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8.31.2004
Shorter Arnold S Speech. "Republicans will take credit for everything good that has ever happened" Did he forget that Nelson Mandella was adamantly opposed to the attack on Iraq? But never mind the truth. Republicans will take credit for ending apartheid, thank you very much... What Arnold said: And when Nelson Mandela smiled in election victory after all those years in prison, America celebrated, too. UPDATE: Except that in 1986 Reagan tried to veto a call to impose sanctions on the apartheid government, Cheney voted against the measure claiming that Mandela and the ANC were "terrorists" and too close to the communists. Arnold became a Republican after hearing Nixon speak? And just let me say this. We hear a lot about prosperity these days but I say, why can't we have prosperity built on peace rather than prosperity built on war? Why can't we have prosperity and an honest government in Washington, D.C., at the same time. Hmm...Nixon? | Things making me happy.... New Radicals: "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too" Guinness Things making me unhappy.... Everything else. | 8.30.2004
The hardest part about writing a political blog, and one that has become more and more difficult to overcome, is the overwhelming influence of "sound byte" politics. At work, I have customers come in and exclaim that product X is better because of [insert advertising hype here], at which point I have to take the time to separate the marketing hype from the reality of how things really work. In the world of digital cameras it has become all about the "megapixels". If you are getting a five megapixel camera, you are getting a better camera, or so we are told. This streamlining of thought is a result of marketing. It tosses aside all the other factors that are vital to the quality of the camera; metering, lens clarity, focusing, speed and reliability. In this narrow world you would be crazy to spend more money on a camera of the "same quality". I think my most frustrating encounters with people come when someone refuses to reconsider their assumptions in light of new evidence. Instead of admitting their ignorance (which is a noble thing in my opinion) they will stubbornly explain to my why it doesn't matter, that the crappy little $200 digital camera will be just as good as the $500 one. You see, I don't care if you buy the cheapy, I just don't want you to buy it because you think its as good as another option. When a customers says "hey, I don't need the best, this will work" I say "Ok" and we go from there. There is less personal investment in camera buying than in politics. Its not going to shatter a person's worldview to admit they were wrong about a camera. But politics? There's alot of us in there. Being wrong can be devastating. Its better to defend your ignorance than to admit defeat. So when I sit down to write a blog entry, sometimes I am faced with the daunting task of deconstructing an issue BEFORE I can even get around to making my point. Sometimes by the time I've done so I'm exhausted and I'll just hit delete and go to bed. You would not believe the levels of misinformation pitched about political issues. And I'll admit that its done by all sides. It can be just as equally frustrating to see an issue you agree with reduced down to a simple phrase that throws out the complexity that is inherent in all political issues. Addressing the nuance can get you labeled "wishy washy" or a "flip flopper". "But you said that five megapixels was good, but now your saying that this five megapixel camera is not as good as this three megapixel one?" In politics, this reduction in concept is most evident in the debate about taxes. We all seem to agree that taxes are bad and need to be cut. So it would be safe to assume that eliminating taxes would solve our problems? But which taxes, income, payroll, sales, capital gains, estate, etc? How do we pay for the services we want? Do we want poor people with little money to spare pay as much as others who do? Can we really call something a tax cut if we are borrowing money to pay for it? These questions are irrelevant. We KNOW that cutting taxes will put more money into the pockets of the people who earned it.... right? Thus... tax cuts, unequivocally good. Does this marketing style presentation work? Those cheapy cameras are flying off the shelves and people are raving about their tax cuts even while Greenspan is talking about cutting benefits for Social Security and Medicare. Changes to the age for receiving full retirement benefits or initiatives to slow the growth of Medicare spending could affect retirement decisions, the size of the labor force, and saving behavior (translation: Increase the retirement age and renege on the benefits or we go broke) People still seem to think its "fair" that the tax cuts were targeted to income, the most progressive of the taxes, targeted to benefit the wealthy disproportionately over the working class and that the cost, loss or reduction of benefits will overwhelmingly effect the people who will need Social Security and Medicare? Who will that be? Not the people that got the tax cuts. The rich don't need Social Security or Medicare, so what do they care if the age requirements get raised or the benefits get reduced. Not a bit. They already got their money. So let's rephrase the question: Would you still want your two hundred dollar tax cut if it meant working a few extra years to qualify for your Social Security? oooohhh... tax cuts not so great. "Hey this isn't an ice cream sundae, its just whip cream with a spoon in it?" But what can I say. Five megapixels are great, tax cuts are great. Hope you enjoy your new camera and your old President, sucker. | I often wonder, when the local yokel here in Okieville turns on the tube tonight and sees a quarter or a million people in the world's greatest city taking to the streets to express a collective "fuck you" to George W. Bush and the GOP, what will they be thinking? How can such a "great" president inspire so much ire and resentment? "Uniter not a Divider?' Emphasis Added Here, the suburban and exurban footsoldiers of the Republican Revolution will applaud speakers who abominate the culture of tolerance, artistic and intellectual freedom, sexual exploration and inescapable pragmatism that has not only made New York possible but made it great. The inescapable evidence of its greatness will surround and confront them at every turn: the economic vitality, the excitement, the incomparable variety of experiences, and the sense of community shared by 8 million people of wildly diverse backgrounds sharing the same chunk of Earth. There is nothing inherently noble about the rural or urban lifestyle. In each you will have to face challenges. But when it comes to the urban lifestyle, one of the things you learn quickly is tolerance. You will lose your sanity if you try to hold grudges against people of different lifestyles. You will also miss out on some of the best aspects of living in a big city; the cultural diversification. The GOP has picked a losing side in the cultural war. Right now there are some really angry people who see the "American way of life" under attack, but that way of life is being replaced by something better; more tolerance, more freedom and closer contact with the rest of the world. Its gets harder and harder to maintain your illusion of moral superiority when you are faced with evidence to the contrary. Our world and our connection to people of different races and religions is growing at an astounding pace. When even people from Tulsa, Oklahoma are chatting it up and sharing ideas from all over the world.. you know change is a comin. | 8.29.2004
