I can do this thing. I’m making a big push today to get students prepared for my final exam, and I’m making myself available in the bioclub room to provide tutorials and reviews all afternoon — I kind of expect maybe 3 or 4 students to show up, which has been my past experience, so I’ve also got my big stack of term papers to grade during all the long lonely gaps. The grind will be done, though, and then aside from proctoring an exam Thursday morning and another stack of grading, I’ll be done! And it will be like Christmas! The real Christmas!
(Episode CCLXXXII: Louis C.K., Ph.D.)
I am a social JUSTICEEEE!!! crusader. That was a fun quiz.
Instead, I did the companion quiz “What Kind of Conservative Are You?”
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-conservative-quiz.htm
Result: Freedom Crusader
You are a Freedom Crusader, also known as a neoconservative. You believe in taking the fight directly to the enemy, whether it’s terrorists abroad or the liberal terrorist appeasers at home who give them aid and comfort.
*snortle*
@Alethea
I don’t know how any of them are related. Also, one of them had Oprah Winfrey in it, which made me not want to choose that group. The choices are meant for the lulz, though, so whatever.
Any metal fans here? I’ve just been researching the meaning behind Trivium’s ‘And Sadness Will Sear’, and discovered the case of Matthew Shepard, which, sad to say, I knew nothing about.
The whole story has made me feel sick :(
Wiki article here.
Loud:
The Matthew Shepard event has been well-known around here (I live in the L.A. area) since it happened, and yes, it’s terribly sad. What’s somewhat uplifting is everything that has happened because of it, including things like the Laramie Project.
We can’t un-do the bad things in life. The best we can do is try to find some good out of them, if only to see that they never happen again.
Aww, poor Fox host, can’t take any criticism of his ridiculous beliefs. What exactly is another damned nativity scene kerfuffle doing on a show called “Follow The Money”? Am I right to guess that his show is actually a shameful mockery of the concept of muckraking journalism and that no money actually gets followed? (Surely the Koch brothers would be on nearly every episode if it was)
Classical Cipher! *hug* Welcome home! And great news about the academics.
–
TLC, this is a wall-hanging type project?
–
Janine, add another well-wishing to the pile for Patricia on my account, won’t you?
–
I am apparently a Reality-Based Intellectualist.
–
@Richard Austin
Cheers Richard, that’s a great way of looking at things.
What got me was this quote from the Wiki:
That literally makes me shake with rage.
Hmmm. All …
“A”s: You are an Eco-Avenger …
“B”s: Social Justice Crusader
“C”s: Peace Patroller
… etc. Thought as much. ;)
@Loud:
Phelps never triggers me for some reason (then again, I wonder how close to sociopathic I am since most things don’t trigger me, even when I think they probably should). I see him as the extension of the same mindset and rules that govern most religions, even the “nice” ones, just taken to one extreme. He saddens me, and I find myself wondering more what can be done to prevent people like him from being “created” in the first place: what social pressures can be added or removed, or what education and information systems can be added or changed to make this kind of attitude never arise in the first place.
Then again, I’m a programmer by instinct: I tend to see aberrant psychological states as “bugs” in society. You don’t blame the bug for existing, you fix the code that led to it happening or (if that isn’t possible) you patch the code so that the bug doesn’t break anything else in the program.
Quiz results: A Workin’ Class Hero is somethin’ to be.
Cicely: Yeah, a ‘pierced’ relief style carving for wall hanging. Personally I think it’d look best on a white wall, being that cardinals are winter birds.
The Sailor:
Yes, please!
Look what I found while trying to find the correct spelling of “compliment”.
http://ca.askmen.com/dating/player_250/250_love_games.html
From the Matthew Shepard article:
Now THIS makes me shake with rage. Please tell me this isn’t an actual admissable legal defense.
How so? They’re not migratory. And they sing in the springtime.
Hmm, really Rey Fox?
Cardinals aren’t native to here, I’ve only seen them in photos.
And in almost every single photo I’ve seen of a cardinal, it’s winter.
At least in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Maine, they tend to be far more visible in the winter. Possibly because of fewer leaves on the trees, the lack of food in the trees (which brings them to ground level and to birdfeeders), and, let’s face it, that bright red really stands out against the snow.
TLC:
I don’t know if this is doing you a favor or not: Twinkie Defense
So, my mum isn’t talking to me anymore, guess that’s so I can get used to it already…
But it will be totally unfair of me if I don’t come over so she can see the kids. Love you, too, mum, it hurt more when I was five, and it made more of an impression the first 5 times you accused me of being cruel.
chigau
As if that wasn’t fucked up in itself, it becomes even worse if you read the advice that’s commonly targeted at women. It’s all about what they have to do, and how they have to please and respect him…
++++++++
In any case somebody needs a chewtoy who still thinks that rape can be funny. I really don’t have the nerves tonight.
… And yes, gay panic is often tried but rarely successful.
QFT.
This is exactly what I keep trying to say (although I’m almost always misunderstood) in discussions about justice and morality. You explained it better than I’ve ever managed, and I think the programming analogy is a great one.
(Hmmm. Perhaps moral discourse and public policy would become more rational if everyone could be induced to think like a programmer? I can’t think of any direct way of testing that hypothesis, though.)
Imperfect analogy. Sometimes code gets so broken the easiest thing to do is delete it and start over.
I might throw up.
We don’t get that kind around here much.
You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.
changeable moniker:
Which in this case means revolution, since “the code” is society; people are the outputs, not the code.
And, I could probably agree with that notion of deleting it and starting over. It happens once in a while.
Heh, missed that. I tend to think of society as the network, occasionally plagued by multicast storms … ;)
Fucking subnets, how do they work?
I’m already about as miserable as I’m gonna get (all I need now is a smell halucination to make the day perfect) so I responded. Yikes. Just, yikes. On many levels.
———
Girl’s rat Rizzo died today. He had a stroke about two days ago. Not much we could do save keeping him comfortable.
———
And my new glasses have arrived (I pick them up tonight) which will, hopefully, mean that I can read for more than fifteen minutes without my eyes hurting.
Brother Ogvorbis: My condolences, losing a good rat sucks.
I gave up on the quiz after the “Which of the following groupings of people would you most like to see brought before a death panel…” question. I guess I’m too much of a pacifist. (One can disagree with conservatives and fundamentalists without wanting to hurt them. I’m sure the author of the quiz was being deliberately hyperbolic, but it still rubbed me the wrong way.)
Ogvorbis:
Ah no. I’m so sorry, Ogvorbis. Condolences to you, Girl & Splinter.
I have cephalopod ornaments to paint, back later. Maybe.
Took my organic chemistry exam this morning. It was… organic chemistry (read: “WTF is this molecule? Where did those carbon come from?!”)
That’s three down, and one to go. My last exam is ecology tomorrow at 3 and I’m not really worried about it. So I took a nap!
I took the quiz too. It ways I’m a Working Class Liberal (I think it was my anti-Wall Street answers that did it; what can I say? I am the 99%).
@ walton
Yeah, that question was a bit silly. But I don’t think it’s meant to be a very serious quiz. I read that question more as “Who do you dislike the most?”
Girl’s rat Rizzo died today. He had a stroke about two days ago. Not much we could do save keeping him comfortable.
Aw, Im sorry Ogvorbis. Losing a pet always really sucks :(
Sorry about the rat, Ogvorbis. :(
Also sorry about your mom, Giliell.
One class mostly graded, one class nowhere near and a huge mountain of all the things. Blech.
*strut*
Fuck Obama.
Someone needs to start a grassroots to convince the Demoparty to choose someone else as their nomination.
Headesk Alert!
Culled this:
“The problem with the Atheist argument on the Shari’a, particularly with Namazie, is that they deal in shadows and mirrors too much. They should stop avoiding the issue at hand and actually deal with it. A continuance in their avoidance of the core issue means they are either wrong or uneducated.”
From here
It was posted in reply to my request for evidence of god’s existence.
@ Ing
What’d he do now?
Quick question for you brillian people:
Our curator is putting together an archaeology exhibit in the museum. Part of the exhibit involves a pit in which children can ‘look’ for artifacts. Does anyone know of a dust-free media which emulates soil/light gravel which also will not get the kid’s hands all disgusting and/or dirty? If you do know of this, please let me know.
@Starstuff
NDAA is passed and he said he would sign it. In fact he threatened veto UNLESS it had the questionable portions in it. He’s “closing Gitmo” but only because now the whole world legally IS Gitmo.
