i loathe a conspiracy theorist

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/11/21/opinion/100000001183275/the-umbrella-man.html?scp=1&sq=the%20umbrella%20man&st=cse

they waste my time...they distract people from more immediate issues that require their attention in the here and now...they crave attention and are prepared to distort fact and manipulate emotions to get it...i don't care who killed kennedy or if mozart was poisoned or if lincoln was gay...doesn't make on damn bit of difference to my life...lincoln's unconstitutional behavior and the precedent he set for a presidency that was above the law had a direct impact ( especially on nixon) but his sexual orientation was his business....all that speculation is pointless conjecture...as the video points out in its own way, causality is so complex...made up of so many decisions by billions of people each and every day that no-one can have more than the most general idea of what's going on...this guy is correct...you cannot, on your own, think of every possible explanation for any given act...speculation isn't a sound basis for decisions on events...crackbrained speculation even less so...media has been replete with pundits with an agenda ( the freak freidman leaps to mind )...the internet and television only let them reach more people in a more timely matter with this pointless stuff...get a grip.

culture

"development...was, at its core, merely a continuation of colonialism by other means. since two-thirds of the world's nations were defined as 'underdeveloped' this meant that people in most countries needed to look outside their own cultures for economic, agricultural, and educational models."

"nations whose subsistence farmers still form a significant proportion of their overall population, though in recent decades termed 'underdeveloped', may in fact have some advantages in the post-growth world. rather than continuing with ruinous attempts to install fuel-guzzling food and transport systems, these countries should be adopting 'appropriate' or 'intermediate' technology...appropriate technology (at) is typically labor and knowledge intensive rather than capital, resource, and energy intensive. examples include the use of local materials for building, the small-scale generation of power from methane digesters, and the purification of water in households with porous ceramic filters,"

from "the end of growth" by richard heinberg,

colonialism specialized in destroying the traditional cultures it came in to contact with because those cultures gave their members the wherewithal to defy colonial powers...the cultural practices adapted to local conditions provided a reasonably stable way of life...the groups colonialists came across didn't need what the colonizers had so their way of life had to be destroyed for the imperialists to profit...globalization is colonialism disguised with free market propaganda and the missionary urge to "develop" in those poor, backwards souls an appreciation of the wonders of capitalism...as western economies implode and , of necessity, become smaller those that were too remote or too small to be converted may, as heinberg says, be the fortunate ones who haven't lost touch with local ecological realities because they can get strawberries from argentina in winter...they know where they're at and how to make things work...as long as climate change doesn't alter the niche too radically ( and that may be where the idea of "appropriate technology" comes into play)...i started the garden in my back yard as an overflow/control of an anthropology project that i started on campus ( see the garden blog) but it has become something more...aside from something that keeps me occupied it has put me in touch with human endeavor that pre-dates the industrial revolution and mercantile capitalism...adapting to the local conditions through work and thought...choosing the most productive and useful plants to grow in the local environment ( jerusalem artichokes for instance) using those adaptations to the fullest possible extent to be as self-sufficient as possible...in a very small way i am trying to create a culture...and not a minute too soon since i never had one...only consumerism...relentlessly rammed down my throat...i have turned off the tv...picked up some books, seeds, tubers, and gardening tools and tried to reinvent a part of myself that's free from capital and its self-aggrandizing machinations...pretentious? perhaps...but it beats waiting for the hammer to fall and doing nothing more than whistling to scare away the ghouls...no more debt...no more propaganda...you can find me in the garden.

