Thoughts on culture, politics, music and stuff by Eric Olsen, Marty Thau and Mike Crooker, who are among other things, producers.

 
Israel’s Golem?
Reviewer Bruce Webber notes the extreme resonance that a new production of H. Leivick’s 1921 play "The Golem," has with the current Middle East situation.

As Israelis and Palestinians persist in their agonizing war, the contemporary pertinence of "The Golem" is painfully apparent. And the play's awful conclusion, its depiction of vengeance turning tragically back upon the avenger, has everything to say about the perpetual cycle of violence that is stripping Jerusalem and its environs of their holiness and humanity.

....It is the slippery-slope effect the Jews in "The Golem" come to grief over: Where do you draw the line? What evils rise to the standard of deserving revenge?

The force of the play is in its refusal to answer the question. "The Golem" doesn't advocate turning the other cheek. It illustrates, agonizingly, the agony of the persecuted, the unbearable dilemma that is being so horribly played out now in the Middle East: suffer silently and live in fearful, shriveled bitterness or retaliate and invite greater suffering.

Clearly this is a summary of the current situation, but the play implies another concept that isn’t discussed in the review: is Ariel Sharon Israel’s
Golem?

One day Great Rabbi Loew decided that he should do something to help the grownups and boys and girls. He remembered a story that his father told him when he was a little boy. His father had read one of the great books in the Synagogue, a Jewish church. The story said that a Golem, a kind of servant, could be made out of a lump of clay!

....One night he was reading the Cabbala, a holy book, and learned how to make a Golem. The Cabbala said, "A Golem must be made of the sticky clay from the bank of the Moldavka River. Make the face, hands and feet out of clay. Roll it over on its back. Walk around the form of clay from right to left seven times." As you walk around the form, shout, "Shanti, Shanti, Dahat, Dahat!"

Not to overemphasize the Jungian “collective subconscious” angle, but has Israel created a great “Jewish avenger” to do what must be done while keeping the moral culpability for what “must be done” at arm’s length? Israel’s attitude toward Sharon seems to be along the lines of, “He’s vicious and crazy, but he’s vicious and crazy for our side”; similar, for example to how we felt about Patton in WWll. In the story, however, there is no moral disconnect between the creation of the Golem, and the Golem’s subsequent actions. Will Israel be able to come to terms with an all-out war to purge the Palestinians of their terrorist leadership?
posted by Anonymous at 2:20 PM

 
Swampland and Bridges For Sale
The only reasonable response to Yasser Arafat’s condemnation of terrorism is, shall we say, skepticism. Check out Charles Johnson’s devastating Google search result of Arafat’s terror-condemnations past.
posted by Anonymous at 1:35 PM

 
A Better Generation?
As even casual readers of these pages know, I’m pretty crazy about my kids; and with the oldest two deeply into their teens, now could easily be a time of bitter conflict over values, behavior, and perspective. But it isn’t.

No relationship is perfect, and we certainly have conflicts, but nothing involving fundamental worldview, or issues that could potentially involve extra-family authorities. In other words: they’re really great kids. I also like and feel a basic affinity with their friends. So, while my evidence is largely anecdotal, I have the impression that this generation of teens and young adults have their shit together to a remarkable degree - far beyond my own thrashing about willy nilly between the ages of about 14 and 30.

Steve Chapman, of the Chicago Tribune, agrees:

We adults often complain and despair over the ways of young people. Their headache-inducing music. Their drug and alcohol use. Their casual approach to sex. Their tattoos and body piercings. Their underdeveloped work ethic. Their sense of entitlement. Their attraction to gangs and guns.

So if you're over the age of 30, you would not find it surprising to learn that the crime rate among American youngsters has risen sharply in recent years. That would merely confirm what so many people suspect: Our permissive culture has failed to instill self-respect and self-discipline in our children.

But that assumption is confounded by a fact that really is surprising: Between 1994 and 2000, the total number of juvenile arrests fell by 13 percent. Actually, I'm grossly understating the good news. As the Urban Institute notes in a recent study by Jeffrey Butts and Jeremy Travis, the drop in violent crimes among children under 18 was even bigger.

....During the 1990s, teen pregnancy, drinking, smoking and drug use all became less common. For all the freedom they have, today's teenagers show an inclination toward healthy behavior and self-preservation that past generations--their parents, for example--didn't acquire until they were older.

We may never know exactly what precipitated this welcome development. But it's nice to think that maybe we're doing something right.

I hope so, Steve. But on the other hand there is
this:

The University of California at Berkeley, that bastion of sun-kissed young adults with a chip on their shoulder, was among the first to stomp the grass. Earlier this month, a sit-in for Palestinian statehood on the ramps of an interstate snarled traffic badly enough to need intervention by the California Highway Patrol.

....All told, students at some 30 universities across the country -- from the University of Nebraska to Georgetown to Rutgers -- are expressing their solidarity with a group of people who send college-age kids out to self-detonate near as many Israeli civilians as possible.

....But beyond the usual angry sputtering and name-calling, there are some signs for concern. The Jewish student center at Berkeley recently had a window smashed and "F -- ing Jews" scrawled on the garbage cans. Students coming out of synagogues got egged. And worse, near the Berkeley campus, two Orthodox Jewish men were attacked.

If it sounds an awful lot like what's been happening in Europe, that's because it is. In the ivory towers of American academia, as in Paris, Rome and Madrid, the workaday fascination with hating the U.S. and its foreign policy has been transposed to one of its allies.

Damn stupid pampered valueless kids. Oh yeah, this is America, where people are allowed to think really stupid thoughts, especially when they are young.
posted by Anonymous at 1:24 PM

 
Not the Same Fight?
Also in the New Republic, Peter Beinart makes the best case I’ve seen yet for the difference between our fight against al Qaeda and the like, and those of Russia, India and Israel against their own terrorists.

Russia's, India's, and Israel's "war on terrorism" is not like our own. And in order to craft wise and decent policy, the Bush administration needs to explain why.

The critical difference is that the wars in Kashmir, Palestine, and Chechnya are wars of national liberation. The terrorists seek to end a foreign occupation and create an independent state on a defined piece of land. That doesn't make their demands legitimate: Yasir Arafat's definition of a Palestinian state is clearly grandiose and dangerous (especially given that Israel is so small--and therefore particularly imperiled by such fantasies); Kashmir and Chechnya probably shouldn't be independent states at all. And it doesn't make their methods legitimate either: There's no excuse for deliberately targeting civilians. But as a practical matter, wars of national liberation are easier (though certainly not easy) to resolve politically and much harder to resolve militarily than the kind we're fighting against Al Qaeda.

....Does Israel have the same right to defend itself against suicide bombers in Tel Aviv as the United States has to defend itself against suicide hijackers in New York? Is an attack on the Indian parliament as evil as an attack on Congress? Absolutely. But the question isn't moral; it's strategic. And strategically, Israel's and India's wars against terrorism differ radically from America's because Israel and India aren't merely fighting a terrorist network; they're fighting a people. And a people can be militarily occupied, but they can't be militarily crushed. The moral right to respond to terror with single-minded, overwhelming force doesn't make such a response successful. And in the end, if a government's response to terror doesn't stop future terror, the moral clarity it provides is cold comfort indeed.

posted by Anonymous at 1:00 PM

 
Fascists=Islamists=PLO
Yehuda Mirsky makes a compelling argument for the similarities between Nazi Europe in the ‘30s and ‘40s, and the Middle East now:

A vital region aflame and on the march. Unresolved disputes over old imperial boundaries breeding terrible violence. A fanatical belief system stitched together from religious traditions, romantic cults of violence, and modern ideologies, then fanned by fire-breathing, charismatic leaders and propped up by timid plutocrats terrified of the masses. Genuinely well-intentioned progressives finding themselves the unwitting supporters of murderous fanatics. America and the Jews savagely attacked as the hated representatives of all that is wrong with the modern world. No doubt about it, Europe was a frightening place in the 1930s and '40s...

Mirsky sees “jihadism” as a response to globalization as communism and fascism were responses to modernization. All are based on a false, romanticized vision of the past:

The sharia society, whose return political Islam demands, is as much a historical fiction as were the primal forest of German Volkism and Marx's happily unalienated medieval craftsmen. All are romantic answers to very concrete problems, and all have proven deadly when taken seriously.

Mirsky notes the psychological connection between America and the Jews:

Blame it on America. And not without reason, as from its founding, America has been both the engine and exemplar of modernity. In Weimar, the late historian Detlev Peukert showed, the euphemism for "modernity" was "Americanism." The more things change....

And on You Know Who. There has been an astounding and historically unprecedented adoption of Nazi-like anti-Semitism not only by Arab masses, but also Arab governments, including our ostensible ally, Egypt. This results not only from the fact that the material is out there, and not only because "the enemy (Hitler) of my enemy (Jews) is my friend," but also because, then and now, Jews both exemplify and champion the Western political and socio-economic order that has given them enormous freedoms and opportunities--all while clinging to a particular and demanding ethnic identity.

