NYCweboy

With A Ten Foot Pole

I don't really want to touch this, even using the aforementioned titular object... but even in my hazy fog this post from Ezra Klein on the economics of pornography has been fascinating.  It started with this post, a passing diss of Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild, led to this post from Ross Douthat, and bloomed into this monstrous conversation in comments.

I'm really not going to get too far into this (heh heh, this is a post where everything feels like a double entendre), but just reiterate my main point from over there: I think liberals - especially liberal men - tend to have a "do what you like, I'm not judging" approach to issues like porn that misses the point.  I have it myself, to a considerable degree. But there's a moral question posed by pornography, and it's not separate from issues like the economic exploitation of sex workers. And until liberals can face up to the moral issues, they're not going to solve the other ones.

You Can Rely On The Old Man's Money

RedStar takes me to task for dragging myself out of the crypt last night and throwing up this post on John Edwards and class resentments.  In part, she cites this article by Kurt Andersen in New York - and while I think it's a terrific sum-up of the current state of things, I think Andersen, and his article, underline my points.

I think many, if not most Americans operate under a couple of popular illusions about class in our society: that we don't have class issues, and that's because you can rise as high as you want in the way you want.  That, after all, is the classic definition of the American Dream.  Unlike say, the very traditional, classist British system (which still is, though notions of class have shifted for them), we do not have such a clear separation between royalty, landed gentry, prosperous commercial class, working class and poor. You can get more money, but you can't, in their system, really buy class (and a good sense of how Brits note the difference between wealth and class can be found in "Footballer's Wives", the TV series I keep asking for but no one will buy for me.)

For Americans, though, class is different. Our definitions are not as rigid, and some wealth is equated as class, and the result is that we have more classes and more fluidity, but not as much as some would like to believe.  And we certainly have an elite, even if some elite folks would rather pretend not to be.

Miracle of Miracles, Look What The Night Dragged In

Well, I've spent so much time (so much time) giving her a hard time, what am I supposed to do when I agree with Kirsten Powers?

Finally turning her eye to something other than how Democrats mess up, Powers notes that Rudy Giuliani is getting a pass on his, well, colorful social life.  You know, the whole... twice divorced, marry your mistress (...no not that mistress), hang out with your married gay friends thing. (Nothing says "New Yorker marrying his way up" quite like Rudy's story.)

In fact, to be honest, I don't entirely agree with Powers: I think Giuliani is, in fact, in considerable trouble with social conservatives both for his personal foibles and for his stances on abortion and gay rights, stances that are pretty common for most New Yorkers (even rabid Ann Coulter betrays her Manhattan lifestyle by never quite being the antigay her audience expects).  I don't think Giuliani can win the primaries even; though as this post over at NRO observes, if he does, it will be because of his 9/11 credentials, and in spite of his social policies and lifestyle issues.

But Powers, dare I say it, has a point: once the Right made affairs, mistresses and sleeping around an issue, don't be surprised when it comes back to haunt them.  With Gingrich (divorced; served his first wife with papers in the hospital), McCain (divorced), and Giuliani (ah, why repeat the whole thing) in the top tier, the question of a double standard will be brought up and it will linger.  And if the simultaneous result is that divorce finally becomes a non-issue, and social conservatives lose some clout, it will be worth it.

Honestly, The Class Feeling You Run Into Nowadays...

I'm back, feeling a little bit better... so of course, my first thoughts are political. :)

Ezra, in this post, has it quite right about this post from John Podhoretz... but I think there's something serious going on here: the real modern class war.

Conservatives like to say that liberals turn economic policy, especially on taxes, into "class warfare" - pitting the poor against the rich by selling tax increases on the latter to voters in the former.  This, somehow, is bad, though conservatives never really say how.  Perhaps, because the group they're defending in this argument is, well, the rich, which is obviously somewhat problematic.

Not A Day Goes By

...without me writing something, but one did.  My apologies.  I am not yet 100%.

On the plus side, I settled my employment picture yesterday, the one I mentioned here, in the great post you should read if you haven't yet (I'm quite pleased with it).

On the minus side, whatever this flu is, I haven't really shaken it yet, so I am going to work on gathering my strength, and try typing from bed later.  The problem is I have that flu-like foggy brain thing happening, and I feel like all I will do is type gibberish (which, as you know from my typos, is pretty much the normal state of affairs).

