QQ : NUMBER THIRTY - MAY 1, 2012

                                                 PRIORITIES, WHAT PRIORITIES?

QQ:  1.  LETTERS FROM THE FRONT

The social media phenom continues to mystify me. Instagram, at a billion dollars, sets a new level of a surrealistic commentary on what is considered to be valuable and important.

Instagram - I can't wait to see that next image of what you had for breakfast. Your cute kitties make me swoon. Your sunset is more sunset than the sun has ever set before, especially at 300 dpi in a one-inch square image on a cracked, faded screen. You have changed my life.

QQ:  2.   STAND YOUR GROUND

One hundred innocent people were shot to death in America today as they are, on the average, every day.

One hundred innocent people were shot to death in Syria today as they have been every day for the past several months.

Neither of these holocausts seem to trouble us all that much. In fact, the American one troubles us not at all. The front page of a recent New York Times carries an image and article about new men's fashions designed for the concealment of carried weapons.

Stand your ground and stand proud. We are Americans. Just don't wear a hoodie.

In Syria, there is no need for concealment nor for a comparable fashion statement.
So far, I'm loving the Arab spring. I'm also looking forward to the frozen, Mitt Romney, American winter. I forecast frogs, boils, locusts, lice and all the rest. The NRA will own the White House. Perhaps it already does. Watch out for your first born sons.

QQ:   3.   SCREEN-WANKING

Continuing my despair and wonder regarding the explosive impact of social media
I find the impact of a wall with my forehead somewhat comforting, especially when it occurs rhythmically with some force.

Facebook now insists on sharing with me the viral videos of fat asses shopping at Wallmart. This continues to be at the top of my news page on a daily basis. Zuck, you are starting to lose me. In fact, it seems that you lost a few billion this quarter. I have a suggestion for you. Perhaps some 'users' (oh how I love that word), simply are not interested in the voyeurism of 'sharing' (there's another of my favorite words) the soft porn images to which my 2000 'friends' have been wanking.

Anthony Wiener was a prophet, a visionary and a seer before his time. Had Instagram been around in his day, he would be a hero.


QQ:   4.   1949 WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR


Something is rotten in the digi-verse.

Lionel Ritchie has the number-one album on the Billboard charts this week. He is sixty- two years old. Bonnie Raitt has the number-six album. She is sixty-two years old. Madonna has a top-twenty album. She is two thousand years old.

The monumental  failure of the recorded music industry to recognize, develop and nurture talent that speaks to the marketplace is a business, cultural and social calamity.

Where are the entrepreneurs who "get it" and can see beyond The Voice and Idol?
But, of course, this decay goes far beyond popular music. We live with the prospect of a cultural winter within the wasteland of a digi-verse Tower of Babel. Monetize that.


QQ:   5.   MISSING A LINK


The widow of a Nigerian diplomat keeps reminding me in her e-mails that she has nowhere to store her five-hundred million dollars. She apparently has  sought me out specifically and individually as the beneficiary of her good will. She does not spell very well and her sentence construction leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately, I find myself pre-occupied with more pressing needs requiring my attention. These needs include my unsuccessful attempts at trying to fathom what the hell LinkedIn is.

I seem to be missing a link despite the fact that I am linked to various and sundry peers and an ever-expanding assembly of complete strangers.

Perhaps they will send me a picture of a sunset or of their new puppy. I hate to be missing out on the Nigerian offer, but that puppy is so cute! LinkedIn apparently is "professional" as opposed to Facebook which is all about how you scrambled your eggs this morning. I have yet to discover the difference between the two. They tell me corporations hire through LinkedIn. I guess there's no soup for me. Just send me an Instagram of your cupcakes and I'll add that to my profile.


