Staying up too late reading 'The Instructions' by Adam Levin
I have been reading The Instructions by Adam Levin for a very long time. It’s a long book. And I had gotten close to the end and the end takes forever but it’s off the chain and I had to finish it. I got to the point in the night when I had to either stop reading it or continue and have a big fail the next day. I kept reading The Instructions.
Out of control elites is sort of now right?
The Baseline Scenario released a post about how when elites are not effectively constrained by governments, nations fall. I can’t help but think we have already hit that moment in this country. So what’s the point of even worrying about it? If we have crossed the historical point of no return, shouldn’t we just play canasta and watch Game of Thrones while our once great nation burns? It seems that history seems to go a certain way and if you’re an American right now — well, unless you’re an elite, you were just born at a lousy time.
The Three Five
So last night I had this dream. I don’t quite remember what happened, but I do remember the basic idea. I was in the kitchen of the place where I lived and I was in a hurry to get out the door to a meeting or something. I spilled the soy milk and dropped the carafe I keep my Toddy coffee concentrate in and it broke. I didn’t have pants on and I couldn’t get them on even tho I tried and tried.
After staring into the abyss for a while
For a long time, I have been pretty into this philosophy of mine. It’s not deep philosophy, like you study in Western Civ. It’s simply the Philosophy of being human (which, in a lot of ways, most philosophy is). Here’s my big idea: we hobble ourselves by looking for consistency in our thoughts. I’ll go a step further and say that the whole idea of “hypocrisy” is misleading. We love to point out the moral inconsistencies in people we disagree with.
Kick the ass of a banker
To me, the difference between now and The Great Depression is that we have all gotten trained to be deferential to rich people. If they are rich, they must be doing something right, right? Sure, Occupy Wall Street happened, but let’s be honest: the yoga instructors and massage therapists are never going to lead us all out of bondage. The fact is, as much as this banking crisis story has bugged people, the large mass of men really aren’t ready to do anything about it.
President Obama's plan to win the future
Padlocks. That’s what I learned about President Obama’s vision for winning the future. There is a bright future in padlocks. If we can just get those padlock jobs back in America, it will all be okay. Other industries he cited as bright lights in our collective future: tires and cars. Ah. Yes. He also told Universities that the Federal Government would cut funding if they kept increasing tuition. Only, if you look at trends over time, tuition seems like it’s gone up as federal and state commitment to higher ed has plummeted.
On being frugal
Keynes wrote about the Paradox of Thrift. That is, when times are tough, it may be a good idea for individual families to rein in spending and save up their money. That provides security, but it’s bad for the whole economy, because it stops growth dead. And, since our lives are so interrelated, eventually what’s bad for everyone becomes bad for you, no matter how virtuous you are being. That’s why Keynes suggested that in times of low employment it was up to the Government to spend, to make up for demand.
Some narrative comics from the Brooklyn show
Here’s a few comics that are parts of larger stories that I picked up at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest this past weekend. Box Brown’s Roussimoff. It’s really just his second limited run excerpt of the book, as he builds toward releasing the full thing. Something about the tragic, difficult life of Andre the Giant moved Box, and he’s doing a whole graphic novel about the guy. So far, so great!
'Eye of the Majestic Creature' by Leslie Stein
Leslie Stein is one of those creators that I met at my very early SPX’s (like Dean Haspiel, Jen Sorensen and Sam Henderson) that I was able to remember without actually seeing or communicating with or even running across any more of their work during my dark years lost in Madison, Wisconsin. When I spent all my time writing novellas that no one has ever read in bars and banging my head against the metaphorical wall created by the minds of college students.
My amygdala and me (not-exactly-a-review of Steve Volk’s FRINGE-OLOGY)
Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable-And Couldn’t by Steve Volk So, the amygdala is the part of your brain that makes you anxious either when you are in danger or when you are confronted with ideas that defy you understanding of the world. The amygdala is the part of the brain that allows people to hold onto a comfortable worldview even when they are repeatedly presented with facts that undermine that worldview.