Slacker Uprising

Michael Moore usually delivers entertaining propaganda. Slacker Uprising is just plain boring, an example of why I avoid documentaries. I had to skip through most of it. This is filler, not filmmaking, the worst I've seen by Moore, and certainly not worth a theater ticket.

Image Streaming

McCain should be worried about the presidential debates. In terms of image, Obama strikes me as Jimmy Carter pretending to be John F. Kennedy. McCain strikes me as Richard Nixon pretending to be...

Well, no one. He just reminds me of Richard Nixon. Period.

Anyone who paid attention in American History class will remember what happened in the first televised presidential debate of 1960: Kennedy thrashed Nixon because he was more genial and camera-friendly.

I've heard both sides say the election is already over, McCain's got it clinched, Obama's got it clinched, whatever. But until the debates happen, it's never over (except for Ralph Nader).

But fuck the debates - I'm more interested in the new season of The Office, actually. I think that's the most "mainstream" thing I'm into right now.

By the way, when the U.S. economy keels over, do I still have to repay my student loan?

Alaska!

Politics

One great thing about living outside America is that I'm not subjected to the constant election blah blah blah. Most people in Korea probably don't know who Sarah Palin is.

Whatever integrity a presidential candidate initially has is quickly dissolved under the weight of campaigning. To make it to the White House requires a candidate to become silly putty to 50 states with radically different politics. At this point in time I think the U.S. would be better off divided into three or four different countries.

As for Korean politics... I just hope North Korea doesn't go apeshit when Kim Jong Yomom keels over. I'd like to think North Korea will be more open to the world in twenty years, kind of the equivalent of China today. But the next few years could be sloppy.


Kim Jong-il in happier days.

Thank you for polluting your mind with my uninformed opinions.

Laughter in the Dark

Surely the best website I discovered this week is Dark Roasted Blend (which I found via Boing Boing, everyone's favorite "stuff" website). It's a helpful reminder that we live in fearful, fascist, conformist, and bland times. i.e. Why doesn't a random walk down the street look like this?

I think the most common car color these days is mud. Remember the gay '90s when people had neon cars and puffy pink pants? I look at cars on the road these days and they're black, white, or mud. Nowadays people who say, "What other people think about me is none of my business," are rounded up and never seen again. I care about design, and I think the larger design process must be diversified and experimental if it is to be healthy.

China My China

Also Richard Gere's supposed to speak at the Civic Center tomorrow. Wednesday the Olympic torch gets protested.

I don't know anything about politics with China and Tibet. It just seems like China's a shitty place to live, and the U.S. government turns a blind-eye to its human rights abuse because our economy depends so much on their goods. Even if China wasn't molesting Tibet it would lose points for censorship and the virtual slavery that make their stuff so cheap.

I'm still waiting for the equivalent of birth control for military enlistment - something that will naturally lower the number of people willing to fight for a government. Maybe that's the internet and it's working as fast as it can.