Wal-Mart is cool! Cheap prices, though everything in every other country is cheaper than here and it still amazes me now, even after all the times I've been to the states, that Wal-Mart sells guns (what's more amazing is that a country actually allows their citizens to own guns, fucking retards). Anyway, it's still really wierd, 'cause see here, we've actually got a semi-decent parliament (well...) and all that jazz where religion has fuck all to do with it, which is the way it should be. That's actually one of my main problems with the USA, it all seems to be about religious extremes, all the time I hear Americans say stuff like "Please pray for my dying second cousin" or whatever, something which I don't think would happen here. Plus you guys have got all those big preacher guys raking it in. I still believe that you lot should've had a few more civil wars before you became a superpower. It builds character, see, we had tons and look how we turned out! Just fandabedozy!

I also too hate all this 9/11 crap (should really be 11/9 but you Americans just HAVE to be different and lame). It's just banded about "Oh terror this" and "terror that". Far as I'm concerned, nothing like it will happen again, even if there wasn't as big an uproar about it straight after it, nothing like it would happen again, it was a one off. Hell, I truly would not be surprised if your government knew about it all and just wanted a reason to invade Iraq (nobody cared about Afghanistan, to the world it was a free punch, no-one was with you on Iraq except the governments of Britain and a few others, but not the people). Now, though, because of it, the government wants us to have ID cards (and, get this, to pay for them ourselves) to prove that we belong in this country. Fuck that, getting into some Nazi kinda state there, that happens I'm picking up a brick and flinging it through the council's window.

Of course it doesn't matter since the government would rather hand us over to a United States of Europe.

And just to bash the USA more, on Channel 4 here, we had the "War on Terra" (Get it? Terra, Terror? Huh? Huh?) series, which basically pointed out how retarded many Americans are buying SUVs/Hummers which do 11 mile to the gallon (versus the Ford Model T which done 25 or so). Of course, it also pointed out how retarded your fuel prices are (something like on average to fill a tank full of petrol in America it costs $8.50, £4.50 or so, however here it costs £40, or $75,) yet you complain when they raise it by like, 3 cents or something. It's also cool how you're like the only country in the world to not even admit to global warming, like it's some made up liberal hippy propaganda. Oh sure they can't completely prove it, but they do know carbon dioxide levels are rising, and so is the temperature.

Ah crazy, crazy America, actually getting me to rant on and on and on. Fuck you!

- Ian

Ah, Margaret Thatcher, one ugly bitch. While I must admit I applauded her regarding the Falklands (rather after the fact since I wasn't even born then but... the Falklands also showed how grand our armed forces are... or were... er...), I still hate her. I remember what the country was like in my early years (sure, a lot of them were under John Major, but he was an idiot who basically continued Thatcher's work) and that's why I won't vote conservative ever, or at least till I'm 45, (so it's Labour then, which saddens me being very much for a good, well equipped and large-ish military but them's the breaks.)

Actually, that was one thing I was shocked at during our bastard offspringsl election(they being you crazy Americans. U-S-A! Fuck off), young people voting Republican. I'm serious, what the fuck is that about? You're young, you DON'T vote right wing. It should be a written law in every country. Fools.

Anyway, Sir Mark Thatcher (yes SIR, it must be so easy to become a Knight of the Empire nowadays, though I also believe the Hellbeast Thatcher herself is a baroness, so meh) last I heard had been let off with a roughly £250,000 fine and something else(this info straight from my memory, and I can't be assed checking the BBC now, so don't think that that's what it actually is.) Not bad considering he tried to buy a helicopter for his crazy coup. Still, at least we Brits try to mount a coup d'tat the real way, which doesn't involve invading a country under false pretenses then making a grand cock up of the aftermath. Ah well.

Just to wrap it up, the street outside my college had a Glasgow city council sign outside it underneath it a European Union flag, which not surprisingly had a large red X spray painted over it, I think that just seems up most Scots' opinions of the EU.

Another unintelligible load of rubbish from the mighty, mighty keyboard of...

- Ian

Shinji Aramaki, artist for Microman Microchange and Diaclone, which most of the first year of Transformers toys came from, co-creator of Mospeada (aka Robotech: The New Generation) with Hideki Kakinuma, as well as a major force in Studio Artmic (on such projects as Megazone 23 and Bubblegum Crisis),
has a new movie coming out in the US.

