Monday, December 31, 2007

Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #2569

With this, for better or worse, I am at long last caught up with Daily Random Flickr Blogging for 2007. Happy New Year and see y'all in 2008,

--nash

Terminators come running for the rich taste of Folger's!
(Image originally uploaded by magnussveinsson; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #2138

Strange but true: Watching sheepdogs at work in his native Australia gave Rupert Murdoch the basic idea behind Fox News.
(Image originally uploaded by marj k; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #8464

Aw, c'mon: the Doors movie wasn't that bad.
(Image originally uploaded by ultraclay!; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #8781

"Now don't forget: Polo Club film night tonight." "What are we watching?" "The art teacher lent us a thing called Equus. He said it's about a horse lover or something, so it sounds right up our alley." "Ah. Smashing."
(Image originally uploaded by Peter Meade; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #1791

I'm really surprised that no one's worked this design into a tortilla or some sort of low-carb wrap. But then, back when the film came out, nobody liked my idea for tasty ice cream Blairwiches either.
(Image originally uploaded by EdGillett; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #5378

Most men who surf over to foxhunter.com are immediately disappointed.
(Image originally uploaded by _Dana_K_; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #6804

Prediction for 2008: Fox News will replace its evening talk shows with roller derby, and no one will notice any significant change in intellectual content.
(Image originally uploaded by -BossHogg-; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #0848

"Ah, jeez. At this rate we'll never get tickets for The Producers."
(Image originally uploaded by danwashburn.com; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #1045

"Mmmm, do I detect just a hint of Cajun spice?"
(Image originally uploaded by csummers; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton. Would you believe that that is a mother hummingbird and child? Awesome.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #6262.2

Did ancient astronauts invent the variety show format? Read the book.
(Image originally uploaded by musicwala; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #7550

Yes, it's good to get the whole "Who will wear the pants?" thing out of the way before tying the knot.
(Image originally uploaded by brendanlim; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #6028

"Wow, it's like watching the Democratic National Committee in action, only more interesting." "Enough with the Democrat-bashing, already."
(Image originally uploaded by macther1pp3r; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #8662

I'm a lumberjack, and I'm on MySpace.
(Image originally uploaded by organ splitter; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #3435

Ah, what the heck. Let's continue in that vein:

You Might Be a Trekkie/er/a If #18: You name your kittens Kirk and Gorn.
(Image originally uploaded by cw1ckim; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #6899

With apologies to all non-Trekkie/er/as out there.

"I wager 200 quatloos on the newcomers!"
(Image originally uploaded by SvenDowideit; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #5050

The View's newest co-host proved even more eye-opening for Sherri Shepherd.
(Image originally uploaded by jaotte; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #1308

"Can't talk. Must go insert myself into USB 2.0 Woman."
(Image originally uploaded by Bookmans; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #9735

G. Gordon Liddy's sperm sample yielded some...surprises.
(Image originally uploaded by tavopp; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #9430

Möbius yarn makes beautiful sweaters, but be warned: they are a bitch to fold.
(Image originally uploaded by eksrn2002; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #4951

OK, let's see how caught up with 2007 Daily Random Flickr Blogging I can get before 2007 ends.

Suki revolutionized auto-show eroticism by wearing chamois short-shorts that attracted attention while at the same time buffing cars to a high sheen.
(Image originally uploaded by Dernier Exile; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #8299

As working dog specializations go, the '69 Pontiac GTO Steering Wheel Cover Retriever has one of the coolest.
(Image originally uploaded by ndoane; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #4207

Now that I think about it, Perseus is kind of like one of those cats that occasionally bring home something mangled and dead, drop it on the carpet, and then wait expectantly for applause. Kind of.
(Image originally uploaded by Aaron & Katrina; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #1190

Live Baby Curling: There's one sport that won't last long in Mike Huckabee's America.
(Image originally uploaded by a pastyboy groove; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #6947

OK. Let's see if I can catch up some more on some DRFBing during this, the last weekend of 2007.

