Veep Candidate Talkin Loud...
But is he saying something?
I would have sworn, halfway through the speech given by John Edwards at the DNC last night that the drugs had finally taken over. That I was somehow reliving my past, a past that included being not-so-quick-to-mistrust young looking Southern politicians. That I was hearing, again for the First Time, a speech given by Bill Clinton twelve years ago. Health care. Poverty lines. Hardworking, middle-class America. Respect. Children. Jobs.
And there was Bush in that White House, too.
But I also recall those being different times. Now, everyone's a cynic, Mr. Edwards, not just the political elite. You may be proud to have 4000 people chanting "Hope is on the way" with you, but Hope is the name of a ship that a lot of people have obviously given up on. You see, I'm of the opinion that plenty of Americans still don't understand that those tax cuts that they got were not really tax cuts for them. Hell, it's 2004, and I'm only vaguely understanding it myself.
And I am, supposedly, part of the "educated twenty percent" of America who notices the political process. I also feel just as strongly attatched to the other 80 percent who do "work and struggle and live paycheck to paycheck" - ie; those who don't have time for politics or protest.
Oh, sure, hear those naysayers: you got time to "blog," commie! Get out there and be an American! Not voting means UnAmerican! Blah Blah Blah good of the nation and all that.
Here's a newsflash. I've never much believed in terms dealing with the "nation." But that's a whole 'nother essay.
For now, let me just say that your speech tonight Mr. Edwards was certainly rousing. For 1992. I've heard that Democratic rhetoric before, and Clinton had 8 years to do something about it. He and the missus tanked on health care almost before their first 100 days was over. And I guess I could thank them for a fifteen cent hike in minimum wage. Oh, but then again, I've never worked for minimum wage. So I guess I've got nothing to complain about.
And while I do think that it is simultaneously true that you and the other John are the "most liberal ticket" in 30 years, I don't put much stock in you doing anything with it. After all, Clinton was heavily derided as a liberal in his run and he turned into the "best Repulican president" in recent memory. Who said that? Your party's newest buddy, Michael Moore. Watch him carefully, Johns, that man only has publicity in his mind. Otherwise, we would know him as a local Democratic party chief and not a filmmaker.
And, yes, while it is true that even a moderate Democrat could be seen as a seachange from the shameful atrocity that is the Bush Administration, I still don't see much point in legitimizing the corrupt American political process by getting involved "just this once."
But, perhaps I am not as prinicpled as others.
Yawn
So, the democrats pulled out some old dudes last night, and they are pulling out some young guys tonight. There was a lot of talk. Not much of it sounded as compelling as one could hope, even from a national party. But, hey, it's the DNC and it's supposed to be about pageantry and showmanship and spectacle.
After all, the Spectacle of Politics has long given way to the Politics of Spectacle. Sure, for at least the past three Presidential Cycles, there have been many who claim that it is no longer important what a candidate says or believes - it's the Party that throws the biggest Party that wins. And that might be true. It might even be telling of how shoddy and third-rate the American political system has become.
This is supposedly the tightest race ever so early in an election. It is also supposedly the most liberal Democratic ticket in thirty years. Republicans still cry that America is not ready for, and will not accept, such a liberal agenda from the Democrats. Why are the poll numbers for Bush not higher, then?
This entire election already stinks to high-heavens. is being paid to dissent this time (it will be interesting to see how the Republican Convention goes). Almost no attention is being paid to the recently reported on "election day contingency plans (which would delay or cancel elections if a "national emergency" warranted).
And, above all, we are dealing with an administration that has absolutely no respect for even the laughable tenets of American "democracy."
Oh, well. If I ever get able enough to actually throw any real details out there, I might. I'm still a recovery patient, you know!
Greetings. I am alive, I guess. NFD will probably be pretty static for a week or so, though - as I am technically restricted from sitting. That makes web surfing almost totally out of the questions. Unless someone out there has some wireless gear that they want to ship to me or, at least, a decent laptop.
