Anonymous Collective

The Independent Eye looks like a promising new venue for alternative media in Cincinnati. The website offers clean, appealing graphics and a smart, D.I.Y. approach to content: You can pick and choose among news feeds from local bloggers, smart-alecks, and wanna-bes.

Spacetropic is one of the available feeds. I am grateful to be included, and appreciate any visitors from the Eye. I am listed as a 'personal' weblog - and I won't quibble, since much of what I say here reflects my singular politics - which won't stack neatly with Left or Right.

Trouble is - in the blogosphere, two separate, parallel food chains have evolved, and they rarely interact. Items on local Leftie blogs are cribbed from Atrios or TPM. But how many times does a PowerLine reader trouble him or herself with those perspectives? And does a Kos reader ever browse LGF?

It's the essence of democracy to choose among our options this new media. But this may entail a responsibility to sometimes move away from our insulted comfort zones and challenge ourselves.

UPDATE (4/5/05): I stand corrected. Mike Meckler points out that Kos readers actually do interact with LGF on a regular basis, and he cites examples here, here, here, and here.

It's clear that the bloggers themselves read each other, but the rank-and-file may often be left with cartoonish stereotypes. And to the substance of some of the Kos postings, if we were to judge a weblog strictly on the quality and tenor of the comments page, we'd be left with the conclusion that all bloggers are crass simpletons. It's one of the reasons I don't enable comments (although this may change) because I don't want some of the more moronic segments of vox populi making their inevitable thoughtless commentary.

Oh Inverted World

Jesse Jackson is sparking cognitive dissonance among those who see the pro-Shiavoites as Jesusland proto-Republicans. Maybe they thought the 'Reverend' part of his title was there simply to promote street cred among churchy African-Americans. Turns out he believes some of that crap.

Meanwhile Hillary Rodham has taken a stance against the videogame Grand Theft Auto by claiming it glamorizes and encourages violence. Is she wisely picking off an easy cultural issue to win Red-state respectability, or selling the party into Republican Lite? These types of quixotic questions will torture progressives until 2008, when they will shrug and resign themselves to the fact that Hillary can win.

Finally, former basketball also-ran Bill Bradley has a piece in today's New York Times suggesting that the Democrats need to place more value on party infrastructure than personalities with Kennedyesque charm. The Dems, he suggests, should put away the hair spray and mimic the nefarious money-and-influence cabal that ties together Scaife, Rove, Limbaugh, etc.

Bradley himself has the charisma of a wet tarp, but he's got a point. Democrats should also practice answering questions about national defense and social security in the affirmative - proposing active solutions instead of deriding conservatives or sputtering about Bush. Or am I expecting too much?

Axis of Soccer

North Korea will be hosting Iran for a big soccer match this Wednesday, and the significance of the event isn't strictly athletic.

Last Friday's defeat of a Japanese soccer team was reported in the media as the cause of a deadly riot. Dig deeper and you will discover that protestors against the current regime were using the event as cover to take to the streets Tehran to protest against the mullahs. Dig deeper still, and on the blogs of expatriate Persians you will see a simmering revolution that may be getting traction. And I don't know who took these pictures, but he or she has a very brave soul.

Why don't we see media coverage? Iran is a closed society, and is in possession of a large bureaucracy whose only purpose is to keep information from circulating in any direction. It may be impossible to imagine, living in the West, in a nonstop torrent of media.

Tomorrow, following the North Korea game, they have more protests planned, this time across the country and in greater numbers. Lets hope this is the start of 1979 in reverse.

VIA PUBLIUS

Flashback Politics

These evangelical maniacs need to keep their extremist viewpoints away from politics. Radical fundamentalists are attempting to impose undue moral influence on a matter that should be left to the law.

I'm referring, of course, to the abolitionists, who are clearly seeking to turn our republic into a theocracy. Why can't they hold their religious concerns privately? Nobody wants to hear about their God. When it comes to slaveholding and religion, a 'don't ask, don't tell' practice is best.

* Rhetorical Device Off *

Brian Griffin is ranting again. The notion that in the past, religion "was not something polite people discussed in public" is simply at odds with basic American history. And the abolition movement is only one instance - the second most obvious example is Martin Luther King and the promanant role black churches played in leading the way to the Civil Rights Act. Are you offended by this too?

