It’s not all bad, really!

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Last month, I mentioned that I’d been in contact with a magazine reporter who was working on a story about weblogs and some of the potential pitfalls that can come about when recording your life online for the world to see. As I mentioned at the time, while I at first wasn’t terribly concerned about the tone of the article, as our conversation progressed, I started to worry that it was going to end up all gloom-and-doom.

It appears that Anil has also been contacted by a reporter working on a similar story (possibly the same reporter, or another reporter also working on the story for the same publication, though I can’t be absolutely sure about that), and he ended up having some of the same reservations that I did. In his response to the reporter who contacted him, he expressed a desire shared by myself and, I’m sure, many others in the weblogging world: rather than focusing solely on the things that go wrong, that the media also look at the things that go right, and just why we all keep our weblogs going even in the face of the potential downsides.

One thing I would suggest is considering a, well, more uplifting angle. There have been an awful lot of “blogs can cost you your job!” or “make money fast with blogs!” stories, and very few that cover the positive reasons people have weblogs.

For a lot of your audience, this is their first impression of what weblogs can be, and frankly, if they were all about dire consequences, there wouldn’t be millions of people publishing weblogs every day.

Most of the people in my social circle have met their spouses/significant others, gotten apartments, gotten jobs, made friends, or (in my case) all of the above because of their weblogs. All that plus they get to participate in a new medium instead of just passively consuming media.

From what I know of [name of publication], the audience is one that appreciates a good positive human story, and it’s also much more likely that you’ll get some good cooperation or participation from people in the weblog realm who can help strengthen your story.

I’ve just sent a link to Anil’s post to the reporter I’ve been talking with, in case we are dealing with separate people. With any luck, should this article eventually appear, there will be a bit more to it than mere horror stories.

Condolences

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Over the course of the past few days, Jessica Wilkinson, a regular member at the Vogue, went missing. Yesterday, her family officially filed a missing persons report with the police, and word started spreading around the various Seattle communities.

Last night, the police contacted her family to let them know that she had passed away in her apartment. Nothing else is known at this point.

I didn’t know her, though from the pictures I’ve seen as people have posted notices both looking for her and reacting to news of her death, I do believe that I know who she was, having seen her at the Vogue on quite a few occasions.

My deepest sympathies and condolences to those who knew her and shared her friendship. From what I’ve been reading, many people just lost a well-loved friend.

Tigger cleared of all charges

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In a recent trial in Florida, a Disney employee was found not guilty of fondling a 13 year old girl while posing in a Tigger costume for photographs. My favorite part of the article was a series of photos in which the defense attorney tried on a Tigger costume in order to demonstrate how difficult it can be to know exactly where one’s hands are placed while suited up. The photos are priceless…

Book him, Dan-o

“Book him, Dan-o.”

Tigger being arrested

“This creep’s been pouncing on people all over the Hundred Acre Wood again.”

Check everywhere

“Hey! Is the full-body cavity search really necessary, guys?”

I'm innocent!

Tigger pleaded innocent, claiming that pouncing is “what Tiggers do best!”

The Tigger macarena

After being let go with a warning, the courtroom quickly cleared as Tigger celebrated by performing the Macarena.

iTunes: “Macarena (Mezcla Guerrillera)” by Los Del Rio from the album Macarena Non Stop (1996, 5:36).

They Knew

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Today’s must-read: They Knew…

Despite the whitewash, we now know that the Bush administration was warned before the war that its Iraq claims were weak.

If desperation is ugly, then Washington, D.C. today is downright hideous.

As the 9/11 Commission recently reported, there was “no credible evidence” of a collaborative relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. Similarly, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. With U.S. casualties mounting in an election year, the White House is grasping at straws to avoid being held accountable for its dishonesty.

The whitewash already has started: In July, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee released a controversial report blaming the CIA for the mess. The panel conveniently refuses to evaluate what the White House did with the information it was given or how the White House set up its own special team of Pentagon political appointees (called the Office of Special Plans) to circumvent well-established intelligence channels. And Vice President Dick Cheney continues to say without a shred of proof that there is “overwhelming evidence” justifying the administration’s pre-war charges.

