Front Porches and Facebook

I've been reading a lot of cynical stuff lately about Facebook and other social media. The main thrust is that these virtual communities are exceedingly self-centered, promoting the concept that life is all about "me".

Well, yes, they are. But I don't think Facebook is in any way MORE narcissistic than the front-porch culture of yesteryear. Nobody has a front porch in the real world anymore, where you sit in the evening, chatting with neighbors about the trivial events of your day. Whining, carrying on, sharing jokes, arguing, embarrassing ourselves...we don't do that on the front porch anymore.

We used to, though. We used to engage in conversation. We used to get mad, we used to get emotional in conversation, to the point where some of us had to apologize. And then we started over. And all this happened on front porches.

How do we engage each other when there are no front porches? How do we do that, living in condos? How do we do that, living in mansions, with special entrances for service people?

What is the "front porch" in the 21st century? I think that is the role of social networking media like Facebook.

What I love is that geography is meaningless. I can be as close to my nephews/nieces in Colorado/Pennsylvania as I am to my children in Pennsylvania/Maryland...just as though we lived on the same street. They can visit my "front porch" through Facebook, and I love it. I treasure the updates, just as much as if I had heard about them "through the grapevine" on my front porch.

Tools like Facebook take a lot of grief, as though their only purpose is self-promotion. To me, Facebook provides me with a front porch where I can speak or hold my peace as I see fit. Just as it has always been on front porches since the beginning of time.

Tweenbots

This is so uplifting! Restores my faith in humanity.

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.
Read more about this project.

Roaches: The Unarmed Enemy

What is it about huge dead roaches? I have one in my kitchen, which I plan to dispose of...just not quite yet. I've gone into the kitchen to inspect him periodically since 11:33 am this morning. That's when I blasted him over and over and over again with HOT-SHOT, which kills on contact (if you spray long enough).

Sheesh, I hope it wasn't a "her". Now, why do I care whether it was a "him" or a "her?" It was a ROACH!

If you would like to argue the point about why girls should not be soldiers, please come to my kitchen. I will show you my dead roach, and you can help me give him/her a proper burial.

Pegging, Unpegging, and Linguistic Magic

We're "unpegging" from the Constitution. Economies are "unpegging" from the dollar. My Uncle Bill "un-Pegged" from my Aunt Margaret. What does it all mean?

Why can't they speak plain English? I think "un-pegging" is today's euphemism for "violating" or to be even more gutteristic, "raping."

When I hear that our system of government is "unpegging" from the Constitution, the picture I see in my mind is the rope that holds up my pajama bottoms, which is looped over the peg of my bedpost. It's a good thing for me to "un-peg". That sounds like freedom, liberty, independence.

In reality, "unpegging" from the Constitution means removing the foundation that my house (and therefore my bedroom, and even my bed) is built on.

But it still sounds cool and liberating, "unpegging".

Words mean something. Non-words, key-words, and buzz-words serve a purpose. Listen carefully, and peg the language that is used accordingly.

Tragedy in the Media

I grew up in a community close to Pittsburgh. So today's events there have a somewhat more personal impact on me than similar events that have occurred in New York and North Carolina.

One thing all of these events have in common is media coverage. Vulturish, vampirish, media coverage. The media clamors to know and report (and gleefully photograph, if possible) every ugly detail of the alleged crime, the alleged perpetrator, the alleged victims, the alleged by-standers, and the cousins of the alleged by-standers. Live from the scene.

The inevitable press conferences could be scripted, with a parade of politicians expressing their grief and dismay; law enforcement officials thanking each other for such heroic response; the assurance that federal grief counselors are on the way; the grim agreement that this is indeed a sad day for [name of community].

Then the grilling begins. Who knew what, and when did they know it? How outraged should the community be? What hospital are the survivors in? What are the addresses of their family members? How would you describe society's failure in this awful tragedy? Is this trend of violence stoppable? How dead are the dead, and if they are not dead, how close to dead are they?

They have one video clip of SWAT team members rounding the corner of a building (I think it's a stock clip) which is played over and over throughout the report. Men in helmets, with wicked-looking weapons and chest-gear. It's a cloudy, dusty day - they don't film the SWAT team on sunny, balmy days. That's how I know its a stock clip.

The one question no one asks is, what is God's purpose in this? Why does God permit such carnage? How should we pray in this situation? No, God is excluded from the scene entirely. And then we wonder why these tragedies continue to happen.

Body armor, automatic weapons, motives, logistics, presidential response, counseling, communities joining together, despair, hate - all of these terms and concepts may be invoked. But don't mention God.

