The Micro and Macro of Spending

The day after my birthday was my afternoon off.  Mary and I were together, enjoying each other’s company and trying to make responsible spending decisions.

Irrationalities

I’ve been hearing a lack of reason in the current debate over how to deal with our violent culture, including through gun control.  I can’t go very deep with this subject, because the flaws in these arguments are so obvious, but I still feel the need to give some simple reactions.

I Want a Revolution Like This One

Historically speaking, most political revolutions do not end well.  They create violent, bloody counter-revolutions in reaction.  The American Revolution (1775-1783) was highly unusual.  We didn’t have a counter-revolution.  There are other kinds of revolutions too, revolutions in ideas.

Election Day Trivia

Archie Roosevelt, with Presidential pet badger Josiah, who bit visitors.

WOO-HOO!  It’s OVER!  Those suffering from arrested development will continue to whine for a bit if their man or woman didn’t win, but the wisest will progress to more important matters.   Like raking leaves, cleaning the gutters, and throwing out those stupid lawn signs.

The Talking Dead

(You may stop selling.  I have already voted, by mail.) “Chaaange!  CHAAANGE!”

Because Presidential elections follow a week after Halloween, it’s fun to make visual associations between traditional zombies (the walking dead) and politicians (the talking dead).

Controversial Films (Pt. 3)

Sex! Violence! Politics! (The Late Sixties)

In the 1960s, a number of factors converged to produce changes in what were acceptable subjects for filmmaking.  In America, the studio system was in sharp decline, and the self-censorship rules known as the “Hays code” were abandoned.  There were “new wave” movements in England and France as well as the U.S.  Independent films made with smaller budgets and crews were finding larger audiences.  These kinds of movies covered topics rejected by the more risk-averse studios.

Are We Better Off?

So I guess it’s supposed to be the election of 1980 all over again, and the relevant question assumes that I and everyone else must base “better” solely on whether we have more money.

UNconventional

Sidse Babett Knudsen, as PM Birgitte Nyborg

Ah, politics.  The fakeness, lies and weasel-words.  The facade of assumed importance.  The grand parade of lifeless commodities.

Get Used To It

There’s more than one way to learn acceptance and understanding, but the fastest way I know is to make friends with people who are different than you are.

Weeds, Bigwhigs, and Know-Nothings

I’ve read a number of opinions lately that American politics has become crazier and less civil than ever before, and that things have never been so bad in general.  It’s the justification for the need to “take back America”.  But if you look at our history, it’s easy to see that much of what we are experiencing now is just a re-run.

Understanding the U.S. Occupation

As often happens during a revolutionary movement, icons will be mis-quoted and appropriated and remolded for other purposes.

Maybe I Need a Hug

Saints preserve us, I’m going to talk politics, sort of.  I try not to, because the way people talk politics is so limiting, exclusionary and insensitive I get upset and angry just being exposed to it.  I’m married to an ex-news writer, but I generally ask her to don headphones if she intends to watch news in my presence.