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5.31.2006
I dislike telephones. It bothers me that a phone might ring at any time. It bothers me that I never know what the person I might be calling is doing. I never know if I am interrupting someone or not. Working in a retail environment I dislike that the person on the phone seems to assume that the world in the store should stop for x number of minutes while they sit in the comfort of their own home and ask a thousand questions. Meanwhile, people who got off their butts and trekked through traffic are standing around waiting. ... and if you say "Well, then don't answer the phone!" I can only say that I find phones useful in the case of emergencies, and at work, I am required to answer the phone whenever it is ringing. But you see, when a phone rings it does not let you now whether that call is an emergency or not. When I hear a phone ringing in the other room I can't tell if that call is dire or frivolous. With the proliferation of cell phones and the many people that feel obligated to use them because they have them, there are more and more frivolous calls than ever. | 5.29.2006
Today being Memorial day, as well as my Birthday, we hear politicians talking their silly little heads off about people dying for the sake of liberty and freedom, and me, I can't help but think that its rarely about such things. It might be from time to time. I don't discount the notion that occasionally a threat might come along. I just think that the majority of the time the reasons we fight wars are to advance the interests of the elites. Take this so-called War on Terror. In my opinion, it is nothing more than a blanket excuse to advance our interests in the Middle East (or world) and to redistribute large sums of money to well connected corporate interests. Its because of these reasons that we have a POSITIVE opinion on war. Here in America, people that speak negatively of war are considered unpatriotic. We see war, and the deaths of poor people in the service of the rich as a good thing. So for that reason its NOT considered in poor taste for the president to push the continuation of the debacle in Iraq in this time where we recognize the people who have died at the hands of something we should all struggle to avoid. I tend to view war as a negative thing. But here in America I get the strange sense that there are some who view it as an opportunity. Its seen as a chance to use our greatest asset yet again: violence. During the runup to the Iraq invasion I couldn't help but notice that many of the people pushing for the war seemed to view it as "this generation's war". As if every son or daughter is now expected to engage in a conflict against others. It has become a tradition in our society. That is a not a good thing. So that when another few years rolls around we will be expected to send yet another batch of people out to die for some "cause", whether it be justified or not. We've long past gone beyond the point where we see war as the last resort. It has moved up the list. We now prefer the death of war to any other option. We take it lightly and as a consequence I think we take the people who are maimed, killed and injured in war lightly as well. We no longer see people that have served in conflict as special and worth anything. Because we now view war as just another inevitablity, we now see people that have suffered because of war as just another by-product of our society. War has become beneficial. It has served us well in the past. It has given us new lands to inhabit, new resources to use, and it has given us greater standing in the world. Its a bargain in the eyes of the rich that they only need to pay a little lip service to the notion of "service to country" every once in a while. Frankly, I think a pat on the back is a pittance compared to putting one's life in jeopardy, and compared to what the rich get out of war, its a joke. | 5.25.2006
Things that are happening: Not too much. Been playing around with Reason, a program that lets me interface my music keyboard (an old Akai AX-80) with my laptop so that I can generate and sequence sound. So far my main reason for working with such programs has been to take songs that I've written on guitar and input them into the computer via PowerTab, then I export them as midi files and to play them with either Reason or Orion. At this point I can also add a drum track as well since I have no acoustic drums to work with. I've been trying to get back into the habit of taking pictures with my cameras (a Nikon N80 and a Nikon N70). I still lack a good DSLR, but will take donations of any of the currently available Nikons. Apparently all the recently graduating kids around here are all heading to Europe. I can just imagine that its filling up with Americans like some kind of theme park. Its almost as if its a pilgrimage that we must all take when we are young. I noticed the same phenomenon when I was working in Highland Park, Texas. For the record, I haven't been to Europe myself but I would lie to see it someday. I would like to think that I could avoid the usual American tourist stereotype as well. I don't know... Last night I had a dream that I was living in Mexico and I was having a hard time ordering a vegetarian taco at a restaurant. I eventually succeeded in getting a vegetarian taco but it came with a side of fried pork. My Spanish is not so good at all and I've been thinking about working on that recently, especially considering my plans to watch the World Cup on Spanish language television. If you watch the World Cup in Spanish its free. You pay for the privilege of watching it in English. I'm hoping that I can find an online radio station that will broadcast the games live. I had hope when I found out that XM Radio was going to broadcast the World Cup games via their service, only to learn that they exclude such content from their monthly online content. I may try out the BBC as well. | 5.17.2006
