What's the worst that could happen? (a thread for free-floating paranoia)

worst case: dirty bomb in Hollywood

So your neighbor knows that you listen to Billy Joel, or "These Dreams" by Heart, or whatever your musical shame is. And your neighbor knows you watch porn or don't, or have sex a lot or never, or have a lot of fights with your significant other (and probably heard that crack about "If that's the way you feel, why don't you just have a million of his babies!"), or that you like to act out scenes from "Full House", or whatever other thing it is that you desperately don't want other people to know. Well, but it's only one or two people that know, right? You're naivete is infectious, my friend, but deadly (maybe). How many people keep information to themselves these days? It seems to me entirely possible your neighbor has started a website devoted to ridiculing you and exposing your secrets to the world, including the government part of the world. But how to find out? You could google yourself, but I doubt your neighbor is that stupid. Here's what I would suggest. Figure out what your neighbors' (all of the adjacent ones) full names are. For god's sake, don't ask them. Stake out the mailboxes, or pose as a repairman, or something like that (you need to do some of the brain work yourself--be adaptable). Once you have figured out this information, hire a private detective to break into their house and smash their computer into small pieces. On second thought, you probably don't need a private detective to do that--you could do it yourself.

I'm by no stretch a Brin apologist and his particular brand of militancy irritating but the last couple of paragraphs here struck home.

Finally... see a couple places where moderates have proposed alternatives to the current "stay the course" vs. "cut and run" dichotomy. Both seem reasonable and are
probably compatible -- both could be done simultaneously.They are:

"The Way Out of Iraq: Decentralizing the Iraqi
Government" http://www.independent.org/publications/policy_reports/detail.asp?type=full&id=16

and "How to Win in Iraq"
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050901faessay84508/andrew-f-krepinevich-jr/how-to-win-in-iraq.html

These articles make sense... and they won't be implemented because the goal of the involvement in Iraq has never been success at nation building. Yes, that is officially our purpose now that there are no WMD and no Saddam. But Cheney and Rumsfeld both famously expressed contempt for "nation building" long ago and their disbelief in it still shows.

No, there are only two possible classes of hypothesis to explain such a disaster. (* Kool-aid alert! Paranoia riff about to resume! * ;-)

Hypothesis 1. Incompetence. These are moronic frat boys, using the United States and our military as personal toys. The calamity is not what was intended. It is just what happens when skilled professionals - first diplomats and then military officers - are relentlessly over-ruled by meddling politician imbecilles bent on playing war and stealing everything in sight.

Hypothesis 2. What you see is what was planned. This explanation looks utterly paranoid and I am the only one suggesting it. And that means I must disclaim that it is formally what I BELIEVE to be true. Yes, yes. Brin’s Fantasy. But it IS logically the other side of the coin. My excuse is that I am a completist and must include it.

Still, let me repeat my call for you to step aside and look from another angle. If you were enemies of the United States, and looked across our history for some weakness to exploit, what two disasters nearly ruined us? Dividing us, sapping our strength, wounding the economy, tearing down our alliances, frittering our military strength?

The Civil War and Vietnam.

Now look at last year's electoral map. And look at Iraq. And wonder... which sworn enemies of our culture have access to every powerful person in this administration?

Paranoid? yes. But reasonable people do not automatically dismiss that which fits all facts and has not been disproved. Always leave a “what-if” possibility open that what you see is exactly what somebody wanted to have happen.

Reviving the paranoia thread for the ongoing rice shortage

Bay Area Shoppers Asked To Limit Rice Purchases

The price of a food staple -- rice -- is rising significantly, NBC11 reported.

The price of rice has increased dramatically in recent weeks due to crop failure overseas and resulting hoarding, NBC11 reported.

And at least one Bay Area store is asking customers to hold back on their rice purchases. Costco has posted signs asking customers to follow their regular rice-buying habits.

The rice price increase is a result of a domino effect, NBC11's Noelle Walker reported. Drought in Australia led to a severe decline in rice production that in turn led the world's largest rice exporters to restrict exports. That spurred higher rice prices and hoarding in Asian countries, NBC11 reported.

Now in the United States, rice prices have skyrocketed.

Son Tran owns Le Cheval Vietnamese Restaurant in Oakland.

He said he's seen the price of rice go from $20 to $40 in a matter of weeks.

And Le Cheval's stockpiles are dwindling.

Add to that, the price of vegetables has gone up 50 percent, and some of Tran's regular customers aren't so regular anymore.

The empty tables are a new and troubling trend.

