Fascism and Democracy « Jon Taplin’s Blog
The potential realignment of political forces where economic and libertarian conservatives work with social progressives to battle large centralized bureaucracies and create an economically sustainable networked form of local democracy is just over the horizon. The question before us all is; will it take an economic crisis to move us down the path of renewal or can we shake off our apathy and make the political choices now, before a catastrophe?
Lessig put together one of his nifty slideshow presentations on the all-important question, “Why Obama?” You gotta watch it.
[Link](http://lessig.org/blog/2008/02/20_minutes_or_so_on_why_i_am_4.html)
[Creepy good production, almost not for children.](http://www.artsdepot.co.uk/event_details.php?sectionid=children&eventid=652&searchid=current)
Will post pictures to [flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/dansteeves68/) later, but need to blab about a day in London with my yung’uns.
* We got out of the house about 9:30am, amazing what you can do without Mom.
* Bus/tube to Victoria Station.
* Snack at [Pret a Manger](http://www.pret.com) — croissants, juice, coffee.
* Walk & view Westminster [Cathedral](http://www.westminstercathedral.org.uk), [Abbey](http://www.westminster-abbey.org/), [Palace](http://www.parliament.uk/about/history/building.cfm), Bridge, [etc.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben)
* Ride bus to Covent Garden, eat lunch at [Belgo](http://www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk/), my new favorite place due to cool ambience, reasonable prices, one of my [favorite foods](http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=moules+frites&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi), and **kids eat free**! My boys really behave themselves well at restaurants, and I was able to fully enjoy the experience of my moules, frites, salad, and pint of Belgian beer. (And Quinton let me share his chocolate ice cream cone too.)
Darcie said “please read this.” I didn’t love the first 10 pages, but as soon as they started having sex it got me. The interpersonal study of time travel, as opposed to scientific, is pretty cool. A good “chick flick” in book form, with just enough to keep me interested. (Note: I haven’t quite finished as a write this.)
I’ve re-read the entire trilogy in the last 6 months, in one outrageously large and expensive British paperback edition. Good fun, if a little hard to carry around. This was the best thing I could find to buy quickly at Gatwick late last summer. I still enjoy Ludlum a lot, but I missed the political and sociological sophistication of sci-fi.
The best part is, Darcie is reading it too!
Jon Taplin is on to something, a new federalism as the solution to our messed up national government. I’ll give away the ending but you should really download and read this for yourself.
> The pathway to economic and cultural renewal is clear and the alternative, as Warren Buffet points out is a “sharecropper society”. The potential realignment of political forces where economic and libertarian conservatives work with social progressives to battle large centralized bureaucracies and create an economically sustainable networked form of local democracy is just over the horizon. The question before us all is; will it take an economic crisis to move us down the path of renewal or can we shake off our apathy and make the political choices now, before the catastrophe?
[Download the pdf](http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~jtaplin/pdf/The_Bear_Flag_Revolution.pdf)
The other day the TSA did a pat-down of my 6- and 3-year old sons. Fuck this bullshit.