I mentioned this connection in rather more subjective form yesterday. Compare this view with that of Ed Rothstein in today’s NY Times reviewing the Masterpiece Theater version of Trollope’s “The Way We Live Now”:

Modern anti-Semitism, after all, is less a matter of physical disgust than a view of the rootless, cosmopolitan Jew who was seen as a political and cultural threat to a traditional society. After the Enlightenment, ancient entitlements and hierarchies were dissolving just as they did in the face of Melmotte's enterprises. A speculative economy based on credit and commerce, rather than inherited property, transformed society, leading to corruption as well as freedom. The Jew was seen as the extreme embodiment of these changes if not their cause. And that is precisely the world of "The Way We Live Now."

....Trollope, of course, did not explicitly see modernity as a creation of the Jews, nor could he have imagined where these ideas, shared by so many others, might have led. But his novel remains resonant because some of these themes and conflicts keep recurring in contemporary crises — and not just in the world of business.

.....The hatred of Islamic radicals for the United States is also inspired by fear that their own traditions and order are being undone by alien ideas. It is no accident that anti-Semitism has also been dragged into the ideological mix. Even before recent events in the Middle East, the idea of the Jew as a power-hungry, manipulative destroyer of traditions and culture was not unfamiliar. But during the current crisis, in which a Jewish state is involved and the nature of a modern Middle East is at stake, that Nazi-like caricature has been resurrected with a vengeance — and not just in many state-run newspapers in the Arab world that have given voice to virulent forms of anti-Semitism.

The political issues, involving treaties and boundaries and rights and security, would be difficult enough on their own. But clouded by these older myths of Trollope's day, they become even more intractable. Whether acknowledged or unacknowledged, rejected or championed, used or ignored, these ideas remain an inseparable part of the way we hate now.

Mirsky’s solution is that of Horowitz, and Hanson (consistently), that these neuroses cannot be appeased or assuaged with half-measures: they must be ruthlessly defeated before compassion can re-enter the picture and help people with legitimate problems and grievances.

But first things first. Nazi Germany then, and more recently the former Soviet Union, eventually joined the family of nations--but only after they were decisively defeated. Denazification could only happen once the Nazis were gone. That victory and our victory in the cold war were made possible not only by the hard stuff of military and economic strength, but by what Joseph Nye has helpfully termed "soft power"--the attractiveness of liberal and democratic societies and the opportunities they present for human flourishing, which first effectively mobilized us against the Nazis; sustained people like Havel, Sakharov, and Sharansky behind the Iron Curtain; and, in the end, brought that curtain down. The struggle with jihadism paradoxically affords us a chance to reaffirm our own core values. Just as World War II gave birth to the human rights movement, and the cold war gave impetus to the American civil rights movement--yielding a more just society at home and a greater respect for democratic values abroad--so, too, this struggle, if waged wisely, can not only save us, but help make the globalizing community a better, if sadder and wiser, place.

posted by Anonymous at 12:46 PM

 
A Resume I Could Only Dream Of...

B.J. Baker, a backup singer who worked on hits with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke and Bobby Darin, died April 2 of complications from a stroke. She was 74.

Baker also appeared on several 1960's television shows, provided voices for cartoons and was a regular on Dean Martin and Judy Garland TV variety shows.

Born in Birmingham, Ala., Baker sang in big bands and had her own Birmingham radio show at age 14.

She caught actor Mickey Rooney's eye when she competed in the 1944 Miss America contest, and they were married later that year, but divorced a few years later. She married Buddy Baker, who directed the Walt Disney Co. music department, in 1950, and she was married to jazz guitarist Barney Kessel from 1961 to 1980.

Among the records Baker sang on were: Presley's ``I Can't Help Falling in Love With You;'' Cooke's ``You Send Me;'' Sinatra's ``That's Life;'' Darin's ``Dream Lover;'' and the Righteous Brothers' ``You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.''

In later years, Baker became a highly regarded vocal contractor, working to select and direct background singers for recording sessions.

posted by tofu at 11:49 AM

 
Death, Delusions and Demographics
David Horowitz argues, using the logic if not the words of Donald Rumsfeld, that the reason most Israelis back the military action in the West Bank is because it puts the terrorists on the defensive. I have been hoping and hoping that each “one more chance” would cause Arafat to snap out of his impossible, suicidal (there’s that word again) delusion that he can somehow conquer Israel, by destruction or demographic flooding:

By demanding a "right of return" to sovereign Israel for up to four million Palestinians, Mr. Arafat, most Israelis believe, effectively sought to overwhelm Israel – current population: five million Jews; one million-plus Arabs – by sheer weight of numbers.

I have now concluded that this epiphany will not occur, that he must be defeated and removed. Much, much suffering remains, but my friends in Israel will inevitably prevail. Again with the suicidal delusions of grandeur. Will they never learn?
posted by Anonymous at 7:06 PM

 
My Friend
So I have this friend, and he’s a real close friend of the family - almost like a brother to me. He comes from an old, tightly-knit family that used to be spread all over hell and back, but they found a place to have a reunion - ironically on the old ancestral stomping grounds - and they had such a good time in each other’s company that a lot of them just decided to stay.

Besides having a good time and telling old stories, they felt a little bit safer together. It felt really good to be able to trust people and to have some control over the situation - to be able to call the shots to a certain extent. They are a proud, tough bunch, but they have seen some desperately hard times. I’m not exactly sure why, but some people get real upset when other people “choose” to be different - not just different - but proudly different even when they’re invited to assimilate.

People get real jealous of others who work hard, value education and achievement, stick together and help each other out. A lot of people don’t have that: they have all kinds of ties, but those ties seem based in negativity and trying to be happy while holding each other down; ties based upon mutual fears, hatreds, and antagonisms. When most of your effort is going into keeping track of what your neighbors are doing so they don’t get too big for their britches or break any sacred rules, you don’t have a lot of time to concentrate on getting things done.

There is excitement in achievement, in challenging, even confronting each other to be the best we can be, a palpable energy bubbling out of individuals and intermingling with that of others - not in equations of addition, but of multiplication. The energy squares itself again and again, creating a rushing force that barrels over all in its path; not out of malice, but out of the sheer joy of riding such harnessed power, side by side with our buddies and kinsmen, pulling together, ebullient with the rush of it all. “Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way,” and some people seem to resent that force, that giddy, interlaced and reinforced power that comes from pursuing the possible, not fearing the probable.

Some people really hate that "work together and get things done" shit because they fear it and resent it, because of their culture of mutually-reinforced underachievement: “I’ll show you what pride brings. We’ll show you what happens to those who don’t submit, who try to push the ever-shrinking circle in the other direction. We will tear you down to our level - we needn’t bother to try to rise to yours. This is the way it has always been, and the way it should always be. Change is to be feared and shunned.”

Energy - the energy with which all people are born - is to be stuffed and crammed, and pushed down into a little, tiny, festering black hole of hatred, resentment, self-denial, frustration and finally, destruction. For energy cannot be denied, and if it isn’t channeled, and challenged, and honed, and mingled and multiplied into a raging whirlwind of accomplishment and achievement, then it turns on its host and and consumes it from within, an insatiable parasite.

So my friend and his family are being once again confronted with this kind of negativity, with this hatred and resentment directed at their squaring and cubing people-energy. When self-hatred and resentment-based hatred of others come together, you have people stumbling upon the idea of destroying themselves and the hated-others at the same time to defend a pride so false that it cracks when struck.

And that is another difference between my friend and the others: a plasticity, a resourcefulness, an adaptability that always seeks to find the right situation for itself, and that stops at virtually nothing to preserve that situation once it is found, fighting with all of that amassed, harnessed energy pulling in the same direction with an awesome determination.

Some of my other friends resent that determination, that undeniable energy, and they would seek - not to harm my friend or his family - but to restrain them and deny them the free and full use of their combined energy, even when that energy is being used to defend themselves against a shitstorm of hatred, negativity, and denied-energy so compressed that its release could destroy the world.

I say to my friend: I am on your side, the side of energy set free and harnessed toward a common goal of achievement and prosperity for each and every soul who wants to be all that he or she can be in a world of exciting, endless possibility.

And I say to those who hate my friend, and with my friend, me: your time is short, for your negativity will consume you from within and you will collapse upon yourselves. We will cry a bit over the loss of you - you are people as are we - then my friend and I will continue on our way as your self-immolated ashes scatter on the four winds and are lost but to history.
posted by Anonymous at 5:51 PM

 
Bring Forth the Grapes and the Sportsmen, Garcon
My schedule is all screwed up today - sorry - had to go to the doctor this morning, then I had to go record the radio show. Normally I do that on Thursdays, but I had to do something else last night: go to the Indians game for my father’s belated birthday party.

Not only did my dad, son and I go to the game - which the Tribe won in fine style 8-4 to sweep the Twinkies and rise to 9-1 for the season - but we got to dine and take in the game from the totally stylin’ Terrace Club, a rarefied gourmet buffet in a tiered seating arrangement perched above the left-field box seats, with the napkin-snapping service of a blue blood resort.

