CNN's Harem

You know what's worse than a vacuous, self-serving, transparent, ignorant media? A vacuous, self-serving, transparent, ignorant, self-congratulatory media. Check out this profile on newsbabe of the moment Jessica Yellin for a gag worthy circle jerk.

More Clinton Racism

Christopher Hitchens has made a lot of enemies lately. That will tend to happen when you call your latest book God is Not Great, but let's face it - you can always pick out the leaders in any group cause they have all the arrows in their backs. I have always enjoyed reading him, and I think it is about the coolest thing in the world that he can be called a "leading Orwell scholar." That is quite a label. His latest column talks much more eloquently about the Clinton race baiting shenanigans than I have been able to - check it out here.

Leggy Fascists

The conservative blogosphere has exploded as of late - well, I guess they are always in some degree of explosion - over Dr. Juan Hernandez's presence in the McCain camp. You probably will remember him - he is a regular on the cable news networks, sports a Pancho Villa mustache, and advocates a little compassion, logic, and reason concerning immigration, making him an obvious target for the likes of Michelle Malkin. I read Malkin pretty religiously. She is endlessly entertaining, although it can be a little scary that a pretty large swath of the population takes her seriously. Some Malkin gems: she rants here about Akon's penchant for objectifying women - definitely hilarious coming from a woman who owes everything she has to the way she looks. How bout defending Japanese internment in WW2? Check. Torture? Check. Racism? Check. Homophobia? Check. Yeah, she is a piece of shit. But her views on immigration and John McCain have a lot of traction among right-wingers. She calls out Hernandez, McCain, Lindsay Graham, and Ted Kennedy on a regular basis for supporting "Shamnesty." Basically, this means that they are subversive anti-Americans for not supporting some Orwellian Gestapo squad to go house to house and arrest every illegal in the country. Cause that's practical. She evidently supports McCarthy-esque campaigns to encourage ratting out neighbors, co-workers, etc, and suggests here that not doing so means you, too, are a criminal. Now I realize that this all sounds a bit extreme, but there are elements of the Republican party that buy into all this. Check talk radio, Fox News, and the National Reviews of the world. It is a valid viewpoint to them. So while it is easy to laugh off Michelle Malkin, keep in mind that she is not alone. I support McCain because I believe he can heal the country, and I hope he can heal his own party.

Billary Beaten Like Red-Headed Stepchild

Obama really skewered Hillary today. . . I was glad to see it. For 16 years now the Presidency has been held by men who will degrade themselves to no end to divide and conquer the electorate. After Billary's various viscous, racist, and false attacks of the last few weeks, to see South Carolina reject her/him - and Romney's rejection on the Republican side - is a broader indictment of this type of campaigning. I know in the end this stuff works, so maybe this is a mirage. But we can hope . . .

Notes From the Underground

Literature is like sex. It is so much better when you excercise a little patience. I have made the same mistake so many times - marathon sessions with the same person, exhausting all possibilities before having a chance to savor things. Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Neal Stephenson, Cormac McCarthy, John Steinbeck, Clive Barker, Frank Herbert - all authors that I exhausted. I read one book and fell so in love with it that I cracked out and read everthing they wrote in a matter of weeks. I have tried to mature, and the two authors that I savor these days, that I anticipate and plan reading, spreading out their books like a broke junkie, are Thomas Pynchon and Fyodor Dostoevsky. I read Crime and Punishment in high school, but never could appreciate it until I became literate in Christianity. After reading it again a few years ago, I have become a Dostoevsky disciple.

Notes From the Underground, which I just finished, is an important work because it is so obviously the first stab at the philosophy Dostoevsky would become so famous for in Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. While those books wrap the message in such a rich tapestry of Russian history that most can enjoy the novels while being ignorant of the thrust of his philosophy, Notes From the Underground is naked in its indictment of moral relativism. FD spent 4 years in Siberia for his Socialist leanings, enduring a mock execution, and NFTU is a refutation of all the pie in the sky rantings he stood for as a young man.

It is hard to argue with the label NFTU has as the world's first existentialist novel. But you can take a literature class for that riff. What hit me was the sagacity of FD's prose, especially as a Las Vegan. FD sees the danger embodied by Nietzsche, who was so popular in Russia at the time, and Marx, whose ideas would later tear Russia apart. Morality is not relative. The novel's climax showcases Vegas life - the quote “They – they won’t let me – I – I can’t be good!” as the underground man reflects upon his liaison with a prostitute - encapsulates the experience of so many pilgrimages to Las Vegas. I understand that the embrace of amorality has become Vegas's calling card, but FD reminds how disgusting it is to let it pass with such ambivalence.

Four Score and Seven Years. . .

Yeah, this just in . . . the South still hatin' the negro. Just waitin' for that iconic black Nascar driver I reckon'

Dexter

After trying to sell my friends and family on everything from Thomas Pynchon to Farscape and suffering scorn and ridicule to no end, I realized that my taste is so off the radar that I should never recommend anything to anyone. However, I saw recently that the writers strike is bringing Dexter to CBS, and I had to talk about it. I am relatively new to the show, but it fascinates me. First of all, Michael C. Hall from Six Feet Under and Julie Benz from Buffy and Angel are main characters, and I loved those shows to the point of obsession - the show hooked me simply with their presence. But the idea of a serial killer vigilante. . . when I was a teenager, I was a huge comic book geek. And while I loved the superhero stuff - who am I kidding I still love the superhero stuff - the Punisher was a book that always demanded my attention. Anyone with a basic education in economics will remember Keynes - the idea that government intervention can smooth the cyclical nature of laissez-faire philosophy, and that the lags and gaps that cause unemployment, inflation, etc., in a market economy can only be assuaged by public money. What if this theory can be applied to criminal justice? What if the faults of our system, the gaps and lags that occur because of overzealous lawyers, naive jurors, handcuffed law enforcement, and amoral media, can be assuaged by a Frank Castle figure? Obviously the comic book version is fantasy, but Dexter is a real world study of this idea. Dexter is unsavory and disgusting, but could a man like him play a role in keeping the scales of justice from tipping in the wrong direction? If this idea gets your motor running, I would suggest checking the show out. Bring a barf bag, it doesn't blanch from violence . . .

