Bill Gates Looks For A New Job

As the 2008 CES gets underway, Microsoft's Bill Gates lets us peek at what he'd like to do since he is stepping down from his company.

I liked the part where he called Barack Obama and said "Hi, it's Bill!"

"Shatner?" said Obama.

Gizmdo has the video from Gate's keynote address.

It's Your Right To Vote - Or Is It?

Do you, as an American citizen, have a Constitutional Right to vote?

The answer may depend on how the U.S. Constitution is interpreted (some say) or if you give a state constitution more authority. The majority of state constitutions do explicitly state that citizens have a right to vote, which is the case in Tennessee, where the state's constitution says in Article IV, Section 1:

"Every person, being eighteen years of age, being a citizen of the United States, being a resident of the state for a period of time as prescribed by the General Assembly, and being duly registered in the county of residence for a period of time prior to the day of any election as prescribed by the General Assembly, shall be entitled to vote in all federal, state, and local elections held in the county or district in which such person resides. All such requirements shall be equal and uniform across the state, and there shall be no other qualification attached to the right of suffrage."

In his opinion on the Gore v. Bush case in the 2000 election, Justice Anthony Scalia made reference to voting rights and the electoral college:

" ... the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States ..."

And so much argument has been offered from his view, but linking how the electoral college works to the individuals right to vote is more than stretching for comparisons, as I see it. Still, the argument is made that American citizens don't have a right to vote (see the comments from Nashville's MCB, where the consensus is .... mixed, or at best confused), and that the current voter ID system must be changed.

If the right to vote is not explicitly stated, is it implicit, since we have several amendments declaring a voter cannot be discriminated (or eliminated) due to race, sex or age?

That issue is sure to be a topic in the presentation of a case before the Supreme Court this week challenging the very strict Voter ID Law adopted in Indiana. Also key to the presentation is that no evidence has yet been provided in the case to show that the Indiana Law would/could/does prevent voter fraud.

An excellent overview of the case was presented by American Constitutional Society last week in a panel forum which you can access right here.

There is a push in some states to adopt a federal constitutional amendment explicitly stating a right to vote.

Seems to me there are many inherent problems in deciding to make voting regulations/rights a federal and not a state issue. And I wonder too if much of the debate over IDs and rights to vote have a larger agenda in mind. All the studies I've seen make it clear that voting fraud is almost always a problem with absentee ballots and seldom at a polling location, as each state has specific laws already in place regarding IDs to be presented before casting a ballot.

The outcome of the Supreme Court case may not be offered until late fall of this year - just prior to the presidential election day. Again, odd timing in my mind.

The problem isn't voter fraud in the US, it's voter participation. And who benefits in a conflicting debate on whether or not we have a right to vote? Are hopes that a confused voter will be a non-voter in evidence here?

See Also:
TennViews
The Crone Speaks

Weekly Best of Tennessee Blogs

Here's this week's list, via TennViews:

A "corn fed" edition the TennViews weekly liberal blog roundup, with Iowa caucus/straw poll reaction from some of Tennessee's best and brightest bloggers:

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Almost spot on prediction, and The Kids are Alright

• Andy Axel (at TennViews): The latest unbelievable wingnut spin

• BlountViews: Respect for Dodd and Biden

• The Crone Speaks: Electability over issues, and Voter turnout is the big story

• Enclave: The Obama Edwards dilemma

• Fletch: The Gaussian candidate

• KnoxViews: Down to the wire, and Knoxville News Sentinel has a sense of humor

• Lean Left: Caucus thoughts: A mess for the GOP, a remarkable win for Obama, and The "Not Clinton" problem

• Left of the Dial: Sick babies and loose meat sandwiches

• Left Wing Cracker: So much for Iowa being a Republican state

• NewsComa: Going against the grain, and Bold predictions for the aftermath

• Pesky Fly: Interpreting the tongues, and Fear of success

• Progress Nashville: Status quo: 0, Change: 1, and The young and the restless, plus Two miracles

• Russ McBee: Thoughts on Edwards, bonus: Quote of the day

• Sean Braisted: The awesome power of hope, and The defeat of absolutism

• Sharon Cobb: Iowa votes for change, plus Cause and Kucinich/Nader effect?

• Silence Isn't Golden: Post Iowa scenarios

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Only fools are dancing on Hillary's grave and a Hillary provides baby sitters for caucus goers, right wing whines

• TennViews: Results and observations, and More questions than answers?

