and now for something completely different

Either overcome by the rapid news-cycle and breaking developments about the US election and mail-bombs or dismissed as totally incredulous, this interesting piece about a life peer in the houses of parliment speaking about a mysterious and shadowy Foundation X was first picked up and circulated by Charlie Stross via Boing Boing.  It appears that the lord's overtures to the assembly actually took place on the evening of 1 November (where is C-SPAN3 when it's needed?) and that the lord is not some unsuspecting penioner about to be taken in by the promises of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of Nigerian National Bank, PLC, and offer Britian's account information to some friendly stranger on the internet.  This so called Foundation X is prepared, however, to disseminate its enormous wealth, to the tune of an initial five billion pounds of gold buillon, to the UK government to fulfill social projects, with an additional seventeen billion by Christmas--unconditionally.  Who might be interested in extending this kind of charity?  And to what end?  I wonder if MI6 has already complied a short list of possible candidates behind Foundation X, who have courted the member of parliment surreptitiously:
Skeletor
COBRA
The Vatican
Mephistopheles
Dr. No
Madonna
The Ferengi
The Templars
The Illumnati
This is just too strange, and I am sure that this was not, even after twenty weeks of development with the representative, the sort of deus ex machina that Britain expected to revive her economy.  I am certain Britain would not be without competition also interested in entertaining such an unbelieveable bargain.

no theatre

Maybe enough has already been said about the impact of the re-dyeing of the US in redder tints, and what it means to liberals and the progressively-minded--without restoring to sour-grapes.  Maybe a lot of crypto-Republicans were replaced with representatives whose stance is clearer, and the issues that conservatives and opponents of the current regime hope to errode or otherwise gloss over do not simply sublimate, regardless of all the the in-fighting, busking, gerrymandering, filabustering or creation of pseudo-scandals that they can muster.  This vote, and unfortuneately not so different from many campaigns the world-around, was low content and low context, despite advancements that were jeopardized by a populace too weary to abide on patience and promise any longer, and should not be broadly interpreted as more than frustration and opportunism.  Blame excuses nor solves nothing and only serves to make hypocrisies all the more haunting.

symbols of state or no we canntibus

All these instant discussion of gridlock that will be visited on the American people from the power-shift away from the Democratic Party, aside from seeming like this was a baited, rehearsed response, made me wonder a bit at the metaphor and all the taut analogies and wonderful anachronisms in common parlance.

There are no gatekeepers or linemen, even by abstraction, in politics and unhealthy, dispirited debate could result in an impasse that could at least mitigate reprisals and minimize the statecraft of compromise that undoes better intentions. Figuratively, we deal in icons and language that no longer resembles the product or the process they represent, not recognizable except as their pictograms and few would have the experience or dexterity to use them: no one uses a telephone with a rotary dial, emails appear as envelops, padlocks, there are no dollar signs on the dollar, piggy-banks, search with a magnifying glass, megaphone, few have paint palettes or could translate musical notation, played on a victrola.

Maybe venom and vitriol are good offense but maybe like the icons, they hark back to some exercise that has fallen away. In addition to the altered topography of capitol-players, which may or may not be attributable to apathy over choice, Californians have folded on their efforts to regulate, milk and otherwise to decriminalize marijuana, spooked by the legal liability being a forerunner could present.

prisoner of zenda or don’t let it rest on the president’s desk

It is rather difficult to keep composure over the tenor of the elections in the US and not being impatient with the results, although tutored in civility and reminded of our own catastrophic lunges towards insanity and overbearing. I truly wish some of the theater could be dispensed with, the ugliness and the cries of anguish and the cries of victory, however much that is not the political game, just like effecting change in government never should have been piecemeal and possibly too weak to resist the revisionists and spin-doctors or aimed so finely.

One cannot hope to alter those strategies any more than altering the game itself: a fragmented front with diluted messages quickly gives in and attention, whether rightly or wrongly or cynically, turns towards the truly local component in the saying “all politics is local.” I hope that the American voters and global underwriters can penetrate the smoke and mirrors and realize that whoever is left at the helm has inherited an enormous responsibility, and conditions, well-being, liberty, fiscal, legal, welfare, and diplomatic, are not allowed to be subsumed by a stale promise. Those interests who walk away from the polls with a respite are the biggest threats.

