Bushy

I'm actually thinking about volunteering..

This is the freakiest thing I've seen..

A house and three people just disappeared into this hole in the ground in Guatemala City. The resident in this poor neighbourhood had heard sounds and felt the ground shake for a month.

The city was aware of the problem and thought it could be a blocked water pipe and sewer. They were planning to execute a controlled explosion but the problem literally disappeared before they could do anything.

1,000 people have been evacuated, there's a good chance the hole, which is 100 meters deep, will grow bigger. There might also appear similar holes around the city.


They've also found a body but they can't say if it's one of the three people missing.

Because bodies in sewers are all too common this time of year...?

"Solidarity with the snowmen!"

"We're becoming extinct!
Please help us!"




"Global warming is distroying us!
Give us a future!"

It's Tuesday...

...and another roommate moved out.

At least I think he did, he's moved out all his stuff and even cleaned the bathroom. For the first time.

It's really rather depressing. Five people have moved out during the past two and a half years, and I'm still here.

One of the other guys left to go to Denmark just a few weeks ago, another guy moved in and he's just annoying. He never cleans up after himself and never says hi. Kinda rude if you ask me.

The guy who's moving out today has lived here for just over a year and he was the only one of the three others I ever really talked to. And he didn't even tell me he was moving!


I hope he didn't pack the stool in the kitchen... it seems to have gone missing.

I have the weirdest dreams...

Last night I dreamt I wanted to find a new place for my toothbrush. I remember I was brushing my teeth, then I put the brush back in its place. I stood looking at it for a little while and realized that might be a silly place to keep it, and why hadn't I thought of that before?

The place it was in was the toilet bowl. There was something at the bottom of the toilet to put the toothbrush in so it was standing up, and that was its place. I was looking at it and thought "huh... when I go to the toilet I must be almost touching it" then came the sinking realization that "when it's standing like that, people have probably hit it when they've peed.."

And then... "If someone goes to the toilet and does no. 2... how can they avoid hitting the toothbrush? They can't! It's right there, in the middle of the toilet!"


It was only a dream but I'm not sure I can ever get myself to use that toothbrush again...

I'm up, I'm up!

I've been a little under the weather lately, that's why the sudden silence. I don't like sick and I don't do sick. One of the things I hate the most is how I lose my sense of taste and smell.

Although that tends to happen when you have the cold or the flu, I seem to be the only person who cares much about it. What's life if you can't taste it? Not much fun, that's for sure. I live for the little things.

Ehren Watada

What does freedom of speech mean?

...

You thought it meant you could speak your mind and share your opinions, didn't you? Well, to some extent it does mean that. Unless, of course, you are an American soldier. Then you're not entitled to an opinion anymore.


A story
-
In June 2005, Ehren Watada, First Lieutenant in the US Army, was told he was to go to Iraq. He read up on the war and the reasons behind it, talked to soldiers who had been there, and decided he couldn't be a part of it. Seeing as the war itself is illegal according to UN treaties, and the rules of the US Army say wars are to be waged according to the UN treaties, one could say this soldier simply refused to break the law.

Ehren Watadas court-martial starts today, February 5th.
-
The charges;

• conduct unbecoming an officer (for statements made in speeches and interviews)
• missing movement (for refusing to deploy to Iraq on June 22)
• contempt toward officials (in this case, President Bush)

What he has said in interviews to explain why he didn't go to Iraq, is now used against him because a soldier saying the war just ain't right might influence other soldiers. He is charged with this, the state can use it in their prosecution. But it cannot be used by the defense. Why?
-
The arguments
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Watadas defense lawyer, Eric Seitz, says if the war itself is against the laws and rules of the United States and the United States Army, then this should be a brought up during the trial. His client refused to go because he felt it wasn't right to fight a war built on lies.

However, in January Lieutenant Colonel John Head, the judge in the case, ruled that whether the war was legal or not was a "nonjusticiable political question". He also decided that Watada was forbidden to 'present a First Amendment defense'. Meaning he has no way to defend his statements.
-
Conclusion
-
We now have a soldier who refused to go to Iraq two years after the war started, because he'd seen the politicians' and military's story change too many times. He clearly didn't refuse because he was scared to go - he had just got back from Korea when he got his orders to go to Iraq. He then offered to go to Afghanistan instead, a suggestion the Army refused.

When he is asked questions about why he refused to go, he explains his reasons which only results in additional charges - an American soldier is not supposed to argue with orders. They shouldn't think, they should follow orders. A soldier once told me that.


One thing is what will happen to this guy. Another is what it does to other American soldiers. When it's so obvious, so publicly broadcast that "if you speak up against the US, the Army or the war, if you criticize your superior officers or doubt your President, it might be you next time."

Watada himself is ready to accept whatever consequences his decision will have. He said two things I felt it necessary to add to this. We can only hope these didn't result in additional charges.


"When you are looking your children in the eye in the future, or when you are at the end of your life, you want to look back on your life and know that at a very important moment, when I had the opportunity to make the right decisions, I did so, even knowing there were negative consequences."
-
"It is my duty as a commissioned officer in the United States army to speak out against grave injustices. My moral and legal obligation is to the constitution. Not to those who issue unlawful orders. I stand before you today because it is my job to serve and protect American soldiers and innocent Iraqis who have no voice. It is my conclusion that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong, but also a breach of American law."

My wonderful fellow students...

It's always nice to come home a Sunday morning only to find the stairs decorated with broken beer bottles.

And it's even nicer to know I'm the one who'll have to clean it up, seeing as I'm the 'elected representative' (whatever that means) for this student apartment complex.


I think I'll just leave it for a few days and let them walk around in their own mess. Then yell at them at a meeting we'll have in a week or two. However, that plan most likely won't, for two reasons.

• The people (from now on referred to as idiots) who spend Saturday nights drinking, then breaking beer bottles inside the building in which they live, are probably the kind of people who prefer waiting three minutes for the elevator, only to ride it down one floor rather than spending 10 seconds on the stairs(it happens, it really does). Which means they won't see their mess.
  

• These people, the idiots, are also the kind of people who don't show up at meetings. Last meeting, arranged by someone else, was attended by an amazing 8 people. Out of 157. Anything more this time would almost be a success.
  

So I've figured out what I can do to try and get someone to show up. These idiots are probably the very same people as those who have suggested we get a soda machine. Walking to the shop takes too long. Seeing as I'm the only one who can decide if we should get a soda machine or not, maybe adding "show up and have your say or we won't get it anyway" (rhyme not intended), maybe, just maybe that will help.


Then again, if you can't be bothered to walk down one flight of stairs, or the four minutes to the shop, can you really be expected to bother going to a simple meeting?