Without using buzzwords, unprovable innuendo, or excessive talking points...
How the bloody hell is the economic stimulus package considered socialism?
Because until someone shows me why, I'm going to continue thinking of it as just about enough of a good thing. Taxes cut significantly, spending on long-tern infrastructure construction... It's got the whole ball of wax, the whole nine yards, and butters both sides of the bread at the same time, plus saws through nails and still can cut a tomato just like this.
Is it perfect? Not by a long shot, and not even if Senator McCain can carve some of the pure pork out of the bill in conference. Is it better than doing absolutely nothing? Arguably, absolutely nothing is what we should have done to a good chunk of the financial corporations we've bailed out, who should have been forced to sleep in the beds they made.
Various CEOs, CFOs, hedge fund operators, and their like-minded cohorts have caused this mess while drinking themselves under the table while yelling and screaming obscenities at the top of their lungs. And the average American taxpayer is picking up the tab, including breakage, as well as tipping the bartender very heavily in apology for our extremely drunk friend. (Those who are local attendees of the Blogger Bashes might draw a parallel to a certain night at Breckenridge Brewery during that big ice storm... Just saying.)
So why don't Mr. and Mrs. Average American Tax Payer deserve a break?
Please show your work.
03 March, 2009
13 February, 2009
See Your Gypsy
You know, the more I think about it, the more I feel like I was missing something with this post...
And now I remember what it was.
Popular culture reference secured. So the Gypsy that remains.
And now I remember what it was.
Popular culture reference secured. So the Gypsy that remains.
31 January, 2009
Ein Zwei Drei Beer
Hmmm... Must be February already. Because it is now time for...
ROCKY MOUNTAIN BLOGGER BASH!!!!!111!1ELEVENTYONE!
See David for details.
But in the meantime, unless you thought I wrote that title for the completely obvious reason, let me introduce the latest party animal...
Ein!
And yes. His name really is a reference to Cowboy Bebop. We're all dorks over here. It's completely natural.
He's pretty much a classic herding dog when it comes to his behavior. If you are, Heaven forbid, attempting to leave his domain, he will sound the alarm and charge. If you are, Heaven forbid, trying to enter his domain, he will sound the alarm and charge.
I swear that he'd be the world's best guard dog if he would only grow a bit more. But, yet again, he's a corgi. Low, lean, fast, and able to get into amazingly difficult places. I know this for certain, as I still have the claw marks on my chest from when he crawled into my bed and slipped under the covers just so he could wash Alice's back. Alice was not amused. Violently so. And her claws were already aimed at me, so... Yeah.
(Oh. And a PSA for folks out there: Bactine is not meant to be applied to nipples. Not even male ones. You have been warned.)
(And you may laugh now.)
His most endearing quality? His addiction to belly rubs. That and he really wants to be a lap dog, even though he is far too big to fit in my lap.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN BLOGGER BASH!!!!!111!1ELEVENTYONE!
See David for details.
But in the meantime, unless you thought I wrote that title for the completely obvious reason, let me introduce the latest party animal...
Ein!
And yes. His name really is a reference to Cowboy Bebop. We're all dorks over here. It's completely natural.
He's pretty much a classic herding dog when it comes to his behavior. If you are, Heaven forbid, attempting to leave his domain, he will sound the alarm and charge. If you are, Heaven forbid, trying to enter his domain, he will sound the alarm and charge.
I swear that he'd be the world's best guard dog if he would only grow a bit more. But, yet again, he's a corgi. Low, lean, fast, and able to get into amazingly difficult places. I know this for certain, as I still have the claw marks on my chest from when he crawled into my bed and slipped under the covers just so he could wash Alice's back. Alice was not amused. Violently so. And her claws were already aimed at me, so... Yeah.
(Oh. And a PSA for folks out there: Bactine is not meant to be applied to nipples. Not even male ones. You have been warned.)
(And you may laugh now.)
His most endearing quality? His addiction to belly rubs. That and he really wants to be a lap dog, even though he is far too big to fit in my lap.
28 January, 2009
John Galt Wept
This. Quoted in full.
Yeah. Right. I personally say this.
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
And now, we the American people are no longer able.
Then there's this little gem from the original article:
Not even Ayn Rand would have supported this double-standard existence.
Even if it winds up tossing us further into a depression, Atlas has got to shrug.
We gave them money. All of us gave them money. A great big heaping crapload of money. They begged for it. They plead for it. They crawled on hands and knees over deep-pile carpeting and broken-glass tales of woe. And this is how they want to do things? Beg and plead for financial assistance and then play politics as usual immediately afterwards?This just can’t be true:
Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community’s top legislative priority.Participants on the October 17 call—including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG —were urged to persuade their clients to send “large contributions” to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.
If this is true, not another damned dime. Let everyone of them fail. Not one more tax cut to businesses with over 50 people, and in fact, raise their damned taxes. Send the money to unemployment benefits funds, because corporate America simply can not be trusted with anything. In the most serious economic crisis in decades, and these folks are spending the money to organize to crush labor.
Seriously, if this is accurate, these people are sick.
Yeah. Right. I personally say this.
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
And now, we the American people are no longer able.
Then there's this little gem from the original article:
"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."Preserve us from retail magnates with Darcy Taggart complexes, excessive ego inflation, and one of the most overbearing and insensate self-martyrdoms in recorded history. Abandoning his personal Atlantis to try and salvage his civilization...
...
"This bill may be one of the worst things I have ever seen in my life," he said, explaining that he could have been on "a 350-foot boat out in the Mediterranean," but felt it was more important to engage on this fight.
Not even Ayn Rand would have supported this double-standard existence.
Even if it winds up tossing us further into a depression, Atlas has got to shrug.
08 January, 2009
On A Personal Note
I now have a dog.
Literally. I have a dog. A 7-year old purebred Welsh corgi. A very overweight corgi, as you could probably tell from the above photo, so she is on a diet and exercise regimen until we can get her back down to a healthier weight.
Gypsy here has attached herself to me with such strength that not even duct tape could equal. From the first time she laid eyes on me, she determined that I was going to be her owner. The only other time I have seen this happen is when Alice came home for the first time.
