Peter Merholz writes about political machines and the rising Greens of America.#

Among the most interesting election processes I've ever witnessed is currently taking place across the bay in San Francisco. Gavin Newsom and Matt Gonzalez are vying for the mayoralty in a hotly contested run-off.

[...]

It's important to understand that the latest polls, for what they're worth, show the run-off to be a dead heat. This surprises locals, as Gavin had a resounding lead in the initial election (41% to Gonzalez' 20%). Gonzalez has been able to gain support from people who originally voted for others.

Perhaps the crux of the matter is political party affiliation. Gavin Newsom is the Democratic Party Candidate. Matt Gonzalez, represents the only other viable party in San Francisco-- the Green Party. (Political Fun Fact: currently president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Gonzalez might currently be the highest ranking Green in the U.S. Another Political Fun Fact: In the 2002 Gubernatorial Election, the Green candidate, Peter Camejo, outpolled the Republican candidate in San Francisco.)

wKen writes about giving his daughter freedom.#

I just don't see her feeling the same way about this tattoo when she is 40 as she does now at 19. I also can't help but imagine how big that pony will become if she is pregnant someday (hopefully a long time from now). Maybe I'll be proved wrong. Anyway, it's her body and her decision. I love her the same, regardless of whether we agree on everything. She'll always be daddy's little girl.

Noeleen Heyzer writes about the new Constitution of Afghanistan with regardst o Women's Rights.#

The international community must rally behind the women seeking to enshrine their rights in the country's constitution. When every member of the Supreme Court, under the new constitution, must take an oath "to support judicial justice and righteousness in accord with the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam," there must be clear language securing women's equality as a requisite counterbalance against extreme interpretation of Islamic law.

The new constitution should state clearly that women have full and equal rights with men before the law.

She also makes this very interesting comment:

Two years ago, when Afghanistan was liberated from Taliban rule, the world realized that global security is inextricably linked to the protection and rights of women in society, and there was an international commitment to supporting Afghan women on the path to securing these rights. Today, we have a narrow window in which to make good on this commitment. The international community must direct its efforts to ensure that the constitution reflects the needs of the women we promised to help.

Wrong! Global Security in inextricable linked to the protection and rights of PEOPLE in society. Not just women, not just Afghan women, not just white people, but people. Everywhere and of any race, nationality, ethnicity, opinion, persuasion, or age.

Will R. comments on Jay Rosen on White House Journalism.#

This is just another example of how mainstream journalists are failing us in their willingness to compromise the intergrity required of the profession. As long as we report on all that is staged, might not just about everything be staged? I wonder what my journalists would say...

Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber writes about the German Internet Cannibalism Trial.#

Nasty stuff, but philosophically untroubling for those of us who are sufficiently paternalistic to think the law ought to place limits on what adults may consent to have done to them. Our libertarian friends , on the other hand, may find it more difficult to come up with principled objections.

Interesting comments about whether all contracts should be enforced by law and how to prove that someone REALLY agreed to be killed by another person.

One particularly interesting comment from "Tom T":

U.S. law generally permits a person to consent to be battered (else tattoo parlors and professional hockey would not exist), but does not permit a person to consent to be killed (which is why Kevorkian is in jail).

Historically, I believe there was a notion at least in English law that, on some fundamental level, a person's life belonged to the community. Hence, the land and property of a man who committed suicide were forfeited to the Crown rather than passing to his heirs. Nowadays, I imagine that laws forbidding consent to one's own murder would be justified on the sort of utilitarian, proof-related grounds that Keith cites. Rea is probably also correct that the law might infer a lack of capacity. Failed suicides often get committed to psych hospitals, after all; the desire for death is clearly perceived in some circumstances as evidence of mental instability. A desire to have a member amputated is a semi-officially recognized fetish (apotemnophila), and I imagine that it could be found to amount to mental illness in some circumstances as well.

Jonathan Ichikawa writes up some very funny Logic jokes.#

MP: Descartes is sitting at a bar, and the bartender asks him if he'll have another drink. "Yes, I think I will," says Descartes. Suddenly, he continues to exist.

MT: Descartes is sitting at a bar, and the bartender asks him if he'll have another drink. Descartes suddenly disappears. "Well, I guess I'll take that as an 'I think not'," says the bartender.

AC: Descartes is sitting at a bar, and the bartender asks him if he'll have another drink. Descartes both says "yes" and does not say "yes". Suddenly, everything happens.

