Internet muse.
Daring, bold, never sold.
My daily weblog of politics, humor, philosophy...and a constant and nagging reminder of the existence of universal love....
Joseph Arthur will be appearing on A&E Breakfast with the Arts with KCRW's Nic Harcourt this Sunday (Aug 13th). He'll be performing two songs from his forthcoming album. On the YouTube video below, he's performing Electrical Storm (live), a song off the new Nuclear Daydream CD.
Stirling Newberry has written a thoughtful piece about political vision and direction. Competing visions of how America should progress have split the Democratic party, but if there is one thing we can see, it is that the curtain is falling on the Reagan Democrats of decades past. A single idea of a fundamental social mandate has still not been isolated, and that's why we're seeing Democrats approaching their individual campaigns from so many different angles. Is there a unifying theme through which the Democrats could gather around? Mr. Newberry says that the Iraq war's fiasco has only offered an opening for this wide discussion. We're on our way to a new meaning - a "city of tomorrow."
An Excerpt:
The progress of this pattern - of a different mandate producing a different meaning, and reaching voters through a different medium - is going to dominate the Democratic Party for some time to come, until the decisive political moment arrives, and a singular politician is able to sweep into power a majority of representatives willing to move a very different agenda in government.
It is not clear that 2008 is that year, but it might be. 2004 was not, and could not have been that year, but was, instead, the last gasp of trying to hold on to the Clinton Compromise with Reaganism. Hillary Rodham Clinton might win the nomination, but it will only be by coöpting a movement which, so far, she has attempted to oppose. However, she and her advisors can read the tea leaves and the polls extremely well, and the picture they show is no longer a donkey with an elephant's trunk.
I wish for Israel to stop its attack of Lebanon, I wish for Hezbollah to stop firing rockets at innocent people in Israel, and I wish for a UN resolution that is fair to both Lebanon and Israel.
I want to see an end to senseless killing of innocent people.
That said, I do think you may want to take a look at this video from Aish.com, exposing the ways professional photos are looking more like an art form than depicting absolute and untainted reality. It doesn't mean death, destruction, and sorrow are not being brought to the door of the Lebanese or innocent Israelis by savage warfare, but professional journalism shouldn't be Photoshop 101 nor should it be deliberate propaganda. Journalists are humans with the capability to sympathize and empathize - just like you and me. Professional journalists should understand, however, that you check that symapthy at the door during your working hours. Cheating only hurts the cause they may sympathize with when they doctor up photos or stories.
