Body Image, And Christmas Shopping 2010

Left: I KNEW there was a trick to all this!


I spent some time at the Arden Fair Macy's on Dec. 23rd. Didn't buy anything, but it was my patriotic duty to be there, encouraging everyone else there to be spendthrifts. Instead, I spent my time ambling through the aisles, E-Mailing my sister about her fondness for "New Moon", and stepping on the feet of elderly Filipina women shoppers as I did so.

On Dec. 21st, I was at the Truxel Wal-Mart. Fairly quiet there, except for an exchange between a very slender three-year-old girl, and her five-year-old brother:

Three-Year-Old Girl: I'm fat!
Her Baffled Brother: No, you're not!
Three-Year-Old Girl: Yes, I am!
Her Baffled Brother: No, you're not!
Three-Year-Old Girl (running down the aisle of Wal-Mart): I'm F-A-A-A-A-A-A-T!

Not sure what it all means, except maybe that consciousness about body image starts pretty early in our consumer society!

When Ketones Reared Their Ugly Head, Friends And Family Turned Tail And Fled

Thinking, once again, about ketones:

They are called ketones, and entering into a fat-burning state of ketosis is the hallmark of the Atkins diet.

..."Carbohydrates aren't readily available, so you start to use other fats and proteins as your source of energy, and as a result you are going to get a breath problem," explains Kenneth Burrell, DDS, the senior director of the council on scientific affairs of the American Dental Association.

NOW He Tells Us....

Pat Robertson goes all soft and squishy about pot. About time:

Opening a segment on faith-based prison rehabilitation on his show The 700 Club this week, Robertson noted that many conservatives look at drug addicts and "think 'lock 'em up, throw away the key,' after which he played a segment highlighting how religious influence could help rehabilitate criminals that regularly end up behind bars. "We're probably spending more on prisons than on education," the segment notes, and argues that, given the "50% failure rate" of the prison system (a statistic based on one claiming that 50% of all prisoners end up committing a second crime), it's time for a change in the way prisoners are handled, this time with less "secular" appeal and with more of a biblical approach.

At the end of the segment, Robertson rails against conservative politicians who he says run on a "tough on crime" philosophy that wins votes but is ultimately "not the answer." Beyond putting criminals behind bars, he argues, "we've got to take a look at what we're considering crimes":

Julian Assange, Planetary Hacker

Bruce Sterling has written the best essay of the year. Just a few excerpts:

Way back in 1992, a brainy American hacker called Timothy C. May made up a sci-fi tinged idea that he called “The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto.” This exciting screed — I read it at the time, and boy was it ever cool — was all about anonymity, and encryption, and the Internet, and all about how wacky data-obsessed subversives could get up to all kinds of globalized mischief without any fear of repercussion from the blinkered authorities. If you were of a certain technoculture bent in the early 1990s, you had to love a thing like that.

...Later, May described an institution called “BlackNet” which might conceivably carry out these aims.

...Now, Tim May and his imaginary BlackNet were the sci-fi extrapolation version of the NSA. A sort of inside-out, hippiefied NSA. ... Creating a BlackNet is like having a pet, desktop NSA. Except, that instead of being a vast, federally-supported nest of supercomputers under a hill in Maryland, it’s a creaky, homemade, zero-budget social-network site for disaffected geeks.

...Now we must contemplate Bradley Manning, because he was the first to immolate himself. ... It did not occur to his superiors that a bored soldier in a poorly secured computer system would download hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables. Because, well, why? They’re very boring. Soldiers never read them. The malefactor has no use for them. They’re not particularly secret.

...Instead, he’s very like Jerome Kerviel, that obscure French stock trader who stole 5 billion euros without making one dime for himself. Jerome Kerviel, just like Bradley Manning, was a bored, resentful, lower-echelon guy in a dead end, who discovered some awesome capacities in his system that his bosses never knew it had.

...The reason this upsets me is that I know so many people just like Bradley Manning. Because I used to meet and write about hackers, “crackers,” “darkside hackers,” “computer underground” types.

...Instead, Bradley had to leak all over the third rail. ... He’s got about as much to do with the political aspects of his war as Monica Lewinsky did with the lasting sexual mania that afflicts the American Republic.

