Aliens:
For many people the immigration issue is black and white; people are either legal or illegal. Paul Sullivan reminds us about the grey area.
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June 30, 2006
Color me not interested:
Who would you pay $750 to see in concert if they were still around? The Beatles? The Rolling Stones with Brian Jones? The pre-breakdown Beach Boys? Probably all.
Barbra Streisand? I don't think so. But that's what she's charging.
UPDATE: I'd also add Dylan at Newport to the list.
June 29, 2006
Boom Boom Boomtown:
Jimmy Tingle is celebrating the 50th (!) anniversary of Rex Trailer's Boom Town. Jay Fitz writes about the show and he links to a video that brought back some long forgotten memories.
If you grew up in Boston and are of a certain age, you'll know who Rex Trailer is. It was a Saturday morning ritual of cowboys, kids and cartoons. Jay writes that Rex and Pablo stopped by his house a couple of times. That's the big time.
I was lucky enough to be on the show once, with my brother and some other kids from the neighborhood. My brother was the guy disguised in the wanted poster. My assignment on the show was to hold Rex's horse Goldrush's reigns while he stood eating hay in a studio stall. An awesome responsibility. Pablo, as I recall, was a bit of a grouch.
Not to brag, but I was also on Big Brother Bob Emery and Bozo the Clown (played by Frank Avruch.) But I never did make it on to the Major Mudd show. Now that was some great kid's TV.
Only money:
The good news for Harvard is that they were given a $12 million donation. The bad, is that they lost one worth over a hundred million.
Larry Elison is withholding a $115 million pledge because of the forced departure of Larry Summers. I'll bet that some of the anti-Summers crowd at Harvard now see themselves as victims of oppressive sanctions.
June 28, 2006
Sign of the season:
It's official, summer's here. The big inflated lock is back up along the expressway in Dorchester. It's late. Last year it went up a little earlier, in mid may. Then again, this year's April showers lasted straight through June.
Zoom zoom:
Carpundit is reporting from the Canadian Grand Prix. There's lots of pictures.
Turnpike authority:
It's another chapter in the saga of Matt Amorello and the Turnpike authority board. In this week's episode, Matt tries to change the rules, as one of his allies is about to be replaced by an appointee of the Governor.
It never gets tired.
Someday, a Charles Swift of the future will write about the long-gone Turnpike Authority and readers of that history will wonder why the people of our time thought we needed a complete agency of government, just for a single highway.
Fisticuffs:
Can't we all just get along?
Found money:
Do we need an Inspector General? That's the $800 million dollar question. Or two billion. Either way, the answer apparently is yes.
Hiding in plain view:
Members of the Senate and the Bush administration are upset at the New York Times for its story on government monitoring of international money transfers. But the Globe, owned by the Times, is on the offensive in defense of its parent. The defense theory: Many people already knew about the surveillance so, What's the big deal? -- there was no secret to begin with.
"There have been public references to SWIFT before," said Roger Cressey, a senior White House counterterrorism official until 2003. "The White House is overreaching when they say [The New York Times committed] a crime against the war on terror. It has been in the public domain before."
Good point, but that defense, for me, raises a new question. If so many people were already aware of the SWIFT monitoring, then what was the point and/or motive of that original Times story?
'What's the big deal? cuts both ways.
Update: Jay, up very early this morning, beat me to this one.
The politics of art:
Art and politics are a tricky pair. Guernica works. Nicholson Baker's Checkpoint doesn't. As a rule, politics tends to dumb down art.
In popular music the rule is slightly relaxed for obvious reasons. Protest songs are the best example of how politics and art can work, but only if the politics isn't party politics, but rather, the politics of morality. (They're not the same thing, in case you were wondering.) Can you imagine What's Going On bogged down with political strategy and Tricky Dick references? ((Four dead in) Ohio may be the exception to the exception.)
