After years of speculation based on spotty data, planetary astronomers are finally getting from Cassini the answers to many simple questions about Saturn and its moons that previous clues had led them to suspect were true. In much the same way, the last couple of days I have become privy to much information about previous blog subjects. It seems odd to me that so much information would come rushing in at one time, and whether you find it interesting or not, I will now share it with you.
A Persian - A mysterious character named Layla once posted on this blog on the subject of Two Guy Trio. This led to a dialogue both on this site and off which made me wish to meet this mathematician (especially since with a name like hers, she was likely Persian). Well, for whatever reason, this never panned out. However, I recently found a friend of hers who told me her entire backstory, including some relevant facts about her friends. Apparently she is very pretty and cool and smart, and she was indeed single at the time she posted here, but is not now. All unknown variables in this equation have now been solved for.
A Gay Professor - One of the most informative classroom experiences I ever had was a panel I attended for a meanignless bonus point in my government class. On this panel was a gay government professor who made mostly inflammatory comments that appealed to one's sense of culture rather than one's academic side. I saw him at mass on Sunday, and it's always good to have confirmation that rational, openly gay people still find it important to celebrate mass at their local Catholic Church.
A Government Class and Instructor - I was shocked to discover three months after this entry was made that a friend of mine who inadvertantly stumbled across my blog found this entry and was so enraged by it that she never wanted to return. Her greivance concerned the last sentence I believe, and perhaps rightly so; I have become less incindiary to be sure. Well, I would like to make it clear that by the end of the semester I was much more appreciative of my "flat-chested" instructor. Also, one of the funniest things ever to happen during that class was the day the instructor had this exchange with Racquel:
"Women are excluded blah blah blah," says Racquel with a hint of passion.
"All right, that's a good point. Is that a pint of ice cream you're eating?!" says J Suchland in amazement.
"Uh, yeah," meekly replies Racquel.
Realizing she accidentally embarrassed an earnest student, J Suchland tries to correct the situation with as much of her 5% body fat she can muster, "I think that's awesome. Rock on!"
Ahhhaha, the road to lovable-lesbian hell is paved with good intentions. Rock on, indeed, J Suchland.
A New Lurker - Lastly, the most recent addition to the family of commentors is a Dean's Scholar friend of mine, Laurel Issen. The same guy who told me about the mysterious Persian also informed me that Laurel's father's name is Barney, which explains a lot about her.
In what is perhaps my most h-core concert experience to date, I drove from Shreveport to San Antonio to see a new favorite band of mine, Girls in a Coma. Let's call a spade a spade here though folks, I did only drive back to Austin after the show, where I now am staying. So in reality this excursion was me driving to Austin and then going to a show in San Antone.
I got lost on the streets of San Antonio after arriving, and I learned from this experience that you will not find your way around downtown by saying "I need to find that street named after something to do with the Catholic Church." Eventually I found the club which I thought was going to be Sanctuary, but turned out to be Communion. In any event, the rock commenced with three horrible bands. Without exception, these three bands featured a majority of members wearing women's hip-hugger jeans. This is a metrosexual fashion trend I was only recently warned of, and I must say that seeing this in person was very disturbing. Anyway, after a fourth band called Coulter (not named after the Fox News analyst) played, the main attraction ignited.
For those of you who don't know, the lead singer for the all-fembot Gilrs in a Coma is only sixteen, and within a few minutes of begining their set some creepy guy came up with three carnations and one carnation stem (I'm not sure if that was intentional) for the "Girls" and tried to talk to them. For illustration purposes, I should mention that this creepy guy was sporting a single earbud headphone, a leopard vest, and horn-rim glasses.
The Girls executed an excellent performance with more Smiths/Morrissey covers than I was expecting. The fact that the show was in their home town, however, may have made them a bit less rocking than they could be, since they were essentially playing for a room full of friends. This home town factor also lent to me feeling much less comfortable than I do at most shows. Most of the audience at this cheaply thrown together venue seemed to have been under the control of a single portly Hispanic fellow wearing a pink and black checkered cap.
Other notable highlights include: getting hit on by the most normal looking girl in the club; two of the "Red Gang" (a bloc of people wearing mostly red) falling into me and burning the arm of the guy next to me (who had a strange combination of dreadlocks and mullet); seeing some of the members of The Applicators enjoying the retro dance mix in the other room.
I have just watched "The Fog of War," which I found to be a excellent film if only for the many illustrations of actual history given by its subject Robert S. McNamara. The film has gotten me to thinking about what I can say for certain about the current political situation in the world. I've found many individuals are happy to proclaim, spread, or discuss (rarely generate) a picture of the way things are. These models are typically presented as what the proclaimer believes is fact, but my data is at least not nearly abundant enough to make as confident predictions as most people I encounter.
A common model is that of "Corporate America" which essentially states that corporations are in control of the government as a whole, specific individuals who are in a position to affect change, and sometimes even the American people. Control is a concept I've recently become very interested in. It seems to me that Person A exercises control over Person B by creating a dependency of B upon A. Applying this definition to the question of whether Corporations control America, the question is now: Are Americans dependent on corporations? Well, what happens when you need a toothbrush? A meal? Clothes? I can rarely think of a case where I could easily obtain any of this from a non-corporate source. But none of us feels dependent do we? A corporation has never made a demand of me as an individual, and so i have always been inclined to dismiss the "Corporate America" model as more than a little off base.
What about the question of whether corporations control government officials? They need toothbrushes too, but the corporations do have a more persuasive tool for politicians who must face election: money. I think there is no doubt this is a very effective tool of control that is used by corporations over elected officials, but it is also not absolute. Ultimately, elected officals' power is given by the voters, which does not always have to be coerced out of them by advertisements and other means that cost money beyond the candidate's means. Here then the corporation clearly exercises a form of conditional control: they create a dependency which is conditional to the political environment. But if the corporation controls the population in some unsensed way, the corporation my even be able to sway the political environment to their favor (e.g., in such a way that forces the dependency of the candidate).
I conclude that if it were their goal corporations could indeed "control America," but I don't think most CEO's make that their objective. They mostly are concerned with their own survival and profit, and most of the country agrees to cooperate with them because it is most convenient. I think that individuals in and out of government would find a way to break the seeming dependencies created by the corporations should those corporations ever decide to exercise the control they have through those dependencies.