I found an in-concert version by Blind Faith from 1969, but it looked like cell phone video of a half-demagnetized VHS tape. So here's Steve Winwood performing it with Eric Clapton:
29 October 2010
26 October 2010
GOP in Colorado: soon to be a minor party?
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! State laws deliberately designed to disempower far-left political parties [1] by de-funding them when they don't get "enough" party registrants or votes in an election may turn around and bite the GOP in the ass. In Colorado, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is polling below 10%, the minimum threshold for major party status in that state (in Pennsylvania, by remarkable contrast, it's 2% of votes, but 15% of registrations, see 25 P.S. §§ 2831, 2872.2). If Maes can't scrape together enough votes, then the GOP candidate for governor in 2014 will be listed below the fold, so to speak: rather than sitting in a guaranteed #1 or #2 spot at the top of the list, the candidate's name will be mixed up randomly with the Greens, the American Constitution Party, the Independent Reform Party, and the Libertarians, while the Democratic candidate will sit secure in spot #1 at the top.
First Citizens United resulted in kazillions of dollars going to fringe candidates, and now this. Yay, reactionary conservatism!
[1] Pennsylvania's small-party restriction law, for example, was originally enacted in 1937 -- backlash against the New Deal.
First Citizens United resulted in kazillions of dollars going to fringe candidates, and now this. Yay, reactionary conservatism!
[1] Pennsylvania's small-party restriction law, for example, was originally enacted in 1937 -- backlash against the New Deal.
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Democracy in Kentucky, where a woman from MoveOn, seeking to give Rand Paul a satirical award for taking so many donations from large corporations, was attacked and stomped by Paul's supporters, in a move that Mr. Paul calls "incredibly unfortunate," and which I call criminal.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Democracy in Kentucky, where a woman from MoveOn, seeking to give Rand Paul a satirical award for taking so many donations from large corporations, was attacked and stomped by Paul's supporters, in a move that Mr. Paul calls "incredibly unfortunate," and which I call criminal.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
20 October 2010
"Spiritual parrots"
"Whooping," CNN tells me, "is a celebratory style of black preaching that pastors typically use to close a sermon. Some church scholars compare it to opera; it's that moment the sermon segues into song." Here's what one scholar says about white pastors who whoop:
White pastors can't be truly, deeply, and honestly spiritual? They shouldn't be allowed to use a traditionally black style of preaching? Turn that sentiment around and you have the same crap that the Daughters of the American Revolution said about Marian Anderson -- not to be too heavy-handed about it, but really. Here, Rev. Clayborn, have a "spiritual parrot":
The converse of Rev. Clayborn's statement would be hard to bring up in polite conversation. It's too bad that the CNN article didn't address it.
Edited to add: Leontyne Price's "O mio babbino caro" kicks Maria Callas's right in the ass.
[Rev. Patrick] Clayborn, the [assistant] homiletics professor [at Methodist Theological School] in Ohio, says the fuel for the whoop grows out of the black perspective, the experience of being among "the least, the last and lost."Wow! Did you catch his meaning? When white pastors try to preach in the black tradition, it's a pale imitation of the real thing.
"When I see a white preacher do it, it feels like they went and learned it, just like a parrot can imitate the human voice," he says. "They're like spiritual parrots."
White pastors can't be truly, deeply, and honestly spiritual? They shouldn't be allowed to use a traditionally black style of preaching? Turn that sentiment around and you have the same crap that the Daughters of the American Revolution said about Marian Anderson -- not to be too heavy-handed about it, but really. Here, Rev. Clayborn, have a "spiritual parrot":
The converse of Rev. Clayborn's statement would be hard to bring up in polite conversation. It's too bad that the CNN article didn't address it.
Edited to add: Leontyne Price's "O mio babbino caro" kicks Maria Callas's right in the ass.
Ginny Thomas to Anita Hill: apologize and give us "some full explanation"
I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day.What on earth led Ginny Thomas to leave this message on Anita Hill's voicemail? Why now?
Even Prof. Hill thought it was so bizarre that it must be a prank, so she reported it to her school's security office rather than take it at face value.
From here it looks like nothing more than a stunt to seek more donations and support for Liberty Central.