Effective protest songs have the power of persuasion. Ineffective protest songs (Steve Earl's last album for example) polarize and end up preaching only to the converted.
Which brings me to the Dixie Chicks. They don't make overtly political music although they do sometimes touch on moral issues in their songs. But Natalie Maines' raw political comments on a London stage a few years ago estranged them from their mostly conservative audience, taking away their power to persuade.
That's too bad because their latest album is a killer set of songs. I've been listening to it for a few days now and I can't get over the depth of the material; one great song after another, ending with a masterpiece of moral protest, I Hope.
It's too bad, too, that Maines didn't deliver her remarks in London with the same eloquence and tone that she does in that song. Those "happy ever afters" that she sings about could have been shared all around.
June 27, 2006
False choice:
A Suffolk University spokesperson says it's either get used to rowdy student disturbances on Beacon Hill, or build that big new dorm they've been asking for. I'd offer a third option: make them behave or kick them out of school.
Tip top ten:
Mike Elgan has compiled a top ten list of top ten lists. There's a lot to choose from if you want to put your own list together.
Nine more and we can take it up to the next level.
Symbiosis:
McGrory's just wild about Hingham, and Hingham's wild about him. What else would you expect?
"Poised for conflict":
I would watch what's happening between Hamas and Israel. I fear that they are on the brink of full and open war, and it could be a very nasty and desperate war.
June 26, 2006
Early morning fog:
Instant gratification:
A $30 scratch ticket? Too rich for my blood. But people are snapping them up.
Up a notch:
After a series of back and forth missile strikes, Hamas has conducted a raid into Israel, killing 2 soldiers and kidnapping another. Unless a third party can quickly broker a deal, it looks like a crisis is imminent.
June 25, 2006
Seeding, not leading:
How do newspapers benefit from independent blogs? An editor at The Telegraph explains and follows up.
Increasingly people are getting their news from blogs, news aggregators and social bookmarking sites. Rather than ignoring that, newspapers have to embrace it.
Links, of course, work both ways. Boston papers have not integrated blog content into their news and analysis in a meaningful way and seem nervous about promoting independent blogs. In fact, apart from lifestyle coverage, local blogs get very little notice. And even when content from a blog is featured, the papers go out of their way not to provide a URL or even a blog name, so that the reader is cut off from the source material.
Whether that's because of fear, spitefulness or cluelessness doesn't really matter. In the end, smart editors will see the benefit of bi-directional promotion. And in the end, the only editors left will be the smart editors.
June 24, 2006
Bedfellows:
This is from an article called Confessions of a Human Bomb from Palestine featured and linked to on The New England Committee To Defend Palestine's website.
They call us 'terrorists' but it is an absurdity to think that they, who hold the power of life and death over our entire people each and every day, could be terrorised by us. We have nothing but our determination and our willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice. Our bombs consist of a handful of nails propelled, along with our flesh and bones, by the crudest of explosives.
Is it any wonder that the committee is having trouble maintaining local political alliances? Solomonia has more (via UH).
Something's cooking:
Saddam Hussein was reported to have gone on a hunger strike when one of his lawyers was assassinated last week. It turns out he just skipped lunch.
It must have been meat loaf night.
"This is serious":
Tim Berners-Lee blogs on net neutrality here and here
Yes, regulation to keep the Internet open is regulation. And mostly, the Internet thrives on lack of regulation. But some basic values have to be preserved. For example, the market system depends on the rule that you can't photocopy money. Democracy depends on freedom of speech. Freedom of connection, with any application, to any party, is the fundamental social basis of the Internet, and, now, the society based on it.
Let's see whether the United States is capable as acting according to its important values, or whether it is, as so many people are saying, run by the misguided short-term interested of large corporations.
I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to innovate in the internet space. I want to see the explosion of innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so exciting, continue unabated.
An authoritative opinion, I'd say.
In his column this week, Bob Cringely gets a little over my head in analyzing how a tiered system would affect internet network traffic, but the bottom line is that he says it won't work out the way the ISPs think.
