the arkadelphia reactor

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Still nothing going on in my life except working and drawing and walking some dogs.

I’m always dieting but it feels for real this time. I’m losing the desire for all the starchy crap i used to like. And i’ve learned that my favorite sandwich of all time is smoked turkey with avocado and nothing else. Oh, god, so good.

Cinnamon. Yogurt. Honey. Tumeric. Stir fry. Sugarless coffee. Brown rice and beans instead of ramen. The occasional Egg White McMuffin from McDonald’s because they’re two for $3.33 and i can’t pass up a deal like that.

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Let’s talk politics. Grudgingly.

I really hate the Benghazi situation. I hate it because it reminds me how far removed my own limited perceptions are from horrible reality. With most murky news stories, i feel like i’m able to tell what’s really going on by absorbing a smattering of articles and apply my own filters. I feel as if i have a good bead on things, and i reach conclusions — the Iraq was should not have been fought. OJ killed his wife. North Korea is nothing to be afraid of. The Tsarnaev brothers are guilty and idiotic…

…but with Benghazi, i can’t really tell. Every story comes from either the left or the right. I can’t see the real truth. What’s more irritating is that our systems of discourse are so poisoned to where the truth doesn’t even matter much.

The Republicans, quite obviously, started at the finish line and declared without hesitation that the deaths of these four Americans were totally preventable, save for the incompetence or deliberate evil of Obama and Hillary. And this paranoid opinion must enter the public consciousnes and be become accepted reality to damage Hillary in 2016. Rand Paul, the new entitled douche king, is already braying that “she should never seek higher office again!” Haa, sorry Rand, you’re not going to be the nominee anyway. But whoever is, the only way they can beat her is if the American people buy the smears, so that’s what they’re gonna do.

I’m waiting for them to bring up Whitewater. I didn’t even understand what the fuck that was about the first time.

The people on the left, on the other hand, dismiss the entire situation, mock it with memes involving Milhouse, and declare that there’s simply no story here. Benghazi? You’re still worried about that? It’s old news!

I don’t like either of those narratives. I think there might have been some kind of intelligence failure or oversight that allowed the catastrophe to happen. Let’s examine it, fix what needs to be fixed, and move on…

…but that view isn’t possible anymore. One side will slide a slimy arm around your shoulder and start bellowing about impeachment. The other side will shove you against a wall and scream that you’re giving ammo to the enemy. The middle ground doesn’t exist any more. I’m hardly the first to say that.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter. I’ll still vote for Hillary over any Republican. I just wish i lived in a country that wasn’t insane.

Sigh.

Hillary 2016.

I’m also irked at lingering homophobia. The other day, during a totally unrelated discussion about the past, Dahir blurted out “yeah, and back then we didn’t have all this gay shit like we do now!” He was probably very stoned, so by “gay shit” i imagine he means media fanfare about gay marriage, or that NBA star who just came out of the closet.

I guess people his age don’t really remember the old days, when the admission of gayness was something that could end your career and make your mom cry while her neighbors threw garbage at her. There’s a good reason why Freddie Mercury and Liberace spent their entire professional lives clamming up and pretending to be totally straight. They had to.

Elton John? Cocaine tends to remove your verbal filters, but he was still brave as hell.

But yo, man, why they gotta celebrate? Why do they have to flaunt it?

Gee, i dunno. Maybe they’re just celebrating the relatively new phenomenon of not having their lives ruined. Hey, Dahir, why did your hero Tupac have to flaunt his blackness? Huh? I can tell he’s black, but why does he have to flaunt it?

People his age don’t remember Whitewater, either. Cattle… futures?

e___e

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I recently read a story that asked the question — why do all NPR reporters have cool names? I thought i was the only one thinking that…

Jian Ghomeshi. Neda Ulaby. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. Soraya Sarhaddi-Nelson. Chana Joffe-Walt. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro. Dina Temple-Raston. Kai Ryssdal. Sylvia Poggioli. Yuki Noguchi. Doualy Xaykaothao. Lakshmi Singh. Renee Montagne. Quil Lawrence. Mandalit Delbarco.

