Epic Banality

It looks like Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States, despite the propaganda that’s been spewing from the right wing nut-jobs out there who are terrified of a “black” and/or “Muslim” president. You know the types, the kind who drink the FOX News Kool-Aid, think that Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh are real news people and think that the so-called “war hero” status of John McCain entitles him to do or say whatever he likes regardless of how ridiculous and wrong it is. Before you MSNBC hipsters get too excited, let me remind you that there’s certainly more than one brand and flavor of Kool-aid.

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I like quotations. I’ve always liked quotations. But really, who doesn’t?

In the world or politics and government, quotes by famous people run rampant in debates and speeches. The reason for this is quite simple: quoting someone who is more well respected than you are adds perceived power and authority to the rest of your statement. In America, people from all across the political spectrum—although, so-called conservatives use the tactic more than anyone else—like to quote the founding fathers in an effort to demonstrate that anyone from Madison to Washington agrees with them and their particular positions. In debates this is used thusly, “Well, if you disagree with me on this position then you also disagree with Thomas Jefferson!” While this tactic can be valid and effective, it’s often played poorly and cheaply as nothing more than an arbitrary appeal to authority.

One of the foremost problems of this method of persuasion is the mindset of many of its worst abusers which can be summed up in the following statement: “John Adams agrees with me.” Most people hunting for quotes from authority figures aren’t generally interested in what those figures actually had to say but only in finding statements that strengthen their own position. While this sort of thing seems legitimate at first glance, beneath the obvious surface of what many of us have been guilty of at one time or another is a vast problem—the sort of problem that, if left unchecked, tends to pollute the thinking the philosophy of anyone.

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I was trying to figure out how to open this entry and I thought, “Eh, just skip trying. Let’s just dive into the meat.” So, for your viewing displeasure, I submit to you the following music video by Dennis Madalone:

The self-proclaimed “most downloaded Music Video on the internet.”

I’m sure, if you wasted the 5 minutes necessary to ingest this monstrosity, you’re thinking something similar to what I though: “What the hell?” This was followed by, “I should kill Boas for sending me this, but… misery loves company.” I would have done the same, as I’m doing right now by sharing this with you, so I guess I can’t actually strangle him.

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I’ve recently been bit by the writing bug, although I have a feeling those that have been reading around here would think otherwise given that I’ve said nothing for over a week. I’ve been writing elsewhere though. Last night and this morning I began work on a section of a greater essay, a political treatise of sorts, concerning voting which is what has spawned today’s rant.

It started like my normal writing sessions on political topics generally do. I go through some of my notes, read quotes, write a little bit and then generally decide to do some additional research to put my mind in gear and find a few other historical points and authorities for whatever it is I happen to be compiling. While I have a small library of quotes and references on some subjects—liberty, the right to bear arms, the evils of the consolidation of wealth and corporate power—voting is a subject I have very little on. I tried some Google searches which turned up nothing. So, I decided to plug in a portion of a quote I did have to see if I could find a collection of similar statements. That’s where things became very messy. Here’s the quote:

Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end to it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from 12 to 21 will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level. — John Adams

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There were a number of occasions where I started rolling out my own blog software and wrote one or two entries to fill space and left them at that. Some of them I actually liked so, as I putter along with this thing I’ll publish a few so I don’t ultimately lose the text. Any post designated “B-side” is an old post from another time and another place. This one, A Peak at the Past was originally written on October 3rd of 2007. I was experimenting with Drupal at the time. Anyway, here’s the entry:

Aside from working on the server and playing around with this site, I did quite a bit of reading over the weekend and even some today and the day before. There are a few things I’d like to write about concerning American history and some political concepts but before I got to that I felt like I had to do some more research. Voting and juries were the two main issues. While I won’t be getting deep into those right now, there are some things of interest I wanted to jot down.