• Vibinc (a new addition to the Tennessee liberal blogroll): Snakes on a campaign, and About last night, and Live Blogging the Iowa Caucuses from Drinking Liberally Memphis, bonus: Hilarious predictions

• Whites Creek Journal: What happened

And folks that's just what they're saying about Iowa. There's a lot, and I mean a lot, of other stuff going on. Check out the "Volunteer Blogs" blogroll at TennViews and read what Tennessee's best liberal bloggers have to say about it.

Camera Obscura: Groucho as God; KITT as a Mustang

What happens when Groucho Marx plays God, Jackie Gleason takes LSD at Alcatraz and Harry Nilsson sings the movie's credits? Well you are watching a movie from 1968 called "Skidoo." And you can watch it tonight (actually 2 a.m.) on Turner Classic Movies as part of their Underground series.

Sure, watching it may give you nightmares, what with Slim Pickens and Mickey Rooney on a drug trip, or it might make you laugh yourself into a coma. The original trailer for this ... um, fractured bit of entertainment is provided with the assistance of Timothy Leary and Sammy Davis Jr. Groovy, baby! Ah, 1968 ...



Words really don't do justice to this movie, but if you can't (or won't) view it, then you should at least read this review by Nathan Rabin at the A.V. Club. It's a beautiful piece of work:

"Over the last decade, it's become a cliché for films to use a glassy-eyed character flipping through television channels as a way of conveying alienation and the emptiness of popular culture. But, as Skidoo helpfully reminds viewers, the close relationship between soul-sickness and channel-surfing has existed for decades, as evidenced by an opening scene in which ex-crook Jackie Gleason and sexually voracious wife Carol Channing flip through the deadening hellscape of '60s television. Fortunately, their life gets a jolt when Gleason is recruited by crime boss and houseboat enthusiast Groucho Marx to kill imprisoned stool pigeon and longtime Gleason chum Mickey Rooney. Channing, meanwhile, must deal with daughter Alexandra Hay's groovy new associates, a body-paint-loving pack of road-show Merry Pranksters led by Hay's boyfriend, who explains to her that the reason "the squares aren't making it" is "because they're digging the nine-to-five bag." Though not digging the having-to-kill-his-friend bag, Gleason nevertheless finds himself locked up in a fully automated prison, where book-learning peacenik Austin Pendleton accidentally introduces him to LSD, leading Gleason to engage in an animated, albeit one-sided, conversation with a floating screw sporting Marx's head. Tripping even further, Gleason hallucinates that he's being yelled at by the disembodied heads of Channing, Marx, hood Frank Gorshin, and Rooney--a common side effect of LSD during the late '60s (although some trips found Agnes Moorehead filling in for Channing). Channing, meanwhile, searches for Gleason, leading her to visit the futuristic bachelor pad of Marx henchman Frankie Avalon. There, upon failing to learn Gleason's whereabouts, she gyrates erratically while frantically waving around a yellow feather boa in an attempt to seduce the former teen heartthrob. Though Avalon appears shockingly willing to submit to Channing's crazy-eyed charms, the arrival of Hay and her far-out companion postpones their blissful union. Together, the mismatched quartet visits Marx at sea, where the comedy legend floats about in perpetual limbo. Meanwhile, Pendleton and Gleason concoct a scheme to escape by slipping LSD to the prison populace, including a pair of square guards who hallucinate a garbage-can-themed production number that allows Pendleton and Gleason to escape in a makeshift hot-air balloon. Alas, the psychedelic madness dissipates, but not before Channing, decked out in Michael Jackson-style naval apparel, can sing the unforgettable theme song, whose lyrics about the untapped potential of dove power combined with flower power are as profound and prescient now as they must have been in 1968."

Nicely done, Nathan. Sometimes, you just have to let Art wash over you.

-----

For some, the old TV show "Knight Rider" starring "The Hoff" (that's Mr. Hasselhoff to you) is a classic. As was the car, a computerized Trans Am. But before fans get a full-blown Hollywood movie version/remake, they can watch a new TV Movie later this winter. But be warned - the Trans Am is gone, replaced by a Ford Shelby Mustang. A side-by-side comparison of the two talking cars is provided by Popular Mechanics online magazine. No, really.

The comments on the change - over 2,500 of them - should also entertain you.

What Will Be On TV in 2008 Without Writers?

It will be bleak.

The strike by writers will become most prominent in the next few weeks, as TV broadcasters attempt to return to non-holiday schedules. Some shows have a dozen or fewer episodes to air - unless it is a game show.

You can read what the schedule will look like here at TV Squad. By the end of January, viewers won't have many choices apart from game shows and a handful of episodes for most everything else.