That is so dispiriting and ugly. As a novelist, I never think of Monica Lewinsky, that once-everyday young woman, without a sense of dread at the freakish, occult fate that overtook her. ... Monica, too, transgressed in apparent safety and then she had the utter foolishness to brag to a lethal enemy, a trusted confidante who ran a tape machine and who brought her a mediated circus of hells. [T]hink of the quotidian daily horror of being Monica Lewinsky, and that should take a bite from the soul.

...Then there is Julian Assange, who is a pure-dye underground computer hacker. Julian doesn’t break into systems at the moment, but he’s not an “ex-hacker,” he’s the silver-plated real deal, the true avant-garde. Julian is a child of the underground hacker milieu, the digital-native as twenty-first century cypherpunk. As far as I can figure, Julian has never found any other line of work that bore any interest for him.

...I can recognize him as pure triple-A outsider geek. Man, I know a thousand modern weirdos like that, and every single one of them seems to be on my Twitter stream screaming support for Assange because they can recognize him as a brother and a class ally. ... He didn’t just insult the captain of the global football team; he put spycams in the locker room. He showed the striped-pants set without their pants. This a massively embarrassing act of technical voyeurism. It’s like Monica and her stains and kneepads, only even more so.

...Unfortunately for the US State Department, they clearly shouldn’t have been messing with computers, either. In setting up their SIPRnet, they were trying to grab the advantages of rapid, silo-free, networked communication while preserving the hierarchical proprieties of official confidentiality. That’s the real issue, that’s the big modern problem; national governments and global computer networks don’t mix any more.

...Now the US State Department has walked down the thorny road to hell that was first paved by the music industry. Rock and roll, baby. ... Diplomats have become weak in the way that musicians are weak. ... The one grand certainty about the consumers of Cablegate is that diplomats are gonna be reading those stolen cables ... because they were supposed to read them anyway, even though they didn’t. Now, they’ve got to read them, with great care, because they might get blindsided otherwise by some wisecrack that they typed up years ago.

...This stark fact makes them all into hackers. Yes, just like Julian. They’re all indebted to Julian for this grim thing that he did, and as they sit there hunched over their keyboards, drooling over their stolen goodies, they’re all, without exception, implicated in his doings. Assange is never gonna become a diplomat, but he’s arranged it so that diplomats henceforth are gonna be a whole lot more like Assange. They’ll behave just like him.

...Diplomats are people who speak from nation to nation. They personify nations, and nations are brutal, savage, feral entities. Diplomats used to have something in the way of an international community, until the Americans decided to unilaterally abandon that in pursuit of Bradley Manning’s oil war. Now nations are so badly off that they can’t even get it together to coherently tackle heroin, hydrogen bombs, global warming and financial collapse. Not to mention the Internet.

...But the American diplomatic corps, and all it thinks it represents, is just collateral damage between Assange and his goal. He aspires to his transparent crypto-utopia in the way George Bush aspired to imaginary weapons of mass destruction. And the American diplomatic corps are so many Iraqis in that crusade. They’re the civilian casualties.

...For diplomats, a massive computer leak is not the kind of sunlight that chases away corrupt misbehavior; it’s more like some dreadful shift in the planetary atmosphere that causes ultraviolet light to peel their skin away. ... It’s the damage to the institutions that is spooky and disheartening; after the Lewinsky eruption, every American politician lives in permanent terror of a sex-outing. That’s “transparency,” too; it’s the kind of ghastly sex-transparency that Julian himself is stuck crotch-deep in. The politics of personal destruction hasn’t made the Americans into a frank and erotically cheerful people. On the contrary, the US today is like some creepy house of incest divided against itself in a civil cold war. “Transparency” can have nasty aspects; obvious, yet denied; spoken, but spoken in whispers. Very Edgar Allen Poe.

House Washes Away In Littlefield, Arizona

Extreme northwest Arizona, along I-15 between Las Vegas, NV and St. George, UT.

10,000th Post

According to Blogger, my 'Foolish Optimist' post was my 10,000th post since I started this blog on October 13, 2002 (making it older than Facebook, and it hasn't generated a nickel yet, but it's still an abiding interest!)

Social Network parody (Facebook) - uShip Shipping Network

The Next Storm

The storm coming in on Christmas Day will have the sense to wait until after sunset to arrive.

Good To Get It All Out The System Before The New Year

Foolish Optimist

President Barack Obama:

"We are not doomed to endless gridlock"

With the new Congress, yes we are! Two solid years of it, leading up to 2012! But with the cudgel of the Dream Act and the growing importance of Hispanic voters in some locations there might be some limited progress over the next two years. Obama again:

"Maybe my biggest disappointment" was failure of the Dream Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants. ...