Today I spent the day cleaning. I cleaned the bathroom, and yes, that means the toilet. Yuck is the operative word for that filthy slab of porcelain. If I were rich, the temptation would be strong to get anyone else to do that task for me. I might be inclined to offload that smelly job to just about anyone at nearly any cost. I might, however find it quite nice to discover that instead of emptying out my wallet for the privilege of getting someone else to do it for me, I would instead find some desperate person willing to do it at bargain basement prices. I might say a little prayer: "Thank God for the desperate poor people of the world, may God make them poor and willing to work for crumbs forever!!!" I might even find religion, of the variety that helps me re-align my thinking. I might even start to see the world in a whole new light, especially considering that I might also get my car cleaned for a few bucks as well, I might get a meal delivered to my door for a buck or two. The world might seem like a paradise of people willing to do just about anything for a few measly dollars. I might like that. I doubt I would ever clean my own toilet again. But then I might start thinking. I don't like cleaning toilets, and I doubt anyone else really likes it either. And not only is that person cleaning my toilet, they are probably cleaning their own as well. I've inflicted that nasty task on someone twice! I might even start to feel bad -- guilty. That is, unless I could construct a convenient rationale for why it is right and even necessary for other people to clean my toilet for me. I might even start to think the natural order of things deems that I never have to perform a task I dislike ever again. The universe has seen fit to make sure that as I go about my day entertaining myself that the mess I leave behind me gets cleaned up so that I never need to see it. I might even be dreadfully frightened at the idea that this order might be disrupted. | 5.16.2006
5.15.2006
WorldNetDaily: Against a fence: "If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn't possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don't speak English and are not integrated into American society." My rather outspoken right-wing coworker who was amused that most people found his anti-immigration T-Shirt to be offensive didn't quite understand that most people make a strong connection between anti-illegals and anti-brown people. Having lived in a culture where I was mostly surrounded by white people I can say that many are great people, smart, industrious and caring. I can also say that there are a few too many for my liking that are stark raving loonies. As representation of the entire race though I would say that the number of crazy white people is about equal to the percentage of crazy black, brown or yellow people. Its not a racial thing: craziness. Take Michael Savage for instance: SAVAGE: What will it take to wake you up to the fact that you are being erased from the future of America? And why are you being erased? If you're a person of European descent, why do they want your child to be a minority in America? And when your little girl is a minority in America, what will happen to her? Tell me what will happen to her? Do you think that the minorities, when they take over the country, will be quite as benevolent and as enlightened as the European-Americans are today? Or do you sense that just perhaps, just maybe, they will not bring the learnings of the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, to their new power? The assumption that there is something about Europeans that makes them more capable is basically white supremacy. We all know where that leads. Its not about legal or illegal at that point; its about us and them, brown and white. And an avowed white supremacist: Jared Taylor “Blacks and whites are different,” Taylor wrote in a recent article on Hurricane Katrina. “When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western Civilization—any kind of civilization—disappears.” It all seems to center around the issue of tribal superiority. If you've read any of my writing before, you know that I believe in the power of tribalism in politics, be it religious, racial, ethnic, or class. I find most tribal politics to be extremely harmful. I feel that people should band together for practical reasons that transcend mere religious, racial or ethnic bonds. In truth I find the greater human tribe to be overriding of everything else. We should act in our own interests as a planet. I think most people feel that the emotional wind behind the immigration debate comes from misplaced tribal conflict and that if we were to ever solve the "problem" as defined by some, then we would just move onto a new "problem". Read more at Hullabaloo. | 5.10.2006
Things I've learned so far: Living in Denver. 1) It doesn't rain here much, at least so far. 2) It might snow, still -- in May! 3) There's a new city every couple of miles, its possible to be in two at one time. 4) The "Colorado Lifestyle" involves running, biking, and spandex. 5) That the suburbs here look like the suburbs there. I'm sure there is still more to learn. Stay tuned. | 5.07.2006
Man, some days I wish I was a right winger. Then I could just call people crazy, or moonbats, or lunatics, or freaks or whatever in response to any criticism of my views. Maybe then I could spend less time actually trying to tell people what my ideas are instead of being asked to defend straw-liberal arguments put forth by the right wing talk shows. Its tempting to call people names (especially stupid), and I honestly can't remember if I've ever resorted to outright namecalling on this blog. I would like to think that I've tried to address issues. Ray McGovern questions Rumsfeld on his previous, well documented assertion that the United States knew where the WMDs were before the war. SEC. RUMSFELD: Not at all. If you think -- let me take that, both pieces -- the area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat. ... and for this act he gets called a "radical leftist, Jew-hating creep" by the fount of name calling at Little Green Footballs (no link - look it up). At the same time, no time