GTG
Gone to Georgia. Back in a few days....
Friday, February 27, 2004
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Protect the ones you love
Trebor has accused me of paranoia in the preceding post, and Fiend has mentioned that one of her classes is reading about whether animals and humans should receive equal treatment. Clearly the time is right for this product.
(Thanks to Louise for the tip.)
Trebor has accused me of paranoia in the preceding post, and Fiend has mentioned that one of her classes is reading about whether animals and humans should receive equal treatment. Clearly the time is right for this product.
(Thanks to Louise for the tip.)
HR 3261 revisited
A year or two ago, in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Eldred v. Ashcroft which effectively enshrined perpetual copyright as the Law of the Land, I sarcastically commented that we should look next for the corporate conglomerates to try to bribe their way into "ownership" of the existing public domain.
I thought I was being sarcastic. Little did I know.
One of the basic principles of copyright law is that it protects only a particular expression of an idea or fact, not the fact itself. You can't, for example, "own" the fact that the sky is blue just because you happened to write it down this morning -- you own only the particular prose or poetry in which you happened to record this fact, not the fact itself. Nor can your telephone company "copyright" your telephone number, prohibit you from giving it out to your freinds or to potential employers, and insist that it be disseminated only through their pay-per-use Directory Assistance service. Nor can Merriam-Webster "own" the correct pronunciation of a word, nor can WestLaw demand a fee every time a lawyer cites the facts or the decision in a case discussed in their legal publications, nor can Dutch publishing conglomerate Reed-Elsevier claim perpetual copyright "ownership" of the facts discussed in one of their extortionately-overpriced academic journals and thus prohibit medical researchers from acting on those facts. Intellectual ownership of facts -- or , more accurately, of useful applications of facts -- is properly the realm of patent law, which has a much shorter term of protection and different legal standards of infringement.
That's all due to change, according to the proposed "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act", HR 3261. (Text and legislative information can be looked up here.) Under this bill, which, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is largely the result of persistent lobbying from multibillion dollar Dutch conglomerate Reed Elsevier, anyone who provides public access to "a quantitatively substantive part of" a database would be in violation of the Act and liable for triple whatever damages the database owner cares to claim. As the Chamber's white paper on the Act says, "[I]t is unclear whether this definition would allow a person to let co-workers borrow his dictionary". The same paper goes on to cite examples of ways in which financial planners and medical researchers, for example, could be significantly impaired in their legitimate and timely use of factual information if those facts were held to be "owned" by a database which incorporated them, or a news service which reported them.
There is an exclusion for nonprofit educational and research institutions, but it is vague and subject to court review -- which means that a multibillion-dollar conglomerate could use the threat of hugely expensive legal proceedings leading up to such a review to effectively squash any library or private individual that attempts to disseminate factual information to which they have laid a claim and which does not have their immense legal resources.
Lest I be thought alarmist, consider that this bill is explicitly aimed at eliminating the legal principle established in Feist v. Rural Telephone, a 1991 case in which the Supreme Court established the principle that facts are not copyrightable. That case involved a telephone company which claimed copyright "ownership" of its customers' telephone numbers and sought to prohibit them from being disseminated by anyone other than the telephone company. That's the kind of behavior that Reed Elsevier and the other supporters of this bill wish to legitimize.
From Justice O'Connor's opinion in Feist: "Common sense tells us that 100 uncopyrightable facts do not magically change their status when gathered together in one place."
More information is available here, here, here, and here. The American Library Association's Washington Office Newsline alert about HR 3261 is particularly useful for those who have the gumption to speak up on this latest giveaway of the intellectual commons to multinational conglomerates, since it lists the Congresscritters who are on the committee currently considering the bill.
This is not just a problem for Americans, either, given the American government's ongoing trend of using the carrot-and-stick of trade negotiations to force other governments into "harmonization" (i.e., slavish imitation) of grossly-overreaching intellectual property laws bought and paid for by industry lobbyists. Australia is just the latest example.
A year or two ago, in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Eldred v. Ashcroft which effectively enshrined perpetual copyright as the Law of the Land, I sarcastically commented that we should look next for the corporate conglomerates to try to bribe their way into "ownership" of the existing public domain.
I thought I was being sarcastic. Little did I know.
One of the basic principles of copyright law is that it protects only a particular expression of an idea or fact, not the fact itself. You can't, for example, "own" the fact that the sky is blue just because you happened to write it down this morning -- you own only the particular prose or poetry in which you happened to record this fact, not the fact itself. Nor can your telephone company "copyright" your telephone number, prohibit you from giving it out to your freinds or to potential employers, and insist that it be disseminated only through their pay-per-use Directory Assistance service. Nor can Merriam-Webster "own" the correct pronunciation of a word, nor can WestLaw demand a fee every time a lawyer cites the facts or the decision in a case discussed in their legal publications, nor can Dutch publishing conglomerate Reed-Elsevier claim perpetual copyright "ownership" of the facts discussed in one of their extortionately-overpriced academic journals and thus prohibit medical researchers from acting on those facts. Intellectual ownership of facts -- or , more accurately, of useful applications of facts -- is properly the realm of patent law, which has a much shorter term of protection and different legal standards of infringement.
That's all due to change, according to the proposed "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act", HR 3261. (Text and legislative information can be looked up here.) Under this bill, which, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is largely the result of persistent lobbying from multibillion dollar Dutch conglomerate Reed Elsevier, anyone who provides public access to "a quantitatively substantive part of" a database would be in violation of the Act and liable for triple whatever damages the database owner cares to claim. As the Chamber's white paper on the Act says, "[I]t is unclear whether this definition would allow a person to let co-workers borrow his dictionary". The same paper goes on to cite examples of ways in which financial planners and medical researchers, for example, could be significantly impaired in their legitimate and timely use of factual information if those facts were held to be "owned" by a database which incorporated them, or a news service which reported them.
There is an exclusion for nonprofit educational and research institutions, but it is vague and subject to court review -- which means that a multibillion-dollar conglomerate could use the threat of hugely expensive legal proceedings leading up to such a review to effectively squash any library or private individual that attempts to disseminate factual information to which they have laid a claim and which does not have their immense legal resources.
Lest I be thought alarmist, consider that this bill is explicitly aimed at eliminating the legal principle established in Feist v. Rural Telephone, a 1991 case in which the Supreme Court established the principle that facts are not copyrightable. That case involved a telephone company which claimed copyright "ownership" of its customers' telephone numbers and sought to prohibit them from being disseminated by anyone other than the telephone company. That's the kind of behavior that Reed Elsevier and the other supporters of this bill wish to legitimize.
From Justice O'Connor's opinion in Feist: "Common sense tells us that 100 uncopyrightable facts do not magically change their status when gathered together in one place."
More information is available here, here, here, and here. The American Library Association's Washington Office Newsline alert about HR 3261 is particularly useful for those who have the gumption to speak up on this latest giveaway of the intellectual commons to multinational conglomerates, since it lists the Congresscritters who are on the committee currently considering the bill.
This is not just a problem for Americans, either, given the American government's ongoing trend of using the carrot-and-stick of trade negotiations to force other governments into "harmonization" (i.e., slavish imitation) of grossly-overreaching intellectual property laws bought and paid for by industry lobbyists. Australia is just the latest example.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Be a Librarian for a Day!
I'm not quite sure what to think about this contest. It'll be interesting to see what kind of entries they get.
I'm not quite sure what to think about this contest. It'll be interesting to see what kind of entries they get.
A book the ALA needs to read
Not Seeing Red: American Librarianship and the Soviet Union, 1917-1960, by Stephen Karetzky. From the Claremont Review of Books 's commentary :
Stephen Karetzky, Library Director at New Jersey's Felician College, has produced a compelling indictment of prominent American librarian's affection for the Soviet Union from the time of the Russian Revolution through the 1950's. "In thought and deed," Karetzky writes in the introduction, "they betrayed the fundamental values, goals, and interests of their profession and their country." He weaves together institutional and intellectual history to place these attitudes in the context of similarones held by many leading American educators and cultural figures during these years -- including their willful ignorance of conditions in the USSR, despite numerous reliable accounts of those conditions that were published as early as the 1920s.
One of the more interesting aspects of this book, in fact, is its description of the transformation of pre-Revolutionary Russia's libraries to a centralized, totalitarian library system that promoted literary primarily to propagandize the citizenry.... The Soviets consistently boasted of having an astronomically high number of books and libraries, but the the regime defined a "book" as anything more than a few pages and a "library" as any collection of more than 50 books.
American librarians often repeated such fantastical claims in what Karetzky terms "wonder stories" about Soviet libraries that periodically appeared in professional publications. Several of these authors actually believed that the USSR was on the road to utopia and clearly envied the power of Soviet librarians, conveniently overlooking the fact that they were functioning almost exclusively as propaganda agents....
Sounds familiar. Those who refuse to learn from history....
Not Seeing Red: American Librarianship and the Soviet Union, 1917-1960, by Stephen Karetzky. From the Claremont Review of Books 's commentary :
Stephen Karetzky, Library Director at New Jersey's Felician College, has produced a compelling indictment of prominent American librarian's affection for the Soviet Union from the time of the Russian Revolution through the 1950's. "In thought and deed," Karetzky writes in the introduction, "they betrayed the fundamental values, goals, and interests of their profession and their country." He weaves together institutional and intellectual history to place these attitudes in the context of similarones held by many leading American educators and cultural figures during these years -- including their willful ignorance of conditions in the USSR, despite numerous reliable accounts of those conditions that were published as early as the 1920s.
One of the more interesting aspects of this book, in fact, is its description of the transformation of pre-Revolutionary Russia's libraries to a centralized, totalitarian library system that promoted literary primarily to propagandize the citizenry.... The Soviets consistently boasted of having an astronomically high number of books and libraries, but the the regime defined a "book" as anything more than a few pages and a "library" as any collection of more than 50 books.
American librarians often repeated such fantastical claims in what Karetzky terms "wonder stories" about Soviet libraries that periodically appeared in professional publications. Several of these authors actually believed that the USSR was on the road to utopia and clearly envied the power of Soviet librarians, conveniently overlooking the fact that they were functioning almost exclusively as propaganda agents....
Sounds familiar. Those who refuse to learn from history....
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Words of Wisdom from Wyoming
It's possible that I and Mr. John Thurman, of Worland, Wyoming, might disagree about a number of issues. His letter to the editor of a local paper about the recent CBS Super Bowl debacle contains a lot of wisdom, though.
I'll go him one better. Wouldn't it have been wonderful to have had musicians or celebrities who have disagreed with each other very publicly -- say, the Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith -- on stage at the same time, singing or talking about the stupendous fact that, because of America's tradition of intellectual freedom, they're not obligated to literally kill each other over those disagreements?
It's possible that I and Mr. John Thurman, of Worland, Wyoming, might disagree about a number of issues. His letter to the editor of a local paper about the recent CBS Super Bowl debacle contains a lot of wisdom, though.
I'll go him one better. Wouldn't it have been wonderful to have had musicians or celebrities who have disagreed with each other very publicly -- say, the Dixie Chicks and Toby Keith -- on stage at the same time, singing or talking about the stupendous fact that, because of America's tradition of intellectual freedom, they're not obligated to literally kill each other over those disagreements?
News from the front
Various news reports are confusedly saying that they think US and affiliated troops may be closing in on Osama Bin Laden. This is one overseas military venture that I support. Bin Laden and his followers chose to commit acts of war against unsuspecting, innocent civilians, and they deserve to have the full wrath of God, or, in His absence, the full wrath of a powerful military and judicial system, come down upon their heads. I hope these reports are true.
Despite what the Bush administration may hope, it does not change my opinion that their attack on Iraq, and their ongoing assaults on Constitutional liberties within the United States, are unjustified and unacceptable.
