Don't be evil

que mal plan con billy corgan... totalmente anti-google, heh.

Llevaba una tercera parte del concierto cuando llama al público a que vea a un chico con una pancarta...

"Señor, señor," decía con su distintiva voz nasal y (whiny) midwestern twang. Y luego viene el kicker...

"If you're going to request a song, the least you could do is wear a Smashing Pumpkins approved t-shirt, instead of some cheap ass bootleg you bought outside, motherfucker!"

Le salió el id/ello o como se llame, de plano. El tipo se convirtió en un arquetipo frente a mi. O será más bien que mi percepción cambió. Su voz se tornó en algo molesto, casi aterrante, y tuve una epifanía psicológica. Oh, claro, con razón se sale la gente de la banda cada rato, los corre o corren pero que flojera jalar con un cabrón tan insportable, aunque sea talentoso.

Ok, dejaré de usar las itálicas ya.

La gente abucheó, se rió, no se si el abucheo era para el pobre tipo o para Corgan. Según el north side era en contra de la camisa pirata, pero yo lo dudo.

No estoy a favor de la piratería, en cierto sentido vivo de mi creatividad. Soy mexicana, y no me pega el sentido de indignación como a los gringos, jajajaja. Veo la pérdida económica, tanto para Britney y Billy como para el ingeniero en sonido que vive de su trabajo.

También veo a la persona que se está ganando la vida en la economía informal en parte porque la economía formal en México tiene muchos obstáculos para capitalizarse. La marchanta que da un valor agregado a su producto al dar recomendaciones a sus clientes es una enterpreneur, so there all you Wharton MBAs, ja.

Total, no me gusta la piratería, pero tampoco pienso que se necesita usar ese lenguaje y ese tono de voz. Dios, soy mi mamá. Pero bueno, es mi opinión.

Ahh, y luego del veneno, el wey tiene la osadía de decir "god bless". WTF!!! Que hipócrita. Sabía que esa sotana que uso por varios albums era por algo!

Después de eso ya no me pude prender. Fuimos simplemente por oír que tocaran Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness, y una que otra de Siamese Dream, pero ya no fue lo mismo. En el aspecto técnico fueron excelentes, son buenos músicos. Pero no me puedo entusiasmar con alguien que nefastea de tal manera, alguien que es tan nefasto, valga la rebuznancia.

No traían pantallas. ¿Qué diablos pensaban que venían a tocar al Café Iguanas? Claaro que necesitas pantallas en la Arena, ¿que no han hecho giras antes? ¿A qué le tira tocando el himno gringo? cosillas así.

Y es que nadie le ganará a las 3 horas y 33 canciones de Cafeta, con su excelente producción y sus luces tan chidas, con el pasito duranguense y las chicas banda y la improvisación de Meme y los piropos a su público cuando silbamos María....

Incluso Radiohead, será perfecto pero no creo que tengan esa convivencia con su público. Si la piel se pone chinita, no es lo mismo porque las canciones no habaln de lo absurdamente feliz que es la vida a veces y la inmortalidad del cangrejo.

Ahora sólo me falta ver a Spoon y a Jorge Drexler en vivo. Y tal vez Arcade Fire. Que ansia y oso que iremos a ver Bright Eyes, jajajaa, a ver si no nos golpean por emos.

Karl Rove is a perverse genius

The WSJ does their share of ass kissing today with a very flattering profile of Cindy McCain, business woman, charity worker, mother of an adopted child extraordinaire. I'm sorry for picking on the candidate's spouse, but I'm going to go ahead on this one.

It's not really Ms. McCain that interests me here, it's all the angles the Journal covered. It kicks off with a compliment about her hostessing skills. Can you say that about Bill? What about Michelle, won't she make you uneasy with all the uncomfortable questions?

There are a couple of references to her iPod and Blackberry. Hoping this hip image might rub off on John? He may be 71 and remind you of a grumpy grandpa who wants the kids off his lawn, but he's groovy and with it! (yes, no one uses groovy, that's my point precisely)

They bring up an old painkiller addiction that came about after a couple of back surgeries (yes, she's human and frail, just like you!).

"I was trying to be the perfect woman", says Ms. McCain. Awww, direct quote so we can empathize aaand something that speaks to all those working women out there.

All this happened around the time of the Keating Five Scandal, after Lincoln Savings & Loan imploded, costing U.S. taxpayers some $3.4 billion dollars. Did Rupert's rag mention this amount? Three guesses.

The article mentions the infamous barbecue weekend. Except for the Journal, it was not infamous. Those ribs were delicious, I'll tell you!

My point is, this piece is loaded with spin. The "Cindy is a very private person" shtick. How she reassured the employees at the family firm after her father's death,

"I want the employees and their families to know that I will take care of them the way my dad has", again, direct empathy quote.

Last, how she has "always" been proud of her country, unlike Michelle Obama. This is a very good (or very bad?) piece of spin, and I for one thing, am afrain of Karl Rove. Are you there, Karl? It's me, Xoch.

últimamente he ido a varios conciertos o toquines. Hoy veré a los smashing, la neta lo único que quiero es cantar Tonight, Tonight. Me encanta ese video de homage a George Meliés. De hecho si definiera como sueño, sería algo entre Meliés, Chagall, y los libros de la sep que le ponen caras a las nubes. La neta no se ni madres de arte, pero más o menos así recuerdo muchos sueños, como si fuera escenografía de cartón repintada con gis y con líneas curvas que simbolizan movimiento o que las cosas se mecen, como un niño montando un caballito de cartón /madera.

bueno, me desvío. Veré a Billy Corgan & Co, el sábado vi a los plastilinos con sus greatest shits (their wording, not mine) y a los invisibles (papis), hace unas semanas a los tacubos, a mr stewart, y pronto a bright eyes (eww!) y a radiohead.

El punto es que me encanta cuando se nota lo bien que se la están pasando. Nada de emos pendejos que hacen jeta. Imagínate a The Bravery cantando... o the Strokes, yo los vi. Cero improvisación, cara de hemorrín todo el tiempo. Que cool....que aburrido.

Microtrends. I knew iT! and our endless classifying and categorizing WORKS (at least if you believe marketers)

Well, if I'm ever out of a job my penchant for categorizing and predicitng people based on what they eat / read/ wear / listen to/ watch will come in handy for my next career.... instant pundit!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER? THE POLLSTER WANTS TO KNOW
By KIM SEVERSON

If there's butter and white wine in your refrigerator and Fig Newtons in the cookie jar, you're likely to vote for Hillary Clinton. Prefer olive oil, Bear Naked granola and a latte to go? You probably like Barack Obama, too. And if you're leaning toward John McCain, it's all about kicking back with a bourbon and a stuffed crust pizza while you watch the Democrats fight it out next week in Pennsylvania.

If what we eat says a lot about who we are, it also says something about how we might vote. Although precincts and polls are being parsed, the political advisers to the presidential candidates are also looking closely at consumer behavior, including how people eat, as a way to scavenge for votes.

The practice is called microtargeting, as much political discipline as buzzword. The idea is that in the brand-driven United States, what we buy and how we spend our free time is a good predictor of our politics.

Political strategists slice and dice the electorate into small segments, starting with traditional demographics like age and income, then mixing consumer information like whether you prefercasinos or cruises, hunting or cooking, a Prius or a pickup.

Once they find small groups of like-minded people, campaigns can efficiently send customized phone, e-mail or direct mail messages to potential supporters, avoiding inefficient one-size-fits-all mailings. Pockets of support that might have gone unnoticed can be ferreted out.

"This is essentially the way Williams-Sonoma knows which of its catalogs to send you," said Christopher Mann of MSHC Partners, a political communications firm, which has used microtargeting to help dozens of successful candidates, including Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

Although gender, religion and other basic personal data are much more valuable for pollsters, information about eating - along with travel and hobbies - are in the second tier of data used to predict how someone might vote, he said.

So, for example, Mann knows that someone who subscribes to lots of gourmet cooking magazines is more likely to be a Democrat or at least more open to progressive causes. That can help a campaign decide if it's worth spending money courting that person's vote.

Although Karl Rove was not the first to use microtargeting in a campaign, he brought it to new levels of sophistication and prominence, dividing swing voters into groups like "tax and terrorism moderates." The strategy helped send George Bush back to the White House in 2004.

Matthew Dowd, the former chief strategist for Bush who is now a political commentator for ABC, helped orchestrate that effort. The Bush team studied food preferences, among dozens of other traits, as a shortcut to finding independents who might lean Republican, he said.

For example, Dr Pepper is a Republican soda. Pepsi-Cola and Sprite are Democratic. So are most clear liquors, like gin and vodka, along with white wine and Evian water. Republicans skew toward brown liquors like bourbon or scotch, red wine and Fiji water. When it comes to fried chicken, he said, Democrats prefer Popeyes and Republicans Chick-fil-A.

"Anything organic or more Whole Foods-y skews more Democratic," Dowd said.

But consumer information has to be studied in context.

"I don't know how much you can use food or drink alone to determine how they will vote," he said.

"You can't have a candidate with a Pepsi-Cola and Pizza Hut box and think that's going to win an election for you."

Jeff Navin, managing director of American Environics, a progressive research and strategy firm, agrees.

"Knowing that your base drinks gin doesn't give you a clear idea on how to communicate with them effectively on issues," he said.

"But if you take it a level deeper and say, are there psychological drivers that will help understand the values behind the behavior, you can speak to those values and persuade voters."

Navin offers an example from his firm's ongoing survey that periodically asks 1,800 people in-depth questions about their lives. In last summer's polling, the latest available, Clinton scored high among voters who also had favorable views of McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Starbucks.

That led his team to conclude that Clinton supporters put a high value on national brands. Although the landscape in the Democratic race has shifted since the poll was conducted, Navin said, back then the name Clinton was the most popular national Democratic brand.

Mark Penn, a microtargeting expert who was dismissed as chief strategist for the Clinton campaign last week, wrote a book on the subject: "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes" (Twelve, 2007). Although Penn, who claims credit for coining the term "soccer mom," didn't specifically seek out research on the dining habits of voters, he does use food as a way to define the candidates.

Specifically, he points to Obama's comments about the rising price of arugula at Whole Foods during a campaign stop in Iowa.

"He has more of the arugula vote," he said in an e-mail message last week.

"Senator Clinton's voters are more likely to be making ends meet and so they do a lot more cooking at home and a lot less eating out at expensive restaurants."

Although Obama's team is also using consumer data to target voters, the campaign is focusing more on what one adviser called "macrotargeting." The idea is to build a unified, all-encompassing Obama brand that works well across all kinds of media platforms.

