Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Local online alt-media is becoming a reality in Greensboro. So far, it's been a fairly decentralized process. Elsewhere, as this article details, similar processes are taking a more formal route. What's next here? Who takes the lead, if anyone? Nice of Jay Rosen to give props to JR's blog. I think it's important to include the N&R in the conversation. 7:11:54 PM    comment []

"An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries. "A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for 'the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle.'" "Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed. "'I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them,' he said." (Birmingham News, via Oliver Willis) 6:07:54 PM    comment []

Jim Holt interviews Richard Dawkins. 3:18:25 PM    comment []

N&R editor John Robinson skewers City Councilman Robbie Perkins for inane press criticism. 2:42:34 PM    comment []

24 hours after it launched, the table-of-contents for local blogs at Greensboro101 is already an essential part of my online routine. People are talking about GSO's new weekly paper, which I wish well, but even if it prospers I'm not sure it's bigger news than the dynamic ToC for independent online media.  Roch is taking suggestions on the look and feel of the page. Here's the conversation so far. I'm also enjoying the RSS feeds in my redesigned Yahoo homepage. 2:30:05 PM    comment []

Backwards City: "The thing I like best about Greek myth is the belief that the position of the gods on Olympus is fragile, that Zeus will someday be overthrown just as the two previous generations of gods had been. It's neat. You don't see much of that in religion anymore." 8:47:21 AM    comment []

If Forsyth County and Winston-Salem land the Dell plant -- and they seemed to be the front-runners even before announcing their huge incentive package -- Guilford and Greensboro would still benefit from jobs. But the real payoff might be in what comes next: the suppliers to Dell that are supposed to follow. If these companies do arrive, and they bring better, higher-value manufacturing jobs than the ones at the Dell assembly plant, Guilford County will have the means to lure them, while Forsyth will have spent its money already... 8:35:45 AM    comment []

Joe Trippi on the Democratic Party and what can be done to fix it: "Without the innovation of Internet-driven small-donor fund-raising and a corresponding surge in support from the nation's youngest voters, John Kerry would have suffered a dramatically larger electoral defeat." 8:13:40 AM    comment []

More Edwards tour Whig Hill Dispatch in Raleigh does not like political speeches, and that's what he got at the tour stop. Jim Schlosser in the N&R went to the same rally I did. If it wasn't a campaign event, he asks, "Why, then, the fuss over the flags? For 45 minutes before the boyish, blue-suited Edwards entered the auditorium of the Greensboro Historical Museum for a farewell town meeting with constituents, his aides furled, unfurled and kept repositioning five American flags and a North Carolina flag on the stage. They'd move one flag forward, another backward. They twisted coat hangers and placed them inside two flags to make the fabric lean a certain way. An aide picked a place on the floor in front of the stage and marked it with white tape. This is where Edwards needed to stand for the flags to be centered in the background. The aides then changed their minds and moved the tape to the second step leading up to the stage. One aide went to the back of the auditorium and folded his hands as if it were a camera lens. He squinted through his fingers and called for some more minute shifting of the flags." 8:11:56 AM    comment []