Shut Up And Listen 99

The Value Of Life
Last Saturday, seven astronauts died in the Challenger crash, and well, you had to have been living under a fucking rock not to know about it. But also on that very day, seven high school students in BC lost their lives in an avalanche and forty people died in a train crash in Zimbabwe. Did you happen to hear about those two tragedies as well?
	Of course fucking not.
	(Before I go on with this rant, I would like to say that this column is no way trying to trivialise or downplay the fact that those seven astronauts dying was a tragedy. All loss of life is. What I’m going to talk about is how fucked up our society is and how fucked up the fucking media is.)
	And why not? Those deaths were rather mundane. Ordinary even. An avalanche killed some people? So what? Those happen all the time! A train crash? What is this, the nineteenth century? Now a space shuttle, there’s a modern tragedy! It’s like something out of science fiction and that’s what the people want!
	Oh, does this sound mean? Does this sound a little harsh? Good. It should. And you know what’s the saddest part? It’s true.
	Our society loves to say that it values life, but that’s bullshit. We don’t value life at all. We value entertainment. We value possessions. We value some people, but only the ones that we know or would like to know.
	A while back, I posted a conversation between myself and my friend Johan (artist of Superfucks) where I said something like “America wasn’t upset over the people killed in 9/11. Nah, they were upset by the fact that Osama bin Laden gave America the finger. He essentially said ‘Suck my cock’ and they had to.” Obviously, this pissed some people off, but that’s because they didn’t get what I was saying. How can America say that they’re upset over the deaths of innocent people killed by terrorists who were trying to send a message when they have no problem bombing the fuck out of innocent people in a country where the terrorists supposedly were as a message to the world not to fuck with America? No, seriously, tell me how that works.
	Like I said above, the deaths of those seven astronauts were horrible tragedies, so were the deaths of those two thousand people on 9/11, but so are all the other deaths that happen, but aren’t spectacular enough to warrant news coverage. You know, all those deaths you don’t hear about and don’t care about.
	For all our so-called moral advancement and superiority, we fucking suck.

The Highs And Lows Of Presenting To The UN
I am here to testify that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. I saw them on those slides Colin Powell showed the UN. I think they were the black dots in the upper-upper-upper-right-hand corner of that one of all the blurry stuff, right?
	I thought the US was supposed to have highly advanced satellite equipment and THAT’S the best they can do? My sister fell asleep during it. Seriously. She was home sick and was watching it and fell asleep. This coming from the country that’s given us such great special effects! What the fuck? From now on, the government should get Lucas and ILM in there to spice up those slides a bit.
	And that whole spiel I keep hearing about how it’s Saddam’s responsibility to SHOW them his supposed weapons of mass destruction is a load of shit. Okay, say he has these weapons, right? Why, oh why, would he show them? Of course, the fact he hasn’t showed any weapons means he must be hiding them, not that he doesn’t have them. But the US knows he has them. How? They gave them to him! That was the US’ plan all along: give him the weapons and then later invade because he has them! Brilliant!
	My main concern is this: the US says Iraq has trucks with chemical labs in the back, right? Now, I may be mistaken here, but isn’t having a lab in the back of a moving vehicle kind of . . . I don’t know . . . stupid? I mean, Saddam is insane, but he’s not stupid!
	I’m mainly still not convinced because the US hasn’t really offered any proof. Their satellite photos look like over-exposed pics and their informants . . . well, may not exist, and also, could be lying just to gain favour with the US. All of their evidence is based on speculation and unreliable sources. Not that it matters, as the US is going to invade no matter what, so the UN might as well just tell them to do it already and quit wasting our fucking time.