Too Much

How is it that everybody in this country owns a car? I want to know. Where do people get the credit for these massive steel contraptions? Who are these people? These people sitting in their cars at intersections, driving the streets and freeways, pulling in and out of parking lots and filling stations.

Even Joe Schmo owns a car. I'm lower than Joe Schmo. On my truly pathetic budget, I can't even imagine buying and paying off a vehicle. Maybe a beaten up Mazda recovered from the bottom of a lake. But a proper used car? No. So instead I bum rides and use the sidewalk network, sharing it with the homeless and the immigrants and the bicyclists and the people walking to their cars.

These single-family homes. How does everybody afford to take out a massive mortgage and maintain a lawn? Why do people even seek out the burden? It just seems so excessive. I almost want America to revert to a Stalinist situation where the population lives in functional, barren apartment blocks clustered around factories and serviced by 19th-century streetcars. Such an arrangement would be far cheaper and more comprehensible to me.

I hate hip-hop/rap. It's defining our culture. The songs are always blaring at intersections. The lyrics put enormous pressure on people to commodify themselves and live only for money and sex. Listeners are berated for being broke or lacking the high life. I feel guilty for not owning a camera phone. Hip-hop is altering people like a new genetic code. The mindless style and lingo have permeated almost everyone. The same goes for hipster culture, which is a dead-end.

This society is nuts. It's excessive. There are too many cars, too many single-family homes, and too many camera phones. Or maybe I'm missing something.

Is This a Formula?

State anti-terror campaigns are always campaigns of state terror.

WOAH

According to the Economist magazine, the Ukraine's economy contracted by 20% in January. Figures like that aren't immediately fathomable, but it does appear that Eastern Europe is in the worst economic crisis in the history of capitalism.

But then again, I'll withhold any belief in statistics. Worse than damned lies.

But What Wall Will Fall?

In the past I've praised George Soros for his frank pessimism. But is he reading my mind? I've said the economic collapse is potentially worse than the 30s, and I've compared it to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The starkest parallel is in Afghanistan, where NATO is bogged down as the Warsaw Pact was two decades ago.

Listen to him:

"Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union."

Way to go Soros!

Not To Be Confused with the WWE

The WSWS, or the World Socialist Web Site, has a lovely dispatch on the crisis in Asia. I've linked to the WSWS once before about the economy. The socialists have got some great journalism underway.

Asia's Export Economies in Freefall

Map of the Day

The Talibian has taken over Swat Valley, a resort province in Pakistan. Very close to the nation's capital, and not far from several nuclear silos and reactors.

NATO's Supply Line to Afghanistan

It's one of my favorite subjects. The NATO route into Afghanistan is getting weaker by the day under sustained Taliban attack. The latest:

Taliban torch 10 NATO supply trucks

And Another, And Another

"Performance czar" withdraws candidacy over unpaid taxes

Fuck You, Obama and Daschle

Thousands of dollars in unpaid back taxes? Why, it must be another Obama cabinet nominee.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Fighting to salvage his Cabinet nomination, Tom Daschle pleaded his case Monday evening in a closed meeting with former Senate colleagues after publicly apologizing for failing to pay more than $120,000 in taxes. President Barack Obama said he was "absolutely" sticking with his nominee for health secretary, and a key senator added an important endorsement.

Memo to the Suit-Shadows: Pay your effing taxes!