a blog

( The list )

Remember that switch I made?

Day 09 | A photo you took --> Day 07 | A photo that makes you happy


10th grade homoerotic Japanese club dinner/kareoke. Win


Epic camping trip, and my face is obscured. Double win.


The Vengeance of Japan.


The Retribution of Doug.

( The list )

Day 08 | A photo that makes you angry/sad



Because it pretty accurately defines our political discourse.

I've been filled with LJ hate recently. I want to give an example of a specific instance, and a general rant on generalities.

( You're a dumb twit regardless of your intellectual flexing. Your AP Psyche does not impress me. )

( But the main reason is the mechanics of my speech and writing. )

I know there are veteran Livejournal people that read this. And veteran writers. Am I completely wrong about all of this?

( The list )

Because of the epic blizzard of hate today, and the ensuing pictures, I'm going to switch two days.

Day 07 | A photo that makes you happy ---> Day 09 | A photo you took

( Cut for... what I think is my first ever image post. )

( The list )

Day 06 | Whatever tickles your fancy

I kind of feel that if the meme isn't going to give a fuck, I shouldn't give a fuck either. But I do. So... favorite non-fiction book, I choose you!



Paul Krugman's Conscience of a Liberal makes the case for liberalism that I think needs to made more often. In all seriousness, I think it's the coup de grace for all political arguments.

Throughout history, liberals have always been right.

Granted, Krugman only begins his narrative in the late 1800s with the Guilded Age. I'm content to take the argument back centuries; for all of their flaws, all of the political and economic beliefs that sometimes radicalized to varying degrees events like the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the American Civil War, the Paris Commune, even the Russian Revolution, we now consider largely common sense. Secularism? Woman's rights? Equality under the law? Social welfare? Throughout history, whenever one side of an argument proclaims themselves liberals, and one side of an argument proclaims themselves conservatives, the liberals are batting 1.000. Slavery, imperialism, income taxes...

Krugman's argument is this: In the late 1800s, there was a huge stratification of wealth, no social mobility, and Congress and the Presidency were dominated by business influences--Republicans, that had already ceased to be the party of Lincoln, and the occasional Bourbon Democrat. Economic conditions worsened and compounded until the 1929 stock market crash, leading shortly thereafter into the Great Depression. From 1932 until about 1976, the American political landscape was dominated by a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and Democratic Presidents. Exceptions for Eisenhower, who defended the legacy of the New Deal, and the early days of Nixon. The American landscape was defined by FDR's New Deal, and it's creations. Namely, Social Security. The economic landscape crafted by this historic Democratic monopoly on power was what Krugman calls the Great Compression; massive rises in the wealth of the poor, drops in the wealth of the elite, and a large, stable, growing, financially-secure middle class. Taxes were high, social welfare was robust, regulations on corporations were strict, we saw the greatest, largest, longest, most stable rise in the American economy in history. These three things were directly correlated: 1. Democratic political dominance, 2. Regulation of the economy, 3. Economic conditions.

Even the Cold War was peacefully won by liberals. And not with nuclear conflict, but through mostly-peaceful Containment, through the Marshall Plan, through diplomacy, and through economic isolation. All the things that conservatives mocked us for.

He then goes on to call for a new New Deal, with universal health care being the cornerstone, in much the same was Social Security was for the old New Deal. Doing so would reduce the budget deficit, expand medical care, and demonstrate again, for a new generation, that a competent and capable (which is synonymous with Democratic) government has a positive role to play in society. And we'll usher in a new period of economic prosperity, and along with it, and along with the implied Democratic dominance, new and more important social reforms and advances.

( The list )

Day 05 | Your favourite quote

First, 'quote' is a verb. 'Quotation' is a noun. So, then, what is my favorite quotation?

I have a lot of favorite quotations, and they range a pretty wide spectrum. Philosophical, political, humorous. A few quotations I've put on the internets at various times are as follows:

( Cut for honorable mentions )

I'm going to sample a bit from a previous piece of writing, like I did with the Dune entry. Because I really like what I wrote, but it didn't illicit any comments when I posted it as a comment on a community. Nevermind that the quotation I'm selecting isn't actually in the work I'm defending, from which I also quote. So, here we go.

"Do what is right, though the world may perish." - Immanuel Kant

Very very late in his life, Immanuel Kant was mailed a letter critiquing the Categorical Imperative. The hypothetical in the letter went as followed; if a man came to you on the street, telling you he intended to murder your friend Bob, and need to know where Bob was located, and you happened to know where Bob was, what do you do? Kant has previously stated that honesty was a categorical imperative, but surely Kant wouldn't support aiding the prospective murder by giving away Bob's location, right?

