Dialog

Hey! Hey you! Quit playing that power game, that get-ahead game, that who-is-useful-to-me game. People can tell when you’re not on their team, you know. Not at first, not everybody, but it becomes apparent. They’ll tolerate you as long as they know your interests coincide with theirs. But they know that when there’s a sacrifice to be made, you can’t be trusted. I know that when the cards are down you’ll be exposed for the charlatan you are, and you’ll be dropped like a hot rock.

You don’t think I care about this as much as you do? I’m tired, you’re tired, it’s been a goddamn long day. And I do respect you, you know that? But I’ve been around this sort of thing longer than you have, and I will tell you this: the organization does not love you back. It can’t. It’s not a person. It will use you, because that’s its job. I know you’re angry because it’s letting you down now, because it can’t return your love. I’ve been there. It happened to me more than once. I gave everything to a team, to a job, to whatever, and when I’d given as much as I could, one of two things happened: either it was enough, and the org threw me away because I was used up; or it wasn’t enough, and the whole thing collapsed and everybody got fucked. I know how desperately you need to be loved and how much you hate yourself, and me, for it. Let me give you one serious, honest piece of advice: take care of yourself first.

You selfish fuck. You miserable, selfish, egomaniaical little shit. You’re a complete fucking sociopath, you know that?

Call me what you want. Self-preservation is your first directive. People help each other, and make sacrifices for each other, and that’s what makes a society, but you and I both know what happens when there’s two people left on the lifeboat and the society is long long gone. You can’t depend on that society to take care of you– use it, contribute to it, maintain it, but don’t depend on it because one day when you look for it, it won’t be there, and you’ll have to do without.

Sucks to be You

Woe is me! I have passed beyond the wake of venting, and mired myself on the shores of Poor-Me island. My charcoal jeans-cut stretch trousers from H&M, my anthracite DKNY sunglasses, even my soft graphite A|X buttonless polo cannot save me from the harsh words of rejection!

At least I’m not one of the poor bastards whose job is now on the line after the release of the most recent Viewsonic/Microsoft Tablet PC. Says one reviewer:

“Tablet is the wrong medicinal analogy: suppository more adequately describes the Smart Display experience.”

Bait and Switch

People refer to a Bait and Switch routine that Our Leader is perpetrating with respect to Saddam and those pesky WMDs. That is, we went to war over the weapons, but now that we’ve found none, we’re saying this was the right thing to do because Saddam is so awful.

Some people argue that weapons will be found, no matter what, even if we have to plant them there, because we need post-facto justification. I doubt it: we can find a justification that’s harder to disprove. After all, Saddam was awful. We know it because we propped him up and provided him with weapons for so long.

Tax Season

People always complain about taxes, after all, and about “Big Government.” Hey, who was it that said that “Next to being shot at and missed, there is nothing in life so satisfying as a tax refund?” But it’s hard to cut out portions of Big Government that are helpful, such as, oh, Medicaid, or Medicare, or disaster relief, or Superfund money to clean up toxic waste dumps, or… gee, what part of it did you want to cut?

So, they’re starting with the taxes, because that’s the easy part. It’s certainly true that the federal tax code is enormous and overcomplicated and a pain in the ass. The federalist/state’s rights/libertarian faction of the GOP is raising that anti-tax banner high, because it’s easy to raise. The cuts in services come later, when they say, I’m very sorry, but we just have to do this. They don’t get a banner. Maybe someone else will have to do it. A Democrat, if they’re lucky.

(As far as I can tell, the puritanical/religious/authoritarian faction of the GOP is going along because they’ll be able to have greater control over states individually than over the federal government as a whole, so they can promote their agenda where they’re stronger and leave New York and California under interdict, as it were.)

In other words, what we’re seeing is conflict between the people who say “The United States is” and the people who say “The United States are.” Remember, in the early days of this nation, a seat in the US congress was often given up for the opportunity to serve in a state congress, which was considered much more honorable. Some people want to go back to that.

Maybe there are things that a decentralized government could do better. In fact, I’m sure there are things that we ought to leave to the states rather than to the feds. But a lot of federal government services just couldn’t work without being federal. Corn, sugar, textile and steel subsidies, for example. The right has pushed them through for now, but they’ll go away (and in my opinion, they should be repealed anyway) if we decentralize agricultural and industrial policies.

Think about disasters. I doubt New Jersey really wants to pay for Florida storm damage, or that Nebraska wants to pay for California earthquakes. Disaster relief as a federal project means that the US government can spread the risk more evenly. Yes, you could use insurance and let the private sector reinsurance companies handle it, but these kinds of risks are often uninsurable. The federal government can take those risks because it doesn’t have to turn a profit, and it can balance them to some extent because they don’t all happen at once.

Another of the problems we’d face is that people and businesses keep moving around, and that some of the taxes in wealthier parts of the country help poorer parts out. Individual saving/pension accounts will help, a little, but not as much as the Bushies claim. The entitlements budget will not merely be shifted to the states: it will be shifted unequally and much of it will get dropped. You’ll see the poor states get poorer, and we’ll see the return of conditions from before Johnson’s War on Poverty. Hell, you’ll see it go back to before the New Deal, which is a lot of what the right is trying to do.

And what about environmental policy? Well, I’m sure the GOP would love to just get rid of it entirely. But be serious: this is something that’s difficult between nations (all that US smog killing Canadian trees, for example, or (ahem, correction 4/15, thx. Alejandra) US-owned factories moving to Mexico and polluting both countries, then using the vagueness of international law to protect themselves). And we’re talking about dismantling the federal infrastructure and handing it back to the states?

“Well Ms. Jenkins, I’m sorry your child was born with six legs and no anus, but the trichloroethane factory next to your house is actually across state lines in New Jersey, where it complies with regulations!”

Even if you disagree with the actual regulations, it’s usually best to have a single set, rather than several dozen. Alcohol laws in the US are ridiculous and have begun to damage the wine industry’s growth because it’s illegal to ship directly from vineyards to customers. The FCC has just ceded significant power to states, over objections of telecom companies, large and small.

I suppose I’m a Europhile and a Creeping Socialist, but I think that Europe, despite the mistakes of its Stability Pact, has the right idea: greater unity, rather than less unity. I’m not advocating a command economy by any means. If anything, I’m suggesting less regulation: instead of fifty sets of rules to abide by, we should have just one. Go ahead, call me crazy. I prefer to think of myself as someone who believes in common sense economic policy aimed at the creation of wealth, combined with social policy aimed at making sure everyone gets a fair deal.

Maybe that means I pay more in taxes than I would like. Well, I voted against a reduction in state taxes this November, because I know that despite all the graft and cost overruns in the Big Dig, my taxes do good things for this state. I am proud to be a tax-paying citizen, because I know that, even though I don’t agree with the way a lot that money is spent, the United States is a better place because I’m paying my damn taxes.

Blah

Two weeks away from the gym, one of which is spent lying in bed eating M&Ms, and what do I have to show for it? I’ve lost 2.5 pounds (and much of the strength that went with it). I don’t know what’s more annoying, the fact that I’ve lost the weight and strength, or the fact that I actually care. I mean, I feel like I’m turning into a Bizarro Peach or something.

I sure did like that Bizarro episode of Sealab 2021. That was funny as hell.