The Geek Who Saved Christmas

I've been accused this week of being obsessive and creepy over an article I wrote several years ago about Janie Porche, the effusively perky real-life Apple Switch spokesmodel.

I know I titled the piece "Stalking Janie Porche," but I'm surprised that these bloggers took that literally. If I said that I was hungry enough to eat a horse, would they report me to PETA?

Porche, who now has her own weblog, read the article and sent me a friendly e-mail in response to a visitor's comment that included her address. She asked that I either remove it, which I did, or let her know otherwise so she could purchase a firearm in advance of any unexpected guests.

Her weblog confirms my original assessment that Porche is much more deserving of the Internet's affection than Ellen Feiss, considering her interest in such matters as German beer laws and Futura Bold.

Television · 2005/03/22 · Comment · Link

A visitor to the Drudge Retort remembers Andre Norton, the science fiction author who died Thursday at age 93:

I was an indifferent and sullen youth, prone to acting out at school occasionally, and as a result, was sent to the library as a kind of holding cell/punishment. One day, bored out of my mind, I reached back and grabbed the first book that my hand fell upon and started reading. It was Ms. Norton's Witch World. My love of reading started with that book, which led me to Bradbury, Heinlein and, ultimately, a world I thought was shut to someone of my economic class. I would have wound up dropping out of school and traveling the road that kind of decision leads to had it not been for her influence. I wrote her a letter in the early '80s telling her of my journey and her part in it. She wrote back a most gracious and encouraging letter. Although I'm an atheist, I actually went through the motions of praying for her, just in case.

The authors I discovered during dead time in high school were Stephen R. Donaldson, Philip Jose Farmer, and Sinclair Lewis.

My favorite week of detention hall at Lloyd V. Berkner was spent devouring Arrowsmith. The other reprobates made fun of me when I showed visible distress after Leora was killed by bubonic plague.

Publishing · Science Fiction · 2005/03/21 · 1 COMMENT · Link

Free Terri Schiavo

Terry Schiavo's brain no longer has a cerebral cortex. She will never again talk, experience a thought, or feel an emotion. The best her parents can hope for is that she will occasionally mimic lifelike responses because of involuntary brainstem activity.

No act of Congress will change this. All the Republicans and the religious right are accomplishing with this barbaric grandstanding is to prolong her family's suffering.

Michael Schiavo fought for years to find a cure for his wife, and he even went back to college to become a nurse so that he could better care for her. He wrote in 2003:

I never wanted Terri to die. I still don't. After more than seven years of desperately searching for a cure for Terri, the death of my own mother helped me realize that I was fooling myself. More important, I was hiding behind my hope, and selfishly ignoring Terri's wishes. I wanted my wife to be with me so much that I denied her true condition.

Terri told me on several occasions before this happened that she would not want to live in her current condition. If we had been older, I am sure she would have signed a living will making it clear that she did not to be kept alive on tubes and machines. She never had the chance.

That left me to carry out her wishes. It has been hard. In fact, it is the hardest thing I have ever done. In the end, I did what I believe Terri would have wanted me to do.

Is there a single person among the parade of ghouls exploiting this tragedy who would wish to be kept alive in Terri's condition? Someone should ask Tom DeLay and other politicians if they have living wills.

Medical science gets better every day at keeping people alive in conditions no one would ever choose to experience. The right to opt out of life-prolonging treatment is exercised every day in this country:

My grandfather died at home at the age of ninety, after a slow decline from Alzheimer's disease. He died in his own familiar bed, surrounded by people who loved him. He was not in pain. His breathing slowed and slowed, and finally stopped. If it is "killing" to refuse life-preserving medical treatment, then my grandmother murdered my grandfather when she failed to call the paramedics. The others present at his death were accessories to murder. But who would have benefited had my grandfather been forced to squeeze out a few extra days in an intensive care unit, on a respirator, confused and disoriented? In what way would that have furthered a culture of life?

We should all be as lucky as Terri Schiavo has been, to have a spouse who would fight so hard for our right to die in such circumstances. The easiest thing in the world would be for Michael Schiavo to give up, raise the young children he has with another woman, and let Terri continue to linger hopelessly between life and death.

The only good thing to come from this sickening spectacle is that thousands of people, myself included, will be rushing to draft living wills.

Politics · 2005/03/21 · 23 COMMENTS · Link

Tina Brown compared bloggers to the East German secret police in Sunday's Washington Post:

We are in the Eggshell Era, in which everyone has to tiptoe around because there's a world of busybodies out there who are being paid to catch you out -- and a public that is slowly being trained to accept a culture of finks. We're always under surveillance; cameras watch us wherever we go; paparazzi make small fortunes snapping glamour goddesses picking their noses; everything is on tape, with transcripts available. No matter who you are, someone is ready and willing to rat you out. Even the rats themselves have to look over their shoulders, because some smaller rat is always waiting in the wings. Bloggers are the new Stasi. All the timidity this engenders, all this watching your mouth has started to feel positively un-American.

I'm going to report her for this.

Journalism · Publishing · 2005/03/21 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

The Too-Much-Information Superhighway

Just like my brother said he would he texted Wensday night begging... I mean really pleading just for a chance to be with me again... It took everything in me not to break shake and open my legs and heart to him again.

People who think that weblogging is dominated by octogenarian white male computer geeks like me should spend some time trolling Feedster for weblog posts about cities in their area.