Jane poses the best question ever about the 2nd Century Roman d20.#

The catalog entry notes: "Several polyhedra in various materials with similar symbols are known from the Roman period. Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used. "

Well, I think *we* all know what game it was used for! But my question is, before the fantasy Middle Ages, in what setting did the Romans play D&D? Ancient Egypt? Biblical times? Babylonian?

Clive Thompson at Collision Detection writes about this as well.

This is the weirdest thing I've seen all week. Over at Christie's, there's a 20-sided die for sale -- that dates back to the 2nd century A.D. (It's pictured above.) These days, of course, the 20-side die is best known as a central element in any game of Dungeons and Dragons; it's the original generator of randomness in geek culture. But what in hell were the Romans doing with these things?

In Clive's comments, Robin writes:

I am totally grooving on the idea of a bunch of dorky Romans playing a game of Advanced Greeks & Gods, Second Edition...

But it makes me wonder: What (& when) was the world's first RPG? I'm thinking of a concrete game, with rules and an unpredictable outcome, not just an group story.

Bowler at Game+Girl=Advance, writes about the Death of a Hobby and knowing "too much."#

I'm afraid that I've killed my only remaining hobby.

This happened to me years ago when I started working in traditional TV and film animation (paper, pencil, Saturday morning, etc.). I stopped drawing in my spare time (which was the love of my life) because I was doing over 80 drawings a day sometimes, and I no longer cared to draw after that kind of workload, especially if I wasn't getting paid to do it.

Now I work in videogames. I've been making them for a living for three years now. I know the ins and outs of a game engine, at least as far as gameplay is concerned. When I play other people's games, I start only seeing the flaws in the system: animations that could have looked better, interpolation systems that are too linear, poorly weighted models and ineffective approaches to game balancing. Clumsy non-intuitive interfaces. Tired level design. Pointless hoop-jumping game mechanics. I hate this attitude. I want to go back to the blissful ignorance of sitting down and enjoying the gaming experience. This is like seeing the most mind-blowing magic trick ever, and then having someone explain the trick after you've demanded to know how it's done. It's a very deflating experience.

Cory Doctorow links to Mack White's comic about "The CIA Assassination of John Lennon."#

Jason Kottke on "The Simple Life."#

Did anyone else watch The Simple Life? I just got done with it, and it wasn't half bad. There's debate about how real it actually is (did Paris really not know what Wal-Mart was or was she just kidding around?), but I don't think that actually matters too much. Either way Paris and Nicole will do whatever they want, setting up a "conflict" between the girls and the family: those who can and will do anything without fear of consequences vs. people who can't because of the consequences. Class clash, culture clash.

dowingba in a comment:

My bet is that she was told to pretend she didn't know what Wal Mart is because the whole point of the show is for rich people to look like idiots so poor people can laugh at them.

The Black Saint discusses this as well:

The most repugnant moment was when Hilton and Richie went grocery shopping -- presumably for the first time in their benighted lives. They were given $50 but the bill came to a little more than $65. Richie asks, "Can we just have it?"

Well, no Nicole, because in tough economic times -- well, even during good ones, actually -- groceries stores don't give away food to customers. Chances are that the people in line behind them probably couldn't afford everything they needed, either (emphasis on "need" not "want") -- and not just groceries. They probably have trouble making rent and providing health insurance for their kids. Apparently, Hilton and Richie have slept through the past three years.

Andrew Grumet on the Dean campaign and wasting spending donated money on television ads.#

On the walk over, I listened to parts one and two of Christopher Lydon's interview of Joe Trippi. As I listened something occurred to me about the significance of money in the Dean campaign. While the campaign is proud of its ability to match big donor funding with lots of little contributions, many in the weblog community are critical of the need for big money at all. The Internet is cheaper than television and in many ways better than television. Why raise lots of money on the Internet, only to spend it on TV advertising? But there's another angle to consider: the donor's. Contributions provide a way of keeping score that's hard to fake. Rapid feedback on each contribution, that enables the little guys to see themselves matching big donor contributions, is empowering. That empowerment is an important part of the story, regardless of what the money is spent on. Personally, I'd prefer more wallet-friendly forms of empowerment, or at least to see the money spent on something other than TV advertising. Say, our national debt.

Richard links to an interesting blog post about spanking and BDSM.#

Need not say, "I am a submissive woman." But instead merely say, "I am a woman."

