Fitly Written:

Firstly: The next 100 Things post will be up sometime Friday evening. There is no guarantee that I will work that day, but there is no guarantee that I won’t either. In either case, there will be much work done with the upper body and I will need a GENEROUS nap before I do any writing. I didn’t work today, but I decided to work out today. *listens carefully* Ah, there’s the ever-present question:

“DO YOU EVEN LIFT?”

Actually, thanks to my knee, it’s all I CAN do. I have the feeling that by the time June hits, I am going to be amusingly off-proportion.

( Continued… )

Recently the bill that improves the nutrition, and limits the calories of, school lunches, was put into effect. As a result, the maximum caloric load for the public school lunch is about 800 calories, maximum. The intent is to combat obesity by balancing their dietary intakes.

Students were not amused by this. The largest complaint is that they’re still hungry after eating their plates. What do they do in reaction?

They throw away the food in protest and make a video on Youtube that dramatizes just how hungry they are.

( O )

Even through all of the shenanigans that have happened here on LJ over the last few years, it’s been a bulwark for me. Not having a lot of people who I can talk to without having to backtrack and explain what word ‘x’ means and what word ‘y’ means in any given situation, the opportunity to unload and vent without restraint is something I’ve always found important in the last few years. Sometimes, I read the thoughts of others I’ve stumbled over in communities or have commented on my posts—I like the back and forth exchange of it, which is why so many of you here have probably seen me in a bajillionty places on any given day.

Today, I saw something that irritated me.

( CAUTION CAUTION CUIDADO VERBOTEN AWOOOOGA RANT INCOMING. )

I remember a few months ago when I woke up one morning and first heard the term ‘Wikileaks’ on the news.  At first I thought that, for some reason, that the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, had been hacked somehow and was malfunctioning.  Imagine my surprise when I heard that this was, actually, a website dedicated to exposing the hidden information that the authorities supposedly don’t want us to know about.

I’ll admit it—at first I was all for it.  I don’t like the concept of things that happen right under our noses not being divulged.  Especially the torture thing—I don’t condone that sort of thing, and for good reason: it’s counter to what the nation stands for.  (I resist adding a ‘supposedly’ after that, due to what’s been going on.)

I wasn’t paying attention to most of it, though—It was enough to know that this put such things into the public eye and to start a dialogue.

Then, this:  the revelation that the founder of Wikileaks was going to divulge diplomatic cables.  Now, thanks to these documents being thrown out there for anyone to see.  Diplomatic relations are at a strained state, and getting worse.

There are a lot of opinions about what should be done about the man behind all this, one Julian Assange—shot, ‘assassination,’ according to one Canadian pundit (and this is not without its controversy either), ‘executed,’ according to one friend…

Something has to be done, but death?  Isn’t that a bit extreme?

Several countries have launched criminal investigations into the man.  He’s a highly wanted man, even if he isn’t officially ‘wanted’ yet.  He's been called an 'enemy combatant' by Newt Gingrich, and a he’s wanted for rape charges in Sweden.  For whatever reason, lots of people want their hands on this man, and none of it for the reasons he’d like.

The reactions have been mixed, none of them totally ambivalent—either he’s being praised as a hero, or people want him dead.  The remark from the guy on the CBC has been singled out for the extremeness of it, and asking around my own circle of friends it’s equally polarizing.  Largely, we seem to agree to NOT  bring it up—unspoken agreement, all that.  I haven’t voiced my own opinion on it because, until recently, I was one of the few still sitting on the edge of the fence on this particular thing.  Now I want him brought in.

Not to kill him, but on charges of espionage at minimum, treason preferably.  He’s gone out of his way to undermine the diplomatic efforts of the nation, at one of the worst possible times to do it.  I think, however, that having him killed will serve no purpose.  It seems to be kind of the mind of a suicide bomber—not that he wants to be caught, but he’s doing these things in the most visible way possible without leaving any openings; he’s become an enigma, causing—yes, terroristic effects on the populace.

It’s information warfare, and under that definition of what he’s doing, I’m in complete agreement with Mr. Gingrich on his assertion that Julian Assange is an enemy combatant.  His activities have been actively disadvantageous to the nation—and others as well.

Don’t put him to death when he’s caught.  Make an example of him.

Pulling the foundational bricks out from underneath us is not something to be tolerated.

I was playing Final Fantasy XII, and had been for a while; when I noticed the time of day, and that I would have to stop and get something cooked for tomorrow’s day of work, I saved and quit (not before I pulled off a 33-chain hunting wolf-type monsters for the mad loots though).

I figured it was time to catch the weather at least, and so I saved and quit, hooking the digital receiver back up so that I could catch the news.