[personal/blog] [writing/literature] 

I think of her as autumn,
whose hair recalls the shades of turning leaves
-but also of the way,
like leaves that fall in autumn's wake,
for her I do the same.

Just an impromptu rhyme that's gotten trapped in my head, in one form or another, over the past day and a half. Does it tell anyone anything?

 [sociopolitical] 

Conservative direct-mail firm buys Schindlers' list

Who's to say everyone who sides with the Schindler family is automatically conservative? Or pro-life, for that matter?

 [sociopolitical] 

Local Schiavo family threatened

In case you needed a good blueprint for proving you're an absolute idiot...

 [personal/blog] 

I found this one at Blankbaby, who found it at Skrocki's:

Blink O Rama

-because you always wanted to have an extensive collection of your favorite celebs in mid-blink -- I should probably find something more productive to do now, like sleep...

 [sociopolitical] 

Your Law Suit is Junk, Mine Seeks Justice

-from Wampum, what Dan Gillmor refers to as "chapter and verse" on the hypocrisy of certain champions of tort reform. I have my own set of thoughts on tort reform, much of which I've scattered throughout other posts (here is one of them).

Keepin' it real with Ronald

 [personal/blog] 

"McDonald’s is seeking to use Hip-Hop to promote their Big Mac sandwich and have offered money to rappers who include the sandwich’s name in a hit record by summer..." (the rest of the story is here)

-this came to me via Mr. Poon.

 [personal/blog] [sociopolitical] 

I get email at the address available on this page. Sometimes it's from people who actually want to offer feedback or suggestions for this site; other times, it's just spam.

Penis enlargement, online drugstores, run-of-the-mill porn sites, and every couple days, one of those polite, if grammatically-challenged, foreigners asking me to help them invest some money by sending them my bank information; they don't even make me bat an eyelash anymore. I've seen pretty much everything, or at least, I thought I had.

Sometimes I get emails from other webmasters who think I'd enjoy their site, and they want to know if we could exchange links. My linking policy, vague though it may be, is rarely contingent upon reciprocity. Usually, I link to content that I find in some way fascinating, whether or not the linked page links back to this one. A few days ago, I received what appeared to be such an email for someone's Geocities site. I went to visit the web page from their email, and I was immediately shocked by what I was seeing.
Now, as I said, I've been exposed to a good sampling of your average inappropriate web content, but this was exceptional. The page in question contained some extremely inappropriate images of underage children -- and not of the "I swear she looked seventeen, officer" variety -- the titling of the site suggested very clearly that this site specialized in "artistic" images of 5 to 13 year-old girls. Almost as noticeable as the site itself was a disclaimer that this site was not in violation of the law.

I'm not a legal expert on what constitutes child pornography, but whether or not what I was seeing fit that definition, I knew I didn't want to know anyone who found these sorts of images enjoyable, even as "art."

I promptly emailed my ISP, and then the (hopefully) good people at Geocities, and finally I sent a message to the people at Cyber Angels, just in case the first two didn't work. What scared me the most about this site is that it had slipped through the parental control software that runs on my machine (a machine which is used by my young niece from time to time).

Thankfully, I finally received feedback that the offending site had been disabled, and indeed it has, so now I feel a bit more secure in writing about it, though I still won't publish the url. I guess I'm haunted by the statement that was on the website in question, the one that boldly claimed the site was not illegal, that all children had been photographed with their parents' consent (which made me feel a whole lot better), and that it was strictly for artistic purposes, despite the fact they were charging a high monthly membership fee, and had sickeningly suggestive captions accompanying some of the front page photos.

I have to say there wasn't a whole lot of authoritative content available from my ISP to tell me where to go -- in fact, I never actually got a response from my ISP. I did end up finding Cyber Angels via Yahoo search, but I'm wondering if anyone else out there who's more security savvy would be able to suggest other good sites for reporting possible cases of exploited children. I'd like to add a couple links to the sidebar for this purpose.

Feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

 [sociopolitical] 

The Culture of Guns

Tom Carter, an retired soldier himself, ruminates on the topic of last week's school shootings in Minnesota and the the gun lobby's response.

