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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Romulus' LiveJournal:
- Obama or John McCain?
- Obama or David Duke?
- Obama or Ted Kaczynski?
- Obama or Saddam Hussein?
- Obama or an old dirty sneaker?
- bush knew
- The notion that George W. Bush had some manner of foreknowledge about the 9-11 attacks, even so small as knowing that al Qaeda was planning an attack on a major US city. The notion that the government may have had positive foreknowledge of such an event isn't novel; there have been claims for many years that this was true for Pearl Harbor. GWB's popularity was in the toilet prior to 9-11; it shot up frighteningly in the weeks afterward; and allowed his Neocon puppet masters to pass lots of anti-freedom laws that had been brewing for many years. One interesting thing about this interest is that the other person I found who had it was a traditional (non-neocon, anti-bush) conservative.
- consolidated
- Consolidated is a political hip-hop / rock band from California known for its highly progressive/leftist themes, and for recording (often hostile) open-mike rants at their shows to include on their albums. Their tracks include "America Number One", "The Typical Male Thinks With His Dick", "Friendly Fascism", "Meat Kills", "Your Body Belongs to the State", "Business of Punishment".
- cursor
- Cursor is an excellent progressive political news aggregator site that I read religiously every day for a few years post-9-11. They are not RSS enabled and that has had some effect on my lack of reading them these days. While Democrats were voting for wars, Cursor was pointing to those calling bullshit on it all.
- intellectual arguments
- Semi self explanatory. I like getting into discussions about philosophical, technical, or otherwise deep topics. I like to bounce ideas, theories, opinons off of people, who have their own ideas, theories, and opinions, but we can accept and ponder each other's.
- obscure
- There is a lot of art (music, literature, etc., etc.) that is obscure, but good. The more obscure, often, the more weird. Weird has merit, often because weird takes balls -- or simply lack of caring about its reception. In popular society, there is little originality. Much of what appears to be originality in the mainstream is in fact ripped off from the obscure. True originality is too raw; the only way it is acceptable to the mainstream is to have a dash of it sprinkled on the already familiar. But true critics of any art form recognize the real creativity is made in the underground. For example, the common understanding of "rap music" these days is of Crunk and booty bass and gangsta-funk, because this is the part of the genre that is in the mainstream. This stuff is rarely original or creative. But there is plenty of underground rap and "abstract hip-hop" where creativity, originality, and true boundary-crossing occurs, with artistic merit and daring. But unless you seek it out, you'll never hear it. I seek out the strange because that is where the most creative and interesting things can be found.
- progressive
- Progressivism is the notion that society and the nation can move itself forward by working to help itself and share its resources, as well as take care of the resources we do have. It parallels but sometimes differs from "liberalism", and has little if anything to do with "Democratism".
- secular humanism
- This is a popular version of atheism that focuses on the idea of people being considerate and caring for each other without need for a mythical authoritarian figure and a cabalistically-defined corpus of dogma to enforce this onto people. It bases a compassion and respect for fellow man based largely on utilitarianism and common sense. Some use the term as a synonym for "atheism" as it closely reflects the beliefs of many atheists, though strictly speaking, it isn't. Secular Humanism is not so much a religion or dogma as a common-sense, benevolent atheistic viewpoint. Free Inquiry is a magazine at the forefront of SH, which I once subscribed to.
