Jeffrey P Shell: Industrie Politico

Moving Toulouse

Sat, 11 Jan 2003 19:24:27 GMT

Industrie Toulouse has moved to A new home (toulouse.amber.org) and a new publishing system. Most of the archives will be there soon. The Radio site will remain up indefintely, but no new content will appear here.

A Thanksgiving Letter from Michael Moore

Fri, 29 Nov 2002 09:14:35 GMT

A couple of exceprts from A thanksgiving letter from Michael Moore:

Only about 20% of the American people showed up three weeks ago to vote for a Republican. That's it. Just 20%. And about 19% voted for a Democrat (an amazing number considering how few fights the Democrats put up around the country). And 61% said, "To hell with all of them!" and refused to show up and vote. ... Of course, those in charge are thrilled that 61% of the country has given up. That's right where they want us-out of the way! And it is for that reason alone why we must not now throw in the towel. If we sink into a collective state of despair, disgust and disinterest, we are truly doomed. Bush & Company (and this includes the Democrats) are all-too-happy to be left alone to run amok in the candy store... [Michael Moore.com]

Links and Such

Mon, 25 Nov 2002 16:59:42 GMT

I've been absent for an unusually long time. There's been a lot to write about, but family and work responsibilities have kept me occupied. So, here's a few quick links and thoughts: There's some good reading (as always) in the December 2002 Harper's. The November 2002 issue also has some great articles, particularly about the U.N. Sanctions against Iraq, and leads off its Monthly Index with this: Ratio of Japanese killed in 1945's U.S. atomic-bomb attacks to Iraqi children killed due to U.N. sanctions : 1:3. I was first made aware of the inhumanity of the ongoing sanctions through a Michael Moore show a couple of years ago, where they sold gas at discount prices with images of Saddam Hussein plastered all over the gas station "Who wants to buy gas from the whacky Iraqi?". Lots of people showed up for the discount gas, and the money was used to smuggle food and supplies into Iraq. Speaking of Michael Moore, I finally saw Bowling for Columbine this weekend. It was a good film (for however good a film on such a subject can be), but I felt there were a few flaws - namely the exclusion of inner city gun violence. It may be that Moore is pitching his ideas to the masses in the suburbs in hopes that younger people in the suburban high schools will be awakened to these issues. In any case, I recommend seeing the movie. And I also recommend reading this critique on "Moore's urban phobia" from the liberal site/magazine The American Prospect. On the technical side, there is an interesting page/discussion in the "Zope 3" wiki about Trying to unify workflow concepts, primarily dealing with Activity based Workflows and Entity based Workflows.

How Jackasses Lose

Thu, 07 Nov 2002 06:58:00 GMT

So now, a day later, the finger pointing has begun. This American Prospect article sums up the democrats debacle rather well:

Which is a pretty fair summation of the Democrats' 2002 campaign. They had no message. They were an opposition party that drew no lines of opposition. They had nothing to say. And on Tuesday, their base responded by staying home in droves.

and

From one end of the country to the other, the Democrats had nothing to say. And the nation will suffer for their silence.

Well, this last statement is a bit extreme. But it does drive the point home. I've been saying for weeks now that "the democrats are dead to me" and "they're spineless". There was no powerful leadership, no powerful rallies (outside of the Wellstone memorial, which which made me proud to camp out on the left...for an evening), nothing. What was there to get excited about? What reason was there to get out and vote if the choice was dumbass v. dumbass? Well, there were the third parties and other independants who sometimes DID offer a good alternative. But overall, in the so-called "key" races, the GOP massively out-campaigned the Democrats by rallying behind a solid (often gut-wrenching) message. Ugh. Well, the talking heads on the television have caught on, the writers (esp. in the progressive rags) have caught on. Now - will the party? (TAP article quoted written by Harold Meyerson).

Media Virus

Wed, 06 Nov 2002 03:34:17 GMT

I realized this evening why I felt so queezy about elections today. It wasn't just the choices / decisions. There are some good people worth voting for, there are some good initiatives worth voting for, everything is going to balance itself out some way or another. There will be no overwhelming frightening majority and HOPEFULLY there will be enough moderates on one side or the other to keep The Right in check. ";->" But it's the media. It's such bullshit. It's pictures, it's not news. It's speculation, it's not news. You can learn as much watching a half hour of the daily show as watching a day of MSNBC/FoxNews/CNN because at least the Daily Show admits they're fake. Watching CNN say "with just 12% (o.k., so it was 63) of precincts reporting, we give race foo to Greedy McGreedGreed". "Oh, and since they're not giving us their exit poll information, we at CNN/MSNBC/FoxNews have deployed our own pollsters whom we trust oh-so-much more, so you know that we know the results of the democratic process better than anyone". Away from all of that, HBO's Journeys with George is a fairly interesting documentary. And there's no crawl at the bottom of the screen.

