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August 20th, 2009
12:51 am - Communism is not socialism is not fascism: A primer for the American Right
I figured out a while back why the American Right is so afraid of socialists. They don't know the difference between Communism with a capital C, the kind that led to the Iron Curtain and the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc., and socialism the construct, which in itself isn't a political system (as Communism is, where one party must rule, for instance) so much as an egalitarian concept of private/government partnership in guiding an economy. Marx and Engels used the word "socialist" and "communist" interchangeably, much like today's GOP does, but later, Lenin, who did more for Communism than anyone else to this point, arguably, defined socialism as a "step" between capitalism and Communism; a transitional phase, if you will.
So that confusion, while annoying, is at least understandable. What I haven't been able to figure out until presently is why people (and I use that term loosely) keep conflating health care reform -- or their fevered visions of a government administered, 100 percent socialist health care system -- and the Nazi party of Adolf Hitler, the former Chancellor of Germany who made fascism a twisted and methodical art form all its own. Hitler mustaches on pictures of Obama, cries of "Nazi plan" at town hall meetings ... what to make of this terrible ideological confusion? Sure there's some racial baiting going on here, the idea that if Obama wants reform, it must be some secret code for "reparations" for black people (of course, where they get the idea that all politics is coded in cyphers is beyond me ... oh wait a minute, that's all Bush did for eight years), but that can't account for it all, can it?
And then it hit me. It's rather simple really. A member of the Nazi party was formally known (in Germany, anyway) as a National Socialist. National Socialist becomes Socialist becomes Communist becomes terrible threat to all of man kind. The fact that the word "socialist" in those two applications (Goebbels vs. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for example) has two completely different meanings is probably lost on a lot of the same people who don't understand that socialist policies (like Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, etc.) are completely different from Communist ideals (lack of class stratification, assigned duties to people based on abilities, 100 percent centralized commerce, etc.).
So here we are. Fascism is confused with its polar opposite, Communism, and we wind up with people yelling about insurance companies' "right" to profit like we're back to baking Jews in ovens. Not that some of them would necessarily care about that though either, as evidenced by the classy lady in Las Vegas barking "Heil Hitler" at an old Jewish man who was talking about the care he received in Israel at a community forum. Fascism, though, is the authoritarian ideology that the strong shall inherit the earth, and not tomorrow either, like, TODAY, through military force, and that this is the only way humans can function as a society at our utmost potential. Fascists hate the idea of class divisions and they hate capitalists and Communists for basically the same reason: Both of them exploit class divisions for their own personal gain. Fascists just want one class: The best of the best. Which is, of course, why Hitler somehow came up with the Holocaust based on some readings on Hindu culture (fun fact, the swastika is actually a symbol of luck and prosperity in Hindu culture, and was for several thousand years before Hitler and his assholes co-opted it).
Now when I look at these poor, mistaken, brainwashed fools waving signs about socialist takeovers in one hand and swastikas with Obama's face on the other, I'll know: they just need to read a little more about political philosophies. Oh yeah, and stop being racist bastards too.
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August 15th, 2009
01:35 am - Culinary derringdo: Southwest Squash Casserole
I hate to be a tease, but I haven't actually tried this yet. It's a recipe I saw on allrecipes.com that sounded good, but the cooking instructions (entirely microwave based) were beyond stupid, so I wrote down the ingredients, made some notes about other complementary ingredients that might jazz it up a bit, and executed a game plan.
I sautéed the squash, onions, red peppers and mushrooms in olive oil and added the chiles right at the end to let the flavors seep together a bit. I spread the resulting goodness on the bottom of a large glass casserole pan (with some vegetable oil spray just for nonstickiness). Then I boiled an ear of two-tone sweet corn for eight minutes, stripped the kernels off the cob and added that to the menage, along with about 3/4 of the bag of shredded cheese (colby jack instead of just straight jack), mixed that up a bit, drained and rinsed a can of black beans, added a drained can of sliced jalapeño, the sour cream and whatever else I'm forgetting. I crunched the tortilla chips up over the top and then sprinkled the remaining shredded cheese over top, slapped it on the bottom rack of my oven for about a half-hour at 325ish F (though I turned it up to 350 for the last 10 minutes or so because it appeared the cheese wasn't melting evenly enough) and called it good when I saw the mixture doing some bubbling at the edges.
This will be my dinner for part of this week at work, so I'm hopeful it turned out well. I like all the ingredients, and they make sense together, so I don't foresee any heartbreak.
Seriously, screw the microwave on this one. Microwave casserole? This ain't the Jetsons, pal.
EDIT: I tried it, and it tastes pretty fantastic, but the veggies are still more raw than I'd like (in other words, it doesn't appear to have cooked through from the bottom as well as the top yet), so back into the oven for another round, this time I figure another 15 minutes at 400F to start, and then I'll check and do perhaps 5 minute increments as needed? This is the cutting edge, people. Culinary experimentation at its livest.
