Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Interesting...

Somewhere, Sartre is laughing.

I just read a story on Yahoo News about a young Australian man who sold his life on EBay.

A 24-year-old Australian surfer who sold his life, including baggage from a painful break-up, on eBay says he is still not quite sure why he did it.
Nicael Holt sold his name, phone number and all his possessions, including clothes, CDs, a surfboard, a laptop, a wonky pushbike, childhood photos and a "nice lamp" given to him by an ex-girlfriend, on the internet auction site.
The successful applicant bid 7,500 dollars (5,790 US) last week to become Holt, right down to spending Christmas with his parents and inheriting "some tension with a former ex from a painful break-up."
The identity of the eBay auction winner is known only as ridderstrade.
Holt, a philosophy student from the southern coastal city of Wollongong who has set up a website to explain his actions and ask for donations to charity, said he was unable to explain why he sold his life.
"Im still racking my brain to come up with the answer or any answer as to why I did this?" he wrote.
Motivating factors were boredom and intrigue as to what constitutes a life and what made him who he was.
He added he was "hoping to make a point that the amount and type of things that are for sale in this world is insane and wasteful."
In his sales pitch, Holt said the winner would be entitled to a four-week training course in how to be him -- including lessons on how to surf, climb, skateboard, fire twirl and do handstands -- as well as two months of on-call support afterward.
He also promised to introduce the winner to all his friends and potential lovers, including eight people he had been flirting with.
"Lifestyle is very social. It includes a lot of going out," he noted on his eBay advert.
"Friends will treat you exactly as they have treated me. This includes friends who take me surfing, running, climbing and cook for me. All of these features will be transferred over to the winning applicant."
His legal identity, passport, qualifications and future inheritance were not for sale.

What an amazingly existential thing to do. Or an amazingly adolescent one. To be so miserable in your own life that you are willing to sell it in order to start over. What a statement about the times we live in! He actually managed to sell it! I read a bit about him, what he had written on his website, and I can't imagine why he would want to sell. No divorce, no scandal, no money troubles. Just unlucky in love. And someone else, somewhere, wants a new life enough to pay for it. I am flabbergasted by the whole transaction. It is possible, after all, to completely change your life without commerce entering into it. People do it every day. Yet there are two people in the world sufficiently...I don't know what...to buy and sell a life. Bizarre. Philosophically brilliant, because it leads to all manner of questions. What is a "life"? Is it able to be bought and sold? Not a person, mind you. They have been bought and sold for millennia. But a place in space and time that you have created, complete with other people, places, and identity. I still can't decide whether this is the bold action of a philosopher, or the juvenile behavior of someone who wants to change everything because he didn't get his own way. This one is a thinker. good night and good luck...stimp

Saturday, January 27, 2007

I can't help it...

OK, this is really pathetic and fan girl of me, but I have to...


Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Keith...

Happy Birthday to you!



(Many thanks to Olbermann.org for the wonderful photo!)

good night and good luck...stimp

Monday, January 22, 2007

No. Really. You're kidding me.

Yesterday, as I was perusing my daily email from Firedoglake, I came across this little gem, and thought I'd share:


National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2007 A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

National Sanctity of Human Life Day serves as a reminder that we must value human life in all forms, not just those considered healthy, wanted, or convenient. Together, we can work toward a day when the dignity and humanity of every person is respected.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 21, 2007, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies and to underscore our commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being.

Now, I am well aware that this statement was a pity fuck for the Righteous Right, who W has used brutally, and then never called until the next time he was needy. And it is the anniversary of the decision in Roe v. Wade. But this is beyond the pale, even for the Idiot in Chief.

Who in the Hell does he think he's kidding? "We must value human life in all forms, not just those healthy,wanted,or convenient". Tell that to the people in Iraq, those who can't afford proper health care, or the people in the 9th Ward in New Orleans. Never have so many people failed to be "healthy,wanted,or convenient". Tell that to all the people waiting for the potential miracle that stem cell research and treatments could bring. Talk about unhealthy AND inconvenient.

I am sick and tired of abortion, and reproductive rights, carrying all the water for this idiot's personal agenda. I would like to make one thing clear: NO ONE WANTS TO HAVE AN ABORTION! For a great many reasons. People, for the most part, don't prance about saying "Well, whatever, I can always have an abortion". I had to consider the prospect myself at one point. Fortunately, I never had to go through with my decision. But it wasn't happy. I was sick, and sad, and wondering, and second guessing.

Which seems to be a luxury this President doesn't worry about. It must be nice to be so certain of your rectitude, that you can slap a couple of layers of polyurethane varnish on your opinion and call it right. But to actually say he wants to "underscore our commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being". Again, he must really be delusional. He's doing a piss poor job of protecting human life in Iraq, either American or Iraqi, and he's going to respect 20000 Americans so much, he's going to send them over into that cluster fuck too. The only kind of human life this man cares about is the one that isn't here yet. Zygotes don't make mistakes, don't ask for money, aren't liberal, and can't see right through him. Once a child gets here, they are much more difficult, not quite so easy to deal with as they were in the abstract. They start needing food,and shelter, and education, and all the stuff that makes those of us already born such a pain in the ass.