"I'm persistent," Obama said. At a minimum, "we should be able to get the Dream Act done."

Stuck With A Bunch Of Loser Positions, GOP Caves At Last Possible Instant

Don't know where they thought they were going with all of this, but they finally realized they were boxed in:

Today in the Senate, they passed (by unanimous consent) the defense authorization bill that Republicans held up over objections to repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell just two short weeks ago; they passed by a voice vote the 9/11 First Responders Health bill that had been the subject of so much drama and debate; and they passed by a 71-26 vote the START nuclear treaty with Russia despite Republican objections to that as well.

And, for good measure, they are currently voting to confirm Mary Helen Murguia to be a judge in the Ninth Circuit.

Update: At 3:40, they confirmed Murguia.

And this video is fun too. Barney Frank responds to the weighty question about gay and straight soldiers showering together in the military:



Plus, Barney Frank speaks to the "radical homosexual agenda":

“Four years ago, a Republican running for Congress in Indiana said don’t vote for his Democratic opponent because if he won, Nancy Pelosi would become speaker and she would let me enact the radical homosexual agenda,” Rep. Frank told the audience on Tuesday.

“So, let me own up to that agenda. It’s to be protected against violent crimes driven by bigotry. It’s to be able to get married. It’s to be able to get a job and it’s to be able to fight for our country. Hey, for those, for those who are worried about the radical homosexual agenda, let me put them on notice – two down, two to go.”

Senator Harry Reid Returns Lt. Dan Choi's Ring Upon Repeal Of DADT

DADT was a misbegotten policy that required people to lie as a part of their jobs, and thus was at odds with sound military discipline.

Jerry Brown, Neighbor

Wei noticed the KCRA Channel 3 TV truck, and checked it out. Apparently, Jerry Brown will take up residence just two blocks from where we both work. It is conceivable we might see him out-and-about town:

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown and his wife have chosen an upscale, midtown loft for their Sacramento residence.

The one-bedroom unit is at 16th and J streets, near the Capitol and across from Memorial Auditorium, a source said.

Brown was spotted last week visiting the 1530 J St. building, a renovated, one-time automobile dealership building. On the ground floor are two restaurants, P.F. Chang's China Bistro and Mikuni Japanese Restaurant.

Twenty-Six Republican Nihilist Senators

From Wikipedia:

An important sub-branch of political nihilism advocates a dissolution of the current power systems, as in the previously described political nihilism, but then asserts the need for new systems to be remade from scratch.

Something about Russian dissidents in 1842 espousing nihilistic viewpoints. Here is a relevant quote Russian Nihilist Dmitri Pisarev:

"Here is the ultimatum of our camp. What can be smashed must be smashed; whatever will stand the blow is sound, what flies into smithereens is rubbish; at any rate, hit out right and left, no harm will or can come of it."

and another summary one "the negation of what exists ... for the benefit of the future which does not exist" - Russian anarchist Bakunin, 1842.

Having TWENTY SIX U.S. Senators who place partisan Republican loyalty above their loyalty to the United States of America is a real problem for the country - far more problematic than a few terrorists running around with plastic explosives in their underwear. John Kerry speaks:

I would say to my friend from Kentucky: Just because you say it, doesn’t make it true. Our friends on the other side of the aisle have a habit of repeating things that have been completely refuted by every fact there is. ... The facts are that this treaty is not being rushed.

This treaty has been delayed at the request of Republicans. It was delayed 13 times... to have more time to deal with the modernization issue, which the administration has completely, totally, thoroughly dealt with in good faith. I’d like to know where the good faith comes from on the other side. They [the administration] put extra money in, they sat and negotiated, they sent people to Arizona to brief Senator Kyl personally. For weeks we delayed the process of moving forward on this treaty in order accommodate our friends on the other side of the aisle. And now fully accommodated, with their requests entirely met, they come back and say ‘oh its being rushed.’ Well Mr. President today marks our sixth day of debate on the New START treaty. That’s a fact. ... I mean is there no shame.

Fun On Twitter

My recent post on "The Runaways" seems to be popular on Twitter today. Kristen Stewart seems to have a big following of fans spanning the entire Earth that I knew nothing about heretofore.

This is the first time I've had any real contact with Twitter. I've never had much interest in Twitter: the tight constraint on characters seemed a big turnoff to a stream-of-consciousness guy like myself. But tight constraints are a spur to artistic innovation. I suppose Twitter is the Web's equivalent to haiku!