So expect the strike to continue until the lack of shows becomes an immediate, not a future, issue. But, as producers learned in the early 1980s after the first writers strike, they can fill in hours and hours with low concept shows like "Cops". YouTube and other online creations will flourish, and producers may facilitate the death of programming, other than for reruns and games. And "American Idol".

Dreaming of Electric Sheep

I used to think we could peek at the Future and understand the Present when reading science fiction, but now I'm afraid we've landed in a warped world where the horrible ideas of Future dystopias are filling the Present. No personal rocket cars here, more the wreckage of a world gone over the edge into absurdity and delusion.

For instance, I was reading the rather odd press reports from Great Britain, where the government has decided their nation is removing the phrase "war on terror" from their political lexicon:

"The words "war on terror" will no longer be used by the British government to describe attacks on the public, the country's chief prosecutor said Dec. 27.

Sir Ken Macdonald said terrorist fanatics were not soldiers fighting a war but simply members of an aimless "death cult."

The Director of Public Prosecutions said: 'We resist the language of warfare, and I think the government has moved on this. It no longer uses this sort of language."

London is not a battlefield, he said."

Who knows, maybe such attempts at language modification will lead us to ... well, somewhere other than where we are, I suppose. Language modification to accommodate bizarre policies has been a staple in science-fiction tales for some time. (I always laughed at the scene in "Brazil" where the government chief combating terrorism was asked his thoughts on the 13th year of constant terrorist attacks and the chief replies with a laugh, "Beginner's luck!")

Still, after reading the above story today, I then ran across this blog, which offers frequent updates to the world to tell us "Which Phillip K. Dick Story Are We In Today". And yep, right there on January 1st is mention of the story from Britain and which story relates to it.

Don't get me wrong - I like PKD's works, always have. But if we can catalog current events as elements of his fiction, we are in deep, deeeep shit.

For those who don't know his work, suffice to say it painted a world of endless deceptions and paranoia, of fakery elevated to it's greatest height, of reality sliding into madness.

Not the best way to start the New Year - offering evidence we inhabit the nightmarish landscape of PKD's imagined future.

Blues Master Wallace Coleman Back In ET

Fine news for the new year - blues singer Wallace Coleman is doing two shows in East Tennessee. First, he'll be at the Knoxville Museum of Art on Jan. 18th and then he performs at Rose Center in Morristown on Feb. 2nd.

I met Wallace some years back and count that as my great fortune. If you like blues music, Wallace is the man to see. (Previous post here.)

My best advice is to get tickets now to one of these two shows. His website has samples of his work, his bio and his schedule and ways to order his CDs.

Great to have you back Wallace!

Happy New Epoch!!

Here is a new year and all that goes with it. I have learned that writing/talking about things related to Time usually ends up confusing me and most readers. Time is a slippery thing. But, here goes ...

Life really seemed to move slowly at one time, now the years tick past faster than the eye can see. Which is sort of way to say "Dang, I is old", or more accurately, "I sure has seen a heap of Januarys and they all are starting to sorta seem the same".

For some reason, I've always liked the concept of the Chinese New Year, which is on a 12-year cycle, where one of twelve animals represents the year at hand. So that way, folks can say "hey, it's been a while since we had a year of the rat!". Plus the whole make-loud-noises-and-blow-up-fireworks thing came from them too.

What was new in 2007 depends on whether you knew about it or not. For instance, there is this thing on the Internets called "Facebook" which started in 2004, but which I was asked to join in the last few days of 2007, so it was new to me. Also I was asked to join another Internets thing called "Twitter" which was started in 2006 but was new to me in 2007. Bottom line is I joined both of these online sites and I really have no idea what to do with them or for them or to them.

Both Facebook and Twitter are called "social utilities" or "social networking" sites. That may explain why I am lost - I usually stumble in "social" activities. I do like the blogging groups I have joined and maybe my old brain can only contain the workings of blogging and not social utility programs.

So one challenge for me in 2008 is attempting to use facebook and twitter, but I know I don't shuck and jive as fast as I used too so it may well be 2009 or later before I can twit and book with ease. (I learned in 2007 that I use words which some folks do not understand, like "shuck and jive", but other folks have no idea what twitter or facebook mean, so I guess it all evens out. Words are tricky things.)

A new year is often marked by some by the announcement of New Laws Taking Effect. Perhaps it is a positive thing that Humans keep making New Laws in efforts to make the world a better place. Perhaps.

When I was younger, I often chastised older folk for not being able to adjust to the new. But I've learned that "new" is subjective. More likely these days, I chastise anyone for not being aware of the past or the present.

