magazine, found that over 80% of respondents in Europe regarded the US as the greatest threat to world peace, compared with less than 10% for Iraq or North Korea. Even if these numbers are wrong by some substantial factor, they are dramatic.

Without going on, the corporate leaders who paid $30,000 to attend the somber meetings in Davos have good reasons to take as their theme: “Building Trust.”

The coming war with Iraq is undoubtedly contributing to these interesting and important developments. Opposition to the war is completely without historical precedent. In Europe it is so high that Secretary of “Defense” Donald Rumsfeld dismissed Germany and France as just the “old Europe,” plainly of no concern because of their disobedience. The “vast numbers of other countries in Europe [are] with the United States,” he assured foreign journalists. These vast numbers are the “new Europe,” symbolized by Italy’s Berlusconi, soon to visit the White House, praying that he will be invited to be the third of the “three B’s”: Bush-Blair-Berlusconi ­ assuming that he can stay out of jail. Italy is on board, the White House tells us. It is apparently not a problem that over 80% of the public is opposed to the war, according to recent polls. That just shows that the people of Italy also belong to the “old Europe,” and can be sent to the ashcan of history along with France and Germany, and others who do not know their place.

Spain is hailed as another prominent member of the new Europe -- with 75% totally opposed to the war, according to an international Gallup poll. According to the leading foreign policy analyst of Newsweek, pretty much the same is true of the most hopeful part of the new Europe, the former Communist countries that are counted on (quite openly) to serve US interests and undermine Europe’s despised social market and welfare states. He reports that in Czechoslovakia, 2/3 of the population oppose participation in a war, while in Poland only ¼ would support a war even if the UN inspectors “prove that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction.” The Polish press reports 37% approval in this case, still extremely low, at the heart of the “new Europe.”

New Europe soon identified itself in an open letter in the Wall Street Journal: along with Italy, Spain, Poland and Czechoslovakia ­ the leaders, that is, not the people ­ it includes Denmark (with popular opinion on the war about the same as Germany, therefore “old Europe”), Portugal (53% opposed to war under any circumstances, 96% opposed to war by the US and its allies unilaterally), Britain (40% opposed to war under any circumstances, 90% opposed to war by the US and its allies unilaterally), and Hungary (no figures available).

In brief, the exciting “new Europe” consists of some leaders who are willing to defy their populations.

Old Europe reacted with some annoyance to Rumsfeld’s declaration that they are “problem” countries, not modern states. Their reaction was explained by thoughtful US commentators. Keeping just to the national press, we learn that “world-weary European allies” do not appreciate the “moral rectitude” of the President. The evidence for his “moral rectitude” is that “his advisors say the evangelical zeal” comes directly from the simple man who is dedicated to driving evil from the world. Since that is surely the most reliable and objective evidence that can be imagined, it would be improper to express slight skepticism, let alone to react as we would to similar performances by others. The cynical Europeans, we are told, misinterpret Bush’s purity of soul as “moral naiveté” ­ without a thought that the administration’s PR specialists might have a hand in creating imagery that will sell. We are informed further that there is a great divide between world-weary Europe and the “idealistic New World bent on ending inhumanity." That this is the driving purpose of the idealistic New World we also know for certain, because so our leaders proclaim. What more in the way of proof could one seek?

The rare mention of public opinion in the new Europe treats it as a problem of marketing; the product being sold is necessarily right and honorable, given its source. The willingness of the leaders of the new Europe to prefer Washington to their own populations “threatens to isolate the Germans and French,” who are exhibiting retrograde democratic tendencies, and shows that Germany and France cannot “say that they are speaking for Europe.” They are merely speaking for the people of old and new Europe, who ­ the same commentators acknowledge -- express “strong oposition” to the policies of the new Europe.

The official pronouncements and the reaction to them are illuminating. They demonstrate with some clarity the contempt for democracy that is rather typical, historically, among those who feel that they rule the world by right.

There are many other illustrations. When German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder dared to take the position of the overwhelming majority of voters in the last election, that was described as a shocking failure of leadership, a serious problem that Germany must overcome if it wants to be accepted in the civilized world. The problem lies with Germany, not elites of the Anglo-American democracies. Germany’s problem is that “the government lives in fear of the voters, and that is causing it to make mistake after mistake” ­ the spokesperson for the right-wing Christian Social Union party, who understands the real nature of democracy.

The case of Turkey is even more revealing. As throughout the region, Turks are very strongly opposed to the war ­ about 90% according to the most recent polls. And so far the government has irresponsibly paid some attention to the people who elected it. It has not bowed completely to the intense pressure and threats that Washington is exerting to compel it to heed the master’s voice. This reluctance of the elected government to follow orders from on high proves that its leaders are not true democrats. For those who may be too dull to comprehend these subtleties, they are explained by former Ambassador to Turkey Morton Abramowitz, now a distinguished senior statesman and commentator. Ten years ago, he explained, Turkey was governed by a real democrat, Turgut Ozal, who “overrode his countrymen’s pronounced preference to stay out of the Gulf war.” But democracy has declined in Turkey. The current leadership “is following the people,” revealing its lack of “democratic credentials.” “Regrettably,” he says, “for the US there is no Ozal around.” So it will be necessary to bring authentic democracy to Turkey by economic strangulation and other coercive means ­ regrettably, but that is demanded by what the elite press calls our “yearning for democracy.”

Brazil is witnessing another exercise of the real attitudes towards democracy among the masters of the universe. In the most free election in the hemisphere, a large majority voted for policies that are strongly opposed by international finance and investors, by the IMF and the US Treasury Department. In earlier years, that would have been the signal for a military coup installing a murderous National Security State, as in Brazil 40 years ago. Now that will not work; the populations of South and North have changed, and will not easily tolerate it. Furthermore, there are now simpler ways to undermine the will of the people, thanks to the neoliberal instruments that have been put in place: economic controls, capital flight, attacks on currency, privatization, and other devices that are well-designed to reduce the arena of popular choice. These, it is hoped, may compel the government to follow the dictates of what international economists call the “virtual parliament” of investors and lenders, who make the real decisions, coercing the population, an irrelevant nuisance according to the reigning principles of democracy.

When I was just about to leave for the airport I received another of the many inquiries from the press about why there is so little anti-war protest in the US. The impressions are instructive. In fact, protest in the US, as elsewhere, is also at levels that have no historical precedent. Not just demonstrations, teach-ins, and other public events. To take an example of a different kind, last week the Chicago City Council passed an anti-war resolution, 46-1, joining 50 other cities and towns. The same is true in other sectors, including those that are the most highly trusted, as the WEF learned to its dismay: NGOs and religious organizations and figures, with few exceptions. Several months ago the biggest university in the country passed a strong antiwar resolution ­ the University of Texas, right next door to George W’s ranch. And it’s easy to continue.

