Saul T. Hamm
Although I appreciate the humor in it, I think it's pretty sad that a joke White House petition to build a Death Star received enough signatures to demand a response. We're the world's second largest energy consumer, the world's biggest military spender, and the world's largest prison state in absolute numbers and in proportion to population. We rank 82nd in the world in the number of women sent to national legislatures, and 15.1 percent of our population lives in poverty. But people sign a petition for a Death Star.
Of course, I'm not sure how much these petitions even matter. As petitioning for marijuana legalization has demonstrated, popular will often gets, at best, a tepid response. These White House petitions serve much the same purpose as elections: to give the government a democratic gloss while it continues to do the bidding of corporations and the wealthy elite. But I suppose that if enough people demand changes and the government deflects enough of those demands, cognitive dissonance will increase among people who think we live in a democracy, and certainty will increase among those who have already discarded that illusion. There's potentially value in both of those outcomes.
Incidentally, I can't help but think that the PR people working for our elite would benefit from using the anonymity of the Internet to pose as ordinary people and put up more of these Death Star-type petitions (if actual ordinary people don't submit enough of them). The more they can trivialize politics and make their mockery of democracy participatory, the safer the elite will be in their positions of privilege and power.
It was my birthday this weekend, but I really did nothing to celebrate. It was a very cold weekend, which killed much of my motivation to go out and do anything. But next weekend will be one day longer and should be about 20 degrees warmer, so I might postpone my celebrating until then...or just not celebrate at all. I haven't been out of town in a long while, although I'm not really sure if there are any day trips that pique my interest at the moment.
Part of me wants to buy a metal detector. I'm not normally the kind of person who gets enamored with gadgets, but I've been thinking I'd like to spend a bit more time outdoors. A metal detector would give me a reason to do that. I can't think of many places that aren't (1) private property or (2) public land that is guarded from people who want to scavenge in it. There's the Rillito basin, though, and I'm near there whenever I go to Trader Joe's #191 (at Campbell and Limberlost).
The problem is that metal detectors tend to be expensive. Harbor Freight Tools has cheaper ones, but I don't know if I'd regret buying a cheap one. The online forums I've read make me think so, but at the same time, I think the people writing in those forums are very serious treasure-hunters who want to unearth things like Civil War-era coins. I just want to kill an hour or two in a dried-up river basin full of overturned shopping carts, dog feces, and discarded soda and beer bottles. It would be a way for me to get some (somewhat) fresh air and vitamin D, not a way for me to find relics to hawk on eBay. I guess I'll need to do some more thinking on this one.
Of course, I'm not sure how much these petitions even matter. As petitioning for marijuana legalization has demonstrated, popular will often gets, at best, a tepid response. These White House petitions serve much the same purpose as elections: to give the government a democratic gloss while it continues to do the bidding of corporations and the wealthy elite. But I suppose that if enough people demand changes and the government deflects enough of those demands, cognitive dissonance will increase among people who think we live in a democracy, and certainty will increase among those who have already discarded that illusion. There's potentially value in both of those outcomes.
Incidentally, I can't help but think that the PR people working for our elite would benefit from using the anonymity of the Internet to pose as ordinary people and put up more of these Death Star-type petitions (if actual ordinary people don't submit enough of them). The more they can trivialize politics and make their mockery of democracy participatory, the safer the elite will be in their positions of privilege and power.
It was my birthday this weekend, but I really did nothing to celebrate. It was a very cold weekend, which killed much of my motivation to go out and do anything. But next weekend will be one day longer and should be about 20 degrees warmer, so I might postpone my celebrating until then...or just not celebrate at all. I haven't been out of town in a long while, although I'm not really sure if there are any day trips that pique my interest at the moment.
Part of me wants to buy a metal detector. I'm not normally the kind of person who gets enamored with gadgets, but I've been thinking I'd like to spend a bit more time outdoors. A metal detector would give me a reason to do that. I can't think of many places that aren't (1) private property or (2) public land that is guarded from people who want to scavenge in it. There's the Rillito basin, though, and I'm near there whenever I go to Trader Joe's #191 (at Campbell and Limberlost).
The problem is that metal detectors tend to be expensive. Harbor Freight Tools has cheaper ones, but I don't know if I'd regret buying a cheap one. The online forums I've read make me think so, but at the same time, I think the people writing in those forums are very serious treasure-hunters who want to unearth things like Civil War-era coins. I just want to kill an hour or two in a dried-up river basin full of overturned shopping carts, dog feces, and discarded soda and beer bottles. It would be a way for me to get some (somewhat) fresh air and vitamin D, not a way for me to find relics to hawk on eBay. I guess I'll need to do some more thinking on this one.