People Who Say Things Better Than I Can

Author Resa Aslan, on my only source for fair and balanced news, the Daily Show, sometime last week: "This notion that democracy is a force that can transform that region (the Middle East), I believe this. But it's going to take a level of sophistication that I think this administration has yet to show."

And also: "The entire War on Terror is at its core a marketing campaign. Now, how the United States is losing a marketing campaign to people who live in caves, I ... "

I need to read this guy's book.

The Dumbening of America

The Fox network's fall season starts off with a bang tonight. They're back with their (insert superlative) new show Prison Break, and I, for one, won't be watching. It's crap. Complete and total crap. In fact, Fox is lucky I watch any of their programming at all, after they preemptively ended the absolutely amazing Arrested Development. That, and the fact that they have the Sunday cartoons Family Guy, American Dad (slightly less-good Family Guy) and the still-ok Simpsons are the only things keeping me around. I can honestly say that I don't feel like they've developed any great new shows for a good 5 years or so. I know I expect too much from the moving picture box sometimes, but jeez, guys. I mean, c'mon! My suspicion is that the American people, at least the TV-watching ones, are becoming more and more unintelligent, and thus demanding simpler television programming which is easier to understand for their tiny, tiny brains.
Tiny brains.
They're stupid.
Dumb.
They ... uh ... well. You get the point.

Random Haiku

Cold, lonely, smelly,
Destitute wanderer. I
Need to find a job.

My Philosophy is Validated

"It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly
unless one has plenty of work to do."

Jerome K. Jerome (1859 - 1927)

Speaking Of Enough Already ...

I've been hearing a lot about this whole todo with the airlines not allowing any liquids on the plane. Apparently, small personal electronic devices are now out too, at least for in-cabin use, which seems to have a lot of people up in arms. How is one to deal without one's iPod, for even the short duration of a continental flight? How could they do this? My music or my life! ... And other similar comments.
Now, without you even having to ask, here's my opinion: 5 years ago, you didn't have an iPod. What did you do then? Perhaps, if you were to crawl out of your own head (where everything is nice and comfortable and you can be safely apathetic) and strike up a conversation with the brown man in the seat next to you, you would find out that he's pretty much like you, and he also thinks that all of this is pretty fucked up, and maybe, between the two of you, you could come up with an idea that would fix things, not just cover them over, or shift the blame around, but truly, once and for all, fix things.

...

Oh wait, you have the new Killers album?! Is it any good? Can I get that from you?

As If I Wasn't Angry Enough Already

I just wanted to pass along a "website you should read constantly" kind of a tip, for all of those of you who are perfectly content in your complacent little lives, and are in dire need of a distraction. The Consumerist is a part of the Gawker Media series of websites, which also encompasses such gems as Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and Screenhead (formerly edited by the amazingly sarcastic Dong Resin), to name a few.
The Consumerist runs a bizarrely fine line between ombudsman, random complaints department and online bitch joint. They were the ones to break the now relatively widespread story of an AOL customer running up against the worst in Customer Service, as well as offering tips on how to deal with bad customer service, what to do if you're shafted by the Man, and who you should get in touch with when you really need something to happen. (Hint: The CEO)
Beware, Big Business. The little man has an outlet.
Just make sure that you're justified in your bitching, before you send them your story. Otherwise, you may find that you're the one being lambasted by their fiery tongue.