A place to come and relax and read some of the most weirdly disjointed and odd commentary on humanity. Or just the rantings of a travel weary madman. Or a good recipe for muffins. You just never know.
...it's been fun. But you've failed me once too often. Like today, when I couldn't post at all for awhile. Ah well. In any case, I'm jumping to my own site...
Hopefully, I'll be able to spruce it up a bit more over the next couple of months. Maybe when it gets ludicrously cold outside and I'll want to do nothing more than curl up by a warm laptop for the evening...
Anyone who wants to come and visit is more than welcome.
I admit it -- I'm cynical. I'm a dyed in the wool cynical bastard. When news came from Russia of a horrific hostage and siege scenario the second thing I thought was, "That sounds way too convenient." The first thing I thought was, "God, how awful." And then, recent "god, that's awful" events made me follow the next logical conclusion, which is: it's all a big plan. It either works deliberately (they paid someone to do something horrible in order to justify their actions) or unintentionally (they were so lax in their efforts and deliberately belligerent in their provocations, that they only had to wait for someone to do something horrific) and suddenly your government can get carte blanche to do pretty much whatever it wants in the guise of "security" or "safety." And, bam, you're living in a totalitarian dictatorship again. Wow, suddenly it's 1939 all over again. Instead of villifying an undeserved ethnic minority, we'll villify a religious one. Sure, whatever works in the service of creating totalitarian dictatorships the world over. And then we get to use our fancy weaponry and kill anyone we don't like without having to explain it and...hmm..sounding all too familiar to a certain country that I'm living in. Now, with Russia on the similar warpath, it's only a matter of time before things get way out of hand. Did anyone else read the Cat in the Hat when they were growing up? I'm always reminded of how thing 1 & thing 2 weren't able to get that stain out and in all of their odd efforts to do so, ended up spreading it even further. Violence begets violence in an endless cycle that then creates poverty (which begets violence). Asimov once wrote that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. At this stage of the game, we're dealing with a lot of people who have violated the Peter Principle (being promoted just beyond one's level of competency -- everyone in positions of power have gone 2 or 3 steps beyond their level of competency). And it doesn't look very good for the rest of the world. I wonder if the Doomsday Clock is milliseconds from midnight yet or not...
Hope this cheered everyone up on this gray Wednesday.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Mrs. Whimple?"
"Yes...who is this?"
"My name is Eli, I'm living in New York City and I'm calling you today to ask who you think you might be voting for in November."
"Oh, well...I was thinking that Bush was doing such a nice job, I'd just vote for him."
"What exactly is he doing that is a 'nice job?'"
Pause. "Well, not so much a nice job, just that I think he's a nice guy, I guess."
"Let me cut to the chase -- I tend to think that the only reason you can even consider supporting him is that you believe that abortion is wrong, gays shouldn't get married, and you believe that he's 'decisive.' Is that about where you stand?"
"Umm...yes, I suppose so."
"Okay, well let me run something by you, if I may. I was here in New York City when the GOP was having its little soiree. And I had friends who were arrested because they were standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. They spent days -- not hours -- in a motor oil and asbestos filled warehouse picking up god knows what. Because they were standing in the wrong place."
"Where exactly are you going with this?"
"Where I'm going is, let's just say for argument's sake, you were standing in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Yes? I suppose it could happen."
"It really happens every day -- someone crosses the street and a car happens to be making a weird turn and they get hit."
"That happened to my cousin Maurice."
"I'm terribly sorry to hear that."
"Oh, that's okay. Maurice just broke his hip and he was looking for a good reason to slow down."
"Oh, okay. So, you can imagine being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Yes, I guess so."
"Well, don't you think that maybe it ought to be the desire of your government to minimize those wrong places and wrong times. And not -- as was the case in New York City this past week -- to maximize the wrong place and wrong time."
"I guess I don't follow, exactly."
"Do you believe in God?"
"Yes, I do. I have a strong faith in God."
"That's good."
"And our president does, too, I'll have you know."
"Yes, I was aware of that. Let me ask you something -- you don't believe that gays should marry, correct?"
"Yes, I think it's an abomination of God's will."
"All right. Well, let me just say for example that God speaks to our president at some point and he says, 'Good going with those gays, George. Now, would you mind taking on that peculiar Protestant problem, for me.'"
"Excuse me? Protestant problem?"
"I hear that there are -- and this is purely hypothetical -- Protestants getting married. And that's just not right. Because they aren't born again. They don't believe in the right things."
"What you're saying is ridiculous?"
