Tom Tomorrow drives home the point I keep trying to make to people who tell me that there is nothing wrong with President George Bush’s domestic spying program. I’m going to start carrying a copy of this morning’s cartoon to shove under the nose of evey person who tells me, “Well, if you have nothing to hide, why would you object…?”
David Sifry posts his irregular State Of The Blogosphere report this morning. The big number is that Technorati is now tracking 27.2 million blogs and that that number continues to double approximately every 5.5 months. Even if we accept Sturgeon’s law that 90 percent of everything is crap, that number is huge.
It means that there are some 2.72 million high quality blogs out there. There has never in human history been that many communication sources.
* It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago.
* On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day.
* 13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created.
* Spings (Spam Pings) can sometimes account for as much as 60% of the total daily pings Technorati receives.
* Sophisticated spam management tools eliminate the spings and find that about 9% of new blogs are spam or machine generated.
* Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour.
* Over 81 Million posts with tags since January 2005, increasing by 400,000 per day.
* Blog Finder has over 850,000 blogs, and over 2,500 popular categories have attracted a critical mass of topical bloggers.
Just think how many trees we’re saving. Any Journalism School student who isn’t studying blogs might as well major in Beer Bongs. Any Journalism School student who is writing a blog will have a huge advantage over their peers.
My Soundtrack: Raising The Coast Is Always Changing by Maximo Park on WOXY.
Dick Feagler’s 8 Janaury column on coal miners resonated with my hometown of Marietta; just across the Ohio River from West Virginia. So much so that the column is being circulated by email and found its way to my inbox via my dad. The column illustrates yet again how bloggers are running circles around the dead-tree media.
What happened this time? Bill Callahan was all over it.
While Feagler went for the heart strings, our own Callahan went for the facts. Wrote Feagler:
But this week, if you walked across the floor to turn your thermostat up, you were risking a coal miner’s life. Half of America’s energy comes from coal — much of it from West Virginia mines.
(The Pee Dee has moved the column behind it’s firewall so I can’t link to it, but I pulled the line from email version my dad sent me.)
The above is true, but the implication is that we’re burning West Virginia coal in Northeastern Ohio. Feagler completely missed the Ohioan coal miners in his backyard who are going into the dark each day. Callahan, on the other hand didn’t.
Ohio’s dominant coal-producing county is Belmont, on the Ohio River across from Wheeling. Its county seat, St. Clairsville, is 105 miles (as the crow flies) from downtown Cleveland. The distance to Columbus is 111 miles; to Cincinnati, 203 miles.
The state’s two biggest underground mines, both in southern Belmont County, are the Powhatan No. 6 and the Century. Together they accounted for 10 million of the 23 million tons of coal mined in Ohio in 2004, the last reporting year. They also accounted for at least 40% of the state’s 2,300 coal mining jobs. Both are owned by Murray Energy Corporation of Cleveland, whose sole shareholder is Robert E. Murray of Moreland Hills.
I’m not taking anything away from the men and women in the West Virginia coal mines. But Feagler should have at least known about his own backyard. But then, can you imagine Feagler breathing coal dust for a few weeks to get a story?
Valentine’s Day has always been something of a silly, Hallmarkesque celebration. What I remember are writing out all the names on those punch-out cards you’d get for everyone in your class and the red-construction-paper-and-paper doilly Valentines we’d make for our mothers and grandmothers.
But now a group billing itself as Day Of Purity wants to turn the red white by having students promise to not have sex on the 14th. I’m all for sexual responsibility and no one should be in a rush to have sex, but the idea makes about as much sense as abstinence-only sex education and chastity pledges that do nothing to stop teenage sex and actually result in a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases.
Here’s the list of schools from last year. But there’s no mention of schools that are taking part this year. Do suppose the mass orgies on the day after might have soured the program?
Ansonia High School
Berry Middle School
Cincinnati Christian School
Cleveland State University
Edison Junior High
Elyria High School
E. L. Bowsher High School
Hilliard High School
Lake High School
Lorain County Community College
Minerva High School
Mt. Vernon Nazarene University
North Adams High School
Revelation High School
Tuscarawas Valley High School
Wilmington High School
Wooster Grace Brethren School
I tried to put the North Eastern Ohio schools in bold. Which ones did I miss?
My Soundtrack: Hey Hey You Say by Papas Fritas on WOXY.
That whacky Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline is at it again. This time the protector of all that is ignorant and and superstitious wants to extend his state’s law requiring that doctors, nurses, counselors, and all other care providers report – as abuse – any sexual interaction between teens under 16, to necking.
According to Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick in this morning’s Smells Like Teen Snooging:
Under Kline’s view, professionals must report even when the sex is consensual, committed with partners their age, and where there is no suspicion of injury. The plaintiffs who filed suit-a group of doctors, nurses, and counselors-contend that under Kline’s policy, even evidence of teen necking must be reported.