Then there are the views hammered into women by the feminazis, (who take the wholly amazing standpoint of saying a woman can be anything she wants to be [which is true], but only as long she wishes to be what we dictate she should want to be), that submission is inherently bad. That reliance upon a male is irrevocably weak. (Never minding the fact that a male in a wholly intimate union with a woman is just as reliant upon her, albeit in a different manner, as different as masculine and feminine.) Such a view inspired by both a fear of masculinity, and the natural bond femininity creates as it merges with it, along with the dogmatic psychosis of lesbianism, has permeated society, albeit in a less shrill, strident form.

And yet a woman who is truly dominated, truly owned by a man, is not weak. Indeed she knows her greatest strength. Loved and supported, cherished. She is in a position to realise all her dreams. To be all that she can be. Wholly secure in her femininity, in her self worth. For that is what nurturing masculine dominance desires above all else.

Oh man...

No one owns your life but you. No one has higher claim to your life than yourself.

Warren Ellis links The New Scientist on Mini-Blackholes.#

Are mini black holes raining down through the Earth's atmosphere? It is possible, says a team of physicists. They think this could explain mysterious observations from mountain-top experiments over the past 30 years.

Ordinary black holes form when stars explode at the end of their lives. The heavy stellar core can collapse into a superdense "singularity" whose gravity is so strong that nothing - not even light - can escape.

If some of physicists' favourite theories about extra dimensions are correct, it would also be possible for high-energy cosmic-ray particles from space to create black holes when they collide with molecules in the Earth's atmosphere. These black holes would be invisibly small, with a mass of only 10 micrograms or so. And they would be so unstable that they would explode in a burst of particles within around a billion-billion-billionth of a second...

Michael at 2Blowhards, writes about The Economist and how awful the rest of the world can be.#

But one of the main reasons I continue to enjoy the magazine is that it's far more honest than most American publications are about how awful life in some parts of the globe can be. A few examples from recent issues:

[...]

* Kenya's legal system has long been a joke, even to Kenyans. In the late 1980s, a chief justice "took his trousers off, balanced a shoe on his head and goose-stepped around the high-court car park chanting pro-government slogans." Justice comes at a literal price: "$250 to escape a rape charge, and $500 for murder." One investigation concluded that "only three of the country's 310 judges were neither corrupt nor incompetent."

Reading passages like these, horrifying though they are, never fails to brighten my day. Reminds me to be grateful for whatever peace, calm, tranquillity, fairness and health we enjoy, of course. But perhaps the real reason I'm fond of reading about this kind of thing is because it makes life in NYC seem more rational and humane than it often does. The cable guy who showed up hours late? Annoying, yes. But by comparison to Canaan Banana, let alone mice-in-the-vagina? For a moment at least, I've got things in perspective.

Chris Winters on why "The Right Tool for the Job" is stupid.#

It's total crap, normally said by people arguing the benefits of one framework over another (or all others) in such an abstract terms as to be meaningless. And it's meaningless in two enormous ways.

First, take the "right tool" part of the phrase. This sets up a false comparison between 'right' and 'wrong' off the bat. Have you ever seen a nontrivial application where only one solution was right? Of course not. Everything has trade-offs, some of which are more painful than others. [...]

Second, "for the job." Like a pattern, a solution for a job (which itself is a slippery term) must be evaluated in a context, something rarely done when this phrase is brought up. [...]

Leslie thinks about relationships - how they form and how they die.#

There is a part of me that says relationships can't be analyzed, and trying to do so would go against Waffle House philosophy: "You don't order grits. Grits just come." It's true. You don't really have control over who comes into your life and who doesn't. They just show up. But there has to be a happy medium between just letting good things happen and preventing miscommunication. I'm sure if I think about it long enough, the answers will come... but tonight I will just spend time meditating about the questions, and the questions that result from asking them.

Atrios warns that you should consider people's politics on a whole, rather than picking and choosing what general statements you want to support.#

I know being a fan of somebody who, well, thinks you're evil is nothing new to you, but before lovingly quoting Orson Scott Card, you should really look into his views on homosexuality...

Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.

Nova Spivack links to The Guardian reporting on new animal research. (Note: They mean animals other than humans.)#

Monkeys can manage mathematics. Dolphins can be decisive. But US psychologists have broken new ground in the animal intelligence challenge. They have proved that animals are also smart enough to join the "don't-knows".

