December, 2006 archives

Blog Wars from Violet @ Reclusive Leftist 31 Dec 2006 9:56 pm

[Various and Sundry] [ Reclusive Leftist]

Once upon a time I worked in an office with cubes. Cubes, as you probably know, are made of five-foot-high upholstered partitions which do approximately zip to block sound transmission, so the lucky cube dweller gets to hear everything that’s going on in all the surrounding cubes.

In my case, it was my misfortune that the people on the other side of the cubewall were what I generally refer to as “twits.” Twits are people who don’t know what they’re talking about but insist on talking about it anyway, often with great heat. A memory that is burned into my mind is the evening in mid-June when the aforementioned twits were discussing day length. One person noted that it seemed to her the days were getting longer. Another person said that he thought the days were getting shorter. Someone else opined that in fact the day length was not changing, it was just an illusion caused by the fact that the sunsets were occurring later and later. A fourth person mentioned the word “solstice,” which she had heard on the radio, and wondered aloud if this had anything to with the sunset thing. One of the other people explained authoritatively that no, the solstice occurred in the fall and marked the point when daylight savings time ended. The conversation grew heated. Positions became entrenched. Sharp words were exchanged. In an alternative timeline, I committed suicide on my side of the cubewall because I couldn’t fucking take it anymore. In this timeline, alas, I endured and am here to tell the tale.

It often seems to me that about 99% of blogular discourse is like that trans-cubewall solstice discussion: people arguing vehemently over things they don’t understand. Which is fine, really, but I’d rather they didn’t do it within earshot of me. The suicide thing and all.

Unfortunately, that kind of twittery occasionally infects the blogs I read, which annoys the living shit out of me. (It also shows up here on my own blog at times, and I will gladly pay a princely sum — I’m talking 10, 20 bucks — to the first person who can build me a twit filter.) What’s even worse is when the twittery is compounded by the vicious cliquishness — part Heathers, part People’s Front of Judea* — that leads some people in the leftist-feminist blog world to believe that their energy is best spent on attacking other people in the leftist-feminist blog world.

(Heathers) + (People’s Front of Judea) x (solstice dispute) = Blog War

So imagine my angst when I emerged today from my extended Sickmas hiatus, all ready to catch up on the news and blog talk, to discover that lo and fucking behold, yet another one of these trainwrecks** was in progress.

Happy Fucking New Year.

*From Life of Brian:

REG: The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People’s Front.
PEOPLE’S FRONT OF JUDEA: Yeah…
JUDITH: Splitters.
PEOPLE’S FRONT OF JUDEA: Splitters…
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People’s Front.
PEOPLE’S FRONT OF JUDEA: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters…
LORETTA: And the People’s Front of Judea.
PEOPLE’S FRONT OF JUDEA: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters…
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People’s Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We’re the People’s Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People’s Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He’s over there.
PEOPLE’S FRONT OF JUDEA: Splitter!

Later, during the commando raid:

BRIAN: Brothers! Brothers! We should be struggling together!
FRANCIS: We are! Ohh.
BRIAN: We mustn’t fight each other! Surely we should be united against the common enemy!
EVERYONE: The Judean People’s Front?!
BRIAN: No, no! The Romans!

**Which is not to say that everyone on the train is a twit, a Heather, or a member of the People’s Front of Judea. Many smart people of good faith get involved in these discussions because they want to inject a little sense into the sea of nonsense, and that is a fine thing. But the sea, it’s still made of nonsense.

posted 9:56 pm at Reclusive Leftist

out with the old and in with the new… from ms. jared @ sinister girl 31 Dec 2006 9:47 pm

[Misc]
i, for one, am thrilled to say adios to 2006.

to be honest, 2005 was really, really bad and i spent the better part of 2006 recovering from it. (i'm almost there!)

there was a lot of sadness and loss (i miss you, maude), many painful discoveries. people i thought were friends who weren't, people i cared about who didn't care back. a lot of emotional distress and heartache to wade through, and so i waded. (swam, even!)

but of course there were good things too. i started this blog, i made some new friends, i adopted mabel, my dad and cathy came to visit, and then my mom, adeline arrived, i decided to go back to school, and so on.

overall, i guess i'd have to say i've gained much more than i lost so in the end it was worth it. i feel stronger and healthier and better about myself and my future than i have in years.
When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen: there will be something solid for us to stand on or we will learn to fly. -Patrick Overton

so here's wishing you the happiest of new years - with wings. may we all indulge in more flights of fancy and may they be followed by only the softest of landings.