Just some quickies today, kids. I'm exhausted, and resting up for some minor surgery tomorrow. Don't know when NFD will get its next update. In the meantime, go read a book or something.
And who does he have in mind?
Updated! I found that the Pentagon does have transcripts of oodles of their press activity. This one is at this URL, look half way down the page, or search for "preemptive." Yes, it is a military IP.
Just a few minutes ago, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld fielded a question about pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear weapons program. His answer was quite interesting in its subtext:
"Number two, it would be a presidential and a congressional one and in some cases decisions for others even beyond that."
This is from the actual transcript, kids. He said this.
So, who else does Rummy have in mind for deciding if pre-emptive strikes are warranted?
About time
And that's really all there is to say about this.
Iraqis Waste No Time Putting Sovereignty To Good Use!
Widely unreported in America is the news that Iraq's new Prime Minister is getting up to speed on his new job, personally executing six prisoners in Baghdad.
Sure, ABC is reporting that an inquiry has been promised, but that's about as far as it has gotten. Once again, it's pretty clear who has control of the spin from Iraq and it isn't the so-called "liberal media."
Riot in Vegas! Ronstadt a Pinko Troublemaker!
Who would've thought that Linda Rondstadt would be capable of causing a riot? Of making a thousand people "storm out" of her show at Las Vegas's Aladdin, throwing drinks and tearing down posters, following her onstage support of Michael Moore last night?
Apparently, only the casino's owner, Mr. Timmins.
The CNN story reports that a quarter of the fans in attendance left before the show was over. The rebuttal from the fan printed in National Review states that the song was an encore, anyway. It goes on to state that the "bedlam" was mixed cheering and booing. All of which sounds vaguely like the conflicted stories of Moore's own Oscar acceptance speech last year.
What's really funny about this is that the guy couldn't even get some really good story out of the whole thing. I mean, saying that only one in four fans "stormed out" is a pretty poor thing to do. He could've said half. Or all. But, he only chose one-fourth. Not a stellar show of support for the Bush War Machine, methinks.
Still, as the owner of a private casino, Timmins is well within his rights to boot a performer. It doesn't make him right, naturally, it just makes him a businessman.
Former Gay Porn Star Calls Dems "Girly"
Big hoopla in California following Gov. Arnold Scwarz...Schw. Um, yea. Anyways, Arnie referred to Democratic members of the state's legislation as "girly men" in a speech recently. The comment came as Scwar, Sw...Mr Shriver attacked the Democrats for being too sissy to stand up to the special interests that have them by the political balls.
Good for you, Arnold. I'm not kidding. I still think you are a moron, but I also think it's high time there was more name-calling in American Politics. Look at Britain. Ever watch Parliament on late-night C-SPAN? Those guys know how it's done, and the British have been the model of civilization for 500 years now.
By the way, where are those pics Robert Mapplethorpe took of you?
You may read sarcasm into that one anywhere you like. The whole issue is rather silly, if you ask me.
Wage slavery still not working!
Where would we be without the New York Times getting into the trenches and giving us ground-breaking reportage like this? I mean, I always thought that minimum wage meant you were making it, at a minimum.
And I'm particularly heartened to find out that, in John Kerry, we have a presidential candidate who wants to help the "working poor." What a concept! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?
Quitting smoking now increases your chances of nic-fitting later
Well, as some of you may know, I've been sidelined from any meaningful existence for the past few weeks by a back injury. Well, ok, to be honest, I re-injured myself and I am paying for being stubborn the first time around. Whatever.
In the chaos that was the re-injury back in late June, I managed to not get enough cigarettes to last me the duration of my inactivity (which, at the time, I thought might be a few days). Now, dear mrs. catastrophe took this as God's Own Covenant that I was no longer a smoker.
Where does she get these ridiculous ideas?
