Ways in which my country resembles a poorly written dystopian screenplay.

"Every four years, tens of dozens of Americans line up in front of antique, steam-powered voting booths to elect a new emperor. And every four years, Comedy Central heroically covers this mutant cross between a really boring circus, a national popularity contest, and a post-apocalyptic Thunderdome."

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/JessicaLynch02.jpeg

Dystopian novel/movie/opera reference: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. (When it is re-made as a True Story on Sci-Fi, I want to make my acting debut as one of the Handmaids, okay?)

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/538/scanner9ie.jpg

Straighten up and fly right
Sheriff's droning publicity stunt crashed.

June 26, 2006

LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF Lee Baca's plan to use unmanned, remote-controlled surveillance planes hit unexpected turbulence last week. It wasn't just the crash landing of a drone at a media demonstration or the opposition of privacy rights activists; it was the Federal Aviation Administration's objection that the drones had never been cleared for takeoff. But the controversy, while undeniably entertaining, has been blown out of proportion.

The planes — essentially motorized kites fitted with batteries and low-quality cameras — would quietly survey the landscape at an altitude of less than 300 feet (comparable to a model aircraft) and beam pictures to deputies flying them from below. They would move at less than 30 miles per hour, too fast to see through windows but too slow to aid in Los Angeles' favorite pastime, the high-speed chase. The Sheriff's Department, which helped develop the planes, says the drones in the pilot program will have limited uses, such as searching for lost hikers.

Given the primitive nature of the drones' technology, it's hard to see how the Sheriff's Department could tout them as the future of policing. At the same time, it's hard to get too worked up about the concerns of privacy activists. Forget fears that a candid-camera-in-the-sky could identify anyone — a brown beanie would be indistinguishable from a brown head of hair. The most a deputy flying the current prototype could determine would be details such as gender, clothing color and approximate height. And with a small battery, a small fleet and the personnel costs to operate the planes, the chances that an unnoticed aerial guest could be used to check out the hot tubs of Malibu (or Van Nuys, for that matter) are virtually nil.

But the FAA was correct to ask questions about the program. The Sheriff's Department noted that recreational model aircraft that fly at a low altitude do not have to obtain a certificate of authorization. But a mini-squadron of low-flying police drones — the next step after last week's demonstration at an abandoned field — raises more safety concerns than a father and son flying a model plane on the beach.

Perhaps future drones may be able to catch a thief or identify a criminal on the run. Until then, Baca could best serve the public by keeping the prototype out of the hands of paparazzi.

ways in which the whole world resembles etc:

food riots!

ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why can't things just simply be "fucked-up", and not completely, totally, obscenely, ARRRRGGGGHHHH super-super almost beyond belief level of fucked-upness?

That's so tragic.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j278/oilyrags/foodriots.jpg

report from a homie who works for a risk management firm:

bro: my region is going to shit this week. haiti is rioting bc of food
prices and we had to upgrade it to possible evacuation status. there is gonna be a general strike in the dominican republic tomorrow, there's the torch in san francisco, and they've barricaded the mexican senate in preparation for calderon's presentation of his prospoal to open up the energy industry to foreign investment

me: they've barricaded the senate??

bro: they've put up a security fence and closed all the surrounding streets bc obrador claims he is gonna shut down mexico city with protests

I'm starting to get the feeling that the world IS a badly written dystopian screenplay, and we live in the ubiquitous Science Fiction Evil Empire.

/white middle class guilt

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080408101021.6yrxk1d7&show_article=1

I don't see anything particularly sci-fi about food shortages and people getting angry that they are starving.

"global food riots" just seems like one of those things that always on tv in the background of robocop or children of men or whatever. dystopias are all about the massive societal breakdown.

yeah, I guess the "global" part of it especially

Well, I'm just glad that we passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, to make sure that we substantially increase biofuel production over the next 15 years. That way, even more farmers will switch from soy and wheat to corn, escalating global grain prices, and meat and poultry prices by extension. Or wait...

oops, sorry world

How easy is it to resuscitate farmland that's been built over with worthless condos?

Probably not very easy, I'm guessing.

(or worthless mcmansions)

obrador claims he is gonna shut down mexico city with protests

Gotta say, go to it, Sr. Obrador! Too fucking right.

when are we going to hold a K street Lie-In and shut down this fucking joint is what I'm wondering

I mean you can't pass legislation if all the people that write it can't get to their office, right? Oh wait, e-mail.

shut down the blackberrys you might get somewhere.