Hi to anyone still reading. I guess that was more like a month long break, but here I am. I was toying with the idea of giving up the blog altogether, but I’m not going to, at least right now. Posting will probably be somewhat infrequent, but on the bright side, Railyard Mackenzie has another guest column coming up and a lot of people who have better blogs than me are turning out better stuff than ever.

I was out of town for a week recently and ended up spending some time with a far-right, Evangelical relative of mine. He’s a good guy on a personal level, but totally insane when it comes to politics/society/religion/anything bigger than baseball. If he’d been alive in the 50s, he’s one of those guys who’d be in the John Birch society and calling Ike a communist. The difference is, those people were the fringe back then, now they’re running the show. While the conservative movement of Goldwater et al was heartless and vicious, there was still a certain amount of respect for science, reason, and basic realities of governance. The new conservatism is the worst of all possible worlds, based on a blend of ultra-nationalism, social darwinism, irresponsible economics, an imperial mindset, and an anti-reason religious fanaticism that has come to permeate the other aspects of modern con thought. It’s a truly scary combination, on par with or exceeding Iran’s ayatollahs (who may be assholes but don’t seem to have any serious imperial ambitions). The evangelical explosion of the last three decades has been largely to blame, and has brought America, a nation formerly known for its scientific advances and high quality of education, into a rut behind many third world nations. I can honestly say I think that this explosion, which culturally shares many elements with the Islamism of the post World War Two era, is probably the single most destructive force in American culture. But it’s important to remind ourselves that it’s made up of regular people, whose daily lives wouldn;t change much regardless of what they believed. As much as I want to hate them, I can’t, they’re ultimately not that different. They’re us and we’re them, and it’s a scary realization that to make things better, one has to confront the worst elements of oneself.

Anyway, off the soapbox for now. This coming week, Railyard’s guest column and I’ll natter at you about an interesting thing I learned regarding the way antinomianism works. See you soon.

Hi everybody

I have a lot to do (more than usual) and want to really throw myself into it. I will be taking a blog break from tomorrow til about July 10th. I won’t be writing anything for here but I will probably check once or twice a week to answer comments or glance at some other blogs I like. Anyone who wants to contact me can do so at delictoaquinas@hotmail.com . My email and the aforementioned comment check and probably the comics curmudgeon are the only internet I’ll probably be using, so  I’ll catch you later.

Dave

“how to smoke heroin the iranian way”

I’m trying to picture whoever typed this into google.

Anyway, I called up my bro Mahmoud A. in Tehran to ask him the Iranian way to burn a horse, so to speak. He responded “We don’t have heroin here. Or queers. That’s just those Zionists using search engines to spread lies about us.”

So, no info here, pal. Sorry.

The lovely folks at Westboro Baptist have decided that Tim Russert is in hell for supporting the “fag agenda” with his journalism. I believe Fred Phelps actually invokes the phrase “bully pulpit” at some point, a term that seemed quaint back when Teddy Roosevelt threw it around. I don’t remember Russert ever being particularly pro-gay, and the WBC congregation are of course completely fucking insane, but I’m not sure I completely disagree with them. If there’s a good old fashioned fire and brimstone hell, I have to assume that Russert is there right now, forced to act as Raymond Burr’s understudy for all eternity and/or being jabbed with picthforks. My assumption isn’t based on any deep love I suspect that a conservative Irish Catholic like Russert had for gays, but rather for his role in helping sell this stupid, endless war to the American public. As an accomplice to almost a million deaths and counting, Russert is imaginable nowhere else but the depths of the 8th circle.

Of course, the scorn heaped on the WBC members by the American Public is sadly predictable. It’s not that they don’t deserve it, you understand, it’s that they’re such a ridiculously easy target and it’s so easy to go after them even as house resolutions are passed (unanimously) to honor a whore like Tim. Fred Phelps is an asshole, I mean, you have to consider that he was disbarred for repeated breaches of ethics; it takes a lot of work to be considered an albatross around the neck of the legal community. But realistically, the WBC is basically that guy and his family and have zero power or credibility even with the most far right protestant nutcases. The closest thing to a genuine fascist in mainstream American discourse, Sean Hannity, thinks they’re extremist crazies. McCain courted Hagee but he stays the hell away from these guys. They’re pretty much only infamous due to their love of extreme hyperbole and talent for self-promotion, not unlike Eminem. There are a lot of people in this country who have done a lot more harm, and just use more genteel language, and Tim Russert was completely willing to be buddy buddy with those people and even help them do their damage.

So I can’t really claim I’m too offended by the morons this time; I’m offended by the unwillingness of Americans to actually talk truth to people in power, or to recognize the crimes of the dead, turning every public figure who’s reached room temperature into some sort of hero. Rot in hell Tim Russert, and I can only hope that you and Phelps are sharing an apartment across the hall from Andy Dick and R Kelly in a few years.

