G Stands for “Greed”

 I’ve really been too busy to make an in-depth post about really anything.  And this post is just a continuation of this repetition.  Except this one is just a simple reflection on Trent Reznor’s new album, Year Zero.  Behind it is a complete Alternate Reality, set 15 years in the future.  In the year 2022, The United States (with the aid of the Coalition for Peace) establishes a new international calendar that places the current year to 0000.  You can easily find yourself lost in the beautiful complexity behind this album and the Alternate Reality.

Here is a simple link to the NIN-Wiki that explains the alternate reality, its websites and how a person would have gone about the process of discovering these sites.  Disclosed below are lyrics to one of the more popular songs on the CD.  This song stirred some controversy over the meaning of the Capital G.  Many reviews pointed out the idea that it referenced George Bush.  Trent eventually explained that the G stood for greed.

“When it came to write the words,” Trent explained.  “I really wanted to focus on something that was at the forefront of my consciousness which is, as an American, I’m appalled by the behaviour of our government and the direction that it has taken and the direction that it’s taken everyone else in the world and its arrogance.”

Download the open source files on http://yearzero.nin.com/

Capital G – Nine Inch Nails

I pushed a button and elected him to office and uh
He pushed a button and he dropped the bomb
You pushed a button and can watch it on the television
Those mother fuckers didn’t last too long, huh huh
I’m sick of hearing about the haves and the have nots
Have some personal accountability
The biggest problem with the way that we’ve been doing things is
The more we let you have the less that I’ll be keeping for me

Well I used to stand for something
Now I’m on my hands and knees
Trading in my God for this one
And he signs his name with a capital G

Don’t give a shit about the temperature in Guatemala
Don’t really see what all the fuss is about
Ain’t gonna worry ’bout no future generations and uh
I’m sure somebody gonna figure it out
Don’t try to tell me that some power can corrupt a person
You haven’t had enough to know what it’s like
You’re only angry cause you wish you were in my position
Now nod your head because you know that I’m right
Alright

Well I used to stand for something
But forgot what that could be
There’s a lot of me inside you
Maybe you’re afraid to see
Well I used to stand for something
Now I’m on my hands and knees
Trading in my God for this one
And he signs his name with a capital G

The End of Internet Anonymity?

I understand that this is a little bit of an aged topic, but I personally haven’t heard anything about it until I stumbled upon it today.

Check out The Practical Futurist by Michael Rogers on MSNBC.

Not something I think should be put in your computer without expressed knowledge and the ability to disable (or turn it on and off) it freely with no difficulties.

Real ID Act of 2005

If you don’t realize, America has become and is moving faster towards a police state. It’s interesting to find out how many people don’t have the slightest idea of what the Read ID Act is and what horrible potential lies behind it.

With no discussion on the topic, the U.S. Senate passed the bill on Tuesday, May 10, 2005. This Act presses each of our state’s government into taking our licenses and using them as tools for homeland security.

On January 25, 2007, Maine passed legislature that refused the implementation of the Real ID Act in their state. By February Utah joined Maine in opposition to this bill. It didn’t take long before Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington also joined Maine and Utah in passing legislation opposing Real ID.

New York’s new policy of issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented residents upon presentation of a valid foreign passport goes against the requirements for documentation of legal status and a valid Social Security Number.

As of now, there is no true national identity card in the United States. The Social Security system is as close as we’ve been to a national identity. The interesting thing about the Social Security program is that it’s completely optional and issued to a newborn via the parent’s request. Of course, they’ll want to make this request if they want to do things such as claim taxes or ensure that their child can function in today’s society. On a national level, the Real ID cards are required by each state. Since this is state-issued, these new forms of identity are not technically considered to be national identification cards.

The beginning mark of a Totalitarian Society? When something that has the full potential of embracing Tyranny, how can people look away?

If this isn’t enough to terrorize you, you’re not paying enough attention. Don’t let 1984 be our future.

The Patriot Act of 2001

“The

United and
Strengthening
American by
Providing
Appropriate
Tools
Required to
Intercept and
Obstruct
Terrorism

Act of 2001″

———————————————————————-

The USA PATRIOT ACT is “an act to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes.”

*Think about it.*

Definitions of Terrorism

Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f(d). That statute contains the following definitions:

The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant (1) targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.
The term “international terrorism” means terrorism involving citizens or the territory of more than one country.
The term “terrorist group” means any group practicing, or that has significant subgroups that practice, international terrorism.
The U.S. Government has employed this definition of terrorism for statistical and analytical purposes since 1983.

Online Etymology Dictionary:

1795, in specific sense of “government intimidation during the Reign of Terror in France” (1793-July 1794), from Fr. terrorisme (1798), from L. terror.

“If the basis of a popular government in peacetime is virtue, its basis in a time of revolution is virtue and terror — virtue, without which terror would be barbaric; and terror, without which virtue would be impotent.” [Robespierre, speech in Fr. National Convention, 1794]

General sense of “systematic use of terror as a policy” is first recorded in Eng. 1798. Terrorize “coerce or deter by terror” first recorded 1823. Terrorist in the modern sense dates to 1947, especially in reference to Jewish tactics against the British in Palestine — earlier it was used of extremist revolutionaries in Russia (1866); and Jacobins during the French Revolution (1795) — from Fr. terroriste. The tendency of one party’s terrorist to be another’s guerilla or freedom fighter was noted in ref. to the British action in Cyprus (1956) and the war in Rhodesia (1973). The word terrorist has been applied, at least retroactively, to the Maquis resistance in occupied France in World War II (e.g. in the “Spectator,” Oct. 20, 1979).

WordNet:

“The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear.”