Additional Photographic Glory

Posted on: 16 March 2009 /
Categories: Self Promotion

Another email from freshgoat: ———- Forwarded message ———- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:50:01 -0600 (MDT) From: Freshgoat To: xxx@maruzen.co.jp Subject: Re: [rt.endpoint.com #6084] endpoint.com website email: Reproduction On Tue, 10 Mar 2009, sales@endpoint.com via RT wrote: Allow me to introduce myself that I am [name], Rights Controller of Maruzen Planet Co., Ltd., a publisher

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Ways in Which the US Has Become More Fascist in My Lifetime

Posted on: 15 March 2009 /
Categories: Fascism

Fascism = “the welfare of the state is more important than the welfare of the individual”. Seatbelt laws. Patriot Act. Airport security. Airport closures for “suspicious comments” (and exploded batteries). Homeland security. DUI checkpoints. Helmet laws. Mandatory waiting periods. Car seat laws. School attendance requirements. Having to register with your driver’s license in order to

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Book Reports: Deliverance and On the Road

Posted on: 14 March 2009 /
Categories: Reading

It’s been a few months since I read these two books. I liked Deliverance a lot and found On the Road insufferable. More interestingly maybe, the two books seemed to be about the same thing: discovering real life through voluntary suffering. Deliverance, of course, would be the more middle-aged model and On the Road the

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Movie Review: The Caine Mutiny

Posted on: 13 March 2009 /
Categories: Movies

Best Feature: I find 1940s women attractive — unfortunately, there was only one woman in the movie. Biggest Question: Was the source material as facile as this? Most Horrifying Truth: There were a lot of similarities between Captain Queeg and several people I’ve seen try to navigate leadership situations. Too Long By: 90 minutes —

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Psychology of Comparing Yourself to Others

Posted on: 9 March 2009 /
Categories: Other, People Are Special

When I was on my mission in post-reunification East Germany, one of the most striking realizations that I had was that there were A LOT of very average people who actually felt worse off since being joined to West Germany than they had previously. The reason, I figured out, was that even though they now

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Morality Grid

Posted on: 8 March 2009 /
Categories: Fascism, People Are Special, Religion

Somehow I think this is useful to consider:   So I dunno. I think *most people* would say that the columns don’t matter nearly as much as the lines. They’d rather a positive outcome from a bad intent than a negative outcome from a good intent. In theory, I think most people would agree to

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Newspapers Must Die!

Posted on: 3 March 2009 /
Categories: Media

I wrote this on some other site regarding trying to save the New York Times and obviously impressed myself: This seems like a classic case of Clayton Christensen’s “disruptive innovation” overwhelming a traditional business model. An old-school enterprise has to maintain its old-school practices in order to keep its reliable cash cow alive. As soon

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No Better Time than Now for Being Unemployed

Posted on: 27 February 2009 /
Categories: Other

The way I figure it, the problem with being unemployed isn’t as much the lack of means — somehow that’s going to work out — but the deprecation of social standing. So if you’re going to be unemployed, better to do it during a time when a lot of other people are also out of

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Movie Review: Hell in the Pacific

Posted on: 25 February 2009 /
Categories: Movies, War

Best Feature: Really nice job of in medias res and of avoiding exposition, plus Lee Marvin was fun to watch. Biggest Question: How did they manage to hang out together for a month (longer?) without either of them ever learning a word of the other’s language? Too Long By: 20 minutes. Haiku Synopsis: On island

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The Nixon Library in Yorba Linda

Posted on: 24 February 2009 /
Categories: Fascism, Travel

A few (several?) weeks ago, I went out to Yorba Linda to check out the Nixon Library, seeing as it’s not that far away and I hadn’t ever been to a presidential library before. Ate lunch in Placentia at Carl’s Jr., among whose customers that day I believe I was the only one who hadn’t

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