Sat, 26 Oct 2002 17:18:12 GMT

We Lost a Good One.
Burningbird observes:

We Lost a Good One. Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife and daughter and three staff members and two pilots died in a plane crash today. Their deaths are horribly tragic and my sympathies go out to their families and friends. But in these times,...

and, pointedly,

From a purely political perspective, this tragedy puts the Democratic control of the Senate at risk. If the Republicans win control of the Senate, and they maintain control of the House, Bush will have unfettered accessto as much power as he wants, to use as he wants. It will be next to impossible to control him and his cabinet at this point.

We couldn't agree more. The current situation is frightening, and looks to get more so before it gets better.
[The Boulder Inquisition ...]

Transitions in waiting.

Wed, 23 Oct 2002 05:55:28 GMT

I'm trying to transition back into posting. But - what to say? I've been working hard during the day (and taking the pleasure of avoiding work when NOT at the office), where I'm away from Radio. I think it's time to move Radio Userland onto my iPod (and go - again! - through the pains of moving Radio) to keep it mobile (the path should stay the same, regardless of whether the iPod is attached to my workstation, my iBook (which is still going unused these days due to a SMC Wireless Barricade whose power adapter with strange requirements is missing in action), or my iMac. Or, I can open Radio up to post to over a blogging API and host it on my always-on workstation. I don't know. I'm never at the machine I want to be on when I have something interesting to say. It may also be time to move to Movable Type or some other server side setup, of which Movable Type seems the most complete. But then there's the issue of moving past posts in Radio to MT. Or I could write up an FDoc based solution for "Zope" and the CMF (FDoc is the pending product name for my compound document project that I've been working on off and on over the past few months), but I don't have the time or will-to-care to do that much coding outside of work. I have other things I'm behind on, like wrapping up the Eucci & Co. entry in No Type's Sine Fiction series, and putting together the More Summer Dress Fire release - I don't even know how big that one's going to be, and whether I should be seeking out putting it on CD, or getting a release on No Type, some other online label, or continue to put it up at Euc.cx. And, ski season is coming up, and I really need to start bringing in more money to support my drinking habit (the Cabana Club has become a second home to me now). It's not that I drink heavily (well...), but that the good Scotch's, the good vodka's, the good beers, etc. And maybe a fine cigar or two. And friends. And then there's all those CD's to import from Japan, such as Pizzicato Five and Yukari Fresh, DVD box sets like The Godfather Series, and the first three seasons of The Sopranos while I sit and dream of a deluxe box set of ALL episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street. And did I mention S k i i n g?? sigh And I didn't even talk about traveling. Oh well, as long as I can continue to do SOME of those, life will be good. There are other aspirations as well. So somehow, "Zope 3" weekend experimenting is a little off the charts right now, but where I get a chance to work with it at the office, I will. And of course, there will be reports here. In the meantime, buy this and this - finest packaging and noises. And in the mean-mean time - the democratic party is dead to me right now, and I'm having a hard time even finding a stomach to cast a vote this year. (there, now this post can land in the political category too).

gag inducing

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 23:47:45 GMT

There is no end to my joy over the fact that I am going to be doing some subset of dining, dancing, or drinking tonight while G.W.Bush is spouting off his short alliterative repetitive phrases over why the United States is blessed above all other nations to take pre-emptive strikes against other nations. Gulf War II, the Iraqi Boogaloo This is going to end badly. But, say it enough times...

faith, doubt, hate, superiority, or who owns right?

