Republicans vs. the internet (again)
Republican senator Michael G. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania has proudly announced a bill, HR 5319, that would require any library or school that receives any federal funding to censor "social-networking" websites. The latter is, according to various news sources, very broadly defined and would include most weblogging services as well as wikis, instant-messaging services, many e'mail services, and many interactive news-and-commentary sites such as DailyKos, Redstate, etc. In essence, it seeks to block access to the whole generation of interactive, user-centered web applications that are loosely referred to as "Web 2.0".
Unfortunately, Thomas doesn't seem to have the full text of this bill, HR 5319, available yet, and I'm dependent on published news summaries such as BusinessWeek, personal blog-entries, and legislative alerts from groups like the ALA.
Now I'm willing to grant that some social-networking sites may be useless or even counterproductive in a school environment. But local schools are perfectly capable of blocking troublesome websites on their own, without this kind of federal mandate. (What ever happened to the Republican love of local control, small government, and parental responsibility? Evidently, it was whisked away like a cardboard theater prop the moment they took control of the juggernaut that they spent the last twenty years screaming against.)
Furthermore, the mission of public libraries is not nearly as restricted and specialized as that of schools. Even if this bill made sense for schools, it makes no sense at all for libraries, whose computer services exist in order to link the general public with the electronic world, not to wall them off from it. And I can testify that it works. One of the regular users of Suburban Public Library has achived a bit of note lately on DailyKos for her regular commentaries about the recent changes in Medicare. That wouldn't have been possible if this kind of restriction were in place, and both she and those all across the nation who read and benefitted from her commentaries would be the poorer for it.
Even if it affected only users under the age of 18, it would be a disaster. The extremely broad ban contemplated by Rep. Fitzpatrick would in effect wall them off from the ongoing public conversations that they need to be aware of if they want to become knowledgeable adults. And, entertainingly, it might actually outlaw services like www.tutor.com, which provides live online tutoring with qualified teachers through school and library computer connections.
The rationale, of course, is to protect the children from "online predators". The reality? Once again the Republicans are using nuclear weapons to hunt cockroaches, inflicting enormous collateral damage on the vast, law-abiding majority in order to win political points for largely illusory blows against a small minority of abusive users.
Or -- to use an entirely different metaphor -- they're standing, like King Canute, at the low-water mark on the beach, holding up a hand and shouting "stop!" at the waves of the advancing tide. I don't think that interactive web applications will disappear just because Representative Fitzpatrick is afraid of them.
If this misguided bill is passed, it will serve only as one more barrier blocking those who access the internet through public spaces like libraries from being able to participate in the most active and vibrant part of the world's economy of information. And, of course, it'll do absolutely nothing to "protect" any kid who has access to his own, or his parents', computer.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Recent viewings:
Lost in La Mancha Documentary chronicle of a film production gone horribly, abortively wrong. Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python alumnus and director of films like Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, seeks to create a modern film adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' classic satire of knight-errantry, Don Quixote. Unfortunately, according to LILM, the production of the latter film has won Gilliam a reputation as a spendthrift, which limits his access to funding. Minor obstacles snowball into disasters: scheduling conflicts, ailing actors, torrential flash floods, the Spanish Air Force....
It's hard to tell what the finished Gilliam film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, would have been like. It would have featured Johnny Depp as a modern-day advertising man somehow transported into the medieval Spain of Cervantes' story, much like the protagonist of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. A couple of scenes discussed in LILM suggest that the Depp character would have been -- at least initially -- sarcastic and dismissive of Quixote's tales of chivalry. Other scenes suggest that the giants and other fantastical elements of Quixotes' tale would have been portrayed as real, or at least experienced as real by characters including Depp's cynical modern protagonist. The French actor selected to play Quixote seems well-suited to the part of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, but appears in too few completed scenes for the viewer of LILM to draw any further conclusions.
I was struck by the degree to which Gilliam's production effort seemed to be slapdash and disorganized from the beginning. He seems to have started production without any firm scheduling commitments from key actresses, with inadequate scouting of exterior locations, and (incredibly) without confirmed access to any professional-quality indoor sound stage. The various disasters that are visited upon the film crew might not have stopped a better-prepared team. I wonder -- is this kind of seat-of-the-pants flying typical of professional movie production?
I would love to see what Gilliam would make of Don Quixote, but based on this documentary, the failure of the production seems to have been the result of poor organization and preparation, not an Act of God. Let's hope he's better prepared if he ever essays it again.
Lost in La Mancha Documentary chronicle of a film production gone horribly, abortively wrong. Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python alumnus and director of films like Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, seeks to create a modern film adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' classic satire of knight-errantry, Don Quixote. Unfortunately, according to LILM, the production of the latter film has won Gilliam a reputation as a spendthrift, which limits his access to funding. Minor obstacles snowball into disasters: scheduling conflicts, ailing actors, torrential flash floods, the Spanish Air Force....
It's hard to tell what the finished Gilliam film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, would have been like. It would have featured Johnny Depp as a modern-day advertising man somehow transported into the medieval Spain of Cervantes' story, much like the protagonist of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. A couple of scenes discussed in LILM suggest that the Depp character would have been -- at least initially -- sarcastic and dismissive of Quixote's tales of chivalry. Other scenes suggest that the giants and other fantastical elements of Quixotes' tale would have been portrayed as real, or at least experienced as real by characters including Depp's cynical modern protagonist. The French actor selected to play Quixote seems well-suited to the part of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, but appears in too few completed scenes for the viewer of LILM to draw any further conclusions.
I was struck by the degree to which Gilliam's production effort seemed to be slapdash and disorganized from the beginning. He seems to have started production without any firm scheduling commitments from key actresses, with inadequate scouting of exterior locations, and (incredibly) without confirmed access to any professional-quality indoor sound stage. The various disasters that are visited upon the film crew might not have stopped a better-prepared team. I wonder -- is this kind of seat-of-the-pants flying typical of professional movie production?
I would love to see what Gilliam would make of Don Quixote, but based on this documentary, the failure of the production seems to have been the result of poor organization and preparation, not an Act of God. Let's hope he's better prepared if he ever essays it again.
Fun Fact:
Charlton Heston was born with the name John Carter. Too bad he never got the chance to play himself.
Charlton Heston was born with the name John Carter. Too bad he never got the chance to play himself.
Recent viewings:
Bowling for Columbine. Michael Moore can be a very effective documentarian, and very effective at satirizing the arrogant cluelessness of our modern-day aristocracy. He can also be pretentious, pompous, hypocritically self-righteous and meanspirited -- a textbook example of the very tendencies he mocks. Unfortunately, that's the side of him that's on display here, especially in the final segment of the film, in which he opportunistically badgers a frail and visibly ill Charlton Heston over the latter's long involvement with the National Rifle Association. It's sort of like watching a smug, fat hyena harass an elderly lion that could have broken him in half with a mere paw-flick in healthier days. Disgraceful.
Other than giving Moore a chance to bully and mock an aging hero with Alzheimer's disease, the film has no real focus or organization. It sort of wanders around aimlessly, presenting minor factoids about guns in American history and pop culture, documentary footage of the Columbine murders, and some of Moore's trademarked self-promoting media grandstanding, until Moore gets his apparently much-desired opportunity to hector a man who spent most of his career campaigning for civil rights and other American freedoms.
Not recommended.
Bowling for Columbine. Michael Moore can be a very effective documentarian, and very effective at satirizing the arrogant cluelessness of our modern-day aristocracy. He can also be pretentious, pompous, hypocritically self-righteous and meanspirited -- a textbook example of the very tendencies he mocks. Unfortunately, that's the side of him that's on display here, especially in the final segment of the film, in which he opportunistically badgers a frail and visibly ill Charlton Heston over the latter's long involvement with the National Rifle Association. It's sort of like watching a smug, fat hyena harass an elderly lion that could have broken him in half with a mere paw-flick in healthier days. Disgraceful.
Other than giving Moore a chance to bully and mock an aging hero with Alzheimer's disease, the film has no real focus or organization. It sort of wanders around aimlessly, presenting minor factoids about guns in American history and pop culture, documentary footage of the Columbine murders, and some of Moore's trademarked self-promoting media grandstanding, until Moore gets his apparently much-desired opportunity to hector a man who spent most of his career campaigning for civil rights and other American freedoms.
Not recommended.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Big Brother is listening to you
This humble little personal blog doesn't even pretend to be a comprehensive news source. But this story is just too big to ignore.
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls (USA Today)
This is in direct contravention of the law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a class-action suit against AT&T's participation in the scheme, which is forbidden by Section 222 of the Communications Act (as described in the article linked above.)
The Bush administration's response has been, basically, a big f*ck-you. "Rule of law? We don't need no schtinkin' rule of law. Shut up because we say so."
Meanwhile, Bush's appointee to head the CIA is none other than the military officer who ran this blatantly illegal scheme to spy on American citizens. Not "terra-ists" or criminals. All American citizens. That includes you, your Aunt Mabel, your friends, your co-workers. It includes everyone whom the ruling political deems a political "threat" or wishes to exert pressure on. It's well documented that this includes Catholic pacifist groups, the Quakers, and just about anyone who isn't in lockstep with the Bushite drive for perpetual war and absolute "unitary executive" power.
"Unitary executive" is a synonym for dictator.
Meanwhile, in little-remarked news, Dick Cheney's cronies at Halliburton have received yet another sweetheart no-bid contract, this time to construct a series of military prisons within the United States. The stated purpose is to deal with "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs".
Just what "new programs" are contemplated that might require such a chain of concentration camps? And why does the government need to compile a massive database of its citizens' personal communications?
Well, I don't know, not being a "unitary executive". But Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina, offers some helpful suggestions to our torture-authorizing Attorney General:
Meanwhile, the Army mutters something about a "Civilian Inmate Labor Program".
Elections are coming up. Gotta be ready for 'em.
This humble little personal blog doesn't even pretend to be a comprehensive news source. But this story is just too big to ignore.
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls (USA Today)
This is in direct contravention of the law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a class-action suit against AT&T's participation in the scheme, which is forbidden by Section 222 of the Communications Act (as described in the article linked above.)
The Bush administration's response has been, basically, a big f*ck-you. "Rule of law? We don't need no schtinkin' rule of law. Shut up because we say so."
Meanwhile, Bush's appointee to head the CIA is none other than the military officer who ran this blatantly illegal scheme to spy on American citizens. Not "terra-ists" or criminals. All American citizens. That includes you, your Aunt Mabel, your friends, your co-workers. It includes everyone whom the ruling political deems a political "threat" or wishes to exert pressure on. It's well documented that this includes Catholic pacifist groups, the Quakers, and just about anyone who isn't in lockstep with the Bushite drive for perpetual war and absolute "unitary executive" power.
"Unitary executive" is a synonym for dictator.
Meanwhile, in little-remarked news, Dick Cheney's cronies at Halliburton have received yet another sweetheart no-bid contract, this time to construct a series of military prisons within the United States. The stated purpose is to deal with "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs".
Just what "new programs" are contemplated that might require such a chain of concentration camps? And why does the government need to compile a massive database of its citizens' personal communications?
Well, I don't know, not being a "unitary executive". But Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina, offers some helpful suggestions to our torture-authorizing Attorney General:
“The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements,” Graham, R-S.C., told Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Feb. 6.This is the "unitary executive", you may recall, who has asserted that, for the duration of the fraudulent war which he has illegally started and intends to continue perpetually, he has the power to arbitrarily arrest any American citizen and imprison them indefinitely without ever showing any legal cause for doing so.
“I stand by this President’s ability, inherent to being Commander in Chief, to find out about Fifth Column movements, and I don’t think you need a warrant to do that,” Graham added, volunteering to work with the administration to draft guidelines for how best to neutralize this alleged threat.
“Senator,” a smiling Gonzales responded, “the President already said we’d be happy to listen to your ideas.”
Meanwhile, the Army mutters something about a "Civilian Inmate Labor Program".
Elections are coming up. Gotta be ready for 'em.
It's... it's.... it's....
The Amazing Flying President!
He seems to be looking for his approval ratings. Can you help him find them?
The Amazing Flying President!
He seems to be looking for his approval ratings. Can you help him find them?
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
None dare call it....
Florence King, in the May 22 issue of National Review, dares speak the word that other conservatives dare not apply to Iraq.
Florence King, in the May 22 issue of National Review, dares speak the word that other conservatives dare not apply to Iraq.
Iraq "might be approaching" a civil war. It "could be spiraling into" a civil war. "If it were" a civil war. "It could turn into" a civil war. "It may be an undeclared" civil war. On and on it went: "on the brink of" a civil war, a civil war "is imminent.. over the horizon... threatening." There was even a "quasi-civil war", and, influenced no doubt by endless cancer-awareness spots, someone described a "pre-civil war" and predicted that "it could metastasize" into the real thing....
Conspiracy theorists on both sides of the political spectrum are no doubt in ecstasy over this festival of temporizing. Oliver Stone could get two movies out of it: 1) The liberal media want to start a civil war in Iraq while our troops are there so they will be killed in it, 2) A great big fat civil war is already in progress but the conservative media are under orders from the White House to play down the fiasco.
It has nothing to do with conspiracy. It's psychological projection, a head game we play on ourselves when we attribute our own situation to somebody else. WE are afraid of having a civil war, so we convince ourselves that Iraq is NOT having one.
SS France
Yet another example of our endemic cultural amnesia.
It's unfortunate that, even if I were able to afford a trip to Europe or some other overseas destination, I wouldn't have enough time to take the leisurely ocean-liner route. Nor, it seems, any ship on which to sail.
Yet another example of our endemic cultural amnesia.
