By Nic Lindh on Sunday, 26 August 2012
The Curiosity Rover successfully landing on Mars and the passing of Neil Armstrong (manliest of men, who piloted a space ship to the Moon) has me thinking of the glory of America and how it’s devolving into two countries, one an America that finds new frontiers and conquers them with a positive outlook, science, and engineering, an America that doesn’t just look to the future, but lives in the future, relishes the future and can’t wait to overcome any problems that gets in its way.
That’s the America I immigrated to. That’s the America I live in. That’s the America in which I want my daughter to grow up.
Mars! We went to Mars! And we have a 360 panorama of Mars to show for it! Let’s take a step back here and think about it. Citizens of America sat in an office and figured out a way to take an SUV and transport it to, yes, mother-effing Mars! and then they made it happen. Americans made that happen. That’s massive. Mars!
And then there’s the other America. Sigh. The America that would prefer to live in a mud hut, shivering as the Thunder God makes his way across the sky, rejecting every scientific advancement since the Enlightenment as some kind of socialist trap to make the American male less, well, American.
These are the kind of people who believe—and this is so hard to comprehend—that females can spontaneously abort children that result from rape and that HIV rarely spreads through heterosexual sex.
Yep. Things like that. And in this particular nightmare, the people who create the laws of America actually believe these things.
Few things scare me more. The country that has done the most for science and enlightenment on this planet is carrying a cancerous growth of people whose Weltanschauung is that God hates us all because we haven’t killed all the gays and black people can vote and thus the world will be destroyed soon, probably next Tuesday. That’s completely mind blowing and frightening.
On the one hand, enough raw science and math to put a mother-effing SUV on Mars and on the other hand a mindset that would get you branded an idiot and kicked out of the village in the middle ages, and they’re both here, now, in America today.
It’s very, very scary.
After all these years, Nic still can’t understand the American attitude to healthcare.
The Occupy movement, the Tea Party, and now Trump. America is angry.
Nic has never been more worried for the future of America.
Endeavour is a symbol of hope for a better future.
The GOP base is searching for a new Evil Empire to fight.
Did you know the U.S. government is planning to invade Texas? Well, it’s not. Nic attempts to explain.
The Republic prints another sad editorial about net neutrality. Nic’s regard couldn’t be any lower.
The Arizona Republic prints a willfully ignorant editorial against net neutrality. It makes Nic unhappy.
Nic tries to understand why people choose to live lives of fear and anger.
The American voting system is stuck in a time warp. This makes Nic sad.
There are ways to fix the illegal immigration problem. They don’t involve yelling at children in buses. Nic explains.
Game of Thrones and The First Law Trilogy illustrate the different ways England and America are dealing with fading empires.
We should forget the names of our mass murderers.
It’s way easier to be an extremist in America if you’re white.
The idea that both the left and the right in America are getting more extreme is false. Here’s why.
The Arizona state legislature is busy protecting the freedoms of the already protected.
The standard right-wing approach to privatizing public goods like education and health care.
The Arizona Republic editorial board thinks the young ’uns are lazy.
If things are in balance, there should be Marxists.
Nic tries to understand the Tea Party. Predictably, it doesn't go well.
Nic provides a rundown of the 2012 Arizona ballot propositions with recommendations on how you should vote.
The harrassment charges against Cain and the sad kabuki theater of the Republican nominations.
Campaign season is gearing up in America and Nic has some thoughts on the endless primaries ahead.
Political news coverage in America tends to be abysmal. Nic explores why.