Today, we seek to answer a nagging question: Is anyone reading this blog besides me? If so, kindly click "make a comment" and type in anything, like qwedflb.

Thank you for your assistance.

Today's minimal contribution is to observe yet another low point in the collapse of Western Civilization...a new reality show that gives winning participants the chance to be a porn star.


That's even worse than Pokemon meets Jesus.

Gosh, this positive thinking thing is hard!

Ever read the book?

Written by George Orwell and published in 1948 (which anagrammed date is how the book was named), it foretold a chilling new world with a totalitarian government and gave us the enduring term "Big Brother." Among its disturbing prophecies:

Winston Smith was a bureaucrat whose job was to rewrite history on a daily basis, removing items the government didn't like and dumping them down the "memory hole."


The government derived its total power by waging eternal war against a nebulous and shifting enemy.

Personal privacy was nonexistent.

Works of art which did not glorify the State were destroyed.

The public was encouraged to focus their hatred in a particular direction.

The State manipulated language into "Newspeak" , i.e., War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, etc.

The "proles" (masses) were manipulated through Doublethink to accept these glaring contradictions.

The world created was rife with poverty and need.

No one dared speak out for fear of retribution.

Humanity lost its soul.

It was a very frightening book.

Too bad more people haven't read it.

Nothing happened today. Well, actually, too busy to a) blog or b) write a novel.
On the plus side, work is picking up, and a client today was kind enough to point out that my feng shui is intensely disfunctional. Although I am the eternal skeptic, I intend to check it out, as it seemed to ring true.

It appears that Election 2004 is going to be about The Great Homosexual Conspiracy, as far as the wingnut crowd is concerned. Poor creatures. It's not like they can focus on the Bush team's successes, can they?

We promise interesting links tomorrow.

Suffering from Third World Internet Syndrome today…my puter has lost its net connection about twelve zillion times. (exaggeration…only about 10 zillion)

Instead of procrastinating about a silly entry in a web log, today was devoted to procrastinating about a larger job. You see, I foolishly decided to try a little non-competitive competition called "NaNoWriMo", which stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you have the month of November to write a novel, good bad or indifferent. The real goal is to break your inherent reluctance to write 1,666 words a day in order to churn out some (any) kind of 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

My target yesterday was 1500 words, which was achieved. Can I do something like that every day? Obviously not.

No problem, as long as I have 5,000 words done by tomorrow.
While trying to make some freelance business happen.

Argh.

Come out and take a bow.

This is the frightening New World of 2003.

It's the world you created.

Are you happy with your work?

It's a world where, in the space of only three years, America has turned from a safe and prosperous world power into a power-mad fundamentalist rogue state willing to risk all of humankind for control of the last remaining oil and gas reserves on the planet.

It's a world where each day's news, despite being heavily controlled and processed, still brings a mind-numbing procession of unbelievable items. Like the U.S. government shipping prisoners to Egypt and Jordan for the express purpose of torture, (It's ok, it's legal there). Or the Justice department's apparent refusal to pursue the domestic source of Anthrax terrorism (it's ok, it was only directed at Democrats), or the Enron-controlled Vice President's total disdain for Congress (it's ok, it's a matter of "principle").

In this bizarre new world, the President of the United States, in exchange for suitable campaign donations, cheerfully puts timber lobbyists in charge of national forests, mining lobbyists in charge of the environment, accounting-industry lobbyists in charge of securities regulation, foxes in charge of hen houses throughout government. Welcome the deregulating Antichrist.

Our alternate reality also features an administration who thinks the best way to make America more secure is to throw out ABM treaties, resume "nuc-u-lar" testing, and threaten both enemies and friends with annihilation if they refuse to toe the U.S. line. I guess if Bush can forget that the U.S. was at war with Japan a few years ago, he's equally unaware of the horrors of nuclear weapons. Now, based on his blatant lies, we stumble through wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as we plan even more horrors for Iran and Syria.

Let's not forget the bible-thumping Crisco-anointed Attorney General who has successfully shredded American freedoms in order to protect….American freedoms. His Patriot Act II, if implemented, will be the final nail in America's coffin.

But most bizarre of all is an irresponsible president who giggles publicly about "winning the trifecta" on Sept. 11th , ignores the returning dead from Iraq, and cynically spoonfeeds the media who let him get away with it. Instead, they launch a new round of attacks on Clinton, taking the heat off their golden boy. One would think none of the mainstream media has ever read 1984 or Brave New World.