It means that animals, like humans, may be capable not just of thinking, but of thinking about thinking, of knowing that they don't know. Psychologists call this "metacognition", evidence of sophisticated cognitive self-awareness. Ordinary mortals know it as "dithering".

Nova Spivack writes about what he wants from a leader.#

As far as I'm concerned all politicians are incompetent until proven competent. I believe that people should only be allowed to govern if they are (a) highly educated, (b) have a lot of life experience, (c) have traveled and lived around the world extensively on a low budget, (d) have personally witnessed the horrors of war, (e) have no commercial conflicts of interest, (f) are not partial to any particular religious or ethnic group, (g) have extensive training in leadership and government as well as economics and political science, (h) have a proven track record of building collaboration and solving international problems peacefully, (i) are genuinely good-hearted people who are truly trying to make the world better for all people, (j) are willing to fight to protect the downtrodden and to protect the principles that our Nation stands for, (k) have the guts to do what's right rather than just what's most popular or least controversial, (l) are not motivated by ego, (m) want to sacrifice their own benefit for the greater good.

So who is like that? Nobody that I know! Basically, my standards are so high that there are few if any people alive who I would judge as "fit to govern."

Politics has always been tainted -- that's the nature of the game; it's ultimately about power and money. So many people go into politics with high ideals and come out with bad karma. It's sad. I think America needs great visionary leaders -- actually the whole world does -- leaders who really want to improve the world for everyone (not just for their administrations, their citizens, their cronies, their supporters, their species, etc.). There are just so few leaders who are really like that. Maybe they just have to sell out so many times to get high up in the hierarchy that by the time they become actual "leaders" they are no longer good people.

Michael Feldman said something similar in early November.

The problem with the American political system has become the essential nature of those it calls to service. Fundamentally, they are individuals drawn to the acquisition and exercise of power. They are super-straight, type A alpha males, and in my opinion this is not the kind of person I want making decisions for me. Compounding this perverted prerequisite is the political process itself, which guarantees that even should some truly righteous person feel the call to public service, by the time they reach the top their souls are so deeply mortgaged that they have lost their moral compasses.

The 13th Guy Illusion.#

Jon Buscall writes about comment systems and inventing your own blog type.#

I started blogging as an extension of my regular notebooks. It's more of an ongoing collection of notes that relate to my life, my writing and the subjects I engage with on a daily basis. In a way, I like the eclectic approach. Niche blogs have their place, but The Grey Notebook goes where I want it to go. I am not aiming to create a "specific community discussion"

The Black Saint writes about about the sign language "speaking" gorilla, Koko.#

Remember Koko? You konw, Koko, the lowland gorilla who was raised in captivity by a blonde lady named Penny. This very same woman taught Koko how to use sign language for communication. How can you not love a gorilla who can talk, albeit, somewhat incoherently. Her other claim to fame, of course, is her love of kittens.

Well, as it turns out, Koko is still alive and well. As is Penny.

Si writes about Hitler and the nature of Judgement.#

It got me thinking: it's generally accepted that Hitler went to hell. Especially in entertainment media, Hitler is a fixture in hell. In Little Nicky, Hitler is portrayed as the Devil's favorite sadistic plaything. And it probably gives a sense of security, that the Bad Guys go to hell and the Good Guys go to heaven. But it's just not that simple. Didn't Jesus take on the sins of humanity so that we wouldn't HAVE to endure hell? [...]

Eternal torment for one fairly directly responsible for several million people's deaths and torture. Sounds like a fair deal, right? Well, maybe, apart from two key points: one, we are not the ones to make that decision, and two, God's forgiveness is available to ALL who seek it, including those with bad P.R. Just as we can be forgiven for our own (somewhat smaller-scale, I hope) sins and offenses, so can Hitler and others who have committed various atrocities, if they and we simply ask.

I'm a believer in the idea that God does not "judge" us and then put us in Heaven (by way of Purgatory) or Hell. Instead, as we enter the after life (something that we are doing our whole mortal life) we make a decision about where we want to be. If we chose to embrace accept God and His Way than our after life is pleasant because we with Him. If we chose to not honor God and embrace His Way than His Love becomes torment for us. (And we cleanse our Sins in Purgatory to feel good enough to honor Him.)

The essential gift that God gave to Man was Freedom. With that Freedom comes Responsibility and that extends into the after life as well as this life.

