Well, it looks ironically like the Obama presidency might be the final kiss of death for the dominance of traditional newspapers. With the Tribune Co. having filed for bankruptcy protection, it may have seemed like the industry was doomed anyway. But the resurgence in interest in current events that accompanied the election, together with the enthusiasm and giddy blogging that has followed Barack Obama from his Senate office to the foot of the capitol, where next Tuesday he will pledge his oath of office, has not helped newspapers the way they probably hoped. From the heydays of the 1970s, when it was newspaper writers who tracked down and revealed the lurid details of Watergate, newspapers have become an accessory on a much wider and varied wardrobe of the news media.
Slate.com predicts that Obama's reluctance to follow many of the traditions of office-taking will push newspapers into a steeper decline. Even while Post and Times reporters may gush over the rise of the new President, he has refused the traditional NYT pre-inaguration interview and met with Post staff this past week more with compunction than anything else. After all, this is the hip campaigner who harnessed the power of microblogging and YouTube to weave together an incredibly influential grassroots network. He draws some of his biggest support from a demographic who doesn't even use a landline phone, let alone wait patiently for the morning newspaper delivery. These budding politicos turn instead to the web and to each other to pass along the most interesting news. And while there may be many of questionable veracity or objectivity within the legion of bloggers, at least no one can accuse so motley a crew of writers of harboring some vast conspiracy. They can't get together to agree for long enough to accomplish that.
So while time alone will tell what kind of reporters emerge at the forefront of the news media in the next four years, I suspect the newspaper giants of the past to fade even more, or to merge with the name of their buyers. Perhaps we'll see the Facebook Washington Post in not too long.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Long Lost Family
Great-great-great-great-...-grandpa!
I have family! Or, rather, more family than I thought.
I received a call last week from a woman who, it seems, is a second cousin on my father's side. She stumbled across us in the search for her family tree. Because my paternal grandmother died long before I was born, and because she had emigrated more or less by herself, we having had any contact with that branch of the family expect for one short visit that my father made to an uncle back in the 1970s (pre-me). But there they are. Some of them apparently came to the U.S. a while back, and others have come to visit, seeing cities that I happened to be living in at the time. It is very strange to think that I could have bumped into a lady in the train station and then walked away utterly unaware that I had just come closer to a paternal cousin than ever before.
On the other hand, I recently saw a paper that claims that each unique person on this planet is related to me (and every other person, for that matter) in 40,000 ways. So I guess I probably bump into second cousins thrice removed or something like that nearly every day ...
Monday, November 10, 2008
Thoughts on the recent election (and excuses for poor bogging)
I haven’t blogged in a while. That much is clear just from glancing at my blog history. Not only have I had very little “blog worthy” news to relate in recent weeks, but I have also poured far more energy into my old journal lately. I suppose I have been missing the sturdy, old-fashioned feel of a pen in my hand. The sight of an ink-stained pinky and the ache of too many pages, too, have been missing. As readers of this blog can attest, I do not have a whole lot of talent, but I somehow can imagine myself as more of a literary savant when I can hold up pages and pages of untidy scrawl as proof of my (mediocre) genius. Maybe I am getting old, but lately those pages seem more tangible than breezily directing people to “oh, look at my blog.”
In any case, here I am once more determined to have a go at it. I am sure that the vast world of the internet has been feeling so deprived of my random thoughts and commentary lately …
________________________________________
And now onto my second topic du jour: the election. First of all, allow me just to say this: thank God. Hearing Sarah Palin daily struggle to form coherent sentences for the next four, and possibly eight or more years, might just have killed me. I really did not have that much against John McCain expect for some disagreements on some main policy issues until he chose Gov. Palin as his running mate. I suppose I could have dealt with her occasional gaffes or infuriating way of trucking over the English language almost every time she opened her mouth, but my patience stopped at her pointed disdain for educated and intelligent engagement with the issues. I’m sorry, Ms. Palin, you cannot harp on the inestimable value of good judgment and then condemn a man who worked hard his whole life to put himself through the nation’s best countries in an effort to better inform that judgment. In fact, all your possible claims about the merits of Sen. McCain’s judgment basically went out the window when he selected you as his running mate. Only in his concession speech did he regain some measure of the dignity and self-assurance and conviction that had been lacking in the weeks before. It must have been very difficult, indeed, to run a campaign that attacked so many of the principles upon which he had based his life.
