OK, here we go, my soggy mopesters. In it to win it this time, so do your wurst! +10 oblivion points to anyone who correctly guesses th' inspiration for this one.
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My feet are tired and my hands are sticky Don't think I'll ever make it home The name of forgiveness freezes in my throat So many nights with just the stars as my coat
Am I gone?
A wretched close to this benighted year I don't think I can do any more The soreness crawls like a spider up my back The remorse won't stop gnawing; don't think I'm intact
Am I gone?
Maybe they asked a favor And maybe I said "OK" And maybe now I'm feeling I'm in a place with no escape
This has been such a tough year This has been such a tough year [maybe you can't take any more] This has been such a tough year This has been such a tough year [you just can't take any more] This has been such a tough year [you just can't take any more] This has been such a tough year [you just can't take any more] This has been such a tough year I just can't take any more This has been such a tough year I just can't take any more This has been such a tough year I JUST CAN’T TAKE ANY MORE This has been such a tough year I JUST CAN’T TAKE IT
So this is what it's come to. We've spent all and now are compelled to face the true reality of the situation we've chiseled out for ourselves. All these years trying to get more, get more, and get more independent have really all been spent mortaring ourselves tightly inside the chamber of the Hate Goat.
The Hate Goat sows confusion and harvests the gutted husks of dreams from within the foul Abbatoir of Hope. He rejoices that we've invested so much of our blood and effort, only to finally join him in his vile abode.
YOU LIED TO ME YOU SAID YOU'D NEVER TURN FROM ME YOU LIED TO ME YOU LIED TO ME (40,002)
There's a thundering hailstorm in Phoenix today, sending drops of frozen hate clattering across the skylight and beating the life out of weak trees. On the outskirts of my peripheral vision, I caught a glimpse of something white and jagged -- the future.
Life as a human right now is akin to having woken up inside the chute of a woodchipper. We may not even recall how we got inside the woodchipper in the first place. The one thing that is clear : the inevitability of the blades.
A feeling like saws chewing into my neck. The sounds of weeping just outside my door. And a cold light knife into my pupil reminds me : This is a world divorced from hope.
When facing a suffocated reality of nonexistent future, what do you do? Here are some options :
1) Lie down and wait quietly for the ice weasels to come. 2) Cry until you're too tired to cry any longer, then die. 3) Fight until death. 4) Put on heavy metal records and rock out for as long as possible.
Now, I don't know which of these sounds most attractive, or which you, the reader, may already be doing. I choose option #4. Here's why :
* Metal music is brain floss. * Metal music improves blood flow to the face. * Metal music is not a norm. * Metal music has no sympathy for your suffering. * Metal music remembers when you were only an animal. * Metal music hasn't heard about your regrets, but it can drench them in molten @#$%^& * Metal music will survive long after the Universe is toast. * Metal music recognizes your true form and can restore it if lost. * Metal music connects you with that aspect of youself that you forgot about. * Metal music is truth erupting from a sea of lies.
There's no future. But with metal music, the present can be made to rock. In these bleak and doomed days, everybody looks for help. Some go to shrinks, some watch TV, and some try in futility to numb the pain with drugs. Well, you all are welcome to your 'cheese' heroin, 'lean,' and amphetamines. I'm an Earache man myself. (47,188)
On a brilliant, natural morning in the spring, Hape Shapley set down his enormous green coffee cup, languidly browsed his email, and checked his calendar. Today’s regimen of tasks, uncharacteristically, held one that promised a glimmer of amusement. The job at hand was to successfully woo the franchisee of three Sports Authority retail establishments; this sort of thing was totally usual. The spark of fun flickered behind the name of Hape’s quarry : Danny U. Dracula. Well, Hape thought, I’ve closed deals with bloodsuckers before. At least Danny’s upfront about it.