…they look okay printed, but sound even cooler coming into your ear holes.

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Ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

John and i are pretty much in agreement. Every other movie nominated for the Oscar is better than Argo.

One movie worse than Argo is Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike. It’s even worse than the first one. No, i take that back… it’s a little better, a little less disjointed and soulless. I have sympathy for the people working on the movie. They’re trying, they really are, to make a coherent film out of this mess and on a small budget. They’re troopers. Who can hate on Larisa Oleynik? It’s just a baffling experience at first because every single cast member has been replaced. Most of the new actors look radically different from their predecessors, and it was a weird challenge just to figure out who the hell everyone is supposed to be.

I could snipe forever at all the corny bits, or mention the things they got right, but that would get boring. Instead, i just want to reiterate my broad indictment of these movies that i probably mentioned last year after i saw the first one. These films fail utterly if their purpose is to spread Ayn Rand’s philosophy to the masses. Since they die a quick death at the theaters and are kept alive by DVD sales, i would imagine that there are lots of dedicated Objectivist right-wingers purchasing these movies and trying to expose their family members to the “message” without having to ask them to read a gigantic novel. First The Passion, and now this?

But these movies are impossible for the uninitiated to properly enjoy, because in Ayn Rand’s insane world, every normal character archetype is reversed. Normal working-class joes are greedy bums. Soft-spoken preachers are vile parasites. The spunky working girl is a clueless dupe. Politicians who want to help the poor are insidious charlatans. Old women are prattling fiends. Children are little worthless animals… the only good guys are the ruthless capitalists who only focus on work and talk to one another about how much they fucking can’t stand everyone else while cheating on their wives and drinking Scotch.

Visually, emotionally, it just feels utterly wrong.

It does not translate into our pop culture language. Especially when many of the actors playing the villains are just as charismatic, or in some cases, MORE charismatic than the actors playing the heroes. One character who is supposed to be the ultimate sniveling, weak-willed, bureaucratic sycophant is played by a tall, handsome, silver-haired man who projects charm. Meanwhile, the heroic genius steel magnate is played by a gravelly-voiced actor who looks like he ought to be busting kneecaps in a gangster film. It is… just…. bizarre.

Utter confusion is guaranteed for for any wife or husband or sibling or friend forced to sit through these movies. I wish i could hear more of the conversations that take place after these awkward viewings….

“Don’t you see? This movie explains everything wrong with the country today! The government totally turned its back on capitalism. Capitalists and industrial leaders were expelled, shunned, made pariahs, and kept from having any impact on government policy. Rich people were enslaved and not allowed to make money, while the unions grew out of control, and the lazy lower classes glutted themselves with needlessly high wages and benefits. That’s why all innovation was stifled and why we’ve seen a tremendous lack of progress — especially in the tech world. Also, physically gifted, attractive, dashing people became objects of hatred and ridicule to make way for the worship of the mundane and mediocre. At every level of society, the intelligent and beautiful have been snubbed and cast aside, leaving the weak and ugly to run the world, don’t you see?”

“Except, honey, didn’t the exact opposite of all that actually happen?”

“Raaargh, you need to read the book! Then you’ll see!”

“Does this Ayn Rand person at least promote Christianity? And family values?”

“Uhh… no, she was an atheist who hated all religion. And she loved abortion, couldn’t stand kids, really. And she didn’t believe in marriage, and was a huge amphetamine addict…”

“Honey, why do you like this person again? She sounds like a…”

“BECAUSE FUCK THE LIBERALS THAT’S WHY.”

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I’m just boring you now, i can tell.

Hey!

Follow me on Twitter.

@marclhommedieu

I don’t say much important there, but who the fuck does? At least every once in a while, i’ll sniff out a cool link like that color footage from London in 1927. That shit is eerie.

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Iron Man III kicked ass. The Mandarin is the best villain of all time. Of ALL TIME.