19 October 2010
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: I'm still stunned, so to speak, about Dunta Robinson's egregiously vicious hit on DeSean Jackson in the second quarter this past Sunday. A personal foul on Robinson wasn't enough. Fifteen-yard penalty after Jackson was lying twitching on the ground after a deliberate, aimed hit to the chin? Are you kidding me? Dude should be fined thirty or fifty grand and be suspended, without pay, for a few weeks.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: I'm still stunned, so to speak, about Dunta Robinson's egregiously vicious hit on DeSean Jackson in the second quarter this past Sunday. A personal foul on Robinson wasn't enough. Fifteen-yard penalty after Jackson was lying twitching on the ground after a deliberate, aimed hit to the chin? Are you kidding me? Dude should be fined thirty or fifty grand and be suspended, without pay, for a few weeks.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
15 October 2010
Cablevision vs. Fox TV
From today's Variety newsfeed (registration req'd but free):
Well, OK, maybe for that baseball game tomorrow night.
Cablevision and Fox execs are huddling at News Corp. headquarters in Gotham today in an eleventh-hour attempt to hammer out a deal that would prevent Fox's New York and Philadelphia stations from going dark for Cablevision's 3 million subscribers at midnight tonight.And this would be a problem . . . how?
Well, OK, maybe for that baseball game tomorrow night.
12 October 2010
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: There's a Philadelphia film festival happening, with an unnavigable website, a ticket purchasing system that burdens the user with printing out their own tickets, and an uninspiring roster of films chosen by an all-male, all-white crew of programmers. The film festival here used to be a full-contact sport for me, and it just breaks my heart that the offerings are so limited this year. Sometimes I feel as though I'm just counting the days until I can move back to a city with reasonable weather and a real film festival.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: There's a Philadelphia film festival happening, with an unnavigable website, a ticket purchasing system that burdens the user with printing out their own tickets, and an uninspiring roster of films chosen by an all-male, all-white crew of programmers. The film festival here used to be a full-contact sport for me, and it just breaks my heart that the offerings are so limited this year. Sometimes I feel as though I'm just counting the days until I can move back to a city with reasonable weather and a real film festival.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
09 October 2010
Cautionary tale about proofreading e-mail addresses in Gmail
So in my professional life I have an e-mail address that is, analogically, glomarmailbox at gmail.com (which is an e-mail address that I'm making up for the purposes of this post and which, as far as I know, doesn't exist). I went with this scheme for a few reasons: my first name is not unusual, but it's often misspelled; my last name, standing alone, was already taken; and any combination of firstname, lastname, and middle initial would include potentially confusingly placed letter l's, which look like numeral 1's in too many fonts. But my reasons for choosing that scheme are completely irrelevant to the anecdote here.
If you try to send e-mail to me at that address and put a dot between glomar and mailbox -- that is, glomar.mailbox -- then Gmail, in its infinite (and increasingly creepy) wisdom, will helpfully send the e-mail right to glomarmailbox. I say "increasingly creepy" because I didn't actually ever sign up for that username with the dot in it. Gmail just figured it out.
Now, in another country on another continent, there's an individual who uses the e-mail address glomars.mailbox at gmail.com, as in, "possessive Glomar without the apostrophe, dot, mailbox." This is not very surprising, because remember that "Glomar" here, my last name, is not a terribly unusual name, and in fact it's a relatively ordinary first name, too, in English-speaking countries. So what happens when a sender misspells my Gmail username?
Here's what Gmail does. It doesn't magically figure out that the username with the dot and without the dot are eerily similar, and it doesn't apply some freakish AI to see the syllable breaks. And in fact, it's not "creepy" at all, but rather it's that they've hit upon a good way to avoid disputes, typos, and a lot of administrative grief. What happens is that, when you choose some username, Gmail both (1) ignores any dots you put into it when you select it, and then (2) ignores any dots the e-mail sender puts into it when they're addressing e-mail to you. That is, you could put a dot anywhere in glomarmailbox and it would get to me. You could even send mail to g.l...o.m.a.r..m.a.i.l.b.o.x and it would get to me.
But you can't send it to glomarsmailbox, with that s in there, or to any dot-containing variation thereof. If you do, it'll go to this other person in another country on another continent.
And when one half of a married couple that glomarsmailbox was arranging a three-way with sent e-mail to glomar.mailbox instead of to glomars.mailbox, I was hit with a complete series of ten or twelve days' worth of e-mail outlining exactly what each party was into, how much E they like to use, and where and when they figured they could next get together.
There are two lessons here. First, just hit the "reply" button and don't type in e-mail addresses if you don't have to. And second, clean up your e-mail replies after every few back-and-forth exchanges! Select all those pages and pages of text at the bottom and delete them. If the sender here had done so, I would only have seen what looked like a "coffee was nice, let's see a movie on Friday, xoxo" message.
