Word of the Day!

PLEBISCITE
:  a vote by which the people of an entire country or district express an opinion for or against a proposal especially on a choice of government or ruler

This is a word I never once heard mentioned in any history or political science class I took at my wonderful accredited university, but it is still a word I think maybe worth knowing. Why is it worth knowing? Well, if you ask just about anyone at just about any point on the political spectrum in this country if they are happy with the way this little geopolitical entity is being managed chances are they would say no.

The strange consensus  seems to be "It's extremely flawed, but it's the best there is."  This is what you'll hear the further right you go and remarkably enough is often the same justification used by those who stuck in abusive relationships.

 Ok, so presumably people believe of all the current ways countries are being run the one in the United States produces the best results. Well, this is just patently untrue and can be proven so by just about every metric, so there's no need to bother really with this silly assumption. Something you often hear from people on the left is "People need to be governed by an elite because they don't know what is good for them." They will often tell you the most educated, i.e., the people who went to the most expensive schools should probably be making the decisions. It is about this time you will notice their degree from Columbia University.

 Ok so let's work off the premise people need rulers to guide them and this system of rule while far from perfect is preferable to any alternative. When decided whether or not something was successful it is important to look at the results. How do you think we're doing? Well without getting into exact figures surrounding issues like education, crime, etc. let's just look at a few decisions are oligarchic rulers have made over the years and think is this what we would have chosen?

Since the end of the second world war, another thing we can thank our oh so wise leaders for the United States and a handful of other countries have produced thousands of nuclear weapons. It may be worth noting the US, the self-proclaimed leader of the free world has produced, deployed, and used more of these weapons than any other nation that has acquired them to date. Is this something you and your family would have voted for, a doomsday arsenal? If you lived in the galactic empire, say on Tatooine would you have voted on the construction of the death star? No of course not because galactic empires don't make decisions based on popular consensus and neither does the US. Currently, about a trillion dollars worth of upgrades are scheduled for this arsenal. If Mr. Obama or Mr. Bush had asked you if this was a good idea, do you think you would have said yes?

What about fracking. Sure a modern society runs on energy and now seeing as how we seem to be scrapping the bottom of the barrel those in charge saw fracking as a good way to go. The problem for everyone else is it turned out this process poisons water supplies and causes otherwise rare cancers to develop in nearby residents. Of course none of the people who made this decision live anywhere nearby. Is this something you would have voted for? What about the economy. I know it's a mysterious interlocking web of forces no peasant can understand, but let's just use one example say the bailout.   Hundreds of billions or perhaps even trillions of dollars was handed over to people who destroyed the retirement savings of millions of peoples, wiped out the college funds of just as many, and are now curiously holding cities all across the countries hostage by way of debt bonds. How about that is that something you your friends and family wold have decided is best? So those are the results of this social experiment thus far. Our wise leaders, those apparently who are the only ones fit to lead have set us up for nuclear Armageddon, environmental collapse and have bankrupted us while doing it. So again plebiscite maybe a word worth knowing, but then again probably not as my opinion doesn't matter and neither do of any of yours.

Thank God

I'm friends with a lot of people who at least profess to be Christian. So it always confuses me when I see these people thanking God for the things they have or asking God for more. I'm not exactly a biblical scholar but from what I've read God rarely does favors for people he's taken an active interest in. If God's talking to someone it's more often than not to make a demand and often it won't be something good for that person's health. Your typical conversation with God seems to go something like this:
God: I want you to give up all your stuff and go tell those pagans about me.
believer: All my stuff?
God: Yes all of it.
Believer: Including the house and farm?
God: Especially the house and farm.
Believer: Ok and you want me to tell the pagans to drop what they're doing and worship you?
God: Exactly
Believer: They might react poorly to that
God: Not really my problem, but hey there's a fifty-fifty chance I'll get you out of whatever trouble you get into.
Then it's only a matter of time before said person is executed, fed to lions, stoned to death, or made a slave. So if you're thanking God for your most recent raise, closing on your house, your kid's good grades, a recent gig, or anything else chances are God probably had nothing to do with any of that. If you knew what was good for you, you'd try and stay off his radar.

