] The United Church of Christ (UCC) plans to run a major ad
] campaign in December to raise public awareness of the
] denomination. One of the ads is meant,
] in the words of a UCC press release, to convey the
] message "that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of
] Christ seeks to welcome all people, regardless of
] ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual
] orientation."
]
] You can see the ad here -- it features two burly bouncers
] turning various people away from a church service. And if
] you watch it you'll see that the broad message of
] inclusion over intolerance places a prominent emphasis on
] acceptance of homosexuals in the life of the church.
]
] Yet, according to a press release out this evening from
] the UCC, both CBS and NBC have refused to air the ad
] because the subject matter is "too controversial."

[ The UCC press release quotes CBS as saying, as far as I can tell, "because there's a passing reference to homosexuality, and the administration is considering an amendment banning gay marriage, we won't air the ad."

Why don't they just come out and say what they mean... "This commercial will enrage a large subset of our viewership, which would harm ratings and damage the company. In order to fulfill our obligations to stockholders, we cannot accept the risk inherent in running this advertisement."

I still think it's awful, but at least I could respect an honest statement.

I suppose CBS news will be happy to run a story on "the developing UCC controversy" sometime down the road. -k]

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: November 28, 2004 - December 04, 2004 Archives

Someone predicts that Microsoft will invent MemeStreams in 2008 and then it will be replaced by Google/Amazon in 2010.

So, who wants to alter this future by helping us write code? I'm serious.

[ Very interesting.... -k]

EPIC 2014

Mike the Usurper wrote:
] Well as someone who knows their guns (for no real reason), the
] SKS is the chinese designation for the AK-47. It's cheap,
] it's reliable, and no hunter I've EVER heard of uses the damn
] thing. It's noisy (yep, that works great with deer who bolt
] at a the sound of a snail farting 400 yards away) not very
] accurate at range. What it is good as is throwing up a ton of
] lead. Traditionally, they have something like a 20-30 round
] banana clip, and can unload the whole thing in a few seconds,
] although it's semi-automatic, not full auto. It's designed to
] kill people, not deer.

[ Thanks mike! That's kind of what i surmised from the accounts i read, but I do like to have facts before I spring to judgement. ...]

] Next question?

[ Well, I guess one question is, did the paper fuck up when they said it's a common hunting weapon, or do people in some places actually use it for that purpose. Or is it a common "hunting" weapon in the sense that people who want one say, "Yeah, i need it for hunting." despite it's being completely unsuited for that?

When I was a kid, our mailman, Pete, used to regale us with descriptions of his many guns, and his hatred of all anti-gun laws and (despite how closely this mirrors the stereotype, i swear it's true) paranoid ravings about how the post office had someone following him and that he wasn't going to take that kind of shit forever, wink-wink. I'm pretty sure, recalling some of the pictures he'd show, that he had a number of assault rifles and the like, for "hunting." He was nuts. Always had a milkbone for my dog, Kaiser Wilhelm, however, and I'm pretty sure he never *actually* stormed the post office with his arsenal or capped other hunters in a territoriality contest. -k]

RE: ABC News: 5 Killed, 3 Hurt in Wis. Hunting Dispute

] The hero is no Tom Hanks and the movie has yet to be
] made. But like the 1998 hit film "You've Got Mail," a new
] Japanese bestseller is an old-style romance for the
] Internet age -- though with a distinctly Japanese twist.
]
] Ostensibly a true story, "Densha Otoko" -- literally,
] "Train Man" -- began as a series of postings on Japan's
] most popular Internet bulletin board after the
] protagonist, a young Japanese man, rescued a woman from a
] pushy drunk on the train.

[ Kind of interesting. Pushing the boundaries of traditional publication and format is a practice i find fascinating, ever since reading things like Microserfs and Exegesis, among others. Wether the story itself is good, of course, is a critical question, but the origin intrigues me. -k]

Yahoo! News - Japan Internet Love-Story Bestseller with a Twist

You're probably getting a ton of email right now. You may not even see this in the fray. I'm posting it to my weblog (below) because it is as much an open commentary as it is a comment for you.

You did the right thing.

There are a lot of people in this country right now who are scared and angry, because of 9/11. Their fear and their anger makes them weak. They don't want to see things like this because they can't take criticism. They aren't strong enough. They want to be right, and they want the enemy to be wrong, and they want to destroy the enemy and gloss over the details. It feels good to be right.

But wars are won in the mind long before they are won in on the battlefield, and if we become the kind of society that won't acknowledge its humanity, who won't think critically... who either shovels overzealousness under the rug or worse, encourages it, then we will become what the radicals who oppose us believe that we are. Thats when they win.

We have to show the Arab word that we are an honest, fair society that mostly wants their region to be peaceful, free, and successful. We can't convince them of this by saying it. In fact, many of us aren't convinced of this even though we say it all the time. We have to convince them of this by showing it... by actually being what we claim to be. That means showing that we are strong enough to take criticism. That means we acknowledge that open, honest dialog helps us make smarter decisions rather then "weakening our resolve."

We have to be willing to acknowledge things like this and investigate them fairly and deliberatively, and handle them appropriately depending on the facts. We have to be willing to seek out our flaws and deal with them, rather then denying them while they fester. We have to be confident enough in the honesty of our intentions that we know it will shine through enemy propaganda. And ultimately we have to make sure that the people watching us do this understand it, and understand the difference between this and the alternative. Otherwise, we've already lost.

Thank you for risking your life to bring us information from these places.