During the "we can make him more musically talented" portion of his testing, the Six Million Dollar Man went through a lot of xylophones.
(Image originally uploaded by Gaël Chardon; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #6262

It's astonishing how Tom Waits just won't stand still, either musically or sartorially.
(Image originally uploaded by mtaplits; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #8734

Slowly but surely, the mortgage crisis worked its way down the food chain. "These nests are no longer worth even the paper-like substance that we masticated out of locally available wood fibers and patiently shaped into them," sighed one departing resident.
(Image originally uploaded by ajyablo; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #3734

Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to to sell vacuum cleaner attachments, but you don't hear me complaining.
(Image originally uploaded by oblivion9999; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #9585

Since the bi-partisan debate commission was formed in 1987, the red cups and the blue cups won't even let the one measly little green cup use the CPD's dishwasher.
(Image originally uploaded by Mamiko.nu; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Just Saying No to the Surveillance State

Via the Undernews, we find that some British folks do NOT like speedcams. (Warning: very large file, many photos; beware on dial-up.) There's an odd kind of poetry in sentences like these:

This Gatso on Wessex Way in Bournemouth has been burnt to death with part of the yellow paint melted away.

This Gatso in Barnsley has been well and truly baked.

UPDATE - Like all vandalised Gatsos in the area it was replaced shortly afterwards but the new camera has since been blown up using dynamite, see below.

Suddenly I have this urge to rent V for Vendetta.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

A Quechua Christmas Carol

Those in search of inspiring holiday reading need look no further than Greg Palast's site.

I hope the day is a happy one for all.


Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #4682

In the Dyslexiverse, William F. Buckley's infamous first book was Dog and Nan at Yale, and Russell Kirk is best known for writing The Conservative Minx.
(Image originally uploaded by G. Digital; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #1853

Coming next summer: the grammar-correcting robot is back with a vengeance in Linguo II: This Time It IS Personal.
(Image originally uploaded by anttia; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #8348

Christopher Hitchens's cat tries to bug him by doing this five times every day while facing the cupboard containing the Fancy Feast.
(Image originally uploaded by leshoward; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #4072

Wikipedia's claims aside, Betty Boop was the world's first—and remains by far the world's most arousing—impossible object.
(Image originally uploaded by Soleil***; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #2009

News of the baby born without a spine soon reached the Democratic National Committee. "The prophecy has been fulfilled; the Chosen One has arrived," Harry Reid's office announced via blast fax.
(Image originally uploaded by Jason Kehrberg; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Sunday, December 23, 2007

Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #4513

"Whoa! Jeez. That's the last time I buy Ark of the Covenant™ brand votive candles."
(Image originally uploaded by Severn Swerve; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #0981

A tourist walks by wearing a monochrome tracksuit, and even the llama is disgusted.
(Image originally uploaded by chris_catherall; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #0494

I'm catching up on these, slowly but surely.

"Oh, I'm sure you're going to like this 'Stephen Colbert' fellow, Mr. President. I'm told that he models himself on Bill O'Reilly, only he's intentionally funny." "Ah. Um."
(Image originally uploaded by SmooveO; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton. And yes, that picture is from the 2006 White House Correspondents Association dinner—the now-infamous one with Stephen Colbert—or so suggest the other pictures in the set, anyway.)

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Sunday Scripting

Anyone checking in with Today's Papers this morning will get a nice object lesson in scripting—the mainstream media's obliging adherence to convenient narratives that hide inconvenient facts. First, there's this tidbit:

Rounding out the Campaign '08 analysis-dominated lineup, the Los Angeles Times breaks down the Republican candidates' relationship with President Bush's foreign policy legacy. All four major candidates are edging away from administration's democracy-promotion agenda, but have hesitated to strongly criticize specific policies for fear of antagonizing Bush loyalists.
This is a decent summary of the LAT article, but—democracy-promotion agenda? How exactly does that description fit with the Bush Administration's record? Let's see: unjustified, illegal invasion of Iraq followed by societal breakdown there; active attempt to overthrow democratically elected government of Venezuela in 2002 (which fits nicely with actual overthrows of democratically elected governments in Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Chile in 1973, etc., though at least the Bush people can't be blamed for those); scant murmurings about Musharraf dictatorship in Pakistan; scant murmurings about hideous authoritarian government in Burma; embrace of torture; rejection of habeas corpus protections; embrace of illegal wiretapping; wow. You can see how democracy has been on the march during the Bush years. But hey, what's a totally misleading euphemism when you're trying to save space?

