I’m a freelance writer living in Seattle. Welcome to my blog.

It’s kind of a mess of different ideas right now, since I’m still figuring out what I want it to be. At the moment I’m fine with that. I intend to keep on writing with the faith that what this is meant to be will soon become clear. I’d like to add more comedy stuff soon. I’d also like to do more original pieces, instead of referring to other people’s stuff so much. (Though, referring to other people’s stuff is kind of the point of blogging, so… I told you this was a mess, didn’t I?)

Aside from figuring out the blog, my other major project is researching Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian revolution of 1791-1804. That project has it’s own blog here. I’m blessed to be occasionally distracted from my studies by glancing out of my window, over the beautiful Puget Sound, to watch stately green and white ferries steaming to and from the snow-capped Olympics in the distance.

Up until a few years ago I was an actor. The Orlando theme parks provided me with a great living for a while. I studied improv, wrote comedy, produced corporate entertainment events, and performed for the masses.

I’m interested in the arts, technology, comedy, politics, science, philosophy… lots of stuff. Since science is where the Big Questions are being asked these days, I want to include more writing on that kind of thing when I get the chance.

I want more people to cite legitimate sources when they write and speak. It’s too easy to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt when you write without sourcing your material, when you express your beliefs and opinions as fact. If you make a claim, back it up. I’ll probably write a bit more about that. If you ever, dear reader, catch me offering you unsubstantiated allegations, I hope you will care enough to let me know of my error. I’m not perfect, nor are any of us; I only hope to keep raising the bar of my own standards day by day.

Politically, I guess I’m generally more aligned with the policies proffered by Democrats than by Republicans, but I don’t have a party loyalty. I consider myself a patriot and a pragmatist. I believe firmly in the ideals of our Constitution, and I’m for whatever policy provides the most benefit for the largest number of people.

I intend to write more about logic and reason, something I think too few of us really understand.

The tagline to this blog means – roughly translated from the Latin – “We gladly feast on those who would subdue us.” I think that’s a nice thought.

I overwrite. I write too much. I write too many words. Too often.

Stuart Maxwell
Seattle, WA

The Staff of Stumax.com

I occasionally write under pseudonyms. This isn’t to conceal my identity – when I write to others on behalf of the blog, I always use my real name. Instead, I find this a useful way to categorize and color my writing. I trained to be an actor, so it feels natural to me to take on different characters with different voices and mannerisms to express different points of view. I personally believe in the essential truth of what each of these characters has to say; the characters simply provide me with different expressive textures.

So far, the recurring characters are…

Jack Hammer (aka, The Hammer)
Jack is an angry young man with a righteous sense of indignation. He writes occasionally when something really egregiously mendacious or stupid catches his attention. He’s coarse and crude, but he gets his point across. He doesn’t take no B.S. from nobody.

Charles Pickwick
Charles is named after the main character in Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers. More accurately, he is named after the adjective Pickwickian, which Webster’s defines as “intended or taken in a sense other than the obvious or literal one.” Charles is my way of addressing issues in a simple, curious, naive way. He tends to ask a lot of questions, and so becomes the kind of Socratic voice of the blog.

Other voices will be added just as soon as I can get them to stop talking so loudly all at once in my brain.

P.S. I follow the blogger ethic of not editing published entries (other than for stylistic or typographical errors), but this entry is the exception. I intend to update it on a regular basis, without notice, until it more or less feels right.

From the Probably-Nobody-Cares Department, which is right next door to the Nobody’s-Reading-This-Anyways department…

My roommate says it’s good to make lists as you get older. I assume he means for the purpose of reflection and self-examination, and not just for remembering, say, the names of one’s children. I hope he’s right. I wanted to make a simple list of comedy links to post on my blog, and mission creep has turned it into the following: a list of the most important comedy influences in my life.

Big deal, right? To the general public, I’m just another faceless link whore who’s left his diary on the kitchen counter for everyone to read. However, in my former life, I was something of a comic actor and improvisor. Like many others, I found comedy because it made me acceptable. I was an odd, smart kid with a bowl cut, buck teeth, velour shirts, and thick-rimmed glasses. My manners and sensibilities were incomprehensible to my teachers and to my peers. I would not have survived those early years without a sense of humor.