[ I second that. Well said, Decius. -k]

My open letter to Kevin Sites

Decius wrote:
] The left didn't vote for Kerry. They voted against Bush. They
] need to actually produce a candidate they want to vote for.

[ Without question. ...]

] They need to forget the issues and focus on the man.

[... in this, however, i disagree. The left certainly needs to stop discussing the issues in terms of policies and logical analysis, but to put forth a candidate who is all style and no substance will be every bit as ineffectual as the inverse situation we find ourselves in now.

What the left needs is a coherent vision. A framework in which to couch it's rhetoric so that people see a group with a solid, consistent message. And I don't mean an agenda, or a plan, or a series of talking points. There's been much bandying about for the past weeks about the left needing to be more about religion or less about gays or that they need to move to the center in some abstract way. I think that's all bullshit. The democratic platform has a great deal to offer most people in this country. But it's mired in the outmoded viewpoint that reasoning with people and presenting policy papers will sway people. It doesn't. Instead, the focus should be on anchoring that platform with a core philosophy and training ourselves to discuss matters in those terms.

I like Lakoff, but i don't think he has the monopoly on good ideas in this regard... i'm not at all sure what the best option is, but i think that's where the discussion needs to move.

Once the vision is established, finding a good candidate is a little easier, because they will have something to articulate that is already familiar to people and which presents the values of the left instead of a series of policy positions. -k]

RE: Pandering To HypocrisyPandering To HypocrisyPandering to Hypocrisy

] So, by all means let's pander till we can't stand up.
] We'll all pretend to be duly chastised by our libertine
] ways and pay obeisance to those good heartland values
] that neither they nor we actually live by. Whatever. But,
] don't expect me to actually believe that George W. Bush's
] majority represents those things any more than we
] depraved liberals do. Politicians and preachers lie.
] Neilson ratings and product sales don't.

[ Hear hear, digby. -k]

Pandering To Hypocrisy Pandering To Hypocrisy Pandering to Hypocrisy

] The shooting started when two hunters returning to their
] rural cabin saw the suspect in one of their hunting
] platforms in a tree, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim
] Zeigle said. The platforms or "tree stands" allow hunters
] to see deer without being easily seen themselves.
]
] Both of those hunters were wounded and one of them
] radioed friends at the cabin a quarter-mile away. Other
] members of their group responded and they also were shot,
] he said.
]
] "It's absolutely nuts. Why? Over sitting in a tree
] stand?" asked Zeigle.
]
] Zeigle said the suspect was "chasing after them and
] killing them," with a SKS 7.62 mm semiautomatic rifle, a
] common hunting weapon. Wisconsin's statewide deer gun
] hunting season started Saturday and lasts for nine days.

[ Wow. That's awesome.

The article indicates that the SKS is a "common" gun for hunting, but perhaps someone who knows more about hunting can enlighten me... is it a rapid firing weapon? How much ammo? In other words, is it really ideal for deer, or is it better suited for what happened here?

Sounds like someone never should have gotten a permit to me. -k]

ABC News: 5 Killed, 3 Hurt in Wis. Hunting Dispute

] Fly from space to your home town. Visit exotic
] locales such as Maui, Tokyo, Rome and Paris.
] Satellite imagery makes it real. Explore restaurants,
] hotels, parks and schools. Think magic carpet ride!

Indeed. This is one of Google's new aquisitions, and it is hella cool. You start out floating over a picture of the earth built with satellite images. You can tilt and rotate. You can zoom in. In urban areas you can typically zoom in close enough to see cars. You can type in a street address and it will fly you there with a very smooth animation. You can also tilt your camera when you are close in and see topographical features in 3d. The grand canyon is particularly interesting in this regard, especially if you tell it to exaggerate heights. All the images come from the net so they'll be updated over time. Wow.

This is the map of the future.

[ Pretty neat. I used to play with TerraServer a lot... this is a cool (major) evolution of that. Of course, there is no Mac client yet... which sucks.

By the way, anyone notice that Cambridge, MA has a resolution of 3 inches? There's a lot of 1 ft. res areas, but it would seem the collegians in Cambridge may have required better pix for something or other.... i'm curious as to why now. -k]

Keyhole

] The Transportation Security Administration this week
] invited airports to apply to leave the federal security
] screener system and return to private screeners. The
] government took over airport screening after the Sept.
] 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and is planning a transition
] for approved airports by spring or summer 2005.
]
] ...
]
] A spokesman for BWI said the airport needs more information
] about a shift to private screeners. Like many major airports,
] BWI said it wants to learn more about liability in the event
] of another terrorist attack.
]
] The TSA suggested in its announcement this week that
] airports would be protected by federal laws that limit
] tort liability in case of terrorist attack, but it did
] not specify the exact terms. Airport officials are
] concerned about what would be covered, said James McNeil,
] chief executive of McNeil Technologies Inc., a security
] firm that employs screeners at the Rochester, N.Y.,
] airport. "If they can get some indemnification, that will
] play a huge role" in decision making, he said.

[ So we bust our asses to create what is supposed to be a superior force for handling airport security in the wake of a very clear failure of the existing system and only 3 years later we're looking to toss that out and go back to contractors.

Because the lines are so long. And of course, the primary concern for airports? Liability. Not safety. Liability. It is a business after all. The administration should come out strongly against this move, or, at least, not offer *any* incentive for hiring private security contractors that can't prove their staff is at least as competent as the TSA. No limitations on liability, no cop-out.

I'm not saying the TSA is the greatest shit on earth, but this just seems like a huge and dangerous step backwards. -k]

Dulles, BWI Consider Security Shift (washingtonpost.com)