Yes, we were cut off from most of the crowd noise. Yes, it was still 70 degrees with a placid July stillness in the air when we left at 10:20 so we had no excuse not to hang with the masses. But we went back to the 57 salads, roast pork, roast turkey, prime rib, oysters, 17 fruits that only Hawaiians know the names of, fresh-baked breads, cheeses of every hue, and desserts as big as Bartolo Colon’s midsection at least four times (clean plate each trip so as to have no lingering food pollution), and all of a sudden it was the 7th inning and we were too full to move anyway.

We felt like Romans on the cusp between the Golden Age and the headlong plunge into decadence. Our common love of the game and excitement with the Indians’ fast start provided the discipline sufficient to stave off total epicurean debauchery. We just sat there grinning at each other, nodding in approval at each fresh batch of victuals, grooving to the surroundings, digging the cohesive TEAM, yes I said TEAM - as opposed to a conglomeration of separate-but-equal All Stars as in years past - that the Indians have miraculously become.

Occasionally I would look at the ornate clock and think, “Mike’s probably playing right about now,” or “Mike’s probably done about now and having to carry all that equipment all by himself,” and feel something resembling guilt. But then Thome or little Omar would hit a home run, or Matt Lawton would make another inning-ending diving catch, and the guilt would quickly pass. A perfect April night on about 17 levels, including intergenerational male bonding of the finest kind. It was plain schweeeet.

Mike says: What? Eric wasn't at the show!?!?!?

Check out this Indians blog Mike found (when he wasn't performing alone). You want the skinny on the Tribe? Go and feel the vibe.
posted by Anonymous at 3:40 PM

 
Career vs. Abs
Just got back from the doctor. The verdict for my upper abdominal spasms: more Skelaxin. The reason the condition is hanging on so long - according to MD-dude - is that I don't take the Skelaxin in the day, thereby allowing the tightness to regain its icy grip as I sit at the computer thinking stressful BIG THOUGHTS about the state of the world, my bank account, etc.

As I explained to the medical man, I can't take the shockingly effective muscle relaxant in the day because it turns me into a grinning bowl of jello, unable to link thoughts, sit up straight, or speak coherently. If it weren't for these minor issues, I'd be happy to pop Skelaxins all the livelong day: eyes unfocused, brain wandering the grassy path of idle reverie, half-formed words leaking from my askew lips, fingers pushing random keys making pretty patterns on the computer screen. Yet another of life's grim trade-offs.
posted by Anonymous at 10:36 AM

 
"It's For the Children"
Jerry passed this story on a couple of days ago:

The Saudi Arabian government has paid out at least $33 million to families of Palestinians killed or injured in the 17-month-old intifada and in December 2001 earmarked another $50 million for the payments, according to Arabic news agencies and the Saudi Embassy's Web site.

Similar payments promised by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have drawn sharp condemnation from U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada distributes payments of $5,333 to the families of the dead and $4,000 to each Palestinian receiving medical treatment in Saudi hospitals. The fund is managed by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, according to the embassy.

The sum is far less than the $10,000 Iraq offers to the families of those killed and the $25,000 it gives to the kin of suicide bombers, but is nonetheless significant to the average Palestinian whose annual income is $1,575.

They're playing the "innocent children" card:

According to Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations, the Islamic faith enjoins Muslims to take care of widows and especially orphans. The families of suicide bombers are just as needy as those killed by military attacks, he said.

"They want to make it sound like (all the money is for) the families of suicide bombers," Hooper told United Press International.

..."Sometimes I'd like to ask these people who criticize these things (the funds) to find a list of Palestinian orphans who shouldn't be fed. Give us a list of Palestinian widows and orphans so Muslims can comply with dictates of not feeding the wrong people," Hooper said. "Are you supposed to penalize some child, some widow, because of what their father did or did not do?"

Jerry replies,

A thought occurred to me last night. Someone should ask Mr. Hooper how he feels about Jews who provide money to the widow and orphans of Baruch Goldstein. (And, conversely, assuming there are such Jews, someone should ask them what's wrong with the Saudis providing money to the widows and orphans of suicide bombers.)

posted by Anonymous at 10:14 AM

 
Doppelganger
I must visit the doctor regarding my persistent upper abdominal issues; be back soon, but in the meantime, check out the secret photo gallery of Matt Welch (note reader comments). Layne-as-Damon eerie as well, if lacking in documentary evidence.
posted by Anonymous at 8:33 AM

 
.... I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime / I might not ever get home

OK, I'm back from the gig -- the show went great, met lots of cool folks from the SynthCleveland group, drank some beer, and I'm home by 12:45 a.m. -- time to do the collapse.

here's the setlist in full

1. Intro (original intro from "Like It, I Do Not")
2. Episodic
3. Focus On Charles
4. Bombay Pimpmobile
5. Freshen
6. Biblioteca!
7. Glocken
8. Naked Ambition
9. Golem
10. Liquid Body Punch
posted by tofu at 1:08 AM

 
High on a hillside, trucks are loading / everything's ready to roll...

All loaded up for the big rock show tonight in Cleveland The station wagon is full of obscure and ancient keyboards as well as my trusty bass. I have a large bottle of club soda, some Advil, a towel and a change of clothes. In honor of all the goths in Missouri, I will be wearing all black (as I, like Johnny Cash, always wear black).

I need to eat something, I need to get my keys, I need to drive. Report back to base 0200.

posted by tofu at 5:19 PM

 
People Finally Rid of “Man of the People”
Rep. James Traficant, Youngstown-area congressman, was convicted of accepting bribes from businessmen today in Cleveland Federal Court.

Traficant contended the government came after him because he beat the FBI in a racketeering case 19 years ago, when he was a Mahoning County sheriff accused of taking mob money. He was elected the next year to the House, where he quickly became known for his unruly hair, loud wardrobe and tempestuous floor speeches in which he railed against federal agencies, from the Justice Department to the IRS. The rants often ended with an exasperated "Beam me up!"

The trial was raucous, often comic and occasionally vulgar, with Traficant roaring at the judge, crudely questioning the prosecutor's manhood and using barnyard epithets to describe what he thought of the government's case.

This clown is one of the main reasons I distrust “populists”: men of the people who use a combination of pork and veiled threats to intimidate the “people” into keeping them in office.

Traficant represented himself, though he is not an attorney and often was chastised by the judge for not following procedure. Throughout the 3-month long trial, he shouted at witnesses, government attorneys and the judge. At one point, he stormed out of the courtroom to retrieve a witness.

"Goodbye, congressman," U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells said to his empty chair.

Thank God.
posted by Anonymous at 4:58 PM

 
This is why dead people vote.
posted by Anonymous at 4:48 PM

 
News That Matters About Matter
Big news on the matter front, reported by the thrice-named John Noble Wilford in today’s NY Times:

Observations of two stars, one unusually small and the other unusually cold [sounds like my ex-wife], have led astronomers to think they are seeing evidence of a new form of matter and a new kind of star, one possibly made of elementary particles known as quarks and denser than any cosmic object other than a black hole.

A substance more dense than a suicide-bomber’s brain!

Neutron stars are the compact remnants of dying massive stars that explode and collapse, and nothing denser had been observed.

A teaspoon of neutron star material weighs a billion tons, or as much as all the cars, trucks and buses on Earth. Matter in the suspected quark stars would be far denser.

Stranger than fiction!

Physicists know of six kinds of quarks, two of which — up and down — make up ordinary matter like protons and neutrons. Theorists have long speculated that up and down quarks can be melded with a heavier kind known as the strange quark to form something called strange matter.

"The combined observational evidence points to a star composed not of neutrons, but of quarks in a form known as strange quark matter," said Dr. Jeremy Drake...

Libertarian physics!

Dr. Sam Aronson, chairman of physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, where a high-energy particle collider is being used to study quarks, said the discovery, if confirmed, could lead to an understanding of the behavior of freely interacting quarks. "No one has seen really free quarks," Dr. Aronson said.

posted by Anonymous at 4:43 PM

 
Be One Of Us! Be One Of Us!

It must have been a slow week in Blue Springs, Missouri, home region of Rep. Sam Graves, (R-Mo). How else to explain the $273,000 federal grant to combat Goth culture.

Reviving images of the Trenchcoat Mafia, the money will be spent on "psychological testing, therapy sessions, training sessions and town hall meetings."

Having known more than a few goths in my travels as a musician, I can only speculate that people in western Missouri are easily frightened by people wearing too much black clothing and makeup.

"When asked about spending federal money to combat the Goth subculture, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., began laughing.

He jokingly compared the project to other government-funded programs that were approved to study squirrel mating and reindeers."

posted by tofu at 1:45 PM

 
Attention: George W. Bush
I often joke about my friend Jerry, who helps us find so much of our material, but he is an extremely intelligent, perceptive, and fair-minded man. I hope the president heeds his words.

Dear Mr. President:

It is with more than a little dismay that I have read accounts of your Administration's impatience with the Israeli campaign to uproot the terror infrastructure in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. It seems to me that the following facts are incontrovertible:

(1) The Palestinians agreed at Oslo to abjure violence.

(2) They have violated that and many of the other Oslo pledges. The violations include, in particular, a massive weapons buildup and continued incitement to anti-Semitism in textbooks and elsewhere.

