Nicky Cheese

Can’t wait to experience that 10.25% sales tax today…

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A few months ago I wrote up my feelings on David Brock’s “conservative misinformation” watchdog group, Media Matters, in a post entitled Menial Matters.

If you never bothered to read it or weren’t aware of its existence, Ken Marrero sums up the sentiments quite well in the following video clip:

Some countries get it:

Steve Forbes. Must give mad props. Now why was Bob Dole the Republican nominee?

Anyone, anyone?

A great comedian died yesterday, one that rallied against mysticism for reason, against government censorship for free expression.

Of course, he spewed a lot of irrational anti-business rhetoric as well, but at the very least my college English professor was incorrect about him authoring that platitude-of-platitudes, the Paradox of our Times. George Carlin may have been economically misguided, but he wasn’t trite.

Anyways, on my way to work today, I had my Zune on shuffle - take that Apple! - and came across a sweet bit from comedian Doug Stanhope. Totally reminded me of George Carlin sans, of course, the lefty political bent.

Check it out:

The second NoFx song in my NLADP series (first one here), this one arguing against marijuana prohibition via the principles of self-ownership and personal autonomy. Lyrical excerpt below:

Why be sad when happiness can be bought for a little more then free
Modern day prohibition
Are we men? Are we children?
At what age can I choose how to live

The only real drug problem is scoring real good drugs
Haven’t we learned our lesson
The corner store sells finer scotch
But who’s got uncut powder?
We just want what is ours! Dignity!

Hear, hear!

NoFx - Herojuana

Err-The Happening.

Laughable marketing strategy. The previews have that cliché, scary movie-voice quivering:

From Director M. Night Shyamalan comes his first R-rated film.

Haha. Just reading it makes me laugh. But I suppose 6th graders will be impressed.

Rumor is the content mirrors the marketing.

Extremism in Defense of Liberty dismisses it as

nothing more than a piece of crass, anti-humanist environmentalist propaganda

Moreover, I dig his analysis and response to the environmental movement in general:

Environmentalists believe that nature is an end in and of itself, that it must be upheld and protected above all else. This is why some of them (the ones that are consistent, anyway) will say things like, “You’re looking at the world with a humanity bias,” which means, of course, that you are brutish and selfish for valuing human life above a tree frog or dirt. If we accept that nature is good because it is nature, and for no other reason, it makes sense to desire human extinction; such a desire is merely taking the saying “Leave the Smallest Footprint Possible” to heart. Man survives by manipulating the environment to suit his needs– there is no other way. If we accept that we should leave the smallest impact on the world as possible, why not just wipe ourselves out?

The origin of my post’s title is found here.

Some thoughts I wrote down on Sunday’s flight back from SamSphere Kansas…

The first time I ever flew on a plane I was 22. Most people would find this fact rather odd. Yes, I agree. I’ve led a fairly grounded early life…arguably insular. Part of the reason, I suppose, lies in my parents. They don’t fly. Family vacations involved our old white ‘94 Suburban, limited - of course - to the contiguous United States. I don’t think my folks had, nor continue to have, any particular aversion to the mode of travel. They just don’t fly.

I’ve flown my fair share since 22 - recently, in fact, it’s been bordering on overkill what with five or so trips in the last couple months.

In any case, every time I fly - specifically, every time the plane launches from land and, thereby, surmounts gravity - I get this subtle (and yet, at the same time, mildly overwhelming) feeling of triumph, of pride in human ingenuity, innovation and determination. Our ability to transcend our biological and environmental situation, to conquer nature’s harsher, inconvenient elements and do what we want in a comfortable, timely fashion - it’s fucking awesome. I mean, excuse the f-bomb but, seriously, no other qualification will do. Yeah, you’re with me here!

Of course, the anti-consumerist, luddite crowd rejects such sentiments. They loathe industry, lament civilization and venerate pure nature, ignorant that it is the very ability to put distance between ourselves and nature (by, hark! - industry and civilization) that allows us to enjoy nature, an environment that is - more often than not - hostile to the human endeavor.

Anyways, I’m trying to understand this philosophy….

At the recommendation of TNCM, I’m currently reading Alston Chase’s biography of America’s most notorious - and arguably most violent and intelligent - luddite, Ted Kaczynski.

Kaczynski was the most intelligent killer in modern history, and unlike every other serial murderer, he killed not for the enjoyment of it but to promote ideas. (p.39)

Entitled Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist, Chase does - thus far - a great job of explaining the cause and effects of the Unabomber’s “revenge on the technological society”.

Expect more as I get through it. Point is, though, Kaczynski detested flight, and moreover, human progress. I, obviously, do not.

A message of self-affirmation, free speech and anti-conscription.

Eminem - Square Dance

Hipster rap. Not segregationist, not white-washing. It’s just fun.

From this week’s Reader, an argument that ought to be thoughtfully considered within the entire race debate:

Oh Word blogger Sach O claims hipster rap is “intended for an affluent, generally educated white audience wanting to dabble in the excesses of black music absent from more restrained contemporary rock without really investing themselves in the less comfortable aspects of black culture.” White kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop, in other words, without all the scary black people. But in Chicago t least, the hipster-rap scene has always drawn mixed crowds. It’s not the less comfortable aspects of black culture it avoids but the less comfortable aspects of hip-hop culture—the thuggishness and ignorance, hardly confined to black artists and fans, that high-minded blogs like Oh Word and Unkut.com go out of their way to criticize in mainstream rappers. [emphasis mine]