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My recent libel analysis led to linkage from the right, the left and the nonpartisan. But yesterday in the otherwhirled, I was officially labeled a “pissant provocateur.” I take Commander Other’s designation as it is meant, a compliment. Therefore, I shall adhere to the rules and bewstow the award to five other pissant bloggers.
The guidelines for being a pissant provocateur? Commander Other picked a good summary:
1. The award recipients are pissants – i.e., they’re not the biggest bloggers in the ’sphere, they’re not Kos or Hewitt, but their attitudes and proficiencies more than make up for their rankings.
2. They are provocateurs – i.e., they provoke other people into thinking about and responding to subjects they might not otherwise think about and respond to.
3. By virtue of the first two traits, they advance the intrinsic value of a government that is closely, evenly divided between partisans, so no one party has outright control of the outcomes, recognizing that (a) divided government honors the check-and-balance intent of the founding fathers; and (b) divided government tends to work better; reference the Reagan and Clinton years versus the Carter and Bush #43 years.
Like the Commander, I don’t know that I necessarily agree with the Reagan and Clinton references but I’m all for checks and balances. I also particularly like provocateurs, at least those who provoke people into thinking. Although it may be implied in the rules the Commander posted, I supplemented them with the requirement that they had to be blogs I subscribe to in my RSS reader and list on the blogroll to the right. If not, they are occasional diversions, not true pissant provocateurs.
Interestingly, most of my selections are from the SD blogosphere. With a drum roll (likely missing a beat or two) my selections, in alphabetical order, are:
- Confusion of Ideas. Breakerslion doesn’t post extensively. But when it comes to provoking thought, it’s hard to dispute that his substantive posts do just that. After all, he’s argued that marriage is immoral and brought a smile to my face with his look at religious icons people see in objects. You may not always agree but you will stop and think.
- The MinusCar Project. If one form of provocation is to get people thinking about things from a different perspective and to ponder whether we need to take certain ideas into consideration in both politics and our lives, my friend MinusCar man is a shoo-in. What began as a project to see if it was possible to survive in the Northern Plains without a car has branched into his continuing effort to “de-motorize” and make minus the new plus. Throw in occasional other diversions and Michael makes us think outside our all too comfortable norms.
- rant-a-bit. My fandom started back in the days of Tempest, when I always awaited the annual “people who should get out of town” awards. Scott Hudson takes his discriminating eye toward music and the arts and also applies it to pierce a lot of the b.s. that pervades local issues, local media and various personalities.
- A Sect of Myself. Hopefully, this nomination is not too premature as TSD is a relative newcomer to the blogosphere. The initial signs are right up my alley, though. I mean, how could I not tab a liberal Democrat extremely concerned about the religious right and its effect on America — and who actually lives in Sioux Falls?????
- Straight Talk. Joel and I disagree on a lot of things. In fact, there’s some things we agree not to discuss ’cause we know we’re simply at loggerheads. That said, I read Joel’s blog because he brings an educated insight to local, state and national issues that is expressed with thought (unlike me, who occasionally engages mouth before brain). Realistic dialectic can not exist unless you’re willing to see what someone on the other side of the political spectrum thinks. Of course, what a lot of people (including me) probably would really like to know is stuff Joel doesn’t talk about on his blog.
There’s my list and I am obligated to tell the honorees they have been “tagged” and are to follow the rules as laid out by the Commander in his post. Of course, some pissant provocateurs look askance at concepts such as tagging — and they are free to do so.
Look, pissant, what can you give the lady but puppydog looks and a fat double handful of air?
“Among the Handlers,” Michael Bishop, At the City Limits of Fate
Given the couple diversions into the political and the newsy lately, it’s time to return the blog to its regular (albeit perhaps boring and mundane) programming. There’s even a book review coming next week after a long absence from writing them.
In going back to the routine on the blog, I’ll start with something out of the routine. My recent whining about age and my interest in foreign literature contributed to scheduling a new adventure next year.
Monday my wife and I put down our deposit on a Northern Europe cruise next summer, grabbing the last available cabin on the ship. Here’s the current itinerary, including the extra day you’re given in Stockholm before actually leaving port:
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Tallinn, Estonia
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Helsinki, Finland
- Cruising the Baltic Sea
- Gdansk, Poland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Berlin (Warnemunde), Germany
- Kiel Canal Transit
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Bruges (Zeebrugge), Belgium
- London (Dover), United Kingdom
Now that might not sound too romantic or “cruise-like” to some. But for me that’s part of the point. Not that I’m getting decrepit, but I never saw Europe until last year and find this a good way to get a taste of various countries. We can always return to various countries in the future on a more focused and less hectic schedule. In fact, our tentative plan is a foreign trip at least every two years now that we have the freedom to do so.
On this trip, we’re viewing the ship as the equivalent of a bus on a land tour but where you get to plan your own itinerary at each stop. Some may think Russia and Estonia are a natural draw for a left winger like me. The fact is two of my grandparents were born in Russia and a third in Germany. Throw in my wife’s Finnish heritage and this trip looks wonderful. Besides, it’s hard to find cruises that allow you three days in St. Petersburg.
Now it’s a matter of saving up for the trip (something most people would begin to do beforehand) and counting the days.
Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. There is no mystery about why this should be so. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of your food, your closet full of your clothes — with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience.
Michael Crichton, Travels
A brief deviation into the political because it reflects some of the societal and legal ramifications of post-9/11 thought in America.
