September 30, 2003
Right Thinking
So, I hadn't really been paying attention, but apparently the New York Times has gone off and hired a conservative columnist. "Conservative" is, of course, a relative term - the gentleman in question has very suspect right-wing credentials (NPR?!?). But David Brooks seems to have a pretty diverse resume - the Atlantic Monthly, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, the New Yorker. And he certainly qualifies as conservative (perhaps even fascist) when compared to some of the other long-time denizens of the Op-Ed page.
He first caught my eye on Saturday with his column "Lonely Campus Voices," in which he examines the hostility conservative graduate students can face in pursing the golden "tenure track." Academia is generally characterized as politically left-of-center, and an underlying theme to the piece is, maybe that is at least somewhat by design.
But I also enjoyed today's column quite a bit, "The Presidency Wars." His basic observation is that the prevailing language over how we talk about the President has devolved into base personal hatred. The fury and rage the left directs at Bush as a person is perhaps matched only by the fury and rage the right directed (and continues to direct) at the Clintons.
To bore you with a quote (you really should check out the articles though), "the quintessential new warrior scans the Web for confirmation of the president's villainy. He avoids facts that might complicate his hatred. He doesn't weigh the sins of his friends against the sins of his enemies. But about the president he will believe anything. He believes Ted Kennedy when he says the Iraq war was a fraud cooked up in Texas to benefit the Republicans politically. It feels so delicious to believe it, and even if somewhere in his mind he knows it doesn't quite square with the evidence, it's important to believe it because the other side is vicious, so he must be too.
The fundamental argument in the presidency wars is not that the president is wrong, or is driven by a misguided ideology. That's so 1980's. The fundamental argument now is that he is illegitimate. He is so ruthless, dishonest and corrupt, he undermines the very rules of civilized society. Many conservatives believed this about Clinton. Teddy Kennedy obviously believes it about Bush. Howard Dean declares, "What's at stake in this election is democracy itself."
The plight of those of us in the middle is, of course, the insanity we see on both sides. I don't know if I'll continue to like Mr. Brooks (two columns does not a fan make), but it is nice to see a moderate (oh, I mean conservative) voice on the back page.
Jimpy posted this | this entry's link
| 22 comments
Categorized:
Print
See also: David Brooks
| New York Times |
September 29, 2003
Factoid of the Day
The next version of the Internet Protocol will use 128-bit address codes--making possible 670 quadrillion addresses for every square millimeter of Earth's surface. And you think your apartment seems crowded.
Factoid courtesy of Technology Review.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Computers & Internet
See also:
September 28, 2003
White houses: income, wealth, and the legacies of racism
From "Affirmative Action for Whites/The houses that racism built"
A set of New Deal programs led by the Federal Housing Administration allowed millions of average white Americans to own a home for the first time. Down payment requirements were reduced from up to 50 percent to 10 or 20 percent and the time to pay off the remaining mortgage was extended from five years to 30 years.
Federal investigators evaluated 239 regions; communities with a mere one or two black families were deemed ipso facto financial risks ineligible for low cost home loans. Government appraisal maps colored those communities red -- hence the term "redlining."
Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government backed $ 120 billion of home loans; more than 98 percent went to whites. Of the 350,000 new homes built with federal support in Northern California between 1946 and 1960, fewer than 100 went to African Americans.
Today, according to New York University economist Edward Wolff, the typical white family has eight times the net worth of the typical black family. Even when they make the same income, white families have over twice the wealth -- much of that gap due to home equity and family inheritance.
Many whites who grew up middle class in the suburbs like to think we got where we are today on merit -- hard work, intelligence, pluck and maybe a little luck. We wonder why non-white parents didn't just work hard, buy a home and pass on the appreciated value like our parents did. We tend to be blind to how the playing field has been -- and continues to be -- tilted to our advantage.
