Sunday Afternoon Mashup

The comments under this meme slobbering over two celebrity scientists are about what you'd expect.  I wrote sourly that if elected they'd probably put the entire federal budget into the space program and other high-tech industry, while abolishing social services for mere humans.  The earth is already destroyed!  Who cares?  We're going to the stars! ... Well, not all of us.  Just the rational elites.

I don't really know anything about their politics in general; one commenter complained that Nye has spoken negatively about home schooling, so maybe he's a socialist.  But I know that Tyson fantasizes about a return to the Cold War space program, which indicates a willed historical ignorance that would suit a Republican very well.  I commented to that effect, and another person who'd already endorsed the ticket ("Merica would be fixed in like two minutes!") replied, "Exactly!"  I'd like to think he was being sarcastic too, but after reading the other comments I'll take nothing for granted.

Though I'm also taking time out for daily reflection with Skeletor Is Love.  The Culture of Therapy loves you.  And finally, for no particular reason:

True Religion

I do hope this is a real billboard, and not Photoshopped.

The Lesser Evil?

Oh, dear. Fred or Cthulhu? Fred or Cthulhu? I have less than eleven months to decide!

(via IOZ)

Now, More Than Ever

Now that the Democrats have shown conclusively that it is useless to vote them into office, there remains the question of 2008. I've encountered a surprising number of liberal Dems who apparently believe that Bush will be running again. "I want to see him defeated in 2008," they tell me grimly. So much for "reality-based"! (These are the same sort of people who believe that the US didn't torture or commit aggression before the Bush regime.)

Given the unappetizing Democratic front-runners so far, the only way out would seem to be to vote Republican. But I'm not sure I could do that, no matter how tightly I held my nose. It was disgusting enough to vote for Kerry in 2004, and that left me feeling so dirty and humiliated that I shudder to think how I'd feel after pushing the button for Benito Giuliani. Despite the rationalizations of the critics of third-party candidacies, I'm not willing to give my vote to anyone now in the running. (I voted for Nader in 2000, and am unrepentant, despite the yammering of "reality-based" libs who continue to blame Nader for Bush's seizure of power. Bush stole the election, you dimbulbs. But "dimbulb" is really too kind: these people are liars. Very often they acknowledge Bush's coup when I remind them of it, then return to attacking Nader. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.)

If we're going to indulge in Realpolitik, we might as well admit that national elections are firmly in the hands of big money, and that no candidate who runs at that level is going to be an acceptable choice. I was beginning to think that, for the first time in my life since I became eligible to vote in 1970, I was going to stay home in November 2008.

But then, just this morning in fact, hope came knocking. I remember this candidate from the 1990s, but had thought he'd decided to retire to private life. (Evidently I should have gone to sf fan cons, where "Why Choose the Lesser Evil?" t-shirts and campaign rallies have apparently been featured in every Presidential election year. [So sez Wikipedia.]) Of course, nowadays I'm not so sure that Cthulhu wouldn't be the lesser evil himself; but I'm willing to face that possibility.