Frogs and Conspiracy

One of the coolest home decorations I have encountered

I was looking at my picture collection this evening and I dug up this one I took at Holly's house over winter break. They're frogs, that are playing instruments! Aren't they cool?! I really like them for some reason. It's appropriate at this time to mention that my camera is actually in Spain right now being used by my Uncle for his trip there. So if you've noticed that a lot of the pictures lately haven't really been of recent things, with the exception of my tattoo for which I borrowed Chris' camera. Since I don't have my camera yet, this month's Crazy Winonan of the Month Award won't be awarded till the end of the month, or maybe in very early April. I personally believe that I can't not accurately convey the craziness of the winner of this award without some sort of visual aid.

Last week, a member of the 9-11 commission, Michael Hurly, visited WSU to give a speech on the global war on terrorism as well as working for the government. Overall I think that in the end his speech was more of a motivational speech to inspire us to join the government. At one point he was so motivational I was expecting him to say "I lived in a van, down by the river." But I found one of his arguments interesting though. He stated that terrorism stems from world poverty, and that terrorists are products of a poverty stricken area and grow anger towards the United States for their current situation. If you think about it though, there is some validness to his argument. I would also go on to say that the current administration is not doing a good job on handling the issue of world poverty. I've been reading various reports that Bush is coming up short on funding various poverty relief funds that he promised to fund during his first term. Which doesn't surprise me at all, because after all it costs a lot to invade other countries and go after fictional weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday, when I was walking through Minne Hall here at WSU I noticed posters on several message boards a posting with the bold statement "YOU ARE BEING LIED TOO." After that caught my attention I decided to walk over to it and read what it had to say. Apparently it was from a conspiracy theorist stating that Michael Hurly is a liar and it goes on to discuss various things like a number of the hijackers are still alive, that the 9-11 Commission did a poor job and members were influenced by oil companies, even going to the extent that an airplane didn't actually hit the Pentagon on 9-11. I think that its very interesting this day and age the various conspiracy theories that develop over time, things from the JFK assignation to the moon landings all have had their die hard conspiracy theorists. Though I don't agree with most of what was on the posting I encountered, but I do think that conspiracy theorists can sometimes provide some valid information and certain way of seeing things that are not covered by our consumer based media. I'm going to try and get a copy of that flier and try posting it on here just to give an example of what is being said.

In other happenings I attended a meeting today for the New U Ad Hoc committee which was established in response to the student referendum vote to not support the New U plan. The goal of the committee is to provide information and try to raise awareness of the strong student voice that opposes the New U and its potential tuition increase of $1000 to Winona State students. I'd like to remind WSU students to start voicing your concerns and opposition to the administration of our dear Winona State, to let them know that "No, we don't want a tuition increase" and force them to start listening to us and that they should start taking action to lower this potential fee. I posted a special button on the top right area of this blog to help you out with that. I will provide more information on the New U subject as it comes.

Bushism: "This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table."—Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 22, 2005

Today's Exciting but Mundane Activity Jared Did: Went to Menard's with Flynn and Kari for Student Services committee to buy atomic clocks for the van service to and from West Campus. I tried finding a pick axe there for a special project of mine but failed to find one, I also want a blow horn too, but couldn't that either.

Jared's New Aspiration: I aspire to find and purchase a hazmat suit similar to the one that is featured by the Beastie Boys in their music video for "Intergalactic." Wouldn't be cool to run around Winona in it and randomly break dance on certain corners?! Maybe I need to start a new charity to fund this aspiration. Which reminds me, The Jared Stene Coffee Growers Support is still taking donations! You'll find a link to my entry about it on the right hand side of this page.

Link of the Day: Conspiracy Planet Right now it's featuring an article authored by Giuliana Sgrena, who is the Italian journalist who was recently shot at by American troops at a traffic check point in Iraq. The article is about possibly use of naplam in Falluja and the editor of the website implies that this article might be a reason why US forces shot at her vehicle, which resulted in the death of an Italian security agent.