What Does 9+11 Equal?

It equals Rudy, evidently. The politics of fearmongering are about to invade once again.

No Country For Old Men

The best movie of the year, and maybe the last few years, has been getting a boatload of critical attention since it's release, and this morning it scored an Oscar nomination for Best Picture of the Year. Cormac McCarthy's bleak novel about the drug war, and the damage it has inflicted on the southern American border, has been turned into a searing portrait by the Coen Brothers. McCarthy's moody, sparse prose has been compared to stories chiseled onto stone, stripped of all pretension and searching for meaning in a conflict without any. The challenge of putting it to film honestly must have been great, but the Coen brothers were up to the task. Chigurh, the most disturbing McCarthy character since Blood Meridian's Judge, is brought to life by Javier Bardem, and the rest of the cast turn in pitch-perfect performances. Hopefully, the publicity brought to the film by the Oscar nomination will encourage more people to see it - the message of the film puts a underappreciated twist into the immigration debate.

Bill Nye is Gay, Brah. . .

Our country's relative plummet in math and science literacy has greater consequences than not being able to understand your doctor the next time you get the flu. While both GWB and congress promised spending increases for the physical sciences, threat of veto has put science on the chopping block. The biggest casualty is the ILC, or International Linear Collider, a massive, 20-mile long device designed to study the cutting edge of particle physics by smashing particles together at ridiculously high speeds. Advancements in many areas were expected, including medical technology, energy production, and astrophysics. But how important is that? Congress excised $88 million dollars from Fermilab's budget, the Illinois based company running the project. Free-marketers may not see much of a problem with this, but keep in mind that capital is not going to steadily fund research that may not produce practical, profitable results in the short-term. It's one of those pesky areas where market failure requires government intervention, and it doesn't get publicity because the gap between the average person's science education and modern science is so great that the comprehension of the gravity of such a project is null. The most disturbing aspect of this is what congress did deem worthy of inclusion over the collider. Our senior Senator here in Nevada brought home the bacon to the tune of 72 million dollars in earmarks in the DOD budget alone, including a 4 million dollar program to combat drug use in the Nevada National Guard. The Homeland Security Budget contains 225 million dollars in "port security grants" that most observers have labeled as transparent pork, 79 million to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to improve our current Coast Guard Fleet until 2018, when the hundreds of millions of dollars we have given them in the past for a new Coast Guard cutter will actually be done. And my personal favorite, 12 million dollars for improved security on public buses - evidently a mecca of terrorist activity lies on the CAT bus. Check out Citizens Against Government Waste for a lengthy and detailed look at current pork spending.

Not Laughing Yet? Wait till I Get to the Punchline, It'll Kill You!!!!!

I am not sure what script Heath Ledger was reading, but the Joker doesn't OD on pills. . . that's way too "Brokeback Mountain." He snaps his own neck! Every nerd knows this. . .

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch is an MIT professor who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September of 2006. It has become a terminal condition. I was turned on to this lecture, strangely enough, through Star Trek circles. Evidently Randy is a Trekkie, and when this "Last Lecture" began proliferating on the internet, JJ Abrams invited him to be in the new Star Trek movie. I read about it on his site, but really, the lecture speaks for itself. It's lengthy, but worth it. Not to go all Oprah, but it is at times difficult emotionally - but this man's love for life, his family, his work. . . powerful stuff.

Visit his blog here.

Mike Tyson Part 2

I couldn't help myself. . .

John McCain Wins South Carolina

John McCain wins South Carolina. I wonder what the world would look like if that headline could have been written 8 years ago? Would we have avoided the nosedive this country has taken since then? Could he have spent all that capital 9/11 afforded us in a more inspiring and unifying way? I don't know. I remember, shortly after 9/11, seeing our Commander-in-Chief cry in the Oval Office and being ashamed. Seeing him stand on rubble at the WTC, with a megaphone, crying for vengeance, and being ashamed. Seeing him swagger and posture like an Ivy League draft-dodger trying to be a cowboy, and being ashamed. At the time, I felt enormously guilty for harboring such feelings, that somehow how I was being unpatriotic, and in doing so I played right into his hands. I wish I hadn't been vindicated, that Bush would have overcome the understandable emotion and anger he felt and risen to the call of a nation in crisis, like Lincoln and FDR - shown a steady hand, a deft command of diplomacy and might, and a moral certitude that would have illustrated to the world that we are in a position to lead. He failed miserably. I hope McCain gets an opportunity to fix it.

I also went to the local Nevada Caucus today, at the Wynn. I will withhold commentary until I taken a lengthy shower, but Hillary's remark that "This is how the West was won" must have made John Ford shudder in his grave.