Well, celebrate your "National Sanctity of Human Life Day", Mr. Bush. Throw that big bone to the anti-choice fundamentalists, and forget all about the humans who are already here, needing someone to recognize the sanctity of their human life. The poor, the sick, the battle scarred and war torn. Those who have given everything, and those who have had nothing to give. We'll keep trying to take care of the rest, W. That's what liberals do, when we're not off having abortions and stuff. good night and good luck...stimp

Thursday, January 11, 2007

I take it back

I thought I was nuts. Blind screaming insane. I'm not even close. I sat through W's speech last night and thought, "He's got me beat by a country mile". I thought he was just being stubborn. Now I think he is delusional. PTSD got him on September 11th, and he's been gonzo ever since. Does he really believe that if we send a drop in the bucket's worth of troops to Iraq, it will make one iota of difference? He spoke of Iraqi police going around neighborhoods introducing them selves and making everything all right. Who is he kidding? There has been bad blood between Shia and Sunni since before there was a United States. We tend to forget that the Middle East is called the "Cradle of Civilization" for a reason. They had writing and math while my ancestors were still grunting around fires. Well, maybe not grunting, but you get the idea. After all of the history of the Middle East, Israel, the Crusades, and everything else, what does he expect? That these guys are going to gather around a big campfire hugging and singing "We Are The World", then thank us for showing them the error of their ways? How rude. W, after all this strife, still understands nothing of the culture and people there.

And to make things even more special, he's sent a carrier group to perch near Iran, and is making noises about Iran and Syria. I'm not swearing to it, but I don't figure those guys are scared of the big, bad, United States. The "insurgents", the "terrorists" he's managed to get stirred up in Iraq, where there were precious few before, have our guys by the balls, and are squeezing.

So now we're sending 22,000 new targets. Not enough to really accomplish anything, and too many to risk. I agree with Michael Moore, in a letter posted on his site last night, and which I will post with great thanks here. We're in a position now where we cant win, we can't leave, and we can't do anything constructive. Thanks, George. good night and good luck...stimp

1/10/07
Dear Mr. President,
Thanks for your address to the nation. It's good to know you still want to talk to us after how we behaved in November.
Listen, can I be frank? Sending in 20,000 more troops just ain't gonna do the job. That will only bring the troop level back up to what it was last year. And we were losing the war last year! We've already had over a million troops serve some time in Iraq since 2003. Another few thousand is simply not enough to find those weapons of mass destruction! Er, I mean... bringing those responsible for 9/11 to justice! Um, scratch that. Try this -- BRING DEMOCRACY TO THE MIDDLE EAST! YES!!!
You've got to show some courage, dude! You've got to win this one! C'mon, you got Saddam! You hung 'im high! I loved watching the video of that -- just like the old wild west! The bad guy wore black! The hangmen were as crazy as the hangee! Lynch mobs rule!!!
Look, I have to admit I feel very sorry for the predicament you're in. As Ricky Bobby said, "If you're not first, you're last." And you being humiliated in front of the whole world does NONE of us Americans any good.
Sir, listen to me. You have to send in MILLIONS of troops to Iraq, not thousands! The only way to lick this thing now is to flood Iraq with millions of us! I know that you're out of combat-ready soldiers -- so you have to look elsewhere! The only way you are going to beat a nation of 27 million -- Iraq -- is to send in at least 28 million! Here's how it would work:
The first 27 million Americans go in and kill one Iraqi each. That will quickly take care of any insurgency. The other one million of us will stay and rebuild the country. Simple.
Now, I know you're saying, where will I find 28 million Americans to go to Iraq? Here are some suggestions:
1. More than 62,000,000 Americans voted for you in the last election (the one that took place a year and half into a war we already knew we were losing). I am confident that at least a third of them would want to put their body where there vote was and sign up to volunteer. I know many of these people and, while we may disagree politically, I know that they don't believe someone else should have to go and fight their fight for them -- while they hide here in America.
2. Start a "Kill an Iraqi" Meet-Up group in cities across the country. I know this idea is so early-21st century, but I once went to a Lou Dobbs Meet-Up and, I swear, some of the best ideas happen after the third mojito. I'm sure you'll get another five million or so enlistees from this effort.
3. Send over all members of the mainstream media. After all, they were your collaborators in bringing us this war -- and many of them are already trained from having been "embedded!" If that doesn't bring the total to 28 million, then draft all viewers of the FOX News channel.
Mr. Bush, do not give up! Now is not the time to pull your punch! Don't be a weenie by sending in a few over-tired troops. Get your people behind you and YOU lead them in like a true commander in chief! Leave no conservative behind! Full speed ahead!
We promise to write. Go get 'em W!
Yours,
Michael Moore

Monday, January 01, 2007

Mr. 3000

OK, so I know everyone will be calling him that. I've seen it on Firedoglake already.

I am not going to blog a long time today. It is a holiday, and I have things to do. But when I got online to check my mail after a wonderful New Year's Eve party with my family, I discovered we had cracked 3000.

Three thousand men and women have come, or soon will come, back from Iraq in a box. If we're being told the truth, and if they are lucky. Thousands of mom and dads, brothers and sisters, wives, husbands, children, and friends have lost something precious. I know that you know all this. I know it's not the last milestone number we will pass. I know that the idiot in the White House and his thugs are going to send more to be killed.

And it pisses me off.

I've heard the arguments for, the arguments against. I've heard about volunteers to our military. I've heard every justification and lame ass excuse in the world for this horrifying abortion in Iraq. And none of them are good enough. Not to excuse the loss of one life. Not an Iraqi, not an American, not an Ally, not even Saddam Hussein, and I was no fan of his either. This continuous slow bleed of lives, and gushing eruption of tax money, must end. Now. I could rant on for days about the variety of ways in which I hate Mr. 3000, and the variety of torments I expect he'll enjoy when he passes from this life into the next. But it's New Year's, and there's football and family. Happy New Year, and peace, most especially, to all this year. good night and good luck...stimp