And yes. It is weird having a dog. For one thing, scooping poop in public isn't exactly the most suave thing in the world. On the other hand, I now get plenty of attention at Starbucks when I go for my venti whole milk white mocha. Well, okay. SHE gets plenty of attention. I just sit and bask in her glow.
I'm not too certain about the name Gypsy, however. It goes against the naming tradition I've built. Buffy the Miller Moth Slayer, Alice in Wonderland, and Wendy Goes To Neverland. I should change it to Buttercup for a Princess Bride reference.
Don't ask me what the cats think about this. The response would be unprintable.
07 January, 2009
First Horse, THEN Cart
Ryan Grim of the HuffPo:
We have the opportunity to start cleaning up the trash in this party. And what are the progressives wanting to do instead? Score political points and increase their market share.
And, of course, everyone is also playing their favorite game known as What Digby Said:
As a party, we need to run smarter, not simply run outside the lines for the sake of intra-partisan squabbles. Given how the DCCC has become an old-boys network of mostly self-serving snake-oil salesmen and seems to be mostly interested in pandering to J Street consultancies, it would be better if someone were to revamp the national party's networks along these lines rather than doing it only for those particular politicos that follow their own agendas.
After all, it worked out oh so well for the Club For Growth, the Christian Coalition, Heritage Foundation and the National Center For Public Policy Research... In the limelight for a few short years, and all geared up to be on the descendant for a while.
I have to wonder if the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party would rather just blow everything in a blaze of glory, just like the GOP did over the first 6 years of the Bush43 Administration, rather than strive for something more lasting. If so, they're certainly on the right track with this ever-present push for allegedly "better" Democrats.
If these folks have their way, I predict that not only will the Dem majority only last 4 years, but they will be lucky to not pull Obama down with them and keep him from a second term.
The organization will be dedicated to finding progressive candidates who might have an outside shot at winning and "take them under our wing," in Green's words. The group's name -- the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, or the P-triple-C -- is a reference to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which financially backs Democratic candidates it thinks have a shot to win but does not prioritize progressive Democrats over conservative Democrats. The DCCC has had a patchy relationship with the liberal blogosphere, which charges it with relying too heavily on old-school expensive Democratic consultants and not being willing to take chances on progressive candidates.How about maybe we instead work on getting Democrats with intestinal fortitude, personal integrity, and a basic comprehension of ethics and morality? You know, so we don't have to deal with more episodes of Reid being spineless, Rangel being crooked, Blago being evil, Murtha being clueless, Caroline Kennedy being... Well, a self-serving entitlement-burdened Kennedy, basically.
We have the opportunity to start cleaning up the trash in this party. And what are the progressives wanting to do instead? Score political points and increase their market share.
And, of course, everyone is also playing their favorite game known as What Digby Said:
This is an essential component of progressive politics. The stale CW of the village Democrats gets passed on to congressional candidates by simple osmosis --- there's no creativity, no use of modern methods and no real progressive message and the progressive ends up losing.Regretfully for the progressive wing of the party, they end up losing not because of the ever-dreadful conventional wisdom and less-than-full-throated support from the DCCC but because those particular politics don't always play well in Peoria, much less any given congressional district. Or, as in one of the races referenced in the HuffPo article, they can run such a poor campaign that they couldn't even get elected for the Berkeley City Council.
As a party, we need to run smarter, not simply run outside the lines for the sake of intra-partisan squabbles. Given how the DCCC has become an old-boys network of mostly self-serving snake-oil salesmen and seems to be mostly interested in pandering to J Street consultancies, it would be better if someone were to revamp the national party's networks along these lines rather than doing it only for those particular politicos that follow their own agendas.
After all, it worked out oh so well for the Club For Growth, the Christian Coalition, Heritage Foundation and the National Center For Public Policy Research... In the limelight for a few short years, and all geared up to be on the descendant for a while.
I have to wonder if the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party would rather just blow everything in a blaze of glory, just like the GOP did over the first 6 years of the Bush43 Administration, rather than strive for something more lasting. If so, they're certainly on the right track with this ever-present push for allegedly "better" Democrats.
If these folks have their way, I predict that not only will the Dem majority only last 4 years, but they will be lucky to not pull Obama down with them and keep him from a second term.
31 December, 2008
Much Ado About Maybe Nothing
The folks who specialize in Sturm und Drang are at it again.
No. Not the radical feminists who insist that the failure of Barack Obama to select Hillary as his Vice President was further proof that the male conspiracy against them is much broader than previously expected.
The OTHER conspiracy theorists. The ones that even Art Bell thought were kooks. Yes, that Art Bell, who gave airtime to the supporters of National Tin-Foil Hat Day.
It starts off rather innocuously. Thanks to the Discovery Channel's well rerun special on supervolcanoes, most folks that watch television know that (Insert ominous voice here.) someday the Yellowstone Caldera will erupt again, maybe some day soon. (Close ominous voice.)
With the recent swarm of earthquakes in the Caldera, unfortunately, out come the crunchy nut bars in full force. Regretfully, the linked article is so full of sensational claims that makes it almost impossible to blockquote effectively, so I will explain. No. Forget that. It'll take too long.
Let me sum up.
The Illuminati, using a long-defunct Soviet subsonic weapon, is forcing the ground itself to weaken in the caldera so that it can erupt, cause massive devastation, combine with a 9.0 Los Angeles earthquake and a nuclear detonation in New York City, usher in the New World Order, force the relocation of half the (surviving) American population, bring about the Antichrist and herald the destruction of the entire world!
Not even James Patterson's ghost writers could use such a plot. Maybe Douglas Preston, though...
Is the possibility of an eruption something to be concerned about? Absolutely. Massive death, destruction, mayhem, and missing out on knowing who will be the next American Idol? (Snark!) Certainly a part of everyone's not-to-do lists for the coming year. The significance is overwhelming already, folks. The second-to-last thing we need is to set it to the X-Files theme music.
The last thing, however, is to be grossly ignorant as to the actual impact. From James Pethokoukis, a blogger at the U.S. News & World Report: (Bold mine.)
