Month: June 2013

Tea Abortion and George Carlin

In the wake of recent Texas politics and American moral dysfunction that has ruined the “dream”, worst-writer is both amused and über-amused. Since Americans enjoy living in a world of fear, on account conservatives can’t accept the failure they have sewn and the fact that American Exceptionalism has run its course, it’s only natural that those who have spent their lives lying to themselves can’t quit. After more than a decade of devastating the world with our power because we can’t face our inner demons, you’d think that someone would step up and take a stance against behaviour run amok. For a moment after Barry Obama was elected, I thought he might do it. But with his election certain floodgates were opened and his moment quickly passed. If you thought things couldn’t get any worse in the American experiment, hold the presses. One of the first politicians on the national stage I remember embracing the Tea Party was Dubya-after-birth Rick Perry. A politician obsessed with false morality, bred by archaic demons and a worshipper of praying to what might just as well be a tea-pot in the sky that Alamo ghost warriors are trying to hit with cockeyed six shooters. Now don’t get me wrong. Texas, without doubt, is an exceptional part of the republic — especially when compared to Rhode Island. Which brings me to stupid.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, enter the Tea Party. For a short while there worst-writer thought that these guys might be on to something. But then the stirred waters calmed and the truth was revealed. The Tea Party wasn’t the phoenix rising from the ashes, it was a bunch of teeth-less rednecks that never figured out why they voted republican in the first place and thereby thought the ashes could still burn a bit more. Hence the result of millions of greedy little minds emboldened by the likes of Limbaugh, Faux Newz & Co. Which brings me to a little worst-history lesson that might explain things but probably won’t connect the dots.

The events that lead to the Boston Tea Party were about a multi-national corporation in cohorts with government that was trying to monopolise an industry and thereby infringe on the freedom and livelihood of colonists.

For these pseudo-Europeans, whose ancestors would eventually become Americans, the Boston Tea Party was considered to be the last straw regarding government and corporate over-reach. Colonists rebelled and threw the tea of the East India Company into the Boston Harbour. Now. If republicans and conservatives want to use the Boston Tea Party as a symbol for a political cause, then they logically should be against a government that is in cohorts with big business. Which also means they should be against all things conservative! This is why tea-partiers, conservatives, republicans are so easy to make fun of.

For those willing to go out on a limb with worst-writer, let me stretch and bend and misconnect some dots. Starting, of course, with Texas exceptionalism. And since I already explained one piece of history misinterpreted, I shan’t do it again regarding Texas and its Alamo. Moving on. Obviously all these years of American political conservatism has taken a toll. Worst-writer cannot know how long it will take for America to recover from this repeat of Government in cohorts with big business. The time between The Boston Tea Party (1773), the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), to the ratification of the Constitution (1788) was long and arduous, indeed. How long it took after all that for America to become what it is today, I’ll leave that to those who are better informed. But my worst-guess is it took until about 1950 for America to reap the benefits of rebellion. And how short lived it’s all been. There seems to be only one thing worth considering in these extreme days of nevermore that can’t see through political wrong turns. What rational thinking people are up against is the idear of what side you are on. Are you, as a participant in hell-games, on the side of the unborn or are you on the side of the dead? Remember, everything in-between is a commodity which must be afforded! And so it’s only natural, since conservatism has not only failed but bears zero remorse for its failure, a country run by nut-bags will never give up in the cause to let it all go to ash. And so no one stands up to being governed by false morality, religious über-zeal and the power of faith and belief in something unattainable. Including tea-pots in the sky. What an easy route, eh. And you really believe that the Alamo was about Texas?

Oh. What’s this all about? News, news and George Carlin.

Nomatter. There are a few sparks of hope and those sparks may or may not connect any dots. So I shouldn’t have brought up the connect the dots in the first place. Yet. The other day when a female state senator from Texas stood up to filibuster the only type of law making left to conservatives, other than laws that help big government and big companies, I was über-impressed. And I was also hoping that this particular senator could start a reverse Alamo which could then lead to a reverse Boston Tea Party. Wishful think, eh? Even though the euphoria was short-lived of what this Texas senator had done, for a moment worst-writer felt some pride for humanity and for the country I miss so much. If Americans no longer have the balls to stand up for what made it once great, but instead prefer misinterpreting revolutions and thereby enabling government by false-gods, then it deserves what it sews. Besides. George Carlin got all this stuff right not to long ago. Still missing him.