When starting a post about a topic, you have to decide where to start. Do you just jump right in with your opinion or do you ease into things a bit more? There's always a quote to consider? "It ought to be especially troubling that the NAACP opposes a program designed to elevate poor black students in failing schools. Martin Luther King Jr. believed a good education is essential to a good life. While he fought for the desegregation of schools, today's liberals fight to maintain segregation by income and class. You can bet none of the leaders of the organizations opposing vouchers for the poor would let their own children or grandchildren spend a single day in failing public schools." Cal Thomas, speaking about vouchers which a Florida Appeals Court ruled violates the state's constitution. First, you have to wonder why it is that so many of the right wing's pet causes run into the constitution as their primary road block? Could it be because they are actually working to erode our constitutional system here in the United States? I think that's a fair assumption, considering... To me the issue of education rests on some basic assumptions. Do we think that children should have access to a good education regardless of their parent's financial abilities? Do we, as a society, believe that a good education is essential for a functioning democracy? The answer, for me, is yes on both accounts. Do vouchers address the primary problem of children not learning? Here, I say no. First, a disclosure. I went to private schools. I attended local Catholic schools from kindergarten through High School. I got a good learning there, as you can see by my deft use of the english langauge. My parents sent me to private school for one reason; less kids. When you have less kids in the classroom you have less chance of falling through the cracks and the teacher's are not overwhelmed to the point of not caring. I once asked my dad whether he resented paying for my education twice, directly and with taxes, he said, basically, that his decision to send me to a private school didn't negate that fact that he believed that all children should have access to good public schools, and he didn't resent helping someone else's kid get an education. It hard to talk about vouchers at this stage in the game because what we are seeing now is the trojan horse, with lots of talk about helping "the poor" and "minorities". This should make anyone's bullshit detector go off, especially when this talk is coming from the well funded lackeys on the right. We're getting the sales pitch, as Cal inadvertatly clues us in to: Gov. Bush should actively campaign for a constitutional amendment which allows vouchers. He could be accompanied by poor children in public appearances and in TV ads to drive home the point that children are more important than politicians, judges and education elitists. But taking a step back from vouchers you can see that the main beneficiaries of the proposed system would be education corporations like Edison: Chris Whittle, the company's [Edison] charismatic chief executive and founder, recently told a meeting of school principals that he'd thought up an ingenious solution to the company's financial woes: Take advantage of the free supply of child labor, and force each student to work an hour a day, presumably without pay, in the school offices. ... and religious schools that want government funding for their holy crusade to turn America's youth into Holy Warriors for Christ, a la the Madrasas of Pakistan. Of course these same people will be perfectly cool with my "Tulsa School for Atheistic Studies" getting government checks? I think not. But we'll tackle that sticky mess after we amend the constitution... you know, the document that saw this coming from 200+ years ago? It seems all the rage these days to implement plans that involve the government collecting money and then giving it back to you for the purchase of services from the private sector. And it seems odd that many so called conservatives are spearheading this movement; with social security and education. But then again with all things politics you have to keep your voting base, the religious conservatives who want government money for their churches, and your funding base, the corporate executives that want government money to boast their stocks happy. In exchange you get to smite your political enemies, the teachers, and you get to move education into the realm of the market where prices will dictate who gets educated and who doesn't. Or it could be that once a student learns 2+2=4 they see how backwards the economic policy of the GOP really is? So, hmm.. do we end with a pithy line like that or another quote: The school systems were the Authoritarian Right's very first targets when they started acquiring political power 30 years ago. And, in my experience, education and travel are the two most likely catalysts that drive adult fundies to re-consider their beliefs and seek to de-convert. (How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm...?) Its choose your own Blogventure! If you decide to attack the Giant Squid with your spork -- Turn to Page 48 If you decide to help your friend Ahmed with his homework -- Turn to Page 4 | 
Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a larger version See more photos. I know, not very interesting, but its how it is. | 8.28.2004
Greater Democracy: Democracy for a connected world. If I thought that reality had any part in determining people's opinions I might get excited about this. Choice quote: I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was the Lt. Governor of Texas, and I'm not necessarily proud of that. (audience laughs) But, But I did it, and I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that's what people should do when you're in office and you helped a lot of rich people. Umm.. it is what you do. Mr. Barnes, its so nice of you to develop a conscience now, doing so then would have doomed your political career. When the world throws you curveballs, make curveball soup? | 8.26.2004
Orwell Rolls in His Grave: August 26th (Thursday) at 7:00 pm at the Tulsa Central Library's Aaronson Auditorium. | LYNCHBURG, Va. The Reverend Jerry Falwell will open a law school next week in hopes of training a generation of attorneys to take up conservative causes. Step 1) Assume that there is some hidden and orchestrated agenda behind American progress. Step 2) Use that assumption to justify an open and orchestrated agenda to fight it. This was the same process used to turn the media to the right. First, people like Falwell shouted all day long about the "Liberal Media" till enough people became convinced that it existed (hint: it doesn't, at least not in the way they mean). Then they used that falsehood to justify the deliberate purchase and set up of right wing radio stations across the country. So there WAS no deliberate left wing agenda to control the media but there IS a deliberate right wing one to do so. Only now, with the start of stations like Air America do we see a deliberate case of "liberal" media. Irony? Now, Falwell is pulling the same tactic on the law. First he states that there is a conspiracy of lawyers foisting liberal values on us against our will: Falwell says the future lawyers will work to outlaw abortion, gay marriage and other issues that he believes the legal establishment has forced on the public. Then he will deliberately set about to distort the law to his own purposes. It's an extension of the battle the right has been waging against the legal establishment for years. They never quite got over their loss with Roe v. Wade, they lost, so they naturally assumed that there is something sinister about the American legal system; that its been possessed by evil Harvard lawyers hell-bent on pushing their worldview on us. When in reality the right wing religious nuts are just losing the war of ideas. Falwell's thinking is an extension of the "If I'm losing, you must be cheating" mentality. