That way Americans could be cool again.
Otherwise we'll get eaten by strange dragons. Speaking of which, Laogzed is preparing another podcast. He apologizes for the delay. He's been very busy; but he's very concerned about the goings on in the human world.
Meanwhile, I started a MULTIPLY account, which I think will be the next friendster.
On the other hand, I might be the person to negotiate with the strangelets:
Dr. Arkani-Hamed said concerning worries about the death of the Earth or universe, “Neither has any merit.” He pointed out that because of the dice-throwing nature of quantum physics, there was some probability of almost anything happening. There is some minuscule probability, he said, “the Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up.”
That's all I have to say. I know I spew a lot of bullshit. But I read a lot; and I'm one-hundred percent sure that it would be bad to vote for McCain. I don't care if you're pro-Israel, anti-terrorist, a Ron Paul advocate, or an idealist: You must not vote for this man.
This guy muses his new life with an iPod. My mom just ordered a MacBook and an iPod nano. I bought a nano what seems like forever, and it is still doing me good. But I do agree with this guy:
I want useful playlists. I want "Tori Amos songs that make a damn lick of sense." I want "Beck songs where the rhythm track doesn't sound like he's throwing Ben Wa balls at an armadillo." I want "Nick Cave songs that aren't explicitly about bleeding to death."
Not particularly creative, inspiring or original, but entertaining nonetheless. Here are my contributions to the genre.
Here is the original. From cursor. While we're on the topic, how about that Base-10 number? It also turns out that, opposed to the ratio of 2.6 to 1 in Vietnam, the ratio in Iraq is 15 to 1. But, again, in base 31 that ratio is only F to 1.
I'm not just saying that because the latest episode features some of my music.
This guy uncannily finds some gems in the scum-soup that is the internet. Very good taste.
There's also a sweet Rad Unicorn track.
thx DOS!
PS: Not that I have anything against scum.
Here's a good clip with Bill Maher on Hardball. I was talking earlier about the the anti-Idiot talk; and I really don't like calling people dumb. But there is a 'culture' in the US that revels in and respects a certain brand of idiocy and ignorance. Bush is the epitome of this; and why Bush as punk rock is so stupid (I'm referring to the Right Brothers, and my half-assed, sloppy critique.) And maybe that guy with the anti-idiot bumpersticker, and people like my idol Bill Hicks, and his entertaining rip-off Lewis Black, are just responding to the anti-intellectual climate of the US. It is reactionary, and bars and cable comedy is rarely subtle. It is a necessary reaction, like my reaction to call people fascists. Anyhow, Bill Maher's point about McCain being dumber, not tougher is what has become evident. Of course, all along, being tough has seemed to many of us as just a form of being dumb.
An uncharacteristically crystalline thought formed in my foggy brain today. I thought the fundamental problem with The War on Terror is that there is a fundamental block to understanding the world that cannot be trespassed in normative discourse. I generally feel I cannot discuss it unless I am among close friends, or those who I know who are generally politically sympathetic. The thought was, well, why did 9/11 happen? Well, it's because we are in a War. People die in wars. What do you expect? Was 9/11 the START of the war? I don't know. Some say it is an age-old clash of civilizations; I guess another way to look at it would be to say it is a clash of East and West. The chickens coming home to roost? Well, these views are merely interpretations. What thought came to me, which I believed the morning of 9/11 up to the present--only I was not able to articulate it--was that there is a PROBLEM. That is why 9/11 occured, it was a message telling the US that there is a problem. We chose to interpret this as an act of WAR. So, what do you do in a WAR, you send the military somewhere. Or, that's what tough guys do. This particular war was not initiated by a nation-state. It was initiated by suicide bombers associated with an underground worldwide movement. In the framework of the idea of war, there are multiples sides. We decided that there were two sides, the terrorists and US. In a war with two sides, both have power and advantages, and they both utilize them to effect a defeat on the other. But how would a defeat of a non-Nation actualize? Can a non-nation sign a treaty? Like the IRA, can Al-qaeda agree to turn in all their weapons? Well, it's more complicated than