Not your father's gun buyback:
It turns out that the Boston gun buyback project is a much more successful initiative than anyone, myself included, ever expected. Much of the success is due to savvy marketing. There's the MySpace page for example. Here's one comment on the page from Shikiboo in Roxbury:
...Check it, the Boston Gun Buyback is a good step. All of those guns on the table could have been added up as lives taken instead. Big up to Mayor Menino, Target and all the people who turned in the guns. ...
And, there's a Typepad blog with lots of info and photos.
June 23, 2006
Lightning strikes:
Authorities are warning against using a cellphone while standing outside during a thunderstorm. There's no special warning, though, about using a cellphone while swimming in shark infested waters.
Neighborhood grinch:
Steve Bailey can't get a call back from the usually media-friendly Lucian Bebchuk to ask him about his legal assault on a non-profit children's art center.
June 22, 2006
You'll be lost without it:
Do you have an after-market GPS unit in your car? Use common sense. Don't leave it out where passersby can see it.
Letting go:
I was an early user of AOL, before they even had a Windows interface, back in the Geoworks days. I even had a four letter @aol screen-name. No numbers.
But by the late nineties I outgrew the service, tired of the ads and dumbed-down interface and called to cancel. I thought it would be straightforward but not so. It took nearly five minutes of trying to convince the rep that, yes, I really wanted to relinquish my valuable screen-name and move on, before he would agree to close the account.
Apparently things haven't changed much . This guy recorded a recent painful attempt to cancel AOL and this women wasn't able to shut down her mothers' s account, even after she passed away.
Vegetable power:
Could biomass-fuel be the disruptive technology that solves our oil-dependency woes?
Just push publish:
Yes, posting to a blog is fun and easy. Too easy sometimes. Just click the 'publish' button, sit back and wait for what you write to fade into oblivion. Or not.
My posting yesterday morning on the Governor's plan to make the State Police an arm of immigration might have been a little strong so I should clarify a few points. First, posts, especially those involving local issues, are sometimes designed to be more provocative than reasoned. That's the nature of blogging.
Second, don't assume that I speak with any authority. Nothing I write here is anything more than an off-the-cuff early morning take on the news. These opinions are certainly not an official stance. My views on issues often change and I'm not shy about doing an about-face when, in the course of time, I've have a chance to reconsider.
Finally, I don't presume to speak for my employer or the State Police on this issue.
Now, all that being said, I still think the Governor's plan is a bad idea. I'll backtrack a bit on assuming what the motives behind the plan are and consider that they're well intentioned. But in the end, I think if it goes through, the results will counter-productive.
June 21, 2006
Fluff wars:
Like posting to a blog, filing bills in the state legislature must be a fun and easy thing to do. But even cat-blog posts seem more substantive than many of the bills filed by our friends in the State House.
Real time crime:
The Weekly Dig's Lissa Harris does a story on BPDNews.
BTW, does anyone have a recommendation for a good comment authentication plug-in for Moveable Type? Spammers have descended on the site. TypeKey just doesn't work.
Think nationally, act locally:
If the State Police actually start checking the immigration status of people they encounter, as proposed by the Governor, they will lose the ability to work effectively with local police departments on joint investigations or initiatives. Forget counter-terrorism investigations. No one will in the communities will talk to them.
I'm sure the State Police know this and I doubt that they want to become national campaign workers at the expense of their own local effectiveness. My prediction, even if this bad idea is actually implemented: The State Police will simply ignore it.
June 20, 2006
Baked on:
Here are some seasonal tips for cleaning your BBQ grill.
But don't clean it too well. Some dirt and grime can be good for your health. (At least that's what I tell people when they get in my car.)
Heading for the cliff:
Is there any sympathy left for the slow burning man-made disaster that is New Orleans? First Nagin gets reelected. Then the fraud. Now gangsters are taking over the city and they're calling in the National Guard.