But on to happier matters, we have a new president! And for anyone who knows how rabidly I followed this election, you can well imagine my satisfaction. In fact, many of my friends will likely join me in my profound relief that this election is finally over. I don’t think I could have sustained that kind of intense interest in every political outlet I could think of logging on to for much longer, and I am sure my friends would not have sustained their patience with me much longer.
Of course, as we move forward from the euphoria of the election, the problems facing this president seem even more dire. I am hoping that Obama will prove the right man for the job. After the surreal moments of his election and acknowledgement speech, when all of America stood back in awe of their first bi-racial president, you can tell that a more sober atmosphere has set in. In many ways, that makes me respect the somber tenor of Obama’s speech even more. As an intelligent and self-aware man, I have no doubts that he was aware of the momentousness of the moment, but there was no dazzling gleefulness in his speech. Instead, he spoke in measured tones of the challenges and accomplishments that face us. Many people since then have remarked how presidential he seemed up there at the podium, protected by a wall of transparent bullet-proof glass. But how more remarkable is it that he stood there as exactly the sort of man with exactly the sort of temperament that our country needs right now. After years of apparently arbitrary decisions on any number of issues – torture, patriotism, the firing of federal attorneys – a calm, deliberate approach seems exactly the right prescription. I have always thought any man who wanted to run for president had to be just a touch crazy to want all the awesome and grave responsibilities that come with the office, so it is refreshing to note that Americans have elected (by a landslide) a man who seems to fully grasp the weight of the duties that lie before him. And not three sentences after praising the opportunities that this country affords, he was immediately to work; he turned his mind and the mind of the country right back to the task at hand.
I am eager to see as this transition moves forward how Obama will work to keep the glossy promises of the campaign trail and how he communicates to a nervous country the realities of our situation. I hope that with a president who shows this much promise, Americans all over will devote themselves to making sure he lives up to it.
I know I am prepared to write a couple of op-eds.
In any case, here I am once more determined to have a go at it. I am sure that the vast world of the internet has been feeling so deprived of my random thoughts and commentary lately …
________________________________________
And now onto my second topic du jour: the election. First of all, allow me just to say this: thank God. Hearing Sarah Palin daily struggle to form coherent sentences for the next four, and possibly eight or more years, might just have killed me. I really did not have that much against John McCain expect for some disagreements on some main policy issues until he chose Gov. Palin as his running mate. I suppose I could have dealt with her occasional gaffes or infuriating way of trucking over the English language almost every time she opened her mouth, but my patience stopped at her pointed disdain for educated and intelligent engagement with the issues. I’m sorry, Ms. Palin, you cannot harp on the inestimable value of good judgment and then condemn a man who worked hard his whole life to put himself through the nation’s best countries in an effort to better inform that judgment. In fact, all your possible claims about the merits of Sen. McCain’s judgment basically went out the window when he selected you as his running mate. Only in his concession speech did he regain some measure of the dignity and self-assurance and conviction that had been lacking in the weeks before. It must have been very difficult, indeed, to run a campaign that attacked so many of the principles upon which he had based his life.
But on to happier matters, we have a new president! And for anyone who knows how rabidly I followed this election, you can well imagine my satisfaction. In fact, many of my friends will likely join me in my profound relief that this election is finally over. I don’t think I could have sustained that kind of intense interest in every political outlet I could think of logging on to for much longer, and I am sure my friends would not have sustained their patience with me much longer.
Of course, as we move forward from the euphoria of the election, the problems facing this president seem even more dire. I am hoping that Obama will prove the right man for the job. After the surreal moments of his election and acknowledgement speech, when all of America stood back in awe of their first bi-racial president, you can tell that a more sober atmosphere has set in. In many ways, that makes me respect the somber tenor of Obama’s speech even more. As an intelligent and self-aware man, I have no doubts that he was aware of the momentousness of the moment, but there was no dazzling gleefulness in his speech. Instead, he spoke in measured tones of the challenges and accomplishments that face us. Many people since then have remarked how presidential he seemed up there at the podium, protected by a wall of transparent bullet-proof glass. But how more remarkable is it that he stood there as exactly the sort of man with exactly the sort of temperament that our country needs right now. After years of apparently arbitrary decisions on any number of issues – torture, patriotism, the firing of federal attorneys – a calm, deliberate approach seems exactly the right prescription. I have always thought any man who wanted to run for president had to be just a touch crazy to want all the awesome and grave responsibilities that come with the office, so it is refreshing to note that Americans have elected (by a landslide) a man who seems to fully grasp the weight of the duties that lie before him. And not three sentences after praising the opportunities that this country affords, he was immediately to work; he turned his mind and the mind of the country right back to the task at hand.
