Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to any readers.

Thanksgiving is here once more, and we have many things for which to be grateful.   I have had a most interesting year, and I oft forget things for which I may still be grateful.  First of all, I have to thank my God for his offer of eternal salvation for my spirit.  The sacrifice of His son on the cross paid for all of my sin and allows me to approach the throne of the almighty God.  Within the corporeal realm, I am extremely grateful for my parents, whose long-suffering and patience ensures that I will always have a home to return to when all else in this world fails.  I am grateful for the friends that I have, and new friends that I have found in the past few months.  I am thankful that I have found a lovely, (and single!) young lady in England with whom I have had the distinct pleasure of communicating with over the past few weeks.  I am sincerely hoping that our friendship will continue to develop and flower into something lasting.

Here is to the future, may it be brighter and more joyful than the past.

Occupy Poland

A spoof image on the Occupy Wall Street movement.  This is not exactly tactful, but it is definitely hilarious.

http://memebase.com/2011/11/02/internet-memes-hipster-hitler/

The Occupy Movement

I find this movement both appealing and disturbing.  I very much appeal to their overall message, that greed is destructive and that our nation and world are going down a long and slippery slope towards economic disaster, but I have a very difficult time comprehending what they plan on doing about this issue.  It seems in the current political environment, many people (ala Tea Party and now the Occupy movement) are extremely adept at pointing out the flaws in our society and economy, but no one seems to have any hint of a solution.  This lack of solubility makes the Occupy Movement a difficult thing to throw any real support behind, because they have no goal and no purpose other than protesting that which is inherently evil naturally.

Over the past few months, and Occupy Movement has begun adopting the Guy Fawkes' masks as a symbol of rising up against the tyranny of the wealthy bankers and corrupt politicians who propagate a system that favors their own personal gain.  The symbolism also holds some deeper and more troubling aspects from the past.

I didn't know much about Guy Fawkes until a year or so ago when the Anonymous online group adopted the mask.  The real Guy Fawkes has a very violent and unsavory past; and by all reasonable modern translation, he would be akin to an Osama bin Laden of the 15th century.  Although the imagery of the mask has shifted over time, this new adoption by the Occupy Movement could mean a move into a more violent stage of protest.   I am going to hope that the Occupy Movement continues to remain dedicated to peaceful protesting, as long as is required.  Sadly, I also cannot see any way that this protest, as dedicated as they may be, will actually effect any real changes to the system.  Maybe we will be able to evoke some fundamental shift in the politics of our nation, but I am not going to hold my breath.

Below is linked another curious article from the Associated Press that touches on this topic also.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111104/ap_on_en_mo/us_occupy_vendetta

The new nature of war

I have discovered an absolutely fascinating article on STRATFOR.  Over the past few weeks, Anonymous has begun conducting operations against the state of Veracruz in Mexico in relation for supporting the Los Zetas drug trafficking cartel.  The cartels are used to dealing with typical forms of opposition, such as that from federal governments of various nations, and there is even evidence of Los Zetas being able to track online opposition, but the aggression from Anonymous introduces an entirely different dimension to this war.  Anonymous is, by nature, an amorphous collective which does not have any classical hierarchical structure.  This nature, combined with Anonymous near-legendary skills in cyber-hacking and internet security, fuse to ensure that this will be a conflict worth tracking.  It will be most curious to see how the Anonymous campaign fares, and if it does actually yield damaging information about Los Zetas or even directly interfere or hamper Los Zetas' operations in Mexico.  This may very well be the dawning of a new era in using online warfare to execute and affect real world conflicts.  If the Anonymous operation proves successful, this will be a critical lesson in all conflict to come.  The information age is truly here.

I, for one, hope that they are successful, as it will forever change the face of conflict in the 21st century.

I have posted below the full text of the article for people who have trouble accessing STRATFOR articles.