He’s taken what has been a perversion and down right rape of justice and made it official law. He’s the best fucking successor Bush could have hoped for
I thought he said he’d veto it with the questionable parts. Why’d he change his mind?
@Starstuff
No he wanted to veto it because it let CONGRESS not HIM decide who they can detain and torture.
He never changed his mind, he got his way.
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/obama_to_sign_indefinite_detention_bill_into_law/singleton/
This can’t be even remotely constitutional.
This improved my bad day. Hope it does the same for some of you.
http://jezebel.com/5868485/gay-dads-find-out-theyre-going-to-be-grandpas-awesomeness-ensues
What about SOPA? Didn’t see any news that it was passed? So it’s stalled in committee?
@Starstuff
Oh it isn’t. They’ve been doing it for a while but this officially codifies it into law. And the courts are the only one who can over turn it now….but they’ve been on a kick denying standing to watchdog groups so it would have to be someone directly harmed by the law….who will be denied access to the courts.
Save for legislation reversing it like they did from the Truman era (Truman to his credit vetoed his bill but was over ruled) there’s no way to fix it. Game over, the bill of rights now technically worth the paper it’s written on. Now we just sit back and wait to see how far they want to push the definition of enemy combatant. My guess is that next they’ll link drug sales to bolstering terrorists and start holding offenders that way.
@pelamun
Last I checked it was possible it could run over. And annoying many said they were undecided. I can only hope that since threatened the people’s opiate there was mass response to it that would push back against the industry lobbying.
Well, this makes my voting decision next year very complicated. I don’t think I can vote for Obama if he signs this into law. And I certainly can’t vote for the Republican.
Giliell,
Ah shit. At all? A child’s mentality might dream that up, but it takes an adult to make it stick. I am so sorry. Can you see dad without mum around? i just don’t know. Hugs if you want ’em.
You can’t have what you want as long as our current economic system drives government policies.
If you don’t like it, you have to organize for some kind of revolution, almost certainly a socialist revolution.
Your concern for your personal purity doesn’t do anyone any good.
As Benjamin put it: “In a two-party system, not voting (or voting for a third party) is the same as giving half a vote to the party you least prefer.”
I have huge problems with Obama, for many of the reasons Ing has identified above (and more). On balance, I’d still vote for him if I were American and living in a swing state, since I’d say that there is one vitally important area of policy – the selection of federal judges – in which there is a material difference between him and the Republicans. (Kagan’s not great, but I’d prefer her over another Scalia-clone any day.) If I were American and voting here in Massachusetts, I’d vote for a third-party candidate as an act of protest, since my vote would be extremely unlikely to influence the overall outcome in any case.
That said, I’ve lost any remaining faith in representative democracy as a political system and in statist-capitalism as a socio-economic system, of late, and am increasingly sceptical that any political party or ideology offers any solutions. In principle, I’m more and more of an eco-anarcho-primitivist-monarchist – I think my ideal society might look something like the Shire from Lord of the Rings, with a little of Thoreau’s and Tolstoy’s views on self-sufficiency and non-violence thrown in – though I can’t claim that I have any coherent blueprint of how such a society might be created or how it would function in practice. (At the very least, it would be impossible for such a society to work unless the world’s population were enormously smaller, and the available resources per person correspondingly greater, than is the case today. Where there is competition for resources, there will end up being violence.)
@ ahs
I can’t see which is the lesser of two evils at this point. I think they’re both pretty evil.
Giliell, you have my sympathies. And also, *chocolate*
–
*hugs* for Ogvorbis and family. Sorry to hear about your rat.
–
Benjamin: *applause* Strut totally justified. :)
–
This sort of thing literally raises my blood pressure.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448024/?tool=pubmed
Why do Americans find it necessary to be cruel to immigrants? Is it some sort of perverted hazing ritual? Fear that the new immigrants will be just as bad as we are/were?
OgVorbis: how about plain old sand?
Thank you, Dhorvath and Carlie
Well, dad’s not the problem, gran’s the problem. She never really recovered from her fall in August, she’s frail and vulnerable and I don’t want to make her feel abandoned. This will, most likely, be her last christmas and I’d never forgive myself if I ruined that for her.
If mum goes back to work next week we’ll be able to go there in the mornings. But on Saturday we’ll play happy family again and celebrat my other gran’s 90th birthday. With that, mum has me pretty tightly in her grab.
Ogvorbis
Sorry about the rat
walton,
instead of monarchy, a proportionate voting system would be a more attainable goal, I think. Of course not perfect either, but in a proportionate system, liberal voters dissatisfied with Obama could still make their voices heard by electing a more liberal party, like the Greens or whatever.
I don’t get it. I haven’t been able to pretend this since I gave up libertarianism. As a communist who resigns himself to voting for capitalist parties, I understand the frustration, but the facts demonstrate significant differences between the parties which make a difference in people’s lives.
Obama ended Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. We now have queer soldiers serving openly. The Republicans are talking about forcing them back into the closet.
Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter act; the male Republicans opposed it (several the few female Republicans in congress supported it — I don’t remember about Bachmann — but none of them are going to be the nominee).
Obama signed the Matthew Shepard act. No Republican would have done this.
Skeptoid had a good episode on what kinds of democracies are actually Representative and why.
Sorry, shitting over the constitution at such a profound and tyrannical level trumps anything else. It frankly doesn’t matter what else he’s done since he’s broken the fucking system for everyone now.
The only way I could ever justify not voting for the Democrat is if I fully accepted the Leninist proposition that “heightening the contradictions” of capitalism is necessary to provoke revolution. I have not seen sufficient evidence for that argument, and I’m not willing to deliberately provoke greater suffering on a mere hunch.
@Ahs
Save the sanctimony for someone else. I can’t support Obama. If there’s no other good candidate I can’t support the system period so a split of my vote is closest to my actual vote.
Great. Have fun being satisfied with the table scraps they throw you. I’m done lending legitimacy to this facade.
There is no such thing as “trumping”. Everything is granular. Reality is granular. It’s pre-rational thinking to imagine otherwise.
Let me spell this out.
STOP
TALKING
DOWN
TO
ME
AND
STOP
DISMISSING
THIS.
Fuck you.
@ ahs
Perhaps. But this bill is a huge violation of everything the Bill of Rights stands for, so is Obama really that much better than a hypothetical Republican? The Republican will target specific groups, but with this bill, anyone could be targeted (and not just by Obama, but by the presidents after him).
I wasn’t saying that I’m not going to vote. I will vote; I’ve voted every election so far (which, admittedly is only one for me). I’m just saying that this makes my decision harder. Before this crazy shit, Obama was the clear choice for me (not that I completely agreed with him, but he was clearly better than any of the other options). But this is just outrageous. I wish a real liberal had run against Obama in the primaries.
ahs sounds to me right now just like the republicans who will vote down the party every time even if they’re not anti-gay or claim not to be anti-woman. You got to ignore the gross violations of ethics for the greater good and the unity of the party after all.
Lion brand homespun yarn is so soft, but it’s a huge pain in the ass to work with. I don’t think I’ll use it again until I get larger hooks.
Then I’ll treat you as you deserve to be treated. You are a bad person, who is endangering my life because of your pretensions to personal purity.
You’ve said that “voting democrat seems to be a vote to slow the decline”; I agree with that, and some of us don’t have the luxury of choosing personal purity when slowing the decline would mean a real difference in quality of life.
Who said I was satisfied? I’m telling you we need a socialist revolution. I’m also telling you it’s not happening tomorrow, and in the meantime we are morally obliged to choose to do less damage.
As long as you are not a militant organizing for revolution, you are giving it legitimacy. If that’s how you feel, refraining from voting is not enough.
It’s a fact, reality is granular, there is no such thing as trumping.
You are wrong on the internet. I’m not going to stop. If you want me to stop telling you what you don’t want to hear, then go somewhere else where I am not.
TLC, I have 2 methods I can get it to you. I can make the image public on my FB page and you can view/download it there or I can email it to you.
I would prefer the FB method, and I can make it not public or take it down as soon as you indicate you’ve got it. It’s just a matter of how public you want it to be. It’s not even connected to your ‘nym. (I’m trying to respect both our privacy’s, and I’m not sure how public you want your work to be.)
If you’re pissed at Obama, take it to Will StClair:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-14/obama-s-re-election-path-may-be-written-in-will-st-clair-s-code.html
ahs, what are you doing to actually change anything? You say you don’t like how things are, but you keep voting for the same idiots who are ruining everything. At least ing and I are upset about the system and doing our best to protest it (ing by not voting for the status quo, and me by actually, you know, protesting). You’re just accepting it (even if it is begrudgingly). How do you thing anything is going to change if don’t do anything?
