Supreme Christmas Special

Why does Christmas need so much saving? By consumers, by judges, by churches, by reindeer, by little children, by amnesiac fat men, by despondent middle-agers.... What is it about Christmas that is so fragile, so precarious, that it must be constantly saved?

Weblog Awards

Voting for the 2005 Weblog Awards is up and running through the 15th. You can vote at 24 hour intervals.... And apparently, people do. The awards have, apparently, earned a reputation as a conservative swarmfest, though liberals seem to be doing OK in the early running.

I've got rooting interests in Best Blog, Best New Blog, Best Liberal Blog, Best Asian Blog (I've got two of them on my blogroll) and a few other categories.

Update: I discovered that you can access all the polls simultaneously here. Very convenient.

Dear Abby v. Bloggers

Dear Abby is something which I read because it's in the newspaper. Truth be told, I prefer Miss Manners, or even Ann Landers, to Dear Abby, but it's there. Sometimes it's even entertaining -- in a morbid sort of way -- though her answers have gotten even less impressive since the generational change. Imagine my surprise when she addressed a topic near and dear to my heart: Blogging!

Well, being a short-sighted stick in the mud, as usual, she's against it. Not against it, as such, but against doing anything fun with it:

DEAR ABBY: Please warn your readers that their Web pages and blogs could stand in the way of securing a job! Just as employers have learned to read e-mail and blogs, they have learned to screen candidates through their sites. Many people in their 20s and 30s wrongly believe their creations are entertaining and informative. Employers are not seeking political activists, evangelizers, whiners or tattletales. They do not want to find themselves facing a lawsuit or on the front page of a newspaper because a client, patient or parent of a student discovered a comment written by an employee.
The job market is tight, and job seekers must remember their computer skills can either help them land a position or destroy a job prospect. -- CHICAGO EMPLOYER

DEAR EMPLOYER: You have opened up a line of thought I'll bet a lot of job applicants -- and future job applicants -- have never considered. Googling a name isn't difficult, and it could lead to an applicant's blog. Most bloggers write to be read, and invite people to comment. Thank you for the reminder that those who blog should remember that they are open to public scrutiny, and that if they apply for a job, everything about them will be considered -- including their blog. Prospective employers are certainly within their rights to make decisions based upon what they read.

Obviously, blogging anonymously never occurred to either "Chicago Employer" or "Dear Abby"....

Seriously, though, an employer who knows that it's legal to discriminate on the basis of religion, politics and personal attitude should also know that employers aren't really liable for the non-professional free speech exercises of their employees. If you want to respond, here's her online form!

Update: On the other hand, blogging professionally can be very productive, at least in the sciences.

Truth and Truism

It's a truism that generals spend their time planning to win the last war. But it's kind of sad that, having fought several wars since, we're still basically training for WWII. As Chris Bray says, "To frame this effort as critical to our national well-being while simultaneously allowing it to shamble along lethargic and undefined is to suggest that we never really meant what we said about the meaning of our curiously desultory war in the first place." [also available here, if you are pseudonymous and want to comment anyway]

In slightly related news, in response to Donald Rumsfeld's "epiphany" that insurgents really aren't, the folks at Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.... have similarly retitled him "Secretary of Pretty Wishes." Update: Rumsfeld gets cram'd, demonstrating not only wishful thinking, but a remarkable ability to stretch half-truths into worldviews. Rumsfeld may go down as the philosopher of this administration.... that is, if he and his boss can get their stories straight.

Ahistoricality Alert: World's First Terrorists?

Judith Apter Klinghoffer, in addition to being mostly wrong about policy, isn't much for history, either. She cites Richard Lourie (who, in spite of writing at the NY Times, doesn't qualify as a member of the liberal media she so deeply despises) saying

The world's first terrorists were high-minded young people who believed Russia would be delivered from injustice by the killing of its leaders, setting off a mighty conflagration.

Leaving aside the canard about liberals aiding terrorists, it's historical mush: there were assassin/terrorists in Japan in the 1850s-1860s, there were some vicious moments in the western US during the Civil War era, there were guerilla movements in the middle east in the Roman Era which carried out terroristic attacks on non-combatants (Zealots, yes). And that's just off the top of my head. Can you think of other pre-1879 terrorists? I bet you can.

Why cite these as the "world's first"? Because they're the first that can be tied to leftists, of course. And anything done by anyone on the left ever automatically discredits anyone to the left of the president in the present.

Quotations #079

These quotations are not planned or scheduled: this is just what's next in my quotation file. But these are, without a doubt, some of my favorite epigrams ever.

"Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness." -- James Thurber

"There's always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken

"Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions." -- Edward R. Murrow

"Each generation must write its own history, not because past histories are untrue but because in a rapidly changing world new questions arise and new answers are needed." -- L. S. Stavrianos

"Everything the communists said about communism turned out to be a lie. But everything the communists said about capitalism was true." -- New Russian Proverb

Speaking of Russians, eb's got some Dostoyevsky.

Ahistoricality Alert: Shifting the Goalposts

NOW is always a crucial time, unprecedented and fraught. Do these people ever look back to learn something?

On a much lighter note, this has never happened in my office. What is it with college students and public sex these days? And when did "sexual harassment" become the first thing people yelled out while nude in public?

Celebration?

It is World AIDS/HIV Day.
It is Blog Against Racism Day.

For the record, I'm against Racism and I think AIDS is a scourge which has exposed far too much of our indifference and intolerance already. The folks at HU-Islam have a little blogburst going with some interesting reading. And Simon World has some great AIDS Day links. Much more than anything I'm going to say today.

On the plus side, History Carnival #21 includes such unfortunately necessary correctives as a post detailing it wasn't liberals who supported and underplayed Hitler and torture never worked.

And that's the good news.

Update: No, this is the good news: South Africa's Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of same-sex marriage! That's something to celebrate.

Thursday Lyrics: Their Way

Sing it loud. Because you know it's true.

THEIR WAY
words by Bob Blue (copyright 1970)
music by Paul Anka ("My Way," copyright 1969)

I came, bought all my books, lived in the dorms, followed directions.
I worked, I studied hard, met lots of folks who had connections.
I crammed. They gave me grades, and may I say, not in a fair way.
But more, much more than this, I did it their way.

I learned all sorts of things, although I know I'll never use them.
The courses that I took were all required. I didn't choose them.
You'll find that to survive, it's best to act the doctrinaire way,
And so I buckled down and did it their way.

Yes, there were times I wondered why I had to crawl when I could fly.
I had my doubts, but after all, I clipped my wings, and learned to crawl.
I learned to bend, and in the end, I did it their way.

And so, my fine young friends, now that I am a full professor,
Where once I was oppressed, I've now become the cruel oppressor.
With me, you'll learn to cope. You'll learn to climb life's golden stairway.
Like me, you'll see the light, and do it their way.

For what can I do? What can I do? Take out your books. Read Chapter two.
And if to you it seems routine, don't speak to me: Go see the dean.
As long as they give me my pay, I'll do it their way.

I go for....

Severus Snape
You clearly do not scare easily. You want a man who is sharp, intellectual, cultured, and not too mushy. Get underneath his cool, sarcastic exterior and who knows what treasures you might find.
Who is your (male) Harry Potter love match?
brought to you by Quizilla [via]

Actually, that's not a bad description of the people I used to fall for: smart, psychologically slightly damaged but with a core of strength and virtue just waiting to be brought out. Then, after I'd brought it out of them, they'd move on to someone more romantic. Or I'd discover that the core of virtue wasn't quite what I thought it was...

My type is more of the Neville Longbottom/Ron Weasley sort, now. I'm much happier.