New Year Resolution # 2666: Seek Out Imperfection

The mention of Trakl made Amalfitano think, as he went through the motions of teaching a class, about a drugstore near where he lived in Barcelona, a place he used to go when he needed medicine for Rosa.  One of the employees was a young pharmacist, barely out of his teens, extremely thin and with big glasses, who would sit up at night reading a book when the pharmacy was open twenty-four hours.  One night, while the kid was scanning the shelves, Amalfitano asked him what books he liked and what book he was reading, just to make conversation.  Without turning, the pharmacist answered that he liked books like The Metamorphosis, Bartleby, A Simple Heart, A Christmas Carol.  And he said that he was reading Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's.  Leaving aside the fact that A Simple Heart and A Christmas Carol were stories, not books, there was something revelatory about the taste of this bookish young pharmacist, who in another life might have been Trakl or who in this life might still be writing poems as desperate as those of his distant Austrian counterpart, and who clearly and inarguably preferred minor works to major ones.  He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pécuchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers.  What a sad paradox, thought Amalfitano.  Now even bookish pharmacists are afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works, books that blaze paths into the unknown.  They choose the perfect exercises of the great masters.  Or what amounts to the same thing:  they want to watch the great masters spar, but they have no interest in real combat, when the great masters struggle against that something, that something that terrifies us all, that something that cows us and spurs us on, amid blood and mortal wounds and stench.

-- Roberto Bolaño, 2666

Spider-Man: The Musical

No, seriously.



My initial reaction upon hearing that U2's Bono and The Edge were working on a Broadway version of Spider-Man was pretty grim.  While I love Spider-Man and generally get a kick out of musicals, the pairing sounded disastrous.  Adding in a couple of pretentious sellout "rockers" was like adding stale croutons onto a shit salad (full disclosure -- I actually used to love U2, and still think the Joshua Tree is one of the best rock albums of my lifetime.  We parted ways after high school though, and these days I kind of just hate them in general).

But after watching this trailer, I'm actually really excited to see more.  Those villain masks look amazing, the fluidity of the set is eyebrow-raising, and the music is not unbearable (which is about as kind as I can be). 

My revised reaction; this has the potential to be awesome.



Photo by Annie Leibovitz



Auntie Matter's come to town!

There were so many interesting news stories out there today in the collective consciousness we've dubbed the Internet.  Briefly, here's the news that snagged my attention on this chilly November day:

Coolest news first; ladies and gentlemen, we have antimatter!  Which, apparently we've actually been able to create for a while now, but never for more than an instant or two.

Scientists have long been able to create individual particles of antimatter such as anti-protons, anti-neutrons and positrons – the opposite of electrons. Since 2002, they have also managed to lump these particles together to form anti-atoms, but until recently none could be trapped for long enough to study them, because atoms made of antimatter and matter annihilate each other in a burst of energy upon contact.


Me being the comic book fan that I am, I naturally start thinking of the Anti Monitor as the next logical step in the antimatter journey.

Anti Monitor!

Also, if anyone can come up with a better pun about antimatter and/or dark matter, leave me a comment.  "Auntie Matter" took an embarrassingly long time to come up with.

A copyright lawsuit between the estates of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and Warner Bros. is once again moving forward.  The outcome of this case should finally answer the question of who actually owns one of the most iconic creations in American history.  Not to mention set up a precedent for pretty much EVERY other creator/publisher conflict in comic books.  Which could potentially cause chaos on a heretofore unseen level.  Should be interesting.  (I first read about this on Bleeding Cool, for the record.)

NPR is still under fire for, well, firing Juan Williams.  They were the first on the "American Idol, but with Really Important Ramifications," choose-your-own-defund-adventure thing that the Republicans have been working on.  Thankfully, the sneaky defund play was tidily defeated by the lame duck Democratic majority still in the House.  A movement to defund after the new year could be a whole different story.  Hopefully they'll have forgotten about NPR by then and will be back to just hating minorities in general.

It may snow this weekend here in Bellingham.  Possibly even tonight.  Goddammit.

Also in Bellingham, it looks like City Council's going to push the implementation of "traffic safety cameras" onto a half-dozen areas.  They're expected to make an announcement next Monday during the scheduled meeting.  I gotta say, as someone who's been covering this story pretty closely, this really doesn't sound like a good idea.  The monthly operating costs on each of these cameras alone is equivalent to a decent middle-income salary, and it's all going out the door to third-party contractors in Arizona.  Not to mention that both sides of the local political spectrum seem pretty united against the cameras.  This probably won't end well.

So that's what got my attention today.  What'd I miss?

"Your Highness," the redband edition

The redband trailer to "Your Highness" is out, to mixed reactions.  Personally, I can't wait to see this one.  I mean, come on.  A medieval action-comedy from the director of "Pineapple Express," and starring two of the three guys from "Pineapple Express."  How can this be anything but incredible?

Again, this is a redband trailer, so you probably shouldn't watch it at work.  There's lots of cussing and maybe even a little bit of nudity.  So bear that in mind before you click "play."  But then click "play."

Here are some more Your Highness trailers

A People's History of Ada, Oklahoma

One of the perks of my day job (aside from giving girls flowers all day) is I'm generally on the road driving all around the county for four to six hours at a time.  And thanks to the magic of audio books, I've been catching up on all those huge tomes I've been meaning to read for years.  Last Thanksgiving, it was Don Quixote.  April was spent on Moby Dick, which was much more darkly humorous than I had expected.  Over the summer it was Ulysses (seriously, it took about two months).  October was War and Peace, which was actually much less painful than I thought it'd be.



Howard Zinn

 In October I found an MP3 of Howard Zinn's  A People's History of the United States:  The 20th Century.  Read by Matt Damon, The 20th Century focused on the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War.  Toward the end of the Gulf War section, Zinn highlighted some of the activist protests that began springing up across the country in late 1990.  I almost ran off the road when I heard Damon read this:

In Ada, Oklahoma, while East Central Oklahoma State University was "adopting" two National Guard units, two young women sat quietly on top of the concrete entrance gate with signs that read "Teach Peace ... Not War."  One of them, Patricia Biggs, said:  "I don't think we should be over there.  I don't think it's about justice and liberty, I think it's about economics.  The big oil corporations have a lot to do with what is going on over there....  We are risking people's lives for money."

How cool is this?  Ada, Oklahoma and East Central students were mentioned in arguably one of the the most influential history books of the 20th century.  How did I live ten years in this town (and spend five of those years attending classes at East Central) without ever knowing about this?  Hell, I was even a history minor for a while!

Theory v. Law v. Hypotheses

While verbally sparring with a friend online earlier, I stumbled upon a great little site that presents a very clear and concise definition of hypotheses, scientific law and scientific theory.  As anyone who's had these kinds of arguments on a regular basis knows, creationists, climate change deniers and the anti-science crowd in general all love to argue that a theory is really just an idea, not a concrete fact.  Evolutionary theory, quantum theory, chaos theory, string theory, climate change theory and all the rest are mere possibilities and should be treated as such, they claim.  Why?  Because they end in "theory."

Here's a great little explanation from the Wilstar site that helps to explain what a scientific theory actually is:

A scientific law is like a slingshot. A slingshot has but one moving part--the rubber band. If you put a rock in it and draw it back, the rock will fly out at a predictable speed, depending upon the distance the band is drawn back.


