the cold war returns, hotter than ever

Anna Chapman (assuming that is her real name, not a pseudonym) is one of the 11 suspects recently captured by American authorities in connection with a spy ring in the suburbs of North-eastern United States. The radiantly ravishing Russian red-head, living in New York, described herself as 28 years old, divorced and the daughter of a Russian diplomat. Her and the 11 others were groomed to infiltrate policy-making circles in the United States and report information back to Russian authorities through hidden text in photographs.

So what does this sexy spy mean for American and Russian relations? Well Russian President Medvedev just finished meeting with American President Obama and the two nations praised thawing relations at an all time high since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Little did they know that Ms. Anna Chapman would heat things up even more. Will this mean renewed distrust amongst the two powers? It's hardly news that the two are keeping an eye on each other (these 11 probably representing only a tiny fraction of the much larger espionage going on in the United States) but with the case so close to the public eye, it could mean disaster for the renewed ties between the two countries.

Regardless of the outcome, Ms. Anna Chapman represents the new face of espionage. A sexy, tech-savvy, suburbanite, she seems extraordinarily ordinary. Entrepreneur by day, sexy Soviet spy by night, only a lonely middle-aged comic-book writer could have done it better. How can we be sure that our neighbours are who they say they are?

bigger hits

I'm trying to get back into blogging, like I once was, addicted. But relapsing is very difficult, so I'm going to take bigger hits. Not write an essay or something. But more impacting hits. I'm going to take it in and send it packing straight to the addiction center of my brain. I'm going to meditate on that shit. It's going to be wild. Anyone reading this thinks I'm heavy into drugs now, but I'm not into them at all. Taking bigger hits was just a suggestion from a friend.

What has been on my mind today is Plato's Allegory of the Cave. I wrote a couple posts (and months) back about how environmental alarmists fucked the cause with their doomsday talk, and I just realized the relevance of the Cave. We all live in blissful ignorance inside the cave, looking at shadowy figures, left-overs or doubles of the truth. Then when we ascend into the world we are blinded by the light of the truth, we see the true origin of the shadows, we see reality, and we long to be in the cave again, where we return, no longer ignorant, but indifferent. That is what happens with environmental alarm-ism. We don't like what we see, we can't handle it, we ignore it.

You can't unknow something, but you can ignore it.

Reflecting A Possible Future

This flag is not meant to directly offend anyone. It does not necessarily reflect the current or past state of the British or United States governments, but only a single possible, and not necessarily likely, future on the current trajectory.

Recently, I watched the film V for Vendetta, a sci-fi thriller about a near-future fascist Britain. This image, which apparently original to the film, was present in the basement of one of the characters, a relic of a time of unfettered freedom of speech (today). The caption read, "The Coalition of the Willing, To Power." I was instantly attracted to this image, as it is just that perfect level of controversy that has the capability of getting one thinking. It was an interesting political statement, saying that with the War on Terror and the War in Iraq the governments of the United States, Britain, Canada, etc. took on more characteristically fascist measures in the name of national security.

I rooted around and found the image in one place: Raincoaster's Blog. I found it interesting the discussion they had about this image and the comparative state of freedom in the United States and Britain. Presumably from Britain they all agreed that the United States, with its habit of wire-tapping in the post-9/11 era, is less free than Britain.

Personally, I disagree, Britain is equally, if not less free than the United States. To me this is evident by the fact that Britain has the most surveillance cameras per capita in the world with over 4 million Closed Circuit Television cameras installed nationwide, compared to a few thousand systems in the United States. In Britain all major city and town centres have Closed Circuit Television. According to studies there is little indication that these systems actually prevent crime, so really, they just provide a window for the government to look into the lives of citizens. This must be considered at least an equal rights violation to the United States wire-tapping.

With these cameras potential for Britain to become an autocratic state is clear. We must ask ourselves, before allowing a government to put in place measures to watch us and "protect" us from ourselves, do they have good intentions. No one wants to believe that their government will hurt them we'd much rather believe that our fellow citizens will hurt us, but at the expense of national security and the prosperity of the masses, they will take away our rights. It is not enough to simply know of past evil, history WILL repeat itself if we don't understand it and if don't act to prevent it.