So if I could ask for a little assistance here - can somebody get a conversation going?  You pick the topic, or try one of these:

• Watching Grey's Anatomy Season 2 on DVD - I am falling in love, all over again, for the first time.  I missed whole swaths of these episodes, and I'm learning that we knew Joe was gay all along, the extent of Izzie and Alex's relationship, and the first appearance of the O'Malleys.  And that was just in the Thanksgiving episode.  The hard part is knowing I have to watch them all again to try and figure out what the really cool music is in each episode.
• I think Starbucks talk is the new Esperanto.  Spend an hour or so listening to coffee orders, and you'll realize it's a whole other language.  Without verbs.  I've also learned what a Dirty Chai is and the difference between a Red Eye, A Black Eye and a Purple Eye.  And I haven't even started yet.
• I am so happy for Serena Williams.  And Evan Lysacek. How about you?
• And the usual political stuff.  Healthcare. Iraq.  The Bushies (and then read this).  Hilllary Clinton.  You decide. My brain is too fogged.

More later... after a lot of orange juice. And thanks for the late night phone consult, Dr. T. ;)

Nothing On

I used to complain that weekend television was a total wasteland - and if you don't have cable, it still is. It's only with the arrival of super duper extra cable (multiple movie channels, On Demand, DVR), that I find I can turn on my TV and always find something to watch.

So imagine my depressing surprise when I go searching around the web this morning and find.... nothing.  No real news.  No interesting doings in the blogs.  Nothing.  I may have to go... do things. In real life. *shudder* :)

On a related note, I kind of have a mild flu and my brain has been slightly fogged.  I'm thinking this will be it on the posting today.  Please feel free to explore a bit, leave some comments, check out my links.  More tomorrow... or later today if I feel more up to it.

The I in Team

For those of you who follow my (really, quite dull) personal trials and tribulations, I am happy to report that I got a job.  I don't want to say too much about it - I believe in keeping these things separate - but let's just say all you need to know is in the title of this post.

One thing that I liked about my interview was that it was focused on evaluating ability to contribute to a team, something that's become a big selling point in the work world these days.  People aren't "employees" anymore, they're "team members." The business bookshelf sags with hot tomes hawking ways to improve team morale, build a team mentality, make your teams work.  It's turned professional coaches into business experts.  And in some ways, it's more than a little disconcerting.

But as I thought about it this morning - I wake up thinking about the big issues; it's a serious flaw - I realized, it's the team metaphor in business that's doing in Republicans and the failed Presidency of George W. Bush, because there's no I in team.

Slow Down

I haven't really written about the Obama madness, mostly because I think it's way too soon to be conclusive about the 2008 race.  But since I have commented on Clinton and Edwards, I suppose equal time suggests that I do the same.

And anyway, a lot of Obama discussion yesterday caught my eye - he shared some topline thoughts on the healthcare concern and said... well, not very much.  He's for computerized records that can be shared, he thinks we need some sort of insurance reform.  It wasn't exactly bold, and Ezra, among others, took him to task for it.  That in turn, generated some feedback, mostly to the effect that, well, it's too soon to expect heavy specifics from Obama. 

Fair enough - I think all the discussions about 2008 are way too much.  I think the "horse race" discussions feed into the worst instincts of pundits - turning political discussions into beauty contests and allowing everyone to ignore the current state of affairs for a wish-y discussion of future possibilities. 

Face it: we have no idea what the landscape of the 2008 elections will look like yet.  No poll results taken this month tell us anything at all - they do not tell us that Hillary is doomed in Iowa or that McCain has lost any chance of winning.

But by the same token, we need answers on the issues of the day.  At some point, Barack Obama will need to provide specifics, as will Hillary Clinton and John Edwards (and the dozen or so others).  This election, I think, will not be as content free as the last two - Good, smart people have learned that we can't have an election built solely on image.  Indeed that may be the real significance of these "first black" and "first woman" candidacies - the old "you have to be twice as good to be thought of as equal" arithmetic will force Clinton and Obama to be specific and thorough, and their specificity will likely force Edwards to be as well.

