Endlösung des Terrorismus

Forgive me if you care that I'm doing this, but I'm going to post a link to an article that Mark Evanier over at www.newsfromme.com posted a couple of days ago. I find the article very revealing. It's yet another in a long series of articles I've read detailing just how crappy certain parts of our government are right now.

I'm going to make the link to the article very obvious so you can go read it.

What strikes me most about this article is not that our administration does behind-the-scenes stuff like trying to boost the president's powers or okaying certain extreme types of interrogation. What bothers me is how much it reminds me of Nazi Germany. Whoa now, you're saying. Isn't that a bit extreme, comparing our current administration to the Nazis? Has our beloved Casey gone that far left? Is there no hope?

Keep your pants on, folks. When I was in Berlin, I took a course on Germans & Jews throughout history. One day, we took a trip to the Haus des Wannsee Konferenz (house of the Wannsee conference). A very important meeting of high-ranking Nazis took place there. While it was not decided there that 6,000,000 Jews would be killed (as some think), it was told to these officers that the genocide had already been considered and decided upon, that it was highly crucial for the success of the Third Reich, and that they should accept not only the plan, but also that people higher than them were taking ultimate responsibility for the genocide. In other words, Nazi Germany was bureaucracy at its finest and most destructive: a system where everyone makes the decision, in a sense, but is able to shift the responsibility (or blame) for it to someone higher up.

The article about Alberto Mora and his quest to put a stop to torture of detainees in prison camps caused me to make the connection between Bush & Co. and the Nazis. I get the sense from this article that our governments works a lot the same way. It's decided somewhere along the line that soldiers can go to whatever extremes they like to get answers out of detainees, the soldiers and their uppers justify it by pointing to whatever memos were given them, the people who wrote the memos point to whoever's legislation that gives even barely passable legal justifications for doing it, and so on and so forth. In situations like this, even if one person did make the decision, they've surrounded themselves by an impenetrable web of cronies that people like Mora cannot break through. And on top of that, the people making those decisions and hiring others to justify them have all the power.

Even though it seems like Bush is a little more detached from this than he is from other issues, it scares me to think that he will probably support whatever Cheney and his pals do. I mean, look at this current story with the shift of control of some U.S. ports to a company based in the United Arab Emirates. Bush didn't even know about the move until a couple of days ago, and he's supporting it now full force, replete with threats to veto any legislation to stop the transfer. This kind of government scares me. That is, it doesn't threaten me personally in any facet of my daily life, but it's scary to think that a monster lives in this country that has a high amount of control over things important to me. It's scary to think that people like Mora, or Colin Powell who try to make things better from the inside, eventually have to give up ship.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not trying to be un-American. I just think that the government would be a whole heck of a lot more respectable if there were humble people running it. But who ever can think that he's humble enough to be a good politician and still retain his humility?

So this guy walks into a punchline...

I just saw the cover of the current issue of Time Magazine here in the library's periodicals section. The cover story is about VP Dick Cheney and his dedication to not admitting he's wrong in any way about anything pertaining to the Iraq war; that is, that he's still committed to "staying the course" and "finishing the job" that was started, in White House spin terms. But I find it funny that the cover headline for the story is "Sticking to His Guns" in light of what happened recently when he accidentally shot one of his hunting companions.

Now, I have to believe that at least 80% percent of the people overseeing Time Magazine realized the pun in the cover text. I expect also that the story and, probably, this week's whole issue were planned out weeks ago, before he shot that guy. But certainly there was time before the issue went to press that the cover text could have been changed because of the hunting accident. So somebody (or somebodies) out there must have a good sense of humor.

Stompin' comp gets swamped! Full story, p. 5

So, most of you out there know that I've been working on a cartoon. Lately, our Dell computer has been lagging with the Macromedia Flash program. It sometimes took me up to 30 seconds to add a single frame to the piece--and at twelve frames per animation second, that adds up to a lot of sitting and waiting and getting frustrated. On top of that, the working file for the toon is fast approaching 70MB, and it was taking at least 10 minutes to save the file to my hard drive. I tried closing out every process that wasn't absolutely necessary for the computer to run. I tried boosting Flash's system priority to "High". But still, Flash sucked up around 200 of the computer's 256 MB of RAM.