Hipsters are no longer allowed to pretend that because they’ve turned into cynical faux-conservative assholes that they stopped being hipsters. Being a racist idiot is being a racist idiot. Treating women like shit is treating women like shit. The fact that you suddenly call people “Fag” for fun didn’t mystically make you any better than the dude down the bar drinking the same drink as you just because he’s a vegetarian who’s voting for Ralph Nader. Pretending you’re somehow too world-weary and jaded to give a shit anymore because you do coke off the sink at Mia’s and have read Jim Goad and that’s why you make child molestation jokes is for wimps; just admit you want to be an asshole, sell off your deerhoof (or whatever) records and become a yuppie.

I mention Jim Goad because he’s such an obvious example. Jim, you live in Portland and write for Vice Magazine for the love of god. Anti-hipster tirades and books like The Redneck Manifesto almost seem like kitsch coming from you. I understand that you try to dress white trash and write rape apologia when you’re not hitting women and praising Nazis, and I’m sure in your mind the idea that this offends some pink-haired womens’ studies major at Evergreen validates your superiority complex. The sad thing is, you’re a better writer than I probably ever will be in terms of technique, and you actually said a few worthwhile things in the first couple issues of Answer Me!, but acting like a dick doesn’t divest you of your hipster value, it just makes you a dick hipster, especially if you live in a dick hipster mecca like the rose city. Same with all you guys who think anti-sweatshop activism is a waste of time and go to NIke’s viral marketing “street parties”; you’re not somehow more worldly because you were drinking their free beer. Anyone over 21 and most people under could do the same thing, some of us would just rather not praise Nike and instead stay home bitterly slamming Olde English and wondering what happened to our social lives stick to our ethics if only in a half assed way.

Having nothing worthwhile to say anymore is not proof of wisdom. Pissing people off doesn’t mean you “must be doing something right”. Telling people with more “real world” experience than you that they need to start living in the real world makes you look like a tool. Shooting heroin isn’t glamorous, doing coke just makes you look like a stockbroker to me, and trying to be Bukowski was cool once, but then I turned 20. I can understand a cynical adult, and I can understand a naive idealist, but a petulant child in the body of an adult is a truly ugly thing.

Still a Great Song!

Hey all, I’ve written like half of three real pieces, but between working 50-60 hours a week and my last class for school, it hasn’t been possible to finish them. For now though, Natalia Antonova tagged me with a meme, so here goes;

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to

I actually have more like a dozen right now (I’m an audio geek), but we’ll go with the top 7, along with links if I have them

Dengue Fever- Hold My Hips (Killer Cambodian Pop)

Neung Phak- Tui Tui Tui (Thai/Lao pop, link is to their myspace)

Streetlight Manifesto- We Will Fall Together (Ska)

Ozomatli w/ Chali 2na- Super Bowl Sundae ( Cali music that mixes punk, hip hop, cumbia, salsa, more)

Cylob- Cut the Midrange (British electronica)

Ghostface Killah and Amy Winehouse- You Know I’m No Good Remix (Just Ghostface rapping over a remix of the original song

Bedouin Soundclash- Shelter (British fusion stuff)  EDIT:Oops, as Fathima points out, these guys are Canadian. Dur.

I’m tagging Nadia (who I’m sure will have a way cooler list than me), Suhana (ditto), Muse, Wizardsmoke (doesn’t seem like a meme type of guy and I have no idea what he listens to), Willow Wilson (I think she should include notes on what she listens to while working, like Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan do), Yasmine, and Abdul-Halim.

I will never work for another non-profit run by bean counters. I’m only sticking here for now out of personal loyalty to my boss; otherwise I would be out the door somethin’ fast.

At Least The Hardwood Floors Are Easy To Keep Clean

Dorian Three “Dwellings”

The Black Angels “Better Off Alone”

Alan Parsons Project “Eye In The Sky”

Pulp “The Fear”

Zion I “Doin My Thing”

J Church “Tide of Fate”

Armor For Sleep “The Wanderers Guild”

Avail “S.R.O.”

Brother Ali “Here”

Mirah- “The Story of Isaac” (Leonard Cohen cover)

The difference between this and previous mixes is you can download this stuff unless I somehow screw up the process (always possible).

Something I was already putting together but partially inspired by this post by Muse.

Rice, vegetable oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, corn starch, curry, salt, garlic powder, a liiitttttle msg, tumeric, green onions, peas, seitan strips, and eggs. I can cook a tasty meal if presentation isn’t a big deal.

(I’m cleaning the apartment right now, hence the mess).