tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31982947866475216652024-02-19T03:42:55.374-08:00elliott writesE Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-24458599287488574392011-02-25T13:16:00.000-08:002011-03-20T19:26:30.701-07:00NASCAR & Integrity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www1.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/NASCAR+Sprint+Star+Race+Practice+h21rdE57jb9l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="http://www1.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/NASCAR+Sprint+Star+Race+Practice+h21rdE57jb9l.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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The other day, the US House of Representatives <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20033549-503544.html?tag=untagged">denied passage of a bill</a> that would eliminate federal funding for advertising of the US Military on NASCAR cars.<br />
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Earlier, the same congress slashed funding for <a href="http://www.plannedparenthood.org/">Planned Parenthood</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_X">Title X</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Income_Home_Energy_Assistance_Program">LIHEAP</a>, <a href="http://www.npr.org/">NPR</a>, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/">PBS</a>, and <a href="http://www.americorps.gov/">Americorps</a>, cut funding for the <a href="http://www.epa.gov/">EPA</a> to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and rejected numerous defense spending reductions.<br />
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I suppose it depends on your politics whether Republican congresspersons are wholly self-interested, NASCAR-loving "rednecks" with absolutely no integrity - or patriots who stick to their core values.<br />
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As a result of some conversations this weekend, however, I've learned that, as "enlightened," "open-minded," and "liberal" as I may be I'm super judgmental of folks I perceive to be closed-minded. So it's time for a thought experiment.<br />
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What if you believed that a vicious, world-wide conspiracy of armed and dangerous terrorists were mobilizing to destroy your home country, and patriotism is one of your core values? What if you believed that the conspiracy was so vast, and so dangerous, and so illogical and backward that there was literally no chance of any kind of diplomatic solution to the disagreements between these terrorist killers? What if you believed, literally, that they are the embodiment of evil?<br />
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Then, wouldn't it make sense to prioritize marketing the US Army (the growth of which is a necessity, remember, considering the scenario above) to NASCAR watchers, who tend to be both lower-income and Southern (two heavy markets for Army recruiting), even when doing so conflicts with one's other values ("fiscal responsibility")?<br />
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The thinking could go, "I know that it's important to help poor people heat their homes in the winter, but they won't even have homes if (when) Al-Qaieda takes over our country, installs Sharia law, rapes all of our women and murders all the good Christians. Preventing that from happening is more important as it affects all of us."<br />
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I don't buy it, but I could see how some people with values radically different from my own could (though it's hard for me to believe a rational person having those values without simultaneously being burdened by Islamophobia, Xenophobia, Orientalism, etc).<br />
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By the way, Obama's budget also cut funding for LIHEAP. Food for thought?E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-26786267616094150882011-01-08T11:35:00.000-08:002011-01-08T11:40:16.880-08:00My favorite music of 2010It's a week or so late, but...<br />
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A lot of this stuff has seen life on my <a href="http://elliottwrites.blogspot.com/2010/10/3q2010.html">Quarterly Mixes</a>, click back to see what I was into each quarter of this year and what made the cut through to this "Best of 2010" Mix.<br />
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It's two CDs because I couldn't trim it down to a respectable single-cd level. I couldn't figure out how to split all of the songs into two different CDs (I originally had them flowing as one piece) - but as the genres vary, I decided to try and keep my original order intact but put most of the upbeat songs - either by BPM, lyrical content, dance-ablility, etc. - on the 1st CD and the downbeat songs on the 2nd CD.<br />
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If you see a song on here, and it's different than a song from the same artist that was on one of my quarterly mixes, that's either because 1) I wanted to branch out and get some deeper cuts from that record onto here or 2) I realized that, since that quarterly mix came out, I like this song better than that one. Nearly every song on here means I really liked the album that it came from, not necessarily that that single song was one of my favorites from the entire year, you dig?<br />
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Click the image to download. They should show up in iTunes with album art, track numbers, etc. So don't worry. Also remember - if you like these songs, pay for them! This is just a sample. Go buy music!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7941433/2010%20Mix%20Part%20I_%20Uppers.zip"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWlnaQ0fwQL30pHr7oVAyEsOCkjNINhMp_x3ELbli-xTx_uf94Ayx7IfTv4DPviGnrsFCj2VUWUW7U6PrbRJ4ZKXaX_yJripkdNXRFyjYMSEFEw1lwRh3tX-ZY2fA5uJACdxZTEkUaNL8/s320/uppers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
1. Lost in the World (ft. Bon Iver) / Kanye West // My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy<br />
2. Umm Hmm / Erykah Badu // New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh<br />
3. Cold War / Janelle Monae // The ArchAndroid<br />
4. Can Change / LCD Soundsystem // This Is Happening<br />
5. O.N.E. / Yeasayer // Odd Blood<br />
6. Thieves in The Night / Hot Chip // One Life Stand<br />
7. White Sky / Vampire Weekend // Contra<br />
8. Convertiible Balloon / Wavves // King of the Beach<br />
9. When I'm With You / Best Coast // Crazy For You<br />
10. Low Shoulder / Toro y Moi // Causers of This<br />
11. Vesuvius / Sufjan Stevens // The Age of Adz<br />
12. Biting Your Tail / Iron & Wine // Walking Far From Home<br />
13. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) / Arcade Fire // The Suburbs<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7941433/2010%20Mix%20Part%20II_%20Downers.zip"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjllpukaeiAMyKi9xXWdC7GIBF3nkqtA3ezuCgEaFHTiQploxfgDxworTFZxi53CN7ihg41QS_FmvUdZyjui1Abbwh4Pr1wNAFDnqPMGYxEmXfuqtO-Qm4mDVyhgEA-ZXTR_PXIdR2ghBA/s320/downers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
1. Falling From the Sun / The Album Leaf // A Chorus of Storytellers<br />
2. Don't Leave My Mind / Azure Ray // Drawing Down the Moon<br />
3. The Resistance / Drake // Thank Me Later<br />
4. If You Want It / TV Girl // TV Girl EP<br />
5. Always On My Mind / Reading Rainbow // Prism Eyes<br />
6. Goons / Small Black // New Chain<br />
7. Castles in The Snow / Twin Shadow // Forget<br />
8. I Really Do / Seapony // Seapony EP<br />
9. Good Intentions Paving Company / Joanna Newsom // Have One On Me<br />
10. Honey Come Home / Head and the Heart // Head and the Heart<br />
11. My Girl the Horse / Fences // Fences<br />
12. I'll Build You A Fire / Seabear // We Built A Fire<br />
13. Like the Wheel / The Tallest Man On Earth // The Wild Hunt<br />
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What did I miss? Any glaring omissions?E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-83701233666142158262010-10-12T15:56:00.001-07:002010-10-12T15:56:54.197-07:00First Words SinceI re-watched this today. Years later, still my favorite poem.<br />
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<center><br />
<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0fhWX2F6G7Y&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0fhWX2F6G7Y&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object></center>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-19734009349494268082010-07-14T12:02:00.000-07:002010-07-14T12:03:28.346-07:00Quotation AnalysisHey y'all, <b>"Quotation Analysis"</b> is a new blog theme/meme/gimmick where I quote someone else and then analyze their quote.<br />
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Today's quote comes from <a href="http://www.glennbeck.com/">Glenn Beck</a>, quoted at <a href="http://www.snooperreport.com/snooper-report/2010/7/13/liberation-theology-and-social-justice.html">this ridiculous tea-party bullshit blog</a> that has a better layout than mine does.<br />
<blockquote><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">I have taken a lot of hits from people like Rev. Jim Wallis on “social justice.” But I needed you to know there is a poison in some of our churches. Social justice — the way Jim Wallis and Jeremiah Wright understand it — isn’t in the gospel, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">neither is redistribution of wealth</span></b></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">.</span></b></blockquote>Wait, really? I seem to remember a certain passage about a "rich young ruler." From <a href="http://www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/18_18-23.htm">Luke</a>:<br />
<blockquote><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">[18] A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"...</span></i></blockquote><blockquote><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">[22] ...he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."</span></i></blockquote>I figure you can argue the specifics. I mean, what does he mean by "If you want salvation, sell everything you have and give to the poor" really mean? He's just using a metaphor, right? Beck's (and many, many mainstream conservative pastors and church leaders') argument is that "social justice" or "liberation theology" advocates for a <i>government </i>redistribution of wealth, and that instead we should be free to do what we will with what we've earned.<br />
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But the argument that the Bible doesn't quite explicitly support redistribution of wealth is disingenuous at best. But what do we really expect from the likes of Glenn Beck?E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-36634196726786147242010-07-12T20:40:00.000-07:002010-07-13T12:22:11.567-07:00New Blog Theme/Meme: Overheard in Capitol Hill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs6HmWLEEIWY8fVUcjv8NbJtwu_80bCdfDsLpRfPl5oi6U9Dyi6VNYOCxwR8SsQSv22jgVJJlYCE8zpefrrt9tjsluqzKx5EfUfG_t4s2CuUAsatC_k_n4B2NHfdWSOIFyva85YmaJ2aM/s1600/caphill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs6HmWLEEIWY8fVUcjv8NbJtwu_80bCdfDsLpRfPl5oi6U9Dyi6VNYOCxwR8SsQSv22jgVJJlYCE8zpefrrt9tjsluqzKx5EfUfG_t4s2CuUAsatC_k_n4B2NHfdWSOIFyva85YmaJ2aM/s400/caphill.jpg" width="550" /></a></div><br />
Overheard in Capitol Hill is a new blog theme/meme/gimmick where my loyal blog readers can make fun of the "effing hipsters" that populate the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, WA, and the "sillie" things that they say.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">► Young man to another young man:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> "If I were going to, like, see someone about my problems... I'd fucking tell my wife, you know?" </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Overheard at Victrola on 15th</span></span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br />
</i></span>► Man to cell phone:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> "Well, when we got divorced, everyone was so pissed off at us that it didn't work out." </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Overheard at Victrola on 15th</span></span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br />
</i></span>► Young girl 1:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> "So we all started making out, even though no one knew each other."</span></span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Young girl 2:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> "Oh, that's so nice." </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Overheard at Stumptown on 12th</span></span></i><br />
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Have you Overheard something blog-worthy in Capitol Hill?E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-72704891928827828592010-07-09T14:37:00.000-07:002010-07-30T10:58:47.560-07:00Five Legitimate Ways to Respond to the Oil Spill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy12q12t8ldSvIURXCpEA0RVNUb7kzycaZPvVhTNnrRMJIvKb8PEY2NYOQ0P1cMK2e2BxEhPBsW82JVLhTG6YkWAtLvZIC7_XG3SE71DA8vK9osgUcVh6JPjBBhgan6PILEeQHxXkkF38/s1600/EVOSWEB_013_oiled_bird3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy12q12t8ldSvIURXCpEA0RVNUb7kzycaZPvVhTNnrRMJIvKb8PEY2NYOQ0P1cMK2e2BxEhPBsW82JVLhTG6YkWAtLvZIC7_XG3SE71DA8vK9osgUcVh6JPjBBhgan6PILEeQHxXkkF38/s400/EVOSWEB_013_oiled_bird3.jpg" width="550" /></a></div><br />
There are over 750,000 members of the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2347471856#%21/BoycottBP">"Boycott BP" group on Facebook</a>.This is, frankly, a travesty. Of course, you can't put too much stock in how many members there are in a facebook group, but still... The level of awareness of the BP Oil Spill in the gulf is tremendous and heartening; and I hope it changes our attitudes and lifestyles and alters the way we think about the cost of oil - but boycotting BP is a useless waste of time. <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/07/boycott-bp.html">Sharon Begley at Newsweek</a> hits at the crux of the issue quite well:<br />
<blockquote><i><b>It’s understandable that consumers are furious and frustrated by the gulf catastrophe and want to punish those responsible... [but] BP and the 32 other operators of deepwater wells in the gulf are there not because they find it technologically interesting to see how deep they can drill... They’re drilling because of America’s—and the world’s—insatiable lust for oil.<br />
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The U.S. consumes 800 million gallons of petroleum per week, according to the Energy Information Agency. The only way to make this the last oil spill in the gulf is to make oil obsolete. </b></i><br />