If you try to send e-mail to me at that address and put a dot between glomar and mailbox -- that is, glomar.mailbox -- then Gmail, in its infinite (and increasingly creepy) wisdom, will helpfully send the e-mail right to glomarmailbox. I say "increasingly creepy" because I didn't actually ever sign up for that username with the dot in it. Gmail just figured it out.
Now, in another country on another continent, there's an individual who uses the e-mail address glomars.mailbox at gmail.com, as in, "possessive Glomar without the apostrophe, dot, mailbox." This is not very surprising, because remember that "Glomar" here, my last name, is not a terribly unusual name, and in fact it's a relatively ordinary first name, too, in English-speaking countries. So what happens when a sender misspells my Gmail username?
Here's what Gmail does. It doesn't magically figure out that the username with the dot and without the dot are eerily similar, and it doesn't apply some freakish AI to see the syllable breaks. And in fact, it's not "creepy" at all, but rather it's that they've hit upon a good way to avoid disputes, typos, and a lot of administrative grief. What happens is that, when you choose some username, Gmail both (1) ignores any dots you put into it when you select it, and then (2) ignores any dots the e-mail sender puts into it when they're addressing e-mail to you. That is, you could put a dot anywhere in glomarmailbox and it would get to me. You could even send mail to g.l...o.m.a.r..m.a.i.l.b.o.x and it would get to me.
But you can't send it to glomarsmailbox, with that s in there, or to any dot-containing variation thereof. If you do, it'll go to this other person in another country on another continent.
And when one half of a married couple that glomarsmailbox was arranging a three-way with sent e-mail to glomar.mailbox instead of to glomars.mailbox, I was hit with a complete series of ten or twelve days' worth of e-mail outlining exactly what each party was into, how much E they like to use, and where and when they figured they could next get together.
There are two lessons here. First, just hit the "reply" button and don't type in e-mail addresses if you don't have to. And second, clean up your e-mail replies after every few back-and-forth exchanges! Select all those pages and pages of text at the bottom and delete them. If the sender here had done so, I would only have seen what looked like a "coffee was nice, let's see a movie on Friday, xoxo" message.
08 October 2010
Friday jukebox: The Bangles
. . . in which the Bangles take a perfectly fine hippie poem by Simon & Garfunkel and turn it into an ode to blow, with a video that's arguably better than the movie in which the song featured:
Hang on to your hopes my friend
That's an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Hang on to your hopes my friend
That's an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
07 October 2010
$4 fortune: 07 October 2010
Your mentality is alert, practical and analytical.
Last time I went to the coffeeshop, I noticed that my bagel cost 25¢ more than it used to (alert).
This rise in cost brought my bill from $3.50 to $3.75. Whether I pay with four singles or a five-dollar-bill, I have only one quarter in coin change to put in the tip jar after I've paid for my coffee and bagel -- though I see a lot of paper in the tip jar, I just can't bring myself to tip a whole dollar on such a small transaction, but even cheap-ass me understands that 50¢ going into the jar looks and sounds better than 25¢. So I figured that today I could bring a five-dollar bill and ask for $1.25 all in quarters as change, or I could make sure I have a spare quarter in my pocket when I left the house (analytical).
I decided that bringing a spare quarter on my own would be simpler for the barista and would help use up the change in my wallet, so I did so (practical).
But I'm still going to keep tagging these entries as "$4 fortunes," even though they're $4.25 now.
Last time I went to the coffeeshop, I noticed that my bagel cost 25¢ more than it used to (alert).
This rise in cost brought my bill from $3.50 to $3.75. Whether I pay with four singles or a five-dollar-bill, I have only one quarter in coin change to put in the tip jar after I've paid for my coffee and bagel -- though I see a lot of paper in the tip jar, I just can't bring myself to tip a whole dollar on such a small transaction, but even cheap-ass me understands that 50¢ going into the jar looks and sounds better than 25¢. So I figured that today I could bring a five-dollar bill and ask for $1.25 all in quarters as change, or I could make sure I have a spare quarter in my pocket when I left the house (analytical).
I decided that bringing a spare quarter on my own would be simpler for the barista and would help use up the change in my wallet, so I did so (practical).
But I'm still going to keep tagging these entries as "$4 fortunes," even though they're $4.25 now.
06 October 2010
Three interviews later, life goes on
Another day, another "Well, I guess if I'd gotten the job, I would have had a call by now." Three weeks, three interviews, zero call-backs.
Yesterday I e-mailed a client from early in the summer who still has some retainer money sitting there in my IOLTA account. I reminded him that I could simply cut a check for him to return his remaining unused cash, or he could ask me to do some work for him. No answer! (And I'd felt bad for procrastinating on the task for a couple of weeks, because they tell us that the number one complaint clients have about their lawyers is lack of communication.) No wonder attorneys get in trouble for mishandling client funds: I could buy groceries for three months [1] with that money, but apparently my client couldn't care less about it.