Other links that motivated this post:

 

Rant on

-tgs-

 

Fly Swatting

Great example of what’s wrong and how things can’t be fixed. Is vid (below) a meeting of the giants? Not necessarily individual giants but giants of idears, giants of philosophy, American philosophy. Let me explain. There are a few types of Americans. Here we’ll deal with two. One is the industrious American. This is the one out to make a buck. That’s all he or she will do. No matter what a buck will be made, all else be damned. Got that? The other is the one that believes in the stars & stripes, banners of glory, lives for wearing the vale of pride in a country where making a living is a residual effect of serving that country. These two types of people, indeed, these two worlds are in great conflict at the moment. Reason? Well, it’s been a long time in the making, but the part of America that serves has finally overwhelmed the part of American that is/used to be industrious. Perpetual war will do that to a country and its people. Voodoo economics will also do it. The thing is, will America ever be able to recover from this mess? Answer: Oh well.

Ever remember being a kid and getting in trouble and thinking: but what I did wasn’t so bad because I know someone else that did something worse? And when you try to tattle tale on someone because what they did was worse it doesn’t matter because you are the one on trial. And then there were the times when I got in trouble and I knew it was because someone was a tattle-tale. Scoldings, whippings, slaps and beatings, punishment galore and time-outs and suspensions and being sent to my room for weeks on end. It really is torture growing up in a world that says you’re free but the reality is you’re only as free as someone else allows you to be. And so I must ask: does the guy being scolded (he is not one that serves but is instead industrious) in this video deserve it? Of course he does. I mean, the congresswoman really lays into him. You can almost see her eyes starting to swell with self-appointed rage. The guy she is scolding is gaming a system (gaming the system is part of industrious America) because of a sprained ankle he got while playing sports at school. Comparatively, the congresswoman lost her legs while at war serving her country. I’d say (sarcasm) the scales of justice are balanced.

Of course the Congresswoman is right in scolding the peon that gamed the system. Still. Worst-writer can’t help but think there’s something else going on. It’s like swatting a fly and forgetting about the pile of shit not far away that gives us all those flies. Will the congresswoman ever do anything about that? I mean, will her pride in serving the country ever scold the banks, the government contractors, the war machine that is also gaming the system? Ah. Now we’re getting somewhere. The big gamers are different, right? The servers no longer serve the idear of America they serve the big gamers. No hypocrisy here, eh? No rigging the scales of justice. Send them all to their room.

Note on video. Several attempts to embed this video have failed. If vid doesn’t play then search for: “tammy duckworth shames irs contractor trying to game the system”. It’s worth viewing.

Here’s Tammy Duckworth’s wiki page.

Rant on.

-tgs-

No Real Men

George Carlin: “How come when it’s us it’s an abortion, when it’s a chicken it’s an omelette?”

Two questions. Why is Amerika obsessed with abortion? And. Where are the men? I mean, where are the men that are the true cause of abortions? I have yet to hear a man and his intentions being questioned about this issue. Why is that? I reckon, as it’s aways been, it’s easy for a man to pull out of the situation and thereby burden someone else with everything. Or does this legislative process, hidden behind a vale of false morality, have something to do with men wanting to protect other men from having to face up to what they’ve all done. Stopping a woman from making her own choices is all that’s left for a society that can’t deal with equality, emancipation, feminism, civil rights, sexuality, etc. At the least, as the train-wreck that is 21st century American’t goes about its greed-mongering and empire building, the abortion issue is certainly a great diversion. But what happened in TX recently is pretty astonishing. In fact, this gives worst-writer hope that there might be a chance for American’t in the future. The filibuster pulled off by Senator Wendy Davis kept me reading tweets and news all day. Indeed. Yesterday was a  big day in American’t. TX proved that if enough effort is put into it, there is a bulwark that can counter and perhaps finally rid the country of the sickness and cancer that is today’s iteration of fail-upwards conservatism. And don’t miss the irony that Gov. Rick Perry, who wants to ban all abortion, is his own best murderer having executed 500 people in Texas.

Down with conservatism.

Don’t Mess With Texas.

Links:

 

Rant on.

