I miss America

The other day I was in New York and there was a man selling anti-Bush bumper stickers. He kept calling out: “Offensive bumper stickers” and I turned to Allison and said, “No. Patriotic.”

For years (specifically 8 years) I’ve been telling people that I am a radical. I am incredibly liberal in my politics. But I also consider myself a patriot. The idea that made America, the America that was created is the country I love. What we have now is a bastardization of that system. So in dissenting I felt I was doing my duty as an American. I feel that’s what this country was founded on. Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be? People argue over, and because of, the 1st amendment. The 4th amendment. Really, all of them. America was built by people who dissented with a government and wanted to make one for the people. That was the point. The government was to serve, not to be self sufficient. And in order to protect that ideal 3 parts of power were made, much like the rings in Middle Earth. And, like in Middle Earth, we’ve seen how the top of the power chain can corrupt all the way down and taint the entire system.

With Bush around we’ve been losing rights. He’s trying to write out the constitution in his own Good Ole’ Boy image and, since he is an imbecile, all he can manage is to cut and paste. Poorly. Bush runs around shouting “terrorists” this and “terrorists” that. What he doesn’t realize is by using the fear of terrorism to control people he is, by textbook definition, a terrorist himself. It’s all delightfully post-modern and circular in logic. In a world where people delight in systems calling attention to themselves and narratives letting you in on their own little jokes I find it astounding that no one has shouted this fact, that he is a terrorist, back to his face. But I guess that’s a part of the silence we’ve all fallen under.

Well, I’m done being silent. I’m finished making excuses. I’ve run out of fuel. If my anger was a train engine I’d be out of coal and running on pure heat. I am completely run dry from this fight to keep the country I live in the country it’s supposed to be. It’s like boxing with your landlord to get into your apartment every night instead of just having a key to the door. I’m drained and finished apologizing to the idea of America.

You see, it’s come to my attention that we haven’t just been fighting to keep rights we should have. We’ve been doing it in an arena where we’ve already lost a lot of them without even being told. Yes, America has cheated on you behind your back while you’ve been arguing about a completely different affair. And let’s look at the status of this relationship we call our country.

The executive branch is already a festering necrotic mass of corruption. Everyone from the citizens to members of the Republican party have sighed and given up on it. What do I mean? No one is even paying attention to Bush anymore. We’re all whistling and keeping our heads down, waiting for his expiration date to roll over. And that’s never supposed to be the way of it. We booted Nixon out for fuck’s sake! And Bush is still in? You’re all bastards for letting that happen.

The legislative branch is now full of Democrats! Yay! Really? I mean, honestly, what have they done? They’ve stormed in on a loud and radical platform of “We’re not Bush” and then settled into their chairs. What are they doing now? They’re sleeping and waiting for the presidential elections to come and try not to sweep up any anti-democrat sentiment before then. Sure, that’s nice if the legislative branch was the campaign manager for someone gunning for the executive branch. But they’re not. They’re actually sitting back and not doing nearly as much as they promised to. So while the executive branch is a horrible brain eating zombie the legislative branch (which promised us a hero worthy of Bruce Campbell) has fallen into the roll of someone so boring and callow that they weren’t even worth writing into this zombie movie that is America.

And oh judicial branch. What has become of that? I’ll tell you through metaphor. If the judicial branch used to be a person then that person has been given a lobotomy by the executive branch. The zombie has feasted on our courts. Between the patriot act (which is still in effect, people) and homeland security the judicial branch is simply rolling along on old momentum. Our lobotomized justice isn’t comatose. She’s something far more terrifying. She’s mostly brain dead, with just that little piece at the base of the skull that keeps the lungs pumping and the heart beating. But it’s only the autonomic functions. As for thinking? No, I’m sorry. She’s gone. Start harvesting her for organs. Because when a married couple can't take a new combined last name simply because of "homeland security" then there is no thought put into the system anymore.

And where does that leave us? Are we just a group of citizens split between the sister-loving hicks that elected Bush after witnessing his first 4 years of terror and southern charm and a group of Canada loving Francophiles who would let their own troops die rather than facing the world political climate of reality? No. The truth is it’s far more complicated and far more dire. We’re a group of citizens, all together, fucked in our collective asses. Right now. Close your eyes and try to expand your mind past your literal body. Can you feel that political dick in there? Deep up inside you? Yes, boys and girls, you are surely being fucked. We are all riding and, in turn, being ridden by a sick and decrepit machine. A giant, smoking, untrustworthy, shoot from the hip, education hating machine. It is no longer the Great Machine, as Benjamin Franklin called this nation. It is now the Awful Machine. The Terrible Machine. The Shit Machine.

