http://www.whybother.org/ The net takes you nowhere.... en-us 2007-07-10T16:05:41-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/how-i-learned-my-abcs.html "a" word "b" word "c" word "d" word "e" word "f" word "g" word "h" word "i" word "j" word "k" word "l" word "m" word "n" word "o" word "p" word "q" word "r" word "s" word "t" word "u" word "v" word "w" word "x" word "y" word "z" word We are a nation of children.... Literacy and Its Discontents rri 2007-07-10T16:05:41-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/weapons-of-mass-distraction/drive-by-briefing-of-president-bush.html A wonderful piece of video -- get it while you can -- illustrating the effects and contents of what George Bush -- the man himself, a ramblin' and explannin', up and grinnin' wide as day on the hot spot before the camera -- very genuinely, believably described as a "Drive-By Briefing," prepping him for questions on the Supreme Court's Center-Left line-in-the-sand stance on the Court's authority over all matters consequential not just to Constitutional Rights but to Human Rights as well, to the extent We, The United States of America, still stand as signatories to various quaint Humanist conventions of International Law, foremost the Geneva Conventions. Our President's Drive By Briefing Unfortunately, it is an open question whether the American Public, the demos at large, has sufficient residual common sense and moral judgment -- the most conservative and indeed heroic of "Conservative Virtues" -- to care a fig about their... Weapons of Mass Distraction rri 2006-06-29T18:19:01-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/neil-youngs-articles-of-impeachment.html Article I Let's impeach the president for lyin' Misleading our country into WAR Abusing all the power that we gave him And shipping all our money out the door Who's the man who hired all the criminals The white house shadows who hide behind closed doors And bend the facts to fit with their new story Of why we have to send our men to war Article II Let's impeach the president for spyin' On citizens inside their own homes Breaking ev'ry law in the country By tapping our computers and telephones What if AL QUAEDA blew up the levees, Would New Orleans have been safer that way? Sheltered by the government's protection Or was someone just not home that day? Article III Let's impeach the president for hijacking Our religion and using it to get elected Dividing our country into colors And still leaving black people neglected Thank GOD... All Hail Freedonia! rri 2006-05-26T13:01:25-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/neil-young-living-with-war.html No Need No More Lies All Hail Freedonia! rri 2006-05-22T19:47:48-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/time-keeps-on-ticking/the-canonical-list-of-weird-band-names.html Time Keeps On Ticking rri 2006-03-02T22:14:16-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/50.html Of course, both my real and nominal depression upon the mere mention of my impending 50th birthday are greatly, I would say, sufficiently dramatized. THE LATEST SENSATION: WEEKS IN THE MAKING! Indeed, Drama is how we slow things down, to give us time to think. OK, one of the ways. Nothing new here. Read Dickens, if you like, for all it matters. It's what we mean by "Culture" And its efficacy, whatever you've got in mind.... But my hesitation lies elsewhere. I have no answer to those other, earlier questions. How could it ever have been otherwise? [The Beatitudes F ObEING] => go ahead, the cliff is that-a-way >> Phat!... Old and In the Way rri 2006-01-14T20:59:03-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/sweet-virginia.html Listening to the Rolling Stones' Sweet Virginia, from now so long ago, trying to remember Pre-Reagan America, but having difficulty. Afterall, we all grew up with the bastard as Governor, too. Sixteen years, all told. Nevertheless, in 1972, Nixon's ultimate demise was already a vague shiny dream, glowing brightly on the great land's horizon upon horizon. The bear still went over the mountains. Kent was a State... Old and In the Way rri 2006-01-10T21:20:17-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/why-indeed/the-wheels-came-off.html Why indeed? busybeaver 2005-09-03T08:03:02-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/why-indeed/something-new-under-the-sun.html Anybody know what this is? 8/30 What about this? 8/31 And the answer is that this is learning the relatively simple process of 1)including photos, and 2)editing and revising entries. The second photo is about twice as big as the first - when first posted it (gasp) covered the advertising - so the big achievement was figuring out how to shrink it down. But what are they? Sorry, that is not posed as a real question introducing an answer. It is a challenge to learn how to create italics. Which appears to have succeeded.... Why indeed? busybeaver 2005-08-29T08:14:10-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/why-indeed/ah-well.html As an astute observer of this site may notice (there may be one or two), busybeaver does not spring forth a fully formed and dewy new presence on this 21st of August last. The enignmatic sayings of one ebj have now been re-signed, attributed by the software to said BB. Yes, poor Elva has been unmasked - attempting to learn this strange new technology she is. Quite a feat for a box of dead letters, but there you have it. Elva also