Entries from October 2008 ↓

What the heck. It’s the only part of the holiday I like.

Rob Zombie - “Demonoid Phenomenon”

(There’s a better video over at YouTube, but it can’t embed. Damnit)

Black Sabbath - “Black Sabbath”

Robert Johnson - “Hellhound On My Trail”. If you aren’t familiar with the legend of Robert Johnson, it’s a great Halloween story. He met the Devil at a crossroads in Mississippi, and sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play the guitar. The song “Crossroads” tells the story.

UPDATE: There’s nothing particularly scary about this one, except perhaps for how serious Manson seems to take himself. It is kind of scary, though, because this is what many right-wingers think of when they think of liberals. This is Marilyn Manson’s “Irresponsible Hate Anthem”, one of the best song titles ever.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

What the heck. It’s the only part of the holiday I like.

Rob Zombie - “Demonoid Phenomenon”

(There’s a better video over at YouTube, but it can’t embed. Damnit)

Black Sabbath - “Black Sabbath”

Robert Johnson - “Hellhound On My Trail”. If you aren’t familiar with the legend of Robert Johnson, it’s a great Halloween story. He met the Devil at a crossroads in Mississippi, and sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play the guitar. The song “Crossroads” tells the story.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

Courtesy of Neil, I decided to click the link and check things out. The “logic” here escapes me. The writer puts up some anecdotes, without links so one doesn’t know if they actually happened, or were pulled fully-formed from his ass. Yet, somehow, I am trying to figure out how it is intolerant to tell children that families headed by same-sex couples are . . . what? Not families? The alternative seems to be that we either don’t mention the fact that some people live in different types of households, or we actively teach hatred.

What, exactly, is the point of all this?

When Prop 8 fails, and when Protection of Marriage Act is repealed, I am so divorcing my wife and going to find a guy to shack up with. Why? Just to prove Neil and the rest of these wackos right.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

ER provides links to a smorgasbord of stupid from some of the smallest minds on the right. What is most fun about these links? Why, you get to see just how silly and irrelevant the hard right has become. They are so unimaginative, they can only come up with nonsense to attempt to smear Sen. Obama - and often it is nonsense that has been repeated so often by those higher up the right-wing food chain, and debunked any number of times, one realizes that thought is foreign to them.

On one issue in particular, I would take a bit of a different tack. No, Obama is no Marxist. However, even if he were, that would hardly disqualify him from the Presidency. Like the claims that he is a Muslim, Colin Powell’s response to this lie is far better than one floated around by so many of Obama’s supporters: So freakin’ what? Bush calls himself a Christian and look at the mess we’re in right now; seems to me we could use a little spiritual injection from another source, as it were.

As to calling Obama a murderer because he supports abortion rights, well, that just stretches the bounds of moral reasoning so far as to make the entire process irrelevant. It shows how ridiculous “pro-life” arguments really are. I realize these people really do not think about this issue, and every time they are confronted with facts, they just curl up in a ball like an armadillo, but abortion isn’t murder because a fetus isn’t a human being. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. There is a case to be made against abortion-on-demand, but just calling it murder over and over again, and calling a fetus a person (in any sense of the term, legal, philosophical, day-to-day) mangles the language beyond recognition.

Without a doubt, the upcoming election of Barack Obama as President of the United States is driving many, many people over the edge of whatever precipice of reality they were heretofore perched upon. I do think the “Satan-Biden” sign is kind of funny, though, and I am hardly offended by it.

As to Neil, well, he is Neil, and those of us who have had dealings with him in the past understand how the game works. I do so love his “how can a tax cut be a tax cut for people who don’t pay taxes?” bit. He does love is propositional logic, does Neil, as if proving some point this way actually means anything.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to what happens after next Tuesday. Mark has already said he might move to Canada, although I believe he would find our northern neighbor a bit inhospitable, because it is bilingual - all Canadians speak not just English but that that horrid Frog language - and multicultural and liberal (even its conservatives are far more liberal than most American liberals). Plus, their candy bars are different. As the meltdown continues on the right after the election next week, I do so hope that mental health professionals are gearing up for a serious run on Thorazine because these folks are going to need some assistance.

UPDATE: For your consideration, an extra bit of crazy.

I mention this because I firmly believe Barack Obama absolutely loathes my kind. This man will not be content to win the presidency. He will spend his waking hours thereafter not pursuing the legitimate goals of state, but punishing those who would dare to oppose him. The man is devoid of humility, or any sense of humor. He cannot humbly accept his incredibly lucky break in the crapshoot of American politics. The absolute lack of any pushback or intercessions on the part of the journalist class has rendered him peckish and intolerant of any dissention, if indeed he was not born that way.

This man truly hates. As only someone who is quite aware of his great shortcomings can hate. And like the second monkey he can hear, or tolerate, no evil.

