it's no secret that the intrawebs are full of crap. anyone and everyone can pretty much say what they want, read what they want and learn how they want. no finer example than that of the blogs.

i used to be a big fan of political blogs as to me they offered knowledge that was digestable and provided an instant gratification on topics i didn't have a clue about. in fact, once upon a time, i too dabbled in political rhetoric thinking anyone cared. they didn't and neither should you.

one shouldn't go into a discussion by beginning, "well blogger so and so said that..." unless you're talking about tony. quote away on that one. other than that, not much out there.

granted, they provide an unique starting point of discussion but should not be the end point to draw one's conclusion on. we can get into the whole thing about credibility of sources, selective interpretation, biases, outright lies, yada yada but that's beyond the scope. so i've given up on that project, mainly to spew rambling idoicies over here.

then, of course, there is books. the time honoured tradition of gaining knowledge as irrefutable source of truth. the library as the mecca of information on just about anything. books have been passed down from generation to generation, constantly refined, update, so forth, in the conquest of knowledge. can't go wrong with what you read in a book, right?

having said that, earlier i jumped on the intrawebs to find some supplementary reading material for a class dealing with islam and politics. this is where i came across this gem, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)by robert spencer. note that this author has the time to tie the crusades within this masterpiece. according to the writer, most scholarly work on the issue was written by left-wing academics and "apologists" of islam. his study is to counterbalance the politically correct biases of the left propagandist work. the westernized interpretations of islam attempt to reflect a religion of peace but according to mr. spencer, islam should be viewed as a dangerous hostile inherently opposed to anything non-muslim. this is the same author that in previous worked justified internment of japanese-americans during the second world war. the book, of course, is published under the best-selling P.I.G (politically incorrect guide) series.

now, i do not claim to have superb knowledge on islam as a religion or a political movement, which is why i was looking for material to begin with, but this sort published work claiming that crusades were a defensive strategy is repulsive. more so, if the author views the crusades in such a fashion, can anything else he writes be taken seriously or simply propaganda gearing towards the islamophobic segment of the population. its element cannot be denied since 9/11 but these sort of books do nothing more than stir a pot that's already boiling over. it really does no justice

several things left me pondering, why is this being published, who is this publisher to allow this and why are readers praising this as a masterpiece? the book as the source of truth and knowledge is becoming politicized and rather having people draw their own conclusions on the facts, it's giving the audience a perspective to adopt as the truth.

and this where my problem comes in, whereas the intrawebs are free of censorship and anything goes, the sacredness--if you call it that--of a published book should avoid this sort of blantant interpretations of history. although a topic like islam is a point of contention, revisionist historians announcing the crusades as a defense and then having their books being claimed as masterpieces to me is rather frightening.

and while this speaks of the current american political culture: the liberal vs conservative, blue state vs red state, republican vs democrat or however you want to call it, it's easy to see the polemics right across the board on just about anything debated in the states. this is seen through its appointment of the next cheif justice to who is to blame for the slow response to katrina.

however, pundits guising as scholars is a step too far. the slew of books written by the bill o'reillys, anne coulters, and michael moores all with their ideological viewpoints do nothing but hurt the audience. maybe the polarization of american politics leaves out the middle group but what you come away after watching fox news for a couple of hours is a country divided into two staunchly opposing views on just about everything. watch how their segments are framed and everything is presented in the name of being "fair & balanced": here's the left, why they are wrong and here is the right and why they are correct. brilliant over-generalized coverage of complex issues only complimented by these "politically incorrect" books by robert spencer. books such as this are not attempts to bridge the gap or create some co-operation as to how US foreign policy should operate but rather fuel "the clash of civilizations" argument both domestically and how the white house should act on the international stage.

essentially books such as robert spencer's promote islamophobia among those with limited knowledge on the subject. i doubt the majority of those who read spencer's book ever opened the Quran, let alone read anything by the so-called islamist "apologist" liberals. browsing the readers' reviews of the book left me in awe as to the level of hatred by those who claimed to read this book. equally puzzling is the popularity of the book, ranking in the top 20 among amazon's sales.

what i'm trying to say is without having to say is: american politics are fucked up, sabotaged by neo-conservative realists allied with newly energized right making its way into media channels really messing with the mind of your average american voter.

so america say it with me as we quote, ibi kaslik: we'll not live like this. they will try to bury us with false manifestoes, inscribe us in wars against false enemies but we'll sing songs about dying from loving the wrong cowboy and gospel; our bodies will burn in effigies of promise. i swear

riddle me this; you come home from work tired, find your cat sleeping on your bed and go out of your way to sleep in a pretzel-like form because god forbid you should disrupt the precious cat's sleep. you, who have slept maybe a collective 4 hours the previous night is equal to the amount the cat's been awake in the last month.

aren't their lives grand?

it's good to be home and finally get a good nights rest. after three straight nights of pearl jam concerts, it'll be awfully waking up tomorrow knowing a show does not await in the evening. the past two nights i've slept on the floor and a motel bed that was just as comfortable as the floor the previous night. it'll be good to climb into bed once this entry is completed.