 [sociopolitical] 

Some Creditors Make Illegal Demands on Active-Duty Soldiers

This New York Times story courtesy of the same kind of folks who brought you the new bankruptcy rules. I came across this tidbit via the Daily Kos.

 [personal/blog] 

I've been in a bit of a blog flurry lately (probably encouraged by my recent attendance of the Philly Future bloggers meet-up the other week), but today, I wanted to slow down and unabashedly note the obvious:

It is Easter Sunday, the day we Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ. I normally don't wax too spiritual while blogging, but since this day is one of the cornerstone observances of my core belief system, it's only right to pay some slightly public attention to it.

So, to the other Christian-folk out there, may you all have a blessed Easter.

UPDATE: The local newspaper has a related story on their website that utterly confused me for a few seconds, but the confusion cleared up by the time I scrolled to the end of it.

 [personal/blog] 

Harvard students want snap, crackle, pop back

-and they're not gonna' rest until those three little fellas are free. It sounds crazy, but concerning the part about switching to "healthier" cereals, there's this:

Experts: No Benefit to Reduced-Sugar Cereal

Just another post in my ongoing series on American university students held hostage.

 [sociopolitical] 

Dan Gillmor comments on the way business leaders are evaluated.

 [sociopolitical] 

TALLAHASSEE — Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out "leftist totalitarianism" by "dictator professors" in the classrooms of Florida's universities.

The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.

The above excerpt from a story in the Independent Florida Alligator may be the tip of the iceberg as it pertains to solving our widespread educational funding problems.

Imagine if, instead of having the classroom ruled by some authoritarian tyrant, we brought the concept of democracy to a new level. Imagine what we could save on education if we instituted a system whereby a classroom majority would decide which theories are correct and how classes are conducted, instead of wasting all that money on things like books and qualified educators.

I have to go now. The soundtrack in my mind is fading to a Pink Floyd song...

And in today's miscellany...

 [personal/blog] 

Steering back away from the poignant thoughts of this morning -- thanks to Tom Carter, perhaps I have one more reason to avoid fast food: Woman Eating Chili Bites Into Human Finger, from The Washington Post.

 [personal/blog] 

I used to work with a guy named Jim. He was softspoken man, not especially impressive in any visual way. The smell of a newspaper pressroom seemed to always be with him, but that was an occupational hazard, as he did work at a newspaper facility. Jim was in his mid-forties, had to work two jobs to support his wife and kids, and I can't imagine he ever got much sleep.

He was the kind of guy who would always help you out if you got caught behind on your work, or if something came up that kept you from getting your own work done. He smiled sparingly, but it was easy to see that weariness was a factor in his expression, or lack thereof.

I never consciously formed my opinion of Jim until after he was killed in a car accident on his way home from work one morning in January, 2000. It's funny how some people don't impress you while you're observing them, but as soon as they're gone, you notice all the things that have gone with them.

Jim's memorial service was held at a local funeral home. We were all expecting a modest turnout, but as we arrived, we noticed that the parking lot was almost full, and as we entered the building, it became clear that merely getting into the chapel for the service was going to be a struggle. The chapel room was decent in size, probably with enough room to seat two hundred people comfortably. When I finally got to sign the guestbook, I could see that I was about four hundred on the list.
As I looked around at all the other people in the room, it started to occur to me that this quiet man we'd all come to mourn must have been more impressive than any of us had imagined. There seemed to be people who had known him from every periods of his life, and you could hear the whispers of other people saying what I was thinking, that they had no idea there would be so many other people at the service. There were people he'd known in the Marines, family members, co-workers from his two jobs, old classmates and childhood friends. Some said they'd come from across the country to be there that day. I know our employer at work actually shut down a significant part of the company's operation so that they could accommodate the dozens of us who insisted on attending the funeral.

It struck me how this man who, by all accounts, barely ever raised his voice, and by his wife's account, never dressed to impress anyone (except maybe in the military), could command this crowd of hundreds in his wake. But as people lined up (and it was a long line) to eulogize, it became apparent that he impressed all these other people the same way he'd impressed me at work. People who grew up with him, people who served in the Marines with him, people who worked with him, his family -- they all spoke of a gentle man who was always willing to help out. And to think, I was just going to pay respects to a co-worker, a casual acquaintance. But as the stories continued to flow, I started thinking of ways that his helpfulness had made a difference for me, and then I looked around again and realized the same thought might well have been occurring to everyone else in the room.

