Ride that Percentage like a Wave. A Wave of Concern.

According to the Population Resource Center the average voter turnout for presidential elections between 1960 and 2000 dropped from around 60% to somewhere in the 45-50% range while turnout for mid-term congressional elections seems to pretty consistently fall below 50%.

Here's my question: Why are we pretending that our "democracy" is a legitmate government? Our national officials represent the will of less than half of the eligible voters. The people in office right now are there because roughly 1/4 to 2/5ths of the voting population put a check next to their name on the ballot. That is hardly a majority. And this in a country with a "majority rules" motto. Choosing not to vote means something regardless of whether it represents apathy, disenfranchisement, or a statement against our political system. A no-vote should not be ignored as it is currently.

It's perturbing to think that our president felt he had some kind of mandate because he won with 51% of the vote in '04. The 2004 presidential election had only a 60% voter turnout, meaning that roughly only 30% of eligible voters actually voted for him. 30% gave Bush the thumbs up. This means that 70% of United States voters did not endorse him and yet he is still our representative.

It's fucked, I say. Totally fucked.

* * *

A shout out to Sanity Clause. Something to try to keep in mind this election season (or year... or two-and-a-half years as it seems to have become):

The Bully's Pulpit - Divide and Conquer

First, a caveat: ALL generalizations are flawed.

Having said that, I can unequivocally state that there are two kinds of people: People who divide things into two groups and those who don't. Too many of us are too sure that there are only two sides to every debate, just as there are two sides to a coin. Heads/Tails; Right/Left; Liberal/Conservative; White/Black; Male/Female. Why, if my opinion is Right, must yours be Wrong? continue reading...

Now Presenting...

... JESUS CHRIST: VAMPIRE HUNTER

goodgamegoodgamegoodgamegoodgamegoodgamegoodgame

i hope gibbs can pull his act together after the pathetic showing yesterday. the word of the day is "german." the patriots were robots on the field moving like clockwork.

 

and props to the patriots' offensive line. those guys are solid. their offense works because of them. if jason campbell had five nice and quiet seconds to sit in the pocket and see his options, the skins would score a lot more points.

 

comments stolen from the Boston Herald's blog by John Tomase:

… check out the game log for the Colts in their 31-7 victory over the Panthers today. Unlike the Patriots, who converted a pair of fourth downs and were still throwing 30-yard passes in the fourth quarter of their 52-7 victory over the Redskins, the Colts took a different approach.

On their final possession, which began with 9:40 remaining, backup quarterback Jim Sorgi threw a 9-yard pass to Reggie Wayne. Indy than ran on 10 straight plays before Sorgi threw an incompletion on fourth and 12 from the Carolina 25.

In fact, of the Colts' 16 plays in the fourth quarter, 13 were runs.

It's an interesting juxtaposition, to say the least. Then again, maybe it isn't. To quote an e-mail from a bottom-line Patriots fan: "So the Colts have class and we have none. What's your point?"

and Belichick on running up the score

 

NBC also had some exclusive quotes from Belichick on the subject on Friday.

"I've been coaching too long," Belichick said. "I remember being on that side. When I was coaching defense it was my job to keep the score down, not theirs. When you're playing defense it's your job to stop them. It's not (the offense's) job to not score. It's like I tell the offense, what the (bleep) do you think I send you guys out there for? To punt? We have a punt team for that. That's not your job. Your job is to go out there and score points. If you come off the field and you haven't scored points you haven't done your job."

 

 

A Trove of Bill Watterson's Early and Rare Work

http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cbillart.html

"There's a pizza place near where I live that sells only slices. In the back, you can see a guy tossing a triangle in the air.” -- Steven Wright

The pizza-making got off to a surprisingly good start on tuesday. After a 4-hour journey into the suburban strip mall jungle, I returned to civility with a large block of granite that I plopped into the oven and began heating not long after I made sure it wouldn't break the oven rack.

The dough this time around comprised King Arthur bread flour, tap water, Fleischmann's fresh yeast, and table salt. Using bread flour made the dough much easier to work with as it has a higher gluten content, which keeps it from tearing. I also lucked out when mixing it all up and ended up with a dough that wasn't too wet or too dry. It was as close to perfect as I've made yet. While the end resultant was a crust that was perhaps a bit too thick for the diameter of the pizza, it was both crisp and chewy. No charring though. Still, I was baking these pizzas in 10 minutes rather than 20, which was probably largely due to the thicker and more dense baking stone holding its heat as well as an oven door that actually closed.

The finished product:

Check out the hole structure:

Sadly, no charring:

Dawn Raids

There were a number of police raids yesterday in Aotearoa (New Zealand), ostensibly looking for weapons and trying to weed out a terrorist plot of some sort. One of the places that was raided was the community house where I was a caretaker. It apparently has been under surveillance for the past year, which means New Zealand authorities have some kind of dirt on me frying tofu in the kitchen and dumping compost out the back. 17 people in total were arrested around the country, most being held on weapons charges of some sort.

While I can't speak for the other places that were raided, the idea that they might find some kind of weapons cache at 128 is completely ludicrous. I mean, that all the cops came away with were bags of clothes and some documents seems to discredit them. Yes, anarchists hang out at the house--a group of people who would like to see government abolished--but from my experience there, they're all non-violent activists. I don't think the NZ government is really in any danger. The thought that these people are going to terrorize New Zealand in some way is farcical. If anything, the raids support the anarchists' arguments about hierarchies, government, and abuse of power.

