May 2008 archive

The conspiracy is so thorough that most kids who discover it do so only by discovering internal contradictions in what they’re told. It can be traumatic for the ones who wake up during the operation. Here’s what happened to Einstein:

   Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies: it was a crushing impression. [2]

I remember that feeling. By 15 I was convinced the world was corrupt from end to end. That’s why movies like The Matrix have such resonance. Every kid grows up in a fake world. In a way it would be easier if the forces behind it were as clearly differentiated as a bunch of evil machines, and one could make a clean break just by taking a pill.

Paul Graham, from his essay Lies We Tell Kids.  The whole thing is worth reading.  Hat tip to Robin Hanson.

I’m not sure if all of you have seen George Packer’s New Yorker piece, The Fall of Conservatism.  Even though it’s datelined today, it’s been floating around the blogosphere for a couple of days now.

What struck me about it is how transparently and cynically based on greed, ignorance, racism, misogyny, bigotry, intolerance, and fear Republican.  Party.  Conservatism. is.  It is an anti-democratic in the little ‘d’ sense ideology of a sado-masochistic society where all you get is abuse and the only satisfaction you can have is in your ability to abuse others, a frantic ass chasing dance to see who you can stick the boot in before your butt is kicked.

At it’s heart is a pessimistic view that things will never again be as good as they once were, a backwards looking denial of change except for the worse.  If insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting different results as a political philosophy it is clinical.

As Packer’s interview with Buchanan shows, Republicans have been pushing the fear button really hard for a very long time now.  Communists and Crime, Guns and Gays, your life is spiraling out of control so you should hate and envy those who are different.  Why should they feel any better than you, what right do they have not to be panicing?  Conservatism is about making everyone’s life as miserable and empty as yours is.

It’s all about the self loathing.  They want to be able to express their shameful prejudices in public and force the rest of us to applaud.  They project their own base crimes and secret sins as the general human condition and it almost never occurs to them that perhaps one should aspire to better.  Instead they celebrate their coarse nature, wallowing in the nakedness and audacity of their con games, scams, and lies.

What’s more below is a few quotes that illustrate the shallowness and bankrupcy of Republican Party Conservatism.  I can only count it a good thing if the coming election reduces it to regional irrelevancy along with the 30% at the bottom of the Bell curve who still believe in phallic fairytales of American Exceptionalism.

(crossposted from Daily Kos)

George Orwell once referred to Rudyard Kipling as the “prophet of British imperialism.”  That he unquestionably was.  

Which is not to suggest that Kipling wasn’t a great writer.  He was that too.  

As Orwell wrote in this brilliant essay

Kipling is the only English writer of our time who has added phrases to the language.  The phrases and neologisms which we take over and use without remembering their origin do not always come from writers we admire.

One of Kipling’s most famous poems offers lessons to Hillary Clinton on how she ought to conduct herself as this marathon, bruising fight for the 2008 Democratic nomination draws to a close.  And the need for party unity becomes paramount to coalesce behind a once-in-a-generation candidate who is poised to succeed in the General Election in November.

The choice is obvious: either we succeed collectively or fail individually — only to see a continuation of the most destructive domestic and foreign policies in the post-WW II era.

That is simply what is at stake in this election.

After the 422 million mile journey, which took 296 days, the Phoenix Mars lander successfully landed on Mars.

During the “seven minutes of terror,” NASA Scientists waited anxiously for communications that the craft had landed safely. The Phoenix Mars Lander has the same design as the Mar’s Polar Lander which crashed while landing near the south pole in 1999.

Mission Control Room During the Landing

On Phoenix, a robotic arm with a scoop at the end will dig into the permafrost terrain into the ice. Instruments on the spacecraft included a small oven that will heat the scooped-up dirt and ice to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Analyzing the vapors will provide information of the minerals, and that will, in turn, provide clues about whether the ice ever melted and whether this region was habitable for life.

“We see Phoenix as a stepping stone to future investigations of Mars,” said Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona, the principal investigator of the mission.

NYT

First time ever photos from this part of Mars are expected to arrive within about an hour.

[Update] The first photos are in! Click here to go to the NASA website to view the images

Four Tops

Baby, I Need your Loving

As most of you know who have read some of my diaries and comments, we are in Chapter 13 and in a battle with WaMu, our lender to keep our home. This has been quite the adventure and a real eye opener. When our problems with WaMu started in the fall of 2006 we were pretty sure we weren’t the only ones, fact is we aren’t, but we also had no idea and my guess is neither do you. Follow me below the fold for a sneak peek into Mortgage Lenders REAL dirty secret, the one that is more dangerous and pervasive than sub-prime loans.