still waiting on the U.N., problem chief, and walking...

there is a peace pact in darfur compliments of lots of hard work from the U.N....just don't try selling the folks in the area that it is true. once again the U.N. has managed to show it is near-entirely useless when it comes to halting mind-boggling genocide in africa. but then is this really a surprise anymore? hell, they wouldn't even admit rwanda was a genocide until it was over...perhaps because, god forbid, the U.N. might have had to flex it's entirely-too-dependant-on-the-united-states muscle...or maybe because they didn't want to make kofi annan look bad...instead they promoted him. now the killing in darfur has continued for years...and the U.N. has managed to sit back and wag a finger. thanks guys. way to live up to your charter.

speaking of an entirely useless U.N., iran is mocking it. it is starting to look a lot like the league of nations prior to WWII when some "axis" powers basically said "fuck off...what do you do for me anyways? what are you going to do? bleed on me?" and then proceeded to just take themselves out of the international body and move forward with their armed forces. now iran is telling the U.N. it basically doesn't give two shits about any "edicts" from the U.N....and if they are pressured further, they will pull out of the nonproliferation treaty and discontinue any even nominal efforts towards cooperating with U.N. nuclear authorities. yea...the U.N. carries a lot of weight in the world these days...

and yes, one of the main reasons the U.N. is nigh completely useless is the fact that the united states never really bought into the idea in full...not once the soviet union collapsed anyways. and seriously...as rwanda aplty showed, when the united states isn't backing the U.N. is a serious, serious manner...the whole thing goes to shit. stern warnings have never halted genocide...yet that is all we continue to give. recent developments in the middle east have shown you can spurn U.N. edicts for decades unless the united states is really pissed off...and even then, if they are tangled in a few other wars there really isn't much they can do about it...so spurn away. and now we are seeing the first stages of the disasterous effects of sending troops in massive numbers into iraq after failing to live up to our word and toppling saddam the first time around...we don't have them when we might actually need them, and one little country seems to have the ability to hold the western world hostage. oops.

the university of illinois (my alma mater) lost its appeal to the ncaa to hold on to chief illiniwek. never mind the inherent hypocracy of the ncaa's ruling in disallowing some indian mascots/symbols and allowing other equally offensive ones...and never mind that the ncaa is an evil organization drunk on power...let it go illinois. if for no other reason, for your athletes there now. the men's tennis team does not get to play the national championships on it's home court...because of chief illiniwek. this is when, as a student-athlete, i say enough is enough...stop the bullshit and let me play...i mean, seriously, what are we arguing over? the ability to keep the chief, who really only appears for about 5 minutes on a few occassions...and keep his likeness around for those other sports. fuck that...i'll take the ability to host the national championships in anything, anyday.

i've taking to walking again lately...just wish i lived close enough to work to be able to walk it...or at least that this city had the public transit infrastructure to allow me to make the 5 minute commute via bus without it taking 2 hours. i miss walking everywhere...makes me long for my college days...when i was in shape, and i didn't need a car. god i hate this town.

and you're my favorite thing...tell it everywhere i go...