I am not a reactionary person by nature, but trust me when I say the first 100 days of a Barack Obama presidency will bring holy hell upon those who adhere to a classical liberal philosophy. This man is a radical of the first stripe, and he has left no stone unturned in his quest. He has not committed voter fraud in the good old fashioned way. He has a vast network of ACORN operatives stealing votes through fraudulent means by the hundreds of thousands. This man has not committed campaign finance fraud in the good old fashioned way, squirrelling away Chinese monies like Bill Clinton. This cocksucker actually disabled his credit card verification system to allow tens of millions of illegal dollars to flow into his coffers from any number of enemies of the state. The droid army of the legacy press is aware of this, of course, but who wants to be the whistleblower once this man assumes power? No one. No fucking body. Wouldn’t be prudent at this fucking juncture, as 41 might say.

Did I mention this man hates me? You and me? Yes he does. Why? Because he can. Yes He Can. Beneath that cool persona is a megalomaniac. Cool? Like Stalin after a purge, emotionally and sexually spent. Like Saddam after a torture session, dozing in his chair with someone’s genitals curled in his fist. Like Pol Pot after a petit mal seizure, mumbling a litany of the dead. Cool that way.

So I will cast my pathetic vote, and ramp up my relocation to the mountains. Reduce my footprint. Carbon? That will be a nice byproduct, but I mean my personal footprint. My credit footprint. My interface with authority footprint. I’m researching micro-hydro water turbines for that stream, windmills for water, a half-acre patch for vegetables, a few goats, and a bison. Just because I want a fucking bison. My address? Fifty rounds up that gravel road.

I do hate to sound Randy Weaverish. But this is the fundament of my world view right now.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

ER provides links to a smorgasbord of stupid from some of the smallest minds on the right. What is most fun about these links? Why, you get to see just how silly and irrelevant the hard right has become. They are so unimaginative, they can only come up with nonsense to attempt to smear Sen. Obama - and often it is nonsense that has been repeated so often by those higher up the right-wing food chain, and debunked any number of times, one realizes that thought is foreign to them.

On one issue in particular, I would take a bit of a different tack. No, Obama is no Marxist. However, even if he were, that would hardly disqualify him from the Presidency. Like the claims that he is a Muslim, Colin Powell’s response to this lie is far better than one floated around by so many of Obama’s supporters: So freakin’ what? Bush calls himself a Christian and look at the mess we’re in right now; seems to me we could use a little spiritual injection from another source, as it were.

As to calling Obama a murderer because he supports abortion rights, well, that just stretches the bounds of moral reasoning so far as to make the entire process irrelevant. It shows how ridiculous “pro-life” arguments really are. I realize these people really do not think about this issue, and every time they are confronted with facts, they just curl up in a ball like an armadillo, but abortion isn’t murder because a fetus isn’t a human being. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. There is a case to be made against abortion-on-demand, but just calling it murder over and over again, and calling a fetus a person (in any sense of the term, legal, philosophical, day-to-day) mangles the language beyond recognition.

Without a doubt, the upcoming election of Barack Obama as President of the United States is driving many, many people over the edge of whatever precipice of reality they were heretofore perched upon. I do think the “Satan-Biden” sign is kind of funny, though, and I am hardly offended by it.

As to Neil, well, he is Neil, and those of us who have had dealings with him in the past understand how the game works. I do so love his “how can a tax cut be a tax cut for people who don’t pay taxes?” bit. He does love is propositional logic, does Neil, as if proving some point this way actually means anything.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to what happens after next Tuesday. Mark has already said he might move to Canada, although I believe he would find our northern neighbor a bit inhospitable, because it is bilingual - all Canadians speak not just English but that that horrid Frog language - and multicultural and liberal (even its conservatives are far more liberal than most American liberals). Plus, their candy bars are different. As the meltdown continues on the right after the election next week, I do so hope that mental health professionals are gearing up for a serious run on Thorazine because these folks are going to need some assistance.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

I just voted. I love early voting in IL.

There was a line. There were people behind me even as I left the County Clerk’s office.

This feels better than when I voted absentee in NY in 1992. This is a historic, game-changer for the entire country. To be a part of that, even one tiny voice, is hard to describe.

If you don’t have early voting in your state, make sure you make it to the polls next Tuesday. Otherwise, get out as soon as you can and vote. I promise you, you’ll respect yourself in the morning.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

My grandfather was one. My mother’s first political memory was being taken door-to-door as her father canvassed for Norman Thomas in 1928. He was also a pacifist until September 1, 1939, when he sat and listened to the radio reports of the Nazi attack on Poland. He encouraged his sons to enter the military; all but one did so (Tom had asthma and other, um, issues). My mother’s oldest brother entered the Navy after Pearl Harbor and disappeared until the day after V-E Day (he called my grandmother from Switzerland); my Uncle David was a United States Marine who served in China after the war, then served in Korea during that war.

