There are no subtitles, but I think that perceived lack actually has a supplementary quality, though I can’t put my figure on what it is yet. Behold, “Im Denken unterwegs”:
As a reward for your continuing dedication:
Bryan Klausmeyer iPhone First Impressions→
Even though I didn’t want to bother covering the iPhone, as it’s basically saturated the MSM over the past few weeks, Alex’s battery-life article is behind the New York Times’s pay wall, so here’s a comprehensive run down of iPhone first impressions from John Gruber of Daring Fireball. Anyone interested in purchasing one should give this a read as it contains a lot of pros and cons not mentioned in more prominent reviews (such as David Pogue’s).
Steve Jobs Is A Battery Fiend→
According to an article in today’s Times, the iPhone, which has already broken the golden calf rule, seems to be breaking an unwritten rule of cell phones: you should be able to take the battery out and replace it at the store, for less than 50 dollars. The lithium polymer battery on the iPhone does not come out and wears out after 300 to 400 charges, which for many people will be after their two year warranty is up. It wasn’t funny with the iPod, and it’s not going to be any better when people find that they have to pay 80 bucks and lose their phone for weeks to get a new battery when the problem was known from the start.
Why would Apple commit such mischief? Joe Nocera, the author of the aforementioned article, probably got it right when he said that Mr. Jobs expects that people buying iPhones are going to want a new phone in two years anyway. While that may be true, it’s a shitty way to run a business.
In light of such overwhelming evidence, even a clown like Bryan Klausmeyer would have to question Steve. iHope.
Alex Taylor This is, The End of All Hope→
Just in case you were tired of him, John McCain has one thing he’d like to remind you of… From the desk of John McCain, who was in the navy:
Dear McCain Supporter,
There are many reasons to support John McCain, but as we approach this quarter’s fundraising deadline tonight at midnight, let me remind you of just one of them…
John McCain is the only candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton.
If you haven’t already done so, I hope you will make a last-minute donation to help our final push before the deadline. Please also pass this message along to your friends and family to remind them of the stakes in this election.
The clock is ticking…
Now sure you might be saying, “Is there any backing for this statement?” and sure, I might say, “no,” but that assertion has the same validity as their’s so the question is… did your mind just get blown?
Mark Elliot Cullen Steady Strain?→
I can’t say I was thrilled when one of my so-called “friends” signed me up for John McCain e-mail updates, but I decided to keep them coming for interest’s sake. Today that decision was rewarded, for I have now learned a thing or two about rigging— one of the most interesting subjects involving ropes.
Dear McCain Supporter,
In the Navy, we often talk of the need to keep a “steady strain” on the lines between ships, to avoid a sudden jerk or movement that could easily snap the line. I’ve always believed a “steady strain” is essential not only at sea, but in life as well.
Politics certainly is not a business of calm seas and light breezes. More like a ship in a storm, in campaign life we ride the high crests and sail through low troughs. I’ve been at the very top and I’ve suffered through the challenges of the bottom. It is through those experiences that I know we must keep the “steady strain.” Our campaign today has already experienced some of this rollercoaster ride, but I strongly believe the “steady strain,” made possible by a strong grassroots organization in the early primary states, is the path to victory. …
Correct me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t a metaphor help explain a situation to an audience instead of alienating them with bizarre naval jargon? I think it’s fairly obvious that John McCain just wants to remind you: He was in the navy!
China Passes a Sweeping Labor Law→
China’s legislature passed a sweeping new labor law today that strengthens protections for workers across its booming economy, rejecting pleas from foreign investors who argued the measure would reduce China’s appeal as a low-wage, business-friendly investment designation.
Damn those dirty Chinese and their growing respect for worker’s rights! Hilarious that the biggest cries for the return to both virtual and actual slave labor in China are foreign investors, multinational companies and America. God bless globalization.
The Strange Case of Chris Benoit→
At first I wasn’t really interested in covering this story (for those that don’t know, Chris Benoit, the former WWE wrestler, recently murdered his wife and son and then killed himself), but things have just gotten a whole lot stranger.
