Friday, April 11, 2003

googlewash up.... Google washes whiter. Google has made its own statement on the 'Googlewash': by making The Register story that coined the phrase disappear from its search results. Not all the search results, mark you, but a very specific one. When you search for the word "Googlewash" (as at 9pm Pacific Time last night) around a hundred results are returned by default. Our story, which is where the word was coined, isn't among them. [. . . .] And if we start clamoring for *cough* an online democracy, isn't it time we inspected the voting machine? [The Register] 1:43:20 AM    comment [] And I thought it was me..... the dullest blog in the world. 1:13:48 AM    comment [] Strange Fruit.. I came down with some sort of unpleasant bug. Not the sinus-congestion cold I usually get (and far too often in this last year). I was up shivering on the couch Tuesday night and caught a 3am show of the Strange Fruit documentary. It was incredibly absorbing and informative. Plenting of talking heads, but they were well worth listening to. And for a documentary it had some good plot twists (Rosenbergs). The website, linked above, is also quite informative in a link-happy way. If you can catch a showing, I'd highly recommend it. For those who don't know the song, Strange Fruit was sung, most famously, by Billy Holiday. Here are the words: Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant south, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, Here is a strange and bitter cry. 12:59:20 AM    comment [] Thugs.... I've been reading more and more about the increasingly thuggish nature of pro-war folks and last week really experienced it first hand. I don't look forward to new appearances by these guys at our demonstrations next Saturday. I will be there all the same. Orcinus has done a fine job of both collecting reports of these occurances and providing his own clear analysis. Letter to Orcinus from TruthToPower looks at some of the backstory: Why are the pro-war forces so angry? They have the president, congress and most of the public on their side and we are close to winning in Iraq. Why then do they resort to threats and violence? If my side was batting 1.000 you wouldn't hear one word of complaint from me. I think these people are just angry. They are angry because they are ignored and exploited by our system. Unfortunately because we are led to believe that we have the best society on earth many of us don't know know how to respond when it becomes clear that the system doesn't work in the interest of the average person. Enter Rush and company. They bring out the absolute worst in people like this, the "angry white men" who think that a few black people at U. Michigan are responsible for all their problems. I also don't think we should discount the after effects of the 2000 presidential election. It showed that might makes right. You don't have to really win. You bully your way to victory and dare anyone to speak up. Of course Bush could care less about these people. They are being used by the most cynical administation in modern history. Unfortunately they will keep them angry and confused so that they can invade Iran, Syria or God only knows where. These are very ugly times. 12:49:17 AM    comment []

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