This is an expansion of something I touched on at the end of my last post. There's definitely a consensus in the blogosphere that Republicanism is irrelevant now. They had their chance and they blew it. The architects of their apparent dominance--Rove, Cheney, Norquist, whoever--turned out not to have been so prophetic after all. The party, having lost control of all aspects of federal government, is doomed to indefinite decay as its territory shrinks to the deepest of the deep south and the country's demographics slowly tick-tock away its electoral viability. Having fallen prey to the darkest corners of its fringe base, the GOP will grow rumpier and rumpier until it's down to its barest nub, at which time presumably the now-swollen Democratic party will undergo its own schism, leaving the country with a new dividing line.
I think that's a bunch of balls. The Democrats met with not two but three stinging defeats, only to rise again for what were really very ordinary reasons--a dissatisfactory war, a scandal or two, a mismanaged natural disaster, a financial upheaval. There's no reason to think that perfectly analogous events won't happen during the next four-to-eight years, and still less reason to think that if they do, voters will capriciously give a rebranded Republican party a second chance. The current GOP regime may be doing a terrible job at pretty much everything, but it's not as if the Democrats are offering up a pleasant contrast, nor do they seem particularly willing to or capable of taking steps to get government to be the way they want it and to fix the daunting problems the country is facing. Give people a few years to rose-tint 2002-2007, a few years of a sluggish economy, a few years of escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a few years of Nothing Getting Done (for which the last few months serve as an inglorious template) and they'll be crawling back to Sarah and Bobby and Charlie and Michele and inviting them in for tea (or a tea party).
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Continue?
Since this job appears to have nearly limitless boredom potential, I'm coming back to this blog as a way to combat the tedium.
Plenty has happened since I "left" in October. New president, and another semester gone by for me. I'm working at the Uris Library security desk, though it's not certain yet whether I'll be funded--if not, I'm in trouble. The job consists of sitting at the desk, keeping track of the alarm gates, and, apparently, blogging and otherwise fucking around on my laptop. Again, everything could fall through with the internship funding, but for now it seems about as plum a job as a fundamentally lazy, uninspired, unattractive, unmotivated person could wish for. Full time, as well.
In other personal news, the time from October to now has seen very little in the way of personal development. I finished the fall semester and had an uneventful but enjoyable Christmas, highlighted by the arrival of a new dog, Pippin, canis insignis cutitate. I waddled through the spring semester, in which I took criminally few credits but still came out the other end with remarkable stress and unlovely grades. I had a Very Happy Birthday, and am as we speak frittering away my first day as a working man.
I'm growing increasingly more cynical about politics. I'm slowly coming to realize that the only correct stance is "I don't know." Nobody is fully informed about this stuff. Nobody has the answers. Opinions are equally fervent and fervid on each side, and logic only ever supports what the would-be logician likes. There are damned brilliant people everywhere you turn, each saying perfectly convincing yet mutually irreconcilable things and making wholly sound yet mutually defeating arguments. To assert that one has any special knowledge about anything is inherently an affectation.
That said, none of my substantive beliefs has changed. I'm still a boilerplate progressive on nearly everything, conflicted about abortion, completely clueless about trade, unforgiveably ignorant about economics, climatology, history, political thought. I'm jaded and frustrated by Obama--to see such a charismatic and gifted man make so many mistakes and betray so many promises saps me of all optimism. If he can't, who can? I'm outraged by the behavior of much of the Democratic senatorial caucus--Nelson, Bayh, McCaskill, Reid, Specter--and, along with the entire blogosphere, I'm in apoplectic awe at the continued dominance of the right of every aspect of political discourse. I'm ashamed of living in a country controlled by people who revel in rejecting human decency and the rule of law.
Other than that things are great.
Plenty has happened since I "left" in October. New president, and another semester gone by for me. I'm working at the Uris Library security desk, though it's not certain yet whether I'll be funded--if not, I'm in trouble. The job consists of sitting at the desk, keeping track of the alarm gates, and, apparently, blogging and otherwise fucking around on my laptop. Again, everything could fall through with the internship funding, but for now it seems about as plum a job as a fundamentally lazy, uninspired, unattractive, unmotivated person could wish for. Full time, as well.
In other personal news, the time from October to now has seen very little in the way of personal development. I finished the fall semester and had an uneventful but enjoyable Christmas, highlighted by the arrival of a new dog, Pippin, canis insignis cutitate. I waddled through the spring semester, in which I took criminally few credits but still came out the other end with remarkable stress and unlovely grades. I had a Very Happy Birthday, and am as we speak frittering away my first day as a working man.
I'm growing increasingly more cynical about politics. I'm slowly coming to realize that the only correct stance is "I don't know." Nobody is fully informed about this stuff. Nobody has the answers. Opinions are equally fervent and fervid on each side, and logic only ever supports what the would-be logician likes. There are damned brilliant people everywhere you turn, each saying perfectly convincing yet mutually irreconcilable things and making wholly sound yet mutually defeating arguments. To assert that one has any special knowledge about anything is inherently an affectation.