EDIT 2: 15 minutes at 400, then another 5, and it turned out great. The top even crusted over a bit more, giving it that nice casserole feel. This thing is pretty spicy, and I'd recommend less hardy souls not use a whole can of jalapeños or perhaps just stick to the mild chiles. Or substitute your favorite pepper. The world is yours, culinary adventurer.
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May 4th, 2009
05:12 pm - New Year's Eve
For the last few years, I've been a champion of the grassroots movement (of one) to change the calendar so January 1 falls right about now instead of when it does, in the dead of winter. I chose Cinco de Mayo as the new New Year kind of arbitrarily because A. the weather's almost always gorgeous and B. people are already in the mood to drink for no real reason.
Think about it: With January 1 where it is in the earth's wobble/rotate schedule, it's the dog days of summer down under and the dead of winter up here. Australians get to celebrate every new year in shorts, surfing ... certainly never huddling together in the freezing cold in Times Square to watch a shiny orb drop 30 feet or so. By moving the beginning of our Roman-based calendar to now (or perhaps even the vernal equinox), you're evening the playing field. Aussies and other Southern Hemisphere dwellers would still have decent weather for their celebrations and the majority of us (those of us in the northern half of the globe) would likely have utterly fantastic weather, from Miami to Toronto to London to Glasgow to Tokyo and all points in between. And I hear the Mediterranean is beautiful this time of year.
So although I've been observing Cinco de Mayo as my own personal New Year's Day for a couple years, I'm hoping this movement picks up steam. Even if only one of you joins me, that swells our ranks by 100 percent!
Current Music: Notorious B.I.G. - Gimme the Loot | Powered by Last.fm
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September 4th, 2008
11:11 pm - A summary of the McCain speech (chronologically)
1. Respect
2. Honor
3. Humbleness
4. Hope
5. Strawman
6. Strawman
7. More strawmen, shameless attacks on "respected" opponent
8. Promises without explanation
9. More promises without explanation (use our community colleges? teach bad teachers another trade? O RLY? Didn't he just slam Obama for "wishing" for more jobs?)
10. "Big project" the same as Obama's "big project" only slower and with more drilling (NOW)
11. Shamelessly exploiting POW years (the 100th time this convention!)
12. Maverick
13. Help me help you, help me help you
Oh yeah, and somewhere in there a Code Pink lady or two stood up, an Iraq Vet against the War stood up, and in response, the crowd mindlessly chanted USA! for about three minutes per instance, stopping the speech cold in its tracks each time. I thought our vets WERE USA! USA! It's not like they're Iron Sheik or something.
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September 3rd, 2008
02:45 pm - I watched every minute of RNC coverage last night
I must say, even though I know 1 in 4 U.S. voters still somehow support this president and think he does a good job, it didn't hit me until I saw a jam-packed hockey arena cheer the Decider on a 50-foot-tall screen, like something out of an old Apple commercial.
This country can still pack a hockey arena full of people who don't mind a few thousand deaths in a pointless war, a hockey arena full of people who apparently REALLY like big business (or are big business themselves, I know the Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorino was in the house), a hockey arena full of people who squealed with rapture as Fred Thompson harrumphed and ahemed his way through a speech with zero content and 100 percent biographical filler that's been known to all those folks since the 1970s anyway. Such a shame. At least it was a relatively small hockey arena.
I was really hoping to learn something about this candidate, this running mate, this party (and by the way, the word "Republican" doesn't appear anywhere inside the Xcel Center floor, it's all "McCain * Palin," hell, even the delegate credentials I saw didn't feature the party's name prominently [it was on the border]), but I guess I'll have to keep watching.
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September 2nd, 2008
04:36 pm - Touchy much?
1. Last night, CNN's Campbell Brown TRIED to get McCain flack Tucker Bounds to name ONE thing Sarah Palin did as commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard, ONE order she handed down to those troops there that could illustrate any kind of judgment on her part one way or another. A relief effort, a clean-up, an emergency construction project, ANYTHING. Despite being asked three times in a row, he couldn't produce a single example.
2. Today the McCain campaign announces that, due to the fact that Campbell Brown's interview "crossed the line," McCain himself won't show up for his scheduled interview with Larry King.
3. The lulz I experience from this bit of drama-diva behavior nearly buries me in an avalanche of ROFL.
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August 27th, 2008
12:29 am - When an endorsement is not
If I said I thought John McCain should be president; if I promised to vote for him and campaign for him and give speeches about how great he is and how important this time in history is and how necessary it is to have a great leader and how that great leader is John McCain, wouldn't it necessarily follow that I DON'T think he's an angry, misogynistic, confused, demented, corrupt, adulterous, immature, insane, old coot? I'd be dead wrong if I said that, but if I did support him, would I actually have to say those words to make it so, or would you just infer that from the work I was doing for him?