Rice isn't the only food in short supply. The unleavened bread snack matzo, popular with Jewish families during Passover, is also hard to find.

Grocers underestimated demand for the product and one of the main producers of matzo crackers had a problem with one of its ovens on the East Coast, which also shortened supplies.

matzo crackers

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93974189

Investigators Downplay Alleged Obama Threat

NPR.org, August 26, 2008 · Authorities investigating a man arrested with rifles, ammunition and drugs in his truck who allegedly threatened Barack Obama emphasize that he never posed a "credible threat" to the candidate or the Democratic National Convention.

Federal and local authorities had scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon, but U.S. Attorney Troy Eid downplayed the case. Two other suspects were also arrested.

"We're absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention or the people of Colorado," Eid said in a statement.

FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright confirmed that the FBI was investigating reports that the man, identified as Tharin Gartrell, 28, had threatened Obama, who will be in Denver this week to accept the Democratic nomination for president.

Police pulled over Gartrell as his truck weaved across lanes of traffic early Sunday morning. They found bulletproof vests, two rifles — including one with a scope — ammunition, walkie-talkies and drugs.

Hours later, Gartrell led them to two nearby hotels, where authorities arrested two more men — Nathan Johnson and Shawn Robert Adolf.

Johnson told KCNC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Denver, that others involved in the case had made racist statements regarding Obama and had discussed killing him on the day of his nomination acceptance speech.

I wonder what part of "bulletproof vests, two rifles — including one with a scope — ammunition, walkie-talkies and drugs" count as "no credible threat"

US builds up its bases in oil-rich South America - From the Caribbean to Brazil, political opposition to US plans for 'full-spectrum operations' is escalating rapidly

The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean by acquiring unprecedented freedom of action in seven new military, naval and air bases in Colombia. The development – and the reaction of Latin American leaders to it – is further exacerbating America's already fractured relationship with much of the continent.

The new US push is part of an effort to counter the loss of influence it has suffered recently at the hands of a new generation of Latin American leaders no longer willing to accept Washington's political and economic tutelage. President Rafael Correa, for instance, has refused to prolong the US armed presence in Ecuador, and US forces have to quit their base at the port of Manta by the end of next month.

So Washington turned to Colombia, which has not gone down well in the region. The country has received military aid worth $4.6bn (£2.8bn) from the US since 2000, despite its poor human rights record. Colombian forces regularly kill the country's indigenous people and other civilians, and last year raided the territory of its southern neighbour, Ecuador, causing at least 17 deaths.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who has not forgotten that US officers were present in government offices in Caracas in 2002 when he was briefly overthrown in a military putsch, warned this month that the bases agreement could mean the possibility of war with Colombia.

The Scott CE post above is the best post on ilxor ever.

U.S. Government Printing Office Needs 350,934 National Detainee Handbooks Printed by 29 April 2011

Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'?

A new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.

Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."

can't wait

I don't know, I imagine we'd all secretly like to experience the apocalypse wouldn't we? At least to give our own personal one some significance.

This is like that question on OKC where you have to answer "on a certain level, wouldn't nuclear war really be quite exciting" or whatever.

Like, you're an asshole and possibly a psychopath for saying yes, but totally disingenuous and dishonest for saying no?

Do You Hate Your Hips More Than Nuclear War?

I do know that in the event of nuclear war, my hips and my other current grievances would be the least of my problems.

i've said it a thousand times, the apocalypse on many levels wd be better than this

Of course NASA, an organization dedicated to things *beyond* our planet, whose funds are constantly being cut and whose grand projects are always delayed or canceled, would come up with a study that the terrestrial world is doomed.

i don't think there's that much room on the ISS tbh

Climate Change Helped Spark Syrian War, Study Says

A severe drought, worsened by a warming climate, drove Syrian farmers to abandon their crops and flock to cities, helping trigger a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, according to a new study published Monday.

The research provides the most detailed look yet at how climate change may already be helping spark violent political unrest.

I wasn't surprised at all last year when it was revealed that Exxon knew about climate change back in 1981, of course they did - EVERYONE in oil and international capital knew - and now they've built themselves an Alternative 1.5 (on the Alternative 3 scale) - 100% financialized and independent from the rest of us in steerage. The Global Right is gaining momentum just from filling in the power vacuum.

Several times today I was thinking "well, no one has flown a plane into a building yet"

Well i dunno where youve been, but youd better sit down....

The big man himself farted humans straight into the building’s windows

I've had three separate dreams/nightmares this week where afterwards I've had to check if a tactical nuke was used somewhere in Ukraine. The legacy of being a kid of the 80s Cold War...