A 19 August Cuppa Life

So I’m sitting again with the morning cuppa, all strung out after a dozen cover letters and needing an unwind.  Cue the news, my everlasting source of succor, my fortress of turpitude.  Wham!  First thing that strikes my eye:

Apple Faces South Korean Lawsuit – Now I really don’t have anything against Apple, short of a pro-PC sort of prejudice and a striking distaste for hep electronics.  But seeing this story (much like the iPad factory explosion of ages past) makes me all apple-cheeked and heart-warmy.  The tradeoff for all this gadgetry, for all this technological paraphernalia of our day, is essentially our freedom of localized conspicuity.  Of being able to say on a daily basis, “nobody knows I’m here except for my neighbors, my dog, and passersby on the street.”  Of being able to sign up for a service without having your phone number and email address sold off to telemarketers or hacked by cybervandals (because terrorist really is too strong a word).  Et cetera.  I’ve nothing against voluntarily signing oneself up for information-sharing or global tracking (actually, I’m hoping to get into the quake-catcher network sometime), but Apple is finally being hoisted by its own close-system, ask-no-favors petard.  Pending the lawsuit, of course.

US Military Develops ‘Bigger Bang’ Explosive Material – This new advent in pyrotechnic death (or ‘catastrophic kill,’ as the nomenclature goes) has promising potential for anti-missile missilery, more potent bombs (just what our drones need), and explosive bullets, among other exuberances.  And it comes at three or four times the price tag of current munitions!  And conservatives are complaining about SOCIAL SECURITY and the FDA!!  Jesus Christ, but I need another cup of coffee...

This Week’s Immigration News – Including allegations of racism and abuse of loosened probable cause interpretation that borders on the incontinent, and the possible waiving of 300,000 deportations of individuals deemed ‘not a risk’ have both caught my eye and hijacked my musings.  Should they stay or should they go, the irritating game of eating and keeping the cake.  I suppose part of the problem lies in the wide difference of opinions within America’s divide; the difference between reality (both good and bad) and prejudice (both preferential and discriminatory), and the inherent inability to make a decision that sits well with anybody.  Like America’s prison system, or the goddamn budget….  Getting more coffee.

Is the World Facing Fundamental Changes? – More doom and gloom about the finances, so I find myself backtracking and instead find Basketball Brawl: China and Georgetown Make Amends – Makes my heart glad to see fans and athletes closing in for the kill.  From different countries, no less!  I wonder if we could start investing in basketball (or hockey?) rather than HDRM, begin fighting our wars thattaway.  Really though, makes me chuckle.

At the day's end, what more does a body need than a warm bevvy (or five) and the occasional laugh?  Well... maybe A Recap of Former Soviet Republics.

Of Gods and Central Planners

So an interesting thought occurred to me as I slurp my morning cuppa, perusing Governor Rick Perry's website as I always do on Sunday mornings.  In the top banner there're blurbs of inspiration and facial likeness splashing across the screen, memorable quotes and so forth.  He keeps them simple:  "Don't spend all the money.  Keep taxes low.  Make regulations fair and predictable.  And stop the frivolous lawsuits that paralyze job creators."  "Getting America back to work starts with laying off our current president."

But the one that really made me sit up and smile this morning went along the lines of:

"It is up to this generation of Americans to take our future back from the grips of central planners who would control our healthcare, spend our treasure, downgrade our future, and micromanage our lives."

It strikes me that there's a wealth of information to be gleaned from this statement.  At first glance I'm scoffing at a man painfully out of touch with 'this generation,' though perhaps the Texan Young Republicans aren't such a hep set themselves...  Perry's use of terms like "central planners" and "treasure" seem taken straight out of McCarthy's* red scare lexicon and biblical parables, respectively.

Even in prayer, the governor has his eye on the presidency.

Particularly though, there's a glowing ire emanating from the statement's tone, a prickling of ego that at first glance seems out of place from such an outspokenly god-fearing man.  'How dare anyone control me,' all the while publicly (and arguably unconstitutionally) throwing himself and the fate of his constituents "in[to] God's hands,**" prayer circles and all.

It's a paradox, the god-and-caesar power shenanigans people play at; on the one hand professing to be in the wholesale throes of the whim of an omnipotently fearsome thing, yet all up in arms that a mere bureaucrat would dare to control what is rightfully God's sort-of-like.

Y'all get the picture, even if I don't really feel the need to paint out every last stroke.  At length I'd contend it's indicative of another political sociopath at work, a potentially opportunistic millionaire shamelessly shirking our social responsibilities while shielding himself and the poor feebs who vote for him by vague obligations to an at most distant superauthority.

A superauthority who clearly hates Texas, heart seemingly still unhardened by Perry's impressive prayer gathering earlier this month.

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* On a side rant, fuck the Cold War; our pyrrhic victory forever besmirched the idea of a national health care program. 

** For all my online scouring, I couldn’t find an actual link to cite.  It’s ‘common knowledge,’ apparently.