Indignant Desert Birds

It’s Sunday morning. Sundays are for reading in bed. Killing orcs, because Orcs Must Die!™ Sundays are for grading papers. Sundays are for prepping character sheets. Sundays are for playing games, visiting friends in the hospital, and being Occupied. Sundays are for having a chocolate hangover. Sundays are for having a day of(f from the) rest.

This week, police got violent against various Occupy movements- most notably across a small bridge from where I live. This week European leaders saved the world economy by decreeing that bankers who made bad loans to Greece would take a loss on the deal- rather than a profit. Also this week, global warming was disproved when snow hit the East Coast of the US. Also also: Saint Louis became the best Baseball team in the world.

Speaking of Baseball: the penultimate game of the World Series was possibly the best of all time. The eventually winner… here’s a graph.

When I stopped owning a car, I relaxed in places my wallet didn’t know I had. No more car insurance. No more stockpiling cash for inevitable breakdowns. No more exorbitant and ever-rising gas prices. I know that not everyone is able to live somewhere where a car is optional. I fully understand that- in most of North America- people live in places designed for cars. I want people to understand that this is a problem to be solved, rather than a public good which must be embraced.

Please, no one explain this to me.

I am a huge classical music fan, but I’ve never been to the symphony. Now that I think about it, this is bizarre. The article I’ve just linked to is an ad for a book that is an ad for the author’s company. Nevertheless, I am intrigued that parking is the single biggest factor keeping potential symphony-goers from enjoying a nice evening. That’s right. Available parking is a bigger factor than quality of music. Given that very few of us live in places where symphonies have to compete with one another, this makes a great deal of sense. It does, however, tend to support my belief that Americans need the freedom that comes with good mass transit.

The world economy sucks because Europeans seem to have gotten here most recently. All things considered, they’re probably going to be the ones to have had the most lasting impact on these continents. I’d love to believe that the Chinese hit San Francisco at some point before Columbus got to the Bahamas, but it doesn’t seem to be true. Were it true, it doesn’t seem to have mattered.

I will sell your children.

Occupy [city name] has struck a major chord. Or maybe 3 major chords- that’s all you need for punk rock. What they’ve been extremely good at is opening the Overton Window enough to begin a discussion about wealth inequality. When your uncle someone or other explains that the rich are just like you and me, you can explain why they’re not.

One of the most depressing studies I read in college was an examination of ethnic and sectarian conflict. The short version: those sorts of conflicts almost invariably end with either mass displacement or genocide. The idea that an American might have been involved with perpetuating such a conflict is sad. The idea that such a person could find themselves gainfully employed by a major US politician is terrible.

Sunday Morning Comics!

Back in the days before digital, companies had to guess at the impact of prices and promotions on their bottom line. A company might have no idea if a temporary discount on a durable good would lead to lower overall revenue. VALVe is very good at running market tests and understanding the data they gather. It actually seems to spring from their strengths as game programmers.

What we are afraid of– by state!

Earlier today (I am writing this on Saturday), a potential customer called my restaurant and asked for something I was pretty sure we couldn’t do. I asked them if I could place them on hold, (which is the way my company demands I treat potential customers) and got a manager. The manager said “can’t be done”, and looked at me expectantly. I shook my head at him and he sighed and grabbed the phone. They don’t payme enough to say “no” to customers. Turning down money is something that you only ever want to entrust to the very top levels of your organization. I’ve never been sure why companies don’t understand that every interaction with a customer- or potential customer- will have monetary repercussions. Of course, good customer service is something Americans seem unwilling to send a market signal in favor of.

The myth is that if they work hard and play by the rules, anyone can get ahead in America. this is false. For as long as I’ve been alive, only the top 10% of income earners have been getting ahead. The American dream died a long time ago. We simply cannot call fair a system in which only 10% of people see their hard work rewarded. And we must call out the implied lie which calls 90% of the country lazy.

One of the reasons that I like Google is that they’re upfront about this kind of data. Also: I’m scared to live in a world where police think they have the right to hide their bad behavior.

If you click just one link:

A recurring theme on this blog over the past year and a half has been the need for more labor solidarity. Those longshore workers are fighting for us all. I hope they win.

DUCK!

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So adorable you’ll forget they’re deadly.

It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for frantically looking for razors and panties before a date. Or Sundays might be for working and hiding hickeys from your boss. Sundays might be for recovering from a very 1$ wedding. Then again, if you’ve been running from Earthquakes all week, Sunday mornings might be for getting as much sleep as you possibly can. Further north, Sundays might also for sleeping- because you’ve been working 40 hours in a row. Maybe, just maybe, Sundays are for LoLing about while your girlfriend reads Mother Jones.

This week: The US managed to check another monster off the hit list. Also: the Heir apparent to the Saudi throne died. Also also? A major flood hit Bangkok. And, of course, this week the Occupy Wall Street movement continued.

Occupy Wall Street is, frankly, inchoate. I’m not sure what they can accomplish other than their own existence. And yet. What they’re offering is not really a solution, but a lens through which to see that America has a problem. With so many people being so spectacularly unable to get by, it can’t be all the individual fault of each individual American. Occupy Wall Street is making it polite to say the thing which has been whispering in the back of the American psyche for years: the game is rigged. How are we going to fix it?

In countries where unions have power, different unions will often times strike together. Factory workers might be treated so badly that truck drivers will refuse to move product created under those conditions. Being called out on their bad behavior hurts the precious fe-fes of the American capitalist , and so Congress banned the sympathy strike. By shear coincidence, this took away the most portent weapon in Labor’s arsenal.