*ching-ching*

posted 9:47 pm at sinister girl

Happy New Year from Egalia @ Tennessee Guerilla Women 31 Dec 2006 8:12 pm

[Misc]
And here's a toast . . . To the decline and fall of George W. Bush. . . Here's something to celebrate, besides the incoming Democratic Congress. In 2006, we saw the decline and fall of George W. Bush as a president with even an iota of credibility. According to polls conducted throughout the year by CNN, Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, NBC News/Wall Street Journal, ABC News/Washington Post, CBS

posted 8:12 pm at Tennessee Guerilla Women

They did it from Diane @ The Dees Diversion 31 Dec 2006 7:36 pm

[Misc]
They made it to 3,000 before the end of the year. Mission accomplished, we've turned the corner, now watch this drive.

posted 7:36 pm at The Dees Diversion

3000 Americans Dead from Egalia @ Tennessee Guerilla Women 31 Dec 2006 5:20 pm

[Misc]
Vigils commemorating the deaths in Iraq will be held in Nashville and other cities and towns across the nation on Monday. Update: The New York Times has photos of all 3,000 -- Faces of the Dead in Iraq. The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq climbed to 3,000 on this, the last, day of 2006. The grim milestone was crossed on the final day of 2006 and at the end of the deadliest month for

posted 5:20 pm at Tennessee Guerilla Women

We’ll use sexist language if we want to, and if you don’t like it, you are stupid from Diane @ The Dees Diversion 31 Dec 2006 5:02 pm

[Misc]
For a long time now, it has angered me that people say of a man or woman who shows courage, "He (or "she") has balls. Gonads are male genitalia and have nothing at all to do with courage. To say that someone "has balls" or "grew balls" and mean that the person has courage is to say that the person has a male trait. But when did courage become a male trait? Retired Col. W. Patrick Lang thinks that

posted 5:02 pm at The Dees Diversion

from Elayne @ Pen-Elayne on the Web 31 Dec 2006 4:40 pm

[Misc]
Another Year Over, And A New One Just Begun



I admit I'll be relieved to be seeing the back of 2006, a frustrating year for me in many respects (mostly job- and health-related). But for me it was also a year of hope.



My last round of job interviews went quite well and I almost found a position, and I already have an interview set up during my boss' next vacation period in January; although I haven't heard anything from the website startup in a couple weeks I'm still presuming it will happen soon which will mean at least a regular writing gig if not the possibility of a stay-at-home full-time position; and even if none of that works out I've been promised a raise for taking on another task at my current position (which would alleviate some other money worries even if I remain trapped there).



We took advantage of the health benefit my employer still has through March (when our carrier phases out our current plan and we move to goodness only knows what) to buy my blood-thinning and -pressure-reducing pills mail-order in 90-day increments (cheaper than monthly at the local pharmacy) as well as get new eyeglasses for us both and orthotics for me (my old ones were 10 years old and somewhat ratty and, I'm sure, contributed to my badly-sprained ankle a couple months back) at substantially reduced cost.



We're both still here and blissfully happy in our marriage and our apartment (although not as healthy as we should be, but if my job situation changes at all I'm convinced my overall health will improve and I'll get into better physical shape); my car is still running fine at 18,000 miles if a little more scuffed for wear (and daily parking in essentially a construction zone), the cats are each a year older with no signs of slowing down yet (although I wish the 14-year-old didn't keep playing havoc with our sleep cycles), and we're in frequent touch with friends and loved ones even when we can't see them in person. We know, for all our aches and worries, we're better off than the vast majority of folks in this world, and hope that this past November's election results will prove a positive step towards redressing at least some of that inequality and suffering.



