Month: May 2008

Granfalloon

If you wish to study a granfalloon, just remove the skin of a toy balloon.
A granfalloon, in the fictional religion of Bokononism (created by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle), is defined as a “false karass” (imagined community). That is, it is a group of people who outwardly choose or claim to have a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is actually meaningless.Wikipedia
For an elegant, witty stabbing of the granfalloon that is the Obama campaign, consider this, from Gerard Baker, the US Editor of The Times:
Every decade or so the people who control the way we see the world anoint some American politician the Redeemer of a Troubled Planet.
…it’s fairly clear now that, with the near-certain nomination by the Democrats of Barack Obama everything is in place for the media to indulge in one of the greatest, orgiastic media fiestas of hero-worship since Elvis Presley.
You will not see a finer example of the genre than the cover story of this week’s Newsweek, which was entitled

Losers

John B. Judis, a senior editor at The New Republic, seems to be the only pundit who realizes that while Obama is still being carried by African American and young Democratic voters, he is losing support among essential segments like moderates and conservatives, voters who prioritize the economy above the war and so-called “values” voters.
This result is not unexpected because it’s the essential conundrum of Presidential primaries: the candidate has to risk the general in order to win the base.
While a slight majority of the Democratic party seems to have lost its collective mind, the country as a whole would have to be in pretty sorry shape to put a glib Chicago pol and his what’ll-she-say-next wife in the White House instead of a bona fide war hero with over two decades of high-profile federal government experience.
Anywhere else in the world, this scenario would be a joke. That it has devolved to this, in the most powerful country in the world, is unfortunately not a joke; rather, it’s alarming and sobering.
As the creeping (and creepy) male chauvinism in unexpected places (Russert, Kerry, Olbermann, McGovern, Moore, Carter, etc.) will probably stifle another female candidacy for the Presidency at least 50 if not 100 years, the inevitable Obama defeat in November will put back the cause of a truly viable Black candidate for at least that length of time.
What a hideous, heartbreaking spectacle, and it could all have been avoided if the anti-female element in the Democratic party had simply kept their mouths shut and waited until 2012 to promote their golden child’s political bandwagon.

Bad Retail Karma

There is something about our local supermarket that causes my blood pressure to skyrocket.
It’s an unpleasant business to shop there. Their bakery and produce are poor compared to their competitors, and their deli staff are consistently nasty and snotty.
Plus, there is something about the overall feel of the place that is depressing, even a little tawdry.
As bad as retail generally is, I think it must be toughest to work in the grocery biz, especially if you’re a manager. For one thing, it seems easy to make mistakes that have hideous consequences, like customers getting sick because you sold them perishables beyond their time or some poisonous food additive from China.
Sympathy for the plight of workers aside, at quarter to nine last night, I stood in line at the service desk for over ten minutes trying to get a refund that the cashier at the checkout should have been able to issue, but couldn’t because of the store’s stupid rules.
I had to wait for numerous transactions that had nothing to do with the actual selling of food or sundries, including the endless processing of an overseas money order.
I’ve been shopping at that place for years because it’s convenient, but in the context of money being life energy and life being too short, don’t think I’ll be going back there again.