Rome is Burning

So, what have we learned from the current state of the nation and eight years of the current policies? For one thing, the 90s motto "greed is good" still holds. There has been mismanagement and corruption from the top all the way down. By this I mean all the way to the top of the country down to everyone trying to keep up with the Joneses. I commend Jason Calacanis for acknowledging the coming meltdown and the Enron-style scandal early this year on the TWIT netcast. I also concur with his analysis that Bush is the worst fiscally-responsible president in history and is probably worse than the combination of the next three most irresponsible presidents. We also know the oil companies are completely incompetent or are running a major scam on the public. If Matt Simmons is right, then oil may hit $500, and even he is aware that more drilling is not an answer at all and that the oil companies "don't know their own business" and the Republicans are clueless on energy.

We have also learned that the Republicans are not the party of small government and reduced government spending and they are not the party of non-interference, letting the market correct itself. We have seen the limits of capitalism. Socialism isn't the problem, it may well be the answer. Many people are still locked into the view that socialism is bad and when the individual runs into problems, well, that's the risk of a free-market system. But when large corporations have problems, the government must intervene to support the national economy. There is some truth to this, but its all rigged in favor of the corporations. If the government buys into the financial industry for a trillion dollars and then regulates where the money moves,then that's already socialism. Rather than worry about things becoming "too socialist", we should be extending that direction of thought. We should extend government "interference" into areas like health care, so that all citizens can benefit from the economics of our country, rather than having to support big business but not receive any direct benefits. The truth that conservatives don't want to hear is that the only solution is to tax the rich higher. Someone has to pay to get us out of this mess and the rich are the only ones that can do it. Most of America doesn't have enough money left for higher taxes. What are you suppossed to do when the bully comes back, but he already has all of your lunch money? Even Ben Stein has admitted that taxing the rich is the only solution. Rather than contemplating a flat-tax (which is really a regressive tax, higher on the poor), we should be upfront about the fact that the wealthy in America have it too easy. This is just one more reason that a McCain win of the presidency would be very dangerous for America's future, given his goal of reducing taxes on the top-income brackets.

Lastly, we have learned how absolutely absurd right-wing conservative talk shows are. For the last year they have been saying that the economy is great, lying about unemployment, and stating that the value of the dollar is of no importance and the economy will correct itself (SH). Now they are asking why no has questioned the falling value of the dollar (LI). Even more absurd (in a more humorous way), they (LI & ML) discuss how unpresidential McCain is on economic matters and how he jumps to decisions emotionally and does not take the time for rational consideration. If they can't get behind the idea of him being presidential, I don't know how any of us can. It is certain that he lacks the temperament to be president.

For political debate, I recommend Andrew Sullivan for a non-liberal critique of conservatives, as well as "Count the Lies."

Happiness Is the Road

As Ars Technica reported, Marillion is going to release the new album for free. I imagine this will be the 1 CD version. Even though I paid full price for this last winter, I'm happy to pay and let others hear it for free. I have high hopes for the full 2 Cd album, with tracks like Real Tears For Sale, which ranks a classic pure-Marillion song.

Ok - it is the full 2Cd album, but I thank Marillion for contacting those who pre-paid for the album (financed production, really) with download links so they could be among the first to hear it. I'm not convinced that giving it away will help improve their financial gain, but I guess we'll consider this a great experiment and see what happens. Of course I did download it right away and am quite enjoying it, but I'll save my full review until I can hear the CD at full volume and quality.

The Idiot Bastard Song

Fred Thompson is an idiot. No question about it (after all, he was in Iron Eagle III) , he should have stayed on Law & Order. Now he's whining that the attacks on Sarah Palin are the most intense in history. I could easily name dozens of political figures in the last tewnty years that have had it worse. But, of course, the "liberal" media keeps bringing up attacks on Palin over and over again. Or - maybe, the conservatives are making sure this story keeps coming up in order to create "news" that keeps the media busy - too busy to discuss the real issues or allow Obama to get any air time. These "attacks" on Palin are the best thing to happen to the Republicans in this campaign. No one is discussing Palin's situation more than the right-wing scumbags on Fox News and abhorrent media outlets like KTLK.

