Landfall

To my friends and family living in the path of Frances, may you be safe. My in-laws live in west Palm County. Luckily they have a new house with good construction, but of course Dave and I are worried sick. We are praying and keeping our fingers crossed.

About the only positive thing about this awful storm is that it has kicked politics out of the headlines.
posted by Mike Silverman at 1:01 AM

 
What he said

"I just realized exactly how conservative I feel whenever I watch the protesters, and how liberal I feel whenever I watch the speeches." - Steve Silver
posted by Mike Silverman at 11:33 AM

 
Apple of Kansas City's eye

Perennial cowtown Kansas City, Missouri is finally taking a major step into the big leagues in a couple weeks with the opening of the city's first Apple retail store. Prior to this opening, Kansas City was in the middle of the nation's largest Apple retail black hole, with the nearest stores being St. Louis (300 miles east), Minneapolis (500 miles north), Denver (500 miles west) and Dallas (450 miles south). With this jewel in Kansas City's tinfoil crown, Pittsburgh, Omaha, and Salt Lake City now have the honor of fighting it out as the largest metro areas without an Apple store.

It will be a great day for Apple fans in my area (unless you are Jewish, that is -- apparently Apple's corporate support for diversity doesn't extend to Jews, since the opening is scheduled on Yom Kippur.)

In addition to a Jüdenrein Apple Store, Kansas City is known for being the home of mediocre baseball and underachieving football franchises, as well as having more fountains per capita then even Rome. Yet for some reasons, tourists still prefer to visit Rome. Damn ingrates!


posted by Mike Silverman at 10:22 AM

 
When life imitates art, opposite world edition

Fans of The Drew Carey Show might remember an episode back in 1997 when Draw told the company his dog was his domestic partner in order to get them to pay for expensive hip surgery for the mutt.

Now, in the real world, we have a couple companies which pay for employee pet care but won't pay for health insurance for employees' same-sex spouses.

The obvious solution, if you work for such a company, is to claim your spouse is actually your pet. A dog collar and a bowl with "Fido" written on it, and you are set for a free trip to the vet the next time your life partner engages in inappropriate mounting behavior, chews on the furniture, or has a flea problem.

Kidding aside, I have confidence that the competitive market for good employees will eventually (and probably quite soon) force these companies to follow the footsteps of most of their Fortune 500 brethren and offer domestic partner benefits. Lost in all the commotion of same-sex marriage is the fact that the market has already recognized what the government would rather ignore, and that is that social mores have changed. Domestic partner benefits are not a values judgment, but a judgment of value -- to shareholders and customers who know a good product depends on attracting good employees.
posted by Mike Silverman at 10:04 AM

 
"It’s never a true lefty protest unless old men are arguing about Trotsky"

A nice on-the-scene roundup of protest and politics in New York City by a guy who pretty much lines up with my feelings on these issues.
posted by Mike Silverman at 9:50 AM

 
Book 'em

In this thread someone had the idea that rather then displaying political books by author, instead display them by persuasion...on the left side of the shelf, put liberal books, on the right side, conservative books. Chomsky on the far left, all the way to Buchanan on the far right. I think this would be kind of fun and clever. I'd limit it to "current" political screeds, basically anything having to do with the 2004 election or the candidates therein. Or how about this...set up a display table with red and blue sides, and place the books in their appropriate locations.

Ironically, I really do not like reading partisan political books. If I want "entertaining and unbalanced" I have a long list of blogs I read that are generally better then anything quickly slapped together to sell during an election year. I'm equal-opportunity here. Whether it is a gag-inducing book on Bush's intimate and personal relationship with God, or explosive outgassing from Michael Moore's pie hole, I don't want to read it.

