Posted on July 14 at 2:27 p.m.

Howdy -- I can clear up the rumor that von Holten left the Friday night show in a huff.

Didn't happen.

Feel free to carry on with further insults. He can take it, he reports.

On A Decade of Debauchery

Posted on May 4 at 10:08 a.m.

I'd like to say that my nearly 3-year old comment doesn't do the Jackpot justice anymore.

I've been to many shows at the Jackpot since Oct. 2004, and the difference between then and now is nearly enough to make it seem a different and far better place to see shows than the one I commented on before.

Nick and his crew there have done excellent work beefing up the sound system, raising and increasing the size of the stage, creating more room (at least, that's how it seems; and that's good enough for me) for people to see bands.

So, my 2007 self would like to disagree with my 2004 self (hey, that's my prerogative).

On The Jackpot Music Hall

Posted on March 1 at 1:52 p.m.

I do hope you'll be blogging remotely :)

On Jayhawks heating up as Vegas countdown begins (All in the Wrist)

Posted on January 11 at 12:47 p.m.

I'd love to see a similar treatment of the Pistols' "Bodies."

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/sex+pistols...

On Anarchy Hits the UK: The Best of 2007 (Great Expatations)

Posted on December 18 at 11:37 a.m.

I'm not so sure that Time's "You" is everyone who uses a computer. Rather it's everyone who, rather than simply being a passive consumer of content, becomes an active producer of content. And that's very cool.

"It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes."

***

"You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos—those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms—than you could from 1,000 hours of network television."

On The media universe (Cup o' Joel)

Posted on November 11 at 9:55 a.m.

Or, in other words, 2006 is much like what happened with Ronald Reagan in the '80s with so-called "Reagan Democrats." As he put it, "I didn't leave the Democratic party. The Democratic party left me." In the '80's, then, according to the logic making the punditry-rounds, the Reagan Revolution was "really" a Democratic infiltration.

Or, much like what happened in the '50s and 60's when white southerners abandoned the Democratic party for the Republican party as a result of civil rights legislation. Dixiecrat Democrats and many voters, unsupportive of the national civil rights push, found a better home in the Republican party and eventually gave Nixon his majority. LBJ is widely credited with remarking that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would result in losing the South to Republicans for a generation. He was right. Those erstwhile Democrats who did not support civil rights legislation became Republicans.

Or, 2006 is much like what happened when the country as whole left the Republicans for FDR in the Depression.

In other words, what we've seen in 2006 is America as usual, in all its wonderful electoral complexity.

When a political party stops representing what you believe, or what you want, you leave it; and usually, in America, that means going over to the other party in our 2-party system.

To accept the proposition that what 2006 "really" represents is a victory for Republicans and conservative principles, and not, as it would appear on its face, a win for Democrats on the order of Republican wins under Gingrich in 1994 (an idea finding articulation in many areas of the media, mainstream and not) -- because, the thinking goes, like Reagan's leaving the Democratic party to become a Republican, many candidates left the Republican party to run and win as Democrats -- would mean to accept that the Reagan revolution "really" represented a victory for Democrats, since Reagan's electoral success depended on previously life-long Democratic voters.

Both are fairly dissonant perspectives to maintain, cognition-wise.

On A Republican Invasion (Safe in the Fire Swamp)

Posted on October 10 at 12:22 p.m.

"and both are home to hillbillies grappling at one stage or another with substance abuse problems."

Ha. Nice one, Lazz.

On More thoughts from D.C. (Cup o' Joel)

Posted on August 29 at 9:14 p.m.

"The aspens are starting to turn"?

Are you communicating in code to Judith Miller?

On Nothing special (The World is All That is the Case)

Posted on August 22 at 3:08 p.m.

"can we at least tease people who admit to reading Proust?"

Um.... I'll just go hide in a corner for this one....

On A good book? Or a book that's good for you? (Cup o' Joel)

Posted on August 16 at 9:28 a.m.

Nicely put, Bill.

Though I'd argue it's a little simplistic and disengenous to assert that the judicial branch has no role to play in insuring the state — be that the legislature, the governor, what have you — be bound by the constitution. Judges are "unelected" for a reason, which I'm sure you're aware of.

But that's, likely, another discussion.

As for the laying out of what a libertarian candidacy might look and act like, quite interesting.

On Ok, smart guy (Safe in the Fire Swamp)