Bush sees war against terror that never ends.

From Orwell, 1984, Chapter 1: The Ministry of Truth ... was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The same workers in poorer countries that knit sweaters, make athletic shoes and fabricate bargain-priced granite countertops for the Western World are now playing MMOGs around the clock to produce virtual goods that relatively wealthy American and European gamers can purchase.

DO NOT WALK TO SCHOOL! You must drive!

In reality, this situation is of course a product of circumstance...but on a symbolic level it certainly is representative of the machine that traps us in a nonrenewable resource dependant lifestyle.

So today is John Alston's birthday (he's our most active blogger these days). John, I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank you for being so active on Opensewer during all your moving about (from Ithaca, to NYC, to San Francisco). You really kept the website going while Rose and I became increasingly occupied with certain other "life responsibilities" (i.e., baby Maximilian, who is now 1 year old). Thanks so much, John, happy birthday, and don't blog over this! --Jason

President Bush and the Republicans in the Senate have failed — for the moment — to bring the Constitution into conformity with Judeo-Christian teachings. But even if they had passed a bill calling for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, that would have been only a beginning. Leviticus 20:13 and the New Testament book of Romans reveal that the God of the Bible doesn't merely disapprove of homosexuality; he specifically says homosexuals should be killed: "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death." (login:opensewer, password:ispuking)

The way the Olympics used to be. Naked, oiled and deadly!

For all modern society's promises of leisure, liberty and doing what you want, most of us are still slaves to a schedule we did not choose. Why have things come to such a pass? Well, the forces of the anti-idle have been at work since the fall of man. The propaganda against oversleeping goes back a very long way, more than 2,000 years, to the Bible. Here is Proverbs, chapter 6, on the subject:
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
(I would question the sanity of a religion that holds up the ant as an example of how to live. The ant system is an exploitative aristocracy based on the unthinking toil of millions of workers and the complete inactivity of a single queen and a handful of drones.)

Did you know that every year numerous "dead zones"--areas of water so devoid of oxygen that they cannot support acquatic life--form around the world?

Oh, this is the kind of news I like to hear!