Sterling Ambivalence

Suspicious comments...

2012-03-14T21:46:28Z

For what it's worth, I'm glad LiveJournal has been flagging suspicious comments and hiding them from view, but I wish when I get the email alerting me to the comments, the links to delete them actually worked.

Also, I wish there was some place to see all screened comments so I can see if they're spam or not and deal with the accordingly.

Typepad Sucks. That is All.

2011-10-29T05:23:52Z

Typepad is the least cost-effective blogging platform out there. Excuse me... Typepad is probably the most expensive blogging platform out there. Nobody with any financial sense chooses Typepad.

Typepad Micro, which only exists because Six Apart mismanaged Vox so remarkably badly they had to shut it down, borders on useless. It's so bad, I'd rather be blogging on Geocities where you had to hand-code each page and upload it manually, and... oh yeah, Geocities is dead! Note how they barely mention Typepad Micro on the homepage...

He's Dead...

2011-05-02T03:45:50Z

To think, while all of America was losing her mind, Barack Obama and our security team kept calm and carried on.

Writer's Block: Following the leader

2011-02-22T07:07:40Z

Let's say you're running for president, and you win by a mudslide. What would you change about your country and why? Would you make new laws? Paint the White House blue? Tell all!

First question listed was submitted by kj_loves_you323. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.)

View 649 Answers

Win by a 'mudslide'? The idiom is 'win by a landslide'.
The thing that surprises people is that the United States presidency doesn't doesn't confer upon you powers as all encompassing as suggested by this question. There's no ability to unilaterally change much but at the edges, and as Schoolhouse Rock taught me, laws are born in Congress (although the president can 'lobby' for bills he'd like to see introduced).

Now, if I had won by a landslide, I can only presume that the agenda I ran on was popular and would work to implement it as best I could. That said, I doubt my preferred agenda would give me an electoral landslide. (Not even Obama won by a landslide -- counting the popular vote he had a good but not overwhelming 7 point victory. That was augmented by the collapse of the economy on George W. Bush's watch.) I would absolutely raise taxes and close various loopholes that let companies like General Electric pay zero taxes. I would put this money into a program to repair our infrastructure and invest in mass transportation, clean energy, and education. This would be Stimulus 2.0 This would be hard to sell to a population that thinks that the government funds mostly waste and foreign aid. It's not true, but it's a myth that makes people think you can balance the budget and cut taxes and preserve "the stuff I like".

Obama took a crack at reforming healthcare which is a good start, but I would continue pushing toward a universal healthcare system like Medicare for all -- so we aren't the last civilized country in the world where children can die of a rotten tooth because mom couldn't afford insurance. Despite what the Republican Party has been saying, reforming healthcare will save money, and do so without kicking families off heating assistance.

I'd lobby for citizens in the District of Columbia have voting representation in Congress. This is one place where I will not pretend the Constitution is a divinely inspired and perfect document. It is wrong here, and if it needs amending to grant citizens in DC the same representation I get by living just five miles away, I will lobby for that.

I can already see my landslide slipping to a squeaker. If I get a victory at all.

I will support the right of members of the same sex to get married and serve in the military. Yep, there goes the vote of the religious right.

Ah, The Spammers Remember Me. . .

2011-01-11T13:48:41Z

It's nice to know that the spammers haven't forgotten about me and this weblog.

Frikken pill pushers1

Anchor Babies

2010-11-24T10:36:34Z

What I find impressive in this statement from Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa is the sheer number of inaccuracies implicit and explicit are packed into a paragraph.

The framers did not consider the babies of illegals when they framed the 14th amendment because we didn't have immigration law at the time so they could not have wanted to confer automatic citizenship on the babies of people who were unlawfully in the United States.

1. Usually when "Framers" is used in the context of the US Constitution, it refers to the fifty-five delegates who were at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1786-7. None of those people were alive when the 14th Amendment was drafted.

2. Also, these Framers, and generally everybody who lived in the early United States were only a few generations removed from people who immigrated from Europe, if they haven't arrived newly themselves. Everybody pretty much gained citizenship by arriving in America on or before it declared independence. (Slaves excluded.) They all were essentially "anchor babies".

