Last night, Barack Obama gave a speech in front of 80,000 people that some have called ”an amazing, unbelievable moment,” a “terrific speech,” and “the most impressive campaign speech…I can recall in my lifetime.”  Emotions ran high in Denver, and this was made abundantly apparent through cut-away shots of people in tears as the nominee spoke.  I, of course, have different views of political speeches, and see an inherent danger in speech that appeals primarily to emotions, as I have covered before.

But something became incredibly clear last night in a way that, as far as I can tell, no one has bothered to point out. (more…)

Morons with authority are like little kids, maybe around three or four years old, that somehow find daddy’s revolver and run around the house waiving it in the air imitating the cowboys they’ve seen on TV, yelling “Look what I found!”  It’s fun to play grown-up.  And everyday across the country, some moron at some uninteresting corporation is given the overly-generous gift of a sliver of extra authority, which he will subsequently wield like a toy, or a weapon, over his recently appointed underlings in order to pretend that he is important.  (more…)

Holetown.  The original landing spot of the alien English on this completely benign island.  There’s a small inlet, an historic police station with a centuries-old obelisk, and not much else.  It’s completely fucking divine. (more…)