notices that there is a, shall we say, less astute observer present - a mechanical intermediary, an engine of search, gamely attempting to identify signal, identify noise, serve meaning. Well, dear Goo-goo, if you really have to know, the postings of busybeaver are mere sitebuilding practice leavings. Yes, another flesh and blood, bricks and mortar, cliche filled, time constrained ordinary person has decided to learn how to work... Why indeed? busybeaver 2005-08-22T08:20:38-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/why-indeed/ive-got.html ...nothing to say, but it's ok... (good morning!) If a website changes in the middle of cyberspace and nobody notices, does it make a sound?... Why indeed? busybeaver 2005-08-21T07:49:37-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/zarazi-troll-priestess-of-the-horde.html Friday the 13th May 2005 What do you do, when a seemingly sensible woman confesses to have become "Zarazi, Troll Priestess of the Horde, 2nd Level," but doubt she was every really that sensible at all. (Sensible is vastly overrated. Zarazi) And search for proof... Thus, having long wanted to "out" myself and other adult game players, the following: An Interview with Zarazi, Troll Priestess of the Horde, 2nd Level The Inquisition: Zarazi, many have held ... perhaps mistakenly ... that playing games with children becomes the more pleasurable the older we grow; as we, aging, naturally lose our need to win. You have been introduced to this game by your son. Have you not, Zarazi? What say you then, Zarazi, to this belief? Zarazi, Troll Priestess of the Horde: : To start with, you must admit that had you ever really thought that I was "sensible," you would... The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 2005-05-13T13:13:13-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/weapons-of-mass-distraction/to-catch-a-thief.html Grace Kelly: John.... Grace Kelly: John.... Grace Kelly: Are you going to make it hard for me to apologize? Cary Grant: Not at all. I'm sure you're sorry. Grace Kelly: You know I am. Til mother told me, I had no idea the things you were up against. Cary Grant: Well. Grace Kelly: What are your plans now? Cary Grant: Now what? Grace Kelly: That the cat burgler's dead. Cary Grant: Foussard isn't The Cat. Grace Kelly: But the newspapers.... Cary Grant: The man had a wooden leg. Grace Kelly: Wasn't he caught at a villa trying to rob it? Cary Grant: He wasn't trying to rob it. He was trying to kill...me. Grace Kelly: Why? Cary Grant: Because I was getting too close to The Cat. Grace Kelly: Then who killed him? Cary Grant: If I ever find that out, I'll let you know. Goodbye, Francie. Grace Kelly:... Weapons of Mass Distraction rri 2005-03-04T11:27:54-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/fortune-is-a-woman.html It is not unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, the opinion that the affairs of the world are in such wise governed by fortune and by God that men with their wisdom cannot direct them and that no one can even help them; and because of this they would have us believe that it is not necessary to labour much in affairs, but to let chance govern them. This opinion has been more credited in our times because of the great changes in affairs which have been seen, and may still be seen, every day, beyond all human conjecture. Sometimes pondering over this, I am in some degree inclined to their opinion. Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other... Old and In the Way rri 2005-03-03T15:32:04-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/time-keeps-on-ticking/laughter-sudden-glory-at-the-misfortune-of-others.html The vainglory which consisteth in the feigning or supposing of abilities in ourselves, which we know are not, is most incident to young men, and nourished by the histories or fictions of gallant persons; and is corrected oftentimes by age and employment. Sudden glory is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter; and is caused either by some sudden act of their own that pleaseth them; or by the apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves. And it is incident most to them that are conscious of the fewest abilities in themselves; who are forced to keep themselves in their own favour by observing the imperfections of other men. And therefore much laughter at the defects of others is a sign of pusillanimity. For of great minds one of the proper works is to help and free others from scorn, and compare... Time Keeps On Ticking rri 2005-02-24T23:09:05-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/bush-baby-boomers-take-care-of-their-own.html GEN-X BEWARE! And all you ever-ambiguous Blank Generation folk, among whom I number myself, you ought to wake up too. For once again, the post-war Baby-Boomers, arguably the most pampered, selfish and programmatically self-indulgent generation in American history, are preparing to take care of themselves at the direct expense of their younger brothers and sisters, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. At least, that's the impression one gets reading the Bush-Cato Social Security Administration's online Frequently Asked Questions About Social Security's Future. (Also beware that under the Bush administration we live in an Orwellian world where official government websites frequently change their 'facts and figures' with political calculus, so the following quoted passages may no longer be