Now I do like intellgent books on political theory and history. One of the best I have read this year is The Right Nation which is a fascinating and in-depth book on the history of the conservative movement in the United States, from a middle-of-the-road perspective that steers clear of any ideological assumptions about the reader, or judgment of the book's subjects. Another great political book that came out this year is Occidentalism which is subtitled "The West in the Eyes of It's Enemies." Occidentalism is an amazing look into how we are seen by our enemies, and how often the enemies of liberal civilization arise from our own midst.
posted by Mike Silverman at 3:53 PM

 
Tanned, rested, and ready

The excellent Jewish political group blog KesherTalk is back online with a nice new design and the return of comments. Check it out!
posted by Mike Silverman at 9:52 AM

 
"Hatikva" will echo over the hills of Olympia!

Israel wins first Olympic gold




A windsurfer whose first name means ``wave'' in Hebrew gave Israel its first Olympic gold medal ever Wednesday, taking a plunge in the Saronic Gulf to celebrate.


Gal Fridman sailed a remarkably consistent regatta, never finishing worse than eighth in the 11-race series. He placed second in Wednesday's decisive race.


After Fridman crossed the finish line, he took a victory dip and then wrapped himself in an Israeli flag when he came out of the water.
posted by Mike Silverman at 9:59 AM

 
Misc. Debris

Two things:

1. Last night we had severe weather and the power went out for a few hours. Ordinarily, nothing to get too excited about, but I find it ironic that this happened right after I posted about Dies the Fire below.

2. Foghat leads the list of second-rate performers who want to sign up to put on concerts to support President Bush's re-election efforts. Now I know Foghat isn't quite R.E.M or Bruce Springsteen, but Bush would gain at least one vote.



Yeah, I like drummers with 30 minute drum solos, like the guy from Foghat.
DOOGADADOOOGADADA! Yeah, that's my drummer." -- Carl, Aqua Teen Hunger Force
posted by Mike Silverman at 9:55 AM

 
Which statement do you agree with?

1. Legitimate protesters in New York are being muffled and their speech is being unfairly restricted by forcing them to march in low-visibility locations far away from the convention.

2. Violent protesters are in New York to disrupt the RNC, and these people need to be shut down as violence and harassment are not free speech.

My answer: "both of them."

Protesting (or supporting!) Republican policy and the President is about as legitimate as political speech gets, and should be celebrated and supported. But God knows, there are some dangerous people coming to New York who will break the law and harass everyone to make their purile points. These people are enemies of all good Americans, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives.

For example, somebody released a list of names and contact info of a couple thousand GOP delegates. Delegates (to both conventions) are generally local precinct chairs and activists...pretty much the people who are the grassroots of both parties. Posting their names is electoral intimidation, an interference in the democratic process...morally on the same level as having thugs beat up people who vote the wrong way. It would be educational for the federal judiciary system to make an example out of whoever posted those names and addresses.

I feel really sorry for the legitimate non-violent protesters. Their message will get lost.

I do not envy the NYPD's job next week.
posted by Mike Silverman at 3:25 PM

 
Dies the Fire

Science fiction author Steve Stirling's new book "Dies the Fire" is perhaps the most thoughtful -- and disturbing -- "end of the modern world" novel I have ever read. The world Stirling creates is even more disturbing then the well-known ends of the world seen in books like Stephen King's The Stand and Robert McCammon's Swan Song, because in Stirling's apocalypse, the modern world doesn't just end, but the very conditions of the planet change such that there is no chance of humanity ever clawing back from a new dark age. The major difference in Dies the Fire is that there is no war or plague to cause the end of the world; rather, the very physical laws of time and space are changed so that three things are changed: anything based on electricity and rapid combustion (think explosives and firearms) stops working, just like that. It's kind of like a massive EMP, but without any hope of rebuilding. The absense of firearms mean that the strong can prey on the weak at a level not seen since the early middle ages. This is a point that may people (especially those who are anti-gun) often fail to see -- that guns act as an equalizer and give the physically weak and outnumbered a fighting chance against the strong. This changed history; prior to the invention (and the modern perfection) of firearms, the average person had no means of defense against the well-trained and physically strong brigand with a broadsword. In Stirling's world, America goes back to the Middle Ages, in the most savage way: You are either handy with a sword, or you are the slave of those with swords. Or you die.

