Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in tommydagun's LiveJournal:

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Friday, December 21st, 2007
7:47 pm	Stand by to stand by, bitches!... The T man is comin' back to the City of Angels. It's official, Laura got into LACC for nursing school, starting February 5th. So we'll be back in about five weeks. Tremble! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
8:21 pm	Nineteen hours, ten minutes to go... tick-tock. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
2:35 am	Graduation One week from today, I am officially a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Truth be told, it still feels a ways off, and rather anti-climactic at that. Stupid fall graduation! Oh well, I already walked at my commencement in spring, so I didn't bother last week. Announcements are still going out. Right now, all that's been eating me are my law school personal statement (yes, still chewing at it in mid-December, grr!) and finals. And then... and then... and then, then. Go to LA, celebrate Christmas and New Year's, and figure out something to do that keeps body and soul together between now and whenever it is I get accepted to a law school I want to go to. Current Mood: burned out (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 17th, 2006
5:37 am	9/11 and the need for control The past week has witnessed the expected 5th anniversary raft of remembrances, from all corners, of 9/11. We've been watching the controversial ABC special on the events leading up to the attack and saw Stone's WTC movie last night. It's hard to imagine that it has been 5 years already, and to look back on how much has changed, and on how our perspectives of what was before have changed as well. I had an insight, this past week, sparked by the latest raft of conspiracy theories surrounding the events of that day. I subscribe not at all to conspiracy theories in general, absent a preponderance of evidence in support, rooted in testability and falsifiability and satisfying Occam's Razor. Conspiracy theorists seem more comfortable with Macco's Razor (The inverse of Occam's: hoofbeats mean zebras, not horses). I usually respond in response to any of these by asking why, of all the many persons that would have to be involved or have direct or indirect knowledge, and all of the involved and respectable investigators, reporters, intellectuals and public officials in a position to examine and report on these events, none whatever would be motivated either by the desire to expose the truth, or by conscience, or by the prospect of fame, to come forward. The majority of those who promote these theories seem to be public personalities, usually on the radio, net or outhouse publishing, who make money or gain fame by promoting them; obscure "academics" who don't submit their work for peer review; and sundry weirdos whose theories seem to change with whatever chemicals are in their bloodstream at the time. To me, the 9/11 conspiracists in particular seem, at best, badly misguided and ignorant; or, at worst, deliberately mendacious and holding obscene motives for their pronouncements. Nevertheless, current polls claim that possibly as much as 36% of the US public puts at least some stock in some of these theories, which has led me to wonder why. I think that I have a partial answer; rooted in psychology, at least of the layman's pop variety. Thinking back to the Cold War, for 40 years, the world faced the grim possibility of nuclear annihilation at any moment. From Hiroshima to the Cuban crisis to "duck and cover" drills, we had it pounded into our heads for 4 decades that the world as we knew it might end any day. This threat, however, was never fulfilled and proved to be manageable. The logic of Mutually Assured Destruction seemed to work. We eventually realized, by the 1970s if not earlier, that the Communists, whatever their faults, were not irrational and had no more wish to die than we did. We found that we could predict, de-escalate, and eventually manage the threat. Eventually, the threat ended, the Cold War was over, and we supposedly entered a new era of perpetual peace in a globalized world. One prominent commentator even proclaimed that we were entering the "end of history", in which the dialectic about the nature of human progress would lead to a final answer, and end. We had what amounted to a 10-year vacation from "history" from the USSR's dissolution in 1991 to 9/11. 9/11 ended that era, and opened our eyes to a potential situation in many ways far worse and more frightening than the Cold War. I see three broad historical trends characterizing the world leading up to 9/11. These are political multipolarity, modernism, and what Gilles Kepel called "le revanche de Dieu". Multipolarity, in terms of international relations, is one way that a international system can be organized, representing relations defined by the actions of many separate actors within the system. The classic "balance of power" system in pre-WWI Europe was a multipolar system broadly characterized by relations between 5 major European powers, and was considered stable, up until it led to WWI. Bipolarity, a system defined by two major powers, was the system for most of the Cold War. Following the Cold