(Disclaimer: I'm not sure I actually believe in God, but if I did this is how I would believe in God.)

Sofia writes about wanting what you have, rather than getting what you want.#

I figured it was about time this whole cliche of glamour and wealth and fame should be squashed! Don't get me wrong I would love to be rich and famous, but let's get real here people 99.99999% of us never will be rich or famous, or live in some fancy city apartment and drink expensive champange with lunch. Television is constantly flashing images of things like that. It is about time for those who are(believe it or not) happy living in a small town and happy and proud to be a hard worker and take pride in their life! I live in a small town and I love the fact that I can't here the highway at all times, I can drink water from a random stream and bend over and pick blueberries in the summer and stuff myself full of the yummy little things!

Steven Johnson writes about ridiculous "safety" warnings on planes.#

On today's flight, for some reason, I started thinking about what would happen if you had safety advisories more in synch with the real odds of something going wrong on the flight. Terrorism aside, you're much more likely to have some nut flip out or drink himself to into an insane fury, which means they'd be better off teaching us how to administer a sedative than use our seat cushion as a flotation device. ("In the event that an intoxicated bond trader climbs on the drinks cart and starts defecating on it, please remain seated while the flight attendants locate the stun gun.")

What if other modes of transportation delivered similar safety speeches about equally improbable events? Your average commuter train is much more likely to derail than a plane to land on water, and yet they don't even give you seat belts on trains, much less teach you how to fasten them. Maybe every time you get on a bus, they should advise you what to do if someone plants a bomb onboard that will go off if the bus goes below 50 MPH. (I know, I know -- that was just a movie. But still.) I don't think it's preposterous to suggest that they'd actually save more lives over a ten year period if every flight used the flotation device instruction time to teach a crash course in CPR or the Heimlich maneuver instead. I'm sure you're much more likely to be sitting next to a guy who has a heart attack then you are to be crash landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Drug War Rant:#

In Kansas, Stephen Fletcher tried to grow some psychedelic mushrooms in his apartment. Also in Kansas, Tremain V. Scott shot a man 18 times at close range, killing him. Both men are in their 20's with little or no criminal conviction record.

Scott is facing 4-6 years. Fletcher is facing at least 11 1/2 years.

Yep, that's the criminal justice system.

Alex Halavais on the Abercrombie Catalog.#

I would love to teach a class on the social impacts of advertising, but given that this is such a dreamy job track for many in the department, I know that the students would hate anything that was remotely critical of the role of advertising.

On the other hand, how can anyone who has ever seen an advertisement think that it is really about the product. If they were to say "We sell cheaply made preppy standards" they would go out of business. The supreme irony is that A&F used to sell high quality, well-designed basics at a reasonable price. It was only by tarting up their image, and pulling down (the quality of) their pants, that they can now be a profit center. Harrrumf, I say.

Steve Koppelman on technology "improvements" with phones.#

Is direct-dialing an improvement on the way phones used to work? Sure, now we can call most countries in the world with no human intervention, but what about the user interface? Which is easier: looking up and dialing 11 digits yourself, or picking up a receiver and saying "connect me with Mel's Diner, please". Aren't cellphone companies charging millions of eager customers $5 a month for much more rudimentary voice dialing that people have to train themselves?

The old system required no training. It didn't misinterpret requests. It understood any name you gave it, and would even search for the best-fit if you weren't sure of the name of the party you wanted to reach. There's no Mel's Diner, ma'am, but there is a Mel's Bistro on First Street. Would you like me to connect you to them?

Now we have massive phonebooks with thousands of pages even in small cities. We have a dozen or so phone number lookup websites, eleven of which are woefully out of date. Because numbers have no security on them and anyone can dial them, millions of people leave their numbers unlisted and try to make themselves impossible to find. Self-service dialing also opened the gates to telemarketers, which we're trying to chop away at through law after law. Direct dialing makes some thing easier, but makes other things a pain in the ass.

Jane Pinckard writes about the silliness behind The Last Samurai.#

But we can all expect more silliness along these lines as we count down to the opening of Tom Cruise's new movie, The Last Samurai. I will go see it, of course. It's my bicultural duty.

But also, it's always interesting to me how Japan is portrayed in the West, even after all this time, all this scholarship, and all these attempts for cross-cultural communication. Some myths are too big to be taken down, some archetypes endure. And from an artistic standpoint, why shouldn't they? Movies aren't about life - they are about the epic, the mythic, the larger-than-life.

