Category: observations

If I could, I would abolish citizenship as a birthright. Make all who aspire to be citizens take the test immigrants take.

I don’t want to diminish citizenship, but to enhance it. I believe people take it for granted and should be reminded how valuable it is, how lucky they are, and how hard they should work to preserve and defend what they have.

One thing I hope to get rid of by this proposal is hyphenated citizenship, where people divide their loyalties between the country in which they live and some other country or region, often one they have never known. I’m all for acknowledging one’s family tree, but when origin or ethnicity is used as an argument against working for the common good, it’s wrong.

I’d also like to see a return to the idea of the commons, those things we all share but that can be ruined by the arrogance or ignorance of a few. From the air we breathe and water we drink to the roads we drive and the lands we all share, it would behoove us to stop thinking of it all as ours, singular, instead thinking of it as ours, plural.

The newspapers and magazines continually bemoan the lack of civic involvement, to say nothing of ignorance (quick: name your senators and house representative. Bonus points if you know when your senators are up for re-election).

But the only way to solve that is to make people earn the title of citizen. The founders of the republic risked the gallows for the ideas and principles we all claim to hold dear. In these self-interested times, people don’t even want to vote or serve on a jury, seeing these obligations as burdens rather than rights. Two hundred years ago, the notion of pure citizen democracy, where no one was born into privilege and everyone (according to the ideas of that time) was equal, was truly revolutionary, and millions flocked to this place where they could make a life for themselves. It seems quaint to think of these ideas now, but there are people willing to risk their lives, by crossing deserts or stowing away in freight containers, for the opportunities enshrined in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. In short, they’re willing to earn it or die in the attempt.

Say what you like about their actions, they’re willing to risk all for a chance. How many of us are?

The Pledge of Allegiance – A Short History

[The] original Pledge read as follows: ‘I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ He considered placing the word, ‘equality,’ in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * ‘to’ added in October, 1892. ]

Dr. Mortimer Adler, American philosopher and last living founder of the Great Books program at Saint John’s College, has analyzed these ideas in his book, The Six Great Ideas. He argues that the three great ideas of the American political tradition are ‘equality, liberty and justice for all.’ ‘Justice’ mediates between the often conflicting goals of ‘liberty’ and ‘equality.’

In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the ‘leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge’s words, ‘my Flag,’ to ‘the Flag of the United States of America.’ Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.

In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, ‘under God,’ to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

It’s not like those words were always there. Just as the state of Georgia added the Stars and Bars to its state flag as a comment on desegragation, so too were these words added to the pledge. Both are relics of another time and just as Georgia outgrew its repugnant flag, the pledge can be returned to its inclusive and secular glory.

	You are Kermit! Though you’re technically the star, you’re pretty mellow and don’t mind letting others share the spotlight. You are also something of a dreamer.
Take the What Muppet Are You? Quiz!

We were just thinking of bringing the kids in for dinner when the neighbor popped her head in the back door to say the police were on the street looking a man with a gas mask and a large knife.

Sure enough, there were two cruisers two houses down, and a deputation of neighbors giving an officer some details. I secured our perimeter and am keeping an ear out.

When I went to rent the video camera yesterday, I couldn’t find my driver’s license. It turns out I have been without it for a a few weeks.

Two things I learned from that:

• Hans Eric, who rented me the camera, is a trusting soul to let me walk off with a $2000 video camera on the strength of my signature (no check, no credit card, nothing).
  
• I don’t need a picture ID all that often.
  

A lot of people who try out bikes at Recycled Cycles and use their licenses as security forget to ask for them back. Do we all just dream of never needing a car again? If it were just me, I would suspect early onset of senility, but that can’t be that common.

