Friday links! Cunning of the octopus edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links, Uncategorized 2 Comments
An octopus wearing a top hat, which turns out to be a surprisingly popular image

An octopus wearing a top hat, which turns out to be a surprisingly popular image

The octopus is the smartest animal. In terms of cunning, it goes octopus, weasel, crow, political consultant, fungus. Did you know that an octopus can fit through any hole larger than its eye? Did you know that it becomes much funnier if you refer to it as an “ockapus,” or if it wears a monocle? The octopus is more than just a wonder of nature, though. It is also a symbol for strange conspiracies, for the silent drifting of the alien and invisible just beneath us or, if we are unlucky, in our grills. Multifarious and mute, the octopus is mystery itself, disparate tentacles connecting at a consciousness we cannot hope to understand. In conclusion, the octopus is a land of contrast. Also, I am sick.

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Friday links! Power of speech edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 6 Comments

Humans are the only animal with the power of speech. That’s probably good, since you don’t want the dog following you around saying hey, are you hungry? all day. It’s also not really true; lots of animals communicate with sound, from birds to monkeys to weirdo meerkats. But man is the animal whose speech moves through time. We talk not just about whether we see a big snake but also about the time we saw it, about what it means that things were once one way they were and how they should be in the future. The meerkat has little idea of should. Talking is rad, is what I’m saying here, even when other people do it. Today is Friday, I have a brand new bite plate and attendant speech impediment, and I’ve also got some bang-on links re: the power of speech. Won’t you stare silently at a screen with me?

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Occupy Wall Street: important?

By Dan Brooks in Occupy Wall Street 7 Comments

Covers of the current issue of Time magazine, by region

Two articles about Occupy Wall Street penetrated the blissed-out miasma that was my past week in Los Angeles: this New York Times report on the #occupywallstreet meme’s* origin in Adbusters magazine and this link roundup on the “shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy.” They take different tones. The first is a straight profile piece about the world’s smuggest person, Kalle Lasn. The second is a semi-hysterical screed about perceived efforts to suppress the OWS movement, ranging from single-source-speaking-on-background stories that may as well be flash fiction to documented offers to coordinate anti-protest propaganda. It’s a lot to take in. The basic assumptions of each article—that OWS is a fun trend whose popularity reflects our dissatisfied zeitgeist, or that it is a repressed movement that has prompted collusion between the Department of Homeland Security and Wall Street—are impossible to believe at the same time. It’s almost as if what OWS is and what people want us to think it is are two totally different things. Or it’s like none of that is happening and we just think all the news about OWS is the product of a monolithic politico-media culture bent on deceiving us. Here we encounter the defining problem of the modern age.

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Friday links! Four things even dumber than Harry Reid edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 3 Comments

"Then, after taking some time off to travel with our families, we all become lobbyists..."

On Tuesday, as part of their Hold Absolutely Still And Hope Nothing Bad Happens strategy, Senate Democrats declined to vote on the defense appropriations bill that would have repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Yesterday, Harry Reid kept the ball rolling by announcing that Congress would not seek a vote on extending the Bush tax cuts until after the November elections. That way, Republicans can make good on their threat to filibuster any tax relief package that doesn’t include cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans without hurting their chances in the midterms. The Majority Leader’s confidence that whatever Democrats do, the electorate won’t like it is inspiring, but it’s just one instance of the can’t-do spirit sweeping America. In preparation for a weekend sure to be characterized by questionable decision-making, today’s Link Roundup presents four things even dumber than Harry Reid’s political strategy.

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What the Tea Party means: Christine O’Donnell

By Dan Brooks in Tea Party 3 Comments

Everybody loves her: the white, the old, the old and white, the asked to stand there...

Partly because it’s the most vital movement in contemporary politics and partly because they’re hilarious, we’ve spent over a year now trying to figure out what the Tea Party means. While several of the philosophical questions—and even some of the ontological ones—remain unanswered, Tuesday made one practical outcome clear. Christine O’Donnell has defeated heavily-favored Delaware legislator Michael Castle in the Republican senate primary, thanks to the enthusiastic backing of the Tea Party. Where Castle polled favorably against likely Democratic opponents in the general, O’Donnell does not. It might be because she’s crazy. “A lot of people said we can’t win the general election; yes we can!” she told the Times. “It will be hard work, but we can win if those same people who fought against me work just as hard for me.” Two things: 1) Agreed that Christine O’Donnell will win the election if the people who don’t like her start liking her and 2) now she owes Barack Obama a nickel.

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