Police are a State’s way of enforcing it’s laws and displaying that it has a monopoly on the use of force within its territory. When a State’s use of force is auctioned off, it becomes delegitimizatized. Mercenaries are now prowling American streets, answerable to no one but their own paymasters. I’m sure I didn’t vote for this.

This week’s installment of “Vaccines: they work!”: it seems we’re one step closer to a malaria vaccine. Malaria affects roughly 1/4 Africans every year. With luck, that will soon become a distant memory.

Another thing that works? Science. It turns out that when every climate scientist in the world says something, they’re probably not wrong.

Put the fucking phone down and drive.

When I say that the game was rigged by Wall Street, people often think that I’m somehow saying something obviously wrong, or obviously radical. I’m not. It’s cold, documented, fact. The difference between myself and a Libertarian is that “Cavet Emptor”- to them- is the greatest freedom. To me, the greatest freedom is to destroy the noxious malady of constant wariness.

It is, of course, a logical fallacy to say that you must be correct because Ahmed Maher agrees with you. Even if it is not an argument, it is certainly a signpost on the road to righteousness. Protip: don’t be the group that this guy thinks is worth protesting.

Republicans have some very bad ideas about the economy. For instance: they are convinced that the reason people aren’t buying things today is that they’re scared tax rates will go up tomorrow. Republicans have released economic plans that economic experts have laughed at. We are not being told that the experts are laughing at those plans. Instead, we’re being told that the Republicans have a plan, and that Democrats oppose it. Well gosh. I feel all informed and stuff.

I went all of 2009 and most of 2010 without working. It was so taxing on my psyche that I have been seeing a shrink to get past many of the effects. When I did find a job, it was at literally 1/3 what my pay had been. I am not alone. 10 million people not earning money. 10 million people not making things. And millions upon millions more making less than ever. Want to know why companies are sitting on huge piles of cash instead of building things? No one can afford to buy.

“Anything to declare?” Yeah, I just got back from the freaking moon!

If you click just one link:

Check out this Atlantic piece on College sports.

Mr Pink!

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No, 1% do please go Gault.

It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for retracing the steps of the Beatles career, from the comfort of your couch. Sundays are for installing games on your new windows partition. Sundays are for walking with vigorous strides– or at least remembering to send out a copy. Sundays might be for rediscovering your love of music festivals. Or Sundays might just be for furiously tapping out a post so that people can snuggle in bed and read.

This week, protesters continued to Occupy [a park near] Wall Street. Scientists are still vigorously trying to prove that faster than light travel is still impossible. Also this week: Slovenia’s government fell when it failed a confidence vote. Also also: The Italian government failed to fall. Depressingly this week: debt-easing inflation failed to occur.

One of the more interesting reactions to the death of Steve Jobs has been high lighting the deaths of other people. I will not play the a game where I try and explain who’s life was more worthy of celebration. I will point out that humanity has been blessed with some truly fine specimens.

I pay very little attention to the media. It has much less to do with my own ideological biases (which, granted, are far to the left of what the media is comfortable talking about), and more to do with the fact that the media is incompetent. I honestly do believe that many of the problems the US finds itself in would be solvable if we had a media capable of reporting a fact in the most relevant way possible. Since they cannot, American democracy is asked to exist within an information vacuum. Lacking information with which to make good decisions, we make very bad ones indeed.

Despite bizarre insistence to the contrary, vaccines are a useful tool for making humanity better off. As an interesting side note to the story: Windows users can know that their money was reinvested in helping eliminate polio from India. Win/Win? Indeed.

Apparently the US government has decided to arbitrarily shut down certain websites. I say “apparently” because this is the first I’ve heard of it. And I say “arbitrarily” because the accused are not allowed to defend themselves.

Imagine if you had a phone. And imagine if that phone could be used to track your physical location and every place you visit on the internet. Now imagine if someone wanted to collect and sell that information without so much as giving you any of the money. It is this sort of thing, I think- more than the banking system itself- which so inflames the Occupy Wall Street folk. It’s the basic sense that corporate life has seeped into every corner of America, and left democracy a pale, sickly, shadow of what it had been.

I remember the way the press hounded President Clinton over the Lewinsky affair. The press was literally jumping out of bushes in hopes of startling Gary Condit into admitting that he murdered his lover. Imagine for a moment that the media treated the presidential assassination scandal with the same level of intensity. What if President Obama were unable to do walk his dog without being asked the circumstances under which he were able to murder Americans at will? The press does not care. And so America slumbers on.

The government does good and useful work. Anyone who says otherwise is objectively pro-domestic abuse.

Let’s fix the tax code. Let’s restore the inflation rate to the historic average. Let’s never again bail out a company and keep its management team afloat. Let’s stop pretending that everything in America is just fine. It isn’t fine. It hasn’t been fine for 10 years.

Matthew 6 is one of the most interesting chapters of the Christian Bible. In it, the Christian Messiah attacks the very foundations of his society by telling his followers not to be douchebags. Seriously. I’m going to quote a bit: “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Oh, he goes on for a while. He also tells people-his followers- not to pray in public. In this middle of this epic anti-douchebag PSA, the Christian Messiah delivers what has come to be called “the lord’s prayer”.

Sunday Comics!!

When someone buys stock in a company, they’re buying a small piece of that company. People do this because they expect to make money from owing a piece of that company. That company is legally required to provide an accurate accounting of its activities. It seems that there is some interesting and strange evidence that they aren’t. Who the fuck do Wall Street tycoons think they are? They lie to the American public, they lie to the American government, and they seem to be lying to the people who own their companies.