is spent actually addressing the issue. Did Rumsfeld say that he knew where the weapons were, and why did he do so? Rumsfeld himself avoids the question. Instead we spend more time spinning our wheels defending people against the name callers. In a discussion with a co-worker I was informed that we had indeed found links between Saddam and Al Qaeda. I was unaware that merely travelling through a country qualified as valid cooperation? Go figure. I've come to realize that there is just a fundamentnal difference in the way I see the world and the way others see it. Watch "Everything is Illuminated". It made me laugh. | Just for fun I was reading through the contributions list of a few billionaires. I know we hear alot about George Soros and the millions he gives to the Democratic causes. But little is heard about the Republican funders. Is it just because we assume that the Republicans have the big wallets bankrolling all their campaigns and its nothing of interest. Or is it that the Conservative backed funds use all their money to convince us that they're the victims. A look at the numbers shows us that in 2003-2004 Soros gave about 2.5 million to Moveon. But at about the same time, just a little later, Boone Pickens gave a total of about 5.5 million to the Swift Boaters and the Progress for America Fund (a conservative group). Alice Walton of the Wal-Mart fortune also gave about 2.6 million to the Progress for America Fund. Richard Devos, Amway founder also gave about 2 million to Progress for America. Quick math shows that Soros was outspent by his billionaire brethren by about a 4 to 1 margin. Of course all we hear about is how Soros is bankrolling the liberals. | 5.04.2006
So Not Funny: "Why are you wasting my time with Colbert, I hear you ask. Because he is representative of what too often passes for political courage, not to mention wit, in this country. His defenders -- and they are all over the blogosphere -- will tell you he spoke truth to power. This is a tired phrase, as we all know, but when it was fresh and meaningful it suggested repercussions, consequences -- maybe even death in some countries. When you spoke truth to power you took the distinct chance that power would smite you, toss you into a dungeon or -- if you're at work -- take away your office." This is funny. The assumption is that you're not taking any risk unless its a risk of being tossed in a dungeon. This is ironic considering the attacks on Colbert following his performance. Of course I thought his routine was hilarious and quite necessary. Too few people have gotten the chance to bring issues directly to people in power. Our press is hesitant to risk their careers bringing up the unpleasant facts about this president and his performance as the "Decider". I not sure if Richard Cohen, the author of the piece quoted above was channelling Good Morning Vietnam when he wrote this piece but witness the similarities: Cohen: I am a funny guy. This is well known in certain circles, which is why, even back in elementary school, I was sometimes asked by the teacher to "say something funny" -- as if the deed could be done on demand. This, anyway, is my standing for stating that Stephen Colbert was not funny at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Good Morning Vietnam: (warning: popups galore!) I understand you're pretty funny as a deejay, and... well, comedy is a kind of hobby of mine. Well-- Well, actually, it's a little more than just a hobby. Reader's Digest is considering publishing two of my jokes. But let's leave you with funny. Donald Rumsfeld deny his own words by ducking behind the troops (yet again!) Now that's funny Mr. Cohen. (via eschaton) | I notice that sometimes when I am trying to have a discussion about some political matter that the person that I am talking to is bringing up lots of points about subjects that are only remotely related to what we are talking about. These points seem to be pre-packaged hot button issues presented in a way to create maximum emotional appeal. I find that this sort of prepared stories are the bread and butter of political punidits and talk show hosts. They create an emotional response in people. Listeners find themselves thinking "That's not right" or "That's not fair". I'm sure we could all come up with thousands of examples of things that are not fair. So it was that in the midst of a discussion about the immigration rights protests going on in town that I was treated to a rant about how people from Mexico can come here, kill someone and run back across the border without being prosecuted. And while I found this to be a disturbing fact, I could not help but think that it would be absurd for people to think that most immigrants are coming to this country to commit thrill crimes, especially considering the dangers involved with crossing the border. So while these stories might be good fodder for your run of the mill watercooler talk, they serve little purpose in helping anyone really understand the issues at hand. I realize that most of the crap we hear coming from "opinion" sources are designed to create an emotional response as opposed to actually informing us. During a discussion about the war in Iraq I mentioned that I thought it was a bad idea based on misleading information and that history would bear out the wrongheadedness of this war. To which I was treated to a statement about how we had discovered evidence about Saddam's relationship to Al Qaeda. I said that we didn't attack Iraq ro make the U.S. any safer and the other person shot off that "Its not about oil!!" Of course I think that anyone with a brain would realize that oil played some part in the reason why we invaded Iraq. I think that there was a laundry list of strategic reasons why some people thought it would be a good idea to put the country of Iraq under out direct, or indirect control. Oil was one of those reasons, and to claim that we invaded Iraq to steal their oil is in some way missing the point, and in another way, making it more to the point. | |
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