The Zaiquiri Blog
Bad first day for Romney
Mitt Romney Stumbles Over ‘War On Women’ Showcase Obama Campaign’s Strength | TPM2012.
Romney’s first day of the general election turned into a stark reminder that Obama will be a far tougher opponent than the poorly funded, disorganized candidates he battled in the primary. Romney was outmaneuvered and forced off message throughout the day — beginning with a morning press call in which the campaign was caught flat-footed over a simple question about Romney’s position on the Lilly Ledbetter Act — overshadowing the economic message he was trying to push, with the gleeful help of an armada of professional Democratic operatives.
The Era of Content Chaos
When I unboxed my first computer in 1993, a Macintosh LC III, and somehow figured out how to get online, I only had one friend to email (I still have a copy of the first email I sent him). We communicated back and forth like two kids with tin cans connected by a string. It was fun, but I longed for the day when the rest of civilization would join in.
I’m a communication nut. The idea of sending out messages into the world, and receiving messages back, it thrills me. So it’s a good time to be alive. Except that it’s gotten far too complicated. There are too many channels—too many streams. And unfortunately, the one that has reached the largest critical mass—Facebook—is probably the poorest designed. The result is noise. There are a lot of interesting thoughts and stories being shared, but the problem is how to tap into it, how to channel it.
My hope is that people will begin to take more care and effort to curate information in the interest of contributing to a greater body. So rather than be a single individual spitting out status updates and posting newspaper articles to whatever masses might be listening, we will band together into groups and contribute to a shared stream that others can enjoy. The internet has enough writers now. What it needs are editors.
Call me Ishmael
I was invited out to a performance at Pianos last night—a band that has written 136 songs about Moby Dick, one for each chapter (they did not play every song). Not surprisingly, the band was named Call Me Ishmael. It all started with the blog, which turned into the band, which eventually led to the Kickstarter project for the 900 page illustrated book. (At the time of this post the project is over halfway through its two month span, but has only raised $1,810 of a very ambitious $24,000 goal.) The music itself reminded me of those throw-away They Might Be Giants B-sides, back when those guys were writing twenty songs a day and putting them on their answering machine. No knocks to the band leader, Patrick Shea, but it’s just not possible to write 136 good songs in less than a lifetime (some bands don’t produce that much material in their entire careers). So I don’t think the project is meant to be taken too seriously, and yet it doesn’t quite cross that line into celebratory absurdity either. Shea harbors an enthusiasm for the project that suggests maybe it is meant to be taken very seriously after all. I just can’t tell.
Something about this feels uniquely 2012 to me. Our wild ideas used to die over beer glasses. But now, fueled by internet cheerleading, we run with them. In some cases with spectacular results. And in other cases perhaps a little farther than necessary.
And now a word from our sponsor
I would just like to pause for a moment and meditate on this press release from Ohio Arts:
“Happy to see Etch A Sketch, an American classic toy, is DRAWING attention with political candidates as a cultural icon and important piece of our society,” said Nicole Gresh, spokeswoman for Ohio Arts, the company that manufactures the toy. “A profound toy, highly recognized and loved by all, is now SHAKING up the national debate. Nothing is as quintessentially American as Etch A Sketch and a good old fashion political debate.
Private versus public sector jobs
Here’s the Republican logic, as best I can figure. If you work for a corporation, you are somehow making the country a better place. Your position and industry doesn’t matter. You could be selling Nazi memorabilia on eBay. That part isn’t important. As long it’s “private sector,” you’re doing the country a favor.
But if you work for the government — especially the federal government, you’re a scourge on society. Your position, whatever it may be, is “waste.” Economic excrement. You’re doing nothing good for the country, and we’d all be better off if you were unemployed. (The one major exception is if you’re in the military. Soldiers are really just federal employees, but even if you’re polishing toilets in an irrelevant army base in Germany, as long as in you’re in the army, this benefits America, and it’s money well spent.)
So why exactly is Taco Bell such a great thing for our country, but not the Smithsonian Institute? And does the economy really know the difference between money extracted from our paychecks through tax law, and money extracted from our wallets through manipulative advertising?