I fucking hate this country, pt. 3

Just realized that this ("I fucking hate this country, pt. -) will be a long-running series.

I found some behind the scenes crap about how political marketing garbage (I will allow that they were at one point people) were paid to deploy their greatest efforts, using whatever imagery they found most effective, to ensure that gay people remain discriminated against, reviled and living in fear (when people are not afforded the full benefits of citizenship, you can be sure that they will treated as less than equal).

Gay marriage opponents pulled off another victory at the ballot box this week by using a tried-and-tested argument: Approve it and children will be taught homosexuality in school.

I don't know what that means, "taught homosexuality." Like, that it exists? Cause it does.

Here's my favorite part:

In Maine and California, voters were besieged with ad images of what would supposedly happen if same-sex marriage were legal: students going on a field trip to a lesbian wedding, elementary school kids reading books featuring gay couples, kindergartners learning about homosexuality from their teachers — all without any say from parents.

Oh, so that's what it means. I don't see the problem. Of course I don't.

Those advertisements came from these people:

After signing up to lead the campaign, political consultants Frank Schubert and Jeff Flint noticed that polls were showing voters tended to not have much of a problem with gay relationships.

With the help of focus groups, surveys and ammunition unwittingly supplied by their opponents, the two soon found a new way to frame the issue, by focusing on education.

People in marketing very low on the humanity ladder as it is, with them making it their jobs to convince people to buy useless things and poison themselves. But these people, "political consultants", I cannot describe the depth of my hatred for them. It burns inside of me.

They've made it their business (and yes, business is good) to fill people's minds with shit, so that they cannot, or at least they feel that they cannot, make decisions of their own. They thrive on breeding misery, with no apparent compunction.

One on hand you have these salespeople of hatred and ignorance, and on the other, you have a sea of people too fucking stupid to think about anything. Many of them will believe anything that is repeated often enough to them. They are small-minded people, with few thoughtful tendencies. They are deeply reactionary and want nothing more than to maintain what they believe has always been, which generally is based on "God". And they are the majority of Americans. Good luck getting anything progressive by them.

Whitest of the white

Damn. I feel bad for some of them. I shouldn't, but I do.

On refusing to act

Here we see poor countries pressuring, trying to convince and finally begging the rich ones to cut their carbon emissions in serious numbers. As anyone would expect, the rich countries told them to suck it. The poor ones want rich industrial countries to reduce their carbon output by forty percent in the next ten years. Most of the latter are planning to cut by up to fifteen percent by then. America, of course, lags behind even such a basic measure, debating a seven percent cut. Fuck.

What's the excuse? Why won't they just do it? Money.

"I think to get to minus 40 [percent reduction in carbon emissions] is too heavy a lift," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters. Such a shift would require "going back to the drawing board" and would economically "come at a huge cost," he said.

Yes, the U.N. is also telling them to fuck off. Looks like the end of the road for all those poor client/host countries, huh? At least they can point the finger when the floods come and come. What satisfaction.

Once again, people have demonstrated that they will commit any act of violence and destruction in the name of money. Essentially, the rich countries tell the rest of the world that the western lifestyles they live are more important than anything, even some too-late attempt to "save" the planet. People up at the top know that they and their businesses are trashing every reach of the world, but they won't do anything meaningful about it, just sell you a canvas bag.

As for the climate change deniers, go for it. Give it your all. I can guarantee it won't make a fuck of a difference what you felt or said when your children live in a state of constant hunger and struggle, their houses long having been swallowed by the oceans.

Things get stupider

and people reveal themselves to be a little more ignominious as time passes. A lot of people seem to have this idea of constant, irrepressible human progress towards some semblance of equality, harmony and understanding. Fuck that.

The fact of the matter is that give us the chance, and we will demonstrate our hatred and intolerance in waves. You can check yesterday's elections for that. Voters in Maine came out to repeal a gay marriage law the state legislature passed. Just like thirty states before them, gay marriage went up for a vote, and it was denied. And I still don't know why. I mean, I know why people vote against it. They cite some religious drivel, some nonsense about sanctity and honor or whatever, but I really just don't know why they care if gay people get married or not. It has nothing to ostensibly do with them. They are just hateful and seem to relish in denying other people joy.

I have this idea that people in America, other places too, I am sure, but I only know America, know that their lives are empty, shitty and lived in service to higher powers - their employers, politicians and the rich, which are often indistinguishable from one another. They may not be aware of it in a fully conscious sense, and they may not give it much thought, but they have a sense of it at some level. It compels them to act in such awful, vengeful ways. They love taking things out on other people. They will direct their misery at just about anyone, acting out in a wide variety of situations - driving, internet forums, picking on individuals they perceive as weak and oppressing groups they feel are susceptible to being dominated. We are a profoundly miserable people who often behave much like electricity. We will strike out at whatever is closest to us, requiring the least amount of effort. I feel that this is a large part of why men beat and cow their families - they are closest to them. They're always there, as is these men's rage, the rage that comes from so many other places and is channeled in such unproductive ways.