Ennis posted this | this entry's link
| 3 comments
Categorized:
National News
See also: Affirmative Action | Race & Ethnicity |
September 26, 2003
House calls resume ?
Dr. Who will be returning to British television !
Ennis posted this | this entry's link
| 3 comments
Categorized:
Screen
See also: Dr. Who | Science Fiction |
September 25, 2003
From the department of misleading headlines
"The hybrid vs. the hummer"
September 23, 2003
Don't shake hands with guys in O'Hare
As part of a continuing string of posts on hygiene, I bring you the following:
"Apart from Toronto, however, the figures collected by observers in airport bathrooms did not paint a very sanitary picture. In five American cities, only 70 percent of men and 80 percent of women washed their hands. The lowest percentage among men was found in Chicago (38 percent); among women, it was in San Francisco (41 percent)."
From today's NYT
Ennis posted this | this entry's link
| 2 comments
Categorized:
Odds & Ends
See also: Airplanes | Germs |
Touch-Screens Revisited
Yet another chilling interview with Bev Harris about Diebold. Read all about it at Salon: An open invitation to election fraud
"according to Bev Harris, a writer who has spent more than a year investigating the shadowy world of the elections equipment industry, the replacement technologies the court cited may be worse -- much worse -- than the zany punch-card systems it finds so abhorrent. Specifically, Harris' research into Diebold, one of the largest providers of the new touch-screen systems, ought to give elections officials pause about mandating an all-electronic vote.
Harris has discovered that Diebold's voting software is so flawed that anyone with access to the system's computer can change the votes without leaving any record. On top of that, she's uncovered internal Diebold memos in which employees seem to suggest that the vulnerabilities are no big deal. The memos appear to be authentic -- Diebold even sent Harris a notice warning her that by posting the documents on the Web, she was infringing upon the company's intellectual property. Diebold did not return several calls for comment.
SF Liberal posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Computers & Internet, National News, Science & Technology
See also: Diebold | Electronic Voting |
It's a Smallville, After All . . .
The High Holy Days are approaching, and I'd like to make a heartfelt plea to everyone on this board.
What's that you say? Rosh Hashanah? No, no, no! That's not what I'm talking about! It is Premiere Week for your favorite network shows! Award-winning episodes of "Everybody Loves Raymond!" Conservative politics on "The West Wing!" Survivor goes pantsless! Rosh Hashanah, indeed!
But if you only watch one show this year, make it Smallville on the WB. Smallville is a retelling of the Superman myth, focusing on his high-school years (when he was friends with Lex Luthor). It isn't as sassy as Buffy, it is a pretty good show, with lots of good weekly stand-alone episodes and a large over-arching season long plot arc. Last season's cliffhanger left a lot of threads dangling, so I'm guessing season premiere is probably a little dense for first-timers, but give it a chance (especially if you are a Neilson family)! You need something, now that Buffy is gone!
Jimpy posted this | this entry's link
| 6 comments
Categorized:
Screen
See also: Smallville | Superman |
September 21, 2003
Once you go Bhangra, you can never go .... (Drat ! There's no good rhyme here)
September 19, 2003
"If pressure is applied, they may not want to open the facility at that location."
That, friends, is a member of the Carroll Gardens community board, speaking just minutes after another member derided the press for accusing opponents of a proposed battered women's shelter of intimidation. Sure, he was technically talking about writing letters to the New York Asian Women's Center (the agency planning to open the shelter). But I'm not sure that's the sentiment that was being so loudly applauded.
Tonight's meeting about the issue--the third--excluded the agency and all community members who are in favor of, or merely not opposed to, the shelter from speaking. So I sat silently in the back and took notes. The ralliers insist that they feel sorry for the battered Asian women and their children, that they are not racist, and that they have not engaged in intimidation. All they want, they say, is for the shelter to go somewhere else. The problem is, all of their posters prominently display the shelter's address--a dangerous no-no when women are trying to hide from dogged abusers--and much of their rhetoric is tinged with NIMBYism and even racism. Consider these choice statements:
"This community is different . . . it just doesn't make sense [to have the shelter here]."
