Brief update from Casa Taco
Jan. 25th, 2004 02:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changelingBush on Mars
Mars missions and moonbases are good investments. People complain about spending money in space instead of right here on Earth, but that's idiotic. Of course the money's spent here on Earth, spent on employing researchers and scientists and engineers [...] Players of any of the Civilization games know what I'm talking about; Wonders of the World are worthwhile investmests.
But -- and here's the key-- they're worthwhile investments for a growing, confident, enthusiastic, forward-looking society that has its affairs in order -- kinda like Clinton's America or Canada today. But that ain't Bush's America, not by a longshot. Bush's America is a nervous, imploding, looking-over-its-shoulder train wreck of historical proportions due for rendezvous with its nemesis long before any spaceship's gonna be taking off for Mars.
The Bushites doesn't give a damn about science; in fact they hate it. There's the whole animosity for science that comes from their connections to fundamentalist Christian ideology, and then there's just a basic disrespect for what science is and what it does. Their attitude to science they don't like is: get different scientists. It's a pattern of thinking we can also see in their selection and interpretation of the "intelligence" on Iraq. Conclusion first, evidence after.
It's the ideology of power: what I say goes. I make reality. It's the defining characteristic of the Bush government; in a recent speech Al Gore said "in almost every policy area, the Administration's consistent goal has been to eliminate any constraints on their exercise of raw power, whether by law, regulation, alliance or treaty", and that pretty much nails it. (Emphasis mine)
That is a rant I wish I'd written. The full text is linked to above, and is by Stephen Notley, the same gentleman who does the "Bob the Angry Flower" comics.
This whole situation reminds me of a plot from a thriller I read as a kid; the President had been kidnapped by operatives working on behalf of the Russian Government. They attempt to mind-control the President, and for a whole bunch of reasons (which Ian Malcolm* could tell you about), it goes really wrong and the President goes insane and gets very megalomaniacal. He becomes a virtual dictator, and manages to stop Congress from meeting. If I was home, I'd probably pull you a choice quote, but I'm not, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
I'm really glad I don't live in the US right now. I just wish I didn't live on the same planet. Or in the same solar system. Sigh.**
Ooh, ooh! This is my favourite part of the above rant!
I guess it's ironic that, for all their obsession about security, the Bushites' policies expose and weaken America's most vulnerable flank. America's military supremacy is unchallenged and currently unchallengeable, but it has gaping weaknesses in its economy. The Bushies are running America just as Bush ran all his previous companies: at a loss, crumbling into debt and eventual bailout. Who the hell is going to bail out America once Bush is gone?
*I'm pretty sure that there was a really glib quote I could drop in here that said something about chaos, and something about "sufficiently complex systems", but it's been about seven or eight years since I last read that book. I thought it might have been in the chapter breaks, underneath the fractal drawings, but unfortunately not. Ah, well.
**This may be misunderstood, so just for the sake of clarification for any American friends of mine: I fear that I will die young andbeautiful without liver disease because Bush is going to blow up the entire planet, and as many others as he can get his hands on. If he weren't President, and so rich and privileged, he'd be locked up by now. I think we all know that's true. He's certainly a danger to those around him... and these are the people we put in charge of that little red button that launches nuclear missiles? We, as a species, clearly have a death wish.
[Edit: Cut for her pleasure.]
Mars missions and moonbases are good investments. People complain about spending money in space instead of right here on Earth, but that's idiotic. Of course the money's spent here on Earth, spent on employing researchers and scientists and engineers [...] Players of any of the Civilization games know what I'm talking about; Wonders of the World are worthwhile investmests.
But -- and here's the key-- they're worthwhile investments for a growing, confident, enthusiastic, forward-looking society that has its affairs in order -- kinda like Clinton's America or Canada today. But that ain't Bush's America, not by a longshot. Bush's America is a nervous, imploding, looking-over-its-shoulder train wreck of historical proportions due for rendezvous with its nemesis long before any spaceship's gonna be taking off for Mars.
The Bushites doesn't give a damn about science; in fact they hate it. There's the whole animosity for science that comes from their connections to fundamentalist Christian ideology, and then there's just a basic disrespect for what science is and what it does. Their attitude to science they don't like is: get different scientists. It's a pattern of thinking we can also see in their selection and interpretation of the "intelligence" on Iraq. Conclusion first, evidence after.
It's the ideology of power: what I say goes. I make reality. It's the defining characteristic of the Bush government; in a recent speech Al Gore said "in almost every policy area, the Administration's consistent goal has been to eliminate any constraints on their exercise of raw power, whether by law, regulation, alliance or treaty", and that pretty much nails it. (Emphasis mine)
That is a rant I wish I'd written. The full text is linked to above, and is by Stephen Notley, the same gentleman who does the "Bob the Angry Flower" comics.
This whole situation reminds me of a plot from a thriller I read as a kid; the President had been kidnapped by operatives working on behalf of the Russian Government. They attempt to mind-control the President, and for a whole bunch of reasons (which Ian Malcolm* could tell you about), it goes really wrong and the President goes insane and gets very megalomaniacal. He becomes a virtual dictator, and manages to stop Congress from meeting. If I was home, I'd probably pull you a choice quote, but I'm not, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
I'm really glad I don't live in the US right now. I just wish I didn't live on the same planet. Or in the same solar system. Sigh.**
Ooh, ooh! This is my favourite part of the above rant!
I guess it's ironic that, for all their obsession about security, the Bushites' policies expose and weaken America's most vulnerable flank. America's military supremacy is unchallenged and currently unchallengeable, but it has gaping weaknesses in its economy. The Bushies are running America just as Bush ran all his previous companies: at a loss, crumbling into debt and eventual bailout. Who the hell is going to bail out America once Bush is gone?
*I'm pretty sure that there was a really glib quote I could drop in here that said something about chaos, and something about "sufficiently complex systems", but it's been about seven or eight years since I last read that book. I thought it might have been in the chapter breaks, underneath the fractal drawings, but unfortunately not. Ah, well.
**This may be misunderstood, so just for the sake of clarification for any American friends of mine: I fear that I will die young and
[Edit: Cut for her pleasure.]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 08:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 07:38 pm (UTC)incidently, if you dont know what to get me for my 21st, i dont like bush ... but i like micheal moor
"i wanna learn to read... not the tossed salad man!"
no subject
Date: 2004-01-25 07:08 am (UTC)He can't afford this, that's the simple truth. At this rate he's living on foreign confidence - people are still trading in and buying dollars because they are sure it will get better - if he keeps smashing the economy like this, they're going to loose that confidence.
I'm reminded of the USSR. Huge military. Incapable of paying for it, or basic maintenance of the country.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-25 02:17 pm (UTC)I should be president!
Ooh, cut for her pleasure. *gives Winter a pair of scissors and tells her to have at it*
no subject
Date: 2004-01-26 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-26 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-26 06:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-27 03:47 am (UTC)You should.
*hides from Winter*