When I read this piece by Louis Michael Seidman in the New York Times today, I wanted to throw a parade. Our obsession with the Constitution has saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse. Instead of arguing about what is to …
Monthly Archive: December 2012
Dec 30 2012
An Unnecessary Hell
The Economist has a very worthwhile exploration of the enduring concept of Hell, but concludes in such a way as to baffle me. [Hell] should have been sunk long ago by the weight of its contradictions. But the key to its survival lies in the writings of St Augustine, who, of all people, ought to …
Dec 27 2012
Social Lasers of Cruelty
Jaron Lanier, a kind of web reverse-guru, perhaps the Anti-Shirky, talks to Smithsonian magazine about what he sees as the existential threat of Internet anonymity. “This is the thing that continues to scare me. You see in history the capacity of people to congeal—like social lasers of cruelty. That capacity is constant.” “Social lasers of …
Dec 27 2012
E-readers Aren’t Dying, They’re Entrenched
A new Pew report with all sorts of nifty data on tablets and e-reading suggests that the sales of dedicated e-readers themselves, like Kindles and Nooks, have stalled, and may be headed downward. I think this is interesting, because the common view seems to be that this is due to the popularity and overall utility …
Dec 26 2012
E-books, DRM, and the Problem of “Owning”
An article at Ars Technica asks an interesting question: why is DRM still tolerated on e-books when it’s been killed in regards to music? The reasons given boil down to two things: with the ubiquity of cross-platform apps like Amazon’s Kindle app, folks can already read their DRM-locked books on multiple devices, whereas for music …
Dec 26 2012
Conservative Politics at Gunpoint
This is how politics and advocacy is done on the right. Unlike progressive or reality-based groups who snipe behind each other’s backs, arguing about policy or tactics, or scramble for precious-yet-overlapping sources of income and attention, the conservative movement just brings guns. Via WaPo: [Dick Armey] walked into the [FreedomWorks'] Capitol Hill offices with his …
Dec 25 2012
“Spiritually Convinced”
David Kuo, most famous for being formerly of George W. Bush’s office of faith-based initiatives, and for later exposing much of that initiative’s cynicism, submits to Andrew Sullivan’s “ask me anything” videos. The question in this video, which is rather too simplistic for my taste: “Is faith foolish?” I don’t want to beat up on …
Dec 24 2012
Romney Didn’t Want to Be President? Don’t Believe It.
The Boston Globe has a really good behind-the-scenes look at what went wrong for the Romney campaign, including the still-baffling decision to put a Clint Eastwood improvisational sketch in a prime time convention spot in lieu of a very compelling biography video. But what really caught my eye is this assertion from Romney's son Tagg: …
Dec 21 2012
The Conclusion of the Harrowing CD Baby Non-Saga
My little tiny-violin, poor-me post about CD Baby clearing its shelves of my old 2004 album has become something of a roller coaster. After I posted the piece, I then went to follow CD Baby’s instructions and told them to go ahead and recycle the three copies of the four they had, and they’d keep …
Dec 20 2012
Cory Booker’s Books
Cory Booker just announced that he will not be running for governor of New Jersey in 2013, and instead will look to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014 (and I don’t think we yet know if he’s spoken to Sen. Launtenberg, as he definitely hasn’t said he’s going to retire). I actually think this …
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