Wednesday, October 19, 2005

A charming presence at ConvergeSouth was Antonella Napolitano, who came to us from Italy via Vassar, and captioned her Flickr photos in (mostly) Italian that even this North Carolinian can translate with a little help from context and French cognates. "Il keg" was an easy one... 8:24:36 PM   permalink   comment []

A posthumously happy 101st birthday to one of my best friends ever. 7:10:30 PM   permalink   comment []

Schumer writes Bush: "I urge you to make public the details of Mr. Rove's involvement, your understanding of that involvement, and an explanation as to why Mr. Rove was neither dismissed nor his security clearance revoked when you learned of his participation in the Plame affair." 4:21:16 PM   permalink   comment []

"To any sheriff or peace officer of the state of Texas, greetings, you are hereby commanded to arrest Thomas Dale DeLay and keep him safely so that you have him before the 331st Judicial District Court of Travis County," the warrant said. 4:14:41 PM   permalink   comment []

DarkTimes reviewed by its prisoners: international readers are the real losers. Friedman: "I have a lot of international readers in places like Egypt, where $50 could be their college tuition for a while." 2:32:44 PM   permalink   comment []

City Council candidate Joel Landau responds via email to my Oct 9 newspaper column about the perfect non-attendance record of white City Council members at the Truth and Reconciliation hearings (posted with Joel's permission): I'm a candidate at-large for Greensboro City Council, and I'm white.  I fully support the Truth and Reconciliation process, and I've attended a part of each of the 6 days of hearings.  Like you, I'm puzzled by the 6 incumbents who don't see the importance and relevance of the hearings.  I support the process for various reasons:  ·  I think it's important to better understand how an event like that was allowed to happen in our city. ·  I encourage citizen participation in local affairs -- the TRC process is democracy in action. ·  I encourage dialogue among different groups within the City -- again the TRC process is a wonderful example. There are still wounds from the events that happened.  I don't know that we'll ever have an agreed upon 'truth' around those events, but the very process of talking and people hearing one another contributes to healing and reconciliation.  Hopefully this will result in a more connected, unified city.    The hearings are an historic event, the first of its kind in our nation.  I'm proud that our city is in the forefront of this new approach to reconciliation and truth-seeking.  One day our City leaders will point to it with pride, just as we now celebrate our role in the lunch counter sit-in movement.  Hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later. 2:23:11 PM   permalink   comment []

Terry Heaton: "Four days ago, I was in an untenable situation; today, I'm free. This is the miracle of love." 2:11:50 PM   permalink   comment []

Justin Catanoso is scheduled to be on NPR's Morning Edition tomorrow at around 6:20 and 8:20 AM, doing a 3-minute commentary on his cousin, the late Father Gaetano Catanoso, who will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday. Justin wrote about it here -- but I think tomorrow's piece will have another, personal twist to it. Local listeners can hear it on WFDD (88.5) and WUNC (91.5); the rest of you presumably know where to find it, too...and it should post later in the day at NPR.org. 2:09:05 PM   permalink   comment []

Taegan Goddard interviews John Edwards, via Blackberry, for Political Wire. Flashback: Edwards did his first blog interview (so far as I know) with this site in August, 2003. Earlier this year, Edwards spoke with Rocketboom, and hosted a dinner for bloggers to learn a bit about the medium. He's obviously serious about working with bloggers. I don't think he's quite found the natural voice that sounds best for online conversations, but I think he can. 11:18:19 AM   permalink   comment []

Robert Bork in the WSJ: "Slouching Towards Miers" "With a single stroke--the nomination of Harriet Miers--the president has damaged the prospects for reform of a left-leaning and imperialistic Supreme Court, taken the heart out of a rising generation of constitutional scholars, and widened the fissures within the conservative movement. That's not a bad day's work--for liberals." More: "The administration's defense of the nomination is pathetic." And: "Finally, this nomination has split the fragile conservative coalition on social issues into those appalled by the administration's cynicism and those still anxious, for a variety of reasons, to support or at least placate the president. Anger is growing between the two groups." 7:44:53 AM   permalink   comment []

WSJ discovers splogs. 7:40:58 AM   permalink   comment []

DarkTimes: Friedman writes fiction to make a point. In "Leading by (Bad) Example," the point is that the US is setting some bad examples on secular democracy for Iraq, e.g., the faith-based nomination of Miers and Bush's torture-is-fine-when-we-do-it policy. The set-up is a couple of Iraqis leaving the US in disgust when they see how we do things over here. Pedantic format, important message. Dowd, in "Naughty Harry: Lawyering Without a License," bangs on Miers for not paying her DC bar association dues (trivial in my book) and for being inconsistent and unprepared for this job (nontrivial). 7:38:39 AM   permalink   comment []

Five years ago? It feels like five minutes. Spicy noodles and spicy conversation in Palo Alto. In some ways, that dinner changed my life, or at least initiated some changes that are still underway. Read the essay, too: Transcendental Money."How much money do you need to feel secure?" 7:29:08 AM   permalink   comment []