Second, Today's Papers points us toward a WaPo story about a guy who holds both U.S. and Venezuelan passports and who was stopped at an airport in Argentina a few months back with a suitcase holding $800,000 in undeclared cash. The U.S. claims that he was working for Hugo Chavez and that Chavez was trying to influence Argentine elections; others suspect that he was working for the U.S. and that the U.S. is trying to "meddle in the affairs of the region." Ya gotta love the last sentence here:

The United States "encouraged a nefarious intelligence operation which had the direct consequence of denigrating the presidency of our nation," stated a resolution passed by Argentina's Congress last week.

The idea of a U.S.-backed plot to influence regional politics plays well in a region where some conspiracy theories -- such as U.S. support of military dictatorships in the 1970s -- have proved true over time.

Wow. Even in a sentence that basically admits "U.S. support of military dictatorships," the WaPo manages to place the emphasis on "conspiracy theories." How many incautious readers will come away thinking "Oh, those wacky Latin Americans" rather than "Hmm, maybe they have good reason for being suspicious of U.S. involvement"? Mission accomplished!

I know that wingnut types often think that when people like me complain about things like this, it's because we think the worst of America—and we want the media to reflect that. But that's not it at all. (But then a lot of wingnut thinking seems to be driven by the following false dichotomy: Either you say only nice things about the United States or you HATE AMERICA. The massive wrongness of this assumption ought to be apparent to anyone who has the ability and the inclination to think critically for two seconds.) I remember back in the 80s; I had a right-wing college friend who routinely referred to the Washington Post as the Washington Pravda. This was his clever way (probably borrowed from Brent Bozell or somesuch rube-runner) of suggesting that the WaPo was part of the disreputable "liberal media" and was anti-American, working for the other side—Pravda, of course, was the house organ of the Soviet Communist Party in those days. A house organ, of course, specializes in telling the people what The Party wants them to hear—and hiding inconvenient facts that get in the way of the ruling elite's version of the truth. It was only years later that I came to see that there was more truth in my friend's nasty little troglodyte joke than either of us realized. The anti-American part was always stupid—the WaPo occasionally published critical information about Republicans and the Reagan Administration; that's really what made him mad—but the house organ part was spot-on. Decades later, this supposedly anti-American paper can scarcely bring itself to acknowledge that the U.S. has, at times, actively undermined democratic governments and championed repressive dictatorships. The reason people like me complain about the mainstream media is that we don't want our news outlets to be Pravdas: we don't want them to just obligingly pass along ridiculous spin like "democracy-promotion agenda" and to hide inconvenient facts about past U.S. actions inside tortured sentences designed to preserve some childish myth of American purity. We don't hate America; far from it. (If America isn't perfect, it has imperfection in common with, oh, everything else made by human hands.) We hate the fact that in this, the world's richest, most powerful democracy, the media still often functions like the propaganda arm of a corrupt, dishonest elite.

I guess that the Sunday before Christmas is as good a time as any to be reminded of some unpleasant truths about the world we've made, huh?


Saturday, December 22, 2007

What Krugman Said

In yesterday's column, the Krugmeister briefly reviews the connection of free-market ideolatry to "Big Shitpile" and closes with some thoughts to which I dearly, dearly, dearly wish the Democrats would pay attention:

Given the role of conservative ideology in the mortgage disaster, it’s puzzling that Democrats haven’t been more aggressive about making the disaster an issue for the 2008 election. They should be: It’s hard to imagine a more graphic demonstration of what’s wrong with their opponents’ economic beliefs.
A-freaking-men. And a double a-freaking-men to this, the actual last line of Krugman's column:
David Brooks is off today.
Well, David Brooks is off one way or another pretty much every day, but never mind.

For more from the Krugman, check out last Sunday's Media Matters with Bob McChesney (Real Audio/MP3 download). The first few minutes of the "conversation" (after the Media Minutes segment) are kind of funny—there's some sort of audio mix-up, and we're treated to several minutes of aural confusion, amidst which an increasingly annoyed Krugman can periodically be heard asking "Hello?...Hello?...Is anybody there?" until the connections get sorted out (there's a profound political metaphor in here somewhere, I know)—but then the rest of the program is both enlightening and enjoyable. Nash Bob says check it out.


Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #5272

Call me old fashioned, but I don't think that "Now with realistic needle marks!" is an appropriate selling point for dolls.
(Image originally uploaded by kisekaeasobi; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #9321

I've always been partial to the room theme known as NyQuil Moderne.
(Image originally uploaded by febfi2h; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #1364

Tourists flocked to Reaganland, but the walk-through colon proved a bit much for some.
(Image originally uploaded by Leamington Malfoof; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Friday, December 21, 2007

Normannnnn!

In need of some holiday cheer? Then watch Norman Solomon take Glenn Beck to school.

Oh, it is a thing of beauty. Watch as the odious baby-faced, baby-brained Beck anticipates scoring some cheap points against MS/NBC with the help of invited egghead Solomon. Watch as Solomon agrees but then deftly widens the scope of discussion to include other networks and the corporations they're owned by or commercially in bed with—including Beck's own employer, CNN. Watch as Beck unsuccessfully tries to cut Solomon off but Solomon skillfully makes his points anyway. Watch as Beck is reduced to incoherent spluttering and lame attempts to suggest that the calm, eloquent Solomon is somehow crazy or disreputable. Watch as Beck desperately ends the segment before Solomon can score any more points. Wonder who on Beck's staff is going to be fired for allowing a demagogic dimwit like Beck to be matched up against a real media critic like Solomon.

Transcript here. Happy holidays!


Badlands

I was catching up with my Undernews RSS and ran across this:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

Dunno what to make of this, and so far it seems to have attracted mainly regional and foreign notice, but I must say that my first thoughts upon reading it were of what a golden opportunity it presents for the wingnutosphere:

Injun revolt! And they're talking to some o' them South American socialists! This is even worse than that Aztlan thing! They're trying to steal our land! Back, but you know what I mean.

Can desperate warnings about the aboriginofascist menace be far behind? I mean, think about it: if you take John Wayne's character in The Searchers, subtract the ruggedness, the personal courage, and the psychological depth but leave in the racism, the paranoia, and the bloodthirstiness, wouldn't you basically have a right-wing blogger?

Discuss.


Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #4684

Breaking new ground in strip-tease, Syndi performs to the Allman Brothers Band's "Mountain Jam." You don't really see much skin until after Gregg's solo, and you'll probably have to order a second drink, but what she does during Dickey Betts's solo makes sitting through the drum duet worthwhile, hubba hubba.
(Image originally uploaded by Patcave; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #0366

In an annual rite of passage, teenage boys scramble to be the first atop Mount Implant.
(Image originally uploaded by heydanno; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Daily Random Flickr Blogging, #0806

Okay, let's see if I can get back into the spirit.

Wow. Suddenly I'm hungry for candy canes. Yet also strangely intimidated by them.
(Image originally uploaded by thebuffmother; Random Flickr Blogging invented by Tom Hilton.)

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Saturday, December 15, 2007

Catspitalism

Meanwhile, jules's Maxxine continues to grow.

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Friday, December 14, 2007

Discuss

Help me out here. Mikhaela Reid (who knows a thing or two about Mitt Romney's being-rewritten-as-we-speak history) has up a neat little post where she asks for input about a pair of Romney-related cartoons—sort of a first version, second version thing. The post itself is enlightening—oh, please let there be pictures of chiseled Mitt pressing the flesh in gay bars—but I'm more interested in the question she asks about the two cartoons. I honestly think that the second one is superior to the first, but most of her commenters take the opposite view. I think that the first version, while good, is a little too obvious—I think the ending is kind of flat, and I think it pretty much just hits the reader over the head with the Mitt-is-a-history-rewriting-hypocrite message, which was already made nicely earlier in the cartoon. The second, though, takes the ending in a more interesting, more adventurous direction that adds a nice layer of extra thoughtfulness and complexity—and makes the whole thing more comically effective. Or so it seems to me, anyway. The handful of you who read this blog have well-developed senses of humor; I'm curious what y'all think. Am I just way off in weird field for finding the second one clearly superior to the first? Check 'em out if you have a few moments.

And check out this one and this one and this one too, while you're at it. Ooomph!

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Drop Sir Arthur a Line

Got a few minutes? Why not pop over and wish Sir Arthur C. Clarke a happy 90th birthday? And thank him for coming up with the idea of geosynchronous communications satellites while you're at it.