"I would say we're old-fashioned in that you have to look at America as a whole," said Bill Burton, Obama's national press secretary.

That's not to say they don't have specific information about voters, he said. And the campaign isn't above using food to gain an edge. After the founders of Ben and Jerry's endorsed Obama, the campaign blog quickly suggested a new ice cream flavor that plays off of a favorite campaign slogan: Yes, Pecan.

Whether a campaign uses a lot or a little consumer information, it can cause trouble if not interpreted correctly, some political veterans cautioned.

An environmentally minded independent who trends Democratic might buy organic milk, but so might an independent conservative who is more concerned about the health of her children than the state of the earth. They buy the same product, but for different reasons. Send an environmental message to the conservative and you could lose her vote.

That's why some, notably James Carville, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, see microtargeting as a waste of time and money. Although he believes the cost of food is a fast-rising issue among voters, knowing what they eat doesn't win elections.

"Suppose I found out people who drink cappuccinos are Democrats and black coffee drinkers are likely to vote Republican?" he asked. "So what? All kinds of other things are more predictive and less expensive to find out."

Besides, the lines between who eats what continues to blur. Republicans are not necessarily red-meat-eating bourbon swillers, and not all Democrats are carrying their lattes to the farmers'market.

Mann recently saw someone on a Metro train in Washington with a Bush/Cheney sticker on his bag reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," Barbara Kingsolver's meditation on eating local food.

Some people who cook and serve food have been students of microtargeting for years. JoAnn Clevenger, the owner of the Upperline restaurant in New Orleans, doesn't need a data set toidentify how customers might vote. She just watches what they order.

"The Republicans are more formal and have more attention to structure when they eat," she said. The classic example would be her delicate trout meuniere. Democrats tend to order earthy, down-home food with lots of juice for sopping, like Cane River country shrimp with garlic, bacon and mushrooms.

But lately she's seen a lot of interest from both sides for her Oysters St. Claude. The oysters are coated with corn flour, gently fried and then slipped back into their shells and covered with anadventurous, Morrocan-style sauce seasoned with ground whole lemons, garlic, cayenne and paprika. It's the ultimate crossover dish, and she believes it's popular this year because voters are being pulled in several directions.

"You have a respect and a yearning for the past," she said, "but a feeling like you want something new and exciting that says let´s go all the way."

Campaña Social

Estos prints, que me encontré en el briefblog, son de una campaña tailandesa en contra de la pederastia. Son de Creative Juice/G1, y les aviso que están bastante fuertes. Sin embargo, creo que son buenísimos en lograr su cometido, porque la reacción que provocan, al menos en mi, es instantánea y visceral. No son pornográficos en sí (bueno, para mi no) pero si transmiten el dolor, confusión, el aspecto antisocial, del asunto.

http://www.briefblog.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/thaichild_anal.jpg
http://www.briefblog.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/thaichild_oral.jpg

Muchas veces estas campañas sociales dramatizan o chantajean, como por ejemplo la de los huercos mamertos y la piratería, de que si tu haces trampa comprando pirata yo hago trampa en el examen y la madre. No creo que en este caso estén dramatizando en exceso, mas bien creo que estan interpretando el dramón que viven las víctimas de la pederastia. Deberían poner estos posters afuera de las iglesias de los Legionarios.

Uncle Zeta wants YOU

http://www.elnorte.com/nacional/articulo/423/845154

Una manta en Nuevo Laredo:

Grupo operativo Los Zetas te quiere a ti militar o ex militar: te ofrecemos buen sueldo, comida y atenciones a tu familia, ya no sufras maltratos y no sufras hambre, nosotros no te damos de comer sopas maruchan.

Dicen los militares que eso refleja la desesperación de los zetas porque están acorralados, por no poder trabajar ante los operativos del Ejército y que no representa ninguna tentación para los militares...ja!

Osea, sí, puede ser una manera de bravuconear, pero esto refleja mas bien que les vale madre si la ley los ve.

Retirar droga del mercado resulta en un alza de precios, y eso hace el negocio más atractivo. El problema se trasladó de Colombia para acá. Ahora nosotros a donde lo vamos a transferir?

http://www.elnorte.com/estados/articulo/423/845133/

Chemical engineer in Zacatecas who claims to cure cancer with herbs, by giving microdoses which will correct DNA defects caused by pesticides in veggies, clembuterol in meat products and radiation in canned goods.

Exhibamos nuestras miserias...

Pone en Mónaco el toque regio

Orgullosa de sus raíces mexicanas y de su tierra regiomontana, Estela Páez no pierde oportunidad de enaltecer a Monterrey cada vez que visita a la familia real de Mónaco.

Esto corresponde a una edición suburbana, no de Gente.

WTF con verbos como "convivir"

Pooobre que Almodovar le urge saber (de la boca de esta persona, no less!) si en Monterrey vemos sus movies.

Men Explain Things to Me. Facts Didn't Get in Their Way

Men Explain Things to Me. Facts Didn't Get in Their Way

Wonderful essay by Rebecca Solnit on the Tomdispatch about the subtle (and not so subtle) ways some men put women down, assuming they know what we don't, and we need to have it explained.

Cosas raras del centro.. que diablos son los pañales agrícolas?

suena asqueroso.... más viniendo de Aguascalientes, de donde nunca ha salido nada bueno, por más que mi papá cante odas en su nombre (con la honrosa excepción de los herrera...aunque a veces eso tampoco es bueno). Me imagino un anuncio en la feria de San marcos, "pañales agrícolas!"

Tuve un sueño de lo más raro anoche. Iba a casa de Serrato (??) a jugar Guitar Hero, y cuando llegaba me decía que era un fraude porque nunca había terminado la carrera. Que en una de sus clases pasaban lista y decían mi nombre, entonces yo no me había titulado. Y por más que yo le decía que yo nunca estuve en la Uni, ni siquiera en prepa, el wey se enojaba cada vez más.

En eso llega Meléndez, un superjefe en mi oficina, con el cual yo tengo cero contacto, y me decía que como había mentido acerca de mi licenciatura y el MBA, me iba a correr. Pero lo decía tipo Donald Trump. De que, you're fired! Y mi pensamiento era, chale, tendré que vivir de mis blogs.

Para empezar, blogs, plural? Aparte, no me preocupaba, que nada que ver con mi personalidad medio aprehensiva. (Aunque no lo crean, jajajaja). Oh, y otra cosa. todo el tiempo la música de fondo era You Were Always on my Mind, de Pet Shop Boys.

Mark Penn, Microtrends author and Dem's version of Karl Rove, leaves Clinton camp

Mark Penn is out. He was supposedly the closest thing the Clinton's had to Karl Rove, but his unfortunate remarks have hurt her campaign.

e.g. "Could we possibly have a nominee who hasn't won any of the significant states -- outside of Illinois? That raises some serious questions about Sen. Obama."

He has minimized Obama's wins saying caucus wins don't really count, small state wins don't really count, medium state wins don't really count, states with large African-American populations don't really count, et al.

The straw that broke the camel's back apparently was a conflict of interest, since his lobbyist organization was working with Colombia on gettint their free trade agreement with the U.S. pushed through, and Clinton was publicly against it. He met with a Colombian rep, apologized, was fired by Colombia, and then by the Clinton camp yest.

Does this mean the Clinton campaign will get back on the right track (was it ever?) or just another sign that it is floundering and that we may expect a resignation if they lose Pennsylvannia?

Hueva total mañanera y porqué no me gusta el redondeo

Pues llego al Seven a comprar un jugo (elaborado con 25% jugo de verdad!) y al pagar, me preguntan si le entro al redondeo. Le digo que sí al cajero, pero oh sorpresa, ya no es donación al Hospital Universitario.

Al preguntar por el nuevo programa, me enseña un ´díptico (lo que sea) de un lugar llamado ANSPAC. Inmediatamente saltan a mi vista las palabras "moralidad" y "familia".

Le comento (amablemente pero con mi voz de hueva mañanera) que es un lástima que estén donando a una institución moralina, a lo que se defiende que ellos no deciden. Es un comentario, no espero que él pueda hacer algo. Total, este mes yo no voy a redondear en el Seven.

Subo a mi lugar, y claro que busco ANSPAC por internet (I Google!). La página confirma mis dudas y temores. Un extracto:

La Directiva Nacional ha escogido para nuestro ya tradicional concurso anual la elaboración de un TARJETERO, en el cuál se sugiera un propósito que contribuya a nuestra superación, apoyándonos en alguna frase célebre o texto de la Biblia, que nos ayude a alcanzar nuestras metas.

El TARJETERO deberá estar formado por 24 tarjetas (dos para cada mes del año) y cada una de ellas debe contener una cita o frase de apoyo, con un propósito definido para trabajar en una tarea específica.

Te invitamos a participar, utilizando toda la creatividad y la capacidad de expresión que te caracteriza como mujer ANSPAC.

Que pinche horror, y luego tan temprano en la mañana, jajajaa.

I (heart) Google

I love Google.

There aren't enough words to express my love. I can't live without it. I worship at the altar of Page & Brin & the Googleplex and all those people who make my life better (kidding...not)

Does anybody know how to sort results by date rather than relevance? I can do this with the News, but not with the Web results. Just wondering.

Since I saw Rod Stewart day before yest, let's sing to the Goog:

Have I told you lately
that I love you?
Have I told you
there's no one else above you?

You fill my heart with gladness
Take away all my sadness
Ease my troubles,
that's what you do


Laugh, but it's true.... and I'll be posting odes to Wikipedia and Imdb next.


Today's other musings:
Espresso and coffee n' go don't go together.
How long until pharmaceutical companies develop medication for procrastination? and how will the marketers motivate people to stop procrastinating on "talking to their doctor?"

Leer para Creer y el Efecto Mariposa

This is straight out of Ripley's believe it or not, but sadder. I don't think it happened in Mexico back in '95, but we had squatters or "posesionarios", didn't we? Funny how all these things converge, and a lot of it is somehow related to oil and Iraq.

Some homes worth less than their copper pipes

Rising metal prices have rendered some foreclosed homes worth less than their plumbing, and theives are stripping the vacant abodes of copper, aluminum, and brass to fuel a lucrative overseas trade.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2527885420080401

It may sound like leftist drivel, but the reason commodities are rising is (in part) 'cause oil is so expensive. Take corn. Some people are trying to use corn-based ethanol since oil is $100+ bucks a barrel, and that creates more demand which results in more expensive corn. Also, most fertilizers used today are oil based, which keeps raising oil demand and therefore oil and corn prices.

