In my dream-verison of the United States, the free press will call out politicians who lie to us, not cover for them. Some liberal media, huh?

I know I've spent a lot of time bitching and moaning about the fact that Obama has become a very different candidate upon winning the nomination. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm anything less than appalled by the McCain campaign. The campaign seems to be based, and I'm not being facetious here, on sheer madness. They've attacked Obama for being a flip-flopper on The War. They've attacked Obama for being to rigid in his views on the War. They've said, and I swear I'm not making this up:

"We cannot afford to replace one administration that refused for too long to acknowledge failure in Iraq with a candidate that refuses to acknowledge success in Iraq."

(the quote is from Randy Scheunemann, the campaign's top foreign policy advisor)

If trying to parse the meaning of that doesn't make your neuron's asplode, you must be some sort of Zen master. At the time, I really thought Huck was the candidate who was so scary he was funny. McCain's starting to remind me a lot of Armitage, which makes Huck look positively tame in comparison.

From FDR's 9th State of the Union Address:

If any of our enemies, from Europe or from Asia, attempt long-range raids by "suicide" squadrons of bombing planes, they will do so only in the hope of terrorizing our people and disrupting our morale. Our people are not afraid of that. We know that we may have to pay a heavy price for freedom. We will pay this price with a will. Whatever the price, it is a thousand times worth it. No matter what our enemies, in their desperation, may attempt to do to us- we will say, as the people of London have said, "We can take it." And what's more we can give it back and we will give it back--with compound interest.

See? You win the war on terror by not being afraid.*

Many thanks to the fine folks at TPM for digging this one up.

* Yeah, yeah, I know. FDR did a lot of crazy "we're scared out of our minds" shit like build internment camps for Japanese-Americans and censor the press because "We were at WAR!**" This is a great example of "do as I say, not as I do."

**Of course, at the time, we really were at war, so cut him just a little slack.

Poll #1229019 Armageddon Days Are Here Again
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What do you think will be the root cause of the next substantial die-off of homo sapiens?

I know there's some serious overlap here, but just pick the one that you think best fits your vision of what's in store for us. I'm semi-serious about this. We have amassed so many ways to off ourselves that, to be honest, I have no clue which one is the most likely to be the culprit.

I've got a question for youse guys:

We had an interesting discussion on Satruday concerning science fiction and the future. Science fiction, by definition, is a forward-looking discipline. It seems to me that most of the futures we're shown range from dystopian to, well, dystopian. So, which science fiction version of the future would you most like to see come to pass, and why?

(p.s. I understand that snarky answers are both funny and inevitable. However, I'm genuinely interested in the serious answers)

I woke up Sunday morning with a mouth full of yuck and a splitting headache. I didn't really think much about it since I'd made the mistake of going the previous day without caffeine. This makes my mind all mushy and gives me a headache worse than the worse hangover in the history of ever. But...it hung on longer than it should have and then I remembered that strep was making its rounds at my office.

Bugger.

I didn't feel any better this morning, so I went to see the doctor. I'm not strep-a-riffinc. Instead, I've got a low-grade viral throat infection and allergies out the wazoo. I can live with that.

I hadn't inteded to do so, but this is a good place for a disgression. The above example of how universal health care could benefit the society that's paying for it. If I didn't have health insurance, there's a very good chance that I would have "toughed it out" and hoped that it didn't get worse. Had I actually had strep, that would have been a bad thing, not just for me, but for everyone I came into contact with. Putting aisde the issue of whether or not its "the right thing to do" or whether any civilized, weathly society really shouldn't make people choose between health care and stuff like food and gas...putting all that aside, there's a real cost benefit to doing it that way.

Just sayin'.

Oh, and I promised something good,didn't I? If you live in Austin, check. this. out.

So much for my plan to do more cooking and dining at home.

Typical Austin: Three intriguing shows on the same night.

At the Expo Center, none other than the internet's #1 rap artist Soulja Boy is going to, um, "crank dat?" Sure, it isn't really my scene, but I have a real soft spot for interent memes and you don't get more meme-y than young master Tell'em. Not to mention, it seems likely that he'll never, ever tour again and we won't get another chance to see him until his first appearance on "The Soulja of Love."

If that weren't enough (and by gosh, oughtn't it be?), Austin's own Foot Patrol are playing at the Scoot Inn. I've still yet to see their unique brand of foot fetish funk, but I have it on good authority that they are not to be missed.

Finally, one of the true giants of the 70's is at Antone's tonight. You don't hear much about Todd Rundgren these days, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't be on your list of "artists I need to see at least once before I die." Todd's eccentricites* kept him from being the commercial giant he could have been, but he's the kind of artist that, if you see his show, you'll walk away thinking "damn, I didn't know he did all those songs."

EDIT: Late update. And now, there's this, right next to the Scoot Inn. I gotta rethink now...