What makes humor such a social lubricant? For one thing, humor is a way to weep with each other in full view of each other and of the ones who are causing us pain. So many oppressed groups – Irish, Jews, Russians, and African-Americans to name a few – have a long, proud humor tradition. Humor can say, “I recognize my place and yours. I recognize what we are to each other. I know this is a game and it’s a bit silly, but it is what we have.” Humor is a signal of respect and, simultaneously, of defiance.

Humor can also be a warning, like the stinkbug’s stink or the rattlesnake’s rattle. Humor is truth, and someone who can really tell the truth to you is not someone you want to fuck with; rather, you want them to be on your side. At the least, you want them to look the other way and not tell on you.

True humor starts with a common understanding of life the way it really is. Fat people really do sit around the house. 100 lawers at the bottom of the ocean would be a good start. It really does take just one psychologist to change a lightbulb (though the lightbulb has to really want to change.) Humor finds a way to say out loud the truth that we would otherwise only secretly suspect.

Humor is collegial and friendly. Humor puts its arm around you like a buddy and tells you you’re being an idiot. And if you don’t stop being an idiot, humor can pull your pants down and embarrass you in front of your family.

So much humor is based on the unexpected twist, a truth impossible to comprehend without acknowledging the fundamental duality of the universe. Think of the people you know who don’t have a sense of humor. Notice how they’re pretty linear thinkers? Is there room in their worldview for alternatives? Humor is the fork in the road, and humorless people can’t abide crooked roads or serendipitous destinations.

Humor is popular art. It’s not a coincidence that the best comedians can sell out a rock and roll concert venue. Comedy is music. It has rhythm, timing, it is in tune or out of tune. It’s also a war. Comedy kills. Or it bombs.

Humor is revolutionary, subversive. It is the mass’s way of telling the powerful, “We can seeeeeee yooou! We know what your doooo-ing!”

Humor is philosophical in a very personal way. Your sense of humor is dependent on your particular way of looking at the world. Like myth, humor hints at the vital, fundamental, immutable truths of the universe. And, like myth, humor is never as good or as effective when it’s explained to you.

I offer here a list of the humorists and comedians who have influenced me in a profound or formative way. My list leaves out a lot of comics I love, or who were groundbreaking in their time. Jack Benny, Steve Allen, The Marx Brothers, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce… back to Cole Porter, Will Rogers, Moliere, Aristophanes, and Og the Neanderthal Parodist… These are the giants upon whose jiggling bellies and forked tongues we stand even today. Modern comics like David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Hicks (RIP), Eddie Izzard, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are defining comedy for a whole new generation. They don’t make my list because they were over here when I was over there, if you will; we missed each other. I offer you a very personal and imperfect list. I’d love to read yours.

I start with The Big Three, the comedians who continue to influence why I laugh, how I joke, and how I see the world. The rest of the folks on this list have contributed elements of humor or perception that I consciously recognize in my words and thoughts from time to time.

Ready? Cue the “It’s” Man. And….

It’s…..........

The Big Three

Monty Python
These five Brits and one Amer were probably the most important comedy influences in my life. Watching their show was like watching an Escher drawing come to life; it made your brain flip from reality to reality quite involuntarily. It was perfectly logical, yet it couldn’t exist in real life… could it? If I had a nickel for every Pythonism I’ve quipped to a blank, uncomprehending stare, I’d be as rich as Triple-Suicide-Death-by-Chocolate Cake. For me, though, I laugh at their routines even today. At 30 years old, Python comedy is still fresh, clever, edgy and surprising. They are, quite simply, the best.

George Carlin
I saw him in concert for the first time when I was in high school, but I had been listening to his tapes for years, even performing his routines in class and at camp. His “fuck all a’ ya’s” attitude, his crafstman-like mastery of the common man’s English, and his unerring bullshit-divining rod make him my comedy hero. Like few artists can in this fickle world, Carlin has been able to appeal to successive generations of audiences – from the prudish 50s to the coarse 2Ks – while maintaining his essential Carlin-ness.