At least the weather's nice. I have a few spare zone 3 regional rail tickets kicking around. I should gopanhandle get lunch out on the Main Line somewheres.
[1] Or, you know, a pair of shoes.
Yesterday I e-mailed a client from early in the summer who still has some retainer money sitting there in my IOLTA account. I reminded him that I could simply cut a check for him to return his remaining unused cash, or he could ask me to do some work for him. No answer! (And I'd felt bad for procrastinating on the task for a couple of weeks, because they tell us that the number one complaint clients have about their lawyers is lack of communication.) No wonder attorneys get in trouble for mishandling client funds: I could buy groceries for three months [1] with that money, but apparently my client couldn't care less about it.
At least the weather's nice. I have a few spare zone 3 regional rail tickets kicking around. I should go
[1] Or, you know, a pair of shoes.
05 October 2010
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: R.I.P. Stephen J. Cannell, creator of a good number of our childhood and adolescent memories, I suspect.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: R.I.P. Stephen J. Cannell, creator of a good number of our childhood and adolescent memories, I suspect.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
01 October 2010
Making money while giving the music itself away for free
As an IP attorney, I've been trying to counsel my musician clients that they need to give their music away for free -- their copyright be damned, because it's simply unenforceable at this point -- and make money off of value-added merch instead. Today, I came across another arrow for my quiver of arguments:
It's hard for musicians -- perhaps especially the geezers and the ones closer to my age -- to give up the dream of seeing dozens of their cellophane-wrapped jewel-cased CDs, set out in sharp rows in a record store. Employee pick of the week! Billboard Hot 100! And when was the last time they gave a Grammy to an album that wasn't distributed by a major label? (How about "never.")
Well, too bad, so sad. The world moves on. What, as a musician, do you want? Now, of course you want millions of dollars, or at least you'd like to be able to quit your day job. (Note that the only two musicians I've ever known to quit their day jobs and make music full-time ended up with scurvy. No lie. Scurvy.) But a good second-best is to simply have your music heard by the largest number of people possible, and to have them pay you what they can, when they can.
Option 1: Value-added merch, Nina Paley-style. Signed CDs, limited-edition posters, special-event t-shirts. Or think outside the box, and offer things like "The band will make you dinner for 8 for $400!" or "Attend 5 hours of our next recording session for $300!"
Option 2: tongodeon, a long-time Internet acquaintance of mine, pointed out the other day that there's a relatively new scheme going on nowadays: the idea of "pledging" for new music. That is, pay your favorite artist some small amount of money so that you will be the first on your block to get their newest recording or the final mastering of their new record:
And both options cut out the predatory middleman labels by funneling money directly from consumers to producers. I mean, what are labels for? Or rather, were? Pressing vinyl records, the industrial equipment for which an artist wouldn't have, and shipping records to stores, the logistics of which an artist would not be in the business of. And payola. With digital recording, the Internet, and bulk CD repro services that cost about a buck per CD, labels aren't needed. Right now artists can almost literally seize the means of production -- if one can't seize electrons, one can at least seize a sharpie for autographing CDs -- and kick the record company pig-dogs to the curb.
Best Buy (BBY) said it will cut back on shelf space for DVDs and CDs this holiday season.Musicians: burn your CDs and try to sell them, but just accept into your heart that your music will be ripped and exchanged without your license and played on iPods around the world. There's nothing that you can do to prevent it. Lawsuits are expensive to prosecute, and the offenders are, as we lawyers like to say, judgment-proof. So use illegal downloads and sharing to your advantage: allow it to happen, with your blessing even, and see it as cutting out the label's middleman. You weren't going to make money until your fourth record (if then), and the big-box stores that aren't closing are staying open by doing things like very specifically not selling music CDs any more.
The entertainment software market has been in decline for years, and so has the space Best Buy has allocated for compact discs and digital video discs. The space for CDs and DVDs is going to get even smaller this fall.
"We’ll have another store reset before the holidays, which will include an increase in the space for higher-growth and, in the aggregate, higher-margin categories, like Best Buy Mobile, e-readers and gaming, with a heavy emphasis on new gaming platforms and pre-owned game titles," Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn said in a conference call with analysts Tuesday. "This will be enabled by our reorganization of the DVD and CD sections. The CD section in particular will shrink in space allotment."
