A little over two years ago I wrote one of my signature, rambling, poorly-though-out posts about the debt ceiling. We were on the brink back then. Lots of dangerous rhetoric being bandied about. People feared that we were about to cross the Rubicon, and that this country might never recover.
Actually, the mood was pretty blase. No one really took it seriously. It looked like the usual political theater from careerist, ideological dolts on both sides of the aisle.
"It's an arbitrary deadline" we said.
"They'll just push it back again" we suggested.
"No, I'm TIRED, I don't feel like going out, let's just make quesadillas and get drunk in the living room" I said to my girlfriend.
And that's what happened. The GOP even got some choice spending cuts and everyone in the Executive and Legislative branches of our government learned a valuable lesson about political brinkmanship and crying wolf.
Then some nutjobs showed up.
Republicans took the house in a huge power shift, riding on a wave of district gerrymandering and fear about the Affordable Care Act, which I vainly hope we can someday stop calling Obamacare. It just sounds stupid. What we had now in the house was largely a band of political neophytes, resolutely devout in their belief that the ACA would destroy this country. Ambitious, ruthless, and in no way willing to let facts distract them from their aspirations, these are the people that have pushed us into a government shutdown.
People like Ted Cruz (R-TX), whose grandstanding kicked off the current shutdown. His delusions of grandeur are already leading him to think about a 2016 White House run, despite the fact he has been on the national stage for about ten minutes and was born in freakin CANADA.
Also people like Ted Yoho (R-FL), a large animal veterinarian that is used to euthanizing unhealthy behemoths, and also maintains the cognitive dissonance to suggest that the US defaulting on its debt would "bring stability to the world economy" You can't make this stuff up! No matter how much you wish you had and that insane people like this aren't in positions of power.
Anyway, the GOP is trying to keep the conversation focused on the ACA, not the debt ceiling. Mainly because they have an answer to the ACA: No. They don't care that it's the law of the land, they maintain that it is massively unpopular with their constituents and will be nothing but destructive. If only we had these compassionate souls wielding this kind of clout in the run-up to the war in Iraq. I'm sure they would have followed the will of the people.
As it is now, we are in Day 9 of the government shutdown. National Parks are closed and the communities that rely on the revenue they bring in up the creek. Families of soldiers killed in action aren't getting the death benefit that they are due, par for the course as far as the way we treat our military personnel and their loved ones in this country. To top it off, we are about a week away from default. Even if we get out of this one, the precedent has been set. They have learned they can hold this country hostage as a negotiating tactic. I really don't want to be around for the next temper tantrum these people throw.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
A Damn Shame
One of the most jarring things for many people that come to New York City is the proximity. When you're here, everything you might need is right around the corner in almost any neighborhood. All night delis, music venues, restaurants, museums (you won't really go to them, but it's neat that they are there) and stores of all varieties are all within a reasonable distance. After all, many people here don't have a car, or have never driven one, or think that they are a dangerous invention and that the steam engine was as far as we needed to take human ingenuity. That makes for a a very cloistered atmosphere, where everything is right on top of everything else. If you aren't claustrophobic, it's convenient as hell.
Naturally, this means the people are also right on top of each other, and not just in the biblical sense. Remove the walls of the tiny living room I'm writing this in, and I might be surrounded. Ten feet to my left is an elderly couple, twelve feet below me is a professional bachelor from India. Just over my head is a pair of young lovers that like to stomp around the floor at six each morning. You get the idea. Privacy becomes important to people here because it feels so fragile, something that doesn't exist for much of the day. The trains, streets, and places of business are so loud and crowded that any moments you have to yourself become sacred. Invasions of that privacy can range from being a nuisance to being terrifying, but I had a one recently that was simply heartbreaking.
I recently moved from a large apartment building to a converted family house. The walls in the larger place were paper-thin. I could hear my next-door neighbor's kids crying, the young lady upstairs cackling and copulating, and sometimes the superintendent in the basement tied his shoes at a deafening volume. You get used to it.
One of the last nights I was in this apartment I was lying on my bed, staring at my phone, and putting off sleep for no particular reason when I hear George, the old Greek man that shared my bedroom wall, answer his phone. George was hard of hearing, so he talked on the phone pretty loudly. Also, he was Greek, so he probably would have been conversationally yelling most of the time anyway. He answered in English, but didn't go straight into Greek the way he usually did when talking on the phone. My ears pricked up involuntarily.
'"Yannis? That you? What you saying? My brother in Greece died?"
