Studs Turkel 'kicks it' on Halloween

"Curiosity did not kill this cat" -- self-ascribed epitaph.























Paraphrasing a friend, he said, "My hope may have decreased but no my curiosity."

Spain & Bull-fighting

I don't get it. I don't get a lot about bulls...and men, fighting. First of all, and I'm no eco-fascist-vegan-fuck, what's with the killing of the bull? Even if everything else was left in, take out shoving swords into the beast and I'm fine with it. Well, at worst you're still mentally tormenting an animal for no reason. Except the reason absurdly the same as why people love the "sport," and the only part of bull-fighting I do get: the bulls, surprisingly, must not appreciate being taunted and stabbed in front of a crowd yelling for blood, because they're doing their best throw around and gore the stupid matadors. Yes, stupid.

Dear Eiichi,

"...there are political phenomena in America which Marx could never have contemplated, for the continued survival of capitalism displaced the economic imbalance to a psychic imbalance which corrupts the very being of people's lives here...For we are in a profound crisis psychologically, since the country as it sees itself was founded and prospered on ideas of faith and reason, and faith has now become shattered or authoritarian, or the average America has lost his confidence in reason." -Norman Mailer, April '64

Today in the news

Sen. Barack Obama said John McCain's health-care plan would cost taxpayers. McCain said Obama was lying. [He called him a liar?]

Reason #303 for ending the Drug War: Supply and Demand, bithces.

I'm not sure what the hell Fox Fan Central is, or even who is a Fox Fan, and for that matter why they have their own News. Is this where fans write and post things? Not readily discernible, though by the writing seems likely. So it makes it more reasonable that I would doubt this article's validity on first glance. Apparently due to over-supply and lack of demand, drug dealers have been making drugs specifically for children--it's not just cigarette companies anymore.

Fox Fans?

Schitz & Giggles #27

"There is absolutely no 'unbroken' religion working as a vital force which is not compelled at some point to demand the credo non quod, sed quia absurdum--the 'sacrifice of the intellect.'"

-Max Weber

Schadenfreude alert! Schadenfreude alert!

Apparently some Lehman Brothers douche-bag was knocked-out cold while using some of his new free-time to do a little body-work at the gym. Why? Well, because as Lehman was tanking he was padding his life-boat with other people's...money, trust, life.

Now, I'm not a violent man. Still, being born and raised on the notions that the rich get richer; the little guy get screwed-over; the "man" keeps you down, in your place; big brother is watching; etc., it's nice to see the rise of a new populism that breathes life into the often thought hollow mantras of the "social contract" and the "will of the people"--you know, the precepts of our representative democracy. Hang 'em high!

The Fairness Doctrine in me.

I figured since O.G.-capitalist Adam Smith hasn't been getting much love these days (see: Chicken-little screaming, "The sky is falling!"), I'd share this progressive use of his ideas for a cap-and-trade on greenhouse-gas emissions, from Slate. You see, the part of Smith they don't teach in Econ 101 is the "moral sentiments" aspect of his free-market theories (I'm looking at you Friedman!). Ha! Social justice and capitalism aren't mutually exclusive! Yippie!

No you won't (or: Everything means nothing to me - E. Smith)

"Hey."
"hey."
"I took a nap."
"yeah, I figured. almost did too. instead I got a few beers and just chilled out. not feeling as uptight as I was before..."

"...Yeah, I think I'll just see you another time..."
"--yep."
"Bye."
"bye.

Dancing on Adam Smith's grave

Is it time yet? I can hear the revelers starting to march, the band is just getting going, and the folks are ready to blow...

Free Markets Don't Work! Laissez-faire Fails! Newborn Eats Mother, says "I was hungry!"











(photo: courtesy of FREEwilliamsburg, thanks!)

God, twice as much.

Only twice?

If you were in charge

Wouldn't you set things up so that you made money either way the wind blew? Heads you win, tales I loose.

Karl had it backwards: while capitalism does necessitate a parasitic relationship, it is the coerced consumer dependent on capital--if the latter dies, so too does the former--not the other way around. Or, rather, Marx did have it right in his period of infancy-capitalism. The simplicity of the structures involved engendered a clear, direct line--transparency and accountability-- in the transfer of wage-labor into profits, as Marx saw the host (worker) to parasite (capitalist) relation. Since then, workers have had to do less and less for more and more--the price paid for labor's compliance with business since WWII, to be sure.

Things eventually got turned around, or at least expanded so that larger parts of our society shared in dividends as well, whether actual dollars from investment or quality, cheap consumer goods or, even, a home.

This is not due to the success of capitalism at raising up the whole of the economy, per se; this was/is only possible because the exploitation of wage-labor was shifted to the developing world, or the better sounding emerging markets, like a coming-out party for adolescent states.
At the same time, the access to credit, for business and government only no longer, was given to the working classes to foster higher living conditions (by way of heavy consumer spending); capitalism's shown exemplar. It's the classic bait-and-switch: play by the rules and receive your economic security; only, there is no true security in a system of credit w/ nothing really behind it but algorithms and greed.