Existential Dread

Flickr is Lame

I first want to say that I *get* Flickr.  I have been tempted to use it to share photos.  I even kind of like the idea of a 24/7 global slideshow in which we are all voyeurs and exhibitionists.  But Flickr is lame.

I'm afraid that if such "web 2.0" services become as widely adopted as it seems they might, that the Internet will cease to be the exciting gambling-and-porn-filled wasteland that we love and will suffer the same "tragedy of the commons" fate that befell dear old Las Vegas.  When an exciting tool like Flickr becomes the plaything of millions upon millions of boring and uninteresting people -- that is, goes mainstream -- it just ruins it for the people who seek the edge.  In my book, dumbed down is just plain dumb.

Terminate the Turkey... with Extreme Prejudice

Am I the only person who finds it beyond laughable and truly dreadful watching George W. "pardoning" a turkey before Thanksgiving.  Could the guy be once again any more out of touch?  Does he expect that anybody believes that down in Crawford the Bush clan will be serving Tofurkey?  He unleashed Cheney this week to shore up the base, and so I wonder if this gesture is his way of concurrently pandering to the extreme vegan left?  I mean, the guy hasn't met a natural resource, be it plant, mineral or animal, that he wouldn't sooner carve up and feed to whomever paid him the most for it, all other considerations be damned.  In truth, I'm a little surprised that W. didn't inoculate the bird from avian flu after he commuted its sentence, which would actually have been a more meaningful message than sparing the turkey.

I imagine that the irony of saving the life of old Marshmallow is not lost on Cindy Sheehan -- who will be joining the president in Texas this Thanksgiving though not at his table, naturally, lest it make her nauseous -- that the president would save the life of single bird in a meaningless gesture while committing many more young humans to death, injury and trauma for a cause that nobody can believe in anymore, let alone even articulate.

I know this annual turkey clemency is a presidential tradition, but so is serving the interests of the majority of Americans by protecting the lives of its sons and daughters by not needlessly placing them in harms way... and by serving Turkey on Thanksgiving.

Everybody Talks About the Weather, but Nobody Does Anything About It

Even on a rainy day sometimes a good cliche can wipe the clouds away.  One of my faves is "everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."  How true, how true.

On NBC Nightly News last night and on The Today Show this morning, Brian and Al and Ann were talking about this week's rain along the east coast and its possible impact on Thanksgiving holiday travel like it was some Big Story. Since when is a middling, mildly annoying rainstorm national news?  When New Orleans sinks or Kansas is blown to Oz, then the weather is arguably of national interest.  Is everyone so freaked out from hurricane season and the specter of global warming that they  lose interest in other critical facets of American life about which the country seems paralyzed, such as our overly levered economy, corrupt congress and the unjust war for oil currently underway in Iraq?

Well maybe the bad weather is a cold comfort of sorts.  Thursday is Thanksgiving, people have to travel and eat -- come hell or high water.  And all anybody can do is talk about the rain and happily reassure themselves with the fact that they can't do anything about it.