Mitch Ratcliffe writes about democracy and emergence.#

What comes first, democracy or discussion? How does a society reach the point where it can make informed and timely decisions? Many of the mainstream ideas about democracy argue a nation has to achieve a certain order or level of prosperity to enable democratic deliberation. If you look, however, at the history of economic development, the most successful countries have always embraced investment in education before they reached prosperity -- and education is a keystone of democracy, as well, if it is directed toward the growth of rationality and critical thinking. They rise together, that in totalitarian states, discussion started in small groups, who learn from one another and also learn to share control, to debate and vote and accept the rule of a majority that constantly shifts in its composition. They co-evolve or perish.

[...]

But the real challenge in changing the political system is first understanding what needs to be changed before the change can happen. This challenge exists on two levels: Understanding what can be improved in democratic societies where big money and big media currently dominate the communication of ideas, and; Understanding the consequences of choices made when designing and applying new tools to human processes.

Left Blank is a spartan blog.#

In The Clark Tribune, Bill Arney writes about Wesley Clark and his history of courage and commitment.#

The whole tale of conflict between Clark and the "jealous generals" seems to come down to this: nobody wanted to go into Kosovo because we had no "national interest" there, and "they have no oil." General Clarkdid end run the pentagon--which they resented bitterly--and he did it for good reasons.

Clark saw the dead civilians being kicked by the murdering Serbs, babies dying of exposure, and decided that, "If you can help, you should help." The call to chivalry in this great warrior was stronger than his regard for the status quo in Washington. Bravo! And let us define chivalry as a sacred duty to protect the innocent, serve the truth, and fight for the defenseless, by those with the strength and arms to do so. Clark's impractical plan for ground invasion convinced Milosovic that a ground invasion was imminent, and so, virtually single-handed, Wes Clark saved perhaps millions of innocent lives.

Yes, it can be argued that American resources should not be employed where our national interests are not at stake. But the good will of the world is clearly in our long-term national interest--just ask any American soldier or marine in Iraq.

Ryan Overbey warns about the possibilities if theological scholarships are allowed while commenting on Linda Greenhouse's article in the New York Times.#

Thinking about the implications gives me a headache. Can anyone imagine Scientology competing for, say, funding for their Detoxification Centers, then suing when they don't receive funding and the local Catholic clinic does? Because trust me, stuff like that *will* happen. If we open the hatches, even by a crack, the water will come flooding in.

Wendy loves the Christmas season.#

I'm not a skier, I don't get swept up in the magic of sparkly snowflakes, I don't really give half a crap about hot cocoa or chestnuts roasting on an open fire. I hated the holiday concert at school (I was in Chorus most years) because I usually had to sing "Sleigh Ride" and I always felt a little bit out of place with the Christmas carols. I do remember a lot of the music to a really pretty Bach cantata, but it's still all God-ish. And the Chanukah tunes out there don't do it for me either, most of them are pretty bad. In high school I kind of wanted to bust out with Hebrew songs I learned in youth group, like the one that roughly translates "I love you baby all the time" or varied others. And, as we've discussed, I'm prone to taking a huge dive on the sidewalk about once a year, knocking the air right out of me, and bruising a major body part.

Susan Mernit links to Simon Dumenco, of New York Magazine, writing about celebrity - how "we" treat them and are treated by them.#

So many celebrities have let themselves unwittingly become walking infomercials—allowing the narrative that surrounds them to be about not only their "beauty secrets" but their conspicuous consumption and luxury-product choices—that celebrity, the word itself, has taken on its own stand-alone brand value. Drugstores stock the Hollywood Celebrity Diet and Celebrity White tooth bleach, and we understand implicitly what's being sold. Celebrity isn't about talent, it's about getting what you want—now.

The InStyle mentality, spread through-out celebrity culture, leaves the net impression that even the seemingly natural Hollywood beauty is actually a confection, a collage. To be in InStyle (or its many imitators), you must confess (without, it seems, even really apprehending that you're confessing) that you're the sum total of your hair and makeup and wardrobe. You are your image—what the image-makers on your payroll dreamed up. You are, in a word, a construct.

A construct that can come apart at the seams at any moment the media decide to part the curtain, it turns out.

Everyone (who's anyone) is talking about Philip Greenspun's question: "Why pretend to care about others when we have professional therapists?"#

Shelley excerpts John Donne's Meditation XVII - from 1624.