there when you go to look.) But as it stands at this writing, the Social Security Administration's official FAQ About Social Security's Future is a powerful object lesson in the crude directness of the 'divide... All Hail Freedonia! rri 2005-01-18T10:33:05-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/why-bother-about-whybotherorg.html What a pain, a nuisance, annoyance, what trouble, what a bother and botheration it is to inconvenience oneself, to overstrain, extend oneself, to get all hyped up, psyched up, to overexert oneself, all set to trouble oneself, almost kill oneself just to maintain a "vanity" web site year after year after year! Now in the vainest of all vain glories, a blog format. Why Bother? After all, the net takes you nowhere.... In any event, I have no answer to those questions. Nor do I need any. Whybother.org was formally created as a website on August 26, 1999. But "Why Bother" as a vague kind of virtual dis-organization, with a finite but shadowy membership, has a much longer history, reaching back into the deep dark recesses of mid-1970's Berkeley. My lips are sealed.... But in anticipatory celebration of the New Year, I thought why not fly the old flag, yet... The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 2004-12-24T13:02:16-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/readers-notes/tropic-of-cancer.html From Narrative Detours: Henry Miller and the Rise of New Critical Modernism (1989): I want to make a detour of those lofty arid mountain ranges where one dies of thirst and cold, that "extra-temporal" history, that absolute of time and space where there exists neither man, beast, nor vegetation, where one goes crazy with loneliness, with language that is mere words, where everything is unhooked, ungeared, out of joint with the times. I want a world of men and women, of trees that do not talk (because there is too much talk in the world as it is!), of rivers that carry you to places, not rivers that are legends, but rivers that put you in touch with other men and women, with architecture, religion, plants, animals--rivers have boats on them and in which men drown, drown not in myth and legend and books and dust of the past, but in time and space and history. --Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer Readers Notes rri 2004-12-23T17:44:27-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/bushs-social-insecurity-plan.html Just keeping track of the shifting lies, misrepresentations and bait-and-switch tactics of the Bush Administration as it slithers toward that Holy Grail of Right-Wing American politics, the dismemberment and destruction of the New Deal's Covenant with America, the 1935 Social Security Act, is a dizzying, mind-numbing task. And it's meant to be. It's among the most fundamental of discoveries of the early masters of effective political propaganda in media-dominated, mass societies -- Hearst, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler -- that one's ideological opponents can be kept permanently off balance and ineffective, endlessly marshalling armies of difficult little facts and seemingly condescending appeals to reason and rationality against the easy big lie that one can tell, re-tell, not tell, offer, modify or drop at a moment's notice. To the effective political propagandist "facts" and "reasons" are just so many deployable, imaginative fictions in a world come unanchored where any hesitation, any self-restraint for... All Hail Freedonia! rri 2004-12-19T07:54:03-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/a-fighting-faith.html The New Republic, Peter Beinart, issuing his own retro clarion call for "a new liberalism," A Fighting Faith, as he styles it, in a black and white world of American might and right locked in another life or death, existential battle with the forces of totalitarian darkness and their fellow travelers at home and abroad. ]]> All Hail Freedonia! rri 2004-12-10T09:58:34-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/weapons-of-mass-distraction/culture-wars-the-soundtrack.html I don't watch prime-time American network television any more, nor the HBO and other comparable cable fare that increasingly dominates evening viewing and day-after conversation in its stead. To the amazement and despair of friends, family, and other die-hard friends of "Friends", I have thus far refused to watch even a single episode of "The Sopranos", as I steadfastly refused "Sex and the City" before it. Mine is an almost un-American inactivity in relation to TV. Nevertheless, the stuff does manage, thanks to my wife, to snake its way into my house. The result is that, for the past decade or so, I've had what might best be described as a distant, occasional listening relationship to that vast swath of America's collective imaginative life. Poor anti-social me, I no longer know all the latest "funny" or "cool" commercials. Television is something that literally goes on in the other room... Weapons of Mass Distraction rri 2004-11-29T12:18:23-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/the-chantelle-show-the-discovery-of-america.html Coming Columbus Day Indigenous People's Day, October 12, 2004.... I'm not at all sure what or if it meant, the fortuitous discovery of that quarter deck of card-sized Chantelle photos in Derrida's Of Spirit shortly after his death; less, what I might or might not have intended in sequestering them there almost a decade ago; even