It's unfortunate that, even if I were able to afford a trip to Europe or some other overseas destination, I wouldn't have enough time to take the leisurely ocean-liner route. Nor, it seems, any ship on which to sail.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Over the transom
(or, cleaning out that file of stuff I've been meaning to blog about for the last three months)
The next time you think about how much you or your employer is pouring into the gaping, sucking vortex of health insurance, just remember that it's going to a good cause.
Katrina survivors are forced to squabble with their insurance companies over whether the damage to their insured property was caused by floods or winds.
Trent Lott, staunch Republican partisan for "tort reform" to limit individual's ability to sue corporations for misbehavior, has a sudden change of heart.
Walgreens has helpfully sent me -- or, rather, themselves -- a check for $20.00. On the check is the following note, in type about 2 millimeters high.
Mike Shatzkin, speaking to a publishers' association, discusses Publishing and Digital Change : What's Next? Among the topics discussed: the "problem" of college students being able to purchase used copies of textbooks and how publishers can use digital textbooks to "solve" it. Also, how to "solve" the "problem" of a global free trade in books, which limits the publishers' ability to selectively price-gouge North American and European students.
And, lastly, the Historical Society of Michigan is planning their Upper Peninsula History conference for June 23-25 in Escanaba. I probably won't be able to make it. But anyone feels like making the trek, let me know.
(or, cleaning out that file of stuff I've been meaning to blog about for the last three months)
The next time you think about how much you or your employer is pouring into the gaping, sucking vortex of health insurance, just remember that it's going to a good cause.
Katrina survivors are forced to squabble with their insurance companies over whether the damage to their insured property was caused by floods or winds.
Trent Lott, staunch Republican partisan for "tort reform" to limit individual's ability to sue corporations for misbehavior, has a sudden change of heart.
Walgreens has helpfully sent me -- or, rather, themselves -- a check for $20.00. On the check is the following note, in type about 2 millimeters high.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Purchase of a new or transferred prescription required (prescriptions cannot be transferred from another Walgreens.) Give check to phamracist at time of prescription purchase. Offer not valid with Medicaid, Medicare, or any other governmental programs or where prohibited by law. Cannot be combined with other offers, limit one check per customer.Oh well. At least it's good for something.
Good toward any purchase except prescriptions, co-pays, liquor, tobacco and dairy as restricted.
Mike Shatzkin, speaking to a publishers' association, discusses Publishing and Digital Change : What's Next? Among the topics discussed: the "problem" of college students being able to purchase used copies of textbooks and how publishers can use digital textbooks to "solve" it. Also, how to "solve" the "problem" of a global free trade in books, which limits the publishers' ability to selectively price-gouge North American and European students.
And, lastly, the Historical Society of Michigan is planning their Upper Peninsula History conference for June 23-25 in Escanaba. I probably won't be able to make it. But anyone feels like making the trek, let me know.
A hero for our times
Rex Libris!
Preview here; Action figures here. (No, not really, but it would be pretty to think so.)
Rex Libris!
Preview here; Action figures here. (No, not really, but it would be pretty to think so.)
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
A disturbing development
Chicago gangs are reportedly having members join the military for training in urban warfare.
Chicago gangs are reportedly having members join the military for training in urban warfare.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Would you send work to this company?
More noise-n-smoke about the "book packager" involved in the Opal Mehta plagiarism case. Another author asserts that they similarly plagiarized her draft manuscript after "rejecting" it.
More noise-n-smoke about the "book packager" involved in the Opal Mehta plagiarism case. Another author asserts that they similarly plagiarized her draft manuscript after "rejecting" it.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Chronologically challenged Istanbulians and other Denton denizens
Dang it, once again I've gone and missed the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. I probably couldn't have made it to Texas in any case, but it would have been fun to finally get a chance to hear folks like Brave Combo and Little Jack Melody and His Young Turks in the flesh. (Some video clips of the latter here, in case anyone's interested.)
Dagnabbit. I used to do this while I lived there, too: find out about it the day afterward, purely by random chance. (i.e., not by browsing yesterday's newspaper). Yesterday's news is still news to me.
Dang it, once again I've gone and missed the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. I probably couldn't have made it to Texas in any case, but it would have been fun to finally get a chance to hear folks like Brave Combo and Little Jack Melody and His Young Turks in the flesh. (Some video clips of the latter here, in case anyone's interested.)
Dagnabbit. I used to do this while I lived there, too: find out about it the day afterward, purely by random chance. (i.e., not by browsing yesterday's newspaper). Yesterday's news is still news to me.
Who is John Galt?
Brad Pitt, according to Variety. Or at any rate he's reportedly being considered for the role.
It will be entertaining to watch the Rand cultists minutely parse the movie for its faithfulness to the Objectivist gospel. Just as it will be entertaining to see if the producers retain Rand's nearly fetishistic portrayal of cigarette-smoking as a symbol of capitalism. I'm not sure how hard I want to think about how accurately it might portray the railroad industry.
I also wonder how on earth anyone expects to fit anything like the plot of Rand's doorstopper-sized tome into less than, say, a two week miniseries. A key question: will the movie contain the entire text of Galt's 90-page broadcast sermon near the end of the book?
Previous filmic versions of Rand books (i.e., The Fountainhead) have been less than satisfactory, largely (in my view) because the material had to be so compressed and rushed that it sounded like a rapid-fire series of political soundbytes.
Brad Pitt, according to Variety. Or at any rate he's reportedly being considered for the role.
It will be entertaining to watch the Rand cultists minutely parse the movie for its faithfulness to the Objectivist gospel. Just as it will be entertaining to see if the producers retain Rand's nearly fetishistic portrayal of cigarette-smoking as a symbol of capitalism. I'm not sure how hard I want to think about how accurately it might portray the railroad industry.
I also wonder how on earth anyone expects to fit anything like the plot of Rand's doorstopper-sized tome into less than, say, a two week miniseries. A key question: will the movie contain the entire text of Galt's 90-page broadcast sermon near the end of the book?
Previous filmic versions of Rand books (i.e., The Fountainhead) have been less than satisfactory, largely (in my view) because the material had to be so compressed and rushed that it sounded like a rapid-fire series of political soundbytes.
"Opal Mehta": the plot thickens
An interesting coincidence, as reported in the NYT and elsewhere:
An interesting coincidence, as reported in the NYT and elsewhere:
"The relationships between Alloy and the publishers are so intertwined that the same editor, Claudia Gabel, is thanked on the acknowledgments pages of both Ms. McCafferty's books and Ms. Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life." Ms. Gabel had been an editorial assistant at Crown Publishing Group, then moved to Alloy, where she helped develop the idea for Ms. Viswanathan's book...."
Ha!
As someone on Library Underground said, this video clip is "just wrong on multiple levels". But it's funny.
Note to all future candidates: if you're going to go hunting, either because you really enjoy it or because your consultant says you need the NRA vote, try not to shoot anybody. It makes it way, way too easy for the comedians.
As someone on Library Underground said, this video clip is "just wrong on multiple levels". But it's funny.
Note to all future candidates: if you're going to go hunting, either because you really enjoy it or because your consultant says you need the NRA vote, try not to shoot anybody. It makes it way, way too easy for the comedians.
Would you trust (fill-in-name-of-Democratic-presidential candidate) with this power?
That's a good question to ask the conservatives of your acquaintance when discussing any question of executive power or privilege. They'll be forced to either seriously consider the merits of the executive power in question, without reference to current partisanship, or admit that they want to abolish free elections and establish permanent one-party dictatorship.
When Democrats hold the White House, just flip it around and ask it to the fervent Democrats who suddenly forget that they didn't like executive power when it was in the hands of somebody else.
So. Would you trust your least-favored candidate with this power?
US steps into wiretap suit against AT&T
(Other links here, here, here, and elsewhere.)
As near as I can tell, this represents a demand that the executive branch have the power to tell courts to dismiss any and all lawsuits filed in any matter, anywhere, whenever they feel like it, whether or not the government is even a party to the lawsuit. The Bush administration asserts that it need not demonstrate why it wishes to invoke this power or provide any evidence of any national security interest, not even to the judge hearing the case.
Not surprisingly, the administration's business buddies concur in saying that lawsuits involving them should be dismissed whenever the government says so.
As First Amendment attorney Glenn Greenwald points out, the so-called "State Secrets Privilege" was created by a judge, not by the legislature or by that forgotten scrap of paper, the Constitution. And it was, as he demonstrates, created as the result of deliberate fraud on the part of the government.
Who would you trust with this power?
That's a good question to ask the conservatives of your acquaintance when discussing any question of executive power or privilege. They'll be forced to either seriously consider the merits of the executive power in question, without reference to current partisanship, or admit that they want to abolish free elections and establish permanent one-party dictatorship.
When Democrats hold the White House, just flip it around and ask it to the fervent Democrats who suddenly forget that they didn't like executive power when it was in the hands of somebody else.
So. Would you trust your least-favored candidate with this power?
US steps into wiretap suit against AT&T
(Other links here, here, here, and elsewhere.)
As near as I can tell, this represents a demand that the executive branch have the power to tell courts to dismiss any and all lawsuits filed in any matter, anywhere, whenever they feel like it, whether or not the government is even a party to the lawsuit. The Bush administration asserts that it need not demonstrate why it wishes to invoke this power or provide any evidence of any national security interest, not even to the judge hearing the case.
Not surprisingly, the administration's business buddies concur in saying that lawsuits involving them should be dismissed whenever the government says so.
As First Amendment attorney Glenn Greenwald points out, the so-called "State Secrets Privilege" was created by a judge, not by the legislature or by that forgotten scrap of paper, the Constitution. And it was, as he demonstrates, created as the result of deliberate fraud on the part of the government.
Who would you trust with this power?
Friday, April 28, 2006
Oh, fun!
The judge in the famous lawsuit involving Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code encoded a secret message in his ruling (.pdf link). The judge apparently really got interested in the conspiratorial, hidden-secrets aspect of the case. The fact that he himself is interested in military and naval history may have been a further inspiration. (Hints here.)
Have fun. Or if you'd rather, just read the answer. Note that the ABC News aritcle linked above includes some speculations about the answer which are not necessarily correct.
I wonder if this judgment will become one of those that future law students and law librarians will be sent to look up in the hopes that its eccentricity will amuse them. (For example, this case, or the rhyming judgement against a bad driver who ran his Chevy into a tree that I had to look up in the one class I took on law librarianship. Sadly, I can't find it now. Obviously the class didn't take.)
The judge in the famous lawsuit involving Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code encoded a secret message in his ruling (.pdf link). The judge apparently really got interested in the conspiratorial, hidden-secrets aspect of the case. The fact that he himself is interested in military and naval history may have been a further inspiration. (Hints here.)
Have fun. Or if you'd rather, just read the answer. Note that the ABC News aritcle linked above includes some speculations about the answer which are not necessarily correct.
I wonder if this judgment will become one of those that future law students and law librarians will be sent to look up in the hopes that its eccentricity will amuse them. (For example, this case, or the rhyming judgement against a bad driver who ran his Chevy into a tree that I had to look up in the one class I took on law librarianship. Sadly, I can't find it now. Obviously the class didn't take.)
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The Day's Catch
News stories that have caught my interest today:
The bibliosphere has been all atwitter for the last few days about the 19-yr-old college student who got a half-million-dollar advance for her first novel, courtesy of a so-called "book packager", and then apparently plagiarized large chunks of another novel. Whether she or the "packager" is responsible for the mess seems to be an open question, since copyright to the book is reportedly shared between them. John Barlow discusses his experience with a "book-packaging" company which proudly boasts of perpetrating the Sweet Valley High series.
Perhaps I should be farming out my name to such book-packaging companies. At a half-million a shot, it's pretty good money for, apparently, not much work.
News stories that have caught my interest today:
The bibliosphere has been all atwitter for the last few days about the 19-yr-old college student who got a half-million-dollar advance for her first novel, courtesy of a so-called "book packager", and then apparently plagiarized large chunks of another novel. Whether she or the "packager" is responsible for the mess seems to be an open question, since copyright to the book is reportedly shared between them. John Barlow discusses his experience with a "book-packaging" company which proudly boasts of perpetrating the Sweet Valley High series.
Perhaps I should be farming out my name to such book-packaging companies. At a half-million a shot, it's pretty good money for, apparently, not much work.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Pirates in Ypsi!
Pirate radio, that is. Sadly, I didn't find out about it until after they were busted by the Guardians of Clear Channel Profits... er, Guardians of the Airways.
Typical.
Pirate radio, that is. Sadly, I didn't find out about it until after they were busted by the Guardians of Clear Channel Profits... er, Guardians of the Airways.
Typical.
Another filtering squabble....
... that I didn't find out about until a month later, thanks to the vagaries of staff-periodical routing lists.
Hate speech filters in MO Libraries draw lawsuit
It's not very pleasant to defend groups like this, but free speech demands it.
... that I didn't find out about until a month later, thanks to the vagaries of staff-periodical routing lists.
Hate speech filters in MO Libraries draw lawsuit
It's not very pleasant to defend groups like this, but free speech demands it.
I'm not sure this is a good idea
I Am Legend is reportedly being remade for the third time... with Will Smith as the vampire-hunting Robert Neville, previously played by Vincent Price and Charlton Heston. (Some discussion here.)
I suddenly have nightmare visions of the Fresh Prince exhorting a bunch of hip-hop vampires to "get jiggy wit' it." Or, almost as bad, a "cool", wisecracking action-hero version of the lonely, violently paranoid, nearly-psychopathic lone survivor depicted in Robert Matheson's classic novel. (Say what you please about Heston's politics, but his involvement in the NRA does make him more creditable as a survivalist and vampire-killer.)
