Originally posted April 30, 2002. Very old news relating to the 3.5 million bucks the US government spent on a Super Bowl ad. This is the first in a chronological series of my favorite 'frustrated youth' rantings, brought here to 'stir the soup' and to humbly offer my neck for a chopping...

I Helped Kill a Palestinian Today -- AlterNet

*takes two deep breaths*... Shall we?

  Above we see the stultifying logic employed by our government to assert that "buying drugs supports terrorists" taken in a completely different direction. First of all let's handle this drug issue...

  I'm not sure how many people actually bought this crap, but it seemed like too many.  It's ridiculous on so many levels that it's insulting, but we'll try to boil it down to some key points.

  Firstly, in relation to our current situation which brought this whole campaign to be, Afghanistan has always had one drug synonymous with it's name... opium.  I can't recall the exact statistics but prior to the Taliban regime Afghanistan produced more than half of the world's opium.  As you all probably know, the Taliban BANNED opium production when they took power, and inexplicably forfeited all of that potential income.  Now of course, the Taliban is deposed and I'll let you guess what has resumed under our watchful eye.  Figure that out.

  Secondly, we haven't really forgotten where the money in the Middle East comes from have we?  Yup, it's the Oil stupid, and it just so happens that our benevolent leaders made their money off of the same stuff.  That's an awfully big thing to overlook when helping to inform us and make sure we don't inadvertantly support 'evil-doers'.  So next time you pump gas remember that you are making yourself an accessory to terrorists and evil men everywhere.  "Please step away from the pump."  And just for the record, it's widely accepted that Bin Laden's family made their personal fortune from construction, i.e. building stuff for rich oil magnates, not selling dime sacks to American junior high kids, which almost any high-shool age aspiring drug dealer can tell you will barely make you enough money to buy GAS for your Ford, let alone found an evil empire.

  OK, onward.  Let's suppose that my arguments don't make a lick of sense to you, and I've come across as a subversive with terrorist sympathies.  We will also suppose that the government is doing a noble service by reminding us to be ever-vigilant in making sure that our money is not supporting evil.  Where does that leave us?  Well, we mustn't buy drugs of course, we also very certainly shouldn't purchase petroleum or any of it's derivatives (insert painfully long list here).  And if we really want to carry this thing out and make sure people of suspect moral character who reap the rewards of human misery do not profit from us we need to boycott Wal-Mart, Nike, (and insert another even more painfully long list here).  Unfortunately it becomes clear that the way things have shaken out virtually all of the people that are making vast sums of money from selling anything are morally bankrupt.

  Which brings me to my great dilemna, relating (finally) to the above article.  Being filled with idealistic patriotism and social responsibility just like any other good citizen, it has become difficult to reconcile myself with paying taxes. After reading up a bit and paying attention it seems our government and affiliated agencies have done some pretty nefarious things.  Now I'm not talking about conspiracy theories here, I just mean the things that they themselves have admitted (usually after about 50 years of confidentiality).  We have testing of LSD and other crazy chemicals on unwitting populations in prisons, institutions, military personnel and even some government scientists.  We have Iran-Contra, ENRON (Kenny-Boy), and countless other scandals.  Basically our government has a closet bursting with skeletons that it doesn't take too much initiative to learn about.  Point being that I'm not sure I want to continue funding such reprehensible actions, my conscience has been jilted.

  In closing...  Be a good citizen, quit the drugs, buy a bike (not from Wal-Mart), and tell the IRS that you've decided to keep your money this year so you can personally make sure that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.  I'll see you all at the pearly gates.