What would actually happen? It depends on the actual event itself. If it is large enough, a good number of American citizens will be dead within the first hour or two, and a lot more over the next week as panic sets in. If it is not large enough, we breathe in ashes and soot for the next few months until things settle out of the atmosphere. For this to be an "extinction-level event", as James suggests, would require an eruption beyond what the historical records show can happen. Years of deteriorated sunlight, miniature ice ages, loss of most plant species in the Northern Hemisphere and the virtual dessication of a continent? Can happen. Complete annihilation of all life? I'd sooner believe in talking laboratory rats taking over the world.
Will this be Happy Fun Time at the park? Doubtful. Can basic human stubbornness and ingenuity cause some of us to survive? Flights to Australia and New Zealand will be booked solid to give it a good shot, even though it might turn into the set of Mad Max movies for real. Will the dead turn into the undead, requiring all owners of the Zombie Survival Guide to register with the government so as to provide trained countermeasures against the mindless hordes? It's more likely than the Antichrist, especially if the talent for American Idol is as pathetic as it was last year. (Paula Abdul: Zombie Queen.)
As it stands, there should be a wait-and-see attitude. Prepare for the merely bad, certainly. But drive the susceptible population into panic beyond measure in order to solicit donations to your religious organization in return for the salvation of the gullible? Or wax grandiose in order to simply sell a webpage so that your paycheck won't be under the ax when it's time for cuts?
I have a four-letter word for that garbage:
NARF!
No. Not the radical feminists who insist that the failure of Barack Obama to select Hillary as his Vice President was further proof that the male conspiracy against them is much broader than previously expected.
The OTHER conspiracy theorists. The ones that even Art Bell thought were kooks. Yes, that Art Bell, who gave airtime to the supporters of National Tin-Foil Hat Day.
It starts off rather innocuously. Thanks to the Discovery Channel's well rerun special on supervolcanoes, most folks that watch television know that (Insert ominous voice here.) someday the Yellowstone Caldera will erupt again, maybe some day soon. (Close ominous voice.)
With the recent swarm of earthquakes in the Caldera, unfortunately, out come the crunchy nut bars in full force. Regretfully, the linked article is so full of sensational claims that makes it almost impossible to blockquote effectively, so I will explain. No. Forget that. It'll take too long.
Let me sum up.
The Illuminati, using a long-defunct Soviet subsonic weapon, is forcing the ground itself to weaken in the caldera so that it can erupt, cause massive devastation, combine with a 9.0 Los Angeles earthquake and a nuclear detonation in New York City, usher in the New World Order, force the relocation of half the (surviving) American population, bring about the Antichrist and herald the destruction of the entire world!
Not even James Patterson's ghost writers could use such a plot. Maybe Douglas Preston, though...
Is the possibility of an eruption something to be concerned about? Absolutely. Massive death, destruction, mayhem, and missing out on knowing who will be the next American Idol? (Snark!) Certainly a part of everyone's not-to-do lists for the coming year. The significance is overwhelming already, folks. The second-to-last thing we need is to set it to the X-Files theme music.
The last thing, however, is to be grossly ignorant as to the actual impact. From James Pethokoukis, a blogger at the U.S. News & World Report: (Bold mine.)
This is even worse than the conspiracy theorists above. From the Tin Foil Brigade, you can expect grandiose claims and slippery-slope arguments as a matter of course. It's what they do. This is a (now allegedly) respectable blogger in a (very long time allegedly) respectable media publication, crying around in a Chicken Little impersonation until someone comes to check on the wolf.And what if the supervolcano blew? Kind of like if a giant rock hit the Earth. A planet killer. An extinction-level event. Let me quote the words of President Tom Beck (Morgan Freeman) in the comet-hitting-earth film Deep Impact:
Within a week, the skies will be dark with dust from the impact and they will stay dark for years. All plant life will be dead within weeks. Animal life within a few months. So that's it. Good luck to us all.
Such a scenario would be very bad for equity values and the outlook for the labor market.
What would actually happen? It depends on the actual event itself. If it is large enough, a good number of American citizens will be dead within the first hour or two, and a lot more over the next week as panic sets in. If it is not large enough, we breathe in ashes and soot for the next few months until things settle out of the atmosphere. For this to be an "extinction-level event", as James suggests, would require an eruption beyond what the historical records show can happen. Years of deteriorated sunlight, miniature ice ages, loss of most plant species in the Northern Hemisphere and the virtual dessication of a continent? Can happen. Complete annihilation of all life? I'd sooner believe in talking laboratory rats taking over the world.
Will this be Happy Fun Time at the park? Doubtful. Can basic human stubbornness and ingenuity cause some of us to survive? Flights to Australia and New Zealand will be booked solid to give it a good shot, even though it might turn into the set of Mad Max movies for real. Will the dead turn into the undead, requiring all owners of the Zombie Survival Guide to register with the government so as to provide trained countermeasures against the mindless hordes? It's more likely than the Antichrist, especially if the talent for American Idol is as pathetic as it was last year. (Paula Abdul: Zombie Queen.)
As it stands, there should be a wait-and-see attitude. Prepare for the merely bad, certainly. But drive the susceptible population into panic beyond measure in order to solicit donations to your religious organization in return for the salvation of the gullible? Or wax grandiose in order to simply sell a webpage so that your paycheck won't be under the ax when it's time for cuts?
I have a four-letter word for that garbage:
NARF!
12 December, 2008
The Orwell & Huxley Home Owners Association, Inc.
Read this. The whole thing.
And then tell me that the first thoughts going through your head did not involve either Brave New World or 1984.
Then again, knowing some of my readers, they would probably prefer a planned absolute economic-free-market/social-authoritarian environment. I, however, would be quickly running the other direction while screaming about Big Brother-ism and corporate arcologies and obscure Phillip K. Dick quotations.
If this really is the future of urban planning, then leave me the heck out of it. I'll take my sprawling, allegedly obsolete cities any day of the week, just as long as my cat can still sleep on my bed and I can still stay up well past 11 in the evening without any loss of services.
Just remember, folks. It is not whether or not someone can take your freedom away from you, but whether someone can get you to gladly volunteer to surrender your freedom to them. And in that line, all authoritarians, whether left or right, will always be easy to identify.
[Turn Signal: Gibson]
And then tell me that the first thoughts going through your head did not involve either Brave New World or 1984.