Hape pulled his Toyota into the parking lot and parked in the barely-crooked fashion that he had subconsciously perfected. The sky was a Martian azure as he stepped out to survey the terrain and push the button on his keyless lock device until it beeped. The Sports Authority location where he was to meet Dracula was in a cement vega of a high-falutin’ strip mall, and Hape could feel the heat that the structural columns radiated as he passed them. The cruelly-designed parking lot was brimful of Infinitis, Land Rovers, and other symbols of middle-class prosperity, though, so Hape felt that this meeting would not be a complete waste. Now, Hape thought, what sort of guy calls himself Danny U. Dracula? As he strode businesslike toward the gargantuan glass doors, he boiled the probabilities down to three, ranked by likelihood: 1) This man is some stripe of mutant jock-goth goofball with enough money, charisma, or brutality to maintain a business 2) This man is a normal and successful person of Eastern European extraction. Hape wondered what the accent would sound like –Romanian? Czech? He struggled to hear the sounds in his head. He chased away invading images of Gary Oldman in purple shades only to have them replaced by a shaveling Klaus Kinski. Presumably, such a fellow would be aware of the strangeness of his name and use some kind of alterative pronunciation to keep the chuckles at bay. 3) This man is called Dulraca, or Drakler, or perhaps Gacula, and Hape’s assistant Kim Deely had puckishly typoed the name.
It was ten-thirty-four by Hape’s Timex when he first grasped the hand of Danny U. Dracula. The walk across the store had given Hape just enough time to develop a wrenching curiosity regarding the man’s name. Had he thought it through, however, he would have realized that the instant camaraderie of modern business etiquette had made moot this question.
“Danny? Hape. Pleased to meet you; how you doing?” “Great to meet you, Hape –- wanna have a look around?”
No! First of all, Hape had been inside three dozen Sports Authorities within the past two years – he didn’t need to have a look around. Second, what about the name? The name! Now that the initial confrontation had been completed, would there even be another opportunity to speak Danny’s last name? Dracula, for his part, did not seem likely to volunteer. Now, so far, the evidence was pointing to possibility number 3), as Danny had zero sartorial matches for “goth” and no discernable accent, and features that looked more Gallic than anything. Hape had little hope now but to make Danny sign the contract compelling him to buy 670 total units from Head’s putatively-groundbreaking “FlexTelligence E” product line plus the full apparel complement. Then, he could at least see the name properly spelled out and, if he could muster the pluck, Hape would inquire about it should it turn out to be the real vampiric deal.
As Danny led Hape around the store, Hape noticed that as usual, most of the store’s patrons looked like they hadn’t played sports in quite a while. It seemed to be a nearly universal phenomenon : these big athletic chains attract dilettantes who will buy the most costly gear and have it gather dust in their closet, or, in the case of high-tech clothing, will wear it to any occasion save that for which it was designed. Folks who are serious about a sport, Hape found, would usually seek out a small specialty store like Runner’s Galaxy or Lacrosse Barn, where the employees tended to give something resembling a hoot about the sport in question, and the owner was often on premises. Hape himself looked to Advantage when he needed to get himself re-shod (which, for a notorious toe-dragger like him, was at least six times yearly). However, it was much better for Hape to sell to the bigger chains like Sports Authority, as the corporate buyers tended to be less discriminating (they only cared about the bottom line, not about a somewhat negative performance review they’d read online) and the customers at the stores were much more likely to buy high-end items with frequency – it was a known fact that Escalade-pushing neophytes buy the most expensive gear possible, with the hope that it’ll improve their play and give them something to talk about with their buddies (“What stick you got there, Bill?... Oh, the Frightanium 6? I heard that’s a real cannon – let me give it a whack?”). Hape wasn’t really listening to Danny as the latter prattled on about which lines had been moving for him, overall foot traffic versus sales volume, the primacy of his location, and other banal details. Hape was instead looking at the girls in the store, taking inventory of the local stock. Hape had decided a few days ago that he was going to seek for himself a steady girlfriend. Danny managed to snap Hape out of his lecherous reverie with a brisk “Hey! You hungry? Let’s go over to Hattie’s and get down to brass tacks.” Hape hated that expression, but he was indeed hungry. Hattie’s was a standard-issue 1950s-themed diner, awash in chrome and tufted vinyl. The two padded over there, sweating slightly in the morning sun. Settled into a cavernous booth, Hape perused the sticky menu. Standard fare : burgers, shakes…. He came across a club sandwich that sounded good, and decided to order it sans fries. The placed their order with the perky, tattooed waitron and descended to the alloy fasteners.
