Gotta Agree

Unquestionably yes, indeed.

But Can He Win the Rust Belt?

This New Yorker article sent to me by The Wife is a really interesting look at the parts of Ohio that would seem like Obama country, but are still a bit shaky:

The Hardest Vote

It’d be nice to write off racial prejudice as no longer an issue, but the big fact is that it still is, particularly in lots of the areas that are going to decide the election. I only hope racism doesn’t get in the way of economic self-interest.

Also, I thought McCain did slightly — slightly — better than Obama last night, even though the whole thing was tremendously boring. Reading the reactions this morning I seem to be alone in this view, but then that’s a good thing. Plus, even if it’s a tie, it automatically goes to That One thanks to the current momentum. (That is not a nice way to refer to someone when they’re sitting right there, btw.)

Of Bacon, and the Ocean Equivalent of Bacon

My friend Bill sent me a link to BaconToday.com, which I now know as the Internet’s finest source of bacon information. (Seriously, that is a professional-looking site, particularly for one devoted solely to bacon. Nice job by 500 Yards Media, whoever they are.) The specific link he sent was this page on bacon cinnamon rolls, which is perhaps the greatest food idea I’ve come across in the past ten years. I remain forever grateful to Bacon Today.

Also, now that I’m living on my own in Ann Arbor, I can once again eat kipper snacks. These are some of the foulest-smelling foods ever put in a can, and as such The Wife is quite vocal in her desire that I not eat them in the house. But man, are they good. Once you fork off the slimy herring skin, the smoke flavor really does render them the bacon of the sea.

Weird Northern European foods: a staple of goodness.

Michigan 27, Wisconsin 25

What a come-from-behind Michigan victory today! Twenty points in the fourth quarter to beat the ninth-ranked Badgers.

And guess who left the stadium early after a totally disgusting Michigan first half, convinced this is the year to go back to being a Northwestern (now 5-0) fan?

Whoops.

But at least I have lots of company — half the student section was walking down Hill Street with me. As The Wife said, this is karmic justice for the fact that I made a rare exception to my “Don’t leave even when your team is losing” policy.

The Pat Take on the Debate

I, too, enjoyed the finery of verbal evasion and interpersonal sniping that was the inaugural 2008 U.S. presidential debate. Let’s rock some stuff:

• First off, name-dropping: some MBA section friends and I tried to watch the debate at a local A2 watering hole, only to have our peaceful watching interrupted by a hard-partying Michael Phelps and his XL crew of groupies. And yes, that is 100% true. We had to bail and watch the thing on DVR at a friend’s house.
• Notable tonight was the near-complete absence of God talk. Nobody mentioned The Creator, or God’s will for the U.S., and they particularly stayed away from God’s perspective on the Iraq troop surge. Perhaps this just reflects both candidates’ personal approach to religion, but I noted how much it differed from the 2000 and 2004 debates. I guarantee, 9,000%, that Palin will break this newly identified trend within the first ten minutes of the VP debate.
• The following are directly pertinent truths that clearly could not have been spoken by either candidate:
  1. The government budget is so high because defense spending is completely out of control. (McCain, to his credit, sorta addressed this. Only he can pull that off, what with the POW hell-on-Earth thing and all.) Earmarks don’t matter for 1/100th of a damn. If you really want to save government money, take the Air Force and fold it back into the Army. Seriously, they are a huge waste of cash.
  2. A nuclear-armed Iran is probably unavoidable at this stage, but that doesn’t in the slightest mean Israel is going to die. Is anybody really discussing a conventional military invasion of Iran at this point in time, even before they have nuclear weapons? Because with Ali Khameini’s interest in regime self-preservation (props to Obama for finally identifying on a national political stage that Ahmedinedjad has very little real power in Iran), the likelihood of a nuclear first strike on Israel is next to zero. If you want to take it to a level that’s really beyond the pale in politically concerned discussion, a nuclear Iran and subsequent Arab arms race could actually promote regional stability through the reduced threat of conventional war.
     
