Matching Tracksuits

society and culture

Fair Game

Friday 28 July 2006

Someone could kidnap me, blindfold me, and drive me to the parking lot, and I’d know within seconds where I was. All I’d have to do is look at one car’s tail end — the excessive number of bumper stickers would tell me one thing: I’m in Earth Fare‘s parking lot.

Organic is trendy, there’s no doubt about it. After all, there are only so many people who can afford to do all their shopping at a place where four bags of groceries can cost you $202, as it did with the couple ahead of me this afternoon. When you pull park your car, you’ll notice that the number of cars completely plastered over with bumper stickers is rivaled only by the number of Lexuses (Lexi?), Mercs, and assorted vehicles that probably cost more per month to insure than I pay for my monthly rent.

Still, stores like The Good Life and Earth Fare ideally cater to their original, dreadlocked clientele. That’s why there’s a balding, middle-aged banker or accountant — white collar for sure — outside the entrance playing pseudo-Eastern tunes on a recorder, with a henna woman set up right across from him. Even one of the managers has dreads to his waist and a Talmudic beard.

It’s all so, so, earthy.

Conspicuously earthy.

That’s why I don’t like it.

Every time I’m too lazy to go downtown to the one good bakery in the whole city, I stop off at Earth Fare to buy a four dollar loaf of bread. And I can’t help but as if feel everyone’s acting. As if the majority of the people are shopping there to be seen shopping there.

Organic beer that costs nine bucks for a six pack. Organic beef that vegetarians buy for their dogs — I’ve heard them admitting it, as if they’re almost worried that someone might think, “Oh, what a cretin, eating meat” — that costs an absurd amount per pound. Organic everything. Vegan everything. Vegan beer.

I’m just waiting for the vegan parking lot.

Making Us Proud

Tuesday 27 June 2006

Our local minor league team, the Asheville Tourists (?!?), made national news. Rather, the manager did.

Sign Language

Tuesday 2 May 2006

I find it interesting that so many of the signs in yesterday’s anti-immigration-reform protest explicitly gave “proof” of the validity of the opposition’s argument. In other words, the cries, “They don’t assimilate! They don’t even learn the language!” were born out in so many of the signs that protesters carried.

Now, I’m not an advocate of creating legislation that makes English the official language of America, but one would think that this time, of all times, would be when immigrants use English. And I’m not even suggesting that it should be even close to correct English.

And that’s why I love the sign at right so much.

(Pictures swiped from NYT. Click on them for larger versions.)

Effective R&D

Sunday 23 April 2006

Excerpts from an article from Bloomberg.com:

  • crude supplies will stay tight through the end of the decade.
  • The situation will persist until 2010.
  • Oil prices have climbed 23 percent to more than $75 a barrel this year
  • Persian Gulf states that don’t allow international companies to develop their oil reserves, such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, should invest more to expand output themselves,
  • The International Energy Agency’s Mandil told reporters today in Doha that OPEC would “just about” meet the expected 25 percent growth in global demand over the next three years. (Source)

The most amazing quote is the third:

Persian Gulf states that don’t allow international companies to develop their oil reserves, such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, should invest more to expand output themselves

They’re making billions at these prices. Why the hell should they increase output? Eat up their resources for decreased revenue? There’s absolutely no incentive for them to do so.

Oh, this is all just cruel justice for America, which has grown fat and lazy on its cheap gas. Think about it — gas is just now getting to be more expensive than milk! We’ve brought it on ourselves with our short-sightedness. We’ve had almost thirty years to prepare for this oil crisis that is revving up, but what did we do instead?

Invent the SUV.

Tyranny and Giggles

Friday 21 April 2006

The funny thing about conspiracy theories is that their existence disproves them. World governments, fluoridated water, governmental control of drug trafficking, Illuminati plans for world domination — all are simply and easily disproved with one simple question: “How would I get this information?”