That's what I don't understand about the Republican strategy right now: They're trying to say Hillary and Joe Biden and various other Democratic leaders don't think Obama is ready to be president, or that he's not qualified, etc., largely based on things those people said during the primary season when THEY THEMSELVES were trying to become president. Hillary could have run off to Ibiza and danced the rest of the calendar year away and not lifted a finger to help Obama. Joe, if he really still felt like he said he did exactly 12 months ago in a debate (that Obama isn't qualified), could pull what Nancy Reagan did to McCain this go-round: tepidly endorse the party's pick because he's the party's pick and then retreat into his home for the rest of the election cycle.
So in response to people like Kay Bailey Hutchison and other GOP flacks who keep saying stuff like "Hillary has made good speeches but she's never really said she thinks he's ready to be president," I say this: By virtue of these people's saying and acting like they want Barack Obama to be president, it's implied that they also think he's ready to be the goddamn president. Why would Joe Biden want to add "running mate on losing 2008 ticket" to his resume if he really felt like Obama wasn't the guy to do this thing?
This isn't rocket science, people: If you don't think Obama has the experience to be president, fine! That's your opinion! (I just hope you didn't vote for George W. Bush in 2000 then because, wow, hypocrisy) But don't try to pretend like people who are spending their time and money to get Barack Obama elected are just foolin', just having a laugh. I know a lot of Americans are stupid and I'm sure you're counting on that to get your guy elected, but it's dishonest and it cheapens your message.
By the way, nobody has really come out and said that John McCain ISN'T an angry, misogynistic, confused, demented, corrupt, adulterous, immature, insane old coot. I guess until I hear otherwise, I'll go ahead and assume everyone thinks he is.
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May 23rd, 2008
06:22 pm - Hillary is EVIL
Hillary Clinton said today that the reason she shouldn't drop out of the race is because anything can happen ... for instance, her husband didn't win the nomination until June of 1992. Oh, and Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in June of 1968 and it's only May, guys! ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.
I'm sick to my stomach. She's "apologized" for her "misspeak" to the Kennedys ... but NOT to the Obamas. Unbelievable.
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May 7th, 2008
02:25 pm - Weather Channel Sex Scandal!
My FAVORITE weatherlady of all time, Hillary Andrews, has been noticeably absent from The Weather Channel's West-Coast PM spot for more than a year. I thought maybe she was promoted to an early-morning show or something, so I didn't give it much consideration.
BUT THEN today on the Drudge Report of all places, I see a link to a Smoking Gun article with court filings by one Hillary Andrews alleging sexual harassment against one of her former co-anchors, Bob Stokes! She won arbitration against The Weather Channel and the following day, the network fired him! Crazy stuff! I miss Hillary!
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February 21st, 2008
07:36 pm - Am I taking crazy pills? The McCain scandal
In 1998, Matt Drudge figures out Newsweek is holding a story on an affair between then-president Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He posts it to his Drudge Report Web site, setting the world aflame with the tawdriness of it. Newsweek is forced into publishing the story the next week. Some accuse Drudge of being a slime merchant, but overall the story is "behold the power of the Internet reporter! Breaking scandals wide open! Well done, Internet!"
In 2008, the New York Times, just months after endorsing Sen. John McCain for the GOP presidential nomination, prints a story about allegations of inappropriate conduct between the senator and a lobbyist with business before a committee he sat on in 2000. Unnamed aides talk about telling McCain to cool it with the dame, another aide in a previous story (this one in a Washington paper) said he went to the lobbyist herself to tell her to stay away from the senator as his failed presidential campaign ramped up. Records show McCain wrote a letter to the FCC to expedite a ruling that would allow a television company owned by this particular lobbyist's client to purchase a Pittsburgh station. Aides also make mention of their concerns that the close relationship may have transcended friendship. Of course, the senator denies any wrongdoing.
So what happens in the media? It seems like every outlet so far has been beyond skeptical of the story, going as far as to accuse the Times of not having the story nailed down, resorting to tabloid tactics and of unfairly "sliming" a right-wing candidate. The usual wingnut suspects -- Rush Limbaugh and McCain's own campaign staff chief among them -- have started fundraising efforts to cash in on the outrage of the story's publication.
As the Rude Pundit said today, there's a story here and it ain't about the fucking. If Mr. McCain-Feingold, Mr. Keating Five, Mr. Clean Up Washington is dallying around with lobbyists, trading political favors for cash (or worse) and vice versa, shouldn't the electorate know before, you know, it elects him as commander in chief? I'm a Barack Obama backer but I want to know how dirty his hands are, too. I've looked into all the rumors around him and so far, there's nothing that bad. Certainly nothing as bad as sharing copious amounts of private time with a 40-year-old, blonde lobbyist who just happens to have business you can influence with your power as an elected official.