He is the director of the new Appleseed movie, based on Masamune Shirow's acclaimed political sci-fi mecha action manga. The all CG anime-styled movie shows a huge growth in his abilities as a director from co-directing 1989's Megazone sequel, Megazone 23 III (the third).

It opens this Friday, the 14th, and is showing in the following cities:

Barrington 30 - Barrington, IL
River East 21 - Chicago, IL
Evanston 18 - Evanston, IL
Sunset Place 24 - South Miami, FL
Miami Lakes 17 - Miami Lakes, FL
Dolphin 19 - Miami, FL
Paradise 24 - Davie, FL
South Beach Stadium 18 - Miami Beach, FL
Dole Cannery 18 - Honolulu, HI
Pearl Highlands 12 - Pearl City, HI
Windward Stadium 10 - Kaneohe, HI
Block 30 - Orange, CA
Ontario Mills 30 - Ontario, CA
Universal City 18 - Universal City, CA
Beach Cities All Stadium 16 - El Segundo, CA
Winnetka 21 Theatres - Chatsworth, CA
Atlantic Palace 10 - Alhambra, CA
Long Beach Stadium 26 - Long Beach, CA
Irvine Spectrum 21 - Irvine, CA
Empire 25 - New York, NY
Palisades 21 - West Nyack, NY
Sheepshead Bay 14 - Brooklyn, NY
New Roc City Stadium 18 - plus Imax New Rochelle, NY
Court Street Stadium 12 - Brooklyn, NY
Neshaminy 24 - Bensalem, PA
Warrington Crossing Stadium 22 - Warrington, PA
Mercado 20 - Santa Clara, CA
Saratoga 14 - San Jose, CA
Century 20 - Daly City Daly City, CA
Union Landing 25 - Union City, CA
Century 20 - Oakridge San Jose, CA
Great Mall 20 - Milpitas, CA
San Jose Complex - San Jose, CA
Century 14 Downtown Walnut Creek - Walnut Creek, CA

I've already seen the movie and it's pretty good. And for once, it's all CG instead of a half-assed mix of anime and CG (like Macross Zero). Thank God. Go support Shinji Aramaki and Masamune Shirow.

Remember Margaret Thatcher, female former Prime Minister of Britain? If you remember the 80's well enough, you remember Thatcher and former US President Ronald Reagan's "axis of evil", their rabid anti-socialist (and anti-USSR in particular) paranoia, and Thatcher's heavily criticized Falklands War, wherein she (with Reagan's support) battled for several islands that were claimed both by nearly bankrupt Argentina and the UK.

In a "wag the dog" situation, the unofficial war bolstered Thatcher's fading popularity and got her reelected. You may remember punk rock music being heavily anti-Reagan and anti-Thatcher, and even British political activists and punk unit Crass' album devoted to the Falklands conflict entitled How Does It Feel (To Be The Mother of 1000 Dead?), and the anonymous Sheep Farming In The Falklands, largely believed to be their work as well.

So Reagan is dead. Thatcher's not in power. Her son lives in South Africa. Nice place. Apartheid is over (no thanks to Thatcher), but South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, who took over from anti-apartheid and anti-AIDS crusader Nelson Mandela, has publically claimed that AIDS in South Africa is special and unlike the rest of the world, is not related to HIV. This is contrary to the findings of just about every major HIV/AIDS researcher in the world, and is indicative of a greater problem in South Africa. Despite the end of apartheid, the government is still run by people who don't have the people's best interests at hand.

Honestly, this kind of behavior suggests that Mbeki doesn't care about that much about the people one way or another. And what of Mandela? His
remaining son died of AIDS about a weak ago. His public announcement was an attempt to get AIDS treated as a real disease in that country, breaking a long-standing tradition of silence and ignorance.

And what do we find the son of Margaret Thatcher doing in this climate? Why, allegedly using his dollars to vote for a coup in oil-drenched Equatorial Guinea. Now that's progressive. Margaret Thatcher's lack of comment suggests to me that mommy is very cross with her bouncing baby boy, but considering his mother's history, is there any wonder where he learned to behave like this?