Kant, recently the victim of a stroke and not at his best mental state (and so his response is sometimes ignored in Kantian studies), wrote a reply shortly before he died, titled On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Benevolent Motives.

He said that morals, being timeless and universal in nature, don't have to make a lot of sense in the finite and temporal circumstances of individuals. He also said that, while the man in the hypothetical may seem to have a duty to protect Bob, he has more of a duty to all of man to protect the idea of honest.

"Truth in utterances that cannot be avoided is the formal duty of a man to everyone, however great the disadvantage that may arise from it to him or any other; and although by making a false statement I do no wrong to him who unjustly compels me to speak, yet I do wrong to men in general in the most essential point of duty, so that it may be called a lie (though not in the jurist’s sense), that is, so far as in me lies I cause that declarations in general find no credit, and hence that all rights founded on contract should lose their force; and this is a wrong which is done to mankind."

The end part about contracts is a reference to his early defense of honesty as a moral imperative; should honesty not be a moral imperative, than nobody could make or agree to contracts because there would be no reason to assume they would be honored, and society thus crumble. He ends that section of the letter by saying

"To be truthful (honest) in all declarations is therefore a sacred unconditional command of reason, and not to be limited by any expediency."

( The List )

Day 04 | Your favourite book

Finally, an easy one.



I don't much like Aristotle, but a quotation of his is perfect. "Man is by nature a political animal." We don't look at politics in the miniature because we only think of politics as countries and governments and politicians. When the UN Security Council passes a resolution, that is political. When a Senator votes for a bill, that is political. When a Mayor shakes hands and kisses babies, that is political. When someone finds a clever way to exclude an unwanted friend from a birthday party, that is political. When you arch your back to look a quarter of an inch taller in the middle of an argument so that you can make a key point with more force, that is political. Because politics isn't just about governments, it's about the detailed, specific, and artificial hierarchical structures we create as humans as part of our very nature. Governments are simply the highest level.

Dune, then, is political on all levels. Politics between the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild. Politics within the Bene Besserit factions. Politics among the Bene Gesserit leadership. Politics between a single Reverend Mother and her Other Memory.

Or: Politics as two people sitting at a table, negotiating. Each has information they must keep secret, and each has information that wish to extract from the other. And so they use word choice, word selection/omission, sentence structures, body language, lies, bluffs, exaggerations, etc. to keep hidden or uncover secrets.

Or, more succinctly, there is a chapter in Dune after Paul kills for the first time--a Fremen that had challenged him to a duel. The chapter takes place during said Fremen's funeral, and the entire chapter is Paul discussing and debating with himself what he thinks would be proper funeral etiquette for attending the funeral of the man he just killed. Should he speak? Should he not speak? Should he apologize? Should he be prideful? He contemplates every aspect of the Fremen culture, the ritualized killing, the power structure, other speeches, trying to deduce the proper action that will help his assimilation into the tribe. He then thanks the dead Fremen for teaching him to take a life, and calls him his friend. And his place in the tribe is that much more secure.

No other books do this.

( The List )

Day 03 | Your favourite television programme

Five seconds into pondering this, I narrowed it down to three; The West Wing, Battlestar Galactica, and House. But since the two other people on my friends' list are tilting to the recent, I'll go with the one still on TV.

But, really quick: There was a time when I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. Did I want to be a writer? A Japanese translator? An English teacher in Japan? A computer programmer? Or a life in political service? All of these possibilities were equally conceivable. The West Wing, with its idealism, accuracy, depth, and gravitas... answered the question for me. I knew, watching Toby Ziegler and Josh Lyman, that politics would forever be my raison d'etre.

And Battlestar Galactica is how science fiction was meant to be. So much of science fiction is writers pontificating about technological advances, vehicles for flaunting their Ph.Ds in theoretical physics, or real life veterans writing about space society crumbling after the space liberals take over and we get space nuked by space terrorists. I am looking at you, Heinlein and Card. But BSG, pioneering what the writers/producers called 'naturalistic [sic] science fiction' (as opposed to soft and hard), did two unique things. First, technological accuracy; ships accelerate based on inertia and not thrusters, ships degrade overtime, etc. Second, and most importantly, it's about people; people, in unique, imaginative settings and conditions, interacting and reacting. Character-based drama taken to extremes only possible in settings equally extreme. And all of it, plausible and believable.