I was recently on a college campus talking with a professor friend and we did a wee "test" of students to see if they knew of famous people my friend and I knew about. They did not of course. Johnny Carson, for instance, was "a guy on TV once". My friend and I decided that the students knew little of American pop culture prior to Tupac Shakur.

Granted, knowledge of American pop culture is likely more trivial than vital information to have. Still, my friend said to me that his students seemed to have little interest or knowledge of events more than 2 years old. Had I been a student in the "test group" I'd bet I would have told the old geezers to get with the now and to heck with the old.

Some people have told me, over the course of my life, that I must have been born old. (No one tells me that anymore, though, they just see me as old.) Anyway, the experiment with my friend got me to pondering on the idea that I had grown up seeing myself in a context of Time and that now people grow up without such a context. For example I knew there was "old" music and "new" music. My parents had record albums by Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey and I had record albums (new at the time) by The Beatles and Jim Morrison.

However, today, people have MP3 players with songs. So it seems to me that not only do some of the younger folk have no context of the when of a song, they do not have the context of said song within an album. (Honest to pete, I heard an 8-year-old girl last year ask her mom what an "album" was.) A young fellow recently was asking me to listen to a song he liked on his iPod by Guns and Roses and I asked him what album that song was from and he told me it was on the Greatest Hits album. He sorta did not understand what I meant.

My professor friend told me that younger folk do not need context in their heads, no need of of personal knowledge of time and history - they just whip out their personal hand-held techno device and do a search to learn what something was or is, and then put the device away and they go about their lives.

Perhaps that way of a context-less life is better. I tend to see events repeating and repeating, with minor variations. But perhaps it is not better to see each event as unique and brand new as it might prompt them to think some event or some trend has never existed before. Most behaviors and trends have been around a long time, really -- religious and tribal warfare, for instance, has been around a long time and remains with us today.

Here's something I do know - it seems good to me to have a point in time where we get a "new" start. Wipe everything back to zero and start over. Still, it also seems good to me to have a knowledge of the number of times that you have started over.

I mean, there sure needs to be a start and an end to say, a football game, or it would never find a conclusion and conclusions can be more enjoyable than not having one. And after a whole bunch of teams play a whole bunch of games, it is fun to have the ones with the most wins play each other in playoffs and then pick an overall winner. Then you start a new season. As goofy as games can be, that process is still mostly fun.

All of which is one way of saying goodbye to 2007 and hello to 2008.

And while most of the world focuses on the measurement of years, I have always taken some pleasure in the definition of points in time called "epochs." Here is what Webster's says in defining epoch:

epoch:

Pronunciation:

\ˈe-pək, ˈe-ˌpäk, US also & British usually ˈē-ˌpäk\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Medieval Latin epocha, from Greek epochē cessation, fixed point, from epechein to pause, hold back, from epi- + echein to hold — more at scheme

Date:

1614

1 a: an event or a time marked by an event that begins a new period or development b: a memorable event or date
2 a: an extended period of time usually characterized by a distinctive development or by a memorable series of events b: a division of geologic time less than a period and greater than an age
3: an instant of time or a date selected as a point of reference

And that's a level of vague I appreciate. Happy New Epoch!!

Weekly Best of TN Blogs

Here's to one of the best online ideas of 2007 - the best weekly blog roundup in Tennessee, courtesty of R. Neal at TennViews -- and to it's continuation in 2008:

"An abbreviated 'on-the-road live from Memphis' edition of our weekly sampling from some of Tennessee's best and brightest bloggers:

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Authentic Russian dinner for the holidays (yum!)

• Andy Axel (at TennViews): Red pickup on fumes

• BlountViews: Blount one of seven Tennessee counties to pass new property tax freeze for seniors

• The Crone Speaks: Who benefits?

• Cup of Joe Powell: Liberal fascism

• Enclave: Davidson Co. Election Commission data theft

• Fletch: Favorite 2007 photo

• KnoxViews: Fair tax discussion

• Lean Left: A holiday we should celebrate in America

• Left Wing Cracker: It's a cultural celebration, not a religious one

• Loose TN Canon: Bill Maher at Berklee

• NewsComa: Happy blog anniversary to NewsComa!

