No more left or right?

Just stumbled on Spiked Online, a general purpose online journal based in London, but with worldwide concerns.

Article by Josie Appleton, Looking Bad in Bournemouth, about the sorry state of the British Tory party as evidenced by their recent convention. What I found most interesting was the observation that it doesn't seem to be any particular political position that voters are disenchanted with, but basically all of the parties.


I found her comments just as relevant to the Democratic party in the US, even tho one is supposedly "left" and one supposedly "right." Confirms my suspicion that the left-right division is part of 20th century history, and simply doesn't have any relevance in 21st century politics. Unfortunately, while new parties are emerging to represent new points of view, there's nobody at home to mind things.



Giuliani to "clean up" Mexico City.

The Guardian reports that Robert Giuliani's new private security consultancy has been hired to try to reduce crime levels in Mexico City. Story here. Strikes me as rather interesting. A former politician being hired to do privately what has traditionally been seen as a public responsibility. And a frightening example of the way the American right is extending its policies and practices throughout the world.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that the end result of Giuliani's years of elitist mismanagement is shaping up as the city's worst fiscal crisis since the seventies, and possibly ever. Story here. I'm sure like most politicians he'll blame it on someone else, 911, the so-called recession, etc. Always somebody else's fault. But I'll bet if the economy was doing great now, he'd take credit for it. Just a guess. :)

What amazes me most about it the arrogance they're showing. I'm sure they're sincere in trying to reduce crime. But they've guaranteed results within six months. Might be just a touch optimistic, don't you think?

October 11, 2002

Laughlab.

If the gloom and doom of war and such is getting you down, you should try a visit to the Laughlab. Experts, in cooperation with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, rank the funniest jokes and tell you how and why different groups find different things funny. I should warn you that some are pretty bad, but still worth laughing at. :)

I thought the hunters' joke, which was selected as the funniest of all, pretty good. But I also liked number two, Sherlock and Watson go on a camping trip.... Your mileage may vary. Curious though that both of the winners involve hunters and campers out in the woods. There must be something especially funny about that situation, but I can't imagine what it could be.

October 10, 2002

Belated Happy Birthday to John Lennon.

Yesterday, October 9, was his birthday. Craig's Booknotes has some great links, including this neat site: Absolute Elsewhere - The Spirit of John Lennon.



Best Jewish delis, LA or NY?.

Funny article (Knish Fulfillment: Culture of Los Angeles Delis) in the NY Times about a gathering of LA deli owners, who claim that their delis and service are better than those in New York. Which those in NY of course denied. I think they're probably about the same. But it did remind me that LA _does_ have good delis, and that it's a good reason to be here. I used to go to Canter's a lot when I was at UCLA back in the seventies, and glad to hear that it's still there. I'll have to go by sometime.



Great Dylan show I missed.

I left Eugene a couple of days before Dylan's concert there. From the sound of this review in Counterpunch, I sure missed a great show. What's really surprising, and rather neat, is that rather than demanding he play his old songs, it would seem that most folks there were looking for him to play the new ones. Pretty great thing for one of the "rock dinosaurs" in his 60s. I have to confess that the more I listen to his latest the more I like it. Anyway, sounds like I should have stayed for the show. Oh well. Maybe next time around.



Nice review of OSX in Tidbits.

There's a nice overall review of OSX in the current issue of Tidbits, here. It gives individual grades to it in different areas (hardware compatibility, ease of software development, etc.), altho I think they may be a bit too high. Mostly B's and B+'s. Especially liked this section on how Apple has moved away from encouraging people to make their own applications, which is almost certainly the reason for the almost infinitesimal market share and rapidly declining stock price and profits. When will they learn that the whole point is to make it usable by the users?



It really may not be accurate to say that "Apple" doesn't like Hypercard. My impression is that there are plenty of people at Apple who love it, and who would like to see products like that out there. It seems to be only Mr. Jobs who doesn't like it, and of course, if Jobs doesn't like something then no one else has the right to like it either. But with the rapid meltdown of Apple's stock, profits, marketshare, and every other statistical measure of business, I can't see him being there much longer. The "cult of personality" and pictures on Time magazine notwithstanding, he's killing the company. Slowly but surely bringing it from a billion a month company to a billion a year one. Sad, to say the least.

I know the "faithful" don't want to believe this, and want to believe that fancy-dancy technology is saving it, but the figures just don't tell that story. And yes, I realize that the entire computer industry is having troubles, but if you look at the statistics Apple's decline is worse than the rest, and at a time when they have stunning new products out, and at a time when the anger at Microsoft has never been higher, and there's never been more opportunity to encroach on their territory. Why they don't have a new, killer OS for x86 machines is beyond me. But I guess, it's the same as Hypercard. Jobs doesn't want it, then it just doesn't matter.

October 09, 2002

Ah, the smell of the sea.

I'm working out of my Dad's office in Venice, at least for a while until I get situated. It's only about six blocks from the beach. You can (almost) smell the salt water. Something about it that stirs something in you. I like Eugene, Oregon a lot, but it's inland sixty miles or so, and I've always been used to living by the ocean. Nice to be back by it.



Back in LA.

Time to begin posting to this weblog on a regular basis. If I'm going to do it, I've gotta do it. Not sure why I've been so hesitant to begin writing, but there you are. Maybe I'm just shy.

Anyway, visiting some family and friends in LA for a little while. Had a great ride down the coast getting here. Took four days. Sure was beautiful. Especially the Oregon part, which is surely one of the great unknown wonders of the world.

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