: : :



Like Battlestar Galactica, House has two things going for it. First, it's funny. And not slapstick funny, cerebral funny, pop culture reference funny, crude, or wordplay funny. But in a slapstick cerebral pop culture reference crude wordplay and everything else in the funny spectrum funny. Every form of humor imaginable, covered in five minutes. Between the puns, the pranks, and put-downs, House has you covered. Someone trips House, and he falls. Laugh. House uses a clever insult to point out a patient's stupdity. Laugh. House uses a bisexual double entendre in reference to 13. Laugh. House makes a sexual comment to Cuddy involving her ass and/or cleavage. Laugh. And stare for a moment. I don't even like comedies, and I laugh my ass off.

But, more importantly, House has Gregory House. A Byronic hero that... we aren't supposed to like. I think a lot of fans forget that. But House is supposed to be unhappy, lonely, bitter, and in pain. And all of his actions are reflections and projections of that host of unhappy emotions. Aside from a Sherlock Holmesian intellect, we aren't supposed to admire Dr. Gregory House in any way more than we'd grudgingly admit that Lee Harvey Oswald was a good shot. He, as a main character, as a protagonist, is a guy we're supposed to even really identify with. If House can only have one healthy relationship in the show, with Wilson, why should fans be any different? He'd hate us in equal portions to us hating him. He isn't a charming, attractive, healthy, rich playboy with a trust fund and a cache of women like the main character for every other show every made, but a miserable curmudgeon that happens to have an intellectual gift.

And that is completely and utterly unique. The entire show functions solely on that premise. And it is wonderful.

( The list. )

Day 02 | Your favorite movie

I think, for the sake of originality and thought, we need to set ground rules. Namely: No Lucas, No Jackson, No Kubrick. Or the answers would just be too obvious.

That said, I spent most of the day thinking about the question, because it's a hard one. I'm not one for re-watching movies, so a lot of them, no matter how good, quickly fade into memory. So, what pops out? Little Miss Sunshine. Pulp Fiction. The Fountain. The Maltese Falcon. Voices of a Distant Star. And more, of course.

I debated with myself for a while, and something reminded me of the West Wing. And I had my answer.

A few months ago, the crazy ex Katie and I were wondering DC together. I think it was a Sunday afternoon, and she demanded I take her to Chinatown, despite my pleas that Chinatown is lame as fuck. Andrew ended up calling, and asked if we wanted to do something. I mentioned a movie I had seen a description of playing at a local indie theater. Andrew checked it out, couldn't find it at said theater, but did end up finding a theater playing it in....

Bethesda. Fucking Bethesda.

Katie and I got back on the metro, headed towards Fairfax, picked up Andrew, and drove.

To Fucking Bethesda.

But what we saw was one of the most foul, biting satires on politics I've ever seen in my life. The bickering, the backstabbing, the leaking, the orienting of all public policy to help one's career prospects or chances of getting laid. And all of it, all levels of government, run by 25 year olds drowning in college debt. An incisive punch to the gut of political idealism.

We saw In The Loop.





If you like the sound of a satirical British West Wing, I cannot recommend it enough.

"We've got enough fucking Pentagon goons here to state a fucking coup d'etat!"

Taken from penguinfaery

( The Meme )

Day 01 | Your favorite song

I really hate the idea of 'a favorite song'. Or book, or movie, but mostly song. Because it's so.. fluid. My favorite song two weeks ago (Future of the Left - The Hope that House Built) is different from my favorite song last week (Future of the Left - Throwing Bricks at Trains), which in turn is different from my favorite song this week (Future of the Left - Lapsed Catholics). On a TOTALLY unrelated note, I highly recommend Future of the Left for some ambitious noise rock.

So, the best I could think to do was to look on last.fm and see what my most listened to songs are. And these two songs are the top two (or two of the top three) in all categories. This has really been the year of post-punk for me. And it's really effected how I listen to music.



There is really only one thing you can say about the CD Turn on the Bright Lights. It is... the seminal album of post-punk revivalism. The end. And Obstacle 1 demonstrates why; the emotive yet monotone vocals calls to mind Ian Curtis, while the interplay between drums, bass, and guitars would make Bonham, Jones, and Paige blush at the peak of Zeppelin's career. And, unlike a lot of Turn on the Bright Lights, it still has some accessible pop sensibilities. It's a song you can rock out to while driving.

: : :



But, if Turn on the Bright Lights is the seminal album of post-punk revivalism, Closer is the seminal album of post-punk. All of it. One of the landmark albums of rock history. Pound for pound, Joy Division is the most influential band in history; 2 albums, and I think a total of 23 studio-quality songs, and they birthed entire branches of alternative rock. No Cure, no Interpol, no Strokes, and Terra, most importantly, no Killers.