hamilton indana

if there ever was anything remotely resembling democracy in this low rent state it has fled elsewhere...howling into the night...haunted by the visage of a cheapjack low-life governor and his whore minions...i just received this little informational pamphlet concerning the legal status of referendums, re-call elections, impeachment, and voter initiatives here in the hoosier state...referendums are only allowed if the state legislature enacts a law that enables a specific referendum on a specific issue...it is up to the legislature to decide if the referendum is binding or only a"advisory"...like any legislation it should be subject to a gubernatorial veto...the road to a referendum leads to nap-town....there is no such thing as a recall election in this state. "the indiana constitution permits state and local officials to be removed only 'in the manner provided by law' (article 6, section 8[how fitting]) there is currently no indiana law to permit recall elections." officials can be removed for felony convictions of if they show up for work drunk...which could just about eliminate every politician in the state...but you'd have to prove it first, and guess who controls the courts? all very politically convenient...and lastly there is no legal way for voters to initiate a voter initiative, bypassing the legislature to create citizen written laws...the elite is firmly in control of the levers of power...the state apparatus is safely insulated from the fickle and wayward fancies of the mob...the vanguard is in the saddle and they know what's best for us...we can sleep peacefully tonight...wherever he is that rat bastard hamilton is smiling about this.

hours of hobbes and de quincey

"indeed, so great an epicure am i in this matter, that i cannot relish a winter night fully if it be much past st. thomas's day and have degenerated into disgusting appearances of vernal tendencies."
thomas de quincey

the rat bastards at the chamber of commerce and their whore servants in washington gave me back the hour they stole last march...they give it back later and take it earlier every year...the lake of fire is too good for them...bring on the scorpions and ebola virus...and perhaps a dose of guinea worm as a bonus for the wealthiest..a fitting scourge to cleanse the scum from the melting pot...but what's important is it's five o'clock in the evening and it's dark...the weather is set to turn this week as well...i have been outdoors since march and it's time to come inside and sit in a comfortable chair with a good light and do some important reading...and not on a goddamned kindle either...a real book with real pages and a real binding i can crack when i throw some ineffable dreck written by some globalitarian whore across the goddamned room and listen to it hit the wall with a satisfying thud...freidman leaps to mind as a seriously mistaken lapdog of wealth and power and a fine candidate for a fling across the library...there is a season for everything.

"fear of an invisible power, if publicly allowed, is religion, if not allowed, superstition. thus the decision as to what is religion and what is superstition rests with the legislator."
from bertand russell's chapter on thomas hobbes philosophy in "a history of western philosophy."

an astute judgement on religion from a 17th century english tutor and part time philosopher whose book "leviathan" i wouldn't wish on anyone ,except, perhaps, george w. bush...with a stringent and fiercely graded essay test at the end...religion...superstition...in the words of someone i know, "that stuff is all made up anyway."...made up by congressmen according to hobbes...or the 17th century equivalent...whores through the ages still worked in national bagnios...the religious and secular holidays (scrooge's "false and commercial festival" he may have been an avaricious miser but he knew crass commercialism when he saw it)are well and truly upon us...i can tell because the sunday n y times has grown fat with full page color ads for the joys of the consumerist utopia that can still be ours in the wondrous time of contracting economies and tightening credit...how, exactly, the consumer is supposed to pull this miracle out of their collective ass may be best answered by jimmy stewart and donna reed...the 36% of the times devoted to full page advertizing is about desire not financing..."we have the goods, please want them...go out and take one for the retailing team...black friday is just around the corner...make or break time for wal-mart, target, and kohl's...spend like there's no tomorrow...the market needs you."