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "activist judges?" Again, an attempt to build a conspiracy where there is none. Once you are convinced that judges are being "activists" then it follows that we should work to undermine their powers. The judges will stop being activists as soon as they subscribe to Falwell's version of the God given truth. This is not some simple debate about whether lawyers and judges are correctly interpreting the law. Falwell assumes that they are not, and that they are doing so to promote a political agenda, just like the gays and the journalists. The Homosexual Agenda The Liberal Media The Activist Judges Do you see a pattern here? These are the groups dragging the American people away from what they truly want, a theocracy based on Falwell's interpretation of God's will? I have to make sure I make my distinction clear here. I have no problems with people arguing for their own interpretations of the law using their own evidence and reasoning; its how we come to a consensus. But here we have an assumption of conspiracy to justify an agenda that will be promoted regardless of its legal merits. There IS a conspiracy, but its a conspiracy of institution. I've been making this point for months. If you look at the law and you look at journalism what primary characteristic do they both (supposedly) share? Evidence based reasoning. Falwell has no use for evidence, he has dogma. He knows God's will and he only has to convince other people to believe likewise. His conclusions are already drawn and anyone that tries to use evidence to prove otherwise is undermining God and should be destroyed. Jesus loves me yes I know Because the Bible tells me so. Is that a sound basis for a legal system? Being the good liberal that I am, I am open and susceptible to a good argument. Make your case. | 8.25.2004
KOTV - The News on 6: "Nearly 4,000 people turned out for a pro-marriage rally Tuesday night in Tulsa. People from more than 60 congregations came to the rally at the Union Performing Arts Center. " Let's say it out loud shall we? Gay hating. I didn't go to the rally. I thought about it for about three seconds and decided that I had better things to do. Blog, for instance. I wish people would just stop dancing around the issue with phrases like "traditional marriage" and "between a man and a women" and just say what they mean: "We don't want gay people to get married, because then they might have sex and kiss and uggghhhh... sin! We'd much rather prefer that they stay in the closet or be all self hating about it." Sheesh people, be proud of your prejudice! Its the twenty-first century, if you're gonna act like you're from the nineteenth at least do it with style. Commit! Dress up in some pilgrim outfits, churn butter, burn people at the stake, chase witches. Have fun with it. Play games. Have a dunk tank all decorated with flames and water dyed red and you can take turns dunking your sons and daughters who have come out. I know it makes hating people feel all warm and fuzzy when you dress up in a suit and tie, load the kids up in the minivan and listen to some nice preacher talk sweetly about "protecting traditional marriage" but its still gay hating. "This all started as a dream of several pastors some months ago to do something positive in the community about what we agree on and we agree on marriage being between a man and a woman." Something positive? A dream? I have a positive idea, a dream even... let the gay people decide for themselves. They don't really need a bunch of straight people gathering at a local high school to decide what's best for them. What next, a bunch of white people sitting around deciding what's best for the blacks and the native Americans? Oh wait... they did that too? New Headline: 4000 People Out of Touch with Modern Reality. No doubt you had the local crop of assholes pretending they are speaking for God. I told a friend last night on the phone that sometimes I feel like I'm living in one of those Saturday morning cartoons and my mission is to sneak to the top of the nearby mountain and destroy the transmitter that is brainwashing the city. Only there is no transmitter. Just churches. And its gonna take more than a couple of kids, a dog, and crazy white haired scientist to wake up this city. Pro-Marriage? What kind of sick self-deception is that? Its the kind you get when saying what you really mean makes you sound like an asshole. | 
Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a larger version See more photos. I'm my own best model. I'm always ready to pose when I'm ready to shoot. I'm damn good looking, in the right light. And I work cheap. Unfortunately I have to shoot everything from within arms distance. Here I am testing out some new goggles in the pool. | I so need it to rain today. I need it to shower in sheets, obliterating any space that surrounds me. Make the world smaller, please. | 8.24.2004
Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a larger version See more photos. 1,338. That's how many miles that I have on my car. That, plus the other two hundred thousand miles not recorded by the odometer. I've had this car for about twelve years. Got it back in 1992 when I was just starting college. Then it had less than 30K miles on it. It has had a new radiator, a new water pump, a new driver's side window, a rebuilt transmission, three new altenators and a new fuel pump. It has only been in the body shop once to replace and repair a dented quarterpanel from the time an old man drove into me during the second week of owning the car. It still has the stock stereo system installed. I use a small cd player or mp3 player played through a cassette adaptor. I would have replaced the stereo with an in-dash cd player but the shifter would have prevented inserting a cd in any other position other than drive. A cd changer is out of the question since I have a hatch and I don't feel comfortable putting a changer in some place visible from outside. The stock speakers have served me well until recently when I had a small dash speaker blow. I have since put in a replacement. Nothing nice, but a placeholder until I can find one that finds well AND sounds good. Right now the brakes squeak and the muffler has started to rub the underside of the frame in a most annoying fashion. I use more oil than I am comfortable with. I've spent hours upon hours sitting in that driver's seat. I have had all sorts of people sitting next to me in the passenger seat. Its a place I go to seek solitude. Out on the road there is no expectations of being. You are in a state of transition. The people in cars around you assume that you are in the process of going somewhere. Nobody has to know that you are just driving in circles. I sing along to favorite songs. I drum on the steering wheel, sometimes using the scentless air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror as a crash cymbal. I have a small keychain with a picture of Ricky Martin hanging up with the air fresheners as a joke. I have a picture from one of those photo booths that I have stuck in a slot next to my ashtray. I have removed the ashtray and the cigarette lighter always has an adaptor plugged into it. I talk to myself sometimes, usually I just think to myself. I look at the people in the cars next to me at the stoplight. I stop all my drumming and singing until I am safely in the mix again. I like making faces at the little kids that stare back at me. I quickly look away from grownups. They do the same. I have no bumper stickers. I have two parking stickers from college still in my window. They are a joke that nobody ever gets. I use my car as a place to listen to songs that I have recorded. I use it as a place to listen to new cds that I have purchased. I have made out and had sex in the passenger seat. My air conditioner doesn't cool. It can be charged but I don't like cold air blowing on me so I just drive with the windows down when the weather is hot. My heater works but there used to be a leak in the heater core that would make the windows fog up. I've added some sealer to the radiator and that seems to have fixed the leak but I expect it to come back eventually. I drive less than I used to for fear of putting too much wear and tear on the car. I never use it for road trips anymore. I wonder just how long I can keep driving my car before I have to face the decision of replacing it. | 8.23.2004