David Letterman
The modern generation probably can’t imagine this, but back in the day, David Letterman was a breakthrough. Long before smirky-funny became de rigeur, back when late-night television was still pretty establishment (no disrespect to Johnny Carson, whom I miss terribly), David Letterman blew our minds. He was hip, self-deprecating, funny, and was willing to mock the television conventions of his era. Johnny Carson got huge mileage out of being the straight man to whom funny things happened. David Letterman jumped in a giant bowl of milk while wearing a suit of Rice Krispies. Carson kept himself at arms distance; Letterman got in and got his hands dirty. (By the way, am I the only one who remembers that Letterman had a morning show? Remember Coffee Cup Theatre, anyone?)

More from Maher –
BillMaher: CLEANED UP QUOTES

THE 1%ERS NEEDS TO BE MORE BOLD!
New Rule: If you’re getting less than 5% of the vote after twenty states of primary voting, go for broke! If you told the absolute truth about absolutely everything, what would you get? You’d never win, but it would be higher than one percent! If you purposefully touched every third rail in politics –
bq. (That would be the party I’d run on: the Third Rail Party) – said they have to raise the age of social security and end the embargo with Cuba and stop eating too much bad food unless we wanted to keep paying impossible health costs, and end the Drug War, legalize pot at minimum – what’s the worst that could happen? Double digits?)

InstaPundit had this little nibblet on his website today. It seems that Mr. Ralph Nader has been a naughty boy. Although, I must say I got a bit frustrated digging through the links for information, because there didn’t seem to be any cold hard facts that I could throw in the face of my stupid Nader-loving friends. The links in the Radley Balko piece were like nonsense thingies. It’s as if he just pulled up Google, did a little keyword search, and slapped in a link. I mean, I do that, too, but I was hoping that a professional journalist that writes for Fox News might have a better line on getting the facts than I do. [Update 2/24, 9:34 pm – Okay, one nonsense link and a couple of broken links, which isn’t really all that bad. Still…]

Given that the Balko articles are almost a year old, I went back to the more recent source – Mr. Jacob T. Levy at The Volokh Conspiracy – and I wrote him the following letter:

Jacob,

Can you offer any proof of Ralph Nader’s fraudulence and corruptness? The links you gave led only to reports by disgruntled ex-PIRG workers filled with vague assertions and unsubstantiated allegations. Isn’t there a “smoking gun” anywhere? Something, say, actually linking Nader with these policies? His name won’t even come up in a Google search of uspirg.org. (I used the method “nader site:uspirg.org”; perhaps there’s a better way?) Does he still work there? Did he work there when these student fee policies were instituted? Did he write and/or implement these policies? Has he spoken out against them or for them? If he has, I sure can’t seem to find it anywhere.

Any help you can offer in this matter will me much appreciated.

Sincerely,

C. Pickwick

Then I went to the USPIRG to do a little hunting around, but I couldn’t find anything there about Ralph Nader coercing money out of college students all over the country. So I wrote the following letter to USPIRG:

Dear USPIRG,

I am not a Ralph Nader supporter or detractor, but when I ran across these articles by Radley Balko (http://www.techcentralstation.com/030303C.html and http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,80925,00.html), it got my curiosity up. The articles claim that Ralph Nader, via PIRG organizations across the country, coerces money from students with mandatory tuition fees. Is this true?

I notice that the these articles were written last March, so perhaps you’ve addressed this already and can just direct me to your response on your website somewhere.

By the way, I came to the previously mentioned articles by way of The Volokh Conspiracy – specifically: this post: http://volokh.com/2004_02_22_volokh_archive.html#107757607921219544

Any help you can offer in this matter would be most appreciated.

Sincerely,

C. Pickwick

I haven’t heard anything back yet, but I’ll let you know when I do!

Found this letter courtesy of the Haiti List. It’s right on, in my view. Of course the follow-up comment posted just after the letter only underscores the level of rhetoric and entrenched attitudes that pervade the discussion of the continuing mess in Haiti.