The German public, while enjoying in measurable terms--and I am sure some intangibles as well--historically low unemployment and an industrial juggernaut, have avoided austerity to a large extent, and while not boastful are neither ascribing the recovery to some preternatural government influence—maybe only helping bootstraps and not roadblocks, restrictions, or appeals to unfettered greed.

yemeni crickets or sheiks on a plane

Although the message that these thwarted terror attacks is clear forboding for bogeymen of all sorts and a bit of erstwhile rallying for the American mid-term elections, it strikes me as suspect that such ink-jet fireworks were uncovered just days after the European aviation authorities expressed their indignation, led by Great Britian, wanting to put an end to the unnecessary kow-towing to US air travel rules, especially the ones that they have not yet applied to their own domestic flights.  While there are certainly forces out there that might restore to deguising a bomb as a printer cartridge--I like the French word, cartouche, much better as it makes me think of all the Ramesse and King Tut exhibitions that I have visited and the gift shops there offered to render one's name in phonetic hieroglyphs (in a pharonic cartouche) and  I would like to see graffiti in ancient Egyptian: Monkey, Eagle, Cat, All-Seeing Eye--it smacks too familar, like besmirching one's carry-on's, belt, underpants, essential fluids, and finally one's dignity.  While thousands more are deputized in the name of safety and security and more extensive and far-reaching bad-touches are offered as alternatives to naked body scans, passengers must realize that if for one second one was considered any less thorough than the other or any risk was present, no choice would be given, no passage offered.  US rules of engagement are merely innuring factors, performed by agents ignorant of their psychological and numbing effects.  Nothing negates determination as highly as the chance dissuasion, and disillusionment can be counter-acted through more direct means.

whatever happened to with my transylvania twist?

It seems every second Halloween is much scarier than on off years, and one imagines that we are a little spooked by the election cycles in America. Campaign spending and cult of personality has escalated out of control, and for the usual reasons, which cannot be repeated too often: elected representatives and their army of groomed pages and administrative staffs are essentially immune from insider-trading. A congress person or a senator, especially one seated in one of the numerous committees and to the manor born, like agriculture, defense or social programs, is privy to nonpublic information and can even influence legislation in favour of one company or special interest over another, and nothing bars (saving perhaps the recursive and self-governing ethics committee) them from owning and trading stock in the midst of the deal. Elected representatives certainly have a vested interest in retaining their incumbency, maintaining influence or preening their connections for future careers in the private sector that has bankrolled their terms to begin with. European politics are not altruistic and of course not exempt from such persuasions, although appointments and outfitting of former public servants with their hoped for golden parachutes draws at least some attention if not outrage.

schwung and kool-aid

The truly frightening facet of politics, particularly so in America, involves the inertia and moment of what either or any party can claim as a mandate. Changing course is forever the status quo because underlying factors remain entrenched. Government does not solely exist to promote economic welfare, but its policy and deportment which cast the mold for whatever shape businesses and tax-payers, as both purveyors and beneficiaries, can assume, the peg barely fitting the hole, whittled down to baseline requirements or made more substantial with all the riders it can carry and still squeeze through. Neither the diameter of a loophole nor manipulation of the facts through sophistry changes market fundamentals and obligations for civic and economic stewardship. A disengaged public is more liable to accept the truthiness of the governing party without healthy scrutiny and in general innocence of corrobative influences. Redirection without commitment of energies, standing on spindly legs, is only so much gas to inflate the next market bubble.

jinkies

With Halloween and trick-or-treating fast approaching, I thought it high time for a little holiday roundup.  I thought that this costume idea, from the opening credits of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?--the scary witch-doctor, was very clever and instantly recognizable.  Myself, when I was very little, I can remember, however, wanting to be Velma "Liz" Dinkley.

For those of you still looking for a costume idea, with the democratization of shiny colour-printing and papercraftiness, I defer to the excellent website Superpunch and this collection of downloadable and printable masks (or come up with your own design) for holiday cheer.