Currently listening to Pink Moon by Nick Drake, Just finished reading Wilco: Learning How to Die by Greg Kot. My favorite quote: "Can you go back to Chicago and tell Jeff that we really need him to deliver a 'One Headlight.' We think Wilco could be another 'Wallflowers'." - The head of radio promotions at Reprise. p.164 I have two wallflowers cds, because they were given to me (ditched more like it). I have tried on more than one occasion to listen to them, but I grew bored each time and lost interest. | 8.22.2004
8.21.2004
Chicago Tribune : Anti-Kerry vet not there that day: Many of us wanted to put it all behind us?the rivers, the ambushes, the killing. Ever since that time, I have refused all requests for interviews about Kerry's service?even those from reporters at the Chicago Tribune, where I work. Who to believe huh? Is it any wonder that most voters stay home? I'm of a mixed mind about all this. On the one hand you got people saying "Kerry ONLY served four months" while the other candidate never even made it to Vietnam, even checking a box stating a preference for not going. But hell, I wouldn't want to go either. I would have taken the same approach as Bush. I mean, who wants to go someplace where people are shooting at you, willingly? But these are the same people that are so gung ho to glorify war in the first place. You can't cast a sideways glance at Kerry for chasing some kid down and shooting him when that was his job. That is what war is all about. You try to kill your enemy, which is usually some kid with a gun, sent there by the grownups who see themselves as too valuable to risk their own lives. If I ever met some soldier that relished the idea of gunning down another human being I would think they were psychotic and not a troop that I would want fighting for me. War is an evil that should be avoided if at all possible and only undertaken with serious consideration. There is always the danger that those making the decision to go to war, safely secure away from any actual threat themselves, will be flippant about sending other people off to fight for their own power struggles. And that is why I was troubled about the way that we went about the invasion of Iraq. The shifting rationales and the push for swift action without proper debate should have been a warning sign, and it was to those that were wary. I am in sales, I know the process: closing the sale, appealing to emotions and glossing over the negative details, playing up the positives. Personally I think Colin Powell lost the sale when he went before the United Nations Security Council. I would have walked. Even though you may not ever see yourself doing sales work (I know I didn't, it was an accident really) you should still familiarize yourself with the techniques that will be used against you during the process. Being an informed consumer is not that much different from being an informed citizen. You may or not be surprised by how many of the same marketing techniques used in the marketplace have been retooled for political purposes. Think about your own workplace. How often does the company ever come out and say "Hey, we're going to cut hours, lay off people and cut corners to give our stock a quick boost to keep our shareholders from bolting like scared sheep?" My guess is never. Its always talk about "Core competency", "Focus on the Customer", "Getting Back to Basics". There's never a negative in the corporate world. Its all for the best: making the company stronger. The parallels between workers and soldiers, government and corporate management are scary. I don't think its by accident that the two worlds have become so closely intertwined with former CEO's and business leaders holding high political offices. The lessons learned in one world are applicable in the other. A snowjob is a snowjob. I don't trust my bosses to hold my best interests at heart. Barring those of you that work for small businesses where you have owners that actually DO care about their people, most of us work for larger public entities that have a ladder of priorities that looks something like : 1) Shareholders 2) Management 3) Employees Managers found putting the interests of the employees above those of the shareholders will find their asses out on the street. We get paid for our work only because people revolted against feudalism and slavery ages ago. But don't think that for a moment it isn't without some resentment. But I digress... (Boy is that an understatement!) So we have two candidates that are trying to sell us on the idea that they would be the "strongest" to "protect" us from evil people with guns we probably sold them. Bush says he is the right man because he is not scared to send troops into a ravaged country when he himself once expressed a desire to stay away from combat. Kerry says he will protect us from the swarthy terrorists because he once went and killed some of the evil-doers in our last "War to Save Humanity", even though he now says that it was a bad idea to have done so. Talk about your mixed messages. Take your pick: Kerry is a hero for fighting in Vietnam and for standing up against a war gone bad. Bush is a hero for serving in the TANG and for sending troops to oust the Taliban and Saddam. Kerry is a coward because he only served four months and then turned on his fellow soldiers. Bush is a coward for hiding in the TANG and sending other kids to wars for his own glorification. And you thought picking a used car was bad? | 8.19.2004
Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a larger version See more photos. How one sees the world, relationships and general path of life issues depends a lot on ones concept of love. Is it unconditional or something that has to be earned through deeds? If love is something that always comes as a consequence of your actions you are going to view systems that take advantage of this method as effective. Otherwise if you are accepting of people, things and situations no matter their outcome you are less likely to see witholding of love as a seemly way of going about things. I'm an unconditional love kinda guy myself. I want people to accept me for who I am without alot of prodding and poking. And I don't place demands on my loved ones to earn my affection either. I have theirs and they have mine. I don't really need someene telling me what their requiements are. I'm going to be who I am and that's that. I've never gotten into the habit of chasing after people's acceptance. You see... I've never had to. I can't think of a single person in my circle of friends and family that wants me to be different from who I am. I've had issues with people that have grown up thinking that the definition of love was all about gaining acceptance through acheivement. I once had a friend that joined me on a rare walk around LaFortune park one night. He was successful by most standards. He was fresh out of college and already making over 50K a year at an oil company. But he was unhappy about a number of things in his life. The most important being his inability to find a girlfriend that he could keep for more than a few months. His most serious relationship had dumped him not to much earlier. He didn't really like his job and wasn't to sure what to do about it. He had taken to engaging in risky behaviors as well, driving his car drunk and all that. He needed direction. We had been friends all through high school and I knew where the kinks in our relationship were. He was never happy with himself and was always looking for outside validation for his life. This lead to a deep desire to win at all things even if that meant insulting your friends and cheating on your girlfriends. When it came time to make life choices it was always with one eye one what would earn him the most admiration and money. I tried to offer him some advice about doing more of what made him happy and less about what other people expected of him. I'm not sure if he took my advice or not. We don't hang out. This rare walk occurred years after I had effectively severed our friendship by calling him "petty" on the phone one day. I think I apologized. We had always had a hard time getting along. We looked at