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Friday, December 13, 2002 |
New Fight for an Old Warrior. Dr. Donald A. Henderson is the man who made the world safe from smallpox, now he must help do it again. By Sheryl Gay Stolberg. [New York Times: Politics]
I'm reading about him in Preston's The Demon in the Freezer. Regardless of whether or not, because of some twisted, evil people and systems, he was successful, the world owes Henderson a debt for leading the effort to rid the world of smallpox.
10:48:38 PM Permalink
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Lott
Along with the New York Times piece yesterday, Slate, I think, gets it about right in this piece on trent Lott. Lott, they say, has forgotten about the civil rights movement and what it meant. He's not racist (or anyway not as racist as all these quotes might make him out to be), he simply doesn't remember or has not internalized this stuff at all. The man I listened to today stuck me as sincere. (Not that I didn't find plenty to disagree with.)
How many conservatives who denounced Lott this week appreciate the civil rights movement? How many have made careers out of deriding feminism, as though the women's movement achieved nothing? How many worship Ronald Reagan, who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment? How many defend Helms, who in 1990 defeated a black opponent by complaining in an ad that whites were losing jobs to blacks because of quotas? How many speak congenially to people who support them for what they know are ugly reasons? How many worry about the overlap between the positions of segregationists and the positions of people such as themselves, who defend the rights of states, neighborhoods, and private institutions? How many refuse to see that you can't be nice to racists without being callous to the people they despise?
The Republican party has spent so much time playing nice to the true bigots and anti-Americans in this country that they just slip, ever-so-nicely into making these despicable noises. Reagan once said something to the effect that because these people supported him didn't mean that he supported them. But the party has spent so much time going for this support they it forgets who it really is.
I vote for Lott keeping has job (as if I had a vote). He, maybe, has learned something. I doubt the rest of the party has.
8:50:05 PM Permalink
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Switching to Yahoo. Considered Harmful
David Lazarus does a good job writing up the sleezy stuff that Pacbell and Yahoo have been doing. They've been emailing Pacbell.net customers trying to get us to "upgrade" our service. This so-called upgrade only gives you some more email addresses, some more storage on their servers, and that's about it. For that, they get to give away all sorts of information about you. Pacbell/SBC is a scummy bunch, and it's got me sorely tempted to get another ISP.
At the same time, knock wood, I've been very happy with my DSL service technically. I've had it for several years now, and have had virtuall no downtime. That's what keeps one on the service, but this scummy way of doing business really turns you off.
8:27:05 PM Permalink
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The Library Lookup Project
The LibraryLookup project. [Jon's Radio]
I didn't mention this yesterday, but added the shortcut to my browser and must have used it half a dozen times already. It really works well for me. I frequently look at books on Amazon, then bounce over to my library site to see if they have it. This makes that really easy; I requested 2 books already today from my library. It helps that my library is just two blocks away from my house.
12:58:48 PM Permalink
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Have the Beverly Hillbillies Gone to Pot? [Marijuana.Com]
In the words of Jed Clampett, whoa doagies! Insight has learned that the cable networks Nick at Nite and TV Land have censored jokes and puns from reruns of the Beverly Hillbillies because they think that some mild references to marijuana on the show are inappropriate for children.
Blair points out, correctly, that Jed says "Well, doggies," not "Whoa Doggies." Of course, the incorrect attribution is from Marijuana.com, but I won't nitpick with them. Just so everyone knows I got it right.
12:29:08 PM Permalink
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Science Friday Science Books of the Year
Here's a list of the best science books of the year, as discussed on today's Science Friay show. This is a great list, with some books I haven't heard of but definitely want to read. I'm reading the Richard Preston book now, and there are many others worth reading.
While I'm at it, I want to mention, for the buff on your list, Michael Light's Full Moon. This is an extraordinary, absolutely beautifull collection of pictures from the Apollo project. The pictures are printed better than you've ever seen them before. Evocative stuff, highly, highly recommended, a revelation.
12:18:30 PM Permalink
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Very cool. Here is interactive look into the "Massive" system used to animate characters in action sequences for the Lord of the Rings. Much of this will probably end up on the desktop in a couple of years. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
10:32:22 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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