If the news reports are true, and if these events result in the capture or elimination of those responsible for the September 11 attacks, it is my hope that the U.S. may return to some form of sanity.
Various news reports are confusedly saying that they think US and affiliated troops may be closing in on Osama Bin Laden. This is one overseas military venture that I support. Bin Laden and his followers chose to commit acts of war against unsuspecting, innocent civilians, and they deserve to have the full wrath of God, or, in His absence, the full wrath of a powerful military and judicial system, come down upon their heads. I hope these reports are true.
Despite what the Bush administration may hope, it does not change my opinion that their attack on Iraq, and their ongoing assaults on Constitutional liberties within the United States, are unjustified and unacceptable.
If the news reports are true, and if these events result in the capture or elimination of those responsible for the September 11 attacks, it is my hope that the U.S. may return to some form of sanity.
The Celestial Library?
Discussed this morning on a library listserv: Mediachest, which appears to be a voluntary, online way for private individuals to create a union catalog of their book, CD and DVD holdings, and organize loans of said holdings.
A couple of weeks ago, in response to another subject, S. and Pablo commented about the possibility of private libraries. Well, what about private interlibrary-loan services?
A respondent on the library listserv brought up some questions, though:
(1) What methods are there for enforcing the return of loaned items? It seems that unscrupulous people willing to create fake accounts, or just brazen it out, could "borrow" stuff and refuse to return it or deny ever having borrowed it.
(2) What about privacy concerns, as mentioned by a previous respondent?
(3) Will the RIAA/MPAA and other monopoly-barons seek to legally squash it, claiming that it "aids and abets copyright piracy", and citing Napster as a precedent?
Discussed this morning on a library listserv: Mediachest, which appears to be a voluntary, online way for private individuals to create a union catalog of their book, CD and DVD holdings, and organize loans of said holdings.
A couple of weeks ago, in response to another subject, S. and Pablo commented about the possibility of private libraries. Well, what about private interlibrary-loan services?
A respondent on the library listserv brought up some questions, though:
(1) What methods are there for enforcing the return of loaned items? It seems that unscrupulous people willing to create fake accounts, or just brazen it out, could "borrow" stuff and refuse to return it or deny ever having borrowed it.
(2) What about privacy concerns, as mentioned by a previous respondent?
(3) Will the RIAA/MPAA and other monopoly-barons seek to legally squash it, claiming that it "aids and abets copyright piracy", and citing Napster as a precedent?
On the side of the angels (for once)
This story from the Associated Press states that the Federal Communications Commission has issued a report to Congress which is favorable to the establishment of small local radio stations. Some interesting discussion at Slashdot.
The monstermedia conglomerates, as you might expect, think this is a terrible idea. I mean, someone somewhere might hear something that wasn't piped straight from the corporate headquarters in San Antonio, and we can't have that! Several commentators on Slashdot have correctly pointed out that this is merely a recommendation to Congress. The monstermedia conglomerates will not be silent on this issue; their lobbyists will be plying Congress liberally with bribes and propaganda to block any action of this type. If you want to increase its chances of becoming more than a recommendation, write your Congresscritter and make it clear that you will be paying attention to their action on this issue. (Representatives here; Senators here.)
I'll be interested in seeing how this develops. Will it pave the way for a more diverse spectrum of broadcasting, with schools, churches, community groups, and/or energetic individuals or small businesses adding spice and variety to the bland banquet of Top-Forty Radio? Or will religious broadcasters (for example) grab up all the available airspace and turn it into wall-to-wall JesusRadio(TM)? Or will Monstermedia Inc. just buy up all the pennyante licences to idle them or turn them into more clones of their existing stations?
Stay tuned.
(Sorry. Couldn't resist that last.)
This story from the Associated Press states that the Federal Communications Commission has issued a report to Congress which is favorable to the establishment of small local radio stations. Some interesting discussion at Slashdot.
The monstermedia conglomerates, as you might expect, think this is a terrible idea. I mean, someone somewhere might hear something that wasn't piped straight from the corporate headquarters in San Antonio, and we can't have that! Several commentators on Slashdot have correctly pointed out that this is merely a recommendation to Congress. The monstermedia conglomerates will not be silent on this issue; their lobbyists will be plying Congress liberally with bribes and propaganda to block any action of this type. If you want to increase its chances of becoming more than a recommendation, write your Congresscritter and make it clear that you will be paying attention to their action on this issue. (Representatives here; Senators here.)
I'll be interested in seeing how this develops. Will it pave the way for a more diverse spectrum of broadcasting, with schools, churches, community groups, and/or energetic individuals or small businesses adding spice and variety to the bland banquet of Top-Forty Radio? Or will religious broadcasters (for example) grab up all the available airspace and turn it into wall-to-wall JesusRadio(TM)? Or will Monstermedia Inc. just buy up all the pennyante licences to idle them or turn them into more clones of their existing stations?
Stay tuned.
(Sorry. Couldn't resist that last.)
Saturday, February 21, 2004
The Birth of a Nation!
With pride, joy, and hope, the fledging Dominion of the Human Mind has set forth upon the tortuous course of political and economic development, courtesy of an online nation-simulation game created by Max Berry, author of the recent novel Jennifer Government.
It looks like an entertaining way to spend a few pixels. If any of you, Gentle Readers, wish to create your own virtual nations in the same "region" in which The Dominion of the Human Mind is located, feel free to do so. Contact me for the password. It appears that there are ways in which other players could "invade" the region if it's not password-protected, and I'd like to keep this a safe little sandbox until I figure out more about how the game works.
After creating and naming your "nation", you'll have to fill out a little quiz about the political principles that you expect your nation to follow, and occasionally deal with an "issue". I'm not too sure about the "capitalist paradise" tag that the software attached to my colony, or some of the conclusions it drew about the living conditions. We'll see how things develop.
With pride, joy, and hope, the fledging Dominion of the Human Mind has set forth upon the tortuous course of political and economic development, courtesy of an online nation-simulation game created by Max Berry, author of the recent novel Jennifer Government.
It looks like an entertaining way to spend a few pixels. If any of you, Gentle Readers, wish to create your own virtual nations in the same "region" in which The Dominion of the Human Mind is located, feel free to do so. Contact me for the password. It appears that there are ways in which other players could "invade" the region if it's not password-protected, and I'd like to keep this a safe little sandbox until I figure out more about how the game works.
After creating and naming your "nation", you'll have to fill out a little quiz about the political principles that you expect your nation to follow, and occasionally deal with an "issue". I'm not too sure about the "capitalist paradise" tag that the software attached to my colony, or some of the conclusions it drew about the living conditions. We'll see how things develop.
Love at the Library
This romantic soiree at the British Library might have been interesting if I were in London and (sniff) if I were invited. (Link found in Lady Crumpet's Armoire.)
"[G]uests queued for lapel stickers - with suitably anonymous labels such as "Darcy seeking Elizabeth", "Titania seeking Oberon" or "Adam seeking Eve"....
"An older "Narcissus seeking Narcissus" was not convinced, arguing that the modern library, which opened in 1997, had "none of the sexual charge that used to crackle around the old, round reading room at the British Museum".
What say you, Gentle Readers? Anyone feel like sharing their literary lusts? As for me, I can't decide. "Beren seeking Luthien"? "Don Quixote seeking Dulcinea?" Perhaps "Horvendile seeking Ettarre" would be most accurate.
This romantic soiree at the British Library might have been interesting if I were in London and (sniff) if I were invited. (Link found in Lady Crumpet's Armoire.)
"[G]uests queued for lapel stickers - with suitably anonymous labels such as "Darcy seeking Elizabeth", "Titania seeking Oberon" or "Adam seeking Eve"....
"An older "Narcissus seeking Narcissus" was not convinced, arguing that the modern library, which opened in 1997, had "none of the sexual charge that used to crackle around the old, round reading room at the British Museum".
What say you, Gentle Readers? Anyone feel like sharing their literary lusts? As for me, I can't decide. "Beren seeking Luthien"? "Don Quixote seeking Dulcinea?" Perhaps "Horvendile seeking Ettarre" would be most accurate.
Scrabble geeks, rejoice!
The rest of us will just sit here and scratch our heads in puzzlement. Qi? Za?
Interestingly, the article acknowledges the importance of bluffing:
Against a human, Pate's highest point score in a single turn was 167 points for the misspelled word "graineries." Pate knew it was spelled incorrectly, but his opponent didn't challenge him, and the score stood.
What I want to know is, why doesn't everybody just use the Oxford English Dictionary? (...says the fellow who spent a substantial part of his undergraduate days poring over medieval and Renaissance English poetry....)
The rest of us will just sit here and scratch our heads in puzzlement. Qi? Za?
Interestingly, the article acknowledges the importance of bluffing:
Against a human, Pate's highest point score in a single turn was 167 points for the misspelled word "graineries." Pate knew it was spelled incorrectly, but his opponent didn't challenge him, and the score stood.
What I want to know is, why doesn't everybody just use the Oxford English Dictionary? (...says the fellow who spent a substantial part of his undergraduate days poring over medieval and Renaissance English poetry....)
For all you grad students out there
The Lord of the Rings is clearly an allegory of working on one's dissertation.
The Lord of the Rings is clearly an allegory of working on one's dissertation.
A bit o' fun
Can you tell a computer geek from a serial killer? (Warning: there are a few disturbing sound effects, so don't do this at work if your boss already thinks you might be hiding bodies in the basement.)
I somehow managed to score an unbelievable 9 out of 10. Should I consider changing careers?
Can you tell a computer geek from a serial killer? (Warning: there are a few disturbing sound effects, so don't do this at work if your boss already thinks you might be hiding bodies in the basement.)
I somehow managed to score an unbelievable 9 out of 10. Should I consider changing careers?
Friday, February 20, 2004
Over the transom
Being on a wide selection of magazine mailing lists does have its advantages. Not only do I get to read the hysterical whip-up-the-supporters propaganda of both sides of every conceivable political issue, I sometimes get pleading missives from no less than the President himself. (See? There's his signature, right there at the bottom!)
With both sides' election machinery cranking up to its full whirling fury, I have in the past two weeks received a presidential photograph-suitable-for-framing and a certificate officially designating me a Leading Republican of [This Fair City] (and pleading for money), a survey from the Democratic Party earnestly trying to determine what I think so that their candidates can script their speeches accordingly (and pleading for money), and hysterical pleas for money from the Heritage Foundation, the ACLU, and Planned Parenthood, each of which implores me to ACT NOW!!! because their dastardly opponents control the press and the government and only with my generous help can they save civilization as we know it!
Eh.
I still have the one from the ACLU. I might write back to them. The presidential photo (a differently-cropped version of the one they sent me before - don't they think I have any visual memory?) rests in a Wal-Mart frame in a place of honor on top of the toilet tank. I remind the rare, puzzled visitors to my spartan barracks to remember what I'm doing when I face that photograph.
The issue of the Claremont Review of Books which arrived unsolicited in my mailbox was a more welcome gift. Although the magazine is politically conservative in outlook, it does contain a book review by William F. Buckley in which the dean of modern American conservatism takes Ann Coulter to task -- albeit quite urbanely -- for the "mischief" and exaggerations in her book Treason : Liberals from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. Buckley, an intelligent man, clearly recognizes that, although he agrees with some of Coulter's impassioned defense of Red-hunter Joseph McCarthy, she has gone off the rhetorical deep end with her hysterical assertions that anyone and everyone who fails to unquestioningly agree with her is a "traitor". The title of his review? "Tailgunner Ann" -- a nickname with a great deal of resonance for anyone familiar with the tale of McCarthy. For those who miss the historical allusion, the illustration -- a drawing of a glaring, poofy-haired Coulter ominously swinging a lynch noose -- makes the point.