I know it seems unlikely, but he really did give both sides of the conversation like someone in a stage play.
Then the crying started.
I have never been around an old man crying. They are a pretty stoic bunch. George lived alone. His father, who must have been at least 90, had stayed with him until he passed last year. Maybe the fact that he was alone in his place made him feel safe enough to let it out. Or maybe he just really loved his brother. He sobbed into the phone, alternating between Greek and English for the next couple minutes. Then he said he needed to call his sister in Athens. He wept loudly for a few minutes before calling her.
I felt horrible. I felt I shouldn't be listening, that the man should be allowed his privacy for this tragedy. Of course, I was in my own room, in my own apartment. It felt weird to go into the living room because of someone I barely knew that wasn't even in the room with me. Other than all that though, leaving felt like the easy way out, and people who know me can tell you I don't take the easy (or smart) way out of anything.
George eventually called his sister and gave her the bad news. The sobbing started up again in earnest and it went on for what felt like hours. I wanted to do something, but what? I didn't know this man. Just because he was alone doesn't mean he needs me and my sympathy butting in. Not to mention that if I went next door with a bundt cake and said 'sorry for your loss' he would have known I was listening in.
It was one of those moments where this city thrusts someone else's tragedy into your life. It didn't affect me directly, it was really none of my business. It still kept me up all night, long after George finished crying. There's a reason why they tell you New Yorker's don't want to get involved. It's not always because they don't want to be sued.
Naturally, this means the people are also right on top of each other, and not just in the biblical sense. Remove the walls of the tiny living room I'm writing this in, and I might be surrounded. Ten feet to my left is an elderly couple, twelve feet below me is a professional bachelor from India. Just over my head is a pair of young lovers that like to stomp around the floor at six each morning. You get the idea. Privacy becomes important to people here because it feels so fragile, something that doesn't exist for much of the day. The trains, streets, and places of business are so loud and crowded that any moments you have to yourself become sacred. Invasions of that privacy can range from being a nuisance to being terrifying, but I had a one recently that was simply heartbreaking.
I recently moved from a large apartment building to a converted family house. The walls in the larger place were paper-thin. I could hear my next-door neighbor's kids crying, the young lady upstairs cackling and copulating, and sometimes the superintendent in the basement tied his shoes at a deafening volume. You get used to it.
One of the last nights I was in this apartment I was lying on my bed, staring at my phone, and putting off sleep for no particular reason when I hear George, the old Greek man that shared my bedroom wall, answer his phone. George was hard of hearing, so he talked on the phone pretty loudly. Also, he was Greek, so he probably would have been conversationally yelling most of the time anyway. He answered in English, but didn't go straight into Greek the way he usually did when talking on the phone. My ears pricked up involuntarily.
'"Yannis? That you? What you saying? My brother in Greece died?"
I know it seems unlikely, but he really did give both sides of the conversation like someone in a stage play.
Then the crying started.
I have never been around an old man crying. They are a pretty stoic bunch. George lived alone. His father, who must have been at least 90, had stayed with him until he passed last year. Maybe the fact that he was alone in his place made him feel safe enough to let it out. Or maybe he just really loved his brother. He sobbed into the phone, alternating between Greek and English for the next couple minutes. Then he said he needed to call his sister in Athens. He wept loudly for a few minutes before calling her.
I felt horrible. I felt I shouldn't be listening, that the man should be allowed his privacy for this tragedy. Of course, I was in my own room, in my own apartment. It felt weird to go into the living room because of someone I barely knew that wasn't even in the room with me. Other than all that though, leaving felt like the easy way out, and people who know me can tell you I don't take the easy (or smart) way out of anything.
George eventually called his sister and gave her the bad news. The sobbing started up again in earnest and it went on for what felt like hours. I wanted to do something, but what? I didn't know this man. Just because he was alone doesn't mean he needs me and my sympathy butting in. Not to mention that if I went next door with a bundt cake and said 'sorry for your loss' he would have known I was listening in.
It was one of those moments where this city thrusts someone else's tragedy into your life. It didn't affect me directly, it was really none of my business. It still kept me up all night, long after George finished crying. There's a reason why they tell you New Yorker's don't want to get involved. It's not always because they don't want to be sued.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Building a Tolerance
Yesterday a crazy man shot up a workplace. Twelve people were killed. Eight were wounded. The shooter was taken out by police.
I could have said that sentence at any point in the past ten years and it wouldn't make people blink. Those same words have crawled across millions of television screens so many times that it may as well just say 'Congress fails to achieve consensus on budget.' for all the reaction it inspires in this country.