Well, I was consciously engaging in a flight of fancy, not proposing “attainable goals”. The trouble is that the state, however constituted, is built on organized coercive violence and on inequity of power, and thus causes harm by its very existence. The libertarian prescription of reducing the role of the state and increasing the role of private markets is not a solution to this problem, because they propose to do so within the context of a socio-economic order – industrial capitalism – which was created, and continues to be maintained, by organized state violence.
Of course some states are superficially less malign than others; I don’t know of many people who would deny that Denmark is a nicer place to live than Somalia, say. But even apparently-benign states are causing far more harm than they appear to be: both through a grossly inequitable system of global trade that disadvantages the developing world, and through xenophobic immigration restrictions that use organized violence to exclude “outsiders” and to keep the world’s poor in poverty. (And such restrictions, particularly in Europe, are very often justified rhetorically on the ground that we have to protect “our” jobs, “our” quality of life, “our” benefits and entitlements, and so on – tacitly recognizing that these are special birth-privileges secured to the fortunate few, and from which “outsiders” are excluded.) Then there’s the impending danger of environmental disaster, and the catastrophic environmental cost of the industrial way of life.
I don’t have a solution to any of this. I just don’t think that party politics and elections and constitutional reform and the like, within the existing sociopolitical power-paradigm, are going to make a blind bit of difference. To resurrect a tired old metaphor, it’s like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. All I’m trying to do, through my own “activism” of sorts and my intended career, is to help a few people to gain more freedom and build better lives in the short term.
You aren’t evaluating the situation rationally.
The difference is that those Republicans in congress actually have a better option: they could vote the opposite of how they voted.
We do not have a better option before us right now. We have to organize to build that better option, and if we are successful then there will come a time when the better option — whether voting for a viable reformist party or kindling revolution — will be obvious.
It is a gross violation of ethics for you to wash your hands and retreat from the polis.
I’ll cling to the hope SOPA won’t pass then.
I have to say I’m with ahs on the question of not voting for Obama: this is exactly what Republicans are hoping for, that left-leaning voters abstain. Or if there was an alternative leftist candidate taking away votes from Obama in crucial swing states. I wish it were different, but you can thank the Founding Fathers for that..
The Supreme Court issue IMO is too important not to vote Obama…
From a European perspective, Obama is certainly no leftist, but what counts as Republican party policy nowadays is just inconceivable for any major party (excepting some fringe parties)
On this issue? I don’t know. They’re all capitalists too; to me there is already a huge swath of economic issues where I’m perpetually dissatisfied.
I would never argue that the Democrats are better on every issue. But they are better on some, and they are never consistently worse.
The fact that they are better on some issues does improve quality of life for many people.
Kucinich did in 2008. And there was Mike Gravel too, who was an interesting case.
Liberals make up about 10% of the electorate. They can’t dominate the national stage without increasing their numbers among the people at large.
I support primary challenges against the worst Democrats in congress, at general election time I direct my money to liberal Democrats in swing districts. I educate people about socialism. I walk until my feet are blistered and then I keep walking to register working-class voters, so that they can make themselves heard as they see fit; the system cannot change without grassroots action.
Don’t defend Ing’s position. It’s wrong. Ing is giving half a vote to the Republicans.
And it’s odd to suggest that I’m not protesting. You don’t know me.
I wonder how you take “we need to organize for revolution” to mean I’m just accepting the status quo.
As I just said to someone on Facebook: I’m just increasingly anti-state, in general. Studying immigration and asylum law, and working on cases, I’ve come to see the immense harm caused by the violent and racist system of immigration detention and deportation that prevails in most Western countries; and this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as state violence is concerned, when we factor in industrial warfare, mass imprisonment, widespread police brutality, and so forth.
Yet I’d reject right-wing libertarianism too, because I think libertarians are in denial about the fact that the economic system they favour – market capitalism – is, and always has been, shaped and maintained by institutionalized coercive violence on a grand scale. After all, the private property régime relies on the use or threat of state force to prop it up; libertarians claim to oppose violence, but they’re all for violence when it’s used in defence of the property and privileges of the rich. And then there’s the massive environmental destruction caused by modern industrial capitalism.
I don’t have an answer to any of that; I’m just completely dissatisfied with conventional politics and political systems and with the existing global sociopolitical order, and I can’t think of anything to do to fix it except taking refuge in imaginary utopias.
oh, I also agree with Walton that it would only matter in swing states. In a clearly red or blue state, a protest vote might actually be an important expression of protest.
Unfair and unfounded assumption.
love moderately, 1.) do you mind still being called by your old nym? I’m trying to remember to use “love moderately” now, but my brain keeps saying the old initials instead. I’ll try extra-hard if you mind. 2.) Do you have any good links on the “heightening the contradictions” argument? It seems like something that’s occurred to me before, but the intervening period (where we’re heightening the contradictions but no revolution has come yet) seems too unbearable to justify. 3.) What do you think is a better way for individuals to push for revolution, if you don’t mind talking about that?
If you think that, do it. Attempt to organize some kind of revolution. Now is the time. Go support your local occupy group or something. And I didn’t say you liked the status quo, but by voting for the same fuck-ups, you are accepting it.
And ing is making a conscious decision not to vote. Why is that wrong? Why is that any different from your decision not to vote for Republicans? You can’t vote for them because you think they’ll fuck shit up. Well, ing thinks that both will fuck shit up.
Walton:
We doctors know a hopeless case if — listen: there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go.
(With a nod to e.e.cummings)
On the subject of revolution, I’m with Tolstoy. (If one ignores the theological language, which I think is entirely superfluous to his argument.)
My emphasis. Substitute “human” for “man”, of course. (I don’t speak Russian, but I suspect this sexist language probably crept in with the English translation, rather than Tolstoy’s original writing.)
I don’t get this, Starstuff. Why are you assuming LM isn’t? I mean, frankly, if I were organizing for a socialist revolution, I probably wouldn’t be like “here, internet, are all of my actions to overthrow the current order.”
As long as the parties push for different taxation rates, it makes a quantifiable difference. There’s now a serious move among Republicans to implement a flat tax. This would be a disaster that would make hundreds of millions of lives even worse.
+++++
As I said to Benjamin, there is one instance when voting third party is arguably justifiable:
If you’re actively organizing with a green or red party and you’ve given your commitment to your party comrades, then you’ve got an argument. Somebody has to do the real work to keep those party vehicles in operation, as a long-term strategy.
But merely voting third party without being an organizer, or refraining from voting, is not worthwhile. That is just a retreat from serious engagement with the world.
Ah, yes, of course. How could I not consider that ahs is a secret revolutionary. How silly of me.
It needn’t actually be a secret for you not to know about it. If you think it’s unrealistic, why suggest it?
Oh, I don’t disagree. Like I said, if I lived in a swing state I would vote for Obama. But I wouldn’t be able to do so with any kind of enthusiasm, either for him as an individual or for the sociopolitical order which he represents. I don’t think you and I are really in disagreement on that point (though we are certainly in disagreement about the desirability and viability of any kind of revolution).
(In Britain it’s easier, since the differences between the Tories and Labour are much narrower and hardly even worthy of remark. I fully intend to cast a deliberately-fruitless protest vote in 2015. I’ll probably vote Green, though I’d reconsider if I were resident in a constituency in which the Green candidate had a prospect of winning.)
Well, I don’t judge people adversely who do retreat from serious engagement with the world: sometimes it’s the only thing the human mind can do in response to the overwhelming horror of reality. Though I also don’t advocate it as a desirable strategy.
Wait, what? We’re just voices on the internet here. None of us knows much about what the others do IRL besides what they’ve chosen to tell us. Someone’s activities don’t have to be secret in order for us not to know about them.
@ CC
ahs was saying earlier that he thinks it’s needed but that it’s not going to “happen tomorrow” and for now he’ll vote for the lesser of two evils. That’s why I assumed he wasn’t actively participating or attempting to participate in revolution.
Except that no part of that position is actually inconsistent with trying to organize toward a future revolution. Individual people can’t make a revolution happen immediately all by themselves, and voting is a stopgap measure until it does happen.
My boss is learning drums, (specifically a trap kit), and the last time I was at her house I noticed she didn’t have ride cymbal. So today I scoured the pawn shops and found a used Sabian 19″ ride. Except for the fact it is dirty, I could detect no flaws, and it has a beautiful, clear, ringing tone from the bell to the edge.
Tomorrow I will clean it up in the machine shop (with non-scouring methods), polish it to a high shine, and present it to her as the Cymbal of Excellence.
