Tuesday, December 22, 2015

In Which I Am Actually Dating Them by Scanning Them to PDF





  • Occasional and necessary State of the Tablets, above. These are dead days in Blegsylvania, super dead days in Egoslavia, so many itches to scratch, so many may be scratched, Or not.
  • Philip Larkin's Aubade (another gorgeous Tom post).
  • On mass killings: we're in a patch where people are trying to kill as many people as possible, very frequently in very many places, in the name of many different ideologies, or because of many different pathologies: for any reason or none. the question begins to occur, whether people are engaging in mass killings because of their beliefs, or whether they're cultivating beliefs in order to justify engaging in slaughter. the pattern of behavior is similar, whether it's islamist radicalism, white suprematism, a disgruntled employee, a fundamentalist christian going after planned parenthood, a bullied student, a schizophrenic, or whatever it may be. perhaps people look for a way in, something to justify their radical break with the species. or at least, the causation - the interaction between beliefs or illnesses and actions - might be complicated, for while the motivations or causes for the killings are various, the patterns of behavior are relatively repetitive, stylized, salient. it is the act of mass killing and the technologies that make it possible or articulate its forms, rather than the reasons or psychology of the killers, that is characteristic of our time.
  • The Great Republican RevoltA majority of Republicans worry that corporations and the wealthy exert too much power. Their party leaders work to ensure that these same groups can exert even more. Mainstream Republicans were quite at ease with tax increases on households earning more than $250,000 in the aftermath of the Great Recession and the subsequent stimulus. Their congressional representatives had the opposite priorities.
  • What a bunch of whack jobs! That's nothing like how the Democratic Party treats it's rank and file.
  • The problem with Hillary Clinton: A lot of people don’t like Hillary.  Some on the left even hate her. For a few, it may be because she is a woman.  For most it has much more to do with policy. Pretending that people are unreasoning to hate a politician who voted for a war which was a war crime is good spin, but it’s not honest. Hillary Clinton voted for war with Iraq. She defended that vote for years though she now says it was a mistake. Hillary Clinton defended the “Welfare Reform” put in place by her husband. Hillary Clinton was for the Patriot Act. Hillary Clinton voted for TARP. On the policies, she is either monstrous or has terrible judgment.  She is, at best, a “Lesser Evil” candidate. It is not deranged for people to dislike her or even hate her, she has been for policies which impoverished millions and killed millions.  If that isn’t reason to hate someone, I don’t know what is.
  • I swear, it's not absurd to speculate Trump is a Clinton operative. Wrong, but not absurd.
  • Eulogizing a fascist.
  • A Robot Pageant.
  • Records 2015. Again, not a list (OK, it's a list) from someone I trust.
  • Rick Nielsen is sixty-nine today. Sixty fucking nine. I love Cheap Trick. Unfollow me if you must.




2 comments:

  1. in this holiday season, i would like to commend to the attention of any who may read these words the forbidden version of It Is Wonderful This Life

    борьбе за построение социализма во время Угнетение
    (также называется "Любовь и революция" после 1991)
    ("Love And Revolution", Directed By Frank Kapronovich [1949]; Starring Pytor Chost, Gravnik Bolodorin, Irina Valutin. Special appearances by the Spirit Of Revolution, also Che Guevara, Samuel Beckett, and entire 12th Guards Motorized Infantry Regiment)

    http://beforenine.blogspot.com/2015/12/always-for-you-even-more-annual-reprint.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Don -- a don -- a Clinton operative? Not only not absurd, but not to be ruled out, except for one little detail: it hardly seems necessary. Still. There are so many things we don't need in this world, of which, thank blog, this ain't one::

    Can you honestly tell me that you forgot the magnetism of Robin Zander or the charisma of Rick Nielsen? Kid stuff? How 'bout the tunes? I want *you* to want me; the dream police, da-na-na-na-na-na; your mama's all right, your daddy's all right, they just seem a little bit weird. Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away...

    ReplyDelete