Darfur attacks continue

As I mentioned earlier this week, the genocide in Darfur is continuing unabated. Today, an unprecdented act of violence occurred when a rebel group ovveran a peacekeeping camp. Some reports are saying that as many as sixty peacekeepers were killed in the attack. Meanwhile, the UN has sent another team of negotiators to the Sudanese capital to dance the Macarena with General Al-Bashir, a man considered to be the most brutal dictator in the world. Some people are even afraid to call this genocide because it would imply that this whole thing is an intentional, systematic killing, and like I said earlier, many people find that more horrorfying to comprehend than the idea of an intertribal conflict that can be worked out through negotiatons.

San Francisco trip

Had lots of fun in San Francisco today. Saw dozens of sea lions barking and got to board a WWII-era submarine, the USS Pampanito. Didn't get to much shopping done though, hopefully that will change when I save up some money.

Hacked

This is a team blog, so here it is...the shirts we're wearin tomorrow, except the Kate Moss is in black.

(Hit up my blog... www.theeOGblog.blogspot.com)

Takin' it to the street

Tomorrow I am heading off to San Francisco, a beautiful city under siege from liberal fanatics. Not to worry though, I have plenty of fun planned, including wearing my "martyr" belt t-shirt around city while my brother (www.theeogblog.blogspot.com) wears his KATE MOSS BLOWS tee to catch the attention of narrow-minded, uneducated, and stupid people who think our president is the biggest danger in the world. As Rush Limbaugh would say, it's my way of illustrating absurdity by being absurd. Other fun points of the trip will be pier 39, watching the sea lions, and shopping. Hopefully I'll stay away from the Aquarium because last time I spent about $100 there between the tickets and buying a dozen things in the gift shop. I strongly recommend taking a tour through the shark tunnel if you have a fascination with the ocean like I do.

I want to see this movie

It looks good

Why?

This is what's left of a bus after a Taliban suicide bomber walked onboard early Saturday morning in Kabul, Afghanistan and blew himself up. Over 30 people, mostly soldiers wanting nothing more than to serve their country were killed in this attack. Why anyone would ever want to do this is beyond me. This certainly highlights the reality of the threat we are facing from Islamic terrorists. Not only are they looking to kill Americans, Christians, and Jews, but are willing to slaughter dozens of fellow Muslims just to grab the headlines and to spread fear throughout the region. Unfortunately, this type of violence doesn't seem to be slowing down. Everyday, bombings and killings just like this are happening in Iraq, Pakistan, Algeria, and Israel. It's time we realize that when things like this happen, it affects all of us. Even though this particular attack occurred in the streets of Kabul, that doesn't mean it couldn't happen in a western city. Just look at what happened in London back in 2005, when suicide bombers killed over fifty people in the transit systems. The world should condemn this attack and all others like it, and stand behind the developing democracy in Afghanistan, because the best way to get rid of terrorism is to put an end to it where it originates, before it has the chance to spread.

Is it too late?

