Missin' Mitt

Remember this guy?! Probably not. He was so stereotypically rich and bland and forgettable I can't blame you if he has already exited your memory. Here's some reminders.

It's Mexican Mitt! Fun fact - Mitt really is a bit Mexican, though of course he could not advertise that fact to his fungal based supporters. This pic was one of the glories of the campaign - Mitt on Telemundo, heavy on the tan spray.

Gosh, we never did get to see those taxes, did we?

Another fun fact! Mitt did not write a concession speech - as it was beyond conception that he would lose! Really, he believed that. His whole staff believed that, apparently. For example, Mitt made no travel plans back from his "victory party", assuming the Secret Service would take care of it for him. But the minute he lost, poof! No more Secret Service, and Mitt had to have Tagg or Track or Tacoma (his son) drive him to one of his homes. Oh, sweet schadenfreude - consider it! He sincerely, absolutely believed he was going to win, even though all the polls and all the evidence said otherwise.

Two days after the election, back in Cali (where he really lives), pumping his own gas. Sweet, sweet schadenfreude.

Romney-Ryan 2012 Campaign summary.

Yay! Free shirts!

Another's Newscaster

Flat Stanley is giving the sports from a stump in the middle of my frozen stream. Here's the rest of the winter news to come:

Both pics redshirt originals, unlike most pictures posted here.

Connecticut, O Connecticut

For shame, Connecticut. For shame. Are you not of New England? Do you not understand our allegiance?

W is for victory! An amazing 21st century turnaround for the Boston Red Sox. 86 years of frustration wiped clean by 12 years of Championships. The Curse has become the douchebag fan that everyone hates.

Sully! Murph! We rule!

CHILDREN, HEAH!

"CHILDREN for sale! Get your fresh CHILDREN, HEAH!"

"Hey! Dude! 4 CHILDREN UP HEAH!"

"4 CHILDREN coming up!"

"42.50 buddy!"

To Beat and Repress

Wingnuts would defend it, of course. "Shouldn't be in a riot, anyways!"

Your crime is being present. GUILTY!
But let us remember that whatever happens outside of American borders is of no consequence.

700+ people died at a sweat shop dedicated towards producing crap at Wal-Mart. Big whoop!

4 people are killed by some douchebag's cry for help:

And the Imperial Army is forcing Afghani kids to hold up signs commemorating "our loss".

Fair and balanced, you see.

To Serve and Protect

I must confess to being conflicted regarding the end game of the Boston Marathon bombing. First, let me make clear I harbor no confusion regarding the bombers themselves - evil deeds done for whatever reason are evil, and must be stopped/prevented. There's no gray area here. However, what has given me some pause is the police response.

First! I think the BPD and all involved agencies did a fantastic job in a difficult situation, and the same can be said for the local elected officials. That said, I've long bemoaned the militarization of the police, and you could see this militarization to clear affect during this past week:

This militarization comes from two "Wars": The so called "Drug War" and "The War on Terror". Each of which is in essence a tool for the powerful to control the powerless. The Drug War is especially pernicious, and was the genesis for the militarization of police forces across America. The WoT greatly added to this trend. And now we have both big and little cities with what are essentially armies, as police forces. In this particular example, it was beneficial, given the bombs.

And again, I've got no issue with the police actions of the past week. But this highlights the inherent contradiction.

Indeed, the police protect us from crazed individuals like these bombers, from psychopaths, from wacked out killers, from rapists, etc. It's necessary for a functioning society. On the other hand, the police also enforce the will of The Powers That Be. And so OWS protests will get smashed. Political protestors will get penned in and arrested. Random innocent folks will get their doors smashed in because the police think there's a drug dealer living there.

In a formula: "To Serve" - the Authorities. "To Protect" - the people. I'm for the latter, against the former. I'm anti-authoritarian, in all forms. Thus, my conflict.

And to end on a downer, as I'm wont, I ALWAYS find flag waving to be disconcerting. It's too tribal, and the only Tribe I belong to is "Matter in this Universe". Represent! However, it's hard to get upset with images like this:

Asian college students with an American flag posing with joyous (non-militarized) cops. Incredible. However, let us not mistake this:

As little more than college students finding a good reason to go party on the streets. It's justified in this case, no doubt, but oh-so closely related to the parties that happen after sports championships.

All that said, here's one image that fuses everything I was just trying to lay out:

A militarized police officer delivering milk to a family with kids trapped in their house during lockdown. Amazing.

I'll confess further, all this has left me confused.

Asymmetry

Incredibly, the entire metro area of Boston was on lockdown all day. No public transport, no cabs, no one supposed to go to work or go to school, no one supposed to leave their homes. Why? Because of two men.