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<i><b>...Just as buying green products is better for our eco-esteem than it is an effective way to save the planet, so consumer boycotts of the latest oil company to run afoul of public opinion are emotionally satisfying but ultimately futile.</b></i></blockquote>A boycott does nothing but punish the actual owner of whichever gas station you bypass (to ostensibly go purchase your gas from some other gas station). We need to recognize that the oil spill is our fault because we demand oil and we demand it cheap. Reducing our demand for oil is the only way, short of advocating for a government solution (do this too!), to reduce drilling for oil - to reduce the myriad environmental impacts oil production wreaks on our planet.<br />
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But the question is always, <b>well what do I do about it then?</b> Here are some simple suggestions.<br />
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The best thing about this list? Almost everything will not only reduce your personal demand for oil but will often save you money as well or have other positive benefits. Sure, they are inconvenient - but next time you see a picture of a oil-soaked pelican, be reminded that inconvenience is necessary to manifest any kind of legitimate change. Here is the list: <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cache-03.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2009/12/500x_traffic_top_color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cache-03.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2009/12/500x_traffic_top_color.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>1. Change the way you travel.</b> You can't carpool every time you go somewhere. But you probably do go to the same place by usually the same route, quite often - work. Do any of your co-workers live nearby you? Find out, and put together a carpool. If you shared your ride to and from work with one other person half the time, you would reduce the demand for oil that your daily commute produces by <b>fully 25%</b>. Imagine if you did it more frequently or with mor co-workers? You would also save a ton of money over time on gas and car maintenance. Don't know how to carpool? Check out <a href="http://www.rideshare-directory.com/">Rideshare Directory</a>, <a href="http://seattle.craigslist.org/rid/">Craigslist Rideshare</a>, <a href="https://zebigo.com/landing.php">Zebigo</a>, or just talk to some of your co-workers.<br />
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Here's an alarming statistic: "25% of all trips are made within a mile of the home, 40% are within two miles of the home, and 50% of the working population commutes five miles or less to work. Yet more than 82% of trips five miles or less are made by personal motor vehicle" (<a href="http://www.bikeleague.org/resources/why/environment.php">League of American Bicyclists</a>). Do you really need to get in the car for a one or two-mile trip? <b>Consider walking, public transit, or <a href="http://elliottwrites.blogspot.com/2010/06/bicycling-as-response-to-oil-spill.html">bicycle</a>.</b> Not only will this reduce your gas demand, but all of these options will help make you healthier as well.<br />
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If you're in the market for a new car, really think about what you need. Do you need an SUV, really? Or would a smaller car work? Would a hybrid or even an electric car work? At least give it some thought. And if you're traveling/vacationing soon? Consider the cost/benefit of <b>taking the train instead of flying</b> - time, cost, and environmental impact should all factor in.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/images/20091114DSC_1542%20-%20Version%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.seriouseats.com/images/20091114DSC_1542%20-%20Version%202.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>2. Buy local, sustainable food. </b>"Food miles" isn't as popular a term as it once was among environmentalists - I think a lot of people realized that factory farming methods and pesticide use were bigger culprits in terms of pollution than the distance food traveled to get to you. But since we're talking about the oil spill here, I'll mention it. Your food may have traveled across the country or world to reach your local supermarket. Buying local reduces the distance your food travels and thus reduces the gas necessary to transport your food to you.<br />
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Most cities have plenty of local farmer's markets (especially in Seattle, and especially now that it's summer). And while some people think that buying at the farmer's market is more expensive, <a href="http://simple-green-frugal.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-farmers-market-more-expensive.html">that's largely not true</a> - especially when you consider the true cost of cheap supermarket food (remember those pelicans?). The farmer's market is also a great place to get high-quality meat, if you're into that - but see #5 for a meat-centric recommendation.<br />
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Another fantastic option is <b>the <a href="http://www.localharvest.org/csa/">CSA Share</a>.</b> Basically a CSA is signing up to get a box of fresh produce from a local farm. They either deliver the box to a "depot" close to where you live or directly to your home! This has a host of benefits besides the "local" aspect - the food is fresh and tasty, usually organic, in-season, and for some CSAs you don't get to choose what goes in the box - meaning you get to learn how to cook a bunch of new things as well.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDBEe-uGKZGrKgo1cCE1yIrJSbfk6_1tY814IBQw0RXVmE8nglpwgaES7mA_wt7PiWdFsp0ZrcC7SVD5xpSHI37bP-bEdpHY8cO4tDv52BN8a-HBRG0SvzR_32_z5gV_aHDi_Qy_CFYDU/s1600/thrift-store1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDBEe-uGKZGrKgo1cCE1yIrJSbfk6_1tY814IBQw0RXVmE8nglpwgaES7mA_wt7PiWdFsp0ZrcC7SVD5xpSHI37bP-bEdpHY8cO4tDv52BN8a-HBRG0SvzR_32_z5gV_aHDi_Qy_CFYDU/s400/thrift-store1.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />
<b>3. Shop at the thrift store.</b> Many fabrics, including polyester, are made directly from petroleum. But whether it's cotton or polyester, almost all clothing has to be processed with textile machinery, and because almost all major clothing manufacturers have their clothes made overseas, they then have to be shipped here in airplanes and then trucked to your local outlet.<br />
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By purchasing second-hand clothing, you avoid all of this (and, of course, save a ton of money). If you are concerned with quality or safety risks associated with thrift shopping, or are worried about style, then focus your shopping efforts at <a href="http://www.crossroadstrading.com/cm/Home.html">Crossroads</a>, <a href="http://www.redlightvintage.com/">Red Light</a>, <a href="http://www.buffaloexchange.com/">Buffalo Exchange</a>, or other high-end "consignment" stores. You can often get name-brand, high-end clothes for a fraction of the price they were new - and usually in next-to-new conditions.<br />
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You can buy almost anything used, and in good condition too. Think about the factories that make almost everything that you use - your furniture, for example. They all use energy (usually oil) to power their machinery. Taking one more item off the production line via not purchasing it new reduces your oil demand by that much.<br />
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<b>4. Ditch Plastic. </b>Plastic is made directly from petroleum. It is either in or wrapped around almost every product that we buy - and contrary to popular belief, much of it is not recyclable (though even if it was, most people don't care - 80% of plastic bottles <a href="http://earth911.com/news/2009/06/08/360-recycling-plastic-bottles/">go unrecycled</a>. Do you recycle your water bottle <i>every single</i> time?). The most obvious culprits are plastic water bottles and plastic bags.<br />
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Plastic water bottles are incredibly convenient - that's why they're so ubiquitous. But spend $15.00 on a reusable metal water bottle and you will never need another plastic water bottle! And once you get used to toting it around, it becomes as convenient as a plastic bottle would be. Water bottling companies have also convinced us that their water is more "pure" or "clean" - <a href="http://www.freshwatersystems.com/support/Bottled%20Water%20Vs.%20Tap%20Water.pdf">this is simply untrue</a>. If taste is the issue, then getting a filter for your tap water is another cheap, more-sustainable solution.<br />
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Luckily for the environment, many grocery stores are starting to charge for plastic grocery bags. These are also created with petroleum and sit in landfills literally forever. They can be recycled, but most people don't do it correctly. Get a reusable "green" bag, use paper, or don't get a bag at all! If what you've bought can be carried in your hands, do you really need a bag? If you forget to bring your "green" bag to the grocery store (it happens, but hanging them up near your front door, or keeping some in your car at all times, can help), remember that you don't need to throw away your paper or plastic bags after using them. They can be re-purposed for hundreds of household tasks!<br />
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Following <b>Suggestion #2</b> can help reduce your plastic usage as well - bring a "green" bag to the farmer's market and pick up your groceries that way - no plastic required! The more you buy direct - non-processed food, used clothing and goods, bartering for items at swap meets and garage sales, etc. - the less packaging you consume (and then throw away), meaning the less plastic you create demand for.<br />
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<b>5. Reduce your consumption of meat.</b> No matter what else you as an individual do, if you stopped eating factory-farmed meat it would literally be the most helpful thing you could do as an individual for the Earth. The amount of water, grain, and energy that goes into feeding cows, pigs, and chickens is astronomical, and is an incredibly inefficient use of natural resources.<br />
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Speaking of <a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/po-church0700405.htm">oil specifically, however:</a><br />
<blockquote><i><b>Vast amounts of oil and gas are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of fertilisers and pesticides, and as cheap and readily available energy at all stages of food production: from planting, irrigation, feeding and harvesting, through to processing, distribution and packaging. In addition, fossil fuels are essential in the construction and the repair of equipment and infrastructure needed to facilitate this industry, including farm machinery, processing facilities, storage, ships, trucks and roads. The industrial food supply system is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels...</b></i></blockquote>An organic, local, vegetarian diet requires no pesticides, no long-distance transport, no energy to power massive slaughterhouses and processing facilities, etc. Also, because growing vegetables and grains to serve directly to humans is vastly more efficient in terms of caloric output than growing it to feed to animals to be fed to humans, it reduces costs that meat and vegetable production share, such as irrigation, harvesting, and powering farm tools such as tractors and combines.<br />
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If you are going to eat meat (it isn't an all-or-nothing proposition - reducing one's meat consumption is still good!) get it organic from the farmer's market. Organic, local meat usually isn't pumped full of hormones, the feed isn't swathed in pesticides, some farms feed their animals in more sustainable, "natural" ways, and it isn't shipped from Iowa or further.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Conclusions</span></i></b><br />
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There is no point being disgusted by what's going on in the gulf right now if you aren't going to do anything about it. In a couple months this disaster will be out of sight and out of mind - so what can we do now, while the devastation is close at hand, to work toward preventing its happening again?<br />
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Do what you can. It is very possible for a young single person on a VERY limited budget to do all of these things and be healthy and happy without too much inconvenience (I currently practice them all as much as possible). Not all of these suggestions can apply to everyone, but some of them can apply to everyone.<br />
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And then, if you are so inclined, recognize that the only way we'll really break free from an oil-based economy is through government/corporate action - write your congressmen/women and/or senators and let them know you support a comprehensive green energy bill. Get involved with a local organization that supports green jobs or green development or offers rebates to folks that install green energy technology in their homes or that educates people about environmental issues. Donate time or money to an environmental organization. Petition your city to incorporate strict environmental standards in its development goals, etc. There is so much you can do that can actually have an effect - don't waste your time being angry or boycotting one company. Do your individual part by changing your habits, and join the movement!<br />
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Questions or comments?<br />
Any other simple suggestions for reducing oil consumption / demand?<br />
Am I totally misinformed and some of these things are B.S.?<br />
Let me know in the comments below (remember, you don't need an account to leave a comment, and I really appreciate them!)E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-41482090668490513592010-06-30T09:30:00.000-07:002010-07-06T16:56:13.766-07:00Thank Me Later<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://musiconplay.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Drake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://musiconplay.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Drake.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />
I am wholeheartedly surprised by how much I enjoy listening to <a href="http://www.myspace.com/thisisdrake">Drake</a>'s new album, Thank Me Later. I am no fan of mainstream hip-hop. The only hip-hop groups that I can say that I actually enjoy listening to are Digable Planets, KanYe West (basically just this latest album though) and Aesop Rock. I've tried to get into other hip-hop, both mainstream and underground and it's just not resonated with me.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/sites/cine/img/1499_degrassi40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/sites/cine/img/1499_degrassi40.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>I remember when Drake blew up. I was surprised and amused - I remembered Drake (nee Aubrey Graham) from his long-running stint as character Jimmy on The N's imported pre-to-teen drama <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrassi">Degrassi: The Next Generation</a>.<br />
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It was actually an excellent show. I would go as far as to say it was to our decade what Freaks & Geeks was for the 2000s and My So-Called Life was to the 1990s. The show used actors the same age as the characters they played, unlike, say, the OC, and dealt with hard-hitting issues (Degrassi tag line: "It Goes There").<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jasereraser.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/jimmy-drake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://jasereraser.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/jimmy-drake.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>Anyway the transition from Jimmy to Drake was interesting to me because was a very kind, sympathetic character. He had strong personality characteristics - was accepting of gay friend Marco's coming out, forgave Spinner for stealing his iPod, got back with his girlfriend (whose name escapes me now) after she went to drug rehab and turned goth even though the popular kids (one of whom he used to be) made fun of him for it. I stopped watching the show when I went to college in 2005 (no Satellite TV there) so I missed some of the later developments - Jimmy's confinement to a wheelchair, for example.<br />
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His transition to hard-ass, pussy-chasing hip-hop star Drake (see leading image above) seemed drastic to me, but it had been a few years since I'd heard from him - maybe he had been transitioning his image for a while. I liked Jimmy, though. I didn't want another hard-ass MC rapping about drugs and sluts and money. It's overplayed, you know?<br />
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So I had no interest in checking out Drake music until yesterday, when I heard the track "Fireworks," a duet with Alicia Keys (an all-time favorite) on, of all places, NPR. I only got a 30-second preview, but was so enthralled that I went home and downloaded the album immediately. And I really, really enjoy the record.<br />
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It helps that the production is excellent. I think of Drake as a mixture between Lil' Wayne, with his slow-ass, boistrous, laid-back flow, and KanYe West, with his articulate-ness, and certainly the 808s-era minimalist beats. I think Drake has taken KanYe's experiment with combining hip-hop and minimal electro to its nadir. This album is beautifully produced.<br />
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But here's the thing that hit me: the lyrics. The first three songs on Drake's record sound like R&B, not hip-hop. They are personal, emotional songs (again the KanYe reference is necessary - I think 808s freed Drake to make this record), with Drake's lightly auto-tuned singing - about death and family and fame and doubt and love! Wait, this is mainstream hip-hop?<br />
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From <a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2010/6/30/2902016//01%20Fireworks%20%28Ft.%20Alicia%20Keys%29.mp3">"Fireworks," the opening track [mp3]</a> :<br />
<blockquote><i><b>Everything the same but it feels different </b></i><br />
<i><b>My dad called me up knowing that I still listen </b></i><br />
<i><b>And he's still got his foot out, guilt trippin' </b></i><br />
<i><b>It's been years, though, I just learned to deal with it </b></i><br />
<i><b>For real, me and my realtor we built up a better rapport </b></i><br />
<i><b>Got my mother in a place with some better decor </b></i><br />
<i><b>She searched the entire city I let her explore </b></i><br />
<i><b>And now she's sayin' she more lonely than every before </b> </i><br />
<i><b>How many of our parents' marriages lasted? </b></i><br />
<i><b>I was only five, I bet I barely reacted </b></i><br />
<i><b>I'm flyin' back home for the heritage classic </b></i><br />
<i><b>Searchin' for that feelin', tell me where is the magic? </b></i><br />
<i><b>Let's stay together till we're ghosts </b></i><br />
<i><b>I want to witness love, I've never seen it close </b></i><br />
<i><b>Yeah, but I guess I gotta find it first </b></i><br />
<i><b>That's why I'm really goin' off, fireworks </b></i></blockquote>Damn, that's some introspective shit. Well, by hip-hop standards. Don't buy it? Here's part of "The Resistance:"<br />
<blockquote><i><b>I heard they just moved my grandmother to a nursing home</b></i><br />
<i><b>And I’ll be acting like I don’t know how to work a phone</b></i><br />
<i><b>But hit redial you’ll see that I just called some chick I met at the mall</b></i><br />
<i><b>That I barely know at all and</b></i><br />
<i><b>Plus this woman that I mess with unprotected</b></i><br />
<i><b>Text us saying she wish she woulda kept it</b></i><br />
<i><b>The one I’m laying next to just looked over and read it</b></i><br />
<i><b>I couldn’t tell you where the fuck my head is</b></i><br />
<i><b>I’m holding on by a thread its like I’m high right now</b></i><br />
<i><b>The guy right now and you can tell by looking at my eyes right now</b></i><br />
<i><b>That nothing really comes as a surprise right now</b></i><br />
<i><b>Cause we having the time of our lives right now</b></i><br />
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<b><i>What am I afraid of?</i></b><br />
<b><i>This is what dreams are supposed to made of</i></b><br />
<b><i>The people I don’t have time to hang with</i></b><br />
<b><i>Always look at me and say the same shit:</i></b><br />
<b><i>You promised me you would never change</i></b></blockquote>There are the standard jams and "look how much money I got" jams but it seems like most of this record is chill and personal. I think the record is worth checking out. And so I don't get a C&D for hosting one widely-available mp3, I only posted it to give y'all a taste so that you would want to purchase the album with money from an online or brick-and-mortar retailer. That's what I did!E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-89806904499851436632010-06-27T21:18:00.000-07:002010-06-30T09:37:50.413-07:00Seattle Pride - Leather, Nudity, & Condoms?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiB7yKZdn_KlvWKCNuck-9Q7-J7P6ClYuvgH2bF-HpPscQWUjBweE4FsWG9j-K6HQbjkshTxSEzTNM8zpz9Vh6gaNZB8alAuPF0QlQngzRz7cyBzrN357Bb43oVEOgc6Mpv9sRUvoRmGs/s1600/0627001253.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiB7yKZdn_KlvWKCNuck-9Q7-J7P6ClYuvgH2bF-HpPscQWUjBweE4FsWG9j-K6HQbjkshTxSEzTNM8zpz9Vh6gaNZB8alAuPF0QlQngzRz7cyBzrN357Bb43oVEOgc6Mpv9sRUvoRmGs/s640/0627001253.jpg" width="550" /></a></div><br />
Went to the Seattle Pride Parade + Festival today. Afterward, a friend asked us how it was. "There was a lot of leather, nudity, and we got a bunch of condoms." Is that what being gay is all about? Is it all about unabashed promiscuity and the celebration of fetishes?<br />
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After hearing our description of the festival, the friend responded "yeah, that sounds like Pride." I suppose as an outsider that's what you would gather from the parade and party afterward. What do you think?<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Not shown - lots of very large boobies, on bicycles and otherwise, multi-colored bodies and penii (also both on and off bicycles), scantily clad persons of every color, body type, and persuasion in various stages of mock-intercourse, etc.</div><br />
I've often wondered why it's called "Pride" anyway. Pride is a "sin," according to the Bible; and even for the non-religious it's generally believed to be something negative. Aren't we supposed to be humble, not prideful? Then I read <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-patrick-s-cheng-phd/the-spiritual-significanc_b_617545.html">this interesting article on the Huffington Post</a> the other day, in defense of Pride:<br />
<blockquote>Given the long-standing historical condemnation of pride as the root of all sin in the Christian tradition, how can we understand LGBT pride to be a blessing and not a sin? As an openly-gay theologian, teacher of theology, and ordained minister, I believe that sin is not just limited to pride or inordinate self-love. Rather, sin -- defined as the way in which, despite our best intentions, we inevitably turn our backs on who God has created us to be -- can also take the opposite form ofinordinate self-hate or shame, something that many LGBT people experience from a very early age.</blockquote><blockquote>In other words, sin is not just a matter of lifting oneself up too high (as in the case of Satan, the rebellious angels, or Adam and Eve), but it is also a matter of failing to lift oneself up high enough. Many LGBT people have been taught to hide in the shadows as a result of being taunted and tormented by our peers from an early age. We are constantly told that what we do is unnatural and that God hates us. Is it any wonder, then, that so many LGBT people suffer from a toxic degree of self-hate and shame?</blockquote>So, then, Pride is a response to society's preference that those living the "gay lifestyle" do so in private, in the shadows, and with a healthy dose of self-condemnation and self-hatred. Pride (as in the month, or the festival) is then a time to instead celebrate oneself in the face of a culture that would rather one hate oneself. And if it's a little flamboyant and over-the-top that's defensible given the conditions gay folks are often forced to live in the rest of the year.<br />
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Thoughts?E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-5076120697278978062010-06-23T09:19:00.000-07:002010-06-23T09:34:48.407-07:00"Rio"Nothing to say today except that Hey Marseilles, my favorite local band, is finally officially releasing their album next week. They made a sillie video to go with the lead single. It's embedded below; enjoy :)<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">Oh also I'm working on an update to the "Cohabitation" post from last week. Finished the book, talked to my friend about lotsa stuff, and came to some conclusions.</div></div>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-55584427763185134322010-06-17T10:02:00.000-07:002010-07-09T14:50:07.589-07:00Bite-Sized Musings: On Male White Men Punching Female Black TeenagersAs though Seattle Police didn't have enough controversy to deal with, on Monday a video surfaced of a Seattle Police officer <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail??blogid=95&entry_id=65902">punching a young Black woman in the face</a>. Video below:<br />
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<center><object width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/E9w9AfptGGQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E9w9AfptGGQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="500" height="301"></embed></object></center><br />
The back story is, from what I can gather: the Police officer was arresting another (Black) man for jaywalking across Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. Some people on the street objected and approached the officer (albeit somewhat violently). There was a confrontation, and as you see in the video, when the situation got heated, the cop punched the woman in the face.<br />
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The main question that's come up is: is this racist? The officer was clearly outnumbered, and the women were somewhat violent and confrontational. Should cops be allowed to use force in the face of violence on the part of citizens? Was he "protecting himself" or "controlling the situation?" Was his behavior in line with his duties and responsibilities as a Police officer?<br />
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Read any of the comment threads on any of the articles/blogs and the vast majority support the officer's actions. Basically, "When you're a cop you have to deal with shit and you never know what's going to 'go down.' Your life is in constant danger. There isn't room to deal peacefully when you are surrounded by violent people, especially in Seattle's current climate of distrust + anger toward the police. What if someone was to grab his gun? Punch first, get the situation 'under control,' ask questions later."<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PlJTNgrwPpY/TBkQ_itos5I/AAAAAAAAESo/feuK--iC6gM/s1600/coppunchesblackwoman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PlJTNgrwPpY/TBkQ_itos5I/AAAAAAAAESo/feuK--iC6gM/s320/coppunchesblackwoman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The jury's still out on whether this cop was "justified" in his actions. He has been reassigned, I've read. There are questions being asked, such as: "If this was a blonde, blue-eyed White girl, would he have punched her in the face?" The answer is ostensibly "No," but we'll never know the answer to that question. There are other issues as to his behavior - why was he there alone? Why was he arresting someone for jaywalking (and is that racist itself? Who doesn't jaywalk)?<br />
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But the question that's more interesting to me is - what kind of authority do we grant the police in return for the "safety" that they provide and the sacrifice - the "constant stress + struggle + danger" they live with every day - that they make on our behalf?<br />