I use the site's RSS search results to keep up with events in North Florida, wading through a torrent of melodramatic, angst-ridden young people blogging about their lives on sites like LiveJournal and AOL Journals.

In the case of Orlando, there's also a disturbingly large number of bloggers who seem to be on a first-name basis with the actor Orlando Bloom.

If there's a dominant group in weblogging today, it's females under 20. There are six million sites on LiveJournal, 67 percent are written by females, most in their teens.

While we're obsessing over weighty matters like the Google Toolbar and Eugene "Hurt So Good" Volokh, they're turning our wonky tech- and politics-obsessed medium into the Real World. One area college student was sharing so much -- name, residence, workplace, class schedule, sex life -- that I wanted to alert her parents. And I could have, since she identified them too.

Publishing · 2005/03/20 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Brian Carnell watched a hilarious exchange on Hannity & Colmes where Sean Hannity defended the Easter bunny against leftist religious intolerance:

... if Hannity would use his brain for a second he might stop to wonder why a rabbit is symbolized with Easter. What the hell does a rabbit have to do with the resurrection of Jesus? Nothing, of course -- its a pagan fertility symbol people. If anything, Hannity should be glad that people are starting to dissociate this pagan fertility symbol from Easter.

Politics · 2005/03/20 · 1 COMMENT · Link

Democratic Podcast: Cuts Dishonor Veterans

The Democratic response to the presidential radio address was delivered today by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who criticized President Bush's proposed budget cuts to veterans' services and a new $250 "user fee" charged to many veterans to qualify for health care.

His speech:

I'm Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania.

America's governors are united in our commitment to the troops who put their lives on the line in our global fight to combat terrorism and bring peace to Iraq. In fact, we as governors have a new role that we've never faced before in a major international conflict. Unlike any war in recent history, citizen soldiers are fighting this war -- 40 percent of all the troops are from National Guard units or reservists. We receive painful notice when our citizens die on the battlefield or suffer serious wounds in combat. Among the American servicemen and -women killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan are 69 Pennsylvanians whose sacrifice helped build those new democracies.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 14,000 Pennsylvania National Guard members have left the comfort of their homes to risk their lives for our security. Every American had to be deeply moved at seeing the sense of pride in the Iraqi people as they courageously went to the polls at the end of January. The families of the brave servicemen and -women from all 50 states now know for sure that their loved ones did not die in vain.

This war has reminded us of the solemn pledge our nation makes to our veterans. We ask our soldiers to risk their lives and in return we promise to care for them as veterans -- tending to their injuries, their families and their livelihoods. That seems to be the very least we can do to repay their selfless acts of courage.

This nation is graced with 26 million veterans. We try to do our best by our veterans in Pennsylvania. We provide nursing home care, for some children of veterans we run a terrific public boarding school. We provide financial help to meet real emergencies and to others we provide low-interest loans. We aid our disabled veterans by helping pay for college for their kids. We also help those who serve our nation. Our state employees who are called into active service are given two weeks extra vacation and an additional $500 a month while they are deployed.

All of our governors are continuing to find innovative ways to reach out and help the families of our troops and the soldiers when they return. In New Mexico, Gov. Richardson signed into law the National Guard Insurance Benefit, which will provide every active duty member of the New Mexico National Guard $250,000 in life insurance. In Iowa, Gov. Vilsack signed legislation allowing state employees activated to military service to maintain their state health insurance benefits. In New Hampshire, Gov. Lynch launched Operation Welcome Home. Like a good friend, Operation Welcome Home lends a helping hand to returning guards and reservists -- loaning money to them to meet their emergency financial problems and leading them to good jobs, and when necessary, even locating new apartments.

While we the governors do all we can for our vets and our returning soldiers, our federal government still has the primary responsibility for meeting the needs of our veterans. And that's why I find the president's budget cuts for critical veterans services to be unconscionable. In fact the budget cut includes a $350 million reduction in veterans' home funding, which wipes out at least 5,000 veterans nursing home beds. Pennsylvania has six veterans' homes that house and care for 1,600 proud vets. If the president's proposed budget cuts are enacted, nearly 60 percent of the 1,600 veterans will lose their daily stipend that allows them to stay in our state's nursing homes -- literally forcing them out into the cold.

Two years ago the federal government tripled the veterans' co-pays for prescription drugs. Now the president is proposing to again double those increased co-pays. But in the midst of a war -- when many new men and women will join the legion of veterans -- does it really make sense for the president to increase the cost of vets' prescriptions by 100 percent? The president also proposes an annual $250 fee to be paid by every vet wishing to participate in the Veteran's Administration health care program. There may well be some veterans who can afford to do so, but can all vets come up with an extra $250 a year to pay for health care? I doubt it!

Each and every day the life of a soldier serving overseas is filled with conflict, anxiety and a longing to return home to their families. We as governors do all we can within our limited resources to show our gratitude to the heroes who return home. During this time of war, it is absolutely the wrong time for our federal government to step back from any of its commitment to our veterans. To do so would be penny wise but pound-foolish. In today's parlance -- the cost of health care for these vets may be a half a billion dollars; but their sacrifice for our nation, priceless!

Every patriotic American should take the time to contact their congressman and senators and tell them to just say no to President Bush's budget cuts for services to our veterans. It's a matter of honor and patriotism.

Politics · Podcasts · 2005/03/19 · 1 COMMENT · Link

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