I wish I could record dreams

Or at least write them down, but last night there was no pen by my bed and I was highly unmotivated. But seriously, holy crap. I woke up at three in the morning from a CRAZY intense dream. It involved intelligent single-cell organisms and spaceships trying to invade Earth. My mom turned out to be an alien, and for some reason I wasn't supposed to tell Dad for his own good or something (you know how in movies and such the protagonist always keeps information back when you KNOW they shouldn't). But I told him anyway, and we foiled the plot. It was amazing.

LGBTA: The "A" is for "Android"

Tonight I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation 2.09, The Measure of a Man. The plot of the episode is that a cybernetics expert wishes to dismantle Lt. Commander Data, the android second-officer of the Enterprise-D. Rather than accept a transfer that could result in his death, Data chooses to resign from Starfleet. He is told, however, that he is property of Starfleet and cannot resign. Captain Picard challenges the law and a hearing is convened to determine whether Data is indeed property.

Though we have yet to construct anything that can come close to passing for a sentient being, we are already engaged in many of the relevant philosophical arguments today in regards to animals. From what I've read and contemplated, the only sound argument for not endowing other species with rights is that we are human and they are not. Obviously this barrier no longer holds for the United Federation of Planets with its 150 members.

Not surprisingly, Captain Picard wins the day by proving that Data is both intelligent and self-aware, and calling into question the possibility that he may also be conscious. The JAG officer at the local starbase rules that Data is not Starfleet property and is free to choose his own fate.

My question to Star Trek fans across the political spectrum is: what if Data wants to get married? As a machine, it could be argued that he (it) has no sex, making it impossible for him to engage in a heterosexual relationship. So, since marriage is between a man and a woman (right?), he can't get married (except on Risa, which I'm betting is the San Francisco* of the 24th century).

But he presents himself as male. Is that his sex, or his gender? Is he a non-gendered individual who is a transgendered male? He is male because his "father" (Dr. Noonien Soong) made him male, as sometimes happens with humans. Perhaps as he becomes increasingly self-aware, he will decide he's actually female. Is he wrong, since his creator made him male? Or is the creator of his self-identity not Dr. Soong, but, say, God?

We'd better go ahead and let everyone marry whomever they want now, or we're going to get blindsided by the Android issue.

*Actually, San Francisco is the San Francisco of the 24th century, and is home to Starfleet Headquarters.

In which I don't know anything about Toby, and for that I am glad

As "Jean" pointed out in the comments section of my last post, Toby Keith didn't actually write "American Ride." The song was written by Joe West and Dave Pahanish and recorded by Keith. I personally am not of the opinion that there is a great moral difference between writing offensive lyrics and hiring someone else to write them, any more than with other infractions. Nor am I particularly impressed with Keith for not writing the title track of his latest album.

However, I don't believe that this was really crucial to Jean's point, since she goes on to say, "[The song] tells it like it is. This is what the world is like." Apparently this information was merely a shot at my knowledge of Keith: "Obviously you don't know anything about Toby. You are just being ignorant."

Jean goes on to say, "I hate when people don't like a song and attack the person singing it." Now, Jean, this is not merely an ad hominem attack against a lousy recording artist. I didn't say "I don't like 'American Ride,' and Toby Keith is a poser tool in a cowboy hat." I mean, it's true the song does not meet any basic criterion for literature, but it does have a catchy beat, and I wasn't attacking it as a work of art, nor was I attacking Keith as an artist. I was noting through example that his songs are often ignorant, offensive, racist, and out of touch with reality.

Jean: I apologize for not being able to more adequately respond to your concerns. Perhaps I can provide a more thorough answer if you can address at least one of my points. As for your thanks to Toby, I'll be sure to pass them along next time we have lunch.

Toby Keith is a jerk

Friday afternoon I made the drive to St. Louis, Mizzoruh, which despite its big-city identity is situated pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Once you clear Indianapolis, you're basically treated to a good four hours of open road and empty space. This would really be no problem if I could enjoy the company and thoughtful commentary of my favorite National Public Radio shows, but there seems to be an NPR dead zone that covers the majority of the space between Indy and St. Louis.

This leaves me with a problem. I hate rap music. I do not like 21st century pop, which is essentially rap music anyway. I can do rock and oldies, but they're harder to find than you might think. There's still a place in my heart for contemporary Christian music but, like Pepsi, it's really only good for the first few sips. In the midwest, this really only leaves one option--the one that covers roughly 98% of the airwaves anyway: country.

Offensively classist leanings aside, I actually don't mind country too much under very specific circumstances: namely, when I'm driving my car on an open road during daylight (like between Indianapolis and St. Louis). I'll take my mind someplace else for the sappy and melodramatic hymns like Letter to Me in exchange for the chance to rock out to the upbeat western anthems like "Beer for My Horses", a Toby Keith song that I have since discovered promotes lynching. But what really got to me this time was Keith's latest hit, "American Ride," which is basically a celebration of everything that gives country musicians and people who listen to them a bad name.

I knew I was in for a treat when the third phrase of the song bemoaned a "tidal wave comin' 'cross the Mexican border." (It's not a huge secret that I think the whole immigration debate in this country is mostly just mask for racism.) But it got better: "Don't get busted singin' Christmas carols," we're warned before the song even gets to the chorus. The music video spells it out for us by showing carolers having tape slapped over their mouths by hands protruding from sleeves clad in stars and stripes. Really, Toby? Did I miss the government banning Christmas carols? Or is this part of that bullshit perception that Christians in the United States are somehow being oppressed? (The first hit on my Google search for "prayer banned public schools" was this highly deceptive article.)

"Both ends of the ozone burnin," Keith belts out in the refrain, "funny how the world keeps turnin." Oh, I get it! Global warming must be a hoax because we're not dead yet.

The song goes on to derisively comment that you can "spill a cup of coffee, make a million dollars," an obvious reference to Stella Leibeck, whose lawsuit against McDonald's became the namesake for the Stella Awards, an indictment of American litigiousness. Not surprisingly, it seems Keith didn't do any research into the case, or me might have discovered that it was an example of a time when our legal system worked.

But the real kicker came when the music video showed an Arabic-looking man grinning maniacally while planting a bomb in his shoe (note: the "shoe bomber," Richard Colvin Reid, was half-English and half-Jamaican). Now, I'm of course not going to claim that there are no terrorists of Middle Eastern decent, but perhaps Toby Keith should consider his responsibility as a public figure not to provide another image reinforcing that stereotype. Then again, that might be a bit much to expect, since we've already seen that his personification of "gangsters doing dirty deeds" is a Black man (see "Beer for my Horses" at timestamp 3:00).

So while on the surface it seems "American Ride" is a tongue-in-cheek commentary on American pop culture, a closer look at the things it's criticizing reveals that it's pretty much just an offensive, highly ignorant, and even racist song. Which, for Toby Keith, is hardly a first.

(That last song isn't racist; it's just ignorant war propaganda.)