Today I kept thinking about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and how no one has done anything to stop it. As I write this, untold scores of people are dying over there, some of disease, others of starvation, and others who are being massacred by both Sudanese government soldiers and Arab militiamen. To this day, the world has done very little to stop this tradgedy. It's rarely brought up on the Nightly news because the networks can't point the blame at President Bush or the United States. At the end of the day, the only people responsible for this genocide are rabid, Arab militias and the regime of Omar Al-Bashir, the dictator of the Sudan. Day after day and night after night we here endless reports about car bombings and roadside bomb exposions in Iraq, yet mass killings and acts of ethnic cleansing are continuing in Darfur and most of it goes by unreported. Sadly, this seems to be a pattern that has reciprocated itself for decades. First, there was the Holocaust. People did there best to ignore it and convinced themselves it wasn't their problem. Then came the Cambodian genocide, an act of mass killing that claimed the livese of nearly three million people. Of course, this happened after the Vietnam War ended and the United States "got the hell out of" that region. While people were claiming that peace prevailed over "warmongering" when Vietnam ended, the reality was that anything but peace happened. The war continued and eventually led to the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, who began killing politcal opponents and began the Cambodian genocide. Then came Rwanda, an ethnic conflict that claimed nearly a million lives. During the height of the three month genocide, some 8,000 people were dying every day, many of whom were hacked to death with machetes. Unfortunately, the conflict spilled over into the neighboring countries of Congo and Burundi, and the violence is still going on. No one knows the exact figure, but its estimated that some five million people have died between these three conflicts. Today, Darfur is being ignored in the same way that every other African war has been. Many of the aid groups have pulled out of Darfur, and the African Union peacekeeping patrols sent to protect civilians are more concerned with protecting themselves. Just like Sadly, unless the world acts now, it looks like Darfur will be nothing but another miserable chapter in world history. But how could the world act? It's easy to say we should send soldiers into the region to crush the militias and protect civilians, but with the pressure on the United States ove Iraq, it doesn't look like its going to ever happen. After toppling Saddam Hussein to put an end to the cauldron of death he was stirring up, why should President Bush believe the world would support him in using force to counter the Al-Bashir's regime? If we woke up the next morning and saw that air strikes were being carried out in the Sudan, the world would probably be disgusted with the United States and any other country taking part in the operations. The whole "its not our problem, why the hell are we there?" argument would be heard just about everywhere, and we'd be where we are with Iraq all over again. The other option is to try and convince Al-Bashir to back of diplomatically, but that has gotten nowhere. No one seems to want to accept that he is just a terrible human being. Maybe the fact that he wants the people of Darfur to be suffering is just to frightening for most people to comprehend. They want to believe that Darfur is nothing but a tribal conflict that can be resolved peacefully, when it isn't. The Sudanese government has promised at least a dozen times to abide by a cease-fire but they never have, and probably never will. The only options here are for the world to put aside political anomosity and Unite or let Darfur become another genocide that we ignored.

Protecting the enviroment...the right way

Global warming is being blamed for just about everything these days, from hurricanes to deadly brain-eating amoebas, also known as Naegleria fowleri (more on this in the future). It's being taught in schools as fact, and morning news programs are terrifying people with the prospect of rising seas and endless drought. Before I go any further I would like add that I really have no use for people who run around using climate change as a posterchild for enviromental causes. As much as Hollywood celebrities, Al Gore, and the Today Show would like to deny it, climate changed cannot be stopped, capped, or reversed. At least not at the hands of human beings. As mass hysteria erupts across the world, people forget just how long the earth has been around. For billions of years, temperatures have gone up and down, the earth has warmed and cooled in drastic ways, and it doesn't look like its going to stop anytime soon. While untold sums of money are given to stop the earth from repeating a natural cycle, entire species of coastal marine life are being depleted because of overfishing. Some sharks are being systemically executed just so their fins can be used for soup. Animals like coyotes and bears are being driven out of their homes as development rolls through entire forests. These are just some of the many problems humans/animal competition has created. Obviously, it would be very, very hard for people to kill of the marine life in the ocean, or even on land for that matter. Many of the creatures on this planet got here long before we did, surviving ice ages, asteroids, and yes, "global warming". But its important for people to learn about animals and do what they can to promote conservation. Anyways, back to the global warming controversy. It's ridiculous...even arrogant, to suggest that people are responsible for and can stop global warming. Some theories "scientists" have come up with are almost humorous. One recent suggestion is to dump millions of tons of iron into the oceans to alter its chemical make-up (like thats not going to have some unintended consequences) that way it would "absorb greenhousee gases". I hope it doesn't come down to this, and its ashame many world leaders are actually backing things like this. I say we just let nature take its course and in the meantime, do what we can to help the enviroment by promoting conservation. Contrary to what many believe, taking action for the enviroment is not taking part in a left-wing rally and denouncing the government. Many movements like this are interested mostly in politics, like opposing the war in Iraq, and in reality, could care less about animals and the problems they face. If you want to take action, help clean up a beach or adopt an animal for a shelter. Back up words with action. The truth is, the global warming movement is almost like a religion. Think about it...Al Gore would be the prophet, listening to his ideology would bring you a healthy planet (heaven) and ignoring him would bring drought, wildfires, and hurricanes (hell). Newscasters who frequently bring up the subject of climate change would be "preaching sermons", almost like televangelists. The point is, people need to think for themselves. Just becuase someone you admire or respect says something is true, doesn't mean it is.