About
Too Late, Trotsky is part blog, part journal, and completely pointless.Following
My college roommate and best bud is in Puno, Peru right now, where citizens are rioting in the streets.
According to Katie, “The basis of the riots is that a Canadian mining company are trying to construct mines in Southern Peru. This will take land and resources from the farmers, and most likely increase their cost of living overall. Hence, the farmers are protesting and rioting.”
The link above provides pictures of post-riot streets in Puno as well as a detailed account of what’s happening.
Proops: Do you have a favorite author?
Audience Member: Uhh.. In college it was Rand.
Proops: Ayn (Anne) Rand? And you’ve come to this? I love it. This is a meeting of the minds! In college it was Ayn Rand, and then what? You woke up and realized that you wasted fucking hours of your life reading her bullshit diatribes?
AM: It’s pronounced Ayn (aɪn), and—
Proops: Whatever.
AM: I’ve evolved a little, I don’t love her.
Proops: Yeah.
AM: She has some good points.
Proops: What were her good points?
AM: [Awkward Laughter]
Proops: You brought it up.
AM: Uhhm…
Proops: You said she had good points.
AM: Efficiency.
Proops: My goodness. That’s a marvelous point. You’re right about that.
This sounds like one of my break-ups. If you could even call it a relationship in the first place. But either way I called Atlas Shrugged “an unrealistic, delusionary, free market capitalist wet dream that gave me more brain damage than the one time I accidentally read an issue of the National Enquirer at the doctor’s office.” He told me to “get the fuck out of the house.” I think I won than argument, thank you very much.
For the first time in a few years, I made myself chocolate milk.
And for the first time since I was a kid, I just spent ten minutes blowing bubbles into my milk until they created a bubble-dome on the top of my glass.
I never wondered why you could do this until just now. If you ever wondered, here’s a pretty good explanation for those of us not privy to scientific jargon.
This is a Brown Pelican covered in oil sitting on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast. This was taken today, Thursday, June 3, 2010 by AP Photographer Charlie Riedel.
This is the bill sent to British Petroleum, Transocean Holdings, and several others.
These companies owe $70,911,683.93 to the government for the cleanup of the mess they’ve made.
Eleven men died in the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
Over 21,500,000 gallons of crude oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.
Someone needs to pay for this. Someone needs to go to jail for a long, long time.
Back when I was in high school, I took French for reasons beyond my rational sphere. I nearly failed every class I took, but one of my friends excelled. She translated “Judy is a Punk” by The Ramones into French and sent it to me in my email back when email was cool and twitter was just a far-away thought. As I was cleaning out the inbox from my high school email account, I found her version of the punk rock ballad.
Here’s her translation:
Jackie est une anarchiste
Judie est un avorton
elles sont allees jusqu’a Berlin toutes les deux, se sont joindu les Capades Glace
Et oh je ne sais pas pourquoi
oh je ne sais pas pourquoi
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui, peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui, peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui, peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui
la strophe seconde, mem comme la premiere
Jackie est une anarchiste
Judie est un avorton
elles sont allees jusqu’a Berlin toutes les deux,
se sont joindu les Capades Glace
Et oh je ne sais pas pourquoi
oh je ne sais pas pourquoi
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui,
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui,
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui,
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui
la strophe troisieme, different de la premiere
Jackie est une anarchiste
judie est un avorton
elles sont allees jusqu’a Frisco toutes les deux,
se sont joindu le SLA
et oh je ne sais pas pourquoi
oh je ne sais pas pourquoi
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui,
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui,
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui,
peut-etre elles vas mourir, oh oui
Unlisted Explanations for the Banning of Several Musicians Included on this List, Part I
1. The Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols go on Holidays in the Sun as a result of their self-described “reasonable economy,” which alludes to the basic capitalist economic model.2. The B-52’s
The B-52’s are living in their own Private Idaho. Ownership of private land is a distinct characteristic of the bourgeoisie.9. Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden is not Iron Butterfly. The Union of Youth thought they were getting In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida and were disappointed when they received Iron Maiden’s eponymous album instead.11. AC/DC
AC/DC are considered neo-fascists because they only salute those who are about to rock, a subset of the population who are well-known members of the bourgeoisie. They have also used their powers over industry to skew the effects of rock ‘n’ roll on the environmental problem of noise pollution.20. Talking Heads
Talking Heads burned down a house built on state-owned property, thus causing a significant disruption in homeland security.29. The Ramones
In their ballad of a spoiled child, The Ramones say that the young lady is going to join the “Ice Capades,” an extremely violent and militant revolutionary group who kidnap and brainwash young people in the United States in the name of communism, impeding the spread of non-violent communism by giving it a bad name.34. Village People
The Village People’s vision of a mighty and strong Macho Man, which, from the way they describe, sounds like worship of deity.
This has been a public service announcement.
I’m grouped into these stereotypes:
- Conspiracy theorists.
- People who are bigger conspiracy theorists than Orwell fans.
- People who have their significant other grab them under the table in order to shut them up whenever someone else at a dinner says something absolutely ridiculous and wrong.
- Liars.
This is surprisingly accurate.
This is from my Values reflection paper, which counts as my “final exam” grade. I was spinning bullshit and it turned into this. I probably need to get to sleep soon.