I didn't think so. To be clear, I'm not happy with the way religious conservatives have handled Terry Shiavo; it's a gross violation of privacy, not to mention our legal system. But instead of suggesting we shouldn't apply moral judgment to public law (as if this is something new) - why don't you simply disagree?

Respect My Peeps

This time of year, 'Style' and 'Tempo' section editors from newspapers worldwide engage in a yearly Spring ritual - the inevitable article about Easter goodies. As a service to you, I have compiled some highlights related to the lighter side of Easter.

• A fornication-related pagan history of chocolate rabbits.
• Some Internet dude and his Easter candy torture regime.
• Make your own peeps at home. (No, not like that.)
• Headline: Not knowing what to do, local woman bakes rabbit-shaped cake.
• An arrest has been made in the Easter bunny assault in Rotterdam, NY.

So don't let all of this talk about sin, redemption, and last-minute court appeals get you down. Go get yourself some sugary snack action.

Opportunistic Invertebrates

Political Expediency: Despite the denials – and notwithstanding the merits of either cause – I think the Shiavo case exposes that religious conservatives are just as willing to abuse the distribution of power between state and federal branches of the judiciary to promote an agenda as some people on the left did with gay marriage. The constitution can not be customized to promote anyone's special cause.

Renegade Octopi: Based on this news report from ABC, I think we should hardly be surprised if one day the octopi swarm out of the sea, don hats, scarves, and shoes, and attempt to pass themselves off as humans. (Right. As if we wouldn’t notice.)

Walkable Cities

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/21/014833.php
March 21

Letter to Editor
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050323/EDIT0202/503230305/1022/EDIT

Totonto
http://www.canurb.com/events/event_details.php?id=57

Londan
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_about/documents/page/dft_about_028157.hcsp

After Terri Shiavo

How about a tax credit for people that send, with their yearly filing, a basic living will? It could be a simple form. If something happens that causes me to attain a persistent vegetative state, choose from the following:

Keep me around forever.
Keep me around for number of months.
Keep me around if I respond to shiny or colorful objects.
Keep me around until my medical bills exceed dollars.
Kick out the plug as soon as possible.

Voila. You have eliminated a potentially agonizing dilemma for your loved ones, and prevented the possibility of a drawn-out, legal slapstick routine that resembles Weekend At Bernie's - but with fewer boffo laughs.

If politicians could stop posturing on this issue they might be able to find clever ways to incentivize citizens to take responsibility. Personally, I don't want anyone to sit hopefully in the hospital next to me and machines that keep me alive. Plant me among the flowers, throw a party filled with laughter and tears, and get on with the business of living.

Vegetable Friend

Politics 101: When party A comes up with a transparent scheme to win voter sympathy, and party B can only respond with the accusation "Hey! That's a cheap political ploy!" - then party A wins the contest.

It's for this reason that Reagan (and every president since) added sympathetic Americans to the balcony during his state of the union speeches. And it's for this reason that Democrats, whenever the words "social security" are uttered, immediately haul out the dance squad of terrified elderly people talking about surviving on cat food.

And it's the reason for Terri Schiavo. Complain all you want.

UPDATE: Taking off my political handicapper hat - tonight I saw DeLay's recent comments on CNN, and he came off very oily and exploitative. The Shiavo issue may win political favor with religious conservatives, but it comes at the expense of a disregard for privacy during a painful time. Why can't we just leave these people alone?

Judy and the Dream of Horses

Judy Woodruff from CNN can't decide. Are blogs about opinion or reporting?

Judy, along with a repentant Jon Klien (who once famously dismissed bloggers as kooks in pajamas) is giving the blogosphere four minutes each day. They may be reacting to MSNBC's Coast-to-Coast, which already tracks blog activity. But it's getting harder to care.

And they're still missing the point. Blogs do offer opinion, and increasing amounts of reporting - but the real function is a new twist on the editorial process. Blogs in their aggregate activity, through the sum total of links and citations, are a decentralized way to elevate stories. Important items won't be ignored, and bogus information is stripped back to reveal the truth, sooner or later - but probably sooner. Experts are online 24/7, and they can chime in the debate to increase the validity of differing stories.