This could mean finally putting a stop to the wanton actions of such teen harlots as Betty, Veronica, and Sandra Dee.
And let’s not forget Harry and Ginny.
Fascism may be said to be one of the hallmarks of the 20th century; one the United States sacrificed greatly to crush. Yet there have always been those — like national hero Charles Lindberg — who supported Fascism. Laurence Britt has developed this list of 14 markers for Fascism. What do you think?
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. A controlled mass media.
7. Obsession with national security.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
9. Power of corporations protected.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14. Fraudulent elections.
How important is it that trains planes run on time?
My Soundtrack: Raising The Sparks by Akron/Family on WOXY.
Derek Arnold sent me seven excellent entries in my Can You Write A Liberal Headline? contest. My personal favorite and a front runner for 1st prize is: 40th Amendment repeals 13th Amendment. In addtion, on Chasing The Dragon, Derek post on the working poor in America. Here’s my favorite graph:
This really blew me away:
To put this in perspective, back in 1981, a student could work full time all summer at a minimum wage job and earn about two-thirds of their annual college costs, wrote Carol Smith in a recent Seattle Post Inteligencer report. Today, however, a student earning the minimum wage would have to work full time, (for a) full year to afford one year of education at a four-year public college or university.
And they say our generation has it easy.
As someone who was in college in 1981, that blows me away too.
My Soundtrack: The Wonder by Figurines on WOXY.
It’s been a busy few weeks in Wally World: the universe’s source for cheap plastic crap. From a joyous new years with sinful trash cans and a bizzare product placement to the continuing and growing number of states that demand the company stop sucking on the public teat and a Plan B lawsuit in Massachusetts, it’s good to not be Wal Mart.
DID J.G. SEE A DIRTY SHAME…? Oh those sinful trash cans in Athens, Georgia. Not all letters to the editor get published in a newspaper, but The Athens Banner-Herald holds onto them all and published a few gems as part of it”s New Year fun. And the best part? One buggers the Bentonville Behemoth. Keep reading…
YOU CAN FIGHT CITY HALL WAL MART… Sometimes the good guys do win, when the prosses is fair, open and the people get a chance to vote. That”s the message from the election in Lorain County, Ohio, according to John Ryan, head of the AFL/CIO in nearby Cleveland, Ohio. Keep reading…
I SWEAR, I”M NOT MAKING THIS UP… Hey, it could happen. I mean stranger things happen all the time. And it does seem to be a natural part of the conversation when you look at it in a kind of sick, twisted advertising/marketing kind of way. Keep reading…
30 STATES TARGET WAL MART… The Bentonville Behemoth”s practice of sucking off the public teat to fund its associates” healthcare plan has riled more than a few states who think the corporation makes enough profits to pay its own way, thank you very much. Keep reading…
THE BLIND WAL MART ASSOCIATE… The Bentonville Behemoth has become such a part of (un?)popular culture that a whole genre of humor has risen: so, a woman goes into Wal Mart… My dad sent me this one about a talented associate who knows his merchandise. Keep reading…
LIMBAUGH OUT OF TOUCH WITH IDAHO… Note to radio clown Rush Limbaugh: call Idaho”s Republican Speaker of the House Bruce Newcomb, he thinks you”ve got the government-sanctioned rape concept all wrong. What does the conservative Newcomb think of the Bentonville Behemoth”s sucking at the public teat to subsidize the health care of it”s workers? Keep reading…
TWEAKING THE WRITING ON THE WAL… Regular readers will have noticed over the last weekend that we”ve done some tweaking around The Writing On The Wal. The changes are all intended to make the writing more accessible and to provide better service to our readers. Keep reading…
DUMBEST MOMENTS IN BUSINESS… Dang! Wally World only came in Fifth in the Business 2.0 10 Dumbest Moments In Business contest. First it loses Scott Adams” Weasel Award and now this. The Bentonville Behemoth can”t even get screwing up right. Keep reading…
WELCOME TO WALMART, FINGERPRINT PLEASE… Do you really want Wal Mart (or any retailer for that matter) to have your fingerprints on file? The Bentonville Behemoth is considering switching to biobetrics as a way to shave 20 percent off it”s credit card processing costs. Keep reading…
BILLS DEMAND 9 PERCENT… Two bills making their way through Washington”s state legislature require employers with more than 5,000 workers in the state to set aside 9 percent of their payroll for health care benefits. Senate Bill 6356 and House Bill2517 are part of a growing legislative movement to wean companies like Wal Mart from the public teat. Keep reading…
THREE FILE SUIT IN MASSACHUSETTS… Citing business reasons, Wal Mart does not carry the Plan B, morning-after contreceptive in Massachusetts. Three women there think that is wrong and illegal. They have brought suit in Suffolk Superior Court to compel the company to stock the medication. Keep reading…
My Soundtrack: Off The Record by My Morning Jacket on WOXY.