Hillary the White Knight

There has been a spate of conservative columnists who have been chiming in on the reasons for the backlash related to Hillary's comments concerning MLK last week - check out George Will and Charles Krauthammer on the subject - and they bring up some relevant issues. I disagree with Will's assertion that it was a "misstep in a liberal minefield." It was a purely calculated Clintonian comment designed to cleave away white Obama supporters by injecting doubt as to whether a black man can be elected, as I said with much more vulgarity here and here. No misstep. Hillary doesn't misstep, remember? But both Will and Krauthammer talk about the pervasiveness of political correctness that has spread like a virus throughout the country over the last few decades. Hillary is a scion of the feminist movement, and has done much to shackle dialogue regarding such sensitive issues as race and sex. There has always been a conservative opinion that liberal policies such as affirmative action, welfare, etc., do much more harm than good to the black community - the "soft racism of low expectations," - and the danger of being labeled a racist by white liberals, bred on fervent adherence to P.C. dogma, has hampered honest dialogue. Beyond that, it is misguided in the least for white liberals to believe that they are in a better position to judge what the "right way" for blacks to succeed is, better than even the blacks themselves. The dichotomy she was trying to sell was that while MLK was a inspirational speaker and a skilled community organizer - Obama - she is the White Knight who can bring real change for blacks - LBJ. I don't know if I would go to the extremes that conservatives seem to advocate as far as cutting off all aid, or an admission that the white community doesn't owe the black community anything. But I certainly do know that Hillary is in no position to play Nanny and lead blacks to Zion.

Clone Wars

This morning a California company, Stemagen, reported that it has created human embryos from adult skin cells and donated eggs. I won't bore you with a lengthy disseraion on the ethical pitfalls soon approaching, because there is a much more important issue to ponder. How do we pacify the Middle East? Stormtroopers! First Basra, then the Galaxy. . .

Krugman

Paul Krugman is so much more informative and impressive when he talks about economics as opposed to injecting himself into partisan bickering. His column today is a perfect example of why economists regarded him so highly just a few years ago.

Guerillas in the Mist

We talked awhile back that the latest Taliban Commander/makeup aficionado, Baitullah Mahsud, was most likely behind the Bhutto hit. The CIA now agrees with the Pakistanis that Mahsud masterminded the assassination. Bhutto's people aren't buying it, however - I assume they suspect Musharraf. It is certainly a boon for Pervy. We'll see how it plays out.

Josiah Bartlett

There was a comment on the Crusades post that I had to address. As a modern society we pick and choose what to believe in the Bible all the time. I can't begin to say it as well as President Bartlett, so check out this clip.

The West Wing is the only show I am familiar with that can arouse such passion in a 3 minute clip.

Remember This Clinton?

Well, maybe Vincent Vega playing Clinton, but nonetheless. ForeignPolicy.com posted this clip from Primary Colors today, and much as I like John McCain, he would do well to heed the lessons from this when talking about displacement in globalization. His straight talk could have been sexier - it lost him Michigan.

The 8,732nd Crusade

The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints has come under some viscous attacks as of late due to the candidacy of Mittens. It is really depressing, there are so many legitimate and tasty reasons to shudder at this man's popularity, attacking his religion is very. . . distasteful. From Charles I attacking Puritans (and not just the metaphorical, verbal attack) to Protestants in this country shamefully attacking JFK's Catholicism (one such comment: "Irish priests" would manipulate a Catholic president "as if he were their toy."), no good ever comes out of religious persecution. A lot of revisionist history comes out of the Evangelical movement and the GOP regarding the supposed piety of the Founding Fathers, and it is important to note that this is all bunk. They were all intellectual giants, and like most brilliant men they were perceptive enough to know that you don't have to accept the literal truth of scripture to appreciate that there is truth in the lessons scripture imparts. Ben Franklin once wrote "As to Jesus. . . I have doubts about his divinity." Good luck winning the Iowa caucus these days with that hanging in your background. Alexander Hamilton was wary of Christian zealotry as well: "The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right." Religious freedom in our country was of paramount importance to the Fathers because they harbored such doubt. The Fathers were not part of the first wave of Puritan ideologues to cross the Atlantic. They were more pragmatic. They realized that no church of man, Christian or otherwise, held a monopoly on virtue - and they built the religious protections into our founding documents for this very reason.

It would be one thing if the rants concerning Mormonism were coming from some intellectual Ivory Tower condemning Mormons as a microcosm of all religion - ie Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins. But this stuff is coming from Evangelicals. Reverend Slim Fast, who supposedly is a leading Evangelical theologian, actually asked a reporter if Mormons really do believe Jesus and Lucifer are brothers. Which, technically I suppose they were - children of God and such - but doesn't that hold true for all branches of Christianity? Doesn't there have to be a close relationship between the two to contrast what the differences are between good and evil? The Economist recently published a nice overview of the history and theology of the Mormons - check it out here. No doubt the Mormons have some decidedly exotic theology buried in that Book of Mormon. But is any of it more exotic than "Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth; they were told not to harm the grass of the earth nor any green groweth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads;" (Hey! Like a Jaffa!) "they were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torture was like that of a scorpion, when it stings a man." Revelations 9.3-5. Yeah, that ain't exotic.

The passage of time has allowed mainstream Christians to view the 2000 year old scripture as legend untouched by modern science, or modern newspapers - Joseph Smith did not have that advantage. I am not defending religion - I think it is all a little counter-productive - when I read about the infighting among these different sects of Christianity, I think about that Chris Rock riff - "Farakhan hates Jews, which I don't really get. I hate white people! I don't need to cut them all up into little categories." I'm paraphrasing, but that's the jist. However, religion is a powerful and important part of the lives of a great majority of Americans. As Lincoln said, we need to listen to "the better angels of our nature" when judging a man. Judge his words and actions, not the book in his nightstand.

