I hate this fucking hipocrisy. When the US beats it's protesters and holds them in jail without charges, it's patriotic, but when Iran does it, it's a human rights violation!



Fuck you!

I will write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel during the month of november as part of NaNoWriMo.

Who else is doing Pride this weekend?

efffie and I are engaged!

I started cutting my own hair because Regina Spektor told me to.

...Maybe you should cut your own hair cause that can be so funny
It doesn't cost any money and it always grows back
Hair grows even after you're dead
...
And if you kiss somebody
Then both of you'll get practice
...
People are just people
They shouldn't make you nervous
People are just people like you

( Ghost Of Corporate Future lyrics )

Doug Rushkoff, one of my favorite cultural critics and a brilliant modern thinker, is syndicating his new book, Life, Inc. online. Here is the first installment of the new book.
He begins with a tale about how he got mugged in front of his Brooklyn house one day. The most interesting thing about the mugging, however, is the fact that his neighbors are more concerned about their property values than about the actual safety of their neighborhood. He continues talking about gentrification, the corporatization of modern life, and basically talks about the million "logical" steps that have taken us to this bizarre place of acting against our own self interest.

It's a longish chapter-sized piece, but if any of you get through it, I'd love to hear what you think.

In the Daily Show's coverage of the recent "TEA" tax protests around the country, they show how the "liberal" and "conservative" news media (i.e. Fox and CNN) have basically reversed their roles from 4 years ago. When the Republicans were in power, Fox thought the President could do no wrong and anyone dissenting was basically an "unpatriotic whiner." Now that the Democrats are in power, their position is that protesting is a valid way to express your discontent with government policy and should be acknowledged and respected.

It's supposed to be funny, but I just find it depressing.

Our legal system is, at this point, inherently unfair. Lifted from a slashdot comment thread:

Hal:
Why do all of the Ask Slashdot questions boil down to: "I want free legal advice. Give me an opinion on x."

My thought is that you should really ask a lawyer what to do. Sheesh, do you really want free legal advice from random people with lots of free time on their hands?

thatoneguy:
Probably because in every other aspect except for Law and Medicine what we scrounge up is good enough.

I Am Not A Mechanic but I might be able to fix your engine.
"I Am Not A __Insert Profession ____ but I do have experience with XYZ." Is a pretty reasonable statement. We ask the group how well various systems work all the time and consult friends who aren't experts at length on a variety of topics. In fact many times the group advice and wisdom is pretty sound.

The problem is the law is something we all are subject to and it's incredibly specific and incredibly tightly nuanced. As much so as advanced engineering. Most of us never need an accurate weight load stress analysis from an engineer but legal advice is necessary to remain free and properous.

Even lawyers often can't tell you what the law says. If they could we wouldn't need them to defend us in spite of whatever it is the law is supposed to say

Ok internets, I have thrown down the gauntlet for re-personalizing and re-localizing the distributed worldwide internet.

I would LOVE to be able to filter craigslist by neighborhood.

Ideally there would be a way to name a neighborhood-sized area of the city, something a few blocks in size. Then we could either distribute flyers to everyone in the neighborhood telling them about the website, or announce it at a block party, and our neighborhood would immediately have access to all the riches of craigslist's existing infrastructure.

This could facilitate all kinds of things - baby sitting and shared child care, lawn-mowing and other small jobs, ride sharing, tool lending, neighborhood block parties, trash cleanup days, lost pets, neighborhood watch programs... the possibilities are endless.

Even filtering by zip code would be smaller than the whole city (something like http://78701.austin.craigslist.com), but ideally you'd be able to specify a specific neighborhood.

What do you think?

Benjamin Bradley

I absolutely think that extending Craigslist is the right way to do this. They already have the functionality, it just needs to be finer-grained. And their hearts are in the right place.

Comment on my "CL feedback" post if you feel so inclined.

Jon Stewart: What's the difference between a Ponzi Scheme and an Investment Bank?
William Cohan (paraphrased): A Ponzi Scheme is illegal, but an Investment Bank is not.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
William Cohan
thedailyshow.com
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