Disqus - Latest Comments for Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr

Re: Monday Links: September 29th, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:28:53 -0000

http://www.youtube.com/v/73aiAL1OgUQ

I need less Dr. Seuss, actually ... who thought that Republicans could retcon and destroy our childhoods?

Re: Monday Links: September 22nd, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:21:22 -0000

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/sto...

For your Monday Links. I don't even comprehend this.

Re: Monday Links: September 22nd, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:46:25 -0000

The economy sucks. Babar revisionists suck. Davidson 2.0 sucks. LeBron sucks. New facebook's detractors suck. Microsoft sucks. I know you guys love change, but do you really have to balance it out with scorn for the adamantine? I feel like I need two Zolofts and a Red Bull now. ;-)

Re: Negative Campaigning During the Olympics

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:04:31 -0000

Obama/Biden = Even classier.

Re: “The Death of Mystery” in the Age of the Blackberry

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:18:40 -0000

I hate it. facebook makes my encyclopedic knowledge of birthdays seem passé. Trivial abilities, like being able to name every Senator, are only impressive on "Jeopardy!." The movie thing Rachel mentioned used to be a big part of my family's cinema post-game, and we had one of those big Hollywood books that answered every question. M.H.'s point about the Internet changing how we think is absolutely true ... reminds me of this:

Can it be true? Do all Simpsons go through a process of
dumbening? Wait, that's not how you spell dumbening... waaait, dumbening
isn't even a word! - Lisa

I can only imagine what the era of Total Recall is doing in High School. Who needs to know all the countries in Africa when the information is at your fingertips?

When it comes to international relations, I think Americans could miss out as one of the (mostly) untouched provinces of intellectualism - foreign language - takes on even more importance as a social handshake protocol. You can Wikipedia a reference to "The Prince" or figure out why John McCain cares about Europe's Georgia more than America's Georgia using a Smartphone, but it can't tell you how to speak Spanish.

We live in the age of the poseur, where everyone can be cool and effectively "retcon" their knowledge and experiences while they go outside for a smoke. Will the salon or coffeehouse of the future ask the intellectuals to use a BlackBerry check room? Obviously, I'm presenting the most pessimistic possibilities, but I don't think I'm too far out of the ballpark. Since I first joined the CrackBerryCult in 2005, I've used it to become an "instant expert" a few more times than I'd like to admit. Frankly, it's too much like cheating to me ... cheating at life. Thank God I kept it off in class ...

Re: 10,000 Visitors

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:58:25 -0000

NEED MORE STATS!

Re: Journeys With Jrod — Part III: Googlin’

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:56:32 -0000

J-Rod, envy is the green-eyed monster that would kick you in the tuchus for being a tsucheppenish if you weren't so far away. Hopefully you can make "the Google" do everything John McCain thinks it does.

Re: Transparent and Responsive Governance

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:47:45 -0000

@Taylor ... cross-post on BlueNC? I think it would be a great diary to share.

Re: Transparent and Responsive Governance

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:41:17 -0000

Below are the opinions and ramblings of a politico, laden with opinion ...

I got 57/60 on the horribly biased, Reagan-worshiping test that Ashish provided (at Davidson, that would have been a B-). But I digress. I don't think that test is a general knowledge test by any means - and this is coming from a guy whose job it is to know almost every candidate's position on almost every issue.

@Ashish I'm surprised that you didn't check in with "The American Voter," the landmark dis to the American Electorate. It's even more of a smackdown than John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?". Now, V.O. Key and many other political scientists responded. Key came back and in his own book says "Voters are not fools." IMHO, the jury is still out, at least based on the 30,000 or so doors I've knocked on in my political lifetime ... anyway, the WaPo had a great article recently about the follow-up to "The American Voter" which reinforces some of your points while providing a silver lining for Pat and others:

But wait, says Amy Gershkoff, who wrote her Princeton dissertation on issues and voting behavior and now advises left-of-center campaigns on how to target voters. She's got her own sports metaphor. Just as Beltway junkies know far more about policy issues than the average voter, baseball junkies know far more statistics than she does. But she still loves to watch the Yankees.

"Even though I can't rattle off the batting averages of every person on the team and every person on every other team doesn't mean that I can't derive pleasure from the game," she says.

In other words, Gershkoff says, she knows enough. Many Americans vote primarily because of one or two or three issues, she says. They might care a whole lot about health care or prayer in schools and not at all about foreign policy, and maybe that leaves them sounding dumb when they're asked about Iraq. But they know enough about the issues they care about, and that's what they vote on.

Now, does the intellectual prowess of the electorate even matter? I think this is the real question. Already, the most important members of our government are decided by the elite. In this first example, the elite are simply the minority of Americans who can and do vote. In the era of Texas Redistricting and other bipartisan decisions to disenfranchise voters, this elite group's participation in party primaries decides the majority of elections in our nation. Usually, that's 10-20% of the 40-50% that are registered in one party out of the 70% of people that are registered voters ... or 3-7% of Americans. In many races 3-7% of the voters are the "deciders."

On a home-town note, only 24% of the 66% of the Charlotteans that are registered to vote voted for Mayor in 2007. In a way, they decided whether or not Pat McCrory would be able to run for Governor (a loss would have hurt his chances greatly). He won in large part because Democrats didn't come out to vote ... and because the Chamber of Commerce targeted moderate, educated voters for the Bonds/Transit campaign instead of the traditional Democratic base. Don't believe that was a coincidence.

