The Recreational Nihilist Articles

“I exercised my freedom of speech and was punished for doing so,” said the runner-up in the Miss Solar System Pageant, Miss Enhanced California Katie Preechin. The statement came during a press conference addressing the growing controversy over her answer to the now infamous “What is 2 + 2?” question posed by celebrity blogger Pezhed Milton.

At the end of the World War II, the Major Allied Powers set out to deal with the masterminds behind Nazi atrocities. The preferred option: a political hearing followed by summary executions. A dissenting voice, however, resisted on the basis that a show trial undermined the very spirit of the judicial process.

A recent conversation with an archery pal began with discussing the price of food at Disneyland – it’s expensive. To this observation I added, “Try being vegetarian or vegan!” The point being, of course, that trying to find healthy food that doesn’t involve meat is oftentimes a task worthy of Hercules. But out of that discussion came two sticking points I’ve been struggling with as a (baseline) vegan. It all boils down to how rigidly one defines “vegan,” and I’m not sure I agree with the strictest interpretation.

An old saying that I’ve recently coined goes like this: You can lead a pop-conservative to reason, but you can’t make him or her think — especially when it comes to issues influenced by religion. It’s a cheap shot to be sure. There are some good conservative thinkers out there in a wilderness dominated by disilluminaries like Beck, Limbaugh and Bush administration officials. But for the most part, I can’t figure out how conservatives manage to keep on keeping on without their heads exploding from the contradictions inherent in conservative ideology. If cognitive dissonance is an art, pop-conservatives create masterpieces. Opposition to Plan B, the morning-after emergency contraceptive, is a good example.

If, to paraphrase Christian scripture, our society is to be measured by how the least among us are treated, then perhaps we should consider how we treat animals. Let’s start with Vice President Joe Biden, whose new puppy set off an earthquake of outrage among animal welfare activists. His mistake? He got his puppy, a German Shepard, from a breeder. What he should have done: Gone to the local animal shelter or contacted any number of rescue groups, many of which specialize in particular breeds.

Family is the most important thing, we guests were told at a wedding I recently attended. Friends may come and go but – shades of De Beers! – family is forever. Our culture, along with just about every other on the planet, is steeped in the sentiment. Family is the rock of Gibraltar, comforting in its immovability. Except, of course, that this is just safe illusion we cling to and family can be as much a source of tyranny as joy.

Amidst all the economic sound and fury, one could very well ask, what’s going on with car manufacturers? Insofar as Detroit is concerned, who knows? But in India, there’s a revolution brewing, and it’s called the Nano. The People’s Car is back.

As I watched my first ever episode of Hell’s Kitchen, I was reminded of something Mike Daisey said during his monologue, How Theater Failed America. While describing the tail end of his life’s darkest year, he wondered why theatre festivals couldn’t just be festivals. Oh no, these have to be fights to the death where the winners are crowned with glory and the losers see their sets burned down and actors killed. Watching the highly competitive environment of Hell’s Kitchen, I could only think: there’s the problem in a nutshell.

So I’ve been on the lookout for a pay-as-you-go cell phone plan. After comparing what the major and not-so-major carriers have to offer, I’ve come to realize that I’m actually looking for something a little more fundamental and also more profound: The spirit of honest commerce.

In watching the oral arguments put forth to the California Supreme Court in regards to Prop. 8, I could understand how the ancient Greeks might have felt like flinging Sophists off the nearest cliffs. But we have to go through the exercise, especially with so much at stake. The irony is that those of us who reject Prop. 8 are, in a way, fighting for the right to “discriminate” – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.