Two of the most pretentious things in the world: cheese and fonts.

One of the best things that Occupy Wall street has done is point out the contradictions at the heart of American society. One one side, you have a dream of democracy. On the other side, you’ve got the simple fact that the parasitic 1% of America looks down on the rest of us, knowing they can buy and sell us at their whim. This is what the revolution was fought against. Never let it be said, however, that it’s no laughing matter.

Victor: You bought two dead animals – killing each other – because renting them is a bad investment?

The American political system is deeply, deeply flawed. Of the two major parties, one has a variety of solutions to America’s various ills. Some of these are right, and some wrong. The other party’s most credible attempt at fixing the economy is to fire more people.

If you read just one link:

The failure of Digital Rights Management.

This week’s theme has been the death of the American dream. In the comments section, let me know whether you prefer cheesy pretense, or pretentious cheese.

D’oh!

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It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for getting up and going to work because someone has to make a living around here. Sundays are for celebrating the birthdays of you and your partner. Sundays are for celebrating the life of your parents. Sundays are for wrestling Photoshop into a semblance of normalcy. Or Sundays might be for making friends with your kitties once more.

This week the Occupy Wall Street movement continued to strengthen– Mea Culpa: I thought it would die. This week the world mourned as visionary technologist Steve Jobs passed on. Also this week: California signed a version of the Dream Act- a bill which would allow children born to undocumented workers some of the same rights granted to any child who grew up in California. Also also: the EU has been declining to fix their economic woes as the world tumbles ever closer to economic devastation.

Saturn is so much bigger than Earth that my mind literally cannot wrap around the concept. It is quite literally not operating at human scale. Nevertheless, artifacts of the human mind have traveled to Saturn and sent us back pictures.

Speaking of artifacts of the human mind…

Earlier this week, my shrink casually mentioned that I had been (until quite recently) clinically depressed. Well obviously. In retrospect, this makes my lifelong commitment to not drinking look really fucking prescient. I’m fortunate that I spotted the tenancy toward alcoholism early enough in my life that never had to stop myself. I can only imagine the difficulty someone would have trying to quit. For the record: I don’t mind if other people drink around me, either.

My two earliest memories involve Lego. I am something of a Lego maniac. I can’t even imagine the skill it would take to build the sort of Gothic Victorian masterpiece linked to above.

Most women in the public eye would like to wear the “Feminist” label. The Feminist tent is fairly broad, capable of being worn by people of sharply contrasting views. It might be possible that the label would stretch far enough to include people who would like to return women to a subservient place in society. At the very least, we should be aware of who those self-proclaimed feminists are.

An awful lot of software asks if it may collect “anonymous usage statistics”. I almost always allow companies to do so- it makes products better. I’m amazed the Microsoft saw such a fundamental shift in the way users were interacting with the Operating system.

It has been standard practice for a long while for companies to declare that all their employees are of above average ability, and thus merit above average pay. This has lead to a situation in which the pay of line workers has been spiraling out of control, threatening to flood the economy with too much money. Wait. Sorry. It seems that only CEOs are thought to be of above-average ability for their responsibilities. A lot of this has to do with the fact that the people who hire CEOs can’t contemplate the idea that they, themselves would make a merely mediocre hiring decision. And so the 1% get richer. The rest of us have to make do with crumbs.

In lieu of flowers, those who desire may make memorial gifts to the charity of their choice.

Members of the various police forces are more concerned with keeping order than protecting the legal integrity of a society. This means that, yes, they will absolutely break the law in an attempt to get their own way. One of the reasons they get away with that (other than being armed) is that people don’t often know that their rights are being violated. Fix that. And then thank the ACLU.

Protip: don’t teach your cat to use your computer.

On the occasion of the death of Steve Jobs, it’s worth pondering why the Macintosh never made much headway in the desktop world. Those same things do seem to be making it a natural fit for the mobile computing world.

I didn’t know that a “Janus cat” was a real thing when I named my kitty.

For most of us, getting in shape is relatively simple (maybe not easy): exercise more and eat less. The design of a city can help us get more exercise. When walking is easy, and accomplishes something other than exercise, people are more willing to do it. When people walk more, they tend to be healthier. It’s not a panacea, but every bit helps.

I blame Carmen Sandiego.

The Democratic party has problems. The party has severe problems. Nonetheless, I’m a straight-line Democratic party voter. Given the math created by our current institutional structure, we have a two party system. Full stop. Given that math etc, it’s as important to vote against a party as it is to vote for a party. If Occupy Wall Street does anything, I hope they change that math.

People in the PR business have a weird time of things. On the one wrist, people wanting to make friends with them so that PR people will show them cool things. On the other wrist, PR people have to be friends with people in order to convince them to say nice things about their clients. So, you know Epic Fail.

Gr. Arrg.

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When the internet attacks.

It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for introducing your Girlfriend to your friends. Sundays are for celebrating a life well lived. Sundays are for plotting revenge. Or Sundays might just be for playing video games and eating good food.

This week, the US president took advantage of his self-declared power to murder Americans without warning or oversight. This week, Facebook rolled out new ways to gather personal data on their users. Also this week: Wall Street was “occupied” to protest greed.

Europe is falling apart. It’s going to take America with it. Here’s everything you need to know.

