October 31, 2002
Evil in the name of God
: I got a letter today from the National Council of Churches calling on me to call on the the government to exercise restraint regarding Iraq. Now I have no problem with that in and of itself. During the Vietnam war, I thought churches should have been stronger voices for peace; if a church does not speak for peace, who will?
But I do have a problem with churches not condemning terrorism committed in the name of Islam -- evil committed in the name of God. If churches do not condemn evil, who will?
I fear this is just the tip of an Islamically Correct movement we see growing before our eyes: It's not nice to be mean to Muslims, even though it has been Muslims declaring war on the world. It's not nice to expect Muslims to condemn terrorism done in their name -- and to be suspicious of them if they do not.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I expect religious and political Islamic leaders to condemn terrorism and to do everything possible to stop it. If they do not, they are as bad as the terrorists.
But now this letter from the National Council of Churches (of Christ in the USA -- the full title) inspires me to call on every religious organization to aggressively condemn terrorism -- especially terrorism in the name of religion. I cannot find such a statement on the National Council site. I find them scolding Jerry Falwell for being mean to Muslims. I find them complaining about security's threat to civil rights. I find them defending and trying to free Muslims held after 9.11.
I do not find them calling on their fellow people of God to stop the Islamic World War, to stop terrorism, to end this evil.
I'm not saying that churches favor terrorism, of course. I'm not saying that Muslims favor terrorism. I am saying that I expect more of them; I expect them to fight terrorism with their best weapon: God.
If churches do not condemn evil, who will?
Six feet over
: Been spending too much time (any time is too much) in a funeral home this week.
While biding (notice I did not say killing) some time, a funeral director took me into another room to show off his rental cremation casket. Here's how it works: You rent the casket but don't see that under the padding and lace, there's a cardboard box and at the foot-end of the casket are hooks and hinges that let you just flip it down so you can push the box out. "You just push him out," the man says, proudly.
I nod, appreciating the latest in business innovation.
And then I can't help myself. I mention that renting used caskets was a plot point in Six Feet Under. Before I can ask the obvious if awkward question, the man answers: He loves the show. "I sit there giggling," he confesses. He says it's true, even educational.
My job is looking better, isn't yours?
Sharp
: Watch for a trend in designer-name phones. Fierce Wireless, a newsletter, reports that Nextel is introducing a Swiss Army phone: Nextel Communications yesterday announced what may be the coolest development for the smart phone segment: the Swiss Army phone. The new handset, officially called the Nextel i90c Swiss Army Special Edition, is a Motorola manufactured unit that Nextel has co-branded with Victorinox, the famous maker of Swiss Army knives. Victorinox helped design the device, which features a translucent red plastic shell and a red screen backlight and comes equipped with text versions of "The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook" and a first aid manual. The i90c also comes with a Swiss Army knife and will be available November 1 for $250.
October 30, 2002
A blog too far
: With all due respect to Glenn Reynolds -- which is a great deal of respect, indeed -- I have to join the chorus of those who complain that he went too far with this smart-assed caption under a picture of Bill Clinton and Walter Mondale greeting each other with smiles and laughter at the memorial service for Sen. Paul Wellstone.
I'm helping to arrange a funeral right now and I shudder to fear that someone will think ill of me when I greet friend and family with a smile in a time of tragedy, when smiles are needed most.
Come on, Glenn: Clinton and Mondale like each other. That's allowed, even at funerals, even among politicians, even liberals.
This is the kind of snippy and immature post that gives our 'sphere a bad name. It is not the kind of thing you would see in most newspapers; it is the kind of thing someone would think of writing until an editor with a cooler head and wiser perspective said, "You don't really want to say that, do you?" And the person who wrote it would say, "You're right. Thanks, I needed that."
Listen to your chorus of complainers on this, Glenn. They are your editors.
: And thanks for asking.
October 28, 2002
Reality: The Movie
: Howard Stern said this morning that the success of Jackass will lead to a new trend: reality movies. Howard looks forward to Survivor: The Movie because they can lose the 'kinis. Robin would buy a ticket to Bachelor: The Movie. I'd see The Osbournes: The Movie.
October 27, 2002
Everything old is new again
: Sen. Wellstone's family and campaign aides urge Walter Mondale to take his place on the ballot.
Politically correct war
: The is-so-is-not-is-so-is-not yammering about webloggers being mean to Muslims just won't end. It's spreading like an oil spill.
Here's the problem:
In the name of Islam, we were attacked. Our people were murdered on September 11. I was attacked that day. In the name of Islam, Israelis are attacked every week. In the name of Islam, a madman shut down our capital. In the name of Islam, a theater filled with innocents was terrorized and a hundred died in Moscow. In the name of Islam, hundred of innocents were murdered in a bombing in Bali. In the name of Islam, Hindus have been attacked in India.
Of course, not all Muslims took part in or supported those terrorist actions.
But where is their condemnation of them?
We should be deafened with the voices of religious and political Islamic leaders distancing themselves from these acts, condemning them, vowing to clean them up, for the sake of Islam.
Where are the fatwas calling these devils the devils they are?
I have not heard them.
As far as I am concerned, those who do not condemn these attacks condone them. Those who do not use their influence to stop them encourage them. As the bumpersticker says, folks: If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Muslims of various stripes have declared war on us because they are Muslims and we are not.
And yet when we look back at them, when Charles Johnson dares to go to public sites on this web of ours and quote their own words and actions against them, he and we are accused of being politically incorrect.
Well, there is no way to wage politically correct war. War is not polite. War is rude. Our enemies are our enemies; those who support our enemies are our enemies; and I will call them our enemies unless they prove to be our friends.
We -- and others around the world -- are under attack in what der Spiegel (below) should have called the Islamic World War. There's nothing correct, politically, about that.
Food fight!
: Nick Denton and Steven den Beste are in a brawl with a windbag Brit blogger (whose grammar and spelling are undoubtedly as bad as his teeth), Tom Coates. This will be fun to watch.
October 26, 2002
 Terrorist World War
: Der Spiegel's cover story this week declares a "Terrorist World War".
: More on Andrew Sullivan's point below: If all Muslim-inspired terrorism could be traced to bin Laden, then the challenge would be easier: just kill that weed at the roots. But that's not the case. Witness the sniper. Witness last week's latest explosion in Israel. And, of course, witness other terrorist groups responsible for Bali. Witness the horrible crime in Moscow last night. The garden is filled with weeds.
: A column by Peter Beaumont in the Observer says that we are suffering a new kind of terrorism: If a single theme does link Chechnya to Afghanistan to Indonesia, it is not a sinister, single world conspiracy but rather the intoxicating allure in some sections of the Islamic world of the power of terrorism itself....
Terrorism is, above all, a means of communication. It delivers a message not only to the victim, but also to those sympathetic to the attacker. In the 13 months since 11 September, that message has been taken up by those who were literally thrilled by bin Laden's gruesome coup de thétre, as he intended. : See, too, Glenn Reynolds on efforts to de-islamicize other acts of terrorism. For the authorities, there are two obvious motivations for this. First, if it's "not terrorism," then the fact that it happened isn't a failure of "anti-terrorism." Second, to the extent that people buy this it makes the anti-American Islamic movement look weaker. For the PC forces of the media, it probably appears necessary to ensure that mobs of peasants with torches and pitchforks won't set out for the nearest mosque. (Though in fact such distortions make such violence more, not less, likely in my opinion, by breeding distrust of the authorities.) : Nick Denton adds: Sure, the motives are mixed. Arab nationalism, dislike of the American-backed Saudi regime, Javanese fear of losing control of the Indonesian archipelago, personal failure, misdirected resentment, national liberation. But they are all coming together under the banner of Islam. Inevitably, Western governments and Western people will begin to treat Muslims as potentially hostile. Which is, in part, a self-fulfilling prophecy. : The Observer reports that gas killed many of the dead hostages in Moscow.
: An animated Observer graphic shows what happened in Moscow.
: For what it's worth, Debka says bin Laden is back in Saudi Arabia.
Life as an open book
: Privacy is one of those unquestioned holy words of the age: Privacy is a virtue; incursions on privacy are evil. I've long thought privacy was overrated; it's often just a synonym for paranoia.
Blasphemous as it may be, I've never had a problem with Microsoft cookie-ing me knowing what programs I use; I like Amazon remembering what I buy. But those are trivial (if often emotional) considerations. 9.11 changed that. Now privacy is a real issue when it stands in the way of real security. Are we giving up some privacy and, yes, some civil rights post 9.11? I am, gladly.
Now Macleans, the Canadian newsmagazine, gives us a provocative essay by science fiction writer Robert Sawyer arguing not only that privacy is overrated. but that we need less privacy. [via Shift] Whenever I visit a tourist attraction that has a guest register, I always sign it. After all, you never know when you'll need an alibi.
I've been doing this since I was a kid, but these days you don't have to take any positive action to leave a trail behind. Almost everything we do is recorded. Closed-circuit cameras watch us in most public places. Our credit-card purchases, telephone calls and Web surfing are all tracked.
Editorialists have decried these losses of privacy, as if it were the most sacred of human rights. But just what is the value of privacy? Do we really need it? And, indeed, can we afford it? After all, everything from your son's shoplifting to the destruction of the towers at the World Trade Center could have been prevented if we had less of an ability to do things in secret. Sawyer goes on to give us a not-too-science-fictional view of a world in which personal recorders and transmitters could protect us and our property from theft or lawsuit or ailments or death. The message of history, most spectacularly driven home in the 9/11 terror attacks, is that preserving society as a whole is much more important than preserving an illusory personal freedom.
Bring back Rosie
: Also from Aftenpostet, a researcher demands that media put more ugly people before the camera. Lecturer Trond Andresen of the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim accuses the media of discriminating against the ugly and emphasizing beautiful people whenever possible. Andresen wants higher ugly quotas on television. Or you can hire the guy in the pig mask.
 Mi casa et soooie sooooie casa
: A Norwegian pig farmer makes his porkers perky by donning a pig mask and talking their language, reports Aftenpostet.
"It was a bit of fun at the beginning, but then I discovered how much calmer the pigs got when I took the time to chat with them for a few minutes in the pen," Braut said. He still turns them into bacon anyway.
Reminds me of some two-faced office colleagues I have known.
The...the...the... intellectual stammer
: Listening to a New Yorker writer on NPR this afternoon, I hear a speech pattern I hear often on that network, always from intellectuals, often from writers. They don't say "like, y'know." They don't say "duuude." But they do tend to fill the dead air brought on by thought by repeating a word or syllable with an irritating frequency, as if the repetition emphasizes their thought as mere silence could not. Often, the word is "the" and I've heard it repeated three, four, even as many as a dozen times: "The... the... the... the... problem with this.... this... this... thinking is..." This is not stuttering; I wouldn't make fun of that (unless listening to Howard Stern); this is an affectation and I wonder how it became so universal among the overeducated. They also love to say "sort of," a meaningless phrase anyway that is inserted without any attempt at meaning; it is merely packing peanuts for thoughts. Drives me... me... me.... nuts.