3. The people who did draft the 14th Amendment specifically wrote the amendment in the way so that there would be no political considerations concerning who got citizenship -- they were trying to grant all rights of citizenship to the former slaves. That is why they chose birthright citizenship. You can't contest place of birth.

Vox → Typepad → ???

2010-09-30T22:42:55Z

It's nice to know the former Six Apart kept its promise and did get the redirect working. ( http://sterlingnorth.vox.com → http://sterlingnorth.typepad.com/blog/), but Typepad Micro is not a very good platform. Of course, they want $9/month for their quality blogging platform, which is comparatively a poor deal. Now I'm paying $10 a month already for a domain that I haven't gotten around to using yet. It might be a good idea to migrate to that.

Note: I post a lot of my brief thoughts on Twitter

Last Platform Standing. . .

2010-09-12T07:41:18Z

It will be ironic that LiveJournal -- the redheaded stepchild during its ownership by Six Apart -- will carry on many of the legacies of Vox, which will disappear into the ether on September 30th. Most of the fancy journal designs were commissioned for Vox, including the old penguin design and the new calligraphy pen design which was the design I had for the Vox page.

On Vox: The Last (and Not so Great) Days of Vox. . .

2010-09-09T10:25:43Z

Thanks for the memories!
Vox is shutting down. But really, it's been dead for months. This has been another FAIL brought to you by Six Apart.

Originally posted on sterlingnorth.vox.com

Solemn

2010-08-27T20:43:50Z

"sol·emn adj \ˈsä-ləm\ Definition of SOLEMN 1 : marked by the invocation of a religious sanction <a solemn oath> 2 : marked by the observance of established form or ceremony; specifically : celebrated with full liturgical ceremony 3 a : awe-inspiring : sublime <solemn beauty> b : marked by grave sedateness and earnest sobriety <a solemn gathering> c : somber, gloomy <a solemn gray building> — sol·emn·ly adverb — sol·emn·ness noun Examples of SOLEMN 1. He spoke in a solemn and thoughtful manner. 2. He wore a very solemn expression on his face. 3. He recited the poem in a solemn voice. 4. A solemn crowd gathered around the grave. 5. We made a solemn promise to love each other forever. Origin of SOLEMN Middle English solempne, from Anglo-French, from Latin sollemnis regularly appointed, solemn First Known Use: 14th century"

—

Solemn - Merriam-Webster definition

“I do believe that there are special places on Earth that should have a zone of solemnity around them.”

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) using that word to argue against placing a room of worship somewhat near where a World Trade Center used to stand (but further away than an extant mosque is in relation to the Center).

I wanted to say something for quite some time, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the absurdity. Everybody is giving credence to this parody of an argument that this ground is too sacred to place a house of worship on it. The truth—of course—is that this isn’t the real argument against the community center; it’s the argument that’s acceptable in polite company.

The demons she released. . .

2010-08-25T22:05:49Z

"Are you Muslim?"

Investigators with the New York City Police Department say it all began Monday night when a 21-year-old man hailed a cab at 24th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.
Police say the passenger asked the driver, "Are you Muslim?" When the driver said yes the passenger pulled a knife and slashed him in the throat, arm and lip.

This is the monster that was released thanks to people (particularly Pam Geller and Newsmax, and excused by the likes of Ross Douthat and Jonah Goldberg). This is fun times, fun for tribalists everywhere.

To the pits of hell!

2010-08-17T13:00:50Z

When I wrote this post last month, I really did not imagine that the path this story would take would lead to..... this! Newt Gingrich compares a proposed Muslim Center barely within sight distance of the former WTC complex to Nazis putting a sign by the Holocaust Museum. (How this man retains the honorific as a serious think remains a mystery to me.) People who have previously held the US Constitution as sacred, sacrosanct and divinely inspired as the Ten Commandments and the Holy Bible are now looking for loopholes and exceptions because... That Michael Steele would run to embrace the position of the NewsMax PAC that operate under the chameleon name of The Republican Trust PAC. To the man who has been bitterly cynical, that I have not been pessimistic enough in my expectation is sad. And that this is not the first time I find my pessimism turn out to be too optimistic a prediction is horrifying.

Bizarro World. . .