"It's not consistent with the character of our neighborhood."
"We are going to do our darnedest to make sure this shelter does not open and become operational."
"They [the children] are just going to play out here all day long--it's a disgrace."
And they're not interested in finding a way to make the plan work, either; one person said that our elected officials should take a stand (i.e. against the shelter) and not "namby-pamby about 'let's try to have a compromise'." It's their way or the highway, and their way
is the highway.
It's not that I am all eager to live around the corner from a shelter. I just think the women have enough problems without these unnecessary cruelties. Slowly, some of us are realizing that inaction is inadequate to express our lack of opposition and are organizing. I know well that Brooklyn is a blog nation. Please help me get the word out; feel free to publicize my hotmail address. I've also started a forum for news on Blogger.
emily posted this | this entry's link
| 19 comments
Categorized:
Local News
See also: Carroll Gardens | New York City | Activism | Brooklyn |
September 18, 2003
Who needs Bullet Time when you've got lo-tech puppetry?
Ping-Pong, Matrix Style. Thanks to our resident puppeteer, Chris G., for the link.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Recently Clicked, Screen
See also: Matrix |
Quit Smoking the Palm Way!
Another Milestone Reached
Our 2,500th comment. I guess I should send myself a toaster this time?
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Site News
See also: Comments |
Movies about race and religion.
The Apostle takes a nuanced view of religion -- Duvall's preacher is complicated, not just painted as a hypocrite despite his flaws. But it takes a not-so-suprisingly Hollywood take on race. Duvall's redemption comes from his acceptance by a rural black community and his building of an integrated church. It's the old "black people are the source of authenticity" trope. My Son the Fanatic, on the other hand, takes a nuanced view of race/ethnicity -- Om Puri masterfully plays a Pakistani taxi driver in a UK town who's truly a man without a place. However, it takes a standard movie line that religion is equal parts fanaticism and hypocrisy. I'd pick MSTF, if only for Puri's performance.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| 11 comments
Categorized:
Conspicuous Consumption, Screen
See also: Race and Ethnicity | Religion |
John Woo + Chow Yun-Fat + a nursery full of babies = pure comedy gold! Yeah, there's some actions sequences too.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Conspicuous Consumption, Screen
See also: John Woo |
September 17, 2003
Maps and Walking Directions. Starting
Worst . . . Habit . . . Ever . . . .
While waiting for my muffler to get fixed (ain't adult life romantic?), I wandered the nearby shops, and happened to stumble into "Fat Moose Comics," run by the Comic Book Store Guy from The Simpsons (who, apparently, runs all of the Comic Book Stores in America). I wandered the aisles, wistfully recalling the days when Spider Man only had two comics ("The Amazing Spider Man" and "Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider Man") and the X-Men but one ("The Uncanny X-Men"). I remembered when "The Watchmen" was being sold in single issues, and when "The Sandman" was the new hot thing.
Noting the nostalgia in my eyes (and no doubt surmising the higher disposable income a 35-year old is likely to have, compared to the typical pre-teen consumer), Comic Book Store guy struck up a conversation . . . which led to more nostalgia . . . which led to some friendly recommendations about what's hot these days . . . which led to about $15 of my money being spent to resurrect what was once a very bad habit.
At the risk of stealing NS's thunder (but really, NS, you've been promising a Comic Book posting for so long now), here are some recent recommendations you may want to pick up from your local comic book store guy . . .
"1602" - an eight part limited series, written by Neil Gaiman and inked by Andy Kubert. The basic concept is placing heroes from the Marvel Universe back in the times of the Spanish Inquisition. Dr. Strange is "court magician" to the Queen, Nick Fury is the head of intelligence, etc. Very nice visually, and I'm always a sucker for Neil Gaiman writing.