I still believe that a web of positivity connects us all. My new view is a little more complex than just a definition of our morality through our daily interactions. Our circumstances are relative, but our humanity is one thing. As human beings we are expected to do certain things and expected to not do certain things, not only for others, but for ourselves. I spent 10 minutes at Kroger yesterday watching shoppers put pocket change into the Salvation Army bucket. Yes, it helps the needy, but right after the annoying bell-ringer says “thank you,” every single person smiled and had a little “pep in their step” as my grandmother would call it. One little girl, clad in a puffy white jacket that made her look like the Michelin Man more than a toddler, asked her mom for a quarter and instead of waddling over to the gumball machine, went straight over to the woman with the bell and handed her the quarter. Adorable, sure, but that little girl was really fucking cute. Like, I don’t really want kids, but holy shit, if anything could possibly make me want to be injected with whatever fertility drugs Kate plus 8 got in her uterus, it’d be that. Even if you were Stalin, about to commit genocide against your own people, if you saw that, you’d be like “d’awwwww,” stick your thumb in your mouth, put on your footie pajamas, grab your teddy bear and ask your mother to read you Goodnight Moon. That’s how fucking cute it was.
Author’s Note: This is staying in the paper.
Next time someone asks me if there’s anything they can do while I’m throwing up, I’m asking for their hat and puking in it, end of story. What a stupid question.
One song, one day. Best. Idea. Ever.
Proving that Samuel L. Jackson is God by Means of an Adventure Through the Philosophical Writings of Rene Descartes.
Most philosophers in the Western world have focused individual works on proving the existence of God, or a similar higher being, in the human mind. One of the most prominent men in modern thinking to accept this view was the affluent Frenchman, Rene Descartes. Descartes brought the idea that all that is perfect is divine. Also, he believes that God is the one being whose definition necessitates its existence. Therefore, because God is perfect, he exists as an essence in the human mind. In a modern world that prides itself on the materialistic idealism of Hollywood, California, only one being, one man, one powerful deity, stands above all others, demonstrating pure perfection. Thus, the one true God is Samuel L. Jackson.By Descartes’ standards, a perfect God can only create things equal or lesser than himself. No movie that has starred Samuel L. Jackson has surpassed his own perfection. For example, the blockbuster hit, Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 1993, featured Samuel L. Jackson as engineer Ray Arnold. Of course, even this film, which many (myself included) believe to be a phenomenal picture, it is not, by any means, perfect. Every film has continuity errors and many, like the second release of Jurassic Park, have been digitally remastered for home viewing. A more recent example, however, is the cinematic flop, Snakes on a Plane. The movie was chock full of bad dialogue, clichéd character roles, excessively violent deaths, and a plane full of snakes. While the film did feature Samuel L. Jackson as the protagonist and hero, it was a terribly made picture. Both of these movies are of lesser standard to Samuel L. Jackson himself. However, his presence on the set, as well as on screen, undoubtedly adds an aspect of perfection to his performance, and thus, to his cinematic contributions.
Returning to Descartes’ proof that God exists, he believes that perfection is a part of existence. He writes, in his Meditations on First Philosophy, “…once I have made the supposition that [God] has all perfections (since existence is one of the perfections), nevertheless the original supposition was not necessary (Descartes 46). This, of course, proves that because Samuel L. Jackson is perfect, that he exists as nothing less than a deity.
On that note, we know that perfection is nothing more than a plane of existence. In this idealism, Samuel L. Jackson exists; therefore, since he is also a perfect being, he takes on a Godly aura. For this supposition to work, the idea of God must already be implanted in the human mind. Descartes writes, “…whenever I do choose to think of the first and supreme being and bring forth the idea of God from the treasure house of my mind, as it were, it is necessary that I attribute all perfections to him” (Descartes 46-47). If this is true, then my own personal idea of God must also be perfect. So, if I believe, with faith, that Samuel L. Jackson is the Supreme Being, the Alpha and the Omega, the Creator, then he must also be perfect.
In order to fully understand why Samuel L. Jackson is, in fact, God, I put forth the idea that, “what God has bestowed on me as a combination of mind and body” (Descartes 57). What combines the human “mind and body” more than a motion picture? Samuel L. Jackson, in every role he takes, looks for challenging roles that make the viewers embody and facilitate the symbolism, spirit, and pure power of his acting. Therefore, watching his performance on screen involved the combination of Descartes’ treasured “mind and body.”
For many today, the reason to have faith in a higher power can be defined by two things: a need for security, and religious diversity. Let me first address the idea of individual need for security in terms of one of Samuel L. Jackson’s recent and inspiring roles. As his character of Neville Flynn is thrust into a slithery situation transporting a witness in a federal case, he has the calm, cool, and collected traits that made viewers, even in the panic of having poisonous snakes on a plane, feel safe when Jackson was on screen. This need for security and belief in a savior is shown precisely in that role, as well as numerous others. As for the concept based on religious diversity, in this day and age, such variation raises several questions. For example, why is it unlikely that God has disguised himself in a mortal form? Such an inquiry may never be answered, but one thing is for sure; that the perfection attributed to any Supreme Deity is a theoretical perfection that is limited to individual concepts of what real perfection and existence is. For me and seven-hundred people like me, Samuel L. Jackson embodies all that is, without question, perfection.
