Thursday, August 21, 2008

Life Imitating Art?

From NYT:

New Guidelines Would Give F.B.I. Broader Powers

A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday.

The plan, which could be made public next month, has already generated intense interest and speculation. Little is known about its precise language, but civil liberties advocates say they fear it could give the government even broader license to open terrorism investigations...

Michael German, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union and a former F.B.I. agent, said the plan appeared to open the door still further to the use of data-mining profiles in tracking terrorism.

This seems to be based on the idea that the government can take a bunch of data and create a profile that can be used to identify future bad guys,” he said. “But that has not been demonstrated to be true anywhere else.”

Sound familiar?

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

God and Bacon

Is this a subject for a Jerry Seinfeld bit, or a topic worthy of a doctoral thesis? Does the righteous man hold fast to tradition:
...or are the times a' changin'?

This week in Politics

Joe Lauria speculates on the significance of the McCain/Georgia relationship here. Similar sentiments from William Lind, Eric Margolis and Pat Buchanan (listen here.) Seems that sanity makes for strange bedfellows these days.

Monday, August 18, 2008

How "DEWYA" Got His Name


Once upon a time in the summer of 2002,my wife decided to liberate a nameless garden gnome from his big-box prison. We were in the planning process for a trip to "SalmonFest," a three day music festival held at Bearcat's Getaway on the Black River in Lesterville, Missouri, featuring Leftover Salmon as headliners. Included in the festivities at SalmonFest was the "Parade of Judgment," a meandering, late-night parade/campsite judging contest that was more about extending the party through the wee hours until sunrise than it was about passing "judgment" on anyone or anything. Since this was our first music/camping festival of the New Millennium, we did not invest the time, energy and creative effort to have a "competitive" campsite, but thought that, at the very least, our recently adopted gnome would add a bit of character to our temporary home-away-from-home. As time has passed, we've continued to find fun festies to serve as our version of the summer vacation, and our little gnome always comes along for the ride.

In the spring of 2007, we returned to Lesterville and Bearcat's for "Festivaaaal," a smaller two day, mostly bluegrass/newgrass/jamgrass fest that featured Vince Herman (former and current member of the recently re-united Leftover Salmon.) We set up our campsite as always, with the gnome playing the role of Welcoming Committee, front and center. Later that morning, Vince was strolling through the campground, stopping here and there to say hello, strum his mandolin, and make small conversation. He took one look at the gnome and cackled.
"What's his name?" Vince inquired.
Caught off-guard, I replied, "Ummm... I dunno... he doesn't talk much. We just call him 'Gnomie.' "

Vince stood in thoughtful silence for a moment, then blurted out, "DEWYA!!"

"Huh?"

"Dewya! Dewya Gnomie!!!" Again he began to cackle, and the rest of us joined in as we caught on to the meaning of Mr. Herman's declaration.

Assuming his silence to be acceptance of his new moniker, we adopted the corny-but-catchy pun, and that's how Dewya Gnomie got his name.

Friday, August 15, 2008

infinite regress/degrees of separation

I'm amused (though seldom impressed) by trends in television. One is the concept of "reality TV" which tends to follow the self-contradictory nature found in its very name. But more about that some other time.

Another trend is seen in their portrayal of politics and entertainment, where the story devolves by degree from reporting/analysis of an original subject to analysis of the analyses and on down the line ad infinitum/nauseum. Instead of an objective, or at least multi-perspective view of current events, we get Keith Olbermann's smug blabbering about Bill O'Reilly's self-righteous ranting regarding a NYT op-ed commenting on a campaign spokesman's press release dealing with a candidate's response to a current event.

In celebration of this newfound approach to disseminating information, I thought I'd blog about this blog.

The who and what:

The title is self-explanatory and self-descriptive.

My avatar, "DEW U. GNOMIE," while an actually physical entity with distinct physical properties, was chosen to "represent" the joviality with which I attempt to ride the changes inherent in life, while allowing me to maintain a thin veil of anonymity.

The information I provide in the profile is a snapshot at best, and probably a bad one that chops/crops the top of my head and most of my left arm. For every "favorite" I could probably add five more, and these choices change with my state of mind/emotion/spirit. Ex: I didn't mention the Clash, Beethoven or the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band in my list of "favorite" music, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy these artists.

I put an RSS feed for Antiwar.com for its exhaustive coverage of all things political.

The listed blogs, for the most part, are chosen for their contoversial (and at times extreme) perspectives, and don't necessarily reflect my own views so much as an alternative to the (IMO) obsolete "left vs. right," "con vs. lib," " dem vs. rep" dichotomies.

The two notable exceptions are "The Floor," which chronicles the behind-the-scenes goings-on of the up-and-coming rock sextet Umphrey's McGee. The band is also featured on the video bar at the bottom of the page.

The second exception is "This Way to Texas" which is the personal blog of Lou Antonelli, a talented writer of SF short stories whom I remember fondly from our association as classmates in high school.

The Where, When, and How:

Here. Now. Point, click, type.

And that leaves the Why:

Forrest Gump would say, "No pa-TICK-lah raisin," or you can choose from the list below:

1. Everyone else is doing it.
2. Self-expression is necessary and cathartic.
3. My ego supplies me with an overblown sense of self-importance, and a blog enables me to strut my superior intellect.
4. I have too much time on my hands.
5. Nobody will actually read this blog, so really it's just a "Dear Diary" left open in a dusty attic.
6. None of the above.

As I looked for a knob to close the door on these current musings, I realized it was Friday, and TGIF came to mind. And I had to ask, Why T "G?" Why not F for Frior, the g that F took its name from? Besides, most of those who are in the Habit of T'ing G already have a day for that, usually Sa or Su depending on their sabbatical proclivities. Maybe we should T the IWA for the forty hour week that eventially evolved into "9-5, M-F." Since that particular time grid has little relevance to my own schedule, I'm just thankful to wake up each and every day breathing and with a pulse. Whether or not there's a G who deserves credit is a discussion for another day.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Georgia on My Mind

"May we live in interesting times." seems we do.

I watch this reckless chess game for global domination of the world's resources and I can't help but remember those many nights as a high-schooler when my best friends and I would play RISK while becoming dangerously and belligerently shitfaced. The outcome was inevitable. Rather than lose, somebody would dump the board of its contents and call the match over.

Regarding the latest chapter in Georgia, opinions are many but patience and wisdom seem to be in short supply. I'm reminded of the closing observation in John Godfrey Saxe's poetic rendition of the ancient parable of The Blind Men and the Elephant:

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

I hesitate to rush to judgment, but think it prudent at the very least to educate ourselves before we unquestionably accept the prevailing sentiment that dismisses an extremely complex situation as a casus belli for war with Russia.