Study Procrastination #2

Studying has left me without words. Well, I have words, but when strung together they’re just damn boring.

Interesting little American-isms I have been discovering though:

1. The most powerful nation in the world is quite happy to spend billions of tax payers’ $$$ on “bringing democracy to the Iraqi people”, who never asked America for it. YET they do not offer the American populace free health care.

And here I was, always thinking that basic health care was a universal human right that everyone was fighting to achieve. I forgot to take Capitalism in to account it seems.

2. PEPFAR (those vast sums of American taxpayers $$$ for helping fight HIV/AIDS in Africa & the Caribbean) has always seemed dodgy to me. Let alone that the US government specifically details how we can & cannot spend the cash they are so generously doshing out to us, I’ve always wondered what else was up. They are Capitalists, not altruists (See Point 1). I read someone’s theory that suddenly dawned a light on my scepticism.

Bush likes the Pharmaceutical companies. He gets Congress to give his PEPFAR programme billions of taxpayers’ $$$. He feeds this straight into the American Pharmaceutical companies, so making this 2nd biggest US industry even more powerful, by demanding PEPFAR only procures (buys) its drugs from these American companies.

AND it has the hitch of us not being able to complain too much because… the drugs are helping us… except this is hardly a Free Hand Of The Economy of Adam Smith, is it now!

3. Some US government geeks are building up a computer game that replicates real life. They build up info on each and every one of us individuals (Facebook & My Space ain’t looking so random now, are they), and so then just plug a scenario into their game which tells them how I, little ol’ Champs, would react in that specific scenario.

"U.S defense, intel and homeland security officials are constructing a parallel world, on a computer, which the agencies will use to test propaganda messages and military strategies." "Called the Sentient World Simulation, the program uses AI routines based upon the psychological theories of Marty Seligman, among others. (Seligman introduced the theory of "learned helplessness" in the 1960s, after shocking beagles until they cowered, urinating, on the bottom of their cages.)" Quoting Mark Baard.

Seriously?? How fkced up is that! I think the US government geeks need to get out more. Y’know. Meet a few more chicks. Chug down a coupla more beers & tequilas. Dance on the odd table. Suffer the occasional loser-complex hangover. Play with a handful of streetkids. Breathe some more fresh air, walk barefoot through green grass, realise to live real life rather than trying to gain control of absol-fkcing-utely EVERYTHING, even the future.

Date 2 tonight. Ag, maar this is soooo cute, ne! Fokkin hell, can I take all this goof & cheesiness.