Crusty Old White Men- Do They Really Represent Me?

The title of this post fairly well summarises my thoughts and feelings. Of course the title is a rhetorical question. The answer is that they DO NOT represent the majority of us, the American voters, “their constituency”. Which begs the question- How the heck did they get that job? And that answer is a simple one- it has to do with advertising, and the fact that the American memory is about as long as their 30 second political ads.

Crusty old white men- representing all of us. Is that Mr. Pink in the background?

But back to the crusty old white men. The image, above, which prompted this rant came from the weekend Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks back.  These career politicians are sitting in Washington making decisions for you and for me, decisions that can and do affect the rest of our lives, and the lives of our children. How do they get away with that? How is it that we put so much “trust” into their ability to “represent” us? How- and better yet, WHY, do we give them that power? These are questions that could take days and weeks to fully explain, taking us far back into history.

The simple answer to the all-important WHY question is that we have been trained, have been indoctrinated into our political system from childhood. The fact is that we believe that our system of government, which we call Democracy, is democratic, just, and appropriate. I personally think that it demands some critical attention. For the record, I do not associate myself with either of the political parties (point of note: a two party system is not Democratic). If we must use labels, label me Libertarian, or Constitutionalist perhaps.

Still believe they represent you? When was the last time you heard from one of them? When was the last time you sat down and talked to one of them? When was the last time they asked you what you thought of Obamacare, abortion, gun control? Probably never. My old Webster’s dictionary states that if someone represents you they “act or speak officially for you.” How can they do that if they have never asked you about your thoughts on an issue?

I think my point is made. I really don’t have an answer for the problem… but a good place to start would be a “none of the above” box for every office represented on an election ballot. Then we would truly have a choice, and I think we would see that a lot of voters would happily abandon the status quo.

 

Fight Club, and Orwell

Every 3 or 4 years I watch Fight Club. Honestly, that is about all I can handle of the movie. The same can be said for Orwell’s 1984– I make it a point to read it every few years or so. In either case, indulging more frequently is… counterproductive.  Perhaps “depressing” would be a better term. It is certainly not the content of either that brings me down. It is the fact that Emmanuel Goldstein does not exist, it is the fact that there are no Fight Clubs, no Project Mayhem, no Tyler Durden.

On the bright side, either one- today it is Fight Club- reminds me to take a look around, look at who I am, what I’m doing, where I’m going. Maybe I’ll make a change in my agenda today because of it. Maybe it will have a lasting effect. At the very least it adds a small ray of hope to the insanity that passes for life in this Orwellian futuristic dystopia that we passively accept and believe is “normal life”. At least that is always my hope.

If not, Ikea is open till 7 tonight. I still have time to shop.

 

Disconnecting From My iPhone

One year and 9 months. That is how long I was able to stand my iPhone. It worked fine for about the first 3 months. Then overnight I started having trouble making and receiving calls, and sending and receiving texts. Forget about anything having to do with data. Mostly this was from my house, and my nearby studio, and my office about 10 miles away. And many places on the road in between. So I guess it was everywhere. What caused it? Apple’s operating system upgrade? A bad antenna? My Sprint (lack of) service? My personal contempt for the iPhone since day one (why did I ever give up my Razr)? How about all of the above? Sprint did not care and offered no help by the way. But the point is that endless dropped calls is not a good way to conduct business, so I had to take action.

Well, the iPhone is gone. And in 3 months the Sprint (lack of) service will be gone too. And I will be a happier person. I’m looking at the Nokia 515 feature phone as a replacement. Feature phone, not “smart” phone. (I’ll let you in on a little secret- they are phones- they are not smart!)

Oh, and the fate of my iPhone? It kind of… fell out the window of my truck on the highway. Safely for traffic mind you, but not for the phone. Let’s call it a quick disconnect. In hindsight this probably wasn’t the best idea, on a few different levels. But it was certainly satisfying.

So now I am disconnected from it, feeling much better. It’s as if I have been saved by Harvey Keitel from some insidious religious cult (I look nothing like Kate Winslet). But I have regained a part of my life that was assimilated amongst the FASCiST Phone zombies that populate our planet. No more association with the bleary- eyed, screen-staring masses with their phones permanently attached to their hands, thank you very much.  What a relief.

 

Noise in My Head

It’s not quite 5 AM (well past, or long before). But I just had a thought that I wanted to share with those 3 people who read my blog. Does anyone recall the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy”? Not the best movie from the perspective of an anthropologist, which I am; offensive actually. But a great bit of social commentary in many different ways. Remember the scene when the woman reporter sits down in the cafeteria next to the other woman? And the woman already seated asks, “does the noise in my head bother you?”

Yeah. That’ all I wanted to say.

See it here.

 

Colorado Government and Online Sales Tax

I received an email from Amazon.com this morning informing me that my account had been terminated due to the greed, lack of foresight, and, well, stupidity of the legislature of Colorado. No other state has such legislation. Its seems that the state wants to tax online sales, and Amazon will have no part of it. So they just shut off all accounts in the entire state! I guess they can do that, they are Amazon after all. (If in the future all restaurants will be Taco Bell, then all retail stores will be Amazon. This is a movie reference, citizen.)

So, I just wrote to my state representatives, and the governor, expressing my discontent with this legislation. (I did not use the word “discontent” as I am not sure if that is legal any longer. See text of Patriot Act.)

The process was not without glitches. The online form to “communicate” with the governor did not have a box for text. You could communicate, but only your contact information. Comments were not allowed.

After sending my first request with nothing more than that, I returned to find a box labeled “explanation” which I concluded must be the “comment” box.

In my comments (“explanation”), I outlined the illogical nature of the title of the box and suggested that a box for comments be labeled “comments” in my next email to the governor.

Now that I think about it, I may have forgotten to include my original comments, being so focused on the “comment” issue.

How does that text messaging abbreviation go? Oh yeah, WTF?

It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a conspiracy fact. Either that or we are truly surrounded, and governed, by idiots.

Babylon must fall.

Gallipoli

Watched the movie Gallipoli a few nights back. Still thinking about it, a very disturbing movie. The DVD cover says: “Honor. Friendship. War.” Yes. It was also a story about runners. And British imperialism. And nationalism I suppose.
Beyond the story, the setting is reason enough to watch- the desert of western Australia and early 20th century Cairo are mesmerising.
It stars Mel Gibson and Mark Lee. Directed by Peter Weir. 1981.