It's hard for musicians -- perhaps especially the geezers and the ones closer to my age -- to give up the dream of seeing dozens of their cellophane-wrapped jewel-cased CDs, set out in sharp rows in a record store. Employee pick of the week! Billboard Hot 100! And when was the last time they gave a Grammy to an album that wasn't distributed by a major label? (How about "never.")
Well, too bad, so sad. The world moves on. What, as a musician, do you want? Now, of course you want millions of dollars, or at least you'd like to be able to quit your day job. (Note that the only two musicians I've ever known to quit their day jobs and make music full-time ended up with scurvy. No lie. Scurvy.) But a good second-best is to simply have your music heard by the largest number of people possible, and to have them pay you what they can, when they can.
Option 1: Value-added merch, Nina Paley-style. Signed CDs, limited-edition posters, special-event t-shirts. Or think outside the box, and offer things like "The band will make you dinner for 8 for $400!" or "Attend 5 hours of our next recording session for $300!"
Option 2: tongodeon, a long-time Internet acquaintance of mine, pointed out the other day that there's a relatively new scheme going on nowadays: the idea of "pledging" for new music. That is, pay your favorite artist some small amount of money so that you will be the first on your block to get their newest recording or the final mastering of their new record:
PledgeMusic offers you the opportunity to fund your favourite band or solo artist's new album. In effect, you as the fan become the record label the band or solo artist is recording for. You help fund their record and if they don't reach their pledge target you won't get charged a cent.PledgeMusic takes an administration fee, and some percentage goes to charity. I like this idea, because, if the consumer's goal is to be the first to get a new record, it incentivizes paying for music rather than getting it for free, which presumably one has to wait for. And it also includes options for value-added merch, which I think is a solid, proven way for bands to quickly and cheaply raise some cash.
In exchange for your early involvement, you will get the music the moment the recording and mastering is finished. Additionally, if you wish to contribute a little bit more, PledgeMusic artists also offer you a range of incentives, ranging from signed merchandise to special events with the band members and in some cases personal involvement in the release process. These are specified by the artist and vary for each project.
And both options cut out the predatory middleman labels by funneling money directly from consumers to producers. I mean, what are labels for? Or rather, were? Pressing vinyl records, the industrial equipment for which an artist wouldn't have, and shipping records to stores, the logistics of which an artist would not be in the business of. And payola. With digital recording, the Internet, and bulk CD repro services that cost about a buck per CD, labels aren't needed. Right now artists can almost literally seize the means of production -- if one can't seize electrons, one can at least seize a sharpie for autographing CDs -- and kick the record company pig-dogs to the curb.
Electing judges is "nuts"! Amirite?
Honestly, do we need a better argument against electing judges at all three levels here in Pennsylvania, and for some system of merit selection in the judiciary instead?
Seriously, the joke here isn't that he's the Magisterial District Judge for Intercourse, Penna. (though Intercourse, Penna., is always funny). The joke here is that we live in a state where this guy was elected and has been re-elected so many times that he's been on the bench for 19 years.
Apropos of nothing, I followed some bouncing links off the county court's website and found Lancaster County's government FAQ page. The first FAQ: "How can you obtain a concealed weapon permit?" Maybe Judge Stoltzfus is lucky that he's only getting slapped with a maximum fine of $300.
[Judge Isaac Stoltzfus] is facing a disorderly conduct charge for allegedly approaching women near the state Capitol and handing them acorns he had hollowed out and stuffed with condoms[.]Via the smoking gun. Judge Stoltzfus is a Magisterial District Judge, like a Philadelphia Municipal Court judge, only for counties with smaller populations. With a name like "Stoltzfus," you know it's Lancaster County; with conduct like what he's accused of, you know he's a Republican.
Seriously, the joke here isn't that he's the Magisterial District Judge for Intercourse, Penna. (though Intercourse, Penna., is always funny). The joke here is that we live in a state where this guy was elected and has been re-elected so many times that he's been on the bench for 19 years.
Apropos of nothing, I followed some bouncing links off the county court's website and found Lancaster County's government FAQ page. The first FAQ: "How can you obtain a concealed weapon permit?" Maybe Judge Stoltzfus is lucky that he's only getting slapped with a maximum fine of $300.
28 September 2010
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Happy 10th anniversary today to American availability of mifepristone plus misoprostol, the abortion pill! About 1 in 3 American women will have an abortion during their childbearing years; about a million abortions are performed in the U.S. every year; and about 15% of all American abortions are accomplished with mifepristone. Not only do you probably know (or: drink beer with, share a home with, work with, sleep with, send your kids to school to be taught by, sit in church next to) a woman who's had an abortion, but also there's a good chance she used the abortion pill to terminate her pregnancy.
