A Certain Justice

A for-profit startup "College" - based on Free Market principles, with the expressed intention to teach a kind of Ayn Randian Objectivism - has failed due to...wait for it...an inability to access Federal Student Loan money.  There were other reasons as well, but still.  The irony - it burns!

I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time, but really, this whole Privatizing Education thing has to stop.  It's just another way to siphon tax dollars into corporate pockets.

Read about it here.

The New Tax Deal

I don't know the details, and so I'm trying to judge slowly.  But from what I've seen so far, the thing just kinda smells.  It may well be that by extending the Rich Guy Benefits, Obama thinks he's set the stage for a winning argument in the 2012 campaign.  I don't see it.  There's been lots of political strategy that I've missed before, but I just don't get this one at all.  Maybe we'll see something worth watching when it comes up in the Senate.  Dunno.

Just try to remember that Republicans are NOT going to say nice things about you, Mr Obama.  No matter what you do. And even if you've put something together that trades the Billionaire's Bonus for lots of great progressive things down the road, not a lot of your base is gonna feel less betrayed any time soon.  The chess master thing, for most people, is way too subtle.  You may have staked out the perfect positions; you may have all the leverage you think you need to make better deals with a grumpy Congress; you may have the best possible approach to governing a divided nation.  But here's the thing:  Dumb Fux News is gonna hammer you with their bumper sticker rhetoric anyway. Nuthin' new about that of course, but the problem is that you keep refusing to give your supporters any real points to fight back with.

That lady in the town hall meeting - the one who said she was exhausted trying to defend you - she had it exactly right.  She may have gotten her second wind, but after a while, most people who stand up for you, and who know they have to stand up against the bullies; they just get beat down.  And when their perception is that you give in time after time after time; when it seems you NEVER come away with a clear cut win - well then, why am I beatin' my head against this wall?

It doesn't look like I can go back to voting Republican any time soon, but you'll have to work awfully hard to get me to vote for you again.

Security Theater

 WIth all the negative sentiment toward The Gummint that's been building up over the last 30 years, it's a little surprising we haven't seen more home-grown attacks like the bombing in Oklahoma City, especially considering the relentless rhetorical assault on W, and now Obama.

So I wonder about the intended affects of all this Security Theater.  The apparent aim is to prevent attacks from the outside, but since government almost never tells us the real reasons for what they do, is it not possible that a big part of what DHS is doing is aimed at keeping US citizens quiet as well?

When will we see the first strike against Wall St?  or Bank of America?  or whatever?

Will most of us condemn the attackers as domestic terrorists?  Or will we see the rise of the new American anti-hero? - the kind of people who were robbing banks in the 1930s' who were hunted down (and mostly shot down like dogs) by the Feds; but were lionized by a big bunch of people who saw the actions of the outlaws more in terms of simple payback against a system that had become corrupt and oppressive.

How bad do things hafta get before Blowin' Shit Up becomes a reasonable response?

Take a look at this by Bruce Schneier.

Playing Against Type

Mickey Mantle was probably one of the great tragic figures in The American Hall Of Heroes.  A supremely gifted specimen who always seemed willing and able to put himself thru 9 kinds of hell trying to live up to the overinflated expectations of his public persona, while at the same time hell-bent on self-destruction in his private life.

Here's a quick peek at that inner conflict.
4 years after retiring, the Yankees still want something more from him...

and he rebels.

That Orwellian Thing

As we tiptoe thru these next coupla years; along the edge of the economic abyss, and across the minefields of racial tensions, community disintegration and a good half-dozen other shitty things that're happening that we don't even recognize yet; we need to be looking for the tell-tail signs of those shitty things.

Here's the really big and obvious one: Glenn Beck.  When he puts on his little dog-n-pony shows about the coming of concentration camps, etc, he's not warning you so you can take steps to prevent The Gummint from doing these things.  He's warning you so that when the government does these things, you can be on the "right side" when it happens.  That way, only The Bad Ones will suffer, and all Good Americans will prosper because of it.

Ya heard it here first.

Minority Rule

Regarding the Tax Cut Bill passed by the House (extending the cuts for everybody on the first $250k in annual income): The Senate voted in favor of proceeding to the debate yesterday by a margin of 53-36.

You might think this means the majority of the representatives of US citizens have voted in favor of the proposition that we need to get back to a reasonable position on the question of taxation; and that we need the people who're enjoying the greatest benefits of the economy to pony up and to pay a bit more for those benefits (and btw, when I say "majority of the representatives", it means a total of both houses equaling 287 in favor and 224 against - that's 56% In Favor); and ya might think it means we've settled that little piece of business, and now we can move on to the next item on the agenda.  Well, think again.

In Congress Land, it doesn't really matter how the votes line up.  It only matters what kind of special deals you can make.  It matters that you can maneuver and manipulate the process.  It only matters that you can completely sell out to the interests of Big Money, and still have Dumb Fux News puffing up your image as being "on the side of the little guy".

Here's today's Political Snark:
I need y'all to grow some opposable thumbs and climb down outa the Stupid Tree.

Saturday Nite Music

News to me: Gene Parsons (no relation to Gram) was a drummer for The Byrds in the seventies. When I first saw this on YouTube, I assumed whoever posted it just made a mistake - oops - I love it when I discover something weird like this. Anyway, here's Gene Parsons covering a Gram Parsons tune with a band both men were closely associated with at about the same time. BTW: this tune is further evidence that White Soul may actually exist after all.

Saturday Nite Music

I don't even remember hearing he'd died (Aug 09). Willy DeVille was one of the great eccentrics of pop culture.



