We'll Fucking Study Fucking to Death

Seriously, this is what made CNN's most popular news stories. Wow, I'm in fucking shock, aren't you?

Bombs away

In a world where billions is spent on entertainment, it's nice to see idle fancy being translated into real results: lightsabers in space. After all, without Star Wars to motivate us to travel in space, without fantasies begging to be made real, we would have to link our love of space travel to military research, with all the existential nothingness implied.

Speaking of which, here is the current state of arguments in favor of torture: "hey, it's better than years of rape!". Give Robin Hanson a pat on the back for taking care of this absurdity as quickly as he did. If you see him that is. I think he's posted enough to become pure energy by now, absorbed directly into the consciousness of his readers.

edited 10/3/07

The Cult of Presidential Primaries

If you are currently attending a "Go Campaign!" event this presidential primary season, take a moment to count the number of campaign organizers motivated by policy issues.

...

Still waiting?

Campaigns are fed more by vanity than altruism. Listen to the messages driving the campaign, and you'll see a familiar source of collective euphoria, how warm and fuzzy supporters feel when confronted by the image of their leader, how they perk up when told how "new" and "different" they are.

By preying on the desire for belonging, politicians shunt aside time consuming explanations of policy. Rather than build cohesion through knowledge, they focus on a Leader who gathers support through forceful assertions.

And it works because we all wish to be understood, and we sympathize with those who appear to be understood. Internally, "if only we had enough time, enough power to construct our own method of communication, to look into the eyes of others and say "I mean this", we wouldn't have to rely on terms established by others." And so we look to those "grassroot campaigns", those independent artists, those seeking a new way, we look to them simply because an attempt at an alternate form of communication indicates ability.

The desire to communicate originally is a will-o'-the-wisp, a false light shining from those seeking respectability. What is promised matters little next to the force with which the message is stated.

Edited 10/3/07

Hordes!

There aren't any news stories available that lead me away from the previously stated, so while we await another string of ridiculous events worthy of collective derision, please, take a moment to look towards stars reflecting a better world. That's right babies, it's crackpot utopia time! Sip that kool-aid deep.

I'm tired of living through steampunk, paging through seventy year old adverts promising a future that hasn't arrived. It can be unhealthy. But with so much information available, it's become difficult to discern what technological hope to grab onto. We're left investing in an unfulfilling present, rife with entertainment built around the void.

But ah to avoid tipping the scales back to an anarchic pastoralism, to accept the complexity and live, avoiding a fearful retreat. That's the trick.

Courtesy cannot be sustained without some reference to a larger ideal, an illusory hope. What internal picture do I use to drive the boogeyman away? That of an edumacated world. If people approached each other expecting logic to be the common ground between them, they might smile for a change, unpursuaded by those who badmouth untold numbers of Others.

Here's to that mythical society of good natured people, who fail to envision a world which seeks their destruction.

Juking the world with a baby octofish

Is there a viable candidate without an intervention heavy foreign policy? Not really. And that's a shame, because I can't remember what I'm supposed to be afraid of anymore.

There isn't a person alive today who's more threatening than lightning. Believe it.

The Weather and the Righteous

The weather in the Midwest was angry. This is not surprising, only odd when juxtaposed against the regions passive citizens. Storms raged through the cities of Chicago and St. Louis like a drunk pushes through a crowded bar to find the bathroom, stopping to relieve himself along the way.
-St. Louis, though, may not be entirely passive considering it won the Morgan Quitno prize for most dangerous city in 2006.-
Ava Maria, Florida on the other hand has been as sunny as it's disposition. Tom Monaghan, from Domino's Pizza fame, has created a wet dreamland for Catholics -though spilling all that seed on the sheets is a tricky grey area even when it's in the name of the holy father- by creating a city centered around the doctrine of the Catholic church. Looks like those safe-seeking-host-snackers have found there promised land right up Naples' back-door.
The problem occurs with the issue of religious freedom: when does freedom to worship become too public. As much as I think having a town founded on superstitious nonsense, not too mention a civil rights atrocity, is absurd; I have to believe that they should be allowed to start this community. But, we'll see how much they turn the other ass cheek when Muslims and Jews start moving next door.
So, as for now all I can do is get drunk and hope for the grand irony of watching an 'act of god' wipe this righteous community off the face of this ridiculous world.
I love irony.

Another battle for democratic truth

CIA, FBI computers used for Wikipedia whitewashing. Luckily Wikipedia is self-correcting! Why? Because the majority of people know what's really true. They have such great sources of information. Like Wikipedia.

Right?