Entries by tag: uncategorized
“The gift-based economy had been a hippie dream, nice for exchanging information of no value, worthless itself for selling and buying anything worth buying and selling.” — K.W. Jeter, “Noir”
Awhile back an author and thinker named Richard Florida wrote articles and penned a book about the “rise of the creative class,” a demographic of young urban professionals who would be ferociously attractive to dying cities that have lost their industrial/manufacturing base, and what these cities would have to do in order to attract them. While there’s been some impressive debate about whether or not Florida’s thesis has proven true, and what cities are really benefiting from this push, one thing that’s clear to me is that the “creative class” — journalists, writers, programmers, Web designers, graphic artists, traditional artists, musicians, and so on — need all the help they can get.
I saw this on Friday, but had a busy weekend and didn’t get to reviewing it until now. The plot, as you’ve probably gleaned from the trailer, is pretty simple — Denzel Washington as a serious badass roaming a war-torn America, carrying a mysterious book that people, such as Gary Oldman’s corrupt small-town despot, will kill for. The movie itself is both more and less than I expected–the Hughes Brothers spin an awesomely shot and visually slick tale that melds the archetypes of the lone gunslinger, the masterless samurai, and the postapocalyptic nomad into a single narrative that satisfies for much of its length, but eventually collapses under the weight of too much implausibility.
Major SPOILERS beyond the cut. Don’t read if you haven’t seen it yet.
Some of you may recall that Time Warner Cable made the boneheaded move a little while back of trying to roll out bandwith caps for users in markets that had no competition from other ISPs. The response was swift, brutal, and definitive, and I’m proud of the role I played in putting the hammer down on that.
Since then, one of the TWC reps on Twitter solicited comment on how to build a decent loyalty program that helps retain customers. Since I know a little bit about that too, I thought I might offer some ideas on how they can fix their PR problem. As both a journalist and a TWC customer, it’s in my interest to help forge a solution that benefits everyone without more idiotic schemes like the aforementioned.
I thought you guys might enjoy reading the letter I sent them, so I’ve provided an edited version of it for you below.
As is often her way, Heather asked me a very complex and pertinent question:
my libertarian conspiracy-theorist FIL has been sending me stuff about the states rights movement…stuff like sherrifs taking the power to arrest federal govt. officials and kicking the IRS out…my FIL is a loon. but that doesn’t mean these ideas are. obviously SOMEBODY thinks they are a good idea or nobody would care/start a movement/be doing anything.
as someone who fought for statehood rights in DC, i’m interested in your perspective on state vs. federal rights, taxation rights, and whether you think this movement is anything sane people should be afraid
My answer, as is often my way, is fairly complex. Follow along after the jump.
As part of her response to my “Man of Science, Man of Faith” essay, Heather asked me this very thoughtful question:
Would you purposefully hang out with someone you didn’t like just because you didn’t have a good reason for not liking them? would you go out of your way to include them in group activities just because you had one friend who liked them? two friends? no friends but this person just really wanted to be with people and didn’t see that no one in the group enjoyed their company? i struggle with this kind of question a lot because there are people i don’t like without understanding why i don’t like them. sometimes it’s because they are a little slow socially, but often i can’t put a finger on the reason at all. and these people can be genuinely nice and i still don’t want to hang out with them. i try to always be kind and civil - but i actually have an easier time being kind to people i have legitimate disagreements with or enemies than i do with people who just rub me the wrong way.
Last week I had a major spiritual crisis that had me implanted on a metaphorical crossroads. Each path demanded a set of adherence to belief systems that held both valuable insights and codes I consider abhorrent. I was nearly in tears from the weight of feeling like I had to choose one way or another, and I knew that whatever path I took would determine the course of much of my life for a long time to come.
Luckily, I was in a New Age bookstore on Melrose at the time, so I had plenty of reading material with which to work through this, and in the end, I found my path and renewed my confidence. I want to share my moment of apotheosis/transcendence/meaningful creation with you, not because I want you to believe as I do, but because I feel that articulating this in a coherent prose form will help me understand it better. I hope you do get some amusement, enlightement, or entertainment out of it, of course. I may lose some friends or turn some of you off with what I say, but I have faith in the people whom I love and trust that it won’t happen.
