Good Times

Obviously I have been very excited and happy all week because of two things:
1. The meeting of the 64th UN General Assembly, and
2. The G20 Summit, which is conveniently being held in Pittsburgh this year.

The General Assembly has turned out to be both enlightening and hilarious so far. If you hadn't heard anything of Muammar Qaddafi's ridiculous speech (and I'm sure you have), here are a few highlights:
-George Bush should be investigated by the UN and put to death because he started the Iraq War.
-Swine flu was made in a laboratory by the companies that make the vaccine as a large capitalization scam, and the "fish flu" is next.
-The proposed two-state solution regarding Israel and Palestine should be thrown out and the new state should be called "Isratine."
-Mines make a great defense tool. His argument: If you invade then you die, but that's okay because you're invading me. He also mentioned his website.
-The Taliban is okay.
-The General Assembly should be moved from NYC, because he suffered from jet lag on the trip.
-If the European nations do not pay reparations of exactly $7.77 trillion, Africans will come to Europe and take the money from them.
-Obama is a "son of Africa."
After the speech? Well, the American diplomats who watched mainly sat with shocked and stunned faces. However, one Chinese diplomat was cracking up in laughter. I wonder why.

The G20 Summit has pretty much gone as planned. Now, you may be wondering why the G20 is beginning to replace the G7 and G8. Simply put, the G7 and G8 are too small; they consist mainly of the most powerful western nations, and do not include some of the biggest emerging economies. Twenty is just a better number. The G7 and G8 will be used primarily as a political forum rather than an economic one. By doing this the G20 has supposedly helped balance the world economy by giving emerging nations greater say. Is this true? I guess we'll have to find out during the next two G20 Summits in Canada and South Korea next year.

There weren't a lot of particularly new or interesting things that happened at the G20. One thing popped out a bit, though. With the recent discovery of TWO nuclear facilities in Iran, Obama was reluctant to say much at the General Assembly. At the G20, however, Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown decided to take a stronger stand. This is what he said:

"Iran's decision to build yet another nuclear facility without notifying the IAEA represents a direct challenge to the basic compact at the center of the nonproliferation regime."

Technically, Iran does not have to alert the International Atomic Energy Agency about their nuclear enrichment facilities until at least six months before they start up. Ahmadinejad says there are 18 months left until become functional, i.e. Tehran has a year before it is required to say anything. The problem here is that the plants apparently do not contain enough material to produce energy, but do contain enough to produce a weapon. Also, according to Obama, the structures do not fit the description of a peaceful nuclear power facility. This may turn out to be a major inhibitor of peace talks between the US and Iran.

Aw well. Not like we're doing anything right on that front anyway.

Why Are We There?

"Afghanistan has been known over the years as the graveyard of empires." -David H. Petraeus

There is no better way to put it. Afghanistan is and always has been an unconquerable land. Genghis Khan couldn't do it, Britain couldn't do it, the USSR couldn't do it, so what makes the US government so confident that change can be brought to one of the poorest and war-torn nations in the world? Donors and foreign investors pour money into the country, but do it such an inept way that it all goes to those at the top of the food chain. The citizens with the least education and wealth are forgotten. In a country where only one-third of the population is literate and half of the GDP comes from opium exports (Afghanistan singlehandedly set and broke the record for the most amount of heroin produced in the entire world... ever...), it should be obvious that any real change has to come from an organized central government, which doesn't exist. When foreign nations intervene a conflict of interest arises; we become interested in the resources and economic opportunities available, rather than the establishment of a functioning government.

I feel a bit sorry for poor ol' Karzai. His country has gone to Hell because of the exact countries that supposedly try to assist him. Can anyone honestly say that they would appreciate armies bombing their nation, even if it is for a good cause? Quit trying to destroy the Taliban; they aren't the problem. Afghanistan is filled with rogue warlords who set up their own spheres of influence and control their own parts of the nation, and with a small, untrained army, there's not much Karzai can do about it. When other nations target the wrong enemies and cause innocent deaths, it leads to more people wanting to join the resistance. This is simple logic, people. C'mon now.

Maybe we should try something we gave up on not too long ago: compromising with the Taliban. We never had a problem with them before, and they used to be considered a friendly force. Now with the rumors of al Quaida* and other Middle Eastern threats, our government is trying to eliminate anything that even ranks as a low-level threat. Of course, if we compromise then the Taliban, which happens to hold a fairly strong influence in Afghanistan, could fight the warlords for us. Problem sloved.

*Just a little fact: al Quaida is nowhere near the threat it's made out to be. The organization has been around for years, and spans worldwide, yet they rarely actually do anything that classifies as a terrorist act. The entire group is completely disorganized; there is no central leadership, and it's not as if members of al Quaida hold meetings or anything like that. By the time a plan actually does go underway, the communication has taken long enough for the authorities to have been tipped off. Quit worrying about them.

Shortest Post I'll Ever Do

So today I rediscovered the genius that is the Wendy's hamburger. It blew my mind, and it tasted divine.

Get Over Your Idealism

Somehow I've gotten over my iPod. I don't know how, but I did. Perhaps it was the idea of getting a brand new phone! Yep.

On with the post. I feel like making a quick point today:
Every day we wake up. We are hopeful and optimistic in the fact that we want the day to turn out exactly the way we want it to. So, we pull ourselves through and expend so much energy in attempting to perfect our pointless lives, that when it doesn't work out, we are crushed. People need to realize that we are born and we die. What happens in between is not important. Go about your lives doing what you want, but don't try to make it overly idealistic; that ends solely in disappointment and regret.

That's it. Until next time.

Apple Needs a Reality Check

Lo and behold, my iPod Touch was stolen today. Oh joy. I just might go insane.

I realized after it was stolen that I have one heck of a security breach on my hands. Yeah, I locked it with a passcode, but what if they get past that? Then the thief will have access to my email, contacts, Facebook, MySpace and various other sites. This person could also charge up a massive bill in the App Store (thank God that has a seperate password, which I gurantee is invincible). So, after spending two hours going around the internet changing my passwords, asking my friends if they know anything about this and probably viewing too many Cyanide and Happiness comics, a thought came to me.

Apple does nothing to help detect a stolen iPod. They keep a database of serial numbers that match stolen items, and know when those devices connect to the internet, seeing as how all transactions initially go through Apple's database. The company seems to make a big deal about it being too difficult to do, but in reality it's quite easy. So, why do they not do anything to help their poor customers? Perhaps Apple realizes that a stolen device can still make purchases, and with 59% of the company's revenue coming solely from the iTunes store, it is understandable that they would think this way. Leave a stolen item unchecked, and rake in the dough. But is this really the answer as to why one of the most consumer-friendly corporations in the entire world refuses to help retrieve stolen property? I certainly hope not.