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Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:36:20 GMT

After years of intense opinionating...

Watching some newborn puppies sleep.

Prop 8

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:07:15 GMT

NY Times: "California voters have adopted a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, The Associated Press reported Wednesday, joining voters in two other states who went to the polls Tuesday to overturn such unions."

I voted against Prop 8.

My thoughts on marriage are -- if you have kids you probably should be married, but if you don't who cares what you call your relationship. That's between you and your partner. You want to call it marriage, no problem as far as I'm concerned. I'm a libertarian in that regard. Stay focused on the big stuff and what happens between two consenting adults is none of my business.

And I think married heteros generally are assholes about this. If their marriages are so weak that they need to make it exclusive then maybe they ought to take a look inward instead of focusing their fear on people they don't know or understand (which is what their opposition to gay marriage really is saying, imho).

On the other hand... (And I'm going to catch hell for this.)

I have a friend who I didn't know was gay until he told me he was married and I thought that meant he had a wife (the female kind), but it turns out it was another guy. Truthfully -- I found this shocking, and a bit uncomfortable, and being a Californian, I said "I find this shocking and it makes me a bit uncomfortable" and my friend, also being Californian said he understood, which I'm sure he did.

I remember in 1980, the first time I went to Jamaica to visit my uncle. I was on the beach by myself and I realized I was the only white person. I freaked (not visibly of course) -- not wholly unlike the reaction I had to my friend's gay marriage, above. I remember why I was scared, but I don't understand it. Where I grew up, in NYC, we thought it was dangerous to be alone among so many blacks. I'm sure we were over-reacting, but it seemed real. Here it is not too much later, and the change we're talking about is inside me. Slowly, I've come to see black people differently. Very differently.

The obvious point -- eventually the shock will dissipate, and there will be a time when people don't understand why something like Prop 8 would pass. Transitions like this take time. There's no other way. But this change is coming, for sure.

My first post about Barack Obama

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:50:44 GMT

On 7/26/04, at the blogger's breakfast at the DNC, this weird guy who people said great things about came to talk to us. His name was Barack Obama. Here's the whole post:

Barack Obama, who's running for the Senate in Illinois, spoke briefly at the Blogger's Breakfast. He's an up and coming star of the Democratic Party, according to David Weinberger, he'll be President in 12 years.

Dr Dave was off by 8 years.

Bonus: Here's a teeny picture of Obama that day.

Today's song

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:30:20 GMT

Sarah we hardly knew ye

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:46:38 GMT

When she was announced as a candidate I was virtually alone in believing the choice wouldn't age well. When I turned out to be correct, I didn't want to gloat, because the election wasn't over, and there was no way to be absolutely sure. Now we are.

I don't think she killed the McCain candidacy, but had the economy not soured, I think she would have brought him down. It was such a bonehead decision, it was all the proof anyone needed that a McCain presidency would be as filled with disaster as the Bush presidency. Obama was absolutely right in saying that voting for McCain was signing up for another four years of Republican lunacy.

Now I hear people saying something equally wrong about Palin -- that she has a shot at leading the Republican Party in 2012. It isn't going to happen. That's not how American politics works.

We don't give losers a second chance in this country. (Yes, of course there are exceptions, but she isn't one of them, read on.)

Kerry thought he could run for President in 2008 after losing in a squeaker in 2004. It took a month or so before he realized that the Republicans would throw the exact same book at him they developed four years earlier, and while it wasn't fair then, it did work and it would work again.

Same with Palin. What little we really know about her is more than we wanted to know. When she shows up, if she's dumb enough to show up, as a candidate for President in 2010 or 2011, all we'll think of is the Katie Couric interview, and Charlie this and Charlie that, thanks but no thanks to the bridge to nowhere, the hypocrisy of a hockey mom who loves expensive clothes, and the pit bull with lipstick mavericky maverick reformer who fired a commissioner who wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law.

Palin is no longer a candidate, she's a punchline.

Election aftermath -- Obama's mandate

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:25:54 GMT

Cleaning up some loose ends.