That day played a part in changing my view of life, and of the world. How many of us set goals that have to do with money, possessions or job titles? How many of us achieve those goals and actually feel satisfied by them? How many of us look at our lives the other way, in terms of the effect we have on others? How many parents really understand the immense difference they can make in the world, simply by being a good parent? How many people realize the difference they can make, simply by being friendly, whether to their actual friends or to total strangers?

From that day, I started to see how much of a difference a person can make simply by being helpful. The little things you do to alleviate someone else's situation can sometimes change the whole world for them, and most of the time, you'll never know it -- unless you get to watch from above when they line up to eulogize you.

 [personal/blog] [music] 

I don't watch American Idol, but I've noticed (thanks to incessant local news items) that Southampton's Anthony Fedorov is the second Bucks County resident to make it deep into an American Idol competition; Clown-haired Doylestown native Justin Guarini was the first.

I wonder how many other suburban areas can boast such a meaningless reality show stat, and are we residents of Bucks really that talented, or is it just something in the water?

 [sociopolitical] 

Okay, I admit it; the title line was borne of an urge created by the new tag line at Ales Rarus, as well as my love for that old song by Stealer's Wheel. There wasn't any real substance to the "jokers to the right" part, at least not when I stubbornly decided to use the adapted song lyric.

But in the substantive segment of this post, I wanted to point out two shining examples of the liberal search for moral values clarification, so to speak. One was found courtesy of Karl Martino, who linked this Jim Wallis interview from Mother Jones. The other is an American Spectator feature on Democratic Virginia Gubernatorial hopeful Tim Kaine. It starts something like this:

"Meet Tim Kaine. His views on abortion are roughly in line with those of George W. Bush. He thinks John Kerry spent too much time on the campaign trail talking about windsurfing and not enough time talking about God.

"And the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is spending an unprecedented $5 million to help him get elected governor of Virginia. ..."

Both articles are interesting and indicative of the ongoing shift in non-conservative politics.

 [sociopolitical] 

Try as I might, I just couldn't convince myself not to weigh in on the current Schiavo crisis brewing, both in the Sunshine State and in the federal courts. Call this my IRWGTBATTSSB post...

I may have already stated, either here or in someone else's comment section, that I favor the idea that when there is doubt as to a person's viability we should err on the side of life -- if for no other reason than the alternative is much less reversible. My feelings on sanctity of life issues are a deeply held portion of my personal philosophy and faith. Yes, I do find it a bit ironic that I've already echoed a sentiment recently voiced by our illustrious President, especially because I think that his idea of the "culture of life" is to mine what Swiss cheese is to American cheese (or any other variety of cheese without the holes). If it were my decision, and clearly it isn't, I'm not sure what I would do, but I've always been less than satisfied with the idea of removing certain forms of life support from folks who are capable of breathing autonomously. That's just my opinion, and I'm sure many others differ on the matter.
That said, could we please stop making our arguments for or against the removal of Terri's feeding tube by resorting to the same old political trick of demonizing one side or the other? If we're going to air the personal business of the Schindler's or the Schiavo's, could we at least attempt to be respectful? Maybe I'm not as cynical as some people are, but what if neither side is the devil in this matter? What if they're all just trying to do what they think is the right thing? What if we allow that Michael Schiavo could actually be a half-decent person who isn't merely trying to murder his wife? What if we stop talking about Terri's parents like they're merely conducting an exercise in parental selfishness?

Could one party, or perhaps both parties, in this matter be misguided or wrong? Absolutely. But how many of the millions of spectators cheering this conflict on from such distances actually know anything about the situation besides the basic undisputed facts of the case? So, in the absence of evidence of either side being evil or purely selfish, can't we at least stop with the vitriol?