Except for my contribution to the local food kitchen, (they feed anyone who walks in the door, and take meals to those who can’t), this will be my gift giving for the year.
++++++++++++++++++
I agree with sgbm, it really is a lesser of 2 evils, but Obama is who I’m going to vote for. For the reasons he already stated and 2 more:
1) In the 2010 elections progressives stayed home and we got republicans running the states, the House and the school boards.
Howz that working out for you?
2) Obama started out with 170,000 combat troops in Iraq. There will be none by Xmas.
The last time I went ‘oh, they both suck’, we ended up w/ W. Bush. Need I say more?
Oh, BTW, I just ordered my evening grog & swill at Patrcia’s Saloon. No politics or religion at the bar. I’ll abstain from those subjects for the rest of the night.
Woo-hoo. On vacation for the rest of the calendar year. *heads for grog barrel, but stops when blocked by the Pullet Patrol™ with lean and thirsty looks*
Move to Brighton.
—
But really, please, can we quit with the political theorists from 100+ years ago? We had two world wars, the end of the british empire, a 50-year cold war with the threat of nuclear winter, the 70s oil shocks, OPEC’s rise, Reaganomics, the consumerist economy, Soviet collapse, global trade agreements, southeast asian sweatshops, WTO membership for communist China, and and and …
… and people think what Marx or Tolstoy wrote is relevant?
Yes, and even then, you must continue to vote for the best (or least worst, depending on how you look at it) candidate who can win, until such time as your own green or red party candidates are themselves viable.
One thing I’ve observed is that few alternative parties build from the bottom up, running candidates in state and local elections and building a base that will give them long-term advantages like ballot lines they don’t have to petition for, and representation among election officials. Instead, they typically jump in at the presidential or congressional level, which gives individuals a bigger megaphone, but actually accomplishes nothing electorally… except for the occasions when they spoil a race for the (relatively) better candidate, throwing to the (often significantly) worse one.
In CT, each town has one Registrar of Voters elected from each qualifying party (“qualifying” based on previous election results). To date, in every town but one, the only qualified parties are Ds and Rs.
The one exception is a town that also has a Working Families Party registrar. The WFP uses a strategy that might be of interest to some: They’re to the left of the Democrats (although by no means truly radical), and they mostly cross-endorse selected liberal Democrats (only in rare, targeted races do they run a “third party” candidate of their own). In this way they [a] pull the Dems to the left, [b] give frustrated liberals a place to put their vote (i.e., by voting for the Democratic candidate on the WFP ballot line) without actually damaging the best viable candidate, and [c] build their own membership and electoral record (including qualifying for registrar seats), against a time when they will have the “throw weight” to field truly competitive alternative candidates.
By contrast, the Greens here ran a couple guys for Congress (one in my district, for the seat currently held by Joe Courtney, and one in John Larson’s district), both of them slightly wacky individualists who managed to get the Green endorsement without any real deep ties to any effective party organization. They got some quotes in the newspaper, but never had a chance of winning (thankfully, those were both safe districts, so they didn’t have a chance of spoiling, either) and probably did nothing of substance to build the party for the future, either.
Personally, I favor a strong two party system (that’s another argument for another time), but if you’re going to build an alternative party, try building it from the ground up, not from the top down.
Mmm, grog. I need one of those, I tallied up my remaining stock and it amounts to about 1/4 of my outstanding debt. Ouch.
Not at all; you can even call me Grammar RWA if you want to.
I do not. It’s not really a topic of serious discussion anymore. The DSA, CPUSA, SPUSA, and SWP are the ahem “big” socialist parties; they and the GPUS all field candidates.
If anybody is still attempting that strategy, they’re probably working inside the Republican or Libertarian parties to do it. But I’m not aware of anyone in the USA who’s doing it. I personally suspect that the RCP in the UK decided to do this when they “disbanded” in the 90s; they’ve now become a right-wing libertarian organization, it’s hard to tell whether they mean it or not, and I could be reading them wrong.
Field organizing. If you can find an organization in your area that’s not uncomfortably dogmatic, join them, otherwise start one. Knock on doors and talk to strangers just like the big parties do around election time. Invite disenfranchised people to meet and discuss what is on their minds, ask them what they believe can be done locally, and then help them do that. Be willing to at least try things that you think won’t help. Build networks and assist people in developing their own organizing skills. We don’t have the numbers right now, so the immediate issue is all about activating people who aren’t yet active, or who are unsatisfied with the success of their actions.
but there are peculiar effects in some European voting systems too. In the German federal voting system, which is basically proportionate, you have two votes: your first vote, let’s call it constituency vote, and your second vote, let’s call it party vote.
Your party vote is the more important baseline vote, determining the proportionate share of seats in parliament (on a state by state basis), but half of those seats are distributed to candidates competing in districts, determined by your constituency vote. This is meant to ensure that every district has a MP representing them, because otherwise the statewide lists could feature candidates only from certain areas. In some cases, NOT voting for a party can actually lead to more seats for it in parliament….
Let’s imagine state A, with 100 seats in parliament.
Now we have the typical German five-party system
Conservative “Christian Democratic Union” Party 37%
Social Democrats 33%
Green Party 16%
(neo-)Liberal Party 7%
Left (ex-Communist) Party 7%
(to make calculations easier, I’ll ignore the existence of other parties)
So the parties would be entitled to 37, 33, 16, 7, 7 seats. These are filled from party lists, but all candidates who competed in direct vote constituencies will get the seats first. There are 50 of them in state A, and they’re usually only won by the big parties, Conservatives and Social Democrats. So let’s say get 28 and 22 there. So the Conservatives have still 9 seats to fill from their state list, the Social Democrats 11, and the other parties still get their 16, 7, 7 seats. But now let’s assume that state A has a conservative bent, and the conservative party candidates win almost all direct constituencies, 38, while the Social Democrats only get 12 in urban areas.
Conservative “Christian Democratic Union” Party 37 – 38 seats, one more than alloted!
Social Democrats 33 – 12 seats from constituencies, 21 from party list
Green Party 16, from party list
(neo-)Liberal Party 7, from party list
Left (ex-Communist) Party 7, from party list
In this scenario, the conservative party would get 1 seat more than it was due, because all MPs elected directly should be in parliament, even if the proportionate vote share is not enough. In such cases as this, a party vote AGAINST the conservative party actually worked in its favour.
These extra mandates are called “over-hang mandates” (Überhangmandate) and there is no compensation for other parties at the federal level, so a razor-thin majority of 3 seats can become a more comfortable one of 20-30, as it happened to Helmut Kohl a couple of times in the 90s..
Oh, BTW: Great news! My wife has Hodgkin’s lymphoma!
Why is that great news, you ask? Because we’ve been pretty sure for weeks now that she had some sort of lymphoma (you may recall a few oblique references to Dr.’s visits), and this was the best of all the likely options: It’s a rare, (relatively) slow growing variant (I can’t recall the clinical nomenclature at this instant), treatment is a couple weeks of radiation with no chemo or additional surgery (beyond the excisional biopsies she’s already had), and 10-year survival odds are, as the onco put it, “as close to 100% as we ever say.”
We’re breathing multiple sighs of relief here at Chez Dauphin.
in 2002, in my state, such a gambit failed by a mere 700 votes..
Bill D,
That is great news, yay medicine! Treatable cancer is still very stressful, take care of her and yourself.
The life of a revolutionary is not exactly spectacular these days! We learned by the end of the 1960s that premature violence agitates the populace the wrong way, causing them to side with authority:
There is simply nothing interesting about what I do. I get blisters on my feet. That is the bloodiest part of it.
@ Bill
That’s great (all things considered). You guys should party hard tonight.
I think I miscommunicated that one. I plan to vote Green as a protest vote, on the assumption that my vote will not make a difference to the result of the election. If I lived in the Brighton Pavilion constituency, I might still vote Green, but I would have to think more carefully about whether I wanted to do so. (I am decidedly un-keen on their knee-jerk anti-science stances when it comes to nuclear energy and alternative medicine.)
Er… yes. For that matter, much of what Aristotle, Plato, Hegel and Nietzsche wrote is still relevant, and continues to be studied in faculties of philosophy. Of course they were writing in the context of different societies, and against a different empirical backdrop, but this does not mean that they provide us with no useful insights into our current society.