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If a normal White dude was being harassed by some agitated Black females for a perceived wrongdoing, was surrounded, perhaps, had to defend himself - and he punched one of them in the face, would he be justified? Or is that definitely "wrong?" What kinds of things are OK for police to do, and not OK for non-police to do? Is it ever OK for a big dude to punch a teenage girl in the face? Does it depend on the situation?E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-18586694734286138502010-06-15T12:53:00.000-07:002010-06-27T21:49:06.327-07:00"A Little Bit Married"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3FEu45rKOJhxquOJR0N635ZmU6GiWLUlDqb9unUsCiBYcfsu1jIQ00bJBge-9lVqQDOeRczoPlK_oH7uf4p3foUIuwSdIPZkVQimaGIHV5BCspmCiORjJ56hS1Q7oMiFEzbr8oV1FzeE/s1600/living+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3FEu45rKOJhxquOJR0N635ZmU6GiWLUlDqb9unUsCiBYcfsu1jIQ00bJBge-9lVqQDOeRczoPlK_oH7uf4p3foUIuwSdIPZkVQimaGIHV5BCspmCiORjJ56hS1Q7oMiFEzbr8oV1FzeE/s400/living+room.jpg" width="450" /></a></div><br />
A friend of mine and his girlfriend are, for a variety of reasons, considering moving in together. In the (Christian) communities they were raised in, this is called "living in sin." Other communities call it "cohabitation."<br />
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While most Hollywood movies and sit-coms consider this a normal stage in a relationship's progression, for these two it's quite a big decision (which it probably is for most people, though definitely for those with a somewhat conservative or religious upbringing). Conservatives love to throw around the "fact" that cohabiting couples tend to divorce more.<br />
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<a href="http://www.soul-cycle.com/assets/userfiles/image/albm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.soul-cycle.com/assets/userfiles/image/albm.jpg" width="133" /></a>My friend is the kind of person that, instead of taking his cues only from popular media, likes to read books and articles and get some quality data before he makes a big decision. So he's been compiling some data and put a couple of books that relate to the topic on hold from the library. The first one that's become available is <u>A Little Bit Married: How to Know When it's Time to Walk Down the Aisle or Out the Door</u> by Hanna Seligson.<br />
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She defines "A Little Bit Married" as the stage in the modern relationship when it is long-term (i.e. at least one year) but isn't necessarily headed toward marriage - has traits that used to be associated with marriage (i.e. living together) but without the commitment of marriage. He's just begun reading it, but told me that the assumptions inherent in the text are making it hard to take seriously. Notably:<br />
<blockquote><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">"The common echo from women in the stage of 'waiting to seal the deal' was that being A Little Bit Married can feel like running an emotional marathon, except you aren't always sure whether there is a finish line."</span></b></span></i></blockquote>This implies that all relationships are a "race" and marriage is the "finish line." The assumption being that a relationship that doesn't end in marriage is a failure - you have "lost" the race, so to speak.<br />
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Another example:<br />
<blockquote><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">"The effects of not [getting married] aren't as monetarily quantifiable, [but] women do lose something valuable - time."</span></b></span></i></blockquote>The implication being that the time spent in a relationship that doesn't end in marriage is wasted time.<br />
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I personally believe that an intimate relationship is valuable in and of itself; that a break-up isn't a failure - all relationships provide us with lessons about ourselves and other people, etc, etc.<br />
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So far the book's been uneven, he says - though it has been so far full of quotes like the ones above, it also debunks the myth that cohabitors are more likely to divorce. That only applies to "serial cohabitors," those who live with multiple partners over the years. Guess those folks have other issues that skew the statistics, eh?<br />
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What do you think about cohabitation?<br />
Would you move in with your partner of ___ years?<br />
Why or why not?<br />
Is it "living in sin"?<br />
Is it different for men than for women?<br />
Do you want to get married before you turn _____?E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-37719674207842025092010-06-14T12:10:00.000-07:002010-06-27T21:49:51.711-07:00One Less Reason to Hate Starbucks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://foodbeast.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/starbucks-value-meal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://foodbeast.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/starbucks-value-meal.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.starbucks.com/">Starbucks Corporation</a> tweeted a surprising and heavily re-tweeted announcement today:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><i><b>"We're very excited to announce that coming July 1st: Free. 1 click. No registration WIFI at all US locations! :-)</b>"</i></span></blockquote>To anyone that's ever utilized a coffee shop before, this is surprising only because it's taken this long - every other (non-enormous global conglomerate) coffee shop in the United States has offered free Wi-Fi forever.<br />
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I wonder what the collective reaction is here in Seattle, Starbucks' hometown. It's easy to hate Starbucks here - there's the<a href="http://www.streetlevelcoffee.com/"> faux-independent coffee shop across the street from an actual independent coffee shop</a>, there's the <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/business/117959_starbucks17.html">buying out of another local chain</a>, there's <a href="http://deadspin.com/5549736/starbucks-promotion-turned-into-yet-another-supersonics-protest">the whole debacle with the Supersonics</a> - granted, I don't know how Starbucks is related necessarily, as I moved here long after the Sonics were gone - but it has something to do with Schulz, Starbucks CEO.<br />
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But there are other reasons unrelated to Seattle itself - the "fact" that their mass-produced coffee lacks soul, or flavor, or both depending on who you ask; the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkpDEn7mGVY">stupid sizing names</a> they somehow exported into everyone's self-conscious so ubiquitously that even lil' indie shops have to call their medium "grande" or nobody will understand what's going on; and not least the fact that unlike 98% of other coffee shops they charge you to use their wi-fi.<br />
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Well, that last reason is no more. This doesn't matter to me - there are <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seattle-WA/The-Station/327580577355?ref=ts">other, better</a>, <a href="http://www.victrolacoffee.com/">local coffee shops</a> that are open later, have better art and music, offer free refills along with their free wi-fi, etc. - but what if the closest, most convenient coffee shop to you was a Starbucks?<br />
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Do you think this is a good move for Starbucks? Will the money they made from charging for wi-fi be compensated by the increase in business as a result of these changes?<br />
Will you frequent Starbucks now? Or do you still hate the company?<br />
What other reasons are there to hate Starbucks?<br />
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<b>BONUS: is it "One Less Reason" or "One Fewer Reason?" We all know which one "sounds right" but which one is "actually right?" </b>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-82764916116236284012010-06-10T11:53:00.000-07:002010-06-10T11:53:24.116-07:00Five Things: Musical Talents/Abilities Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsNkLYBF3Sx1iQy8UzfaQ8-xaIEZPLDJm18yfK_0jvf3GVg3YUzwJBh-0h48Tx8Qe_CVL9eCI8OoAojjg3dnBeuvTNIpNw-U8a0qpRbBT8hh9s0GDZKeWSHz_kg794yEuFUj5VcxS_9wg/s1600/guitar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsNkLYBF3Sx1iQy8UzfaQ8-xaIEZPLDJm18yfK_0jvf3GVg3YUzwJBh-0h48Tx8Qe_CVL9eCI8OoAojjg3dnBeuvTNIpNw-U8a0qpRbBT8hh9s0GDZKeWSHz_kg794yEuFUj5VcxS_9wg/s640/guitar.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div><br />
<b>Five Musical Talents/Abilities I Wish I Had / I Hope to Cultivate </b><br />
<ol><li>Ability to whistle like <a href="http://www.blogotheque.net/Andrew-Bird,2976">Andrew Bird</a></li>
<li>Ability to emote like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFnYyFgrflw">David Bazan</a></li>
<li>Ability to harmonize like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZTvGIzeGg">Fleet Foxes</a></li>
<li>Ability to write like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwwEccxMPIY">Colin Meloy</a> or <a href="http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858509159/">Joanna Newsom</a> or Aaron Weiss</li>
<li>Ability to sing or play guitar at all, perhaps?</li>
</ol>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-58276989922766188212010-06-08T11:18:00.000-07:002010-06-08T11:18:18.799-07:00Five Ways to "Do Something" about the Oil SpillRemember "Five Things?" It was a new blog theme/meme designed to further appeal to the tl;dr crowd. Here are five new things and this is a BONUS because it also deals with current events.<br />
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<b>Five Ways to "Do Something" about the Oil Spill</b><br />
<ol><li>"Boycott" BP while continuing to consume as much oil as before from other oil companies</li>
<li>Buy an expensive, useless product that garishly proclaims your aversion to oil spills and/or love for seabirds (preferably a <a href="http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/oil-spill?cmp=knc--g--us--hit--apparel--search-b--oil%20spill_t%20shirt&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=Google&utm_campaign=Hits%20Apparel%20-%20US&utm_content=search-b&utm_term=oil%20spill-t%20shirt&gclid=CJCCifq6j6ICFQpciAodLDBkag">t-shirt</a> or <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/oil+spill+bumperstickers">bumper sticker</a>) and/or gives at least 1% of profits to conservation/environmental causes</li>
<li>Get angry at the government for not cleaning up the spill quickly enough</li>
<li>Add some "oil dripping" graphic to your twitter avatar (via green Iran activism)</li>
<li>Write a blog post or two offering one-sided opinions, freshman year-level philosophy, and largely unfeasible "solutions" without considering the unique circumstances of readers</li>
</ol>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-31362084425789850872010-06-07T19:11:00.000-07:002010-06-15T12:29:23.405-07:00Bicycling as a Response to the Oil Spill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/EVOSWEB_013_oiled_bird3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/EVOSWEB_013_oiled_bird3.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />
I am not giving up on how much of a monumental disaster this oil spill is. Pretty soon we'll be seeing the end of mainstream media coverage of the spill - I give it two weeks. See <a href="http://elliottwrites.blogspot.com/2010/05/top-kill.html">my previous post</a> for some perspective: how much is 70,000 barrels of oil a day? For the next two months?<br />
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I think it's important, though, to not just vilify BP or Big Oil in general or the government or the "drill, baby drill" Republican blowhards, but instead to use this opportunity to spur debate - how do we prevent this from happening again? And I don't mean, how do we create better technology so that when the next oil spill happens we can cap it more quickly. I mean, the reason that we are drilling oil off shore, the reason we are importing oil from the Middle East, and then sending troops over there to protect the stability in the region and thus the stability of our oil supply, is because with the status quo, we need oil. We demand it. Supply = demand. Basic econ.<br />
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We are the reason for the oil spill. We, with our cars, our heated homes and showers and laundry machines, our demand for meat, and out-of-season and processed and packaged food, our comfortable lifestyles - we demand the oil and we demand it cheaply. We see in the photo above how costly oil really is.<br />
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And I made the point before that moving to "clean energy" isn't really a solution either. As "green" as our "alternative energy" hopes and dreams are, they aren't a solution. Every source of energy has a cost, whether monetary, environmental, social, or cultural.<br />
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Most of the cultural conversation surrounding energy consumption has to deal with transportation. How much energy do we use converting oil into gas? And then how much gas do we use driving cars and flying places, and transporting food and goods across the world? And this makes sense, transportation is an important facet of everyday life. I don't like focusing on transportation because the <i>meat industry</i> creates more demand for oil, and destroys the environment in countless other ways, far more than all modes of transportation combined.<br />
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But transportation is still important. What if there were a viable solution that, at least in the realm of transportation, virtually minimized demand for energy generation?<br />
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A poster at my local bike shop has this (uncited, but logical) statement regarding efficient transportation:<br />
<blockquote><i>"The most efficient animal on earth in terms of weight transported over distance for energy expended is a human on a bicycle. The most efficient machine on earth in terms of weight transported over distance for energy expended is a human on a bicycle."</i></blockquote>No "hybrid" or electric car could ever match the efficiency of the bicycle. Barring the energy required to create the bike in the first place, and the (minimal) energy consumption required in manufacturing the tools and parts that a bicycle requires for upkeep, nothing comes close.<br />
