And now, a heartfelt message to leftish people who will go ahead and vote for Obama in November even if he ends up actively supporting a war of some sort with Iran:
Fuck you. This is all your fault. People like you are the real problem. Lesser of two evils? Fuck you.
I could elaborate.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Santorum! Santor ever fucking last one of um!
While the smart money appears to still be on Romney in the Republican primaries, the Santorum buildup is hard to ignore.
Preemptively:
- I maintain, as ever I have, that there won't be much practical difference between a world governed by a Republican and a world governed by a Democrat. As evidence, I offer the years since, at least, the election of Ronald Regan.
- Yes there are differences on the margins.
Should Santorum become the nominee, however, there may be one big positive. It appears likely that Obama would defeat him handily. This might well serve to put the Talibanical segment of American Christianity back in check for a while. They need a slapping down from time to time.
However: he could win. He is nowhere near as stupid as he appears to be. Furthermore, as I was just saying to a friend, we can expect around 40% of the voters to vote for any asshole with an R by his name. What would happen if Israel and Iran were to decide to finally consummate their forbidden love for one another and gas prices ascend to near-European levels? I suspect the fabled swing voters would collectively lose their shit and go for Santorum (if he were able to make even the slightest case for how he would have Done It Better).
So don't get too smug, Obama supporters.
But again: not much will change.
Preemptively:
- I maintain, as ever I have, that there won't be much practical difference between a world governed by a Republican and a world governed by a Democrat. As evidence, I offer the years since, at least, the election of Ronald Regan.
- Yes there are differences on the margins.
Should Santorum become the nominee, however, there may be one big positive. It appears likely that Obama would defeat him handily. This might well serve to put the Talibanical segment of American Christianity back in check for a while. They need a slapping down from time to time.
However: he could win. He is nowhere near as stupid as he appears to be. Furthermore, as I was just saying to a friend, we can expect around 40% of the voters to vote for any asshole with an R by his name. What would happen if Israel and Iran were to decide to finally consummate their forbidden love for one another and gas prices ascend to near-European levels? I suspect the fabled swing voters would collectively lose their shit and go for Santorum (if he were able to make even the slightest case for how he would have Done It Better).
So don't get too smug, Obama supporters.
But again: not much will change.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The Big Payback
I was recently in a couple of internet conversations which revolved around the seriousness of the "debt crisis". I felt moved to point out that I don't actually have any particular problem with debt as a concept, whether on a state or on a personal level. I don't view it as a moral issue at all, and if the current "crisis" (I use the quotation marks for reasons I shall explain below) results in widespread defaults, well then, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
I grew up in debt. As far as I know I have never lived in my own home: my parents always bought, but I don't think they ever paid off a mortgage completely (maybe on one house, but I'm pretty sure they took out a second mortgage on that one). I have, since moving out, always rented. Both my parents and I have enjoyed the pleasures of credit cards and I'm deeply in the hole on student loans. I'm pleased to have had the wonderful experiences these debts afforded me although I resent that some of these experiences cost money at all. My life would have been very different indeed had I not gone into debt, although perhaps not so different had I grown up in a society which didn't require money for the things I've enjoyed.
[Aside: I was once at a salvage store which had a huge load of books for sale. I decided to buy more than a few dollars worth. My friend was resisting, as she had no cash. I noted that I, too, lacked cash, and would be "Discovering" the books. She said she only used her credit card for emergencies. I said that, come social breakdown, she would have a shiny, like-new credit card and warm feelings from her bankers. I would have lots of books.]
I'm in Germany now, and folks 'round here don't rightly cotton to my kinda thinkin'. Or rather, folks of a certain generation don't. Germany is becoming a debtor society, too, albeit slowly and carefully. Debt has gotten a bad name over the last two or three years because many cities played financial games with their own debts (thanks Wall Street wizards!) and lost and because the tabloids enjoy telling everyone that "we" will be picking up the slack for "the Greeks". The reality is, of course, far more complicated.
I realize that things are becoming unpleasant in Greece and may remain so for some time, and I realize that the pain will likely be distributed amongst workers throughout Europe if the powerful don't get their way (or even if they do), but a part of me is pulling for a default. Fuck it. Refuse to pay, Greece! If bankers lose their jobs, so be it. They shouldn't have such shitty jobs.
And the ramble ends: I just so happened to have noticed that there's a book called Debt by a person named David Graeber. I'm going to put that on my list of things to read. The blog Crooked Timber is in the middle of doing a seminar on it (this is the link to the first post in the series).
I grew up in debt. As far as I know I have never lived in my own home: my parents always bought, but I don't think they ever paid off a mortgage completely (maybe on one house, but I'm pretty sure they took out a second mortgage on that one). I have, since moving out, always rented. Both my parents and I have enjoyed the pleasures of credit cards and I'm deeply in the hole on student loans. I'm pleased to have had the wonderful experiences these debts afforded me although I resent that some of these experiences cost money at all. My life would have been very different indeed had I not gone into debt, although perhaps not so different had I grown up in a society which didn't require money for the things I've enjoyed.
[Aside: I was once at a salvage store which had a huge load of books for sale. I decided to buy more than a few dollars worth. My friend was resisting, as she had no cash. I noted that I, too, lacked cash, and would be "Discovering" the books. She said she only used her credit card for emergencies. I said that, come social breakdown, she would have a shiny, like-new credit card and warm feelings from her bankers. I would have lots of books.]
I'm in Germany now, and folks 'round here don't rightly cotton to my kinda thinkin'. Or rather, folks of a certain generation don't. Germany is becoming a debtor society, too, albeit slowly and carefully. Debt has gotten a bad name over the last two or three years because many cities played financial games with their own debts (thanks Wall Street wizards!) and lost and because the tabloids enjoy telling everyone that "we" will be picking up the slack for "the Greeks". The reality is, of course, far more complicated.
I realize that things are becoming unpleasant in Greece and may remain so for some time, and I realize that the pain will likely be distributed amongst workers throughout Europe if the powerful don't get their way (or even if they do), but a part of me is pulling for a default. Fuck it. Refuse to pay, Greece! If bankers lose their jobs, so be it. They shouldn't have such shitty jobs.
And the ramble ends: I just so happened to have noticed that there's a book called Debt by a person named David Graeber. I'm going to put that on my list of things to read. The blog Crooked Timber is in the middle of doing a seminar on it (this is the link to the first post in the series).
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Stop me if you've heard this one before.
Greece is saved! (until tomorrow)
US troops in Afghanistan have done some things they shouldn't have done. (aside from simply being there at all, which I view as their chief error)
Israel and Iran need to get a room.
US troops in Afghanistan have done some things they shouldn't have done. (aside from simply being there at all, which I view as their chief error)
Israel and Iran need to get a room.
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