By it's decentralized nature, this process of editorial control and news elevation is essentially a nonpartisan process. Jeff Gannon, meet Dan Rather. You're both fraudulent pimps.

So Judy, where does that leave you? You should be worried - but for the right reasons.

VIA INSAPUNDIT

Buckeye Hardball

MSNBC's Hardball is offering an Ohio-specific show tonight about the race for governor. The show is set to be broadcast from Columbus. From the promotional spot I saw, it wasn't clear if Chris Matthews was doing his usual trick, and going to a university campus (in this case, O.S.U.) with the presumption that the values he finds among college kids represents Red State America.

I expect Ohio has been identified as a national issue because of Republican Ken Blackwell's role in the 2004 elections. According to the black helicopter crowd, Ken conspired to suppress votes, unbeknownst to all of the Democrats who are required by federal election law to observe polling stations and counting procedures on an equal basis with Republicans. (Nevermind the fact that, even had Kerry won Ohio, he would have "lost" by three million votes. As a connoisseur of irony I would have relished that outcome.)

We'll see if this tired subject is rehashed by Matthews. The real issues are budget and the stubborn job market. Perhaps Democrat Mike Coleman, also slated as a guest, will offer up some new ideas.

Them Apples

They have learned nothing from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Thanks to another hapless record company, Fiona Apple's fans are busy downloading 38,000 copies of her latest album each day from the filesharing networks. It's unavailable in stores because the idiotic executives couldn't find a "hit single" among the tracks.

Markets do some things very well. Sony made millions on the Walkman personal stereo adding features and cutting costs over the years, all the while diligently practicing kaizen. Then Apple quietly destroyed this market with the iPod. Sony has since demonstrated further ineptitude in the digital marketplace by failing to find any meaningful mutual benefits between it's consumer electronics and entertainment divisions.

The intangible value behind "creative" content doesn't appear to work well with intensely focused management. Profitability and art have a tempestuous relationship, and for that we should be grateful.

More and Various Items

I hope everyone had a safe St. Patty's Day. Some quick items:

• One of the best Craigslist posts ever.
• Paul Wolfowitz' World Bank nomination is an ugly American cigarette extinguished in Europe's plate of brie. Wasn't Bush recently cuddling up to them?
• SharpReader - my new favorite newsfeed application to handle RSS. I'm always looking for ways to surf large amounts of content with maximum efficiency - and this one is a winner.
• In case you thought we've discovered everything, read New Scientist's list of 13 Things That Do Not Make Sense. My favorites: The Pioneer Anomaly, and the 'Wow' signal.
• Hitch in high dudgeon over WMD. Nobody gets off lightly.
  

This week has been goofy madness. I look forward to an overdue date with a pint of Guinness tomorrow and a Saturday trip to the movies with my better half. Any suggestions?

Sapphos Screensaver

Ann Smith, a police officer assigned to school duty in Camden, Ohio faces the prospect of losing her job because of a screensaver on her PC that advertised a lesbian-themed TV show. (Via MetaFilter.)

The article doesn't specify if this is a high school or grammar school, and I think the difference is relevant. If it were a grammar school, I would understand suggesting some distrection (certainly not firing her) since this, like all sexual issues, is tricky to explain to younger kids. But if she's at a high school any sort of public reprimand sends a very unfortunate message to teenagers whose identities are fragile, and beginning to emerge.

Tuesday's Child

Miscellaneous items for your perusal:

• The Ultimate Canadian Girlfriend story. (Thanks, C.S.)
  
• I'm losing my edge: LCD Soundsytem is smart, lo-fi, and relentless. I really like this music.
  
• Spacewalker: My Japanese alphabetic neighbor in listing of blogs. You won't fathom a word, but enjoy the pictures. Everything is made from a dream.
• Via MetaFilter: Experimental games, some of which are physics-based, and funny. (E.g. Tower of Goo)
  
• We need more girl bloggers and non-honkies.
  

Also, due to a very hectic schedule of work and extracurriculars, expect few posts this week. I'm not happy about it. I don't even time to surf headlines. Media withdrawal symptoms are ugly.

