You Fill Me With Inertia

How Most People Respond to GOP Tactics

The Fierce Urgency of Now

Dear Readership,

I received this e-mail in my inbox today.

Kevin --

Barack Obama gave what could be the most important speech of the campaign to more than 9,000 Iowa Democrats in Des Moines this weekend.

Here's how Iowa's top political analyst, David Yepsen, responded yesterday:

Should he win the Iowa caucuses, Saturday's dinner will be remembered as one of the turning points in his campaign, a point where he laid down the marker and began closing on Clinton, the national frontrunner.

So allow me to respond.

Barack--

I'm not drinking the kool-aid. As a blogger, I don't particular feel like regurgitating spin or toting party line at the expense of reality. Nor is it really my duty.

Good luck to you on your second place finish.

Comrade Kevin

Sunday Video

Saturday Song

Game Time

Specifically, it's called NAME THAT RIFF. I have played seven opening riffs from a variety of recording artists. Some are more challenging than others.

Kindly name the tune and the composers.

Winners receive a dose of smug gratification. All ready? Good, let's begin.

Your subject is 1960s Rock and Roll.

Please post your answers in comments below.


1. Example One

2. Example Two

3. Example Three

4. Example Four

5. Example Five

BONUS:

6. Bonus Song

EXTRA SUPER BONUS:

7. Extra Super Bonus

Videotape

When I'm at the pearly gates
This will be on my videotape, my videotape
Mephistopheles is just beneath
and he's reaching up to grab me

This is one for the good days
and I have it all here
In red, blue, green
Red, blue, green

You are my center
When I spin away
Out of control on videotape
On videotape
On videotape

-Thom Yorke

Slap-dash

Today is the most labor intensive day of my training, so I don't even have time to have my appendix out at the moment.

Please enjoy today's video.

Little Babies' Eyes

No alarms and no surprises, please.

The Politics of Panic

(click to enlarge)

The above cartoon underscores my point.

I've taken time out to address a matter I've seen all over the place. Such behavior is evident both in liberal circles and in conservative circles, though each side takes great pains to blame the other for its own sins. Liberals see the imminent rise of Fascism in the form of George the Worst and his gang of neo-thugs. Conservatives fear a Democratic president in 2008 will institute policies that rival the excesses of the Bolsheviks.

These are hyperbolic times, but we cannot afford to resort to cheap theatrics in the process. Yes, I understand the temptation to make a big stink of things in the hopes it will rouse people out of their collective stupor. However, such behavior often backfires.

We humans love to be entertained. A flair for the dramatic lives within most of us. As regards attention from fellow beings some of us, as O.Henry so cleverly put it, take the form of outfielders, and some of us pick them off the bat instead.

Likewise, this flair for the dramatic has some fine old company throughout history. Eschatology appeals to that mad prophet in the wilderness in all of us. We are all Howard Beales and John the Baptists, to some degree or another. At least we think we are, anyway.

We Will Only Be Saved By Aliens

The Male Mind at Work

Ex-People Talk

Here's how conversations with Exs would go if we were a bit more
honest with each other.

CK: Fucking shame we had to make eye contact with each other.

EX: I know. Every time we bump into each other we kind of fall into
this groove of pretending we like each other.

CK: Together we sort of surf the waves of social paranoia, don't we?

EX: Let's pretend we didn't see each other next time, okay?

CK: I think it's time for your Houdini impression, whatd'ya say?

EX: Sounds good. So, I'm going to get a drink from the bar.

CK: And you're with friends, right?

EX: Look forward to seeing you!

CK: Yeah, like an illness.

EX: Don't get run over, k? *smiles*

CK: Die!

EX: Die!

EX: *turns away* Wanker.

CK: Wanker.

And how!

Click to enlarge.

I will gladly take this role. It DOES feel this way sometimes, doesn't it?

News from the Home Front

Posts are going to be scanty for the next few days. Comrade Kevin is participating in a training course which, if successfully completed, would net him a job as an online instructor at a local community college. It runs from today until 16 November.

Thus, he has packed up his digital camera and his sense of righteous indignation for the time being. But, he has enough videos in reserve to keep the readership entertained, he hopes.

Comrade Kevin Unvarnished

One of those dark nights of the soul.

Alabama Man!

File under wrong, wrong, wrong.

Sadly, there are grains of truth to this.

