Island Passage

I've been a fan of Stewart Brand for many years. Though I was never a hippie, I was a computer hobbyist back in the 1970s and a believer in space habitats in the early 1980s , so I regularly enjoyed the free-for-all in the pages of CoEvolution Quarterly . One of the great things about Mr. Brand, one of the things that makes him a hero, is summed up in this statement : “Any time that people are forced to acknowledge publicly that they’re wrong, it’s really good for the commonweal. I love to be busted for apocalyptic proclamations that turned out to be 180 degrees wrong. In 1973 I thought the energy crisis was so intolerable that we’d have police on the streets by Christmas. The times I’ve been wrong is when I assume there’s a brittleness in a complex system that turns out to be way more resilient than I thought.” How refreshing!

A level-headed internet voice on the political left? Great Scot! This could cause a rupture in the space-time continuum! The blogger bomb-throwing may be good for inflaming the activist base, and, as they demonstrated in the 2006 Lieberman-Lamont Senate primary race in Connecticut, for occasionally blowing up the opposition. It’s not bad for bullying your friends, either, as the liberal blogosphere did last week in pressuring Edwards to not fire the two bloggers who penned the offensive anti-religious posts. But the typical blog mix of insults and incitements is just not an effective strategy for persuading people outside of your circle of belief – be they moderate Democrats, moderate Republicans, or the swelling number of independents – to join your cause. In fact, it’s far more likely to alienate than propagate them. Something else most liberal bloggers fail to appreciate – we as Democrats can’t afford to repel those middle of the road, largely non-partisan voters. The Iraq war n...

There is something perversely satisfying about this video of Washington State Senator Patty Murray being heckled, harassed, and served with an "arrest warrant" by antiwar activists. It reminds me of this quote from A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now : “New Anger is a spectacle to be witnessed by an appreciative audience, not an attempt to win over the uncommitted....If in your anger you reduce your opponent to the status of someone unworthy or unable to engage in legitimate exchange, real politics comes to an end....Whoever embraces New Anger is bound to find that, at least in the political realm, he has traded the possibility of real influence for the momentary satisfactions of self-expression.” Calling Patty Murray a war criminal pretty much embodies this concept. But the fact that she and her colleagues played to these people and used these people during their political campaigns is sweet, sweet schadenfreude. Like my Mama always says, "You lie down with dogs, ...

I am a big fan of James Cameron. Or I was. Until today. I think that Aliens is the best stand-up science fiction shooter in the history of the Solar system. It rocks . "Just tell me one thing, Burke. You're going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study. Not to bring back. But to wipe them out." But now he's turned from being the man who created The Abyss into Geraldo Rivera . Sic transit gloria mundi .

(via Jane Gault ) Because I find the traditional "Left vs. Right" typology describing the political spectrum simple-minded to the point of imbecility, I am curious of new ways to slice and dice the electorate. The Pew Research Center for People and the Press has a test in which that they try to get beyond "left-right." Having been trained by years of schooling and of being pestered by Mrs. Islander to take those "test your man" quizzes in women's magazines I stepped up to bat. So how does this test classify me? Enterpriser Based on your answers to the questionnaire, you most closely resemble survey respondents within the Enterpriser typology group. This does not mean that you necessarily fit every group characteristic or agree with the group on all issues. Enterprisers represent 9 percent of the American public, and 10 percent of registered voters. Basic Description As in previous studies conducted in 1987, 1994 and 1999, this extremely partis...

I am embarrassed to note that that old toe-biter, Dick Morris has a gushy column in The Hill devoted to my personal favorite , Newt Gingrich . Enter Newt. Hungry for new ideas and desperate after losing Congress, Republican voters seem to be rallying to the only real genius in the race — the former Speaker. The statute of limitations seems to have expired on his personal scandals and Gingrich is striking a responsive chord among conservatives. If only it were so, Dick! I would pay good money to see Newt step into the debate.