-tgs-

This vs That

A People’s History of the United States

The Untold History of the United States

If you saw these books in a store you might mix them up. At least you might mix up the titles. First, “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. Took me a lot of years to finally get to this book. Had it on loan many years ago and I think I might have even started reading it back then. Some of the text seemed very familiar. Nomatter. I bought the Kindle version this time and got through the almost 800 pages in a zip. This book is a narration of how the United States came to be starting from 1492 and the poisoning of natives with chicken-pox laden blankets to contemplating how to legally go from one form of authoritarian governance, i.e. the British King, to a new form of authoritarian governance, i.e. the monarchy of a Constitution. From there the story of protecting the rights of the rich and exploiting everybody else continues. Howard Zinn tells our story and he does so with gusto. But there is something tainted about his book that might stir many a reader, especially readers who aren’t used to certain things because they think they payed attention in school. I’m worst-writing, of course, about the truth. This books doesn’t go into the Disney-like stories of natives and grimy Europeans eating together while the leaves turn golden brown. No. There’s a different kind of truth being presented here. So be careful. Reading this book might give you a new perspective on being a consume to survive slave who thinks they are free.

Next a change-up when it comes to history-telling. But a few words on Oliver Stone first. Ever since “Platoon” Stone has been my teacher. Even when he makes films like “On Any Given Sunday” or “Natural Born Killers” I forgive him. Because he also makes films like “W”. What a seething cinematic expose of a person he obviously hates and loathes. Stone’s portrayal of the protected, isolated and spoiled upbringing of the 43rd President is funtastic. Stone is a master of subtlety in the movie. Without over doing it, which might turn off viewers, Stone portrays George Dubya Dipshit as the dipshit he really is. And while watching the movie you can feel Stone’s contempt for a president who practically ruined the United States (internationally he did ruin it!). If you listen carefully Stone goes he-he-he-he-he more than once in the movie. But I’m off subject.

“The Untold History of the United States” is a chronicle of modern empire building, including all the skewed politics that goes along with that. Unlike Zinn’s book, Stone’s isn’t as well written and I found the text to be a bit bland, especially as it gets bogged down in explaining how many military bases there are or how many bombers and fighters and nuclear bombs are being made and sold and to whom. But that’s neither here nor there. This is a chronicle of The United States and it’s overwhelming power and how it got that way. From this book I got the feeling that America has always been an accident waiting to happen. The end of the cold war was our moment of truth and we masochistically went head-on into the train wreck we are now. But Stone avoids placing blame. Instead there is a subtext to this book: we’re all doomed. Nomatter. One of the things the book does really well is paint a picture of various historic figures trying and failing to provide warning signs for the future. Stone and his co-writers detail not just what happens but who does what in our history. To me this is the great political left-right battle. Stone doesn’t say directly that the right has won but I think most readers know that already. I also enjoyed reading about the Russians. It’s a long time coming that the real winners of WW2 be recognised.

Two great books. Two great reads. But steer away if you can’t take some truth about who and what America really is all about.

Links:

 

Rant on.

Thomas

Mobility To Nowhere

Ah, the paradigm shift from horse & buggy was long and prosperous for cars, governments and, most importantly, oil. This paradigm has served well. Or? Enter Tesla and its founder Elon Musk. The more I hear about him and the more I dream of buying a Tesla S the more confused I get. Is Elon Musk a genius or showman that can’t come up with a paradigm shift? Musk definitely fits well in his suit of über-inventor and spender of well-earned riches. Someone compared him to Tony Stark from the Iron Man movies. I’m kinda confused with that comparison. Is Musk, like Stark, a great inventor? If that’s the case, did he invent the electric car? Nomatter. Excitement clouds the mind. The reality is, Tesla is not even a car company. What it is is a battery company. And so I must ask. Has Musk re-invented the battery? Has he changed the paradigm set by the Baghdad Battery? Can it even be changed? Now here’s a real worst-question for ya. When energy is not being used is it still energy? Enough pseudo-worst-science. The thing about gasoline is that once you make the stuff it exists until it is used. That’s the trick and, if you will, efficiency of hydrocarbon based energy. Electricity on the other hand must either be used or it must do what old soldiers are supposed to do: fade away–whether it’s used or not. Hence the wondrous invention of the battery. And so here’s worst-writer’s thing. Even though I’m excited about Tesla, I’m not really impressed with what Musk, as a battery maker, is offering. This guy seems more and more to be nothing but a über compulsive engineer with the wherewithal and pocketbook to not recognise the limits that rule him. Those limits being batteries. Is then what he’s doing an attempt to, gee, I don’t know, be one of the crazy ones? Don’t get me wrong, I love the idear behind electric mobility. On my consume to survive shopping list is the purchase of an e-bike. But the thing holding me back from doing it right now is the battery. Indeed. It’s all about the battery. Not to mention that the batteries used in Teslas or e-bikes or my iPhone just don’t make the grade yet. Not only that, once the short life span of these batteries is over does anyone know what will become of them? If I’m not mistaken there are two man-made and heavily consumed products that, for all practical purposes, are non-recyclable. One is the tyre and the other batteries. Musk got himself into that foray, I’d say. And so. Say what you will about the byproduct of burning hydrocarbons, is the solution to that problem worth a new problem of equal if not more complexity? Even though you can break down the parts of a battery you cannot re-use those parts. So where does all the precious, toxic, chemical stuff go? I wonder if the recycling and environmental implications of mass producing and consuming batteries like this is ripe for prime-time. As far as Musk’s presentation of swapping batteries faster than filling the tank of your car with petrol (see vid below), I’m only  impressed that it looks slightly similar to those robots that put on the Iron Man suit. Also. If the cost of such a swap was in the price of the car, for the life of the car, then I’d be impressed. But I reckon Musk has to start asap on expanding his revenue streams. But don’t let worst-writer put a damper on all this excitement.