(3) They have undertaken an indiscriminate campaign of violence against Israeli men, women, and children, whether in uniform or not, whether in the Occupied Territories or inside the Green Line.

(4) Israel has made a good-faith effort to conclude its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, most recently at Camp David in 2000 and in the negotiations that followed. The Palestinian response to this effort has been unremitting violence.

(5) Despite repeated entreaties from the Administration and others, Yasser Arafat has declined to call in Arabic for a stop to the violence. Even if he were to finally make such a call at this exceedingly late date, it is far from clear that he has the ability or the will to curtail terror.

Against this background, there is no plausible scenario in which there can be peace short of an unequivocal military victory by Israel. The United States is not negotiating with Osama bin Laden or the Taliban; nor should it. The Palestinian Authority in general and Yasser Arafat in particular have revealed themselves (or, if you will, revealed themselves again) to be mobsters at best, would-be perpetrators of genocide at worst. (That they are dictatorial and corrupt is almost beside the point.) We should not expect our friends in Israel to negotiate with mobsters. We should be grateful that they are doing the dirty work of cleaning up the neighborhood -- while maintaining concern for the lives of innocent civilians, at great cost to their own safety -- without asking for American troops to help.

I know you have seen through Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. They are incapable of leading their people to peace, let alone democracy or prosperity. Please extend no more last chances to an evil person and an evil entity that will see your kindness only as weakness. The United States must have the courage to disagree with our feckless friends in Europe, not to mention our putative allies in the Third World. History will respect you for permitting an American ally to carry on your anti-terror campaign and to face down the forces of bigotry, intolerance, and hatred. When that job is done, the people of Israel, Palestine, and the entire Middle East will be better off.
Very truly yours,
Jerome M. Balsam

posted by Anonymous at 12:55 PM

 
Ken Layne: Neo-liberal
In our Tour O the Blogs for Ken Layne, I identified him as a “neo-conservative.” He’s listed on the infamous "Warblogger Watch List" as a dangerous hawk as well. Ken seems bugged by this, as he mentions it here (“In the bloggy-world, plenty of neo-cons and libertarians don’t seem to believe I'm liberal. I am -- I'm just not part of the fringe academic left.”), and here (“But here on this little Web site on this warm Los Angeles night, I will stand up for informed American optimism. Can't we do that on the liberal side, now and then? Wasn't MLK Jr. an optimist? Bobby Kennedy? FDR?”), both within the last couple of days.

I hereby declare - before the assembled spirits of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy - that KEN LAYNE IS A POST-9/11 HAWKISH, NEO-LIBERAL like his pal Matt Welch and Santa Monica-dweller Mickey Kaus. Your certificate is in the mail, you may kiss welfare as we know it goodbye.
posted by Anonymous at 12:36 PM

 
Do I Want to Post This? You Bet
Everyone loves Rummy, but his speaking style is a bit, arch. Charley Reese takes it step further.

A habit of conversation conducted as a form of Twenty Questions is becoming a fad in Washington. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is probably the most famous user of the Twenty Questions style of talking.

You've probably heard him say something like: "Do we know where Bin Laden is? No. Are we searching for him? Yes. Will we eventually find him? You bet. But do I wake up every morning worrying about where Bin Laden may or may not be? No."

Maybe all Americans should adopt this habit. Imagine going to a restaurant, and the waitress says, "What'll you have?"...

Thanks to all-seeing Mike at Cursor.
posted by Anonymous at 11:19 AM

 
Suicide: Last Resort or Portal to Paradise?
Yet another Palestinian suicide bombing yesterday: the words “suicide bombing” are beginning to lose their sting, their underlying reality, as we hear of them over and over again, dulling the internal vision like some kind of mental olfactory fatigue. We need some details to sharpen our apprehension once again:

The rush-hour bus blast scattered body parts across 250 yards of highway near the northern port city of Haifa and wounded at least 12 people in addition to the dead. It buckled the vehicle and ripped open its roof like a tin can.

I’ve been having a very difficult time coming to terms with what “suicide bombing” really means, not linguistically, but its place in reality, its ontology.

Killing oneself is forbidden by all cultures and religions, specifically the relevant cultures of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Yet Islam, in particular, and Christianity have “out clauses” that mitigate the outright ban somewhat, or at least the culpability of the suicide-ee. Christianity doesn’t seem to be spawning an epidemic of suicides (although over 30,000 Americans took their own lives in 1998, about .01% of the population, a not insignificant number - no figures on how many were Christian), but this sad story of a Cleveland-area priest who committed suicide after allegations of sex abuse were brought forth reminds us that suicide is still far too common here as well. Here is the reference to mitigation to which I was referring:

The Catholic catechism speaks forcefully against suicide but says grave psychological disturbances or fear of suffering can diminish moral responsibility for the act. Church officials are left to decide whether to hold a funeral for a person who commits suicide.

The priest in question was given a funeral with full honors - so to speak - with a bishop presiding. The implication is that the church has forgiven Father Rooney for his act, and that perhaps God would as well.

Yet certainly no one is praising the late priest. His was clearly a desperate measure of last resort taken by a damaged man. No one encouraged him to kill himself “for the honor of the church” or some such thing. But that is exactly what is happening in Islam:

Yes, the Koran tells Muslims not to "kill or destroy yourselves" (Surah 4:29) – but only when doing so is outside the cause of Allah. Dying for Allah is not viewed as a waste of life.

This rather biased report on the religious justifications for suicide bombing nonetheless makes some hard points:

Consider these verses:
"When ye meet the unbelievers, smite at their necks," Muhammad commands in Surah 47:4. "Those who are slain in the way of Allah – he will never let their deeds be lost."
"Soon will he guide them and improve their condition," he continues in Surah 47:5, "and admit them to the Garden (of Paradise), which he has announced for them."
And look at Surah 4:74: "To him who fighteth in the cause of Allah – whether he is slain or gets victory – soon shall we give him a reward of great (value)."
And Surah 3:157: "If ye are slain, or die, in the way of Allah, forgiveness and mercy from Allah are far better than all they could amass."

All of this is open to interpretation, but the facts are there:

"The only way Muslims can have assurance of salvation and eternal life is by becoming a martyr for the cause of Islam," said Reza F. Safa, author of "Inside Islam."

"To a Muslim," he added, "dying and killing for the cause of Islam is not only an honor, but also a way of pleasing Allah." That explains how a Palestinian grandmother could proudly pose with her beaming teen-age grandson for a final photograph knowing that just hours later he would strap himself with explosives and eviscerate Israeli "infidels" – and himself – in the name of Allah. This adoring old woman was actually celebrating the boy's imminent death, as if he were about to cross the stage at his high-school graduation ceremony. But to her, a death certificate sealed by Allah meant more than any diploma. She said she was happy – overjoyed that her grandson would soon disembowel himself – because she knew he would be instantly transported to a better place.

...The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria, which according to Safa has helped the Palestinians against the Israelis, has this as its slogan:
"The Koran is our constitution, the prophet is our guide; Death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition."

Greater than land or voting rights. Greater than family or love. Above all, death.

This is the most disturbing aspect of the suicide campaign - the glorification of death. No matter what our beliefs regarding the afterlife, we live here and now on earth. We owe it to ourselves and our maker, whoever he or she may be, to give our all to this life.

Suicide is never heroism, never brave, it is always the easiest way to deal with the problems of life. It isn’t taking responsibility: it’s the absence of it, the voluntary abdication of it. We wonder why the Islamic world has fallen so far behind the West on virtually every measurable scale, an underlying cause could well be that the value of life in the here and now isn’t properly valued, isn’t held as sacred.

Life is always hard: there must be an underlying assumption that it is always worth living with all our might, for as long as possible - that the “better place” can, indeed must, wait. We can never be encouraged to hasten our departure or life - all we have for now - will not be credited with its full value. Religious leaders - and in this case Islamic leaders - must unambiguously assert the sacred value of life here on earth or their people will never put out the effort sufficient to achieve their full potentials: physical, moral or otherwise.
posted by Anonymous at 10:45 AM

 
Consultants to Enron and 4-Year-Olds
This quiz has appeared several places including the Car Talk site:

This short quiz from Andersen Consulting will help you understand your thinking style better.
1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference; all the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?
OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly you can surely answer this one.
4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?
Answers:
Question #1: Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.
Question #2: Wrong Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the refrigerator.
Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.
Question #3 Correct Answer: The Elephant. The Elephant is in the refrigerator! This tests your memory.
Question #4: Correct Answer: You swim across. All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting! This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.
According to Andersen Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong. But many preschoolers got several correct answers. Andersen Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of four-year olds.

On the other hand, didn’t Andersen consult Enron?
posted by Anonymous at 10:37 AM

 
Blogatry and InstaPower
I asked yesterday for bloggers to throw some numbers at me indicating the impact of a link/recommendation from InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds: Executive Editor of Blogistan, Grand Traffic Director, The Man With the Hits (he, like George Washington, did not seek the job). Below are the most dramatic.

Professional subversive Jim Treacher relates that the first time InstaPundit linked to his Clip-Art Nonsense, he received over 6,000 hits in a single day - it had averaged 300-400 a day previously. That’s an increase of about 2000%.

