Friday, August 29, 20083:34 PM
British people love to pretend to be American fictional characters.
11:49 AM
Here, via a year-old commencement address, is a useful interpretation of what's been going on in the world these last few years.
8:22 AM
Why is that the people collectively known as conservatives seem so incapable of self-regulating their morality? Whether its torturing 'bad guys' to prevent suffering, wire tapping without warrants to protect the Constitution, holding people without charge to defend freedom... I'll stop there... the conservative movement seems to bounce around between ideals they proclaim, and the destruction of those ideals in order to defend them. Here's my theory: the people who make up the conservative movement have no internalized morality. They depend on others, usually authorities like a magnificent President, or preacher, or radio blatherer, to tell them what is right and what is wrong, and because they have abdicated their moral center to another, they will never see any moral conflict between their professed morality and the inverted expression of it. Bullying from the authority is helpful in this regard. The moral duty of the individual becomes obedience. Obedience is salvation. Personal reflection is not just hard, it is also forbidden, and thankfully so. The conservative pawn receives a get-out-of-struggle-free card, and all it costs them is the only thing that makes us individuals: the chance to think for ourselves. Thus ends the bloviating for today. Tune in next time when I ask, "what other sweeping damnations can I make against those with whom I disagree?"
Tuesday, August 26, 20089:56 AM
One of the weird things about being a new parent is that there are some experienced parents out in the world who are hopping up and down, ready to lob a grenade that explodes "welcome to parenthood!" all over whatever story I tell about my baby. Of course, what they mean is "Ha ha your life sucks now! Just like mine!" I don't know why they are so eager to express derision for parenting, but it probably means they are doing it wrong.
Tuesday, August 19, 200810:10 AM
Everything I need to know about the Home Shopping Network I learned two weeks ago. They were selling 1/10 oz. gold coins for $320. I found the same coin for sale on the US mint website for $129. And that's all YOU need to know about the Home Shopping Network.
Also:When a bad enemy destroys the town and the peace of the people, the shutter of a secret base that is hidden under the ground opens and a robot of the justice comes out to save the peace. It was an exciting scene.Indeed.
Monday, August 18, 20084:11 PM
Congratulations to the Laurio! Also, over the weekend Spudlette began turning the pages of the books we read. I swear! We have video, and if we ever manage to buy a new computer, we'll post the astounding imagery post-haste, or however you say "superfast" in whatever language I was trying to impress you with. (!)
Friday, August 15, 200810:24 AM
Is it just me or is Obama the Republican candidate, and McCain is the candidate of the Frothing Monsters Who Hate Hate Hate And Eat Babies And Live In Your Closet To Scare You Party?
Also, opening up offshore drilling will not lower oil prices, and oil companies have no intention to let that happen. There are already tens of millions of acres of oil leases paid for and available for drilling, yet no drilling occurs, and anyway a good portion of American-produced oil is exported. Oil companies want the leases not to drill, but simply to possess. They want control of the resource, not lower prices. Cheap oil makes Exxon sad. Total control of all oil and price fixing makes Exxon happy. One of the tragedies of public debate over the last couple decades is that the conservative movement generally and the corporatists in particular offer false and idiotic explanations of what they want, and the opposition responds to the propaganda, missing the real argument entirely. It's like a puppet show to satisfy some pretense of a free debate. It's like a puppet show at Six Flags. While you sit there, bored and dumbfounded, they are off riding the Cyclone.
PS The Monster is in the closet because it is secretly gay.
Thursday, August 14, 200812:01 PM
If I believed in reincarnation, I would think I used to live in a big city. I love pictures like these. I also like any movie that shows the big city at night. Movies like The Out-of-Towners or The Seven-Ups. Sweet Smell of Success is good too, but it is black and white, and so is missing the green and yellow lights at night. I also would think that I once lived in a small-town clapboard house among many clapboard houses, but that's a different set of dreams.
Monday, August 11, 200812:05 PM
So the Olympics or whatever. In the opening ceremony, China tips its hand and has a cast of thousands move in unison, just like that one super-awesome country. The theme was 'harmony' which translates into know your place in the machine for jaundiced observers like me. Kiti noticed BushJr's reverence for the flag. Meanwhile, jackass Bob Costas desperately searched for his Munich Moment by finding conflict and pathos at every turn (even if he has to make it up, "Will the French be booed?") as Matt Lauer struggled to make banalities into sentence fragments.
On Sunday, NBC interrupted coverage for a Costas interview With BushJr, who given the state of perfection he has achieved for America and world certainly has nothing better to do. Admittedly, Costas asked real questions, but typical of his breed, didn't bother listening to find out if answers were included in the responses. For their kind, toughness is a dress you try on, not a trait you possess. Especially fun was BushJr's characterization of human rights as an issue of "disagreement," proving that civility is more important than decency, at least to someone who understands it's just a goddamn piece of paper.
Wednesday, August 06, 200811:54 AM
I hate the phrase "playing the race card" because it implies that politics consists not of principals that lead to policies of governance, but instead a game where candidates play us all for suckers. The yammering powdered wigs of cable news can barely contain their cynicism for the process and their contempt for the public, but that doesn't mean that these issues are irrelevant.
And, of course the Republican Party will use dog whistles to appeal to racists. They can't espouse segregation like in the good old days, but the GOP has a 50-year relationship with the cro-magnon vote, ever since the Democratic Party began supporting civil rights and abandoned all those long-suffering, bigoted people, who found a home in a GOP that didn't care what they thought either way, as long as they kept voting for millionaire's tax breaks. Not all Republicans are necessarily racist; simply as a group they have no moral compunction about whispering "nigger" to the Klan in exchange for power.
Tuesday, August 05, 20082:25 PM
So last week Spudlette learned to grab things and pull them toward her mouth. Over the weekend she flipped from her back to her stomach, AND from her stomach to her back. This morning I was spying on her in her crib. She rolled onto her back so nonchalantly, I had to conclude her GEEN-yus is expanding geometrically.
Monday, August 04, 20088:55 PM
Here's a noodle-scratcher for you lovers of both John McCain and torture: while he was a prisoner of war, John McCain "confessed" to various war crimes. He said he did so only because he was tortured. So, either torture is a tactically useless crime employed by unethical regimes for political ends, or John McCain admitted the truth that he is a war criminal, and as such has no business being President. Which do you prefer?
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