"She has turned her face, more than once, to the Outer Radiance and simply seen nothing there. And so each time taken a little more of the Zero into herself. It comes down to courage, at worst an amount of self-deluding that's vanishingly small: he has to admire it, even if he can't accept her glassy wastes, her appeals to a day not of wrath but of final indifference. . . ." Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow.

Vote For Me I'll Eat Your Children

Man I miss Mike. . .

Whistlin' Dixie

Reverend Slim-Fast suggests sodomy for Confederate Flag-haters. How Christian of him. Still gotta admire the guy for losing all that weight and giving it to Al Gore.

Mmmmmmm. . .Brains

Probably won't stand up to Romero's classics, but shoud satiate that overwhelming hunger for brains till J. Michael Straczynski and Max Brooks's World War Z. Evidently some dude named Brad Pitt is involved as well. . . and how bout Romero's Uncle Junior glasses?

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Entropy is a concept notoriously difficult for physics students to grasp. I think the main reason is that the word entropy itself, used in popular culture, tends to convey excitement and chaos. But the state of thermal equilibrium - the Second Law of Thermodynamics - that coincides with maximum entropy is dull and static. The Big Bang is the universe, or our universe at least, at it's lowest levels of entropy, and we are accelerating to higher and higher rates as time moves on. However, modern astrophysics and cosmology has been taking the study of universal entropy to astounding and fascinating lengths. Concepts such as multiple universes and the arrow of time are getting an increasing amount of play in the academic literature. The media, playing the role of a Renaissance era ignoramus theologian, covers these developments with a haughty and dismissive giggle - check out this recent NYT article. Whether the concepts covered prove true or not, it is worrisome when the Big Brother media spews disdain at people who collect PhDs like comic books. That's what academic journals are for! Since most of my knowledge of entropy comes from being a Thomas Pynchon disciple as opposed to university, interested parties should peep this article for enlightenment. Sometimes I think I am a Boltzmann Brain.

Me Glasses is Famous

From Buddyhead. Really can't add anything more descriptive than Mr. Keller on Buddyhead - "By the way… if the kid in the video is actually reading this… contact us cuz we wanna party with you bro!"

Obama Chooses a Side in the Eternal War

Chairman Meow Lets a Hundred Catnips Bloom

Dogs for World Domination gather here. "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - Animal Farm.

SWM, Loves Walks on the Beach and the Yankees

For your favorite bi-curious Evil Empire fan, the Derek Jeter bathrobe. . .

Part Deux

McCain returned to the US to spend months rehabbing his extensive injuries, and attended the National War College in '73-'74. By '74, McCain had defied naysayers and passed his flight physical, getting back into the cockpit. He became XO and then Commanding Officer at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, turning around a questionable unit that was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation under his command. By '77, McCain had briefly considered a run for Congress, but at the prodding of Admiral James Halloway, took up the Naval Liason post to the Senate. He made connections on both sides of the aisle that would serve him well in his second career. Retirement came in '81, as a Captain and with an impressive array of medals that included the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

McCain moved to Phoenix, AZ that year, his new wife Cindy's hometown. Her father owned a Anheuser-Busch distributorship, and McCain took over as VP of Public Relations. Among the plethora of business and political contacts he made was Charles Keating, Jr., who would later play an important role in McCain's political education. He ran for the Republican House seat vacated by John Jacob Rhodes in '82. Campaigning amid charges of carpetbagging, McCain offered a memorable rebuke: "Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the first district of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi." This type of quote would become McCain's signature. His bid was successful.

During his stint in the House, McCain rarely strayed from Reagan. However, two memorable forays into independence illustrated his sagacity. He voted against a resolution to keep a contingent of Marines in Lebanon, citing a lack of real objectives. The resolution passes, but two months later the catastrophic Beirut bombing of a barracks facility killed hundreds of servicemen. He also was pivotal in overriding Reagan's veto of the Comprehensive Apartheid Act to sanction the Government of South Africa. In '85, McCain traveled to Hanoi with Walter Cronkite, the first of several trips back to the site of his imprisonment. It was a ratings bonanza, and would solidify McCain's constant presence in the national political media.

In 1986, McCain moved over to the Senate, filling the seat left vacant by conservative icon Barry Goldwater. He was immediately assigned to the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, and became an effective, if a little brash, Senator. He came to the nation's attention again during the 1988 Republican National Convention, giving a passionate speech regarding his time as a POW. During the nomination hearings for his friend John Tower to the Secretary of Defense post, which was squashed, McCain also began his prickly and contentious relationship with the radical religious right, calling Moral Majority's co-founder a "pompous, self serving son of a bitch." However, he did suffer some serious setbacks. His connections with Charles Keating proved disastrous, when Keating's Lincoln S&L Association became insolvent in '87. Keating sold investment in risky real estate ventures as an FDIC insured savings account to regain solvency - but during the frenzy of the S&L scandals, federal regulators attempted to shut it down. Keating reached out to his political friends to intervene on his behalf, and McCain was one of the 5 Senators who met with the Federal Home Loan Board to this end. The real estate venture failed, and many went bankrupt. The government filed a 1.1 billion dollar civil racketeering and fraud suit, and McCain was rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee and branded in the press as a member of the "Keating Five." His obsession with Campaign Finance Reform began with this scandal.

