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February 28, 2005
"Something is Beginning to Happen"
by JeremyI'm quoting Gene of Harry's Place in the title to this post. I think that simple phrase captures the essence of what is happening in the Middle East in general and Lebanon in particular.
Back in 1988 when the Soviet regime began to collapse, I was asked by a conservative friend of mine in college (knowing that I was a Lefty) whether I could see that this was a good thing. I said yes, it's a good thing.
My friend was surprised at my answer. I was surprised too because, though I always knew how awful Stalinism was, I never took much moral or intellectual responsibility for what this knowledge ought to mean for me. So the Soviet Union was a brutal totalitarian regime: So what? What did that have to do with me and or with my contempt for all those red-baiting conservatives who I felt were screwing up the planet. Yet why did it feel like a confession to agree that the Soviet collapse was good news.
I never really sorted this all out within myself until 9/11. The 9/11 attacks cured me of the ideology-as-truth habit. Given the outrageously stupid theories I was starting to hear from ideologues on the Left, and the similarly stupid ideas I had known the Right to be equally capable of, I realized that I was going to have to take anything I may have learned over the years and start thinking for myself.
But this 'something' that is happening now is the same something that was happening then.
I had a conversation with a Lefty comrade of mine the other day who bitterly opposed the war in Iraq and with whom I'd had a few shouted exchanges over the last couple of years. He wanted to know whether I honestly expected democracy to take hold in places like Saudi Arabia where we seemed still to be hypocritically propping up an undemocratic regime because it suits our interests.
I told him I thought some sort of liberalization was unavoidable throughout much of the Middle East since people in these countries were coming to realize they had more power than they might previously have thought (I chose not to reiterate my view that the U.S. invasion of Iraq had a great deal to do with this growing realization).
He said, "What I think you mean is that capitalism is being brought to these countries."
And I said, "given that capitalism would tend to displace social structures that have resembled feudalism in many countries, isn't this what Marxists refer to as the 'bourgeois revolution?"
He conceded the point.
"And isn't that a good thing?"
"Yes," he said, "that's a good thing."
Posted by Jeremy at 06:59 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
February 27, 2005
Guest Dog
by Jeremy
Today's Waiting Dog has been brought to you by Patrick Lasswell. Below is a picture of his dog, and a bit of explanation from Patrick:
"Here is The Bruce waiting to get back on the trail so he can sniff and mark. Bruce is accepting the pack as an anchor because he is well behaved...when closely watched. At 90 pounds of muscle, Bruce can haul the picnic table around."
Posted by Jeremy at 04:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Two Views on the Arrest of the BTK Serial Killer
by JeremyWhen a serial killer is caught after 31 years, I think that's a good thing, but I'm not sure everyone would agree. So let's first explore who this bastard was, then we'll apply some fashionable anti-war 'Left' views to the significance of this arrest.
There is clearly a remarkable story behind the capture of this monster. Even now, before the full details can be made public, it's a mind-blower:
WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- The daughter of the man Wichita authorities arrested as a suspect in the notorious BTK serial killings helped police capture her father by approaching them with her suspicions and voluntarily giving them a blood sample, according to a report Saturday by Wichita television station KAKE-TV.[...]
According to the Wichita Eagle newspaper, Rader had worked as a compliance supervisor for Park City, Kansas, in charge of animal control, nuisances, inoperable vehicles and general code compliance since about 1990. He was a one-time president of a Lutheran church, according to KAKE, and a father of two.
[...]
The killer coined his own nickname, BTK, "bind, torture and kill," a pattern he has followed with most of his victims.
[...]
For Davis' son Jeff, Rader's arrest ended a long nightmare. His mother was killed in her home, and her body dumped in rural Sedgwick County.
Davis told KAKE, "Probably the lingering emotion is revulsion."
"It's going to take awhile to reconcile the fact that my mom spent her last few minutes on this Earth at the hands of the lowest form of social sewage on the ladder of evolution," he said. "It's hard to accept that's what she last saw before she died."
[...]
Other victims' relatives had similar reactions.
"Now, my mom can rest in peace," Steve Relford, Vian's son, told KAKE. Relford was 5 years old when his mother was slain; he and his two siblings were locked in a bathroom at the time, but he said he witnessed her death by peeking through a hole.
The news of this arrest strikes me as good. I'm glad, to put it mildly, that the guy is now in custody.
But if I were to fall in line with the latest ideological thinking of my friends on the contemporary left, I would have a number of problems with this arrest:
- Dennis Rader had not killed anyone since about 1991. In fact, it seems he was, in the past decade, a citizen in full compliance with federal, state, and municipal laws.
- There was no justification for invading the home of this law abiding citizen and destroying the lives of this family in this terrible manner
- There are hundreds, if not thousands of murderers at large throughout continental United States. Why arrest this one now when there are others out there who are still killing people? Only a very credulous person would accept this arrest at face value
- Any claim that this man posed an imminent threat to other potential victims was based on FBI psychological profiles that, as we saw in the case of the DC snipers, can be alarmingly unreliable.
- Any reasonably intelligent person should be able to see that this 'capture' was an arrogant attempt by the Wichita Police department and District Attorney's Office to extend their power and prestige at the expense of the FBI, whose assistance in achieving a less dramatic closure to this matter they appear to have rather undiplomatically shunned.