After about a week of getting barely any work done, I decided that it was time that I got a computer that had more RAM. Because, you see, I assumed that my computer just didn't have enough, and that's why Flash took so long. So I go to the Dell website, and I customize myself one super slick speed box. 3.2 Gigahertz processor speed (more than twice what our older computer boasts), 2 Gigabytes of RAM (eight times as much), 80 GB on the hard drive, a 19-inch flat screen monitor, two DVD drives, and a subwoofer to boot. So I figure, this will have to be the end-all for speed (within my price range), right? So I get the thing, install Flash, do a little editing work on my file, try to save it. Nine minutes. Okay, I admit, a slight improvement, but not near what I had hoped for. So I did some more investigating. Apparently Flash tends to use around 200 MB of RAM a lot of the time that it's running. But I notice that while saving, it's only using 50% of my computer's capabilities. Which is at least better than before, because now I can listen to music or watch something or play Minesweeper while I'm waiting without everything trying to go all Jack Frost on me.

But I'm just curious now. Why does Flash take so insanely long to save large files? Is it just that no computer can save a 70MB+ file lickety-split, no matter how its numbers are all around? Is Flash just a slow program? What's the deal? I mean, this new computer won't be completely in vain--it'll serve me well throughout graduate school as not only a computer, but also a DVD player, stereo, work station, and general distraction device--but it doesn't exactly do what I bought it for. Anybody out there able to tell me anything?

Like I said...

...I've been catching up on decades' worth of movies in my spare time thanks to the Berry College Library's video collection. Now that I'm off my Woody Allen kick, I'd like to mention a movie I just, in fact, got done watching: The Stepford Wives (the original one, with Katharine Ross and Paula Prentiss).

This has to be, by far, the scariest movie I've ever seen. And before I go on, let me define more precisely what I mean by scary. There have been scenes in movies that made me jump--the alien's ribcage popping open in Independence Day, or numerous points in M. Night Shyamalan films. But that's a kind of scary that relies totally on the suprise factor: the unexpected twist, the misdirection of sound, or tricking the audience into believing something just to pull the rug out from under them. No, this scary--what made The Stepford Wives chilling--was, I think, best illustrated in that one moment in the movie where everything comes together and you know exactly what can happen, what probably will happen, and what it means. I realize I'm being vague here, but I don't want to go too much into detail for those who haven't seen it. Suffice it to say that the movie is about male chauvinism at its worst. It's about taking away from women everything that men enjoy: activities, hobbies, a personality, power in decision-making. It's about telling women that they're no good unless they have big boobs and cook and clean all day and never leave the house (except, of course, to buy groceries or flowers for the garden). I'd like to think that the Psychology of Women course I took last year helped me better appreciate the horror that the main character experiences when she realizes what her husband is trying to take away from her. It's scary because it's what thousands of women worldwide go through, if not in so dramatized and absurd a way.

It's scary also to realize the depths to which the human character can sink, and then to remember that I (gasp!) am a human, too. There's a scene in the movie where the main character (Katharine Ross) asks the head honcho of the Men's Association of Stepford, who were responsible for the terrible things done to the women of the town, why they did it. His answer was simply "Because we can". And I was scared because I realized once more the reality of my position in the world, that there will be dozens of opportunities where I could unfairly exert power over women. I'm glad I watched this movie, because we guys always need to be reminded that women are not just boobs and service, that they are people, too, with wants and needs and desires just as important as ours.

But seriously...

Happy Today.

Dorks of the world, unite! Or at least play some video games.

At many, many points during my life, I have felt that I was an outsider among outsiders. I never really fit into any group of people during those troubled, becliqued middle and high school years (except for maybe drama club). It was not until my senior year of college, when I spent a semester in Berlin, that I finally felt like I belonged to a group of people. I really couldn't say that there was a unifying factor for the group, except that most of them were Minnesotans, but now I think I may have hit upon something. My best friend in the group, Golo, was very liberal politically, and also very much a dork. By dork I mean that he was (is) somewhat of a nerd, albeit a very sociable, likable, and confident-in-and-proud-of-his-dorkiness nerd. It's hard not to have fun with this guy or laugh at the jokes he's always telling (or just at him, it's easy to do). Speaking of, if you're reading this, Golo, I found a word I think comes closest to the American idea of "nerd" in German: Fachidiot. I seem to remember one of the questions that kept coming up the semester I was there was how to say "nerd".