In 1991, McCain and his wife brought a 3-month old abandoned Bangladeshi girl they found at an orphanage ran by Mother Teresa back to the states, for medical treatment for a severely cleft palate. They decided to adopt her, and after a drawn out process the adoption was finalized in '93. They named her Bridget. He also at the time joined with Senator John Kerry on the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs to investigate the fates of missing service personnel in Vietnam. McCain was reported to have pored over a million documents for thousands of hours, and the committee final report said there was scant evidence for the presence of widespread personnel captive in Southeast Asia. McCain was vilified by veterans groups and POW/MIA activists, who labeled him the "Manchurian Candidate" and claimed he committed treason to secure release from Hanoi. These two events would come into play in his 2000 presidential bid - then Governor of Texas George W. Bush and the RNC used the Manchurian Candidate label as well as postulating that McCain had an illegitimate black child to win over voters in the South Carolina primary. In '94, he worked with Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin to create a comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform bill to eliminate soft money, among other things. This crusade lasted until the bill finally passed in 2001. Pork Barrel spending was also a personal issue to McCain, and in '96 he was instrumental in passing a Line Item Veto Act - one of McCain's biggest political victories. However, the law was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court.

This is a small sampling, and McCain's time in the Senate since the 2000 election has been re-hashed ad-nauseum and doesn't need to be recounted here. His campaign for '08 has been gaining momentum, so the vetting process will be thorough. His only obstacle may be his mouth, which I find a bit endearing. Here are some gems. He referred to the retirement community Leisure World in Arizona as Seizure World, and joked that "97% of the people there vote, the other 3% are in the ICU." On one of his dozens of appearances on The Daily Show, his friend Jon Stewart asked "Should we start with the bomb Iran song or the walk through the Baghdad Market?" McCain jumped on it, responding "I think maybe shopping in Baghdad. . . I picked something up for you, too-an IED for your desk." Crooked gasbag John Murtha demanded an apology on the floor of the Senate, claiming that making jokes about IEDs to two bit comedians was unconscionable with so many troops dying at their hands. Said McCain: "Lighten up and get a life." In a meeting on illegal immigration in early 2007, McCain got in an argument with John Cornyn of Texas, who reportedly said "Wait a second here. I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line," to which McCain responded "Fuck you. I know more about this than anyone in the room."

Unfortunate outbursts aside - well, unfortunate but funny, at least - I feel McCain would be a decent fit, especially considering what's out there. I hope I have illuminated his past for some. This information from the last two posts was culled from the Arlington National Cemetery website, the US Navy and US Senate websites, Faith of My Fathers, Wikipedia, and google of googled articles.

The Aristeia of the McCains

John S. McCain, Sr., graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1906. In the War to End All Wars (Ha!), he served in the Atlantic on convoy duty. By 1936, he was designated Naval Aviator, and was a preeminent scholar on the carrier tactics that would become so vital after Pearl Harbor. Not all was rosy for McCain - a significant mental lapse regarding recon missions over the "Slot" near the Solomon Islands resulted in heavy losses in the series of battles at Guadalcanal, specifically the Battle of Savo Island on August 9th, 1942. By October, he was the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. . .not exactly a front line post. However, by 1944 he returned to the Pacific Theatre as Commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force, which supported the vast amphibious operations being carried out at the time. He earned the Navy Cross for a series of valiant excursions defending the Canbarra and the Houston, contributing significantly to the eventual Allied triumph. His expertise and shrewd tactics as Air Planner and Carrier Commander earned him two Gold Stars and eventually the Distinguished Service Medal. He died as a Vice Admiral in September of '45, 4 days after the War's conclusion, and Navy Secretary James Forrestal commented "He was a fighting man through and through."

His son, John Jr., was a submarine commander in WW2. During Operation Torch, the American-British invasion of North Africa in November of 1942, he commanded the USS Gunnel, which was repeatedly attacked in error by friendly aircraft - a common occurrence at the time. The quad diesel engines of his sub were endlessly troublesome, earning the nickname of "whores" from the sailors (the engines were Hoover-Owens-Rentschlers, or H.O.R). After a retrofit, he and his sub were transferred to the Pacific and, in his second patrol in the East China and Yellow seas, sunk two ships, the Koyu Maru and the Tokiwa Maru. But the whores were still painfully unreliable, and his ship was re-engined at Pearl Harbor and returned to action at Iwo Jima in January of '43. He served throughout the Pacific for the rest of the War, but scored no significant sinkings - however, his brazen aggression resulted in a few impressive near-misses against Nipponese carriers. After the war, he served at various posts at the Pentagon, the Pacific and the Atlantic, culminating in his stint as Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command during Vietnam - during which his son was famously shot down and held prisoner at the Hanoi Hilton for 5 and a half years.

John the III grew up as a military brat, hop-scotching the world with his dad at various military bases. In school, he was known for his fiery personality and fierce competitiveness, and earned multiple varsity letters as a wrestler. At the Naval Academy, class of '58, he was a member of the "Century Club" for his accumulation of over a hundred demerits - everything from poor hygiene to disobedience. Commented McCain (kudos for use of vulgarity by prez candidate), "It was bullshit - I resented the hell out of it." However, he was widely respected by fellow midshipmen, and excelled at political science, history, and english literature. He also began a lifelong obsession with the sweet science, competing as a lightweight. Otto Helwig, a champion Naval heavyweight and McCain teammate, commented "He was not the most skilled, but he was the most feared - he never gave up."