Browse the archives - or send me email. I could use feedback. C'mon people. I post on a variety of topics, from foreign policy to personal reflections. What works? What do you like to see? Here is your chance to "give back" to the community.

Domino Game Theory

Let's review. There are two groups of Lebanese.

First we have the pro-independence crowd, mobilized towards democracy by the assassination of Rafik Hariri. They held vigils, and increasing larger rallies, to demand Syrian withdrawal. They're the side with the attractive protest babes.

Then there is the pro-Syrian group, comprised largely of Hezbollah. They rounded up some supporters and held a bigger protest last week, while chanting, without any apparent sense of irony, about 'no foreign interference'. They're the side with machine guns.

Today the pro-independence crowd struck back with an even bigger protest, and some inspired signs. Meanwhile Syrian troops and intelligence agents are quietly moving towards the border. And in Syria itself there are some cracks around the facade of Bashar Assad's regime (maybe he can go back to ophthalmology).

The genie of democracy has clearly been released from the bottle in the Middle East. But we should expect reversals of fortune along the way, and on the basis of experience, this administration would be wise to resist any tendencies towards 'mission accomplished' -style pronouncements. The dominoes could still fall, but it might not happen quickly or without bloodshed. Still I think we might be watching history.

Perfection is the Enemy

Perfection is the enemy of the good. The quote is often attributed to the French writer Gustave Flaubert, and it makes sense. A reading of Madame Bovary reveals a masterful obsession with pristine wordcraft in this story about bourgeois infidelity.

The larger idea at play is simply that an fixation with purity will lead to an inability to accept practical compromise. Radical ideologues transform this principle to an advantage: By flinging the merde of hypocrisy at every imperfection, they can achieve an advanced state of radicalism.

You know the drill: Jefferson owned and consorted with slaves. Rooselevelt okayed the Japanese camps. And even the beloved Dr. Suess drew racist pictures. By this method, those on the 'other side' become the most vile demons, and even sympathetic Democrats are stooges. Maximum critical advantage is only rewarded to those who have the stomach to engage in friendly fire.

This is the same dogma that, in some circles, makes vegans better than vegetarians and raw foodists better than the above. Without any oppressive religious structures (of course), a behavioralist ethic becomes necessary, in which most people become 'sinners' - but against Man instead of God, in the form of compromise.

Justin Raimondo from Antiwar.com runs puts a neat libertarian twist on this concept. A self-described conservative (the same word trickery makes Paul Wolfowitz a progressive) Raimondo has all of the chops - he links heavily to the self-referential disinfosphere, proposes no solutions, and is willing to eat his own. It's a worthy example of polemics at their finest.

Haircuts and Spitbombs

Fourth grade is landmark year in childhood development. I have watched my daughter struggle with appointment calendars, project deadlines, and a rapidly morphing social dynamic that includes friendships with other girls that can crumble (or spring magically into existence) with one single sideways look or playground comment.

Then there are the fourth grade boys. Recently my daughter came home very upset on behalf of her friend, a girl who was mocked for her new haircut. "Stupid!" Or "What a stupid haircut!" was the official response from the Y-chromosome side of the classroom, delivered in a singsong drone that is calculated to convey maximum ridicule.

Normally I would offer a patriarchal speech about 'how I'm sure their parents wouldn't be proud of them if they heard ...' etc. But this time, instead, I told my daughter the tale of Margaret C.

I went to school with Margaret at St. Ann’s elementary in Washington DC more than twenty years ago. Among my fourth grade classmates Margaret was seen as the teacher's pet. It didn't help that she was tall and awkward. She also got As, returned library books on time, and was asked to watch the class when Mrs. Roddy disappeared for several minutes and came back smelling like Winstons.

So she was a ripe target for me and my cronies. She came under fire from our relentless spit-bomb flickage whenever Mrs. Roddy was at the chalkboard. Margaret would hear the snickers from the seats behind, and turn around quickly, eyes narrowed in hot anger, brushing the gooey paper from her hair. Telling the teacher, she knew, would only make it worse.