That fact is what makes Dies the Fire both incredibly fascinating, and incredibly scary. In almost every other post-apocalyptic novel you read, you probably magine yourself among the survivors. You might think you are handy with an engine, or that you know how to use a gun well, or even that you are generally a smart person and could probably make it. In Stirling's world, you can't imagine that, and that is why the book is so scary. Unless you are a hardcore SCA member (or a very fast learner who happens to be in Navy SEAL physical shape), your role in the post-apocalyptic world of Dies the Fire would probably be as a slave or rotting corpse.

posted by Mike Silverman at 10:34 AM

 
Divided we stand

It's hard to believe that both of these people are talking about the same thing.

From the left:

The Kerry camp, though damaged by the allegations, has all but won on the merits. In the last couple of days, several mainstream press investigations—see here, here, and here—have (despite a certain conventional even-handedness) undermined most of the key charges made by the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans For Truth that John Kerry didn’t deserve his medals. The SBVFT argument has been further damaged by new testimony from previously silent eyewitnesses who back up Kerry’s version of the events that led to his first Purple Heart and his Silver Star. A series of suspicious-if-not-quite direct connections, and one spot-on one, have been established between SBVFT and the Bush campaign. And Kerry seems finally to be hitting back.

From the right:

It is now clear that Mr. Kerry lied, repeatedly, about being in Cambodia on Christmas 1968. Having been called out on it, he's furious; but his response will serve to draw still more attention to not only the details of his service in Vietnam, which he himself has made the centerpiece of his campaign, but also to his character. That will not serve him well. Even now, the questions are taking a heavy political toll. We'll look back on this week, I believe, as the one in which the 2004 campaign turned, decisively, in Mr. Bush's favor. I've consistently said the president will win. But I'm now starting to think, pace the conventional wisdom, that the election won't even be close, and that Mr. Bush will win but big.

It seems to me that political junkies are viewing this thing through the prism of their own desires and partisan feelings.Nobody is able to remove themselves fromtheir own biases and evaluate things from outside. It is almost like wtaching professional wrestling...the opponent comes from a comic-book, and everything he does is dastardly and evil, and why won't the ref see all those illegal moves, but your guy, he is the paragon of justice, and whatever he does is OK because he is the good guy!

What is ironic is that I am probably one of the closest people on the blogsopshere (at least the tiny part in which I swim) to a "swing voter" or independent. I mean, I honestly lean Democratic on social issues and in the past I have voted solid "D" for this reason, but September 11 changed me, as it did a lot of people, and made national security a much more important issue for me. Right now, Bush's vocal support of the FMA has swung me to Kerry, but were that issue not on the table, I don't know who I would vote for.

My opinion of the Swift Vote ads and campaign is that I don't like it. It turns me off. I think it is wrong for one vet to challenge another vet's combat experience. It seems dirty, and partisan, and scummy all in one. That said, I think Kerry has brought some of this on himself, because he keeps harping in his Nam service as if that is the single most important reason to vote for him. If he had approached his service is an important character-building experience in his life instead of the end-all and be-all of his campaign, Kerry would be in a much better position. That said, the Swift Boat ads are so over the top that they turn me totally off. The tenor of the ads almost scream out at me "the lady doth protest too much."

Speaking of ads, there is a new Bush ad which is really well done and, unlike the Swift Boat ad, makes me really proud of our country. It's the one where Bush talks about the two new free countries that are participating in the Olympics, Afghanistan and Iraq. It's misty eyed and very patriotic-feeling, and it had the effect of making me step back and think that in spite of all the problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, we still really did rid the world two horrible dictatorships, and that is something that we can be proud of as Americans.

posted by Mike Silverman at 9:38 AM