Which is why, though I think it's provocative to ask, Jonah Goldberg's musings (his own, and some correspondents) over the past day or so about whether Obama will be seen as "black enough" is probably irrelevant.  Although there's certainly an issue about being mixed race within the black community, I've been heartened by the fact that in my lifetime - since this is my story, too - as this issue plays out, mixed race kids are being accepted  and allowed to identify themselves as they wish.  Over at National Review they've been clucking about the fact that we are not "colorblind" as a society.  And we're not.  But I think it's always been unrealistic to see what, for instance, Dr. King was apeaking of so literally (seeing "not the color of their skin, but the content of their character").  I'd rather see a world where we can all be different and have that be fine, not a world where we pretend we aren't different.

But in any event, let's just slow the heck down - we have plenty of time to discuss, and ask questions and hash some of these things out.  There's a lot to like about Barack Obama.  But he still needs to answer some hard questions and provide some specifics.  The race to 2008 is not over before it begins.

Making Sense Of It All

A not-so-great day of hibernation allowed my Pfizer post to stay up front longer than I planned, which in turn prompted a question from J in Baltimore that I'd like to tackle, because I think it illustrates the challenges around health care and insurance as political issues gaining steam (though I have to be careful not to offend, because J, a passionate PC defender, knows way too much about the WeBoy).

RedStar helpfully sees me as a State of the Union commentator, but really, what is there to say?  The domestic stuff was weak (not just health insurance, but also his immigration boilerplate, which already has conservatives turned off, and which he didn't change; as well as a terribly unserious energy proposal).  And the Iraq stuff was unlikely to change any minds. Indeed, I think the worst thing about Bush is that he's a lousy explainer - giving 9th grade civics lessons like a substitute teacher who doesn't know the lesson plan.  Which is especially deadly on health care, because the class - not to single out any student - is so unfamiliar with the topic to begin with.

Anyway, let's clarify some things about health insurance:

• Currently, employers receive a tax break by offering employees health insurance.  This tax break was created after World War II, when employers were allowed to deduct benefits to their employees as a business expense
• President Bush's proposal offers to extend that deductability to individuals and families ($7,500 and $15,000, respectively); and businesses would be capped at the same levels (currently, there is no limit to the deduction for business)
• The net effect of this would be to allow individuals, in theory, to enter the health insurance market in larger numbers reducing the numbers of the uninsured
• Additionally, so called "gold plated" plans - i.e. lavish insurance plans mostly given to executives - would be taxed on their costs over $15,000

Sounds like a good plan, more or less?  Well, here are just a few of the issues with it:

I'm A Mac

... and darn proud of it, too.

I love the Apple commercials - Ray and I play "I'm a Mac" and "I'm a PC" when traveling - even though it proves I am such a total geek.  I am a Mac (Ray has a Dell, I think... it's some PC model or another), and I have been for a number of years.  I won't go out of my way to trumpet the ease of use, the intuitive design, the great looks, the way things harmonize... if you have a laptop, I know your pain, and I know, secretly, that you know we Macs are superior.  Why rub it in?

Via today's Wall Street Journal, Lee Gomes lets us know in today's "Portals" column that there's a new assault on the "we Macs are so secure" front:

Late last month, a notice began circulating in computer security forums that January would be the "Month of Apple Bugs." It sounds like a merry old festival, and it is, in a perverse way. Each day, a new security flaw involving the Mac's OS X operating system was to be posted online. Two men made the promise: Kevin Finisterre, a 26-year-old Ohioan with a history of being interested in Apple security questions, and his partner, "LMH." The latter refuses to divulge any personal information about himself, though others, by tracing his IP address, say he is based in Europe, probably Spain.

LMH explained in an email that, "We are doing this for a few reasons. One of them is having fun, enjoying working on new possibilities and researching OS X security. Another important one is the flawed assumption caused by Apple, publicizing the 'fact' that 'Macs are more secure than PCs.' "

So far, Finisterre and LMH have exposed some 22 "flaws," a couple of serious ones, and more that are comparatively minor or the result of 3rd party manufacturers.  I suspect a speak for a number of, well, at least more ordinary users of Macs when I pretty much shrug.  Compared to the laptop I had at work - where I had a near-daily battle with Spyware, virus alerts, and crashing Microsoft programs - my Mac is a dream come true.  No viruses.  Minimal popups.  No spyware.  And Microsoft office that does what it should... most of the time.

Get rid of your PC.  Go get a Mac.  I say it because I love.  And you should too. :)

And if you're a curious Mac user, you can check out Finisterre and LMH here, and find some fixes here.  Apple has released a fix for the biggest bug, a potential flaw in QuickTime that no one seems to have exploited.