Boots + Jam Jam are a couple of Reedies. I like Reed. They have good party and smart kids. These two guys have two great projects: MakeMeATape and WriteMeALetter.

The kids are allright.

I get the GOP Team Leader email of course, and here's what I got today:

...Then in his remarks Mr. Soros--the billionaire supporter of John Kerry and MoveOn.org--equated the attacks of September 11 to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse and went on to say, “The war on terror has taken more innocent victims than the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”

Unbelievable.

Abu Ghraib was bad and the soldiers involved are rightly being punished, but for Democrats to say that the abuse of Iraqi fighters is the moral equivalent of the slaughter of 3,000 innocent Americans is outrageous.

Leaving aside the smear that Soros morally equivocated Abu Ghraib and 9/11 (he didn't; he said they both produced shocking images), I'd like to focus on that middle paragraph.

Why is it unbelievable that more than 3,000 innocent people have been killed in our military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq? Is it unbelievable that we could have killed so many people, or that anyone would dare to say that we did?

I hate to let a little thing like math get in the way of a good zinger, but 9,284 > 3000. Oh, and don't forget the Afghanis.

So let's be clear here. Even if you think the lowball estimate from the IraqBodyCount is too high, you probably have to admit that when we spend about $200B over about three years killing people and blowing shit up, we end up with more than 3,000 unintented (read: innocent) deaths. So the numbers aren't unbelievable.

What is unbelievable then? It must be that someone would have the gall to point out that the underlying emotional motivation for our current military (mis)adventures -- vengance -- is completely morally bankrupt even from the most brutal perspective, which is scale. It's un-fucking-believable to the GOP that a man from the opposition party would get on stage and say, "Holy shit, this is so fucked up! Not only are we bombing the wrong fucking people, but we're killing 3 or 4 times as many innocent civilians as died in the attacks on our own country."

That, to them, is unbelievable. It's unbelievable that people in this country are willing to publicly state that we've killed (and are continuing to kill) more Iraqi and Afghani civilians than we lost here at home.

I've met decent people who vote Republicans. I've even heard of decent Republican office-holders. But this GOP apparatus is an enemy of truth, an enemy of logic, an enemy of compassion and rational thought. They've got to fucking go, and decent Republicans are going to realize this sooner or later. You cannot run a good political party on lies, racism and religious fervor.

I wrote this more than two years ago. Strange to think about that. I've been having a protracted crisis of faith with my work in politics. Good to touch the roots.

Well, one of my nipple piercings came out. It's been on the move for a while, and the day finally came. I got my tits done about five years ago by the good people at High Priestess in Eugene. I did it because I was wild and 20, and because my ex-girlfriend dared me. After the fact I found (as I'd suspected and hoped) that girls who were not my ex-girlfriend found the feature quite alluring.

The piercings were simultanious, both at the same time. It was a major rush and probably less hassle to get them done like that, but the right-hand one, done by the apprentice, was always more trouble than the master-pierced left. It took longer to heal, was generally more fussy, and about two years ago the metal stud started making it's way slowly downward with the gentle assistance of gravity. Lately it's been hanging by a thread. I have photos. The process has been kinda painful -- all the times it got caught on something, or smacked around by accident -- and I'm glad it's over, but now the right half of my chest looks strangely barren and featureless.

I have the barbell now; it came out without pain or incident in the shower. The last layer of tissue holding it to my body was so thin it was translucent, and after washing the area to soften it up, I was able to pull it free. Now I find I miss it; have to see about having it redone.

On the other hand (literally), I've noticed that the left-side is a lot more lively, tingling and stiffening and the like, as if finally being the lone piercing on my 25-year-old body has given in a renewed sense of purpose. I also find that without the "problem nipple" I feel a lot less worried about getting hit in the chest. Maybe this little change-up isn't all bad.

Stephen DenBeste is likely the most long-winded of all right-wing bloggers. He seems to be a smart enough engineer, and back in the day he and I swapped some emails about the war. I still drop in to see what he's going on about as it's a good way to check in with the people I diagree with. Here's a typical bit I disagree with, from a piece entitled (romantically enough) The price of heroism:

[this film was made] early enough so that the film makers were not infected with post-modernist multiculturalist mindset and didn't need to try to portray Hitler and the other top Nazis semi-sympathetically. (Or to try to figure out some reason why it was actually America's fault.)

See, this is why I can't take his writing seriously, (other than this that is; just kidding... he's outlandish too!). Can someone please tell me what film ever portreyed the H-man (or his top cronies) sympathetically, or ever attempted to place blame on America? Was it Schindlers List? Saving Private Ryan? Bedknobs and Broomsticks? A Bridge Too Far? Maybe he means Das Boot, but that's a German film, and it certainly doesn't portrey the high-brass sympathetically, just a U-Boat crew.

Here's a list of all the movies about WWII from imdb. What the fuck are you talking about Stephen?

I've created a module for drupal-based websites to easily link up with the dKosopedia. The module allows users any drupal/deanspace/civicspace webiste to reference the wiki using simple shorthand.

[kos:some term] = link to "some term" in dKosopedia

This will help users of these sites to easily reference the wiki in online conversation, saving time and eliminating the need to deal with html formatting.

I'm working this into Drupal's real CVS, but for now you can download it here: outlandishjosh.com.

Stumbled across this from Chris Allbritton's Back to Iraq (to which I contribute money): Art in Baghadad. This is in some ways very much worth my $20.00 on its own.