that. Al-qaeda is a large, amorphous political and militant movement with a number of goals. How does it operate? It's fed by young desperate men from a pool of countries, mostly Arabic. Who do we bomb? How do we win this war? Now I'm coming to my specific thought: This is a war of two sides, but one has clear advantages over the other. The US has the advantage. Nobody would argue with that point. So, can I say to a war-supporter: Do you agree with me that the US has the upperhand, overall, in the War Against Terror, that is, the war against so called Islamic Radicals? That would tell me that if we were smart, we could neutralize the "threat" to US "interests." But ostensibly, if our goal is to remove the threat of violence against the US and US-allied nations, we could utilize our problem-solving skills, use basic critical thinking, to objectively examine the situation, find root causes and see how we can manage the situation. And "manage" it we could, if we indeed have greater power than the "terrorists." Finding a humane solution to the problem of undue carnage caused by discontented people on this planet would attest to our nation's greatness. If we have to resort to brutality in order to contain the threat, then it should be considered a disaster; it would show us to be people with low esteem for the value for human life, as well as a people with little imagination. This is all hypothetical. This is what I imagine what people who value the intellect, the inherent worth of human life, those who believe in the great capacities of our fellow human beings, despite appearances of ignorance, stupidity, or menace, would believe. I believe that the term "idealist" is destructively reductionist, but this idea of mine is an ideal. And one I would like to bring up to a war supporter. It seems so clear to me now; it took me 7 years to articulate this idea. But the main point is that even now that I can articulate it, it seems like something that I could not bring up in a conversation with a war supporter. I fear I would be called naive and idealist. Not serious, in parlance of the Washington pundit. But it seems stupid not to bring it up, so I will try the next time I have an opportunity.
One last thing. I had mentioned to a friend about this idea of Idealism. I have believed since my teens that so-called "realists" are as much idealists as so-called "idealists." What else is Bush but a foggy-brained idealist? McCain would be branded an absolute realist by his supporters. But so-called "realism" is an "idealist" philosophy because it has this ideal of the "real;" in other words, a self-described realist would say that this or that "ideal" is not achievable in the "real" world. But what exactly this "real" world is is never described by self-described realists; if it is, it is in only essentialist terms of men and war and power: The Way Things Work. This view is exactly an ideal of how the world works. It is merely a framework of viewing the world: of WHAT can be achieved; what is possible. That's exactly what an idealist is, a person who has a view about WHAT can be achieved; what is possible. We will bring Democracy to Iraq. We won't stop the war until we have achieved (WHAT) in Iraq. So if you're going to knock me about being an "idealist," I would like to knock you back down. My idealism is my outfit and bearing that I wear to the party of ideas. Everybody wants to be cool at the party. Everybody wants slink in the room sly and cool. But something that is out of style will be marked. A party of self-described "realists" calls something out of style an idealist. But we idealists have to come in strutting our stuff. Eventually we will be the new cool.
Are babies. The real Jesus didn't have germ-theory.
btw, this is a burgeoning interest of mine. Thanks, thod, for bringing my attention to this.
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....
...overrated????
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Seriously, though, I do hope they rocket his ashes up into three geostationary orbits. His early books were groundbreaking; but the later books were crap. He wrote 2001 the same time Kubrick wrote his script--Clark made the explanations, but Kubrick made the genius.
Is the name of the collective that my nephew and I started. Here's our first video:
Haven't decided on a name for the tune yet. I'll get back to you. (Or, better yet, suggest one!)
In a useful way to summarize NYT op-eds.
Very nice.
I'm STILL waiting for my Visa. The gods have spirited an ethereal nimbus of gloomy limbo upon my being. I wait. I wait. I wait.
Someday, again, I will teach.
In the meantime, I can catch up with how horrible everything is.