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January 13th, 2008
03:25 pm - Colts fans just booed a child
At the third quarter break of the Colts/Chargers AFC playoff game in Indy just now, the NFL presented this year's Punt, Pass & Kick champions. If you're not familiar with the program, kids from all over the country gather in competitions to, well, punt, pass and kick the ball and the best punters, passers and kickers eventually win the national championship in their gender and age group. Once you get to the national level, you're representing your hometown, your home state and you get to choose your favorite NFL team jersey to wear, which is generally the team closest to you.
OK so the female 15-year-old champion for this year is a pretty girl from New Hampshire, so she chose to wear a Patriots jersey. As you may already know, the Colts and Pats have a bit of a rivalry going on. So when the girl was introduced as being from New Hampshire and she raised her hand wearing a blank Patriots jersey in Indianapolis just now, she was booed. Lustily.
Thankfully, I noted that she laughed about it. She's 15 and I'm sure she understands the emotions of playoff football, but I can't help but wonder if it was the 10-and-under champ wearing a Pats jersey, would they have still booed? Was the girl briefed before her appearance on the loutishness of drunken football fans? I'm not like outraged or anything, but it is pretty insensitive.
EDIT: The Colts just lost to the Chargers. A karmic debt is repaid.
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September 12th, 2007
04:08 am - I'm such a hypochondriac
Tonight I read in our paper a story about a horse in Elkhart County being diagnosed with Eastern Equine Encephalitis. This is a mosquito-borne disease that is almost always fatal in horses and can do some pretty good damage to humans as well, causing brain damage and sometimes even death. The story said as many as a third of people who contract the disease die. And then, of course, the local health officials say to please protect yourselves from mosquitoes when you go outside.
Well last weekend, I went disc golfing with some of my chums, as is our custom, and the mosquitoes were particularly bad. All summer we've had no mosquitoes, but since we've had a rainy August, now they've come out to play. I wore shorts, a T-shirt and high athletic socks. The mosquitoes found a way to bite me through my socks and got me once on my arm, totaling about seven bites in all. At first I was just annoyed about this development.
Now there's a decent part of my brain that's alarmed as all hell. Let's break it down pro (I have this deadly virus within me and I'll certainly die) and con (I'm a stupid, worry-wart idiot who needs to calm the hell down and go to bed):
- The park we play at is in St. Joseph County, not Elkhart County (con)
- It's been about four days since I was feasted upon, and I honestly do feel a little weak, achy and sickly, as though I am starting to feel the onset of symptoms (pro)
- But part of that could just be that I'm all worried and it's like 4:30 in the morning (possible con)
- And even if I am starting to feel these symptoms, CDC reports point out that most people only get some flu-like symptoms and then the virus goes away ... in fact the true infection rate (the rate at which the virus infects the brain and gets all nasty) is only 33 percent. (definite con)
- The virus manifests itself in swampy, woodsy land, and the mosquito that makes the virus has to actually pass it on to any number of other species of mosquito (called vectors in these scientific papers I was reading), which can then infect horses and birds and humans. The park is nowhere near swampy land. (con)
- Though it is quite woodsy. (pro?)
- The CDC reports that since 1964, there have only been about 200-some confirmed human cases in all the states east of the Mississippi (hence the name Eastern Equine Encephalitis; there is a west version as well), and that includes small outbreaks of 20-some in Massachusetts and another dozen or so in North Carolina. It averages out to fewer than five cases in a year. (con)
- As such, the infection rate is something like 1 in 200,000 people. (big con)
- Also, the most at-risk individuals for full-blown, brain-attack infection are younger than 15 and over 50. (also con)
- I was bitten like seven or eight goddamn times (one of the possible bite marks doesn't really look like the others, so it could be just a little rashy spot)! (pro only if the virus was even present in that area)
I'm writing all this out basically to see if my brain can be won over by hard, black-and-white, rational evidence against my possible impending death by mosquito spit. I already read a fistful of medical and scientific papers that should have put me at ease, but there was just enough talk about comas and brain damage that those infinitesimally tiny odds were pushed to the backburner of my brain. But also, let's look at a small sampling of diseases and disorders I've Googled and thought "oh god, do I have that?"
- Kidney stones
- Bladder stones
- Lyme disease
- Aortic aneurysm
- Mitral valve prolapse
- Various other heart murmurs
- Acute myocardial infarction (remember the fainting spell?)
- Stomach ulcer
So yeah, I'm basically a hypochondriac. It's not so bad that I'm constantly in fear, but when something like this happens -- I read an article and I feel some "symptoms" -- my brain runs wild to the point where I lose a night of sleep. It's almost never more than a night, as usually by the next day, whatever I was thinking was a sign of my doom is gone.
But it still sucks, you know?