I told my daughter all of this, and told her how I didn't see Margaret between the end of fourth grade and my senior year of high school. In that time nature had transformed Margaret from a squeaky clarinet to a full orchestra. (My real reaction to this change at the time - as a teenage boy - was edited for content.) I described Margaret, sitting in an auditorium during play practice, studying chemistry homework between her scenes, and casually ignoring the boys who would try to talk to her - or sometimes rewarding them with a knockout smile.

Needless to say, Margaret wouldn't give me the time of day.

This is the story I told my daughter, without any explicit moral at the end, when she seemed upset about the fourth grade boys. We drove along in silence for a few minutes. And when I next looked in the rear-view mirror I saw a big grin had spread across her face.

Once in a while I get it right.

International Women's Day

Women in Turkey, emboldened by the prospect of their nation's membership in the E.U. - and an overall, regional trend towards acting up - were beaten, kicked and tear gassed by police when they attempted to stage a protest for women's rights.

Prince Charles was subjected to incoherent socialist boobage during his trip to New Zealand.

Female Lebanese protestors have become a sensation on the right side of the blogosphere.

Five hundred Kuwaiti women staged a protest to support universal suffrage in their tiny country, and were subsequently invited to a session of parliament. It sounds more peaceful than the Turkish situation - but still a little awkward.

A headline not strictly related to women: There's panic on the Streets of Kyrgyzstan. Pink was chosen, for reasons that aren't clear, as the protest color.

TBW Update

Peter Huber, co-author of The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy
(along with Mark Mills, my stepdad) -- will be appearing on local Cincinnati radio tomorrow morning. Tune in to the Mike McConnell show at 10:00 on 700 WLW.

Also here's a video clip of Mark's appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Be warned that this puppy is a fat 30MB, and seems to have been produced by my rockstar little brother videotaping the TV. But it looks okay - you can see the whole interview.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to post extensively on the themes that are articulated in this book, and get in a drawn-out Internet debate with people who misunderstand science, and espouse the same tired orthodox liberal positions that haven't aged a day since Carter suggested we wear sweaters. I will, however, respond to anybody who emails me, and who has obviously read the book - even if (especially if) they can thoughtfully disagree.

Ecclesia Americana

An email (from reader R.L. in Bethesda, MD) indicates that the pope agrees with my prior post related to the negative consequences of American capitalism. This is a very good point to make (especially for the benefit of folks whose opinions about religion lack subtlety).

Catholicism is seen as "conservative" by many secular people, because of abortion or the ban on women priests. But in Ecclesia In America the Pope also expresses the urgent need to maintain solidarity with the poor - something he has actually said repeatedly, in many venues. About globalism he says the "consequences ... will be negative if it is organized just to suit the interests of the powerful." He urges the faithful to reject consumerism and embrace a life of simplicity.

This from a guy who knew the ravages of socialism in his native Poland, and played a role in advancing democracy in eastern Europe.

The same email goes on to go on to point out that my comments about "white flight" are "so 1970s". I disagree. The demographic trends that have governed the explosion in growth of the Cincinnati exurbs are a phenomenon of the '00s. All of the 2004 election postmortems cited these exurbs as a key factor in Bush/Cheney II. The same trend is at play in Detroit, Houston, and Atlanta.

Yes, I am suggesting that a component of that growth - at least in my town - is related to racial fears. Too many white people still see a black person walking down the street as a sign of a dangerous neighborhood. They would prefer to be sitting in traffic, at a light, in Mason, Ohio (or Rockville, Maryland), while the light changes, and nobody moves.

How this lifestyle reconciles with simplicity and solidarity with the poor is, I'm afraid, beyond the scope of today's post.

Neighborhood Values

Rarely will I bash one political party or another, or demonize, or reduce opponents to cartoon disfigurations. That isn't my cup of tea. I don't hate "those guys" on either side.

But on certain issues I will attach some judgment. Recent posts about foreign affairs, for example, have made it clear that I think people on the Left need to look past the Bush/Iraq moebius strip of disgust and get behind democratic changes in the Middle East.