I am eager to see as this transition moves forward how Obama will work to keep the glossy promises of the campaign trail and how he communicates to a nervous country the realities of our situation. I hope that with a president who shows this much promise, Americans all over will devote themselves to making sure he lives up to it.
I know I am prepared to write a couple of op-eds.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Dumbest shoes in the world
Like any self respecting fashion lover, I like shoes. In fact, many an outfit is planned from the shoes up. That said, I shudder to think what kind of outfit would appear above these monstrosities ...
Honestly ...
Friday, June 20, 2008
Thank God for libraries ....
Nearly a week ago, as the $50 fill up and $4 eggs tighten the beltstrap on my already meager savings account, to say nothing of my addiction to Starbucks non-fat lattes and the general penury that most grad students enjoy, I came to the conclusion that I am going to have to be more thrifty this summer. As the spirit of responsibility struck me one afternoon as I sat reading in my apartment, I brought up the transaction history on my debit card. Both the problem and the solution to my finance situation were evident immediately. My bank statement read something like this:
6/1 - CHK CARD PURCH. - GENAURDIS (a grocery store)
6/3 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BORDERSBOOKS&G
6/6 - ATM WITHDRWL
6/12 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BORDERSBOOKS&G
6/13 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BARNES&NOBLE.COM
6/13 - CHK CARD PURCH. - AMAZON.COM
Well, you get the idea ...
Now, that pesky little webpage forced me to acknowledge that I have a serious weakness for the buying of books. It could be worse, I suppose. I could buy the books and never read them. Or buy ones only with certain color spines so as to match my apartment decor perfectly. Or - my personal favourite - I could be buying only cds, trashy magazines and yoga mats at these alleged "book stores". But no, I fear that I have merely been buying and reading large numbers of books (and, I will admit, quite a few pieces of awesome Papyrus stationary).
Nevertheless, this poses a serious strain on my finances. The situation has worsened the past couple of weeks, too, because I actually have a break from classes. Months' accumulated guilt has now forced me out into the world to buy all the books I have been meaning to make time for since the semester began. I could borrow these books, it is true, and give either my school or local library a purpose of existence. But there is something so utterly satisfying about buying a book you know you will enjoy, that it makes up a hefty percentage of the actual enjoyment. Also, I very much like having the ability to lend beloved books to friends, despite the danger of never seeing the darlings again. In fact, sometimes lending a book to a disorganized and forgetful friend is an excellent way to pare down one's own collection. Recommending a book, growing excited as you remember and tell of your favourite lines or scenes or characters, realizing that there's a chance your friend will relish those parts as much as you did, and then actually being able to hand over that book is part of the reason I read (and have friends) in the first place. Glancing over to see the book sit on my bookshelf day in and day out, like an omnipresent kind of friend who's always there when I need him is very comforting as well. And when you borrow a book, the sad reality is that you are eventually going to have to give it back, leaving a depressing gap in the symmetry of the bookcase.
Necessity, however, has propelled me back to borrowing. I've calculated that I will spend 1/3 as much money in the month of July simply by curtailing my book-buying-habit. And so I trudged back into my local library yesterday, a place I have not seen for a couple months at least. I really don't know why, either. I mean, I should really visit the place sporadically anyway, just to visit with the local characters, who are easily as entertaining as those in nutty nearby coffee shops.
Nestled in a quiet Jewish neighborhood, my library seems to attract the oddest and dissimilar people into its musty walls. Tiny, frail older couples, the Yarmulke-ed husband leaning on his cane, move slowly to the philosophy section while a sullen teenager, his hip hop blaring out of his iPod headphones, stands by the new dvd releases. A boisterous woman with enormous plastic-framed glasses, jingling under the weight of her many necklaces, loudly asks the woman in circulation about a recent mystery novel. Nearby, another librarian talks hurriedly into an ancient rotary phone to the person on the other end, who one can assume to either be a veterinarian or a cat-sitter, based on the content of the conversation. My favourite, though, is the older gentleman who comes in daily, I believe, and sits on one of the sofas, his panama hat balanced on one knee and a neat necktie under his vest, the picture of refinement as he quietly reads his book. In amongst the chaos and general disorder of this decidedly un-silent library, he creates for himself a cozy little haven of peace and good books. He seems very erudite, a retired professor or amateur academic perhaps, and I have see him there often over the past year. I secretly believe that he enjoys the chaos, sitting there just letting it wash over him.