In the end it seems like a Bush Administration ploy to cultivate a politics of fear. If New Zealanders buy into it, it will just result in further abuses of power.

Contrary to what Western governments would like us to believe, terrorism isn't the great political issue of our time, it's intolerance of different value systems and cultures.

You can watch a bunch of news clips about the bullshit that's going on here.

i expectorate better

i'm not entirely sure what the latest typography assignment was supposed to imbue in the young, impressionable minds of my classmates other than if you organize letters in a certain way, you can make a picture resembling a face. the kids in my typography class seemed to like the image i made of a collection of characters (century gothic bold--point sizes vary) depicting a face vomiting other characters. the kids like the puke. it reminds them of halloweens of yore, their kid sisters' birthday parties, apple pie, and fields of corn.

when my prof. saw my preliminary sketch, she asked, "what is that?"

lady, if you can't tell it's a face coiled in on itself while disgorging the subject of your class back at you, than i can't help you.

contempt is probably too strong a word to use at this point, but frustration certainly applies on occasion.

take a gog at my mog...

... and learn why i like the washington social club and see if you might like them too.

http://mog.com/egadman

some photos

flickred a few more photos.

welcome to maryland.

we've got crabs.

"Twelve highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion"

In tribute.

that no-talent sonovabitch

music to my eyes:

 

http://zappinternet.com/flash/zappplayer.swf?embed=true&idvideo=fodCyoDmiV

yellow-shirted.

the candy-coated lure of the shiny hi-def idiot box is truly remarkable. two hours of Undeclared on DVD (all hail Judd Apatow) and an hour of the Daily Show makes for a quality evening of entertainment. i'm tricking myself into thinking that if i'm selective enough about my viewing that my brain won't become slothful.

today i woke up at 7:30 to go to a class that the teacher bailed on midway through due to some kind of reception that she was required to attend and only just found out about. there was no lecture. just lab time, which meant half the class got down to the business of inking their projects--business which could have been accomplished in the comfort of my own home--and the other half texted on their sidekicks or surfed the net. MK ain't no VC (apparently the "K" actually is for "Learning").


and bless these men:



mr. poise, I presume:

this man is my age. he gets knocked over by angry, muscly men for a living. he also throws oblongs at people. well done, sir. an extra serving of lard to you and your humpbacked, oswegan poodle.

America's Team

it just seems fitting that the team that was caught spying on its
fellow league members is the Patriots. it's like some twisted,
third-rate metaphor for the Bush Administration. the Patriots are seen
around the NFL as cocksure and smug, not unlike how people see the US
these days, and now they're also corrupt, also not unlike the US government
(or any government, really). maybe Belichick's been taking notes from Robert
Mueller.

anyway, the Pats can go eat a bag.

also, apologies, for being a poor correspondent of late. i've had less
free time. should get better at it again soon.

new face

so i figured i'd alter the look of the blog (duh). initially i just did it to stave off boredom, but i realized that there were some template options that would actually make for a decent upgrade. the photos now are presented without the ugly border and the white background should also make photo display a little more aesthetically pleasing. i'm not dead set on the color scheme, but it probably won't change for a while. i got busy with classes and theater tech.

who is like a music blog?

i am like a music blog.

mogging is the new blogging.

check out my mog-y mcmog here.

we've got crabs!

a few more photos have been posted on flickr in the last few days. i'm running out of the good ones, i think. click the above image to get to the rest.

frenzy!

interesting statistics in this nytimes.com article about US incomes in 2005 . needless to say, the rich got richer. some choice quotes:

Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.

and

People with incomes of more than a million dollars also received 62 percent of the savings from the reduced tax rates on long-term capital gains and dividends that President Bush signed into law in 2003, according to a separate analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, a group that points out policies that it says favor the rich.

The group's calculations showed that 28 percent of the investment tax cut savings went to just 11,433 of the 134 million taxpayers, those who made $10 million or more, saving them almost $1.9 million each. Over all, this small number of wealthy Americans saved $21.7 billion in taxes on their investment income as a result of the tax-cut law.

The nearly 90 percent of Americans who make less than $100,000 a year saved on average $318 each on their investments. They collected 5.3 percent of the total savings from reduced tax rates on investment income.

i mean, of course, people who earned less saved less. that's no surprise. but the fact that what (roughly) 133.895 million people saved on average on an individual basis equaled 0.00017% of what, on average, the richest 11,433 people saved individually seems ludicrious. but then, that's capitalism.

thanks to the achenblog for the tip.

from slice @ seriouseats

who thought this was a good idea?

last little life

saw the rentals tonight. fan-fucking-tastic show. they crammed in nearly all my favorites, including Getting By off of 7 More Minutes and a great weezer b-side (i just threw out the love of my dreams). matt sharp pin-balled around stage doing what looked like some kind of modern dance exercises. sara radle, rachel haden, and lauren chipman's vocals were tight. they've cemented their place as my new (old) favorite band. hear some stuff.

and: signed up for graphic design I and typography I at the school of art + design at montgomery college. classes start on the 5th. should be swell.

also: looks like i have a gig doing a hang and focus for a show at the roundhouse theatre.

too: superbad is freakin' hysterical. incredibly misogynistic, vulgar, and just generally offensive. but hysterical.

it's a mirage!

new photos up on flickr.