whoever is prime minister tonight you'll still be exploited

at first i was a bit disappointed that papandreou wasn't tossed out on his ass by parliament but then i got to thinking about politics here in the empire and i realized that the disconnect between the seat of power and the street is pretty much a human universal and that the anarchists are correct when they say it doesn't matter who is in charge...it's the system that produces the politicians and real decision-making takes place in institutions removed from the control of the people...unless the street completely overwhelms the system....and how often does that happen? the same is true here...as i recall there was a lot of rhetoric about change when obamaland assumed the mantle (a somewhat frayed cloak splattered by the mud of tiresome campaigns and endless circuses...less dignified than anyone who wants the job believes) of old george in 2008...how'd that work out? the more things change the more they stay the same...the republicans are indulging themselves in the time honored political pastime of character assassination as only they can do it...mostly because the traditional republican combination of arrogant hubris, strutting, almost il duce-like, exceptionalism, and bedrock stupidity lend themselves so well to it...with that much raw material it's difficult to resist picking up that first handful of mud...so the greek "crisis" continues and the foul stench of the current political death spiral here at home isn't going to do anything but strengthen and intensify...people are taking to the steets here as well...one wonders how their determination will hold out as the weather cools and the nfl playoffs and a new "second season" on hbo beckon...a lot, i suppose, depends on whether or not the economy continues to sour...i haven't been tear-gassed in ages ( i wonder what improvements have been made in its effectiveness in the last thirty-eight years or so? progress marches on) if things continue as they are i may have to leave the garden and join them.

11-5-2011 8:10 am
as a side note i was just reading in the times that papandreou survived with a six vote plurality 153-147, so his survival may not be a true reflection of the greek polity's attitude towards him or his government...you can rely on whores everywhere to vote against the interests of "the voters" most of the time because the interests of their true constituents are inimical to those of the rest of us...he may have survived parliament...the streets are a different matter.

where's mcluhan when you need him?

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/


"before he and his lawmakers walked out of parliament thursday night mr.samaras accused the prime minister of backing off the referendum plan only after european leaders had 'reproached him.' "
n y times 11-3-2011

"everyone to the general strikes!"
from the greek street 11-3-2011

from what i have read the greek prime minister said he dumped the referendum after the opposition in parliament agreed to back the austerity measure that come as the price tag of angela hauling their chestnuts out of the fire again...(this could be the last time she can do that...her days are as numbered as the euro's)...and that rumors of him impending resignation are just that...that may change tomorrow and the folks at occupied london say the street has already erupted as anarchists loot supermarkets and redistribute the food in public squares...so what next for greece...state of emergency? capitalism morphs into fascism when faced with substantive change form below because you can't have the mob taking away your yacht, your porsche, your mansion, your coke, your mistress, or your thousand euro an hour hookers just because they're hungry now can you? let loose the ss or whatever the lapdogs of armed reaction are calling themselves these days and damn the consequences..."i took it and i'm keeping it"...so...who the fuck do you believe? it's like using the stock market as an indicator of what the economy is doing...there's a serious disconnect somewhere...the greek prime minster is a whore politician so i can safely assume anything that warped fucker says is a bald faced lie...no issue there...mr.smamras wants to be prime minister so we can eliminate him as an oracle of the truth as well...the anarchists are...well...anarchists, and while my sympathies are almost always with the underdog and they are clearly correct about the rapacity of capital and fucking central banks, they are prone to say just about anything that comes into their heads if it sounds good or even plausible..their motives may indeed be more pure than those of whore politicians, but they have a tendency to think in teleological terms despite their rants about personal freedom think they know what's best...i'm inclined to whack every european i can find over the head with a kendo stick and shove a copy of "the proper study of mankind" by isaiah berlin under their arrogant noses and tell them to get a grip...(you would have to reduce old isaiah's philosophy down to a thirty minute cartoon[probably starring the simpsons] you could loop through the congressional youtube channel before any of those pathetic louts would pay attention...the empire has doomed itself through its dependence on electronic media for the "truth"...print is dead and so is intellect..you read it here first)...i am called a cynic who believes in nothing and simply sits back and sneers unceasingly...this is patent bullshit but a widely held belief...i am convinced of entropy and the inevitable decline of anthropogenic structures...the euro zone, capitalism, empire, the republican party...all doomed to wear out and suffer massive systemic failures as they grow too complex for even evolved ape's brains to maintain, much less understand...as energy goes so goes the complexity of human systems of thought, production, and control...don't let the techno-optimists confuse you...they only think they have answers...in the end it's safer to believe no-one.