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February 28, 2006

Vermont’s campaign finance law in trouble? ::
legal — tagged , , , and
2:52 pm

I should have been keeping up more with Randall v. Sorrell, the campaign finance case from Vermont that was argued before the Supreme Court today. But I haven’t. Lucky for me, SCOTUS Blog has a good summary of today’s oral argument:

The common concern among the members of the Court who spoke up appeared to be that Vermont had set its contribution levels so low that it might threaten to cut off any chance of a contender to unseat an incumbent, or that it might threaten to make a race in a competitive district a slam-dunk for the incumbent. Justice Stephen G. Breyer put the question bluntly, seeming to reflect the mood of the Court as a whole: “At what point does a limit become so low that you cuff off the possibility of a challenge?”

Given Justice Breyer’s past tendency to let campaign finance laws stand, to my mind it was significant that he asked such a pointed question. If he winds up deciding to strike down Vermont’s contributions law, then I’ll venture to speculate that the rest of the Court will follow suit. The main question for me right now will be whether he will write the opinion.

Med students + lawyer + King Kong remake = ha! ::
weird — tagged , , and
10:53 am

Dude:

[W]atching a movie such as this with a bunch of medical students is an interesting experience. The anatomy chatter was almost nonstop, especially for a movie with this many skulls. Also, falling from the top of the Empire State Building should have splattered any living creature that large, Ann Darrow must have no pain or temperature nerve fibers, and one of our company thought that she saw testicles on the dinosaurs. For my part, I noted that after Kong’s rampage, Carl Denham is going to be facing some pretty serious tort liabilty.

The funniest parts are bolded for easy reference.

Civil Rights and Liberalism ::
books — tagged , , and
10:41 am

To me, the best book reviews are the ones that use a book as a starting-off point for a larger discussion about one of the book’s central themes. A truly great review is one that actually adds something to the book, which I wouldn’t have picked up on had I just read the book on its own. Interestingly, those reviews actually stand on their own, and are worth reading in their own right, even if I never pick up the book being discussed. Now, I don’t know if it’s an example of a great review, but yesterday I read this article on At Canaan’s Edge, Taylor Branch’s last installment of his three-part civil rights history, America During the King Years. What caught my eye about the review was how Benjamin Wallace-Wells ties the end of the King era to the problems facing Liberalism today:

King was just as right when he preached against the problems of the black slum or the repressive working conditions visited upon trash collectors as he was when he summoned a great moral awakening to confront the white Southern forces that kept blacks from voting. But the conflict between evil and good was not nearly so evident. Reading about King’s frustrated efforts, you can see where it’s headed. In hindsight, we anticipate the liberal politics that will mobilize behind the failed assumption that the country will invest in the condition of women or workers or the environment with the same moral vigor that led to the successes of King’s civil rights movements.

From my pespective, it is a rare social leader who is able to conjure up the same moral force that King was able to. Especially during this small slice of history in which I find myself. Indeed, in these times Liberals do in fact find themselves in a tough position, because they are at the same time so sure about the rightness of their position, yet have a hard time making that sense of rightness palpable to those who might not otherwise agree with them.

February 23, 2006

Flickr talk ::
meta, personal, photos — No Tags
2:53 pm


kitchen sink squircle

Originally uploaded by jessamyn.

And our background conversation, over chat:

her: put some pix on flickr
me: cool
I read that
checking now
dude, those are great
I marked the sink shot as a favorite

Pitchfork: Co-ops and independent music ::
music — tagged
11:02 am

I’ve been interested with the business end of independent music for a couple of years now. I think it’s in part because I don’t actually play an instrument, so it’s highly unlikely that I would find myself playing in some indie band in my lifetime. But the business end is something I understand, and I guess part of me hangs on to the dream of starting my own label at some point (not that I would be particularly hearbroken if it never happened of course). In any event, I bring all this up because the people over at Pitchfork have posted an interesting story about a deal between independent label distributors and Best Buy, which resulted in Best Buy selling many of my favorite bands’ CDs for the unheard-of price of $7.99 (where was I when this happened?)

Welcome to the wonderful world of co-ops. Co-op campaigns are deals in which labels exchange money or extra CDs (“cleans”) for prominent placement in stores, bulk initial orders, sale pricing, and advertising presence. Co-ops exist everywhere, from megastores to Mom and Pops alike. In other words, whenever you see some Next Big Thing featured at the end of an aisle, nine times out of ten, the label paid for that artist to be there.

But there’s a cost:

[W]hen co-op money is used to lower prices as substantially as Best Buy has, it’s independent record shops that suffer the blow: Given the recent plunge in album sales over the past five years, these stores are already struggling. And while it may seem dramatic to say that something like this could make these kinds of stores extinct, the danger is very real. For many, it will be the final straw that puts them out of business.

Fascinating, in a depressing sort of way. Although I have always been willing to pick up a CD from Best Buy if the price was right, I always thought you didn’t get the full experience unless I picked the music up from one of the independent reltailers in town (and of course, since I’ve moved to Vermont such retailers have been in short supply). So it’s really a business-vs.-community sort of trade-off. Sure, consumers and affectionadoes of independent music will get a deal on CD’s, but that deal will come at the cost of potentially losing their favorite local music retailer. I’m not sure that it’s worth it.

February 17, 2006

Ridiculous ::
personal, photos — No Tags
8:32 am

Happy Birthday Rick!!
Originally uploaded by jessamyn.

Despite my generally reserved manner, sometimes I can be totally weird if the situation calls for it.