At any rate, I've smoked only two packs in the last three weeks. If I could do math correctly, I'd tell you that is one hell of a step down from a pack and a half a day. I should feel great, right? Like a new man? No. I feel totally screwed right now. I was ok not having cigarettes for the first five days. Totally. It didn't even cross my mind. But, then, it happened. I felt like I wanted one and didn't have it. All hell broke loose.
Now, somewhere around here there are 6 smokes that were confiscated from me. All I have to do now is find them. Sheesh.
Brutality is in the eye of the beholder
Let me introduce you all to a dear friend of mine. His name is Mark Hyman, and he's a vice-president of Sinclair Broadcasting - the nation's "largest operator of television stations." Why is this important? Well, because part of Sinclair's ownership of these "diverse" stations includes a mandate for those stations to broadcast Sinclair-produced op-eds, which include Hyman's own The Point.
Yesterday's Point was a sincere message about the "liberal media" and its treatment of brutality and abuse inside Iraq. Hyman starts by telling us that he has now seen both the Berg execution video and the newly uncovered "Best of Saddam: Torture Tapes Volume One" (ok, that's not the name of it, but hey, it fits). Both are gruesome, hard to watch, and brutal, says Hyman (without mentioning the questions which have been raised about the former). Hyman says, "It is difficult to imagine that anyone - let alone government officials - could perform such atrocities. It was truly disturbing. And I couldn't watch it all." He goes on to mention how the images of brutality against Americans has disappeared all too soon from the media, while there's been a "near-total blackout" of information about this recently unearthed tape of crimes committed by the Hussein government. And, he's is right about that. A search of news.google.com isn't getting me any results. But, he is still wrong in his main "point." He concludes:
"...the liberal media doesn't want you to know about it [the Hussein atrocities tape]. Some of those guilty of these atrocities are probably prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Others are still loose and are attacking innocent American troops, Iraqi civilians and foreign workers. The liberal press doesn't want you reminded of what our troops are facing. They'd rather you think we're the oppressors and the insurgents are benevolent freedom fighters."
That's a fairly bold statement to make about the press, and it is one that I feel is grossly out of bounds.
The reason that the abuses at Abu-Ghraib have recieved so much more attention than the attacks on Americans is that we, as the supposed "defenders of freedom and liberty" in the world should be held to a much higher standard of conduct in the name of the ideals we supposedly cherish. To think that an approved list of interrogation tactics was OK'd and implemented at Abu-Ghraib, a list which led to a modern day Stanford Prison Experiment situation inside the prison, is newsworthy in that it calls into question the methods used to attain freedom and liberty in Iraq. Can the American occupation be justified if we are violating basic human dignity? Even if some of the prisoners at Abu-Ghraib are indeed former members of Hussein's military who themselves tortured and killed innocents - can we say that it is within our rights to allow those people to be mistreated as well?
Hypocrisy and duplicity have become hallmarks of American policy worldwide. While commentators like Hyman want you to believe that this is all the fault of the "liberal media," it is in fact the fault of some of the more homicidally deranged individuals inside our own American government and military. These persons pay lip service to the ideals of liberty, freedom, and basic human rights, all the while violating those ideals on a daily basis - both in Iraq as well as other areas of the world and even here in the United States.
While it's easy to say, "we are the bringers of freedom and peace in the world," it is hard to believe that we must allow ourselves to sink below the high standard that we claim to want to set in the rest of the world.
And that's The Point, Mr. Hyman.
I smell a rat
In case of disaster: Postpone Elections.
If only the fucking Spainards had figured this out!
The continued idiocy of online programming.
Sigh. Once again, I've tried looking for solutions to my current interweb design problem; namely, I need to turn the crap you see to the right into dynamic menus, that operate from an easily edited text file and is parsed into this one.
Didn't follow that? Fine, read on.
The continued idiocy of drug commercials
It was bad enough to have to sit through endless runs of those Disturbing enzyte commercials during late evening Comedy Central programming, but now there's a new batch of "all-natural" remedies on the market. One of them gives you "peace." The other helps your memory.