“Hape, I gotta be straight with you. The Head stuff just isn’t moving like it used to. Last cycle, the Wilson product was outselling you guys almost two to one.” “That’s interesting; nationally, we’re seeing the reverse trend,” Hape fibbed. “Think that display placement could be a factor?” Hape was already thrashing in the waves. Maybe this guy was in fact a vampire. “You’re joking, right? Your stuff is right in there with everybody else’s. I think that what we’re really looking at is that Wilson has better endorsements, better graphics, and better advertising. It seems to me that since Agassi retired, you guys have been , ah, scrambling to connect with the consumer.” “I don’t know if that’s true,” Hape hemmed (he’d had to filed this question before, but for some reason felt a lot of pressure now). “What about the Rotundi endorsement? Greaper? Sarkozi? These guys are huge with the kids. And the new stuff we’re gonna give you…” “And look at what’s happening with Babolat and Yonex – they’re both strong in the consumer market now, not like years ago. It’s not just between you, Wilson, and Prince anymore. The kids are seeing that big guys play these funny rackets, and they’ll pay for that. And there’s something else.” “What’s that?” Hape hated it when these goons did their homework. “You’re not supposed to know this, but Nike is going to make a big push into tennis hardware next quarter. I’ve seen the product. It’s good. And they’re going to get Greaper away from you guys.” This sounded like rubbish to Hape. “We’ll see about that. We’ve known about their goals for months – they haven’t got a candle to hold against our technology, racket-wise. Maybe in clothing, which is traditionally more their domain.” “Maybe. But if they do to tennis like they did to golf, some people are going to get squeezed out. They have R+D up the wazoo, and enough ad sense to really exploit the brand…” “Well, Head will worry about Nike when something really starts happening – right now, it’s all vapor, and like I said, our new stuff is going to blow everybody else away. Look at what we’ve got going on.” Hape cracked open his portfolio to reveal a sleek laptop, which he opened to Danny’s dismay and started the presentation. This was his ace in the hole. He’d helped put this thing together, and it not only briskly revealed the technological superiority of the FlexTelligence E line, but broke the news that Head had bought no less than three super-high-profile endorsers away from rivals : Gil Fisher, Ainsley Chong, and the apparently unbeatable Ricky Phil Stiller. Stiller was widely expected to sweep the Grand Slam this year on the strength of his terrifying serve and shrewdly evil baseline play. It was commonly speculated that his endorsement of the “Claymore” model racket had been the only thing keeping the Prince corporation alive.
The presentation video was fast-paced, well-produced, and hard-hitting, saving the Stiller endorsement for last and introducing a flashy new model co-designed with Stiller – the “Big Brain”. That epithet was one commonly applied to Stiller early in his career, when his primary method of winning matches was making fools out of aggressive opponents by exploiting their positions with his surgical shots from the baseline. Since, he had developed a high-velocity first service to match his better opponents, but the name stuck. Hape could never shake a vague unease with this title and Head’s adoption thereof, however – he felt that it was mildly anti-Jewish. There were plenty of cerebral players out there – wasn’t this sobriquet a way to shove Stiller into that old “Jews are smart but lack brawn” box?
Danny, who generally loathed presentations, found himself quite engaged by this one, and the news of new endorsements softened his heart a bit toward Head. Hape, who was watching Dracula’s face like a poker player throughout the presentation, began to notice the details of Danny’s appearance. His close-cropped blond hair amplified his ruddy complexion to an almost alarming degree, and his left ear had no lobe to speak of. The faint shininess of skin around his neck suggested corrected scarring and made Hape suspect that Danny had been in a bad auto or industrial accident. His white Ping golf shirt was pressed, but had a small red stain on the left shoulder blade that Hape surmised Danny had missed, given the meticulous condition of Danny’s Nikes and the impeccably creased pleated khakis he sported. Hape imagined how the stain might have gotten there unnoticed : did the offspring of Dracula sneak up with a Crayola marker? Unintentional dribble of Kool-Aid from a hoisted toddler’s lip? Shirt taken from irregular stock? Hape realized with a twinge of regret that he would never know the answer. In the end, Hape’s presentation won Danny over. After some price haggling (Hape, as was his wont, budged only two percent, saying that “cost is through the roof on carbon fiber”), it was agreed that Danny’s Sports Authorities would carry the presented Head product, minus most of the apparel, which Hape conceded after Danny showed him a spreadsheet indicating that 70% of the previous year’s line had been sold at clearance prices due to lack of demand. Hape printed out the contract that they had edited together on Hape’s computer, and Danny signed it. Danny had made no correction to his name before printing. Hape had to know : “Thanks, Danny; we really appreciate it. How’s your last name pronounced?” Danny fixed Hape with the look that women give to people who ask if they’re pregnant when they’re not : “It’s ‘Dracula.’ Like the vampire.” And that was that. Hape could tell that he had best ask no more.