- The American prison system is a brutal, horrendous institution in which there continue to be numerous instances of torture, abuse, and neglect of prisoners as well as the incarceration of innocent citizens. Is it not hypocritical of us to impose moral standards upon citizens when we continue to treat people this way in our prisons? Until we reform the criminal justice system, are we not creating the very 'monsters' we claim to so revile? Should we not therefore be seeking to address the root causes rather than continue to shatter the families of perpetrators through these dramatic arrests?
- We should be focusing on real problems, like fixing the health care crisis. Or does that not make as sexy a story on the news?
I'm sure I could go on like this. Let me know if you can think of other compelling reasons to take issue with the arrest of the BTK killer.
Posted by Jeremy at 09:10 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
February 25, 2005
Choosing a Campaign Song
by Jeremy
Shia Unity in Jeopardy
By JEREMY BROWN
Published: February 25, 2005
The delicate balance of shiite factions that made possible the triumph of the Shia United Iraqi Alliance party in the recent Iraqi election is now in danger of splitting down the middle, analysts say.
The crisis is being attributed to what some describe as a back room dispute between Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Al-Hussaini Al-Sistani and the man who is likely to be Iraq's new Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. The conflict is over what inspiring anthem should be played in the background during festivities leading up to the next general election.
Mr al-Jaafari, 58, is the leader of the religious Dawa Party, one of Iraq's oldest parties, known for its popularity and close ties to Iran. He is insisting that the Alliance choose "We Are the Champions" by Queen.
An Irate Sistani has expressed outrage at this choice. "Let us put aside for a moment the fact that, for me, Queen has always been an over-rated band," he said last week, speaking in Arabic to an audience of his followers, "and also we can forgive the perhaps overly triumphalist energy behind that song. But the deal breaker on that song for me -- though I must say it is quite a delicious irony upon which I have ejoyed no small amount of mirth -- is that this was a song sung by a homosexual persian man [ed note: the late Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara] who, to make matters still worse, was a citizen of Britain. This is a campaign song for Iraqi Shia? To poop on, maybe." The holy man shrugged, then waved off the idea with a dismissive sweep of his hand.
What would Sistani prefer? The Grand Ayatollah gave a private rendition, in English, to this writer during a telephone interview. He has requested that I not share the tape, but I have transcribed his treatment of the lyric:
Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?re on the move
Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?ve got the groove
Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?re on the move
Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?ve got the grooveThere?s been so many things that?s held us down
But now it looks like things are finally comin? around
I know we?ve got a long, long way to go
And where we?ll end up, I don?t knowBut we won?t let nothin? hold us back
We?re puttin? our show together, we?re polishing up our act now
And if you?ve ever been held down before
I know you refuse to be held down anymore, wellDon?t you let nothin?, nothin?
Stand in your way
I want y?all to listen, listen
To every word I say, every word I sayAin?t no stoppin? us now (No, oh, oh)
We?re on the move, huh
Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?ve got the groove, huhAin?t no stoppin? us now
We?re on the move (I know, I know)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?ve got the groove (We got it)I know you know someone that has a negative vibe
And if you?re tryin? to make it they only push you aside
They really don?t have nowhere to go
Ask them where their goin?, they don?t knowBut we won?t let nothin? hold us back
We?re gonna put our show together, we?re gonna polish up our act, well
And if you?ve ever been held down before
I know you refuse to be held down anymore, wellDon?t you let nothin?, nothin?
Stand in your way
I want y?all to listen, listen
To every word I say, every word I sayAin?t no stoppin? us now (No, no, no)
We?re on the move (We?re movin?, we?re groovin?)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now (We?re movin?, yeah, yeah, yeah)
We?ve got the groove (We?re groovin?, movin?, movin? movin? move)Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?re on the move (I know we?ve got the groove)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?ve got the groove (We?ve got, got the groove)Ain?t no stoppin? us now (No, no, no)
We?re on the move (We?re movin?, we?re groovin?)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now (We?re movin?, yeah, yeah, yeah)
We?ve got the groove (We?re groovin?, movin?, movin? movin? move)Ain?t no stoppin? us now (Ooh, no, no)
We?re on the move (I?m on the move, I really, really got the groove)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now (And I know, I know we?ve got the groove)
We?ve got the groove (Makes you wanna really move)Ain?t no stoppin? us now (No need in tryin?)
We?re on the move (?Cause I ain?t buyin?)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now (Don?t try to stop us, no, no, no)
We?ve got the grooveAin?t no stoppin? us now
We?re on the move (I really, really got the groove)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now (No need in denyin?, well)
We?ve got the groove (I ain?t lyin?)Ain?t no stoppin? us now [I know, I know]
We?re on the move (It?s been far too long, well)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now [Ain?t no stoppin? us]
We?ve got the groove [We?ve got the groove, there ain?t no stoppin? us]Ain?t no stoppin? us now (It?s been far too long, y?all, ah)
We?re on the move [We?re on the move] (Just join me while I get in line)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now (Yeah, yeah)
We?ve got the groove (We?re leavin? the negative people way behind)?Cause it ain?t no, yeah
{Don?t wanna stop, please don?t make me stop}
Please, please, please
{Don?t wanna stop, please don?t make me stop}
Don?t make me stop it
{Don?t wanna stop, please don?t make me stop}
See, I don?t know where we?re goin?
