Its been awhile since I had a good old fashioned unstructured rant..

As I recall, Let's Roll was offered by Neil Young as a free download when released. I'd assume that should still be the case, it being freely available, but I can't find it anywhere I can link to.

I'm sure a place exists.. But Young's label doesn't appear to be doing anything link/search engine friendly. And all search results are pretty much spammed out.

I give you, ladies and gentleman, a perfect example of how the record industry has failed to use the Internet to do something culturally significant. Its a small example, but a perfect one. "Out of the sky, into the dirt."

I have a copy of the mp3, but color me reluctant when it comes to making it available online. I'd have to take the statement a level further and publicly offer to burn CD's outside my recording industry classes. If I want that kind of heat, I might as well just go for broke get a few bumper-sickers for my car that say things like "Officer, yes I'm speeding, fuck off.", "I break for nothing.", and a few of those yellow triangle signs you stick on the inside of your windows that say "Guns on board" and "Drugs on board". To make room, I'll just leave off the stickers for the ACLU and the EFF because I don't expect them to ever be helpful any time I'm the one getting screwed over.

But don't worry, the right to be a cantankerous asshole still exists thanks to it being upheld in ways ranging from Bill O'Reilly to myself. Just don't expect it to be done in a way that might actually change or provoke anything with its hands on the reigns of power. The terrorists couldn't change that.

So, as we graduate terror high school and get our diploma, what have we learned? I'll give you a hint, it has something to do with that fact that they did not prepare us for the real world. Take a look at hurricane Katrina.

When viewed through the right lens, the response to this hurricane, a biological attack, a major earthquake, a nuclear detonation in a major city, and a host of other real threats, all begins to look exactly the same. Its a good lens to look through, but right now it might make you nausious. In the last election the people trusted the Bush administration to prepare America to handle this type of thing. They made it an election issue, and the people embraced it. We can't blame the hurricane being able to strike on our intelligence agencies, but the rest of the analogy -- pardon the pun -- holds water.

If all we know how to do is fight fire with fire, we are not positioned well for the long term, as some of mankind's recent wet tragedies allow to be spilled poetically. The hurricane even had a not-so-common name. How helpful fate can be sometimes. I've stopped harboring hope that there was a realistic command and response structure planned for anything even analogous to the Katrina situation. My gut tells me if any existing procedure was followed it would have lead to Mother Nature being adding to the list of wanted terrorists before mobilizing a fleet of busses to evacuate the poor.

Oh, but lets just look at the bright side, which is considered by most to be "the future".. The millions of Americans drowning in human misery on TV are SO well prepared for the upcoming Supreme Court nomination battles. They are ready for a change up to the single major topic blasted at them. Like coming into the primaries, they are mostly clueless about the players but at least know their faces, they are set in their teams with their expected questions, prepared to build as many flawed arguments as possible, and going for a long haul battle for the highest court in the land. By the time its over, most of them will have lost interest and given up hope. I can hear their cries. Isn't football heating up now too?

Four years later, there is a feeling that we are moving forward. However, forward may be down. We have finally had something occur that's killed more people than the events of September the 11th. Because I always try to find the best in things, I'm going to count this as a 'win'. It wasn't done by a group of terrorists. The War on Terror is a war on an emotion after all.. At least that's what I can infer from being a speaker of the English language..

I have no answers, but I have no illusions either. I just keep on getting rocked in the free world.

As a site note, I normally commemorate (commiserate?) September 11th by getting plastered. I have not had anything to drink yet. This may or may not be a good thing.