whitebread

“Richard Milhous McCain”

site admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:25:15 +0000

Two weeks after the Republican convention, America seems to be hellbent on repeating the 1972 election. Forget about the “sunny uplands” of post-partisan politics. The American electorate is still trapped in Nixonland: a land where Democrats and Republicans exchange endless gibes about who despises whom, where simmering class and regional resentments trump all other political considerations and where the airwaves crackle with accusations about lies and counter-lies…Mr McCain’s running-mate, Sarah Palin, is a Nixonian fantasy come true, perfectly designed to create a cycle of accusation and counteraccusation.

–The Economist September 20th, 2008

Being better

site admin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:34:37 +0000

Coleman wanted to live in a world where people treated each other with respect and dignity. Period. No qualifications, just humans treating each other well. This was not unique to him, but I believe he held up his end of that equation the majority of the time. I have been better about this since he died, and I have had some success. I won’t be able to do it as well as he did, but I can try.

Why couldn’t I have understood this while he was alive? He could have taught me so much. Now I’m just left to guess.

Loss

site admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:58:08 +0000

I have been trying to put off this post until I can do it without sobbing, but I can’t get it out of my head.

Patrick Coleman Saunders was a beautiful person, and he died.

I don’t know why I get to live, when such brilliance and kindness can pass away. Coleman made more people happy in his thirty years than I could in a hundred.

He will be missed, perhaps for as long as I am capable of missing.

11 days too late

site admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:02:11 +0000

The sad irony is, I waited two days to post this an even 10 days late, but then failed.

Happy belated birthday B

Odd

site admin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:21:08 +0000

The current top story for India, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom is “Clinton to Urge Democratic Unity”.

The current top story for the U.S. is “Plane Crash Survivor ‘Born Again’”

The Clinton story isn’t even in the top 10 for the U.S.

If you haven’t seen this you should check it out.

Appreciating the things you don’t need

site admin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:58:12 +0000

I probably couldn’t say it better myself:
Stuff

Appreciating the things you have

site admin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:18:24 +0000

Last night I had a dream that I broke my leg, and had a big green cast. In the dream, I thought to myself “wow, just a minute ago I could walk around without this cast. This should teach me to appreciate what I have, when I have it”.

RE: Your olympic coverage

site admin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:18:11 +0000

Dear NBC,
I know I speak for every person on the planet, including Mr. Phelps, when I say this: Swimming IS BORING. There is precisely one thing that happens in swimming that is of any interest. Someone swims faster than someone else. The problem is compounded if that someone is the same person over and over again. I think we both know this, which is why you push the interesting sports to the end of your coverage each evening. And just so we’re clear, and you don’t have to follow any links from this letter, I’m talking about gymnastics. Gymnastics is interesting, but not in the way you seem to think. The stories of the people competing aren’t important. If we wanted to see real-life dramas, we’d watch the other crap you blast out nonstop in the intervening years. No, gymnastics is interesting because it’s a bunch of people doing some amazing shit with their bodies.

Everyone wants to see gymnastics in the olympics because that’s the only time they’re on tv. This means that nobody knows who these people are, which would be fine, except you’re so damn obsessed with the “human element”. Thus you have to spend decades of air-time setting up background, presumably so that your audience can sit up and say “yes” when someone sticks a landing. This, as opposed to the perpetual awe that would result if you just showed the routines, from every angle you’ve got, in every speed film, repeatedly. You have their routines ahead of time, so you can select the most diverse set of them that’s going to be performed if you’re worried about monotony. I guarantee you if you show someone a highbar routine once, in real-time, the only thing people will understand is whether they fell on the dismount. But show that same routine in real-time, then in slow motion, then real-time again, and it will blow people away.

So the next time you yank Costas out of his age-defying vortex, let him know what the new plan is.

Yours,
Whitebread

So you’ll know it when you see it.

site admin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:40:49 +0000

This is what victory looks like.

For those of you who fear China and India

site admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:42:04 +0000

The economic gap between America and a rising Asia has certainly narrowed; but worrying about it is wrong for two reasons. First, even at its present growth rate, China’s GDP will take a quarter of a century to catch up with America’s; and the internal tensions that China’s rapidly changing economy has caused may well lead it to stumble before then. Second, even if Asia’s rise continues unabated, it is wrong—and profoundly unAmerican—to regard this as a problem. Economic growth, like trade, is not a zero-sum game. The faster China and India grow, the more American goods they buy. And they are booming largely because they have adopted America’s ideas. America should regard their success as a tribute, not a threat, and celebrate in it.

–The Economist

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