Conversely, I'm concerned about corporate America. Pure emphasis on stockholder value and price ultimately appears to have a negative, homogenizing effect on neighborhood America. And corporate media leads to a shallow, brain-dead culture. I like capitalism, but there seem to be some unintended consequences when it gets too carried away with economies of scale. Big companies are owned by everyone and no one at the same time.

To give you a simple example: The convenience store and fast food joint in my neighborhood have the most trash-strewn lots - whereas the locally owned restaurant, shops and pub are usually kept clean.

But in Cincinnati, all forms of civic debate boil down to crime and business. Local conservative bloggers appear to have no fresh ideas beyond smashing more criminals and promoting tax advantages to corporations. The final message is not explicitly racist: White people see a hopeless cause in city life, feel afraid, and plan to move to the suburbs. (If I had more patience I would link to the comments on local weblogs.) Don’t confuse these folks with with statistics.

But I still don’t want to live in a sub-development next to strip mall. I like to see the local shop owners at church on Sunday. And I like neighborhoods with history that runs deeper than some building contractor's bulldozer. Isn't that more classically conservative?

Volokh on Blogging

NOLA.com: Search

Expertise is the key

Journalists are generalists

Linkage may be the most obvious, but most under-appreciated reason why blogging is better than traditional media. It’s the revenge of the hyperlink as a subversive response to author/ity.

Destructive Creation

You want to know why the city of Cincinnati wants to seize local businesses like Acropolis Chili on the grounds of eminent domain? Take a look at the one-year stock chart for the commercial broker CBRE, which has the redevelopment contract.

Sproing! Why support mom-and-pop businesses with a stake in the community when you can get behind a highly profitable international corporation that returns exceptional value to shareholders?

How will it benefit the neighborhood? Well, the new center will have a few jobs that pay slightly above minimum wage, a couple of management positions, and .... let's see ... maybe a building maintenance contract that could get picked up by a local provider. So get on the bus with cleaning supplies!

For CBRE it could be any other commercial district in any other city. It's a turn-key operation made unique only by virtue of the fact that retailers should market to the college demographic. (Hey kids, need a cell phone that can play MP3s?)

Don't get distracted by the idea that development should serve the interests of local citizens. What are you, some kind of wild-eyed communist, talking about 'the man'?

Radio Free Bupkis

Every new media goes through a "But why?" phase.

In the early 90s I was entering office world. Former modes of employment generally involved mopping at the end of the night. I was familiar with the Internet from college, but I noticed businesspeople (especially folks over 30) reacted to the idea of e-mail by asking why they wouldn't simply use the phone.

Podcasting - the idea of distributing radio-like segments over the internet to various digital devices - just seems boring, so far. I've spent the last few days listening to podcasts. I am reminded of the post-conference cocktail hour at the airport Ramada. In the time it takes to drain a Gimlet you might hear a neat tip, or a wry observation, but soon enough you want to get back to the room.

Still, the distribution mechanism for podcasting is innovative, and has possibilities. And I like anything that has the potential to subvert (even slightly) ClearKampf Communications.

Podcasters should aim directly for originality and innovation. I'd rather hear 120 seconds of brilliance than 1/2 hour of blather. Learn from the formal delivery of people who do radio well - Glass, Keillor, even Limbaugh. What can be delivered uniquely through this medium? What can't you get elsewhere? Why should I give you my time?

Games Without Frontiers

After months of denying any involvement in harboring former Baathists, Syria coughed up Sab'awi Ibram, Saddam's half-brother, and a man with a blood-soaked resume. Of course, this capture came at an opportune time, when the Syrian regime sorely needed P.R. karma. (Even lefties in the West are flapping about change.)

But a close reading of the news suggests that Ibram and company were nailed by Syrian Kurds. Last year this same group rioted against oppression from Damascus. Crackdowns and reprisals ensued. Could these Kurds have captured the hideout Baathists just to stick it to Syrian President Assad - who played it off as his initiative? They did hand him over to Iraqi Kurds first, not their native government.

Kurds don't have their own country - but they're smart, tough, and patient. Iraqi Kurds are still in the process, waiting for the electoral situation to come into focus, even though they've got valid reasons to want independence. As democracy takes root in the region overall, lets hope the Kurd's longstanding fortitude earns them a fair say in their own destiny.