O’Reilly Network: Tim O’Reilly’s WWDC Keynote Manuscript [May. 16, 2002]

This is how we get most of our good ideas at O’Reilly. We look for people who appear to be doing magic, and ask them how they do it. (Remember Arthur C. Clarke’s dictum: “Any sufficiently advanced technology appears to be magic.”) There are always people in any field who are the most clued in to the deep trends, who seem to be playing with all the coolest stuff, and seem to have their finger in everything before most people even know about it.

Tim O’Reilly thinks OS X is epitomizes the convergence of the open source ethos and real-world pragmatism: see his definition of “guilt-free computing.”

I can’t help but agree. It’s just easier to get things done in OS X.

tiny pineapple | radio

As of June 21 at 2:00pm MST, Radio Free Tiny Pineapple is closing
its doors to the general public and will simply revert to what it was
in the beginning: a way for me to listen to my CDs at work.

CNN.com – Standing up for her dreams – June 20, 2002

Her hopes were dashed when the school’s principal said he would not allow her to walk across the stage. His reasons, Malikina says, included safety concerns, liability issues and a complaint she would take too long to cross.

It took her less than a minute to cross the stage at the graduation ceremony that was given to her by local businesses, including Philips Arena, the sports arena that adjoins CNN Center.

What a jerk. His message of intolerance and inflexibility rings loud and clear but not nearly so loudly as Masha Malikina’s one of determination and courage.

Coupon listing: Seattle-King County

I spotted this coupon book/resource guide at PCC. It’s full of coupons and ideas I can use around the house to make things nicer as well as save money/resources in the process.

And unlike the usual coupon book fare, heavy on movie tickets and food, this one is full of useful stuff, from free Metro bus rides to $500 off a Honda Insight purchase (OK, that’s a little hard to take advantage of), bike tuneups and service, etc.

KUOW had a segment on internet radio and what it means for artists. I have thought for years artists got a bad deal from record companies and with mp3 so much in the news, it’s done nothing to change my opinion. People who listen to mp3 files buy music, more than those who don’t, so any method of getting music out where it can be heard seems to me to be a Good Thing.

The formats and playlists of commercial radio stations are so restrictive, it’s hard to hear good new music. The individuality of a DJ with an ear for something innovative has been replaced by progammers who tailor the music around the demographic the advertisers want to reach. Internet radio restores this individuality to music and the music industry’s opposition to it speaks volumes about the real revenue engine behind the radio industry.

Also, I find that internet radio sites do a good job of promoting the artists they play, in terms of links, options to buy the music they play, etc. They have a direct relationship with their listeners, rather than using the listeners as the bait for advertising dollars. I sent an email to the show, included below.

Historically, each new medium has simply mimicked the dominant medium until it found its own strengths. Radio broadcast newspaper stories until it leveraged its immediacy, TV added pictures to radio as well as broadcasting plays until it worked out how best to do original programming, like game shows and other “innovations.” Likewise the web has added reach to newspapers and news organizations of all sizes. If you’ve been following the net since the mid-90s, you’ve seen the web try to be television, newspapers, and now radio. We’ll have to see what the internet is really good at, I suppose, but I’d look at what the big corporations are scared of as a good indicator.

This is an instructive read.

94.9 KUOW: Seattle’s NPR News and Information Station

Morning,

I listen to Internet radio because I like the programming: it’s usually less restrictive than over the air broadcasting.

But I am not hearing about the real business of broadcasting. Mr Navarro claimed that the music was the commodity being sold in his analysis. What’s actually being sold is the attention span of the audience that likes that programming. I pay nothing to KMTT or any other station but time spent listening to messages paid for by advertisers. If they stop playing music I and others care for, the audience drops off, and advertisers go away and the station’s revenue drops.

Ad-supported media is based on this “attention economy” and always has been.

Going forward, the day may come when we can subscribe to a service that plays music we will like and an acceptable revenue model will evolve to make it viable.

Also, this is a very hot topic in tv broadcasting: the CEO of Turner Broadcasting has claimed that viewers who skip commercials, either by well-timed bathroom breaks or technology, are in violation of an implicit contract.