my complaint letter to taco bell:

Went through the drive-thru tonight at the Robinson St. Taco Bell. I really, really want to give these kids the benefit of the doubt, and I hate doing this, but every time I eat there it takes forever. Like, 20 minutes to get through the drive-thru with three cars ahead of me is just ridiculous. Last time I was there they didn't have beef. Which, I mean, I know things happen, but c'mon. One day it's the beef, the next day it's this, or that. I used to go to the one on Lindsay St. but that one's got even more horrible service. I love Taco Bell. It's delicious. But now choosing between these two is like picking the prettiest fork with which to stab myself in the eye. All the best.

"necrotic pop culture carrion beetles"

This article from Michael Rowe at the HuffPo is seriously fucking amazing. Here's a highlight.

On O'Reilly, Coulter, and their ilk:

"As a group, they are the pop culture equivalent of necrotic carrion beetles, crawling with insectile determination from one infected open wound in the American psyche to another. The wounds include fear of race, fear of foreigners, fear of sexuality, fear of difference, hysterical religious fundamentalism, violent nationalism, and paranoia. They lay their eggs in the infected abrasion, then scuttle away. When the eggs hatch, disgorging rage and discontent, they start counting money."

cranky cell phone rant

Cell phones are evil. I killed mine two days ago. Smashed it into three pieces: top, bottom, SIM. Don't really regret it. Might not get a new one, might opt for the land line. Cell phones have enabled our already flaky culture to flake out on the hardcore, for sure. Plans no longer matter. You can no longer agree to meet a friend at, say, 9 o'clock at a certain bar the following night. Just doesn't work that way. This person you're going to meet, they are so used to being able to evaporate meetings with the touch of a button, that it may not even occur to them that you are going to be sitting at this bar at 9, with your thumb lodged in your ass. This isn't a reflection on anyone's character, or maybe it is, I don't know. What it does say is that cell phones are the great fuck-up of this generation. They are evil. When was the last time you saw your kids without that bluish glow ghosting their face? The click of the Blackberry opening is the Pavlov dog whistle of this age. People need it. It frightens me, I am an old man. Oddly, these internets don't bug me much. Cause when I leave the house, I don't take them with me. I could, of course. With a cell phone.

book of dead philosophers

A few days ago I finished up "The Book of Dead Philosophers" by Simon Critchley. It's a fantastic collection of about 190 page-length micro-essays on the deaths and philosophies (sometimes just the deaths) of famous philosophers, dating back to Thales and going through to modern times. This book is full of great meditations on what it is to be a philosopher, from Cicero's "learning how to die" to the kid gloves version: "learning how to live."

I found a quote in there that I particularly enjoy, in that I feel it explains the ideologies of certain people whom I tend to disagree with on a regular basis.

On page 222, Critchley writes (in an essay on Hannah Arendt):

"...[I]f one views political life from a contemplative philosophical distance, one inevitably sees the people as a rabble to be controlled by one form or other of authoritarianism, rather than a human pluality to be participated in and celebrated."

The book is great, check it out.

calling aboritionists murderers doesn't lead to murders

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/the-politics-of-murder_b_209961.html

Interesting article, but wrong. The writer accuses the right-wing tactic of labeling abortionists as "murderers" as leading to violent acts...completely forgetting a year ago, when calling George W. Bush a murderer was the cool thing to do, if you were slightly left-inclined. There's even a book on it! "Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" or something. I own it. It was good, and correct, and futile. I'd link you, but I'm hungry for tacooossss. Wait, before I go, my point is this: the weird protesters who fuck with abortion clinics are more violent than the Cindy Sheehans of the world, and it's true no one on the left shot anyone on the right (at least, nothing that made it public) over it, but you can't say that calling someone a murderer leads to murder. Believing you're an agent of God, however, will do it up quick, I tell ya.