less, what last month moved me to photograph the photographs spread upon the back of Wilson leather, the classic black jacket, one of the happiest things I now own, long denied me by another's image of who I was and ought to be, until I reached San Diego.... Literacy and Its Discontents rri 2004-10-12T20:21:33-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/jacques-derrida.html Jacques Derrida 1930-2004... Literacy and Its Discontents rri 2004-10-08T12:20:26-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/what-i-really-said-about-iraq.html Was there ever any doubt that L. Paul Bremner III yet remained a true-blue, die-on-the-sword believer, sold on the grand old neo-con cause? I think not, despite his strenuous defense of self and President in his New York Times Op-Ed piece What I Really Said About Iraq. Nor do I think anyone's especially now excited about whether in 20-20 hindsight Bremner was more right than the generals--those Rumsfeld and Company had left standing--back when this chaos was first let loose. No, I seem to recall just the other day when the point was that Bremner got caught out speaking too openly a present truth about the state of things in Iraq. He was caught recognizing, accepting the reality that things are so bad that we had better start examining and re-examining all sorts of ideas, his among them, of what might have been done better. The point remains, beyond anything... All Hail Freedonia! rri 2004-10-08T02:18:20-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/skull-bones-a-or-skull-bones-c.html As we begin our final election-year descent into the maelstrom of American cultural dysfunction, before we founder beneath the coming wave upon wave upon wave of proud, flag-flying, viciously oafish "Who's Preventing Me From Being A Millionaire?" mass imbecility that is the American populace "making up its mind," before we discover ourselves too much exhausted to speak in the face of all that is so unspeakable about the American people and the American media, we would do well to pause at this summit of the loftiest crag to consider the vertiginous achievement of our peculiar institutions. All Hail Freedonia! rri 2004-09-01T14:09:17-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/google-giggles/a-few-words-about-vacuums.html Last week I got out of bed and into my car to shop for a vacuum cleaner in a semi-robotic, automatic, beam-me-up kind of way. Without first forming a central system for comparison, or reading any review, rating, records or consumer report to gauge the best machines, whether commercial, industrial, bagless, cordless, hepa, wet-dry, or for simplicity of repair, I chose a Bissell vacuum cleaner off the back of a truck from among a pool of Dirt Devil, Dyson, Electrolux, Eureka, Fantom, Hoover, Kenmore, Kirby, Miele, Oreck, Panasonic, Rainbow, Roomba, Royal, Shark, Sharp, and Tristar titles and packaging. Stranger things have happened. I didn't know what to make of the vacuum guy's cover. He was parked, motor running, on a leaf-strewn lawn by an above ground swimming pool and had some robot-like female pumping pond stuff through hose and tube into a variety of canister, chamber, and storage bags. The whole contraption, topped by a rotary vane, he claimed was some kind of Gast pump coating machine, a sealer and sweeper for the pool-side tile. But of his assistant coater who wore only a bra, he said nothing. Google Giggles rri 2004-08-12T12:59:32-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/google-giggles/a-few-words-about.html The little words cavorting noticed one day that they were being herded into an ever-narrower column in the middle of the page. To the left and the right appeared flickering changing shapes. One day, a group of words noticed that the shapes seemed to shadow them hunter-chameleons changing, echoing, reaching. "George Christian Bush!" a group of words would shout, and the Republican National Committee would reach out a bony link. "Watch what you say!" another group would whisper, and Powells Books would suggest 1984. Soon they began to play with the shapes, to see what they could make them do. "Deep-sea divers report record loss on silly-putty sales under hurricane conditions." "Writhing newts endanger terms of DVD sales agreement with Finland." "House of Rising Sun declared winner of new housing start extravaganza with retrograde motion." The shadows silently shadowed illuminating far corners of mercantile greed outposts of wishful thinking beckoning... Google Giggles busybeaver 2004-07-28T16:16:45-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/war-crime-planning.html On May 6, 2002, the Bush administration announced the withdrawal of the United States from the International Criminal Court Treaty and claimed exemption from the jurisdiction of the permanent war crimes tribunal that the International Criminal Court Treaty established on July 1, 2002. At the time, little was made of this decision outside human rights circles. But as we now know, the Bush administration's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court Treaty in May 2002 was only the tip of an iceberg, the only then visible piece of an extensive internal, on-going effort to reinterpret in secret the Geneva Conventions, U.S. law, Presidential authority, and even the meaning of the word "torture" itself. All Hail Freedonia! rri 2004-06-23T12:54:46-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/time-keeps-on-ticking/forgotten-opera-2004.html The Fifth Element. The Forgotten was an incredible resurgence of the bohemian scene in San Francisco on a huge scale." -- From Ggreg Taylor's Forgotten Opera]]> Time Keeps On Ticking pepe le peu 2004-06-22T15:02:33-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-climate-suits-my-clothes/north-garbage-south-garbage.html Younger and thinner then, older and lazier now, I've told this story before, but set in Baja, San Quintin. If you don't know where it's set this time, I won't tell you. We don't need to see more people here.