So why the widespread judgment among elites that the tradition of dissent and protest has died? Invariably, comparisons are drawn to Vietnam, a very revealing fact. We have just passed the 40th anniversary of the public announcement that the Kennedy administration was sending the US Air Force to bomb South Vietnam, also initiating plans to drive millions of people into concentration camps and chemical warfare programs to destroy food crops. There was no pretext of defense, except in the sense of official rhetoric: defense against the "internal aggression" of South Vietnamese in South Vietnam and their "assault from the inside" (President Kennedy and his UN Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson). Protest was non-existent. It did not reach any meaningful level for several years. By that time hundreds of thousands of US troops had joined the occupying army, densely-populated areas were being demolished by saturation bombing, and the aggression had spread to the rest of Indochina. Protest among elite intellectuals kept primarily to “pragmatic grounds”: the war was a “mistake” that was becoming too costly to the US. In sharp contrast, by the late 1960s the great majority of the public had come to oppose the war as “fundamentally wrong and immoral,” not “a mistake,” figures that hold steady until the present.

Today, in dramatic contrast to the 1960s, there is large-scale, committed, and principled popular protest all over the US before the war has been officially launched. That reflects a steady increase over these years in unwillingness to tolerate aggression and atrocities, one of many such changes, worldwide in fact. That’s part of the background for what is taking place in Porto Alegre, and part of the reason for the gloom in Davos.

The political leadership is well aware of these developments. When a new administration comes into office, it receives a review of the world situation compiled by the intelligence agencies. It is secret; we learn about these things many years later. But when Bush #1 came into office in 1989, a small part of the review was leaked, a passage concerned with “cases where the U.S. confronts much weaker enemies” ­ the only kind one would think of fighting. Intelligence analysts advised that in conflicts with “much weaker enemies” the US must win “decisively and rapidly,” or popular support will collapse. It’s not like the 1960s, when the population would tolerate a murderous and destructive war for years without visible protest. That’s no longer true. The activist movements of the past 40 years have had a significant civilizing effect. By now, the only way to attack a much weaker enemy is to construct a huge propaganda offensive depicting it as about to commit genocide, maybe even a threat to our very survival, then to celebrate a miraculous victory over the awesome foe, while chanting praises to the courageous leaders who came to the rescue just in time.

That is the current scenario in Iraq.

Polls reveal more support for the planned war in the US than elsewhere, but the numbers are misleading. It is important to bear in mind that the US is the only country outside Iraq where Saddam Hussein is not only reviled but also feared. There is a flood of lurid propaganda warning that if we do not stop him today he will destroy us tomorrow. The next evidence of his weapons of mass destruction may be a “mushroom cloud,” so National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice announced in September ­ presumably over New York. No one in Iraq’s neighborhood seems overly concerned, much as they may hate the murderous tyrant. Perhaps that is because they know that as a result of the sanctions “the vast majority of the country’s population has been on a semi-starvation diet for years,” as the World Health Organization reported, and that Iraq is one of the weakest states in the region: its economy and military expenditures are a fraction of Kuwait’s, which has 10% of Iraq’s population, and much farther below others nearby.

But the US is different. When Congress granted the President authority to go to war last October, it was “to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.” We must tremble in fear before this awesome threat, while countries nearby seek to reintegrate Iraq into the region, including those who were attacked by Saddam when he was a friend and ally of those who now run the show in Washington -- and who were happily providing him with aid including the means to develop WMD, at a time when he was far more dangerous than today and had already committed by far his worst crimes.

A serious measure of support for war in the US would have to extricate this “fear factor,” which is genuine, and unique to the US. The residue would give a more realistic measure of support for the resort to violence, and would show, I think, that it is about the same as elsewhere.

It is also rather striking that strong opposition to the coming war extends right through the establishment. The current issues of the two major foreign policy journals feature articles opposing the war by leading figures of foreign policy elites. The very respectable American Academy of Arts and Sciences released a long monograph on the war, trying to give the most sympathetic possible account of the Bush administration position, then dismantling it point by point. One respected analyst they quote is a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who warns that the US is becoming “a menace to itself and to mankind” under its current leadership. There are no precedents for anything like this.

We should recognize that these criticisms tend to be narrow. They are concerned with threats to the US and its allies. They do not take into account the likely effects on Iraqis: the warnings of the UN and aid agencies that millions may be at very serious risk in a country that is at the edge of survival after a terrible war that targeted its basic infrastructure ­ which amounts to biological warfare -- and a decade of devastating sanctions that have killed hundreds of thousands of people and blocked any reconstruction, while strengthening the brutal tyrant who rules Iraq. It is also interesting that the criticisms do not even take the trouble to mention the lofty rhetoric about democratization and liberation. Presumably, the critics take for granted that the rhetoric is intended for intellectuals and editorial writers ­ who are not supposed to notice that the drive to war is accompanied by a dramatic demonstration of hatred of democracy, just as they are supposed to forget the record of those who are leading the campaign. That is also why none of this is ever brought up at the UN.

Nevertheless, the threats that do concern establishment critics are very real. They were surely not surprised when the CIA informed Congress last October that they know of no link between Iraq and al Qaeda-style terrorism, but that an attack on Iraq would probably increase the terrorist threat to the West, in many ways. It is likely to inspire a new generation of terrorists bent on revenge, and it might induce Iraq to carry out terrorist actions that are already in place, a possibility taken very seriously by US analysts. A high-level task force of the Council on Foreign Relations just released a report warning of likely terrorist attacks that could be far worse than 9-11, including possible use of WMD right within the US, dangers that become “more urgent by the prospect of the US going to war with Iraq.” They provide many illustrations, virtually a cook-book for terrorists. It is not the first; similar ones were published by prominent strategic analysts long before 9-11.

It is also understood that an attack on Iraq may lead not just to more terror, but also to proliferation of WMD, for a simple reason: potential targets of the US recognize that there is no other way to deter the most powerful state in history, which is pursuing “America’s Imperial Ambition,” posing serious dangers to the US and the world, the author warns in the main establishment journal, Foreign Affairs. Prominent hawks warn that a war in Iraq might lead to the “greatest proliferation disaster in history.” They know that if Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, the dictatorship keeps them under tight control. They understand further that except as a last resort if attacked, Iraq is highly unlikely to use any WMD it has, thus inviting instant incineration. And it is also highly unlikely to leak them to the Osama bin Ladens of the world, which would be a terrible threat to Saddam Hussein himself, quite apart from the reaction if there is even a hint that this might take place. But under attack, the society would collapse, including the controls over WMD. These would be “privatized,” terrorism experts point out, and offered to the huge “market for unconventional weapons, where they will have no trouble finding buyers.” That really is a “nightmare scenario,” just as the hawks warn.