We Will Rock You!

People are warning the poor misguided demonstrators; people they see as having no idea why they are on the streets but who are always happy to break something may end up destroying the city! Ok, a few windows have been smashed and a building or two burnt, but just how worse off is the city? Well according to a recent WAVE study poor children in Baltimore are about as well off as children in Nigeria if that gives you an idea of what the city was like before these "riots" broke out. This has worked out well though for John Hopkins University as it needs a steady supply of cheap labor to run the cafeteria and maintain the campus for their more privileged students
Don't worry though they occasionally mention feeling bad for them in their sociology classes. It seems strange though Baltimore would be in this kind of a condition. It's a major port city on the east coast and apparently a major manufacturing center. Oh, no let me rephrase that. It WAS a major manufacturing center. So what happened? Well according to Wikipedia the factories left and the city went into a six-decade spiral of decline.
 So its the same old story. Massive joblessness leading to stunted social mobility, leading to hopelessness, leading to desperation leading to crime, etc.  Not to worry though Baltimore has experienced a revitalization now that it has transitioned into a "service economy!" So the waterfront real estate is doing just fine, the University is doing just fine, the rest of the city well see Nigeria. In summation if you're worried about a few rocks destroying Baltimore you probably need to pick up a few books on neo-liberal economics

UberKinder!

It really is just a shame that Himmler and DR, Mengele live to see "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody." Whether it's these two little UberKinders, a TV news anchor, or an Olympic gymnastics team this country really enjoys its little Aryan children.

You Have The Right To Do What You're Told

A number of people have posted "right things" to say during police encounters, basically what your rights are if you've been pulled over, stopped on the street, etc. The advice includes such things as refusing to get out of your car, refusing field toxicology testing, refusing to let the officer search you or your vehicle. This is extremely poor advice. More than likely trying to remind the officers you have "rights" will probably just irritate them and if you're unarmed and have no sway in the legal system this is probably a bad idea. The bill of rights is printed on paper and paper is a very poor defense against a baton or bullet. If you're affluent and have access to vast legal resources this advice may be useful, but if not it's a good way to get hurt and end up in jail.

There's No Place For Me in the X-Men

Sometimes I wonder if I'm a mutant, but my only power is the ability to always have lots and lots dandruff.

Boston Strong?

What are the criteria that have to be met before an event can be officially defined as a tragedy? Is it the scope of the event, or is it more about the people affected? Is a school shooting more of a tragedy than an office massacre because the victims might be primarily children?
 I have no idea, but what I do know is a tragedy is an event, and an event has to happen within a space.  It is very likely these spaces will be in a major city in the past this has presented abundant opportunities for profit.
 After 9/11 everyone wanted to by New York themed merchandise, after the Boston Marathon bombing a popular hashtag was adopted for a hot selling piece of merchandise a simple bracelet that said "Boston Strong" on it. So tragedy presents an opportunity for financial gain sure, but the problem is there is no way of knowing where and when one might happen. This might leave a potential producer of tragic accessories at a marked disadvantage. So what do you do? After 9/11, a lot of merchandises was produced based on specific references to the attack. One example is the t-shirt that featured the twin towers with accompanying text that said something like "9/11 never forget" The events of Boston changed this though. Instead of depicting anything specific from the event it was decided simply to adopt a slogan "Boston Strong" This is probably because unlike 9/11 there wasn't much iconic imagery that lent itself to an image that could be printed on a t-shirt. Now that it's possible to be this vague it is also possible to being producing merchandise that will be ready to go the minute the next "national tragedy" occurs in a major American city. Two words are all that's needed the name of the city and some positive sounding adjective. I'd recommend making a few different ones for each city, try out each hashtag and see which is most commonly used and there you go that will be the one you sell. People can feel like they've come together and stood against soe vague evil after they've paid five bucks for something that reads #chicagoreal or #LAtough or #cleavlandcool