« October 03, 2004 - October 09, 2004 | Main | October 17, 2004 - October 23, 2004 »
Stewart Stuffs Crossfire
Jon Stewart said yesterday on CNN's Crossfire that the show is hurting America. Get a transcript, download an mp3, and if you can figure out BitTorrents, you can get the video, too (all links from Scripting News). Wow. I didn't see it, but I listened to it and it's incredible. Tucker Carlson told Stewart he should get a job at a journalism school; Stewart replied seriously: “You need to go to one!” Salon's Charles Taylor says Stewart's appearance was completely consistent with his stance on his own show and I tend to agree:Will this cause mainstream journalists to do a serious gutcheck? Probably not, but maybe a ball is now rolling that will lead there eventually. Thanks, Jon. Early stories about this elsewhere:Stewart's “Crossfire” appearance is going to generate talk about how prickly he was, how he wasn't “nice” like he is on “The Daily Show.” But prickliness is just what was needed. If you've built your reputation as a satirist pointing out how the media falls down on the job, you're not going to make yourself a part of their charade.
- Jon Stewart Torches from the NY Daily News
- Left Hooks and Right Jabs: Stewart Tangles With Carlson from WaPo
- Jon Stewart bitchslaps CNN's 'Crossfire' from MTV News
- JT Juice 10-16 From Journal Times Online (Wisc.)
- Jon Stewart to Tucker Carlson: “You're a dick.” from Alternet
Posted 06:34 AM | Comments (4) | election 2004
Post Debate Hurry
This would be me having no time to say anything more than I thought Kerry did a great job last night, Bush did much better than in the first two debates, and Bush really did say he wasn't worried about and no longer thinks about Osama bin Laden. That's the only little “fact check” I have time for, but if you spot good bits that expose the mistatements or misrepresentations of either candidate, I'd love to hear about them.Posted 09:03 AM | Comments (1) | election 2004
Pre-Debate Thoughts
Ok, so the final debate is tonight and it's pretty important. Here are a few tidbits for your brain to kick around as you watch.
One: Get your debate bingo cards here or here.
Two: Bush's Court Picks: Be Afraid. Very Afraid.
Three: From the GW Bush Flip Flop Catalog, something to consider while you listen to Bush talk about putting money in your pocket and neglect to mention any plan for paying for his massive tax cuts:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.” — Alexander Tyler, 1778
Four: The following is a transcription of a scene in a 2000 episode of The West Wing entitled “The Midterms.” At least that's what TiVo says; I can't find it on the episode guide. Anyway, it's directed at those who think U.S. public policy should be based on literal readings of the Bible, and might be food for thought when Bush talks about how he's guided by god. Below, President Bartlett is speaking to a right-wing talk radio host:
President Bartlet (PB): I like your show. I like how you call homosexuality an “abomination.”
Host (H): I don't say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr. President, the Bible does.
PB: Yes, it does. Leviticus.
H: 18:22
PB: Chapter and verse! I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I had you hear. I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:07. She's a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be?
H: Silence.
PB: While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of Staff, Leo McGarrity, insists on working on the sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or is it ok to call the police?
Here's one that's really important because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean -- Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point?
Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads?
Think about those questions, would you? One last thing: While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building when the president stands, nobody sits.
UPDATE: The Unreasonable Man writes to note that the above quote from Tyler may be a hoax. Also, here are two more pre-debate nuggets for you. The first is from an open letter to Bush and Rumsfeld:
The second is simply the latest on the Bush bulge. L. and others have speculated that after all the attention the back bulge got in the first debate, Bush moved the radio device from his back to his front. Was he looking quite a bit thicker around the middle than usual? Did his coat appear to fit rather poorly for a man who probably has custom-tailored suits? Will this be one of the mistakes left for historians to decide?