• Progress Nashville: Top 10 Progressive New Year's Wishes, Day 8

• Resonance: 2008 Energy outlook

• RoaneViews: Clinch River protection pact

• Russ McBee: Musharraf walks a tightrope

• Sean Braisted:Fun with framing

• Sharon Cobb: Analysis: candidates react to Bhutto assassination

• Silence Isn't Golden: Right of refusal does not extend to infants

• Southern Beale: Davidson Co. voter data theft casts shadow over next election

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Ron Paul considers third party bid

• TennViews: Democratic candidates on health care

• Whites Creek Journal: Off the grid

• Women's Health News: Women's Health year in review

Dr. Helen, Glenn Reynolds and Jonah Goldberg in Fantasy Land

I listened to a conversation the other day between a trio of folks who have garnered internet fame and the words and concepts expressed left me with some unsettling thoughts. And since the trio is taken somewhat seriously in the world o' internet punditry I decided to share my thoughts in this forum.

Glenn Reynolds, Dr. Helen and Jonah Goldberg shared (in my opinion) some utterly dubious reasoning and extremist ideas in an interview via Dr. Helen's page with Goldberg regarding his new book, "Liberal Fascism." (Thanks to Katie for linking to the interview at Knoxville Talks. Normally I do not seek out that trio's output, as scattered readings revealed to me there was little of value, for me anyway, to discover in their offerings. Others find great value to such, an idea which stoked my notions of writing about what I encountered.)

The book is on the verge of publication and numerous online writers have already ripped into it. I have not read the book, only a few excerpts, however the above-linked interview pretty much revealed the "thinking" of the author and no, I would not want to read it. It falls into the vast pantheon of revisionist historical wingnuttery which continues to flourish in our current age. And I do not mean this post to be a virulent screed against the trio - more that it is a good example of bad practices in punditry.

In essence, Goldberg takes his particular worldview-goggles and peers backward, cherry-picking the events and language of the past in order to bolster his views that Democrats and Liberal politics virtually destroyed America and only the Rise of the Neo-Conservative has saved us from oblivion.

He also embraces an already well-known bit of fakery on the internet - making use of Godwin's Law, which states that the longer an online discussion continues, there will inevitably occur the invocation of Hitler and Nazis to the topic discussed. Judging from the trio's discussion and several excerpts from his book, he takes that Law as primary to his thesis. He also says title came from writer/social activist H.G. Wells and that Wells was a founding father of the modern American Liberal Democrat.

Wells was certainly a Utopian, though his novels tended more to show the failings of Utopias and the destructive elements of human nature. He was certainly well-regarded in the early days of the 20th century, but Goldberg's elevation of his status is problematic at best.

Goldberg's propositions involve creation of an argument, which may be provocative but are more "academic," meaning having no practical or useful significance. Specious reasoning taken to its furthest extensions. Speaking in syllogisms, one could say: Hitler Had A Mustache, Many People Have Mustaches and so, Many People Are Hitler.

At one point in the trio's conversation, Reynolds compares former president Jimmy Carter's appearance on TV in a sweater urging Americans to turn down their thermostats to an act of Fascism and "at least it wasn't a brown sweater". Oddly tortured turns of metaphor often arise in the trio's discussion. Another is the concept from Goldberg noting that Hitler was a vegetarian and hence all current interest in healthy foods and vegetarianism is somehow related to following ideals of Hitler's National Socialism.

You can listen to the interview (linked above in the 2nd paragraph) for yourself and hear the trio's faux logic. It's a common trait among many popular Neo-Con pundits - Ann Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity and others: be outlandish, be histrionic, constantly repeat your points so that others must use your language to debate your topic, and claim that elitist Leftist madmen are trying to silence your viewpoint.

For myself, when I notice a particular political argument must always have An Enemy Which Must Be Defeated as it's basis, I find the argument based more on fantasy than reality. It's as if the first action of such a view is to destroy all things not in agreement, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. And such agents of argument have sadly risen to prominence, praising the self-determined individual while demanding obedience to a particular dogma

Your views may vary.

Things We Could Do Without in 2008

A short list. Yours may vary:

Glenn Beck

Daily reports on Britney Spears

Being tasered

The sports trifecta of steroids, OJ Simpson and Barry Bonds

Carlos Mencia

The View

Two commercials: Fitness Made Simple; Head-On

Redlight cameras

Your trip to rehab

Celebrities judging talent shows

Tainted things - vegetables, toys, dog food, no-bid government contracts, toothpaste, the US Justice Department, the FCC, open government, all sports, etc, etc

FEMA trailers and fake FEMA news conferences

Scandalous Folk/Behavior: student loans; mortgages; Blackwater; Senators Ted Stevens, Larry Craig, and David Vitter; illegal wiretaps; legislative bills filed by The Rep (aka Stacey Campfield); Scooter Libby

iAnything

Rationalizing the use of torture

Losing/misplacing government computer database records

Sending me a text message - if you cannot make a phone call or email me, then it really isn't important is it?