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I was going to write more, but - go get a bike. Ride it. Love it. Take a deep breath and for every mile you ride your bicycle instead of driving your car, smile.E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-25879856171175898062010-06-01T11:36:00.000-07:002010-06-27T21:51:33.657-07:00Top Kill<blockquote><b>Update: Check out this image of how large the oil spill is in relation to your city. Here's how much of the Seattle metro area the oil spill would cover - and remember, it's not yet HALFWAY DONE SPILLING!</b></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6rKPbx3d3aw68YSUzZlWvCT_2GXIHCSQJjuhF_LJL2Acx84r0YFOvq0ZBMV3xbjH47OHDHRnVr5Snez0YB7C3igLhuVU9nT13DbFee8y3DOU1VmPzThl-VkvKmQddojH7-YIKORQg5Y/s400/oil+seattle.jpg" width="400" /></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://eraven.franklinpierce.edu/exch/58/oil%20spill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://eraven.franklinpierce.edu/exch/58/oil%20spill.jpg" /></a></div>It was announced recently that "Top Kill" has failed, and that the next realistic option for plugging the Deepwater oil leak will be the relief wells BP is drilling - slated to be finished in <b><i>AUGUST</i></b>.<br />
<blockquote><i>“After three full days of attempting top kill, we now believe it is time to move on to the next of our options,” Mr. Suttles said.</i></blockquote><blockquote><i>The abandonment of the top kill technique, the most ambitious effort yet to plug the well, was the latest in a series of failures. First, BP failed in efforts to repair a blowout preventer with submarine robots. Then its initial efforts to cap the well with a containment dome failed when it became clogged with a frothy mix of frigid water and gas. Efforts to use a hose to gather escaping oil have managed to catch only a fraction of the spill."</i></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://trickyrelativity.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/watercooler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://trickyrelativity.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/watercooler.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>Two more months of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCounting/oil-spilling-gulf-mexico-bp-basic-calculations/story?id=10705575">up to 70,000 barrels a day</a>... How much is that? It's hard to fathom.<br />
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A barrel is <i>42 gallons</i> of oil. Think of one of those water coolers you see in an office (or perhaps in office stock photography - to the right) - those hold three to five gallons of water, maybe. So imagine that you line up ten of those water coolers - maybe every one in your office. That would be as much as a barrel.<br />
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You open the spigots on the ten water coolers - but instead of water coming out, it's black, murky, disgusting sludge. Then you leave the spigots open and those ten coolers run out onto the carpet, filling your office, until they run out. That's a lot of oil. That is disgusting; it would coat and ruin everything in your office forever; the smell would never be cleaned out. One barrel would coat your entire office building in a grimy muck of disgusting sludge.<br />
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Then imagine that you did this <i>seventy thousand times in one day</i>. That is enough oil to fill four and a half Olympic-size swimming pools. It's impossible to imagine. Four and a half Olympic swimming pools of crude oil spill out into the Gulf Coast, <i>every day, for over a month</i>. That is where we are at now. <b>And because "top kill" has failed, that will continue, unabated, every day, for the next two to three months.</b><br />
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I almost started to tear up in the car as I listened to the news - the spill won't be contained until August. <i>Until August</i>. <b>This BP spill is already the largest oil spill / catastrophic disaster of its kind, </b><i><b>ever</b></i><b>, and it is only 1/3 over.</b><br />
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How do you respond to this news? We talk about "energy independence" and there are new reports about <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/financing/cars/looks-like-this-electric-car-thing-might-actually-happen/">electric cars</a> and <a href="http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/first-synthetic-cell-holds-promise-for-biodiesel-and-green-heating-oil0523/">algae-based biodiesel</a> every day. The economic, social, and environmental impact of oil dependence is obvious - but detractors point out the impact of electric fuel and biodiesel as well.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.imgur.com/P0qkj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i.imgur.com/P0qkj.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>But, then: a troubling thought experiment - when we started building the industrial economy back in the day on new energy-production technologies such as oil and coal, we didn't know how destructive they would end up being (we do now). Who's to say that we aren't going to learn "inconvenient truths" about these new technologies once we turn our livelihoods over to them? What don't we yet know about these new energy technologies?<br />
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In my opinion, the only answer to this conundrum is that there is <i>no safe way to generate energy</i>. Some could argue that we're beyond the pale at this point; that because the entire world runs on man-made or man-harvested energy that the only feasible option is to find the least-destructive way to keep the global economy running.<br />
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But is that an ethically responsible way to do anything? Find the least destructive way to continue with the status quo? Or do we try to figure out a new way of doing things? A way that, say, requires less energy?<br />
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What if we decided that we didn't need to go anywhere further than we could walk or ride a bike? What if we wore our clothes a few weeks, months, or years longer past their fashion expiration dates, or decided to buy used, or locally- or consciously-made? What if we composted and recycled everything that could be? What if we grew our own food instead of having useless lawns in our backyards? What if we ate food that grew on a local farm - no processing plants, non-recyclable packaging, or long-distance trucking required?<br />
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And on that note, what if we ate food that didn't waste vast swaths of arable land and natural resources, pollute rivers and the ground, use huge amounts of energy to be processed, emit more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than all modes of transportation combined, all while making us us more unhealthy (I'm obviously talking about <i>meat</i>)?<br />
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Of course, these things are not only a drop in the bucket, they are largely unfeasible for most people - at least most of the time. What I'm trying to say is that we aren't going to be able to keep generating energy and have it be sustainable. There will always be an oil spill, a nuclear reactor explosion, a coal mine collapse - not to mention all of the other environmental, political, social, and economic impacts of energy generation. There will also be some kind of solar, wind, or algae catastrophe at some point. These "alternative" energies are not the answer.<br />
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The "answer" is, in part, to use less energy. Change your priorities, your interests, your "needs," your consumption levels. Sacrifice, maybe? It's a big deal. And you and I are responsible for what happened with the spill. And rectifying this shouldn't be easy.<br />
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All those folks talking about <i>simplicity</i> were talking about more than just how to avoid the next BP disaster. But they <i>were</i> talking about how to avoid the next BP disaster.E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-41819077205414857262010-05-27T13:49:00.000-07:002010-06-07T19:19:36.026-07:00NPR and the 24-hour News Cycle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://bisnow.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/news.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://bisnow.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/news.gif" width="180" /></a></div>A common critique of the "current state of things" is that we are so thoroughly saturated with information, especially news reporting, that we've lost our attention span and are more easily convinced of certain positions via sound bytes, talking points, and the like.<br />
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I always figured that with an entire channel (in fact, multiple channels) focused solely on news, 24 hours a day, that there would be enough time to really get into issues, showcase all points of view, have legitimate discussion/debate, and so on. For whatever reason, this isn't the case. <br />
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I think, like a lot of people in my generation for sure but probably a lot of people more generally speaking, I haven't really "read" a newspaper in a long time. I have a hard time reading through an entire news article and instead usually skim headlines, get the relevant details, and then impress people at parties and gatherings by appearing to be "abreast of all of the relevant issues." Just don't ask me any questions about details or specifics.<br />
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I was talking with a co-worker about how most of the news I get is from the radio, in the car on the way to places, where the top-of-the-hour headline report gives me the important info and then, if I am so inclined, I can do some more research and get the rest of the details later with my own Google news search. From <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4671485">an NPR report about the "State of the 24-hour news cycle"</a> as compared to previous decades:<br />
<blockquote><i>Well, if you read Ted Turner's vision--and he's now really no longer involved in the running of CNN--but if you read what he had to say back when it was launched, he sort of described it as a newspaper of the air. He said, `You know, broadcast networks are really too much like headline wire service copy.' In a sense, that's what much of the time cable news functions as. They give you brief bursts of updates. In fact, MSNBC now every 15 minutes gives you an update of the news. And in between they're trying to figure out ways to keep you watching. So they'll do reported pieces. They'll do a lot of interviews. There are a lot of talk shows. And to be honest, there's a lot of things that we would classify as kind of pulpy, quasi-tabloid, quasi-celebrity news; anything that's sort of waiting for the next great crisis. And when crisis hits, people turn to cable, they particularly turn to CNN. And when crisis abates, they kind of tune it out. They don't need it as much.</i></blockquote>But here's the thing - this is exactly what NPR does. NPR does a headline round-up every hour (or more often). Because it's radio, and you never know who has just started listening and who has been paying attention for a longer period, the headlines are often the same, repeated over and over. You hear short clips from recent speeches or events.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jazzlives.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/girl-family-listening-to-radio-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="http://jazzlives.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/girl-family-listening-to-radio-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The advantage radio has over print is that you can interview people and hear their voices, get their opinions on things. You can even have four people in the same room, with divergent views, debating whatever current event/issue. But what happens?<br />
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How often have you heard a radio host say, "Well, we're just about out of time"? And they had allocated 15 minutes to whatever particular news story. And there are four people to talk to, and then the host has to talk and say things like, "This is NPR, here are our sponsors and here are the folks that did technical support on this story," and whatever. Each person gets two minutes of air-time, just like the "24-hour news cycle." That's enough to repeat the headline, throw in some talking points, launch a couple of ad-hominem attacks at your opponents, and not much else. It's no different.<br />
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This is slightly different on certain shows, <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/">Democracy Now!</a> for example, but they are still just an hour long. I think radio is difficult because rarely do people sit around and listen to the radio at home like they used to. Do we really not have the patience to sit through a comprehensive, cogent analysis of whatever issue? Can we only handle soundbytes and talking points?<br />
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Do you listen to NPR?<br />
Do you still read the newspaper / online news articles?<br />
How do you get your news?<br />
Is there any convenient venue for legitimate discussion / news analysis?<br />
Do you have the time / attention span for lengthy, cogent analysis of the news of the day?E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-36880784160851371082010-05-22T19:58:00.000-07:002010-10-03T14:34:57.827-07:00The 1st Quarter Double-take<div style="margin: 0px;"><blockquote><i><b>UPDATE: I got a cease & desist order from Blogger. According to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), my mix was copyright infringement. So all of the links have been taken down. I guess I'm flattered that they found my blog? Anyway, e-mail me, I suppose, if you are interested in the mix. Am I allowed to say that? I won't e-mail you the link. We can just talk about the songs... </b></i></blockquote><br />
Although <a href="http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2010/05/panda-bear-bro-r-u-there-when-is-ur-album-gonna-leak-need-u-2-save-2k10.html">Carles and his commenters</a> seem to think 2010 has been the "worst first quarter of a decade ever for relevant music," I've been thoroughly enjoying most of what I've heard that's been released so far this year. <a href="http://www.sendspace.com/file/fsulrm">Fluxblog already made a 1st quarter mix,</a> and it is excellent so check that one out. But while I enjoyed almost everything on that playlist, I couldn't help but feeling that Mr. Perpetua left some really good stuff out.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">The reason for the "double-take" moniker is this: I didn't want to put songs on my mix that were already on the Flux mix. Other times I couldn't decide what my favorite song from a recent album was. So instead of make difficult choices, or put in a less-excellent song just because Matty got to it first, I decided to put two songs from each album, which I like because it gives you a little bit better sense of what these bands are all about. Ever listened to a mix and really liked a song, and then got their album and were really disappointed? Well, have no fear - the Double-take has you covered.<br />