Sunday, December 09, 2007

I For One Welcome Our Arachnid Overlords

Spider Appears on NASA TV.

Meanwhile, the Shuttle may be scrubbed 'til January, but there's a big secret launch tomorrow. Shhhhh.


The Opening Door

Steve Fraser argues that the Iraq debacle, worsening economic troubles, spreading insecurity, dissatisfaction with terror-state Republicanism, etc. will create a "perfect storm" of change in 2008 that even Democratic ineptitude won't be able to stop. His optimism is almost enough to cheer me up.

This perfect storm will be upon us just as the election season heats up. It will inevitably hasten the already well-advanced implosion of the Republican Party, which is the definitive reason 2008 will indeed qualify as a turning-point election. Reports of defections from the conservative ascendancy have been emerging from all points on the political compass. The Congressional elections of 2006 registered the first seismic shock of this change. Since then, independents and moderate Republicans continue to indicate, in growing numbers in the polls, that they are leaving the Grand Old Party. The Wall Street Journal reports on a growing loss of faith among important circles of business and finance. Hard core religious right-wingers are airing their doubts in public. Libertarians delight in the apostate candidacy of Ron Paul. Conservative populist resentment of immigration runs head on into corporate elite determination to enlarge a sizeable pool of cheap labor, while Hispanics head back to the Democratic Party in droves. Even the Republican Party's own elected officials are engaged in a mass movement to retire.

All signs are ominous. The credibility and legitimacy of the old order operate now at a steep discount. Most telling and fatal perhaps is the paralysis spreading into the inner councils at the top. Faced with dire predicaments both at home and abroad, they essentially do nothing except rattle those sabers, captives of their own now-bankrupt ideology. Anything, many will decide, is better than this.

Or will they? What if the opposition is vacillating, incoherent, and weak-willed -- labels critics have reasonably pinned on the Democrats? Bad as that undoubtedly is, I don't think it will matter, not in the short run at least.

Take the presidential campaign of 1932 as an instructive example. The crisis of the Great Depression was systemic, but the response of the Democratic Party and its candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- though few remember this now -- was hardly daring. In many ways, it was not very different from that of Republican President Herbert Hoover; nor was there a great deal of militant opposition in the streets, not in 1932 anyway, hardly more than the woeful degree of organized mass resistance we see today despite all the Bush administration's provocations.

Yet the New Deal followed. And not only the New Deal, but an era of social protest, including labor, racial, and farmer insurgencies, without which there would have been no New Deal or Great Society. May something analogous happen in the years ahead? No one can know. But a door is about to open.


Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Happy Birthday to jules! Random Flickr Blogging #5744

I apologize for being absent; I've been really tired and depressed. I don't know if it's holiday depression or what, but it's been draining away most of my sense of humor and my desire to communicate. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up with Flickr blogging, at least, before long. I hereby emerge from my funk long enough, though, to wish my good friend jules a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

For your birthday I got you a copy of Wanda Wao's album I'm Glad to See You.
I also went to that absurdist flea market over in Orlando and got you a chain link vase. Sorry, all they had was 9-gauge.
It was too big to fit in the car, but I really wanted to get you this cool kinetic sculpture. When you blow into it, the air goes around the curlicues and inflates a balloon, which trips a lever, which releases a ball, which rolls down a spiral chute and hits a mouse, which makes the mouse run, which makes a cat watching the mouse run, which pulls a string attached to the cat, which pulls a pin up an incline until it pops a balloon that was holding up a small weight, which drops onto a teeter-totter, causing a ball to fly through the air and hit a striker attached to a flint, causing sparks to fly out and light a fuse attached to a rocket, which whooshes away, pulling out a sign saying "Happy Birthday!" Well, it's more fun to watch than it is to describe, really.
Wow, they never should have introduced Ross Perot to that succubus.
"This is not my beautiful cave."
He once had an entire replica of a medieval Japanese castle torn down because the builders had used nails that were not historically authentic. When he was alive, lemme tell ya, you did not want to go to Home Depot with Akira Kurosawa.
Celebrate your birthday with some Bratwurst a la Gitmo. Mmmm.
(Images originally uploaded by lmh5107, tomek z grottgera, fiderweb, Tony Sinatra, Focus Photo, luckycerics, and chinhdangvu; Random Flickr Blogging explained here.)

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