People who make insulting/cutesy plays on the words Republican or Democrat.

Those news-crawls or tickers or whatever they are. Pick a news story to report, then report it and go on to the next one. It's not like that 'breaking news' feeling is supposed to be a permanent state of being.

Holiday Music For The Very Special

Travel along as we go from a sharecropper's Christmas to the mega-funky Bootsy Collins and finally land in Hawaii. The following musical montage was carefully hand-selected and compiled to be your very own musical collection, from me to you. Merry Christmas!


SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

A Christmas Carol

Animated by Richard Williams and Chuck Jones, with voices by Michael Redgrave and Alistair Sim.

Best of Tennessee Blogs - Jingle Bells Edition

The latest roundup of news, views and many things Christmas, all courtesy of TennViews:

A "Jingle Bells" edition of our weekly sampling from some of Tennessee's best and brightest bloggers:

• 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera: Democrats fail to show up on SCHIP, bonus: Wordless Wednesday

• Andy Axel: Brr!

• BlountViews: Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft, also BlountViews in the news, bonus: Best Christmas music video ever

• The Crone Speaks: Bad Santa

• Cup of Joe Powell: Without restraint, totally beyond the pale, bonus: Sophie spins some Christmas soul music

• Enclave: NOLA housing crisis roundup, plus The David Bowie/Bing Crosby Christmas duet classic

• Fletch: New coal plant on fast track, plus Wordless Wednesday, bonus: 'Tis the Season

• KnoxViews: Energy bill gets 50MPG on way to White House. plus UT launches tobacco research center - anything for a buck

• Lean Left: Obama and Alter's faulty memory, plus: Huckabee's video Christmas card

• Left Wing Cracker: Larry King impersonation ramble, plus: Nat King Cole for Christmas

• Loose TN Canon: Conservative climate science ignorance on parade, bonus: Fried Cheesecake

• NewsComa: The rural factor in presidential politics, bonus: Christopher Walken's Night Before Christmas (warning: children should leave the room)

• Pesky Fly: Separated at birth, plus: McCain beneficiary of Chucklebee fallout but Romney by a nose?

• Progress Nashville: Starving the poor, plus Corker wading into 2010 minefield, and Top 10 Progressive New Year's Wishes, Day 1

• Resonance: Pelosi surprised by Republican resolve

• RoaneViews: State Sen.Tommy Kilby on Tennessee's sunshine law, plus Alvin C. York and the origin of turkey shoots

• Russ McBee: State Sen. Randy McNally having second thoughts on changing Tennessee's sunshine law plus, A Christmas story

• Sean Braisted: (back at home) A law firm divided

• Sharon Cobb: Gov. Bredesen should follow Gov. Corzine's lead on death penalty, plus Expect to see Republican politicians, country artists and Ted Nugent on late-nite TV

• Silence Isn't Golden: Reporting in from the Obama Nashville HQ opening, bonus: possibly the stupidest letter to the editor ever, plus (sorry, missed from last week): Happy Hanukkah

• Southern Beale: Ron Paul's true Republican credentials, plus Gift idea for the person who has everything except health insurance, plus 12 Days of Christmas

• Tennessee Guerilla Women: Coverage denied, girl dies and a follow up, plus You're so lame - let the party begin!

• TennViews: Bush to California: Drop dead, plus State Rep. Beth Harwell's toxic toys, and Tennessee election study recommends paper audit trail and other reforms, and 1968

• Whites Creek Journal: Tilt and the gift of the mysterious, plus This technology must be stopped!

• Women's Health News: Spermicide in your hair dye?

Christmas Soul and Sophie

The Editor was kind enough to send me another picture of Sophie, the most popular dog on the internets, this time a candid shot of Sophie celebrating Christmas. Looks to be having a fine time.

I hope you have the time and the good fortune to have a most Merry Christmas. I'm sure that Sophie wishes the same for you ... well, maybe she simply hopes for a daily abundance of tasty foods and a comfortable spot to sleep.

So the best Christmas wishes to one and all, and a special bonus to go with the photo - a short but very soulful collection of Christmas tunes. There is a certain quality to many holiday songs which the selection below tries to preserve and I hope you enjoy it.



SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

Camera Obscura - Dark Knight and Hellboy Trailers; Letter to Hollywood;

Christmas 2007 is almost here, but movie fans have some nifty extras this weekend which point to high expectations for Summer 2008. First, the newest Batman movie, "The Dark Knight" finally has a preview clip that looks pretty awesome, which you can watch by clicking here. Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker has had the internet buzzing all year long and the preview shows he may steal the show next summer.

