Author Archives: bicyclemark

War Without War

So many terms are abused these days, I pity all those once respected and meaningful words that have now become cliché and worthless. You know of them, consult any media source and they’re staring back at you: freedom, war, ideology, barbaric, etc. The only thing worse than seeing all the despair of the past days, is hearing all the manipulative and worthless speeches spouted by so-called leaders.

terror in iraq The biggest irony or simply wierd factor in all this, is how shocked some are. War on terror… war on terror… you hear it all the time.. over and over… yet somehow this so-called war doesn’t involve many war-like situations for the people involved. Thats right, I mean regular people who’s tax money and who’s vote play a role in the waging of war in different corners of the world. They are as innocent as the people who were/are bombed in Iraq, or anywhere. Yet those types of tragedies are considered normal, we expect a few to die, daily, in the middle east, but when it’s in London- its tragic.

Oh the bizarre double standard. You’re at war, but you live like you’re not. And then something happens like this, and it’s shocking.

Breaking News: Londons Burning

Apologies for the poor taste headline. I’ve been reading the BBC’s text-message testamonies and its very sad.

Blasts in London

Worried about everyone there. Just like I worry about all the victims of violence around the world.

In the meantime Im in the fishtank and the Dutch news is running some story about a Puma being kidnapped or some shit. The corporate media has a keen eye for useless crap to keep us dumb.

13h52 UPDATE: Blair and the BBC are already spreading speculation and stupidity about how its “probably terrorism” or.. “possibly linked to Al Qaeda”. The world has no use for professional investigations or court systems anymore, political leaders and media have cut out the middle man. They are the modern day judge-jury-and executioner. Get ready world, someones going to get invaded or bombed over this.

Grass is Greener

At the fishtank today, I sat down to lunch with mrs toronto’s greatest chef in exile. The man himself was doing his thing in the kitchen. He feeds the fish all summer long. But the conversation at lunch today was one that I immediately thought to bring on the communique.

Frisbeee

At one point we were discussing how many Dutch people complain about how everything is “boring” here. Trams run on time, pay checks are decent, things generally work… which apparently gets annoying. You’ll often hear them plotting to move to Spain or Italy, where they believe the laid back pace is the perfect way to life.
On the other hand, I mentioned, many if not most people in Portugal get utterly fed up with buses not showing up on time, crap salaries, and generally how things don’t work. They talk of moving to richer countries, like the UK or France.

Grass is greener on the other side? I don’t think so… I think some people just don’t appreciate how good they’ve got it while the rest of the world dreams of having such a situation.

Hmm.. no linkage today…. thats rare.

Warm in Here

Sometimes people discover things or make good points by accident. Like the guy who invented post-it notes (i think). This is almost how I feel about the w-bush criticism of the kyoto protocol. When he says it’s not good enough, though he’s reasons are those of a spoiled child, he circles around a point that I actually agree with. Thats right.. the sky is falling, I almost agree with the moron-in-chief.

Sign it bitchNow now, don’t worry, I can explain. I’ve conducted extensive lazy internet research in between reading the onion and great blogs like the known universe, and in my research I noted that Kyoto is full of loop holes for polluters to keep polluting by trading their “emissions credits” or whatever. I also noted that the targeted amount of pollution reduction is peanuts, almost-nothing, nada, niks, rien de rien. Nevermind how it will allow lots of terrible polluters considered non-industrialized to destroy their corner of the planet.

That being said, I want it signed. Im with the environmentalists outside the G8. hell, Im an activist myself. But like with so many things, I know we’re capable of much better. We HAVE TO come up with more and better agreements after the Kyoto thing finally goes through. When you think about it, Kyoto was drafted over 8 years ago… we should already be working on the next steps for cleaning up this terrible mess.

Now I realize I started this post by agreeing a lil’ with one of the most ignorant world leaders in history. What can I say, I’m an odd one.

In order to get the bad taste out of your mouth, go read BitchPhD visiting Chucky Cheese.

750th Bday

Kaliningrad Celebratin750 is a hell of an anniversary. Thats my thought for today.
I’ve not been to Kaliningrad – yet. But I will, this I promise. I’ll find an affordable ride across Germany, then Poland, and poof, I’ll be in this tiny Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea. And it will be lovely. I’ll take photos for you guys, cause I’d never travel without you.

For now, it’s best to go forth and study how the germans and the prussians were all involved in this wacky place. I wonder if I need a Visa to go there…