"Is it? What kind of God would tell you that it's okay to fence off some people, just because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And you've created this state of wrong. So, you could easily designate anyone in that dimension -- do you like chocolate? Well, maybe God has decided that no one should eat chocolate anymore. And people who do, should be fenced up and put in a motor oil infested warehouse for days at a time."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, Mrs. Whimple, that things that people believe in -- for whatever their reasons -- are completely arbitrary. And it's not really our government's job to make people believe one thing or another. That's where the government does not belong. And I believe -- and I think this past week in New York City nicely backs up my assumptions -- that the current in power administration wants to get into the thought police business. They want to tell you what you can and cannot believe. And -- based on the long traditional history of people who talk to God on a regular basis -- what is right and wrong can shift at any moment. First, gays can't get married. Then people can't assemble freely in the street. Before you know it, we've got to do something about the jews. Or hispanics. Or blacks. Or whatever. And the only road away from this dismal fascist future is to raise up your voice and say that it's not the future that you want. That terrorism is awful. And the kind of intimidation and intolerance and thought control that is being practiced by the propagandists and policy wonks of the Republican party is no different than what a group of people such as al-Queda are doing. That's what I'm saying."
Silence.
"Mrs. Whimple?"
Noticeably absent in the highlights reported by the media from the speeches last night is any mention of the economy. I'll have to check the full transcript, but it seems odd that -- as a capitalist country, which essentially lives and dies at the hand of its economy -- not focusing on this might be seen as a gaping hole in someone's stump speech. I'm sure that will be rectified when they start touting all of the minimum wage jobs that have been created, completely ignoring the lack of funding for education (and therefore trained, smart, capable future American entrepeneurs) and focusing instead on more funding for guns. Because, really, guns don't kill people...they make a country grow! Hey, if we have enough guns, we don't need to have reasonable, sane, sensible, intelligent, creative, capable citizens. We'll just find someone who does have those things and bully them until they give it to us. It worked for GWB in elementary school (probably), it'll work for the country now. So, look out world...and pony up your milk money now before we get really angry and devote our entire budget to buying all sorts of crazy weaponry. You've been warned.
This has been a message endorsed by the Society for Fascism in America (RNC) (Betcha didn't know that's what those letters stood for -- is it their fault that they never learned to spell? No education funding!)
This is just a brief jotting of a note -- whilst I stew in my infuriated rant at what has happened to NYC in the guise of "security" (i.e. Martial Law) -- I was informed via email that the documentary that I directed/shot/edited on the gay marriages in San Francisco was accepted into the Seattle Gay & Lesbian Film Festival! This is indeed a very happy transpiring for me. Though, it means I will have to spend some long nights actually finishing it in its full High-definition glory...well, that's the kind of extra work that I can get behind. Hope to have some more happy news to report to counterbalance the unending supply of crap that seems to permeate the rest of the world stage.
This just in. Glad to see flip-flopping isn't a partisan sport.
Though, I personally don't think changing your mind is a capital offense -- apparently it is. It seems hard to base the entire criticism of your campaign rival on something that you in close proximity of two statements, no less, have done yourself. Even after staking your entire criticism on the said rival on this particular "flaw." Personally, I could care less whether he thinks we can or can't win a war on terror, largely because such a thing doesn't exist. You can't fight a war against a concept. It's just not possible. The war on drugs -- which isn't really a concept so much as it is an inanimate object -- proved this much over the past two decades. It might be helpful to reframe all of these questions away from a war-like mentality. Perhaps, we can think that we've jumped ahead of this evolutionarily speaking. Though, it might be hard for some people to get their walnut sized brains around it. Perhaps, instead of a war on terror, we could have a picnic lunch against injustice?
I'll make the 'tater salad.
It is without question infuriating to watch mainstream news media mislead and in general misreport, skew and bungle facts and deceive the entire population at large. In an AP story, as reprinted on Yahoo.com, the reporter claimed over 100,000 people were involved in a march against the current administration. Yet, the headline they chose to use said "tens of thousands protest." Deliberately misleading, when the facts in the story state over 100,000. Tens of thousands is 50 or 70. 100,000 is...well, obviously the AP can't do the math, so I'll give them a hand. It's over 100,000. It's more than 10,000. By an entire decimal place. A factor of 10, if you will.
Aside from that deliberate mislead, the facts are wrong. How do I know this? I struggled for 3 hours to walk 10 freaking blocks! That's how crowded seventh avenue was. If you line up people body to body across the breadth of seventh avenue and then stretch them the length of seventh avenue, you get more than 100,000 people. Especially when you stretch that over the course of 20 blocks.
