With the recent news of 4 journalists being killed in Afghanistan, my ire was aroused at this spot of forbidding dirt. Jetteva and I have been discussing for a while what the outcome of this war will be. He holds out hope for some sort of governmental structure to survive or at least be put in place. I, on the other hand, predict a region of lawlessness feuded over by warlords struggling for power. Something akin to what we’ve recently seen in Somalia or from history in ancient Japan and China.

I think that this recent killing is the first in a long line of serious mistakes that some people in Afghanistan are going to make. The world does not sit by and let journalists get killed. The people who did this, whether they are involved with Osama Bin Laden or not, whether they are Muslim or not, no matter who they are, they have brought the wrath of the world down on the doomed people of Afghanistan. It’s unfortunate and it’s sad, but it’s reality.

We have only to look at what the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia a few decades ago to see that killing political opponents and journalists not in line with your views will cause serious repercussions. I think that the world is not far from just saying, “In with the B2’s, let’s bomb this place on a grid until it’s gone. We’ll call it New Texas.” When that happens, so does WW III. It happened in the Balkans in the exact same way. They kept fighting each other, we tried to help. The Russians tried to help. And it happened, WW I.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want any of this to happen. I don’t want any more war. I also don’t want innocent journalists, who may be the Afghani people’s only hope, to be shot simply because they aren’t Afghani. The term has been used since the Chinese invented gunpowder. It was seared into the modern consciousness in the Balkans. It raises its ugly head here. Afghanistan has become the world’s powderkeg.

How scary is it to think that 8 theives bent on looting some “rich” westerners could start WW III? I think our only hope is that Afghanistan doesn’t have that many natural resources that anyone needs. However, its geographic and startegic location in that part of the world make it extremely important. The Russians wouldn’t have tried to take it over for 10 years if the place was worthless.

This war has come to be about more than terrorism. We have opened a Pandora’s Box of terrible wonders in Central Asia. I only hope that together, the countries of the world can figure out how to seal it without having to weld it shut with fire and blood.

George Lucas wants to make us wet our pants. And with this trailer, you just may. It’s the second of three movie trailers on Episode 2 to hit cyberspace. It’s very interesting in that we are now starting to see some plot direction. The most interesting part is we can see Anakin’s rage starting to build.

The 3rd trailer is unviewable online unless you have the Episode 1 DVD. So if you don’t have that DVD or a DVD-ROM on your computer, your shit-outta-luck as they say here in Ohio. *cough*Unless someone were swanky enough *cough* to rip a copy of that quicktime and send it over to me, I could post it for all us to see. *cough*

Now, go wet your pants.

As I had reported earlier in this news post, a Utah-based brewery had introduced a flavor called “Polygamy Porter.” The mormon church has been “against” polygamy for 100 years so, as Wasatch Schirf said, “we didn’t think it would offend anybody.”

Since I posted that story on November 11th, I’ve gotten several emails about it. This one caught my attention, one, because I work for an ad agency, and two, it demonstrates the wonderful hypocrisy governments often employ.

By now you’ve heard that this story is 100% true. However, in a unique, “only in Utah” contradiction, the Mormon Church has apprarently wielded its tremendous power and convinced Reagan Advertising, Utah’s largest billboard purveyor, to reject not only Wasatch’s “Why have only one?” campaign but another campaign proposed by Brighton Ski Resort that also pokes fun at polygamy, a practice outlawed (wink, wink) by the Church some 100+ years ago–and publicly condemned today–so Utah could gain statehood. Go figger!!

Paul

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Pong…It’s not just a game!.