The meta- post, or blogs nobody reads

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As Emily begins to take flight and FBdN spreads its wings to fly in a more individual direction, I am compelled to revert to the meta-post.  A rumination on blogging will hardly display the intense compactness and focus of one of Em’s entries, or the articulate and erudite humor routinely found at FBdN.  In the latter’s case, there can be no dispute that a profession in writing was inevitable.

No, the meta-post (the one that seems like it’s never going to get started – this one!) is boring to others and extremely self-indulgent.  But, since so few people read this blog (or even know about it), I am safe from any real consideration of audience.  Or am I?

It is not a child’s journal, hidden safely in a closet or under the bed.  This is a more public space.  Family and friends presumably know that you’ve staked a claim to a certain corner of the virtual universe.  They are not barred from reviewing you innermost secrets, should you choose to share.

An that’s the funny thing about writing.  It reveals so much, often without meaning to.  So while I’m posting pictures of vacation, promoting a political point of view, or suggesting a new collection of Brazilian music, I may let my guard down.  I may want to.

Music from my afternoon run

I’m dealing with a minor flare-up of colitis, so I have to tread lightly, but I was still able to get in a short run this afternoon.  My running iPod (yes, I have a few) coughed up some absolute beauts:

  • Tangerine Dream – Encore (not sure which Tree boot this came from)
  • Miles Davis – Honky Tonk (from the stunning Evolution of the Groove remix record – Brilliant!!)
  • Isotope – Crunch Cake

The last of these is a stone cold lost classic from the fusion era.  The whole album is good, but this song in particular really got me going on the run.

It’s good to be on vacation!

Inciting hate (and violence?!), getting rich

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I’m pleased to see that some sponsors are starting to take note.

Anyone who cares to pay attention will have seen the strong protests at town-hall meetings, which were designed to educate the public about Obama’s proposed health care reform.   Such protests are in keeping with the highest ideals of the 1st Amendment and should be welcome by Democrats as an opportunity to stimulate discussion and public debate.  There appear to be some strategy memos that have been circulated among protest groups that urge ‘disruption’ instead of debate – the goal being to drown out the message of those who would promote Obama’s goal.  But even this approach should be welcome, as it forces proponents of reform to make their message louder and clearer and simpler.  I know this is not a simple topic and I don’t want to see it dumbed down to the point where discussion is irrelevant, but when I am trying a case before a jury, the most important thing is to make my message as clear and easy to understand as possible.

Of course, the thing about civil litigation is that it’s ‘civil.’. Most judges will protect me from a shouting match and interruption. Both sides get a fair chance to present opposing points of view.

And I’m also not worried about being shot or poisoned.

But the trouble with Glenn Beck is not that he’s a revolutionary or an agitator.  He is neither.  All the time that he reinforces a message of hated and racism to his millions of viewers and listeners, he is exploiting them for the purpose of profit.  We see a similar phenomena with former governor Palin.   She has left office to cash in on her popularity among the right-wing fringe.  Without the burdens of being an elected official, Palin will be free to earn enough without excessive oversight.  It may be questionable how well her book will ‘sell’ (many of Glen Beck’s books are given away through conservative website promos), but this of little moment compared to the millions she will be advanced by a publisher desperate for a best-seller.  Palin is free to take advantage of such an entity in the same fashion that she took advantage of the people of Alaska, who foolishly thought she would serve her entire term in office, but there is a problem.

When Palin tells you that Obama is going to have death panels that will come and kill your aged and infirm parents or your infant who has a disability, she, a person of note and respect, a former elected official, is telling you that your family is at risk of death at the hands of the government. That is incitement to violence.  It is also newsworthy.  Which means her face will be on TV and everyone will be talking about her outrageous comments.  That also means that a publisher will pay a higher number based on her significant popularity.  As long as she is a relevant voice, her earning potential will continue to be high.

The worry is that, in her efforts to create a financially secure future for herself and her family (a laudable goal), she is telling lies.  Again, that’s not anything that hasn’t happened before, but people look to her to understand the frightening world around her.  They trust her.  Does she care about them?  Does she care how they will react when she advises them of the imminent assault on their persons that will be coming from the Obama administration?  Or does she, like Rush and Beck, just care about the money?

Feeling bad about the Phils getting swept? May I suggest some consumer therapy?

