{"id":5059,"date":"2010-11-02T18:30:20","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T22:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=5059"},"modified":"2010-11-02T16:58:43","modified_gmt":"2010-11-02T20:58:43","slug":"election-night-various","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=5059","title":{"rendered":"Election night various"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/nukecanada2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/nukecanada2-300x161.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"nukecanada\" width=\"300\" height=\"161\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5064\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imvotingteaparty.com\/\">Some interesting Tea Party slogans<\/a> [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cynical-c.com\/\" title=\"Cynical-C\">via<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/whatever.scalzi.com\/2010\/11\/01\/an-election-a-short-story-presented-by-subterranean-press\/\">&#8220;An Election&#8221; by John Scalzi<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/news\/17390\/210904\">Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine it. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cynical-c.com\/\" title=\"Cynical-C\">via<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>The AV Club on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avclub.com\/articles\/crosstalk-what-did-the-rally-to-restore-sanity-acc,47037\/?utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_campaign=feeds&#038;utm_source=channel_tv\">the Rally to Restore Sanity<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Ultimately, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m okay with the Rally being mostly pointless entertainment\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that it could have succeeded as anything else. And you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re right that it did promote conversation, at least among those of us who spend our time pontificating on the Internet about such things. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m left with a feeling of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is that all there is? Is this the best we can do?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You said earlier, Steve, that while watching the rally, you were waiting for a moment of catharsis that never came; I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no opportunity for catharsis when an event is built on a foundation of moderation and ironic distance. We wanted to feel like we were part of something big, a sum that was greater than its parts, but ultimately we were just a bunch of butts in seats\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor shoes on grass, whatever\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwatching a spectacle unfold. I like spectacle, I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a place for it in society and even politics; I just worry about it getting conflated with, or confused for, real action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>Also, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avclub.com\/articles\/matt-taibbi,47077\/?utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_campaign=feeds&#038;utm_source=channel_books\">their interview with Taibbi<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Right, exactly. That short-term thinking, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so amazing about it is how widespread it is. It requires <i>everybody<\/i> to have that same mindset, not just these guys who work at AIG, for instance, who bet half a trillion dollars on mortgages knowing it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eventually going to blow up their company. But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get a huge bonus this year. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just guys like that, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s these politicians who work in the city of Chicago who know they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing a terrible deal, who know they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to lose their city billions of dollars in the end, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to get them through <i>this year<\/i> in the budget. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expedient for 10 minutes. After that, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problem. I guess that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the themes I was trying to get to in this book. One of the reasons this stuff didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen before, I think, is that there was just a little bit more, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, patriotism, or decency, or whatever. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure the opportunities to do this kind of stuff were there, but people just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do them before. That change is pretty chilling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>Is it too late to claim <a href=\"http:\/\/politicalcorrection.org\/blog\/201010260025\">that $1000 from the Christine O&#8217;Donnell campaign<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li>You know, I&#8217;m sure not <i>all<\/i> of Rand Paul&#8217;s supporters <a href=\"http:\/\/tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com\/2010\/10\/kentucky-stomper-wants-an-apology-from-woman-he-assaulted.php\">stomp on someone&#8217;s head and then demand <i>that<\/i> person apologize<\/a>&#8230;Still, one seems like way more than enough. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cynical-c.com\/\" title=\"Cynical-C\">via<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/nation\/article\/0,8599,2013150,00.html\">The Government Can Use GPS to Track Your Moves<\/a>. Amazingly, <i>not<\/i> a crazy Tea Party conspiracy theory. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/neilhimself\" title=\"@neilhimself\">via<\/a>]\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/fraggmented.blogspot.com\/2010\/10\/words-have-meanings-you-know.html\">John Seavey on the Tea Party<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Let&#8217;s be blunt and call this what it is: An attempt to rebrand the Republican Party in the wake of their disastrous performance over the last decade. The Tea Party is nothing more than the radical right wing of the Republican Party, and should be referred to as such. Anything else is just giving them exactly what they want: A chance to pretend that despite having the same worldview, policies, and goals for America, the Republicans of 2010 have nothing to do with the Republicans we&#8217;ve thrown out of office over the last four years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>This is about a month old, but it bears repeating: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/bill-maher\/new-rule-rich-people-who-_b_737429.html\">New Rule: Rich People Who Complain About Being Vilified Should Be Vilified<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Along the same lines, here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/whatever.scalzi.com\/2010\/09\/26\/tax-frenzies-and-how-to-hose-them-down\/\">more from John Scalzi<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what you do about the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153taxes are theft\u00e2\u20ac\u009d crowd, except possibly enter a gambling pool regarding just how long after their no-tax utopia comes true that their generally white, generally entitled, generally soft and pudgy asses are turned into thin strips of Objectivist Jerky by the sort of pitiless sociopath who is actually prepped and ready to live in the world that logically follows these people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fondest desires. Sorry, guys. I know you all thought <i>you<\/i> were going to be one of those paying a nickel for your cigarettes in Galt Gulch. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be a fine last thought for you as the starving remnants of the society of takers closes in with their flensing tools.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>And while I&#8217;m at it, <a href=\"http:\/\/whatever.scalzi.com\/2010\/10\/01\/what-i-think-about-atlas-shrugged\/\">Scalzi&#8217;s thoughts on <i>Atlas Shrugged<\/i><\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>All of this is fine, if one recognizes that the idealized world Ayn Rand has created to facilitate her wishful theorizing has no more logical connection to our real one than a world in which an author has imagined humanity ruled by intelligent cups of yogurt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>All those people who&#8217;ve been shouting &#8220;I want my country back&#8221; at political rallies? Yeah, I&#8217;m with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/robert-j-elisberg\/the-noble-i-want-my-count_b_741606.html\">Robert J. Elisberg<\/a> on this one:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Me, I want my country forward. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsfromme.com\/\" title=\"Mark Evanier\">via<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>And finally, <a href=\"http:\/\/whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com\/\">What the Fuck Has Obama Done So Far<\/a>. In case you were wondering.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some interesting Tea Party slogans [via] &#8220;An Election&#8221; by John Scalzi Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party: A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=5059\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[67,16,60,6,10],"class_list":["post-5059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-america","tag-books","tag-money","tag-politics","tag-various"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}