Take Alex Jones’ New World Order conspiracy: the global elite (which he calls the Illuminati, the Bilderberg group, the Bohemian Grove, and any number of other terms depending on who knows what) have been out since the turn of the century to take over the world. Highlights of the theory:

  • Communism was a creation of international bankers at the turn of the 20th century to submit people to a police state.
  • Hitler was simply playing his small role in the grand scheme of world domination.
  • The Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 were planned and executed by the U.S. government in order to justify a gradual implementation of a police state.
  • The U.S. government has been systematically poisoning its citizens through chem trails, fluoridation of water, vaccinations, and other methods.
  • Cartoons are systematically conditioning children to chip implementation and complete police-state control of citizens’ every move.

Look at that — everyone’s involved, even sworn enemies. Communists and Fascists are on the same team. Clinton and Bush are two sides of the same evil. Conspirators and secret police are everywhere, watching our every move and…

And clamping down on anyone who exposes them? Well, that would make sense. If someone has untangled the whole ugly scheme and presented it to the world, he should be shut up immediately, right? One word and it’s silence. After all, if the federal government can engineer 9/11 and coordinate it all in real time from World Trade Center 7 (as Jones asserts), then they can easily take out a radio host and make it look like a natural death.

And there’s the rub: the fact that people like Jones can carry on continually like he does shows the conspiracy doesn’t exist. Jones has made many “documentaries” and written books about the coming New World Order tyranny, detailing their plans and warning people about it, and yet this supposed world group, which has conspired to kill millions, hasn’t shut him up?

Cold, Colder, Getting Colder

Wednesday 19 April 2006

Notes from my journal after watching a little of TBN’s “Praise-A-Thon” (View online, if you dare.) before heading off to bed.

If you throw enough vagueness out, some of it is going to stick. Those who claim to speak with the dead rely on this. It’s called a cold reading. Most people are worried about love, health, and money. Stick to those topics and say that something — the ghost of a loved one, the Holy Ghost, or anything really — is providing you with insights about a given individual’s love life or heart condition, and there’ll surely be someone listening who’s now convinced you’re talking to him.

Cold reading involves asking questions then repeating back the answers in a way that makes a subject think the reader — a psychic or faith healer — got that information from some third party — God, Uncle Marvin, whomever.

James Randi provides the following example:

Reader: Did your husband linger on in the hospital, or did he pass quickly?

Subject: Oh, he died almost immediately!

Reader: Yes, because he’s saying to me, “I didn’t suffer. I was spared any pain.” (“Source)

Later, the subject will be convinced that the reader “knew” her husband passed quickly and without pain. Randi explains that readers’ success stems from their manipulation of your perception:

So, you see, it’s your perception of what’s actually being done, rather that the reality of the procedure, and your ignorance of other subtle clues and methods, that misleads you in your observations of these “psychics. (ibid)

Of course what on-air televangelists do is significantly different, because they’re just getting “the word” from “the Lord” as they’re preaching. They don’t get immediate feedback, so they stick to the ultra vague. “A heart condition has just been corrected,” a televangelist might say, and anyone with a diagnosed heart condition sitting at home will be convinced he’s talking about her. And all she has to do is show a little faith and that healing will come to fruition. And how is that faith shown?

Once the money is offered and the healing doesn’t come to pass, why not call back and ask for your money back? Simple — it’s your fault you weren’t healed because you really didn’t believe. Or your still living for the devil. Any number of clever explanations.

Protection

Saturday 8 April 2006

Bird flu is coming! It’s just around the corner of the globe and soon we’ll be dropping like cliches.

Fortunately, you can protect yourself.

That kind of thinking is certainly already motivating marketing execs.

While looking for respirators for painting and staining, I found this.

Protesting Protesters

Monday 13 March 2006

Here in Asheville Saturday we had what one blogger called a “Hatefest.” It was, in short, a rally to support family values — in other words, condemn homosexuality.

With his Bible tucked under his arm like so many others around him, Jim Ballard stood in the middle of Pack Square to stand “for what the word of God stands for… not against anyone, but against sin.”

Ballard joined a crowed of more than 200 assembled downtown on Saturday to support Wolf Laurel Ski Resort and other businesses that defend their right to choose not to employ homosexuals.

Wolf Laurel fired a lesbian couple after they placed a wedding announcement in the local paper upon returning from Massachusetts. Apparently the proprietors of the resort a “good Christians” and fired the wretched, evil lesbians. Sparking a protest. Which in turn sparked a protest.