An automobile has many moving parts, all working in unison to perform the chore of transporting someone from one point to another point. An automobile is a complex piece of machinery. Sometimes, improvements are made to one or more component parts. A new set of spark plugs that are composed of a better alloy that can withstand heat better, for example, might replace the existing set. But the function of the automobile as a whole remains unchanged.


A theory is like the automobile. Components of it can be changed or improved upon, without changing the overall truth of the theory as a whole.

Keep this analogy in mind the next time you have to defend evolutionary theory in the public school system (or something along those lines).

'So if I own Mein Kampf I'm a supporter of Hitler?'

I got an interesting comment from a post made about a month ago called "People of the Book."  It was about an article written by Ted Widmer which explored the forgotten and/or ignored presence of Islam during the creation and infancy of our nation.  It's a fascinating article with a lot of interesting information that I didn't know beforehand, such as:

• Founding Fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both owned their own copies of the Quran.
• The earliest documented instance of a copy of the Quran showing up in North America was 1683, almost a century before the Declaration of Independence (and there may have been even earlier instances, but this is the first documented account).
• The Massachusetts Constitution, written at around the same time as another significant Constitution (the drafting of which was assisted by John Adams), has this great bit in it: “the most ample of liberty of conscience” for “Deists, Mahometans, Jews and Christians.”
• 
  Muslims and Catholics were often held in the same "extremely foreign" religion category.
• Thomas Jefferson tried to learn Arabic, and his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom was meant to protect "the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination."
• Widmer:  "Jefferson and Adams led many of our early negotiations with the Islamic powers as the United States lurched into existence. A favorable treaty was signed with Morocco, simply because the Moroccans considered the Americans ahl-al-kitab, or 'people of the book,' similar to Muslims, who likewise eschewed the idolatry of Europe’s ornate state religions. When Adams was president, a treaty with Tripoli (Libya) insisted that the United States was 'not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion' and therefore has 'no character of enmity against the laws, religion and tranquility of Mussulmen.'
• Islam may have been a religious belief of up to 1 in every 5 African American slaves before emancipation.
• Washington in a letter to the people of Rhode Island:  "May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid."

Any way you cut it, Widmer's article shines a light on a little-explored area of American history.

So I was kind of surprised to get a comment on the post this morning from my old friend Steve.  "So if I own Mein kampf I'm a supporter of Hitler?"  My first response was to just write a comment back on the post.  But as I started to type, I had a hard time narrowing my responses down to just one argument.

Ergo, this post.  Feel free to apply one, any or all answers back to your comment, Steve.

• So I guess you didn't read the article, which was about much more than the quote I originally referenced.
• In a Fox News 24-hour spin cycle, you might be.  Look at Van Jones, for instance.  Or Shirley Sherrod.  You owning Mein Kampf could be spun that way.  That's not the truth, I'd imagine.  There's probably a lot more to it, as there was with Jefferson and Adams each owning their own copies.  But if you want to boil it down to a right-wing talking point without exploring the issue at all, then sure.  Heil Steve.
• Interesting how you compare ownership of the Quran to ownership of Mein Kampf.  And by 'interesting,' I mean 'disturbingly telling.'  Why not use another religious tome to make a comparison, like the Bible, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, the I-Ching, the Book of Mormon, Hubbard's "Dianetics," or the Zohar?  What makes you think that comparing the holy scripture of an established and widespread religion to an autobiography written by a genocidal fuckhead was accurate in any way?  Imagine I'm cooking dinner for Kristen and I tell you "Kristen loves tomatoes.  I bet she'd really like marinara sauce on her pasta."  And you reply by saying "So if I own Mein Kampf I'm a supporter of Hitler?"  That wouldn't exactly be an appropriate comparison, would it?  Nor is comparing the Quran to Mein Kampf.
• Do you actually own a copy of Mein Kampf?
• No, you're not a supporter of Hitler (that I know of).  And by posting an article about the history of Muslims in Colonial America, I'm not a Jihadist.  Or a historian.
• Did you know before reading my post that Adams and Jefferson personally owned copies of the Quran?  Do you think the majority of the Evangelical Right (or the US population in general) does?
• Your comment almost comes off as threatened by the fact that two of our country's founders owned Qurans.  Does this threaten you?

Eagerly awaiting your reply, Steve.  You should visit my blog more than once a month anyway...

The 600 Years

I haven't had the best of luck embedding vimeo videos onto the blog, so here's hoping this works.

From Kottke, here's an awesome projection piece captured on video (he called it "video mapping," I have no idea what the correct term is) celebrating the 600th birthday of a clocktower in Prague.  It's kind of long, but well worth sitting through.  Also, you might have to slip your brower into fullscreen mode to get the entire video onto your screen.



The piece is called The 600 Years, created by the macula.  Pretty amazing.

Finding (and Losing) a Whole New Language

A National Geographic expedition to into northeastern India has made a pretty amazing discovery; linguists have unearthed a whole new and unique language.  Sadly, it appears this newly-discovered tongue (called 'koro') is already on it's way out:

Only around 800 people are believed to speak the Tibeto-Burman language, and few of them are under the age of 20, according to the researchers who discovered Koro during an expedition as part of National Geographic's "Enduring Voices" project.The language, they said, has never been written down.
"We found something that was making its exit, was on the way out," said National Geographic fellow Gregory Anderson, one of the leaders of the expedition that discovered Koro.
"If we had waited 10 years to make the trip, we might not have come across close to the number of speakers we found," he said.

The Enduring Voices is fighting a losing battle, attempting to record and preserve as many of the 6910 known human languages as possible before they're lost to the ages.  According to the article, around half of them are already endangered.  Talk about a bittersweet job description.

Landing a Newspaper Job the Hunter S. Thompson Way

I followed a link to the full story from Kottke, it's too good to not pass on.

Here's an excerpt from a letter written by Hunter S. Thompson, sent to the Vancouver Sun in hopes of landing a job writing for the paper:

By the time you get this letter, I'll have gotten hold of some of the recent issues of The Sun. Unless it looks totally worthless, I'll let my offer stand. And don't think that my arrogance is unintentional: it's just that I'd rather offend you now than after I started working for you.

I didn't make myself clear to the last man I worked for until after I took the job. It was as if the Marquis de Sade had suddenly found himself working for Billy Graham. The man despised me, of course, and I had nothing but contempt for him and everything he stood for. If you asked him, he'd tell you that I'm "not very likable, (that I) hate people, (that I) just want to be left alone, and (that I) feel too superior to mingle with the average person." (That's a direct quote from a memo he sent to the publisher.)

Nothing beats having good references.

Apparently the letter's one of many reprinted in The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967.  Kind of embarassed to say I haven't read this one yet.

People of the Book

Brown University's Ted Widmer had a piece published in the Boston Globe a few weeks ago focusing on the historic relationship between the Founding Fathers and non-Christian religions (and locally unpopular denominations at the time, like Catholicism).  As the media circus from last month illustrates, religious tolerance is as much a powder-keg issue as it has ever been. 

The religious right loves to take the position that the US is a Christian nation, and that Christianity should be the dominating religious influence within the country.  Even if that means denying other religious institutions their own rights.  And a lot of the vitriol stems from a more modern belief (especially by members of the Tea Party) that religious intolerance is somehow connected the founding principles of the country.