(Don’t mistake political theory or philosophy for an empirical science. In medicine or physics, say, it may very well be true that the objective is to discover an objective external reality, and that each generation builds on the knowledge of the past, so that the theories of fifty or a hundred years ago are simply out of date in light of present knowledge. But to think that the same must be the case in political thought, or that the political writings of a hundred or a thousand years ago are “outdated” in the same way as the medical textbooks of the same era would be “outdated”, is to commit a category error and to misunderstand the nature of philosophy as an intellectual endeavour.)
Great news, Bill! That must be a huge relief.
Oggie, sorry to hear of Rizzo’s demise. (What a great name, BTW.)
I hope your new glasses restore your brilliant outlook on life.
+++++++++++++
Because my decision involves giving 0 votes to Republicans, while Ing’s involves giving 0.5 votes to Republicans.
Ing knows that the Democrats are consistently better on neoliberal issues of race, sexual orientation, and gender politics, and often better on class. Ing does not even dispute this, but only claims that whichever civil liberties issue is riling Ing at the moment “trumps” these other considerations.
That is a retreat from seriousness. It is not a rational stance, except for a right-wing libertarian who does not care about race, sexual orientation, gender or class.
I recognize that the Democrats frequently fuck up civil liberties, and often economics. And there are other issues, like Israel-Palestine, where Bush was actually quite good, as good as could be hoped for, and Obama has only been equally good; but the next Republican promises to be much worse.
I do not have the luxury of pretending that any issue I care about “trumps” anything else. Everything is granular. Every issue must be considered in comparison to what else is possible. In that evaluation, the Democrats are often better, sometimes the same, and never worse than the Republicans. The correct choice is unpleasant, but perfectly clear.
If Ing is so concerned with personal purity, Ing can bring hand sanitizer to the voting booth.
Brother O, my condolences too.
Bill Dauphin, great news!
On this subject… rather than trying to launch a wholly new political movement across-the-board, perhaps it’s sometimes more useful to build broad-based movements on specific issues, without requiring agreement on others.
For instance, there are some issues of great importance to me – for instance, ending the death penalty, introducing open-borders immigration and a blanket amnesty, liberalizing drug laws, and safeguarding freedom of speech online and offline – on which there is agreement across various parts of the political spectrum; plenty of liberals, socialists, anarchists, and libertarians of various stripes, on both left and right, can agree on these issues. I tend to think that issue-based organizations – Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and so on – tend to do more good than political parties do, because they can bring together people from across the political spectrum who agree on a specific issue or set of issues. Indeed, I think there needs to be more of this. Back home, I know plenty of people in both the Tory and Labour parties who agree in principle that protectionist immigration laws are stupid, for instance, or that drug prohibition has been a disaster; in both cases they’re mostly just afraid to stick their heads above the parapet, because they don’t represent the majority view either in their parties or among the public generally.
There are very few people in the world who agree with my views about everything or nearly everything, and if I founded my own political party, it would not have very many members. However, there are a great many people, in all parties, who agree with me on specific issues that are important. That’s why, to me, issue groups are more useful than parties.
Yay Bill!
You know, I should have thought that question through – obviously organizing is going to involve direct contact with other people, some of whom are going to be strangers. Well. Maybe someday. For now, I’ll stay over here and blog about it.
Also, Brother Og, sorry to hear about Rizzo :( I don’t know why I haven’t said that yet. I hope y’all are doing okay with the loss. *goes and hugs her dogdog*
Oh fuck, I forgot to mention Dhorvath’s economic loss. Fuck, that really sucks. I wish I could have bought one of your amazing bicycles. In normal times, in your market, I think you would have done quite well.
+++++++++++
Bill; well, it sucks less than it could have. I apparently have an excess of grog so I’ll send that that to you. (You can’t have my swill!)
When I first moved to the US, I was all for the Republicans because of their stance regarding Taiwan. But then I realised how much more was at stake domestically for Americans, and swiftly reconsidered. Though the Taiwan question continues to be important for me…
(but the European major powers such as France, Germany or the UK are much worse on this than even the Democratic Party. The joke (sadly there’s truth to it) goes that only “unimportant” European nations such as the Netherlands or Sweden care about Taiwan)
The Sailor: I’m not too worried about my own privacy, WRT the carving. 1, I already put it up on the internet for anyone who finds the link to see anyways, and 2, it’s not like it’s a photo of my junk or something, it’s just some art I did as a christmas gift. And if someone steals the pic? Whatever, my grandmother will have the real thing.
so whatever works.
Bill Dauphin: That’s good news indeed. I’m glad everything turned out better than expected for her and you.
Walton, I’ll try to find the time later to transcribe something from Chip Berlet for you on that subject.
That’s good news. *hugs*
All:
Thanks for the condolences. I have passed them on to Girl.
I hope your new glasses restore your brilliant outlook on life.
I picked up my gnu glasses. Much clearer. And the bifocal line is in the right place! I don’t have to keep moving my head up and down and up and down.
As for my brilliant outlook on life? When did that happen?
No hurry. (I have an exam on Monday and should really get back to work; I’ve already got a backlog of stuff I want to read. But I am a chronic procrastinator.)
(But issues and policy work are a supplement, not a substitute for electoral work. Or electoral work is a supplement to policy advocacy. One or the other. People who aren’t yet activists still need electoral vehicles to give them an easy route to becoming politically active.)
StarStuff: Lion brand homespun yarn is so soft, but it’s a huge pain in the ass to work with.
Both trufax. Also, watch out for washing that stuff. It tends to wash to something less luxuriant looking than the brand-new crocheted/knitted item is — somewhat dull and prone to pilling/matting, especially if it’s put through the dryer. And it does not hold up well as tassels or fringe or anything with exposed cut ends.
@ kristinc
Yeah, I wasn’t even going to consider a fringe. It’d just look like weird fuzz. Thanks for the advice about this yarn.
@Walton:
Thank you. I actually agree. ;)
It’s just that so many political operatives operate under the illusion that it’s still 1980, or 1930, or 1910, or 1870, or …
… and use justifications for action (or indeed plans of action) from those particular times, which is for me, erm, “problematic”. (This is my cautious scientist-y word for “completely-fucking-crazy” (see: Ron Paul).)
@StarStuff: it’s a shame because not only is it soft but it has such great drape and the colors are so pretty. The first garment I ever knitted was a little baby sweater for my daughter out of that brilliant Caribbean blue one. So gorgeous.
TLC, I’m at home w/ dialup, so the intertubes is very, very slow.
I hope this link works:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=328999037111855&set=a.106957472649347.13456.100000052841813&type=1&ref=nf
Let me know if it doesn’t.
p.s. (I left the scale parts out of my cropping.) All I did was increase the contrast, sharpened the blur and shifted the separate RGB planes to maximize the colors. I hope what I did was closer to what you you made.
+++++++++++++++
@ kristinc
I’m making a scarf out of one of the brownish colors right now. It’s just a single crochet stitch throughout, but since the yarn is such a great color and texture, it’s coming out really well.
Condolences.
At least you had that option. My neighbour’s rat was suffering after a stroke a year or so ago, and I had to kill him for her.
*lightbulb*
They need only be done under another name/’nym.
–
Bill Dauphin, *hurrah!* for the least-bad option. “As close to 100% as we ever say” sounds good.
–
I’m wondering if a jellyfish tree topper might not be the way to go, at least for a first shot. Bigger, and the light could plug in from underneath, and be changeable for people with more normal sized fingers. I’m planning to hit the post-Christmas sales and see if I can get a couple for cheap, for Experimental Porpoises.
(Sinister Experimental Porpoises, of course.)
–
I thought that it was just the nature of the beast? Granted, these are my first-ever bifocals, but I thought the neck-bobbing was a regrettable, but inevitable by-product. So, I’ll venture a question: is it normal, with bifocals, to frustratingly find that frequently things are both too near and too far to focus? I use my old, out-of-date single-prescription glasses at the computer because the monitor is in that “sour spot”. It’s not an ideal solution.
–
First, keep in mind that I wear lined bifocals (I tried the no line stuff and felt sick for three weeks, went to lined and felt better quickly). The vertical placement of the bifocal upper line can be negotiated with your opthamologist (damn, I soudn like Linus) — I have mine exactly centered.
Pay attention to what the situations in which you bob (damn, that sounds kinda dirty?) and discuss it with your eye doctor. You may be able to minimize bobbing by adjusting the line.
Yes, it is normal. This is why, if you really are having trouble with far/mid/near, you can get lined trifocals. I have my computer screens all set far enough away to use the distance viewing and look out the bottom for the keyboard and whatever I need to read as I type. Noline bifocals do this naturally — if your eye can adjust, of course.
Sailor,
Either make space for me in the bar room, or make room for me in the space bar.