Disappointingly, though, Buckley backs off the criticism in his conclusion, allowing how it's "fun" to indulge in "mischief" against the "other guy". Too bad; he was on the verge of regaining my respect.
Also particularly interesting, in light of my own observations on a college campus and a blogfriend's recent cryptic allusions to some unspecified vile behavior on the part of a purportedly human male, was the cover story, Wimps and Barbarians : the sons of Murphy Brown, a lengthy essay by Terence O. Moore, a private school principal and former Marine lieutenant and history professor.
Moore's thesis is that, in the absence of strong education in the classical male virtues, the current generation of young men tend to develop toward one or the other of two models, the Wimps and Barbarians of his title. Those who have spirit, lacking a firmly defined proper channel for that spirit, develop into "barbarians":
Today's barbarians are not hard to find. Like the barbarians of old, the new ones wander about in great packs. You can recognize them by their dress, their speech, their amusements, their manners, and their treatment of women. You will know them right away by their distinctive headgear. They wear baseball caps everywhere they go and in every situation: in class, at the table, indoors, outdoors, while taking a test, while watching a movie, while on a date. They wear these caps frontward, backward, and sideways. They will wear them in church and with suits, if ever a barbarian puts on a suit. Part security blanket, part good-luck charm, these distinctive head coverings unite each barbarian with the rest of the vast barbaric horde.
Recognizing other barbarians by their ball caps, one barbarian can enter into a verbal exchange with another anywhere: in a men's room, at an airport, in a movie theater. This exchange, which never quite reaches the level of conversation, might begin with, "Hey, what up?" A traditional response: "Dude!" The enlightening colloquy can go on for hours at increasingly high volumes. "You know, you know!" "What I'm sayin'!" "No way, man!" "What the f---!" "You da man!" "Cool!" "Phat!" "Awesome!" And so on. Barbarians do not use words to express thoughts, convey information, paint pictures in the imagination, or come to a rational understanding. Such speech as they employ serves mainly to elicit in others audible reactions to a few sensual events: football, sex, hard rock, the latest barbarian movie, sex, football. In the barbarian universe, Buckleyesque vocabularies are not required.
Those who lack spirit or courage become wimps instead:
If barbarians suffer from a misdirected manliness, wimps suffer from a want of manly spirit altogether....
Like the barbarian, the wimp is easily recognized by his personality and preoccupations. His main passion is music. Music does not serve him as it does the Platonic guardian, to balance his soul. Nor is he usually a performer or student of music. He has no affinity for classical symphony or opera. Rather, he finds that certain types of music evoke a mood of listless self-infatuation. He may at times listen to music with friends. And he will probably try to express his interest in a girl by quoting a song lyric. Nonetheless, his absorption with music is essentially a private refuge from the challenges of the world.
In addition to music, the wimp may take an interest in the opposite sex. But his approach to dating and relationships is different from the barbarian. The barbarian has simple appetites. His ideal is the Playboy playmate or the winner of a hot legs contest at Daytona Beach, and his ultimate aim in any relationship or encounter, whatever he may say, is sex. As an athlete, the barbarian is a hero of sorts. He walks with an unmistakable air of confidence. The wimp, on the other hand, has more complex reasons for wanting women. Although sex is certainly one of his desires, more than sex he needs affirmation. He desperately needs a girlfriend to boost his self-confidence. Having someone else notice him will somehow show the world that he is not a total loser. The wimp also needs someone to hear his laments, to commiserate with him when he is feeling down, to discover his secret self. Since he has few qualities or achievements to recommend him, he seeks to appear "interesting" or mysterious. Initially, the wimp might seem amusing to an unsuspecting young lady and very different from the insensitive jocks and rowdies she has known. Ultimately, however, the wimp seeks to draw her into his web of melancholy and self-pity. The story always ends unhappily since romance cannot be based upon pity or the thin facade of personality. He might mope and whine his way into a woman's bed but will find excuses to avoid "commitment." The wimp will begin the relationship by saying, "You're the only one who understands me" and end it by saying, "You don't understand me at all." The truth is that there is not much to understand.
Some choice, eh, ladies?
Being on a wide selection of magazine mailing lists does have its advantages. Not only do I get to read the hysterical whip-up-the-supporters propaganda of both sides of every conceivable political issue, I sometimes get pleading missives from no less than the President himself. (See? There's his signature, right there at the bottom!)
With both sides' election machinery cranking up to its full whirling fury, I have in the past two weeks received a presidential photograph-suitable-for-framing and a certificate officially designating me a Leading Republican of [This Fair City] (and pleading for money), a survey from the Democratic Party earnestly trying to determine what I think so that their candidates can script their speeches accordingly (and pleading for money), and hysterical pleas for money from the Heritage Foundation, the ACLU, and Planned Parenthood, each of which implores me to ACT NOW!!! because their dastardly opponents control the press and the government and only with my generous help can they save civilization as we know it!
Eh.
I still have the one from the ACLU. I might write back to them. The presidential photo (a differently-cropped version of the one they sent me before - don't they think I have any visual memory?) rests in a Wal-Mart frame in a place of honor on top of the toilet tank. I remind the rare, puzzled visitors to my spartan barracks to remember what I'm doing when I face that photograph.
The issue of the Claremont Review of Books which arrived unsolicited in my mailbox was a more welcome gift. Although the magazine is politically conservative in outlook, it does contain a book review by William F. Buckley in which the dean of modern American conservatism takes Ann Coulter to task -- albeit quite urbanely -- for the "mischief" and exaggerations in her book Treason : Liberals from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. Buckley, an intelligent man, clearly recognizes that, although he agrees with some of Coulter's impassioned defense of Red-hunter Joseph McCarthy, she has gone off the rhetorical deep end with her hysterical assertions that anyone and everyone who fails to unquestioningly agree with her is a "traitor". The title of his review? "Tailgunner Ann" -- a nickname with a great deal of resonance for anyone familiar with the tale of McCarthy. For those who miss the historical allusion, the illustration -- a drawing of a glaring, poofy-haired Coulter ominously swinging a lynch noose -- makes the point.
Disappointingly, though, Buckley backs off the criticism in his conclusion, allowing how it's "fun" to indulge in "mischief" against the "other guy". Too bad; he was on the verge of regaining my respect.
Also particularly interesting, in light of my own observations on a college campus and a blogfriend's recent cryptic allusions to some unspecified vile behavior on the part of a purportedly human male, was the cover story, Wimps and Barbarians : the sons of Murphy Brown, a lengthy essay by Terence O. Moore, a private school principal and former Marine lieutenant and history professor.
Moore's thesis is that, in the absence of strong education in the classical male virtues, the current generation of young men tend to develop toward one or the other of two models, the Wimps and Barbarians of his title. Those who have spirit, lacking a firmly defined proper channel for that spirit, develop into "barbarians":
Today's barbarians are not hard to find. Like the barbarians of old, the new ones wander about in great packs. You can recognize them by their dress, their speech, their amusements, their manners, and their treatment of women. You will know them right away by their distinctive headgear. They wear baseball caps everywhere they go and in every situation: in class, at the table, indoors, outdoors, while taking a test, while watching a movie, while on a date. They wear these caps frontward, backward, and sideways. They will wear them in church and with suits, if ever a barbarian puts on a suit. Part security blanket, part good-luck charm, these distinctive head coverings unite each barbarian with the rest of the vast barbaric horde.
Recognizing other barbarians by their ball caps, one barbarian can enter into a verbal exchange with another anywhere: in a men's room, at an airport, in a movie theater. This exchange, which never quite reaches the level of conversation, might begin with, "Hey, what up?" A traditional response: "Dude!" The enlightening colloquy can go on for hours at increasingly high volumes. "You know, you know!" "What I'm sayin'!" "No way, man!" "What the f---!" "You da man!" "Cool!" "Phat!" "Awesome!" And so on. Barbarians do not use words to express thoughts, convey information, paint pictures in the imagination, or come to a rational understanding. Such speech as they employ serves mainly to elicit in others audible reactions to a few sensual events: football, sex, hard rock, the latest barbarian movie, sex, football. In the barbarian universe, Buckleyesque vocabularies are not required.
Those who lack spirit or courage become wimps instead:
If barbarians suffer from a misdirected manliness, wimps suffer from a want of manly spirit altogether....
Like the barbarian, the wimp is easily recognized by his personality and preoccupations. His main passion is music. Music does not serve him as it does the Platonic guardian, to balance his soul. Nor is he usually a performer or student of music. He has no affinity for classical symphony or opera. Rather, he finds that certain types of music evoke a mood of listless self-infatuation. He may at times listen to music with friends. And he will probably try to express his interest in a girl by quoting a song lyric. Nonetheless, his absorption with music is essentially a private refuge from the challenges of the world.
In addition to music, the wimp may take an interest in the opposite sex. But his approach to dating and relationships is different from the barbarian. The barbarian has simple appetites. His ideal is the Playboy playmate or the winner of a hot legs contest at Daytona Beach, and his ultimate aim in any relationship or encounter, whatever he may say, is sex. As an athlete, the barbarian is a hero of sorts. He walks with an unmistakable air of confidence. The wimp, on the other hand, has more complex reasons for wanting women. Although sex is certainly one of his desires, more than sex he needs affirmation. He desperately needs a girlfriend to boost his self-confidence. Having someone else notice him will somehow show the world that he is not a total loser. The wimp also needs someone to hear his laments, to commiserate with him when he is feeling down, to discover his secret self. Since he has few qualities or achievements to recommend him, he seeks to appear "interesting" or mysterious. Initially, the wimp might seem amusing to an unsuspecting young lady and very different from the insensitive jocks and rowdies she has known. Ultimately, however, the wimp seeks to draw her into his web of melancholy and self-pity. The story always ends unhappily since romance cannot be based upon pity or the thin facade of personality. He might mope and whine his way into a woman's bed but will find excuses to avoid "commitment." The wimp will begin the relationship by saying, "You're the only one who understands me" and end it by saying, "You don't understand me at all." The truth is that there is not much to understand.
Some choice, eh, ladies?
Monday, February 16, 2004
In tribute
In a recent e'mail exchange, I wrote to a friend that I was reluctant to write about Susan, or try to guess what she would have thought about certain issues, because "that way lies the danger of creating a caricatured plaster saint, reflecting only my own wishes, rather than the memory of an actual person". His response: "Hold the plaster" -- as in "hold the mustard", "hold the mayo". Don't slop good intentions all over the truth. But I can't just go back to casual blogging without acknowledging the death -- and, more importantly, the life -- of one of the most radiant human beings I have ever known. And so I will try to limit myself to saying about Susie only those things which are as simply and objectively true as any of the things that really matter about a person can be.
She was the most faithful of friends, always forthright yet tactful, always willing to offer sympathy and good advice, but never insistent or offended if others failed to follow it (as I often did.) When a friend needed companionship or quiet support she was always there, even if they literally showed up on the doorstep unannounced and dripping with rain and mud at the most inconvenient time imaginable.
She was a devoted and diligent mother to her two sons whom she loved dearly, a loving wife to her husband, and a credit to the parents who bore and raised her. They have every right to feel fierce pride in her achievements even as they grieve her loss.
She was a brilliantly talented writer and teacher, and a particularly articulate advocate of peace and understanding between cultures. She fought with all the tools at her disposal against the ignorance and unthinking bigotry that turn nations and people against one another.
She knew and understood the unique combination of wildly different cultures that had nourished her, and transcended them all by combining the best of all of them.
She had a wonderfully clever sense of humor, and a way of smiling and laughing that seemed to make colors brighter and sounds sweeter whenever she was around.
She was a doer and a creator of things of beauty and worth, rather than a mere dreamer or schemer.
She could be sharp-tongued when dealing with laziness, dishonesty, or bigotry, but unlike the less wise among us, she also knew to avoid inflicting unnecessary pain or embarassment.
