thom space

I can’t believe Elliot Smith is dead. He was such an important musician for me growing up. Here is an obit from his fan site. I feel soo soo bad. I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe he Stabbed himself in the chest, as if to give Mishima a run for his money. Drama.

Pitchfork says it best.

“the questions are constantly redirected back to yourself and who you are. I don?t think it?s important who I am. I really like playing music, but I don?t really want to be anything in particular” -Elliot Smith

His last full interview: Part 1 and 2

According to a study by The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Robot sales are going through the roof all around the world. It’s only a matter of time now folks. If you don’t believe that check here.

Leo Strauss is, in this article, argued to be the foundation for the Bush administrations current political positions. Not having read Strauss in school, I have been reading up on him today. So far as I can surmise he is a closet Nietzscheian who believes that the modern world is morally reprehensible. He was influenced greatly by the political philosophy of Plato, and believes that people essentially belong to one of two groups, either superior elite, or inferior masses.

Strauss says that lies must be told to the inferior masses, as a means of protecting the wise elite from harm, and to further the elites political position. In analogy to Plato, the inferior remain in the cave watching the shadows, while the Wise manipulate the shadows using their greater perspective. If this does not seem like a liberal philosophy it is because it isn’t, but, “Strauss was not as hostile to democracy as he was to liberalism. This is because he recognises that the vulgar masses have numbers on their side, and the sheer power of numbers cannot be completely ignored. Whatever can be done to bring the masses along is legitimate. If you can use democracy to turn the masses against their own liberty, this is a great triumph. It is the sort of tactic that neo-conservatives use consistently, and in some cases very successfully.” (1)

It is rather clear to me that this could very well be the current operating philosophy of the Whitehouse, Paul Wolfowitz is certainly a devotee. Here is a little neo-con family tree.

I have often been confused as to why daylight saving exist and what sort of sense it makes. I wonder no more, the US government has answered all of my questions. More than anything though I find myself in agreement with this quotation:

“I don’t really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.” (Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday.)

Damn Puritans.

I was in Boulder last night and it was LAME. It is amazing how much of a shit-hole the city can manage to be when the mountains that sit directly adjacent are so majestic. You have to think twice about a place when you are nearly run over by a bunch of drunk frat boys in a hummer and then get to your “party” and sit around listening to people talk about how much they don’t like where they live. I hate negitive people and I’ll tell you what, trustifarians who think they have it rough in Colorado ought to make a b-line right back to their depressing suburbs of NY City. What’s worse is that they use living in proximity to a large city as some sort of currency that they think should be respected, so irritating. And I would bet that based upon the fact that the majority of them are either pimped or primed out Greek kids or fat assed fat asses, that average Boulderites don’t do any of the things that they would claim they came to Boulder to do. Such damn annoying individuals.

So I am on a road trip on my way home from Chicago. Some may find it odd that I am on my way home from a place that is home to allot of people whom I should have seen but didn’t, but that is the fact of the matter as far as the matter has fact. Any who, I sure had a good time, I bought a bunch of wine at trader joes and have been giving it away in mass as I have stopped to see people along the road back to colorful Colorado. Humm. Jerky jerk. Sometimes I try to get in touch with people but can’t. I claim the reason for my failure owes to their being scensters. Damn them scensters. So what if I don’t try hard. I have seen a whole slew of people on this trip, from Parker Parsons and Le’ora Tyree, to Jim White and Paul Grey, whom I have discovered are going to include me in a “philosophy majors: where are they now?” publicity pamphlet for the new Cornell admission packet. I hope that my example can inspire someone at some point to do something, that would be exciting wouldn?t it.

I have been grappling with whether or not to post this next bit of news to the website for fear that by doing so I will somehow make it more official, but I might as well simply because it is true. So… Christy and I have broken up with each other. It was of mutual consent and consideration, but all the same it makes me quite sad.