Archive for the ‘politicish’ Category
complete bedlam »
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
Minneapolis: are you kidding?
It’s the best recreational bicycle city but it’s mediocre for commuters. The mass transit needs vast improvement and outside of the dense center (downtown, uptown), biking with drivers is dangerous.
The light rail should be an icon of a shift to shared transit and green commutes. It’s a symbol of shared mobility and clean travel. (more…)
chicago’s finest, critically »
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
Note: There’s inappropriate language within. I’m sort of annoyed. This never happens.
The fuck? (A video of Chicago police holding down [assaulting?] a man after he photographed another incident of excessive force.)
Dear cops: We’ve had encounters in varying forms and I know most of you are just “doing your jobs” but this sort of thing is abhorrent (sorry… it means, basically, “shitty”). (more…)
looking forward to November »
Friday, May 7th, 2010
George W. Bush has a book coming out. I’ll let that sink in.
Now, with his decision-making and demeanor, I bet you’re surprised he could legibly write his name. I am too. But computers are glorious machines and maybe he learned how to pay someone to type.
I suggest you read the excerpt highlighted by The Awl. (I’ve been working through my noted items in my reader and finally got to it.)
First, I have to make note of his being baldist. I get that he should fear or loathe Dick Cheney (everyone should) but even for him this sounds hurtful to the hairless:
But he and the bald man had kept in touch. I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being bald bothered me. My idea of baldness came from the movies. In the movies, the bald were always trying too hard, like they wanted to make up for their lack of hair. My friend Karl was that way. At any rate, a bald man in my house was not something I looked forward to.
That’s cold, Georgie. Cold. (Granted, I have friends who probably meet my presence with trepidation.)
Second, you’ll note from that little bit and the passage (if you read it), he writes like a prepubescent. Cool narrative style, right?
Unfortunately, (if you read the passage; seriously, did you read it?) this story can’t take place more than seventeen years ago, so he’d be forty-six, at the youngest. That cool narrative turns into a depressing look at his capacities.
(Sigh.)
Generally, it’s a poorly written, glossy portrayal you’d hear in an octogenarian blogger’s memoir about his first Christmas memory. If that story included homoerotic architectural sketching with a weak-hearted, grunting uncle full of booze. (Which, I think you’ll agree, would be awesome.)
This is how he decided to run for the Presidency? Is it that easy? Along those lines, this is a story about his decisions and there aren’t any. What’s the point? (That’s rhetorical.)
If this is any indication of the rest of the book (I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be), it saddens me it was even put to print. That Palin, Beck and Bush can sell so many versions of their ignorance is telling of where our nation is heading.
I’m looking forward to November.
Photo courtesy New York Times
Kleenex hates the planet »
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
There’s no other explanation. Sure, profits are probably important but their last unholy product offering cannot be justified by money alone. They simply hate the planet.
Earth, Gia, Heaven, Our Home: whatever you call it, Kleenex is trying to kill it.
Sure, they use virgin growth forest and refuse all attempts to persuade them otherwise. But tiny noses can’t be bothered with carbon dioxide; they’re fragile! (also: aww, babies.)
The (debatable) softness of their tissues aside, this is deplorable.
What the hell?
I have family that worked in one of their plants in Kimberly (hey, that’s part of their name… go figure). I’m not saying a company based on unsustainable production of wasteful items is necessarily bad (yes I am) but there’s a line.
They didn’t cross it:
- … by replacing cloth diapers with tons of disposable ones. Literally, tons of waste is created (50 million diapers tossed/day) but the convenience and sanitation makes sense.
- … by replacing whatever woman used before Kotex… You know what? Never mind that. Thanks.
- … by selling the convenience of disposable facial tissues over handkerchiefs. Painting them as unsanitary was only slightly evil. (Ignoring idiotic practices.)
They did with this pathetic fear-mongering. The ad has a split screen between their towel-rack hanging dispenser and a standard cloth towel. (I’d show it to you if I could find it.)
While hands of varying size and sex grab a single towel calmly on the right, the towel on the left is brutalized (even by the dog?). Numerous despicable acts are thrown at it, just shy of laying raw chicken on it. A simple laundering will cure all (but that’s so hard!).
Kleenex knows there’s a huge market for lazy idiots. Please, dear readers, don’t become a part of it. The idea that your own towels will give you grotesque diseases is horrifyingly inane (unless you’re a lazy idiot).
In a public setting, I don’t care if you waste the wattage to use the air dryer or the paper (using it or your own handkerchief to open the door). That probably comes to an environmental wash but not in your home.
Because you’re not idiots and you’re not lazy. Right?
the scene, politically speaking »
Friday, March 26th, 2010
Okay, so we have health care reform. It’s change, maybe, but more like my changing from jeans to khakis after landing a contract position than overhauling my wardrobe (which, admittedly, may need some work).
Where does that leave us? Here’s a look at the political climate as I’ve gleaned from lack of insight and caring very little…
Republicans:
Are idiots. But, with this new bill and some other factors (complete dolts as base; distaste for facts, reality and history; a powerful but shrinking upper-upper-upper class; etc.) they may balance things come fall. They’ll maintain their hate-speak to ensure their ignorance aligns with their ignorant base.¹
Democrats:
Are morons. They could have pushed through real reform but were distracted by sand in their vaginas (I imagine). They forfeited nearly all of their ideas (and all of their good ones) and still barely eked out a majority. They’ve weakened their position, which is apparently how they like it.
The President:
Belligerence is tossed in his face and he wants to sit down and talk about it. Then he agrees with most of the poorly-formed points and suggests changes. That sort of discussion is thoughtful, constructive and progressive but he’s the only one who believes in such things. (More sound-bites, sir. Please. The idiots are confused.)
Pundits: (err… “Media”)
They play both sides against each other in a battle of sound bites. While a battle of wits would be more suiting and could benefit us in the long-run, wits are hard to find just now. They’ll go the easy route and let stupid people verbally wail on each other betwixt commercials.
Ron Paul:
With all of his ideas stolen by the Tea Party, then by Fox News and still being shunned by Fox News, he’s fading. Expect him to only last another seven or twelve terms before he retires. (Career politics, while ineffective and regressive, is incredibly gracious.)
Tea Party:
If anyone from this movement is elected, all members (are we calling them “colonists” yet?)² will become infertile like that one country in Children of Men. (::fingers crossed::)
Health Care Industry:
Two words: Cha! Ching! With all the forced profits enhanced enrollment, without any substantial regulation, revoked exemption from trust laws or rejection of the pay-per-service model, things are looking good. (If you have any health stocks, keep them. You’ll need them.)
… That said, the Blues could add functioning health reform to their bill with a series of amendments. The media could shift focus (with the iPad reminding people how to read and all) to collaborative and comprehensive coverage of issues. The Colonists could merge their message into coherent and realistic complaints, sparking debate and true compromise.
Of course, I could also grow my hair into dreads and start working for a hedge fund. Now that I’m eating vegetables and riding my bike to work, anything’s possible.³
¹ I don’t mean “ignorant.” I mean ignorant or grotesquely rich. It’s easier to lump them together.
² Wait, why aren’t we calling them Colonists? They’re racist, abysmally educated and misinformed, not unlike those that lived three centuries ago. The name fits.
³ This is not possible.