A man walked into a secure Navy facility yesterday with a shotgun and pistol, rained bullets on people that thought they were in for a typical Monday at work, and it is barely a blip on the radar.
I don't know about you, but I haven't heard anyone talking about this, posting things about this, or staring at their hands in impotent bewilderment over this. It is being taken in stride. That's where we are.
The funny thing is, it feels like the news media is trying to make it the same big deal it always should be. Breathless reports, horrified onlookers, the whole schmeer. The president even pitched in with an address right after the attack, and even trotted out the old chestnut about 'calling for stricter gun control measures'. But even he sounded bored.
It happened. We've gotten used to senseless gun violence in unexpected places. Yay? Is that a good thing? Because we're less horrified by this, maybe we're better equipped to live in the nightmarish world we've created? That's probably the most you can say about it. I would love to believe that this is a unconscious, collective effort by all of us to not allow the shooter to be made into a celebrity by the media. Maybe we are all becoming aware that the way these tragedies play out in the media, the way the shooters are made into celebrities, with their personal lives scrutinized and motives analyzed, is what inspires copycat crimes, and keeps us on this mobius strip of insanity and death. It would make my day to know we are all taking so much responsibility.
But I'm a cynic. The fact is that with Aurora and Newtown so fresh in everyone's memories, this just doesn't have the hook. Isn't scary enough. 'Unstable man who was discharged from the Navy under less-than-favorable circumstances shoots other military contractors' is like a headline you see on the main character's desk in some B-movie. Like someone just threw together all the usual pieces. The fact that these were people with families and lives to lead just doesn't break through the veil. We've seen it before.
And it doesn't get better from here.
I could have said that sentence at any point in the past ten years and it wouldn't make people blink. Those same words have crawled across millions of television screens so many times that it may as well just say 'Congress fails to achieve consensus on budget.' for all the reaction it inspires in this country.
A man walked into a secure Navy facility yesterday with a shotgun and pistol, rained bullets on people that thought they were in for a typical Monday at work, and it is barely a blip on the radar.
I don't know about you, but I haven't heard anyone talking about this, posting things about this, or staring at their hands in impotent bewilderment over this. It is being taken in stride. That's where we are.
The funny thing is, it feels like the news media is trying to make it the same big deal it always should be. Breathless reports, horrified onlookers, the whole schmeer. The president even pitched in with an address right after the attack, and even trotted out the old chestnut about 'calling for stricter gun control measures'. But even he sounded bored.
It happened. We've gotten used to senseless gun violence in unexpected places. Yay? Is that a good thing? Because we're less horrified by this, maybe we're better equipped to live in the nightmarish world we've created? That's probably the most you can say about it. I would love to believe that this is a unconscious, collective effort by all of us to not allow the shooter to be made into a celebrity by the media. Maybe we are all becoming aware that the way these tragedies play out in the media, the way the shooters are made into celebrities, with their personal lives scrutinized and motives analyzed, is what inspires copycat crimes, and keeps us on this mobius strip of insanity and death. It would make my day to know we are all taking so much responsibility.
But I'm a cynic. The fact is that with Aurora and Newtown so fresh in everyone's memories, this just doesn't have the hook. Isn't scary enough. 'Unstable man who was discharged from the Navy under less-than-favorable circumstances shoots other military contractors' is like a headline you see on the main character's desk in some B-movie. Like someone just threw together all the usual pieces. The fact that these were people with families and lives to lead just doesn't break through the veil. We've seen it before.
And it doesn't get better from here.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Torture, muthafucka
I get it, we're angry. We've had another terrorist attack, innocent people were maimed and killed, and we have to go through the whole security clampdown tango all over again. We've been reminded once again that our children stand a good chance of being raised in a world defined by fear. There is no reason or excuse to be glib or dismissive about any of that.
But come the fuck on with the torture talk, already.
Everywhere you look, some internet tough guy is talking about all the things he would like to do to this Tsarnaev kid.
"We ought to waterboard this scumbag and see who his friends are!"
"Hang him by his balls and make him squeal! Nothing is too harsh for this POS!!!!"
"Lemme at 'im! I'll moiderize him for what he done did to all of us!"
(I'm Facebook friends with several cartoon characters from the 1940's)
Now, I understand visceral, hyperbolic reactions. I really wouldn't be me without them. Anyone who has read my impassioned, reactionary, and vaguely threatening open letter to the Motion Picture Academy regarding Elia Kazan's lifetime achievement award can attest to this. What frightens and saddens me is when people look at me like I'm crazy or un-American for pointing out that we shouldn't do that. It's like I want the terrorists to win.
