Actually, this is one of the saddest things I've seen. It's one thing to think, well, maybe I'm not as good as I could be, but I've got time to work on it. It's another for the whole rest of the world to let you know they think you suck. Imagine being mocked by stadiums full of people. I'm not sure I could deal with it, if I were being mocked for something I actually was trying at & cared about.
"Inflation officially hit 231 million percent in July, but John Robertson, an independent economist in Zimbabwe, estimates that it has now surged to an astounding eight quintillion percent — that is an eight followed by 18 zeros." - New York Times
So, when do we, as Saviors of the Universe, step in and remove this ruthless octogenarian from power? Is raw flowing sewage in the streets not enough? Are we waiting for him to "gas his own people"? That seems to be the go-to clincher when we discuss Saddam Hussein. It'd be easy too, as we'd finally be fighting a known force (his army & police) with a true leader, rather than a well-camouflaged group of random zealots. And unlike Iraq, I'm actually pretty sure those folks would greet us as liberators.
Anyway, if anyone deserves a swift kick in the dictatorial arse, it's this fucker. If only they had some precious natural resource worth fighting for...
Okay, this guy is a bit of a ... liberal? Not really. Tin foil hat guy? Kinda. I don't think he's anti-capitalist, and he's certainly not socialist/marxist. He reaslly is more a back-hills-of-Montana tract scribbler. Except I don't think he wants to blow anybody up.
However, deep within, after you dig through some of the rhetoric, are, I believe, some core truths about the way we in America deal with debt, fool ourselves about our "prosperity" and such.
Today he has a paragraph that captures my feelings on Obama: cautious optimism:
Elections are important, even profound theater, but we should remember that government is more an army than a leader. Just as Bush's presidency was defined by his appointments of neocons, incompetents, sychophants and Wall Street insiders to positions of power, so too will Obama's presidency be defined by his choices for the numerous positions of day-to-day responsibility in the Pentagon, Treasury Department, FEMA, and so on. My greatest hope for the Obama presidency is the appointment of sober competence in key positions of power in the Federal government.
That's basically it. I believe he will choose people right for the post, not based on his buddies' suggestions but by thinking hard & choosing the most appropriate, effective person. I believe he's that kind of person, so my hope is high. But cautious.
This makes me happy. It's strange to think my children will grow up in a world where this is not only a possibility, but it actually happened. Given the world I grew up in, I only understand on an intellectual level why this is such a big deal. On a personal level, a person's race is such a non-issue, I have trouble making that big a deal about it. For my children, this is even more so. They will grow up in a world where they will look back (like they do now at the parodied bigotry in movies like "Hairspray") and wonder what the big deal was. I'm down with that.
In college, my friends and I talked about how hilarious it would be if we spent a whole day as if we were in a musical, spontaneously singing and dancing on the tables. These folks did it. Huzzah!
Have I really degenerated to a YouTube parroting blog? Looks that way I guess. Still, here's a nifty short-film by Muppet master Jim Henson. It's got a goofy surrealistic thing going on, but the tying together of the percussion-based soundtrack with the visuals makes the movie itself very rhythmic and musical. It's pretty cool. It also makes clear what drove Sesame Street (and the muppets) to be so awesome, and what happened when he left, then died, and people with lesser vision took over.
It's about 9 minutes, but 9 minutes well spent. Enjoy!
Not to toot my own horn, but I managed to impress my 16-yr-old son the other day. We were watching Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert and they did something about robots taking over the world. In any case, part of the titles went by in binary and I was able to translate the binary into ASCII letters and into English. For example: 0100000101010000010100000100110001000101
broke down to: 01000001 01010000 01010000 01001100 01000101
or: 65 80 80 76 69
or: APPLE
And it was a story about Apple computers. He was impressed with my supreme geekery. Good thing too, as I'll be the only one in the household who'll be able to communicate with our metallic overlords...
I don't understand how the so-called conservatives can still stand behind their W. How can those that claim "patriotism" and constantly pledge their loyalty to the United States of America and the republic for which it stands stand by and watch while these bozos completely trash everything we supposedly stand for as a country?
How can they stand behind someone whose vice president claims with a straight face that he's not a member of the executive branch? That's not only a bazillion times stupider than saying "It depends what the definition of 'is' is," it's damn near treasonous.
I was talking about this with my wife the other day and it occurred to me that they are cheaters. Have you ever played a game with a cheater? It's annoying. They break the rules, claim they're not, and there's not much you can do if they're completely persistent about it and refuse to listen at all. And that's this administration. They completely refuse to play by the rules. At all. They're fucking cheaters, and I don't want to play any more.
You know the executive branch controls the military. I once asked a friend in the air force if he would help "subdue" congress if he was told to by the president, and he said yes.
What would you do if Bush refused to leave office in 2009? It's not beyond possibility. Cuz he's a cheater.