It gets even worse down the ballot. The state houses members that make our laws, the judges that interpret our laws, the school board members and county commissioners that touch our daily lives, the district court judges that are the thin black line between us getting a small fine for "improper equipment" and having our license revoked for going 80 in a School Zone ... they have to depend on Direct Mail and other voter contact methods to get their message out, and their ability to do direct mail and contact voters depends in large part on their ability to please prospective donors in real estate & development, finance, law, and other elite groups. This is the second group of "elite."

Like the tobacco companies that run anti-smoking ads, candidates are the ones who educate the most voters, and this education is funded by the elite and the special interest PACs. Don't kid yourself - even if it's just a few TV ads or a few mail pieces - candidates, parties, and 527s educate the voters, even if they don't know more than one right enumerated by the First Amendement.

And the media this year is killing me. The presidential race is "tied" when Obama is 100 EVs ahead in electoral college projections? Isn't there a sliver of a chance that reporting from the Wolfgang Blitzkrieg and Gracy Jane types is motivated by profit margins? A blowout isn't good TV.

@Taylor I agree with the OP. As quixotic as it is, the only solution to our problems is more education and more participation. Otherwise, the elite are the puppets of our political process ... and the only difference between the candidates and the electorate is that the candidates can see the strings.

Re: Monday Links: July 28th, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:45:21 -0000

Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of NASA. As the dark time for our country seems to brighten a little bit, I can't think of anything more inspiring than what we've done in space.

Re: On Prizes and Progress

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:09:53 -0000

To piggyback on Taylor, didn't McCain's original release also fail to acknowledge all of the current work in the battery realm? The batteries we have right now are pretty amazing ... and they'd be much less expensive with economies of scale.

The partisan in me wants to think that this is another way to tell the American public that the electric car is some sort of far-away dream when they could be mass-produced by 2009 if misinformation about their abilities didn't deflate potential demand. Tesla will have a $50,000 sedan by 2010, and if rising gas prices fuel demand that price will go down. What does a prize really do aside from deny the progress we've already made?

Re: Stop-Motion is the New Hotness (Everything Old is New Again)

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:02:53 -0000

That's cool ... but the future is lasers. Lasers that collect data and spit it back out at whatever angle at your command. I think Google and Radiohead are showing us the first step toward the holodeck.

Re: Back on the Conference Circuit

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:44:47 -0000

It feels like I'm the only person not going to this, and it's driving me nuts. Have fun!

Re: Monday Links: July 14th, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:38:28 -0000

Google serves the Luther? a.k.a. the greatest epicurean achievement of American culture? Amazing.

Re: Questioning Things: Vol. IX

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 05:13:48 -0000

A couple of questions: which question is the most likely to divide us? As in, what question is most likely to separate us into different groups or two nearly equal halves of a dichotomy with the most passionate disagreement possible? Which question is most likely to unite us, to tell us all in spite of our fear that our answer is different, that we are passionately the same?

A values-related question (Death Penalty/Euthanasia/Abortion/LGBT) Rights is the most obvious candidate that comes to mind for the former. Or the "Who is your favorite Beatle?" question. But I'm struggling on the latter. Is there a question that unites us passionately? Is there a place where a globally conscious humanity has come to the same conclusion?

Here's to hoping that volume 10 is gonna be a bang!

Re: There Is Comfort In The Sound

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:52:52 -0000

One of my roomies in College had a white noise machine. I've never leaned one way or another. But now that I'm living right next to a heavily-traveled CSX freight route, I get train noise all night free of charge. 2 trains in the past hour.

Re: Monday Links: July 7th, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:45:15 -0000

In honor of your recent Hit Counter WIN ... Congrats on being over 9000!

Re: Changing The Way We Think About Change

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:47:13 -0000

The human mind has the power to make anything real or true. Being mortal makes the impossible not so, while immortality or omnipotence would logically give one too firm a grasp on reality. Often, it's in our best interest to use this incredible power.

Re: Two Videos You Need To Watch

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:50:14 -0000

Hmm ... the video didn't embed:

http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/vide...

Re: Two Videos You Need To Watch

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:38:32 -0000

How things change, Cookie Monster switches to fruit, now American kids have as well ...

Re: Monday Links: June 30th, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:45:28 -0000

We actually already have something set up by the Beer & Wine Wholesalers of NC. We don't, however, have the microbrew angle.

Re: Monday Links: June 30th, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:49:55 -0000

Major dittos on Wall*E. Best movie of the year (so far).

Also, I'm heartbroken that I can't go to the convention. Especially with the Beer Tent.

Re: Monday Links: June 16th, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:42:31 -0000

You know, I was hoping J-Rod could be the type of blogger (or, today, birthday boy) who could say, "No, I don't need to take the LSAT. We need fewer laws for people like me to study."

I guess we're just bad at getting out our dreams, Ashish.

Re: Monday Links: June 9th, 2008

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:32:54 -0000

Early jump on Monday Links:

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/686259/Th...

Though the story of Megan Meier is old news, the federal court case is not. I've been interested in this story since I spend half of my vacations in the O'Fallon area, where my aunt lives. It's your typical slice of suburban America. And it may change our privacy laws forever.

Re: Pay As You Drive

Stevens_Dr_and_Diplomat_Dr — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:25:59 -0000

Obviously, there's may be thresholds here and there at which, statistically, people who drive large amounts are more likely to be in an accident. However, is it possible that people who drive more are going to be better drivers and less accident prone? I drive all the time and have never had more than a small bump with no damage.