And finally, can we dispense with the naive notion that all of the dozen jurists who heard this case over a period of years in different venues are part of some paranoid conspiracy? Can we accept that the posturing by Congress, however pure or opportunistic their motives may have been, was at best futile, and at worst abusive. There is a reason we have judicial review as part of the constitutional structure of our government, no matter how many lawmakers or pundits want to label any sitting robe-wearer with whom they disagree as an activist judge. Whether or not the courts have made the proper moral decision in this case, the consistent judicial rulings on this matter at least instill in me the notion that this isn't just the work of one or two wacky leftist judges. The most conservative judges are as likely (if not more) to bristle at the thought of Congress writing laws tailor-made to force the judiciary hand.

That's probably a bit more than my two cents, but I had to get it out of the way. Now I'll just say that my thoughts and prayers go out to Terri Schiavo and all the folks affected by or involved in the decision whether or not to end her life.

I also recommend reading some of the recent posts on this subject over at Ales Rarus, or perhaps Tom Carter's post on it, or even this born-again liberal post, for other nuanced perspectives. There's some good discussion going on in the blogiverse, as long as you can weed out all the character assassination and name-calling.

 [personal/blog] 

I came across "The Blog Cycle" via Karl at Philly Future. It's a somewhat anthropological take on blog society that I think sums up much of the activity in the blogiverse quite well. It's a good post on how we sometimes take ourselves too seriously -- a lesson that could apply equally to areas of life that have no relation to blogging.

Incidentally, I was also reminded by this article of one of my favorite little annoyances of the blog world: those self-righteous posts about "blog etiquette." That's not to say that all posts about blog etiquette are self-righteous or annoying; I've probably happened upon one or two along the way that are neither -- I can't recall any at the moment, but...

 [writing/literature] 

Manahawkin,
on the way
to the shore;
sunny days

saw us walkin'
'cross the sand
-spread before
like all those plans.

Twilight talkin'
on the beach
-with our dreams
still within reach;

Manahawkin,
William Cook
Boulevard
makes me look

when I'm drivin'
by that way
can't help wonderin'
what became
-of you

Manahawkin
still remains
a sweet, sweet smile
in the bitter pain.

Manahawkin
was the way
to the seashore
on a sunny day.

My exclusive band of loyal readers may have noticed the absence of "Poetry Friday" recently. This was not an accidental omission; after almost a year of regular poetry posts on Fridays, I've grown a little tired of it, so I decided to only post poetry-related stuff when I was really inspired to do so, instead of on a specific schedule.

In the spirit of randomness, this is an original lyric from the private stash. The geographical reference of the poem will be familiar to certain people who know the Jersey shore areas well. It's something I've been knocking around for a little while now, and I'm probably not finished with it yet, but I felt like sharing something besides politics today.

 [personal/blog] 

I saw this while I was out yesterday, and I happened to have my camera with me, so I snapped a shot of it. It reminds me of some of the daydreams I had as a kid of living in my treehouse (which was nowhere near the luxury setting this one appears to be).

[personal/blog]  [sociopolitical]  [stories]  [writing/literature] 

Tattered Coat has thoughts on several political causes and activities, both locally in Philadelphia, as well as nationally. Among these happenings, Matt laments the scaling back of Philadelphia's free library system, which includes not only fewer hours of operation at most branches, but also the eradication of qualified librarians at most branches.

Sure, some people may think anyone with a modicum of intelligence and interpersonal skill can fill a librarian's shoes, but consider the following recollection from my own experience at a local Borders store a couple years back:

I was looking for a copy of Charlotte's Web to give to one of my nieces as a gift. After looking through the sprawling children's section for a few minutes, I decided that it might be better to ask one of the customer assistance folks in that section for a little help.

I approached a fresh-faced young woman who was behind a computer station in the midst the children's material alcove. She was in the 18 to 20 range and had the look of one of those hip youngsters just quaint enough to be employed by a cool bookseller like Borders. Just as I approached, she was accosted by a young man about half her age, who asked her where he could find Around the World in Eighty Days. She asked the boy who wrote the book he was looking for. He didn't seem to be able to push the author's name to the tip of his tongue, so I chimed in the name of Jules Verne.