The US President declared that he had the power to assassinate any American citizen anywhere in the world for no better reason than his own say so. Perhaps the scariest part? He has claimed the right to do this in secret. For all we know, President Obama has ordered the murder of an American citizen for making a pass at his wife. That may sound far fetched– it is far fetched– but the president has asserted that it would be legal for him to do so, and legal for him to not tell us about it. Thus far, Congress has raised no outcry.

I once heard a professor describe Unions as (something like) a method by which labor is rationed. I blanched at that, and he assured me that in economic terms he was correct. Once I gave it a few moments’ thought, I had to agree. How else can a union maintain it’s strength save by limiting the monopoly power of employers.

When individuals form organizations with the purpose of pooling money to own (and derive profit from owning) the means of production, (corporations) those groups are allowed to bargain as one unit. That “collective bargaining unit” derives enormous power from the solidarity of the capitalists. Their ability to speak with a single voice; lobby local, state, and federal lawmakers on their own behalf; etc is uncontroversial. When workers join together looking to band together to enjoy that same power, the law is called out to stop them. And this is why the 1% have it much better than the rest of us.

Occupy Wall Street is a fantastic idea. I would not at all have minded seeing actual barricades thrown up in front of each of the banks and brokerages with revenues of $1 billion or more. It would have kept those people from working, and thus saved untold billions of dollars worth of mischief. The actuality of Occupy Wall Street left much to be desired. I don’t know what the protesters wanted, or what interests they served. I have a vague idea that the protesters were lefties, but the Tea Partiers claim to be speaking for the exact same constituency. This lack of communications skills is why progressive policies have a difficult time passing.

Household incomes are down. Spending is (naturally) therefore: down. And the economy? If people aren’t spending money they haven’t got, the economy is… down. From this it is easy to understand that our economy suffers from a demand-side depression, not a supply side downturn. Good news: we know how to solve demand-side economic disasters. Bad news? In 2010, we elected people who don’t want to raise money to fight for a better economy.

I’m not sure why anyone hates English lawyers this much, but the sign is awesome.

There is only one proof of manhood I, or anyone else, need: our own say-so. Anyone who defines their manhood in terms of branding or outside considerations is holding their manhood cheap. Manhood is much like womanhood: it’s all about having the confidence to be who you are. “Real” men can buy tampons for the ladies in their lives. “Real” men know that- if they want- they can paint their damned toenails bright pink. And “real” men stand up to the bullies who tell them otherwise. “Real” ladies do the same thing.

Most of us, most of the time, are going to fit easily into our socially assigned gender roles. It is 100% ok to fit easily into those roles. The important thing is to remember that those roles are arbitrary. Until 60 years ago, little boys wore pink skirts. Arbitrary distinctions may not be penalized or punished. I think this is the rule that separates the civilized from the uncivilized.

Last week held international coffee week. here are some coffee facts.

I’m pretty sure I don’t want penis coffee.

I grew up deep in the suburbs. In college, I commuted an hour each way to work. When I moved to San Francisco, I gleefully gave up my car. Living in a city where I could get anywhere at any time without needing to drive was a new sort of freedom. Not having to drive means that my commute can be spent reading, playing games, or watching a video. Commuting turns from a chore into a part of my leisure time.

In 1980, the US had a population of 226 million people. In 2011, the population is 308 million. That’s an increase of 36%. Between 1980 and 2011, there has been a zero percent increase in the number of Medical Doctorates awarded each year. Assuming doctors do not have longer careers now than they did 30 years ago, that points to a radically lower doctor/patient ratio. Why does medicine cost so much more now than it did 30 years ago? I’d say a good place to look is supply and demand.

I admit to being something of a dandy. Sunday afternoon, when meeting up with my friends, I plan on wearing a cravat. No real reason. Because I can. So yes. I go to far for fashion. Other nerds can learn how to dress better. I’m a dandy because I enjoy it. Dressing well helps people be taken more seriously.

One of the more disturbing trends in gaming is that graphics have long overshadowed gameplay for AAA productions. That’s what has been so nice about the stagnation of this console generation: the plateau in visual fidelity has turned into easy tools for reaching acceptable levels of graphics. This has led to an explosion of “indie” games, built around novel mechanics and zany ideas.

As I understand what the police are claiming happened here: the police erected mesh barriers to infringe on the rights of the people to peaceably assemble. For the crime of petitioning for a redress of grievances, the officers on hand indiscriminately used a non-lethal chemical weapon. When called to account for these actions, the police described them as “appropriate”. I call bullshit.

I can’t help but note that the movement against “frivolous” lawsuits have the net effect of making it harder for humans to protect ourselves against corporations. The best part? We’re spreading untrue anti-human propaganda ourselves.

It seems DC did a huge redesign of their entire lineup. Refreshing a comic every decade or so would seem to give the creators the chance to keep the books healthy and relevant. unless they pull shit like this. This 7 year old girl can’t articulate the phrase “male gaze”, but she does intuit that the books are not designed for her. I wonder if DC realizes that they are creating for themselves a huge problem.

A shot by shot analysis of what makes the 1978 Superman movie’s opening sequence work.

If you click just one link:

America has long had a policy of Affirmative Action. We only wanted to curtail it once it started helping black folks.

This week’s theme was work, jobs, and gender. In the comments section, tell me about your favorite board game.

Just because the southern Civil Warriors were overwhelmingly the heirs of slave-owners doesn’t mean the rebellion was fought over slavery!