I suppose one can always hope.
Late edit: Speaking of vampiric entertainment... critics seem to be unimpressed with the musical version of Lestat. I'd cut-n-paste excerpts of the Reuters article, but it's just too hard to pick and choose. Read it yourself.
I Am Legend is reportedly being remade for the third time... with Will Smith as the vampire-hunting Robert Neville, previously played by Vincent Price and Charlton Heston. (Some discussion here.)
I suddenly have nightmare visions of the Fresh Prince exhorting a bunch of hip-hop vampires to "get jiggy wit' it." Or, almost as bad, a "cool", wisecracking action-hero version of the lonely, violently paranoid, nearly-psychopathic lone survivor depicted in Robert Matheson's classic novel. (Say what you please about Heston's politics, but his involvement in the NRA does make him more creditable as a survivalist and vampire-killer.)
I suppose one can always hope.
Late edit: Speaking of vampiric entertainment... critics seem to be unimpressed with the musical version of Lestat. I'd cut-n-paste excerpts of the Reuters article, but it's just too hard to pick and choose. Read it yourself.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Let's hope they do better than they did with Penland.
Thee University has announced plans to demolish the 85-year old dormitory in which Your Humble Blogger and some of his little friends, as well as many other university denizens of the male persuasion, spent their formative years. Those who are not among that select group can get a glimpse of its amenities here. (More news stories here.)
I note that a few amenities seem to have been introduced over the years since I was there. Cable TV connections and additional phone lines, for example.
Darnit, when I was a young 'un, we trekked down to the central TV room on each floor and we watched TV shows together. And we liked it! (Uphill in the snow both ways, etc., etc.)
Or at least those who managed to wrest control of the channel changer liked it. Those of us who wanted to watch something other than sports or Saturday Night Live had to resort to various underhanded strategems and bluster and persuasion. ("Hey, did you know they're also watching this up on the third floor? ANd they have pizza and popcorn?")
Many are the stories of students coming home in a ... shall we say, less than sober ... condition, and of their roommates and friends smuggling them into their rooms through the many stairwells and exterior doors that bypassed the designated nighttime door and its university-appointed guardian. (I'm sure it helped when they weren't singing tipsily at the time.)
Actually, my favorite part of Brooks Hall was the unused top story, which was accessible through one or two neglected doors. I spent quite a few sunny afternoons lazily reading and watching the campus from its dormer windows.
Thee University has announced plans to demolish the 85-year old dormitory in which Your Humble Blogger and some of his little friends, as well as many other university denizens of the male persuasion, spent their formative years. Those who are not among that select group can get a glimpse of its amenities here. (More news stories here.)
I note that a few amenities seem to have been introduced over the years since I was there. Cable TV connections and additional phone lines, for example.
Darnit, when I was a young 'un, we trekked down to the central TV room on each floor and we watched TV shows together. And we liked it! (Uphill in the snow both ways, etc., etc.)
Or at least those who managed to wrest control of the channel changer liked it. Those of us who wanted to watch something other than sports or Saturday Night Live had to resort to various underhanded strategems and bluster and persuasion. ("Hey, did you know they're also watching this up on the third floor? ANd they have pizza and popcorn?")
Many are the stories of students coming home in a ... shall we say, less than sober ... condition, and of their roommates and friends smuggling them into their rooms through the many stairwells and exterior doors that bypassed the designated nighttime door and its university-appointed guardian. (I'm sure it helped when they weren't singing tipsily at the time.)
Actually, my favorite part of Brooks Hall was the unused top story, which was accessible through one or two neglected doors. I spent quite a few sunny afternoons lazily reading and watching the campus from its dormer windows.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
The Return of the Water Hustlers
In 1960, John Graves published a book that was to become a classic work of Texana and a classic of the conservation movement. The book was Goodbye to a River, an account of his last canoe trip down a stretch of the Brazos River before it was flooded and destroyed for the benefit of faraway cities.
In 1971, he followed up by contributing a portion of a book titled The Water Hustlers, in which he and two other writers described the arrogance and corruption of various big-city water project promoters whose mode of operation was to simply ignore the rights and interests of rural landowners, farmers, and ranchers in order to concoct ever more grandiose dams and pipelines to take water away from one group and sell it to another.
Well, they're back again. To preserve the God-given right of north Dallas suburbanites to spray millions of gallons of potable water over their Day-Glo-green lawns throughout the 100-degree Texas summers, the powers-that-be in north Texas are once again demanding the power to seize land and rivers and water rights belonging to someone else, elsewhere in the state.
The latest scheme, recently approved by the legislative shills in Austin, proposes to build yet more dams, including one on the Sulfur River and one on the Neches River. All this despite the fact that public opinion in East Texas is firmly against these projects which seek to seize and destroy massive swathes of the region for the benefit of Dallas suburbanites.
Farmers, loggers, and environmentalists aren't the only ones affected.
Goodbye to a Railroad?
From Railroad Newsline:
That famous Dallasite love of the free market and property rights? Well, suh, it ends where other people's property begins.
In 1960, John Graves published a book that was to become a classic work of Texana and a classic of the conservation movement. The book was Goodbye to a River, an account of his last canoe trip down a stretch of the Brazos River before it was flooded and destroyed for the benefit of faraway cities.
In 1971, he followed up by contributing a portion of a book titled The Water Hustlers, in which he and two other writers described the arrogance and corruption of various big-city water project promoters whose mode of operation was to simply ignore the rights and interests of rural landowners, farmers, and ranchers in order to concoct ever more grandiose dams and pipelines to take water away from one group and sell it to another.
Well, they're back again. To preserve the God-given right of north Dallas suburbanites to spray millions of gallons of potable water over their Day-Glo-green lawns throughout the 100-degree Texas summers, the powers-that-be in north Texas are once again demanding the power to seize land and rivers and water rights belonging to someone else, elsewhere in the state.
The latest scheme, recently approved by the legislative shills in Austin, proposes to build yet more dams, including one on the Sulfur River and one on the Neches River. All this despite the fact that public opinion in East Texas is firmly against these projects which seek to seize and destroy massive swathes of the region for the benefit of Dallas suburbanites.
Farmers, loggers, and environmentalists aren't the only ones affected.
Goodbye to a Railroad?
From Railroad Newsline:
The North Texas plan calls for about $3.3 billion to be spent on new lakes, including $2.15 billion for the 62,000-acre Marvin Nichols Reservoir on the Sulphur River and its 130-mile pipeline to North Texas. Two 32,000-acre lakes and another of about 7,500 acres would be built.I'm sure those who stand to profit from such projects would tell you that it's just a happy coincidence that their shills in Austin have recently declared fiscal war on the Texas State Railroad despite its long and successful history, its prominent role in bringing movie productions to the state, and the thousands of visitors who enjoy it each weekend.
An additional 200,000 acres or more could be taken from landowners in a mitigation process that is required if prized bottomland habitat is flooded for the reservoirs. The proposed Lake Fastrill would flood four miles of the Texas State Railroad State Park and most of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed Neches River National Wildlife Refuge.
Employers and landowners said the plan would be detrimental to East Texas.
Kevin Driscoll, manager of International Paper's Texarkana Mill, which has about 860 employees and an annual payroll of about $70 million, said his mill would be hurt by the loss of water to new lakes.
Bill Ward, president of Ward Timber in Linden, said the plan would "cripple the timber industry."
Said Max Shumake, a sixth-generation Texan whose family settled the Sulphur River area in the 1840s: "I don't see the need to give up my heritage to water someone else's grass."
That famous Dallasite love of the free market and property rights? Well, suh, it ends where other people's property begins.
Yee-haw!
Let's saddle up, podner, and head on down t' Texas, t' see if these city slickers can start up a ranch without goin' belly-up!
Seriously... the PBS "House" programs are the only form of reality-television that I enjoy watching. Unlike most "reality" shows, they actually have some connection with reality. And I can easily picture myself in the situation of the participants. B. and other family types (if they're still reading) may remember my suggestions that we do something similar with the family's old Ozark farmstead. Just for fun.
Let's saddle up, podner, and head on down t' Texas, t' see if these city slickers can start up a ranch without goin' belly-up!
Seriously... the PBS "House" programs are the only form of reality-television that I enjoy watching. Unlike most "reality" shows, they actually have some connection with reality. And I can easily picture myself in the situation of the participants. B. and other family types (if they're still reading) may remember my suggestions that we do something similar with the family's old Ozark farmstead. Just for fun.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Recent viewings : The Avengers (original series)
After hearing several participants in a fiction-magazines listserv sing the praises of Diana Rigg, I finally broke down and watched a few episodes from the first season of the old Avengers television series in which she played the sexy and, perhaps, ambiguously kinky secret agent Emma Peel.
It's enjoyable enough as a kind of lightweight cross between James Bond and a screwball romantic comedy, but even in the few episodes I watched, I couldn't help but notice a rather weird subtext. At the end of every episode, there's a brief vignette, completely unrelated to everything else, in which Emma Peel is shown, in some way, dominating her male partner, John Steed (played by the patrician Patrick McNee). In one, she's riding in a rickshaw that he's pulling down an English country lane for no apparent reason while she cries out commands in a strident voice; in another she's ordering him about while he rows a boat. It seems rather apparent that "Steed", in addition to his eminently English virtues of suave demeanor and elegant apparel, may a devotee of "the English vice".
As for me, I think I prefer my English secret agents to be a little less overtly kinky.
After hearing several participants in a fiction-magazines listserv sing the praises of Diana Rigg, I finally broke down and watched a few episodes from the first season of the old Avengers television series in which she played the sexy and, perhaps, ambiguously kinky secret agent Emma Peel.
It's enjoyable enough as a kind of lightweight cross between James Bond and a screwball romantic comedy, but even in the few episodes I watched, I couldn't help but notice a rather weird subtext. At the end of every episode, there's a brief vignette, completely unrelated to everything else, in which Emma Peel is shown, in some way, dominating her male partner, John Steed (played by the patrician Patrick McNee). In one, she's riding in a rickshaw that he's pulling down an English country lane for no apparent reason while she cries out commands in a strident voice; in another she's ordering him about while he rows a boat. It seems rather apparent that "Steed", in addition to his eminently English virtues of suave demeanor and elegant apparel, may a devotee of "the English vice".
As for me, I think I prefer my English secret agents to be a little less overtly kinky.
The doom of Europe?
Mark Steyn, of National Review, contemplates the demographic and spiritual doom of Europe.
Having duly noted the dippy newage beliefs and practices of some post-Christian "spiritual" folks in the West, Steyn notes:
Steyn goes on to suggest that Pope Benedict (the former archconservative Cardinal Ratzinger) "foresees dark days ahead and his job as being to save European Catholicism". (European Protestantism, sadly, isn't up to the challenge, in Steyn's opinion.)
Is it really so paranoid to wonder whether the growing numbers of Muslims in Europe will demand the imposition of their form of theocracy if and when they get enough political pull to do so, as suggested by Bat Ye'or in her book Eurabia?
It's a new form of the old question about whether a tolerant and free society can survive when large numbers of its inhabitants demand repression. But, perhaps, with a new urgency.
Mark Steyn, of National Review, contemplates the demographic and spiritual doom of Europe.
Having duly noted the dippy newage beliefs and practices of some post-Christian "spiritual" folks in the West, Steyn notes:
I’ve been a demography bore for years now — pointing out how aging childless French, Belgian, and Dutch populations are surrendering their turf to young fecund Muslims — but, at the risk of piling too many doomsday scenarios atop one another, it’s worth noting that Islam is advancing not just by outbreeding but also by conversion....Will we live to see the imposition of sharia law in western Europe, either by demographically-driven popular vote or through intimidation, a la Yeats' famous poem? ("The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.")
The ... “reverts” — as Islam calls converts — are not merely the Muslim equivalents of the Richard Gere Buddhists and Tom Cruise Scientologists but the vanguard of something bigger. As English and Belgian and Scandinavian cities Islamify, their inhabitants will face a choice between living as a minority and joining the majority: Not all but many will opt for the latter. At the very minimum, Islam will meet the same test as the hippy-dippy solstice worship does in Vermont: It will seem environmentally appropriate. For many young men, it already provides the sense of identity that the vapid nullity of multiculturalism disdains to offer.
As for the gals, I was startled in successive weeks to hear from both Dutch and English acquaintances that they’ve begun going out “covered.” The Dutch lady lives in a rough part of Amsterdam and says, when you’re on the street in Islamic garb, the Muslim men smile at you respectfully instead of jeering at you as an infidel whore. The English lady lives in a swank part of London but says pretty much the same thing. Both felt there was not just a physical but a psychological security in being dressed Muslim. They’re not “reverts,” but, at least for the purposes of padding the public space, they’re passing for Muslim in public....
Steyn goes on to suggest that Pope Benedict (the former archconservative Cardinal Ratzinger) "foresees dark days ahead and his job as being to save European Catholicism". (European Protestantism, sadly, isn't up to the challenge, in Steyn's opinion.)
Is it really so paranoid to wonder whether the growing numbers of Muslims in Europe will demand the imposition of their form of theocracy if and when they get enough political pull to do so, as suggested by Bat Ye'or in her book Eurabia?
It's a new form of the old question about whether a tolerant and free society can survive when large numbers of its inhabitants demand repression. But, perhaps, with a new urgency.
The latest FBI fishing expedition
They apparently want to rummage through the personal papers of Jack Anderson, the late investigative reporter, and grab up anything that's embarrassing to the Bush administration.... er, I mean, Classified. (Classified at the time, I wonder, or retroactively classified to hide Republican screwups?)
