the world is fucked up. the kkk picked a new leader from dayton, my hometown. he's setting up a headquarters in ohio, and the probability is that he'll pick ohio for the headquarters of the national chapter at some point in the future. how is it that this is happening? i'm a firm believer in the first amendment and that as soon as you silent one group, you risk silencing everyone, but mustn't there be some loophole or some reasoning to shut them the hell up? isn't that somehow very much like a terrorist, to use god to justify hatred? isn't this the same thing? if we're involved in a war against terror, doesn't that include terror that comes from our backyard? if you're going to hunt down all the evil in the world, wouldn't that require some partial lobotomy for everyone to remove their own bits of bad? isn't everyone just as prone to being mean as to being nice? in ourselves and in children, we justify stupidity and cruelty as mistakes, so why doesn't this apply to the rest of the world? where do the differences lie? what is the precise difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist? and how precisely will violating the privacy of citizens help significantly to quell murderous thoughts? when will freedom ring? when exactly? where is this supposed justice for all? why is it that while this war is waging, while these anthrax threats are spreading, companies are laying off employees and going bankrupt left and right, and right-wing legislation (ban on homosexual marriages; again, the allowance of law-enforcement agencies to spy on u.s. citizens) is creeping its way through congress? isn't someone benefiting from all this? wouldn't that maybe be those at the top? isn't someone making money by filing chapter eleven bankruptcy then selling assets for huge profit, all while scaling down the workforce? aren't these the same people who fund campaigns and plant lobbyists in washington? don't you think that these same people have defense contracts, require cutbacks in environmental standards to lesson their costs further, and get huge government bailouts in the name of national disaster or the promotion of the gnp? doesn't this all sound familiar? doesn't this sound remarkably coincidental? doesn't this sound like what we've heard before - that war is good for business?