On Voting

Given no other options, I will choose reliably mediocre over dangerously stupid.

Unfortunately, we do not get to choose who we want to put in office, only between the options presented to us.

Pretending that we ever have the opportunity to do otherwise is a prescription for misery or revolution.

Ghost Shark Communist

I would like to produce a cable news show called Ghost Shark Communist. Every week's episode would feature 3 shocking stories about one the titular topics, but here's the gimmick: you don't know which fearsome terror you're learning about until halfway through the segment. Then, the big reveal with a loud splash page and a scream of GHOST, SHARK, or COMMUNIST!!!

So maybe we start by showing a Caribbean ocean scene, with beaches and sunbathers and innocent, meaty children playing in the surf, but then we pull back and see an old pirate ship run aground nearby. GHOST!

Then we have a story about a dying grandma whose pension is being seized by the progressive socialist government... of Atlantis! SHARK!

Back to the ghost pirates... They've invaded a sugar plantation and started a co-op garden! COMMUNISTS!

We'd get expert commentators and secret documents and all sorts of exclusive content that we made up on the spot, and every week would feature hushed portentious suggestions that these 3 forces were colluding to undermine the United States, or take away your freedoms, or put iodine in name brand cola or something. And we'd encourage you to phone your congressman.

Oh, it would be grand.

Collective Memory and the Rule of Awful People

One could hope that in the age of the Internet, our national memory would be a little bit better than in times past - that past errors and successes would be handily recorded and remain available to the masses for their consumption, and that the people involved in those decisions would be justly rewarded or shunned for their performances.

(nicked from BoingBoing)
From The New York Times, November 5, 1999:CONGRESS PASSES WIDE-RANGING BILL EASING BANK LAWS

Congress approved landmark legislation today that opens the door for a new era on Wall Street in which commercial banks, securities houses and insurers will find it easier and cheaper to enter one another's businesses.
---
The decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provoked dire warnings from a handful of dissenters that the deregulation of Wall Street would someday wreak havoc on the nation's financial system. The original idea behind Glass-Steagall was that separation between bankers and brokers would reduce the potential conflicts of interest that were thought to have contributed to the speculative stock frenzy before the Depression.
---
'The world changes, and we have to change with it,'' said Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who wrote the law that will bear his name along with the two other main Republican sponsors, Representative Jim Leach of Iowa and Representative Thomas J. Bliley Jr. of Virginia. ''We have a new century coming, and we have an opportunity to dominate that century the same way we dominated this century. Glass-Steagall, in the midst of the Great Depression, came at a time when the thinking was that the government was the answer. In this era of economic prosperity, we have decided that freedom is the answer.''

Guess which ideology is still calling the shots. Brilliant.
(nicked from BoingBoing)

I am not a number. Oh wait...

Just so you know, my face is now in the book.

I expect government agents and/or marketing drones to arrive on my doorstep any day now. Not that I even have as doorstep, as far as They know.

Meal of the Damned

For future reference, the Value Meal of Satan is the Double Cheeseburger combo (large) with 6 pc Chicken Fries.

Maalox or Holy Water recommended, particularly if you opt for the barbeque sauce.

They're Baaaack

Anyone who has ever been to my apartment during the spring and summer months may have noticed the family of large orb weaving spiders that take up residence there. Well, it's Memorial Day, and right on cue the adults have come out of hiding for another year of bug catching. We must produce a bumper crop of flying insects around here, because these things absolutely thrive.

They live on the whole front of the house, usually in the big living room windows on both floors. Sometimes they venture out to other areas, but they seem to have settled under the gutters in front of the big bay window. It starts with two or three big ones, the size of your thumb, and later in the season they spawn whole constellations of tiny babies to fill up the web network in the window. Sometimes, just to be funny, they web over the whole front door with a perfect orb, just to show off.

They are very hard to photograph. They hang upside down and away from the window (as spiders are wont to do) very close to the glass, making flashes almost useless. Because of the webs and the dirt they leave on the window, they also require a manual focus, which my little Elph doesn't have.

Just your friendly neighborhood BWAAGAH! GET IT OFF!

While some people I know are prone to Shatner-esque alarm at the very mention of spiders, I'm not so put out by them. I'm not exactly eagerly waiting in line at the Tarantula petting zoo, but spiders, however creepy, instill in me a sense of fascination more than twitchy revulsion. So it is with these guys (gals?). They are actually quite good roommates. They have clearly staked their turf (the front window), they do not venture into other people's stuff (we can leave the windows open without fear of bad sci-fi invasion), they're quiet, they don't add to the utilities bill, and they keep the bugs out.