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September 7th, 2007
04:54 pm - Yes, we are so safe
I just saw one of those "Freedom's Sound" commercials paid for by some Right-Wing chickenhawk nuts out in Arizona somewhere (they're so formidable I can't even find their Web site). This one had pictures of some woman and her kid and she was saying "you know, I'm glad we're fighting terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, because if we weren't, THERE'D BE MORE ATTACKS HERE." And then the words "more attacks" flash across the screen near her face. And then she tells you to call your congressman and ... well, I don't know exactly what you'd say. "Gee Mr. Congressman, that commercial sure was scary! Make sure the bad men in turbans don't come to kill me, K THX!"
And I keep thinking about all those nutty commentaries I've been hearing about lately that say something to the effect of "all we'd need is another attack on U.S. soil, THEN all those chickenshit Libtards would see the light of Bush's gospel!"
HOW? How would another attack on the United States NOT discredit Bush's strategy? Wouldn't another attack show EXACTLY how Bush's line of "we're fighting them there so they don't fight us here" is completely wrong? Has anyone else ever noticed that we've never stopped a plot against the U.S. originating in Iraq? All the random Arabs driving around the South with a trunk full of cell phones, all the extremists signing up for flight classes in Florida, all the wacky kids doing jihad bootcamp in abandoned warehouses (also in Florida, oddly, perhaps we should be at war with Florida), that all happens here anyway! And it's not the war in Iraq that allowed us to find them before they did anything nefarious, it's POLICE AND SO-CALLED HOMELAND SECURITY! What a crazy concept: Protect the HOMELAND and maybe people won't be able to attack it!
And how is it that videos of Osama bin Laden somehow always give Bush a bump in the polls? This latest one may or may not, but doesn't his presence just remind everyone that Bush and his Cabinet of Death HAS FAILED MISERABLY IN ITS ONLY CLEARLY STATED MISSION? "Dead or alive?" What happened to that? Hell, even Osama knows we know this war is bullshit, and our president is bullshit (he says so in his latest video, released today), but he also knows Democrats are too goddamn weak-kneed to hold anyone accountable in any real way. OSAMA IS MORE IN TOUCH WITH OUR CITIZENS THAN OUR PRESIDENT AND MOST OF OUR CONGRESS. And he lives in a CAVE in the PAKISTAN area, for fuck's sake!
John Edwards seems to be the only mainstream candidate to completely rebuke the Bush Administration's "War on Terrah" (yes, Mike Gravel, Ron Paul and Denny Kucinich are there too, but they ain't doin' nothin' unless one of them gets a spot in somebody's Cabinet in 2009), so he's the one who's got my completely meaningless vote for the Democratic nomination (and, really, let's be real: The Presidency of these United States). He's also the only one who doesn't sound like he's been taking crazy pills. NO I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M TALKING ABOUT JOHN EDWARDS EITHER, I'M JUST VENTING.
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July 4th, 2007
02:28 am - Breaking Andrew Taylor
I'm back in therapy. Yeah, back. Some of you may not have known that I ever was, but I did see a psychologist for a while late last year (did I ever talk about it here? I forget), and I've started again. I wanted to talk to her about my tendency to be risk averse, and how my dad didn't take many risks in his career and he talks about how he regrets all the opportunities he's passed up. We've talked and probed and I've cried and realized that it's not just risk, it's fear all around. I hate driving because I'm afraid someone will hit me or my car will break down. I hate traveling because I'm afraid something will be stolen, I'll get lost, I'll miss a plane, train or other transportation appointment, etc. I hate girls because I'm afraid they'll reject me. Fear fairly dominates my life, really. It's not exactly what I'd call debilitating, but it could get there if I didn't confront it now.
So in the course of my therapy so far, The Girl Who Moved Away has come up, and my counselor challenged me: Make her say, definitively, one way or another, whether she plans a future with you. In the past we'd talked about it, and TGWMA never really said yea or nay exactly, but the fact that she didn't just shoot it down always gave me hope. So forcing her to say one way or another was pretty scary, but I did it, and she said, no, we're just friends.
Which was kind of shocking but also kind of expected. I mean she is 4,300 miles away (I calculated it), so we couldn't technically be anything more than that right now, and if she's not planning specifically on coming back, I don't blame her for thinking of me that way right now. But it's shocking considering how much loving praise and wonderful things she said about me when we were together. I'm not optimistic when it comes to girls: When I meet a girl, I automatically assume they have no interest in me. And then it takes quite a bit of evidence to the contrary to make me think "hm, she might really like me." She gave me more than quite a bit of evidence.
So I asked for a clarification: Does she say we're friends because of distance and changed circumstance, or does she say it because she never had any romantic feelings for me? I assumed the worst and I got it: She never saw me as a potential mate.
Despite the fact we talked about marriage, despite the fact she said I made her feel like the best version of herself, despite the fact she always said how incredible and smart and wonderful I am, despite the fact she said she always missed me when I wasn't with her, and that we both were always plotting ways to spend more time with the other. Did I miss something here?