Both of them are still, even their 80’s, farther to the left of the American political “mainstream” than Barack Obama.

I was raised in a household friendly to unions, raised to see beyond things like race and religion and ethnicity to see human beings worthy of love (this despite whatever prejudices my parents may have had).

If you want to know what a real socialist is, you can click here. I thought about joining up a few years back, but they are declared Marxists, and I refuse to hew any party line, especially one as discredited by actual events as Marxism. Yet, anyone who knows anything about real socialism knows that Barack Obama is no socialist. I have relatives who were and/or are socialists; I have flirted with it during most of my adult life, and can tell you with all sorts of certainty that were Obama a real socialist, I would be on cloud nine as he moves a day closer to a landslide victory next Tuesday.

By the way, what’s wrong with Sweden-style socialism, anyway? Every office and work space has access to natural light, cradle-to-grace real safety-nets, paid family-leave for up to a year without the threat of losing one’s job status, fully-funded education from pre-school through higher-ed - it all sounds good to me. If it weren’t so darn cold, I might consider trying it out.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

I think Yglesias’ advice is eminently sensible. That it ignores the political realities that, while certainly down, the “Big 3″ still carry weight in Washington, DC sufficient to funnel cash their way even as they mismanage themselves in to oblivion should also be obvious. I say this as someone who lives near a town propped up, very badly, by a Chrysler manufacturing plant.

Like giving banks that made bad investment decisions more money to make more bad investment decisions, giving auto makers more money to build more cars no one buys makes little sense. In reality, America just doesn’t make good cars anymore. I own a Kia. My wife owns a Pontiac Vibe, which is in fact a Toyota car design. The biggest selling American vehicle of the past decade, the Ford F-series pick-up, is no longer financially feasible. The idea that somehow GM, Ford, and the rump of Chrysler will somehow miracle their way out of the death spiral they are currently experiencing just ignores the reality that other countries make cars people want to buy, for any number of reasons. There is nothing wrong with that, either. Someday, those manufacturers - Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Kia, Volvo - will go the way of the REO, the Packard, and the Moon, and perhaps we will buy cars manufactured in Ghana, Cameroon, and the Ivory Coast.

Until someone in Washington gives some straight talk to the automobile industry and tells them that throwing good money after bad makes no sense and they need to sink or swim on their own, however, I believe that we will be giving welfare to these corporate queens for quite a while.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

I have been avoiding addressing something, but I cannot any longer.

I have loved two men in my life (outside my immediate family). I say this unabashedly, and without fear. This love is the kind of love men feel for other men who take friendship to a new level, allowing us space to be unafraid to be afraid, who teach us how to be ourselves, and with whom we can be open. It is filia lived, the kind of real friendship that is too rare in this world. The first, Charles Kinch, was my childhood and youthful friend. I knew Chip and was friends with him from the time I was in second or third grade. The last time I saw him, in December, 1986 (Christmas Day, as a matter of fact) I will admit to being worried about him, yes, but afraid he was planning on taking his own life within a few weeks? Not at all.

Steve Creech, as different from Chip in every imaginable way, kept me sane in an insane situation. Living in rural southern Virginia in the mid- to late-1990’s, I felt isolated from everything I had held dear and important. Steve was not just a friend; he was a teacher. He taught me how to live unafraid. Openly gay, faithfully Christian without being doctrinaire, a bohemian in the true sense of the word, Steve loved music and literature and William Burroughs; he was friends with neo-pagans and Anglo-Catholics. He wrote letters in Czech to friends in Prague, who wrote him back in English. He offered me biographies of Anton Levay and Aleister Crowley. We read, together, Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship and Crime and Punishment. We spent hours talking and laughing and solving the world’s problems, and I marveled that someone so different from anyone I had ever met could suddenly appear and be who and what I needed.

Even now I can see his too-thin frame, his arms tight against his body, walking down the streets of Jarratt, VA, his head down, his over-sized glasses (Steve was legally blind, seeing a bright haze even with corrective lenses) perched high up on his nose.

Steve succumbed over the weekend to liver/pancreatic cancer. We drifted apart after the first couple years of our move to the midwest. I say this with a tremendous amount of guilt because the fault was all mine. Four years ago, on my first return trip, we visited, and our conversation picked up where it had left off, and it was as if no time at all had passed, rather than five years. This is something that is far too rare in life, and I didn’t celebrate it enough, or treat it with the respect and reverence it was due. For that I am sorry, and I hope that now, as the final mystery has engulfed him, he has found room to forgive me.

Please, say a prayer for his mother and brother, and for all those who knew Steve. There has not been, nor will there be again, another like him.

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)

It’s snowing outside. Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

Original post by progxian@northboone.com (Geoffrey Kruse-Safford)