Hmm... I can't find my sonic screwdriver.

I manage to get along, day by day, without experiencing some sort of psychotic convulsing fit, not by ignoring the external world, but by being "passively engaged" in it. I survive by watching the Daily Show, listening to Steve Earle albums and standing and applauding when someone like Keith Olbermann says everything that needs to be said.

RX Coup

The next time I publicly call for a world leader to resign, he better damn well resign. Just look what happened.

I never understood why a population would tolerate or endorse a military coup. Wouldn't any elected government, even one that is corrupt or inept be preferable to military rule? However, it seems I acquired a more nuanced view of this around five years ago. I can see now that some may view a government, elected though it may be, to be so disastrous that it cannot continue.

You Think It's Like This, But Really It's Like This

"Imagine what it's like to be a young person living in a country that is not moving toward reform. You're 21 years old, and while your peers in other parts of the world are casting their ballots for the first time, you are powerless to change the course of your government.
While your peers in other parts of the world have received educations that prepare them for the opportunities of a global economy, you have been fed propaganda and conspiracy theories that blame others for your country's shortcomings.
And everywhere you turn, you hear extremists who tell you that you can escape your misery and regain your dignity through violence..."

-The Decider
Address to the U.N. General Assembly
September 19, 2006

Yeah, I know what that's like. It sucks the political mop.

Do you know how I know Oprah is evil? James Frey's A Million Little Pieces has sold over 3.5 million copies.

Shooting an Elephant

I hadn't seen the President's speech until last night. It's amazing how George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four acheives verisimilitude as time goes on. I cannot begin, in this compendium, to refute the false premises and logical fallacies contained within his statements, especially considering that his statements contain only false premises and logical fallacies (with some nouns, a few verbs and some sparkling modifiers thrown in to cause the mixture to congeal).

But I will say this: the President says, "This struggle has been called a clash of civilizations. In truth, it is a struggle for civilization."

Anyone who believes that our country and our people are so feeble, our hold on national sovereignty so tenous that a few hundred or a few thousand crazed Wahhabis with explosives can drive our nation into perdition, must have a vile contempt for the American people.

Only Americans have the power to destroy this country. So, it is clear that there are those who hate America and have the power to destroy it--and we know who they are.

Momento Mori

Who was it that said "As we are all solipsists, and all die, the world dies with us?"

9/11 is a great human tragedy. But, it is not the greatest human tragedy. On an historical scale, the deaths of 3000 innocent people is relatively small. As Americans, we regard each of those deaths personally. They belong to us. But what of those that belong to "others." I find, for example, that I lack the capacity to grieve for the estimated 40,000 Iraqi civillians killed since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom with the same depth as the victims of 9/11. So, I have to remind myself that every victim is a world destroyed. It can be overwhelming. Perhaps that is why we lack the same empathy for all victims of human violence. Or, perhaps it is simply solipsism--our victims are the only "true" victims.

The Tears of a Clown

Every year, when the Labor Day telethon is broadcast on WGN and I see that cariacature of Jerry Lewis that appears on the telethon logo, I think of what may be the world's most infamous film. A film so awful, so distasteful, that only a handful of people have ever seen it.

Once again, I give you: Jerry Lewis' The Day the Clown Cried

"With most of these kinds of things, you find that the anticipation, or the concept, is better than the thing itself. But seeing this film was really awe-inspiring, in that you are rarely in the presence of a perfect object. This was a perfect object. This movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is. "Oh My God!"—that's all you can say."

-Harry Shearer

Wolf Like Me

Is it just me, or has 2006 been a lackluster year for music thus far? At this point, I expect two albums I haven't even heard yet to compete for number one on my personal best list. Those albums being The Roots' "Game Theory" and Tv on the Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain." Anyway, I've compiled a list of some of the best songs I have from 2005, which would make a good gift to... well, me I suppose. You know, I'm the gift that keeps on giving... to myself.