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It’s Sunday Morning afternoon. Sundays are for taking care of a sick Girlfriend. Sundays are for celebrating a birthday. Sundays are for being semi-naked on Folsom street– despite the weather. Sundays are for working…

This week the states of Georgia and Texas murdered people in the name of their citizens. The man Georgia executed seems to have been innocent. The United States began allowing gay soliders to serve openly in the military. Saudi Arabia began the first steps towards allowing women to vote. And this week CERN proved that there is value to pure research.

In case the links I’ve provided this week aren’t to your taste, GameSpy has their best-of list. I’ve read most of the articles listed. They’re damned good.

The Republican party is the party of the rich and the white. The Democratic party is for people who are less rich and less white. Since Americans who are less rich and less white also tend to be less engaged with American civil society (being more likely to lack things like drivers licences or State IDs), voter ID laws make it harder for Democratic-leaning constituencies to vote. Which is why we ought not be surprised that such laws are being passed in the absence of voter fraud. The problem being solved isn’t voter fraud, but Democratic Voting.

This was as far as I got before we went to the hospital. It’s now Monday evening, and I’m heading back there (again) to keep her company.

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It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for sleeping- or the slim possibility of swimming, if you can get your ass (and the rest of you) out of bed. Sundays are for waking up late, and recognizing that it will be after morning when the wedding starts. Sundays might possibly be for tracing circuits into your body– but I might be misreading that. Sundays could be for brunch with your parents. Sundays? Sundays are for NFL, baby.

This week… the world’s continued existence continued. Given that there are over 6.7 billion human beings on Earth, over a dozen ongoing wars being waged by humans, and an escalating economic crisis, it seems almost cruel to say that “nothing happened this week”. Yet it seems fair to say that the most significant happenings this week were that things failed to change.

Imagine for a moment that Sony deliberately does something that causes you= and a million other people- $30 worth of problems. Nothing criminal. Just a breach of contract. Your only recourse is to sue. But… who sues for $30? Not only that, but no lawyer is going to be willing to work for 10% of $30. The other alternative is to band together with those million other people and sue for $30 X 1,000,000. There are many lawyers willing to take a case that might get them a $3,000,000 payday. This is the problem that “tort reform” aims to solve. This is why Sony will no longer do business with anyone who doesn’t agree to give up their right to a class action lawsuit. Sony isn’t alone.

Until I saw this map, I didn’t realize that “river” was a regionalism.

One of the ironies of poverty: being poor is expensive. Money costs money to borrow, and the more likely a person is to repay that money, the less money they will be charged for it. America used to have laws against usury, but the supreme court basically repealed them back in 1978. Indeed, merely beleving that it was just to charge interest was enough to cause someone to be sent to hell. In these enlightened times, access to capital is seen as a paramount virtue. Remember kids: it’s only class warfare when the poor fight back.

There are some very rich people who have done nothing with their money. Some of them, like Steve Jobs, are hardware/software computer people. I bet one of them could design, engineer, and replicate enough total immersion driving simulators to let every 16-18 year old in America experience real-world driving conditions in a totally safe environment.

One of the most pernicious lies about racism, is that someone isn’t a racist if they’re not a member of the Klan. Lets be clear: the prosecutor who asked a jury to kill a man for being black is racist. Each of the 12 people on the jury who agreed? Racist. The judge who didn’t declare the argument inadmissible? racist. And if Rick Perry isn’t willing to everything he can to keep this one man from being murdered by the state of Texas… well. He’s either racist, or a murder-happy clown.

Knock knock, mother fucker.

The problem with journalism- any kind of journalism- is that no one knows how to make money off it. It is incredibly difficult to prove to people that the work a journalist is doing is worth paying for. And there is so much good, free, stuff online that even consuming the best of that would be a full time job. If I knew the answer to this problem… you’d see me making a living out of posting to this blog.

USA USA USA

The goal of terrorism is right there in the name. People with grievances and without political power use fear to force the powerful to change behavior. Ali couldn’t match Foreman punch for punch. Instead he forced Foreman to uselessly expend a lot of energy, and waited for a mistake. The terrorists won. We’re terrified. America may have killed Bin Laden, but not before he forced America to commit suicide.

Perhaps there was once a golden era where Labor was so strong that it could force management to pay more than was reasonable, and give other perks besides. Today, workers fight for what our ancestors fought for: a living wage, and working conditions that won’t kill you. The alternative to labor unions is depending on noblesse oblige– the French Revolution taught the world the inevitable result of that.

Retro cred locavore ethical aliqua.

The recurring theme of Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me is that history books are terrified of presenting anything but the “Great Man” theory of history. America had a problem, a Great Man came along and whacked it down. We never get the sense that mass action is required for mass changes. Likewise: all problems are presented as having been solved. The past will never have been as perfect as history books suggest.

Most dudes I know have never been taught how to dress themselves. Here are 25 basic rules. Print them out and read them. Print them out and give them to a dude.

Sadly, this invisibility cloak can’t (yet!) be fitted into an actual cloak.

The framers of the US constitution realized that it is necessary for someone to do the unpleasant job of wielding power. They also realized that power tends to corrupt. so they designed a system by which everyone would closely monitor the people holding power. Modern American police seem to believe that they ought to be above checks having their power monitored. This scares me.

I ought to hit up this bar…

Having a brain that’s wired differently than standard can be a major pain in the ass. I can only imagine what it would be like to watch a child- whom you love- grow up… different.

From Labor’s point of view, the recession started in 2001. It’s been a decade since Labor had any security in income, or personal welfare. Our safety net has seemingly shrunk in proportion to the need for it. Naturally, reporting this story is seen as class warfare.