Voting in Early America is a nice article with a few very choice quotes covering the basic history of voting in, you guessed it, early America. It’s not terribly long and I suggest that everyone take the time to read it. Benjamin Franklin’s remarks alone are worth the price of admission. If you haven’t studied very much in the way of American History, you’ll probably find this article even more interesting than I did.

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I know there are is some kind of prevailing idea that maligning someone who has recently died is tacky, but I have to say, when someone dies in a way that’s all too fitting for their lifestyle or position, I just can’t help it. If this person has worked for the current White House administration then it’s worth bonus points.

Tony Snow died today. It was colon cancer that got him. All I could do was laugh when I read the headline this morning and exclaim out loud to my monitor, “Well Tony, that’s what happens to a man when he’s completely full of shit!” I realize that’s not a universal truth since the entire administration and everyone working for Fox News would be being radiated in a cancer ward somewhere, but still it’s nice when the grim reaper claims someone in a way that’s all too fitting. If only Dick Cheney could drown in a drum of crude oil. (For the record, I’m aware of the fact he’d been dealing with cancer for a long time, in fact I exclaimed the same thing when I first heard about it.)

Anyway, good riddance. One less Washington DC politician, one less media jack off, one less Republican and one less conservative.

With the 2008 election rearing its ugly head, I find myself viewing it with the same hopeless dispassion that I viewed 2004 and 2000 with. If there’s one thing the Bill Clinton to George W. Bush transition taught me—no, reinforced since this is something I already knew—it can always get worse and generally will get worse. To many people though, our current president has set a new standard for rock bottom and a lot of people think anything will be better. Do not, whatever you do, get caught up in this snare. There is no such thing as rock bottom.

The current “leader of the free world” is a bumbling fascist who is practically drowning in his own cronyism. He’s a war monger, a religious fanatic and a man who has the spoken eloquence of Beavis and Butthead. (”Heh, heh… heh, heh… we’re gonna bomb Iraq. Bombs rule! So do nachos.”) He’s also managed to have the kind of personality that could get him elected as the Governor of Texas and that, in and of itself, has a volume of implications and not one of them qualify as good. If you want to understand the true intellect and quality of George W. Bush you need look no further than the people who still support him. I realize 2 digit IQs make you special, but that’s not something anyone should really aspire to.

So now we’re left with John McCain and Barack Obama. Oh, joy. Oh, rapture.

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I hate flying. Actually, that’s not true. I’m indifferent about flying. When I’m in a hurry to get from place to place, it’s the best method of travel. What I hate—and I mean I hate—are airports. I never liked them pre-TSA and now, with the whole Homeland Security nightmare, it’s worse and it continues to get worse. I’ve never flown with ID and still do my best not to, though I fear my days are numbered in that regard. For those interested in the policy change, it can be found on TSA’s website.

Why on earth does someone need ID to get on an airplane? What does it prove exactly? I’m not opposed to better security scanning and random checks and such. Those are fine since they actually accomplish something. If I’m carrying an explosive in my bag, checking my bag will theoretically prevent that explosive from getting on the airplane. Checking my ID will not. This obsession with ID has become a point of insanity in modern life. So, let me explain my most recent fiasco.

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Mornings and I have had a strained relationship, at best, throughout my life. I think the only time I ever consistently got along with mornings was on Saturdays when I was young enough to look forward to cartoons. That was a good era. However, still being two hours ahead of my native time zone, mornings are brutal. This is compounded by the fact that I’ve always had trouble sleeping when out of town. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hotel or a friend’s place. It takes me forever. I had a Josh Turner song and Brad Paisley song on a continuous loop as I tried to sleep last night because both songs, as corny as a lot of people would think they were, remind me of K.L. I miss her.

Hotels, no matter where I go, always seem to serve a “continental breakfast” in the mornings. I’m not sure precisely what a continental breakfast is since the contents differ from place to place. I always forget to look it up too. Hopefully, next time I have an internet connection (I’m on the road right now) writing this will remind me to look it up.

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