The Clash sell-out, but only in earbuds. You can sell-out too. For whatever reason(s), these two articles really disturb me. I can't put my finger on it. Somehow I feel I'm being implicated. So what, I like The Clash, and it's played in Star Bucks. Can I live with that? Yes. The real strange music will never make it.
Last week I organized my links, and, as you can see, on the right (isn't it weird that I don't have to tell you if it's your right, or my right, okay, it's not) I have added friends. If you want to be a slop friend, just make a comment or email me. I have to say I have been reading Liz Von Uhl's blog, and her last post has sort been sticking in my brain. I went to grad(?!) school with her, and we reconnected through facebook. She's a talented poet, and I think she writes fiction too. Anyhow, it's this post about the absurd. I really like the way she explores ideas, and find her way with language intoxicating. But I often get into terrible arguments with poets. I can see what she means about metaphor being inextricable with absurdity, and especially in the context of teaching students about them. Lis in my experience is a no-nonsense person, and so I would say she might have a better perspective on all this. Metaphors, absurd? Okay, I go along with that. They are exaggerated comparisons, I suppose. I have to say I have a sinking feeling that this is a reduction--and the great satan knows I think reductions are necessary for teaching! The concept of the absurd is the notion of ridiculousnessness of everything--and isn't it all absurd? I think metaphors are absurd, but not making metaphors is more absurd! Our language is threaded inextricably with metaphors; it seems to be a process that our brains take to more naturally than something, like, say, multiplication. Again, that's my abstracted, space-case view of the world. Anyhow, Lis, I consider you a fellow, raging soldier against The Abyss, so I hope no offense is taken. If you read this.
Okay, I feel a little happier. Oh happiness, sanitize my melancholy blood.
Here's one.
Here's one.
Here's another.
I generally don't like them. Today I saw a truck with a very impressive graphic displaying the driver's association with the US Marine Corp and his affection for the flag. Okay, that's fine. But underneath all the visual hullabaloo were at least two bumperstickers. The one on the right took me awhile to discern; I assumed it would have said "Bush Was Right," or Rush Is Right, or Support the Troops, or something typically jingoistic. Nope. I don't know if you've seen this one, but it said in all caps with several exclamation points: "WHERE'S THE FENCE?!?!?" Yipes. That gave me a chill up the spine, but shouldn't be surprising in the land of Tancredo. Then I scoped the other bumpersticker on the left side: "Ron Paul '08." If that doesn't give anyone pause who had ever even considered voting for Ron Paul, well. Well it just reinforces my prejudice regarding the American Right Wing "Libertarian" movement and Ron Paul.
And the Right Brothers and their song Bush Was Right reinforces my prejudice of against all things neo-punk. The guitar lick "neener neener neener;" what could be more idiotic? But that was the point of the Ramones. It seemed idiotic, except it was genius.
But, on the contrary side, I don't like the "anti-idiot" talk either. I saw a bumpersticker the other day about what this country needs is to get rid of all the idiots. In Orcinus terminology, this Eliminationist. I want to ask these people, people like comedian Lewis Black, who says we need to get rid of all the idiots: How do we determine who are the idiots? Mandatory IQ tests? What about idiot-savants? What about the Ramones? They seem like idiots, they act like idiots, they sound like idiots, but what they did was genius. Unlike the Right Brothers--who look like fratboys who got moderately high scores on the SAT.
An Alternative to Suicide does a public service and unearths these gems.
By the way, regardless of the quality of these miracles of sound, the real Suicide is better.
The songs on Taylor Parkes' Alternative to Suicide has up for download are highly recommended. Kudos to Parkes' industriousness. I'm sure in a less-regulated world he'd be a billionaire.
Saturday, I was a delegate at the Denver County Democrat convention. It was a mob, but I am a believer in the system. I took notes during the proceedings...here they are, unaltered, with minor clarifications ...
All the white cords- I keep thinking they are Ipod cords! (little pieces of strings around everyone's neck to hold our credentials- what precinct, our candidate of choice, senate district, etc...)