That said, none of my substantive beliefs has changed. I'm still a boilerplate progressive on nearly everything, conflicted about abortion, completely clueless about trade, unforgiveably ignorant about economics, climatology, history, political thought. I'm jaded and frustrated by Obama--to see such a charismatic and gifted man make so many mistakes and betray so many promises saps me of all optimism. If he can't, who can? I'm outraged by the behavior of much of the Democratic senatorial caucus--Nelson, Bayh, McCaskill, Reid, Specter--and, along with the entire blogosphere, I'm in apoplectic awe at the continued dominance of the right of every aspect of political discourse. I'm ashamed of living in a country controlled by people who revel in rejecting human decency and the rule of law.
Other than that things are great.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Looking back
Not a fan of people, especially young people, who try to enhance their cred by complaining about current music. As far as I can tell, the ratio of crap to greatness is pretty much the same now as it's always been in pop--we just are able to filter out the wheat from the chaff more effectively with the old stuff. My tastes are aligned pretty heavily toward the late 60s to mid 70s era, but I go out of my way not to be chauvinistic about it, and there are plenty of "current" artists that I like--Chili Peppers, Stripes, some recent power metal and prog, random alt-rock from the 90s that reminds me of grade school. It's annoying in general when people talk about a sublime past that never really existed. It's fallacious to do it with politics, morals, and language, and no better to do it with music.
That said, 98% of rap is just stupid.
That said, 98% of rap is just stupid.
Backstreets
The piano intro is a cascading, crescendoing epic all by itself. The exquisite, almost jaunty riff that continues throughout the song is a flawless distillation of the entire album's message of deep-chested yearning yoked with desperate joy, a plaintive invocation of forlorn adoration and the unquenchable catharsis of speed and love and darkness. The rest of the instrumentation is equally flawless. Somebody in that studio knew how to use a goddamn organ, that's all I'm saying. Springsteen's immortal vocals accompany the throbbing wall of bass and drums to a cataclysmically powerful guitar solo that weeps and shudders from the deepest recesses of the human spirit. And if that wasn't enough, the lyrics are devastating enough to move the hardest heart to anguish:
Blame it the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down / You can blame it all on me, Terry, it don't matter to me now / When the breakdown hit at midnight there was nothing left to say / But I hated him, and I hated you when you went away...
It's hard to fathom, much less express, how much pure humanity is bound up in these six minutes and thirty-one seconds. This is beyond genius.
Blame it the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down / You can blame it all on me, Terry, it don't matter to me now / When the breakdown hit at midnight there was nothing left to say / But I hated him, and I hated you when you went away...
It's hard to fathom, much less express, how much pure humanity is bound up in these six minutes and thirty-one seconds. This is beyond genius.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Liveblogging
9:01: Palin is a fox. Chummy to Biden.
9:02: Biden mirrors Obama's opening statement, laying the epic smackdown on supply-siders. He's also giving an emphatic defense of Obama's bailout positions. Maybe a liiitle wordy.
9:03: Palin is meticulously scripted.
9:04: Ha, you can tell Biden is really forcing himself to look at her.
9:04: You can hear a little bit of the Couric bluster creeping into Palin's words.
9:05: Palin tries the workforce card.
9:06: Man, real shades of Miss North Carolina (or whatever state). Something about her syntax.
9:07: Rofl, still talking about "new face," etc. Remember who your running mate is?
9:10: Pretty soporific so far. Nothing major.
9:11: Biden better respond to the $42,000 lie.
9:12: Good tax response, I think.
9:12: Palin bites back.
9:15: Palin is using Obama's first name. Interesting. (Of course, Biden uses McCain's first name).
9:16: I wonder if lauding the "private sector" is still effective.
9:16: It must be said that Palin's performance has offered little to complain about. This really will be a debate about policy.
9:19: Good response from Biden on healthcare, taxes.
9:20: Biden miiight not want to rail so much against "tax cuts" as a concept. I guess if he makes it clear that they're for undeserving companies or people, it's fine. Also, he's been flubbing lines and doesn't look too energetic.
9:25: Palin's first real balls-up answer. Nothing horrible, just a big ramble.
9:26: Biden voices voiceless bilabial stops intervocalically, and I think it's funny. Princibal.
9:28: Palin rocks the dangling participles. She's starting to crack, maybe--definitely seems to be getting more incoherent.
9:30: Produce, emit, and even pollute! Whuh?
9:33: "All of the above" approach?
9:38: Surge is exit strategy. Blablabla.
10:16: Yawnsfuckingville.
9:41: Maliki and Talibani? I don't recognize the second name.
9:45: Nukular.
9:46: Seriously, the Repubs have nothing on this precondition thing. Give it up. Come on Biden, put her down.
9:49: Not impressed with Ifill. Skips through the questions with no followups or acknowledgement. Would be no different if she'd just played a tape of the questions.