| Monday, September 29th, 2008 | |
| 3:20 pm |
Selfish desires are burning like fires among those who hoard the gold As they continue to keep the people asleep and the truth from being told Racism and greed keep the people in need from getting what's rightfully theirs Cheating, stealing and double dealing as they exploit the people's fears Now, Dow Jones owns the people's homes and all the surrounding land Buying and selling their humble dwelling in the name of the Master Plan Cause paper money is like a bee without honey with no stinger to back him up and those who stole the people's gold are definitely corrupt Credit cards, master charge, legacies of wills real estate, stocks and bonds on coupon paper bills Now the U.S. mints on paper prints, millions every day and use the eagle as their symbol cause it's a bird of prey The laurels of peace and the arrows of wars are clutched very tightly in the eagles claws filled with greed and lust, and on the back of the dollar bill, is the words IN GOD WE TRUST But the dollar bill is their only God and they don't even trust each other for a few dollars more they'd start a war to exploit some brother's mother - Last Poets, "E Pluribus Unum" (1973) |
| Saturday, September 13th, 2008 | |
| 8:22 pm |
New glasses  |
| Saturday, August 30th, 2008 | |
| 11:03 pm |
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| Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 | |
| 2:52 pm |
if these were posters i would buy them. and put them in my non-existent mancave, or something.  Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in Funeral in Berlin (1966)  Bob Gunton as Warden Norton in The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Yeah, they are both of old-styled men with horn-rimmed glasses holding a gun. I noticed that too. Something about that has an ironic classic kitsch to it. |
| Thursday, July 10th, 2008 | |
| 11:21 am |
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose Arrest the president He's the criminal No one's laughin this I keep rappin this ... Tapped your phone Bugged your residence Yo Arrest the president - Intelligent Hoodlum, "Arrest The President" (1990) |
| Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 | |
| 4:05 pm |
I often refrain from friending people I know (on any given soc-net site) in order to avoid the unbearable awkwardness of trying to figure out what to say to someone I haven't spoken to in ages. Am I alone in this? |
| Monday, June 30th, 2008 | |
| 6:18 pm |
If I wasn't subscribed to the mind-numbing sensationalist all-that-is-wrong-with-America drivel that is ExposeObama.com, I might actually lose focus on why I've been supporting him. From their latest email: OBAMA SAYS: "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.... That's not leadership. That's not going to happen. "-Senator Barack Obama, Campaign Speech, May 2008- That's Barack Hussein Obama's solution to the high price of gasoline... that's his energy policy -- in his own words! In other words, Obama's energy policy is for you to eat less, drive a small death-trap of a car and let your family freeze in the winter. Ahem. I feel like I need to go study some calculus just to rebuild the brain cells I just lost. |
| Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 | |
| 9:09 pm |
Attack of the diehards My car has an Obama bumper sticker on the back. I park in the garage at the bus stop downtown. A little over a week ago -- about a week after Hillary Clinton suspended her presidential campaign, my driver's side window had this on it.  Discuss. Current Music: Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up |
| Monday, June 9th, 2008 | |
| 9:36 am |
BlueHampshire put it bluntly today: Political Parties Are not Sports Teams. But it's exactly how many Americans seem to treat politics, and exactly why American politics will remain fucked up for some time. Cue the Angry Hillary Lady. Or any number of Hillary supporters (over a quarter) who are threatening to vote for McCain instead of Obama. Just what do these people actually believe in? Winning for their team, or electing a better leader for a better country in line with important values? Seriously. You're female liberal has been defeated, so you will really vote for a white conservative man instead of a black liberal man? If so, you don't give a fuck about the country, and your vote only damages your country; FOAD. Someone should start a series of polls to judge just how fucked in the head these people are. For former Hillary supporters, ask: |
| Friday, June 6th, 2008 | |
| 9:54 pm |
From Me To You Day We need a new gift-giving holiday. Every gift-giving holiday is centered on giving people what they want. You feed their whims and desires by satisfying one or more of them. The idea is to make them happy, despite whether or not what they want is necessarily good for them. We need a day where you give people something that shares something *you* like, or something you think they should have. See, I would love to do things like send copies of Inconvenient Truth or Sicko or a season of 30 Days or a copy of The God Delusion. Thing is, the people I would like to send these to -- not so much that I want to convert them as to understand what I believe -- wouldn't want them. So, it's unsuitable as a gift for any existing holiday. Of course, parents do sometimes give their kids gifts they think they should have (hopefully in addition to the things they want), in an attempt to expose them to a positive influence (i.e., an