The thing is, I found another one of those types of people at the college where I work. I supervise a number of students in my position at the Berry College library, and lately a girl named Mary and I have been realizing just how much of a dork the other person is. We aren't dorks in the same area, per se, but, as they say, it takes one to know one, and we can recognize it fairly easily in each other. Well, the other night when we were closing up the library, Mary was talking about going to Dave and Buster's this weekend, which, in case you've never heard of it, is a combination bar/restaurant/video game arcade. In other words, an arcade a little bit more geared toward post-puberty-type people--the people who grew up on arcades. I had been hearing about the place since I was a kid, and it always sounded like a neat place to go. In a rare moment of social forwardness, I commented "You should invite me to come with you", which is about as close to imposing as I'll ever feel safe being. So after closing up the library today, Mary and I hopped in her car and took off towards Marietta.

I swear, this past evening was the most fun I've had in a long, long time. I had taken a few German classes with Mary during my college career, but she and I had never really gotten to know each other at all. Sure, Dave and Buster's is, by nature, a fun and awesome place to go to, but Mary is a pretty cool person to hang out with. And, please, all my other friends who have not yet been named or praised or called a dork here on my blog, don't feel left out. I'm not here to talk about how cool Mary is. Here's where I'm getting back to the original point I started making in this post. I think part of the reason I had so much fun hanging out with Mary is that she's both very liberal politically, and a total dork.

Could this be? Are there more people out there like me than I ever could have imagined? Have I finally found my niche in the world? Have I found my social group? Could I be the local representative of cool dorks worldwide?

The answer to all these questions is "Yes", as in "Yes, I am a total dork."

And just remember, you can't spell "liberal dork" without "ribald elk". You heard it here first, folks.

Valentine's Day

I know, I know. It's nearly a week away, but it's on my mind now. It's the time of year when all you see is advertisements offering ways to make it look like you spent a bunch of time thinking about your significant other. I tend to agree with those who would say that doing something out-of-the-ordinary for your beloved on Valentine's Day is actually less meaningful. Everyone else is doing it, it's expected of you. Unless it's something on a larger scale that took quite a deal of planning, romantic gestures on Valentine's Day, to me, are, for the most part, meaningless.

Or am I saying this because I don't exactly have a significant other to whom I can give a present and make her face light up? I dunno. Anyway, I think Ze Frank makes a good argument for the way Valentine's Day should be in this video.

Mysteries of the Universe, Part Four

Again, a food-related mystery. What's more, a food-related number mystery. I began this feature wondering where in the world Wrigley came up with the number 17 for the number of sticks of gum in the Plen-T-Pak. Most of that post applies to the Heinz company. Why the number 57? The Heinz company, at the time of the advent of the "57 Varieties" slogan, already had more products than that. They now have over 1100 varieties of product, according to a couple of sources. But, again, I must press the question: why 57? Was it purely randomness of thought? Was Henry Heinz trying to think of a random, peculiar number that would stick out in people's minds? Was he an Illuminatus? What "special significance" might the numbers have held for Heinz and his wife?

If the number was hit upon because of its peculiarity, I wonder if the fact that it ends with a 7 have anything to do with it. I mean, come on, you've got the 17 sticks of gum in a Plen-T-Pak, 57 varieties, and then there's the recurring 27 in many of "Weird Al" Yankovic's songs and videos. I think 7 is just a weird number, is all.

Anyways, be sure to come back again and again when, sometime in the first week of every month, I'll wrack my brains about some other deep important philosophical question or existential quandary, like Where do my socks go? How do women think? Who put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop? These and other questions which will most likely never, ever be answered, are sure to be asked on a further installment of
(cue echoing sound effect)
Mysteries of the Universe!

Mysteries of the Universe, Part Three: UPDATE

Amazingly, one month after my previous post pondering the particularly perplexing promotional personality of Mr. Six, blogger Paul Davidson claims to have discovered his identity. If he's right, then I don't think I was too far off in my guess...that is, that Mr. Six was bound to be someone relatively unknown who could dance well. I'm sure that everyone will say "Oh, okay" and move on with their lives now. Stay tuned for this month's installment of Mysteries of the Universe, coming soon!

Today's news

In my e-mail inbox, today:

Casey,

I wanted to write and let you know that you have been recommended for admission for the MSLS program at UNC-CH. The Graduate School makes the final decision, but they generally follow the recommendation of the committee. Congratulations!

Beth Dye
Student Services Manager
Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Just thought you might like to know where I'll probably be this coming fall. What I'm looking forward to is the possibility of eating luncch at UNC-CH. To celebrate my near-definite acceptance, I worked on the cartoon, which I believe will end up being about five minutes long all told.