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One other thing I noticed that's important - this mix is 1.5 hours long. Whoops! Can't fit that on a CD. So I guess this is an internet/iPod/computer-only mix. Sorry to all the Luddites out there without standard current technology :(<br />
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Download after the jump.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7941433/1Q2010.zip" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjARNROJXT4kTl6v_mpMC3j29xhpEtBewHybMcj2TM5duM1eoUgi2is4GukxHNHYRvqspz6C-cNB_PuEKE7WmW6vR7T1n1cLgumgpmIqSyr29zzimz8imGUgc7l_BwS9P0rs0UcQ3Hk6A/s400/cover-1q2010.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click the image to download.</td></tr>
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</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.dbf-music.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/This-Is-Happening-300x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.dbf-music.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/This-Is-Happening-300x300.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>LCD Soundsystem</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i>"This is Happening"</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>1. Dance Yrself Clean </b>- One of my favorite experiences is when you queue up a brand-new mp3, put on your headphones, and then are blown away immediately. This didn't happen with the new LCDS album. The sparse lil' beat that starts this song off is barely there. And then, at 3:06, it blows you away! Other favorite experience - having really low hopes for an album (especially given <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdRaf3-OEh4">the crap-tastic first single from this record</a>) and then being pleasantly surprised. If I had one word to describe this album, it would be "FUN!" <i>P.S. - hopefully you're reading this before the song gets to that 3:06 point - turn the volume down or you're in for a surprise. The song starts out quiet.</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>2. Can Change -</b> I think FUN is the theme of the year so far - you'll notice that almost all of the songs on this mix are dance-able. This song is a straight shimmery dance-floor disco song. I don't usually care too much about the lyrics in LCD's songs but these ones are interesting. <i>"I can change/ if it helps you fall in love."</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.recordstore.co.uk/images/covers09/12.2009/yeasayer_odd_blood_300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.recordstore.co.uk/images/covers09/12.2009/yeasayer_odd_blood_300.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Yeasayer</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i>"Odd Blood"</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>3. Ambling Alp</b> - "Odd Blood" is perhaps my surprise favorite album of the year. I'd never heard of Yeasayer until I saw that their Seattle show was sold out - and once I checked out their stuff I was hooked. I love this song and listen to it over and over and over - I think the lyrics are so... inspirational, too? <i>"You must/ stick up for yourself son/ Never mind what anybody else done."</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>4. O.N.E.</b> - This one is the "hit." When I started listening to this music it reminded me of the first time I ever listened to <a href="http://www.myspace.com/matesofstate">Mates of State</a> - a completely innovative, unique sound unlike anything else I'd listened to before, and so instantly enjoyable and (like Mates of State) pretty positive!</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/var/eb/storage/images/music/reviews/erykah-badu-new-amerykah-part-two-return-of-the-ankh/85724-1-eng-GB/Erykah-Badu-New-Amerykah-Part-Two-Return-of-the-Ankh_header_image_review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.electronicbeats.net/var/eb/storage/images/music/reviews/erykah-badu-new-amerykah-part-two-return-of-the-ankh/85724-1-eng-GB/Erykah-Badu-New-Amerykah-Part-Two-Return-of-the-Ankh_header_image_review.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Erykah Badu</span></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i>"New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh"</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>5. Gone Baby, Don't Be Long</b> - I don't listen to R&B much. I don't own any of Badu's previous albums. Chalk this up to excellent viral marketing - when her <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVp47f5YZg">"OMG ERYKAH BADU NUDE" Window Seat video</a> got so much press, it encouraged me to do exactly what it was supposed to - listen to the album. And wow. From the first five seconds of this song, you hear how funky and unique Badu's music is. Her voice takes some getting used to, but this song just gets you groovin' so effortlessly. I love the percussion. I love everything about this song.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>6. Umm Hmm -</b> [mp3] At first I thought this was a Michael Jackson sample, but it turns out it's some random 80s R&B group called "Ndugu & the Chocolate Jam Co." Either way, this song is so good. </div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/var/eb/storage/images/music/reviews/toro-y-moi-causers-of-this/83259-1-eng-GB/Toro-Y-Moi-Causers-Of-This_header_image_review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.electronicbeats.net/var/eb/storage/images/music/reviews/toro-y-moi-causers-of-this/83259-1-eng-GB/Toro-Y-Moi-Causers-Of-This_header_image_review.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Toro y Moi</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i>"Causers of This"</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>7. Low Shoulder -</b> Toro y Moi - stupid, stupid band name and stupid album title. So pretentious. But - it's a good thing that this music is freaking genius. Have you heard of <a href="http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/tag/chillwavehttp://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2010/04/an-entry-level-guide-to-chillwave-the-latest-post-indie-genre-that-every1-is-talking-about.html">chillwave</a> yet? I think Neon Indian is good, and I can stand Washed Out / Small Black and some other bands a little bit. But I think TyM is the best example of what this genre is all about.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>8. Minors</b> - If you've gotten this far in the mix yet, you've realized something interesting about the majority of the songs on here - pop music has certainly become cool again. We all know that "indie rock" died when Death Cab for Cutie did, but I don't think it's become clear until the rise of chillwave exactly what the next aesthetic was going to be. I thought that after all of the keyboards and dance beats made their way into indie rock in the mid-2000s the backlash was going to be toward metal or grunge or something, but instead of rebelling, indie music decided to take it to a whole 'nother level - to disco. But the cool thing is that it's a millenial take on dance music - it's chill and you can't necessarily really even dance to it; it just kind of is a weird nostalgia for an era we never experienced, in a way. It's been happening on the down low for a few years, but mark my words - in the first half of 2010 you will see this aesthetic get more and more popular until it's all there is.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://inyourspeakers.com/files/imagecache/single_review/large/Hot%20Chip%20-%20One%20Life%20Stand.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://inyourspeakers.com/files/imagecache/single_review/large/Hot%20Chip%20-%20One%20Life%20Stand.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Hot Chip</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i>"One Life Stand"</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>9. Thieves in the Night -</b> Here's an example - how could a band like Hot Chip ever be popular? Listen to the first 30 seconds of this song - straight drum n' bass beat. This is straight "electronica/techno," even though that genre doesn't really exist anymore. How could Hot Chip be "cool?" I know that five years ago I would balk at anything approaching this music, but now I love it, love it. I never liked Hot Chip until this album. This song is one of my favorite songs in a long, long time. How is that possible?</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>10. I Feel Better -</b> This song wins the Video of the Year award. Though I guess you either think <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaCZN2N6Q_I">the video</a> is genius or is insane. This whole album is incredible, though - at least the first five songs are, after that it's a bit spotty. I couldn't decide whether I like this song better than the title track, but wanting to share the video pushed me over the edge.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://crobaraff.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/vampire-weekend-contra-7051031300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://crobaraff.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/vampire-weekend-contra-7051031300.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Vampire Weekend</span></b><br />
<i>"Contra"</i><br />
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<b>11. Giving Up the Gun</b> - Doesn't Vampire Weekend seem completely played out by now? It feels like this album leaked/streamed legally on Vampy's website a year ago. But it didn't come out proper until January. I think having <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bccKotFwzoY">that music video with Jonas Bro</a> and other mainstreamers, and debuting at No. 1 didn't help them keep their street cred (if they ever had anyway). But don't pretend like you weren't playing this whole record on repeat for the entire month of January.<br />
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<b>12. White Sky -</b> I think the fact of Mr. Koenig's falsetto makes me pick this song over "Run" or "California English" or one of the other great songs on the record. And<a href="http://www.mtv.com/videos/shows/vampire-weekend-unplugged/468436/white-sky-live.jhtml"> he really can sing those notes</a>; I was impressed. I think it's easy to hate on Vampy but these songs are so damn catchy. Straight pop music, well produced, slightly tongue-in-cheek lyrics... I don't know. This record puts me in a good mood. Sometimes that's all you want, right?</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fensepost.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/beach-house-teen-dream-300x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.fensepost.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/beach-house-teen-dream-300x300.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Beach House</span></b><br />
<i>"Teen Dream"</i><b> </b><br />
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<b>13. Walk in the Park -</b> [mp3] - I'll admit, I didn't really know much about Beach House until I heard the "buzz." Beach House is usually mentioned alongside other chillwave acts, but I don't think they're really chillwave. The vocals aren't all washed out, and it's not really a retro aesthetic; the music sounds very modern. It reminds me of shoegaze except if a shoegaze band replaced their guitars with keyboards. I dub this genre "keygaze." What other keygaze bands are out there? It is relaxing like chillwave, though, and it reminds me of the kinda song you wanna listen to while you... walk in the park, basically, just chill out and don't do much. It's a song about not worrying too much about stuff. <i>"In a matter of time, it would slip from my mind/ In and out of my life, you would slip from my mind."</i><br />
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<b>14. Silver Soul</b> - I have no idea what this song's about but again I just love the texture of it. That lil' sample at the beginning helps. What is that, a bubbling brook? Maybe this is chillwave, not keygaze. I "chill so hard" when I listen to this record.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://musosguide.com/public_html/musos.wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/HaveOneOnMe-300x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://musosguide.com/public_html/musos.wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/HaveOneOnMe-300x300.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Joanna Newsom</span></b><br />
<i>"Have One On Me"</i><b> </b><br />
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<b>15. Good Intentions Paving Company</b> - This is the obvious standout track from Newsom's fantastic triple (!) record Have One On Me. To tell you the truth, this album is so long and dense that I still haven't made my way through it completely. It's two hours long. Another full disclosure admission - I used to hate Joanna Newsom. Her stupid voice, mixed with her PhD-level vocabulary, her 9-minute songs, about weird things that make no sense, etc. Like so many incredible bands, though, working backwards helped. Listen to this song, and then the next one, then get this record, and work in reverse. Hopefully by that point you'll be able to get past her voice (it's less ridiculous on this record than her past ones) and you can start listening to her lyrics, and you will "get" it. This song has my favorite part of any song released so far this year - the lil' banjo part in the buildup at 1:32, to these fantastic lyrics: <i>"And I regret/ How I said to you, honey/ just open your heart/ When I've got trouble even opening a honey jar."</i> Wait, no, it's the second lil' acoustic build up part, just before these lyrics: <i>"But I fell for you, honey, as easy as falling asleep." </i>These lyrics are so simple but so freaking... legit, I don't know how to describe it. The density in that simplicity is such an amazing feat, especially coming from someone who can write incredible dense, incredibly complex lyrics - like these ones, from a past album's song, "This Side of the Blue," which makes a bit more sense, I suppose, if you've studied Structuralism: <i>"And the signifieds butt heads with the signifiers/ and we all fall down slack-jawed to marvel at words/ While across the sky sheet the impossible birds/ in a steady, illiterate movement homewards."</i><b> </b><br />