And now Glomarization's friendly regular reminder: when abortions are illegal, or at least devilishly hard to come by, women will still get abortions. If they're candidates for a medical abortion but they can't get the safe two-drug combination, they will often try using Cytotec -- misoprostol -- on its own. It's not as effective as the two-drug combination, and if you think that off-label Cytotec use is only a South and Central American thing that doesn't happen in the U.S., you'd be mistaken.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Happy 10th anniversary today to American availability of mifepristone plus misoprostol, the abortion pill! About 1 in 3 American women will have an abortion during their childbearing years; about a million abortions are performed in the U.S. every year; and about 15% of all American abortions are accomplished with mifepristone. Not only do you probably know (or: drink beer with, share a home with, work with, sleep with, send your kids to school to be taught by, sit in church next to) a woman who's had an abortion, but also there's a good chance she used the abortion pill to terminate her pregnancy.
And now Glomarization's friendly regular reminder: when abortions are illegal, or at least devilishly hard to come by, women will still get abortions. If they're candidates for a medical abortion but they can't get the safe two-drug combination, they will often try using Cytotec -- misoprostol -- on its own. It's not as effective as the two-drug combination, and if you think that off-label Cytotec use is only a South and Central American thing that doesn't happen in the U.S., you'd be mistaken.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
24 September 2010
Philly AIDS Thrift anniversary + mega donation party Friday through Sunday
You know what really chaps my hide? (OK, to be honest, a lot of things chap my hide. But this is a big one.) People throwing out clothes in the trash. I mean, there's a lot of thoughtless waste in the world, in the U.S., and in my largely upper-class neighborhood in particular -- every trash day you see all kinds of indicia of first-world overconsumption, like new carpets that were ripped out and replaced with newer carpets, recyclables mixed in with trash, take-out containers spilled on the sidewalk.
And worst of all, bags and boxes and sometimes mere piles of clothing. Often clothing that's only a few seasons old and was clearly bought new at designer shops in town. Today, I found a box that held about $200 worth of Lucky Brand Dungarees jeans; J. Crew handbags, shorts, and tops; Zara trousers; and Banana Republic sportswear. (Also some city sports league t-shirts with the family name printed across the back. Way to protect your privacy! Now I can make an educated guess at the G---- family's income level, and not just based on the house the box was in front of.) All boxed up and ready for the landfill. Not for families in need, or a battered women's shelter, or a halfway house, or even a consignment store, but for the landfill.
My point, and I do have one, is that Philly AIDS Thrift is celebrating their fifth birthday this weekend. And they have more than that to celebrate: over the past five years, they've donated over $200,000 in cash to area AIDS relief organizations. They've done it by taking in boxes of clothing, housewares, furniture, and other items that people would otherwise landfill, and re-selling it for pennies on the dollar. And since they're a non-profit, you can get a tax deduction receipt for anything saleable that you donate.
To really celebrate the anniversary and the $200,000 milestone, they're having special sales and refreshments all weekend, as well as a party tonight in the "Pair o' Dice" furniture warehouse across the street from the main store. Free food! Free music! All weekend!
Philly AIDS Thrift
And worst of all, bags and boxes and sometimes mere piles of clothing. Often clothing that's only a few seasons old and was clearly bought new at designer shops in town. Today, I found a box that held about $200 worth of Lucky Brand Dungarees jeans; J. Crew handbags, shorts, and tops; Zara trousers; and Banana Republic sportswear. (Also some city sports league t-shirts with the family name printed across the back. Way to protect your privacy! Now I can make an educated guess at the G---- family's income level, and not just based on the house the box was in front of.) All boxed up and ready for the landfill. Not for families in need, or a battered women's shelter, or a halfway house, or even a consignment store, but for the landfill.
My point, and I do have one, is that Philly AIDS Thrift is celebrating their fifth birthday this weekend. And they have more than that to celebrate: over the past five years, they've donated over $200,000 in cash to area AIDS relief organizations. They've done it by taking in boxes of clothing, housewares, furniture, and other items that people would otherwise landfill, and re-selling it for pennies on the dollar. And since they're a non-profit, you can get a tax deduction receipt for anything saleable that you donate.
To really celebrate the anniversary and the $200,000 milestone, they're having special sales and refreshments all weekend, as well as a party tonight in the "Pair o' Dice" furniture warehouse across the street from the main store. Free food! Free music! All weekend!