Then again, knowing some of my readers, they would probably prefer a planned absolute economic-free-market/social-authoritarian environment. I, however, would be quickly running the other direction while screaming about Big Brother-ism and corporate arcologies and obscure Phillip K. Dick quotations.
If this really is the future of urban planning, then leave me the heck out of it. I'll take my sprawling, allegedly obsolete cities any day of the week, just as long as my cat can still sleep on my bed and I can still stay up well past 11 in the evening without any loss of services.
Just remember, folks. It is not whether or not someone can take your freedom away from you, but whether someone can get you to gladly volunteer to surrender your freedom to them. And in that line, all authoritarians, whether left or right, will always be easy to identify.
[Turn Signal: Gibson]
09 December, 2008
How Long?
Please tell me how long it will take for my party to clean itself up?
Judging from Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and the recently-defeated Exhibit C...
I think the Los Angeles Raiders will win three straight Super Bowls first. "But OC," you say, "the Raiders play in Oakland!"
You think maybe that's the point? My friends, I am thinking it is time to call a shovel a shovel here and admit that, when in positions of power, the party designation beside their name does not really mean a damn thing when it comes to defying the ultimate corruption that power holds.
Regretfully, there is no reset button in life, however useful it may be. For the more corruption scandals that come to light, the more I believe that scrapping the entire system is the only way stop this. It is not a Republican instinct, nor is it a Democratic instinct, to lift your own boat at the expense of lowering the rest. Instead, it is merely a human condition. (For all I know, it could be a condition of sapience. I'll let you know when I have an exclusive interview with Our New High Overlords From Zzyzx Prime.)
It is time to permanently remove all fragments of pay-for-play politics, graft, corruption, and all other forms of how one hand washes the other. Unfortunately, it seems like the only way to do so is to remove the government of the people in charge, by the people in charge, and for the people in charge.
Unfortunately, I think it will take a visit from Zzyzx Prime in order for that to happen.
Judging from Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and the recently-defeated Exhibit C...
I think the Los Angeles Raiders will win three straight Super Bowls first. "But OC," you say, "the Raiders play in Oakland!"
You think maybe that's the point? My friends, I am thinking it is time to call a shovel a shovel here and admit that, when in positions of power, the party designation beside their name does not really mean a damn thing when it comes to defying the ultimate corruption that power holds.
Regretfully, there is no reset button in life, however useful it may be. For the more corruption scandals that come to light, the more I believe that scrapping the entire system is the only way stop this. It is not a Republican instinct, nor is it a Democratic instinct, to lift your own boat at the expense of lowering the rest. Instead, it is merely a human condition. (For all I know, it could be a condition of sapience. I'll let you know when I have an exclusive interview with Our New High Overlords From Zzyzx Prime.)
It is time to permanently remove all fragments of pay-for-play politics, graft, corruption, and all other forms of how one hand washes the other. Unfortunately, it seems like the only way to do so is to remove the government of the people in charge, by the people in charge, and for the people in charge.
Unfortunately, I think it will take a visit from Zzyzx Prime in order for that to happen.
07 December, 2008
27 November, 2008
Dead Turkeys Aren't Much Fun
As we sit in our collective easy chairs and digest the National Turkey Massacre Day feasts, I find one bit of utter silliness that must needs disposing.
This.
My cohort on the left has been screaming bloody murder, literally, over the background of this interview. Some have segued into a Pollan-esque diatribe against those evil Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Some have cried foul (I don't know if I should change the third letter and make the pun. Do it yourselves if you so desire.) over the lack of consideration she had for what was going on behind her. And some have simply used this as a continuation of the excesively long political campaign, which is finally just as dead as the bird I'm picking out of my teeth.
And all of them need to pull their heads out. We are political bloggers, not theologians. Therefore it is not our place to fulfill the quote by Robert Green Ingersoll and "beat the living with the bones of the dead". Whether the dead be the turkeys or the presidential campaign or the endangered species of Palin Derangement Syndrome, this continued obsession with the former VP Republican candidate is bordering on obsessive.
My recommendation? Tryptophan. Lots of it. From natural sources.
Go and take a nap, folks. And do not worry. There are still plenty of legitimate political stories out there to wring your necks over. This story? Not so much. Sarah doesn't run around with a full crew of media-savvy professionals any more, and hasn't been for well over a week before this was shot. And all the GOP figures are seeing in the background is a small businessman hard at work. They don't understand why the feathers are flying over this. And neither do I.
Now if you will excuse me, I have a drumstick in the refridgerator. I may have to fight the cats over it, but I'm willing to share my own bounty.
The ham, however... That's all mine.
This.
My cohort on the left has been screaming bloody murder, literally, over the background of this interview. Some have segued into a Pollan-esque diatribe against those evil Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Some have cried foul (I don't know if I should change the third letter and make the pun. Do it yourselves if you so desire.) over the lack of consideration she had for what was going on behind her. And some have simply used this as a continuation of the excesively long political campaign, which is finally just as dead as the bird I'm picking out of my teeth.
And all of them need to pull their heads out. We are political bloggers, not theologians. Therefore it is not our place to fulfill the quote by Robert Green Ingersoll and "beat the living with the bones of the dead". Whether the dead be the turkeys or the presidential campaign or the endangered species of Palin Derangement Syndrome, this continued obsession with the former VP Republican candidate is bordering on obsessive.
My recommendation? Tryptophan. Lots of it. From natural sources.
Go and take a nap, folks. And do not worry. There are still plenty of legitimate political stories out there to wring your necks over. This story? Not so much. Sarah doesn't run around with a full crew of media-savvy professionals any more, and hasn't been for well over a week before this was shot. And all the GOP figures are seeing in the background is a small businessman hard at work. They don't understand why the feathers are flying over this. And neither do I.
Now if you will excuse me, I have a drumstick in the refridgerator. I may have to fight the cats over it, but I'm willing to share my own bounty.
The ham, however... That's all mine.
04 November, 2008
Personal Post Mortem
Today, the citizens of these United States have done what was considered unthinkable a mere forty years ago.
We have elected, as President, a man who is not white.
(Take a moment to ponder this, for your sake. Those will be the last positive words in this post.)
