No particular political statement about the death penalty on my part, just love this quote from MSNBC/Slate today:
ONE THING WE do know for certain about Malvo is that he picked the wrong week to be a teen-age murderer. If Malvo committed a capital crime — in either the D.C. area or in Alabama — he’s chosen to be a killer in one of only seven countries in the world that will execute a juvenile for it. (The Death Penalty Information Center indicates that we join such bastions of human rights as Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in so doing.)
I'll leave it up to the "foaming at the mouth" types (you know who you are...) to take this quote and run with it. It just cracks me up to see us placed in a list with places typical Americans consider beneath us, civilization-wise.
Trivia question: I've been to two of the countries on the list, excluding the US. Can anyone guess which 2?
Poynter.org is a wealth of news and information. This special section, or "site-let" on the use of Color in News Design is an interesting and well-designed Flash site showing the importance and proper use of color in design. It's got great point-and-click exercises showing how subtle color changes can greatly affect the appearance of newspaper, magazine and website pages.
Watching one of those tv newsmagazine shows last nite, I saw a story about a guy who started up a satellite television operation aimed at exposing the truth about what's going on in Iran, and poking fun at it. Apparently, the mullahs don't find it very funny, and several of the station's personalities have had prices put on their heads by the Iranian security forces. From the interviews, the people involved (including one guy who was attacked by Iranian agents and had his eye put out) very much were patriots who were upset about the fundamentalist regime, and were convinced that the vast majority of Iranians felt the same way but didn't have the money/power to escape like they did.
Their belief is that by beaming the truths about the Iranian regime, and poking fun of the mullahs, to the people of Iran, they can bring about change. It was a very compelling argument in my opinion. We all know that most oppressive regimes control their populace largely by controlling the access to news, but today's satellite technology effectively supercedes many of the traditional methods oppressive regimes employ. (Think China). Anyway, what concerned me most was that these guys are going broke and when they asked the US government for financial help, they were rejected out of hand. The price of one bomb would fund them for a year according to the general manager of the station, but Bush and company refused to consider it.
It seems to me that information is as powerful, if not more, than bombs, in the battle for the hearts and minds of oppressed people. Imagine if the people of Iraq knew exactly what Saddam Hussein was doing, or at least had another viewpoint besides Saddam's? Do you think it may hasten a regime change, maybe even more than the threat of US bombardment/invasion? I say at least we should find out.
Here's a link to the Iranian TV site. They're based in Hollywood, and if not the US govt, how about Bill Gates or Mark Cuban or some other ridiculously rich person just writing these guys a check for a million to stay in operation for another year to see what effect it would have.
Oh that's right, we need to pay Randy Moss 74 million. To hell with the people of Iran, and ultimately our own security.
It's finally official. One of my favorite sites on the web, Arts & Letters Daily, a compendium of ideas, criticism and debate from a remarkably wide array of sources, has closed. It was in the list of BellyFuzz Links at the right side of this site--thanks to me. There is still an archive of all top-level links from their pages accessible here. It's too bad. I'm sure maintaining the site was very time-consuming, especially since it was done daily. I hope someone picks it up when the site is auctioned later this year.
I try a fair amount of shareware for my PC, and more recently, my Mac. As a former software guy, I also tend to actually pay for it if I use it for a while--that is, if it actually provides me with some value and some functionality. I like the sales model. Somebody whips up a cool utility, (like a pop-up & banner ad stopper), makes it available on the web, and asks that if you use it after a trial period that you pay for it.
So I'm joining KUT-FM, Austin's public radio station, today. I listen to KUT often. I have been "downloading" (i.e. listening to) music and news programming, including National Public Radio programs for years. It's passed its trial period. I'm not sure why I haven't paid (joined) before. If only for NPR's All Things Considered, I should have supported this source of news I really love. Terri Gross' "Fresh Air" is a wonderful interview show, and newcomer programs "Marketplace" and "The World" are beginning to impress as well. And in music, Left Of The Dial blows me away consistently. It's damn good shareware, and underfunded.
Do you use KUT-FM? Maybe it's time to support it.