Links:

 

Rant on.

-tgs-

The Great Mockery

On The TV series The Sopranos.

This post is NSFW.

The electronic book of knowledge has this as its first sentence about the American TV series The Sopranos: “…an American television drama…” Stop the presses! As of the writing of this worst-post, I’m in the fifth season of the series. I started watching the series around Jan/Feb 2013. Of course, I had been curious about the show for a while because I kept reading about how well written it was. In case you’re unaware, for worst-writer, writing is everything! As far as actually watching TV… it takes me a while to catch on.

Based on what I’ve seen, this TV show– verisimilitude be damned–is worth all the praise. But worst-writer has also discovered something about it. First, The Sopranos is not a drama. Second, if it is not a drama, then what is it? Is it a Soap? Format and structure aren’t far off. But the acting is to good. The only other alternative is that this show is a Sitcom. Is that even possible? Could The Sopranos be a Sitcom like any American sitcom — except that this one has grown up, got caught up in the wrong crowd, been galavanting around the neighbourhood at ungodly hours and suddenly found itself drug addicted and hooked on steroids? Which reminds me of an old American saying: better living through chemicals, baby. (Remember that the next time you have American beef and watch this show at the same time.)

Verarschung

There are those who could easily argue worst-writers pseudo philosophising and pseudo conclusions about American TV genres. Since I’ve been living abroad for so long and have missed a couple decades of American TV programming, perhaps I have a bit of an outside perspective on worst-judging this stuff. That said. I love this show. This is really, really good TV. The writing, at times, is stupefyingly beautiful. And it is in that writing-beauty where I have discovered something hidden. The problem is worst-writer didn’t know at first what to call the hidden. Since I’ve spent almost a quarter century speaking a second language, every once-a-once I can find a German word to describe what I can’t find in English. The word that comes to mind when trying to figure out what to call The Sopranos is Verarschung. Without generalising too much about languages, there are times when German complexity suits the situation just fine. Here a worst-writer translation of the word Verarschung which brought me to the English word I was looking for:

  • To mock
  • To kid around
  • To pull the wool over
  • To muck about
  • To joke at someone else’s expense
  • Are you fuckin’ wid’ me?
  • To play him/her for a sucker/fool
  • Take him/her for the proverbial ride, etc.

 

Dark Humour Politics

Ok, maybe I’m stretching things a bit. And I shouldn’t try to categorise this show. I mean, it is a break-thru, right? It’s obviously complex and full of plot and the critics have gone wild over it. Besides, watching this show almost ten years after it ended is an indication of how long I’ve been out of the American (TV) loop. Or maybe it is an indication how little TV I watch and am therefore NOT susceptible to Kool-Aid washing away the subtleties that define this show. Let me repeat that: The Sopranos, as an American TV series, as a break-thru art-form, is only defined by its subtleties and some very, very special sauce. Add to that that this show is hi-larry-us and at the same time unbelievably political and socially critical (so much for defining the special sauce, eh). It incorporates all this by disguising its politics behind a stereotype and filtering/sifting everything else through the American collective reality distortion field and then packaging it all in the obsessive and compulsive nature of today’s America. A perfect backdrop (0r front-drop) for Mafia story telling. I mean, is there any other story genre that Americans love more? Is it the rags to riches genre? Or what about the underdog genre? Heck, remember Rocky? That film was all the above.

