Casual Voyeurism

I was bumming about the other day and came upon a collection of internet enabled security cameras that had not been secured. Anyways, much fun was had, but it got me thinking about the similarities between watching some anal-retentive Japanese woman spend four minutes folding a shirt in a laundromat, and watching those horrid reality television serials. So far I haven't come to a satisfactory reconciliation between my fascination with one and my distaste for the other. Perhaps it simply comes down my recognition of the fauxity of "reality TV", or simple anti-populism. What do you think?

false edit: Does anyone else enjoy the quiet sadism of making poor people paranoid about the cameras and then trying to fend them off from covering the lens by panning the camera back and forth? I suppose I should feel bad about doing it, but I rationalize it by telling myself that any company willing to pay such a poor IT administrator deserves what it gets until I get a job.

Top 40 Countdown

Well, the year is winding down and 2005 is just around the corner. I find it incredibly bizarre that we are already half a decade into the new millennium. Anyways, it has been the custom of many organizations world-wide to provide lists of the most popular items, events, or what-have-you at the end of the year, and 2004 has proved no different. These "Top 10" lists provide an incredibly interesting method of looking at mass psychology and national trends. So far, the best of these has been Google's Zeitgeist (powered by pigeons no less), though I am also waiting for Penny Arcade's annual "We're Right" gaming awards with great anti-sss-cipation.

Ecclesiastes 3

After a torrent of final papers, late nights and early mornings tired eyes and fingers worn from typing such wonders as "The Web and We - How the Internet Is Changing Society's Concept of Community" for my college classes, I have returned to my childhood home to rest during the winter. As I returned earlier than many of my peers, this has given me plenty of time to reflect. I spend much of my time talking with my father, and his insights on everything from religion and life philosophies to the petty infinites of everyday life have left me in a state of peaceful sacrosanctity, as heretical that may seem.

In light of this I leave you (with no intended sarcasm) with this short passage from my favorite anathema, the Bible:

A Time for Everything

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to get, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace.

What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?

I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. / He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. / I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. / And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. / I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. / That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

As a footnote, anyone with a more than passing interest in scripture will realize that I did not quote the entirety of Ecclesiastes 3, only the first part of it. However, in response to any disparagements by biblical purists regarding my perversion of the scripture's intent, I uphold my editing without remorse, as the latter section was clearly written by far lesser author than the wise comments of the former.

Do enjoy the holiday.

Addendum :: That Caustic Coating

In a follow up to my previous post regarding religion, I recently finished viewing a series of interviews conducted by the accomplished Dr. Jonathan Miller for BBC4's series Atheism - A Rough History of Disbelief (also known as Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief), and republished at greater length by BBC4 in a series called The Atheism Tapes. This mini-series details a series of highly interesting interviews with noted American and British thinkers and scientists. Personally, I found the British philosopher Colin McGinn to be intensely thought-provoking, as well as the questions raised by American Daniel Dennett. While I was not entirely impressed by all of the speakers, I found The Atheism Tapes to be absolutely enjoyable, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in an intellectual approach to the concept of atheism and the causes of the surge in religion (particularly Christianity) throughout the United States.

Personally, it was McGinn's comments that led to the realization of my antitheist beliefs and status, and it is (on a related note) those beliefs that make me very nervous about things like this. Whatever happened to separation of Church and State? Tangentially, that phrase, specifically the use of the word "Church" as opposed to "religion", speaks volumes as to the hypocrisy of that amendment.

That Caustic Coating

Ah, faith.

As our nation turn's its focus from politics and war, new subjects for discourse are popping up all over. One of the biggest ones I've noticed lately is that of religion and faith. Whether it is evolution in schools or societal acceptance of homosexuality, there is a discernable shift in American's view of how religion should interact with the government and our nation as a whole. Now, I am unabashedly anti-religious and my view of believers of a higher power is clouded by that bias. Even as I type I am forced to edit phrases like "forces of dumb" and "neanderthalic " from my post.

In light of this, I redirect your attention to a (rather long) speech by a man named Mark Thomas.

I would, however, like to conclude by saying that my disbelief in magic does not mean that I live in some drab, boring world (well, I suppose my dormroom could use a little work). Such aspersions have been indicated to me and other when our opinions are voiced. I do not need or want some mystical fairytale to liven up and moralize my existance, because I can read stuff like this.

