Fallen Into Knowledge

Found:
Very cool website:
Landscapes of Capital
1 part database of commercials, something like 800 commercials that you can watch online, indexed so that you can search them
1 part analysis: what do these commercials tell us about ourselves, about the economy, about the workplace, about conditions of production.
Do they tell the truth? (No) In what ways do they re-present reality?
Check it out.

Walmart is at it Again.

You see they can’t pay more (even though their wages are several dollars an hour under the wages that their competition pays), because they have to stay competitive.  If they are to succeed, they have to pay as little as possible.  The question is:  who exactly benefits from this arrangement?

Amongst all the other great articles on Sojourner’s website, William T. Cavanaugh has written, “when enough is enough,” about Christians and consumerism.
I hear some definite Marxist overtones - which isn’t a bad thing.
(and yes I am aware of the irony in posting about the evils of consumerism after posting about how much I like my new computer.  Deal with it)

Here is an interesting article from U.S. News and World Report that I came across today. It concerns “corperate chaplians,” that is, spiritual advisors who look over a workplace “flock.” The interesting thing is, it is the company itself that sets this state of affairs up. Huh…I am not entirely sure what to think about this.

The genetic modification of foodstuff is a tricky issue: clearly some modifications, like when a tomato is no longer vegetarian-friendly, can be labeled “frankenfood.” But does modifying a seed to make it more resistant to disease as difference of degree or kind? How much should a consumer be told? RDD This exhibit is thought provoking.

This is an interesting story, both in the traditional sense - the subject matter is interesting (its about people in my age group), and also in another sense - I hadn’t thought of myself as too unusual in this respect. That is, the article describes the life/growing up patterns of those between 21 and 31 as being novel in many ways, but since I am in the midst of those experiences that the article describes (not only I, but also most of the people I spend a significant amount of time with) I hadn’t considered my experiences to be unusual.
Why is it taking longer for us to become fully naturalized adults (married/family/financial independent/home owners)?
1. We are poorer (I, for one have never managed to break the poverty line)
2. School takes longer, is more expensive, and has less impact on our future financial well-being (and, oh, what a combination that makes)
3. Job security is harder to come by.
Those seem to be the tree main reasons that the article posits for this phenomena. Those three things are definitely true, and are certainly factors, but I think that there is something else that the article mentions in a (one) sentence that is more important than the above considerations: We have lost faith. Fulfillment, having a sense of purpose, a vocation (as opposed to a career): This is deemed more important than the finantial well being - or “entering adulthood.” That is to say, I think that my generation is a generation of idealists in a world without clear ideals. We do not believe in previous generation’s version(s) of success - but neither are we sure what our definition of success should be. We have lost faith, and we are determined to find it. And finding it takes time. And finding it looks to many people (including some of the people in the linked article) liike wandering. But we are not - we are dissatisfied with the world that we have grown up into, and so we are trying to shape a new world (or at least a place in the world) that we can be satisfied with/in.
the online version of this article is truncated - I advise you to find the print versionTIME Magazine: Grow Up? Not So Fast
BTW This rambling is officially a rough draft.

I just finished watching the trailer for the upcoming movie “kingdom of heaven. Given the world climate right now I am less than excited about Americans producing a movie about the Knights Templar, to whatever extent that the movie may or may not be based on history. No matter how we slice it, the Crusades are a touchy subject, and certainly not something the west should be glorifying. I am disturbed.
Kingdom of Heaven

This is interesting: a visual graph of just where your taxes go.
It is sure to generate some thought; like, why does the dept. of defense (read, military) get over half!?
anyway, check it out
deviantART: Death and Taxes

perhaps because I never make them, or because I am cynical about how short lived resolutions seem to be, I was delighted to find that I can now have a computer rendomly generate a resolution for me.

See, this way I neither have to take time making a resolution, nor will I feel badly when I fail to keep it. A win-win situation if there ever were one!

This taken from the linked (funny) interview below:

Q: I hear one of the balls will be reserved for troops who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

A: Yes, the Commander-in-Chief Ball. That is new. It will be about 2,000 servicemen and their guests. And that should be a really fun event for them.

Q: As an alternative way of honoring them, did you or the president ever discuss canceling the nine balls and using the $40 million inaugural budget to purchase better equipment for the troops?

A: I think we felt like we would have a traditional set of events and we would focus on honoring the people who are serving our country right now — not just the people in the armed forces, but also the community volunteers, the firemen, the policemen, the teachers, the people who serve at, you know, the — well, it’s called the StewPot in Dallas, people who work with the homeless.

Q: How do any of them benefit from the inaugural balls?

A: I’m not sure that they do benefit from them.

Q: Then how, exactly, are you honoring them?

A: Honoring service is what our theme is about.

The New York Times > Magazine > Questions for Jeanne L. Phillips: It’s the President’s Party