May 19, 2006
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It's taken me far too long to reassemble the html and mysql strewn pieces of this site after AffordableHost Lost Everything. First they migrated me (and 14 other sites under my control) to another server without telling me this was even going to happen. The new server turned out to be a cruel stupid joke as sites would appear and disappear (but mostly disappear) at a daily whim. I was planning on moving off AffordableHost anyway, but was hoping things wouldn't fall entirely apart until after I finished finals. That didn't happen, of course. In fact they Lost Everything on the first day of finals, causing a two week headache that has yet to completely pass.
Now: I wait for last semester's grades; I exhale and wait for the next, which comes up fast--I'm taking a few summer courses, mostly to lighten the load during my last year, and partly to take a course only given during the summer: Religion and the Constitution. It's taught in tandem by two federal judges and the casebook thus far is promising. I'm still writing a paper on eBay and its secondary liability for trademark infringement problem.
I'll add more to this tomorrow, but it's getting late and my TCM movie is ebbing towards an awkward resolution. A 1940s New England town discovers its light skinned town doctor is black and mostly predictable reactions ensue. His kids haven't been told, however, a fact which has triggered pained reflections and schizophrenic outbursts. There, it's over. Apparently it was true and the kind New Englanders appear to have been shamed into constraining their initial hanging compulsion by the accepting sagacious priest. Good for New England and its braving a world which would permit a 1/8th negro to dwell in its midst.
Tomorrow I'll fix the blogroll so that it makes some sense. I want to add people I've been reading lately, such as Glenn Greenwald (for speaking consistently with perfect clarity on the unfolding NSA-Orwell merger), and prune some of the weeds.
Other topics I'll try to get to: the Vatican getting handed just desserts by China after selling Taiwan down the river; the recent NY Times article on just how deeply and truly upset the neovangelists are at Bush for not converting the nation to a complete theocracy yet (note how this argument tracks so closely to the recently voiced gripe by various racists that Bush has failed in his promise to provide a final brown solution) (what do they have in common you ask? The turning of the worm. The far far right (the ones who have controlled the debate til now) is upset that Bush has squandored his imaginary political capital before he had a chance to slaughter a host of domestic policy sacred cows they had marked for death. It has dawned on them that Bush's presidency is utterly unsalvageable by this point (and just how much of a millstone Bush will be this November), so they now scramble to undo his presidency before the liberals can get a crack at it this November. If they can manage the perception that they are the engineers of Bush's defeat it would allow their arguments to reign as the cause. Namely, that Bush didn't go far enough (as opposed to the widely acknowledged genuine impeachment bases, like incompetence, NSA-spurred constiutional violations, Iraq generally, Abu Gharib, Katrina, et al.). Saigon is falling and far from attempting to get out, they've decided to compete with the Viet Cong for the role of opposition. I think it's a doomed tack and clear evidence that they're in an almost pure panic state at the moment. Which is at least fun to watch.
I've been reading Saki of late. There are a few writers, and Saki is one of them, who make you a better writer just for having read them. From For the Duration of the War:
A Mouse that prayed for Allah's aid
Blasphemed when no such aid befell:
A Cat, who feasted on that mouse,
Thought Allah managed vastly well.
With those lessons to dwell on, I sleep.
posted by scott pilutik at May 19, 2006 02:58 AM