* Rundgren is one of those artists who has trouble doing the same thing twice, so he did a pile of experimental albums that has approximately zero commercial appeal. For example "Faithful" was an album of covers that sound exactly like the originals. "Deface the Music" was an album of songs written and performed in the style of the pre-Rubber Soul Beatles. "A Capella" was an album where every sound on it originated with his body. Oh, and he beat Trent to the "here are the source tracks, make your own mix" bit by 10 years with his "No World Order." He's an odd dude.

If you were wondering why I think FISA and privacy are big deals, here's a pretty good case-in-point-y thing.

Essentially, the police were keeping a database of people's political affiliations and using that to determine who to spy on and, in one case, adding an anti-death penalty protestor to an intestate terrorist database. Fortunately, the local police were the ones doing it, not the feds, so they don't get to play the "national security" card and sweep it under the rug. If the FBI were the ones doing it, the documentation would be classified and we'd never get to see it.

So, if you were thinking "well, FISA and all those scary PATRIOT act powers only apply to suspected terrorists," remember that it's a lot easier to get the "terrorist" tag than you'd think.

Our master of ceremonies at the Drafthouse last night was wearing this t-shirt. No, not "believe in meat." The one above it.

Yeah, he seemed a little surprised when I told him what it was.

There are good internet political comics.

And then there are, um, WTF?!?!? bad internet comics.

Very cool, and very scary. Respectively. When did webcomics become a part of the political landscape?

How, exactly, did I not know that Netroots Nation (formerly YearlyKos) was in Austin this weekend?

Hrm...I gotta think about this.

I take one night off of the interwebs and suddenly there are bags of interesting posts on my friends list. Woot.

I finally tried the phenomenon that is Korean fried chicken last night. The Red Cap Chicken on Congress just south of Oltorf specializes in the stuff and I've been dying to try it. What's it like? Well, first of all, the Red Cap version looks as much like the picture in the link as anything at Wan Fu Too looks like what it is supposed to look like. The chickend was very dark, very heavily breaded, and covered in a sticky honey garlic sauce. The first thing you notice is that it isn't cut like what we'd tradictionally expect. This is a little off-putting at first. You're not really sure what part of the bird you're eating or where the bones are going to be. Once you get past that, you're struck by how unbelievably crispy it is. And greasy. Don't let it get cold. Bottom line: It's tasty, but I'm not sure what the fuss is about.

I love Thurdsay mornings. I love being at the office at 7:00 sharp. Yes I do.

I finished Little Brother last night because I couldn't not finish it, if you know what I mean. I've mentioned before that I like the way good fiction works like a really subtle software upgrade on your way of thinking. This book isn't like that at all. Doctorow is absolutely up front and overt about the information he's dropping. It's all believable, realistic, and very frighteningly familiar. This is the kind of teen fiction that would have lit a fire in me back in the day. Helll, it still does. I can't recommend this book highly enough to adults, and for teens? I shudder to think.

Finally saw Lars And The Real Girl the other night. I had pretty low expecations, but I was pleasantly surprised. The central conceit of the film could have been completely unbelievable but thanks to a script that walks a tightrope and a stellar performance by Ryan Gosling, it worked. Once you get past the absurdity of what's going on, it's a sometimes-hard-to-watch portrait of mental illness that hits more often than it misses.

Oh, and we saw Paris, je t'aime as well. It's the sort of multi-director vignette film that would be perfect for discussion over coffee and smokes, but the luster was a little lost on me seeing it from the sofa. It did make me want a black turtleneck, though..

Patti Smith and Kevin Shields (yes, the Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine) have made an album together. I'm almost afraid to check this one out.

E-mail from our Director of Tax:

"You rule! The dbase worked perfectly and everything ties out – thank you!!!!"

And that, kiddos, is the part of the job that shivers me timbers. Something I did made things better for one of my co-workers. That's the part of the job I like. The rest is just marking time.

Something I just realized while reading Little Brother:

Tech-y writers write the best girlfriends.

The terrorist watch list now has over 1,000,000 names on it.

Leaving aside that fact that many people have the same name, that means no fewer than one out of every three hundred Americans are on the list. Think for a moment about how ridiculous that is. I don't know how many dangerous terrorist types there are in this country, but that number is less than a million by many factors of ten. A list with a million names on it is an administrative nightmare that's going to bog down the system so much that real threats are going to slip through. A list with a million names is worse than no list at all.

Coincentally, the author of the linked article is Cory Doctorow. I'm currently reading his new teen fiction book Little Brother. I won't give the good bits away, bit it's a good reminder that terrorists are people who want us to be scared. I wish I had read it in one sitting, because I stopped in a bad place and it gave me nightmares. The story is one of tech-oppression vs. tech-freedom, and it isn't all doom and gloom by a long shot. Neil said he'd recommend it over just about any book he's read this year, and even though I'm only halfway through it, that sounds about right to me.

Bringing this little ball of coincidence full circle, I'm taking TrueCrypt out for a spin today. You can do some pretty basic file encryption with it, which is where I'm going to start out, but you can get real paranoid with it or even zomg-wtf-you've-gotta-be-kidding-me paranoid. I'll start with the simple stuff. I'll let ya'll know how it works.