It's a sick little loop, inflation. I had an Econ teacher who used to explain it by tellling us about the time the lady who sold "semillitas" at the stoplight raised her rates since sugar was up. He told her semillitas didn't have sugar in them, to which she replied, "Ah, but I use sugar in my coffee".

Invading Iraq has not lowered oil prices as anyone can see. And invading Iran is not the answer either. Thank God Bush is on his way out, but I'm not too sure about McC at this point. It's possible that if he turns out to be a manifest destiny freak, the current geopolitic tension and iraqui insurgents blowing up oil pipelines will seem like the good old days.

So, everything is related and the butterfly effect is real. My primary obsession, as most of you know, is getting all the (right) facts and reading them correctly in order to see the Big Picture. I'm reading the Black Swan right now and Taleb sort of goes against that. Although maybe I need to finish it first. Anyway, I ran accross this random piece of news and wanted to share.

American Propaganda: subtle, insidious, sugarcoated, focus-grouped, and market-tested.

Weekday Update

Haven't written in forever, since my workdays have been too hectic recently, and I've been just way too burnt out at the end of the day. Sort of forgot my promise to myself, to just do it (just write) and let things flow.

So I apologize to myself, and to whomever might be reading this out there.

I have seen some cool movies recently, read some good books and listened to some mind blowing music, so I'll write about that instead of moaning about the economy or my job or whatever.

First off, Cafe Tacuba last Friday was awesome! Impressive, mind bending, and looong. Three hours worth of music, and they still had enough songs for three more. The Arena really does have great acoustics, and you can see the stage perfectly from wherever you're seated.

Ruben Albarrán, who's calling himself Cone Cahuitl these days, is a demented dancing elf with a bratty punk sneer, but he's capable of crooning sweetly when the occasion so requires. He's cool, groovy, hip and square.

Meme is my hero, he's a musical genius! His geeky demeanor and his robot dance have completely won me over. So has have his improv skills. And his lyrics. And his keyboard and synth and programming. Meme rules. The Rangel brothers are also the coolest, and their bass and guitar are not to be taken lightly.

It was the best concert of the year so far, and I'd say I won't see better in 2008, but I already have my Radiohead tix so maybe I'll declare a tie.

We're going to Rod Stewart tonight, my mother's idea, so I expect I'll be listening to her sing Handbags & Gladrags, et al, all spring.

April also has the Smashing Pumpkins, Groove Armada, Sasha & Digweed, Plastilina Mosh and Los Amigos Invisibles, all in all a pretty good month. Aand Ennio Morricone and the Orquesta Roma Sinfonietta are coming in May with Musica per il Cinema!

Haven't read much fiction lately, I started the Name of the Rose but got caught up in all the work related Business/Economics non-fiction. I'm in the middle of the Black Swan, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It's counterintuitive but it's also not. I'm not sure yet if I can believe in what he says or it's just a lot of smoke. Problem is his theory isn't really the kind that will go down in parts, heh.

I also have a tall TBS (To Be Seen instead of To Be Read) pile, which includes There Will Be Blood (I knowww!!), The Lion in the Winter, Gone Baby Gone, The Assasination of Jesse James, and The Maltese Falcon. I can always see a comedy but I haven't found many good ones lately.

Oh, one thing. How come they completely ignored Sean Penn and Into the Wild at the Oscars? Really, that was insulting. Hal Holbrook? What about script, photography, direction, Eddie Vedder's music? Emile Hirsch? It's awful that movies like Into the Wild or Once get such limited releases when the Meet the Spartans is at every multiplex. It's one of the few redeeming cultural offerings Monterrey has, so called indie and international (Non USA) releases.

The gentle taste of a graceful lady

This is when I'm really sorry I quit American. You can't find Kasugai gummy candies with muscat juice here! Hey Rocco, if you read this while you're there, get some. But the ones that say they have "the gentle taste of a graceful lady" on the bag. I love the way the Japanese use English idioms, heh.

Why we should fear a McCain presidency... or English bloke thinks McCain is Bad News so how come Jon Stewart doesn't?

Why we should fear a McCain presidency

McC has the potential to be a worse president than Bush.

I can't believe I just wrote that, but at least that's what this British bloke over at the financial times wrote yesterday. I quote:

The problem that Mr McCain poses stems from his ideology, his policies and above all his personality. His ideology, like that of his chief advisers, is neo-conservative. In the past, Mr McCain was considered to be an old-style conservative realist. Today, the role of the realists on his team is merely decorative.

Anatol Lieven is a British journalist and policy analist. He studies U.S. global strategy and the war on terrorism (war on terror is incorrect!) at the New America Foundation in Washington.

His writing reads moderate, he calls forth valid examples. Being inmersed in American MSM, we may think he's got a Cassandra complex, but then again, Cassandra's prophecies were true, were they not?

Lieven has studied so called American patriotism and he wrote a book about it, America Right or Wrong. He calls it an optimistic "civic creed" rooted in respect for America's institutions, individual freedoms and constitutional law. The American way, the American thesis.

But every thesis has an antithesis, a soft, dirty white underbelly. In this case it's "a jingoistic, militaristic, Jacksonian nationalism that sees America as the bearer of a messianic mission to lead a Manichean struggle against the savages."

"I’d institute a policy that I call ‘rogue state rollback’. I would arm, train, equip, both from without and from within, forces that would eventually overthrow the governments and install free and democratically elected governments"

So said by McC in 2000. Walmart meets the CIA. Wasn't this precisely what they did in the the seventies and eighties with guys like Bin Laden? Gave them weapons and carte blanche to make war on nations the U.S. didn't feel like sharing their toys with, for example Russia?

So despite his Senatorial efforts in campaign finance, environmental law, budgetary overspending, the Abu Ghraib scandal, McCain has a potentially very dark side. He may not start wars for Chevron / Blackwater / Halliburton, but he can retaliate against a perceived slight.

And these Manifest Destiny types are dangerous anytime, anywhere, but I think there couldn't be a worse time for this type of Commander in Chief.

Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive ... That tension will not go away.

-Stewart Brand

This (Mamet word)-er could be on to something

David Mamet turns over to the dark side, and what it could mean for the Democrats come November.

David Mamet: Why I am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'

Basically, Mamet picked up some economics texts and realized the liberals' weakest link is, (drum roll here) ....the economy. Stop the presses.

No one listened, maybe because a) No one reads the Village Voice anymore, b) this came out the same week as Spitzergate or c) We're still wrapped up in Obama vs. Hillary and Obama's race speech. Take your pick, or maybe all three.

Some liberal media outlets/personalities dismissed it, but it didn't really cause headlines. Nine days later, someone over at the WSJ connects the dots, and writes about Mamet, Tom Stoppard and liberal autonomy.

David Mamet's Revision

Daniel Henninger, the author, does not Repubicanly dis the Democrats as touchy feely, granola hippies or anything like that. He does remind us that the Dems still have that early twentieth century distrust of big business and love of big government. And I find myself agreeing with him. With a Wall Street Journal editorial.

This is a case where the party has not evolved with the times, and it's ended up losing because of it. I do too distrust big business, but you don't accomplish much by shunning them. And that's kinda what they do, shoving their fingers in their (blue) ears and going nyah-nyah-nyah. You welcome Big Business, you work with them, you police them. You don't have to be their doormat.

And if more Americans realize that in the current economic climate, well, let's just say this is good news for John McCain. Especially if he can capitalize on the Republican business sense reputation while distancing himself from Bush overtones of cronyism. You think it can't be done? I for one wouldn't underestimate Karl Rove.

But all is not lost for the Dems, at least not yet. Obama has close ties with the University of Chicago, those heathen F.A. Hayek worshippers. And his policy people are rumored to be academic yet pragmatic economists who prefer to tinker with an existing system rather than make dramatic sweeping statements à la Big Idea loving Clintons.

The Audacity of Data: Barack Obama's surprisingly non-ideological policy shop. The New Republic

If somehow they can doll up their ideas enough to get the voters to pay attention for a bit, maybe have Jessica Alba present them, they may just win.

A Dear Ben letter

Read this! ----> Dear Ben: Seriously, Next Time, F*** Wall Street

What the average American probably thinks about Ben Bernanke, Bear Stearns, and Wall Street.

I think she gets some important facts wrong, but the sentiment is valid. Why should the Fed (which she equates with U.S. tax payers) have to bail out a bank that dug its own grave? When the buying power of the minimum wage employee is at a 51-year low? Really? You want to help Gordon Gekko?

Well, it's good to take a step back sometimes and ponder the alternatives to chasing our own tail all day. Life will go on, even if banks default.

And who really agrees with Ayn Rand anyway? the woman went on for about 50 pages on the evils of communism in Atlas Shrugged! For that alone, she irritated the hell out of me. Yes, freedom is paramount!! We get it, you don't need 50 pages of vitriol, we're not morons.

And for the record, just to annoy my Republican friends, Cuban schoolchildren are waaay more literate than Americans. And they have better healthcare. Also, it's important to note what George Carlin once said, that American's have sold a bunch of their freedoms for the illusion of safety, since 9/11. But that's a whole other kettle of fish.

Everybody wants to be the Underdog.

Pues ya están doblando las campanas y diciendo que Hilaria va a ganar, que va a barrer en Pennsylvania y en la convención le va a quitar la paleta a Obama.

Peroooo.... no tenemos acceso a números reales! No confío en Mainstream Media gringo. Están peor que el Nyse que se dejan llevar como borregos y están desconectados de Joe & Jane Sixpack.

Razones por las que Clinton no barrerá en las Pennsylvannias

4.2% de la población de Pennsylvania es latina, un grupo que tradicionalmente apoya a Clinton.

10.7% de la población del estado es negra**. Philadelphia es "The City of Brotherly Love". A poco van a dejar morir a su hermano Obama?

Ahora, hablemos del voto duro de Hilary, las mujeres y los blancos. O más bien, las mujeres blancas.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42000.html

De acuerdo al último censo,

51.4% de la población de Pennsylvania son mujeres.
85.7% son blancos
77.5% son mayores de 18 años.

Puedo deducir entonces que 34% de la población de Pennsylvania son mujeres blancas mayores de 18 años. Deduciendo solamente, con estos tres datos. No va a ser exacto pero por ahí andamos, antes de que empiezen a gritar que no estoy controlando para otras variables, etc.

De este 34%, no todas van a votar, a pesar de que la primaria de este estado es abierta y no tienes que estar registrado con ningún partido para participar, solamente ser ciudadano y estar en el padrón electoral.

Aparte, yo descontaría a las mujeres de 18 a 3o o hasta 35 años, porque ellas no son voto duro de Hillary. Hasta pueden ser simpatizantes de Obama. Con qué nos quedamos? un 28-30%? De una población de 12 millones 440 mil 621 personas... entonces estamos hablando de unas 3 millones y medio de mujeres? Y cuántas van a votar? La mitad? menos?