Questions for Review

After a Thanksgiving Week hiatus, I return much as an embittered middle school teacher, rewarding your avian genocide with a pop quiz:

Question 1: My dormitory was charged $105 last weekend so our regular maintenance worker could clean three accounts of spit, yet a) Oregon's minimum wage is $7.05/hr, and b) my friend cannot find work. What's bullshit about this?

Question 2: a) There is a single-page paper called "Flush" taped inside the doors of all of our bathroom stalls. b) Most of my hallmates find it neccessary to use their foot to press the urinal handle. c) Recently I found myself attempting to pee in a trashcan. d) I pay $800 dollars per month to live in these facilities. How are these facts related?

Question 3: Using 200 words or less, justify this website. Remember, the answer must be in the form of a question.

Question 4: If "con" is the opposite of "pro," then isn't Congress the opposite of progress? Or did I just fucking blow your mind?!?

Happy Peace Day

"The dog yelps once, perhaps from the prick of the needle, perhaps from the restraint. Waugh's patter never changes. 'Aww, what are you yelping for. we didn't hurt you, we just killed you,' he croons. He hugs the dog tight while it dies, then gently lays it on the table. After a moment, he checks for a heartbeat. A quick nod confirms none remains."

Alicia Gesner from the Mosaic annual tabloid newspaper. An interview with Bill Waugh, a Senior Kennel Officer at the Lane County Animal Regulation Authority, Eugene, Oregon.

Cartigans and Cartograms

Well, for those of you out there who are still in mourning after the results of the election and the conservatism sweeping the United States, I offer a measure of hope for you in the form of a different perspective.

Nearly everyone has seen the political maps plastered about the news media; the blue "bastions of sanity" (as one of my friends put it) swimming in a sea of stalwart red states. No doubt those maps have proven it quite difficult to believe the election was all that close at all, and all the more disheartening. However, several people from the University of Michigan sat down and put a little more thought into it than the button pushers at Fox News. They found that the simple political map was proving to be an entirely inefficient method of displaying the electoral results, and offered a superior method of communicating our democracy in a much more fair handed manner.

Mark Newman and the rest of his compatriots took a cue from Robert Vanderbei over at Princeton University, and developed a cartogram basing the geographical size of a state on its population. This creates a map that is much more in line with the polls rather than the archaic electoral college. Cartograms also counter the massively discouraging county-based electoral map such as that produced by USA Today. By applying the same kind of population based algorithms you can see the ugly puke-colored distortion that is our nation.

And remember, if that deformed image doesn't warm your heart, you can always get your political maps from the Daily Show.

Nakba Frenzy

This goes out to all those smirking people out there laughing madly as the poor Cassandra-democrats sit in their political hovels announcing the end of the world: stop. I have had enough of your blindness. You stereotype us as drug-smoking hippies in every sentence. You believe that Bush will do nothing but good for this country. You faithfully belief that a government pandering almost entirely to corporate interests will also look out for your own. It is a fucking lie, and I am so sick of hearing it. You know what just got passed in Oregon? A law which requires full compensation to a land-owner when land-use laws interfere with what they want to do with it. If the state does not comply then the law is voided. Do you know what that means? When a company buys a park in your downtown, they can plant a garbage dump there, or just say so and then get paid for it. The state was just bankrupted, all in the name of private interests.

How can you even start to talk about "what a great job Bush is doing with our education?" Have you seen public schools lately? They are such shitholes. Class sizes are only getting bigger, teachers are hardly paid, turn-over is increasing, students spend half their time studying for federally mandated tests that prove nothing more then your ability to take them. In the meantime, tuition rates for universities are steadily increasing, ensuring that fewer and fewer citizens are receiving adequate education. Do you really think that cutting more tax funding for schools and imposing more useless tests are going to save those schools? Hardly. What about health care? A president that has systematically ensured that your personal health is directly associated with your pocketbooks. He pulls apart Social Security, he pulls apart Medicaid and Medicare. He allows prescription costs to skyrocket so foreign-owned companies can profit. There are no benefits here. Bush is not interested in helping out the poor if they are sick. All of his plans for the healthcare system are purely financial, and no one can attest that he is trying to help out the lower-classes here, he never has. This list goes on and on. Bush is not providing security for Americans. He is not stopping terrorists. How could he? America's invasion of Iraq did more to promote anti-American sentiment than any other event in the last twenty years. For every 19 year-old Iraqi they kill another three sign up to defend their nation. Are they going to depopulate the country? What is going on here? What is he doing that is providing security? What, exactly, is his plan? Setting up permanent military installations throughout the Middle East? Supporting Israel as it incenses the entire region with heavy-handed tactics? Spout off propaganda about peace and prosperity while every other country watches Iraq devolve into a 5th world nation? All that the war has done is remind other nations that nuclear weapons are the only real defense against American Hegemony.