{Don?t wanna stop, please don?t make me stop}
Or where we?re gonna end up, yeah[Movin? on, I?m movin? on]
[I?m movin? on, I?m movin? on, yeah]
But see we?re gonna keep tryin?
[Movin? on, I?m movin? on]
We?re gonna keep tryin?
[Movin? on, I?m movin? , yeah]
Over and over
[I said it ain?t no]
No stoppin? us [No]
See, said it ain?t no
No way, no way [Uh]
We?re gonna put our show together
Time to polish up our act
[See our time has finally came around, huh]Ain?t no stoppin? us now (No...)
We?re on the move (Said we?re on the move, we really, really got the groove)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now (No...) [We?re movin? straight ahead]
We?ve got the grooveAin?t no stoppin? us now (Oh...)
We?re on the move (Said we?re on the move, we really, really got the groove)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now [There?s so many obstacles might be in our way]
We?ve got the groove [but we?re gonna get there someday]Ain?t no stoppin? us now (Oh...)
We?re on the move (Said we?re on the move, we really, really got the groove)
Ain?t no stoppin? us now [There?s so many obstacles might be in our way]
We?ve got the groove [But we?re gonna get there some day, some day]Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?re on the move
Ain?t no stoppin? us now [?Cause I?m on the move, ain?t no stoppin? us]
We?ve got the grooveAin?t no stoppin? us now
We?re on the move
Ain?t no stoppin? us now
We?ve got the groove
How adamant is Mr. Sistani on this point? I wasn't certain myself until I heard the ringtone on his cell phone in the background of our call. "You like it?" The holy man asked, "Give me your email and I'll send it to you." Send it he did. I'll let you decide how committed his is to this campaign song.
Posted by Jeremy at 08:42 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 22, 2005
Look Before You Judge
by JeremyI was skeptical that "The Gates" could truly be considered a work of art. But that was before I saw the full photographic spread of this magnificent installation. And what do I think now?
It.
Is.
Simply.
Breathtaking.
Please, please, please look for yourself. Do not let your cynicism blind you to this sublime turn in the gorgeous human pageant, the revelation of whose unimaginable beauty awaits your merest curiosity.
UPDATE: The pictures are sort of not entirely there at the moment. Here's my personal favorite:
Posted by Jeremy at 01:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 20, 2005
Brother and Sister Lovingly Welcome Their Humans Home
by JeremyThe following is genuine telepathically and auditorially overheard dog conversation:
Spike [a deaf dog, seen below on his hind legs]:
"You sure you heard them drive up, Lexie?
Lexie: Yup. Their car goes zuzz-zuzz-zuzz-tickety-zuzz-zuzz. Cara's car is the only other one that sounds similar, but hers goes zuzz-zuzz-tickety-tickety-zuzz-zuzz-zoom."
Spike: So you say, muchacha. But I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes and smell it with my own nose.
Lexie: Suit yourself, Spike-o. But I'm going to go ahead and bark. Woof! Woof!
Spike: Woof! Woof! I thought of barking long before you ever did.
Lexie: That's what you say, ass.
Spike: Woof! Rowf! What makes you think I won't bite your neck, bitch? Roof! Roof!
Lexie: You want a piece of me, pussy cat?
Human from behind door: Stop fighting, you two!
Posted by Jeremy at 05:28 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 18, 2005
The President Would Do Well to Study His Betters
by JeremyNew evidence has emerged from Asian analysts that President Bush, not one to acknowledge his miscalculations publicly, has nevertheless made some crucial errors of omission, principally in failing to study the leadership lessons of Kim Jong Il.
Our senior correspondent for multi-cultural relativism and Maoist agricultural affairs, Patrick Lasswell, has the story.
Dear Leader Shares Wisdom on Pork, Fattening
By PATRICK LASSWELL
Published: February 18, 2005
Showing once again that he is the Lodestone of the 21st Century, Kim Jong Il displayed his infinite capacity by directing operations of a pig farm.
Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, inspected the pig farm of KPA Unit 966.
After being briefed on the farm before its panoramic map, he went round production processes including a fattening pen and a processing shop to acquaint himself with the pork production and the pig raising.
He praised the unit for its efforts, noting with high appreciation that it supplied a large quantity of pork to its soldiers by ceaselessly producing it in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance even in the hard period of the "Arduous March", the forced march when it was hard pressed for everything.
He set forth the tasks to be fulfilled by the farm.
Recalling that the modern chicken, duck and goat farms and catfish farms built by the army in recent years are profusely paying off, he noted that a new turn will be effected in the diet of the soldiers when the existing pig farms are modernized.
NEWS ANALYSIS
You don't see George W. Bush paying attention to important details like the pig farms of the US military. Clearly, W has never read the most important treatise on national leadership GIVING PRIORITY TO IDEOLOGICAL WORK IS ESSENTIAL FOR ACCOMPLISHING SOCIALISM, by Dear Leader Kim Jong Il! This is another reason why a begonia named after President Bush has never been estimated as the King of Flowers, and never will be!
