You’ve all seen those red and blue maps of the US of A, right? Well, Ishbadiddle has created some alternate maps correlating size of state to number of electoral votes and then some. [via Kerim at Keywords] Wonder why the liberal media hasn’t picked up on it yet? Too busy running stories about cats stuck in trees and the latest diet fad murders no doubt.
And, while I was trying to ignore the failure of German Spelling Reform in the Bundesrepublik [via Arts & Letters Daily], I ran across these storm clouds boiling across the blogosphere: Steven Krause blogging about pseudonymous blogging. Read the entry it’s quite interesting. That reminds me, has the regime-in-need-of-a-change apologized to those who have been wrongfully arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts and suchlike at any of the president’s pep rallies? NB: free speech has been suspended until morale improves. [via Frogs and Ravens]
Posted by jim at August 10, 2004 08:57 AM | TrackBackMan. I followed your link to Krause, and followed his link to Leuschke (a very interesting discussion, with some of my favorite online people involved -- I'd have joined if the thread hadn't died over a week ago). The whole thing revives my latent animus against academics: they don't understand life, work, and ordinary people! I mean, how hard is it to figure out why someone might not want to blog under their real name? I don't blog about my personal life or about politics (two common red-flag subjects), yet I keep my name off the site despite its innocuous nature, because I don't want present or prospective employers knowing I have a blog. It can't possibly do any good and could do considerable harm. People have been fired for having blogs. How head-in-the-sand do you have to be not to understand this? And look at this (from the Leuschke thread):
I also think that some of those anonymous blogs don’t/didn’t need to be anonymous. Invisible Adjunct comes to mind. I think she would have had a lot of good stuff to say in blogland if she had put her name on it, too, and I also don’t think she would have suffered any sort of retaliation from the “academic establishment” (whoever they are) because of what she had to say.
Is this person serious? Yes, academia is a jolly happy land where everyone wants to hear what everyone else has to say, no matter how challenging to their preconceived notions, and no one would ever take action against someone based on their expressed ideas! After all, the academic world is based on freedom! (*cue uplifting music*) Thank you, Doctor Pangloss. Now step into the van, the nice men will take you to a safe place...
Sorry, but this particular brand of willed blindness gets my goat.
Posted by: language hat on August 10, 2004 09:32 AMOh, and I miss Invisible Adjunct.
Posted by: language hat on August 10, 2004 09:33 AMLH-- Oh, to be able to work for folks that are hip enough to use Google or who know what the web is, let alone a blog. And, I miss IA, too.
Posted by: jim on August 10, 2004 10:03 AM