Read all about it here. (Or here, or here, etc.)
Many years ago, as a public school student, I wrote a paper which my grandmother (proudly?) showed to her brother, an employee of... well, I probably shouldn't name that agency. Anyway. He found it very interesting, according to a conversation we had years later. Apparently I had managed to describe things in my school paper which were officially "classified information". "The only way I could figure it," he said, "was that you probably found some of Jack Anderson's columns where he had discussed this stuff."
I wonder what they're really after.
They apparently want to rummage through the personal papers of Jack Anderson, the late investigative reporter, and grab up anything that's embarrassing to the Bush administration.... er, I mean, Classified. (Classified at the time, I wonder, or retroactively classified to hide Republican screwups?)
Read all about it here. (Or here, or here, etc.)
Many years ago, as a public school student, I wrote a paper which my grandmother (proudly?) showed to her brother, an employee of... well, I probably shouldn't name that agency. Anyway. He found it very interesting, according to a conversation we had years later. Apparently I had managed to describe things in my school paper which were officially "classified information". "The only way I could figure it," he said, "was that you probably found some of Jack Anderson's columns where he had discussed this stuff."
I wonder what they're really after.
The wonders of technology
Someone remind me. Just why, exactly, is mandatory digital TV supposed to be good for us?
Phillips patents technology to force ad viewing
Someone remind me. Just why, exactly, is mandatory digital TV supposed to be good for us?
Phillips patents technology to force ad viewing
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Life imitates art
In Robert Grudin's academic satire, Book, there's a scene in which a fatuous professor of literary theory, one "E.F. Taupe", files a complaint that another professor's book has "intellectually raped" her by exposing her to ideas which she dislikes.
Comes now the faculty of the Mansfield campus of Ohio State University, which last month voted unanimously to investigate reference and instruction librarian Scott Savage for alleged harassment based on sexual orientation. Savage is a member of a conservative Quaker group and the author of two books about living simply and avoiding unnecessary use of technology, one of which (A Plain Life) I've read and enjoyed. It appears that he has come to a somewhat eclectic meeting of the minds with technology, on the one hand using e'mail and other electronic resources in his job, but on the other hand commuting to that job by horse-drawn buggy instead of automobile.
His crime? As a member of a campus committee tasked with recommending books for first-year students to read, he recommended four controversial books by politically conservative authors. Savage reportedly stated that other books suggested for the list reflected a liberal political bias, one that he wished to counterbalance. One of the books he suggested was The Marketing of Evil, by the editor of WorldNetDaily, a popular right-wing news webpage. It reportedly criticizes homosexuality as one of the "evils" endangering modern society.
At least one previous recommendation by Mr. Savage, Freakonomics, was turned down for not being controversial enough, not likely enough to spur debate. It's safe to say that this batch of suggestions didn't have that flaw. In response to his book suggestions, three OSU faculty members filed a complaint of harassment against Mr. Savage, claiming that his recommendation that students read these four books made them feel "unsafe" and "threatened".
Various conservative webpages and weblogs have discussed the matter over the past couple of days. For more details, see here, here, here, etc. Fiend has pointed out to me that most of the sources covering the story appear to have a conservative bias. This might be a result of conscious bias on the part of liberal commentators, but it seems more likely that it's a result of information about the situation being disseminated through conservative news alerts and advocacy groups who saw one of their own academic oxen being gored. (It appears that Mr. Savage appealed for aid to at least one such group when it became clear that he was the target of a leftist academic lynch mob.)
If liberal commentators have knowingly failed to discuss the matter, it's a black mark against them, not agasint Savage or the validity of his position. Right is right and wrong is wrong no matter who reports it.
Now as it happenes, this has lately become a moot point... at least for the present. It seems that after considering the matter, OSU officially cleared Mr. Savage of wrongdoing. The timing of this decision, though, casts some doubt on its motivation. It came one day after a conservative advocacy group went public with the story. (Note: the comments following this article make for very interesting reading, not least because they include Mr. Savage's take on the events.) Savage, and others in similar positions, can only wonder whether the university, in the absence of a glaring spotlight of politically-tinged publicity, would have simply "put him away privily". It remains to be seen whether OSU will target him for retaliation later on, when the spotlight has moved elsewhere. Especially if he does not enjoy the privilege of academic tenure.
My take: the books recommended by Savage, especially The Marketing of Evil, may be of dubious academic merit, but recommending that people read them doesn't constitute "harassment" of anybody. Especially when the express purpose of the recommendations was to spark discussion and debate, which could easily include critiquing the books' flaws and biases. The OSU faculty's treatment of Savage is embarrassingly bigoted.
In Robert Grudin's academic satire, Book, there's a scene in which a fatuous professor of literary theory, one "E.F. Taupe", files a complaint that another professor's book has "intellectually raped" her by exposing her to ideas which she dislikes.
Comes now the faculty of the Mansfield campus of Ohio State University, which last month voted unanimously to investigate reference and instruction librarian Scott Savage for alleged harassment based on sexual orientation. Savage is a member of a conservative Quaker group and the author of two books about living simply and avoiding unnecessary use of technology, one of which (A Plain Life) I've read and enjoyed. It appears that he has come to a somewhat eclectic meeting of the minds with technology, on the one hand using e'mail and other electronic resources in his job, but on the other hand commuting to that job by horse-drawn buggy instead of automobile.
His crime? As a member of a campus committee tasked with recommending books for first-year students to read, he recommended four controversial books by politically conservative authors. Savage reportedly stated that other books suggested for the list reflected a liberal political bias, one that he wished to counterbalance. One of the books he suggested was The Marketing of Evil, by the editor of WorldNetDaily, a popular right-wing news webpage. It reportedly criticizes homosexuality as one of the "evils" endangering modern society.
At least one previous recommendation by Mr. Savage, Freakonomics, was turned down for not being controversial enough, not likely enough to spur debate. It's safe to say that this batch of suggestions didn't have that flaw. In response to his book suggestions, three OSU faculty members filed a complaint of harassment against Mr. Savage, claiming that his recommendation that students read these four books made them feel "unsafe" and "threatened".
Various conservative webpages and weblogs have discussed the matter over the past couple of days. For more details, see here, here, here, etc. Fiend has pointed out to me that most of the sources covering the story appear to have a conservative bias. This might be a result of conscious bias on the part of liberal commentators, but it seems more likely that it's a result of information about the situation being disseminated through conservative news alerts and advocacy groups who saw one of their own academic oxen being gored. (It appears that Mr. Savage appealed for aid to at least one such group when it became clear that he was the target of a leftist academic lynch mob.)
If liberal commentators have knowingly failed to discuss the matter, it's a black mark against them, not agasint Savage or the validity of his position. Right is right and wrong is wrong no matter who reports it.
Now as it happenes, this has lately become a moot point... at least for the present. It seems that after considering the matter, OSU officially cleared Mr. Savage of wrongdoing. The timing of this decision, though, casts some doubt on its motivation. It came one day after a conservative advocacy group went public with the story. (Note: the comments following this article make for very interesting reading, not least because they include Mr. Savage's take on the events.) Savage, and others in similar positions, can only wonder whether the university, in the absence of a glaring spotlight of politically-tinged publicity, would have simply "put him away privily". It remains to be seen whether OSU will target him for retaliation later on, when the spotlight has moved elsewhere. Especially if he does not enjoy the privilege of academic tenure.
My take: the books recommended by Savage, especially The Marketing of Evil, may be of dubious academic merit, but recommending that people read them doesn't constitute "harassment" of anybody. Especially when the express purpose of the recommendations was to spark discussion and debate, which could easily include critiquing the books' flaws and biases. The OSU faculty's treatment of Savage is embarrassingly bigoted.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Struwwelpeter on the web!
In the course of commenting on another blog, I noticed that Struwwelpeter, which I discussed in a previous post, is (at least partly) available on the web. Check out The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches. My favorite! (Mmm. Crispy!... )
In the course of commenting on another blog, I noticed that Struwwelpeter, which I discussed in a previous post, is (at least partly) available on the web. Check out The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches. My favorite! (Mmm. Crispy!... )
Who is your constituent?
In a recent nationally-distributed fundraising letter, Katherine Harris, the Republican apparatchik who used her position in the government of Florida to influence the 2000 election in favor of her boss's brother, has unwittingly revealed the basic nature of today's Congress. In between sycophantic solicitations for payment, she promises that "When elected to the United States Senate, I will represent ALL conservatives." (emphasis in original.)
Now forgive me for being naive. But I was under the impression that it was the duty of Senators and Representatives to represent the residents of their designated districts. You know, the people who actually vote in the elections. Even the undecided moderates and those who are not card-carrying, blood-oath-swearing members of one's own political party. Not so, according to Harris and many other politicos. Their duty as they see it is to serve the interests of the national or extra-national interests who pay them.
In other words, Katherine Harris is more interested in supporting the interests of someone on the other side of the country who wishes to buy her vote, or to promote some kind of perceived national conservative agenda, than in the interests of mere insignificant voters in Jacksonville or Miami or Apalachicola.
The day when we actually and openly have Congresscritters openly representing partisan organizations, corporations and churches, rather than voters who inhabit actual geographic districts, may be upon us sooner than we think. But, as long as we actually go through the motions of conducting elections, the good folks in Florida still have the final say, and they may balk at the prospect of being "represented" by someone who displays such fundamental unconcern for their local interests. The Lakeland, Florida Ledger notes, in an editorial entitled Katherine Harris Should Step Aside, that "Strong as Harris remains with Florida Republicans, she is extraordinarily weak with Democratic and independent voters."
Gee. I wonder why that might be.
In a recent nationally-distributed fundraising letter, Katherine Harris, the Republican apparatchik who used her position in the government of Florida to influence the 2000 election in favor of her boss's brother, has unwittingly revealed the basic nature of today's Congress. In between sycophantic solicitations for payment, she promises that "When elected to the United States Senate, I will represent ALL conservatives." (emphasis in original.)
Now forgive me for being naive. But I was under the impression that it was the duty of Senators and Representatives to represent the residents of their designated districts. You know, the people who actually vote in the elections. Even the undecided moderates and those who are not card-carrying, blood-oath-swearing members of one's own political party. Not so, according to Harris and many other politicos. Their duty as they see it is to serve the interests of the national or extra-national interests who pay them.
In other words, Katherine Harris is more interested in supporting the interests of someone on the other side of the country who wishes to buy her vote, or to promote some kind of perceived national conservative agenda, than in the interests of mere insignificant voters in Jacksonville or Miami or Apalachicola.
The day when we actually and openly have Congresscritters openly representing partisan organizations, corporations and churches, rather than voters who inhabit actual geographic districts, may be upon us sooner than we think. But, as long as we actually go through the motions of conducting elections, the good folks in Florida still have the final say, and they may balk at the prospect of being "represented" by someone who displays such fundamental unconcern for their local interests. The Lakeland, Florida Ledger notes, in an editorial entitled Katherine Harris Should Step Aside, that "Strong as Harris remains with Florida Republicans, she is extraordinarily weak with Democratic and independent voters."
Gee. I wonder why that might be.
Recent Reads : Shared Fantasy: Role-playing games as social worlds, by Gary Alan Fine.
Pablo and I have sometimes been wont to theorize, speculate and otherwise wax garrulous on the social and psychological significance of role-playing games in the world at large and in and the lives of those who play them. Apparently we aren't the first to do so.
Way back in the ancient age of 1977-1979, Gary Alan Fine, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota, decided to observe and report on this strange subculture which had just reared its head among the wargamers and college students of the country. For approximately two years he participated in both isolated gaming sessions and extended campaigns in and around the university, and interviewed players and referees. This book, published in 1983 and reissued in paperback in 2002 by the University of Chicago Press, reports his observations and interpretations.
The first chapter is a useful short history of the development of role-playing games, concentrating on the development of Dungeons & Dragons from earlier military simulations but also touching upon other games such as Traveller, Chivalry & Sorcery, and U of Minnesota professor M.A.R. Barker's Empire of the Petal Throne. Subsequent chapters discuss the observed characteristics of players and referees, observations about their interactions both as characters (within the game) and as players (outside the game), and a more detailed examination of Barker's Tekumel, the imagined world of Empire of the Petal Throne. Since Barker's long-running game campaign set in Tekumel is something of a legend among gamers, this in itself is worth the price of the book.
I was somewhat disturbed by the outright attitudes of sadism and misogyny displayed by some player characters described by Fine in part of chapter two. However, it's consistent with what I observed among some players when I was in high school. Perhaps it's inevitable that when adolescent males are given the opportunity to vicariously act on whatever fantasy they please, fantasies of power and sex unrestrained by responsibility, morality or long-term personal involvement come to the fore. It may be that the relatively young ages of the players observed by Fine had something to do with this. (He comments at one point on the disruption wrought when the median age of a certain gaming group dropped from 20 to 15.)
Fine also describes, in later chapters, the greater degree of personal and dramatic involvement displayed by older players, especially with regard to role-playing aspects of a characters' personality which are harmful to the character's prospects of "winning", and otherwise becoming engrossed in the game world as a complex imagined secondary reality instead of "just" a game to be played for immediate entertainment or simplistic wish-fulfilment. This, again, is consistent with my own experiences. The last gaming campaign in which I was involved was in a mixed group of men and women, all of whom were in their mid to late twenties and most of whom were members of a conservative church. All of these characteristics are atypical according to Fine's observations from the groups he observed. In this long-running campaign, there was far less concentration on hack-and-slash fighting, and far more concentration on the building of long-term storylines involving personal and political relationships than in previous games I'd encountered.