Intellectual Property trolls do more than keep Joss Whedon from making a Star Wars movie. They can also condemn millions to death.

The worst thing you will read all week. America is busy treating its Muslim population the way Al Quadea wants America to treat its Muslim population.

If you click only one link:

If any of these stories has moved you. If you’ve ever chucked knowingly at the line “It’s only class warfare when the poor fight back”, pick up your fucking phone and call your god damned congressional representatives. Be polite. But read that link and then make a note to call first thing Monday morning. And then make that call. First thing Monday morning.

This week’s theme has been not being able to get the hang of Thursdays. So: in the comments below, tell me about your favorite kitty adventures.

Tags: Sunday by Punning Pundit
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Because I hate you.

It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for Football. Sundays are for Dim Sum. Sundays might be for weddings. Perhaps your Sunday will be spent at a Renaissance Faire. Sundays might be for contemplation of the misery of success. Or perhaps Sundays just might be for playing games and avoiding the media.

This week, one of my sisters bolted from the west Coast of North America in favor of the West Coast of Africa. This week the Israeli embassy in Egypt was overrun by protesters. Even more depressingly, this week, a ferry boat sank of the coast of Zanzibar, over a hundred are confirmed dead. And the US President gave a speech this week in which he talked about wanting to restimulate the economy.

The biggest objection to another economic stimulus package is paying for it. This is a fair objection in the long run- buying stuff is definitionally not free. Except that right now, investors are literally willing to pay the US government for the right to lend the US government money. We have the opportunity to pay nothing for a bunch of much-needed infrastructure. Building that infrastructure now would put millions of Americans to work. Let’s do this.

The 5 most livable cities on Earth.

There are two main ways an economy can go bad. The most common way is for consumers to not have enough money to buy things, thus destroying demand. Alternately, consumers could have lots of money to buy things, but no one has incentives to make things for them- thus destroying supply. In America, Republicans are insisting that the only economic solutions they’re willing to contemplate are the ones that would work if the average American had a lot of money in their pocket, but no goods to buy. Yeah. Crazy.

A couple days ago I wrote a post where I admitted to engaging in a perfectly legal form of tax evasion. The State of California has won a battle against Amazon, hoping to end that sort of tax scamming. It’s one thing to argue that taxes ought to be lower. Another thing to argue that taxes ought not exist. But having agreed that they are at a certain level, exempting whole categories of shops from collecting them seems immoral at best.

The next time I’m cursed to be in Columbus Ohio, I’m doing this.

The art of making propaganda posters has atrophied. Propaganda films have gotten better. Propaganda social media has sprung into existence. Sadly, no one wants to blanket cities with posters of exhortations anymore.

I live in San Francisco, in a house built in 1927. That makes my home very old- for San Francisco. That’s not to say that we’re a young city. Some of our political divisions hearken all the way back to the 1980s! The whole Kentish Man/Man of Kent division is utterly outside my ability to comprehend.

I prefer the term “gender essentialist” to “sexist”. It neatly deflects the “but women have virtue [X], and that makes them better!” argument. Also: anyone claiming that women aren’t competitive has never gotten to know a woman.

Zombies. Zombies never change. That’s not true at all. But our fascination with them seems to be constant. It probably has to do with our society’s terror over it’s own extinction.

I know that I’m a down the line Democrat. Whichever candidate has the “D” next to their name will be the one to get my vote. The frightening thing is that the fact that the party says something makes me more likely to believe it. I’d like to think that we follow the same axioms to the same place. Available evidence argues otherwise.

It certainly fits my biases to believe that Republicans are deliberately destroying the institutions of the American government. I would love to demonize my political opponents that way. I really do think the they’re acting in the worst impulses of the American political tradition. I cannot, however, bring myself to agree with the former Republican party operative who says the exact things I think. Much as I want to.

On the 10th Anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it’s a good time to reflect on what we’ve lost. Those 3000 lives stolen in an act of mass murder weren’t the worst casualty of the attack. Rather, I’d argue, our biggest loss was the sense that we’d rather die than allow the government to take naked pictures of us. We haven’t merely seen an explosion of public security, but private contractors operating in America for private interests. Armed private security officers police private buildings. Small grade mercenaries prowl America’s streets, malls, and offices. That’s what it looks like to give in to terror.

Did everyone know that carrots weren’t always orange? Seems that Dutch genetic engineers created the orange carrot to honor the man who lead their independence movement.

Terror. It can be used for good or ill. Back in the 1960s, America was terrified of the Soviet Union. As a result, we invested in a program that brought us cell phones, Velcro, and a thousand other technologies.

Undershirts. For guys. There are rules. I’ve never really known the rules, and have been searching for a good way to learn them. And now I know.

The American Civil War was brutal. It may well be the case that it lasted “until every drop of blood drawn with the lash [was] paid by another drawn with the sword”. Certainly it devastated the areas in which it was fought. When I read about the lives of slaves, and how essential the peculiar institution had become to the Southern economy, I cannot help but feel that “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Sundays are for comics.

Instead publishing my comments on this link, I’ve sent it off to a company I’m applying to work at. I hope they think I’m a smart guy. Short version: Games publishers should become more like book publishers and less like movie publishers.

Cats plus puns equals link bait.

If you click just one link:

How should people with disabilities be portrayed in pop culture?

This week’s theme was… you tell me.

Tags: Sunday by Punning Pundit
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Style and dance.

It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for laboring, that others might celebrate the decline of organized labor. Sunday is for introducing her to your family. Sunday is for enjoying a last few hours with a sister is who is off to visit Europe indefinitely. Sundays might perhaps be for unpacking, playing video games and having potential visit with your in-law’s apparent.