War, the argument was made for the existence of unipolarity, a system dominated by the US. Whatever the extent of US power, however, it became clear on 9/11, if not before, that even the vast reach and scope of American power was not infinite, and that what happened in the world and in the US could be powerfully affected by events from even the most remote and obscure corners of the world. Rather, instead, we live today in a world of 194 states, none of which today are anywhere near as contained within a system such as colonialism or the Cold War as they were for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. No state, not even the US, has the power to order the world as a whole. The efforts at a multipolar regime capable of comprehensively providing order over power, as represented by the UN, have been proven all but futile by the Cold War and the period after, particularly in Somalia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Israel and Palestine, and Iraq. As opposed to stable order, we have today an extreme state of unstable disorder, in which events in remote and isolated Afghanistan came to rock New York, all but the capital of the world. We can largely thank the wages of modernism, encompassing science and technology, rapid travel and population movements, modern communications, and modern education and philosophy, for this. In 1901, what occurred in Arizona, much less Afghanistan, would have had little to do with New York. In 2001, that obviously was not the case. Between then and now, scientists, engineers, teachers, philosophers, clerics, activists, empires, states, and corporations spread schools, ideas, inventions, medicines, weapons, religions, resources, and people from every part of the world to every other part with container ships, jet planes, satellites, and the Internet. Today, hardly a human life exists that can truly be said to be untouched by this transformation. Rousseau's "noble savage", if ever he existed, has been all but crushed. The prospects of this have variously inspired and terrified observers for decades. In decades past, in the wake of the 1960s, it was assumed that the forces of modernism would stamp out the old superstitions, cleavages, and identities, most particularly religion, under the progress and knowledge brought by science and the success of whatever new philosophies, such as liberalism or Communism, one subscribed to. Starting in the 1970s, however, modernism sparked a backlash that these observers failed to predict. “Le revanche de Dieu”, the “revenge of God”, was the name applied by Gilles Kepel to the resurgence in religion and the rise of new, often radical and fundamentalist, religious movements that emerged in the 1970s across the world, largely in response to modernism. Variously experienced as the rise of evangelical Christianity in many parts of the world, the emergence of Eastern mysticism in the West, the emergence of Orthodox parties in a decreasingly socialist Israel, and, most pointedly, the Islamic Resurgence in many parts of the Islamic world; the rise of religion as a force in the social and political life of much of the modern world is undeniable. Moreover, this movement is hardly one at the margins of the modern world, but rather one closely connected to it. Clerics and missionaries make use of modern communications and transportation to reach millions of souls. The largest proportion of the new converts, far from living at the margins of modern society, are drawn from the hundreds of millions at the forefront of the global economy, seeking meaning while adrift in atomized urban life, consumerism, and the eventual end of youthful idealism following college. In the US, politicized Christianity has emerged as a force in politics since the 1970s. Saudi Arabia and Iran, Islamic fundamentalist states, have used the wealth derived from their oil, a resource valuable only because it powers the technology of modernism, to spread their doctrines, by means benign and malign, across the world. All of these trends speak of a world that is, to quote Benjamin Barber: “at once coming together and falling apart.” These trends, crystallized through the events of 9/11 and interpreted at their most dire, speak of a world that is terrifyingly chaotic and dangerous. Contrary to the claims linking terrorism to poverty, the perpetrators of 9/11, as terrorists usually are, were overwhelmingly middle-class and college educated, and funded by a billionaire. As opposed to reactionaries against the modern world, they may very well be seen as perfect products of it. That such people had the ability to come 8,000 miles from their base of operations to kill 3,000 people at work on Tuesday morning was also a product of modernism. Taken at his word in his many fatwas and videos, Osama bin Laden and radicals of his ilk espouse a doctrine so extreme and abstruse that we have no reasonable answer to it. That such people covet much more lethal weapons than hijacked jets, as we fear that they do, makes none of us safe. The existence of chaos and disorder is inherently offensive to the human mind, never more so than when it holds sway over the conditions of human life. Every religious, philosophical and political movement in history has been rooted in providing some sense