October 25, 2002
Replacements
: The name on everyone's lips to replace the late Sen. Wellstone: Walter Mondale. He's younger than Frank Lautenberg.
Terror
: Haven't had cause to agree with and quote Andrew Sullivan in ages. But I do today: So we have a Muslim convert, sympathetic to the murderers of 9/11, terrorizing the nation's capital, and coming close to shutting its daily life down. I don't see that it matters whether he was formally a member of al Qaeda or some other group. In fact, it's more disturbing if he is not.
Connected, unconnected
: I'm attending the Foursquare conference in New York next month with a long list of notable speakers: Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller, Steve Case, Elliot Spitzer, John Doerr, Susan Lyne, Brian Roberts, Arthur Salzburger, Jr., Michael Wolff, Sumner Redstone, Michael Powell, Peter Chernin, Sky Dayton, Terry Semel, Rob Glaser, Kurt Anderson.
They just anounced that Boingo will provide wireless connectivity.
I think I'll blog from there....
: I'm warned that the talks will be off-the-record; figured as much. But I can still blog what they inspire and other atmospherics.
Whither tablets
: I'm going to dare to disagree with Anil Dash twice in a week. I don't think tablets will take over the world. I used to think so, but not anymore.
I worked with Intel on their once-ambitious, once-top-secret tablet project. You probably don't know about it because the project was killed; the final straw was 9.11; the product was going to be introduced a block away from the World Trade Center only days after 9.11; after 9.11, no products could be launched and this one was killed.
I believed in the tablet project because it took wires off the Internet. It made the Internet portable. It brought the Internet to the kitchen and the couch. I was filled with soundbites about the wonders of tablets.
After the project was killed, I was lucky enough to get a rare Intel tablet. It was superbly engineered.
But there was one key problem:
No keyboard.
That kills -- kills -- tablets.
Everyone knows how to type today. My kid took typing lessons before second grade -- second grade! My daughter will do likewise. Everyone knows how to type.
Typing is one heckuva lot faster and more accurate than writing script or, God forbid, Palmese.
You need to type to blog. You need to type to use Amazon. You need to type to Google. You need to type. Fact of life.
What was most enticing about the tablet, as it turned out, had nothing to do with its shape; it was its wirelessness.
But my new laptop has no wires.
Wirelessness will matter greatly; it will revolutionize computing in the home, in the office, and in other public places. Tablets won't mattter, not much.
Reporting
: Elizabeth Spiers does some good reporting from the Hitch/Sully meeting of the minds in New York last night. Here's a good outcome from the blogosphere: something that would fall below the radar of the Times et al gets covered here.
October 24, 2002
Dead Horse: Take that!
: I was actually in on the Charles Johnson v. Anil Dash debate before all the rest of you. I complimented Charles; Anil scolded me; I became bored with the topic. And now we're all bored with the topic.
But Richard Bennett has a decent (if characteristically blunt) final word.
Queda connection?
: Found an earlier reference to the sniper camp in Alabama now connected to the sniper investigation that also connected it to Queda. Here's an earlier MSNBC story. And an earlier denial.
October 23, 2002
Google me
: David Weinberger has a very good idea: Google for people. (Well, it's a good idea so long as spammers don't use it to target their crap.)
Damn
: One of my very favorite weblogs, HolyWeblog, is begging for mercy and threatening to blog just a day or two a week. I pray for more.
Shopping as a good deed
: So I was talking with Nick Denton about the Amazon links on his creation, Gizmodo. I told him that when I want to buy from Amazon, I thought I should go to Gizmodo and click on one of its many Amazon links to specific products and then search for what I want to buy and when I buy it, Gizmodo would get a cut. But that's way too complicated. So I haven't done it.
I was about to ask whether he could create a simple button or link on Gizmodo that I could click on that would take me to the home page of Amazon and let me shop away while still giving him a cut. But before I could ask, he said, "brilliant!" -- it's the kind of thing Brits say -- and he was suggesting precisely what I was going to ask for.
And we agreed that this is even better than -- or at least more dignified than -- tip jars or other forms of begging.
I'm telling you all this because (a) it's a good idea and (b) Nick now has the link up on Gizmodo.
So...
The next time you're itching to shop, first just go to Gizmodo and click on Support Gizmodo - Buy From Amazon and when you do, Gizmodo will get a cut.
You can also add this link to your site and Gizmodo will benefit.
It costs you nothing and you support a good site.
Ain't capitalism grand?
Crying over spilt creme fraiche
: Unlike Matt Welch, I'm not crying over the fate of the International Herald Tribune now that the Times has forced the Washington Post to sell out its share of the paper.
In its time, the IHT was a fine and wonderful enterprise and a most welcome product for travelers and expats.
But times change. We have worldwide printing now. We have the Internet, ferchrissake. I can read great papers from all around the world; just yesterday, I was lucky enough to meet the editor of the Guardian and could tell him how much I like his paper because I get to read it every day, right here, on the Web. And we now have weblogs noting the noteworthy from many papers.
The IHT was an anachronism before its time.
Many years ago, I flirted with going to work at the IHT (young man, single, Paris, oui!). They were nice people, smart people. But what I discovered was that it was a paper of copy editors and copy editors must copy edit. So they edited stories that had already been edited just because they were there. They wasted their time (and their owners' money) doing such silly things as inserting middle initials into all the names in the paper just because that was IHT style.
Times change and so it is time for a change.
If I were running a top newspaper in any nation in the world, I'd take advantage of the gravy international readership I can now get online -- which is otherwise worthless to my local advertisers -- by selling international online sponsorships (to travel, finance, and luxury branded advertisers). It's easy to separate local readers from international readers and thus it's easy to give them targeted advertising.
Or I'd start a weblog that points to the best of the best all these papers -- from the UK, Australia, Germany, France, Sweden... -- and right there, I'd deliver more than the IHT can afford to deliver on its few pages.
It's called progress. Sometimes, progress hurts.
: The NY Observer on the Times strategy: According to the source, plans for The Times’ new newsroom (the paper is constructing a new building on Eighth Avenue) devote a significant amount of room to the operations of the paper’s NYTimes.com Web site. That Web operation would be big, "because eventually the Web site will take over the role of the IHT," the source said. The idea, the source said, would be to grow the brand internationally in certain locations. Eventually, though, The Times might scrap the international edition and begin charging international visitors to the Times Web site. (Domestic Times readers could still read the Web edition for free, the source said.) : And, by the way, if you think Google news is the substitute for the IHT, think again. It's cute but it's unintelligent. And it, too, makes mistakes. This morning, next to the story about the (male) winner of the Booker Prize for literature, it posts a picture of the (female) Carol Shields, who's winning a different prize (the Order of Canada).
: See Matt Welch's comments in comments and back on his site.
: Note another paper for my my new International News Best of the Best Blog (I think I'll call it Creme Fraiche): Norway's Aftenposten has an English-language edition where, today, we learn about crazy Norwegian Tolkein nuts camping out in Hobbit villages before the next movie comes out (thanks to Boing) and we get the latest news about that arctic star, Keiko ... and it's lutefisk season!
October 22, 2002
Super CV
: The best resume I've ever seen. [via Buzz]
In-tanned-pundit
: Read this and tell me that Glenn Reynolds is not angling to move to Arizona.
Another sniper, another time
: Charles Cohen survived the Walk of Death sniper in Camden, NJ 53 years ago but lost his mother, father, and grandmother to a Bible-toting gun nut. In a strong story in today's Star-Ledger he talks about the memories this latest sniper is digging up. Every time a serial killer strikes, Cohen is 12 years old again, cowering in the corner of his bedroom closet. He hears his mother's frantic cries as if she were in the next room. "Hide, Charles! Hide!" He hears the shotgun blasts outside. He sees the bodies in the street....
"I know the victims are children and parents and husbands and wives, and I know the devastation their families are going through," he said. "You never stop asking why. Why him? Why her? What set this off? There's nothing you can do, so there's total frustration. Total rage.
"They'll start questioning God, but this has nothing to do with God," Cohen said. "This is man. And sometimes there are no answers for the terrible things man does."
9.11 trial
: I haven't seen much U.S. coverage of this: The first trial outside America of an alleged 9.11 confederate, as reported in the Guardian.
Facts, schmacts from the President
: The Washington Post catches George in some fibs: President Bush, speaking to the nation this month about the need to challenge Saddam Hussein, warned that Iraq has a growing fleet of unmanned aircraft that could be used "for missions targeting the United States."
Last month, asked if there were new and conclusive evidence of Hussein's nuclear weapons capabilities, Bush cited a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency saying the Iraqis were "six months away from developing a weapon." And last week, the president said objections by a labor union to having customs officials wear radiation detectors has the potential to delay the policy "for a long period of time."
All three assertions were powerful arguments for the actions Bush sought. And all three statements were dubious, if not wrong. Further information revealed that the aircraft lack the range to reach the United States; there was no such report by the IAEA; and the customs dispute over the detectors was resolved long ago.
As Bush leads the nation toward a confrontation with Iraq and his party into battle in midterm elections, his rhetoric has taken some flights of fancy in recent weeks.
October 21, 2002
Leisure travel will soon be defined as the trip to bed
: Australians have obviously been warned not to go to Bali and Indonesia and now they've been warned not to go to Thailand or the Philippines, not to mention Burma.
News is what happened, not what happens
: So today we had an object lesson in the difficulties of live news.
I wasn't brave enough to predict this publicly as it happened, but be honest: We all knew that the white van at the gas-station phone had bupkus to do with the sniper.
If you were a city editor at a paper, you wouldn't have hesitated: You'd send lots of reporters and photographers and that'd be OK because by the time you were ready to publish, you'd know whether the story had merit -- and the world wouldn't be watching your reporting.
But on cable news, the world watches. The world can't help but watch. It's a great show. So the nonstories become stories because it's all live and there's no time to find out what we know and don't know ... and it leads a few blogs to jump to conclusions (see below).
Beware: News isn't about being a pundit. News is about being a factfinder.
Bali memorial
: Thomas Nephew sends word of a memorial to the victims of terrorism in Bali; details here.
Misinformation
: Metafilter jumped on the same white-van story this morning under the headline, "Sniper Suspect Arrested in Richmond, VA."
But nobody said that. A van was hauled away. A man was taken into custody. Nobody said a sniper suspect was arrested.
A pro would know how to handle this; it's just a trick of the trade. But those tricks do have value.
: Meanwhile, Wired reports on blog reporting on the sniper, quoting MIA blogger Ken Layne.
Card-carrying
: TV reports that the white van hauled away by police proudly displays a National Rifle Association bumper sticker on the back.
How perfect.
Is it live or is it cable news?
: I'm watching all the news channels cover the arrest of a driver in a white van at a gas station in Virginia getting on the phone. Now I'm watching the helicopter chase the flatbed truck carrying the van away, OJlike.
As has been the case throughout this story, the cable news networks quickly run out of footage to show, so they keep repeating the same scenes over and over (here's the van; here's the van getting on the truck; here's the truck driving away...).
The problem is, you don't know whether you're watching a live scene or tape. They should say.
It's about credibility.
