After Friday night's alcoholocaust, I didn't sip a drop of coffee all weekend. That may have contributed to the sensation that I was living underwater -- I don't even try to pretend that I don't have a caffeine addiction -- so this morning I'm having some Earl Grey tea.

I don't have any real desire to quit drinking coffee, but I think perhaps there's something to be said for de-escalating my chemical dependence, even as a little experiment.

This is actually classic addict behavior, by the way. It's a well worn trope for individuals conflicted with their chemical relationships to "take time off" or "dry out" for a week or a month or six, after which they generally return to their previous modus operandi.

I make no value judgements here. My experience studying the phenomena of addiction has left me deeply ambivalent about it's cost vs. value. Individual circumstances vary enormously, making this sort of calculus very difficult to generalize upon. Non-functioning, slavish addiction, the obvious kind, seems easy to judge, but in real terms this often has more to do with the addict's financial resources than with the depth and depravity of their habit. It's another well-worn trope for social elites to decry addiction among the massess, while simultaniously engaging in essentially the same behavior (with premium brands, of course) under the notion that they have their habits "under control."

Subjectively, I get a lot out of caffeine. It makes me feel like me. You might think that's immoral or unnatural, but I don't. It's also not a very large health risk, and it's hardly driving me broke or interfering with my ability to carry on a productive life, so I don't really worry about that fact that I get withdrawl symptoms. Your mileage may vary.

Free Culture

Via: VideoSift

Keeps on getting better.

Pan-European Music Contest Winners Are Hard Rock Monsters From Motherfucking Lapland.

I think that's cooler than anything i've seen from American Idol.

Pan-European Music Contest Winners Are Hard Rock Monsters From Motherfucking Lapland.

I think that's cooler than anything i've seen from American Idol.

The nice feelings continue to roll in as I carry on with the process of pulling up my stakes. I'm semi-resolved not to really worry about it. Why sweat a good thing?

It seems to me that as long as I can say Out Front, things are going to be ok. This is one of the terms Ken Keasy used when he talked about the Prankster way of being open and honest. In his time, a lot of people were struggling with a set of social expectations and roles that were much more restrictive than what we deal with today.

I think our generation faces a different challenge. We have a much lighter set of social norms, but we also live in a civilization which is deeply steeped in the art of manipulation through image/information management. There's somewhat less pressure to fit into an established cookie-cutter role, but there's a lot more temptation -- maybe even an expectation -- to try and manage perceptions, to create a story about ourselves.

A lot of business works this way, and a lot of relationships (romantic or friendly) do too. Getting Out Front in the modern context means dropping the act. It's less an escape and more a surrender, but it's no less important, I think.

In the midst of discussing how disinformation spreads about Iran, and about how he challanged a reporter for misquoting Iranian President Ahmadinejad as saying he wanted to "wipe Israel off the map," Juan Cole drops this perl:

So this is how we got mire in the Iraq morass. Gullible and frankly lazy and very possibly highly biased reporters on the staffs of the newspapers in Washington DC and New York. And they criticize bloggers.

This is what many members of the press, particularly those who cover national affaris and politics still fail to realize: a lot of us out here in citizen-land hold them responsible of the mess we're currently in. Not solely responsible -- obviously -- but many of us believe the Fourth Estate is an important part of how a democracy works, and that the current lot are doing a piss-poor job of it.

I can imagine that people who work in the Press must feel differently. I had an opportunity to speak briefly last week with ABC's Mark Halperin (who writes "The Note" and has a feud with the blogosphere) after his appearance at PDF with Elliot Spitzer, and I pressed this point. He answeres somewhat evasively by saying that news organizations are businesses, and they have to follow consumer taste, and they don't have enough consumers who want reporting that holds people in power accountable.

This is a troubling position to hear a member of the Press take. Journalism isn't like making pizzas. There's a bit more on the line, and with regard to the government there's an important role for news organizations to fill. Copping out to "following the consumer" seems dubious. If that's not a dodge and this is really what Halpernin thinks, it's a remarkably irresponsible sentiment.