It is not "objective" for me to say so, but having known her makes it easy for me to understand the "cult of domnei" by which certain medieval knights were willing to swear service and loyalty to a lady knowing full well that she was as unattainably far above them as an eagle above the creatures of the ground.
Anyone who had the marvellous good fortune to have known her well would, I think, be not only willing, but eager to change places with her if it would bring her back. She was the best and brightest this world had to offer, and the loss of her and her son leaves a void that cannot be filled. She is sorely missed.
Everything and anything that I can say about her is hopelessly inadequate. In a just world I would not have to write such things at all, and her husband, her surviving son, and her parents would not have to endure what they are enduring now.
In a recent e'mail exchange, I wrote to a friend that I was reluctant to write about Susan, or try to guess what she would have thought about certain issues, because "that way lies the danger of creating a caricatured plaster saint, reflecting only my own wishes, rather than the memory of an actual person". His response: "Hold the plaster" -- as in "hold the mustard", "hold the mayo". Don't slop good intentions all over the truth. But I can't just go back to casual blogging without acknowledging the death -- and, more importantly, the life -- of one of the most radiant human beings I have ever known. And so I will try to limit myself to saying about Susie only those things which are as simply and objectively true as any of the things that really matter about a person can be.
She was the most faithful of friends, always forthright yet tactful, always willing to offer sympathy and good advice, but never insistent or offended if others failed to follow it (as I often did.) When a friend needed companionship or quiet support she was always there, even if they literally showed up on the doorstep unannounced and dripping with rain and mud at the most inconvenient time imaginable.
She was a devoted and diligent mother to her two sons whom she loved dearly, a loving wife to her husband, and a credit to the parents who bore and raised her. They have every right to feel fierce pride in her achievements even as they grieve her loss.
She was a brilliantly talented writer and teacher, and a particularly articulate advocate of peace and understanding between cultures. She fought with all the tools at her disposal against the ignorance and unthinking bigotry that turn nations and people against one another.
She knew and understood the unique combination of wildly different cultures that had nourished her, and transcended them all by combining the best of all of them.
She had a wonderfully clever sense of humor, and a way of smiling and laughing that seemed to make colors brighter and sounds sweeter whenever she was around.
She was a doer and a creator of things of beauty and worth, rather than a mere dreamer or schemer.
She could be sharp-tongued when dealing with laziness, dishonesty, or bigotry, but unlike the less wise among us, she also knew to avoid inflicting unnecessary pain or embarassment.
It is not "objective" for me to say so, but having known her makes it easy for me to understand the "cult of domnei" by which certain medieval knights were willing to swear service and loyalty to a lady knowing full well that she was as unattainably far above them as an eagle above the creatures of the ground.
Anyone who had the marvellous good fortune to have known her well would, I think, be not only willing, but eager to change places with her if it would bring her back. She was the best and brightest this world had to offer, and the loss of her and her son leaves a void that cannot be filled. She is sorely missed.
Everything and anything that I can say about her is hopelessly inadequate. In a just world I would not have to write such things at all, and her husband, her surviving son, and her parents would not have to endure what they are enduring now.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Shall we play a game?
Be a Patriot! Play the PATRIOT Act game!
(Link found on the indispensible www.librarian.net. More commentary here.)
Be a Patriot! Play the PATRIOT Act game!
(Link found on the indispensible www.librarian.net. More commentary here.)
More news from Iowa
It appears that, with protests and embarassing publicity mounting by the day, federal prosecutors have withdrawn their subpoenas for information about protesters and activists who attended a legal conference at Drake University recently, as well as the gag order that prohibited university personnel from discussing it. (More here and here.)
This is a Good Thing. However, it makes one wonder how many other such investigations are still proceeding under cover of similar gag orders. This incident seems to have appeared on the public radar largely because the National Lawyers' Guild, one of the left-wing activist groups being investigated, was not covered by the gag order. How much ya wanna bet that federal prosecutors won't make that mistake again?
Note that, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, "[S]ince the deliberations of a grand jury are secret, the investigation of the meeting may not yet be over."
The so-called "PATRIOT" Act that makes such things possible is an abomination, and we can't afford to rely on leaky gag orders and relatively well-funded protester organizations like the ACLU to contest every potential abusive purpose to which it will be put. Not every person or group subjected to such treatment will have access to free legal counsel or hordes of conveniently-located college-student protesters. The thing needs to be killed dead.
Meanwhile, with the aid of the Electronic Frontier Foundation , "OPG and the Swarthmore students are seeking compensation from Diebold for misuse of copyright law, as well as a court order stating that those who publish or link to the archive--and ISPs who provide Internet connectivity to them--have not violated copyright law." (EFF press release here.)
Diebold, like the federal prosecutors in Iowa, dropped its demands after public reaction to them became too embarrassing. So why pursue a moot point?
It's become a fairly common tactic for corporations and prosecutors to use the overreaching provisions of the misnamed "PATRIOT" Act, the DMCA, et al, to make intimidating demands and accusations, and then back off (thus avoiding a hostile judicial ruling and the resulting legal precedent) if the targets are able to muster a legal defense or if their actions arouse too much public outrage. But, of course, most people don't have a building full of lawyers on retainer just waiting for them to be sued, and white knights like the EFF and the ACLU, can't be everywhere all the time. I hope that the EFF and its clients are able to get a definitive legal ruling against Diebold's misuse of the DMCA in this case, thus establishing a precedent for reducing the scope of its potential abuses. It will be at best an incremental reduction of the harm, but if Congress is too ignorant or corrupt to repeal the DMCA entirely, an incremental approach is the only way to go.
It appears that, with protests and embarassing publicity mounting by the day, federal prosecutors have withdrawn their subpoenas for information about protesters and activists who attended a legal conference at Drake University recently, as well as the gag order that prohibited university personnel from discussing it. (More here and here.)
This is a Good Thing. However, it makes one wonder how many other such investigations are still proceeding under cover of similar gag orders. This incident seems to have appeared on the public radar largely because the National Lawyers' Guild, one of the left-wing activist groups being investigated, was not covered by the gag order. How much ya wanna bet that federal prosecutors won't make that mistake again?
Note that, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, "[S]ince the deliberations of a grand jury are secret, the investigation of the meeting may not yet be over."
The so-called "PATRIOT" Act that makes such things possible is an abomination, and we can't afford to rely on leaky gag orders and relatively well-funded protester organizations like the ACLU to contest every potential abusive purpose to which it will be put. Not every person or group subjected to such treatment will have access to free legal counsel or hordes of conveniently-located college-student protesters. The thing needs to be killed dead.
Meanwhile, with the aid of the Electronic Frontier Foundation , "OPG and the Swarthmore students are seeking compensation from Diebold for misuse of copyright law, as well as a court order stating that those who publish or link to the archive--and ISPs who provide Internet connectivity to them--have not violated copyright law." (EFF press release here.)
Diebold, like the federal prosecutors in Iowa, dropped its demands after public reaction to them became too embarrassing. So why pursue a moot point?
It's become a fairly common tactic for corporations and prosecutors to use the overreaching provisions of the misnamed "PATRIOT" Act, the DMCA, et al, to make intimidating demands and accusations, and then back off (thus avoiding a hostile judicial ruling and the resulting legal precedent) if the targets are able to muster a legal defense or if their actions arouse too much public outrage. But, of course, most people don't have a building full of lawyers on retainer just waiting for them to be sued, and white knights like the EFF and the ACLU, can't be everywhere all the time. I hope that the EFF and its clients are able to get a definitive legal ruling against Diebold's misuse of the DMCA in this case, thus establishing a precedent for reducing the scope of its potential abuses. It will be at best an incremental reduction of the harm, but if Congress is too ignorant or corrupt to repeal the DMCA entirely, an incremental approach is the only way to go.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
The ultimate Constitutional amendment to protect Biblical marriage...
...can be found here at this very cool blog.
Although I consider John Kerry to be, overall, about as exciting as overcooked broccoli, the comments discussed here make more sense than anything else I've heard on the subject.
Indeed, why not separate civil unions from the marriage ceremonies required or accepted by various religions? Must the things of God be yoked together with the things of Caesar?
...can be found here at this very cool blog.
Although I consider John Kerry to be, overall, about as exciting as overcooked broccoli, the comments discussed here make more sense than anything else I've heard on the subject.
Indeed, why not separate civil unions from the marriage ceremonies required or accepted by various religions? Must the things of God be yoked together with the things of Caesar?
Addendum
Jessamyn West, to whom I referred in yesterday's spiel about the ALA, SRRT and Cuban repression, does, to her credit, have a link in her blog's archives to information about the imprisoned dissidents.
Jessamyn West, to whom I referred in yesterday's spiel about the ALA, SRRT and Cuban repression, does, to her credit, have a link in her blog's archives to information about the imprisoned dissidents.
A puzzling reference question
A friend asks: Do you know if there is a way to search for blogs by subject, sort of like
yahoo? Like say I wanted to find blogs that focused on bonsai trees or
civil war poetry.
I played around with Google for a while, and came across a few places that claimed to be "directories" of weblogs, but most of them appeared to be woefully inadequate. Librarians, as one might expect, have done a reasonably good job of compiling on-the-fly directories of weblogs dealing with their own particular interests, but is there any good overall "finding aid" for the blogosphere?
Any ideas?
A corollary to yesterday's comments on weblogs: the widespread freedom to publish means that the resulting outflood of writing is nearly impossible to categorize or catalog in a timely fashion. Widely known but bears restating in this context.
A friend asks: Do you know if there is a way to search for blogs by subject, sort of like
yahoo? Like say I wanted to find blogs that focused on bonsai trees or
civil war poetry.
I played around with Google for a while, and came across a few places that claimed to be "directories" of weblogs, but most of them appeared to be woefully inadequate. Librarians, as one might expect, have done a reasonably good job of compiling on-the-fly directories of weblogs dealing with their own particular interests, but is there any good overall "finding aid" for the blogosphere?
Any ideas?
A corollary to yesterday's comments on weblogs: the widespread freedom to publish means that the resulting outflood of writing is nearly impossible to categorize or catalog in a timely fashion. Widely known but bears restating in this context.
A quiz
... which is quite obviously based on the hoary old Myers-Briggs personality-type paradigm. It informed me that [a]s a weblogger, you might not be as concerned about popularity, but more with the ideas and theories that you strive to understand. Because routines aren't your strong point, you might be more likely to work on the concept of how to do a blog, but not be as excited to keep it up.
... which is quite obviously based on the hoary old Myers-Briggs personality-type paradigm. It informed me that [a]s a weblogger, you might not be as concerned about popularity, but more with the ideas and theories that you strive to understand. Because routines aren't your strong point, you might be more likely to work on the concept of how to do a blog, but not be as excited to keep it up.
Monday, February 09, 2004
Pump Up The Volume reconsidered
Back in the long-distant Eighties and early Nineties, I studiously ignored most of the pop culture around me. Let's face it, most of it was eminently forgettable. (Thompson Twins, anybody?) But in the course of ignoring the crap, I also missed out on some good stuff.
This was brought home to me a few months ago when I caught the 1990 movie Pump Up The Volume on a cable channel late at night. Now, I had seen bits and pieces of the film before, but never paid much attention. Just another teen movie, thought I.
This second time around, I was amazed by the topicality of the film. Sure, the clueless parents and the villainous high-school administrators are straight from Teen Movie Central Casting, but how many other films had the prescience to make the Federal Communications Commission one of the villains? Or to show how the vapid, disassociated, condescending consumerism of the dominant mass media leaves intelligent minds gasping for oxygen?
The last scene (which I am NOT going to give away) was both inspiring and heartbreaking. Heartbreaking, because the FCC's recent decisions have, in fact, made such things nearly impossible in broadcast media. Inspiring, because the internet -- and weblogs in particular -- are making that final scene a reality in a different media.