Now you know blogs aren't hip anymore
: Doonesbury blogs. (Thanks, Scott)
October 20, 2002
Front and center
: Why is Sheriff Charles Moose still the point man and spokesman in the hunt for the sicko sniper attacking Washington?
The slime has struck in multiple states. Isn't this now a federal issue?
Shouldn't the head of FBI be standing out there in front of the cameras? Shouldn't he be leading the hunt? Shouldn't his boss, Ashcroft, be bringing his forces to bear to stop the man or men who are stopping the capital of the world's last superpower dead in its tracks?
Why aren't they? Because they know they will mess up this investigation just as they have their fruitless hunt for terrorists and anthrax killers.
They're just as happy to let Moose take the heat.
Knowing when to shut up
: I had added to the post below regarding Iraq last night, but because part of Blogger was down, it did not appear until this morning (thus my motivation to move to Movable Type).
So I repeat myself with the addendum to that Iraq post:
: You see, sometimes it's important to know when to shut up.
If I had something to add to the Iraq debate -- in facts or reporting or perspective or wisdom -- I'd add it; I'd have added it long since.
But I don't. So I should get points for adding nothing.
For if we are not careful, weblogs will turn into catalogues of "what I think about..."
When people could publish their own web pages, they too quickly became catalogues of "my CD collection." As if anybody should care.
Moving day
: With the amazing help of my amazing son, I think we just moved from Blogger to Movable Type (and upgraded to the new Movable Type 2.5 while we were at it). We shall see....
I think it's working. I had to change my archive filenames, but the old archives are still up, so I hope old links still work.
At a moment such as this, it's important to pay tribute to Blogger/Pyra and its founders and to Ev's diligence and keeping it going. Without them, the Blogosphere would be a fraction, a fraction of a fraction, of the size that it is. All hail Blogger.
: All hail Movable Type, as well. It's a wonderful product, superbly executed.
Methinks the two companies should tie together: Blogger is for all beginners; Movable Type for would-be geeks.
: Also note that I changed the name, above. It was WarLog: World War III. But most people started referring to the site by its juicy address: BuzzMachine.com. So I made the change.
: Next, a new template.
October 19, 2002
Listen
: The TV industry is one of the few that is smart enough to use the Internet to listen to its audience, witness today's very good piece in the NY Times magazine on the critics who matter. It is now standard Hollywood practice for executive producers (known in trade argot as ''show runners'') to scurry into Web groups moments after an episode is shown on the East Coast. Sure, a good review in the print media is important, but the boards, by definition, are populated by a program's core audience -- many thousands of viewers who care deeply about what direction their show takes. Every other industry -- not to mention government and media -- would be wise to follow the example. The Internet is the first medium owned by the audience and if you want to hear what your consituents are saying, all you have to do is log on and listen.
Free speech
: Tony Pierce calls me out, among others (and I'm honored to be in the company, even if for dishonor) for not retyping Sean Penn's $56k ad in the Friday Washington Post going after Pres. Bush for threatening war on Iraq and other actions that, along with "deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you claim." Tony complains, shouting in lower case: i go to the Instapundit and i don't see Penn's transcript. i go to Little Green Footballs and i see that some other actors have chipped in to decry the war cry, but i don't see their ad either, instead they get called "high profile idiots on the anti-American left", because apparently freedom of speech is anti-American when it comes from the left. i go to blogdex, nada. welch, layne, jarvis, no one has it.
i may as well be in russia. dissenter? kill him or ignore him, but at all costs, dont pick on king george.
what's a brother got to do to get his words read after he puts his money where his mouth is and gives the raspberry to the commander in chief?
i thought you people ran political blogs focused on this war on terror?
you cant seriously tell me that this isn't newsworthy. Let me first dispose of the specifics of the indictment before getting to a more substantive point:
First, I don't live anywhere near D.C.; haven't seen the ad. I know the Post was talking with a company about putting up an image of every page and I would have paid for it and retyped the whole thing just to give Tony what he wants but I could not find any such service and so I couldn't.
Second, Sean Penn! Let's say it again: Sean Penn! He's an actor! Just an actor. An irritating actor. An irritating actor in bad movies. An irritating actor who married an irritating singer. Do I care what irritating actors say about world affairs? Rarely. Very rarely. I covered actors for many years. I know how little they have to say. I know how silly it is that we listen to them anyway. Sean Penn, I say. Sean Penn! That's almost as funny -- almost -- as listening to what Barbra Streisand, Woody Harrelson, or Charlton Heston has to say.
: But let's get past the bad example -- Sean Penn! -- and still give credence to Tony's point, which has weight: Voices of dissent are not being heard fairly today and this is troubling.
During America's last big war of preemption and containment -- preempting communism from spreading by containing it -- I was protesting and getting French lessons for my new life in Canada. We were heard. There was a real debate. Today, there is no debate.
There are many reasons for that -- among them, the fact that we were attacked this time. But that's no reason to avoid debate.
So Tony's onto something. But I hate to think that Sean Penn would be the poster boy for democracy.
: I haven't taken a stand on Iraq in part because I doubt anybody could give a rat's rump what that stand is and in part because I've been muddled.
But I do feel foolish writing under a war banner and not writing about this war.
So I'll say this:
Bush has not made the case for war.
He has made the case that Saddam is a bad guy; we clearly know that. But do we have license to attack any bad guys? No, we don't have that power and should not want it. It puts us in the position of stage-managing the world; just because we've been accused of doing that in the past doesn't mean we should start doing it now. It puts us in the difficult position of not being able to work with other bad guys (see Pakistan) or of being called out when we do not topple bad guys (see Saudi Arabia or North Korea or China...).
He has not made the case that Saddam is tied to the terror attack on us. If that case could be made, then war would be defined as self-defense, as justice. But the case has not been made, so it's aggression of one definition or another.
He has not made clear the risk this war will put us under -- and it will.
I honestly cannot calculate Bush's motive: How much of it is about avenging his father's partial victory and resulting election loss? How much of it is wagging the dog amidst our terrible economy, about which Bush has been ineffective? How much of it is distraction from the failure to arrest the real terrorists who attacked us? How much of it is something we just don't know? I don't know.
I support the war against terrorism. I know Saddam is evil. But the two are not yet linked.
Bush has not made the case for war.
: And that counts for about as much as Sean Penn's opinion. Not much.
: You see, sometimes it's important to know when to shut up.
If I had something to add to the Iraq debate -- in facts or reporting or perspective or wisdom -- I'd add it; I'd have added it long since.
But I don't. So I should get points for adding nothing.
For if we are not careful, weblogs will turn into catalogues of "what I think about..."
When people could publish their own web pages, they too quickly became catalogues of "my CD collection." As if anybody should care.
Weblogs should not turn into catalogues of opinions, as if anybody should care.
Dates
: One small but useful function weblogs can perform is alerting the audience to events of interest they might not otherwise see.
Nick Denton alerts us to a Hitchens/Sullivan appearance at NYU this Thursday; without that, there's no way I would have known about it.
Elizabeth Spiers tried to alert us to a talk about magazines and newspapers I would have died to join at the Yale Club (though, sadly, I didn't see the post until the morning after).
The other day, John Malone spoke at an event for The New Yorker and Syracuse's Newhouse School in my own office building and I didn't know about it until 10 minutes after it ended; I'll be somebody from Syracuse could have blogged that.
Matthew Haughey also wants a calendar standard.
Listen
: The TV industry is one of the few that is smart enough to use the Internet to listen to its audience, witness today's very good piece in the NY Times magazine on the critics who matter. It is now standard Hollywood practice for executive producers (known in trade argot as ''show runners'') to scurry into Web groups moments after an episode is shown on the East Coast. Sure, a good review in the print media is important, but the boards, by definition, are populated by a program's core audience -- many thousands of viewers who care deeply about what direction their show takes. Every other industry -- not to mention government and media -- would be wise to follow the example. The Internet is the first medium owned by the audience and if you want to hear what your consituents are saying, all you have to do is log on and listen.
Free speech
: Tony Pierce calls me out, among others (and I'm honored to be in the company, even if for dishonor) for not retyping Sean Penn's $56k ad in the Friday Washington Post going after Pres. Bush for threatening war on Iraq and other actions that, along with "deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you claim." Tony complains, shouting in lower case: i go to the Instapundit and i don't see Penn's transcript. i go to Little Green Footballs and i see that some other actors have chipped in to decry the war cry, but i don't see their ad either, instead they get called "high profile idiots on the anti-American left", because apparently freedom of speech is anti-American when it comes from the left. i go to blogdex, nada. welch, layne, jarvis, no one has it.
i may as well be in russia. dissenter? kill him or ignore him, but at all costs, dont pick on king george.
what's a brother got to do to get his words read after he puts his money where his mouth is and gives the raspberry to the commander in chief?
i thought you people ran political blogs focused on this war on terror?
you cant seriously tell me that this isn't newsworthy. Let me first dispose of the specifics of the indictment before getting to a more substantive point:
First, I don't live anywhere near D.C.; haven't seen the ad. I know the Post was talking with a company about putting up an image of every page and I would have paid for it and retyped the whole thing just to give Tony what he wants but I could not find any such service and so I couldn't.
Second, Sean Penn! Let's say it again: Sean Penn! He's an actor! Just an actor. An irritating actor. An irritating actor in bad movies. An irritating actor who married an irritating singer. Do I care what irritating actors say about world affairs? Rarely. Very rarely. I covered actors for many years. I know how little they have to say. I know how silly it is that we listen to them anyway. Sean Penn, I say. Sean Penn! That's almost as funny -- almost -- as listening to what Barbra Streisand, Woody Harrelson, or Charlton Heston has to say.
: But let's get past the bad example -- Sean Penn! -- and still give credence to Tony's point, which has weight: Voices of dissent are not being heard fairly today and this is troubling.
During America's last big war of preemption and containment -- preempting communism from spreading by containing it -- I was protesting and getting French lessons for my new life in Canada. We were heard. There was a real debate. Today, there is no debate.
There are many reasons for that -- among them, the fact that we were attacked this time. But that's no reason to avoid debate.
So Tony's onto something. But I hate to think that Sean Penn would be the poster boy for democracy.
: I haven't taken a stand on Iraq in part because I doubt anybody could give a rat's rump what that stand is and in part because I've been muddled.
But I do feel foolish writing under a war banner and not writing about this war.
So I'll say this:
Bush has not made the case for war.
He has made the case that Saddam is a bad guy; we clearly know that. But do we have license to attack any bad guys? No, we don't have that power and should not want it. It puts us in the position of stage-managing the world; just because we've been accused of doing that in the past doesn't mean we should start doing it now. It puts us in the difficult position of not being able to work with other bad guys (see Pakistan) or of being called out when we do not topple bad guys (see Saudi Arabia or North Korea or China...).
He has not made the case that Saddam is tied to the terror attack on us. If that case could be made, then war would be defined as self-defense, as justice. But the case has not been made, so it's aggression of one definition or another.
He has not made clear the risk this war will put us under -- and it will.
I honestly cannot calculate Bush's motive: How much of it is about avenging his father's partial victory and resulting election loss? How much of it is wagging the dog amidst our terrible economy, about which Bush has been ineffective? How much of it is distraction from the failure to arrest the real terrorists who attacked us? How much of it is something we just don't know? I don't know.
