Krebs' birthday, a typical slaughter for me. Fun, but kind of unhinged, adolescent. Jello shots? What!?! It was all downhill from there...

I've got to work on my Drinking Liberally style. This wasn't that, but the pattern was the same. It always seems I get there too early, and then get too drunk by the time people I want to talk to arrive. Perhaps I should try harder to be fashionably late, or maybe stick to water for a time. Would be easier on the wallet/liver too.

On the plus side I had a productive afternoon meeting with Jon and Eric. Check it out:

www.democrobot.com

We're making a "Political Digg."

In the comments below, the dirty one writes something worth a frontpage reply:

I’d say the most suprising things is that you paid all that money for a college degree and you misspelled Wolverines. However, you do make a point about our imperialist tendences. I would ask one question though: which method of imperialism is more damaging, our bombs in Iraq, or the horrible blight on the world that we call Walmart? Fact: I was reading the base paper today, and the phase “The sun never sets on the USAF”, was included, talk about Irony.

Hey man, thanks for the catch on spelling.

It's a well known fact that I paid all that money to go to faggy-ass art school (i also made that website), and that my primary education doesn't teach you to read, so I had to learn it on my own. Just like you had to sometimes shoot food off your back porch, except with more priviledge and artsy-fartsy crap for me, and more stacks of Club International for you. It's a rich tapestry.

And you're correct about Walmart and the like, although I think the aims of most of those really big multinational corporations -- and the individuals who run in those circles -- in many ways represent the emergence of a new interest, distinct from the traditional "National Interest" that traditionally drives imperial expansion (e.g. the interests of the Crown, Napoleonic Code, the Reich, etc).

One could argue that the US military-industrial-complex, resource-extraction enterprises (read: oil, but also some other stuff) and the institutional powers pushing the Globalized race to the bottom for labor, crap products and mass consumer debt (Wall Street, Wal*Mart, Not-Quite-So-Red China, Big Media) are working together to bring about some kind of hellish NEW WORLD ORDER!

But that would be paranoid.

State of Jefferson here I come: back-porch deer and faggy-ass arts education for all!

The calendar turned, and everyone is getting sick. Must mean the seasonal change is really on.

This is the last post, from July of 2005, on a now-dormant blog called Dem Realists:

Thinking Things Over

One of the great things about being young, a student, someone hungry to understand how this world operates, and, of course, honest, is that I'm allowed to question myself, ask myself the difficult questions, and re-think how I consider the issue of our time. That issue is our present war. During my time at the Claremont Institute this summer, I've been exposed to an approach for America's approach to the world that does not jive with what I've written for public consumption in columns for two daily papers at Penn State, what I've written (or linked to) on this blog, and what I've argued over with whomever, everywhere else. I've come to really consider - and even agree with - this new (new, in that it's new to me) approach. Don't worry, though. I haven't become a lefty, I haven't become a blame-America-first type. I'm still a hawk. I still - and will always - believe in defending the United States. And I'm still - and will always - believe in the U.S. military as the gaurantor of our freedom.

However, I'm not going to get into what this new view on foreign policy right now because it is going on 2:30 in the morning (and I have to be up in five hours for work). So I'll get into that at a later time. But, tonight was one of those nights where I just may have come full circle. But then I think, maybe I haven't. I haven't read everything yet, I tell myself. I can't come to a new conclusion on things just yet. Maybe what I've thought all along was and is the way to go. I don't know. Now I'm just rambling. But what I do know is that I'm not done trying to figure everything out. And really, I don't think anyone has it totally figured out. And that's why I can change my mind - or at least be open to accept something new. That's not easy, especially when that's all I've written about and all I've believed.

So before I lose any more precious minutes of sleep, I'm going to leave it at that.

That's the sound of an awakening. The kids are all right, man.

This hepcat wonk, who's kind of a lovable dork -- author of the book In Defense of Goliath -- out there explaining how the US provides global services like creating a currency and the necessary security for trade, and that this is something most other nations appreciate, and in fact that would be impossible if they didn't.

This is true (and in fact non-state actors may have their say too), but he says the great threat to Pax Americana isn't China. Rather it's Medicaid. At some point we may be tempted trade in our global military empire for better services for our population.

The implication is that this is a bad deal. I disagree. Government works for the people, and as such health care really is more important than the far reaches of empire. Letting our national infrastructure (social and physical) degrade while bankrupting our treasury with foreign occupations and a global military footprint serves the interests of no one.

It's the great challenge of this leadership generation to manage this transition. A single nation-state policing the world is unsustainable. If we reduced our military budget by 25% we could have health care and energy independence. Sounds good to me.

I just sent $3,150 denero to the Internal Revenue Service as pennance for ducking them in 2001. I'd rather pay off MBNA (no other investment I can make will pay 20% at this point), but getting right with Uncle Sam is sort of a prerequisite to other fiscal health it seems.

So enjoy it, you bastards. Buy some of those kids in Iraq some body armor for fucks sake.

Hey all. Obviously there have been some problems here. My hosting company has had my server (which I pay extra for them to "manage") offline for the past 36 hours. Nothing I could do about it.

So anyway, I'm back, and not really in such a buoyant mood as yesterday. Spring sprung, and that's pretty cool. The Belle du Mois (four times over now) is helping to organize an engagement party a friend of hers from High School, so that should be interesting. Need to figure out some moves.

Nuclear Reactors Found to Be Leaking Radioactive Water

While Nuclear energy looks good on paper, the risks are really very high. I think there's better potential elsewhere.

Well, things seem to be working out. Bit by bit, life moves along, and the things that I think are going to be problematic turn out to be imminently surmountable. There's a level of organization and precision that I still want to reach -- Focus, Koeing! Focus! -- but all trendlines are positive.

Greate Expectations exist, yeah, and great injustice too, but I think things are going to work out for me.

YouTube died, but here's a site with a trailer:

SNAKES ON A MF PLANE!