Obama won Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, two states that were on McCain's slim path to a win. Once those were decided, it was over. I felt the networks could have called the election then, but they didn't.

When Obama won Ohio, it was even more certain. In order to win McCain would have had to win California, Oregon and Washington, and that structurally just couldn't happen. I told my friends who were gathered around the TV, in my opinion, it was over. I twittered it. If McCain were to win at this point, it would be the biggest bit of history in 100 years, including 9/11, the use of the atom bomb, World War II itself, the Mets winning the World Series in 1969. You get the idea. Things of that nature are so improbable they just don't happen.

Missouri went to McCain by the slimmest margin, thereby losing its bellwether status. It no longer always goes with the winner. Even the Boston Red Sox had to eventually beat out the Yankees for the championship.

I've read that Obama doesn't have a mandate, but I don't know what planet you have to come from to draw that conclusion. He has the strongest mandate in so many ways, it's likely he doesn't want that much mandate, and will disappoint in some or many ways. Can he really get us out of Iraq quickly enough to please all who want a quick exit? The public works projects that are going to be needed to keep us out of a depression give us a chance to fix the problems we so desperately want to fix, energy, health care, education, infrastructure. Those are the four biggies.

North Carolina still isn't decided, and I understand that Georgia wasn't decided until very late. Our guy almost won that state too. The whole Red State thing is now questionable. Yes there are still some, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, the Dakotas. But the south with all its newly energized African-American voters and the midwest are now all in play. A new political reality is shaping up, beyond the last four elections -- and that's the stuff of mandates.

We can bail out the auto industry, but in return they have to use the public money to underwrite new products that get the mileage that European cars get. If you've ever been to a European capital you know how oversized American cars are. There, in a nutshell, is the problem with Detroit -- it's really a problem with America. That's one reason we use so much energy. We can make some huge cuts there without having to invent anything, just copy the Europeans.

The good thing about Obama is that, armed with a mandate, he will know what to do with it.

What's next?

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:21:04 GMT

Now the next question is -- what comes next?

Probably some writing. But not yet. My to-do list is very long. I need to get my car serviced. Pay some bills and call some friends. After that, I don't know. Hey at least there's one thing that isn't on my list -- I get to stay in the USA.

I wonder what our election looks like to people outside the U.S.

Curious -- there was so much angst, now that Obama is our President-elect, what changed -- what comes next for you?

We won!

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT

Eat some pie tonight

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:51:55 GMT

When Obama wins tonight, celebrate with some pie. If possible, sweet potato pie, but in a pinch any pie will do.

We're having peach pie and pecan pie tonight.

All diets are officially suspended for the night.

Today's song

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:32:02 GMT

Dedicated to our soon-to-be-ex-President, George W. Bush.

IRC for Election Day

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:23:44 GMT

We've had IRC for every major event of the 2008 election dating back to the first caucuses and primaries, and through the presidential and vice-presidential debates.

So it seems fitting that we have one final IRC chat for this season, as we share information, points of view, scandals and touching moments of the last day of this election -- hopefully with a happy ending, for as many of us as possible.

irc://irc.freenode.net/#electionDay

See you in the chatroom!

"cheesecake"

$99 netbooks

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:01:44 GMT

Watch out iPhone, here come the netbooks.

For some people, even today's relatively bulky netbook computers are replacements for iPhones. That's what happened for me. The day I got my Eee PC 901 in July was when I more or less stopped using my iPhone as a computer.

But a netbook with Skype and a service plan is a lot like a cell phone, but unlike Apple's offering, it runs an OS with a wealth of software and developer know-how that is wide open. There's no gatekeeper who gets to say who can and can't put whatever software they want on a netbook.

And watch out Google, it beats Android too -- again so many more people know how to program Windows, it runs everything. For that reason I'm not running out to buy an Android phone, but I already own two netbooks.

