Also, you can play him in a game (via Wonkette)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Ok, two more obama things and then I'll stop
Dear non-existent reader, look at this nice photograph:
Also, you can play him in a game (via Wonkette)
Also, you can play him in a game (via Wonkette)
Sunday, January 25, 2009
WTF (the good kind)
Not that I have any readers left, but I just have to say, what is happening right now politically is remarkable. I don't mean all the "historic" stuff (as opposed that which is not historic, or a part of history). Maybe our expectations have just been lowered or maybe, despite paying attention when we were younger, we were not able to understand what Clinton was really doing. Either way, this past week stuff has been getting done, and it's good stuff: ending torture, increasing transparency, closing financial loopholes, increasing emission standards, and thinking about nationalizing the banks. These are things that I've been dreaming and obsessing about for the last few years, and now it seems so effortless.
It also seems that people don't know how to react. It is an undiscussed fact that people on the left are more wary of the government, particularly big government, than the small-government conservatives who have given us not only the biggest, most wasteful government in the history of the planet but also a fairly extensive police-state apparatus, all in the name of freedom. This means that the left is instinctively hyper-reacting to everything Obama does, such as this so-called "jack bauer" exception. They may be right to do so, but I'm increasingly confident that Obama is 'one of us', but more politically skilled. We'll see.
And on the right, well, it's pretty funny. Some are trying to silicon valley their way out of the contemporary situation. There is also the unintentional comedy of David Frum, he of the American We Have No Clue What We're Talking About Institute, trying to reorganize the right via blog. If you start reading these and other similar websites, it's clear that they don't know what hit them and don't understand how to live in a world where their scare-tactic racial politics (eg crime/drugs/terror, the "southern strategy," civilizational wars, "economic responsibility," etc) no longer work. When David Brooks says that Palin "is a fatal cancer to the Republican party," he is just afraid of what they've created since 1964.
Since fear always has a place in politics, Sarah and the Palins (the Republicans) will be back. There can be no myth of the permanent majority (plus, in a working democracy what would that even mean?). Still, the way in which Bush and friends have almost systematically discredited every single Republican idea and moreover managed to link the Republican brand to incompetence and political divisiveness in a generation of diverse voters cannot be underestimated. I also don't want to start sounding like the 22% group in talking about how the President is such a great man that everyone likes. But it's been a while since reading the news was the good part of my day.
It also seems that people don't know how to react. It is an undiscussed fact that people on the left are more wary of the government, particularly big government, than the small-government conservatives who have given us not only the biggest, most wasteful government in the history of the planet but also a fairly extensive police-state apparatus, all in the name of freedom. This means that the left is instinctively hyper-reacting to everything Obama does, such as this so-called "jack bauer" exception. They may be right to do so, but I'm increasingly confident that Obama is 'one of us', but more politically skilled. We'll see.
And on the right, well, it's pretty funny. Some are trying to silicon valley their way out of the contemporary situation. There is also the unintentional comedy of David Frum, he of the American We Have No Clue What We're Talking About Institute, trying to reorganize the right via blog. If you start reading these and other similar websites, it's clear that they don't know what hit them and don't understand how to live in a world where their scare-tactic racial politics (eg crime/drugs/terror, the "southern strategy," civilizational wars, "economic responsibility," etc) no longer work. When David Brooks says that Palin "is a fatal cancer to the Republican party," he is just afraid of what they've created since 1964.
Since fear always has a place in politics, Sarah and the Palins (the Republicans) will be back. There can be no myth of the permanent majority (plus, in a working democracy what would that even mean?). Still, the way in which Bush and friends have almost systematically discredited every single Republican idea and moreover managed to link the Republican brand to incompetence and political divisiveness in a generation of diverse voters cannot be underestimated. I also don't want to start sounding like the 22% group in talking about how the President is such a great man that everyone likes. But it's been a while since reading the news was the good part of my day.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
didn't it rain
This is more like it. Today it rained, almost all day, and it was wonderful. There is a dogmatic conformity here to the notion that the blindingly sunny, 85 degree days in the middle of January are what count as "good weather," one of of the many things that make this place so wonderful. I've been resisting my own resistance to this myth, but this is not good weather. One friend described my inclination towards Colorado weather - which can only be described as involving a series of intense climates in rapid succession, as if in a political revolution - as similar to being in an abusive relationship. I reject this, because it still relies on some unthinking 'sun = good' logic.
The sun here feels like it is right on your face, that it is burning its way through your skin, attempting to render you helpless against everything, especially thought. I can't think in this heat (a problem especially for graduate school). Too many days start out foggy, with friendly clouds trying to offer us protection, only to be eviscerated by the Irvine sun that respects nothing. The worst part is seeing people bounce along, seemingly not noticing this or any other kind of violence.
On a related note, the other day I was traveling back from LA in the middle of the night not completely sober and with the air conditioning on when I ran into roadwork that forced me through a detour through La Mirada or some equally faceless part of southern California. I've come to understand Irvine and the more urban parts of LA, at least in the 'contingent' ways that are possible, but the areas in between, as Los Angles fades into Orange county, escape me. It truly feels like nowhere made into a place. One imagines oneself as if a character in a video game, that makes a running motion when controlled to move in a certain direction. Only in this case one has been directed into a dead end, and no pushing on the wall reveals a secret passageway to the next level. So you face a wall, more or less helpless, while still making a running motion.
At least it's raining.
The sun here feels like it is right on your face, that it is burning its way through your skin, attempting to render you helpless against everything, especially thought. I can't think in this heat (a problem especially for graduate school). Too many days start out foggy, with friendly clouds trying to offer us protection, only to be eviscerated by the Irvine sun that respects nothing. The worst part is seeing people bounce along, seemingly not noticing this or any other kind of violence.
On a related note, the other day I was traveling back from LA in the middle of the night not completely sober and with the air conditioning on when I ran into roadwork that forced me through a detour through La Mirada or some equally faceless part of southern California. I've come to understand Irvine and the more urban parts of LA, at least in the 'contingent' ways that are possible, but the areas in between, as Los Angles fades into Orange county, escape me. It truly feels like nowhere made into a place. One imagines oneself as if a character in a video game, that makes a running motion when controlled to move in a certain direction. Only in this case one has been directed into a dead end, and no pushing on the wall reveals a secret passageway to the next level. So you face a wall, more or less helpless, while still making a running motion.
At least it's raining.
Monday, January 12, 2009
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