There were a lot of conversations like this in the wake of 9/11, and they came up again when the CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' program for high-value terrorist captives came to light. Thing is, like far too many national attempts at cognition, that conversation never really went anywhere. There are many people that have no issue with torture, and that is usually because they:
1) don't have a clear idea of what torture entails
2) don't think critically about what it does to a person to torture or be tortured
3) never listened carefully to the lyrics of the Jacksons' 1984 hit single "Torture"
There also seems to be a disconnect about why we shouldn't torture people up in here. Little thing called the Constitution, which sports a tasty little tidbit called the Eighth Amendment. It has to do with cruel and unusual punishment and whether or not we should do that (the gist of it is that, no we shouldn't). Don't concern yourselves too much with the details though, because lord knows that people in D.C. don't. Even one of the guys who we used to be able to count on to go against the grain of his own party and say 'Hey, not cool, stop with the torture' is joining the chorus to declare Tsarnaev an 'enemy combatant', effectively negating any rights he has as a defendant.
That's right, John McCain. A guy who was tortured. He wants to see the hurdle of due process removed from this kid's case so that we can do whatever we want to him in a room without windows under the pretense of a need to extract information. You want to make this place a police state, go ahead. I doubt most people would notice anyway.
Just don't act like that doesn't make us exactly like the people that want to kill us.
But come the fuck on with the torture talk, already.
Everywhere you look, some internet tough guy is talking about all the things he would like to do to this Tsarnaev kid.
"We ought to waterboard this scumbag and see who his friends are!"
"Hang him by his balls and make him squeal! Nothing is too harsh for this POS!!!!"
"Lemme at 'im! I'll moiderize him for what he done did to all of us!"
(I'm Facebook friends with several cartoon characters from the 1940's)
Now, I understand visceral, hyperbolic reactions. I really wouldn't be me without them. Anyone who has read my impassioned, reactionary, and vaguely threatening open letter to the Motion Picture Academy regarding Elia Kazan's lifetime achievement award can attest to this. What frightens and saddens me is when people look at me like I'm crazy or un-American for pointing out that we shouldn't do that. It's like I want the terrorists to win.
There were a lot of conversations like this in the wake of 9/11, and they came up again when the CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' program for high-value terrorist captives came to light. Thing is, like far too many national attempts at cognition, that conversation never really went anywhere. There are many people that have no issue with torture, and that is usually because they:
1) don't have a clear idea of what torture entails
2) don't think critically about what it does to a person to torture or be tortured
3) never listened carefully to the lyrics of the Jacksons' 1984 hit single "Torture"
There also seems to be a disconnect about why we shouldn't torture people up in here. Little thing called the Constitution, which sports a tasty little tidbit called the Eighth Amendment. It has to do with cruel and unusual punishment and whether or not we should do that (the gist of it is that, no we shouldn't). Don't concern yourselves too much with the details though, because lord knows that people in D.C. don't. Even one of the guys who we used to be able to count on to go against the grain of his own party and say 'Hey, not cool, stop with the torture' is joining the chorus to declare Tsarnaev an 'enemy combatant', effectively negating any rights he has as a defendant.
That's right, John McCain. A guy who was tortured. He wants to see the hurdle of due process removed from this kid's case so that we can do whatever we want to him in a room without windows under the pretense of a need to extract information. You want to make this place a police state, go ahead. I doubt most people would notice anyway.
Just don't act like that doesn't make us exactly like the people that want to kill us.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Penn State of Delusion
I was sitting in a bar last night ( I'm getting really good at it) where every television had a different college football game on it. I didn't pay too much attention to it, even though the bright colors and graphics on the magic talking box can usually distract me pretty easily. There was important, drowning-out-the-voices-in-my-head-with-liquor business to attend to, and a game is not as important as making sure I don't follow the impulse to start prank-calling the mayor's office of Kansas City, MO again. I couldn't help but notice, however, that one of these games had Penn State playing in it, which I guess was surprising because I didn't think they were still a thing.
"Didn't they dissolve that school? Break it up into smaller, less scandal-plagued institutions so that the kids could go on learning and the State of Pennsylvania can go on gouging people that think their dumbass kid has a future?" I asked the bartender.
"Please, for the last time, stop making dreamcatchers out of straws and napkins, finish your drink and leave." was his less-than-helpful reply.
