The Michael Canfield Channel

Uploader with a message

Tags: science fiction, starbuck obama, bsg

Stuff I hate (part 2 of a series)

Awards.

A for instance: After Goodfellas, The Last Temptation of Christ, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, King of Comedy, and more, Scorcese gets a directing Oscar(TM) for a tedious and ridiculous self-parody "The Departed" with featured an embarrassing performance by Jackie "The Joker" Nicholson, denouement of bullets-to-the-head that is executed (excuse the pun) seemingly without the slightest awareness of its own absurdity.

So that two things I hate. Awards (because they are often for something else -- which will be the case if Chabon wins the Hugo this year) and "The Departed."

I hate video blogs

And most audio posts too. Example: Slate V. I keep seeing rss headlines for Slate articles I think I'd like to read but turn out to be videos. I don't want to load a video, or put my headphones on just to see something I may or may not be interested in. You can scan video or audio the way you scan text. I think Seth Godin blogged some time ago about this being the reason vBlogs and podcasts will not supplant text. But vblogs are popping up everywhere, and that's annoying.

Russell Davis

is running for president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and his platform is here. In addition to his writing resume, he seems to bring a great deal of publishing, business and non-profit experience to the table. I especially like his statements about the need to enhance SFWA's reputation in the publishing industry.
[via Scalzi via Buckell.] [Err ... I'm mean via Nebula-nominee Buckell! Congrats Toby!]

Letterman is funny.

Joke from the other night's show:

"Fidel Castro is stepping down, and announced he will be succeeded by his idiot son Fidel W. Castro."

Gorging on 35 Dishes, Daily

Does Sullivan manage to post 15 - 35 times a day in part because he doesn't allow comments? I wonder. The other Atlantic.com bloggers take comments, and Yglesias post nearly as often, and takes comments to boot. One of the Atlantic bloggers (I can't find the post now) did mention that he or she mostly has to ignore comments to avoid the time sinkhole. And Sullivan's post are usually one hit: i.e. one idea, one snip, and one link max, with the occasional longer post. I find it very addictive. I probably check Sullivan more often than I check my own political blogs labeled RSS feed. So do many others, as Sullivan is on the Technorati 100. In fact, almost all the blogs I read daily are in the Technorati 100 -- which attests to how mainstream my web time-wasting is!

Moyers on "predator of the hour" Murdoch

It's official, Republican tactics work

Crocodile tears + Rove/Guliani -style fear-mongering + swiftboating + cynicism + Bradley Effect = A three-point victory in N.H.

Congratulations Clintons.

Err ... this is supposed to be Kara Thrace ...

Not EVEN close, I know, but I like the colors anyway - they sort of match this blog's colors. I have this box of pastels and a 99¢ sketchpad left over from an exercise (but that's another story).

Christmas Eve, I came across the supplies which were resting under a stack of books and mags I plan to sell some time. I noticed them when I added this month's Wired to the stack, so thought I'd see what would come of playing around with these materials in the Silent Night, I made drew sketch from a small Katee Sackhoff-as-Starbuck publicity shot alongside a minor rant by a Wired staffer that BSG will not be back until April. Happy Holidays anyway, skiffy lovers!
Tags:science fiction, bsg, starbuck

What she said

Arianna Huffington is zeroing in on the crucial issue - the consquences of the Bush powergrab for years after the administration leaves office. Who among the current candidates, once elected, will have the courage or the understanding to give some of that power up. Once upon a time George Washington was offered the highest office for life -- a Crown if he wanted it. He said no. Who today is capable of saying no to sweeping powers of the executive once they begin to feel the draw of that power January 20, 2008? Anyone?

[snip]

Looking back over the last year, it's one of the most important issues America faced. Looking ahead, it could turn out to be the "sleeper issue" of the 2008 presidential race.

I'm talking about executive power, the way it is used -- and has been abused over the last 7 years.

In a very revealing piece in the Boston Globe, Charlie Savage lays out the results of a questionnaire the Globe sent to the presidential candidates on the limits of executive power, asking their views on the Bush administration's expansive view of presidential authority.

It's hard to overstate how vital this issue is, or how far off the media radar screen it remains. Indeed, it's hard to think of another issue in which the importance-to-the-public/attention-paid-by-the-media ratio is as out of whack.

[...]

It's easy to imagine the next president saying: Sure, Bush used his increased prerogatives to do damage but, trust me, I'll use them to do good.

LINK.

And for a 150-page primer on the current threats to our rapidly-vanishing open society check out Naomi Wolf's July 2007 book: The End of America: Letter's of Warning to a Young Patriot. Not a cheery read -- though Wolf does attempt to remain optimistic, and never attempts to seduce by overstating her case. It's a disturbing work, but perhaps being disturbed is preferable to the increasing anxiety and feelings of helplessness that come of not admitting to myself what is really going on in this country.