February 14, 2006

Pilots really aren’t all that funny ::
meta — No Tags
8:53 pm

Or so it seems after reading these allegedly funny air traffic controllers quotes. Here’s a sample of their “humor:”

A military pilot called for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running “a bit peaked.” Air Traffic Control told the fighter pilot that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down. “Ah,” the fighter pilot remarked, “The dreaded seven-engine approach.”

I mean, I think I get it.

February 13, 2006

Me * 4^3 ::
meta, narrative, personal — No Tags
10:52 pm

I’m with Jessamyn when it comes to these meme things. I don’t know what it is, but something about them just makes me, well, uncomfortable. It’s kind of like dancing. But, also like dancing, if my girlfriend asks me to do it, I have no problem saying yes. So here goes:

Four jobs I’ve had

Four movies I could watch over and over:

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch

Four places I’ve been on vacation

Four favorite dishes

Four websites I visit regularly

Four places I’d rather be

Four books I recommend

Four bloggers I’m tagging

February 10, 2006

The Cost of Maggie ::
weird, photos — No Tags
1:36 pm

$847.63 (Henry asked)
Originally uploaded by Mike Monteiro.

I never thought the register said “NRA4EVER,” as was insisted in the 138 Episode Spectacular. But what’s the meaning of 847.63? Well, the best answer I’ve seen:

No. It says 847.63, the price of raising a baby for a month. Anyone who tells you that it’s NRA4EVER fell for the prank in 138th Episode Spectacular, where it was said to be the latter.

Update: As Matt Haughey points out, $847.63 is the amount it cost to raise a baby many years ago, likely sometime around 1989-90, since that’s when the Simpsons began. It’s very probably much more expensive these days.

February 7, 2006

Gmail/Gtalk come together in my email ::
personal, tech — No Tags
10:27 pm

Gmail chat feature
Originally uploaded by gjs.

I guess it was only a matter of time before we saw an explicit connection between Gmail and Gtalk, though I would have figured it would have come in the form of being able to check (and maybe even send?) email by interacting with some chat bot. Anyway, there it is. If you click the picture, you can catch a glimpse of the type of communication Jessamyn and I engage in over chat (yes, we use chat even when we’re in the same room). It’s a pretty funny conversation, if only to us right at this moment.

February 4, 2006

The last bit of snow ::
personal, photos, vermont — No Tags
11:34 pm

Snow patch
Originally uploaded by gjs.

Jessamyn and I went on a walk today, and I took a picture of this, the last bit of snow in Bethel. Well, not really, but I continue to be amazed at this winter’s mildness nonetheless.

Wolf Parade[!] ::
personal, music, vermont — No Tags
1:27 pm

As Flatlander has already noted, Wolf Parade is scheduled to play here, in Vermont, in April. How cool is that? Since Apologies to the Queen Mary was probably one of my top five favorite releases of last year, buying tickets was pretty much automatic—no hemming, hawing, or otherwise trying to figure out whether I should go. In fact, Jessamyn and I already have our tickets. So, if you’re going, we’ll give a ride (assuming, of course, you live somewhere between Burlington and our central Vermont backwater town). Or maybe we’ll see you there.

Contra- ::
weird, personal, music, vermont — No Tags
9:42 am

Jessamyn and I went contra dancing last night. For those of you who know me, you’re probably thinking what the hell? Greg contra dancing? (And for those who don’t know me, maybe checking out my Last.fm stats will give you some idea of how outside-the-range-of-normal going doing such a thing as this might be.) Well, the whole reason we went was because back in 2003 (I think), I promised Jessamyn [update: for her birthday!] that we would go contra dancing at some point in the future. Now, two and a half years later, after failed attempts and last-minute changings-of-mind, we went last night, and over all it wasn’t too bad at all. I’d even call it fun. Now this morning I seem to have contra dancing on the mind. I found this useful Wikipedia page on contra dancing (we probably should have read it before we went, so maybe we would have an inkling of an understanding of what, say, a sashay is), and this excellent page on the mathematics of the contra dance. So even if you’re like me and a totally bad dancer, you’ll be reigned in my the unforgiving mathematical rules that govern the whole experience. (Best description: “you’re dancing like a fool, but it’s totally controlled!”) And it’s the mathematical nature of the dance, incidentally, that I think I found so appealing.

So, like all new discoveries, I’m now wondering how I could have gone this long not knowing that these dances existed. But if these listings of contra dancing organizations is any indication, it is a deeply rooted part of American culture, hiding in plain sight.

February 2, 2006

Bringing it ::
weird — No Tags
7:27 pm

I’m having a hard time keeping mind from wandering today. But the most interesting stuff I’ve seen in the last, oh half hour or so, has been these photos with the bringiton tag over at Flickr. One of the better photos found is this one depicting a battle between a legless Jesus figurine and a plastic chicken.

Also, I’ll not here how I came about finding this. David seems to be locked in some death match with Jason Kottke involving this game, and he is posting the images.

February 1, 2006

The truth about Alito? ::
legal — tagged , , , and
4:35 pm

Fafblog’s take on the Alito confirmation is, well, unique.

[N]o longer a creature of flesh and bone, Alito has been reborn as lifelong Justice of the Supreme Court, a pure and ethereal conduit of the Constitution. Even as we speak he is being anointed by his fellow jurisprudents in the Supreme Court Building, where he will bodily ascend into the empyreal Tenth Sphere of the Law to commune with the wraithlike, undead spirits of the Framers to perfectly comprehend the true meaning of the Constitution before passing through the eye of a black hole to become the Star Child.

Oh, if only we learned about this in Con Law.

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