So ridiculous. Either she was being disingenuous or she was being naive, and neither of those attributes is particularly attractive. So I'm basically over it already, just out of disgust, though I am right now working through feelings of sadness and anger at falling for this womanly bullshit all over again. When I met her, I even said to myself: Don't fall for her, she's not going to pan out ... and then she was so effusive in her praises of me I couldn't help but pursue. I feel so foolish, even though I know I did the right thing in going after her.
And I did tell her this; I told her not to treat guys she's not romantically interested in like she treated me, because that's the definition of being led on, and it could lead her to being hurt in the future, if not emotionally, perhaps even physically. I don't know if I can continue being friends, even just e-friends with someone who's finally revealed how fake and/or naive they are. It's like all this time, I kept waiting for the other foot to drop: When will she show me her flaws, when will she stop being so perfect, when will she finally just act like a typical woman? And it wasn't until I pressed the issue that it happened.
So basically, thanks psychologist lady. I'm serious, thank you for freeing me from my irrational fantasies about this girl. It's the first step of many in freeing myself from my stupid self-defeating behavioral patterns. Independence Day indeed.
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June 1st, 2007
01:44 pm - Getting random: Immigration and the Orlando Magic
Two thoughts:
1. This is why you don't root for a political party like you would a sports team: Sooner or later, the driving corporate interests will betray yours. Loyal Bushies are finding this out now that the "illegal immigrant amnesty" bill they so hated and feared is coming to pass. Just as the military industrial complex is keeping us in Iraq ("beat those terrorists!" the Bush flag-wavers yell), big business is glad to see legislation coming that helps them enlist more cheap migrant labor while -- they hope -- taking some of the heat off themselves ("no, Mexicans will steal my children!" the Bushies hiss). I'm not sure how I feel about the new immigration bill, but I'll say this: It's something. It's better than looking the other way entirely while corporations profit off the exploitation of millions of illegal immigrants. Will illegals really come into the light and pay the thousands of dollars to get their "amnesty?" Hard to say. But in any event, I have some serious schadenfreude going on right now for all the war supporters/gay bashers/tax cutters/deficit spenders who suddenly feel so terribly betrayed by "their president." Tough titty, you know?
2. And speaking of rooting for sports teams, my Orlando Magic got beaten by the Memphis Grizzlies in the race to hire coach Marc Iavaroni (my favorite candidate and a guy who could have helped Dwight Howard a lot), so they hired University of Florida coach Billy Donovan instead. Yes, yes, two-time defending national champs, brilliant coach, brilliant motivator, but I can't help but smell Rick Pitino part deux coming. Brilliant collegiate coaches don't usually work in the pros. HOWEVA I will give Billy the benefit of the doubt precisely because he is so young and brilliant and because he's a Florida guy, so Orlando is a good move for him. I don't expect big things for the next couple years: The team is young and inexperienced and undermanned and they only have two second-round draft picks this year. They are fantastically flush with cap space, so perhaps a free-agent splash signing is in the cards, but even with that I don't especially expect playoff success any time soon. Hell, the fact that they made the playoffs at all this year was a surprise. So Billy, you have my support, all the way up here in Indiana.
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May 22nd, 2007
08:52 pm - Brain = asplode: NBA Draft Lottery edition
Holy crap, Memphis and Boston both draw as low as they can go, fourth and fifth, respectively. If this isn't an anti-tanking message to NBA coaches and GMs (from the basketball gods? From the people at Ernst & Young who rigged the lottery?), I don't know what is.
And just now Portland got the No. 1 overall pick, followed by Seattle at two (could this save basketball in Seattle?) and Atlanta at three, who SO doesn't deserve to hang onto its pick after trading a slightly protected pick for Joe Johnson. Man, fuck Atlanta, I wanted to see Phoenix with a top five or six pick.
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March 6th, 2007
12:44 am - OK can we save the world now?
I found another pet peeve to add to people who believe sexuality is a choice: People who are still arguing the semantics of global climate change.
Seriously. Yes there are scientists out there who don't believe humans have a hand in global warming. There are even some who still believe that warming, in a climatological sense, isn't really happening, that it's just like a statistical anomaly of a few hot years in a row and that, by and large, we're really in an ice age, etc., etc. Nothing to worry about.
OK fine, even if I cede all ground to the 0.005 percent of climatologists, geologists, oceanographers and other relevant scientists who believe warming either isn't happening or isn't our fault, I still want to know why that's an argument against raising emission standards. I want to know why that's an argument against treaties like the Kyoto Protocol, which set up a system of credits and exchange so polluting leaders have incentive to become cleaner (to stop paying smaller entities for their credit chips) and so developing nations have incentive to develop in a clean and efficient way (so they'll still have chips to sell, giving them more money to continue to develop). I want to know why that's an argument against political action to spur innovation in the fields of renewable energy, recyclable packaging and efficient machinery. Tell me why.
