Well, Well, Well

After what's seemed like an eternity, I've finally joined the high-speed Internet age at home. Assuming this post works, it means I'll be able to post to my blog from home for the first time in more than a year, which ought to mean a hugely increased amount of posts from here on out.

Now that speed is not an obstacle, what are some cool video web sites I should check out?

More on Hugo Chavez

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is a growing obsession of mine, mostly because of the Bush Administration's rhetoric against him. As you may know, Venezuela is the fifth largest oil-producing nation in the world, and Chavez (who won a landslide election after a failed military coup some years ago) has been a real thorn in the side for American foreign policy in the region.

I'd view that as a problem if I didn't think American foreign policy in the region was abhorrent and immoral. Some of the stuff our contry did in Central and South America in the 80s served as the template for the kind of black box torture operations that have become such a part of the American way of life since September 11th brought the Dick Cheney cabal into prominance. Our current Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, should be tried for war crimes related to his actions in the area at the time, and he is fully deserving of whatever verdict would be rendered.

Speaking of an International Criminal Court, it's interesting that the United States forms the foremost opposition to such an idea.

After the revelations of the last few years, is it any wonder why?

Anyway, I've promised and will continue to promise a lengthy post about Hugo Chavez. I only started paying attention a couple years ago when a US-backed coup failed to knock him out of power, and I don't want to give the impression that I fully support Chavez's style of government.

At present, I am very close to saying that I support him, but there are plenty of accusations of dirty dealing, imprisonment of political enemies, etc. Most of this seems to come from the corporatist radical right Cuban refugee lobby out of Florida, but that doesn't mean it is wholly without merit, just that the evidence should be viewed in light of the fact that it is heavily tainted by anti-Castro propaganda.

And let's not forget that the guy came to power after an attempted military coup of his own, which doesn't fill me with confidence.

He does, however, relentlessly call President Bush and his corrupt administration on their shit, as he did today:

"The planet's most serious danger is the government of the United States. ... The people of the United States are being governed by a killer, a genocidal murderer and a madman." --Hugo Chavez

It's getting increasingly difficult to argue with that point of view in my opinion.

What's yours?

Trapped in the Abyss

I've been in freelance hell lately, writing a book about demons and the Abyss for Wizards of the Coast. It's basically swallowed all of my free time and has, once again, convinced me that running two monthly magazines is probably enough D&D work for one person. I'm not really sure why I keep doing this to myself, but hey, if you get asked to write up the Abyss officially, you don't say no.

Or at least I don't.

I'm buying a new Mac Mini later this week and just ordered high-speed Internet access from home, so that should increase the frequency of posts here. I can't even get Blogger's main page to load on my crappy home computer right now, so I am really looking forward to the change.

Young Man

Yesterday I hit the iTunes music store to pick up some songs that frequently end up stuck in my head even though I don't own them and only hear them on the radio or in movies. This led to picking up Neil Young's beautiful song "Old Man," which I've always really liked.

But that's about the end of the road for me when it comes to Neil Young—not for any good reason, but there you have it. I simply haven't had a chance to explore his work as much as I might like, but now that I've started I may as well go further. I really, really like this song, and imagine that Young has plenty of others that are just as good.

I just don't know where to start.

A while back, I posted about discovering the Beatles, and asked for some suggestions for which songs I might want to check out. The response was really helpful, and led to the discovery of some great music (I fell asleep to Revolver last night, for example).

So, anyone have any Neil Young suggestions?