Apparently, Benoit’s biography on Wikipedia had the report of the murder 14 hours before the bodies were found by police. Even stranger, the IP traces back to Stamford, Conn., where the WWE is based.
UPDATE: The editor-in-question has issued a public apology, claiming the edit was just a huge coincidence. Huh.
Catch-22: The Real Threat
Posted at 4:52 PM
Catch-22 is a work that the world’s ruling cabals need to keep closer than their friends. It is no surprise that military academies banned it when it was first published, and it is even less surprising that it’s now part of the required course-load at these institutions. Catch-22 is a book full of ideas that threaten the government, the military-industrial complex, and any other force that exerts unreasonable authority over individuals in the name of a greater interest. Joseph Heller undermines historically sacred concepts that act as modes of control throughout the world, and he does it with thorough, robust, intellectually impressive arguments that happen to also be funny as hell. The steadfast soldier becomes a maniac who shoots mice with heavy weapons in his spare time, the wise general becomes a fool concerned only with his own aspirations of higher stature, and the symbol of authority turns out to be nothing more than a pimp with a good sense of fashion. Heller has a keen eye for bullshit and an ability to make us really see the dark, hypocritical underbelly of the arguments and ideals we were raised to believe were infallible. All the arguments he presents have been explored before, but what Heller does is really hit those points home in rapid fire using a unique style of juvenalian satire.
One of the things that’s so dangerous about Catch-22 is that the book does not come off as a vitriolic rant, but as a voice of reason in a mad world. Catch-22 is not Walden, but rather a seemingly light novel that one might recommend as an enjoyable read instead of just an interesting argument. Until the last leg, Heller makes light of a situation that can be boiled down to a fascist police state, and he manages to make it hilarious. The loopy, completely illogical arguments as to why the men should continue to risk their lives are so otherworldly and beyond the scope of rational thought that one takes them as a given. Yossarian, the main voice of reason in the book, comes off as an intelligent lunatic, and the whole situation just seems zany. The reader accepts the whole story as a humorous take on WWII, and does not consider the situation of the soldiers to be particularly desperate.
Then people start dying, the jaws begin to close, and suddenly a terrible realization comes to light: the catch, catch-22, is that authority can do anything you can’t stop them from doing, including killing you. All the cute circular arguments from before now seem like a choke collar, and the things coming out of the officers’ mouths that seemed like moral reasoning you now see as vomit. Authority will use guilt, greed, pride, and any other sin they can to convince you to keep working for them. You’re killing your friends by deserting. You will be rewarded if you stay on. You are a coward. However, all of these arguments still have to face up to one undeniable fact: there are men who want you to die to accomplish their goals, and all of the things that they can promise you won’t be very useful, because you will be dead. Snowden’s secret reveals itself; man without spirit is garbage, a commodity, livestock to be bought and sold. If the ruling force wants to make you useful, they must subvert your spirit, and then they can do as they please.
After Snowden spills his guts to us in such a grotesque and tragic fashion, the impulse is to avoid sharing his fate. How does one accomplish this, however, against so colossal a force as the modern American military juggernaut? It’s becoming clear that the government has succeeded in subverting the rights of foreigners and the fringe of our own society, and this is looking like a more relevant question by the day. But even if it’s not the government, there will always be some force trying to subjugate man, and the conclusion of Catch-22 is that there is a way to resist these forces. Yossarian, fed up with the systems of power, having refused both to participate in the war and to join the ruling elite, finally decides to abdicate from his position in this society and move to Sweden, where he can face the responsibility of being a human without having to worry about a hierarchal power structure on top of that. This is a clear lesson: one can protest the actions of society and live without subjugation by removing one’s self from the system. All this takes, says Heller (and Thoreau), is courage and a willingness to stand up for convictions.