HEAVEN STOOD STILL
Album: La Chat Blue (1979)
(Written by Mink DeVille)
Mink DeVille

As a tear fades away
and the dawn dries a lover's eyes
No more tears, they're all gone
Just believe it will always be

My heart in your hand
knows that all this belongs to me
and like the child here I stand
while your heart sings inside of me

One dream of my life
One night in eternity
The wind whispered soft to me
And heaven stood still

One sigh of the dawn
Sweet instant of memory
One celestial rhapsody
And heaven stood still

The Awesomeness Of Louis CK

A bit curmudgeonly, but still some rather astute observations.

Getting What We Pay For(?)

As a devout capitalist and a proud adherent to most of Ayn Rand's preachings, I just can't see how anybody can make an honest assessment of the US healthcare system and still contend we're getting a solid return on our investment.

Measuring a system's effectiveness solely on Life Expectancy is kinda tricky, but really, if we reduce the goal to simple terms; and we say the main point of the exercise is to keep us alive and kickin'; well then I think it's pretty obvious we're gettin' snookered.

If your task was to make healthcare work for your company, and you brought this graph in to the meeting thinking it would support your argument that "we have the best healthcare money can buy", you'd be bounced out of that company so fast your feet wouldn't touch the ground.

So why do we continue just to put up with this shit?

(with a hat tip to Nick)

Fighting Creationist Bullshit

DADT Repeal

So the DADT studies are out - Mike Mullen says he's ready to shit-can DADT;  Bob Gates says the Pentagon should get rid of DADT themselves because that'll be better than when the courts order them to take it down - and somehow, we're all still walkin' around wondering why nothing is changing.

And some pundits are saying that this must surely be one of those bi-partisan moments, or at least just this one time the Repubs and "conservatives" get real and go along with it.  Uh, no, kids - look, let's go over it again.  We're talking about John McCain and Joe WIlson and Jim Demint - they're NOT CONSERVATIVES.  They're radicals and they aren't interested in doing anything that doesn't hurt Obama.  It doesn't matter what the policy question is.  It doesn't matter what the majority of public opinion says.  Nothing matters to these guys except doing political damage to Obama.  They'll oppose the repeal of DADT (prob'ly pushing for a trade on something totally unrelated) and when they're absolutely sure that the thing will pass without their support, they'll let it thru.  And then they'll let Dumb Fux News spin it for them so they can use it as a campaign issue in every election cycle forever after.

In the end, I'm still sittin' here with my arms folded, waiting to see if Obama actually has the balls to stand by his word.

Well, Crap

I think I'm done now.  I've been holding on to whatever slim straw I could feel, hoping Obama would come out of the fog (or at least give me a tiny bit better inkling that he's got something up his sleeve other than a sweaty armpit).  But he won't move on DADT; he's caving on the Bush tax cuts; he's shorting the payments he promised to make to people who most need some help fighting foreclosure; and the list goes on.  It just doesn't look like he knows how to get out of his own way.

So I'm done with him - at least for now.  Right now, the only thing that gets me back is if he mounts an unbelievably effective comeback.  The kind of campaign where he takes everything the Repubs say, he turns it around, and beats the crap out of 'em with it.  Every day for the next 2 years.  But he won't.

I hope I'm wrong.  I hope he actually has the greatness I thought I saw in him 2 years ago.  But I'm not, and he doesn't.  This really sucks.

Send an email to Obama.

Blair v Hitchens On Religion

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7


Part 8

Makin' Whoopee

Me thinks Ms Jones might be just a touch loaded in this one.

This Won't End Well

If you like the way things have worked in Iraq and Afghanistan with outfits like CACI and Blackwater, then you're just gonna love what happens over time with pay-to-play cops.

Your tax cuts at work.  And you can see a much clearer connection now between the push for more tax cuts and the growing trend towards more privatization from the Free-Marketeers and the Adam Smith-ers.

This particular development is alarming to me because a private police force fits neatly into a private prison system.  Where before the Corrections Industry had to rely on expensive lobbying efforts to influence policy that would keep the prisons full, now they can kinda cut out the middle man and be almost assured a steady stream of revenue simply by helping to supply the means of investigation and arrest.

Activist Post

The Freeman

Washington Post (archives 2007)

Brand Spankin' New

I just stumbled on what was supposed to be my very first post (it was stuck in Drafts Limbo).


09-09-09

My name's Mike, and I'll be your blogger for your trip thru this part of the web.

I've been meaning to start a blog for a while now, but like most things for me, I think about it a lot and fantasize about it a lot and then nothing happens - and then at some point down the road, I'd think, "Gee, if I'd actually done what I thought about doing, I'd have quite a bit done by now." I hope this is how it is with lots of people so I won't feel too ridiculous when I go back and read all this junk later on.

My only tho't right now was to get it started - but also I needed to have some space on the web to put stuff so I could be less of a pain in the butt to everybody on FaceBook.

I'll try to get back soon and post something that makes some kind of sense about what I hope to make this thing into.

Security Theater

This week's episode: "The Portland Bomber"

From OregonLive.com:

The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city's annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oregon. 

A Corvallis man, thinking he was going to ignite a bomb, drove a van to the corner of the square at Southwest Yamhill Street and Sixth Avenue and attempted to detonate it. 

However, the supposed explosive was a dummy that FBI operatives supplied to him, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaintsigned Friday night by U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta.

The FBI got a tip from the accused bomber's parents.  They set up a sting, telling the kid to buy all the materials, mail everything to them, and they'd build the thing for him.

Here's the take over at The Agonist.

Keep an eye on this one.

I'll Be Your Man

From The Black Keys. Basic, 3-guy blues.

Waiting On The World To Change

Boomers have a lot of criticism for the passive stance of "the younger generation"; wondering when they'll step up and at least try to make the changes they seem to be calling for.