This week: The Libyan war continued. The US congress got into a pissing match with the US President. Also this week: Japan held elections and found itself a new Prime Minister. Also Also: The US asked Palestinians to delay a vote in the UN over Palestinian statehood- We’ll see how that goes next month.

Perhaps growing up watching Star Trek made me into a one-world guy at heart. One of the things I’ve never really understood is the right-wing fear of the United Nations. Their mission is nothing less than solving common human problems for the betterment of human society. Yes, it’s a flawed organization- we’re a flawed species. Perhaps it’s time the UN got some muscle.

What if you wanted to drink coffee, but absolutely could not stomach the sugar needed to make it palatable? What if you were a mad scientist? Fortunatly, that happened to Funranium, and we can all enjoy the flavor of his grind. For right now, there’s a coupon. Enjoy it!

I’ve written a bit before about Gramsci’s bi-level approach to propaganda. On one level, you need someone speaking to the masses. On the other level, you need the elite talking to themselves. When the elite start contradicting themselves, useful memes die a painful death. And so does America.

The point of science is to form a better picture of reality by creating testable predictions and discovering whether they’re falsifiable. This means that a good scientist will question everything. Sometimes, the pursuit of knowledge can be a bit undignified. Society ought not scoff at the people working diligently to figure out how dirty we can make water before the food supply dies. No matter how silly their testing methods might sound.

Consider this your weekly reminder that “race” is a social construction. At this point in human history, it is a dangerous one. Let’s work hard to get past it.

Back in 2009, Barack Obama took office, and had almost enough votes to get bills past the Senate. Unfortunately, the Senate isn’t a game of horseshoes, and so the stimulus bill that Democrats were able to pass wasn’t nearly big enough. It was, however, a smashing success. Now, however, it has run out. And the economy is beginning to falter.

Imagine you’re standing around, and you notice that someone has just had a heart attack. Fortunately, there’s a defibrillator nearby. Obviously you grab it, shout “clear!”, and use the thing on the person. If the first shock doesn’t do the trick, you use it again- perhaps upping the amperage. What you most certainly do not do is claim that pushing a pillow over his face is the key to reviving him. This, of course, is an analogy for the US economy. Republicans are holding the pillow. We voted them into office…

One upon a time, there was a bill that would force lenders to accept lowering of interest rates. This was deemed too friendly to citizens, not not friendly at all to banks. And so it was written that the legislation did not pass. And so citizens are still left holding the entire burden of paying off a debt they’re not wholly responsible for creating. And so demand ceases to exist until that debt is paid off. And so the economy lags. And lags. And lags.

In order to create demand, people need money to spend. In order for people to spend money, they need jobs. The US has plenty of stuff that absolutely needs doing. What we lack is a political class willing to contemplate paying for it. Lack of demand caused by will, rather than ability.

Court was actually ok with this proposal, once they realized the defendant didn’t say wombat.

A customer yesterday asked if our company was unionized. This literally startled a laugh out of me. Our severs make minimum wage, and I’ve seen many instances of employees being told to work off the clock. When I mention to my coworkers that management is making illegal demands on them, they look horrified “I’d rather work off the clock than get fired”. But remember: management and individual workers are co-equal negotiators in the labor market.

This is a great argument in favor of a new, higher, tax bracket and increased marginal tax rates on the [new] top tiers.

One of the things that seems to make VALVe a great company is that they seem to hire people who actively enjoy their work. There is a whole lot of low-level grunt work involved in making a complex computer program, and it doesn’t sound like they hire anyone specifically to do it. I don’t think this is the sort thing that could be implemented at every company, but it does explain why VALVe products are fairly uniformly top notch.

Unlike “race”, gender and orientation do seem to be inherent factors in humans. The Boy Scouts don’t seem to care. Perhaps that’s why they’re increasingly irrelevant.

This is Facebook in a nutshell. They roll out a new privacy policy, which offers the illusion of privacy. In reality, it seems to strip even more privacy from their users. Fantastic.

The America right wing genuinely, honestly, totally believes that when the non-rich vote in their own interests, it’s unamerican. But It’s Only Class Warfare When the Poor Fight Back.

Keeping the non-rich from voting isn’t merely a belief held by the right– it’s a Republican strategy. It took me several months on the ground in Ohio to convince folks that their votes would actually be counted in 2008. And it’s taken the Republican party months more to undo my work. I guess if they believed in democracy, they’d be Democrats.

How bad is the disaster? This is a testament to the strength of Waffle House’s supply chain.

At one point Marvel was so badly mismanaged that they couldn’t turn a huge lead in market share into a better deal on printing and ink. From a consumer point of view, this is wonderful. From a stockholder perspective, this would be infuriating. It should also be cause to doubt the theory that the mega rich are just smarter than the average person.

Starz had a deal with Sony to kill it’s deal with Netflix if streaming got too popular. This deal makes total sense for a company hell-bent on self destruction. Shrink the audience for your product so that you can collect less revenue. Perhaps they think they can offset the costs by firing accountants? Obviously the winners in this deal are the pirates– a few more people seeding stolen Sony movies on Bittorent will make their downloads even faster.

Elephants.

