News, some good, some bad.

[elfs]

Well, the good news today is that SpaceShipOne successfully completed its mission. I just shut down the feed from NASA TV after watching the little craft come in for a perfect landing. I'm hearing that there were some scary moments at the top of the ride, but if the pilot keeps his head on he's got a lot of time to get the ship back under control. It is, after all, 100km to the bottom.

Baldrick on the worst jobs in history. The actor who played Baldrick on the old BBC series Black Adder now has his own little series. Number one worst job: Master of the King's Stool. You work it out.

"Your rage is useless in a capitalist culture. It will merely be packaged and sold back to you. As entertainment." I said that once to some ranting lefty, and it seems that I was right. The book Why Culture Can't be Jammed works through the thesis that capitalism can embrace progressivism and sell it back to the progressives. There is some criticism that the authors never really engage in a distinction between "progressivism" and "counterculturalism" which I perceive as legitimate, but I don't really see an effective progressive movement these days.

Outsourcing torture: A bill before the U.S. Congress proposes legalizing extraordinary rendition. Extraordinary Rendition is a legalistic term for turning over someone to a nation that uses torture. It's illegal under international treaties we signed, but in the name of our "fight against terrorism," we're considering ignoring it. Lovely.

And The World Health Organization disses multiculturalism. While mouthing multiculturalist platitudes on the one hand, the WHO admits finally that some cultures are simply better than others; some serve the needs of the people who live within them, and some don't, and makes sweeping statements about the need for reform. Huzzah!

And if you want to see just how batshit crazy the right-wing can be, read this. Just read it, okay? I'm gonna go cower under my desk, thinking that I have to breathe the same air and vote in the same election as this guy.

Comments

[talisker.livejournal.com]

And if you want to see just how batshit crazy the right-wing can be, read this.

How prevalent is this line of thought throughout the US? I'm an outsider looking in on US politics. Sometimes, I just have to shake my head and wonder "do people really think likt that?" The fact that some do is just ... disturbing beyond words.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I have no doubt that if you scratched a few Canadians, you'd find some just as ridiculous as the American I linked to. The answer is that there are fewer than we fear, but more than we like. I don't meet many where I am; the coasts are mostly clear of yahoos, it's the center of America that hosts these "kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out" sorts.

[talisker.livejournal.com]

Granted, there are yahoos and bigots all over the world - the US doesn't have a monopoly on them. I guess your variety just seem worse, as they tend to be more vocal.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true. Part of that is because they can say so fearlessly;
there is no censorship of what people can and cannot say in the U.S., at
least not and fear the government's response. (I'm with Max Weber on the
idealization of the state as the insitution with a monopoly on legitimate
violence.)

Sorry to hear about your cold. Hope you feel better.

[talisker.livejournal.com]

Lack of censorship most probably plays an important role, but I think there's something deeper. I might be speaking out of my ass, and if so, I do apologize, but I feel like the average american feels the need to go out of his way to tell you his opinion, and doubly so if it happens to be different than yours.

In the few times I've been there, for business or pleasure, I've met wonderful people, don't get me wrong. I have, however, run into an above-average number of people that I really, really couldn't stand. The type of person that fits the "I'm right, therefore you must be wrong and I will fight to my last breath to inform you of this" stereotype to a T.

I'm trying not to overly generalize here. As I said, intolerance knows no borders, but the US is the place where I've met the most people who felt the need to share their opinion, in an almost zealous fashion. I can't really explain it.

And thanks. I wish I were in bed right now, but deadlines beckon.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Elf is right--there are a lot more in the middle (which is where I am) than on the coasts. A bunch in the south, too--when people say "the east coast" they usually mean the Boshwash corridor, from Boston down to Washington, D.C., and not much farther south than that. In general, you'll find more rednecks where there is less of the money, although there are always exceptions.

Batshit-crazy letters...

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

Well I have to say that was pretty...ummm... disturbing. The violence anger this person harbors is shocking. Although I felt a very solid twinge of that anger when I saw two planes full of whacked out arabs ram themselves into the twin towers I in no way held that anger to the insane degree that person is. But the part that scared me most wasent the anger towards arabs but the anger towards those who choose to use the same free speech this person is using but in a different way. Can you say murderous hippocrit?

Arabs?

[shunra.livejournal.com]

You know, Arab is not a synonym for Muslim. The planes had a mix, didn't they, of Afghanis (not Arab) and Saudis (Arab)?

If you can't tell the Arabs from the Muslims, how can you know who you are magnanimously willing not to kill?

Re: Arabs?

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

Ouch.good point but one thing. All those people on the plane where either of arabic descent or followed the standard arabic religion(ex.christianity is the standard american religion). Of course there is many variations and I did indeed generalize, I hope to not make the same generalization again even though it was not made of ignorance, just lack of time to specifically detail. All I did was try and elaborate how I felt.

Re: Batshit-crazy letters...

[elfs.livejournal.com]

The funny thing was, I was never bothered by "Arabs." I was bothered by the way 19 murderers changed the course of history, and the way our nation let them do it. The way our administration changed this dastardly act of murder into a Great War of Civilizations and all that crap.

Why can't Al Gore just say, "If I'd had my way, we would have stayed in Afghanistan and finished the job?"

Re: Batshit-crazy letters...

[http://users.livejournal.com/dominic-m-/]

Please excuse my generalization "arabs".I couldent think of the words "muslim faith" for a minute there. I harbor no anger towards arabic people in general whatsoever. Just miffed at the muslim extremists.

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

Why 60s-style protesting doesn't work anymore (http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=11002).