It's a bad idea. If it's stress inducing for soldiers in Iraq to act as peacekeepers, imagine what it will be like for the Guard, in a non-natural disaster situation, trying to police a gang and gun-filled American city.
If, or rather when, something bad happens, like the inadvertent shooting of a teenager, Nagin can blame the outsiders, playing one side off against the other, as New Orleans continues to deteriorate into a mismanaged urban nightmare.
A tasty burger:
Whether it's the Royale with Cheese or Le Big Mac, the French have warmed up to American fast food.
Meanwhile back in the states, the food police have set their sights on Starbucks for the high fat and sugar content of it's offerings. Are they talking about the music or the food?
Creating a buzz:
Another big front-page story in this morning's Globe: The critical shortage of bees. Yes, bees.
Reciprocity:
Apparently not all Top Secret clearances in the federal government are equal. Why? It's a secret.
June 19, 2006
Connecting the dots:
Microsoft is making a large grant to Massachusetts educational institutions. At the same time, the legislature is considering an amendment that would limit the adoption of the OpenDocument Format, a challenge to Microsoft's proprietary document standard.
In a very even-handed way, ConsortiumInfo raises questions about the timing of these events. (via Universal Hub)
Constituent services:
It's interesting that Gabrieli thinks that the legislature's arranging for the state to financially support an ailing ex-rep is "not an issue in the campaign" Especially so, since his two opponents have put themselves 'out there' on the issue.
Everything is an issue in a campaign. (Hell, City Councillor Chuck Turner thinks Palestinian rights are a campaign issue for him.)
Actually, it wasn't a bad tactic for Gabrieli to stay away from this one, which, whatever position you take, could blow up on you. By not taking a position, Gabrieli takes a position, in essence, having his cake and eating it too.
Two headlines, two cities:
Just a random observation about what counts for news in the metro area. The Herald is focused today on cycles of violence affecting people in the city. The Globe is concerned about the organizational integrity of the MSPCA. Both stories are featured high and left on the front pages in their respective paper.
Clean classics:
Like another in a series of Who farewell tours, the Gap is re-inventing itself. Again. (Come to think of it, they both have been catering to the same demographic.)
June 17, 2006
Thursday afternoon in Singapore:
Singapore has been criticized for being a nanny state, among other things, but one thing that was apparent to me in my visit was that, in addition to being modern, clean and prosperous, it is vibrantly multi-cultural, at least in Asian terms. Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Malaysian, and more, all seem to coalesce into a single working society. Of course, that's based on my limited outsider's experience.
I had a free afternoon to get out and about for some photos -in and around the city, and into the ethnic enclaves. I wish I'd had more time, if anything to try even more local food.
A woman tends to a flower stand in Little India.
As in many places in Asia, clothes dryers are rare in apartment complexes.
Just a degree north of the Equator, the sun beats down hard in Singapore. Umbrellas are common even on sunny days.
American chains abound, from Borders Books to Hooters. McDonalds are outnumbered only by Starbucks.
A sleepy magazine stand caters to a segment of the market that Borders Books misses.
Sari city.
The shopping district on Orchard Road is a monument to Asian consumerism.
Mall after mall after mall after mall, most populated by Western outlets, line the street. It's Chestnut Hill writ large.
Back in Chinatown, a cobbler works outside.
Women return from a shopping excursion at the Tekka shopping center.
A neighborhood shopping center near Bugis Village. No Starbucks or Borders here.
Do these colors match?
A local restaurant features Tiger beer, which, I can attest, tastes pretty good on a hot Singapore day, even with ice in the glass.
Nothing but sandals and flip-flops in this shop. Well, maybe a couple of loafers.
Inspecting the merchandise.
Many of the skyscrapers in the financial district were designed with feng shui in mind.
Others were designed simply to be distinctive.
There seem to be some personal space issues in this conversation.