I support the war against terrorism. I know Saddam is evil. But the two are not yet linked.
Bush has not made the case for war.
: And that counts for about as much as Sean Penn's opinion. Not much.
: You see, sometimes it's important to know when to shut up.
If I had something to add to the Iraq debate -- in facts or reporting or perspective or wisdom -- I'd add it; I'd have added it long since.
But I don't. So I should get points for adding nothing.
For if we are not careful, weblogs will turn into catalogues of "what I think about..."
When people could publish their own web pages, they too quickly became catalogues of "my CD collection." As if anybody should care.
Weblogs should not turn into catalogues of opinions, as if anybody should care.
Dates
: One small but useful function weblogs can perform is alerting the audience to events of interest they might not otherwise see.
Nick Denton alerts us to a Hitchens/Sullivan appearance at NYU this Thursday; without that, there's no way I would have known about it.
Elizabeth Spiers tried to alert us to a talk about magazines and newspapers I would have died to join at the Yale Club (though, sadly, I didn't see the post until the morning after).
The other day, John Malone spoke at an event for The New Yorker and Syracuse's Newhouse School in my own office building and I didn't know about it until 10 minutes after it ended; I'll be somebody from Syracuse could have blogged that.
Matthew Haughey also wants a calendar standard.
October 18, 2002
A kiss from Tina
: Note what Tina Brown, ex editor of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk, says in a story in today's Wall Street Journal regarding magazines in development: "The big, traditional, commercial magazine launch is a very antediluvian beast," says Ms. Brown. "If I was to do Talk again, I would do it on the Web." She'd just lose less money.
A kiss from Tina
: Note what Tina Brown, ex editor of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk, says in a story in today's Wall Street Journal regarding magazines in development: "The big, traditional, commercial magazine launch is a very antediluvian beast," says Ms. Brown. "If I was to do Talk again, I would do it on the Web." She'd just lose less money.
October 17, 2002
Nuclear snipers
: I was, in fact, just sitting down to read the cover story in this month's Wired -- "Stopping Loose Nukes" -- by Steven Johnson when (call it fate) I get email from Steven. Now if anybody in the world should have a blog, it's him. But he doesn't. So think of this as blogging in proxy. It's a fascinating story, taking us through the technology and other means needed to find and stop illicit nukes from coming into, say, Washington, D.C. It's all the more fascinating and all the more frightening today (fate again) as we watch authorities of every stripe desperately trying to stop one (or two) guy(s) with a gun from terrorizing and all but shutting down the nation's capital. Imagine if the warhead hunted down were not just a bullet but a nuke. In some ways, this would be easier... if the technology is in place to sniff out radioactivity. An "atomic wall" may seem far-fetched, but experts believe a detection perimeter could stop radiological and nuclear weapons – or at least provide a much needed level of redundancy in the effort to police them. Here’s how it might work.
1. As a terrorist approaches the Beltway, a scanner above the on-ramp detects gamma rays emitted by the radioactive material in his vehicle.
2. A silent alarm alerts authorities. As the terrorist passes through the scanner, a video camera records his vehicle's make, model, and license plate.
3. Police set up roadblocks and locate the vehicle. To keep traffic flowing smoothly, false positives would need to be kept to a minimum.
4. An emergency response team searches each suspect vehicle by hand or with a MobileSearch detection unit. F'ing fool: So a key witness to the last D.C. sniper shooting turns out to be a big, fat liar, sending cops and all of D.C. on a wild tan-van chase.
PC supidity du jour
: Asian-Americans force a costume company to stop selling its Kung Fool mask.
Albinos will soon complain about Casper.
It has come to this
: D.C. area police tell citizens to walk in zig-zag patterns.
What, no bulletproof vests?
: Thanks to Elizabeth Spiers, I'm getting ready to go on a shopping trip to the new Safer America store. I'm thinking about getting myself a Highrise Kit with: 1 Escape Parachute: Executive-Chute
1 Escape Hood: Exitair Bio
1 Full body suit: Tyvek F
1 Package of IOSAT Potassium Iodide
1 pair of Nitrile Gloves + Booties
1 Flash Light 2 AA Holster Pack
Duct Tape Just because duct tape is so damned handy.
Nuclear snipers
: I was, in fact, just sitting down to read the cover story in this month's Wired -- "Stopping Loose Nukes" -- by Steven Johnson when (call it fate) I get email from Steven. Now if anybody in the world should have a blog, it's him. But he doesn't. So think of this as blogging in proxy. It's a fascinating story, taking us through the technology and other means needed to find and stop illicit nukes from coming into, say, Washington, D.C. It's all the more fascinating and all the more frightening today (fate again) as we watch authorities of every stripe desperately trying to stop one (or two) guy(s) with a gun from terrorizing and all but shutting down the nation's capital. Imagine if the warhead hunted down were not just a bullet but a nuke. In some ways, this would be easier... if the technology is in place to sniff out radioactivity. An "atomic wall" may seem far-fetched, but experts believe a detection perimeter could stop radiological and nuclear weapons – or at least provide a much needed level of redundancy in the effort to police them. Here’s how it might work.
1. As a terrorist approaches the Beltway, a scanner above the on-ramp detects gamma rays emitted by the radioactive material in his vehicle.
2. A silent alarm alerts authorities. As the terrorist passes through the scanner, a video camera records his vehicle's make, model, and license plate.
3. Police set up roadblocks and locate the vehicle. To keep traffic flowing smoothly, false positives would need to be kept to a minimum.
4. An emergency response team searches each suspect vehicle by hand or with a MobileSearch detection unit. F'ing fool: So a key witness to the last D.C. sniper shooting turns out to be a big, fat liar, sending cops and all of D.C. on a wild tan-van chase.
PC supidity du jour
: Asian-Americans force a costume company to stop selling its Kung Fool mask.
Albinos will soon complain about Casper.
It has come to this
: D.C. area police tell citizens to walk in zig-zag patterns.
What, no bulletproof vests?
: Thanks to Elizabeth Spiers, I'm getting ready to go on a shopping trip to the new Safer America store. I'm thinking about getting myself a Highrise Kit with: 1 Escape Parachute: Executive-Chute
1 Escape Hood: Exitair Bio
1 Full body suit: Tyvek F
1 Package of IOSAT Potassium Iodide
1 pair of Nitrile Gloves + Booties
1 Flash Light 2 AA Holster Pack
Duct Tape Just because duct tape is so damned handy.
October 16, 2002
It's all in the timing
: National Geographic Traveler's cover this month: "Bali -- Still paradise?
No, I mean besides the Internet
: There is a real black hole.
Noted
: Elizabeth Spiers blog keeps getting better and better.
The future of journalism
: I had an instructive professional moment last night.
My 10-year-old son has joined his school newspaper (if this were TV, you'd see a look of paternal pride) and I'm going to talk to the kids. My son doesn't read newspapers yet, which I wouldn't expect. He doesn't really follow news yet. But I said that it was at his age that I started; I remember the first newspaper story I picked up out of curiousity and liked because it told me everything I wanted to know (it was a weather story promising snow... and a snow day).
So I said it's time for him to start reading a paper. We get lots of them (as many as six in a day). I picked up one, looking for a story that might interest him (and that wouldn't scare me if it did interest him). First paper: Nothing. Second paper: Nothing. Only when my wife picked up the mushy Gannett local paper did she find a story about a pesky turkey.
Of course, I'm not saying that newspapers should be edited for 10-year-old (and no, they aren't already). But I have to say I was shocked that there was nothing (other than sports and we're a nonjock household) that would even interest a basic human being: a kid. Every story was too inside politics or world affairs or too violent or too dull.
Not a good sign for the future.
Blogethics
: I have stayed out of the snipfest about blog ethics v. journalistic ethics here, here, here, and here because I find the topic as dull as a J-school class and because I have faced far tougher issues of ethics in the real world. Way back when, I thought ethics was all about not taking a free drink from a flack. But then I worked at Time Inc. when it became Time Warner and faced all kinds of pressure about being nice to Hollywood products; I faced pressure from higher-ups on politics; I watched my editor defend me against both. Virtue did not come out of a code; it came out of individuals' own morals, their own sense of right and wrong and duty. A code is a fine thing; rules are harmless. But rules are worthless if the people who should be ruled by them are corrupt; an ethical person thinking ethically can face issues no set of rules can cover. In the end, the only assets we in the media have are credibility and trust and if we do anything to bring those into question, we squander everything.
Do priests need a code to tell them not to shtup little boys? No. They need morals.
Do politicians need a code to tell them not to pocket bribes? No. They need ethics.
Do journalists -- on paper or on screen -- need a code to tell them not to take freebies -- including free information -- without refusing or disclosing that? No. They need common sense.
Where am I?
: If you're tired of Mapquest, try the newly redesigned Rand McNally.
Blogtools
: Compare.
If cool were still cool
: This would be cool: Make your own city. [via Buzz]
It's all in the timing
: National Geographic Traveler's cover this month: "Bali -- Still paradise?
No, I mean besides the Internet
: There is a real black hole.
Noted
: Elizabeth Spiers blog keeps getting better and better.
The future of journalism
: I had an instructive professional moment last night.
My 10-year-old son has joined his school newspaper (if this were TV, you'd see a look of paternal pride) and I'm going to talk to the kids. My son doesn't read newspapers yet, which I wouldn't expect. He doesn't really follow news yet. But I said that it was at his age that I started; I remember the first newspaper story I picked up out of curiousity and liked because it told me everything I wanted to know (it was a weather story promising snow... and a snow day).
So I said it's time for him to start reading a paper. We get lots of them (as many as six in a day). I picked up one, looking for a story that might interest him (and that wouldn't scare me if it did interest him). First paper: Nothing. Second paper: Nothing. Only when my wife picked up the mushy Gannett local paper did she find a story about a pesky turkey.
Of course, I'm not saying that newspapers should be edited for 10-year-old (and no, they aren't already). But I have to say I was shocked that there was nothing (other than sports and we're a nonjock household) that would even interest a basic human being: a kid. Every story was too inside politics or world affairs or too violent or too dull.
Not a good sign for the future.
Blogethics
: I have stayed out of the snipfest about blog ethics v. journalistic ethics here, here, here, and here because I find the topic as dull as a J-school class and because I have faced far tougher issues of ethics in the real world. Way back when, I thought ethics was all about not taking a free drink from a flack. But then I worked at Time Inc. when it became Time Warner and faced all kinds of pressure about being nice to Hollywood products; I faced pressure from higher-ups on politics; I watched my editor defend me against both. Virtue did not come out of a code; it came out of individuals' own morals, their own sense of right and wrong and duty. A code is a fine thing; rules are harmless. But rules are worthless if the people who should be ruled by them are corrupt; an ethical person thinking ethically can face issues no set of rules can cover. In the end, the only assets we in the media have are credibility and trust and if we do anything to bring those into question, we squander everything.
Do priests need a code to tell them not to shtup little boys? No. They need morals.
Do politicians need a code to tell them not to pocket bribes? No. They need ethics.