John Cole's blog went up in December - 10% of his total traffic came in a single day when Glenn threw him a link. That’s InstaPower.

Regarding yesterday’s oration on blogation: Bob Sassone has some pithy comments on the blog debate:

In the end, it seems what Beam is against, really, is words. Daily writing is hard? These bloggers have nothing to say? What is he talking about? Most bloggers don't even "aspire" (ugh) to journalism, they just write. Besides, unlike Beam, I think most of us can enjoy the books of George Higgins, the New York Times, AND our bookmarked blogs about pop culture, the war, or a leaky fridge. There are good writers and bad writers, regardless of what they are talking about, how many days a week they do it, how much (if anything) they are paid, and what the medium is. I think if Beam had a blog, he wouldn't know what to say, unlike the many fine web writers. But then again, Beam does it a few times a week, in a newspaper "that people actually read," and he doesn't have anything interesting to say there either.

posted by Anonymous at 9:00 AM

 
Elusive Goal of 161-1 Still Within Tribe's Reach
Only 153 left to go!
posted by Anonymous at 8:14 AM

 
Clones Back Ban On All Forms of Bushing

In a speech evoking images of Bush farms, custom-made Bush-lings and desperate women pressured into selling their Bushes, President Clone urged the Senate on Wednesday to outlaw all forms of Bushing.

posted by Anonymous at 8:04 AM

 
Take It OUTSIDE the Family, Please
Both Jerry and William Saletan agree: first cousins shouldn't marry. It's icky, doubles the risk of birth defects, and most importantly, can destroy a family if it doesn't work out. As Saletan says,"There's no such thing as an ex-cousin."
posted by Anonymous at 9:07 PM

 
Fight Like a Brave
Charles Johnson, constantly manipulating oblong olivine sporting goods,
reports that 300 Palestinian fighters surrendered in Jenin today upon hearing the Israelis threaten to “fight like Americans” and “demolish buildings with aerial bombing using F-16's.” Made Charles’s day.
posted by Anonymous at 8:33 PM

 
Cruelty of April Overstated
April may be the cruelest month, but not today. Just got back from a jog around pastoral Sunny Lake Park, sun flickering off the gentle ripples, teen and tot playing together on the spanking new whole-lotta-slides apparatus, spring chasing off winter leaving acres of mud, AND a grand slam by Jim Thome sending the Tribe off to a 7-2 lead through 3. Who could ask for more?
posted by Anonymous at 8:10 PM

 
“But the Light Was Green”
Wondering whether 767’s have “reverse,” this one wandered out into traffic at LAX. “Mechanical error” was blamed. Brother Arne spotted this one.
posted by Anonymous at 6:32 PM

 
Loyal Chuck
The invaluable Jerry presents a conspiracy theory: “Maybe George Steinbrenner hired Kitaen, the way he hired Howard Spira. After all, Finley was known as a Yankee-killer.”

The stalwart Chuck Finley - who won last night taking the Indians to 7-1! - is standing by Tawny even though she looks like Linda Blair in the Exorcist in this photo. Love is blind (not to mention dumb).
posted by Anonymous at 6:02 PM

 
So That’s Where the Royalties Go
Black holes make music: the ancient "music of the spheres" being transformed into the "music of the sphincters," since a black hole, is indeed, a giant cosmic sphincter.

The music of a black hole is generated in the region just outside the black hole proper, where incoming matter is accelerated to near-the-speed-of-light just before being swallowed. The notes and pauses are roughly the same in faraway supermassive black holes, which can weigh more than a billion stars, as they are in comparatively puny stellar black holes, which are typically just a few times as massive as the Sun and are found here in our own galaxy.

Getting Closer
Per Mike at Cursor, who sits perched high upon his aerie surveying all of mankind: The joint Pakistani/U.S. raid that netted al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah on March 28 missed snagging Osama bin Laden by hours, according to a Pakistani paper.

Laden stayed for three days in Faisalabad and was able to slip out of the town barely a few hours before the FBI conducted a surprise raid, Pakistan daily 'The Nation' reported today.

posted by Anonymous at 5:05 PM

 
V.D. and Idi
Uganda will celebrate the deposal of the deranged Idi Amin 23 years ago tomorrow.

The leaders of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Burundi are expected to attend a commemoration of Amin's overthrow on April 11, 1979, at the closure of a three-day symposium on central Africa's Great Lakes region in Kampala.

Amin, a former boxing champion who once expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, ordered the massacre of tens of thousands of people -- with some estimates putting the figure at more than 100,000.

I haven’t thought of Idi much in recent years - we have our own generation of mass-murdering “leaders” - but when I do, I always start humming this little ditty by Reggie Knighton:

VD must have got To Idi Amin
Dah dah, dah dah
Maybe that's why he like to chop
All his people's heads off
He seems to like to do that at the drop of a hat
(Chopping sound) Just like that

Good old Reggie, what ever happened to him? I forgot he had been in the Grass Roots. Christgau sure made short work of him. Christgau: great writer, cranky old fart.
posted by Anonymous at 4:18 PM

 
Still Time For Me
Thanks to Jerry for spotting this story in Slate about the hoariness of our most famous news anchors. Didn’t they use to give the anchors a blanket and point them toward the Sacred Mountains when they reached 65? Hasn’t Walter Cronkite been retired for about 40 years? I know he was 64 when he was forced out. Yet another baby boom issue - they just keep hanging on.

None of our network news anchors—Dan Rather, Jim Lehrer, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and Ted Koppel—is creaky or decrepit, but for all their robustness they are … old, if by old we mean eligible to receive Social Security. Rather is 70, and the others are 67, 64, and 62, respectively.

The famously ancient on-air staff of 60 Minutes ranges in age from 83 (Wallace) down to 60 (Leslie Stahl and Ed Bradley), for an average of 68—or 71, if you count 83-year-old Andy Rooney. ABC News' big star, Barbara Walters, is 70, and CNN's big star, Larry King, is 68. Koppel is 62. And MSNBC, the self-consciously "young" cable news channel, has just hired a glammy new prime-time host: Phil Donahue, 66.

posted by Anonymous at 3:49 PM

 
Sad, Sad, Sad
I have steered clear of the Catholic priest nightmare because 1) it’s too depressing, 2) I’m not Catholic, 3) I haven’t had anything original to add - probably still don’t - but this man was buried locally yesterday and I had to say something.

One of those women came forward last week to say that Rooney sexually abused her shortly after he was ordained and assigned to a parish in Medina County. After hearing from the woman, diocese officials immediately scheduled a meeting with Rooney, 48, but the priest soon disappeared. On Thursday, he shot himself in the head while sitting in a parked car at a drugstore in Hinckley Township.

The Catholic catechism speaks forcefully against suicide but says grave psychological disturbances or fear of suffering can diminish moral responsibility for the act. Church officials are left to decide whether to hold a funeral for a person who commits suicide. Pilla did not mention the abuse allegation during his homily yesterday, nor did he speak of any details about Rooney's life or church service. Rather, he used his talk to bolster the faith of the church during this time of turmoil.

To an outsider, the solution seems obvious, although I’m sure it is also glib: let priests marry. This will certainly not change the predilections of many priests currently serving, but at least it would draw another element into the priesthood.

Neither am I a psychologist, but it appears to me that an abnormally large number of men (yet another issue) take the vows SPECIFICALLY in an attempt to stifle their erotic impulses: impulses which many of them are subsequently unable to contain leading to disaster of one kind or another.
posted by Anonymous at 2:57 PM

 
Defying the Laws of the Universe
This is something you don't see every day: my site meter is going BACKWARDS. Are people un-reading what they had previously read? Are they absconding to an alternative universe sucking their "visits" with them? Undoubtedly, there is sucking of some kind going on. I can only hope the earth starts spinning the right way again before we arrive at LESS THAN ZERO.
posted by Anonymous at 2:13 PM

 
Used or Abused?
As an author, I admit it pretty well frosts my flakes to go to a book of mine's spot on Amazon and find them humping used copies. Per this article in the NY Times:

Authors are rebelling against new efforts by Amazon.com to spur sales of used books, a practice that has become a major source of revenue for Amazon but pays nothing to writers or publishers.

The Authors Guild, a trade group for writers, yesterday sent an e-mail message to its 8,200 members, advising them to stop helping Amazon sell books by linking to it from their own Web sites, citing Amazon's "notorious used-book service."

Jeez, I must have missed the meeting - better take back that Amazon link.

Seriously though, it all sounds like the used record debate that has been raging for decades. If information wants to be free, or deeply discounted with no royalties, it will be, and people will sell used books if people will buy them. I can only hope that a "trickle-down" effect will cause someone who buys a book of mine used to take a chance on something else I write for which I will actually be paid.
posted by Anonymous at 2:01 PM

 
A Final Word From John Scalzi
John and I agree that it's time to talk about something else after he gets a last whack at poor dead Trigger.

You wrote:

"I would say that the term "blog" has already slipped its original bounds and come to mean anything "blog-like." To whit: if you write online on a regular basis, and include links with regularity if not unanimity, then you are a blogger. I also dub thee "online columnist," but to the world at large - which doesn't give a fig about such intradisciplinary niceties - you are a blogger as you walk and quack duck-like."