]]> The Climate Suits My Clothes rri 2004-06-21T14:40:10-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/good-christian-bush.html Today, at the conclusion of the G-8 summit conference at Sea Island, Georgia, the world witnessed the morally disheartening spectacle of a President of The United States of America, George W. Bush, himself a professed born-again Christian, unable or unwilling to bring himself to condemn the use of torture as an interrogation technique. Three times he was asked, each time in a distinct and different way in case he misunderstood, each time with a different opportunity to frame an answer, simple or complex, for the American people. There can be no doubt he understood. Three times he denied the moral weight of the issue. Have not especially President Bush's many born-again Christian supporters the moral obligation, the Christian duty before God, to seek genuine and full clarification of his views and feelings on this issue? All Hail Freedonia! rri 2004-06-10T16:38:07-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/mission-accomplished.html "There are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq." "Free societies do not use weapsons of mass destruction." "Life for the Iraqi people is a world away from the cruelty and corruption of Saddam's regime." President George W. Bush's faith that there is no truth so unfortunate that it cannot be dispelled with barefaced denial and indifferent neglect is simply staggering. More staggering is the percentage of Americans who apparently approve this method of governance. All Hail Freedonia! rri 2004-05-01T14:29:57-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/time-keeps-on-ticking/a-latecomer-to-an-embassy-ball.html ...arrives at the top of the stairs and surveys the scene below. The room below is circular. There are 360 doors. On each door is an inscription. What is on the door the latecomer has arrived through? What is on the door directly opposite?... Time Keeps On Ticking busybeaver 2004-01-30T16:41:19-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/fragments/data-has-no-right-to-integrity.html Data has no right to "integrity" independent of our human interest, however individually or collectively we may care to negotiate that. Fragments rri 2004-01-26T19:46:38-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/hannah.html When I saw the flat, I knew that this would be the place where I would live for years to come. It just had a certain feel to it. The rooms were spacious and bright. The kitchen was quite large. It had a utility room and hookups for a washer and dryer. There was also a large fireplace in the living room which faced the back. There was a room in the middle of the flat that would work as a dark, quiet bedroom and two sunny, carpeted rooms in the front facing the street that could be used as space--for relaxing, reading, Yoga or some sort of fun yet to be determined. I decided I could afford it and I took it. I was retiring at age 44. I had a small house to sell in the East Bay and some investments. I had made a bundle in the... Old and In the Way tbone 2003-11-11T22:53:09-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/old-and-in-the-way.html You know, for the past twenty-five years, I've always had a sense that American management was composed mostly of those from our parents' generation, but it now seems that today American management is composed of those from Gen-X. How was it possible, that we, the baby boom generation, the largest generation in American history, were cut loose from our fair share of controlling destiny? Old and In the Way mrbdawg 2000-11-29T18:29:41-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/weapons-of-mass-distraction/mission-to-mars.html Mission To Mars is to think that some reviewers actually found anything to praise in the movie. I had a sense that the chief scriptwriter was a 7 year-old kid locked up in his room with a space rocket and a tape recorder for ten days. The highlight of the movie was the escape from the doomed lander as it headed wildly toward a flaming entry into the Martian atmosphere, seeing the astronauts file out in a weightless conga line, only to turn their heads to watch the craft disappear far below into a flaming meteorite.]]> Weapons of Mass Distraction mrbdawg 2000-11-29T16:14:45-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/cryptonomicon.html Stephenson has played with each of his parallel stories and has developed so many interesting plot thread that when he must necessarily converge the stories, they don't quite splice nicely, leaving unconnected threads sparking annoying voltage. The splice becomes a 3 inch long ugly weld bubbling melted iron and copper on what could have been a wonderful fiber optic cable. Literacy and Its Discontents mrbdawg 2000-11-29T15:01:25-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/mock-the-casbah.html Steve Poltz (a.k.a., The Rugburns, co-writer of the hit that launched Jewel's career, the undisputed king of the 40 second answering machine song, and, well, Steve Poltz) do his solo, heavy Cathoholic drinking routine.]]