Do journalists -- on paper or on screen -- need a code to tell them not to take freebies -- including free information -- without refusing or disclosing that? No. They need common sense.
Where am I?
: If you're tired of Mapquest, try the newly redesigned Rand McNally.
Blogtools
: Compare.
If cool were still cool
: This would be cool: Make your own city. [via Buzz]
October 15, 2002
I collect navel lint
: I'm watching the festivities at the AOL 8.0 launch "party" right now and they're interviewing a lady who collects AOL disks. Takes all kinds.
: I watched the end of this segment as they gave her some special collector disks done by various artists. Only problem is, they come sealed in a tin so you can't see which artist did yours until you open it up. Will you open it? the perky AOL faux interviewer asks the collector lady? Oh, no, says the lady, then they would lose their value. So the disk just sits in there like a mystery of the universe, uncracked.
: Paul Brisbin sends me this neat story about AOL-disk-obsessors.
: A colleague in my office said this is like collecting junk mail: "I have a very rare Ed McMahon...."
Meanwhile...
: I've been lazy lately and just put up links to vaguely interesting stuff. Haven't had a great thought in ages. I'm feeling devalued... especially when I look at Nick Denton today. He's one busy blogging beaver, boy.
I collect navel lint
: I'm watching the festivities at the AOL 8.0 launch "party" right now and they're interviewing a lady who collects AOL disks. Takes all kinds.
: I watched the end of this segment as they gave her some special collector disks done by various artists. Only problem is, they come sealed in a tin so you can't see which artist did yours until you open it up. Will you open it? the perky AOL faux interviewer asks the collector lady? Oh, no, says the lady, then they would lose their value. So the disk just sits in there like a mystery of the universe, uncracked.
: Paul Brisbin sends me this neat story about AOL-disk-obsessors.
: A colleague in my office said this is like collecting junk mail: "I have a very rare Ed McMahon...."
Meanwhile...
: I've been lazy lately and just put up links to vaguely interesting stuff. Haven't had a great thought in ages. I'm feeling devalued... especially when I look at Nick Denton today. He's one busy blogging beaver, boy.
October 14, 2002
Progress?
: ABC News reports an ex-Marine has been taken in after he was found with a white van and rifles. Fox News was told this is not related to the snipers. Fox also says they got a white truck. Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, New York Times behind on the story tonight.
Bali
: The Australian toll from the Bali terrorist attack is horrendous: 22 Australians dead, 110 injured, 220 missing.
: British fatality count up to 33.
: Tim Blair is, of course, on top of the story.
: Nick Denton says the terrorists are idiots to kill citizens of our allies, for that will only make it easier for them to fight alongside us.
: Even stupider: Indonesian radical fools blame us for the Bali bombing.
: The world tourism industry is already dreading doom thanks to the Bali explosions. It's not as if Bali is a huge destination for Americans, but the impact will be felt everywhere.
: Mourning in Bali at Indo.com lists the victims known so far and has a forum where people are asking about the fates of loved ones believed to have been vacationing there.
Taking credit
: An alleged expert on FoxNews just discounted the idea that the D.C. sniper(s) is/are terrorist(s) because no one has taken credit for the acts.
Uh, fella, bin Laden never actively took credit for 9.11 (only bragging about it on a tape). That is the new M.O. of terrorists: If you don't take credit, then you can get credit for the acts of others -- that is, people will assume that any plane crash, any explosion, any gunshot comes from you even if it doesn't: free-ride terrorism.
In honor of Columbus Day
: A Sopranos' backlash is brewing. Take the pulse in the NJ.com Soprano's forum: Is this the Sopranos or "The Soap-ranos?" What the hell is going on here? God help me but I almost dozed off during last night's episide. Who gives a flying @#$* about Carmela's long term financial goals? Where the hell is Paulie and let's give Bobby some friggin' balls already! Why is AJ even on this show anyway? The show is turning into one of those two-panel comic strips where it takes six months to make a point. I hope Chase and Co. aren't giving in to these phony Italian pride propogandists. I'm 100% Italian-American (Sicilian and damn proud of it!) and do not find this show offensive at all. Until now. Please bring back the fury it once had and let's stop these mini-soap operas. Does anyone agree? Ciao. Still love the show, but last night's coming attractions were better than last night's episode.
Progress?
: ABC News reports an ex-Marine has been taken in after he was found with a white van and rifles. Fox News was told this is not related to the snipers. Fox also says they got a white truck. Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, New York Times behind on the story tonight.
Bali
: The Australian toll from the Bali terrorist attack is horrendous: 22 Australians dead, 110 injured, 220 missing.
: British fatality count up to 33.
: Tim Blair is, of course, on top of the story.
: Nick Denton says the terrorists are idiots to kill citizens of our allies, for that will only make it easier for them to fight alongside us.
: Even stupider: Indonesian radical fools blame us for the Bali bombing.
: The world tourism industry is already dreading doom thanks to the Bali explosions. It's not as if Bali is a huge destination for Americans, but the impact will be felt everywhere.
: Mourning in Bali at Indo.com lists the victims known so far and has a forum where people are asking about the fates of loved ones believed to have been vacationing there.
Taking credit
: An alleged expert on FoxNews just discounted the idea that the D.C. sniper(s) is/are terrorist(s) because no one has taken credit for the acts.
Uh, fella, bin Laden never actively took credit for 9.11 (only bragging about it on a tape). That is the new M.O. of terrorists: If you don't take credit, then you can get credit for the acts of others -- that is, people will assume that any plane crash, any explosion, any gunshot comes from you even if it doesn't: free-ride terrorism.
In honor of Columbus Day
: A Sopranos' backlash is brewing. Take the pulse in the NJ.com Soprano's forum: Is this the Sopranos or "The Soap-ranos?" What the hell is going on here? God help me but I almost dozed off during last night's episide. Who gives a flying @#$* about Carmela's long term financial goals? Where the hell is Paulie and let's give Bobby some friggin' balls already! Why is AJ even on this show anyway? The show is turning into one of those two-panel comic strips where it takes six months to make a point. I hope Chase and Co. aren't giving in to these phony Italian pride propogandists. I'm 100% Italian-American (Sicilian and damn proud of it!) and do not find this show offensive at all. Until now. Please bring back the fury it once had and let's stop these mini-soap operas. Does anyone agree? Ciao. Still love the show, but last night's coming attractions were better than last night's episode.
October 12, 2002
Who spreads terror
: Stephen Hunter is the talented movie critic of the Washington Post and a thriller writer and also a fan of guns (I know because I tried to convince him to become the movie critic at Entertainment Weekly and he said then -- in his job interview -- that a bullet is a beautiful thing, too beautiful to waste on an editor ... and even after that, I really wanted to hire him).
Hunter profiles what we know about the Washington sniper in the Post: He knows more, for one thing, than you could learn in the movies. In the movies, shooters routinely perform feats of marksmanship that are completely impossible in reality. They throw heavy rifles to their shoulders and snap off long-distance shots and people drop. They shoot from the hip, they hold the gun sideways, they shoot while somersaulting or flying through the air. That doesn't happen in the real world. So he's not a punk jerk who's couch-potatoed his life away in front of the VCR while cultivating zits, rejection and grievances....
If he's using what is so popularly called an assault weapon, he hasn't been seduced by movie imagery or the gun's militaristic architecture into bursts of shots, one of the seductions of that particular style of rifle. He's not a spray shooter, a crowd gunner, in love with the bap-bap-bap of the semiautomatic rifle. He likes the one-shot, one-kill code of the professional soldier or law enforcement agent.
Still, none of these skills compute to the heavily trained operative or a terrorist. They are Shooting 101 techniques, easily learnable in an afternoon by anyone, man, woman or teenager, with routine coordination. They are accessible on the Internet or in any issue of a gun magazine. Spared terror: From the Jerusalem Post: A quick thinking security guard at a Tel Aviv caf and sentries posted at the American embassy foiled what could have been a massive terrorist attack Friday night when they identified, apprehended, and disarmed a would-be suicide bomber on a crowded boardwalk.
It was the second time in as many days that civilians thwarted a potentially devastating suicide bombing in Tel Aviv area. Terror: Are the Washington attacks the work of terrorists? The NY Post's Steve Dunleavy thinks so. LARRY Johnson, former CIA agent, former State Department agent, said loudly and clearly: "At the end of the day, we have to give some credence that there is a terrorist threat."...
"I personally think it is a jihad, rather than a crazy nut," Johnson, a veteran counterintelligence expert, said.
Jim Kallstrom, the former boss of the FBI in New York who investigated the downing of TWA 880, does not dismiss the theory either.
"This is a different situation if there are two people involved in the shootings," he said.
"If there are two, it is unusual. Two people do not have parallel psychoses. If there are two involved, I would have to lean towards a conspiracy."...
What's uncanny about the past 10 days is that a gunman and perhaps a co-conspirator have held the capital of this country prisoner.
The Washington area is completely paralyzed. As they said on NPR this morning, this is a case of a superpower made powerless.
Terror spreads
: University student bombs a mall in Finland. At least 110 dead in blasts in Bali.
: The Bali report from the Jakarta Post.
: News.com.au reports; they have the death toll at 110.
Wake me when it's over
: Media Democracy Day. Whatabunchahooey that is! Hey, bozos, media is business. It's about what the market will bear, what the audience will buy. Anything else is government-controlled and that's called propaganda and that's not democratic. Journalism lesson over. Go home now.
TV
: I've been spending a surprising amount of time watching TV on my laptop.
Here's a new presentation of TV on tech, very slick, nicely done.
I watched all kinds of author interviews from the Frankfurt Book Fair on ZDF.
Trying to brush up on my horrenous German, I watched excerpts from the German David Letterman, Harald Schmidt.
I watched my own site, Nola.com, present four critics looking for the best shrimp po boy.
This is still no way to watch West Wing. But this is a way to watch snippets of things you can't get elsewhere or want when you want them. Convergence is converging.
Who spreads terror
: Stephen Hunter is the talented movie critic of the Washington Post and a thriller writer and also a fan of guns (I know because I tried to convince him to become the movie critic at Entertainment Weekly and he said then -- in his job interview -- that a bullet is a beautiful thing, too beautiful to waste on an editor ... and even after that, I really wanted to hire him).
Hunter profiles what we know about the Washington sniper in the Post: He knows more, for one thing, than you could learn in the movies. In the movies, shooters routinely perform feats of marksmanship that are completely impossible in reality. They throw heavy rifles to their shoulders and snap off long-distance shots and people drop. They shoot from the hip, they hold the gun sideways, they shoot while somersaulting or flying through the air. That doesn't happen in the real world. So he's not a punk jerk who's couch-potatoed his life away in front of the VCR while cultivating zits, rejection and grievances....
If he's using what is so popularly called an assault weapon, he hasn't been seduced by movie imagery or the gun's militaristic architecture into bursts of shots, one of the seductions of that particular style of rifle. He's not a spray shooter, a crowd gunner, in love with the bap-bap-bap of the semiautomatic rifle. He likes the one-shot, one-kill code of the professional soldier or law enforcement agent.