the world in two fundamentally different ways. I think I went to one extreme and he went to another. I knew that I didn't have to do anything to win acceptance. I go out of my way to do the things that I want with little regard to what that means in the long run. He however always kept an eye on which path would lead him to a position where he would be admired and accepted. He wanted to successful. I wanted to be content. He acheived goals but never figured out what it was that made him happy. I discovered my own key to happiness but have never gone after material gains. My least favorite conversation is the one the starts "So what are you going to do..." I've get into fights with each of my friends whenever this topic comes up because they don't seem to like my answer: "I don't know... whatever I feel like doing I suppose". I guess I've always been about "being" and less about "doing". This is the path of doom. It leads nowhere but here, right where I am, happy with myself but with very little tangible that I can point to as my accomplishments. But I still have acceptance by the people that matter to me the most, and those that couldn't live with my lifestyle have moved on. You can go on and lead a perfectly happy life always seeking the acceptance of others or society at large, but you'll have to move from one surrogate to another always climbing to another peak, always looking for a taller one. We're all familiar with the story of the driven artist, celebrity, etc who once acheiving their ultimate goal sink into depression. They lived to earn the love that they thought they deserved. In some cases they might learn that they had it all along, and in others they learn that what they seek will never be there. It can be quite a motivator, the quest for love, acceptance and admiration. In many ways this desire drives us in our day to day life, whether its striving to earn God's love through devotion and prayer, earning the opposite sex's attention through financial and material acheivement or earning the respect and admiration of family, parents and loved ones with displays of affection we all seem to be looking for some outside validation to our lives. But like everything else, its all about finding you're own way that works best for you. Oh, and guys, don't ever pull this shit. | Some notes to the Olympic organizers and NBC. If you hold an Olympics make sure that you sell out every event. I don't care if you have to start giving away tickets to the bums you rounded up and hid away. Do something. You really want nothing less than packed houses every time. During the swimming events show the flags of each country and each competitor as they make their turns, not just the leader. At the very least remind us who is in the top three spots. This is necessary because the announcers will be talking about Michael Phelps whether he is racing or not. .. that is all. You WILL NOT see any event results on this page. We are an "Olympics Safe" site. Browse with the assurance that you're viewing enjoyment will not be ruined by results splashed before you. Also.. bonus post. Top five favorite Salsas, based on years of research: 1) Herdez 2) Head Country 3) Newman's Own 4) On the Border 5) Hell on the Red The five slot was a toss up.. but I had to keep Pace out of there. | 8.17.2004
Sadie asked me to write something to get that goat off the top of the page. But... I like the goat. I spent a good twenty minutes designing the pet goat's campaign logo... (insert pouting here) Smoking. The quick take for those unwilling to read further: While I don't think its necessary to legislate changes to force people to quit smoking, because we are a free country after all (I'm for legalizing MJ as well) I do feel its fair to shame our dear smoker friends into submission with the blindingly obvious facts. 1) Unless you're smoking some off brand home grown stuff, you're being a corporate stooge, giving money to companies that lied their asses off for years to protect their profits. There is no better example of corporate greed than the major tobacco companies, and so if you continue to support them even after they've been caught.. you deserve the world you will get. 2) Its addictive, so don't whine when you want to quit and you can't. Years ago when people still thought that cigarettes were not addictive I could understand being surprised. These days.. you have no excuse, you went into this with the information at hand. I give people of my dad's generation a pass. If you start today.. no such luck. 3) They will harm your health: I know we hear about the 100 year old lady that has smoked a pack a day for her entire life but you are MORE likely to hear stories like my uncle's, a smoker for years during his twenties and thirties, started in the military and smoked until it became known that it was bad for your health, quit and lived for another several decades till getting lung cancer. And yes, the doctor attributed his cancer to his years of smoking. 4) The idea that shackling yourself to an addictive substance in the name of "freedom" or "rebelliousness' is ridiculous. Doing so even though you know the facts and doing so as a way of "giving do gooders the middle finger" is laughable. You really want to show me? Shove some quarter pounders up your ass. That being said, and this being a free country, I don't care if you smoke. You can sit in your own home smoking till the tar drips from the ceiling fan for all I care. You can have a burning cig protruding from each orifice your body. I still don't care. But don't you ever.. I mean EVER come to me in the middle of a busy shift at work and look for sympathy because you have to go feed your addiction. You WILL hear an earful.. and you will NOT get an ounce of sympathy from me. Then again... there's no guarantee that we're going to live long enough to die of lung cancer anyways. But I say, if you need to express your desire for self destruction at least do so in a way that isn't so cliche. If you need to smoke for stress relief... try Yoga, or just taking a few deep breaths when you're getting freaked out. Or better yet.. drink. Pot signing out. | 8.16.2004
I know I said I wasn't going to endorse any candidate, prefering instead to remain non-partisan in my analysis. However, after reading this, I had to give my endorsement to Pet Goat for 2004
That is a kind of STRONG, DECISIVE leadership we need in the new era of global terror. Pet Goat is a candidate with CHARACTER, a STRONG MORAL sense of what is RIGHT and WRONG. Pet Goat stands for what I believe in; defeating car robbers and eating garbage. | 8.15.2004
So I'm driving around town and I see a sign for a "Pro-Family Rally" on the 24th of August. I thought, "hey, I could go to that, I like families, I would even think I'm pro family". But then I thought.. "Who the heck isn't pro-family?" Who are these anti-family people anyways? I don't recall seeing editorials denouncing the evils of mothers and fathers and children. I know a few single people that are a little miffed that breeding people get special tax consideration, but they aren't about to hit the streets in protest of families and children. Its seems like a rally without a cause. I had a little look around and found an answer from Armstrong Williams of TownHall.com: In many ways, it seems our serious news outlets are now following television's lead. The cable TV network explosion created an incredibly splintered television market throughout the '90's. Amid this brutal competition, high mindedness became an afterthought. So its Rupert Murdoch of Fox that is Anti-Family? Now I'm confused. Dark humor and Self-parody are the means by which Murdoch spreads his anti-famliy agenda? Ouch, my aching head! Still digging for a better answer, I continue my googling. I find that Catholics and Feminists are next up to bat. A religion text used in numerous Catholic high schools promotes an anti-family, feminist agenda. Now I feel better, the old familiar bogeyman of feminism and homosexuality are as comfortable as my favorite flannel shirt. But Catholics? Sheesh.. I though