politics

Life: Setting zombies atwitter.

I really, REALLY need to stop watching zombie movies right before bed. Mind you, it’s not that the movies themselves are grippingly scary, but they do tend to set the mind awander. Inevitably after watching John Q. Public become John Q. NomNom, I can’t help but lie awake for far too long planning my zombie apocalypse “survival” strategy. How to survive the first assault. Siege tactics. Resource acquisition. It is as if the long-dormant engineering degree is, much like a zombie, not completely dead and buried in my brain and longs to claw to the surface of the conscious mind and start …. planning. Dun dun DUNNN!

Sadly, though I’d like to admit this hasn’t ever happened before, it does occur with some frequency. (No, not, y’know, zombie apocalypses, but rather staying up a little too late and then getting ‘pulled in’ to a cinematic fright fest of the fearfully undead.) To wit, what to do? Just ignore it on the 99.98% probability there won’t be a World War Z in my lifetime? Well, that just sounds too logical. So the engineering mind staggers to the fore, thinking of home integrity, ways to board windows, sawing the steps off the deck, avenues of retreat and where to place ladders and weighing wether or not my wife would leave me were I to pack an emergency “Go!” bag, you know, just in case. I could always pass it off as disaster preparedness. Hmm…

So, as you can see, it sets the brain aflutter with possibilities and potential. Yes, I said potential. As in, what a perfect opportunity to loot a Walmart. I mean, I think if anyone looks deep enough within, we’ll all find that we secretly would like to ransack that place, right? And it’s the perfect one-stop shop for all your end-of-world needs, too. Food? Check. Guns? Check. Ammo? Check. Camo? Check. Fertilizer for blowing shit up? Check. Seeds for all the optimists? Check. And Twinkies, too (for all you “Zombieland”/Woody Harrelson fans).

But, terribly, what this all leaves me with is something perhaps more terrifying than undead moans in the night. And that is this: Once upon a time a few millennia ago we humans used our brains and ability to plan to rise up. We made plans to run game into traps, to kick the bear’s ass from afar with stones and spears, to cultivate our own food rather than roam about searching for it. The ability of the mind to plan is simply stunning. That we now use our minds for little more than trivia, video games or, for the truly “leading” minds, thinking of nothing more than the next fiscal quarter numbers or the turn of the next election cycle … well that is simply stunningly sad.

So, maybe we could use a zombie apocalypse? I sure hope not. But even that might not get those that remain to really start thinking–like we used to do. For a moment there, I thought, or hoped, that after 9/11 we’d take a chance on change, on bettering humanity. But we’re still in that same shit show, sliding down a tightening spiral. Years ago people actually wrote. They wrote letters pages long during wars, books of beauty while travelling the road, and sonnets, sweet sonnets that made me love the words of the English language.

And years from now, our ancestors will only be able to learn of us from 140 character tweets.

Well, if they’re not caught by zombies, that is.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Leave a comment

the patriot act, renewed

How is it that that only place I’ve seen mention that Obama renewed the Patriot Act for another year is on metafilter?

Regardless, I thought you’d want to know that Big Brother is still watching.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Leave a comment

Politics: Are Palin, Rush Limbaugh, & Republicans retarded?

So, dear Rush Limbaugh is being taken to task for the use of the word ‘retard’ on his radio show. This–in and of itself–is completely unsurprising and not very interesting. I mean, this IS the guy with all the taste and class to imitate Michael J. Fox having a seizure, after all.

No, the delicious part is this:

“Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult has taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, ‘retards,” Limbaugh said of the report on Wednesday’s show. “These liberal activists are kooks, they are looney tunes.”

Liberal activists, you say?

You mean, like that tea-baggin’, moose-shooter Sarah Palin? Just a scant few days before Rush ate his foot, Palin was chastising her own colleagues for use of the same word, which in turn was only a day or so after wanting White House Chief of Staff Rom Emmanuel (D) fired for using the same word … about liberals.

Does everyone in D.C. have their heads so far up their own whazoos that no one can see they’re drowning in irony? Honestly, I think these people might be r… ah, challenged.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Leave a comment

Politic: US History takes sharp turn to the right with Supreme Court ruling on corporate campaign finance

Holy. Shit. Just when I thought Bush/Cheney were done bending over America and fucking it in the ass, their supreme court appointees take up the slack. (AND they get to kick John McCain in the balls doing it. Double win for die-hard GOP’ers!)

Today the Supreme Court opened the flood gates for unlimited corporate contributions in campaigns. Read the article or at least listen to the 3 minutes story in the link. All the rules of the ‘game’ just changed. What Obama raised in 2008 through individual contributions will look like petty cash come 2012. Politicians–EVERY politician–will be wholly owned by corporate sponsors. If you thought it was tough getting health care through Congress this past year, it–and any other piece of legislation that might upset special interests/corporations–is now beyond dead.

Outlandish prediction: Heavy backing of pro-business Republican candidates across the board, with huge gains in Congress and local elections. Just as we look back through American history and see the coming and going of political parties, this will later be seen as the death knell of the Democratic Party. How huge is this decision? Republican domination for the next 40 years, until some internal strife fractures that party. Start preparing yourself to hear the words “President Palin.” Start now, because I know it will take some time getting used to.

Sure, that sounds crazy. But so is overturning a cornerstone piece of legislation that’s been around and strengthened over the last 100+ years. Until today.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Leave a comment

Life/Politic: The Codger

I’m feeling … codger-ly of late. The weather has kept me off the bike for far too many weeks. I’ve got a couple of nagging injuries from ramping up my running distances too far too fast. And I have a child with some sort of mystery congestion I’m trying to figure out.

And now, the Democrats have miraculously pissed away any meaningful control of congress a year after Obama gets elected. In Massachusetts of all places. Seriously, I’ve never seen Harry Reid do anything other than stand behind Nancy Pelosi, who in turn always looks like she’s at least thought about some terrible tragedy knocking out Obama and Biden at the same time (Hello, third-in-line to the Presidency!). Remember the Republicans in the same position? They were absolutely railroading stuff through Congress. Sadly, the Dems can’t seem to get out of their own way. Sheez.

To wit: Harumph. I am codgerly.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Leave a comment

some ideas on what might be wrong with america

  1. Nothing. If you don’t like it get the fuck out!
  2. Or, Rush Limbaugh calling for segregated buses. We have known the man is an idiot for the last 15 years. I’m actually amazed that we can now unabashedly add ‘racist’ to that modifier. You’d think that it either would have been obvious much sooner or simply never come up. But yet here we are in 2009 and the man is calling for segregation. Fucker.
  3. And our disposable lifestyles. This depressing article from the NYT highlights self-storage, a concept I didn’t get before the article. Now it just makes me want to scream.

    Even by the early ’90s, American families had, on average, twice as many possessions as they did 25 years earlier. By 2005, according to the Boston College sociologist Juliet B. Schor, the average consumer purchased one new piece of clothing every five and a half days.

    What is wrong with us? Why do we have a compulsion to spend money?

  4. And Wolf Blitzer failing beyond miserably at Celebrity Jeopardy while Andry Richter mops the floor with him. Skip 2 or 3 minutes in if you don’t want to watch the entire 10 minutes. So the comedy sidekick (and genius) cleans up; the man who is supposed to deliver news can’t even get out of the red.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Leave a comment

Politic: Logic always loses to fear

Congratulations. Way to suck, California.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Leave a comment