Not true, as Widmer has gone to some lengths to illustrate.  In fact, two of the Founding Fathers actually owned their own copies of the Koran:

No book states the case more plainly than a single volume, tucked away deep within the citadel of Copley Square — the Boston Public Library. The book known as Adams 281.1 is a copy of the Koran, from the personal collection of John Adams. There is nothing particularly ornate about this humble book, one of a collection of 2,400 that belonged to the second president. But it tells an important story, and reminds us how worldly the Founders were, and how impervious to the fanaticisms that spring up like dandelions whenever religion and politics are mixed. They, like we, lived in a complicated and often hostile global environment, dominated by religious strife, terror, and the bloodsport of competing empires. Yet better than we, they saw the world as it is, and refused the temptation to enlarge our enemies into Satanic monsters, or simply pretend they didn’t exist.

Funny how Fox News never brings this up, isn't it?  Read the entire article if you get a chance, it's a fascinating look at the tolerance and respect of all religions that went into founding our country.

Greg Giraldo, 1965-2010

Long live the Roast King.

From Huffpost:

Comedian Greg Giraldo tragically passed away this morning, shocking the entire comedy community and prompting an outpour of sadness online. A genuinely hilarious and intelligent stand-up comedian, Giraldo had a degree from Harvard law, was a longtime member of the Comedy Central family and is leaving behind a wife and four children.

Two rights would indeed make an even better right

In a perfect world, Community's Donald Glover would at this moment be swinging around the New York skyline, cracking jokes and bad guys' skulls, dodging angry editors and making out with pert redheads.

But alas, it just wasn't meant to be.  After a frantic fan campaign, some decent media coverage, and even a quasi-endorsement by Stan 'The Man' Lee himself, it looks like Glover didn't even get the chance to audition for the role of Peter Parker in the next reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. 

Sadly, it appears as though the closest Glover will get to the Webhead's mantle will be that quick shot of his character Troy decked out in Spidey jams during the season opener of his show.  Pity.

This is kind of a non-issue for Glover.  It's not like he's upset about not being cast as Peter Parker.  He's not been going on any tirades or anything. 

But it does raise an interesting issue; could Spider-Man be black?  Would it be a detriment to the legacy of the character if his ethnicity were altered?  I don't think so.

Comic book characters that have been around for decades are constantly having details tweeked and updated both on the page and in film.  Why not race?  Let's see Jimmy Smits take a stab at Superman.  Let's see Chow Yun Fat play Bruce Wayne.  Aisha Tyler as Wonder Woman.  Gael Garcia Bernal as Green Arrow.  Denzel Washington as Captain America.  Let's break the mold a little on the stereotypical white male super hero.  We have the technology.  We have the ethnicity.

"They tell me you're a man with... true grit."

The first teaser trailer for the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit has come out.  And it looks glorious.  Matt Damon's playing LaBoeuf!?  How did I miss that?

I really can not wait for this to hit theaters.



Also, via Bleeding Cool, it looks like Darren Aronofsky's being seriously considered as the next Superman director.  This is on top of rumors that he'll be directing the next Wolverine movie, too.  Gloriouser and gloriouser.

My Influence Map

Behold.  The freshly-minted internet meme-slash-visual roadmap to my soul.  Once I managed to kind of get a grasp as to what the hell I was doing on Photoshop, this was actually pretty fun.  I think I could have easily filled out a few more squares.  Maybe one of these days I'll do another, now that Photoshop is my bitch (or at least my respected peer).

I'm actually pretty proud of this sucker.

Thanks to Tim Callahan over at GeniusboyFiremelon for the idea.  Download a template to create your own influence chart here.

Chess but with Tanks

Indie developers Urban Squall came out with the first of the Battalion java games several years ago.  Since then, each new addition to this turn-based military strategy game has been an improvement over the last.  There's even the Battalion: Arena, where players can challenge the AI, one another, or conduct team battles on custom maps.  All of the Battalion chapters are hosted and available for free play at Kongregate.com. 

I'd recommend starting with Nemesis and working your way up.  But listen; don't start playing these damn games unless you have at least a week of obsessive gaming time to devote to them.  Because that's what'll happen.

All I Want for Christmas

...Actually, I could probably think of a few more things.  But this'll be a great start, for those of you keeping track:

In stores October 25

I've been eagerly awaiting this DVD's release since watching  the trailers when they were first posted over a year ago.  Grant Morrison is easily my favorite writer.  There are barely a handful of other guys in the comic industry that can even hold a candle to Morrison, and even then only Alan Moore can really be a fair comparison.  He's written the best Superman story.  He's on track to write the best Batman story.  Best event story.  Best Dada stories.  Best fourth-wall-crushing, anarchic-existential-pilgrimage-and-chaos-magic-practicing, unified-theory-of-everything story.  And best story about a guy who talks to animals.

Someone once said that Morrison is this generation's Bill Burroughs.  After reading most of his work it's pretty easy to see why.

Here are a couple of trailers to Talking with Gods:

All Star Superman Gets Animated

Via Bleeding Cool (via MTV) here's a trailer for the upcoming animated version of All Star Superman.  I agree with BC's Brendon; it's cool that they're making an animated version, but what I'm seeing in the trailer is a long, long way away from the greatest Superman story ever told.  Because that's what All Star Superman is. 

Origin story in four panels.  Yeah.

I'm not being hyperbolic.  It is. 

I guess the animators didn't even want to attempt to replicate Frank Quitely's gorgeous artwork from the book, so instead they're going with the same blocky, big-chinned WWII era animation style that Warner Brothers uses for every stinking DC animation project.  So that kind of sucks.  Also, the scenes from the trailer look like they're mostly from the last few issues of the comic.  Which, to me, implies that they're probably not going to touch on much of the middle issue-stories that made All Star Superman the greatest Superman story ever told.  So that sucks too.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

But still.  It's an animated version of All Star Superman.  It could be a two-hour movie staring this guy and I'd still be stoked.

Outsourced? Seriously?

So tomorrow is Thursday.  But not just any Thursday.  It's the beginning of NBC's Thursday fall lineup.  You know what that means...

• More tepid episodes of "The Office."  Yeah, okay, enough with Jim and Pam already.  Christ.
• More episodes of the hotness that is Tina Fey, the bastardismo that is Alec Baldwin, and the mental train wreck that is Tracy Morgan, in the show that is "30 Rock."
• A new season from those scrappy underdogs over at "Community."  Initially I wasn't a huge fan of this show, but it really grew on me.  That paintball episode.  Brilliant.
• All new episodes from "Parks and Recreation," undoubtedly the best show on NBC's lineup, featuring a great cast, hilarious writing and Aubrey Plaza as April the ravenous underachiever.  Man I love this show.  It's shows like this one that give me hope for the future of the network.
• Some new bullshit show called "Outsourced."



Guess I won't be seeing you 'till November, Baby.



Really, NBC?  You're pushing "Parks and Recreation" back to mid-season just so you can launch another sitcom about people talking on phones all day?  Do you have any idea how eagerly I've been waiting for more DJ Roomba?  So this is how you treat your loyal viewers, eh?  Conan has taught you nothing?  Well then, good day, sir.

I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR!

The King has Returned!