And so. This is some of the most incredible TV I’ve ever seen where the American Dream is portrayed but it’s NOT fiction. For the first time The Sopranos TV show is the embodiment of the fail-upwards greed mongering of the Baby Boomer generation galore at 16:9 HD (after the first season, of course). After the fourth seasons I’m worst-wondering if the writers of this show were aware of what they created. But smart people with all this success don’t just get lucky. Or do they? No they don’t. But those same smart people may have filtered some of what they’ve learned from the world to make this such a success. Indeed. The Sopranos is the first American form of dark humour comparable to the French Les Guignols de l’info or British Monty Python. With that in mind, may Euro-influenced caricature, political and social satire rule the future of American TV.

Mockery

Obviously, comparing The Sopranos to French political comedy doesn’t work. The Monty Python comparison won’t hold up in a debate either. So let me just worst-say this: The Sopranos is a mockery (Verarschung). But it is not a mockery of the Mafia or TV. No. It is a mockery of America and Americans. This show portrays what every patriarchal American household dreams of ever since Ben Franklin spent spring break with Thomas Jefferson and both fought over who invented the wet t-shirt contest, which is the forerunner to all beauty pageants, and, considering where we are today, proof that everything else they invented is now a mockery. Or didn’t you know that about the wet t-shirt contest? And don’t forget. America doesn’t evolve. We devolve and we do it very successfully. So shut the fuck up. And. When will America reveal humanity’s inner-ape?

Enter Tony Soprano. The American Alfa-Male with a silver back and a dream mansion in New Jersey. Oh. And to keep the dipshit audience laughing, don’t forget ape-mans psychological counselling where Freud mother-complexes shine and he can address his hot therapist as slut, cunt and bitch without recourse. Yeah, baby. “Therapy” is the perfect dark humour form of confession. And we Americans love confessions. For it allows us to be forgiven (and held politically and socially unaccountable) for our sins. And so. The Sopranos is/was our confessional. Pretty cool what Mafia story telling had in-store for us, eh? And you know what else they say about confessions, don’t you worst-reader? That’s right. While in that confessional no one can hear you except…

Ok. Even though I might be disrespectful, I don’t wish to be blasphemous. I suppose I should steer away from involving the Church in this worst-post. So here a short list of the entertaining dysfunction that is The Sopranos mirror of American’t:

  • Like a child, when confronted with doing something wrong, deny it. That’s right. Just deny all the murdering, the cheating, the lying. Denying is good for the soul while that soul has yet to die. And the way Tony goes about lying, now that is some hi-larry-us-leefunny stuff.
  • Learn your history from The History Channel. Think you know history because your parents come from the rot of the old country? Don’t worry. Like Tony and his “family” you are a soldier of god of your own arrogant, misogynist, mother fucking, cock-sucking making.
  • Prozac. Better living through chemicals, baby.
  • Obsessive compulsive behaviour with desperate women incapable of recognising ugly. Just get married and if you can’t get married, pretend. Women must be hot in order to get married. Husband ugly which is ok if you got money. Nothing more real than that.
  • The Baby Boomer generation. Hoodlum dreams that reward underachievement, horde all that’s left for the future and prove that crime is the last resort to getting paid. Worst-writer does not like Boomers.
  • Has anybody ever seen people eat so much on TV before? Feel good food for a rotten soul, baby.
  • Dysfunction manifest in the dirty sperm-spawn of post godfather part IV.5 forever.
  • Etc.

 

One more thing about this “break-thru” show. I almost cried as much as I laughed while watching it. Reason? I’ve already faced the mirror.

RIP James Gandolfini.

Links:

Rant on.

-Tommi-

Wozed

There is a culture worth not forgetting. Especially when you know that culture is being forced to reach its end. For you see. There is an alternate universe to the baby boomer war-mongers that are going to be our demise. Indeed. There was once a group of hippies, even though some weren’t exactly hippies. Well. They were tech hippies. And. They changed the world. Also. They became a culture. A fruity culture. A culture not to fear. A fruit (of life and achievement) named Woz. And the Woz fruit was eaten. And the Woz voice was not heard. It’s really a scam what’s going on in the western world right now driven by the ethos of post nine-one-one American’t. But what are we (who think differently) gonna do? I’m not sure. But I know this. If it weren’t for Woz, I never would have rented that Segway just to see how cool it really is. Thanks for everything Woz! You will forever change the world.

Rant on.

-tgs-