Catholics were the big family people. I know that the Catholic families I was born into had lots and lots and lots of children. You're reading the rantings of a guy that had at least twenty uncles and aunts. I always assumed that should we delve into the anti-family factions of Christianity we would come up with the Protestants who use birth control. What could be more anti-family than a condom? A neutron bomb? Nope.. shrinks. The American Psychological Association has increasingly radicalized itself with the recent publication of research studies which--at least indirectly--offer support for the perspectives of pedophilia normalization advocates, as well as radical feminists. ... And um, more gays and feminists, of course. And the anti-family alliance grows: The Bible? The Georgia Legislature! Disney? Say it ain't so Mickey! George W. Bush Al Gore Margaret Marshall, Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice OGL... Christ? The President of Brazil And the list goes on and on! And now that I know that the forces of defamiliazation are strong and have powerful supporters like the Pope, Gays, Jesus, Gloria Steinem, Fox, Disney and The President of Brazil I know that I NEED to be out there defending the family. I must go make signs. For the kids. | 8.13.2004
Adjectives ??He has even said that by using our strength, we are creating terrorists and placing ourselves in greater danger,?? Cheney said at a political rally in Dayton. ??But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the world we are living in works. Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness.?? ok, in a previous post I was talking about usage of words like "strength" and "weakness". He we have Cheney blurring the lines between a value judgment and an objective fact. We ARE militarily strong, as in we have more weapons than everyone else combined, but we are still weak. The evidence of our weakness: 9-11. Picture a boxer. He works out nearly all day every day. He eats right, does cardio and can lift a small Honda with each arm. Put this man in the ring with a savvy boxer and he might just get his ass kicked. But, you would say, our boxer was stronger. True, and to prove it he marched off into the parking lot and beat up a homeless man. But that doesn't erase the fact that he just got his ass whooped by a better boxer. Strength can be a measure of either power or ability. Cheney is right and Cheney is wrong. Terrorism is NOT caused by strength alone, simply having military might will do little to instigate hatred against us. But where he is wrong is in confusing what those terms mean. I see little strength in our decision to invade Iraq. It was a strategic blunder and an excellent indicator that America is weak in its underbelly, our willingness to play well with others. So our boxer finishes up his drubbing of the homeless man expecting to receive cheers from people applauding his strength only to find instead the astonished faces of horrified spectators. We know that violence without cause is not strength, it is brutality. We DO create terrorist by using our strength... in irresponsible ways. I can think of no better way to run a terrorism marketing campaign than by pointing to the careless use of power by the U.S. Cheney continues: America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive I cannot think of a better way to win a war than to use our senses. Which unless I am mistaken is the origin of the word sensitive. Is Cheney advocating that we "lose our senses"? No, here he is using the negative baggage associated with the word sensitive, one we carry over from our playground days when little girls are told not to "be so sensitive". | 8.12.2004
KOTV - The News on 6: "Tulsa Police say a man picked up the three 17-year-old girls at a convenience store near 47th and Braden just after 11 PM Wednesday. They drove to a nearby park. Wife: "So what were you picking up three 17 year old girls, and driving them to a park?" Man: "Umm... picnic?" Wife: (stares, with fire) Man: "I got carjacked!!!" Wife: "By three 17 year old girls?" Man: "They had a gun to my head!!!!" Wife: "And you tried to fight back?" Man: "What was a suposed to do, get carjacked by three teenage girls? I'd rather be dead than suffer that indignity. I wouldn't be able to show my face around here again!" Wife: "You still can't. You better start your packing!" Man: "Man... you just can't win some!" | 
Its August. Outside its 60º. The Perseid Meteor Shower has reached its peak. There's not a cloud in the sky. I put on my favorite flannel. Pulled my brown corduroy coat out from the far back of the closet. Nabbed a spare blanket. Stuffed my mp3 player in the coat pocket. Clipped my camera onto the tripod. Walked out into the yard. Looked up into the clear sky filled with stars. Laid out the blanket. Pointed the camera. Played some music. Laid on my back. Watched the shooting stars. Sound good? ----- You bet it was. Highlight of my day? ----- A close second. | COHEED AND CAMBRIA :: ONLINE Been digging this song. Of course I like anything with hyperactive drumming, so be warned. You can also download a few songs from Emery here, but I would suggest getting ahold of a song called "By All Accounts (Today Was a Disaster)". Its sweet. Its addictive. Also... either (eye-ther) band employs some cookie monster vocals, but don't let that throw you off, they also got lots of nice harmonized vocals in there as well. Also (part 2) : Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime performed by Jon Brion (with Beck) is pretty damn cool. That's all... go about your happy litle lives. | 8.11.2004
Often times, more often than I care for, I am reminded that human communication is a messy and inexact process. How many times have you scrupulously crafted an arguement only to have someone shoot back a retort that completely misses the point and shows only the barest understanding of the issue being discussed? Too often. I love debate. I really enjoy talking through issues. I learn more, and my opinions become more refined. I become... smarter by engaging in a good debate. Sometimes, for the sake of moving a discussion forward it might be necessary for someone to "play devil's advocate". Now, when this is done, it is NOT good form to launch into an ad hominom attack on that person. Instead, refute their case with evidence and logic. We should recognize that words have connotations: associations and implications that go beyond a word’s literal meanings. What this means is that when one person is referring to someone as strong or weak, they may be talking strictly in terms of power relationships or they may be making value judgements. You can determine the usage by the context. In an academic essay strong/weak would be terms of relative power, not value judgements. In an editorial it would be the other way around. We should recognize the limitation of a medium as well. Too often I realize, sometimes too late, that sarcasm in text just sounds mean when not accompanied by the tell-tale physical cues that are present in real face to face conversations. Sometimes in face to face conversation there is too much weight given to people that are able to put forth their arguement in a more forceful, or loud, manner. We should recognize that not everyone is as adept at communcating as others. I am not trained to be a communicator. I have a few English courses and some basic skills under my belt but hardly enough to fell like I have a complete grasp of the language. I do what I can and rely on my reader's generosity to get me through. Of course, I may be all wrong. I am amazed at the ease with which some writers can express themselves in creative and coloful ways. But mastering communications is not simply a matter of employing the process of trasferring your thoughts to the page, its also about applying your own human experience into undestanding what another person is trying to say to you. This can be difficult. Relationships have ended, friendships thrown away and wars started because of misunderstandings. So its best to assume that if something doesn't sound "right" or consistent with what you know about a person, you should ask them to explain what they mean in more detail. | 8.10.2004