Steve Wiebe and Family

Congratulations to Steve Wiebe for once again reclaiming his Donkey Kong world record from the dastardly hot sauce guy Billy Mitchell.  Twin Galaxies, the official score keepers for all things old, electronic, and geeky, announced today that Wiebe is once again the best Donkey Konger in the world.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about (which, honestly, is probably a fair number), Wiebe and his nemisis Mitchell were the subjects of a 2007 documentary called "The King of Kong:  A Fistful of Quarters ," which focused on Wiebe's uphill battle for vindication in the surprisingly seedy world of classic arcade video game record-breaking.  Sounds kind of weak, I know.  But the film's actually one of the better documentaries of the past few years, a classic underdog scenario revolving around what I can only describe as one of the best gamer role models out there.

The nefarious Billy Mitchell

Nicely done, Steve.  Way to bring the title back to the Pacific Northwest where it belongs.

10 Autobiographical Comics Worth Checking Out

Information Technology Schools just published a list of ten autobiographical graphic novels that should be on anyone's bookshelf.  Coming in at number four is one of my all-time favorites:

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi: Marjane Satrapi was just a child during the Iranian Revolution, and her acclaimed memoir reveals what it was like to be a young girl in a country rife with danger and upheaval. In addition to being a funny, bittersweet memoir (the narrative covers her teen years and early adulthood), it’s also a straightforward primer on the country’s history.

The list has several gems, including some Eisner, some Peker, and of course some Spiegelman.  Then there are a few I've never even heard of, like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home.  Hmm, time to make a trip to the library.

Anywho, take a look at the rest of ITS's list here on their blog.  And go read Persepolis, if you haven't yet.  It's amazing.  At least go watch the movie, it's almost as good.

The Pinnacle of American Animationeering

This is too cool not to pass on (via Kottke)



Just how badass is this?

"Fleischer's Snow White was animated by ONE person, produced by a Jewish animation studio, in the Depression, featuring images of gambling and alcohol, starring a jazz singer."

That's how badass.  Maybe this is why Disney hated the Jews; they kept on making him look bad.  Does anyone else think this little video clip would somehow make a phenomenal Coen Brothers movie?

Hairy-Chested Love God! Hairy-Chested Love God!

"Morrison said Batman coming out of 52 OYL will be a more of a 'fun guy, more healthy,' more like the 'Neal Adams, hairy-chested, love-god' version of Batman.’"

Newsarama-- February 15, 2006

This post probably won't mean much to you if you're not a Batman and/or Grant Morrison fan.  But for those of us in the know, check out this little tidbit, lately posted on DC's Source Blog. 

"Can you say Caveman Batman? Sure. Well, now you can see him, too." 

The Source has more Chris Sprouse/ Karl Story artwork posted on the site, if you're interested.  Three cheers for the return of the hairy-chested love god!

Health Care Reform: The Day After

I've said it before, I'll say it again.  Last night's vote on health care reform was do-or-die time for the Democratic Party.  If passage would have been blocked in the House last night, the Democrats' failure would have been seen as a high-water mark.  The party would have been demoralized beyond repair and likely obliterated in November.

Instead, the passage of health care reform is a rally point for the Left.  The Right threw absolutely everything it could at Democrats, Congress, President Obama, and anyone else even vaguely associated with the Democratic party over the last year.  They pulled out all the stops in terms of hyperbole, disruption, misinformation, and intimidation.  Thanks to relentless smears by far-Right talking heads, Democrats were caricatured as nazi-socialist-fascist-maoists, intent on destroying the American Dream, killing Grandma, and leading the true Americans to slaughter.  And for a while, it looked like the GOP was succeeding.  Two months ago, there wasn't much hope for health care reform.  Like the failed attempt of 1993-1994, it seemed that health care reform circa 2009 would be just another Democratic Waterloo.

And now, thanks to the tireless efforts of President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi among others, it's a brand new day for the Democratic Party.  Health Care reform made it through the House and will soon make it to the Executive Office and then the law books.  The Waterloo prophesy will not come to pass.  At least, not for Democrats.

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum has a very interesting take on what health care reform passage means for the Right.  And while I don't quite agree with his predictions of a GOP sweep in November (sure, we'll lose some seats, but that's what historically happens anyway), I think he's dead-on regarding the irreversible damage health care reform has done to his party, and the actual motives of Conservative mouthpieces.  Here's a little tidbit from his article, "Waterloo."

"So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours."

Here's a link to Frum's article in its entirety.  I highly recommend it.

Mark Linkous, 1962-2010

From the New York Times:

Mark Linkous, a singer and songwriter whose music, released under the name Sparklehorse, was renowned in indie-rock and alt-country circles for its haunted, allusive themes and fragile beauty, committed suicide on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. He was 47.

He shot himself in the heart in an alley outside a friend’s home, said his manager, Shelby Meade. Lt. Greg Hoskins of the Knoxville Police Department confirmed that the police responded to a call at 1:20 p.m., and that Mr. Linkous was pronounced dead at the scene. According to his family, Mr. Linkous owned the gun that he used.

On four Sparklehorse albums, released between 1995 and 2006, and in numerous collaborations, Mr. Linkous developed a style that sent sunny, Beatles-esque melodies through a filter of crackling, damaged folk-rock, and his songs were filled with entropic imagery. “Everything that’s made is made to decay,” he sang in a whispery tenor on Sparklehorse’s debut album, “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot” (Capitol).

Frederick Mark Linkous was born in Arlington, Va., in 1962 to a family with roots in the coal-mining country of southwestern Virginia. After graduating from high school he moved to New York City and started the band the Dancing Hoods, which relocated to Los Angeles in pursuit of mainstream rock success. But disillusioned with the music business, Mr. Linkous returned to Virginia and reinvented his sound as Sparklehorse, a name that he applied to himself as well as his band.

“We were trying so hard to get signed, and I just quit and came back home and just gave up on all those aspirations of being a rock star,” he said in an interview in 1999. “That’s when I started making good music.”

Although Sparklehorse’s music never had wide commercial success, it found respect among critics and other musicians. Rolling Stone called its 1999 album, “Good Morning Spider,” a “homemade tour de force of psychedelic Appalachian folk slop,” and the third Sparklehorse record, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” released in 2001, had guest appearances by Tom Waits and PJ Harvey.

While on tour in 1996, Mr. Linkous collapsed in a hotel room after taking Valium and antidepressants. He briefly went into cardiac arrest before being revived, and he sustained injuries to his legs that put him in a wheelchair for six months. His legs never fully recovered their strength. His convalescence inspired “St. Mary,” a song on his second album named after the hospital where he recuperated. “Come on boys,” he sings, “please let me taste the clean air in my lungs.”

Mr. Linkous was also in demand as a producer, working with the singer Daniel Johnston and the Swedish singer (and member of the Cardigans) Nina Persson, among others. He collaborated with Danger Mouse and the director David Lynch on “Dark Night of the Soul,” an album and photo book whose scheduled release last year was delayed by legal entanglements; last week Danger Mouse announced that those problems had been worked out and that the album would be released soon.

Mr. Linkous had recently completed most of the work for a new Sparklehorse album and was in the process of moving to Knoxville and setting up a studio to complete the record, said Ms. Meade, his manager.

His survivors include his wife, Teresa Linkous; his mother, Gloria Hughes Thacker; his father, Frederick Linkous, and stepmother, Leta; and three brothers, Matt, Paul and Daniel Linkous.

A different kind of credit card fraud

Here's a screen shot of an email that I received yesterday from HSBC (minus my account info, of course), the financial institution through which I have a credit card:

In case the print's not legible, here's what the email says:

"You asked... We listened." says the big red header.