Thu, 05 Sep 2002 09:16:13 GMT

Coming in late from a mild evening at dueling piano bar (it's usually quite rowdy, but tonight was surprisingly staid), I caught the latter parts of what appeared to be a terrific PBS Frontline titled Faith and Doubt and Ground Zero. It was a bit late for the show to get my full attention as it deserved, but it looked to be very well balanced and often quite powerful. It seemed to mark on a quite powerful and probably oft-repeated thing: a difference between faith and religion. I think people who find faith are rather humanist - in my definition, they are people who have found strength in an answer they feel is very right for themselves, and don't necessarily need religion to reinforce it. They believe in the power of the laity over that of the clergy, the noble notion that Man can be genuinely good whether he praises their God, another God, or no God at all. They are often the most effective religious leaders because they preach to the dignity of the individuals rather than to the might of the clergy or traditions or other actions used to hold power over others. But so often, there are those who just find religion. It's the words, the repititions, and the actions that come to matter more than feeling. They actively recite their gods, prophets, and other clergy leaders words but are often the furthest from any real connection with their God. They can even be dangerous with their view of superiority - they have the right way, we do not. The story from the little bit of this Frontline special that I watched that stuck with me was the interview with the Lutheran minister who said the prayer at the big inter-faith service held at Yankee Stadium last year for the families of those still missing since the September 11th attacks. He shared the podium with representatives of all the major faiths. And almost immediately after this event, he started getting very hateful messages from people within his tradition, calling him a terrorist. Within two weeks, clergymen from his religion had gathered a petition stating that he should not be allowed to preach, that his collar should be removed, that he should be kicked out of his denomitation, and basically that he wasn't a true Christian. Why? Because "their belief is that the doctrine of the church does not allow a Christian to stand at the same podium with someone of another faith or everybody is going to get the same idea that all religions are equal, and we have made absolute claims, exclusive claims about our faith." (link). He goes on to say:

If religion leads people to make these kinds of accusations at exactly the worse moment in American history, then what's underneath religion? Is religion really part of a lust for power and control in people's lives? Is it a desire for absolute security so strong that people cannot see the need to reach out and help? If that's true, then I've got a lot of wrestling to do with my own religion.

This was sickening to hear, but (sadly) not shocking. Someday, we will learn that no one, but no one!, has an absolute divine superiority granted to them over everybody else, and that any such sense of superiority does not justify violence of any sorts. Here's a man, a good man in his faith, saying a prayer at a very powerful and hopefully helpful prayer service for the genuine living sufferers of a terrible terrible event, and he's being called a heretic and terrorist? And clergymen in his own "faith" are seeking to drive him out? sigh. Sometimes, I'm an absolute humanist - I see those of strong faith (which may or may not be in any religion - they may just have comfort in themselves, friends, or family, or pure humanism itself) making a positive impact on the world by generally good actions that come as a result of their faith. But a lot of the time, I'm in the misanthropy camp, seeing the despair and ruination brought on the world by the so-called Religious, who will see a brother of their own tradition doing something good, but finding only bad in it because it violates the supposed One True Way.

Nightcap notes - America's lack of place in the International Criminal Court

Mon, 26 Aug 2002 07:19:43 GMT

Nightcap notes (a corollary to the more common morning coffee notes): tonights nightcap, Milwaukee's Best! An a web feature for The American Prospect, Katharine Berland writes an excellent article about a case in Florida that proves the need for an international criminal court, which the Bush administration has so nimbly (for some definition of nimbly) ducked out of in their continuing "Not Invented Under Clinton" campaign to turn back every advance made in the last eight to thirty years (these are my editorializations, not necessarily those of TAP). In any case, Katharine's article is a worthy read, and not easily summarized here. My own feelings on the matter: the Bush Administration's party line on this one is that the International Criminal Court (ICC) could be abused by America haters to call into question any American act in the world, and that it would put innocent Americans at risk. Yet, the Clinton Administration signed a treaty to establish the court in the first place. To me, it feels like the Clinton Administration felt that the United States and its armed forces should be held accountable to the same international-human-rights laws and decisions as the rest of the world. It makes sense, given what we (Americans) like to pride ourselves in. But why does the Bush Administration want to avoid that accountability? Protecting U.S. citizens sounds fine on the surface, but it also gives a large U.S. only shield to hide unknown operations behind. So the U.S. marches on with an administration proudly wearing the badge of being so much more right than others, it is exempt from their jurisdiction. This applies not only to the ICC, but to the UN as well, particularly in the whole Iraq "will we or won't we" invade game. There is an excellent write up of this at CrimesOfWar.org covering the 'Bush Doctrine' of pre-emptive self-defence, which is another fine read (and one I need to read in more detail and wakefulness) detailing why the U.S. is having such a hard time finding real support for its Iraq Invasion cause, and why that cause can be a tough sale (since it's hard to determine, particularly in this case, if it really is the right or wrong course of action).