I appreciate the concession regarding "online columnist," and I would agree that "blog" is gaining currency as a noun and a verb, even when it is being used (to my mind) inaccurately. The real question is whether the word "blog" lasts, or if it just becomes another bit of cultural detritus, like the prefixes "cyber-" and "e-". I can imagine some kid in 2008 rolling his eyes, and saying "You blog? Do you listen to disco, too?" One of the reasons I like "Online columnist" is that will never go out of style, if for no other reason that it never was in style.

"Regarding USENET - I could never figure out how to use that nonsense back then, and still find it cumbersome and elitist. THAT'S the significant difference between Blogger software (and its ilk) and previous venues with similar kinds of interaction: the ease of use on both ends, writer and reader. There is no way in hell I would be putting the kind of time I put into blogging if the physical act of posting wasn't idiot-friendly on every level."

Maybe you simply had the wrong newsreader (may I suggest Forte Agent). The most recent estimate about blogs I've seen is that there's 500,000 of them
out there; I have no doubt as many people populated the USENET in its heyday. Certainly the blogger demographic has the potential to be more diverse than the USENET back in the day; net access is more widespread today than ever, and it is indeed easier than ever to get online and vent (or whatever one would like to do), thanks to Blogger and other HTML-handlers. But ultimately this is difference of degree, not kind.

I would invite you to head over to Google (speaking of things that make the Web easier), fire up their "groups search" function, enter any keyword you want, and scan 15 years worth dialogue on the subject. Not all of these people were tremendously computer savvy (AOL has has had newsgroup access for years, and AOL is intentionally as idiot-friendly as it gets), they just wanted to communicate with others about subject they were passionate about. Just like bloggers. The tools are different but the dynamic is the same (this entire back and forth between the two of us, in fact, reeks of newsgroup-osity).

The MAJOR advantage blogs give over newsgroups and other earlier community and self-publishing attempts is that you don't have to wade through 15,000 spam messages to get to one message worth reading. This is not at all insignificant.
posted by Anonymous at 1:28 PM

 
Zapped
Great Mother of Pearl! I don’t know what freakish kind of atmospheric conditions conditions or alignment of the poles are in effect today, but I can’t shuffle two steps without receiving a massive jolt of static electricity when I touch ANYTHING AT ALL.

I’m getting volt-shy: I won’t touch anything without stuffing my hand down my sleeve and I flinch if anyone comes near me. Curse you Magneto!
posted by Anonymous at 1:07 PM

 
Right Of Return
Reader Bob agrees with Scalzi on the daily return issue, which I have pretty much conceded:

Hi, Eric

Scalzi scores with this observation...

"Yes, actually, I do. I visit USS Clueless, Instapundit and VodkaPundit several times a day, as well as MetaFilter and MediaNews. All of these sites refresh constantly over the course of the day, so I go back frequently. I suspect that many people who also work with a computer and/or have all-day net access do the same thing."

I think that this pretty well describes the core blog audience: news junkies like me who sit on the web all day and do a lot of moving among sites. I can hit Drudge and InstaPundit a dozen times or more each every weekday. But Taranto only once, since he gives it to you in one big bite with no updates.

So maybe the key to counting readers on a frequently updated site is to look at the thing they are likely do only once in a day, ie, click on a particular link. If you get, say, 2 thousand hits above normal on a day when Reynolds links to your site, then multiply that 2 and say Reynolds audience that day was 4000 readers more or less. Which jibes pretty well with a 40,000 daily hit count. Rough, I know, but probably closer to reality than other estimations I've seen. 4000 readers of whom 3900 are conservative males. Looks to me like all choir and no congregation.

Scalzi misses the mark on the Usenet comparison, though. Usenet is about give and take, and good moderator keeps himself scarce. Not much of that in blogistan.
Regards,
Bob
Marietta, Ga

posted by Anonymous at 12:41 PM

 
Bloggers Check In
Chris writes:
Eric,
I think Scalzi's off on his last point:

"Blogs are essentially personalized, Web-formatted versions of moderated newsgroups, up to and including response threads. The same interactivity you see in blogs is what I saw back in '94 and '95 in newsgroups like alt.society.gen-x and misc.writing. Blogs are surely the latest iteration of instant communication and interaction, but they are by no means sui generis."

Yes, blogs are similar to newsgroups, but the fact that they are personalized sets them apart right off the bat. When you go to a newsgroup, you have to deal with flamers, incoherent postings, and idiots (OK that's a judgement.) But as Steven Den Beste pointed out recently, Instapundit is an editor and we go to his site because we like his taste and his judgement. When we go, we know that most likely we'll be interested in what he's linking to and what he has to say - there's a consistency of quality there not present in newsgroups. Also, I'd bet the viewership of blogs, and the consistency of the viewership is much higher than newsgroups ever were. Unless there was a particularly interesting discussion, I used to check newsgroups maybe once a week, if that often.
Chris Kerstiens
Austin,Texas
posted by Anonymous at 12:22 PM

 
Even More On Blogging
Check out Jeff Jarvis regarding the future of blogging.

Glenn Reynolds has a vision of the future of news that I've been playing with for sometime (and I know a few other very smart people who are playing with variations on the same theme... and you know who you are): Blogs as a new generation of online national newspapers.

Essential to this vision is the assumption that news is becoming a commodity. News is not a commodity when you get real reporters doing real reporting and uncovering real news; witness the Pulitizers this season and how the big boys with the big resources managed to tackle the 9.11 story and truly inform us.....

posted by Anonymous at 12:13 PM

 
Post and Riposte
I reply to John Scalzi's reply to my reply to his commentary on my post.

John wrote:

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I believe one of the fundamental hallmarks of true "blogging" is that the blog is essentially a conduit to other places or other writing -- the blogger adds his or her own commentary to the article linked, but that commentary largely does not stand alone -- i.e., a blog is all about context.

Of course the question of “blog” or “not blog” is one of semantics, not that semantics is a trivial matter. I would say that the term “blog” has already slipped its original bounds and come to mean anything “blog-like.” To whit: if you write online on a regular basis, and include links with regularity if not unanimity, then you are a blogger. I also dub thee “online columnist,” but to the world at large - which doesn’t give a fig about such intradisciplinary niceties - you are a blogger as you walk and quack duck-like.

I wouldn’t call someone like Tony Pierce, who largely writes about his own exploits (or those of a libidinous, wondrous alter ego) - and for whom links are secondary to the three-way relationship between self, projected self, and observer/reader - any less of a blogger for it. His context is himself: blog on brother.

I sometimes write about personal experiences with relatively few links - sometimes the links are a form of commentary upon the statement at hand, and may mitigate or intensify the statement as the case may be (I’ve noticed Ken Layne often uses links this way as well) - but this doesn’t mean those posts aren’t blogs. In fact, the flexibility to careen between link-based commentary, life-based essay/stories, random musings, published professional pieces, and verbal excreta is exactly what blogging means to me. A blogger may also be someone who simply uses Blogger-like software: again with the walking and quacking.

Regarding daily site visitation - I somewhat misspoke myself (where is that damn editor?). There are sites I visit every, or nearly every day, but there are many I visit less often: not because they are less worthy, but there are only so many hours in the day and sometimes I have to, you know, work. I’m sure you are correct that the most visited sites would tend to be the ones that get the most multiple-daily visits, but it is my hunch that the most voracious repeaters are still canceled out by the less-than-daily visitors. I will generally concede your point, however.

Regarding USENET - I could never figure out how to use that nonsense back then, and still find it cumbersome and elitist. THAT’S the significant difference between Blogger software (and its ilk) and previous venues with similar kinds of interaction: the ease of use on both ends, writer and reader. There is no way in hell I would be putting the kind of time I put into blogging if the physical act of posting wasn’t idiot-friendly on every level.

Back in the mid-’90s people used to talk to me about “USENET”-this, “list serve”-that, and “HTML”- so and so; I would just stare glassy-eyed, wipe drool from the corner of my mouth, and clean my fingernails: not worth the learning curve stress and strain. Our hamster can blog, and so can I. This is why a major factor in the recent exponential growth in blogging is related to 9/11 and its aftermath: people who care about politics, and culture, and blowing things up like Glenn and Andrew, rather than the previous blog generation that mostly came from the digerati community, such as Doc Searls and Dave Winer. You don’t have to know HTML from Esperanto to blog, which is why thousands of people who would be otherwise intimidated by the technical aspects of computing are blogging like MoFo’s. This, I believe, is sui generis.
Best Wishes, Eric Olsen
posted by Anonymous at 11:57 AM

 
Peepers

Lying in bed, late in the evening, and all I can hear is peepers singing. Spooky.


posted by tofu at 11:04 AM

 
Take That! I Say
John Scalzi writes back - I am contemplating my response.

You wrote:

>But you have blog, and therefore you are a blogger. This doesn't preclude you from being other things: but if you blog, you are a blogger.