And I know I don't have all the answers. I know the Kyoto Protocol, for example, isn't a perfect model. But I think it's maddening that people are still standing around saying "well this isn't politically popular" or "well climate change isn't our fault anyway." I realize people who are of this mindset aren't going to do anything worthwhile from an ecological standpoint with their time anyway, so they might as well flap their gums, but the reality is some people hear these people talking and so they don't bother with the little things THEY can do, like recycling (not that hard, people) or changing a few light bulbs or signing up to send their representatives in Congress a postcard or an e-mail to encourage responsible legislation on emissions and other related issues.
We can argue about who's responsible for warming until we're blue in the face. You know what? Call me heartless but I genuinely don't care about warming. We can lose our coasts, we can lose most of our ice caps, we can get a bunch more desert, millions of people can die and be displaced by this ... in a cold, practical, everyday sense, it doesn't affect me even a tiny bit. Not much will have changed for me in midland America from a climate standpoint by the time I die. I'll be rooting for the extinction of the Midwest winter. I already am. Maybe it is just a phase, and in another couple hundred thousand years, as the continents ease into first gear on their next tectonic journey back into pangaea, we'll have another true ice age, ice caps will reform, deserts will retreat, glaciers will form over what was once Argentina, etc., etc. I don't care a bit.
But I DO care about the Earth I DO live on. Maybe it's the sun getting warmer and not us. Maybe lava monsters are tunneling up toward the surface of the planet and their ambient heat is raising our apparent temperatures. I don't give a shit: Let's fix what we can. Let's make it so our cars don't spew toxic filth into the air. Let's make it so we're not dependent on dinosaur juice from the land underneath a bunch of warring weirdos from halfway across the globe. Let's make it so our rivers are fishable and our lakes are swimmable. I should be able to cup my hand to a stream and take a drink without worrying if I've just introduced a freakish neurotoxin to my blood stream. Is this really such an impossible dream? I can't hope for a future without constant ozone alerts due to smog over my tiny middle American town? Really? Fuck you corporate America. I'm not a granola-crunching eco freak, I'm just a motherfucking American.
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February 16th, 2007
01:11 pm - The "can we be friends?" litmus test
I've finally done it. It's so simple, I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier. The other day I was reading the comments over at AOLSportsBlog about former NBA star Tim Hardaway's virulently homophobic -- and hateriffic -- diatribe regarding the possibility of playing basketball with gay people and it was shocking how many people (I use that term loosely) were in the "well being gay is a choice anyway, and it's a sin, so right on Tim! Preach on, brotha" camp. It was literally a 50-50 split between bigots and outraged rational people. And through this observation of AOL douchery, I came up with a litmus test for determining whether I, Andrew, will get along with a person.
Now I know I shouldn't be using AOL users as my portrait for Americans (as stupid as people in general are, people who use AOL.com as their main Internet portal are still orders of magnitude stupider), but this whole thing got me hot. I mean, I don't even really know any openly gay people. It's not like they're insulting me or any of my friends or family directly. But it got me steamin'. How can people use a couple lines from a book (the same book that also tells you to wash your hands after petting a dog or touching a pig before you eat because they're unclean in the eyes of the Lord, and that you shouldn't eat or touch any kind of shellfish or other shrimp-like sealife because they're an abomination unto the Lord, among other things) to justify hatred of an entire swath of society? And how do they know sexuality is a choice? Did they choose to be attracted to the Coors Light twins or whatever their ideal of beauty is? I read one comment that said something like "until you lose your virginity, you're completely asexual, so when you have sex either with a man or a woman, it's a choice to determine your sexuality" and I really wanted to leave a comment that said "you've obviously never had sex with ANYTHING other than your hand or perhaps an overripe muskmelon" but there were like 200 comments and I knew mine would get lost in the flood.
I guess in general, ignorance and intolerance gets me angry. Whether it's about abortion (no, all abortions should be outlawed because every abortion kills a baby and that's the only issue. Debate over, right?) or the war in Iraq (we need to find those WMD, no wait, we need to fight for freedom ... hold on, what about the oil? Naw, OK, now we just need to make sure they can defend themselves, right? After we stripped them of all their infrastructure and ability to do so? That's right), I can't stand it. You might say I'm intolerant of intolerance. Hypocritical, right? Well, at least I know it. I choose to hate bigoted idiots because I have observed that's almost ALWAYS an avoidable condition, with choices that lead to it.