"Now make online payments to your HSBC Credit Card on weekends and holidays at no cost, plus no same day payment fees when you use Online Bill Pay!"

At first glance, this sounds like confirmation that HSBC is in the business of putting its customers first.  We the customers asked for better online payment methods and HSBC, being the practically-home-town-Main-Street lenders that they are, have gone the extra mile for us, because they value our business.  Right?

No.  The changes in bill payment, as much as HSBC wants to pretend otherwise, are actually due to the implementation of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, a bill signed into law last May, and which took effect February 22.  One of the provisions of the new law?  No more bullshit fees tied in to making a payment, and no more bullshit late fees (which were previously subject to double-cycle intrest) tacked on if the payment's made during an undesignated window of time.  This is just one of many changes the bill introduces, introduced to prevent credit card companies from screwing customers out of every cent they have.  It should be noted that credit card companies fought the passage of  this bill tooth and nail.  It passed right through the U.S. House with 357-70 support (69 of the nays were Republicans) and in the Senate, 90-5 (4 nays from Republicans).  President Obama signed it into law May 22, 2009.  Since passage, credit card companies have scrambled to jack up rates and generally put the screws to their customers while they were still legally allowed to.

Don't let the ads fool you.  Credit card companies don't like you.  They don't want to help you out.  They want to make as much money off of you as they possibly can.  Since the president and Congress took away some of their ability to screw us over, they've settled with rewriting history a little, to make it seem like they're really the good guys, going the extra mile for the customer.  But really, they're the soulless exploitive fucks they've always been.

On Pots Claiming Tea Kettles are Black

Here’s a fun little political story from my neck of the woods. People for Progressive Transportation (PPT) have filed a lawsuit against Whatcom Transit Authority, challenging the language used in the framing of an upcoming ballot measure. The full text of the measure reads thusly:

“Shall public transportation services in Whatcom County be maintained and improved by authorizing the Whatcom Transportation Authority to impose an additional two-tenths of one percent (0.2%) sales and use tax effective October 1, 2010?”

Now before I get into what the PPT find so irksome about the wording of the question, let me give you a little background info. Bellingham and a good chunk of Whatcom County have a great public transportation bus system. Buses start early in the morning and run until around 10 pm seven days a week. They’re used by a plethora of residents, including students, low-income workers, bicyclists (there are bike racks on the front of all buses, many cyclists will hop a bus to avoid the really steep hills), and people who just don’t feel like trying to find a parking spot or feed the meter downtown. Being at the mercy of a temperamental pickup, Kristen and I have become old hands when it comes to buses. And while, like everything else, there are downsides to public transportation (the weird, the loud, the stinky, etc.), we both agree that a dependable bus line is pretty fucking great.

And with the economy the way it is, public transit has become more popular than ever. Buses are a great way to save if you’re strapped for cash. Paying $30 a month for unlimited bus rides is a solid alternative to throwing down hundreds for car payments, insurance and gas each month just to get around. Sure, it’s nice to go where you want when you want, but it’s also nice to pay the rent on time.

Thing is, even with the surge of riders over the past couple of years, the WTA is in a major funding crisis. If I recall correctly, funding for the WTA used to come primarily from a vehicle-related tax. When motorists complained that they shouldn’t have to pay for non-drivers to get around, too, the funding was changed to be reliant on fare charges and a pittance from sales tax (I read this somewhere but I’m too lazy at the moment to dig up the article and cite my sources, so if you locals notice I have my facts wrong, please let me know). Initially the WTA just tightened its belt and got by. But when the recession really started getting nasty, revenue generated by sales tax took a tailspin. As did programs which rely on sales tax, like public transit. In an effort to make up for the nasty budget deficits, WTA raised fare rates from $.75 per ride with a free transfer to $1. They hoped that with the dramatic uptick in riders, an extra quarter per fare would help get the red out. But even with ridership at an all-time high, WTA budget shortfalls are still huge. So WTA’s been forced to do one of two things to balance their budget; either they cut out a good chunk of county routes and all Sunday service, or they go to the taxpayers and ask for a 2/10th of a percent sales tax increase.

So that’s why the proposition will be on Whatcom County ballots in April. Asking for a tax-increase is never an easy thing, especially not in a recession. But the WTA has taken an admirable position; they’ve laid everything on the table. They’re essentially saying that hey, taxes suck, and they really suck right now. But if you the taxpayer want to keep this branch of public service viable and able to meet the demands of increased ridership, you’re gonna have to pony up. The alternative is a loss of service.

Getting back to PPT, the group is upset because of two words within the ballot question: “maintain” and “improve.” According to the PPT lawsuit, “[t]he public will be easily be misled by the ballot title into believing that this tax increase will improve services…”

Basically the PPT is alleging that even though the WTA is planning to use the money (if the measure even passes) to maintain and improve bus service, the question on the ballot shouldn’t say that the money will go toward maintaining and improving bus service, because then voters might get the idea that using tax money on maintenance and improvement toward bus service would be a good thing, and the idea of using tax dollars on good things could sway their vote.

Yeah.

The idiocy of this suit pretty much speaks for itself, I won’t waste time dissecting it in detail. But since the PPT has started the whole “misleading titles” argument, let’s look at one more. Remember, the PPT actually stands for People for Progressive Transportation. Progressive Transportation. Progressive. This is a group of rightwing anti-tax Teabaggers calling themselves People for PROGRESSIVE Transportation in an area whose political leanings are collectively, solidly and consistently left of center. And they’re the ones complaining about misleading titles? Give me a fucking break.

Maybe blatant hypocrisy is just the new calling card for the Right now? That could be why pretty much all of the GOP is up in arms against a healthcare bill that’s pretty much exactly what they wanted to push during the Clinton era and pretty much exactly like the public health bill 2008 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney authored and oversaw into legislation while he was the governor of Massachusetts. And maybe that’s why Neocon icon Sarah Palin can call for Rahm Emanuel to resign when he calls a group “fucking retards,” and then excuse fellow rightwinger Rush Limbaugh for saying the exact same thing to the exact same group because he was being “satirical.” Or why GOP Congressmen denounce the Democrats’ stimulus bill as Socialist legislation one day, then take credit for bringing funds to their constituents the next.

Maybe they should just change their motto to “GOP: The Party of No… Wait.”

[Photo 1 via localism.com, phot 2 via the Bellingham Herald]

Remember Bill Watterson?

It's hard to believe that this month marks the 15th anniversary of the final "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip. In 1995, Creator Bill Watterson abruptly retired his beloved series at the height of popularity, citing his reasons for doing so being "the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels," according to an article in the Plains Dealer. And that was it. No comeback a year or two later, no animated series, no new Watterson projects. Just some ludicrous copyright infringement cases in the form of window stickers of a Calvin-esque figure taking a piss on a truck emblem or praying at Calgary.

Even as a kid I can remember thinking that Watterson wasn’t like the other syndicated comics artists. Whenever I read anything about the guy it was generally something about how he was convinced that newspaper syndicates were attempting to steal his creation, or how his threats of pulling Calvin & Hobbes out of syndication were used as leverage to get him more panel space in Sunday comics than any other comic strip artist. He had a good thing going and he knew it.