During his years of training as a Naval Aviator in Pensacola and Corpus Christi, he earned the rep as a carouser and ladies man, dating a stripper who went by the moniker "Marie the Flame of Florida." (All the hip kids dine at the Pussy Ranch at one time or another). He said in his memoirs he "generally misused my good health and youth." Nice. By the time Vietnam got underway, McCain was an elite Navy pilot.

Students of that conflict will recall the infamous Operation Rolling Thunder - infamous for it's micromanagement by LBJ and Robert McNamara. McCain participated successfully in the bombing sorties targeting industrial sites and infrastructure in his A-4E, avoiding Soviet anti-aircraft defense measured that spelled doom for so many pilots. However, he fumed at the quixotic, Heller-esque nature of the target list. Like his father before him, his early war years were stained by a friendly fire incident when rocket from an F-4 accidentally fired on the USS Forrestal's carrier deck struck McCain's bird. The fuel tank was struck and the ensuing explosion impaled him in the chest with a piece of shrapnel, and killed 132 sailors. McCain was transferred to the USS Oriskany.

McCain's POW ordeal began on October 26, 1967, when on a 20 plane sortie to destroy a Hanoi thermal power plant his A4 was shot down by a Soviet missile. He broke both arms and a leg upon ejecting, eventually being captured by a mob who mercilessly beat him before imprisoning him in Hanoi. He was tortured endlessly, enduring rope bindings, pulled teeth and broken bones during interrogation sessions. Eventually he was transferred to the Hanoi Hilton, and remained there until his release on March 15, 1973. The ordeal was exacerbated by Senator McCain's refusal to submit to interrogation and Western anti-war delegations.

McCain's political highlights will be documented tomorrow.

The Semiotics of Obama Oratory

Sometimes Obama scares me. This article is required reading for Obama supporters. Anyone who can so powerfully command the pulpit can be more than a little dangerous. I want to like this guy, I really do. Certainly he is not the first and won't be the last to co-opt Christian rhetoric with such eloquence and power - it shouldn't make me so uncomfortable. The punditry loves to draw parallels between William Jennings Bryan and Mike Huckabee, but that is a pedestrian comparison. Bryan's ideas were revolutionary at the time - he was an original. But his ideas are dead, and Huckabee's revival of them displays a bit of naivete and ignorance. Obama is a revolutionary, and shares a kinship with Bryan because his command of Christ, cloaked and updated as it is for today's secular atmosphere, echoes Bryan's revolution in method if not entirely in substance. Obama's ability to inspire emotional responses as opposed to intellectual, while sexy as a campaign tool, can be dangerous in a president. But his liberation theology is attractive, no doubt.

Obama is a Dirty, Dirty Hippie

Straight from the horses mouth. Watch Hillary defend her race baiting, and basically call Obama a hippie granola whose campaign is based solely on opposition to the War in Iraq - but failed to follow through on that opposition and I guess manually go in and pull out all the troops himself. As a junior senator from Illinois. And when did Obama say she killed Bhutto? You'd think that woulda made a bigger splash. . . Next up for the Clintons - ads talking about Obama's predilection for leggy white playmates. I mean if you are going to race bait, why not learn from the best. . . I hope Mr. Ford is fucking two playmates as we speak. . .

Remember His Name

Course they ain't all worthless gladiators. . .

It Gave Me the Spark but Now it Only Burns

Roger Clemens is getting royally fucked over. The New York Times ran a despicable article documenting how horribly reckless the Rocket's emotional and passionate defense has been over the last week. Clemens' situation is the latest example in a disturbing trend of indictment by the media that has parallels with Michael Vick, the Duke kids, etcetera, etcetera. . . Regardless of his guilt and innocence, the coverage has ensured that his image will forever be tarnished by this.

There was a heartbreaking riff Roger went on in his interview on 60 minutes that really got to me. He said, and I am paraphrasing, that this is what our country has come to. Guilty, tried by the media and convicted by the people. Evidence not necessary. No media outlet seems to mention the bevy of charges hanging over this trainer's head, and the carrot of immunity given to him - contingent on the "quality" of his info - ie how many big names he could offer as sacrificial lambs in the name of baseball's "image problems." (This man has other skelektons as well). Roger seemed so hurt, genuinely disappointed in his country. This is, historically, a patriotic man. A Texan who has visited the troops in Iraq, and who has been outspoken in his flag waving zeal. All that is gone. His faith in America has broken, and rightfully so.

Broken. Americans now love nothing better than to tear each other down, especially if the victim is rich, famous, beautiful, or righteous. The citizens of Pandaemonium have ascended to America, and they go by such names as Rita Crosby, Greta Van Susteren, Tucker Carlson, and whatever demons are currently running People Magazine and TMZ.com. We are victims of our own success - too comfortable, ensconced in our suburban bubbles and taking out our frustration at the lack of true meaning in our lives on those who have more than us, tsk-tsking Britney Spears and locking up Martha Stewart. And the Ritas and Gretas and People Magazines of the world are egging us on in glee. Okay that was a little heavy-handed I'll shut the fuck up now.

Additionally, why should anyone give a fuck if the Rocket needed some extra fuel anyway? We prop up these athletes like they are something more than modern day gladiators who exist purely for our entertainment. Pump these fuckers full of plutonium if it makes them more entertaining - you know they are doing it in the NFL. Yeah, the 6'5'', 275 pound linebacker who runs a 4.2 40, he is all natural. Right. But no one cares about it there. . . why is baseball different? These people aren't role models, and anyone who looks at them as such is a fucking moron. And parents who allow it to happen to their kids - also morons. They are Gladiators. And there is nothing wrong with that - I watch close to a hundred Dodger games a year, but I understand what it is. If Matt Kemp can jack 50 dingers next year with a little HGH, I'll fucking buy it for him.

