I must share what I expect to be a great resource in the months ahead: Wikipedia’s U.S. presidential election, 2004 page.
Author Archives: Karl
World of Ends
I highly recommend reading World of Ends: What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else.
You’d think what this essay says is self evident. But it’s not and this doc is a great clarifying piece.
Metal musicians jailed for Islam
I promised not to post anything bad. So here goes the good – In this country people might slander metal, but they don’t jail you for it listening or playing it.
However, in Morocco heavy metal is a threat that deserves jail time. 14 fans and musicians thrown in jail. For music.
Charity packages including compilation CDs of the greatest metal tunes of all time anyone?
How about it Jim?
The Democrats have candidates. Just not of the typical variety. Atrios nominates Jim Capozzola, of The Rittenhouse Review, to run for Sentate against Specter.
Works for me. Do it Jim! Do it!
“I always would try”
Too much bad news. Just too much. Everywhere you turn it’s doom and gloom. Layoffs. Stock market losses. Leaders that don’t instill confidence. It just goes on and on.
Fight it.
There are principaled people out there. Yesterday I linked to two of them. A Democrat and a Republican. Here goes four more… or should I say two more, a very good sign, and something to never forget:
1. Minneapolis agent Coleen Rowley still fights to fix the system.
2. Principal Joan Jackson is doing more with far less. With per-pupil spending among the lowest in the state, and 13 percent of students in poverty, Hill has all fourth graders at proficient or advanced levels on the state tests. I know her husband. And like her, he does what he can to make the world a better place. He’s a Boy Scout troop leader.
3. Whether you agree with their politics or not – the youth of America are waking up. Like I said immediately after 9/11 – “whatever” is dead. There are things worth fighting for. The Boomers and Gen-Xers either can let these kids down, let the world down, or rise to meet the challenge of what’s ahead. Let’s hope that voter participation rises back to 60s levels. For too long, too few people have been voting.
4. Yesterday, in church, in the pew ahead of me, was an elderly gray haired man and his asian wife. At his side was a blue baseball cap. On it read “WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War Veteran”. The love between him and his wife touched me. Knowing this man faught to defend me made me feel like the wuss I am. While I am heartened to see people voicing their beliefs – please – unlike the 60s – let’s never put down those that are standing up to defend us. They deserve our respect, our understanding, and our prayers. Fight the politicians, if you feel they are wrong, it is them that make the policies. Vote them out of office. Use your vote. It’s your right. Remember that. It’s your right. So please do not put down these brave souls that are putting themselves in harm’s way to defend it.
For Lent last year I joked about giving up weblogging. I did cut back, but I was joking. This time I do have a Lenten goal in mind for my site – to post the positive (like the above) and not the negative. To emphasize what I am for instead of what I am against. A crazy thing to try. Should be interesting.
Ed Rendell – more Republican the President
Facing terrible deficits what does Rendell do – instead of offering tax breaks to buy votes that in the end will only make matters worst? He breaks down the budget into two steps: 1. Trim the size of government – balance the budget, get the house in order. 2. Invest in the future.
On the other hand, John McCain is more a Democrat then most Democrats.
Only true if you believe in the sweeping generalizations that everyone holds dear. What makes these two special is that they try and act on their principals.
I’m not one for how-tos but…
“The Art Of The Muse: A songwriter’s guide to inspiration” is a decent article on songwriting. It boils down to:
- Write from your heart not your head.
- Listen to your inner voice.
- Keep the tools of the trade at hand: A notebook for lyrics, a guitar, and a little recorder.
- Turn off your critic and open your soul.
- Don’t write a song. Just write anything!
Good advice for writing anything personal, not just songs. Now if I could only follow it…
Hey? Where Have I Been?
Playing and writing songs. That’s where. Lesson learned? D’Addario EXLs suck. Cheap, cheap, cheap guitar strings. They just don’t last.
For whatever reason, my guitar is helping to center me far more then my ravenous addiction to news feeds. I just gotta step away from the keyboard… if ya know what I mean.
Part of that has included digging thru old songs I no longer play, some for as much as ten years, and then freaking out. Where have I been for the past ten years? Getting my life together. It’s funny how old tunes can still be relevant. It’s funny how much, and how little, we change.