I've been thinking myself about travel, and about how Frank and I talk about wanting to be closer to where things are happening. I think my first move is going to be to try and do some kind of giant road trip around the USA after the election. But if all goes well, in two or three years the Forward Left of the Blogosphere should be in a position to send cultural embassadors to various places; or maybe I can revisit the Geekcorps idea.

A few things occur to me when I realize that Estonian teenagers and Persian (Iranian) electroclash bands are organizing online through Orkut. First of all, that the future of humanity has some hope. Second of all, it makes me wonder about trying to actually organize in that way. A brainchild may be hatching at this very instant; the future of direct action.

Also, saw Good Bye Lenin! which is good and has a soundtrack by the guy who did the music in Amelie. It touched my idealism, and did a really great job of keeping it real politically. Nuance can be a good thing, especially when human beings are involved. And the protagonist's love interest is a Soviet student nurse. I recommend. It's good to remember that the Cold War happened, and that for a lot of people it was a really big deal.

The Public is making a comeback. It'll be global, it'll be more interested in good living and good government than with any old ideas about revolution. The Public wants peace.

Last night was a blur; nothing happening made me get wilder and wilder with progressive intoxication. Hopefully no one was hurt in the making of the evening. I can't rightly remember. This used to happen more often; now its once in a blue moon. Today is carnival in the Mission. My mother has a bionic eye. My father hasn't been returning my emails. My pa is reveling in a second life:

When you consider that this guy had a formative impact on my development as a kid, everything makes a little more sense.

So I'm ok. I have a hangover, and I'm trying to make it a good one. You know, lazy, slow and reflective. I realized in college that one of the reasons I enjoy drinking to excess is that in addition to slowing my overactive rational mind during the experience it forces me to move slowly the day after.

Today I'm kind of melancholy and horny at the same time, a strange combination, but one which isn't all that out of the ordinary for me now that I think about it. I believe in the transcendent capacity of the physical, which includes sex, and so whatever hormonal lust I have tends to be augmented with more spiritual yearnings. This can make for really good experiences in bed, but it also means that I sometimes go looking for something that isn't there, especially when I reach out in need. Marvin Gaye wrote a couple songs about this kind of thing. Also lately I'm not really "in my body" as we'd say back in theater school. Lots of reasons for that, but it clearly has an impact on my ability to be a good lover, or even to find someone to be a mediocre lover with, even as it amps up the need for connection.

The point is that I'm in some way hungry, which has its ups and downs. I don't have much of a support network for this kind of thing; and forraging seems a dubious plan when the most attractive people I come into contact with are waitresses and bartenders, who (it's pretty safe to assume) don't really want to hear about it. Oh well. I suppose I can meditate. Fish or cut bait. Fish or cut bait. Fish or cut bait. I wanna do something (someone?) new. I wanna do someone (something?) right.

Fuck it, I'm a prophet. I'm going to spout off about the future like I know what I'm talking about. I've done it before, and I'll do it again.

Here's a note to the Pundits and other (self)Important People of the world: your days are numbered. As the network paradigm continues to supplant broadcast-based hierarchy (a revolution that will probably take another 20 to 30 years before we can say anything with historical certanty), the Andy Warhol metric of notoriety is slowly giving way to the David Weinberber rule; everyone's famous for 15 minutes vs. everyone's famous for 15 people. This doesn't mean there aren't Important People out there. It means we don't waste time with the notion that the 10,000 individuals who populate the mass-media ecology are any more intrinsically noteworthy than the rest of us.

I was sitting in my bathroom the other day trying to put my finger on what was to troubling to me about the Personal Democracy Forum. It wasn't just the disorientation that comes from being suddenly in the middle of an idea-space rather than on the edge; and it wasn't just the feeling of being co-opted that comes from people mouthing my message with questionable sincerity; it was the strong elitist vibe that occasionally spiked through the air.

I believe that the coming wave of civilization, if it's to be a positive one rather than a regression (still an open question, I'm afraid), is powered by rennaisance ideals like meritocracy, peaceful ambition and widely distributed opportunity. It is not a world of uniform outcomes or forced equality, but it is a realm where the truth of human potential is realized. Where we recognize and make the most of our abilities; and where those who are momentarily ascendent do not come so much to consider themselves as being in any real way above the rest of us.

Fame doesn't go away, nor does wealth or positions of high power. There will always be leaders and owners and celebrities, but a more open and level playling field invites there to be many more of them, and in turn to render them more civil and connected to the wholeness of the world. In a networked civilization, power is humble, because it cannot be solidified. The only way to retain power is to remain fit. There are many ways to do it, but thinking you're better than anyone ain't one of 'em. The masses aren't asses; they'll factcheck your ass, and 500 of them probably have more original thoughts and better writing than you do, so try not to talk down to them.

So we'll see a breaking of the old system of elites, and likely the creation of many new circles of power. A year or two ago, people talked about the A-list of bloggers, the most fit of the first movers, but now with thousands of writers joining the fray literally every day, they're just one of many centers of social capital. An influential group of individuals, sure, but now somewhat less important as vastly more voices speak up.

Here's an example. An anonymous blogger writes about cable news. He/She writes so well and so insightfully that the word is that it's done by some well-known player in the biz. It's an 18-year-old college freshman. People are surprised, but why? So you really think people in the professional world of 24-hour cable news are that much more eriudite or informed than an above-average 18-year-old? Oh man, rude awakening.

This is going to happen more and more, and I don't mean cheap identity tricks; I mean people are going to have to realize that there are way more talented people than there are famous, and that the balance of power is shifting. Fitness is the future.