Prop 2 update

It looks like Proposition 2 in California is doing well, with the latest poll showing 72% in favor of and 10% against. As far as animal welfare goes this is a pretty mild measure, it bans cages for breeding sows, nesting chickens and veal calves. There must be enough room for these animals to do things like stand up, turn around and spread their wings. My question is, who are the 10% who think this is unreasonable?

Wall-E

Katie and I went to see Wall-E last night. This must be the most subversive Disney film ever produced. A post-industrial landscape where human's can no longer survive, all of creation is controlled by a single corporation (Buy n Large), and humans, having been relegated to a space station, are really just a nuisance as machines go about controlling the society. The only role of humans is just to consume whatever BnL tells them to, they've even forgotten how to walk, as they move around on hover chairs that control where they go and when. If it wasn't for a sweet love story about two robots (one of whom creates cities out of compacted trash on Earth), this might have been one of the most stark and depressing views of human's impact on our natural environment. And it is amazing to watch from a visual perspective.

McCain's final at bat

It seems that McCain's new (and last) line will be that one party control of the White House and Congress is too risky. He has some historical evidence on his side. The last time this happened, 2001-2007, the US entered into two disastrous wars, shredded the constitution and ruined the economy. But really what is there left to destroy after the republican years.

Rats on a ship

There is much being made of conservatives bailing on the McCain campaign. Those on the left want to see this as a growing rift that will tear the republican party apart. As tempting as it is to long for the complete destruction of the neo-conservative movement and the republican party they've come to control, there is no such event waiting on November 5th. Christopher Buckley and Chistopher Hitchens have come out strongly against McCain/Palin (and by default for Obama/Biden). Others have come out less forcefully (Kathleen Parker, David Brooks). There is little or no intellectual rift here. If McCain were up 8 points in the polls, Buckley and Hitchens wouldn't have bailed, and all the other conservative commentators whose mild rebukes of the republican ticket would more likely be nothing but praise, with everything else being equal (Palin's crappy interviews, McCain's weird smile). This is a major realignment in the federal government coming on, much like the 94 republican gains, but republicans managed to blow all of those gains in a little over a decade. As many have said, republicans campaign well, they just don't govern well. There will be no lasting rift among the right and their chattering classes. But hopefully they'll all being wandering around in the wilderness together for the next 15 or 20 years.