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all....No man is an island, entire of itself;every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Matt Stoller, at The Blogging of the President, points to a short online survey about politics and the Internet. (Disclaimer: I am a member of the BOP fold.)#

If you like the Blogging of the President and/or Christopher Lydon, please consider taking the following survey. The survey will help us improve the Blogging of the President project, as well as understand the most effective way to raise money to cover the costs of covering a Presidential campaign. Because this is a new media project using blogs, radio, online community, and book, your feedback is absolutely essential. The survey will take about ten minutes, and will help us understand how to make this project a success.

Stirling Newberry writes about Paul Krugman and the unraveling of the Republic at The Blogging of the President.#

So it seemed, just as normative, modern, liberal and technocratic institutions had begun to take hold [in Argentina], that the entire economic picture came apart: leaving a nation with a few very fortunate wealthy who could shelter their money abroad, and then buy up what remained of the national assets quite cheaply, and a mass of people who did not even have the capacity for more than a capital revolt, of the kind that European monarchies used to weather rather routinely in the 1800's. The parallel between the transition from the Clinton administration, when it seemed that managing the complex, but understandable relationships which rose up at the end of the 20th century, and the current Executive, which seeks to simply overwhelm those relationships with brute force and acquiescence — cannot escape the careful readinger.

This parallel, between Argentina and the US, is present in Krugman's own warnings, and in the warnings of other liberal economists. Beyond the economic theory and the details, there is a simpler motivation, and that is that there is a rift between what signals the public sees, and the underlying reality. In Argentina, the stock market boomed, inflation remained stable, and standards of living rose - Argentina, at the peak of the boom had a per capita income twice what economic rival Chile had, and its GDP growth was pulling away. Then, in the space of months, it came crashing down, and there was not only no solution, there was not even a politics capable of putting forward a solution.

Richard links to Halley, who writes about sexuality and the Internet.#

Halley: "the enormous availabiltiy of sexual content (notice I'm trying not to say porn, because I'm still not sure what that word even means) online which allows one to privately pursue sexuality in great range and depth is changing the world we know. Changing it fundamentally. We are not only experiencing sexual content from many countries, but we are experiencing sexual culture from many other countries."

Loony Boi links to Jason Della Rocca writes about Regulation of Video Games.#

"I don't like or make violent games, so regulation is O.K. for me." Standing up for creative freedom isn't about fighting for the rights of any one specific game or developer. We need to stand up for the medium as a whole. Who are we (or anyone else for that matter) to judge what is good or bad? While I may not personally agree with some design choices, I strongly believe in developers' freedom of expression. Where will it end? The government's current fascination with violence may soon expand and put your nonviolent game square in their viewfinder.

"Politicians are acting in their constituents' best interest, and there's nothing I can do." Historically, censorship and regulation have never truly been about the best interest of the people. If there's any doubt that some of these constituencies seem self-contradictory on the issue of violence, consider that it is legal for a minor to own a handgun if under the supervision of a guardian in Washington State and there are no laws requiring trigger locks to prevent a child from accidentally discharging a loaded weapon — and those just two examples of many.

Doug Miller links to 'Gentleman' Cannibal story.#

Meiwes's lawyer wants him to be convicted of "killing on request," a form of illegal euthanasia which carries a sentence of six months to five years.

[...]

Professor Arthur Kreuzer of the Institute for Criminology at Giessen University, said the case might make legal history.

"This is killing undertaken for both killer and victim and cannot be regarded as the worst case of premeditated killing.

"But I don't think it is a killing on request either because it was not an altruistic, but an egoistic deed."

[...]

Meiwes's lawyer has revealed that his client had four other guests in his home, but let them all go.

"There was a teacher, a cook, a hotel employee and a student. He had them hanging from the ceiling head down and they had no chance of freeing themselves. One felt sick, the other didn't want to go on, he let them all down."

Ermel said Meiwes chatted about cannibalism with at least 280 like-minded people on the Internet. In Germany about 200 people on the Internet were offering to be slaughtered, 30 ready to do the slaughtering and 10 to 15 wanting to watch, he said.

Piers Cawley on his least favourite kind of spam stopping.#

I've been using the same email address for almost exactly 9 years now and in that time I've never succumbed to the temptation to monkey with my mail headers and start hiding my obscured email address down in my sigfile beneath a sign saying 'Beware of the leopard'.