From wild and unrestrained elation to simple tears of joy on the left. From restrained congratulations to simple excessive snark on the right. From relief that the long national nightmare known as this election season is finally over to wondering what the heck we are going to talk about now in the center. And yet, with all this going on around me, all I can feel is one thing: fear and loathing for America.
We have, in the last 16 years of American politics, perfected the art of behaving like nasty and brutish thugs to those in positions of power. Two back-to-back eight-year presidents have been hung in effigy, declared agents of evil, vilified, virtually sliced into fillets, pan-seared, and served mostly raw to their various political opponents and the first one hundred customers. With the various strains of Derangement Syndrome still out there, infecting our words and thoughts and actions and generally turning us into inconsiderate social imbeciles whenever a suitable target would present itself, I have to wonder what chance this man has of having a fair opportunity to present his own case.
Zip. Zilch. Nada. Jack all. Squat. Diddly. Null. Fat. Slim. The Raiders have a better chance to win the Super Bowl this year. I have a better chance to date Drew Barrymore, even once, before my timely demise. For that matter, there is a better chance that an unannounced nuclear test somewhere in Pakistan will cause the Earth to plummet into the Sun sometime in 2013.
The lights have yet to go out in Grant Park and, at this very moment, the Rachel Maddows and Kieth Olbermans of the left are spinning up to support every action and inaction that BHO will ever make over the next 4 years, up to and including the status of his morning constitutional. At this moment, the Sean Hannitys and Bill O'Reillys of the right are licking their virtual chops in anticipation of condemning BHO for every action and inaction he will make over the next 4 years, up to and especially including the quality of his morning constitutional. The TPMs and Daily Kos' and FDLs are prepared to defend everything, even what kind of toilet paper he uses during his constitutional. The LGFs and Instapundits and Drudges are prepared to attack on everything, including whether he uses the Constitution during his constitutional.
And the bull constitutional is only begun in earnest.
We have heard that this campaign was to be the end of politics as usual. And what became of that, I wonder. From Day One last January, we have been machine-gunned with press release after press release about what some amorphous They will do. They will raise your taxes. They will give your tax money to someone else. They will take over the world. They will let someone else take over the world. For that matter, They will probably sacrifice a goat during the Summer Solstice and bring about the new reign of Osiris for all we know. And we don't, because for every They, we're told to listen to Us instead.
And the only way to tell the They from the Us was to pound your head into a wall while visiting a web site for more complete information on what plans They have for Us. To learn more about what the Them will do worse than the Us.
(Ah yes. Bruce Bethke was right. Epistemology really is why philosophers drink so heavily.)
We couldn't help but to be informed during this 22-month-long election cycle. It was easier to come out clean after a Three Stooges pie fight scene than it was to remain in the dark about the candidates and their positions and their counterpositions and their shoe sizes and their wardrobe choices and ad nauseum, all feuling each of the various flavors of Derangement Syndrome and working us into a lather at the merest possibility that They will be just like what happened before.
And to my shame, I fell for it. From my own Clinton Derangement Syndrome to my once-removed Bush Derangement Syndrome... Hook. Line. Sinker. For all my self-righteous nose-raising whenever I read a brutal partisan attack on some amorphous Them, I could not help but to be sucked into the gaping maw of vicious partisanship myself.
Hello, Pot? This is Kettle.
I, too, have become part of the essential problem in American politics. The anger, rage, and utter inability to participate in fully reasoned discourse has even infected my own thought process, and I found myself unable to realize the fundamental truth of the American two-party system: both the Democrats and Republicans make up opposing sides. Not of a battlefield, but of the exact same coin. One cannot function without the other.
So the fear and loathing I feel for America is the same fear and loathing I feel for myself. For I have met the They. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the evidence is staring me in the face, using my own words to taunt me...
The They are Me.
So I must spend the next two months asking myself a serious question. So I want to remain in this angry state, allowing partisan politics to turn me into yet another rabid dachsund, nipping the heels of those on The Other Side Of The Aisle? Can I revert to being in the uncomfortable center, unable to hold still? Should I go streaking with Drew Barrymore? Can I go back to simply wanting to sieze the throat of everyone that uses the public trust for toilet paper without weighing the greater political considerations?
(Sorry. That third question was my libido talking. It has been restrained yet again.)
And as much as I loathe myself for allowing myself to tiptoe the line, I fear the answers that may come up. For whatever those answers may be, they will hold an insight into why the amorphous We of the political spectrum have become fundamentally cruel.
And that, my friends, is a scary thought indeed.
We have elected, as President, a man who is not white.
(Take a moment to ponder this, for your sake. Those will be the last positive words in this post.)
From wild and unrestrained elation to simple tears of joy on the left. From restrained congratulations to simple excessive snark on the right. From relief that the long national nightmare known as this election season is finally over to wondering what the heck we are going to talk about now in the center. And yet, with all this going on around me, all I can feel is one thing: fear and loathing for America.
We have, in the last 16 years of American politics, perfected the art of behaving like nasty and brutish thugs to those in positions of power. Two back-to-back eight-year presidents have been hung in effigy, declared agents of evil, vilified, virtually sliced into fillets, pan-seared, and served mostly raw to their various political opponents and the first one hundred customers. With the various strains of Derangement Syndrome still out there, infecting our words and thoughts and actions and generally turning us into inconsiderate social imbeciles whenever a suitable target would present itself, I have to wonder what chance this man has of having a fair opportunity to present his own case.
Zip. Zilch. Nada. Jack all. Squat. Diddly. Null. Fat. Slim. The Raiders have a better chance to win the Super Bowl this year. I have a better chance to date Drew Barrymore, even once, before my timely demise. For that matter, there is a better chance that an unannounced nuclear test somewhere in Pakistan will cause the Earth to plummet into the Sun sometime in 2013.
The lights have yet to go out in Grant Park and, at this very moment, the Rachel Maddows and Kieth Olbermans of the left are spinning up to support every action and inaction that BHO will ever make over the next 4 years, up to and including the status of his morning constitutional. At this moment, the Sean Hannitys and Bill O'Reillys of the right are licking their virtual chops in anticipation of condemning BHO for every action and inaction he will make over the next 4 years, up to and especially including the quality of his morning constitutional. The TPMs and Daily Kos' and FDLs are prepared to defend everything, even what kind of toilet paper he uses during his constitutional. The LGFs and Instapundits and Drudges are prepared to attack on everything, including whether he uses the Constitution during his constitutional.