Hillary Clinton is a Bigot

The massive support for Hillary Clinton throughout the media and the democratic party rank and file shocks me, especially when the same supporters, who revel in spewing bile at GWB, seem too stupid to realize Hill is simply the scarred side of the same fucking coin. The Clintons were using Rove-esque tactics back when Karl was dragging GWB out of bars. Comments this week have proven that the unsavory nature of Hill's campaign has reached a new low - race baiting. After suggesting that war criminal LBJ was more important in the civil rights movement than MLK, last night she essentially defended her words and accused Obama and Co. of hateful and divisive tactics for harping on it. This isn't the first time Clinton's evident racism, or at least her readiness to use racism in others as a campaign strategy, has gotten her into trouble. The words themselves were reprehensible, a wink-wink nudge-nudge to Obama supporters that America won't vote for a black man. Turning it back on Obama and blaming him for the fallout of her hate, well, that's priceless.

Missionary is Great in the Confessional

Everytime you doubt that the blogosphere can't be endlessly entertaining check out Wonkette. This post on the sexual habits of republicans versus democrats is priceless. . .

Suck My Code

As much as I love reading Chardin, Hobbes, Hegel, Locke, etc., there is only one philosophy that is ultimately relevant - mathematics. The rest is balderdash and chicanery. My hobby brought me to number theory, and, eventually, what has become more than a hobby - has become an obsession, really, and that's cryptography. A like-minded friend sent me a link to a beautiful little article documenting the history of cryptography, and I had to share it here. I have read David Kahn's seminal history, Codebreakers, and it's equally long but relentlessly exciting fictional counterpart, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, numerous times. And both offer rigorous and extended exposition on the technical aspects of crypto. But this article, The Code War, is a short and succinct history of this most fascinating science. I knew it was worth sharing when halfway through the article I found myself thirsting for a quick overview of the ramifications of quantum computing on cryptography and it is promptly detailed at the end of the article. Check it out.

John McCain. . . is Dora the Explorer

We have talked about GWB and KRove's 2000 assertions about John McCain's homosexuality, black kids, and penchant for fucking black whores. Well the right wing zealot hate machine's new tactic seems to be asserting he is an illegal immigrant. . . really.

The Spy Who Came in from the Tropics

It is always a treat when the real news goes all John Le Carre. Check out this. Not only do you have suitcases full of cash, inept bureaucrats, and crooked oil executives, you get the King of Unintended Comedy, Hugo Chavez.

What Pakistan Really Wants

Really good commentary here on Pakistan's recent hire of a bunch of lobbying and PR firms to repair it's image. . .

My Cocktail Waitress Reads Howard Zinn

As regular readers know,I have a big problem with the furor over our newly important caucus here in Nevada this year. These problems stem from a lifetime here in Vegas and are more eloquently described here. But the Intelligentsia is creaming over the new found power of Vegas. In particular, the Culinary Union has been portrayed as a powerful voting block and bastion of old school union solidarity and political awareness. This is a lie that really illustrates how lazy, slanderous, ignorant, and disgusting the media elite has become - coverage on everything from Iraq to international trade to presidential politics is completely motivated by ideology, one way or another.

I wish Culinary was some Cesar Chavez-esque paragon of progressive politics. It isn't. First and foremost, the union has 60,000 members in a city with 2 million plus people. It's members are overwhelmingly Hispanic, and, while obviously this is a difficult statement to prove, just my anecdotal experience in the union leads me to suspect that a decent percentage of those Hispanics are illegal. The union does boast ESL classes, but it hasn't really trickled down throughout the membership. Now I don't have any real problems with any of this - Vegas could not function without migrant workers, legal and illegal both. But when you look at the union, and the service industry in general here, when you look at their levels of education and their levels of ignorance in political matters and current events in general, you will get an overwhelming sense of fear that they have been bestowed any political power. However, I think they're power has been overstated, especially if local history is any indication.

Case in point - Vegas is dotted with video poker bars on pretty much every corner, especially in suburbia. These bars run the gamut as far as ownership, from mom and pop to corporate monolith. Their function is to pretty much separate locals from their money using video poker, a game whose popularity astounds me, but whose importance to the economy cannot be overstated. Awhile back, Vegas ran a prop question regarding smoking, that was seemingly aimed at these establishments - the big casinos, of course, were exempt. Can still smoke there, even next to the theatres, bowling alleys and arcades that serve as child care while you gamble away your child's tuition - The bar owners went nuts. Addictive behaviors tend to go hand in hand - drinking, smoking, playing video poker. And Vegas is a smoker's town, especially among the service industry that frequents these establishments in droves. But the prop passed. Exit polls showed that 70 some odd percent of the voters for the prop never frequented these establishments - they were soccer mom-types playing nanny. Now, of course the prop would have been defeated had those most closely affected shown up - but they couldn't be bothered to vote.

This could change, however. Bill Clinton, Edwards and Obama have all been showing up at the union hq fairly regularly. The aforementioned ignorance of the rank and file makes them susceptible to the kind of protectionist garbage they will no doubt be spewing. Ignorance mobilized - that is dangerous.

"I smoke. If this bothers anyone, I suggest you look around at the world in which we live and shut your fuckin' mouth." - Bill Hicks

Mitt Romney is a Douchebag

You know, I don't hate the GOP and I am not even really a Democrat, but I do have an intense dislike for Mittens. As I am sure you can discern from my previous posts. But this was on DailyKOS today, and I thought it was funny.