Not nearly as disappointed as I thought I would be, I walked out of the library that day with three new novels, a book on intuition, and a big book on foreign policy that I am going to study for my exam. The latter, at least, was quite the find , since it is now out-of-print, and all the copies on Amazon or the used bookstores, when I could find them, looked very shabby indeed. So it seems that libraries do have some very pointed and redeeming qualities. And I know my bank account is pleased ...
6/1 - CHK CARD PURCH. - GENAURDIS (a grocery store)
6/3 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BORDERSBOOKS&G
6/6 - ATM WITHDRWL
6/12 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BORDERSBOOKS&G
6/13 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BARNES&NOBLE.COM
6/13 - CHK CARD PURCH. - AMAZON.COM
Well, you get the idea ...
Now, that pesky little webpage forced me to acknowledge that I have a serious weakness for the buying of books. It could be worse, I suppose. I could buy the books and never read them. Or buy ones only with certain color spines so as to match my apartment decor perfectly. Or - my personal favourite - I could be buying only cds, trashy magazines and yoga mats at these alleged "book stores". But no, I fear that I have merely been buying and reading large numbers of books (and, I will admit, quite a few pieces of awesome Papyrus stationary).
Nevertheless, this poses a serious strain on my finances. The situation has worsened the past couple of weeks, too, because I actually have a break from classes. Months' accumulated guilt has now forced me out into the world to buy all the books I have been meaning to make time for since the semester began. I could borrow these books, it is true, and give either my school or local library a purpose of existence. But there is something so utterly satisfying about buying a book you know you will enjoy, that it makes up a hefty percentage of the actual enjoyment. Also, I very much like having the ability to lend beloved books to friends, despite the danger of never seeing the darlings again. In fact, sometimes lending a book to a disorganized and forgetful friend is an excellent way to pare down one's own collection. Recommending a book, growing excited as you remember and tell of your favourite lines or scenes or characters, realizing that there's a chance your friend will relish those parts as much as you did, and then actually being able to hand over that book is part of the reason I read (and have friends) in the first place. Glancing over to see the book sit on my bookshelf day in and day out, like an omnipresent kind of friend who's always there when I need him is very comforting as well. And when you borrow a book, the sad reality is that you are eventually going to have to give it back, leaving a depressing gap in the symmetry of the bookcase.
Necessity, however, has propelled me back to borrowing. I've calculated that I will spend 1/3 as much money in the month of July simply by curtailing my book-buying-habit. And so I trudged back into my local library yesterday, a place I have not seen for a couple months at least. I really don't know why, either. I mean, I should really visit the place sporadically anyway, just to visit with the local characters, who are easily as entertaining as those in nutty nearby coffee shops.
Nestled in a quiet Jewish neighborhood, my library seems to attract the oddest and dissimilar people into its musty walls. Tiny, frail older couples, the Yarmulke-ed husband leaning on his cane, move slowly to the philosophy section while a sullen teenager, his hip hop blaring out of his iPod headphones, stands by the new dvd releases. A boisterous woman with enormous plastic-framed glasses, jingling under the weight of her many necklaces, loudly asks the woman in circulation about a recent mystery novel. Nearby, another librarian talks hurriedly into an ancient rotary phone to the person on the other end, who one can assume to either be a veterinarian or a cat-sitter, based on the content of the conversation. My favourite, though, is the older gentleman who comes in daily, I believe, and sits on one of the sofas, his panama hat balanced on one knee and a neat necktie under his vest, the picture of refinement as he quietly reads his book. In amongst the chaos and general disorder of this decidedly un-silent library, he creates for himself a cozy little haven of peace and good books. He seems very erudite, a retired professor or amateur academic perhaps, and I have see him there often over the past year. I secretly believe that he enjoys the chaos, sitting there just letting it wash over him.
Not nearly as disappointed as I thought I would be, I walked out of the library that day with three new novels, a book on intuition, and a big book on foreign policy that I am going to study for my exam. The latter, at least, was quite the find , since it is now out-of-print, and all the copies on Amazon or the used bookstores, when I could find them, looked very shabby indeed. So it seems that libraries do have some very pointed and redeeming qualities. And I know my bank account is pleased ...