but i think we all need some rest. the band's put us through alot. and i suppose they need their rest as well.

it's time for the pit stop so to speak. three down, three to go. it just seems to be getting better with every night. montreal is likely to be something to remember. something about that city and this band that just go hand in hand.

highlights of last night's london included Oceans as the set opener. black red yellow making an appearance. not for you. the crowd getting behind a chant to let stone gossard sing, though, to no avail. the always moving off he goes sneaking into the encore. hard to imagine was as a beautiful as a song you'll ever hear. smile and rvm were solid. the encore really was when the concert began to go full gear. ah yeah, and bleed for me by the dead kennedys.

as well, a friend of a friend attended the show and apparently prior to the gig, ed hung around outside of the arena and she snapped a few shots.

tonight's hamilton gig included a wonderful rendition of neil young's harvest moon. as vedder couldn't make it to the wedding of a friend, the band got all decked out in groom outfits and hit the stage to mark the occassion. a very touching moment when thousands of lit up the arena to mark this sacred bond between the newly weds. that alone is enough to make me purchase this bootleg. after playing 6 shows in seven nights, the band was tired and judging by vedder's condition of polishing off a bottle of wine by himself, he was pretty tanked; falling over, bumping into anything and everything. making a toast to hamilton, "coffee and donuts" (a timmy's joke), and toasting his band members. drunk eddie is super cool.

the show also featured the ever moving present tense. eddie doing some neato tricks with a mirror and a stage light during 1/2 full. u followed by sad really worked well for the seasoned-veteran fans. a very unusual set and thus far, the most interesting. the crowd was insane from the get-go.

another stellar night topped off with a beautiful version of yellow ledbetter with ed drapping himself in the canadian flag and members of sleater-kinney on stage.

but i am too tired for anymore meaningless droning about concerts that these words do little justice if not experienced first hand.

montreal awaits.........

tonight was the first of six pearl jam concerts i will attend in the next week or so. that's right, six. i lack meaningful responsibilities which allow for such glutiny of concerts within my rather light schedule. right now i am "chilling" at a friend's apartment in the good ol' town of kitchener-waterloo. k-w for short.

as everyone's sleeping anticipating their classes in the morning, misty queen and i plan on heading out to london for tomorrow night's show. her drunken mind is in lala land hopefully dreaming of yours truly as opposed to mr. eddie vedder who is looking as good as he's ever had. must say, jeff ament's mighty buff too. but enough of my latent homosexual tendencies towards the band. the first night of the concerts set the mood for what appears to be a memorable week.

to little disappointment i will miss first week of classes. but realistically, there is nothing of interest school-wise till midterms somewhere in october. as to why i am able get on the road and follow this band around.

tonight's gig was simply spectacular. reading the setlist for the prior canadian gigs thus far, the performances seemed standard at best and nothing get overtly excited about. i'd regret going to six gigs and hearing the same tunes night after night. i guess being at a show changes everything. tonight's gig opened with the lovely "long road" and within the first few bars, a massive joint was sparked officially kicking off our week of saying goodbye to youth. in reality, i doubt i'll have an opportunity like the one at hand. usually following pearl jam six shows stretches more a distance than from kitchener to montreal and back. sure, the cost of this is up there, but the memories that are coming out are priceless. meeting new fans, the music, the everything. kitchener was solid. a relatively small venue--about 6 000 capacity--compared to what pearl jam plays making vedder feel as if he's playing a small bar. certainly, the arena had an intimate atmosphere where every section was within eye's view. apart from long road as the set opener, we got treated to blood, faithfull, man of the hour, john lennon's gimme some truth which were the first time i personally got to hear those live. alive was simply beautiful. however, the crowd's pumping of their fists was rather Orwell-ish. i soaked in the mood feeling as if we really are a cult of fans paying our salutes. black seemed to carry on forever. indifference was when i lost my voice. and the unfinished version of soon forget was priceless. and the one-two punch of baba o'riley and yellow ledbetter at the end left me in tears. what a night. what a band.

on a good note, there is no concert withdrawal tonight and won't have it till next monday night when this festive road trip takes us back to our home town where hopefully PJ will rock out in the ACC. but tonight began a week of absolute bliss.

on a sad note, i saw a car with the ontario plate "gvn2fly" burying my hope of getting that one personalized. now, i'll have to think of another pearl jam related plate for which to plunk $250 on.

the band left me with high expectations leading into london. can't wait for tomorrow night.

a friend's neighbour is addicted to painkillers and has been for a good while. he's been on disability of years now and looks like he'll stay that way. i've met the fella; not a bad guy. actually, pretty knowledgeable chap on sorts of shit. but he's got his bad days where he's just doped out of his mind.

the other night another friend suffered a pretty nasty spill probably twisting his ankle. resulting in an obvious limp. rather than seeking professional help, the neighbour "hooked" him up with some demerol. within no time, his ankle pain had subsided and he was skipping about as if nothing had happened. it looked like a televangelist had personally visited him. we stood there thinking, "damn, is this shit for real?"

