This article by the BBC is as good an analysis as I’ve seen so far to explain why the hell Americans behave in the dumbass fashion that we do.

I think they’re wrong in tracing it back to the 60s, however. It goes further back than that. There’s always been a deep suspicion in this country of intellectuals, that they’re secretly making fun or putting themselves above others. You are supposed to become rich and successful due to your hard work or your charming personality or your innate talent rather than your intellectual gifts. What do you need all that book learnin for? There’s a large segment of American society that is deeply deeply suspicious and resentful of anyone who dares think for themselves, or questions ‘facts’ that are presented with no proof or rationality.

True Story: When the H1N1 vaccine came out, there was some debate as to whether or not people should get it. There are some legitimate reasons to decide not to (egg allergy, bad reaction to previous flu shot, compromised immune system), but there were also a lot of absolutely ludicrous statements floating around. In the course of a discussion, someone actually said in all sincerity that the vaccine caused death in 1% of people who got it. The lack of critical thinking skills evidenced by this statement is astonishing. I don’t disbelieve that propaganda of that sort was out there — I just can’t believe that people believed it! But then, people see numbers and their brains shut off. 1%, they think, that’s a pretty low number, maybe it’s true. Except, of course, 1% of even just 1,000,000 (and by that point about 20,000,000 doses had shipped) is 10,000. Even the American media could not fail to notice 10,000 randomly dead people.

I didn’t really listen to it, but I got the highlights.

It all sounded very nice, but I honestly no longer have any confidence that our completely dysfunctional government has the ability to implement anything at all. There was a brief period last year when it seemed like the Democrats might have grown some balls, when they finally realized that people were angry and they had momentum. But as usual, they squandered it all with their usual spineless jackassery. The Republicans, on the other hand, were they to come to power are perfectly capable of passing most of their agenda — except their agenda is ruinous for the average American.

So it seems we’ve gotten to the point where it’s impossible to expect improvement; the best we can hope for is that the Democrats retain power so things aren’t made worse.

And that is really depressing.

Someone said to me earlier that they agreed change needed to occur but that they didn’t think the government was the answer. Fine. Then what is?

Businesses in the US behave as if their employees should grovel and simper that they’ve deigned to employ them at all, let alone grant them a reasonable salary, civilized working hours or any kind of benefits. Change will not come from there: they have no incentive.

Individuals in the US have no power of negotiation; there are so many people equally qualified for jobs, not to mention the fact that their health care is probably tied to their job, that they cannot make any demands without risking personal disaster. Change will not come from there: they have no possibility of success.

Labor unions, which wrought much change in the middle of the last century, have been gutted and their power is low. Change will not come from there: people have been on their own for so long they no longer imagine it could be different.

So I can only assume that the people who think government isn’t the answer are operating on the underpants gnome theory of improvement. Step 1: Imagine a better situation. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Fixed!!

This kind of pie in the sky crap has even less chance of working than trusting the government.

… that the chars in When Harry Met Sally are supposed to be the same age as me.

…

…

I don’t really feel grown-up enough for that to be true.

Dear Mr. Man,

I understand the desire to dress casual when you’re not at work. My own husband generally lounges around in shorts when at home, and I have been known to do the same thing. But: shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt? In January? In NEW HAMPSHIRE? OUTSIDE?!

I’m sure you get my point.
Me

Spam comments confuse me at times. Now, I certainly get the ones that say things like ‘Viagra viagra viagra viagra’, though I have always wondered who would be stupid enough to buy drugs from a random email or comment that is completely misspelled and full of strange capitalizations?

What I don’t get are the ones which say ‘wow, great entry, will read more’ and stuff like that. I suppose it’s to try and fool the spam filters, but… it seems like a lot of work. What kind of return do spammers really get on their efforts? It just seems like it could not be worth it.

But then, I would think that about junk mail too and I still get that all the time.

Okay, I know in my last post I sort of intimated that I wasn’t looking to take on any new grand plans or projects. I already have quite a lot of stuff that I need to do this year and certainly random blog projects by necessity must fall at the very bottom of the list.

But oh, I read today that they’re bringing the Baby-Sitters Club books back into print. Now, my guess is that like Trixie Belden a few years back, they’ll get about ten books in to the series and quit. The thing is, though, I’ve had this of and on urge to reread that series. All of it. The regular series, the Mysteries, the Super Specials, the Little Sisters. I don’t own all of them, but I do own quite enough to make a really good start; if I ever got so far as to get through all of mine, I could justify hunting down the rest.

Rereading, of course, is fine, but it doesn’t really feel a worthwhile pursuit without -making- something of it. Reviews, perhaps? I’m going to have to ponder this a little more.

This blog has been spluttering along for the past what, three years now, with hardly any posts or content. Once in a while I’ll manage to throw something up here, but a one off is hardly useful, is it?

I thought about trying to post every day, but that’s hardly likely to occur, and the first time I missed I’d be discouraged and either cheat by backdating or, more likely, give it up altogether and have several more months of nothing.

So a more reasonable goal is to post a certain number of times this coming year. Considering I only had 33 posts last year, it’ll hardly be difficult to outdo myself. 200 seems like a doable number, so that is the goal: 200 posts over the next year, only one of which can be a post where I claim to have nothing to post.

Last year I managed to read 110 books. Considering the pathetic months of July and September, this is pretty remarkable. Considering 38 were manga and at least a dozen more were either picture books, graphic novels or for children, this is less remarkable.

No goals on this, however; it’s hard to predict how much time I’ll have available to read, and of course, if I were counting everything, the number would be about 500, 300 of which would be Princess Baby or Dr. Seuss’s ABC.

I would like to make some progress on my long procrastinated newbery medal project. If I can get another dozen of those done this year I’ll consider it to have been good progress.