But, as for how important their opinions are, I'll quote Craig DeLancey from U2 and Philosophy:

"I'm confident that none of these four men [from U2] knows much about political economics, about civil rights history, or labor history, about AIDS vectors or conflict resolution. But I'm also confident that the people I see talking about those things on TV don't know much about them either, and those people on TV are being paid a wage to say what they say, or often, implicitly, through self-censorship and the creation of the acceptable dimensions of public discourse, are paid to not say what they don't say. So you've got at least as much reason, and probably more reason, to listen to [U2] as you do to listen to those shriekers on 'Fox News.'" He goes on to discuss authenticity in Rock music and how rock stars can't always be trusted because of their narcissism. "Given that pundits and newscasters are people who became pundits or newscasters because they were obsessed with watching themselves talk in mirrors, and the owners of news stations are people who are obsessed with watching their empires and their wallets grow, this sin of rock stars is not one that singles them out for damnation."

The political personalities are the last people you should listen to for any sort of political insight. They have a double agenda- listen to themselves talk, and get rich doing it. The sad fact is that people listen to them and make them rich while allowing their own brains to be turned into ectoplasm. Forget about killing all the lawyers, let's kill all the pundits.

Scenes from a Memory

I though I'd take a minute to address the visual arts. I really like what is being done these days with the help of technology.



Checkout Digital Blasphemy. I've been a fan of his work for years, I'm always amazed by the immersive worlds that are created in these pictures. I'm not a fan of straight naturalist art - what's interesting here is the presence or non-presence of humanity. Often there are lone figures facing a giant city or massive landscape. And, when there in no one, their absence is glaring, leaving the viewer in perfect isolation. The tranquility is contrasted to the excitement of discovering "what's out there?" In Endless Blue the distant boat and campfire reveal that the viewer is not alone in this vast beach. Other favorites are Overseer and Gotham Garden.


Also, take a look at Night Visions (Boing Boing link). What Troy Paiva does with photography is awe inspiring. His technique is light painting, which I think is genius, because I believe color is incredibly important in visual arts. Once again, we experience the lack of presence. These places have no people, there are vast and empty, yet they are completely defined by humanity. They are artifacts and these "places" owe their very existence to world of people. See more at Lost America

God Save the Queen

As the election battle begins its escalation, the right-wing nutballs are now vehemently attacking the left-wing bloggers for their scrutiny of Sarah Palin. Obama has already said the Palin's family is off limits (of course that never stopped right-wing attacks of Chelsea Clinton), but surley Palin would have expected this level of invasion, just look at what Obama went through because of something his preacher said. Her family life would be a non-issue, except that not everything adds up, and given her holier-than-though moral stance, one would expect her family to adhere to these "high" limits, otherwise she is an inconsistency in herself. But, the right-wing radio scumbags are happy to give her a pass while they attack any democrat for anything they can find.

The media is constantly comparing her experience to that of Obama, but this is absurd. They should be comparing her to Biden. Being mayor of a town of five thousand and 20 months of being governor of an out-of-the-way state (really when was the last time Alaska played a big part in national decisions, plus this is the state that gave us Ted Stevens!) doesn't really equal 35 years in national politics. I have more confidence in a Congressional member, who might have some knowledge of national conditions and geo-political situations, than someone from an isolated and very independent state.

But the real problem with Palin is not her experience, but her outlook towards politics. She's already played a dirty game of invoking religion and denouncing her rival's own religious view (which happened to be Christian Lutheran.) as well as suggesting banning books at the local library (which resulted in firing the librarian). There is also the matter of an ethics investigation and the question of lobbying for earmarks (even though McCain says she didn't.) So, we have a candidate that isn't nearly as clean as the nutballs would have you think, and we have another Republican that has an agenda of ramming their religion into everyone's life.

Here's something to read about her (thanks to Leo Laporte for the link)