Disregard II

I'm having a heck of a time posting the wrong things on the wrong blogs. What a nightmare!

Isn't there some way to just delete an entire post?

Politics and Religion

I know there are two topics that friends are not supposed to discuss if they want to remain friends, but, since we talk religion all the time, I figure it's no big risk to bring politics in behind it. Anyways, here is my plea from a late-primary state to those of you who have super-Tuesday primaries.

This should be no surprise: I want to encourage you to vote in the primary for Barack Obama. There are a number reasons based in foreign and domestic policy that make me support Obama, but here is the main reason-- the core reason-- that I support him (have supported him for about a year now) and think that you should also. This text appears at the top of the screen on Barack Obama's website: "I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about change in Washington... I'm asking you to believe in yours." It is, I know, a little cheesy, but it represents a view of politics and national potential that places the burden of hope-- and thereby earns the right to hope-- on the nation as a whole, on the citizens, on the people, and not on his own shoulders, however capable. He does not claim that he can change the country for us (none of the "stand up for me in the ballot box and I'll stand up for you" tripe); he stands as a voice calling us to live up to our own potential, to listen to our own consciences, to dare to believe in our own ideals. Change in this country, movement towards equality and justice and freedom, will not (cannot) come from the government or the "halls of power"; it must come from the people, our effort, our sacrifices. Barack understands that. He understands the necessity of inspiring the American people to work for justice. He understands that this government of the poeple will only work for the people when it is led by the people.

I know we don't normally talk politics on the blog, but I do feel the urgency of this moment (to paraphrase Dr. King), and for the first time in my life I want to vote for a candidate and not just against their opponent. If you are voting in a Democratic primary, your vote would be well used in support of Barack. I will be voting for him in Texas, but they don't let us vote until mid-March. Even those of you who are Republicans-- I think you should consider crossing over for the primary and voting for a candidate who takes such a sincerely inspiring and sincerely moral position. We all know how rare that is in American politics.

http://www.barackobama.com/

disregard

Zotero

A quick caveat: those of you who do research online may find this as interesting as I do. Those of you who don't will not care (but then again, you're not even reading this anymore, so I guess this disclaimer is unnecessary).

I am auditing a seminar on the digital humanities this semester, and coming into contact with a bunch of tools and other technical wizardry that I never knew existed. Some of them are quite useful. A case in point: Zotero. From their website:

Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like EndNote)—the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways. Zotero integrates tightly with online resources; it can sense when users are viewing a book, article, or other object on the web, and—on many major research and library sites—find and automatically save the full reference information for the item in the correct fields. Since it lives in the web browser, it can effortlessly transmit information to, and receive information from, other web services and applications; since it runs on one’s personal computer, it can also communicate with software running there (such as Microsoft Word). And it can be used offline as well (e.g., on a plane, in an archive without WiFi).

Enjoy.

Dmitri's choice

Here is a link to an article on Slate about Vladimir Nabokov's final manuscript... and whether or not his son will burn it according to his father's final wishes.

Dmitri's Choice

A sample:
"Here is your chance to weigh in on one of the most troubling dilemmas in contemporary literary culture. I know I'm hopelessly conflicted about it. It's the question of whether the last unpublished work of Vladimir Nabokov, which is now reposing unread in a Swiss bank vault, should be destroyed—as Nabokov explicitly requested before he died."

Cosmology and You

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/science/15brain.html?_r=2&8dpc&oref=slogin&oref=slogin



Interesting article. Anybody have any thoughts about it?

The reminder

Since we're kind of content-starved here, I thought I'd take this opportunity to self promote again by hyping my spectacular Blog Aeijtzsche pronounced "H"

If you were a fan of, say, Aeijtzsche & H Hitt Facktoreeee, you may be pleased to learn that I've been posting quite a few songs of my own composition on this blog, that are closer in spirit to that than anything I've done for a while.

I'm writing a musical of sorts, so most of the songs are parts of a story. But there are stand alone songs too. Steve Hunter, if you're reading this, I wish you were here to input your 2 cents and provide your patience for the minutia of programming and sequencing and such.

It's also a very confessional blog, so if you like reading about skeletons in people's closets, my blog is for you.

Anyway, I really do desperately want attention, so I feel the need to overpromote my blog. Forgive me. Or better yet, become a regular reader of the blog and comment a lot so I feel important!

Thanks!

The Politics of TEFKAMS

AAAAHHHHH!!!!! I took Andy's advice and answered those questions. What's the deal?? I make Fred Thomson look like a peacenik!!! What's a guy got to do to find a decent candidate? You know, one that shares his values and whatnot?!?!?!? AAAAHHHHH!!!!! I guess I'll have to throw my (quite powerful) support behind old Fred. But I'll only do it if he uses that Law and Order doink doink sound when he debates.

DOINK DOINK

AAAHHHH!!!!!!

WHITE HOUSE, HERE WE COME!!!!

Mapping the Political Landscape

Hey, you there! Remember when we used to post to this blog? Share funny stories, argue with Grady and Coye and Ryan about things important and things not so important? Yeah, I miss that.

Just for fun, I filled out the series of questions on electoralcompass, which then plotted my range of responses on a graph to suggest which political candidate I ought to support. No big surprises here. More moderate than Coye, less than Dusty (yes, you are my political landmarks).

Happy 2008.