> Old and In the Way rri 2000-11-29T13:56:57-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/our-bad-attitude.html Gramsci?"]]> The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 2000-11-29T13:31:20-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/weapons-of-mass-distraction/outside-the-matrix.html The Matrix is, at bottom, not about some horrifying possible future in which machines rule the world but an allegory of the present in which mere mortals much like ourselves do.]]> Weapons of Mass Distraction rri 2000-11-29T10:11:11-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/every-vote-counts.html As I sit down to write this, the Office of President of the United States of America seems to dangle from the fingertips of the unelected members of the Florida State Supreme Court. You, reading this presumably after their decision, know much more than I. But what, really, do you know from your future vantage that we all couldn't have known all along just by looking back, back and all around us, with a bit of common sense? Whether the Florida Supreme Court proved our electoral puppet-masters of the last instance? Which dumb block of wood and paste they marched to stage front and which dragged off to the wings? Or whether their decision, trumpeted around the world one moment was challenged the next, proved not final; and other masters assumed the strings and continued the tawdry vote-counting melodrama into a fifth act? And what is that future knowledge... All Hail Freedonia! rri 2000-11-28T17:42:55-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/beyond-information.html The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 2000-11-28T13:49:56-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/pretty-vacant-video/superbowl-sunday-1998.html Pretty Vacant Video rri 2000-08-22T16:28:46-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/pretty-vacant-video/its-about-the-ear-rings-2000.html A silent film, with a happy ending, from La Jolla, California. Pretty Vacant Video rri 2000-08-22T13:29:13-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/pretty-vacant-video/margaritas-san-francisco-dream-1998.html Pretty Vacant Video rri 2000-08-22T12:02:39-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-climate-suits-my-clothes/baja-san-quintin.html The Climate Suits My Clothes rri 2000-08-02T12:44:33-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/the-shape-of-webs-to-come.html The most recent attempts to measure the Web's dimensions (May 2000) have produced not so much interesting results as a new wave of metaphors to "naturalize" the predictable effects of mass media advertising, specifically the last two seasons of site-pumping TV ad campaigns. The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 2000-06-13T18:52:28-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/scary-old-man.html Old and In the Way rri 2000-06-13T18:47:36-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/12000-detention.html I have noticed that the building at Fort Mason where I take my improv workshop classes is also home to the Waldorf High School. This campus on National Park land incorporates big, empty, white-wall rooms with cheap-ass posters of vacation spots and one room with a pink sheet on the door that says "Detention" and a list of the usual crimes that land a kid in detention. Literacy and Its Discontents mrbdawg 2000-06-11T15:20:53-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/outlaw-programming.html The issue is NOT piracy. Pirated digital and audio CDs, and endless knockoffs of every other kind of brand-name consumer good have been black-marketed in America and elsewhere for decades. The current uproar is fundamentally not about this kind of piracy, because what now threatens Hollywood profits also and equally threatens the large-scale, established pirate businesses throughout the world: the prospect of a global grassroots network of theft and distribution, with no centers of production or points of sale to target. The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 2000-04-14T18:39:49-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/decimal-point-dyslexia.html The Net Takes You Nowhere mrbdawg 2000-04-13T15:04:42-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/demanifest-of-april-fools-day-2000.html We are now living through one of those interesting, though hardly unique or remarkable periods in the history of human delusion when fundamental alterations in existing social, cultural, political and economic arrangements have become as unthinkable as they are inevitable All Hail Freedonia! rri 2000-04-01T13:15:38-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/weapons-of-mass-distraction/stupid-people.html I have yet to understand how anyone can interpret American Beauty as a movie about dysfunctional families, suburbia and "life's changes." This is the essence of why American Beauty to me is a very bad movie.