It is also a highly fatuous stance for someone so upset with the blogosphere. Halpernin also said he thinks Markos (the Kos in Daily Kos) Moulitsas is "one of the most destructive people out there." Putting aside the normative part of that judgment, where does Halpernin think the power to be destructive comes from? Obviously it's site-traffic. If no one reads you, you don't really matter. Site-traffic means consumers.

Clearly there is an large audience for investigative journalism and a vital Fourth Estate. The hostility between independent internet publishers and traditional news organizations exists precisely because the old-school Press is losing power, influence and attention. They are losing precisely because they are failing in this critical function and dissapointing this critical group of consumers.

We're clearly in a period of change. Power is shifting in big ways. Wheels are in motion. It's a crying shame that so many 20th Century institutions which are supposed to have the Public interest at heart are turning in such lackluster performances.

Meanwhile...

Only last week, U. S. intelligence "czar" John Negroponte said the government was "absolutely not" monitoring domestic calls. Two days later, USA Today learned that NSA has secretly compiled databases of hundreds of millions of domestic phone calls and uses computer algorithms to scrutinize them for suspicious patterns. How do you know they're up to no good? Because when Qwest refused to hand over customer data without a FISA court ruling, the government dropped the effort. The administration wanted not only Americans to be kept in the dark, but the U. S. government's own secret courts. That's probably because a 1986 federal law made it illegal for communications companies to divulge "a record or other information pertaining to a subscriber or customer... to any government entity." (My emphasis ) ABC News has since confirmed that the FBI is scrutinizing its reporters' phone records as well as those of The New York Times and The Washington Post as part of a CIA "leaks" investigation. Leaks, that is, about torture, secret prisons and, yes, legally suspect domestic "intelligence" efforts—basically anything the government calls classified for reasons of political convenience. Possibly you recall the First Amendment, which reads in part, "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." But hey, look over there: Some stocky little brown guys are digging a ditch.

That's Geney Lyons, via David Neiwert. I too wish I had thought of that.

In the midst of discussing how disinformation spreads about Iran, and about how he challanged a reporter for misquoting Iranian President Ahmadinejad as saying he wanted to "wipe Israel off the map," Juan Cole drops this perl:

So this is how we got mire in the Iraq morass. Gullible and frankly lazy and very possibly highly biased reporters on the staffs of the newspapers in Washington DC and New York. And they criticize bloggers.

This is what many members of the press, particularly those who cover national affaris and politics still fail to realize: a lot of us out here in citizen-land hold them responsible of the mess we're currently in. Not solely responsible -- obviously -- but many of us believe the Fourth Estate is an important part of how a democracy works, and that the current lot are doing a piss-poor job of it.

I can imagine that people who work in the Press must feel differently. I had an opportunity to speak briefly last week with ABC's Mark Halperin (who writes "The Note" and has a feud with the blogosphere) after his appearance at PDF with Elliot Spitzer, and I pressed this point. He answeres somewhat evasively by saying that news organizations are businesses, and they have to follow consumer taste, and they don't have enough consumers who want reporting that holds people in power accountable.

This is a troubling position to hear a member of the Press take. Journalism isn't like making pizzas. There's a bit more on the line, and with regard to the government there's an important role for news organizations to fill. Copping out to "following the consumer" seems dubious. If that's not a dodge and this is really what Halpernin thinks, it's a remarkably irresponsible sentiment.

It is also a highly fatuous stance for someone so upset with the blogosphere. Halpernin also said he thinks Markos (the Kos in Daily Kos) Moulitsas is "one of the most destructive people out there." Putting aside the normative part of that judgment, where does Halpernin think the power to be destructive comes from? Obviously it's site-traffic. If no one reads you, you don't really matter. Site-traffic means consumers.

Clearly there is an large audience for investigative journalism and a vital Fourth Estate. The hostility between independent internet publishers and traditional news organizations exists precisely because the old-school Press is losing power, influence and attention. They are losing precisely because they are failing in this critical function and dissapointing this critical group of consumers.

We're clearly in a period of change. Power is shifting in big ways. Wheels are in motion. It's a crying shame that so many 20th Century institutions which are supposed to have the Public interest at heart are turning in such lackluster performances.

Meanwhile...