“They are trying to make a statement so we as Christians are trying to make a statement,” said Wendell Runion, president of International Baptist Outreach Missions Inc. and organizer of the event.

Runion, who also spoke at U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor’s prayer breakfast earlier the same day, said the rally was not meant to debate the issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, but to make a declaration solidly against it.

Taylor, R-Brevard, said he was supportive of “Christian businessmen trying to be Christian in their work lives as well as in their personal lives” when asked about the rally. Taylor did not attend the rally. (Citizen Times)

That sort of talk — “We’re not here to debate it, but to oppose it!” — makes me think of, say, the Taliban.

Doubt that?

Combine it with the dominion theology of Rod Parsley and others, and it’s clear to see that a theocracy is their ultimate goal.

As the cliche goes, “God, save us from your followers.”

See Citizen Times article and BlogAsheville for more info.

Autism

Monday 6 March 2006

Here’s a story about an autistic teen — worth the read, and make sure you watch the embedded video to the right.

Any surprise

Sunday 5 February 2006

why such a large percentage of Americans are overweight?

Here are the facts: 11.2 million pounds of potato chips; 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips; 4.3 million pounds of pretzels; 3.8 million pounds of popcorn, and 2.5 million pounds of nuts.

That adds up to 30 million pounds of snacks that Americans will wolf down Super Bowl Sunday, according to research by the Calorie Control Council and the Snack Food Association.

That means the average armchair quarterback will consume 1,200 calories and 50 grams of fat just from snacking — not counting any meals. (Source)

Value Monkeys

Tuesday 10 January 2006

Why is it people with a strong belief in the literal six-day creation of the world seem to take the notion of evolution so personally?

“I didn’t evolve from slime, from monkeys!”

A friend gets a little perturbed when she’s watching something on Animal Planet and evolution is mentioned — as if that completely falsifies anything the particular individual who mentioned the “e word” might have to say.

Of course being offended by it doesn’t make it not true, but that’s beside the point. The point is this: why does where you came from millions of years ago have any affect on your personal value now?

There’s this underlying fear, “If we’re evolved from monkeys, then we can do whatever we want to each other! There is no such thing as rape, murder, etc — it’s all just animal cruelty!”

In this view, humans cannot make values, cannot make meaningful laws. And forgetting the pragmatic side of most laws, these folks promptly jump in their cars and drive to work on the right side (or left, in some countries) of the road…

Mów po polsku!

Wednesday 4 January 2006

“Have you ever noticed how few of these children of Polish families actually speak Polish?”

Kinga asked — in Polish, of course — the other evening. She was speaking mainly of the children of a Polish couple who have been in America for more than twenty years, and who rarely if ever go back to Poland as a family. The children of these very nice folk usually speak to their parents in English, even though their parents often simply speak Polish to them.

Kinga and I both want our children to grow up bilingual, but that’s difficult enough when both parents are foreigners. When only one is a foreigner, it might be all but impossible. The language of society dictates what is Language One for the child, and not the language at home.

Where there is a community to support the use of the foreign language, it’s much easier. But North Carolina is no Chicago, and the opportunities to use Polish will be rare.

“We’ll just have to send the kids to Poland every summer,” I replied to Kinga. There’ll be Polish music in the house; we’ll eat Polish cuisine; I’ll try to speak more and more Polish at home; we’ll have Polish books in our library; we’ll just cram Polish culture down their throats! (That is a joke — in reality, there’d be no better way to turn them off of all things Polski.)

Will all that even be feasible, though?

One would think that instilling in them a sense of pride in and love for their heritage would suffice. But at a certain points in their lives, the “un-coolness” of being different would stifle any urge to speak Polish.

Perhaps I’m wrong? Hopefully I’m wrong. We shall just have to read a few books about raising bi-lingual children.

Illegal Words

Monday 12 December 2005

Lyrics and tab sites are “now illegal” (From Thud)

In light of this, I think Thud had better be careful with publishing lyrics on his website as he does. After all, he does also have a film review site which has ads, and he does link to said site from his blog, and I’m sure his “Guess Ten” posts drive a lot of visitors to his site, so in a round-about way, he’s making money from his illegal publication of lyrics.