The book girl looked up at me, apparently surprised that a passing stranger would know such a thing. She then started typing into her computer workstation. A few brief seconds later, she informed the boy that Borders apparently didn't carry that book. Incredulous (not just me, but the inquiring boy as well), I leaned a little over her desk and quickly noticed why she couldn't find what the boy was seeking; she'd entered the words "Jewels Vern" as her search terms. I politely corrected her spelling and she proceeded to find that there were a whole bunch of different titles in stock that had been authored by this mysterious Verne fellow. She then pointed in the direction that the boy would have the most luck finding his book, and she turned to me.

She marveled at how I could know so much about books. Rather than say something to make her feel like a total idiot, I explained that I'd majored in English in college (a lie, but one told to spare her fragile, if naive, psyche). This made perfect sense to her, as she explained that she was only studying sociology. She thanked me for helping with the boy's book, and then she asked if she could help me find something. I gave a soft "no thanks" and went back to searching the children's section myself, not wanting to find out if she'd have similar trouble spelling E.B. White's name.

For days after, I wondered about the sorry state of professional bookselling, that we couldn't find college students familiar with names like Jules Verne to staff the information desks at major bookstores.

As if that wasn't bad enough, just imagine the horror that would have overwhelmed me if this episode had happened at the local library.

This isn't to condescend to anyone out there who would have been just as lost as the girl in the store, because to be honest, I grew up reading a lot of books; it's entirely possible I'd be more familiar with this information for that reason alone. The point isn't whether the typical person knows a lot about books, or even whether or not the typical person should. The point is that the person directing a city's knowledge-hungry youth around the local library should know at least this much.

And as Matt points out, in a city (and state) that sinks hundreds of millions of tax dollars into lavish pro sports complexes we should at least have few million lying around for something as socially redeeming as a decent public library system.

 [sociopolitical] 

Tom Carter offers his take on why we should give the Wolf-man a chance, which inspired me to dig up other columns on the issue, both pro and con. Here's a small handful of what I found:

Sheep in Wolf's Clothing:Why Paul Wolfowitz may be a good choice ...

Wolfowitz To Rule the World (Bank)

Why Wolfowitz?

 [sociopolitical] 

Slogans: Good. Policy: Bad.

Will Durst offers some thoughts on the White House PR push that has brought Karen Hughes back into the mix. He caps it with a list of slogan suggestions for the new campaign; my favorite so far is "Aren’t You Glad You Use a Free Market Economy? Don’t You Wish Everybody Did?" (Guess you'd have to have a background on my love-hate relationship with the free market concept to get the irony there.)

[sociopolitical] 

US Senate mulls right-to-die case

It seems national legislative efforts to save Terri Schiavo are now in full swing, but as I was perusing this news story, I couldn't get past the one terminology question: why do we refer to certain people as "invalids"?

I can't say it ever occurred to me before that a person who is generally limited in motor capacity can be somehow described as the opposite of:

1. Well grounded; just: a valid objection.
2. Producing the desired results; efficacious: valid methods.
3. Having legal force; effective or binding: a valid title.
-Source

This is less a philosophical complaint than a basic curiosity that just popped into my head.

 [sociopolitical] 

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Cziltang's latest post deals with popular misconceptions on the topic of respect, or more to the point, the way so many of us confuse respect and civility. For what it's worth, I agree with him (doesn't always happen), and I couldn't have said it better.

 [personal/blog] 

The inimitable Mr. Keeme has brought his usual flair to answering the five questions I sent his way earlier this week. You might want to go check out his responses -- go ahead, it's okay.

 [sociopolitical] 

Bankruptcy Protest: A Coalition

I suppose I already informally joined the coalition (as of my 2/28 post), but in case anyone was still wondering which side I take on whether or not this bill is good legislation, here it is: I oppose this bill.

I don't oppose it because it holds individuals responsible for their own debts. I oppose it because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, it doesn't attack half of the real problem. When a company consistently engages in bad lending practices, the result tends to be higher rates of bankruptcy filings. If consumer bankruptcy were truly threatening the health of the lending industry, don't you think they should have the initiative to look at the role their own practices play in the bankruptcy problem? They probably should, but what they've done instead is go full force in favor of a legislative solution that attacks only consumer behavior, while completely ignoring the irresponsible practices they (the lending institutions) routinely engage in.