2010-07-31T01:41:47Z

That's the only explanation I have for this. . .The Anti Defamation League coming out against a mosque near Ground Zero because. . .religious bigot have successfully conflated terrorists with the entirety of the population of worshipers of Islam.

The PAC [and Party] of Religious Bigots. . .

2010-07-15T05:39:22Z

Jim Newell of Gawker did the dirty work so I don't have to pollute my blargh and video list with this commercial, but it has to be seen to be believed. The National Republican Trust PAC is not run by the Republican Party, but by NewsMax magazine -- one of the most right-wing commentary sites on the Internet.

No matter.

They are trading under their name, and has been with outrageous ads like this since 2008. The Republican Party needs to come out and condemn this group and demand they stop advertising under that name. Otherwise, I can only assume the Republican Party has no problem with religious bigotry in their name, which makes them accessories to it.

Originally posted on sterlingnorth.vox.com

Heritage, Not Hate. . .

2010-04-22T21:17:48Z

...and there was secret racist code in the license plate, too. A Sons of Confederate Veterans plate I might add. And of course CV stands for Confederate Veterans in the code. Ah, hell, I may as well decode the whole thing no one clicks on links. . .

14CV88

14 = Fourteen Words which are "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." That is the motto of the late David Lane, imprisoned white supremacist.

CV = Confederate Veteran. This veteran who as Gawker noted, must be 172 years old.

88 = HH = Heil Hitler, though he could just be showing support for Barack Obama. As numerous average concerned citizens have argued, Obama is just like Hitler!

Yeah, he's just celebrating his heritage.

One Link

2010-04-22T06:20:56Z

The SPLC thinks these people are dangerous.

Confederate History Month

2010-04-19T11:58:31Z

Oh, how I wish I could simply say there's just eleven more days of this nonsense and be done with it, but it's never that simple. Several weeks ago, new Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, at the behest of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, issued a proclamation declaring this month Confederate History Month. The original proclamation romanticized the cause of the South by calling the conflict a war for independence and omitting that the root cause was that the South wanted to maintain the institution of slavery. After a public firestorm, during which he made the unfortunate statement that slavery wasn't a significant issue for Virginia (despite it being the reason Virginia itself broke in two during the Civil War), he backed down and added an apology for slavery to the declaration itself.

Really, there's a lot one can say about this, but one understated irony here is how the party of Lincoln and abolition -- a fact which is brought up frequently when the discussion in politics comes to race -- will today honor the people who launched a war against their country, against Lincoln and those abolitionists. Which brings up the irony of the following, spotted by Gawker.

While condemning an entire religious group because a number of its followers executed an attack on America nine years ago, he is celebrating a group who also executed an attack on America one hundred and forty-nine years ago.

Fifteen years ago today, Timothy McVeigh attacked a federal building in Oklahoma City. Many people died. Today, there will be protests more in support of the militias to which McVeigh swore allegiance to, against this nation. Today, many actual members of the government by election pander to the people who see the United States Federal Government as illegitimate. This is playing with matches around a open powder keg.

Happy 1400th post to me.

Today everyone should be reminded that REPUBLICANS believed Martin Luther King Jr. was a COMMIE

2010-01-18T23:25:49Z

Because today, a number of conservatives will try to pull a misdirection by claiming that Martin Luther King was a Republican. Look at the issues Martin Luther King advocated for in addition to civil rights, and then try to tell me which Republicans today are advocates for the same issues.

It's a curious historical revisionism that is being played out today by some in the right, with the goal to convince blacks that "the real racists" are those of the Democratic Party. To believe this, you have to ignore all history from 1950 to today where the racist Democrats of the South who voted against civil rights legislation eventually switched parties to become racist Republicans, some by way of the Dixiecrat Party. You have to forget the fight in the 1980s by many of those Republicans to stop the creation of a holiday in his honor.

It would be funny if it wasn't so brazenly shameless and sad.

Seven Years Ahead of the Curve

2009-12-14T22:40:55Z

When I started this journal, my main inspiration for writing was the remarkable suckatude of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Though it's taken a magical dream phone to lure millions into the spider's web trap of AT&T, and the resulting consumer anger to attract press coverage, I feel happy to be vindicated on hating AT&T.