     Discuss. Or in keeping with political reality, don’t.
  3. The United States — though a permanent fixture on the world stage due to its huge geographic area, natural resources and very large population — is no longer a world-bestriding colossus and needs to find its real friends fast. We don’t know who the candidates think these countries are, because like I said, declining U.S. power and influence is an unspeakable political reality. (Not that I fault Jim Lehrer for not asking — Jim, you’re great, on the serious for real. I met you at that D.C. book party that one time, plus I find it hella cool that you were a Marine and are an awesome, truly objective, non-airhead throwback, so I’m permanently on your side. Please don’t retire, ever.)
• I will never get enough of that “You son of a bitch, I cannot believe you just said that, if it weren’t for all these cameras I’d tear out your throat” smile that the candidates inevitably make.
• Does Barack Obama lose voter points for his correct pronunciation of “Pakistan” vs. McCain’s Americanized version? (And I guarantee McCain knows that it’s “Pock-ee-STAHN” instead of “PACK-i-stan”.) Survey says: points deduction — speak like a ‘Mercan!
• I can’t watch Rudy Giuliani these days without wanting to punch him hard in the mouth. I thought Americans were supposed to hate disdain, and then the Republican party keeps airing this guy who’s just sopping with sarcastic condescension. For real, has there ever been a national political figure as condescending as Giuliani? He’s really crossed some kind of jagoff Rubicon. Good for Giuliani, I guess: he wins at being a slime-oozing hyena. Hooray for the G man.
• All of this debate stuff matters very little, but it’s always fascinating to watch the national discourse try to enshrine the opposite. For instance, I know very few people who would change their vote because one candidate sighed too many times, and yet it has become an article of fact that Al Gore’s sighing was a major factor in his defeat. Nor have I ever seen a presidential debate that involved as much complete ownage as John Kerry’s verbal dismemberment of George W. Bush in the first debate of 2004, and yet we all know how well that worked out for Kerry. Look for some very minor facet of this debate to become a future “turning point” for whoever is elected.
• Do I have a winner? If I’m writing as me, no — they both made some good and unexpected points and hit the essentials effectively. (One Obama supporter with whom I watched the debate lamented that McCain “kicked his ass.” Eh, not really.) If I’m writing as Joe Average, then I think McCain had a slight edge. As Joe Average, I care about the election, but I just don’t have time for all of Barack Obama’s explanations and clarifications. Plus, dude talked more than once about plans that “might work, or they might not.” What? Certainty is the key here, homes, whether the outcome is certain or not.
• McCain tonight reminded me that I really don’t dislike McCain the dude that much. As a matter of fact, under normal circumstances, I think he’d be an OK president. But then he went way beyond acceptability with the Palin pick, and I’ve lost a ton of respect for him after watching her repeatedly demonstrate just how far out of her league she really is. I know he wants to win, but picking someone so dangerously clueless to be the second in command of the United States of America is the complete opposite of all that “country first” stuff he’s spouting. What happened, yo? McCain better have agonized over the soul sale involved in making such a ridiculous and dangerous sop to the political base. I hope he fills us in some day in the memoirs, because a potentially juicy memoir read is the only good thing about that pick.
• That’ll clearly become more important in the future, because I’ve thought for months that a McCain victory is inevitable. I’m sorry, fellow lefties, and while you really never know, I do think McCain has this one locked up. Like I said, I’d mostly be OK with President John McCain, but then you run into this very real possibility: “Ladies and gentlemen, The President of the United States, Sarah Palin.”

  Oh, snap. Please, nation: prove me wrong.

Best Subprime Crisis Explanation Ever

Not only is this satire extremely informative (really!), I also learned that Google’s PowerPoint imitation isn’t all that bad:

Subprime Works

Oh yeah, and to the candidates: bad economic stuff happened that’s probably worth a discussion, just FYI.

Yo

Recent things:

• I believe that even if I supported anything about Sarah Palin, I’d still be really sick of seeing her everywhere I turn. Conservatives would compare Palin’s star power to Obama, but Obama’s ascent took a good two years and wasn’t compressed into a two-week news cycle. He’s also one of the two people actually running for president.
• Another Palin-borne irony: after years of ignorant sports commentators decrying hockey as “not a real sport”, it’s now somehow true that being peripherally involved with organized hockey (even at the little-kid level) is considered a solid qualification for the Presidency of the United States. The NHL’s marketing department needs to jump on this with the quickness.
• Part of the reason I was excited to get to the University of Michigan this year was the chance to go to a school with a real football program. Nevermind my conflicted loyalties from being born in Columbus and having attending another Big Ten school; this was supposed to be my chance to claim a piece of the action as the Wolverines crushed all opponents. Instead I get games like this, this and also this (which, though a win, was most unimpressive.)