Even before the Bush administration began beating the war drums about Iraq, there were plenty of warnings that its adventurism was going to lead to proliferation of WMD, as well as terror, simply as a deterrent. Right now, Washington is teaching the world a very ugly and dangerous lesson: if you want to defend yourself from us, you had better mimic North Korea and pose a credible military threat, including WMD. Otherwise we will demolish you in pursuit of the new “grand strategy” that has caused shudders not only among the usual victims, and in “old Europe,” but right at the heart of the US foreign policy elite, who recognize that “commitment of the US to active military confrontation for decisive national advantage will leave the world more dangerous and the US less secure” ­ again, quoting respected figures in elite journals.

Evidently, the likely increase of terror and proliferation of WMD is of limited concern to planners in Washington, in the context of their real priorities. Without too much difficulty, one can think of reasons why this might be the case, not very attractive ones.

The nature of the threats was dramatically underscored last October, at the summit meeting in Havana on the 40th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, attended by key participants from Russia, the US, and Cuba. Planners knew at the time that they had the fate of the world in their hands, but new information released at the Havana summit was truly startling. We learned that the world was saved from nuclear devastation by one Russian submarine captain, Vasily Arkhipov, who blocked an order to fire nuclear missiles when Russian submarines were attacked by US destroyers near Kennedy’s “quarantine” line. Had Arkhipov agreed, the nuclear launch would have almost certainly set off an interchange that could have “destroyed the Northern hemisphere,” as Eisenhower had warned.

The dreadful revelation is particularly timely because of the circumstances: the roots of the missile crisis lay in international terrorism aimed at “regime change,” two concepts very much in the news today. US terrorist attacks against Cuba began shortly after Castro took power, and were sharply escalated by Kennedy, leading to a very plausible fear of invasion, as Robert McNamara has acknowledged. Kennedy resumed the terrorist war immediately after the crisis was over; terrorist actions against Cuba, based in the US, peaked in the late 1970s continued 20 years later. Putting aside any judgment about the behavior of the participants in the missile crisis, the new discoveries demonstrate with brilliant clarity the terrible and unanticipated risks of attacks on a “much weaker enemy” aimed at “regime change” ­ risks to survival, it is no exaggeration to say.

As for the fate of the people of Iraq, no one can predict with any confidence: not the CIA, not Donald Rumsfeld, not those who claim to be experts on Iraq, no one. Possibilities range from the frightening prospects for which the aid agencies are preparing, to the delightful tales spun by administration PR specialists and their chorus. One never knows. These are among the many reasons why decent human beings do not contemplate the threat or use of violence, whether in personal life or international affairs, unless reasons have been offered that have overwhelming force. And surely nothing remotely like that has been offered in the present case, which is why opposition to the plans of Washington and London has reached such scale and intensity.

The timing of the Washington-London propaganda campaign was so transparent that it too has been a topic of discussion, and sometimes ridicule, right in the mainstream. The campaign began in September of last year. Before that, Saddam was a terrible guy, but not an imminent threat to the survival of the US. The “mushroom cloud” was announced in early September. Since then, fear that Saddam will attack the US has been running at about 60-70% of the population. “The desperate urgency about moving rapidly against Iraq that Bush expressed in October was not evident from anything he said two months before,” the chief political analyst of United Press International observed, drawing the obvious conclusion: September marked the opening of the political campaign for the mid-term congressional elections. The administration, he continued, was “campaigning to sustain and increase its power on a policy of international adventurism, new radical preemptive military strategies, and a hunger for a politically convenient and perfectly timed confrontation with Iraq.” As long as domestic issues were in the forefront, Bush and his cohorts were losing ground ­ naturally enough, because they are conducting a serious assault against the general population. “But lo and behold! Though there have been no new terrorist attacks or credible indications of imminent threat, since the beginning of September, national security issues have been in the driver’s seat,” not just al Qaeda but an awesome and threatening military power, Iraq.

The same observations have been made by many others. That’s convenient for people like us: we can just quote the mainstream instead of giving controversial analyses. The Carnegie Endowment Senior Associate I quoted before writes that Bush and Co. are following “the classic modern strategy of an endangered right-wing oligarchy, which is to divert mass discontent into nationalism," inspired by fear of enemies about to destroy us. That strategy is of critical importance if the "radical nationalists" setting policy in Washington hope to advance their announced plan for "unilateral world domination through absolute military superiority," while conducting a major assault against the interests of the large majority of the domestic population.

For the elections, the strategy worked, barely. The Fall 2002 election was won by a small number of votes, but enough to hand Congress to the executive. Analyses of the election found that voters maintained their opposition to the administration on social and economic issues, but suppressed these issues in favor of security concerns, which typically lead to support for the figure in authority ­ the brave cowboy who must ride to our rescue, just in time.

As history shows, it is all too easy for unscrupulous leaders to terrify the public, with consequences that have not been attractive. That is the natural method to divert attention from the fact that tax cuts for the rich and other devices are undermining prospects for a decent life for large majority of the population, and for future generations. When the presidential campaign begins, Republican strategists surely do not want people to be asking questions about their pensions, jobs, health care, and other such matters. Rather, they should be praising their heroic leader for rescuing them from imminent destruction by a foe of colossal power, and marching on to confront the next powerful force bent on our destruction. It could be Iran, or conflicts in the Andean countries: there are lots of good choices, as long as the targets are defenseless.

These ideas are second nature to the current political leaders, most of them recycled from the Reagan administration. They are replaying a familiar script: drive the country into deficit so as to be able to undermine social programs, declare a “war on terror” (as they did in 1981) and conjure up one devil after another to frighten the population into obedience. In the `80s it was Libyan hit-men prowling the streets of Washington to assassinate our leader, then the Nicaraguan army only two-days march from Texas, a threat to survival so severe that Reagan had to declare a national emergency. Or an airfield in Grenada that the Russians were going to use to bomb us (if they could find it on a map); Arab terrorists seeking to kill Americans everywhere while Qaddafi plans to “expel America from the world,” so Reagan wailed. Or Hispanic narcotraffickers seeking to destroy the youth; and on, and on.

Meanwhile the political leadership were able to carry out domestic policies that had generally poor economic outcomes but did create wealth for narrow sectors while harming a considerable majority of the population ­ the script that is being followed once again. And since the public knows it, they have to resort to “the classic modern strategy of an endangered right wing oligarchy” if they hope to carry out the domestic and international programs to which they are committed, perhaps even to institutionalize them so they will be hard to dismantle when they lose control.