Philly AIDS Thrift
514 Bainbridge St
Philadelphia PA 19147
Shop - Donate - Volunteer
21 September 2010
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink and food specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Ha-ha, looks as though Citzens United is turning around and biting conservatives in the ass: the California-based Tea Party Express organization is funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns quite literally from Alaska to Delaware. By supporting looney-tunes extreme-right Republican candidates, the Express is setting up the GOP either for big losses in six weeks, or for the six-year installation of a young-earth creationist, a person who wants to shut down the Department of Education, and another who wants to ban abortions for survivors of rape or incest into one of the most powerful legislative bodies in the entire world. I say, pass the popcorn!
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Ha-ha, looks as though Citzens United is turning around and biting conservatives in the ass: the California-based Tea Party Express organization is funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns quite literally from Alaska to Delaware. By supporting looney-tunes extreme-right Republican candidates, the Express is setting up the GOP either for big losses in six weeks, or for the six-year installation of a young-earth creationist, a person who wants to shut down the Department of Education, and another who wants to ban abortions for survivors of rape or incest into one of the most powerful legislative bodies in the entire world. I say, pass the popcorn!
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
17 September 2010
Friday jukebox: Dr. Dog
Music by local band Dr. Dog; video by the lovely and highly talented local filmmaker Ted Passon:
16 September 2010
French burka ban, part 2
First, does the burka ban law violate the French constitution? Hell if I know. There are some likely relevant provisions:
The text of the law doesn't mention religion and doesn't single out any one group literally, but the subtext is clear, and it's disingenuous to say that it's not targetting a particularly Muslim practice. So there's a tension there between those first few sentences of the French constitution, though I don't know how a burka-supporting group would challenge the law on French jurisprudence terms.
Now, it's important to remember how strong the separation of church and state is in France. In the U.S., we think of it as a wall of the "expression of the supreme will of the nation [on] behalf of the rights of conscience." The French, though, think of it as an electrified, barbed-wire fence, 50 meters high, surrounded by a shark- and crocodile-infested moat, and protected by Michael Vick-trained attack dogs. With frickin' laser beams attached to their heads. Why? Well, in America we had the Salem witch trials. In France, they had the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre; the church's opposition to the Revolution; and literally centuries of history controlled by and circling around the history of the Roman Catholic church. From the Crusades to the Wars of Religion to the modern complicity in deporting Jews to the German deathcamps, tens of thousands of French people -- if not millions -- have died because of dogmatic, fundamentalist religion and religious conflict in France.
In 1905 France enacted its law on the Separation of the Churches and the State (texte en français). Its most striking line:
You know how it's gotten nearly impossible to assert taxpayer standing in a First Amendment establishment of religion case nowadays, even though that was something James Madison specifically said you should be able to do if the state forces you to contribute your pence to a church? Well, maybe it's not clear to the Supreme Court lately, but it's pretty damn clear to the French that faith-based and neighborhood partnerships are anathema to a nation that values a real and true separation of church and state.
In short, France is a secular state. The French treasure this situation. The 1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State is as untouchable as our Brown v. Board of Education or the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
So that's one place we're starting from: the French will give up their secular state when you pry it from their cold, dead hands, and if you're an immigrant whose religious practice conflicts with the rule of French law, you should choose a different country to immigrate to.
Another place we're starting from is women's rights. The French constitution also has some affirmative action for getting women into office:
Argument for majority rule: Most Muslim women in France, and many of their religious leaders as well, reject the burka. Of some 5 million Muslims in France, only 2,000 women right now wear the burka. Call it tyranny by the majority to enact this law, but even in the States we ban some religious practices: using peyote religiously (Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990)), or ritually killing chickens (Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993)). But distinguish the situations here. French burka-wearers can still wear them in private, but religious peyote use and ritual chicken-killing are banned whether done in a church or in your basement.
Another point. Part of the social contract in France is that, in exchange for the rule of law and benefits and protections you get from the government, you do not run around anonymously, which breeds distrust and interferes with the peaceful, orderly, smooth function of society.
Si l’on accepte la burqa dans notre pays, il y aura d’un côté des femmes qui ont connaissance de leurs droits, et de l’autre des femmes qui connaitront la ségrégation et seront privées de liberté. (Ni Putes, Ni Soumises)
If we accept the burka in our country, there will be on the one hand women who know their rights, and on the other hand women who will know segregation and will be deprived of their liberty.
You can't be a full participant in society if you anonymize yourself. Women who are anonymized can't fully enter public life -- that is, enter politics and become participants in the French republican government. The burka ban is right and as a woman and a civil libertarian I'm happy to see it happen.
