gchat, the economic crisis, outmoded halloweenisms

me:  people keep comparing this thing to the great depression... but no one seems to mention that we are a MUCH WEALTHIER country now than we were then...  i mean, things are going to suck, but not nearly as badly as they did in the 30s. 
Anna: I certainly hope that that is trueI imagine that it will suck a lot for a lot of people  but since I wasn't alive in the 30s, I really have nothing to compare it to 
me: also a good point.
Anna: and most people don't  we just know it was bad  and we don't want it


unrelated: the term "trick-or-treater" strikes me as a poor way to describe small children panhandling for candy. also, since the tricking is no-longer really part of halloween practice, it's misleading.

and i thought m-w.com's definition was kind of amusing: (n) a children's Halloween practice of asking for treats from door to door under threat of playing tricks on those who refuse

pizzas

made pizza again on sunday. it's been a while since i've posted some pizza photos. you'll notice the upskirt shot displays some pretty decent dots of char-ishness for a pizza made in a conventional oven. this is because i am a genius.

is no news good news?

Gorgon is back with a vengeance and a taste for dancey confections:




went apple picking on sunday in hood river, which is beautiful place to get some produce on a sunny october day—views of mount hood and autumnal leaves everywhere. also: alpacas, which are kind of like gangly camel–giraffes (camaffes? giramels?). very awkward. they remind me of Bill from Freaks and Geek, probably only because i've been recently re-viewing F&G with Laurel and Tom.

wassah!

Obama's Loss Traced To Will Fain



thanks, TLee.





thanks, kyle.

i'm just trying to solve a problem.

Raphael Saadiq. 100 Yard Dash.

deslonde.

the opening of the Anita Roddick Advocacy Center at CGR:

more mimesis

A sentiment often expressed in the last five years by a number of people I know, but no one seems to have articulated it quite as well as DFW ("Just Asking," The Atlantic; click the quote to read the rest of the short article):
 

Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea* one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs, "sacrifices on the altar of freedom"?* In other words, what if we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea? And, thus, that ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our democratic way of life—sacrifices not just of our soldiers and money but of our personal safety and comfort?

...and why it's hard to swat 'em.

and more fun at science friday.

√0

why is it that i keep hearing about and reading in news outlets such things as "women voters will make a difference no matter who wins," "Latino Vote Could Be Deciding Factor," and "Women's Votes Could Determine Election Outcome"?

saying latinos, women, the middle class, or any substantial american demographic will affect the election is stating the obvious. it's like saying american citizens will affect the election. it's great that certain previously ignored demographics are having attention paid to them (i.e. they're being pandered to), but regardless of whether they're noticed or not by politicians or the media, clearly they have sway in the outcome of the election with the handy use of their vote (or non-vote, which depending on your perspective can have a variety of meanings; and for the sake of this argument, let's go with DFW's p.o.v., being that for every vote not cast someone else's vote counts double).

the other thing that irks me about these stories is that by saying one demographic's vote is key, it implies that somehow another demographic's vote is not key. the "Latino Vote Could Be Deciding Factor" headline says to me that voters of other ethnic backgrounds will not have a hand in deciding the election, which is bogus. if they were saying that all these other demographics are all locked up for one candidate or another, and the latino voters were still on the fence about things, they might have a point, but i hardly think that the latino voters are much more or less decided than any others.

these stories are fluff.

i'm also tired of news sources announcing new campaign ads (though it's nice when they point out the lies in them) for myriad reasons, which i cannot quite articulate right now.

the end.

the back end of the hope machine.

Bill Ayers from, coincidentally, a Sept. 11, 2001 article in the New York Times:

'I don't think you can understand a single thing we [the Weather Underground] did without understanding the violence of the Vietnam War,'' he said, and the fact that ''the enduring scar of racism was fully in flower.'' Mr. Ayers pointed to Bob Kerrey, former Democratic Senator from Nebraska, who has admitted leading a raid in 1969 in which Vietnamese women and children were killed. ''He committed an act of terrorism,'' Mr. Ayers said. ''I didn't kill innocent people.'

Burrow, burrow, burrow. Sleep. Burrow. Lay Larva. Eat Brains.

Y'know, we lefty types like to complain about the fear-mongering of the conservatives. What Obama is doing is essentially the same thing. When he talks about McCain, he's warning Americans, don't vote for this guy, you'll end up in the poor house, breathing in toxic waste without any means of attaining medication, while having to simultaneously take care of your aging, atrophying relatives, with only pickles to eat and burlap sacks to wear. Not to mention the flooding from the melted ice caps, the hurricanes, and ice storms and subsequent frostbite, gangrene, self-amputated limbs, succeeding infections, further amputations and infections and amputations. Essentially what Obama is saying is that if McCain is president, we will no longer be a people, we'll be dead. OK, maybe he doesn't quite go to those lengths, but he's essentially doing the same thing that Bush did to get back into office only instead of saying his opponent is a sissypants who'll let terrorists into your bedroom, he's saying his opponent will probably eat your children to celebrate the bombing of Iran. It's the same thing that McCain is doing when he says Obama will run around with a white flag of surrender capitulating to terrorists and "rogue states" at every opportunity.

"We're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free [if you vote for the other guy]." —Sarah Palin

Also I heard on NPR today that Obama is outspending McCain 20 to 1 on TV ads in Indiana. It's nice to know America hasn't given up on capitalism and a vote is always for sale.

Our democracy is the suck right now.

moldy gold.

McCain from last night's debate, in response to a question about priorities in his platform:

We can work on nuclear power plants. Build a whole bunch of them, create millions of new jobs. We have to have all of the above, alternative fuels, wind, tide, solar, natural gas, clean coal technology. All of these things we can do as Americans and we can take on this mission and we can overcome it.

My friends, some of this $700 billion ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations.

As far as health care is concerned, obviously, everyone is struggling to make sure that they can afford their premiums and that they can have affordable and available health care. That's the next issue.

What? How did that get in there? Is McCain implying that the bailout money is being handed to terrorists? Or maybe that the executives of the financial companies are terrorists? Which, if it's the latter, I would then agree. Perhaps atypical terrorists, but the crisis they've orchestrated is certainly terrifying. The $700 billion could also be a reference to some other pool of non-bailout money... who's to say what's going on in that pretty little head of his.

In other news, I've started going to this kickboxing exercise class with Tera and Marty (or Kung Fu class as Marty lovingly refers to it). It makes it hard to lift my arms, which I'm learning were not made for exercise, but rather for dangling.

Also: =w= concert tomorrow. I'm cautiously optimistic. Though they wouldn't have to put forth much effort to improve on their previous couple of performances I witnessed.