04.30.08
I’ve been paying attention
Blogging has been light the past few days. That’s because life is good, professionally speaking. I’ve knocked out a couple of things for Indie-music.com’s May issue – a review of a lackluster CD, but also a very cool interview to which I’ll link when it comes out. Also doing some copywriting for a PR / marketing guy I’ve worked for over the years. I also had to do next Sunday’s Republic column (on why nuclear proliferation isn’t a bigger issue this political season). I’ve also been lining up musical associates for several upcoming gigs. Also grading papers and getting ready to administer tonight’s final exam.
I have been paying attention to the world around me, though. It’s wacky out there, ain’t it?
Were you like me when you heard about Miley Cyrus’s Vanity Fair photo shoot? I immediately thought, “Oh, no, our sordid, rotten culture nabs another Disney kid.”
I doubt if Obama’s denunciation of Rev. Wright yesterday ends the matter. That would depend on the Trash Talker from Trinity not shooting his mouth off any more. How likely is that? Plus, He Who definitely Doesn’t Walk On Water sounded, shall we say, less than resolute when he said, “I mean it.” Not the man he met twenty years ago? Oh, please. And if he’s that poor a judge of character, we sure as hell don’t want him sitting down one-on-one with Kim, Ahmadinejad and Chavez.
Iran looks to be a front-burner issue. There’s yet another warning-shot-to-a-speedboat incident in the Persian Gulf, another American aircraft carrier sailing into that body of water, more proof of Iranian weapons and Iran-trained bad guys turning up in Iraq, and, of course, Dennis Ross’s warning to that Toronto congregation that the West has less than a year to prevent Iran from having nukes.
Gas prices won’t be coming down any time soon, for two main reasons: Mideast tensions and Congress’s refusal to allow drilling in places like ANWR and the Gulf of Mexico.
Environmentalists aren’t just dweebs; they’re agents of misery. Riot-causing food shortages are menacing the entire world, in no small part because of the diversion of perfectly edible grain into biofuel production.
Zimbabwe’s oppostion is bravely trying to see that political justice and national stability prevail. Robert Mugabe is showing us how evil dictators operate when they have no more ability to dress up their motives as anything civilized, like “the national interest.”
As I say, it’s wacky out there, ain’t it?
Mr. Dings said,
May 2, 2008 at 10:54 am
Re: gas prices. Evidently Congress will not do something about drilling stateside until our collective feet are hurting. You know, Carter was correct, all those years ago. But, without correction, we got SUVs and they were the coolest, while the cool drove them. Ahh, desire…..
Mr. Dings said,
May 3, 2008 at 12:31 am
Anyhow, it’s all about finger pointing these days, it seems. Strange how we’ll fall all over ourselves to grow corn to drive to the somewheres/everywheres we demand to drive to, in lieu of feeding the people. Strange days indeed! Most peculiar! What ever happened to the old refrain: “Without going out of my door, I can see the ways of heaven?” Mere poppycock? Or “the further one travels, the less one knows?” Yeah, that’ll sure work here/now, now won’t it?
Mr. Dings said,
May 3, 2008 at 12:32 am
Attention! Attention! Anyhow….
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
May 3, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Well, there’s also the question of how to get the goods and services that make modern life safe, convenient and pleasant invented, built and distributed.
Mr. Dings said,
May 3, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Hey, if it gets bad enough (and I can’t see how it won’t), don’t worry, we’ll drill in ANWR, get it from Brazil, and even fight China for it. Perhaps then, by the time we run out, we’ll find an alternative (like perpetual motion) which might eventually be free and then we’d find something else to get greedy (and protective) over, at best, given a continuing dearth of spiritual development, as evidenced by the past which is only prologue. What in heaven would man be with true and lasting equality?
Mr. Dings said,
May 3, 2008 at 1:36 pm
And maybe someday we can teleport those goods. We certainly do that now for services. Offshoring many of them where we can get them done cheaper. Of course, there’s robotics which is advancing rapidly too.
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
May 3, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Hell, we ought to be drilling in ANWR BEFORE “it gets bad enough.” Like this afternoon.
Mr. Dings said,
May 3, 2008 at 6:39 pm
One man, one vote here in our free land. Did I hear McCain vowing never to drill in ANWR last Jan? Any ideas how to curb free market fuel lusts before it gets so bad that we gotta have gas instead of food (for some poor bastards)?
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
May 3, 2008 at 9:13 pm
As you know, we conservatives don’t have much use for MCain, but because he’s merely a mush-head and not a full-fledged FHer, we’ll be voting for him.
Mr. Dings said,
May 5, 2008 at 12:01 am
I’m leaning back towards him again, now that he has wised up and is distancing himself from Bush, and especially Cheney. Can’t see either of the other two as commander in chief, and, quite frankly, I’m tired of both Bushes and the imperial Clintons. Gotta go clean my gun now. Small town bitterness thing, you know.