Politics The Double Dose of Political Realism
What is the right side of history at this point in history ?
The concept of a right side of history is derived from Marxism, and it is founded on the belief that there is a forward advance toward a socialist future that can be resisted, but not ultimately defeated. But does anyone believe this anymore? Does anyone take seriously the claim that the present state of affairs will be set aside and a wholly new order of things implemented in its place, and that such a transformation of the world will happen as a matter of course?
· Multiple of Reality Czechs [Policy Review]

Talking Back To Talk Radio - Fairness, Democracy, and Profits
Turning the dial again, we found a convicted felon ranting about the importance of government having ever-more powers to monitor, investigate, and prosecute American citizens without having to worry about constitutional human rights protections. Apparently the combining of nationwide German police agencies (following the terrorist attack of February 1933 when the Parliament building was set afire) into one giant Fatherland Security Agency answerable only to the Executive Branch, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and its SchutzStaffel, was a lesson of history this guy had completely forgotten. Neither, apparently, do most Americans recall that the single most powerful device used to bring about the SS and its political master was radio.
· Is history repeating itself? [CommonDream]

Information Awareness Office Is Right Out Of '1984'
The New York Times' John Markoff was the first reporter to break the news, on Feb. 13, that retired Adm. John Poindexter, national security adviser to President Reagan, has returned to the Pentagon to direct a new agency that is developing technologies to give federal officials instant access to vast new surveillance and information-analysis systems.
· Surveillance Efforts Threaten Freedom [Editor & Publisher]

Media Europe approves new law for financial journalists
European Union finance ministers have approved a controversial new insider trading law that would punish journalists for publishing false or misleading information.
· insider trading [Media Guardian]

Off the record? In the right? The jury is out on column case
If a Nov. 1 insider trading on Cape Cod was intended to improve the uneasy relationship between judges and journalists, it can safely be called a failure. Instead, details from the off-the-record seminar showed up in a Boston Herald column that attacked one jurist, generated one apology, provoked two journalists into accusing each other of playing fast and loose with the truth, and did absolutely nothing to make the judges feel one iota better about the news media.
· insider trading [Boston Daily Globe]

All the Journalist's Sources
Bob Woodward, blackmailer?
Bush at War, by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster). This "instant first draft of history" provides juicy access to the Bush war room—and provokes debate about Woodward's leaky research techniques. In the Los Angeles Times, Edward N. Luttwak calls it "a type of journalism that virtually amounts to tacit blackmail: Talk to me, spill your share of secrets—or at least your personal touchy-feely confidences—or I will cast you as the villain." But in the Washington Post, Fouad Ajami asserts that if historians quibble, "readers keep coming back for more. Eventually, the historians will have their day ... Their prose will be richer, their accounts fuller. But for now, we are fortunate to have this richly detailed view of our nation's central policy command." (Buy Bush at War.)
· leaky research techniques [Slate]

Lifestyle High and Mighty

Have you ever wondered why sport utility vehicle drivers seem like such assholes? Surely it's no coincidence that Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Dem-ocratic National Committee, tours Washington in one of the biggest SUVs on the market, the Cadillac Escalade, or that Jesse Ventura loves the Lincoln Navigator. Well, according to New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher's new book, High and Mighty, the connection between the two isn't a coincidence. Unlike any other vehicle before it, the SUV is the car of choice for the nation's most self-centered people; and the bigger the SUV, the more of a jerk its driver is likely to be.
· most self-centered people [Washington Monthly]

Literature Baddest sex awarded . . .

The third time was the charm for novelist Wendy Perriam, who won the not–so–coveted Bad Sex in Fiction Award in London last night.
'Yes!' she whispered back. Dorsal subluxation ... flexion deformity of the first metatarsal ... 'Oh yes!' she shouted, screwing up her face in concentration, tossing back her hair. 'Yes, oh Malcolm, yes!'.
· London's In and Out Club [Moby Lives]

Kafka, the happy office worker? . .

Kafka worked hard for his company, The Workers' Accident Insurance Company for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague, and his superiors at the insurance company attested to his excellent conceptual power.
· a talent for being an office worker [Moby Lives]

Blog Obirtuary Media Dragon is sad to read, but The Cat is Dead (really)

All good things must come to an end... and so too must mediocre things like this blog. The sound was faint and distorted at first but now it's clear and loud - the phone is ringing and reality is on the line.

Of course you always try and ignore it and snooze on, but sooner or later your eyes are open and the horror and tedium of real life await. So, like a Martian wub, the blog must die.

This is the final entry @ http://donarthur.blogspot.com/
posted by Don Arthur at Thursday, December 05, 2002 [Cat Dead, really]
· :( [geek]