Great Shots of Tough Times

From Slate.

Elsewhere Interweb

I see how you would be skeptical about whether the efforts of this woman (Mariane Pearl) would help or harm the state of global terrorism and I would attribute it to the unavoidable pathos you emphasize. Terrorism results in innocent deaths and has religious and socio-economic issues all mixed in. Plus, there's the personal aspect--the assault on ideals--that provokes the darkest parts of our consciousness when attacked.

I would argue that Pearl would have a tremendous responsibility when writing about her husband's death: to not provoke counter-productive hatred. I strongly believe that terrorists should be brought to justice, but it's easy to decide that all Muslims are terrorists (naturally not true), all terrorists are Muslim (not Timothy McVeigh) and that killing them all will make the problem go away (almost all terrorist groups are born out of the socio-economic issues mentioned earlier, so killing them all is a band-aid at best, never-ending genocide at worst).

Unfortunately, Pearl could report with all the nuance in the world regarding terrorism and it might still be counter-intuitive. The problem: audience. Prejudices such as what I mentioned are irrational ideas that aren't easily won over. Sometimes, I wonder if efforts like that of Pearl actually bring about any change.

GTA on NES

"I'm never going hoooooooooooome!"

De Rossi: Sorry for my gay marriage

Excellent.

Consumerism Claims Another Victim

Donna Coltharp once said that owning an iPod is like going to the grocery store and only seeing things you want.

I can't find my grocery store and it's killing me.

On the Post Slowdown

My numbers have been dropping in recent weeks, chiefly due to school work and the rigorous investigation of freelance writing. I originally started this blog to pad my portfolio, exercise my critical thinking abilities and get out some things that have been rattling around my skull. With graduation coming in weeks, matters are coming to a head. Armed with my Writer's Market 2008, advice from freelancers Mark Terry and John Scalzi, and the blessing of Ex-Ziff Davis writer Joe Rybicki, I'm about to forge headlong into the adulthood abyss, the Veldt of vindication, the primeval forest of freelance writers. In this economy, no less. Hubris? Hardly. I come from a long line of rugged-individualists who achieved the American Dream long before our politicians made it empty rhetoric. We've seen worse and lived better than most.

To the five or so of you that have been an audience, please continue to stop by and share this blog with friends and family. It will continue to be my cerebral stockade on media and politics, though updated a little less frequently. I owe you my most humble thanks. Valete!

15 of 20 Return AIG Bonuses

Marcus Baram, of Huffingtonpost, says most of the money is going back.

Leave it to shame to do the work that a non-existent law probably wouldn't accomplish anyway. I'm relieved because I don't think I could back these recent threats of renegade taxation Congress has been throwing around. That government would, indeed, be too big.

This Time, With Common Sense!

Arthur Delaney, of Huffingtonpost, reports that future bonuses are banned. Great, now if we could just stop these sorts of things before they happen.

The reluctant conspiracy theorist in my brain has been turning this issue over since the Wall-Street bonus fiasco and it tells me that we're dealing with a bi-partisan public relations job. Our legislators (both red and blue) conveniently leave out a provision about how bailout funds are used and then chastise firms for misusing them. Reminds me of when police have a bad quarter so they raid a non-violent rave to get some dope on the table and the people believing again. But that's just me thinking out loud on this here electronic interweb communication thingy.

Think About This

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.

Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.

-John Scalzi, on Poverty

Americans cussing more in this economy

A f*cking good read from Diane Mapes, of MSNBC.

While we can all cite instances that inspire foul language — a flubbed golf swing, a flat tire, the latest flap regarding corporate excesses at the taxpayer’s expense — it’s more difficult to put our finger on what, exactly, makes certain words so damned appealing.

Word. Though I'm not sure I buy that we're swearing any more or less than we were twenty years ago. I don't subscribe to the "Hell-in-a-Handbasket" ideology that often substantiates that perspective.

Pope: Abstinence Over Prevention, Rape Over Murder

So this is nothing new (from the AP, via MSNBC), but bear with me:

About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS. In 2007, three-quarters of all AIDS deaths worldwide were there, as well as two-thirds of all people living with HIV.