Still, none of these skills compute to the heavily trained operative or a terrorist. They are Shooting 101 techniques, easily learnable in an afternoon by anyone, man, woman or teenager, with routine coordination. They are accessible on the Internet or in any issue of a gun magazine. Spared terror: From the Jerusalem Post: A quick thinking security guard at a Tel Aviv caf and sentries posted at the American embassy foiled what could have been a massive terrorist attack Friday night when they identified, apprehended, and disarmed a would-be suicide bomber on a crowded boardwalk.
It was the second time in as many days that civilians thwarted a potentially devastating suicide bombing in Tel Aviv area. Terror: Are the Washington attacks the work of terrorists? The NY Post's Steve Dunleavy thinks so. LARRY Johnson, former CIA agent, former State Department agent, said loudly and clearly: "At the end of the day, we have to give some credence that there is a terrorist threat."...
"I personally think it is a jihad, rather than a crazy nut," Johnson, a veteran counterintelligence expert, said.
Jim Kallstrom, the former boss of the FBI in New York who investigated the downing of TWA 880, does not dismiss the theory either.
"This is a different situation if there are two people involved in the shootings," he said.
"If there are two, it is unusual. Two people do not have parallel psychoses. If there are two involved, I would have to lean towards a conspiracy."...
What's uncanny about the past 10 days is that a gunman and perhaps a co-conspirator have held the capital of this country prisoner.
The Washington area is completely paralyzed. As they said on NPR this morning, this is a case of a superpower made powerless.
Terror spreads
: University student bombs a mall in Finland. At least 110 dead in blasts in Bali.
: The Bali report from the Jakarta Post.
: News.com.au reports; they have the death toll at 110.
Wake me when it's over
: Media Democracy Day. Whatabunchahooey that is! Hey, bozos, media is business. It's about what the market will bear, what the audience will buy. Anything else is government-controlled and that's called propaganda and that's not democratic. Journalism lesson over. Go home now.
TV
: I've been spending a surprising amount of time watching TV on my laptop.
Here's a new presentation of TV on tech, very slick, nicely done.
I watched all kinds of author interviews from the Frankfurt Book Fair on ZDF.
Trying to brush up on my horrenous German, I watched excerpts from the German David Letterman, Harald Schmidt.
I watched my own site, Nola.com, present four critics looking for the best shrimp po boy.
This is still no way to watch West Wing. But this is a way to watch snippets of things you can't get elsewhere or want when you want them. Convergence is converging.
October 11, 2002
Correcting Corrections
: ZDF, the German network, webcasts interviews with authors aplenty from the Frankfurt Book Fair, some auf Englisch. Here's Jonathan Franzen's interview. It's amazing that he is every bit as self-absorbed as his writing has become. He's a word nerd.
The age of ambivalence
: Some wise words from New York Times film critic A.O. Scott today that happen to be about Michael Moore's new movie -- but could be about the blogosphere itself, about not saying the obvious thing (as in, the obvious bloggers' obvious -- and thus dull -- responses to gun control news or Jimmy Carter's Nobel or Iraq votes): The most disappointing — and the most likely — response to Mr. Moore's disturbing, infuriating and often very funny film would be uncritical support from his ideological friends and summary dismissal from his foes. The slippery logic, tendentious grandstanding and outright demagoguery on display in "Bowling for Columbine" should be enough to give pause to its most ardent partisans, while its disquieting insights into the culture of violence in America should occasion sober reflection from those who would prefer to stop their ears.
I hope the movie is widely seen and debated with appropriate ferocity and thoughtfulness. Does that sound evasive? I'm sorry if it does, but at the moment, political certainty seems to me to be a cheap and abundant commodity, of much less value than honest ambivalence. Ya godda problem wid dat?: Good for Mayor Mike! Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that if the organizers of the Columbus Day parade don't want cast members of the Sopranos to march, then he won't march either.
Meanwhile, the organizers, the Columbus Citizens Foundation, were in federal court Friday trying to block the actors' participation in the parade.
"I'm sorry if anybody is annoyed," Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show on WABC. "But if my friends can't march, people that I think have done things for the city, then you know, I'll find some other way to celebrate the Italian heritage that we have in the city." Bad memories: Slotman has a wise post on the downward spiral that the debate over the fate of the World Trade Center is taking. So within this debate we have people dropping Ayn Rand --the Internet-debate equivalent of chemical warfare--and then the dreaded N-bomb, "Nazi," the ultimate thread-closing weapon. Not to mention the term "fascist," and if you've ever seen a thread that makes use of Ayn Rand, fascism and Nazis you know that thread is about twenty pages long and you're about to go wallow in some goofy goofy territory. I'm glad to see hifalutin literary dorks are spending too much time on the Internet, but that's no reason to start borrowing USENET debating skills. Instacondom: Science invents a condom that can be installed in a tenth the usual time. I don' t really know why this is necessary. I don't really know why it is newsworthy. But you have to admit: condoms are funny. [via Die Zeit]
Correcting Corrections
: ZDF, the German network, webcasts interviews with authors aplenty from the Frankfurt Book Fair, some auf Englisch. Here's Jonathan Franzen's interview. It's amazing that he is every bit as self-absorbed as his writing has become. He's a word nerd.
The age of ambivalence
: Some wise words from New York Times film critic A.O. Scott today that happen to be about Michael Moore's new movie -- but could be about the blogosphere itself, about not saying the obvious thing (as in, the obvious bloggers' obvious -- and thus dull -- responses to gun control news or Jimmy Carter's Nobel or Iraq votes): The most disappointing — and the most likely — response to Mr. Moore's disturbing, infuriating and often very funny film would be uncritical support from his ideological friends and summary dismissal from his foes. The slippery logic, tendentious grandstanding and outright demagoguery on display in "Bowling for Columbine" should be enough to give pause to its most ardent partisans, while its disquieting insights into the culture of violence in America should occasion sober reflection from those who would prefer to stop their ears.
I hope the movie is widely seen and debated with appropriate ferocity and thoughtfulness. Does that sound evasive? I'm sorry if it does, but at the moment, political certainty seems to me to be a cheap and abundant commodity, of much less value than honest ambivalence. Ya godda problem wid dat?: Good for Mayor Mike! Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that if the organizers of the Columbus Day parade don't want cast members of the Sopranos to march, then he won't march either.
Meanwhile, the organizers, the Columbus Citizens Foundation, were in federal court Friday trying to block the actors' participation in the parade.
"I'm sorry if anybody is annoyed," Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show on WABC. "But if my friends can't march, people that I think have done things for the city, then you know, I'll find some other way to celebrate the Italian heritage that we have in the city." Bad memories: Slotman has a wise post on the downward spiral that the debate over the fate of the World Trade Center is taking. So within this debate we have people dropping Ayn Rand --the Internet-debate equivalent of chemical warfare--and then the dreaded N-bomb, "Nazi," the ultimate thread-closing weapon. Not to mention the term "fascist," and if you've ever seen a thread that makes use of Ayn Rand, fascism and Nazis you know that thread is about twenty pages long and you're about to go wallow in some goofy goofy territory. I'm glad to see hifalutin literary dorks are spending too much time on the Internet, but that's no reason to start borrowing USENET debating skills. Instacondom: Science invents a condom that can be installed in a tenth the usual time. I don' t really know why this is necessary. I don't really know why it is newsworthy. But you have to admit: condoms are funny. [via Die Zeit]
October 10, 2002
Homeless, hungry, offline
: Desperate out-of-work web designers. [via buzz.bazooka]
Green sex
: Sex tips from Greenpeace: 5. Forget the fossil fuel based lubricants like petroleum jelly! Esso's screwing the planet, but you don't have to.
Homeless, hungry, offline
: Desperate out-of-work web designers. [via buzz.bazooka]
Green sex
: Sex tips from Greenpeace: 5. Forget the fossil fuel based lubricants like petroleum jelly! Esso's screwing the planet, but you don't have to.
October 09, 2002
It's the economy, stupid
: Hello, George, are you listening?
How ironic
: I have one smart British friend who says that Americans just don't understand irony. He's probably right. I can't tell whether he's being ironic when he says it.
I also can't tell whether Nick Denton is being ironic today when he embarks on a very bloggish riff on the Second Amendment. I hope he is. Inspired by the mad sniper in Washington, Nick says, "the gun lobby is about as convincing as the tobacco companies which pretended cancer had nothing to do with cigarettes. Crud. Easy access to firearms *is* associated with higher murder rates."
But, sadly, he doesn't stop there. He then argues: And there is still an honest case to be made for the Second Amendment. It goes something like this. Guns do result in more fatal murders, but that is a small price to pay to guarantee freedom. The balance between the individual and government is ultimately determined by force. All the rights -- to privacy, a fair trial, of free speech, to property -- are underpinned by the power of individuals to organize against overmighty government, demonstrate, and ultimately take up arms. At a time when we are giving central government more powers, the counterweight of a people's militia is more important than ever. Even as a madman runs amok in the DC suburbs. Smell like irony to you? I sure hope so. Tell me I don't have to call the Libertarian Deprogramming Unit.
But then, I'm just a blunt American.
Ba-one-da-two-bing-three... Ba-one-da-two-bing-three
: This is what makes Boing Boing the alpha blog (as someone called it; sorry I can't remember who): Cory Doctorow discovers Crunch's new course in cardio stripping.
It's the economy, stupid
: Hello, George, are you listening?
How ironic
: I have one smart British friend who says that Americans just don't understand irony. He's probably right. I can't tell whether he's being ironic when he says it.
I also can't tell whether Nick Denton is being ironic today when he embarks on a very bloggish riff on the Second Amendment. I hope he is. Inspired by the mad sniper in Washington, Nick says, "the gun lobby is about as convincing as the tobacco companies which pretended cancer had nothing to do with cigarettes. Crud. Easy access to firearms *is* associated with higher murder rates."
But, sadly, he doesn't stop there. He then argues: And there is still an honest case to be made for the Second Amendment. It goes something like this. Guns do result in more fatal murders, but that is a small price to pay to guarantee freedom. The balance between the individual and government is ultimately determined by force. All the rights -- to privacy, a fair trial, of free speech, to property -- are underpinned by the power of individuals to organize against overmighty government, demonstrate, and ultimately take up arms. At a time when we are giving central government more powers, the counterweight of a people's militia is more important than ever. Even as a madman runs amok in the DC suburbs. Smell like irony to you? I sure hope so. Tell me I don't have to call the Libertarian Deprogramming Unit.
But then, I'm just a blunt American.
Ba-one-da-two-bing-three... Ba-one-da-two-bing-three
: This is what makes Boing Boing the alpha blog (as someone called it; sorry I can't remember who): Cory Doctorow discovers Crunch's new course in cardio stripping.
October 08, 2002
Finally, a killer ap
: Gizmodo, a new daily fave of mine, reports that the new Dell PDA will have "Compact Flask expansion slots."
Finally, a good use for a PDA: storing bourbon.
It takes a lot of fertilizer to fill the Garden State
: Josh Marshall has a chortle or two today at the expense of our too-junior senatorial candidate in New Jersey.
Fuhblogaboudit
: James Lileks sends me email pointing us toward a blog from my Jersey neighbor, Tony Soprano.