Of course, there is much more to it than domestic considerations ­ which are of no slight importance in themselves. The September 11 terrorist atrocities provided an opportunity and pretext to implement long-standing plans to take control of Iraq's immense oil wealth, a central component of the Persian Gulf resources that the State Department, in 1945, described as "a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history." US intelligence predicts that these will be of even greater significance in the years ahead. The issue has never been access. The same intelligence analyses anticipate that the US will rely on more secure supplies in the Western hemisphere and West Africa. The same was true after World War II. What matters is control over the "material prize," which funnels enormous wealth to the US in many ways, Britain as well, and the "stupendous source of strategic power," which translates into a lever of “unilateral world domination” -- the goal that is now openly proclaimed, and is frightening much of the world, including “old Europe” and the conservative establishment in the US.

I think a realistic look at the world gives a mixed picture. There are many reasons to be encouraged, but there will be a long hard road ahead.

Glad to see you're back in business!

hey boys! much thanks for coming back to Y-town and tearing up the place, I look forward to having you back perhaps in the Fall, when monsoon season is over! I told everyone that you ruled, and they agree! You must come back...

Mad props going out to the almighty Coinmonster, who proved once again at the Cellar in Youngstown that few bands can touch them in terms of heaviness, songwriting or just plain 'ole musicianship... they're amazing. Pick up your copy of Tilton Johnson today. Thanks also to the audience who treated us very well and had many kind words during and after the show. Again, we're finding that folks in places like Youngstown have a copy of our Ratbelly disc before we show up (some even have a copy of Volume I!) so we thank you again for your support--Peace to you all and we look forward to next time.

Just dropping a line to thank Sporadic for putting on such a great display of musicianship at the Tiki Lounge last night. They really are a fantastic band and they kicked much ass--Check them out. Also thanks to Matt Piper for turning us up so loud that people's fillings were falling out; He actually made our drummer say that things were too loud which was heretofore thought impossible. Mad props again to Byron Nash and crew--wish we could have played better, but we'll just take out our aggressions at the Coinmonster show tonite in Youngstown.

HAIL AND KILL !!!

Special thanks once again to the Booginz and the moderate yet boisterous crowd at the Plaza Cafe. Our first outing as a trio was incredibly successful, thanks in no small part to the fact that many in the audience already had one or two of our discs. We look forward to visiting Ohio again next week with the Almighty Coinmonster on Fri. 8/23 at the Cellar. It's also worth mentioning that a friend recorded our recent gig at the Quiet Storm in East Liberty with our good friend Joseph Kamm on electric piano and keys. The recording sounds killer, and we're looking forward to playing with Joe again on 8/22 at the Tiki Lounge on Pittsburgh's South Side.

Special thanks to the Booginz and the moderate yet boisterous crowd at the Plaza Cafe in Youngstown. Our first outing as a trio was incredibly successful, in part due to the fact that many in the audience already owned one or two of our discs--our humble thanks for your support. Looking forward to revisiting Youngstown again on Fri. 8/23 with the Almighty Coinmonster whose CD "Tilton Johnson" continues to make our bus trips to various cities so enjoyable. Also worth mentioning is the live recording from our recent gig featuring Joseph Kamm on the electric piano and keys--Expect to see much more of Joe in our bastardized, semi-acoustic format when we play again at the Tiki Lounge in Pittsburgh on 8/22.

next up in the news:Bush happy with the war on terror. and says: kill kill kill kill

Only the finest holes in the dirt, sand or rocky outcroppings in Afghanistan's unmistakably arid "pleasure zone." Daily insect rations, animal hooves and rancid camel butter served daily in the jihad ballroom (now outdoor). Each "room" features C-4 plastique-soled slippers, gunbelt canopies and 1/2 ton fresh-cut poppies for use as needed. Relax in a soothing dirt bath, hike the countryside, dodge bullets and mortar fire or take up arms against the western devils. We hope you'll join us for the week, weekend or until the oil boils beneath our feet.

love the music guys. check out http://pregnantpaga.topcities.com

Very nice website. Please visit South Australia and my website!!! Webmaestro :)

Sorry for the lack of concrete updates, but if you check the bandaloop records website, you'll see the real news: we're going for radio adds on April 30th... And I'm out.

Hey, I just checked the news section and we HAVE updated, it's still like we told y'all back on April 9th HA HA! So in your face, faces! Oh, and our new percussionist: NO ONE has come aboard to join our "horn section in absentia" to further market our line of shrink-wrapped beverage coasters. Anyone with more information on burning hell pits we can toss our money into, look us up! pooooooooop

Hey guys! I love the website. However, the news and show dates are not recently updated. Something should definitely be said about Roger Kynard Erickson and the "benefit" concert. I wish I could be there today but suckily enough I'm stuck in nowhere Indiana as usual. Well rock on and I'll see you guys in August sometime.

RSTA----what's goin' on guys??? I miss you guys and hope you are all doing well. Still waiting to spread your music to Burlington. Jamie-set an ex up with a CD!! Take Care:-) T dog PS. Owen says "Meow"

Her mouth is full right now, she'll have to get back to you...

i will love to use this site to seek for one of my old girl friend whose name is mis gladys onuoha,who hails from umuahia . try to keep offffff from this site,fellow geeeeee men

i will love to use this site to seek for one of my old girl friend whose name is mis gladys onuoha,who hails from umuahia .

I think I'll just stay at my friends house when I visit Turkey. Her mom said she wouldn't mind. Thank you, though!

Sorry for your difficulties...did you try the mp3.com page? www.mp3.com/rsta ?

I would make a comment about your music, but STUPID REALPLAYER CAN'T FIND IT AND WON'T LET ME USE ANOTHER PLAYER DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

addendum: Thanks to Ouve Azzy Ronk for covering for us on that Market Square thing...we'd never actually committed to doing that show, so was surprised we were listed for it. But drop by today at noon and give a good clappin for Ouve Azzy Ronk.
Second addendum: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHEILA!

Howdy, I encourage everybody to check out this http://www.pittsburghscene.com site and browse the discussions. It's a cool place. Go over, log in, and vote against us so we lose, cuz I wouldn't want anybody who digs us to be poopin on someone else's sandwich. (plus it'd be cool to join the ranks of the kicked-off since being lumped with Rusted Root ain't exactly a bad thing). Rock on.

So RSTA is still alive after one round of Survivor of the Bands of the week over at www.pittsburghscene.com. Rusted Root was kicked off in the first round and Brad Yoder currently has immunity. So get to PittsburghScene.com and support Ritual Space Travel Agency (they are kinda in trouble at the moment int he voting). Voting ends Saturday for round 2.

Be sure to check it out, because there won't be a guitar player...

Did you guys know you are playing in Market Square this Friday at high noon?