But I couldn't get my mind off of it. I couldn't move on from it. I read all the articles about people at Penn State in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. I read how they wanted to focus on the school and all the good things they think it offered the world. I knew they wanted healing, closure, blah blah etc.
Seeing them on the screen though, with their 'We are STILL Penn State' T-shirts made it a little too real for me.
Guess what, alumni, students, and faculty? THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL SPIRIT AND SHUTTING THE HELL UP IS THE BEST WAY TO START HEALING.
I don't mean your own healing, you have nothing to heal from. There were people who had unspeakable crimes perpetrated against them when they were children. Crimes that your venerable seat of learning saw fit to cover up, because....football. Maybe, for just a year or two, you could go without school spirit. Play your games, drink your beer, objectify and marginalize your female students, dumb down your curriculum to keep pace with the staggering ignorance that plagues this country, and all the rest of us will work on accepting that you still exist and receive state funding.
Maybe I'm just a grouch, or maybe it's because I hate football, people watching football, and watching people watch football.
Maybe I'm also biased because I never went to college, never was really a part of anything that I could feel proud of, and just simply can't stand it when anyone talks about the storied legacy of two dozen mouth-breathers standing in a field wearing the same colors.
The fact remains however, that Penn State needs to learn about shame. Lord knows I had to. If they need a few pointers, I'd be happy to take a school to school.
"Didn't they dissolve that school? Break it up into smaller, less scandal-plagued institutions so that the kids could go on learning and the State of Pennsylvania can go on gouging people that think their dumbass kid has a future?" I asked the bartender.
"Please, for the last time, stop making dreamcatchers out of straws and napkins, finish your drink and leave." was his less-than-helpful reply.
But I couldn't get my mind off of it. I couldn't move on from it. I read all the articles about people at Penn State in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. I read how they wanted to focus on the school and all the good things they think it offered the world. I knew they wanted healing, closure, blah blah etc.
Seeing them on the screen though, with their 'We are STILL Penn State' T-shirts made it a little too real for me.
Guess what, alumni, students, and faculty? THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL SPIRIT AND SHUTTING THE HELL UP IS THE BEST WAY TO START HEALING.
I don't mean your own healing, you have nothing to heal from. There were people who had unspeakable crimes perpetrated against them when they were children. Crimes that your venerable seat of learning saw fit to cover up, because....football. Maybe, for just a year or two, you could go without school spirit. Play your games, drink your beer, objectify and marginalize your female students, dumb down your curriculum to keep pace with the staggering ignorance that plagues this country, and all the rest of us will work on accepting that you still exist and receive state funding.
Maybe I'm just a grouch, or maybe it's because I hate football, people watching football, and watching people watch football.
Maybe I'm also biased because I never went to college, never was really a part of anything that I could feel proud of, and just simply can't stand it when anyone talks about the storied legacy of two dozen mouth-breathers standing in a field wearing the same colors.
The fact remains however, that Penn State needs to learn about shame. Lord knows I had to. If they need a few pointers, I'd be happy to take a school to school.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Flash Mobs are the new Flash Mobs
You kids won't rememeber this, as it was more than twelve minutes ago and we all have devolved our attention spans to the level of goldfish, but waaaay back in 2005, before every single news event was tinged with the metallic taste of impending apocalypse, flash mobs had a very different meaning than the one they have been ascribed today. A flash mob back then was simply one hundred and eighteen dorks agreeing to meet in a city plaza at an appointed time to do absolutely nothing but exist there as a group. It was roundly (and correctly) dismissed as hipster bullshit and the people with jobs, families to love, and lives to lead all quickly stopped paying attention.
Now these same productive citizens may need to again take notice of this phenomenom. The London riots, we are told, were assisted by social media. Mobs of no-good teens in Philadelphia, Wisconsin, and just yesterday, Maryland have gathered, supposedly with the assistance of twitter and the like, to wreak havoc. The growing fear in this country is that the trend will escalate until we see the kind of lawlessness witnessed by the UK earlier this month.
To all this I have to say, REALLY? Are you THAT fucking surprised? You raise these little bastards on a steady diet of sugar, immersive violent media, and a compelte lack of accountability and consequences, and you can't believe it when they act like a herd of yaks drunk on four loko? Know who we can blame (this blog is mostly about blame)? YOU. You didn't care. You looked the other way when you saw kids acting up on the bus and no one was smacking them for it. You didn't write your congressman or call your alderman or throttle your local school board when you saw that many high school graduates were reading at a second-grade level. You bought your nephew Call of Duty when you knew damn well he couldn't possibly fathom what it means to go to war and kill someone. You think they can tell the difference between real and make believe??? They like Drake and Katy Perry! They are basically all functionally retarded now and THEY are the future of this country, insofar as it has one.
