Doug's Darkworld

The first good picture I’ve taken with my new camera. This one photo alone has rekindled my interest in photography, or to be more accurate, my interest in taking pictures. I don’t really have an eye for taking pictures, but if I take enough of them, sometimes I get lucky. And this was one of the lucky ones, a view from my back balcony at dusk. Plus now that photography is digital, I have no excuse not to take pictures. I’m in fact starting to run around with my camera with me. It even takes videos with sound. All new and exciting to me, I’m kind of a late adaptor when it comes to a lot of technology. Speaking of which, I went into a couple of cell phone stores yesterday. They were creepy, like auto showrooms, all sorts of pizazz and promotions to make it seem like their products were glamorous. People, they are phones, and the sellers are charging enormous sums of money for products and services that cost almost nothing. Oh well, I guess phones and such are status symbols now, such is the power of modern advertising. I knew we were in trouble when they managed to make tennis shoes into a fashion accessory.

Actually, it was the mid/late seventies where we got into trouble as a nation, and it’s been downhill since. I know, I harp on this, but it’s been on my mind a lot lately as I try to fit the US Empire into an historical perspective. And it’s not a pretty perspective, but it’s not all hopeless either. Next week I think I’ll try my hand at some future history just for fun. This week has been a little slow because I needed a break. In any event before I leave this topic, there’s two articles of interest: The Future is rated “B” and This Country Just Can’t Deal With Reality Anymore. I recommend both, though the former is shorter and pithier than the later.

Moving right along, the Pope is running around stirring up trouble. He even managed to link atheism with the Nazi’s. Um, when someone tries to link their enemies with the Nazi’s, it’s almost always a sign of ideological desperation. Yeah, right, atheists are out to get us all. Give me a break. I mean, you can’t charge into battle yelling “For Nobody and Country!” Well, I suppose people could, but the next thing that happens is they stop and think, “Wait, why am I doing  this?” Which is of course why religion is so terrified of atheism, they are the people pointing out that the Pope has no clothes. I expect more of the same in the future, atheism is a rising force, not in that they have any agenda, but atheists are realizing they have nothing to be ashamed of. It’s OK not to believe in the existence of an invisible being with supernatural powers. In fact it’s the logical and scientific belief. However, religion, not to mention governments, don’t want their followers anywhere near logic and science for the most part. That’s why it’s the intellectuals that get rounded up first when someone is pulling a coup.

In local news part of the Bay Area exploded. No, not terrorism. Just ageing infrastructure. Fortunately the local utility company, PG&E, has a solution for this and other upcoming disasters expected as their ancient system of pipelines decays. Make the public pay for it.  Yes, you can’t make this shit up. This is the company that tried to get a proposition passed giving PG&E a permanent monopoly on providing public power in the state, while claiming that it was promoting democracy. Right. My point here is that the rich have no shame. I mean, we live in a  country where the bankers gambled away trillions of dollars, and instead of going bankrupt, they demanded … and got! … trillions of dollars of public money to cover their losses. Boy, I wish I could go to Vegas with that kind of backing.

Yes, it’s not too far off to call bankers “criminals” and say the recent cycle of bailouts and bonuses were “essentially a crime spree that benefits a social elite at the expense of many millions of victims.” At least that’s what the Real IRA just stated, when announcing they were going to be targeting England’s bankers and banking system. This could get exciting.

Have a great weekend everyone.

(The above image: Copyright © Stanley Douglas Stych 2010 All Rights Reserved. I can’t imagine anyone would want to use it for anything, but if asked, I’ll likely giver permission to use it. I will be posting more photographs that I will take, consider yourselves warned. And I think I’ll write several future histories next week. Fun times.)