Twenty Four Hours consummates the entire album; the lyrics that foreshadow Curtis's suicide, the steady beat of snares and symbols (and that cool little fill every other measure), the depressing bass hook, and that opening line: "So this is permanence. Love's shattered pride." The song seems almost a test-run run for what would their one big hit, Love Will Tear Us Apart. But, I think, most importantly, it mimics all good album. It rises and falls. But then, it rises and falls again. A whirlwind of emotion (yet all of it depressing) wrapped up in one song. And, like Obstacle 1, an accessible song you can rock out too.

Preston Kussmann
6/05

The Failure of the Force

The now-complete six-part Star Wars series is a long, epic saga covering numerous impressive topics; the short-term successes and eventual failure of evil, the ultimate seductress, the inherent inability of power to remain in power, and the triumph of nature over technology. Within this work of literature, there is chronicled the overall failure of the use of, and knowledge about, the Force as a loose form of religion governing the galaxy. Outside of this galaxy far, far away, this failure can be illustrated as the battle of passion, feelings, and emotions, constituting the Dark Side of the Force, with rationalism, serenity, and peace, which makes up the Light Side of the Force. It is the simple conflict of Romanticism versus Rationalism.

The Light Side of the Force is categorically heralded throughout the six-film series as the side of good, while the Dark Side is the side of evil. The black-and-white dichotomy between the Light and Dark, Jedi Order and Sith, is undeniable and central to the movies as a whole. As such, the victory of the Jedi Order, personified by the sole remaining Jedi, Luke Skywalker, over the Sith in the sixth movie is the spiritual victory of good versus evil-- the single paramount theme in Star Wars.

The problem with the Force arises from this principal division of the Force into two sects. There is but one force that binds the universe and all living beings together, but yet, there are two seemingly incompatible viewpoints as to how to properly use it. This gulf in the Force is what makes the Force an ultimate failure in Star Wars.

The schism in the Force, which took place approximately 25,000 years before the fourth movie starts, dooms the Jedi and Sith to a mutual, inevitable failure. Taoism teaches us of the Yin-Yang, or the opposing, yet complimentary forces that make up the universe. Such forces are inseparable, all-powerful, and serve each other while they serve themselves. In the Star Wars Universe, the Light Side matches with the active, masculine Yang, while the Dark Side matches with the mysterious, feminine Yin. Unlike the Tao, however, the Jedi and Sith fail to recognize that they need each other, that they are wholly interdependent, and that the two can never truly be purified of the other. Such is the undeniable, indubitable nature of the Force. Yet, each side actively seeks to destroy and rid the universe of the other in a futile battle of ideologies that has taken up almost 25 millennia. There is no middle ground given in this galactic battle of philosophies. Such a rupture ruins both sides, and weakens them by the very nature of their interdependence.

The failures of the Dark Side are obvious. Passion, emotions, love, and ego are vilified as the actions of weakness, fear, and hate. Romeo would be a Sith Lord, and Juliet his apprentice, and their hasty, double suicide would justify such a labeling. Emotions and passion are the workings of the unsettled, immature mind, and serve only to pervert people into incorrigible beings of lust and yearning, a la Luke who‘s “head was never on where he was, what he was doing,” to paraphrase the Master Jedi Yoda. Such a perversion of good into evil is the primary fault of the Dark Side. In the words of Yoda, "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering." The third movie shows this path, as well as Anakin’s descent into Darth Vader and the Republic’s transformation into an Empire.

Unlike the shadowy, passionate Dark Side, the Light Side rejects emotions and passion. They embody a cold rationale based in meditation, inner peace, and selflessness. They reject their own personal wants and desires, their urges for survival, love, intimacy, control and power, and even their will to exist for nothing more or less than the public good. They are the blind altruists that failed to save the Republic, failed to bring down the Empire, failed to thwart Palpatine‘s ambitions, and failed to escape their own annihilation by General Order 66. The automatons known as the Jedi failed in all of their most important objectives, and when the Sith is finally defeated, it is by Luke Skywalker, whom was almost denied training by Yoda in exile on Degobah for his own failures.

As two separate forces, the Dark Side and Light Side are utterly inept. Such is proof of the Yin-Yang concept. Because of that, there must be a middle way. It is Palpatine that tells Anakin in the third movie that "one must study the entire Force, including the Dark Side, in order to truly understand it." The inability for victory in the struggle between both sides of the Force is clear evidence that there simply must be one unifying theory, that combines the rationality of the Light Side with the emotion of the Dark.

Star Wars is the epic tale of politics and religion on the surface, and love, hate,
technology, and power beneath that. But above all of these themes and concepts portrayed in the epic movie series, one stands out. That theme is that the battle between good and evil is a destructive, never-ending fallacy, and the only way that triumph can be achieved from that battle is a philosophy that walks the thin grey line between the Light Side and the Dark Side. That is the true fulfilling of The Prophecy.

[It got an A, by the way.]