When it comes to enacting legislation and things of that nature, white people in this country love to enshrine their special status. They will and have put laws on the books to discriminate against, well, anyone, really. I guess just about everyone has faced discrimination in this country, save for the white man born here to a wealthy family. And by fucking god do white people like to keep it that way. They will go against themselves so often, just to try to ingratiate themselves in some way with these untouchables who rule them.

Wave a flag or a cross at them and poor white people will come out in droves for just about anything you want, as long as it's hateful and glorifies their idea of white, religious, individualistic America. Cut taxes for the rich? You bet. Fight against socialized medicine? Here we are, boss. Slash funding for education? Sure thing. Whatever you want.

Dear Earth Lords, you have long since convinced us that black people, Mexicans and transoceanic, non-white immigrants are our enemies. They want our jobs and our virtuous white women. We will defend all of those with vigor, devoting special energy to maintaining the homogeneity of our neighborhoods. We will unite along racial lines, much to the detriment of our economic well-being. We eagerly embark on this journey with you. It is of no practical value to us, but we promise to never examine this fact.

As for the white middle classes, they are scared as fuck of losing their tenuous economic perches. The poor white people, they never had shit to begin with and don't expect to ever gain much, so all they really need is their whiteness, maleness, Americanness, femininity and whatever else. But these middle-class people, they will bite whether you wave a flag or a dollar. Taxes, taxes taxes. Economy, economy, economy. Jobs, jobs, jobs. And they hate black people, but mostly because they are beneath them, as well as a criminal threat. They are not primarily their competition. They hate immigrants, but like it when they trim the shrubs in the front yard.

And everyone hates gay people. White people, black people, religious people of all stripes, rich people, poor people. Maybe portions of the middle classes sympathize with them the most, for trying to maintain that delicate balance. Middle class people know what it's like to have to pretend, to put on a show for everyone.

In New Jersey, Chris Christie trotted out this platform of "fixing the economy," whatever the fuck that means. I suppose it's calculated to be a statement open to maximum interpretation, where people take it to apply to them. It got him elected, along with his messages of repression - specifically anti-choice and anti-gay. The images of his fat, happy, white family put the cream in the twinkie. He's a religious conservative and loves George Bush. He favors such brilliant measures as further reducing state funding for education at all levels, always a guarantor of a bright future.

Christie won. More people chose him than anyone else. People in New Jersey, counter to its liberal image, tend to be rather conservative. Sure, Obama trashed McCain last year, but also, look who he was up against - an old man and an idiot hick. A lot of young people came out, a lot of black people came out, and a lot of white people felt like they had to "do the right thing."

This time around, there was no celebrity candidate. Nothing fresh was at hand. "Hope" was reserved for lower taxes, and the only aspirations for "change" were for that mystical nebulousness, the economy. It was back to that same American political drudgery - which white guy? That's the shit that turns a lot of people off. They don't want those choices. They don't see anyone who represents them or whom they want to represent them, so they abstain. Maybe they don't think much changes for them, regardless of who is in office. So other people go to the polls and choose for them.

Thanks to the fundamental shortsighted nature of Americans, it was Chris Christie this time. Idiot people ate up his promises of more money in their pockets and clung desperately to his denigration of Jon Corzine's economic abilities. Surely, it must be Jon Corzine's fault! After all, he WAS the one in office when all this meltdown business took place. No need to look even a few years back, to the policies of yore. No, this is all on Corzine. New Jersey operates in an economic vacuum, and everything is in the governor's hands. All he had to do was fix it, but he wouldn't. Or something. At least, that seems to be the gist of much support for Christie. I am no Corzine supporter and do not care to entrench myself in the uselessness of American party politics. It's just that, come on, Chris Christie? This guy is a fat piece of shit who just can't hate enough.

I guess that a lot of people who voted for Christie are in need of something to believe in. They don't know shit about economics and think it's as simple as one person fixing what's broken. Even worse, they believe, or at least pretend to believe that when someone makes campaign promises to do so, it will happen, as though he deals in magic. How could New Jersey have a thriving capitalist economy when the national economy is fucked, not to mention the global situation? Duh. These voters also either embrace his social conservatism or find it generally agreeable. They just don't care about people who aren't them. Money is their god, and at this time, they have chosen Chris Christie as their...what, bishop or something like that?

Here is November 4th, the day that Americans revealed themselves to be a little more hateful and vindictive than they were yesterday.