From Wife:
Claws are ‘stop-sticks’ for cats.
I’ve been voting WFP ever since I moved to a place where it’s possible; additionally, the way New York counts votes, the percentage of a candidate’s vote that came from the WFP is counted so that they know how liberal their support is. I count that as win-win.
I was wondering if it was something like that, based on the posts you had in the last few weeks. I’m sorry it’s something at all, but I’m very glad with you that it’s the best kind to have.
Boucle is the worst. I had a friend give me a bunch of Lion brand boucle she wasn’t going to use, so now I feel obligated to make something with it, but it’s such a pain. I’ve ripped out the beginnings of a scarf three times now.
Dhorvath, belly up to the bar! The first one is on me. The 2nd one is for you, but I’ll pay for it.
++++++++++++++++++++
Sailor: Pretty close.
Someday I’ll cave in and get a proper digital camera.
@ carlie
I googled Lion brand boucle. Apparently they discontinued it. It looks nice, but I can imagine that it’d be annoying to work with.
My bifocals are lined; the unlined were prohibitively expensive for our current circumstances—so changing for a set with the line in a different spot isn’t going to be an option for the next couple of years.
What’s really annoying is that most of the time, stuff on the shelves at stores is also in the no-focus zone, making it hard to read the prices. So, bob and weave. Just something I have to get used to.
–
apropos of nothing, isn’t it quite predictable, when and where GBD will temporarily delurk to spew his misogynist shit… argh…
Well don’t let my actual stance stop you from talking down to me and acting like a jackass. Because we all know regardless of the issue the most important thing is that you are absolutely right and everyone who disagrees with you is irrational or immoral or lazy.
Ing,
if you live in a swing state I’d implore you to hold your nose and vote for Obama..
I’m really afraid what will happen to the Supreme Court wrt social issues if a Republican gets elected..
there’s even a bumper sticker
http://holdyournoseandvoteobama2012.com/
1) That’s a hypocritical complaint after you said this.
2) As far as I can tell, I’m addressing your actual stance. It appears you said you weren’t going to vote for Obama. If I misunderstood you, and you’re just griping but you’ll vote the straight Democratic ticket anyway, then I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.
I didn’t say this was lazy of you, although now that you mention it, that might have been a good point too.
And I didn’t just assert that you are being irrational and immoral. I gave my arguments for why you are being irrational and immoral.
speaking of trolls, syggyx is gone! And there was much rejoicing…
You’re not.
I believe I posted that what I wanted was a way to campaign the Democratic Party to pick someone else as their candidate for , that way at least it registers a strong protest against Obama and the DINO’s bullshit even if Obama’s running for a second term is inevitable. Or to leave the country because fuck it all.
What I won’t do is support Obama or vote for him, I may still have to vote against someone else, but I continue to question ultimately how great a difference it’ll make with the Demcorats continuing their dirge march to the right. Before this week I might have volunteered to help a re-election campaign.
Of course it matters what else he’s done. Come back to reality any time. There’s plenty of room here for everyone.
Who’s satisfied? You are the one who’d apparently be satisfied doing nothing to stop another Republican reign of terror.
So you can’t tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans, or refuse to recognize it contrary to any evidence or ethical consideration. Good for you. If you can but aren’t going to do anything about it, then stop whining to us, pretending like your non-vote will have any significance, because you may as well say you don’t give a fuck how much people suffer. Your “principled” fucking stance doesn’t count for shit in the real world, except to inhibit the kind of progress you deem to be unimportant.
Who gives a fuck about the unity of the party? I’m concerned about the actual results for everyone in and outside of this country. If there is a better person who could actually win to achieve the results I want, then I will vote for the better one. One person I will not be voting for is the best person, whether it is Jesus, Bilbo Baggins, or whichever perfect being you have in mind, because those are all imaginary and do not exist.
WTF is wrong with you. I’m upset at the government codified that it can torture people and you keep saying I don’t give a shit? Seriously fuck off.
Oh please. I’m not complaining that Obama isn’t perfect, I’m complaining that he’s AWFUL.
No, I’m sure you do give a shit, but the effect is that you’re throwing that shit everywhere. If you don’t live in a swing state, then by all means, don’t let me stop you from doing that.
WTF is your plan other than complaining?
Did not think this was actually on topic enough for the rape thread but: this time of year I like to watch the Nureyev/Park Nutcracker production from 1968. It’s just generally great but one of my favorite parts (props to Nureyev for the choreography) is at the end of Snowflakes, where the Prince does his little mimey dance thing about traveling far away together. Merle Park as Clara dashes across the stage and literally leaps into his arms with every inch of her body shouting “yes!” Enthusiastic consent in fairy tale ballet, who’d a thunk it? Maybe it’s not so fucking complicated after all.
Look I’m angry about it and not decided on the vote, want to consider leaving the country, though frankly it seems this insanity is spreading so it might be a largely lateral move, and live in a solid blue area. I’ve been calling senators and reps about the issue and trying to do what I can from the shitty position I’m in and it doesn’t seem to matter since the system seems fucking broke and moving towards an inevitable slide. I’d appreciate being reminded of the damn judiciary appointments which is important and is probably why I’d vote for the democrat candidate, ugh, but I don’t appreciate being talked down to. I’m not an idiot; I’m concerned because the slight benefit the democrats have is shrinking every day.
Also goddamn it case in point on SOPA
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57343951/sopa-tweet-triggers-political-explosion-delays-vote/
Ing,
again, do you live in a swing state? If not, by all means vote for Bilbo Baggins, or whoever.
I believe you also said:
If what you want now is to vote against Obama in a primary election, you may get your chance. It probably depends mostly on whether your state is early in the primary season. Last time around, in 1996, Lyndon LaRouche and James D. Griffin challenged Clinton in the primaries. There are sometimes candidates which only show up on the ballots of their home state.
Your federal congressional candidate, state and local candidates will need help regardless. Keep an eye on your primaries for these elections.
Is this sentiment similar to something I think you said earlier, and I paraphrase, “it’s realpolitik all the way down”?
So the White House still silent on possible veto re SOPA?
similarconnectedShit…Actually that post never got through.
Never mind. I was sure I had written one asking on the feasibility of a grassroots to get a D candidate other than Obama and if it had ever happened before while hoping that even if it failed it would act as a wakeup call to the Democrats…but apparently I didn’t.
Shit.
Ok I’m not totally rational now because I’m angry and suffering from “shit I have ten days to pull a holiday for everyone out of my ass” syndrome. Also entering my first ever contest for art with a partner and wringing hands over getting the painting done in time.
I take offense at the Baggins thing. I don’t want an ideologically pure candidate. I just don’t like Obama on a personal level now and rank him maybe just above W. My state is a fairly solid color. I’m actually fairly happy with who we elect to legislator and like our representative a lot. He voted against the ADAA and I’ll continue to vote to keep him in office
Nearest I can find is Obama saying he would defend Net Neutrality.
But again…not exactly a good record on fighting for what he says he will.
For what it’s worth, that was meant for Walton:
Though perhaps Frodo would be a better fit. I don’t claim to understand Walton.
Bilbo Baggins was a joke, and not even mine…
AFAIK, whenever in recent history there was a viable primary challenger against an incumbent president, the president has lost his bid for reelection, like Jimmy Carter. LBJ might be a different case, but he was nonetheless succeeded by a Republican also. Oh, here I found a link
http://race42012.com/2009/09/04/a-brief-history-of-presidential-primary-challenges/
It seems that a primary challenge cancels out the advantage of incumbency, and would be counter-productive as it would probably ensure handing the presidency to a Republican.
But I wonder, why the outrage now? Obama has shown on many occasions that he is a centrist, there are too many issues to list. If he actually signs those two bills into law, it would add to the disappointment, but this isn’t actually a new type of behaviour?
The cephalopod ornaments are painted. *phew*. I might make more. Maybe.
I know I’ve been frustrated with Obama for a long time.
And we have been in this argument before, I’m fairly sure with Ing too, so it’s not a new development. When Ing said this:
I interpreted it as meaning it was (again?) enough to tip the balance, not that it was particularly novel. Is that right?
Bill, in the bad news/good news category, I’m so happy it was the best possible news. All the best with the treatment, take care of each other!
Is it time to poke Obama again and remind him just who put him in office (if he still cares by now)? I don’t know if he ever got my other email, but I’ll gladly pester him again.
———————————————–
I might do tomorrow a bit differently. Run first, THEN lunch. If I eat lunch first I tend go relax on the couch, and end up dozing off. Maybe this will break that pattern.
