Whiskey Fire

Sunset Thanksgiving

It's been my habit to use the posting privileges so generously extended me here (Hey! Something for which I can actually be grateful & express gratitude: Thanks, Thers!) for my more serious musings on sexual politics, the state of the nation, & what a collection of inane drones the right-wing & its blog-o-sphere is, but today I make an exception, as I've shot some images that (my opinion only) are worthy of even wider exposure than they'd receive at my one-weasel operation.

What the hell, it's the day after something & all are consuming anyway.

—M. Bouffant

Blogger Ethics

Joe the Plumber fucked a goat!

Or not. Look, I have no interest in Joe the Plumber personally and I have less than zero desire for information about his private life. I agree with Scott and My Baby Blue here. His marital status and divorce records really have no bearing on anything, for example, and whoever reported that stuff is kind of a dick.

But that said, there is I think a legitimate question about how accurate he is on the specific grounds upon which he decided to challenge Obama face-to-face. He depicted himself as an Everyman who would be hurt by Obama's tax proposals. He made a specific claim about his economic status and ambitions, relative to what a candidate for president was saying. To that extent he made his own personal economic position fair game -- he brought it up, and clearly intended to put Obama on the spot in that confrontation through this kind of personalization. "Here is me, you don't get me."

There is, after all, a legitimate political and policy issue here. Will Obama's tax proposals, if enacted, do harm to actual or potential small business owners?

The fact that "Joe" was full of shit about this particular point is therefore relevant. And here are the relevant data:

In 2009 about 35 million tax returns will report some income from small businesses, according to Roberton Williams, principal research associate at the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Of these only about 660,000 tax units — or 1.9 percent — would see an increase under Senator Obama’s tax proposal.

I don't really think you need to go much past that, frankly. This is a person who wants to go on wingnut media as the champion of an entire class of people who will be disadvantaged by a policy proposal, but the inescaple point is that even taking him at his word he would represent 1.6% of a relatively small slice of the entire middle class of Americans. That he wants to babble about "socialism" when the real issue is merely jiggering with the tax code is gravy. Carazy gravy, but gravy.

The distinction here between "Joe" and the Frost family, by the way, is that "Joe" made representations about his hypothetical economic position, while the Frosts cited their actual position. In doubting Joe, you are doubting a hypothetical. In doubting the Frosts, you were accusing them of fraud. Not the same thing.

in The Office of Hearts, He'll Steal You Away

This has been making the rounds: the "Terms of Service" for "licensing" AP content (remember, they want you to buy a "license" if you quote more than four words). Entertainingly, the AP claims the right to "revoke" the license if you criticize the AP in any way after quoting them, which means if you think they botched a story, you're not allowed to prove it by using quotes from that story. This is what is known as "transparency."

As is usual in such cases, though, the devil is in the details, and while I know this is kind of boring legalese, it repays close attention to detail. And, you know, there are two sides to everything, so let's be fair. Here's the specific language from the AP Terms of Service that has caused such controversy.   

You shall not use the Content in any manner or context that will be in any way derogatory to the author, the publication from which the Content came, or any person connected with the creation of the Content or depicted in the Content. You agree not to use the Content in any manner or context that will be in any way derogatory to or damaging to the reputation of Publisher, its licensors, or any person connected with the creation of the Content or referenced in the Content. You shall not use the Licensed Content for any unlawful purpose, and You shall comply with all laws and regulations. Without limiting the foregoing, You represent and warrant that the Content will not be utilized in association with gambling or the distribution, promotion or sale of pornographic, racial or political Content, propaganda or product. When not in use, Happy Fun Content should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration. Failure to do so relieves the creators of Happy Fun Content, the Associated Press, of any and all liability. Do not taunt Happy Fun Content. Ingredients of Happy Fun Content include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.

It actually sounds sort of reasonable once you see it all spelled out in black and white like that.

 

She Wants Me to Come, But I'm Never Going There

Allow me to quote a piece by the AP in its entirety:

Article:	AP NewsAlert	Need Assistance? Click "Chat Now" to chat with a Live Operator.                                           Chat Now No Thanks!
Copyright:	2008 Associated Press
Publication:	Associated Press

Excerpt for Web Use License parts of this article for republishing on your website or intranet. Pricing based on the number of words excerpted.