]]> Weapons of Mass Distraction mrbdawg 2000-03-26T13:01:58-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/all-hail-freedonia/operation-enterprise.html All Hail Freedonia! rri 2000-03-17T18:33:41-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/ldr-25-poems.html (Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000. Reprinted with the author's permission.)]]> Literacy and Its Discontents rri 2000-03-17T16:05:23-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/readers-notes/pride-and-prejudice.html If you've read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, post your comments for other readers.... Readers Notes rri 2000-01-16T00:00:00-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/readers-notes/as-i-lay-dying.html If you've read William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, post your comments for other readers.... Readers Notes rri 2000-01-16T00:00:00-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/readers-notes/mrs-dalloway.html If you've read Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, post your comments for other readers.... Readers Notes rri 2000-01-16T00:00:00-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/readers-notes/invisible-man.html If you've read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, post your comments for other readers.... Readers Notes rri 2000-01-16T00:00:00-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/readers-notes/the-palm-at-the-end-of-the-mind.html If you've read Wallace Stevens' poetry, post your comments for other readers.... Readers Notes rri 2000-01-16T00:00:00-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/things-that-go-bump.html The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 1999-10-31T15:42:13-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/lost-angeles.html Unlike Herb, after much serious thought and extensive investigation I think I have found it--but I can't hold on to it.]]> Old and In the Way rri 1999-10-27T16:07:51-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/like-herding-cats.html For more than a year now, the media have enthralled us with the threat of anarchy on a global scale: the total breakdown of crucial informational, financial, commercial, social, governmental and even physical infrastructures directly caused or indirectly precipitated by the Y2K Millennium Bug. The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 1999-10-24T16:00:19-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/the-dog-in-the-temple.html Atisha, also known as Dipamkara Srijnana, was an Indian monk and scholar who arrived in Tibet around the year 1038. He's credited with reintroducing Mahayana Buddhist texts, practices, and ethical principles to a region where Buddhism had been largely reabsorbed and rendered almost unrecognizable by Tibet's indigenous Bon religion and numerous shamanistic cults. Old and In the Way rri 1999-10-06T15:24:08-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/the-gong-show.html Literacy and Its Discontents rri 1999-10-04T15:46:26-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/the-net-takes-you-nowhere/the-digital-commons.html The transcripts of the on-going Microsoft antitrust trial make interesting reading if, like most Americans, you can appreciate the courtroom drama of posturing overpaid attorneys, evasive expert witnesses, a bored and biased judge who seems content with being reversed on appeal, and ream after ream of legalese bullshit. It's better than the OJ trial. There's more directly at stake for the viewing public. And it's easier to follow than the bizarre unresolved murder-rape-incest-mayhem cases recently taken up as standard fare by CBS's 48 Hours. In contrast to the terminally inarticulate boobs featured on 48 Hours--where do they find these people?--all the Microsoft trial participants appear to have passed at least the eighth-grade. They all seem able to comprehend that people other than themselves may well exist and that those others may well view the same issues differently, without the direct intervention of Satan. This helps no end with dialogue. Were... The Net Takes You Nowhere rri 1999-09-22T17:34:15-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/40-fairy-tales.html Old and In the Way rri 1999-09-14T15:31:27-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/on-owning-reality.html This power of words, in the largest sense, to bound and shape our most basic human realities is the reason we should be frightened by the wave upon wave of global corporate media mergers of the last two decades. Literacy and Its Discontents rri 1999-09-09T18:49:38-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/the-ban-on-negativity-.html Old and In the Way rri 1999-09-04T15:55:57-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/old-and-in-the-way/the-travels-of-mr-derelict.html The Travels of Lao Can by Liu E (1857-1909). Lao Can is "Mr. Derelict," and the book was written in 1905 when Liu E was feeling rather derelict himself, beginning what was to be the final down slide of his fourth and last career, as a kind of public works adviser on mines, railways and, especially dear to his heart, the annual flooding of the Yellow River. His first three career attempts, scholar, physician and businessman, hadn't turned out that well either.]]> Old and In the Way rri 1999-09-03T15:10:18-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/literacy-and-its-discontents/the-global-melting-pot.html Literacy and Its Discontents rri 1999-08-30T16:11:26-08:00 http://www.whybother.org/bother/pretty-vacant-video/roger-univac-live-webcam.html Stay tuned for further spine-tingling adventures!!! Pretty Vacant Video mrbdawg 1999-08-29T18:42:21-08:00