Another comic book movie for 2008 is also a sequel - "Hellboy 2". Director Guillermo del Toro has again captured the look and feel of Mike Mignola's comic. The preview is below:



del Toro and actor Ron Perlman are also working on a big screen version of H.P. Lovecraft's "At The Mountains of Madness" to be released in 2010.
-----

An open letter to television producers:

Sirs,

American network television will die and roll into a grave made of stupid game shows if the current writer's strike continues for much longer. Some of you welcome such an event, as such shows have been gaining control of the airwaves in recent years.

To halt this slide into mediocre and bland programming, I urge you to do the following:

Hire me to write for your shows.

I'm willing to write for a mere $10,000 for each half-hour sitcom and $20,000 for an hour-long drama. No health care benefits, no residuals, no extra fees. This is a straight-up cash for scripts deal here.

It isn't that I am anti-union. But at this point in my life, I doubt I will ever be a member of the WGA and I could really use the money. I have watched TV for much of my life and am confident I can create material for any genre you wish. I know I cannot write for every show currently on the air, but I can likely find at least half a dozen other writers who will work for the same deal and we'll all make television history together.

Heck, we've all had ideas that Hollywood ended up taking.

For a mere $50,000 I will write a pilot movie for a series. Here's a sample of a show which would attract huge audiences: "The Country Doctor Detective" -- a brilliant young surgeon from Manhattan is forced to move to the Appalachian Mountain region to escape the crime family he testified against in court, and soon learns that he has a knack for using forensic science to solve crimes. Soon, with the help of humorous country characters and sidekicks, he starts a detective agency staffed with tough but lovable female bounty hunters while bringing quality healthcare to impoverished rural America. (Two spinoffs are already here - the clueless crime family trying to blend into the Southern culture and the tough but lovable female bounty hunters show.)

Something for younger viewers? How about "Game Over" -- a rag-tag group of young teens decide to leave their dysfunctional families behind and travel the world competing in videogame contests, earning big bucks and exploring the wacky gaming and sci-fi/fantasy/comic book convention world and when they aren't gaming, they play a battle of wits and challenges with each other as they learn about life, romance, rock music and keepin' it real.

I have more. (And yeah, if ANYTHING like the two shows mentioned above appear on TV or movies, I will sue you to death.)

Like I said, this is a strictly cash for scripts deal, and I am sure you will find that my friends and I can fill hours of programming with the same quality currently available.

I await your calls and emails.

Without Restraint

"He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct." (via)

That's the quote that popped into my head after reading about yet another case of military contractors in Iraq accused of criminal acts.

This time it's allegations of a gang rape so brutal the victim's breast implants ruptured and a coverup of the allegations. (Not only the contractor, KBR, is involved, but also the State Dept and the Justice Dept.) How disgusting, how illegal must events become before decisive action is taken?

More and more evidence and reports arrive in a steady supply of contractors who have somehow been given the ability to act with no rules, no oversight, no accountability, no boundaries -- all in the name of bringing Democracy to the Middle East. There are currently 70 open and active investigations regarding fraud and abuse in contracts for the war in Iraq.

Newly invented security firms, like Blackwater, and longtime US corporations, like Halliburton and KBR, are among the players in a game where billions in tax dollars flow to them with little attention given to what, if any, objective is sought.

Documentary films like "Iraq For Sale" made the point long ago.

Legislative efforts, like the War Profiteering Prevention Act, are in limbo and await approval.

On Wednesday, Congress approved another round of spending for the war - though it was less than half of what the president had asked for.

Congressman David Obey commented that long-lasting change and correction will occur when Americans: "elect more progressive voices to the United States Senate" and "elect a president with a different set of priorities."

Conservatives who ferociously bellow about fiscal and moral values should be leading the charge to eradicate wanton lawless behavior by US companies bilking the taxpayers of billions, and smothering the US foreign policy in slimy behavior. But they are not. Voters who ignore that failing will once again endorse behavior without restraint.

Taco Johns and Toxic Typists

Perhaps worse than the incident reported by WBIR-TV of a Morristown man working at Taco Johns who is alleged to have place pubic hair into a policeman's taco is the tsunami of typing monkeys commenting on the story.

Limbaugh' s Lessons In Nonsense Rhetoric

I happened to read one of the 'daily updates' which talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh provided recently, and realized it was a fine example of how one could use nonsense, wild conjecture and pop culture mythology as a substitute for facts and information to score emotional points.

