Kids and Madison Ave, or Why Capitalism is Evil

Indulging once again in my summer fling with NPR, I heard this piece about children and commercial advertising: All Things Considered July 31, 2006. I thought I should share it with everyone here since we have already touched on the topic of children, television and commercials. The billions of advertising dollars aimed at preschoolers and toddlers give us one more example-- and a particulary insidious one at that-- of what capitalism is really about. Capitalism is not about meeting needs; it is about creating them. It is not about fulfilling the demands of people in the system; rather, it is the strategic destruction of fulfillment in consumers in order to meet the corporate need to sell more and more units. Why supply what people demand when you can get them to demand what you supply? After all, if you supply what people demand, they might be satisfied, and satisfaction is bad for the bottom line. It's better business to sell desire, and start as young as possible...

My Ugly Mug

Stop playing games with my face.

Why We Fight

I just finished watching a documentary titled Why We Fight (2005). Has anyone else seen it? If so, I would love to hear what you think. If not, then watch it now. Put it in your Netflix queue or spend three bucks at Blockbuster or whatever, but watch it. I don't have words right now, so I'll talk to you guys later.

Congress Ave

I found this scene reflected in a downtown window.

Get Your Kicks

One of my favorites from the last roll I developed.

In America

I'm In America.
I'd like to get together with whoever can, which might mean making a trip to Arizona, Tyler, and/or D.C. Anybody in the mood? Please? Pretty please?

Sometime between Aug 6 - 16

Get your tickets while they're hot!

In full support of our new plan to make crazy delicious money with off-the-wall ideas, I've decided to sell tickets to my wedding.

Dude... I'm getting married. That's stinking weird... and crazy delicious. So yes, I have bit the dust so to speak, and asked Rachel to marry me. After a cute pause, she said yes and sealed the deal. So... I'm excited! That's certainly the second most scary time I've ever had. Second only to almost getting blown up in Iraq. Either one is about as life-changing, but the marriage thing has gotta be WAY more fun. We're thinking of getting married sometime between the end of October and the New Year, but the earlier the better! I would fully accept comments in the nature of congratulations but more importantly, TELL ME WHAT THE HECK I'M SUPPOSED TO DO NOW! Advice from married and single alike are welcome. Peace, love, and all that gushy stuff.

Naseous Anger

I am so angry today with the state of Israel, but it is not a "righteous indignation"; it is anger mixed with dread and an unsettling guilt. I cry for the Israeli dead and hate the violence backed by Hamas and Syria and Hezzbollah. I also weep for the dead in Gaza and Lebanon, and as I weep I see their blood on my hands. Our country has entwined itself with Israel in such a way that their sins cannot but fall on our heads. I feel this in my bones. The billions of dollars, the machines of war and death, our omnipotent veto that silences every censure from the United Nations all offer material support to our tacit approval of whatever Israel does-- no matter how unjust or immoral. But how could we do otherwise? Could we censure the Israeli government for collectively punishing civilian populations when we have murdered tens of thousands in our own "war against terror"? (Yes, "collateral damage" is nothing but a pretty word for murder.) But surely if given the choice between hypocrisy and murder we must choose to be hypocrites and then work to amend our own lives. But our President is silent; our ambassadors protect the "rights" of Israel to destroy Lebanon and Gaza; and we do nothing for those in Beirut who have died, are dying and will die tommorow. God save them, and God save us from their blood which cries out from the ground that soaks it up. In His mercy, let us hear the cry for justice. What twists the knife in my chest is knowing that the vast majority of evangelicals will line up in support of Israel as though that country were established by Divine fiat and not by proclamation of the Bristish empire. Apologizing in the name of God for war waged on civilians is a heresy if ever anything was heretical. I fear that we won't escape from wrath. Lord, have mercy.