"There is an inner logic,

and we're taught to stay far from it.
It is simple and elegant,
but it's cruel and antithetic,
and there's no effort to reveal it."

Sara is down

Definitely been listening to her Write Back Soon CD.

October 30th at Town Hall in New York.

New budget proposal for NASA

Seriously. What is their purpose? That agency is the ultimate example of the human pursuit of knowledge at all costs and for its own ends.

A $19 billion dollar budget, and going back to the moon.

"why eating ground beef is still a gamble"

What? Jelly beans, cookies and mustard make a fine stew...


From a New York Times article on E. coli, one of those things we all like to think will be someone else's problem. Fact is, as long as you are eating meat, and especially cows, you don't have a whole lot of control over whether or not you get it.

Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Yet tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states...

Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say. Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen.

The frozen hamburgers that the Smiths ate, which were made by the food giant Cargill, were labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria...

Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies...

As with other slaughterhouses, the potential for contamination is present every step of the way, according to workers and federal inspectors. The cattle often arrive with smears of feedlot feces that harbor the E. coli pathogen, and the hide must be removed carefully to keep it off the meat. This is especially critical for trimmings sliced from the outer surface of the carcass.

Federal inspectors based at the plant are supposed to monitor the hide removal, but much can go wrong. Workers slicing away the hide can inadvertently spread feces to the meat, and large clamps that hold the hide during processing sometimes slip and smear the meat with feces, the workers and inspectors say...

Cargill’s final source was a supplier that turns fatty trimmings into what it calls “fine lean textured beef.” The company, Beef Products Inc., said it bought meat that averages between 50 percent and 70 percent fat, including “any small pieces of fat derived from the normal breakdown of the beef carcass.” It warms the trimmings, removes the fat in a centrifuge and treats the remaining product with ammonia to kill E. coli.

With seven million pounds produced each week, the company’s product is widely used in hamburger meat sold by grocers and fast-food restaurants and served in the federal school lunch program...

Ground beef sold by most grocers is made from a blend of ingredients, industry officials said. Agriculture Department regulations also allow hamburger meat labeled ground chuck or sirloin to contain trimmings from those parts of the cow...

As it fed ingredients into its grinders, Cargill watched for some unwanted elements. Using metal detectors, workers snagged stray nails and metal hooks that could damage the grinders, then warned suppliers to make sure it did not happen again...

Nails. Seriously, I don't even know why there would be nails in any kind of meat. What the fuck? How would that ever happen?

Here's a solution - stop eating cows. It's simple to understand: E. coli comes from a cow's digestive tract (as well as other less commonly eaten animals, like sheep, deer, goats and elk). If you don't eat the cow, you probably won't get it. I guess it's worth the risk though. Tastes good, yeah?

Aside from all that, how can you call this shit (meat is gross enough, I am specifically referring to the particle burger you probably don't realize exists) food? Sure, people eat it, but not everything you hear is music. A lot of it's just noise.

Again, and finally, treated with ammonia. And then you eat it. Just wow.

Lock and Key - Pull up the Floorboards

This was the record I listened to today that I was into more than expected. This shit is GOOD. And I don't feel like they ever really got recognition. Definitely not a known band. This is the kind of record where I think, "Man, this band should be fairly popular. What happened?"

Lock and Key, they were from Massachusetts. I did a show for them once. They seemed like alright guys. They played well, they were tight. I think I bought the CD just to support them cause they were on tour. Over the years, I've really come to appreciate it.

Sure, it sounds like Hot Water Music. But I don't like Hot Water Music all that much. So then it's similar, but not a copy. Influenced? Absolutely. Ripping off? No, Lock and Key were doing more than that. It's definitely heavier, at times poppier, yet also with tinges of bleakness; there is a certain dark sentiment to this.

You can tell that a lot went into these songs. There's real feeling at hand when I listen to this record, in both the vocals and music. Not just some simple bang it out in five minutes kind of stuff.

One of the best records Deep Elm ever put out, along with some Appleseed Cast and Latterman records. Download it here.

Snapcase - Progression through Unlearning

I listened to this record yesterday, and boy was it a good time. A lot of times, you listen to things you like, and you think, "This is good. This is real good." But with Progression through Unlearning, I said, "Fuck, this is so awesome, why has it been so long since I've listened to it?"

Heavy as hell, and at least as intelligent. Very creative, like nothing else going on at the time, or since. I believe that Refused took a lot from this band, and this record in particular. There are many similarities between it and The Shape of Punk to Come.

A lot of people will tell you that Lookinglasself is where it's at. Others will say Designs for Automotion. Really though, Progression through Unlearning is the shit.

Click to download, if you so desire.