The lead item on Future Tense this evening is about hearing, and iPods. According to Ray Hull, college students — and everyone else listening to their personal soundtrack via earbuds or headphones — are doing serious damage to their hearing. Hull tested students on the campus of Wichita State University and what he found is scary.
Hull stopped students walking around campus with earbuds or headphones on and measured the level of sound he found slamming into their ears. He found students with decibel levels of 105, 110 and even 120. To give you an idea of what that means, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration says that after 3.37 minutes of exposure to sound at 120 decibels, permanent hearing loss occurs.
The problem, says Hull, is not that people crank up their iPods and drill their ears. Rather they wear earbuds or headphones constantly and their hearing becomes fatigued. That means that a volume level that sounded just fine in the morning, becomes softened and hard to hear after hours of jamming.
Which prompts you to turn it up, way up.
And Hull is not the only one spreading the word. A quick Googling turned up two others who are concerned: Christine Albertus and Doctor Roland Eavey.
At the end of last year Who guitarist Peter Townsend described his own hearing loss from many years of headphone use.
The point I’m making is that it is not live sound that causes hearing damage.
Earphones do the most damage.
In a studio there are often accidental buzzes, shrieks and poor connections that cause temporary high level sounds. Playing drums with earphones on is probably a form of insanity I think, all those gunshots, so much louder than a real gunshot, but how else can a drummer hear the other musicians?
When I work solo now I often avoid using a drummer, simply to keep the overall sound levels lower. Also, one might have to work for several hours to perfect a studio performance. As the work progresses, the ears shut down and one needs a higher volume.
If you stop to rest your ears (and you need to do so for at least 36 hours to do any good) you lose the current performance. It is a tough call.
I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal proponents deaf. It takes time, but it happens. This is, I suppose, no worse than being a sports person or dancer who knows they have a limited working span, and their body will suffer.
The rewards are great — money, fame, adulation and a real sense of self-worth and achievement. But music is a calling for life. You can write it when you’re deaf, but you can’t hear it or perform it.
Do we need volume governor’s on iPods?
My Soundtrack: Raising The Sparks by Akron/Family on WOXY.
This evening I should get home just in time to make a vodka martini (shaken, not stirred), nuke a bag of popcorn and put my feet up to listen to the State Of The Union Address. Our president needs to hit one out of the park as this graphic from Mystrey Pollster shows. Anybody want to make book on how well he’ll do? Hat tip to Andrew.
Just to throw some more fuel on the fire in the Borsalino debate, here’s a photo sent to me by Terry at I See Invisible People of Jack Abramoff in a white (no logo?) baseball cap. Now why did Abramoff think this was a good choice to replace his more stylish head gear? Did someone suggest that he was an embarrasment?
Conservatives want to make life easier
for people who already have easy lives.
Liberals want to make life less hard
for people who just can”t quite get by.
Repiblicans say Democrats want to
give everything away. So would Jesus.
From our own Politry master, Ken Duncan.
Our world is filled with beauty. Christine Borne this morning takes the time to tell us about 30 beautiful moments in her week. The sweeping vistas of Ansel Adams take our collective breaths away, but, like Christine, I find the most beauty in the small. No. 13 on her list was my favorite. Enjoy.
No. 13: Eating a tiny dinner of half an egg salad sandwich and homemade soup; I didn’t want a lot, so I ate the soup out of an elegant ceramic custard cup and served the whole thing on a salad plate.
Eleven months ago in A Century Of Genocide I wrote about a busload of amazing students and their trip to Detroit’s Holocaust Museum. Since then I have worked to channel that energy towards stopping the genocide in Darfur. This morning’s Forward tell of a planned political action in Washington that may galvanize my students.
Jolted by the tepid response to the genocide in Darfur, Jewish communal organizations are mobilizing at an unprecedented level for an issue that might appear tangential to Jewish concerns. National and local Jewish organizations are gearing up for a rally to be held April 30 in Washington under the aegis of the Save Darfur Coalition, which brings together more than 150 faith-based and human rights groups and in which Jewish organizations figure prominently.
On Sunday, 30 April, I intend to be at that rally with as many of my students as I can get on busses to join me. You should plan on being there to.
People who walked out of the movie Hotel Rwanda shook their heads and wondered how we let that genocide happen. Genocide is not a historical issue. It is real, now, in this moment.
Don’t just sit there. Do something.
My Soundtrack: Sweet Jane by The Velvet Underground on WOXY.
I was born in Marietta, Ohio, but the Hess family line lived along the banks of the Monongahela River at Palantine (later Fairmont) Virginia for nearly 250 years. During the War of Northern Aggression it became West Virginia and about a hundred years later we moved downstream to the confluence of the Muskingham and Ohio rivers.