The movie got it right, more than a decade in advance, except for pinning its hopes on the wrong media.
....This is Hard Harry, signing off....
Back in the long-distant Eighties and early Nineties, I studiously ignored most of the pop culture around me. Let's face it, most of it was eminently forgettable. (Thompson Twins, anybody?) But in the course of ignoring the crap, I also missed out on some good stuff.
This was brought home to me a few months ago when I caught the 1990 movie Pump Up The Volume on a cable channel late at night. Now, I had seen bits and pieces of the film before, but never paid much attention. Just another teen movie, thought I.
This second time around, I was amazed by the topicality of the film. Sure, the clueless parents and the villainous high-school administrators are straight from Teen Movie Central Casting, but how many other films had the prescience to make the Federal Communications Commission one of the villains? Or to show how the vapid, disassociated, condescending consumerism of the dominant mass media leaves intelligent minds gasping for oxygen?
The last scene (which I am NOT going to give away) was both inspiring and heartbreaking. Heartbreaking, because the FCC's recent decisions have, in fact, made such things nearly impossible in broadcast media. Inspiring, because the internet -- and weblogs in particular -- are making that final scene a reality in a different media.
The movie got it right, more than a decade in advance, except for pinning its hopes on the wrong media.
....This is Hard Harry, signing off....
What's going on in Iowa?
It may be too early to know all the details yet, but this situation sounds like just what civil libertarians have been anticipating from the Bush/Ashcroft junta. More here, and here, and here, and (surprisingly enough...) here.
For those who lack a historical perspective on such matters, note that demanding membership rosters and information about leaders of activist organizations was a common intimidation tactic during the Civil Rights Movement and other times of tension between citizen activists and the government. Sometimes it became more than mere intimidation, as those on the membership lists could be targeted for investigation or harassment. Or worse.
It may be too early to know all the details yet, but this situation sounds like just what civil libertarians have been anticipating from the Bush/Ashcroft junta. More here, and here, and here, and (surprisingly enough...) here.
For those who lack a historical perspective on such matters, note that demanding membership rosters and information about leaders of activist organizations was a common intimidation tactic during the Civil Rights Movement and other times of tension between citizen activists and the government. Sometimes it became more than mere intimidation, as those on the membership lists could be targeted for investigation or harassment. Or worse.
ALA hypocrisy
The American Library Association's refusal to forthrightly condemn the Cuban government for its brutal suppression of non-government-approved bookstores and libraries has rankled me for a long time. But because I maintain a certain distance from the slithering, reptilian bolus of its governing Council, I have never addressed the issue directly.
Fortunately, Nat Hentoff is not so discreet. And, as always, his principled defense of freedom of speech shows up the hypocrisy and cowardice of those who would rather ignore the issue.
Those on the ALA Council who most strongly defend the Castro government's "right" to imprison librarians and other distributors of books and other printed materials are the biggest hypocrites of all.
Mark Rosenzweig and Ann Sparanese are two of the most outspoken defenders of the Cuban government in this matter. Rosenzweig is an influential member of the Orwellianly-misnamed "Social Responsibility Round Table"; more about him later. Sparanese, in a recent issue of Library Juice, makes the remarkably specious arguments that (1) the imprisoned librarians aren't really librarians because the only real librarians in Cuba are the ones so designated by the dictatorial government, (2) that the Cuban government is justified in confiscating their materials and imprisoning them because it alleges that they are financially supported from the U.S., and (3) because the U.S. is less than perfect-in-every-single-way, no principles of any kind apply to the Cuban government.
The first proposition is a semantic Rube Goldberg construction so laughable that it hurts. By that standard, the Nazis committed no crimes against humanity because, after all, they defined Jews as nonhuman. Besides, why does it matter whether or not they are "officially" librarians? These are "human" rights we're talking about, not special privileged "librarian" rights. So what if, as Sparanese asserts, they are "dissident politicians, apparently non-violent, who sometimes use the moniker of 'librarians' to enhance their stature"? Don't dissident politicians have any rights in Ms. Sparanese's Brave New World of "Social Responsibility"?
The second proposition truly shows their blatant hypocrisy. Nevermind the idea of free speech and free press being any kind of a universal principle; as far as Rosenzweig and Sparanese are concerned, it applies only to their side. Rosenzweig, not entirely coincidentally, is head of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies, an institution affiliated with the Communist Party USA. If the US government applied the same standards to his "library" as his beloved Maximum Leader applies to dissenting librarians and archivists in Cuba, Mr. Rosenzweig would be spending his days in a solitary cell talking to the cockroaches. Rosenzweig and Sparanese hide behind the (rightful) protection that they enjoy in the United States, while blithely approving of the violation of those same rights by their pet dictator.
The third proposition is either a stunning non sequitir or yet more hypocrisy. What, because person X stole a car and got away with it, person Y is therefore entitled to rape and murder at will? How's that again?
What is most disturbing and disgusting about this whole sordid issue is the fact that otherwise sensible librarians and activists like Jessamyn West and Rory Litwin, who normally speak strongly in defense of free speech, are silent or seem to agree with the pro-repression faction. Is this just more of the same old "No-Enemies-On-The-Left" attitude that led liberals of the early twentieth century to defend the USSR even while "Good Ole Uncle Joe" Stalin starved, butchered, and massacred millions? Or do they actually agree with the idea that anyone who disagrees with a (left-wing) government should be imprisoned?
For shame. The "No-Enemies-On-The-Left" attitude damaged the credibility of the Left for decades after the extent of Stalin's crimes against humanity became known, and American librarians' silence on this issue damages the credibility of our stand against potential abuses of power by our own government, as Mr. Hentoff and other commentators are already pointing out. Does it make any sense at all to tacitly approve of actual, real abuses while condemning potential future ones?
A principle is a principle is a principle. Or else it's no principle at all.
The American Library Association's refusal to forthrightly condemn the Cuban government for its brutal suppression of non-government-approved bookstores and libraries has rankled me for a long time. But because I maintain a certain distance from the slithering, reptilian bolus of its governing Council, I have never addressed the issue directly.
Fortunately, Nat Hentoff is not so discreet. And, as always, his principled defense of freedom of speech shows up the hypocrisy and cowardice of those who would rather ignore the issue.
Those on the ALA Council who most strongly defend the Castro government's "right" to imprison librarians and other distributors of books and other printed materials are the biggest hypocrites of all.
Mark Rosenzweig and Ann Sparanese are two of the most outspoken defenders of the Cuban government in this matter. Rosenzweig is an influential member of the Orwellianly-misnamed "Social Responsibility Round Table"; more about him later. Sparanese, in a recent issue of Library Juice, makes the remarkably specious arguments that (1) the imprisoned librarians aren't really librarians because the only real librarians in Cuba are the ones so designated by the dictatorial government, (2) that the Cuban government is justified in confiscating their materials and imprisoning them because it alleges that they are financially supported from the U.S., and (3) because the U.S. is less than perfect-in-every-single-way, no principles of any kind apply to the Cuban government.
The first proposition is a semantic Rube Goldberg construction so laughable that it hurts. By that standard, the Nazis committed no crimes against humanity because, after all, they defined Jews as nonhuman. Besides, why does it matter whether or not they are "officially" librarians? These are "human" rights we're talking about, not special privileged "librarian" rights. So what if, as Sparanese asserts, they are "dissident politicians, apparently non-violent, who sometimes use the moniker of 'librarians' to enhance their stature"? Don't dissident politicians have any rights in Ms. Sparanese's Brave New World of "Social Responsibility"?
The second proposition truly shows their blatant hypocrisy. Nevermind the idea of free speech and free press being any kind of a universal principle; as far as Rosenzweig and Sparanese are concerned, it applies only to their side. Rosenzweig, not entirely coincidentally, is head of the Reference Center for Marxist Studies, an institution affiliated with the Communist Party USA. If the US government applied the same standards to his "library" as his beloved Maximum Leader applies to dissenting librarians and archivists in Cuba, Mr. Rosenzweig would be spending his days in a solitary cell talking to the cockroaches. Rosenzweig and Sparanese hide behind the (rightful) protection that they enjoy in the United States, while blithely approving of the violation of those same rights by their pet dictator.
The third proposition is either a stunning non sequitir or yet more hypocrisy. What, because person X stole a car and got away with it, person Y is therefore entitled to rape and murder at will? How's that again?
What is most disturbing and disgusting about this whole sordid issue is the fact that otherwise sensible librarians and activists like Jessamyn West and Rory Litwin, who normally speak strongly in defense of free speech, are silent or seem to agree with the pro-repression faction. Is this just more of the same old "No-Enemies-On-The-Left" attitude that led liberals of the early twentieth century to defend the USSR even while "Good Ole Uncle Joe" Stalin starved, butchered, and massacred millions? Or do they actually agree with the idea that anyone who disagrees with a (left-wing) government should be imprisoned?
For shame. The "No-Enemies-On-The-Left" attitude damaged the credibility of the Left for decades after the extent of Stalin's crimes against humanity became known, and American librarians' silence on this issue damages the credibility of our stand against potential abuses of power by our own government, as Mr. Hentoff and other commentators are already pointing out. Does it make any sense at all to tacitly approve of actual, real abuses while condemning potential future ones?
A principle is a principle is a principle. Or else it's no principle at all.
Sunday, February 08, 2004
Tell 'em, Annie!
From an interview with author Annie Proulx, published in the January/February issue of Public Libraries:
Public Libraries: Your stories are frequently about people on the edges of civilization --
Annie Proulx: I beg your pardon, sir. Rural places are not the edges of civilization.
PL: I apologize. But areas of life that the general public doesn't know about --
AP: There you go again. You're talking about urban people as the only people in the world who count as being real people while people who live in rural areas are somehow subhuman?
PL: Maybe I should phrase it as, "What it is about these characters, who aren't often talked about in popular literature, that attracts you?"
AP: Right, most people write about suburban or personal or urban affairs. I write about rural areas by choice; I live in rural areas. I have for almost my entire life except for brief stints in New York City and Tokyo, which I figured was my lifetime's worth of urban life. I'm keenly interested in the rural surroundings partly because they are neglected.... [T]hey're seen as places for use; use of extraction for minerals or crops or products of some kind. Or for disposal of unwanted wastes that the cities won't have. And this colonial attitude is something that really irritates the hell out of people who live in rural areas. It's hard to take being treated like invisible people or people who simply don't count. And I write about these people and these places because I like them.
For the bulk of the interview, those who are curious will have to find a printed issue of the magazine. Ms. Proulx was one of the authors that the proprietor of the "Booked Up" bookstore in Archer City, Texas, recommended to me on the one occasion that I got to talk books with him. Perhaps one of these days I'll have to take his advice.
I agree with Ms. Proulx that densely-populated hyperurban hellholes (or, for that matter, tickytacky generic suburban housing developments) are not a place where I want to spend most of my life. And I've noticed a tendency among people in urban areas to blithely ignore the interests of people in less densely populated areas whenever it suits their interest and they're able to use their concentrated political power to railroad it through the relevant governmental body. Unfortunately, my choice of careers -- which was largely predicated on the fact that library reference work and collection development are the only things I seem to be much good at -- makes it difficult to find suitable employment in sparsely-settled and non-crazymaking areas.
From an interview with author Annie Proulx, published in the January/February issue of Public Libraries:
Public Libraries: Your stories are frequently about people on the edges of civilization --
Annie Proulx: I beg your pardon, sir. Rural places are not the edges of civilization.
PL: I apologize. But areas of life that the general public doesn't know about --
AP: There you go again. You're talking about urban people as the only people in the world who count as being real people while people who live in rural areas are somehow subhuman?
PL: Maybe I should phrase it as, "What it is about these characters, who aren't often talked about in popular literature, that attracts you?"
