I’ve been quiet, mostly, on political issues of late (church politics aside). And on geopolitical issues, too, since they’ve been coopted (by all sides) into the let-me-just-gouge-my-eyes-out-now 2004 Presidential Campaign. I’m aware of that relative quietitude, and it’s been both intentional and reflexive. <\/p>\n
Because the field of discussion has gotten so set in concrete, it seems, that any attempt to talk about this stuff, or express an opinion, simply runs full tilt into a blade-barrier of self-defined axioms. George Bush is either the Prince of Darkness (or Dupe Thereof, the jury’s still out), or else the Greatest American Leader since Lincoln cut down a cherry tree to build a log cabin. The War in Iraq is either the Apocalypse a-brewing or else … well, the Apocalypse a-brewing, but a good <\/i>Apocalypse. The US is either being crushed under the heels of an Orwellian fascism of a like not seen since, well, North Korea, or else is blosseming and being protected under the benign, nurturing watch of the Administration in DC. The GOP are either the Nazis reborn, or else the last, best hope for the Republic. Dick Cheney is either Scrooge McDuck crossed with Dr. Strangelove, or else …<\/p>\n
Well, you get the picture. Feh.<\/p>\n
These matters have turned into rhetorical ruts, such that if you opine something counter to the axioms the reader carries with him, he blinks at you in flabbergastment, before either unleashing the vitriol through a firehose, or else expressing utter dismay that you could ever possibly believe something so obviously stupid, wrong, contra-factual, and, in case I failed to mention it, stupid. And maybe even evil<\/i>.<\/p>\n
So it’s a lot easier on my blood pressure these days to save my rants for other topics. I’ve not turned off reading <\/i>about this stuff, but, for a while at least, I’ve pulled back from writing <\/i>so much about it.<\/p>\n
Which, of course, means that, sometime within the next 24 hours, something will happen to change my mind. I hope it’s a good <\/i>something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been quiet, mostly, on political issues of late (church politics aside). And on geopolitical issues, too, since they’ve been coopted (by all sides) into the let-me-just-gouge-my-eyes-out-now 2004 Presidential Campaign….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129104,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/11\/the-x-men-apocalypse-official-trailer-drops.html","url_meta":{"origin":5050,"position":0},"title":"The "X-Men: Apocalypse" official trailer drops","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 11-Dec-15 1:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Huh.Now, it doesn't help that I've never been a big Apocalypse fan -- he was of those late 80s X-characters that were part of the metastasizing of the X-comics in that era (created by Louise Simonson, but I always associate him with Chris Claremont).That said, this trailer just doesn't do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19211,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/16\/zombie-apocalypse-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-brains.html","url_meta":{"origin":5050,"position":1},"title":"ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brains)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Nov-10 5:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Zombies are so commonplace in horror fiction as to have become almost pass\u00e9 (right alongside vampires and werewolves, with ghosts, demons, angels, and fae maneuvering to follow). \u00a0Especially in the movies, you can expect a new zombie flick every year or three, lurching forward to eat the brains (and increasing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/zombies.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51762,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/16\/psylocke-si-apocalypse-no.html","url_meta":{"origin":5050,"position":2},"title":"Psylocke, si. Apocalypse, no","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Jul-15 1:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Granted it's a heavily done-up cover for EW, but Psylocke here looks pretty darn cool -- a reasonable variant on the comic book original.Less so Apocalypse, who looks here like a guy in blue make-up with a fancy head-dress. The comic character has always been distinctive for the weird lip\/jaw\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Entertainment%2BWeekly%2Bcover.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51707,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/09\/apocalypse-dow-with-stephen-colbert.html","url_meta":{"origin":5050,"position":3},"title":"Apocalypse Dow, with Stephen Colbert","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Jul-15 10:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"I love Colbert. Even with the departure of his faux-conservative Colbert Report persona, he's nicely zany. View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132585,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/19\/like-the-apocalypse-good-omens-is-coming.html","url_meta":{"origin":5050,"position":4},"title":"Like the Apocalypse, "Good Omens" is coming","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Jan-17 11:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's comic novel about the End of the World is going to be an 8-part miniseries on Amazon Prime (in the US), produced by BBC Studios, with a script written by Gaiman himself. This is very cool news.One of the neat things to have changed in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13403,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/12\/29\/why_katherine_wants_an_ip.html","url_meta":{"origin":5050,"position":5},"title":"Why Katherine wants an iPhone","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Dec-08 5:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Either it's a sign of the Apocalypse, or (if Katherine's current sense of humor is typical) an indication that a lot of 8-year-olds are using iPhones.\u00a0 iPhone fart app pulls...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}