Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Month: November 2006
How I Will Vote
Posted on November 7, 2006 in California Watch Campaign 2006
You can probably guess that I am voting a straight ticket — it’s been years since the Republicans launched a candidate that I could stomach — so here are my intentions for the day:
| Prop 1A | Transportation Funding Protection | No, I am tired of initiatives which attempt to prevent legislators from moving around funds when greater needs arise. |
| Prop 1B to 1E | Various Bonds | Yes |
| Prop 83 | Sex Offender Monitoring | No. Similar plan failed in Iowa. Money does not target family predators who constitute 80% of criminals in this category. |
| Prop 84 | Water Quality, Park Improvement | Yes. The Jarvis people don’t want this. |
| Prop 85 | Parental Notification on Abortion | No. Protects minors from incestuous and abusive families. |
| Prop 86 | Tax on Cigarettes | No. Some funny language about letting hospitals avoid anti-trust. A trojan. |
| Prop 87 | Alternative Energy Tax | Yes. Anything to piss the oil companies off. Drilling tax is the law in many other states including Texas. Why not use it to create alternative energy sources? |
| Prop 88 | Education Funding, Real Property Tax. | No. I would have to pay the same amount as a guy with 100 acres. |
| Prop 89 | Public Financing of Political Campaigns | No. League of Women Voters does not like this. |
| Prop 90 | Private Property | No! Written by big land interests. |
Answer to Questions #3
Posted on November 6, 2006 in Interviews Psychotropics
Raine asks: have you ever taken a MAOI ?
No.
Answer to Questions #2
Posted on November 6, 2006 in Campaign 2006 Interviews Terrorism
Dave Asked: Does it make sense to diagnose the mental health of societies as if they were individuals, or is that just a bad analogy?
Societies don’t acquire organic brain dysfunctions. They can, like the sufferers of personality disorders, begin to act in ways that qualify as dysfunctional. A fine example is the reaction that many Americans had after 9/11. For the longest time (and it may continue after the election with or without a Democratic victory). The United States became phobic and adopted all kinds of measures to “protect” itself. When all was said and done, many of these measures proved unenforceable (such as the airport security checks — Bruce Schneier’s blog provides a fine continuing account of these). Likewise, in our panic, we were unable to maintain national security. We were literally running around in a panic.
We can lay the greater part of this blame at the feet of the Republicans — who seem to suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder if not Sociopathy — but the Democrats have been caught up in it, too. They, in turn, have voted without criticism for many of the measures which have been introduced by the Republican majority. The uncritical thinking, I think, marks this disorder. The Republicans can’t criticize their leader, the Democrats can’t vote for measures that might offend the public, and the public can’t vote for third parties.
What we have is a set of individual phobias multiplied into a pandemic. The relations between ourselves have been affected by our personal fears. Does this make America a sick society? I can’t think of a better descriptor for it.
More questions? Keep asking them!
Robocalls
Posted on November 6, 2006 in Campaign 2006
A rumor is afoot that Karl Rove is resorting to dirty tricks in the form of robocalls. These work by having Democratic and swing voter homes bombarded with calls alledging to be from a Democratic candidate at all hours of the day and night. If this is actually happening (the source says that it is too late for legal intervention or newspaper coverage — a claim that I somehow doubt) then the advice is to vote anyways and tell others who is behind the phone calls.
This election is surely one of the most anxious I have ever witnessed.
Pomona Freeway
Posted on November 4, 2006 in Driving
Moving onion cells scrutinized below a blue lens.
My Look Alikes
Posted on November 3, 2006 in Whimsies
I need a more recent photo. I don’t let my beard get like that these days.
Answer to Questions #1
Posted on November 3, 2006 in Anthropology Interviews Stigma
No. Though in one society, they are called holy and in another deranged, the brain chemistry is the same.
Not a Surprise
Posted on November 3, 2006 in War
Who scares people more: Kim Jong-il or George Bush?
Friday Anteater Blogging – Tongue
Posted on November 3, 2006 in Xenartha
Here’s a little tongue action!
Who can love a slimy squid when there are fuzzy anteaters about?
Return of the Blacklist
Posted on November 1, 2006 in Censorship Commons Theft
During the Washington tryout of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Harold Prince felt that some of the songs needed to be restaged. Stephen Sondheim, whose first score it was, insisted on bringing in Jerome Robbins, with whom he had worked on West Side Story. Robbins was known to have cooperated with the House Un-American Committee during the McCarthyite hearings, and Prince felt that this choice might cause some difficulties with the star of the show, Zero Mostel, who had been an unfriendly witness. But to Prince’s surprise, Mostel agreed that if Robbins could help the show, he should be asked to do so. “We of the left,” he explained, “do not blacklist.”
Yes but the Right and the Corporatists continue to do so. If you thought Air America went into bankruptcy because not enough people were watching it, think again:
The list, totaling 90 advertisers, includes some of largest and most well-known corporations advertising in the U.S.: Wal-Mart, GE, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Bank of America, Fed-Ex, Visa, Allstate, McDonald’s, Sony and Johnson & Johnson. The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Navy are also listed as advertisers who don’t want their commercials to air on Air America.
That agencies of the government took the political stand that their commercials should not air on Air America is chilling. We’ve gone back to the spoils system where those who don’t place their noses in the crack of those who hold the power — no matter how the powerful gained their power — are punished.
A complete list is available here.