———————————————–
I’m beginning to think letting the dogs sleep in Mom’s bed is a good idea. She’s said herself that she doesn’t toss and turn as much when they’re around, which seems to help with getting better quality sleep. Might even help with keeping her health in check after the vertigo scare this week.
———————————————-
Lovely how it’s taken me this long to
get my shopping list together. Mom needs new slippers, so I’ll be trying to get a pair like mine, since she seems to like them. Heck, if there’s a sale, I might even get her two pairs.
As for everyone else, well, I’m sure I’ll find something. I’d like to give my brother a new job, but that’s not possible. Maybe a gift card, or a DVD he’s had his eye on.
This is the tipping point that convinced me that it’s not that Obama is incompetent or accommodation, it’s that this is his actual agenda.
I don’t know. Not while I’m sober. I’ll report again when I have another perspective.
Nope, it’s the office itself. As president of the United States of America, the largest empire in history, he cannot help but consolidate more power to the federal executive. The next president, whoever it is, will continue this practice.
Institutions are ratchets; what the capitalist police state gains in power, it cannot relinquish.
Jon Stewart reporting on Barbara Walters’ “What” moment when interviewing Herman Cain, who replied when asked what cabinet position he could imagine for himself: “Secretary of Defence”. Looool…
I can’t find the quote right now, but this reminds me of the experience of the Green Party in Germany: they embarked on their “Marsch durch die Institutionen” (march through the institutions) to change the system, and ended up changed by the system. Joschka Fischer embodies this. (I’m not denigrating the contribution of the Green Party, they perform a very important function within the five-party system, but they’ve come a long way since they started out in the 1980s)
That’s good, because on my more lucid days I don’t claim to understand myself either.
(I seem to be developing eccentric tendencies. Among other things, I have grown a long and unkempt beard, occasionally wander around Cambridge muttering to myself, eat dry granola for breakfast, write terrible poetry, and have, at last count, fifteen empty Diet Mountain Dew bottles standing on my desk and another ten or so in the recycle bin.)
I’m envious of your five-party system. In Britain, we have a one-party system. The Labourservative Democrats have been in power for several decades.
The BBC just reported the Hitch is dead.
I’ll be drinking scoth tonight…
:(
Kamaka: Yeah, I just saw that on Facebook. It’s always a shame when we lose somebody that influential.
####
Charlie Foxtrot: You wouldn’t happen to be the same person who uses that pseudonym on RADP, would you?
Vanity Fair story on Hitch’s death:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitchens-19492011
:(
I just realized, I never really accepted his mortality. Deep down, I thought he was somehow going to Hitch Slap cancer and kill it.
“Deathbed conversion” claim in 3… 2… 1…
Is it also the agenda of a majority of congresscritters? I’m not claiming it isn’t, but do you have any ire left to direct to them? Are you one of the lucky few who isn’t being represented by one of those asshats?
That’s all perfectly normal, but dry granola? Have you gone mad?
Bomberman (for short)
I’d say not, as I’m having trouble de-acronyming ‘RADP’ at the moment.
I gather there’s a few of me around :)
also – “scotch”, obviously. All hail Tpyos, etc.
Think I’ll re-read a chapter of ‘God is not great’ tonight.
Sometimes cold, hard reality really sucks.
I hope you went out easy, Hitch. I’ll miss you.
That’s a fine idea. I’ll do the same.
Oh :(…
It took some time, though. After the war, there was a three party system, with Conservatives on one hand, and Social Democrats on the other, with the smaller Liberals tipping the scale. Then in the 1980s, the Greens appeared, establishing a four-party system until reunification in 1990. Then, the country was split: the ex-Communist party had a hard time winning votes in the west, and the Greens and Liberals often didn’t make it into many state parliaments in the east.
But in the 2000s, the ex-Communist party merged with a protest party, establishing a presence in the entire country, and the Greens, and to a lesser extent the Liberals, made headway in the east, resulting in a truly national five-party system, although regional differences still exist of course.
Though right now the Liberals are having a severe crisis after another, and might actually disappear, but the Pirate Party might take its place, but let’s wait what happens until 2013.
You can also have fun with colours when naming the coalitions at state level:
red: Social Democrats, ex-Communists
black: Conservative
yellow: neo-Liberal
green: Greens
usually you have red-green, black-yellow or double-red. But sometimes you get three party coalitions:
“traffic light coalition”: Social Democrats, Green Party, Liberals
“Jamaica coalition”: I’ll leave this one for you to figure out ;).
Charlie Foxtrot:
I’ll take that as a no. Yeah, that’s a rather common pseudonym.
PS: RADP.
Shit. It’s… not quite sunk in that he’s actually dead.
I don’t know why it’s hitting me this hard; I didn’t know him personally, after all. But I suppose it was because he wrote so powerfully and so vividly about his cancer that it felt as if we were all there with him, that it could have been any of us or anyone we love dying that way. It’s so scary. Such a horrible way to die.
And he was 62. Unbelievably young. It’s fucking awful.
Sometimes I hate reality.
A clenched-tentacle salute for Hitch, and a bullet for every single vulture hovering over his corpse.
Erm, I linked prematurely. ;D I wasn’t happy with the shots, so I redid them. I got my cephalopods painted, yay!
I think I will make more, they make me happy, even though they make it quite apparent that I’m not sculptor material.
Bomberman – nope, never been to RADP. However I am going to HK Disneyland next year, so how’s that for coincidence?
From the ABC News article:
“A different secular problem also occurs to me: What if I pulled through and the pious faction contentedly claimed that their prayers had been answered? That would somehow be irritating.”
I smiled, wryly.
Goodbye, Hitch. You’ll be missed.
(the whole interview)
I know Hitch’s choice was Black Label, but I’m breaking out the Johnnie Walker Blue for this.
Just heard about Hitch dying via BBC.
pauses
Thanks, Christopher.
I’m lucky with my Rep as I’ve said.
Goodbye Hitch, you will be sorely missed.
I don’t even know where to begin with this bag of douche.
Ah shit, I just saw. Fucking crying here.
#GodIsNotGreat is trending on Twitter, and bringing out that nice Christian peace and love we’ve all come to admire.
An “optimistic” view of the ratchet:
continued
Goodbye, Mr Hitchens.
Caine: I like. I have a pack of green sculpey here waiting to be turned into a Cthulhu ornament, although I’ve never made a cephalopod before (the amigurumi Cuddly Cthulhus don’t count). If the fictional cephalopod goes well, I’ll think about sculpting a realistic one, why not a Giant Pacific Octopus, those are the specific variety that would be my area’s new overlords when the tentacled rise and overthrow humanity.
Ooh, a crocheted amigurumi Giant Pacific Octopus sounds awesome though. I just finished an Anthopleura Elegantissima sea anemone for a young friend, which turned out nicer than I expected.
Well, I think I ruined a set of 4 AA NiMH batteries. I forgot to turn off a flash before I put it away (I was in a hurry, I derped), and the batteries ran completely down. Now the charger won’t even accept three of the four batteries.
Should I just shitcan ’em, or can they be saved for less than the cost of buying another set ($9-ish)?
Fun on Twitter, the crazy fundies are lose !
For example :
Kristinc:
Thank you! Sculpting is definitely not one of my talents, so I’m very pleased these turned out. Mister did the octopuses and the blue squid, I did the rest. I can’t handle working with the polyclays, it’s just too hard for my old joints to handle. I did mine with paper clay, with is very soft, easy to work with and air dries.
I love making odd ornaments every year, but I haven’t done it in a long time, because I don’t like doing dead trees and we have enough trees already, so a live tree isn’t an option now either. We finally got around to getting a little fake tree and got two for the price of one.
I would *love* to sculpt a Giant Pacific Octopus and would, if I had the talent. I think that’s a great idea – if you do it, take photos, I’d love to see!
Huh, Hitchens is dead. It feels weird. It feels like the world is a tiny bit emptier. Also, I always feel like that people I have met or heard of will always keep on living, even when I know otherwise, which is why no matter what, I am always surprised when someone dies. Man, this is depressing. I hope his death didn’t suck.
It’s mildly hilarious to see how many religious people thing the fact that #GodIsNotGreat is leading TT on Twitter is actually the work of the devil.
Sadness. Hitch’s death is all over FB, and so far not too many nasty grudging responses.
In other news, the cat Archie managed to get a nasty infected wound on his shoulder, so he now needs a 12 day course of antibiotics and would cleaning. No Xmas in Sydney for me – YES!!! Thank you Archie!