People's Park place in Chinatown.
A row of shops on Serangoon Road.
Red hot chili peppers.
Another flower stand.
Cultures coexisting.
Two men walk near the mosque in the Pakistani area.
Rubbing the Buddha's stomach for luck. It worked for me. I got an aisle seat on the way home.
The city has a modern, efficient subway that puts the T to shame.
Another view of the financial district high-rises along the Singapore River.
June 12, 2006
MPG:
Why can't Toyota make a hybrid that's fun to drive? And well designed? And not sluggish? With good breaks? And a radio that works? Reasonably comfortable? You know, the normal stuff you look for in a car.
Carpundit does not like the Prius. Well, except for the steering wheel.
There goes the neighborhood:
There's something unseemly about those companies that buy up domain names and use them to pull in traffic. When you type in a domain name, you expect to get something relating to that name, not a chintzy portal. It's always a disappointment. And, to add insult to injury, they then offer to sell you the domain name.
This company makes money doing just that. It has previously operated in "stealth mode" (I wonder why?) but now it wants to get out and establish a brand, locally, at that. Good luck.
Buying up domain names is not like buying real estate as they contend. It's more like buying up all the street signs and covering them up. It subverts the way the web should work.
June 11, 2006
Upside down:
Good afternoon. It's 5:30 AM where I am, the usual time I read the papers and post. But since I'm in Singapore, a day ahead but 12 hours behind, it's all old news to everyone else. Maybe I'll try to post in the afternoon to see if that works.
June 10, 2006
Break in the routine:
I'll be traveling for a week or so. Posting will depend on the availability of connections along the way. Meanwhile, check in with some of the other Boston Blogs. The listing on the right is a good place to start.
June 9, 2006
Pausing the news cycle:
If it happened at 6:15 PM on Wednesday, is it still "Breaking News" on Thursday? By late afternoon yesterday, Al-Zarqawi's death had been downgraded on CNN to a "Developing Story."
At some point, the banner should read, "Old News."
Throughput:
Dunkin' Donuts reveals it's competitive strategy: No couches. No wi-fi. Just buy your coffee and get out.
That'll work fine for me. Good, quick, hot coffee. Hold the morning pizza.
Relatively ugly:
You can get an idea of how poorly designed the fountain on City Hall Plaza is, when, by comparison, a plain concrete slab, set to cover it, is receiving universal praise for being a visually pleasing alternative.
Bigger picture:
Again, I'm treading a line here, but I'm glad to see some signs that journalists are actually thinking beyond arrest statistics to get to the reasons firearm crime is on the rise. Michele McPhee does a case study of judicial neglect and Brian McGrory writes about the tendency of the courts to see criminals as representative of the community.
...If these judges are protecting the civil rights of hoodlums, then who's protecting the civil rights of working families -- you know, those people on virtually every block of Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury who go to bed at night listening to the sounds of gunshots?
Who's protecting the civil rights of the young mothers who won't let their kids play outside on even the hottest summer days because they're afraid they'll be caught in the crossfire of rival gangs?
Who's protecting the civil rights of the elderly residents who would never dare venture outside after dark? The teenagers who can't shoot baskets in area parks because they're too dangerous? The young adults who aren't ever really told that there might be a better way?
These are all good questions. I don't think judges don't care about the real victims of crime. I just think they're out out of touch with the big picture, locked into a outdated, simplistic, black and white conventional wisdom.
Shortsighted:
Maybe it just happens to be an especially rainy spring. Maybe last year's hurricane season just happened to be one of the most active ever. Or maybe these are warning signs of larger climatic trends?
Thanks to NASA budget cuts, we'll just have to guess.
June 8, 2006
Think locally, report globally:
From WBZ radio's web page: Top Local News, "Terror Leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Killed in Iraq." It's welcome news, but you have to admit, that's a pretty broad definition of local.
Stand by for traffic on the threes from Route Irish.