Forgive a little pop culture reference. It all resembles, to an amazing degree, the nightmare world that Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly encountered in "Back to the Future II", where his nemesis Biff Tannen obtained an almanac from the future and was able to win untold riches by predicting the outcomes of sporting events. The result was nuclear waste facilities in residential neighborhoods, a completely trashed environment, open class warfare, and a man at the top of the whole mess with unlimited and totally undeserved power.

Just like today.

Like the movie, we know exactly where our "timeline" split off into an alternate nightmarish reality. It was at 10 p.m. on December 12th, 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court took it upon itself to deliver a verdict so stupefyingly corrupt and unfair it was the equivalent of a pie in the face to 50 million American voters.

But we never consider that this mind-bending point in American history hinged on the thought processes, judicial ethics, and integrity of one man.

You.

It's amazing that you have been able to stay out of the limelight up to now, and high time you stepped forward to take credit for your creation.

Your cohorts occupied two opposing sides of this decisive moment in world history. At the culmination of the 36-day standoff in the 2000 presidential election, Justices Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas were determined to give the election to Bush at any cost, including perverting the highest court in the land by preventing the counting of votes in a presidential election.

Ginsberg, Breyer, Stevens and Souter stood on the opposite side of this abyss, fighting for a moderate decision that would allow justice to be done.

That left two conservative but supposedly "swing" voters who listened to the liberal faction's pleas for a compromise that would allow a recount under new standardized rules. Sandra Day O'Connor, who publicly indicated her disgust at the prospect of a Gore presidency, reverted to form and sided with her Conservative Brethren.

That left a 4-4 split, and you, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

It has been reported that, for a few precious hours, you truly were the swing voter who actually agonized over the final decision that delivered the presidency to the loser, but you probably had no idea how very momentous it was. Obviously, you saw Gore vs. Bush, Democrat vs. Republican, liberal vs. conservative. But so much more hung in the balance.

During this pivotal and remarkably crucial period, the future of the U.S. and the entire world teetered on the narrow fulcrum of your intellect, values, and personal ideology:

Integrity vs. unchecked corruption.
Intelligence vs. proud ignorance.
Environmentalism vs. destruction.
Diplomacy vs. power-mad brinkmanship.
Disarmament vs. unlimited nuclear proliferation.
International respect vs. pariah status.
Fiscal responsibility vs. billions in giveaways for the rich.
Peace vs. War.
Justice vs. Travesty.
Hope vs. Dread.
Liberty vs. Totalitarianism.
Democracy vs. Fascism.
Sanity vs. Madness.
Right vs. Wrong.
Good vs. Evil.

For however long it dwelt in your mind, it was easily the decision of twelve lifetimes, and you came down on the wrong side. According to some court sources, your "slow and deliberate style" worked against you, and you froze. And the world is a far worse place because of it, Justice Kennedy.

How can you sleep, knowing what you've done? One hopes you instead hear the silent screams of 224 years worth of American patriots who gave their lives at Bunker Hill or Normandy or Hamburger Hill or Lexington or Guadalcanal, bravely defending those noble American ideals that have now been lost, possibly for all time.

Perhaps history would have given you a small chance at redemption if Cheney vs. GAO had reached the Supreme Court, but our new Masters of the Universe are confident that "The Scalia Five" would help them keep their secrets anyway. Perhaps they've made room in their underground bunkers for you as they single-mindedly propel us towards Armageddon, although they seem to be concerned only with the wellbeing of the Executive Branch.

Do you and your colleagues regret setting this alternate reality into motion? And could you even stop it now if you wanted to?

This is the frightening New World of 2003.

It's the world you created.

Are you happy with your work?

It's getting very hard to try to identify the absolute nadir of modern culture...just when you think Britney and Madonna making out on TV might just be rock bottom, something else comes along to lower the bar.


Now, as a 60s/70s survivor I'm no longer on the cutting edge of modern music, so the song I heard today on the radio may not be all that new, but was certainly new to me. Unless I totally miss the irony, it was devoted to how friggin wonderful fast food is, with a hook line of :

A Pizza hut, a Pizza Hut.... Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut
Mcdonald's, McDonald's....
Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut, ..." (repeat for 5 minutes)


What a wonderful theme song for the Marching Morons. (click on Oct. 8th in the little blog-a-thon calendar at left for an explanation ) Thrumming, mindless, rhythmic nothingness. Let's just disregard how empty your life must be to write a paean to franchises. Or that people would want to hear it.