That's the most fun I've had at a show in a long, long tme.

It turns out that drummer and guitarist for Is She Weird Is She White are summering in Austin, which is the whole reason they had a gig at the Continental. Unfortunately, tragedy struck on our nation's birthday and the guitarist broke her wrists in a scooter accident. This being Austin, though, there are always options. Kevin Allen of ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead sat in on Friday night. It stands to reason, though, that the set lest, arrangements, and even the "who sings what" got rearranged at a fairly late date. In addition, Bare wasn't able to get the accoustic guitar working properly, so the set list had to get re-jiggered yet again.

That is to say, this was not the tightest show I've ever seen.

That's ok, or even better than ok. What fun would it have been to see a band come out and do spot-on recreations of the Pixies' originals? "Not a lot" would be my guess. Instead, I got to see one of my favourite musicians touring geek out and play the music of one of his favourite bands, while he's playing with a fun and different band than his usual touring band and even with a local hero sitting in for one of his wounded mates. That, my friends, is fun.

In addition, the bass player, whose name I never caught and that ticks me off because she was terrific and did all the Kim Deal singing well, actually took a call on her phone while on stage. The fallen guitarist had called and was going to be coming up to see the show. They pulled her (gently) on stage to do some of vocals on "U Mass" to mucho applause.

Oh, and they absolutely roared through the set. Doolittle may be my mostest favouritest record of all time, and they played almost all the odd-numbered songs. Friday night made me seriously consider the idea that "Monkey Gone To Heaven" is as perfect as any song ever written. "#13 Baby" might have been better with the right key, the right chords, or the right lyrics, but probably not. The weird guitar interplay in "Gouge Away" was significantly weirder. You get the idea. The set list will give you a pretty good look at not only of what was played but how off-the-cuff some of it was:


click for larger image

The set closed in pitch-perfect fashion with the Pixies cover band covering a song that the Pixies themselves covered. We were getting into "turtles all the way down" territory, so it was probably just as well that things ended there.

Bare's going to be back for ACL, and with the Pixies cover band summering in Austin, I live in hope that they'll do another show. Ya'll probably want to check this one out.

It has been easily the most exhausting week of work I've had in ages. Nonetheless, I'm at the Continental Club as it approaches midnight. Why? I already told ya: Bobby Bare Jr. is covering the Pixies all night long.

The girl at the 7-11 gave me my change in nickels. I have a pocket full of shiny Thomas Jeffersons. Nothing can stop me now.

• Simp works well, but it can be a little wonky with the Yahoo key exchange bits. Absurdly easy to install and use though.



• What's better than seeing Bobby Bare Jr. at the Continental? What about seeing Bobby Bare Jr.'s Pixies Cover Band playing at the Continental. Is She Weird Is She White go on at midnight, with Fastball opening.



• Get Smart may not be "subversive" like the TV show, but the silly humor is very true to the source and the casting couldn't have been better. Genuinely funny, too.



• Haven't slept at all well this week. I feel like my brain is...not smart...right now.



• Jennifer Salazar, one of my neighbors, is a photographer and is doing a show on Saturday: "Year of the Pinata" 810 E. 13th Street, 7-10 PM.

Ok, so what does the FISA deal really mean?

First and foremost, understand this: The Bush administration is only going to be around for another six months. Despite the fact that they're not going to get to make much use fo the scary powers, they pushed hard for this. Why is that? Because, above all else, this bill is a pre-emptive pardon for the Bush administration. That's why they were adamant that the most imporant part of the bill was the amnesty provision. This bill essentially guarantees that there will be no investigation, let alone prosecution, of the many abuses of the law committed by the adminstration.

Now, don't think that the amnesty provision was the only, or even the most, vile thing in the bill. Here's the ACLU link again. The gist is, you can and will be spied on without any suspicion of wrongdoing, without court review, and without your knowlege. Plus, any vendor you do business with is likely to turn over information to the govenment if they're asked to do so, warrant or not.

So, what to do?

Encrypt everything. Your chats, your emails, your hard drives, your phones. Seriously. I'm not suggesting that Big Brother is going to go around listening in on everyone's conversations. I'm just saying that the expectation of privacy is pretty much gone, and it makes good sense to go ahead and get used to locking things down sooner rather than later.

I'm a newb at this, so I'll be posting what I pick up as I go. I've started with SimpLite for Yahoo messenger. I have no clue how well it works yet, but I'll let you know. It's easy enough to install, but beyond that, I can't say yet.

So, am I just being paranoid? Well, hell, sure I am. But understand that simply encrypting a message is considered cause for suspcion and a search warrant. That's crap. That's like saying that having a lock on your door is grounds for a search warrant since you're obviously hiding something. If people start to encrypt regularly, this won't be the case anymore.

I adore Enya. I wanted to have this song be the first dance at my wedding, even though I can't waltz*



I'd never seen the video though. It's friggin gorgeous, innit?

* or, frankly, any other dance.