I’ve been told that there is a Appalachian shade to my writing and at times I effect a bit of a drawl in my speech. The writers I most admire often have Appalachian or Southern roots. So while I was a Buckeye growing up and told my share of West Virginian jokes, John Denver’s Country Roads struck a chord with me when it came out in 1971; much more so than his bigger hit: Rocky Mountain High.
My dad emailed me this link to Randy Coleman’s piece about Denver and a football afternoon in 1980.
Denver entered the stadium and found his microphone at the center of the field, amidst the 325-member Mountaineer Band, which around him had formed an outline of the state of West Virginia. Then as he crooned the opening lyrics — Almost heaven, West Virginia — Denver was joined by about 50,000 backup singers.
Those who were there say the crowd’s collective voice swelled to a climax at the conclusion: Country roads, take me home, to a place where I belong. West Virginia, Mountain Momma. Take me home, country roads.
Those attending also say that when Denver finished his song, he gazed in all directions — perhaps dumbfounded at the reaction. Some among the crowd wept. Most just cheered for a long time.
I’m pretty sure he had no idea what that song means to this state, said Dan Miller, an executive with the West Virginia Coal Association and an unofficial Mountaineer football historian.
I was stationed in Germany in 1971 the first time I heard Country Roads, and I’m not ashamed to say that while I was listening I started crying, Miller said. It means a lot when you come from a place that most people don’t appreciate or understand. And here’s someone singing about its beauty.
Home is always beautiful, no matter where you’re from.
My Soundtrack: We Learned From The Best by Tiara on WOXY.
Tim Wu offerred an interesting analogy with a coffee twist on the head butting between Attorney General Alberto Gonzales vs. Google on Slate Yesterday. Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and co-author of Who Controls the Internet? doesn’t care much for this kind of spying. In making his case he writes:
Imagine we were to find out one day that Starbucks had been recording everyone’s conversations for the purpose of figuring out whether cappuccino is more popular than macchiato. Sure, the result, on the margin, might be a better coffee product. And, yes, we all know, or should, that our conversations at Starbucks aren’t truly private. But we’d prefer a coffee shop that wasn’t listening-and especially one that won’t later be able to identify the macchiato lovers by name. We need to start to think about search engines the same way and demand the same freedoms.
This is the reason I never use those little cards at grocery stores that allow the corporations to track your buying habits. It’s not that I’m secretly buying massive amounts of forbidden fruit. It’s just that it’s none of their damn business.
Sometimes cartoonists have to make it real. Harvey Pekar’s Our Cancer Year comes immediately to mind. This morning Keith Knight drops his real world into ours in a way that will not make you comfortable. Although he makes one small attempt at humor in the strip, you can feel his hands shaking. Words sometimes aren’t enough.
On 22 January 1973, the Justic Blackmun delivered the opinion of the court in the case of Roe v. Wade. Every year, on the anniversary of the decision, the Pro-Choice and Anti-Abortion groups have rallied in Washington. For the past six years, President George Bush has managed to be out of town on that day.
For six years he’s phoned in his support to those who would see Roe v. Wade overturned. I don’t get it, and neither does, apparently, Andrew Sullivan.
Is it me or has the cynicism of this president’s use of the abortion issue now reached a new level? For six years now, this allegedly pro-life president has not addressed the pro-life rally every Roe anniversary. Every time, he’s outside Washington. There can be no scheduling conflict, unless he schedules this date six years in advance…
Does this bother Conservatives, or do they, and Bush, consider the Anti-Abortion forces just more whackos to be manipulated?
My Soundtrack: My Mathematical Mind by Spoon on WOXY.
It looks like the NEO/Theocon Talking Points generator has kicked into overdrive concerning Massachusetts’ Senator Ted Kennedy. I’m no fan of the rotund-one (my copy of If Ted Kennedy Drove A Volkswagen, He’d Be President Today is safely tucked away), but his pronouncements in the Senate seem to have scared some people.
Once again the My name is Mary Jo Kopechne. I would have been 65 years of age this year… email attack on Sen. Kennedy is making its rounds. It seems to have first appeared sometime in the early summer of 2004.
If there is one thing that must cause those on the NEO/Theocon wrong to toss in their sleep it is the fact that the people of Massachusetts re-elect Ted Kennedy as their senator every six years.
If for nothing else, that loss of sleep is a good reason to re-elect him.
My Soundtrack: Road To Rock ‘N’ Roll by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros on WOXY.
I swear, Wiley couldn’t be doing a better job for Meet The Bloggers if we’d hired him. Not only is our Meet The Bloggers location better, but George has promised to tend bar in his kilt. Real bloggers will be at the Pearl Of The Orient this Thursday evening, 26 January, enjoying happy-hour-priced drinks, free munchies and great f2f conversation with some of North East Ohio’s best bloggers. From Non Sequitur.
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