Bandaloop Records, which is home to such bands as RSTA, Coinmonster, The Booginz, Yellow #5, & Go Robot Go! is putting out a promotional(FREE) CD this summer. This CD will include 2 NEW songs from each of the above bands. If you would like a FREE copy sent to you OR would like to help us in passing out these FREE CD's, please contact us @ the email listed below. If you choose to help us pass out the CD, you will also be eligible for free full length CD's and merch from the bands. You can't lose, its all FREE lunch!! CONTACT: thebooginz@aol.com for INFO

Im handsome...

Why cant we buy this i sweden? "Because!!" Yeah right...

As one of Pittsburgh Scene's bands of the week the Ritual Space Travel Agency have qualified for the Band of the Week Survivor contest that is being held at pittsburghscene.com. voting in the first round will be held til Wednsday so get you votes in. Just remember we are voting off bands, so you might not wanna vote for RSTA :D

Rec'd from Ron at the Pontiac Grille:
"Journey --
From across the state or across the solar system, Zappa, Hendrix, and all those other cosmic explorers will at some point leave their mark on a tour via a passage thru this port of call, The Pontiac Grille, on the ship known as the Ritual Space Travel Agency." WOOPWOOP!

So, SADoa is able to play the rib-fest today thanks to a great big helping of Cowboy's ribs, potato salad, and ranch-house beans. Yeah-hah! I found "The Captain was Here!" written in red on my bathroom mirror this morning, but I'm feeling much better. Thanks rib festival! Thanks Cowboy's! Yvonne, hello! Steve, hello! I'll get you back on the CD!!!!! Yeah-hah!

whats up troy, miss wtaching you play the skins, will make it a point to come see you when you do south side on june 16,i'm sitting in saudi arabia right now and i was searching the web and came across your site,great stuff from what i've read, take care and see you in june....ed

HEY GUYS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i just wanted to hi and whats up? ....and i love ya all!

wow! that second to last post was great! how true! Just wanted to tell you guys that I liked what I heard at the rex. You guys are phenomenal. I hope to play a show together sometime. Check out our site when you get a moment. Thanks Ps: SA Doa, I hope you dig the CD www.stepuplife.com

wow! that second to last post was great! how true! Just wanted to tell you guys that I liked what I heard at the rex. You guys are phenomenal. I hope to play a show together sometime. Check out our site when you get a moment. Thanks Ps: SA Doa, I hope you dig the CD

Just wanted to post here and mention that we played at the Rex Theater on the South Side last night and they had the best live sound I've heard in Pgh*. The soundman (Bill?) deserves much respect as do the gents who run the place for having the best venue for local music. Great room, great gear, great sounds. It's rare that you play a gig here in Pittsburgh with such good sound or friendly staff, let alone both. Plus, at the end of the night, we got a CD of the performance. Let's hope the Rex doesn't go the way of the 420. Peace and thanks. (*I understand the sound at Laga kicks ass, but I can't testify personally.)

yow, thats the funniest thing in weeks... *sigh* and so true...

1) Don't sing if you aren't one of the dudes on stage getting paid to do it. Nobody paid their hard-earned money to hear your dorky, untalented ass sing. We came to hear the dudes on stage sing. Paying 40 bucks to go see Tool, but instead of hearing Maynard, you get the dorkus malorkus with mad zits standing next to you singing "Sober" really loudly and out of key in your ear is enough to murder mother fuckers for.

2) Also, if the singer on stage does decide to either: pass the mic around for the "sing along" song, or: motion to the audience to sing aloud at key moments, and you know beforehand that your singing ability is severely limited, you MUST waive your "sing along" rights. Leave the crowd participation parts to those that do not fall under the "musically retarded" category.

3) This is possibly the oldest rule in the book… yeah, you know what we're talking about… don't be THAT guy. We KNOW you like the band, that's why you're here, you don't need to wear their SHIRT to their show as well.

4) Also, no wearing shirts of ex-bands either. That means no Nirvana shirts at the Foo Fighters show, no Jawbreaker shirts at the Jets to Brazil show, no Minor Threat shirts at the Fugazi show etc.

5) The "merch guy" is not your friend. In fact, all the merch guy wants to do is get through the night without having to talk to your lame ass. That means that he doesn't want a copy of your weak ass emo band's demo to pass along to the band. The only reason he might talk to you is because you either A) Know where to get drugs. B) Your girlfriend is hot, and by talking to you he can K.G.B. his way into her pants. C) You are willing to pay him for the time in his life that he's wasted talking about how much he likes the band's first out of print seven inch D) Know where he can get either drunk or high for free or E) He's making fun of you. Most likely it's E. In fact, it's mostly E, I mean look at yourself, you're striking up conversation with a merch jockey.

6) Dancing is ok, as long as you don't get all fruity. Air-instruments are NOT ok. That includes: air-guitar, air-drums, air-microphone, air-keyboards, and yes even the air-bass. Don't get me started on air-saxophone.

7) If you yell out "Play some Skynyrd", you deserve immediate castration. This isn't funny unless your name is either Beavis or Butthead. Shut the fuck up, we all know you've never heard Skynard. You think Earth Crisis invented music back in 1990. Don't give somebody another reason to stab you.

8) Don't be the buff steakhead dudes in the Jeep blasting Radiohead as you leave (or enter) the parking lot of the Radiohead show. WE KNOW YOU LIKE THE BAND! THAT'S WHY YOU ARE AT THE FUCKING SHOW CHAMP! HOW MUCH OF ONE BAND DO YOU REALLY NEED?! Actually just don't be the four buff guys in the Jeep at the show… period. This rule applies to everybody. You don't need to listen to the band you're going to see on the way to seeing them.

9) Tall dudes that stand at the front of the stage should have their testicles pureed. You're tall dumb ass, get in the back, or at least back a few rows.

10) Don't yell songs at the band, especially if it's not a super rare song or something. Yelling "ENTER SANDMAN" at the Metallica show is second only in retardation to drooling on yourself and walking really funny with a walker. NO SHIT THEY'RE GONNA PLAY ENTER SANDMAN DUDE. Keep it in your pants, they'll get to it in the 3rd encore. Heckling is ok.

11) Anybody who utters the word MOSH PIT deserves to die.

12) Don't take off your shirt. We know you're sweaty dude, taking off your wife beater isn't going to stop that.

13) Don't be that fat lame bitch that gets crushed at the front of the stage at the barrier. Every time there's a real big show, some grotesquely fat chick thinks it would be swell to get as close to the singer of Blink182 as possible, and that nobody else there has the same idea. 3 songs into the set, the bouncers have to pull her obese fainting ass over the barricade. Don't be this pathetic piece of pasty lard.