of order and purpose to human life. Modern people, in this country in particular, live, work and consume on schedules, in controlled environments, and in known quantities marked by familiarity, predictability and control. When chaos suddenly reemerges, particularly when mass death comes with it, people cannot but seek some comprehensive and simple answer, one that gives them back some sense of control. This explains the conspiracy theories, and much more. In the case of 9/11, the need for an answer was never more pressing. That such destruction could be perpetrated so easily by such seemingly shockingly anti-modern people could not be easily accepted. That the perpetrators did not leave themselves alive to answer to us, and that many of those who sponsored their actions have thus far eluded our attempts to expiate our fear and anger upon their heads, further left us without peace. That the threat we faced could have roots among a population of a billion, and could face us for decades to come, threatened to deny us any easy peace. For the current administration, the way offered to feel safe and in control again has been wars abroad against whatever target could be found, and color-coded alerts and hair-gel off the airplanes at home. For many of those who oppose the current policy, they want desperately, irrespective of the chaotic nature of the world and the evident fanaticism of our enemies, to believe that order can emerge and that our enemies will stop short of what they claim they want with if we radically and unilaterally disengage from the world. And for the conspiracists, safety comes in a fantasy world where great and terrible events could only be the work of shadowy and all-powerful forces. These phantoms, nevertheless, the conspiracists alone can somehow identify and could be defeated if the rest of us could just see them. If anything, perhaps the conspiracists, as well as the hawks and the doves, should be envied the simple worlds in which they live. The rest of us cannot be so lucky. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 2nd, 2006
6:58 pm	I may not have left my heart in San Francisco... but I have left an appendix in Berkeley. Got sick during school on Thursday, thought it was bad gas or something. Turned out to be appendicitis. Lucky that I was at school and could get to student health quickly. They yanked it out at Alta Bates yesterday. Very smooth prodecure, laparascopy, no burst or rupture. The worst part, aside from having to spend 2 days in the hospital, is feeling like I did about 1000 crunches at once. Oh well, I recover fast and should be back in the swing of things this week. Kudos to all who called, or came to visit. My standard joke is that my appendix finally decided it wasn't going to take any more of my shit. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 14th, 2006
2:40 am	One of the last acceptable prejudices... This image graces the top of the Southern Poverty Law Center's latest "Intelligence Report", available here. Words can't expressed how pissed off something like this makes me. Granted, they may be serving a laudable and valuable goal if they are in fact exposing bona-fide extremists and racists in the military, and I'm not pretending that everyone in uniform is a plaster saint, to borrow the turn of phrase from Kipling. But this image, showing US Army troops in formation, giving the Nazi salute, does nothing less than imply that a force that fought and bled, by hundreds of thousands, to smash Hitler's Reich, is Nazi. I'm getting word out on this one, to the media or anyone else who will listen. Like I said, I am pissed and, at least for the next couple of weeks until school starts again, have nothing but time on my hands. Never underestimate a pissed-off ex-devil dog web nerd with too much time on his hands! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
12:43 am	The most important movie I've seen this year... Reasonable people can debate the wisdom of our war in Iraq, or Israel's latest war, as an answer to our issues regarding the Islamic world. I would agree that Iraq is proving to probably have been a mistake, and that Israel's current war may lead to anything but a permanent answer to their problems. That being said, before you buy into anyone peddling the line that the Islamic world is simply incensed at some provocation on our part, or that we could mollify or appease them with concessions, economic development, or that they're acting just as anyone else would under the circumstances, check out this movie. It's a little over an hour long, but it's well worth the time and it's free. The scariest part is that if you were to completely edit out all the commentators and experts, just the television and video footage from the Muslim world (which, as this film shows, extends into London and New York), particularly from the children, is quite sickening and horrifying enough. There are few critiques as strong and devastating as those which can simply quote their subjects to make their point. So, don't agree with Bush on Iraq or the Israelis in Lebanon? Fair enough, I won't say you're wrong. But just how should we, how can we, respond to people who are commanded by God to twist their children into weapons? If you know, you're smarter than I am. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