Supermensch
: Kathy Shaidle of RelapsedCatholic writes about the Jewish roots of superheroes in the latest issue of Jewsweek. Some fans and amateur historians, obsessed with back-story "mythology", claim they've uncovered the secret "Jewish-ness" of characters created within this unique geopolitical crucible. Superheroes, they claim, are usually outsiders, gifted yet misunderstood, strangers in a strange land. Taking up the theme in, of all things, arch-conservative Nation Review, Robert George mused: "Perhaps that ethnic heritage explains the common themes of abandonment, loss of home, and the existential need to bond oneself to a greater good." : Also, in Jewsweek, a story about the new Veggie Tales movie -- cartoons by Christians with an agenda -- contains this from one of the creators: "We made a decision at the very beginning not to portray Jesus as a vegetable." : And read about Israelis picking up their gasmasks.After illustrating for us how the adult mask fits, the soldier calmly reminds us of the symptoms to watch for that would necessitate using the anti-nerve gas syringe. Chest pains, body tremors, nausea and vomiting -- I experience the symptoms just listening to her. She hands us a small tri-lingual explanatory brochure, and we are ushered out so the next group may receive their instructions. Terrorism: A former FBI profiler on the Today show this morning said that whether the face of the Maryland sniper is Mohammed Atta's or Timothy McVeigh's, this is terrorism.
Skinbacks I have known
: Romenesko points to a great correction: The Daily Evergreen would like to sincerely apologize for an injustice served to the Filipino-American, Spanish-speaking and Catholic communities on the front page of Thursday's Evergreen.
The story "Filipino-American history recognized" stated that the "Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza," the galleon on which the first Filipinos landed at Morro, Bay, Calif., loosely translates to "The Big Ass Spanish Boat." It actually translates to "Our Lady of Good Peace." Pardon me for being inspired to share another old-fart story from my days in the business but I can't help myself.
Here is the story of the only time I ever got to shout "Stop the presses!!" in my newspaper career.
I was Sunday news editor of the San Francisco Examiner (which meant that I put together the part of the Sunday Examiner-Chronicle that no one read) and we had one story, with photo, about the Catholic church and another story, with photo, about the California condor. The first papers came up from the press room (back in the days when press rooms rumbled below your desk; now they are miles away, somewhere near an Interstate) and we saw with horror that the captions under the two photos had been switched.
So, under the Pope, it read: "Soon to be an endangered species."
I picked up the phone and yelled, "Stop the presses!!"
This may be why I left hard news for fluff.
Finally, a killer ap
: Gizmodo, a new daily fave of mine, reports that the new Dell PDA will have "Compact Flask expansion slots."
Finally, a good use for a PDA: storing bourbon.
It takes a lot of fertilizer to fill the Garden State
: Josh Marshall has a chortle or two today at the expense of our too-junior senatorial candidate in New Jersey.
Fuhblogaboudit
: James Lileks sends me email pointing us toward a blog from my Jersey neighbor, Tony Soprano.
Supermensch
: Kathy Shaidle of RelapsedCatholic writes about the Jewish roots of superheroes in the latest issue of Jewsweek. Some fans and amateur historians, obsessed with back-story "mythology", claim they've uncovered the secret "Jewish-ness" of characters created within this unique geopolitical crucible. Superheroes, they claim, are usually outsiders, gifted yet misunderstood, strangers in a strange land. Taking up the theme in, of all things, arch-conservative Nation Review, Robert George mused: "Perhaps that ethnic heritage explains the common themes of abandonment, loss of home, and the existential need to bond oneself to a greater good." : Also, in Jewsweek, a story about the new Veggie Tales movie -- cartoons by Christians with an agenda -- contains this from one of the creators: "We made a decision at the very beginning not to portray Jesus as a vegetable." : And read about Israelis picking up their gasmasks.After illustrating for us how the adult mask fits, the soldier calmly reminds us of the symptoms to watch for that would necessitate using the anti-nerve gas syringe. Chest pains, body tremors, nausea and vomiting -- I experience the symptoms just listening to her. She hands us a small tri-lingual explanatory brochure, and we are ushered out so the next group may receive their instructions. Terrorism: A former FBI profiler on the Today show this morning said that whether the face of the Maryland sniper is Mohammed Atta's or Timothy McVeigh's, this is terrorism.
Skinbacks I have known
: Romenesko points to a great correction: The Daily Evergreen would like to sincerely apologize for an injustice served to the Filipino-American, Spanish-speaking and Catholic communities on the front page of Thursday's Evergreen.
The story "Filipino-American history recognized" stated that the "Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza," the galleon on which the first Filipinos landed at Morro, Bay, Calif., loosely translates to "The Big Ass Spanish Boat." It actually translates to "Our Lady of Good Peace." Pardon me for being inspired to share another old-fart story from my days in the business but I can't help myself.
Here is the story of the only time I ever got to shout "Stop the presses!!" in my newspaper career.
I was Sunday news editor of the San Francisco Examiner (which meant that I put together the part of the Sunday Examiner-Chronicle that no one read) and we had one story, with photo, about the Catholic church and another story, with photo, about the California condor. The first papers came up from the press room (back in the days when press rooms rumbled below your desk; now they are miles away, somewhere near an Interstate) and we saw with horror that the captions under the two photos had been switched.
So, under the Pope, it read: "Soon to be an endangered species."
I picked up the phone and yelled, "Stop the presses!!"
This may be why I left hard news for fluff.
October 06, 2002
Never forgetting
: I was just thinking this morning that though, of course, 9.11 comes to mind every day, many times a day, it's no longer so much atop the mind.
And then we went to lunch.
At this little place in Stirling, NJ, where we sit out back and have bean burgers, the big backyard was filled with a private party. "A benefit," the waiter explained, "for Flight 93."
Friends and family of the stewardesses of United Flight 93, the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.
Their brochure listing the donations they received to raise money said: "Last year, we learned to laugh again. And started a tradition. This year the tradition continues. So today laugh, dance and have a great time, but never forget the real reason we're all here."
Can't forget. Can't ever forget.
Times squared
: Lileks knows (and loves) my neighborhood -- Times Square -- better than I do.
Never forgetting
: I was just thinking this morning that though, of course, 9.11 comes to mind every day, many times a day, it's no longer so much atop the mind.
And then we went to lunch.
At this little place in Stirling, NJ, where we sit out back and have bean burgers, the big backyard was filled with a private party. "A benefit," the waiter explained, "for Flight 93."
Friends and family of the stewardesses of United Flight 93, the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.
Their brochure listing the donations they received to raise money said: "Last year, we learned to laugh again. And started a tradition. This year the tradition continues. So today laugh, dance and have a great time, but never forget the real reason we're all here."
Can't forget. Can't ever forget.
Times squared
: Lileks knows (and loves) my neighborhood -- Times Square -- better than I do.
October 05, 2002
The gang that couldn't catch the gang that couldn't shoot straight
: John Ashcroft called yesterday a defining day in America's war against terrorism.
He wishes.
Let's look at the scorecard:
: They put an idiot Marin-minded kid from California away for 20 years for being stupid enough to go to Afghanistan and stop bathing.
: They got an idiot kid from Britain who couldn't blow up his own shoe to confess to being a damned fool.
: They arrested a bunch of losers in Buffalo for not quite doing something bad.
: They arrested a bunch of losers with outdated Commie names (October?) in Oregon and elsewhere for trying and failing to fly to Afghanistan.
: They arrested a guy who was probably stopped from being the 20th hijacker by the hijackers themselves because he was such an idiot.
: Note that not one of these arrests did anything to make us in America any safer; they did not get any cells like the ones that attacked us on Sept. 11.
: They haven't managed to crack a clue in the anthrax attacks.
Oh, yes, it was a defining day: the definition of inadequacy.
: And they say bin Laden is still alive.
One man's annoyance is another man's art
: A cell-phone symphony [via Shift]
Time flies when you're having fun
: Haven't seen her in ages. Jenni is aging.
The gang that couldn't catch the gang that couldn't shoot straight
: John Ashcroft called yesterday a defining day in America's war against terrorism.
He wishes.
Let's look at the scorecard:
: They put an idiot Marin-minded kid from California away for 20 years for being stupid enough to go to Afghanistan and stop bathing.
: They got an idiot kid from Britain who couldn't blow up his own shoe to confess to being a damned fool.
: They arrested a bunch of losers in Buffalo for not quite doing something bad.
: They arrested a bunch of losers with outdated Commie names (October?) in Oregon and elsewhere for trying and failing to fly to Afghanistan.
: They arrested a guy who was probably stopped from being the 20th hijacker by the hijackers themselves because he was such an idiot.
: Note that not one of these arrests did anything to make us in America any safer; they did not get any cells like the ones that attacked us on Sept. 11.
: They haven't managed to crack a clue in the anthrax attacks.
Oh, yes, it was a defining day: the definition of inadequacy.
: And they say bin Laden is still alive.
One man's annoyance is another man's art
: A cell-phone symphony [via Shift]
Time flies when you're having fun
: Haven't seen her in ages. Jenni is aging.
October 04, 2002
Art
: TV is rarely considered art but that's snobbish crap. TV is art and it's art that matters because people watch it; it speaks to them.
There is art that doesn't matter because it's not seen or can't speak to people or is just bull.
Take today's New York Times business section. Good for the New York Times that they sold eight pages of advertising and called it art. Bad for my fellow Deutsche Bank shareholders that we paid the bill for this murder of trees in the name of art.
Those eight pages are filled with tiny print -- at first, you think it's another kind of stock table with words, not numbers -- that turn out to be just a list of words collected from the many people and many languages of New York. "Wordsearch, a translinguistic sculpture," it's called.
This is one of those things that sounds like a good idea... but isn't. (As Nick Denton once said -- I remember it even if he doesn't -- regarding business: "I can't afford brainstorming anymore." The same could be said for the meeting that lead to this project.)
Eight big pages of tiny words.
What's the point?
You know what, don't answer that. I don't care. The point is obvious but still, I don't care.
This is self-absorbed show-off snobbish-wolves-in-populist-sheep's clothing. It's a waste of paper and ink. It makes my head explode.
I'll take popular culture any day.
Snobs
: And while I'm on my populist rant, let me complain about the lead of Caryn Jame's review of the Forstye Saga in the NY Times today: Oh, the English and their wacky sense of humor! Mark Thompson, the chief executive of Channel 4 in Britain, recently gave a lecture about the state of television and said, "When you're looking for ambitious, complex and above all modern TV, you find yourself watching not British, but American pieces." To American viewers that idea rings with a Monty Pythonesque absurdity that could keep us howling with laughter all season. If American television represents the avant-garde, we're all in very deep trouble (even though Mr. Thompson was right in citing the anomalous "Six Feet Under" and "24" as models of innovation). What incredible snobbery! What knee-jerk anti-American, anti-cultural-populism!