I wonder if the same kind of shift has occurred on a wider scale, and if so, how it may have affected the "typical" behavior of RPG players. This assumes, of course, that there is a homogenous group of "typical" gamers to be measured, an assumption which may no longer be true as role-playing games have evolved out of their original niche among military wargamers, passed through the demimonde of bored college students' entertainment, and metastasized throughout the world of popular culture and science-fiction and fantasy fandom.
Pablo and I have sometimes been wont to theorize, speculate and otherwise wax garrulous on the social and psychological significance of role-playing games in the world at large and in and the lives of those who play them. Apparently we aren't the first to do so.
Way back in the ancient age of 1977-1979, Gary Alan Fine, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota, decided to observe and report on this strange subculture which had just reared its head among the wargamers and college students of the country. For approximately two years he participated in both isolated gaming sessions and extended campaigns in and around the university, and interviewed players and referees. This book, published in 1983 and reissued in paperback in 2002 by the University of Chicago Press, reports his observations and interpretations.
The first chapter is a useful short history of the development of role-playing games, concentrating on the development of Dungeons & Dragons from earlier military simulations but also touching upon other games such as Traveller, Chivalry & Sorcery, and U of Minnesota professor M.A.R. Barker's Empire of the Petal Throne. Subsequent chapters discuss the observed characteristics of players and referees, observations about their interactions both as characters (within the game) and as players (outside the game), and a more detailed examination of Barker's Tekumel, the imagined world of Empire of the Petal Throne. Since Barker's long-running game campaign set in Tekumel is something of a legend among gamers, this in itself is worth the price of the book.
I was somewhat disturbed by the outright attitudes of sadism and misogyny displayed by some player characters described by Fine in part of chapter two. However, it's consistent with what I observed among some players when I was in high school. Perhaps it's inevitable that when adolescent males are given the opportunity to vicariously act on whatever fantasy they please, fantasies of power and sex unrestrained by responsibility, morality or long-term personal involvement come to the fore. It may be that the relatively young ages of the players observed by Fine had something to do with this. (He comments at one point on the disruption wrought when the median age of a certain gaming group dropped from 20 to 15.)
Fine also describes, in later chapters, the greater degree of personal and dramatic involvement displayed by older players, especially with regard to role-playing aspects of a characters' personality which are harmful to the character's prospects of "winning", and otherwise becoming engrossed in the game world as a complex imagined secondary reality instead of "just" a game to be played for immediate entertainment or simplistic wish-fulfilment. This, again, is consistent with my own experiences. The last gaming campaign in which I was involved was in a mixed group of men and women, all of whom were in their mid to late twenties and most of whom were members of a conservative church. All of these characteristics are atypical according to Fine's observations from the groups he observed. In this long-running campaign, there was far less concentration on hack-and-slash fighting, and far more concentration on the building of long-term storylines involving personal and political relationships than in previous games I'd encountered.
I wonder if the same kind of shift has occurred on a wider scale, and if so, how it may have affected the "typical" behavior of RPG players. This assumes, of course, that there is a homogenous group of "typical" gamers to be measured, an assumption which may no longer be true as role-playing games have evolved out of their original niche among military wargamers, passed through the demimonde of bored college students' entertainment, and metastasized throughout the world of popular culture and science-fiction and fantasy fandom.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Recent Reads : Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler
Without particularly trying to, I seem to have stumbled into a rut of reading apocalyptic fiction lately. When Octavia Butler died recently, I was prompted to pick up one of her novels and read it. I had heard of her for years, but did not actually pick up one of her books until now.
As suggested above, it's apocalyptic in tone and substance, but it's a different kind of apocalypse. Each of the books I mentioned while discussing Califia's Daughters recently is based on the premise that some externally-generated catastrophe -- a nuclear war, a super-potent plague, etc. -- brought civilization crashing down.
Butler eschews such drama in favor of a much darker and more disturbing prospect. In her story, civilization is not overwhelmed by massive wars, natural disasters or fatalities, but simply withers away through lack of any organized will to sustain it. The dystopian nightmare she proposes bears some resemblance to the America being brought into being by the policies of the modern-day Republican Party and the "shrink government until it's small enough to drown in the bathtub" theories of Grover Norquist.
The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, is the daughter of a preacher who has organized a group of families into a walled, protected community while all around them, public services and infrastructure have, over the years, decayed into rampant corruption and functional collapse. The ultra-rich live in their barricaded fortresses; the corporations have fortified compounds; the poor live a hardscrabble, animalistic life of violence and starvation amid acres of burned-out building shells and collapsed highways. The middle class, already reduced to living in communal groups like primitive villagers, is being, quite literally, exterminated through lack of economic opportunity on the one hand and constant violent assault by desperate thieves and deranged drug addicts on the other.
Lauren, due to the prenatal effects of an experimental drug that her mother took, is cursed with the gift of hyperempathy, the ability to literally feel others' pain. This, and the stresses of the increasingly desperate life she's forced to live, push her to develop a philosophy, or religion, upon which she hopes to found a new kind of society. Personally, I found the "Earthseed" passages in the book, which describe her poetry and philosophy, to be the least interesting and least compelling, although the inconclusive ending of the novel suggests that a community founded on these principles may be the subject of a sequel. I was fascinated by the nightmarish disintegration of society as depicted by Butler, and her characters' attempts to ward off disaster and survive. Perhaps I'm just a Philistine who prefers tales of Thrilling Adventure! to gentler philosophical explorations of more positive prospects.
Without particularly trying to, I seem to have stumbled into a rut of reading apocalyptic fiction lately. When Octavia Butler died recently, I was prompted to pick up one of her novels and read it. I had heard of her for years, but did not actually pick up one of her books until now.
As suggested above, it's apocalyptic in tone and substance, but it's a different kind of apocalypse. Each of the books I mentioned while discussing Califia's Daughters recently is based on the premise that some externally-generated catastrophe -- a nuclear war, a super-potent plague, etc. -- brought civilization crashing down.
Butler eschews such drama in favor of a much darker and more disturbing prospect. In her story, civilization is not overwhelmed by massive wars, natural disasters or fatalities, but simply withers away through lack of any organized will to sustain it. The dystopian nightmare she proposes bears some resemblance to the America being brought into being by the policies of the modern-day Republican Party and the "shrink government until it's small enough to drown in the bathtub" theories of Grover Norquist.
The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, is the daughter of a preacher who has organized a group of families into a walled, protected community while all around them, public services and infrastructure have, over the years, decayed into rampant corruption and functional collapse. The ultra-rich live in their barricaded fortresses; the corporations have fortified compounds; the poor live a hardscrabble, animalistic life of violence and starvation amid acres of burned-out building shells and collapsed highways. The middle class, already reduced to living in communal groups like primitive villagers, is being, quite literally, exterminated through lack of economic opportunity on the one hand and constant violent assault by desperate thieves and deranged drug addicts on the other.
Lauren, due to the prenatal effects of an experimental drug that her mother took, is cursed with the gift of hyperempathy, the ability to literally feel others' pain. This, and the stresses of the increasingly desperate life she's forced to live, push her to develop a philosophy, or religion, upon which she hopes to found a new kind of society. Personally, I found the "Earthseed" passages in the book, which describe her poetry and philosophy, to be the least interesting and least compelling, although the inconclusive ending of the novel suggests that a community founded on these principles may be the subject of a sequel. I was fascinated by the nightmarish disintegration of society as depicted by Butler, and her characters' attempts to ward off disaster and survive. Perhaps I'm just a Philistine who prefers tales of Thrilling Adventure! to gentler philosophical explorations of more positive prospects.
Thanks, Dorothea, whoever you are.
There are days when scanning the output of the blogosphere is just an extended waste of time. Today's not one of those days, thanks to the keeper of Caveat Lector. Her description of Durufle's "Requiem" is intriguing enough to persuade me to try out a classical composer I've never heard of before, and she -- like Jessamyn over at www.librarian.net -- hits the nail on the head regarding the ALA's obscenely silly campaign to get retired librarians to work for free.
There are days when scanning the output of the blogosphere is just an extended waste of time. Today's not one of those days, thanks to the keeper of Caveat Lector. Her description of Durufle's "Requiem" is intriguing enough to persuade me to try out a classical composer I've never heard of before, and she -- like Jessamyn over at www.librarian.net -- hits the nail on the head regarding the ALA's obscenely silly campaign to get retired librarians to work for free.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Recent Reads: The Star Woman, by H. Bedford-Jones
Pirates in Canada!
I requested this book by interlibrary loan after it was mentioned on a fiction-magazine listserv. It turns out to be a very strange but entertaining pulpish tale of an Englishman who has renounced all allegiance to king, country, and church, and sets forth into the frigid seas and untracked wilderness of northern America during the period when French, British, independent freebooters, and various warring native tribes all contended for control over its lucrative fur trade.
The first part of the book takes place along the seashore and aboard ship as our raffish hero, one Hal Crawford, proclaims his disinterest in worldly allegiances and his independence from political states:
Affiliating himself with a piratical crew in quest of a lost Spanish treasure-galleon, he becomes embroiled in all manner of derring-do. Despite displaying great talent as a pirate, he eventually comes ashore, always striving westward toward his self-appointed destiny. Both hostile and friendly native tribes and fellow Europeans stand between him and his goal, as well as vast forests and one or two surprising strangers. Deceit, betrayal, courage, death, desperate fights and startling revelations, all for desire of the mysterious Star Woman he's never seen. It's a bit like "Captain Blood Meets Black Robe."
Great pulpy fun, although late in the narrative it becomes somewhat difficult to tell who's on which ship, who's on which side, and who's betraying whom.
Editorial note, 4/10: Thanks to fabulous Fiend for this informative brief article about H. Bedford-Jones, the "King of the Pulps". He seems to have been quite a prolific fellow.
Pirates in Canada!
I requested this book by interlibrary loan after it was mentioned on a fiction-magazine listserv. It turns out to be a very strange but entertaining pulpish tale of an Englishman who has renounced all allegiance to king, country, and church, and sets forth into the frigid seas and untracked wilderness of northern America during the period when French, British, independent freebooters, and various warring native tribes all contended for control over its lucrative fur trade.
The first part of the book takes place along the seashore and aboard ship as our raffish hero, one Hal Crawford, proclaims his disinterest in worldly allegiances and his independence from political states:
"I have perceived the fallacy of giving allegiance to another man and fighting for him. I shall now fight for myself alone.... "Our rakish hero, having thus renounced all worldly allegiances and ambitions, comes into possession of a strange, star-shaped medallion. Hearing rumors of a mysterious "Star Woman" who lives among the Indian tribes of the western forests and is revered by them, he takes it upon himself to seek her out. His destiny, he decides in fine fey romantic style, lies "beyond the horizon," and the devil take all who stand in his way.
Why should I fight for money? Why should I rob and murder in order to take other men's money and goods?"...
"You are certainly mad!"
"No," said Crawford. "I am free."
Affiliating himself with a piratical crew in quest of a lost Spanish treasure-galleon, he becomes embroiled in all manner of derring-do. Despite displaying great talent as a pirate, he eventually comes ashore, always striving westward toward his self-appointed destiny. Both hostile and friendly native tribes and fellow Europeans stand between him and his goal, as well as vast forests and one or two surprising strangers. Deceit, betrayal, courage, death, desperate fights and startling revelations, all for desire of the mysterious Star Woman he's never seen. It's a bit like "Captain Blood Meets Black Robe."
Great pulpy fun, although late in the narrative it becomes somewhat difficult to tell who's on which ship, who's on which side, and who's betraying whom.
Editorial note, 4/10: Thanks to fabulous Fiend for this informative brief article about H. Bedford-Jones, the "King of the Pulps". He seems to have been quite a prolific fellow.
"'Henry can't come to the phone,' his wife is said to have reported. 'He's working on a novel.'
"'I'll hold on until he's finished,' said the caller.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
On religious requirements for jobs
I keep noticing job postings from religious institutions, most of which strongly suggest that applicants better be faithful and devout members of the One True Church, OR ELSE.
A question for ethical discussion: would it be unethical to pretend great enthusiasm for the Second Reformed Holy-Rollin' Double-Dipped Sanctified-in-the-Blood Church of the Whatever in order to get a full time job with a living wage?
Any halfway competent librarian can research a denomination well enough to pretend to be at least casually acquainted with its beliefs and practices. One would have to count time spent faking an interest in its worship services as simply an unpaid job requirement.
After all, the Elmer Gantries of the world do quite well for themselves. Why should I exclude myself from success and riches?
I keep noticing job postings from religious institutions, most of which strongly suggest that applicants better be faithful and devout members of the One True Church, OR ELSE.
A question for ethical discussion: would it be unethical to pretend great enthusiasm for the Second Reformed Holy-Rollin' Double-Dipped Sanctified-in-the-Blood Church of the Whatever in order to get a full time job with a living wage?
Any halfway competent librarian can research a denomination well enough to pretend to be at least casually acquainted with its beliefs and practices. One would have to count time spent faking an interest in its worship services as simply an unpaid job requirement.
After all, the Elmer Gantries of the world do quite well for themselves. Why should I exclude myself from success and riches?
Thursday, April 06, 2006
The Plame Game: the moment of truth
White House spokesperson, Sept. 29, 2003:
"[T]here's been no information that has been brought to our attention, beyond what we've seen in the media reports, to suggest White House involvement...."
"I've made it clear that there's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the Vice President's office, as well. When I'm talking about the White House, I'm talking about the Vice President's office as well....
Q: "You continue to talk about the severity of this and if anyone has any information they should go forward to the Justice Department. But can you tell us, since it's so severe, would someone or a group of persons, lose their job in the White House --
"At a minimum."