And that doesn’t leave us, the people, with very much. You see, this government was created to serve the people. We, as people, were being used and oppressed for a larger empire. To fight back we created a system that took away a bit of security (that whole “revolutionary war” was indeed revolutionary, and a large political and safety risk) in order to gain freedoms and individuals. And now as a nation we’ve backtracked. About 2 steps forward, 57 steps back. We’re much farther back now then when we started. We have a “system for the people, of the people” that no longer represents the people or serves them. Instead, it’s taken our liberties and used them to pave a nice, smooth road for itself. Sure, it can get anywhere it wants now, all in the name of security and national safety. But us? It’s rolling across our spines, killing one of us every so often. But we are the price we pay.

There’s also the price the rest of the world pays. Take a look at our energy and pollution policy. Keep looking. Ok, stop. It was a trick question. We don’t have one. I mean, Bush has been pushing for more reliance on oil (hey, invest in his family business!) and he put someone who hates anything green and alive in charge of the EPA. The EPA is being sued into action, not out of it now. And I could understand the world’s acceptance of us as an immature presence if

1. we weren’t so dangerous and
2. if there was somewhere farther to go then the other side of the Earth

You see, ignoring how bad America is fucking up the world is like holding a newspaper between yourself and a suicide bomber while refusing to get off the same bus. Sure, you’re not “involved” but you still die just as much as the bomber. World, get off your continental asses and do something about us! This is a cry for help! We’re out of control and need an intervention. This year a small company in California is going to be selling a car that gets 300 miles per GALLON and we’re still selling Hummers and touting the sleek soccer-mom aesthetic of sporty SUVs. Europe. We are sick. We need help. Do something. Because I swear the god that is on our money, whether we want to or not America will be taking you and the rest of this planet down with us. And Mars, had Bush managed to follow through on that promise.

And that is why I miss America. I loved America. I truly did. She was independent and spunky and more than a little scary, but she was there when you really needed her and gave you whatever you needed, not desired. Now? Much like the judicial branch, America is no longer functioning. Maybe she’s not sitting there drooling like an invalid. Perhaps she’s like those stroke victims who, once kind and generous people, now are prone to moments of causeless rage and bouts of extreme violence. But she’s no longer the America I was in love with. It’s time for patriots, true and fake, to realize that those who knew here aren’t fighting for her anymore. We’re already mourning her.

Out and about and

The band curently performing sucks. Explosive Sheep. They are ska and when they covered the Bosstones you could really tell how every aspect of their band was just less than adequate. I highly recommend avoiding them. Between their subpar songs, awkward stage banter and more than mildly racist humor, these guys are "Eh" with a capital "we're painfully still in high school".

On why the Harry Potter movies are better than the novels.

I've been seeing lots of hype about the last book being split into two films.  Most of the comments around have been positive.  I disagree, but what I find really disturbing is that so many people think this is great not because it will draw out the end of Potterdom, but because they want the movies to stop cutting out details from the book.  And that's damn folly.

I've felt it since the 3rd movie but think that it's a safe statement since the 4th (Goblet of Fire) the films have surpassed the books.  I'll wait for the screaming to die down before I continue.

Thank you.  I know that a lot of people out there have some sort of emotional involvement with the books.  I like them.  Really, I do.  But I have a critical eye and liking something doesn't stop me from seeing the flaws in it.  JK Rowling has created a full world with a great number of characters, details and a rich history.  She's really good at world building.  What she's not great at is actually writing.  Her style is immature to say the least.  She tends to reuse favourite words to the point of pain.  She has trouble separating how she feels about her characters from what the characters would do.  She's admitted as much when she said she saved Mr. Weasley because she couldn't write his death.  I mean, look at the first book and the last book.  The first book is written about (and to an extent for) an 11 year old.  The last is about (and for) a 17 year old.  And the amount of time between books has been greater than the realtime timeline.  So she's had 10 years (1997-2007) to develop her writing.  And I'll be honest, it hasn't grown nearly as much as it needed to.  The last two books had really interesting stories but the actually writing?  It was shit.

Now, the movies do cut out a lot of information.  They have to.  Hell, even the directors cut of Lord of the Rings cuts out information and they still run over 4 hours each, or so, and they still work.  But JK Rowling isn't as good an author as Tolkien.  It's true.  Her quality isn't that high.  Should every tiny word and detail she puts into the books be left in the movie?  No, not at all.

First of all, you're going to lose some point between the films since they rotate directors like a lazy susan.  Sometimes they even leave out things that should be left in.  For instance, in Azkaban, Lupin never informs Harry of who wrote the map (being his father and his father's pals).  That's a big point that would have cemented some of the plot together.  Skipped.  But a lot of what's left out is to streamline the storytelling and, as I've said, Rowling is good at coming up with stories by not so much telling them.  The books tend to be many many pages longer than necessary because she just loves to drool and ooh and ah over her own creations.