Hape had teetered a little during his encounter with Dracula, and he knew it. That kind of psychological stutter is the kind that breaks deals. Danny had really clocked Hape with no problem, and here was Hape, driving down the road tormenting himself with the mysteries of Dracula. As Hape dwelled on the meeting, his thirst for details took a firmer hold. What was the deal with the earlobe? The stained shirt? How much of that -
-= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
When Hape was twenty-three, he quit his marketing internship at Scoop Systems to go explore the rough-cut northern towns of Arizona and see if there was any significant tennis-industry jobs out there. The hot buzz of Cake City had grown wearisome to Hape during his last few months of school and he wanted to know whether the vague romantic notions of the reduced-instruction West might be reflected in these parts of his home state. He checked his bank balance ($3,089.04), packed his rackets along several days’ worth of casual and athletic clothes along with his one good suit into his fairly beat-up Rav4, and motored on up the I-10 toward Flagstaff. He had scoped out a few likely targets and identified some worthless backwaters to be avoided. He’d start in Prescott and work his way up toward Payson until he either found something worth doing or gave up.
In Cottonwood, he found a small quasi-resort hotel with a tennis court on premises. He decided to check it out. It turned out that the hotel didn’t have a tennis pro and was considering bringing one on. Hape knew in his heart that he was far from pro material, but a deep geographical prejudice planted in his mind the idea that these faux-cowpokes might not be able to tell the difference. In a spurt of risk, he offered his services, and the recreation director, a trim blonde called Amy Grumman, agreed. The pay negotiated was meager, but this was a chance for Hape to see how far his knowledge and bravado could take him. Hape needed to find lodging. (46,084)
Oren Gross main points from "Prohibition on Torture and the Limits of Law" :
-"Pragmatic absolutism" and "Official Disobedience" characterize Gross' view -The torture debate is often viewed in absolutist terms; that torture is immoral (due to the debasement of the tortured and the depraving of the torturer; or else due to the corrupting effects on society) and therefore inexcusable regardless of the consequences of not torturing -Arguments for the permissibility of torture are generally from a 'consequentialist' viewpoint, which is a cost/benefit perspective - "ticking bomb" logic, etc, supports a 'conditional prohibition -Variations include "orders of magnitude' approach, which considers only threats of massive scale to outweigh long-term bad effects of torture -Absolute prohibition is morally untenable when viewed in cases of imminent catastrophe -- suggests an absolute legal ban on torture that actors may circumvent by extralegal actions for which they'll be called to account ex post -Crucial to distinguish between 'truly catastrophic' cases and 'artificial cases'; general policy vs. special cases -Crucial to uphold the symbolism of the inviolability of human dignity and the human body -- cries of national security, etc, do not trump fundamental rights -Absolute legal ban 'resists the less-inevitable but more-dangerous' - that is, it cannot prevent the extralegal use of torture in catastrophic cases, but checks against the spread of torture to less-catastrophic cases, etc -Absolute legal ban rejects cost/benefit and avoids slippery slopes -Torture will be used ("official disobedience") in extreme ticking-bomb cases, legal or not, so the question becomes what legal and other consequences result from its use -In a constitutional society, extralegal acts will be done wit trepidation and will have to be accounted for (justified or condemned) ex post ('ex post ratification') -- these factors are powerfully limiting -- responsibility to 'moral judgments of history,' also international legal consequences for actor and state -Extralegal actions, unlike bent laws, are unlikely to create dangerous legal or even moral precedents -Also, the extralegal actor is an 'autonomous moral agent,' not an an agent of an institution -- this curbs institutional violence
Alan Dershowitz key points from "Tortured Reasoning" :
-Torture is currently in widespread use with no accountability -- this is not acceptable; use will expand without accountability -- 'pervasive torture with deniability' -it is better to legalize torture in certain warranted cases than to de facto permit it in all by avoiding the issue -- as in current 'don't ask, don't tell' situation -'necessity' arguments result in too much elasticity -- Abu Ghraib proves this -The risk of ex post ratification or condemnation should rest with a judge called upon to issue a 'torture warrant,' not with the interrogator -Since the courts' function is to finely balance liberty and security, it's appropriate that they do so in the case of catastrophic situations as regards torture -If a democratic nation is to undertake any action, then that action must be subject to the rule of law. -The core debate isn't about whether torture can be justified, it's about accountability in the case that it is used in fact -Requiring warrants adds an unfortunate degree of legitimation, but provides accountability -Cool judicial heads > hot interrogator heads -We want torture to be used if it'll save millions of lives, and we should never want our agents to do anything we deem wrong or illegal -'Tragic decisions should be made at the top whenever feasible,' not by individual operators 00 cf decision on whether or not to shoot down passenger jets -Judicial review / warrants would prevent another Abu Ghraib by eliminating deniability and 'necessity' arguments
