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Foresight 20/20: Dick Cheney Is An Evil Man
This video leaves me grasping at straws. I still feel that Wolfowitz and the main agitating neocons were true believers, and really expected to be greeted with flowers. That kind of thinking reflects an ignorant and naive world view of black and white where “good” will triumph over “evil” (nevermind Abu Ghraib). But at least its not evil. If Cheney was able, in 1994, to eloquently and matter-of-factly outline the disastrous scenario that is unfolding as we speak, then what could have possessed him to go along with it?
Marmaduke Explained
Perhaps the single best analysis of an incomprehensible subject, rivalling even St. Thomas Aquinas. Freudian psychoanalysis is alive and well.
Poetry: “Out in the Arb”
How fanciful the dappled light
gracing chosen leaves.
Like the selective grace of God’s own sight
which old Calvinists believe
I smile at this analogy
My musings have received
‘til I sense a touch of pity
amongst the rustling trees
“Child, have you no dignity?”
The gnarled elm then asked of me
“Must you shelter yourself in endless thought?
Why can’t you simply be?”
“I am man, am I not?
My job is to encode
I must do, therefore, what I ought
for my mind is my abode”
“Your temples are mired in arrogance
for to God you sing your odes
when God is pure existence
he does not reflect like you
and we are of no consequence
nor with meaning are we imbued.
You think your thinking leads to ease
of lives that one day may be true
and though there’s little you cannot seize
Oh, lonely, twisted human
Just listen to the breeze”
Battle at Kruger
YouTube is the salvation of mankind:
The battle at Kruger National Park in South Africa. I can’t imagine what those people must have thought.
Economist Charts: Defense Spending
I know this is kind of Bryan’s thing, but this chart basically sums up the state of affairs. No use elaborating.
From “The Hobbled Hegemon”, a recent Economist article which was much more dubious than the bare numbers.
Dreams for Hip-Hop
Hip-hop, one of the greatest 20th century innovations in music (and probably the century’s greatest innovation in poetry), is destined to some day expand out of the American ghettos where it started. It’s simply too fresh and too big not to, and it would certainly not be the first genre to start out as an African-American innovation and end as a worldwide phenomenon. Something about this process is definitely nefarious (stealing a form of music that started as a very specific protest and turning it into something completely different), but at the same time, it’ll be nice to hear a more diverse set of ideas put forth by hip-hop. I’m interested in what Russians might want to rap about.
Steve Jobs Is A Battery Fiend
According to an article in today’s Times, the iPhone, which has already broken the golden calf rule, seems to be breaking an unwritten rule of cell phones: you should be able to take the battery out and replace it at the store, for less than 50 dollars. The lithium polymer battery on the iPhone does not come out and wears out after 300 to 400 charges, which for many people will be after their two year warranty is up. It wasn’t funny with the iPod, and it’s not going to be any better when people find that they have to pay 80 bucks and lose their phone for weeks to get a new battery when the problem was known from the start.
Why would Apple commit such mischief? Joe Nocera, the author of the aforementioned article, probably got it right when he said that Mr. Jobs expects that people buying iPhones are going to want a new phone in two years anyway. While that may be true, it’s a shitty way to run a business.
In light of such overwhelming evidence, even a clown like Bryan Klausmeyer would have to question Steve. iHope.
Catch-22: The Real Threat
Catch-22 is a work that the world’s ruling cabals need to keep closer than their friends. It is no surprise that military academies banned it when it was first published, and it is even less surprising that it’s now part of the required course-load at these institutions. Catch-22 is a book full of ideas that threaten the government, the military-industrial complex, and any other force that exerts unreasonable authority over individuals in the name of a greater interest. Joseph Heller undermines historically sacred concepts that act as modes of control throughout the world, and he does it with thorough, robust, intellectually impressive arguments that happen to also be funny as hell. The steadfast soldier becomes a maniac who shoots mice with heavy weapons in his spare time, the wise general becomes a fool concerned only with his own aspirations of higher stature, and the symbol of authority turns out to be nothing more than a pimp with a good sense of fashion. Heller has a keen eye for bullshit and an ability to make us really see the dark, hypocritical underbelly of the arguments and ideals we were raised to believe were infallible. All the arguments he presents have been explored before, but what Heller does is really hit those points home in rapid fire using a unique style of juvenalian satire.
The Pressure’s Building
Environmentalists the world round have just received a powerful new weapon - the air-powered car. The car in question, the CityCAT, designed by Indian auto-giant Tata motors should hit the Indian market in August 2008 at a price of just $12,700. The specs of this vehicle are a green wet dream and an auto-enthusiast’s nightmare: it takes just two dollars of electricity to fill up the tank with compressed air, and this gives the car a range of 125 miles and a top speed of 68 mph1.
Read more on The Pressure’s Building…
- World’s First Air-Powered Car: Zero Emissions by Next Summer, Popular Mechanics, June 2007. ↩
Above the Influence of Reason
The Office of National Drug Control Policy, headquarters of the Above the Influence campaign, is the kind of kafkaesque governmental office that you’d expect to find in Catch-22. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, 1.2 billion dollars were spent between 1998 and 2004 on anti-drug campaigns, with no discernable effect. Turn on the TV, and you watch regular teenagers turn into pancakes from smoking pot. Go to Above the Influence’s website, and you can see the strangely offensive mock nature-documentary “Stoners in the Mist”. This campaign is the publicity front of a War on Drugs that ends up sentencing African-Americans 74%1 of the time even though they only make up 13% of the population. Milo Minderbinder must be making a cut somewhere. Don’t get me wrong; these commercials are hilarious, and an important part of marijuana culture. But I’m sure 1.2 billion dollars could have gone to better effect than giving a few stoners a laugh.
Read more on Above the Influence of Reason…
- War on Drugs Unfairly Targets African-Americans, St. Louis Post-Dispatch 12 April 2000. ↩
Barack Obama and the Culture of Life
Barack Obama’s health care proposal is the kind of bouquet you would buy at CVS if you were running late to a date: you’ve seen each flower before, it seems mildly appealing at first, and clearly a lot of thought has gone into making sure it doesn’t offend anyone. But you’re going to spend a lot of money and you’re not going to get the results you want. As you go home disappointed that night, you’ll realize that you should have spent the time and money, gone to a florist, and gotten a real bouquet instead of looking for a quick, popular fix. I can only hope that the American people won’t put out for this kind superficial gesture, despite Barack’s undeniable “study session hook up” appeal. With a palpable change of winds gripping Washington, it is time for America to open up a serious and complete dialogue about our health care system. In the wake of Jack Kevorkian’s release from prison,1 it is time to face the fact that any serious and complete dialogue will have to involve a discussion of values and not just efficiency.
Read more on Barack Obama and the Culture of Life…
- Kevorkian Is Released From Prison, New York Times, 1 June 2007. ↩
about the author
Alex Taylor To say that Alex Taylor was born would be to oversimplify, but the earliest evidence for his existence consist of primitive cave paintings and artifacts found in the Okavango Delta that have been carbon dated back to 2700 BCE.
Largely scorned by the philosophers of the day, Alex nonetheless won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for his work arming Ainu maoist rebels in the hills of Hokkaido.
Elder statesman, noted icthyologist and social gadfly, Alex is now retired with his wife Sheila and their 14 Maltese dogs in the hills of Vermont. His latest book, The Cat's Ragged Shoes, met little critical acclaim.