Dominion Weblog: Letter to Government and Corp. Media About Haiti

Letter to Government and Corp. Media About Haiti

Though often futile, speaking truth to power can be therapeutic. Here’s a copy of a letter I sent out to about 200 corporate lackeys regarding the crisis in Haiti.

I’m really into the concept of changing the computer form factor. Slashdot pointed us to one great idea this morning – four “pens” performing four different input, output, and processing functions combine to form a computer.
Slashdot | The Future PC as a Set of Pens?

Here’s a little piece that lit a fire under me this morning:

MSNBC – GlennReynolds.com

EXPERTS AGREE:  WAR GOING WELL!

“I’ve written here repeatedly that things are going better in Iraq than anti-war critics have been claiming, and that the whole WMD issue is overblown.”

Reynolds goes on to quote Tom Daschle’s comments about the success of the war effort, including the fact that Daschle apparently isn’t worried about the debate over pre-war intelligence. Then, in a bizarre twist, he ends up saying that Kerry’s insistence on talking about his Vietnam War record is proof that things are going well in Iraq.

What Did I enter a time warp while reading this article?

Well, of course I couldn’t let this pass. Read the extended entry of this post for my response to Mr. Reynolds. 

John Maxwell (no relation) has been writing some of the most impassioned, clear-headed, and biting commentary about the ongoing situation in Haiti. His most recent column takes the world community to task for their unrealistic expectations of Aristide. He also takes the time to consider what the Haitian people really want. What a concept!

The Caricom/OAS minstrel show – JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM

Last week, Haitians in the United States were asked for their opinions on what should happen in Haiti. A poll among Haitians across the United States was done by the New California Media Coalition, an association of ethnic media companies .

Surprise! More than half (52 per cent) of those polled said they believed President Aristide should stay in office ‘in the interest of democracy’. Just over one-third (35 per cent) believed he should resign. More than half – 55 per cent – felt the Haitian Opposition was fighting for “power”; only 22 per cent believed it was fighting for “democracy”.
Given these figures and the facts reported elsewhere, it would seem a little crazy for Caricom/OAS and the US to be putting pressure on Aristide to dismantle his Government to give power to an Opposition which refuses even to discuss its differences with Aristide.

Thanks to my uncle for bringing this to my attention. In the down-is-up, Alice-through-the-looking-glass world that is the Bush administration, it’s no surprise that a new presidential report suggests reclassifying fast food restaurants from the service sector to the manufacturing sector.

In the New Economics: Fast-Food Factories? (link should be non-registration-required)

David Huether, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, said he had heard that some economists wanted to count hamburger flipping as manufacturing, which he noted would produce statistics showing more jobs in what has been a declining sector of the economy.
“The question is: If you heat the hamburger up are you chemically transforming it?” Mr. Huether said.
His answer? No.

I give ‘em full marks for creativity. Now if they could just figure out how to reclassify laid-off workers as solo entrepreneurs.

As reported yesterday on NPR’s All Things Considered

Bush Names Pryor to Bench, Dodging Democrats
President Bush announces late Friday he is using his recess appointment power to name Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to a federal appeals court, circumventing the opposition to Pryor by Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

This is the second time in five weeks that Bush has snuck one of his preferred appointees into a vacant judicial position. I guess I can’t really fault the president for using the rules to his advantage, but I object to the fact that one day he complains about activist judges and the next day he thumbs his nose at congress to install a judge who shares his ideological viewpoint.

Moves like these point to the Bush White House’s alarming disrespect for the Constitutional process. Bush and company continue to play the heavy hand – controlling the press, strong-arming Congress, and eviscerating critics of its policies. Not that it’s the first White House to do all that, but I can’t recall another administration that acted with such impunity, with such lack of shame. Even Nixon wasn’t so baldfaced about his actions. At least he had the decency to try to hide his contempt for Congress behind closed doors.

Is it possible that the Bush administration and the Republican party (and the Democrats and CEOs of this country, for that matter) are taking stock of the public and calling our bluff? It’s like they’re saying, “Maybe what we’re doing is bad, but you guys aren’t going to care or say anything, so we’re going to keep doing shit until we get in trouble.”