Only last week, U. S. intelligence "czar" John Negroponte said the government was "absolutely not" monitoring domestic calls. Two days later, USA Today learned that NSA has secretly compiled databases of hundreds of millions of domestic phone calls and uses computer algorithms to scrutinize them for suspicious patterns. How do you know they're up to no good? Because when Qwest refused to hand over customer data without a FISA court ruling, the government dropped the effort. The administration wanted not only Americans to be kept in the dark, but the U. S. government's own secret courts. That's probably because a 1986 federal law made it illegal for communications companies to divulge "a record or other information pertaining to a subscriber or customer... to any government entity." (My emphasis ) ABC News has since confirmed that the FBI is scrutinizing its reporters' phone records as well as those of The New York Times and The Washington Post as part of a CIA "leaks" investigation. Leaks, that is, about torture, secret prisons and, yes, legally suspect domestic "intelligence" efforts—basically anything the government calls classified for reasons of political convenience. Possibly you recall the First Amendment, which reads in part, "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." But hey, look over there: Some stocky little brown guys are digging a ditch.

That's Geney Lyons, via David Neiwert. I too wish I had thought of that.

Thanks to all and sundry who came out for me and the Slarz's birthday. A good time was allegedly had by all. The final chapter remains a mistery to me, but that's kind of fun. Considering that I woke up at 3pm, I figure it must have gone on for some time. Flashes in my minds eye of sunrise, but I couldn't tell you the details.

One thing I do remember is Julia Henning's Momster, Claire Henning, gave me some really spot on advice about life. Unexpectedly, it reinforced my wild bohemian values.

And it appears I lost my cellphone... and my iPod Shuffle. Posessions are fleeting.

You know my politics, and my reactions to 9/11 and whatnot. Those on the other side of the divide rarely pass on the opportunity to make hay out of it, the fear, the sense of mission, danger, the role of the righteous victim. It's not unusual to see people justify all sorts of crackpot politics and authoritarian excess by bleating about how that day "changed everything."

It did, in a lot of ways, but for some reason only the Right has the right to talk about how they were affected. That's crap. It's on all of us. Like the other day taking the F train up over Smith and 9th, I looked into Manhattan and there was a thick low cloud obscuring the Empire State building, looked like the billowing smoke of yesteryear. So of course I wondered if something terrible had happened, what shape the next wave of awful would take.

90 seconds later the wind moved the clouds along and the moment passed, but that's the reality we all live in. Even those of us without paranoid authoritarian fantasies.

(Music to go with this)

In my dayjob land of open-source development, we talk about "scratching your itch" sometimes. It's the thing that tends to drive really innovative creations, and it comes from people who have the skills to speak the machine-language who want to get something done for their own purposes.

This is how bad-ass shit happens, because there's passion involved. It's not a job. You don't watch the clock while you scratch your itch. You scrach and scrach until either you get worn out and quit, or else the itch don't need no scratchin' no more. Or maybe you're a millionare or whatever and you move on to other things.

This is what people talk about when they compare open-source to poetry, to art, to those whacky "creative" pursuits that the B-schoolers secretly scorn and envy. It's apt. Not all poetry is socially useful, nor is most open-source code, but when you hit a real vein it shakes things up. It's how you get rapid advancement, frame breaking, watershed achevements. It's also how you can waste a lot of time.

I haven't done this in a while, in any arena. No art. No tech. No real itch-scratching at all. You might say that instead of scratching my itch I've been using various creams, salves, herbal tinctures and prescription forumulas to keep those sort of symptoms at bay. Maybe I'm straining the metaphor a bit too far here, but there are lots of ways to numb yourself, and I think mainline society encourages this to some degree. Law and Order, 24/7. Go along to get along. Hump day! The weekend is your kingdom.

Well, fuck all that noise. Life is your kingdom, it's the adventure of your lifetime. Kick out the jams and all that. And I found out that my back-tax bill for this year isn't so bad -- me vs. the IRS, an epic struggle -- so I'm bully for the summer, yes.

This is the summer of scratching the itch, of brewing biodiesel and grinding my own mustard, of moonshine and long-form writing. It's a summer for home-media and bonfires, a time to dig down and push. It's time to try out those other ways of living, because this half-square compromise crap just isn't cutting it for me.

Anyway, stay tuned. I'll let you know how it goes.