FYI: I'm on Google Wave.

2009-11-25T11:42:45Z

What do I do now?

One way to ban gay marriage. . .

2009-11-19T20:59:15Z

...ban all marriages, like Texas may have done.

Good job, Texas.

No We Can't!

2009-11-16T05:09:10Z

"I look at the GOP saying 'we can't' insure more because it's 'too hard' & 'we can't' try [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] et al in NYC because it's 'too dangerous' and I think: 'When did the US become the home of the timid and the weak? When did we become a nation of trembling scared old men?'

Not to get too jinogisitic, but this is the fucking USA! We do the fucking impossible. WE WALKED ON THE FUCKING MOON! There is nothing we can't do, from being brave enough and confident enough in the Constitution to put KSM et al on trial in the same city he tried to destroy, to making sure everyone in this country has access to affordable health care.

The GOP says we can't? Hey GOP! FUCK YOU! THIS IS THE US! WE CAN FUCKING DO IT AND NOT MISS LUNCH! Goddamned buncha fucking wussies crying for mommy. Go back home if you can't cowboy or cowgirl up and get the job done. I did not freeze my ass off in North-Fucking-Dakota because we can't.

That's why "Yes, We Can" resonates with me. That's what this country is about. Even when we've fucked it all up, it was "Yes, We Can". Whether it's Obama, or anyone else...the first time you say "Oh no, it's too big, too hard, too expensive", I say "Fuck off wussy". If we can't, then let's give it back to the indians, and go back to Britain, Ireland and all the rest and admit that the US didn't fail because of ebul terrorist, or teh gayz. It failed because its citizens were too fucking scared to succeed.

-- John Welch on Twitter.

Cartoon Network's latest apology advert.

2009-11-15T05:49:26Z

So you tell me people who watch Cartoon Network don't want to see reality shows?!

2009-11-08T02:08:37Z

At 9:30 eastern tonight (in about 20 minutes), Cartoon Network will air the opening episode to the final season of Justice League Unlimited, itself the final series in the DC Animated Universe franchise developed by the team headed by Bruce W. Timm. Remarkably, this would be only the second time the episode aired on Cartoon Network, the first being its premiere in January of 2006. Also premiering this month are a new Garfield show, and returning to the network are shows with the Pink Panther, and the Looney Tunes characters. Tomorrow, CN premieres the Ed Edd n Eddy movie it produced over a year ago.

What has lead CN to rediscover its roots? The spectacular failure of its experiment in reality programming, also known as CN Real -- formerly known as CN Real. If you watch CN for any length of time, you will notice that sometime during last few weeks, they stopped referring to any show as airing on CN Real. In fact, the the reality shows are no longer shown together, limited each to one or two timeslots a week with no repeats. Given that the shows were responsible for a giving CN its new record low in rating this summer, knocking the network out of the the top 10 -- out of the top 20 of cable networks, this excommunication should be of no surprise. That they thought that 30% off versions of Cash Cab, Mythbusters, Ghost Hunters ~~and Cash Cab would be received well should have been the surprise.~~ -- man, just look at the list of shame as composed by TV Tropes -- the network was as lazy as it was contemptuous of its audience!

But that doesn't mean Cartoon Network hasn't given up its teenaged rebellion. It has picked up two more live-actioners, because isn't animation a juvenile pursuit anyway?

Oh How Wrong I Was: Or How Did They Pass Her Over for A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips?

2009-10-19T02:56:20Z

Well, I guess I am wrong. Debbie Schlussel is a movie critic. And low and behold the rating system she has devised. Since thumbs are trademarked by Siskel and Ebert, and every old hack uses stars she set out to find something befitting her unique perspective as a critic. And she presents, Reagans and Marxes. I kid you not! A movie can range from four Ronald Reagans (equivalent to four or five stars or two thumbs up) to "four [Karl] Marxes and a [Yasser] Arafat" (equivalent to perhaps having to pull in a third critic as to give a movie three thumbs down, or maybe awarding the film negative stars). (But then again, that film was like "seeing Mein Kampf on video". With this and with Disney turning girls into butch porn-star Muslims, Hollywood must really hate the America!)