Electoral Monkey Business

A few days ago, while working my muscles with some intense lifting of weights, I got to thinking about American electoral reform. The damned blood in my body went to the wrong muscle.

Anyway, I started thinking about how campaign contributions have become such a hot issue, which is why they should be removed entirely. Yes, that's right, no more Super PACs or 501s or any tax-deductible contributions to politicians. Here are my thoughts in gist:

• Remove campaign contributions entirely. Instead, a candidate with a net worth higher than x (say, $1 million) funds his own campaign in addition to a set budget from the federal government that is inversely proportional to his/her net worth. So, for a candidate who has a lower net worth, they would receive more federal funding for campaigns.
• Proportional representation rather than winner-take-all in each state. Simple enough.
• Stipulations for re-election:
• had to sponsor a certain amount of legislation in D.C. with a certain percentage passed. Obviously can be used to oust members whom some may not like, but a minor point.
• had to demonstrate bi-partisanship (needs specifics, obviously)
• had to show a willingness to compromise with other (probably too much to ask, but might as well mention)
• Can't be ignorant of simple science, especially if they sit on a scientific committee
• Pecuniary penalty for citizens who don't vote. Nothing too steep (probably less than $100), but enough to encourage people to vote.
• After losing a house/senate seat, a former congressman cannot become lobbyists for 5 years. Hell, 10 years. Go be a teacher or some other productive member of society.
• Remove federal restrictions on third party funding. (Needing 5% of the electoral vote to qualify for funding)
• Ban on campaign commercials.

I suppose that's it. Opinions?

That's all for now,
Das Flüg

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A Trekkie's Review of Star Trek Into Darkness

I hated it.

What's more, I hate that I have to justify hating it, just because it fails on so many film-making levels that I'm surprised it's not more hated. Anyway, short list of things I liked (SPOILERS FOR THE FILM):

• Simon Pegg as Scotty and Karl Urban as Bones. The two big Trek fans know their characters, and it shows. 
• CGI ships look cool.
• Benedict Cumberbatch can deliver any line with bravado.

That's about it. Let's start at the beginning of this story, where, for whatever asinine reason, Kirk steals what appears to be some deified parchment from an indigenous population they're trying to save. Why? To impress a cute indigenous female, of course (I think), though maybe Kirk just likes to be chased. He's that kind of guy, I guess.

Kirk gets demoted because of his interference with an archaic culture and loses the Enterprise to lovable Admiral Pike. Pike gives him his character's theme for the entire movie in a speech, at which point I smacked myself in the forehead. Pike then got killed right after he had a nice father-son moment with Kirk. Cliche? Yes. That's two smacks on the forehead.

Kirk and company get sent to Qo'nos, home of the Klingons, by menacing Admiral Batmanvoice, where one Benedict Cumberwhatsit somehow teleported himself from Earth after killing a bunch of high ranking people. Instantaneous transportation across more than a dozen lightyears in more than a second? Who the crap needs ships? Just teleport- oh, right, plot device.

The Enterprise sits at the edge of Klingon space and somehow sends a message only to Cucumbersandwich that they'll launch torpedoes at him if he doesn't surrender. First, how do the Klingons not hear the transmission? Second, how do the Klingons not notice the Enterprise sitting so close to their homeworld? That's kind of, I don't know, aggressive? Maybe they were all out hunting targ or waiting eagerly for Worf's birth.

Admiral Baritone arrives in a giant ship after the Enterprise tells Starfleet that they've captured Crumblebumble, who reveals that he's the infamous Khan, except no one on board ever heard of him. Plot twist revealed: Admiral Smoothvoice put Khan's genetically-enhanced friends in those torpedoes, and when they were to land on Qo'nos, they would awaken and incite a war between the Federation and the Klingons. Why? Because "war is inevitable," says Admiral OldManSexyVoice.

But wait, that's not all: Admiral TonytheTiger found Khan in cryo-freeze on the derelict ship Botany Bay and unfroze him to help said Admiral build a new arsenal of weapons. Keep in mind that Khan was frozen for 300 years, so if the Admiral wanted to learn about bullets and maybe some nice compound bows, it would be most edifying.

Fuck it, I'm skipping ahead.

Admiral BoomBoom shoots the hell out of the Enterprise, which somehow doesn't explode even though there are large, gaping holes in what looks like engineering. Fine, containment fields, or whatever, but don't then tell me five minutes later that shields are down to 6%. WHAT SHIELDS? The first damned shot on the Enterprise made a section explode in a giant space fireball. There were no shields, J.J. Abrams. There were no shields.

They end up next to the moon, and somehow, the lunar colonies don't notice anything. Somehow, there are no other ships near Earth. Somehow, there are no space stations with sensors to see "hmm, what are those two ships doing there? Is that the Enterprise about the blow up?" Later on, the two ships start falling to Earth instead of the giant body next to the two ships, i.e. the giant white orb we on Earth see at night. Someone needs to learn about gravity.

And then there's the giant rip-off of Wrath of Khan, not to mention a deus ex machina ending so contrived that it gave me a concussion. I won't even bother mentioning it.

The whole film is character-driven, but really, they all have nothing to offer aside from Crumbcake's Khan, who is basically a stale, one-sided bad guy that, while he does have nice character moments, is underutilized and monotone.

I don't know who vets these scripts for internal logic and consistency, but dear god, hire some interns to put a red pen to every stupid plot device. Please.

And dear god, J.J. Abrams, stop with the lens flares. You're liable to induce a seizure with those damn things.

Big 'ol Narrative

I can officially say that I'm 4/5s of the way through my dissertation. I never thought I'd be able to write around 10,000 words about economics, but apparently I can surprise myself on occasion.

To finish it, however, that's a bit too much of a leap. When I'm done, I'm done with London. The companies I interviewed with weren't willing to sponsor me for a work visa. It's a bit ludicrous, this new conservative position on immigration that David Cameron has espoused. Reducing the amount of qualified immigrants (I think I fit under that term) is only detrimental to the country. Besides increasing genetic diversity (a funny point to make, but a valid one), larger influxes of qualified immigrants can help grow business sectors due to better qualifications and international experience (language, international business, etc.).

Besides that, I just want to live here. It's a nice country, never too hot nor too cold, the people are pleasant, etc. I've had a few interviews where I could have gotten the position except for the one looming elephant in the room: a work visa. It's not as if I'll be working illegally and not paying taxes: hell, I welcome taxes. It helps fund the NHS, social services, police, fire brigade, etc. So why shouldn't I get the chance to live and work here?

This is always one of the reasons why I can hardly ever get behind any conservative position, whether it's in the US or the UK: it's jingoistic. It's overly nationalistic to the point of narcissistic nihilism. Let the rest of the world be damned, we are the best! Let us pound our chests until we cave in our bones just to show how dedicated we are to our countries and our "own!"

The UK is part of the European Union. Without European Union membership, the UK would be worse off economically. Hell, the US depends on the EU so much that if the EU were to completely embargo the US, the world would shut down. Nationalism falls when you realize just how much you need the "others" in order to survive.

A fine flow of qualified immigrants is not a detriment in any sense of the notion. For those ardent Milton Friedman followers, allowing immigrants to live and work within a country should increase the competition of the native workforce and, if it stands to reason, the native workforce should increase its own quality to keep up.

I just wish we didn't let borders determine who is "us" and who is "them." It's a piss-poor way of defining a person.

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