12:37 am	Posted this on my facebook... my picture: With the facebook status: "Tom is admitting that he likes Tori Amos. He got a shotgun up your nose, biznatch! You gonna say somethin?" I thought it captured the essentials. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006
12:33 am	Funny... this about sums it up... (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 30th, 2006
3:18 pm	For some odd reason, Kipling came to mind today... Always liked this one. It has an odd mix of romaticism and utter, ugly frankness. "The Young British Soldier" WHEN the ’arf-made recruity goes out to the East ’E acts like a babe an’ ’e drinks like a beast, An’ ’e wonders because ’e is frequent deceased Ere ’e’s fit for to serve as a soldier. Serve, serve, serve as a soldier, Serve, serve, serve as a soldier, Serve, serve, serve as a soldier, So-oldier of the Queen! Now all you recruities what’s drafted to-day, You shut up your rag-box an’ ’ark to my lay, An’ I’ll sing you a soldier as far as I may: A soldier what’s fit for a soldier. Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . . First mind you steer clear o’ the grog-sellers’ huts, For they sell you Fixed Bay’nets that rots out your guts— Ay, drink that ’ud eat the live steel from your butts— An’ it’s bad for the young British soldier. Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . . When the cholera comes—as it will past a doubt— Keep out of the wet and don’t go on the shout, For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out, An’ it crumples the young British soldier. Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . . But the worst o’ your foes is the sun over’ead: You must wear your ’elmet for all that is said: If ’e finds you uncovered ’e’ll knock you down dead, An’ you’ll die like a fool of a soldier. Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . . If you’re cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind, Don’t grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind; Be handy and civil, and then you will find That it’s beer for the young British soldier. Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . . Now, if you must marry, take care she is old— A troop-sergeant’s widow’s the nicest I’m told, For beauty won’t help if your rations is cold, Nor love ain’t enough for a soldier. ’Nough, ’nough, ’nough for a soldier . . . If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath To shoot when you catch ’em—you’ll swing, on my oath! Make ’im take ’er and keep ’er: that’s Hell for them both, An’ you’re shut o’ the curse of a soldier. Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . . When first under fire an’ you’re wishful to duck, Don’t look nor take ’eed at the man that is struck, Be thankful you’re livin’, and trust to your luck And march to your front like a soldier. Front, front, front like a soldier . . . When ’arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch, Don’t call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch; She’s human as you are—you treat her as sich, An’ she’ll fight for the young British soldier. Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . . When shakin’ their bustles like ladies so fine, The guns o’ the enemy wheel into line, Shoot low at the limbers an’ don’t mind the shine, For noise never startles the soldier. Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . . If your officer’s dead and the sergeants look white, Remember it’s ruin to run from a fight: So take open order, lie down, and sit tight, And wait for supports like a soldier. Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . . When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier. Go, go, go like a soldier, Go, go, go like a soldier, Go, go, go like a soldier, So-oldier of the Queen! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
6:59 pm	Government by riot... regarding the latest round in the proud French tradition of civil disorder, my Political Econ professor had a great line today, discussing the situation in the context of the European model in France: "The students are rioting against a law that the government passed to try and provide the growth and jobs for the 50% unemployed immigrants who were rioting last year." She had another good one later, referring to Red China today as looking like "Wal-Mart with an army." (Comment on this)
Monday, February 6th, 2006
7:13 pm	Best. Movie. Parody. Ever... this is just too funny for words. Check it out. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 25th, 2006
6:43 pm	Boy these tests are proliferating... 'vette. I've always liked 'vettes. My car has a 'vette engine in it. I'm a Chevrolet Corvette! You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do. Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
9:26 pm	Got this from Danny boy... over at his lj. Apparently, these are posters from a French AIDS/safe sex awareness campaign. Say what you will about the French, they don't pull punches. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 8th, 2005
3:22 am	When this is your headline, what follows is something truly special... Cheerleaders Had Sex in Bar, Witnesses Say TAMPA, Fla. - Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were charged after their arrest at a bar where witnesses told police the women had sex in a restroom. Renee Thomas, 20, of Pittsboro, N.C., and Angela Keathley, 26, of Belmont, N.C., were taken to Hillsborough County Jail early Sunday. Witnesses said the women were having sex in a stall with each other, angering patrons waiting in line to get into the restroom at the club in the Channelside district. Thomas was charged with battery Sunday after allegedly striking a bar patron when she was leaving the restroom, then landed in even more trouble after police said she gave officers a driver's license belonging to another Panthers cheerleader who was not in Tampa. Thomas, who made the trip to Florida for Sunday's game between the Panthers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was released from jail on $500 bail before police learned she was not the person she claimed to be. Providing police with a false name is a misdemeanor. However, Thomas was charged Monday with giving a false name and causing harm to another — a third-degree felony punishable by probation or a jail term of 1 to 5 years, said police spokeswoman Laura McElroy. Meanwhile, detectives are trying to determine how Thomas gained possession of the driver's license of the third cheerleader. Keathley, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, was released on $750 bail about an hour before the Panthers played the Bucs at Raymond James Stadium. The cheerleaders were not in town to perform at the game. Cheerleaders gone wild!  There's something magical about what happens in the ladies' room of a Tampa bar at 2 am.  Why can't every day have a story like this?  Unfortunately, both young ladies have been let go from the squad due to a clause in their contracts against embarassing the team (Dumb.  Fighting lesbian cheerleaders, for chrissake!  How is that not going to sell tickets?)  I say Free the Topcats! Here are the two in happier times (or not) from the Panthers website earlier today (long since taken down): Profiles of each (same source): TopCat Season: 1st Hometown: Pittsboro, NC Education: University of North Carolina-Charlotte Occupation: Student Future Goal: Obtain doctorate degree in dental surgery Hobbies: Dancing, motocross, NASCAR, watching Carolina Panthers football and North Carolina Tar Heels basketball, and spending time with family, friends and my three dogs Favorite Charity: Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Favorite TV Show: American Chopper, CSI and Paula's Home Cooking Favorite Food: Pasta and shrimp Favorite Music: Country and hip-hop Favorite Quote: Pain is weakness leaving the body. Most Important Thing In Life: Live every moment to the fullest and love like you'll never be hurt. Achievements: University of North Carolina-Charlotte dean's list member, Miss Ultimate Dance USA, performing with the Moscow State Ballet, University of North Carolina-Charlotte dance team, and making the TopCats TopCat Season: 2nd Hometown: Belmont, NC Education: University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Cape Fear Community College and Carolinas College of Health Sciences Occupation: Registered Nurse Future Goal: Excel in the nursing profession Hobbies: Dancing, running, reading mystery novels and spending time with family and friends Favorite Charity: Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Favorite TV Show: The Sopranos Favorite Food: Mexican Favorite Music: All Favorite Quote: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away. Most Important Thing In Life: My mother Best Thing About Being A TopCat: Friendships Achievements: Certified paramedic, graduating from nursing school, passing the NCLEX and making the TopCats (Comment on this)
Friday, November 4th, 2005
12:37 am	Recommendation time... Recommend to me.... 1.Recommend a movie to watch. 2.Recommend a song to listen to. 3.Recommend a place to go visit. 4.Recommend a friend on your friends list. Then post this in your journal and see what people recommend for you. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
10:48 pm	It's like "Sleepless in Solitary" they're wet, wild, and waiting for parole: it's female prison pen-pals . Talk about the low-hanging fruit. On the bright side, she's probably got experience in girl-on-girl action, and sending her a carton of cigarettes would be like the equivalent of a diamond. You'd be sooo in... in five to fifteen. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 16th, 2005
4:38 pm	Hehe... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 11th, 2005
12:03 am	Wierd metaphysical musing today... It's a certainty that hell is not dark, but is in fact as brightly lit as a summer noon. Preventing the damned from seeing all her horrors by shrouding them in darkness would spoil the purpose. In hell, you get to see everything in bright, crystal-clarity. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 3rd, 2005
12:38 am	Little political test... Don't quite like the wording, but I figure that the result is accurate in my case. You are a Social Liberal (68% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (81% permissive) You are best described as a: Libertarian Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test Current Mood: busy Current Music: Massive Attack - Name Taken (3 Comments |Comment on this)