As a straight, cis, white, dude; I might choose to be ashamed of George W. Bush. The former President and current douchebag fits all of those same descriptors. And yet most people look at the former President and choose not to blame his orientation, gender, gender presentation, or ethnicity for his many failings as a human being and President. Generally speaking, straight people, cis people, white people, and male people are allowed to succeed and fail without anyone really noting these descriptors. Which is why we can look at this letter as an artifact of a sexist society. These ladies certainly have their hearts in the right place, and I don’t mean to seem like I’m calling them out. But it’s worth noting that they needn’t have taken the on burden of speaking for 51% of the human species.

It wouldn’t be Sunday sans Comic.

If you read just one link:

Fred Clark reviews a book.

This week’s theme has been labor and it’s discontents. In the comments section, leave a note about when you first realized that something was happening, but you didn’t know what it was.

Nerd Alert!

Tags: Sunday, Uncategorized by Punning Pundit
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Rotate it!

It’s Sunday Morning. Sundays are for Cleaning playing Batman as soon as you get home and can tear yourself away from Catan on your phone. Or Sundays might be for having brunch with a good friend sleeping in. Sundays are occasionally for looking forward to live-altering surgeries. Though perhaps Sundays are for recursively reflecting on the sentence you’re reading right now and wondering how I knew that you’d be recursively reading this sentence. And then cursing again.

This week: The US pushed back the clock on financial Armageddon by setting off a large nuclear warhead in it’s economy. Also this week: the American political world acted surprised by the fallout from this self-inflicted attack. Also: NASA sent some legos to Jupiter. Also also: tens of thousands of Verison workers went on strike.

Let’s start this Sunday off with a Hymn. There’s only one that you ever need to know, and it goes like this Boom De Yata

I almost think this comic was written by someone who knows me.

Over the past several years, many of my fellow progressives have been demanding that President Obama stop being so damned nice, and start going on a left wing tear that will utterly transform America. He can’t. Much as I use the first person when speaking of progressives, most of the country– most of the Democratic party– doesn’t. The failure for this lays strictly with those of us in the progressive community. It is our job to convince people that we’re right. It’s Obama’s job to get away with as much as he can get away with.

The fastest way to piss me off is to express the view that humans are evil, stupid, or in some other way deficient. My general sense is that no matter how odd a tradition might look to an outsider, it’s probably got a very good reason to continue being celebrated.

One of the scarier parts of being an American at the dawn of the 21st century is how badly messed up our system of governance is. I honestly can’t think of a single piece of infrastructure that doesn’t need fixing. Our roads? In need of repair. Congress? People have been advocating that the president become a dictator because Congress is so bad. Our system of promoting the useful arts and science is doing the opposite.

One of the scarier parts of our Intellectual property laws is the way that it inhibits or prohibits anyone other than the Rights Holder from preserving shared cultural heritage. With the current version of IP laws, the Christian Bible couldn’t have been written. The paper would have literally rotted to nothing before anyone would have been allowed to hand copy it.

Tom Lehrer gave up satire because reality was outpacing his cynicism.

In some very real sense, I simply am Punning Pundit. It’s a name I use everywhere; I respond to it when shouted. I do use my own birth name– I have a small bit of bemused pride at having come from a line of men with my same name. Not everyone is so lucky. For some people the ability to hide their real names is a matter of life and death.

Spider man? He wears a mask because he catches criminals just like flies. Also: He’s a young black/Latino man. Or, rather, he will be going forward. The fact that superhero ethnicity is so plastic is a huge sign of how far things have come.

There are certain things that everyone “just knows” about how ridiculous certain events are. For instance: the lady who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonalds. Or Van Halen’s bowl of Brownless M&M. The thing that everyone “just knows” about both of those stories is wrong.

Epic headlines.

Congress passes a lot of laws. Most of them are actually fairly pointless, but every now and then they do important work. Sadly, though, congresspeople are human- and so laws have unintended consequences

In serious onion news, labor won the right to collectively bargain against capital- an entity that always bargains collectively in it’s own interests. Remember kids: you don’t have to write for free, work for cheep, or fight alone. Only your enemies want you to.

Maybe if DC writers were unionized, they’d have a better understanding of how to treat their female characters. Probably not. But the work environment for their female staff might be less hostile.

Bob Dylan once said that “Money Doesn’t Talk, it Swears“. More importantly, I think, is that money makes politicians swear fealty. This can actually be good- I feel very comfortable helping city council members swear that they’ll stand up for the iron worker’s union. And if a state legislator kneels before the Chamber of Commerce, I want to know that, too. This new ability for unlimited bribery where only the recipient and giver know who’s interests are being served, though, is scary.

This story line needs a small amendment: 2009: progressives give up on Obama.

Sometime before humanity settled down into villages, we traded genetic evolution for memetic evolution. We humans haven’t reached the top of the food pyramid by being fast, strong, or sharp-clawed. Instead, we’re smart and inventive. Memetic evolution, though is as path-dependent as it’s meat-based counterpart. I wonder what sorts of advancements we would have made had we taken a very small left turn down some other technological path?

My argument is invalid

I’m not merely a gamer, I’m a PC gamer. Not for any reasons of snobbery, but I simply spend most of my time in front of the PC and so it makes sense that I’d game there as well. For some reason, big lable game developers hate me. Which is a weird way to try and get my money.

To summarize points 1-4: Don’t be a dick. Which reminds me: I need to write a post about how to insult people.

If you click just one link:

Beta Earth.

This week’s theme was a short prayer for the zombie Apocalypse. It might actually be the only thing that saves the economy. In the comments, let me know if you read this weekly missive for my writing, or for the links themselves.

Maybe you’re a shitty cameraman, I don’t know!

Tags: Sunday, Uncategorized by Punning Pundit
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