This reminds me of the NHL owners in their current labor dispute; they rail on and on about how they're losing money, and still they continue to pay their players far too much. Their solution? Make the players sign a binding agreement that officially limits player's rights. It's certainly a whole lot easier than practicing discipline in the way they hand out money. And that's why the NHL owners pursue a salary cap agreement -- they know that as a group, they lack the discipline to run their businesses responsibly. While not perfect, it sounds like a pretty fair analogy to this situation. Why can't the lending institutions simply apply more discipline to the way they do business? Wouldn't that alleviate a significant number of bankruptcies right there?

That's my most essential problem with this bill. The parties that set lending policies are the ones complaining the system's broken -- doesn't it logically follow that they should look first at the policies they set that have essentially broken the system?

That's what has me scratching my head about this whole thing.

 [personal/blog] 

I had a few things come to mind over the weekend that I wanted to publish, but unfortunately, I managed to screw up the databases associated with this humble weblog.

I am extremely happy to be able publish once again, and I would like to thank Fahim and Tyran for their generous technical support in helping to resolve issues that I personally have no expertise in resolving on my own.

More new posts to come...

 [personal/blog] [sociopolitical] 

Fred Clark at Slacktivist has been posting some pretty well thought out stuff on the current bankruptcy bill in Congress. If you're interested in the subject (and most people should be), I encourage a visit to his blog, but I especially like this grass-roots method of fighting the credit card madness:

Free Your Campus

 [sociopolitical] 

(Note: The Glenn Reynolds link in the first paragraph of this entry originally pointed to the wrong Instapundit post. That has been fixed, now that I am back from a weekend in blog purgatory, and it should jibe more clearly with the rest of this post now.)

I really thought I was painting myself into the most liberal of corners on this bankruptcy bill, right up until yesterday, when it occurred to me just how many non-liberals are against it too. I direct anyone who hasn't read it yet to Glenn Reynolds' post on it yesterday. I don't do this to suggest that I'm justified by the Instapundit's agreement with my position, but rather to rejoice in the fact that even conservatives can see how one-sided the so-called Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 really is. By the way, I've been reading up on it, desperately trying to find the "consumer protection" provisions in this bill ...

Even realizing that this apparently wasn't a simple conservative/liberal debate, I still marvel at the number of Democratic senators who piled on in yesterday's vote.

To be fair, I want to offer a glimpse into the mind of someone who isn't so outraged by the bankruptcy reform bill. Cziltang shares his perspective on the situation. While I don't agree with him, his position is reasoned and not nearly as annoying as some politicians I've listened to who've defended the bill as if it had nothing to do with a tremendous lobbying effort on the part of credit card companies.

I called and emailed both my senators in the last round of this matter, so why not do the same with my trusty congressman? It could work, right?

 [writing/literature] [movies] 

"O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman

Okay, this one should be fairly familiar, even for people who haven't seen Dead Poet's Society. It's still a good poem, and if you aren't familiar with it, even better.

[personal/blog] 

Apparently there's this thing going around the blogosphere where one blogger asks another blogger five questions, and the blogger that answered the five questions then asks yet another blogger five questions. And this routine theoretically carries on until all 75,892,306 of the active bloggers in the universe have had a chance to answer five questions from someone else. Well, thanks to Mr. Funky Dung over at Ales Rarus, it's my turn to answer five queries tailor-made for me. So here goes:

#1 "Smedley" has the ring of a cartoon name. What are the origins of your blog's name and did you consider any others?

The origins of Smedley are somewhat documented in my oldest surviving blog post, but for the short version, Smedley was the chronically unfortunate creation of a junior high classmate of mine. Smedley J. Rabinovich, as I believe his full name would have been spelled, inspired in me a sort of everyman character, and that's the approach I took in starting to blog here.

Of course, there were a few other names considered at the time. One of the other finalist was "Struggleville," which would have been somewhat dedicated to the songwriting of Bill Mallonee and his now-defunct Vigilantes of Love. Another of the contenders that I can still recall was "The Southpaw Diaries," but in the end I decided that "the smedley log" was both the most unique search-wise and the least pretentious -- which was a consideration, as I had no idea starting out which direction to take, so a name that had absolutely no widespread associations seemed appropriate.