9:02: Biden mirrors Obama's opening statement, laying the epic smackdown on supply-siders. He's also giving an emphatic defense of Obama's bailout positions. Maybe a liiitle wordy.
9:03: Palin is meticulously scripted.
9:04: Ha, you can tell Biden is really forcing himself to look at her.
9:04: You can hear a little bit of the Couric bluster creeping into Palin's words.
9:05: Palin tries the workforce card.
9:06: Man, real shades of Miss North Carolina (or whatever state). Something about her syntax.
9:07: Rofl, still talking about "new face," etc. Remember who your running mate is?
9:10: Pretty soporific so far. Nothing major.
9:11: Biden better respond to the $42,000 lie.
9:12: Good tax response, I think.
9:12: Palin bites back.
9:15: Palin is using Obama's first name. Interesting. (Of course, Biden uses McCain's first name).
9:16: I wonder if lauding the "private sector" is still effective.
9:16: It must be said that Palin's performance has offered little to complain about. This really will be a debate about policy.
9:19: Good response from Biden on healthcare, taxes.
9:20: Biden miiight not want to rail so much against "tax cuts" as a concept. I guess if he makes it clear that they're for undeserving companies or people, it's fine. Also, he's been flubbing lines and doesn't look too energetic.
9:25: Palin's first real balls-up answer. Nothing horrible, just a big ramble.
9:26: Biden voices voiceless bilabial stops intervocalically, and I think it's funny. Princibal.
9:28: Palin rocks the dangling participles. She's starting to crack, maybe--definitely seems to be getting more incoherent.
9:30: Produce, emit, and even pollute! Whuh?
9:33: "All of the above" approach?
9:38: Surge is exit strategy. Blablabla.
10:16: Yawnsfuckingville.
9:41: Maliki and Talibani? I don't recognize the second name.
9:45: Nukular.
9:46: Seriously, the Repubs have nothing on this precondition thing. Give it up. Come on Biden, put her down.
9:49: Not impressed with Ifill. Skips through the questions with no followups or acknowledgement. Would be no different if she'd just played a tape of the questions.
Muzak
Music is a big part of my life. I listen to it when I'm on the computer and when I'm in bed. There's a lot of music out there that affects me in powerful ways. And yet I've never bought an album. I think maybe when I was in grade school I bought a CD by some boy band as a birthday present for somebody. But I've never had the experience of going to a music store and purchasing an album, or even a single, from a recently discovered band. I've never liked a song on the radio and decided to go out and fork over fifteen dollars on the record. I don't even know where I would go to do such a thing, or whether fifteen dollars is an accurate number. Heck, come to think of it, I don't own a sound system.
And it's not as if I spend my money on iTunes instead. I've used it for a few obscurities here and there, but I got a twenty-dollar gift card for the store last Christmas and still have twelve bucks left. No, I just "pirate" everything, through either Limewire or Cornell's intranet hub. And so does everybody else I know.
Fuck me, this is a useless post.
And it's not as if I spend my money on iTunes instead. I've used it for a few obscurities here and there, but I got a twenty-dollar gift card for the store last Christmas and still have twelve bucks left. No, I just "pirate" everything, through either Limewire or Cornell's intranet hub. And so does everybody else I know.
Fuck me, this is a useless post.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Schmoderate
People who proudly describe themselves as "moderates" or "independents" are irksome. Those terms are inherently self-congratulatory: moderation and independence, as personality traits, are positive value judgments. And yet describing people as political moderates really doesn't make much sense. That's because "right" and "left" are more or less arbitrary designations that lump a lot of disparate beliefs into one big amorphous piece of dough. There is no philosophical reason that I can see for people to simultaneously oppose abortion and support the death penalty; oppose governmental intervention in economic matters and support it in personal affairs; support capitalism and reject gay marriage; or oppose strong trade-union rights and approve of teaching creationism in schools. (And vice versa, for the left).
It's not necessarily contradictory to hold those sets of beliefs, but it certainly is arbitrary. The coalitions came about for purely political reasons, not at because there is any kind of moral dictum that says the side that supports universal healthcare must also support Yglesian internationalism. And so describing yourself as "moderate" doesn't automatically mean you're a sensible, measured person who really looks at all the evidence and makes a considered, responsible decision each election, as such self-branded moderates seem to want to proclaim. It just means you either haven't made up your mind, or hold positions that happen to either intersect with both parties or not fit into either of them.
It's not necessarily contradictory to hold those sets of beliefs, but it certainly is arbitrary. The coalitions came about for purely political reasons, not at because there is any kind of moral dictum that says the side that supports universal healthcare must also support Yglesian internationalism. And so describing yourself as "moderate" doesn't automatically mean you're a sensible, measured person who really looks at all the evidence and makes a considered, responsible decision each election, as such self-branded moderates seem to want to proclaim. It just means you either haven't made up your mind, or hold positions that happen to either intersect with both parties or not fit into either of them.
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