Dismantlement?

Day before yesterday, the President of the United States said "dismantlement" in a statement he was making about, I think, peace in the middle east. "Dismantlement" is not a word. Now, this type of thing is not even slightly annoying to me when regular citizens of the United States (and, hell, the world) do it. Because, you know, who really cares, as long as we understand what is being said? Understanding each other is the important thing. And I don't like how some people go off all the time about "improper English," etc. So am I wrong to feel that the Ivy League-educated President of the United States should know that "dismantlement" is not a word and should therefore find another way to express his idea? Because I do, and it really pisses me off. There's no reason why "dismantlement" shouldn't be a word - it's generated through a systematic rule-application of adding "-ment" to a verb to come up with a noun - but *still*. I honestly think that there's a legitimate need for an awareness of, attention to, language in a leader. And this particular leader completely lacks it.

but for booze

An open letter to the dumbass setting off fireworks in my neighborhood:

Dear Dumbass,

Stop it.

Love,
Me

Like Battery Acid through Courduroy

Well, if you had told me when I woke up this morning that today I would read a sentence starting "When I first came up with the idea for the Pet Rock," I would not have believed you. But then you would have been proven right, and I would have marveled at your powers of prognostication.

I read this sentence in Advertising for Dummies, which I picked up today in the beginning of what I hope will become a massive attack on corporate culture executed via reading their own materials and critiquing them.

Much to my delight, Advertising for Dummies employs - without the slightest hint of irony - quotes in the chapter introductions that tend to be virulently anti-advertising. For example, chapter 1: "Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising" - Mark Twain. Or, chapter 4: "Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it." - Stephen Butler Leacock. Or, chapter 9: "I think that I shall never see/A billboard lovely as a tree./ Indeed, unless the billboards fall/I'll never see a tree at all." - Ogden Nash. This all leads me to a question, namely, does this guy (and hell, everyone who works in advertising) sleep soundly at night? Does he realize that he works in a business which depends on people being manipulated and often spending money they don't have on crap they don't need or probably even want?

As much as I go on about how much everything sucks, there's still a big part of me that's just surprised all the time at the human race.

millenium ska dance-a-thon runner up

Mass Media and American Politics was... well, I found it poorly written. So I moved on to Mark Crispin Miller's Boxed In (a collection of essays on television) and am enjoying it quite a lot. Stupid TV. (Be more funny!)

MoveOn update = Dean, Kucinich, and Kerry got the most votes, Dean with 44%.

forget this "old woman" shit, I shall wear purple NOW

Well, I must say, I'm excited about the MoveOn bandwagon. Grassroots + internet might just = some actual political power. I wanted to vote in the primary, but didn't get in on time. Hopefully no candidate will have gotten over 50% of the vote, and there will be more chances.

In other news, I finished Great Jones Street and have moved on to Mass Media and American Politics. A little non-fiction for our Thursday afternoon.

s'all.

Saffron's mad about me

Several people have told me that when a couple gets married, things just sort of change, feel different. So far I haven't really noticed anything that different other than the fact that we have new tongue-in-cheek nicknames for each other ("husby" and "wife-o"). Oh yeah, and all our problems and disagreements went away.

But no, really, I guess it does kinda feel different, although it's hard to explain why. Perhaps it can be likened to finding out one of your friends is actually your sister. You saw her as a friend, now you see her as a sister. Different.

at the bottom of the sky

Hey, here's something that might be relevant to my weekend: oh jesus, I just read this and it's so dead-on it's not even really funny.

fat Charlie the archangel files for divorce

Here are some rules for living. When I become rich and famous, or at least famous, or perhaps infamous and rich (definitely rich), I will publish them and make an extra couple of millions that I will use to have gourmet vegetarian meals prepared for my 5 purebred cats. Tell me I don't think ahead.

1) When deciding whether or not to take a job, consider the following question: Will my coworkers be more likely to expect an idiot/dunce/moron to fill this position, or would they be more likely to expect a smart person? If you are an idiot/dunce/moron, and you think they would expect an idiot/dunce/moron, take the job. If you think they would expect an idiot/dunce/moron and you are smart, take the job and use your frustration to fuel the writing of several satirical plays about sucky jobs in the 21st century and make millions. If you think they would expect a smart person and you are an idiot/dunce/moron or a smart person, take the job. If you are an idiot/dunce/moron, be thankful that you got a smart person's job and cling to it for dear life. If you are a smart person, use the frustration to write several satirical plays about dealing with idiots/dunces/morons with jobs they don't deserve in the 21st century and make several thousands.

2) Wash your clothes, for the love of God.

3) Date all photographs and negative envelopes, because even though you think you'll remember, trust me, you won't.

4) Name your first child Buckwheat Zydeco (check the spelling).

Ohhhhh baby - that's some good sound.

So, I'm not some big conspiracy theorist, and try to remain generally skeptical of things that seem like conspiracy theories. But this article from Salon yesterday, while seeming a little conspiracy-theory-ish, also potentially explains the obvious, massive, and seemingly inexplicable disregard for the $4 trillion deficit the Bush administration is embracing. When Clinton left office, there was a projected surplus of $5.6 trillion.

I wish I had $9.6 trillion dollars to piss away on wars, reelection bribes, and gifts for my friends.

The reasoning in this article hadn't ever occurred to me. It's got me thinking about other completely and totally shortsighted things Republicans seem to be in favor of, such as ruining the environment. Perhaps they're just creating work for themselves in the long run -- work for which they will be able to charge the federal government baskillions of dollars.

Maybe the Republican party should change its name to the Evil Genius party and require all its members to walk around like Dr. Evil wearing monacles and smoking cigars.

We know that sometimes things happen.

Here are some domain names that you might want to pounce on:

www.bonanza.com

www.weakcity.com


Sorry, www.lovemonkey.com is taken.


This is a game I play sometimes...

Your message "Whoo Doggies" has been sent.

Well. I just experienced the family reunion to end all family reunions, and I think I actually mean that literally. *I'm* certainly not going back. Yearrg.

Sometimes I visualize my skeleton

Mom-quote of the day:


Babies are tougher than you think. You survived and your dad and I didn't have a clue what we were doing. :)