Well, no. Merely linking to an article and discussing does not constitute a blog, nor does writing online, otherwise, one could say ALL writing online is a blog, which it is not. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I believe one of the fundamental hallmarks of true "blogging" is that the blog is essentially a conduit to other places or other writing -- the blogger adds his or her own commentary to the article linked, but that commentary largely does not stand alone -- i.e., a blog is all about context. What I and a number of others do does not typically rely on linking -- by and large you can read most things on my site without the need to link out for the full picture. Believe me, I understand the desire to associate what I do with a particular online writing form -- a couple years back, most online journalers demanded I recognize that what I do is an online journal, and I passed off that description as well. If you ask me what I do, I say I write an online column.

>Regarding numbers: consider that InstaPundit and Sullivan's 40,000+ per day ARE NOT the same people every day. I'm a hardened blogger, but I don't go to the same sites every day, do you?

Yes, actually, I do. I visit USS Clueless, Instapundit and VodkaPundit several times a day, as well as MetaFilter and MediaNews. All of these sites refresh constantly over the course of the day, so I go back frequently. I suspect that many people who also work with a computer and/or have all-day net access do the same thing.

>I believe the number of people these figures represent may even be larger than the daily totals. It is my guess that those who visit a site more than once per day are counterbalanced by those who don't visit every day. I think the 40,000+ numbers represent a like number of individual bodies.

I disagree; I think the number represent a committed core who check in several times daily, a number of less frequent visitors who visit daily, and then some occasional viewer. Those in the committed core will visit several times daily, which inflates the numbers. It may be possible that the lower orders of bloggers (relating to visits, not mental abilities) have traffic patterns as you describe, but I would propose that the more well-known a blog gets, the more frequently people check in, because they like the blogger and want to know what he/she has to say next.

>These people are interacting with their information providers in a way that has not been possible in close to real time before. Thus far the evidence is largely anecdotal and subjective, but I have been writing professionally for over 20 years (and have had my own web site since '96) and I've never seen, nor felt anything like it.

You must have missed the USENET, then. Blogs are essentially personalized, Web-formatted versions of moderated newsgroups, up to and including response threads. The same interactivity you see in blogs is what I saw back in '94 and '95 in newsgroups like alt.society.gen-x and misc.writing. Blogs are surely the latest iteration of instant communication and interaction, but they are by no means sui generis.

Be sure to post these responses as well.

All best,
John Scalzi

posted by Anonymous at 10:49 AM

 
Open Call to Bloggers
Consider this an open call to all bloggers: with all of the fuss over visitor count, I am very curious as to the status of your count when you have been linked by the magnanimous Glenn Reynolds. Although I have not yet been linked by Andrew Sullivan (information and ideas, yes; link, no), I find a link from Glenn swamps all other determinants regarding my count.

We have been up since February and have made steady progress from daily dozens into the three-digit range, but a link from Glenn guarantees a four-digit day in and of itself; and also, depending upon the general appeal of the story, may also create a ripple effect of links that causes my site counter to toss a gonad in excitement and dismay. I will post your replies. Thanks.
posted by Anonymous at 10:33 AM

 
Zeiting the Geist
Regarding blogs, trustworthiness, and the benighted Old Media, see InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds’ excellent new piece at Tech Central Station.

And for more on the blog visitor-count controversy, see Jeff Jarvis here, Rebecca Blood and Glenn (he is ubiquitous) here. See Rebecca's thoughts on the history of blogging here.
posted by Anonymous at 10:11 AM

 
Letter From John Scalzi Regarding "Of Hits and Influence"

You write:

"blogger (not more self-loathing) John Scalzi"

It's incorrect to describe me as a blogger, since I've been writing online on my site in one form or another since 1994 -- i.e., long before anyone thought to label such things a 'blog. In short, I'm too old-school for that blog thing. Therefore, it's not a matter of self-loathing, or even of loathing, since I like blogs just fine. I merely think their influence is often overstated by those who blog. Which brings me to this:

"The actual numbers are much less important than the fact that they are indisputably growing very quickly, and are the single most important block of media consumers extant."

Well, no. Norah Vincent (whose LA Times piece was the impetus for the piece) specifically used numbers a metric for their influence, so apparently numbers do matter. They are growing, but since the numbers are low, again, it's not difficult to register impressive growth that far down the growth tree. Finally, there's little empirical evidence at that bloggers are the "most important block of media consumers extant." At this point they are merely one of the most talkative. As I mention near the end of the article you link to, this sort of phenomenon has happened before on the Web in the form of the personal journal: Same media write-ups, same quasi-celebrities, same prognostications of influence. While I certainly don't think it would be all bad if bloggers improved upon this record, I
think any intellectually honest blogger also has to consider the possibility the blogs are just the traditional media's latest flavor of the week.
Best,
John Scalzi

I replied:

John, Thanks for taking the time to write. Regarding your points (see this, wherein I give you credit for pointing out that the best bloggers are all "real writers"), I appreciate the fact that you have been writing Online since the Neolithic and therefore predate blogdom, but you have blog, and therefore you are a blogger. This doesn't preclude you from being other things: but if you blog, you are a blogger.

Next, with caveats mentioned by all re "visits," "page views" and the like, the numbers are what they are. I don't much care if the same person comes back more than once, that means he/she is so engaged as to be making the effort "X" number of times. The fact that your estimable number of readers are likely discrete due to the fact that you post once a day, isn't really different from the same person coming back repeatedly to gather more information. It takes the same effort each time and reflects a separate, discrete desire for information. People coming back is a good, not a bad, or even misleading happenstance.

I also appreciate the fact that your long history with the Internet leads you to view the "blog explosion" with a rather more jaundiced eye - but I do think this is different. Though I often differ with Andrew Sullivan, I believe his "Bloggers manifesto" essay is right on in its (somewhat self-serving) analysis of the situation. The combination of information, opinion and personality have never had a forum such as this.

Regarding numbers: consider that InstaPundit and Sullivan's 40,000+ per day ARE NOT the same people every day. I'm a hardened blogger, but I don't go to the same sites every day, do you? I believe the number of people these figures represent may even be larger than the daily totals. It is my guess that those who visit a site more than once per day are counterbalanced by those who don't visit every day. I think the 40,000+ numbers represent a like number of individual bodies. This is not insignificant, and when combined with the volume of correspondence that Sullivan, Reynolds, and the like receive each day, represents a true new species of passionate, engaged citizen, hungry for information AND the exchange of ideas.

These people are interacting with their information providers in a way that has not been possible in close to real time before. Thus far the evidence is largely anecdotal and subjective, but I have been writing professionally for over 20 years (and have had my own web site since '96) and I've never seen, nor felt anything like it. I respect your opinion, but must conclude that this is something new, different, and here to stay as both writers and readers (the intersection between the two is large, incidentally) will refuse to give up the immediacy and interactivity.
Best Wishes,
Eric Olsen

posted by Anonymous at 9:51 AM

 
Tour O the Blogs - Matt Welch
Laurel and Hardy, Sacco and Vanzetti, Gilbert and Sullivan, Romulus and Remus, Ben and Jerry, Welch and Layne - not necessarily in that order - are some of the most famous pairs in history, but only one pair are world-famous bloggers. We’ve already talked about Layne (Tour O the Blogs is alphabetical by shoe size) - it is high time we met Welch.

In John Scalzi’s impugnation of blogdom, he did make one point that hit home: all of the best bloggers are actual WRITERS - that is, people who have or do make a living from writing. Well, that makes sense since blogging IS writing, and even people with really great ideas are at the mercy of their ability to convey them in print. But even among the REAL writers a few stand out, and among a munchkin’s handful of the very finest writers in blogland is Matt Welch. If blogger/columnist James Lileks ever starts his own paper, he wants Welch to be his “roving-reporter.” Andrew Sullivan has declared, rather enthusiastically, that “Matt Welch kicks ass.”

When I was first showing my wife some of my favorite blogs, we quickly lit upon Matt’s site. “I didn’t know Ben Affleck had a blog,” she said innocently, looking at the picture in the upper left corner of MattWelch.com. “No, no - that’s Matt,” I said in a calming tone. “Well, tell him he looks like Ben Affleck,” she replied, and now I have.

They say experience makes writers and Welch, 33, has had a shitload of that. Per his online bio:

Before 1998 I lived for eight years in Central Europe, where I co-founded the region's first post-communist English-language newspaper, worked as UPI's Slovak correspondent, and managed a Business Journal in Budapest. My Prague newspaper, Prognosis, was profiled and praised by dozens of newspapers around the globe, including the Wall Street Journal, Editor & Publisher and International Herald Tribune.

In greater - if random - detail of that era:

Managing Editor, (10/95-7/97): Budapest Business Journal Ran newsroom of best English-language business weekly in the region. Edited all copy, wrote most headlines, managed newsroom of 10.
---------------
Founder, Owner and Editor, Prognosis Prague
November 1990 -- March 1995
Launched the first independent English-language newspaper in the former East Bloc. In star-crossed, four-year run, the paper won raves for its fearless writing, gripping coverage of the Yugoslav wars, devastating photographs ... and for being in the right place at the right time. Sat on the board of directors until the company's demise, and served in several positions, including: Eastern Europe Editor, Gossip Columnist (8/94-1/95) Managing Editor (11/93-8/94) Bratislava Bureau Chief (11/92-11/93) Staff Writer (11/91-11/92) Culture Editor (11/90-7/91)

(excerpt from an article written for Details about Matt in ‘92:

"Matt and I are on our way to Ivana Trump's ball at Prague's opera house. Our tickets say 'black tie or tails,' so Matt has washed his shoulder-length blond hair, shaved, and put in a conservative earring. He's wearing a rented set of tails with sleeves that reach his thumbnails and a pair of white wing-tips shoes that belong on a putting green. I've spent all day acquiring the last rentable pieces of clothing in Prague that look like a tux: a blue suit that is tight in the crotch, along with a black vest and six-by-three-inch tie, circa '73.