This asymmetry intrigues/disturbs/bothers me. I'm not passing judgement on the actions taken by officials in Mass, but rather simply remarking on the imbalance of it all. Two men hold close to a million hostage in their homes.

Ever hear of the "80-20 Rule"? Also known as the Pareto Principle, it was first articulated for business concerns, but since has been found to apply in a wide variety of situations. To wit - 80% of the effects are caused by 20% of the agents. IE, 80% of crime is caused by 20% of the population. Or 80% of a company's profits are generated by 20% of their customers. I've long held that 80% of litter is generated by 20% of folks.

And so on. Asymmetry. Imbalance. It creates a condition where a general population can live in fear even though the vast majority of them are law abiding.

As here.

I'm not proposing anything by the way, except for the advice I've found holds true in 99% of situations: While you can rarely change reality, you can change your perception of reality.

We don't have anything to be afraid of, in other words. And yet, so much fear.

Too Soon

I've been making 9-11 jokes for years, so how can I not drop a Boston terrorist joke? Here you are - it's mild. For it is too soon, but. BUT! Hear me!

While I have a lot of personal association with this event (from afar), and it is tragic for the people directly and a bit less directly affected (unlike you and me far away from this event, watching on TV, or reading on the Net), I refuse to EVER be terrorized. As we all should. And that's what this clearly was - an act of terrorism. As almost all bombings are. Cowardly stabs at the heart of decent society. Which is 97 or so % of us. Here's what I say to terrorism:

Fuck off!

The real power of terrorism, however, is not in the numbers of people killed and maimed in the terrorist attack, but in the reaction. The people who become afraid, distrustful, fearful. The powerful who use these emotions to become more powerful. The innocent caught up in waves of xenophobia. The Patriot Act. The invasion of Iraq. Color coded "TERROR ALERTS". Etc. This is the real damage of terrorism, and we directly control it, in a democracy.

It's psychological. The dramatics of it, the random suddeness of it, the cruelty of it, scars the mind/soul, and it takes far greater significance in people's minds. For example, fear of sharks. Very, very few people are actually killed/hurt by sharks in any given year, but the fear is palpable. And just so - relative to the total population of America, very, very few people are killed or injured in terrorist attacks in any given year. Compared to, oh say just for another example:

Gun deaths, whether by homicide, suicide, or accident. Fun fact! Your odds of dying by gun go up substantially the minute you buy/obtain your first gun. And yet just today in America our Congress voted down any attempt to strengthen the logical background check procedure for gun purchases. Why? Politics and power.


People are making money off gun sales - that's a big portion of the reason for our country's insanity. And it's not really that big money, but they've got a good lobby (NRA) and so, we die every day. Because it's the power behind the topic - the political power of divide and conquer - that ensures that for now, no sanity will be forthcoming. We will keep dying for reasons we could prevent/minimize, but won't. And the Right Wingers among us will in fact enflame.

Thus, here in America, the reaction to this:

The cold blooded murder of Kindergartners, is this:

Wingnut training squads, completely unlicensed and unregistered except of course by their own phony institutions and camps.

Whilst a large percentage of the country goes into a froth over a couple of high end pipe bombs.

I'm sorry if you're offended, but our priorities are fucked up.

Come Together

It's heartening to see people come together in times of tragedy and loss.

It's sad that it takes such tragedies to bring people together in such visible ways. Shouldn't we be together - all of us, all people - all the time?

Maybe sometime in the future.

Everyday heroes

My thoughts are with all those affected by today's bombing in Boston. No idea who's responsible at this time, but it doesn't matter. I'm proud of the responses of all the people at the scene - for every act of terror there are hundreds if not thousands of heroes.

Now's not the time for fear

What a delightful photoshop! And such a delectable pun! Bane.

Bain Capital is where Mitt made the majority of his bones, leveraging troubled companies to squeeze every sweet dollar out of them before shutting them down or re-organizing them as something much worse than before. Vampire capitalism, preying on the old and weak.

Bane: "A person or thing that ruins or spoils.". Bain has become one of Mitt's banes, and to think it was supposed to be one of his notable achievements! But he has quite a few banes these days, indeed, his entire resume is a bane he pretends to shed whenever possible, but how can one rid one's self of the very things one touts as reason to be the most powerful man in the world? Mitt can't talk up Bain, can't talk up his Governorship of MA, can't talk up his high standing in the Mormon Church, and no longer can talk up his "saving" of the Winter Olympics (cuz it was saved with sweet, sweet free taxpayer money). It's incredible, really. Flabbergasting that this man is running for President! I thank FSM for such a gift.