influence the parents think is positive). I'd like to do that to some of my family. But doing it on birthdays, parent's days, and Xmas comes off as pretentious and rude. So instead, we should have a "Share Yourself" day, where you gift people you love things that reflect who you are -- instead of who they are. Or rather, and here's an interesting point, who you *think* they are. Wouldn't it be nice to know, in a non-off-putting way, that your grandson is vegetarian and might not appreciate you donating a cow to an Indonesian village in their name (granted, maybe that was for milk)? Or that your grandson is atheist, and doesn't really enjoy all those religious Chicken Soup stories you've been forwarding him? Etc.? Wouldn't it be a great way to know others better, instead of maintaining and perpetuating your misconceptions because they don't know exactly a nice way to tell you how off base you are about them? So. Share Yourself Day. Send your loved ones a gift that reflects yourself instead of your impression of them. All that's needed now is a day.... |
| Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 | |
| 10:45 am |
A priest, a satanist, and BASIC programmer walk into a bar, After a few drinks, they start talking about the afterlife. The priest says, with conviction, "I'm going to go to heaven." The satanist scoffs and says, with contempt, "I'm going to go to Hell." The BASIC programmer thinks for a second, and then suddenly says "I'm going to GOTO 10. I'm going to GOTO 10. I'm going to GOTO 10. I'm going to GOTO 10...." |
| Saturday, February 9th, 2008 | |
| 3:52 pm |
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| 2:51 pm |
caucus doodle doo Just got back from my (first) precinct caucus. OMG the place was crammed. There were about 8 or so precincts at the same place. Long story short, our precinct started with 15 Obama, 5 Hillary, 1 undecided. We then proceeded to try to sway the undecided, and in the process, we succeeded in swaying both him as well as two Clintonians. So the final count was 19 Obama 3 Hillary. (yeah, either we missed one the first time or someone came in after the first tally. Which is legit.) So in the end all 3 precinct delegates went to Obama. And since I'd been helping with the swaying, as well as the making sense of the rules and math, they prompted me to be a delegate. So I did. Pics soon. We'll see how the state goes. I know that my precinct definitely did its part for Obama. Current Mood:  satisfied |
| Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 | |
| 5:38 pm |
bus saga Well, this is fun. I'm sitting on the bus, in the middle of I-5, not moving. Been here about 10-15 minutes. Looks like the bus ran into some sudden traffic, couldn't brake hard enough, and hit the SUV in front of it -- twice. Bus is broken down, I guess, because the driver just came to tell us there's a bus coming to pick us all up. I have no idea how that works exactly on an interstate in rush hour traffic but I guess I better be ready to venture onto the highway in a bit. We all felt the bus braking. Most seasoned bus travelers are used to the bus drivers' lead feet. But then he braked harder, and harder, and we all started holding onto things, and I looked ahead, and saw the bus rapidly approaching the SUV. Now, these bus drivers are notorious for stopping really close to things. Well, the driver gave it a last ditch extra shove on the pedal but it didn't help. Smack. The SUV, which was stopped, jumped forward a bit. But the bus wasn't done. The SUV (apparently) hit the car in front of *it*, then stopped -- and the bus didn't, hitting the SUV *again*. Anyway. Nothing better to do but blog about it, I guess. First thing I did was call 911, then messages and calls to home. Update: The bus is disabled. Paramedics are here and they just put one of the guys in the other vehicles in a neck brace. Update 2: There's a gurney up ahead too, probably someone in it, can't see from here. |
| Sunday, September 30th, 2007 | |
| 8:36 pm |
memage Meme from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} natowelch, in which you ask someone to pick seven of your LJ interests to have you explain in an original post. |
| Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 | |
| 12:48 pm |
lolbase  And with this I declare that this meme has gone full circle and can now be over. KTHXBAI |
| Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 | |
| 10:57 pm |
1917-2007 Dear Bill Nye: Your slime and dry ice will never compare to the homey simplicity that Mr. Wizard imbued onto science. Sorry. PS Nickelodeon: What ever happened to programming that made it fun to want to be smart? |
| Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 | |
| 9:56 pm |
This just in: you're fucked Last-minute e-filers let out a collective scream as TurboTax servers are hosed. Well, maybe not. I finally got through after the fourth try. Isawaguydohistaxesat9pmandcouldntefilean |
| Thursday, April 12th, 2007 | |
| 11:09 pm |
on another tangent I think it's easier to check out a book on how to make meth from the library than it is to buy a box of Sudafed in most places. After months of using the useless sucky new stuff (phenylephrine), which was only made in response to the bans on the other stuff (pseudoephedrine), I bought two boxes (the maximum) of the good (old) stuff a few weeks ago. I had to show the pharmacist my ID, then write my name, address, lic#, and signature in a big log book in order to get my hands on them. |
| 10:59 pm |
it must be done |