Good morning
There’s a fucking storm blewing outside and living on the top floor of a 13storey building on the top of a hill doesn’t help
————-
Goodbye, Christopher Hitchens
————-
Bill
Sometimes bad news are good news. All the best for your wife.
————-
Caine
I like your cephalods
Reminds me that I wanted to make some steampunk-ornaments, only they won’t fit with this year’s Skandinavian tree-decoration
my mother: “who’s Hitchens? Is that the person behind that internet newspaper thing?”
Trolling christian crazies on twitter, even better than playing Cricket on the PS3. Just spoke with a trainee veterinary anesthesiologist from Mississippi, man, the crazy is strong in that one.
Late and out of date for most people’s new as always, but …
Damn. We’ve lost a brilliant speaker, debater, skewerer of wooists. Hitchens will be very much missed.
.
I wanted to say to Bill D, though, that’s great news about your wife’s health. Just shedding some of the stress must be good for her too!
.
Commiserations to Brother O and Girl about Rizzo. And to Giliell about having extra crap to put up with; stressful enough at any time, and even more so when everyone’s being all festive all over the place because then family members have extra guilting fuel to guilt you with. Good luck with avoiding all that crap as much as you can.
Giliell:
Thank you!
Oooh, steampunk ornaments sound great. There’s always next year!
Sorry, horde, I’m totally thread bankrupt. Forgive me?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So long, Hitch. You’ll be missed but your words will live on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Happy birthday to everyone whose birthdays I’ve missed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Awesome tree decorations, Caine! This year I used the excuse that we really don’t have room indoors for the big artificial tree a friend lent us, to put it out on the balcony. Of course, that means that we cannot use the traditional ornaments, because they might be blown off the tree and would smash on the concrete, so the neighbour’s kids and I have been tying little rubber sea life toys on to it with fishing line. Lots of octopuses, squid and jellyfish among the molluscs, fish, mammals, birds, shellfish and other assorted sea animals (even some sea anemones). This (Canberra) is the furthest from the sea I have ever lived, so I thought it appropriate.
So, hey, where’s PZ? Everyone else has a Hitch post up.
Re my previous post: Archie has a wound. Not a “would”. Actually 2 wounds but only one is infected. He hates his Elizabethan collar, and his attempts to remove it would be funny, if he weren’t so sad and pathetic and sore a little fluffbucket.
To Hitch
Unkraut vergeht nicht
He’ll live on in the atheist community for a long, long time.
They do that thing called sleep in the northern hemisphere, while we procrastinate down under.
The Hitch is gone.
And somehow, today, atheism feels a little quieter, a little less outraged, a little less forceful.
Tonight, I shall raise a glass to the Hitch.
Carpe diem.
New Yorker obituary
I love this bit :
I’m rather happy to see how positive and affectionate are the comments on the ABC’s notice of Christopher’s death.
There’s one which particularly moved even me, by Dax:
Vale.
That’s an awesome quote, rorschach. I’d just re-read god is not great in the last fortnight, so I think I’ll pick the Portable Atheist off the shelf and pour a glass of scotch in tribute. No matter whether you agreed with him on certain topics or disagreed, his erudition and sparkling command of language and ideas was always a pleasure to read, or to hear. He can no longer speak, but his voice will continue to ring clear. Bye bye Hitch.
Hitch dead?
I think not
he lives on
in the changes
he has wrought
in each of us
his legacy lives on
transforming and growing
honed by and honing
Reality
I suggest those of us going to the GAC make sure that at some point we include getting together to raise a scotch to Hitch’s memory.
Tigger, thank you! Your tree sounds awesome. :D
Johnny Walker black. Consider it done.
Best of Hitchslap
I suppose it is quite late over there. But half of FtB has posts up, so they’re not all asleep.
I’m having a glass of Isle of Jura “Superstition” in Hitch’s honour. Hitch wrote about Orwell who wrote 1984 on Jura, so it makes sense to me.
Caine
Guess what I said last year ;)
Tigger
Pics or it ddn’t happen.
—————
I’ll take the Talisker tonight
————-
Now off to the kitchen. How could they not have ladyfingers at the shop?
I was leafing through Hitch-22 in a bookstore just the other day. I guess I’ll read it now. I feel kinda bad I didn’t know more about Christopher Hitchens when he was still alive, but I have enjoyed videos of his speeches and debates.
Hitchens got a good send-off from BBC Radio 4: his death was one of the top news items, and they had a respectful profile of him. I disagreed vehemently with his support of the invasion of Iraq (and I heard in the profile that he’d also supported the War of Thatcher’s Face in 1982), and with his sexism; but he was a great polemicist for atheism and against totalitarianism.
@ Alethea
*googles*
Wow, that should absolutely do the trick. (Provided you pour with the Ankh against your palm.)
I am reduced by (lack of a) fortune and present circumstances to drinking Qingdao. I guess if I drank enough….
@ KG
He was also a notorious a-tea-ist. Even going so far as to propose making tea with a teabag and a mug (I cringe inwardly as I write this). This has also corrupted Teh Ebil Oberlawd’s ideas on this most weighty and critical of issues.
Giliell, pics in the morning!
I’ve also put a big model of the Queen Anne’s Revenge by the tree instead of a nativity scene.
Alethea, you fancy coming over for an afternoon barbecue on Monkey afternoon, or are you busy?
Christmas tree. This year I want to make a 3d version of the tree I used in my xmas cards. This one: Picture. Of course free standing and all that. with little crocodile clips at the ends….
(OT) Miscellaneous links & brain candy:
“Has China’s Communist Party ‘Lost All Control’? http://the-diplomat.com/china-power/2011/12/15/wukan-revolts/
“Scientists find microbes in lava tube living in conditions like those on Mars” http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-scientists-microbes-lava-tube-conditions.html
“Tool detects patterns hidden in vast data sets” http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-tool-patterns-hidden-vast.html
“Pakistan Women Rights Laws Ban Horrific Acid Burnings” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/pakistan-women-rights-laws_n_1146263.html?ref=world
“Shooting for the moon — to mine it” http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-moon-.html
@ birgerjohansson
Your first link. It is one thing to see this country stride into the 21st century as we witness in the cities here. In the countryside and smaller villages it is a different game entirely. There seems to be primal fear of the countryside, that only local thugs are deemed able control. A blind eye turned to bullying and landgrabs by these corrupt heavies. It is like a contract with the devil and if it ever comes back to bite, it will bite hard.
Problem is, the collapse of the CPCh rule has been predicted for decades now. Farmer revolts on the countryside have been a monthly occurrence for years now, without being widely reported on.
Hitchens:
“When Voltaire was dying the priest came and said ‘you should renounce the devil,’ and he responded ‘This is no time to be making enemies.’”
@ pelamun
It happens at two levels. Local thugs keeping the lid on is the first layer.
The farmers may get out of the first… then what?
Fuck you Chas, I’m crying already.
“Either faith is sufficient or else miracles are required to reassure those-including the preachers-whose faith would otherwise not be strong enough”
“Only in Islam has there been no reformation, and to this day any vernacular version of the Koran must still be printed with an Arabic parallel text. This ought to arouse suspicion even in the slowest mind.”
“Nothing optional-from homosexuality to adultery-is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting(and exact the fierce punishments)have a repressed desire to participate.”
I just heard about Hitchens.
I’m sad.
Caine, very nice Cephalopods!
*PSA*
Wake for Hitch at the Pharyngula Internet Saloon and Spanking Parlor™ tonight. One free drink per customer for presenting your favorite Hitch quote.
*/PSA*
Interestingly enough, the Fox News obituary of Hitchens is not bad, dismissive headline nothwithstanding.
Time zones operate between northern an southern hemispheres?
@carlie:
Oddly, also – the comments aren’t bad. Of course there are the Christian idiots shouting hallelujahs that Hitch is in Hell burning, but then there are also Christians saying they didn’t agree with him, but thought he was a good man, a good writer, and a good speaker.
Hitch was certainly an odd man, to draw such ire and respect from people of the same cloth.
Why can’t even semi-pro news companies spell ‘atheist’? I mean, I know it is Faux News, but still, don’t they have fucking spelcheck?
Ugh.
It’s surprising how little whiskey it takes to give me the whiskey shits. I think I had about a shot and a half. (For Hitch.)
This is weird.
“Less knowledge, more power: Uninformed can be vital to democracy, study finds” http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-knowledge-power-uninformed-vital-democracy.html
Nastiness in Quebec
“New racism in ‘reasonable accommodation’ http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-racism-accommodation.html
And he did it all without raising his voice. We’ll never have that again, will we?
NEW THREAD!