dagashi

Would you mind sending either song to me as well? [email protected] Also, if you'd like a gmail account, just send an email to that address. I'd be glad to send out invitations.

Bah as far as Iraq goes, Bush fucked up when his PR people coined the term "War on Terror". The Bush administration used the word "war" to attempt to legitimize their needless invasion of foreign soil to the peoples of the world. But in using that word "war", the administration also legitimized the actions of the terrorists on 9/11. I mean, the Bush administration basically pulled their 20 000 troops out of Afghanistan (the last known location of Bin Laden at the time), and then sent 6 times that many into Iraq, where there were rumours of "al Qaeda" (sp, sorry), and "WMDs" in Iraq, even though it was later proven that the reports were "false" (i.e. the Bush administration lied). But let's try and keep this discussion within the scope of the thread: The effectiveness of protestation.

"Birds don't fly straight"

I would have to say, given the sliding effectiveness of protesting in general, that only the protestors and those that support the protestors really care. I mean, for example, in Seattle in 1999, the WTO talks were stopped more than once due to protesting and rioting (the darker side of protesting). The talks ultimately collapsed. Yet in Miami of last year protests occurred at a meeting to discuss the FTAA, but were suppressed with such harshness that it was later declared by the Miami county panel that for a time the city lived in "martial law". Futhermore, from what I understand of the RNC this year, the protests were shunted so far away from the convention building itself that they were completely out of earshot. The Republicans, of course, hailed this as "freedom of expression". Perhaps the time for protests has not passed, but overall, Canadian, American, European, or Asian, protestors simply aren't having the disrupting effect that they once had. Whether this means that protestors simply need a higher degree of organization, or that perhaps we need an entirely different outlet for our protestation, I'm not sure. You know, I read somewhere that Lycos had created an anti-spam screensavers. When running on your computer, the screensaver would simply ping known spam servers. Not enough to constitute an actual DOS attack, but enough to increase their bandwidth consumption (and consequently their internet bill). Perhaps something like this could be set up to up bandwidth costs for websites for the the international NGO of questionable ethics of your choice. On it's own, something like this might not make a huge difference, but if several smart brains put their heads together, I'm sure there's all sorts of havoc to wreaked over the internet. Oh, and calm2chaos, while Canada might have the technology and agricultural resources to be self sufficient, unless we close our borders to immigration, and cut off all international trade (which, most likely, would ruin our country), there is no way we can "tend to our own garden". To put it simply: We exist in a world economy, whether by choice or chance. To withdraw from that economy is to destroy our country, and to cut ourselves off completely from innovation. Try and think your way through your suggestions before you posts them, and do us all a favor: Learn the difference between "there", "they're", and "their" etc.... I'm not sure if swearing is allowed on these forums, and that's why my post doesn't contain a long list of expletives directed towards you for your post which so ridiculously neglects factoring in "reality".

If I recally correctly, pictures of the coffins of soldiers that were serving in Iraq are extremely difficult to get a hold of. Has this policy changed? Also, it lends kerry some respect that, even though he lost the election, he's still doing the sorts of PR things that we might expect from any politician, if not the president himself.

"We are devo."

*ahem* "Honeypants"