And the bull constitutional is only begun in earnest.
We have heard that this campaign was to be the end of politics as usual. And what became of that, I wonder. From Day One last January, we have been machine-gunned with press release after press release about what some amorphous They will do. They will raise your taxes. They will give your tax money to someone else. They will take over the world. They will let someone else take over the world. For that matter, They will probably sacrifice a goat during the Summer Solstice and bring about the new reign of Osiris for all we know. And we don't, because for every They, we're told to listen to Us instead.
And the only way to tell the They from the Us was to pound your head into a wall while visiting a web site for more complete information on what plans They have for Us. To learn more about what the Them will do worse than the Us.
(Ah yes. Bruce Bethke was right. Epistemology really is why philosophers drink so heavily.)
We couldn't help but to be informed during this 22-month-long election cycle. It was easier to come out clean after a Three Stooges pie fight scene than it was to remain in the dark about the candidates and their positions and their counterpositions and their shoe sizes and their wardrobe choices and ad nauseum, all feuling each of the various flavors of Derangement Syndrome and working us into a lather at the merest possibility that They will be just like what happened before.
And to my shame, I fell for it. From my own Clinton Derangement Syndrome to my once-removed Bush Derangement Syndrome... Hook. Line. Sinker. For all my self-righteous nose-raising whenever I read a brutal partisan attack on some amorphous Them, I could not help but to be sucked into the gaping maw of vicious partisanship myself.
Hello, Pot? This is Kettle.
I, too, have become part of the essential problem in American politics. The anger, rage, and utter inability to participate in fully reasoned discourse has even infected my own thought process, and I found myself unable to realize the fundamental truth of the American two-party system: both the Democrats and Republicans make up opposing sides. Not of a battlefield, but of the exact same coin. One cannot function without the other.
So the fear and loathing I feel for America is the same fear and loathing I feel for myself. For I have met the They. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the evidence is staring me in the face, using my own words to taunt me...
The They are Me.
So I must spend the next two months asking myself a serious question. So I want to remain in this angry state, allowing partisan politics to turn me into yet another rabid dachsund, nipping the heels of those on The Other Side Of The Aisle? Can I revert to being in the uncomfortable center, unable to hold still? Should I go streaking with Drew Barrymore? Can I go back to simply wanting to sieze the throat of everyone that uses the public trust for toilet paper without weighing the greater political considerations?
(Sorry. That third question was my libido talking. It has been restrained yet again.)
And as much as I loathe myself for allowing myself to tiptoe the line, I fear the answers that may come up. For whatever those answers may be, they will hold an insight into why the amorphous We of the political spectrum have become fundamentally cruel.
And that, my friends, is a scary thought indeed.
17 September, 2008
Gray's Morality
With every line drawn, there is always a bit of gray to either side. For example, this line from my last post
For an individual to exist as a member of society, there must be a method of separation between the titles of "I" and "you", the darkness behind the eyes and the brightness of our collective gazes. The method that a vast majority of us use is our privacy. Whether it is our emails, or our private blogs, or our locked diaries, these vessels in which we place vital portions of our selves embody our emotional safety glass: should all things around us shatter, the part that remains under the title of "I" will not break and will remain unscarred.
To use an analogy, what the folks in Anonymous did (and the folks at Gawker continued) was not as simple as reading their big sister's diary. It was, instead, making photocopies of her diary and passing them out wholesale at their big sister's school. This is not a prank. This is a clear and definitive violation of privacy.
Humiliation, particularly on such a large scale as this instance, can constitute measurable harm with little to no imagination necessary. With the added salt in the wounds caused by the posting of the photographs as well as personal contact information for Bristol, Todd, and Track Palin in addition to her own mother's personal address, the "measurable harm" violation becomes clear as day. (All of the above are not running for any elected office and are therefore considered Out Of Bounds under the rules of society unless and until they publicly humiliate themselves. Even then, scandal should be based solely upon what was or was not done in the public eye.) This latter portion is the ethical equivalent of when Rush Limbaugh, on his nationally syndicated television show back in 1995, called Chelsea Clinton "the White House Dog." Unconscionable personal assaults on individuals whose only "crime" is to be members of a politician's immediate family is, in my view, beyond the pale.
(Which reminds me. The Bristol Palin pregnancy thing? I would not have allowed my daughter's name to be dragged through the mud like this. A pox on her mother for allowing her own flesh and blood's personal details to be broadcasted on national television, and particularly through a scandal-addicted venue such as American presidential politics. A vile and vicious pox.)
This matter is only slightly complicated by the fact that the email account in question was also being used as a secondary business account, in violation of the rules of governmental ethics. Yet even then, there are distinct and determined processes that are used to gain access to them via the legal system and/or the Freedom Of Information Act and all the equivalents within the several states. The attack by the Anonymous group circumvented any and all legal methods established.
When it comes to the category of "physical or economic" harm, the argument is somewhat less clear, yet the first part follows under a basic assumption of modern society: time is money.
Every moment spent on recovery from this incident, whether within the McCain-Palin campaign or the Governor's Office of the State of Alaska or within the privacy of the Palin family, is a moment that should have gone towards a better purpose. Whether that purpose be the running of a state government or the running of a political campaign or the operation of a family, a minute spent is a minute forever lost. A minute forever lost is the actual equivalent of loss of the money of taxpayers in the state of Alaska and of campaign contributions to McCain-Palin, in addition to time that a family spends together. For the actual monetary aspects of this, the economic aspect of the harm equation is satisfied.
Please note, however, that I do not include the economic cost to society brought about by the on-going investigation into this incident by the FBI (and, I would assume, the Secret Service), nor do I include the costs of the (I hope) eventual prosecution and incarceration of these individuals. These costs are a function of society under the rule of law and therefore must be borne by us, the members of that society, however it falls upon us.
Yet there is a second prong to the "harm" test: physical harm. As I said in my previous post, "a bruised ego does not cross the . . . line." And here is the gray area of using the harm test to judge what should or should not be considered legal action. Can emotional harm be the equivalent of physical harm?