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<b>16. Ribbon Bows</b> - This is much more "classic" Joanna Newsom. The previous song doesn't really give you a sense of what most of her music is like. She's a harpist. If you like this song you might like the rest of her stuff.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31nfGCl5MRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31nfGCl5MRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">jj</span></b><br />
<i>"No. 3"</i><br />
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<b>17. Let Go</b> - jj is a Swedish band - and I don't know a lot about Sweden, but if this record is any indication, it is dark, snowy, and beautiful. This stuff reminds me of Sigur Ros for some reason, though it's completely different - it's just so atmospheric, textured, slow, dreamy...<br />
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<b>18. And Now</b> - Doesn't this song sound like a continuation of the previous one? If you didn't know better, you might think that it's just a two-part song. All of the songs share a very similar (though excellent) sound - I think it only works because "No. 3" is only 27 minutes long; there isn't enough time to get bored or anything.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Cantarell; font-size: x-large;">Honorable Mentions</span><br />
These albums came out this year but I didn't get enough time to check them out fully.<br />
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<b>The National</b> - <i>"High Violet"</i><br />
[mp3] "Bloodbuzz Ohio"<br />
I really liked "Boxer" but it was never a "favorite." So far I've been liking this record but it didn't "hit" me or whatever. Gotta give it a few more listens.<br />
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</div><b>Damien Jurado</b> - <i>"St. Bartlett"</i><br />
[mp3] "Arkansas"<br />
I always liked Damien Jurado but this record sounds off for some reason... I gotta give him a chance because he's a local guy (he even has a song called "Beacon Hill") but that can only go so far.<br />
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<b>Ratatat</b> - <i>"LP4"</i><br />
[mp3] "Party With Children"<br />
Criticism of Ratatat's new record is that it sounds just like their last record. I liked their last record so that's fine with me.<br />
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<b>Local Natives</b> - "Gorilla Manor"<br />
[mp3] "Party With Children"<br />
I went to college with some of these guys. Had class with the lead singer, Ryan. They were called Cavil at Rest then, and frankly I like their <a href="http://www.jukeboxalive.com/cavilatrest">Cavil at Rest stuff</a> a lil' better than Local Natives. But I haven't listened through this new record much yet, maybe I'll like it too?<br />
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What do you think of the new music that's come out so far in 2010? Did I miss anything super good? Let me know your recommendations.E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-72680732275564952032010-05-21T10:28:00.000-07:002010-05-21T15:07:34.985-07:00Bite-Sized Musings: Death/Lack of Control<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/images/2007/07/31/radnor_street_cemetery_1_470x353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/images/2007/07/31/radnor_street_cemetery_1_470x353.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Editor's note: "Bite-sized Musings" is a blog topic theme developed in response to a criticism of this blog by Steve Norberg - friend and editor of <a href="http://iscanmylife.blogspot.com/">Scan My Life</a> - that the posts are too long and don't have enough pictures/bullet points to be digested easily. BSMs are short, relevant questions about important topics intended to generate discussion. They can only work if the "comments" feature is utilized. Please comment; thank you! <3</i></span><br />
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A Christian friend visited Sula House recently, and we "had a pow wow" and talked about theology. Of course heaven/hell was mentioned, and she asked me: "Are you afraid of death?" Because I'm not really a Christian, the question was kind of: "Aren't you afraid of Hell?" I'm not, because I don't really believe in it.<br />
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But I think the question has a more interesting philosophical underpinning - a lot of people who don't believe in Heaven or Hell still fear death. But why? I have a theory - because death is inevitable. I think that people who fear death also have an inherent fear of the inevitable.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Responses to Inevitability</span></i><br />
<blockquote><b>1. </b><i><b>Worry/Fear</b> -</i> Many people develop fear of "inevitables" because they cannot be controlled or avoided, despite human effort. "You can't stop it or change it! It's coming no matter what! There is no control! Doesn't that freak you out? There's nothing you can do about it!"<br />
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<b>2. <i>Indifference</i></b> - Fewer people feel that because nothing can be done, there is no use worrying about something that cannot be avoided. "Well, I'm going to die someday and there's nothing I can do about it - so why waste the life I do have worrying about something I can't change?"</blockquote><br />
This doesn't just apply to things like death and (blaugh) taxes. You've already taken an exam and your professor is grading it. Do you worry about the outcome or relax because post-exam, it's completely out of your hands?<br />
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<i>-> Do you worry about the inevitable or are you indifferent?<br />
-> Are you afraid of death?<br />
-> What other examples of "inevitables" can you think of?<br />
-> Does your response to the "inevitable" change depending on its severity (i.e. I'm not worried about my exam score but the thought of death paralyzes me?)</i>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-24179887160220098482010-05-14T13:46:00.000-07:002010-05-21T13:13:15.030-07:00The New Busy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieuHNSzYZViChRzNsX5iMJVUbxDnCpyDit_R9f9sqxvdob4G5U3BxtNYcEWqw1cCtBPEIbScK934EvaGH109nM29vs2u_1br5MJjVvNXP0b01Wcau2EabV3ZrtSsrey3DbGs9iEomfI48/s1600/busy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieuHNSzYZViChRzNsX5iMJVUbxDnCpyDit_R9f9sqxvdob4G5U3BxtNYcEWqw1cCtBPEIbScK934EvaGH109nM29vs2u_1br5MJjVvNXP0b01Wcau2EabV3ZrtSsrey3DbGs9iEomfI48/s400/busy.png" width="400" /></a></div>If you live in Seattle (or one of the three other metro areas in which the campaign has been launched) then you have probably seen the <a href="http://windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy/">new ads for Microsoft Hotmail</a>. If you haven't, click the link, and the above image will make more sense. I actually think the campaign is sort of clever, though most everyone else on the internet that has commented about them <a href="http://www.seattleweekly.com/2010-04-21/news/microsoft-s-new-busy-sounds-a-lot-like-the-old-tone-deaf/">tends to disagree</a>.<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Surely there are lots of reasons to dislike the campaign, but mine is less marketing-specific and more an underlying philosophical critique - what is the deal with championing a busy lifestyle? Do people these days really need to be more busy?<br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/stevecla01/WindowsLiveWriter/Thenewbusy_135DB/159_thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/stevecla01/WindowsLiveWriter/Thenewbusy_135DB/159_thumb.jpg" width="320" /></a>Pictures of the ads (for those not in the know) are difficult to come by; here is one:<br />
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"The NEW BUSY would have their belts off by now." I actually did see this one in the airport. This made me think of "Up in the Air" - I wonder if Ryan Bingham would be classified by Microsoft as "new busy?" (Spoiler: Ryan Bingham was not happy with his lifestyle).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is stupid marketing, though - if I don't yet have my belt off, then this makes me angry. I am already upset that I have to take my belt off to fly on an airplane. Now you are telling me I'm not taking it off fast enough?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I wish I could find screenshots of the banner ads that are popping up around the web, because then I could effectively parody them as well, but they say things like:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li>"The NEW BUSY think 9 to 5 is a cute idea." </li>
<li>"The NEW BUSY make beavers look lazy." </li>
<li>"The NEW BUSY always keep a suitcase packed."</li>
</ul><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Basically the underlying assumption of the campaign (and of much of American society, perhaps discounting some millenials) is that busy-ness = productivity = success. Doing more stuff in less time. More stuff = more money = more happiness. Being productive. Producing whatever. Filling up your time. Doesn't matter with what as long as you're moving.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'm personally not a fan of doing anything just for the sake of doing something. I've been thinking lately about the philosophy that says that "work" is overrated. Remember how work is simply a means to an end? Why do you work? To get money. Why do you need money? Survival, providing for oneself + ones family, etc. And then also for "entertainment," which largely requires money as well. Upgrades.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nobody wants to live in a lil' apartment forever, right? Nobody wants to struggle forever, right? So, then, it's about comfort to an extent. We work to survive, then once that's done, we work to upgrade our lives/ourselves. Get to a point where you don't have to worry about stuff anymore. We all wanna find that happy medium between being poor and having so much stuff that you worry about it being stolen or whatever. Just a nice comfortable medium.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs004.snc1/4154_549492196156_8503339_32552030_4830124_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs004.snc1/4154_549492196156_8503339_32552030_4830124_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">I don't necessarily buy into all that, but we can take it as a certain standard. But I think we tend to forget that work is just the means to get to this place. We ask people what they "do" and we mean "where/how do you work." And it all means "who are you?" Work is an expectation; we all have to work because we all have to "contribute" to society/USA GDP/ourselves/whatever. Not working, or working less than you're able, or whatever, means you're lazy or a communist or something.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">But then, there's this point of view that says, "Hey. I'm not where/how I work. That's just the stuff I do to make the money so that I can do the stuff I really wanna do more comfortably, and so I can hang out with people."</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyway I'm having a hard time articulating it but the point is, what if we lived a bit more simply? What if we rejected busy-ness? What if we lowered our standards, worked just enough to cover the necessary bases and spent the rest of the time hanging out with people and being creative? Does anyone really need to make more than $40k a year? </div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">What if I worked only part-time, and spent the rest of the time chilling with my bros in the park or something? Or playing the guitar, painting, or just chilling out? What if we actually had enough free time to do things that we enjoy doing? I don't want to wait until I retire to do the things I really want to do. I want to do them now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Disclaimer - this post was poorly written. I apologize. I just had to get something out there, it's been too long since I've posted anything. Maybe forget there was writing and just look at the image up there; I think it's pretty good.</span></i></div></div></div>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-20473189654639418942010-04-27T23:51:00.000-07:002010-05-21T13:41:55.549-07:00Ethical Consumerism Part 2I had to write a blog post for the <a href="http://www.pugetsoundlvc.blogspot.com/">LVC blog</a> so I updated <a href="http://elliottwrites.blogspot.com/2010/04/on-ethical-consumerism.html">this one</a> and here is the result:<br />