Point being, all of us dropped the ball in a big way for the past generation or so. These kids don't really get what the trade deficit or national debt is, they just know it means they are screwed. They may be idiots, but they know who made them that way. Lock your windows.
Now these same productive citizens may need to again take notice of this phenomenom. The London riots, we are told, were assisted by social media. Mobs of no-good teens in Philadelphia, Wisconsin, and just yesterday, Maryland have gathered, supposedly with the assistance of twitter and the like, to wreak havoc. The growing fear in this country is that the trend will escalate until we see the kind of lawlessness witnessed by the UK earlier this month.
To all this I have to say, REALLY? Are you THAT fucking surprised? You raise these little bastards on a steady diet of sugar, immersive violent media, and a compelte lack of accountability and consequences, and you can't believe it when they act like a herd of yaks drunk on four loko? Know who we can blame (this blog is mostly about blame)? YOU. You didn't care. You looked the other way when you saw kids acting up on the bus and no one was smacking them for it. You didn't write your congressman or call your alderman or throttle your local school board when you saw that many high school graduates were reading at a second-grade level. You bought your nephew Call of Duty when you knew damn well he couldn't possibly fathom what it means to go to war and kill someone. You think they can tell the difference between real and make believe??? They like Drake and Katy Perry! They are basically all functionally retarded now and THEY are the future of this country, insofar as it has one.
Point being, all of us dropped the ball in a big way for the past generation or so. These kids don't really get what the trade deficit or national debt is, they just know it means they are screwed. They may be idiots, but they know who made them that way. Lock your windows.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Well and truly screwed
Wow, it's been a while.
This blog smells funny too, I left a sandwich here after my last post, but that's why God made Lysol.
Anyhoo, we are all completely up shit creek. Again. Or...still, I forget which.
Why? We are bumping our heads on the debt ceiling and Washington wants to do absolutely nothing about it.
That's right kids, it's INTERNET FEAR MONGERING. The best mongering of all.
Everyone knows that as soon as this country defaults, all senior citizens on Social Security will immediately starve to death and government agencies will become independent fiefdoms that only grant building permits, driver's licenses, and supply contracts to wealthy lords and vassals that swear fealty to them. Most frightening of all, every last one of us is going to be enslaved by the Red Chinese. You've seen how they treat their own citizenry, how do you think they are going to treat us?
But seriously folks....this same tired farce has played out time and again. A deadline is set on large policy decision, and both parties posture and stall so that they can paint the other as slow to action and out of touch. Essentially the legislative and executive body are like two naked fat guys fighting in front of childen: everyone watching it knows it's wrong, no one wants to get close enough to do anything about it. Why do we put up with it? Because we are all technology obsessed, internet-absorbed dullards? That argument doesn't wash anymore. Look at what other countries do with their internets, they organize revolts and remove firmly entrenched despots! Sure some people have gotten killed, but how do YOU make omelettes?
This blog smells funny too, I left a sandwich here after my last post, but that's why God made Lysol.
Anyhoo, we are all completely up shit creek. Again. Or...still, I forget which.
Why? We are bumping our heads on the debt ceiling and Washington wants to do absolutely nothing about it.
That's right kids, it's INTERNET FEAR MONGERING. The best mongering of all.
Everyone knows that as soon as this country defaults, all senior citizens on Social Security will immediately starve to death and government agencies will become independent fiefdoms that only grant building permits, driver's licenses, and supply contracts to wealthy lords and vassals that swear fealty to them. Most frightening of all, every last one of us is going to be enslaved by the Red Chinese. You've seen how they treat their own citizenry, how do you think they are going to treat us?
But seriously folks....this same tired farce has played out time and again. A deadline is set on large policy decision, and both parties posture and stall so that they can paint the other as slow to action and out of touch. Essentially the legislative and executive body are like two naked fat guys fighting in front of childen: everyone watching it knows it's wrong, no one wants to get close enough to do anything about it. Why do we put up with it? Because we are all technology obsessed, internet-absorbed dullards? That argument doesn't wash anymore. Look at what other countries do with their internets, they organize revolts and remove firmly entrenched despots! Sure some people have gotten killed, but how do YOU make omelettes?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