Mitt Romney is a Pathological Liar

The GOP debate in South Carolina was not without it's fireworks. Course you know it's a Fox debate when, on a stage with a couple possible presidents the biggest douchebag is the moderator. Not saying that Chris Mathews or Katie Couric aren't massive douchebags, but Brit Hume. . . how bout some classic Brit Hume? Mitt Romney continued to prove he is not only a massive pussy, but also either a) a moron or b) a liar. And since we all know he is not a moron. . . Mr. Romney, who has put all his eggs into his daddy's basket, jumped on Senator McCain for his admission that the manufacturing jobs leaving Michigan and the rest of the Rust belt are not coming back. McCain is right, of course - he tends to be quite often. And Mitt Romney, who I am quite sure has a healthy grasp on international trade and David Ricardo, seems to jump at the chance to lie to voters that not only can he court the jobs back but that it would be a good thing. Which it wouldn't be. As a country, we shouldn't want those jobs. Let China and the other developing countries have them. It's the job of our politicians to make the transition to an even more efficient high-tech and service economy, and to provide a safety net and education to those who lose their jobs. The scary thing about this is Romney is a republican. For all the GOP's faults, and they are numerous, trade has always been an area where they could be truth brokers. The democrats have always had to pander to unions, so they find it convenient to circumvent the truth. Bill Clinton made some inroads in this area, but they are quickly being demolished by his wife, Edwards and Obama. I realize that politicians have to pander to a certain extent, but Romney's pathological pander-fests are so naueseating. . . I just want to wrap my hands around his neck and scream what the fuck would you lose for?

The Taliban's New MAC Girl

While the assasination of Benazir Bhutto has provided an entertaining litany of ignorance from various presidential candidates and pundits alike, the real emerging star seems to be Baitullah Mahsud, the Taliban commander controlling the "lawless" Pakistani West who evidently masterminded the assassination. I assume his staunch advocacy of female circumcision and judicious use of eyeliner brought him to power. . . Despite the media's obsession with Osama bin Laden, these are the type of men we need to be cognizant of - the face of our enemy, if I may be so bold. And check out this photo essay in case you forgot how fucked up the Taliban is.

Orson Scott Card, Ender, and Fucking Lois Lane

You can know too much about people - it's the curse of the information age. Just an example - I am a big Smallville fan, and my desire to fuck Erica Durance(Lois Lane) plummeted after hearing her ramblings on Stern awhile back. I mean, I am still going to watch and all, but it's irritating to say the least. Orson Scott Card has been at the forefront of Sci-Fi literature for a long time now. I am sure most are at least aware of Ender's Game, and Speaker for the Dead is one of the best sci-fi novels ever. The Shadow novels are like porn for Risk players. But OSC runs a website/blog at Hatrack River, and for some reason I read it religiously regardless of the ridiculous drivel that he consistently posts. . .

A War of Gifts is a new novella in his Enderverse, a Christmas gift to his fans. It has been sitting on my nightstand for awhile, which is kind of odd because normally a 1 nighter by OSC would have been devoured quickly. But I had been reading about this novella for a bit, and was apprehensive. See it's more awkward, heavy-handed political rhetoric than anything else. The story revolves around a Battle School kid who is a pacifist - he refuses to fight in the Battle Room on religious grounds - but was savagely beaten by his Father throughout his childhood. Daddy was a minister of some wacky home grown denomination, and had convinced the kid that Santa Claus was evil. After witnessing a christmas gift exchange between some other students, the boy flips and goes to Colonel Graff. Evidently religion is strictly forbidden at Battle School. The offending kids are reprimanded, but promptly begin to celebrate Christmas openly in rebellion. This sets off a powder keg of religious tension at the decidedly internationalist Battle School. More awkward political posturing ensues, and then Ender comes and saves the day.

All very pedestrian and simple - this is not the kind of thing that OSC excels at. But to tie it to Ms. Durance. . . OSC is LDS. As we are seeing in Mittens' presidential campaign, here and here, Saints in the public eye tend to really go overboard in professing their zeal for "traditional American values," which is code for the intellectually stunted and morally reprehensible brand of Christianity practised by the evangelical movement. It's a defense mechanism - evangelicals claim mormons are not christian, a hateful and dubious claim that tends to really enrage mormons. But whereas your average mormon is probably content on ignoring and avoiding evangelicals at all costs, much like myself, the politically minded mormon cannot. And we all know why. On Hatrack, OSC has for years been espousing his allegiance to the Hate-Darwin crowd, among other things. He has also in various columns defended the literary bona-fides of such luminaries as Tom Clancy and JK fucking Rowling, and insinuating a liberal conspiracy regarding the proliferation of string theorists in physics departments around the country. Oh yeah, and he consistently defends - no recommends - such horsemen of the Apocalypse as American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and Dancing With the Stars. He claims to be a democrat, but if his progression - or regression depending on where you stand- into right wing orthodoxy is any indication, he is a Sept 11th republican a la Dennis Miller. All this is well and good, and if OSC wants to spout his political views, more power to him - shame on me for continuing to rubberneck at his site. Check it out for yourself.

However, I love the Ender books. I hate to see Ender, and the literature as a whole, become such a blatant vehicle for OSC political rhetoric. I curse myself for reading his site, because I can't help but wondering if I would have been able to shut out his message and enjoy the novella had I not been so familiar with his motivations. Like I curse myself for listening to Stern for killing all my deviant and wonderful sexual fantasies regarding Lois Lane. But hey, at least we still have Supergirl.