"JLA and the Avengers" - my god, they were talking about this back when I was eight years old. I can't believe it never happened - but it is finally here. Four part series.
"Astro City" - A different take on the Superhero genre. The stories are told from the perspective of the inhabitants who live in a city full of superheros. Ordinary joes who have to go about their lives, dealing with the hassles and implications of living amongst the super-powered. The first issue focuses on the doorman of a hotel that hosts visitors to the city (who mostly come to try to catch a glimpse of the superheroes).
I'm going to take Harry there this weekend. Never too young to start reading. Yeah, that's my excuse for going back. Harry.
Jimpy posted this | this entry's link
| 1 comment
Categorized:
Print
See also: Comics | Neil Gaiman |
September 16, 2003
Science news...
The Spiders
More Amazon fun!
Appeals Court Rules that California Recall Must Last Until the End of Time
The RIAA Prank: Do They Really Care About Kazaa, Grokster, and Napster?
September 15, 2003
Blond Haired, Blue Eyed Terrorists
Germany worries about a resurgence in Neo-Nazi terrorism after a suspected plot to bomb a Jewish center in Munich on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. They had a longer list of planned targets, including Mosques, and Greek and Italian cultural targets.
Couldn't happen here you say ? Well, think hard about Steven J Hatfill, the "person of interest" in the Anthrax investigation. He's a man who used to brag about "his exploits as a member of the Selous Scouts, an elite counterinsurgency unit of Rhodesia's white supremacist army that became notorious for brutality during that country's civil war" and that was even suspected of having used Anthrax as a weapon against Zimbabwean independence fighters.
Or how about Leo Felton, the white supremacist who was tried for plotting to blow up targets in Boston and ignite a "Racial Holy War". People have paid alot of attention to the twist (Felton had one black parent and one white parent), but little to the threat posed.
[There are other examples which have come and gone in the media without much notice. However, rather than writing the rest of the argument, which I've been carrying around in my head for a week, I'll leave you this quote taken from a panel discussion involving Jessica Stern, one of the best experts on terrorism I know, and somebody who has spent time interviewing terrorists all over the world, 1-on-1, unlike most of the armchair pundits who are just blowing smoke]
Al Qaeda, she [Jessica Stern] said, has shifted its mission, even aligning itself with neo-Nazis and white supremacists who are sympathetic to its new focus of fighting a "new world order."
"We know that Al Qaeda is very, very good at finding people who have the right passport and speak the right language" to facilitate a terrorist attack, she said. "They are finding new allies and new sources of recruits."
My point is that we're focusing on the terrorist groups that we're comfortable with (brown skinned baddies) and ignoring those that look "like our neighbors". If we're really trying to strengthen homeland security, we should be attentive to terrorism, no matter what label is attached to it. To do otherwise is to be vulnerable to further attack by our enemies.
Ennis posted this | this entry's link
| 1 comment
Categorized:
News
See also: Vorks | Terrorism | Race & Ethnicity | Security |
When in London, skip the ice
Remember the Seinfield show about "Poppie" ? Well, the same goes for London bartenders too.
Ennis posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Odds & Ends
See also: London | Germs |
Odrrenig of ltetres deons't mtater
Found on Blogdex: Ordering of letters don't matter.
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pcleas. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Unfortunately, does not include a link to the actual "rscheearch," but fun anyway!
Udpate: Now you can sbrlamce any txet, tnhaks to tihs wtsbeie!
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| 6 comments
Categorized:
Odds & Ends
See also: Psychology | Typography |
September 14, 2003
What's the opposite of delusions of grandeur ?
[In an attempt to post occassionally on the popular culture topics that once were the mainstay of Ishbadiddle, I bring you R. Kelly's latest reflections on the state of the world]
"People can say whatever they want about you without knowing the facts," Mr Kelly tells Blender magazine.
"They can criticise you without even knowing you, and hate you when they don't even know you. All of a sudden, you're, like, the Bin Laden of America.