One Red Paperclip

So a few weeks ago, Dave and I were talking and we figured that, in light of the fact that we have contributing to this blog a group of very intelligent human beings, we might be able to turn it into a venture that would make us all fabulously rich. And once that happens, we can start solving the problems of the world instead of just talking about them. We figured that Strauss, with his economic know-how and ability to do complex math, would be the source of this amazing idea. But I just read about this blog today where Kyle MacDonald, a random 27-year old from Canada, in the course of a year, managed to trade one red paperclip for an entire house. All on his blog, appropriately named oneredpaperclip. The moral of the story: anyone can come up with an idea that is just so crazy that it might work. Even people who can’t do complex math. So, since we don’t seem to have anything more to talk about during these quiet summer months than… grass… this is your chance to offer up your ideas for our collective online business venture. The winning idea will receive a silver-colored paper clip. Hey, it’s more valuable than you think…

Is our archive being destroyed?

What's happening to the early months of our blog? Is it being eaten alive? I know we started this thing before December 04. For example, where is the lovely picture I took of Logemann's house burning down???!!!

Maybe we should rethink moving to a private space where we have more control of the content.

Too Much Grass, Not Enough Green

Why do we have so much grass in America? It was hardly used at all in Japan, and I admit I missed it. But here there is such an awful excess in lawns, parks, sports fields, etc that I am beginning to loathe it. Why grass over every other plant on the earth?

Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!

On a more serious note, here's a review of the new Pirates movie delivered by a ninja. The kind of high quality, hard hitting journalism we expect from NPR. Seriously, though, it's great.

Happy Independence Day

Happy 4th, everybody! Enjoy the grillin' and the chillin' (that's "chilling" for those of us without progeny and "children" for the breeders in our midst). But don't forget what the day's all about: the perfect mixture of alchohol, water sports and explosives. It's amazing that there are any Americans left alive (or at least with all our fingers). Excercise your freedom to choose between hot dogs and fried chicken, or eat them both and wash it all down with a cold Sam Adams. To paraphrase Patrick Henry: Give me a beer, or give me death! And be careful!

(You could also watch Germany play Italy at 3pm eastern... in honor of our German extraction.)

Cubicle Wars

All the talk about online games sparked my memory about playing "Lycos Fight Club" back on the Floor. Unfortunately, that game is no longer available, but Adam, Andy and I have been playing its replacement, "The Office." I'm ashamed to admit how thoroughly Adam has been humiliating me. Play with us. Drink the Kool-aid.

Voting Rights Act

Do we need more evidence that the House Republicans are fascists?

Bush pledges vigilance in war on rain

In a statement made from the White House rose garden earlier today, President George W. Bush promised that he and his administration would exercise the full authority of the executive to defend the cause of liberty against the rising flood waters that have terrorized the east coast over the past two weeks. "The American people need to understand," said the President beneath a large umbrella bearing the seal of his office, "that whether these showers are coming from off-shore weather systems or home-grown thunderstorms, we will do whatever it takes to protect Americans from the threat of radical precipitation."

Asked whether or not he plans to use military action against this meteorological threat, Bush replied that, "All options are still on the table."

Denying rumors that federal agents have been checking the rain gauges of private citizens, he added that a recent New York Times expose on doplar radar could "only help out the bad low pressure systems." This as the administration, still reeling from last year's hurricane disasters on the gulf coast, tries to downplay what is seen as a long string of intelligence failures by NOAA and the Naitonal Weather Service.

The cloud cover began to break near the end of the press conference and the sun was momentarily visible from the soggy White House lawn, a development that Bush described as "a major turning point in the war on water."

More rain is expected through the end of the week.

Pregnant!!!

No, this is not a mistaken repetition regarding Brett's eccentric lady friend. But I would like to announce, on behalf of one of our own, that Traber 611 will soon be welcoming a new family member.

Abe Young's wife Gabe is 3 months pregnant! So in a short 6 months there will be another whistling, violin playing, curb-jumping-mountain-biking, classical music-loving T6er amongst us. Cheers and blessings to Abe and Gabes for their reproductory success :-)

To the Students at Wheaton College…

The June 23rd issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education has a very interesting article by Randall Balmer, who Coye mentioned last week in connection with his soon-to-be-issued book, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament. The article is available here: Jesus Is Not a Republican. He begins the article by mentioning that his last visit to Wheaton, which happens to have been while we were students there (believe it or not, you can even listen to that chapel address at wetn's archive):

“In November 2002, 30 years after my previous visit to Wheaton College to hear George McGovern, I approached the podium in Edman Chapel to address the student body. At evangelical colleges like Wheaton, in Illinois, there are two kinds of required gatherings: chapel and convocation. The former is religious in nature, whereas a speaker at convocation has the license to be far more discursive, even secular — or political. The college's chaplain, however, had invited me to preach in chapel, not convocation, and so, despite temptation, I delivered a homily that was, as I recall, not overly long, appropriate to the occasion, and reasonably well received.