Posted by Jeremy at 07:26 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 15, 2005
Topic for Imperial Psychology Dissertation
by JeremyI was feeding trolls at Michael Totten's blog and I inadvertantly used the blog posting part of my brain to formulate a question that I will now share here in a revised version:
How is it that people can claim that the newly elected Shiite Majority in Iraq is a surrogate for the Iranian Mullahs while at the same time claiming that Iraq is now governed by a puppet democracy installed by the U.S.? Why would the U.S. want to install an anti-American Iranian theocracy in Iraq? Is this supposed to be some sort of geopolitical Munchausen syndrome? I'd really like to understand that better.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:57 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 13, 2005
Grammy Awards
by JeremyI thought I might watch the Grammy Awards this year because I always skip it and I often regret having done so when I learn that four or five hours into the show there was a duet featuring Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney (fictional) that I will never get a chance to see.
But every year it happens the same way. I start to watch but after a couple of minutes I am overcome by the temptation to feel ashamed of being human. I had thought that perhaps this had been an unhealthy shame and that, now that I'm a perky and well adjusted motherfucker, I'd realize that this was a pageant to which I had always been invited yet had inexplicably declined to attend.
Alas, no. I had been correct all along. What this is, really, is the olympics of narcissism. Yes, there are always about seven or eight minutes of stuff you really would want to see and hear. But how the hell do you get to it? Knowing that someone you really like might make an appearance is like knowing that Dorothy is somewhere in the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West. And I guess I'm the cowardly lion (Didn't the cowardly lion go into the castle to save her? - ed. Look, just because Roger Simon is on sick leave doesn't mean you can start kibitzing on everyone else's blog. You're Roger's imaginary editor, not mine.)
UPDATE: Some rap guy, during an over-the-top Christian production number, rhymed 'Jesus' with 'Cathy Lee and Regis' (the Pope was not available for comment. And no, this is not my Fair Use Friday post.)
Posted by Jeremy at 08:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 11, 2005
Sorry, I'm Slipping
by JeremyYes, I know. No "Fair Use Friday" post. If what the absence of this weekly tether of irony means for you is that you are now fated to spend a long lonely weekend adrift in the near space of your melancholic daydreams (or if you're just curious) then let me know and I could try to put together the idea I had. Or I could at least tell you what that idea was.
I took kind of a sick day from blogging today, until just a little while ago. I have some sort of stomach bug. My new gastric motility/anti-nausea pills are making it a relative cakewalk, but I'm still left with little energy to do much. Do you ever feel physically tired from blogging? Well I'm already starting to get...
Posted by Jeremy at 11:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 10, 2005
What Fallujah Faces Now
by Jeremy
I wouldn't want to live in Fallujah and neither would you. But -- and this is a miraculous transformation -- it sounds like we could if we had to.
"This is probably the safest city in the country," says US Marine Lt. Col. Keil Gentry, executive officer of Regiment Combat Team 1 (RCT1), that controls Fallujah. "Is it blooming everywhere? No. But it's like the beginning of spring, with signs of green emerging here and there."[...] "It's better that the Americans are here," says Abdulrahab Abdulrahman, a teacher who carries a folder containing a compensation claim for the damage to his house. "I have the freedom to be a student, or whatever I want to be."
The mujahideen "are gone," he says, clearly pleased, standing on a street strewn with rubble. "They are finished."
Children wave at the marines, and accept candy that the men keep in cargo pockets, alongside stun grenades and extra rifle magazines. Many adults wave, too, though some look sullenly past.
It's not all sunshine and flowers, per this article, nor would I have believed it was. And the American troops are not uniformly beloved. But complaints by many residents regarding infrastructure rebuilding efforts being too slow, and the inclination to be skeptical of the intentions of the patrolling authorities, reminds me more of the South Bronx in New York than of the Fallujah of just a few weeks ago. The South Bronx is a neighborhood whose recent process of regeneration -- a feat being achieved against stunning odds -- Fallujans and the newly elected Iraqi government ought to study in earnest:
...the [South] Bronx began to burn in about 1970. Some of the fires were accidents, the inevitable result of decaying electrical systems. Many were set by landlords who would then collect the insurance money. Often they would sell the building--whether it was still inhabited or not--to "finishers" who would strip out the electrical wiring, plumbing fixtures, and anything else that could be sold for a profit before torching it. "Sometimes there'd be a note delivered telling you the place would burn that night," one man who lived through the period told me. "Sometimes not" People got used to sleeping with their shoes on, so that they could escape if the building began to burn.[...] During the mid-'70s, the South Bronx averaged 12,000 fires a year. The area lost some 40 percent of its housing stock, and 300,000 people fled. In the burned-out zone that remained, police fought a losing battle against junkies and murderous teenage gangs.
But in recent years, much of this part of the city has been reviving to the point where people can live half way decent lives there. The article attributes this to a constructive partnership between local community members in collaboration with city and federal agencies, resulting in the necessary influx of investment by businesses, banks, and homebuyers. This rings true to me. Initially the government, when it bothered, blundered in from above with ham-handed urban planning and it failed miserably. But how could impoverished community groups do any better? The answer, clearly, is in a commitment from both the ground up and the top down to applying government power to putting wise community building (rather than urban planning) efforts into action. Iraqis need to read about this.