Excerpts are priced by the word.

words Fees 5-25 $ 12.50 26-50 $ 17.50 51-100 $ 25.00 101-250 $ 50.00 251 and up $ 100.00 words Fees 5-25 $ 7.50 26-50 $ 12.00 51-100 $ 25.00 101-250 $ 50.00 251 and up $ 75.00 To qualify for educational pricing you must be a teacher, administrator or student at an accredited educational institution and certify that you will use this article solely for educational purposes. words Fees 5-25 $ 7.50 26-50 $ 12.00 51-100 $ 25.00 101-250 $ 50.00 251 and up $ 75.00 To qualify for non-profit pricing you must represent a government-qualified non-profit organization and certify that you will use this article solely for non-profit purposes.

This applies to blog comments as well.

The official Whiskey Fire position on paying $12.50 for five words is "bite me."

What pisses me off the most about this is that it gives Jeff Jarvis a plausible excuse to wage Nerd Jihad:

Remember, AP, you declared war on the bloggers. Remember that.

Oh, brother. Blog triumphalism gives me hives. Thanks a lot, AP for making me side with Jeff Jarvis. This, I do not forgive. Feh.

I'm claiming fair use for the thing above, by the way. But I will probably be sued regardless. Admire me for my Heroism and so forth.

I See Trailers Trail

Hey, nix! Check out Spencer Ackerman with the GBV lyric as a post title.

Brand new, you're retro, man.

Troops Backed Up

As Foucault once said, suck on Dustin the Turkey, Editors!

I Seek to Understand Me

Unfortunately, it appears The Editors remain wedded to a theoretical model that fails to serve the ends of a genuinely liberatory scholarship but rather produces one more tired iteration of essentialist, fundamentally patriarchal discursive modalities.

The Editors (and their soi-disant "radical" cohort) make quite a show of celebrating the inherently disruptive cultural productions of the Paleo-Left Blogosphere (PLB), particularly those regarding dissolute Irishmen and their impertinent Scandinavian interlocutors. However, these sorts of ostensibly emancipatory critical reconstructions in the final analysis remain quite literally toothless. As they must. A scholarly praxis capable of truly interrogating the vexed interrelationship between the dominant MSM narrative and the unruly linguistic subversions of the PLB would surely not rely upon a oversimplified binary construction of "give and take" as occurs in The Editors' strained cultural archeology. Rather, what is needed is an approach that is rhizomic, palimpsestic, that produces a critical problematic instead of yet another instantiation of an illusory teleology which, for all its triumphalism, ultimately denies agency and authentic subjectivity to those subaltern voices it allegedly intends to champion. It smacks of nothing so much as a muddled intentionalism.

What would The Editors make of the following specimen retrieved from the as yet underexplored trove of documents pertaining to Hesiod's old Counterspin site -- a resource of whose existence The Editors seem wholly unaware, despite their self-claimed "expertise" in this area? Yet here we see on display all the commitment to social justice, drunk driving, and wearing tight leather thongs that in truth characterized this moment in history. It is in this direction that future scholarly effort must be directed, not into the fallow fields of a sprezzatura entirely devoid of jouissance.

   

And Shit Yeah It's Cool

The Editors present their version of the etiology of the Left Blogosphere, a documentary account that differs in several key respects from the canonical narrative I cited here.

The Editors' revisionism is intriguing and no doubt well intentioned. However, it remains ideologically blinkered by its fashionable theoretical approach to the subject. A more deeply considered historical perspective is required, as further research into the primary source material continues to demonstrate. In this regard, I believe the  following archival footage speaks for itself.

It Certainly Is a Blast

Andrew Sullivan continues a fascinating "debate" at his site by publishing an email in which we see the natural progression of a train of thought that begins with a woman's decision to end a pregnancy and ends with the Spanish Inquisition. I certainly had not in this instance expected the Spanish Inquisition. But I do feel somehow tortured. So, mission accomplished, Mr. Sullivan!

In happier news, TRex is coming to EschaCon. Chip in a few shekels if you can to defray his expenses, will ya? Therapods have to buy an extra seat when traveling by plane, you know, because their tails won't fit in the overhead compartments.

A Moment

We interrupt our usual irresponsible tomfoolery in order to mention that friend of WF Spocko is having a rough go of it with his family, and might need a bit of help with some expenses in a tough time. Help him if you can and you wish to.

Thanks. (Thers & Molly I)

UPDATE from EGN in comments:

"Spocko's paypal link is currently defunct, but joo can still send him money.

- Go to paypal.com

- click on "Send Money"

- Type Spocko's email in the first field, fill in jour email, and the amount, and joo are good to go.

Spocko's email is:

spockosemail "at" gmail "dot" com

Gracias to BlueGal for the tip."