Peace to Pittsburgh.

Hanging in the Balance

Lawfare and Obama's Transnationalist
By Frank Gaffney

What is wrong with this picture? We learned this weekend that a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, is preparing to prosecute six Americans who worked as senior legal and policy advisors to President George W. Bush - including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith. The alleged crime? The opinions they provided Mr. Bush supported the use of torture against enemy combatants.

Most Americans would find this assertion of what has come to be called "transnational law" to be troubling on several grounds. Its application is an affront to due process and the rule of law in this country. It would criminalize internal U.S. policy-making deliberations, with profound implications for U.S. sovereignty. If allowed to run its course, this prosecution would have a profoundly chilling effect on the willingness of subordinates to provide a president with advice, or perhaps even to serve in government.

One would hope that President Obama would recognize that this use of legal mechanisms as a form of warfare against the United States - increasingly known as "lawfare" - holds serious dangers not just for the country and those who ran it for the past eight years, but for his administration, as well. That would appear not to be the case, however, in light of his choice of Harold Koh to be the State Department's top lawyer.
Read More...

Source: Townhall.com

Note: Scarier still is the notion that our laws would no longer be made or interpreted in the context of our Constitution, but in the context of the world stage. Such a transition would also threaten our ability to enter (or not enter) into treaties, to wage war, etc., as a sovereign nation.

Fishy Politics in Alexandria

To many in Old Town Alexandria, the sex shop that opened recently on King Street is nothing short of scandalous, a historical desecration just blocks from the boyhood home of Robert E. Lee.

But to Michael Zarlenga, it's justice.

Zarlenga spent $350,000 on plans to expand his hunting and fishing store, the Trophy Room. He worked with city officials for almost two years and thought he had their support -- until the architectural review board told him he couldn't alter the historic property.

Furious and out of money, Zarlenga rented the space to its newest occupant, Le Tache.
Read more...

Source: The Washington Post

Note: I'm all in favor of historic preservation. But life does go on...if it was okay for this "historic" building to house a hunting and fishing store in the first place, why not let its owner renovate and continue contributing to the 21st century economy? But nooooo....

I don't particularly like sex shops, but the irony here tickles me.

This Dishwashing Dilemma

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers.

They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don't work as well.

Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation's strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states. But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.
Read more...

Source: Sierra Vista Herald

Note: I'm conflicted on this. On the one hand, I am outraged at the governmental intrusion. Do we really need legislation to control how we clean our dishes? On the other hand, what ever happened to plain old elbow-grease and a steel wool pad? Are we such a weak society that we can't even scrape dried spaghetti sauce off our plates anymore, without the help of a machine and chemicals? Maybe we deserve government intervention.

The Senior Perspective

My grandmother is very comfortable with the new administration and the current state of affairs in the United States.

She is not concerned about the increasing national debt, or the recession, or the bailouts. She lived through the depression, the New Deal, and lost a son in World War II. So she's no stranger to sacrifice or hard work.

That is what is on the horizon for America today...sacrifice and hard work. I can't say I am impressed with our president being the "Salesman-in-Chief." I think what he is doing is stuffing two of every species of fruit and vegetable on God's green earth into the congressional blender - strawberries, onions, peaches, spinach, broccoli, apples, asparagus, onions, kiwi, oranges, potatoes, grapes, beets, apricots, cranberries, peas, beans, onions, and celery. This economic concoction is reputed to be just the tonic America needs. The cost of all these fruits and vegetables is very high, but one has to keep one's priorities straight.

Of course the tonic will taste bad, and it won't really look very appetizing. But it's the prescription, the medicine, we must take. And if you saw President Obama recently on the Tonight Show, you know that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Our Salesman-in-Chief is an excellent entertainer. He's a hit at townhall meetings, cleverly populated with outspoken victims. Now that he's done Leno, can The View be far behind?

Well the "recovery cocktail" is oozing its way into every paycheck and wallet across America. But that doesn't bother my grandmother.

She passed away in 1983.

My grandchildren, on the other hand....

UPDATE: Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Obama Signs Law Banning Federal Embryo Research

On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.
Read More...

Source: CNSNews.com

Note: This is an interesting turn of events. Did President Obama actually read the bill? Did he know about the Dickey-Wicker amendment? If he did, then was all the fanfare surrounding the signing of his Executive Order just a ruse to placate the far left? Watch for news of legislative efforts to repeal the Dickey-Wicker amendment. In the meantime, however, cooler heads have prevailed.