#2 How long have you been blogging? How and why did you start?

I've been blogging for a bit under a year and a half (I began in late November of 2003).

I began blogging because, quite simply, I've been addicted to writing, and up until the blogging bug bit me, I hadn't been published, except in a couple letters to the editor in the local paper, amateur literary journals and student newspapers. I found the idea of publishing a blog incredibly intriguing because, while it was entirely likely that nobody would read it, there was the possibility that the whole world could read it. Maybe I got drunk on the potential influence of it.

All that aside, I didn't realize I could actually pull it off until I came across the closest thing I have to a blog mentor, Cziltang, and his site, The Ratlands. It was there I was first introduced to Fahim Farook's blog software, which I promptly downloaded and started tinkering with. That, and some free webspace from my ISP, was all it took to get me hooked.

#3 What aspects of blogging do you most love? loathe?

I most love the interactivity of it. Even for a site like mine, which is still averaging less than triple digit hits per day, I find that, at least once in a while, a comment can change the way you see something. For someone who grew up venting in journals, with almost no real feedback, this is a whole new world.

I most loathe... hmmm... probably the feeling that I need to post something just to maintain a level of consistency, even when I know I've got nothing to say that hasn't already been said so much better by someone else. In recent months, I've made a conscious effort to curb this practice, and it's brought my posting average down a little, but I think it's good to wait until something good comes along sometimes. And it helps me keep up with my real life, too.

#4 Describe your ideal presidential candidate. Think of him/her as a Mr. Potato Head doll. Each part is a policy or plank borrowed from a real public figure. For example, you might want Bill Clinton's economic policies, Richard Nixon's foreign policies, Gorbachev's social policies, etc.

I think I'll start with the man of the hour here in Pennsylvania, Robert Casey, whose social agenda seems almost flawless to me. And it's funny you mention Clinton's economic policies, because that's right on target for me, though I'm certainly not that much of an econ expert. It seems like he had more of a knack for fiscal restraint than the "conservative" administration that's in power now. Past that, I'd have really liked to see Colin Powell exercise the brand of foreign policy that was closer to his heart, because I have a feeling I would have liked that better than his boss's brand of diplomacy. And then, last but not least, I have a lot of respect for Pat Buchanan when it comes to trade theory, which I guess means I'm something of an isolationist on something.

#5 Tell us about some aspect of your personality that drives you nuts and you'd love to change but just can't seem to control.

Condescension. It's not intentional, which is what makes it so hard to control, I think. It's something in my basic approach that definitely rubs certain people the wrong way. It wouldn't bother me so much, except a couple of the people who are most bothered by it are people about whom I care, and I don't want to act toward them in a way that will make them feel stupid or self-conscious. But like I said, I don't always notice when I'm coming off that way, or even what I'm doing to come off that way. I have a feeling it may come from having spent all that time in my own head while I was growing up.

BONUS: Name a few blogs that you think deserve a lot more traffic than they currently get.

Well, there was this old favorite of mine called "Scribbled Lines" -- but I haven't been able to find it for some time now.

But seriously, I'd have to mention The Ratlands, mostly because it was an inspirational weblog to me when I was starting this thing, but also because Cziltang offers a lot of good insight into many issues. He's even got a few good essays in the non-blog section of his site. He doesn't post nearly as often as the more obsessive bloggers among us, but when he does, it's usually worth reading.

After that, I'd mention The Virtual Salt yet again. It's not your typical blog, in that it doesn't deal with typical current events or entertainment or technology. It's just the straightforward chronicling of someone who's friends with a schizophrenic man. It's one of the better slices of life out there.

I'd like to offer more than that, but the truth is I don't get around the blogosphere as much as I'd like, and it seems that many of my regular reads are already fairly well-traveled.

Now that I've answered the last of them, I'll ask if anyone out there reading this would like to be interviewed in kind. If so, drop me line (by email or comments), and I'll see how efficiently I can conjure five questions to ask of you.

 [sociopolitical] 

Senate defeats minimum-wage plans

It seems that two different versions of efforts to raise the federal minimum wage have failed.