14) Don't buy those shirts in the parking lot from the dude who looks homeless… unless your idea of a good fitting shirt is about 1 foot long and 3 feet wide. Oh wait, that probably fits your fat ass perfectly.

15) No making out at shows. Get a room. Unless of course it's a Shat show, then it's ok.

16) People who stand outside the whole time, and never go inside to watch any of the bands should be shot in the face. Yeah bitch, we know you don't really like the music and just use your pseudo post emo look as a social façade to hopefully get laid and shit, but your presence at shows besides annoying everybody and making it harder to move around is useless. Go home and play on the internet and revise your makeout club profile you twat.

17) Don't be that guy who sells your zine at shows. We don't want to hear about your boring life, let alone have to pay money to hear about it.

18) Newsflash for kids starting a new band… it doesn't matter how many flyers you make for that first show you're playing at that coffeehouse… if you pass this flyer out to every last fucker in front of the show, NOBODY WILL CARE AND NOBODY WILL COME. We don't care about Shit Skittle's debut performance brah. It's almost as if the people passing out these flyers assume that people are walking out of the show thinking, "Gee, I really don't have anything to do at all next weekend. I wish there was some shitty show going on somewhere really out of the way with bands I've never ever heard of and don't know what they sound like that I could go to." It's not happening bro and never will. Keep practicing.

19) No crying.

20) When there's a brand new band that a lot of people seem real excited about that features ex members of other cool bands or something, and they don't have any releases out yet, just a demo, or a couple mp3's on their website or something, don't be the jackass at the front of the stage singing all the words. Yeah, yeah, we know you're the geeky super fan who likes these guys way more than everybody else. Just stop it cos you're making everybody want to vomit with your over apparent super fan enthusiasm.

21) "Moshers" who lose shoes, keys, wallets, etc. and then stop their kung fu fighting to try and look for those objects, then get clobbered and fall to the ground…… no wait, keep doing that, it's funny.

22) Sometimes when your favorite band is playing their big hit as their last song, you think it's a good idea and really cool to jump up on the stage and dance with the band. You and about 50 other die-hard geeks. Well… we know you're real enthusiastic about the whole thing, but get your porky and dorky ass off the stage. The band doesn't want you up there that close to their equipment. Get off the stage fruitcake.

23) If you go up and begin conversation with the band while they're loading equipment out at the end of the night and you don't at least offer to help, you deserve to be cut into little fucking pieces. The band wants to get the shit in the van and get the fuck out of your dumb ass corn & wheat truckstop town, and you're not helping matters.

24) Street team people passing out the latest Mudvayne cassette sampler in front of the show should be crucified. Yeah, give me a tape dude. I want a fucking Mudvayne tape.

Buttered pork is a delicious source of protein. It also leaves you with a shiny, healthy coat.

Hey Boofantus! You really should learn to spell!

Yins guys shoold speek moore shit in da paper. Them iz fun reeding

Just because something is beautiful, does not mean it is safe. Stupid search engine only gave me one set of pictures that would support my statement (the rest of the pages wouldn't load)... So, if you are interested: http://www.lasrocasresort.com/pictures.htm (it has some Marley for the intro (a big plus.)) Welcome to this unparalleled universe.

In what perverted parallel universe is Honduras idyllic?

Hey, just to bring things full convoluted circle-after-circle, on the whole SA El Jefe rant about Magnum, P.I.: Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes died in an idyllic setting of un-natural causes, taking the L from TLC. Now they are just TC.

Hegemony defined (so other fools like me needn't look it up): Preponderant influence or authority over others: Domination. As long as it translates into people at the gig, who cares.

I've just received it. Telepathy is efficient.

I'm leaning towards telepathy, just for the gee-whiz factor of it.

Should we post our gigs for the 10th and 11th of May or just let people receive the telepathic mailer?

that's usually how it goes with that messageboard of theirs.. the good ones get bashed, while tired ass bands get praise.. it's lame, but I can't stop reading it... it's like crack..

Best quote I read today, "You know what? I've seen nothing but bad shit posted about RSTA here [Nick's page, of course]. I should have known, that if they get bashed here, they are a good band. I was at Nick's Saturday Night and I thought they were an awesome band." webmaster USA - Monday, April 22, 2002 at 13:58:48 (EDT)

You guys rock even if your sax player is a dick. Just kidding, you're not really a dick, you're just a bit of an ass. Call me sometime. Oh yeah, and "All Alone" has definitely made my top 10 favorite songs of all time.

My friend told me rTAS was playing at state college 2nite but is not on web page any other gigs you rnot telling bout

My friend told me rTAS was playing at state college 2nite but is not on web page any other gigs you rnot telling bout

yeah, I think it would be super tough if the Middle East started some sort of oil production or sales ban and the US was intelligent enough to say, "You know, that's a good sign that we should start a new economic stimulus package based on the research and development of alternative energy sources--we'll created millions of jobs in providing Americans with new, clean energy. So instead of drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge for oil, we can re-educate oil crews to work in wind turbine maintenance and solar panel development. We can reevaluate our current energy situation in light of the goal that we want to eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels and other harmful pollutants. Then we will have no use for the stupid fuckers who happen to live on top of all that oil. Shit, we can light a match to it and not worry about losing our ability to travel. In fact, everyone in America gets a thousand dollars and a bunny. And we'll lead the rest of the world into a cleaner and greener future." We can all ride gaily to work on bicycles, healthier, happier and high on opium grown in God's United States of America.

The Lava Lounge show forever rests as "unlistenable" in the eyes (yes, he hears colors and sees sound) of SA Pokevan who was nice enough to pick it up for us and leave at his house. That sucks, but we'll get other chances to put some live tracks down. **Yes Chico, get flying around the world already!

Yes indeed it is and has been the year 2002 for quite some time. Any agent is heartily encouraged to remind Chico di Stanco Facciaculo that his non-Y2K compliant guestbook code has to be manually updated to the current year... ps rock on aaron, great pic...howdy timothy enjoy the musico...

Maybe 2002?

uh...to add appropriate context to SA Doa's visions of hemp-fueled economy...what year is it?

I didn't see the picture before; it wouldn't load. That is fucking hilarious. With pigs flying, we are sure to go far. Aaron, I don't know you, but I like your style. Oh yeah, the Lava Lounge performance may be available for anyone that wants to re-live the experience again and again. I know I do. Everyone, thank you! It will forever live in my memory that you guys were singing along almost as loud as RSTA. I'll let you all know specifics about the disc soon. ALF Weider Sane.