The easiest way for society to control you, of course, is by making you believe that you’re fighting for yourself, or something you believe in. In some way, it would be better for you to cease to be than for America to lose its interests, or for Cathcart to remain a mere colonel. This book is not about WWII or the struggle against Nazis, but about the struggle between the ruling and the ruled within society. If people wizen up to what Heller is saying, the fabric of society, and particularly the military-industrial complex, would begin to tear. In this light, it makes perfect sense that West Point cadets should learn this book like the backs of their hands: these are the ideologies that threaten them the most, and certainly a whole hell of a lot more than Islamist Jihad or Communism. Those ideologies will put someone on the battlefield against you; the ideas presented in Catch-22 will get you fragged by your own troops.
Use of Race in School Placement Curbed→
Well, it’s all over the news. It seems that support for affirmative action is now on the decline (have we reached the 25-year-bridge O’Connor spoke of?) This was a rather tragic quote I found in the New York Times:
“While I join Justice Breyer’s eloquent and unanswerable dissent in its entirety, it is appropriate to add these words,” Justice Stevens wrote. “There is a cruel irony in the chief justice’s reliance on our decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.”
It’s tempting to side with the dissenters as someone who labels their self a Leftist, but I feel as though the two opinions are presenting a false choice. I would choose the third choice, which is that, instead of perceiving inequality through the prism of race (almost strictly reserved to African-Americans), we should instead opt to perceive it through socioeconomic inequality (which is the power structure through which racism structurally manifests itself, and the real threat of racism is almost always the structural one), something that Americans find much more difficult to do. Thus, affirmative action seems like a copout and a distracting nostalgia of the Old left, given that zeitgeist racism is against Mexican-Americans (or Mexicans and Latin Americans in general).
We should also keep in mind that it is not just minorities who suffer from socioeconomic discrimination and thus the true enemy is not a race (though, as a caveat I should say that white racism still, obviously, exists), but a class enemy, or rather, “the” class enemy (the bourgeois aristocracy). Affirmative action and race-based policies, instead of elucidating, obfuscate this fact.
We Claim Sea Floor, Moon→
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has made an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic, giving himself claim to its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth. His audacious argument that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole is likely to lead to an international outcry.
Too bad the Dominion of Melchizedek has already claimed the last free slice of Antarctica. But since Russia is a “real country” they might be mavericks/rogues and declare that Melchizedek’s claim is invalid. But take note, Russia:
Military note: the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any measures of a military nature, such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military maneuvers, or the testing of any type of weapon. However, scientific research or any other peaceful purposes such as DOM’s Antarctic Research And Development Board is encouraged and is eagerly sought. DOM’s firm stance against nuclear testing in the Pacific is testimony to the DOM’s international focus banning the use of weapons of mass human destruction.
Any fighting will have to be an unorchestrated bare knuckle brawl with no home base, much like a perilous game of tag… FREEZE TAG!
UPDATE: CANADA OWNS US ALL
Sergei Priamikov, of Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute… warned other countries could make counter claims. Canada “could say that the Lomonosov ridge is part of the Canadian shelf, which means Russia should in fact belong to Canada, together with the whole of Eurasia[.]”
The debate rages on; does human nature stem from society and custom, or does society and custom stem from human nature? Find out (or not) in today’s exciting conclusion of Chomsky vs. Foucault (or: Dracula vs. Buddy Holly).
John Edwards Explains For Young Americans→
In a recent interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews, John Edwards defended himself from attacks by Ann Coulter, and also defended using her quotes in his fundraising. Chris Matthews was there to help with this nugget:
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about how you explain this kind of — it wouldn’t be a tit for a tat — this nastiness the other night, to your older daughter, your college-age or actually law school-age daughter, Kate? How do you explain these kinds of things that happen in politics?
J. EDWARDS: You know, I think the truth is, Chris, I don’t need to explain it to Kate. I mean, because I think she’s extraordinarily mature for her age. She understands that these sort of things go on in politics, that you have to — if you care about what we’re doing — as to what we’ve always — Elizabeth and I have always taught our children: If you care about what you’re doing, if you want to make the lives of other people better, sometimes, if you’re going to do it politically, which is what we’ve chosen to do…
Well it’s good to know that Chris Matthews and John Edwards have faith in the youth of America. I wonder at what age we should assume someone is familiar with political reality? Kate is, of course, mature for her age, so I think after the rest of us complete our post-graduate degrees or pass the bar we can be part of the “understands the meanness of the world” club.