AP: Right, most people write about suburban or personal or urban affairs. I write about rural areas by choice; I live in rural areas. I have for almost my entire life except for brief stints in New York City and Tokyo, which I figured was my lifetime's worth of urban life. I'm keenly interested in the rural surroundings partly because they are neglected.... [T]hey're seen as places for use; use of extraction for minerals or crops or products of some kind. Or for disposal of unwanted wastes that the cities won't have. And this colonial attitude is something that really irritates the hell out of people who live in rural areas. It's hard to take being treated like invisible people or people who simply don't count. And I write about these people and these places because I like them.
For the bulk of the interview, those who are curious will have to find a printed issue of the magazine. Ms. Proulx was one of the authors that the proprietor of the "Booked Up" bookstore in Archer City, Texas, recommended to me on the one occasion that I got to talk books with him. Perhaps one of these days I'll have to take his advice.
I agree with Ms. Proulx that densely-populated hyperurban hellholes (or, for that matter, tickytacky generic suburban housing developments) are not a place where I want to spend most of my life. And I've noticed a tendency among people in urban areas to blithely ignore the interests of people in less densely populated areas whenever it suits their interest and they're able to use their concentrated political power to railroad it through the relevant governmental body. Unfortunately, my choice of careers -- which was largely predicated on the fact that library reference work and collection development are the only things I seem to be much good at -- makes it difficult to find suitable employment in sparsely-settled and non-crazymaking areas.
Saturday, February 07, 2004
Should Vermont secede from the U.S.?
Yes, says Thomas H. Naylor, professor emeritus in economics at Duke and co-author of Affluenza. More here, here, here.
This can't help but remind me of the occasional half-serious proposals for the upper peninsula of Michigan (along with, perhaps, parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota) to secede from the lower half and form the "State of Superior".
Voting with their feet
Meanwhile, the libertarian folks at the Free State Project seem to have set their sights on New Hampshire, and some of the inhabitants of Killington, Vermont, seem inclined to join them.
I wouldn't mind trying it out, personally, although libraries might not be the highest item on a libertarian government's list of budget priorities. I suspect that neither the Green Mountain State nor the Granite State has winters much worse than the U.P. Any libraries in Vermont or New Hampshire looking for a slightly cranky reference librarian?
Yes, says Thomas H. Naylor, professor emeritus in economics at Duke and co-author of Affluenza. More here, here, here.
This can't help but remind me of the occasional half-serious proposals for the upper peninsula of Michigan (along with, perhaps, parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota) to secede from the lower half and form the "State of Superior".
Voting with their feet
Meanwhile, the libertarian folks at the Free State Project seem to have set their sights on New Hampshire, and some of the inhabitants of Killington, Vermont, seem inclined to join them.
I wouldn't mind trying it out, personally, although libraries might not be the highest item on a libertarian government's list of budget priorities. I suspect that neither the Green Mountain State nor the Granite State has winters much worse than the U.P. Any libraries in Vermont or New Hampshire looking for a slightly cranky reference librarian?
Spread the word
Project Censored's list of the Top Twenty-Five under-reported news stories of 2002-2003 is worth looking over. If you're concerned about the direction this country's going, mention some of these to people who get most of their news from broadcast TV, radio, or a "major daily newspaper".
Project Censored's list of the Top Twenty-Five under-reported news stories of 2002-2003 is worth looking over. If you're concerned about the direction this country's going, mention some of these to people who get most of their news from broadcast TV, radio, or a "major daily newspaper".
All the news that fits the preconceptions
Some of you may have read news articles about President Bush appointing a panel to examine the pre-invasion intelligence reports dealing with "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq. You may not, however, have read anything about its composition or its schedule.
From MoveOn's "Daily Misleader":
[T]he president will appoint the entire commission himself, breaking the previous tradition of allowing lawmakers from both parties to appoint commission members. Although lawmakers have raised objections to the commission's lack of independence, the White House is moving forward with its plans.
Additionally, despite the fact that the commission's work will be critical to national security, the president will only authorize a commission that produces a report after the election -- so as to minimize any political fallout for himself.
It looks like we can expect another (cough) unbiased report along the lines of Senator Danforth's whitewash... er, "investigation"... of the Waco Branch-Davidian fiasco. If the Bush appointees insist -- against all credulity -- in actually conducting a real investigation, it will no doubt meet the same fate as the inquiry into the September 11 attacks which the Bush White House has mysteriously insisted on stonewalling at every turn.
Thanks to Louise, my sole remaining blogfriend, for the link.
Some of you may have read news articles about President Bush appointing a panel to examine the pre-invasion intelligence reports dealing with "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq. You may not, however, have read anything about its composition or its schedule.
From MoveOn's "Daily Misleader":
[T]he president will appoint the entire commission himself, breaking the previous tradition of allowing lawmakers from both parties to appoint commission members. Although lawmakers have raised objections to the commission's lack of independence, the White House is moving forward with its plans.
Additionally, despite the fact that the commission's work will be critical to national security, the president will only authorize a commission that produces a report after the election -- so as to minimize any political fallout for himself.
It looks like we can expect another (cough) unbiased report along the lines of Senator Danforth's whitewash... er, "investigation"... of the Waco Branch-Davidian fiasco. If the Bush appointees insist -- against all credulity -- in actually conducting a real investigation, it will no doubt meet the same fate as the inquiry into the September 11 attacks which the Bush White House has mysteriously insisted on stonewalling at every turn.
Thanks to Louise, my sole remaining blogfriend, for the link.
Bye to Biblioblog
Carlos has drawn the curtains on his Biblioblog. I'm sorry to see this, because I've enjoyed reading the thoughtful conservative viewpoint he brings to LibraryLand. If you change your mind, Carlos, let me know. If it's the tiresome schedule of daily posting that's getting to you, you could always to what I do and just post whenever you feel like it, with lordly disdain for such tiresome things as schedules.
Without the Biblioblog, I have only one "friend" to list on my sidebar.
Carlos has drawn the curtains on his Biblioblog. I'm sorry to see this, because I've enjoyed reading the thoughtful conservative viewpoint he brings to LibraryLand. If you change your mind, Carlos, let me know. If it's the tiresome schedule of daily posting that's getting to you, you could always to what I do and just post whenever you feel like it, with lordly disdain for such tiresome things as schedules.
Without the Biblioblog, I have only one "friend" to list on my sidebar.
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Up a creed without a paddle
I thought about applying for this position... until I read more about the institution.
Among their Faculty Membership Requirements, one finds such gems as the following:
1. [X] College faculty members are required to subscribe to three historic Reformed “forms of unity”—the Beligic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dordtrecht—and pledge to teach, speak, and write in harmony with the confessions....
2. [X] College faculty members are required to be active members in good standing of a congregation in the Christian Reformed Church or a denomination in “ecclesiastical fellowship” with the CRC as defined by the CRC Synod....
3. [X] College faculty members are expected to support and promote Christian education at all levels and are normally required to provide their children with Christian schooling for grades K-12. Schools affiliated with the Christian Schools International (an association of parent-run schools with traditional ties to the CRC community) are expected to be the primary schools of choice, though exceptions are usually granted for home schooling or enrollment in non-CSI Christian schools....
A search of old issues of the Chronicle of Higher Education brought forth even more entertaining bits. To wit:
Howard J. Van Till, a now-retired physics professor at [X] College, had an even more grueling experience when he published The Fourth Day: What the Bible and the Heavens Are Telling Us About Creation (Eerdmans, 1986). The administration had no problem with his writings, but angry members of the denomination objected to his support of evolutionary theory and his suggestion that biblical texts had been strongly influenced by the cultures in which they were written.
Under pressure, the college's Board of Trustees formed an investigative committee. The situation soon turned Kafkaesque. For three and a half years, Mr. Van Till met with the group monthly to explain his theological views. "As the years of questioning and interrogating continued, the arena of concern just got larger and larger," he recalls, "until it became a test of the entirety of my theological position."
This, Pablo, is why I'm wary of "creedal" churches and other institutions that demand unthinking obedience to sets of bylaws concocted by earthly religious authorities. They never content themselves with merely reiterating basic religious principles; oh no, they must dictate everything, up to and including dictating what schools people are "allowed" to send their children to and what results a researcher is allowed to find. ("What Would Galileo Do?")
I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't fit in there for the same reason that I'd make a lousy Catholic, Mormon, or fundamentalist of any stripe. I'm just not very good at that whole mindless-obedience, marching-in-lockstep thing. It's rather sad that these people are so determined to raise their children as intellectual cripples who have never seriously confronted a single foreign idea.
I thought about applying for this position... until I read more about the institution.
Among their Faculty Membership Requirements, one finds such gems as the following:
1. [X] College faculty members are required to subscribe to three historic Reformed “forms of unity”—the Beligic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dordtrecht—and pledge to teach, speak, and write in harmony with the confessions....
2. [X] College faculty members are required to be active members in good standing of a congregation in the Christian Reformed Church or a denomination in “ecclesiastical fellowship” with the CRC as defined by the CRC Synod....
3. [X] College faculty members are expected to support and promote Christian education at all levels and are normally required to provide their children with Christian schooling for grades K-12. Schools affiliated with the Christian Schools International (an association of parent-run schools with traditional ties to the CRC community) are expected to be the primary schools of choice, though exceptions are usually granted for home schooling or enrollment in non-CSI Christian schools....
A search of old issues of the Chronicle of Higher Education brought forth even more entertaining bits. To wit:
Howard J. Van Till, a now-retired physics professor at [X] College, had an even more grueling experience when he published The Fourth Day: What the Bible and the Heavens Are Telling Us About Creation (Eerdmans, 1986). The administration had no problem with his writings, but angry members of the denomination objected to his support of evolutionary theory and his suggestion that biblical texts had been strongly influenced by the cultures in which they were written.
Under pressure, the college's Board of Trustees formed an investigative committee. The situation soon turned Kafkaesque. For three and a half years, Mr. Van Till met with the group monthly to explain his theological views. "As the years of questioning and interrogating continued, the arena of concern just got larger and larger," he recalls, "until it became a test of the entirety of my theological position."
This, Pablo, is why I'm wary of "creedal" churches and other institutions that demand unthinking obedience to sets of bylaws concocted by earthly religious authorities. They never content themselves with merely reiterating basic religious principles; oh no, they must dictate everything, up to and including dictating what schools people are "allowed" to send their children to and what results a researcher is allowed to find. ("What Would Galileo Do?")
I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't fit in there for the same reason that I'd make a lousy Catholic, Mormon, or fundamentalist of any stripe. I'm just not very good at that whole mindless-obedience, marching-in-lockstep thing. It's rather sad that these people are so determined to raise their children as intellectual cripples who have never seriously confronted a single foreign idea.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Google amongst the academics
This article from the Seattle Times (Google for a Grade : UW class to study popular search engine) has excited a certain amount of discussion on a library listserv to which I subscribe. From the article:
Using their interest in research and technology as a backdrop, the 50 students who finish [Professor Joseph] Janes' class in March will have to determine whether Google is in fact good or whether researchers' reliance on such a simple and one-sided search tool is degrading the quality of research.
I wonder: will he require them to document the use of non-Googled sources for their research?
This article from the Seattle Times (Google for a Grade : UW class to study popular search engine) has excited a certain amount of discussion on a library listserv to which I subscribe. From the article:
Using their interest in research and technology as a backdrop, the 50 students who finish [Professor Joseph] Janes' class in March will have to determine whether Google is in fact good or whether researchers' reliance on such a simple and one-sided search tool is degrading the quality of research.
I wonder: will he require them to document the use of non-Googled sources for their research?