Q: "At a minimum?
"At a minimum."
George W. Bush, Sept. 30, 2003:
"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing.... [L]eaks of classified information are a bad thing."
Now that the world knows who was ultimately responsible for leaked classified information identifying a CIA operative and her network of sources, will the President keep his word?
After all, he's such a good Christian man and all....
White House spokesperson, Sept. 29, 2003:
"[T]here's been no information that has been brought to our attention, beyond what we've seen in the media reports, to suggest White House involvement...."
"I've made it clear that there's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the Vice President's office, as well. When I'm talking about the White House, I'm talking about the Vice President's office as well....
Q: "You continue to talk about the severity of this and if anyone has any information they should go forward to the Justice Department. But can you tell us, since it's so severe, would someone or a group of persons, lose their job in the White House --
"At a minimum."
Q: "At a minimum?
"At a minimum."
George W. Bush, Sept. 30, 2003:
"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing.... [L]eaks of classified information are a bad thing."
Now that the world knows who was ultimately responsible for leaked classified information identifying a CIA operative and her network of sources, will the President keep his word?
After all, he's such a good Christian man and all....
Latest Republican political tactic:
Sending amateur thugs to disrupt dissenting political meetings and push women around.
No joke.
Reported by "Juanita", of The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon. Also picked up by DailyKos, Wonkette and others.
Let's call this what it is. They're brownshirts, a la Adolf Hitler. Amateur thugs incited to go beat up dissenters and disrupt the activities of opposing political groups. The Republican party is quite openly adopting the tactics of the Nazi Party, and Americans have no one but themselves to blame if they fail to get the hint.
It remains to be seen whether the local prosecutor will file charges and whether the police will follow through on them.
Sending amateur thugs to disrupt dissenting political meetings and push women around.
No joke.
Reported by "Juanita", of The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon. Also picked up by DailyKos, Wonkette and others.
Let's call this what it is. They're brownshirts, a la Adolf Hitler. Amateur thugs incited to go beat up dissenters and disrupt the activities of opposing political groups. The Republican party is quite openly adopting the tactics of the Nazi Party, and Americans have no one but themselves to blame if they fail to get the hint.
It remains to be seen whether the local prosecutor will file charges and whether the police will follow through on them.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Briefly noted
Donkeys better than wives, says Indian textbook.
The Mad Bookseller opines about ABE's promotional bookmarks, and the Freeper reaction to them.
Smithsonian Institute privatizes access to its archives.
An amusing piece of experimental fiction in the form of a series of check stubs.
Donkeys better than wives, says Indian textbook.
The Mad Bookseller opines about ABE's promotional bookmarks, and the Freeper reaction to them.
Smithsonian Institute privatizes access to its archives.
An amusing piece of experimental fiction in the form of a series of check stubs.
Another documentary I'd like to see...
... if it were available.
Pulp Fiction Art : Cheap Thrills and Painted Nightmares
On a related topic: I recently watched a documentary on Frank Frazetta, the famous/notorious creator of many pulpish book and magazine covers. I suppose it should not surprise me that a documentary of the artist's life was somewhat less thrilling than the scenes depicted in his work. The film producers, unfortunately, had chosen to use, and over-use, the rather gimmicky device of using computer imaging to 'animate' some of his works. The first time it appeared, in the form of a three-dimensionalized version of one of his Conan paintings, it was mildly startling. The second and later times were simply annoying.
Ah well. The documentary neither adds to nor subtracts from Frazetta's paintings. Like 'em or not.
... if it were available.
Pulp Fiction Art : Cheap Thrills and Painted Nightmares
On a related topic: I recently watched a documentary on Frank Frazetta, the famous/notorious creator of many pulpish book and magazine covers. I suppose it should not surprise me that a documentary of the artist's life was somewhat less thrilling than the scenes depicted in his work. The film producers, unfortunately, had chosen to use, and over-use, the rather gimmicky device of using computer imaging to 'animate' some of his works. The first time it appeared, in the form of a three-dimensionalized version of one of his Conan paintings, it was mildly startling. The second and later times were simply annoying.
Ah well. The documentary neither adds to nor subtracts from Frazetta's paintings. Like 'em or not.
01:02:03, 04/05/06
It's coming up early tomorrow morning. It will only happen once in this century. Celebrate however you please.
Fiend has pointed out to me that for those who follow the British convention of listing day/month/year rather than month/day/year, this happy occasion will not arrive until May 4th. (She also pointed out that the year is really 2006 rather than "06", but I refuse to listen to such tedious hairsplitting!)
Unfortunately, I don't think I have time to start an apocalyptic cult of people who will sign all their earthly possessions over to me in anticipation of the world ending on this momentous occasion.
It's coming up early tomorrow morning. It will only happen once in this century. Celebrate however you please.
Fiend has pointed out to me that for those who follow the British convention of listing day/month/year rather than month/day/year, this happy occasion will not arrive until May 4th. (She also pointed out that the year is really 2006 rather than "06", but I refuse to listen to such tedious hairsplitting!)
Unfortunately, I don't think I have time to start an apocalyptic cult of people who will sign all their earthly possessions over to me in anticipation of the world ending on this momentous occasion.
Animal acts
Superior Township, just north of the crime-ridden little slum where I used to live, seems to have developed problems of its own.
Between the rampant theft, robbery and sexual assaults in Ypsilanti, sadists in Superior, and the various thieves and perverts who frequent the libraries, I'm becoming more and more convinced that taking the old saying about homes and castles literally may be the only way to live without being perpetually victimized. Unfortunately, people who work for their living rather than stealing it from others a la Bush, Cheney, Kenny Lay, et al, can't afford castles.
(For a sample of Ypsilanti's lovely environment, check out this fellow's resume.)
Superior Township, just north of the crime-ridden little slum where I used to live, seems to have developed problems of its own.
Between the rampant theft, robbery and sexual assaults in Ypsilanti, sadists in Superior, and the various thieves and perverts who frequent the libraries, I'm becoming more and more convinced that taking the old saying about homes and castles literally may be the only way to live without being perpetually victimized. Unfortunately, people who work for their living rather than stealing it from others a la Bush, Cheney, Kenny Lay, et al, can't afford castles.
(For a sample of Ypsilanti's lovely environment, check out this fellow's resume.)
Monday, April 03, 2006
"I got a one track mind,
going down a one train line
Living on dreams half the time
Going west...."
From Fortune magazine, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern, a regional railroad formed from routes discarded by the Chicago & North Western and other class-I mainlines, is poised to expand into the lucrative Powder River coalfield. (A map of the DM&E and its affiliated connections can be found here.)
Hm. If I had any money, and if the company were public, I might consider putting a little money into it just so I could say I owned a piece of the first major US railroad construction project in half a century. Not to mention the dicey hope of cashing in on a combination of government loans and rising fuel prices. (No one should take this as investment advice, though; I'm far too ignorant about financial matters for that.)
(Note: Yes, I stole the title of this post from Jimmie Dale Gilmore. It seemed appropriate.)
going down a one train line
Living on dreams half the time
Going west...."
From Fortune magazine, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern, a regional railroad formed from routes discarded by the Chicago & North Western and other class-I mainlines, is poised to expand into the lucrative Powder River coalfield. (A map of the DM&E and its affiliated connections can be found here.)
Hm. If I had any money, and if the company were public, I might consider putting a little money into it just so I could say I owned a piece of the first major US railroad construction project in half a century. Not to mention the dicey hope of cashing in on a combination of government loans and rising fuel prices. (No one should take this as investment advice, though; I'm far too ignorant about financial matters for that.)
(Note: Yes, I stole the title of this post from Jimmie Dale Gilmore. It seemed appropriate.)
In case you ever wondered:
According to a recent listserv posting from one of the principals of Norstrilia Press, the correct pronunciation of Cordwainer Smith's dry, dusty planet of sick sheep and fabulously wealthy farmers is "Nor-strile-ya".
Quoth Bruce Gillespie:
According to a recent listserv posting from one of the principals of Norstrilia Press, the correct pronunciation of Cordwainer Smith's dry, dusty planet of sick sheep and fabulously wealthy farmers is "Nor-strile-ya".
Quoth Bruce Gillespie:
The contention was that, in using the term Norstrilia, Linebarger invented 'Strine' (the language that Australians actually speak) well before Professor Afferbeck Lauder (= 'alphabetical order') published 'Let Stalk Strine' in 1966.
The other contention is that Linebarger's satire of Australia in the early sixties in Norstrilia is dead-on. Gillian Polack at last year's Continuum convention in Melbourne pointed out that Linebarger's description of Norstrilia is an exact description of Canberra as it was at the time. It is not (as I assumed) merely a generalised description of northern, outback Australia, but shows how Canberra was a national capital set up among grazing and agricultural properties.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
From a volume of Cicero's orations, opened at random:
XXIII. So that even if you have any one who may appear able to cope in terms of advantage with the king's armies, still, unless he be also a man who can keep his hands, and eyes, and desires from the treasures of the allies, from their wives and children, from the ornaments of their temples and cities, from the gold and jewels of the king, he will not be a fit person to be sent to this Asiatic and royal war. Do you think that there is any city there peacefully inclined towards us which is rich? Do you think that there is any rich city there, which will appear to those men to be peacefully inclined towards us? The sea-coast, o Romans, begged for Cnaeus Pompeius, not only on account of his renown for military achievements, but also because of the moderation of his disposition. For it saw that it was not the Roman people that was enriched every year by the public money, but only a few individuals, and that we did nothing more by the name of our fleets beyond sustaining losses, and so covering ourselves with additional disgrace....
Now reading....
The Sorrows of Empire, by Chalmers Johnson. For a quick overview of Johnson's views on the US's ever-expanding military "footprint", see this article.
The Sorrows of Empire, by Chalmers Johnson. For a quick overview of Johnson's views on the US's ever-expanding military "footprint", see this article.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Does the Emperor of Information Literacy have no clothes?
If I thought there were the smallest snowball's chance in hell that I would be able to go to the ACRL conference in New Orleans this summer, I would be interested in this debate. Perhaps someone with some professional-development support can fill me in. (Carlos?)
If I thought there were the smallest snowball's chance in hell that I would be able to go to the ACRL conference in New Orleans this summer, I would be interested in this debate. Perhaps someone with some professional-development support can fill me in. (Carlos?)
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Recent Read:
Califia's Daughters, by Leigh Richards
I admit it. I'm a sucker for postapocalyptic novels. Earth Abides; Alas Babylon; On the Beach; great stories all. Perhaps it's because I enjoy seeing how the characters overcome the difficulties of surviving in a world turned hostile, or how they try to preserve some semblance of civilization in the fact of savagery. Perhaps it's because I feel a kind of sentimental self-pity at seeing the great work of human society come to nothing. Or perhaps it's because I have some kind of mean-spirited resentment of most of the human race and would just as soon most of them went away and left the earth in the possession of a few surviving decent and intelligent people.
In Califia's Daughters, the wreck of the world has occurred many years ago, and the characters in the story are several generations into the process of survival and recovery. Nearly all of them are female, like the mythical Amazonian queen to which the title refers. One of the plagues that wrecked the world of "Before" was a virus which selectively wiped out men, leaving a ratio of ten or more women for every surviving man. Now in some puerile imaginations, this might create a world in which every man had a harem. Richards is more pragmatic than that. In her story, the women have taken over the functions of life and society, and the surviving men are relegated to the role of property to be carefully managed and hoarded. If they're lucky, they're cherished and guarded like prized breeding stock. If not, they're imprisoned and treated as slaves.
Both the author and her characters do good jobs of world-building. The world resented by the author is believable, and devoid of silly utopian theories about women being somehow morally superior to their male counterparts. The women in Califia's Daughters cover the full spectrum of human character from generous to ferociously greedy, from kindhearted to sadistic.
Recommended, especially for anyone who enjoyed any of the books I mentioned in the first paragraph.
Califia's Daughters, by Leigh Richards
I admit it. I'm a sucker for postapocalyptic novels. Earth Abides; Alas Babylon; On the Beach; great stories all. Perhaps it's because I enjoy seeing how the characters overcome the difficulties of surviving in a world turned hostile, or how they try to preserve some semblance of civilization in the fact of savagery. Perhaps it's because I feel a kind of sentimental self-pity at seeing the great work of human society come to nothing. Or perhaps it's because I have some kind of mean-spirited resentment of most of the human race and would just as soon most of them went away and left the earth in the possession of a few surviving decent and intelligent people.
In Califia's Daughters, the wreck of the world has occurred many years ago, and the characters in the story are several generations into the process of survival and recovery. Nearly all of them are female, like the mythical Amazonian queen to which the title refers. One of the plagues that wrecked the world of "Before" was a virus which selectively wiped out men, leaving a ratio of ten or more women for every surviving man. Now in some puerile imaginations, this might create a world in which every man had a harem. Richards is more pragmatic than that. In her story, the women have taken over the functions of life and society, and the surviving men are relegated to the role of property to be carefully managed and hoarded. If they're lucky, they're cherished and guarded like prized breeding stock. If not, they're imprisoned and treated as slaves.
Both the author and her characters do good jobs of world-building. The world resented by the author is believable, and devoid of silly utopian theories about women being somehow morally superior to their male counterparts. The women in Califia's Daughters cover the full spectrum of human character from generous to ferociously greedy, from kindhearted to sadistic.
Recommended, especially for anyone who enjoyed any of the books I mentioned in the first paragraph.
More losses to F/SF
John Moressey, best known for the chronicles of Kedrigern the cranky wizard.
And Jane Yolen's husband.
John Moressey, best known for the chronicles of Kedrigern the cranky wizard.