Uno de los problemas que tienen los demócratas es la falta de disciplina, la falta del "voto duro" que los republicanos sí tienen. Como el PAN, jajaja. Pero Obama ha salido adelante porque ha construido buenas bases, trae una estructura firme que es lo que les ha faltado al partido de los burros en los últimos años.

Ya se que estas son unas proyecciones muy, pero muy burdas, y que estos porcentajes no garantizan nada, y que realmente pocos votan, pero bueno, son indicadores.

Recuerden que a Hilaria no le va muy bien cuando se proyecta tan oronda y segura de si misma. Cuando parece que va a morir y se pone a chillar, es cuando viene de atrás y gana. De alguna manera se le olvida y vuelve a perder.


You got no fear of the underdog, that's why you will not survive - Spoon, the Underdog


** (no les choca eso de "African-American"? Tan PC que ya ni es verdad y a mi punto de vista hasta llega a insultar. Como si negro fuera algo malo)

Who dares to say my elixir is piss? who says dis? .. .Microsoft senior VPs do

They criticized Vista. And they should know

Ooohhh, BURN!

Mike Nash, a Microsoft vice president who oversees Windows product management.

Jon A. Shirley, a Microsoft board member and former president and chief operating officer.

Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's senior vice president responsible for Windows.

They all upgraded to Vista and then had issues with their software. Nash bought a laptop with a "Windows Vista capable" logo, which turned out to be false. He can't run applications like Microsoft Movie Maker (who uses that shit anyway?) or the full Vista either.

“I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine,” he says.

There is a class action lawsuit going on by people who bought "Windows Capable" machines, which is marketing bullshit. So internal Microsoft emails where requisitioned.

So, we come to our Sweeney Todd moment of the week...

Bill Gates: "Who dares to say my elixir is piss? who says dis?"

Bill's VPs: We do. We have opened a bottle of Vista's Elixer and we say to you, it is nothing but an arrant fraud, concocted from piss and ink.

Even the Mac vs. PC ads aren't this funny.

Desde cuando eres tan sabio kux?

Mi hermano tiene casi 20. Le llevo seis años. Me saca como veinte centímetros. Todos saben que nos llevamos muy, pero muy bien. Pero es mi hermano menor. Por lo tanto lo puedo mangonear, pendejear y pedirle favores y cubiertas ya que él hace lo mismo conmigo (menos la mangoneada y pendejeada). Para eso estamos las hermanas, y los hermanos, mayores.

Desde cuándo eres tan sabio kuku? Siempre he sabido que eres muy inteligente, incluso brillante. Sagaz, burlón, tímido, noble, egoísta, honesto, no confiable, leal, arrastrado, amigo y muchas otras cosas. Pero ahora podemos agregar... SABIO.

Kuku says:
aver a lo que yo he aprendido en esta hermosa vida es que existen dos tipos de amigos
1. con los que sales, te la pasas con madre pero les viene valiendo 582094582 kilos de verga si se te cae un brazo por descomposicion espontanea (muy usual en los paises sureños de africa)
2. los que estan contigo cuando te da por chillar como jirafa en celo LO CUAL SIGNIFICA que tu tmb tienes que ayudarlos en sus problemas de weba que usualmente oscilan entre "mi crush no me pela" y "mi mama no me comprende"

Kuku says:
hermana mia a estas alturas deberias saber que lo unico que se le puede decir es "----, te estas lastimando al posponerlo y deberias decirselo a ------ de una vez u olvidarte de el" <--- no te pelara pero cuando ella sola se desapendeje (snaps out of it citando a mi amiga de la infancia cher) ---- volteara y dira "xochitl fuiste tan buena conmigo te quiero y te debo la vida"

Kuku says:
aveces traes ganas de hechar a andar el cerebro y darles un consejo filosofal de como salir adelante en esta vida y lograr el nirvana al mismo tiempo ...

tambien podras admirar como te tiran al leon ya que su dolor de muela es mas improtante que tu tesis acerca de la cura a la desnutricion en niños africanos de 10- años ... oooooooooooooo... aveces no.

Y despues de varias practicas puestas a prueba y error me di cuenta que... lo unico que quieren es HABLAR y se sienten mejor hablando contigo que con la pared porque es menos patetico -.- y porque tu puedes decir "si" cada 5 mins y basicamente con eso podrias satisfacer sus necesidades basicas de gemir por su descontento con la vida

Liberal Manifesto

This was too good to pass up.

I agree with the text, but my hipsteur sensibilites recoil from such earnestness. I was like that when I was 17, thank you very much. I got beaten up for it. I got Paxil and Zoloft and all those wonderful drugs for it.

I especially love the What Would Jesus Do bit, since I'm more of the What Would Tyler Durden Do persuasion. I know I signed a social contract with moi to let myself believe but I still guffaw every now and then. Cynical Me says, "Dontcha just love self appointed liberals? And all those people willing to die for their beliefs? They think they can still beat the right!" Sorry!

I'm fatalist/pragmatist/realist. Then I repent and realize that at the end of the day, being cynical is the easy way out, and only hope can carry us through. It would help if words like hope hadn't been hijacked by Oprah and her crew.

I'll be good tomorrow, I promise.

Liberals believe in clean air, diplomacy, stem cells, living wages, body armor for our troops, government accountability, and that exercising the right to dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

Liberals believe in reading actual books, going to war as a last resort, separating church and hate, and doing what Jesus would actually do, instead of lobbying for upper-class tax cuts and fantasizing about the apocalypse.

Liberals believe in civil rights, the right to privacy, and that evolution and global warming aren’t just theories but incontrovertible scientific facts.

Liberals believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment that (1) prohibits another Bush from ever occupying the White House, and (2) prevents George W. Bush from ever becoming baseball commissioner before he does to our national pastime what he did for America.

Liberals believe in rescuing people from flooded streets and rooftops, even if they’re too poor to vote Republican.

Liberals believe that supporting our troops means treating our wounded vets like the heroes they are, and not leaving them to languish in rat-infested military hospitals under the outsourced management of incompetent cronies who think they’re running a Taco Bell franchise.

Liberals believe in pheromones, sex ed, solar panels, voting paper trails, the common good, and that, no matter how fascinating a story it may be, a president should never sit around in a state of total paralysis reading "My Pet Goat" while America is under attack.

And above all, liberals believe that it’s time to come together as a country and put a collective boot in the ass of shameless conservative fearmongers, hate merchants, and scapegoaters who are sucking the freedom out of all our souls.

You are the music while the music lasts.

-T.S. Eliot

It's strange that words are so inadequate. Yet, like the asthmatic struggling for breath, so the lover must struggle for words.

-T.S. Eliot

Just

Gender Wars

Ufffff, como diría Rusty.

¿Cómo será la persona privada de Hillary?

¿Será una sumisa de closet?

¿Se sentirá liberada al ceder control a alguien más, después de muchísima lucha interna?

Esto es o muy misógino y anti-progres, o al contrario, es demasiado progres.

En todo caso es muy privado para discutirlo aquí.

Dijo la chica que escribió y dirigió un corto sobre juegos sexuales y de sumisión.

Estúpida, estúpida Hillary.

Estúpido, estúpido Ohio. Lo mismo Texas.

Ahora de aquí al 22 de abril para las primarias de Pennsylvania.

Ahora Billary anda diciendo que esta competencia puede terminar en un "shared ticket". En el Early show de CBS, dijo, “Well, that may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket.”

Y luevo dijo que como ella ganó en Ohio ella debe ser la candidata presidencial. Ajá, sip. Obama tiene más delegados que tú, logró 11 victorias al hilo, pero como tú ganaste un mísero estado, debes ser la candidata presidencial, y Obama el vicepresidencial. Ya basta con su idea de que alguien le debe la presidencia. Bill le debe una disculpa, no la Casa Blanca.


Cambiando de tema, llevo dos días con una canción de Footloose en mi radio mental... Let's Hear it for the Boy!

Hmmmm, ¿qué significará?

Soy Woody Allen, neurótica en exceso.

Estoy en ese exquisito punto justo antes de dar el salto al vacío... Ya he tomado la decisión, falta la ejecución. Tengo mariposas. ¿Y si la respuesta es no? Pues no es el fin del mundo. ¿Y si no capto la respuesta? Pues tampoco puedo pasar del suelo, ¿o sí?

Quisiera una señal, un sí inequívoco... pero luego no sería interesante el asunto (dizque)....yo puedo vivir con eso.

Will someone pleeaase friggin comment? The suspense is killing me.

Omaha Steak

I haven't posted in like forever, mainly because there's so much going on right now.
Our Radiohead tickets are on their way, Bob Dylan's on tonight, I'm in love with Juno, etc. (The Oscars we're boring BTW), Dan and Tina are having a baby (this is HUGE news), and I've got a ton of work, a really good thing. Obamarama's catching, Billary really tipped her hand...

I just wanted to join the amarillista economic pundits wave and moan about the economy for five minutes, 'cause I've edited a note about Berkshire Hathaway. They posted an 18% decrease in earnings for the last quarter of 2007. I mean, Warren Buffett's comany is slowing down. That's to be expected even, right, but it still brought me up short.

Now, I snickered yesterday when Bush said they're not marching towards a recession, it's not like I'm Pollyana or something, and I know central bankers are optimistic and this is going to be a rough year.

But I had decided that cynicism is a lousy strategy, in the end (I'm quoting Seth Godin here), and it's too easy to criticize hope. It would be cooler for once to make a social contract with being informed yet not pessimistic so I was going to stop worrying about all these little passive aggressive economic indicators from the US economy that we get every five minutes.

Right now I just want Buffett to say something, and maybe send us some Omaha steaks, (kidding, I hate U.S. meat), 'cause also today the stupid mexican stock market had to go and lose 4.02% in one single session. I mean, I get jittery seeing how jittery they are, even though they still closed February with a 0.43% gain.

Anyway, I have to go.

Sleaze sells more than moral corruption, and Get out the vote money

Bear with me, I'm full of primary news this morning.

-About the NYTimes article from yest, the reactions came in.

McCain denies his affair, dissapointed, who are the sources, etc. MSM completely misses the point (IMHO), focusing on the supposed affair. Well, they know morbid sells. Shame on them, though.

As Joe Carville, from the Clinton '92 campaign said, It's the economy, stupid! The point is McCain is just as shady as the rest of the Republicans, despite his claims to the contrary. At least that's what the article hints (quite forcefully).

-Obama raised 36 mil in January. Hillary raised 13.9, and added 5 mil of her own money. McCain raised 11.7 million last month, more than what he raised in the last three months of 2007 combined.