  Northwestern, meanwhile, is 3-0.

  Bastards.

• While searching for a sound effect that would convey Michigan football’s limpness, I did manage to get seriously geeked from this:

  ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A what.

• Congrats to my cousin Dante and his wife Kari on their new son (and, simultaneously, their anniversary), who was born just this morning and is the first of the new generation in my family. Pitt, you just gained another fan.

Obama vs. McCain on the Media

I no longer work there, but that won’t stop me from plugging this nicely summarizing Slate piece by Tim Wu detailing the two presidential candidates’ positions on media ownership and net neutrality.

Suffice it to say that I fall squarely within the Obama camp on the question of net neutrality: the Internet can no longer be considered a product, but instead a network similar to the airwaves. Like the airwaves are licensed by the government, there’s room for licensing of the Internet’s physical network by bandwidth costs, but you can’t package “the web” and sell it to consumers in a realistic fashion. That’s a really old-fashioned way of thinking about it. Instead, the web is the marketplace wherein websites sell their goods and duke it out for audience and revenue share. To change the web into a cable-television model is just imposing an old-fashioned dynamic on a system that’s already created its own rules.

As for fair share of political views within the media, the lefty side of me thinks it’s necessary, but the MBA/realist side of me thinks differently: people are going to listen to or watch the crap no matter what you do, so somebody might as well make some money off of it. Do you then require those moneymakers to put on informed, objective (if that’s even possible), educated content as a result? I don’t think it’s even relevant: the media marketplace is so segmented these days anyway that the consumer is going to seek out whatever they want and likely find it, whether that’s on-the-scene reporting from Zimbabwe’s reconstituted parliament or the skateboarding dog.

It’s a dog on a skateboard!

Beaten Bucs

I hope this gets more news coverage than I expect it will, but the Pittsburgh Pirates are now tied for the longest streak of losing seasons in North American pro sports history. My past two job descriptions didn’t even exist during their last winning season.

So congrats to you, Nutting family, for this fantastic record of poor ownership. I also find remarkable my Pirate-fan friends, who each year continue to straight-facedly tell me that, “If the bullpen pitches at about 350% of their ability and the new kid we brought up from single-A ball can hit .403 or so, then I really, honestly, truly think we can make .500 this year.”

For real: give up already.

Hating the Media in Minnesota

Sometimes when I read all-too-easy “blame the media” stuff like this:

“I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone,” she said in her remarks. “But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion – I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country.”

I think it would be cool if, say, Brian Williams went on the air and said, “It’s true, she got us — each and every reporter in this country hates decency, America, and the little guy, and we want nothing more than to keep pristine the guest list at our monocles-only cocktail parties.

“Come on, is that so wrong?”

Google Chrome: The Quick Judgment

I downloaded and installed Google Chrome Beta today. So far it mostly looks good — I’m liking that Slate rendered perfectly, hell yeah, thank you — but there isn’t much special in terms of functionality. But then Google always gets things really rolling a little while after release, so I look forward to using it six months from now.

For now though I’m sticking with Firefox 3.0. Still loving the add-ons too much to switch.

Ross School of Biznezz: The First Two Weeks

With my dive into the MBA life starting tomorrow, here are the past few weeks in handy bulleted-list fashion:

• After getting our UHaul on yet again, the wife and I are now the shiznit at this moving game. (Though she’s staying in Chicago — more on that later.) I’ve taken the wizened Ikea furniture we had lying around from my 23-year-old days and brought it to Ann Arbor for a two-year last hurrah. I think the bed and the computer desk will make it through, but I have my doubts about the dresser that I bought in 2003 from some sketchy Euro-dude furniture store in Astoria. It’s sub-Ikea quality and failing fast, so I’m rolling with the Millennium Falcon of dressers — “You hear me, baby? Hold together.” Luckily Ann Arbor has a thriving freecycling community, so if all goes according to plan I won’t have to move this junk back with me to Chicago in 2010.
• Speaking of moving, if I end up staying in the same apartment until I graduate — which will likely be the case from my end of things, as teleporting will have to be perfected if I want to shorten my commute to class — then this apartment will be the one place that’s housed me the longest since I left Pittsburgh for college. In those ten years, my record for staying put is a tie at 16 months: one stint in a shared house in Forest Hills, N.Y., and the other in a Foggy Bottom studio. I’ve always left voluntarily, yet I’ve had no fewer than 12 addresses in ten years, and Ann Arbor is lucky No. 13.