Yes, damnit, American TV is giving us "ambitious, complex, and above all modern TV" and a TV critic at America's most-respected newspaper should know that. Start with The Sopranos, West Wing, Six Feet Under, 24,and Oz and keep going through the reinvention of news (FoxNews, love it or not, gives news personality) and the invention of late-night humor (Germany clones David Letterman for a reason) and the addition of wit to the crappy reality genre Europe exported to us (they created Big Brother; we created The Osbornes). No, British TV is not smarter than American TV. No, Masterpiece Theater is not the smartest thing on TV. No, American TV -- and Americans -- are not classless and dumb. Oh, how I hate this cultural treason.
I think I need to write a book about this.
What he says
: I have long contented that the so-called Golden Age of TV was just a figment of Milton Berle's ego -- it was just bad vaudeville on video -- and that TV is better than ever today. Now I know I'm right ... 'cause my fellow TV Guide veteran Lileks says so: This is not one of those TV’s-goin’-straight-t’-hell rants; TV now is better than ever, at least what I watch. Spare me the “500 channels and nothing’s on” line - there’s always something good on.... When I turn my TV off at night I can almost hear the channels drumming their fists against the other side of the screen: come back! come back! We’ve so much more to give! Time is relative: TiVo puts out a fascinating press release about the time-shifting habits of its now 1-million-strong audience-base. They create their own prime time, watching recorded, not live, programming 80 percent of the time [via LostRemote]. And the most-time-shifted series: 1. The Practice
2. Everybody Loves Raymond
3. Frasier
4. ER
5. Law & Order
6. Friends
7. NYPD Blue
8. CSI
9. West Wing
10. Will & Grace Thought for the day: Conservatism is not an ideology. It is a personality type.
This will ruin your day
: Clay Shirky is one of the smartest guys I've gotten to know in this world called community. He thinks about it from professorial heights but, unlike most folks up there, he gets it right, he makes it real. He just published a new piece that is very right but will be very depressing to the community of bloggers: A lot of people in the weblog world are asking "How can we make money doing this?" The answer is that most of us can't. Weblogs are not a new kind of publishing that requires a new system of financial reward. Instead, weblogs mark a radical break. They are such an efficient tool for distributing the written word that they make publishing a financially worthless activity. It's intuitively appealing to believe that by making the connection between writer and reader more direct, weblogs will improve the environment for direct payments as well, but the opposite is true. By removing the barriers to publishing, weblogs ensure that the few people who earn anything from their weblogs will make their money indirectly.
The search for direct fees is driven by the belief that, since weblogs make publishing easy, they should lower the barriers to becoming a professional writer. This assumption has it backwards, because mass professionalization is an oxymoron; a professional class implies a minority of members. The principal effect of weblogs is instead mass amateurization....
We want a world where global publishing is effortless. We want a world where you don't have to ask for help or permission to write out loud. However, when we get that world we face the paradox of oxygen and gold. Oxygen is more vital to human life than gold, but because air is abundant, oxygen is free. Weblogs make writing as abundant as air, with the same effect on price. Prior to the web, people paid for most of the words they read. Now, for a large and growing number of us, most of the words we read cost us nothing.... We knew this new medium was revolutionary -- but Shirky says it's even more revolutionary than any of us had thought, for it revalues words themselves.
Art
: TV is rarely considered art but that's snobbish crap. TV is art and it's art that matters because people watch it; it speaks to them.
There is art that doesn't matter because it's not seen or can't speak to people or is just bull.
Take today's New York Times business section. Good for the New York Times that they sold eight pages of advertising and called it art. Bad for my fellow Deutsche Bank shareholders that we paid the bill for this murder of trees in the name of art.
Those eight pages are filled with tiny print -- at first, you think it's another kind of stock table with words, not numbers -- that turn out to be just a list of words collected from the many people and many languages of New York. "Wordsearch, a translinguistic sculpture," it's called.
This is one of those things that sounds like a good idea... but isn't. (As Nick Denton once said -- I remember it even if he doesn't -- regarding business: "I can't afford brainstorming anymore." The same could be said for the meeting that lead to this project.)
Eight big pages of tiny words.
What's the point?
You know what, don't answer that. I don't care. The point is obvious but still, I don't care.
This is self-absorbed show-off snobbish-wolves-in-populist-sheep's clothing. It's a waste of paper and ink. It makes my head explode.
I'll take popular culture any day.
Snobs
: And while I'm on my populist rant, let me complain about the lead of Caryn Jame's review of the Forstye Saga in the NY Times today: Oh, the English and their wacky sense of humor! Mark Thompson, the chief executive of Channel 4 in Britain, recently gave a lecture about the state of television and said, "When you're looking for ambitious, complex and above all modern TV, you find yourself watching not British, but American pieces." To American viewers that idea rings with a Monty Pythonesque absurdity that could keep us howling with laughter all season. If American television represents the avant-garde, we're all in very deep trouble (even though Mr. Thompson was right in citing the anomalous "Six Feet Under" and "24" as models of innovation). What incredible snobbery! What knee-jerk anti-American, anti-cultural-populism!
Yes, damnit, American TV is giving us "ambitious, complex, and above all modern TV" and a TV critic at America's most-respected newspaper should know that. Start with The Sopranos, West Wing, Six Feet Under, 24,and Oz and keep going through the reinvention of news (FoxNews, love it or not, gives news personality) and the invention of late-night humor (Germany clones David Letterman for a reason) and the addition of wit to the crappy reality genre Europe exported to us (they created Big Brother; we created The Osbornes). No, British TV is not smarter than American TV. No, Masterpiece Theater is not the smartest thing on TV. No, American TV -- and Americans -- are not classless and dumb. Oh, how I hate this cultural treason.
I think I need to write a book about this.
What he says
: I have long contented that the so-called Golden Age of TV was just a figment of Milton Berle's ego -- it was just bad vaudeville on video -- and that TV is better than ever today. Now I know I'm right ... 'cause my fellow TV Guide veteran Lileks says so: This is not one of those TV’s-goin’-straight-t’-hell rants; TV now is better than ever, at least what I watch. Spare me the “500 channels and nothing’s on” line - there’s always something good on.... When I turn my TV off at night I can almost hear the channels drumming their fists against the other side of the screen: come back! come back! We’ve so much more to give! Time is relative: TiVo puts out a fascinating press release about the time-shifting habits of its now 1-million-strong audience-base. They create their own prime time, watching recorded, not live, programming 80 percent of the time [via LostRemote]. And the most-time-shifted series: 1. The Practice
2. Everybody Loves Raymond
3. Frasier
4. ER
5. Law & Order
6. Friends
7. NYPD Blue
8. CSI
9. West Wing
10. Will & Grace Thought for the day: Conservatism is not an ideology. It is a personality type.
This will ruin your day
: Clay Shirky is one of the smartest guys I've gotten to know in this world called community. He thinks about it from professorial heights but, unlike most folks up there, he gets it right, he makes it real. He just published a new piece that is very right but will be very depressing to the community of bloggers: A lot of people in the weblog world are asking "How can we make money doing this?" The answer is that most of us can't. Weblogs are not a new kind of publishing that requires a new system of financial reward. Instead, weblogs mark a radical break. They are such an efficient tool for distributing the written word that they make publishing a financially worthless activity. It's intuitively appealing to believe that by making the connection between writer and reader more direct, weblogs will improve the environment for direct payments as well, but the opposite is true. By removing the barriers to publishing, weblogs ensure that the few people who earn anything from their weblogs will make their money indirectly.
The search for direct fees is driven by the belief that, since weblogs make publishing easy, they should lower the barriers to becoming a professional writer. This assumption has it backwards, because mass professionalization is an oxymoron; a professional class implies a minority of members. The principal effect of weblogs is instead mass amateurization....
We want a world where global publishing is effortless. We want a world where you don't have to ask for help or permission to write out loud. However, when we get that world we face the paradox of oxygen and gold. Oxygen is more vital to human life than gold, but because air is abundant, oxygen is free. Weblogs make writing as abundant as air, with the same effect on price. Prior to the web, people paid for most of the words they read. Now, for a large and growing number of us, most of the words we read cost us nothing.... We knew this new medium was revolutionary -- but Shirky says it's even more revolutionary than any of us had thought, for it revalues words themselves.
October 03, 2002
Unwired hot, wired not
: This beats Starbucks' T-Mobile hot spots. From the 80211report.com newsletter: Sometime ago Singapore’s StarHub launched a Wireless Broadband Hub, or surf zone, which covers a 180,000 square meters at the Suntec City building. Now, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is launching more than 100 outdoor surf zones, converting nearly all of Singapore (which is, admittedly, a tiny city-state) into one big hot spot. The more than 1.3 SingNet and SingTel Mobile's postpaid customers will be able to access the Internet wirelessly in more than 100 outdoor surf zones in Singapore.
Both SingTel's ISP and mobile phone customers will be able to access the hot spots at a cost of US $0.11 per minute. There is no add-on subscription fee. SingTel expects to add additional surf zones by the end of the year. www.RIP.com: I went to a funeral yesterday -- the Internet's.
No, of course, the Internet is alive and well and growing.
But Internet World -- the once overflowing, energetic, packed trade show in New York -- now ilooks even sadder than a Bob Torricelli Fan Club meeting or an Worldcom retirement party.
Last year's show, postponed after 9.11, was smaller and sadder for a reason.
But this year's show is only a quarter the size of last year's. It is pathetic. It is a physical embodiment of the word "nevermind."
The show can't even fill one room. AOL has the biggest booth and it is small; Real and Sprint are there; Microsoft has a small booth just so they can say they have one; Yahoo has a booth smaller than a Silicon Valley cubicle. The only guy doing business was the one selling cell phones cheap.
This entire industry has the coodies now. Nobody wants to touch it. Nobody wants to be associated with it.
Nevermind.
Unwired hot, wired not
: This beats Starbucks' T-Mobile hot spots. From the 80211report.com newsletter: Sometime ago Singapore’s StarHub launched a Wireless Broadband Hub, or surf zone, which covers a 180,000 square meters at the Suntec City building. Now, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is launching more than 100 outdoor surf zones, converting nearly all of Singapore (which is, admittedly, a tiny city-state) into one big hot spot. The more than 1.3 SingNet and SingTel Mobile's postpaid customers will be able to access the Internet wirelessly in more than 100 outdoor surf zones in Singapore.
Both SingTel's ISP and mobile phone customers will be able to access the hot spots at a cost of US $0.11 per minute. There is no add-on subscription fee. SingTel expects to add additional surf zones by the end of the year. www.RIP.com: I went to a funeral yesterday -- the Internet's.
No, of course, the Internet is alive and well and growing.
But Internet World -- the once overflowing, energetic, packed trade show in New York -- now ilooks even sadder than a Bob Torricelli Fan Club meeting or an Worldcom retirement party.
Last year's show, postponed after 9.11, was smaller and sadder for a reason.
But this year's show is only a quarter the size of last year's. It is pathetic. It is a physical embodiment of the word "nevermind."
The show can't even fill one room. AOL has the biggest booth and it is small; Real and Sprint are there; Microsoft has a small booth just so they can say they have one; Yahoo has a booth smaller than a Silicon Valley cubicle. The only guy doing business was the one selling cell phones cheap.
This entire industry has the coodies now. Nobody wants to touch it. Nobody wants to be associated with it.
Nevermind.
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