MPA president Lauren Keiser said he wanted site owners to be jailed.

He said unlicensed guitar tabs and song scores were widely available on the internet but were “completely illegal”.

Mr Keiser said he did not just want to shut websites and impose fines, saying if authorities can “throw in some jail time I think we’ll be a little more effective”.

I’ve heard of exaggeration, but this is damn ridiculous. Jail time for typing up lyrics — generally with mistakes — and putting them on the internet? Is it illegal to recite these lyrics — you know, as a clever retort in a conversation? What about singing the song in the shower? If I have a dream in which the song plays some role, was that an illegal dream until I pay royalties?

Is the song writer the only person who can legally express those lyrics in an oral or written form?

Excuse me
while I kiss this guy

If not for lyrics sites, a whole generation might think that this is what Hendrix is singing!

As for the guitar tabs, that’s even worse.

The Xerox machine was the big usurper of our potential income,” he said. “But now the internet is taking more of a bite out of sheet music and printed music sales so we’re taking a more proactive stance.”

David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers’ Association, added his concerns.

“Unauthorised use of lyrics and tablature deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing,” he said.

In what way? Has this guy ever actually looked at the tabs available on the internet? They’re generally so off as to be perverse.

Now, if it’s a question of someone scanning pages from a published tablature book, that’s a different story. But if it’s some schmuck, sitting in his bedroom, listening to the same portion of a song 1×10^173^ times to figure it out, then publishing what he thinks is the proper way to play the song — and again, these tab sheets are usually so far off that one can only use them as a rough guide — then kudos to the guy.

There are wider implications, though. Does this mean that I can’t then play any of the music I’ve figured out on guitar by myself in the privacy of my own home? I’m not a performer. I’m not making any money off this. Usually, I’m not even providing anyone but myself with any enjoyment.

The music industry is saying, “You vill enjoy dis music, und you vill enjoy it how ve say to enjoy it!” Once again, it is showing itself in fine, pimpin’ colors.

The Great Deception

Saturday 3 December 2005

If you rearrange the letters of “Santa,” you can make the word “Satan.” Coincidence? Another term for “Satan” is “Old Nick.” Another term for Santa Claus is “Saint Nick.” Coincidence? Santa Claus descends into fire — just like the Devil. Coincidence? Santa is dressed in red. The traditional images of the devil have him dressed in red. Coincidence?

In most people’s world, yes, all these things are coincidences. But in the tilted universe of Blow the Trumpet, it’s most decidedly not a coincidence, but rather part one of the greatest deceptions ever pulled over mankind’s eyes.

It leaves you shaking your head and very pessimistic about the general intelligence of our species, but it’s worth it.

And so, I now present “The Great Deception.”

The Ageless Tradition

Wednesday 30 November 2005

New instructions from Bennie XVI about gay priests.

“The criteria of the Instruction are also entirely consistent with the teaching of the church for the past 2,000 years. To portray the Instruction as ‘gay bashing’ or ‘gay banning’ is to misrepresent it,” [Cardinal Francis George] said at the conclusion of his statement. (Chicago Tribune)

Read: the Church has been homophobic for 2,000 years, so this is nothing new.

Is the Catholic Church trying to make itself a sociological relic, or does it come naturally?

And what about claims that the Church is doing this to try to head off the kind of bad publicity it suffered from the sexual abuse scandals or recent years?

“At best, it’s a distraction; at worst, it’s damaging,” said David Clohessy, national director of the advocacy and support group Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests. “It will feed the mistaken notion that [the abuse scandal] is about the behavior of priests and not the behavior of bishops. Gay seminarians didn’t hire and transfer and cover for child-molesting priests. It was bishops who did that.” (ibid)

Cardinals’ archbishops’ blindness to this simple fact is a sure guarantee that this “solution” will not work.

I wonder if left-handed seminarians are beginning to feel the heat…

The Poll

Wednesday 31 August 2005

More creationism nonsense in the news. This time, yet another poll:

In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released Tuesday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

The poll found that 42 percent of respondents hold strict creationist views, agreeing that “living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.”

In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time; but of those, 18 percent said that evolution was “guided by a supreme being,” and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.