Posted 11:23 AM | Comments (17) | election 2004
CVB Still Amps the Rockage
I just got back from the Camper Van Beethoven show at the 9:30 Club and it was really everything I could have hoped for. Simply a great show. They're touring in support of their new album, New Roman Times [iTMS link], so they played a number of tracks off of that, including “The Gum You Like Is Back In Style,” “Might Makes Right,” and “Hippy Chix” (with funky dance moves and backing vocals from one of their opening bands, The Gaskets. I was trying to keep the playlist in my head but it just wasn't going to happen. I know they opened w/one of my all-time favorites, “All Her Favorite Fruit,” followed pretty closely by the title track from “Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart,” and “Eye of Fatima.” That last one holds a special place in my heart because it's about cowboys on acid (and who wouldn't love that?) and declares that “no one ever conquered Wyoming from the left or from the right; you can stay in motel rooms and stay up all night!” I think the whole song is dripping in irony, but it could just be me. They also slipped in what sounded like a slowed-down, campered-up cover of “White Riot” by The Clash. (Which reminds me, I really need to get some Clash back in my musical collection; all I have is on tape, and the tapes just don't get much listening anymore.) They also played an insanely fast and raucous version of “Club Med Sucks” (there may be no other way to play this song, actually), and afterward David Lowery gave a short political lesson. To paraphrase, he said one of the lines in the song is “I hate golf! I wanna play lacrosse!” Bush is golf, Kerry is lacrosse. And he didn't want to tell anyone how to vote, but he said it should be pretty clear from that. This was a very minor theme of the evening; Lowery opened the show by saying the new album is out today for the first time and they felt it was appropriate to do a show in D.C. on the album's release date because the album is something of a commentary on the times. But this was no big Bush bashing show; these are the only things they said along these lines. Other songs I know CVB played: Border Ska Tania Ambiguity Song The Day Lassie Went to the Moon Take the Skinheads Bowling Pictures of Matchstick Men She Divines Water (possibly my favorite favorite, in close competition w/All Her Favorite Fruit) Tina Sad Lovers Waltz Sweethearts Shut Us Down Wasted One of These Days Interstellar Overdrive (a crazy amazing 10-15 minute version that shook the whole place to its foundations and closed out the encore) As that huge list indicates, the show was packed with goodness. They rarely stopped between tracks and just played and played. Still, they managed to fit in some jokes with each other and Lowery told a good story about seeing Micky Dolenz in a bar and overhearing him tell some people his whole life has been one long night of karaoke or something like that. They looked like they were having a great time. So go see them! And buy their music! (The new disc is only $9.99 at iTMS for 20 tracks compared to $17 at Amazon.) It's fun, it's smart, and it rawks! UPDATE: Here's a photo from the show. Not a good one, but it's a photo. That's another thing to love about the 9:30 Club—they don't take cameras away at the door (but I think you're not supposed to use a flash).Posted 02:15 AM | Comments (4) | ai music
NaNo NaNo!
NaNoWriMo is creeping up on us, and there's now a brand new website for this year's event! Ryan Dunsmuir has written five NaNo Novels and I think in this short FAQ answer (scroll down) he captures pretty well some of the reasons for doing it:This will be my fourth year, and although I've never “won,” the experience has always been incredibly worthwhile. And it is like a habit; it's become one of those things I start thinking about and looking forward to when the weather starts to turn cooler, the days start getting shorter, the leaves change, etc. All of that might mean football and turkey to a lot of Americans, and it means that for me, too, but November is NaNoWriMo, and that's really the best of the fall things. In the same FAQ, Lazette Gifford, who apparently displays “freakish noveling speed,” has a great idea for how to be a NaNo winner:
An outline!? I sort of thought that was cheating, but look, it's not (scroll down). Now I'm thinking: Brilliant idea! The hard part is figuring out which of the many different ideas in my head is really anything more than a scene or a short story. Some pre-thinking will be happening in the next two weeks and maybe that will be what I need to push me past the 30k or so words I usually stall at.
Posted 07:29 AM | Comments (5) | NaNoWriMo
Two Years Ago Today
As noted here one year ago, Congress authorized the use of force against Iraq on 10/11/02. Such a sad and tragic mistake, but maybe next time they won't be so quick to do it. Nah, I didn't think so either. Another sad thing: So many of the links in that post from a year ago are broken. What good is the web when its links are so tenuous the cannot even last a year?Posted 11:27 AM | election 2004
Dred, Electoral College, Alternatees...