"No Strings Attached" Movie Trailer

Movie with Sacramento's Greta Gerwig about to hit the theaters. I don't think I approve of the lame concept (which just probably means it will be a hit).

The Secret Of Why I Recently Went To Mexico Is Out!

Like Julian Assange has been demonstrating, it's hard to keep a secret forever! The cruise-ship trip was just a cover!

But, wait a minute, I thought I was one of the more "Viva Aztlan!" type of folks. This write-up suggests otherwise. I dunno, I guess I'll just have to read the book:

Dallas Police Detective Mark Valdez isn't just any cop - he's a psychic who knows that the cattle mutilations and torture murders he's been investigating are somehow tied together. He also knows that his meager psychic abilities aren't enough to identify the killers, much less stop them.

Luckily, Mark has an ace up his sleeve: an attractive young romance novelist who happens to be a practicing witch. And not just any witch, either - Diana Tregarde is a Guardian, charged with protecting the Earth and all its creatures.

Using modern science and ancient magics, Diana and Mark discover that they are tailing no ordinary serial killer but the awakened avatar of an Aztec god. Tezcatlipoca and his four beautiful hand-maidens are preparing for a great sacrifice that will transform North America into a new Aztec realm.

Diana isn't sure her powers are strong enough to take on those of a risen Aztec god, but she has no choice. As a Guardian, she is sworn to protect mankind, even at the cost of her own life. Luckily, she does not stand alone. Mark Valdez is more than just a cop. And Tezcatlipoca is not the only Aztec god walking in the world.

The Legacy Of Racism, And Haley Barbour's Comments

Yglesias summarizes what Haley Barbour was trying to say:

I think both what Barbour said and the context were pretty clear. In Mississippi in the 1950s and 60s most white people were white supremacists. And within the large and powerful white supremacist community, there was a split between more moderate and more radical factions. The moderates pursued a strategy of economic coercion and the radicals pursued a strategy of violence. There was also a small minority of white proponents of racial equality. In Barbour’s home town of Yazoo City, Mississippi the moderate faction of white supremacists had the upper hand. And Barbour thinks the strength of moderate white supremacists helped create a beneficial political atmosphere in his hometown.

Barbour may well have been correct that the Citizens Councils helped keep the peace in Yazoo City, but it's important to remember what kind of (unjust) peace that was, and who benefitted most from that kind of peace (namely, white folks like Barbour).

The legacy of racism lives on, coming alive in any number of ways, even when least expected. Like William Faulkner said:

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

The White Supremacists of the South are older now, and their numbers have dwindled with time, but in many cases they are still alive, or they have left their educational legacies through their children. It takes a long, long time for that history to pass away....

I remember about 25 years ago, when I lived in Tucson, being invited to the cabin of a fellow I knew, Dr. T., and discovering that he possessed an entire library of segregationist literature. Wow! I had no idea how vast a field white supremacist literature covered, or how many titles there were! So many cover illustrations dwelled on Big Lips! Kinky Hair! Outside Agitators! Egads!

I knew Dr. T. had been born in Alabama, but apart from a few clues, I didn't realize how he still felt about race, as well as some of modern life's other, more-questionable innovations. (Some things tickled his fancy, like his discovery one day that a local punk-rock band's acronym - UPS - stood for Useless Pieces of Shit. He laughed about that for months....)

I remember one hot summer day when I was trying to fix my VW Bug, and I had stuck my head into the engine compartment to check the carburetor. I thought there might be a blockage there, so I stuck my lips into the carburetor's intake, to make a better seal, and I was blowing hard into it. Dr. T. came up from behind me to ask a question. I spun around with a serious expression on my face. The dirty carburetor intake had left a perfect dark ring all around my dour, white-person lips, creating something of a Reverse, or Negative Blackface Effect. No happy tune from this unsuitable minstrel! Dr. T. gasped with surprise and fell into heap, he was laughing so hard.

Racism lives on, sometimes in the strangest of ways!

Don't We All

Julian Assange:

"I just really like women."

2,059,179

The Land of Enchantment gets crowded:

[D]ata released Tuesday by the Census Bureau, ... lists New Mexico's population at 2,059,179 residents. Census officials say that figure reflects a 13.2 percent increase over the population in 2000, which was 1,819,046.

The increase in New Mexico followed a national trend that showed 13.8 percent growth in Western states.