You Should Respect My Opinions Because I Can Put Them On The Web and This Works Better If You Preten
I hit the character limit in the title (subject) line. I felt like writing something, but what to write? More meaningless words about my own life? Complaining that I have to inhabit the same space as everyone else and live an easier life than most? More feeling guilty about feeling guilty about what? (I don't know at this point). Words words words trying to make myself look smart or making jokes for other people not to get? No that's the old blogging. Apparantly blogs are the new journalism (which makes sense, the internet is the new democratic press) so I should write commentary on things I'm not informed about enough to comment on (this seems like a good start? I don't know I wrote "this seems like a...." and forgot where I was going with it, guilty as charged etc etc). So where to jump in? Well, a quick trip to CNN Christian Science Monitor Digg and Fark shows that the big news would be the Thai military coup. Unfortunatly i don't really have anything productive to say about it. It seems like Thaksin was basically waving his dick at the opposition (see? New Journalism, the future etc. get it?) and that something like this was coming, on the other hand military coups always stand on shaky ground, although blah blah blah etc, exactly nothing interesting to say about it. I could talk about U.S. issues like secret prisons and torture, but I'm kind of embarassed that I oppose these things not based on any realistic reasons (although its been shown that torture doesn't produce effective intelligence because torture victims will say anything they think will stop their captors from torturing them or say nothing, also regardless of whether it is effective it lowers U.S. credibility with both the civilized world and the savages and generally causes more harm than it prevents) but based on moral reasons. Ugh. Leaves a dirty taste in my mouth (hands? I'm not actually speaking outloud, I generally don't do that much before 5 P.M.). I think we shouldn't do anything that degrades basic human dignity, which is a nebulous and impossible to define concept and generally doesn't do much greater than saying "we shouldn't torture because it is wrong" which itself assumes some absolute morality that I don't think can really be defended. You can make understood what you're saying, but what you're saying probably means different things to the people hearing it than to you (me?) as the person saying it. So when I said I could talk about U.S. human rights issues but... what I meant was here's where I talk about these issues such that it is ludicrous that there is actual debate on it rather than everyone saying "lets just say we won't do these horrible things." So, onward. This writing thing isn't going so well. I'm contradicting myself right and left and making a fool out of myself in words, which I guess is what the livejournal experiment has always been about on my end. Don't believe me? Read my archives. See the ridiculous things I have said about myself, my friends and my life. See the overreactions to minor events and the endless whinging. Or don't. I'd rather forget them, but I'm not going to delete them. I have to have something to do in moments of particular self loathing where I wish to go and catalogue how embarassed I could possibly be at my own self and words. Right. Said I wouldn't do some self referential doubting mocking bullshit. Back to commentary. So...the Pope said (well, quoted) something that people saw as being offensive to Muslims. In all honesty there isn't a news story I could care about less. A)Why is the Pope's opinion still relevant to non-Catholics? Anyways the pontiff was just trying to get his theology nerd on and make a reference, which I can really respect. I love making references. Yes there was some faulty scholarship in his speech (debatably) but did it really deserve the response it recieved? Ok, this again is something that as a non-Muslim non-Catholic I'm not qualified to talk about, but I'm guessing if he had quoted an old papal tract about say, the sneakiness and essential dangerousness of the Jewish diaspora, there would be a different response. On the other hand, torching a hundred and fifty year Church seems like perhaps not the best response to an accusation that your religion fuels violence. No I'm done caring about this story and hopefully the world is too. Apparantly I just read that opposing torture is going to hurt John McCain politically, which is perhaps the most ridiculous thing I've ever read...today, but probably true in this ignorant country (LOLZ I hate American get it get it get it?). But I'm looking for something on George Allen because that story is so bizarre and strangely interesting but I'm having trouble locating a good information source so far. Time to take the cop-out route and go to wikipedia, which seems like such a low, common, disreputable thing to do, but anything for my public (I'm rolling in my own aisles (is this a real word, did I spell it right?) at this point). Ok so forget I ever said anything bad about wikipedia just now. So the macaca thing:probably racist. This was a guy who has put confederate flags on everything he owns for 40 years, and wanted as Governer to merge MLK day with Lee-Jackson day. Yes, that Lee and that Jackson. But this guy, this guy he goes from being legitimate contender for the Republican Nominee for President in '08 (although that would have been a gift to the Democrats, this guys so easy to attack based on his record its ludicrous) to fighting for his political life and potentially not even holding onto a solid senate seat. Macaca. But, the interesting story starts when it turns out his mothers family and ancestery are jewish. I think a reporter grilling him on "are you a jew?" is questionable for many reasons but his own refusal to respond or admit yes I have jewish ancestary is even more odd. It's not that I thought America was past race, but it seems a bit odd that simply being a jew hurts your political standing as a conservative in the South, especially when Allen himself is in the process of trying to avoid his racist past. Well, that was a waste of a paragraph (yeah right Will, wuts a paragraph?). Anyways. Registered votor polls show that people are more likely to support Democrats than Republicans and this has been paraded around in the News and on the web and is part of why people think the Democrats will take control of the House, Senate or both in the upcoming elections. Well let me just say now it isn't going to happen. Surveys of "likely" voters, which are more useful than registered voters polls anyway, show everything much closer with one poll from last week showing a 48% preference each for democrats and republicans. At the same time the President's approval ratings are hitting a one year high. Personally, I think it's the torture, but this is beside the point. Anyway, I think that this country is more conservative than people realize (just look at those bastions of radicalism, the college campus to see this). The point being, the seats simply aren't there for the democrats to take. So this was my attempt at commentary, which is better than complaining about myself or anything of the sort and perhaps does something to show that I'm not turning my back on my intelligence, as some would say or at least strongly imply. Or perhaps reveals that I have completely turned my back on any idea of being anything other than a stereotypical easy to attack young person.
EBWOP (which is wrong because clearly I am editing, by, well, editing): http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1536643,00.html