“I doubt very much that I will be invited back to Edman Chapel. One of the benefits of being reared within evangelicalism, I suppose, is that you understand the workings of the evangelical subculture. I know, for example, that when my new book on evangelicals appears, the minions of the religious right will seek to discredit me rather than engage the substance of my arguments. […]

“The evangelical subculture, which prizes conformity above all else, doesn't suffer rebels gladly, and it is especially intolerant of anyone with the temerity to challenge the shibboleths of the religious right. I understand that. Despite their putative claims to the faith, the leaders of the religious right are vicious toward anyone who refuses to kowtow to their version of orthodoxy, and their machinery of vilification strikes with ruthless, dispassionate efficiency. Longtime friends (and not a few family members) will shuffle uneasily around me and studiously avoid any sort of substantive conversation about the issues I raise — and then quietly strike my name from their Christmas-card lists. Circle the wagons. Brook no dissent.

“And so, since my chances of being invited back to Edman Chapel have dropped from slim to none, I offer here an outline of what I would like to say to the students at Wheaton and, by extension, to evangelicals everywhere.[…]”

Our Evangelical tradition and more Michael Gerson

Here's a piece about our evangelical tradition and the religious right that I think just about all of us here will find interesting. It's an interview with Randall Balmer, professor of religious history at Barnard College, about his new book Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical's Lament. He speaks a lot of my heart about the movement. It's often hard to see much that is Christian in the supposedly evangelical religious right, especially when we view it in persepective of evangelicalism's progressive origins (abolitionism, universal education, etc). I know I'm largely preaching to the choir here, so I'll just shut up now.

I also found this NPR interview with Michael Gerson. The web page also has transcripts of several important speeches that Gerson wrote and some non-broadcast portions of his Morning Edition interview (including his ideas about "compassionate conservatism" and the current direction of the evangelical movement). I found this really interesting because I had previously only heard Gerson's words coming out of Bush's mouth, and at that point it is difficult to determine whose words we are hearing. My opinion of Gerson rose considerably through listening to him here.

Some things never get old, and other rumors

I was glancing back over some of the archived posts today. We've written a lot in the last year and a half. Impressive. Anyways, I couldn't resist linking to this at least one more time from Dusty's name.

he he he.

Is this really my voice?


From "All Things Considered": June 20, 2006
According to a study published in Education Week, no more than 70% of current 9th graders will graduate from high school. Only 75% of white students, who have the highest rate of graduation, will receive a diplomma; black students graduate from high school at a rate closer to 50%, and latino/a students do slightly better than their African American peers. Graduation rates are lower for boys than for girls, and (of course) they are significanly lower for children from lower economic classes.

This is huge. We're not talking about "higher education" here; this is high school diplommas. What kind of work can a person get in the States without a high school diplomma? Not much. You can't even enlist in the army without a high school diplomma or GED. And they definitely won't have jobs that provide healthcare benefits, childcare, retirement. That means an increase in the problems we currently have with healthcare, education, and social security. Not to mention the increased difficulty of civic responsibility (voting etc) for a person without a basic educataion. Quoting the constitution of the State of Texas (1866): "A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of this State to make suitable provisions for the support and maintenance of public schools. " The State of Texas, along with its 49 peers, is currently failing this task that is essential to the preservation of its citizens' rights and liberties.

Why isn't education a "moral issue" or a "family value"? Why are our legistatures spending their time debating same-sex marriage and flag burning? It's absurd. It's immoral. It's ineffective. If you want to protect families, educate their children. If you want to protect a country, educate its citizens.