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Some Other Stuff
Oct. 25th, 2005 02:13 amSo, Rosa Parks has bitten the dust. She's gonna HAVE to ride in the back this time...
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Titan has made its last flight. That's a shame, really. I loved the big orange clouds of exhaust from those. Delta and Atlas are still going strong, though. The very oldest memory I have of space-related stuff was sitting watching the support gantry roll slowly away from an Atlas. I would have been a bit older than two then, I think.
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(a discourse on socialism, originally posted as a reply on a friend's LJ)
If society were culturally homogenous, and everyone held the same values with regard to work, property, appropriate public behaviour, and the environment, then socialism would probably be an ideal system. If you look, you'll note that in the Scandinavian countries where the populace is by and large homogenous, socialism functions well. The people there know that the poor hold the same values as they do, and are working just as hard toward the same goals. No-one minds helping them.
In a multicultural republic like the United States, calls for socialism are more a political weapon than anything. Here groups with common political interests are encouraged to perceive themselves as separate from the body politic as a whole, and in conflict with it and its other component groups to "get their share". The end result is that any program designed to give to the poor as a whole actually ends up strengthening political and ethnic groups who are in opposition to those groups financing the largesse. If you pay any attention to American political discourse, note how much of it is based around the notions of conflict and frustrated entitlement. Take a drink every time a politician promises to "fight for your rights".
The direction that we're currently heading to resolve these issues is, I think, that of politically and financially marginalizing the bottommost nonproductive stratum of society (welface recipients, etc), so that they can no longer have any effect on national politics. Those of us left, the working, middle and professional classes, have enough common interests to be able to transcend our differences and work together. I'll predict that once the welface classes have lost all political power, opposition to helping them financially will vanish.
That being said, a socialist outlook can work very well in limited areas of the country, such as the Bay, where everyone shares a common identity, or among social groups such as furries, for the same reason. I've given tons of stuff away to poorer furs that I've never met, simply because I knew they needed it, and they were people like me.
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The Arcade Museum.
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The Automated Welcoming Cat.
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The famed 1901 bulb. I've seen operating bulbs that are older but there's none that's been in continuous operation for as long. Lightbulbs fascinate me. I've got a few working Christmas bulbs from the 1930s myself. Someday I need to make my own homemade lightbulbs.
Fur them what likes looking at lightbulbs, there's BulbCollector.
And for old Christmas bulbs, there's Old Christmas Lights.
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It's hard to hear the name "Lubbock, TX" with a straight face. It always makes me think of buttocks. My favourite Texas town name is "Dimebox".
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Yet another solution to the Black Dahlia Murder. The fellow's writing style is execrable, near unreadable at times (I think he's trying to sound like Kenneth Anger), but he has an intriguing theory that probably makes more sense to a modern audience than it would have at the time. Be forewarned that the site contains some truly nasty pictures of the murder scene, the ones that are generally left out of the books. Also on reflection some of the narrative just doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're familiar with the case already. Red Manley, whose name pops up without explanation, was a pipe-cutter salesman who gave the victim a ride in his car on the day she disappeared, and was initially the chief suspect.
*****
Titan has made its last flight. That's a shame, really. I loved the big orange clouds of exhaust from those. Delta and Atlas are still going strong, though. The very oldest memory I have of space-related stuff was sitting watching the support gantry roll slowly away from an Atlas. I would have been a bit older than two then, I think.
*****
(a discourse on socialism, originally posted as a reply on a friend's LJ)
If society were culturally homogenous, and everyone held the same values with regard to work, property, appropriate public behaviour, and the environment, then socialism would probably be an ideal system. If you look, you'll note that in the Scandinavian countries where the populace is by and large homogenous, socialism functions well. The people there know that the poor hold the same values as they do, and are working just as hard toward the same goals. No-one minds helping them.
In a multicultural republic like the United States, calls for socialism are more a political weapon than anything. Here groups with common political interests are encouraged to perceive themselves as separate from the body politic as a whole, and in conflict with it and its other component groups to "get their share". The end result is that any program designed to give to the poor as a whole actually ends up strengthening political and ethnic groups who are in opposition to those groups financing the largesse. If you pay any attention to American political discourse, note how much of it is based around the notions of conflict and frustrated entitlement. Take a drink every time a politician promises to "fight for your rights".
The direction that we're currently heading to resolve these issues is, I think, that of politically and financially marginalizing the bottommost nonproductive stratum of society (welface recipients, etc), so that they can no longer have any effect on national politics. Those of us left, the working, middle and professional classes, have enough common interests to be able to transcend our differences and work together. I'll predict that once the welface classes have lost all political power, opposition to helping them financially will vanish.
That being said, a socialist outlook can work very well in limited areas of the country, such as the Bay, where everyone shares a common identity, or among social groups such as furries, for the same reason. I've given tons of stuff away to poorer furs that I've never met, simply because I knew they needed it, and they were people like me.
*****
The Arcade Museum.
*****
The Automated Welcoming Cat.
*****
The famed 1901 bulb. I've seen operating bulbs that are older but there's none that's been in continuous operation for as long. Lightbulbs fascinate me. I've got a few working Christmas bulbs from the 1930s myself. Someday I need to make my own homemade lightbulbs.
Fur them what likes looking at lightbulbs, there's BulbCollector.
And for old Christmas bulbs, there's Old Christmas Lights.
*****
It's hard to hear the name "Lubbock, TX" with a straight face. It always makes me think of buttocks. My favourite Texas town name is "Dimebox".
*****
Yet another solution to the Black Dahlia Murder. The fellow's writing style is execrable, near unreadable at times (I think he's trying to sound like Kenneth Anger), but he has an intriguing theory that probably makes more sense to a modern audience than it would have at the time. Be forewarned that the site contains some truly nasty pictures of the murder scene, the ones that are generally left out of the books. Also on reflection some of the narrative just doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're familiar with the case already. Red Manley, whose name pops up without explanation, was a pipe-cutter salesman who gave the victim a ride in his car on the day she disappeared, and was initially the chief suspect.
