Douchebaggage (n)

The carryon luggage in the lives of those who believe they soar above our lives, but instead crash among us and disturb us in their wake.

Homemade coffee for the win.

Ingredients:

Cold, filtered water
Organic fair trade coffee beans

Tools:
 Coffee grinder
 Coffee press

Steps:
- grind the beans.
- heat the water.
- put them in the press.
- filter the coffee.

Results:
Joy.

Conservatism and mental illness

Specifically, the legacy of the sainted Ronald Reagan.

Let there be no mistaking my position: I think he was a charming man who was good to his friends, gave the American public a soothing image of leadership, and committed great harm first to California, and then the US and the world.

This harm was due to his following of basic real-world conservative ideology. In surface terms it's "small government and personal responsibility". In real-world action, its "Winners call the shots, and losers can go fuck themselves". Where "Loser" is defined as anyone who is not powerful to begin with.

To provide cover for this core ideology takes a lot of work. The many smokescreens involve "State's rights", "Big government is always bad", "activist judges are a travesty". But you can tell they're smokescreens because such issues are never problems when they can result in something conservatives like. The outcome of Bush v. Gore in 2000, for instance. The huge expansion of Federal government power and removal of constitutional restrictions on executive power under Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes. The many activist judgements of Scalia, Roberts, Alito and Thomas.

With inconsistencies like this, to follow conservative "philosophy" thus becomes an emotional matter. Following any one of the many items that make up the current conservative movement to a logical conclusion results in unacceptable cognitive dissonance. So any logical thought is cut off immediately once it reaches a certain point. This is literally mental illness by choice. It explains how Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have any listeners, let alone Sarah Palin. It also explains how the GOP is paralyzed in terms of providing actual solutions - trying to solve any single problem will alienate most of their constituency.

This is not something new. It dates back to conservative intellectual William F. Buckley and before. For good fun, look up the debates of Noam Chomsky vs Buckley. The match was the logical equivalent of Bruce Lee vs. an angry fat kid.

And this is because holding the tenets that Buckley did, logic was *impossible*. Don't get me wrong, Buckley was a very smart man. His skill was in wording conservatism so that it actually *sounded* reasonable. Instead of a bunch of emotionally-based crap meant to support the status quo of keeping WASP's in power. (And I say this as a WASP.)

What is particularly interesting to me, then, is the result of this actual chosen mental illness in action: an increase of *unchosen*, untreated and potentially dangerous mental illness in the streets.

This is on my mind because yesterday a woman lost her mind, cut loose and stabbed 4 people in a Target. A target that a friend of mine almost went to that same day. Here in Los Angeles - which has more than its share of truly crazy people with nowhere to live but on the streets.

One of the main reasons for this is California's legacy of conservative policy in action: the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act which Ronald Reagan as governor passed in 1972. It made involuntary commitment much more difficult - so the truly crazy who don't think they're crazy can roam the streets *until* they do something defined as criminally insane.

This same act also pushed the mentally ill onto community centers, i.e. off of state budgets - and also without increasing any of the local or community budgets. Thus also allowing Reagan to cut the state budget.

Which is what really matters - lower taxes. Because who cares about some people who are so crazy they might hurt themselves or others? They should have chosen to be born healthy, or at least rich.

Does that sound like a prescription for a society that works well - for anybody, including the rich?

If you said no, congratulations. You have chosen a sane outlook on social policy.

Eating Crowe

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/apr/28/russell-crowe-gladiator

During the filming of "Gladiator", Crowe allegedly threatened to kill a 77-year old producer, for not giving Crowe's assistants the salary Crowe demanded for them.

If that is true - which it may well not be - then in my dreams the producer would respond to Crowe with something like "Say that again, so I can sue your bitch ass out of existence."

Maybe Crowe had a bad moment. And the alleged argument was over salaries for Crowe's assistants, so he is at least in theory trying to benefit someone else. It just seems like a typical grown man's tantrum - when you can't get your way, scream and yell until you do.

And this macho posturing is never directed at those of equal or greater power. Just those in some way weaker. As primate psychology, it makes perfect sense. As a human being, I think it fucking stinks.

It can work for a lot of people a fair amount of the time - in the short term. In the long term, people who act like this live increasingly crappy lives. People do less for them, work less with them, and can actively work against them. So is the real-life implementation of karma - for most people.

But stars are a little different. The consequences can be very long delayed. Their money fame and power cause others to tolerate their tantrums. Unlike businessmen, they don't even have to show a logical pretense for their tantrums.

So while this destructive behavior would put a common man into a legal situation of Check Yourself v. Wreck Yourself, Crowe's insulated from the worst effects - at least, as long as his name continues to put butts in the seats.

In a common man, this behavior would also be a sign of someone about to lose it. But Crowe probably isn't crazy - at least not yet. You do have to be in basic control of yourself in order to be excellent at a craft. Which, to give the man his due, he is.

What this sounds like instead, is a fake flex of crazy. Which is far more common in LA than elsewhere. People can *pretend* to be crazy to get what they want, because a) there really are so many literally insane people here, that LA's economically middle-class and upper-class people would rather back away than take the risk, b) people drive everywhere and work inside, so they just aren't used to unwanted interactions, and c) even if they are crazy, they can still affect your career with their money or connections. So many people's immediate response is to back off for various reasons.

But this guy Crowe allegedly threatened is, once again, 77 and a producer. How much further up the ladder do you have left to climb? Wouldn't you rather not take shit instead? I ask you. Let alone that he's also a holocaust survivor. Wtf. (If this story is true, Crowe should be kidnapped at night and beaten senseless by Israeli commandos.)

But I digress. The elderly producer guy was probably not worried by any alpha-male shaved-chest chest-beating. He was probably far more scared of Crowe leaving the film halfway through, and leaving behind a multi-million-dollar miscarriage. So those with fame and power who know how to flex crazy get what they want out of sheer bullying, and are so rarely called on it that they actually don't seem to understand its happening when it happens.

And that right there makes LA a far worse place to live. Which, call me crazy, is a goddamn shame.

On the other hand, Joachim Phoenix who also starred in "Gladiator" is also a *great* actor - who may actually be going crazy. A key indicator: his erratic behavior isn't somehow increasing his status.

Then again, he may be pulling another kind of fake crazy - an Andy Kaufman. Which at least is a crazy I can tolerate.

Self-Whelp

The Lord whelps those who whelp themselves.

I.e. we are responsible for raising ourselves, yada yada - we can't pick our parents, whatever God(s) exist, or what they put outside us. But we can choose how to take it and walk through it. And we can give ourselves what we need to prosper, and put books in our own hands that are worth reading.

And then we can still be like surly teenagers to us as self-parenting overlords. Its a full cycle, isn't it?

Tea Party Nutcake Recipe

1 part fear of change,
1 part xenophobia,
1 part unacknowledged racism
1/2 part genuine gripes with a twist of complete misinformation
a pinch of crazy

Mix in manipulative elitists who wouldn't let them into the same country club, but can fake the right down-home style o' speakin'

Simmer until election time, hope the pot doesn't boil over and backlash,

and serve to their corporate masters.

Poutsourcing

Externally dislocating one's inner grouchiness to factors outside oneself.

You own internal mental labor force works hard to make you feel like crap, and you reward them by giving factors *outside* yourself all the credit? That's completely unfair!

The Union might have a meeting about this.