That’s why it was such a surprise to see him suddenly walk away from his ten-year run. My preteen self took the news pretty hard, as I recall. I spend most of 1995 mournfully reading and rereading worn-out collected editions and trying to figure out the actual logistics of Calvinball with my friend Chad.

While it was a tough time to be an adolescent fan during Watterson’s last hurrah, I think I can kind of understand why he left when he did. Calvin and Hobbes were the undisputed kings of the Sunday funny pages. Watterson’s stuff was leaps and bounds above his contemporaries, in terms of quality, content and layout. And after ten years of blood, sweat and ink, instead of compromising his work to syndication demands or anything else, Watterson asserted his total control over his creation and wrapped his work up his own way.

While I understand his motive and respect and applaud his decision, I can’t help but wonder what another ten years worth of “Calvin and Hobbes” would have looked like.  More snow monsters, more G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS), more Revenge of the Babysat and transmogrification rays.

Fifteen years after the last “Calvin and Hobbes” strips hit the funny pages, Watterson granted an interview with the Plain Dealer’s John Campanelli. Aside from the anniversary, the interview’s also a pretty big deal considering it’s apparently the first one the reclusive Watterson has taken part in since 1989. Here’s the text of the interview from the Plains Dealer's page. Campanelli’s questions are in bold. Campanelli also wrote and interesting article about Calvin and Hobbes' 15th anniversary, which I linked to earlier.

With almost 15 years of separation and reflection, what do you think it was about "Calvin and Hobbes" that went beyond just capturing readers' attention, but their hearts as well?

The only part I understand is what went into the creation of the strip. What readers take away from it is up to them. Once the strip is published, readers bring their own experiences to it, and the work takes on a life of its own. Everyone responds differently to different parts.

I just tried to write honestly, and I tried to make this little world fun to look at, so people would take the time to read it. That was the full extent of my concern. You mix a bunch of ingredients, and once in a great while, chemistry happens. I can't explain why the strip caught on the way it did, and I don't think I could ever duplicate it. A lot of things have to go right all at once.

What are your thoughts about the legacy of your strip?

Well, it's not a subject that keeps me up at night. Readers will always decide if the work is meaningful and relevant to them, and I can live with whatever conclusion they come to. Again, my part in all this largely ended as the ink dried.

Readers became friends with your characters, so understandably, they grieved -- and are still grieving -- when the strip ended. What would you like to tell them?

This isn't as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of 10 years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say.

It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.

I think some of the reason "Calvin and Hobbes" still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.

I've never regretted stopping when I did.

Because your work touched so many people, fans feel a connection to you, like they know you. They want more of your work, more Calvin, another strip, anything. It really is a sort of rock star/fan relationship. Because of your aversion to attention, how do you deal with that even today? And how do you deal with knowing that it's going to follow you for the rest of your days?

Ah, the life of a newspaper cartoonist -- how I miss the groupies, drugs and trashed hotel rooms!

But since my "rock star" days, the public attention has faded a lot. In Pop Culture Time, the 1990s were eons ago. There are occasional flare-ups of weirdness, but mostly I just go about my quiet life and do my best to ignore the rest. I'm proud of the strip, enormously grateful for its success, and truly flattered that people still read it, but I wrote "Calvin and Hobbes" in my 30s, and I'm many miles from there.

An artwork can stay frozen in time, but I stumble through the years like everyone else. I think the deeper fans understand that, and are willing to give me some room to go on with my life.

How soon after the U.S. Postal Service issues the Calvin stamp will you send a letter with one on the envelope?

Immediately. I'm going to get in my horse and buggy and snail-mail a check for my newspaper subscription.

How do you want people to remember that 6-year-old and his tiger?

I vote for "Calvin and Hobbes, Eighth Wonder of the World."

Konami!

This one's for all you comic book fans.

1.  Go to Marvel's Web site.
2.  Once the page has fully loaded and you're browsing it, hit the following keys:
     Up
     Up
     Down
     Down
     Left
     Right
     Left
     Right
     B
     A
     Then hit enter.

Nothing bad happens, I swear.  It's just a little easter egg Marvel planted on the site, in line with most of the variants covers the company has been shipping lately.

Still not sure who I'm talking about?  Then ask yourself, which fan favorite Marvel sociopath suddenly has something like five titles coming out this month, a movie in the works, and a sidekick named Bob?  Yeah.  You know who.

Marvel even used the old Konami classic code! If you were even a casual videogamer throughout the eighties and nineties, you've probably had to memorize this code at some point. (I didn't discover this myself, in case you're wondering.  I read about it on Bleeding Cool.)

J.D. Salinger, 1919-2010

Two in one day.  Christ.  Don't even want to think about the old "comes in threes" adage.

From the New York Times:

J. D. Salinger, Literary Recluse, Dies at 91

J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died on Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.

Mr. Salinger’s literary representative, Harold Ober Associates, announced the death, saying it was of natural causes. “Despite having broken his hip in May,” the agency said, “his health had been excellent until a rather sudden decline after the new year. He was not in any pain before or at the time of his death.”

Mr. Salinger’s literary reputation rests on a slender but enormously influential body of published work: the novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” the collection “Nine Stories” and two compilations, each with two long stories about the fictional Glass family: “Franny and Zooey” and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.”

“Catcher” was published in 1951, and its very first sentence, distantly echoing Mark Twain, struck a brash new note in American literature: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

Though not everyone, teachers and librarians especially, was sure what to make of it, “Catcher” became an almost immediate best seller, and its narrator and main character, Holden Caulfield, a teenager newly expelled from prep school, became America’s best-known literary truant since Huckleberry Finn.

With its cynical, slangy vernacular voice (Holden’s two favorite expressions are “phony” and “goddam”), its sympathetic understanding of adolescence and its fierce if alienated sense of morality and distrust of the adult world, the novel struck a nerve in cold war America and quickly attained cult status, especially among the young. Reading “Catcher” used to be an essential rite of passage, almost as important as getting your learner’s permit.

The novel’s allure persists to this day, even if some of Holden’s preoccupations now seem a bit dated, and it continues to sell more than 250,000 copies a year in paperback. Mark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon in 1980, even said the explanation for his act could be found in the pages of “The Catcher in the Rye.” In 1974 Philip Roth wrote, “The response of college students to the work of J. D. Salinger indicates that he, more than anyone else, has not turned his back on the times but, instead, has managed to put his finger on whatever struggle of significance is going on today between self and culture.”

Many critics were more admiring of “Nine Stories,” which came out in 1953 and helped shape writers like Mr. Roth, John Updike and Harold Brodkey. The stories were remarkable for their sharp social observation, their pitch-perfect dialogue (Mr. Salinger, who used italics almost as a form of musical notation, was a master not of literary speech but of speech as people actually spoke it) and the way they demolished whatever was left of the traditional architecture of the short story — the old structure of beginning, middle, end — for an architecture of emotion, in which a story could turn on a tiny alteration of mood or irony. Mr. Updike said he admired “that open-ended Zen quality they have, the way they don’t snap shut.”

He also perfected the great trick of literary irony — of validating what you mean by saying less than, or even the opposite of, what you intend. Orville Prescott wrote in The New York Times in 1963, “Rarely if ever in literary history has a handful of stories aroused so much discussion, controversy, praise, denunciation, mystification and interpretation.”

Here's a link to the rest of the article.

Howard Zinn, 1922-2010

Via Huffpost

Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist "A People's History of the United States" became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts and a favorite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.

Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass.

Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, "A People's History" was – fittingly – a people's best-seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1 million sales in 2003. Although Zinn was writing for a general readership, his book was taught in high schools and colleges throughout the country, and numerous companion editions were published, including "Voices of a People's History," a volume for young people and a graphic novel.

"I can't think of anyone who had such a powerful and benign influence," said the linguist and fellow activist Noam Chomsky, a close friend of Zinn's. "His historical work changed the way millions of people saw the past."

At a time when few politicians dared even call themselves liberal, "A People's History" told an openly left-wing story. Zinn charged Christopher Columbus and other explorers with genocide, picked apart presidents from Andrew Jackson to Franklin D. Roosevelt and celebrated workers, feminists and war resisters.

Even liberal historians were uneasy with Zinn. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. once said: "I know he regards me as a dangerous reactionary. And I don't take him very seriously. He's a polemicist, not a historian."

In a 1998 interview with The Associated Press, Zinn acknowledged he was not trying to write an objective history, or a complete one. He called his book a response to traditional works, the first chapter – not the last – of a new kind of history.

"There's no such thing as a whole story; every story is incomplete," Zinn said. "My idea was the orthodox viewpoint has already been done a thousand times."

Here's a link to the rest.

Differing opinions

One of my resolutions this year was to avoid getting into long, drawn-out fights in the comments section of my friends' Facebook pages.  I'll admit, I can get a bit carried away now and again and before I know it I've maxxed out two responses and am well on my way to filling up a third.  It's a bad habit, one I've addressed before, and one I'm always mere diatribes away from falling back into.

So tonight, instead of filling my poor friend's comment section up with my ranting and ravings, I thought I'd transfer the conversation over to my blog, where I can stretch my feet out a little, so to speak.

To catch you up, here's been the conversation so far, from my friend B's page (all of my responses are in bold and i've also added some ongoing comments to the conversation in [brackets]):

B:  I got an email today saying that in an effort to show Obama that the people of the US are tired of his shoving things down our throats we should all boycott the State of the Union address tomorrow night... food for thought...

From someone on the other side of the political fence, I'm curious as to what things you're referring to. Personally, I'm dissapointed in the president's first year in office too, but it stems from his office's abandonment of what little there was of the progressive stance he took on some issues during the election. What do you think he's shoved down your throat?

(Not trying to pick a fight here or anything, just genuinely curious.)

(new poster) A: i can't listen to Obama he makes me want to vomit!! PS can you say health care, socialism! They don't care that the American People don't want it. They are trying to further their socialist agenda and they don't what America stands for.

(new poster) C: I always boycott the state of the union address....

Three things, A
a. Define "socialist agenda"
b. What's left in the healthcare bill that resembles socialism? The public option's out. Expanding medicare and medicaid's out. Redundant anti-abortion and anti-immigrant coverage is in. What's left to call socialist? (For the record, i'm not fond of what's left of the bill either.)
c. Which American people are you talking about? Obama ran on a univeral-healthcare ticket and the majority of American people voted for him. Gallup still polls a majority of Americans want their legislators to support the healthcare bill.

B:  Judd ~ I won't even pretend to be mildly informed about this... I was simply repeating what was told to me. I don't care for Obama, at all, that I will state, simply because I can't see where the changes he is trying to make are for the greater good... This country is not headed up, I feel. I knew this would stir someone up, but posted it anyhow... See More, and deeply wish I could fire back with some sort of highly informed info, but cannot. serves me right for sticking my neck out without backup! I seldom watch the news even, so that is that! But I still don't agree with Obama. Call me stubborn republican!

[I really wasn't trying to pick a fight at this point.  I was just mildly curious to hear how B would back up her intitial post.  So I wrote the following in response]

no worries. i'm not stirred up, i was just curious. it's one thing to to hear people arguing on tv or the internet, but i also like to hear contradictory opinions from people i know and respect.

[then A showed up again]

A:  a)They are advocates for socialsim. This is when you possess both political power and the means of producing and distributing goods. They want a system where they take from the American people who work hard and give to those who don't. This presidence is all about making people rely on the government for everything. They need to make people stand on their own to feet and support themselves. They have created a welfair state. California is a great example of what is going to happen to the whole country if we continue down this road. They are going to break this country and we are all going be be screwed. If they don't turn things around it will happen.


b)It is a good thing all of those things are out because they will break this country!! If it wasn't for Scott Brown they would still be trying to pass this through. The people of Massachusets has state run health care so if that doesn't say something i don't know what does. The demacates know they don't have the votes and that is why the want to back off. It is a little disterbing that they had to bribe Senator to vote for it. They were willing to jam a half ass bill through so they could have a place to start. There is nothing about the bill that is good when they started or when they finisher. They need to reform health care not re-shape it. They need to get a handle on insurance companies and bring cost down. People need to make there own way and support themselves. I don't expect anyone to pay for anything that i consume. People should work hard and live with in their means.

c)Obama ran on a Hope and Change ticket. He made the American people think he was going to change goverment and he hasn't. He promised to make things more transparent and clearly that isn't happening. You as a Obama supporter are clearly not happy with what you voted for. Im not sure on those Gallup polls, that isn't what i have heard. I think the wide spread outspokeness of the American people at massive tea parties and town hall meets paints a clear picture of what the America people think. You are right I think a lot of people believed in Obama and the plat form he ran on but he hasn't done a thing he said he was going. He has done nothing positive or productive in his time in office. He is the worst president in the history of this country!!!

[at this point, I'm dying to jump in here.  Alas, resolution.  So I copied and pasted A's reply into a word file, and inserted my own steely logic directly into her arguements, and resolved to dirty up my own webspace instead of poor B's]

a)They are advocates for socialsim. I’m sure they, the democratic members of Congress (which is what I’m assuming you’re talking about), would have a different theory about this. Most would say (maybe not the blue dogs) that they’re advocates of social contract; that is, ‘an agreement among the members of an organized society or between the governed and the government defining and limiting the rights and duties of each.’ Call it socialism, communism, or whatever other scary buzzword Glenn Beck is using this week, pitching in and being an active part of your government isn’t sinister. In my mind it’s the responsibility of all citizens to do their part.

This is when you possess both political power and the means of producing and distributing goods. In a totalitarianistic sense that’s true. But that’s socialism on a Police State level, not on, say, as single-payer healthcare level.  Socialism is already an intrinsic part of our society, whether you like it or not.  Public roads, parks, emergency services, Social Security, the FDA; they're all varying degrees of socialism.

They want a system where they take from the American people who work hard and give to those who don't. Here I’m assuming you’re talking about the president and Congress’ plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire. So when you say ‘American people that work hard,’ you’re talking about individuals who clear over $250,000 a year (also known as the wealthiest 5 percent in the nation). And when you say ‘give it to those who don’t,’ you’re then referring to working-class people; those who make at or near minimum wage. Those who can’t get on full-time with their employers because it would make them eligible for health insurance, so they work two or three part time jobs to get by. Work ethic can’t be measured by income or by need. That’s a route the greedy take to justify their avarice.

This presidence is all about making people rely on the government for everything. I disagree. If I can’t afford health insurance, or if I need food stamps to get by while I’m looking for a better job, then I’ll take the help. Consequently, when I’m in a position later in life to help others who can’t afford health insurance or need food stamps to get by while THEY look for a better job, I’m not going to begrudge them. It’s people relying on people.