I was also very impressed with the near Beirut style barricade technique that the NYPD employed as the street approached MSG. It was quite claustrophobia inducing, and felt very much like a blind trap of sorts, winnowing the parade/march into a thinner and thinner street, as if to pen in any possible protest. Or escalate the opportunity for violence. I wasn't sure which. I was glad to have been represented...oh, I'm sorry -- MISREPRESENTED -- by the thoroughly incompetent and highly specious mainstream media that reports on the event. Still, it was worth going. I dont' think a convention has ever been protested with that kind of volume.
I also must say that the reports I hear from the critical mass (which I very nearly attended and would probably be scratching this missive out from a sludge covered jail cell, had I done that) are disturbing at the minimum. It sounds as if the police (as they did when critical mass was at it's most influential in SF several years ago) DELIBERATELY set out to create conflict and foment violence. Nice. I guess they learned that a good offense is the best defense. That ought to be the Republican's motto. It seems to fit all too perfectly in everything they do. They are, without question, patently offensive.
This just in. Apparently an earnest ad for a television show on TBS. The kicker, for me, is that you're competing for $6000. Six. Thousand. Not a million. Not even 10 thousand, which seems like it might be a nice round number.
Have we sunk this low?
Is this the harbinger of a new sludgy slate of reality television wherein people do stupid, asinine things for no other reason than to be on television in the end? I envision a future world of America where everyone is on television. I think, with blogs, we've begun to see that evolution start. Everyone will have their own reality show, and without any prize. They will be as narcissistic and self-indulgent as the neverending supply of human thoughts can be. And there will be viewers who will want to tune in to see what stupid thing you'll do next. People will have hats with direct satellite feeds back to their laptops where they will encode the daily drama of their life. Look, I'm walking down the street. Oh, wait, is that a dog? Maybe I'll pet it...oh no, it bit me! Indeed this kind of 24/7 surveillance is not a new idea (George Orwell, and probably people before him even). I'm even reminded of the prescient television show from the early 80s called Max Headroom, which foretold a media clogged future.
Is this a better world? I would argue, no.
I was thinking the other night as I walked down the street listening to the irascible chatter from everyone on their cell phones that the level of human noise over the past few years has increased dramatically. Does anyone else remember a time when you could assume that if someone said something out loud near you that they were actually talking to you? I feel a little like pulling a DeNiro taxi driver routine more often than not on the sidewalks of new york. It also has diminished the importance of any utterance. By sheer volume, interesting things become banal. Important items, get lost in the deluge. I think this is the true effect of the information age.
It's a tough choice.
We live in a fucked up society right now. I really ought to renounce my chosen profession, all my worldly possessions and retire to a cave somewhere to work on inventing a time travel machine, wherein I could go back in time and fix some of the horrible, horrible misdeeds that have occurred. For one, I'd re-enfranchise the thousands of people in Florida who "decided" that last election. Or at least get enough good blackmailing material on Scalia and Thomas to sway the vote the appropriate direction. Whatever works.
In any case, this humorous tidbit makes me chuckle a bit and then get very, very, very sad. Why? Well, the funniest part about it to me is that someone with the name Edward (or Ted) Kennedy is on a no-fly list. Or similar to that. I would love to see what other odd names have made it onto the no-fly list. This highly protected document is undoubtedly chock full of incorrectly identified names. And to Shakespeare, I say, apparently a lot is in a name. And no, it doesn't smell quite the same.
In any case, I wonder if in the hands of someone with a more humane and human sensibility, if the tragic events of 2001 might've given rise to something incredible, something that may have changed the face of this world, something that could have miraculously taken hold of the outpouring of goodwill that a tragic incident can sometimes cause. I wonder if in the hands of someone with an ounce of compassion or even a smidgen of empathy (or, hey, a group of someones with either compassion or empathy), what intelligent and worthwhile movements that they may have crafted, using goodwill and healing instead of hate and fear and terror. It may have been a wondrous century to live through. Instead, it is nothing more than where all the rest of human society has trampled before, through the Genghis Khans and Alexanders and Caesars of history's tomes lay waste. I guess it would be too much for me to hope that we might rise above being base and crass and unruly and fearful little creatures, like cowering mogwai waiting for our inner gremlin to commence smashing things up. Maybe if the world were more matriarchal. But even that would give rise to the same sort of sharp vituperation, I imagine.
Perhaps the time machine would help save this world from itself. But, more likely, it would just wreak an even kookier future that would make Orwell think things were amiss. To think, he was only 20 years early in his date predictions. I wonder if we'll make contact with a large monolith in 2021.
Never thought I'd have to make this a running tally...or maybe, it should come as no surprise.
I like the end of the story where his parents are happy that he actually is good at something. The only thing that most Americans are any good at, apparently. But, hey, it's good to support your kids.
I've been alive just long enough to realize that I've been alive just long enough to realize.