I find it hard to make a purely political argument for raising the minimum wage, but I have no trouble advocating it anyway. I believe it would have a positive effect on so many people -- thus I believe it should be done. There are too many people who can't make ends meet in our society, no matter how honest and hardworking they are. There are also too many people who voice the idea that a person should have a post-graduate degree to simply get by. These are problems, and I don't understand why more people don't see them as such.

But still it's good to see some politicians are pushing back as others in Congress are fighting to protect big business by dismantling bankruptcy protection for consumers. It seems only fair that everyday people should get something out of the deal.

 [personal/blog] [sociopolitical] 

Thanks to Karl at Philly Future, I came upon Dan Gilmor's post on the Apple court decision regarding bloggers as journalists.

I share Dan's fears on this subject. Having studied journalism a bit, I'm extremely uncomfortable with the court's ideas of what constitutes a "legitimate" journalist -- it suggests a little too much on the regulatory side. Dan, who is a former "legitimate" journalist and does a fine job "imitating" one on his blog, shouldn't be automatically barred from the same protections he enjoyed when he wrote for newspapers simply because he writes for his own website now.

Of course, many people might want these protections without following the same rigors that ethical journalists need to follow. While we shouldn't limit legitimate journalism to just those who write for major news organizations, we also shouldn't confuse anyone who has an blog and an opinion with a journalist.

Some bloggers are just as legitimate as any other journalists; others aren't. Some want to be; others don't. I don't consider myself a journalist, mainly because I deal almost exclusively in my own personal opinions on matters. But if I were to engage in what I know to be legitimate journalistic practice, whether as a reporter for a major news outlet or as a simple blogger with a basic journalistic background, I'd like to think the constitution would still protect me to a reasonable degree.

Of course, Dan's post goes on to discuss further threats to online free speech, including the fray over some alterations to FEC rulings, another part of the ongoing issue about which anyone concerned with our most basic rights should be concerned.

Whatever your view of the haphazard manner in which many online pundits gather and disseminate their information, journalism isn't something that can be rightly limited to just those who labor under the umbrella of major news organizations, especially when so many major organizations don't seem to adhere to basic ethics anymore.

 [personal/blog] 

For those who haven't noticed, this blog has just been moved. This is the end result of an effort that has taken the better part of the past week, but I'm glad to say it seems to be over now.

If you have me bookmarked or blogrolled, you may want to take notice of the new address, http://thesmedleylog.com (hopefully easier to remember?). Those who don't update the link will most likely still have no trouble reaching this page, as there is now a redirect script at the old address.

Thanks for visiting...

Poetry Friday Saturday

[personal/blog]  [writing/literature] 

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

This is the long lost poem I've been searching for. I remember reading this poem in an American Lit class about a dozen years ago. Of course, I promptly forgot both the poem and the author, and I didn't rediscover them until I recalled the poem's theme just a few days ago (which led to a quick Google search).

This short poem serves as a reminder to me of how much more important it is to demonstrate our love by our actions, as opposed to the more popular, far easier practice of merely talking about how much we love our dear ones. I've mentioned this before in tribute to my father, but it bears repeating, as he's always been the kind of man to show his love for others by his actions more than by his words. I think that's why this poem stuck in the back of my mind for all those years.

[sociopolitical] 

THOSE %$#@-ING #%@$ AT THE FCC

Above is the title of (and link to) this past Thursday's column by Michael Smerconish in the The Philadelphia Daily News. It's his take on the recent spate of FCC fines (and non-fines). It especially focuses on the glaring inconsistency and hypocrisy with which so-called decency rules have been applied over the past couple years, and how those applications seem to have been driven not by static benchmarks, but by organized protests.

[sociopolitical] 

Slacktivist put together a more comprehensive (and coherent) post on the currently-debated bankruptcy reform legislation than I happened to muster in my last post. Just wanted to point it out. Some of the comments are worth notice too.

He notes an E.J. Dionne column on the current reform proposals that aptly differentiates between bankruptcies brought on by careless spending and those wrought by expenses like medical/prescription bills and other legitimate family crises. It's a distinction worthy of discussion by all who are truly concerned with family values.

Incidentally, Fred also highlighted one of the links from his comments to an Angry Bear post that I previously referred to in my vague endorsement of his comments section...