I post pictures of flatworms. Did you know that there are no native flatworms to North America? | 8.09.2004
Last week's KTAS (Tulsa Chapter of the Kilgore Trout Appreciation Society) meeting was a rousing success. I think the twenty foot wide banner outside McNellies helped; as well as the hours spent handing out leaflets in the mall. Thanks to Secretary Sadie for providing a picture for the leaflets, without which I doubt we would have had the most excellent showing of gay men that we did. Special shout out to Rico for the rousing rendition of "High Enough" that got our meeting off to such a colorful start. Great costume by the way, I never would have imagined Delta Burke singing Damn Yankees. The part of Sir JMJ will now be played by an empty chair. :-( A show of raised hands (and some mostly raised hands) confirmed our commitment to draft Kilgore Trout for the 2008 Presidency. The Draft Trout '08 movement has begun. We expect support to swell once the photos are more widely distributed. We have a target demographic, and even a slogan; "THINGS THAT NEED TO GO AWAY RIGHT NOW". Assuming that our new Chaotic Not Random Political Party gets off the ground in time for '08, we expect to get about one in ten votes. And if you believe that, I'd like you to meet Cate, my new girlfriend from the Pacific Northwest, and devout Kilgorian. Say "hi" Cate. | 8.08.2004
Took a nice walk today. Hopped in the car and drove down to Riverside Drive, tucked my mp3 player in my pocket, stuffed the buds into my ears and headed off from the 31st bridge towards downtown. I stopped just short of the 11th street bridge, turned around, and walked back. Any earth shattering revelations? Nope, not really. I enjoyed walking. I enjoyed the nice weather. I thought about pleasant things that make me happy (mmm..) and I listened to some music. For those wanting to play along with "Asshole" by Rilo Kiley, here's a chord sketch for ya. Assumeing you can fugure out where the chords go. C Dm (5x for intro) C Dm E Am F G C C C Dm E Am F G Am C C Dm (3x) C Dm E Am F G C C C Dm (3x) C Dm E Am F Am/E Dm C G (quickly) Am F (3x) F Am/E Dm C G F G C (there I go believing you again) (and) "Glendora" - Rilo Kiley A F#m D E D E A F#m Hey, I'm not posting lyrics! A couple of updates. I've added testimonials, so if you have something to say about me (preferebly good, but I'll take anything) then send it to me, I'll post it up. Sleeveless Sadie was so nice to even revise her first testimonial to make it more swell than the first one. I remembered that Kilgore Trout (for president '08) once said something about me, so I swiped that off his website as well. You take what you can get huh? | Beatallica You love the Beatles, and you love Metallica, but short of syncing up Sgt. Peppers and Master of Puppets on opposing stereos there was little you could do to love both at once. Hey, dude-it'z true not sad | Just because I have my window down doesn't mean you should feel free to walk up to my car and hit me up for cash. Do I look like a damn rolling ATM? Don't make me feel bad about driving away as you're yelling to be heard over the car stereo. I'm stopped because the light is red. That's it. Don't try to take advantage of my sense of decency and compassion for another human being. | 8.07.2004
You know where you are, that's point A. You've been there before, maybe you've been there awhile. Its familiar. You see where you'd like to be. Maybe you lie in bed long after you've awakened, going there behind your closed eyelids. Maybe you drive around in your car for hours on hot summer nights looking for it. But sometimes destinations are circumstantial and cannot be reached by simply moving. | 8.04.2004
Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a larger version See more photos. And yes, that is MY eye. Self Portrait. | Hey, I'm a regular guy too. UPDATE: more added. GeorgeWBush.com :: Official Blog :: August 01, 2004 - August 07, 2004 Archive: "Second, cops and firefighters are, if the women in the ranks will forgive the expression, Regular Guys. They drink beer, not wine, and certainly not French wine. They played football and baseball in high school, not lacrosse... Regular Guys do not blame Secret Service agents (who are Regular Guys) for knocking them down on the ski slopes, especially when those agents are there to take bullets for them. And Regular Guys relate to and prefer the company of other Regular Guys; they do not invite people like Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck to their conventions. ..." Bush: Regular Guy* Wow. If this is not the natural evolution of Beer Marketing run amok I don't know what is. The question is, can we take any product, twist reality on its head, and make it appeal to anyone? Can we take a man that has never worked a real day in his life, who has never had to worry about mortgage payments, never had to think about choosing between going to the doctor or making rent, never had to worry about his kids getting a good education, and has never cried at the mere appearance of a credit card statement and sell him as a regular guy? Why yes we can! (insert blabbering partisan stupidity here: But Kerry is also a pampered rich elite as well....) Wow... you're right! The problem seems to be that we keep choosing rich people to lead a nation of middle class people. In fact if you read the biographies of the two candidates you'll see that they have alot in common. White, Rich, and heavily invested in the status quo that is steadily crushing regular guys. But reading through the Bush campaign Blog you get the impressiong that this race is all about football teams, frozen custard and beer drinking. Forget about health care, they both never needed to worry about that. Forget about jobs, their kids will have good careers no matter what. Forget about affordable housing, they each have homes we can only dream about. Forget about education, they could send their kids to good schools. Bush = rich Kerry = rich Can we get back to the issues and stop making this about "Taste great, Less filling" please? Leonardo DiCaprio : Born in 1974 (same as me) in LA to a comic book publisher and a legal secretary who divorced each other the year he was born, started acting early and did numerous commercials and tv bit roles till he was cast as Luke on Growing Pains. Eventually he started appearing in films like What's Eating Gilbert Grape and The Outsiders. Wow, a regular guy, making good on the opportunities of American, and his good looks. Ben Affleck: Born in 1972, breaks into acting with the help of his fathers connections. But after the divorce of his parents has to turn to working in small TV spots. Its not until years later, after appearing in a few Kevin Smith movies and collaborating on the screenplay of "Good Will Hunting" with Matt Damon does he break into movies and start making any real money. Gigli. Regular guy? Hmmm... mostly, except for the good looks again. But more regular than Bush that's for sure. Leo and Ben both came from middle class backgrounds. Both filthy rich now! But thanks to the brainwashing of right wing talk, we all KNOW that Hollywood is full of Satan's spawn. Texas, however, is full of brush cutting "regular guys". First, cops and firefighters are inherently conservative in that they understand the importance of following society's rules. Unlike John Kerry, they don't find "nuance" in every question that confronts them. I'm sure more than one cop might be insulted to learn that they are simpletons that lack nuance. I'm a liberal and I have never been arrested. True, there are people that don't care about laws or society, but they are usually not political in their reasons for commiting their crimes. In their daily duties they see the often-deadly consequences that result when people fail to do what society expects of them. Nearly every call to 9-1-1 is the result of someone concluding that these rules, be they the criminal laws or the fire