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Problem with Iraq
We have come to view our victory or defeat in Iraq as just that – a win or loss on our own part. We have forgotten about the great vested interest had by the people in their own country. It has become personal. What started as an offensive to protect ourselves from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and liberate the people of Iraq from tyranny has morphed into a desire to draw the war on terrorism away from our own shores. We seek now to fight our war in already conflict-drenched Middle Eastern lands.
But Saddam is gone now, and he certainly does not have any WMDs with which to hurt us. The people on Iraq no longer bear the yoke of his oppression. And yet we are still there, losing brave men and women in small but seemingly unlimited installments. What had begun as an ostensibly objective and prudent plan has disintegrated into a reactionary and zealous desire to get the terrorists in Iraq before they can get us here. Never mind that as a direct result of our actions, Iraq undoubtedly contains more bona fide terrorists now than it did before the invasion. Never mind that we have now stuck our oar into an already resentful Middle East, ensuring that even more moderate Muslims see our goals as imperialistic and patronizing. Never mind that we have sacrificed what could have grown into an important ally after a timely and natural death of Saddam Hussein. He had never had an ironclad grip over the country; too many of the citizens remembered the freedom and prosperity that were theirs before his dictatorship. No – despite all this our official policy is still to demand an unconditional victory from our war.
In short, we have grown too close and heated when it comes to Iraq. We are blinding ourselves to the value that concession and accommodation could bring to the situation. In a scene disturbingly reminiscent of the missteps taken in Vietnam a generation ago, we are determined to press forward with force, believing that we need to witness an ultimate defeat of an opponent that was never really ours to begin with. We have committed ourselves to a protracted battle with no end in sight, refusing to negotiate until we see terrorism driven totally from Iraqi boundaries. Our continued presence, however, seems to inspire little beyond escalating violence and a renewed determination of quasi-terrorists from around the Middle East to fight us to the death. A Baghdad once full of palm trees and sidewalk cafes may be Saddam-free, but it is also riddled with bullets and an aura of death and violence. And to top it off, we have a presidential candidate who has vowed to continue the fight for 100 years if need be. We have lost sight of the reality that concession does not always spell defeat.
In many ways we have achieved what we set out to do in Iraq. Saddam is gone and there are no weapons of mass destruction. But because those goals were flawed from the beginning, we have also created a great mess in the meanwhile. As much as we can ultimately benefit from analyzing those mistakes so as to avoid them in the future, we need also to look to the requirements of the future. What we need to do now, our professed objectives achieved, is to begin the process of pulling out to let the Iraqis determine the course of their own country. If they decide that course is one that ends in democracy, so much the better. But with centuries of a history, customs and a philosophy so different from our own, if they decide they prefer another course, we must be ready to accept that. Our role cannot be that of a sculptor taking a damaged bit of clay and smashing and kneading it until it miserably forms the shape we like. The bottom line is that peace in Iraq is best for everyone – better for us and better for the whole Middle East.
Let the Iraqis quibble over their differences against a backdrop of relative peace, as we had the luxury to do for nearly two decades before September 11th. More true and lasting solutions come out of equable peacetime negotiations than under the duress of conflict. If we desire democracy in that part of the world, let us instead offer up our best and most appealing version of what we preach, and allow a committed people choose to follow in our footsteps. We will find more genuine allies and partners that way that flexing our muscles as global cops or bullies.
In any case, the bellicosity of the bin Ladens of the world is losing favor across the Islamic world. Research shows that devout Muslims throughout the Middle East support tactics like suicide
bombings and kidnappings less and less than in years past, preferring to deal with disagreements through political channels. The militant Hezbollah and Palestinian groups have seen support from Syrian and Saudi Arabian neighbors fizzle. Even the most conservative of the Muslim ruling clerics are prepared to make concessions; Saudi Arabia plans to send its first women’s Olympic team to London in 2012. If we can show ourselves of the world as a wise and magnanimous nation, giving the Iraqis our assistance but letting them decide their future as befits their traditions and values, we can seize upon this shifting allegiance and form important bonds with a host of Arab countries. This in turn would allow us not only to contain the threats posed by Iran, but to involve the Middle East in the rebuilding of a country to which it has a significant stake it. This will of course be complicated, but if our true objectives are a stable, productive and allied Iraq and an end to the threat of terrorism, this path affords us at least the chance of success.
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