Why? Because, if someone wants to respond to something I've said, it seems to be the height of rudeness to expect them to do anything other than simply hit the reply button of their mail client — generally people (well me for certain, I can't be sure about everyone else) don't bother.

But there's something worse (apart from the spammers who cause the problem in the first place) than the invalid 'From' header.

I don't like the challenge/response school of spam stoppers. If ever a system was guaranteed to wind me up it's this poorly thought out monstrosity.

I agree very much. If you want to encourage dissent and discussion, make it easy for people to talk to you.

Tony Pierce writes about his kind of leader.#

i don't want to identify with someone who has something stuck up their ass.

that's not where my inspiration comes from.

an optimist, and americans are known for their optimism, finds great value in possibilities

where is the enlightend visionary of the right, bubbling over with hope for the future, pride from the past, and finger on the pulse of today. courageous enough to embrace the responsibility of leadership and stand up to the rising tide of mediocrity while affecting positive change in the face of empty fears and baseless cowardice.

wherever he or she is, i bet they're not sweating bullshit made-for-tv movies.

Tony Pierce is simply amazing.#

saw a hot chick on the bus this morn. she was clearly eating cherries. as you know there is no eating, drinking, or loud music allowed on the bus.

youre not even supposed to have unnecessary conversations with the operator. but hot chicks can get away with whatever they want.

ive never understood that.

do we as men really think that if we're simply nice to a pretty girl that she will become overwhelmed with the desire to procreate with us?

i seriously think we do.

Moxie on Mr. No-Speaky... not Bush though.#

I DO understand that he is a Medical Doctor...if my doctor told me I had "less-fewer" levers or whatever I'd walk out the door without bothering to ask how many less-fewer I had. If we're talking less-fewer, unless it's lbs I think it's best I don't know.

Or better yet seek someone, a doctor who speaks coherent English on the fly. Makes one wonder why Dean left medicine. Or not. But I still don't think he's found his niche.

Seems like Dean had less-fewer English classes than most doctors I know. He makes Dubya's Nevada pronunciation seem less-fewer, too.

Moxie links a must-read from Nancy that is a must-read.#

I felt pretty skeevy about it at the time, and spent the day in a blanket, drinking soup.

Jay Rosen writes about the Press' role in governance and what the President's Secret Flight to Baghdad really was.#

Ask any of the reporters who accompanied Bush to Baghdad what they were doing there and, after allowing for the unusual circumstances (extreme secrecy) they would say they were there to "cover the president's surprise trip to Baghdad." Which sounds reasonable enough until you realize that the president's trip did not exist as a workable idea outside the anticipated news coverage of it. This realization takes under three seconds.

The whole notion of the trip as an independently existing thing that could be "covered" is transparently false, as the White House warning to journalists demonstrates. If word leaked out, the trip was to be cancelled--it would no longer exist--and the airplane would turn around and head back to Washington. That does not mean the trip was illegitimate to undertake or to treat as news; but it does mean that its potential legitimacy as news event lies outside the logic of "things happen and we cover them" or "the president took decisive action and the press reported it."

[...] Would the trip have made sense, would the danger have been justified, if reporters and camera crews were not taken along? The answer is clearly no. But this means the press is part of the presidency, an observation that, while true enough, makes it harder to cover the presidency as an independently existing thing.

Tony Pierce likes Paris Hilton.#

paris just might be the most beautiful girl in town. and this is a big town. sure she looks a little manly sometimes in the face. and shes frighteningly thin, but isnt that hip these days?

yeah she has no boobs to speak of, shes got no ass, her nose is longer than most, and she dates all the wrong men, but big whoop. she likes short skirts and making out. whats not to love?

Dr. Frank, who just popped up on the iTunes, links to Johann Hari who got a reply back from Noam Chomsky about a comment he made.#

Like John Pilger, Chomsky has built his career bravely opposing tyranny (albeit only tyrannies backed by the United States, rather than all tyrannies, everywhere - note his denial of the Cambodian genocide for many years) - yet his response to any disagreement with him is totalitarian in temperament and tone. Any dissenters from the Chomsky line are "so far beneath contempt" that he can barely speak without howling. I do not dispute that he is sincere, nor that he is a decent human being trying to make sense of the world as best he can. I simply disagree about the best path to take. Why can't he say the same? Why does he have to be so abusive?