And Jane Yolen's husband.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
David Feintuch
Over and over again, I find out about good authors who live just down the road from me only after they've died. The latest one is David Feintuch, best known for his science-fictional series about Nicholas Seafort, a spacefaring naval officer.
Over and over again, I find out about good authors who live just down the road from me only after they've died. The latest one is David Feintuch, best known for his science-fictional series about Nicholas Seafort, a spacefaring naval officer.
Misplaced Priorities (again)
There's been much blood and thunder (not to mention thud and blunder) from the Bush Administration about the supposed need for the President and his minions to have unrestrained "unitary executive" power to spy on everybody, all the time. It's to fight the terra-ists, ya know.
Well. What kind of terra-ists are they fighting?
The Quakers.... the Raging Grannies... and, most recently, the Thomas Merton Center, a Catholic group that seeks to honor the life and spirit of its namesake by promoting peace.
Ya gotta watch out for them pacifists. They're a grave threat to... well, something or other.
There's been much blood and thunder (not to mention thud and blunder) from the Bush Administration about the supposed need for the President and his minions to have unrestrained "unitary executive" power to spy on everybody, all the time. It's to fight the terra-ists, ya know.
Well. What kind of terra-ists are they fighting?
The Quakers.... the Raging Grannies... and, most recently, the Thomas Merton Center, a Catholic group that seeks to honor the life and spirit of its namesake by promoting peace.
Ya gotta watch out for them pacifists. They're a grave threat to... well, something or other.
Words of Wisdom
Reference librarians at any library that offers any kind of computer access to the general public are constantly bombarded with the need to help out people who are completely clueless about computers. Phil Agre, of the UCLA Dept. of Information Studies, offers some useful reminders about how to help such people.
"Whenever they start to blame themselves, respond by blaming the computer...."
Why, that's almost as cynical and useful as blaming everything on the great god Policy! But, speaking pragmatically, it is good advice, especially considering the befuddling and nonintuitive way that most user interfaces are organized.
Reference librarians at any library that offers any kind of computer access to the general public are constantly bombarded with the need to help out people who are completely clueless about computers. Phil Agre, of the UCLA Dept. of Information Studies, offers some useful reminders about how to help such people.
"Whenever they start to blame themselves, respond by blaming the computer...."
Why, that's almost as cynical and useful as blaming everything on the great god Policy! But, speaking pragmatically, it is good advice, especially considering the befuddling and nonintuitive way that most user interfaces are organized.
News from inside the Bush Reality-Distortion Bubble:
From the BBC: Bush denies that Iraq is in civil war.
In other news, President Bush declared that Up is Down, Straight Ahead is Sideways, and his economic policy involved hiring illegal aliens to pick money off of trees.
From the BBC: Bush denies that Iraq is in civil war.
In other news, President Bush declared that Up is Down, Straight Ahead is Sideways, and his economic policy involved hiring illegal aliens to pick money off of trees.
Billions for Halliburton, but not one cent for....
FBI can't afford e'mail accounts for its agents
Does this mean that someone with a Hotmail account who claims to be an FBI agent might be telling the truth?
Now a reasonable person, faced with a serious cash shortage, would look for ways to increase their cashflow. Unfortunately, the Bush administration just can't seem to find the time to collect the $35 billion that is owed to the nation by their corporate cronies.
Just one more case of the Bush administration's priorities in action. Effective terrorism-fighting on the one hand; handouts to corporate cronies on the other hand. No contest.
"Some people call you the elite. I call you my base." -- George W. Bush
FBI can't afford e'mail accounts for its agents
Does this mean that someone with a Hotmail account who claims to be an FBI agent might be telling the truth?
Now a reasonable person, faced with a serious cash shortage, would look for ways to increase their cashflow. Unfortunately, the Bush administration just can't seem to find the time to collect the $35 billion that is owed to the nation by their corporate cronies.
Just one more case of the Bush administration's priorities in action. Effective terrorism-fighting on the one hand; handouts to corporate cronies on the other hand. No contest.
"Some people call you the elite. I call you my base." -- George W. Bush
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Random updates
It's been busy in Felix's World lately. For anybody who's fallen out of the loop and still remembered to check this obscure little blog, I'm still living in southeastern Michigan and working two jobs, at places I choose to call Suburban Public Library and Busy Bee College, neither one of which is willing to staff its library with full time professionals.
I recently returned from a perfectly lovely trip to the Great White North, where Fiend and I managed to go cross-country skiing without inflicting any self-injuries graver that bruised dignities.
Tomorrow I'm headed off to a symposium at the University of Michigan which I hope will cast some light on the perplexing world of mass digitization projects such as the ones that Google and Yahoo have famously undertaken. After which I'll abscond across the border like a 1920s bootlegger goin' back for more of what keeps him goin'.
It's been busy in Felix's World lately. For anybody who's fallen out of the loop and still remembered to check this obscure little blog, I'm still living in southeastern Michigan and working two jobs, at places I choose to call Suburban Public Library and Busy Bee College, neither one of which is willing to staff its library with full time professionals.
I recently returned from a perfectly lovely trip to the Great White North, where Fiend and I managed to go cross-country skiing without inflicting any self-injuries graver that bruised dignities.
Tomorrow I'm headed off to a symposium at the University of Michigan which I hope will cast some light on the perplexing world of mass digitization projects such as the ones that Google and Yahoo have famously undertaken. After which I'll abscond across the border like a 1920s bootlegger goin' back for more of what keeps him goin'.
I'm a published ... indexer.
Today marks my first contribution to Bill Contento's and Phil Stephenson-Payne's admirable FictionMags Index. Now perhaps all those old issues of Railroad Magazine that clutter up my humble abode will become useful.
Today marks my first contribution to Bill Contento's and Phil Stephenson-Payne's admirable FictionMags Index. Now perhaps all those old issues of Railroad Magazine that clutter up my humble abode will become useful.
Over the Transom
Miscellaneous news stories that have caught my attention lately:
Phyllis Chesler discusses The Failure of Feminism in a Chronicle excerpt from her recent book.
The title of this upcoming action movie is about as straightforward as they come: Snakes on a Plane. I guarantee you, people will still ask what it's about.
Meanwhile, Canadian customs officials are warned by this CBC story: "[A]nyone who handles imported goods should call the authorities if they spot anything slithery."
Crunchy Cons, a book-length followup by Rod Dreher to an earlier article in National Review, seems to be arousing some discussion both on the NRO website and from local blogger Dave of Suds & Soliloquies. I'm not going to comment until I get a chance to read the book, but it seems likely that I'll find something to agree with.
Jonah Goldberg, naturally, wants to excommunicate Dreher from the One True Church... er, I mean, the Bushite Republican party.
Miscellaneous news stories that have caught my attention lately:
Phyllis Chesler discusses The Failure of Feminism in a Chronicle excerpt from her recent book.
Because feminist academics and journalists are now so heavily influenced by left ways of thinking, many now believe that speaking out against head scarves, face veils, the chador, arranged marriages, polygamy, forced pregnancies, or female genital mutilation is either "imperialist" or "crusade-ist." Postmodernist ways of thinking have also led feminists to believe that confronting narratives on the academic page is as important and world-shattering as confronting jihadists in the flesh and rescuing living beings from captivity....
The title of this upcoming action movie is about as straightforward as they come: Snakes on a Plane. I guarantee you, people will still ask what it's about.
Meanwhile, Canadian customs officials are warned by this CBC story: "[A]nyone who handles imported goods should call the authorities if they spot anything slithery."
Crunchy Cons, a book-length followup by Rod Dreher to an earlier article in National Review, seems to be arousing some discussion both on the NRO website and from local blogger Dave of Suds & Soliloquies. I'm not going to comment until I get a chance to read the book, but it seems likely that I'll find something to agree with.
Jonah Goldberg, naturally, wants to excommunicate Dreher from the One True Church... er, I mean, the Bushite Republican party.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Huzzah for Mad Science!
Avigon : Gods and Demons, by Che Gilson and Jimmie Robinson. Several years ago, I browsed through a comic book store in a suburb of North Dallas. I was looking for the hardbound collections of Will Eisner's The Spirit which had recently been reviewed in library trade journals, but something else caught my eye while I was there. It was a slim, dark graphic novel titled Avigon, by Che Gilson and Jimmie Robinson. The style of the artwork was unique and strange, with a kind of surreally playful Gothic style to it. (Robinson, in an afterword, refers to the style of the book as "the Tim Burton thing".) More importantly, the story was considerably more subtle and morally complex than one usually finds in this type of publication. When I looked for further information on the web, I found reference to an upcoming expanded version of Avigon's tale, to be published under the title Avigon : Gods and Demons.
I waited for it. And waited. And then waited some more. At one point I even looked up the telephone number of the publisher and called them. No information.
Finally, in 2005, the expanded book appeared. I have some mixed reactions to it, but I'm glad that I can enjoy it and try to get it into a library or two for other people to enjoy.
The titular character, Avigon, is a "clockwork" -- a mechanical being who possesses no rights, but does possess the ability to think. She also possesses the ability to wonder why she has no rights and whether she would be better off escaping from her circumscribed life in the mansion of her creator, the serenely egotistical "clockworker" Pulsifer. Outside the doors of that mansion lies a world of baronial indulgence for the privileged aristocrats, of Machiavellian patronage-games for the most skilled artisans, and industrial chaos for everyone else. A world in which "clockworks" are treated as disposable chattels, the lowest of the low, who can be used and degraded shamelessly or set to destroy each other in gladiatorial combats for the amusement of their "betters". After all, they have no feelings and no souls. Or that's what all the authorities say, anyway.
I won't reveal the twists and turns of Avigon's tale, nor the outcome of her curiosity. But it's an intriguing and atmospheric tale with a number of surprising twists in it. The original publication of Avigon left the story hanging after a critical moment in Avigon's quest, a bitter disappointment that left everything about her nature and her future in doubt. The expanded version provides both more background and a continuation of her tale that leads to a resolution of sorts. It's something of a disquieting resolution, but it can be read as a kind of redemption.
Disquietude notwithstanding, it's highly recommended for anyone who enjoys atmospheric, moody graphic novels.
Girl Genius : Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank (A Gaslamp Fantasy with Adventure, Romance & Mad Science, by Phil & Kaja Foglio).
Poor Agatha Clay. She's a poor student, in both senses of the word, at Transylvania Polygnostic University. The University's motto -- "Know Enough to Be Afraid" -- suggests that its curriculum involves something more menacing than calculus and Renaissance poetry. That suggestion is right, for Agatha lives in a world ruled by Mad Science, in the person of eccentric and megalomaniac inventors possessed of "the Spark", or the ability to create robotic creatures called "clanks".
Old-time readers of Dragon magazine will no doubt remember Phil Foglio's long-running cartoon feature, What's New with Phil & Dixie. Since leaving Dragon, it appears that Foglio has worked a spell doing similar cartoons for the company that produced Magic : The Gathering, done covers for books, and embarked upon several comic and graphic-novel ventures. One of those ventures -- the "Xxxenophile" series -- appears to be, shall we say, a Very Graphic Novel indeed.
Happily, the Girl Genius graphic novel series doesn't fit that definition. It's an enjoyable and adventurous romp through a strange, steampunk-ish world in which the grim reality of murderous realpolitik mingles with the bizarre whimsy that characterizes all of Foglio's work. Agatha, of course, is more than she appears to be, and the conclusion of the first volume points toward all kinds of interesting complications. I'm looking forward to the subsequent volumes.
Recommended for anyone who enjoys whimsical adventures.
Avigon : Gods and Demons, by Che Gilson and Jimmie Robinson. Several years ago, I browsed through a comic book store in a suburb of North Dallas. I was looking for the hardbound collections of Will Eisner's The Spirit which had recently been reviewed in library trade journals, but something else caught my eye while I was there. It was a slim, dark graphic novel titled Avigon, by Che Gilson and Jimmie Robinson. The style of the artwork was unique and strange, with a kind of surreally playful Gothic style to it. (Robinson, in an afterword, refers to the style of the book as "the Tim Burton thing".) More importantly, the story was considerably more subtle and morally complex than one usually finds in this type of publication. When I looked for further information on the web, I found reference to an upcoming expanded version of Avigon's tale, to be published under the title Avigon : Gods and Demons.
I waited for it. And waited. And then waited some more. At one point I even looked up the telephone number of the publisher and called them. No information.
Finally, in 2005, the expanded book appeared. I have some mixed reactions to it, but I'm glad that I can enjoy it and try to get it into a library or two for other people to enjoy.
The titular character, Avigon, is a "clockwork" -- a mechanical being who possesses no rights, but does possess the ability to think. She also possesses the ability to wonder why she has no rights and whether she would be better off escaping from her circumscribed life in the mansion of her creator, the serenely egotistical "clockworker" Pulsifer. Outside the doors of that mansion lies a world of baronial indulgence for the privileged aristocrats, of Machiavellian patronage-games for the most skilled artisans, and industrial chaos for everyone else. A world in which "clockworks" are treated as disposable chattels, the lowest of the low, who can be used and degraded shamelessly or set to destroy each other in gladiatorial combats for the amusement of their "betters". After all, they have no feelings and no souls. Or that's what all the authorities say, anyway.
I won't reveal the twists and turns of Avigon's tale, nor the outcome of her curiosity. But it's an intriguing and atmospheric tale with a number of surprising twists in it. The original publication of Avigon left the story hanging after a critical moment in Avigon's quest, a bitter disappointment that left everything about her nature and her future in doubt. The expanded version provides both more background and a continuation of her tale that leads to a resolution of sorts. It's something of a disquieting resolution, but it can be read as a kind of redemption.