The main movie where cutting information was a problem was the second one.  They casual skip over the fact that every child who was attacked was a mud-blood, which is the essence of the plan.  But the first two movies are the lowest of all of them.  Sure, people tend to give credit to Columbus either because it's the closest 2 to the books or because they were first so he had the least to work with.  But if you honestly go back and watch the movies they are pretty terrible.  The acting and directing is on par with a high budget TV movie.   The first is a little embarrassing now and the second is downright dreary, a complete rip off of the first one with little else to add.

It's after the first 2 books that the plots start to tie together.  Anything later on about the diary being a horcrux and all that tends to be forced and fall apart with the least bit of analysis.  I would venture that Rowling herself didn't have the whole story worked out and then desperately tried to backpedal and ret-con the second book into her continuity.  But it's also after the first 2 movies that the film universe begins to solidify into something wondrous.  Oh, I know that they diverge from the books, but the books aren't religious tomes.  They're recent, moderately competently written children's books.  The movies (3 onward) are made for a wider audience and it shows.  They focus on the dark aspect that Rowling tries to talk about but at the same time lighten with her wordy prose.  No, the movies create their own continuity based on the books.  Personally, at this point, I prefer the film universe.

All that said, a good move based on a book is not a direct transcription from one medium to another.  It should be an adaptation and that's what Alfonso Cuarón does in Azkaban, with his naturalistic interpretation of the world.  Newell takes the same darkness and runs with it, but focuses more on the private school aspect in Goblet of Fire.  See what's happening?  The movies from the 3rd on build on each other.  They aren't just a parade of directors taking the book their assigned and making a moving picture version.  They're adapting between the books, the story itself, and the preceding films.  And they create a cogent whole that starts to grow its own history, character and feel.  Yates inherits all of this and continues instead of dropping it and going only back to the book.  He focuses on the larger conflicts emerging and steps up the fighting.  That incorporates the tone and essence of the story from book number 6 while not throwing away film continuity.  That is the definition of good franchise film making.

So, the last book is going to be 2 films?  On one hand I'm happy that the Potter Experience gets to be stretched out a little bit longer.  I was a bit sad to see the characters go.  But as for the book itself, it is so poorly constructed that I was happy when I thought it would be cut down to one film.  I mean, she felt that she had to drag out the angst to no end but couldn't be bothered to write out some of the biggest deaths in the story, just casually mentioning “Oh, and so-and-so died a while back”?  Oh lord, and the middle is just this:

• Harry, Hermione and Ron in the woods, hiding
• They continue to hide
• They almost get found but manage to hide, still not doing much of anything
• Ron gets pissed (rightfully so) because they aren't actually doing anything
• He leaves
• Harry and Hermione hang out and toast some marshmallows.
• Ron comes back and gets a kiss

That's about one third of the whole book.  It's really not necessary, and in a movie can be left in plot wise, but not shown.  This would really help the slogging pace that is Deathly Hallows.  But now, stretching it to two films?  I don't really see a need.  The movies have been progressing at a good pace.  The last film (Phoenix) was shorter than expected and still held up.  I can't help but think that making two films from the final book is Warner Brother's way of stretching out a finished franchise just a little bit longer.  And since Rowling has now gone completely insane she'll agree to anything to keep her beloved children up in production (see her retconing of characters, gaying of Dumbledor, giving up on writing a real book to return to the Potter world and other assorted stories about her insanity in my upcoming novel: JK Rowling and the Batshit Blues).

I need volunteers for a science experiment.

Who wants to try audio drugs... for science?!  After a lull in bastardism I'm reading Warren Ellis again.  That means I'm reading about crazy things you can (and are) shove(ing) in your brain hole.  And that reminded me.

A while back there was an unsuccessful attempt by the media to freak out parents over binaural beats.  Binarual beats occur when you play two different tones at specific frequencies.  When they hit each other they cause interference patterns that result in a lower pulse.  There are some who think that the lower pulse, if tuned correctly, can affect the brain.  I want help in finding out.

Drop me a comment on this or, if you'd rather, an e-mail.  If selected the experiment will be carried out as follows:

• I will send you links to a list of the types of "drugs" I have set up.  I will then ask what your cofort range for the experiment is.
• I will then send each person a file or two.  The "drugs" will be within whatever that person labled as OK for them, but the samples will be blind so no one knows what drug they are getting.
• Each drug will come with instructions on how to listen to it.  The lengths are mostly 30 minutes but some are as short as 5 or as long as 50 minutes.
• I will also include an outline of the information I expect back in a short report on what happened while listening and after.
• As a prize I will give each person any of the audio drugs from the full catalogue, labled of course.  Or, if that's not to your liking I can offer something else of interest, such as unproduced movie scripts, unaired TV pilots or something else to your liking for being such a good sport.

