Thursday, April 01, 2004

Thank you, thank you, Mark McDaniel. There were a lot of good speakers from the floor at tonight's Guilford County commissioners meeting, but to have you, a white Republican, a one-time elected official (state senate) who ran as recently as the last election, stand up and blast Billy Yow for perpetuating the bad old racist days -- that was just freaking awesome. That said, it would have been nice to see a few more white faces protesting Yow. Yow's angry speech, in which he lashed out at the black members of the commission for alleged financial improprieties, didn't do him much good, and Carolyn Coleman's resolution against Yow passed, with Yow and Steve Arnold voting against it, and Trudy Wade abstaining. Other interesting speakers from the floor: the guys from the Sons of Confederate Veterans who protested the use of the battle flag in this divisive context, the black man who said he knows Billy Yow and Billy Yow is no racist, the preacher's daughter who said the offense to the memory of her father and others who labored for racial justice was not acceptable, and the poised high school students who carried much of the argument to Yow. A good night for Guilford County. 8:53:36 PM    comment []

A birthday: Dave Winer's Scripting News weblog turns seven today. One of the biggest fish ever to crawl out of the primordial ooze of Internet publishing, Dave began distributing his thoughts via email in 1994, and quickly made news with an essay called "Bill Gates vs the Internet." His blog -- still called a "homepage" early on -- began as a list of links he gathered as background for DaveNet pieces and his work in web development; over time it became one of the most influential sites in the early history of the medium. Dave saw blogging's potential with remarkable clarity, and has continued to spread the word as a fellow at Harvard Law's Berkman Center, where he created the BloggerCon events, and of course keeps on blogging. ...and a rebirth: Jerome Armstrong launches the latest incarnation of a seminal political blog, MyDD.com. 5:25:21 PM    comment []

Also in today's Rhino, Orson Scott Card calls homosexuality a "reproductive dysfunction" as part of his latest zillion-word argument against gay marriage (posts Monday.) Quoth Card, mockingly: "...it's unfair to those whose sexual predilections make marriage unattractive to them. Just because a person has a reproductive dysfunction shouldn't bar him or her from the full benefits of this widespread practice of marriage, should it? How unfair!" And Think of The Children TM! "Is it fair to the children who will grow up in a society that insists on magnifying any trace of reproductive dysfunction?" He keeps arguing that gay couples don't want to participate in marriage, which makes sense by his immutable definition of marriage=man+woman, but still seems odd when applied to a discussion of gay people who are trying to get married. The big finish: "It is pitiable, even tragic, when, for various reasons, anyone is involuntarily cut off from the reproductive cycle of life. But it is grossly unfair to demand...that the normal pattern of marriage and family be deprived of its priveleged position in our society, just so a few people can feel better about their dysfunctions that even they insist are nobody's fault." Wait -- gay people are incabable of reproducing? Or maybe straight people who are "cut off from the reproductive cycle of life" shoudn't be allowed to marry? Logical dysfunction. 12:21:14 PM    comment []

Damn anti-Christian Jews. Actually, I thought the complaint was not "too Christian" but "too anti-Semitic." Oh well, Billy Yow can get it right when he does the t-shirt. Geof Brooks/Rhino Times copyright 2004 11:43:28 AM    comment []

We had a good conversation about opinion writing and careers in journalism last night during Allen Johnson's class at A&T. Panelists included Doug Clark, Joya Wesley, Ed Whitfield, and me. Lots of student questions and participation, which is usually the key to a successful panel. 9:01:51 AM    comment []

Pricey Harrison has a campaign webpage for her run in the new NC 57th House district in Greensboro. The Greensboro native is a well-known environmental advocate in North Carolina. It will be interesting to see how the web can be used in a local race -- it's a compact, 48,000 person urban district, where retail politics and a close reading of demographics and precinct voting patterns will play a big role...but a smart web strategy should help the campain in terms of organization, message, media coverage, and fundraising... ...speaking of which, the new site should let visitors donate and volunteer from links on the front page...the webmaster can fix that while readjusting the font so all the critical content fits on the first screen. 8:49:24 AM    comment []

The new media food chain: bloggers discover, big pubs expand coverage. Hoggard, an Aycock middle school parent, has been writing about the Aycock drum line since last year. Today, the N&R front-pages the story. Everybody wins. 8:35:59 AM    comment []

Governor Mike Easley has launched a spiffy campaign website. Lots of content, including an aggressive "fact-check" page that rebuts specific statements by GOP contenders. Interesting use of the Meetup-like icon at left that is for donations and volunteers but not Meetup. Hope to speak with his campaign soon about their plans for the web -- one sign of blog-cluefulness, they emailed me to say the new site was up. 8:30:46 AM    comment []