As Chris Rock pointed out, most people in America are poor-ass white people living in trailers, eating mayonnaise sandwiches, listening to John Cougar Mellancamp albums.

So this could be America Man.

The Unpleasant Reality

Rules of Life

1. Wealth and power grant a person the ability to be taken seriously.
2. Small potatoes will always be taken advantage of.


My apologies. I'm a bit peeved at the moment. Comrade Kevin was a victim of identity theft back in August. Someone hacked into his checking account and after doing so, rang up charges at an Atlanta area strip club and a gas station. Either his card was stolen from the mailbox of the apartment where he once lived... or someone hacked into his account via the internet. The latter scenario is more likely.

I hope this someone enjoyed the two lap dances as well as the pack of cigarettes.

Four months later, my former bank wrote to tell me that yes, I was not responsible for those charges. No shit, Sherlock. That's what I said. I resent that it took you four months to discover the obvious.

However, the letter informed me, I would still be responsible for the overdraft charges that resulted from this "error". Need I remind you that the only reason the overdrafts happened in the first place are because of the identity theft. That's like saying, well, we realize that you weren't at fault for being hit by a car, but the impact of your body hitting the car caused some damage so we're taking that money out of your account to cover the expense. Absolutely ridiculous. This is when I really become Comrade Kevin. More like Communist Kevin.

If I had more money, I could threaten the bank with a lawsuit. If I had a big enough account, I could threaten to close my account and go to another bank, and I bet this matter would be dealt with in about two seconds. But since I have a small account, they can pull this kind of shit.

I know money isn't everything, but at times like this, it'd be a big help.

I think I wanna be rich now. Anyone want to contribute to my fund?

The Comrade Kevin Wants to Have Money and Influence Fund.

*Don't worry. Comrade Kevin would an enlightened despot.

Music Friday

Dear Readership,

Comrade Kevin at times gets overwhelmed by how much information is out in the world. He could spent six hours at a time just reading the daily news.

More music therapy forthcoming.

Here's the age old musical question.



forget about

your house of cards.

P.S. Thanks so very much for the love and appreciation. I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!

The Times in Which We Live

I thank my readership from the bottom of my heart for their kind comments. Know that you are all loved dearly. *blows you a kiss*

Rest assured that in another few days, I will get back to commenting on your blogs. Comrade Kevin is feeling the guilt of not giving back more to his friends. I just have to slog through another few days of this withdrawal hell. Life has taught me a lot of lessons, and patience is perhaps the most important one.

Transition:

I hardly ever comment upon, much less acknowledge such things, but the recent Heather Mills banter has grabbed my attention. Paul McCartney's soon-to-be ex-wife speaks the truth, though I wonder if it's not a self-serving tactic. She has articulated perfectly the sort of indignation at our celebrity-obsessed culture that many of us bloggers have been saying for years. Count this as another instance where truth dribbles out even when it's presented as a means of pandering for sympathy. My fear is that such theatrical banter cheapens the truth. Her defiant, pushy attitude, while understandable in this context, has massively backfired. I don't know if she even bothers to contemplate the way she comes across to the rest of us. Self-awareness is a gift that that some people lack. Self-awareness requires a person to put himself or herself in an introspective, and yes, vulnerable position.

That being said, if Heather Mills acted like a contrite, humble, woman-done-wrong-by-man, then the public would sympathize more. Her behavior, dear readership, might be evidence of a double standard against women, particularly those which come across as strong and forceful, but let me remind you there's a difference between narcissism and courageousness. I daresay any man who exhibited similar behavior would be lambasted for different reasons, particularly this wide-eyed, why-is-the-world-so-unfair kind of banter.

Mills says the media is too obsessed with celebrities and pays too little attention to important issues.

“Why are we so obsessed with celebrity culture?” she asked. “We have front-page news about divorces instead of front-page news about global warming, about women being abused, about children being abused. We’re going on a downward spiral.”

Marx said religion was the opiate of the masses. Nowadays, it seems like celebrity gossip and the cult of celebrity serves that role. My first cousin, my mother's sister's daughter, quit being a television anchor on the local news because of the dramatic shift in the news media in which it was decided to focus more on soft news garbage at the expense of hard news.

We are all a bunch of voyeurs, delighting in the freak show but living in fear that someday the cameras might be turned upon us.