And the funny thing is, I think I need the memory one. For instance, I seem to recall having some brilliant idea at about 3am this morning. And now, all I can remember is where I left the ibuprofren. Egads.
Speaking of scary, who's worse, that smiling idiot in the enzyte ads or the dancing old man in the six flags commercials? Cast your vote, and I'll post results (don't worry, Andy, I will post yr answer - you will own the poll).
Shit, if I could get php semi-functional, I could really just have a poll here. Damnation to this newfangled interweb.
I'm not running for Vice....oh, hell with it.
John Edwards, who spent weeks during the primaries telling anyone who would listen that he was not running for the Vice-Presidential slot on the Democratic Ticket, is not running for the VP slot. Kerry named Edwards as his choice yesterday, which came as a shock to me, since Edwards wasn't running for Veep. Ahem.
Sure you weren't, Johnny. Sure you weren't. As a lawyer, you are likely a smart guy. As a successful, multi-millionaire lawyer, it's a certainty. You know that you had snowball's chance in hell at a nomination this year, so you rode it hard and strong, hoping to look good to the front runner. And, compared to your competition, I'd say you look great.
You guys are still going to lose this November, because the Republican Party invented ratfucking - and Democrats never leared how.
I'd Hit It
Meet Ms. Debra LaFave. She's 23, recently married. A teacher. Pretty. Smart.
In jail for nailing a 14 year-old student.
Oh, yea, it gets far better, otherwise I wouldn't even write about it. She allegedly had sex with this guy while his 15 year-old cousin drove them around in an SUV.
Meet Ms LaFave. Either one of the world's most sex-addled nutcases or being set way the hell up by a pissed off teenage boy.
Now, I've read just a little bit about her. And I like to think I know a little bit about women, Mrs. Catastrophe notwithstanding, and I'm thinking that Ms. LaFave's getting the shaft.
Think about it. She's hot, real hot. And, two, she didn't wind up two states away in a motel with her "prey" when busted. She turned herself in. So, I don't know that I buy the story. Maybe Kobe was there. Who knows?
Just another diversion
And this time it's me diverting you: away from the fact that I've got Fuck All to say about the Transition of Power in Iraq. Nothing. It happened two days early, dammit. Caught me off guard. I did notice they also got Saddam and two other players to be named later and that the Death Penalty has been reinstated.
So much for a voice of progress in the Middle East.
Guy Fawkes Day, all ready?
Ok, so it's not Guy Fawke's Day, but there will be parties and beer and blowing things up this weekend. It's Independence Day in the USA!
WHEEE! I can't tell you how pissy July Fourth makes me. Right down to the stupid people who don't know enough about flag etiquette to know that they are making fools of themselves and desecrating the flag by wearing. Ugh.
But, I do love beer and blowing shit up, though. Have a good weekend.
Obligatory Nonsense
Who the hell is mat
catastrophe?
About this "blog"
What
is nihilism,
for real?
Is there an FAQ?
Are you
really this much of a prick in real
life?
Surfing in from a search
result and not finding it?
Obligatory Links Area
- Originality is Overrated
- Music from your subconscious (possibly down)
- Scooter's Freakin' Wicked Weblog
- memepool
found weirdness:
The Cat With Hands.
and
something funny.
Archival Footage
June -- May -- April -- March -- February -- January -- December -- November -- October -- September
Coming soon...
Nihilism for Dummies will be undergoing a few changes next month, assuming that I am able to make the changes work correctly. I plan on splitting up posts into different categories, and possibly changing the way the archives are set up to along with the change. If you've linked to one of the pages here, you might want to get in touch with me once you notice a change in this site, especially if you notice the link no longer works.
Of course, all of this might not happen. The web's weird like that. But, hey, at least I'm not putting up an "under construction" gif. I'll save that for later.