Perhaps the best measure of that effort has been the peaceful repopulation of the area. Despite all the talk about Giuliani's new policing policies, police in the South Bronx tend to attribute much of the dramatic drop in crime to the city's rebuilding efforts. "When people have a stake in the community, they're less likely to put up with crime," says Captain Thomas King of the 42nd precinct, which includes much of what was the "Fort Apache" territory in the 70s.
While I'm sure some will accuse me of belittling the hardships that people in Iraq have suffered due to this war, I would hope we'd recognize the hardships Fallujans faced before the war. But whether the comparisons are fair or not, the lessons are required reading for anyone who would help rebuild Iraq.
The South Bronx then:
The South Bronx (at least parts of it) now:
Posted by Jeremy at 06:38 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 08, 2005
Want to Help Me Test a New Visitor Stats Tool?
by JeremyIf you can install a PHP/MySQL thingy, then you might be interested in a new stats tool that I've been customizing.
It's built on an open source PHP/MySQL powered application called "PHP i-stats" that was quite beautifully coded by a guy in Hong Kong named Sam Tang. In its original form it was conservative in its per-visitor data tracking, possibly to keep both the database and the screen display as streamlined as possible. But bloggers like you and me would rather have more data all in one place, so much so that the screen looks like an airplane cockpit, right? Better than having to click several times just to get all the basics on a visit (or worse, finding that the data you're looking for has been anonymously aggregated into a table of totals and averages so you can't see which visitor is who and who did and saw what).
All Visitor Detail Viewable in One Glance:
I put a bunch of extra data you see in the visitor tracking part that scrolls down to the bottom. At first it's hard to understand what it all means, though there's a key at the top (in the light green box). But very soon it becomes second nature and you appreciate seeing all the info in one glance.
And there are a couple of features I've added that I think are pretty neat.
Privately Identifying Known Visitors:
When an IP number has an asterisk next to it it's because that IP is in my list of known readers. Click on the asterisk and you're taken to a password protected page identifying the person on the basis of IP (you can configure it to be public if you prefer, but I think this potentially crosses a line beyond which your identified visitors should have to give their consent for public viewing). A tilde (~) means it closely resembles one or more known IP addresses and lists possible matches. Maybe these marks shouldn't even be visible unless you're logged in. But that's the sort of thing that beta testers know best.
Graphical Map of Each Page in Sequence Viewed by each Visitor:
Another feature that I'd always wanted in a stats counter is one I finally figured out how to get working yesterday. It records all the pages viewed by each visitor (within reason: up to 50 or 60 for those rare oddballs) and then, when you click on the number representing the person's total page views, it displays a map of each page viewed in sequence:
This is kept lean on database space by way of an index that assigns a numerical code (two to four digits long) to each and every page on the server. The index is stored in a separate table; this means all those long page names only have to be stored once. In each visitor's record, the database need only store a single string of comma delimited numbers that can later be decoded into the map of pages viewed (the string that stores the data for the sample chart you see above is only 33 characters: "1,3757,3755,3754,3753,3752,3751,1").
I'm working on a way to have this master index automatically rebuilt every time a new post is added to the blog. I think there should be a simplish way to get Movable Type to trigger this using a ping, but I don't have that part working yet.
The basic code for automatically building the index of every page in the blog's archives was taken from a highly impressive PHP class written by a young guy who calls himself "Metalhead."
I haven't told either of these brilliant programmers about the nifty tricks I have gotten their code to do for me. I will eventually, and I suppose they will see this post. But I don't yet want either of them to look at my code. It is, shall we say, effective but still rather sloppy. While their code is Hercule Poirot, mine is more like Columbo. Theirs is a lovely casserole, mine is a tasty Goulash. My code is the Woody Allen to their Hitchcock. But I'll be cleaning it up over the next few weeks or so.
If you're interested in testing this creation, or if you think you might use it when it's actually realeased (free, open source), please let me know via comments or email. I'd be happy to send it to you in some semblance of an easily installable package in a week or so. And I'd be more than grateful for any feedback. One thing I need to determine is how to regulate the size of the database. It needs to be capped, archived, and wiped clean periodically. But I'm not sure how big I should allow it to get at any given time. What if Glenn Reynolds used it? Would it fill up and crash his server within the first twenty minutes? I guess this should be a parameter the user can fine tune as needed. Wouldn't that be nice?
Let me know if you have any interest.
I'm also going to -- I hope in the next month or so -- finish a blogroll building tool that will enable you to add a link to your blogroll by visiting the blog you want to link to and clicking a shorcut on your browser. The blogroll automatically alphabetizes. But no one's going to use this until I work out a way to import an existing blogroll.
I plan to post both of these within the next couple of months for free download under a public license, GPL, whatever it is. You'd be free, as I was, to tamper with it, give it away, sell it, etc. But I'll prominently feature a tip jar and beg for donations, just like at the museum. How's that for a business model?
UPDATE: if you want to see the visit mapping feature in action, just click a whole bunch of pages and then look for yourself in the stats (the pie chart logo on the righthand sidebar). I guess I'll have to ensure that this feature can't be abused to break someone's database. I'll think about it. In the mean time, please try to break it.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:51 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Dissent2
by JeremyNorm will never be accused of preaching to the choir, though the choir listen on with glee. He has a piece in Dissent in which he lays out what, to you or me, would seem to be an argument that his intended audience of the unevolved (my word for them) anti-war Left ought to find convincing, in a fidget-inducing, reading with a flashlight under the covers sort of way. I hope he's able to convince some of them to do some reflecting.