He's a pro at this gambit, has been for years, and nothing I could ever write on this humble but lovable blog will ever alter his status or influence. Still, the blatant nonsense and witless argument is so obviously deluded, it's as if he decided to plop down a goofy premise and defy anyone to challenge it.

Here is the passage:

"2007-12-18 05:56:25 Now, this theory of mine based on this Drudge picture of Mrs. Clinton, with the headline: "The Toll of a Campaign." Now, it could well be that that's a sympathy photo, too, to make people feel sorry for how tough the campaign trail is. Now, I want to preface this by saying I know it's going to get out there. Media Matters is going to get hold of this and they're going to take it all out of context. We can expect that. It's a badge of honor when this happens, but for the rest of you, I want you to understand that I am talking about the evolution of American culture here, and not so much Mrs. Clinton. It could be anybody, and it is really not very complicated. Americans are addicted to physical perfection, thanks to Hollywood and thanks to television. We know it because we see it. We see everybody and their uncle in gyms. We see people starving themselves. We see people taking every miracle fad drug there is to lose weight. We see guys trying to get six-pack abs. We have women starving themselves trying to get into size zero and size one clothes; makeovers, facials, plastic surgery, everybody in the world does Botox, and this affects men, too. As you know, the haughty John Kerry Botoxed his wrinkles out during the campaign.

There is this thing in this country that, as you age -- and this is particularly, you know, women are hardest hit on this, and particularly in Hollywood -- America loses interest in you, and we know this is true because we constantly hear from aging actresses, who lament that they can't get decent roles anymore, other than in supporting roles that will not lead to any direct impact, yay or nay, in the box office. While Hollywood box-office receipts may be stagnant, none of that changes the fact that this is a country obsessed with appearance. It's a country obsessed with looks. The number of people in public life who appear on television or on the big screen, who are content to be who they are, you can probably count on one hand. Everybody's trying to make themselves look different -- and in that situation, in that case, they think they're making themselves look better. It's just the way our culture has evolved. It's the way the country is. It's like almost an addiction that some people have to what I call the perfection that Hollywood presents of successful, beautiful, fun-loving people. So the question is this: Will this country want to actually watch a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis?

First, the sentence "Americans are addicted to physical perfection, thanks to Hollywood and thanks to television. We know it because we see it." is an astonishingly ignorant viewpoint which avoids contact with all of human history.


Another absurd leap of logic - aimed at women in general, whom Limbaugh apparently loathes or fears - arrives with this comment: "... women are hardest hit on this, and particularly in Hollywood -- America loses interest in you." While there may be a point to be made that "youth" has an advantage over "age" in pop culture, that is not the point he is making - which seems to be instead something along the lines of "I hate women and Hollywood."

He goes on to say that his fractured nonsensical premise is not just a factual concept, but forms a basic construct of society which he deems Evil in and of itself: "It's just the way our culture has evolved. It's the way the country is."

And all of the comments are truly just a preface of sorts to say one thing: "I hate Hillary Clinton, because she is female, she is empowered and she does not fit my model for what women are good for."

What's the old saying? If you can't blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit?

The commentary is also a sterling example of The Chewbacca Defense. "That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense!

Secrecy, Gifts Ok'd For Sullivan Commission

A staggering endorsement of secrecy and influence peddling got the green light this week in upper East Tennessee government. Existing Open Meetings law was snubbed and a dubious Ethics Policy was embraced by the Sullivan County Commission in their last meeting.

The governing body first approved an odd change to their Ethics Policy, wherein a subjective test by the elected or appointed government official will determine if a gift creates any conflict. Sullivan County Attorney Dan Street said the policy is based entirely on a gift receiver's opinion:

"One commissioner offered the following description of the new policy’s approach to gifts, and no one said he was wrong: “An individual still makes the decision based on their own standards.”

Street said the policy would be hard to enforce with such a subjective measure.

“You could have someone receive a $10,000 car and stand right in front of you and say it didn’t influence them,” Street said."

As if an elected official would report receiving a gift which made them alter their votes or actions. This terrible idea gets adopted as legal policy??

The commission also approved a resolution supporting less oversight of officials and more chances for larger numbers of office holders to meet secretly to debate and decide on policy.

"[The Commission voted to] say Sullivan County supports changing the law so that members of any elected body could meet and talk about public policy in private as long as there is no quorum present. A quorum of the 24-member Sullivan County Commission, for example, is a simple a majority, or 13 members. The commission’s committees — which now meet in public, monthly — have only eight members each."

UPDATE: Here's an idea from Taxing Tennessee -- Using Sullivan County Commission's logic "it is quite appropriate to allow taxpayers to decide if their taxes are too high or too low."