we decided to try some of it for ourselves and what ensued was something fight club-ish minus the pain. we were slugging each other in the arms, ribs, chests and within seconds of the blow, it felt as if the hand of god eased the pain into oblivion. it just went on and on. not only are you physically invincible, demerol raises your alertness to insane levels. rather than making you all dopey, you become restless and at the same time, overcome with a sense of invincibility. what a fucking deadly combination.

this is how i am going to spend those idle days now that i am back to only my part-time McJob. oh, and when i am not in school, of course. i've always wondered to as to how pain killers can become a habit; now i've got proof.

the guy who used demerol for his ailing ankle now pops 4 of them a day. but, of course according to him, it's not a habit, just to get through the work day. we'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

as for me? demerol is strictly a recreational drug used for the purposes of beating the shit out of others and getting the shit beaten out of me minus the pain that would normally come about from such an activity.

if i was in new orleans, whether rich or poor, black or white, i would've attempted to weather out the storm as well. it's only a storm after all.

put on the news these days and i've got plenty of things to fear other than a storm heading my direction. there's radical islamic fundamentalists attempting to destroy my way life with dirty bombs, subways explodings and all sorts potentially devasting scenarios were told to prepare for. not too long ago, we were told to fear saddam hussein as supposedly he had wmds and not afraid to use them. then there's of course bin laden and his buddies still on the loose plotting the next attack.

ontario courts made a deal with the devil giving karla homolka by offering her plea bargain and now 12 years later, one of canada's most infamous manslaugter's is free. though allowed to resume her life, the television says she's not rehabilitated and so i have a right to fear her. supposedly, i most know that she's been working in a tool store somewhere in quebec.

let's not forget there are pedophiles and all sorts of sexual predators roaming our streets all of which we should equally afraid of. though serving their time, i have the right to know what they look like, where they live as simply registering as a sex offender is not enough. humiliation on their part and fear on my side.

there's of course child abuctors. murders preying on college girls. typically attractive, rich and blonde.

gun violence on every corner of the street. gang turf wars ending in bloody images on the newspaper frontpage. bystanders caught in the line of fire and their friends and relatives weeping on the six o'clock news.

throw in there warnings about mad cow disease, sprinkle it with west nile virus deaths and everything/everyone is out to get me.

this pervasive sense of insecurity and vulnerability portrayed makes me think a storm is just a storm. i've got enough on my plate as is. i have no need to fear it but be entertained by it. reflect on the past few hurricane coverages and it gets to the point we're desensitized from the victimization and suffering that is to come once the eye of it passes through. leading up to the coverage, i looked forward to watching clips of tv journalists being thrown around by the eye of the storm. it served as sort of source of entertainment. the potential of a tree crashing that douche bag geraldo rivera got me all excited and hyped for katrina to hit the gulf states. but as the storm began to brew, not too many networks sent their reporters into the field. and in cowardly fashion, the brave rivera whose covered a hurricane or two (not to forget the iraq invasion) decided to sit this one out. sadly so.

the same reporters that over the years have been telling us to fear anything and everything around weren't there to warn new orleaners to get the fuck out. or simply the citizens had enough of the hurricane coverage already that could've cared less as a similar storm was heading their direction. i refuse to buy into the whole "we're poor and couldn't get out" defeatism.

past hurricane coverage failed to portray destruction mother nature can lead to. typically reporters tied themselves to a tree, showed how brave they were to dodge flying debris and next morning packed up awaiting the next storm to hit. that's the message we came away with and certainly many new orleaners felt the same way. they stayed home or packed themselves into a football arena with some degree of belief, life would return to normal in a day or so. last week's coverage left a powerful image that radically altered that state of mind when it comes to natural disasters.

we should fear storms just as much as the terrorists and pedophiles. everything's out to get you.

i was thinking of writing a couple of words on the post katrina hurricane effects, the sluggish response, the overall unpreparedness by new orleans officials, the inept leadership of the FEMA director who has no experience dealing with such situations and whose plum position was given by a bush crony. as well, add a few words on yet another stellar job by the president.

but maybe it's too early to start playing the blame game until we know the human loss that is to come in the next few weeks. that's the angle the white house is playing knowing they fucked up and fucked up royally.

they need to get their stories straight before deflecting this disaster and washing their hands clean of any preparation or post-hurriane responsibility. but bush's teflon presidency is likely to ride out this failure as well. watching the ways these guys have handled every single mistake, wouldn't be surprised if you're labelled as un-american if you dare criticize white house's handling of this disaster. clinton gets nailed for a blowjob (no pun intended) while bush just rides out failure after failure. what will it take really before your typical bush voter starts asking critical questions? if anything ties together the mess the americans have been since 2000, it's this hurricane right here: the ineptness of officials who shouldn't be in positions that they are, the general lack of concern or worry, lack of accountability, the gas prices, shortage of personnel, underfunded infrastructure, and so forth.

maybe the overwhelming loss of not only lives, but homes, jobs, belongings that is beginning to rapidly add up will have a critical effect on the current white house.

like tony says, maybe the blame should begin at those who gave bush his job and realize, it is within their power to change that rather than preserving the status quo.

it is not an impossible situation.