  Damn, dudes.

• Leadership training during Ross orientation wasn’t quite what I expected. I figured on a classroom situation, but the thing was really a lot more of a corporate management retreat without any trust falls. (We did cross an “acid river” using only two boards for six people and tied a rope into a knot while we all six maintained a grip on it. But, like I said, no trust falls.)

  All kidding aside, I’m still a little unclear on how it’s possible to teach intangible character qualities like leadership, creativity and self-awareness, but all of these activities did make the week kick ass at the team-building thing. I’m already buddied up with most of my sectionmates, and we seem to have a really laid-back but competent group — the combination I’ve always appreciated the most in the workplace. Things have clicked so well that we won the Grill for Glory competition over the other five sections, fulfilling the mathematical reality that 6 is always greater than 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. Holla.

I did take away one big negative experience from the orientation week, which is that it kicked off the less-than-awesome reality of being away from the wife while I’m here at school. Objectively you could say I have it pretty good — we live in the era of email and IM, there are other people here in similar and even longer-distance situations, Chicago is only four hours away, and neither of us are deployed to a hostile area like some of the military peeps I know. But this experience is the one I have to live, so in the meantime I’m dwelling on other things and waiting to get my semester on, when I figure I’ll be so busy that I’ll have no dwelling time anyway.

Also, Michigan lost this weekend to Utah. This disappointing-football-upset BS was supposed to end once I left Northwestern.

Related P.S. - Props to my fraternity pledge son Adam Rittenberg for his awesome Big Ten gig at ESPN.

Baby Mama Political Drama

I will now declare this the craziest thing to happen in the 2008 election season. The decades-old fist bump gesture somehow being named as representative of Hizbollah was a close second, but that was more some misguided dude’s analysis and less an actual event.

And I must add that I feel really bad for the daughter. This is a private thing they have to face, so it’s a shame they’re going to have to add political implications to what’s already a really tough thing.

UHaulin’

Off to Ann Arbor. See yinz soon!

So Long, Slate; It’s Been Real

My time at Slate officially ended at the close of the workday Friday, so that’s the curtain on two-and-a-half years as a web developer for what I think is the best magazine on the web.

It sounds embellished, but before I left TIME I used to routinely tell the editors that the site should work to be “more like Slate,” meaning TIME.com needed to do less news-chasing and more personality-based news analysis. Magazines are rarely going to beat all the wire services, newspapers and bloggers to the punch, so the best way to distinguish a site as a commentary outlet is by letting the writers be themselves and by not being afraid to stick a neck out to get the point across. Maybe two out of every seven people I talk to know of Slate, but those two are inevitably die-hard fans who ask me what particular Slate writers are like in real life. In this era of fragmented audience, that weirdly high level of interest is just what you want for your site.

As much as it was great working at Slate in the publication-wide sense, on an individual level I’m ready to move on after this period of strictly technological work. Working solely in web development just isn’t where my main interests lie. A well-functioning piece of code is a linguistic treat — it has the ability to convey exactly the commands and results that you want within a delimited set of communications, and being that linguistic skillz are how I roll, I’m all about it. But after so much time building pieces of the site, I miss the variety and sense of direction that comes from a more multidisciplinary job — I want to use not only my technology skills, but my journalism knowledge, my sense of creativity and my ability to play a bigger role in direction and strategy. That said, the web-technology work will be invaluable along the way, and technology got my foot in the Slate door in the first place. So while it’s not entirely what I want to do with my career, big ups nonetheless to web technology.

Slate is opinionated and intellectual, and so too are the people who fill the pages. As a result, it’s a great workplace where everyone throws ideas back and forth to pick out the best ones. I really will miss working there, but sometime in the future I hope I get the chance to work with the site again.

Meantime, I’m getting my vacation on for a week. After that, it’s on to Phase Michigan in just a short while. Peace out until then.