QQ:   6.   NOW THAT'S A CUTE FROG


The competition for our time and our attention is a powerful, economic force. The time that we devote to Facebook sunsets and puppies carries astronomic, monetary value. Could it be that our time and attention are misdirected? Could it be that there are more valuable areas upon which to focus our energy? Facebook was all about Zuck's libido. The Twit-verse keeps us up on Beliebers and their world-shattering agendas. The list of interactive sites competing for our trivia is mind-boggling. Vimeo, Deezer, Tumblr, Google plus and so it goes. Where is the redeeming value? It is said that we are connected. To what? A viral image of a seated frog?  Now that's what I call funny.


QQ:   7.   COMPROMISE THIS


Perhaps it is the "middle" that is the most negative and the most insidious. The extremes at least gave us a bar to which we may set our relative perspective. But now that Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and Dick Santorum have fallen by the wayside, we revert to compromise. There should have been an Eleventh Commandment. Thou shalt not compromise. Perhaps compromise is the greatest evil. Neville Chamberlain's compromise with Hitler was the trigger that set off the Holocaust. Barry Obama's attempts at compromise have been a sad failure. Mitt Romney's compromise with the Tea Party requires him to deny his own beliefs and his own proven and successful policies.

American troops are now based in Australia within the policy a left of center government. There's a compromise for you. China is at once our bank and our nemesis.

In Canada, Albertan Liberals voted for the Conservatives in a recent election. This was a compromise to deny power to a racist, fascistic, far-right challenger. Progressive Liberals sold out.

Perhaps, if a natural cycle had been allowed to manifest itself, the left would be in a better position to react, reform and respond. But now they are a dead issue. The can go home and give up to the winner of their compromise decision. It is Big Oil. Keystone here we come!


QQ:   8.  AUSTERITY MEASURES


When the going gets tough, the tough say "you're fired".
Austerity as social and economic policy is an odd way to deal with the breakdown of an economy. How can it be in the best interest of a society and an economy to allow the poor, the disenfranchised, the unemployed and the hungry to fend for themselves?

History shows time and again that the slaves will ultimately revolt. They always do.

But first, austerity measures will be put in place to trim the herd. That's how we delay the inevitable.

Infrastructure be damned. In fact, if the dams do fail, perhaps the social experiment that was Katrina could be extended. Then the bridges, the highways, the water supply and the environment could be permitted to fail in order extend the 'final solution'.
That's what I call intelligent design. Ayn Rand would be proud.

Is Alan Greenspan not the personification of all that is evil in the universe?


QQ:   9.   BROWN POWER


Historically, enormous swaths of territory, now part of the USA, were originally Mexican territory. That being the case, there are millions of Americans who bear some of the physical characteristics of their Mexican heritage.

It's likely that people with that particular physical profile can now be mandated to present their 'papers' to the police in an interaction as mundane as a traffic violation.

It is, in fact, a Brave New World. The words 'Police State' now has a whole new meaning. I wonder how off-duty police of Mexican heritage in Arizona are going feel when confronted by their uniformed colleagues . They could arrest each other and deport themselves back to Acapulco. It's truly Catch 22 revisited.


QQ:   10.   COME BACK DR. MENGELE


When Adolph Hitler designed his agenda to create the Third Reich, much of his concept was based on social manipulation. The Aryan race was deemed to be superior and then various other strata of society were set up as levels of a caste or altogether undesirable. The 'undesirables' were gathered up and eliminated. The others were put to battle or to work for the greater cause.

In this next election cycle in America in 2012; poor, uneducated, unemployed, uninsured Caucasians will vote for Mitt Romney.

Their lot will most likely improve as the conservative social manipulation experiment develops. More Katrinas, more wars, more prisons and more failures of infrastructure will take care of the undesirables. Power will return to normal, law-abiding, church-going, God-fearing people who have the superior, Aryan, racial profile. They don't need or want entitlements, Social Security, medical insurance or even teeth. Because God and Smith and Wesson are on their side.

From Sea to shining Sea.


Etched on my Stone Tablet

Edit: Batsheva