I’ll admit I’m a bit behind on this, simply noting the vote when it occurred. But Sam Hurst, a RCJ citizen columnist , prompted me with his thoughts on U.S. Rep. Herseth-Sandlin’s vote on domestic spying and what it means. Among other things, because she was one of 41 House Democrats to vote for the bill, Hurst concludes that she actually is a “proud conservative.” While my friend Kevin Woster doesn’t necessarily agree, anyone who’s read this blog knows I’ve long held Hurst’s view. But that tends to be a diversion from Hurst’s main concern, one that I believe is far more important and which he deserves credit for addressing.
What was Herseth-Sandlin’s rationale for her support of expanding surveillance powers with reduced oversight? Hurst says her office claims “there was an overwhelming, immediate need to act before Congress adjourned for recess” because “al Qaeda [was] making noise about another terrorist attack prior to 9/11/07.” It speaks volumes that Congress would rather rush a bill into law directly relevant to both national security and civil rights and liberties rather than lose any of its August recess.
As the NYT pointed out this weekend, not only is there questions whether Congress fully understood the ramifications of the legislation, it may have actually given the administration more power than it sought. The fact Congress may not have understood the ramifications of what it was doing is not as frightening as the ramifications themselves. The law exempts a wide variety of electronic surveillance from court approval and also may allow “without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records.” That is because to be exempt from court approval, the government need only assert that surveillance is “directed at a person reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States.”
It is apparently irrelevant if all persons in the surveillance are U.S. citizens as long as it is “directed at” someone “reasonably believed to be located outside” the U.S. The phrase “directed at” is “plenty ambiguous, and plenty vast.” For example, does the law prohibit spying on two U.S. citizens in the U.S. as long as that effort is “directed at” obtaining information about someone believed to be outside the U.S.? The broad and open to interpretation language of the bill hands the executive branch a certain carte blanche. Granted, the amendment has a 180-day “sunset” provision. But we all recall what happened and how long it took when the Patriot Act came up for its sunset review. Add to this the “new” approach to terrorism cases the DoJ is using, what one analyst calls a charge “that is one step away from a thought crime.”
Some may label this as a knee jerk reaction by a liberal who is blind to the threat of terrorism and sees bogey men in everything the Bushies do. Still, there is some truth within the adages about freedom and security, whether it be the 250-year-old one attributed to Ben Franklin (“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”) or the variation by Chris Hitchens in 2003 (“The trade-off between freedom and security, so often proposed so seductively, very often leads to the loss of both”). Moreover, isn’t it more likely that both are going to be lost when our leaders rush in rather than act with thoughtful consideration.
Thus, regardless of whether you consider our Congresswoman a Blue Dog Democrat, a moderate, or a conservative in moderate’s clothing, her vote is emblematic of the failings of Congress on this legislation. Sadly, political cover again took precedence over the public interest.
Our history has shown us that insecurity threatens liberty. Yet, if our liberties are curtailed, we lose the values that we are struggling to defend.
The 9/11 Commission Report
The smell of fresh bread this morning marked the beginning of another chapter in a book that’s becoming more page-worn. In a tradition that goes back probably a decade, if not more, the fact the bread machine contributed to the morning indicated it was the first day of school. This year is a little different, though. Only the youngest daughter set off for this morning, embarking on her junior year of high school.
Middle daughter departs at the end of the week to begin her college career. Still no verdict on whether the parental units will go and help her move into the dorm. I recall the joy of just heading off to school on my own with my car loaded up . Yet as her college school is 5 1/2 hours away, I might feel a bit of guilt if she has to spend her last night before college in a motel room by herself. Even odds or greater, though, that she really gives a rip one way or the other. (The kid is way, way, way too much like me at that age for her mother’s good.)
Oldest daughter won’t return for her last year of undergrad until the end of the month. This trip will be different than her previous ones, though. She’s heading back with her right leg still in a large brace and undergoing physical therapy from a torn MCL suffered more than six weeks ago. While she’s worried about looking goofy, I tell her to focus on being healed up for her trip to Egypt at the end of the year.
I think that with her sisters heading out, the youngest is a little concerned about being left on her own to deal with the parents. I anticipate the cell phone and computer messaging amongst themselves will increase dramatically.
This new chapter also helped me identify with the author of the “My Turn” column in the latest Newsweek, who, having recently “crossed the 50-yard-line,” observed that “my life was running through my hands like water.” I wonder if he hears the same increasing variety of noises my joints and bones seem to make whenever I move? Oh, to be as seemingly ageless as the bread machine.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
“Time,” Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
May as well wrap up the week (or kick off a new one depending on your point of view) with another round of marginalia:
- While we must wait to see just how comparable he may be, a South Dakota Blog Watch Man replicant is on the loose.
- Why would anyone be surprised by this? (Via.)
- Working Mother magazine picks the 50 best law firms for women. The nearest is Minneapolis-headquartered Dorsey & Whitney. And because a high school classmate of mine is a partner in the St. Louis office, I’ll also mention that Chicago-based Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal made the list.
- So maybe the concept of local newspapers trying to establish a presence on the Internet wasn’t that good an idea. Still, it appears that not only is Gannett/the Argus still wedded to the idea, the paper’s going to push online “hyperlocalism” starting Monday morning.
- Scott Esposito talks about some of the factors that lead him to put a book down unfinished.
All of life is a foreign country.
Jack Kerouac letter, quoted in
The Beat Vision: A Primary Sourcebook
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