I am afraid I must waffle on this topic and respond, "It depends." (And now you hear the sound of a dozen people rolling their eyes.) And what determines this is a person's intent to do harm. For this, I must devolve into another analogy. (And the sound of a dozen pairs of eyeballs rotating increases in volume.)
When a person rejects your amorous advances (a subject I am well and truly familiar with), this has the possibility of inflicting emotional harm upon you, depending on the stability of your self-esteem. If your self-esteem is high, then there is little opportunity for harm to befall you. If your self-esteem is low, there is a higher chance for emotional harm to occur. And yet, the occurance of harm is, in and of itself, insufficient to be the trigger for emotional harm to be a factor in the "harm" test. It is there, or it is not. The only way for this scenario to breach the "harm" barrier is if the other person rejects your advances deliberately in a publicly humiliating way (See above parenthetical comment re: Bristol Palin's pregnancy.).
For deliberation signifies a willful and purposeful intent to do harm to another person. In this instance, the initial intent was to violate Sarah Palin's privacy. In consequence, they accessed information that allowed them the additional opportunity to violate the privacy of her mother, her husband, her son, and her daughter. They then proceed to purposefully and willfully violate the privacy of those secondary individuals by posting the ill-received gains on a public site. The method of violation is simple: copy-and-paste. The morality of the violation is simple: cut-and-dried.
On behalf of the moral minority of Internet users, I wish to apologize to the Palin family for the harm that has, or will, come to them because of this incident.
And that, my friends, is the line that something or someone needs to cross before any activity can be ethically and morally restricted, hereby bolded for easier retention: actual and measurable harm, whether physical or economic, to another individual.... combined with today's announcement about Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account being hacked
Now comes word that Anonymous, the fun-loving Internet trouble-makers based loosely around the message board 4Chan, gained access to another Palin email account: gov.palin@yahoo.com.... and I have to ask myself, does a violation of privacy go against my personal "actual and measurable harm" limitation? Can the breach of privacy constitute "physical or economic" harm to another individual?
For an individual to exist as a member of society, there must be a method of separation between the titles of "I" and "you", the darkness behind the eyes and the brightness of our collective gazes. The method that a vast majority of us use is our privacy. Whether it is our emails, or our private blogs, or our locked diaries, these vessels in which we place vital portions of our selves embody our emotional safety glass: should all things around us shatter, the part that remains under the title of "I" will not break and will remain unscarred.
To use an analogy, what the folks in Anonymous did (and the folks at Gawker continued) was not as simple as reading their big sister's diary. It was, instead, making photocopies of her diary and passing them out wholesale at their big sister's school. This is not a prank. This is a clear and definitive violation of privacy.
Humiliation, particularly on such a large scale as this instance, can constitute measurable harm with little to no imagination necessary. With the added salt in the wounds caused by the posting of the photographs as well as personal contact information for Bristol, Todd, and Track Palin in addition to her own mother's personal address, the "measurable harm" violation becomes clear as day. (All of the above are not running for any elected office and are therefore considered Out Of Bounds under the rules of society unless and until they publicly humiliate themselves. Even then, scandal should be based solely upon what was or was not done in the public eye.) This latter portion is the ethical equivalent of when Rush Limbaugh, on his nationally syndicated television show back in 1995, called Chelsea Clinton "the White House Dog." Unconscionable personal assaults on individuals whose only "crime" is to be members of a politician's immediate family is, in my view, beyond the pale.
(Which reminds me. The Bristol Palin pregnancy thing? I would not have allowed my daughter's name to be dragged through the mud like this. A pox on her mother for allowing her own flesh and blood's personal details to be broadcasted on national television, and particularly through a scandal-addicted venue such as American presidential politics. A vile and vicious pox.)
This matter is only slightly complicated by the fact that the email account in question was also being used as a secondary business account, in violation of the rules of governmental ethics. Yet even then, there are distinct and determined processes that are used to gain access to them via the legal system and/or the Freedom Of Information Act and all the equivalents within the several states. The attack by the Anonymous group circumvented any and all legal methods established.
When it comes to the category of "physical or economic" harm, the argument is somewhat less clear, yet the first part follows under a basic assumption of modern society: time is money.
Every moment spent on recovery from this incident, whether within the McCain-Palin campaign or the Governor's Office of the State of Alaska or within the privacy of the Palin family, is a moment that should have gone towards a better purpose. Whether that purpose be the running of a state government or the running of a political campaign or the operation of a family, a minute spent is a minute forever lost. A minute forever lost is the actual equivalent of loss of the money of taxpayers in the state of Alaska and of campaign contributions to McCain-Palin, in addition to time that a family spends together. For the actual monetary aspects of this, the economic aspect of the harm equation is satisfied.
Please note, however, that I do not include the economic cost to society brought about by the on-going investigation into this incident by the FBI (and, I would assume, the Secret Service), nor do I include the costs of the (I hope) eventual prosecution and incarceration of these individuals. These costs are a function of society under the rule of law and therefore must be borne by us, the members of that society, however it falls upon us.
Yet there is a second prong to the "harm" test: physical harm. As I said in my previous post, "a bruised ego does not cross the . . . line." And here is the gray area of using the harm test to judge what should or should not be considered legal action. Can emotional harm be the equivalent of physical harm?
I am afraid I must waffle on this topic and respond, "It depends." (And now you hear the sound of a dozen people rolling their eyes.) And what determines this is a person's intent to do harm. For this, I must devolve into another analogy. (And the sound of a dozen pairs of eyeballs rotating increases in volume.)
When a person rejects your amorous advances (a subject I am well and truly familiar with), this has the possibility of inflicting emotional harm upon you, depending on the stability of your self-esteem. If your self-esteem is high, then there is little opportunity for harm to befall you. If your self-esteem is low, there is a higher chance for emotional harm to occur. And yet, the occurance of harm is, in and of itself, insufficient to be the trigger for emotional harm to be a factor in the "harm" test. It is there, or it is not. The only way for this scenario to breach the "harm" barrier is if the other person rejects your advances deliberately in a publicly humiliating way (See above parenthetical comment re: Bristol Palin's pregnancy.).