Now it's not always a clear choice. Sometimes it's the little things, like skipping class to get blitzed on aerosols with your 15-year-old buddies or listening to a band and getting a little TOO into the lyrics, then deciding that school is for losers or that everyone's out to get you. But there are almost always choices that either lead to being a blithering simp or a compassionate and understanding person. You don't even have to be smart to be open-minded and kind. Hell, you can believe that homosexuality is a sin and that all gays are going to hell, and you can still be a good person, just don't proselytize. Keep your beliefs to yourself, and do what you feel you need to do to get to heaven or be reincarnated as a flower rather than a dung beetle or whatever you hope for.
So here it is: The Andrew Taylor Friendship Litmus Test. "Do you believe that sexuality is a choice?" If you answer yes, you're wrong, and I'll know you're an intolerant and uninformed boob. And it's not just on the gay issue, I'll also know you have a lot of other maddeningly unintelligent opinions. I wouldn't be so crass as to ask this of everyone I meet, but if I ever deduce that an associate of mine falls on the wrong side of this question, I'll know from that point on: I'll never be close to this person. I'll stay civil because that's just who I am, but I won't seek their company or counsel on any of the rest of life's matters.
And if any among you who are religious are offended ... tough luck. Like I said, you can be religious and you can still be open-minded, kind and compassionate. If you're a good person you shouldn't be offended by anything I just said. If you are a Christian who lives by Jesus's teachings of love and caring for your fellow man, we don't have beef. If you're a Muslim who abides by the Five Pillars and lives a simple and just life, we're cool. If you're a Jew who focuses on the covenant between God and His people, do your thing. Just don't use your holy books to preach hatred. Of anyone. God will sort it all out, right? Why meddle in His business? Allahu Ackbar, right? Be cool.
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January 28th, 2007
02:00 pm - Oh Columbus
My favorite part about this post is how the guy, a Columbus, Ohio, resident, fully cops to how horrible Ohio State fans are ... then goes on to explain how horrified he was by the Sabres fans at the Blue Jackets game a couple nights ago. That's incredible. One of my friends hails from Buffalo and is a Sabres fan, but I'm 100 percent sure he's not like this. That said, it's scary when a fan base disgusts a Columbus native.
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November 8th, 2002
10:48 pm - im in hell and im alone
My fiancee said she doesn't want to be with me anymore. Why should I blame her? I'm the best guy she's ever known, I'm sweet, I'm wonderful, I'm an attentive lover, but somehow I'm not exciting. Our love had grown mundane and she is not a mundane woman. I guess that's why I fell in love with her. Along with a billion other reasons. She needs something "thrilling." I know I'm not thrilling and I know the guy she works with at Meijer that she has been piling her childish, moronic, inane affections on isn't either. She told me so. But I guess the idea of fucking somebody, ANYBODY else is so incredibly exciting to her that she can't even bear to resist her animalistic fucking instincts. There's not even a guarantee he'll do it. If he has half a brain, he'll see A) he has a girl and B) she's fucking got a ring and she has been engaged for the past fucking year and he'll say, no, this is too screwed up, I can't do this. I think she hopes for it too. I dumped her last night. At 3 in the morning. I was so excited when I realized that I didn't have to love her and that I didn't have to hurt anymore that I called her. Then she promptly came over and got me and we spent the night doing homework and cracking jokes, just like we always do. We're great friends. Apparently she doesn't think we're great lovers. Earlier today I thought we weren't great lovers and then I remembered, oh wait, she's the one I pledged my life to, why weren't we great lovers again? She said she wants to come back to me. Eventually. She wants to try things out even though she's had boys all her life. I'm the one that's never had experience and she has the nerve to tell me to try other things too. How the fuck am I supposed to do that? She asked me out, I can't ask women out. If she wouldn't have ever asked me out I would have been alone these last 19 months. If she hadn't brought up sex I never would have lost my virginity. But here I am with the knowledge of true love and no idea how to get it back. I'm her friend. I'm her good, close, buddy friend. But if she gets the Meijer guy to say yes or she flips out and finds some other random toy, I don't know if I'll ever be able to face her again, let alone take her back if she comes calling around after she's discarded her most recent fuckbox. Ask me now and I say the thought makes me sick to my stomach. Ask me last night at 3 and I would have been fine; all was right with the world. I want her but I need her to stay away. I love her and I completely hate what she's done to me. She's destroyed me and I can only hope that I can regain the feeling of invincibility I had last night when I told her I no longer wanted to be engaged to her. When I told her "we" were no more and we were at ground floor. The much-anticipated start over. IF she were to crawl into my arms tomorrow morning the assumption is that we would not hop back into our old relationship but build a new one. I hope to god that's possible. The old one didn't fit. I'm still with her. I still plan to spend time with her. I just hope she doesn't make it hard for me to be her friend. How can I be so alone when just three or four days ago I was paired off for life? How can I experience so many emotions in such a short period of time? Why not? I've switched emotions roughly every couple hours (20 seconds). Who knows who I'll be tomorrow?
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/acedia/littlegent/crushed.gif) crushed
Current Music: my heart beating and breaking
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