And faith is at least partially what this is about.
Two must-read articles came my way today detailing how the financial industry has successfully engineered a coup of the government, holding it hostage for its every whim.
First, here’s Marcy Wheeler detailing how the same banks who took taxpayer money are now forcing the automakers to accept draconian bankruptcy terms.
Then read Glenn Greenwald’s lacerating account of the revolving door between lucrative corporate consulting and high-level administration posts that Larry Summers and Tim Geithner are benefiting from.
The same people who not only engineered the global economic meltdown–and blocked any attempt to stop it–are now using the meltdown to leverage the United States into coughing up every last remaining dollar to save themselves from their own greed and selfishness. And not only is Obama letting them do it, he’s stacked his inner circle full of the worst perpetrators.
Even going in with the knowledge that Obama was a corporatist and friend to the banks, this is most certainly not change I can believe in.
I’m glad I didn’t follow the lead of half the free world and immediately post my thoughts on the grand finale of “Battlestar Galactica,” as it’s been tearing the Internet apart for the last 36 hours or so (Bendis could take a few lessons from Ron Moore on how to polarize an audience). Now that I’ve pondered it some and have time to do so, I figured I’ll add my $.10 or so.
First, rather than rehash the story itself and what has been said, I invite you to read three different viewpoints–the largely positive takes of Alan Sepinwall and Maureen Ryan (the best TV critics around, IMO), and the generally critical review by io9’s Annalee Newitz. I urge you to read all of these in depth for the excellent analyses of the show, both for the finale and for what they represent overall. Obviously, these contain mad SPOILERS, as my post will,. so don’t read any farther if you don’t want to know What It’s All About.
By now you’re probably familiar with the brazen outrage that is AIG giving billions in bonuses (paid with taxpayer money) to the very executives responsible for a very large part of the financial crisis — the creation and sale of credit default swaps. The amount is so staggering it bears repeating–after receiving $170 million in taxpayer dollars to prop it up, the company is paying $165 million in bonuses to its financial products unit. 95 percent of the money we gave to this company, which engineered a global financial meltdown through reckless horse-trading of incomprehensible financial instruments, is being used to reward those people who were most responsible for causing the chaos.
Disgusting.
Like you, I had my moment of sheer, spittle-flecked rage and frustration about this whole situation, but today, I’m focused on what we can do about it, and hopefully I can do the same for you. Read on if you’re so inclined.
I just received confirmation from a congressional aide that Senate Banking Chair Chris Dodd will notto provide increased conditions, transparency and oversight on the second $350 billion of the Wall Street bailout money (otherwise known as TARP). introduce legislation in the Senate to mirror House Finance Chair Barney Frank’s bill, HR 384,
As such, the funds will be released without any further conditions attached to them. Given that incoming Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been closely involved with the disbursement TARP funds so far, virtually nothing will change about the program whatsoever. We still won’t know which firms are receiving the money. We still won’t know how that money is being spent.
TARP money will be released, without any new conditions, oversight or transparency attached to it. At this point HOPE has moved from a campaign slogan to a system of governance.
I can’t necessarily blame Obama for this, since he said from the beginning he wanted the same type of universal authority to control the TARP funds that Bush did. But Dodd absolutely should know better. Here he had a golden opportunity to redraw the lines between the three branches of Congress and remind Obama that the executive and legislative are not supposed to be a hive mind. Instead, he seems content to defer to the executive and Obama’s economic advisor team.
Because, of course, we haven’t lived through eight years of an all-powerful zealous demagogue of a President who did whatever the hell he wanted without the slightest bit of oversight.
Hope is not a plan, nor is it a system of governance, and if it means no accountability to the American people, it certainly doesn’t make for change I can believe in.
Comments
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]…
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]…
It's the best software for SEO and SMM.
New 2017 release is perfect!!!.