I can stop whenever I want

HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
We tend to believe that the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, although we do not generally believe that everything we do affects the brain. I am convinced that if someone was to yell at me from across the street my brain could be affected and my life might changed. That is why your mother always said, ‘Don’t hang out with those bad kids.’ Mama was right. Thought changes our life and our behaviour.

I have taken to reading political bloggers with a ferocity and an investment of self that surprises even me. Folks like Digby, Steve Gilliard, Kos, and Juan Cole occupy a stunningly large portion of my daily mental calisthenics, often against my will. They are a form of mild candy-coated stimulant - softening the higher brain functions, focusing energy, riling passions. Outrages and implausible hypocracy are laid before me in a delectable smorgasbord of political diatribe. I can hunt and pick through endless articles, sampling every variety of righteous anger until I find the morsels I can really savor.

And when I tire of the rush of carbs and sweets I can jump on over to Red State, Powerline, or Little Green Footballs for my meaty tenderloin steak of outrage. I can peruse the Daou Report, experience every recipe on the menu for partisan hatred and walk away with a more distinguished, experienced palette on which to build my personal belief system.

Now, obviously I enjoy and respect a lot of the writing and commentary on the first batch of blogs - that's what draws me to them. There is nothing wrong with indulging in the writers that you like. And there's also nothing wrong with taking a long look at the words and beliefs of the people you're likely to disagree with - that second set. In fact it's the intellectually honest thing to do. But the problem is, after gorging on both sides of the issues and listening to the vindictiveness for so long, you can't stop. It becomes a part of you. And if that vindictiveness brews into a solid hatred, well good rarely comes of that.

Hatred is a poison. Many people in political talking circles have fallen to it. Hard. They've fallen so far that they can't make reasonable judgements about anything because their decisions are ruled by their hatreds.

I came to the realization recently that I hate Republicans. I want to make this perfectly clear - I don't have anything against conservative thinking. Liberalism, conservativism, whatever, those things don't matter to me because rational people can debate ideology in rational ways. I'm also not a Democrat or a member of any other political group. But I hate the Republican party. I hate what they do and say, I hate what they supposedly stand for. I think the Republican leadership is morally bankrupt, un-American, and motivated by evil self-interest and they need to be stopped. Fuck them all.

I don't want to hate anyone. Hatred is not something that comes easily, or at least it shouldn't. Mom always used to say not to use the word hate. It's too powerful. You can dislike, not care for, disparage, rue, even sneer at something, but don't toss around HATE lightly. But there it is - a swollen, pus-filled ripe boil of anger and resentment directed squarely at the heart of the Republican party.

And I'm not keen on popping it any time soon.

It's not clear where exactly the hate came from. Either people started doing far more outrageous and horrible things in the last few years that really got me going, or the Internet has simply made them more accessible. We could just switch off the Ethernet connection and drift in blissful silence and darkness to bleed off a little hate I suppose, but as in the Abu Gharib scandal, the problem isn't the cameras, it's the abuse. I have resigned myself to keep hating as long as they keep doing hateful things. When they stop, hopefully I'll be able to stop as well, but I'm probably in for a long, unpleasant wait. I wish there were another way out that didn't involve giving up on my own principles and beliefs - the "ability to accept the things I cannot change." Some of us are not so gracious to posess such humility.

So with that cathartic element on the table for all to see (and the FBI now monitoring the page for anti-American sentiment, thank you Patriot Act), I pledge to all readers thus: there will be no more overt political posts on Escapism Artist. I'm going to purge the hatred from this outlet. No links, no discussion, no commentary. Stuff will show up in the comments listings I'm sure, but the petty hatreds of mortal politics will no longer tread on the other content of this blog.

I'll just post excessive diatribes on Jason's. I'm sure he'll appreciate that.

Big Bang Created in Lab

The newest big scary thing at the RHIC. Up next on the development table: portable apocalypse in a jar. Collect the whole set.

Black Hole Created in Lab

Maybe. Pretty soon, everyone will want one. But act now, they're going fast. Seriously.

Wait, how DO these things happen?

The VP of a company that has made a business out of stripping you of your privacy without your knowledge has been appointed to a Homeland Security panel on privacy.

Apparently this guy will "bring his courage and conviction to the board," and "fight the good fight, and ... surprise us with creative, fresh and unconventional thinking..."

*retching noise*