Elaine Scarry key points from "Five Errors in the Reasoning of Alan Dershowitz" :
-The argument that those who argue for an absolute ban on torture are morally impaired or hypocritical is false -Just because an act is necessary does not mean that it is no longer wrong and punishable; a 'savior of the city' is unlikely to be deterred by the spectre of possible legal culpability -The act of torturing requires no courage if warranted, but much courage if possible consequences must be borne by torturer -- soldiers regularly give their lives to save others, so it's unclear why legal impunity is needed for the torturer (who might have to give up his liberty to save others) -Warrants eliminate the 'how certain am I that this subject has the knowledge I need which would justify torture?" test -Vast number of current detainees make it seem unlikely that, in the event of a 'ticking bomb,' we'd have only one person to interrogate - it'd be more like 5,000; it's ludicrous to suggest after our myriad intelligence failures that we can recognize the ticking bomb accomplice -These assumptions -- lack of courage, that test is not necessary, intelligence omniscience -- make ticking bomb 'threshold' the inappropriate one through which to enter the torture debate -The assumption that the judicial or executive officer confronted with a ticking-bomb warrant request will be able to effectively distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate scenarios is false -Example : FISA has only declined one warrant request out of 25,000 -Warrants may actually limit legal review, as is the case with search warrants -- once the warrant is obtained, the requestor is free from further review -Dershowitz repudiates, then employs, concepts that he admits are monstrous ('torture lite,' necessity') by giving them different names later ('nonlethal torture,' 'exceptional circumstance warrants') and making them into formal legal procedure (46,722)
*** This is Cole's rebuttal to Ackerman's revised 'Emergency Constitution' proposal ***
- the terror problem is fundamentally one of technological progress
- it'll never be known if or when Al-Qaeda is defeated, and other loose-knit groups may spring up as well
-Terror awareness is 'the new normal' (cf Cheney)
-Ackerman proposes a change in const system to address present inadequacy to address the "political emergency" caused by terror attacks (neither war not crimes)
-Ackerman's proposal has three basic flaws : 1) There is no reason to believe that suspicionless preventive detention will make us safer 2) This provision would "not forestall the abuse of civil liberties" 3) Inappropriate preference of legislative over judicial checks
-Preventive detention, as shown by Palmer, Korematsu, Ashcroft incidents, has not been shown to work. -The "terribly thin hope" that such detention may one day be effective is inadequate to justify such an 'awesome' extension of power
-Ackerman's revised plan adds "reasonable suspicion" to the preventive detention, but since the detainees have no legal recourse while held and are not entitled to any additional compensation when released if their jailers did not use the 'reasonable suspicion' test, the addition of that test has zero effect or meaning.
-Ackerman's idea that his solution will prevent civil rights abuse is 'mere wishful thinking' and is contrary to the lessons of history -Bush's declaration of emergency after 9/11 allowed him to arbitrarily freeze assets, etc, but the provision of these powers did not stop the government from 'radically infringing' civil liberties with other acts (wiretapping, torture, etc) under the aegis of war
-Emergency and war are not mutually exclusive, and neither are their powers-- 9/11 'gave rise to an emergency and was followed by a war'
-Ackerman himself says that terror is a permanent condition, so it's unclear why a temporary solution makes sense whatsoever
-Ackerman acknowledges that constitutional amendments are virtually impossible to pass, but his proposal would only work as such -- any other implementation would be insufficiently binding
-Ackerman's proposal betrays a 'fashionable' distrust of the courts -Calls Ack's criticism of Hamdi 'overblown'
-The reliance on the legislature is clearly an invitation for panic and overemphasis on security to carry the day -- again, see history
-Bottom line : there are already ample measures both legal and appropriate that are available in times of emergency : tightening security in airports and chemical plants, co-ordinating intelligence efforts, etc -These available measures have real preventive value without undermining Constitutional principles (40,915)
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