Speaking of guitar, thru GeoURL I found Ben Garvey. Great songs. Local acoustic rock. Gotta check him out.
Shannon Campbell earns the coolest girlfriend of the year award for buying her guy Seymor Duncan Humbuckers. Her great, great song, “Oblivion” was downloaded almost 2000 times last month.
And Mark’s The Phoenix Trap keeps on rocking. They make better use of MP3.com then almost anybody. Plenty of songs for you to dig there. They are being listed to on a whole bunch of MP3.com radio stations.
Learned about life at the age of three… had it all there on my TV screen
From my song Future Knocks:
No daddy ever
Taught me to play ball
No one to
Catch me when I fallI learned about life
At the age of three
Had it all there
On my TV screen
Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers, passed away this morning. Thank you for being there for me and so many others.
NYDaily News: Sad day in neighborhood: Beloved Mister Rogers dies:
PITTSBURGH – Fred Rogers, who gently invited millions of children to be his neighbor as host of the public television show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” for more than 30 years, died of cancer early Thursday. He was 74.
….From 1968 to 2000, Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, produced the show at Pittsburgh public television station WQED. The final new episode, which was taped in December 2000, aired in August 2001, though PBS affiliates continued to air back episodes.
…Rogers composed his own songs for the show and began each episode in a set made to look like a comfortable living room, singing “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood,” as he donned sneakers and a zip-up cardigan.
…His message remained a simple one throughout the years, telling his viewers to love themselves and others. On each show, he would take his audience on a magical trolley ride into the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, where his puppet creations would interact with each other and adults.
…Rogers taught children how to share, how to deal with anger and even how not to fear the bathtub by assuring them they’ll never go down the drain.
…”We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility,” he said in 1994. “It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’
“Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
…The series remained popular through the years, including with children of baby boomers who watched the show growing up. Its ratings peaked in 1985-86 when approximately 8 percent of all U.S. households with televisions tuned in. By the 1999-2000 season, viewership had dropped to about 2.7 percent, or 3.6 million people.
One of Rogers’ red sweaters hangs in the Smithsonian Institution.
..He studied early childhood development at the University of Pittsburgh’s graduate school and consulted for decades with the late Dr. Margaret McFarland, an eminent child development expert at the university. The show examined the tribulations of childhood, including anger, fear, even a visit to the dentist.
At a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the show in 1993, Rogers said, “It’s not the honors and not the titles and not the power that is of ultimate importance. It’s what resides inside.”
Off the set, Rogers was much like his television persona. He swam daily, read voraciously and listened to Beethoven. He once volunteered at a state prison in Pittsburgh and helped set up a playroom there for children visiting their parents.
…Rogers is survived by his wife, Joanne, a concert pianist; two sons and two grandsons.
Robyn shares her thoughts, as will I am sure, many, many others. Forgive me for not linking to them because I’m just not weblogging the rest of the day. MetaFilter has a thread going as well.
This is Just the Day. Have a good one.
Move east young man…
CSMonitor: Pacific Coast as a boom-bust belt. Everything changes. For so long we’ve been told the opportunity is on the West Coast. No longer.
Steve, you will like this one… 46% of all duct tape is produced by the Manco Company – a $100,000 GOP campaign contributor. Irrelevant? You decide.
For you Wal-Mart haters, a look at the good and bad of the Wal-Mart empire in Fortune Magazine. via Dane Carlson.
Looks like Internet usage made a difference in Korean politics.
Speaking of net usage making a difference, learn How Protesters Mobilized So Many and So Nimbly.
A bunch of WashingtonPost readers are pissed at the paper for revealing too much about operations in Iraq. It seems nothing can be kept a secret anymore. I’m all for investigative reporting, but why did they need to publish those details? They didn’t help the reader to better understand the conflict. They didn’t educate the reader as to the news. They didn’t expose to the reader important facts that they needed to know.
Burningbird and Scripting News continue to have the best commentary on the Google+Blogger deal.
Mike looks more and more like a weblogger to me as he begins “phase three”…
According to Newton (yes THAT Newton) the end of the world is soon anyway. Party like it’s 1999.
A must-see website: LostLabor.com. America used to be the workshop of the world. What are we now? (I think this is via dangerousmeta).