Good day, great movie, scary politics

I would have to say that today has been a pretty good day. I got up and made it to work on time for an 8:30 meeting, that I handled quite well, the only problem was not making breakfast or lunch. That will have to be corrected for tomorrow. I then worked until 7:00 pm, since I kept plugging away at a program that I had been preparing to write for a few weeks, and finally got around to putting code to code editor. That sounds so much worse than pen to paper. Anyway, I made some real progress on that and headed home.
On the ride home, I tuned into WDTW, Detroit's Progressive Talk and was listening to Randi Rhoades show where her guest was Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, a frightening look at the type of government we actually have, one where everything is outsourced (such as 70% of intelligence gathering, blackwater) and there is little oversight since these are private companies and not government agencies. I only heard part of the interview, but one item that grabbed my attention and really scared me was her connection between CIA interrogation techniques and the way theneo -cons used Sept 11 to push their social agenda (never-ending war on terror, invade Iraq, domestic spying, silencing dissent), by taking the subject (interrogee or our society) and putting them into such a state of shock that they start to look for a father figure, and the neo-cons took full advantage. She also talked about the massive privatization efforts that have shifted billions of dollars from the public and government to private companies, a move that is usually attributed totyrannical dictatorships we say we are against (ahem Saddam Hussein?). One of the things I have frequently noted about outsourcing arrangements is that you tend to give up some control, especially in the way things are done as long as the terms of the contract are not affected, and it can be very hard to get out of them. I wonder what would happen if some of the private armies decided they wanted to be in control. I wonder how many different services some like Prince (the owner of blackwater, now a billionaire) would have to control to be able to bring the society to it's knees, maybe a private army like he has now, control of one of the major ports, control of one or two of the major intelligence companies, one of the networks, maybe one of the large payment processors and a major internet backbone - like UUnet that is still owned by Worldcom. If someone controlled a lot of these services (plus electrical control somehow), they could take the entire conutry hostage. It wouldn't take more than 3 or 4 of the major billionaires out there to get this together. These really only need the will to control and the thought they would be doing the country good. Sounds like neo-cons already.

Sometimes Randi is too far left for me, but I have enough of a brain to sort out the differences and agree or disagree. Anyway, this link to Randi's site has the interview. Look for Naomi Klein. This is another book I would like to read.

Once I got home, and had a little dinner, and watched Monday's Daily Show and Colbert Report, I watched a truly extraordinary movie, Stranger Than Fiction, with Will Ferrel, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. This move is astounding, the main thrust of the movie - a character starts hearing the narration of his life - is something that many authors have probably imagined, but were not likely to pull off this effectively. I know I have used the old trick of having the characters read the script to find out what happens or to change what happens next, but the way it was achieved in this movie ... I should have more words for it, but I simply loved it. Wil Ferrel provides a great, subtle performance, and is a joy to watch. All the characters were. I really recommend it.

It's already midnight, I am going to get up tomorrow and have breakfast before I leave for work, so I need to go to bed now. Night.