Keep Your Aliens off my Body

I haven't been posting very much recently, and it is a bit discouraging to me. Despite having internet access in my new apartment, I have been very tired at the end of each day as I get used to my new profession as Construction Laborer, or as I sometimes call it, "Constructor". Actually, I've never called it that, but you know, like, idioms and shit.

But I did have two thoughts today that warrant some posting.

Thought the first: the more contact I have with "regular" American people, like for example, people who have lived their whole lives in rural areas, the more I understand why this country is messed up.

For example (or, THE example) is bigotry converting into racism. Why is the system racist? Because people in control of the system are able to tweak and shift the system so that they can cut corners at certain demographics' expense. They can get away with this because there is a good solid percentage of the population that doesn't care if the system is racist, and therefore will not unite to hold the powers that be to any sort of systemic equality. The people don't care if lack of nationalized health insurance affects people with black or white skin (or any other color or shade for that matter), the issue isn't an issue just because they don't care about people other than white people. So bigotry allows racism to exist. It isn't that the powers design the system to be racist because they get some sick kick out of it, it is just that they have no reason to design it equally, and therefore it does what it does, along race/class lines. You could find the same sort of thing happening with class for sure; the system takes advantage of poorer people. Why? Simply because most Americans don't care about poor people. Not that they want to enslave them, they just don't give a shit, because someone who is poor must be a waste of humanity, in the same way a bigot views another race/ethnicity. This also explains why bureaucrats will endlessly defend a system against racism. Of course the system is not supposed to be racist, it is only a general sentiment of bigotry that allows a system to be racist and yet pass as "the way things are".

I thought of this after seeing an advertisement for a pro-immigration reform rally. The slogan was, "Immigrant Rights are Basic Rights". Well, all very good sounding to the liberal, reformist mind. Everyone should have basic rights, so if immigrant rights are basic rights, then we should implement immigrant rights. Perfectly logical.

The problem is, the people who are halting immigrant rights are not people who believe in basic rights for everyone. In fact, the basis of their position is that immigrants should have less that basic rights! The only thing they want for immigrants is a kick in the teeth and a ticket back to where they came from, and that is at best. Our immigration system is horribly oppressive and fascist towards certain people, only these certain people are hated by a large amount of the population, so the system can keep doing it without much fuss. How do you present the "save 'em" argument to people who have already decided a long time ago, "fuck 'em"?

It is the inverse of why the "Abortion is murder" argument, in graphic billboard form or not, will not convince anyone who is pro-choice that they are wrong. Their opinion is not based upon whether or not they think there should be a law against murder. Their opinion is that abortion is not murder, just like bigots think that immigrants are not people (at least not comparatively).

I could relate this to my funny observation that unwanted pregnancies are the ultimate interloping aliens. They even look like aliens. Abortion would then be the ultimate answer to the alien problem, and the CIA, Planned Parenthood, and the Minutemen could all finally resolve their differences and get at the root of the problem.

But really, this is a good example of how argumentation and sloganeering typically serves to just further argumentation and sloganeering, rather than reach the root of the problem or develop any positive solution. No one learns anything that they didn't already know, and no one develops a course of action different than the one they already were planning.


Now I can't remember the second thought. Oh well, I guess this was long enough for one post.

Virtual Constructions

I think I found a job; in fact, a job that does not make use of a computer. I will be working for the Steiner Family Construction Company doing siding and windows installation.

But in news that does involve a computer, Google Maps now has "Street View" in select areas. This appears to be a 360 degree camera that was driven up and down the streets of the area (e.g. Manhattan) and you can either click on the map for a view of that area of the street, or "drive" along the street through the street view window.

I drove past my old apartment building at 101 W. 140th Street, and saw the guys standing on the corner in front of the Harlem Up! Market just like usual.

This is my picture of my old building, by the way, not Google Maps.

It appears that, in Manhattan anyway, they took the pictures sometime in the last two months, because the park across the street from my building that was only finished in May was completed.

Some will probably say that this is creepy, because just like when Google Earth was first released, anything that give a close image of something automatically seems like survelliance. But frankly, while it was cute to drive myself 'round the old neighborhood for a while, it seemed pretty useless. You are looking at a picture of a street taken through a convex lens, so there is very little detail. In addition, there are things obscuring the view, so if you are looking for a specific door frame, you will probably be hard pressed to find it unless you have seen it before in person; the buildings are not accurated labels by address either: only an approximation is given. The view from "108 W. 140th," which was the most direct of my building, had a school bus in the way. In the other direction, shadows and glare made it impossible to see into the park. I wouldn't have even known it was a park if I hadn't actually lived there for a year. Furthermore, you are only looking at the street. What help is that, really? If I told you to come to my address, and then send you a picture of my street that I took from my moving car, which would you rely on to get to my house? Probably not that slightly blurry picture of trash cans.

So, while it was fun to virtually drive around Manhattan, I couldn't hear any of the car horns, get cut off by any cabs, feel the sweltering humidity, or get trapped by one way streets. I ask myself, what is the point? I answer myself, a gimmick that will be about as useful as web cams. Hey, look! It the Pyramid Live Web Cam! What do you know, but the pyramids are still there... just like that have been for thousands of years. Thank goodness for the Internet, or I never would have known.

Other technology that is actually useful and totally sweet:

The Transformers Movie comes out today. Then there is a Battles show tonight. And, tomorrow is Fireworks Day, and maybe there will be a special Independence Day edition of Horror Movie Club. Everything is coming up awesome, except for Google Maps. Google Maps can now sit in the corner and think about what it has done.