Israel is taking care of business USA style. Must be hard to swallow, huh Mr. Bush. Looks more effective too. I hope that the terrorism campaign will end so that we can stay home and be safe. Can't we bring everyone home? Corporations, Media, Armed and Air forces? Come on, give up on trying to get their oil, their money, and their Opium, and start producing hemp fuel. Take the jobs out of the sweat shops in foreign countries, and give them to deserving United States nationals. We could have a job for every person in the United States if companies like Nike brought their production back home. Oh, yeah, change the laws so that corporations can't say that their products are made in the US if they are assembled entirely of or include foreign-made pieces.

First things first ok I just ordered 2 CD's from RSTA and I can't wait to get them. I have listened to "all alone" already, and it's the best music I've heard in a long time. I can tell RSTA will go far.

RSTA show at Lava Lounge(April 3) was so refreshing it made me want to catch large chunks of water in my face. VIVA RSTA!

Great show!!! Gargamel vs. Voltron rocks. Mumrah sucks. Booze is good food !!!!!!!!!!!!

i saw another RSTA R.vs.G. review in this magazine called PULP @ 31st st. last week. not sure if its online though

First of all, we'll probably play about 10pm at the Lava Lounge. Secondly, the guy with the chopper on Magnum P.I. was named T.C.! Get it? T.C. Not JT or whatever the hell you losers claimed it was...

What time yinz go own at Lava tonight? needs to know?

axe George Jefferson....

Can beans burn on a grill?

Just wanted to post and say that Sa DOA hooked me up with a copy of the Booginz new tracks and they sound fucking bombastic. Great mix, great performances, shiny production. Scary stuff, go git some. Another feather in the Bandaloop cap.

Is this that place that makes those sandwiches with the coleslaw in them? even if it's not, you'ns rockk.

At least it was an E string. That's hardcore.

Many thanks to Creta Bourzia and Tub Ring! My ears are still ringing this morning, and I have been stopped by four people that couldn't make it to the show last night. All since I stepped on the bus at 8:20. Rock!

POST THE PHOTOS, CHICO

hey guys, i got really boared so i decided to write and say WHAT UP???? i met u guys at the resurgence concert. u were the koolest guys there, if you want to see pics from the concert ask chico, i e-mailed them to him, so if u wanna see ask him or e-mail me and ask~ ;o} any who i gotta go to work so i'll talk to ya l8ter~ PEACE LUV YA ALL~ =o}

On behalf of the Yuengling Corporation, I'd like to extend my congratulations to RSTA as winners of our "Mass Consumption of Product Resulting In Splendiferously Splendid Music" contest. Second place was a tie between k.d. lang and Kraftwerk. Yours in Beer, Helga Umlaut

Guess what puppet pal Clem...no burning crosses. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot...BONK! A.I.D.S. has been declared funny, so now all of the painful memories MUST be revisited to find out it they are funny or not. It hasn't been 22.3 years yet, though. Could be dangerous...

I am gonna come see you guys so you better not be meen and burn crosses and shit. And don't be telling on me if I'm smokin' either. I love "Clown Around Pals".

Anyone not yet familiar with Soda Jerk should do themselves a favor and check them out. This past Saturday was the first time I got to see them play an entire set and I was blown away. Hank Williams meets Cake meets... Hank Jr. and they all fight. Great vocal harmonies, great musicianship and it doesn't sound like anything else around town (Pgh.). Thanks again for a great night, guys.

Saturday night at the Pittsburgh Deli Mudpit is going to rock Double upright bass in your face

wow, didn't think anyone actually knew enough or cared enough to think about Irwin. i must admit it was a bit weird seeing a discussion about me on here...a friend directed me to this. yep! i was the bassist for Irwin and Bill was the singer and guitarist; definitely check out his new band Life In Bed (if you liked Irwin's music) for heavier tastes, you can check out Pittsburgh Dice with me on bass or my new project with former members of Burning Sensations called Space Eater. a bit more metal and dash more punk than Irwin was. hope you guys check it out...and to RSTA, i really do love the cd. you guys should be damned proud of it. peace

Howdy...actually paul was the bass player i thought. Bill was the guitar player, he joined manifold splendour later then they broke up and reformed recently as Life in Bed. There's a bio on Paul at the pghrock site (toldja to check out more on the site...)

I thought the same thing, then I realized he was the guitar player from "Irwin"

who wrote the review on Pghrock.com? why does that (Paul Workmiester) sound familiar?

Hey, if you're not going to make sense, post under my monicker. And why not start today? Spread your love around.

I might just love someone one day.

Thanks for the heads-up about the review, I didn't know about it. Here's the link: http://pittsburghrock.com/content/content.php3?type=review&number=208 but check out the rest of their site. Isverycool.

I was joking about the hockey.

did you see the review on Pittsburghrock.com? pretty decent review indeed

are you really that stupid? guess you don't read much, afghanistan isn't in the olympics you dolt

Gosh, I hope our hockey team beats the Afghani hockey team.

ROCK ON, SODAJERK! Congrats on semi-final GRC win! Ya ruled! Glad to hear RSTA is providing your fooseball soundtrack...seeya soon.

dogknob!

Clamdigger!

Ratbelly vs. Gorgotron has proven to be the best album to play fooseball to. There was recently an 8 man foose tournament in Sodajerk country and we spun the record for like 3 straight hours. It was intense.

hey guys! Finally got my copy of the new disc in the mail last night, listened to it about 4 times already, GREAT WORK! The heavy is heavier and the freaky is freakier, and the good is, well...., gooder? See you soon, bruthas! Jon

Hey RSTA. The new CD is freakin' sweet! Of course, so was the vid. hopefully you'll be kind enough to put it on the site for us to download.

The concert rocked and the video was amazing.

Hey Jessee - Kathy emailed me about the CD release party so I decided to ferret out the RSTA website - very cool - are you sure we're related? l, cuz (mary ellen)

Thanks, Jon, you guys totally rocked. And superthanks to everyone who came out and made last night's release party so insanely much fun. It couldn't possibly have been better...just can't thank you all enough. Rock on.

once again, great show! Thanks so much for letting us be a part of your CD Release party... We will gladly return the favor, hopefully in April/May!! Great Job! Jon

It's on, bitch!

9pm sharp. Ratbelly goin' dizzown.

What time friday at Rosebud?

why isn't this guestbook filled with comments about how sexy that chico is?

I think Ratbelly's my favorite. He's so furry and cubicle-filled... New CD is super-happy-yum-dragon-donkey, death clown car is fallen under its mighty mighty. War. War.

I finally got your CD in the mail last night. I think I listened to it 5 times already. It was worth the wait. What can I say about the CD to convey how musically massive it is? Truly amazing!! Words can describe so buy a copy, hold on to your wig and enjoy the experience. Vol. 1 is one of my favorites and this no doubt will rank among the highest honors. See ya Saturday at The Bomb Shelter!!