And while we're on the subject of hope, I wish all my friends and readers the best of what they wish for at this turning of the year.

posted 4:40 pm at Pen-Elayne on the Web

from Elayne @ Pen-Elayne on the Web 31 Dec 2006 4:39 pm

[Misc]
Liberal Coalition Top Ten

Week of 12/24/06 thru 12/30/06



I've just finished writing my year-end post, which I'll put up later today, but first I wanted to get to the last Liberal Coalition-and-bonus-non-LC-posts blogaround of 2006:



• A couple unexpected but welcome blogarounds this past week from Kathy and Lilith.



• Echidne expresses extreme skepticism over a male-created BBC quiz about how men and women think differently, opines about an illustration from a supposed NRA graphic novel in the works (I don't believe it for a minute - for one, the PDF that BoingBoing ran clearly shows it has no sequential art whatsoever, it's merely some sort of illustrated booklet), and reminds us that study findings can often be interpreted in different ways by different people to further different ends.



• Guy's just testing us. Nothing to see here, move along...



• Kathy tells a nice Christmas story, Steve G offers his O. Henry twist, and Moi catches up with the actress who played Zuzu Bailey. And Mustang Bobby delves into the origins of Boxing Day.



• Scrutiny Hooligans thought this US map quiz was a lot harder than I did.



• Steve G chooses his winners and losers from 2006, as well as the top 10 national stories of the year.



• Lastly, upyernoz has some very good advice for pundits who are easily surprised.



And a few bonus non-LC links:



• Milestone notes: Avedon celebrates a birthday; Frank Paynter talks about his tenth blogiversary, sort of; Billmon's Whiskey Bar would appear to be gone again (and thus off my blogroll) although he's been known to un-retire before; Rachel Barenblat is recovering from a couple minor strokes and appears to be shaken but okay; and Susie has a brand-new job as press secretary for a Philly mayoral candidate which will cut way down on her blogging (since she currently posts about 15-20 times a day this means she will become human rather than superhuman) and Suburban Guerilla will take on some guest bloggers. (Naturally as soon as she made this announcement her hosting company shut down her blog for crashing their server, leading to all sorts of speculation; the blog's back now.) She's celebrating by planning one heck of a social life over the next couple days.



• Atrios, who desperately needs the hits, presents his taxonomy of annoying people on "our" side of the political blogosphere. I'd add a few other categories mainly having to do with not criticizing the motes in other people's eyes until we acknowledge the logs in our own, but in the spirit of the season I think I'll pass.



• David Niewert's put up part four of his Eliminationism in America series.



• Tom Hilton writes on bogeymen old and new.



• Ragnell tries to head arguments about fan entitlement versus feminism off at the pass. Yea Lisa, good luck with that! In my experience, once a fan decides that fictional characters are more important than real people, there's no reasoning with them, and they'll go pretty far out of their way to cite examples that prove the points they set out to make, even when those examples are more probably, as the original poster opined, bad writing or bad art rather than ingrained misogyny. I try never to ascribe to malice what is more easily attributable to incompetence or rushed deadlines or too many cooks or other logical real-life considerations.



• David at Barista tells us about Marie Tharp and her plate tectonics map.



• Lindsay is delighting in posting lots of holiday pictures, many involving chocolate-covered kimchi. Which better not be in the next dessert she brings to the NYC blogger BBQ...



That's it for me until my last post of 2006!

posted 4:39 pm at Pen-Elayne on the Web

A Virtual New Years Eve Party from olvlzl @ ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES 31 Dec 2006 4:26 pm

[Misc]
Posted by olvlzl.



The best Christmas present I got this year wasn’t given to me, it was the Collections Canada site, The Virtual Gramophone, that came up in the search for information about “La Bolduc”* about whom I posted last Sunday. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying listening to her and many others preserved on old 78 recordings, a continual Christmas party. It is a wonderful thing that Canada has given its citizens and to people around the world. If any of you know about other collections like this available online I’d love to try them.



Here is a sample of the riches.



My niece got a lot of pleasure out of these ancient recordings of “I Love You Truly” and "O Promise Me".

Ok, so maybe it was the old man lip syncing it that made her laugh so hard.



The most amazing bones playing I’ve ever heard along with some interesting button accordion playing, The Frog’s Reel. This place is like button accordion heaven, by the way.