Rebecca Hodes with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said if the pope was serious about preventing new HIV infections, he would focus on promoting wide access to condoms and spreading information on how best to use them.

"Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans," said Hodes, head of policy, communication and research for the organization.

I don't know if I could have said it better myself. In other news, courtesy of the AAP and Yahoo Australia, a Brazilian Cleric excommunicated a rape victim, her family, and a group of doctors for carrying out an abortion. The victim, a nine-year-old girl raped by her stepfather, could have died from trying to carry a set of twin fetuses to term making the abortion unfortunately necessary, according to the doctors.

"God's law is above any human law. So when a human law ... is contrary to God's law, this human law has no value," [Regional Archbishop Jose] Cardoso had said.

He also said the accused stepfather would not be expelled from the church. Although the man allegedly committed "a heinous crime ... the abortion - the elimination of an innocent life - was more serious".

You've got to be sh*tting me. Both of these reports, bearing both non-utilitarian allegiance to dogma and uncompromising sexism, are exactly why I have left the Catholic church and remain skeptical of any religious institution and the tenants therein.

I understand my skepticism does a disservice to politically realistic, yet religious citizens, particularly those who live far away from where these atrocities happen, but your actions beg the question: What role do you play in this thing want to be a part of? If you believe in the divinity of Christ and his teachings (or other religious foundations) and you take your membership in your group seriously, then you either endorse these atrocities or condemn them. What are you doing about it? Furthermore, if you're cavalier about your membership and believe that excuses you from doing anything, then stop kidding yourself, drop the label, and do something about it anyway. Your fellow humans need you.

Think About This: RE5 Point/Counter-Point Edition

So Resident Evil 5 exposes the perhaps uncomfortable truth that blacks and Arabs can become zombies too, just like anyone else. Blacks and Arabs do not have a secret anti-zombie gene. And just like all the thousands of white, Asian and Hispanic zombies that have been dispatched in innumerable other games before them, the African zombies must also be destroyed, or at least neutralized.

-Seth Schiesel of the New York Times.

So it was no surprise that Jun Takeuchi yanked out that script to defend his video game brainchild Resident Evil 5 from the charge that it's racist. But what else could one call it? It features a white male (modern day Bawana) mowing down a pack of poor, primitive disease-challenged Africans. The white killer is on a search and destroy mission to stop the spread of a deadly virus. The racist game reinforces the worst of the worst ancient stereotypes against and about Africans.

-Earl Ofari Hutchinson of Huffingtonpost.

It's Bobby, like the Brady

What do you know, Bobby Jindal's real first name is Piyush. I wish he would go by it. C'mon, we totally elected a Hussein last year.

Boehner: GOP to communicate, not legislate

Dear lord (Nico Pitney, of Huffington Post, reports).

This makes me worry we might see another one of these.

Wii Price Increase?!?!?!!?

Dustin Quillen, of 1up.com, fills us in on how the Wii got more expensive in the U.K.

But it's the lead that's most striking to me:

As hard as it may be to believe, it's been over two years since the world first got its collective hands on Nintendo's sales-chart-dominating Wii, and we've yet to so much as catch wind of the console's first price drop.

He's right. Every 12-18 months, first-party developers are expected to drop the price of their console, but Nintendo's done no such thing and no one is asking. While some gamers sneered at the Wii's last generation graphics, Miyamoto and Co. revamped the Gamecube with online functionality, innovative controls, and mass appeal. Then they called it the Wii and laughed all the way to the post-recession bank. Admittedly, I'm not a Wii player (PS3 just has the titles I want), but Nintendo is responsible for finishing what Sony started with the Playstation in the late 90's: making video games a permanent fixture in post-industrial cultures.

Stewart Vs. Cramer

Thursday's episode of The Daily Show was a sobering moment in entertainment, journalism, and entertainment journalism.

Just recently someone told me that they don't take Jon Stewart seriously. He's a comedian, sure, but I don't think we will soon find another commentator so willing to give us the truth with a laugh, because the otherwise the truth would hurt so badly.