While I'm sure that a lot of the descriptions are pomp and a bit rediculous, I'm sure that they do try to stimulate the corresponding areas of the brain.  If they succeed, ah, that's what this is all about.

And we're not just talking straight drugs here.  Yes, there are files to simulate illegal and prescription drugs.  But there are also files that aim to trigger brainwaves that are normally associated with lucid dreaming or certain parts of a sleep cycle or even alertness.  And they're just sound files so they're totally legal.  Well, from a drug perspective.  I'm sure the RIAA will try to sue someone somehow.  They always do.

That's my pitch.  If you're interested, let me know by e-mail or leaving a comment.  All comments will be screened so there's no need to worry about who sees you responding.  I'm eager to get this rolling (no pun intended).  I mean, it would be awesome to be able to load up your mp3 player and get stoned on long drives (as a passenger!) but if they really work?  To be able to tune your brain between different wavelengths at will.  That's so tempting.

So, who wants to go for a ride?

America, fucking go home!

TSA searches, detains 5 year old because his name was on no-fly list

Hey, TSA, Homeland Security and the rest of you security theatre pawns. Are you done yet? Because we're done with you. Just skip the middle man and go straight to the playground to beat up kids. Minors don't really have rights anyway.

The check's in the e-mail.

The little voice inside the radio box just told me that 18% of people would feel something was missing, something fundamental and necessary would be missing from life, if they couldn't check their e-mail. That just screams ignorance to me. That number should be a lot higher than 18%.That's not me being a technophile. That's me being a realist. How would you feel if you didn't get US mail anymore? Bills didn't come. Invitations to weddings and family reunions. Holiday cards, catalogs, report cards, junk mail and pay check receipts. You'd either feel like you were cut off or you'd be a paranoid shut-in who didn't get any of those things anyway. Now? Now some people get that in their e-mail. Why should that be less of a connection to the world than paper? It's faster, it's more pervasive. Bills come over it. Junk mail. Invitations. And only 18% of people think that having that cut off would be pulling a serious part of their life's communication away? Or are only 18% admitting it?I know not everyone uses e-mail to that degree. But its taken over a large portion of casual contact between people who don't see each other daily or weekly. It's the new mail. Not a gimmick, not a supplement. For a lot of communication it has replaced mail. And that's not a complaint or a sales pitch. It's what's going on. Should e-mail be regarded more warily than other types of innovation? It's a new tool so why are people so obsessed with putting it in a basket labeled “silly”, “addiction” or “fad”. Why is it an addiction when there are other tools that we are so used to and couldn't live without that aren't considered addictions to be broken? Cars. Go commute to your job without your car. It's not a right. Your drivers license is a privileged that can be taken away. Are you addicted to your car? Or try applying to a job without a telephone number. The telephone is a service you pay for. It's not provided as a right by the government. Are you addicted to having a phone number? I mean, it's just technology so it can't be needed. It can't be a necessity.See the hypocrisy? I do. Why is it that people who use the internet on a daily basis aren't lauded as being on top of responding to people. Why aren't they accused of being addicted to attention and communication? They're told they are addicted to the internet itself. There are people who need to just surf. They do it as a casual activity but need it to feel complete. It's close to a low level of OCD, just something casual and simple to complete their day. But e-mail? People, if you're responding on a daily basis to e-mail you're fitting your communication in with other people's schedules. That's something that should be applauded. And why do media seem so intent on making the tool of communication something that should be regarded with a wary eye? Television, radio,phone, mail, even news weeklies are all forms of... communication. Is it just a fear of the new? A retaliation against anything that comes along as different? A sort of technological xenophobia?Most likely yes. Just because it's a newer form of getting in touch with people doesn't mean it's not important. I think that's judged by usage. I mean, the phone wasn't intended to be in every house and yet here it is, usually at least one in every house and soon in every pocket. E-mail? Well, that was intended to somewhat supplement standard mail, now called snail mail (or was in my day). If you define addiction as “being considered necessary to function” then you have a very small and narrow view of the world. There are so many things in that definition that no one thinks of as an addiction. Transportation. Food. Water. Education. Do we think that anyone who strives to put any of those into their day has a problem? How about responding to people. How about contact and timely responses. That's not addiction. That's functioning in life. Just because e-mail is the newest guy at work doesn't mean he's still the new guy. He's been around long enough to have tenure. If you don't invite him to the next office party then you're a dick.

Oh, dear. It seems I've gotten my hands on more technology.

In short, I have discovered the new versions of a couple of browsers for my phone. One loads everything a desktop browser would. The other loads damn near as much and renders just as nice as Safari. I am posting this from my phone on the standard posting site for LJ. Fear. for on the road, out and about post will surely follow. (insert maniacle laugh)