While it is true that the Phillies just got their assess handed to the  by the very team that is chainsg them in the lackluster NL East, there are still reasons to be feeling good – even on a Monday.  The good folks at The Fightins (a site that always causes me to (a) laugh hysterically and (b) restart Firefox) and Birdland have come up with more designs that allow you to show your love, even when times are tough.300300-1 Their catalog of Phillies T’s was recently mentioned in the City Paper (whose website is so busy and annoying that I’ll take the restart necessitated by a Fightin’s visit any day) and the shirts are becoming more and more prevalent around the park.

So, yeah, we got skooled this weekend, but I’d rather it happened now than in (dare I say it) October.  So go spend some money, stimulate the economy and make yourself feel better.

See Emily Play – BOOKMARK THIS!

See Emily Play is looking pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself.  It is so liberating to have a WordPress.org blog and I think Em has caught the bug.  Also, I shouldn’t really take all the credit.  I thought she was going be mainly content and I would act as her contractor for all design and customization.  I’m very happy to say how wrong I was.  I established the basic platform, using the lovely and flexible Atahualpa theme from BytesForAll.  That’s a great platform to start with because it features a TON of shortcuts that let you (me) manipulate code to get the look and color you want.

But now, Em is acting as site owner and, not only making the decorating and environmental decisions about HER website, but also implementing those decisions.  That’s a testament to her enthusiasm and the intuitive nature of the WP platform.  I remember how excited I was back in the day, when I set this thing up for myself, and now I’m getting to relive all that enthusiasm with Em.  Priceless.

Lots of jazz fusion, waiting for me to listen.

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Jazz-fusion.  So reviled and so beloved by so many.  I just hauled in the mother load from a dear friend in D.C.  Mr. el Sturj has a deep collection (50+ gigs of Mahavishnu alone!).  We’ve had some famuily staying with us, so I haven’t gotten to assimilate any of this material into the master list just yet.  I also note that there is no shortage of possibilities to help jump start Blogerantz, which has been dormant for too many days.  I have gotten bits of positive feedback recently and Google Analytics confirms that people from all over the global village have stopped by to sample the treats.  So, it’s time for more treats.

Get ready to ‘See Emily Play’

It may not be much just yet, but we are ready to launch the mpomy subdomain See Emily Play.  This will be Em’s personal blog with a focus on whatever the hell she wants to focus on.  I’m assisting with set-up and design implementation, as well as the obvious domain and hosting issues.  All content, as currently contemplated, will be courtesy the lovely Emily.

This is a special moment for me, because mpomy.com is really an exercise in vanity and catharsis.  Google Analytics has confirmed that there’s not a whole lot of traffic, and that’s fine.  The more important result has been that I’ve become somewhat comfortable with the best platform on the web and I’m running it locally on my host provider, so it’s my bandwidth, my rules, my domain.  If there was something extremely interesting going on out there, I would have a journal entry here that would help me remember for later.  Links can be preserved and pictures saved and it just goes on from there.  Any fine writing is purely coincidental.

Emily, on the other hand, presents a totally different approach.  She has had to be dragged into this kicking and screaming.  Well, not quite, but it has taken the encouragement of a professional, published author, who recognized Em’s talent and encouraged her to act as a guest blogger.  That’s a lot different than a partner or family member saying, “you’re such a great writer, you should just start writing a blog.”

So, today I spent the afternoon assigning a subdomain, setting up another mySQL database, installing a separate and discreet WordPress installation, and getting some very basic customization underway.  Even now, the earliest entries are beginning to take shape across the room as we engage in the age-old exercise known as “dueling laptops.”  Update your Google Reader accordingly.

We knew Erik Prince was a bad dude, but this is off the hook!

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Blackwater, now known as Xe Services LLC is the paramilitary outfit contracted by the Bush administration to massacre Muslims secure Iraq after the glorious well planned invasion that resulted in the end of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Now, sworn statements filed in Federal Court in Virginia y ex employees, and reported on by The Nation (maybe I should renew for another year) indicate that company President Erik Prince may be responsible for the murder of individuals who were coopoerating with Federal investigators.  In other words, this has nothing to do with the countless Iraqis who were undoubtedly killed by Blackwater, this is Prince killing people to save his himself from prosecution.

There’s also a lot of other classy stuff in the statements, like the following:

The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

Nice.

Read the whole Nation article here.