Think About This

The way to win the war on terror is to democratize the global system and close the gap between the rich and the poor.

-Ad Busters, The Big Ideas Issue 2005

Obama Girl Plays Wii Sports

Damn you Obama Girl for not voting in the primary! You make me a conflicted man.

Anyway, these impersonations are sublime.

Rep. Zach Wamp: Health Care is a Privilege

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

This is Rep. Zach Wamp (R), of Tennessee, speaking out against health care reform under the Obama administration. It's difficult to know where to start here: is it Wamp's insistence that health care "will be completey turned over to the government" (im-f*cking-possible, no U.S. politician is proposing this) or his belief that "gobs" of illegal immigrants are "getting our healthcare" (someone find me the data supporting this, especially when hospitals are happy to hold balances, interest-free, for years on end)? How about the "provisions" he's attributing to Obama, such as financing health care on revoked Medicare benefits and deductions to small businesses? When exactly did Barack Obama start crushing up a**hole pills into his black-forest berry iced tea?

But Wamp's most offensive and dated rhetoric is his belief that Health Care is a privilege, not a right. In the post-prescription lobby world, you damn well believe health care has become a right. Just the rising of cost of prescription meds (always ahead of inflation) has sent too many seniors back to work, to say nothing of those losing their houses or simply going "nekkid" (as Wamp put it) to stay financially afloat. Furthermore, if we learned nothing else from the Great Depression, it's that a government that provides "entitlements" (roads, schools, etc.) generally improves the state of the union.

Above all, what is a Democratic Republic that won't keep its citizenry from getting sick? Where participation equals representation we all have to be well, not bogged down by complicated tax incentives. Wamp knows that lower-middle class parents will mostly be too distracted by work/family/not losing their house to participate in his healthcare solutions. Funny thing, those families are generally more "diverse" than his wealthy political brethren.

Jon Stewart Slams CNBC

Yeah, I know it's everywhere. Some days I'm a trailblazer. Today, I follow.

A Life Well Wasted - Episode Two

The latest episode of Robert Ashley's excellent video game podcast is here, where the host delves in the world of manic game-collecting/archiving.

To those who don't know, A Life Well Wasted is a free online radio show produced in the style of NPR's This American Life. Ashley's impeccable emulation of Ira Glass's vocal cadence is reason enough to download, but it's the host's unapologetic reverence for the hobby that makes A Life Well Wasted time well spent.

EGM's Honesty Their Downfall?

John "Hunter" D. Norman (nice anime reference there), of Die Hard Gamer discusses one major reason why EGM closed:

Ubisoft used to be one of EGM’s biggest advertisers. In December 2007 alone they purchased eight pages of advertisements. By January 2008 they were no longer advertising in EGM. What changed in that issue? EGM gave Assassin’s Creed an aggregate score of 5.83 out of 10, one of Ubisoft’s biggest games of the year. It is said that Ubisoft was actively pushing magazines for positive scores, both threatening to pull advertising from media outlets that did not give high marks, and only allowing media outlets with positive scores to break the review embargo date. EGM would not give in to Ubisoft and in turn Ubisoft would never advertise in EGM again. Talk about holding a grudge. EGM would at least have the satisfaction of blasting another one of Ubisoft’s high profile flops, Haze, with a D+ score and a “Shame of the Month” award.

As subscriber to the bitter end (they still owe me five issues!), this development happened right under my nose. And Ubisoft was one of the smaller companies. Norman goes on to discuss the ad bullying of companies like Capcom, Konami and Nintendo (NINTENDO!). The world has gone mad, I tell you.

Some Home Owners Still Not Helped

John Leland, of New York Times, discusses citizens falling through the cracks of the Housing Rescue Plan:

About 20 percent of the country’s 50 million mortgage holders owe more than 105 percent of their house’s value, and so do not qualify for refinancing under the plan, according to J.P. Morgan.