Its seems like Gorgotron has the upper hand so far, but he's having troubles coping w/ the cheese coated belly spew of the raving Ratbelly! It seems this war will never end...thank Christ. GREAT CD fellas!!!

I realize that I cannot be writing this message because I am actually at the 31st Steet Pub getting ready to go on stage, so if it makes any sense at all then I will just have to buy some more of that good sheet. I stopped plucking the hairs outta my ass this week because I get those damn ingrown pimple fuck things and man they are itchy like Christmas. I thought this message into existence because I am. Thanks- enjoy the show and all you girls please quit staring at me.

we are loooking WAY forward to sharing the stage with you again in January!! Sorry about the pot comment, those things sometimes spill forth without thinking! Anyhoo, I won't have a video of the event, but a CD bootleg of it. We've got a guy that bootlegs just about every show, I can't wait to hear the horn! Keep "b flat" in your head for January 25th!!

Jon. You, Rick, and Dave always put on a good show. I'm not going to try and one up El Jefe, but hell knows my chest cavity is going to remain intact. I can't wait to see the video you spoke of. Oh, and I didn't get to thank you for the "Where's Jamie...Probably off smoking pot somewhere," comment. I was actually in the crowd with my head stuck on nod. Thanks for the chance to share the stage! Coinmonster. Coinmonster. Coinmonster. Coinmonster. Coinmonster. Coinmonster. Coinmonster. Coinmonster. Coinmonster. Coinmonster.

No shit, Jon you guys made me sick you were so good. Anyone who misses Coinmonster at our CD release party will have their chest caved in by the force with which God vomits on them.

we had a great time with you guys on Saturday! Thanks again Jamie for coming up and playing with us, it's always a treat. Jon

Howdy, thanks mucholy for the kind words, Dynamo. We can't wait til the CDs arrive either. In the meantime, check out the screenshots from the video we're makin for Death to the Bloodstained Giant at http://www.ritualspace.net/video/screenshots.htm Rock on

you guys blow me away. is it possible for a band such as this to make and create music in this form of creativity. I cannot wait to recieve the cd in the mail. take it easy fellas. keep up this massive work

I've been thinking about this issue of forcing tobacco companies to change their names. I think they should all join together and change their name to "Clown Around Pals." Then, they could open a chain of playroom/babysitting stores like "Gymboree" and others. These would feature the requisite "ball pits" and other guaranteed-draw attractions. But upon entry, each child would be given two (brightly colored) cigarettes for their smoking pleasure. For the toddlers, there would be chewing gum mixed with the tobacco--everything goes right into their mouth anyway. More on these and other issues when I get back from overseas. I volunteered to cut the hair of Taliban prisoners. I figure if I can fashion their hair into mullets before they're released back into society, they'll be easier to identify and avoid.

Yeah, I'll be right over after I take in the touring production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." That Ann Margaret makes such a great whore. It's almost like she was born to play that whore. This Texas whore story is like a little piece of Ass... I mean Americana.

Would Mr El Jefe kindly report to his local FBI station for voluntary detention, re-education, confession and summary execution (following a full, fair and secret trial, of course). Thank you.

Salon.com currently features a piece written by an Aussie living in New York (Author's name is Meera Atkinson)that brings up several interesting points (incl. hatred toward Americans for being "soft" and the attitude that we somehow got what we deserved; that we "brought this on ourselves," so to speak.) A lot of people have said things similar to those stated in the article regarding the fact that there is a vocal minority (both here and abroad) that believes that although this was an unspeakable tragedy, the Sept. 11 attacks should be used to reevaluate US policies past and present and to use this time to turn our gaze inward to heal existing domestic rifts and make serious strides toward improving ourselves as a country (with special focus re-evaluating our gov't., but that's my trip). Anyhow, I was thinking that I know a lot of people who don't necessarily agree with Dubya's actions prior to or after 9/11 (in whole or in part). That there is indeed a cross-section of society thirsting for a new kind of U.S. Government or at least revised policy(ies). But one of the myriad truths of the matter is that the bombing of the USS Cole, the embassy bombings in Africa, the 9/11 attacks are arguably the retaliation against U.S. Government Policies abroad (Israel, et.al), "terrorist" activities undertaken by the U.S. (i.e. School of the Americas, Iran-Contra, etc.)--NOT its private citizens. That is to say that when people say they hate "Americans," what they are actually saying (in some cases) is that they hate American Government and its policies and actions and its lack of accountability or practicing what it preaches. I submit that this cross-section might be a majority. But we'd never know it since in this country, a majority can't even get a president elected. One thing is for sure: Innocent or not, the American people, like the peoples of other countries, are all held responsible for the actions of their government. Even if they didn't elect them.

Ok, time to read what the ignorant masses (will always) ignore: Noam Chomsky recently spoke in Islamabad about the U.S. and its hypocritical terrorist past. The link can be accessed through Slate's story, but if you type in "www.dawn.com/2001/11/27/top4.htm" you should be taken directly to the article. This guy (read:professor) was spouting some dangerously unpopular truths, but got a standing ovation. Notice that the good 'ol School of the Americas, favored target of outpourings of RSTA derision, is featured in this story (indirectly). While it's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, it may spur some useful discussion. By the way, if you were the world's most wanted terrorist and you did have one or two suitcase-size nukes, what would you do with them? Wait until Christmas to use them? Or maybe just wait until enough ground troops were in your neck of the woods to make it really worth it to fry your own doomed ass while taking down thousands of soldiers? Those of you who do check the Slate site, don't pass up the deep, dark conspiracy theory (one I hadn't heard) about the possibility of US/Russian collusion to bring down the Saudis' dominance of the oil market.

Thank you, fake posters, for your patience. I have updated the time function so it puts in 2001. I have also removed the censoring function, so people can say fuck shit damn piss and hell to their hearts content. However...the word 'lemon!astrobutt' (with the ! removed) will simply not be tolerated.

Well bless my buttons, it is 2001...about time ya fixed the censored date ya weenies. Made guestbook look like it was a year since anybody'd posted on it... the hour is still wrong, but hey...

think it's 2001, not sure

what friggin year is it anyway

Death to the la la, la la, chickachicka

actually, research assistants cause cancer in lab rats.

Conspiracy theory of the week: The newest Bin-laden rumor I've heard is that he's been dead since prior to 9/11. Some folks are apparently speculating that he succumbed to kidney failure months ago and that current events are in his honor, so to speak. Others suggest this could account for the vague content and seemingly bungled chronology of various video messages. BTW, Let's hope Mr. Fox's new release is at least a bit more timely than a soft-drink from the '70's. Apparently, the new disc does cause cancer in lab rats.