(If I've missed an argument, call me out on it and I'll address it in a reply or another post. I gotta go run errands.)
La France est une République indivisible, laïque, démocratique et sociale. Elle assure l'égalité devant la loi de tous les citoyens sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion. Elle respecte toutes les croyances.That's the official government translation into English, not just mine (PDF).
France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. It shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion. It shall respect all beliefs.
The text of the law doesn't mention religion and doesn't single out any one group literally, but the subtext is clear, and it's disingenuous to say that it's not targetting a particularly Muslim practice. So there's a tension there between those first few sentences of the French constitution, though I don't know how a burka-supporting group would challenge the law on French jurisprudence terms.
Now, it's important to remember how strong the separation of church and state is in France. In the U.S., we think of it as a wall of the "expression of the supreme will of the nation [on] behalf of the rights of conscience." The French, though, think of it as an electrified, barbed-wire fence, 50 meters high, surrounded by a shark- and crocodile-infested moat, and protected by Michael Vick-trained attack dogs. With frickin' laser beams attached to their heads. Why? Well, in America we had the Salem witch trials. In France, they had the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre; the church's opposition to the Revolution; and literally centuries of history controlled by and circling around the history of the Roman Catholic church. From the Crusades to the Wars of Religion to the modern complicity in deporting Jews to the German deathcamps, tens of thousands of French people -- if not millions -- have died because of dogmatic, fundamentalist religion and religious conflict in France.
In 1905 France enacted its law on the Separation of the Churches and the State (texte en français). Its most striking line:
La République ne reconnaît, ne salarie ni ne subventionne aucun culte.This law followed hundreds of years of back-and-forth battles for power over the public fisc, establishment and disestablishment of Roman Catholicism as the state religion, and church interference with the transfer of power after the death of a ruler or régime.
The Republic neither recognizes, nor salaries, nor subsidizes any religion.
You know how it's gotten nearly impossible to assert taxpayer standing in a First Amendment establishment of religion case nowadays, even though that was something James Madison specifically said you should be able to do if the state forces you to contribute your pence to a church? Well, maybe it's not clear to the Supreme Court lately, but it's pretty damn clear to the French that faith-based and neighborhood partnerships are anathema to a nation that values a real and true separation of church and state.
In short, France is a secular state. The French treasure this situation. The 1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State is as untouchable as our Brown v. Board of Education or the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
So that's one place we're starting from: the French will give up their secular state when you pry it from their cold, dead hands, and if you're an immigrant whose religious practice conflicts with the rule of French law, you should choose a different country to immigrate to.
Another place we're starting from is women's rights. The French constitution also has some affirmative action for getting women into office:
La loi favorise l'égal accès des femmes et des hommes aux mandats électoraux et fonctions électives, ainsi qu'aux responsabilités professionnelles et sociales.This is nice, because women didn't get the vote in France until 1944 (en français), and, if I recall my French contemporary history correctly, they couldn't even sign a check without a husband's or father's countersignature until the early 1970s. Feminists have had a long, hard road in France. So it's seen as a huge step backward for the government to permit a practice -- and a religious one, at that -- the sole purpose of which is to subjugate women.
Statutes shall promote equal access by women and men to elective offices and posts as well as to position of professional and social responsibility.
Argument for majority rule: Most Muslim women in France, and many of their religious leaders as well, reject the burka. Of some 5 million Muslims in France, only 2,000 women right now wear the burka. Call it tyranny by the majority to enact this law, but even in the States we ban some religious practices: using peyote religiously (Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990)), or ritually killing chickens (Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993)). But distinguish the situations here. French burka-wearers can still wear them in private, but religious peyote use and ritual chicken-killing are banned whether done in a church or in your basement.
Another point. Part of the social contract in France is that, in exchange for the rule of law and benefits and protections you get from the government, you do not run around anonymously, which breeds distrust and interferes with the peaceful, orderly, smooth function of society.
Si l’on accepte la burqa dans notre pays, il y aura d’un côté des femmes qui ont connaissance de leurs droits, et de l’autre des femmes qui connaitront la ségrégation et seront privées de liberté. (Ni Putes, Ni Soumises)
If we accept the burka in our country, there will be on the one hand women who know their rights, and on the other hand women who will know segregation and will be deprived of their liberty.
You can't be a full participant in society if you anonymize yourself. Women who are anonymized can't fully enter public life -- that is, enter politics and become participants in the French republican government. The burka ban is right and as a woman and a civil libertarian I'm happy to see it happen.
(If I've missed an argument, call me out on it and I'll address it in a reply or another post. I gotta go run errands.)
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