"Osama bin Laden is the only one who knows exactly what I'm going through," he added.
from the BBC
[Yeah, I know. I'm still not getting away from politics. I'll work on it]
Ennis posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Sounds
See also:
September 12, 2003
Essential Reads
Lets face it, we all have a list of books we think our friends should read. Share your "essential" reads in Liz's book club, cause she's a good person, and well, she needs the content. The list can be as long or as short as you want. (Here's the list that I gave her.)
Oh, and give Liz a small bio to post -- so folks know who the heck you are. Send contributions to essentialreads -at- ashidome.com. Liz will love you, and stop harrassing me about this.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Blogs & Blogging, Community, Print
See also: Lists |
Hey!
Hey! Ish is the 2nd hit on a Google search for maniacal laughter clown doll. This is what I get for looking at my referral log.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Recently Clicked, Site News
See also: Google | Referral Log |
Type I Saw Today.
September 11, 2003
Esquire:Feature Story:The Falling Man
The Falling Man. If you read anything today, read this.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| 3 comments
Categorized:
National News
See also: 9/11 |
It's Two Years Later
WARNING: Not for the faint of heart !
This is a bit of very disturbing flash animation that makes the point that Bush failed to respond in a timely fashion to the news of the hijackings and the first crash. It's an important point since the recent Showtime movie creates an image of Bush as the man in charge, but the timeline really questions this, and makes one wonder whether lives could have been saved through prompt action.
It's also criticism from 20/20 hindsight, and done in an extremely partisan and unecessarily gruesome way, but their main point about the timeline is intriguing.
Also -- what are your feelings about the legitimacy of this kind of visual language ? Would it be effective as an attack ad if it was ever aired (which I seriously doubt). It pushes the bounds of good taste in a significant fashion, and might be more effective if some of the more gruesome bits were written in text rather than shown. At the same time, that's the point of the ad, to juxtapose the President's inaction w/ the unfolding tragedy.
Apologies if this is too in your face when many of us (myself included) are gingerly nursing ourself through they day.
Ennis posted this | this entry's link
| 47 comments
Categorized:
National News
See also: 9/11 | George W. Bush |
Thanks to Chris G. for sending this one in.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Recently Clicked, Screen
See also: Quiz | Memes |
September 10, 2003
Would You Rent an Apartment to Ol' Dirty Bastard?
Not 'an' Old Dirty Bastard, mind you, the Ol' Dirty Bastard aka Dirt McGirt aka Big Baby Jesus. I would never have expected to be asked that question in anything other than the hypothetical mode, but New York's a funny place.
A rental agent held an open house for our upstairs apartment in Brooklyn, and called us to say that Russell Jones, a rapper recently signed to Roc-a-Fella, was interested in our place (he must like parquet floors, I guess). She wanted to know if we would be willing to meet with him, his manager, his parole officer (!) and a VH1 camera crew to discuss terms. The only catches were that he needed to have an answer that night and he had to meet before his 9PM curfew. She emphasized that he was intent on straightening out his life and knew that the slightest violation of his parole (i.e. drinking, failing a drug test, skipping curfew) would return him to the criminal justice system. In addition, his mother would sign the lease and he'd pay a year's rent in advance. Really, she said, he's just a guy looking for a second chance.
I'll let you know what we did in the comments, but first I'd like to hear from the collective Ish as to what you would do in such a hypothetical (to you) situation.
Cebra Graves posted this | this entry's link
| 11 comments
Categorized:
Community, Featured Posts, Local News, Sounds
See also: Old Dirty Bastard | Reality TV | Fort Greene | Real Estate | New York City |
The Singing Dictionary
Dictionaraoke.org. No cover of Kratwerk's ''Computer Words'', sadly. Found on Static Ephemera.
M E-L posted this | this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized:
Recently Clicked, Sounds
See also: Reference | 