It is written, as I say, for a Left leaning audience, and a scholarly one at that. But even if you're not in the habit of reading that sort of thing, you won't regret sitting down and reading this one through. Here's a highlight:
The attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, lit up the global landscape. Not only in these two cities, but wherever the news and the pictures reached during the first hours after the planes struck - all over the planet, therefore - there were people quickly able to make out features of the contemporary world that they had not previously taken in, or taken the measure of fully, things that challenged their earlier expectations and existing frameworks of understanding. Not, however, in one quarter. With a section of the Western left, the response was as if everything remained just as it had always been.[...]
The Taliban in Afghanistan; Saddam's Iraq; the reduction of a human being by torture; the use of terror randomly to kill innocents and to smite all those by whom they are cherished; mass murder; ethnic cleansing; all the manifold practices of human evil-to look upon these and at once see "capitalism," "imperialism," "America," is not only to show a poverty of moral imagination, it is to reveal a diminished understanding of the human world. A social or political science, or a practical politics, that cannot rise to the level of what has been understood, in their own mode, by the great religions-and I say this as a resolute and lifelong atheist-and what has also been understood, in their own mode, by all the great literatures of the world, is a science and a politics that can no longer be taken seriously. It should not be taken seriously by anyone attached to the democratic and egalitarian values that have always been at the heart of the broad socialist tradition.
This is like overhearing a physician urging your emphysemic former friend, yet again, to quit smoking four packs of cigarettes a day. You may have thought you were long past caring, but you're glad the good doctor is still on the case.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE: In a very different sort of essay but in a very similar sort of spirit, you should really read Michael Totten's latest Techcentral column:
Joining the protest movement was a way to surround myself with people who were on my side, who shared my detestation of war, and who could viscerally relate to my fears. I knew very well we were all tilting at windmills. I protested because it made me feel better.
Then what happened?
Bosnia buried my pacifism. But it did not bury my liberalism.
It's fun to indulge the fantasy that my views are so much in the left/liberal mainstream that I can click at will from one magazine to another and see such similar opinions so ably articulated.
UPDATE 2: Here'e Patrick Lasswell:
I have talked to people who attend these protests, and I am sure that they love the smell of pepper spray exactly the same way I loved the smell of the smoke from my father's Salem's. It comforts them and makes the feel included. I remember asking my father to smoke just so I could smell the scent of him relaxing. I am sure that there are protesters who violently confront the police just so they can feel the sweet sting of significance and bask in the glow of remembered accomplishment. I am sure that they are confident in the justification of their actions because sensory input tells them it is right. They substitute endorphins for accomplishment and go seeking their next hit.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 07, 2005
Give Fascism the Finger While Supporting Democracy
by JeremyOur friend Hak the Snappy Cat from Australia has made this image into a pin and a mug via Cafepress:
"All proceeds ($2 per mug, and $1 per badge/magnet) will be split between the IFTU and the Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party."
I'm ordering scads of them today.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:16 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Michael's Dinner with Hitch
by JeremyAs I read Michael's account of his dramatic evening with Christopher Hitchens I was simultaneously green with envy and awash with relief that I wasn't there to experience it. It's a must read if ever there was one.
Why do I get the feeling that, for Hitch, it was just a night like any other.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 06, 2005
McCartney Live Blog
by JeremyWe're watching Beatle Paul live doing the halftime show at the Super Bowl and he's really good. He's never bad but, you know, sometimes he hams it up too much. Tonight he's really on and, as they say, rockin'. He opened with Drive My Car and is now doing Get Back. He's plucking away on his Hofner and he's in excellent voice. Very unglitzy and very legit.
Now he's at the piano doing Live and Let Die. Even on this song he's doing it straight and with the same edge with which he did the previous songs. Ok, well now there's fireworks, but it is the Super Bowl.
I haven't kept up on who his latest band is. But they're tight and organic sounding. It sounds like a real band, not some overly slick studio band. I'm going to google them and find out who they are if I can.
He's doing Hey Jude now. Not the best choice because it's too abrubt a change of gears. The evening hadn't yet earned that song, if you know what I mean. Yeah, and now he's doing those ego-armoring, show businessy gestures and little grace notes. He's just not willing to go to that place where this song really lives. I really wish he hadn't done this song. The bassist is doing a kind of funky, disco thing. This great song deserved better. And his exceptionally good performance of the first two songs deserved a more sincere finale.
Ah well. He's Beatle Paul and he can do no wrong.
UPDATE: the backing band was: Paul "Wix" Wickens (keyboard), Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums), Rusty Anderson (guitar), Brian Ray (guitar). I gather that both guitarists double on bass as needed. The guitarists and drummer are three American studio musicians but they have a solid, organic (dare I say American) sound that provides a grounding, solidifying influence that Paul's bands have tended to lack throughout his solo career. It reminds me of the extremely effective sound that resulted from Elvis Costello recording his first album with a similarly very American backing band (Huey Lewis' band at the time, a couple of whom stayed on with him [Lewis, I mean]. A great, tight rock band that went on, as we know, to do some kind of thin, commercial music. But behind Costello they were a perfect band, though I loved the Attractions too.)