"Matt Welch, twenty-four, is covering Ivana's ball for prognosis, an English-language newspaper he helped start a year earlier in Prague. There have been rumors of an anarchist 'action' planned for the evening.)

The foreign affairs continue:

-----------------

Correspondent, United Press International
Bratislava, Slovakia
November 1992 -- January 1994
Covered the breakup of Czechoslovakia and the first year of Slovak statehood. Wrote series on the Slovak media, profiles of Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar and President Michal Kovac, and analyses of NATO expansion.

In a Yellow Pages of important publications, Welch also writes or has written for Reason (including the brilliant "The Politics of Dead Children"), ESPN.com, Los Angeles Daily News, Online Journalism Review, Wired News, Salon, NewsForChange.com (including covering the 2000 Nader presidential campaign), Ken Layne’s Tabloid.net, and The Yo-Mama Times (I made that one up). In June 2000, he was named (along with Layne, but of course) one of the Net's Hottest Columnists.

Proving that he can speak as well as write, Welch “had a three-month stint as commentator for the Australian Broadcast Corporation in 2001” (with yet another blogger, Tim Blair), and does “frequent guest spots on ‘Deadline L.A.,’ KPFK 90.7 Los Angeles,” which he is also scheduled to guest-host starting this month.

And just to pile on the polymathic versatility, Matt has also dabbled in the demimonde of ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. His accomplishments:

Backing vocals, Tsar (Hollywood Records, 2000)
Backing vocals, The Ballad of Bobby McStone by Gregory Vaine (McIlvanity Records, 1998)
Songs, (with Michael Lindsay and Daniel Langenkamp), lead and backing vocals, guitars, percussion, accordion
"The Golden Penetrators" (Small World Records, 1997) Songs (with Jeff Whalen), lead and backing vocals, guitars,
"Meet Van Diamond" by Van Diamond (Jett Records, 1995) Songs, lead vocals, rhthym guitar,
"Slip Disco" by Matt Welch and the Froggy Peat (Big Dwarf Records, 1994)

Besides writing the blog, Welch’s primary consumption is the L.A. Examiner, which he co-founded and runs with Ken Layne. The LAEx, launched in April 2001, is described well in an L.A. New Times feature (New Times also gave LAEx the “Best New Web Site Covering Local Media” award for ‘91, a category which would seem to have limited competition, but an award is an award, buddy) :

LAExaminer.com is intended to evoke the memory of the departed L.A. Herald Examiner, the scrappy daily that closed in 1989, leaving the second-largest city in America a one-newspaper town (the Valley's Daily News notwithstanding). Irreverent and clever, LAExaminer.com's daily blurbs about the city's news and news gatherers is catching on with the city's writers and thinkers. "I think it's a great site. I find myself every morning, like a lot of people, checking their log," says Catherine Seipp, a media critic who contributes to American Journalism Review and writes a weekly column for UPI.

...as Seipp points out, what makes this "blogger" stand out from the rest is its creators: two real reporters posting more than simply daily musings. "After September 11 a lot of people have started logs as hobbies," she says. "But these guys are real journalists. They're very smart."

...Welch says his initial plan was simply to provide scribes and others who care about local media links to the area's many news organizations. But Web log software -- which makes it easy to compose and post daily updates to a Web site -- encouraged the founders to make it something more.

...Layne and Welch say they're just counting the days until their own wealthy industrialist with an itch to take on the L.A. Times comes calling. Welch wants to create a magazine similar to The New Yorker but with an L.A. focus. Layne thinks there's a market for such a publication in a town that too often looks eastward for its news and opinions.

In the meantime, Welch will continue to write about

events connected to Sept. 11, media, politics, international affairs, baseball (particularly Cuban baseball), L.A. and California history and current events, economics, Internet-related business and music.

Okay, okay, let’s look at some actual writing. Welch won 1st AND 2nd place from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club for Online Story or Column for 2000. 1st place went to the now-famous "Time In the DEN of Iniquity: A report on six weird weeks spent at the infamously mismanaged Digital Entertainment Network,” which begins:

This column is being written on the theory that Non-Disclosure Agreements can be ignored once the involved company declares its intention to file for bankruptcy and its founder is busy fending off sexual harassment lawsuits from teenage boys.

For six bizarre and lucrative weeks last year I was a consultant for the Digital Entertainment Network (DEN), which during my tenure exemplified and embraced every possible New Economy buzzword then fashionable -- it was a "broadband" company right as high-speed Internet access was supposed to take off, it was aimed at "Generation Y" (15-24 year-olds) just as that huge demographic's buying power was beginning to attract notice, and it was a cutting-edge "convergence" company blending dot-com trendiness with Hollywood pizzazz.

Zounds. Of course, it was a total disaster.

The first indication that I didn't exactly belong came even before I set foot in the office. I arrived 20 minutes early for my job interview, so I parked and took a couple of laps around the block to kill time. When I returned, a half-dozen unnervingly confident and well-dressed twentysomethings were gathered around my 1988 K car, pointing and talking as if regarding an alien spacecraft. I glanced around the parking lot for the first time, and realized why: not a single car besides mine dated back later than 1998, convertibles outnumbered SUVs, and easily half the vehicles had sticker prices higher than $50,000.

Welch descends the circles of hell, before concluding,

I'm guessing we will look back at DEN 10 years from now as a symbol of an era that will then seem unreal -- when any old teevee idiot could spout New Media cliches at least five years out of date, put together a staff of sycophants and plotters, and be rewarded by investors with $65 million to waste on 12 months of Webcasting, all because people back then placed monster bets on business buzzwords rather than on the people or products pretending to operate by them.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see what Rome must have looked like as it burned.

Welch has evolved into a post-9/11 hawk neo-liberal, a position he defends with grace and vigor daily on his War Blog, but my favorite recent blog of his is this, "Opening Day."

I remember vividly going to an Angels game with my Dad about 11 years ago, in April 1991. I was visiting from Prague to watch a friend get married, and the Gulf War had just ended. It was the only baseball game of the thousands I’ve either attended, played in or coached when I didn’t feel comfortable being there. Looking back, I’m sure I was exaggerating. It was the first time I’d experienced the ’s shock of re-entry, and I probably interpreted some dirty Orange County looks at my hippy-hair and various earrings much more personally than was warranted.

...At the time, I was ambivalent about the Gulf War, but I was certain that the Saddam-as-Hitler frenzy whipped up on the homefront was cynical, totally ignoring the U.S.’ previous support for the Iraqi dictator (not to mention April Glaspie’s vague diplomacy), and was symptomatic of Americans’ shallow grasp on foreign policy. As such, the display of patriotic war-whooping made me feel as alienated as I’ve ever remembered – uncomfortable at a baseball game? Would I ever feel like a normal American again?

...Still, I think another important difference that doesn’t get enough play these days is that the country’s response is significantly less xenophobic and scary, somehow. Some smart person should conduct a study of the reactions to the Iran-hostage crisis, the Gulf War, and Sept. 11, and I would bet anyone that the number or rate of crazy-racist incidents is by far less this time around, when a bunch of freakin’ A-rabs actually did try to blow us all up. What I see, instead of blanket condemnations of nationality or religion, is rather specific critiques of individual countries, their leaders, their venal press.

Matt thinks there is something different in the air now than there was when he went to an April Angels game 11 years ago. He thinks we are a better, more nuanced people now. He may well be right, but more importantly, he THINKS and also feels. Deep thinker and baseball fan - my kind of guy. Classic blog.
posted by Anonymous at 8:17 PM

 
Bong, Your Honor?
This per the eagle eye of Mike over at Cursor. The NY Times reports

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation said yesterday that it was beginning a $500,000 advertising campaign featuring Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg paired with a remark he made praising marijuana to a magazine reporter last year before he announced he was running for mayor.

...The ads will feature the mayor responding to the question of whether he had ever tried marijuana by saying: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." The quotation comes from an interview the mayor gave to New York magazine last year.

This may be hilarious (and it is), but there is also a serious side to it: the mayor of the nation’s largest city is an admitted dope-smoker and as such the hard-line “just-say-no,” neo-Reefer Madness, all-drugs-are-bad-drugs mania of the “War On Drugs” is just about done. Marijuana isn’t cocaine, or LSD, or heroin, or methamphetamine, or even Ecstasy. It’s just pot, and for adults, about the worst that’s going to happen is that you will fall asleep. Decriminalize for personal use now (Right on Homer!).
posted by Anonymous at 2:38 PM