codes, can be ignored. They did a good job of hiding it last week, but the Democrats are the party of libertinism, the price of which is well known to those who come when people call for help. Democrats are the party of law breakers. Hmm... did we forget Enron? Have we ever done surveys to verify that all the prisoners are democrats? You would think that a convention of immoral law breakers descending on a town like Boston would send it into chaos. Where were the riots, the break ins, the orgies? Yeah yeah.. I know... Clinton's room. But but...wasn't Bush once arrested for drunk driving? Maybe he's become a regular guy since then? Used to be a liberal you know? Back when he was a drunk and a coke user... skipping out on his service and selling his stocks with insider info? Bush: "Law abiding regular guy since (redacted)!" And whatever tenuous grip he [Kerry] may have had on Regular Guy status since then was lost when he married his current wife. Old-fashioned notions of chivalry prevent me from offering my full opinion on her here, but Regular Guys do not under any circumstances marry women like Teresa Heinz Kerry. Wow, I haven't heard the phrase "women like..." since my last conversation with a male chauvinist. So fill me in, what makes her a women like Teresa Heinz Kerry? Even with the piles of dough they're sitting on, both George Bush and Dick Cheney still come across as Regular Guys, the kind of men you might find hanging around the fire station or the detective squad room. And with his recent suggestion to Pat Leahy on how he might spend his idle time, the vice president climbed several notches on the Regular Guy scale. I might find Cheney hanging out at the fire station, sitting on piles of dough? A man telling another man to GFY** earns him "regular guy points" (are those like ploids?) but a women telling a reporter to "shove it" earns her "bitch points". From our Freeper buddies: That man [Kerry] looks so sissified that I can't believe he managed to have children. No wonder he has to keep having his picture taken when he's loaded down with sports stuff so he'll look masculine. They also call THK a whack job. That's values for ya! *Because we know that Lacrosse is for wimps. Skiing is for wimps. Wine is for wimps. Vietnam was for wimps too I suppose. ** Is Cheney also a member of the KTAS? | 8.03.2004
So I'm laying in the pool, relaxing, staring at the blue sky, thinking of waitresses. That couldn't last. So I came inside, toweled off, and read this piece of genius: Neologic :: Main Page: "Simpler worldviews are easier to consolidate and manipulate, and that fact is the strength of the Republican party. Wedge issues are issues created specifically to appeal to voters with simple worldviews. Voters base their vote on where a candidate stands on one or two particular issues, rather than his overall qualifications. Multiple wedge issues equate into multiple blocks of votes which added together win elections. Similarly, making politics seem like a tedious, boring triviality comprised largely of partisan bickering is also a simple-worldview manipulation, creating a whole disgusted subset of potential voters who, because of their apathy, need no further manipulation. " I want this sung at my wedding, to the tune of "You Light Up My Life" because forgawwdsake something has to be done to that song to make it bearable. I once had a friend's mom refer to me as an A-rab. No, I just tan easily because of my Mexican heritage. I think we need to issue a national set of flash cards, because we be pretty dumb about the world. Iraqis visiting on a civil rights tour were barred from city hall after the city council chairman said it was too dangerous to let them in. Musical moment? 2:40 of Ashes of American Flags. By you know WhoCo. This blog entry was a result of the President's leadership in the War on Error. | 8.02.2004
Esquire: The Case Against George W. Bush: "Politicians will stretch the truth. They'll exaggerate their accomplishments, paper over their gaffes. Spin has long been the lingua franca of the political realm. But George W. Bush and his administration have taken 'normal' mendacity to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience. On top of the usual massaging of public perception, they traffic in big lies, indulge in any number of symptomatic small lies, and, ultimately, have come to embody dishonesty itself. They are a lie. And people, finally, have started catching on." The best part... by Ron Reagan. Read the whole thing, it sounds like one of us "left wing loonies"; the "irrational bush haters". ok, one more choice bit: Bush apologists can smilingly excuse his malopropisms and vagueness as the plainspokenness of a man of action, but watching Bush flounder when attempting to communicate extemporaneously, one is left with the impression that he is ineloquent not because he can't speak but because he doesn't bother to think. | 8.01.2004
Folks, we have a winner. But first, a recap. The challenge: To think up the names of various nineties musicians or bands that I believe nobody will ever search for. The list so far: Milli Vanilli Right Said Fred Fine Young Cannibals Color Me Badd Nina Cherry Salt-N-Pepa Pebbles ----- ... and the winner? Nina Cherry. Go figure... And for all the people looking for naked pictures of me? HA! | Often I forget that most political debate occurs in a narrow range, and even I get caught up on arguing whether Candidate A or Candidate B would be best, when in actuality, we are still arguing over which rich white guy will represent the institutions of power, not us. Watching the DNC, I was saddened that a potential political movement had been nipped in the bud yet again. The Kerry candidacy is a concession to the overriding powers that demand that we continue down the same paths regardless of who sits in the White House. Why else would the DNC message seem so far removed from the political movement behind it? The farcical "War on Terror", a fantasy wherein we are the freedom loving innocents beset upon by the evil people of the world who hate us for our freedoms, has been adopted by both sides. Thus, the military and security institutions will be fed by whomever gets elected. Billions will continue to flow into the hands of the well connected who owe their enormous wealth and privilege to an institutional system that thrives on fear and paranoia. Let's not kid ourselves into thinking that a Kerry win in November will be any sort of revolution. Little of real substance will change. The money will continue to flow. We will still exercise our power around the globe with little regard to the consequences, and people here at home will still be wondering "why they hate us". Power. Who said it?: "In the forthcoming presidential elections in the US, there is a choice: between two candidates who were born to wealth and political power, attended the same elite university, joined the same secret society that instructs members in the style and manners of the rulers, and are able to run because they are funded by largely the same corporate powers. The Public Relations industry, which basically runs the campaigns, makes sure that they keep away from 'issues' (except in vague and obscure terms) and focus on 'qualities' -- 'leadership,' 'personality,' etc. The public is not unaware of its purposeful marginalization. On the eve of the 2000 election, about 75% of the public regarded it as largely meaningless -- prior to Florida shenanigans, the Supreme Court, etc., which were mostly an elite concern. In 2004, more appears to be at stake and interest is greater, but there is a continuation of the long process of disengagement mainly on the part of poor and working class Americans, who simply do not feel that they are represented. The Harvard University project that monitors these matters currently reports that 'the turnout gap between the top and bottom fourth by income is by far the largest among western democracies and has been widening.'" Follow the link to get the only fair and balanced coverage around. | |
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