Another bet I'd make -- the netbooks are going to shrink to phone size. You can see the space being made in the Asus product line. They're dropping the 7-inch screens in favor of the 10-inch ones, the keyboards on the 7-inch models aren't very usable, but they'll surely have a netbook form factor the size of a cell phone that plugs into a USB port on my laptop-like netbook. And each will cost $99 with a service plan, and they've lovely computers.

This is the future.

Heard on MSNBC

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:06:23 GMT

"The first 16 presidents could have owned Barack Obama as property." -- Jonathan Alter, on MSNBC this morning.

Never thought of it that way, but it's true.

Opting-out of political smears

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:40:48 GMT

I don't think reporters should pass on misleading stories. It would be better to act as a firewall, a defense against obvious campaign lies. It should be especially easy when they charges are aimed at the media itself.

Example. Sarah Palin, in the last days of the campaign, is saying that the SF Chronicle withheld comments from Obama saying he would "bankrupt the coal industry."

CNN: Palin knocks Obama over months-old coal comments.

The statement she's referring to was made in January, when Obama was still pretty green, and spoke perhaps a little too directly, with too much of truth. I don't think he said he would or wanted to bankrupt the coal industry, rather that he wanted to do something to reverse global warming. Almost anything we do to keep this planet habitable by our species will make it harder for the coal industry, which by definition pumps carbon to the atmosphere. Coal is carbon, pure and simple, and when you burn it, it goes into the atmosphere. That should be expensive. We should encourage development of technology that generates electricity without doing that.

Anyway, the Chronicle says it published the comments in print and as full video. I think MSNBC should check that out before passing through the Palin charge without comment. You don't have to call her a liar, you could just ignore the statement.

SF Chronicle: Palin suggests Chronicle withheld Obama remarks.

In any case, it's gratifying in the final days of the campaign to see the media not getting totally obsessed with other obvious smears. It's just the extremes in the blogosphere that are focusing on the crazy stuff. Maybe that could be the norm in political coverage.

Olbermann on SNL

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:18:17 GMT

American Tune

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:52:09 GMT

This ad was produced by Progressive Future.

NewsJunk for the final push

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:23:40 GMT

The pollsters and news organizations are publishing their final polls; the pundits are making their predictions.

Election Day is the day after tomorrow and as early as 3PM on Tuesday we will have returns, and possibly some states in the east will be called. As go Virginia, Pennsylvania and Indiana, among the first states to close, may well go the election.

Our news headline service, NewsJunk, will have all the good stuff as we find it. You can subscribe via RSS, watch it on your mobile device, through the web, FriendFeed, Twitter or Identi.ca. There's even a Google Group you can subscribe to. I hear all the time from people who just discovered it and wished they had found it sooner. We'll keep pushing links about the election as long as there's news. But we're reaching the end!

Dick Cheney campaigns for John McCain

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:02:58 GMT

866-OUR-VOTE

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:24:32 GMT

Macs to HDTV via HDMI?

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:45:33 GMT

Getting ready for election night when I'm going to have a few friends over to watch the returns, and either celebrate or...

I have two Macs hooked up to HDTVs, one a Samsung the other a Sony Bravia, and until recently they had been connected via VGA. I was barely aware you could do it any other way. I thought the picture was great until I hooked up a Toshiba HDTV to the second video display on my G5 tower and the picture so much better! Much more color. The Toshiba is a smaller, cheaper and older TV than the Sony that's connected into the other video output, but it looks much better. So, of course, I wanted to do the same with the Sony.

I tried connecting the HDMI output to the Sony, but the picture looked terrible. I don't know how to describe it, but the colors were all washed out, text was blurry. I might try to take a picture so y'all can see what the deal is.

I tried hooking up a Mac Mini in the living room to the Samsung TV via HDMI, and got the same lousy picture.

I unhooked the Mac Mini and connected my MacBook Pro to the Samsung, and got the same lousy picture.

I've fiddled with the Displays section of the Preferences in every way I could and it makes no difference. I've turned everything off and on, still no difference.

I can get more data. I might try to take a picture of the crummy image to post.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

PS: I'm using Belkin DVI to HDMI adapters.