OK, can I stop pretending to be a music critic now?
Posted by Jeremy at 08:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Songs
by JeremyNote: I've been accused of being a chauvinist when it comes to music. It has gotten me into a lot of trouble over the years. I've mellowed out a lot, but this poll has regressed me temporarily. If I piss you off, maybe you deserve to be pissed off feel free to dissent in the comments. I'm having fun with this. I don't mean to belittle other people's tastes.
First, here was my entry in Norm's top ten songs poll, in random order (and if this had been someone else's I'm sure I'd be bitterly criticizing some of these choices):
- Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles
- The Tracks of My Tears - Smokey Robinson
- Something - The Beatles
- Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan
- Pinball Wizard - The Who
- Alison - Elvis Costello
- The Weight - The Band
- Someone Saved My Life Tonight - Elton John
- Rain - The Beatles
- Purle Haze - Jimi Hendrix
Now my justifications and rethinkings.
Rigby: stand behind it completely. Why not 'Yesterday?' Yesterday deserved to be on that list, maybe more so in some ways. But I decided to arbitrarily limit the number of songs by a single composer. I chose this one because, to me, Yesterday was McCartney showing he could write a perfect ballad like the master American songwriters of yesteryear as well or better than most. Whereas Eleanor Rigby was him expanding and redefining the parameters of the rock/pop genre.
The Tracks of My Tears: I'll take this opportunity to speak to Norm's concerns about the lack of respect shown for the formative artists of Rock and Roll, because Smokey Robinson, along with Buddy Holly, is certainly one of the most important links between the that era and the post-Beatles era (no Smokey or Holly, no Beatles). Let me try to put it pithily (i.e. lazilly). I think this boils down to a question of importance to the development of a new music vs. pure artistic achievement. With a lot of song writers, the totality of their contribution is more important than any one song. But with a measly 10 items to boil it down to, you didn't have to choose artistic achievement vs. historical importance. You could have both.
It pained me to leave Ron Sexsmith, for example, off this list. But he just isn't historically important the way the others are. It pained me considerably to leave Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and many others off the list but, though they are the Mt. Rushmore of the form, I couldn't honestly say, for instance, that "Rock & Roll Music" by Chuck Berry could be ranked on the same artistic level as "Yesterday" which, as you notice, wasn't even on my list (though maybe it should have been).
Inventing an art form can be thankless task.
Something: Simply a great song. I stand behind it.
Mr. Tambourine Man: Dylan is a genius, if the word means anything. But his brilliant lyrics can be sloppy, in the manner of Allen Ginsberg. There's nothing wrong with that; that was his thing. But this song was Dylan trying to write a perfect song and coming very close. I would call it his masterpiece if he didn't have a dozen others.
Pinball Wizerd: I'm not so sure I can stand firmly behind this choice. But I strongly felt that Pete Townshend needed to be on this list, and there is something incredibly pure about this song.
Alison: Just a great, pure song by an important song writer. Like most of Costello's songs, though he's a brilliant lyricist, his lyrics get a bit sloppy. It's like unrevised poetry. I think the precedent for this is the Ginsberg, Dylan trend mentioned earlier (though Alison is not a very illustrative example of that tradition). Ginsberg and Keruouac, though, worked hard at seeming spontaneous. Maybe Dylan and Costello too. But the latter two don't cover the seams as well (forced rhymes, clumsily subjective images, etc. But then it's a bit like criticizing Einstein for getting black holes wrong).
The Weight: I saw it on a TV commercial and I just had to have it.
Someone Saved My Life Tonight: If you remember this as a glossy Elton John song, listen to it again. It's just an amazing piece of work.
Rain: How the hell do you choose a Lennon song? This one is better than most people remember. I chose it because it's one of a few songs (She Said, She Said is another) in which Lennon perfectly manifests a compositional voice that's completely his own. This was Ringo's favorite Beatles song (or so he said once). 'She Said, She Said' (Leonard Bernstein's favorite Beatles song, for what that's worth) and 'Rain' are two songs without which there would be no Nirvana (the Band).
Purle Haze: Musicianship, innovation, song craft, zeitgeistiness, all coming together into a perfectly chiseled arrowhead, cleaving something or other asunder. Like that.
Now some random reactions to the results:
01 (22) - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones): Reasonable but obligatory. Who really enjoyed putting this one on the list (this explanation hereafter referred to as 'Oblig.')
02 (19) - Sympathy For The Devil (The Rolling Stones) [32]: completely indefensible.
Oh, hell, I can't go through them all this way. I'll say what I can't keep inside, and I'll say nothing more.
The Beach Boys: 'God Only Knows' is worthy. 'Good Vibrations' is less defensible.
27 (8) - Sunshine Of Your Love (Cream) [65]: Sorry, not buying it (hereafter abbreviated as 'Nope.')
30 (7) - Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd) [314]: Nope.
31 (7) - How Soon Is Now? (The Smiths) [486]: I like the Smiths, but 'Nope.'
32 (7) - Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones) [490]: You have got to be fucking kidding me. This is a joke, right?
38 (6) - Son Of A Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield) [240]: Nuh uh.