But it isn’t only Canadian folk music. Hear Mary Garden, Debussy’s first choice to sing the role of Mélisande, sing his song Beau Soir.



There are a lot of vintage recordings of classical pieces. It’s interesting to see how ideas about performing it have changed over the years. And the advantages of long playing records were.



There are some windows on life of about eighty years ago. This one reminds me of the Fitzgerald story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”.



And to end, here is a of New Year’s song from the incomparable Mary Travers Bolduc. I wish you a happy new year.



* Her recordings, and I believe they have every one that was ever issued, are under Bolduc. That would be short for Mde.Edouard Bolduc, which was how she billed herself back in the 1920s and 30s.

posted 4:26 pm at ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Looking Forward from olvlzl @ ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES 31 Dec 2006 3:04 pm

[Misc]
Posted by olvlzl.



Still a left entrance into the national political arena should not start with a presidential candidate. Left presidential campaigns are inherently episodic. Starting at that level greatly increases the danger of a pattern that has already plagued the left – one of indifference to national politics between presidential elections and then frantic, mindless efforts to do something when it’s too late for anything beyond token gestures. And even if the effort creates a constituency it is ephemeral and quickly defuses if not followed up with activities and campaigns for Congress.



James Weinstein: The Long Detour, 2003



I’m really looking forward to the new congress. When’s the last time you could honestly say that? Even before Newt Gingrich hoodwinked the American electorate the dismal eras of Tom Foley and Tip O’Neill were relieved only by the very short period of an opposition congress under Jim Wright . He’s hardly a liberal but, as I’ve said here before, the only real leadership opposition Republicans have faced in decades.



The 100 Hour Agenda, the oversight hearings, the reforms of House rules..... There are all kinds of interesting and useful things planned*. The focus of the media will be on the Senate and the presidential race. But I agree with the late James Weinstein, the House of Representatives is the logical place for us to concentrate on. Holding it and increasing the Democratic majority will pay off for the left. It is one place where we can really have an effect on laws passed and policies made. Success in the House will be easy, it would be hard to do worse than the Republicans have in the past twelve years. We have to support Nancy Pelosi and other leaders, even if we don’t agree with everything they do. They are already under the full attack of the Republican lie machine, big media, in two words. We shouldn’t go into this believing that we are going to get all or even most of what we want from this congress. That is simply not going to happen. We should go into it insisting on getting something, an expectation that we have had no rational reason to have for more than a decade.



There are several reasons for concentrating on congressional elections. First, presidential politics is dormant for three out of every four years. Engaging in campaigns like Nader’s entails a start-and-stop politics that leads only to wasted effort and disappointment. Then, too, this style of politicus interruptus requires starting at the top, which in turn requires a national recognized leader – someone like Jackson or Nader. But candidates as good as these are rarely available, and in any case a well-known candidate not of the left’s own making may well tend to have a private agenda at odds with it. [Weinstein 2003]



Weinstein wrote this before 2003. He died last year and I don’t know what his further thoughts on Ralph Nader’s candidacy might have been. Needless to say, neither Nader nor Jackson had any chance of winning a presidential election. Dennis Kucinich, who I respect and who would be a great president, has no chance of gaining the nomination or winning the election in 2008. After several decades of watching symbolic candidacies, isn’t it clear that they are worse than a waste of the left’s limited resources? A representative’s time would be better spent on addressing issues in the Congress, not in collecting money and volunteer time that would be better spent on what can actually be accomplished. Symbolism in leftist politics carries only one guarantee, it will be distorted by the corporate media and the Republican party and used against us and our agenda.



The House of Representatives and, to a lesser extent, the Senate are the grounds for leftists to make any progress in the coming year. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they are as much a part of the federal government as the presidency. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the House has a Progressive Caucus larger than the last congress. That is even with two of its members, Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders now in the Senate. A socialist in the Senate, something I never, in my life, expected to see.



* Just an example, there are Barney Frank’s planned hearings on requiring credit reporting agencies to actually correct their misinformation. A member of my family was the victum of inaccurate credit reports based on having the same name as someone else. It was a nightmare. The burden belongs on the corporations who spread false information, not on the hapless target.

posted 3:04 pm at ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES