Kelly in Kansas

Blogucation: Weblogs for Learning Links

There's some great stuff here!

ScrappleFace: "Rice Praises Clarke for Defeating al Qaeda
(2004-03-28) -- National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice today praised former counter-terrorism coordinator Richard A. Clarke for 'leading the Clinton administration to crush al Qaeda before it had a chance to strike us again on our own soil.'"

ScrappleFace: "Rice Praises Clarke for Defeating al Qaeda
(2004-03-28) -- National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice today praised former counter-terrorism coordinator Richard A. Clarke for 'leading the Clinton administration to crush al Qaeda before it had a chance to strike us again on our own soil.'"

ScrappleFace: Rice Withholding Testimony for Her Own Book: "Rice Withholding Testimony for Her Own Book
(2004-03-29) -- U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said today that she doesn't want to testify before the commission investigating the 9/11 terror attacks because she's witholding 'insider information' for her own book to be released when her government career is over.
'Richard Clarke's book is flying off the shelves because people think he has some secret information about the Bush administration,' said Ms. Rice. 'In contrast with Mr. Clarke, I have actually had meetings with the president. I'd like to cash a few royalty checks myself, so I'm going to avoid spilling my guts for free on the public airwaves if I can.'
Ms. Rice added, 'For now, I think I'll just start spinning--you know, saying things I don't believe--since that seems to be the prerequisite for garnering credibility in this genre.'"

During my usual frozen state of "what do I take with me" early this morning, I decided to pick up both a non-fiction and fiction book off the shelf to do some catching up. I have done little but required reading for at least a year now and do miss reading - I enjoy it. And I mean really reading and not racing through a text to get as much possible out of it in the short amount of time I have.

The non-fiction text I picked up was The Cluetrain Manifesto. I remember it being somewhat "radical" but now feel that I have neglected it since the copyright date is 2000. I realize that one of the authors was sitting on the other side of Liz Lawley when we were at SXSW. The first thing I noticed about the book was that, although it is multiple authors, it is not an edited work. I especially like that individual chapters, with the exception of two, are primarily written by individual authors. They don't all have the same voice and I know that most of the time editors (of books, not collections of essays) try to make the voice the same. Maybe this is not a good thing - how can each author speak best when he is trying to speak like someone else.

CM is not "scaring" me in the sense of business since a, I'm not in the business world, and b, I grew up with a commission-only salesman for a Dad and that was NEVER business as usual. His office was at home and even when he went into a corporate office on Saturday mornings (no, he didn't get home in time on Fridays to go by usually and Monday morning by 8 he was already on the road, gas and breakfast included) it was not a thing that was celebrated except that sometimes I was allowed to go with him and I was always "daddy's little girl." I didn't follow him into business because I didn't think traveling 50,000 miles a year almost 50 weeks of the year would be conducive to family life. I also knew he traveled in areas that might not be safe for a female even though for awhile he had a female sales manager that was 20 years his junior. But, the rules never fit. We never had to go to the right parties, be friends with the right people, and Mom never had to join the right garden club. Dad didn't want to be promoted within the organization, his biggest goal was much more internal - a job well done - and the external was symbolized quite simply by $$$. There seemed to be a correlation most of the time with the idea that the harder you worked, the more money you made. The other inherited trait I possess is that we never went on any trip where we did not see one of the up to 11 companies he worked for over the course of his career or to a customer's place of business or house. And he was only friends with a few customers and rarely had to wine and dine anyone he didn't genuinely enjoy the company of. How did I manifest that trait? Well, as a history professors, there's not a place I go that doesn't have some sort of a history. Even if it's as simple as a historical marker on the side of the road. I also inherited the love of good food. And, as I've mentioned before, that isn't always expensive, some times it's simply just good food cooked well with the right ingredients.

As I changed careers over time, I kept thinking I would find a group where I fit. I'm still looking. Yes, I was the kid everyone picked on when I was little. Reading Time magazine at age 9 will cause that. But I thought at least I would fit in once I got to this stage - a college professor. Some of them are great people and quite nice as far as human beings go. But far too many are selfish and insecure and take it out on those closest to them. They also don't understand what it's like to be on a team and will quickly accuse those who are running head of not being on the team instead of it being their unwillingness to come down out of their ivory tower to be part of the team.

Back to Cluetrain Manifesto (notice that I have the word tangent in my blog description - there's a reason for that, too!). It also talks about the human communication core of the internet. I remember getting an IBM PS/1 in 1990 when I arrived at the University of North Texas for graduate school and discovered that it was probably not safe for me to stay either in the library late or stay at the office late trying to use my computer. A Prodigy (some type of connection to Sears although I don't remember what) connection allowed me to speak to strangers (before that became so dangerous) and I remember even hearing from a Kevin Woestman who lived somewhere in Oklahoma. Please note that my last name is so unusual that anyone who has it spelled the way I do is a definite relation.

During my year teaching at the University of West Florida (1992-1993), they had the computer and intranet (although not internet) much more integrated into the inner workings of the university -- including enrollment and grading. I was trying to finish my dissertation and so there wasn't much time to go back to Prodigy - or to Bitnet that Dr. Tony Mares mentioned I would really appreciate and enjoy ( I still show Salt of the Earth in my Modern Mexico and the US Southwest course because of him - I wonder where he is now. Those who are interested in two different disciplines often have a hard time of it. In his case, it was literature and history. At least today there is the possibility of a more seamless tie between history and computers.)

When I moved back to southwest Missouri/southeast Kansas to take another job, I was too busy the first year to do much of anything - even trying to recover from the dissertation. I accepted the new job, defended my dissertation, and taught summer school at UWF all pretty close together - plus graduation and my hooding ceremony.

Within a year of moving into my first home in Pittsburg, I remember having someone from the local computer company in Joplin spend almost half a day setting up my dial-up connection. This was before we had school email. We did have an internet connection and I used Lynx long after Netscape was available only because there was no internal mechanism to inform us of such things. I can remember one boyfriend getting frustrated because I was always on the internet when he tried to call. I also remember being able to read a Time magazine during my 2-hour sessions online waiting for pages to load. The instant that cable modem access arrived in my neighborhood, I paid the big bucks and have been grateful (although don't ask me to comment during outages) ever since.

At various stages of the growth of the internet and my access to it, it gave me an outlet to colleagues I had never known before. We had had a professor who made numerous hours-long (not hour, but hourS) to his home country of India and thus we had to pay for our own phone calls - even those on professional business. Typical of a bureaucracy - punish everyone instead of stepping up to tell one professor they can't do something. I also remember going up to the dept. computer prior to my having home access and being so excited when, after 30-45 minutes, I could print 3 pages of text from another academic library somewhere. Now, I still love libraries and hope I will always be able to browse shelves. But being at a relatively small regional state university, it opened up entire other worlds to have the internet.

As soon as departments had web pages, I volunteered to do ours (www.pittstate.edu/hist) even though I knew no HTML. I quickly accessed (read: bought with my own money) Hot Metal Pro and alter Net Objects Fusion to build an integrated web site (remember this was before accessibility considerations). All the click and point was definitely a lifesaver. Recent battles over standardization cloaked in terms of state mandates for accessibility have made life much more interesting on that front. But they haven't ripped down our page yet. I just went to a text-only page with one picture of Gus the Gorilla so that we maintained some identity. (Is anyone counting the tangents in this discussion? . . . )

As you can tell, I quickly notice similarities between how the computer and, more importantly, the internet, have altered the academic workplace and the "norm" workplace. And much of Cluetrain applies. The university is still an institution and thus has similar problems with promoting individualism - we won't even discuss entrepreneurial spirit. So, let's see what rules would apply to my environment - especially in light of recent events:

The 95 Theses (hum…………….Luther redux?0 start on p. xii. I'll only mention those that I can translate:

1. Universities are conversations.
These conversations, however, are often just too one-sided when professors and instructors find ourselves with students who sometimes want to be too passive (ie get the notes and go home - if they even have to bother to come to class at all).

2. Universities consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
We need to look at students more as individuals instead of specific groups - even within these groups, they act differently.

3. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
This is exactly why the conversational style of lecturing/teaching works best.

4. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.
When you add cell phones into the mix with the internet, IRC, and instant messaging and email, the university classroom is no longer as isolated as it once was. What will happen when wireless internet access seeps into the mix?

5. In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked students, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way.
There has always been an informal grapevine among students - most notably in organized social groups like fraternities and sororities. Indeed, the internet has opened up this network to more people.

6. These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.
See above.

7. As a result, market are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked environment changes people fundamentally.
Students in online classes that would not normally speak up in a F2F class often do because of their perceived cloak of anonymity. Email allows students to ask a professor questions any time of the day or night - even if they don't always understand why they don't get an instant response at 2:47am.

8. Universities do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman.
Many components of the "institutional side" of the university need to take heed of this one.

9. Universities can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.
Answering email promptly or even just answering at all for some professors and university officials.

10. Universities need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them.
Students will quit talking if we do not figure out how to listen. We are only part of their busy lives and we are no longer doing them a service to open the doors.

11. Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor.
One of the most challenging things for universities to do is to evolve and change - at any rate of speed at all. In general, the institution needs to be willing to task risks. the students WILL understand as long as they perceive that we are trying to serve them better.

12. Universities need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships.
This was just too easy to translate to the academic world with the term Ivory Towers.

13. By speaking in language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant, they build walls to keep markets at bay.
I'm finally discovering that sometimes professors speak this way because they are scared of what's outside the walls of the ivory tower.

14. Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what's really going on inside the university.
Ditto

15. Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds."
Has there been an Elvis sighting at the university?

16. Smart markets will find suppliers that speak their own language.
Online universities possibly???

17. Learning to speak with a human voice is not a parlor trick. It can't be "picked up" at some tony conference.
Maybe we can learn this by talking to students more? There is a current over-emphasis on student reactions without actually discussing what they are really telling us. We're still only dealing with it at the surface level. In addition, there needs to be more long-term follow-up. Sometimes a 19-year-old is not the best one to discern the challenges of the road ahead of him.

18. Universities make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than against their own market and workforce.
Security concerns also appear in the university - while we also discover that most hacking attempts into the main system come from our own dorms. . . .

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OK, enough of that for awhile. My own anal retentive nature had me trying to go through all 95 but I think you get the idea now. And since universities move much, much slower than business does . . . .

I'm on the Chicago to Boston leg of my flight. Much to my pleasant surprise, I am not on a hopelessly small jet. there are five seats across and my seatmate tells me there is indeed much more leg room on American flights than on others. I was going to start looking into Delta flights because of American using so many more smaller jets even out of St. Louis and Chicago. But maybe not now.

My seatmate is a history professor - he noticed I had a history journal. He is an environmental and colonial historian currently at the Newberry Library on a fellowship. he has a speaking engagement outside Boston and his wife is flying up from Atlanta to meet him. He is friends with James Henretta and is currently writing a book on James Audobon. I will have to ask his name - I know I have seen some of the books he mentioned he wrote. He spent 7-9 years in administration and the last few years on leave in the spring and will go back to more teaching at Georgia Tech in the fall he says. We had some interesting conversations on technology and its use in the college classroom. He has a drawer full of CDs and wondered how many history professors actually use them when I told him about my work with Houghton Mifflin and @history (that might even be one he has in his drawer). I don't think we know the answer to that question yet. We have to make technology much more useful to professors before they will fully integrate it into their work. I did mention the dohistory.org site that allows viewers to roll their mouse over handwritten text and it turns into easier-to-read typed text.

I had forgotten that I would be landing in rush hour traffic but I should still make my dinner reservations at 6:30. I don't think the hotel is that far from the airport and I know the restaurant is not that far away - in fact, they said you could walk it in under 15 minutes but in 40 degrees at night I doubt I do that. I left 70 degrees yesterday and almost 65 this morning.

I did grab some McDonald's in the O'Hare airport - too bad the fries were cold. I thought they were busy enough serving people that they wouldn't be but they probably fry them up way ahead of time to make sure they're not caught short. Maybe people expect them to be cold?

OK, I should start working on my blog workshop proposal for Mike. I also forgot that I should have worked on my Truman paper this past week. But, I imagine Gus and I will have worked on our papers about the same amount when all is said and done. He and Karin are off visiting the new grandbaby in Denver. I collected quite a few of the reviews off of J-STOR while I was in Austin. I just did that so early I forgot to follow-up when I got back home. But I did make a big dent in cleaning up my office - now that we've been moved back for over 2 years. I think it was my way of silently protesting having to move mid-semester BOTH times. It's amazing how much you can throw away when you let a pile of papers sit there long enough. . . .

I'm not getting a nap in but that's okay, too. It will be an hour later in Boston anyway and so I won't feel like I’m going to bed at 8pm. I also leave to go out to the National Archives in the morning by 7 so I can be there by 8. Thank goodness there is a Starbucks at the hotel if all else fails. Cary emailed me back late last night and we're (he and Paul and I and whomever else) on for dinner tomorrow night. So 2 of the 4 nights are taken and Legal Seafood isn't even in there yet!

I'm at the Springfield airport using their free wi-fi (I usually am on the smaller flights that are on the other level without wifi). It was much nicer than two weeks ago when I had to wait in the security line almost 30 minutes- primarily because of yAhoos that didn't get all their stuff ready to go prior to hitting the actual security screener (machines and people). Sheesh -but they were special and it was more important to conduct what I would think their co-workers and bosses would consider to be private business - on their phones and make the rest of us wait.

Another interesting thing about transportation - I was on the two-lane coming here becuase of roadwork on the interstate and watched a truck go over on a hill OVER the double-yellow-line. But the driver in front of him can at least been seen as contributing to the problem when he's driving 50 on a 65 when everyone else is going at least 70. He was a little old guy with his wife in a little bitty truck busy leisurely smoking. I've also seen more and more older people that have trouble just driving busy on their cell phones. A few months ago I was behind a guy not even going 40 on a 65 because he couldn't dial his phone. I just wanted away from him! So, everyday we survive something. Maybe public transportation in larger cities is much safer.

I've never really been concerned about being on an airplane and I've been on all sizes of aircraft. I like having enough room to sit down and stretch a bit. I'm a little disappointed because I didn't find out until after I booked this flight that American is using more smaller aircraft from their hub in St. Louis. The whole point in getting on a small plane in Springfield or Joplin is to then get on a big plane. Will have to start looking at Kansas City and Tulsa more. But, once I figure it out, they'll probably change it.

It's going to be 20 degrees cooler in Boston - I wish it would snow while I'm there but I think I'll have to settle for rain.
Oh well. I will really looking forward to seeing friends and already have at least one meeting set up with a publisher. This flight is about 20 minutes behind but hopefully I will still have time to navigate O'Hare. Boston here I come! I hope to make it over to check out the Boston Pulic Library since it's supposed to be near Copley Place.

I'll be waving a Matt when I go through Chicago . . .

The lawn has been mowed for the first time this season - I think this is a record for the earliest - during spring break. I also worked in the garden a bit. I've planted some onions, potatoes, broccoli, garlic, and lettuce seed. have never planted broccoli, potatoes, or garlic before so we'll see how it goes. I was always behind last year so now I'm trying to get really ahead. Time will tell.

Have worked on catching up on grading and evaluations for 479 and 579. I have some files that are locked up so I will have to get to that when I get back. It's too late in the evening to solve a computer error.

Last night I talked to Paula and finalized our assessment proposal. I sent it to several publishers this morning and this afternoon and we already have had two responses. Apparently, Scholarly Resources has been split and sold into two pieces. Richard and Matt were great - hope they land on their feet - they're one of the classiest acts out there. It would have definitely fit some of their interests. We'll see if anyone else follows up tomorrow. Otherwise, we'll go from there. It took us two years to really get started on @history for Houghton Mifflin and the technology opportunity window just isn't that big anymore. Am working on some other blogging ideas.

I discovered that Muzzy Lane Software will be there. I have sent an email and hope to get to talk to them. They're doing some great work with historical simulations.

I spent some time on campus today - it's so quiet during spring break. I was in the library talking to JoAnne and she mentioned some vendors she's talk to at Kan-Ed. I've tried to follow up with two of them that are doing history-related work.

I'll leave tomorrow for Boston for the OAH meeting. Am looking forward to seeing friends and some great seafood. I'll head out to the National Archives Thursday morning.

Check out this by Tightly Wound. Rhetoric and different interpretations of the same terms among various groups can get both intriguing and tedious.

The New York Times has a feature article and online slide show about the pony car. I dated guys that restored them - one specialized in 1965 and the other in 1968. I used to be able to spot the differences from the grill from as far away as I could see the car company. I lived in a small town so both these guys new each other and the second one (2 years in between) wanted to know that I could really tell the difference. I was also able to out-race one of them down the hill to the highway in an Oldsmobile. We didn't talk about that for awhile. I will have a sporty car again someday. I traded in the Grand Am for an Explorer in 1997 and can't live without the Explorer because it easily carries all my stuff. I also remember an olive green mustang sitting on Uncle Gene's front yard whe we were kids - later I knew why it didn't sit on the street. That would have been worth something had they known to keep it (I bet lots of people say that.) Meanwhile, my brother and I will always have to share custody of the 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlas 442 convertible - royal blue with white striping and top. The dealership owner's son didn't want it because it wasn't a hard top and didn't have an 8-track tape player . . . .

hits it hard again . . . .

OK, I've gone back to find out that "Dr. Pepper is the oldest soft drink in America." There are also games, giveaways, and screen savers to boot. Boy, have I been missing out!

And I am one of the 31% that considers myself a "gargantun guzzler." Here's another amazing use of technology: I can listen to the following sounds via the DP web site:

Open Can
Pour
Pour in Glass
Sip
Slurp


I can even buy DP merchandise! This link takes me to the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco. I still haven't made a pilgrimage there despite having lived in Denton for two years (blame it on grad school!)

Since I've also been drinking too much Pepsi (I didn't when I was younger since of course I couldn't like what my mother liked!). OK, it makes the sound WITHOUT my asking - including the ice in a glass. Hey, there's an article here - comparing the "positioning" of sounds on soft drink web sites. We did take a survey in Jeff Veen's session at sxsw about what we call pop and he linked it to the GIS survey that keeps track of that (sorry, that link escapes me at the moment).

Oh, it appears that "The Super Bowl would not be the same" without a Pepsi ad.

Just finished watching the Sopranos - seems to be going down hill a bit but maybe will get a bit better. tony seems to be losing out. Am also checking out Deadwood despite the graphic violence warnings. I have to close my eyes sometimes during The Sopranos - I could do just the same with Deadwood. I like the "mining town" aspect of it. I will have to say the music is really good. The real treat, however, will be when Six Feet Under comes back on June.

Blogs are the new email address - The Weblogs, Inc. Weblog - corporate.weblogsinc.com: "Blogs are the new email address
Posted Mar 18, 2004, 11:22 AM ET by Jason Calacanis
Since we launched WIN (The Weblogs, Inc. Network) a couple of months back I've been shocked at how few people know what a blog is. At business and media events I tell people what we're doing, watch as they try to grok it and then finally ask them "do you know what a blog is?"
I always ask this question in a compassionate way so they answer me honestly and 80% of the people I met do not know what they are, 10% have heard of them but don't know what they are and 10% know what they are, have them or have at least read them.
It's becoming clear to me that blogs are not simply journals or editorial. They are, in fact, the new email address. They will be the most important piece of data on anyone's business card. Want to email me and don't know my email address? Visit my blog - which you will find by Googling me and fill in my contact form. Try finding someone's email address using Google good luck.
Everyone will have a blog in ten years or less and I mean everyone. The way everyone has an email address today and so few people had email in 1994, the same will happen to your blog address. Why? Blogs are simple, as flexible as the Internet itself and they are rich. You can't fit the same depth of information on a vcard.
Now, I'm sure some people said this about homepages back in 1994. However, back then people were not as tech savvy as they are now, and certainly only a fraction of them were online. In the past ten years online publishing technology has become easier, more powerful and more ambitious. Like many things, the second or third time is a charm.
Blogs are hyped, but the truth is they will ultimately surpass and transcend the current hype — the same way the Internet did.

As much as it may seem they are overexposed, blogs are underrated."

FOXNews.com: "Live Baghdad Cam
A view of the square where the Saddam statue was torn down."

I'm still digesting all the great ideas (and new people!) from sxsw. I just found this site about the use of Flash in online games. Yet another reason I need to learn more about it. Am going to go back to doing some reading on the history of mining and the railroads in Colorado so that I can get my outline done for another project.

Was surfing blogs today and ran across a post discussing a post about Diet Coke that I sent to my sxsw roommate Liz. There has to be something almost like it (although not #3 obviously in the soda wars) for Dr. Pepper. I'm so glad that American Airlines (including American Eagle) started stocking it again. It was one thing that made cramped plain rides bearable.

somehow I lost my Wednesday post . . . will have to remember what I said.

I did hear form another new sxsw friend from Chicago. I hope to never get too old to stop adding friends to my circle of what's great about life.

This is sad but true.

I'm in the Austin airport using my free Wayport connection via a sxsw coupon.

I met some more great people today but I will be glad to get home!

The most important lesson I learned today is that a social network is very different from social software . . . more on that later.

Went to some good sessions on CSS and interface design today. Am now in Liz Lawley's panel session.

This morning I ventured out in the dreary morning (thank goodness it wasn't raining this time) to check out the Driskill Hotel . I had a great breakfast - the blueberry pecan waffle was even in the shape of the state of Texas. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me. It was really good. I then walked through the hotel - it was buit by a cattle baron almost 150 years ago and it does give you a great feeling of going back in time. I actually feel like I've been in Texas now and not just a big hotel. I'm staying at the newly built Hilton that has a great design but it is still a new "feel".

I took off in a cab for lunch and ended up at a different spot that the cab driver recommended: Gueros. Besides all the great salsas, I had an out of this world mole sauce on a chicken enchilada and then a pork taco with cheese and guacamole. Along with my Dr. Pepper, of course. Am going to some free parties tonight - including "nuclear taco".

Lots of neat people here but I will be ready to go home tomorrow.

It's been a great conference so far. Met Liz Lawley - she is doing some great work on social networks and recently won an NSF grant related to the topic.

The most significant thing here is feeling all the energy in the air - obviously the people doing blogs have something to share whether they characterize themselves as people people or not. I've met interesting people just trying to plug in to keep the batteries charged. Am now sitting in the same row as someone who corresponded with their city councilman here in Austin about the warning in the program that plugging into electricity may result in a fine of $90. He's pretty sure the buliding is running off of green electricity and it really doesn't make any sense in the pr department for a conference like this - esp. since Austin is such a progressive city.

There's a lot of thinking outside the box and that is a nice break from what I've been dealing with lately - and, in fact, overwhelmed by, lately.

I setup a typepad blog for Dad as a much easier and faster way to get his web site up in the traditional static format. I am tempted to switch this blog over. I did some checking and the upgrades for blogger since it was purchased by Google appear to have been ripped away. I need to understand templates better so that I am able to have a list of links as well as posting pictures.

I liked Liz's post about her reading of another blog about our blogging spaces. She did a great view of her own computer and how that is the center of her blogging world because she blogs everywhere. It becomes much more personal that way.

The first person I met at a plug-in is a venture capitalist with Bulldog Financial and today I met Matt Wood, he works in Chicago in business and is on track to pursue a PhD in Political Science. We're on opposite sides of the political spectrum but that's just fine. I saw on his blog a post about a St. Louis project having students using blogs and will have to check this out.

The conference only continues to get better. If you go to the blog site at Fast Company, you will find almost word-for-word transcriptions of some of the sessions.

I will have to do more on my blog of my professional thoughts relating to the study of history. I'm also thinking of doing a blog related just to the work on Teaching American History grants.

I'm at SXSW listening to this guy. a 25 million dollar castle. . . Playing without/outside the rules . . . I like that.

The Cranky Professor: Lileks Reads the Kerry Official Campaign Blog

Lileks Reads the Kerry Official Campaign Blog
Mr. Lileks would like to ask a few questions:

So Teresa Heinz-Kerry passes out buttons that say “Asses of Evil,” with pictures of Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Ashcroft on them. There you have it: the President of the United States is an Evil Ass. I’d love for someone to put this question to Kerry in the debate: Senator Kerry, your wife handed out buttons that called the President an Evil Ass. Do you believe he is Evil, an Ass, or both? And if I may follow up, I’d like to ask if you can possibly imagine Laura Bush doing that. Thank you.

I won't link -- why drive up their google hits even marginally? I think THK is a loose cannon. I can wait until summertime.

------------------

And yes I doubt that Laura Bush would even dream of this - she would instead emphasize her husband's positives.

The Little Professor: Unstress, stress

This entry from The Little Professor is a great take on the Chronicle article:

Unstress, stress
David Lester proudly informs us all that he feels no stress whatsoever, despite his 12-hr. teaching load and his magnificent scholarly accomplishments. Of course, he's completely withdrawn from the life of the college itself, something which is not even remotely an option for many people at liberal arts colleges (one of whom is the immediate target of his condescension), but we won't let that get in the way. He's quite right: academia is not as stressful as working in a coal mine. But he's confusing what you might call "objective" stress levels with "subjective" ones. Objectively, faculty at the University of Chicago face less work-related stress than someone at my campus (more money, fewer hours). I, in turn, face less stress than many faculty in the CSU system (more hours, less money). All t-t faculty probably face a lot less stress than your average VAP, who in turn is not quite so stressed as the average freeway flier. And none of us encounters anything like the stress characterizing the life of a migrant farm worker. In subjective terms, however, none of this matters. My stress rarely goes away just because I know that adjuncts have a harder time of it than I do. It's quite natural that we not sympathize with the trials and travails of Those Who Seem Luckier Than We Are--my sympathy for stressed-out faculty at Research Is tends to be relatively minimal--but that doesn't make their pains and anxieties any less experientially real. It's not as though my psyche qualifies as some objective measure of Right Stress and Wrong Stress, for crying out loud.

ScrappleFace: Kerry Slams War Images in Kerry TV Ads: "Kerry Slams War Images in Kerry TV Ads
(2004-03-05) -- As Democrats assailed the Bush campaign yesterday for airing TV ads that include brief images of the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, Sen. John Kerry lashed out at his own presidential campaign for employing 'savage, militaristic imagery' in his ads.
'Where's the respect for the families of the victims of the Vietnam war?' asked the presumptive Democrat nominee as he viewed his own ads, apparently for the first time. 'Images of a man toting a weapon, of gun boats on patrol, descriptions of battle scenes...these must be tremendously upsetting to the Vietcong vets and to the tens of thousands of American war protestors like me who fought valiantly for a despicable cause.'"

This one was even better than the last. . . .

ScrappleFace: Kerry Seeks Running Mate Through eHarmony.com

Tightly Wound: How to Be a Crazy Right Wing Blogger, According to Ted Rall

Here's the permalink for the site below....

Tightly Wound: How to Be a Crazy Right Wing Blogger, According to Ted Rall

Tightly Wound: How to Be a Crazy Right Wing Blogger, According to Ted Rall

Tightly Wound: How to Be a Crazy Right Wing Blogger, According to Ted Rall

Tightly Wound: "Sometimes I'm curious as to what it would be like to believe that the world revolved entirely around me, that only I held the answers to the universe, and that I must fight fight fight the forces of EEEEvvvviilllle, who also conveniently seem to be strawmen. And then I read Ted Rall's blog, and I realize that it would be a hell completely of my own making. "

Pew Internet & American Life Project

Here's the link mentioned in the last post.

Yahoo! News - Study: Blogging Still Infrequent

there's also a report about content creation online I'll have to check out.