And the Games Begin...

For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk

So, someone finally remembered McC's Lincoln Savings & Loan scandal back in the 90's.... He was one of the Keating five.

I have no memory of it (I was ten), but I have seen it mentioned so I looked it up a couple months ago.

The NYTimes brought it up, since they're pitching for Hillary. They also take him to task for banning soft money but then turning around and founding the Reform Institute, which he uses to promote his causes and hence, his career. Since it's not officialy affiliated to the GOP, it can accept unlimited donations, and it does.


McCain is not the official candidate yet, but he's as good as, the way the primaries are going. He's been THe candidate for a while now, he just can't say it until Huckabee resigns. Which is actually kind of a good thing for the Democrats, since McC can't really focus on them yet until he's official. He's started, though. But the Dem's allies have just fired right back with this piece. Let the games begin..

de la musique: auteur / amateur videos in París

http://www.blogotheque.net/

Un wey llamado Vincent Moon, hace podcasts/videos de artistas tocando en París, tipo Andrew Bird deambulando por la calle, Arcade Fire tocando en un elevador, Animal Colective, Vic Chestnut, Jens Lekman, Xiu Xiu, the Kooks, etc... los llama Concerts a Emporter. El site está en frances, sorry, pero es una mezcla de auteur/amateur agradable, si les gustan los videos.

Obamarama!

LOL!

http://barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com/

Obama is your new bicycle.

Like the cult of Chuck Norris, except funnier.

Tampoco cantan mal las rancheras...

I like Michelle Obama.

She seems real and smart, not an airbrushed political wife well versed in sound bite strategies.

Sometimes she comes across as someone with a chip on her shoulder, or it seems she is undermining her husband (snorey and stinky?).

This has a lot to do with some local six o'clock news producer's idea of American News, also known as infotainment. Selectively highlighting someone's comments and then taking them out of context, alas, is a common and enduring practice.

However, her Feb. 18 comments are kinda hard to swallow.:

“For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country,” she told a Milwaukee crowd, “and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.”

Really? your whole adult lifetime? Never once? Well. How embarrassing.

At first, it's like, cool, let's take back America, people. Let's leave a legacy we can be proud of, etc. BUT, it also means she hasn't been proud of her country for twenty something years. Of the U.S. as a country, as a collective people, as a culture?

This reeks of "leftist sophistication", something you see amoung us indie poseurs, but not something I would want to hear from a dedicated, earnest politico. It reminds me of Billary crying in New Hampshire, e.g., if you don 't choose me this country is going to have it soo baad, sniff.

Feel free to cast stones. I'm apalled at myself for thinking she needs to tone down the righteousness, too. Maybe I'm turning into my parents now.

Are you finding what your were looking for, out here with me?

-Steve Zizou / Bill Murray in "The Life Aquatic"

Conspiracy Theory of the Day

We all love those....

Was losing Wisconsin a sneaky Hillary strategy?

Ok, I'll cut the crap. It sounds absolutely ludicrous, and it's unlikely they planned it that way. But maybe losing Wisconsin will generate sympathy from women voters for Hil, since once again it seems that she's poised to lose. At least that's what the mainstream media would have you think. I still believe this is a very close race.

But anyway, picture this.

1) It seems she's just about to topple off the horse,
2) so people suddenly care enough to get out and vote,
3) just in time for Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.


One more thing (á la Steve Jobs, heh): is it me or is Ga ga ga ga ga a very political album? The lyrics to the Underdog, especially.

Happy Thoughts

- Radiohead en DFW el 18 de mayo.
- Obamarama lleva 10 victorias consecutivas con Wisconsin y Hawaii.
- Hay buenas películas por todos lados, en el cine, en Saharis, en PPV...
- El disco de Spoon.

Los delegados: Associated Press calcula 1,319 vs. 1,245 de HRC. El NYTimes no toma en cuenta a los delegados que no tienen su voto amarrado, por decir, como los del caucus (asamblea?) de Iowa. Entonces ellos le dan ventaja a Hillray con 1,081 delegados comparado con 1,078 delegados de Obama.

College is a waste of time and money for kids

And it's not me saying this.

James Altucher, writer, Financial Times columnist and finance whiz extraordinaire, said it!

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5554c882-d90d-11dc-8b22-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

He mentions the ridiculous cost American kids (or their parents) pay for college today. Also, he derides the supposed benefits of a balanced education.

Mexican universities are different in this respect, since we don't have "majors". We basically choose our majors beforehand, and enter the corresponding college. Electrical engineering, law, business administration, psychology, architecture, civil engineering, sociology, etc... We then spend four to five years focusing on our chosen field, no chem 101 required if your BA is Social Communications! We may not be well rounded, but we get to spend more time reading up on Marshall McLuhan and Michael Porter.

Anyway, this guy suggests there are better ways to spend your time: working (meaningful jobs), starting a business, focusing on one thing and becoming good at it. It's worth a read, even if it is a radical notion for most of us.

Democratic musings

Fridays are slow at the office.

Some thoughts on the Democratic candidates:

Obama has to figure out how to give women permission not to vote for Hillary.

The same way Vicente Fox's marketing people figured out how to make us feel good about voting for change without making us feel bad about not doing it on previous elections.

HRC is a Transformer's love child....

A new description for Hillary: "It's like Optimus Prime fucked a bumper sticker."

Oh, and has anybody seen the Infiniti's EX commercial? Really, what were they thinking?
"Ordinary is getting into yout car...extraordinary is never wanting to leave it" ....No, that's just creepy and agoraphobic.

What the Huck?

Is he hoping for a miracle? You know, being a pastor and all....

After last night, Huckabee needs to win 123% of the remaining delegates to secure a nomination. I know all those creationism people aren't big on match and science, but just a quick heads up. THAT IS MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

Tuesday night, Huckabee said:

"I've not been one who believes that you leave the field because it's gotten difficult. You stay, and you keep playing until the last second of the clock has sounded."

Despite knowing Maryland and D.C. polls had him losing. And now that results are in, even Virginia was a loss. So what gives? Romney dropped out, what is he waiting for? A juicier incentive from McCain's camp? For the money to run out? A job at Fox News?

"There's the mathematics of these things, and there's the metaphysics," John Pinkerton, senior Huckabee aide, told Salon.com.

Oh.

Romantic Psycho

Ahora que se aproxima el día de san valentín....
Y si American Psycho lo reimagináramos como romcom? Puedes cambiar completamente una peli en el cuarto de edición... Ésto es sólo es un trailer, pero neta que en conjunto con la música, transformó un thriller en un chick flick.

Obamarama!

Se proyecta sobrepase a HRC en delegados! mil 202 delegados vs mil 184. Si Clinton no gana Texas, Ohio y Pennsylvania con amplios márgenes, qué pasará?

Que no es abusivo

Nota de 1a de El Norte, edición del 13 de febrero.

El ilustre y honorable Senador Jorge Mendoza dice que no es abusivo, que nunca ha tenido fama de abusivo (neta?)

Ahora sale con que mandó un millon 290 mil cartas (con cargo al erario) porque quiere que sus representados lo conzocan, ya que él llegó al Senado la vía plurinominal. Eso es una buena razón para eliminar plurinominales, no para mandar propaganda, baboso.

Aparte, el servicio no es gratis y no es un derecho. Nos cuesta, a nosotros, los que pagamos impuestos. ¿Cómo es que nadie lo detuvo en su momento?

"Ahora, que si hay un costo, pues siempre hay un costo para la democracia", señaló.

Háganme el favor. ¿Su proselitismo (tres años antes de cualquier elección) es un costo necesario de la democracia? Se me acaban las palabras decentes y no groseras para hablar de este tipo.

Wrong and pathetic on so many levels

El Obispo Alonso Garza llama a los narcos a volver al bien.....

"Igual que un papá quiere que cambien sus hijos cuando están mal, hacemos este llamado con el deseo de que (los narcos) cambien y se sientan dentro de esta familia, donde no existe para ellos una excomunión, sino una advertencia".

NO. MAMES. No los excomulga, sino que les hace una advertencia. Regresen borreguitos. POBRE. ILUSO. Ya no es la Edad Media que una excomulgación le importaba a la gente. El narcotráfico no es como "un hijo que hace el mal"...no es alcholismo o irresponsabilidad....what the fuck?

Hay tantas cosas que me causan gracia y cierto horror con comentarios de este tipo, mejor no intenseemos o derramemos bilis hoy y lo dejamos así. Jeje, mejor me espero que al rato va a decir "chavos, dejen de practicar sexo premarital, los queremos y no queremos ver que se hagan daño" o alguna estupidez de este tipo, acerca de la homosexualidad, drogas o masturbación.

Pues anoche que llegué del cine me topé con un concierto de Radiohead en MTV, que nada más pasa buena música en las madrugadas, al parecer. Prime time es para los reality shows.

¿Cómo es que Gran Bretaña tiene tanto producto cultural/artístico? ¿Es algo del agua? Los Beatles, los Stones, Radiohead. Yo se que hay mil más, pero con esos tres me basta. Sin entrar en literatura, teatro, cine. Bueno equis, era nada más una observación.

Radiohead trae disco por lo tanto es probable que haga tour este verano, al cual tengo que ir no importa cuanto cueste. Tienen que llegar a Austin, Dallas o San Antonio, si no es que al Defectuoso. Si lo más cerca que llega es Nueva York, pediré que alguien me ponga de companion y de alguna manera consigo un par de días de vacaciones, como sea.

Una eterna discusión entre mi hermano y yo es The Bends vs. Ok Computer. Y es que de alguna manera te puedes definir por tu preferencia, pero es que los dos tienen tantas cosas que no puedes (puedo, podemos) pronunciarte definitivamente por uno. ¿Cómo decides entre Fake Plastic Trees y Karma Police? Just, High and Dry, Nice Dream con Paranoid Android, No Surprises, Exit Music.... y esos son solamente de sus primeros discos. Idioteque, Everything in its Right Place, Go To Sleep, There There, Scatterbrain, etcetcetc.

Ya era tardísimo pero tenía que ver el final, porque sabía que iban a tocar True Love Waits, que es como su mera verdad. Tienes todas estas canciones deprimentes y sombrías acerca de como la vida moderna nos va a hacer polvo, pero de repente revelan su lado increiblemente vulnerable, ansioso de amar y ser amado. Suena cursi pero no lo es. O lo es y no importa.

Expiación, Deseo, Pecado (Capital)

Pues fui a ver Expiación anoche. Como me caga que los mercadotecnistas le cambien el nombre a las películas, a veces andan delatando la trama o te dan una idea diferente de lo que realmente se trata. En este caso, no le cambian el significado porque a fin de cuentas es un melodrama, pero que onda con los golpes de pecho.