Doubt : a history, by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Here's yet another book I may have to read. From the Washington Post's review:
For instance, Xenophanes, another of the pre-Socratics, argued that the gods of mythology must be human inventions. The Ethiopians posited black gods, while the gods of the red-haired Thracians were, unsurprisingly, red-haired. If horses and oxen had hands and could draw, he dryly remarked, they would draw their gods as great horses and oxen. Xenophanes suggested what Montaigne insisted on 2,000 years later: The exclusive authority claimed by competing religions cannot be taken seriously; their myths derive from obviously local sources, and their truth claims cancel each other out....
Montaigne, as it happens, thought that disagreements among scientists showed that science was as much a cultural construction as religion, and ought therefore to be treated with skepticism.
Here's yet another book I may have to read. From the Washington Post's review:
For instance, Xenophanes, another of the pre-Socratics, argued that the gods of mythology must be human inventions. The Ethiopians posited black gods, while the gods of the red-haired Thracians were, unsurprisingly, red-haired. If horses and oxen had hands and could draw, he dryly remarked, they would draw their gods as great horses and oxen. Xenophanes suggested what Montaigne insisted on 2,000 years later: The exclusive authority claimed by competing religions cannot be taken seriously; their myths derive from obviously local sources, and their truth claims cancel each other out....
Montaigne, as it happens, thought that disagreements among scientists showed that science was as much a cultural construction as religion, and ought therefore to be treated with skepticism.
Monday, February 02, 2004
Censorship and consolidation
Last year, the FCC dismissed concerns about the effects of media consolidation on the diversity of viewpoints available to Americans. They were overwhelmingly vindicated this year, when CBS even-handedly accepted ads from all political viewpoints during the Super Bowl.
Oh, wait a minute. They didn't.
The network refused to let political activist group MoveOn buy airtime for an ad that criticizes the Bush administration's runaway deficit spending. That's political issue advocacy, said CBS, and, gosh, we can't allow that kind of stuff on the air. (Meanwhile, an ad from the Bush White House was run in its place.)
Another ad, from PETA, was also banned:
"We just want to be able to present our jiggly women," said Lisa Lange, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, asking to join advertisers like beer brewers who has boosted sales with images of scantily-clad women . -- from Planet Ark
CBS claimed that PETA's ad "raises significant taste concerns and has strong potential to offend significant numbers of viewers." I guess that's a privilege that CBS reserves for itself.
This story has actually received a fair amount of press over the last few days, and CBS has been on the receiving end of well-deserved jeers. What's less well reported is the fact that such bias is widespread and routine in the broadcast world, and is significantly restricting, even warping, the view of the world that is available to people who receive most of their information from broadcast media.
Adbusters, an activist group that criticizes and mocks consumerist "culture", has routinely been banned from purchasing airtime by all major broadcast networks (other then CNN, which acquiesced after some initial resistance.) The litany of reasons given for banning their ads ("Big Mac Attack", "Buy Nothing Day", etc.) is as damning as it is, occasionally, funny:
"We can't advertise something that's too controversial.... [w]e're a network and we're loyal to our advertisers." -- MTV
"[F]or a broadcast TV network things like boycotting television and anti-consumerism might not go over very well with our other advertisers." -- Fox Broadcast Corporation
"The character is seen burping." -- Channel 5, France
-- from Jan/Feb issue of Adbusters magazine
Now I recognize that a private business has the right to make decisions about what viewpoints it wishes to express, and isn't obligated to provide a soapbox to everyone who has an idea to shout out. But what about a marketplace where the availability of soapboxes is limited by artificial scarcity imposed by a government agency, as when broadcasting licences are controlled by the FCC? And is consolidation and centralized control of those scarce soapboxes, under any aegis, a good thing? (Discuss amongst yourselves, please.)
Last year, the FCC dismissed concerns about the effects of media consolidation on the diversity of viewpoints available to Americans. They were overwhelmingly vindicated this year, when CBS even-handedly accepted ads from all political viewpoints during the Super Bowl.
Oh, wait a minute. They didn't.
The network refused to let political activist group MoveOn buy airtime for an ad that criticizes the Bush administration's runaway deficit spending. That's political issue advocacy, said CBS, and, gosh, we can't allow that kind of stuff on the air. (Meanwhile, an ad from the Bush White House was run in its place.)
Another ad, from PETA, was also banned:
"We just want to be able to present our jiggly women," said Lisa Lange, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, asking to join advertisers like beer brewers who has boosted sales with images of scantily-clad women . -- from Planet Ark
CBS claimed that PETA's ad "raises significant taste concerns and has strong potential to offend significant numbers of viewers." I guess that's a privilege that CBS reserves for itself.
This story has actually received a fair amount of press over the last few days, and CBS has been on the receiving end of well-deserved jeers. What's less well reported is the fact that such bias is widespread and routine in the broadcast world, and is significantly restricting, even warping, the view of the world that is available to people who receive most of their information from broadcast media.
Adbusters, an activist group that criticizes and mocks consumerist "culture", has routinely been banned from purchasing airtime by all major broadcast networks (other then CNN, which acquiesced after some initial resistance.) The litany of reasons given for banning their ads ("Big Mac Attack", "Buy Nothing Day", etc.) is as damning as it is, occasionally, funny:
"We can't advertise something that's too controversial.... [w]e're a network and we're loyal to our advertisers." -- MTV
"[F]or a broadcast TV network things like boycotting television and anti-consumerism might not go over very well with our other advertisers." -- Fox Broadcast Corporation
"The character is seen burping." -- Channel 5, France
-- from Jan/Feb issue of Adbusters magazine
Now I recognize that a private business has the right to make decisions about what viewpoints it wishes to express, and isn't obligated to provide a soapbox to everyone who has an idea to shout out. But what about a marketplace where the availability of soapboxes is limited by artificial scarcity imposed by a government agency, as when broadcasting licences are controlled by the FCC? And is consolidation and centralized control of those scarce soapboxes, under any aegis, a good thing? (Discuss amongst yourselves, please.)
Progress down under
While the U.S. persists in abandoning and scrapping railroad lines even as traffic increases and railroads experience "traffic meltdowns" with distressing frequency, the Aussies are laying new rails and adding new trains to the schedule. Maybe the folks Down Under know something the American bigwigs have forgotten.
While the U.S. persists in abandoning and scrapping railroad lines even as traffic increases and railroads experience "traffic meltdowns" with distressing frequency, the Aussies are laying new rails and adding new trains to the schedule. Maybe the folks Down Under know something the American bigwigs have forgotten.
Choice the screen as right....
One of the gifts I received at Christmas is an external hard drive for my computer. Sadly, the instruction manual seems to have been written by one of those legendary typing monkeys:
Step 1: Click on [start], choice the [control panel] in [setting],double click [system] and open [hard disk]. A screen appears as right.
"Step 2: You can see the USB2.0 hard Disk you just add. High light the USB Hard Disk and choice the [property], select [setting]. setting the USB2.0 Hard Disk to [removable].
"Step 3: After restart the system, a removable HDD is added to [My Computer] . Choice the removable HDD and click right bottom of mouse. Select the [format] to format your USB2.0 Hard Disk Drive.....
Unfortunately, none of the above results in the computer acknowledging the drive, either "after restart the system" or before, no matter what I "choice", no matter whether I "click right bottom of mouse" or somewhere else. I expect that I and their telephone technical-support staff will be spending much productive time together.
One of the gifts I received at Christmas is an external hard drive for my computer. Sadly, the instruction manual seems to have been written by one of those legendary typing monkeys:
Step 1: Click on [start], choice the [control panel] in [setting],double click [system] and open [hard disk]. A screen appears as right.
"Step 2: You can see the USB2.0 hard Disk you just add. High light the USB Hard Disk and choice the [property], select [setting]. setting the USB2.0 Hard Disk to [removable].
"Step 3: After restart the system, a removable HDD is added to [My Computer] . Choice the removable HDD and click right bottom of mouse. Select the [format] to format your USB2.0 Hard Disk Drive.....
Unfortunately, none of the above results in the computer acknowledging the drive, either "after restart the system" or before, no matter what I "choice", no matter whether I "click right bottom of mouse" or somewhere else. I expect that I and their telephone technical-support staff will be spending much productive time together.
Political preconceptions
It's interesting to watch people making assumptions right before your eyes.
Last week, while I was chatting with one of my colleagues at the reference desk, he casually asked me: "So, who are you voting for in the Democratic primary?"
It's apparently inconceivable that anyone working at a university could be anything other than a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.
Little does he know that I am a secret servant... er, campaign worker... of Cthulhu For President! ("Why vote for a lesser evil?") I particularly like the Great Old One's statement of political positions ("Eat Them Up, Yum!"), and his associates' "Look-and-Feel" lawsuit against the Thing That Came From Redmond.
Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fthagn!
It's interesting to watch people making assumptions right before your eyes.
Last week, while I was chatting with one of my colleagues at the reference desk, he casually asked me: "So, who are you voting for in the Democratic primary?"
It's apparently inconceivable that anyone working at a university could be anything other than a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.
Little does he know that I am a secret servant... er, campaign worker... of Cthulhu For President! ("Why vote for a lesser evil?") I particularly like the Great Old One's statement of political positions ("Eat Them Up, Yum!"), and his associates' "Look-and-Feel" lawsuit against the Thing That Came From Redmond.
Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fthagn!
Back from the Sunny Shore
Again, I've been delinquent about posting, but due to overwhelming public demand (thanks, Carlos), I'm back to harass, harangue, and generally blather away from my little virtual soapbox-in-the-ether.
I enjoyed the trip to California, although I quickly realized that the comfort level on crowded, long-distance late-night "cattle car" flights between major cities was going to be very different from what I was accustomed to on shorter and less crowded flights. I also realized that I much prefer flying out of small airports like those at this or thisrather than overcrowded, Dante-esque multi-terminal places like LA International. The Detroit Metro Airport is somewhere in between the two extremes, being fairly new, spacious, and more-or-less logically laid out.
Being trapped in LAX for eternity, with no boarding pass or means of leaving the airport, would be a fair approximation of Hell.
"Saint Barbie" is a very pretty town, but as usual, there's a catch. The median house price is about $550K, and the oh-so-chic residents have passed all kinds of entertaining laws to govern themselves. Among them is a requirement that all construction -- even a Burger King -- must be Spanish Colonial. Now I have nothing particularly against courtyards, or stucco walls, or tile roofs, but an entire city built in a uniformly "cute" architectural style is uncomfortably reminiscent of The Village. And, of course, there are precious few library jobs that will permit one to shell out a mil or two for a house. Most of the people who work in the library seem to commute for an hour or two each morning, and back again in the evening.
Talking with the folks at the library early on the morning of the interview quickly revealed that they were particularly interested in presentations involving electronic show-and-tell, so I scrapped the presentation I had planned to do (for which I was going to rely heavily on verbal interaction, handouts, etc.) and improvised a talk about a subject for which I had prepared an electronic research guide which was accessible on the Internet. I easily managed to fill the allotted time, since it was on a subject in which I have a particular personal interest, but not in a terribly organized fashion. Time will tell what the search committee thought about it.
Saturday was devoted to seeing the sights of Saint Barbie. The South Coast Railroad Museum, in a relocated depot building about a mile from the university, has a model railroad display depicting S.B. when it was a division point yard on the Southern Pacific's Coast Line, as well as a somewhat larger "model railroad" and other exhibits. Unfortunately, although the model railroad looks like it could be operated so as to duplicate the actual operations of the SP, I was informed that it's rarely used for anything but round-and-round display operation nowadays. The Mission and Presidio in were interesting, if a bit crowded in their built-up urban setting, and the State Street shopping district yielded a few interesting restaurants and bars, although the high rents have apparently driven out all the secondhand bookstores, leaving only the Two Big B's. (Those who think that I stood on principle and refused to buy anything from the B's don't know me very well.) A little Thai restaurant supplied a lamb curry with a fieriness balanced exquisitely on the line between pleasure and pain, and a glass of a locally-brewed pale ale provided a nice cool-and-sharp counterpoint. A few dubious business concepts made me shake my head, as when something called Bogart's Bar advertised "genuine Irish style".