“The refinance portion of the plan is set up so it provides the least help for the people who need it most,” said Christopher J. Mayer, a professor of real estate at the Columbia Business School. “We’re missing an opportunity to help many more Americans.”

Strangely enough, this quote is in direct contradiction to the plan as discussed here.

This is why we must have computer science taught to Kindergarteners.

Classic.

Changing Media II

Remember that annoying MySpace friend who abused the bulletin function? You had nothing against this person, but you un-friended him/her specifically because theirs was an oppressive blog-slaught of posts on the most minute details of their lives. Nothing significant or quotable, just fifty posts a day on the finer points of The Bachelor and relationship vagueries. Well that person got their due with Twitter, the micro-blogging social network that ranks third in membership worldwide behind Facebook and Myspace.

What makes Twitter special is how it functions as the antithesis of its "superior" networks. There is little in the way of customization: an avatar and a background. Posts are restricted to 140 characters or less. You can't run ads or provide information on the focus of your Twitter. There's no throwing Chris Brown, giving flair or sharing flowers; it's just raw nuggets of your life. There are prominent users such as Oprah Winfrey, Dave Matthews, and Barack Obama, who use Twitter to speak to fans directly. But Twitter best distinguishes itself by encouraging users to post from a mobile device, which has proven in some cases to be life-saving.

As a cultural phenomenon, Twitter embodies the American penchant for offering specialized versions of the same product. If Facebook is an herbal-infused, deluxe fruit drink and MySpace the gaudy, neon-emblazoned energy elixir, then Twitter is the Coke Zero of social networks. It emphasizes boiled-down functionality over myriad distraction. That stripping back of conventions reveals that we have more in common with that MySpace bulletin nazi than we ever wanted to admit. No matter what you take away from the Interweb, the only you thing you can't remove is you.

First Ultimate Showdown: Limbaugh Vs. Steele and Jindal

Establishment: 1
Up and Comers: Zilch-o.

This is the Republican party "evolving".

On Dropping Dollars to Raise The Same

A prevailing conservative idea in our time of economic turmoil is that government spending (as in the stimulus) does not make sense. It's irresponsible and risky to burden ourselves with more debt to grow the economy. I agree, somewhat.

Spending money we don't have is risky, yes, and has the potential to go awry (be irresponsible) also, but what other time in this country's history have we lived otherwise? When have we not taken out loans to start businesses, go to college or invest in properties? When have we not bought cars, boats or houses with borrowed money? When we pay cash out to insurance companies, it's to be allowed to borrow from a pool that others paid into as well. That vast majority of us, regardless of political ideology, are happy put an entire Christmas on credit, so why are roughly half of us speaking out against using the Federal Mastercard to solve the economic crisis?

Now I'll be the first to admit that this phenomenon has something to do with saying one thing and doing another. Some citizens condemn credit and then thrive on it, much to the detriment of their families and futures. But if we've learned anything from U.S. History, it's a matter of what you do with your borrowed money when you get it. It's also a matter of having the money to do anything at all. Ask.com reports that it costs anywhere from $461,000-788,500 to open one McDonald's franchise. Most entrepreneurs don't have this kind of cash under the mattress, so they borrow it and hope to turn a profit. This is how most business is conducted in this country. Whether buyer or seller, you operate on credit until you make money or you go out of business/broke.

So all of this raises the question: if negative spending will turn a profit, then what's the problem? The most recent package returned more capital to the middle class in the form of tax breaks than any bill in U.S. history. If this produces positive Gross Domestic Product, then what's wrong with it? The same goes for alternative energy projects, such as overhauling the federal fleet. These types of programs are about saving lots of money over time (and taking care of the environment).

The problem is ideology. Republican obstructionists are fighting the president (and the citizenry) by standing dogmatically by pet causes, some of which are good and some of which put us in this mess. In order to solve the economic riddle, these causes must be evaluated with a lens that prioritizes the citizenry first. That means, yes, tax breaks, no, deregulation of large businesses, etc.

Thankfully, the country is mostly behind the president, along with the democrats in Congress, a few choice Republicans and the general population. This year, Change will move quickly to your door.