40 (6) - Fairytale Of New York (The Pogues and Kirsty McColl): A really good song, but top 10 of all time? Can't accept it. Sorry.
41 (6) - Riders On The Storm (The Doors) [-]: You might as well put the real Perry Como on this list.
54 (5) - Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division) [179]: Next.
72 (4) - Heroes (David Bowie) [46]: Please, let's not encourage him. And he's got much better songs anyway.
73 (4) - Anarchy In The UK (The Sex Pistols) [53]: Uh, yeah right. Whatever you say. I don't want any trouble.
76 (4) - You Really Got Me (The Kinks) [82]: Probably deserves to be on the list more than one or two of my choices.
77 (4) - Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones) [92]: I'll have a hit of whatever you're smoking.
...I'm afraid I've petered out.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:38 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
A Long Hard Look in the Funhouse Mirror
by Jeremy- Previously posted by me on Michaeltotten.com
Sometimes a journalist gets so homesick for the truth he's willing to meet it half way, as narrated in this case by Tina Brown in the Washington Post (via Judith Weiss):
Even reporters on the ground in Iraq could hardly believe what they were living through as they watched the power of an idea transmute into the living, breathing form of black-clad women, Marsh Arabs and throngs of Kurdish mountaineers festively making their way to the polls. The father of a young reporter who has spent most of the last two years in Iraq shared with me his son's e-mail from Baghdad. "We journalists are all sitting round and asking each other how we missed what's clearly a far deeper drive for political and societal change than we realized.
Baby steps. But we'll refrain from answering what, unfortunately, seems to be a rhetorical question. The point is, this guy got there. Or did he, exactly?
"It is a measure of our isolation here -- and also, I think, a measure of how the violence and humiliation of the occupation has masked people's very genuine feelings."
Oh brother. Tina Brown is noticing a trend, for the moment, wherein anti-Bush liberals, seeing the touching success of the Iraqi election are trying to find ways to not be so angry. Or something. Where's it going to lead? I think the best we can hope for is that it will lead toward that place where, in the event of a successful Iraqi journey toward stability and increasing democratic freedom, the anti-war crowd will stop saying the word (you know, 'Iraq.')
I think Judith has it right:
"...Iraqis' desires for freedom and national unity were right there in front of you, not masked at all, ready to be noticed and reported on.But you didn't want to see it."
Posted by Jeremy at 11:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dog Difficulties
by JeremyI must apologize for the lack of a waiting dog last week; I was distracted by the election. And this week, I'm having technical difficulties uploading my freshly photographed Hampshire Valley canine from the Smart Media card it is trapped on. I'm sure I'll get this sorted out before the day is through. Please stay tuned (don't eat lunch, don't read anything or go to the bathrooom until you receive further instructions from me on this matter. It will only be a few hours).
Posted by Jeremy at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 04, 2005
Help Moveon.org Move On
by JeremyPosted by Jeremy at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 02, 2005
Reclaiming the Word 'Martyr'
by JeremySalim Yacoubi bent over to kiss the purple ink stain on his twin brother's right index finger, gone cold with death."You can see the finger with which he voted," Shukur Jasim, a friend of the dead man, said as he cast a tearful gaze on the body, sprawled across a washer's concrete slab. "He's a martyr now."
[...]
"It's not the man who exploded himself who's a martyr," Mr. Jasim said as the body washer wiped away dried blood. "He wasn't a true Muslim. This is the martyr. What religion asks people to blow themselves up? It's not written in the Koran."
Mr. Aziz, the neighbor, nodded.
"This is the courage of Iraqis," he said of Mr. Yacoubi's decision to vote, "and we will change the face of history. This is our message to the countries of the world, especially those that are still under a dictatorship and want to walk the same road as the Iraqis."
[...]
In the dusty lot outside the washing rooms, another family strapped a coffin holding the body of a policeman, Adil al-Nassar, onto the roof of a blue minivan. He had just been cleaned. Now it was time to take him to the golden-domed Shrine of Ali for his final blessings. He was not the first policeman to be brought here.
Officer Nassar, 40, died after tackling a man who had leapt into a line of women waiting to vote at Osama bin Zaid Primary School, said Kadhum al-Hashim, the officer's father-in-law.
"There were many people, and Adil was just guiding the voters into the school when the terrorist jumped into the line of women," Mr. Hashim said. Several others died in the explosion, he added.
The victim's brother, Muhammad al-Nassar, wiped away tears with a white scarf.
Adil al-Nassar had joined the new police force just a year ago, his brother said. He had a family to feed: a wife and three children, the eldest an 8-year-old son.
"He's a martyr now," Mr. Nassar said. "He saved many lives for the greater good."
Posted by Jeremy at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 01, 2005
Coyotes
by JeremyVery near by. Howling and yelping. Twenty seconds ago. They're gone now.
Posted by Jeremy at 06:41 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Jon Stewart on 24 Hour Implosion Watch
by JeremyJon Stewart, late in the Daily Show last night to Newsweek pundit Fareed Zakaria: "I?ve watched this thing unfold from the start and here?s the great fear that I have: What if Bush, the president, ours, has been right about this all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may, and again I don?t know if I can physically do this, implode.
(via Instapundit)
Posted by Jeremy at 06:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