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<b>LVC, WARM FUZZIES AND CONSUMERISM</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.socialearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/articleimage_toms_shoes_argentina_philanthropy-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://www.socialearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/articleimage_toms_shoes_argentina_philanthropy-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>In college, a friend of mine asked me a question about something she'd heard I'd said. "I heard," she began, trembling slightly, "that you think we shouldn't buy TOMS."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What she heard was half-true. I love <a href="http://www.tomsshoes.com/">TOMS</a> (seriously check them out, a definite model for aspiring triple-bottom-line businesses everywhere), especially since they've made an explicit commitment to not only giving a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair that's bought, but to require fair labor practices in their factories.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What I actually said was that buying TOMS was great but it wasn't the answer. My ideology was: If you don't need new shoes, don't buy any. Buying TOMS because it makes you feel good to support the cause plus you get something out of it, instead of buying TOMS as a replacement for another shoe that you were already going to buy because you need new shoes, substitutes one "evil" for another - supporting unethical labor practices for supporting unnecessary consumerism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's a tough, weird ethical debate; surely buying TOMS, no matter how many pairs, is better than buying sweatshop-produced shoes, and gets more shoes onto the feet of children in Argentina and South Africa and wherever else TOMS gives shoes. Add to that the fact that the more TOMS we buy means more fair-wage jobs for folks in Argentina. But instead of "wasting" resources with a purchase, your money will be much better spent through a donation, no matter how ethical the company.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">...Right?<br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's an interesting dilemma and, fortunately for LVCers, one we don't have to confront often - no capital, no capitalism. But we're no strangers to making others, who do less than we do or do it for different reasons, feel guilty about their choices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It reminds me of a parallel ethical debate - donate to the panhandler or to the social service agency down the street from her? One is obviously more practical; more efficient. But there's nothing better than the feeling like you've helped someone eat that day - and nothing worse than the cold, sad stare as you lie into the face of a desperate man while coins fatten your purse. There's nothing better than looking down at your feet and imagining that there's a kid halfway around the world possibly wearing the same shoes as you, his first pair ever, because of you - and nothing worse than wondering how much waste the consumerism you've contributed to produces and how cheap, relatively speaking at least, it would be to feed and clothe all of the children around the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I think we tend to want to downplay this, the emotional side of charity - when ignorant rich White moms in suburbs talk about the warm fuzzies they feel when they venture downtown to serve soup kitchen food once a year at Christmas, it's hard to not want to scoff and say, "It's not about you." But - it kind of is. And - we're just like her. And - it's OK.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whether we're doing good for our own benefit - because it gives us warm fuzzies, or we like the idea of being martyrs, or it will look good on our law school application, or the shoes are so fashionable right now - or for the "right" reasons (as though they exist), we're still doing good. And good is good. And more people doing more good is even more good, so if feeling good gets more people to do more good then feeling good is good too. Right?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I maintain: if you have money to burn, and no need to buy anything, but you wanna help out, then donate it - but I want to apologize to my friend. We should never feel guilty for doing good. Go buy yourself a pair of TOMS, sweetie. They're good shoes.</div>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-73462256422831499042010-04-24T23:03:00.000-07:002010-06-27T21:53:29.634-07:00Making Words WorkI was recently commissioned to make an "infographic" of sorts for a friend's company. Turns out I don't really know how to make an infographic. This is more of an English Language Cheat Sheet, only somewhat-artistically designed.<br />
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This remains unfinished. There were a few more pairs of words, and I was maybe going to change/update some of the examples (what is on there is generally the first thing that came into my head). And unless someone reading this blog is like, "Oh I'd really like to have that printed out on a poster of some kind or something for my classroom; these freakin' kids always get these words screwed up" then it will remain unfinished.<br />
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This project one of the reasons I haven't posted in over a week. I've been slowly uploading some other design work I've been doing lately, and some I've worked on in the past, over at the <a href="http://elliottwrites.blogspot.com/p/portfolio.html">PORTFOLIO</a> page. Thanks for looking. Image after the jump.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.projectixce.net/services/userfiles/10pairs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.projectixce.net/services/userfiles/10pairs.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-78571941412607925872010-04-14T14:52:00.000-07:002010-05-23T10:52:41.669-07:00On Ethical Consumerism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZ-VT2924lPgC0KV9v8i56d9ke2ynmkxmMBKvxbRPYwhDX2eoPl1Q3Be2tmaX_CCqCNGucqWokWLYCfve2niiiGc5kPlU3HlSCKlB9g3r-GU6Hx2O0RY9bBucinvgErdHg4_QycaYOdg/s1600/n8501712_31663221_9417.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZ-VT2924lPgC0KV9v8i56d9ke2ynmkxmMBKvxbRPYwhDX2eoPl1Q3Be2tmaX_CCqCNGucqWokWLYCfve2niiiGc5kPlU3HlSCKlB9g3r-GU6Hx2O0RY9bBucinvgErdHg4_QycaYOdg/s400/n8501712_31663221_9417.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">A couple years ago, I had the privilege of meeting/hanging out with <a href="http://www.thesimpleway.org/shane/">Shane Claiborne</a>, a definite hero of mine. Around that time, I was spearheading an <a href="http://usas.org/">on-campus movement</a> to reduce our campus' consumption of goods made in sweatshops.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I had a dual focus for the movement - I was interested not only in reducing consumption of unethically-produced products, but also interested in reducing consumption/consumerism overall. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A friend of mine (Robbie, pictured above in white shirt on the right) came up to me one day and asked me a question about something I'd said. "I heard," she began, "that you think we shouldn't buy TOMS."<br />
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<a name='more'></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What she heard was half-true. I love <a href="http://www.toms.com/">TOMS </a>(seriously check them out, a definite model for aspiring <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_bottom_line">triple-bottom-line</a> business everywhere), especially since they've made an explicit commitment to not only giving a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair that's bought, but to require fair labor practices in their factories (scroll down on <a href="http://www.toms.com/faq/">the FAQ</a> for the blurb).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What I actually said was that buying TOMS was great but it wasn't the answer. If you don't need new shoes, don't buy any. Buying TOMS to support the cause, or because they're cool, instead of buying TOMS as a replacement for another shoe that you were already going to buy because you need new shoes, substitutes one "evil" for another - supporting unethical labor practices for supporting unnecessary consumerism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's a tough, weird ethical debate; surely buying TOMS, no matter how many pairs, is better than buying sweatshop-produced shoes, and gets more shoes onto the feet of children in Argentina and South Africa and wherever else TOMS gives shoes. But instead of wasting resources with a purchase, your money will be much better spent through a donation than through a purchase, no matter how ethical the company.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://auspainia.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://auspainia.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/preview.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reminds me of <a href="http://www.joinred.com/home.aspx">Product (RED)</a> - the tagline on the homepage said "Buy RED, Save Lives." It's a pretty popular notion, now - the belief that through an "ethical" consumerism one can effect positive change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it's hard to take a position against movements like this. Again, buying a Product (RED) iPod Nano helps fight AIDS and buying a normal iPod Nano does not (though Apple does not disclose how much of the sale actually goes to fighting AIDS - some companies give 1%, some up to 50%, but it's not transparent). Organizations such as <a href="http://www.buylesscrap.org/">BUY (LESS)</a> have sprung up to counter the idea of "ethical consumerism:" do you really need to buy an iPod Nano at all?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I think that these (for-profit) companies hit on a nice lil' bit of human psychology - we like to buy shit, but if we've done some research or are environmentalists or care about social justice much, we feel somewhat guilty about how much we consume. "Ethical consumerist" products give us an out - we can continue our consumerism, but knowing that a portion (though we usually don't know the size of this portion, and I think it's safe to say it's smaller than we'd like) goes to charity vindicates us.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is frustrating to an extent; I would like to see more people move away from mindless consumption of non-necessary items as a whole. While I think that what these companies do is somewhat better than the status quo, do they support the faulty notion of "ethical consumerism" and thus slow our society's progress away from the rampant consumerism that we're known for?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I suppose the thoughtful approach to "ethical consumerism" is pretty simple - if you are going to buy something, do a lil' research and perhaps buy something ethical. If you aren't going to buy something, don't. If you want to support a cause, support the cause directly; don't buy more crap that you don't need. I think that's it.</div>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-18272200827648383712010-04-09T15:23:00.000-07:002010-05-23T12:05:08.800-07:00On Citizenship, Terror, and Assassination<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Obama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Obama.jpg" width="171" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Came across this terrifying article on Tumblr today: <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/assassinations/index.html">Confirmed: Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Goodness, that title sure jumps out at you doesn't it? I don't know if it's possible to see that link without at least glancing over the article. It's incredibly troubling that the President/the CIA have the authority to assassinate anyone; it goes against most Americans' core beliefs about the role of our government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The article mentions it, but remember when all the liberals went up in arms with Bush's domestic spying program (which, by the way, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janine-r-wedel/emshadow-eliteem-warrantl_b_529769.html">Obama has not done away with</a>)? If the title of the article were accurate, then you'd expect us all to be 1000x more enraged by this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But as you read the article and the coverage of the issue you learn that the point of contention for most of these people is not that the president is assassinating someone. The problem is that this person is a U.S. citizen. Nevermind that he is an Al-Qaeda operative apparently actively participating in terrorism against the United States:</div><br />
<i>"The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday..." </i><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://onemoreplotplease.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/war_iraq_militar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="http://onemoreplotplease.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/war_iraq_militar.jpg" width="200" /></a>Wait, why again can't we kill a terrorist? We kill <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War">tens of thousands of terrorists (or civilians</a>, who can tell them apart?) every year. Oh right, because he's both a terrorist and a U.S. Citizen! You can't assassinate a U.S. Citizen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What is war if not large-scale assassination? Does the CIA have assassination targets that aren't U.S. Citizens (yes)? If so, does anyone care? That's just what war is, right? We are allowed to kill "enemy combatants." But apparently, by definition, U.S. Citizens cannot be classified as "enemy combatants" without due process:</div><br />
<i>"Even more strikingly, Antonin Scalia, in the 2004 case of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, wrote an Opinion (joined by Justice Stevens) arguing that it was unconstitutional for the U.S. Government merely to imprison (let alone kill) American citizens as "enemy combatants"; instead, they argued, the Constitution required that Americans be charged with crimes (such as treason) and be given a trial before being punished."</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">My question is, if we are allowed to murder on a grand scale (i.e. war) and on a small scale (assassination of high-level terrorist leaders) as part of the "War on Terror," why does it matter whether our "enemies" are citizens or not? The above quote implies that it is constitutional to imprison/kill non-Americans as "enemy combatants." Why is that OK?</div>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3198294786647521665.post-25245114989537074692010-04-07T14:52:00.001-07:002010-04-07T15:04:17.006-07:00New Feature: Five ThingsSo the "Top ___" is nothing new, especially in the blogosphere. But I liked <a href="http://nearlynaomi.blogspot.com/2010/04/life-is-bliss.html">Naomi's recent Top 10</a> and was inspired to do my own. Except only five. And I think it's important to say that these are not actually the "Top" five anything; they are more of a "first five" things that come into my head.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Five Places to Be:</b><br />
<ol><li>In a warm, local coffee shop on a rainy day with a book, laptop, and headphones, and nothing important to do - such a cozy state of mind.<br />
</li>
<li>At work, closing out your documents and browser windows at 4:45pm on a Friday - the entire world seems ahead of you!</li>
<li>In bed with your lover at 10am on a weekend morning, just before completely coming to, immediately after having realized that you have a number of hours before any responsibilities kick in</li>
<li>Right up at the front of the stage, a lil' bit off to the right, just as the lights dim and you see the headliners congregating backstage waiting for their cue to come out, and you're just starting to feel the buzz from the beers you drank earlier and the one overpriced cocktail you deigned to purchase at the club</li>
<li>Standing on a ridge at the end of a hike through the Santa Monica mountains looking out as the sun just begins to dip behind the horizon - this is perhaps the only thing I miss about Malibu.<br />
</li>
</ol>E Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16593755778693984757noreply@blogger.com2