Countdown To Zig-A-Zig Yah
Posted at 11:16 AM
The Spice Girls are making a comeback today. Having seen Spice World and having heard most of their catalog, I can safely say I will be familiar with this comeback. I am lukewarm with anticipation for this expected event. Here is my list of least favorite spice to most favorite spice with a short analysis for each.
Posh: Pig-faced, snobby, Tory, and she got in a cat-fight with Jon Stewart, because he used crass humor instead of “sarcasm and irony”– the tools of the british comedian. If there’s one problem with the Daily Show…
Baby: Never bought the “baby” routine.
Sporty: Probably the most underrated spice girl. Sure she wasn’t as outlandish, but take a look at this group shot. Which outfit has aged the best? Probably the leopard jumpsuit, but sporty definitely gets second place. And If you ever hear a good voice on a Spice Girls record, it’s probably her, though the music never really mattered anyway.
Scary: Kind of like the Eartha Kitt of the 90s, she always came off as the smartest of the bunch to me, though a google search will quickly reveal that her face became stuck in this position at some point in her career. Zig-a-Zig Yah.
Ginger: Like this Guardian post says: that union jack dress.
Today’s subject: justice vs. power. Oh, and anarcho-syndicalism.
Child of The Corn: A Midwestern Perspective
Posted at 7:20 PMIn the context of an ever globalizing society, the gravest threats to the stability of the American public often go unnoticed in the digital bazaar, creeping silently into our very homes and ruthlessly smothering all that we hold dear as Americans while we dream our sweet, sweet dreams. From Bin Laden to Zawahiri, the list of notorious enemies continues to blossom in the dark depths of this decaying world; now the greatest threat to our prosperity and happiness has emerged, one that is poised to rip the social fabric of this very nation apart at the seams. As a result, our society will be plunged into a chaotic, primordial wasteland that would leave Thomas Hobbes stating simply, “Damn!” I’m speaking of course about Harry Potter.
Mr. Potter’s exploits into dismantling the morals of this great country are nothing new and have been widely documented by many an alert citizen. He and his no good tea and “taxation without representation” loving cronies have been trying for years to brainwash America’s children, corrupting their ethereal innocence with witchcraft and ubiquitous phallic references (what do you think a patronus really is?). Yet, the damage done so far by this Quiddich-playing bastard will seem as minor as Paris Hilton’s prison sentence when Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows is released July 21st.
As every Potter fan knows, everything is fair game in Deathly Hallows, the final installment of the series; while the world gears up at page one to discover what lies in store for Harry and his posse, it will only take one narcissistic asshole with a computer, a large e-mailing list, and access to YouTube to (upon receiving their copy at 12:01 a.m.) read the last chapter and tell the world that Snape dies to save Harry. The end result: the streets of this nation will transform into sanguine rivers, fueled by thousands of cases of fratricide, domestic violence, fanatic-related suicides, and the tears of a broken-hearted generation of young children.
Yes, it seems that if we do not take pre-emptive action now to stop this book from being released, the end of days may be upon us as our society collapses upon itself. Do not fear, however, for hope endures if reason prevails! American society’s only chance for survival is to band together, not as a group of individuals, but as a single body. If this book is to savagely pull us apart, then we must respond in turn by pulling together! Washington must take swift and decisive action, demanding large scale gatherings where we can purge this plague from our pristine shores. Together we can collectively burn this vile piece of literary nonsense in the streets—these “freedom beacons” will remind us of our divine role as the torch that pours light into this barbaric world. I’m thinking something along the lines of this will do……
So take heed of this warning, otherwise all that you hold dear will be swept away faster than it would take Alex Taylor to break down in tears if The Economist was struck by a meteor….or even worse……good ole common sense.
Jeff May is a policy writer for the Institute Devoted to Intelligent Overviews Today
Jeff May 
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