Tuesday, November 09, 2004

That's one serious-looking photo of Matt Gross in the online campaigning post-mortem up at the e-Week site... 9:18:37 PM    comment []

Stuffwriter, November 2: "An AOL commercial. You know, the one where all the members have something to fix about their bad programming. All I have to say is thank you for admitting you have a terrible service. I mean, what were they thinking when they made that. It's a commercial just begging to be mocked." Slate, November 8: "The ad shows a mob of AOL customers massing in front of the corporate offices, demanding to be heard...Why would I sign up for a service when its users are so intensely dissatisfied that they're storming corporate headquarters to beg for improvements?" Previously: Slate and Stuffwriter like the same show for different reasons. 8:59:24 PM    comment []

Family Research Council: Emboldened by the tremendous success of the 11 state constitutional amendments that passed on Election Day, at least nine other states are looking to put forth similar amendments to protect marriage. Marriage amendments already are being processed in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, where they require a second legislative approval before going to voters. Virginia and Texas have already pre-filed amendments, and Alabama, Idaho, South Carolina, and the state of Washington all plan to follow suit.     More FRC: In a victory for pro-family advocates, the Texas State Board of Education has voted to require textbooks to define marriage as a lifelong union between a man and a woman. The ramifications of this decision extend far beyond Texas, as publishers tend to defer to the curriculum standards set by the Lone Star State, which is the nation's second-largest buyer of textbooks. Board member Terri Leo, a Republican, objected to what she called "asexual stealth phrases" such as references to "individuals" who marry, and using the term "married partners" instead of "husband and wife." She charged that the proposed new books violated Texas law, which bans homosexual "marriage" and grants no legal recognition to gay "civil unions." Bonus link: "The 'Recruiting'of Children into Accepting Homosexuality." 5:35:58 PM    comment []

Maud Gatewood, 1934-2004. The North Carolina painter died today. She was talented, smart, funny, and tough. A great friend to the Weatherspoon Museum and a champion of the arts in her home state. RIP, Maud. 5:12:16 PM    comment []

Why don't political conservatives come to BloggerCon? Robert Cox noted their absence at Stanford, and at his blog. As the person who invited Glenn Reynolds to be a panelist at the first Harvard BloggerCon, I can say it's not an absolute truth, and it's not intentional to the degree it is true.* But the lack of conservative participants is striking. So I asked Cox, why don't they come? It's free, you know it's going to be interesting, it certainly doesn't lack for publicity... We agreed that geography is one factor, with the events to date held in dark blue Cambridge and the Bay Area, but people do travel to these things... From Robert's response: "I go into the event knowing that pretty much everyone is left and lefter. I suspect some people on the right just assume (incorrectly) that this means they won't be welcome." Is that it? Has it come to that? These are conferences about writing and other expression on the web, and the tools that make it possible, and the uses of those tools. There are sessions on politics and media, but they aren't political rallies. Are people really so uncomfortable with political differences that they can't interact in a reasonably open forum? Or are conservatives willfully segregating themselves from people who don't toe their line, even when much of the subject matter is apolitical? It's an odd thing. Like Cox, I'd like to see a BloggerCon in, say, Nashville. Certainly we had more ideological diversity at our local conference in Greensboro than I've seen at Stanford or Harvard. But if the problem is that every conversation about, say, podcasting is fraught with political tension for conservatives if the presenter happened to vote for Kerry, then a truly diverse BloggerCon may be tough to pull off. I agree with Cox that the conversation suffers from one-sidedness in practical ways that extend beyond politics-- his example of the online-campaign discussion we might have had with more Republicans in the room is illustrative. So where are the conservative bloggers, and why don't they come to BloggerCon? *I'm counting Instapundit as a conservative here, despite the many libertarian beliefs we share, because his strong support for the war in Iraq made him a hero to many conservatives and a demon to many lefties. 5:04:50 PM    comment []

More Carolinians in California: Eric Muller reports on a conference he organized in LA, which covered civil liberties of Japanese-Americans during WWII. 11:45:34 AM    comment []

Dell will build a plant in the Triad. Good good good. Now they have to choose a site. I'm rooting for Guilford County, of course. We'll know soon. Dell suppliers, come on down. Bring money. If this plays out well, and the Triad becomes a hub of high-tech manufacturing for the next generation or two, then every dollar of those incentives are worth it. Dell press release. Biz Journal. N&R. 11:41:13 AM    comment []

WSJ (free this week): Burned by overblown promises of the 1990s boom, companies are squeezing more out of what they have on hand and buying cheaper technology... Corporate spending on technology gear grew roughly 15% in the first half of the year, compared with last year...But rather than building on its momentum, as it has after past downturns, the recovery already is losing steam. The growth in corporate technology spending slowed to 9% in the third quarter. The shift has big implications for the broader economy... Productivity, driven in part by technology, has risen for 14 straight quarters, the longest stretch in 60 years, though it too is showing signs of slowing. Corporate spending on technology accounts for 40% of business investment -- and, in recent decades, it usually has led the economy when a recovery gets under way. That's not happening now. 9:06:24 AM    comment []

Ed Yoder in Salon (click thru the day-pass ad): Whatever claims are now made about American religious origins and doctrines, it can't be denied that deism was the overriding persuasion of our great founding generation -- Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin and many others. Nor that under the benign influence of this outlook they designed a constitutional system in which church and state were to be eternally separated. They foresaw that a nation of radically different religious outlooks (where heresy hunters were already zealously at work) would need vigorous safeguards against fraternal jihads and crusades. They witnessed the ruinous force of internecine religious conflict all about them and sought to protect against it. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." -- the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment -- was the result. Today, alas, those words and their meaning have grown foggy in the minds of many. 8:56:27 AM    comment []