bin Laden has stated in no uncertain terms that he's after control of Saudi Arabia, which includes the Islamic holiest of holies, BUT also contains the largest oil reserves in the world outside of Russia. Even the Israeli-Palestinean issue pivots on the point of which oil-rich nations side with the United States (and thereby will accomodate Israel) and which do not. That's where Iraq falls into this equation, as well as the Sudan.

This stinking mix of geopolitics and resource-management means that we can only see the forest, instead of the trees, if we really follow the money.

The money leads in two directions:

1. Oil
2. Arms (weapons sales)

The latter includes not only conventional and nuclear weapons, of course, but also the plethora of other "weapons of mass destruction," the new vogue term for manufactured diseases, gases, etc. meant to harm or end human life. Arms are big business. And the world's biggest arms dealer remains these United States of America.

That makes many of our accusations against other countries which might have sold a pitiful bomber, jet or formula almost laughable. We have been in the business of arming developing nations --- and usually those with brutal dictatorships --- for decades now. It's no secret. After all, we armed the very Afghan fighters we are now fighting. Then, we walked away to let the chips fall were they might.

But arm's sales is just one of our many multinational enterprises. Resource management, on a global scale, by way of our both our economic and military "leverage" has always been the main chance. We learned that lesson from the British Empire. That's why we have the world-spanning Navy (and Air Force) these days. AND by way of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank the web of not-so-subtle coercion is completed. But you won't find that reported on CNN, NBC or even CBS. Chances are, outside of the alternative press or some foreign journal, you won't find reports or commentary on that at all.

At the top of this resource-management pyramind, of course, is oil. The Persian Gulf has always been defined as an area of our national security interest because of our gluttonous dependence on oil. While other countries also use large quantities of oil, they don't have the love affair with "the open road" and gas-guzzlers (like SUVs) that America does. Most importantly, they tax oil imports at a reasonable rate to lower consumption and encourage conservation. As with Desert Shield/Storm, we make it no secret that America will go to war to maintain our cheap supply of this dwindling fossil fuel.

We laugh at the very notions of alternative energy sources or conservation in this country. Just ask Vice President Cheney, who has said as much only this year and has let the energy companies into his offices to write the future energy policy for America.

(By the way, where is Dick Cheney?)

It's not often that I write a true "editorial" in this space. The point of this column was that it be a personal diary, not part of our political commentary. But the tragedy for liberty that I see taking place right now in America has gotten me exercised. The "Patriot Act," with its sweeping powers of the State and infringement on at least three of the Amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights, the mass hysteria being promulgated by the Mouthpiece Media and the "economic stimulus" program the House of Representatives want to push through have combined to make me ill.

If I didn't want to get out of America before, Lord knows I do now.

And then, in my e-mail, I get an article like this: http://edition.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/11/01/column.billpress/index.html,

I'm way too serious already. I don't need this type of stuff in my e-mail, Kids.

The analysis with which I opened this column is most-likely preaching to the converted, I have to realize. Longtime readers of the G21 are familiar with our views on both global economics (and globalization,) multinationalism and imperialism. New readers might be intrigued enough, if they've wandered this page to dig deeper. If you fit into the latter category, go to our Table of Contents page and poke around. You'll soon see how our perspective on society and culture is different from the usual Web fare.

In My Life

This is another picture of my roommate Matt. In this one, he is on Bourbon Street (a theme park for adults) here in Nawlins with his friend, Heidi, with whom we both used to work years ago in San Francisco. It is Halloween night. They are having fun and appeared on our city's reknown "Bourbocam."

Where was I? you might ask. I was sitting at home. I had to work the next day, of course... I have this very bad trait for a New Orleanian, you see: I want to live within my means. Bon temps roulez simply is not part of my vocabulary. That means that I spend a lot of time at home.

There's a song I hear played on the FM radio station my boss plays every day at work entitled "I Want to Fly Away." I'm very much beginning to identify with that song. But I feel like a teenager, identifying with a song on the radio. I think that I should just put up with my crappy living situation, the lack of real income here in New Orleans, and the irresponsibility that seems symptomatic of the place because "that's what adults do." (To which my Ambrose-Biercelike mind responds: "Stupid adults!")

And the advice keeps rolling into my e-mail box. It's like the old George Burns joke, "Why is it that all the people who believe should be running this country are either bartenders or barbers?" That's how I feel about the people who believe they should be running my life. They know who they are...

THINGS I WANT THIS WEEK

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appears both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

Rod lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now. The new home of the magazine. But he plans to return to Serbia next year.

He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.

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