Monday POEE e-supplement
Officials discuss postponing Election Day, fearing terrorism: would this not be another case of handing terrorists the very victory they ask for, that of disrupting our society and political process? Assuming an attack was planned, would not competent terrorists be able to adjust their plans for a postponement? Do we really want to give our government the power to delay elections as long as they feel necessary? When I was younger, I read the Reader’s Digest version of The R Document; a tale of a government conspiracy to declare martial law in the US and suspend the Bill of Rights indefinitely. Of course, I enjoyed it as a fantasy tale that “can’t happen here”.
Speaking of reading, I finished Perdido Street Station this weekend. I picked up the book after hearing much hype about this winner of multiple awards and runner-up for others. It’s a magesteampunk alternate reality novel that turns out to mainly be about excrement. Really. Excrement as building material, excrement as sculpting material, excrement as food, excrement as psychotropic drug. The author seems to mention it on nearly every one of the book’s over 600 pages, exhausting the English language’s store of synonyms for it. (I hadn’t really realized there were so many.) Oh, there’s a bit of a plot about 5 sentience-eating demons let loose on The City by incompetence, which must be defeated by a small group of rejects who are being pursued by every legitimate and illegitimate authority for all the wrong reasons. The resolution is sudden and somewhat unconnected to the rest of the story, as if the author finally grew tired, ended the book, and went back and dropped in a few lines in earlier chapters to make it look like he’d been planning this. It’s the sort of book where intelligent, cunning people do stupid, baseless things solely to make the main characters more miserable.
I could go on, but I’ll spare everyone. I guess I’m just disappointed because the author dragged me into the book with imagination, creativity, and descriptive ability which ultimately went nowhere and finished with the stock (blank)punk ending. And I’m amazed at the number of fawning reviews. Maybe I’m turning into an old cranky fan. “Hey! You cyborg kids get off my ultra-lawn!”
Okay, that’s out of my system, now here’s the link to the Battle Cattle plushies shrewlet saw at Origins; and a link to a depiction of Anthrocon in a furry reality.
I just felt like adding this, too. I’m not sure why. From Quotes from Principia Discordia:
THE CURSE OF GREYFACE
- In the year 1166 B.C., a malcontented hunchbrain by the name of Greyface, got it into his head that the universe was as humorless as he, and he began to teach that play was sinful because it contradicted the ways of Serious Order. “Look at all that order about you,” he said. And from that, he deluded honest men to believe that reality was a straightjacket affair and not the happy romance as men had known it.
- It is not presently understood why men were so gullible at that particular time, for absolutely no one thought to observe all the DISORDER around them and conclude just the opposite. But anyway, Greyface and his followers took the game of playing at life more seriously than they took life itself and were known even to destroy other living beings whose ways of life differed from their own.
- The unfortunate result of this is that mankind has since been suffering from a psychological and spiritual imbalance. Imbalance causes frustration, and frustration causes fear. And fear makes a bad trip. Man has been on a bad trip for a long time now. It is called THE CURSE OF GREYFACE.
I’m with you on Perdido Street Station. As I recall, I rather enjoyed the first third, maybe half, of the book. Got myself interested in the ideas and characters… and then thought as I approached the end that the author deserved a serious bitch-slapping. Couldn’t believe I’d wasted time and money for such a lousy, stupid ending. I doubt I’ll snag anything else by the author, unless I’m at a public library which mostly stocks Piers Anthony.
Opinionated, aren’t I?
Why are you cranky?
Hmm. Some of that description takes me back to my plumbing days. I don’t think I’ll try the book.
That was just a reference to my review of the book (and the fact that I can’t seem to get the FireWire connection on a computer to work).
Otherwise, at this point in the day I’m doing good. Miss you terribly though. *hug*
Political spouting: I don’t know if it’s a genuine concern about terrorism or a potential political coup. But that may be me being paranoid.
I have no problem with opinionated people when I agree with them 🙂 In fact, I’ll even jump in with you on the Anthony thing; I have the volumes of The Apprentice Adept, which I once loved, in my Salem office, and I just can’t pick them up again. Certain parts of the series make me too irritable nowadays.
I would recommend against it. Of course, I can’t recommend A Game Of Thrones, either, but I can pick out lots of people I know who loved it. De gustibus non disputandum est. 🙂
That’s exactly what I don’t want to think. “Am I being perceptive or paranoid?”
I used to joke that with Anthony, the first book of one of his series was brilliant, the second good, and then things go rapidly down hill from there. Says awful things about the Xanth -trilogy-, which has over twenty volumes and as best I can tell are primarily written by his readers now, with his additional advocation of the desirability of young girls and panty fixations the dire icing on the cake. *mournful look* The first book was so damn good too.
That fits with his Incarnations of Immortality books, too.
I re-read the Apprentice Adept stuff last year and I don’t think I can actually give them to H to read, even. The misogyny is so rampant.
Then again, I didn’t notice it when I was first reading them, either.
You are both being paranoid. You are sounding just as paranoid as right-wingers that were afraid that Bill Clinton would find some method in order to remain President. On the bright side, you can now say that you have something in common with people on the right 😎
Anyway… The Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission wrote a letter informing Congress that there is currently no method of delaying a Federal Election. The commissioner is not calling for ability to delay in a case of a terrorist threats but only if an actual terrorist attack takes place on a Federal election day (causing X thousands of people not being able to vote). Since the commissions job is to ensure that the largest number of people are able to vote, it seems like a reasonable request for them to make.
In truth, the Bush Administration is against the idea. It is the administrations opinion that the nation should not bow to the will of the terrorists as Spain did and hold the elections to spite them. “We’ve had elections in this country when we were at war, even when we were in civil war. And we should have the elections on time. That’s the view of the president, that’s the view of the administration”
Of course – if you wish to be paranoid – this could be because an attack would actually gain Bush more votes.
I’m quite happy that the Bush administration is against this. This was truly a non-partisan concern; no matter who is in power, I do not feel that giving the government the power to delay elections is wise, and it’s pleasing to hear that no one is suggesting this.