Guess I didn't know His Coolness was Irish. (Shakes head, walks on down the street....)
Sunday was devoted to driving around aimlessly to see if I could find any place less grossly overpriced. The crooked, challenging highways through the startlingly jagged coastal mountain range were fun to drive, especially since the rental outfit at the airport had supplied me with a sexy black Mustang instead of the dowdy four-door midsize car I'd reserved. This sleek, sable FelixMobile surely struck fear into the hearts of other drivers on the road, especially when its driver suddenly realized that he needed to be three lanes over on the highway, or decided on the spur of the moment to veer into one of the sightseers' roadside parking spots overlooking a precipitous coastal cliff. It was almost cool enough that I could hold my head up amongst the ubiquitous Porsches and Beemers and Hummers.
"Saint Inez", located about twenty miles inland, proved to be almost as overpriced as Saint Barbie. A kindly and condescending real estate agent advised me to try about twenty or thirty miles further west, near the air force base. While eating a chicken-and-brie sandwich at a local winery/restaurant, I listened to the local horsey set chat about their concerns. The waiter was Hispanic and very obsequious. The historical society across the street was exquisitely decorated, hushed, and watched over by a very dignified lady who made it quite clear that she had better things to do than chat with the hoi polloi. While I was there, a nervous-looking blonde, in high heels and dressed to the nines, arrived for her appointment to discuss volunteering. Meanwhile, I looked over their well-preserved and/or professionally-restored collection of 19th-century carriages and stagecoaches and peered in the windows of what must be the world's smallest public library (a frame building, about 10 feet square, open only on Saturdays from 2 to 5).
The nearby "Saint Inez" mission was well-preserved, but between the Mass in progress and the sign (like the one in Saint Barbie) demanding a $4.00 ticket for a "self-guided tour", I decided I'd pass on anything more than a cursory walk around its exterior.
It's just as well. "Purity" Mission, out in a less crowded area, was a knockout by comparison. Less successful as a mission, it's more successful as a historical site. After being abandoned in the 1800's, it fell into ruins and was reconstructed as a historical site in the 1930's by the CCC, complete with rebuilt irrigation channels, animal corrals, workrooms, gardens, etc. I could easily have spent all day wandering around the place, and I couldn't help but think that it would be the ultimate site for a live-action Old West roleplaying game. Turns out that, according to one of the park rangers, it is in fact used as a set for television and film scenes from time to time.
(Feel free to make comments about me preferring churches as historical artifacts over churches as living institutions....)
This nearby town looked like a place I might be able to afford to live in, although by this time it was too late in the day to find any apartment leasing offices open. So I drove out to the local beach -- much more attractive, and cleaner, than the ones near Saint Barbie, with an Amtrak depot and railroad junction to boot! Unfortunately, although it was open on the day I visited, it seems one cannot count on that always being true.
Closed the day by following the Lompoc Branch of the railroad back to town, noting several modelable features (short length, attractive scenery including fields of commercially-grown flowers in addition to the aforementioned beachfront junction with the mainline, and a small-town terminal with a steeply-climbing switchback spur up San Miguelito Canyon to a plant producing diatomacious earth), then driving back to Santa Barbie via the incredibly constricted Gaviota Pass, which still looks much like this picture, except that the highway has been expanded by blasting a tunnel through one of the rock walls of this geographical chokepoint. I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to commute along such a highway for an hour in and an hour back every weekday, especially if several hundred other people are having to make the same commute.
Gaviota Beach, where a towering iron trestle carries the Coast Line over the beach and a long fishing pier reaches out into the Pacific, seemed like a good place to watch the sun set and have a beer, after which it was back to the SB airport for an 8:00 departure. Or so I thought. When I got there, the folks at the United ticket counter, due to some unspecified problem with their scheduled flight, were frantically shunting all their ticketholders over to the American counter for transfer to an earlier flight. Okay. Despite being tagged for "special treatment" by the baggage-searchers, I managed to make the flight, but without a boarding pass for the connecting flight out of LAX.
Fortunately the "Northwest Club" staff at LAX were able to print me one with a minimum of delay, but they quietly made it clear that non-First Class riffraff were not quite welcome there, so I waited among the crowds of people waiting for an Air New Zealand flight.
My plan to sleep on the overnight flight back to Michigan worked about as well as you might expect, and arriving at 5:30 a.m. local time left me about as dazed as you might expect at work the next day... and the next.
And so back to normal. Or what passes for it.
Again, I've been delinquent about posting, but due to overwhelming public demand (thanks, Carlos), I'm back to harass, harangue, and generally blather away from my little virtual soapbox-in-the-ether.
I enjoyed the trip to California, although I quickly realized that the comfort level on crowded, long-distance late-night "cattle car" flights between major cities was going to be very different from what I was accustomed to on shorter and less crowded flights. I also realized that I much prefer flying out of small airports like those at this or thisrather than overcrowded, Dante-esque multi-terminal places like LA International. The Detroit Metro Airport is somewhere in between the two extremes, being fairly new, spacious, and more-or-less logically laid out.
Being trapped in LAX for eternity, with no boarding pass or means of leaving the airport, would be a fair approximation of Hell.
"Saint Barbie" is a very pretty town, but as usual, there's a catch. The median house price is about $550K, and the oh-so-chic residents have passed all kinds of entertaining laws to govern themselves. Among them is a requirement that all construction -- even a Burger King -- must be Spanish Colonial. Now I have nothing particularly against courtyards, or stucco walls, or tile roofs, but an entire city built in a uniformly "cute" architectural style is uncomfortably reminiscent of The Village. And, of course, there are precious few library jobs that will permit one to shell out a mil or two for a house. Most of the people who work in the library seem to commute for an hour or two each morning, and back again in the evening.
Talking with the folks at the library early on the morning of the interview quickly revealed that they were particularly interested in presentations involving electronic show-and-tell, so I scrapped the presentation I had planned to do (for which I was going to rely heavily on verbal interaction, handouts, etc.) and improvised a talk about a subject for which I had prepared an electronic research guide which was accessible on the Internet. I easily managed to fill the allotted time, since it was on a subject in which I have a particular personal interest, but not in a terribly organized fashion. Time will tell what the search committee thought about it.
Saturday was devoted to seeing the sights of Saint Barbie. The South Coast Railroad Museum, in a relocated depot building about a mile from the university, has a model railroad display depicting S.B. when it was a division point yard on the Southern Pacific's Coast Line, as well as a somewhat larger "model railroad" and other exhibits. Unfortunately, although the model railroad looks like it could be operated so as to duplicate the actual operations of the SP, I was informed that it's rarely used for anything but round-and-round display operation nowadays. The Mission and Presidio in were interesting, if a bit crowded in their built-up urban setting, and the State Street shopping district yielded a few interesting restaurants and bars, although the high rents have apparently driven out all the secondhand bookstores, leaving only the Two Big B's. (Those who think that I stood on principle and refused to buy anything from the B's don't know me very well.) A little Thai restaurant supplied a lamb curry with a fieriness balanced exquisitely on the line between pleasure and pain, and a glass of a locally-brewed pale ale provided a nice cool-and-sharp counterpoint. A few dubious business concepts made me shake my head, as when something called Bogart's Bar advertised "genuine Irish style".
Guess I didn't know His Coolness was Irish. (Shakes head, walks on down the street....)
Sunday was devoted to driving around aimlessly to see if I could find any place less grossly overpriced. The crooked, challenging highways through the startlingly jagged coastal mountain range were fun to drive, especially since the rental outfit at the airport had supplied me with a sexy black Mustang instead of the dowdy four-door midsize car I'd reserved. This sleek, sable FelixMobile surely struck fear into the hearts of other drivers on the road, especially when its driver suddenly realized that he needed to be three lanes over on the highway, or decided on the spur of the moment to veer into one of the sightseers' roadside parking spots overlooking a precipitous coastal cliff. It was almost cool enough that I could hold my head up amongst the ubiquitous Porsches and Beemers and Hummers.
"Saint Inez", located about twenty miles inland, proved to be almost as overpriced as Saint Barbie. A kindly and condescending real estate agent advised me to try about twenty or thirty miles further west, near the air force base. While eating a chicken-and-brie sandwich at a local winery/restaurant, I listened to the local horsey set chat about their concerns. The waiter was Hispanic and very obsequious. The historical society across the street was exquisitely decorated, hushed, and watched over by a very dignified lady who made it quite clear that she had better things to do than chat with the hoi polloi. While I was there, a nervous-looking blonde, in high heels and dressed to the nines, arrived for her appointment to discuss volunteering. Meanwhile, I looked over their well-preserved and/or professionally-restored collection of 19th-century carriages and stagecoaches and peered in the windows of what must be the world's smallest public library (a frame building, about 10 feet square, open only on Saturdays from 2 to 5).
The nearby "Saint Inez" mission was well-preserved, but between the Mass in progress and the sign (like the one in Saint Barbie) demanding a $4.00 ticket for a "self-guided tour", I decided I'd pass on anything more than a cursory walk around its exterior.
It's just as well. "Purity" Mission, out in a less crowded area, was a knockout by comparison. Less successful as a mission, it's more successful as a historical site. After being abandoned in the 1800's, it fell into ruins and was reconstructed as a historical site in the 1930's by the CCC, complete with rebuilt irrigation channels, animal corrals, workrooms, gardens, etc. I could easily have spent all day wandering around the place, and I couldn't help but think that it would be the ultimate site for a live-action Old West roleplaying game. Turns out that, according to one of the park rangers, it is in fact used as a set for television and film scenes from time to time.
(Feel free to make comments about me preferring churches as historical artifacts over churches as living institutions....)
This nearby town looked like a place I might be able to afford to live in, although by this time it was too late in the day to find any apartment leasing offices open. So I drove out to the local beach -- much more attractive, and cleaner, than the ones near Saint Barbie, with an Amtrak depot and railroad junction to boot! Unfortunately, although it was open on the day I visited, it seems one cannot count on that always being true.
Closed the day by following the Lompoc Branch of the railroad back to town, noting several modelable features (short length, attractive scenery including fields of commercially-grown flowers in addition to the aforementioned beachfront junction with the mainline, and a small-town terminal with a steeply-climbing switchback spur up San Miguelito Canyon to a plant producing diatomacious earth), then driving back to Santa Barbie via the incredibly constricted Gaviota Pass, which still looks much like this picture, except that the highway has been expanded by blasting a tunnel through one of the rock walls of this geographical chokepoint. I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to commute along such a highway for an hour in and an hour back every weekday, especially if several hundred other people are having to make the same commute.
Gaviota Beach, where a towering iron trestle carries the Coast Line over the beach and a long fishing pier reaches out into the Pacific, seemed like a good place to watch the sun set and have a beer, after which it was back to the SB airport for an 8:00 departure. Or so I thought. When I got there, the folks at the United ticket counter, due to some unspecified problem with their scheduled flight, were frantically shunting all their ticketholders over to the American counter for transfer to an earlier flight. Okay. Despite being tagged for "special treatment" by the baggage-searchers, I managed to make the flight, but without a boarding pass for the connecting flight out of LAX.
Fortunately the "Northwest Club" staff at LAX were able to print me one with a minimum of delay, but they quietly made it clear that non-First Class riffraff were not quite welcome there, so I waited among the crowds of people waiting for an Air New Zealand flight.
My plan to sleep on the overnight flight back to Michigan worked about as well as you might expect, and arriving at 5:30 a.m. local time left me about as dazed as you might expect at work the next day... and the next.
And so back to normal. Or what passes for it.
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