Disquietude notwithstanding, it's highly recommended for anyone who enjoys atmospheric, moody graphic novels.
Girl Genius : Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank (A Gaslamp Fantasy with Adventure, Romance & Mad Science, by Phil & Kaja Foglio).
Poor Agatha Clay. She's a poor student, in both senses of the word, at Transylvania Polygnostic University. The University's motto -- "Know Enough to Be Afraid" -- suggests that its curriculum involves something more menacing than calculus and Renaissance poetry. That suggestion is right, for Agatha lives in a world ruled by Mad Science, in the person of eccentric and megalomaniac inventors possessed of "the Spark", or the ability to create robotic creatures called "clanks".
Old-time readers of Dragon magazine will no doubt remember Phil Foglio's long-running cartoon feature, What's New with Phil & Dixie. Since leaving Dragon, it appears that Foglio has worked a spell doing similar cartoons for the company that produced Magic : The Gathering, done covers for books, and embarked upon several comic and graphic-novel ventures. One of those ventures -- the "Xxxenophile" series -- appears to be, shall we say, a Very Graphic Novel indeed.
Happily, the Girl Genius graphic novel series doesn't fit that definition. It's an enjoyable and adventurous romp through a strange, steampunk-ish world in which the grim reality of murderous realpolitik mingles with the bizarre whimsy that characterizes all of Foglio's work. Agatha, of course, is more than she appears to be, and the conclusion of the first volume points toward all kinds of interesting complications. I'm looking forward to the subsequent volumes.
Recommended for anyone who enjoys whimsical adventures.
Monday, March 06, 2006
You can't take the sky from me
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?
Shiny. Thanks to the Itinerant Librarian for the link.
You scored as Serenity (Firefly).
You like to live your own way and don’t enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.
Serenity (Firefly) 88%
FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 69%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 69%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 69%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 69%
Enterprise D (Star Trek) 69%
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 63%
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 63%
Moya (Farscape) 63%
SG-1 (Stargate) 56%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 56%
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 3%
Thursday, March 02, 2006
The Future Is Now
If anyone wants to outfit their apartment to resemble 10-Forward, give this guy a call. Better do it quickly, though. An unconfirmed listserv report indicated that his interior-design company has declared bankruptcy and the STNG-themed flat is up for sale.
If anyone wants to outfit their apartment to resemble 10-Forward, give this guy a call. Better do it quickly, though. An unconfirmed listserv report indicated that his interior-design company has declared bankruptcy and the STNG-themed flat is up for sale.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Censorship and censorship
There's been much discussion in the news and on the web about the famous/infamous Danish cartoons and the mob violence of fanatical Islamists who demand worldwide censorship powers over them and all other publications in all nations everywhere in the world.
Whether the cartoons are any good, in terms of artistic or humorous merit, is entirely beside the point. The demands for censorship, and the mob violence, are the only political issues here. There are several theories about the reason for these riots.
One: Muslims (or at least the ones involved in rioting or instigating riots) believe that they have the right to censor any idea, anywhere, that they dislike because Muslims are divinely ordained to rule the world. It goes without saying that anyone who wishes to live in any other type of society than a Taliban-style theocracy must categorically reject such demands just as they must reject similar claims coming from self-styled "Christian" theocrats and all other would-be absolute dictators.
Two: Radical Islamist imams and cynical politicos in Islamic countries have deliberately whipped up a demagogic frenzy in order to promote themselves and keep the attention of the discontented mob focused on something other than the dismal social, intellectual and economic failures of Islamist societies. As Eric Hoffer argued in the True Believer, mass movements can arise without belief in God, but never without a belief in a Devil. Hatred is a great unifier. "And slime had they for mortar...."
Three: The Islamist mindset is simply incapable of understanding the concept of intellectual freedom. Like the dogmatic Marxists of the twentieth century or the Inquisitors of the medieval Christian church, they can see only whether a particular publication is useful to their party or not, and assume that anything that is published must represent the political agenda of some kind of ruling class. This theory is supported by the actions of Islamic governments in condemning the Danish government. They appear to be completely ignorant of the possibility that anything could be published which does not represent the views of the government in power. Islam's historical insistence on religious control of government, like the old-style Communist insistence on the worship of the Party to the exclusion of all other religions, may create a mindset which is simply incapable of understanding that freedom can exist in other cultures. (Those who wish to apply this dismal analysis to the Bush Administration's foreign policy are free to do so, but that's just too depressing for me to address at the moment.)
Those who know me will not be surprised that I'm no more inclined to give Islamist demagogues veto power over my mind, or anyone else's mind, than I'm inclined to give such power to purportedly "Christian" demagogues or to secular censors.
Quite simply, a civilized society that wishes to have any intellectual freedom or tolerance of any kind cannot afford to surrender to thuggery. Rewarding thuggery leads to more of the same. And more. And more. And more. If fanatical Islamists can successfully silence newspapers or cartoonists by threatening mob violence, why shouldn't fanatical "Christian" fundamentalists do the same? Or fanatical devotees of any other sect or political faction? Or, for that matter, political parties or business corporations that find certain facts or ideas to be contrary to their interests? After all, they'll be left behind in the war for absolute supremacy if they fail to use every weapon at their disposal.
This is not a hypothetical question. There are any number of individuals and groups that would happily use such power to intimidate and silence others. Consider the Eric Rudolphs of the world, as well as the Osama Bin Ladens. Consider all the potential Unabomers and EarthFirsters and Operation Rescue-ers and Weathermen and Timothy McVeighs and Fred Phelpses out there.
Does anyone, other than bloodthirsty fanatics and would-be dictators, really want a society in which anyone who threatens to incite violence is rewarded with the power of censorship? A world in which the most violent fanatics set the rules for everybody else?
It's freedom, or censorship. A pretty simple choice. The only real question is whether the civilized part of the world has the guts to stand up to the fanatics who demand censorship of all thoughts other than their own.
Meanwhile, in Austria....
Unfortunately, it's not only would-be Islamist censors that have made the news lately. Consider David Irving, who was recently sentenced to three years in an Austrian prison for stating in 1989 that the Nazis did not murder Jews at Auschwitz. (Note: Irving has since changed his position, according to the current version of Wikipedia's entry about him. He apparently continues to claim that the Holocaust was exaggerated. He's widely regarded as a racist loon, although some more generous interpreters think he just wants attention.)
Censorship of dingbat conspiracy theories is just as misguided as censorship based on religious fanaticism. Worse, it gives ammunition to the slippery-tongued apologists for Islamist demagoguery, who argue that European censorship of Holocaust-deniers justifes Islamist censorship of anything and everything else.
A bad show all 'round, except for the saving grace that European governments have, so far, refused to cave in to the would-be Islamist bullies. Let's hope that Europe someday manages to embrace intellectual freedom consistently. Letting the loons have their say, and be openly debunked, is healthier than letting them fester in secret and cultivate an insular, self-referential sense of apocalyptic, "righteous" martyrdom.
Another flavor of censorship
... may be on its way to your Internet connection if your freindly telecom conglomerates get their way and eradicate the principle of "net neutrality". It'll be interesting to see how this works out. Will the telecom conglomerates succeed in holding Internet content hostage for ransom payments? Will the mega-corporations succeed in using a pay-for-play Internet to block everybody else's content but their own? Wait and see. Or not, if you're so inclined.
There's been much discussion in the news and on the web about the famous/infamous Danish cartoons and the mob violence of fanatical Islamists who demand worldwide censorship powers over them and all other publications in all nations everywhere in the world.
Whether the cartoons are any good, in terms of artistic or humorous merit, is entirely beside the point. The demands for censorship, and the mob violence, are the only political issues here. There are several theories about the reason for these riots.
One: Muslims (or at least the ones involved in rioting or instigating riots) believe that they have the right to censor any idea, anywhere, that they dislike because Muslims are divinely ordained to rule the world. It goes without saying that anyone who wishes to live in any other type of society than a Taliban-style theocracy must categorically reject such demands just as they must reject similar claims coming from self-styled "Christian" theocrats and all other would-be absolute dictators.
Two: Radical Islamist imams and cynical politicos in Islamic countries have deliberately whipped up a demagogic frenzy in order to promote themselves and keep the attention of the discontented mob focused on something other than the dismal social, intellectual and economic failures of Islamist societies. As Eric Hoffer argued in the True Believer, mass movements can arise without belief in God, but never without a belief in a Devil. Hatred is a great unifier. "And slime had they for mortar...."
Three: The Islamist mindset is simply incapable of understanding the concept of intellectual freedom. Like the dogmatic Marxists of the twentieth century or the Inquisitors of the medieval Christian church, they can see only whether a particular publication is useful to their party or not, and assume that anything that is published must represent the political agenda of some kind of ruling class. This theory is supported by the actions of Islamic governments in condemning the Danish government. They appear to be completely ignorant of the possibility that anything could be published which does not represent the views of the government in power. Islam's historical insistence on religious control of government, like the old-style Communist insistence on the worship of the Party to the exclusion of all other religions, may create a mindset which is simply incapable of understanding that freedom can exist in other cultures. (Those who wish to apply this dismal analysis to the Bush Administration's foreign policy are free to do so, but that's just too depressing for me to address at the moment.)
Those who know me will not be surprised that I'm no more inclined to give Islamist demagogues veto power over my mind, or anyone else's mind, than I'm inclined to give such power to purportedly "Christian" demagogues or to secular censors.
Quite simply, a civilized society that wishes to have any intellectual freedom or tolerance of any kind cannot afford to surrender to thuggery. Rewarding thuggery leads to more of the same. And more. And more. And more. If fanatical Islamists can successfully silence newspapers or cartoonists by threatening mob violence, why shouldn't fanatical "Christian" fundamentalists do the same? Or fanatical devotees of any other sect or political faction? Or, for that matter, political parties or business corporations that find certain facts or ideas to be contrary to their interests? After all, they'll be left behind in the war for absolute supremacy if they fail to use every weapon at their disposal.
This is not a hypothetical question. There are any number of individuals and groups that would happily use such power to intimidate and silence others. Consider the Eric Rudolphs of the world, as well as the Osama Bin Ladens. Consider all the potential Unabomers and EarthFirsters and Operation Rescue-ers and Weathermen and Timothy McVeighs and Fred Phelpses out there.
Does anyone, other than bloodthirsty fanatics and would-be dictators, really want a society in which anyone who threatens to incite violence is rewarded with the power of censorship? A world in which the most violent fanatics set the rules for everybody else?
It's freedom, or censorship. A pretty simple choice. The only real question is whether the civilized part of the world has the guts to stand up to the fanatics who demand censorship of all thoughts other than their own.
Meanwhile, in Austria....
Unfortunately, it's not only would-be Islamist censors that have made the news lately. Consider David Irving, who was recently sentenced to three years in an Austrian prison for stating in 1989 that the Nazis did not murder Jews at Auschwitz. (Note: Irving has since changed his position, according to the current version of Wikipedia's entry about him. He apparently continues to claim that the Holocaust was exaggerated. He's widely regarded as a racist loon, although some more generous interpreters think he just wants attention.)
Censorship of dingbat conspiracy theories is just as misguided as censorship based on religious fanaticism. Worse, it gives ammunition to the slippery-tongued apologists for Islamist demagoguery, who argue that European censorship of Holocaust-deniers justifes Islamist censorship of anything and everything else.
A bad show all 'round, except for the saving grace that European governments have, so far, refused to cave in to the would-be Islamist bullies. Let's hope that Europe someday manages to embrace intellectual freedom consistently. Letting the loons have their say, and be openly debunked, is healthier than letting them fester in secret and cultivate an insular, self-referential sense of apocalyptic, "righteous" martyrdom.
Another flavor of censorship
... may be on its way to your Internet connection if your freindly telecom conglomerates get their way and eradicate the principle of "net neutrality". It'll be interesting to see how this works out. Will the telecom conglomerates succeed in holding Internet content hostage for ransom payments? Will the mega-corporations succeed in using a pay-for-play Internet to block everybody else's content but their own? Wait and see. Or not, if you're so inclined.
RefGrunting in retrospect
I was going to RefGrunt this morning at Suburban Public Library. Unfortunately, I haven't had enough time to sit down.
So far, in the first hour, we have:
8 requests for "temporary" internet passes
1 tax question
1 inquiry about a library program
1 relatively quick reference question ("how do birds fly?")
1 extensive reference question ("looking for average home heating costs for this county")
1 person who couldn't figure out how the printing system worked
1 person who first asked for an internet pass in the mistaken belief that the internet terminals were the only library catalog access
1 "where are the bathrooms"
2 complaints from library timesheet clerk who is processing last week's timesheets and objects to me working during hours when she thinks all decent people should be asleep
1 request for local newspaper's classified ads
Too much work to do to keep RefGrunting, unfortunately, so that will have to serve as a snapshot of my life.
I was going to RefGrunt this morning at Suburban Public Library. Unfortunately, I haven't had enough time to sit down.
So far, in the first hour, we have:
8 requests for "temporary" internet passes
1 tax question
1 inquiry about a library program
1 relatively quick reference question ("how do birds fly?")
1 extensive reference question ("looking for average home heating costs for this county")
1 person who couldn't figure out how the printing system worked
1 person who first asked for an internet pass in the mistaken belief that the internet terminals were the only library catalog access
1 "where are the bathrooms"
2 complaints from library timesheet clerk who is processing last week's timesheets and objects to me working during hours when she thinks all decent people should be asleep
1 request for local newspaper's classified ads
Too much work to do to keep RefGrunting, unfortunately, so that will have to serve as a snapshot of my life.
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