Si no la han visto y no se quieren enterar de la trama, no sigan leyendo.

Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice) vuelve a trabajar con Keira Knightley y vuelve a adaptar una obra literaria, esta vez en el marco de WWII. Su fotografía (Seamus McGarvey) y dirección de arte nuevamente es suntuosa y bien cuidada. Me gusta más P & P, pero admito es mi historia favorita y la preferencia puede ser más allá de los méritos de la movie.

Las actuaciones, especialmente las de las tres Briony, Brionies? son excelentes. Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai (irreconocible, nada que ver con Dirty Dancing) y Vanessa Redgrave, realmente se parecen entre si.

En cuanto a la historia, bueno. El mero principio es bueno pero luego se debilita gracias a los detalles marca Corín Tellado. Me gusta el melodrama, pero se me hizo difícil sumergirme en la historia de la pareja y creer en su amor eterno con lo poco que te da la movie. Le faltaron detalles, posiblemente quedaron fuera en el proceso de edición. Cuando el personaje de Knightley, Cecilia Tallis "descubre" su amor, le falló el diálogo, o la actuación, a mi gusto.

Aquí entra en juego algo que tal vez fue culpa de la edición. Entendí algo de que la familia estaba en algún aprieto económico, por un diálogo acerca del florero, (lo más valioso que tenían?) y aparte el hecho de que el hermano le estuviera presentando al tipo con dinero, pero no se habla más de este tema. Tendría que leer el libro para saber, pero me da la idea que editaron y quedó poco claro.

Aparte, me hace ruido que en 1935 este wey (el de la fábrica de chocolates) ya estuviera hablando de las raciones de los soldados. La Segunda Guerra Mundial no comenzó (formalmente?) hasta mediados de 1939, y hasta poco antes se la pasaron firmando acuerdos entre naciones europeas para tratar de evitarla.

Al final se aceptó como inevitable, pero eso fue a finales de 1938. Antes de la guerra a Churchill le decían Cassandra, porque él desde años antes advertía de los peligros de Hitler. ¿Entonces cómo es que este mono desde cuatro años antes hablaba de raciones de soldados? Sí, era un hombre de negocios viendo oportunidades, hubo muchos que se hicieron ricos en la guerra de esa manera, vean toda la industria regiomontana, ¿pero en 1935?

Si hubiera sido dos años después también se podría explicar porqué la urgencia de la pareja, porqué tan rápidamente se declaraban amore eterno, si fuera la guerra próxima a estallar. Pero entonces tendrían otros problemas de tiempo porque se supone que Robbie (James McAvoy) fue encarcelado por tres años. Cosa que nunca ponen en la película, otra vez falta de tiempo para exponer motivaciones y nos quedamos con la imaginación.

Pero bueno, eso aparte, ya para la mitad me piqué. La escena de Dunkirk fue horrorosamente hermosa (hermosamente horrenda?). Esa evacuación duró nueve días, era al principio de la guerra cuando los alemanes estaban patéandoles el trasero a los ingleses y los gringos todavía no le entraban. El pathos, la humanidad, los soldados cantando, la paleta que usó el fotógrafo junto con los filtros, se me hizo un nudo en la garganta.

En esa secuencia y por algunos de los diálogos un poco antes (la historia se puede reanudar, repite eso como tres veces), de repente se me ocurrió que no era verdad. Aparte el personaje de McAvoy muestra una herida en el pecho y luego se ve cada vez más pálido.

(Me acordé del Sexto Sentido, se ve la herida de Bruce Willis, pienso "eso es el higado, se va a morir", y como sale en la siguiente escena todo normal, lo dejo pasar.) Entonces hay un momento de quiebre muy específico donde pensé, ya valió madre esto, que no me digan que no.

La edición de sonido y la música me gustaron bastante también, así como el vestuario, aunque eso va junto con la dirección de arte. El vestido verde de Knightley está perro, de hecho cuando trae puesto ese vestido hay un error de continuidad, si se fijan. Está nominada para siete Óscares, pero ahora no hay apuestas seguras.

Mañana Desolada

No había nadie en el quinto y sexto piso cuando llegué al trabajo hoy. Eso no es tan raro cuando a las ocho y media, pero ya para las nueve veinte me extrañaba que ni siquiera el chilango odioso de automotriz hubiera llegado, nada más los diseñadores. Luego caí en cuenta que hoy son los consejos. Ahora van llegando, todos acicalados y felices, aunque muchos con catarro todavía.

Embarrassment of Riches

Primero nos tienen sin buenas movies por dos, tres meses, y de repe en un sólo fin de semana nos avientan todas de un chingazo.

Hoy se estrena Expiación, Deseo y Pecado, Sweeney Todd, Sin Lugar para los Débiles, Juno y the Darjeeling Limited. No se cuál ver este fin de semana, porque tampoco quiero pasar tres días en el cine, luego me pasa que intermezclo las tramas en mi cabeza.

La primera es de Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice), un melodramático highbrow chick flick que algún wey de mercadotecnia se le hinchó bautizarla con ese nombre novelesco/bíblico tan pedorro. En inglés se llama Atonement, osea expiación o penitencia, igual que el libro. Aunque soy super fan de Pride & Prejudice, no creo vaya a ver esta hoy, va a estar lleno de novios de hueva.

Sweeney Todd me interesa mucho, tanto por Burton como por Sondheim y Depp. Esta sería la ganadora, pero siento que Juno y Darjeeling durarán poco en cartelera y tengo que aprovechar antes de que las refundan al Pabellón Tec.

Independientemente de cual vea hoy o mañana, supongo que no me aguantaré e iré a ver Sin Lugar para los Débiles el domingo. Los Coen y Bardem (con pelo Beatlesco!) son una combinación irresistible. Sólamente que espero poder ir hoy, dejar el sábado como buffer y luego otra vez el domingo.


Pero bueno, como dice el título, es un banquetazo de fin de semana cinero, quisiera quejarme de un exceso de movies buenas todos los fines. Anteriormente ni siquiera salía la fecha de estreno en imdb de muchas de ellas, parecía que se iban a esperar hasta despuéees de los Oscares. Igual y con todo el debacle de la huelga de los escritores decidieron que un premio de la Academia no iba a traer mucho caché.

Me acabo de dar cuenta que en vez de poner todo corrido, o poner un nuevo post para un nuevo tema, puse una bajada. Una pinche bajada. Y en negritas. He trabajado mucho esta semana.

Hoy fuimos Rocío, Ben, Jorge, Rusty y yo al Infinito. Faltó Andrea, y Chío se tuvo que ir temprano, pero estuvimos bastante a gusto. Platicamos de, what else, las primarias. Ya mareamos a la gente con nuestra obsesión, jajaja.

También hablamos de como en los camiones mexicanos hay pobres pero no locos, que en Los Ángeles no hay clase ni estilo, y que no queremos mudarnos a una ciudad donde la única ventaja cultural es poder dar vuelta a la derecha en un semáforo en rojo.

Pero bueno, las primarias. Ahora que Romney se salió, McCain ya puede decir que es el candidato virtual de los republicanos. Pero los conservadores tipo Rush Limbaugh y Ann Coulter odian tanto a McC, que va a tener que escoger a Huckabee como su vicepresidente o algo para convencerlos. Ann Coulter incluso publicó que prefiere a Billary sobre McCain, y eso fue antes del supermartes. Aunque dudo de sus motivos.

Me enteré hoy, existe la posibilidad que ninguno de los dos demócratas reúna los suficientes delegados antes de llegara la convención. Osea, es estadísticamente posible, y como van las cosas hasta hoy, incluso puede llegar a ser probable.

Siguen estados de vino (y queso) que favorecen a Obama. Pero de ahí siguen otros estados de cerveza (y cheetos) que son terreno de Hillary. Otra cosa, ¿seremos subsconscientemente machistas al decirle Hillary en vez de Clinton?

Por último, ¿quién diablos es Diego Beas? ¿Quién dijo que podía escribir?

Aparte del cero estilo, no aporta mucho. Se quejó de las encuestas de California, pero nunca mencionó que casi una tercera parte de los votos son enviados por correo, absentee ballots, por lo tanto esos votantes no se reflejan en los exit polls. El pedo es de los medios por no tomar eso en cuenta, no realmente de la encuesta.

No sé si es por ser políticamente correcto, pero al examinar el fracaso de Romney, no toma en cuenta el factor Mormón, que para mi si jugó un papel importante. Muchos cristianos en EU consideran a los Mormones una secta, no parte de la tradición judeo-cristiana. Si eso es correcto o no me vale madre, el hecho es que se lo toman a mal.

Yyyyy, ahora sí por último, ¿qué a nadie le importa que Huckabee es ministro? ¿Dónde está la separación Iglesia-Estado? ¿No han escuchado sus discursos de la Constitución y la Biblia? Neta que entre esto y el "debate" acerca de la tortura acuática (waterboarding), Estados Unidos nada más muestra el cobre y su morboso suboconsciente puritano medieval.

American Gangster

Pues la fui a ver ayer, y la neta la nominación al Oscar de Ruby Dee es como cuando nominaron (y ganó!) Judi Dench por Shakespeare in Love que nada más salió ocho minutos a escena. Pero a Dench se la debían por Her Majesty Mrs. Brown se suponía. Total.

La dirección de arte si está chida, no les puedo decir "es igualito a Harlem en los 70's" porque yo no estuve en Harlem en los 70's, pero si te da una vibra muy cool de Nueva York con afros, crimen y menos Disneyizado...

El pedo de la movie es que no puedes odiar a Denzel Washington y lo que representa.

Yo sé que parecen tendencias sociópatas las mías, amo al Padrino y apoyo la legalización de las drogas...

pero mínimo al ver esta movie me defiendo con que Ridley Scott tampoco puede odiar al personaje de Frank Lucas, no muestra las repercusiones de sus acciones, porque casi no ves el pathos de los junkies, sólo recuerdo una escena de un bebé llorando al lado de su mamá con sobredosis.

Pero esta no es una película de adicción, es cops & robbers redux. Siempre es agradable ver a Russell Crowe devorarse una escena. Aquí tiene un papel muy a su estilo, el "roughneck" con ambición y coraje. Comprendes el desliz de la abogada, no?

Denzel Washington es un hombre de negocios, leal a su familia pero sin escrúpulos. Tiene una sonrisa grande, de predador. De repente revela una máscara sin piedad, o será al revés, que de repente se cae la máscara y revela al hombre sin piedad?

