The next world

There's a Russian academic going around saying the US is going to collapse by 2010, due to our current economic strains.

At some point, yeah, the US will go the way of the dodo. No nation, no empire, lasts forever. However, I certainly don't think any collapse will happen within the next couple of years. But even if it does, I think the influence of America will last for a long time -- after all, no one was aware at the time that the Roman Empire had truly fallen. It just seemed that it had merely evolved into new forms -- but historical hindsight showed that it was indeed no more.

The next world won't be about nations or national interests, it'll be about super-commerce. Corporations will exceed all other interests. National laws and boundaries will be irrelevant, only so far as they serve the localized interests of the supercorporations.

Some might argue we already live in that world.

But increasingly, people -- human beings -- are irrelevant. All that matters is markets, and people are only "consumer units." No one, certainly not our leaders, cares if individual people live or die, starve or are fed, only so far as sufficient numbers affect market forces. All that counts is decreasing the cost of production to maximize profits for the pigs at the top of the trough.

Being a human being in today's world is not a good idea. It's a bad move. Humanity is, by and large, a mistake nowadays. Perhaps it always was.

Today, we are at the mercy of corporate business. Yesterday, we were at the mercy of national power and military might. And the day before that we were at the mercy of feudal lords and plagues.

If there is a God, then surely the creation of humanity was a temper tantrum: we were created to give the deity something to perpetually punish and make miserable.

In the meantime, I'm going to McDonald's for a Big Mac.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

... and I feel fine.

My favorite xmas song

You sick freak

Frank shares this one with me:

Guy calls the hotel where he's booked and asks, "I just wanted to make sure. The porn in the room is disabled, right?"

"No," the clerk replies, "it's NORMAL porn, you sick freak!"

If you open your mind too much...

Is our children learning?

The educational state of high school kids in Mississippi.

Sigh.

Say hello to my leetle friends!

Protecting "traditional" marriage

There are those who believe that marriage in this country needs to be defined "traditionally." Well, history shows us that "traditional" things change, so when pressed, we find that some believe "traditional" marriage is defined "in the Bible."

Religious people have a right to their religious beliefs. But if they want to define marriage for everyone in the country based on (their particular understanding of) the Bible, they should probably be fighting for these proposed "biblical" laws about marriage:

A. Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5)

B. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)

C. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut 22:13-21)

D. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30)

E. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9)

F. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10)

For me personally, I'm very close to taking the position that ALL marriage be outlawed, for everyone. But it's not because I'm bitter or anything.

All about the cool

Genesis

Kudos to Rhino for releasing the third and final Genesis box set.

Longtime Genesis collaborator Nick Davis, with help from the band, has spent the past few years remixing the Genesis studio catalog in Dolby 5.1 surround sound, and along the way he's also made some new stereo mixes, giving the band an opportunity to "fix" things in the original mixes they were never happy with, without actually re-recording anything.

The first box set was composed of albums from their "middle" period when Phil Collins first took over as lead singer, "Trick of the Tail" through "Abacab."

The second consisted of their later albums, "Genesis" through "Calling All Stations," an album noteworthy primarily for the absence of Collins behind the mike and drum kit.

But Rhino saved the best for last -- "Genesis: 1970-1975," the earliest Genesis albums, the sumptuous ones with Peter Gabriel as the frontman. And I'm here to tell you that if you're a fan but held off buying any of these, start with this one first. The surround sound mix of "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" is worth the price of the whole set.

The DVD also features an added surprise -- a recreation of the multimedia slide show the band used on the Lamb tour, interspersed with rare photos and film clips from a few of the shows.

Even on the stereo mixes, you hear things you never heard before -- more clarity in the solos, the depth of the lead vocals, backing vocals that weren't there before. On Lamb, for instance, Phil Collins was doing a lot more behind the drum kit than I'd heard before, and I say that as someone who has listened to that album so many times I know every little sound by heart. I can sing the entire set from memory -- and yet it all sounded new to me.

The first real Genesis album, "Trespass," improves immeasurably in this package. Suddenly the playing sounds clearer and better, leading to an appreciation of an album that was under appreciated before.

All the box sets are exquisite, but feel free, if you're a fan of "classic" Genesis, to start with this one.

Prop 8 The Musical

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Something L.A. has taught me