One huge line, than another. (my official envelope said district 5. I was really 7. It took 3 loooooong lines for them to figure this out for me.)
Overabundance of G-L last names in district 7. (the A-F and M-Z lines had like 5 people at a time, my line had like 50.)
Diversity? Whites and Blacks (this meant that I didn't see a lot of Hispanic people and very, very few Asians.)
Met State Treasurer Cary Kennedy. Cold, slim hand. (all toothy smiles. I couldn't think of anything to say to her. After she left I did. "How's the money?")
Demos gave me wrong list, on boundary? (q.v.)
Scooter parking! (There was a large crowd of Vespas and whatnot outside. Sometimes you just gotta shake yer head and smile...)
Denvercrat! (a number of folks had that on their t-shirts)
Are Repub conventions so Chaotic? (It was insane, like a sold-out baseball game on crack or something.)
Case of pens in the backpack- I wanna steal one. (there was a guy in the mass-iine into the theater, his backpack was half open and I resisted the urge to try to take one of his pens...)
(now I sat in the huge theater...a number of party people spoke. I wrote some things down.)
I guess that feeling of those two overused terms "hope" and "change" is the pervading feeling here- but its really hard to know if it's really "real." (or what's been crammed down our maws) But at least they're playing Neil Young. My feelings here- are, I think, complicated- cynically optimistic? I've never really believed in any Presidential candidate. (which was the problem I had with my being there...I wasn't the hard-core believer that many of my fellow delegates were. I felt like I was mis-representing myself, and my candidate.)
Yes we can, a man starts a chant in our district section. The enthusiasm is, of course, encouraging but...(where will these people be in 4 years, 8?) Obama! Hillary! people everywhere shout.
Hey...if we can make politics like sports in America, we just might have a chance...a chance for what I ask myself.
haven't said the pledge (of allegiance) since grade school.
(later)
I just want a President that i don't have to worry about... (screwing up) for 8 years years I have had this weight on my head.
Barack spellcheck ( Barack was spelled incorrectly on some of our literature. The speaker noted that the name Barack was not in spellcheck.)
Hope, a negative connotation? ( I guess I felt as if all this "hope" name-dropping made it feel as if we were in very desperate situation. And i guess, in a lot ways, we are...but most of us are still overweight...so...)
Degette speaks. (A plain-spoken, wonderful woman.)
Serious woman: Obama! I love her. (this woman, in the row ahead of me, kept shouting out Obama! at the most inappropriate times....when our Senators were speaking she shouted, when taking votes, she shouted, anytime,everytime, this shrill voice, Obama! When challenged by annoyed democrats, she said free speech! Free speech! She was probably the highlight of the day.)
"let's get another kind of bush in the White House!" (tee hee!)
DNC vs. Denver Olympics ( Did you know that Denver is the only city to ever refuse the Olympics? In 1976. I think it was because then Gov. Dick Lamm had environmental concerns. I was thinking maybe the DNC could make up for that...)
(State Speaker of the House Andrew) Romanoff: Good! (An impassioned speaker, Among other reasons, he encouraged us send:)
(GB's) Stimulus checks to Democrats.
GB united the Democrats
The fact here is that while I'm here as a supporter of Obama (q.v.)
Democrat is the new black faux pas ( a remark by the CO democratic party director. She was referring to fashion, but considering that audience was probably 30-45% African-American, it didn't go down too well...)
Mitch Morrisey, DA strong- dedicated seeming looks like he could kick my ass. Training cops to recognize gay hate crimes.
Elbra Wedgworth Got us the convention 25,000 volunteers.
(and my last note. The convention went on for awhile after this, but I was getting really tired.)
the fervor of Obama supporters comparing hope to revolution are we in such times now?
- drw.