For deliberation signifies a willful and purposeful intent to do harm to another person. In this instance, the initial intent was to violate Sarah Palin's privacy. In consequence, they accessed information that allowed them the additional opportunity to violate the privacy of her mother, her husband, her son, and her daughter. They then proceed to purposefully and willfully violate the privacy of those secondary individuals by posting the ill-received gains on a public site. The method of violation is simple: copy-and-paste. The morality of the violation is simple: cut-and-dried.
On behalf of the moral minority of Internet users, I wish to apologize to the Palin family for the harm that has, or will, come to them because of this incident.
10 September, 2008
It Is Official
No, not that I am incapable of working on a single post without being distracted. Admittedly, I have the attention span of a kitten presented with more than one dangling shoe string. That is well understood, and indeed is part of my charm.
Instead, I refer to this.
This makes it official. My vote will not go for the McCain/Palin ticket.
Allow me to explain.
I have been called a civil libertarian absolutist by my ideological opponents on both the right, most notably being Jeff Goldstein, and left, most notably being the entire Green Party of California. (And yes. As far as actual power goes, they're pretty much equal in stature.) I revel in this descriptor. Any possible encroachment on the liberties of Americans must be countered with great fervor, for the government cannot be allowed to tiptoe down the slippery slope.
And here, we have then-Mayor Sarah Palin inquiring as to the official position of a librarian if she were asked "to remove certain books from the collection." The resulting flap about the librarian being terminated for responding in the forceful negative is, in my view, secondary.
She asked, on the public record, about the process for banning books. Period. Full stop. And that is a deal-breaker.
Books contain only information. Information, in and of itself, is not and cannot be dangerous. It simply is. Only through the determined application of information can there be any actual danger. Cases in point one and two. Determined use of the information provided via these two links can cause actual and measurable harm, whether physical or economic, to another individual.
And that, my friends, is the line that something or someone needs to cross before any activity can be ethically and morally restricted, hereby bolded for easier retention: actual and measurable harm, whether physical or economic, to another individual. This means rape, murder, assault, theft, arson, or any other related criminal statutes. While this policy would include the release of toxic substances which can cause actual and measurable harm to those that come into contact, please note that this does not include the possibility of harm to another individual's philosophical worldview. There is zero capacity for actual harm to befall someone by being told that another person disagrees with them, for a bruised ego does not cross the aforementioned line.
The removal of books by public libraries or school systems that refer, whether openly or inferred, to homosexuality or other religions or how-to-be-a-religious-extremist-in-thirty-days or civil insurrection or simply how life really was back in a less-enlightened time, or any of the other possible reasons that books are challenged in this day and age... It is morally and ethically wrong, and counter to the principles behind the the founding of these United States, to "remove certain books from the collection" simply because you, in your religious or political beliefs, disagree with them.
Oscar Wilde says it better than I could. "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written."
I cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone to become second-in-line to the Leader Of The Free World who is willing to participate in censorship, regardless of form or severity, regardless of success or failure, regardless of rhyme or reason, regardless of any other qualifications or lack thereof.
For this reason, among many others, I will ask that you join me in supporting Banned Books Week, for ideas can only be dangerous to those who would keep you from having them.
[Turn Signal: John Cole]
Instead, I refer to this.
This makes it official. My vote will not go for the McCain/Palin ticket.
Allow me to explain.
I have been called a civil libertarian absolutist by my ideological opponents on both the right, most notably being Jeff Goldstein, and left, most notably being the entire Green Party of California. (And yes. As far as actual power goes, they're pretty much equal in stature.) I revel in this descriptor. Any possible encroachment on the liberties of Americans must be countered with great fervor, for the government cannot be allowed to tiptoe down the slippery slope.
And here, we have then-Mayor Sarah Palin inquiring as to the official position of a librarian if she were asked "to remove certain books from the collection." The resulting flap about the librarian being terminated for responding in the forceful negative is, in my view, secondary.
She asked, on the public record, about the process for banning books. Period. Full stop. And that is a deal-breaker.
Books contain only information. Information, in and of itself, is not and cannot be dangerous. It simply is. Only through the determined application of information can there be any actual danger. Cases in point one and two. Determined use of the information provided via these two links can cause actual and measurable harm, whether physical or economic, to another individual.
And that, my friends, is the line that something or someone needs to cross before any activity can be ethically and morally restricted, hereby bolded for easier retention: actual and measurable harm, whether physical or economic, to another individual. This means rape, murder, assault, theft, arson, or any other related criminal statutes. While this policy would include the release of toxic substances which can cause actual and measurable harm to those that come into contact, please note that this does not include the possibility of harm to another individual's philosophical worldview. There is zero capacity for actual harm to befall someone by being told that another person disagrees with them, for a bruised ego does not cross the aforementioned line.
The removal of books by public libraries or school systems that refer, whether openly or inferred, to homosexuality or other religions or how-to-be-a-religious-extremist-in-thirty-days or civil insurrection or simply how life really was back in a less-enlightened time, or any of the other possible reasons that books are challenged in this day and age... It is morally and ethically wrong, and counter to the principles behind the the founding of these United States, to "remove certain books from the collection" simply because you, in your religious or political beliefs, disagree with them.
Oscar Wilde says it better than I could. "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written."
I cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone to become second-in-line to the Leader Of The Free World who is willing to participate in censorship, regardless of form or severity, regardless of success or failure, regardless of rhyme or reason, regardless of any other qualifications or lack thereof.
For this reason, among many others, I will ask that you join me in supporting Banned Books Week, for ideas can only be dangerous to those who would keep you from having them.
[Turn Signal: John Cole]
09 September, 2008
He Has My Vote
I'm taking a bit of a break from (failing to write) this post about the legal drinking age folderol. And what do I see?
Pay no attention to his foreign-born status, his utter lack of respect for organized religion, propensity towards transgendered status, and other personality quirks that would make him ineligible for the office. For those are the exact same reasons why I'm thinking about writing his name in this November.
[Turn Signal: TMV]
Pay no attention to his foreign-born status, his utter lack of respect for organized religion, propensity towards transgendered status, and other personality quirks that would make him ineligible for the office. For those are the exact same reasons why I'm thinking about writing his name in this November.
[Turn Signal: TMV]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)