One: Could it be that Bush's mention of the Dred Scott decision in last Friday's debate was some coded red meat for the anti-abortion crowd? Wow. That's some serious rhetoric going on. More here on judicial nominations as an election issue. The ACS Blog has also picked this up, as did Fables of the Reconstruction, and now Salon, too. Two: According to a U of Minnesota economist, Bush currently has a 55% chance of winning the electoral college. The page is constantly updated, so it's a good resource to continue checking as the election closes in. Three: Today is Columbus Day. While celebrating the “discovery” of America seems a little perverse, until 5 p.m. last night, I still thought we had the day off from school today. Woops! I was so wrong. Good thing I didn't do a single bit of homework all weekend since I was planning to do it all today on my day off. Yeah, good thing. Four: Shopping for a law student or law-type person? Check out Law School Stuff, featuring shirts w/slogans like “gunner,” “working hard to be average,” and my personal favorite, “Public Interest Law: Twice the schooling, half the pay.” Now if we could just get them to use sweat-free shirts... Five: Speaking of sweat-free shirts, an Alternatee would make a great gift for the progressive politico on your gift list this season. Try the Bar Code Prison or the U.S. World Domination Tour to make some serious statements. All Alternatees are printed on gear from American Apparel, which means means it's sweat-free, but unfortunately not union-made. I disagree with their choice to shun unions, but the fact that they treat their workers so well makes up for that somewhat. Six: I seem to have become a sort of gunner pariah in my labor law class, mostly b/c the law we're learning could be more appropriately termed “anti-labor law.” It all makes me so mad I just can't keep my hand down, and then when I ask a question Prof. Labor Law goes off on a lengthy answer that's generally fascinating but doesn't really respond to my question and tends (I think) to bore most everyone else who's not as fanatical as I am about the subject. To my classmates: I'm sorry. I don't mean to do it. I will try to keep my mouth shut. I promise.Posted 10:33 AM | Comments (1) | election 2004 lists
RIP Jacques Derrida
As thisdarkqualm notes, Jacques Derrida died yesterday (see also coverage from the BBC). As those stories indicate, Derrida had a huge influence on critical theory, philosophy, sociology, and politics in the last half of the 20th century, and his thinking had a huge influence on me, as well, especially in my first year of grad school. Yes, he may have gone too far at times, but he certainly helped explain the world we live in, and for that he will be sorely missed. If you haven't heard of him or aren't familiar with his work, I'm not sure where to steer you at the moment, but I found this little excerpt from a paper I wrote in my first year of grad school that attempted to explain one of his signature ideas, that of différance.Différance refers to the double distance between the words we use and any “real” origin; words both defer their “real” meaning and differ from one another. An immediate example of this is the sentence: “You are reading what I am writing now.” Focusing on the word “now” in that sentence: First it's clear that this word has at least two equally “true” meanings — I am writing this now, December 17, 1999, yet you are reading this now, which is any time after it has been written. Thus, to say “now” is to fix a unique meaning on the word at some point which is always already changing. Any time we use a word we defer its “true” meaning in the sense of “the action of putting off until later, of taking account of time and of the forces of an operation that implies an economical calculation, a detour, a delay, a relay, a reserve, a representation” (Derrida 8). In other words, we can say that the question of the “true” meaning of the word “now” is irrelevant because we are always already, each time we use the word, deferring questions of “truth” to some later time that will never come (because each time we use the word we defer its “true” meaning again in favor of whatever meaning we intend to fix on it in the moment of its use, a process that continues infinitely). Second, the definition of the word “now” is a function of its difference from all other words; “now” is “now” because it is not “then” or “tree” or “onomatopoeia.” This is true for all words, therefore, for language as a whole. Thus, language can be seen as a system of representation, an assemblage of gestures toward “reality” (words) which we use to describe, or re-present, our world to ourselves and others. The above is based on: Derrida, Jacques. Margins of Philosophy. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1982.
UPDATE 10/12/04: This slightly longer obit explains a bit more why Derrida was both so famous and so controversial. L. and I were talking about this and I unthinkingly said Derrida was “foundational” to the thinking of any philosopher, linguist, critical theorist, etc. today. That's funny b/c Derrida's main point is that there are no foundations to anything—it's kind of turtles all the way down. For a little fun primer on Derrida, you probably can't beat the Beginners illustrated version. This is a great series, btw; highly recommended for any “big thinker” when you'd like to try to understand the basics of their writing and thought w/out actually spending the rest of your life trying to read it. Other resources on Derrida include: a Derrida documentary made last a year, a PopCultures.com intro, and a Wikipedia entry.
Posted 10:16 AM | Comments (9) | life generally