Un tentempie entretenido mientras llega la de los Coen (ya mañana!) y la de PT Anderson y Daniel Day Lewis.

Chiaroscuro para los asnos

Pues los republicanos ya tienen a su gallo, no? McCain all the way.... en cambio los demócratas siguen en la pelea....la neta eso no me agrada, porque solamente puede degenerar en una división dentro de su partido.

El pedo es que hay mucho voto duro de parte de los republicanos. Hay conservadores que no aprueban del divorcio de McCain, o de sus intentos de llevarse con los demócratas, pero a la mera hora se fajan y votan por él, a huevo.

Sin embargo los Demócratas tienen menos votos duros. Aparte hay muchos que con tal de no ver a Hillary Clinton en la Casa Blanca son capaces de votar por el GOP o por Ralph Nader.

¿Y dónde queda Estados Unidos con esto? Posiblemente igual que en el 2004. Los medios liberales, las costas Este y Oeste estaban tan seguros que Bush iba de salida, y de repente....gana el baboso por un margen mayor al del 2000. La fiesta de Harvey Weinstein se convierte en un velorio...neta, busquen eso en Google.

total....aún con esto, Obama ganó 13 de 22 estados! Esta a 50 delegados de Clinton.

Super Tuesday

Clinton seems to be winning on the Democrat's side so far....eh...

It's not that I don't find her capable, I do, as she said, she's ready from day one; but I find her highly divisive, much more so than Obama. And there are so many insane Hillary haters, at least on the web, that I doubt she can carry a national election, especially against McCain.

I was raised in panismo and voto ùtil, I haven't voted for Patricia Mercado or Gilberto Rincòn Gallardo, not when there was an election to win or lose for the PAN. The problem here is that there are no reliable national polls to see who could really carry a national election not just a caucus or a closed primary. But I still doubt Hillary's power with females is enough to counteract her detractors.

With McCain vs. Obama, the differences really stand out, and I felt this pairing would have been tough on Obama but it also gave him a chance.

Clinton-McCain, on the other hand, aside from the gender card, what's really so different about them to the voters? We'll just need to wait and see....

Oh, and another thing, what's this shit about Huckabee winning so many votes? Come on USA how can you vote for a pastor? Where's the separation between Church and State? It's such a basic concept, only Americans could have forgotten about it. And let's not even go into his gift list, which I'm sorry, but is really poor ethics, not to mention totally agains his aw, shucks humble persona. Really, if you don't want snake oil salesmen just say so, don't go voting for Huckabee...hell, vote for Ron Paul if you want

Funny 'cause it's true...a super Tuesday anecdote

Esto sucedió en realidad. Me reí sola como loquita el resto del día. Es verídico, la mercadotecnia se ha adueñado de nuestras mentes. La persona en cuestión quedará anónima, ya que no queremos balconearla. ¡Pero ella sabe quién es!

Yo: Ya quiero que sea super martes.
Anon.: ¿Cómo que super martes? Es super lunes.
Yo: No, es mañana.
Anón.: No, es hoy. Siempre ha sido super lunes. (gesto de exasperación, y ¿cómo puedes ser tan babosa?)
Yo: No creo, tradicionalmente es martes, por eso Super Tuesday.
Anón.: Es super Lunes, siempre lo ha sido. Voy al Carl's casi todos los lunes desde que eran cuatro hamburguesas y cuatro papas, ¿te acuerdas de la canción? Ahora nada más son tres y tres.

Hillary Clinton Is Tracy Flick

Hilarious, from Slate:




See it at the original site:

http://slate.com/blogs/blogs/trailhead/archive/2008/01/30/guess-who-s-back.aspx

you know why I have confidence the Democrats can win this election?
'Cause Fox News (Fixed News?) ratings are down and CNN 's are up!

Republicans make Fox News sick. Salon Op-Ed by Eric Boehlert

American CNN is much more sensationalist than CNN en Español, but it's still waaaay better than the shit Rupert's Psycho Republicans regularly churn out. If I were an old republican I'd be ashamed.

P.S.: I had no idea Ron Paul's supporters chased down Sean Hannity!

This is an NY Times article about John Edward's and Mitt Romney's differing ideas about wealth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/business/23wealth.html

Edwards is withdrawing from the race today, although he hasn't endorsed Clinton or Obama yet. Romney is still in the running, for now. But it's still an intersting disparity, how Romney sounds almost irritated at the idea of the two Americas.

"There is a model of thought among the Democrats — that the amount of money, the amount of wealth in a nation, is a fixed amount," he said in an interview. "And that if Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are making a lot of money, that just means somebody else is not able to make as much. That happens to be entirely false."

Edwards, consumate trial lawyer and politician, thanks his country for his wealth.
Although Edwards populism can be grating at times, and I really think he should read Travels of a T-Shirt by Pietra Rivoli, I can't help feling tugged by his rhetoric. And I'm not convinced by Romney's idea of infinite wealth for the taking.

After all, isn't it obvious that the world economy and savage capitalism brings wealth to only a privileged few? I used to believe this was because the market wasn't really free and getting rid of the bogeymen and the State's regulation and protectionism would really free capitalism't potential, but I'm not so sure anymore.

There's a reason so many nations are turning to populsim, and some sort of socialism. And while we all cringe at China's newfound economic power, not many stop to think that they did it without foreign aid, and without democracy. They still have poverty of course, but it's less now and they don't owe billions to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund like Argentina and other countries do.

Just some food for thought.

Get Up, Stand Up....Stand Up for Your Rights.....

What is up with Turkey?? It's probably the only country in the world right now where a headscarf equates freedom.

It's pretty complicated, with religious conservatives feeling like second class citizens 'cause their women can't wear headscarves in public buildings. The elite is ferociously secular, a legacy of Mustafa Kemal. But rural Turks moved to the cities in 1980s nd prospered. So now the religious middle class wants to express their piety, while the military and secular elite aren't just going to stand back and allow it.

The problem is, that way lies madness. Or the religious conservatives taking over, or whatever Turks fear. See Afghanistan, Iran, and USA for further examples of religious conservatives and freaks taking over a nation and its public sphere.

I feel for them. It just feels so counterintuitive, such a step backward. But would the same arguments pop up if it were a Western religious tradition they wanted to allow, such as the nun's wimples? Besides, a lot of it is the military being upset since they are losing power. It's all tangled up in ways us Westerners can't easily grasp.

If you're interested in Turkey and 20th century history, I highly recommend Louis de Berniere's Birds Without Wings. It's a big fat book that chronicles the Ottoman collapse in Turkey, among other things. I read it a couple years ago, when we where in Santorini and Crete so the details are a bit hazy but the Balkan Wars, WWI and the Greek War of Independence all have a cameo, showing us how pretty war and invasion is I'm talking to you Mr. Bush....

It's told Rashomon style, with the different perspectives being Muslim, Christian, Greek and Turkish. It's also a shudder bitterwseet romance, and you also get to read about the rise of Mustafa Kemal and his transformation into Ataturk, literally, The Father of All Turks. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the Beatles and Abe Lincoln rolled into one. With a little Morpheus thrown in for good measure. Kidding, don't go all jihad on me please.

De Berniere also wrote Captain Corelli's Mandolin, but we'll just ignore visions of Nicolas Cage for the moment. Also, anything by Orman Pamuk, but they're difficult reads, for me at least!

Waiting for Super Tuesday....or Godot, whichever is fine

The Kennedys support Obama. This is huuge. Caroline Kennedy's speech was especially significant. My mother, who's a baby boomer and lived in Chicago when JFK, thinks Obama is sure to win now. But a lot of boomers back Clinton, so we'll see. This is just evened the field. We need see if Edwards decides to be a Kingmaker or a Queenmaker, haha.

No word on Florida yet, this is probably Rudy Giuliani's make it or break it state. The New York Times has published their preferences since Friday, Clinton for the Democrats and McCain for the Republicans, although they do state they have serious problems with allRepublican candidates. At least they're honest, and admit a preference. Something El Norte never does, and it's a subject of debate among some of my friends, is it a smarter, sneakier or more innocent strategy? My guess is all of the above. Although innocent strategy is an oxymoron, sort of like military intelligence.

Well, I've got my inbox piling up, and I'm gonna miss the movies today since I can't get off early. I'll try to post after the Florida results come in.

Time: 4:56 pm,
Temp: 33° C /89° F (Don't you just love Monterrey weather? Huh)
Song: Visions of Johanna...love this song, can't wait for I'm not there to freaking arrive to México. Damn small releases.

"To stay away from Christianity because part of the Bible's teaching is offensive to you assumes that if there is a God he wouldn't have any views that upset you. Does that belief make sense?"

-Timothy Keller, The Reason for God

Well, the shoe kinda fits. I am a culturally Christian atheist and most of the time I lack faith. I rail against the Church, I laugh at people who pose the Bible as fact. However, Nietzche doesn't quite convince me all the time. Neither does Jesus Christ, but the point is, why should he? This is the slippery slope to New Ageism where you take only the nice bits and ignore the rest, but then again we do it with a lot of things, it's not necessarily bad. I hate being confused, but I also have to accept that things are never black and white. In the end, the golden rule is what matters I think.

Time: 5.10pm

Temp: 10° C

Song: Redemption Song

Disturbing Trend of the Day: Personal Paparazzi

From Jeff Bercovici's Mixed Media blog on portfolio.com:

You know those paparazzi who are always swarming around Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, chronicling their every cold sore and psychotic break? Wouldn't that be great if that could be you instead?
According to a story in the new issue of Time (not online yet but I'll link it when it is), "personal paparazzi" services are springing up across the country for "private individuals who want to experience some of the trappings of fame."
For only a few hundred dollars a day, they'll follow you around and make a big show of taking your picture. One of them, Celeb 4 A Day, even prints up a mock tabloid cover showcasing your "news."
The service isn't entirely without utilitarian value: People can use it, in lieu of a traditional photographer, to document special occasions, and one customer interviewed by Time says club bouncers let him skip the line, thinking he was an actual celebrity.

Veggieburners

http://www.lovecraftbiofuels.com/

From the site:

"Lovecraft Biofuels has converted over 1800 vehicles to run on vegetable oil in the last five years here in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. We specialize in a single tank system that allows you to mix new or waste vegetable oil, diesel and/or bio-diesel in any combination using the original fuel tank. We have Conversion Centers in Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon and have customers from around the world successfully running on our conversions."

Who says you can't have your (green) cake and eat it too... pretty cool, eh?

Catholic Singles in your area!

There are singles sites and then there are singles sites.

What if the online love of your life turns out to be a satan worshipper, or a scientologist, or worse, a protestant?