The poll was conducted July 7-17 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The questions about evolution were asked of 2,000 people, and the margin of error is 2.5 percentage points. (Source)

Creationists will never get through their head that creationism is, at best, a philosophical theory, not a scientific one.

In the end, though, I have no problem with teachers mentioning the idea of ID and asking students what they think of it, as long as it’s not called science. What will it be called then? I don’t know. I don’t care, as long as it doesn’t take too much time from the already overburdened curriculum.

What was most striking about the poll was the data dealing with a simple question: Who should decide what’s taught?

The poll showed 41 percent of Americans want parents to have the primary say over how evolution is taught, compared with 28 percent who say teachers and scientists should decide and 21 percent who say school boards should. Asked whether they believed creationism should be taught instead of evolution, 38 percent were in favor, and 49 percent were opposed.

Parents decide? In the end, I guess they do – they’re going to elect the officials who will force this nonsense down the public’s throat. But should they have an active hand in deciding what’s taught?

What would a nice response be for a science teacher? Mine would be along these lines:

Great! Saves me some time. You’re going to do this pro bono, right? And while you’re at it, since I didn’t study any of this in college and am completely unqualified to teach it, why don’t you make out my lesson plans for me? And write and grade the tests? Shoot, just come in and teach, and I’ll simply serve as a pedagogical consultant. You do the work, I get the pay. Sounds great.

Maybe parents want to come in and decide the entire curriculum and teach it as well? Teachers will just wander about the internet…

Support from Your Principal

Tuesday 30 August 2005

Erin O’Connor at Critical Mass has a fascinating and yet disturbing post about a way of dealing with student profanity…by allowing it.

An English high school has decided to cope with the problem of student profanity by tolerating it. Beginning this fall, students will be allowed to curse at their teachers, just so long as they don’t say “f — k” more than five times during a lesson. Part of the new policy involves keeping a running tally on the blackboard of how many times the word “f — k” has been uttered during a given lesson–a practice that promises to distract students.

I for one would feel this as a complete abandonment on the part of the principal of any acknowledgment even of my authority as teacher.

The post is here.

Neck Pigment

Thursday 25 August 2005

I’ve been fighting for some time with the term “redneck.” While not racist, I think, it’s classist. The same basic thing: making assumptions about an individual’s character based on a stereotype of his racial, cultural, ethnic group.

Really, I try not to use that term.

And then feel guilty when I laugh at something like this.

Impersonal

Wednesday 24 August 2005

In the spirit of St. Bernard’s via negativa, there are few things to make you more appreciative of your spouse than perusing on-line personals. “Tell me I’ll never be back out there,” Carrie Fisher’s character says to Bruno Kirby in When Harry Met Sally, and after looking through a few on-line personals, the “dating scene” shows itself to be most definitely “out there.”

A good personal ad is an art. Just try describing yourself and what you’re looking for in less than 200 words. Less is more difficult.

Piling words on top of each other is much easier than constructing well-written sentences. But despite the fact that this is the _first_ impression they’re making, no one — neither men nor women — takes it so seriously. Instead, we read things like, “Hmmm about me. I guess you can say I’m a pretty funny broad.” Already we’re smiling at how much her word choice has said about her. Scroll down and we find, “Ok, where to start… like many people, I feel that I am just not meeting the ‘right people’ out at bars” To begin with, start without the “where to start.”

In advertising themselves, people tend to fall into cliché with alarming frequency – then wallow about in it. And it starts with the ad’s header:

  • I’m a nice girl looking for her shining knight.
  • Looking For Mr. Right
  • Don’t judge a book by its cover
  • Is Miss Right out there?
  • Looking for the right one.
  • Looking for Adventure
  • No DRAMA!
  • lookn 4 u!!

Some communicate on so many levels (many of them distressful) that they seemed to be masterpieces of Freudian innuendo:

  • Animal lover seeking non-puppy kicker
  • Gotta pay the cost to be the boss

Yahoo! personals washed up more than its share of clichés and freaks, but there were some thoughtful openings as well.

Well, one: “carpal tunnel love.” It just makes me all the more thankful that I’m married, that I no longer have such worries as “Will I still be alone when I’m sixty-four?”

She’ll still need me; she’ll still feed me.