Slate Magazine

Slate Magazine

A great article on Rush Limbaugh's recent attack on Michael J. Fox.

It sends me on tangent about the inscrutable nature of the "religious right" these days. It seems they are increasingly stubborn to face facts. And not surprisingly, either, given the brilliance of their media strategy, and their infiltration of the mainstream media. The ugly facts of our new reality, and the obvious incompetence of our leaders is cognitive dissonance swiftly snuffed, through fear, faith and respect for authority.

It a scenario that is self-perpetuating. The greater the fear, the greater the faith, and so long as the president appears to be a man of faith, they follow steadfastly.

What Comes After YouTube

What comes after YouTube indeed.

With our lives spilling onto YouTube like a new bodily fluid, what will we learn?

Will we learn that we were right when we decided that political correctness was a silly little concept to the trash heap of American culture?

Or will we realize that there really is something to be said for being politically correct, as I define it here. Politically correct means not _unduly_ offending other groups of people. That is, when not necessary, or without reflection or recognition of the underlying prejudice. Speaking without prejudice.

Political correctness does not necessarily infringe on freedom of expression. One can make a point without loading it with blanket statements about groups. No one has the right to defame or degrade a group, any more than one has the right to defame or degrade an individual.

I think the term "political correctness" has died an unfortunate death, thanks to the media. Having written and televised countless stories framed as lynchings by politically correct mobs, the media serves to highlight the moral judgments involved. These stories present a clash of individual rights (i.e. freedom of expression) versus the rights of groups (i.e. freedom from oppression). Finding the balance between these rights has left political correctness as a convenient scapegoat for countless injustices.

Bush Says the Darndest Things: Miserable Rainy Day Edition

It is really, really fucking cold today. It is lightly raining, but the sky is grey and seems like it only goes about 20 feet up. It's the kind of cold that soaks through your clothes.

So to cheer us up, we have this gem via the Chimp-O-Matic.

I think --tide turning --see, as I remember --I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of --it's easy to see a tide turn --did I say those words?
--George w. Bush

Washington, DC
06/14/2006

Beautiful. A little glimpse of self-reflection, perhaps? Is it possible Bush is actually aware of the absurdity of his speeches. Does he actually stop and think, "my God, I can't believe I can get away with this bullshit..."

It reminds me of the long forgotten "potted plant" comment he made once while stumping during his first term. Letterman showed it on his show once, and it seemed like Bush had a seizure or something. He became extremely confused and made some obscure reference to him not being a "potted plant". Is it a coincidence that these rare moments of raw truth only appear when he is taken off-guard, or seems particularly stressed?

Someone has suggested that he only gets tongue tied when he doesn't believe in what he is saying, and this quote supports this hypothesis. Bush is not so incompetent that he doesn't know when he's full of it.

McLuhan Quotes

This McLuhan Assignment lists a bunch of great McLuhan lines.

You have to hand it to McLuhan-- even when many of his quotes might tempt critics to reframe as over-intellectualized pap, more often he is shockingly accurate. One of my favourites: "the future of the book is the blurb." Replace "blurb" with "blog" and suddenly McLuhan is at least 30 years ahead of his time.

Reading his quotes require the reader to search for the meaning, because it's meaning is only implied. McLuhan's writing is "cool" by his definition; compressed and simplified to allow room for the reader's "noodle". Most quotes are therefore "true" in multiple contexts-- McLuhan is rarely wrong, just right in more ways that could be mentioned at once.

Apocalypse Near, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Merav Yudilovitch

Apocalypse Near, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Merav Yudilovitch

Reading Chomsky is always a good way to start seeing the big picture again. We are constantly bombarded with changes in the world, and decoding it all takes a great deal of effort. Chomsky is clearly a master at this, and by looking at the world from his broad, rational worldview you quickly see that the seemingly random events in the news are anything but. Political action is always to a certain extent predictable.

Realizing this, one must question most of the common rhetoric coming from all sides of the political spectrum. Political stances are always based on a mixture of ideology and self-interest, and rarely consistent or without hypocrisy. For every argument for a particular political actor is an argument against, based on different assumptions. Decoding arguments for their true meaning requires analysis of both the argument (figure) and the assumptions (ground).

Bush Says the Darndest Things: Thanksgiving Edition

You've also got to measure in order to begin to effect change that's just more -- when there's more than talk, there's just actual -- a paradigm shift.
--George w. Bush

Washington, DC
07/01/2003

I should mention these quotes are all care of Chimp-O-Matic which is quickly turning out to be my most reliable source of entertainment and outrage. Let's all say it, once again, "my, oh my, the man is a dumbass".

But this quote impresses me, for it's depth. W does a horrible job of expressing the thought, but I get what he's trying to say. He's trying to create a paradigm shift. Ok, well, he's certainly done that.

Not at all for the better, of course, but the changes he seems to have created through his policies have definitely altered people's thinking. The ideas of pre-emptive war, legalized torture, and spying on citizens are all concepts that Americans have had to learn to accept, ignore, or endure psychic pain as a result. Americans have been led to believe these policies are in their interest, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. It seems that the Bush's "paradigm shift" relies upon a great deal of self-delusion and ignorance and that fact alone should give us pause.

In this season of giving thanks, we should thank that we still have the freedom of thought, and access to information that can help us make sense of a nonsensical world.

Bush Says the Darndest Things: Friday Edition

I also understand how tender the free enterprise system can be.
--George w. Bush

White House press conference, Washington, D.C.
07/08/2002

Jesus....tender??

Isn't the free enterprise system really more meaty? More, I don't know, chewy?

I'm guessing this quote was speaking about how free enterprise is somehow actually very caring about people, and somehow brings out the best in people to help those in need. And if so, I'd have to disagree, wholeheartedly. In fact, I think this quote is in fact disinformation, designed to trick people into thinking free markets aren't by design cold, uncaring entities completely separate from the realm of human emotion.

If this is what Bush means by "tender", he's either an incredibly bold liar, or he's really stupid.

Let's review: People can be tender; economic systems can't, shouldn't, and don't.

Got it, W?