It made me want to run home and deliver Richard Thompson's "Fast Food" to the radio station, in an attempt to restore the balance of nature. Here, for your edification, is the lyric from his genius take on the same subject. Supply your own brilliant, angry guitar underneath.


"Fast Food" ©Richard Thompson


"Big mac, small mac, burger and fries

shove 'em in boxes all the same size

easy on the mustard, heavy on the sauce

double for the fat boy, eats like a horse


fry them patties and send them on through

microwave ovens gonna fry me too

can't lose my job by getting in a rage

got to get my hands on that minimum wage


Shove it in their faces, give 'em what they want

gotta make it fast, it's a fast food restaurant


shake's full of plastic, meat's full of worms

everything's zapped so you won't get germs

water down the ketchup, easier to pour on

pictures on the menu in case you're a moron


keep your uniform clean, don't talk back

blood down your shirt gonna give you the sack

sugar, grease, fats and starches

fun to dine at the golden arches


Shove it in their faces, give 'em what they want

gotta make it fast, it's a fast food restaurant


baby thrown up, booth number nine

wash it down, hose it down, happens all the time

cigarettes in the coffee, contact lens in the tea

I'd rather feed pigs than humanity


Shove it in their faces, give 'em what they want

gotta make it fast, it's a fast food restaurant"



Whew. I think I'll try and talk the station into playing it back-to-back with the other one.

Meanwhile, if you get a chance, read Fast Food Nation.

---

About that Freedom Ship. Seems as though reading more about it makes it seem a little less free....like this guy's article on how to live on a floating police state.  Of course, that's only natural, since the London Observer points out that FS will be a target for terrorists. Others question whether it's even a valid concept. Well, I still have time to think about it.

---

The world-champion spin doctors who are determined to remake a brain-dead rich frat boy into The White Knight Who Rescues the World have truly gone over the top now. In case you haven't seen this yet, Bush's photographers have evidently been directed to frame his Royal Smirkiness for maximum effect, i.e., ala' the second coming of Christ. Evidently putting his mug on Mount Rushmore wasn't enough.

Check this.

Or this.

And here's the latest example.

---

The official Bush administration's position on global warming, to date:
1) It has been thoroughly disproven as wacko environmentalist theory.
2) It requires further study, but really nothing to it.
3) It requires further study.
4) The Brits say there may be something to it, after all.

---

FInally, events in Iraq would be proceeding ever-so-more-smoothly if only the Pentagon relied on the profound military wisdom of Trent Lott, the Mississippi Hair Helmet. Like Dubya, he distinguished himself as a college cheerleader. His strategery for Iraq? "If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens."

So nice to have the adults in charge.

Note from CentCom: This video transcript is embargoed and is not approved for release, in accordance with Directive #2FKNKRAZ. Eyes only.



U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, caught by NMI outside the Pentagon today:


"Do I wish things were going better in Iraq? Certainly.



Do I wish we'd committed more troops and planned the occupation better? Of course.



Am I pissed that Bush handed authority over to Condi without talking to me? You bet.



Are the wheels coming off our little mideast warwagon? Sure seems that way.



Are we ready to extend ourselves in Syria too? I doubt it.



Is Iraq turning into a giant shitstorm that makes our whole administration look like morons? Yup.



Is Cheney's Halliburton the biggest war profiteering scheme ever? Gotta be.



Do I wish I'd kept on pushing pharmaceuticals in the private sector? Absolutely.



Am I obnoxious for asking my own questions and answering them? Yes.



Does it mean I'm losing my mind? Certainly a probabability.



If bullfrogs had wings, would they bump their asses? Don't know.



What's the difference between a duck? Don't know that either.



Will the ferb gimble Iraqi bomber staple needlenut mango? Single napalm donut.



Zooseezoosee mama hoodle? Nognog.



Yabbadabba woodle doh? Subdunnerburger......"


(at this point the Secretary was ushered off to his waiting limo)

It has been postulated that placing bottled beverages in the freezer does not cool them any quicker than placing them in the refrigerator.
Independent research recently conducted by yours truly utilizing two identical bottles of Red Stripe beer would indicate, however, that the freezer did a better job.
What might perhaps skew the data slightly is the fact that the power has been out for the last 30 minutes, so the refrigerator may be at a disadvantage.