But as author Flannery O’Conner noted, “Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” That means no matter how much defensive spin spews from the White House, the Bush administration cannot escape the documented fact that it was clearly warned before the war that its rationale for invading Iraq was weak.

Top administration officials repeatedly ignored warnings that their assertions about Iraq’s supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and connections to al Qaeda were overstated. In some cases, they were told their claims were wholly without merit, yet they went ahead and made them anyway. Even the Senate report admits that the White House “misrepresented” classified intelligence by eliminating references to contradictory assertions.

In short, they knew they were misleading America.

And they did not care.

The full article has many bits of information that have been known for a long time — at least to those of us who have been paying any amount of attention — but the authors do a wonderful job of summarizing it all in one neat package, extensively linked with source articles.

How anybody can continue to put any stock in the Bush administration is just mind boggling to me.

(via MeFi)

iTunes: “Stare and Stare” by MC 900 Ft Jesus from the album One Step Ahead of the Spider (1994, 6:59).

Missouri 0 — Seattle 1

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Gay Marriage in WA

Handily showing up Missouri’s ban on gay marriage, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing ruled this morning that banning gay marriage would violate the state constitution, clearing the way for gay marriage in Washington once the ruling is reviewed by the state Supreme Court.

Gay couples can marry in Washington state, a judge ruled Wednesday, saying that banning such marriages violates the state constitution.

“The denial to the plaintiffs of the right to marry constitutes a denial of substantive due process,” King County Superior Court Judge William L. Downing said in his ruling.

[…]

Downing rejected arguments that a ban on same-sex marriage would protect children from harm that may be caused by being raised in a nontraditional family.

“Although many may hold strong opinions on the subject, the fact is that there are no scientifically valid studies tending to establish a negative impact on the adjustment of children raised by an intact same-sex couple as compared with those raised by an intact opposite-sex couple,” he wrote.

The judge concluded: “The exclusion of same-sex partners from civil marriage … is not rationally related to any legitimate or compelling state interest and is certainly not narrowly tailored toward such an interest.”

The ruling still needs to be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, but as they’ve ruled in favor of gay couples in two prior cases, the outlook is quite optimistic.

Hooray for Judge Downing, hooray for Washington — and hooray for all the prospective newlyweds-to-be!

(via DeAnna and the Seattle LiveJournal Community)

iTunes: “Tiptoe Through the Inferno” by MC 900 Ft Jesus from the album One Step Ahead of the Spider (1994, 4:50).

Photo Op? Or attempted murder?

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Pratridiot Watch takes Bush to task for using the recent security alerts as a photo op for Laura and the twins.

The day after Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge announced with great urgency an fanfare that they had specific information on terror targets in New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC, the Bush campaign is using the targets for photo ops with Laura and the Twins.

First Lady Laura Bush and her twin daughters paid a surprise visit to the Citigroup Center yesterday, joining Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki to cheer on employees who ignored the terror threat and reported for work. The lunchtime crowd erupted in applause when Mrs. Bush and her daughters, Jenna and Barbara, stopped to chat over coffee at a table of Citigroup employees in the atrium.

“I wanted to thank people for coming to work and I’m really glad to be with them today,” the first lady said to a roar of approval from the crowd.

So the Bush administration took information that al Queda looked at these buildings three years ago, issued an urgent alert that the Citigroup building is a target of terrorists, then sent Bush’s wife and daughters in for a campaign photo op to rally the troops.

Actually, I think that’s entirely the wrong way to look at it. It wasn’t a photo op — Bush was actually just hoping the terrorists would attack, killing his wife and children in the process, so he could play upon the sympathies of the nation’s people to re-elect him next November.

Big honkin’ disclaimer: No, of course I’m not serious. I just have an occasionally very black sense of humor, and this popped into my head. I don’t wish Laura, the twins, or anyone else any harm — I don’t even wish George Bush any physical harm, merely the ego blow of losing the upcoming election, and maybe a few solid kicks to the shin for being a complete and total putz.

I do very strongly agree that using this alert as a photo op is rather disgusting.