And finally, Bane: Villain in the latest Batman movie. An intriguing villain. I liked the movie, but wasn't crazy about it. It also seems to have exited pop consciousness remarkably fast, which is never good these days. I really dug the jacket above, and wait to see if an internet prediction comes true: That style jacket will be "a thing" this winter. I doubt it, but we shall see if pop consciousness has forgotten Bane, or not.

A political pop consciousness thing: Dogs against Romney. If you hadn't heard, one day way back when Mitt regaled a reporter in Boston with a homespun, down to salt of the earth tale of the family vacation in the old roadster, driving to Canada. He kept his dog, Seamus, in a cage tied to the roof for the trip, even after he got sick and shit everywhere - never fear! Mitt hosed it all away and resumed the trip, Seamus still roof-bound. Egads, right? Funniest thing is Mitt told this tale as if it were a heartwarming anecdote, a sure fire way to connect to "The Common Man". Oh, Mitt!  Read all about it here.

Oh Mitt, you cad! Have you heard about all the funny pranks young Mitt used to pull? Pretending to be a State Trooper? Shaving a hippy? Protesting FOR the Vietnam War, then heading to France on a Mormon mission (the phrase you're looking for is "Greg Marmalard)? As you can see, Mitt's got character in spades! Character plus experience equals the best President Amercia can buy!

LOL. What's been even more hilarious is how awful Mitt's campaign has been. Chock a'block with stupid mistakes - like misspelling "America" in the campaign app. I mean, c'mon! It's Palinesque! And there's been dozens of mistakes like this, and worse.

It's a 'shop, actually, but that doesn't matter anymore. "The Stench" has become the caricature, because Mitt Romney IS a living caricature.

Momjeans = common touch! LOL.

Man of the people indeed.

I almost feel sorry for Mitt, because in a sane world he'd be a decent candidate - he's certainly got the hair for it. But this is not a sane world, not the Repuglican side of it anyways, and thus Mitt is forced to be insane (if he's not truly - who knows with a robot?), and by being insane, and no good at it, he's guaranteed to lose. Catch 22, Willard! You're caught in a trap and there's no way out.

Thank FSM again! While I think Barack Obama has done a FANTASTIC job in his first term, I grant that Fox Nation has done an equally good job in laying the FUDD so thick that many think he's done poorly. And so if there were a solid Repuglican candidate this year, they would have had a good chance of unseating President Obama. Alas and bless Shesah, Mitt is the candidate instead, and he's terrible, and yet still the best of that rotted bunch. Which tells you all you need to know about the state of the Repuglican Party today: Rotten.

These Modern Times

Traffic jams in Boston, man. Brutal. I got a bad case of the Road Rage and I don't know what to do about it - nothing works! MAN!

Our modern times have imprisoned us, in jobs, on roads, in houses. For the vast majority of human existence we were nomads, moving about - and free to do so. But this is no longer the case, for there's no where to go. We're everywhere. And thus psychosis - paranoia, anxiety, depression, etc. We're actively working against our nature.

But also, becoming something new. There's bound to be birth pangs. And lots of anger.

Pioneer, our immortality

Say hello to the piece of art - the poem, the story, the epic of us - that will last the longest of any piece of art. In fact, it's likely to last far longer than humanity itself. The Pioneer Plaque, conceived and implemented by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake (of the famous Drake Equation:

It looks wicked complicated, doesn't it? But it's not really - look it up. This is not the place for equations!).

Anyways, look:

The plaque is made of solid gold, and was mounted on the inside of Pioneer's legs, in order to protect it from the solar wind and space dust. For reals - it's abrasive! Anything is, really, over millions of years.

There's the story, by the way. Designed to relay as much information about humanity and Earth as possible in such a small space. Also to note - the size of the spacecraft on the right is proportional to the size of the naked humans.

Imagine! Can you imagine NASA trying to send an image of naked people to space today? Ah, how we've progressed. Anywho:

Mr. Sagan with the actual plaque, in front of Boston City Hall, beautiful monstrosity that it is. I used to smoke cigarettes to the way back right there, and I've previously posted this picture:

This wondrous display of FREEDOM! takes place on the right of City Hall above, and that's the Old State Building at the end of this corridor, which, hilariously, was the scene of the BOSTON MASSACRE, featuring the wonderfully named Crispus Attucks - the first "martyr" of the Revolution. Ironic, right?

Anyways, now that I type this all up - nicely, I think :) - I realize I might have done a similar post many, many years ago. And while I certainly strive not to repeat any pictures, ever, unless for effect, in this case, what the heck! Behold the glory that is dialectic free association. Man.