Credit to Emma VC
sarah palin.
04Sep08
She fails to separate her religion from her leadership. And, as we learned last night, she has the terrifying talent of speaking in a way that commands attention while distracting listeners from the content of her words. She could read from a phonebook and command attention.
This country is supposed to be about the separation of church and state. Our beginnings are based in choice and freedom, the idea that we’re free to do as we will, to make our own way, worship as we like (and if we like). But this woman stands on a platform defined by religion, and her own religion at that, a platform that restricts personal freedom rather than protect it. It’s defined by the highly subjective and easily abused notion of ‘morality,’ where things are right and wrong and good and evil and anyone who raises questions is unpatriotic. This is the sort of rhetoric that girds fascists. Look at history. Look at recent history.
Americans are notorious amnesiacs.
A good friend of mine used to be an admissions officer at Princeton. She once said that she started getting applications with the acronym WWJD in the essay sections, one after another. Whole chunks of the application were supposed to be devoted to unpacking complex issues and she was getting a lot of white space - a sea of white space - broken by this single acronym. Thinking it was some kind of objection to the nature of the question, she gathered the applications up and took the stack to the dean to ask him what this acronym meant.
“What would Jesus do,” he said. “That’s their answer to the question.”
“But the whole point of the question is to display your ability to think critically,” she said.
The dean shrugged.
That story really struck me because it wasn’t about belief systems or spirituality or religion. It was about mindless obedience, so much so that when called to address a complicated issue, the response was an acronym, like a secret handshake. No thinking involved. Just a passive nod of the head.
Palin scares the crap out of me because her platform requires no real thinking either, and plenty of blind obedience. Gays are deviant. Books are dangerous. Abortion is murder. Evolution is wrong. War is right. And all it takes to win with a platform like that is charisma.
2008-10-08
2008-10-06
Two Thoughts
Firstly, I'm afraid that Twitter is becoming too commercialized. It seems like The World At Large has discovered a hive-mind of people - people who are generally living way too fast for their own good - and is taking the opportunity to advertise to them there.
And it's not just advertisement in the form of 'BUY OUR STUFF', 'SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY', etc. Warning: the following is an advertisement. Take the Starbucks twitter feed - http://twitter.com/starbucks - it almost acts like public customer service in shorthand. Trying to build that grassroots community support at the lifestyle speed that Starbucks likes to cater to. Do you get what I'm saying, or is this too far out there? Starbucks: energizing people who move fast - now addressing their thoughts 140 characters at a time.
Or CNN, for example - http://twitter.com/cnn - keeping the world up-to-date in it's slantist-fashion, 140 characters per serving! Here's a great headline: "Jobless father kills family, self."
I can't get over the idea that twitter was created, and wasn't monetized. It's free - anyone can create a twitter account ( http://twitter.com/protodeka ) - including companies like Starbucks, and CNN, for example. We can even see squatters - http://twitter.com/generalelectric - and they all come together and feed into the stream.
The fans follow, like the fans do. Those who don't care, don't follow. With more and more comapnies joining the fray, and more and more people on twitter who may be fans of Brand X whatever, the framework has been built for a complex opt-in spam / adverts network.
Except you get to pick-and-choose what you want to see adverts for. Like Starbucks. But what happens when you get enough Twitter followers, and you start subletting your 140 characters (say, one Twitter adspot every eight tweets) to hock Brand X Ware. It's reaching an audience measuring in the tens of thousands. That's gotta be worth something.
That being said - my favorite Twitter feed to date: http://twitter.com/marsphoenix - GO PHOENIX, GO!
This concludes the first thought. Onto the second thought: DOG WALK
I'd love to figure out how to make walking the dog slightly more efficient. The following snapshot outlines our path tonight.
Now, to put a GPS in the dog. You know, for plotting purposes. Can mark where she goes, in order to compile a list of favorite spots over time.
And in case she ever gets lost.
And it's not just advertisement in the form of 'BUY OUR STUFF', 'SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY', etc. Warning: the following is an advertisement. Take the Starbucks twitter feed - http://twitter.com/starbucks - it almost acts like public customer service in shorthand. Trying to build that grassroots community support at the lifestyle speed that Starbucks likes to cater to. Do you get what I'm saying, or is this too far out there? Starbucks: energizing people who move fast - now addressing their thoughts 140 characters at a time.
Or CNN, for example - http://twitter.com/cnn - keeping the world up-to-date in it's slantist-fashion, 140 characters per serving! Here's a great headline: "Jobless father kills family, self."
I can't get over the idea that twitter was created, and wasn't monetized. It's free - anyone can create a twitter account ( http://twitter.com/protodeka ) - including companies like Starbucks, and CNN, for example. We can even see squatters - http://twitter.com/generalelectric - and they all come together and feed into the stream.
The fans follow, like the fans do. Those who don't care, don't follow. With more and more comapnies joining the fray, and more and more people on twitter who may be fans of Brand X whatever, the framework has been built for a complex opt-in spam / adverts network.
Except you get to pick-and-choose what you want to see adverts for. Like Starbucks. But what happens when you get enough Twitter followers, and you start subletting your 140 characters (say, one Twitter adspot every eight tweets) to hock Brand X Ware. It's reaching an audience measuring in the tens of thousands. That's gotta be worth something.
That being said - my favorite Twitter feed to date: http://twitter.com/marsphoenix - GO PHOENIX, GO!
This concludes the first thought. Onto the second thought: DOG WALKI'd love to figure out how to make walking the dog slightly more efficient. The following snapshot outlines our path tonight.
Now, to put a GPS in the dog. You know, for plotting purposes. Can mark where she goes, in order to compile a list of favorite spots over time.
And in case she ever gets lost.
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