They need to make people stand on their own to feet and support themselves. Which is the goal of most welfare programs, actually; to help people get on their feet and provide them with the skills to fend for themselves.

They have created a welfair state. No offense, I don’t know your personal situation, but this sounds like it comes from someone who’s never had to choose between paying the electricity bill or eating lunch for the week. It’s nowhere near as black and white as you make it out to be. Sure, there are some abusers within the system. But they’re the exception, not the rule. The vast majority of people who have to accept some type of charity make it a point not to make it a habit.

California is a great example of what is going to happen to the whole country if we continue down this road. I disagree (big surprise, right). California’s in a tough spot, that’s true. But it doesn’t have anything to do with some phantom socialist menace. They took a tremendous blow when the housing bubble popped. And thanks to a lack of solid progressive tax structure, the knockout punch came in the form of a drastic dropoff on income and especially sales tax (the state’s primary income base). Socialism and welfare doesn’t have anything to do with how that cookie’s crumbling.

They are going to break this country and we are all going be be screwed. If they don't turn things around it will happen. Again, I think you’re taking an overly pessimistic, doomsday stance on this. They’re in a pickle, that’s true. It’s gonna suck getting out of it. I’m guessing the solution will have a good deal to do with tax reform and (hopefully) the tax revenue generated off of legalized marijuana. But I don’t think they’ll be dragging the rest of the country down into some debtor’s hell. That’s Glenn Beck logic.

b)It is a good thing all of those things are out because they will break this country!! So at this point, what’s the harm to you? Are you worried that forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions and allowing policies to be carried over from one job to the next will be the end of the American way of life? I don’t see the connection.

If it wasn't for Scott Brown (who I promise you, will be referred to as a RINO by the end of the year) they would still be trying to pass this through. Oh, they still are. There’s always reconciliation. That’s how Bush got his upper-class tax cuts passed when he came in to office.

The people of Massachusets has state run health care (which, ironically, was the brainchild of then GOP Governor Mitt Romney) so if that doesn't say something i don't know what does. Oh, it says something, but not what you think. It says the progressive stronghold of voters that is Massachusetts felt that Congress had shunned them by watering the bill down into a chopped up piece of crap, so they decided to take their ball and go home, so to speak. It’s not that the GOP has had some kind of sudden influx of people coming around to their way of thinking. It’s that Democrats and progressive independents are feeling disillusioned by the democratically controlled Congress and White House’s inability to get stuff done.

The demacates know they don't have the votes and that is why the want to back off. Like I said, reconciliation. The only reason they haven’t yet is because the president is still pandering to the Right, for some reason.

It is a little disterbing that they had to bribe Senator to vote for it. I agree with you here. The Ben Nelson Nebraska exemption thing was shitty. But for the record, he later came to his senses on the issue and amended the bill so that Nebraska’s no longer exempt from paying their way.

They were willing to jam a half ass bill through so they could have a place to start. See, I don’t buy this conspiracy theory crap. The bill is what it is. It’s not a foot in the door for a socialist takeover, it’s an attempt to wrest healthcare away from insurance companies who are currently making a fortune off of our health and wellbeing (how effective the bill will actually be is debatable, but the intention is clear). There’s not some secret clause that will grandfather in a KGB when we’re not looking.

There is nothing about the bill that is good when they started or when they finisher. Good before: public option, universal coverage, lowered medical costs, no denial of healthcare due to pre-existing conditions. Good after: universal coverage, no denial of healthcare due to pre-existing conditions.  Obviously the bill was a hell of a lot better before than after, but there are still good bits in it.

They need to reform health care not re-shape it. The literal definition of reform is to change the shape. The changes need to be massive. Tort reform and out-of-state buying won’t cut it. They need to get a handle on insurance companies and bring cost down. Agreed. People need to make there own way and support themselves. I don't expect anyone to pay for anything that i consume. People should work hard and live with in their means. See section A for what I have to say about this.

c)Obama ran on a Hope and Change ticket. Yeah. There was a hell of a lot more to it than that.

He made the American people think he was going to change goverment and he hasn't. I see your point, but I’m on the fence on this one. On one hand, he’s kept a lot of the policy of his predecessor. Which sucks. On the other, his administration and his worldview rhetoric (if maybe not yet his policy) has done wonders to improve our international image. We’re no longer the paranoid French-hating imperialists that we were for most of W.’s reign of terror. On the other, we’ve still got W.’s war policy to contend with. It’s an inherited mess, that’s true, but I would have rather the president take things in a direction other than perpetual sustainment.

He promised to make things more transparent and clearly that isn't happening. I’d say that his Open Government Directive is still a work in progress, but thus far you’re right. Hopefully with this new hardline stance on the financial sector we’ll see more transparency and accountability.

You as a Obama supporter are clearly not happy with what you voted for. Yeah, but for totally different reasons than yours. Don't get me wrong, he's a million times better than the alternative.  But he’s not liberal enough, in my opinion. Let’s see a withdrawal from Afghanistan, legalized gay marriage, a national cutback in fossil fuels and carbon emmisions of at least 25 percent, union support in non-union friendly states and single-payer healthcare for starters. Of course, I knew that wasn’t going to happen when I voted for him in November, the President’s a Centrist, not a liberal. But a guy can dream, right?

Im not sure on those Gallup polls, that isn't what i have heard. Here’s the link, read ‘em for yourself.

I think the wide spread outspokeness of the American people at massive tea parties and town hall meets paints a clear picture of what the America people think. Thank you, Fox News. This is the conservative base you’re talking about, in all it screaming, hyperbolic glory. They’re certainly out there. But they’re still only a fraction of the nation, as much as Fox News doctors footage to pretend otherwise.

You are right I think a lot of people believed in Obama and the plat form he ran on (still do. It’s only been a year, for god's sake), but he hasn't done a thing he said he was going. You’ve kind of got me here. He’s had several stalls some of his major initiatives, like closing Guantanamo, getting a healthcare bill through, and getting to work on climate control. But is that his fault, or the fault of the political opposition, which has literally kicked and screamed and held its breath in a temper-tantrum since he’s taken the oath of office? I suspect the latter.

He has done nothing positive or productive in his time in office. That really depends on where you look. For starters, he scrapped the F-22 program, he improved our country’s global image, he got China to commit to some respectable (but not great) environmental accommodations, he won a Nobel Peace Prize, introduced and implemented the stimulus package, and he’s just lately overseen a massive aid endeavor to Haiti. There are plenty more I could list, but this reply’s beginning to get a bit long. One question you should ask yourself is, has he done nothing positive or productive, or has he just done nothing that benefits me personally.

He is the worst president in the history of this country!!! Really? Because I can think of a pretty horrible one without even trying. The one I’m thinking of ignored FBI warnings which resulted in the worst attack on American Soil since Pearl Harbor, then after invading one country he cut-and-ran to invade another country that had nothing to do with the attack in the first place. He justified it by lying and saying this other country had weapons of mass destruction, and that they were a heartbeat away from destroying us and our freedoms. After that he sat on his hands while a whole city drowned in a hurricane. He did it again when the free-market cronyism market that he helped to establish and maintain fell apart right when he was leaving office.

Guess who I’m thinking of?

[I have, of course, invited A to continue this conversation in the comments section if she so chooses.  Which, hopefully she will.  So stay tuned.]