Look, I'm not saying that Kerry is some messiah here. What I'm saying is that we have made a mistake, and it is a mistake that we could be paying for in spades. Our deficit is skyrocketing. As Republican party members fill the government our control of it is slacking. They control all three branches of our government, the Executive, the Congressional, and the Legislative. Look at how quickly we invaded another country. How much control did the public have then? The party does not need us. It has billion dollar ad campaigns; it has a thoroughly whipped media.

American voters proved only how unforgivably obtuse we have become as a nation. We focus on rejecting each other's beliefs, our differing moral and ethical values. By allowing such thorough conservative control we have silenced millions. Abortion could easily be overturned. Gay marriage certainly will be. Even if you very much in favor of such horrible things, I very much doubt that you think it is a good idea to silence such a large part of our population, which is exactly what these laws are doing. Foreign communication will be increasingly limited as other nations begin to realize how abhorrent we have become. I mean, we just elected a president who lied to our country and then invaded another on false pretenses. And don't even start with crap about how he didn't know. It's bullshit. Regardless, there is little to do but continue with our lives. We will still go to supermarkets. Iraq will still be fighting. Classes will still be boring. Enjoy.

Transitory Unrest

As an American, I live in a society that is perpetually beset by a political pseduo-crisis every four years. Activists of all kinds take to the streets, the phones, the news, and the internet, all trying to sway voters to their causes. Change is in the air. Dueling documentaries. Explosive headlines. The nation is set ablaze with a political fever unmatched by other countries. Election day, the Western world comes to a screeching halt. Stockbrokers stand with laymen as they peer into televisions broadcasting the latest polls, CNN devotes itself to monitoring the official tallies, making small comments that equate to nothing more than filler...

And yet, regardless of the media attention and the seriousness of the event. Many people seem unaffected. Voter turnout averages around fifty percent. Local news headlines include as many sports events as political rhetoric. People seem as excited over drinking games as election results. There is a schism of public interest, betwen those who are "jacked in" and the apathetic.

And there is little wonder. This is one of the most important elections of the last fifty years, the national identity is in question, and foreign affairs hang in the balance. On the other hand, 527 groups circumvent "soft money" legislation. Special interest voter registration groups systematically disenfranchise citizens with opposing views. Intrusive political canvassing creates resentment as people feel victimized by political activism. Negative advertising blankets televisions and newspapers. Above all, however, candidates seem to be destroying whatever concept of integrity or dignity that was left in American politics. Voting is slowly assuming the air of rejecting the worser of two evils rather than choosing the best leader for our country.

There is a need for a reevaluation of our democracy. We need to be taking a closer look at the methodology of our electoral college, at our two-party system, at the advent of political extremism, at the prevalance of personal attacks rather than the discussion of issues between politicians, at the impact of corporate lobbying, at the social responsibilities of news media. However, it seems unlikely that any of this will occur. Washington has become a self-supporting system that, to quote Jon Stewart's wonderful new satire, "neither needs nor particularly wants voters". Corporate lobbying and party politics ensure an obscenely high incumbency rate, leaving politicians to pursue their personal ideology while tending their diminuitive constituency.

However, there is hope. Grassroot campaigning and increasing awareness of the problems in our bureaucracy is restoring the power of populism. The exponential growth of the internet as a communicative medium, as well as the success of community (as opposed to commercial) projects such as Slashdot, WikiWiki, and Linux, is reminding our society of the potential inherant to intelligent and passionate groups of people willing to work together. Together, these events could enable the populace to regain some modicum of their power.

Creation

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
’T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,-you’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.

-- Emily Dickinson