Clownification

Right on the heels of my "Bread and circuses" post comes an Alternet story on the Clownification of America. Listen up bozos!

"Bread and Circuses"

I'm guilty of many of the circus distractions Tony Long lists in his rant What If They Gave a War...? but I know how he feels. I marched my ass off protesting Bush's calls to war, didn't make a damn bit of difference, now I'm feeling pretty apathetic about the whole shebang - they didn't have to ignore me for long to grind down my spirit. I expect many people are far easier victory.

My theory has always been most people will take pizza, cheap beer and Monday night football without so much of a thought before having to make much a sacrifice to keep it. Now most of the people out there making sacrifices never really had much of a choice about it - pretty much like those drafted for Vietnam - as is witnessed by the ever more frantic efforts to get people to sign up voluntarily for service (which recently included free iPods, messages on pizza boxes and more).

I gave up trying to read all the responses (mostly negative) responses it caused but clearly an awful lot of people have fallen for the circus act hook line and sinker.

Transhuman Olympics

Today I heard someone on the radio concuring with my idea that there should be a completely drug free olympics and then a separate event for those that have "augmented" their capabilities. In particualr the radio guest was talking about "trashuman" athletes which might include those with not just drug based therapies but also genetic or even physical (think "bionic") ones too.

While I doubt I was the first person to suggest such a thing it was good to hear it come out of someone elses mouth. However, as I heard it I realised there was a big problem... If sports people were given free run at drug or physical augmentation that event would quickly fragment into many factions depending on which particular line of augmentation they had persued. Would genetically engineered athelets then want to compete with steroid or other drug enhanced ones? Should "bionic" atheletes (think Tour-de-France type "blood boosting" and mechanically reinforced bones and muscles) be allowed to compete together? Or is it just a free-for-all of anything goes?

Ultimately I would say the only thing that is meaninful is an athelete that has been drug and therapy free from day one. Anything else will quickly go to the lowest common denominator and become just a showcase for the drug companies.

The Real World - Star Wars

Couldn't resist posting this Robot Chicken episode - reality based Star Wars if George Lucas had a sense of humor.

The Florida no-go zone

With AllState and other insurance companies cancelling insurance policies up and down the Atlantic Coast and refusing to write new ones in other states I wonder what effect this will have on Florida and others who are due to get whacked by hurricanes with increasing frequency. Is there a chance that people will start to leave those areas for safer places? But where can you go in the US that isn't subject to hurricanes, tornados, winter storms or earthquakes?

If nothing else this just goes to show that insurance companies never write a policy they think they might actually lose money on. It brings to mind the idea of communities self insuring - a policy (no pun intended) that might actually encourage greater honesty in claims. It could also avoid the problem of greedy insurance companies that dump their filty lucure into investments that loose when the economy crashes and then pass back to their customers.

I think it is only a matter of time before someone figures out how to use the Internet to collectively write insurance policies for the lowest possible premium. The big problem would seem to be who polices the claims?