The Washington Post has an article by Harold Meyerson drawing yet another parallel between the election of 1972 and 2008. Even I, who have been drawing many parallels between the anti-war movements of the 1960s and the 2000s had not gotten to that point. A specter was haunting Hillary Clinton as she campaigned in New Hampshire this weekend: the specter of Ed Muskie. As the ancient or merely studious among us will recall, the Democratic senator from Maine, who'd been Hubert Humphrey's running mate in 1968, entered his party's presidential contest in 1972 as the front-runner. His prospects were dashed in the New Hampshire snows, however. As popular memory has it, an indignant Muskie started crying while refuting a silly attack on him (though whether he was genuinely upset or merely sniffling during a frigid outdoor news conference was never authoritatively resolved). Muskie's more serious problem, however, was the Vietnam War, which he opposed. His opposition, though, ha...

Is it possible that a Vancouver, Canada company has produced a quantum computer decades ahead of schedule? Or is 2007's version of Cold Fusion ? A pointer to this ABC.com story sent me over to the company's website . I guess we'll find out February 13th. Why is this so important? A couple of reasons spring to mind: If this is a real product, these goes encryption standards! Some meteorologists and climate scientists feel that failures of prediction aren't due to system complexity (chaos), but poor models. Putting bad models on a quantum computer will just turn out bad answers faster. This may encourage better modeling. Want to read more about just what the heck Quantum Computing is? Meet Mr. Wiki .

As we enter this amped-up, early kick-off campaign season, we are going to be hearing that evergreen complaint against "attack ads." Not from me. Andrew Ferguson points out : "The difference between a positive ad and a negative ad is that the negative ad has a fact in it." (Thanks to Jim Geraghty .)

Following up to my previous post about the Edward's campaign's misstep: Apparently the affair has upset some on the Christian Left . I really feel for these people--especially those that have been laboring for years in the fields of social justice. "We're completely invisible to this debate," said Eduardo Penalver, a Cornell University law professor who writes for the liberal Catholic journal Commonweal . He said he was dissatisfied with the Edwards campaign's response. "As a constituency, the Christian left isn't taken all that seriously," Penalver said. "We have gone so far to rebuild that coalition [between Democrats and religious Christians] and something like this sets it back," said Brian O'Dwyer, a New York lawyer and Irish-American leader who chairs the National Democratic Ethnic Leadership Council , a Democratic Party group. O'Dwyer said Edwards should have fired the bloggers. "It's not only wrong morally – it...

I was surprised when some low-level yutz in the Washington State Democratic Party decided that Christians weren't a constituency worth worrying about . But at least the Dem Pols at the state level have the decency to be ashamed . But when a National Candidate blows it... I assume that the Constant Reader has been hearing about John Edward's campaign retaining the blogging services of Amanda Marcotte ( Pandragon ) and Melissa McEwan ( Shakespeare's Sister ). This whole thing has been examined and dissected on many , many sites . The latest word from the Edward campaign site is that John Edwards has made the decision to keep them: The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwan's posts personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my camp...

It's only February 2007 and this race has already pulled outta Oddburg and taken the interstate for Bizzaro Springs, CA. Chuck Norris has come out for Newt Gingrich . First of all, I make no secret of my fondness for Newt, and I have every respect for Chuck Norris and his roundhouse kick . But Holy Tamale, Chuck is quoting a 1790 sermon by Rev. Daniel Fosters ! Chuck, I didn't know that you were familiar with the 18th century Great Awakening. I feel as I did when I was a small boy and wandered into a hall of mirrors.

Via James Toranto: ...So she's going to end the war and give health insurance to everyone--all in the last 11 days of January! Okey dokey, artichokey . ...My daily newspaper recently included, in a diatribe against Hillary Clinton, that she often says -- I hope you'll forgive me for repeating this expletive -- "okey-dokey artichokey." Hey, what's wrong with "okey-dokey artichokey"? First of all, this is the only endearing thing I (for one) have ever heard about Mrs. Clinton. Whether it is superlatives from the left or brickbats from the right, she is usually described in the warm glowing terms one reserves for a sci-fi movie's android. She is either the most brilliant mass of protoplasm ever gathered together in one organism, or else the most evil being since Lucifer voluntarily resigned from Heaven, citing creative conflicts over the future direction of the cosmos. But there's something likable about someone who says "okey-dokey articho...

I cried. Like a little baby, I cried. The Vader Sessions Like he says: "Someone clearly has a lot of time on his hands, but at least he's putting it to good use."