Well, never fear 'cause Catholic Mingle is here!

http://www.catholicmingle.com/success_stories.html

Aside from the creepiness of single sites, aren't you supposed to be on a singles site 'cause you're lonely and horny? (not necessarily single, alas) Wouldn't a catholic site pretty much guarantee you'll still be horny?


So we have creepy singles and creepy religious types who are forever going on and on about how the Lord fills their lives and tells them what to do and how to shun people who aren't their particular cult 'cause they'll go to hell anyway.

Sorry my theist friends, you know that my rant has more to do with people who go all preachy about their faith.

Anyhoo, Catholic fucking singles.....it made my day

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."

-Henry David Thoreau

"One, it will stabilize her libido. Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband. And three, it will balance her psychology."

-Lukman Hakim, chairman of social services for the Assalaam Foundation in Indonesia, on the “benefits” to circumcising girls.

I try. really, I do. I want to be tolerant. I want to be objective an unbiased. And I struggle agains organized religion in general, not just Islam. Certainly the church is very interesting from a historical and political perspective, but I find evangelism offensive.

But after reading this article, I really can't say that Judeo-Christian beliefs are as ass backwards as Muslim faith.


A Cutting Tradition

Yesyesyes Jewish men are circumcised and they really shouldn't, but this is just even more barbaric! Besides, I'm sorry to say this guys but male circumcision apparently does have demonstrated health benefits, namely reduced risk of infection and some protection against H.I.V. (Insert link from AIDS study in Africa)

The pics are quite strong, at least to me as a woman they make me cringe. Read the article, it's short. And let's rethink our touchy feely politics, hmm? Maybe Oriana Fallaci wasn't so nutty.

Europe vs. USA

Even though I have yet to finish my MBA (this summer, finally) I have already been thinking of a Phd in Sociology. I'm not exactly sure Sociology is the way to go, but I will not dedicate my life to Economics and Communication is more a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Basically, I want to study immigration. To quantify how much money Mexico loses every time someone crosses the border, and how much money the USA is gaining. Opportunity costs that sort of thing.

That's one of several possible subjects, for example if I were to stay in Mexico I want to research our Jewish and Arab roots in Monterrey (cabrito and semitas are Jewish if you look at them. Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva was imprisoned for false conversion, years after he founded the city of course that's why Diego de Montemayor gets the most credit)

Anyway, my question is where I want to study. Aside from the fact that I need to me admitted, but do I want to go to Europe or not?

Pros:
1. It's freaking Europe. Paris would be around the corner. And Rome, and Venice, Cairo, Marrakesh, et al.

2. I might have less competition for admission? (Compared to UCBerkeley)

3. I'm guessing European scholars would be more objective about the American way than Americans, it's advantages and shortcomings.

4. I might get a better scholarship, one that includes a stipend.


Cons
1. It's quite far away, so how will I do research for my dissertation on immigration all the way over there? Plane tickets are expensive.

2. Is the European outlook too ivory towerish?

The US universities also have their share of troubles, I mean I don't think research on immigration form a pro Mexico stance would go over well, exactly.



Does anybody have an opinion on this?

Hace días que no actualizo, pero la neta es que he tenido un buen de jale en el periódico y aparte una traducción. Lo bueno es que no voy a tener clases este tetra. Lo malo es que tal vez tenga que pagar unos 15 mil el tetra de verano.....damn.

Sigo ávidamente las primarias en EU, aunque a veces resiento el hecho que usen la palabra "cambio" tanto, ya que a la mera hora todo sigue igual. Ok, no tan mal como con Bush pero tampoco son las estrellitas que pretenden ser.

Edwards, tan honesto y enojado, es un abogado de juicio que ha sacado mucha lana de demandas de malpractice, quiere cerrar las fronteras y aparte trae un turbio escándalo sexual escondido, que puede ser verdad o puede ser fabricación de Karl Rove y sus seguidores tanto Demócratas como Republicanos.

A la mera hora el escándalo sexual vale madre, yo no creo que el hecho de que le puso el cuerno o no a su esposa con cáncer lo va a descalificar como presidente. Nos gusta pensar que hay que tener gente honesta, moral e íntegra en ese tipo de puestos, pero la neta lo que ese puesto requiere es gente capaz y que busque el bien en el abstracto, osea de todos pero no necesariamente de una persona en específico (e.g., su esposa)

Sé que no me estoy explicando pero tenemos el ejemplo de Clinton (o Sarkozy), que puede ser viejos rabo verdes y cola pronta pero eso no le quita el hecho de que le hizo mucho bien a Estados Unidos como presidente. Y cuando a EU le va bien, hay oportunidad de que a México le vaya bien. Sin embargo cuando a EU le va mal, de ley que a México le va de la chingada.

La falta de experiencia de Obama neta que ya me preocupa más, pero Billary no logra convencerme. La neta es que nadie te va a convencer por completo, pero sería bueno que McCain no estuviera tan senil en cuanto a Iraq, y no tuviera el MegaPedo de Lincoln Savings & Loan, lo podríamos apoyar aunque es Republicano. Fricasé dice que el wey es antiimmigración, pero el wey es Republicano, John Edwards es más peligrosos para los migrantes que él.

De los demás, Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee, Ron Paul, no me ocupo mucho porque la neta no les veo posibilidades por el momento. Giuliani se supone que está construyendo bases en California y Florida y otros estados importantes que ahorita los talking heads de los noticieros no están pelando, pero le dudo.

Total, días ocupados con clima asqueroso, necesito dormir, y la pinche biología le está ganando al feminismo, porque de nuevo este pescado siente la necesidad de una bicicleta......adios

Del Redondeo...a la sútil discriminación contra el pensamiento de las mujeres críticas

El ya tan llevado y traído redondeo me tiene hasta la madre.

Ahora los cajeros ni te preguntan si quieres redondear, lo dan por sentado que al cabo es más fácil no dar cambio y supongo que sus jefes les miden que tanto redondeo recogen.

Me cagan las monedas como alguna vez dijo Aldrete. Hacen ruido en el pantalon cuando caminas, pesan, te dejan las manos oliendo mal, y no alcanzan para comprar nada. Deberían de quitarlas, que al cabo 21.90 o 21.50 es 22.00 pesos entonces no nos quieran engañar señores mercadotecnistas. Pero son mis molestas monedas y no aprecio que de buenas a primeras me redondeen a la fuerza.

Para empezar nunca me aclararon la duda que si los minoristas pueden deducir impuestos de nuestras donaciones, al menos no de manera satisfactoria. Que lástima que nada más queremos encontrarle tres pies a la gata, pero así es.

Me cuesta creer que la ANTAD y todos sus compinches hagan esto por la puritita bondad de su corazón. Mínimo se están alzando el cuello con lana que no es de ellos.

Aparte, aunque me tachen de cruel, ¿porqué ha de decidir alguien más por mi si voy a donar o no, y a qué instituciones dono mi cambio?

Claro nadie quiere quitarle la sopa a los niños de la casa-hogar fulana de tal, pero la mayor parte de las veces ni siquiera sabes cuál es la insititución de la semana.

Hay varias razones por las que quiero escoger personalmente a la insitutición, en caso de hacer una donación. Hay causas más cercanas a mí; hay causas menos populares pero no por eso menos merecedoras; hay instituciones que tienen mucha burocracia; hay unas que dedican su presupuesto a actividades en las que estoy en contra.

Es muy popular donar a orfanatorios, pero no a las casas de ancianos. Si vas a donar tiempo o dinero, los niños son más atractivos, a la mera hora alguien más les donará a ellos pero puede que nadie dé de si para un anciano.

Es muy en onda donar para la Fundación Cima. Pero hay cánceres que matan a más personas, que necesitan más de tí, aunque no sean tan glamourosos. Ahora si hay una razón más personal para donar para el cáncer de mama, adelante.

Si lo que queremos es causar el mayor impacto posible con la menor inversión posible, como los economistas, hay miles de personas que mueren cada año por falta de agua potable o por enfermedades enteramente prevenibles y/o curables como la malaria o la tuberculosis.

La Fundación de Bill y Melinda Gates escoge causas donde puedan mejorar la vida del mayor número de personas posible, y causas que han sido dejadas de lado en el pasado. Por eso ellos no dan dinero para el American Cancer Society pero sí para erradicar el SIDA, la malaria, la tuberculosis, y la educación media en Estados Unidos. No son causas muy sexys, pero sí son importantes.

Volviendo a los cincuenta centavos del Seven y el Soriana, no donaría para que evangelizaran. Tampoco donaría a una institución que predicara abstinencia si no acompañara ese sermón de una sana y abierta educación sexual enfocada a prevención y control natal. Me vale madre que piensen que es derrotista repartir condones mientras aconsejan esperarse. Los condones salvan vidas. ¿Sabían que por un tiempo Soriana redondeaba para la asociación de Martha Sahagún, Vamos México?

De las pocas instituciones religiosas a las que admiro está Cáritas, porque pienso que son efectivos y no pierden mucho tiempo con demagogia. En cambio la Cruz Roja de México está tan enlodada que uno no sabe si la donación termina en una ambulancia o el bolsillo de alguien. ¿Qué sólo son dos pesos? Pues súmale los dos pesos de todos y no es tan despreciable, mejor que vaya a algo útil, ¿no?

Conocía alguien que cada vez que quería cigarros, fritos o sodas, hacía coperacha en toda la oficina, pidiendo tres pesos. Su pitch era que tú no alcanzabas a comprar nada con tres pesos hoy en día, no lo ibas a extrañar y en cambio si le podíar ayudar a comer ese día porque no traía dinero. Pues así juntaba fácil cuarenta pesos todos los días, porque eramos muchísimos en ese piso y con diez o quince personas que le dieran ese día, era suficiente. Al chico no le daba pena, esa era su clave.

Tal vez nada que ver, tal vez soy una grinch amarguetas que prefiere no hacer nada por temor a que no sea la acción correcta. Pero hay muchas cosas que nos venden como "buenas" y "nobles" que nadie puede criticar sin que se le echen encima a uno. La Iglesia Católica y la Madre Teresa.

Pero nadie es perfecto, y si no hacemos una crítica seguirán estas instituciones que le dicen a las mujeres que hay que tener "los hijos que Dios quiera" y les dicen que el condón es del diablo, y entonces tienes a la sobrepoblación en la India, África y México que las Marthas de este mundo defienden con el texto chingado de que a quien recomendarías abortar, a la madre soltera, la que tiene sífilis etc, y luego salen con que asesinaste a Jesucristo, Beethoven y a Gerald Ford.

Que no nos de miedo pensar lo que decimos y decir lo que pensamos, y que no nos asustemos si nos tachan de arrogantes por ser nosotras mismas.