(via Len)

iTunes: “Complacency” by Noxious Emotion from the album This Hallowed Ground (1995, 4:11).

Music and Politics

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Just for amusement sake, after reading an article about the upcoming Vote for Change concert tour (which doesn’t seem to be coming to Washington — aren’t we supposed to be a “swing state” too?), here’s a short and probably very incomplete list of musical artists who have supported one presidential candidate or the other. Most of this list is culled from the article, I may update it as days go by as I run across more names. Submissions will be welcome, of course.

It’s a rather silly way to look at things, sure, but if for some reason you’re having problems making up your mind which way you want to vote, maybe your musical tastes can make a difference. ;)

Supporting Kerry
(or at least vocally anti-Bush)		 Supporting Bush
Alkaline Trio
Anti-Flag
The Ataris
Authority Zero
Bad Religion
Jello Biafra
Billy Bragg
Bright Eyes
Jackson Browne
The Dave Matthews Band
Death Cab for Cutie
Denali
The Dixie Chicks
Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds
The Epoxies
John Fogerty
Jurassic 5
Less Than Jake
John Mellencamp
Ministry
Keb’ Mo’
My Morning Jacket
N.O.F.X.
None More Black
The Offspring
Pearl Jam
Bonnie Raitt
R.E.M.
Linda Rondstadt
Social Distortion
The Soviettes
Bruce Springsteen
James Taylor
World/Inferno Friendshop Society		 Kid Rock
Ted Nugent
Jessica Simpson
Britney Spears
Lee Ann Womack

Update: Additions from a NYT article (thanks Len) and Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 (thanks Ryan — the page for RABv2 didn’t have artist listings, otherwise there’d be more additions, I’m sure).

iTunes: “Music and Politics” by Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, The from the album Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury (1992, 4:01).

PvP takes on the comic syndicates

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The author of PvP, a webcomic that I really don’t read often enough (though that should change now that I discovered their RSS feed), has decided that the newspaper comic syndication racket isn’t for him. So, instead of giving up all the rights to his strip, he’s going to investigate syndicating it himself for free.

This last year, I was contacted by Universal Press Syndicates about PvP. They know the strip and were very interested in syndicating it as a feature. I would love to see PvP in newspapers and we started talks. I let them know that there were six years of archives available and that I could edit the strips to conform to family paper editorial standards. The only thing I could not do was give up my ownership and rights to my creation.

Under no circumstances would I relinquish my copyright, book deals, merchandise deals, rights to market my strips, etc. If they wanted PvP, we would agree to a newspaper distribution deal and that was it. After six weeks the syndicates returned with their answer: They wanted PvP…all of it. If they could not have the rights to the feature, they weren’t interested. So we parted ways.

But I’ve already become attached to the idea of seeing PvP in the papers, and that’s why I’ve decided to start a new program. In the coming months, I’ll be putting into effect, a program in which papers can receive PVP for free. That’s right, free. They don’t have to pay me a cent for it. I will provide for the papers, a comic strip with a larger established audience then any new syndicated feature, a years worth of strips in advance, and I won’t charge them a cent for it.

Best of luck on this project. From the sound of it, if this is a success, it could be the first step in rather radically changing the comic strip industry.

iTunes: “Love on Haight Street” by BT from the album Movement in Still Life (2000, 6:18).

One of these things is not like the others…

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I love seeing things like this. From today’s iTMS “new releases” e-mail from Apple:

New Releases

  • The Essential Isley Brothers – The Isley Brothers
  • Living Hallelujah – Single – Sarah Kelly
  • The 9-11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission On Terrorist Attacks (Unabridged) – National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
  • Riot On an Empty Steet – Kings of Convenience
  • A Long Hot Summer – Masta Ace
  • Dead Disco (Kylie Kills Mix) – Single – Metric
  • Crosby & Nash – EP – Crosby & Nash
  • Davy Crockett – Riders in the Sky
  • Ride This – The Covers EP – Los Lobos
  • Green Imagination – The Sunshine Fix
  • Until the End – Kittie
  • Accentuate the Positive – Al Jarreau

iTunes: “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” by Pet Shop Boys from the album Discography (1987, 4:19).