There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Even more links, but with some personal reflection

We will have a snowblower this year. Here's what I'm getting, an Ariens Compact 24" 2 Stage Snowblower. Just as an FYI, here's the Farmers Almanac Prediction. Notice that for my area it's "Colder" and we're right on the edge for normal or more precipitation. Last week the National Weather Service announced that with the Summer of 2010 being a summer of record heat (hottest or second hottest, IIRC) Lake Erie will remain open longer into the winter season. Which means more and heavier lake effect snows this year. Last year we had three snows that using the push shovel wasn't useful (for the 10' or so in from the roadway at least). With a doublewide driveway, slinging snow that way is a killer (for reals and seriously, people die that way). So the need for the dual stage, the wide scoop, the horse power (it's a Briggs engine), and, hey, it comes with a headlight (helpful for those 2am clearings).

Jim Wright wins the internet today. ("I'm voting Republican because…" video)

Jay Lake has a caption contest for one of his books. (Vote for me. Vote for me.)

He look, civilian trials for terrorists, they work, and there weren't any hiccups or terror incidents. Civilian trials work, they reinforce that we are a country of laws, and they diffuse the "big, scary, boogy man" image terrorists have. I guess all that garment rending and teeth gnashing were all political staging and fear-mongering after all. Go figure. Could have knocked me over with a feather.

Interesting to probably only me and my design habit, the brother hood of feral barncats. Photos of visual communication in the wild. This is a subject that is endlessly fascinating to me. Just ask any of the friends who have been subjected privileged to hear me hold forth on the design of menus and the like.

And, because it's come up in political discussions where those touting the "honor and dignity" of the hard, minimum wage earning worker ("we're just like you, only smarter and richer" they say with a swarmy handshake) all without knowing exactly what the minimum wage is. It is this elections, "Price of Milk" question. For you're edification, the Ohio minimum wages. $7.30 per hour or $3.65 per hour for tipped employees, federal minimum wage $7.25 per hour for those employees whose employers gross $267,000 or less and or 14 and 15 year old workers. Just in case you get asked. Also, a side note, some of the bastards employers in the village use the "tipped wages" for counter workers who have tip jars. Your local asshole employers may using the same dick head business practices.

Also, probably only me, but noted here for it's graphic design significance and my everlasting love of ephemera, The Matchbook Registry. Old matchbooks. I say old, because I can't remember the last place I was in that actually had matchbooks. When I was young, you could get them everywhere and anywhere. Not that I miss people smoking like chimneys everywhere you went, but, like $0.02 gum, I kind of miss the wackiness of the matchbooks.

I've been thinking about a lot of posts lately. My guess is you'll all be regaled by my thoughts on the story I posted about yesterday where the firefighter let a house burn to the ground, and my thoughts about the existence and prevalence of extra judicial/societal/religous systems in the US, most of which we normally don't' give a second thought about (including the rise of mandatory binding arbitration).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Completely off topic:

MN Republican party chair referred to those who vote independent as "quislings."

Apparently, I'm missing the reason for the outrage I'm seeing in response to the usage. Are you offended by the use?

Anonymous Cassie, looking for input

Steve Buchheit said...

Basically he called them traitors and collaborators. Welcome to the fracturing of the conservative movement. He called them out for not being true to the faith. Given most conservatives' pension for "what the true meaning of the word is" discussions (I can't tell you of how tired I was of those pseudo-arguments on Scalzi's blog), yeah. I was intentional.

For me, I say welcome to what I experienced in the late 80s when I was registered Republican. After being "regaled" for not being "Social Conservative Enough" and seeing the rise of the far right within the party (fired up and welcomed in by Reagan and not disowned by GHW Bush, and lately McCain even though he ran on that in 2000), I realized I was no longer welcome and left. It just takes some people a little longer to realize these things.

Also, it gives lie to the myth about Republicans being the big tent party of many ideas. I'm sure many of those he slandered feel they're conservative because of their independence. Well, guess what? The party is about "purity to the faith" instead of practicality. They're just figuring it out. The Social Conservatives have hijacked the party.

This is also related to the rise of the Independents, who are mostly disaffected Republicans and Libertarians, liberals/progressives making up a minority of the Independents

Anonymous said...

Well... yes, but are you offended at the use of the word? I'm reading a blog with OUTRAGE that anyone would use the word.

Graciously, they explained to me that the Scandinavians in MN are horrified because they know who Quisling was, and feel that using the word is beneath contempt. I figure that the depth of the outrage is due the ethnic connection. I'm not connected to that community particularly, and hence miss the (justifiable) angst.

AC

Steve Buchheit said...

Cassie, I'm sure some of it is cultural with the heritage of the population. The sort of action Quisling engaged in is something that would be passed down from generation to generation as Something Bad(tm) (akin to Benedict Arnold for the US culture, how many other Revolutionary War Generals could the average person name besides Washing and Arnold?). Considering this is still within living memory, it's not surprising.

Over all, yes, being called a traitor would bring outrage. It's more than a slur. When conservatives call me a traitor (it's always been conservatives), they are questioning my patriotism and confusing their ideals with the Country (by buying into the Myths We Tell Ourselves). It makes my blood boil. When it happens in person, as they say, "Thems fightin words." I've gotten into the grill of a few people, stared them in the eye and said, "So, just what was your pay grade, (epithet)?"

And, yes, I am willing to beat sense into the heads of those who question my loyalty to country. Very much so because it's their actions that make me have thoughts of, "You know, Canada is actually very nice." And that makes me even angrier (not that Canadians aren't very nice and their country isn't nice, but that these a**holes make me want to leave just to get away from them and their idiocy).

Now, most people know "Quislings" from the game show connotation, and in that light I'm sure it's easy to not understand the outrage of a community that uses the word in a completely different context.

It's calling them one of the things they grew up hating and vilifying most. The outrage is also because they're people who value their individualism, and their identity with the party was based on that. So they feel they are also being betrayed by their own kind. It's the shattering of a world view. Outrage is a predictable result.