One stick in my life's craw is ergonomics; If I can never unshackle myself from computer use, it will become imperative that the ergonomic situation is improved. I am hunched and my arms are thin and strained; If I'm constantly sitting at a computer I start developing tendonitis. It has happened to me at a few office jobs in the past; I experience numbness in my arms, and then shooting pain along the ulnar nerves that I feel up into my ring and little fingers. And then I can't use a computer for weeks, have to go through physical therapy etc. Mac is rumored to be working on a new interface this year. If I could work a computer like a theremin, like an interpretetive dancer , well, it'd be the bee's knees.
I was never aware before of Operation Paperclip, the US operation to collect Nazi scientists for own use. I was never a good student of history, but I just can't believe I never heard of this, or I hadn't retained it if I had. This is from the V-2 article:
The V-2 rocket (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2) was the first ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight,[3] the progenitor of all modern rockets and a direct precursor of the Saturn V moon rocket. Over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets in World War II. As many as 20,000 slave labourers died constructing V-2s compared to the 7,000 military personnel and civilians that died from the V-2's use in combat.[4]
The cast of A Better Tomorrow II thanks you:
Chow Yun Fat
Leslie Cheung
Ti Lung
Dean Shek
We've almost hit a 20,000 plays--that's almost equal to the number of bullets shot in the final shoot-out in the movie!
And the cast in turn thanks you with a free podcast with a ton of our music, presented to you by Meltmaster's Raw From Selection:
I'm sick of hooks. I don't want my students to write good hooks. I want them to write good essays. If you have a good idea, it'll hook me.
I don't know if I could write an essay to save my life, but hooks are stupid.
I'm grading Korean essays and they are graded on the base of having a good hook and a good thesis. Both are equally valued, mind you. My thesis: This is illustrative of our (increasingly shared) endemic superficial culture that values shininess. And it's crap; and it makes me weep. This is what is wrong in my world; my tiny fixed perspective looking at the world from inside the microcosmic hollow-spere; and the little pinprick hook-stars are ugly and make my eyes bleed sadness.
Had you checked my entry as of late? It's filling up with tasty details. 
Or perhaps I should ask, have you check yours?
What's that you say. Oh, you don't have one. Hmmmmm. How curious.
"...on the contrary, I discovered that nothing is more liberating in life than to fight for a cause that encompasses you but does not include you alone. And that has made, my friends, all the difference in the world--all the difference."
Who does he think he is? JFK, FDR? Can we get him down to three initials? John the III. Christ, no wonder the base hates him. He talks like Jesus, except not about Jesus. Well, I still salute him, GW style:
Looks like a job for Fantasy Mission Force. Go!
Literature should not be used to inspire hope. It should be used to validate pessimism and the lost dream of actualizing human potential. Sham culture.
Finally, he's edgy enough for me.
well, I like the first half. But then he gets preachy.
wikipedia:
I amongist other have indured a Parlyament which contenewid by the space of xvij hole wekes, wher we communyd of warre, pease, stryffe, contencyon, debatt, murmure, grudge, riches, poverte, penwrye, trowth, falshode, justyce, equyte, discayte, oppressyon, magnanymyte, actyvyte, force, attempraunce, treason, murder, felonye, consyle[ation], and also how a commune welth myght be edeffyed and contenewed within our realme. Howbeyt in conclusion we have done as our predecessors have bene wont to doo, that ys to say as well as we myght, and lefte wher we began.
McCain and Kristol's magnificent 10,000 year reign.
via cursor.
Laogzed sends his regards. He also has some issues he wants to bring up with the A&S community. Namely issues of wealth, disparity of wealth, notions of class, and other things. To further the argument, whether for clarity or obfuscuity, I just want to say that I don't have a political opinion about rich people. I just have an emotion. But this emotion, namely, hate, or envy, or whatever you want to call it is not rational. It is a self-hatred, because I am among the rich; although not among the super-rich. And if there was a global catastrophe I'm not sure what side of the wedge I'd fall into. There is a great deal of money in my extended family--but we are not aristocrats. We don't have keys to the underground tunnels. So maybe that's what I really hate, is the ones with the keys to underground tunnels. Laogzed will have something to say about that as well, I'm sure! Hoping to get him in the studio soon.
